-The January 6th hearings continue to provide
shocking new revelations about the degree
to which Donald Trump and his allies
knew they had no evidence of election fraud,
knew what they were doing was illegal,
and still orchestrated a desperate plan
to overturn the results by,
among other things, submitting fake electors
and harassing election officials.
For more on this, it's time for "A Closer Look."
[ Cheers and applause ]
♪♪
Last week, the committee
revealed the degree to which Trump's own team
knew their plan to have Vice President Mike Pence
overturn the election was illegal
but pushed him to do it anyway.
And now the committee has revealed
that Trump's team also admitted, in private,
they had no evidence for their election-fraud claims, either.
-At some point, did one of them make a comment that
they didn't have evidence but they had a lot of theories?
-That was Mr. Giuliani.
-And what exactly did he say, and how'd that came up?
-My recollection, he said, "We've got lots of theories.
We just don't have the evidence."
And I don't know if that was a gaffe
or maybe he didn't think through what he said.
-Oh, did Rudy not think through what he said?
I'm not sure he's ever thought
through anything he's ever said in his entire life.
In every interview, he always looks like
he just called someone the wrong name on a date.
[ Laughter ]
"I'm having a great time with you tonight, Lisa."
"My name is Deborah." "I'd say that's
my biggest faux pas, but I married my cousin."
[ Laughter ]
"Where are you going, Deborah? I mean, Lisa.
I mean, Deborah?" [ Laughter ]
Rudy didn't even think through
why the Four Seasons he booked for a press conference
looked more like a landscaping company than a hotel.
He just let the press conference rip.
Like, even if that was an honest mix-up,
like, what did he think when he arrived on site?
"This hotel stinks. You call this a pillow?"
[ Laughter ]
"I do!"
[ Laughter ]
That admission came in a conversation
with Arizona State House Speaker Rusty Bowers,
who repeatedly asked Trump and Rudy
for evidence of their allegations,
and they repeatedly failed to provide it.
-During that conversation,
did you ask Mr. Giuliani
for proof of these allegations of fraud that he was making?
-On multiple occasions, yes.
He said that they did have proof.
And I asked him, "Do you have names?"
For example, "We have 200,000 illegal immigrants,"
some large number, "5,000 or 6,000 dead people," et cetera.
And I said, "Do you have their names?"
"Yes." "Will you give them to me?"
"Yes."
The President interrupted and said,
"Give the man what he needs, Rudy."
He said, "I will."
So Mr. Giuliani was claiming in the call
that there were hundreds of thousands of undocumented people
and thousands of dead people
who had purportedly voted in the election.
-Yes.
-And you asked him for evidence of that?
-I did.
-And did he ever recei-- did you ever receive
from him that evidence,
either during the call, after the call, or to this day?
-Never.
-First of all, I love Trump saying,
"Give the man what he needs."
He really does treat Rudy like his own personal manservant.
Rudy Giuliani, the man who supposedly spent his tenure
in New York taking down the Mafia,
and now he's basically running errands
like the kid from "A Bronx Tale,"
hoping to become a made man someday --
"Right away, boss!"
So, shockingly, Rudy Giuliani never provided proof
of his claim that thousands of dead people
voted in the election.
In fact, during one of these meetings,
Rudy was apparently so desperate for proof,
he turned to his fellow pro-coup cronies,
like Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis,
who kept telling Bowers they had the proof he was looking for.
They just didn't bring it with them to the meeting.
-At some point, did Mr. Giuliani ask
one of the other attorneys on his team
to help him out with the evidence?
-He did. He asked Jenna Ellis,
who was sitting to his right.
He did ask, "Do we have the proof?"
to Jenna, Ms. Ellis, and she said, "Yes."
And I said, "I want the names. Do you have the names?"
"Yes."
"Do you have how they voted?"
"We have all the information."
I said, "Can you get to me that information?"
Did you bring it with you? She said no.
Both Mr. Giuliani asked her and I asked generally
if they had brought it with them.
She said, "No, it's not with me, but we can get it to you."
-I mean, this is just me,
but if I was preparing for a high-stakes meeting
with a prominent Republican official
to convince them to overturn their state's election results,
reversing the will of 80 million people,
and potentially provoking a constitutional crisis,
I think I -- and again, this is just me --
I think I'd remember to bring the evidence.
[ Laughter ] Just me. That's just me.
"Oh, man. The evidence."
[ Laughter ]
"Oh, man, I can't believe I forgot.
In my defense, I had a terrible night's sleep.
The hotel I stayed at did not have the best pillows."
[ Laughter ]
They actually thought they could get away
with saying they had the proof, just never having it with them.
These people are such bad scam artists.
It's actually remarkable how close they came
to overthrowing American democracy.
In fact, even calling them scam artists is overstating the case.
That's like calling this guy a sandwich artist.
At best, you're a sandwich attempter.
In fact, here's an example from yesterday
of how bad they are at being scam artists.
Senator Ron Johnson was trying to avoid questions
from reporters about a scheme involving his chief of staff,
who, according to the committee,
tried to hand fake pro-Trump electors from Wisconsin
and Michigan to a Pence aide on January 6th.
And when Johnson was approached by reporters,
he was immediately caught --
immediately caught -- faking a phone call.
[ Laughter ]
Everyone knows you put the phone
on the same side as the reporter.
[ Laughter ]
That's scam artistry 101.
So these dip [bleep] thought they could get away
with convincing the Arizona State House Speaker
to overturn his state's election results
by just pretending they had proof
and would definitely send it to him
when they got around to it.
They treated a prominent Republican official
asking for proof of election fraud
the same way I treated my dentist's nephew
when he asked for notes on his screenplay.
"Oh, yeah, man. You know, I'm --
I'm totally gonna get those to you.
Just haven't been home that much."
"You were home for a full year!"
[ Laughter ]
"Oh, damn. I forgot that was on TV.
Oops. Sorry. I'm getting a phone call."
[ Laughter ]
[ Mouthing words ]
[ Laughter ]
And yet, despite admitting in private they had no proof,
Rudy and his gang still spread wild,
unhinged claims of election fraud anyway,
like when they targeted Georgia election worker
Shaye Moss, who testified at yesterday's hearing,
and her mother, Ruby Freeman.
Trump and Rudy became obsessed with an insane conspiracy theory
that somehow involved Moss and Freeman
tampering with the vote count.
-Tape earlier in the day of Ruby Freeman
and Shaye Freeman Moss and one other gentleman
quite obviously, surreptitiously passing around USB ports
as if they are vials of heroin or cocaine.
I mean, it's -- it's obvious to anyone
who's a criminal investigator or prosecutor
they are engaged in surreptitious,
illegal activity -- again, that day.
And that's a week ago,
and they're still walking around Georgia.
Why?
Should've been -- they should've been
questioned already.
Their places of work,
their homes should have been searched
for evidence of ballots,
for evidence of USB ports, for evidence of voter fraud.
-I mean, this guy really is out of his [bleep] mind.
I mean, how much -- [ Laughter ]
how much scotch can one man drink?
I'm starting to think that wasn't hair dye
leaking out of his head, it was Johnnie Walker Jet Black.
[ Laughter ]
Of course, Rudy ended up being the one
whose home and office were searched
for actual evidence of potential crimes by the FBI.
I'm gonna guess there was nary a USB port
to be found at Rudy's place.
In fact, if they found anything,
I bet it was a cigar box full of old subway tokens
and foul balls he stole from little kids at Yankee games.
"Give me that, you little runt! I'm the mayor.
Everybody loves me, and that's never gonna change."
So you heard Rudy make the insane claim
that they were passing around
USB ports at vote-counting sites.
So what were they actually passing around here?
Here's Shaye Moss's testimony,
which was deeply moving and powerful
but also contained this truly insane reveal
about what that USB port really was.
-Mr. Giuliani accused you and your mother
of passing some sort of USB drive to each other.
What was your mom actually handing you on that video?
-A ginger mint. -That's right, yeah.
[ Laughter ]
A ginger mint. Of course,
it doesn't surprise me
Rudy wouldn't recognize a ginger mint.
His breath probably smells like the inside of a hot-dog cart.
[ Laughter ]
I mean, I guess you can't blame him.
If he was sucking on a USB drive,
it would probably still dissolve.
[ Laughter ] I could definitely see Rudy
confusing a mint with technology.
"I saw a video of poll workers
passing around fraudulent ballots.
It was on that social-media site, Tic Tac.
These guys... [ Laughter ]
...knew what they were doing was illegal,
and they knew they had no proof for their wild, unhinged claims,
but they harassed, bullied,
pressured, and intimidated people anyway.
And they -- they came very close to succeeding.
It's very possible the only thing
that saved our democracy from total collapse
was the fact that Trump was surrounded
by absolute morons like Rudy,
whose brain is the size of...
-A ginger mint.
[ Laughter and applause ]
This has been "A Closer Look."
♪♪
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