-Welcome to "Late Night." Today, the president
reeled off an unhinged rant in a call with governors,
demanding that they dominate protesters with mass arrests
after days of violent police escalation and unrest
over the murder of George Floyd.
For more on this, it's time for "A Closer Look."
♪♪
-President Trump has been quietly hunkered down
in the White House, occasionally threatening wild fantasies
of violence against protesters and belching out random
all-caps tweets, like, "FAKE NEWS!"
And "LAW AND ORDER!"
We're in the middle of a national crisis,
and he tweets like he's yelling at his Roku
to change the channel.
[ As Trump ] Law and order!
Below deck! Playboy Channel!
Uh, Mnuchin, we need to pay for the Playboy Channel.
[ Normal voice ] And then today, Trump reeled off
a deranged screed in a call with governors
where he sounded like a cross
between a brutal military dictator
and a racist grandpa shuffling around the nursing home
with his robe on backwards.
-President Trump today venting frustration
at some of the nation's governors.
In a conference call,
the president was at the White House.
The president calling governors "weak,"
saying they need a more robust police response
to the protests going on now across the country.
-President Trump is criticizing the nation's governors
for being "fools" in their response to violent protests.
The "Associated Press" quotes Trump as saying,
"Most of you are weak.
You have to arrest people and put them in jail for 10 years
and you'll never see this stuff again."
-He said, "You have to dominate.
If you don't dominate, you're wasting your time.
They're going to run over you.
You're going to look like a bunch of jerks.
You have to dominate."
-They look like jerks?
You're the one who's been cowering in the White House
with the lights off.
I mean, look at that.
That's our White House.
Right now, Donald Trump is going from room to room
telling people to act like they're not home
if the doorbell rings.
[ As Trump ] Nobody answer the door.
I'm two weeks behind on the rent.
We used the money for the Playboy Channel.
[ Normal voice ] The White House has turned into the weird
abandoned house at the end of the neighborhood the kids
dare each other to break into on Halloween.
"They say old man Trump still lives up there in the attic
with a corpse!"
"I'm not a corpse, Mr. President."
[ As Trump ] Shut up, corpse, they'll hear you!
If you had any doubts at all about the dangers
of our overly militarized police culture,
those doubts were answered.
In the response to the nationwide protests
over the murder of George Floyd, over the last few days,
we've all seen numerous examples of police
being needlessly violent or escalating their encounters
with protesters and reporters for no legitimate purpose.
Like the many scenes of police violently shoving people
to the ground or the police SUV that drove into a crowd
in New York, or the officer in Louisville
who just casually launched what appeared to be pepper balls
at a local TV reporter covering the scene from a distance.
The police can't even get through protests
against police brutality
without committing more police brutality.
It's like if your wife accused you of having an affair
in divorce court, and you tried to smooth it over
by seducing the judge.
"Look, the only question I have, your honor,
is what's under that robe?"
Even just showing up to a protest in riot gear
with military equipment is a form of escalation,
which we saw in cities across the country,
like, for example, in Columbia, South Carolina.
Ask yourself, why do local police departments have tanks
when doctors and nurses can't even get masks and gowns?
We spend billions on military equipment for police
and healthcare workers have to wear snorkel masks
like retirees on vacation in the Caribbean.
There are teachers in this country who are drowning in debt
and have to spend their own money
to buy supplies for their classrooms.
If anyone deserves a tank, it's them.
If you pulled up to your high school and saw a tank
parked in the math teacher's spot,
you'd learn what a [bleep] fractal is.
I still don't know, 'cause mine drove a Subaru.
And in some cases, the police excuses
for aggressively escalating the violence
have just been in absurd.
Like in Louisville, where police fired tear gas
at a peaceful protest and claimed that it was
because police saw people approaching
that had leaf-blowers loaded with bleach
that was intended to blow at police,
so they sent out the tear gas.
First of all, in their defense,
they may have just heard the president speak
and then loaded up their leaf-blowers with bleach
to cure corona.
"Open your mouths, everybody, the worst is over!"
Vrrrrrrrrrrrrr!
And second, a leaf-blower loaded with bleach
sounds like something Kevin McCallister would use
against Harry and Marv.
Were you also afraid the protesters
would use a barbecue starter to heat up a doorknob
or drop a tarantula onto your face?
Even elected officials were not immune from police violence,
as a New York state assemblywoman, Diana Richardson,
explained after getting pepper-sprayed
at a protest in Brooklyn.
-The NYPD is being excessively aggressive
with this crowd here, and it is inappropriate!
I'm Assemblywoman Diana Richardson.
I'm an elected official,
and they just pepper-sprayed me for no reason!
And if anyone knows the law, trust me, I know it.
We were only peacefully assembling.
-You know, if you're going to pepper spray
a group of peaceful protesters unprovoked,
you might want to make sure those protesters don't know
more about the law than you do.
It's like trying to sell a reverse mortgage to Tom Selleck.
[ As Selleck ] Nice try, those are just a trick
to take your house.
Or like trying to sell
a used car to Dom Toretto.
"Trust me, the Dodge Dart, fastest car on the market."
[ As Toretto ] It's not about speed. It's about family."
Did not use a second of my week off
to work on my Vin Diesel impression.
The police, like the rest of us,
are supposed to be governed by civilians
through a democratic process.
They should never be seen as above the process
because then that means they're above accountability.
Civilian political leadership are supposed to exercise
authority over the police and hold them accountable
for abuses of power, just like they would anyone else.
Yet as we've seen in New York City just this weekend,
too many of our leaders
have simply acquiesced that authority.
-New York City Police are investigating this video
showing an NYPD cruiser ram into a crowd during a protest.
You can see the cruiser behind a barrier
shortly after protesters began throwing objects on Saturday.
The cruisers sort of lurches forward.
No word yet on any injuries.
New York mayor Bill de Blasio refused to blame the officers,
saying he found the video troubling,
but the protesters did the wrong thing
to surround that police vehicle and threaten the officers.
-I saw a lot of restraint
under very, very difficult circumstances.
Clearly, we need to do a full investigation
and look at the actions of those officers
and see what was done and why it was done
and what could be done differently.
I don't ever want to see a police officer do that, period.
Period. Ever.
But I also know that there was
an extremely dangerous situation,
and the one thing they couldn't do was stay there.
-They could have just reversed.
I mean, they should know how to drive.
They're cops, not Billy Joel. If you don't get that joke,
don't worry, it just means you're under 50.
Congratulations on your youth.
I know de Blasio doesn't drive because he's so tall,
his head would stick out of the sunroof.
But he should know that cars can go forwards and backwards.
So the police have cracked down with impunity
on protests across the country.
And yet, for a few soulless, right-wing cable news husks,
that's not enough.
-When you express an opinion our leaders don't like,
they call it violence!
When criminals commit actual acts of violence,
they call it speech.
So, the game is rigged.
Why are the rest of us still playing it?
None of the thugs looting Target
or the well-paid nihilists on television
who are egging them on have added a thing. Nothing.
Should you keep playing along with all of that?
Ponder that the next time they demand you get a permit
to put a deck on your own house.
-We all saw a man get murdered by police
while begging for his life, and your biggest concern
is putting a deck on your house?
Are you an actual person
or just a monogrammed towel come to life?
We're in the middle of an economic crisis
that has put 40-million people out of work.
And this human penny loafer
thinks the average American's biggest concern right now
is whether to go with redwood or cedar.
Of course, it makes sense since Mr. Faux Populism over here
always looks like the waiter at his country club
just told him they were out of foie gras.
But sadly, he's not alone.
The president has repeatedly threatened violence,
called for governors to dominate protesters,
and insisted on law and order.
But in reality, the kind of order
people like Trump or Tucker revere
is an order that only serves them.
They insist that communities of color
politely and obediently request change
from a system that systemically ignores, dehumanizes,
and disenfranchises them.
We saw that on display yet again this week
with the rampant acts of police escalation.
And we know it's not necessary,
because just a few weeks ago,
police were physically confronted
by angry right-wing protesters calling for an end to lockdowns.
And oddly, they seemed to have
left their tanks and tear gas at home.
Man, I haven't seen white people that angry
since "Frasier" went off the air.
Granted, different white people.
This was more of a "Storage Wars" crowd.
And yet, in contrast to the restraint police showed there,
we have seen one video after another over the last few days
in which police needlessly escalated encounters
with protesters, reporters, and bystanders
for no legitimate purpose.
And in the face of that, the very least we can do,
the absolute minimum is to acknowledge
that there is a deeply rooted systemic problem here.
We can't just gloss over it with the same old excuses.
For example, we have to stop saying [bleep] like this.
-George Floyd is hardly the only unarmed black American
killed recently by police.
Do you think systemic racism
is a problem in law enforcement agencies in the United States?
-No, I don't think there's systemic racism.
I think 99.9% of our law enforcement officers
are great Americans. But you know what?
There are some bad apples in there.
Because there's a few bad apples that are giving law enforcement
a terrible name,
and there's no doubt that there's some racist police.
I think they're the minority.
I think they're the few bad apples.
-Stop saying the problem is just a few bad apples.
It's not an apple problem. It's an orchard problem.
If you went apple picking and the guy who ran the orchard
said "There are a few bad apples out there."
And you asked, "How bad?" And they said, "Kill you bad."
You'd say, "This is a bad orchard."
And now is not the time to complain about it,
but apple picking [bleep] sucks.
Let's just all agree on that.
Why are apples the only food
people want to pick for themselves?
They all look the same. And it's not even a challenge.
They're just dangling there.
You know what would be more exciting?
Catching your own turkey.
Then the best part about coming home for Thanksgiving would be
your mom serving, I don't know, Thanksgiving spaghetti
while your dad mutters about his busted ankle.
"They're faster than you think. Tell you that much.
They look slow, but they -- they move."
Putting it on a few bad apples ignores the reality
that there's a predatory system
with a history of police misconduct
built on a legacy of racism and exploitation
that elevates the comfort and security of white people
over the health and safety of black people.
This -- This is why we can't just settle for mild reforms.
Yes, we must demand accountability,
but we can't stop there.
We need systemic change,
and that extends to everything from healthcare
to housing to poverty.
Just look at how our emphasis on policing skews our priorities.
New York City, for example, spends more on policing
than it does on the departments of health, homeless services,
housing preservation and development,
and youth and community development combined.
New York spends all that money on police,
and yet, apparently, their cars don't even come with reverse.
They should get a tip from
[ As Vin Diesel ] me, Vin Diesel.
Now, see? It's getting --
Maybe New York could start to put some of that money aside
for things like healthcare, housing,
and signs at the top of escalators
that tell tourists, "Do not stand here."
I mean, that sign alone could prevent 100 assaults a year.
As a society, we spend more on the systems
that punish and devalue black lives
than we do on the things that reaffirm and empower black lives
and allow people to live lives of safety, decency, and health.
We have to invest in things like housing and healthcare.
And we need laws restricting the use of force,
demilitarizing the police,
and investing in nonviolent alternatives to the police.
We know these policies can work.
We just need leaders who will talk about them
and who will talk about the ways we can begin to dismantle
the interlocking systems of racism and injustice
that perpetuate police violence.
Instead, our president has been cowering
in the White House with the lights off.
100,000 Americans have died in a public health crisis
that has disproportionately preyed on communities of color.
40-million people have lost their jobs
in an economic collapse that has ravaged the poor
and working class.
The murder of yet another unarmed black man
at the hands of police has sparked a level of unrest
this country hasn't seen in our lifetimes.
And the lights were off at the White House.
But honestly, I would take that over Trump talking.
I mean, what could he possibly say?
We all know where he stands.
He praised Nazis and armed white protesters in Michigan
while denouncing black people as thugs,
threatening them with vicious dogs and ominous weapons,
and quoting a racist police chief from the 1960s,
which, by the way, is just insane.
The guy can't spell his wife's name or his own name,
but when it comes to racist slogans,
he's like Little Man Tate.
That one is for anyone who's over 40.
So, if you've got one, if you got Little Man Tate,
but not Billy Joel, you're in your 40s.
It's impossible to think of a worse person
to inhabit the most powerful office in the country right now.
Trump has been hiding away in the White House
tweeting out wild fantasies of violence,
telling governors to dominate protesters,
and declaring, without any apparent
constitutional authority, that he's designating Antifa,
which isn't even a formal group, a terrorist organization.
There's a good chance he doesn't even know
it stands for "antifascist."
He probably thinks it's a person.
[ As Trump ] Aunt Ifa, terrorist,
and I'm not too fond of her husband, Uncle Ifa, either.
[ Normal voice ] So, you'd be forgiven for watching all this
and thinking that something fundamental in America is broken
and that it's been broken for a long time.
Or as Cornel West put it...
-We are witnessing America
as a failed social experiment.
What I mean by that is that the history of black people
for over 200 some years and in America
has been looking at America's failure.
Its capitalist economy could not generate
and deliver in such a way
that people could live lives of decency.
The nation state, its criminal justice system,
its legal system could not generate protection
of rights and liberties.
But the question is, we must fight,
even in a moment in which we have a failed social experiment.
-Speaking of failed experiments, our president
looks like something from a 1980s teen movie
where two high schoolers attach electrodes to a potato
and a confederate flag to make him come to life.
But even in the face of failure, we have to keep fighting.
We have to reaffirm every day that black lives matter.
And we have to work to dismantle the interconnected systems
of racism and injustice
that devalue and disenfranchise those lives.
This has been "A Closer Look."
♪♪
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