Seth Meyers Defends Michelle Wolf: ‘Sarah Huckabee Sanders Got Off Easy’
The host of ‘Late Night’—and 2011 White House Correspondents’ Dinner host—spoke out in support of his friend and former writer following her WHCD backlash.
NBC
Seth Meyers has no time for the pearl-clutching over his friend and former writer Michelle Wolf’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner speech.
The Late Night host was the featured comedian at the event seven years ago, a fact that President Donald Trump brought up in his tweet criticizing Wolf Sunday night. “Oh good,” he said on Monday. “It’s always good when the eye of Sauron is upon you.”
The White House Correspondents’ Dinner was a failure last year, but this year was an embarrassment to everyone associated with it. The filthy “comedian” totally bombed (couldn’t even deliver her lines-much like the Seth Meyers weak performance). Put Dinner to rest, or start over!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 30, 2018
Meyers went on to thank Trump for remembering “one of the best nights” of his life and informed the president that the “filthy” comedian in question was Michelle Wolf, who started her professional comedy career on his show.
“Now, Michelle Wolf doesn’t need anyone to defend her,” he said. “But she is our friend. So just know, when you call her filthy, you are right. She is filthy. And she is mean, which is what we love about her. Because those are wonderful qualities for comedians and terrible qualities for world leaders.”
After playing one of Wolf’s infamously “filthy” appearances on his show, Meyers added, “If you ask me, Sarah Huckabee Sanders got off easy.”
The host also went after Margaret Talev, president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, for distancing herself from Wolf after the event. While Talev previously praised Wolf’s “truth-to-power style,” she then put out a statement saying her jokes “did not embody the spirit of the night.”
“Look, the whole point of your dinner is to supposedly celebrate the First Amendment,” Meyers said. And Michelle Wolf “uses every part of the First Amendment.”
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He predicted that Wolf’s new Netflix show The Break will be a success “because she’s not going to waste any time trying to decide when it is or isn’t proper to make fun of people in power who lie to us on a daily basis.”
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