-It has now become clear in the post-Trump era
that the core ideological principle
that binds the Republican Party together
is its contempt for democracy
and its commitment to the deranged lie
that the 2020 election was stolen.
For more on this, it's time for "A Closer Look."
[ Theme music plays ]
The Republican Party has attempted to rebrand itself
in the post-Trump era
as some sort of populist pro-worker party,
which is, of course, ludicrous,
'cause it's all just a [bleep] rebranding exercise.
It's the only thing ever cared about -- branding.
For example, he repeatedly claimed
throughout his presidency that he was taking on
the drug companies to lower prices for Americans,
including in his farewell address
just before leaving office.
-Last month, I took on Big Pharma.
The drug companies don't exactly like me too much lately.
Big Pharma.
And the drug companies hate me.
[ Cheers and applause ] They don't like me.
Big Pharma is not a big fan of mine.
And the drug companies, Big Pharma,
does not exactly like your favorite president,
I will tell you, but that's okay.
Essentially we're holding Big Pharma accountable.
I don't need Big Pharma. They don't help me.
We have Big Pharma against us.
We created choice and transparency in healthcare,
stood up to Big Pharma in so many ways.
They do not like me this much. It's big --
They call it Big Pharma. -Sometimes I think he says
"they call it" because he wants to get credit
for teaching you a thing you already know.
Other times, I think he says it because he doesn't want you
thinking he came up with that name.
"They call it Big Pharma, but I call it --
wait for this -- Phony Pharma,
with Fishy Pfizer, Mad Moderna,
and of course, worst of all, Jerkson & Jerkson.
Of course, that promise turned out to be empty.
All he did was sign a few meaningless executive orders
and promise legislation that never came.
In fact, after he himself got COVID during the campaign,
he announced that he would make the experimental cocktail
he received in the hospital free for all Americans --
a promise that suspiciously disappeared
after he made it.
-I have emergency use authorization
all set, and we got to get it signed now.
I want to get for you what I got.
And I'm gonna make it free. You're not gonna pay for it.
I want everybody to be given
the same treatment as your president.
Because I feel great. I feel, like, perfect.
-Well, you look perfect, too. I wonder how he's doing now?
Aah! Oh. He looks like he drowned
in the water hazard on the 18th hole.
When Ted Cruz flew down to Mar-a-Lago,
die he meet with Trump or the ghost of Trump?
Also, anytime a con artist like Trump
promises to give you something for free,
you should be skeptical. I'm sure,
at the end of that lunch, Trump stuck Cruz with the check.
"$600? All I had was a coffee,
and he put his fingers in it twice."
The point is, Trump pretended he was a warrior
against Big Pharma, but, of course, it was all a lie.
Meanwhile, yesterday the Biden administration
actually did take on the pharmaceutical industry
with a historic and shocking move
that surprised almost everyone and will do immense good.
-U.S. trade representative Katherine Tai
delivered lifesaving news today,
when she announced the Biden administration's support
for lifting intellectual property protections
for coronavirus vaccines.
The waiver would allow developing countries
to access the information
to produce their own generic vaccines
instead of waiting months or years
for adequate supply from the pharmaceutical companies
that developed the vaccines.
-Moderna stock is taking a hit. It's down 8% now.
Of course, it dropped yesterday on the news
after the market closed, but this is really affecting
all of these companies in the vaccine space.
If you look at Novavax, which is expecting Phase 3 data
here in the U.S. soon for its COVID vaccine;
CureVac, which is another mRNA player,
which is expecting data soon;
BioNTech, of course, which is Pfizer's partner --
all of these stocks down about 7% to 9%
on this patent news. -Wow.
Joe Biden, scourge of Big Pharma.
Who would have thunk it? Although, to me, it makes sense,
because Biden does have the energy of a grandpa
who refuses to take over-the-counter meds
and insists a swim in the lake will cure his back pain.
"In my day, if you had a backache,
you ate some ground liverwort and rubbed some vinegar on it.
And if it got really bad,
you went down to Dr. Bonkers' medical wagon
and drank some of his magic elixir.
It didn't have no Tylenol or ibuprofen in it.
Just straight whiskey and cocaine."
But it's truly difficult to underscore
just how monumental and historic this is.
With one decision, Joe Biden sent Big Pharma stock prices
plummeting and put people's lives over profits,
and he didn't make a big, flashy Rose Garden announcement
or film a weird video where he's standing near the bushes
outside the White House like he lost his keys
and is waiting for his wife to get home.
"Yeah, I know there's a plastic rock with a key in it.
But it looks like all the other rocks.
Yeah, well, they should make one that says 'key' on it."
Biden just did it.
Honestly, he should make a big, flashy announcement.
That's the one thing Democrats are bad at.
They like to be boring. And I get it.
After four years of nonstop heart palpitations,
I think we're all craving some boredom.
But Democrats should also be out there telling voters
they're the ones really sticking it to Big Pharma
while Donald Trump and Ted Cruz hang out at Mar-a-Lago.
Or the lobby of a Radisson. I can't tell.
And another thing -- it's amazing and revealing
that it's this easy to just waive the patent protections
on a lifesaving vaccine and save lives.
Why can't we do this for other medicines, like insulin?
Because insulin prices are a national disgrace.
A patient paying roughly $175 for a vial of insulin
15 years ago might pay nearly $1,500
for the same dose today, and that's horrifying.
It's a lifesaving medication, not a rare Beanie Baby.
The price of insulin shouldn't rise more
than the price of Pokémon cards,
which -- true story -- are skyrocketing right now
for reasons I do not fully understand.
But the bottom line is, you need to dig through
your closet at your parents' house ASAP
and see if you have a 2002 Charizard,
because if you do, you could be rolling in cash right now,
my friends. I went back
through all my Pokémon cards, and all I had was
a bunch of worthless Rattatattas --
Tattas -- Rattata-tatas.
[ Laughter ]
Rattata -- Rattata-tatas.
I -- I didn't collects them,
and I don't know what these words mean.
[ Laughter ]
And a 1983 Rollie Fingers. There we go.
And by the way, presumably, a big part of the reason
this happened is because of pressure from progressives
and activists on the left pushing the Biden administration
to do the right thing, which is how it should be.
On the right, it goes in reverse.
The GOP doesn't push Trump. Trump pushes the GOP.
And remember, Trump is not even in government.
He's a retired semi-Amateur golfer
living in a weird, gothic swamp hotel
with a bunch of Palm Springs radiologists
and Russian spies, and still working Republican politicians
have to constantly debase and humiliate themselves
just to please him, which is why
they all make the sad pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago
to genuflect to him like Cruz did,
or like Kevin McCarthy did a few months back.
Remember this? Looks like when
the star of a movie takes a picture with his stuntman.
"The movie is about a group of old bank robbers
with young wives, who decide to go for
one last score and rob the Taj Mahal.
I play Big Red, the sexy one."
It's also why Rudy Giuliani shows up
outside of landscaping companies,
screaming about nonexistent voter fraud
and then has to keep his mouth shut
when Trump stiffs him. "Boss, I need the cash.
I'm at an ATM, and nothing's coming out."
"Rudy, that a claw machine.
Oh, boy, Rudy, you done it again."
"Wait, maybe I can grab enough Beanie Babies to break even.
Come on, Rudy. Oh, you got this.
Damn it! Alright, give me a brick!"
So, clearly, Republicans have no interest
in actual pro-worker populism.
They're just authoritarians, who desperately crave power,
which is why their sole ideological commitment,
the core of their movement,
is the lie that the 2020 election was stolen
from Donald Trump, and now they're purging
from their leadership anyone who disagrees with them.
Wyoming Congresswoman Liz Cheney is just the latest
and most prominent example.
-Do you believe she needs to go?
And if so, who should replace her?
-Yes, she definitely needs do go, and the speaker the right.
We are a pro-America populist party
rooted in conservative principle,
with Donald Trump as our leader.
You can't have a Republican conference chair
reciting Democrat talking points.
You can't have a Republican conference chair
taking a position that 90% of the party disagrees with,
and you can't have a Republican Party chair
consistently speaking out against the individual
who 74 million Americans voted for.
-First of all, Jim Jordan, either dump the suit
or wear a jacket. You always look like you're
begging Alec Baldwin for the "Glengarry" lead.
Second, the Democrat talking points
you're referring to are just reality.
Think about how deranged what he's saying is.
"We can't have leaders in our party who believe in reality."
It's like if I instructed my staff
not to question my Vince Vaughn impression,
even though I now conduct all meetings as Vince Vaughn.
"Buddy, buddy, buddy, this sketch is not working.
It breaks my heart to say it, but it's true.
You got to cut it in half and add more jokes.
Now, if you make those changes, will I do it on the show?
Probably not. I have a reputation to maintain.
But give it your best shot, okay, pal?"
"Alright, geez, man, relax." [ Laughter ]
Again, now I think... [ Laughter ]
Now I think the cold has really brought it out.
I think the worst thing that will happen
when my cold goes away is the reversion
to the poorer Vince Vaughn impression.
And again, I don't wanted to side with Liz Cheney.
She's a pro-war torture apologist
who supported Trump in 2016
and helped make the modern GOP what it is today.
I feel B.J. Hunnicutt speaking up
in support of Charles Winchester.
[ Laughter ]
But she's not being punished for any of that.
She's being punished for simply stating reality.
The GOP's fealty to a corrupt and deeply unpopular
ex-president who never won the popular vote,
never cracked 50% job approval, and who fomented
a violent insurrection to overturn the election
shows you just how deep their contempt for democracy is.
Rather than actually appeal to a majority of voters,
they'd rather just rig the game so they always win.
That's what they're doing right now
with all these voter-suppression laws.
They're just trying to codify Trump's big election lie
and make it canon. that's what happened
this morning in Florida, when Governor Ron DeSantis
signed a law making it harder to vote by mail or drop box.
And in a bizarre and deeply unnerving move,
the bill signing was exclusively aired on Fox News,
with other media outlets barred from entering the room.
-Governor Ron DeSantis just signed
a controversial voting bill into law.
But you may have missed that happening live,
because local media were not allowed inside the event.
Instead, the governor opted to only allow
one national news outlet to cover a bill signing
that would impact the voters in the state of Florida.
All voters. -He signed the bill
from West Palm Beach, live on Fox News.
-What are you about to sign? -So, right now, I have
what we think is the strongest election integrity measures
in the country. I'm actually gonna sign it
right here. It's gonna take effect --
[ Cheers and applause ] So, here we go.
The bill is signed. -Well, I'm sure it's bipartisan
if they're signing it exclusively on Fox News.
It's like your spouse saying they have something to tell you
and they want to do it live on "Maury."
They love to pretend these are
so-called nonpartisan election integrity bills.
But signing it live on "Fox & Friends"
really gives the game away, doesn't it?
Like when a loan shark knocks on your door
with two goons on either side, you know what he's there for.
"I got your money! I swear!
I just have to get it out of the claw machine!"
It's truly shocking to see the actual business of government
turned into a right-ring cable-news exclusive,
and on "Fox & Friends," no less, the dumbest of Fox shows.
Which is saying a lot.
It's like livestreaming emergency heart surgery
on "eBaum's World," right next to videos called
"Top Ten Skateboard Fails" and
"Dude Poops His Pants in a Del Taco."
The GOP has attempted to rebrand itself
as a populist pro-workers party, but it's all a giant fraud.
All they really care about is dismantling democracy
and purging anyone who disagrees with the unhinged lie
that Donald Trump actually won the 2020 election.
They don't care what it means for you
so long as Trump can say... -I feel great.
-This has been "A Closer Look."
[ Theme music plays ]
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