-We are in the worst stage
of the pandemic so far, and the outgoing president is
laser-focused on two things -- overturning the election results and counter-programming
Joe Biden's inauguration. For more on this,
it's time for "A Closer Look." ♪♪ Until Trump emerged for his
unhinged rally in Georgia this weekend, the nation
was watching a bizarre split screen
where on one side, you had the incoming president, who doesn't actually have
any power yet, addressing the nation
on a regular basis, consulting his team of medical
advisers, laying out his plans, and calling for action amid
the worst national crisis in a hundred years,
and on the other side, you had the current president in a sort of self-imposed
hibernation from which he emerged
only rarely to give bizarre minute-long
press conferences about the stock market
or lumber around his golf course by himself like a hungover
Bigfoot on vacation. [ As Trump ] No pictures.
No pictures, please. [ Normal voice ] And not only
has he been avoiding public appearances,
he's apparently avoiding private ones, too. Amid the worst stage
of the pandemic, with the country setting new
records for cases, hospitalizations, and deaths, Trump has been ignoring his own
COVID task force. -The task force will remain
together, though of course a question is
how often they're going to continue to meet with
the Vice President. They've been trying to resume
their weekly schedule they had maintained before
the election, but our reporting still shows
President Trump himself has still not attended
a coronavirus task force meeting in months. -I mean,
obviously he should be there. But it is a little like Hawkeye not showing up
to an Avengers meeting. They can probably go ahead
and start without him. You know what? I'm just going to
put him down for arrows, and if I'm wrong, we can change
it when he shows up. Obviously it would be ideal to
have a president who, you know, cares that thousands of
Americans are dying every day. But I have to imagine it might
also be a bit of a relief to the members of the task force
when Trump doesn't show up to distract everybody
with dumb questions. "As you'll see here,
Mr. President, the virus is now spiking in almost every region
of the country. [ As Trump ] Uh, yeah,
just spitballing here -- is it possible it spiked
in a way that could have led to voter fraud in say -- again, this is just off
the top of my head -- Nevada, Pennsylvania, Michigan,
and Georgia? [ Normal voice ]
"I'm sorry, Mr. President, how would that even happen?" [ As Trump ]
It's a spitball, guys. You can't ask follow-ups
to the spitballs. It's like the first rule
of spitballs. Because then you're
deincentivizing the spitballs. [ Normal voice ] Of course,
if he had showed up to any of those meetings,
he would have heard dire warnings like this from one
of his own medical advisers. -This is not just the worst
public health event. This is the worst event
that this country will face, not just from a public health
side. -Yeah. 2020 is one of
the [bleep] years on record, and it's ending in the [bleep]
possible way. Which, I guess, is exactly
what you'd expect. You don't watch "Paul Blart"
hoping it's going to turn into "Citizen Kane" in the third act. [ Gruff voice ] They didn't have
Mankz writing the script! [ Laughter ] [ Normal voice ] We could have
easily been prepared for this. Instead, we have to hope
our current president is sitting at home in his
sweatpants channel surfing and accidentally clicking past
"Meet the Press" on his way to watching,
I don't know, an episode of "Ghost Hunters,"
hoping they find one who voted for Biden. Because Trump doesn't listen
to his advisers. Instead, Trump prefers
to get his information about the pandemic from medical
experts like this guy. -I have the best analogy
which I hope makes sense. -Okay, ohh, let me stop you
right there. If you have the best analogy, you shouldn't have to hope
it makes sense. Then again, you shouldn't be on
TV if you can't tie your shoes without doing
the whole rabbit story out loud. But go on,
let's hear this analogy. -Pete Rose is going through
a divorce in the '70s, and it was brutal. It was on the front pages
of every headline. They said, "Pete,
you are hitting .360 while you're going through this
public divorce. It's brutal." And he said, "I would rather
go through a divorce
