John Turturro | with Vance & Ramaswamy Ripped for "Shameful" Amy Acton Ad; Trump Unravels at Bizarre Rally: A Closer Look

0:02The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court yesterday to allow it to resume construction on the border wall. That's how you know they're desperate. They're bringing back storylines from season one. The border wall's not done? We're never getting a ballroom.

0:26From 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York City, please enjoy this podcast edition of Late Night with Seth Meyers. On today's show, Seth talks to actor John Turturro. But first, a closer look.

0:44There is widespread bipartisan outrage over a despicable GOP ad in Ohio. On top of that, the economy is bad. The war is unpopular. Prices are high and voters are furious. But don't worry, Donald Trump has a new argument for why you should vote GOP. Republicans are sexy as f***. Except for Ken Paxson, who is, according to Trump, decidedly not. For more on this, it's time for a closer look

1:13The midterms are less than two weeks away And the stakes could not be higher Just take it from the president himself This is the most important midterm in the history of our country Because we've gotten more things done And they can undo them if we start losing an election Especially this one Undo things you've done? All you've done is undo things I mean, we used to have an east wing Now it's a construction site We used to have a perfectly fine reflecting pool And then you made it so green It looked like a hot tub the Ninja Turtles had an orgy in Strait of Hormuz used to be open A robust waterway for commerce Now it has less traffic than a dying mall, you know The kind that used to be packed But now you can't get to the sunglass hut Because it's surrounded by feral dogs Point is, we had nice things But you heard them This is the most important midterm election in history So can you tell us, like, when is it?

2:06Saturday, October 31st. Think of this. We have, uh, the election is, you go out and vote. You got to get out there. It's underway. It ends right at the 31st. And then you have a thing called November. I like going. Personally, I'm a fan of going to vote. You have a thing called November? That sounds like the name of a jazz album. A thing called November sounds like a book you pretend to read in a bar so girls will think you're sensitive. If a cop pulled you over and asked you to list the months in order and you said, there's October, it ends right at the 31st, and then there's a thing called November, they wouldn't even give you a breathalyzer.

2:46You'd be like, no, no, officer, please, I'm just bad with months. All right, I'll give you one more chance. Name three countries other than America. Saudi Arabia and Russia will be... Ah! You're coming with me! Trump's been crisscrossing the country Mostly in deep red states To campaign for GOP candidates And he really seems to be unraveling Last night he complained about not getting the Nobel Peace Prize And seemed to forget which award he was talking about They gave the wonderful Peace Prize, right? Does anybody know the name of that Peace Prize? The Peace Prize They gave the Pulitzer Prize to a young lady No, the Peace Prize is the Nobel Prize The Pulitzer is for writing.

3:31What writing have you done to deserve a Pulitzer? Oh, wait, are you the author of A Thing Called November?

3:41When Kenneth goes back to the farm...

3:47What other awards does this guy think he deserves? I should get a Nobel, a Pulitzer, and a Tony Award because I know so many Tonys. Tony Bennett, Tony Romo, Tony the Tiger. Tony the Tiger is a very good friend of mine I remember he came up to me, Big Tiger, Strong Tiger Tears pouring from his cartoon eyes down to his red kerchief And I asked him, I said, Tony, what do you think of gas prices? And he said, Mr. President, sir They're great Speaking of Frosted Flakes, Trump's brain seemed to be misfiring a lot last night At another point, he alluded to former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley who he does not like because she ran against him in 2024, and he made a very weird sound that I'm not sure I've heard a human make before.

4:33You know, he was a lieutenant governor, and I'd say 90 % of the reason I took the governor...

4:45I think it's a little weird to mention a fellow Republican and then make the same sound a five-year-old makes when you dump Brussels sprouts on his plate. You sounded less like a president and more like a bullfrog. Can we see that again? I'd say 90 % of the reason I took the governor. Yeah.

5:10So we're learning a lot about how the president deals with the pressure of an intense midterm election. For example, we're learning he has a very bizarre fixation on men's physiques, whether it's the candidates he's campaigning with or just some random dudes in the crowd. Rick Jackson's a very handsome, distinguished, beautiful-looking guy. Mike Collins is a good-looking man. I love Ryan. I love him. He's a big guy. He's a strong guy. I wish Tim didn't look that good. You know, he's a very handsome guy. This guy walks through the door and says, look at this beautiful guy. All these handsome guys, they look like they're always great-looking, these four-star guys.

5:46I don't know if they get the job by their look, but there are these three beautiful guys standing in front of me. You can't miss a big, strong, handsome Oklahoma studs. This is a sign of how bad things are going for Trump. The only issue he has left to campaign on is me likey what I see. At one point, Trump even stopped the rally, cold to look for the so-called Oklahoma studs, who he had seen on TV before the rally, and he kept asking where they were. Hey, where are those guys? They're big, strong. I hope they're not stuck outside. They might be stuck. Where are they? Where are they? Where? We got to get them.

6:28Where are they? You can't miss a big, strong, handsome Oklahoma studs. Where are you? Come up here. Come up here. Come up here. I love these guys. Come on. Wow. Sounds like a blindfolded bachelorette at a strip club. Where are the studs? Someone bring me the studs. I got a purse full of$1. I want a hankering for grade-A Oklahoma beef. Come to mama, studs. I think what's going on here is that Trump has always valued surface over substance. He doesn't know or care about the issues. He just knows marketing. He cares about looks. That's it. And that's clearly what's going on in Ohio with GOP Senator John Huston.

7:18Trump could spend his time talking about the actual issues that will affect Ohio voters, like healthcare or housing, but he doesn't know anything about that stuff. So instead, when he campaigns for Huston, he says stuff like this. I don't do this with men very often. I started examining his body because I didn't know he was a great athlete. And I looked, and I watched up and down, and I looked at his ass. I stood right over here, and I examined his ass. I never did that. No, I never did that with a man before. I examined his ass, and then I looked at his shoulders, I looked at his feet, I looked at his hand, I looked at his jawline.

7:58I'm studying his body. I've never studied the body of a man before. But I looked at his ass.

8:06And then I looked at his legs. And I said, his ass is like a pile of muscle.

8:19Why are you so weird?

8:25Also, who goes ass, feet, shoulders, hands, jawline? Buddy, no one cares if you can bounce a quarter off John Husted's ass, because thanks to inflation, that quarter is worthless. When Biden was president, a quarter would do just fine, but now you need, like, 43 cents. You got to bounce multiple coins Let me get this straight When the Republican senator from Ohio is up at the podium speaking You're not listening to a word he's saying You're just closely analyzing the muscles in his ass You sound like Samantha when she's dating a new male model I don't care if he doesn't know what a filibuster is The only filling and busting I want him doing is in the bedroom

9:14Oh, we got a house full of Charlottes.

9:20But Trump can call balls and strikes. He can be fair. He'll tell you when he thinks his chosen candidates are ugly. Just take Texas Senate candidate Ken Paxton. While Trump gushes about Houston, he's far less glowing about Paxton. We have a guy named Ken Paxton. And some people don't like the way he dresses, or some people don't like the way he interviews or talks. I said, I'm not sure if I like your look, I'm not sure if I like the way you dress, I don't like the way you talk. He may not dress right, he may not talk exactly perfectly, and he may not be the best looking guy I've ever seen. The Republican Party is a big tent, we're very diverse.

9:59We got hot guys like John and we got uncles like Ken. I said to Ken, why can't you get surgery to look more like John? John's a pile of muscles. Ken's a pile of s***. I hope you don't mind me saying that, Ken. Hey, does anybody know what time it is? My clock stopped working when Ken looked at it. Republicans are getting desperate. And that's especially true in Ohio, where Vivek Ramaswamy is running for governor. As you might remember, he is the annoying tech billionaire even Republicans hated when he ran for president in 2024. I've had enough already tonight of a guy who sounds like chat GPT standing up here.

10:41And tonight. Come over and give me a hug. Give me a hug just like you did to Obama. This is the fourth debate, the fourth debate that you would be voted in the first 20 minutes as the most obnoxious blowhard in America. Now that everybody's gotten their memorized, pre-prepared slogans out of the way, we can actually have a real discussion now. The reality and the fact of the matter is... Is that one of yours? Not really. Mike, actually. We're just going to have some fun tonight. Here's your general life tip. If an annoying tech billionaire ever says the words we're going to have some fun tonight, you need to get the out of there.

11:13They're going to lock the doors, make everyone do ayahuasca, ask if he'd like to have sex with a robot. You got to see this robot. He's got an ass like John Husted. Would you like to bounce quarters off me? So even Republicans hated Vivek, but he got the nomination for Ohio governor thanks to Trump's endorsement, And now he's trailing Democratic nominee Amy Acton, which is why he rolled out one of the slimiest and most disgusting ads in the history of politics. The campaign for Vivek Ramaswamy, the Republican candidate for governor in Ohio, now taking responsibility for a new attack ad featuring the estranged mother of his Democratic opponent, Amy Acton.

11:54The ad calls her daughter a liar and not fit for office. Now, Acton has been open that she has not seen her mother since she was 12 years old, because that's when she testified that her stepfather abused her. Her stepfather and her mother then fled the state together to avoid facing those charges. Acton was sexually abused by her mother's second husband as a child, and her mother ultimately lost custody of her kids as a result. Acton's campaign condemning the ad as despicable low. The Ramaswamy has doubled down despite criticism from both sides of the aisle. Tell it. There's a lot I could say about it.

12:29Slimy, gross, lower than low. But all you really need to do is look at this picture of Vivek Ramaswamy. Have you ever seen a more insufferable prick in your life? I mean, you don't even need to run ads against him. Just put his face on some lawn signs with the words, Ugh, this f***ing guy. By the way, it's not just Democrats. This ad is so despicable and so clearly over the line that even Republicans are condemning it. This ad is going to go down as the most shameful, disgusting, offensive ad this election season. The ad on its face is deeply, deeply troubling. It's wrong to run this ad. I would just urge the Ramaswamy campaign to take this down.

13:10Trump's former UN ambassador Nikki Haley calling Ramaswamy, quote, a bad guy. Ramaswamy's ad was also the final straw for his Republican opponent in the primary. Yeah, it's revolting. They don't have anything left. Vivek's already a loser These are Republicans calling their own nominee for governor A bad guy and a loser We're a day away from Republicans calling Vivek a giant ass In fact I was heartened to see this Even the Vice President J.D. Vance A guy who's not known for his, let's say, humanness Couldn't help but express his revulsion I have to admit that I'm a little bit disgusted Finally Finally You know, it's nice to see a bare minimum of moral decency from the Trump White House.

13:57Thank you for making clear that you're disgusted by a candidate exploiting an opponent's childhood trauma for political gain. Oh, no. Oh, no. That is what you're disgusted by, right? I have to admit that I'm a little bit disgusted when I see Republicans across the country who are whining more about that advertisement than they are about what the congressional Democrats and other Democrats want to do to the United States of America.

14:29Yeah, that's right. I know what you're thinking. You're looking at J.D. Vance and you're thinking, is there no soul behind all that eyeliner? Here's the thing. Vance revels in being an asshole, but being an asshole has a cost. Normal people don't want to be around you. Vance learned that yet again on Wednesday when he attended Cincinnati Bengals practice and seemed to get snubbed by all but one player as they walked right past him. Oh, my God, that was like the scene in a horror movie where the main character finally realizes he's a ghost. But even better was the answer Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow gave when asked if he got a chance to meet Vance.

15:04Did you all get a chance to interact at all? We did not. We did not. He came with everybody and left with swiftness and efficiency before the end of practice, so I didn't get to him. What was your overall reaction to having him out there today? Yeah, a lot of people around. You know, that's what I love about what I do is it brings a lot of people together and people want to take time out of their day to come and watch what we do, watch what I do, and watch all the work that I've put in to come and watch greatness. And that's everybody in the locker room. That's why we do what we do. Whether it's on the TV Whether it's in person Whether it's on the practice field That's what we do Oh man, it's fun to watch a quarterback scramble But who can blame Joe Burrow?

15:56He doesn't want to answer questions about this It took 45 seconds to say Please, don't make me talk to that guy In the future when someone asks you about the vice president Feel free to just say this Eh?

16:13You can just feel the desperation radiating off Trump and Vance. Their whole shtick is reveling and being jerks. The problem is most people hate it. Both Vance and Trump have record-low approval ratings. They're wildly unpopular with almost every voting bloc, from young people to independents to... Oklahoma studs. This has been A Closer Look.

16:51We'll be right back.

17:07How are you? I'm good. Is it too late to congratulate you on last year's Knicks championship? No. Okay. I know the next season is started, but you can still receive it. I have plenty of merch, you know. You're a longtime collaborator, your friend Spike Lee. You've been at games with him. You've sat in the Spike seats. Yeah, and I also am a season ticket holder. Gotcha. But when Spike, those seats are... I mean, your seats are good seats, too. Yeah, I'm right behind the Knicks bench. So that's very good. Yeah, but I used to barter with Spike years ago when he would ask me to do a cameo in a film.

17:40And I would say, well, if you give me four games, then, you know, I'll go. I mean, they're good seeing. Look, you seem like you guys are on the same page as far as how you feel. Yeah, yeah. Did you have any, I mean, up close, did you have any close calls? Yes. Well, the Shaq once, we was on Orlando Magic. He dived for a loose ball and I saw him coming at us and I put Spike underneath me. So, all right, this. And he landed on top of us. But like Superman, sort of. He was just. Yeah. I mean, what a sacrifice you made for American cinema. Well, yeah, I mean, he's a small guy. I figured, well, maybe I could take it a little bit.

18:20But I used to, you know, enjoy sitting there watching certain players. Charles Barkley, for example, when he played on the 76ers, he would talk to us the entire game and tell us, I'm going to go and, you know, I'm going to dunk on this guy in the next play. Watch me do it Watch what I do And he would do it And he was so funny Even then There's no I have no criticism about it Yeah Irresistible It's a fantastic film It's a beautiful film It's a great New York City film Yeah And you're playing a pickpocket You know And the modern world Is changing what it means To be a pickpocket That's right You did a lot of research You studied with Some actual pickpockets Yeah I read a lot of books I read this book Whiz Mob And then I met this guy Apollo Robbins I read a profile of him in the New Yorker, and he's a magician pickpocket.

19:06And he grew up around sort of a family that committed crimes. And he took me through everything, but he's like a psychologist too. And then he gave me all these different exercises where you're always using, practicing your fingers. And you lift things.

19:30You don't like stick your hand into something. Sometimes you push the wallet. It's called reefing the kick. You just push it up a little bit. Yeah. And the key to it is not pulling it out. You clip it. And when the person moves or you move the person, they take it out. Ah. And it's yours. And then you take, you know, the history is they take the cash. And then a lot of times they would just put the wallet back in the mailbox Oh, oh, so You get your wallet back Oh, that's great But it's just spending money, you know what I mean? It's not, you know These aren't bad guys No And obviously part of being a good pickpocket is observation, right?

20:11It's not just the handwork It's like knowing No, no, no If someone's too tense, it's sort of You're going from the social sphere into sort of the personal And then all of a sudden you come in from the side Not straight on and then you're into the intimate thing so you can, you know, reach that hand.

20:37Actually, Apollo told me the other day, he's a brilliant guy. He said, well, you know, John, it's a really fine line between fondling and pickpocketing. My problem with what was happening right there is I'm like, I don't think I want this to stop. Did you? No, I mean, that's what he does He also takes care of his wife It has a great sort of tension, the film And also a tenderness It's a very sweet film It also takes place, you shot in all five boroughs All five boroughs Noah Segan is from New York So he wanted to shoot in New York And we shot on trains with permits That we rented And sometimes without renting So when you walk on to shoot a scene on an active New York City subway.

21:22Right. Are people excited to see you? Do they? No, you know, people are great. And most people, they're like, oh, well, I know that guy, you know, whatever. They just blow you off. Sometimes someone winks at you. And, you know, once in a while, people will want to tell you their life story. Yeah. And then you're like, well, what can you say? You know, hang in there, you know. I've had people tell me some terrible things. I say, well, sorry to hear that. But that's what happens if you go out in the public. Right, right, right. Now it's easy to steal. Yeah. Because everyone's like hypnotized with their phone.

21:57And you just, sometimes I would just put my hand like in their bag. Are you actively doing this now, John? I'm worried now that you're not promoting the movie. You're actually promoting that you're a working pickpocket. Well, I'd like to go to the audience for a while. No, but when you the problem is you learn all these skills in movies whether it's you're a pool player or a poker player or a bowler and then you can't put them to use. When I was on the set I stole from everyone. Especially Noah Segan's mother. Whenever she'd come to visit him I always Well he must have really appreciated that.

22:37No, he did. You're learning something And that's just part of your job And it's actually You know, like a balletic skill It was a violation, obviously But it was a non-violent one The whole idea was that no one would feel it I mean, it's fantastic And because you mentioned Poole Well, one of your first films Color of Money, you and Paul Newman And I mean, this is really early And you're working with Well, I work with Brooke Cassidy. Yeah. And the Sundance Kid. Yeah. And Robert Redford directed me in a movie. And what was it like, though, when you're a young actor and you have to do a skill? And again, now you have to be good at pool and you've got to do a scene with him.

23:21Very nervous. I mean, we had a rehearsal process. He loved to tell very long, circuitous jokes that Martin Scorsese didn't necessarily get. And neither did I. But he would look at me like, oh, it's funny, right? And I would be like, I don't know. I don't know if it's funny or not funny. Then I went from him to being directed by Robert Redford. And I was like, this is like, you know. But Robert I worked with for a long time. And he was a very handsome guy. Yeah, they're handsome guys. I don't know what else to say. I mean, Paul Newman is like, it was unbelievable. You could look up his nose. He'd still look good.

24:00He looked like, you know, I was like. Oh, still there. The guy doesn't have a bad angle, you know. I'm going to start doing that when I see really good-looking people. I'm going to be like, hold on. Everywhere. When you're doing a scene, you're saying it's got to be one moment. But he was a very nice man, Paul. I'd be worried if you did that to me because that's where I keep my wallet. Congrats on the movie. It's A+.

24:30Late Night with Seth Meyers airs weeknights on NBC at 1235, 1135 Central. original music on the late night podcast is by the he band don't forget to follow the handle late night set on social media and tell your friends to subscribe to the late night podcast wherever they get their podcasts