Breaking news tonight.
Striking revelations and
allegations from James Comey. Comey accusing the president of lying and defaming him.
>> With all eyes now on James Comey,
President Trump is doing his best to distract.
>> As a magician, one of the first things we study is that the larger movement
always hides the smaller movement.
>> And in a rare afternoon tweet storm trying to shift the focus to his former
rival Hilary Clinton.
>> Politics and magical performance have quite a bit in common.
They are both an attempt to manipulate on some level, our perceptions.
>> I think that he clearly is upset over all of the talk about
his administration's ties with Russia and he is trying to turn the conversation.
>> We end up becoming like dogs and cats, we just follow the red ball.
>> The tricky thing here is that audiences probably don't recognize
that this is happening.
Okay, here we go.
Magicians when they begin a performance will direct your attention to, for
example, a top hat that's empty, or look up my sleeve, nothing up my sleeve,
or look at this deck of cards.
And that's where the sleight of hand comes in.
>> Tonight, President Donald Trump green lighting one of his most controversial
campaign promises,
signing an executive action to enact what he calls "extreme vetting."
>> [CROSSTALK] >> What
they're also doing in that moment is making sure your attention isn't focused
on anything else they're doing or anything else that might be happening on the stage.
>> Well meanwhile, Donald Trump signed another executive order on Saturday,
one that gives this person,
Steve Bannon a permanent seat at National Security Council meetings.
>> You ever see magicians kind of like toss a silk into the air,
everyone's going to look because this hand is moving so fast so
they're able to do something sneaky with the other hand and produce something.
I shouldn't be telling you these things.
>> Steve Bannon, a white nationalist, essentially.
>> Similar ways politicians will begin by saying,
this is who I am, this is what I'm about.
This is what my opponent's about, this is what we call exordium.
>> My father was a small businessman.
He worked really hard, he printed drapery fabric.
>> You're defined by your courage.
That's how I grew up.
>> You set up the facts and the frame and the association in the minds of
the audience that's most conducive to them being persuaded.
>> You go in gently.
Can you see the bottle cap?
I'm going to make it disappear, I'm going to make it disappear.
And they watch it, they watch me put the bottle cap in my pocket and then,
you know...boom.
>> My grandfather Finnegan is rolling over in his grave when Donald Trump says,
I don't pay any federal income tax that makes me smarter than you.
>> Another trick that the President employs is repetition.
The way he repeats certain words or phrases or associations.
>> The press is so dishonest.
Many are terrible and they are very dishonest people.
They're very bad people.
>> So what makes this routine so
fascinating to me is that people get lost in the repetition of the trick.
>> You know what that's called, dishonest media.
That's called dishonest reporting.
>> This association, whether or
not we agree with it intellectually on a subconscious level, gets made.
Yet, another trick is showmanship stage craft.
Everything from the suitcase, my vest, my hat, is all geared towards one thing.
Having the audience have enough opportunity to make connection of
who I am as a person, what I'm about to do and what's gonna happen.
I think about it like chess, like they're always five steps ahead.
>> We're going to drain the swamp of corruption.
Funny how that term caught on, isn't it'? I tell everyone: "I hated it."