Comedian Seth Meyers has criticized both President Joe Biden and former President Barack Obama for his belief that the two did not take enough credit for the help they provided to the American people.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, then-President Donald Trump disbursed stimulus checks to citizens in need of them through the Internal Revenue Service, as reported by the Washington Post in 2020.
Trump insisted that he be allowed to sign the checks to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who oversees the IRS. This request was granted, and so the words "President Donald J. Trump" appeared on the left side of the checks.
"Some folks will be like, 'Well, Donald Trump sent me a check during the pandemic,'" former President Obama back said at a campaign event for Democratic nominee Kamala Harris in October.
"Let me make sure you all understand this," he continued. "Joe Biden sent you a check during the pandemic just like I gave people relief during the Great Recession. The thing is, we didn't put our name on it because it wasn't about feeding our egos, it wasn't about advancing our politics, it was about helping people. That's the difference."
"Don't you give him credit for that. Come on," Obama said.
President Obama: I hear some folks say, ‘Well Donald Trump sent me a check during the pandemic.’ Joe Biden sent you a check during the pandemic just like I gave people relief during the Great Recession. The thing is we didn't put our name on it because it wasn't about feeding our… pic.twitter.com/UQ9AjihdhE
— Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) October 24, 2024
"OK, but you should have," Meyers, the host of "Late Night" commented. "Like, next time, put your name on it. Seriously, Joe Biden should have sent everyone $1,000 in the mail and called it Biden Bucks. And it's not an issue of left versus far left. You just have to make people's lives better in a way that's direct and easy to understand, and then aggressively take credit for it."
Furthermore, Meyers noted how the Affordable Care Act, colloquially dubbed Obamacare, was a landmark statute that provided millions of Americans with affordable healthcare, but many did not even know what it was or that it was accessible to them. Meyers referred to the act as "great," saying "in the polls, people say they love it, they want to keep it."
"But polls also show they're sometimes confused by it or don't even know they have it," he continued. "So next time, make it easy. Just pass a universal health care plan and send everyone a little ID card in the mail that says 'Obamacare,' or 'A Democrat gave this to you. Please remember that, OK!'"
On Tuesday, Donald Trump was elected the 47th President of the United States in a landslide victory that saw him win all seven battleground states alongside the popular vote. Meyers' sentiments join the discourse surrounding what went wrong for the Democratic Party during this election cycle, as many offer observations, criticisms and suggestions as to how the party can recover from this loss.
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