-The GOP is intent
on using the power of the state
to punish critics and suppress votes
as one of their former rising stars, Matt Gaetz,
faces an intensifying investigation
in which authorities seized his phone last winter.
For more on this, it's time for "A Closer Look."
♪♪
The Republican Party is currently
in the political wilderness.
They've lost the presidency
and both houses of Congress
and their previous standard bearer
never once cracked 50% approval.
Meanwhile, the Biden administration
is winning high marks and polls on its COVID response,
its early slate of executive orders, and the economy,
which is why Republicans
are desperately grasping for ways to attack him
and ending up with some very bizarre critiques.
-John Cornyn tweeted what, now, we know is a quote
from a Politico piece about Joe Biden...
And he goes on to say...
-You got him!
He's not tweeting and saying commentaries
about Arnold Schwarzenegger's "Apprentice" ratings
or retweeting suggestions that Osama bin Laden
might still be alive -- a real thing Trump did.
So the only conclusion we can reach is
that there must be a secret cabal
of antifa deep state socialists who are really running things,
while Biden sits around
having normal thoughts with his normal brain.
Republicans are obsessed
with the idea that Biden is a puppet,
when Trump was like a Muppet,
they introduced on "Sesame Street"
to teach kids about impulse control.
[ As Cookie Monster ] Where all my cookies go?
[ As Trump ] Sorry, CM.
I ate 'em all. [ Laughter ]
These guys actually think Americans want
a president constantly tweeting psychotic,
all-caps stuff at 3:00 am about having his wires tapped,
and screaming at reporters on the White House lawn
with a helicopter whirring in the background
like it's the final scene in "MASH."
Second "M-A-S-H" reference in two days!
Come on, TikTokers, bring on your remixes.
If you could do it for sea shanties,
you can do it for Alan Alda.
And, with all due respect to Jeremy Renner,
that'll always be my Hawkeye.
Oh, he didn't have arrows,
but he always had a quiver full o' quips.
Say what you will about the guy, Biden keeps it simple.
Yesterday, for example, he was asked about his decision
to finally withdraw troops from Afghanistan.
Now, if reporters had asked Trump that question,
they would've gotten a 10-minute answer
that somehow wound its way to the time
he met Marlo Thomas at Elaine's.
[ As Trump ] "That Girl."
What a show.
She hated me and you know what? [ Laughter ]
She was right.
[ Laughter ] A lot of evidence out there
that I'm a bad guy.
But when Biden was asked the question, he was very direct.
A solemn moment and a direct answer.
Reporters who cover the White House
probably have to figure out what to do
with all the leftover space in their notepads.
When they were covering Trump's White House,
they probably couldn't distinguish
between their notepads and their dream journals.
"Did I fall asleep reading e.e. cummings again?"
So that's one reason Biden's numbers are higher
than Trump's everywhere, not to mention the fact
that Biden's policies are more popular.
And, as a result, Republicans are stuck
complaining that Biden doesn't tweet enough.
And, as the Cornyn comments show, Trump may be gone,
but Trumpism, as an ideological project,
as well as the performance of Trumpism,
are very much ascendant within the Republican Party.
As we speak, the GOP is actively trying to use
the power of the state to punish anyone who disagrees with them,
the latest example being Major League Baseball.
-Three Republican senators are looking
to put pressure on Major League Baseball
after it decided to pull the All-Star Game out of Georgia,
the league making the move to protest
Georgia's controversial new voting law.
Senators Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, and Josh Hawley
are introducing legislation today
to eliminate a nearly century-old
antitrust exemption for Major League Baseball,
as a way of punishing the league.
-So the America First crowd is going after America's pastime.
What's next, you guys going to try
to cancel blue jeans and pickup trucks?
Oh, right, I forgot.
Cruz already canceled blue jeans.
Yikes!
[ Laughter ] He really puts the "dung"
in "dungarees." [ Laughter ]
I have to say, it's especially surprising
that Ted Cruz is going after baseball,
given that he has the beard
of a 40-year-old journeyman pitcher
on a 1986 Topps card.
[ Laughter ]
Wearing a uniform from 1918.
[ Laughter ]
So Republicans want to use the power of the Senate
to punish anyone who criticizes them.
They're also plotting to steal the presidency and Congress
without actually winning elections.
That's what all these
voter suppression bills are designed to do.
For example, you might remember
when Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani
flew around the country,
trying to convince state legislatures
to overturn their election results, or when
Trump advisor/underground lab assistant Stephen Miller claimed
that states Biden won were sending
so-called alternate slates of electors
to Washington to vote for Trump.
-We have more than enough time
to right the wrong of this fraudulent election result
and certify Donald Trump as the winner of the election.
As we speak today, an alternate slate of electors
in the contested states is going to vote
and we're going to send those results up to Congress.
-Obviously, as we explained at the time,
alternate slates of electors aren't a real thing,
though, I bet Steven Miller tried to use
an alternate slate of electors in high school,
to get voted Most Charismatic, instead of Most Likely
to Chase Down an Iguana on an Episode of "Planet Earth."
But the important point is Republicans are now trying
to make that fake thing real.
They're actually trying to pass laws
that would allow them to subvert election results in their states
and award Electoral College votes to a candidate who loses.
They're not saying that outright, of course,
but the actual text of these laws
definitely opens the possibility.
-We just lived through a president who tried
to overturn those results, specifically, in Georgia
and there are concerns this new bill
would allow, potentially, for more chicanery.
As you well know, reading from The New York Times,
just a brief summary, it says,
"beyond the provisions on the voting" --
that's up until Election Day --
"the new law risks making election subversion easier,"
including appearing to go directly
after some of those officials,
like the secretary of state, who drew Trump's ire precisely
because they did their jobs in a nonpartisan way.
-It gives state election officials
more power to intervene in county elections.
State leaders are now able to appoint or remove
local election officials.
-It's obvious what's happening here.
They just want to make it easier to do, next time,
what they tried to do last time.
If you wake up to find your roommate
holding a pillow above your head
because you heard his shoes squeak on the floorboards,
don't relax when he goes out and buys slippers.
This is all motivated by the unhinged lie
that there was widespread fraud in the 2020 election,
which there was not, and one of the loudest champions
of that lie was Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz,
who was supposed to be one of the leaders
in the next wave of Trumpism in the GOP.
Gaetz objected to the lawful counting of electoral votes,
even after the January 6th insurrection,
and claimed that, despite the Trump campaign
losing dozens of court cases,
they were actually proving that there was fraud.
-Election fraud really requires two things.
One, a very large pool of unaccounted-for ballots
that aren't attached to a human;
and then, second is the rapid processing of those ballots.
Then, they exclude the observers and then, they just wrap
those polluted ballots into a broader universe,
and I think that is where we're proving the fraud.
-None of that makes sense.
I can't even follow the syntax or the metaphors.
A large pool of ballots,
and then they wrap the pool of ballots
into a broader universe of ballots?
What does any of that mean?
You sound like a tour guide at MoMA, trying to describe
a Dalí painting you're seeing for the first time.
"So, uh, you know, the bricks are wrapped inside the, um,
lake. Uh, the lake, of course, represents
time? I'm sorry I got confused.
I thought this was the museum with all the big bony things,
whatever they called. You know."
Now, as we've been telling you,
Gaetz is under investigation
for alleged sex trafficking
involving his wingman,
the former Seminole County tax collector Joel Greenberg,
who's been charged with 33 counts
and is reportedly cooperating with authorities,
including offering information on Gaetz
and, every day, we get new details about the investigation.
-A source familiar with the case
confirms Greenberg told investigators details
about how he and Gaetz would pay women for sex
with cash and gifts, in possible violation
of prostitution and sex trafficking laws.
According to receipts reviewed by CNN,
Gaetz and Greenberg used digital payment apps,
including Venmo, to send hundreds of dollars
to at least one woman who attended these parties.
-Politico has revealed
the explosive news that federal agents
executed a search warrant
and seized Gaetz's phone this past winter.
-I'm no lawyer, but it can't be good when they seize your phone.
No one's happy to have their phone seized.
I don't even like it when I show someone a picture
and they grab the phone out of my hand
and then I have to mutter,
[ Shakily ] "Don't scroll, don't scroll,"
[ Laughter ] until I get it back.
I'm not even happy when my wife asks me to use mine.
"You want to tell me what this is?"
Uh, YouTube clips of old "M-A-S-H" episodes.
[ Laughter ] "I thought you said you were working!"
I am working!
The "M-A-S-H" references are the most popular part
of "A Closer Look"! [ Laughter ]
You are being a real Charles Winchester.
[ Laughter ]
Chances are pretty high that, if you've broken the law,
there's evidence of it on your phone,
especially since Gaetz was reportedly using a cash app
and Venmo to make payments to his indicted buddy.
Used to be, when politicians broke the law,
they stuffed an envelope full of $100 bills
and met their contact in a parking garage.
Now, they just Venmo a buddy with an emoji
of an envelope stuffed with cash.
We also keep finding out more
about what these dudes were up to
and what kind of parties they were hanging out at.
-Now, we have learned these parties were held
at a house in a gated community in suburban Orlando.
The women we spoke with said, when some of the women arrived,
there were rules.
For example, the first thing some of them were asked to do
is put away their cellphones.
Now, one of the women told us the attendees included
a who's who of local Republican officials
and often included Congressman Gaetz,
and these men just did not want
their activities at these parties being documented.
And we're told folks mingled and shared drugs,
including cocaine and ecstasy.
-If they ever make a Florida version
of the board game "Clue,"
"gated community in suburban Orlando"
should be one of the locations,
right next to "animal sanctuary in Tampa."
You know, my grandmother used to say,
"Nothing good ever happens after midnight,"
and I'd say the same is true about anything that happens
at a party in a gated community in suburban Orlando
where they make you give up your phone.
"Well, they probably don't want us to use our phones
to Google answers for what I'm sure will be
a night of trivia games.
Oh, cocaine!
Looks like it'll be a late night."
[ Laughter ] As a general rule,
never go to a party in a gated community in suburban Orlando
where they make you give up your phone.
Orlando's for two things --
going to theme parks
or buying exotic fish from an unlicensed dealer
who works out of the back of a pet food store.
"I got piranhas, lionfish, snakeheads,
and, for another $100, I'll throw in this bad boy."
[ Laughter ] We're also learning more
about a trip Gaetz allegedly took,
which are also under scrutiny by the feds,
and who he traveled with.
-CBS News has learned that investigators
are scrutinizing a trip Congressman Matt Gaetz took
to the Bahamas with this man,
Jason Pirozzolo, a marijuana entrepreneur,
Orlando hand surgeon, and donor to Gaetz.
-CBS News reporting that Gaetz's trip to the Bahamas
is part of a federal probe
into the sex trafficking allegation.
Here's a little bit of it...
-An Orlando hand surgeon/ marijuana entrepreneur.
Man, Florida never disappoints.
I'm shocked Gaetz wasn't also buds
with an alligator named Rick,
who sold CBD oil on the Miami Beach boardwalk.
And, now, the heat on Gaetz is intensifying,
to the point where Republicans don't know how to respond.
Yesterday, House Minority Whip Steve Scalise
was asked about Gaetz
and stammered his way through an answer.
-Well, you know, we've heard a lot of stories.
I mean, obviously, I've read the media reports,
but, there's been nothing that we've seen, yet,
from the Department of Justice.
If something's going on,
obviously, we'll find out about it.
You know, right now, it seems hard to speculate on rumors,
but, you know, if something
really formal happened from Justice,
we would, of course, react and take action.
-It's so funny to watch Republicans get flustered
by questions about Gaetz,
after they let him take center stage for so long.
[ As Scalise ] Look, we -- I don't know the facts,
but if the, you know, the allegations
about, uh, ecstasy-fueled house parties
with the dude who was later indicted
for sex trafficking and flights to the Bahamas
with the marijuana-loving hand surgeon are true,
then, yeah, you know, I --
I think we might, you know, we might do something.
We'll do something about it, right?
And, as for Gaetz, he continues to maintain
the whole thing is a setup egged on by the media
and, in particular, he got into a heated exchange
with a CNN reporter as he left the Capitol on Tuesday.
-Well, I think you can read my essay
in The Washington Examiner.
I think you can check out the work
that your network has done to propagandize lies about me.
I think that really ought to concern you, Manu.
You've always considered yourself a real journalist,
but that doesn't strike me as real journalism. -What about the
updates from today? -Are you concerned about the
House Ethics investigation?
Are you going to cooperate with the investigation, sir?
-I'd say, along with getting your phone seized,
being chased down a flight of stairs
by a crowd of reporters and getting hustled
in the back seat of a waiting car
isn't a sign that things are going great.
That's classic corrupt-politician stuff.
No one ever, in that situation, is in it for a good reason.
"Sir, sir, can you tell us how you cured cancer?"
I didn't cure cancer!
Stop spreading lies about me!
Now, if you'll excuse me,
I have to be rushed into this unmarked van.
This is the state of the modern GOP,
an authoritarian movement
intent on dismantling democracy and suppressing dissent.
Gaetz was supposed to be one of the leaders
of the next wave of Trumpism
and, now, like so many others in Trump's inner circle,
he's found himself in legal hot water.
Who knows what'll happen to him?
But, if he does get taken away by the feds,
I hope we can send him off like this --
[ Rotors whirring ]
[ Johnny Mandel's "Suicide Is Painless" plays ]
♪♪
[ Laughter ]
You know what it's been.
[ Laughter ]
♪♪
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