-Yet more shocking text messages
have emerged in the investigation of
the January 6th insurrection and Donald Trump's attempted coup
with the investigation now implicating
several members of Congress.
Democrats, meanwhile, have spent the last day
or so chasing their own tails
over the President's signature Build Back Better plan.
For more on this, it's time for "A Closer Look."
[ Cheers and applause ]
If you're of the mind, as I am, that the Republican Party
has been captured by an authoritarian cult
of goons, weirdos, and asymmetrical crime goblins
who always look like they just walked in
on their parents having sex
with a different set of parents...
"Mom, Dad, I thought you hated the Petrocellis!"
"No, Rudy. Don't let this screw you up for your whole life!"
And if you agree that Republicans
pose an existential threat to democracy
if they ever get back into power,
then the logical and somewhat sobering conclusion
of that belief is that our only hope is the Democratic Party,
which is not a comforting thought.
It's like being on the outside of the NFL playoff picture
and needing the Jets to win.
"Okay, guys, we're in with a win,
a Broncos loss and the Jets win,
so why didn't you pack up all your lockers
and I'll see you next summer?"
[ Laughter ] Yesterday, for example,
was quite the roller coaster of incompetence from Democrats.
They started the day by announcing
that they were abandoning their signature
social spending bill, the Build Back Better plan,
which sounds like the name of a [bleep] house-flipping show
on HGTV hosted by a married couple
who can't agree on anything.
"I thought you wanted an accent wall."
"No, I said I wanted shiplap."
"Well, I think you're full of shiplap."
"This is why I cheated on you with the Property Brothers!
And remember, they do everything together."
[ Laughter ]
Democrats said they were shelving their signature
Build Back Better plan in order to pursue
voting rights legislation, which is also urgently necessary
but requires changing the filibuster rules.
Then they claim they were making progress
on changing those rules, only to have
Senator Kyrsten Sinema announced hours later
that she was still against changing the filibuster
to protect voting rights,
which was then followed up by Senator Joe Manchin,
the guy who lives on a houseboat called Almost Heaven,
like he's Captain Ron's deadbeat dad,
suggesting that he might still be open
to a price tag of $1.75 trillion
for the Build Back Better plan and screaming at a reporter
who asked him about the bill...
All in all, a great day for the Democratic Party.
Such a grumpy old man move to say
to someone not just that they're full of B.S.,
but that they themselves are [bleep].
He sounds like you just got in a fight
with a sales associate at Lowe's who told him
he can't use a coupon for a Duraflame.
"You're [bleep], Gary, and I'm taking my business
over to Ace Hardware."
By the way, I want to take a moment to point out
that we have not rolled a clip yet,
which is bad news for Wally because he uses the clips
to take breaks from holding up the cue cards.
I mean, look at his arms right now.
[ Laughter ]
Stay strong, Wally!
-Seth.
[ Cheers and applause ]
Seth, Seth, please, please roll a clip.
My physical therapist said I can't take much more of this.
-Alright. I'll do my best to get to it.
Manchin's outburst reminds me
of this moment from a few years back
when the term "fake news" started to become a thing
and Trump hurled it at a reporter like a personal insult.
-Can you give us a question? Can you give us a question?
-I'm not gonna give you a question.
You are fake news.
[ Laughter ]
-He sounded like a gossipy teen at a high school locker.
"Becky said that Joanna said that Tyler said
that Mark said that you are fake news."
Hey, we rolled the clip. Are you happy now, Wally?
[ Laughter ]
[ Cheers and applause ]
-Seth, never been better, baby.
[ Laughter ]
-Well, I'm, uh...
glad you're good, Wally, because I'm, um,
not doing great.
See, yesterday, during "A Closer Look,"
I got all tripped up when Wally
held up this card with the words
"So now we what these."
[ Laughter ]
Made no sense, so Wally did this,
putting his finger over the "we,"
which made the sentence make even less sense.
Wally, do you now understand that a word was missing
and that that word was "know"?
-Uh, yeah, I do,
but I needed the 'know' for something else, Seth.
-What did you need to "know" for?
-For this.
Hey, kids.
Be nice to your cue card guy,
because he can [bleep] you over.
[ Laughter ]
[ Applause ]
-Wally counts as a series regular now.
[ Laughter ]
Anybody remember what we're talking about?
Oh, right. Now I do. Here we go. Keep going.
It turns out Manchin was calling the reporter [bleep]
because the reporter asked him about one of the bill's
most important and transformative policies --
an extension of the child tax credit
that has helped dramatically slash child poverty.
If Democrats don't pass Build Back Better,
the credit will expire.
And on top of that, President Biden just announced
that he plans to restart federal student loan payments
in February.
I mean, Democrats, what's wrong with you?
In a midterm year, you want to take away cash for children
and make people pay student loans again?
What's next? Do we all have to pitch in
for Joe Manchin's houseboat renovations?
So the Democrats are in bad shape politically
and seem to be making things worse
for themselves for no reason,
which is bad because the party standing in the wings
to retake power are Republicans, who tried to stage a coup
and remain enthralled to an aspiring authoritarian.
With Democrats sputtering, Republicans are hoping inflation
and specifically rising meat prices
will help them in the midterms.
Recently, the White House said the blame
for rising meat prices rests in part with meat conglomerates.
And then Fox News decided to repeat a term
for those companies to deride Biden that, well,
let's just say the term was a little distracting.
-Everything costs too damn much.
First, it was the pandemic's fault.
Now it's Big Meat.
Corporate greed and Big Meat.
That's what you do to your rival.
Don't you define your rival --
in this case, Big Meat?
Big Meat is something people can remember.
-But they're making up a rival, right?
So, like, Big Meat is not their rival.
-The guy at the supermarket, Geraldo, with the little gun,
the price gun, he shoots it on the meat there,
he gets a note from Big Meat every week
with the price that the steaks are going to be.
Big Meats. -Big Meat.
-Big Meat. -Big Meat.
-Why are they saying Big Meat so much?
Is this Fox News After Dark?
They sound like they're on a press tour for a porno
about a pizza delivery guy.
"We had a lot of fun making 'Big Meat.'
Made tons of on-set pranks."
The worst part of that segment came when Rudy got confused
and accidentally Googled Big Meat.
[ Laughter ]
Maybe they're just sticking up for Big Meat,
because that was Trump's Secret Service code name.
"Big Meat is coming through.
I repeat, Big Meat is coming through,
and it looks like he's with Bacon Bit and Lunchables."
[ Laughter ]
"They call me Lunchables because I'm always a little wet."
This is a good encapsulation of Republican politics right now.
It's both very dangerous and very dumb at the same time,
because when they're not claiming Democrats
are targeting Big Meat, Republicans are also defending
Trump's attempted coup while planning the next one.
In fact, the committee investigating the coup
keeps unearthing more shocking revelations.
Last night, we told you about private texts from Don Jr.
and several Fox News host during the January 6th attack.
Now we're learning about several texts from Republican lawmakers
who have so far remained unnamed.
In one text before January 6th even took place,
an unnamed GOP lawmaker
suggested truly insane plan to have swing states
just declare themselves for Trump
before the results are even in.
-Members of the January 6th committee
now, just a moment ago,
revealed some more of the text messages
that he had willingly handed over to the committee
before stonewalling.
One of the texts reveals the conversation
to overthrow the election results
started on November 4th, a day after the election.
A lawmaker messages Meadows,
"Here's an aggressive strategy.
Why can't the states of Georgia, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania
and other R-controlled state houses declare this is B.S.
and just send their own electors to vote
and have it go back to the SCOTUS."
-Anytime someone starts a text with the words,
"here's an aggressive strategy," don't open the attachment.
Also, the random capitalization is a hint that whatever
that person is telling you is going to be super insane.
It would honestly look less nutty
if Trump's cronies just passed notes to each other
with letters cut out from magazines.
And that wasn't the only text from an unnamed Republican
lawmaker essentially proposing a coup.
One text said to Meadows about the plan for a coup...
Ugh, you never want to hear the words "tip of the spear."
It's either about an evil plot or someone's...
-Big Meat.
-And another text...
...to Meadows sent the day after the insurrection failed, said...
Now, we don't know yet who exactly sent these texts,
but we do know that some pro-coup GOP lawmakers
have been super shifty
about their communications with Trump on that day.
A few months ago, a reporter asked
Ohio Congressman Jim Jordan
if he talked to Trump on January 6th,
and he was extremely cagey about it.
-Yes or no -- Did you speak with President Trump on January 6th?
-Yeah, I mean, I spoke with the president last week.
I speak with the president all the time.
I spoke with him on January 6th.
I mean, I talked with President Trump all the time.
I'm actually kind of amazed
sometimes that people keep asking this ques--
Of course I talk with the president all the time.
Like I said, I talked with him last week.
-On January 6th, did you speak with him before,
during, or after the Capitol was attacked?
-I'd have to go -- I -- I spoke with him
that day after.
I think after.
I don't know if I spoke with him in the morning or not,
and I just don't know.
I'd have to go back and -- I mean, I don't -- I don't --
I don't know that -- when those conversations happened.
-Thank you, Congressman Nicholas Fehn.
[ Laughter ] I mean, yikes.
Jordan would have been better off with
"humina, humina, humina." [ Chuckles ]
Any time anyone ever talks that fast about anything,
it's automatically suspicious, especially in response
to such a straightforward question.
If you asked your spouse how work was,
you'd be suspicious if they said,
"I don't know. How's work? Work is work.
What's work anyway? I mean, it was good.
I mean, I don't know. Work? It's work. It's w--
You know, I'm just amazed that people
keep asking me this question.
I was at work. Work is work is work.
It's work."
"Alright, honey, in that case, I'm going to call
the Property Brothers.
Both of them!"
And yet, despite all of this incontrovertible evidence,
the text messages, the secret memos,
all the smoking guns, we found out about
over the last year, propagandists in the GOP
and on Fox News are still trying to rewrite history.
Last night, Fox News contributor Lara Trump
ludicrously claimed that Trump tried to warn people
about the insurrection he himself whipped up.
-These people know -- whether it's Adam Schiff,
whether it's Liz Cheney, whether it's Kinzinger --
they all know that Donald Trump
didn't orchestrate this whole thing.
He didn't tell people to go to the Capitol and break in.
He said, "let's peacefully
and patriotically make our voices heard."
But he tried to warn them.
So many people tried to warn Nancy Pelosi.
So why didn't they have the adequate security there?
-I'm sorry, what?
Trump tried to warn people about the coup he fomented?
Do you mean like the way a serial killer
warns the cops about his next move?
Did Trump send a fax to the police
the night before January 6th
with cryptograph and a zodiac symbol?
Of course, if Trump ever did that,
he would probably sign his name to it.
Also, if Trump ever said the word "patriot,"
he'd inevitably end up on a long tangent
about how he's best friends with Tom Brady.
"Tom Brady, we love him.
We love him. Great guy.
Used to be a Patriot.
Now is a Buccaneer.
We love the Buccaneers, don't we, folks?
But we miss the old helmet.
Oh, we miss the lo-- When he was a pirate
with a tailored mustache
and such beautiful skin.
I always said that's how I'd look If I wore a fancy hat
and had a knife in my mouth.
I always wondered, why?
Why do you have to have a knife in your mouth?
I mean, you got to be doing something pretty important
with your hands if you're going to put the knife in your mouth.
Are you swinging from one ship to another?
I don't know.
And we're never -- we're never going to know.
We're never -- 'Cause they never showed us his body.
Just the head.
It's really -- It's sad.
Where was I? Oh, right.
Burn that [bleep] Capitol to the ground
and make me president again!"
Anyway, this is our last "Closer Look" of 2021,
and we have tried to the best of our ability
to spend this year documenting
all of the evidence that Trump and his cronies
were very much staging a coup -- from the secret memos
to the newly unearthed text messages --
and that they're in the process
of doing it again if they get the chance.
Everyone knew the reality of what was happening on that day,
even Don Jr. and Fox News hosts,
as we now know from their private texts.
And yet since then, they've tried to rewrite history.
I'm sorry, but if you're trying to tell us now,
nearly a year later that Trump was actually warning
everyone about the coup he fomented,
then... -You are fake news.
-Oh, not the callback clip you were expecting,
but that's because it's fake news to suggest
that the insurrection on January 6th
was just an innocent little get-together,
and they were all just hanging out peacefully
at the Capitol for a... -Big Meat.
[ Laughter ]
There's been "A Closer Look."
♪♪
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