It seems like President Trump is freaking out
about the Democrats running for president.
For more on this, it's time for "A Closer Look."
♪♪
Trump spoke this morning to religious leaders
at the National Prayer Breakfast.
It's always a slightly awkward situation
for a president who's been married three times,
paid hush money to a porn star,
and has probably, at best, skimmed the Bible.
"And as you all know, God set a fire to a bush
so he could collect the insurance money
and build a casino.
It was smart. It was a smart move."
For example, Trump mentioned the problem of human trafficking,
and here is his expert diagnosis on what's causing it.
-Together we will end the "scorj"
of modern-day slavery that, because of the Internet,
is at levels that nobody can believe.
The Internet came along, and some good things happened,
but some very bad things happened.
-Oh, really, Dr. Science? That's your expert opinion?
The Internet came along, and some good things happened,
and some bad things happened?
One of the good things about the Internet
is you can Google how to pronounce the word "scourge."
-Scorj.
[ Laughter ]
-Trump then laid out what I guess you could say
is his thesis statement for America,
the thing that makes our country great.
Reagan called it the shining city on a hill,
and Obama said America is a place
where you can write your own destiny.
And now here are President Trump's thoughts
on what makes America great.
-America's potential is unlimited
because our extraordinary people
are just something that is number one.
-Soaring words. Just soaring words.
He's like a guy on a date getting lines fed to him
through an ear piece, and the feed cut out.
"You have beautiful eyes, and your...nose.
Well, I mean, you know, it's your nose, but it's, uh...
You got a real great honker."
Trump was trying to live up to the theme of unity
he set out in his State of the Union address Tuesday.
As we all know, he's incapable of that.
Trump always needs something to scare people about,
and in his speech on Tuesday, he landed on a new target,
warning that Democrats would turn America into a socialist country,
and it prompted a few scattered reactions
from Republicans in the audience.
-Here in the United States, we are alarmed
by the new calls to adopt socialism in our country.
[ Scattered boos ]
-Well, guys, you did it. You stopped socialism by booing it.
It reminds me of Ronald Reagan's famous line --
"Mr. Gorbachev, boo this wall."
At least they're making real proposals like Medicare for all.
You guys stole your best political argument
from Statler and Waldorf.
-Boo! -Boo!
-And then...
[ Cheers and applause ]
Then, of course, the camera caught the reaction
of self-described Democratic socialist Bernie Sanders
after Trump vowed to stop socialism
from taking root in America.
-America was founded on liberty and independence,
and not government coercion, domination, and control.
We are born free, and we will stay free.
[ Cheers and applause ]
[ Laughter ]
-So, turns out Statler was in the audience.
I mean, that is -- That's a real --
[ Cheers and applause ] Classic Bernie face there.
That's the face Bernie makes
when he finds out the restaurant charges for bread.
"Bread is supposed to be free! Breadicare for all!"
[ Laughter ]
[ Cheers and applause ]
I hope you're applauding for the writer
who told me "Breadicare for all" wouldn't work.
[ Laughter ]
And then yesterday in an interview on CNBC,
Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin doubled down on Trump's line
about socialism, although the way he said it
left some people scratching their heads.
-The good news is, the U.S. economy is doing terrific.
We continue to have very strong jobs numbers.
I think you've just begun to see the beginning of tax reform.
I think you're going to see that kick in a lot again.
And as the President talked about last night,
his economic program is working.
We're not going back to socialism.
-Now, when he says "going back," he's probably referring
to President Obama, who was many things,
but he was not a socialist.
I mean, first of all, look at the way he dresses now.
He looks like a high-powered sports agent.
"LeBron, baby! You're, uh...crushin' it."
The minute he left the White House,
he got cast in a recurring role on "Ballers."
[ Laughter ]
And yet...while he was whining about socialism in public,
Trump was also claiming in private that he had predicted
the success of one of the most famous self-described
Democratic socialists of the new Congress,
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Trump met news anchors hours before his speech
and claimed that he was among the first
to spot her political talent
and said he had predicted her primary upset last year.
Trump said he knew Ocasio-Cortez had "it," meaning star power.
Oh, really? You predicted that one of the most charismatic
and Internet-famous politicians in the country had star power?
I wonder who else he brags about.
"You know who I think is going places? Tom Hanks."
[ Laughter ]
Trump thinks he's good at spotting star power
because he thinks he has star power,
but when people say Trump has "it," that's not what they mean.
"I'm sorry, but it looks like you have it.
And, um...
it has gone straight to your brain."
Scaremongering about socialism
might have worked a few years ago,
but it's lost its punch now that Republicans have used it
over, and over, and over again.
Just take last year's midterm elections.
Trump went to Wisconsin, a state he won in 2016,
to campaign against Democratic Senator Tammy Baldwin,
and he tried to warn the crowd that Baldwin
would support socialized medicine,
although he claimed he was trying to be nice about it.
-Leah's radical far-left opponent is Tammy Baldwin...
[ Audience boos ]
...who wants a socialist takeover of healthcare.
[ Audience boos ]
You know, I'm trying to say that very nicely.
I'm trying to -- See, normally I'd scream,
"They want a socialist takeover!"
Now I say, "Wants a socialist takeover."
I'm trying to be nice.
-It's so jarring when he tells people
he's pretending to be nice.
It's like if Robert De Niro looked into the camera
halfway through a movie and said,
"I'm not really in the mafia. I'm pretending.
None of this is real."
[ Laughter and applause ]
And the attack didn't work.
Baldwin ended up winning her race by 10 points,
but if you thought billionaire Donald Trump
would be the least effective messenger
against the supposed dangers of socialized medicine,
you'd be wrong.
Because on Tuesday, Fox Business News
actually found someone who was even worse at it --
"Duck Dynasty" star Phil Robertson.
Fox had him on for some reason, and instead of asking him
about something he's qualified to talk about,
like duck calls or how to dress
if you want to blend into a marsh,
they asked him about healthcare policy,
and he ended up going on an insane rant
about Senator Kamala Harris' proposal
to eliminate private health insurance.
Even the Fox anchor who invited him on
was flustered by how crazy his answers were.
-We have been given, contrary to what Kamala Harris said --
She says, "Elect me, and everything's free.
Look, everybody can have their own healthcare.
The government's going to finance the whole thing."
What I'm saying is that, Kamala, I already have healthcare.
It's given to me by God. Eternal healthcare.
I'm guaranteed to be raised from the dead.
I have life and immortality
given to me by God through Jesus Christ.
-But people get sick on Earth in human form,
so would you advise --
-The temporary reprieve is not worth it.
-The anchor actually had to say,
"People get sick on Earth in human form."
[ Laughter ]
I mean, I'm assuming -- I'm assuming
after you have to say that to a guest,
your next stop is at your producer's office to say,
"Maybe no more woods people?"
Also, it's so crazy seeing a guy say that
with a stock ticker underneath him.
"Did you get any stock tips today?"
"No, but I heard Phil Robertson's gonna live forever."
And, by the way, lest you think
Fox sought out the opinion of a regular guy,
Hillbilly Gandalf here reportedly has a net worth
of $15 million,
plus an extra 38 cents if he ever combs out his beard.
"Ooh!"
[ Laughter ]
And yet somehow the fever dream got weirder from there
because Robertson went on to claim that people don't need
healthcare at all and that he was living proof.
-I'm telling her, I have eternal healthcare, and it's free.
Doctors can give you a little temporary reprieve,
but they cannot save you from physical death.
The doctors who treat you, they die, too. Jesus --
-But you're not dismissing that we need --
people need healthcare, right?
It's just who pays --
-I didn't have healthcare for 50 years.
-Well, you look great.
[ Laughter ]
[ Cheers and applause ]
The reason they're all freaking out about Medicare for all
is because they know it makes basic sense to people.
Most people don't care whether it's called socialism
or capitalism or whatever.
They just know it's inherently unfair for mega-billionaires
to hoard their wealth while millions of Americans don't even have healthcare.
Ocasio-Cortez made that point in an interview recently,
and a Fox News guest mocked her for it.
-A system that allows billionaires to exist
when there are parts of Alabama
where people are still getting ringworm
because they don't have access to public health is wrong.
-She's saying, Mark, that basically
she doesn't want the kind of poverty
that leads to lack of healthcare to exist...
when people are, you know, allowed to have
billions of dollars and be fat cats, essentially.
-Well, first of all, I mean the fact is ringworm isn't deadly.
I mean, people get ringworm -- It's like foot fungus.
-"We know ringworm isn't deadly. For some people, it's jewelry."
[ Laughter ]
"Will you take this ring and be my swamp bride?
I'm never gonna die.
You can be on my health insurance. I get it from Jesus!"
[ Laughter ]
[ Cheers and applause ]
Now, there is a reason, a reason
these guys are freaking out about Medicare for all
and why most Democrats running for President are for it.
It makes basic sense to people. Everyone deserves healthcare.
For one very simple reason, and that is...
-People get sick on Earth in human form.
-This has been "A Closer Look."