-In his state of the union address this week,
President Biden made a point to focus on kitchen table issues
that impact ordinary Americans, like junk fees,
prescription drug costs, and even concert prices.
And then yesterday, House Republicans,
led by their de facto speaker, Marjorie Taylor Greene,
decided to respond by focusing on an issue
that really matters to Americans --
why did Twitter censor Hunter Biden's nudes?
[ Laughter ] For more on this, it's time for "A Closer Look."
♪♪ [ Cheering and applause ]
Say what you want about Biden, but on Tuesday,
he made a clear choice to focus on economic populism
as the predominant theme of his speech.
He talked about everything
from breaking up big tech monopolies
to capping the price of insulin,
eliminating junk fees at hotels and airlines,
and even cracking down
on inflated ticket prices for concerts.
Look, I don't know for sure, but I'm starting to think
Joe Biden might be a secret Swiftie,
[ Laughter, cheering, and applause ] just sitting at his computer,
just refreshing Ticketmaster over and over again.
"Mr. President, we need you in the Situation Room!"
Hold your horses. I'm number 8,000 in the queue.
[ Laughter and applause ] I think I --
I think I got a shot.
Oh, Taylor, look what you made me do.
[ Laughter and applause ]
In fact, there were even times when it seemed like Biden
was maybe taking some rhetorical flourishes from Donald Trump,
but, instead of just talking out of his ass, like Trump does,
[ Laughter ] Biden was backing it up with actual policy.
-Tonight, I'm announcing new standards require
all construction materials used
in federal infrastructure projects
to be made in America.
[ Cheering and applause ]
And, on my watch, American roads, bridges,
and American highways are going to be made
with American products as well.
My economic plan is about investing
in places and people that have been forgotten.
Too many people have been left behind
and treated like they're invisible.
Outside of Columbus, Ohio, Intel is building
semiconductor factories on 1,000 acres.
Last year, I cracked down, on behalf of many of you,
on foreign shipping companies
that were making you pay higher prices
for every good coming into the country.
[ Cheering and applause ] Americans are tired of being --
we're tired of being played for suckers.
-Biden basically took Trump's rhetorical schtick,
but backed it up with actual legislation.
He even released it as a single, called...
[ Laughter and applause ]
The other difference is Biden did it
without going on a bunch of insane tangents
and exaggerating how many jobs he was creating.
If that had been Trump, that speech would've been twice as long
and he would've gone off-script after every line.
[ As Trump ] Intel is building a factory in Ohio.
They were going to build it in China,
but then I became president and I called up the CEO.
His name is Chip, Chip Intel.
[ Laughter ] And I said, I said, "Mr. Intel,
you better build that factory in Columbus."
Columbus! We love Columbus, don't we?
[ Laughter ] We love it.
Named after the great
film director Chris Columbus.
[ Laughter ] He made -- He made the movie
"Home Alone 2: Lost in New York,"
[ Laughter ] a movie I originally -- I originally starred in.
They cut most of my scenes.
It was very sad.
I remember a guy named Marv came up to me.
[ Laughter ] Big guy, tall guy, tears in his eyes,
iron print on his face, and he said to me,
[ Laughter ] "You got to help us catch this little [bleep]."
[ Laughter ]
And, in particular,
Biden focused on a bunch of real problems
that people face every day, like, for example,
the high cost of essential medications or hidden fees.
-We capped the cost of insulin at $35 a month
[ Cheering and applause ] for seniors on Medicare.
Let's cap the cost of insulin
for everybody at $35. [ Cheering and applause ]
My administration is also taking on junk fees.
We're making airlines show you the full ticket price up front.
We've reduced exorbitant bank overdrafts.
[ Applause ] We're cutting credit card late fees by 75%.
We're going to ban surprise resort fees
that hotels charge on your bill.
[ Applause ] We can stop service fees
on tickets to concerts and sporting events
and make companies disclose all the fees up front.
And we'll prohibit airlines from charging $50 round trip
for family just to be able to sit together.
[ Applause ] Baggage fees are bad enough.
Airlines can't treat your child like a piece of baggage.
-Drug prices, Internet companies, junk fees.
He basically took everything grandpas complain about
and turned it into a speech.
[ Laughter and applause ]
[ As Biden ] Why do they make thermostats
that go all the way up to 77°?
[ Laughter ] Folks, we're going to cap it at 68°
and I'm mailing every American a sweater.
[ Laughter and applause ] Another idea from that list
that I think most people can probably get behind is
capping service fees on concerts and sporting events.
I mean, we all hate it when you click buy
on some tickets that say they're 100 bucks,
but then, by the time you get to checkout,
they're double the price, after you count up all the fees
and a lot of them don't even seem real.
It's like...
[ Laughter ]
[ Laughter and applause ]
So, that's the kind of thing
Biden was focused on in his speech on Tuesday.
Of course, you'll probably also recall
the GOP heckled him for claiming some Republicans,
like Senators Ron Johnson and Rick Scott,
want to cut Social Security and Medicare.
Scott and Johnson both proposed plans
to sunset all federal legislation,
which would include Social Security and Medicare,
and require periodic votes to renew them.
Right now, those programs are mandatory,
but Johnson and Scott proposed
putting them up for vote every five years.
Or, in Johnson's case, every year.
And yet, when Biden brought it up,
Republicans, like Marjorie Taylor Greene,
called him a liar.
-Instead of making the wealthy pay their fair share,
some Republicans --
some Republicans want Medicare and Social Security to sunset.
I'm not saying it's a majority.
[ Booing ]
Let me give you --
Anybody who doubts it,
contact my office.
I'll give you a copy.
I'll give you a copy
of the proposal. -You're a liar!
-That means Congress doesn't vote --
[ Shouting ] -Liar!
-I'm not saying it's a majority of you.
I don't even think it's even
a significant -- -Don't speak anymore.
[ Shouting ]
-But it's being proposed by individuals.
I'm politely not naming them,
but it's being proposed by some of you.
-I like Biden's passive-aggressive grandpa move
of "I'm politely not naming them."
[ Laughter and applause ]
[ As Biden ] Look, I'm not going to say who they are,
but one guy's named after a penis
and the other looks like one.
[ Laughter and applause ]
Then yesterday --
yesterday, Biden showed up at a speech in Wisconsin
with physical proof of the Republican proposals
he had cited from Johnson and Scott
to cut Medicare and Social Security.
-We've had a spirited debate last night [ Mirthless chuckle ]
with my Republican friends.
They seemed shocked...
[ Laughter ]
...when I raised the plans of some of their members
and their caucus to cut Social Security.
And Marjorie Taylor Greene and others stood up and said,
"Liar, liar."
Well, guess what.
You know, I remind you that Rick Scott, from Florida,
the guy who ran the U.S. Senate campaign, has a plan.
I got his brochure right here.
[ Laughter ] Has a plan.
Here's what he says in this plan.
Let me open it up here. Sorry.
[ Laughter ]
He says, "All federal legislation sunsets
every five years.
If a law is worth keeping, Congress can pass it again."
Social Security and Medicare, Medicaid.
Ron Johnson on Social Security and Medicare --
"We should transfer everything
so we have to consider everything every year."
-Now, I do get nervous whenever Biden tries to use props.
[ Laughter ]
It's like when you sit down next to an old guy on a plane
and he wants to show you pictures
of the Thunderbird on his phone.
[ Gravelly voice ] I had this baby since '62.
Hold on. Let me -- Ah.
How do I close out a Candy Crush?
Hold on. Ah! [ Laughter ]
Oh, now the flashlight's on.
Oh, oh, oh, here we go. Oh, goddamn it!
That's my niece. I called her by accident.
Hi, honey!
Hi. I'm with a nice man on the plane, honey.
I got to go.
So, that's what Biden's been focused on.
House Republicans, meanwhile, held a hearing yesterday
that I guess was supposed to be about censorship on Twitter,
but, in reality, it was just an opportunity to whine
about how their personal Twitter accounts were treated
before new owner Elon Musk took over.
Colorado Congresswoman Lauren Boebert, for example,
yelled at a bunch of former Twitter executives
about why her personal Twitter account had been censored.
Now, I would like you to watch this clip
and try to decide whether you're watching an actual adult
[ Laughter ] at an actual congressional hearing
or a high school sophomore yelling at a friend
in the hallway after class.
-Did either of you approve the shadow banning
of my account, @laurenboebert?
[ Laughter ]
Yes or no?
-No, I did not.
-Not to the best of my recollection.
-I'll ask again.
[ Laughter ] Did you shadow ban
my account, yes or no?
-Again, not to the best of my recollection.
-The answer is, Mr. Roth, yes, you did!
I found out last night from Twitter staff
that you suppressed my account for this tweet.
[ Laughter ] It's a freaking joke
about Hillary Clinton being angry
that she couldn't rig her election!
It's a joke! But in response,
being the sinister overlords that you all are,
you placed a 90-day account filter so I could not be found.
You silenced me from communicating
with the American people over a freaking joke!
Now, who the hell do you think that you are?
[ Laughter ]
-[ As Boebert ] It was a freaking joke, Kayleigh!
[ Laughter ] Okay?
I said it's cool you won prom queen,
even though you're already the queen of Bitchistan...
[ Laughter and applause ]
...as a freaking joke.
You overlord!
[ Laughter ]
Then there was the other Boebert,
Marjorie Taylor Greene... [ Laughter ]
...who similarly used her time
to scold former Twitter employees
for suspending her personal Twitter account
after she repeatedly lied
and spread dangerous misinformation
about the pandemic and the COVID vaccine.
Now, just a quick warning about this clip.
Don't stare directly into her eyes,
[ Laughter ] unless you're covering your eyes with lead-lined oven mitts.
[ Laughter ] -You can consider your speech canceled during my time
because you canceled mine.
You see, you permanently banned my personal Twitter account
and it was my campaign account, also.
January 2, 2002,
you permanently banned my Twitter account.
This was the account that I would put
my campaign ads on... [ Laughter ]
...raise money on,
fight back when attacked with lies.
So, while you coordinated with DHS, the FBI, the CIA,
our government, and outside groups
to permanently ban, shadow ban, conservative Americans
and candidates, like me,
and the former president of the United States,
President Donald J. Trump,
you were censoring and wrongfully violating
our First Amendment free speech rights.
And you want to know something?
Guess what.
I'm so glad that you're censored now
and I'm so glad you've lost your jobs.
Thank God Elon Musk bought Twitter.
[ Laughter ] -The one cool thing
about a Republican-led congressional hearing is
it answers the question,
"What would Twitter look like
if it was a physical room?"
[ Laughter ]
Also, nothing says "I'm a champion of the working class" like --
[ As Greene ] I'm glad you lost your jobs
when the richest man in the world
bought the company you worked for!
[ Laughter ]
You know, Greene might actually benefit
from Biden's new policies on airline fees
because she's clearly carrying a lot of...
-Baggage.
[ Laughter and applause ]
But so what? You might be thinking
maybe Boebert and Greene are a little self-obsessed,
but, surely, the other Republicans in the room
got down to the real issues, at some point?
Like if Twitter colluded with the Biden campaign in 2020
to have content they didn't like removed from the platform.
Now, that might sound damning to you,
until you find out that, one, it didn't happen; and, two,
what the specific content in question actually was.
-Over my right shoulder, we have an email.
Reference -- This is this is Saturday, October 24th,
5:39 pm, referencing five different tweets.
This is -- With a Twitter email chain.
Under the line, it's, "More to review from the Biden team."
Do you know how many tweets were actually flagged
and taken down at the behest of the Biden team?
-I wouldn't agree with the characterization of it
as being at the behest of them.
These tweets were reported
and Twitter independently evaluated them under its rules.
-But the email is very clear.
"More to review from Biden team."
The response, three hours later, at the bottom.
Hold this up real quick, so we can see.
The request, at the bottom, it says, "Handled these."
What does "Handled these" mean?
-My understanding is that these tweets contained
nonconsensual nude photos of Hunter Biden.
-[ As Donalds ] Excuse me, Mr. Roth, but the American people
are demanding to see Hunter Biden's nudes!
[ Laughter and applause ] And you better not make them pay to see it.
There's nothing worse
than expecting a free peek at male genitals,
only to find out there are hidden fees, aka...
-Junk fees. -Now...
[ Laughter, cheering, and applause ]
...this is what Republicans are spending actual time on
at a congressional hearing. Aside from the fact
that no one actually gives a [bleep]
[ Laughter ] about any of this nonsense,
it's also just wrong to say Republicans
are, somehow, victims being persecuted by social media.
Twitter did field requests from the Trump administration,
the actual government at the time,
to remove content that Trump didn't like.
In fact, it was reported yesterday by Rolling Stone that...
And, in the hearing, a Democratic member
of the committee, Maxwell Frost,
brought up one of those examples,
which led to some explicit language being read
into the Congressional Record.
-Earlier, you testified about a 2019 tweet
that was about President Trump
and I think it's from Miss Teigen.
What was the tweet about?
[ Laughter ]
-Would you like me to give the direct quote?
-Yeah. -Um, please excuse my language.
This is a direct quote,
but Chrissy Teigen referred to Donald Trump
as a "pussy ass bitch."
[ Laughter and applause ] -Okay. Free speech.
And what happened after Miss Teigen
[ Cheering ] posted her tweet, what did the White House do?
What did the Trump White House do?
-From my understanding, the White House reached out
to ask that this tweet be removed.
-First of all, the way she said,
"Would you like me to give a direct quote?"
[ Laughter ] definitely revealed she was more than happy
[ Laughter and applause ] to give the direct quote.
She probably carries that direct quote around with her
at parties. Second... [ Laughter ]
...I do enjoy that Donald Trump being called a pussy ass bitch
is now an official part of the Congressional Record
and only because he complained about it.
[ Laughter ] Now, we didn't have to bleep any of those words.
And, by the way, they weren't bleeped on C-SPAN, either,
but only because C-SPAN can't afford a bleep button.
[ Laughter ] Every now and then,
C-SPAN will like scrape together enough money
to bring in a guy to try to bleep stuff live.
-Chrissy Teigen referred to Donald Trump as a
-Bleep bleep bleep. -"pussy ass bitch."
-Okay.
[ Laughter and applause ]
-Once again, Joe Biden could not have asked
for a more flattering contrast.
Republicans are using their time in the House to throw tantrums
about their Twitter accounts getting suspended
and Hunter Biden's nudes.
Biden, meanwhile, is laser-focused
on economic populism and kitchen table issues
that actually matter to everyday people.
Even called out Republican Senators Rick Scott,
Ron Johnson, and Mike Lee for their proposals
to cut Social Security and Medicare.
Three guys who are also known by their nicknames...
-"Pussy ass bitch."
[ Laughter and applause ]
-They got to bleep that.
[ Cheering ]
There are probably bleeps there.
This has been "A Closer Look."
♪♪ [ Cheering and applause ]