-The committee investigating
Donald Trump's coup attempt on January 6th
is preparing to hold its first televised hearing
in primetime on Thursday,
and Republicans, predictably, are already lying about it.
For more on this. It's time for "A Closer Look."
♪♪
[ Cheers and applause ]
The Republican paranoia about voter fraud
has gotten so unhinged
that they're now accusing each other of stealing elections.
In Georgia, for example, Trump and his allies
targeted ultra-conservative Governor Brian Kemp
for the sole reason that Kemp refused to single-handedly
overturn Joe Biden's win in 2020.
Kemp easily defeated his primary opponents last month,
including a Trump loyalist named Candace Taylor,
who came in third and lost to Kemp by more than 70 points.
But MyPillow CEO -- and your -- and your pillow.
[ Laughter ]
MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell looked carefully at the data
and came to the unfortunate conclusion
that something fishy is going on.
-Brian Kemp they put so high up that they wanted --
they didn't even want -- "Why, he got 73%!
How could you take his other votes?"
Well, let me tell you, everybody,
we have preliminary evidence that Candace Taylor,
for every single vote that Kemp got,
he took her -- got their votes, and then Candace got 5% back.
-What? He took her votes and then she got 5% back?
Are you confusing elections with credit cards?
"You get 5% cash back on every vote
and double points on travel and restaurants
and concrete pillows when you choose Capital One.
Capital One -- what's in your wallet?
No, what's in there? What's in there?
Is that a ballot in there? Are you trying to smuggle votes?
What's -- Tell me what's in your wallet!
I'm making a citizen wallet check!"
Trump himself did the same thing
before his preferred candidate for Senate in Pennsylvania.
Dr. Oz won the GOP primary there.
-Fewer than 2,000 votes now separating TV Dr. Mehmet Oz,
who has a slight lead,
and former hedge fund executive David McCormick.
Today, Trump urged Oz
not to wait for all the votes to be counted.
"Dr. Oz should declare victory," the former president said.
"It makes it much harder for them to cheat with the ballots
that they just happened to find."
-Of course, Trump and Oz teamed up to scam people.
They're like the Jordan and Pippen of con artists.
Or maybe the Jordan and BJ Armstrong.
You're no Pippen, Oz!
At this point, I wouldn't be surprised
if Dr. Oz started using Trump to sell his bogus diet pills.
He'd use this same picture for the before and after.
And Trump's supporters would still say,
"You can't argue with the results."
This is where the big lie has led them.
According to Trump and his gang of weirdos,
anyone they don't support is cheating.
This is the lie, of course,
that led to the violent coup attempt on January 6th.
And as the committee investigating that coup attempt
prepares to hold its first nationally televised
hearing in primetime on Thursday,
you'll never guess which
supposed the news network has decided
not to air the hearing live.
Well, I mean, of course you'll guess,
but we're going to show you the clip anyway,
because, like, we had to, like, find it and edit it down
and it was just like really hard work.
So take a look.
-Fox News making a programing decision.
It's sticking with its primetime lineup on Thursday --
Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity.
This is instead of showing the January 6 Select Committee
hearing concerning the Capitol Hill riot.
-It doesn't surprise me that Fox isn't airing the hearings.
Fox is news the same way "The Kardashians" is reality.
Just once, I'd love to see an actual reality TV show,
something called, I don't know, "Man Quietly Eating a Cinnabon
Because He Missed His Connection at LaGuardia."
It's the best reality show set in an airport
since "Former Mayor Shaves While Eating Soup."
[ Light laughter ]
[ Laughter ]
Well, they're having an issue with the machine.
We have a machine that helps the jokes.
[ Laughter ]
Hey! [ Laughs ]
[ Cheers and applause ]
Thank you, Machine!
[ Laughter ]
I'm sorry I crossed you, Machine!
It's not a surprise because Fox constantly says
the opposite of what the hearings will say.
The committee will lay out the truth of what happened
and Fox will lie.
It's that simple.
The hearings will say
January 6th was a violent insurrection
fomented by an outgoing president
who nearly pulled off a detailed plan
for an attempted coup to unlawfully cling to power
that would have installed him as an unelected autocrat
and destroyed American democracy.
And Fox will say it was just a pro-freedom patriot party,
where everyone peacefully toured the Capitol
like they were on a school field trip
having to find items their teachers gave them
on a worksheet.
"I got podium!" [ Laughter ]
In fact, the January 6th investigation
has already provided us with one bombshell
after another -- from the revelation
that Trump ignored pleas from friends and family members
to stop the violence as he watched it unfold on TV,
to various detailed plans written by multiple Trump aides
to get Mike Pence to overturn the results
to a series of shocking revelations
that make clear Trump put Pence in direct physical danger.
-This stunning new report in "The New York Times"
says that a top aide to former Vice President Mike Pence
warned the Secret Service that President Trump
could turn on the vice president,
and the aide feared for Pence's safety
on the eve of the Capitol riot.
-So, when his Secret Service agents,
including one of them who had -- was carrying
the nuclear football with him,
were chased out by these neo-fascists,
and they ran down to some still undisclosed,
mysterious place in the Capitol.
He uttered what I think are the six most
chilling words of this entire thing I've seen so far.
He said, "I'm not getting in that car."
-"The New York Times" reports
January 6 Committee testimony shows former President Trump
approved chants about
hanging former Vice President Mike Pence.
In last year's attacks,
some rioters started chanting "hang Mike Pence."
Well, according to the report,
White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows testified
he told colleagues Trump agreed that
maybe Pence should be hanged.
-"Maybe Pence should be hanged."
Do you think Pence is more offended
that Trump expressed support for the idea of hanging him,
or that Trump did it the same way
my aunts order appetizers?
"Should we get the order of mozzarella sticks or two orders?
We're going to need the energy
if we're going to hang Mike Pence.
Should we, though?" [ Laughter ]
So the vice president's chief of staff
warned the Secret Service that the president
was putting him in physical danger.
The vice president then refused to get in the car
when the Secret Service tried to whisk him away from the Capitol,
and the president casually suggested
that maybe his own vice president should be hanged.
I feel like even Aaron Burr would be like, "Dude, cool it,"
and Aaron Burr shot a guy while rapping.
What's that?
Oh, the rapping didn't actually happen?
That was just that...?
So they just did that for the Broadway show?
That's going to break my kid's heart when I tell him that.
Republicans like to pretend that instead of looking back at 2020,
we should be focusing on issues that matter to average
Americans, like gas prices, even though they're the ones
who are obsessed with the 2020 election.
And also they don't have a serious plan
for dealing with gas prices.
-This is the biggest scam on Thursday
perpetrated on the American people
since the Russia collusion hoax.
This is total nonsense that you're going to see on Thursday.
And the problem is they know it.
The Democrats know people do not care about this.
They're desperately trying to get people to buy into this.
But the problem is, people are more concerned, Sean,
with the super high gas prices.
-What we have found with one-party rule of Democrats
taking over the House, the Senate and the presidency --
they use the power to go after their political opponents
instead of bringing down gasoline prices.
Today, it has now doubled since the gasoline price
since President Biden has taken office.
Are they going to have any hearings on that?
-You know, I actually would like hearings on gas prices,
but I'd love for Congress to haul the big oil CEOs in
to ask them how much profit they're making,
which I'm guessing isn't Kevin McCarthy's idea.
He'd probably just call an actual gas pump to testify.
"Sir, you claim to be both super and premium.
Is that not redundant?
I yield the floor for your answer."
Look, we'd all rather be talking about other stuff,
but you guys are the ones trying to destroy American democracy.
You're like a bunch of arsonists who burned down a house.
And then when the fire department shows up, you say,
"Um, shouldn't you guys be working on
this year's sexy calendar?
[ Laughter ]
Get your priorities straight."
Now, luckily, there's more than enough time for them
to put out the fire and pose for the calendar,
because we all really want that calendar, and fun fact,
I auditioned for it one year and they told me I was in,
but then they gave me a fake month
that wasn't even in the calendar
called Junevembruary.
[ Laughter ]
We did that joke mainly to see
what kind of upper body Graphics gave me.
And once again...
they [bleep] me.
[ Laughter ]
Republicans do this infuriating thing where they're the ones
threatening to dismantle American democracy.
And when we try to do something about it,
they say, "How come you're not focused on gas prices?"
Also, by the way,
they don't have a real plan for gas prices either,
other than drill more, which would do very little,
since fossil fuel companies
already have thousands of unused permits
for millions of acres of federal land
they're not even using, and additional energy production
wouldn't hit the market for months anyway.
There isn't some miracle solution here.
You can't just give your car a patented Dr. Oz gas pill.
If Republicans were really serious
about focusing on other stuff,
they'd be talking about urgent crises that affect real people,
like the cost of living crisis, wealth inequality,
health care, education, climate change,
food insecurity, or child poverty.
According to a recent survey,
nearly half of families with kids
who used to get the expanded child tax credit
can't afford enough food after the program
ended five months ago.
Our political system
has seemingly just forgotten about that,
but it's outrageous and unconscionable,
especially in a world where one dude
can just flip over his couch cushions
and find $44 billion to buy Twitter --
a dumb website that's only good for posting Wordle scores
and fighting with anonymous accounts named WallyFan8275678,
who keep tweeting stuff and be like,
"We need more Wally on the show."
-That's not me, Seth.
-What? I didn't even say was you, Wally.
-Okay. Good. Because it's definitely not.
-Oh, well, if it's definitely not,
then I'll just respond to that tweet
and your phone definitely won't get a notification.
[ Cellphone chimes ]
Whoa, did you get a text, Wally?
-Yeah. Uh, oh.
No. It's just my local animal shelter.
They want me to... They want to take me
for a volunteering.
-[Bleep] out of here.
[ Laughter ]
Get out. Stop it.
Stop everything you're doing, Wally!
Sorry about that. What was I talking about?
Oh, right. Child poverty. You proud of yourself, Wally?
You interrupted child poverty.
Which should be getting a lot more of our attention,
but Republicans don't really care about that
or any other issue affecting working people.
They just use those very real problems
to deflect from the fact that they tried to stage a coup
to install Trump as an unelected autocrat,
and if they get the chance,
they're going to try it again in 2024,
which is why they're desperate to cover up what happened.
Every news network will be closely covering the hearings
except, of course, for Fox.
I'd be shocked if they showed their audience even...
-5%.
[ Laughter ]
There's been "A Closer Look."
♪♪
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