In a softball exchange with Chelsea Clinton on his Monday night show, aired early Tuesday morning, NBC’s Late Night host Seth Meyers agreed with her assessment that President Trump has achieved “new levels of cruelty” with his policies. He went on to sympathize with Clinton that Fox News still has an “obsession” with her political family.
“And how do you even try to explain to people how serious this is when it strikes me that, you know – you’ve lived in the White House, this one seems pretty chaotic,” Meyers ironically asked of Clinton, as if her father’s presidency didn’t have its share of scandal and chaos. “Yeah, you think?,” Clinton sarcastically replied.
After touting her “experience” living in the White House, Meyers teed Clinton up to trash Trump: “Are you constantly taken aback, however, by exactly how chaotic this one seems?” Clinton predictably jumped at the chance: “Yes....And by the new levels of cruelty that this administration seems to find, whether it’s with the children being separated from their families at the border, or it’s with the Endangered Species Act, which had never really been controversial before.” Meyers nodded along in agreement, saying, “Yeah.”
Moments later in the exchange, Meyers whined about continued critical coverage of the Clintons on a single media outlet: “You probably are also aware that your family is still a topic of obsession for Fox News. Are you surprised? Is your mother aware that you guys are still, sort of – ” Clinton interjected: “Living rent-free in their heads?”
She eagerly joined in the complaining: “You know, I do find it bewildering.” Though she then speculated on how it could help Democrats:
I will say if it consumes time and oxygen to allow the Democrats in the House, and the Senate, and in the state houses, and legislatures to actually get real work done. I guess I could be okay with that. Like, if they’re still obsessing about my mother’s walking in the woods, and it allows Democrats to actually try to stop bad things from happening, and make progress elsewhere. Like, I can live with that.
Just a month before the 2016 election, Meyers had Clinton on and similarly lamented the “brutal attacks” on her family.
It’s not surprising that Chelsea Clinton would find such a friendly forum on NBC. A few years ago, the network paid her $600,000 for only producing a handful of reports.
Here are excerpts of the interview, aired early on the morning of April 9:
1:16 AM ET
(...)
SETH MEYERS: And how do you even try to explain to people how serious this is when it strikes me that, you know – you’ve lived in the White House, this one seems pretty chaotic.
CHELSEA CLINTON: Yeah, you think?
MEYERS: I mean, I would imagine because of your experience, you would say that certain people who have an expectation of what happens during a presidency, like, “Trust me it’s a lot harder than you think it is. There’s a lot more going on.” Are you constantly taken aback, however, by exactly how chaotic this one seems?
CLINTON: Yes.
MEYERS: Okay.
CLINTON: And by the new levels of cruelty...
MEYERS: Yeah.
CLINTON: ...that this administration seems to find, whether it’s with the children being separated from their families at the border, or it’s with the Endangered Species Act, which had never really been controversial before.
...
MEYERS: You probably are also aware that your family is still a topic of obsession for Fox News. Are you surprised? Is your mother aware that you guys are still, sort of –
CLINTON: Living rent-free in their heads?
MEYERS: Yeah.
CLINTON: Yes. You know, I do find it bewildering. I will say if it consumes time and oxygen to allow the Democrats in the house, and the senate, and in the state houses, and legislatures to actually get real work done. I guess I could be okay with that. Like, if they’re still obsessing about my mother’s walking in the woods, and it allows Democrats to actually try to stop bad things from happening, and make progress elsewhere. Like, I can live with that.
(...)
