Seth Meyers was barely stunned by Kevin McCarthy reportedly elbowing a Republican congressman who voted him out because, according to the NBC host, it still doesn’t measure up to anything Trump ever did.
In case you missed it, on Tuesday, Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tennessee) was apparently shoved in the back during an interview with NPR in the Capitol. According to Burchett, the perpetrator was Kevin McCarthy, supposedly out of bitterness, because Burchett was among the Republicans who voted McCarthy out as speaker earlier this year.
“You just don’t expect a guy who was, at one time, three steps away from the White House to hit you with a sucker punch in the hallway,” Burchett complained on CNN.
“Yeah, you don’t expect the guy who’s three steps away from president to do that. You expect the guy who was actually president to do that,” Meyers mocked, pulling up a graphic of Trump, and reminding his audience of how many times the disgraced ex-president encouraged violence during his time in office.
But, Meyers did feel a little guilty making the comparison, because Trump never actually hit anyone. He just tried to force romantic advances.
“I should not imply that President Trump ever sucker-punched anyone. The worst thing he ever did was try to sucker kiss Mike Pence,” Meyers joked.
Pulling up a clip of the incident, Meyers once again put on his Trump voice, and guessed at the exchange that followed the incident.
“‘What’s that? You don’t want a smooch, Mike? OK! But if people ever threaten to hang you, I’m not gonna step in,’” he joked. “‘You’ll rue the day you turned down a smooch.’”
In the end though, Meyers was more surprised that Burchett was surprised at things turning physical, especially considering that it’s not even the first time it’s happened recently.
“Do you really not expect your fellow Republicans to sucker punch each other after everything you’ve witnessed? Hell, a sucker punch seems quaint at this point,” Meyers mocked.
You can watch Seth Meyers’ full “A Closer Look” segment in the video above.