-Republicans immediately started attacking President Biden
for high gas prices after he announced a ban
on Russian energy imports, while Ukrainian
President Volodymyr Zelensky bravely defied
an increasingly isolated and desperate Vladimir Putin. For more on this,
it's time for "A Closer Look." ♪♪
[ Cheering and applause ] Authoritarian regimes depend on stifling the flow
of information and creating alternate realities and that can even apply
to the autocrats themselves. In fact, dictators often occupy
their own alternate realities, which seems to be what's
happening with Vladimir Putin. He's the only person
in the world who seems to think this is a good idea,
this horrific war, and he's increasingly isolated
from outside voices, both figuratively and literally. He makes even his
highest-ranking officials sit at the other end of a giant room [ Laughter ]
in televised meetings and, even when they sit
at the same table, he chooses the longest table
[ Laughter ] he can possibly find.
I mean, what's that about? It looks like he's playing
shuffleboard in a college bar. [ Laughter ] Next, he's going
to make them meet in the pods
from "Love Is Blind." [ Laughter and applause ] [ Russian accent ]
Vlad, why are you upset? Both Jessica and Lisa said
you are their number one. [ As Putin ]
Yes, but I cannot tell if they said that
because they like me or because they are required
to say it by law. [ Laughter ] The point is
Putin is clearly isolated, even from his top officials. In fact, Ukrainian
President Volodymyr Zelensky is defying Putin
by doing the exact opposite. He posted a video of himself
in his office, revealing his location
earlier this week, despite the fact
that Putin is after him. -Just moments ago, Ukrainian
President Volodymyr Zelensky posted this video on Facebook. It's the first time he's been
seen in his official office since Russia
invaded his country, Zelensky saying,
at the top of the video, "I'm staying in Kyiv,
in my office. I'm not hiding
and I'm not afraid of anyone." -Damn, that is incredibly brave. I don't even let
our cue card guy, Wally, you know where I am
until the show starts. [ Laughter ]
He's always trying to get me to invest in his new line
of Wallmark greeting cards. [ Laughter ]
-Seth, we have cards for every occasion --
birthdays, holidays. -No one wants to invest
in this idea! -Why?
-The cards are too big! -We provide the envelope.
-We will have this
conversation later! [ Laughter ] -Sounds like someone just went from a no to a maybe. [ Laughter ]
-Wally! [ Laughter ] Anyway, Putin, very clearly,
is living in a bubble and he wants everyone else
to join him in that bubble. His regime has been cracking
down on independent media, rounding up protesters
by the thousands, and passed a law
making it illegal to call Russia's invasion
of Ukraine a war. -Tonight, inside Russia, the president signing a new law
passed by parliament, making it illegal to distribute so-called false information
about the military operation. Calling the operation
in Ukraine an invasion or a war
could be illegal. Breaking the law could result
in up to 15 years in prison. -That's right, they're not even
allowed to call it a war or invasion anymore. In fact, the list
of Kremlin-approved
phrases includes... ...and, of course...
[ Laughter ] So Putin is isolated, unhinged,
and disconnected from reality, if he thinks it's going
to end well. The Russian economy
is being squeezed by intense
international sanctions and the global condemnation has
been swift and all-encompassing. Russia's essentially
been cut off from the global
financial system. Russian oligarchs are having
their yachts and villas seized, major American companies
are suspending their business in Russia
and, on top of all that, President Biden
announced yesterday that the U.S. would ban
all Russian energy imports, which might make this a good
time to pause and acknowledge how insane it is
that we continue to buy oil from brutal regimes,
like Russia and Saudi Arabia, as Democratic
Senator Chris Murphy pointed out yesterday. -Let's just admit the insanity of a U.S. economy
that continues to run on oil that is provided to us
by dictators. The reality is, if we're not
getting this oil from Russia, we're likely going
to be importing more from another brutal dictator --
in Saudi Arabia, for instance. Or we may have to go
to Venezuela for oil. We should ultimately learn
our lesson here and become energy-independent
and choose to invest in clean domestic energy,
so we never have to choose between one dictator
versus another. -Yeah, I mean,
wouldn't it be nice if we could generate
our own clean energy through renewable sources,
like wind and solar, instead of begging murderous
crazy people not to gouge us? Then, at least,
we'd never have to watch another U.S. president
hold a weird, glowing orb and do a sword dance
with Saudi royals, [ Laughter ]
like he's auditioning for a non-flipping role
in Cirque du Soleil. [ Laughter ]
I will give them credit
for one thing -- they found a way to make Trump
look even dumber than he normally looks,
just bobbing his head,
[ Laughter ] wagging around a limp sword
like a wet pool noodle. [ Laughter ] They should just keep giving him increasingly stupid tasks and telling him he had to do it to please
the Saudi royal family. "Alright, Mr. President,
and now, we shall commence
the dance of the butterfly." [ As Trump ]
Alright, but why am I... [ Laughter ] ...why am I the only one
in wings, guys? [ Laughter and applause ] Living in a world where
we derive our energy from clean, renewable sources
would be so much better, for so many obvious reasons, including the fact
that it would take power away from repressive,
oil-based dictatorships. Right now,
they have far too much power over both global
and domestic politics because,
as you've probably noticed, gas prices hit a record high
this week. The numbers are so shocking, I drove by a station that had... ...on the sign.
[ Laughter ] Both Republicans and Democrats
had called on Biden to ban Russian energy --
both parties -- and yet, you probably won't be
shocked to learn that Republicans also attacked
him for high gas prices, like Tennessee
Senator Marsha Blackburn, who tweeted... That's true. And, famously, that was the only
thing happening in 2020. [ Laughter and applause ] The low gas year,
as we called it. [ Laughter ] I'm just spitballing here, but maybe low gas prices
had something to do with the fact that
we were all trapped in our homes and no one was going anywhere. Price goes down
when demand goes down. That's why you can get
a DVD player for like $11 now or a Wallmark card for free. [ Laughter ] Not now! [ Laughter ]
It's easy to lower gas prices when no one is using gas
to commute or travel or fly on airplanes. That's like presiding
over a zombie apocalypse and bragging that... [ Laughter ] But, yeah,
now that you mention it, I do remember
when I was fleeing the city to avoid a highly contagious
respiratory virus that decimated the U.S. economy
and trapped everyone in their homes
without toilet paper, not knowing if their jobs
would ever come back or their families would survive, looking up at the gas prices
and thinking, "Wow, $2.17 a gallon." [ Laughter ] "Thank you, President Trump." [ Laughter and applause ] Just to clear a few things up, Biden has actually
outpaced Trump in issuing drilling permits, despite promising to end
new drilling on federal land. Also, it's worth noting that oil
companies profits soared to $174 billion in 2021. Chevron, alone, raked in
over $15 billion in annual profits
and, in February, BP reported its highest profit
in eight years. Maybe they could use some
of that money to lower gas prices,
instead of stock buybacks or shooting glossy
commercials full of healthy-looking sea turtles, or, at the very least, they could pay
for some better programing on those damn gas station
TV screens. [ Laughter ]
I mean, what kind of low-rent
TV show agrees to be shown
on the outside of a gas pump? Good evening, I'm Seth Meyers.
This is "Late Night." [ Laughter ]
We hope you're
doing well tonight and, now, we are going
to get to the news. Damn it!
I forgot we made that deal. [ Laughter ] Even worse, when we made it,
they said, "We can pay you in gas
or Slim Jims," and I yelled, "Slim Jims!"
[ Laughter ] I mean, I was thinking,
if anything was due to have a price hike,
you know... [ Laughter ]
At some point, they're going
to run out of Jims. [ Laughter ]
So the GOP complaints
about gas prices are obviously cynical,
hollow politics and, by far,
the dumbest example came from Colorado Congresswoman
Lauren Boebert on Fox News last night, when she tried to slam
the Biden administration, but seemed to lose her
train of thought. -Here's Biden's energy policy --
anyone but America. OPEC, Venezuela, you name it. If it's not American energy,
Joe doesn't want it. Jesse, under President Trump,
America became net -- a net energy exporter
for the first time in decades and became the world's
number one producer in oil. President Trump unleashed
our energy potential. So I say we should be relying
on our guys to do the work, not OPEC. And I don't know who's running the federal government,
these days, Joe Biden
or Prince John from, uh, Prince John. [ Laughter ]
-Yeah. You know, Prince John,
from Prince John. [ Laughter ] In all seriousness --
and I want to be charitable here because she's a member
of Congress and an elected official,
so, even if we disagree, I want to engage with her
in good faith -- here's my sincere
and honest question -- What the [bleep]
are you talking about? [ Laughter and applause ] That was like when you're
watching a movie with your mom and she says, "Hey, it's
that guy from 'Goodfellas,'" and you say, "Yeah,
we're watching 'Goodfellas.'" [ Laughter ] I mean, just to try
and figure out what she might be talking about,
I Googled "Prince John" and this was
on the first page of results. -This crown gives me a feeling
[ Laughter and applause ] of power! Power! Forgive me a cruel chuckle. [ Chuckle ]
Power. -In fairness, he is
a political figure, I guess, [ Laughter ]
Prince John. You know, from Prince John. [ Laughter ] I'm sure,
in an alternate timeline, Lauren Boebert isn't
in Congress. She's just writing hate mail
to Disney, to complain about how rarely
they open the vault. [ As Boebert ]
Thanks to Joe Biden, Cruella can only afford
seventy-eight dalmatians. [ Laughter ] This person should not be
an elected official. From now on,
instead of calling her Congresswoman Lauren Boebert,
I'm just going to call her Lauren Boebert
from Lauren Boebert. [ Laughter ] As we're seeing play out
in real time now, autocracies and dictatorships
depend on stifling the truth, which is why Putin is
so desperate to crack down
an independent media and stay isolated,
even from his closest officials. We should be investing in clean,
renewable energy sources, so we don't have to buy oil
from dictators anymore. You know, from Saudi Arabia
or from Vladimir Putin, or... -From, uh, Prince John. [ Laughter ]
-This has been "A Closer Look." ♪♪ God's Love We Deliver
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