-Republican leaders have announced their opposition
to a commission to investigate
the January 6th insurrection at the Capitol
as the GOP intensifies its efforts
to rewrite the history of what happened.
For more on this, it's time for A Closer Look.
♪♪
Many Republican officials have been desperate
to create an alternate universe
where Donald Trump is a beloved former president
who people miss and want back,
which is insane for many reasons.
For one, everyone's daily quality of life is better
without having to wake up in the morning
to 10 different news alerts on your phone
that all say something along the lines of,
"President Trump accuses Eiffel Tower of spying on him,
suggests eating a golf ball can cure coronavirus."
The other reason it's absurd is the fact
that Trump is our most unpopular president
in the history of modern polling.
He never won the popular vote, lost by 7 million votes in 2020,
never once cracked 50% job approval,
and now spends his time barging into weddings
to rant about voter fraud.
It's the most embarrassing thing
that could possibly happen at a wedding,
aside from your mom making you slow dance with her
while you're 13.
[ As teenage boy ] "Mom, you're embarrassing me."
[ As mother ] "Honey, fix your tie."
"I don't want to wear the stupid bow tie.
I wanted to wear my tuxedo shirt."
"Well, your father and I outvoted you two-to-one."
"There was voter fraud.
My friend Mike's dad hanging out with Hugo Chavez."
"Which friend Mike?"
[ As Mike Lindell ] "That would be me.
Now, I know it might be weird
that I'm pals with a 13-year-old,
but in my defense, everything about me is weird."
Last night on Fox, for example,
Trump's son Eric told a ludicrous story
about how random people
are supposedly coming up to him on the street
and telling him how much they miss his father.
-More people have come up to me on the street in the last week
and given me hugs, saying, "We miss him so much."
I mean, literally, sometimes, Sean, with tears in their eyes.
"We miss the man so much."
-Well, it's allergy season.
Everybody has tears in their eyes.
Guy came up to me yesterday with tears running down his face,
sniffling, and said, "Hey, your show stinks."
Also, based on that story, when you live in New York City,
you got to watch out for the Impractical Jokers.
I'm pretty sure "hug Eric Trump" was Murr's punishment
last season for losing the grocery store challenge.
"Now, tell him you miss his dad so much."
Second, it's nice to see
Eric has inherited his father's penchant
for inventing anonymous adults who cry with gratitude.
I guess when you come from a family devoid of human emotion,
it makes sense that you would project it
onto imaginary friends.
[ As Eric ] "And Sean, this man, still crying, said to me,
'Also, you're a good boy and your daddy is proud of you,'
which I thought was very nice of him to add."
Republicans have also been busy trying to rewrite the history
of what happened at the Capitol on January 6th.
That's why GOP leaders like Kevin McCarthy
and Mitch McConnell have come out against creating
an independent commission to investigate it.
Many Republicans have straight up lied about it,
which is hard to swallow, because we all,
every one of us, saw it happen in real time with our own eyes.
Most of the people doing it were also filming it.
It was one of those collective national moments
where we were all watching the same thing unfold
together in shock,
like the O.J. trial or the Apollo 13 landing,
or David Copperfield making the Statue of Liberty disappear.
And by the way, if you've never been to New York,
you might not know this -- he never put it back.
All we have is a cheap cardboard cutout.
Anyway, the point is, we all saw the Capitol riot happen,
and if by some chance you weren't
glued to your TV that day,
there are plenty of first-person accounts you can watch
from reporters who were there,
documenting the violence as it was happening.
-The pro-Trump crowd fought with the police,
trying to break through their lines,
intoxicated by the unlikely prospect
of reversing America's election outcome.
This is exactly what was feared,
but in no way is this a surprise.
It has being fueled by the president's rhetoric.
We followed the aggrieved and infuriated Trump supporters
as they stormed the building.
-I swear that's CNN.
-Through broken windows and doors they had forced open,
the cost of that rhetoric is increasingly clear.
-I know my rights!
-As crowds tonight are still swirling around Congress...
[ Indistinct shouting ]
...and America's long journey as a stable democracy
appears to be in genuine doubt.
-It's always sobering to watch a British correspondent
report on American chaos.
[ In British accent ] "Rioters have now
breached the capitol of this once-proud democracy,
and like an Earl Gray tea bag on a porcelain sink,
it will leave an indelible stain.
Now stay tuned for yet another rerun of 'Taskmasters.'"
Somehow, the reverse is never as harrowing.
Even when Brexit was a mess
and the government there was in crisis,
it just wasn't as dramatic to listen
to an American report on it.
"Yeah, Cliff, things are not going well over here
with all this Brexit stuff.
It's a...it's a real... It's real mess.
Is there a hurricane I can report on?
Because this [bleep] is complicated."
It's the same as watching one of those BBC Nature documentaries.
The British accents really hit home
how dramatic it is.
It would be a lot less compelling
with an American narrator.
"And the iguana is like,
'Alright, I'm just gonna stay still
and that snake's not gonna see me.
Just stay still. Stay still.
Oh, no! It saw me! I'm gonna run crazy!
I'm going to do my crazy run. Oh, there are so many snakes.
I think maybe right now I'm gonna just go to the rocks.
The rocks will be a safe place for me.
Oh, no, they live there! This is their house.
And now I'm going to, I don't know, activate my iguana oil.
Is that a thing?
And I'm gonna slip out and now I'm gonna jump
like I'm on a trampoline up this mountain.
Boing, boing.
And now the snake's like, I got you.
And then he's gonna follow me like, I don't have hands.
And now this iguana is finally up here
and his friend is gonna be like, 'Where were you?'
And it's like, 'Where was I? How about, how am I?'"
Not as good.
But it's all there on camera for us to see,
and yet Republicans are engaged in an intensifying effort
to rewrite the history of that day
by claiming, preposterously,
that the entire thing was a peaceful protest.
-Let me be clear.
There was no insurrection, and to call it an insurrection,
in my opinion, is a bold-faced lie.
Watching the TV footage of those who entered the Capitol
and walked through Statuary Hall
showed people in an orderly fashion
staying between the stanchions and robes,
taking videos and pictures.
You know, if you didn't know the TV footage
was a video from January the 6th,
you would actually think it was a normal tourist visit.
-This didn't seem like an armed insurrection to me.
I mean, "armed."
When you hear "armed," don't you think of firearms?
-There's no evidence, as has been said on January 7th,
that this was an armed insurrection.
There have been things worse than people
without any firearms coming into a building.
-Okay, first of all, describing it as
"people without firearms coming into a building"
leaves out a lot of crucial context.
It's like writing a book report about "The Great Gatsby"
that says, "Man enjoys summer in the Hamptons."
Also, it's a lie.
There were weapons, as the Justice Department,
reporters, and video have all documented.
But even if that statement were true, it's not very comforting.
If a group of criminals breaks into your house
with some baseball bat,
smashes all your belongings, and steals all your money,
it wouldn't exactly make you feel better
if the cops were like,
"Hey, there are worse things in life.
Eric Trump's out there just hugging people in the street."
Second, peaceful tour groups don't usually have
British correspondents following them around
as they smash barricades, break windows,
attack police officers, and vandalize offices.
If it really was a normal tourist visit,
that report would have been a lot less dramatic.
[ In British accent ] "The group is now moving down the hallway
into the rotunda as the tour guide provides
a substantive history of neoclassical architecture.
Several people are looking down at their phones,
and one man seems to be --
yes, I can confirm he is falling asleep.
Now, stay tuned for an all-new 'Mock the Week.'"
I also want to draw attention to
this part of Senator Ron Johnson's argument.
-If that was a planned armed insurrection,
man, you have really a bunch of idiots.
-Here's an idea -- maybe both are true.
Stupid people also make plans.
Have you ever seen an empty Dave & Buster's?
Maybe it was a planned insurrection
and they were idiots.
I mean, one dude was dressed like a [bleep] Viking.
If he barged into my house, I'd still be terrified.
If somebody barged into my house dressed like Tom Hanks,
I'd be terrified, and everyone loves Tom Hanks.
I wouldn't be like, "Oh, I'm sure this Hanks enthusiast
is in my house for good stuff."
This is why we need a commission to lay out the facts
as we know them for the historical record,
so Republicans can't lie about it
and create an alternate reality where it didn't happen.
If there isn't an accurate historical account
of the insurrection with shame and consequences
for the people involved, it could very well happen again.
Republicans would rather not talk about
the consequences of their actions, so they're whining.
-Literally, sometimes, Sean, with tears in their eyes.
-This has been A Closer Look.
♪♪
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