NBC late-night host Seth Meyers mocked sister channel MSNBC’s coverage of Beto O’Rourke’s trip to Iowa on Thursday after the cable news network put focus on the Democratic 2020 presidential hopeful’s minivan rental.
The joke come the same day O’Rourke, a former Texas congressman who gave Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) a tough reelection run in the deep-red state in 2018, launched his campaign with a trip to Iowa.
{mosads}“MSNBC, which honed in on even the smallest details of Beto’s trip to Iowa, for example, they seemed especially fixated on his minivan,” Meyers said before showing footage featuring field reporter Vaughn Hillyard that that aired on MSNBC earlier in the day on “Live with Hallie Jackson.”
“Vaughn, do we know how the minivan got to Iowa?” asked The Daily Beast’s Betsy Woodruff, who was with Jackson on set. “If it’s a rental that he acquired there or if this is or sort of the O’Rourke family minivan that has now been moved to Iowa for campaign purposes?”
Upon exiting the minivan, Hillyard poses Woodruff’s question to O’Rourke.
“The question, congressman, is where the rental car from?”
“Picked it up in Des Moines airport,” the candidate replied.
“Wow, hard-hitting stuff you guys,” Meyers quipped to laughter from his New York studio audience.
The O’Rourke van coverage is reminiscent of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s first 2015 trip to Iowa as a presidential candidate.
Dozens of reporters were seen running toward Clinton’s campaign van, dubbed the “Scooby Van,” during a campaign stop. The scene became fodder for many late-night hosts at the time as well.
“Seriously guys, what are we doing here?” asked then-“Daily Show” host Jon Stewart on Comedy Central.