Nearly 15 months ago, NBC’s Seth Meyers told his Late Night audience that Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report, where he suggested former President Joe Biden’s mental faculties were not up to par, was “very gratuitous” and “a [bleep] hit job.” On Monday, Meyers changed his tune and ridiculed the conservative idea that the cover-up of Biden’s mental decline is a scandal because there was no cover-up because everyone, including him, knew it.
After a montage of media clips calling the cover-up a scandal was punctuated by Fox News’s Laura Ingraham claiming it was the biggest scandal in recent memory, Meyers broke out the sound effects, “Then I hate to tell you this, you have a bad memory. Maybe, you should take a cognitive test. You can't remember a bigger political scandal? Oh, my god, does that mean Laura Ingraham is in—[dramatic echo] cognitive decline? [Witch cackle].”
A sarcastic Meyers then continued, “In all seriousness, they're right. This is the biggest scandal in history, bigger than Watergate, bigger than Iran-Contra, bigger than the Teapot Dome Scandal—yeah, I said it. Bigger than the Teapot Dome Scandal.”
After a digression into Google AI, the Super Dome, and college football bowl game names, Meyers resumed, “Now, you might be thinking to yourself, "Wait, didn't everybody already know that Joe Biden was old? Didn't poll after poll show that the vast majority of Americans, including a clear majority of Democrats, thought he was too old to run for reelection, and wanted someone else? Didn't he biff it so bad in the debate that his own party undertook an unprecedented effort to successfully force him out of the race?”
The last point is important. It was not until Biden became a political liability that Democrats forced him out. It wasn’t because they were concerned about his ability to do the job.
Meyers then tried to defend himself, “Weren't Democrats ultimately punished for Biden's disastrous choice to run again when they got their asses kicked in the November election? Didn't Seth play that clip of Biden falling up the stairs, like, 1,000 times?"”
Yes, Meyers did play the clip of Biden falling up the stairs several times. In fact, of all the late night hosts, he told the second most Biden jokes in 2024. However, playing clips of Biden tripping on Air Force One’s stairs is not, by itself, a statement about Biden’s ability to do the job any more than it was about Gerald Ford’s.
In fact, in that same Biden-Hur segment from February 2024, Meyers tried to turn the tables on conservatives by showing Donald Trump struggling to pronounce the word “origins.” Meyers would also host Biden later that month in an attempt to get progressives upset with him on Israel back onboard because Meyers believed that liberals had to support Biden because it was either him or Trump.
Back in 2025, Meyers rolled on, “This was on TV, everyone saw it. If this was a cover-up, if this was the worst [bleep] cover-up in American history. It was the worst kept secret since Mika and Joe. We knew! We knew. Nobody has chemistry like that at 6:00 A.M. This was only like Watergate if the break-in had been live streamed on Twitch. “
That’s odd because Joe Scarborough infamously declared, “Start your tape right now, because I'm about to tell you the truth. And f-you if you can't handle the truth. This version of Biden intellectually, analytically, is the best Biden ever.”
It is true the late night comedians joked about Biden’s age, but they never took it to the point where they claimed he was incapable of doing the job. That only came after the debate, and they started to panic that Trump might win because preventing that outcome was their most important priority.
Here is a transcript for the June 2-taped show:
NBC Late Night with Seth Meyers
6/3/2025
12:48 AM ET
SETH MEYERS: Then I hate to tell you this, you have a bad memory. Maybe, you should take a cognitive test. You can't remember a bigger political scandal? Oh, my god, does that mean Laura Ingraham is in — [dramatic echo] cognitive decline? [Witch cackle]
In all seriousness, they're right. This is the biggest scandal in history, bigger than Watergate, bigger than Iran-Contra, bigger than the Teapot Dome Scandal — yeah, I said it. Bigger than the Teapot Dome Scandal. And if you don't remember the 1923 Teapot Dome Scandal from your eighth grade history textbook, just do what I did, and read the Google AI overview, which is never wrong. I typed in "Teapot Dome Scandal" and Google helpfully informed me that the Teapot Dome Scandal occurred when the Superdome was accidentally constructed to resemble a teapot. It was actually really fun. In the fourth quarter of close games, they could just release steam.
That's why they play the Sugar Bowl there. Of course, it's not even called the Sugar Bowl anymore. Now it's called the Credit Suisse Rocket Money [bleep] Dogecoin Bowl or Some [bleep].
Now, you might be thinking to yourself, "Wait, didn't everybody already know that Joe Biden was old? Didn't poll after poll show that the vast majority of Americans, including a clear majority of Democrats, thought he was too old to run for reelection, and wanted someone else? Didn't he biff it so bad in the debate that his own party undertook an unprecedented effort to successfully force him out of the race?
Weren't Democrats ultimately punished for Biden's disastrous choice to run again when they got their asses kicked in the November election? Didn't Seth play that clip of Biden falling up the stairs, like, 1,000 times?"
This was on TV, everyone saw it. If this was a cover-up, if this was the worst [bleep] cover-up in American history. It was the worst kept secret since Mika and Joe. We knew! We knew. Nobody has chemistry like that at 6:00 A.M. This was only like Watergate if the break-in had been live streamed on Twitch.