-House Republicans
are possibly on the verge of making Ohio Congressman
Jim Jordan, one of the key players
in the January 6th coup attempt and a hard line MAGA extremist,
the next Speaker of the House, even as Trump himself
was just hit with his second gag
order by a judge. For more on this,
it's time for A Closer Look. [ Cheers and applause ] House Republicans still don't
have a Speaker after two weeks of humiliating
infighting chaos. Let's check in
on their party's leader, the faraway frontrunner
for the 2024 GOP nomination, Donald Trump. I mean, there's no way things
could be going worse for him than they are
for House Republicans, right? -Breaking news here
in Washington -- District Court Judge
Tanya Chutkan has issued a narrow gag order
on former President Trump and the other co-defendants
in his D.C. election case, prohibiting all parties from targeting
Special Counsel Jack Smith, federal prosecutors,
or court staff. -Judge Tanya Chutkan said
from the bench that Mr. Trump is now prohibited
from reposting any statements publicly targeting
the special counsel, his staff, the judge's staff
or court personnel, and also witnesses
to the extent that it involves their role
in the case. -That's right.
Trump is prohibited from posting statements about the special counsel,
his staff, the judge's staff, witnesses -- and here's where it gets
worse for him... By the way, this is now
Trump's second gag order, after he was already
slapped with one for a civil fraud trial
in Manhattan. If he keeps getting hit
with partial gag orders from all of his court cases,
his social media posts are just going
to look like this. Now I don't need to tell you,
we live in turbulent times, and times like these,
you need leadership. Democrats have Joe Biden
in the White House, Chuck Schumer in the Senate, and
Hakeem Jeffries in the House. Say what you will about them, and there is plenty
to criticize, but at least their status
as leaders is stable. Now let's compare that
to the GOP leadership. Likely 2024 nominee
Donald Trump, whose current top four suggested
Uber destinations are courthouses. Senate Minority Leader
Mitch McConnell, who can often
be found buffering. And the Speaker of the House, which is currently held by
Interim Speaker Patrick McHenry, who, knowing the job
isn't permanent, is banging every gavel
like it's his last. [ Bang ] Impossible to prepare
yourself for it. The Republican Speaker fight
has been a roller coaster, and not a good one.
I'm not talking Kingda Ka, where you're laughing
with your buddies, screaming, "Oh, my God,
I'm going to puke." I'm talking about
one of those real old ones, the kinds they have
at county fairs where the seat belt
looks like it came from an '84 Ford Escort,
and you get strapped in by a dead-eyed
17-year-old who reminds you both to keep
your hands inside the vehicle and to make peace
with whatever God you pray to. And as you make the first climb,
you look into the footwell and you see three loose screws
and a human ankle bone. Where you think, "Oh, my God,
I'm going to die. I'm going to die listening
to a Jason Aldean cover band." And if you do survive afterward,
you check out the photo they took and you end up
looking like this. Good news, you guys.
Good news. If we use that picture
two more times, I get a free footlong at Subway. Bad news,
it's their new Rudy Sandwich, which is just two pieces
of bread and a bunch of [bleep] nuts. Now here --
here is a quick recap of what's happened
over the last two years -- I'm sorry,
I meant the last two weeks. -Kevin McCarthy practically
daring hardline Republicans to come after him. -If somebody wants to make
a motion against me, bring it. -To which Gaetz responded,
"Just did." -He says he's coming for you.
Can you survive? -Yes. I'll survive. -The Speaker of the House has
been removed from his position. -Some House Republicans
have been in contact with and have started an effort to draft former
President Donald Trump to be the next Speaker. -On Capitol Hill right now,
we have breaking news. House Republicans have nominated Steve Scalise moments ago
as their new Speaker. -I want to thank my House
Republican colleagues for just designating me
as the Speaker. -Just hours after being
nominated to become the next Speaker of the House,
Congressman Steve Scalise says he's dropping out
of the race. -I'm withdrawing my name as a candidate
for the Speaker designee. -Another round of votes
have just been had, And now Jim Jordan is the new
Republican nominee for Speaker. -Right now, it looks like
the party's newest nominee, Representative Jim Jordan, get this, does not have
enough votes from his own GOP colleagues
to win the speakership. -I would call House Republicans
a cluster [bleep], but a cluster implies
some sense of unity. They're more -- they're more
like a scatter [bleep]. I've seen more organized
groups of seagulls fighting over a potato chip. "Whoa, whoa, fellas.
Let's just cast our ballots in an orderly fashion, and whoever wins
the most votes gets -- Dorito." [ Screaming ] [ Laughter ] You got to -- you got to remind me
to listen to that seagull tape before we do the show. [ Imitating seagull ] What? "Don't worry, Sal,
I can do seagull. Oh-oh." I swear to God, if they didn't
have the House to work in, I'm not sure half these guys
could find a house to live in. You'd just see a pack
of feral Republicans wandering through the woods,
arguing about which hole to [bleep] in.
"Hey, that's my hole. I found it first!" -Usually, a political party trying to gain power
in a democracy wants to project competence,
even if they have to lie. But Republicans are so mad
at each other, they're just going on TV
every damn day telling American people,
"We suck." -Funding the government is
part of our fundamental duty, and we can't even do that. So, and now here we are at the
11th hour, with a clock ticking, and we can't even
seat a speaker. Man, that says volumes. At first, it was
somewhat comical. Now it's on -- it's bordering
on the on the absurd. -This is not responsible.
We need to elect a Speaker. -This is petty. This is petty. And I'm getting
freaking tired of this. -People are looking
for a perfect system? Well, they shouldn't be looking
at the US House right now. -How does that
make you guys look? -It makes us look like
a bunch of idiots. -No, don't worry.
You did already look like a bunch of idiots,
literally. South Carolina Congresswoman
Nancy Mace wore the "A" on her shirt
for "The Scarlet Letter," apparently not having
read the book. Wyoming Congresswoman
Harriet Hageman brought a lasso
to a GOP meeting, hoping to finally catch
one of them Duke boys, and Jorge Santos
wore a suit jacket over a fleece
over a shirt and tie, a fashion crime more heinous
than any of his actual crimes. Politicians spend
millions every year taking out ads to convince
people they should be in charge, while Republicans are going on
national TV every day for free, telling people
"For the love of God, do not put us in charge." Do you know how rare that is? That's like our cue card guy,
Wally, saying he doesn't want
a line in the show today. Are you sure, Wally? Because you do still get paid
extra if you say a line. -Eh. -Okay, but for real though,
bits aside, how would you solve
this mess in Congress? -Well --
-[ Shouts ] Doesn't count. [ Laughter ] The infighting has
gotten so bad, one Republican member
of Congress just came out and said what many
have long suspected about a large portion
of the Republican Party -- they don't actually
want to govern. -It's a tough scenario,
but there are people in there that are honorably trying
to get to the right place, and then there are people
in there, as you know, that like to go on the TV
and are not necessarily negotiating for anything
other than TV time. -These guys want to be
in the minority. That's exactly --
I think they would prefer that because they can just vote no and yell and scream
all the time. -Yes. That's the whole party
in a nutshell right there. They were Little League
parents screaming at the umpire through the chain link fence, drunk on Thermos wine
at 8:30 a.m. on a Saturday. But now they're the umpire, and it's a lot harder
to be the umpire. You have to crouch
for three hours, keep track of balls
and strikes. Then every now and then,
this happens. -Hits the 0-1. Oh!
-Oh, no! Got the umpire. -Don't worry.
The umpire didn't die. He just wanted to. Can we see what his face
looked like under the mask? [ Laughter ] Republicans like yelling
and screaming so much more
than governing, they looked across the country
at all 300 million Americans, picked the loudest screamer
and said, "Yeah, let's make that guy
the leader of our party." A guy who screams so much,
he's now under two gag orders and still won't shut
the hell up. The guy who does all his press
conferences right next to a 747 just to prove he can
out-yell a jet engine. But that really is
the truth right there. Republicans are not
a serious governing party because they don't have
a serious governing agenda. They don't even
have serious options. With each failed attempt
to pick a Speaker, Republicans don't get together
and say, "We need to do better." They say,
"We need to do worse." And nothing exemplifies
that more than the fact Republicans have moved
on to Ohio Congressman Jim Jordan,
a MAGA extremist who tried to overturn
the 2020 election and played a key role
in the January 6th coup attempt. -Jim Jordan scored former
President Trump's endorsement early this morning, which should come
as no surprise. Here is Jordan in Harrisburg,
Pennsylvania, attending a Stop the Steal rally
two days after Election Day. In the weeks and months
after that, Jordan went on various
right wing media outlets, where he attempted to sow
distrust in the 2020 election and made baseless claims
of election fraud. Jordan's name appears
throughout the bipartisan report from the House Select committee
investigating January 6th. The report says
that Jordan attended numerous post-election meetings with senior White House
officials and Rudy Giuliani, discussing how to challenge
the election results. -Even if you put aside
the attempted coup and Stop the Steal rally,
I think anyone who spends any time in a meeting
with Rudy Giuliani should be
automatically disqualified. Unless that meeting
is an AA meeting, although if you told Rudy
to go to AA, I guarantee you he'd show up
at an American Airlines flight with AA batteries. And that was today's joke
about Rudy mixing up places and things. ♪♪ -America! Even as Mike Pence, who,
as you may recall, and -- [ Laughs ] [ Laughter ] [ Imitates seagull ] Better? Even Mike Pence, who, as you may
recall, and as he maybe doesn't, almost got killed by the mob
on January 6th, had decided to back Jim Jordan, despite the fact that Jordan was
on the side of the mob and tried to sway Pence
to overturn the election. A CNN anchor pointed that out
in an interview with Pence, and his answer
was predictably spineless. -Jim Jordan would be
an outstanding Speaker of the House. The American people want to see the Republican conference
come together, elect a speaker,
and get back to work. -Well, it's interesting to me
to hear you say that Jim Jordan would be
a great speaker, given he was someone who sent a text to the chief
of staff on January 5th that outlined for you
to violate the Constitution and block the certification
of the election. I mean, do you really believe
that's someone who should be third in line
to the presidency? -I have immense respect
for Jim Jordan. He's a man of integrity, and
I've known him for many years. I was not aware
of his opinion going into January 6th --
-So that doesn't bother you? -My interaction with
Congressman Jordan in December was simply over
the legitimate objections that members of Congress were
permitted to file under the law. -"Of all the people
who fomented a violent mob intent on murdering me, there is none I consider
a better man than Jim Jordan. It would be an honor to be
murdered by him." [ Laughs ] Pence's problem is there are
no other options. Here's a perfect example. Republican Congressman
Dan Crenshaw made the case for Jim Jordan
to CNN's Jake Tapper, who pointed out that,
unlike Crenshaw, Jordan pressured Pence
to overturn the election. And Crenshaw basically said
if that disqualified him, there wouldn't be anyone else. -I'm supporting Jordan.
I'm going to vote for Jordan. -I mean, he defied
the congressional subpoena, and he was trying to get Pence
to overturn the electoral votes. But anyway, you're -- you're --
in the -- you're in the Jordan camp.
-But a lot of them did that. If I held that grudge, I wouldn't have friends
in the Republican conference. -Right, that two-thirds of --
-That's a lot of them. -That's two thirds
of the conference. That's an excellent point. -I was on an island there.
-Yeah, I hear you. -I love how they're both
laughing off that deeply depressing fact. But it is a fact.
There are very few Republicans who didn't try to overturn
the 2020 election at this point. Being a Republican
who thinks Biden won is like being
a vegan zombie -- "Do you have anything
other than brains?" That is the core
of the modern GOP. It's not a serious
or competent party that can be trusted with
the responsibility to govern. As far as anyone can tell,
their only discernible position is that January 6th was good,
and anyone involved in that, whether it's Jim Jordan
or Donald Trump, should be in a position
of leadership. Their pitch to the American
people is, "Elect us because we're a..." -Bunch of idiots. -This has been A Closer Look. [ Cheers and applause ]
