When Vice President Harris went on Monday to appear on NBC’s Late Night with Seth Meyers she was not asked how the administration plans to tackle inflation or raising gas prices, but rather she was invited by the namesake host to urge viewers to vote on the issue of abortion.
Still ruing the existence of Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin, Meyers asked, “You, as an administration, you have accomplished a great deal despite only having a 50/50 Senate... What is different if you win two more Senate seats? What are -- what is the message as far as what will change for Americans' lives if you -- if you have that sort of majority in the Senate, that isn't weighing on maybe two Democratic senators that aren't always as in-line with the party.”
Despite replying that “there’s so much” that will change, Harris only focused on one issue, “the Dobbs decision, so, the United States Supreme Court, the highest court in our land, just took a constitutional right that had been recognized from the people of America, from the women of America, right? And that -- the significance of that is profound in terms of what it means for the rights of individuals and, in particular, for the right of an individual to make decisions about their own body and not have their government tell them what to do.”
Harris continued, “But in addition, what it means for the next 29 days is, if we keep our numbers in the Senate and elect two more United States senators, then the president can sign into the law the Women's Health Protection Act, which would put into the law protections of Roe v. Wade.”
As she concluded, Harris made a final appeal to viewers to “Make a plan to vote and actually vote on this issue.”
Meyers did not point out the WHPA would be even further to the left than Roe and Casey were. Instead, he agreed, “I think that -- I think correctly, you know, a lot of people think about abortion as an important issue.”
Trying to go in a less obviously partisan direction, Meyers then asked about maternal health. After going on about the “disparities in the health care system,” Harris circled back to Dobbs to, once again, scare viewers into voting for Democrats, “Not to mention on the Dobbs decision when Justice Clarence Thomas said the quiet part out loud, which is that when they took the constitutional right from women on reproductive choice, that he said, that in-line, in terms of what might come next, is your right to contraception that will affect all genders, your right to marry the person you love.”
Instead of pointing out that this was just Thomas writing a very Thomas-like lone concurrence, Meyers went to commercial break and on the other side of that break asked about more tough issues, such as the vice president not being able to use emojis. No wonder, when Democrats do show up for TV for interviews, they prefer the “comedians.”
In other NBC late night news, The Tonight Show’s Jimmy Fallon welcomed MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow to his show to also urge viewers to vote for Democrats because "this is not the election to sit out," partly because of what Republicans might do on abortion should they win.
This segment was sponsored by Dove.
Here is a transcript for the October 11 show:
NBC Late Night with Seth Meyers
10/11/2022
1:00 AM ET
SETH MEYERS: You, as an administration, you have accomplished a great deal despite only having a 50/50 Senate—
KAMALA HARRIS: Yeah.
MEYERS: What -- you know, you mentioned 29 days out from midterms, what is different if you win two more Senate seats? What are -- what is the message as far as what will change for Americans' lives if you -- if you have that sort of majority in the Senate, that isn't weighing on maybe two Democratic senators that aren't always as in-line with the party.
HARRIS: There's so much, Seth, that changes. So 29 days, the Dobbs decision, so, the United States Supreme Court, the highest court in our land, just took a constitutional right that had been recognized from the people of America, from the women of America, right?
And that -- the significance of that is profound in terms of what it means for the rights of individuals and, in particular, for the right of an individual to make decisions about their own body and not have their government tell them what to do. But in addition, what it means for the next 29 days is, if we keep our numbers in the Senate and elect two more United States senators, then the president can sign into the law the Women's Health Protection Act, which would put into the law protections of Roe v. Wade.
So critically important, 29 days to go. And the reality of it is that, on the one hand, 29 days everyone has a lot going on, very busy, and it's gonna take an effort to make sure that you vote on the other hand, these House seats, they're two-year terms.
These Senate seats, six-year terms. So think about it. Whether we let it go with status quo the way it is now for the next two years or six years, or in the next 29 days. Make a plan to vote and actually vote on this issue.
MEYERS: I think that -- I think correctly, you know, a lot of people think about abortion as an important issue, but you've also talked about maternal health which seems like –
HARRIS: Yes
MEYERS: -- that would be the one that would seem like everyone could agree on, because the health of a mother, the health of a child, this -- based on what both sides of the aisle say—
HARRIS: Yeah.
MEYERS: -- this is deeply important to them. And yet, it seems as though we can't even reach a consensus on that. Can you just talk about the importance of maternal health, and steps that we can take to make life better for -- for certainly young mothers?
MEYERS: Yeah, it's a critically important issue. And I know you've spoken up on this over the years. In our country today, women are still dying in connection with childbirth and when you look at, then, the racial disparities, black women are three times more likely to die, Native American women twice as likely to die, women in rural America, one-and-a-half times more likely to die.
And a lot of it has to do with, again, the disparities in the healthcare system, and that we are not putting enough attention and resources and priority into women's needs, especially as it relates to their reproductive health and I do want to say this also -- this is an issue that affects all genders.
If you have a partner, if you have a sister, if you have an aunt, a mother, this affects you. Not to mention on the Dobbs decision when Justice Clarence Thomas said the quiet part out loud, which is that when they took the constitutional right from women on reproductive choice, that he said, that in-line, in terms of what might come next, is your right to contraception that will affect all genders, your right to marry the person you love, same point and so there is so much on the line with these issues that affects everyone and the people you love and for that reason, let's take it seriously and let's, you know, speak with our vote and undo what I think is a great travesty of justice as it relates to that Dobbs decision.
