-Former President Donald Trump ended an interview with NPR by abruptly hanging up
after he was fact-checked on his lies
about the 2020 election. For more on this,
it's time for "A Closer Look." ♪♪ Well, we got two more days
in our undisclosed location before heading back
to the studio and I want to say
how nice it was that so many of you
asked me if I was okay. It was less nice, how many of you asked me
if Wally was okay, since Wally
didn't test positive, but since you're so concerned, here's a shot of him right now
in the studio. So there you have it, everyone,
your precious Wally is okay. You can all breathe easy, something I can't do because,
unlike Wally, I had [bleep] COVID. I'm joking, of course. I had no symptoms, thanks to my two vaccines
and a booster and no thanks to this -- this horse pudding that
I accidentally bought when my corner bodega/
livestock supply store ran out of horse paste. It is not good. Has no medicinal value. Plus, it's giving me
high blood pressure because it's so packed
with sugar to cover up the taste of horse. What's that?
Today's flavor? Seabiscuits and gravy. And, while I'm alone
in this apartment, I want to, once again,
thank artist Mary LaGarde for my Sea Captain
and Rihanna painting, which has been
keeping me company. I'm sorry I forgot to mention
you guys yesterday. -Well, it didn't bother me, but Rihanna did think
you were being a... -♪ Rude boy, boy ♪ -Well, won't happen again. Now, to the news at hand. -Hey, uh, Seth.
-Mm-hmm? -Sorry to be a pail,
but just want to ask again. I know I record my line
every day for "A Closer Look," but I still can't
shake the feeling that you're just
taking her lines from previously recorded songs. -Why do you say that? -Well, you know, there's like music underneath it. -Oh, that's just a coincidence. -Okay. -The real "Closer Look"
is going to start now. Donald Trump has, of course, done many phone interviews
before, during and after his presidency, many with the Fox & Friends, who tend to sit there
with blank looks on their faces, like they're
Boston Dynamics robots who haven't been
switched on yet. There was even that one time
he said, out of the blue, that he was going to come on
once a week and even they did not seem
super psyched about that idea. -President Trump, welcome back
to "Fox & Friends." -Well, thank you very much. Good to be here. Great to be with my friends. I think we're going to do this,
we've agreed to do it once a week in the morning
and I look forward to it. We're going to do it every week,
every Monday, I think they said, and, if we can't do it
on a Monday, we'll do it on a Tuesday,
like we did today. -Alright.
-Sounds good. -Okay.
-Mr. President,
thank you very much. You may want to do it
every week, but Fox has not committed
to that. We're going to take it
on a case-by-case basis. -I love how Trump offered Monday
as an option and Tuesday as a backup,
if Monday didn't work for them. The president
should never be the one who's flexible on schedule. [ As Trump ]
Look, you guys are the ones
doing a TV show every day. I'm just watching one. But, for some reason,
he decided to forgo both his Fox and his Friends
to call into NPR. NPR?! How is that even possible? Are their microphones
even calibrated to capture sounds
at his decibel level? Their most popular show is... I mean, a good way to describe
the timbre and pitch of Donald Trump's voice is
reverse Terry Gross. [ As Gross ]
We're joined now by the author of "The Art of the Deal,"
Donald Trump. Welcome to the show, Donald. [ As Trump ]
Thanks for being -- Great to be here. Ee oo ee oo ee oo oo ee! Also, I'm pretty sure
it's a rule that you have to whisper on NPR. Otherwise, you'll wake up
the kindly old man whose house they broadcast
out of. His name is Bert Wilson. He lives in Minnewaska,
North Dakota, where he recently retired
after 50 years as a teller
at the old community bank and, now, he sits upstairs
in his rocking chair, watching "The Guns of Navarone"
on LaserDisc, while the kids from NPR record their little show
out of his living room. Anyway, Trump calling in to NPR
is like Ric Flair guest hosting an episode of BBC's... [ As Flair ]
We're going to see some snakes. We're going to see some parrots
and you can bet your ass we're going to see some mother[bleep]
flying squirrels. Slick Ric, whoo! The point is, for some reason, Trump thought it would be
a good idea to call in to NPR, where he seemed to be
caught off-guard when he was grilled about his
2020 election fraud lies by host Steve Inskeep. It's clear Trump forgot
the first rule of NPR. Steve plays for Inskeeps. This is nice. Like I miss the studio,
but it's nice to -- be here with my horse pudding
and tell a joke like that. Because let's be honest --
if I'd done the play for Inskeeps joke
in front of an audience, they'd be looking
at me like this -- Point is, instead of listening,
mouth agape, to Trump's answers
while giving no pushback, Inskeep came prepared with basic
facts to debunk Trump's claims and Trump clearly had no idea
how to handle it. To start with,
he didn't even seem to know the details of how the interview
was going to work. According to the transcript,
Trump asked Inskeep, at the start of the interview... Trump should write a book
called... ...with tips like, "Always find
out the interview specifications after it's too late
to change them." He's a former president calling
in to a well-known news program and he acts like he just got
stopped on the street by Jay Leno. [ As Trump ]
Whoa! Oh, I'm on TV right now? So, it was not
an auspicious start to the interview for Trump and it quickly went downhill
from there when Inskeep presented him
with some very basic facts that contradict his lies
about the 2020 election and Trump clearly did not know
how to respond. For example,
when Trump brought up Arizona, where even a GOP-backed
sham audit conducted by his own allies
confirmed Biden's win, Inskeep fact-checked him
and Trump was really flustered. -If you look at the numbers, if you look
at the findings in Arizona, if you look at what's going on
in Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, by the way,
and take a look at Wisconsin, they're finding things
that nobody thought possible. This was a corrupt election. -Doug Logan,
who ran the audit in Arizona that was set up by your allies,
didn't find serious problems. This is a quote -- "The ballots
that were provided to us to count in the Coliseum
very accurately correlate with the official
canvass numbers." He raised a bunch
of administrative issues, but didn't find a problem that would've changed
the result at all. -The ballots may correspond, but look at the ballots
themselves. The number of ballots
doesn't mean anything. -[ As Trump ]
Look at the numbers. "I'm looking at the numbers and they're the opposite
of what you say they are." [ As Trump ]
Then you got to stop looking
at the numbers. They're going
to drive you crazy. They're just numbers
and a number has never -- Steve, a number's never going
to love you back. You got to get outside.
You got to look at the clouds, look at the sky. You got to live. Don't look at the numbers. Also, I love this shift to "Look at the ballots
themselves." That's what they did. That was the whole point
of this bogus audit with their dumb UV lights
and all their insane theories about secret watermarks
and bamboo fibers. They looked at the ballots. What do you think
they were doing, looking at the stamps
on the envelopes? "Flag, flag, moon landing, flag. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! Jimi Hendrix. Shred that one." And then, when Inskeep
brought up the fact that, even the people who backed
and conducted the audit accepted the conclusion
that Biden won, Trump dismissed them as Republicans in name only,
or RINOs. -Why did Republican officials
in Arizona accept the results, then? -Because they're RINOs
and, frankly, a lot of people
are questioning that. -Apparently, a RINO is now anyone who doesn't show
full obedience to Trump. It's a label so scary
to Republicans that, in order to avoid it, Ted Cruz,
who helped lead the effort to overthrow the results
on January 6th, had to grovel
and beg for forgiveness for the simple act
of calling the insurrection a violent terrorist attack. In order to prove
he wasn't a RINO and that he was extreme enough
for Trump and his base, Cruz had to perform
an act of self-humiliation live on national television even Steve-O wouldn't have
subjected himself to. But, Steve-O,
you stapled your ass. [ As Steve-O ]
And I'd steal it shut
with Super Glue before stooping to that level. Well, you know what? We respect you, Steve-O. Now, let's get you into that
exploding Porta Potti. Anyway, as we've pointed out
many times on this show, even pro-Trump judges
and lawyers have admitted that there was no evidence
for his claims, which is why all of his court
challenges failed. And, when Inskeep
brought that up directly to the former president,
he, again, had no response. -Let me read you
some short quotes. The first is by one
of the judges, one of the ten judges
you appointed who ruled on this. And there were many judges,
but ten who you appointed. Brett Ludwig U.S. District Court
in Wisconsin, who was nominated by you
in 2020. He's on the bench and he says, "This court allowed
the plaintiff the chance to make his case
and he has lost on the merits." Another quote, Kory Langhofer, for your own campaign attorney
in Arizona, November 12, 2020, "We are not alleging fraud
in this lawsuit. We are not alleging anyone
stealing the election." And also Rudy Giuliani,
your lawyer, November 18, 2020
in Pennsylvania, "This is not a fraud case." Your own lawyers
had no evidence of fraud. They said in court
they had no evidence of fraud and the judges ruled against you
every time on the merits. -It was too early
to ask for fraud and to talk about fraud. Rudy said that because of the
fact it was very early with the --
because that was obviously at a very, very --
that was a long time ago. -What do you mean,
it was too early for fraud? Like the fraud groundhog emerged
from his hole and saw his shadow, meaning you had to wait
six weeks for fraud? Also, is this
the fraud groundhog? Because that would make
a good amount of sense. And, if it was too early
for fraud, then why were your lawyers even
in court at all? What was the point of all that? Was Rudy Giuliani just
getting in a few last lawsuits
before his neck implant surgery? [ As Giuliani ]
Good news, boss. They found a donor for me. He lives at The Bronx Zoo. You wouldn't like it there. They got rhinos.
[ Laughs ] And then, of course, the interview came
to its inevitable conclusion when Trump abruptly hung up after one too many
uncomfortable fact-checks. -People have no idea how big
this issue is and they don't want it
to happen again. It shouldn't be allowed
to happen and they don't want it
to happen again. -I want to --
-And the only way it's not going to happen again is
you have to solve the problem of the presidential
rigged election of 2020. -Mr. President, if I --
-So, Steve, thank you very much. -Whoa, whoa, whoa!
I have one more question.
-I appreciate it. -I want to ask about a court
hearing yesterday on January 6th. Judge Amit Mehta --
He's gone. Okay. -Wow. That's the most impolite
thing to happen on NPR since Ira Glass farted during an episode
of "This American Life." In fairness,
they are running out of topics. [ As Glass ]
Farts -- they're part
of our lives, albeit an unsavory part. It can be grim. Sometimes they're funny. Sometimes they linger. And farts -- our topic today. Ira Glass, Terry Gross,
Steve-O, and Ric Flair? It's called range.
Look it up. It's not easy fitting all those
references under one... -♪ Umbrella ♪ -Oh, you know what?
I do think -- I do think those lines are
from songs. You know it's bad
when Donald Trump, who will drone on endlessly
for as long as you let him, willingly ends an interview
before it's supposed to be over. When these deranged lies
are subjected to even a modicum of scrutiny, they collapse because they're
absurd on their face and, yet, an entire
political party, an ideological movement,
including the likes of Ted Cruz and the right-wing media
apparatus, are all devoted
to repeating those lies and anyone who balks at them
even slightly is attacked,
purged from the ranks. As for us, we'll be back
in the studio next week, starting on Monday and... -If we can do it on a Monday,
we'll do it on a Tuesday. -This has been "A Closer Look." ♪♪ God's Love We Deliver
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