Seth Meyers has never met an impression he didn’t want to try out, and he treated Wednesday night’s show like it was sweeps week by breaking out all of his very favorites. Including and especially Rudy Giuliani, whose infamous Ukraine call and general buffoonery were the subject of the evening’s “A Closer Look” segment.
Earlier this week, CNN obtained audio of a July 2019 phone call in which Giuliani—who, you might remember, was once married to his cousin (as Meyers reminded us)—attempted to pressure Ukrainian officials into announcing a fake investigation into Joe Biden. And Meyers couldn’t resist the opportunity to rake the man once known as “America’s Mayor” over the coals for just how far he has fallen.
After reminding viewers of the Russia investigation (remember that?) and Donald Trump’s famous “quid pro quo” call, wondering “How is it that every time these guys do something shady or illegal they get caught on tape?,” and finding a way to mention the potential Wedding Crashers sequel so that he could segue into his famous Owen Wilson impression, Meyers got back to the matter at hand: Giuliani’s desperate attempt to get a pat on the head from his pal Trump for doing good by bullying a foreign country into pretending that Biden did something bad there:
“The fact that the phone call is 40 minutes long means there’s lot of damning stuff in there. For example: Rudy had this insane theory that it was actually Ukraine that actually interfered in the 2016 election to hurt Trump, and he wanted Ukrainian officials to investigate that theory…
But then Rudy got down to business and made it clear that what he and Trump wanted was for Ukraine’s president to make a public statement declaring that they were opening an investigation into Joe Biden… These guys can’t even bring themselves to believe their own BS. This is how they always do it: They float the same theories, then cover themselves by saying they’re just asking questions like they’re gossipy high school sophomores…
It was clear that what they were doing was shady, and that they knew it was shady. Because they all talk in that vague, Mafia-esque tone where they never actually demand something explicitly but they make it clear that what they’re asking for is a quid pro quo.”
The segment includes several clips of Rudy’s audio, which Meyers thinks makes him sound “like he should be wearing a tracksuit and running his fingertip along the bar at a New Jersey restaurant saying, ‘This is a nice place. Nice and flammable if you know what I mean.’” He added that:
“I also love that Rudy’s reward for their cooperation was saying that he would personally visit them in Ukraine. I’m sure they were psyched about the idea of Rudy showing up at their door, asking to sleep on their futon, and then spending three days talking about cigars and the Yankees and asking them where to find the best salami in Kiev.”
You can watch the full segment above.
