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  • Welcome to "Full Frontal."

  • And welcome to 2018.

  • [CHEERING]

  • I hope your New Year's resolution

  • is to register to vote.

  • Because mine is to kick nonvoters in the face.

  • Anyway, last week was like a perfect storm

  • of events designed to piss off our president.

  • It began with something he hates-- bad press-- and ended

  • with something he hates more--

  • women who don't tolerate sexual assault.

  • A new day is on the horizon!

  • [CHEERING]

  • Oh, shit, she broke Laura Dern.

  • OK, but the year's best piece of entertainment

  • wasn't on Sunday night.

  • It was on Sunday morning when journalist and research team

  • panty-wetter Jake Tapper interviewed

  • Trump's senior advisor and human-like casing

  • filled with wriggly squid tentacles, Stephen Miller.

  • When tapper had the audacity to bring up the president's

  • former top aide accusing his son of treason,

  • Miller got riled up.

  • Oh, that's his riled up face.

  • All these so-called political geniuses in Washington,

  • whether it be at the big lobbying

  • firms or many of the well known folks in Congress--

  • The only person who's called himself

  • a genius in the last week is the president.

  • But the--

  • Which is because it happens to be a true statement.

  • OK.

  • A self-made billionaire who revolutionized

  • reality TV and who-- - And I'm sure--

  • --has changed the course of our politics.

  • --he's watching, and he's happy that you said that.

  • Trump was happy, so happy he unfurled

  • one of his precious hairs and gave it to him as a prize.

  • The reason Stephen Miller had to go on TV and pledge

  • his loyalty to Trump was the new book,

  • "Fire and Fury", which has dominated the news for a week.

  • It's insanely popular, like an all-Slytherin Harry Potter.

  • But fun as it is, it's riddled with inaccuracies.

  • It's thinly-sourced and full of typos.

  • I mean, Steve Bannon is gross, but I

  • don't think he does anything with mounting

  • ferocity and pubic venom.

  • [LAUGHTER]

  • Actually, on second thought, that might not be a typo.

  • Bannon's quotes in the book ended

  • the Trump-Bannon bromance, and Trump

  • got full custody of the Pepes.

  • REPORTER: Steve Bannon is out at Breitbart.

  • Well, at least now that he's out of the public eye,

  • he can spend more time doing what he loves--

  • living in a painting and waiting to fight the Ghostbusters.

  • [LAUGHTER]

  • "Fire and Fury" is basically the book-length version of a Trump

  • tweet, only vaguely truth adjacent, but incredibly

  • distracting, which is too bad.

  • Because while everyone on cable news

  • was fixated on Michael Wolff's shoddy ninth-generation Xerox

  • copy of "Game Change", there were

  • actual things happening, like news and stuff or whatever.

  • I don't know.

  • Mostly to brown people.

  • So preparations for the 2020 census.

  • The Department of Justice is now trying to get census

  • to add an additional question on citizenship

  • to that census, which is likely to depress turnout

  • or participation of Hispanics.

  • Putting a citizenship question on the census

  • is a real racist win-win.

  • Either they get a list of undocumented immigrants,

  • or Hispanic people avoid answering the census

  • and lose congressional representatives and funding.

  • Efficient.

  • Look, you can't just add whatever

  • questions you want to the census for your own agenda.

  • Otherwise, George W. Bush would have added,

  • "Do you have a pretty pony?"

  • in anticipation of his painting career.

  • We also missed this teensy little bit of news.

  • The US also formally suspended security aid

  • to Pakistan's military, as President Trump had threatened.

  • The State Department announced the freeze will last

  • until Pakistan takes quote, "decisive action

  • against terrorists."

  • But it said there may be some exceptions.

  • That's right.

  • We've frozen security aid to Pakistan.

  • But there might be some exceptions,

  • like if Pakistan wrote some really nice

  • tweets about the president.

  • Giving tons of money to a broken state like Pakistan does suck.

  • The only thing that sucks more is not giving them money.

  • Cutting them off means cutting ourselves off

  • from the most accessible routes into Afghanistan, which

  • our military needs to bring our troops

  • important supplies and the comedians

  • we're trying to get rid of.

  • This shit is complicated.

  • Not just "Frontline" complicated,

  • like two-part "Frontline" complicated.

  • But it matters.

  • 2018 is going to be a really important year, guys,

  • and we need to keep our eye on the ball.

  • We can't count on pundits to help.

  • They're gonna keep getting distracted by the nonsense

  • of the day like fruitless speculation

  • about Trump's mental health.

  • The new White House expose revealed even the president's

  • inner circle has concerns about whether he

  • is mentally fit, mentally competent to run the country.

  • How mentally fit the president is

  • in terms of his age and ability to comprehend information.

  • Do you believe the president is mentally

  • fit to serve as president?

  • [LAUGHTER]

  • Well--

  • Wow, now they all have dementia.

  • Is President Trump OK?

  • Fuck no!

  • He thinks his microwave is listening to him

  • and that everything is poison but cheeseburgers.

  • But crazy is what the American people chose.

  • Yes, Trump is easily distracted, doesn't care about the truth,

  • and focuses on whatever shiny thing is in front of him.

  • But if that's enough to get you declared mentally incompetent,

  • they're going to need to build a bigger asylum.

  • We'll be right back.

  • [CHEERING]

Welcome to "Full Frontal."

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