-The House held its latest impeachment hearing today
as President Trump's allies doubled down
on a ludicrous conspiracy theory about Ukraine.
For more on this, it's time for "A Closer Look."
[ Cheers and applause ]
This morning, the House Judiciary Committee
held its second hearing,
laying out the impeachment evidence against Trump.
Now, as we've established,
Republicans have no counter argument
on the actual merits of the case.
For example, they're so desperate
that this morning on Fox News, Republican minority
leader Kevin McCarthy argued that you shouldn't be allowed
to impeach a president in their first term.
-In modern history we've never gone
after impeaching a president in the first term.
-Is that really your argument?
We shouldn't impeach him because it's his first term?
Everyone knows the founders said you can commit unlimited crimes
until your second term.
Republicans can't contest any of the facts,
so instead, during the hearing today,
they tried to stall by staging as many dumb interruptions
as possible and forcing Chairman Jerry Nadler to gavel them down.
-The House committee on the Judiciary
will come to order.
Without objection the chair is authorized
to declare recesses of the committee --
-I object.
-Objection noted.
[ Gavel bangs ] Without objection --
-Ruling on the point of order -- -You made a --
You made a ruling on the point of order, Mr. Chairman.
You can't then not allow us to --
-The gentleman is not recognized.
[ Gavel bangs ] -It's a rule.
-The obligation, not the consideration.
You are obligated -- -Those are not in debate.
Suspend. Gentleman is not recognized.
-...gets the chance to offer rebuttal.
Nobody asked for this -- [ Gavel banging ]
-The gentleman will suspend. [ Gavel banging ]
-Bang it harder.
-The gentleman will suspend.
-Will you let him finish his point of order?
-He made his point of order.
-The gentleman will suspend and not make a speech.
-Man, that gavel is getting a workout.
When this is over, Jerry Nadler is going to have
one giant hulk arm.
Republicans had to engage in these dumb stunts
because they have nothing else.
For example, they also demanded
that House Intelligence Committee chairman
Adam Schiff, who conducted the first round of hearings,
testify during today's hearing,
and to really hammer the point home, they brought in a poster
that said, where is Adam, and another poster with Schiff's
face on the side of a milk carton.
Why?
Why do these look like middle school art projects?
I mean, can't the Republicans
hire someone who is good at graphic design?
This looks like something a crazy guy would wear
on a sandwich board in Times Square.
This of course follows the GOP's proud tradition
of bringing very stupid posters to official House proceedings,
like the time they made a poster that said,
"Liar, liar pants on fire" for Michael Cohen's testimony,
or the time they brought in a poster
accusing Democrats of acting like
Soviets during the first impeachment vote.
At this point, Republicans
are the only thing keeping the D.C. Kinko's in business.
If you walk into Kinko's now, their price list includes black
and white copies, color copies, dumb Republican posters.
Now, the main point of the hearing today
was to let lawyers for Democrats and Republicans
lay out their cases, and the Republican lawyer was a guy
you might remember from the first round
of impeachment hearings, Steve Castor.
In those hearings, Castor often struggled to question witnesses.
At one point during the first round of hearings,
his line of questioning was so bad
it flustered the witness and left him speechless.
-In fairness, this irregular channel of diplomacy,
it's not as outlandish as it could be, is that correct?
-It's not as outlandish as it could be.
It is a little unusual for the U.S. Ambassador to the EU
to play a role in Ukraine policy.
-Okay.
And, you know, might be irregular
but it is certainly not outlandish.
[ Laughter ]
And then Secretary Perry --
-I mean, that's probably the same series
of faces the Kinko's employee made
when Republicans asked him to print those dumb posters.
"Can you put this man's face on a milk carton?
It's for Congress."
[ Laughter and applause ]
So that -- that's the guy.
That's the guy Republicans had making their arguments today.
Now, let's compare the Democrats' lawyer,
who presented a lengthy body of evidence, witness testimony,
and video evidence to Castor. the Republicans' lawyer.
-President Trump's persistent and continuing effort
to coerce a foreign country to help him cheat to win
an election is a clear and present danger
to our free and fair elections and to our national security.
-To impeach a president who 63 million people voted
for over eight lines in a call transcript is baloney.
-It's, uh, baloney.
Really loses the drama
when the word you're ramping up to is baloney.
You ever hear a detective in a mystery novel saying,
"I've deduced that the suspect's alibi is, uh, baloney."
Castor's demeanor throughout this whole thing
was that of a guy who knew he was fighting a losing battle.
In fact, instead of keeping his documents in a brief case
or cardboard boxes like most lawyers,
he showed up to the hearing this morning
with his papers in a grocery store tote bag.
Look at that.
It's like he forgot about the hearing until the last minute
and had to find whatever was lying around his house.
I bet there was only one piece of paper at the top of that bag
and the rest of it was just organic produce.
And the fact that he kept all of his papers in a grocery bag
might explain why he didn't seem
to know very much about what was in them.
The Republicans wrote their own report
rebutting the impeachment inquiry.
But when Castor was questioned by the Democratic counsel
about a key element of that report,
he didn't seem to know anything about it.
-Quote, "I thought that the references
to specific individuals
and investigations such as former Vice President Biden
and his son struck me as political in nature.
Given that former Vice President
is a political opponent of the President."
So you left that out of your staff report, too, didn't you?
-Well, you know, Miss Williams --
-Sir, did you leave that out of your report? Yes or no?
-I -- if you're telling me I did --
I don't know as I sit here right now that's in the report.
-I'm telling you you did. -Okay.
[ Laughter ]
-I have my report in my bag.
Just let me --
[ Laughter ]
[ Applause ]
[ Laughter ]
"You guys, I think I brought my groceries."
What we saw yet again today is that the Republican Party and
Donald Trump is fundamentally untethered from reality,
and my favorite recent example of this came on Friday
when Trump was at the White House
talking about repealing environmental regulations,
and he said this truly bat[bleep] about toilets.
-We have a situation where we're looking very strongly
at sinks and showers and other elements of bathrooms
where you turn the faucet on and areas
where there is tremendous amounts of water
where the water rushes out to sea
because you could never handle it and you don't get any water.
You turn on the faucet. You don't get any water.
They take a shower and water comes dripping out,
just dripping out, very quietly dripping out.
People are flushing toilets 10 times,
15 times as opposed to once.
-Hey, man.
Just because you have to flush 10 or 15 times
doesn't mean everyone does.
I mean, look at your diet.
Standard toilets were not built to withstand this.
I bet the White House toilets are like the theme park models
that will suck down anything.
You know, when you flush them, they sound
like an F-14 taking off.
I bet at least once a day the Secret Service
knocks on the bathroom door and says,
"Mr. President, you still in there?
It's been over an hour," and then he says, "Hold on.
I'll be right out."
[ Toilet flushes ]
[ Applause ]
"Son of a gun. I got to flush again."
[ Toilet flushes ]
My favorite part, though, came right after that
when the President said this.
-People are flushing toilets 10 times,
15 times as opposed to once.
They end up using more water,
so EPA is looking at that very strongly, at my suggestion.
-Oh, was it your suggestion?
I'm pretty sure we all know where it came from.
I mean, can you imagine the EPA going through the suggestion box
at the end of the week?
Alright. Bring back casual Fridays.
Not a terrible idea.
Oh, new coffee for the break room.
We can do that.
Let's see what we have here.
Look into toilets that have to be flushed 15 times.
You turn on the faucet and you don't get any water.
You take a shower and water comes dripping out very quietly.
Dripping out.
Guys, who told the President about the suggestion box?!
[ Laughter and applause ]
So, Trump won't tell the EPA to deal with the climate crisis
that poses an existential threat to the planet,
but he will tell them to look into toilets
that supposedly have to be flushed 15 times.
But still, you got to give it to Trump.
He might not know how toilets work.
He might not care about the climate crisis.
But when he is right, he is right.
And, later at that same event, the President
said something that even I cannot criticize
because it is undeniably true.
-You have many states where they have so much water
that it comes down.
It's called rain.
[ Laughter ]
-Can't argue with the man.
That's airtight.
Sounds like the sports guy on the local news
who had to fill in for the weather man.
And the clouds, there's no other way to say it.
They had too much water.
They're puking water.
It's also called rain.
This is how detached from reality
Trump is, and as we've learned throughout this
impeachment process, it's not just him.
He's brought the entire Republican Party along with him.
Just take Texas Senator Ted Cruz.
Now, you might remember him as the guy who grew a beard
and looks like Santa's deadbeat brother.
Well, to defend Trump during the impeachment inquiry,
Republicans have been
pushing a ludicrous conspiracy theory
that Ukraine interfered in the 2016 election,
and that is what Trump was concerned about, so Cruz,
who was himself the subject of several Trump conspiracy
theories during the campaign and even once called
Trump a pathological liar, went on TV yesterday
and repeated that insane theory to the shock of
"Meet the Press" host Chuck Todd.
-Do you believe Ukraine meddled in the American
election in 2016?
-I do and I think there is considerable evidence.
-You do?
-Wow!
You know what you just said is crazy
when the person you're talking to reacts like that.
Like if you were at a party and someone said
they hate baby Yoda.
You do?
But all he does is sip soup.
He doesn't want trouble, you monster!
In that interview, Cruz pointed to an op-ed
written by a Ukrainian ambassador
in 2016 criticizing Trump
but that's not even close to the criminal
Russian hacking campaign
and it's not what Trump was talking about
in his infamous phone call with the President of Ukraine.
Trump was repeating a deranged conspiracy theory
that the Democrats had somehow colluded with Ukraine
to interfere in the 2016 election
and hide a Democratic computer server,
which does not exist, in Ukraine.
It's a theory that's so insane,
even "Fox and Friends" gently pushed back on it
when Trump brought it up during a rambling interview last month.
-They have the server, right, from the DNC,
Democratic National Committee.
-Who has the server?
-The FBI went in and they told them, "Get out of here.
We're not giving it to you."
They gave the server to CrowdStrike
or whatever it's called,
which is a company owned by a very wealthy Ukrainian.
And I still want to see that server.
You know, the FBI has never gotten that server.
That's a big part of this whole thing.
Why did they give it to a Ukrainian company?
Why? -Are you sure they did that?
Are you sure they gave it to Ukraine?
-Well, that's what the word is.
-How do you know what the word is?
You don't even know how toilets work.
"I heard they hid the server by flushing it down
the toilet 15 times."
Every single part of this conspiracy theory
has been debunked, and yet Republicans
have been mindlessly repeating it to defend Donald Trump.
For example, the cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike,
which did help the Democrats investigate the Russian hacking,
is not owned by a "wealthy Ukrainian,"
and the server does not exist.
And when Republican Congressman Randy Weber
found that out on live TV last week, he was shocked.
-Chris, was CrowdStrike involved in the DNC hacking?
-Yes.
Is CrowdStrike in part owned by a Ukrainian?
-No.
-Really? -Yes.
-That is not the information -- yes really or --
That's not the information that we have.
-You have bad information.
-What Trump is saying is go back and let's look
at all the information on the D-triple-C server.
-There was no server.
They operated in a cloud system.
There is no server to steal.
-"Well, clouds are even worse.
According to my weatherman, when the clouds get too full of water
they burst.
It is called rain.
It is undeniably called rain."
So this theory has been thoroughly
and repeatedly debunked, and yet Republicans
keep claiming they're gonna find more evidence to prove it.
In fact, last week it was reported
that Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani
traveled to Europe and Ukraine again,
even while he's personally under criminal investigation
for his ties to Ukraine,
to try to prove his theory that Ukraine
meddled in the 2016 election, and Trump suggested this weekend
that Rudy might even present his findings to Congress.
-Rudy has decided there is no better time
for a trip to Eastern Europe
interviewing people about Ukraine.
More specifically, working on a new project
to discredit the Democrats' case against the President.
According to "The Times," Giuliani was in Budapest Tuesday
meeting with an ousted Ukrainian prosecutor,
trying to dig up dirt on the President's political rival.
-Well, I just know he came back from someplace
and he is going to make a report
I think to the attorney general and to Congress.
He says he has a lot of good information,
but I think he wants to go before Congress
and say and also to the attorney general
and to the Department of Justice.
I hear he's found plenty. Yeah.
-Is that what you hear? Did you hear it from Rudy?
Boss, you'll never believe it. I found the server.
The one the Democrats sent to Ukraine.
He's here at a restaurant, asking me to order something.
Also, please, I'm begging you.
I'm begging you please let Rudy testify before Congress.
That would be amazing.
It would probably take five minutes
to get him to accidentally admit to everything.
The guy breaks down under zero pressure.
He's already confessed on TV and given us all the evidence.
-Did our State Department ask you to go on a mission for them?
-They did.
-You did ask Ukraine to look into Joe Biden.
-Of course I did.
You know who I did it at the request of?
The State Department. It's all here.
Right here.
-Rudy already held his own trial where he confessed
and indicted himself.
It's like watching a one-man show
called "My mother's Italian,
my father's Jewish, and I'm in jail."
Just to recap, these guys don't know how impeachment works.
They don't know how computers work.
They don't know how toilets work.
They're pretty close on rain.
All they have are delusional conspiracy theories
they've concocted to defend a criminal President,
and every day new evidence of Trump's corruption --
-Comes dripping out.
-This has been "A Closer Look."