-Trumpism lost badly
last night in California
when Governor Gavin Newsom easily beat back
a GOP-led recall effort,
but Trumpism is still very much the core of the modern GOP,
as evidenced by how many Republicans
still refuse to accept the results of the 2020 election.
For more on this, it's time for "A Closer Look."
♪♪
If you weren't really following the California recall election
because it was too dumb and confusing, you're not alone.
In fact, there were three options on the ballot,
that said...
Seriously, why is getting into LAX like such a nightmare?
Most airports, you have to get there two hours
before your flight, but at LAX,
you have to get to the entrance of the airport
two hours before you need to be inside the airport.
You could drive to LAX, or you could just
drive back to New York in the same amount of time.
Once, I was stuck in traffic, waiting to get to departures
and I looked over at the driver next to me
and he was a skeleton.
[ Laughter ] Of course, in L.A.,
they don't call that a skeleton.
They call that a weight loss goal.
[ Laughter ]
And even then,
even the fact that it was a skeleton
was less jarring to me than the car he was driving.
[ Laughter ]
Can we see the skeleton car one more time?
That's a good --
[ Laughter ]
Go full frame. Let's look at it full frame
one more time.
Yeah.
[ Laughter ]
Speeding, going as fast as they can.
We said to the graphics team, "Put a skeleton in a car."
They go, "We know just the car!"
[ Laughter ]
You see, the key, the key,
the key to bypassing all the traffic at LAX is
to get dropped off at the arrivals
and then just take the escalator upstairs to departures.
An Uber driver once told me that,
before he asked me if I had any cocaine.
[ Laughter ] In the immortal words of Randy Newman,
"I love L.A. I love it."
Anyway, the recall effort was defeated so easily
and called so quickly
that MSNBC correspondent Steve Kornacki
didn't have much to get worked up over.
-And there it is. You can see
the news, Brian, with the check mark.
NBC News is officially projecting
that the recall attempt against Gavin Newsom,
the governor of California, has failed.
It's failing, as you can see by the results here,
decisively, at this point.
We now have 60% of all the vote counted here in California.
The recall, right now, is failing
by a better than 2:1 margin.
The difference there is 2.7 million votes.
That's a 35-point margin.
It's clear, from what we have right now,
it's clear to our decision desk.
I think it's clear to everybody who's been watching
along with me here that this number is going to come
nowhere near 50%.
This one is a landslide.
The recall fails.
Gavin Newsom is going to survive as California's governor.
-Just must've been so frustrating for Kornacki.
I mean, look at him.
He might look like he's going to teach you fractions,
but the man is an adrenaline junkie.
The batches of votes from outlier counties,
the taste of disposable Bic ink,
the swishing of his khakis as he darts to his map.
Well, after an early election call like that last night,
he probably had to stop off at the OTB
on the way home for a fix.
It is just a waste to see Kornacki's talent
so underutilized on a blowout election.
It's like watching a thoroughbred racehorse
pull some tourists through Central Park.
[Hoarsely] "I won the Triple Crown, you know."
[ Inhaling ] [ Laughter ]
They smoke through their mouths, horses.
[ Laughter ] Now, in case you aren't aware,
recalls in California are, to use a political insider term,
super [bleep] dumb.
There are two questions on the ballot --
one, asking if you want to recall the governor;
and another, asking who should replace him,
if the recall succeeds, which means,
a sitting governor could get recalled
if they get 49% of the vote
and then, get replaced by someone who got half that.
It's insane. I mean, who came up with this system, anyway?
Like M.C. Escher? It's more complicated
than following the latest developments
in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
We're at the point, now, where this is true.
This building 30 Rock, the one we're in right now,
is featured in the new "Hawkeye" trailer,
which means I'm technically canon in the MCU,
which I assume also means I got blipped
for five years in "Infinity War"
and -- oh, okay, so I guess that's what that was.
It would also explain why, back in 2018,
Wally disintegrated in the middle of a show.
[ Laughter ] ♪♪
[ Clapping ]
I get it. You worked on that all day
and you were like, "We need a car!"
[ Laughter ]
Of course, when that happened to Wally,
we just assumed he was trying to hide from his bookie
after he bet on the Yankees to win the World Series.
[ Laughter ] Anyway --
Oh, they laugh when it's close to the bone, Wally.
[ Laughter ] Anyway, so the recall system
is nuts and it should be scrapped.
As the California secretary of state put it...
A hundred years.
If something isn't working,
you don't give it 100 years.
I did a standing monologue for about a year
and never figured out where my hands go
and then, Shoemaker said, "You know where they go?
On a desk."
[ Laughter ] We shouldn't be running elections
on a system that is older than the Cyclone.
The Cyclone doesn't even have any loops or twists,
just missing planks of wood.
The thrill comes from seeing your life flash
before your eyes before you get on.
A priest administers last rites, but it's not a real priest.
It's just like a high school sophomore on summer vacation.
Although, I guess it makes sense.
California's electoral system
is as complicated as their highway system.
One time, I was trying to get from Burbank to Santa Monica
and my GPS killed itself.
-I can't do this anymore.
[ Laughter ]
-Why is every electoral system in this country
so backwards and insane?
Gerrymandering, the Electoral College, recalls.
Why can't there just be a winner
who gets the most votes and that's it?
Why is it easier to vote in "America's Got Talent"
than it is to vote in America?
If Doritos chose their flavors this way,
the top seller would be cilantro & cauliflower.
This dumb, waste-of-time recall has already cost $276 million
and could end up costing more than $300 million,
all because Newsom went to dinner during the lockdowns
at a fancy restaurant called the French Laundry,
which, we can all agree,
was absolutely stupid, on his part.
It's like that restaurant was named specifically
to piss people off.
It's named after two things everybody hates.
He might've gotten away with it
if he'd gone to a place called...
[ Laughter ] I don't think --
I don't think he should've been recalled,
but I do think they should've punished him
by passing a law stating
the only dinner he's allowed to have
from now on is pizza from L.A.
Have you ever had pizza in L.A.? It's not even pizza.
It's like an English muffin with ketchup on it.
Oh, but good news -- they deliver until about 7:30
[ Laughter ] and they put weird [bleep] on it, like seitan or avocado.
To this day, I think California Pizza Kitchen
was like "Springtime for Hitler" in "The Producers."
It was built to fail,
and then against all odds, it was a hit.
[ Laughter ]
One time, I bought L.A.-style pizza for my crew
and they threatened to dump my body in the East River.
Luckily, none of them could lift me
because of their belly cramps.
[ Laughter ] [ New York accent ] Barbecue sauce isn't supposed
to go with peaches!
[ Laughter ] Point is --
It's really nice when California's in the news
because we make a lot of New York-centric jokes here.
California, stop wasting money on recalls, and fix your pizza.
But it's also not surprising that this was the way
Republicans tried to stage a takeover
of the most populous state in America,
not through a normal election,
but through a weird loophole where they would only need
a small percentage of voters to win.
This is the same party that's appointed
a majority of the current Supreme Court justices,
yet, has only won the national popular vote once
in the last 32 years.
In 2012, they won control of the House through gerrymandering,
despite getting fewer total votes than Democrats.
In the Senate, there's currently a 50/50 tie,
despite the fact that Democrats represent
41 million more Americans.
In fact, Senate Republicans haven't represented
an actual majority of Americans since 1996.
The GOP's entire political strategy is based
on exploiting cheat codes,
rather than appealing to a majority of voters,
like when Mitch McConnell realized
he could just manipulate the filibuster
to stonewall everything Obama did
and turn reconciliation -- an arcane budgetary tactic --
into the only vehicle for passing legislation.
They're like those kids in middle school
who would cheat during "GoldenEye"
by turning themselves invincible
and you'd ask them how they did it, and they say,
"It's easy. You just do L+down, R+C right,
R+C up, L+right,
L+C down, R+C up,
L+right, R+down,
L+left+R+C right,"
and then you'd spend the rest of the game trying
to figure it out and, while you're not paying attention,
they'd eat all the cauliflower Doritos.
Anyway, Newsom defeated the recall easily.
And, yet, as he warned last night,
the forces that led to this recall are not going away.
-Just in the last, you know, few days
the former president put out, saying this election was rigged.
Democracy is not a football.
You don't throw it around.
It's more like a, I don't know, antique vase.
[ Laughter ] You can drop it
and smash it in a million different pieces.
And that's what we're capable of doing,
if we don't stand up to meet the moment and push back.
I said this many, many times
on the campaign trail, you know.
We may have defeated Trump,
but Trumpism is not dead in this country.
-It's true -- Trump may be gone, but Trumpism is not dead.
In fact, it is very much the core of the modern GOP.
We can't just plug our ears and hope it'll go away,
like Larry David at New York Fashion Week.
[ Laughter ] And you know, as a society, we should force Larry David
to attend more events he doesn't want to go to for our amusement.
It would be great to see him at Burning Man
or Cirque du Soleil.
[ As David ] I...It's bad.
I...It's a bad circus.
[ Laughter ] I don't care for the sad clowns.
"You know, I actually was the sad clown tonight, Larry."
Oh.
Can I ask you a question?
[ Laughter ]
When you go to the clown college,
do they separate you into funny or sad
or, uhhh, do you choose it?
"Well, they suggest what clowning
suits your strengths, yes."
Because you know, it seems to me like, uh,
a funny clown, little bit harder than a sad clown.
[ Laughter ] "I don't think that's true at all, Larry."
I...think it'd be a little bit easier.
[ Laughter ]
One balloon, painted-on tear.
Pretty, pretty sure I could do it.
[ Laughter ] So, as the California recall --
I don't know how that episode ends,
but I think it's with Larry David going --
[ As David ] Sad clown! [ Laughter ]
So, as the California recall showed last night,
Trumpism has real political cost for the GOP,
since it's massively unpopular.
In this case, it was a disaster for the GOP,
but that doesn't mean it's dead.
It's still very much alive.
It's the central animating force of Republican politics.
In fact, the same insane conspiracy theories
about nonexistent fraud
that Republicans circulated about the 2020 election
have circulated again in California.
GOP frontrunner Larry Elder's campaign pushed
baseless fraud claims before the election even occurred
and, on the eve of the recall,
Elder tore a page out of Trump's handbook
by refusing to say that he would accept the results.
-Whether or not you win or lose,
will you accept the results of the election tomorrow?
-I think we all ought to be looking at election integrity,
no matter whether you're a Democrat,
an Independent, or a Republican.
-Is that a commitment to accept the results
of the election tomorrow? -Let's all do that together.
Let's all work together, on both sides of the aisle,
to make sure that the election is a fair election.
-Is that a commitment to accept the results
of the election tomorrow? -Let's all work together
to find out whether or not
the election tomorrow is a fair election.
Let's all work together to do that.
-So that is not a commitment
to accept the results of the election tomorrow?
-Boy, Jacob, honestly.
I answered your question.
Let's all work together.
We all should have a vested interest
in making sure that the election is a fair one
and is one that was conducted with integrity.
-Why do you keep saying all of us?
The rest of us already do believe
elections are fair because they are.
Republicans talk about nonexistent voter fraud
like the drunk guy at the Houlihan's
who ate too many spicy wings.
"Damn it, guys! The spicy wings
made us all [bleep] our pants!
We all need to go change our pants together."
[ Laughter ]
As it turns out, that strategy
backfired big-time on Republicans
and Elder ultimately conceded
after the polls closed last night.
Nonetheless, Elder had previously claimed
there might be shenanigans in the election
and Republicans spent the campaign
spreading the same old bat[bleep] conspiracy theories
about supposed voter fraud they've spread in other states
across the country. For example...
Of course, of course, Lindell is somehow connected to this.
The guy has inserted himself
into every political story of the last two years.
It's like if Forrest Gump had a louder, dumber brother.
[ As Lindell ] I heard they've been getting rid of ballots
by going down to Santa Monica and dumping them off
da piers!
[ Laughter ]
Nice when a new one turns up.
Every time you think we're out...
[ Laughter ]
In fact, it's now become a baseline requirement
for aspiring Republican politicians
to insist that Trump actually won the 2020 election
and that any election Republicans lose is illegitimate.
According to a new poll released this week by CNN...
Democracy can't function that way.
It depends on everyone accepting the results.
The NFL would stink, if the Jets declared themselves
Super Bowl champions every year they went 2 and 14,
not to mention that, if they did have the Lombardi Trophy,
they would most certainly fumble it.
[ Laughter ]
See? Fall comes and the Mets come out of our focus.
[ Laughter ] The Jets come into our focus.
Last night's landslide repudiation of Trumpism
in the country's most populous state proved two things --
Trumpism is deeply unpopular, but it also still drives
the Republican Party. It's not going away.
They can't win majorities of voters the normal way,
so they use anti-democratic loopholes, instead.
We have to fix the system through major electoral reforms,
fast, before Republicans can take advantage again.
Otherwise, Republicans could do to democracy what they did
to Mike Lindell's reputation and...
-Smash it in a million different pieces.
-This has been "A Closer Look."
♪♪
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