-House Republicans have once again descended into chaos
and paralyzed Congress
after they ousted former speaker Kevin McCarthy,
who lasted just nine months on the job,
replaced him with nobody, and then left town.
And now some Republicans and GOP pundits
are floating the possibility of making Donald Trump
the new Speaker of the House.
For more on this, it's time for "A Closer Look."
[ Cheers and applause ]
Here is where we're at in America right now.
Yesterday, a former president of the United States
was placed under a gag order by a judge.
And it somehow wasn't even the biggest news of the day.
-Tonight the judge in Donald Trump's fraud trial
is issuing a gag order against the former president.
It bans him from speaking publicly
about members of the court staff.
-For the first time ever,
a former president of the United States
was slapped with a gag order.
-Yes, this is the first time a former president
has been slapped with a gag order,
unless you count the time Hillary told Bill
to shut up at a dinner party.
[ As Bill Clinton ] Did I ever tell you guys about the time
I got drunk with Boris Yeltsin?
[ Normal voice ] Yes. Yes, you did.
The last time was, let's see now, five minutes ago.
Now, this gag order means
Trump can no longer talk about court staff in public,
although it's very possible
Trump misunderstood the meaning of the word "gag."
[ As Trump ] So now your dear -- your dear former president
can't do gags, can't do pranks, can't do goofs of any time.
So -- So now if I tell you to pull my finger,
I have to legally add, when you do it,
I'm going to fart.
[ Laughter ]
And that's sad, because that takes all the fun out of it.
[ Normal voice ] That was not the lead story yesterday,
because, of course, this happened.
-For the first time in the history of American democracy
and the first Congress of 1789,
the Speaker of the House has been removed from his position
as the leader of the chamber.
By a vote of 216 to 210,
lawmakers booted Speaker Kevin McCarthy,
throwing the House into chaos
and into unprecedented territory.
-This is the first time it's ever happened.
Republicans have a knack for creating history
in the most embarrassing way.
It's like saying, hey, the Jets made history.
This is the first time in his career
Aaron Rodgers has gone a whole season
without throwing an interception.
[ Laughter ]
And, yeah.
Yeah, guys, the Jets jokes are back.
[ Laughter ]
When it looked like they were going to be good this year,
I was worried...
because we need Jets jokes.
But then Rodgers tore his ACL,
and as sad as it was for Jets fans,
it was a relief for comedy writers.
Is it a coincidence that ACL
are also the initials of "A Closer Look"?
I don't know.
[ Laughter ]
It's pretty [bleep] suspicious.
So House Republicans are in chaos,
although I'm not sure
we can call this unprecedented territory
since House Republicans are always in chaos.
We've been saying the Republican Party is in chaos
on this show for eight years.
We just use the same cue card over and over.
Wally keeps it on standby at all times.
[ Laughter ]
Can I just say, Wally,
it is great to be back at work with you.
And I did check.
You will still get paid extra every time you have a line.
And the moment the vote tally was finished was also historic,
because as far as anyone can tell,
it's the first time these words have ever been uttered.
-On this vote, the yeas are 216.
The nays are 210.
The resolution is adopted.
Without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid on the table.
The office of Speaker of the House
of the United States House of Representatives
is hereby declared vacant. [ Gavel bangs ]
-Cool, so the position that's third in line to the presidency
is currently like a [bleep] roadside motel.
Then they adjourned and left town without picking someone.
Here's the moment Congressman Patrick McHenry,
a McCarthy ally, adjourned the session.
And you can tell how mad he is
because he really pounded that thing.
-The chair declares the House in recess,
subject to the call of the chair.
[ Gavel bangs ] -Whoa!
[ Laughter ]
Was he closing the session
or trying to win a stuffed panda at the county fair?
He went after that like a Brooklyn third grader
killing a spotted lantern fly.
And look, I know they're an invasive species
and killing them is the right play.
But I think we've all seen a kid doing it
with a little too much panache
who makes you think, "Oh, this is just a starter kit for them."
[ Laughter ]
So they fired the speaker,
then just left town without picking a new one.
It's very Republican Party to take step one
without putting any thought into step two.
"Well, I just sold my apartment."
"Cool. Where are you moving to?"
"Moving.
Can't I just stay here?"
"No, if you want to stay here, why'd you sell it?"
"Well, I wanted the money." "You can't have both."
"Uhh. Shh. Quiet. I'm trying to think."
[ Snoring ]
"Did you just fall asleep while you were thinking?"
"I don't know, man. I'm so [bleep] tired."
Now, as historic as this development is,
it's also not all that surprising.
Kevin McCarthy has never exactly been the most gifted politician.
He's not especially charismatic.
He doesn't seem to stand for anything.
And sometimes it's just genuinely hard
to understand what he's trying to say,
like when he appeared at a Trump rally in 2020 and said this.
-I want you to watch Nancy Pelosi hand me that gavel.
[ Cheers and applause ]
And I promise you this.
I won't bang her with it,
but I'll bang the end to the socialism and yes to America.
[ Laughter ]
-It's hard to be onstage with Trump
and be the one making the least amount of sense.
"I'll bang the end of the socialism and yes to America."
Why does he sound like a print ad for Budweiser in Malaysia?
If someone you love ever starts talking like that,
you need to immediately call 911,
or as Kevin would say, "Call one, then another one,
and then before both of those, a nine."
So McCarthy wasn't an especially memorable political talent,
and he had to endure all kinds of indignities
to climb his way to the top of the garbage heap
that is the House Republican caucus,
like the time Donald Trump just called him
by a completely different name and McCarthy didn't correct him.
-There was progress today. I look forward to solving it.
-Thank you, Steve.
[ Laughter ]
-"Thank you, Steve." "My name is Kevin."
"It's Steve now.
Go change your birth certificate or get lost."
Now, in Trump's defense,
he was about to introduce someone named Steve,
but because his brain is just ooze,
he misfired and called McCarthy Steve.
I think part of the reason is that whenever Trump
has to read something off a teleprompter at a formal event,
as opposed to just vomiting up off-the-cuff babble
about toilets and windmills,
he has to get the gears in motion way in advance.
The whole time Kevin McCarthy was speaking,
I'm sure Trump was standing behind him thinking
[As Trump] Okay, Steve is next. Steve, Steve, Steve.
Wait. Who the hell is this guy? Screw it. Just go with Steve."
Everybody's Steve now. Everybody's Steve.
And that's a flub. That's not a gag.
So it's legally allowed.
It doesn't violate the order.
[ Laughter ]
Never mind.
[ Normal voice ] But that's the modern GOP.
You have to endure endless humiliation
just to get a job that sucks.
And that wasn't the last
of the many indignities McCarthy suffered.
In order to curry favor
with the hard-liners in his caucus,
he had to fly down to Mar-a-Lago
for that infamous picture with Donald Trump
just three weeks after the insurrection on January 6th.
He had to smile for a photo with the guy
who tried to overturn American democracy
and might have almost got him killed.
It's like watching the Alien and the Predator
team up for a podcast called "No Hard Feelings."
McCarthy also attempted to portray himself
as a serious statesman prepared for the job of speaker.
But his attempts were not especially impressive,
like when he unveiled what he said would be his agenda
if he became speaker, but it was comically thin.
-What we're gonna roll out today is a commitment to America,
and we want to roll it out to you,
to the entire country, to know exactly what we will do
if you would trust us and give us the ability
to take a new direction for this country.
What the commitment is, is a plan,
a plan for a new direction.
So you know what?
We've created a commitment to America.
-That's your plan? It's one page.
It looks like a leaflet they hand out in Times Square
for 15% off at Bubba Gump Shrimp.
If you buy deodorant and gum at CVS,
you get a receipt that's way longer than that.
But that tells you why McCarthy failed
and why so many Republican speakers before him have failed,
from John Boehner to Paul Ryan.
Republicans don't actually have a discernible ideological agenda
that they all agree on.
There are no coherent policy goals
other than cutting taxes for rich people
and banning woke antifa Barbie dolls.
And none of those things are popular with voters.
So they end up in this nonstop vicious cycle
where a speaker gets elected,
a bunch of hard-liners demand that he do crazy [bleep]
he says no, then they take him out back
and hit him over the head like this.
[ Gavel bangs ]
[ Laughter ]
So it all ended in humiliation for McCarthy and his allies,
which is fitting, because McCarthy
had to humiliate himself to get the job in the first place.
He basically had to crawl over broken glass
to get hired for a [bleep] job
he couldn't even keep for nine months.
Remember, back in January,
when he lost the vote for speaker
over and over and over again
and he just had to sit there in shame
while the clerk announced that no speaker had been elected
14 times in a row
like he was living in some sort of David Lynchian nightmare.
-A speaker has not been elected.
A speaker has not been elected.
A speaker has not... A speaker has not...
A speaker has not... Has not...
Has not... Has not...
Not... Not... Not... Not... Not been elected.
-It is happening again.
[ Laughter ]
-McCarthy finally got the job on the 15th try
after making a bunch of promises,
like, for example, implementing a new rule
that any one member of the GOP caucus
could bring a motion to remove him,
which is exactly what they did to him.
And even knowing that, he still dared his critics,
specifically Florida congressman Matt Gaetz,
to try to get rid of him before the vote was called.
-If somebody wants to make a motion against me, bring it.
-[ As McCarthy ] That's right. Bring it.
And I can promise you this.
If you call a vote to remove me,
I'll take that gavel and I won't bang you with it,
but I will gavel it to make a banging sound
that gavels the end to yes America.
Oh [bleep] I'm going to get replaced.
[ Laughter ]
[ Normal voice ] Well, Gaetz and his small band
of kooks and weirdos did bring it, and McCarthy is now gone.
And because you have to be insane
to actually want this job,
some Republicans are floating the name of a person
who is, in fact, insane.
-Sources telling me at this hour
some House Republicans have been in contact with
and have started an effort
to draft former president Donald Trump
to be the next speaker.
And I have been told that President Trump
might be open to helping the Republican Party,
at least in the short term, if necessary.
-Incredible. Only the Republicans
would consider giving the job of speaker
to someone who is under a gag order.
[ Laughter ]
It's like hiring a French mime
as your new NFL play-by-play guy.
Marcel, what do you think
of this play the Chiefs are drawing up?
[ Laughter ]
I agree, Marcel. Ravens defense is like a wall.
What's that? You have something else to add?
Oh, you also want to talk about Taylor Swift?
I'm with you, Marcel. I can't get enough of it.
Also, I like when Hannity,
who is best friends with Trump and talks to him constantly,
says sources are telling him Trump is open to it.
So Trump told you that?
"Sources" is just Trump's Mafia nickname.
"Where'd I hear that?
Oh, I got it from Donny Sources."
[ Laughter ]
But this perfectly sums up the current state
of the Republican Party.
Usually when someone's in court,
they have to call a friend to ask for help.
In this case, he's calling from court to offer it.
[ As Trump ] Sean, tell your viewers I'm willing to do it.
Hold on. The bailiff is going to take the phone away.
[ Laughter ]
[ Normal voice ] Although the funniest example
of right-wing pundits teasing this possibility
came from Newsmax.
The anchor tried to be coy about reporting the news
that Republicans were floating Trump as a new speaker,
but it was not especially graceful.
-So far there have been a few names.
But remember, it doesn't necessarily have to be
a member of Congress, either.
-That is true. Could be me.
-It'll be very interesting to see
who it could be moving forward.
-Yeah, no, I think that's an interesting point.
I'm glad you brought that up, that it doesn't have to be
a member of the House.
It could be someone else.
Maybe rhymes with "Trump." Who knows?
[ Laughter ]
-Oh, it rhymes with "Trump"?
Oh, please tell me it's one of the Klumps.
Or all of the Klumps.
I would love to see Eddie Murphy
play every member of the Republican Party
at one giant dinner scene.
I'm guessing it would look something like this.
[ Gavel bangs ] -Hercules. Hercules.
[ Laughter ]
-That's enough.
[ Laughter ]
House Republicans don't have a speaker,
and their standard bearer is in court for fraud.
You really can't sum up the current state
of the party any better than that.
In the process, they've paralyzed Congress.
Basically, Republicans pulled down their pants,
squatted over the Constitution, and took a giant --
Well, I won't say it, but it...
-Rhymes with "Trump."
-This has been "A Closer Look."
[ Cheers and applause ]