-The Special Counsel in the Russia investigation
revealed that President Trump's ex-National Security Adviser
has been cooperating with multiple investigations
after lying to the FBI.
For more on this, it's time for "A Closer Look."
[ Cheers and applause ]
It has now been two years since the Trump administration
first faced questions about his ties to Russians
and the firing of
National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.
And it's worth remembering just how many times
they've changed their story since then.
All the way back in January 2017, for example,
when the Flynn allegations first emerged,
Vice President-elect Mike Pence insisted
that the campaign had no contacts with Russians
of any kind, period.
-Was there any contact in any way
between Trump or his associates
and the Kremlin or cutouts they had?
-I -- I joined this campaign in the summer,
and I can tell you that all the contact by the Trump campaign
and associates was with the American people.
-Did any adviser or anybody in the Trump campaign
have any contact with the Russians
who were trying to meddle in the election?
-Oh, of course not. And I think --
I think to suggest that is to give credence
to some of -- of these bizarre rumors
that have swirled around the candidacy.
-"Bizarre rumors around the candidacy"?
Bizarre rumors were the candidacy.
[ Laughter ]
Trump campaigned for President
like a high school sophomore gossiping at his locker.
[ Laughter ]
"Did hear Barack was born in Kenya?
And Ted Cruz's dad killed JFK. Pass it on.
[ Laughter ]
And you know, he doesn't get as much credit for it,
but Mike Pence is just as slippery of a liar
as anyone else in this administration.
The only difference is that when he lies,
he crinkles his brow and he uses a solemn tone.
And when Trump lies, he sweats like a fugitive
who's being chased by a pack of police dogs.
[ Laughter and applause ]
Just look.
Just look at the differences in how they lie.
Both of these statements were equally untrue,
and they were both made around the same time in early 2017.
-I joined this campaign in the summer,
and I can tell you that all the contact
by the Trump campaign and associates
was with the American people.
-Well, I had nothing to do with it.
I have nothing to do with Russia.
I told you, I have no deals there.
-It's like when the cops separate two suspects
in a bank heist, and one of them says,
"I'd like to speak to my lawyer,"
and the other guy's in the next room, screaming,
"It was all Mike's idea!"
[ Laughter ]
Also, why does Trump
always hold his hands out like this when he lies?
It's like he's already practicing to get handcuffed.
[ Laughter ]
Or to hold up a name slate for his mug shot.
Seriously, whenever he does that --
whenever he does that, I have the strong urge
to throw him a basketball. "Think fast!"
[ Laughter ]
So, that was what they said at first,
that there were no contacts
with any Russians of any kind, period.
Then we found out that Flynn had secretly spoken
with the Russian ambassador
about lifting sanctions on Russia
and that he lied about it to the FBI.
A few weeks later, Trump fired him
while also insisting that Flynn hadn't done anything wrong.
-Mike Flynn is a fine person.
And I asked for his resignation.
He respectfully gave it.
He didn't have to do that,
because what he did wasn't wrong.
When I looked at the information, I said,
"I don't think he did anything wrong.
If anything, he did something right."
I was not happy with the way that information was given.
You know, he was just doing his job.
-Then why did you fire him?
[ Laughter ]
"Mike, you come in on time every day,
you make lots of money for the company,
the guys at corporate love you.
Clean out your desk, bud."
[ Laughter ]
And if you closed your eyes and just listened to him,
you'd think Trump was arguing with his identical twin.
"He resigned! But he didn't have to.
He did something wrong.
If anything, he did something right!"
[ Laughter ]
"I can't be mad at you, identical twin."
[ Laughter ]
Then, of course, it came out
that almost everyone around Trump
had secret contacts with Russians.
Jared Kushner tried to set up
a secret back channel with the Kremlin.
Jeff Sessions met with the Russian ambassador.
Trump's Foreign Policy Adviser met with Russians in Europe.
And Stephen Miller moonlights as Vladimir Putin's shoulder raven.
[ Laughter ]
Then, after we found that the President's son Don Jr.
met with Russians offering dirt on Hillary Clinton
in the summer of 2016, the story shifted again.
They stopped saying there was no contact with Russia
and started insisting
there was no collusion with Russia,
because anyone would've taken the meeting,
and besides, nothing came of it.
-For me, this was opposition research.
They had something -- you know, maybe concrete evidence
to all the stories I've been hearing about
that were probably underreported for years,
not just during the campaign.
So I think I wanted to hear it out.
But, really, it went nowhere.
-"This was a meeting to get information on an opponent,
totally legal and done all the time in politics,
and it went nowhere. I did not know about it."
-"It was totally legal. It went nowhere.
I didn't know anything about it."
Trump's like a kid who didn't study for a multiple-choice test
and fills in all the bubbles.
[ Laughter ]
As a general rule, if you have three different alibis,
none of them are true.
If your boss asks you to take a drug test,
and you say, "I've never smoked marijuana in my life.
I didn't inhale. Weed is legal now,"
get ready to pee in a cup.
In fact yesterday, GOP Senator Chuck Grassley
was asked why the President's tweets
get him in trouble so often,
and he offered a solution that I don't really think would work.
-Hey, listen, the President could solve all of his problems
if he'd just show his wife the tweet
before he punches the "send" button.
-Oh, come on. You think he talks to his wife?
[ Laughter ]
She's the only person who, if Trump said
there were no contacts, I would believe it.
Also, when I look at Chuck Grassley,
I don't exactly think social-media strategist.
I'd think he was one of those dudes
eating lunch on that steel beam.
[ Laughter ]
In fact, Grassley has his own weird tweets
about the Russia investigation.
After the Don Jr. meeting surfaced,
Grassley himself tweeted, "Dems, don't go berserk
about Trump assoc talking with a Russian lawyer
about Russia adoption policy.
I and a Dem Sen did same advocacy
with Russian foreign min."
Jesus.
[ Laughter ]
Did you type that during a fistfight
on top of a moving train?
You think Trump should show his tweets to his wife?
You need to show yours to a 1st grader.
[ Laughter ]
"Yeah, I'm not a great speller, man,
but I think this is all wrong."
[ Laughter ]
So their story went from there were no contacts with Russians
to there was no collusion with Russians
to we tried to collude but nothing came of it.
But then, as one Trump associate after another was indicted
or pled guilty, the Trump team changed their story again.
Trump's lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, insisted that Trump himself
couldn't be guilty because he didn't do the hacking himself.
-I don't even know if that's a crime, colluding about Russians.
-Okay. [ Chuckles ]
-You start analyzing the crime, the hacking is the crime.
The hacking is the crime.
-That certainly is the original problem, yes.
-Well, the president didn't hack.
-Of course not. That's the original problem.
-He didn't pay them for hacking.
-Of course he didn't pay for the hacking.
Trump doesn't pay for anything.
[ Laughter and applause ]
If Mueller doesn't take Trump to federal Court,
Putin might have to take him to the People's Court
just to get the money he's owed.
[ Laughter ]
And then Rudy just straight up said
that collusion is not against the law.
-I've been sitting here looking in this federal code,
trying to find collusion as a crime.
-It's not. -Collusion is not a crime.
-I like the idea that Giuliani's been looking in the federal code
trying to find the word "collusion."
Just because that word isn't in there,
doesn't mean it's not a crime.
It's like a public defender's client who's accused of murder.
"Good news! I looked in the federal code,
and the words "shoved off a balcony" aren't in there.
So you're home free, baby!"
[ Laughter and applause ]
Trump, of course, is also under investigation
for obstruction of justice
for asking then-FBI Director James Comey
to shut down his investigation of Flynn
and for signaling to witnesses,
like his ex-campaign chairman Paul Manafort
that if they refused to cooperate with Mueller,
he'll pardon them.
And so now Trump's defenders on Fox News
are trying out a new argument.
If he obstructs justice in public, it can't be a crime.
-Some critics of the President said, "Well, this is obviously
him trying to obstruct justice," but if that's the case,
he's obstructing justice in front of the world.
-Yeah. -I mean, can you actually
obstruct justice if you're not doing it in secret?
-Oh, it can still be a crime if you do it in public.
For example, no one's ever been arrested for private urination.
[ Laughter ]
Now, one of the potential witnesses
who Trump has expressed support for on Twitter
is his former adviser Roger Stone,
who allegedly had secret contacts with WikiLeaks,
along with an associate, Jerome Corsi,
a longtime right-wing conspiracy theorist.
And Stone responded by claiming Muller had pressured Corsi
into making that confession.
-This is really simple.
It shows what happens when you hotbox a 72-year-old man
for 40 hours, as the Mueller interrogators did.
-Wait.
[ Laughter ]
They hotboxed him?
So they put him in a car and made him smoke weed
until he confessed?
[ Laughter ]
"You know what's a funny word to say?
Putin."
[ Laughter ]
"Putin."
[ Laughter ]
"Putin."
[ Laughter ]
In order to believe Trump
and everyone around him are innocent,
you'd have to believe that they've been lying
for two years, because they did nothing wrong.
But the Cohen plea deal and the Flynn memo
make clear that Mueller knows they lied,
and he can prove they lied.
I don't know if Trump will ever try to fire Muller, but if does,
even Trump will have to say...
-He was just doing his job.
-This has been "A Closer Look."
[ Cheers and applause ]