-After more classified documents were found
at the homes of President Biden
and former Vice President Mike Pence,
Donald Trump's supporters in the GOP
and on Fox News claimed Trump had been vindicated,
while also spreading
wild conspiracy theories about the news.
But, if anything, the cases of Biden and Pence
make Trump's potentially
criminal behavior look a lot worse.
For more on this, it's time for "A Closer Look."
♪♪ [ Cheering and applause ]
Trump supporters in the GOP and on Fox News
have been twisting themselves in knots
over the revelations about classified documents found
at the homes of Trump, Biden, and Pence.
For example, when the news first broke
that the FBI had searched Mar-a-Lago last year
and discovered top secret documents
that Trump had lied about having and refused to give back,
you might recall that many Republicans
dismissed it as a nonscandal.
They threw out every excuse they could think of --
it was a storage issue,
the FBI was just fishing, they planted evidence,
or even that Trump was just a little sloppy
because he didn't have time to pack.
-This is really, at its core,
a storage argument.
I don't think a fight over storage of documents
is worthy of what they've done.
-This was a fishing expedition.
It was an old-fashioned, fake fishing expedition.
I actually think it had little to nothing
to do with classified documents.
-No one trusts the FBI or the DOJ anymore.
I don't trust them any further than I can throw
that entire building.
If they told me that they found something,
I wouldn't know that they actually found it there
or if they just said they found it there.
-Who is to say, in this kind of case,
that some of the documents supposedly seized
were not planted there, to begin with?
-Do I know that the boxes of material
they took from Mar-a-Lago,
that they won't put things in those boxes to entrap him?
How do we know that they're going to be honest with us
about what's actually in the boxes?
-When the president moves out of the White House,
you have effectively, you know,
six hours to move out of the White House.
It's effectively inauguration time
where one president gets moved out
and one president gets moved in.
-No, you don't have six hours!
You have two months!
[ Laughter ]
But, unfortunately, your dad
spent those two months bitching and moaning
and planning a coup to stay in power.
And then, when it didn't work out
and the moving van showed up, he just screamed --
[ As Trump ] Oh, [bleep], grab everything and run!
[ Laughter and applause ]
Your dad was the first president to leave office
like a looter at Best Buy during a blackout.
[ Laughter and applause ] You guys are acting
like the inauguration is a surprise party
where they keep the date secret until the last minute.
[ Laughter ] I don't remember Joe Biden walking
into the Capitol, flicking the lights on,
and seeing thousands of people assembled.
[ As Biden ] Whoa!
[ Laughter ] What the hell is this?!
Although, it is ve...ry hard to surprise Joe Biden.
He is always on alert.
That's why he tiptoes into every room,
like someone about to pop out
[ Laughter and applause ] from behind a couch
and he freezes every time he hears a noise.
[ Laughter ]
[ As Biden ] You here, Aunt Cathy?
[ Laughter ]
I can hear you breathing.
[ Laughter ]
Then there was also the ridiculous excuse
that Trump is just a nostalgic guy
who loves to save little mementos and keepsakes.
-My father-in-law, as anybody knows,
who's been around him a lot, loves to save things,
like newspaper clippings, magazine clippings, photographs.
-My father always kept clippings.
You know, press clippings.
He would have, you know, newspaper articles,
pictures, notes from us.
-[ As Eric ] He saves every note I've ever given him.
In fact, he has a special storage bin where he puts them.
He showed it to me.
[ Laughter ]
Actually, I think I know where Trump puts notes
from his weird adult sons.
I'm not going to say where,
but it would explain why he's always talking about this.
-People are flushing toilets
[ Laughter and applause ] 10 times, 15 times,
as opposed to once.
-[ As Trump ] You got to flush 15 times,
otherwise, you'll never get rid
of that big stack of Father Day cards.
[ Laughter and applause ]
So, those were all the excuses Trump supporters offered
when Trump got caught with hundreds
of classified documents that he lied about
and refused, for over a year, to turn over,
despite multiple requests and a subpoena.
But then, when Biden found and voluntarily turned over
a much smaller cache of documents
from his time as a senator and vice president,
Republicans suddenly changed their tune
and claimed it was a national security emergency
because, unlike Trump, Biden supposedly did not have
the power to declassify documents.
-The president has the authority to declassify a document.
Now, the question is whether or not the president
actually declassified the documents.
The vice president does not have the authority to declassify.
-President Trump, as president,
has the right to declassify documents,
so, the media should cover the fact
that the FBI has been weaponized against President Trump
and, clearly, has covered up for sitting president Joe Biden.
-Let's be very clear -- like we said, from the beginning,
a former vice president, or anybody else,
has no ability to remove classified documents.
Former presidents are different.
-Joe Biden conceivably stole those documents.
What people need to understand is
the president of the United States
is the only one that can declassify documents,
not the vice president.
-Right. -For Joe Biden to steal documents
and have possession of them, this is a serious investigation.
-[ As Greene ] This is very serious
and that's why I'm calling on QAnon
[ Laughter and applause ] and the Jewish space laser to step in and investigate
and it should be easy to track everyone's movements
using the microchip Bill Gates planted in the COVID vaccine.
[ Laughter and applause ]
Which I appreciate he did, now.
[ Cheering ] First of all, that's flat-out wrong.
Biden did have the power
to declassify the documents as vice president.
That doesn't mean he should've had them in his home.
He shouldn't have.
Although, again, as we stated before,
it's not exactly surprising to me
that Joe Biden didn't take document security seriously
during his time as Obama's vice president.
I mean, look at him. That is...
[ Laughter ]
...definitely the face of a dude who might take documents
and who definitely has a bunch of towels at home
with hotel names on them.
[ Laughter and applause ]
So, Trump supporters had to pivot
when the documents were found in Biden's home.
Then they got thrown for yet another loop
when classified documents were also found
at the home of former Vice President Mike Pence.
Some Republicans responded to the news
by just throwing their hands up and saying, "Screw it."
Like Lindsey Graham, who,
instead of making a political point,
decided to just make a joke.
-You got Trump, you got Pence, you got Biden.
The only thing I think you'll find at my house is
a bunch of Chick-fil-A bags on the floor.
[ Laughter ] -Okay. But in fairness, there's a good chance
those were stolen from the Trump White House, too.
[ Laughter ] It would not surprise me if Trump wrote "Classified"
on every fast food box that came through there.
[ Laughter and applause ] Other Trump supporters, however, tried to thread the needle
by claiming Trump and Pence were innocent,
but Biden was, somehow, guilty, like Ted Cruz, who called
the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago a fishing expedition.
Cruz demanded more FBI searches of Biden and his family,
while also dismissing the Pence news as no big deal.
-I believe the FBI needs
to search the residences of Hunter Biden
and any business offices of Hunter Biden
to determine if there are classified materials there.
-Just as an addendum to this, the news came out today --
I'm sure you saw it --
that former Vice President Mike Pence,
a friend of both of ours,
he's found some classified documents,
I think, at his home in Indiana, not in his office.
What do you make of that?
-Oh, look, the Mike Pence story, it's still early.
You know, Mike Pence -- and, as you noted,
he is a good friend, he's a good man --
he's explained where these came from.
That was a mistake, but there's no reason
to think it was anything but inadvertent.
-Within a matter of seconds, he went from saying
the FBI should search the president's son,
who has no connection to any of this,
to brushing off the Pence news as inadvertent.
Why aren't you calling on the FBI to search
Mike Pence's other properties, like his office
or that happy place in his head he goes to
when he's in a meeting with Donald Trump?
[ Laughter ]
Other Fox hosts tried other excuses,
like claiming Pence's mistake was understandable
because he didn't have much time to leave the White House.
-Biden says he was in a rush to pack up his stuff
after his vice presidency.
Wait a second.
I think Mike Pence was
in a little bit more of a rush.
[ Laughing ] Remember that transition?
And Biden knew he was leaving the White House.
It had been eight years.
You're not allowed to stay any longer.
Pence was looking around, saying, "Wait,
is Trump going to pull this off?"
-Wait, you think Mike Pence, known for, among other things,
the January 6th rioters chanting [ Laughing ] "Hang Mike Pence,"
[ Laughter ] didn't pack because he
was waiting to see if the coup would succeed?
[ Laughter ] [ As Pence ] If I spend all day packing boxes
and writing on them with a Sharpie
and then I get killed,
I'm going to feel so stupid.
[ Laughter ]
And we know Pence wasn't in a rush to pack
because we've seen what he looks like when he's in a rush.
He claps when he runs.
[ Laughter ]
If Pence had been rushing to pack up his office
on the last day, you would've heard this sound coming
from the White House.
[ Rhythmic clapping ]
[ Laughter ] [ Rhythmic clapping ]
[ Laughter ]
[ Clapping rhythmically ]
[ Applause ]
[ As Trump ] Mike, Mike, are you clapping?
[ Laughter ]
I just -- I want to --
[ Laughter ]
And then, after they made excuses,
they moved on to baseless speculation.
For example, Fox host Laura Ingraham wanted to know
why the FBI hadn't searched
President Obama's home and office yet.
-On the issue of Obama, it is curious
why the DOJ hasn't requested access
to his many offices across the country,
given the fact that a majority
of Biden's documents came from his administration.
-I have no idea whether any classified documents
will show up at his house,
but if there's one person I'm willing to bet
did things the right way, it was Obama.
Plus, let's not forget, he left office
and his life immediately got way better.
[ Laughter ] He's not moping around a country club,
stealing the mic at weddings to bitch about witch hunts.
[ Laughter ] He's hanging with celebrities, kite surfing,
and having the top button from all his shirts removed.
[ Laughter and applause ] When he left --
When he left the White House, they probably said,
"Do you want any of these documents?" And he said --
[ As Obama ] Uh...
[bleep] it.
[ Laughter and applause ]
You can keep it.
[ Laughter ] By the way, we tape this show
way before it's on TV,
so, if they find arguments at Obama's house
[ Laughter ] between now and airtime,
they were planted by James Corden
to make me look bad.
[ Laughter, cheering, and applause ]
The only other politician who I can possibly imagine
would have no interest in taking classified documents
would be Bernie Sanders.
[ As Sanders ] I don't want your documents.
[ Laughter ] For too long,
the top 1% of politicians has had 99% of the documents.
[ Laughter and applause ]
We need to redistribute the documents.
[ Laughter and applause ]
Everyone can have a fair share of the documents.
[ Laughter ]
[ Applause ] Other Trump allies
reached for distractions, like Sean Hannity,
who brushed off the Pence news and turned his attention
to someone else -- and you will never guess who.
-I think Mike Pence was watching everything with Biden,
top secret documents, et cetera, et cetera.
He initiated his own investigation,
just to double-check.
He immediately called the FBI,
when they found a couple of documents, Matt Gaetz,
and handed them over and worked with the officials.
But that's not the issue, to me.
The issue is how was Hillary Clinton treated?
[ Laughter ] -Oh, my God, dude, let it go.
She already had her presidential campaign destroyed
by a never-ending saga over classified emails
and, now, she's got to sit around and watch
as basically every other living president or vice president
opens up a [bleep] cereal box labeled at home...
[ Laughter ]
Just get a new thing.
Find literally anything else to obsess over.
Go back to whining about how
M&M's are too woke now or something.
Although, if you ask me, Mars missed a huge opportunity.
They shouldn't have canceled the candy mascots.
They should've just jumped on the news and introduced
a new gray M&M who steals classified documents.
[ Laughter and applause ]
Probably the craziest reaction to the Pence news has come
from Fox host Tucker Carlson,
who concocted an elaborate fantasy
where the DOJ asked Pence to look for the documents,
assuming he had none,
in order to make Trump look bad by comparison,
so that they could then prosecute Trump.
-It wasn't so long ago that Pence was on television,
saying he was sure he had no classified documents
in his possession.
He said that a few times.
Then, just days ago, Mike Pence sent his personal attorney
to search his family's home in Carmel, Indiana,
for classified documents.
Now, if Mike Pence didn't think he had classified documents,
why would he send his lawyer
to go look for classified documents?
We can't say for certain, but it's entirely possible --
in fact, it's likely --
that Mike Pence was asked to do this
by federal prosecutors who are trying to build a case
against his old boss Donald Trump.
Now, the point would be to show that not every federal official
walks off of state secrets.
Donald Trump was uniquely evil in that regard,
as in so many others.
"See? Mike Pence didn't do it."
So, if that was the plan -- and we suspect that it was --
it backfired spectacularly.
-[ As Carlson ] If that was the plan, what else are they planning?
It's possible -- in fact, it's likely --
they were planning on asking Mike Pence
to go undercover as Donald Trump.
[ Laughter ]
And, if that was the plan, how would they do it?
Would they have arrested Donald Trump,
so they could perform an experimental surgery,
wherein they remove Donald Trump's face
and swap it with Mike Pence, just like they did
to John Travolta and Nicolas Cage?
[ Laughter and applause ] And, if that was the plan,
then what else were they planning?
Would the real Donald Trump,
now wearing Mike Pence's face,
have escaped, forced to live his life as Mike Pence?
And would the real Mike Pence, now disguised as Donald Trump,
have to chase him down and prove his true identity?
[ Laughter ] And, if that was the plan -- and we suspect it was...
[ Laughter ]
...it backfired spectacularly because they forgot one thing --
Mike Pence can catch Donald Trump
because Mike Pence
runs like this.
[ Laughter and applause ]
In reality, the Biden and Pence revelations showed
this is a lot more commonplace than most of us realized
and that, if Trump had just
given the documents back, when asked,
there wouldn't have been a problem.
Instead, he lied and obstructed for over a year.
That's what makes this case different.
That, and the fact that he probably had
top secret documents stuffed inside...
-Chick-fil-A bags on the floor.
[ Laughter ] -This has been "A Closer Look."
♪♪ [ Cheering and applause ]