-The president is peddling another insane conspiracy theory
about the death toll in Puerto Rico
as Republicans brace themselves for the midterms.
For more on this, it's time for "A Closer Look".
[ Cheers and applause ]
The president has been going on TV basically every day
to try to convince people that he's competent
as a potentially devastating hurricane
bears down on the East Coast.
Lately, he's taken to posting videos to Twitter,
but it's clear from the quality of these videos
that he's just making his staffers point a camera at him
while he rambles off the top of his head.
Yesterday, for example, he tried to reassure people
that his government was ready for Hurricane Florence.
-Hurricane Florence is fast approaching.
It's going to be here over the next 48 hours.
We'll handle it. We're ready. We're able.
We've got the finest people, I think, anywhere in the world.
Get out of its way.
Don't play games with it.
It's a big one.
We are ready.
But despite that,
bad things can happen
when you're talking about a storm this size.
It's called "Mother Nature".
You never know, but we know.
[ Laughter ]
-That video -- That video is like a local news report
where the meteorologist called in sick
and the sports guy had to fill in at the last minute.
[ Laughter and applause ]
[ Imitating Donald Trump ] The hurricane came to play,
but the first responders left it all out on the field.
In the end, it comes down to turnovers.
[ Normal ] If you want people to take your message seriously,
maybe have higher production quality
than a mid-level YouTube star.
[ Imitating Donald Trump ] The storm is big.
Get out of the way, but before you do,
please like and subscribe.
[ Laughter ]
[ Normal ] And if that didn't do enough,
that didn't do enough to relieve people's worst fears,
the White House also released this photo of Trump on the phone
while Chief of Staff John Kelly and Vice President Mike Pence
look at some printouts.
Oh, well, that's reassuring.
They look like they're ordering Chinese food.
[ Imitating Donald Trump ] I'll go ahead and dial.
You guys just pick four or five things we can share.
[ Normal ] And as a life-threatening storm
bears down on the Easy Coast,
Trump has also been bragging about
his handling of the humanitarian disaster in Puerto Rico,
which left nearly 3,000 American citizens dead.
Now, that is the official death toll from an independent study
commissioned by Puerto Rico's government,
and yet, our deranged president doesn't believe it.
-He says...
He then says, in a second tweet...
-That's the official death toll, you lunatic.
Now we know why he's so orange --
his brain is just melted pumpkin guts.
[ Laughter and applause ]
-We don't need a book.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-We don't need a book, we don't need an anonymous op-ed
to tell us that the president is an addled narcissist
who peddles one conspiracy theory after another.
He said the first black president wasn't born here,
said three million people voted illegally,
said Muslims celebrated on 9/11,
and thinks you get super powers
from staring directly into the sun.
[ Laughter ]
[ Imitating Donald Trump ] May the power of the sky lamp
fill my muscles!
[ Normal ] Now, Trump's incompetence
and erratic behavior
are posing major political problems for Republicans
as the fall campaign season gets underway.
A slew of new polls
have given Democrats a major edge
in the midterm elections.
GOP Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell
even admitted this week that some of those races
will be tough for Republicans,
using a colorful metaphor.
-But we know this is gonna be a very challenging election
on the Senate side.
I'll just list you a bunch of races
that are dead even.
Arizona, Nevada, Tennessee,
Montana, North Dakota, Missouri,
Indiana, West Virginia,
and Florida.
All of them too close to call,
and every of them
like a knife fight in an alley.
I mean, just a brawl.
-I seriously doubt Mitch McConnell
has ever been in a fight...
or in an alley.
[ Laughter ]
He should use a metaphor he can relate to.
[ Imitating Mitch McConnell ] These elections are like when
you order a steak medium-rare and you get it medium
and your wife says you should send it back,
but you just eat it,
and then your wife thinks you're a coward.
[ Laughter and applause ]
But she doesn't say that.
She's just real quiet the rest of the night.
It's like that.
[ Laughter ]
[ Normal ] Now, one --
one of those knife fights
is happening in Texas, where Democrat Beto O'Rourke
is running neck-and-no-neck
with Republican Senator Ted Cruz.
In public, Republicans are bullish
on Cruz's reelection chances,
but this week, we found out that
they are much more pessimistic in private
after the "New York Times"
obtained private comments from a top Trump aide
suggesting that Cruz might lose because no one likes him.
-At a private gathering over the weekend,
White House Budget Director Mick Mulvaney
warned Republican donors and party officials
that they party was battling serious vulnerabilities
in the upcoming midterms.
According to the "New York Times",
Mulvaney raised the prospect that Senator Ted Cruz of Texas
could actually lose his bid for reelection
because he's not seen as likable enough.
-He said this in private --
-So, Ted Cruz debased himself by cozying up to Donald Trump --
a guy who insulted his wife and said his dad killed JFK.
And in return, they call him unlikable behind his back.
That is rough. You know, I feel like I should
say something nice about Ted Cruz
just to balance it out.
So, let me try.
He's -- Let's see.
He's...
not here?
[ Cheers and applause ]
Now, Democrats face an uphill battle to retake the Senate,
but if they're close in Texas, they have a chance,
which is why the GOP is trying a new tactic
to motivate their base --
dangling the threat of impeachment.
Last week, for example, Trump told his supporters that
if he's impeached by a Democratic Congress,
it will be their fault.
-They like to use the "impeach" word.
"Impeach Trump". Maxine Waters --
"We will impeach him, but he didn't do anything wrong!
It doesn't matter. We will impeach him!"
It's so ridiculous,
but we'll worry about that if it ever happens.
But if it does happen, it's your fault
'cause you didn't go out to vote.
-I'm sorry, real quick, real quick.
Can we just go back to that first part?
-They like to use the "impeach" word.
-Yeah, that's the word.
"Impeach" is the "impeach" word.
Did you mean to say "the I-word"?
Because that would make sense.
Trump has zero subtlety.
He's like a guy spelling out dirty words around his kids.
[ Imitating Donald Trump ] She had nice b-o-o-b-s.
You know, boobs. Boobs.
[ Laughter ]
And Republicans are also marshaling
every member of the Trump family they can get,
like Donald Trump Jr.,
who's been campaigning for Republicans across the country
and did a rare sit-down interview with ABC this week
about the midterms.
-Trump Jr. says the November midterms
will inevitably be a referendum on his father,
one where historical odds
suggest Democrats could win back the House.
And he worries that could spell political catastrophe
for his father.
-So, our people, the MAGA people,
they have to turn up. They have to get out and vote.
And I think we can break history.
-Oh, I think you broke it already.
The rest of us are trying to piece it back together
like a vase after a house party.
[ Cheers and applause ]
"What happened to your vase?"
"Oh, some douche came over and drank beer out of it.
And then I said 'You got to pay for my vase',
and he said, 'Do you know who my dad is?'
And I said, 'Everyone knows who your dad is
because you have the same name, dummy'.
And then he started to cry and said 'I wish I was Ivanka',
so I felt bad and I said, 'It's okay,
you don't have to pay for the vase',
and then he said, 'Sike!' and broke another vase.
He's a real [bleep]".
And Don Jr. isn't the only Trump son showing up on TV
to support his father and get Republicans out to vote.
Yesterday, Eric Trump went on Fox News
and rambled about the possibility that
Democrats might impeach Trump if they win in November.
But the most jarring part of that interview
came when Eric was asked about famed journalist Bob Woodward's
new book "Fear", a damaging insider's account
of the Trump White House,
and he decided to toss out some casual anti-Semitism
that was not only offensive, but very hard to follow.
-You can write some sensational nonsense book.
CNN will definitely have you on there
because they love to trash the president.
It'll mean you sell three extra books,
you make three extra shekels --
I mean, at the behest of the American people,
at the behest of our country.
-Not only is that anti-Semitic,
but you don't know what the word "behest" means.
[ Imitating Eric Trump ] My father's amazing.
He's the "behest" president we've ever had.
[ Laughter and applause ]
[ Normal ] But Democrats aren't running on Woodward's book
or even impeachment, really.
They're running entirely on issues like healthcare
and specifically, Medicare for all --
an idea that not too long ago was considered
a fringe pie-in-the-sky idea
and is now so mainstream,
former president Obama endorsed it last week.
-Democrats aren't just running on good old ideas
like a higher minimum wage.
They're running on good new ideas
like Medicare for all. -Damn!
When Bernie Sanders heard that,
he got so excited his hair combed itself.
[ Laughter and applause ]
Who knows?
Who knows what's gonna happen in November?
But this week has shown that the choice could not be clearer.
I don't know if the blue wave is coming,
but if it is, the president better...
-Get out of its way.
-This has been "A Closer Look".
[ Cheers and applause ]