-We are in the worst stage of the pandemic so far,
and the outgoing president is laser-focused on two things --
overturning the election results
and counter-programming Joe Biden's inauguration.
For more on this, it's time for "A Closer Look."
♪♪
Until Trump emerged for his unhinged rally in Georgia
this weekend, the nation was watching
a bizarre split screen where on one side,
you had the incoming president,
who doesn't actually have any power yet,
addressing the nation on a regular basis,
consulting his team of medical advisers, laying out his plans,
and calling for action amid the worst national crisis
in a hundred years, and on the other side,
you had the current president
in a sort of self-imposed hibernation
from which he emerged only rarely
to give bizarre minute-long press conferences
about the stock market or lumber around his golf course
by himself like a hungover Bigfoot on vacation.
[ As Trump ] No pictures. No pictures, please.
[ Normal voice ] And not only has he been avoiding
public appearances, he's apparently
avoiding private ones, too.
Amid the worst stage of the pandemic,
with the country setting new records for cases,
hospitalizations, and deaths,
Trump has been ignoring his own COVID task force.
-The task force will remain together,
though of course a question is how often they're going to
continue to meet with the Vice President.
They've been trying to resume their weekly schedule
they had maintained before the election,
but our reporting still shows President Trump himself
has still not attended a coronavirus task force meeting
in months.
-I mean, obviously he should be there.
But it is a little like Hawkeye
not showing up to an Avengers meeting.
They can probably go ahead and start without him.
You know what? I'm just going to put him down for arrows,
and if I'm wrong, we can change it when he shows up.
Obviously it would be ideal to have a president who, you know,
cares that thousands of Americans are dying every day.
But I have to imagine it might also be a bit of a relief
to the members of the task force when Trump doesn't show up
to distract everybody with dumb questions.
"As you'll see here, Mr. President,
the virus is now spiking
in almost every region of the country.
[ As Trump ] Uh, yeah, just spitballing here --
is it possible it spiked in a way that could have
led to voter fraud in say --
again, this is just off the top of my head --
Nevada, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Georgia?
[ Normal voice ] "I'm sorry, Mr. President,
how would that even happen?"
[ As Trump ] It's a spitball, guys.
You can't ask follow-ups to the spitballs.
It's like the first rule of spitballs.
Because then you're deincentivizing the spitballs.
[ Normal voice ] Of course, if he had showed up
to any of those meetings, he would have heard
dire warnings like this from one of his own medical advisers.
-This is not just the worst public health event.
This is the worst event that this country will face,
not just from a public health side.
-Yeah. 2020 is one of the [bleep] years on record,
and it's ending in the [bleep] possible way.
Which, I guess, is exactly what you'd expect.
You don't watch "Paul Blart" hoping it's going to turn into
"Citizen Kane" in the third act.
[ Gruff voice ] They didn't have Mankz writing the script!
[ Laughter ]
[ Normal voice ] We could have easily been prepared for this.
Instead, we have to hope our current president
is sitting at home in his sweatpants channel surfing
and accidentally clicking past "Meet the Press"
on his way to watching, I don't know, an episode
of "Ghost Hunters," hoping they find one
who voted for Biden.
Because Trump doesn't listen to his advisers.
Instead, Trump prefers to get his information
about the pandemic from medical experts like this guy.
-I have the best analogy which I hope makes sense.
-Okay, ohh, let me stop you right there.
If you have the best analogy,
you shouldn't have to hope it makes sense.
Then again, you shouldn't be on TV if you can't tie your shoes
without doing the whole rabbit story out loud.
But go on, let's hear this analogy.
-Pete Rose is going through a divorce
in the '70s, and it was brutal.
It was on the front pages of every headline.
They said, "Pete, you are hitting .360
while you're going through this public divorce. It's brutal."
And he said, "I would rather go through a divorce