Here’s a golden rule every politician should follow: if you don’t have anything intelligent to say, just say nothing at all. Of course, if Nancy Pelosi had taken that route, Seth Meyers would’ve needed some new material for his most recent episode of Late Night.
The Speaker of the House gave a pretty embarrassing speech following former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin’s guilty verdict. Chauvin was convicted of second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter in the killing of George Floyd. Floyd’s murder last summer sparked a wave of protests calling for much-needed social justice reform and accountability in law enforcement. Still, it felt completely inappropriate and more than a bit cringe-worthy for Pelosi to actually thank Floyd for dying, which is basically what happened when she gave a speech following Chauvin’s trial.
“Thank you, George Floyd, for sacrificing your life for justice. For being there to call out to your mom. How heartbreaking was that?” Pelosi told the press. “Because of you, because of thousands, millions of people around the world who came out for justice, your name will always be synonymous with justice.”
Yikes.
Of course, as embarrassing as this gaffe is for Pelosi, it makes for some really good comedic material for Meyers, who had a bit of fun calling out the Democratic House leader on his show.
“Wow, who’d have thought we’d prefer her moment of silence?” Meyers joked while referencing another disastrously bad photo op that Pelosi and other House members took to support the Black Lives Matter movement last year. “You know, if you’re an 81-year-old white person giving a speech about race, you can just follow this simple rule: Don’t.”
Pretty solid advice honestly, but we have to say, we’re kind of disappointed Meyers didn’t drag Amy Poehler out there to do a full “Really?!” segment on this.