House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi appeared on “Late Night with Seth Meyers” Monday night to talk money in politics, but her tone on the subject changed significantly from beginning to end.
Host Seth Meyers brought up Sen. Ted Cruz’s recent speech on the campaign finance amendment proposed by Democrats. Cruz opposed the amendment and warned that the vague language in it could harm political speech, such as sketches on “Saturday Night Live,” and could even send “SNL” creator Lorne Michaels to jail.
Meyers, a “SNL” alum, was featured in the poster Cruz pointed to in the speech.
“Congresswoman, I can’t stress this enough. I can’t do time. I am less ready for it than the girl in ‘Orange is the New Black.’ I would last a day,” Meyers said.
Pelosi laughed and dismissed the argument.
“I don’t know if he knew what he was talking about or if he intentionally wanted to use a scare tactic, but that was as far from the truth as it could be,” Pelosi said. “The fact is we all should be working to overturn Citizens United and reduce the role of money in politics. I guarantee you this. You reduce the role of money in politics, increase the level of civility, and you will elect more women, more young people, more minorities, more LGBT community people to the Congress of the United States.”
Her statement was met with cheers and even admiration from Meyers.
“I think everyone is very lucky to have you looking out for them,” he said.
But for someone who wants to get money out of politics, Pelosi sure knows how to rake in the Democrat dollars. Politico recently reported that Pelosi has raised $80 million for her party this cycle and more than $400 million throughout her time as a party leader.
She even joked about raising more money off her “Late Night” appearance after Meyers said he would be getting some angry tweets about having her on as a guest.
“The more tweets you get, the more money I raise,” Pelosi shot back.
Watch the full interview below:
