Seth Meyers has a message for the “Bernie or Bust” people: “The house is on fire, stop crying because we’re not putting it out with your hose.”
On his NBC show Late Night last night, the comedian chastised the group of Bernie Sanders supporters who are refusing to vote for Hillary Clinton in the US general election. Citing Donald Trump’s rise in the polls, Meyers called for the faction to start acting like mature adults before its too late. “We’ve all experienced disappointment,” he said. “I couldn’t get Rihanna to go out with me, but I don’t stand in the kitchen and boo my wife.”
“We are on the cusp of electing a racist demagogue, and that never ends well,” he said. “I don’t know which class you ditched to go to those Bernie rallies, but I have a feeling it was history.”
On the Democratic convention’s first day (June 25), Sanders supporters booed almost every mention of Hillary Clinton’s name, even when senator Sanders himself urged them to support her. ”I tuned in [Monday] and there was more white booing than the Casper movie,” Meyers quipped.
Maryland representative Elijah Cummings, who is black, gave his heartfelt speech over chants of “Black Lives Matter” and “No TPP.” Some of the Sanders contingent even booed and chanted during the convention’s opening prayer (video). Outside the convention, pro-Sanders protestors chanted “lock her up,” an ugly refrain calling for the imprisonment of Clinton, and one that was trumpeted repeatedly by Republicans during their convention last week.
The “Bernie or Bust” dissidents might be loud, but a recent Pew poll found that 90% of Sanders’s primary supporters are at least open to voting for Hillary Clinton in the election against Trump. How many actually will, though, is a question that can only be answered on November 8.
While some of his network TV rivals play it safe, Meyers has never been shy about voicing political opinions. He has discussed topics like attempts to defund Planned Parenthood and the Syrian refugee crisis with charm and wit, leading many to compare his style of political satire to that of comedian Jon Stewart’s.