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---
title: Watch Seth Meyers Tell Ted Cruz the World Really Is on Fire
description: Seth Meyers interviewed Ted Cruz about global warming and Cruz scaring a three-year-old girl by telling her the world is on fire.
canonical: https://time.com/3749189/ted-cruz-seth-meyers-world-fire/
author: Tessa Berenson
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article:published_time: 2015-03-18T16:05:28.000Z
article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:59:39.340Z
article:section: Politics
og:title: Watch Seth Meyers Tell Ted Cruz the World Really Is on Fire
og:description: The two argued about climate change.
og:url: https://time.com/3749189/ted-cruz-seth-meyers-world-fire/
og:site_name: TIME
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twitter:card: summary_large_image
twitter:title: Watch Seth Meyers Tell Ted Cruz the World Really Is on Fire
twitter:description: The two argued about climate change.
twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production
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# Watch Seth Meyers Tell Ted Cruz the World Really Is on Fire

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## Video: Real Time: Ted Cruz Rallies The Right At CPAC 2015

[Watch (HLS stream): Real Time: Ted Cruz Rallies The Right At CPAC 2015](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/KFQHEvq4.m3u8) (0:59)

![Real Time: Ted Cruz Rallies The Right At CPAC 2015](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/KFQHEvq4/poster.jpg?width=720)

_Published 2015-02-26. Ted Cruz fired up the conservative base during his speech on the first day of CPAC 2015._


![Tessa Berenson](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltec0484fe1b20c577/698a0ced86f68ed9d96ee9e6/tessa-berenson-author-2020.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1:1)

by 

[Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)


![Tessa Berenson](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltec0484fe1b20c577/698a0ced86f68ed9d96ee9e6/tessa-berenson-author-2020.jpg?branch=production&width=96&quality=75&auto=webp)

## Tessa Berenson


Mar 18, 2015 4:05 PM UTC

![Tessa Berenson](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltec0484fe1b20c577/698a0ced86f68ed9d96ee9e6/tessa-berenson-author-2020.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1:1)

by 

[Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)


![Tessa Berenson](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltec0484fe1b20c577/698a0ced86f68ed9d96ee9e6/tessa-berenson-author-2020.jpg?branch=production&width=96&quality=75&auto=webp)

## Tessa Berenson


Mar 18, 2015 4:05 PM UTC

Seth Meyers did a variation of his old _Saturday Night Live_ “Really!?!” sketch with Sen. Ted Cruz last night. This time, the affable late-night talk show host argued with the Texas Republican about his recent statement that the “world is on fire.”

Over the weekend, Cruz had taken some heat over the weekend for a political speech in which he was arguing that things are not going so well: “The Obama economy is a disaster, Obamacare is a train wreck, and the Obama-Clinton foreign policy of leading from behind — the whole world is on fire.”

A young girl in the audience then piped up in a timid voice, “The world is on fire?”

“Yes,” Cruz responded. “Your world is on fire.”

But Cruz says that rather than scaring the young girl, he actually comforted her. He told Meyers that he explained to the girl that he was going to put out the fire, and her mother says the girl wasn’t afraid at all and now calls Cruz “the fireman.”

“I really feel bad that he got vilified for it,” the mother [told ABC’s WMUR 9](http://www.wmur.com/politics/ted-cruz-criticized-after-saying-worlds-on-fire-in-front-of-3yearold/31858418).

Myers went in a different direction, though, arguing that Cruz was missing the real fire with his skepticism about climate change.

“I think the world’s on fire literally,” Meyers said. “But you’re not there, right?”

Cruz’s response: “I just came back from New Hampshire where there’s snow and ice everywhere. Debates on this should follow science and follow data. Many of the alarmists on global warming have a problem because data doesn’t back them up.”

Cruz has been steadfast about this position. “Data are not supporting what the advocates are arguing,” [he told CNN in early 2014](http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2014/02/20/cruz-to-cnn-global-warming-not-supported-by-data/). “The last 15 years, there has been no recorded warming.”

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