-A member of the committee
investigating the January 6th insurrection
revealed what he called the most chilling moment from that day,
while three more Trump allies,
including Kevin McCarthy and Marjorie Taylor Greene,
were caught lying about their roles in the attempted coup.
Oh, and also, Donald Trump said, in a lawsuit,
that he's afraid of getting hit with dangerous fruits.
[ Laughter ] For more on this, it's time for "A Closer Look."
♪♪ [ Cheering and applause ]
Every day, it seems like we get
more bombshell reporting about what happened
on January 6th and who was involved
and now, on top of everything else we've already learned,
we have what one member
of the committee investigating the insurrection called
the most chilling anecdote yet --
an account of something Vice President Mike Pence said
in the Capitol as the riot was unfolding.
-Democratic Representative Jamie Raskin of Maryland,
who is a member of the House 1/6 select committee,
said the committee's upcoming public hearings will
"tell a story that will really blow the roof off the House."
At an event in Washington, D.C.,
Raskin spoke about what he called a chilling moment
from January the 6th,
involving former Vice President Mike Pence.
After rioters stormed the halls of Congress,
some chanting, "Hang Mike Pence,"
the vice president's Secret Service agents rushed him
to a secure location inside the Capitol.
Those agents, who, Raskin says,
he suspects were reporting
to Trump's Secret Service agents,
then tried to whisk Pence away from the Capitol.
That's when, the congressman says,
Pence uttered what he called
"the six most chilling words" he's heard
throughout this entire investigation --
"I'm not getting in that car."
-I'm guessing that's when Pence went into full chameleon mode.
You know that thing he does where he closes his eyes
[ Laughter ] and sits totally still,
hoping no one will notice him?
[ As Pence ] This is not happening.
[ Laughter ] You are not here.
You are in your happy place,
at a public library,
burning a pile of "Harry Potter" books.
[ Laughter ]
That's how nefarious
this plot was, and how deep it went --
Trump's own vice president
suspected the Secret Service might be involved.
Almost every day, it seems, more evidence emerges
that implicates yet another member of Trump's inner circle
and, nearly every day,
those same people get caught lying about it.
Like Trump's former energy secretary Rick Perry,
who denied to CNN that he ever proposed ideas
to Trump's chief of staff Mark Meadows
for how to overturn the election results,
before text messages turned up
in which Perry was caught saying exactly that.
And Perry even went out of his way to make clear
he was the one writing the text messages.
-Trump's former energy secretary Rick Perry,
former governor of Texas, texted Meadows...
Just for the record, previously,
we've reported at CNN another Rick Perry text.
He denied it. It was his phone.
CNN has confirmed, from multiple sources,
friends and colleagues of his,
that that is his phone number these texts were coming from.
In fact, these texts on the Meadows log show
that he signed his name
[ Laughter ] and his telephone number
at the end of the text.
-I think, if you're going to pitch ideas for a coup,
then lie about it, maybe don't sign your text messages
with your name and phone number. [ Laughter ]
Did he also send a follow-up text that said...
[ Laughter ]
I will say, if you've ever texted
with an older person, like a parent or an in-law,
you've probably witnessed the same behavior.
They all sign their text messages with their names,
like they're writing Civil War letters home.
[ Laughter ] [ Southern accent ]
[ Poignant tune plays ]
♪♪
[ Laughter and applause ]
The circle of Trump cronies involved in the coup
keeps getting wider and wider, to the point where it seems
like virtually the entirety of the Trump administration
and his closest allies in Congress
were involved in some way.
Like Marjorie Taylor Greene,
who we now know was also texting Meadows,
more than a week after the insurrection,
about the possibility of Trump
declaring martial law to stay in power,
an idea that had been advocated by Trump allies
like Michael Flynn and Mike Lindell,
only Greene misspelled the word martial
in the dumbest possible way.
-Three days before the inauguration,
Marjorie Taylor Greene sent this text message
to Mark Meadows...
Note on your screen, she misspells the word martial.
That's right. She spelled it like the name Marshall.
[ Laughter ] Now, in her defense, Marjorie Taylor Greene
probably just confused martial law
with Marshalls law,
[ Laughter ] which she violates
every time she tries to bring more
than six items into the changing room,
at which point she's escorted from the store, screaming --
[ As Greene ] It's my constitutional right
to find comfortable slacks at a reasonable price!
[ Laughter ] And then last night,
in an interview with Fox News host Laura Ingraham,
Greene implied that the text messages in question
might not even be hers,
while also insisting that, if they were hers,
she wasn't actually asking Trump to declare martial law.
She was just letting him know
that it was something that was being discussed.
-Those are reportedly my text messages.
I think, if people read them for themself,
if those were my text messages,
they clearly say that I wasn't calling for that.
I actually said that's something I don't know about.
That was what those text messages say.
-So you didn't advocate -- -Right now, there's a group --
-You never advocated martial law,
that President Trump should use martial law
to stop, you know, the transition of power?
You never advocated for that, did you?
[ Laughter ] -I don't recall ever advocating for martial law.
I think -- I don't know if you have that
up on the screen right now
because I can't see it... -No.
-...but, if you put that text message up,
it's clear and easy to read
that, if that's my text messages
and that's what they're reporting,
I don't recall if they are, but if they are,
those text messages do not say calling for martial law.
-So you don't know if the texts, which you've seen,
were actually yours.
You sound like a werewolf trying
to piece things together the next morning.
[ Laughter ] "Look, I don't recall eating any villagers,
but if that's why there's blood on my nightshirt,
then I guess I forgot to chain myself to the bed."
[ Laughter ]
Also, can we go back to this?
-I don't know if you have that up on the screen right now
because I can't see it. -No.
-I like that she accidentally asked Ingraham,
"Are you going to do any journalism?"
And Ingraham said, "No."
[ Laughter ]
Fox News reacts to the question,
"Are you going to do journalism?"
the way Larry David reacts to a dinner invite.
[ Changes accent ] Larry, you want to come over tonight?
Come on, I'll drive you.
[ As David ] Uh...
I'm not getting in that car.
[ Laughter ]
They all do the same thing -- lie, get caught lying,
then talk in nonsense word-salad circles
of inscrutable bull[bleep] to try to get out of it.
The same thing happened
with House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy,
after he denied a report that he told fellow Republicans,
in the days after the insurrection,
that he would urge Trump to resign.
And then audio surfaced of the phone call
in which McCarthy said he would urge Trump to resign.
After the audio surfaced, McCarthy held a press conference
where he tried to claim he hadn't lied
when he denied the initial report,
but his answer made no sense, whatsoever.
-The reporter never asked me that question.
The reporter came to me
the night before he released the book
and my understanding was he was saying
that I asked President Trump to resign.
No, I never did, and that's what I was answering.
If you're answering -- If you're asking now,
did I tell my members that we're going to ask,
ask them if I told any of them that I said President Trump.
The answer is no.
-Your claim is that you weren't lying
when you deny that you said you would urge Trump to resign
because the reporter asked you if you urged Trump to resign,
which you claim you didn't,
and, if we want to know if you told your members
you would urge Trump to resign, we should ask your members
if you told them you would urge him to resign,
instead of just listening to the audio
where you told them you would urge Trump to resign.
[ Laughter ] I feel like I just spent an hour
trying to find an exit in an M.C. Escher painting.
[ Laughter ]
Why would we ask your members
if you said it?
We have the audio
of you telling your members
impeachment would pass and Trump should resign.
That wasn't me! That was my friend...
[ Laughter ] Here's my question
about everything we've learned, so far.
In addition to being horrifying and dangerous,
why is everything always so incredibly stupid?
Has it always been this way?
Whenever you watch old movies about politics,
like "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington"
or "All the President's Men,"
it all seems so noble and dignified.
I can't imagine there's old newsreel footage
of Harry Truman moving around to a Village People song.
-♪ It's fun to stay at the ♪
♪ YMCA ♪
♪ It's fun to stay at the ♪
♪ YMCA ♪
[ Laughter ] -For example, the news found a way
to get even dumber this week,
when newly released excerpts from a deposition reveal
that Donald Trump said he was afraid
that protesters, during the 2016 election,
would throw dangerous fruits at him during a rally.
[ Laughter ]
[ As Trump ] That's -- and that's why we had the security guards.
[ Laughter ] Now, me, I wanted --
I wanted to use some very highly specialized fruit ninjas.
[ Laughter ] I said, "Let's do ninjas
because they have the fruit swords."
But they said no because,
if they miss three fruits, they're out and you can't --
[ Laughter ]
You can't show weakness like that.
[ Laughter ] And then there's this, even dumber,
part of the deposition, where Trump says...
[ Laughter ]
What do you mean, do fruit?
[ Laughter ]
What do you mean, you were put on alert?
There's an alert system for fruit?
It's like the Homeland Security threat level.
Red's tomato, yellow's for banana,
and green is for
[ As Trump ] avocado.
[ Laughter ] And you know what they say --
If you get hit with an avocado,
you're toast.
[ Laughter ]
And that's today's brunch joke.
[ Laughter ] [ Clink ]
[ Cheering and applause ]
Thank you.
Also, how would somebody sneak a pineapple
into a political rally?
[ Laughter ] "Oh, you misheard.
This isn't a pineapple.
This is my baby.
Her name is, uh, Penelope.
[ Laughter ]
Isn't that right, Penelope?
Oh, Penelope has dry skin.
We need some lotion.
[ Laughter ]
Aah!"
[ Thud ]
[ Laughter ]
These idiots are somehow both the dumbest
and most dangerous people in our politics.
When they're not panicking
about potential fruit-based assaults,
they're actively planning
to subvert free and fair elections.
They did it in 2020. They were caught, lied about it,
and they're preparing to do it again, as we speak.
Democracy is the Target
and they've sunk to new Lowe's, including declaring...
-Martial law.
[ Laughter and applause ]
-This has been "A Closer Look."
[ Cheering and applause ] Let's move on.
♪♪
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