-Two of Rudy Giuliani's associates
were arrested last night
as support for impeachment rises in the polls.
For more on this, it's time for "A Closer Look."
[ Cheers and applause ]
♪♪
Over the last few weeks, we've seen support
for impeaching President Trump skyrocket by double digits,
and it really feels like
a potentially seismic political shift
is happening right now.
In fact, even Fox News,
the network Trump loves the most,
released a damning new poll yesterday showing that
a majority of registered voters not only want Trump impeached,
they want him removed from office completely.
-A new Fox poll just out
shows more than half of registered voters
who were asked support impeachment.
-Our brand-new Fox News poll, the headline,
more than half of those polled,
51%, want President Trump impeached
and removed from office.
-Damn, that's a Fox News poll.
So you know they only called land lines, CB radios,
and VFW halls. [ Laughter ]
Fox news -- Fox News is what Trump watches
to feel good about himself.
That's like if a kid turned on "Sesame Street"
and Big Bird was just smoking a cigarette going,
[ Gruff voice ] "Face it, kid,
you're never going to learn how to spell."
[ Laughter and applause ]
Now, of course,
to make himself feel better, Trump likes to periodically
hold a campaign rally with his remaining fans
where he reels off a bunch of unhinged nonsense.
And that's what he did tonight
after we taped this show in Minneapolis,
or at least they think he went to Minneapolis.
Yesterday, he had some trouble saying the name of the city.
-I want to also thank the Minionapolis police department.
-That's right, he's going to Minionapolis,
which I believe is in Mindiana.
He sounds like Siri giving you directions
after having a few too many glasses of wine with dinner.
-You have arrived in Minnemanapolis.
[ Laughter ]
-But when he's not basking...
[ Cheers and applause ]
When he's not basking in the adoration
of his most fawning admirers at his unhinged rallies,
Trump is apparently freaking out about losing support
among Republicans in Congress.
In fact, he's so worried about Republicans in the Senate
turning on him that he's been calling Senate Majority Leader
Mitch McConnell nonstop to lock down Republican support.
-New indications suggest how seriously President Trump
is now taking the impeachment inquiry
and how seriously he's pushing to keep Republican Senators,
potential jurors, remember, in line.
-One of the things we've learned is that the president
is so consumed with this impeachment inquiry
that he's now calling Senator McConnell
as many as three times a day.
-Three times a day?
He's trying to keep McConnell in line, or stalk him?
[ As Trump ] "Mitch!
Mitch, we're best friends, Mitch, aren't we, Mitch?
Mitch. Do you like my new haircut, Mitch?
I'm just like you, Mitch. I'm just like you."
[ Laughter and applause ]
[ Normal voice ] Trump, of course...
Trump, of course, is freaking out because every day,
we learn more about the scheme Trump and his gang
of Mafia-themed Pez dispensers concocted to get Ukraine
to dig up dirt on Joe Biden.
Now Trump has been insisting that his phone call
with Ukraine's President in which he dangled
hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid,
and in return told the president of Ukraine,
"I would like you to do us a favor, though,"
was not just appropriate, but perfect.
He's literally said or tweeted
that specific word dozens of times.
-The conversation I had with the president of Ukraine
was absolutely perfect.
The conversation, by the way, was absolutely perfect.
It was a perfect conversation.
It was perfect.
The call was perfect.
That was a perfect conversation.
Just so you know, the call was perfect.
It was perfect.
The call was a perfect call.
It was a perfect call. Perfect call.
Had a perfect phone call with the president of Ukraine --
like, I mean, perfect.
The call was a perfect call.
The conversation was, I think, a perfect conversation.
That call was perfect.
-I think he's trying to drive us all insane.
Hearing -- hearing a grown man describe a phone call as perfect
over and over and over again
feels like an elaborate form of torture.
I feel like I should be strapped to a chair in a basement
with voices whispering from the shadows.
-[ Whispering ] The call was perfect.
-[ Whispering ] It was a perfect call.
-[ Whispering ] It was perfect.
-[ Whispering ] It was a perfect call.
-[ Whispering ] The conversation was perfect.
-[ Whispering ] It was perfect call.
-All right! I'll tell you what you want to know!
Just stop calling a phone call perfect.
Nobody says that.
Seriously, I'm almost certain that no one in the history
of the English language has ever called a phone call
perfect before.
Think of the greatest phone call you've ever had in your life.
You've never hung up the phone and gone,
"Damn! That was perfect!
Whoo! Whoo!"
[ Laughter, cheers, and applause ]
I mean...
I rescheduled that dentist appointment
like a mother[bleep]!
[ Laughter ]
I mean, he's talking about a phone call like it was an event
at the Olympics.
[ As Trump ] Okay. Talk to you soon.
Judges?
Yes!
[ Normal voice ] So Trump has insisted the call was perfect,
and yet once again yesterday,
Fox News' poll showed that the vast majority
of registered voters definitely do not think it was perfect.
>> The Fox News poll also gauged voters' reaction
to what President Trump said on his phone call
with his Ukrainian counterpart regarding possible pressure
put on Ukraine to investigate the Bidens.
43% say it's an impeachable offense.
-If Trump can't rely on Fox News to make himself feel better,
what can he watch?
His aides are going to have to replace his TV with a mirror
and hope he doesn't notice.
[ As Trump ] Have you guys seen this show?
It's pretty good.
Wait, what were you looking at?
Get in here, guys!
[ Normal voice ] So now that Trump is freaking out
about the growing support for impeachment in the polls,
he's throwing as many people as he can under the bus.
Last week, for example, Trump tried to pin the blame
for the Ukraine phone call on his Energy Secretary Rick Perry,
claiming it was Perry's idea
to make the call in the first place.
But then we found out yesterday
that Trump order Perry and two State Department officials
to coordinate with his personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani,
as part of the scheme to extort Ukraine
and get them to gin up
politically motivated investigations.
-Two sources tell CNN that President Trump
directed his Energy Secretary Rick Perry
and two top State Department officials
to circumvent official channels
and to have his personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani,
deal with a potential meeting with the Ukrainian President.
-So Trump concocted a scheme to dangle
hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid to Ukraine
as part of a quid pro quo to get them to dig up dirt
on a political opponent, and to carry out this plan,
he chose as his henchman Rick Perry and Rudy Giuliani,
who are famously two of the dumbest people in politics.
It's like if Lex Luthor hatched a plan to kill Superman
and chose as his assassins
Mr. Bean and Woody from "Cheers."
[ Laughter and applause ]
[ As Woody ] You ready to do this?
All right. I'll take the front. You take the back, Bean.
[ Laughter ]
[ Normal voice ] And then today, things got much, much worse
for Rudy when two of his associates
who'd been working with him as part of the scheme
to dig up dirt on Biden were arrested
and charged with breaking campaign finance laws.
-We begin with breaking news this hour.
Two associates of Rudy Giuliani arrested this morning
due in court in Virginia later today
facing criminal charges for violating campaign finance laws.
And, really, it all has to do with Ukraine.
-Their names are Igor Fruman and Lev Parnas.
And they were arrested at a Washington airport
with what prosecutors say
were one-way tickets out of the country.
-Rudy Giuliani has previously stated that he has worked with
the two men on efforts to get Ukraine to investigate
former Vice President Joe Biden.
-I can't believe a guy who looks like a vampire
had a henchman named Igor.
Is this a Mary Shelley novel?
What was Igor's job, to open Rudy's coffin?
Master, arise!
[ Laughter and applause ]
Now, the danger for Rudy and for Trump
is that these guys might flip on them
and give prosecutors more evidence about their scheme.
And now that two of his closest associates
have been arrested and charged with crimes,
Rudy might be regretting the fact he's been all over TV
blabbing about his involvement in all of this.
In fact, here are some of Rudy's greatest
and most nonsensical highlights from just the last few weeks.
-Did you read the transcript?
-Uh, let's say it was read to me.
-It was read to you, the whole thing?
-Uh, I hope.
Shut up, moron. Shut up. -Okay. Hold on. Hold on.
-Shut up. You don't know what you're talking about.
Bill Clinton asked me, what's this guy, Romney, like?
You know what I told him? He's our Al Gore.
-All right, Rudy, hold that thought.
-Here's Kurt saying, "Great, I will tell Yermak,
and he'll visit with you there, thanks."
-Arms, border crews. Arms, border crews. Whoo-whoo.
-By the way, Biden's been off the trail.
-They're supported by three affidavits.
The guy was under investigation. The guy bankrupted a --
He's been selling -- How about this?
-No, no, I don't want to move on yet.
-Here's another one.
"I don't know about it. I didn't hear it."
-We got the whistle-blower,
we have the transcript of the call,
and the president's remarks. -Shhhhhhhhh! Shhh!
I want you to keep your eye on Romania.
Just watch Romania. Just watch Romania.
We go to China, I told you about Romania.
We haven't moved to Romania yet. When should we get to Romania?
-Well, I definitely can't wait until you get to Romania.
[ Laughter ]
There's probably a short trip from there
back to where you live in Transylvania.
[ Applause ]
Also, by the way, remember --
remember those papers Rudy was holding up
in that one clip claiming that they were affidavits
that proved his allegations?
Well, according to BuzzFeed, they weren't.
They were pages printed from
an obscure right-wing conspiracy theory website.
So the president's personal lawyer,
a man who is at the center of an impeachment inquiry
and an allegedly criminal scheme
to extort a foreign country to dig up dirt
on a political opponent is an insane old man
who goes on TV and waves around printouts
from conspiracy websites.
Next time he's just going to bring the printer test page.
[ As Giuliani ] Now, t-the yellow line
is Ukrainian military, and then the red line is money
that Hunter Biden made. It's all right here!
[ Grumbles ]
[ Laughter ]
-And while Republicans entertain...
While Republicans entertain these insane fantasies,
the whistle-blower who first alerted us
to Trump's phone calls keeps coming forward
with more actual evidence, as we found out yet again yesterday.
-CBS News has learned that according to a memo
by the whistle-blower,
a White House official who listened in on the call
to Ukraine's President described the call as crazy,
frightening, and completely lacking in substance
related to national security.
-The official was visibly shaken by what had transpired.
And in the official's view,
the president had clearly committed a criminal act.
-Wow, that is damning. When he heard that,
Trump immediately ran out of the white house
and tried to escape to...
-Minionapolis.
-Now, seeing more evidence is emerging
that support for impeachment is rising in the polls,
Trump is trying to take as many people down with him
while his inner circle tries to do everything they can
to distance themselves from the scandal.
For example, you might remember
that Trump dragged Vice President Mike Pence
into his mess when he told reporters to look at
Pence's conversations with the President of Ukraine.
And then "The Washington Post" reported
that Trump involved Pence in his efforts
to pressure Ukraine's leader.
So yesterday, reporters asked Pence
how much he knew about the scheme,
and Pence wouldn't give a straight answer.
-Were you ever aware, Mr. Vice President,
of the interest in the Bidens,
the interest in investigating the Bidens was at least,
in part, of the reason for aid to Ukraine-based help?
-I -- What -- I never discussed the issue
of -- of -- the issue
of the Bidens with President Zelensky, and...
-But with the administration?
Were you ever aware of it in the administration?
-What I can tell you is that all of our discussions is internal
and corruption. -But you are aware
of the interest in the Bidens being investigated
and that being tied to aid to Ukraine being held up.
-Well -- Well, that's your question.
Let me be very clear.
The issue of aid...
and -- and -- and our efforts with regard to Ukraine, uh,
were from -- from my experience, uh, in no way connected.
-[ As Pence ] Oh, oh, what you...
um...
What you need to know from me about this
is I don't want to go to jail.
[ Laughter, cheers, and applause ]
[ Normal voice ] Hey. Hey, Mike Pence.
I can't believe I'm saying this,
but maybe you should let Rudy handle this one.
I mean, he's probably working on his Pence impression right now.
[ Laughter ]
In fact, given that two people have now been arrested
and the support for impeachment is rising the polls,
my legal advice for all of these guys would be very simple.
-Shut up, moron. Shut up.
-This has been "A Closer Look."
[ Cheers and applause ]
♪♪