Hi, welcome to "Full Frontal."
I'm Samantha Bee, and I am so sorry, because tonight
we have to talk about Trump.
Boo!
You know, a surprising downside of not having a studio audience
is having to do your own boos.
Despite his administration's tireless effort making
everyone's lives absolute shit, it
seemed like Trump was never really interested in doing
much actual work himself.
But earlier this week, we learned
that there were some times when Trump was actually working
much harder than we realized.
FEMALE REPORTER: The "New York Times"
has new reporting about former President
Trump's attempt to seize--
physically seize voting machines after the 2020 election.
Trump was personally involved in pushing some of the proposals
to use federal agencies to do the dirty deed.
Trump's advisors drafted not one but two versions
of an executive order, one directing the Department
of Defense and the other telling the Department of Homeland
Security to seize them.
FEMALE ANNOUNCER: Rage against the machines.
They tried that package with Florence and the Machine,
but it just didn't work as well.
While we knew that Trump advisors had floated
the idea of seizing voting machines,
until now we didn't know how much
Trump actually considered and even pushed for those plans.
And it is shocking to hear just how far he was willing to go.
I mean, Rudy Giuliani had to convince
him that mobilizing the military was crossing the line.
Rudy Giuliani thought that was too much, the same Rudy
Giuliani who just followed up trying to install Trump as king
by going on "The Masked Singer" and losing in the first episode
they taped that season.
Even weirder, Rudy's "Masked Singer" costume
was somehow also Rudy Giuliani.
Chilling.
The stakes for holding Trump accountable
have never been higher.
His endorsement still goes a long way with GOP voters, which
will certainly impact the midterms,
and it looks alarmingly like he'll run again in 2024.
He started this year with more than double the cash
on hand of the RNC, and he even seems
to be whipping his base into a frenzy for another January 6th.
If these radical, vicious, racist prosecutors do anything
wrong or illegal, I hope we are going
to have in this country the biggest protest
we have ever had in Washington, DC, in New York, in Atlanta,
and elsewhere.
Because our country and our elections are corrupt.
The only question this time is if the GOP
will do anything to stop him.
The answer is, oh my God.
No.
I mean, sure, a few Republicans are suggesting it's time
for the party to find a new leader,
but we saw this same pattern in 2016 when Republicans
like Lindsey Graham criticized Trump
until they were eventually beaten into fawning submission.
Meanwhile, Susan Collins is still, well, Susan Collins-ing.
Can you imagine any circumstances where you could
support his election in 2024?
Well, we're a long ways from 2024.
Why can't you rule out supporting him in 2024?
Well certainly it's not likely,
given the many other qualified candidates that we that have
expressed interest in running.
So it's very unlikely.
Grow a pair of tits, Susan Collins.
Pick a goddamn side.
You probably [BLEEP] go, I don't know,
what do you want when someone asks you what you want to eat.
I know what I want, Suze.
I want [BLEEP] Golden Corral, and I want to rip someone's
throat out when I get it.
No steak?
Mistake.
The frustrating but ultimately unsurprising
fact is that most Republicans will continue to fall in line
behind Trump, because he's the party's top fundraiser
and the polling front runner.
Second place is a tie between Ron DeSantis
and some old Ronald Reagan toenails
they think they can use to Jurassic Park him
back to life, which honestly I wouldn't mind seeing.
If nothing else, it'll be cool when he goes
nuts and starts eating people.
And conveniently for Republicans,
repeating Trump's delusions of voter fraud
goes hand in hand with their mission
to [BLEEP] with elections.
Say that you're a voter in Arkansas.
The county clerk you elected could
be stripped of their authority by the Republican-led state
board of election commissioners.
Say you're a voter in Georgia, where you
elect the secretary of state.
The Republican legislature has purged him as a voting member
of the state election board.
Now Big Lie believers are setting their sights
on overseeing elections.
18 are gunning for the top election
post-- secretary of state.
18 more are just gunning to be gunning.
They don't need a reason.
It's always gun season.
Another horrifying scenario that could give Trump an advantage
in 2024 is that some states have even proposed bills that would
allow partisan actors, like state lawmakers or judges,
to outright reject election results.
That's un-American!
When we want judges to overturn the will of the people,
we give them lifetime appointments.
Of course, the Big Lie isn't the only thing
repeatedly kicking American democracy in the balls.
We've also seen an unprecedented deluge of racist attacks
on voting rights.
Republicans in Georgia continue
to work to suppress the vote.
Early last year, they put a new law
on the books that will, among other things,
give voters less time to request absentee ballots,
enforce strict new ID requirements
for absentee ballots, drastically
the number of ballot drop boxes, and make
offering food or water to voters waiting
in line a misdemeanor charge.
Well, this week Ron DeSantis effectively
asked the state legislature for his very own election police
force.
That is terrifying, even for Florida,
where you can't go without your slowest family member
being eaten by an alligator.
Did that happen to me?
No, it happened to my slowest family member.
Are you even listening?
In the last year alone, legislators
enacted at least 34 laws with restrictive voting provisions
in 19 states, with over 440 possible bills in 49 states--
or in layman's terms, a [BLEEP] ton.
And then there's that democracy-ruining chestnut
gerrymandering.
While Democrats do their own fair share
of creative redistricting, Republicans
have made gerrymandering a racist science.
This cycle, Republicans could redraw the lines
of 187 congressional districts.
At this point, Tennessee's district map is just
a straight up Confederate flag.
All of this sets the stage for kneecapping Democrats
in the midterms this year and Trump's
eventual return in 2024.
Look, no one wants to ignore Donald Trump more than me.
I felt so dirty after he won in 2016 I was molting
once a week just to get clean.
In fact, most of my old skins are still
available for purchase on TBS's merch page.
They don't just say nasty woman.
They smell it.
Shout out to the true freaks who got
theirs before it wasn't cool.
Seriously, the last thing I want to do
is talk about Donald Trump.
Even thinking about him makes me want to vomit,
and not the normal vomit--
that acid vomit Jeff Goldblum had in "The Fly."
It's basically a cliche at this point for late night hosts
to yell at Trump, which is why it's been so nice to take
a break from covering every time the freak show looked
straight into a solar eclipse.
But what he's doing right now is a real and dangerous threat.
We have to talk about him, because we
can't survive another four years of a Trump presidency.
And we definitely can't survive another four
years of Trump jokes.
We'll be right back.
[MUSIC PLAYING]