Seth Meyers: ‘Trump has no idea what regular people are going through and he doesn’t care’
Late-night hosts discussed Donald Trump’s out-of-touch comments on grocery prices, the longest-ever government shutdown and a dramatic White House press conference on Ozempic.Seth Meyers continued to analyze the results of Tuesday’s elections on Thursday evening, examining what fueled major victories for Democrats in Virginia and New Jersey.“If you do look inside the numbers, you’ll see that it wasn’t just anti-Trump backlash that fueled Democrats’ wins,” the Late Night host said.“Voters are also furious about the economy,” especially record-high grocery prices.“So the same thing that we were told was an issue in the last election was still an issue in this election because nothing has been fixed,” Meyers continued.
“And voters are right – grocery prices are going up, everything from coffee to bananas to beef,” In fact, beef prices have never been higher,“Soon it’s going to get so bad that Trump’s going to start pushing Americans toward vegan options,” Meyers joked,But “don’t worry, Republicans, Trump is in touch with the common man,” he added,“That’s his gift.
He knows what it’s like to go to the grocery store and feel the pain when you open your wallet and hand the cashier your ID and – wait, what?”Speaking from the White House, Trump claimed that “all we want is voter ID” at the grocery store.“You go to a grocery store, you have to give ID.”“Yeah, everyone knows you get carded at the grocery store,” Meyers deadpanned.“Trump has no idea what regular people are going through and he doesn’t care.”In fact, Trump insisted that grocery prices were going down in his recent interview with CBS News’s 60 Minutes.
“You can lie about immigration, you can lie about the stock market, you can even lie about what wars you ended because most Americans will say ‘I didn’t even know that Thailand and Finland were at war,’” said Meyers.“But you can’t lie about the prices people see with their own eyes at the grocery store.”On the Late Show, Stephen Colbert checked in on the government shutdown, now the longest in US history at 38 days.“The shutdown has already wreaked havoc on air travel, and that havoc is about to get even reekier,” he said, as air traffic controllers aren’t being paid and many aren’t showing up to work.So many, in fact, that the Federal Aviation Administration has directed airlines to cut 10% of their flights at the busiest airports.
“So unfortunately it may be time to try your new favorite airline: the bus,” Colbert joked,“If you’re traveling for Thanksgiving, you might want to leave now,”Colbert also touched on the major victories for Democrats on election day, which Trump referred to in a press conference as “an interesting evening and we learned a lot”,“That sounds like what you’d say after a Tinder date where someone had to go to the hospital,” Colbert laughed,In other news, Fifa – “whose job, you’ll recall, is to take bribes and regulate soccer”, Colbert joked – announced a new peace prize to be awarded at the World Cup draw in Washington.
“Yes, the Fifa peace prize: it’s given exclusively to world leaders who stop wars using only their feet,” Colbert said,“So it really looks like a made-up award just to give Trump something,” he noted, though when asked to confirm that Trump would be given the award, Fifa president Gianni Infantino demurred, saying: “On the 5th of December, you will see,”“Man, it is going to be hilarious when they give it to Obama,” Colbert laughed,At a dramatic White House press conference, Americans got a cut on Ozempic prices, a new diet plan, and perhaps the greatest image of the Trump presidency pic,twitter.
com/uWHtLwrg6IAnd on the Daily Show, Jordan Klepper recapped a dramatic White House press conference in which Trump announced a plan to cut the price of Ozempic and other pharmaceutical weight-loss drugs,“It’s all part of his campaign promise and his one consistent principle of ‘no fatties’,” Klepper joked,The press conference was “an event that turned into a major Hipaa violation”, as Trump announced the price cuts by singling out members of his administration who did or did not take weight-loss drugs,“Joking aside, obesity is a serious issue,” Klepper said,“So, this could be a benefit.
Dr Oz, you’re a doctor, theoretically.Give us a reasonable expectation of success here.”Oz, the TV doctor turned Trump’s administrator for Medicare and Medicaid Services, boasted that Americans would “lose 135bn pounds by the midterms”.“Why the midterms?” Klepper wondered.“Did they add a swimsuit competition to those?“Look, I’m no mathematician,” he continued.
“But 135bn pounds divided by 340 million Americans means we each have to lose … 400lb by the midterms,And I know that sounds like a lot, but remember: that’s just the average! Some people will lose 300lb, while other people will lose 500lb,Some of us will lose no pounds at all, which will be offset by everyone losing 800lb,“The point is, regardless of how much you lose, Donald Trump will be tracking it and announcing your personal results at a press conference,”
Can Donald Trump really make an NFL team name its stadium after him?
That’s if a well-sourced report from ESPN is to be believed. The US president has apparently let it be known to the ownership group of the Washington Commanders that he wants the team’s new stadium, which is scheduled to open in 2030, to take his name. “It’s what the president wants, and it will probably happen,” a senior White House official told ESPN.Not quite. While the franchise was a dominant force in the 1980s, its last Super Bowl appearance came in the 1991 season
Carlos Alcaraz up and running at ATP Finals with win over Alex de Minaur
Carlos Alcaraz opened the ATP’s season-ending championships, and the battle for the year-end No 1 ranking, in ideal fashion as he confidently navigated a turbulent opening set before easing to a 7-6 (5), 6-2 win over the seventh seed, Alex de Minaur, in Turin.Alcaraz, the top seed, is attempting to win the ATP Finals for the first time and hold off Jannik Sinner to finish the season as the top-ranked player. Despite ceding significant ground to the Italian in recent weeks by losing to Cameron Norrie in his opening match at the Paris Masters, which Sinner won, Alcaraz still holds a clear advantage this week since the Italian is defending his title from last year. The Spaniard must win all three of his round-robin group stage matches or reach the final in order to secure the top ranking.Although this has been the best season of Alcaraz’s career, he still has much to prove on indoor hard courts where he has so far struggled to replicate his results on other surfaces
Rob Steen obituary
My friend Rob Steen, who has died of a heart attack aged 67, wrote about sport, particularly cricket, with passion and style.“He was the most irrepressible sports fan of us all,” said the Guardian rugby correspondent Rob Kitson.“He cared more about sports journalism than anyone I’ve met,” a lecturer at Brighton University, where Rob taught, told me.He was perhaps proudest of his contributions to the Guardian spanning, intermittently, from 1988 to 2006, his role as deputy sports editor of the Sunday Times in the mid-1990s, and his long relationships with Wisden Cricketer and Cricinfo.He also wrote accomplished biographies of David Gower (1995) and Desmond Haynes (1993) and, with Alastair McLellan, the groundbreaking 500-1 (2001), about the 1981 Headingley test
ATP Finals tennis: Carlos Alcaraz defeated Alex de Minaur – as it happened
Carlos Alcaraz began his bid for a first ATP Finals trophy with a 7-6 (5), 6-2 win over Australian Alex de Minaur in their round-robin clash in Turin on Sunday.Alcaraz won his opening ATP Finals match for the first time despite De Minaur’s battling display, where the Australian recovered from 4-1 down to force a tiebreak in the opening set before the Spaniard came out on top.The pair traded breaks of serve at the start of the second set, but Alcaraz broke twice more to again lead 4-1 and this time there was no comeback despite De Minaur’s valiant effort in the opening match of the Jimmy Connors Group.Alcaraz is on course to end the year as world number one, and in Turin he must either reach the final or sweep his round-robin matches to guarantee himself the year-end top spot for the second time. ReutersThat, then, is us, but fear not: we’ve plenty else for you, starting immediately
Can anyone challenge the Sinner-Alcaraz supremacy? ATP Finals will reveal all
Days before the grand finale of the ATP season in Turin, the Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner show had already begun. Although the two rivals are locked in battle to determine the year-end No 1 ranking, rumours swirled early on Friday morning that they were scheduled to train together. Sure enough, that afternoon they entered the stadium court side-by-side and they were greeted by deafening roars from a significant crowd.The practice set that followed garnered as much attention as many matches this year. Thousands of viewers tuned in to watch the live stream, then highlights were swiftly available afterwards
America’s men’s grand slam drought is not Taylor Fritz’s burden to carry
Back at the ATP finals one year after reaching the last hurdle, Fritz remains a top-five talent. It’s a reminder that a certain major-title drought is not his burden to bearI would like to have some words with ESPN broadcaster Chris Fowler about what he said after Novak Djokovic beat Taylor Fritz, for the 11th straight time, in the US Open quarter-finals. Look – Fritz is American, Fowler is American – and sports often lend themselves to nationalism. A little bit of disappointment was appropriate. Instead, Fowler invoked the continued drought of American men at the majors: none of them had lifted a trophy since Andy Roddick in 2003, and Fritz had been the last one standing in the tournament
Developers met ministers dozens of times over planning bill while ecologists were shut out
Plant importers say border delays in Kent could drive up prices and stop deliveries from EU
Cutting aid for disease fund would be moral failure, Labour MPs tell Starmer
A rats to riches story: Larry the Downing Street cat finds place in TV spotlight
Remaining four ‘rebel’ Labour MPs have whip restored
Boris Johnson trying to undermine BBC leadership, insiders fear after leak