Announcer tonight on late night with seth meyers, jim belushi. Star of hbos succession, actress sarah snook. Author of must i go, yiyun li. Featuring the 8g band with fred armisen and no Seth Meyers Seth welcome to late night. Hows everybody doing tonight . My parents are visiting me right now. So im doing great even though im apparently a little skinny and i curse too much and isnt it a little early for a cocktail, seth and anyway, lets get to the news during a press conference yesterday, President Trump claimed that the 1918 spanish flu probably ended world war ii. Are you kidding . They were more than two decades apart. I know you dont think thats a big difference, but it is. It is. Thats right, President Trump claimed that the 1918 spanish flu probably ended world war ii despite the two events happening more than two decades apart. Look, i get it its confusing were in the year 2020 and somehow the only band on tour right now is smash mouth i mean, the years start coming and they dont stop comings to s speech accepting the republican nomination from either the white house or the battlefield of gettysburg, pennsylvania okay, do you really want your speech getting compared to the gettysburg address its like announcing youre going to film the next american pie movie on the same set as citizen kane. According to a new report 75 of americans can vote by mail in the upcoming president ial election so good news the fate of our democracy depends on people remembering where they put their stamps. Oh, no. Oh, no oh, oh no. The head of the federal Elections Commission said yesterday that there is a substantial chance we wont know the results on Election Night. Oh, buddy. Im not even going to know my own name on Election Night russian president Vladimir Putin announced today that his countrys health care regulators have approved the worlds first Coronavirus Vaccine despite the drug not undergoing Clinical Trials though its definitely not the first time putin has skipped the trial. Guilty. Take him to roof. Organizers of the Upcoming Democratic National Convention announced today that new york congresswoman alexandria ocasiocortez will speak at next weeks event and that nancy pelosi will take the stage to let us know what she meant to say organizers of the Upcoming Democratic National Convention announced today that former president obama and First Lady Michelle Obama will headline two nights of next weeks event. So the dnc will remind us of happier days while the rnc will just remind us about happy days. Amazon is reportedly in negotiations to use former jcpenneys and Sears Department stores for Fulfillment Centers which is better than theirt useo skater levels. According to the latest numbers, facebook ceo Mark Zuckerbergs net worth has increased to more than 100 billion. 100 billion isnt cool. You know whats cool no, no, no not facebook thats for sure. And finally, a new jersey man was arrested yesterday after throwing a pool party earlier this month for more than 400 people amid the coronavirus pandemic thats right, 400 people or as theyre known in new jersey, cousins. That is the monologue, everybody. Weve got a great show for you tonight. Jim belushi will be here to tell us about his new series growing belushi. Plus from the hit hbo show succession, sarah snook will zoom in from australia and we love authors here at late night. And im going to be talking to awardwinning novelist yiyun li about her latest book. But first, a closer look seth hello, everyone, and welcome back to the Captains Quarters if you watched last nights closer look, you may have noticed that my parents were visiting and it was the first time my father and the sea captain were in the same room, which was awkward as my dad is on the record as not being a fan of the captain to be fair, larry also doesnt like the beatles seth that is a true fact about my dad he doesnt like the beatles. But we made time for my father and the sea captain to hash it out and at the end of tonights episode, were going to show you that exclusive conversation. Our discourse, like the sea, got a bit rocky. Seth speaking of rocky waters forced segue seth the president knows he cant win in november with a majority of votes, so instead, hes trying to undermine the integrity of the election by sabotaging the post office for more on this, its time for a closer look. Seth throughout the entirety of his term, donald trump has consistently been the most unpopular president in history its easy to forget but hes been widely disliked since day one of his campaign. People might have thought they liked the character of donald trump on the apprentice, but thats a little like enjoying buzz lightyear when youre watching toy story and then meeting the buzz lightyear in times square to infinity and lets get this picture over with. Ive got to take a dump, kid it takes like 15 minutes to get this suit off. Trump has never once cracked 50 approval in the Gallup Daily Tracking poll, which is unprecedented. Even the cats movie has a 53 audience score on Rotten Tomatoes although, i guess unlike the cats movie, the white house cant just digitally blur out the [ bleep ]. Trump and the Republican Party have largely given up on the idea of persuading a majority of voters to side with them the way you normally would in a healthy democracy. The modern conservative movement is a fundamentally antimajoritarian Movement Based on excluding people, not including them its not a coincidence that their paragon owns private golf clubs. The Republican Party motto should be sorry, youre not on the list. Their only hope of gaining and holding on to power is through tactics like gerrymandering, voter suppression, the electoral college, stacking the courts or colluding with foreign governments, which is why trump has spent the last four years cold calling random countries asking them to help him cheat. Hello, peru, do you have any dirt on joe biden . Joe. Biden. Loves trains looks super cool on a bicycle. Now, trump got impeached for that of course so hes moved on to his next scheme, sabotaging the post office new today, the Washington Post reporting a sweeping overhaul of the u. S. Postal service. It was announced in a memo late friday from postmaster general louis dejoy. The post writes, the move displaced two top executives overseeing daytoday operationsrats are calling for an investigation into dejoy and his operating measures that some say have slowed Mail Delivery Service seth thats right. Late on friday, the Postal Service announced a massive restructuring that Centers Power around the postmaster general, louis dejoy, a trump loyalist who donated over 360,000 to the Trump Campaign and Republican National committee and right off the bat, you know its shady because they did it late on a friday night nothing good ever happens late on a friday night. Friday nights are for eating cereal at 2 00 a. M. And watching reruns of that cop show starring the guy who sells reverse mortgages. Youre not gonna fool me by pretending to be a cop i know youre here to take my house. Also, its incredibly suspicious to have a rightwing businessman and mega donor in charge of a nonpartisan agency like the Postal Service you think of postal workers as charming friends and neighbors straight out of mayberry this is like if your town ice cream man was replaced by karl rove. Here you go, kid, one bullet pop, that will be 6,000 theyre made by raytheon. On top of that, dejoy, the former ceo of a logistics company, also has a massive conflict of interest according to his financial disclosure, he has anywhere from 30 to 75 Million Dollars in assets invested in competitors to the post office, which is thats like finding out the new president of peta is the colonel. Your chickens will be safe with me oh, these legs and tcy not f eating. Now, trump and dejoy say the changes are necessary because the post office is losing money. In fact, youve probably heard trump complain about it at one of his fake news conferences theyve lost so much money over the decades nobodys ever nothing loses money like the post office its been losing massive amounts of money over the last number of decades. Massive amounts of money this is not something new. This is something thats been taking place for a long time it loses a tremendous amount of money. Seth okay, first of all, thats wrong the Postal Service turned a profit as recently as 2006 second, youre the last person on earth who should be complaining about someone else losing money you lost a billion, one billion dollars, in the 80s and 90s, which was more than any single taxpayer in the i mean, casinos rake in cash last time i went to a casino, iu threw your chips into and when you ran out it just screamed feed me. Also it makes no sense to say the post office loses money. Its a public service. You never hear people say the Fire Department loses money, we should start charging 50 per cat rescued from a tree. Of course, most owners i know, most cat owners would also pay 50 if you left it in the tree shell come down when shes hungry but i would love for her to learn a lesson now, trump is not the only republican politician to complain that the post office loses money. Its been a rightwing talking point for years, especially among those who want to privatize the Postal Service the Trump Administration itself rolled out a pat in 2018 and ri billionaire charles koch has been campaigning to privatize the Postal Service for decades, which is shocking and craven given that the Postal Service is literally in the constitution. In fact, its as old as the republic itself. So there was already a yearslong rightwing effort to privatize one of americas most cherished public institutions, the Postal Service then came trump and he was joined in his crusade by a bunch of soulless rightwing husks who want to turn every post office into one of those combination fast food restaurants. Yeah, ill take ten stamps and a doritos locos taco supreme and look, its absolutely true that the post office is struggling right now thanks in large part to the pandemic and a decrease in firstclass mail volume. Even though package deliveries have surged. But theres another reason the post office loses money. And its actually the fault of the very same republicans who are now complaining that the post office loses money. In 2006, the Republicanled Congress did pass a law that affected the uspss bottom line. It required the Postal Service to prefund Health Benefits for future retirees. We talked to experts who said that because of this law, usps had to pay more than 6 billion that it really wasnt ready for. So before the law, usps paid out these benefits as they came due. And they point out that no other agency has these restrictions. So without the law, the Postal Service would definitely be better off seth thats right. In 2006, republicans forced the post office to pay 75 years of health fund benefits in advance. Which is insane. Who knows what will even look like in 75 years. It might just be a chip in your brain and youll check the mail by winking oh, damn it, my student loan officer found me im really bad at winking. [ laughter ] so without that law i cant get my mail anymore. So without that law, its very likely the post office could have been operating at a profit before the pandemic. In fact, from 2003 to 2006, the Postal Service actually did operate at a profit. Until the 2006 law wrecked their finances from 2003 through 2006, usps recorded a total 9. 3 billion profit that all changed at the end of 2006. Enter the postal accountability and enhancement act, which was passed by the Republicancontrolled Congress and signed into law by president george w. Bush pension and Health Care Costs for the next 75 years including for people it hadnt even hired yet and put away enough over the next ten years to cover them to put this into perspective, that would be like you only working from age 18 to 28 and then expecting you to live on that income until you were 103 years old. Seth yeah, exactly imagine working for ten years then living off that until youre 103 the only person whos ever done it is rudy giuliani. Without this law, the Postal Service would have actually recorded operating profits in the last six years instead, its now in a dire financial situation thanks to a requirement that virtually no other Government Agency or company has to deal with there is congressional legislation that required them to prefund their pension liabilities in a way that basically no one else has to, which has created an enormous burden on their balance sheet. Theyre definitely in trouble. And what you mentioned, the prefunding requiremeterally hav or set aside money for the workers that havent even been born yet that will be coming in 75 years down the road is the primary reason prior to the pandemic seth just think about that they had to pay for Retirement Benefits for workers who hadnt even been born yet thats like going out on a first date and saying i had a great time tonight, what do you say we go back to my place and open up a 529 College Savings plan for our eventual children . It made no sense and it weakened the Postal Service dramatically now the post office desperately needs a bailout of as much as 25 billion from congress. Which if you ask me we should immediately do 25 billion is nothing compared to the 740 billion pentagon budget youre telling me you cant find a billionaire to buy an f15 or two . Richard branson definitely has the vibe of a guy who wants the wind to blow through his hair at 1800 miles per hour. And yes, i say that joke knowing my hair is getting more bransony by the day and yet, rather than spend the money needed to shore her up, one of his countrys most vital and cherished institutions, trump and the gop are using the financial situation as an opportunity to destroy the post office for their own political gain just this weekend, politico reported that trumps aides are everything from directing the Postal Service to not deliver l local officials from counting them after election day. That is chilling the president thinks he can just decide which votes count and which ones dont soon, hes going to start crossing out ballots himself and well all know because hell sign them himself. And whether or not trump actually succeeds in stopping mailin voting is almost beside the point. Either way, hes sowing confusion, setting up Lengthy Court battles and laying the groundwork to claim the results are disputed even if theyre not. Hes made that as clear as possible i dont want to see an election, you know, so many years ive been watching elections and they say the projected winner or the winner of the election. I dont want to see that take place in a week after november 3rd or a month or frankly with litigation and Everything Else that can happen, years. Years. Or you never even know who won the election i want to have the result around for weeks and months and literally potentially if you really did it right years because youll never know. I want to have the election. But i also dont want to have to wait for three months and then find out that the ballots are all missing and the election doesnt mean anything. Thats whats going to happen. Seth its only going to happen if you make it happen trumps like a loan shark telling you id hate to see your thumbs get broken. We can have a safe, successful election if we just adequately fund and protect the post office you wont have to wait years for results. But even if you did, why are you complaining . Waiting around is like the one thing youre good at your favorite sport is 98 waiting around you spend most of your days sitting in your bedroom watching tv and loitering on the white house lawn like youre waiting for a crosstown bus. You should be smoking a cigarette saying, i should have taken i should have taken the m66 i couldnt decide how to hold my cigarette. What do you think, trump like this or trump like this . Either way trump is openly trying to disrupt Timely Delivery of the mail ahead of a november election that will almost certainly rely on an unprecedented surge in mailin balloting because of the deadly plague he failed to stop dejoy has already announced major operational changes last month including slower mail delivery, post offices have been slashing hours, local Union Leaders and carriers saying mail is piling up in offices unscanned and unsorted its gotten so bad a democratic senator is finally opening an investigation into the delays. We have folks who rely on the Postal Service for our checks, Social Security checks, paychecks, prescription medicines that are coming in im hearing from folks, letter are saying theyr