Seth Meyers Takes a Shot On Air as George W. Bush Admits to 'Being a War Criminal'

Late Night host Seth Meyers was so surprised by George W. Bush's accidental confession of "being a war criminal" that he took a full shot of whiskey on air.

While giving a speech on Wednesday, Bush misspoke and condemned Russian President Vladimir Putin for "the decision ... to launch a wholly unjustified and brutal invasion of Iraq." He then quickly corrected himself, saying, "I mean, of Ukraine."

Meyers played the clip on his show Thursday night, telling the audience, “In case you have any doubt at all that reality is in fact a simulation, and we're all just test subjects in some giant computer game being jerked around for the entertainment of our celestial overlords, here’s an extremely and shockingly real clip of former President George W. Bush giving a speech yesterday where he discussed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and accidentally confessed to being a war criminal.”

“You know when I started this show, I poured exactly one shot of whiskey and left it in the drawer of my desk for an emergency,” said Meyers, after playing the clip. “And throughout the entire Trump presidency I resisted using it, but you know what… fuck it.”

He then pulled the shot out of his drawer and tossed it back, before adding, “I really am certain that clip was designed in a lab to melt the brains of anyone who was alive in 2003. Back then, if you had called the invasion of Iraq ‘brutal’ and ‘unjustified,’ the Bush administration and Fox News would have spent an entire week calling you a traitor, and every time you went to the airport the TSA would’ve given you the full cavity search.”

Meyers went on to discuss the present-day GOP, explaining that it's not much different that the party under Bush, despite what many Republicans might say.

“The Trump Republican Party is the natural evolution of the Bush Republican Party, which was lawless and authoritarian and used culture-war hysteria to stir up resentments and scare voters the same way the modern Republican Party does now," said Meyers. “They’ve just switched to different topics.”

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Deena ElGenaidi's writing has been featured in Nylon, MTV News, Insider, The AV Club, and more. You can follow her on Twitter @deenaelg.