-The House took
a historic vote today to endorse the impeachment
inquiry into President Trump and set out rules for
the next stage of the process. For more on this,
it's time for "A Closer Look." [ Cheers and applause ] This was the first time
the full House voted on the current impeachment
inquiry into Trump. It's a day
that he has long dreaded, and you can tell because the
further along impeachment got, the more he started
to freak out. -The President tweeted that the,
"Do-nothing Democrats should be focused
on building up our country." He said, "Not wasting
everyone's time and energy on," all-caps, "Bull [bleep]" -They can't win on election day,
so they're pursuing an illegal, invalid, and unconstitutional
bull [bleep] impeachment. -The angrier Trump gets,
the more he sounds like a cab driver from Queens. "You want me to take you to
LaGuardia at 4:00 p.m.? This is bull [bleep] [ Laughter ] Keep walking! Get an Uber!" [ Cheers and applause ] Also, I like when you can tell which words
were written for Trump and which ones he added. "All right, uh, Mr. President,
here's the script. We're gonna call it illegal,
invalid, and unconstitutional." "Okay, yeah, that's good.
I might add one word." [ Laughter ] "Is it a bad word?"
"No." "Donald, if it's a bad word, you have to put a dollar
in the swear jar." "What?
I thought if I swear, I get to take a dollar
out of the swear jar. This is bull [bleep] That's one you owe me." [ Laughter ] So, Trump was clearly
dreading this vote, and yet, even as late as this morning,
his advisers were still insisting
that Democrats would fail. White House counselor
Kellyanne Conway went on Fox News
and claimed that she had some inside dirt
on the impeachment process. -Impeachment is simple math. You either
have the votes or you don't. And guess what --
dirty little secret -- they don't have the votes. -Kellyanne Conway
definitely seems like someone who spent high school
sharing dirty little secrets. [ Laughter ] She should be standing
by a locker, whispering, "Jackie's boyfriend
told Jeff's sister who told Dana's cousin
who told Mike's cousin who told Sophie's mom
who told Jason's mom, who told Danny's prom date,
that -- guess what -- they don't have the vote." [ Laughter ] But there you go --
Kellyanne Conway says Democrats don't have the votes to impeach
Trump, and if that's the case, then surely,
they wouldn't have the votes for today's resolution. -A historic vote just held
in the House of Representatives. The Democratic-controlled
Congress voting to move ahead with the impeachment inquiry. -House Democrats
and one independent lawmaker passing a resolution laying out
the impeachment process by an overwhelming majority. -On this vote, the yeas are 232,
the nays are 196. -What?
We can't trust Kellyanne Conway? [ Laughter ] I guess up is up
and down is down. [ Laughter ] And for her part,
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi played it cool
and made clear the whole time she was confident
she had the votes. In fact, right before
she presided over the vote, she spoke to reporters and at
the end of her press conference, she coyly teased
what she was about to do. -As you may understand,
I have business on the floor that I have to see to,
so I'm going to excuse myself. Thank you all very much. -Damn!
That's like in an action movie when Tom Cruise says something
like, "Sorry. This is my stop," and then jumps out
of an airplane. [ Laughter ] And while Pelosi
was playing it cool, Trump and his allies, of course,
were freaking out. In fact, Trump is so desperate
and so wildly grasping at straws that, this morning,
he just blurted out an all-caps tweet
about his infamous phone call with the president of Ukraine
that just said, "Read the transcript." Yeah, we did. That's how we found out about
the crimes you committed. Trump's like a bank robber
who screams, "Watch the tape!" Then the jury watches the tape,
and it's just him smiling straight in the camera,
holding up a bag of cash. [ Laughter and applause ] Then... later in the morning,
Trump tweeted again, this time even more desperate and trying out
an even dumber argument. He tweeted,
"The impeachment hoax is hurting our stock market. The do-nothing Democrats
don't care." That has nothing to do
with impeachment. There's no secret footnote
in the Constitution that says, "The president shall be removed
from office for treason, bribery, or other high crimes
and misdemeanors unless it's bad
for the stock market, in which case, cool it." [ Laughter ] And Trump
was not the only one at a loss for how to respond
to the impeachment vote today. Take Republican Congressman
Devin Nunes who complained about all the damning testimony Democrats have heard
from witnesses. Democrats have been holding
those depositions in a secure room at the Capitol
known as the SCIF, and Nunes called
those hearings a cult. -What we're seeing
among Democrats on the intelligence committees
down in the SCIF right now is like a cult. These are a group of people
loyally following their leader as he bounces from one
outlandish conspiracy theory to another. -You're calling Democrats
a cult? Donald Trump
looks like something that was summoned by a cult. [ Laughter ] In fact,
Trump wasn't actually born. He just appeared one day
in the middle of a pentagram. [ Laughter ] -"Who has summoned me? And was she hot?
Was she like a 10?" [ Laughter ] "I don't like being summoned
by anything less than a 10. I'll go back to hell right now." [ Laughter ] And that wasn't even the dumbest
thing Republicans said before the vote,
because, as always, they also had dumb posters. Congressman Steve Scalise,
for example, brought out a giant poster
to accuse the Democrats of acting like Soviets
for following a procedure laid out by the founders
in the Constitution. -This is unprecedented. It's not only unprecedented,
this is Soviet-style rules. Maybe in the Soviet Union
you do things like this where only you make the rules. Madam Speaker, when you look
through this resolution and you see how one-sided, how Soviet-style
this is running... -It looks like the cover
of a board game. [ Laughter ] I feel so bad for the intern
who had to run to Kinkos and print that out. Look how janky that thing is. How did that conversation go? "Hey, I need a giant posterboard
of this." "Oh, is it for your child's
history class?" "No."
[ Laughter ] "It's more my Congressman." [ Laughter ] But at least that guy
brought a visual aid. Republican Minority Leader
Kevin McCarthy tried to use his words,
but he said something so confusing that it was nearly
impossible to follow his logic. -This is the moment
that history will write. History will ask you,
when you cast this vote, when you cast a vote
to justify something that has gone on
behind closed doors... I want you to ask the historian
and answer the question. What do you know
that happened there? -What?
[ Laughter ] What are you saying? History will write this moment,
and then, history will ask you a question, so you want them
to ask the historian a question and then answer
the questions themselves? [ Laughter ] Sounds like you asked Siri
to read a quote from Alexander Hamilton after
spilling water on your phone. [ Laughter ] "Siri, read me a passage
from the "Federalist Papers." -History will write this moment,
and then, history will ask you a question and then you should
ask the historian a question, and then a historian
will answer it. [ Laughter ] -Today's vote was obviously
a historic moment and a huge blow to Trump
and his supporters. The House has now formally
endorsed the impeachment inquiry and that's because
the basic facts of what happened
are indisputable. Trump orchestrated
a vast scheme in which he dangled hundreds of millions
of dollars in military aid to Ukraine in order to get
that country to dig up dirt on his political rivals,
and key witnesses over the last few weeks
have confirmed key details of what happened,
including new testimony today from a top
national-security official, and now Democrats
are planning on calling Trump's ex-national security adviser
John Bolton to testify in a few weeks. Now, you might remember
that when Bolton found out about the Ukraine quid pro quo
led by Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, Bolton reportedly
told people at the White House, "Giuliani's a hand grenade who's
going to blow everybody up. Rudy's not a hand grenade. He's the guy who walks
into a room holding the pin. "Oh, Rudy, what'd you do? [ Laughter ] "You guys see
a little metal baseball?" [ Laughter ] So, Bolton wanted no part
of the Ukraine quid pro quo. In fact, you might also remember
that one of Trump's handpicked ambassadors,
Gordon Sondland, and his acting chief of staff
Mick Mulvaney, were both central in
orchestrating the quid pro quo with Ukraine, and when he found
out, Bolton reportedly said, "I'm not part of whatever
drug deal Sondland and Mulvaney are cooking up," and even if
you did want to be part of it, I'm not sure I'd trust these
guys to cook up a drug deal. They look like the only drugs
they've taken are the kinds you see in commercials
with middle-aged couples walking on beaches together. [ Laughter ] If Mulvaney's called to testify
about his drug deal, the hearing will probably be
sponsored by one of those drugs. -Mr. Chairman, I thank you
for your time and for the opportunity
to be here. -♪ Viva Viagra ♪ -So, Bolton obviously has a lot
to say, and on top of that, he left the Trump administration
on very bad terms. Bolton, like almost every other
Trump aide before him, was unceremoniously dumped last
month after clashing with Trump, and as usual,
Trump couldn't help but diss Bolton
on his way out the door. -He made some very big mistakes. You know,
John's known as a tough guy. He's so tough,
he got us into Iraq. That's tough. And, you know,
John wasn't in line with what we were doing,
and actually, in some cases, he thought it was too tough,
what we were doing. Mr. Tough Guy. You know,
you have to go into Iraq. Going into Iraq was something that he felt
very strongly about, and I disagreed with that
decision from the beginning. I thought
it was a terrible mistake. And that's not a question
of being tough. That's a question
of being not smart. So, I wish John the best. -It doesn't sound like you do. You can't just end a long rant
about how he's an idiot by tacking on,
"I wish him the best." That would be like slipping
a note cut out from magazine letters
under his door that said, "I'm gonna murder you
in your sleep. Warmest regards,
your dear friend, Donald." [ Laughter ] Obviously, there's a lot
of bad blood there. But the best part is,
all these are awful guys. Bolton's an unrepentant
warmonger, and Trump, of course, is Trump, so it's fun to watch them
turn on each other and try to take each other down. I don't like watching
nature shows where a lion kills a baby antelope,
but when they show a spider and a scorpion going at it,
I am in. [ Laughter ] So the actual facts of
what happened are indefensible. There's nothing Republicans can
say to defend what Trump did. That's why they're focused
instead on the process. They've been whining for weeks
about how Democrats have been conducting the initial
depositions behind closed doors even though a lot of them
are allowed in those hearings. In fact, this week, CNN asked
Republican Congressman Ted Yoho if he had attended
any of the impeachment hearings. There was even a deposition
going on while he was on TV, and the anchor asked him
why he wasn't there. -You could attend
all of these depositions. Have you attended a single one? -No, I haven't gone to those.
-But why are you not there? -Because I have other
responsibilities in the House. -Respectfully, Congressman,
as glad as I am that you're on this show, you
don't need to be on this show. You could be in there --
-Well, like I said -- -You could be in there
deposing -- -I plan to go in there. I've got my questions
written for him. -So you are going
to this deposition after you're off the air
with us. Is that right?
-As soon as I'm off the air. Yes, ma'am. -No, I don't think so.
[ Laughter ] I mean, based on that,
I bet he didn't actually have any questions written down. "I got my questions right here." "Okay.
Can you read some of them?" "Yeah.
Y-You bet." [ Light laughter ] [ Laughter ] "I don't have any questions." [ Laughter ] Today was a historic day
and a major step forward in the impeachment process. Republicans can't defend Trump
on the substance and they can't complain
about the process, so now all they have left is... -Bull [bleep] -This has been
"A Closer Look." [ Cheers and applause ]
