Seth Meyers isn’t looking forward to Donald Trump taking office again on Monday, but he also wasn’t a huge fan of President Biden’s farewell address. According to the NBC host, Biden shouldn’t be “giving us a to-do list” on his way out the door.
In his speech, Biden warned of issues that Trump and his allies will cause, exploit or exacerbate. One major warning he offered was that the U.S. is rapidly becoming an oligarchy, thanks to Trump appointing several billionaires to his cabinet, which “literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms, and a fair shot for everyone to get ahead.”
“Powerful message. And I just hope that one day this enterprising young man runs for public office so we can do something about it,” Meyers joked on Thursday. “Now you warn us that America is becoming an oligarchy?!”
“America’s 12 richest men are now worth a combined $2 trillion and overall, America’s billionaires are worth a combined $6 trillion, which is more than the combined wealth of the entire bottom half of Americans,” he noted.
What irritated Meyers more though was that Sen. Bernie Sanders has been warning of America becoming an oligarchy for a very long time. To prove it, the “Late Night” host played a supercut of clips where Sanders spoke of it — dating all the way back to 1993.
“Joe Biden is three decades behind Bernie Sanders! Although look, I know, you guys,” Meyers said. “I know it’s hard to tell, because Bernie looks the exact same. The only reason he looks a little older now is because TVs got better.”
Meyers also took issue with Biden laying out a list of things that need to be acted upon, including getting “dark money” out of campaign contributions, enacting an 18-year term limit on the Supreme Court and banning members of Congress from trading stock while in office.
Running through the list, Meyers joked that Biden “really waited until your last day at work to start stuffing the suggestion box.”
“I mean, I agree, but why are you giving us a to do list on your way out?” he sniped. “You’re like the guy who leaves a party and says, ‘By the way, there’s puke on the rug, ring stains on the coffee table, someone took an upper-decker in the bathroom, it was me. Oh, and George is trapped in his poncho.’”
You can watch Seth Meyers’ full “A Closer Look” segment in the video, above.
