-GOP members of Congress, like Paul Gosar
and Marjorie Taylor Greene, are facing growing scrutiny
over their roles in the attempt to overthrow
our democracy on January 6th, after a bombshell report
linked them to the organizers
of the day's events. For more on this,
it's time for "A Closer Look." [ Cheering and applause ]
♪♪ The stakes
of Joe Biden's presidency and the Democrats' agenda
could not be higher. If Democrats don't deliver
on their promises and fail to give voters a reason
to keep electing Democrats, then, the Republicans waiting
in the wings to take power are people like this -- -Rudy Giuliani used a filter
to make himself look like Abraham Lincoln
in an ad attack on Virginia gubernatorial
candidate Terry McAuliffe. -Virginia, [ Laughter ]
vote against the man who dishonored our past
by selling my bedroom hundreds and hundreds of times to scoundrels
in a pay-for-play scheme! In my time, we had a name for men who sold bedrooms
for one night. In your time, the name is Terry McAuliffe. End the Clinton sleaze,
once and for all! [ Laughter ]
-Wow. Disney's Haunted Mansion really went all-out this year. [ Laughter and applause ]
You know, you know you're a real scumbag when you can make
Abraham Lincoln seem dishonest. [ Laughter and applause ]
That's Rudy Giuliani, former mayor
of America's largest city and former personal attorney to the president
of the United States. Although, he looks
more like a character who got cut from "Oregon Trail" [ Laughter ]
because he gave
the kids nightmares. Whenever you encountered him, a message would pop up
that says... [ Laughter ] Looks like the guy
you get your mission from in... [ Laughter and applause ] [ As Giuliani ]
Your next mission is to whack Robert E. Lee. Then, go see Vito
down at the docks and tell him it's done. [ Laughter ] Also, what accent is he doing? Is that supposed to be
19th-century American or coma patient learning how
to talk again? [ Laughter ]
If that's what Abe Lincoln had actually sounded like, the North would've given up
and lost the Civil War. [ As Giuliani ]
Four score and seven years ago, somebody rented out my bedroom. "This guy sucks!" [ Laughter and applause ] That's the modern GOP. Sorry, that's the current GOP. They tried to overthrow
an election, based on bat[bleep]
conspiracy theories from bamboo fibers on ballots to Italian satellites
hacking voting machines, to election software designed
by Hugo Chávez and the CIA to spread communism
around the world. These are all things
they've actually said. I'm waiting for them
to claim, next, they saw thousands of people
vote twice using the Kanye mask [ Laughter ]
and you wouldn't know
who it is because they'd vote twice
for Kanye. [ Laughter ] Arizona Congressman Paul Gosar, one of the leaders of the
attempt to overturn the results, said, in a recent
congressional hearing, that mysterious, unnamed sources
had approached him the day after the election to tell him the election
was stolen from Donald Trump. Now, don't worry about trying
to follow any of this, because you can't. -The day after the election,
I was contacted by two individuals. One had security and fraud, uh, jobs with the banking world. The other one does fraud from the Department of Defense. [ Laughter ]
What they saw from Arizona and drew their attention
quickly, first. They saw a numbers
of 90-some thousand 60-some thousand,
40-some thousand, ballots drop
into Donald Trump's category and then quickly
come out verbatim. [ Laughter ]
But then, they started watching and looking to the dumps. What I mean by that is, there's a first dump,
there's multiple dumps, [ Laughter ]
maybe nine or 10
through the night. If the first dump
in Coconino County was 61% for Joe Biden, you would expect,
the rest of the time, the rest of the dumps,
to be very similar -- [ Laughter ]
58%, 62%, 55%, and so on. Not 40%, 38%, 35%. [ Laughter ] That's drew a big
question mark to them. -Hey, man, if you're going
to talk about dumps that much, could you maybe move away
from the camera a little bit? [ Laughter ] Or just point it lower. Did you record this
on an ATM security camera? [ Laughter ] Are you under the impression
that your forehead is your best feature?
It's not. [ Laughter ]
And I say that as a person who has the same one. [ Laughter ] Also, I love the idea
that someone would find rock-solid evidence that the
election was stolen and say, "Hey, this is big.
Should we take it to the FBI, CIA,
Washington Post, or how about that space case
congressman from Arizona?" [ Laughter ]
Gosar was, along with other fringe weirdos,
like Marjorie Taylor Greene, one of the key instigators
of the attempt to overturn the election results
on January 6th. Greene got into a shouting match on the House floor last week
with colleagues during a vote to hold former
Trump advisor Steve Bannon in contempt
for defying a subpoena from the committee
investigating the insurrection. And, when she was asked
about that vote by CNN, the interview took a weird turn. -What was the rationale
behind your vote? -The rationale behind my vote
is I'm not self-absorbed, like the rest of these jerks
here in Congress. They're all ignoring inflation. People can hardly buy food. Gas has gone up.
-Why call them jerks,
if you don't mind -- -Because they're self-absorbed. All they care about is Congress. They don't care
about the American people that pay all the taxes.
-There's an attack on -- -All you want to talk about is
your Trump derangement syndrome and all you want to talk
about is January 6th...
-Why are you protecting Steve Bannon?
-...where there's a riot here. -Why protect Steve Bannon? -Because I care
about American people! -She has the grammar and cadence of the lady
at Buffalo Wild Wings, trying to get
everyone's attention after one too many
Keystone Lights. [ Laughter ] Also, you might have noticed
there was a weird ending where a random dude
just wandered up next to her [ Laughter ]
during the interview.
Now, if you've ever taken
the subway before, you might be thinking, "Oh, no, he's about to ask her
about Scientology." [ Laughter ]
But, turns out, he's another
Republican member of Congress. He decided to just crash the
interview and pull Greene away. -The interview ended soon after,
when fellow Republican Congressman
Pete Sessions of Texas walked into the middle
of our conversation. -So, you doing okay?
Let's get out of here. -Okay. Thank you.
-But not Steve Bannon. [ Laughter ]
-Wow. Even her fellow
Republicans are like, "Marjorie! Marjorie, you wandered off. Maybe you should stay
away from the cameras, Marjorie. [ Laughter and applause ]
Marjorie." Or at the very least, Marjorie,
at the very least, use a filter
to disguise yourself." [ Laughter and applause ] I've never seen that happen
in an interview before. You know,
doing interviews is my job. It definitely doesn't help you
seem more normal. If someone in a suit
came up to Andy Samberg halfway through an interview
on this show and said, "Hey, Andy, you okay?
Let's get out of here," I'd definitely think,
"Something's up with Samberg," and then, I'd text him later
and I'd say... And he'd text back
something like... And I'd say... And then there would be like
three dots, making me think he
was writing something painfully confessional,
until he just said... [ Laughter ] I mean, seriously,
can you imagine the reaction, if, halfway
through "A Closer Look," someone just stopped me
and took me offstage? -Hey, Seth, are you okay? Maybe you should go. -Why do you say that? Do I not seem okay? -Oh, no. You seem fine,
but, you see, every time I say a line
on camera, I get paid, and I need the money
to fix my pool. [ Laughter, cheering,
and applause ] -Your house has a pool?! -[ Laughing ]
Don't be silly, Seth. My beach house has a pool. [ Laughter and applause ]
The beach house Seth Meyers made.
Wink! [ Laughter and applause ] [ Cheering and applause ] -We're not paying you
for the [bleep] wink! [ Laughter ] You don't get money for a line if it's just saying
a stage direction! [ Laughter ] And, this week, Green seemed
to justify the insurrection by claiming that
the Declaration of Independence says to overthrow tyrants. That apparent confession
that comes just days after a bombshell report
from Rolling Stone, tying Greene to the so-called
Stop the Steal rally on January 6th,
that eventually led to the riot. Two planners of the pro-Trump
rallies, who are now cooperating with the committee investigating
the insurrection, described... And you would
definitely remember talking [ Laughter ]
to Marjorie Taylor Greene, the same way you'd remember
being attacked by Chucky. [ Laughter ]
If the cops were taking your statement
after a Chucky attack, you wouldn't say, "Oh, man,
I don't remember his name. [ Laughter ]
I think he was like -- like 2'0" tall,
orange hair, overalls. [ Laughter ]
Scars all over his face. Might've been
a Cabbage Patch Kid. I don't know.
[ Laughter ] Former mayor." [ Laughter ]
But, basically, Greene had initially responded
to the allegations by denying that she was... [ Laughter ]
They do! Which is why they were writing
about you, one person who is equal to... [ Laughter and applause ] And, hey, I know it seems
like pandering, to reference a hot, modern band
to get an audience reaction. [ Laughter ]
But, hey, hey, we give 'em what they want. [ Laughter, cheering,
and applause ] I'm sorry. That's a [bleep] network thing. They're cracking
on us really hard. [ Laughter ] They're like, "You haven't even
obliquely mentioned Natalie Merchant
in like two years." [ Laughter and applause ] If you're watching at home and you like that joke,
like reach out. [ Laughter ] "Joke." [ Laughter ] Also, her denial is itself
a damning admission. She claims she wasn't involved
in planning the protest because she was too busy trying to overturn
the election results. We shouldn't just let that
pass by unnoticed. It's a classic defense -- [ As Greene ] I couldn't have
burned down your house because I was too busy
buying gasoline and matches and a map to your house. [ Laughter and applause ] But probably the worst
non-denial denial came from Alabama
Congressman Mo Brooks, one of the most vocal advocates
of the big lie, and another coconspirator who was also implicated
in the Rolling Stone article. Brooks said,
in response, that... [ Laughter ] Wow, he O.J.'d his own staff. [ Laughter and applause ] "I didn't do it, but,
if my staff did, here's how." [ Laughter ] It's a really nice joke
that we just told, like that we changed
what O.J.'ing means, to mean like writing a book. [ Laughter ] Like for a long time,
it's been like, "I feel like,
when people say O.J.'ing, you know, they think..." [ Laughter ] You know, to O.J. someone is to write a piece
of speculative fiction. [ Laughter ] For me, it's like author,
football, and then, [ Mutters ] [ Laughter and applause ] Brooks really threw his staff
under the bus, although, in fairness,
I do that a lot with my staff,
when a joke bombs. Like I had no involvement
with that 10,000 Maniacs joke. [ Laughter and applause ] But I'm proud
of whoever wrote it. Took a lot of guts! [ Laughter ] Took a lot of guts to go there
in a room full of people. [ Laughter ] Now, if you're not familiar
with Mo Brooks, he's the extremely
pro-Trump congressman who gave an incendiary speech
calling on Trump supporters to "start taking down names
and kicking ass," then, said he only did it
because Trump told him to. He metaphorically ran
away from a lawsuit over his involvement
in the insurrection and literally ran
away from a reporter who tried to ask him
about his support for accused sexual predator
Roy Moore in 2017. [ Running footsteps clacking ] [ Laughter ] Yeah, that definitely seems
like the kind of guy who would incite
an insurrection, blame his staff,
and then, I guess, judging
from the clacking sound, escape on horseback. [ Laughter and applause ] Seriously, the Foley work
on that clip is outstanding. Why does it sound like
they're galloping into town on a Mustang? [ Hooves clopping ]
I didn't invade or riot, but, if my staff did, I'd be proud of him. [ Laughter ]
Now, if you'll excuse me, me and Old Thunder, here, we'll be down in the saloon, drinking a sarsaparilla
and getting our next mission from weird old Abe Lincoln. [ Laughter and applause ] The core -- The core of today's
Republican Party is the big lie
that the election was stolen. They tried to overthrow
the results. They're being open about it,
trying to justify it, and planning on doing it again, which is why they have
to be stopped. One of our two major parties,
a party poised to take back power,
if Democrats fail, has been captured
by a cult-like movement of weirdos, authoritarians,
and scoundrels. You don't get used to it. [ Laughter ] -This has been "A Closer Look." ♪♪ God's Love We Deliver
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