-Newly unearthed texts from the phone
of Donald Trump's former chief of staff
have revealed that many of the key plotters
behind the coup attempt on January 6th
were sitting members of Congress,
some of whom called for Trump
to use martial law to stay in power.
The revelations come as the January 6 committee
prepares to make criminal referrals
to the Justice Department.
Oh, and Trump teased a major announcement
that ended up being a major dud.
For more on this, it's time for "A Closer Look."
[ Cheers and applause ]
Trump has been bizarrely quiet the last few weeks,
which is suspicious given he's supposedly
running for president of the United States.
But then yesterday, he posted an image of himself
in a Superman style costume with laser eyes and the text,
"America needs a superhero.
I'll be making a major announcement tomorrow."
Now, this led to wild speculation
about what he was going to do.
Maybe it had something to do with his presidential bid
or the mounting legal woes he's facing.
Or maybe he was about to unveil
a chintzy knockoff superhero doll
your grandmother would buy at a dollar store for Christmas.
"But Grandma, I wanted Deadpool!"
"This is even better. It's Braindeadpool."
[ Laughter ]
"The guy at the store told me it was just as good."
But when Trump finally posted his major announcement today,
it turned out to be so much more pathetic
than anyone could have possibly imagined.
♪♪
Hello, everyone. This is Donald Trump,
hopefully your favorite president of all time --
better than Lincoln, better than Washington --
with an important announcement to make.
I'm doing my first official
Donald J. Trump NFT collection,
right here and right now.
They're called Trump Digital Trading Cards.
These cards feature some of the really incredible artwork
pertaining to my life and my career.
It's been very exciting.
-That IS very exciting.
[ Laughter ]
I bet Lincoln's super [bleep] jealous
he didn't think of that.
But, real quick, which part of your life and your career
is sunglass astronaut?
'Cause I feel like I would've remembered that.
Also, got to love the timing
of a former president launching his NFT line
the same week a crypto scammer gets arrested.
[As Trump] They got SBF.
Looks like there's an opening available, then.
[ Laughter ]
[Normal voice] I'm also certain Trump didn't look
at the copy of his script until the cameras were rolling,
as evidenced by this line reading.
-Each card comes with an automatic chance
to win amazing prizes, like dinner with me.
I don't know if that's an amazing prize,
but it's what we have.
-[As Trump] It's what we have, you know.
Is it the best prize?
It's not. But, you know, it's Christmas.
And on Christmas, isn't what we have enough, you know?
Because one day you're president,
and the next day you're selling a product
you don't fully comprehend.
[ Laughter ]
But who needs an iPad when you can have a...
whatever the [bleep] this is?
[ Laughter ]
[Normal voice] And then the ad ended with this.
-Remember, Christmas is coming,
and this makes a great Christmas gift.
-No, it doesn't.
I don't care if you're the biggest Trump fan in the world.
If, on Christmas morning,
you give your spouse a thoughtful gift
in a beautifully wrapped box with the bow on it
that they get to open and physically hold in their hands,
and then they turn around
and tell you, "Your gift isn't here --
it's a digital trading card of Donald Trump
as a sunglass astronaut,"
you're getting a divorce.
[ Laughter ]
This proves once again that for anyone involved
in the attempted coup on January 6th,
things will not end well.
In Trump's case, he's now such a pariah,
he's hawking scam digital trading cards
on a social media site no one's heard of.
Others may face jail time or lawsuits or lose their elections
or possibly their law licenses,
like in the case of former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani.
Today, a disciplinary panel for the D.C. Bar Association
found that Rudy had broken attorney rules
in trying to overturn the election.
If the entire board agrees,
that means Rudy could be disbarred.
Rudy already had to sit through a disciplinary hearing
earlier this month, which was held virtually.
And at one point in the hearing,
he admitted to a weird wardrobe malfunction
when he thought the camera was off.
Now, heads up -- The video quality is not great,
but it's still definitely worth watching.
[ Speaking indistinctly ]
That's right.
For some reason, Rudy accidentally had
two watches on the same wrist...
[ Laughter ]
...and didn't realize it until he was already
in the middle of a disciplinary hearing
to review his law license.
[As Giuliani] Done so soon?
But it's only two.
Oh, but two twice, so that's four.
[Normal voice] Two watches feels like one of those things
that would cause your grandchildren
to sit you at the kitchen table and start showing you brochures.
"What about this place, Pepaw?
Look, it has a pond with ducks. You like ducks."
Anyway, I feel like that can't exactly help your case
when you're trying to keep your law license.
"Mr. Giuliani, do you feel you're capable of performing
the duties as a lawyer?" "I do."
"Okay, and are you aware that you have a pair of pants on
where your shirt should be, and a shirt
where your pants should be?" "I was not, but, uh...
that would explain why I keep poking myself in the eye
whenever I try to scratch my butt."
I can't even wrap my head around the logistics of this.
I could maybe see putting a watch on each wrist.
But how do you put a second watch on your wrist
without noticing the first one that's already there?
I mean, maybe he's just trying
to get a new mobster name to catch on.
[As Giuliani] Check it out, fellas.
I guess you can call me Rudy Two Watches.
[Normal voice] Nah.
We're just gonna keep calling you Dumb Rudy.
[As Giuliani] Hey, you better watch it.
You better watch it. [ Beeping ]
Oh, hold on. That's my alarm.
[ Beeping ] Oh, and that's my second alarm
that's telling me to turn my first alarm off.
[Normal voice] So, Rudy is already...
[ Laughter ]
Rudy is already facing consequences.
Meanwhile, the committee investigating
the January 6th insurrection has announced
that it will hold its final public meeting next week
before releasing a full report on the coup attempt
and making criminal referrals to the Justice Department.
While it's unclear which names will be on that list,
there are some that seem more obvious than others.
-What may be the last acts of the January 6th
Select House Committee. Chairman Bennie Thompson
says the panel will hold its final public meeting
next Monday,
where its final report is expected to be approved.
The chairman says announcements about criminal referrals
will be made on Monday.
-We're expecting the names of the folks
who would be referred for potential criminal prosecution
to the Justice Department, as well as the rationale
for why they are being referred.
-Now, former President Trump is expected to be
at the top of the list for criminal referral.
-That's right. Donald Trump is high on the list
of potential names for criminal referrals.
Now, I don't know if his name will be on there,
but if it's not, that would be quite the letdown.
It'd be like if the finale of "White Lotus" never ended up
getting around to telling you who died,
the whole episode was just Jennifer Coolidge going,
"Ohh, wow."
[ Laughter ]
"Wowwwww."
Which would honestly be great.
[ Laughter ]
This committee has been in existence for a year and a half.
How could they not have enough evidence at this point
for a criminal referral for the guy
who incited the insurrection in the first place?
Like, can you imagine the committee
gaveling to a close for the final time?
"Well, we've spent 17 months painstakingly reconstructing
a minute-by-minute timeline of the events that day.
We've tracked down Trump's every movement.
We've documented every communication he made.
We've corroborated every connection
he had to the central figures
involved in fomenting the deadliest attack
on American democracy since the Civil War.
And we're just [bleep] stumped, dudes."
[ Laughter ]
"Ohh, wow."
[ Laughter ]
Congressman Jamie Raskin,
who is one of the committee members
making decisions about possible criminal referrals,
told Politico that all of the members involved
have legal experience and are looking at the case as lawyers.
Okay, but I'm guessing
law school final exams aren't this easy.
This is like a $200 "Jeopardy!" answer
in a category called Rhymes With Reason.
[ Laughter ]
Although maybe, maybe they are that easy.
I mean, Rudy's a lawyer, so it can't be too hard.
[As Giuliani] Good news, boss. I passed the law school exam.
It was on the back of a cereal box.
There was a watch inside, but I already had one.
So now I wear both.
You know, like a normal guy.
That's why they call me
Dumb Rudy.
[ Laughter ]
[Normal voice] The more suspenseful question is,
who else will get a criminal referral?
Because as we've learned this week,
the committee is in possession of secret text messages
from the phone of former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows,
and those text messages reveal that many of the key organizers
of the attempt to overthrow the election
were sitting members of Congress.
-Nearly two years after the January 6th insurrection,
thousands of previously unseen text messages
are revealing the lengths to which Republican lawmakers
went in their efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
They show Meadows in conversation
with at least 34 Republican members of Congress.
-The trove of coup evidence from powerful members of Congress
is in writing.
We made this to make sure you understand
these are the people who were texting Meadows.
Some of them -- They're not all the same.
Some of them were asking questions, lobbing in ideas,
claiming that they were kind of being an intermediary.
Others -- many of them, and we have the receipts --
were actively cheering on,
demanding, or supporting an illegal coup.
-So, 34 Republican members of Congress
were texting Trump's chief of staff to help plan a coup.
Did none of them think they'd get caught?
I don't text anyone that freely unless it's my weed dealer who,
for some reason I trust with my name, address and phone number,
and to whom I feel perfectly comfortable
texting things like...
And then he feels perfectly free to text back...
[ Laughter ]
And the texts are, as you'd suspect, very damning.
You may remember that Georgia congresswoman
Marjorie Taylor Greene, was caught texting Meadows
about the possibility of Trump
declaring martial law to stay in power
and misspelling the word "martial."
Well, now we have evidence that a second House Republican
was also urging Meadows via text to declare martial law.
-Here is a text message that was sent
to Donald Trump's White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows.
It says, quote, "Mark, in seeing what's happening
so quickly and reading about the Dominion lawsuits
attempting to stop any meaningful investigation,
we are at a point of no return in saving our republic."
Exclamation point, exclamation point.
"Our" -- all caps --
"...last hope is invoking Marshall law.
Please urge to president to do so."
This text message was from a sitting member
of the United States Congress --
Republican Congressman Ralph Norman of South Carolina.
-This is now the second sitting Republican member of Congress
to text Trump's chief of staff about martial law
and also to misspell the word "martial."
[ Laughter ]
When you spell it like that, it sounds like an old Western
your grandfather keeps telling you to watch.
"You'll love it. It's in black and white
and there's no women in it.
Now, does your TV get Westinghouse?"
[ Laughter ]
If nothing else, watching these people debase themselves
is yet another reminder you cannot slink away
from Trump's movement with your dignity intact.
Whether it's embarrassing texts, scam NFTs,
or accidentally wearing two watches.
If you serve Donald Trump or try to help him
overthrow the government, you will end up humiliated.
It may not be as satisfying
as seeing all of his accomplices go to jail...
-But it's what we have.
-This has been "A Closer Look."
[ Cheers and applause ]