-President Trump and senior members
of the Republican Party are engaged in an assault
on democracy, in an attempt to hang on
to power and undercut the legitimately elected
next president, Joe Biden, and they put Rudy Giuliani
in charge of their plan. For more on this,
it's time for "A Closer Look." ♪♪ Look, it's very unlikely
this dumbass coup attempt by Trump and his gang
of weirdo, lopsided goons, or, as I'm calling them... ...will succeed,
but it's alarming enough that they're trying. And we are finding out,
right now, who, in the Republican Party,
would be willing to go along with an actual coup attempt
in the future if, say, an election
was much closer or if they had another chance
to accept criminal interference from a foreign country,
or if Rudy Giuliani tried to break into a ballot machine
to change votes for Trump, only to realize
it's a pinball machine at a pizzeria in Yonkers. [ As Giuliani ]
Boss, great news. I got you 500 more votes
and an extra ball! You've got
the secretary of State joking about a possible coup, the White House press secretary insisting Trump will
remain president, and prominent Fox hosts
straight-up demanding that Republicans refuse
to accept the results of the election. -Is the State Department
currently preparing to engage with the
Biden transition team and, if not,
at what point does a delay hamper a smooth transition or pose a risk
to national security? -There will be
a smooth transition to a second
Trump administration. -He's left an infrastructure
in place where COVID
can be handled and we believe that we will do
so going forward in a second
Trump administration. -Yeah, please.
-What I'd like to know is what in the hell is
the Republican Party doing to defend and to --
I mean, why not just say "We're not going to accept
the results of this election"? -I don't know.
Why not just say, "Lou Dobbs should get
a head reduction surgery" or "Lou Dobbs looks
like a child at a wedding after a million bee stings" or "How does
this 75-year-old man have hair the same color
as a brand-new penny"? They're not magic words. It doesn't matter
whether you say them or not. You can't go to a doctor's
appointment, get an X-ray that shows you have
a spoon stuck in your esophagus because you didn't realize it wasn't part of the meal
and then say... [ As Dobbs ]
I refuse to accept
the results of this X-ray. Second, you're lighting
American democracy on fire, you fascist Bobblehead. The vast majority of Americans accept the outcome
of the election and the reality
that it was free and fair, but Republicans
who listen to your [bleep] are starting to echo
your deranged rhetoric about how it was rigged. A poll out today found that about half
of Republicans think Trump won the election
and it was rigged against him. And, look, the people
who show up to Trump rallies, you could probably get them to agree with anything
Trump says. If you're willing to give up
your day to stand in a field and listen to third-rate
stand-up comedy from a man who loathes you,
you're what they call pliable. Now, as we told you
earlier this week, there are some
Republican officials who have met
the absolute lowest bar, by acknowledging that Joe Biden
is the president-elect and should be treated as such. Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson
said... And Ohio Governor Mike DeWine
said... Tells you just how sick
our political culture is, that a Republican official
just acknowledging the obvious and legitimate winner
of a presidential election is somehow considered
a brave, noteworthy act. It's like picking up
your morning newspaper and the headline says... And, yet, aside from those
rare exceptions, many Republican politicians
remain in lockstep behind Trump as he continues to pretend
he has a path to overturn the election results
that declare victory. Texas Lieutenant Governor
Dan Patrick, the same guy who said, in March, that old people should be
willing to die from COVID to keep the economy
from shutting down, spelled out Trump's supposed
path to victory on Fox News. -There's less
than 30,000 votes, in Georgia and Arizona, dividing Biden
and Trump. And, if those two states turn,
if they do, then the Supreme Court
could make the decision on Pennsylvania,
and then Trump is president. -The last plan I heard with that
many insane contingencies is my cousin explaining how he's
going to pay back that loan. [ Stoner voice ]
If the lady I dogsit for
puts me in her will and then, she dies and then, it goes uncontested
by her kids, I'm going to have your money. By the way, Dan Patrick
is also the dude who offered a reward
of $1 million for evidence of voter fraud
in Texas, which, I have to say,
kind of disproves the point you're trying to make. If voter fraud is so common that
it could overturn an election, why do you need to offer
a million-dollar reward to find some evidence of it? In the Old West, when they offered rewards for outlaws, it was because they
were hard to find. They weren't just squatting behind a barrel
in the town square. "Hey, uh, I think that's
Billy the Kid over there. Can I have my --
can I have my million now?" But, anyway, that's
their harebrained scheme. They want to somehow
flip Arizona and Georgia, then go to court
to get Pennsylvania to throw out,
not just a few ballots, but hundreds of thousands
of ballots, and have the Supreme Court
hand the election to Trump. And, apparently, in Georgia, the guy who's leading the effort
to overturn the results is Congressman Doug Collins. The Georgia secretary of State,
Brad Raffensperger, who's a Republican, went so far as to call Collins
a liar and a charlatan. Now, you might remember Collins as the insanely
fast-talking person who took a lead role
for Republicans during the impeachment
proceedings. -We've talked about the law.
The law wasn't broken. They didn't put it
in the Constitution, so I can yell on both of them. I can talk about both of them. I still have
not got a transcript. We still don't know what --
And the White House still has not got their stuff. I was told I couldn't. Even though there had been staff conversations well before, I was told I was asking
too late. He said, "Can you," as he said,
"help us, as a country, because we're
trying to heal." -He sounds like
he's auctioning off the cocaine from a drug bust
after taking the test himself. [ As Collins ]
We got one kilo, we have
two kilos, we have five kilos. We got gold-plated guns,
we got regular guns, we got tiny, little guns. Then, there's South Carolina
Senator Lindsey Graham, who, according to Raffensperger,
who, again, is a Republican, called and pressured him
to throw out legal ballots. -Georgia's secretary of State
Brad Raffensperger, says he's come under increasing
pressure in recent days from Republicans intent
on questioning the validity of legally cast
absentee ballots, in an effort
to reverse President Trump's loss
in the state. In an interview
with The Washington Post, Raffensperger said
Senator Lindsey Graham asked him on Friday if he had the power
to toss out ballots in counties found to have higher
rates of nonmatching signatures. Raffensperger said
he was stunned that Graham appeared to suggest that he find a way to toss
legally cast ballots. -So Lindsey Graham called up the secretary of State
of Georgia, like it was a casual schmooze,
and said, "Hey, Brad, want to do brunch? Also, do you have the power
to like throw out a bunch of legal ballots
and hand the election to Trump?" Now, according
to The Wall Street Journal, there were two phone calls
and multiple witnesses who confirmed what Graham said
on those calls. And, even when Graham
tried denying it, he accidentally confessed to something
possibly even worse -- that he'd been calling election
officials in other states, too. -No.
That's ridiculous. I talked to him about how
you verify signatures. I'm really worried
about mail-in balloting, I'm worried about how
you verify a signature, and I think Georgia -- I've talked to Doug Ducey
in Arizona. I've talked to the
people in Nevada. We've got contests all
over the nation. -So, basically, Lindsey Graham called states
where Joe Biden won to ask about vote counts. I'd say they were threatening
calls, but it's impossible for Lindsey Graham
to sound threatening. He has the voice of a guy
offering to redo your veranda. [ As Graham ]
I, for one, can't enjoy an iced tea on my porch swing
if I'm looking at chipped paint. This is the trademark
Trump defense. Their only explanation
for their bad behavior is more bad behavior. Graham's like an arsonist
defending himself in court by saying, "What about all those
other houses I burned down? You didn't seem
to care about that. Maybe you're the ones who need
to look in the mirror!" And, Lindsey, we might take
your word at face value -- and I mean might --
if you hadn't promised to never support the appointment
of a Supreme Court justice in an election year
and then, this year, when that was put to the test with Amy Coney Barrett,
told reporters -- [ As Graham ]
I said a fib before,
but, now, I ain't fibbin'. Now, I'm saying
my for real thoughts. So that was their attempt
to steal Georgia and they fell flat
on their faces. Then, there's Pennsylvania, where the Trump campaign
is suing for -- I don't know, reasons? It's impossible to keep
track of their bull[bleep] It's like your mom
and dad trying to tell you a story
at the same time. "So, we're at Chili's, right?" It was an Applebee's. "No, Applebee's was Tuesday. I'm talking about the waiter
who dropped the tray." That was an Applebee's! For example,
they're all worked up over an electronic voting
system called Dominion because there was a small
and brief reporting mistake on election night in Michigan. But even the conservative,
pro-Trump Wall Street Journal
editorial board pointed out... A Republican county clerk
even said... And, if anyone should understand
human error, it's Trump. I mean, he is a human error. The guy couldn't pronounce
the word Yosemite, he couldn't figure out how
to close an umbrella, and couldn't even get the toilet
paper off his shoe after, I guess, taking a giant dump
inside the presidential limo? I mean, that you
don't want to have a transition meeting with Biden, but can you at least
give him a heads up that he should get
a different ride? [ As Trump ]
Yeah, in regards to the limo, it might be easier just
to replace it. Anyway, the claim Trump's teams
have been making are so insane, most lawyers want no part of it. The Trump team even tried to delay a hearing
in federal court, but as a reporter
for Reuters noted, the judge wasn't having it... I mean, every word
of that Tweet is perfect. He wants to overturn the results
of a state he lost, but his lawyers quit,
so he's using a radio host, and the judge actually needed to tell the radio host
to be prepared. "Of course I'm prepared. I brought my soundboard,
Your Honor. This was a fraud to a degree
that we should all be alarmed!" [ Laughter ]
[ Vuvuzela blasting ] "I rest my case." So, then, Trump put
Rudy Giuliani in charge and this will probably
not shock you -- it didn't work out great. For example, yesterday, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court
ruled against the Trump campaign in yet another one
of their ridiculous lawsuits. Of course, Rudy never
made it to the hearing because he accidentally went to the Pennsylvania
Supreme Food Court at the King of Prussia Mall. [ As Giuliani ]
Your Honor, I object! "Alright. So do you want like
the chicken teriyaki, instead?" And then, yesterday,
reporters and court observers who were covering
a Trump campaign case in front of a federal judge
in Pennsylvania pulled out individual lines
from Rudy's oral arguments and they're just
a delight to read. I mean, here are a few examples of actual legal arguments
from Rudy Giuliani, you know, the guy who was
once -- and this is true -- the mayor of New York City. one of our biggest cities,
the biggest... Incredible.
It's like watching a livestream of a wino doing
open heart surgery. "What the hell is this thing
and why is it moving?" That's the heart. "Oh.
Should we put it back in?" The term "strict scrutiny" is one of the most basic
legal concepts in all of law, but, then, if he knew
what strict scrutiny was, he'd have gotten his bottom
teeth capped as well. If your lawyer says they don't
know what strict scrutiny means, then it's, you know,
time to get someone new. I mean, that's like
if your lawyer got up in court and asked to cross-examine
a witness and then asked his questions
with his eyes like this -- [ Laughing ] This was, by far,
the best exchange and summed up the stupidity of this moronic
little coup attempt as much as any moment could. I would love to see Rudy
at a spelling bee. The word is opacity. [ Giuliani ]
Can you use it incorrectly
in a sentence, please? Oh, Rudy, sweet Rudy,
I won't miss Trump, but I also won't miss you. I hope, when this is over, you take a well-earned trip
to the Bahamas. No, I meant the island.
Never mind. Rudy's deranged performance
was such an embarrassing debacle that even close Trump ally
Mick Mulvaney, Trump's former chief of staff and a guy who is fully onboard
with this grotesque attempt to overturn the results
of the election, said today... Yet, last night, after Rudy's
disastrous bungling of, you know, everything, here's what Fox News host
Sean Hannity told his audience about Rudy's performance. -In Pennsylvania, Rudy Giuliani
argued the case today. I've heard from more
than a few people that he was absolutely brilliant
in his arguments today. -Maybe he was saying it the way
British people use "brilliant," to mean "funny." [ English accent ]
Did you see Mr. Bean fall down that escalator
into the savory pie display? Brilliant!
Absolutely brilliant. Fun fact -- the original title
of Hannity's show was... We're in the midst of several
crises colliding at once -- the destruction
of American democracy, a deadly plague that killed 1,500 Americans
just yesterday alone, and we're seeing, once again,
that the Republican Party simply does not care
about either. It's an authoritarian movement willing to wreck
the American system and stand idly by
while Americans die. Even after Trump leaves office,
what we're seeing now is that Trumpism
will very much remain. At least we can be sure that, what we here at "Late Night"
are calling... will almost certainly fail
and, for now, there won't be... -A second Trump
administration. -This has been
"A Closer Look." ♪♪ God's Love We Deliver
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