-We're a week into the Biden administration,
and Republicans have made it clear
they will do everything possible
to sabotage the Democrats' agenda,
while moving quickly to quash the upcoming impeachment trial
of former President Donald Trump.
For more on this, it's time for a Closer Look.
♪♪
The modern Republican Party
has no discernible policies or principles
other than feigned persecution and cultural grievances.
Seriously, what is even one policy
they've advanced to help working people?
"Well, we gave your CEO a tax cut,
so maybe he'll look more relaxed in the preflight video."
There are very real, unprecedented existential crises
swirling around us on a daily basis,
creating suffering and misery for millions of Americans.
And instead, the right is obsessed
with trivial garbage like this.
-Right around the election,
I had one million followers on Twitter.
Now I have under 900,000.
Really, I mean, literally in a couple of weeks.
I don't know what's going on there.
-Oh, I'm sorry.
I was just lighting a prayer candle for Maria Bartiromo.
That was a truly harrowing story, Maria.
When people talk about what we've lost this past year,
I think first on that list
is going to be your Twitter followers.
Thank you for speaking out about this.
You're like a modern-day
Erin Brockovich or Sully Sullenberger.
I hope you get your own biopic.
Thousands of people have been dying a day
in overwhelmed hospitals.
Millions are out of work, losing their health insurance
and falling into poverty, and child hunger is on the rise.
Republicans and people like Bartiromo
have powerful platforms with millions of viewers.
They could spend any amount of time they want
talking about any of that.
Instead, they manufacture dumb grievances
to distract from real problems
and make themselves feel like victims.
It's their entire business model.
And after Joe Biden got elected,
they amped it up to an absurd degree.
-Curt Schilling wrote a social media post
defending Donald Trump, and in 2021, that's not allowed.
You could lose your insurance for that.
You could also lose your bank account, your website,
your access to email and social media,
your ability to communicate with the outside world,
and there's nothing you can do about it,
because you can also lose your lawyer.
No legal representation for you.
How long before they cut off your water and electricity?
Before UPS won't deliver your packages?
And not to wreck your day, but guess what?
Amazon is now one of America's biggest grocery providers.
Good thing you don't need to eat.
Once politicians attempt to control what you believe,
they are no longer politicians.
They are, by definition, dictators.
And if they succeed in controlling what you believe,
you are no longer a citizen.
You are not a free man. You are a slave.
-If they control what you believe
you're no longer a citizen.
If they tell you what to think, you're no longer free.
And when they tell you you have to wear
not just a shirt and shoes, but pants
to California Pizza Kitchen, you're a slave.
And how long before they cut off your water, your electricity?
How long before they tow your car
for parking on the sidewalk outside Chuck E. Cheese?
Not because you were drunk, mind you,
but because you were in a hurry and you were drunk.
And when you hide from the police in the ball pit,
don't be surprised when they find you,
because those ball pits are shallower than they look,
and as an adult man,
part of you will be sticking out and visible.
How long before that happens?
I'll tell you how long.
It happened to me yesterday.
And then this week, there was yet another,
even more ridiculous example of this feigned victimhood
when the MyPillow guy famous for inventing a worse version
of a thing we've had for 500 years...
[ As Mike Lindell ] "Honey, I've got an idea.
What about, like, a soft thing for your head at night?"
"You mean a pillow, honey?"
"Yeah. I'm heading to the lab."
"Don't rush back."
Famous for inventing a pillow,
and for spreading the deranged conspiracy theory
that China used voting machines to hack the election,
went on Fox News to complain
about his products getting dropped from stores.
-For the crime of having different opinions.
Mike Lindell has just been banned from Twitter.
Several retailers have also stopped selling his products.
That happened today.
That would include Bed, Bath and Beyond,
Kohl's and Kroger.
That list is bigger.
There's also HEB,
the Shopping Channel, ShopHQ.
I mean, they just keep turning in their POs
and saying, "We don't want MyPillow anymore."
-Dear God, Kroger and the Shopping Channel
stopped selling MyPillow?
Whither freedom?
If George Washington heard this, he would roll over in his grave,
which is still more comfortable than rolling on to MyPillow.
People don't know this,
but that's actually what caused the Revolution.
The British told Thomas Paine
he couldn't sell his line of toilet seat cushions
in the town square anymore
because his opinions were too controversial,
so Thomas Paine started the Revolutionary War.
Thomas Paine's toilet seat cushions.
Time to drain the main vein? Do it on a Paine?
Paine's toilet seat cushions. It's just common sense.
That was a joke for my 8th-grade history teacher.
Shout out to, um...
I cannot remember.
Well, I guess that's why he or she always told me
I was so bad at history.
I just see a blur.
They were definitely by a chalkboard.
Also, I should say, I'm skeptical of big tech, too.
So we're lots of progressives.
Don't get me wrong,
I love having Donald Trump off Twitter,
not to mention all the other toxic racists
and conspiracy theories that have been booted off.
But my concern is that these companies are monopolies,
which is why I think we should follow the lead
of Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders
and break them up.
Just because you agree with Jack Dorsey on some things
doesn't mean you will agree on the next thing.
And if you don't believe me, may I present Exhibit Beard?
But as for stores not wanting to carry your product,
you lied and said the election was rigged
and tried to get the president to overturn it.
You can't be the public face of your company
and the public face of an attempt to overthrow democracy
and not expect there to be some fallout.
You could have named your company
"SleepWell" or "Gravel in a Sack"
and stayed in the shadows, but no, had to be "MyPillow."
And you had to call yourself "the MyPillow guy"
and be in all the commercials like some knock-off Tom Selleck.
Well, listen up.
It takes more than a mustache to be a spokesman, buddy.
You need that Selleck charm.
By the way, I got one of those
reverse mortgages he told me about.
And in the end, he did take my house,
But he was an absolute gentleman about it.
A true blue one!
[ Laughter ]
This is all they have --
whining and obstruction, imagined grievances,
paranoia and conspiracy theories.
Even Donald Trump, the former president
who spent two months deeply engaged
in a concerted effort to overthrow democracy
and install himself as an unelected dictator
who incited a violent insurrection of seditionists,
who ransacked the Capitol,
is in their minds, a victim.
-I don't even think there's a basis for impeachment.
Now they're going to turn around and bring about impeachment.
Yet they say they're for unity.
I mean, they beat him up before he got into office.
They're beating him up after he leaves office.
I mean, at some point, I mean, give the man a break.
-At some point? It's been three weeks.
Give the man a break?
At some point later in the same month?
But, yes, please, for once in his life,
give poor Donald Trump a break.
This poor man, who, despite having bone spurs,
pulled himself up by his bootstraps.
You know how much bone spurs hurt
when you're pulling on boots with straps?
This man worked his way up,
worked his way up from hardscrabble roots,
using just his hands,
cashed a million dollar check from his father,
toiled long days in a dark casino
and long nights inhaling wind song and glitter
at Studio 54.
He made it in business the hard way
by bravely cheating on his taxes
and refusing to pay his contractors.
And worst of all, he has to drive his own golf cart.
I mean, look at that poor man, so exhausted he's about
to fall over.
Seriously, all Trump, his entire life,
all he's had are breaks.
He's famously the dumbest man alive.
He has no discernible talents or skills.
If Trump weren't born rich, he'd be the old guy
working at the bowling alley
who gets busted for huffing shoe spray.
[ Imitates spraying ] "This here kills COVID."
[ Imitates spraying ] "I just got an idea.
What if we put something comfortable
on top of the box spring?"
"A mattress?" "Yeah, the MyMattress."
Hello, patent office? It's me again.
No, I'm not calling about pencils this time.
It's a new idea."
Also, the last point I'll make, Nikki Haley,
maybe instead of asking Democrats
to give Trump a break,
you should ask yourselves why you, the Republican Party,
gave him so many.
For four years, you excuse his behavior.
So, of course, he kept pushing it.
You're like a rich parent, asking the court for mercy
for their bratty teen, saying,
"Please, Your Honor, give him a break.
It's what I always did.
Every time he stole or lied or cheated on a test,
I looked him in the eye and said, 'You're my special boy,
and nothing you do will ever change how much I love you.'
And yet he kept stealing and lying and cheating.
And I kept forgiving him, sometimes even helped him.
I believe the legal term is aiding and abetting.
And now he's accused
of hijacking a bus full of senior citizens
and taking their pills and then forcing the seniors
to rout liquor stores for them to get their pills back,
something I know for a fact he did,
because it's long been his dream.
Well, all I can say to you, Your Honor, is give him a break.
It's got to work one of these days."
It's hard at this point to reach any conclusion
other than that the Republican Party
is fine with what Trump did and they'd be fine with it
if he did it again or even if he did something worse.
It's a party that is radicalized against democracy
in favor of authoritarianism.
There is nothing, nothing Trump could do to antagonize them,
not because they're cowards, although they are,
but because they agree with them.
At a certain point, we just have to take them at their word.
If you sit down to dinner with some friends
and one of them says, "You know what's delicious?
Human flesh," you might think it's a joke.
But when you go to their apartment
and they're sautéing a human hand,
you have to ask yourself, "Is Gary a cannibal?"
And then, by the way, if you stay for dinner,
you're a cannibal, too,
even if you have salad the next day.
45 Senate Republicans voted Tuesday
to dismiss Trump's impeachment trial.
At some point, you just have to accept
that the reason they don't want to convict Trump
for inciting an insurrection to overthrow a democracy
is they don't care that he incited an insurrection
to overthrow democracy
and they wouldn't care if he tried it again.
Instead, they're once again framing Trump as the victim
and casting the Democrats calls for accountability
as a demand for vengeance.
-This impeachment is nothing more than a partisan exercise
designed to further divide the country.
Democrats claim to want to unify the country,
but impeaching a former president,
a private citizen, is the antithesis of unity.
-It's vindictive.
This is all about the left's demands for revenge.
-They hate Donald J. Trump, and they're engaging in an act
that I think is petty.
I think it is retribution.
I think it is vindictive.
And I think it's a waste of time.
And so, to coin a phrase, I think it's time to move on.
-Man, Ted Cruz, you really have no shame.
Also, first of all, shave, dude.
You look like the Unabomber at a custody hearing.
Second, of course, you want to move on.
You did this even after the mob
stormed the Capitol to overturn the election.
You still voted to overturn the election.
You're like a guy who robs a bank,
and then even after it all goes south,
you still get caught and use the money to buy a Porsche.
"I want to feel the wind and my scraggly beard."
Also, please stop with this preposterous talking point
that impeachment is somehow divisive.
You know, it's much more divisive than impeachment?
Trying to throw out the votes of 81 million Americans,
then inciting a mob to violently storm the Capitol
the overthrow democracy.
Would you say that's more or less unifying than impeachment?
Just be honest and say you're fine with what Trump did
and you'd be fine with him doing it again.
It would be heinous and evil, but it would at least
make this whole debate much easier.
Then we wouldn't have to listen to your [bleep] excuses anymore.
I mean, you know what you are. We know what you are.
Who are we pretending for? The kids?
One of our two main political parties is fully radicalized
against democracy in favor of authoritarianism.
It's a movement of powerful interests
backed by wealthy corporate patrons,
fueled by imagined grievances and conspiracy theories.
We can't ignore it. We can't look away from it.
We can't just shrug our shoulders and say...
-I don't know what's going on there.
-This has been "A Closer Look."
♪♪
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