The White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooting was the topic of the “Closer Look” segment on Monday night’s episode of NBC’s Late Night with Seth Meyers.
Host Seth Meyers began the segment by thanking law enforcement and emphasizing he was glad that everyone was safe. He also thanked CNN’s Wolf Blitzer for his reporting from the Washington Hilton bathroom, even though the veteran news anchor was stuck there with 15 other men, a scenario Meyers described as his “actual nightmare.”
“[If] Wolf is in the room, there must be a situation,” Meyers said, imagining the scene. “Also, what happens if you actually have to use the bathroom? Which I would definitely have to do because even when I hear gunshots in a movie I piss myself. Just make sure you’re in a silent bathroom, no cell service, and then you quietly try to slide into a stall without anyone noticing, and then you do your business while 15 other dudes stand right outside the door. Plus you’re in a tuxedo, so you’ve gotta navigate all the suspenders and everything. Trust me, ladies, it’s no party.”
Meyers also spent time discussing the breakout meme of the WHCD incident, the man dubbed “Salad Man,” who continued eating as all around him hit the deck and hid under tables. “New meme just dropped,” he said. “Remember that dude mowing his lawn in front of the tornado? We should add the ‘Salad Man.’ Or we could update that everything is fine dog. This is incredible. Everyone’s diving under tables. My man’s just going to town on his burrata salad, not just any burrata salad, a hotel ballroom burrata salad.”
But much of Meyers’ commentary was reserved for Trump going all-in on using the shooting to justify the still under construction White House ballroom. After showing some news clips of Trump talking up the security features of his ballroom, Meyers quipped, “This is the first I’m hearing that it’s a safe ballroom. All I’ve ever heard is how it’s going to be big and beautiful, but now we’re shifting to safe, and man, I get it. When you want something as badly as you want your ballroom, you do what you can.”
Meyers also zeroed in on Trump’s insistence in media reports and interviews that the ballroom was “militarily top secret.” “I have to ask, what do you mean by this?” said Meyers. “This event would never have happened with the militarily top secret ballroom. What do you mean it’s top secret? You talk about it all the time. That’s the opposite of top secret. You’ve literally held up poster boards with designs for the ballroom you claim is top secret. This is militarily top secret in the same way a stealth bomber would be if it was pulling a banner that read invisible plane.”
Meyers also touched on the precarious job security of FBI Director Kash Patel, who is facing ever greater pressure following a series of screwups at the agency and a number of news reports alleging unprofessional behavior and alcohol issues on Patel’s part. “I’ve never been less shocked by potential firing, I was so not shocked that when I heard that I kept eating my burrata salad,” he said.
He ended the segment by reiterating that events at the WHCD were “unacceptable.” “Political violence is unacceptable. It has no place in a functioning democracy,” Meyers said. “It would be nice if our politicians could lead by example and provide solutions for keeping all Americans safe. Instead, the president and his party seem focused on telling the world about his militarily top secret ballroom.”
