As Republicans in congress continue to battle internally over who will become the next Speaker of the House, Seth Meyers has had just about enough. He shredded the lawmakers on Wednesday night, jokingly comparing congress to “an Irish wake.”
The NBC host first called up comments from Rep. Tim Burchett from January, in which he criticized a “redneck” colleague for drinking on the House floor. Meyers then zeroed in on comments from Rep. Garret Graves (R-LA), who described the hours following Kevin McCarthy’s ouster last week to CNN’s Jake Tapper.
“I think if we had stayed together in the meeting last night, I think that you would’ve seen fists thrown,” Graves said at the time. “And I’m not being dramatic when I say that there is a lot of raw emotions right now.”
“Booze, fighting, and raw emotions — is this congress or an Irish wake?” Meyers mocked, putting on an Irish accent to compare the two. “‘You think you miss Seamus? I miss Seamus more than you boyo. Now let’s take it outside, and remember, no grabbin’ of the face, this isn’t congress.’”
Speaking more seriously, Meyers was baffled by the idea that this behavior isn’t drawing more consequences for the lawmakers, noting that in basically any other job, it would be intolerable.
“I can’t imagine another workplace where you’re allowed to say ‘Good thing we ended that meeting, because we’re about to beat the s— out of each other,’” he said.
“Like, again, I know I would immediately get a call from HR if I said something like that after a pitch meeting with my writers. Although, if my writers land a punch like they land a joke, then I got nothing to worry about.”
You can watch Seth Meyers’s full “A Closer Look” segment in the video above.