-Donald Trump has endorsed
one of the most pro-MAGA members of the Republican Party,
Ohio congressman Jim Jordan,
to be the next Speaker of the House,
which could put one of the most prominent supporters
of the coup attempt on January 6th in charge of the chamber.
For more on this, it's time for "A Closer Look."
[ Cheers and applause ]
When last we left the House Republican caucus,
several of them were organizing an effort
to draft Donald Trump himself to be the next speaker,
which is possible since technically the speaker
does not have to be a member of Congress.
Apparently, it doesn't even need to be a sentient human being.
It could be one of those air dancers outside car dealerships.
Republicans would probably love that
because it has the same hand movements as Donald Trump.
[ Laughter ]
And apparently Trump was serious
about at least considering a bid to become speaker.
Politico reported last week that...
Should he even be allowed back in the Capitol,
based on what happened last time he was there?
I mean, I'm on a year ban from Vrbo
because some guy said I rented his place,
after I rented his place,
the Q went missing from the Scrabble game.
But Trump, Trump foments an insurrection
and is allowed to come and go as he pleases.
Also, the Q was already missing, dude.
[ Laughter ]
But I guess Trump is allowed back.
In fact, his best bud Sean Hannity
claimed on air last week that sources were telling him
Trump was open to the idea of becoming speaker.
Now, again, keep in mind as you watch this clip,
Hannity isn't just a pundit who interviews Trump.
He's appeared onstage with Trump at rallies,
and during Trump's presidency, the two reportedly talked
on a near nightly basis before bedtime.
According to "New York Magazine,"
on the phone, Hannity and Trump alternate between the witch hunt
and gabbing like old girlfriends about media and gossip
and whose show sucks and who's getting killed in the ratings
and who's winning and sports and Kanye West,
all of it sprinkled
with a staccato [bleep] [bleep] [bleep] [bleep]
So Trump and Hannity aren't just media allies,
they're best buds, which is context for this clip
in which Hannity claims sources were telling him
Trump was open to becoming speaker.
-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.
-So the source was Trump.
Whenever you hear
Sean Hannity float something like that on television,
it's because it's something Donald Trump told him to say
or, at the very least, it's something Trump wants to hear.
At this point, I wouldn't be surprised
if Trump was writing the Fox News chyrons
live in real time via voice to text.
And Trump himself essentially confirmed
the veracity of this report
when he was asked about the possibility
of becoming speaker last week
at his fraud trial in a Manhattan court.
-Would you take the job?
Would you take the job?
-Trump will always say he's considering something
when you first ask him about it.
The reporter could stand up at a press conference
and say, "Mr. President, sources are telling us
you're considering jumping into the gorilla enclosure
at the Bronx Zoo and challenging the largest ape
to a wrestling match in order to subdue him,
claim his territory, and become king of the primates."
And Trump would say, "We're looking very strongly at it.
I'm certainly -- I'm certainly getting a lot of calls
saying, 'You're the only one who can defeat Mongo.'"
But as random and insane as this idea sounds,
it apparently did not come out of nowhere.
Over the weekend, ABC News reported
that Trump actually maneuvered behind the scenes
to become Speaker of the House back in January.
And apparently the reason he did that
was because he was angry he wasn't getting more votes
during the initial rounds of voting.
-Sources tell ABC News former president Trump
secretly plotted to be elected Speaker of the House in January
while he was publicly supporting
now-former speaker Kevin McCarthy's bid.
-Publicly, Donald Trump
had endorsed Kevin McCarthy for speaker.
But what I've learned is that when Trump saw Matt Gaetz
step up on the seventh ballot back in January
and vote for Donald Trump for speaker
and then he saw all the cable networks,
you know, relay the vote count
and it was only a single vote for Trump --
you know, 212 votes for Hakeem Jeffries,
200 for Kevin McCarthy,
some others had a handful of votes,
and then only one for Donald Trump --
Trump became angry and he actually reached out,
contacted Gaetz, made his views known
within a small circle of Republicans
that the only reason he only got one vote
is that nobody bothered to nominate him,
and so people didn't know they could vote for him.
And at that point, he made it clear
that he wanted Matt Gaetz
to nominate him for Speaker of the House.
-Okay, so just to recap, Trump, who was publicly supporting
now-former speaker Kevin McCarthy,
but he was also mad in the seventh round of voting
he only got one vote for speaker.
I'm sure when he saw this,
his text to Hannity looked like this.
[ Laughter ]
So Trump then asked Congressman Matt Gaetz
to officially nominate him for speaker,
assuming this meant the votes would start pouring in for him.
And Gaetz did that. He stood up, made a big speech,
and nominated Donald Trump to be Speaker of the House.
So what happened after Gaetz nominated him?
Did Trump get 100 votes for speaker, 200 votes?
How close did he come?
-When that speech was over, they called for the roll,
and they once again did another round of voting.
And once again, Donald Trump got a single vote
for Speaker of the House.
-Did he call Gaetz again?
[ As Trump ] I think this time when you nominate me,
say, "I'm being serious, you guys.
This isn't some dumb joke."
[ Normal voice ] It was so bad, that night on "Hannity,"
the chyron said...
So Trump's last attempt to get votes for speaker went badly,
which must be why he's now abandoned
this latest bid for the job.
Instead, he endorsed far-right extremist Jim Jordan,
perhaps the most pro-MAGA member of the House GOP caucus
and one of the key players
in the attempt to overturn the election on January 6th.
You might remember Jordan as the guy
who would routinely show up to hearings in the House
that were supposed to be investigating
the Trump administration, but instead talk really fast
and say totally incoherent bull[bleep] like this.
-James Comey, director, fired.
Andy McCabe, deputy director, fired,
lied three times under oath, under investigation as we speak.
Jim Baker, FBI counsel, demoted,
then left, currently under investigation
by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Connecticut.
Lisa Page demoted, then left.
Ambassador Taylor recalls
that Mr. Morrison told Ambassador Taylor
that I told Mr. Morrison that I conveyed this message
to Mr. Yermak on September 1, 2019,
in connection with Vice President Pence's
visit to Warsaw.
-He sounds like an auctioneer with a head injury,
just repeating all the unhinged buzzwords
you hear on Fox News without any of the content.
It's like if Thanksgiving dinner,
everyone in your family had a time limit to speak.
"Uncle Jerry, what are you thankful for?"
"Well, I guess I'm thankful for my health
and continued efforts to stop trans, woke, Benghazi,
Whitewater, China, laptop, Hunter e-mails, tan suit."
And it makes sense that Jordan would spew
random Fox News talking points, because he is far and away
the most popular Republican congressman on Fox News.
Since August 2017...
565 times.
I don't even think I've appeared on this show
565 times since 2017.
In fairness, we did have that stretch
where I was replaced by a guest host.
Who was that again?
Oh, damn it! He's everywhere.
On the bright side, it only took him
about 90 seconds to get through "A Closer Look."
And when he does go on Fox News, it won't surprise you to learn
he doesn't make all that much sense,
like when he said this over the weekend
about his bid to become speaker.
-The American people right now, Maria,
I think are -- they are so thirsty for leadership.
And I don't think they're seeing it from the White House.
I don't think they're getting it from the Senate.
They are hungry for leadership.
-Oh, they're thirsty and hungry?
"Maria, the American people are thirsty for leadership.
They're hungry for leadership.
And dare I say, they're horny for leadership.
Don't take it from me.
Take it from the audience at the "Beetlejuice" musical."
But by far, the most dangerous thing about Jordan
is that he was arguably the most prominent supporter
in Congress of Donald Trump's attempt
to overturn the 2020 election.
He was intimately involved
in the planning of Trump's coup attempt,
and has flat-out refused requests
to provide more information about his involvement.
-Jim Jordan scored former president Trump's endorsement
early this morning, which should come as no surprise.
Here is Jordan in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania,
attending a Stop the Steal rally two days after Election Day.
In the weeks and months after that,
Jordan went on various right-wing media outlets
where he attempted to sow distrust in the 2020 election
and made baseless claims of election fraud.
Jordan's name appears throughout the bipartisan report
from the House Select Committee investigating January 6th.
The report says that Jordan attended
numerous post-election meetings
with senior White House officials and Rudy Giuliani
discussing how to challenge the election results.
-I don't know what's more shocking --
that people still have meetings with Rudy Giuliani
or that Rudy Giuliani made it to the meeting.
When he was told to meet with Jim Jordan,
Rudy probably thought he was meeting
in a gymnasium with Michael Jordan.
[ As Giuliani ] Hey, Mike, you've always been
my favorite baseball player.
Go, White Sox.
[ Laughter ]
[ Normal voice ] A lot of time was spent today
on, what would Rudy say to Michael Jordan in a gym?
[ Laughter ]
Trump endorsing Jordan is a perfect encapsulation
of where the GOP is at right now.
A vote for Jordan to speaker is essentially a vote for Trump
and his efforts to overturn American democracy.
Even if Jim Jordan is nominally in charge of the House,
he's just going to be following Trump's orders.
Trump is still the leader of the Republican Party,
and Jordan is fully devoted to him.
So I guess you could say Jordan's the one who's...
-Thirsty for leadership.
-This has been "A Closer Look."
[ Cheers and applause ]