-Republicans and right-wing pundits are focusing
on the leak of the Supreme Court's draft ruling
overturning Roe v. Wade, rather than the ruling itself.
Meanwhile, more evidence is emerging that potentially
links Donald Trump to the militia groups
involved in the attempted coup on January 6th.
For more on this, it's time for "A Closer Look."
[ Cheers and applause ]
The right has been trying to overturn Roe for 50 years,
and in order to achieve that goal,
they've broken every conceivable norm in their path
and nearly detonated our democracy.
In fact, they partnered with a monstrous demagogue
who literally tried to overthrow our democracy.
And as part of that Faustian bargain,
Trump promised to give them the judges they wanted
as long as they looked the other way
during his many crimes and abuses, and for years,
Trump has gone out of his way to remind Republicans
of the judges he gave them in order to retain their loyalty.
-I've always heard how important judges are.
Now we know how important they are.
I have 252 beautiful, brand-new, conservative,
wonderful judges.
We have confirmed 191
brand-new, beautiful federal judges.
All those judges, those beautiful judges.
-No matter what he's talking about,
he makes it sound like real estate.
[As Trump] We have so many brand-new, beautiful,
split-level judges, all new appliances,
ready now for an easy move.
These judges won't last. Book a viewing today.
[ Laughter ]
[Normal voice] Trump got the GOP over the finish line,
but this plot did not begin with him,
and it's not unique to his presidency.
Overturning Roe has been a nearly singular,
obsessive goal of the extremist right for half a century,
as Senator Elizabeth Warren noted after a protest
outside the Supreme Court on Tuesday.
-The Republicans have been working toward this day
for decades.
They have been out there plotting,
carefully cultivating these Supreme Court justices
so they could have a majority on the bench
who would accomplish something
that the majority of Americans do not want.
-It's true, they've spent decades
carefully cultivating these justices.
They look like they were grown in a lab
to overturn abortion rights.
I mean, look at this guy.
He looks like the dean who threatens
to shut down the fraternity in every '80s teen comedy.
If he had written the draft opinion,
it would have ended with,
"We rule that Roe must be overturned
and also that a werewolf can't play basketball!"
[ Laughter ]
Of course, it won't surprise you to learn that
instead of responding to the substance
that Warren and the protesters are saying, the depraved weirdos
who make up today's Republican Party
decided instead to mock the people who attended.
For example, there's Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz,
who is currently under federal investigation
over unpaid parking tickets -- Wait. Sorry, I read that wrong.
Over whether he had a sexual relationship
with a 17-year-old and paid for her to travel with him
in violation of federal sex trafficking laws.
And I'm sure he also hasn't paid all his parking tickets.
Gaetz chose a line of attack that quickly backfired.
-One lawmaker appearing to stoke the flames of controversy,
Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz tweeting,
"How many of the women rallying against overturning Roe
are over-educated, under-loved millennials
who sadly return from protests to a lonely microwave dinner
with their cats, and no Bumble matches?"
-It is very telling that you think "overeducated" is a burn.
"So, what grade are you in?"
"Oh, I'm a sophomore in college."
"Sophomore? Sorry, you're a little overeducated for me.
Once you've read 'Fahrenheit 451,'
you're basically a grandma to ol' Gaetzy!"
[ Laughter ]
When they're not mocking protesters,
they are, of course,
pretending to be indignant over the leak itself,
rather than celebrating the outcome,
because they know overturning Roe
and criminalizing abortion are deeply unpopular
with a huge majority of voters.
So, instead, they want to throw the leaker in jail.
-What happened to the court today was the saddest chapter
in the history of the United States Supreme Court.
This was despicable, it's dangerous, and it was dumb.
-If that left-wing law clerk succeeds,
it will be the most grotesque politicization
of the Supreme Court in the history of our nation.
You mentioned an FBI investigation.
I hope there is a serious one.
And I hope whoever is responsible for this
not only is fired instantly,
but is prosecuted and serves real jail time
for violating the confidences of the Supreme Court.
-There is no duo in history
worse than Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham.
You know who was a much better duo?
Milli Vanilli.
Or as they're known in Supreme Court parlance,
Milli v. Anilli.
Next time...
Next time Cruz flees his state during a weather emergency.
I'm betting he'll...
-♪ Blame it on the rain ♪
[ Laughter ]
By the way, if you got that musical reference,
Matt Gaetz doesn't want to date you.
[ Laughter and applause ] Anyway...
If you want to talk about politicizing the court,
why don't we talk about the fact that a sitting justice,
Clarence Thomas, was the sole vote
in a case that would have allowed Trump to keep documents
relevant to the January 6th insurrection private --
documents, it turns out,
that could have involved Thomas' wife, Ginni Thomas,
who repeatedly sent text messages
to Trump's chief of staff
pushing him to overturn the 2020 election.
Thomas didn't recuse himself from that case.
His wife was texting Meadows insane theories
about election fraud and ideas for how to keep Trump in power.
And really, I cannot stress enough
how unhinged these texts were.
-The Washington Post obtained copies of messages
that had been turned over to the January 6 committee,
revealing that Ginni Thomas
sent former Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows
a barrage of texts in the weeks after the 2020 election,
urging him to try to overturn the results.
She referred to wild, far-right conspiracy theories,
sending Meadows a link to an absolutely
just insane YouTube video that's since been taken down,
which was centered around a fake QAnon conspiracy theory.
After she texted that video to Meadows,
"Thomas added, quote, I hope this is true."
-Right after the election, she quoted to Meadows
the language then circulating on pro-Trump sites.
Quote, "Biden crime family and ballot fraud co-conspirators
(elected officials, bureaucrats, social media censorship mongers,
fake stream media reporters, etc)
are being arrested and detained for ballot fraud right now
and over coming days, and will be living in barges off Gitmo
to face military tribunals for sedition,"
adding, "I hope this is true."
-Now, Ginni.
Personally, when a text ends with "I hope this is true,"
I prefer that it follows something like,
"Heard you're coming home for the holidays,"
or, "A little bird told me you got that promotion."
Not "Biden crime family will be living in barges off Gitmo,"
you cuckoo nut-bird!
Do you travel with a life preserver?
Because, lady, you are off the [bleep] deep end.
And you may say, "Eh, she's not a Supreme Court justice.
She's his wife. Leave her alone."
First of all, it's a massive conflict of interest.
Second, she was encouraging a coup.
Third, why does she get to text Mark Meadows?
My wife doesn't get to text my guests
before they come on my show.
Because if she did, I knew what she would text them.
[ Laughter ]
This stuff is really deranged.
She thought there were secret watermarks on ballots
and that the Biden crime family was being detained at Gitmo
for election fraud.
On barges, no less.
If you ask me, she's doing disservice to the name Ginni.
Ginni should be the cool aunt who lets you have champagne
at New Year's when you're 15,
and drives a Jeep Wrangler
with a bunch of Phish stickers on it
and has a cool roommate named Debbie
who has three rescue dogs and --
Oh, I just think I...
I think I just realized something about Aunt Ginni.
[ Laughter ]
Alright.
Good for Aunt Ginni.
Certainly...
She's certainly doing better than Aunt Barb.
Aunt Barb!
Still looking for Mr. Right.
In reality, of course, it turned out the criminals
were the ones trying to overthrow
a free and fair election through violent means,
like the militia group the Oath Keepers.
Just today we found out that the head of that group allegedly
had a contact close to Trump and tried to reach out to Trump
through an intermediary during the coup.
-New court papers have revealed
just how far a north Texas man was reportedly willing to go
to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
Stuart Rhodes, the leader of the Oath Keepers militia movement,
allegedly called an intermediary
after the Capitol attack on January 6th
and asked to be put in contact with former President Trump
so that the president could authorize their militia
to forcibly oppose the transfer of power.
-This individual denied Rhodes' request to speak directly
with President Trump.
-He never got through to Trump, but I'm guessing it's because
Trump thought the Oath Keepers was the name of a charity
he promised to donate to in the '80s.
"Hi. We're calling from the Oath Keepers Fund.
We're trying to track down a pledge for $1 million
Mr. Trump made in 1984."
[As Trump] That's so weird.
I could've sworn I put the check in the mail.
Maybe it got lost --
-♪ Blame it on the rain ♪
[ Laughter ]
[Normal voice] You know, playing a Milli Vanilli track early
is how they caught Milli Vanilli.
[ Laughter ]
You know what, I think it's still gonna play.
That's w--
[ Laughing ]
You guys, take it out of your head.
Get it out of your head. Let it surprise you.
[As Trump] That's weird, I could've sworn
I put the check in the mail.
Maybe it got lost during a hurricane.
I guess I'll have to...
-♪ Blame it on the rain ♪
[ Cheers and applause ]
-'Cause the rain...
Let me tell you something about the rain.
If I've learned... The rain don't mind.
[ Light laughter ]
[ Laughter continues ]
[Normal voice] But let's get back to Roe.
An extremist movement
of far-right conservatives who spent five decades
carefully orchestrating the outcome we're seeing now.
Their devil's bargain with Trump got them across the finish line,
but the assault on abortion rights
isn't unique to him, and it didn't start with him.
For example, after the 1992 decision
Planned Parenthood v. Casey reaffirmed Roe,
anti-abortion activists shifted to a new strategy.
They launched a barrage of new abortion restrictions
to see which ones the court would uphold.
-The joint opinion delivered by Justices O'Connor,
Souter, and Kennedy
crafted a middle position.
They upheld Roe, but changed the standard
by which abortion laws would be judged.
They established instead the undue burden standard.
A law would be invalid, they declared,
if it placed substantial obstacles
in the path of a woman seeking an abortion.
-People got the impression that abortion was safe,
Roe v. Wade was safe.
All the pro-choice people went home.
But what happened is pro-lifers started to pass legislation
to test what exactly is an undue burden.
Let's pass this bill. Is that undue?
Let's pass that bill. Is that undue?
And let's see where the courts draw the line.
-Anti-abortion activists basically adopted
the same strategy for attacking Roe
that your 5-year-old takes when you tell them
not to run too close to the pool.
"Is this too close?" "Yes."
"What about this?" "Yes." "What about this?"
"Zachary Hudson Hamilton III,
if you do not move away from the pool right now,
so help me God, I will end you."
Sorry, guys. I shouldn't have that third nitro cold brew.
So, they've been working towards this for decades.
Kavanaugh, for example, once hailed
Justice William Rehnquist as his judicial hero,
in part for his dissent in Roe v. Wade.
But when it came time to testify to the Senate
about their positions on Roe,
Kavanaugh and his fellow Trump appointee Neil Gorsuch
played the usual rhetorical games and lied,
even though everyone knew or should have known at the time
they were brazenly lying.
-Senator, I said that it's settled
as a precedent of the Supreme Court
entitled the respect under principles of stare decisis.
And one of the important things to keep in mind
about Roe v. Wade
is that it has been reaffirmed many times
over the past 45 years.
-Had you ever met President Trump personally?
-[ Clears throat ] Not until my interview.
-In that interview, did he ever ask you to overrule Roe v. Wade?
-No, Senator. -What would you have done if --
if he had asked?
-Senator, I would have walked out the door.
-"I would have walked out the door.
And then I would have stopped and turned around
and winked so hard my cufflinks flew off."
[ Laughter ]
Everyone knew these guys were lying
because Trump had explicitly promised,
in a desperate bid to grovel
for the support of the religious right,
to appoint pro-life justices who would overturn Roe.
And that's why Republicans stuck with him
through his crimes and abuses of power,
so they could reap their end of the bargain.
Republicans looked the other way during the Trump years
and spent their time
scrolling through Bumble looking for...
-Beautiful judges.
-This has been "A Closer Look."
♪♪
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