"Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name," the Cheers song played as Seth Meyers played a slide show of photos of President Donald Trump and Russian officials at the White House this week. According to Meyers, Trump is Russia's Norm.
“What I did is I was going to fire [FBI director James] Comey. My decision,” Trump told NBC's Lester Holt in an interview Thursday. “I was going to fire Comey… regardless of recommendation, I was going to fire Comey.”
Meyers called the "decision" outright fraud.
“So he just admitted everything the White House has been saying since Tuesday is a lie," Meyers noted. "Trump’s ego is so huge he can’t even let somebody else have the spotlight in his alibi! He’s like a Scooby-Doo villain: That’s right, it was me! I was the ghost in the amusement park!”
Meyers referenced the line in Trump's pink slip to Comey that he appreciated the FBI director "informing me, on three separate occasions, that I'm not under investigation."
If true, Comey was providing information to the target of an investigation. Thursday afternoon, former California attorney general turn senator, Kamala Harris explained that it's absolutely unheard of for an investigator to have done that. CNN pundits have spent the evening comparing it to the likes of former President Bill Clinton meeting former attorney general Loretta Lynch on the tarmac in Arizona while his wife was under investigation. As Atlantic contributing editor Michelle Cottle noted, the difference is that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton isn't the president of the United States.
Trump admitted to Holt that he talked to Comey and asked him about the investigation and if he was a target.
“I guess there’s one upside to being sued as much as Trump has: he’s an expert at being investigated,” Meyers said.
“Believe me, I know when I’m being investigated. In fact, ‘How to Know You’re Under Investigation’ was one of the most popular classes at Trump University,” Meyers said doing his Trump impression.
“So, the White House story on why and how Comey was fired has now completely fallen apart, because while Trump contradicts his own White House, we’re also getting more reporting on what was happening behind the scenes,” he continued.
To make matters worse, The New York Times broke a story Wednesday that Trump was so furious when Comey was dismissive of his claims former President Barack Obama wiretapped him at Trump Tower. Conversely, Comey was "flabbergasted," telling his team that Trump was "outside the realm of normal" and might even be "crazy."
Meyers went on to mock press secretary Sean Spicer for being apparently annoyed with a Washington Post report that he was "in the bushes" while attempting to hide from reporters as the news was breaking about Comey. The Post ultimately updated the story to clarify that he was near the bushes, not "in the bushes." "Like they had accepted me as one of their own," Meyers joked.
Using that comparison, Meyers explained that is "important to remember that America is among and in deep sh*t."
