Seth Meyers: A Closer Look at how Trump ignored coronavirus warnings

Seth Meyers used A Closer Look to push back against President Donald Trump’s changing narrative on COVID-19.

Seth Meyers may be working from home but the Late Night host hasn’t been any less productive. The work he and the writers have done on “A Closer Look” over the past month is some of the best in recent memory. Wednesday night’s edition was the latest example.

Late Night has been covering the White House response to the novel coronavirus from the start. And from the start, Meyers has been extremely critical of how President Donald Trump reacted to the outbreak, media coverage, and the needs of state governors.

As the pandemic affected more and more Americans, there was a clear effort by President Trump to change the narrative. He noted how things could be much worse if he “did nothing” and repeatedly claimed that his administration was doing a tremendous job.

Once again Seth Meyers feels compelled to respond. In Wednesday night’s “A Closer Look,” Meyers reminded his viewers that President Trump repeatedly ignored warnings on COVID-19 and is now speculating on the effectiveness of an unproven treatment.

Seth Meyers points out a key concept to remember about President Trump: he presents his own thoughts as those of the collective. When President Trump says that “nobody could see this coming” or a pandemic is something “nobody really thought possible,” Meyers reminds his fans that President Trump is only talking about himself.

So as a refresher, Meyers names off the different agencies and organizations that knew a pandemic was possible. Some of them, like the Obama administration, even tried to prepare the Trump administration for such circumstances.

Despite these warnings, Meyers argues the Trump White House never took things seriously until it was too late. It was just recently that Late Night dedicated a segment of “A Closer Look” to President Trump comparing the novel coronavirus to the flu.

And now in an effort to get things “back to normal” as quickly as possible, President Trump is advocating the use of the drug hydroxychloroquine. But Meyers points to the medical experts who have made it clear that this won’t be a miracle cure like the president hopes.

It is getting harder to argue with the points Late Night with Seth Meyers makes in “A Closer Look.” That could be because the White House’s actions are increasingly indefensible or it could be a testament to the presentation by Late Night. The answer is likely a combination of both. For more information about COVID-19, visit the CDC’s website or the website for your state’s Department of Health.