Seth Meyers rips President Trump’s coronavirus response in A Closer Look

Seth Meyers says that President Donald Trump’s press conference on the coronavirus failed to reassure anyone.

Late Night with Seth Meyers has a long history of questioning President Donald Trump’s leadership and competence. The outbreak of the coronavirus offered President Trump the chance to prove the late night show wrong. But after a White House press conference, Seth Meyers is convinced President Trump failed again.

The press conference was designed to calm the country as well as outline the Trump administration’s plan for an outbreak of the epidemic. That plan includes placing Vice President Mike Pence at the head of a task force dedicated to the coronavirus.

Seth Meyers and others were quick to suggest that President Trump’s only concern when it comes to the coronovirus is the stock market effect and therefore his re-election chances. On Twitter and in interviews, President Trump has tried to downplay the cause and effect between coronavirus and the plummeting Dow Jones.

It is another instance of Meyers seeing through the president and questioning the White House’s ability to lead the country through a crisis. In “A Closer Look,” Meyers did not hold back as he both mocked President Trump and warned what the administration’s incompetence could mean:

Meyers examines President Trump’s efforts to will the coronavirus away or dismiss concerns about it in the U.S. The president has even contradicted the Center for Disease Control. Let’s just hope this doesn’t end up like the National Weather Service when it tried to correct the president.

For Meyers, having Donald Trump in charge during a national health emergency is a major problem because of Trump’s personality. The president has proven that he doesn’t like to be wrong and can exaggerate his knowledge. Meyers gives a  clear example in President Trump “correcting” Dr. Sanjay Gupta during his press conference.

“A Closer Look” then moves from President Trump burying his head in the sand over coronavirus to criticizing him for massive cuts to public health agencies. And those people still in the Trump administration seem uninformed or unprepared. It’s another failure to reassure the public in the eyes of Meyers and Late Night.

The in-house solution for the Trump administration is Vice President Mike Pence. But this decision is again dismissed by Meyers. Vice President Pence’s record on public health is poor and many pointed out he lacks the experience for such an assignment.

Meyers’ closing lines are some of the most brutal in any edition of “A Closer Look” we’ve seen recently. In a time that needs strong, smart leadership Meyers instead says we have “a mentally incontinent game show host who’s incapable of thinking about anything other than his own self-interests.”

Seth Meyers is hoping that the Trump administration “miraculously goes away.” But the real miracle to hope for is that the White House surprises everyone and handles any epidemic competently. If not, April isn’t too far away.