-House Democrats called on the vice president
to remove President Trump
through the Twenty-fifth Amendment
as they prepared to vote
on a resolution to impeach the president.
Meanwhile, Trump emerged for the first time
since his Twitter ban
and refused to take any responsibility at all
for inciting a violent riot at the Capitol.
For more on this, it's time for "A Closer Look."
♪♪
The House is preparing to impeach Trump
for inciting an insurrection, which would make him
the only president ever to be impeached twice,
who'll also be the only president
who lost the popular vote the first time;
in reelection, the second time, in addition to being impeached.
A record number of Americans went
to the polls to boot him from office
and his job approval is now down to 33%.
His name will be etched in the Congressional Record
and in history books forever
as a seditionist and aspiring tyrant
and the worst, most dangerous president we've ever had.
He could very well be permanently disqualified
from holding office in the future,
arrested, and tried for sedition.
He's been banned from so many social media platforms,
he's going to have to start hiding his hateful rhetoric
in Yelp! reviews.
His longtime bank is refusing to do business with him
and he could even be held liable for civil damages,
in addition to being prosecuted.
Oh, and his wife won't hold his hand.
Well, one of them won't.
And, yet, knowing Trump, none of that
will matter as much to him as this --
-New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick
declining the civilian honor
the Presidential Medal of Freedom,
with President Trump set to award it later this week.
Instead, Belichick put out a statement saying, in part,
"[T]he tragic events of last week occurred
and the decision has been made
not to move forward with the award."
-The fallout of the attack on the Capitol
continues for President Trump,
who has now lost his relationship
with the Professional Golfers' Association.
The PGA announced it was moving its 2022 championship
away from Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster.
The PGA says holding a championship there
would be "detrimental" to its brand.
-Well, well, well.
Once again, big golf tries
to silence conservatives.
First, it's the media; then, it's big tech;
now, it's famous Antifa leftist Bill Belichick and the PGA
tearing down our country.
Don't Belichick and the PGA know
that what we need right now is healing and unity?
How dare they hurt Mr. Trump's feelings
and the feelings of 74 million Americans
by taking away his precious golf tournament
from his private resort.
Don't they know how much those hardworking,
real Americans love to sit home on a Sunday
and watch the PGA Polyester Fashion Show
by a bunch of trust fund semi-athletes
named Cameron and Bryson and Brooks?
Taking golf away from Trump
is like taking away Freddy Krueger's claws.
Without them, he's just a dude with a messed-up face
who looks bad in hats.
Seriously, though, you know you're toxic
when a guy who looks like this thinks you're bad for his brand.
How does he get to games,
tornado?
So that's where things are for Trump.
Then, today, he emerged in public
for the first time since losing his ability to tweet
and, as the nation continues to process
the deadly insurrection he incited
and the ongoing threats from right-wing terrorists,
the president refused to take any responsibility
for his role in the riot,
choosing, instead, to lash out at Democrats.
-We want no violence, never violence.
We want absolutely no violence.
And, on the impeachment, it's really a continuation
of the greatest witch hunt in the history of politics.
It's ridiculous.
It's absolutely ridiculous.
This impeachment is causing tremendous anger
and you're doing it and it's really
a terrible thing that they're doing.
For Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer
to continue on this path,
I think it's causing tremendous danger to our country
and it's causing tremendous anger.
I want no violence.
-[ As Trump ] I incited violence,
even though I want no violence,
but, if you impeach me for inciting violence,
there will be violence.
No violence. But also,
there will be violence.
We don't want people to be angry,
but also, they should be angry, and dangerous.
Anger and danger, those are the two key words.
No violence. But anger
and danger and violence.
But hold the violence.
I want no violence.
Seriously, he could've just gone with,
"Do what I say and nobody gets hurt."
Seriously, is he trying to get impeached a third time?
Is he going for an Iron Man streak
where he commits an impeachable offense
every day until he leaves office?
Does he think this is Quiznos --
if he gets impeached ten times, the eleventh is on the house?
Trump then spoke again to reporters
before he got on his flight to Texas
and, this time, he insisted his speech to the violent mob,
whipping them into a frenzy and inciting them
to ransack the Capitol, was actually totally fine.
-So, if you read my speech --
and many people have done it and I've seen it both
in the papers and in the media, on television --
it's been analyzed and people thought that what I said
was totally appropriate.
But they've analyzed my speech and my words
and my final paragraph, my final sentence,
and everybody, to the "T,"
thought it was totally appropriate.
-No, no, no one thought that.
What do you mean, they analyzed it?
I mean, I heard the speech
and it wasn't exactly James Joyce's "Ulysses."
If you heard it, you analyzed it.
Trump is actually doubling down in defending himself
after inciting an insurrection against the Capitol.
Just to be clear, in case it needs any more clarity,
Trump didn't just incite the crowd,
by telling them to march to the Capitol
and fight and show strength.
He encouraged and enjoyed
the scenes of violence and sedition.
In fact, we know, from new reporting,
that even as lawmakers and people inside the building
were pleading with Trump to send help, he refused.
In fact, his aides couldn't even tear him away from the TV.
-A behind-the-scenes report on the president's activities
during the riot that he helped set off.
Multiple sources tell The Washington Post
Trump was busy watching the violence on TV
and couldn't be reached,
not even by close allies in Congress,
calling him desperately, in fear for their own lives.
-The Post spoke to 15 people
with knowledge of Trump's actions
during those six hours of mob rule
and found Trump to be a man who didn't care,
even as Republican lawmakers begged him to speak out.
-There's new Washington Post reporting.
"'He was hard to reach, and you know why?
Because it was live TV,' said one close Trump adviser"...
-My God, he's worse than Nero.
At least Nero played his own fiddle.
Trump would just call one in.
[ As Trump ] Can we get a fiddler in here?
It's just more fun with the fiddle.
It's honestly hard to articulate
just how sadistic and sociopathic this is.
People were calling and begging him to help
as violent, right-wing terrorists
were ransacking the Capitol,
trying to overthrow the government,
and Trump was watching with all the glee
of Hannibal Lecter digging into a fresh spleen.
In fact, it was apparently even worse than that.
According to The Washington Post,
Trump had not wanted
to include the final instruction
to stay peaceful in his tweet during the riot.
He wanted his supporters to disrupt the counting
of the electoral votes through violence
and, even when his aides managed to get through to him,
Trump refused to help
because he was enjoying it so much.
-He was engaging with aides as this was all going on.
They were interrupting, telling him
that he had to do something.
They were interrupting, telling him
that the Capitol was being overrun by his supporters.
He was well aware of it. He was watching it.
He was pleased because it was people fighting on his behalf.
He was pleased because he liked the scene
and he was pleased because it was delaying
the certification of the Electoral College vote,
and those are the reasons why this happened.
He knew what was happening. He was back and forth
from the small dining room where he watches television
off the Oval Office to the Resolute Desk.
He just didn't want to do anything.
-First of all, "He just didn't want to do anything"
sounds like the back of one of Melania's jackets.
[ Changes accent ] You leave her alone!
[ Laughter ] And her, and her!
Your salacious gossip
stops today!
Second, take that in for just a second.
The president was watching
a violent mob overrun the Capitol
in an attempt to overthrow democracy
and install him as an unelected tyrant,
and enjoying it.
And, even after that, large numbers of Republicans
stood by him in his attempt to overturn the election.
But, guys, Republicans just want unity.
Come on, guys!
They want us all to gather around
in a drum circle, with a Hacky Sack,
pass a joint around, and forget they tried to incite
a violent insurrection against the United States!
That's what Republicans are defending
when they refuse to get behind impeachment.
In fact, as we speak, the FBI is warning
of even more possible violence
in D.C. and all 50 state capitals;
the Washington Monument is closed for two weeks,
due to credible threats of violence;
and the Capitol Police have briefed House Democrats
on three terrifying plots to overthrow the government
and Republicans have responded by doing what they do best --
making themselves the victims.
-Big tech, launching a coordinated
and kind of a preemptive strike on the president,
the First Amendment, many of his supporters --
banning them from social media permanently.
-The big tech companies, in banning not just
-Yeah. -President Donald Trump,
but cracking down on conservative speech.
-Big tech continues to suppress conservative speech.
-I lost, over the weekend, 55,000 Twitter followers.
-Republicans have no way to communicate.
-Imagine that.
You wake up and you're suddenly unpopular
with the wrong person,
and you can't communicate
and you have no legal representation
and you can't fly in an airplane
and you can't put your money in a bank.
-Imagine that.
You take part in one little insurrection
to overthrow the United States government.
Suddenly you can't communicate,
you can't fly on an airplane,
you can't wear sandals to Houlihan's,
and you can't park your BMW across two handicap spots,
even though you're just running into the pharmacy real fast
to get your Cialis.
And you can't go to Red Lobster
and stuff buffet shrimp in your pockets,
even though they're all-you-can-eat.
The sign never specified
when and where you could eat it!
And, when you skip out on the check
and tell the waiter you have a legal right to this shrimp,
based on the Constitution,
[ Bellowing ] a document you have never read,
he chases you down and takes your license plate
and calls 911 and tells them you're a shrimp thief
and the cops come to your house
and confiscate the shrimp from your fridge
and embarrass you in front of your stepson and his friends
while they play "Tony Hawk's Pro Skater" on Xbox
and laugh at you and call you a shrimp dweeb.
And you say, "Stop calling me that, Tyler,"
and then, he and his friends, they push you down the stairs.
Imagine that.
[ Laughter ]
My God!
Are these people whiny, hysterical lunatics
who never miss an opportunity to make themselves the victims,
even after a deadly insurrection at the nation's Capitol.
Like Congressman Matt Gates and Jim Jordan,
two seditionists who aided and abetted
the president's deranged lie that led to this insurrection
and who voted to side with the mob
and overturn the election,
even after the Capitol was ransacked.
Gates and Jordan went on Fox News last night,
not to complain about the erosion of our democracy,
but to complain about Twitter.
-If they can cancel a president with a second impeachment
and what they've done to the president
with the social media platforms,
if they can cancel a president,
imagine what they can do to the 75 million people
who supported President Trump in this election.
That's what's so dangerous.
-These people want to be able to control what we see
and how we behave and, to constrain speech in this way,
I think, is very damaging to the country.
-These two look like a frat guy and a serial killer.
You guys know my friends, Axe Body Spray and Ax.
These fools literally tried to cancel the votes
of 81 million Americans, but, now, they lose
some Twitter followers after a violent insurrection
and they're whining about cancel culture,
pretending to care about unity.
Like Florida Senator Rick Scott, who insisted that Joe Biden,
rather than the current president
or any of the Republicans supporting him,
should be solely responsible for seeking unity.
-If you go talk to American families --
I talk to people of Florida every day --
What do they want? They want a positive message.
Joe Biden should be excited about the fact
that he's going to become the president next week
and should have a positive message,
but he is a hypocrite.
He says, "Oh, I want unity,
but, I want to call my opponents Nazis.
You know, I want unity, but,
if you want to go forward with impeachment,
you know, go ahead."
I mean, this is not what Americans want.
-Dude, go back to your [bleep] milk bath.
What about the 81 million Americans who voted for him?
Do you think what they wanted was for their votes
to be thrown out by a handful of Republican congressmen,
something you tried to do,
even after the mob stormed the Capitol?
I'm so sick of these ass[bleep] calling for unity
after doing arguably
the most divisive thing you can do in a democracy,
and that's overturn an election, doing it after a riot.
And why is it that only Biden is the one who has to seek unity?
Why don't you do something unifying,
like resign or apologize
or start every sentence about tone with,
"No one was more divisive than President Trump
and I see that now and I feel terrible for supporting him"?
Is that so hard?
Or how about Fox host Brian Kilmeade,
who had this to say about how divisive
impeaching an insurrectionist president would be?
-By the way, you know what the theme
to Joe Biden's inauguration is,
and maybe his first four years?
"America United."
Do you know one thing that can guarantee
America won't be united? -An impeachment?
-Having an impeachment trial
on a president that's going to be at Mar-a-Lago.
-I agree. He shouldn't be at Mar-a-Lago.
When it happens, he should be in jail
or, at the very least, stuck in a sand trap,
as the only golfer in a canceled tournament.
[ As Trump ] Some help me crawl out of this thing.
Tiger! Rory?
Phil!
Dorf! Oh!
[ Laughter ] Oh, I knew you wouldn't forget me, Dorf.
Give me your hand. Oh!
No, no, stop!
Don't throw more sand on me, Dorf.
Oh, no, not you, too, Dorf!
Oh, no!
I love "Dorf on Golf,"
but you know what's really funny?
"Dorf on Insurrection."
[ Laughter ]
Also, you know what else guarantees
America won't be united?
Inciting a riot to overturn an election.
How about you guys look inward and take some responsibility
and express maybe a scintilla of regret for your role in this?
Maybe that would help foster unity.
I mean, I don't think we're ever going to be friends,
but maybe we could be roommates
who don't like each other, but cohabitate,
thanks to passive-aggressively writing our names on food.
These guys are like cheating husbands,
who get sued for divorce and then say, "What?!
You want half my stuff?!
This should be a time for unity and healing.
It's not my fault your sister's hotter than you."
The president gleefully incited a deadly, insurrectionist riot
to overturn democracy, refused to do anything about it,
then insisted that his speech was appropriate,
and, instead of taking even an ounce
of responsibility for that,
Republicans are making themselves the victims,
as they always do.
The only way to stop this is
to demand accountability,
remove Trump from office, and try him for sedition.
It won't be too hard to find him.
Just put out a bulletin for...
-A president that's going to be at Mar-a-Lago.
-This has been "A Closer Look."
♪♪
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