-In a Fox News town hall on Tuesday,
Donald Trump told Sean Hannity
that if he wins the 2024 election,
he will act like a dictator,
but only on day one of his presidency.
He also claimed again that Joe Biden is cognitively impaired
while making his own impairments very obvious.
For more on this, it's time for "A Closer Look."
♪♪
It's become a frequent talking point
among Republicans and Fox News pundits
that Joe Biden is in "cognitive decline."
Although personally, I'm not sure if you should trust
the medical opinions of the network
that repeatedly downplayed COVID and lied about vaccines,
promoted a candidate who said both that windmills cause cancer
and that we should inject bleach into our lungs,
and once aired what was essentially an advertisement
for testicle tanning in order to increase testosterone levels.
-If you want to optimize and take it to another level,
expose yourself to red light therapy.
-Yes. -And the Joovv
that we were using in the documentary,
there's a massive amount of --
-Which is testicle tanning. -It's testicle tanning.
-Remember that?
Remember when the most-watched cable news host in the country
told everyone they should expose their unclothed testicles
to bright red lights...
the same way you stick to leftover drumsticks
in the broiler after Thanksgiving?
By the way, first patient they tried it on -- Rudy Giuliani.
That's a picture from that day.
[ As Giuliani ] "Oh, it's definitely working!
You could even turn it up a little."
Nonetheless, Fox and Trump continue to insist
that Biden is in cognitive decline.
And they did so again during a so-called town hall
with Trump and Hannity last night.
Although, it's hard for Trump to make that claim convincingly,
since he himself is clearly, let's say, not well.
Watch as he struggles to find the words
to say that Biden is the one who's in cognitive decline.
-He is number one, from your standpoint,
cognitively -- you like to use that word --
Cognitively, he's not good.
[ Laughter ]
-Is that your professional diagnosis, Dr. Medicine?
That sounds like news you'd get if your doctor
was Paulie Walnuts.
[ As Paul ] "I got your results right here.
It's not good, Tone."
Even Frankenstein's Monster would come up
with something better than "cognitively not good."
And I apologize for saying
Frankenstein's Monster like a dickhead.
I just have some really negative people in my life
I have to cater to. [ Laughter ]
Anyway, Trump added that he called Hannity
and told him not -- He told Trump not to joke
about Biden's supposed cognitive decline,
and then they both laughed about how Hannity listens to Trump,
but Trump never listens to Hannity.
-We shouldn't be joking about it.
I actually told Sean, "Sean, you shouldn't joke about it.
It's serious. We're dealing with nuclear --
We're dealing with..." -By the way,
that is a true story.
You actually called me and said, "It's not funny."
Because I was talking about it. -It's not funny.
-And I said -- I said -- I thought about it,
and I said, "You're right."
And then I said, "How come you never listened to my advice?"
-But -- It's true. That's true.
It's actually true, unfortunate.
-[ As Trump ] "It's so true. It's so true, Sean.
I couldn't care -- I couldn't care less what you think, Sean.
I bark orders at you because
you're my obedient little servant,
but your opinion is worthless to me.
[ Laughs ] And so is your friendship."
It's not enough to say Fox is pro-GOP anymore.
They are the GOP. It's the same entity.
It's like I think I've made my distaste for Trump very clear,
but I also enjoy that video of Biden tripping up the stairs.
[ Laughter ] In fact, it doesn't make me
have less respect for Biden.
It makes me have more.
If I tripped up the stairs at work,
not only would I take the rest of the day off,
I'd have to fire my entire staff and replace them with people
who wouldn't tease me about it forever.
I burned my tongue on some hot tea one time,
and I still can't walk by the crew without hearing,
"You need us to blow on that for you, boss?"
And then I say, "No, but if you could teach the interns
how to properly prepare a mug of Earl Grey
that's not scalding, it would be appreciated."
And now, because of that reaction,
they call me Your Majesty,
but without any of the respect that title deserves.
[ Laughter, applause ]
Maddening.
[ Cheers and applause ]
[ Laughter ]
Where was I? Ah, right.
Now, Trump has long been an erratic weirdo,
but his cognitive deflects -- defects.
[ Laughs ]
[ Laughter ]
[ As Trump ] "Defects. Or a lot of people are saying deflects.
[ Laughter ]
Deflects or defects.
Both are accepted. We defect and we deflect.
It's great.
It's great they both work. I think it's...
And they didn't use to both work!
But then Trump came along, and now they're both fine."
[ Laughter ]
They've become much more glaring lately.
He slurs his words, forgets which city he's in.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Very funny. Very funny, Sal.
[ Laughter ]
You're setting a lot of traps for me
in these "Closer Looks," Sal.
He gets basic facts confused,
like the time he mixed up the leaders of Hungary and Turkey,
or the time he said you need ID to buy a loaf of bread.
-You have voter ID to buy a loaf of bread.
You have -- You have ID to buy a loaf of bread.
-Clearly, this man
has never bought a loaf of bread in his life.
He's probably only said
the words "loaf of bread" when his tailor asked,
"What would you like to look like in your suit?"
[ Laughter ]
[ As Trump ] "I like those beautiful loaf lines."
But not only did he say you need ID to buy a loaf of bread,
which is already insane on its own,
he specifically said you need voter ID to buy a loaf of bread.
Like in Trump's mind, it's not enough to prove
that you're 18 to buy bread.
You also need to prove you're a registered voter.
Maybe he thinks you're only allowed
to buy certain types of bread
based on what party you're registered with.
White bread is for Republicans, multigrain is for Democrats,
and cinnamon raisin is for [bleep] anarchists.
[ Laughter ]
Then there was the time Trump got confused
about who he was running against.
Watch as he claims first
that he's currently running against Barack Obama,
then catches himself, then mistakenly says
he already ran against Obama in 2016,
then catches himself again
and says he ran against Hillary Clinton.
-As you know, Crooked Joe Biden and the radical left thugs
have weaponized law enforcement
to arrest their leading political opponent
and leading by a lot, including Obam--
I'll tell you what, you take a look at Obama
and take a look at some of the things that he's done.
This is the same thing. The country was very divided.
And we did with Obama...
We won an election that everyone said couldn't be won.
We beat...Hillary Clinton.
[ Laughter ]
-[ As Trump, stammering ] "Bill Clinton, we beat him.
I think. Maybe.
Abraham Linc-- I won an election against Abraham Lincoln."
[ Laughter ]
Watching Trump try to get to the end of a sentence
is like watching a dog walk across a balance beam.
He's also physically incapable
of just pausing and correcting himself.
He has to act like he meant every word he said,
even if he misspoke,
which only makes him sound even more insane.
If anything, Biden has the opposite problem.
He's always stopping himself and apologizing.
[ As Biden ] "I ever tell you about that time I --
Never mind. You don't wanna hear that story.
[ Laughter ]
But let me ask you this. Ah, no. I shouldn't say that.
You know what?
Let me just stand here in silence
with my head in my hands, like...
my flight was just delayed for a third time."
Trump is obviously deeply addled and untethered from reality.
But there is one thing he has nevertheless
been extremely clear about --
his desire to install himself as a dictator
if he wins another term.
When it comes to that,
he's been laser focused and very consistent.
He and his allies have repeatedly promised
to use the Justice Department to go after his opponents,
who he calls "vermin," who must be "rooted out,"
to use the military to put down protests
and to construct detention camps for migrants.
His allies are already working on plans
to fill his administration with loyalists and sycophants,
who will carry out his most extreme orders.
In fact, the plan has already been given a name --
Project 2025, which already sounds menacing.
Secret projects with numbers in the name
are generally -- what's the word?
-Not good. -And...
sure enough, when he was given multiple chances
to disavow those plans by Hannity last night,
Trump completely ignored him.
Here's Hannity's first attempt to get Trump
to say he won't be a dictator,
which somehow ended with Trump praising Al Capone.
-I want to be very, very clear on this.
To be clear, do you in any way have any plans whatsoever
if reelected president to abuse power,
to break the law, to use the government to go after people?
-You mean like they're using right now?
So...in the history of our country...
[ Cheers and applause ]
...what's happened to us, again, has never happened before --
over nonsense, over nothing, made-up charges.
I often say Al Capone, he was one of the greatest of all time,
if you like criminals.
-Okay. [ Laughter ]
But let's just say, for the sake of the argument,
I don't like criminals...
Only Trump would give someone credit
for being one of the greatest criminals of all time.
He would be such a terrible school counselor.
[ As Trump ] "Where do you see yourself after high school?"
"Robbing liquor stores and sniffing glue?"
[ As Trump ] "Well, the only advice I'd give
is to try to be the best at it."
[ Laughter ]
So that was Trump's first opportunity to say
he won't be a dictator, which he passed on.
Then Hannity asked him again, and this time Trump answered
that actually he would be a dictator,
but only for one day.
-I want to go back to this one issue, though,
because the media has been focused on this
and attacking you. -Yeah.
-Under no circumstances --
You are promising America tonight
you would never abuse power as retribution
against anybody? -Except for day one.
-Except for...? -Look. He's going crazy.
Except for day one. -Meaning?
-I want to close the border
and I want to drill, drill, drill.
-That's not -- That's not -- That's not retribution,
I got it. -I'm going to be...
I'm going to be -- You know, he keeps --
-[ Laughs ] -We love this guy.
He says, "You're not going to be a dictator, are you?"
I said, "No, no, no. Other than day one."
We're closing the border
and we're drilling, drilling, drilling.
After that. I'm not a dictator, okay?
-Oh, well, if it's just for one day, sure, by all means.
What could possibly go wrong?
That's like Jason saying he'll only go
on a murderous rampage the first day of summer camp,
and then on day two, canoeing.
[ Laughter ]
So Trump just confessed it. He'll be a dictator.
The one-day thing is obviously nonsense.
If Trump assumes dictatorial powers,
he's not going to immediately give them up.
I'm not sure what else Trump could do
to make it more obvious.
He's made his intentions abundantly clear.
At this point, the nicest thing you can say about him
is that he's an aspiring dictator,
he's in cognitive decline, and he's...
-...the greatest of all time, if you like criminals.
-This has been "A Closer Look."
[ Cheers and applause ]
Hey, a quick message for our Canadian viewers.
This is very exciting news.
Our videos were not available on YouTube for the last few months.
They are now back on YouTube,
and we also want to say thanks to CTV
who is airing our shows in their entirety on their network.
Check them out there as well.
Thank you, Canada.
Good luck with everything.
[ Laughter ]