-One of Donald Trump's former election lawyers
pled guilty and agreed to cooperate with Georgia
prosecutors in a major blow to Trump's defense.
Meanwhile, another key player in the January 6th coup attempt,
Jim Jordan, as of this taping,
still lacks the votes to become speaker,
leaving the House GOP in chaos and causing a backlash
from fellow Republicans and Fox News pundits.
For more on this, it's time for "A Closer Look."
♪♪
There was a major development today
and one of the four criminal cases against Donald Trump.
And before we move on,
I just have to say it's still shocking
that when discussing a former president
I have to say "one of the four criminal cases"
and you don't even know which one I'm talking about.
It could be the election interference case,
the stolen documents case, the hush money case,
the Georgia case, or because the news is so insane
there could be some other criminal case
you totally forgot about, like the investigation
into what the hell he's hiding under that bulky jacket.
[ Laughter ]
Looks like a grandpa trying to sneak a bunch of kids
into an R-rated movie.
"You haven't seen 'Porky's' till you've seen it
on the big screen!
[ Laughter ]
Oh, keep it down while I get us some popcorn."
[ Laughter ]
Well, today's breaking news
involves the election interference case in Georgia
and specifically one of Trump's former lawyers
and co-defendants, Sidney Powell.
You might remember her from her mugshot,
where she looks like she just realized
the kid from "The Sixth Sense" saw her.
[ Laughter ]
"Oh, shoot, I'm dead people?"
Or you might remember Powell
from that infamous press conference
she held with Rudy Giuliani shortly after the election,
the one where it looked like A1 steak sauce
was dripping from his skull.
Not that we want to imply that anything
that comes out of Rudy's head is A1.
[ Laughter ]
Powell made a bunch of completely
unhinged claims like these.
-What we are really dealing with here
and uncovering more by the day
is the massive influence of communist money
through Venezuela, Cuba,
and likely China in the interference
with our elections here in the United States.
The Dominion Voting systems,
the Smartmatic technology software,
and the software that goes in other computerized
voting systems here as well, not just Dominion,
were created in -- in Venezuela
at the direction of Hugo Chavez
to make sure he never lost an election.
-Do you think when Trump was watching that,
he said, "oh, [bleep] it takes my lawyer a full minute
to get a cap off his water?
[ Laughter ]
Are you seeing this?
It's taking him a full -- a full [bleep] minute."
[ Laughter ]
The other craziest thing about that clip
is the leopard print.
I mean, she looks like she's about to raise hell
at a Tampa PTA meeting.
"I don't know why I would call Rosie Revere
an engineer when she's clearly a lesbian."
Although maybe she knew the cops
would come looking for her one day
and her plan was to hide on a couch from the '80s.
[ Laughter ]
So, yeah, Sidney Powell claimed communists in Cuba and China
teamed up with a voting software company
and a dead Venezuelan dictator to steal the election.
What really throws me off, though, is how she says
all those crazy things in such a flat tone.
It's like if you were on the subway
and a guy just turned to you and said,
"Hey, man, I just wanted you to know...
CIA is reading my brainwaves
and using them to guide Russian satellites.
Oops, sorry. This is my stop."
[ Laughter ]
At least Rudy has the decency to scream
when he's being a [bleep] nutball.
-There's no Black America! There's no white America!
There is just America!
Do you think we're stupid?!
You think we're fools?!
Oh, my goodness. All the networks.
Wow!
All the networks!
-It's never good when you turn on the TV
and your lawyer is making the "Oh, God, why?" gesture.
[ Laughter ]
"If the jury says guilty,
I'll just throw my hands up in the air.
Maybe they'll reconsider.
Oh, God, please give me a water bottle that opens easy!
[ Laughter ]
Why have You forsaken me with these tricky bottle caps?
A little bit this way, a little bit that way.
[ Chuckles ]
A little bit this way, a little bit -- It's still on."
[ Laughter ]
But Sidney Powell didn't yell like that.
She had that frightening monotone, like her voice box
was set to "Sling Blade."
True story.
She asked if Trump could pay her
[as Karl Childers] in French fried "potaters."
[Normally] Powell also famously promised to provide
tons of evidence of fraud, which she never did,
and used one particularly memorable phrase.
-It's been organized and conducted
with the help of Silicon Valley people,
the the big tech companies, the social media companies,
and even the media companies.
And I'm going to release the kraken.
-She did...
She did release the kraken.
But unfortunately, the kraken was also indicted.
[ Laughter ]
I wouldn't be surprised if Sidney Powell was saying
she had a literal kraken in in her house.
I actually would love to see a sitcom
about Sidney Powell and a kraken living together,
like "The Odd Couple" or "Perfect Strangers."
They could call it "Kraken Up!"
Well, today, Powell pled guilty in the case
and agreed to testify against any of her co-defendants,
which would, of course, include Donald Trump.
-Sidney Powell, who was one of
Donald Trump's fiercest defenders
going back to spinning conspiracy theories
after the 2020 election,
she's now pleaded guilty to six charges
related to election subversion.
-As part of this plea deal,
she has agreed that she will testify in any future trials,
which raises the possibility
that she could testify against Trump in the future.
-So in exchange, Sidney Powell agreeing to testify
in all future hearings and also hand over documents
and evidence related to this case.
Obviously, given her proximity to Donald Trump
after the 2020 election, that could be pivotal.
-That's amazing. She's going to turn over documents
and cooperate with the prosecution.
Although, how much cooperation
can a person that insane really provide?
What's she going to tell prosecutors?
"These are notes from the meeting I had at the White House
on January 6th with the president,
Rudy Giuliani, the kraken, two pegasuses.
Excuse me, two pegasi. I don't want to --
[ Laughter ]
I don't want to sound like a crazy person --
and the ghost of Hugo Chavez.
We conspired to steal the election
and swore an oath of loyalty
by wearing matching leopard-print sweaters."
And while Trump's legal mess gets worse in Georgia,
the Republicans political mess gets worse in DC,
where after more than two weeks
they still can't agree on a speaker.
The circus has gotten so humiliating
Republicans are openly [bleep] on each other.
We say lots of mean things about Republicans on this show,
but I'm not sure I've ever been as mean to Republicans
as Republicans are currently being to themselves.
Take, for example, Fox News host Brian Kilmeade,
who lashed out at the GOP's embarrassing antics.
-Ultimately, the Republicans hope to get a speaker,
and they hope people will forget by November
that when they had the majority,
they could not -- they could not govern.
Behind the scenes yesterday, it was all about "vote for me
because let's make a deal."
I got a feeling a whole bunch of deals were made yesterday.
-It is -- What a carnival of idiots.
It's unbelievable. [ Laughter ]
-First of all, I'm pretty sure carnival of idiots
was the original title of "Fox & Friends."
I mean, I don't think I've ever called Republicans
a carnival of idiots.
I mean, I've called them unhinged,
oatmeal brain, insurrectionists,
no neck, mutant freak mafia goons who look like
they mistook an electric outlet for a glory hole.
[ Laughter ]
And, yeah, we do use that Rudy photo a lot.
But in fairness, we're using it on our show's merch now.
We're putting it on a shirt in the NBC store.
[ Laughter ]
And yet, even though Republicans
are all aiming their fire at each other,
they're still also finding time to blame Democrats.
Some of them even have the gall to claim that
because Democrats did not vote to keep
Republican Speaker Kevin McCarthy in power,
the whole mess is actually the fault of Democrats,
an argument so dumb it led to this contentious back and forth
with CNN anchor Brianna Keilar.
-The Democrats knew what they were doing
when they put up 208 votes to take him out of the speakership.
And that's what created the current situation that we're in.
So then when we had a conference meeting --
-They didn't take him out of the speakership.
I mean, you guys are -- -Sure they did.
-But you guys -- you guys are the majority, right?
-96% of the votes came from Democrats, though, Brianna.
I mean -- I mean, just factually speaking,
there were only eight Republicans
and there were 208 Democrats.
I mean, 208 Democrats --
-But, sir, who's in the majority?
-Well, the Democrats were the majority of that vote.
And when we have -- -No, who's in the majority
in the House of Representatives?
-The Republicans are in the majority,
but the Democrats provided the majority of the votes
to take Kevin McCarthy out of the speakership.
In fact, they provided 96% of the vote.
-Republicans provided the key votes.
They're in the majority.
They can provide enough votes, obviously,
to put a Republican speaker in place.
-Brianna, the Democrats provided 96% of the votes.
208 Democrats voted to remove
the Republican speaker of the House.
Eight Republicans voted to remove
the Republican Speaker of the House.
-It's some interesting verbal gymnastics,
I will give you that.
But I want to talk about the future here.
-What do you mean gymnastics?
I'm just talking about the facts.
208 Democrats voted.
There were the vast majority of the vote
to take Kevin McCarthy out of the speakership.
-Well, I'm talking about how it works.
-First of all...
I don't know who that guy is,
and I'm not going to learn his name.
He looks like a stock photo of a Republican politician.
Is he in Congress, or is he just the photo
that comes in the frame at Macy's?
Second, watching this interview was like
watching a dementia test.
Like, what time is it?
"Well, the clock is round
and the arrows point at the numbers."
Okay. Yeah, but what time is it?
"That depends on what number the arrow is pointing at."
Yeah, but what time is it now?
"Brianna, at this point, we're just going around in circles
like the arrows on that clock thingy."
She grilled him so hard it ended with her
just checkmating him into silence.
-I'm not sure what -- what I'm missing here with you,
because 208 Democrats voted with 8 Republicans
to take the largest Republican fundraiser
out of the speakership.
This was a pretty calculated decision
by the Democrats. I get it --
-It was -- It was a --
Here's why, sir, because it was a Republican
who filed the motion to vacate.
-It was. It was a Republican that had very,
very personal differences with Kevin McCarthy.
[ Laughter ]
-Alright, so Jordan lost 22 Republicans.
-Man, he just powered down like a Roomba
that ran out of batteries.
I haven't seen someone that deflated
since a tree fell on the air dancer
at my local car dealership.
Props to Brianna Keilar for her tough questioning here,
but it shouldn't be just her.
This is how Republicans should be interviewed on...
-All the networks!
-So now the House remains without a speaker.
With Jordan failing after two votes
and still deciding on whether to hold a third,
some Republicans have been floating a plan
to empower temporary Speaker Patrick McHenry
to run the House.
Right now, all McHenry can really do
as interim speaker is oversee the election of a real speaker
and gavel the House in and out of recess.
And knowing that's all he can do,
he's really going for it with the gavel.
We've played this clip a bunch lately,
so prepare yourself because it is very loud.
[ Explosion ]
This is the state of the Republican Party.
The faraway frontrunner for the presidential nomination
is under four indictments
and the House GOP can't even pick a speaker.
I don't know if they have a plan for what's next,
but if they want to come up with one, they better get...
-Kraken.
[ Laughter ]
-This has been "A Closer Look."
[ Cheers and applause ]