Seth Meyers
A day after pop sensation Olivia Rodrigo’s visit to the White House as part of a public service announcement on Covid vaccine, Seth Meyers recapped the Biden administrations efforts to lift lagging vaccination rates in the US. “Part of the reason why Rodrigo’s appearance was necessary and valuable is that it will hopefully push back against vaccine misinformation being pushed by the GOP and rightwing media,” the Late Night host said.
Meyers turned to Biden’s door-to-door community vaccination outreach program, which conservative figures from Laura Ingraham to Tucker Carlson have derided as a boogeyman of a surveillance state. “In reality, it is a volunteer effort and all they’re doing is trying to raise awareness of life-saving vaccines amid the deadly pandemic,” Meyers explained. “And look, I get that if you still don’t have the vaccine and you watch Fox News, you are not going to be convinced by someone knocking on your door.
“But it’s still nice that they’re trying. It’s not like they’re working on commission or trying to get you to upgrade to Pfizer’s Pfriends and Pfamily Plan. Everyone just wants this pandemic to end, and the fastest way out is the vaccine.”
“Maddeningly, we’re dealing with a political movement that’s made spreading lies about vaccines one of their central political projects,” he later added. “It’s become a culture war issue for them. They’re even selling merch now” – such as the Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, whose official website hawked Covid-themed campaign merchandise including a “How the hell am I going to drink a beer with a mask on?” koozie and a “Don’t Fauci my Florida” shirt.
“Cool, so the Republican party is basically just Hot Topic for boomers now,” Meyers deadpanned. “Florida is currently reporting daily cases close to four times the national average with the second highest number in the country, and DeSantis is selling merch like he’s at a folding table outside Warped Tour.”
Stephen Colbert
Since a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol on 6 January of this year, Stephen Colbert hasn’t said or shown the former president’s name on air, and shelved his impression. “But there are times when you just have to slap yourself in the face,” the Late Show host said Thursday, “put a little cold water on the back of your neck, bear down on the bite stick and remind yourself just how bad it was by repeating out loud the simple fact: Donald Trump is a fascist.”
“That’s not just me flapping my gums,” he added. “That’s Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Mark Milley,” who, according to a new book by two Washington Post reporters, felt the ex-president was “stoking unrest possibly in hopes of an excuse to invoke the Insurrection Act and call out the military” and called the insurrection a “Reichstag moment”.
“It is refreshing that our country was saved because for once the CIA didn’t want to destabilize a democracy,” Colbert joked. And according to I Alone Can Fix This, by Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker, Milley didn’t relax after the 6 January insurrection was thwarted; he wanted the military to lock down Washington DC in the run-up to Biden’s inauguration, telling his troops “these guys are Nazis, they’re boogaloo boys, they’re Proud Boys. These are the same people we fought in World War II.’”
“Oh, come on, General, they’re insurrectionists, sure. But what you makes you think these guys are Nazis?” Colbert said over photos of actual insurrectionists wearing Nazi paraphernalia or tributes.
In the wake of his former general’s comments, Trump released a statement Thursday in which he declared “I’m not into coups!” and added that if he was, “one of the last people I would want to do it with is Gen Mark Milley.”
“OK, you’ve clearly put some thought into this thing you’re not into,” Colbert joked. “‘Honey, come on, I’m not into three-ways! But if I was I wouldn’t do it with our neighbor Alice.’”
