-House Democrats unveiled articles of impeachment
against President Trump.
For more on this, it's time for "A Closer Look."
[ Cheers and applause ]
♪♪
In the run-up to today's historic announcement,
you've heard Trump and his Republican allies cycle through
one obviously bad faith excuse after another.
They complained about the private process,
then they complained about the public process.
They accused Ukraine of meddling in the 2016 election.
They said the president was just worried about corruption
in Ukraine in general.
They said there was no quid pro quo at all.
During the first impeachment vote,
they even accused the Democrats of acting like Soviets
with a very stupid poster.
I mean, look at how dumb this is.
It looks like the cover of an off-brand board game.
[ Laughter ]
It's like asking your grandparents for Risk,
and they show up with something called "Chance."
[ Gruff voice ] It's fine. It's the same game.
All those arguments, of course, are lies.
In reality, Republicans have no answer
for one very simple question
at the heart of this impeachment process --
Is it okay for the president to pressure a foreign government
to help him cheat in an election?
And my favorite example of this came last week
when Republican congressman Doug Collins,
the ranking member on the Judiciary Committee
was asked that question and offered up
some incoherent word puke.
-You keep saying that the president
was concerned about corruption,
but in neither of those phone calls did he mention the word,
"corruption."
Why didn't the president mention the word corruption
and instead ask the Ukrainian president
to investigate the Bidens?
-Well, that's almost like saying, why don't you ask --
you know, frame your questions differently?
He said this is what he wanted looked into.
He said, can you, he said, help us as a country
because we're trying to heal.
We've had -- as Mr. Jordan said earlier,
and did a great job at it, we had just come off
the Mueller hearing, which was -- most all of you covered
and found to be a total disaster for the impeachment narrative
that Democrats have been saying.
What we're simply saying here is,
is that the issue was what happened on that call,
and then it became all these stories from the whistleblowers
about all these things that supposedly happened.
And since then, fact witnesses and even hearsay evidence
has said, no, that's not what happened.
-Uh, what? Was any -- Was any of that English?
If you put those words into Google Translate,
it would just give up.
[ Laughter ]
But that right there... [ Applause ]
...is a perfect distillation
of where the Republicans are right now.
They don't have a coherent defense, so they just throw out
a string of random buzzwords as quickly as they can
and hope people buy it.
In fact, here's GOP congressman Jim Jordan
at yesterday's House Judiciary hearing
basically doing the same thing --
just speeding through a bunch of nonsense as fast as he can.
-Ambassador Taylor recalls that Mr. Morrison
told Ambassador Taylor that I told Mr. Morrison
that I conveyed this message to Mr. Yermak
on September 1, 2019, in connection with
Vice President Pence's visit to Warsaw.
-Oh, my God, man!
Are you reading the evidence or auctioning it off?
[ Laughter ]
I mean, listen to him.
He sounds like he should be talking to squirrels
on a bench in Times Square.
Now, Taylor said to Morrison that Yermak told Pence
about his visit to Warsaw. I mean, isn't that right?
A pity the pigeon isn't listening, but the squirrel is.
Oh, wait, he's not. He's eating a nut.
But where'd he get it? I don't see a nut tree.
How come we been here for nine months?!
We don't know where this squirrel got his nut!
[ Laughter ]
Now, compare that to the measured, judicious tone
of the Democrats at the hearing yesterday
who presented a lengthy body of evidence
and witness testimony placing Trump at the center
of a vast scheme to dangle hundreds of millions
in taxpayer dollars to Ukraine in order to get them
to interfere in the 2020 election on his behalf.
-President Trump's persistent and continuing effort to coerce
a foreign country to help him cheat to win an election
is a clear and present danger to our free and fair elections
and to our national security.
So, as it relates to President Trump,
is he an incidental player or a central player in this scheme?
-President Trump is the central player in this scheme.
-And of course he is.
First of all, we have all the evidence.
Second, I can't imagine Trump is anything but central.
It's not like he's gonna be
a supporting player for someone else.
He could never be the getaway driver in a bank robbery.
He'd walk in mid-heist and be like...
[ As Trump ] I heard this is where the action is.
Also, you guys, I think I just got towed.
[ Laughter ]
[ Normal voice ] And I think a key moment
hitting that point home came in yesterday's hearing
when Democratic congressman Eric Swalwell
and the Democratic Counsel Daniel Goldman
laid out all the evidence
placing Trump at the center of this scheme.
-Who sent Rudy Giuliani to Ukraine to smear Joe Biden?
-President Trump.
-Who fired the anti-corruption ambassador
in Ukraine, Marie Yavanovitch?
-President Trump.
-Who told Ambassador Sondland and Ambassador Volker
to Ru-- to work with Rudy Giuliani on Ukraine?
-President Trump.
-Who ordered his own Chief of Staff, Mick Mulvaney,
to withhold critical military assistance for Ukraine?
-President Trump.
-Who refused to meet with President Zelensky
in the Oval Office? -President Trump.
-Who asked President Zelensky for a favor?
-President Trump.
-Who personally asked President Zelensky
to investigate his political rival, Joe Biden?
-President Trump. -Oh, my God,
the answer to every question was President Trump.
I want to do one!
Who stands like he's playing the Leaning Tower of Pisa
in a school play?
President Trump.
[ Cheers and applause ]
The Democrats diligently laid out every piece of evidence
linking Trump to this scheme,
and Republicans rebutted none of it.
The facts here are actually very simple --
Yes, there was a quid pro quo,
and yes, it was to investigate the Bidens.
And the basic truth is Republicans in the White House
just don't care.
They want us all to just accept it and move on.
They've already said as much.
-Was there a quid pro quo?
-As I testified previously,
with regard to the requested White House call
and the White House meeting, the answer is yes.
-What exactly did you hope Zelensky would do
about the Bidens after your phone call?
-Well, I would think that if they were honest about it,
they'd start a major investigation into the Bidens.
-Let's be clear. What you just described is a quid pro quo.
-We do that all the time with foreign policy.
And I have news for everybody -- Get over it.
-Get over it?
These guys are such ass[bleep]
they talk like dumb truck stop bumper stickers.
"My other ride is your mom. Get over it."
[ Laughter ] But that's their real argument.
You can pretty much ignore everything else they say --
All the process complaints, the buzzwords, the brain vomit.
The Republicans' argument is simple --
We can do whatever we want. Get over it.
Well, today, House Democrats responded
by telling the Trump White House
that they will definitely not just get over it.
-An historic day on Capitol Hill.
The House announcing articles of impeachment
against the sitting U.S. president, Donald Trump,
two articles specifically --
abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
-Today, in service to our duty to the Constitution
and to our country, the House Committee on the Judiciary
is introducing two articles of impeachment
charging the President of the United States,
Donald J. Trump, with committing high crimes and misdemeanors.
-That's right. Today, Democrats unveiled
two articles of impeachment against President Trump,
but if you ask me, he got off easy.
Remember, the guy also
obstructed justice in the Mueller probe,
violated the Constitution by enriching himself,
inflicted human rights abuses on migrant children,
and directed an illegal scheme to pay hush money
to cover up an affair.
It's not even hard to find the crimes with this guy.
It's like a Where's Waldo?
where Waldo is right in the middle of the map
with a giant bag of cash in one hand
and giving you the finger with the other one.
[ Laughter and applause ]
As Democrats argued in the press conference today,
you can't wait until an election to remove a president
who's made clear he's willing to cheat in that election.
In fact, today, as Democrats were unveiling
articles of impeachment, Trump was welcoming
the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov
into the White House, and a White House spokesman
actually said on Fox News this morning
that the two would discuss election security.
-President Trump meets Russia's Foreign Secretary Lavrov
at the White House this afternoon.
Now, we're told that this is about arms control.
But it's gonna look real bad.
It's gonna be Russia, Russia, Russia, Sergey Lavrov.
It's gonna get bad PR out of it, isn't it?
-I don't think so.
Listen, these kind of conversations are critical.
You know, it's incumbent upon any American president
to try and build relationships across the globe.
We're absolutely expected to talk about arms control,
but also election security.
-He's gonna discuss election security with the Russians?
That's like airing a "Say No To Drugs" PSA
with Walter White. [ Laughter ]
At this point, all Trump and his allies have left is one thing --
lying about the investigations
and claiming there's some sort of
treasonous deep-state witch hunt to overthrow him.
Yesterday, for example,
a Justice Department Inspector General's report
found that while there were serious errors
in the FBI's Russia investigation,
there was no anti-Trump plot and the investigation was both
unbiased and justified.
The report debunked Trump's conspiracy theory
that he was spied on or that it was an attempt
by the Obama administration to overthrow him.
And yet, today, Trump lashed out at his own FBI Director,
Christopher Wray, for agreeing with that report.
-Breaking news -- A long-awaited report
from the Justice Department's Inspector General
finding the FBI's launch of the Russia probe
was valid and unbiased.
The report also says that there was no spying
on the Trump campaign, which is a conspiracy theory
that Trump has pushed since taking office.
-It's important that the Inspector General
found that in this particular instance,
the investigation was opened
with appropriate predication and authorization.
-Just minutes after that aired, President Trump tweeted this --
"I don't know what report current Director of the FBI
Christopher Wray was reading,
but it sure wasn't the one given to me.
-Oh, it wasn't? Well, maybe the report you got
didn't match the actual report
since the actual report was 434 pages long.
Trump's aides probably gave him a one-page memo that read,
"You were right again, boss!" [ Laughter ]
But there's another argument on top of all the lying
and conspiracy theories that infuriating.
Trump and the GOP have also argued that impeachment
is somehow hurting the country and preventing the government
from helping people, even while the Trump White House itself
is actively hurting the most vulnerable.
-As you head into Christmas
and you head into the holiday season,
people are gonna want results from Congress, and right now,
all they're getting is hatred, vitriol,
and a sham impeachment hearing that doesn't do anything
to put food on the tables of the American people.
-Oh, now you're worried about putting food on people's tables?
Last week, you guys kicked 700,000 people off food stamps
by imposing awful new work requirements.
Think about how cruel that is.
Work requirements from a guy who never works.
Trump spends most of his time tweeting, watching TV,
and crawling around his golf course like a groundhog
who just popped out of the 18th hole,
looks like he's auditioning for the role of the gopher
in a remake of "Caddyshack."
That -- That's the kind of cruelty
Republicans have committed themselves to defending,
and they're fine with doing it.
Today, Democrats at least put down a marker
and said there will be consequences
for Trump's behavior. They asked a simple question --
Should a president be allowed to cheat to win an election?
And instead of offering a coherent defense,
all Republicans could say was...
-Why don't you ask -- you know,
frame your questions differently?
This has been "A Closer Look."
[ Cheers and applause ]
♪♪