-Donald Trump made it clear this weekend
that he is leading a pro-coup movement
intent on dismantling American democracy.
First he promised to pardon the January 6th defendants
if he wins in 2024
and then admitted in a statement
that he wanted Mike Pence to overturn the 2020 election.
For more on this, it's time for "A Closer Look."
[ Cheers and applause ]
For a year now, Trump and his cronies
have insisted, ludicrously,
that January 6th was not an insurrection
and that all they were trying to do is follow the law.
At one point, Trump even referenced a debunked theory
that Thomas Jefferson had supposedly used his power
to make himself president.
-Mike, had he had the courage to do what Thomas Jefferson did
but a minor version?
You know, Thomas Jefferson, he kept Georgia.
You know that? He didn't send it back.
There was a dispute.
"Hear ye, hear ye, the great state of Georgia
is unable to properly calculate its votes."
Thomas Jefferson was sitting where Mike was.
Right where Mike -- You know what he said?
"Hear ye, hear ye, we will keep the votes
of the great state of Georgia."
He didn't send it back to the legis-- No.
All I wanted and a lot of people wanted Mike to do
is send them back.
-He's never read a single book in his life,
so all he knows about the founding fathers
is they said, "Hear ye, hear ye."
He probably thinks those powdered wigs
were their real hair.
"I asked my barber to give me the George Washington.
When I looked in the mirror, I said, 'Mario,
you've done it again.'
[ Laughter ]
Hear ye, hear ye to you, Mario."
Also, you never want to hear the words "hear ye, hear ye"
with that accent.
He sounds like a used-car salesman doing a commercial
for a Presidents' Day sale.
"Hear ye, hear ye.
Come on down to Bobby Badabing's!
Buick of Bay Ridge.
Our prices are so low, every time we sell one,
it's a Thomas Paine in my ass.
Oh!"
But one thing you can always count on with Trump
is that eventually he'll tire himself out
and just confess.
He can't help it. He just blurts it out.
He did it with collusion. He did it with Ukraine.
And that's exactly what he did over the weekend
in a statement where he admitted he wanted his vice president,
Mike Pence, to overturn the election.
-Former President Donald Trump all but admitting
he tried to overturn the 2020 election,
which he so decisively lost.
Here is a statement that he just put out.
"If the Vice President, Mike Pence,
had absolutely no right to change
the presidential election results in the Senate,
despite fraud and many other irregularities,
how come the Democrats and RINO Republicans,
like wacky Susan Collins,
are desperately trying to pass legislation
that will not allow the vice president
to change the results of the election?
Actually, what they are saying is that Mike Pence
did have the right to change the election,
and now they want to take that right away."
And this is key. He added here in the statement,
"Unfortunately, he didn't exercise that power.
He could have overturned the election."
-There's no crime Trump could commit
that he wouldn't later confess to.
He just exhausts all the excuses until he decides,
"Screw it, I'm guilty, baby."
If it had been him instead of OJ,
the quote would have been, "The gloves don't fit,
but you don't need gloves to stab a guy."
[ Laughter ]
But this is how it always is with him.
He stuns you by confessing
and then hopes we'll just shrug and let it go.
It's like if in one of those crime dramas
starring Hugh Grant the cops went to his house
in the first episode all amped up and ready to grill him
and he just said, "Oh, yes, I did murder my mistress.
Frightfully -- Frightfully sorry.
It won't happen again."
Then they'd have to say, "Well, then I guess you're free to go."
So Trump is now admitting
he wanted to overturn the election,
which, of course, resulted in a violent insurrection
that has so far produced more than 700 arrests.
And earlier this month, the most serious charges yet
were filed in that investigation
when members of a right-wing militia
were charged with seditious conspiracy.
-11 members of the far-right anti-government
extremist group the Oath Keepers
have been charged with seditious conspiracy.
-The leader of the far-right extremist group the Oath Keepers
is due to appear in federal court.
Stewart Rhodes is one of 11 defendants
who the Justice Department
charged with sedition on Thursday
for their involvement in the January 6th insurrection.
-Sedition is a very serious charge,
especially for a group with a name
is dopey as the Oath Keepers.
That sounds like a company that sells purity rings
to high schoolers in Utah.
But one meeting someone sent a message to the others that said,
"Someone can tell me if I'm crazy, but..."
You are.
Oh, wait. Sorry. There was more to that.
Let's go back.
Ugh. I mean, I think we've all been there, right?
You know, you're about to lay violent siege to the Capitol
and worry that having two backpacks
will make you look stupid.
The police I can handle.
The fashion police, on the other hand...
Listening to these seditionist morons
talk about accessories is like listening to the Joker say,
"Is the purple suit too much?
I mean, aren't I already saying the same thing
with the green hair and the clown makeup?
I'm just so over this."
Also, what do you mean a backpack for regular use?
Are you also going to night school?
"Yeah, I'm just doing malicious stuff for now,
but eventually I want to do air conditioner repair."
Or is regular stuff snacks and waters?
And if so, just a tip.
If you have one backpack for ammo and another for snacks,
make sure they look totally different.
"Hey, man, can you toss me a KIND bar?"
"Sure thing." "No, grenade!"
"Why'd I pull the pin on a KIND bar?"
These dangerous idiots genuinely seem
to think of themselves as revolutionaries.
At one point, according to the indictment,
someone pitched a plan to use a boat to cross the Potomac,
although clearly they hadn't really thought it through.
I can. Oh, sorry. Again, there was more.
Let's go back.
First of all, how many people in an Oath Keepers conference call
have a boat on their trailer?
I would assume all of them.
I mean, that's like me walking into my writers' room
and asking, "Hey, does anyone here have coffee breath
and crippling anxiety?"
[ Laughter ]
The issue isn't no one having a boat.
It's far more likely no one having a boat
that's good at sneaking up on people.
They probably all have those big-ass fan boats
you drive illegally in the Florida Everglades
looking for snakes you can trade online for Bitcoin.
I'd love to see one of those
do a Potomac crossing in the dead of night.
"Remember, the element of surprise is essential.
Keep your voices to a whisper, and success shall be ours.
Now let's push off."
[ Engine rumbling ] "Oh [bleep]
Turn it down."
Also, I love how that sentence starts.
"Can't believe I just thought of this."
They're planning a violent coup to overthrow American democracy,
and they sound like they're booking a layover in Dallas.
"Honey, I can't believe I just thought of this.
Why don't we stay with my Aunt Ida for a few nights?
What do you mean she's crazy?
Because she has two backpacks?
But what is for regular stuff and one is for coup stuff.
Oh, so now coups are crazy."
Anyway, these guys were all charged with sedition,
the most serious charges yet in the investigation of the coup.
And apparently, if Donald Trump gets his way,
he'll pardon those people, a new promise he announced
at another one of his unhinged rallies over the weekend.
-If I run and if I win,
we will treat those people from January 6th fairly.
We will treat them fairly.
And if it requires pardons, we will give them pardons,
because they are being treated so unfairly.
-Man, it is pretty sickening to see a crowd full of people
cheer for the January 6th insurrectionists.
Like, at some point, you just have to admit
this is a pro-insurrection movement.
If you're at a party and someone starts doing cocaine
and someone else says, "Hey, can I get some of that cocaine,"
and then someone else says, "I went to the bank on the way here
to get new $100 bills for us to snort that cocaine,"
you might turn to your spouse and say,
"I think we're at a cocaine party."
"Oh, maybe it's not just a cocaine party.
Maybe there's some other stuff.
Hey, Marty, is there a cheese board?"
"Oh, bro. I can't even think about food right now."
Yeah, it's a cocaine party.
Also, you guys need to make up your minds.
Was January 6th a false flag staged by the FBI?
Was it infiltrated by antifa,
or were they pro-Trump patriots who deserve pardons?
Because for a year now, pro-Trump liars in the GOP
and on Fox News have been claiming
that either antifa or the FBI or both
were actually responsible for the violence on January 6th.
-Some of the people who breached the Capitol today
were not Trump supporters.
They were masquerading as Trump supporters
and, in fact, were members
of the violent terrorist group antifa.
-There are some reports that antifa sympathizers
may have been sprinkled throughout the crowd.
-We don't know who all were the instigators in this
of these horrible things that happened today.
I think a lot of it is the antifa folks.
-There could have been FBI assets, federal assets
that really animated the violence.
-It's been clear for a while now that the Department of Justice
probably had some role in the events of January 6th.
It's obvious.
-The rumor is that even possibly antifa insurrectionists
possibly could have infiltrated some of these movements
and maybe instigated some of this.
-Oh, is the network called Fox Rumors now?
Tucker's set should be a row of high school lockers.
"The rumor is Becky's cousin's friend's sister's boyfriend's
uncle's nanny's roommate's husband's chiropractor
is a member of antifa.
And if that's true, isn't it possible
that the dog did eat my homework?"
[ Laughter ]
Also, you may have noticed Sarah Palin in that montage.
Man, it's nice to see her back
when she was just spreading misinformation
instead of potentially spreading COVID
in New York City restaurants.
Can you imagine you were as careful as you could be,
got your shots and your booster,
and you finally decided to venture out
and overpay for dinner in a wooden shack in the bus lane
and you get COVID from Sarah Palin?
[ Laughing ] Oh, man. Only in New York.
Anyway, the point is,
these people can't even get their story straight.
And Trump has even been singling out some of the kooks
and weirdos who advocated for the coup at his rallies.
For example, you might remember that MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell
met with Trump at the White House,
holding notes that said something
about declaring martial law.
And at his rally over the weekend,
Trump singled out Lindell for praise.
-He's no longer the pillow man. He sells everything.
[ Cheers and applause ]
Mike Lindell.
I think he's the single greatest purchaser of advertising
I've ever seen.
I said, "Mike, I don't care how many pillows you sell,
and now you're selling slippers and sheets.
You're selling everything."
I said, "I don't care."
You can't afford that much advertising.
I think -- You know what he does?
He waits till the show is just ready to go on,
any empty slot, he says,
"I'll give you $200 for it," to Fox.
-Just what that crowd was there for --
the details of strategic ad buying.
[ Laughter ]
Man, I'd hate to be working the ad sales phone
when Lindell calls mid-show.
"Hello?" "This is Mike Lindell.
And it looks like Hannity is about to go to commercial,
and I want the slot."
"We usually sell those a few months out."
"Do you want the 200 dollar bucks or not?"
Also, I love how blown away
Trump is that the guy who sold pillows
branched out to slippers and sheets.
It seems like it should be a little more out there
to get that level of amazement from Trump.
"He's not just the pillow guy anymore.
He sells everything -- crossbows,
snake food, X-rated snow globes.
You love those.
You're in for a treat when you shake one of Mike's globes.
The snow moves around, and what you see --
you can't believe what you see."
[ Laughter ]
Still, it's exciting that Lindell is doing slippers now.
If they're as comfortable as his pillows,
it probably sounds like this when someone wearing them
walks through a room.
[ Clanging ]
[ Laughter ]
You know, you buy them for spouses
you think are sneaking out in the middle of the night
for affairs.
[ Clang ]
"Honey, are you going somewhere?"
"Uh, just to the bathroom.
No-good stinking slippers."
"Honey, come back to bed." "Okay."
[ Thud ] "Whoa [bleep] pillow."
[ Laughter ]
I think that qualifies as a play.
Think I just did a play.
[ Laughter ]
Can it get a Tony if it's on TV first?
[ Laughter ]
Well, look into it.
It doesn't get any clearer than this.
Trump is confessing that he wanted
to overturn the 2020 election
and promising to pardon the rioters if he wins in 2024.
It's openly a pro-coup movement.
They're publicly declaring that they're going to try to do
the exact same thing next time.
The only way they could announce their intentions
any more clearly is that they started every sentence with...
-Hear ye, hear ye.
-This has been "A Closer Look."
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