-There is damming new evidence of Donald Trump's plan
to overthrow our democracy. Meanwhile, Republican governors are standing in the way
of basic mitigation efforts against the surging
COVID-19 Delta variant. For more on this,
it's time for "A Closer Look." ♪♪ We promise to stop talking
about Donald Trump the day he stops talking. But, even now that he's
out of office, Trump and his movement
always find new ways to shock. For example, the self-labeled
America First movement has taken up a new cause -- rooting against American
national sports teams. -The U.S. Women's Soccer Team is a very good example
of what's going on. [ Cheering and applause ] -[ Shouts indistinctly ] -Earlier this week,
they unexpectedly lost to Sweden 3-0. [ Cheering, whistling,
and applause ] And Americans were happy
about it. You proved that point
before I even said it. Look at the soccer team, the women's soccer team. All of a sudden, they're not --
like they were -- they were supposed
to win the gold medal. But you know the word woke
means "loser." If you're woke, [ Laughter ]
you're going to lose. -First of all, love this conceit that Trump follows
women's soccer. [ As Trump ]
I can't believe nobody got a foot on that cross
when you're down 2-nil. That's what happens
when you're woke. [ Laughter ]
You don't react to the crosses. You're a former U.S. president
rooting against a U.S.
national sports team? You, the guy who consistently
went to third base with the American flag?
A former President [ Laughter ]
rooting against a U.S.
national team is like Mr. Met showing up
to a game in a Yankees Jersey. Although, after this weekend,
I wouldn't blame him. When he saw Sunday's box score, the Mets-loving
Cigarette Smoking Cockroach started lamenting
his immortality. [ Raspy smoker's voice ]
I can't believe I'm going
to live forever and never see this team
win it all. You thought, just because we
were on a two-week hiatus, we wouldn't immediately
come busting out of the gate with some callbacks
from recurring characters? Well, then, I guess you
have a worse memory than the crew of the Enterprise, when they got stuck
in that time loop. [ Laughter ]
"TNG," the new "M-A-S-H"? Make it so. The U.S. women's soccer team
has been wildly successful and, on top of that,
no one on the team ever singlehandedly drove
a sports league into the ground like Trump did with the USFL. If you don't remember
that story, Trump bought a USFL, or United States
Football League, team, moved the league
from the spring to the fall, to compete with the NFL, or the National Football League, which you probably remember
because they're, you know, still here,
sued the NFL for $1.69 billion and was awarded exactly $1
by the jury. And I have to say,
hats off to that jury because it is very funny
to reward someone $1 after they sue
for almost $1.7 billion. That's like giving
your employees a holiday bonus of a Starbucks gift card
with 50 cents on it. Hi, what can I get
for 50 cents? "You can, uh,
get out of the [bleep] way." [ Laughter ]
There's also a chance the jury knew Trump
would keep suing, unless they gave him something
to save face. "You get nothing." [ As Trump ] This isn't
the last you'll hear from me. "You get a dollar." [ As Trump ]
And, once again, Donald Trump is
in the winner's circle. [ Laughter ]
Oh, it ripped! [ Laughter ]
Also, I'm not sure the massively successful
U.S. Women's Soccer Team, which has won four World Cups,
including in 2019, should have to listen
to lessons on winning from a guy
who doesn't even know how to hold a soccer ball,
much less kick one. Remember when Putin gave him one
as a gift in Helsinki and he held it like he thought
it was a precious dinosaur egg? That's the way your 40-year-old
single friend holds a baby. "Oh, no, no, no, no. Okay,
take it back. Take it back." [ Laughter ]
He's holding that thing like he thinks it's going
to bite him. It reminds me of Bloomberg holding Staten Island Chuck
on Groundhog Day. Interesting fact -- that day,
Bloomberg saw his shadow and decided to run
for president. Same thing happened
to de Blasio, so. Maybe Trump is just mad because the U.S. women's
national team is both more successful
and more popular than he is. They've smashed viewership
and merchandise records. Meanwhile,
a new poll from Quinnipiac last week found that... ...while just... A full 60% don't want him
to run again. That means even some
of the people who voted for him are like, "I don't know if I can
put myself through that again." It's like how no one
does "Hot Ones" twice. I mean, I did it and loved it, but, the next time
I got interviewed, it was back to the non-spicy
stylings of Terry Gross, where I was asked
thoughtful questions while not worrying
if I was going to [bleep] my pants mid-answer. [ Laughter ]
"I'm sorry, is that your stomach
making those noises?" Um, it is, Terry, and I think
I should probably go. [ Laughter ]
Still, that 32% is always just going
to be shocking to me. Four years of chaos
and corruption that ended with all of us
being trapped in our houses, using cardboard for toilet paper
to avoid a deadly plague the president said
could be cured by snacking on Tide Pods
like cheese balls, and, still, 32% of the country
says, "Yes, more of that." It's insane.
It's the same thing that I get when I'm driving around
in the suburbs and I see
a Honey Baked Ham store. People like ham that much? I mean, there are
enough people who like slimy, uncut, wet lunch meat
to keep a chain, a national chain,
of stores in business? I mean, sometimes I park
across from the store, just to see what kind of maniac
is going in on a Friday afternoon
and just buying a whole-ass ham. [ Laughter ]
And then, they send security out and they tell me I'm the maniac
for sitting there watching. Like, "Hey, it's America! I can watch the ham store." [ Laughter ] But this is why they need
to rig elections to win -- because they're so unpopular. In a way,
I guess it's not surprising that the people rooting
against American sports also tried to dismantle
American democracy. And, now, we have
more proof than ever that Trump's attempt
to subvert last year's election wasn't just a mood swing
or temper tantrum. There was a detailed plan,
with key allies in the White House
and Justice Department, including one particular
hatchet man who came incredibly close to detonating
American democracy. -Just days before the deadly January 6th assault
on the Capitol, one of the ex-president's top Department of Justice
officials at the time was circulating a draft letter that would've helped
Georgia Republicans overturn Biden's victory
in that state. Jeffrey Clark,
who was the acting head of the Justice Department's
Civil Division at the time, wrote emails that essentially
would've laid out a roadmap and given permission
for Georgia Republicans to subvert the election results. -It says in part... -How is it that there's always
a smoking gun with these guys? There's always an email
or a phone call or an accidental televised
confession from Rudy Giuliani proving our worst fears? Like you can be forgiven
for thinking a petulant Trump just got mad
and decided on a whim to call the election rigged
and then, he sent Rudy to hold a press conference
at a landscaping company, where I'm guessing he also got
his hair cut by a hedge trimmer, and then, it all just kind of
snowballed from there. But no, Rudy, he was just
a helpful smokescreen that let us all think,
"That's too crazy to work." But they had a much more
sophisticated plan than that. This guy, Jeffrey Clark, a key
Justice Department official, was going to send a letter
to Georgia's governor and state legislature,
essentially telling them to overturn their state's
election results, on the basis
of nonexistent voter fraud. And it wasn't just Georgia. He was going to send it
to all the swing states Trump wanted to overturn. -It turns out that this guy,
Jeff Clark, was writing or drafting
these types of letters to all the six states that
ended up going for Joe Biden. And I think that, you know, what we see is the beginning of the effort
to overturn the election. -There's always an obscure
functionary willing to do the villains dirty work. Jeffrey Clark's like the guy
who opens the monkey cage in the first five minutes
of a zombie movie. I mean, can you imagine
what would've happened if, not Trump, but the
Trump Justice Department, sent out an official statement claiming there was fraud
in the election and telling Republican
legislatures in six states to overturn the results? Mike Lindell would've exploded into a thousand pillow feathers. Or, I guess, since it's
a MyPillow, he would've exploded into a thousand
charcoal briquettes. [ As Lindell ]
The charcoal gives the pillow its patented rock-like texture and helps you wake up
with that fresh hickory smell. Anyway, I'll take two
of your biggest hams! [ Laughter ]
You should know there's a guy peeping in his car
out front, by the way. This ham is delicious. Usually, I get my lunch meats
from Da Boar's Head! [ Laughter ] I'm so happy to be back. [ Laughter ] It's easy to write off Trump
and his cronies as a bunch of idiot goofballs --
which they were -- but they also had
a very real plan with key allies at the top
levels of the White House, the Justice Department, and state legislatures
across the country that came extremely close
to nuking American democracy and plunging us
into an unprecedented crisis. The only thing that stopped them was senior DOJ leadership
threatening to quit. But just imagine if the next
Republican president socks the DOJ with loyalists
who follow his orders or a Republican-controlled
Congress refuses to certify a Democratic victory. What then? We can't just hope the next
coup attempt falls apart when Rudy Giuliani accidentally
shows up at the wrong location. [ As Giuliani ]
Boss, I'm at the Walmart
in Astoria. [ As Trump ]
I said the Waldorf Astoria. [ As Giuliani ]
Oh, Rudy, you done it again! [ Laughter ]
We all know all of this was orchestrated
by Trump and his chief of staff,
Mark Meadows, because we have the DOJ memos
to prove it. Trump told the acting
attorney general, Jeffrey Rosen, at the time, the guy Clark
was trying to replace, that he wanted the DOJ
to declare the election rigged, so he and Republicans
in Congress could overturn it. Trump told DOJ leaders,
according to the memos... Anytime Trump says,
"Leave the rest to me," you're going to be in trouble. I'm sure that's what he said to the other USFL owners right before he sued the NFL, only to show up
a few months later asking -- [ As Trump ]
What's a dollar split 18 ways? And, yet, even as we learn more about Trump's attempt
to overthrow the election and his sinking popularity
in polls, he and his supporters are trying
to concoct a fantasy world where the chaos, misery,
incompetence, and mass suffering
of the Trump era was actually popular and good. Trump's big, wet,
honey-baked son Don Jr. said basically the same thing
on Fox last week. -Joe Biden's only legacy,
Sean, at this point, is going to be showing America how good they actually had it
under Donald Trump. -I don't know. I feel like
Biden's legacy is going to be, as the EMT who showed up
to talk you down after you accidentally
ate a whole bag of your weird aunt's
pot gummy bears. "Stay with me, buddy.
I know you feel like your heart's bouncing here
and there and everywhere, but this is all going
to be over soon." And, even if you take Trump
out of the equation, Republicans are all committed
to the project and the performance to Trumpism. They're desperate to mimic him. That's why GOP politicians, like Florida
Governor Ron DeSantis, are all trying to imitate
Trump's disastrous handling of the coronavirus pandemic,
with DeSantis even going so far as to ban local governments
and school boards from imposing
their own mask mandates. -Joe Biden has taken to himself to try to single out Florida
over COVID. This is a guy who ran
for president saying he was going to,
"Shut down the virus." And what has he done? He's imported more virus
from around the world by having a wide open
southern border. We can either have
a free society or we can have
a biomedical security state. And I can tell you,
Florida, we're a free state. [ Applause ]
Why don't you get
this border secure and, until you do that, I don't want to hear a blip
about COVID from you. -Oh, you don't want
to hear a blip about a deadly,
highly contagious virus from the president
of the United States? Let me guess --
you'd prefer his thoughts on the wokeness
of the U.S. Women's Soccer Team? Also, when you use
the word blip, you sound like an angry grandma babysitting her kids. "This is knitting time.
I don't want to hear another blip
about 'Grand Theft Auto.' You can finish Lester's
assassination mission after you're done crocheting
this blanket!" [ Laughter ]
And I'm no scientist, but I do have Google Maps
on my phone and I'm pretty sure the border
has nothing to do with the Florida COVID surge, since the border's like
1,000 miles from Florida. You don't get to blame something
that far away for your problems. If a kid in Nebraska throws his
Frisbee in the neighbor's lawn, he can't say it was caught
in the strong winds of La Niña. Originally written as El Niño, but then, we did some research,
found out El Niño? Soft winds. And we didn't want
to hear from you guys, in "Corrections,"
about how I got it wrong. [ Laughter ] So we got it right. [ Laughter ] But, you know, I feel bad
for the people of Florida. They're not as lucky
as we New Yorkers are because our governor
is beyond reproach. What's that?
[ Laughter ] Oh, really? A whole report? A hundred and sixty-eight pages? This is the first
I'm hearing about it. Well, I watch CNN. Weeknights, 9:00 pm. [ Gasp ]
That's his brother?! [ Laughter ] Back to DeSantis. "Biomedical security state"
makes you sound like an out-of-work screenwriter
trying to sell a sci-fi movie to a director
at a dinner party. [ As DeSantis ]
It takes place in the year 3049. The U.S. is
a biomedical security state and the president has to stop
an army of space lizards who look like Dr. Fauci, forcing everyone
to take a vaccine that turns them
into Chihuahuas. "Why wouldn't the vaccine
also turn them into lizards?" Because it ends
with the Taco Bell dog, who's the resistance leader, looking directly
into the camera and saying, "Yo quiero freedom." [ Laughter ]
"I'm going to go. I'm out of ham." [ Laughter ]
We now have yet another smoking gun in the story
of the Trump coup attempt. On top of that,
Republican governors are actively standing in the way of attempts to mitigate
the Delta COVID surge. There's a throughline here. The party actively
makes things worse and, when people don't like it, they try to subvert democracy
to stay in power, even though polls
clearly show that, when Trump and the GOP lost,
most Americans... -Were happy about it. -This has been "A Closer Look." ♪♪ God's Love We Deliver
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