Appearing on NBC’s Late Night With Seth Meyers on Wednesday, which was aired early Thursday morning, failed Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton was treated to a champagne toast by the liberal comedian as the two of them celebrated Democratic Party election victories in state and local races across the country.
Meyers noted that “obviously there were elections last night,” prompting Clinton to reply: “Yes, weren’t they great?” The audience applauded and cheered in response. The late night host proclaimed: “Now there’s a little bit of hope.” He was giddy as he brought out two glasses of champagne from under the desk: “Because there’s a little bit of hope, I thought we’d have a drink and some champagne.... So cheers.”
After sharing their celebratory drink, Meyers urged Clinton to further revel in the political wins: “And I want to speak to the fact that last night was a very good night for women. What is your reaction to that?” Clinton seized on the chance to gush over the election results and paint Republicans as hateful bigots:
Oh, my gosh, I was thrilled. I mean look, I think we’re seeing the first signs....You know, I think the fever is finally breaking. I think that Americans, as we saw last night, are saying, “You know what? We really like our health care. We don’t like hatred and bigotry, and we don’t want to get shot wherever we go in our country.”
Later in the exchange, Meyers fretted over President Trump: “I want to talk about something that’s a little bit more depressing compared to last night’s results, which is, you know, Donald Trump, President Trump at this point has had very few, if any, legislative achievements. And those on the left will celebrate that, but there is a very scary thing – ” He was interrupted by his audience cheering the lack of GOP “legislative achievements.”
“But sometimes – but he’s also, without needing to make a legislative achievement, he’s degrading things such as the State Department, where you worked,” Meyers warned. “How worried should we be about the state of the State Department at a time when there are so – there’s so much going on geopolitically?,” he asked Clinton.
Clinton sounded the alarm as she undermined the President:
Well, I think we should be worried about the state of the whole government, but I know the State Department well having served there for four years....So I think that there is a sense of demoralization. People who I know, some of whom are still there, most of whom have now left, you know, really feel like the country is kind of going off in the wrong direction....And he’s just flying blind. And you know, he doesn’t listen to people....So I think it weakens us. I think it gives a lot of aid and comfort to these leaders of countries that are trying to, frankly, take advantage of us...
To his credit, Meyers did briefly asked about the scandal swirling around the Democratic National Committee over accusations that the organization colluded with Clinton’s campaign to rig the 2016 Democratic primary process:
So again, the narrative sort of changed with a successful night for the Democratic Party, but the DNC had a bad couple of weeks. Donna Brazile wrote a book, I know she was a longtime colleague of yours. And she sort of, in her book, made this comment that your campaign, through an agreement, had too much influence, to maybe at the detriment of the Sanders campaign. She sort of walked back those comments now. What was your reaction to that?
Clinton completely dismissed the controversy: “I didn’t know what she was referring to, because as has now come out, that just wasn’t the case.” She then changed the subject by praising how “the current DNC leadership really invested heavily in Virginia and New Jersey and other places” and that chairman Tom Perez “didn’t get overwhelmed by other narratives and stories coming at him.”
The Clinton lovefest was brought to viewers by Starbucks, Kohl’s, and Motorola.
Here are excerpts of the interview that aired early on November 9:
1:03 AM ET
SETH MEYERS: We’re here with former First Lady, Senator, Secretary of State, and the first woman to win the presidential nomination of a major American political party, Hillary Rodham Clinton, everybody.
[CHEERS & APPLAUSE]
Thank you so much for being here. And you are here – it’s an anniversary of sorts.
HILLARY CLINTON: Yes, yes.
MEYERS: So, I guess, happy unhappy anniversary.
CLINTON: Yeah, that’s right, wow. I was trying to think of where would I want to be on the one-year anniversary of what happened, and I thought, Seth.
MEYERS: Yeah.
CLINTON: I mean, it just sort of –
MEYERS: It just made sense.
CLINTON: It just came to me.
[CHEERS & APPLAUSE]
MEYERS: Well, I’m so happy you’re here, but I want you to know, I wish you were elsewhere.
CLINTON: So do I. I wish – I wish we were doing this, out of a big white house.
MEYERS: Yeah, that sounds nice. But, you know, I was thinking coming into – knowing you were coming – obviously there were elections last night.
CLINTON: Yes, weren’t they great?
[CHEERS & APPLAUSE]
MEYERS: Yeah.
CLINTON: That was terrific.
MEYERS: And, you know there’s an instant analysis, and I think if things had gone the other way, people would have said, “Oh, this continues the problem in the Democratic Party.” Now there’s a little bit of hope.
CLINTON: Yes, yes.
MEYERS: Because there’s a little bit of hope, I thought we’d have a drink and some champagne.
CLINTON: Oh!
[CHEERS & APPLAUSE]
MEYERS: But I do want you to know, I was prepared in case the election went the other way with some backup [puts bottle of lighter fluid on the desk].
[LAUGHTER]
But we don’t need that, we’ll put that away. So cheers.
CLINTON: Cheers.
MEYERS: And I want to speak to the fact that last night was a very good night for women.
CLINTON: Yes.
MEYERS: What is your reaction to that?
CLINTON: Oh, my gosh, I was thrilled. I mean look, I think we’re seeing the first signs....You know, I think the fever is finally breaking. I think that Americans, as we saw last night, are saying, “You know what? We really like our health care. We don’t like hatred and bigotry, and we don’t want to get shot wherever we go in our country.”
[CHEERS & APPLAUSE]
(...)
1:07 AM ET
MEYER: So again, the narrative sort of changed with a successful night for the Democratic Party, but the DNC had a bad couple of weeks. Donna Brazile wrote a book, I know she was a longtime colleague of yours. And she sort of, in her book, made this comment that your campaign, through an agreement, had too much influence, to maybe at the detriment of the Sanders campaign. She sort of walked back those comments now.
CLINTON: Yeah.
MEYERS: What was your reaction to that?
CLINTON: I didn’t know what she was referring to, because as has now come out, that just wasn’t the case. But the current DNC leadership really invested heavily in Virginia and New Jersey and other places, and I called the current chairman, Tom Perez, to congratulate him because he didn’t get knocked off course. He didn’t get overwhelmed by other narratives and stories coming at him. He said, “Okay, our job is to knock on doors, make phone calls, and turn out voters.” And you know what? They did. And that’s part of the reason we won.
[CHEERS & APPLAUSE]
(...)
1:10 AM ET
MEYERS: I also – I want to talk about something that’s a little bit more depressing compared to last night’s results, which is, you know, Donald Trump, President Trump at this point has had very few, if any, legislative achievements. And those on the left will celebrate that, but there is a very scary thing –
[CHEERS & APPLAUSE]
But sometimes – but he’s also, without needing to make a legislative achievement, he’s degrading things such as the State Department, where you worked.
CLINTON: Yes, that’s right.
MEYERS: How worried should we be about the state of the State Department at a time when there are so – there’s so much going on geopolitically?
CLINTON: Well, I think we should be worried about the state of the whole government, but I know the State Department well having served there for four years. There is a lot of expertise there. You know, if you’re trying to figure out what to do about North Korea, don’t you think you’d want people who actually speak the language, know the history, and may have had some previous experience?...So I think that there is a sense of demoralization. People who I know, some of whom are still there, most of whom have now left, you know, really feel like the country is kind of going off in the wrong direction because diplomacy is key to solving any of these contentious problems.
(...)
1:12 AM ET
CLINTON: And he’s just flying blind. And you know, he doesn’t listen to people. He undercut his own secretary of state about diplomacy on the North Korea problem. So I think it weakens us. I think it gives a lot of aid and comfort to these leaders of countries that are trying to, frankly, take advantage of us during this time when we don’t seem to have a particular strategic understanding of our role in the world.
(...)
