Seth Meyers wasn’t the first late-night host to weigh in on the first presidential debate Monday night, but he was the most emphatic.
As the host said at the beginning of his “closer look,” all that “spin” about Donald Trump not preparing for the debate turned out to be true. In the end, the “expectations game” didn’t work out as well for the Republican as his campaign hoped it would.
“It seems like the Trump campaign was setting expectations so low, all he would have to do is stand still for 90 minutes and he would be the winner,” Meyers said. “But in the days leading up to the debate, they were worried that bar might be too high.”
“Trump was so unprepared that at one point it looked like he maybe forgot Hillary’s name,” Meyers said, playing the clip in which Trump asked her if it was OK for him to call her Secretary Clinton. Meanwhile, Clinton was “over-prepared with one of her patented lukewarm zingers,” this one about “trumped up trickle-down” economics.
One major highlight of the debate, for both Clinton and Meyers, was the moment when Trump claimed he has a better “temperament” than his opponent. “Look at that,” the host said, mimicking Clinton’s delighted dance. “That's how an aunt shimmies when she hears ‘Single Ladies’ at a wedding.”
“In the end,” he concluded, “the entire night and the current state of American politics can be summarized by these few words.” From Trump? “Howard Stern” and “Rosie O’Donnell.” From Clinton? “Miss Piggy.”