Seth Meyers reveals the revolting things that Matt Lauer did and also discusses the possibility that Trump is nuts.
It is incredible that Lauer got away with that behavior so long. Like others, Meyers has noted the detail that Lauer had a secret button installed under his desk that would lock the door remotely. Observers seem to think that this was to prevent his target from escaping by running from the room. That may be true but I think it is more likely that it was to prevent others from accidentally entering and seeing him while he was making his gross moves on the women. This detail also raises broader culpability questions for NBC. I doubt that Lauer did the secret wiring himself. It had to be something that was requested through management and directed to the building manager to implement. How come no one raised any questions about the reasons for this strange request?
Meyers has also become increasingly harsh in his treatment of Donald Trump and now raises the possibility that he is unhinged. I have resisted the suggestions of those who have suggested that Trump is losing his mind because that seemed to be too facile an explanation. I have tried to make ‘excuses’ for his behavior, such that he is shrewd like a fox and is saying and doing outrageous things to either pump up his base or to distract us while he pursues his plans to siphon off wealth to the oligarchy. Those things might still be true but I am becoming increasingly convinced that they are only partially true and that Trump may actually be getting delusional.
I am not sure which situation is more dangerous, that Trump is a shrewd user of bigotry and hatred to advance his awful goals or that he is going crazy and that the latter situation is being covered up by those in the party who know better because they want those same goals to be attained. Otherwise there is no explanation for statements like this from senator Lindsey Graham who said in February 2016 that, “I think [Trump’s] a kook. I think he’s crazy… He’s not fit to be president.” He now says, “What concerns me about the American press is this endless, endless attempt to label the guy some kind of kook not fit to be president.” Or senator Orrin Hatch saying that Trump is one of the best presidents he has seen, a statement that is manifestly delusional.
Watch Meyers unload on both Lauer and Trump
It occurred to me that the original request could well have been for a door that locks so that he could have privacy while preparing for work or relaxing afterwards or napping or meditating or even praying, and have the button behind his desk so that he could easily let people in when he was ready to face them.
It certainly sounds like he had enough awareness of his own skeeviness such that he would try to avoid saying anything overtly skeevy to those who might be able to do something about it.
Of course, now I’ve watched the clip, and seen Meyers making the point that no-one puts a button under a desk for non-evil reasons. . . and I have to admit, I think he’s probably right.
I’ve installed buttons under desks for a couple of functions:
1)”panic button” ie a silent call for help. Also called a hold-up button. Usually under a security post counter, but also under executives’ desks.
2) Remote door lock. This is typically intended to be used to “lock down” a site on report of a threat, such as armed nutjob in the vicinity. Typically at a security desk, but many executives insist they need these, too. Lauer could have used this type of justification. Heck, there may be more of these in other offices at his place of employment.
Sigh… I should know better than to trust a comedian.
In fact, it might have been after one of the sundry disgruntled former worker shootings that remote door locks came into demand, and Lauer asked for one.
“Maybe a crazed fan will want to break in and shoot me! I need it!”
Trump is a shrewd user of bigotry and hatred to advance his awful goals or that he is going crazy
I don’t see these as mutually exclusive.
Rachel Maddow had a guest on her show the other day, a woman speaking for NBC. She was not making excuses for Lauer and was quite disgusted with his actions. However, she said that the button to lock the door was installed by NBC as a security measure in offices of prominent employees in case of a major security problem in the office. It was the case that Lauer was misusing it.
Mobius,
Thanks for that clarifying information.
wow trump is needed , this new age left wing Nazi liberal stuff is whats destroying education it why us universities are worst out of 1st world countries and funny how most liberal i know voted for trump because who else was there Hillary. a women who was caught cheating , blaming a 14 year old rape victim for being raped lol . stop jumping on bash trump, the us is hated because of new age liberals all over Canada and Europe trump is the only good thing these days in that horrible country filled with hate towards men and being sexist pigs having women movements when they are not a minority it is men now days .
I’m not surprised that the commas in peterc’s comment are trying to distance themselves from the rest of the words.
It looks like most of the rest of the punctuation has managed to escape.