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Seth Meyers on reports of Trump calling US vets ‘losers’: confirmed by ‘common sense’

Seth Meyers

After six months hosting from his quarantine attic, Seth Meyers returned to the Late Night studio in New York on Monday evening. The main topic of discussion was, however, business as usual: another damning report of outrageous, offensive remarks by Donald Trump. At a press conference on Monday, Trump disputed a story by the Atlantic that he called Americans who died at war “losers” and “suckers”. The report has since been confirmed by numerous outlets including the AP, CNN, Fox News “and also by common sense”, added Meyers. “I mean, it sounds exactly like something Trump would say. He probably thinks anyone who dies is a sucker.”

Trump also claimed that top Pentagon officials were against him because he opposed “endless wars”, which is an “especially infuriating lie coming from a guy who has repeatedly touted billions in arms sales to a brutal regime in Saudi Arabia, vetoed a bill to end US involvement in the war in Yemen, massively expanded bombing campaigns across the world, including a record number in Afghanistan, increased the Pentagon’s budget for the fifth consecutive year to the point where it’s now near Iraq-year levels, added billions to a Pentagon ‘slush fund’ specifically for war funding, and has bragged about sending US troops to Saudi Arabia because Saudi Arabia would pay for it”, Meyers ranted.

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Trump denigrating Americans who died at war is “such a perfect window into the reality distortion machine on the right”, Meyers continued, since Fox News, whose own national security reporter confirmed the story, continued to discredit it on multiple programs – one talking head called the story a “hoax” while contributor Mollie Hemingway dismissed it as anonymous sources working on an “information operation” against the president. “How do you know it’s accurate? How do you know it’s true?” asked another anchor.

“Your own network confirmed it!” Meyers retorted. “Do you guys watch you own channel? Or do you just take naps until Trump tweets something?”

Jimmy Fallon

On the Tonight Show, Jimmy Fallon also addressed the bombshell Atlantic story about Trump’s denigration of Americans who died at war. “That’s right, Trump allegedly outrageously offensive remarks, so you know what that means: nothing happens to Trump and Billy Bush gets fired,” Fallon joked, referencing the Access Hollywood tape scandal from October 2016.

“I’m not sure what’s more upsetting: the comments Trump reportedly made or what he’ll do to change the subject,” he added, mimicking Trump – “and that’s why we’re nuking the moon”.

Fallon also discussed a New York Times report that the Trump campaign squandered its $800m of funding and is strapped for cash. “They blew through $800m in a few months – who’s running his campaign, Trump in the 80s?” Fallon joked. “Now Trump’s claiming he’s going to spend up to $100m of his own money. It’s a great idea – Mike Bloomberg heard and was like, ‘Good luck with that.’”

Trevor Noah

And on the Daily Show, Trevor Noah reflected on yet another video of police brutality, this time of Daniel Prude in Rochester, New York. Prude, a 41-year-old black man, died in March after being hooded and held down by police during what appeared to be a mental health crisis. Body-camera footage from the seven now suspended officers launched over a week of protests in Rochester, calls for the city’s mayor to step down and the resignation of Rochester’s police chief and deputy chief.

And yet, as Noah pointed out, some news coverage has focused on protesters who have disrupted dinners or flipped tables at restaurants. The table-flipping has gone too far, Noah quipped: “First, introduce yourself – ‘Hi, my name is Sean, and I’ll be your protester this evening’ – then you flip over the tables! Manners, people.” But jokes aside, “we’re living through one of the most stressful times in modern history”, he said.

“In order to have any honest conversation, we have to acknowledge everything that’s happening: you have a pandemic, with people losing their jobs and people losing their lives. On top of all that, you have a nation that has been inundated with images of police brutality day in and day out.”

Often, Noah continued, people focus more on “the symptoms than the cause. Because right now, everyone’s talking about ‘what’s the right way to protest?’” The real question people should ask, he said, is ‘why does there need be a protest in the first place?’

“If I had a magic wand, I wouldn’t be trying to fix protests,” Noah concluded. “I would use it to get the police to stop brutalizing black people. That’s why protests are happening.”