-A bombshell new report alleges that GOP members of Congress and
Trump administration staffers had planning sessions
with organizers ahead of the January 6th rally that led to the insurrection
at the Capitol. Meanwhile, human insurrection
Marjorie Taylor Greene got into yet another
shouting match with colleagues
on the House floor. For more on this,
it's time for "A Closer Look." [ Cheers and applause ] After four years of Trump,
I feel like our barometer for what counts as a scandal
is a little off. Trump generated too many
controversies to count, so we just moved on. For example, no one seems
to remember or care that on top of everything else
he did, when Trump was president,
the White House accepted at least 83 separate gifts
from Saudi Arabia, including... I guess that means they hacked
his Amazon wish list. Were they under the impression
that our president was the drug dealer
from "Boogie Nights"? My only regret is Trump
never showed up to a rally wearing all of it at once. [ As Trump ] I killed
this cheetah myself. Oh, he was fast,
but I was faster. Ran him down.
Ran him down and skinned him. Of course, my favorite
cheetah -- Chester. We love Chester Cheetah,
don't we folks? With the high-top sneakers
and the cool sunglasses. First time I met Chester
was in '89 at CBGBs. And he walked up to me
and he lowered those shades. He lowered them down to the tip
of his chin and nose. As he said to me, "Sir." I'll never forget
what he said to me. He said, "Sir. It's not easy...being cheesy." Truer words. [ Normal voice ]
And seriously, who thought giving Donald Trump a dagger
was a good idea? The second he unwrapped that,
I bet he started running around the White House
Rose Garden like this. -Let me see what you have.
-A knife. -No! -Melania, had to call up
whoever it was that was dumb enough to send it. "Yep, nope. Yep, Melania,
we understand now that was not a smart gift
to send the president. Look, we're just glad
everyone is okay. We promise the next time
we will be best. Is that right?" So all kinds of crazy [bleep]
flew under the radar during Trump's presidency. Meanwhile, here's a very real
story about President Biden that Politico thought qualified
as news last week. He swears a lot. The man -- The man is 78. I think he's old enough
to curse. I'm in my 40s and I curse that much
just getting out of a chair. And are we in high school? Was this gossip delivered
next to an open locker? "Did you hear,
Joe Biden said the word..." Of course -- Of course
Joe Biden curses. Nobody says "malarkey" unless they're trying really
hard not to say "Go get [bleep]" The guy's from Scranton, which is a place for people
not fancy enough for Philly. "Scranton" even sounds
like a curse word. "Hey, get off your ass
and do some work, you Scranton dip-[bleep]" He lives in Delaware.
Have you ever been to Delaware? When you get off the Amtrak
in Wilmington, it's almost impossible
not to say, "Oh [bleep]" I have cousins in Delaware, and we have multiple
Delawareans on our staff, so I can make those jokes, knowing full well that
the next time I see them, they will tell me "[Bleep] off." It's like how they express love. I do wish we'd see more of this
version of Joe Biden, though. Sometimes the soft-talkin' Joe
can be a little unnerving. He's like a grandpa
in a dystopian YA movie who won't admit
how bad things are. [ As Biden ] It's okay.
We're going to be fine. We're out of food, but I think
I can talk some sense to the Council of Authorium. No one here is gonna have to
compete in the Death Olympics. No one. [ Normal voice ] I'd rather Joe
just came out guns blazing, flipping people off
at town halls, challenging Jake Tapper
to an arm-wrestling match. Just be the grandpa
who goes to Lowe's and finds out the cost
of propane went up $1.50. That's the first time I ever
heard the words "horse [bleep]" and "kiss my wrinkly old ass"
in the same sentence. But I get his frustration. Everyone's frustrated
with everything. You can just feel it. People are mad and tired after a year and a half
of being cooped up inside and Republicans being nutjobs and corporate Democrats
making things difficult just because they can. Everyone's exhausted.
Everything's exhausting. Former President Obama made that
point during a rally in Virginia for Democratic gubernatorial
candidate Terry McAuliffe over the weekend. -Look, I know a lot of people are tired of politics right now. I -- Listen,
I'll make a confession. I never watch political shows. Michelle and I, when we're
at home, you know, I'm reading. She's watching HGTV,
maybe the food channel. -Only Obama could get away
with a joke like that. If I ever said that
about my wife, I'd get an icy stare
so haunting, it would stay with me
for the rest of my life. I'd have to change stream
mid-conversation. "Well, I'm the reader
in the family. This one's always
"Keeping Up With --" Dow Jones. She's very good with money.
I just spend it. But she makes sure we save
for the kids' future." But I guess Obama's just
working on some new material, because ever since he left
the White House, he's always peppered
some stand-up comedy into his speeches,
and he did the same in Virginia, referencing the fact that
the GOP candidate for governor, Glenn Youngkin,
has refused to say if he personally supports
same-sex marriage. -I mean, I understand why people
just feel kind of like, "Oh, when's this gonna end?" And sometimes politics
in Washington feels that way, right? It's like, are we still arguing
about gay marriage, really? I thought that ship had sailed. [ Stammering ] I thought that was pretty
clearly the right thing to do. [ Stammering ] We've got Republicans
across the country who said, "Yeah, of course," and we're going to
reopen that can up? What? -I love -- I love when
stand-up Obama comes back. Someone get that man
a brick wall and a cordless mic. He must be working on material
for his new Netflix special, "Barack O-No-You-Didn't!" [ As Obama ] [ Stammering ] What's the deal with
cellphones on airplanes? You're telling me I could call
Beijing from, uh, Air Force One but JetBlue won't let me
play "Candy Crush." [ Laughter ] I guess the, uhhhhh,
only thing they want crushed is my kneecaps... when the dummy in front of me... leans his seat back. Let's see.
What else? What else? [ Normal voice ] Alright,
Obama's in Virginia because the race for governor
is tight there and Republicans
are already preparing to call any Democratic victory
in that state stolen, just like they did
with the 2020 election. In fact, former Trump aide
Steve Bannon has already said as much,
and last week he invited MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell
back on his podcast to float yet another weird claim
about supposed voter fraud -- You can find fraudulent votes
in parking lots. -Either McAuliffe
is going to lose or it's going to be
so tight, right? You got this thing in Fairfax where they're trying
to steal it already because the Biden administration
has collapsed. -The really interesting part is
you can pull a household. If you pull a household
that has five people or below, it's usually very accurate,
about almost 100%. You go there, yes, all five
voted, all five live there. You get up to six up to -- it can go all the way
as high as 300. But let's say you have 20 people
living in this household and you look -- or this house
and you look on Google Maps, 'cause the computer pulls it up,
it's a little single dwelling. Now you go out there and you find out
only two people live there, but they used all the other
18 people's names that they pulled there. Empty parking lots. I mean, you name it,
it's on there. -You know, I'm starting to worry
that Mike Lindell is neglecting
his pillow business. "No, I'm sorry.
Mr. Lindell isn't in right now. He's on his hands and knees
in the parking lot looking for votes. But, yeah, sure,
I can take a message. Okay. Lumpy. Smells wet.
Got it. Anything? Scratching sound
coming from the inside." [ Laughter ] Also, I love how long
his explanation is, and all it comes down to is
"You go on Google Maps." It'd be like your doctor saying,
"We're going to take blood, run a full set of tests,
get you the MRI, and then when we have
all the data, we ask Jeeves." Seriously, what the hell
is Lindell talking about? Does he think people
are committing voter fraud because they're getting mail
for old tenants? Because if you live in New York,
that's just how it works. I didn't vote 18 times,
but I still get mail at my apartment
for 18 different people. I just got a telegram addressed to someone named
Lois Pearlmutter inviting them to a
"save Penn Station" fundraiser. Joke for the Jane Jacobs fans. [ Laughter ] Republicans are not abandoning
Trump's war on democracy. They're embracing it, which is
why it's all the more important that we get to the bottom
of what happened after the last election before Republicans
try to steal the next one, especially after
bombshell new allegations reported by "Rolling Stone"
yesterday in which several
GOP members of Congress are accused of holding dozens
of planning sessions with the organizers
of the January 6th rallies that ultimately led to the violent insurrection
at the Capitol. -A January 6th bombshell. "Rolling Stone" magazine
reporting that organizers
of the Capitol rally that day had been promised
a "blanket pardon" by a U.S. congressman. -"Rolling Stone" reports
Arizona congressman Paul Gosar gave protest organizers
the impression that he had spoken
to then-President Trump about the pardons
for an unrelated investigation. -The organizers said
they allegedly spoke to "a dozen U.S. representatives
or their teams." They named
Representative Paul Gosar and Representative
Andy Biggs of Arizona, Representative
Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Representative Lauren Boebert
of Colorado, Madison Cawthorn
of North Carolina, Louie Gohmert of Texas,
and Mo Brooks of Alabama, all Republican congressmen
and -women. Right now, we don't know
what was discussed with each representative
by those planners. But the organizers gave
"Rolling Stone" an example with Representative Gosar, who's saying he offered them
the possibility of receiving a "blanket pardon" to motivate them
to plan the rallies. -Geez. Everyone was in on this.
Was Lindell there, too? [ As Lindell ]
I found a fake ballot in the parking lot of a CVS. This guy voted three times
for someone named Trojan Magnum. [ Laughter ] [ Normal voice ] Blanket pardon
sounds like the kind of made-up fake legal things
these doofuses would say. It's a weird feature
of our politics that the most sinister
characters are also the biggest morons. You could just imagine
Paul Gosar or Marjorie Taylor Greene
on the phone with the January 6th idiots huddled in their weird little
militia hideout/treehouse, promise them all kinds
of crazy [bleep] "You didn't hear from me, but I spoke to the chief wizard
of the Supreme Court, and he said there's
a secret provision written by
Benjamin Franklin's ghost, and it says you can have
a blanket pardon, a private plane, and a $100
gift card to Golden Corral." And if you don't remember
Paul Gosar, he's the guy who's so crazy, six of his siblings
famously endorsed his opponent, and he recently claimed
that secret sources inside something called
the CIA fraud department told him
the election was stolen. -Here's what he said
about two weeks before Republicans in his state
announced they had found nothing but additional votes
for Joe Biden in their bogus and expensive
audit of election results in Arizona's
most populous county. -We can do that and follow
through on this audit. Folks, if it's
what I've been told, and I had people come to me
early hours of the day after from the Security Exchange
fraud department to the CIA fraud department, that between 450,000
and 700,000 ballots were altered
in the state of Arizona. -First,
the CIA fraud department -- not a thing, doesn't exist. -Exactly. The greatest trick the
CIA fraud department ever pulled was convincing the world
they didn't exist. Gosar does seem like the
kind of guy who's on the phone with other fraud departments
a fair amount. "Well, the thing is, someone
from your bank e-mailed me for my Social Security number. So I do think you're responsible
for my identity being stolen. Who from your bank? Your mascot, Chase-ter Cheetah. He's not your mascot?" Again, this is
the fun thing, right? Like, when there's no audience, you're like, "Yeah,
Chester Cheetah's gonna kill. We'll call it back. They'll carry me out
on their shoulders." And then the show ends and we go
back in the dressing room and we're like,
"That callback worked." And they're like, "Yeah, yeah." Now -- Now we're finding out,
you guys, we are -- We're finding out, in a way... [ Cheers and applause ] In a way, you are
the CIA fraud department. [ Laughter ] And you just exposed that joke. [ Laughter ] And it also wouldn't surprise me if Marjorie Taylor Greene
was involved in all this. She, of course, was a vocal
backer of Trump's "big lie" and the ensuing attempt to
overthrow the election results. And last week,
when the House voted to hold Steve Bannon in contempt for refusing to comply
with the subpoena, she got into yet another
shouting match with some of her colleagues. -Yesterday, we saw
conspiracy theorist and Republican congresswoman
Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican of Georgia, approach and accost
Congresswoman Liz Cheney. -This happened during the debate over the criminal contempt
referral of Steve Bannon, and Taylor Greene walked behind
Congresswoman Liz Cheney and Congressman Jamie Raskin
during that debate and basically accused them
of making too much out of this and saying that they were
focused on the wrong things. It delved into a shouting match
on some level between the three of them and Liz Cheney actually calling
Marjorie Taylor Greene a joke and bringing up the fact
that she had talked about Jewish space lasers
at one point, a claim that Greene
very much denies. -Greene yelled back
that she never said that and called Cheney a joke. -It's not great when you start
a confrontation with someone and have to end it by insisting you never claimed wildfires were
started by Jewish space lasers. It's getting harder
and harder to articulate just how unhinged
the right has become. They're now claiming
they're vindicated by everything
from secret sources inside fake
CIA fraud departments to proof of voter fraud
found in empty parking lots. And they're not going to stop.
They're doubling down. And new reporting continues
to link them directly to attempts
to overthrow our democracy. These people need to be told,
in no uncertain terms... -No! [ Laughter ] Didn't see that one coming.
This has been "A Closer Look." God's Love We Deliver
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