The Supreme Court heard oral arguments this week in a historic case determining whether Donald Trump can be taken off states’ 2024 presidential ballots on the basis of the 14th amendment. But Seth Meyers is pretty sure Trump won’t love some of the first arguments his latest legal team made on his behalf.
During his “A Closer Look” segment on Thursday night, Meyers largely poked fun at the fact that Trump’s team is attempting to convince the justices that the 14th amendment actually has a small loophole that would allow Trump to see no punishment for his involvement in January 6. But, the “Late Night” host was also amused by how Trump’s lawyer Jonathan Mitchell characterized January 6.
Mitchell argued that the events of January 6 were “shameful, criminal, violent, all of those things” but that they didn’t actually “qualify as an insurrection.”
“Something tells me Trump isn’t exactly gonna be thrilled with that argument,” Meyers said. “It doesn’t really fit on a baseball cap: ‘Shameful, criminal, violent, but still eligible!’”
Elsewhere in the segment, Meyers had a good laugh at Trump’s initial response to the case during a radio interview he gave. In an appearance on The John Fredericks Show, Trump argued that it would be “very terrible” to remove him from the ballot, because “you can’t take the votes away from the people … that would be so bad for democracy.”
“That’s what you did!” Meyers shot back. “That’s why this case is happening in the first place. It’s like if OJ had gotten up in court and said ‘If you put me in jail, you’ll be murdering my freedom! With ill-fitting gloves no less!’”
You can watch Seth Meyers’ full “A Closer Look” segment in the video above.