-A bombshell new report alleges
that GOP members of Congress and Trump administration staffers
had planning sessions with organizers
ahead of the January 6th rally
that led to the insurrection at the Capitol.
Meanwhile, human insurrection Marjorie Taylor Greene
got into yet another shouting match
with colleagues on the House floor.
For more on this, it's time for "A Closer Look."
[ Cheers and applause ]
After four years of Trump, I feel like our barometer
for what counts as a scandal is a little off.
Trump generated too many controversies to count,
so we just moved on.
For example, no one seems to remember or care
that on top of everything else he did,
when Trump was president, the White House accepted
at least 83 separate gifts from Saudi Arabia, including...
I guess that means they hacked his Amazon wish list.
Were they under the impression that our president
was the drug dealer from "Boogie Nights"?
My only regret is Trump never showed up to a rally
wearing all of it at once.
[ As Trump ] I killed this cheetah myself.
Oh, he was fast, but I was faster.
Ran him down. Ran him down and skinned him.
Of course, my favorite cheetah -- Chester.
We love Chester Cheetah, don't we folks?
With the high-top sneakers and the cool sunglasses.
First time I met Chester was in '89 at CBGBs.
And he walked up to me and he lowered those shades.
He lowered them down to the tip of his chin and nose.
As he said to me, "Sir."
I'll never forget what he said to me.
He said, "Sir.
It's not easy...being cheesy."
Truer words.
[ Normal voice ] And seriously, who thought
giving Donald Trump a dagger was a good idea?
The second he unwrapped that, I bet he started
running around the White House Rose Garden like this.
-Let me see what you have. -A knife.
-No!
-Melania, had to call up whoever it was
that was dumb enough to send it.
"Yep, nope.
Yep, Melania, we understand now
that was not a smart gift to send the president.
Look, we're just glad everyone is okay.
We promise the next time we will be best.
Is that right?"
So all kinds of crazy [bleep] flew under the radar
during Trump's presidency.
Meanwhile, here's a very real story about President Biden
that Politico thought qualified as news last week.
He swears a lot.
The man -- The man is 78.
I think he's old enough to curse.
I'm in my 40s
and I curse that much just getting out of a chair.
And are we in high school?
Was this gossip delivered next to an open locker?
"Did you hear, Joe Biden said the word..."
Of course -- Of course Joe Biden curses.
Nobody says "malarkey"
unless they're trying really hard not to say "Go get [bleep]"
The guy's from Scranton,
which is a place for people not fancy enough for Philly.
"Scranton" even sounds like a curse word.
"Hey, get off your ass and do some work,
you Scranton dip-[bleep]"
He lives in Delaware. Have you ever been to Delaware?
When you get off the Amtrak in Wilmington,
it's almost impossible not to say, "Oh [bleep]"
I have cousins in Delaware,
and we have multiple Delawareans on our staff,
so I can make those jokes,
knowing full well that the next time I see them,
they will tell me "[Bleep] off."
It's like how they express love.
I do wish we'd see more of this version of Joe Biden, though.
Sometimes the soft-talkin' Joe can be a little unnerving.
He's like a grandpa in a dystopian YA movie
who won't admit how bad things are.
[ As Biden ] It's okay. We're going to be fine.
We're out of food, but I think I can talk some sense
to the Council of Authorium.
No one here is gonna have to compete in the Death Olympics.
No one.
[ Normal voice ] I'd rather Joe just came out guns blazing,
flipping people off at town halls,
challenging Jake Tapper to an arm-wrestling match.
Just be the grandpa who goes to Lowe's
and finds out the cost of propane went up $1.50.
That's the first time I ever heard the words "horse [bleep]"
and "kiss my wrinkly old ass" in the same sentence.
But I get his frustration.
Everyone's frustrated with everything.
You can just feel it.
People are mad and tired
after a year and a half of being cooped up inside
and Republicans being nutjobs
and corporate Democrats making things difficult
just because they can.
Everyone's exhausted. Everything's exhausting.
Former President Obama made that point during a rally in Virginia
for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe
over the weekend.
-Look, I know a lot of people
are tired of politics right now.
I -- Listen, I'll make a confession.
I never watch political shows.
Michelle and I, when we're at home, you know, I'm reading.
She's watching HGTV, maybe the food channel.
-Only Obama could get away with a joke like that.
If I ever said that about my wife,
I'd get an icy stare so haunting,
it would stay with me for the rest of my life.
I'd have to change stream mid-conversation.
"Well, I'm the reader in the family.
This one's always "Keeping Up With --" Dow Jones.
She's very good with money. I just spend it.
But she makes sure we save for the kids' future."
But I guess Obama's just working on some new material,
because ever since he left the White House,
he's always peppered some stand-up comedy
into his speeches, and he did the same in Virginia,
referencing the fact that the GOP candidate for governor,
Glenn Youngkin, has refused to say
if he personally supports same-sex marriage.
-I mean, I understand why people just feel kind of like,
"Oh, when's this gonna end?"
And sometimes politics in Washington
feels that way, right?
It's like, are we still arguing about gay marriage, really?
I thought that ship had sailed.
[ Stammering ]
I thought that was pretty clearly the right thing to do.
[ Stammering ]
We've got Republicans across the country who said,
"Yeah, of course,"
and we're going to reopen that can up?
What?
-I love -- I love when stand-up Obama comes back.
Someone get that man a brick wall and a cordless mic.
He must be working on material for his new Netflix special,
"Barack O-No-You-Didn't!"
[ As Obama ] [ Stammering ]
What's the deal with cellphones on airplanes?
You're telling me I could call Beijing from, uh, Air Force One
but JetBlue won't let me play "Candy Crush."
[ Laughter ]
I guess the, uhhhhh, only thing they want crushed
is my kneecaps...
when the dummy in front of me...
leans his seat back.
Let's see. What else? What else?
[ Normal voice ] Alright, Obama's in Virginia
because the race for governor is tight there
and Republicans are already preparing
to call any Democratic victory in that state stolen,
just like they did with the 2020 election.
In fact, former Trump aide Steve Bannon
has already said as much, and last week he invited
MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell back on his podcast
to float yet another weird claim about supposed voter fraud --
You can find fraudulent votes in parking lots.
-Either McAuliffe is going to lose
or it's going to be so tight, right?
You got this thing in Fairfax
where they're trying to steal it already
because the Biden administration has collapsed.
-The really interesting part is you can pull a household.
If you pull a household that has five people or below,
it's usually very accurate, about almost 100%.
You go there, yes, all five voted, all five live there.
You get up to six up to --
it can go all the way as high as 300.
But let's say you have 20 people living in this household
and you look -- or this house and you look on Google Maps,
'cause the computer pulls it up, it's a little single dwelling.
Now you go out there
and you find out only two people live there,
but they used all the other 18 people's names
that they pulled there.
Empty parking lots.
I mean, you name it, it's on there.
-You know, I'm starting to worry that Mike Lindell
is neglecting his pillow business.
"No, I'm sorry. Mr. Lindell isn't in right now.
He's on his hands and knees in the parking lot
looking for votes.
But, yeah, sure, I can take a message.
Okay. Lumpy.
Smells wet. Got it. Anything?
Scratching sound coming from the inside."
[ Laughter ]
Also, I love how long his explanation is,
and all it comes down to is "You go on Google Maps."
It'd be like your doctor saying, "We're going to take blood,
run a full set of tests, get you the MRI,
and then when we have all the data, we ask Jeeves."
Seriously, what the hell is Lindell talking about?
Does he think people are committing voter fraud
because they're getting mail for old tenants?
Because if you live in New York, that's just how it works.
I didn't vote 18 times, but I still get mail
at my apartment for 18 different people.
I just got a telegram addressed
to someone named Lois Pearlmutter
inviting them to a "save Penn Station" fundraiser.
Joke for the Jane Jacobs fans.
[ Laughter ]
Republicans are not abandoning Trump's war on democracy.
They're embracing it, which is why it's all the more important
that we get to the bottom of what happened
after the last election
before Republicans try to steal the next one,
especially after bombshell new allegations
reported by "Rolling Stone" yesterday
in which several GOP members of Congress
are accused of holding dozens of planning sessions
with the organizers of the January 6th rallies
that ultimately led
to the violent insurrection at the Capitol.
-A January 6th bombshell.
"Rolling Stone" magazine reporting
that organizers of the Capitol rally that day
had been promised a "blanket pardon"
by a U.S. congressman.
-"Rolling Stone" reports Arizona congressman Paul Gosar
gave protest organizers the impression
that he had spoken to then-President Trump
about the pardons for an unrelated investigation.
-The organizers said they allegedly spoke to
"a dozen U.S. representatives or their teams."
They named Representative Paul Gosar
and Representative Andy Biggs of Arizona,
Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene
of Georgia,
Representative Lauren Boebert of Colorado,
Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina,
Louie Gohmert of Texas, and Mo Brooks of Alabama,
all Republican congressmen and -women.
Right now, we don't know what was discussed
with each representative by those planners.
But the organizers gave "Rolling Stone" an example
with Representative Gosar,
who's saying he offered them the possibility
of receiving a "blanket pardon"
to motivate them to plan the rallies.
-Geez. Everyone was in on this. Was Lindell there, too?
[ As Lindell ] I found a fake ballot
in the parking lot of a CVS.
This guy voted three times for someone named Trojan Magnum.
[ Laughter ]
[ Normal voice ] Blanket pardon sounds like the kind of made-up
fake legal things these doofuses would say.
It's a weird feature of our politics
that the most sinister characters
are also the biggest morons.
You could just imagine Paul Gosar
or Marjorie Taylor Greene on the phone
with the January 6th idiots
huddled in their weird little militia hideout/treehouse,
promise them all kinds of crazy [bleep]
"You didn't hear from me,
but I spoke to the chief wizard of the Supreme Court,
and he said there's a secret provision
written by Benjamin Franklin's ghost,
and it says you can have a blanket pardon,
a private plane, and a $100 gift card to Golden Corral."
And if you don't remember Paul Gosar,
he's the guy who's so crazy,
six of his siblings famously endorsed his opponent,
and he recently claimed that secret sources
inside something called the CIA fraud department
told him the election was stolen.
-Here's what he said about two weeks
before Republicans in his state announced they had found nothing
but additional votes for Joe Biden
in their bogus and expensive audit of election results
in Arizona's most populous county.
-We can do that and follow through on this audit.
Folks, if it's what I've been told,
and I had people come to me early hours of the day after
from the Security Exchange fraud department
to the CIA fraud department,
that between 450,000 and 700,000 ballots
were altered in the state of Arizona.
-First, the CIA fraud department --
not a thing, doesn't exist.
-Exactly.
The greatest trick the CIA fraud department ever pulled
was convincing the world they didn't exist.
Gosar does seem like the kind of guy who's on the phone
with other fraud departments a fair amount.
"Well, the thing is, someone from your bank e-mailed me
for my Social Security number.
So I do think you're responsible for my identity being stolen.
Who from your bank?
Your mascot, Chase-ter Cheetah.
He's not your mascot?"
Again, this is the fun thing, right?
Like, when there's no audience,
you're like, "Yeah, Chester Cheetah's gonna kill.
We'll call it back.
They'll carry me out on their shoulders."
And then the show ends and we go back in the dressing room
and we're like, "That callback worked."
And they're like, "Yeah, yeah."
Now -- Now we're finding out, you guys, we are --
We're finding out, in a way...
[ Cheers and applause ]
In a way, you are the CIA fraud department.
[ Laughter ]
And you just exposed that joke.
[ Laughter ]
And it also wouldn't surprise me
if Marjorie Taylor Greene was involved in all this.
She, of course, was a vocal backer of Trump's "big lie"
and the ensuing attempt to overthrow the election results.
And last week, when the House voted
to hold Steve Bannon in contempt
for refusing to comply with the subpoena,
she got into yet another shouting match
with some of her colleagues.
-Yesterday, we saw conspiracy theorist
and Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene,
Republican of Georgia,
approach and accost Congresswoman Liz Cheney.
-This happened during the debate
over the criminal contempt referral of Steve Bannon,
and Taylor Greene walked behind Congresswoman Liz Cheney
and Congressman Jamie Raskin during that debate
and basically accused them of making too much out of this
and saying that they were focused on the wrong things.
It delved into a shouting match on some level
between the three of them
and Liz Cheney actually calling Marjorie Taylor Greene a joke
and bringing up the fact that she had talked
about Jewish space lasers at one point,
a claim that Greene very much denies.
-Greene yelled back that she never said that
and called Cheney a joke.
-It's not great when you start a confrontation with someone
and have to end it by insisting
you never claimed wildfires were started by Jewish space lasers.
It's getting harder and harder to articulate
just how unhinged the right has become.
They're now claiming they're vindicated
by everything from secret sources
inside fake CIA fraud departments
to proof of voter fraud found in empty parking lots.
And they're not going to stop. They're doubling down.
And new reporting continues to link them
directly to attempts to overthrow our democracy.
These people need to be told, in no uncertain terms...
-No!
[ Laughter ]
Didn't see that one coming. This has been "A Closer Look."
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