Speed Reads

Late Night Tackles Election 2018

Seth Meyers highlights Trump's loss in the Pennsylvania election. Jordan Klepper: The GOP needs more Trump.

Democrat Conor Lamb appears to have narrowly beat Republican Rick Saccone in Tuesday's special congressional election in Pennsylvania, and some people are blaming President Trump, Seth Meyers said on Wednesday's Late Night. "Early this evening, The New York Times called the race for Lamb, which is a shocking result in a district Trump won in 2016 by 20 points. In fact, Trump went to the district on Saturday to campaign for the Republican, Saccone" — and he "mentioned everyone else" but Saccone. "Trump is the worst wingman," Meyers laughed. "He's the kind of guy who says to a girl at the bar, 'My buddy thinks you're hot. He's dumb, and I'm awesome.'"

When Trump failed to salvage the race, Republicans sent in "a second, less-charismatic Donald Trump," Don Jr., who seemed really intent on eating ice cream as Saccone talked, Meyers said, before moving on to take his closer look at Trump's proposed "Space Force" ("Did Trump stop off at a weed dispensary while he was in California?"), Trump's curious TV-title talk when discussing his border wall prototypes, and Wednesday's student-led walkout over gun violence.

At The Opposition, Jordan Klepper scoffed at the idea that Trump was to blame for Pennsylvania's "betrayal." "Districts are like body parts: When they turn blue, something's gone terribly wrong," he said. "Now critics are going to call this a blue wave, a referendum on Trump, just because Lamb's Republican opponent, Rick Saccone, aligned himself with Trump, followed Trump's agenda, and called himself 'Trump before Trump was Trump.' But this election was not a referendum on Trump." That's nonsense, he added. "The problem isn't that Saccone focused too much on Trump. It's that there wasn't enough Trump."

"Enough with these pale imitations of Trump running for local office," Klepper said. "We need Trump himself to run for everything: state senator, comptroller, homecoming queen." You can watch his full argument below. Peter Weber