-Well, it's Thanksgiving, so you know what that means.
America's crazy uncle Mike Lindell is at the dinner table,
screaming at the top of his lungs about voter fraud,
while everyone else silently ignores him
and tucks into their green bean casserole.
Oh, and also, President Biden tried to talk to a turkey.
[ Laughter ] For more on this, it's time for "A Closer Look."
♪♪ [ Cheering and applause ]
If you did have some turkey today,
it almost certainly wasn't one of these guys
because they were both pardoned by President Biden on Monday.
And Biden could not help indulge in some, let's say,
overcooked Thanksgiving puns.
-First of all, the votes are in.
They've been counted and verified.
There's no ballot stuffing.
There's no fowl play.
[ Laughter ] The only red wave this season is going to be
a German Shepherd, Commander,
who knocks over the cranberry sauce on our table.
[ Laughter ] Interesting fact --
every one of those puns came from a book called...
[ Laughter ]
I do forgive him because he's a grandpa.
He's President Grandpa and he's been a grandpa so long,
his granddaughter just got married,
which means, if Biden wins a second term,
there's a chance he could be President Great-Grandpa,
and that would be the first time
in American history that's happened.
Or the fifth. I don't know.
I tried to Google it. I couldn't figure it out.
[ Laughter ]
I entered in...
...and Google just said, "Do you really need to know?"
[ Laughter ] And I said, "Not really."
And Google said, "Just come back when you have something important.
Do you know how many searches we do in a day?"
[ Laughter ] Point is Biden's jokes were bad,
but I'll happily take some stale puns
over a long rant about how China is working with Hugo Chávez
to smuggle in forged ballots
or whatever Trump used to talk about during holidays.
[ As Trump ] They've treated me very unkindly,
these crooked Democrats,
maybe worse than anyone has ever been treated before,
and that, of course, is the true meaning
of Mother's Day.
[ Laughter and applause ]
Remember when he used to host the Easter Egg Roll
at the White House and...
[ Laughter ]
...the bunny would just stand next to him
for what felt like forever,
while Trump would ramble to children
about how he rebuilt the military or something?
[ Laughter ] And, for some reason,
that bunny was always making a face
like he just walked in on his parents having sex.
[ Laughter ] Which, presumably,
happens all the time because, you know, they are bunnies.
"Mom, Dad! [ Laughter ]
No, I'm already sharing my room with 30 brothers and sisters!"
In fairness to Trump,
I don't know why his staff went on Amazon
and specifically chose the costume called...
[ Laughter ]
I did enjoy Biden's shout-out to his dog Commander, though.
That one doesn't quite seem like a joke to me.
[ As Biden ] There's no red wave,
unless Commander knocks over the cranberry sauce.
I'm serious, folks, he might do it.
[ Laughter ]
That dog is crazy!
I'm scared to death of him.
[ Laughter ] Last, Thanksgiving, he jumped out
and grabbed the carving knife, held off the Secret Service
[ Laughter ] for an hour.
They had to throw a net over him!
There's also a decent chance I fell asleep
on the Acela and dreamed that.
[ Laughter ]
No, it happened.
[ Laughter ]
For the most part, it was a very traditional ceremony.
Although, there was one odd moment,
where Biden asked the providers of the turkeys
how many more they had,
made a weird joke about visiting other countries,
and then asked the turkey if it wanted to talk.
-How many turkeys you got down there?
You're raising? -circle Range grows
about 9.5 million turkeys a year.
-God love you,
Nine and a half million turkeys.
[ Laughter and oohs ]
I tell you what.
That's like some of the countries I've been to.
[ Laughter and applause ]
And the --
Anyway.
Do you want to talk?
[ Laughter and applause ]
Yeah.
-Wait. How?
[ Laughter ]
How is that like some of the countries you've been to?
[ Laughter ]
They had that many people or they had that many turkeys?
No wonder you tried to get the turkey
to say something to change the subject.
[ Laughter ]
[ As Biden ] Bail me out here, brother.
[ Laughter and applause ]
With that said, asking a turkey
if they want to talk into a microphone is very funny.
[ Laughter ] Mostly because it's just fun
to imagine what a turkey would say.
Would it be like an Emmy acceptance speech?
"I just want to thank my family my friends,
my agent, my manager.
Everybody down at the roost who believed in me.
And I want to say to my kids at home,
Jeremy and Delilah, go to bed!"
[ Laughter ] Also, it is a nice change of pace
that the president is willing to share the mic.
You know Trump would never share the spotlight with two turkeys,
unless he was posing for a family photo.
[ Turkey gobbling ] [ Laughter and applause ]
[ Laughter ]
They do puff their chests out like they're turkeys.
But, as you heard in that first clip,
Biden couldn't help but take a slight jab
at the supposed red wave
that never materialized in this year's midterms.
Many people, including Republicans,
are still wondering why that red wave never happened
and at least one GOP pundit on Fox News had a theory.
-We have a candidate quality problem,
but what we've seen is a real intensification
of this problem from top to bottom --
not just Senate candidates, but House candidates,
secretary of state candidates, and governors, and the like.
And it's, you know, what I call
the MyPillowization of the Republican Party,
[ Laughter ] is we've attracted
these more cartoon characters and if somebody speaking
at a rally with a president or a presidential candidate
is best known as a pillow salesman,
run to high heaven.
[ Laughter ] -Oh, you can run, but you can't hide
from Mike Lindell's voice.
It doesn't matter how far away you are,
you will still be able to hear him.
It's like that scene from "Jurassic Park."
If, at any point, you see
the water in your glass rippling, don't worry.
It just means Mike Lindell is speaking somewhere.
[ Laughter ] But if Republicans are worried
about the MyPillowization of their party,
then they're probably not going to be thrilled
to hear the latest news from Mike Lindell Land.
But, in a way, we are because here's the thing.
It's Thanksgiving and just as important as the turkey
and the stuffing and the football
are the crazy uncles.
And, just in time for Thanksgiving,
old uncle Mike went on one of his usual,
obscure right-wing TV shows that you can only get
with rabbit ears or a ham radio
and claimed he had solid proof that elections
across the country were stolen from Republicans.
-We have cyberevidence of a 37,000-vote flip
on the Kari Lake race on Thursday after the election.
We have all the Edison data that came in, in real time,
that came through on all the races,
including Finchem, Blake Masters.
They all won, okay?
They all won.
This is like we were watching from every angle.
You go up to Michigan,
they've completely wiped out the state of Michigan,
stole the legislatures,
everything. -Mm-hmm.
Other races, from Oz.
Oz really won.
There's all these different races.
But they were caught, so.
But Arizona is the gateway to all of our --
to expose everything, everybody.
We have to -- We have to get Arizona.
They need to do a new election.
[ Laughter ] -That's right,
they need to do a new election.
He screams like he's doing dialogue
from a straight-to-DVD knockoff of "Back to the Future."
[ As Lindell ] Marty, we got to go back in time
and do a new election.
I hooked up the DeLorean to the clock tower
and got electrocuted and that's why I talk like this.
[ Laughter ] Also, I found that Sports Almanac
and bet a million dollars on
Da Bears!
[ Laughter ] Now, you might be wondering why
we're spending any time at all talking
about a pillow salesman.
Well, aside from the fact that it's Thanksgiving
and we're celebrating the importance of crazy uncles,
Lindell has also been a major influence
within the election denial movement.
As we noted before,
he's endorsed candidates, appeared at Trump rallies,
and, according to The New York Times, he spent...
First of all, I don't believe he has researchers.
I believe he has guys who are willing
to say they did research, just to collect an easy paycheck.
[ As Lindell ] Alright, gang, did you guys do
all the research I asked for?
"Uh, yeah, definitely.
[ Laughter ] Um...
we found a bunch of cyberevidence
[ Laughter ] using the, uh, Edison data
to prove that they, uh,
completely wiped out
the state of Michigan?"
Sounds good, fellas.
Here's a million dollars.
[ Laughter ] Now, if you ever hear Lindell yelling,
just grab a lab coat and go get paid.
Also, how does he have this much money?
His pillows can be that good. Otherwise,
he wouldn't always look like he hasn't slept in five years.
[ Laughter ] But I don't know.
Maybe they are. I don't know.
So, let me try one. Here we go.
[ Laughter ] You know what? I will say,
doesn't look that bad.
[ Clang ]
[ Laughter ]
[ Applause ] No. [Indistinct]
[ Clang ]
[ Laughter and applause ]
[ Fresh laughter and applause ]
Why did we move our sound effects guy to Australia?
[ Laughter ]
We're going to get this one.
[ Clang ]
[ Laughter and applause ]
Okay, you guys, I want to make something clear.
This is not a real MyPillow!
I do not want to get sued by Mike Lindell because,
if I am, I think I would laugh through the whole trial
and the jury would turn against me for being immature.
If you want to sue someone, sue Sal. He writes these.
I barely know what any of these words mean.
[ Laughter ]
[ Clang ]
[ Laughter and applause ]
Lindell is also --
[ Laughter ]
Lindell is also currently banned from Twitter, as of this taping,
but he's been very public about the fact
that he wants his account back.
In fact, he even issued a direct plea
to Twitter's new owner, Elon Musk.
-My shout-out to Elon Musk would be, you know,
if your site should be a new platform of free speech,
but yet, you're going to carve out the guys that talk
about our election crimes and our election integrity,
I don't think it's that free, Steve.
I think it's -- I think I would like to do
a shout-out to Elon Musk right now.
Hey, check out the evidence.
I was banned because I was telling the truth.
-Would you commit, right now,
to do an open live Twitter with Elon Musk
about what you believe is the voter fraud related
to machines and other things in the 2020 election, sir?
-Absolutely.
I'd fly to him, do whatever it takes.
And I would do that any day, anytime,
any time of day or night,
and I'll drop everything I have to do that.
-Alright, first of all, dude, you're on TV.
Wear something nicer than a plaid shirt.
[ Laughter ] Second of all...
[ Applause ]
Seriously.
Be a professional.
[ Laughter ]
Second of all, you don't need to call it a shout-out.
Everything you say is a shout-out.
[ Laughter ]
Anyway, now that we've had our fun, let's remember
that it's Thanksgiving.
It's a time for us to come together with our friends,
our families, and our communities,
to spend time with another, to give thanks,
and, of course, to ignore our crazy uncles.
And, if you have a crazy uncle at Thanksgiving this year,
don't worry. Just remember the first rule --
whatever you do, do not turn to them and say...
-Do you want to talk?
[ Laughter ]
-This has been "A Closer Look."
♪♪ [ Cheering and applause ]