It turns out that Donald Trump might have screwed himself over when it comes to this
classified documents scandal, in more ways than one.
The first one is pretty obvious, don't steal documents.
You crazy, crazy man.
And when they ask for you to give them back, just give them back.
But beyond that, he might have screwed himself over in other ways too.
See, he had someone who tried to help him out, a lawyer,
Christoph Keese, who I believe he paid in advance.
Smart of Christoph Keese to ask for that.
It implies that he's probably one of the smarter lawyers on Trump's team.
Anyway, at one point this is back before the arraignment,
this is back before the special counsel.
He came to Trump and his plan was, he wanted to quietly approach the DOJ to see
if he could negotiate a settlement that would preclude charges.
His idea was that Merrick Garland and the DOJ, under Biden and
Biden himself, they're gun shy.
They don't actually want to arrest another politician from the opposite side.
So he could take the temperature down by promising a professional approach and
the return of all documents.
And in return, Donald Trump does not have to spend the rest of his life in jail.
It seems like a pretty good plan.
But to Donald Trump?
No, because that would require him to not fight and
to give up documents that he is sure are his.
And so, he wouldn't accept it.
He said no.
Some of his other cronies around him in his inner circle told him, yeah,
you're right, you should fight instead.
Don't give in.
And a couple of months later, you have the special counsel.
And fast forward to today, he's facing these charges, and
it's a pretty significant thing.
Now, interviews with seven different Trump advisors say that he misled
his advisors as well.
Telling them that the boxes that remained after he'd given some back to
the National Archives contained only newspaper clippings and clothes.
He just straight up lied to the people he pays to keep him out of trouble.
He repeatedly refused to give the documents back, obviously,
even when some of his longest serving advisors warned of peril and
flew down to Florida to beg him to return them.
Eventually, he returned 15 boxes early last year, he still had 64 more to go.
But he told his advisors, no, I gave them all back,
put out a statement, I already complied.
Just dooming them to potential legal trouble.
Dooming his lawyers, too, who he also lied to.
By the way, John Kelly, who spent quite a bit of time working in the close vicinity
of Donald Trump says, he's incapable of admitting wrongdoing.
He wanted to keep it.
And he says, you're not gonna tell me what to do.
I'm the smartest guy in the room.
Which seems insane.
It seems impossible.
But Donald Trump chooses who's in the room with him.
So, there is still a possibility that he's the smartest guy there.
But anyway, it gets even worse.
But there were people on the inside that were trying to get him to avoid
this whole thing, just focus on the reelection bid.
But he didn't wanna do it.
He wanted the documents more, Farron what do you think of this?
>> I think it's the weirdest development so
far that we have seen in this already very weird story,
because Trump paid Keese $3 million.
Keese has $3 million from Donald Trump paid up front.
And he's, hey, listen, you paid me millions of dollars for
my legal expertise.
Here is my legal expertise.
And then Trump says, that's great, but no,
I'm gonna go listen to the idiot over here that didn't go to law school,
that I didn't pay $3 million to, because he just seems a lot cooler than you.
He's also the same guy that also told me to just say that
the 2020 election was rigged, and that worked out super well.
So I'm totally taking his advice here, too.
>> You wanna explain who that is that you're talking about?
>> Yeah, that is, of course, Tom Fitton,
the guy running Judicial Watch who, again, no legal training.
He's gotta degree in English instead of going to law school, where you
would want somebody to run a group like Judicial Watch should come from.
But he didn't, whatever.
And that's who Trump listened to.
He's got his lawyers, and he did have some competent ones.
I think Keith is a competent one.
And they were telling him, his advisors were telling him, the campaign was telling
him, most of these folks, not all, but, dude, just do this.
Just give them back.
Make it go away.
And by the way, after you do it, we can fill out the paperwork, and
you can probably get them back.
It's as simple as that.
They're just not gonna be in your bathroom for a couple of months.
Can you live with it?
And no, he couldn't, because he is the most stubborn human being on the planet.
And the rest is history, pretty much.
>> Listen guys, when this broke, I was dying laughing.
You gotta be kidding me, this cannot be real.
Any parody from Dave Chappelle or anybody couldn't be this dumb.
It was, this is too far fetched.
No one would ever do that.
And then Trump was, I can, I'll do it.
And not only will I do it, I'll keep doing it.
This is beyond ridiculous, right?
The idea that you're listening to Judicial Watch, not attorneys, but for Trump,
$3 million, $2 million, what is it?
I'll just send an email or I'll just get indicted on some more charges and
raise 7 million more dollars.
Doesn't really matter.
It's dumb Republicans money, right?
He don't really care.
It's this idea Trump don't really pay people anyway.
So, this idea that I can just fundraise off every indictment I'll
just keep racking up indictments, thinking polls are gonna be my way, but
he's going to prison for this.
If you are a prosecutor, you are doing the butterfly.
And for you guys who don't know who the butterfly is,
it's a dance from the 90s that took a lot of energy, but it was so fun to watch.
>> [LAUGH] >> Prosecutors are doing a butterfly with
Donald Trump because it's never a case where everybody you're calling as
a witness is the who's who of the defendant's inner circles.
But every January 6 was like this.
This has been like this.
Every case against him is a who's who of this guy's inner circle.
You have no angle of saying this person wants to hurt Trump for this reason.
Trump is the reason.
And it's beautiful for me.
I love it, going Trump.
>> Let me ask you both, quick reactions.
The theory was, they don't actually want to prosecute him.
They'll take an out if you present it, just give the documents back,
we'll do some sort of little deal.
Do you think that that would have worked?
>> I do 100%, this DOJ did not wanna go after him.
They worked with him for nearly a year to not have to go after him.
They're, here's all the off ramps.
And he's, no, I'm going full speed down the interstate, buddy.
Try to keep up.
They didn't wanna do it.
I still feel like they kind of still don't wanna do it, but he did it to himself.
And Mondale is right, it is hilarious.
This is the funniest thing because it's all rooted in his incompetence and
his stupidity, the two very things that he refuses to admit even exist.
So, we just get to sit back and watch and laugh, because it is very funny.
>> I agree 100%.
They absolutely wouldn't have charged him.
They would have took that onramp and called it a victory, and
it would have been the end of it.
We probably would have never heard of Mar-a-Lago gate, right?
Never, but here's the irony of it.
Trump and Biden are basically equal after the indictment.
Had Trump not done this and not talked about the election being rigged,
he might be 50 points ahead of Biden right now on his reelection campaign.
The irony of being Donald Trump.
>> The irony.
Okay, so thank you for your quick reactions.
I want reactions to this too, because I pondered this earlier today on my
preshow and probably am putting too much mental energy into it.
There's probably nothing there.
But I would like your opinions because Donald Trump decided to
put out what seems like a combination self congratulation as well
as bizarre encryptic attack against those who oppose him.
He put out a message on True Social saying, really big fundraising.
Even greater pose since the radical left indictment hoax was initiated
by the misfits, mutants, Marxist and communists, thank you.
So, I have my theory about what the mutants reference is to.
I don't remember him talking about this in the past.
Is that just a random thing he was going for
like the M alliteration or why are we talking about mutants?
I was waiting until Deadpool Three dropped and
then we can start talking about mutants joining the MCU.
Why are we talking about mutants now?
>> That's actually a really good subtitle for Deadpool Three.
Deadpool Three misfits, mutants, Marxists and Communists.
I think they should totally get on that, but, I don't even know.
This man just seems to have mental breakdowns on social media all day,
every day.
And so, it's so hard to really keep up and
analyze all these things because there's just weird things happening.
It's like a mad libs inside his own brain, and
he gets to fill out the mad libs, and it still doesn't make any sense.
So, we're just watching in real time as his brain crumbles into dust.
And I don't even know what else to say about it.
>> Mondale thoughts.
>> There's nothing to say about it, so we should just not because that is a fact.
>> Sure.
>> His brain is just falling apart, and we're watching,
it's like Kanye West as a white, 70 plus year old white man.
That's all we watch it.
>> [LAUGH].
>> He just needs some cool shoe.
>> Yeah, Donald Trump is maybe the guy with the least athletic experience
in the last half century who definitely seems to have CTE [LAUGH.
It is weird how that works.
Was the apprentice more physical than I remember?
I didn't watch a lot of episodes.
Was he firing people and then tackling them?
I don't know.