-The Republican Party and conservative movement
are now so committed to an alternate reality
where Donald Trump won the 2020 election
that if you're a Republican and you depart even slightly
from that deranged lie, you'll be punished.
For more on this, it's time for "A Closer Look."
♪♪
Republicans as a party are just fully out of ideas.
They have nothing constructive to add
to the national discourse.
They spend their time whining hysterically
about hamburgers and Dr. Seuss
and are still trying to get the last election overturned.
They're so desperate to be outraged about utter nonsense,
they spent an entire day getting mad
about the Snow White ride at Disneyland.
-Cancel culture is coming for a Disney classic.
-Cancel culture extending its reach -- deep breath --
this time to Snow White.
The mob going after Prince Charming
for kissing the Princess, or Snow White, without consent.
Snow White could now be snow woke.
[ Clicks tongue ]
-Yep. Cancel culture going after poor little Snow White.
-When I woke up and I saw Snow White is now in trouble,
Molly, I was like, "Well, it must be Monday."
-Critics are demanding Disneyland remove
the "true love kiss" scene
from the new ride Snow White.
-So now they're trying to cancel Snow White.
Your thoughts? -This ride at Disneyland.
-Yeah. Disneyland.
-You know, sometimes I think, "We are so screwed."
I don't know where
these jack-a-loons come up with this stuff.
-Probably the same place you came up with "jack-a-loons."
What the hell is that, some kind of cryptocurrency for pirates?
"Prepare to be boarded, and upload all your jack-a-loons
to my account.
Arr!
What's your Wi-Fi?
I think we need to get on the same Wi-Fi
for the upload to take place."
You're a United States senator.
You should be spending your time talking about stuff that actually matters
instead of a ride at Disneyland,
unless you want to talk about Mr. Toad's Wild Ride,
because it is very insane to me that, in that ride,
which is for small children, Mr. Toad goes to hell.
And doesn't come out, it should be noted.
It just ends there, in hell, then the ride's over.
"Well, I hope you enjoyed it, kids,
and remember, follow traffic laws or else."
As for Prince Charming, I just think the dude
needs to pick a princess,
which would have made a pretty good 2007 movie
starring Owen Wilson as Prince Charming
and Vince Vaughn as his best friend.
"Buddy, buddy, buddy, I know they're all beautiful honeys,
but you have to make a choice and leave some for the rest of us.
You know, because I asked Snow White for her number,
and she says she's dating Charming.
And Sleeping Beauty gives me the cold shoulder
because she's dating Charming.
And, like, all that's left is ogres and trolls,
and that's not a comment on anyone's looks.
They're literally ogres and trolls."
I have a cold that I thought would improve my Vince Vaughn,
but I see now that it hurt it.
Well, we can't unwind the clock.
At this point, it's only a matter of time
before Fox News spends a week running segments
warning that Biden is sending
his army of Antifa super soldiers
to your house to take away your Beanie Babies.
So they're obsessed with election lies
and insane culture war bull[bleep]
Meanwhile, Joe Biden seems to have checkmated Republicans
with a strategy so shocking, it never occurred to them --
doing popular things that people like.
-Thanks to the Biden administration's accelerated vaccination push,
new cases of COVID are at the lowest point
since the beginning of October.
In addition, Biden's stimulus package
has provided the spark he promised.
Look at some of these numbers.
U.S. gross domestic product, GDP, hit 6.4%.
That's the second-best quarterly reading since 2003.
Thanks to the stimulus,
Americans actually have more money to spend.
The amount of money an individual household has
after taxes increased $2.36 trillion,
67% in the first quarter of 2021.
-And as President Biden
completes his first 100 days in office,
a majority of Americans are more optimistic about the next year.
That is according to a new ABC News/Ipsos poll.
Nearly two-thirds, 64%,
are optimistic about the direction of the country.
-Wow, optimism. That is not a feeling Americans are used to.
A year ago, we were all going to the grocery store
in homemade HAZMAT suits and rubber gloves,
fighting over toilet paper and oat milk.
And, yeah, okay, I'm sorry I live in a part of the country
where people were fighting over oat milk.
Sue me.
It's the only thing my wife will let me put in my Kashi cereal.
And if I come back with anything other than the actual OATLY! brand,
I have to sit quietly in the corner
and drink my dandelion tea with agave and turmeric
because she says turmeric is good for my memory
and I'm sweet like agave.
So after four years of constant misery,
there's finally reason for optimism,
especially when you see the President
set an ambitious goal of getting shots
to at least 70% of adults by July 4th,
which is believable because he's already hit
several of the goals he's already set for himself,
like 200 million shots in his first 100 days.
It's such a jarring change from the Trump era,
when he would set outlandish goals
without absolutely any credibility to back them up,
and that's because he could never stop talking,
even when he was saying something scripted.
"Today I'm announcing that by July 4th,
70% of American adults will be vaccinated.
And we're going to be doing it on Mars.
That's right, folks.
Just hop in your car, head on down to Cape Canaveral.
My team's shaking their head no,
but I'm pretty confident this is how it's gonna go.
And when you get there, you'll be given the shot of your choice
and a free MyPillow,
courtesy of my friend and a great patriot
who will also be piloting the ship to Mars Mike Lindell."
"I found proof of voter fraud on Mars.
The aliens hacked our voting machines
so Joe Biden could outlaw Beanie Babies
and take away Da Bears."
[ Laughter ]
The cold helps the Lindell.
So we have one party that, for all its faults,
is interested in governing and solving problems
and another that's obsessed with lies and conspiracy theories
and feigned culture-war grievances,
and they're still being led, in large part,
by the disgraced, twice-impeached former President
who never won the popular vote,
never once cracked 50% approval.
-Ted Cruz sharing this picture.
It shows him sitting next to Donald Trump
at Mar-a-Lago tonight.
The senator's saying that he had a great dinner,
adding that Trump is in great spirits.
Cruz says the evening was spent talking
about working together to retake the White House
and to try to take back Congress and the Senate in 2022.
-All right, first of all, you only say
someone's in great spirits when there's reason to believe
they shouldn't be in great spirits,
like if they're in the hospital or they're with Ted Cruz.
Also, why does Mar-a-Lago look like
the inside of a mobster's fish tank?
Did you guys eat next to the castle or the treasure chest?
"Do you want to pay with cash, check, or jack-a-loons?"
And, Ted, do you ever spend any time in Texas,
or do you just hop from one luxury resort to the other
with a brief layover in Congress to take a nap?
Senator, should I book a hotel for your layover in D.C.?
"No need. I'll just sleep on the job."
And lastly, I know whenever Ted Cruz grovels before Trump,
we point out that Trump insulted his wife
and accused his dad of killing JFK,
but I also just wanted to point out
that Trump insulted his wife
and accused his dad of killing JFK.
Trump must be thinking, "What do I have to do to get this guy
to stop wanting to have dinner with me?"
Anyway, the point is, Republicans have to
keep making this dumb pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago
because they and their voters are fully committed
to what Trump represents.
His brand of corrupt authoritarianism
and racist culture-war paranoia is still popular within the GOP,
even if it's deeply unpopular with everyone else,
as evidenced by Trump's terrible polling numbers
and Biden's high polling numbers.
The GOP is now so committed
to the deranged lie that Trump actually won the election
that if you simply state the obvious, that he lost,
that there was no widespread fraud,
and that he tried to foment a violent insurrection
on January 6th to retain his grip on power,
the GOP will punish you,
as Utah Senator Mitt Romney and Wyoming Congresswoman Liz Cheney
have recently discovered.
-Senator Mitt Romney booed by fellow Republicans
at a party convention on Saturday in Utah.
Listen to this.
-I don't hide the fact that I wasn't a fan
of our last President's character issues.
And I'm also no fan --
[ Crowd booing ]
-Axios reporting House Republicans
moving closer to ousting Wyoming Congresswoman Liz Cheney
from leadership
and are already considering replacing her
with another female representative.
This is all over Congresswoman Cheney telling the truth,
refusing to back down from her criticisms
of former President Trump
and the lies he continues to spread
about voter fraud in the last election.
-All right, first of all, Mitt, maybe they weren't saying "boo."
Maybe they were saying, "Who? Who?"
-Who let the dogs out? Who? Who?
-You guys remember that golden oldie? Simpler times.
Of course, that would have never happened to Trump
because he would never have asked it as a question.
"We all know who let the dogs out, folks.
Sleepy Joe, and you're hearing it very strongly.
He fell asleep with the door open.
All the dogs ran away.
But we're bringing them back, folks.
We're bringing back our jobs,
and we're bringing back our dogs,
and, of course, we're bringing back Dogs with Jobs.
Oh, they had police dogs and service dogs,
and maybe they did it for the treats,
or maybe they were great patriots.
Who knows?
But you're seeing it now more and more.
Who? Who-who?"
Also, one of the many [bleep] things about the modern Republican Party
is that they're making me defend people like Mitt Romney and Liz Cheney.
You think I want to side with Liz Cheney?
For one thing, she's never met a war she didn't support,
and I'm afraid that if I'm too nice to her,
her dad will invite me hunting and shoot me in the face.
But this isn't about Liz Cheney or Mitt Romney.
You don't have to agree with them on anything else.
It's about why she's being punish.
She's being punished simply for living in reality.
That's it.
And now House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy,
who also made the same sad pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago
as Ted Cruz
is signaling that he's finally ready to push her out
in favor of someone who will back Trump's big election lie.
-I have heard from members concerned about her ability
to carry out the job as conference chair,
to carry out the message.
-Media obtained this audio, this hot-mic audio of McCarthy today
before an interview on Fox this morning.
Listen to it.
-I think she's got real problems.
I've had it with -- I've had it with her.
It's -- You know, I've lost confidence.
Well, someone just has to bring a motion,
but I assume that will probably take place.
-I'm surprised he got caught on a hot mic
because I just assumed Fox News was the hot mic.
That's where you go to say all the dumb [bleep]
you can't say anywhere else.
You can go on Fox and claim Biden
is going to outlaw hamburgers,
and the anchors will take you seriously.
But if you say the same thing on the sidewalk in Times Square,
people would look away or pretend not to speak English.
I've pulled that move walking to work many times.
"Excuse me, will you sign my petition
to stop the President from banning our hamburgers
and putting microchips in our DNA?"
Scusi, non parlo inglese.
Mi chiamo Gabagool.
This Republican Party doesn't seem to stand...
[ Laughter ]
This Republican Party doesn't seem to stand for
anything other than seeking power
and doing anything possible to attain it,
including dismantling democracy.
They're so fully committed to Trump's big election lie
that they're now punishing a long-time hard-core conservative
just for living in reality.
I'm running out of words to describe how insane this is,
so I'll just have to start making up new ones, like...
-Jack-a-loons.
-This has been "A Closer Look."
♪♪
God's Love We Deliver cooks and brings
over 2 million meals a year to men, women, and children
living with HIV/AIDS, cancer, and other serious illnesses,
and they need your help.
If you're watching this online, you can hit the "donate" button.
Stay safe. Wear a mask. Get vaccinated. We love you.