-GOP members of Congress,
like Paul Gosar and Marjorie Taylor Greene,
are facing growing scrutiny over their roles
in the attempt to overthrow our democracy on January 6th,
after a bombshell report linked them
to the organizers of the day's events.
For more on this, it's time for "A Closer Look."
[ Cheering and applause ] ♪♪
The stakes of Joe Biden's presidency
and the Democrats' agenda could not be higher.
If Democrats don't deliver on their promises
and fail to give voters a reason to keep electing Democrats,
then, the Republicans waiting in the wings to take power
are people like this --
-Rudy Giuliani used a filter to make himself
look like Abraham Lincoln in an ad attack
on Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe.
-Virginia,
[ Laughter ] vote against the man
who dishonored our past by selling my bedroom
hundreds and hundreds of times
to scoundrels in a pay-for-play scheme!
In my time, we had a name
for men who sold bedrooms for one night.
In your time, the name is
Terry McAuliffe.
End the Clinton sleaze, once and for all!
[ Laughter ] -Wow. Disney's Haunted Mansion
really went all-out this year.
[ Laughter and applause ] You know,
you know you're a real scumbag
when you can make Abraham Lincoln seem dishonest.
[ Laughter and applause ] That's Rudy Giuliani,
former mayor of America's largest city
and former personal attorney
to the president of the United States.
Although, he looks more like a character
who got cut from "Oregon Trail"
[ Laughter ] because he gave the kids nightmares.
Whenever you encountered him,
a message would pop up that says...
[ Laughter ]
Looks like the guy you get your mission from in...
[ Laughter and applause ]
[ As Giuliani ] Your next mission is
to whack Robert E. Lee.
Then, go see Vito down at the docks
and tell him it's done.
[ Laughter ]
Also, what accent is he doing?
Is that supposed to be 19th-century American
or coma patient learning how to talk again?
[ Laughter ] If that's what Abe Lincoln
had actually sounded like,
the North would've given up and lost the Civil War.
[ As Giuliani ] Four score and seven years ago,
somebody rented out my bedroom.
"This guy sucks!"
[ Laughter and applause ]
That's the modern GOP.
Sorry, that's the current GOP.
They tried to overthrow an election,
based on bat[bleep] conspiracy theories
from bamboo fibers on ballots
to Italian satellites hacking voting machines,
to election software designed by Hugo Chávez and the CIA
to spread communism around the world.
These are all things they've actually said.
I'm waiting for them to claim, next,
they saw thousands of people vote twice using the Kanye mask
[ Laughter ] and you wouldn't know who it is
because they'd vote twice for Kanye.
[ Laughter ]
Arizona Congressman Paul Gosar,
one of the leaders of the attempt to overturn the results,
said, in a recent congressional hearing,
that mysterious, unnamed sources had approached him
the day after the election
to tell him the election was stolen from Donald Trump.
Now, don't worry about trying to follow any of this,
because you can't.
-The day after the election, I was contacted
by two individuals.
One had security and fraud,
uh,
jobs with the banking world.
The other one does fraud
from the Department of Defense.
[ Laughter ] What they saw from Arizona
and drew their attention quickly, first.
They saw a numbers of 90-some thousand
60-some thousand, 40-some thousand,
ballots drop into Donald Trump's category
and then quickly come out verbatim.
[ Laughter ] But then, they started watching
and looking to the dumps.
What I mean by that is,
there's a first dump, there's multiple dumps,
[ Laughter ] maybe nine or 10 through the night.
If the first dump in Coconino County
was 61% for Joe Biden,
you would expect, the rest of the time,
the rest of the dumps, to be very similar --
[ Laughter ] 58%, 62%, 55%, and so on.
Not 40%, 38%, 35%.
[ Laughter ]
That's drew a big question mark to them.
-Hey, man, if you're going to talk about dumps that much,
could you maybe move away from the camera a little bit?
[ Laughter ]
Or just point it lower.
Did you record this on an ATM security camera?
[ Laughter ]
Are you under the impression that your forehead
is your best feature? It's not.
[ Laughter ] And I say that as a person
who has the same one.
[ Laughter ]
Also, I love the idea that someone would find
rock-solid evidence that the election was stolen and say,
"Hey, this is big. Should we take it
to the FBI, CIA, Washington Post,
or how about that space case congressman from Arizona?"
[ Laughter ] Gosar was,
along with other fringe weirdos, like Marjorie Taylor Greene,
one of the key instigators of the attempt
to overturn the election results on January 6th.
Greene got into a shouting match
on the House floor last week with colleagues
during a vote to hold former Trump advisor Steve Bannon
in contempt for defying a subpoena
from the committee investigating the insurrection.
And, when she was asked about that vote by CNN,
the interview took a weird turn.
-What was the rationale behind your vote?
-The rationale behind my vote is I'm not self-absorbed,
like the rest of these jerks here in Congress.
They're all ignoring inflation.
People can hardly buy food.
Gas has gone up. -Why call them jerks, if you don't mind --
-Because they're self-absorbed.
All they care about is Congress.
They don't care about the American people
that pay all the taxes. -There's an attack on --
-All you want to talk about is your Trump derangement syndrome
and all you want to talk about is January 6th... -Why are you
protecting Steve Bannon? -...where there's a riot here.
-Why protect Steve Bannon?
-Because I care about American people!
-She has the grammar and cadence
of the lady at Buffalo Wild Wings,
trying to get everyone's attention
after one too many Keystone Lights.
[ Laughter ]
Also, you might have noticed there was a weird ending
where a random dude just wandered up next to her
[ Laughter ] during the interview. Now,
if you've ever taken the subway before,
you might be thinking, "Oh, no,
he's about to ask her about Scientology."
[ Laughter ] But,
turns out, he's another Republican member of Congress.
He decided to just crash the interview and pull Greene away.
-The interview ended soon after, when fellow
Republican Congressman Pete Sessions of Texas walked
into the middle of our conversation.
-So, you doing okay? Let's get out of here.
-Okay. Thank you. -But not Steve Bannon.
[ Laughter ] -Wow. Even her fellow Republicans are like,
"Marjorie!
Marjorie, you wandered off.
Maybe you should stay away from the cameras, Marjorie.
[ Laughter and applause ] Marjorie."
Or at the very least, Marjorie, at the very least,
use a filter to disguise yourself."
[ Laughter and applause ]
I've never seen that happen in an interview before.
You know, doing interviews is my job.
It definitely doesn't help you seem more normal.
If someone in a suit came up to Andy Samberg
halfway through an interview on this show and said,
"Hey, Andy, you okay? Let's get out of here,"
I'd definitely think, "Something's up with Samberg,"
and then, I'd text him later and I'd say...
And he'd text back something like...
And I'd say...
And then there would be like three dots,
making me think he was writing something
painfully confessional, until he just said...
[ Laughter ]
I mean, seriously, can you imagine the reaction,
if, halfway through "A Closer Look,"
someone just stopped me and took me offstage?
-Hey, Seth, are you okay?
Maybe you should go.
-Why do you say that?
Do I not seem okay?
-Oh, no. You seem fine, but, you see,
every time I say a line on camera, I get paid,
and I need the money to fix my pool.
[ Laughter, cheering, and applause ]
-Your house has a pool?!
-[ Laughing ] Don't be silly, Seth.
My beach house has a pool.
[ Laughter and applause ] The beach house
Seth Meyers made. Wink!
[ Laughter and applause ]
[ Cheering and applause ]
-We're not paying you for the [bleep] wink!
[ Laughter ]
You don't get money for a line
if it's just saying a stage direction!
[ Laughter ]
And, this week, Green seemed to justify the insurrection
by claiming that the Declaration of Independence
says to overthrow tyrants.
That apparent confession that comes just days
after a bombshell report from Rolling Stone,
tying Greene to the so-called Stop the Steal rally
on January 6th, that eventually led to the riot.
Two planners of the pro-Trump rallies, who are now cooperating
with the committee investigating the insurrection, described...
And you would definitely remember talking
[ Laughter ] to Marjorie Taylor Greene,
the same way you'd remember being attacked by Chucky.
[ Laughter ] If the cops
were taking your statement after a Chucky attack,
you wouldn't say, "Oh, man, I don't remember his name.
[ Laughter ] I think he was like --
like 2'0" tall, orange hair, overalls.
[ Laughter ] Scars all over his face.
Might've been a Cabbage Patch Kid.
I don't know. [ Laughter ]
Former mayor."
[ Laughter ] But, basically,
Greene had initially responded to the allegations
by denying that she was...
[ Laughter ] They do!
Which is why they were writing about you,
one person who is equal to...
[ Laughter and applause ]
And, hey, I know it seems like pandering,
to reference a hot, modern band to get an audience reaction.
[ Laughter ] But, hey,
hey,
we give 'em what they want.
[ Laughter, cheering, and applause ]
I'm sorry.
That's a [bleep] network thing.
They're cracking on us really hard.
[ Laughter ]
They're like, "You haven't even obliquely mentioned
Natalie Merchant in like two years."
[ Laughter and applause ]
If you're watching at home
and you like that joke, like reach out.
[ Laughter ]
"Joke."
[ Laughter ]
Also, her denial is itself a damning admission.
She claims she wasn't involved in planning the protest
because she was too busy trying
to overturn the election results.
We shouldn't just let that pass by unnoticed.
It's a classic defense --
[ As Greene ] I couldn't have burned down your house
because I was too busy buying gasoline and matches
and a map to your house.
[ Laughter and applause ]
But probably the worst non-denial denial came
from Alabama Congressman Mo Brooks,
one of the most vocal advocates of the big lie,
and another coconspirator
who was also implicated in the Rolling Stone article.
Brooks said, in response, that...
[ Laughter ]
Wow, he O.J.'d his own staff.
[ Laughter and applause ]
"I didn't do it, but, if my staff did, here's how."
[ Laughter ]
It's a really nice joke that we just told,
like that we changed what O.J.'ing means,
to mean like writing a book.
[ Laughter ]
Like for a long time, it's been like,
"I feel like, when people say O.J.'ing,
you know, they think..."
[ Laughter ]
You know, to O.J. someone is
to write a piece of speculative fiction.
[ Laughter ]
For me, it's like author, football, and then, [ Mutters ]
[ Laughter and applause ]
Brooks really threw his staff under the bus,
although, in fairness, I do that a lot
with my staff, when a joke bombs.
Like I had no involvement with that 10,000 Maniacs joke.
[ Laughter and applause ]
But I'm proud of whoever wrote it.
Took a lot of guts!
[ Laughter ]
Took a lot of guts to go there in a room full of people.
[ Laughter ]
Now, if you're not familiar with Mo Brooks,
he's the extremely pro-Trump congressman
who gave an incendiary speech calling on Trump supporters
to "start taking down names and kicking ass,"
then, said he only did it because Trump told him to.
He metaphorically ran away from a lawsuit
over his involvement in the insurrection
and literally ran away from a reporter
who tried to ask him about his support
for accused sexual predator Roy Moore in 2017.
[ Running footsteps clacking ]
[ Laughter ]
Yeah, that definitely seems like the kind of guy
who would incite an insurrection,
blame his staff, and then, I guess,
judging from the clacking sound,
escape on horseback.
[ Laughter and applause ]
Seriously, the Foley work on that clip is outstanding.
Why does it sound like they're galloping into town
on a Mustang?
[ Hooves clopping ] I didn't invade or riot,
but, if my staff did,
I'd be proud of him.
[ Laughter ] Now, if you'll excuse me,
me and Old Thunder, here,
we'll be down in the saloon,
drinking a sarsaparilla and getting our next mission
from weird old Abe Lincoln.
[ Laughter and applause ]
The core --
The core of today's Republican Party
is the big lie that the election was stolen.
They tried to overthrow the results.
They're being open about it, trying to justify it,
and planning on doing it again,
which is why they have to be stopped.
One of our two major parties, a party poised
to take back power, if Democrats fail,
has been captured by a cult-like movement
of weirdos, authoritarians, and scoundrels.
You don't get used to it.
[ Laughter ]
-This has been "A Closer Look."
♪♪
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