Nikki Haley was not only confident, but actually pretty thrilled coming out of the Iowa caucus this week, happily asserting that the GOP primary is now definitively a two-person race. Seth Meyers was a bit baffled by her excitement though, reminding her that she finished third.
During his “A Closer Look” segment on Wednesday night, Meyers did make it clear that, in the grand scheme of things, the actual voter turnout for the caucus was quite low, and thus Trump’s decisive victory really may not be indicative of how he’ll do in Iowa just yet. That said, Haley also definitively came in last place.
So, after a clip of her boasting that “I can safely say, tonight, Iowa made this Republican primary a two-person race,” the late night host was a bit confused.
“A two-person race — you came in third,” he said. “Who aren’t you counting?”
Meyers also latched onto something Ron DeSantis said after coming in second, losing to Trump by 30 points, but celebrating that “we’ve got our ticket punched out of Iowa.”
“I don’t know how to tell you this, but you just got your ticket punched back into Iowa,” Meyers said of Haley. “You’re gonna get on a plane in Des Moines and land in Cedar Rapids.”
The “Late Night” host conceded that it would be a two-person race if DeSantis or Haley dropped out, but noted that “the GOP establishment is rejecting that option,” instead encouraging both of them to quit.
You can watch Seth Meyers’ full “A Closer Look” segment in the video above.