Seth Meyers Warns Networks to Ignore Trump's Early Victory Claims on Election Night

On Election Day eve, Seth Meyers had words of warning for the TV news outlets covering the results after the Trump campaign telegraphed their intention to declare an early victory.

"There's no magic cutoff where you guys just get to suddenly just decide the election is over," he said on Monday night's Late Night in response to "Funko Pop" Trump official and "oveinflated football" Jason Miller impllying that waiting to count all the votes is tantamount to Democrats stealing the election. "If you could just declare yourself the winner whenever you're ahead, the Jets wouldn't be 0-8. They'd be a still-terrible 2-6."

"TV news networks have to be careful with this because it's extremely dangerous," he added. "We have to be prepared as a nation for early returns in places like Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota to differ significantly from final vote tallies as mail ballots are counted. Even if Biden wins Pennsylvania by five points, as the polls currently suggest, the disproportionate number of Democratic mail-in votes means we could be in a situation where Trump is ahead by as much as 16 points on election night, and if that happens, you know he's going to run out on stage and declare himself the winner and barricade himself in the White House with a year's supply of Diet Coke and 3 to 5 Melanias."

Meyers offered some advice on how the news organizations should respond if that happens. "If Trump decides to just declare victory, TV networks should refuse to air it, or at the very least, make clear that it's meaningless. You can't just declare yourself president any more than I can go to the mall and declare my dad New Hampshire's Sexiest Man."

Late Night with Seth Meyers airs weeknights at 12:35 PM ET on NBC.

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Andy Hunsaker has a head full of sitcom gags and nerd-genre lore, and can be followed @AndyHunsaker if you're into that sort of thing.