-The grand jury investigating Donald Trump's
hush money payment to Stormy Daniels
heard from yet another key witness yesterday,
in a sign that the Manhattan district attorney
is bolstering his case against Trump
ahead of an expected indictment.
Trump, meanwhile, appeared on Fox News to sweat and grimace
and be weird as usual,
and also to attack his likely rival
for the GOP nomination, Ron DeSantis.
For more on this, it's time for "A Closer Look."
[ Cheers and applause ]
I feel like a lot of us
are waiting for some cinematic moment
when Donald Trump gets arrested
while forgetting that in real life,
nothing is that satisfying. If Donald Trump was Jason,
not only would he not die at the end of the movie,
he would be allowed to hold public rallies
where he complains that campers don't skinny dip
like they used to.
It just seems like Trump's been doing
so many crimes for so long.
I bet if you zoomed in on that infamous photo of him
coming down the escalator
the day he announced his first candidacy,
you'd see he had shoplifted a pair of earrings from Claire's.
[ Laughter ]
That's why when he was at the podium,
you could hear a store alarm going off.
[ Alarm blaring ]
So, it's another day, and we're all still waiting to find out
if and when Trump will be arrested.
The news has basically just become
the NORAD Santa tracker, except for Trump's indictment.
Just a little circle in the middle,
middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
Meanwhile, the grand jury weighing a possible
Trump indictment is still doing its work.
Yesterday, they heard from yet another key player
in the hush money scandal, in a sign that the Manhattan DA
is bolstering his case against Trump.
-A key player in the Trump hush money probe
just met with a Manhattan grand jury
investigating the former president.
A source confirms to CNN
that former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker
appeared before the panel earlier this afternoon.
-Sources close to the investigation tell CBS News
that David Pecker's appearance today is a sign
District Attorney Alvin Bragg might be finalizing a case
against former president Donald Trump.
In 2016, it was Pecker who encouraged efforts
by then candidate Trump and Michael Cohen
to prevent damaging stories about Trump
from being published.
-Yesterday's convening of this two-month-long
grand jury probe appeared to center around
hearing testimony from David Pecker.
Pecker is a central figure in this drama,
as you pointed out, about those hush money payments
to adult film actress Stormy Daniels.
In his role at the time
as publisher of The National Enquirer
and a friend of then candidate Donald Trump,
he helped broker the original $130,000 payment.
-That's right. The grand jury heard
from a key player in Trump's corrupt scheme
to broker a secretive hush money payment
to conceal an illicit affair
just weeks before a presidential election
and then disguised those payments by lying
about what they were for. It's a damning development
in what is already a serious case
that could very well result in a historic, first-ever
indictment of a former president.
But my main takeaway is this --
I can't believe
this guy's last name is Pecker.
It's... [ Laughter ]
...a story about Trump having sex with a porn star,
and a key player's last name, it's Pecker.
So I guess in this way, the Trump case,
you know, it is cinematic,
but it's like a bad '80s comedy,
like "Bachelor Party" or "Porky's."
"Hey, Pecker, you want to help us out with little problem?"
[ Laughter ]
Who else has the grand jury heard from?
Trump's bookkeeper,
Mike Schlong?
So, the grand jury heard from another key witness,
although I use that term very loosely,
given that at this point, we are all key witnesses.
I mean, we've heard from Michael Cohen,
we've heard from Stormy Daniels.
We've even seen the actual check that Trump wrote.
Only Trump is stupid enough to pay hush money
to cover up an affair, but sign his name to a check.
Just fill up an envelope with unmarked bills
like a normal criminal, you dingus.
This is like if Gwyneth Paltrow showed up to her trial
wearing a shirt that said, "I'm a really bad skier."
[ Laughter ]
And then on her way to the witness stand,
she just plows into the bailiff.
[ Laughter ]
By the way, it should be noted,
paying hush money is not itself a crime.
I mean, it's not, like, cool,
especially if you do it two weeks
before a pivotal presidential election that will determine
who gets to fill three seats on the Supreme Court.
But it's not necessarily against the law,
if you do it the right way.
The problem is Trump tried to cover it up by lying about it.
And you don't need to take my word for it.
Here once again is star witness Rudy Giuliani --
And just in general, a star.
[ Laughter ]
He's just got that "it" factor, you know?
[ Laughter ]
...explaining how the whole scheme worked back in 2018.
-That money was not campaign money.
Sorry, I'm giving you a fact now that you don't know.
It's not campaign money.
No campaign finance violation.
'Cause they funneled it through the law firm?
-Funneled through a law firm and the president repaid it.
When I heard Cohen's retainer of $35,000
when he was doing no work for the president,
I said, well, that's how he's repaying,
that's how he's repaying it, with a little profit
and a little margin for paying taxes, for Michael.
-Yeah, that's the crime.
[ Laughter ]
You can't funnel money from your business to your personal fixer
to cover up an affair with an adult film star
to help your presidential campaign two weeks before
an election and then lie about what the money was for
by saying it's just a retainer for your attorney.
It's the same reason you'd get in trouble with your spouse
if you put an event in your Google Calendar called
"Meeting with 'Pecker' for work stuff,
not a euphemism for sex."
-Although -- although,
there is another part of that clip that I love,
where Rudy explains why he's so confident
this is all aboveboard.
-Funneled through a law firm, and the president repaid it.
-Oh, I didn't know -- He did? -Yep.
-There's no campaign finance law.
-Zero.
-So, the President -- -Just like every -- Sean --
-So, this decision was made by...?
-Everybody -- Everybody was nervous about this
from the very beginning. I wasn't.
-If everyone around you is nervous and you're not,
you're either a Navy SEAL
or you're a moron.
And that ain't no Navy SEAL.
Although he does --
you guys, he does dye his hair
with Thompson's WaterSeal, so that...
[ Laughter ]
This whole thing is a reminder --
When Rudy tells you not to worry,
it's time to [bleep] panic.
If Rudy's... [ Laughter ]
If Rudy is your lawyer
and he tells you he's not nervous,
the SWAT team is en route.
[ Laughter ]
I mean, look at this man.
He looks like he just found out he's on this show.
[ Laughter ]
[As Giuliani] Uh-oh!
[ Laughs ]
I'm over Seth Meyers' shoulder?
This can't be good.
[ Laughter ]
[Normal voice] So, Rudy basically confessed
the entire crime on national television,
and there is an abundance of hard evidence to back it up.
But Trump supporters and right-wing media
want you to think
this was all just an innocent little record-keeping mistake.
-They better not put my president in prison.
He represents 74 million Americans.
And if he's the nominee,
you're putting 74 million votes in prison.
And that's how I see it. -Really?
-On a bookkeeping charge.
-First of all,
I love one of the co-hosts just saying, "Really?"
Because that is the appropriate reaction.
It's insane to say
you're putting 74 million votes in prison.
Although it's very funny to imagine a Trump supporter
showing up to a federal penitentiary
and saying, "I'm here to see my vote.
It's in prison."
And he has to have a teary-eyed conversation
through a glass partition with a piece of paper.
"Don't worry about it. I'm gonna get you out of here."
[ Laughter ]
-With Trump under at least four different
criminal investigations
and after he tanked three successive elections,
including last year's midterms,
there's been a question as to whether right-wing media
would finally pivot away from him
and embrace Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
It started to seem like maybe that would happen
when Fox started airing glowing profiles
of DeSantis and fawning interviews with him,
including one interview where Fox host Brian Kilmeade
literally had a catch with DeSantis on a baseball field.
Now, I could say they look like a couple of dorks,
and I'd be right, but in fairness, it's hard
not to look like a dork playing baseball past a certain age.
I mean, Barack Obama was our coolest president.
He made a three-pointer on camera.
He wears sunglasses and an open collar.
He hangs out with Bruce Springsteen.
And yet even he looked like a dork
when he was throwing a baseball.
[ Laughter ]
I mean, if baseball could do that to Barack Obama,
Ron DeSantis, he never had a chance.
So, after that interview with DeSantis,
there was speculation that Fox might turn on Trump.
Some of Trump's goons have also been exiled
to smaller right-wing networks,
like, you know, the aforementioned Rudy,
who, as we just told you,
went on Fox a few years ago and confessed to everything.
It seems like Rudy's been unofficially banned from Fox.
So now when he wants to comment on the hush money case,
he has to go on lesser-known right-wing outlets,
where things just seem to go horribly wrong.
Like this interview from last week
where the host began praising him
and then Rudy had some very embarrassing technical problems.
-Mayor Rudy Giuliani, always amazing to see you.
Love you. Sorry.
I'm -- I'm just so honored always,
as always, to interview you, sir.
[ Laughter ]
Mayor Giuliani, what would -- what would you have done
if this case was brought before you?
You prosecuted a lot of cases.
Before you became New York City mayor,
you were a, you know, a prosecutor.
What would you have done if somebody said,
"Here's the case, prosecute this"?
-Well, here's what I would have done.
I would have told them to go to hell.
[ Audio cuts out ]
I had it happen... [ Audio cuts out ]
[ Laughter ]
-It looks like we're having some audio issues there.
-We go way back to 19... 19...
-Oh, my God.
Maybe Rudy's lawyer told him, "Instead of talking,
just pretend like you're talking, and be quiet."
[As Giuliani] Oh, that sounds...
[ Mouthing words ]
[ Laughter ]
Seriously, what happened there?
Did they turn off the Wi-Fi at Rudy's nursing home?
This is like watching one of those live webcams
from the San Diego Zoo
where the monkeys start humping the camera.
Although, I have to say, I think the hand over the camera
is actually an improvement over seeing Rudy's face.
Just draw some eyes and a mouth over it.
There you go. Problem solved.
Also, I love that when [bleep] starts going sideways,
not only doesn't Rudy stop the interview,
they don't stop it either.
It's like they're slowly realizing,
"Yeah, we should have known it would go this way."
[ Laughter ]
So that's basically where Trump and his inner circle are at.
And yet last night, Fox host Sean Hannity chose to give Trump
a platform to ramble about his usual bull[bleep]
without any pushback at all. For example, last week,
Trump tried to menace investigators into backing down
when he threatened death and destruction if he's arrested.
But last night, he claimed ludicrously
that he wasn't threatening death and destruction --
he was just saying he was scared of it.
-I will say this with death and destruction --
I didn't say death and destruction.
I said I'm afraid. -The possibility. Yeah.
-I said I'm afraid that if they do this,
which is a fake prosecution...
I didn't say, "Do something bad."
I say I am afraid that people will do something
because people are very angry about it.
-Yeah, he didn't say, "I'm gonna burn down
your restaurant." He said, "It would be a shame
if something were to happen to your nice restaurant
in the middle of the night, say, 2 a.m. or so.
Capisce?"
[ Laughter ]
But my favorite part of that interview
came when Trump totally went off on DeSantis
and told an elaborate fantasy about DeSantis begging him
for his endorsement for governor back in 2018.
-So, what happened with Ron is the following.
He came to see me.
He was getting killed. He was being crushed.
Ron came to see me, tears in his eyes.
He said, "I need you to do me a big favor."
First he asked for the meeting. Then he asked me for the favor.
I said, "What's the favor?"
"Would you endorse me?"
So I said, "Let's give it a shot, Ron."
Okay? And he was desperate.
I said, "Okay." I gave him a nice endorsement.
I said, "You write out what you'd like and let me see it."
He wrote it out. I thought it was terrible.
I changed it, made it great.
I gave him a great endorsement.
From the moment I pressed that button,
he blew the guy away. The race was over.
-Personally, I'm just so glad "tears in his eyes" is back.
I hope he keeps adding to the story.
[As Trump] I was in the Oval Office one day
and a guy came up to me -- little guy, tiny guy,
tears in his eyes, running...
The tears were running down his face and onto the floor,
where they made puddles around his fancy, little white boots.
Little white boots. Splish-splash.
His little boots were going splish-splash
in the tears he had cried.
Just tiny little splish-splash-splish.
And he walked over to my desk
and you heard the little splish and the splash.
And he said to me, he said, "Sir,
I'm crying because I'm begging for your endorsement
and also because I have a tiny little...
-Pecker.
[ Laughter ] -[Normal voice] This...
has been "A Closer Look."
[ Cheers and applause ]
♪♪