Seth Meyers was not impressed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s words following the Derek Chauvin verdict this week. The late-night host took a swing at Pelosi’s speech to kick off his monologue Wednesday night, offering his input on how she should have responded instead.
Pelosi drew swift backlash on Tuesday after she thanked George Floyd for “sacrificing your life for justice” following the guilty verdict delivered against former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. Chauvin was found guilty of second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter for his role in killing Floyd.
“Thank you George Floyd for sacrificing your life for justice, for being there to call out to your mom — how heartbreaking was that? — call out for your mom, ‘I can’t breathe,’” Pelosi said at a press conference with the Congressional Black Caucus following the verdict. “But because of you and because of thousands, millions of people around the world who came out for justice, your name will always be synonymous with justice. And now we have to make sure that justice prevails in the sentencing.”
“Wow, who’d have thought we’d prefer her moment of silence?” Meyers joked, referring to a move made by Pelosi earlier this Summer. On June 8, Pelosi and more house Democrats took a silent knee for eight minutes an 46 seconds, as a tribute to George Floyd, who was pinned to the ground by Chauvin for that long (Though we now know that it was in fact more than nine minutes, thanks to the trial).
Meyers went on to give Pelosi some advice for similar situations in the future. “You know, if you’re an 81-year-old white person giving a speech about race, you can just follow this simple rule: Don’t.”
