Seth Meyers Rips Democrats for Failing to Stop Trump’s Election Threats

NBC
NBC

President Donald Trump has now explicitly stated that he may not accept the outcome of a presidential election that he does not win and Seth Meyers doesn’t understand why Democrats aren’t doing more to stop him.

“The president last night refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power, effectively threatening violence unless ballots are thrown out and he’s allowed to stay in office,” the Late Night host said before playing the clip of Trump telling reporters just that this week.

“Our democracy hasn’t been healthy in a long time, but now it’s in a death spiral,” he added. “The president is threatening violence if he loses, armed right-wing militias are roaming the streets in Louisville intimidating protesters, the president is glorifying state violence against journalists, just a few months ago he called for overwhelming force to suppress protests and he’s labeled Democratic cities ‘anarchist jurisdictions’ and his campaign called for an army of supporters to join an election security squad.”

Amidst all of this, Meyers said, Democrats “should be grinding the gears of government to a halt until the Republican Party vows to respect the election outcome and commit to a peaceful transition of power.” But instead of holding “public televised hearings” about Trump’s threats to democracy, they are mostly just issuing strongly-worded statements or keeping quiet altogether.

Watch Trump and Comey’s Tense Loyalty Dinner From ‘The Comey Rule’

Whenever Trump “screams something about mail-in ballots or rigged elections,” the host said, “we all just kind of sigh and move on with our lives.”

Later, Meyers argued, “This is the moment when elected Democrats need to do everything possible to preserve our democracy—hold hearings, slow down Senate business, pour salt on Ted Cruz—whatever you have to do to get Republicans to commit to honor the results of the election.”

“Because right now, they’re openly advertising their plan to steal it while the president refuses to commit to a peaceful transfer of power,” he concluded.

For more, listen and subscribe to The Last Laugh podcast.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!

Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.