-Steve Bannon, the former
chief strategist to President Trump,
turned himself in to federal authorities today
after being indicted for defying a congressional subpoena.
Trump himself, meanwhile,
defended the violent mob that chanted "Hang Mike Pence"
during the insurrection on January 6th.
For more on this, it's time for "A Closer Look."
[ Cheering and applause ] ♪♪
Just to get you guys up to speed,
you remember Steve Bannon,
the former chief strategist to President Trump,
who looks like his morning beauty routine is
to take a peek inside the Ark of the Covenant.
[ Laughter ] By the way,
I know, when I reference that scene,
that most people think of the guy whose face melted,
but let's not forget a dude's head also exploded.
[ Laughter ] That dude doesn't get
enough recognition.
Probably because his head exploded.
[ Laughter ] I bet, when he goes
to conventions, now, to sign autographs, he's like,
"It's me, Head Explosion Guy
from 'Raiders of the Lost Ark,'" and people are like,
"Sorry, we don't recognize you with a head."
[ Laughter ] And he's like,
"Damn you, George Lucas
and your fantastic special effects team!"
[ Laughter ] I'm just kidding. That guy's name is Paul Freeman
and he's outstanding.
[ Laughter and applause ] Boy, we got to --
we got to start tying our tangents in
to the rest of the show.
[ Laughter ]
I'll land the next one.
[ Laughter ]
Bannon's already been arrested once before.
It was last year, during Trump's presidency,
and he was arrested by Postal Service inspectors
aboard a Chinese billionaire's yacht,
for allegedly scamming Trump supporters
who donated to a crowdfunding scheme
to buy Trump's wall, or as they call that,
in the law enforcement community, a Code 6.
-Steve Bannon and three other men
have been arrested and indicted and charged
in relation to their role
in a nonprofit organization called We Build the Wall.
What the indictment here is alleging is
that Bannon and these others were skimming some
of the proceeds from that fundraising for themselves.
-The court documents basically say
that this thing was pretty suspect,
almost from the beginning.
-Yeah, I would say so.
The only way it could've been more obviously a scam is
if people who donated were offered
an extended car warranty and fake boner pills for life.
[ Laughter ]
So, Bannon was arrested
for scamming Trump's own supporters,
but then, Trump pardoned him at the last minute
and Bannon made this mysterious prediction
the day before the January 6th insurrection.
-It's not going to happen
like you think it's going to happen, okay?
It's going to be quite extraordinarily different.
And all I can say is strap in.
The "War Room" posse,
you have made this happen
and, tomorrow, it's game day, so strap in.
All hell is going
to break loose tomorrow.
Just understand this. All hell is going
to break loose tomorrow.
-And I'm no detective,
but it sounds like he knew something was up.
[ Laughter and applause ]
It's like if Nicole Kidman had found a text
on Hugh Grant's phone saying...
[ Laughter ]
And, if you haven't seen "The Undoing" yet,
I didn't necessarily just spoil it.
You don't know what he did with the hammer.
Maybe he built his mistress a house.
Spoiler alert -- he didn't build her a house.
[ Laughter ] Besides, you don't watch "The Undoing" for the mystery.
You watch it for the scarves.
Nicole Kidman layers scarves
the way Bannon layers collared shirts.
[ Laughter ] And will you look at that?
We have landed the tangent.
[ Cheering and applause ] I mean, I think it almost --
I think, technically, it counts as a segue way now.
[ Laughter ] So, naturally, the congressional committee investigating
the January 6th insurrection wanted to talk to Bannon,
but he defied the subpoena, at Trump's request;
Congress held him in contempt; a grand jury indicted him;
and today, he turned himself in,
although, this time, it was much less glamorous
than getting arrested on a billionaire's yacht.
-Trump ally former White House advisor Steve Bannon.
He is expected to surrender to authorities
after being indicted
on two counts of contempt of Congress,
this for defying requests from the January 6th Committee,
for testimony and documents.
Defying subpoenas.
You're looking at live pictures of Bannon's home right now.
-Got to say, Bannon's house looks
a lot more normal than I was expecting.
I thought I was going to be a little more like a burrow
[ Laughter and applause ] or a volcano in the shape of a skull,
or he'd layer them, like his shirts,
and it would be a house inside a second,
[ Laughter and applause ] slightly larger, house.
I also know we just made that joke.
So, Bannon's house looks normal on the outside,
although, I bet you it's much weirder inside.
It's like when you finally meet a neighbor who keeps to himself
and you think, "He must just be a quiet guy,"
and then, you go inside and his sink
is filled with old newspapers,
his fridge is stuffed with takeout containers,
and the shelves are filled with antique ceramic pigs.
Also, your neighbor is Rudy Giuliani.
[ Laughter and applause ] [ As Giuliani ] You want some mayo?
You want some mayo? I scraped off the mold.
It's mostly jar now. [ Laughter ]
And then, when Bannon finally showed up
at the courthouse this morning to turn himself in,
he, of course, couldn't help but shout some incomprehensible,
anti-government babble into a camera.
-We're taking down the Biden regime.
Every day, the focus.
You got Raheem Kassam today,
you got Dr. Peter Navarro, Captain Bannon.
You're going to have Boris Epshteyn.
The whole show, intense.
We got polling out, economic data out -- everything.
I want you guys to stay focused, stay on message.
Remember -- signal, not noise.
This is all noise. That's signal.
-Wait, I'm sorry. You call yourself Captain Bannon now?
[ Laughter ]
It's like an ironic nickname they give the guy
who rinses out the chum buckets down at the marina.
[ Hoarsely ] Hurry up with those buckets, Bannon,
we got barnacles to scrape.
[ Laughter and applause ] Oh, excuse me, Captain Bannon.
[ Laughter ]
Also, it really undercuts
your attempted defiance and bravado
when there's a guy right behind you
holding up a sign that says...
[ Laughter ]
Got to be a bummer for a guy like Bannon,
who thinks he's an evil mastermind,
to get upstaged by a sign
that clearly took five minutes to make.
Or, one of Bannon's neighbors
made it months ago, just in case.
"Oh, what's that for, honey?"
Oh, I don't know.
I just feel like we might need it, one day.
[ Laughter ]
Bannon definitely likes to think of himself as a Logan Roy type,
but he's more like a coked-up flunky
who'd get hired to help Cousin Greg shred some documents
[ Laughter ] and accidentally screw it up.
[ As Greg ] Um, I'm pretty sure that, uh, Tom told us
not to peruse any of the confidential materials,
or, in his words, I'd have to, uh,
"Eat a thousand [bleep]."
[ Laughter ] This is just one step
in the process of holding Trump and his cronies accountable
for their assault on democracy, and it's absolutely necessary
because Bannon's not alone.
Virtually the entire institutional Republican Party
has made it clear they remain fully devoted
to Donald Trump and his ongoing attempt
to unravel our constitutional order.
And I'm not just talking about the obvious crazies --
the Matt Gaetzes, Marjorie Taylor Greenes,
Paul Gosars, and Louie Gohmert of the world.
Or, as Gaetz called them, last week...
-The Killer G's.
We've heard of the killer bees, [ Laughter ]
but now, it's Greene, Gosar, Gaetz, Good, Gohmert.
-The Killer G's is a good name for that group,
as, every time you remember they're elected officials,
your reaction is, "Kill me" or "Jes...us!"
[ Laughter ]
Also, you'd think, if you had, within the last 12 months,
helped foment a violent insurrection
where rioters actually chanted
they wanted to kill the vice president,
you wouldn't go by the Killer G's.
It's just a little too on the nose.
[ Laughter ] It's like if we found out
The New York Times Spelling Bee
was designed by the Zodiac Killer,
which wouldn't surprise me.
[ Laughter ] Only a seriously twisted mind could come up
with such an elaborate form of psychological torture.
Yesterday, I spent the entire day trying
to find every last word in the puzzle
and, when my kids asked me what they could do
to get me to make them dinner, I said,
"Find me a word that uses
all seven of these letters!" [ Laughter and applause ]
Because the center one is a real...
-Killer G.
[ Laughter ] I mean, seriously,
the Killer G's is one of the dumbest names I've ever heard.
Did you steal it from a senior citizens' bowling team?
[ Laughter ] That's a cute name, Grandpa.
Where'd you come up with it?
"Well, the "G" stands for Grandpa
and the Killer, well, let's just say
I did some things in my youth that I'm not too proud of."
[ Laughter ] Times were tough back then
and we had to survive. I got involved in things
I don't understand -- gambling, crime, drugs.
I'm talking cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin.
[ Laughter ] Once you ride the black dragon,
there's no telling what you'll do.
[ Laughter ] I...choked a man for a pint of gin.
[ Laughter ] He was a drifter.
Saw the life drain out of his eyes.
His body went limp in my hands. [ Laughter ]
Buried the body in the Pine Barrens.
I left -- I left so many clues!
[ Laughter and applause ]
Technically, it's a pangram.
[ Laughter and applause ]
But it's not just the so-called Killer G's
who have fully bought into Trump and the GOP's ongoing coup.
For example, last week, ABC released audio
of an interview in which Trump defended the violent mob
that stormed the Capitol and chanted, "Hang Mike Pence"
after Pence declined to overturn the election results.
The most shocking thing about that clip is,
when I heard it, my reaction was,
"Alright, that tracks."
[ Laughter ] I mean, it checks pretty much
every Trump box --
"I wasn't worried about another person's safety.
They kind of deserved it.
Also, did I mention that I won the election?"
I mean, at this point, the only way I'm clicking
on a link to Trump audio is if the headline reads...
[ Laughter ]
[ As Trump ] I [bleep] up, Sean.
I [bleep] up bad and I --
[ Laughter ] I put my friend's life at risk.
Dear Mike, sweet Mike.
[ Laughter ] I hope he can --
I hope he can forgive me and, if he doesn't,
I wouldn't blame him for a second.
The worst part, Sean, I knew I lost that election.
I couldn't admit it. [ Laughter ]
I don't know why -- I think it's dad stuff, Sean,
[ Laughter ] and, if I'm being honest with myself,
until I deal with the dad stuff,
I'm not going to be the best version of myself.
[ Laughter ]
I mean, it's like Melania says to me every day...
[ Laughter and applause ]
Now, you'd think any sane human being would desperately want
to disassociate themselves from that, and yet,
when he was asked about Trump's comment on Sunday,
Wyoming Senator John Barrasso,
by no means considered one of the Killer G's --
I mean, he'd have to change his name to Garrasso --
but, still, repeatedly, he refused to criticize Trump
for defending the mob's call to "Hang Mike Pence."
-Can your party tolerate a leader
who defends murderers' chants against his own vice president?
-Well, let me just say
the Republican Party is incredibly united right now.
-So you have no problem with the president saying
"Hang, Mike Pence" is "common sense"?
-I was with Mike Pence
in the Senate chamber during January 6th
and what happened was
they quickly got Vice President Pence
out of there.
I didn't hear any of those chants.
-Well, we just played the chants.
I'm asking if you believe,
if you can tolerate the president saying
"Hang Mike Pence" is "common sense."
-It's not common sense.
There are issues of every election.
-But you're not going to criticize President Trump
for those views?
-I don't agree with President Trump on everything.
-[ As Barrasso ] Look, George, the Republican Party is a big tent.
We don't agree on everything.
Some of us are pro-war.
Some of us are anti-war.
Some of us are pro-vaccine.
Some of us are anti-vaccine.
Some of us want to hang Mike Pence.
Some of us don't hear when those people chant, "Hang Mike Pence."
[ Laughter ]
It's called inclusivity.
[ Laughter ] But that's the reality --
as much as we like to write it off
as a fringe movement, it's not.
It's the heart of the modern GOP.
Virtually the entire institutional Republican Party,
from the so-called Killer G's
to the John Barrassos of the world,
have apparently decided that their ticket back to power is
an alliance with Trump
and a guy who looks like he was stung by a swarm of...
-Killer bees. [ Laughter ]
-This has been "A Closer Look."
♪♪
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