-As the committee investigating
the coup attempt on January 6th continues to reveal new evidence
of a coordinated criminal plot by Donald Trump
to overthrow American democracy,
Trump is responding by suggesting
he might pardon the January 6th defendants,
if he gets reelected in 2024.
For more on this, it's time for "A Closer Look."
♪♪ [ Cheering and applause ]
The reason these hearings are important is very simple --
this wasn't a one-off and Trump hasn't forgotten.
If he gets the chance, he's going to finish the job.
And this is one of the rare times
you can say that about Trump.
He's not exactly a closer.
[ Laughter ] I'm not sure he ever technically
finished any of his buildings.
[ Laughter ] I'm pretty sure that,
instead of putting fire alarms in his condos,
he just painted them on.
[ Laughter ]
But Trump has made it abundantly clear
that he hasn't forgotten about the 2020 election
and he hasn't let it go.
If he gets the chance, he will absolutely finish
the coup he started on January 6th,
as he made clear recently, when he dangled the possibility
of pardoning defendants in January 6th cases.
-Even while January 6th defendants
are having their lives totally destroyed
and being treated worse than terrorists and murderers,
despite most being charged
with parading through the Capitol.
Most people.
Should not be treated the way they're being treated.
[ Laughter ] And, if I become
president someday, if I decide to do it,
I will be looking at them very, very seriously for pardons.
Very, very seriously.
[ Cheering and applause ]
They've been treated very unfairly.
Should I decide to do that.
-Trump is so bad at playing coy,
if he had a fan, he'd cut a hole in it,
so you can still see his mouth.
[ Laughter and applause ]
He says, "If I decide to do it,"
like he's threatening to streak
across the quad after a frat party.
[ Laughter ] [ As Trump ] I dare you guys to join me.
If I decide to do it.
[ Laughter ] "Donald, you're already naked."
[ As Trump ] So be it!
[ Laughter and applause ] Second,
when you say they were charged with parading like that,
you make it sound like they were on floats,
wearing sashes that said, "Happy Insurrection Day." [ Laughter ]
Yes, there is such a thing as illegal parading,
or demonstrating in the Capitol,
and many people have been charged with that,
but that's very different from parading,
in the sense Trump seems to be using it.
I mean, in New York, we have parades like every day.
It's completely different.
Every time I get in a cab and say,
I want to go to Midtown, the cabbie says something like,
"Well, it's Luxembourgian Independence Day,
so I got to take you through Secaucus."
[ Laughter ] The other day,
traffic was stopped along Fifth Avenue
because there was a parade for the
National Association of Trombone Players
[ Laughter ] Annual Trombone Appreciation Day.
It was so annoying. [ Laughter ]
Every time someone dropped their ice cream cone,
you'd hear this --
[ Sad trombone ]
[ Laughter ]
In fact, contrary to Trump, several members
of right-wing groups and militias
have been charged with seditious conspiracy.
In fact, we learned from the committee last week
the rioters got within 40 feet of Vice President Mike Pence
and were absolutely willing to do physical harm to Pence,
if they had the chance.
-Vice President Pence and his team,
ultimately, were led to a secure location,
where they stayed for the next four and a half hours...
...barely missing rioters a few feet away.
-Approximately 40 feet.
That's all there was,
40 feet between the vice president and the mob.
Make no mistake about the fact
that the vice president's life was in danger.
A recent court filing by the Department of Justice explains
that a confidential informant from the Proud Boys
told the FBI the Proud Boys
would've killed Mike Pence, if given a chance.
-One thing we're learning from this investigation is
that the coup was much more sinister
than that pic of the dude jacking the podium.
[ Laughter ] If the rioters had the chance,
they would've done the same thing to Mike Pence.
[ Laughter ]
You know, the guy who took the podium
probably thought he had Pence.
You were supposed to grab the VP!
"This has the same charisma!"
[ Laughter ] I feel like, as a nation,
we haven't all fully appreciated
the degree to which the president
basically almost got the vice president killed.
That feels like something you only read about
in history books, like the Burr-Hamilton Duel.
Of course, if Trump and Pence ever dueled,
only one thing would be certain --
Trump ain't doing the full ten paces.
[ Laughter ]
[ As Pence ] Now, before we do this,
Mr. President, I would like your assurances
that we are agreed on the rules.
[ As Trump ] Absolutely, Mike, ten passes.
Maybe eight, but at least five.
[ Laughter ] With that said --
With that said, Mike, I have big paces,
so three of mine are probably worth ten of your tiny paces.
[ Laughter ] Everyone seems to have moved on
from the threat to Pence, and that includes Pence himself,
who also seems to not be holding a grudge against Trump
for, you know, almost getting him killed.
Just a week ago, Pence bragged about his record
in the Trump administration, tweeting...
Pence is like that clueless guy you date in college
who could not understand that you were dumping him.
[ Laughter ] We should see other people.
"I see other people all the time.
Look, there's one. Alright, pick you up at 8:00."
No, dude, we're over.
"Over the moon about this perfect relationship."
[ Laughter ] I'm breaking up with you.
"I've been told I break people up
with my knock-knock jokes."
[ Laughter ]
So it's pretty clear that Trump was,
at the very least, indifferent as to whether he had put
his own vice president in physical danger
and it's also clear Trump sicced the mob on Pence
for not following through on something
even Trump himself knew was illegal.
Last week, the committee provided new evidence
that Trump and his pro-coup lawyer, John Eastman,
who laid out a detailed plan
for how Pence could overturn the election,
knew the plan was against the law
when they tried to get Pence to do it.
In fact, toward the end of Trump's presidency,
Eastman even sent an email to Rudy Giuliani,
casually suggesting that maybe Trump should pardon Eastman.
-Dr. Eastman emailed Rudy Giuliani
and requested that he be included
on a list of potential recipients
of a presidential pardon.
Dr. Eastman's email stated...
I've decided that I should be on the pardon list
-He's like a guy walking up to the bouncer at a club
by himself, trying to get in.
"I've decided I should be on the VIP list."
[ Laughter ] [ Italian accent ] Move. Move out of the way,
or I'm going to squeeze your head like a grape.
Right this way, ladies.
[ Laughter ]
Also, I love how he phrased it,
like he had just sort of casually thought about a pardon,
like it was a fun idea,
and not that it was starting to dawn on him
that he was breaking the law and might go to prison.
He's like a guy on the phone with his insurance agent
while you can hear the sound
of fire trucks in the background.
"Yeah, hey, a few months ago, you mentioned fire insurance
[ Laughter ] and I was thinking about it
during our fireworks-themed gender reveal party
[ Laughter ] and maybe I should --
yeah, maybe I should get that.
[ Laughter ] And I guess it makes sense
that, if you're looking for the pardon list,
you'd email Rudy Giuliani.
He's definitely the guy
who came up with the idea of a pardon list.
[ Laughter ] The pardon list is probably just every possible version
of his own name written on the back of a steakhouse napkin.
[ Laughter ]
Because even Rudy, who we tend to think of
as a delusional, bumbling doofus,
due to, you know...
[ Laughter ]
And, yeah, I know we use that picture a lot,
but here's the deal -- you keep laughing at it,
we're going to keep using it.
[ Laughter ] Even Rudy
apparently knew that the whole scheme was illegal.
That's according to a deposition broadcast by the committee last week
from former Trump White House lawyer Eric Herschmann.
Herschmann said he had told Eastman that his plan was insane
and that, later, Rudy had agreed with Herschmann
that the plan was illegal.
-The president's own lead outside counsel, Rudy Giuliani,
also seemed to concede
that the vice president did not have the authority
to decide the outcome of the election
or send it back to the states.
Here's what White House attorney Eric Herschmann said
about his call with Mayor Giuliani
on the morning of the 6th.
-The morning of January 6th,
he called me out of the blue, right?
And I was like getting dressed.
And we had an intellectual discussion
about Eastman's --
I don't know if it's Eastman's theory per se,
but the VP's role.
And,
you know, he was asking me my view, analysis,
and then the practical implications of it.
And, when we finished, he said,
"I believe that, you know, you're probably right."
-First of all, I doubt it was truly
an intellectual discussion, if Rudy was involved.
[ Laughter ] Saying you had an intellectual discussion with Rudy Giuliani
is like saying you played chess with a horse.
[ Laughter ]
Second, it's incredible to me that even Rudy knew
it was a crazy and bad idea. Rudy.
That's how you know your plan is truly [bleep] insane.
[ Laughter ] This is a guy who,
while under multiple investigations,
thought it was a good idea to do a video
using an Abraham Lincoln filter.
[ Laughter ]
That same guy looked at John Eastman's plan and said,
"I...don't know."
[ Laughter ]
The January 6th hearings have revealed a ton
of incriminating new details, so far, including the fact
that the attempted coup was a lot more sinister
and a lot more sophisticated than previously known.
Even Trump and his cronies knew it was illegal.
They clearly had criminal intent.
Now, Trump is basically admitting
that he'll do it again, if he gets the opportunity.
He's confessing in advance.
It's like he's writing his own version of that book by O.J.,
called, "If I Did It," except Trump's is called...
-If I decide to do it.
[ Laughter ]
-This has been "A Closer Look."
♪♪
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