Seth Meyers wonders who's going to tell President Trump there's no serious voter fraud

Seth Meyers looks at Donald Trump voter fraud claims

(Image credit: Late Night)

published 27 January 2017

Less than a week into President Trump's term, late-night TV hosts aren't having trouble finding material. On Thursday's Late Night, Seth Meyers took a look at Trump's repeated, almost universally discredited claim that 3-5 million people voted illegally for his 2016 opponent, Hillary Clinton. "Even bigger than Trump's obsession with the crowd at his inauguration is his insecurity about losing the popular vote," Meyers said. "And if you were hoping a week of being president would change that," the investigation Trump ordered into "VOTER FRAUD" is "a real bubble-burster."

Everyone from Republican elections officials to his own lawyers have debunked his claim of massive voter fraud, Meyers said, "and yet he continues to persist in what is either a lie or a delusion, so what's going on with this bizarre fixation?" He noted reports that Trump is at his tetchiest when tired or stressed — who isn't? — and played part of his Wednesday interview with ABC News. "It's so weird that a guy who is obsessed with popularity, as Trump is, is willing to say no one would commit voter fraud for him," Meyers said.

Then he turned to the crazy New York Times report about Trump's purported evidence that voter fraud is real: "What the hell is going on? A very famous German golfer told me he saw some Mexican voting? If your grandpa started talking like this, you would consider putting him in a home." When Trump was finished telling congressional leaders his German golfer anecdote, nobody challenged him, and House Speaker Paul Ryan gave his thumbs-up on MSNBC to investigating imaginary voter fraud if it makes Trump feel better. "You'll have to forgive Paul, he's a little disoriented," Meyers said. "He's still recovering from his spine-removal surgery."

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This isn't really a laughing matter, Meyers said. "Clearly this is the beginning of an attempt by the president to crack down on people who voted against him, using fake voter fraud as a pretext, but Trump did not restrict his lies and delusions just to voter fraud claims." Meyers spent the rest of his segment on Trump's mysterious plans to replace ObamaCare, get Mexico to pay for his border wall, and ban Muslim immigrants. He ended were he began, and where Trump ended his ABC interview: Trump's crowd size obsession. Watch below. Peter Weber

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.