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New "A Closer Look": Will Trump Be the New House Speaker?
Seth Meyers explains how Republicans are floating the 45th president to replace Kevin McCarthy on Late Night with Seth Meyers' October 4 episode.
The second "A Closer Look" of fall 2023 may not have been a supersized "To the Max" installment like the one on Late Night with Seth Meyers' return episode on Monday, but it did offer the hilarious, incisive, "is that really true?!" moments and jokes that make the segment appointment viewing for fans.
The focus of October 4's "A Closer Look": As Meyers described it, the Republican parties' chaotic scramble to replace former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy after Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz initiated McCarthy's unprecedented removal from the position.
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"Republicans have a knack for creating history in the most embarrassing way possible," Meyers joked. "It's like saying, 'hey, the Jets made history! This is the first time in his career Aaron Rodgers has gone a whole season without throwing an interception." (For those of us whose football knowledge begins and ends at Taylor Swift attending Travis Kelce's Chiefs games, Meyers is referring to the Achilles tendon injury Rodgers sustained at the very top of his Jets season).
After Cue Card Wally held up a tattered card that proved the show has been saying "the Republicans are in chaos" since 2015—Meyers went onto explain that the position of House Speaker is now vacant, so "the position that's third in line to the presidency is currently like a roadside motel."
"A Closer Look" on that hard gavel smash and Trump as replacement House Speaker
Meyers went on to show the much-memed moment that Congressman Patrick McHenry—"a McCarthy ally"—angrily slammed his gavel to pronounce the House in recess following McCarthy's removal.
"WHOA! Was he closing the session or trying to win a stuffed panda at the county fair?" joked Meyers. "He went after that like a Brooklyn third grader killing a spotted lanternfly."
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Meyers also called attention to the latest development in the search for McCarthy's replacement: According to Fox News, former president Donald Trump may fill in as House Speaker (the Speaker of the House does not need to be an active member of Congress).
"Only Republicans would consider giving the job of speaker to someone who is under a gag order," Meyers said. "It's like hiring a French mime as your new NFL play-by-play guy."
Watch the newest "A Closer Look" above, and watch Late Night with Seth Meyers weeknights at 12:35/11:35c and the next day on Peacock.
