-The committee investigating the coup attempt on January 6th
held what could well be its final
investigative hearing today
in which they took the dramatic step
of voting to subpoena Donald Trump.
They also hinted at possible criminal referrals
for key figures involved in the coup
and revealed damning new evidence from the Secret Service
corroborating key details about the insurrection.
For more on this, it's time for a closer look.
[ Cheers and applause ]
Just minutes before we came out here to tape the show,
the committee concluded its hearing
with one of its most stunning developments yet.
They voted to subpoena Donald Trump himself.
-That concludes what may be the committee's final
public hearing or meeting at least
before the midterm elections.
Their closing argument, if you will,
and it ended in dramatic fashion
with the committee voting, as you just heard,
to subpoena former President Trump
to come testify before them.
-On this vote, there are nine ayes and zero nos.
-The resolution is agreed to.
-Now, they subpoenaed him,
but can you imagine Donald Trump complying with a subpoena
from the January 6th committee?
Watching him testify before Congress would be insane.
He'd go on all sorts of insane rants and attack people.
It would be like casting an actual lion
in "The Lion King."
[ Laughter ]
Yeah, it was cool for a second,
but then he clogged Rudy Giuliani's face off.
[ As Giuliani ] It's okay, boss.
I don't need a face anyway.
I'll just draw on a new one.
So...
[ Laughter ]
Again, this news broke late, guys.
Our our graphics team --
So it'll be fascinating to see what happens
with the Trump subpoena.
But it was definitely necessary
because as we've said many times before,
the reason why it's so important
to investigate the last coup attempt,
because the next one is already underway.
In fact, Trump still reminisces publicly
about January 6th as if it was a good thing.
Over the weekend, he campaigned in Nevada
alongside the GOP candidates for Senate
and the governor there, who, it should be noted,
both eagerly accepted his endorsement
and who are actively touting their support for Trump.
And during that rally,
Trump compared the size of the crowd of the event
to the one that stormed the Capitol on January 6th.
-Nobody ever had crowds like we've had.
In the history of our country, nobody's ever had crowds --
You know, the biggest crowd I've ever seen?
-Texas!
-January 6th. [ Cheers and applause ]
-And you never hear that.
It was the biggest.
And they were there --
They were there largely to protest
a corrupt and rigged and stolen election.
It's the biggest crowd, and you never hear that.
And you see very few pictures of it, but they're there.
That was the biggest crowd I believe I've ever spoken to.
-There's never been better proof
that Trump isn't watching the January 6th hearings
than him saying, you see very few pictures of it.
Dude, they're showing pictures of it all the time.
Also, I know I'm just the talk show host,
but can I enter that last video clip of Trump
as a piece of evidence?
Because I'm pretty sure what we just saw there,
that's a confession.
And sure, I could just point this out
to someone who's actually a lawyer,
but I would love to be the one to enter the evidence myself
in an actual courtroom, because then I could do my
Southern lawyer character I've been working on.
I'd wear a white suit and I'd say something like,
[ Southern drawl ] "Apologies, Congresswoman Cheney,
but I do declare this man is guilty
and I have the smoking gun to prove it.
I have in my position a video tape, and I --"
[ Laughter ]
At this point I will pause for scattered gasps.
[ Laughter ]
For this is a video tape of --
[ Laughter ]
of the defendant's own confession.
[ Normal voice ] And then there'll be, you know,
rumbling in the crowd and the judge bangs gavel
and say "Order in the court" and the defense counsel,
they'd be like, "Objection! Where did you get that?"
And then I would dramatic -- There would be dramatic music
and I would say,
[ Southern drawl ] "Well, I got this.
[ Laughter ]
This video tape?
Oh, I'll tell you where I got it.
I got it from a C-SPAN!
[ Dramatic music plays ]
[ Applause ]
[ Inaudible ] ...to rest this case."
[ Applause ]
[ Normal voice ] But let's stop again and reflect on that.
Trump's out there on camera in front of a microphone
bragging about the size of the crowd,
at an attempted violent coup for which he is under
multiple criminal investigations currently.
This is like if during his trial,
O.J. was also doing ads
for a leather apparel company with the slogan
"When I do a hit, I like to wear gloves fit."
[ Laughter ]
It's like that. That is what it is like.
So that's why it's crucial
to investigate what happened on January 6th
and hold the people responsible, accountable.
And that brings us to today's hearing
where the committee revealed new evidence,
including Secret Service records,
corroborating much of what we already knew,
that Donald Trump was aware
of the threat of violence at the Capitol,
and intentionally stoked it in an attempt to stop congressmen
certifying Joe Biden as president.
-Since the committee ended their last hearing,
the Department of Homeland Security
turned over a mountain of new evidence,
as you pointed out, over a million different documents --
a lot of other emails,
Microsoft teams and communications
between Secret Service agents
and other administration officials.
-Wait, you're telling me the Secret Service
and the Trump White House used Microsoft teams?
I'm willing to bet everything I have that Donald Trump
is one of those guys who accidentally meets himself,
except he talks so much you would never hear anyone else
telling him to unmute.
"Mr. President, we have warnings from the Secret Service
there will be violence on January 6th."
[ mimics being on mute ]
[ Laughter ]
"Mr. President, you need to unmute yourself."
[ Mute continues ]
[ Laughter ]
"Oh, God, no.
I think he's talking about how windmills kill birds again."
[ Mute continues ]
[ Laughter ]
[ Cheers and applause ]
"Oh, I don't want to watch anymore.
Let's just end this thing."
Now, you might remember.
You might remember in the last hearing,
one of the many stunning revelations
was about Trump's actions after his speech in January 6th.
Before the riot, Trump wanted to personally go to the Capitol
to lead the insurrection himself.
And according to sworn testimony
from former Trump aide Cassidy Hutchinson,
Trump even went so far as to assault a Secret Service officer
and try to take command of his presidential vehicle
to drive it to the insurrection himself.
Now, a few days ago, Trump denied that story,
while also simultaneously insisting
that if it was true, it would make him look cool.
-If you listen to this one very sick individual,
in order to get the Secret Service
to take me to the Capitol,
I grabbed one around the neck
and I --
and, you know, I almost didn't want to dispute it
because a lot of people said,
I never knew you were that physically tough.
[ Laughter ]
This guy was a tough guy that I supposedly grabbed.
If I grabbed him around the neck,
I think I would have been in serious trouble.
-I mean, you are.
[ Laughter ]
-You are in serious trouble.
You're under like 19 different criminal investigations
and you just got subpoenaed.
But I do know what he means.
He means he would have
physically been in serious trouble.
Not that I think a Secret Service agent,
whatever body slam Trump, I mean, they definitely could,
but they got to know he would sue that [ Bleep ] out of them.
I mean, even if he was fine, you know Trump would start
showing up to press conferences in a fake neck brace
so he could take the Secret Service to court.
[ As Trump ] I apologize,
but I'd only be taking questions from those you
in my direct line of sight.
[ Laughter ]
You know, due to the incident.
[ Laughter ]
[ Normal voice ] I don't think it would take much
for a Secret Service agent to subdue Donald Trump.
You probably only have to, like, hold his nose closed
for 5 to 10 seconds.
And because he won't stop talking,
he passes out from lack of oxygen.
[ As Trump ] You messed with the wrong president,
you son of a --
[ Laughter ]
[ Normal voice ] He's out.
It'd be like that thing where your sugared-up nephew
thinks it's funny to hit you so you just hold his wrists
and wait for your sister to look up from her [ Bleep ] phone
and do some parenting for a change.
Abby!
[ Laughter ]
But thanks to new communications revealed today by the committee,
we now have proof that the Secret Service
was communicating in real time
about whether they could stop Trump from going to the capital,
and leading our mob as he attempted
to violently overthrow the government.
-One of the committee's newly obtained documents
shows that sometime between 1:30 and 2:00 p.m.,
a senior Secret Service supervisor
for protective operations
emailed Trump's Security Detail leader Bobby Engel
with an urgent update seeking to know of Trump's plan
to go to the Capitol was successfully quashed.
It came after a tumultuous hour for the Secret Service detail,
which had effectively ignored a command from the president,
which was to go down to the insurrection.
Even with Trump back at the White House,
Secret Service headquarters wanted to be sure
the president was staying put.
-That's right. The Secret Service ignored
a command from the president to go to the Capitol
to lead the armed mob.
And then they communicated back and forth
about whether Trump's plan had been successfully quashed.
I really wish we could see
all those specific text messages.
The committee also made clear to point out
that the evidence they provided so far has not been partisan.
In fact, most of it has been provided by Republicans
and people close to Donald Trump himself.
-All this evidence come almost entirely from Republicans.
The evidence that has emerged did not come from Democrats
or opponents of Donald Trump.
Instead, look at who's written and testified
and produced evidence. Who has that been?
Aides who've worked loyally for Donald Trump for years.
Republican state officials and legislators.
Republican electors.
The chairwoman of the Republican National Committee.
Political professionals who worked at the highest levels
of the Trump campaign.
Trump appointees who served in the most senior positions
in the Justice Department.
President Trump's staff
and closest advisers in the White House.
Members of President Trump's family.
-That's right. Even Trump's own family
provided damning testimony about the attempted coup.
There were text messages from Don Jr.
There was video testimony from Ivanka.
There was even appearance from that ghost
Trump befriended during an audition --
[ Laughter ]
an audition for the movie "Smile,"
which neither of them got cast in
because they're just not capable of smiling.
The best Jared Kushner is capable of
is making a pained sneer,
like he just smelled one of Trump's KFC farts.
[ Laughter ]
Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson also mentioned
that some of the testimony came from Trump allies
who did not necessarily want to testify
but ended up complying anyway.
-And I want to be clear,
not all these witnesses were thrilled to talk to us.
Some of them put up quite a fight.
But ultimately, the vast majority cooperated
with our investigation.
-Oh, they put up a fight, all right.
In fact, Rudy Giuliani even tried
swinging a golf club at us,
but he got tangled up in his super long khaki golf short.
So we had to untangle him.
But then he got his head stuck in the golf shorts,
so we had to bring in the Jaws of Life
to cut him out of the shorts.
But then it turned out he had a second pair
of even longer shorts under the first pair of shorts,
so then we had that -- we just let him go home.
And then, in an especially attention-grabbing moment,
the committee hinted at the possibility
of holding some of the figures involved
in the coup criminally accountable.
-We've received new witness testimony,
including about efforts to obstruct
our investigation and conceal key facts.
And according to public reporting,
the Department of Justice has been very active
in pursuing many of the issues identified
in our prior hearings.
Our committee may ultimately decide
to make a series of criminal referrals
to the Department of Justice.
-You might end up making criminal referrals?
What else has to happen to make a criminal referral?
I mean, if only we had Donald Trump on video
inciting a riot or, I don't know,
bragging about the size of the violent crowd
he whipped up to storm the Capitol
and overthrow democracy.
And if only we had a cunning, amiable Southern lawyer
brave enough to show up to the hearing
and present the court with the "vidja" tape.
[ Dramatic music sting ]
[ Cheers and applause ]
Shoemaker, send it to NBC.
I think they're gonna pick up "Southern Lawyer."
[ Laughter ]
I also -- "Chicago Southern Lawyer."
[ Laughter ]
I also think one of the most notable
revelations in the hearing today
was the fact that Trump actually admitted privately
to several of his aides that he knew he lost
and decided to lie to his supporters
and the country anyway
in order to orchestrate his violent coup.
-At times, President Trump acknowledged
the reality of his loss,
Although he publicly claimed that he had won the election,
privately, he admitted that Joe Biden
would take over as president.
Here's a few examples of that.
-So, we're in the Oval,
and there's a discussion going on.
And the President says,
I think it could have been Pompeo,
but he says words to the effect of,
"Yeah, we lost. We need to let that issue
go to the next guy," meaning President Biden.
-I remember maybe a week after the election was called,
I popped into the Oval
just to, like, give the President the headlines
and see how he was doing.
And he was looking at the TV, and he said,
"Can you believe I lost to this f'ing guy?"
-Mark raised it with me on the 18th.
And so following that conversation
with the motorcade ride driving back to the White House,
and I said, "Like, does the President
really think that he lost?"
And he said, "A lot of times he'll tell me that he lost,
but he wants to keep fighting it.
He thinks that there might be enough to overturn the election.
But, you know, he -- he pretty much
has acknowledged that he -- that he's lost."
-That's right. Trump admitted multiple times in private
that he had lost and even said at one point of Biden,
"Can you believe I lost to this [bleep] guy?"
Trump being shocked that he lost is like your dad being shocked
that the Motorola flip phone
he still has gets [bleep] service.
"I can't hear a word you're saying.
This thing sucks. Here. Talk to your mother."
"I'll call you on my phone. Bye."
[ Laughter ]
So Trump knew that he lost.
He concocted an elaborate lie to save himself from embarrassment.
In fact, he said as much when the Supreme Court rejected
his last-ditch attempt to overturn the results.
Private Secret Service messages and testimony
from former Trump aide Cassidy Hutchinson
revealed that Trump was embarrassed he lost
and wanted to cover it up.
-On December 11th, Trump's allies lost a lawsuit
in the U.S. Supreme Court
that he regarded as his last chance at success in the courts.
A newly obtained Secret Service message from that day
shows how angry President Trump was about the outcome.
Quote, "Just FYI -- POTUS is pissed.
Breaking news -- Supreme Court denied his lawsuit.
He is livid now."
Cassidy Hutchinson, an aide to chief of staff
Mark Meadows, was present for that conversation
and described it in this way.
-The President just raging about the decision and how it's wrong
and why didn't we make more calls
and just his typical
anger outburst at this decision.
And the President said -- He --
So, he had said something to the effect of,
"I don't want people to know we lost, Mark.
This is embarrassing.
Figure it out. We need to figure it out.
I don't want people to know that we lost."
-First of all, I like that even the Secret Service was saying,
"Yikes, this dude is pissed.
You think the Secret Service is completely silent
with no personality whatsoever,
but it turns out, they're actually huge gossips.
"Oh, my God. Did you hear Donald Trump
totally chewed out Rudy at the meeting today?
He also came up with a new nickname for Mike Pence.
He called them Mike...
[ Quietly ] ...Penis."
[ Laughter ]
So Trump knew he lost and was just embarrassed,
so we decided to concoct an elaborate
lie about supposed fraud
and orchestrate a violent scheme to overturn the results.
You know, you'd think at this point
Trump would be used to being embarrassed.
This is a man who, let's not forget,
once got on Air Force One with toilet paper
stuck to his shoe
and went outside looking like this.
He looks like he heard a rumor the Democrats were hiding
fake ballots in microwaves,
so he stuck his head inside one to investigate.
"No ballots in here. All I found is a frozen burrito.
Where is the burrito?
I regret to inform you it is gone."
[ Laughter ]
"I ate the burrito." [ Laughter ]
Today's hearing provided yet more evidence
that Trump knew he lost and concocted an elaborate lie
to stay in power.
He orchestrated a violent coup,
and if we don't hold him and his cronies accountable
for this one, he's just gonna do it again,
because as today's hearings brew,
Donald Trump is one...
-Very sick individual.
-This has been "A Closer Look."
♪♪
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