Seth Meyers wasn't impressed by Donald Trump's debate performance


The first presidential debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton has been dissected by pundits, reporters, average citizens, and now Seth Meyers, who believes there was a clear winner and loser at the end of the night.
Going into the debate, there was a double standard, Meyers said on Tuesday's Late Night. After rolling a clip of a conservative talk show host's advice to Clinton (don't laugh, don't smile, don't cough), he declared, "She has to act like a ninja bank robber weaving through a grid of red lasers. Meanwhile, Trump just has to be a C+ Walmart greeter." Based on the expectations his supporters helped set up, "all Trump had to do was be a normal person and he would have been declared the winner," Meyers said. "Yet he still managed to lose."
Trump wasn't prepared for the "most important 90 minutes of his campaign," Meyers continued, so he gave rambling non-answers about cyber warfare and terrorism and made a strange comment about the possibility that "somebody sitting on their bed weighing 400 pounds," not Russia, hacked the Democratic National Committee. "Trump is so superficial he even fat-shamed a dude he just made up," Meyers quipped. If he really wanted to make a splash, he said, Trump should have released his tax returns, rather than interrupt Clinton to say he's "smart" because he doesn't pay any federal income tax, and if he did, that money would be "squandered." "Oh, the government would squander your money?" Meyers asked. "Says the guy who covers his penthouse in gold like an old prospector who just won the lottery." Watch the video below. Catherine Garcia
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
-
Today's political cartoons - April 20, 2025
Cartoons Sunday's cartoons - Pam Bondi, retirement planning, and more
By The Week US
-
5 heavy-handed cartoons about ICE and deportation
Cartoons Artists take on international students, the Supreme Court, and more
By The Week US
-
Exploring the three great gardens of Japan
The Week Recommends Beautiful gardens are 'the stuff of Japanese landscape legends'
By The Week UK
-
Judge threatens Trump team with criminal contempt
Speed Read James Boasberg attempts to hold the White House accountable for disregarding court orders over El Salvador deportation flights
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US
-
Biden slams Trump's Social Security cuts
Speed Read In his first major public address since leaving office, Biden criticized the Trump administration's 'damage' and 'destruction'
By Peter Weber, The Week US
-
El Salvador refuses to return US deportee
Speed Read President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador said he would not send back the unlawfully deported Kilmar Ábrego García
By Peter Weber, The Week US
-
Trump says electronics tariff break won't last
Speed Read The tariff exemptions on smartphones, laptops and other electronic devices are temporary, the administration says
By Peter Weber, The Week US
-
Man charged in arson attack on Pennsylvania's Shapiro
Speed Read Governor Josh Shapiro and his family were sleeping when someone set fire to his Harrisburg mansion
By Peter Weber, The Week US
-
White House pushes for oversight of Columbia University
Speed Read The Trump administration is considering placing the school under a consent decree
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US
-
Supreme Court backs wrongly deported migrant
Speed Read The Trump administration must 'facilitate' the return of wrongfully deported migrant Kilmar Ábrego García from El Salvador, Supreme Court says
By Peter Weber, The Week US
-
Two judges bar war-powers deportations
Speed Read The Trump administration was blocked from using the Alien Enemies Act to deport more alleged Venezuelan gang members
By Peter Weber, The Week US