-Now the Republicans have
a slim majority in the House,
they've made it clear they will use that power
to protect Donald Trump and go after Joe Biden.
And, to do that, they've put several far-right extremists
who tried to overthrow the 2020 election,
including Marjorie Taylor Greene,
on key committees with the power to investigate the White House.
For more on this, it's time for "A Closer Look."
♪♪ [ Cheering and applause ]
Republicans still cannot seem to grasp the differences
between the small number
of classified documents that were discovered
at President Biden's home and office
and the much larger pile of documents
Trump stashed at Mar-A-Lago and refused to give back.
In fact, they keep asking the same dumb question --
why won't the FBI search Biden's home,
just like they searched Trump's beach resort?
-What's real concerning to me is how justice is applied
and is it applied equally?
Why do you raid President Trump?
-[ Southern accent ] My concern is how
[ Laughter ] there's such a discrepancy
in how former President Trump was treated --
by raiding Mar-A-Lago, by getting the security cameras,
by taking pictures of documents on the floor,
by going through Melania's closet.
-Alright, first of all, Melania's Closet sounds like
a store you'd find at a mall in the '90s.
[ Laughter ]
Wear the only clothes that give you that Melania smile.
[ Laughter ]
They could've also called it Cold Topic.
[ Laughter and applause ]
Also, I doubt Melania only has one closet.
My guess is she has multiple closets for clothes
and also a secret closet that lets her escape
out the back, like...
[ Laughter ] whenever Trump tries to talk to her.
[ As Trump ] Mel!
[ Laughter ] Mel, I'd love to get
your thoughts on this speech, Mel.
Mel?
[ Laughter ]
Mel, did you flee to Narnia again?
[ Laughter ]
Give my best to Aslan.
Aslan the Lion.
We love Aslan the lion, don't we?
[ Laughter and applause ] We love him, don't we?
He came up to me once, folks, big lion, strong lion...
[ Laughter ]
...tears running down his face and onto his whiskers,
and he said -- I'll never forget it.
He said to me, "Mr. Trump..."
-[ Roaring ]
[ Laughter and applause ]
[ Cheering ]
Also, I don't have any trouble believing
that Trump would hide classified documents in a closet,
the way a teenager hides porns in a shoebox.
[ As Trump ] They'll never find this, especially if it's labeled...
[ Laughter and applause ]
[ Gruff voice ] That's how we hid porn in the old days.
Back when we had physical pornography.
Now, it's all digital, but you lose that tactile experience.
[ Laughter ] That's why people
are getting back into analog media, these days.
You know how everyone's collecting vinyl
and cassette tapes again?
Well, I just stayed at a very classy Airbnb
in upstate New York that had a beautiful
mid-century credenza filled with vintage Hustlers.
[ Laughter ]
And I'll tell you, there's nothing better,
after a long day of apple picking,
than settling into an Eames chair
with some good old-fashioned pornography.
[ Laughter ] And the articles!
[ Fresh laughter ]
Again, I cannot underscore enough
how different these cases are.
Biden is discovered
and turned over about 20 documents, so far.
And let's be clear -- documents he should not have!
While Trump had over 300.
Trump refused, for more than a year,
to turn them all over,
lied about having turned them over,
instructed staffers to lie,
moved them around, claimed they were his,
and claimed he could declassify them with his mind.
[ Laughter ] He did the classic Trump thing
of trying every defense, instead of just one.
[ Laughter ] Just today, Trump claimed, on his social media site,
that "Trump hating Marxist thugs"
had planted classified documents,
while also admitting he kept...
[ Laughter ] Wait. I'm sorry, your story is
you kept an empty folder as a cool keepsake?
Were they Lisa Frank folders?
[ Laughter and applause ]
Who keeps an empty folder as a keepsake?!
When I left "SNL," I took plenty of keepsakes,
but one of them wasn't a stack of loose-leaf paper
from the copier. [ Laughter ]
Hey, you guys remember the famous cowbell sketch?
It was printed on paper, just like this.
[ Laughter ]
Also, you don't get to just take stuff
from the White House as a cool keepsake.
It's a government institution owned by the American people.
When you visited Philadelphia,
did you also try to take home the Liberty Bell?
[ As Trump ] Just strap it to the roof of Air Force One.
[ Laughter ]
But the differences don't matter to Republicans.
They've made it clear they want to weaponize
congressional committees to go after Biden.
In fact, the guy you just saw in that last clip,
James Comer, is the new GOP chair
of the House Oversight Committee.
Last year, he told CNN investigating Trump's
classified documents was not a priority,
but now, investigating Biden's very much is a priority.
So, CNN's Jake Tapper asked Comer him to explain
the contradiction, and he couldn't.
-What do you say to viewers who don't understand
why President Biden's documents
seem like a big priority for you,
but President Trump, who took hundreds more documents,
did not comply with the subpoena,
did not reach out to the National Archives
or the Justice Department, to say,
"Hey, we found these documents," it's not a priority?
Do you only care
about classified documents being mishandled
when Democrats do the mishandling?
[ Laughter ] -Absolutely not.
Look, we still don't know
what type of documents President Trump had.
-Yeah, we don't know exactly, but we know they exist, right?
They released a picture.
You remember that.
This one, that looks like it's from the
classified document buffet at Mar-A-Lago.
[ Laughter ] "I will have an omelet with ham and cheese
and some of the nuclear documents."
[ Laughter ] Also, we don't know every document Trump has,
but we don't know what Biden has, either.
And, honestly, I'm shocked
Biden didn't just throw them all out
because he definitely strikes me as one of those old dads
who gets fed up with all the [bleep]
[ Laughter ] everyone else left in the garage
and throws it all in a Dumpster.
"Hey, Dad, where's my old Schwinn?"
[ As Biden ] Chopped it up with a saw, threw it in the garbage.
[ Laughter ] Needed room for my new Harley.
You should see your mother and I
pull up at Applebee's on that thing.
[ Laughter ] They give us free potstickers.
[ Applause ]
Trump, on the other hand, strikes me as a hoarder.
I bet he still has every piece of sports memorabilia
he's ever collected in his life, no matter how worthless it is.
[ As Trump ] This right here is very special.
It's a football signed by Vinny Testaverde.
Not the Vinny Testaverde,
just a guy from Long Island with the same name.
[ Laughter ]
Did the grouting on my bathroom tiles.
Great guy. Still haven't paid him.
[ Laughter and applause ] So, that's the new chair
of the powerful House Oversight Committee,
which has the ability to issue subpoenas
and investigate the administration.
In fact, Comer just sent a request
to the Biden administration
requesting visitor logs for Biden's Delaware home,
which was an odd request, given that people don't usually
keep visitor logs for private residences.
I mean, I do, but that's only so I
can remember all the celebrities that stopped by
for my famous dinner parties.
Let's take a look at the first page.
[ Laughter and applause ]
Anyway, it turns out that Biden
does not keep visitor logs for his private residence.
-Some news this morning.
We are learning there are no visitor logs chronicling
who comes and goes from the president's house in Wilmington.
-Yeah, of course there aren't.
It's a house, not a bed & breakfast.
[ Laughter ] Although, I would like to see Biden open up B&B.
[ As Biden ] Alright, here are the rules.
Breakfast starts at 4:00 and ends at 4:30.
[ Laughter ] The closest we got to oat milk is
what's left over after I eat my Cheerios,
so, unless you want that in your coffee, shut your yap!
[ Laughter ] At 6:00, we go out back to chop wood
and then we spend the rest of the day watching "Matlock."
Oh, and if you're interested,
there's Hustlers in the credenza.
[ Laughter and applause ]
Also, real talk.
You want to know why there are no visitor logs in Wilmington?
No one wants to admit
they were ever in Wilmington.
[ Laughter and applause ]
Hey, it's all jokes, Delaware.
You know I love you. I love your beaches,
your corporate tax shelters, and the Amtrak station
I pass through on my way from New York to D.C.
It's like the commercials say -- Delaware.
It's better than Jersey.
Barely.
[ Laughter and applause ]
So, those are the kinds of dumb requests the Oversight Committee
will, apparently, be obsessed with,
now that Republicans are in charge.
The bummer is some actual oversight would be great.
Congress should hold the administration accountable,
regardless of party.
They should just do it for real stuff
that people actually care about.
Instead, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy
has appointed some of his caucus' looniest weirdos
to both the Oversight Committee,
where they will have the power to investigate Biden;
and also the powerful Homeland Security Committee.
-McCarthy made big promises
to Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene
and Paul Gosar, two hardliners, of course,
who were kicked off of their committees
by Democrats last session.
They are back on some pretty prominent committees, in fact.
Oversight, the House Oversight Committee,
very, very powerful, will now include
Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert,
Scott Perry, and Paul Gosar.
So, again, some big hardliner names
that are going to be serving in a very powerful position.
-There is Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene.
There's Paul Gosar.
Those two were thrown off their committees
in the last two years by the Democratic-controlled Congress
for incendiary an/or violent rhetoric.
They will get committee assignments back.
In fact, we can confirm that Marjorie Taylor Greene
will be on the Committee on Homeland Security.
That's a coveted spot.
-That's right, a bunch of people who tried
to overthrow the 2020 election
will now sit on major committees
with the power to investigate the administration,
which, to me, does not seem like a great idea.
It's like if you're a prosecutor in a murder trial,
you wouldn't want to show up to court
and see a guy in a hockey mask sitting in the jury box.
[ Laughter ] "Ah, son of a gun.
How did we miss him?"
[ Laughter and awws ]
It's especially insane
to put Marjorie Taylor Greene
on the Homeland Security Committee,
given that she has previously espoused
some pretty unhinged conspiracy theories,
like the time she, of course,
claimed the 2018 California wildfires were caused by...
[ Laughter ] She shouldn't be on the Homeland Security Committee.
She should be an actor with one line
in the next "Avengers" movie.
[ Laughter ]
[ As Greene ] Thanos is collecting the sun's energy
and beaming it to the Earth to cause wildfires.
Also, we think Thanos might be Jewish.
"Cut!
[ Laughter and applause ]
That second part isn't in the script."
I know, but doesn't it make it
[ Laughter ] sound more believable?
Greene also spread conspiracy theories
about everything from the COVID vaccine to 9/11
and, when she was asked about her past support
for QAnon, she blamed the Internet.
-The Democrats stripped you of your committee assignments
after you were elected. -Right.
-That was raw politics. -Mm-hmm.
-But, in fairness, didn't you also say, around that period,
that you had been a follower of QAnon conspiracy theories
and you had rethought this
and you were no longer influenced by the group?
-Well, like a lot of people today,
I had easily gotten sucked into some things
I'd seen on the Internet.
-I'm not sure I'm comfortable having someone
on one of Congress' most sensitive committees
who gets sucked into things they see on the Internet.
That's the same excuse your mom uses
when she spends 1,000 bucks on Candy Crush.
[ Laughter ] Mom, again?!
"I got sucked into buying more lollipop hammers,
so I could finally be the Jelly Queen.
[ Laughter ] Now, Venmo your mother some money."
[ Laughter ]
But this was part of the deal McCarthy made
with the crazies in his caucus to become speaker.
Remember, Greene threw her support
behind McCarthy specifically because she wanted to get
on these powerful committees, which she bragged about
in MAGA rallies before the election.
-I'm looking forward to Republicans
taking back control in the House.
[ Cheering and applause ]
And I'm looking forward
to serving on committees.
-It is unnerving when someone says the phrase,
"I'm looking forward to serving on committees"
with that much glee. It's like hearing someone say,
"I'm looking forward to visiting Wilmington, Delaware."
I'm kidding, Delaware. I love you guys.
[ Laughter and applause ]
Philly, on the other hand...
[ Laughter ] Donald Trump
tanked his party in three successive elections,
leaving the GOP weak and fractured,
but what we're seeing right now in the House
are the last vestiges of Trumpism.
McCarthy and the far-right extremists
he's empowered in the House have made it clear
they're going to use their positions to protect Trump,
who stashed classified documents
the way a teenager would stash a magazine called...
-Melania's closet.
[ Laughter ]
-This has been "A Closer Look."
♪♪ [ Cheering and applause ]
♪♪ [ Whistling ]