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  • -There is no sign that the government shutdown

  • will end any time soon,

  • and now the president wants a primetime address

  • to repeat his lies. For more on this,

  • it's time for "A Closer Look."

  • [ Cheers and applause ]

  • ♪♪

  • -Our political system feels like it's at a breaking point.

  • It was always fragile, but then Donald Trump

  • came along and wrecked it.

  • He's like the guy at a party

  • watching a game of "Jenga,"

  • going [ As Trump ] "Take that one! No, that one!"

  • [ Normal voice ] And then finally, someone says,

  • "You know what -- if you think it's so easy, you try it."

  • And then he just lights the "Jenga" tower on fire.

  • [ Laughter ]

  • [ As Trump ] Boom, now I collect the insurance money,

  • build a bigger tower. [ Laughter ]

  • [ Normal voice ] There is no more basic test

  • of a political leader than this --

  • Can you keep the government running?

  • And Trump is now again failing that test

  • for the third time in his presidency.

  • In real life, you don't get rehired after that.

  • He's like a stoner working at a pizza place.

  • "Hey, Kevin, how was business today?"

  • "Oh, yeah, it was really slow, man."

  • "Did you unlock the front door?"

  • "Ohhhhh, maaan!"

  • [ Laughter and applause ]

  • "I'm sorry, Kevin.

  • You have given me no choice, Kevin

  • You're going to get the Cecil B. DeMille award."

  • [ Laughter ]

  • And the government shutdown that is now in its third week

  • isn't just a political fight over a useless border wall

  • that Trump repeatedly said Mexico would pay for.

  • It's having real world consequences

  • for millions of people from federal workers

  • going without pay to anyone who flies on an airplane.

  • -15 Federal Agencies are affected by the shutdown.

  • 420,000 federal employees are working without pay,

  • and 380,000 employees are now on unpaid leave.

  • -Federal Tax refunds will be delayed.

  • Food stamps for 38-million Americans will be cut.

  • Millions of people will lose rental assistance payments,

  • and union leaders say hundreds of TSA workers

  • are already off the job.

  • -Already hundreds of TSA employees have missed work

  • at major airports across the country.

  • It's fueling concerns of possible security risks

  • and travel disruptions.

  • -Can you imagine what a nightmare that'll be?

  • It's a major disruption when one TSA agent

  • has to go get more plastic bins.

  • [ Laughter ]

  • Think about that -- Donald Trump is such a bad president,

  • he found a way to make air travel worse

  • than it already was.

  • By the end of his term, the only airline will be Spirit.

  • The only in-flight movie will be "Dirty Grandpa,"

  • and every seat will be a middle seat.

  • [ Laughter and applause ]

  • We are a self-inflicted crisis over a government shutdown

  • because the president is incompetent and unhinged.

  • He's virtually incapable of uttering

  • a truthful or coherent thought about almost anything.

  • Just take one of the most basic responsibilities of his job --

  • national security.

  • Here's Trump from last week

  • describing a meeting with generals at the Pentagon

  • who tried to brief him

  • on dangerous spots around the world.

  • -When I became president,

  • I had a meeting at the Pentagon with lots of generals.

  • They were like from a movie.

  • Better looking than Tom Cruise and stronger.

  • [ Light laughter ]

  • And I had more generals than I've ever seen.

  • And we were at the bottom of this incredible room.

  • I said, this is the greatest room I've ever seen.

  • I saw more computer boards than I think that they make today.

  • [ Laughter ]

  • -Why -- why does he always sound like a co-worker

  • telling you about a dream he had?

  • [ Laughter ]

  • [ As Trump ] There were -- There were generals,

  • and we were in this room with computer boards, right?

  • And you were there, but you weren't you. You know?

  • [ Laughter ]

  • You had your head, but my body!

  • [ Laughter ]

  • [ Normal voice ] At that same meeting,

  • Trump rattled off a bizarre and incoherent explanation

  • of the Russian invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.

  • Now the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan was condemned

  • at the time and since.

  • Only Russia has tried to justify it

  • until last week, when the president of the United States

  • publicly stated for the first time that Russia was right

  • to invade and occupy Afghanistan.

  • -Russia used to be the Soviet Union.

  • Afghanistan made it Russia,

  • because they went bankrupt fighting in Afghanistan.

  • Russia. The reason Russia was in Afghanistan

  • was because terrorists were going into Russia.

  • They were right to be there.

  • The problem is it was a tough fight.

  • And literally they went bankrupt.

  • They went into being called Russia again,

  • as opposed to the Soviet Union.

  • -Look, sometimes you get involved in something

  • that goes so badly, you have to change your name.

  • For example, you take a job as Donald J. Trump,

  • and you leave it as Prisoner 567891.

  • [ Cheers and applause ]

  • Although, let's be honest. Let's be honest.

  • Best outcome, Trump cooperates with Mueller,

  • rolls on everyone else, and goes into witness protection.

  • [ As Trump ] Hi, I'm your new neighbor, Ronald Bump.

  • [ Laughter ]

  • I don't want to say why I moved here,

  • but it was Obama's fault.

  • [ Laughter ]

  • [ Normal voice ] Also, I love how Trump thinks

  • it's an amazing insight

  • to say Russia used to be the Soviet Union.

  • He thought it was so impressive, he said it twice.

  • -Russia used to be the Soviet Union.

  • They went into being called Russia again,

  • as opposed to the Soviet Union.

  • -Wow! Really, Dr. History?

  • Russia used to be the Soviet Union?

  • This sounds like when the gym teacher

  • has to cover social studies for a week.

  • All right. All right, everybody, settle down!

  • We're going to watch "Red Dawn."

  • [ Laughter ]

  • And that was nothing compared to the stream

  • of incoherent nonsense Trump reeled off at a press conference

  • at the White House on Friday after a meeting

  • with Congressional leaders on the shutdown.

  • The press conference got crazier as it went on,

  • including a point in which Trump tried incoherently

  • to explain how migrants cross the Southern border.

  • -We've already built a lot of the wall.

  • We have renovated a tremendous amount of wall.

  • I just told you, we did a lot of wall in San Diego.

  • Steel is stronger than concrete.

  • So if I have a steel wall

  • or you could call it a steel fence --

  • We're not talking about games.

  • And I called up.

  • I said, "Hi, it's President Trump.

  • What's going on?" They said, "President Trump,

  • we don't know who that is."

  • They come in through these vast, open areas.

  • They get off the road,

  • and they drive out into the desert,

  • and they come in, they make a left turn.

  • Usually it's a left, not a right.

  • These coyotes and these human traffickers,

  • they make a right turn before they get to the port of entry.

  • They go as far as the wall is, or as far as the barricade is,

  • and then they make a left.

  • Welcome to the United States.

  • -The coyotes drive across the border,

  • they make a right, then a left, they go as far as the wall,

  • and then it's welcome to the United States.

  • That idea is so insane and incoherent,

  • there's a good chance he got it from watching cartoons.

  • [ As Trump ] These coyotes, they're strapping themselves

  • to rockets and shooting themselves over the border,

  • so we have to build a wall and we have to paint a tunnel on it.

  • [ Laughter ]

  • That's how you get 'em, with the tunnel.

  • [ Cheers and applause ] You get 'em with the tunnel.

  • [ Normal voice ] Trump started out the press conference

  • by inviting Congressional leaders to speak,

  • and just to give an idea of how fried his brain is,

  • watch how he thanks house Republican minority leader

  • Kevin McCarthy after his comments.

  • Once again, this is Kevin McCarthy speaking.

  • -We will stay in the room and get this job done.

  • And there was progress today. I look forward to solving it.

  • -Thank you, Steve. -I mean...

  • [ Laughter ]

  • Now, now...

  • in fairness to Trump,

  • if you forget an old white guy's name,

  • you have a decent chance if you just throw out a Steve.

  • [ Laughter ]

  • But maybe the wildest thing Steve said on --

  • [ Chuckles ] Steve.

  • [ Laughter ]

  • [Bleep] this guy.

  • [ Laughter ]

  • This guy. [Bleep]

  • Hey! Hey, you got a glass house over there?!

  • [ Laughter ]

  • Oh, it's good to be back.

  • [ Laughter ]

  • But maybe the wildest thing Trump said on Friday

  • was when he threatened to start building the wall unilaterally

  • by declaring a national emergency.

  • -Have you considered using emergency powers

  • to grant yourself authorities to build this wall

  • without Congressional approval? And second --

  • -Yes, I have. -You have?

  • -Yes, I have. And I can do it if I want.

  • -So you don't need Congressional approval to build the wall?

  • -No, we can use them -- absolutely.

  • We can call a national emergency

  • because of the security of our country, absolutely.

  • No, we can do it. I haven't done it.

  • I may do it. I may do it.

  • But we could call a national emergency

  • and build it very quickly.

  • -Just a side note here -- reporters,

  • stop asking questions like that.

  • [ Laughter ]

  • There's a good chance that Trump

  • never thought about using emergency power

  • until that reporter brought it up.

  • He is very suggestible. A reporter could say,

  • "Mr. President, have you thought about wearing

  • a military uniform everywhere and executing your enemies

  • in the rose garden?" And he would go,

  • [ As Trump ] "We're looking into that very strongly.

  • Did you get that? Write that down, I like that."

  • [ Laughter ]

  • [ Normal voice ] Apparently, that performance

  • wasn't crazy enough, because today Trump announced

  • he wants to address the nation on Tuesday night,

  • and even in his tweet announcing the speech, Trump lied.

  • He tweeted, "I'm pleased to inform you that I will address

  • the nation on the humanitarian and national security crisis

  • on our Southern border Tuesday night at 9:00 P.M. Eastern."

  • Okay, first of all, just because Trump wants to address

  • the nation doesn't mean networks should air it.

  • Otherwise they're just passing on his lies unfiltered.

  • They should either reject him outright,

  • or if he insists on speaking in primetime,

  • make him do it as a contestant on "The Masked Singer."

  • -They get off the road,

  • and they drive out into the desert and they come in,

  • they make a left turn.

  • Usually it's a left, not a right.

  • [ Laughter ] -Second...

  • [ Cheers and applause ]

  • ...there's no national security crisis at the border.

  • Trump and his aides keep repeating the debunked lie

  • that terrorists are sneaking in from Mexico.

  • Yesterday, Sarah Huckabee Sanders tried it

  • on Fox News and got fact-checked by Chris Wallace.

  • -We know that roughly,

  • nearly 4,000 known or suspected terrorists

  • come into our country illegally.

  • And we know that our most vulnerable point of entry...

  • -Wait, wait, wait. -...is at our Southern border.

  • -Because I know this statistic.

  • I didn't know if you were going to use it,

  • but I studied up on this.

  • Do you know where those 4,000 people come --

  • where they're captured?

  • Airports. -Not always.

  • -Airports. -But certainly a large number --

  • -The State Department says there hasn't been any terrorist

  • that they've found coming across the Southern border from Mexico.

  • -It's by air, it's by land, and it's by sea.

  • It's all of the above. -No, it's not.

  • It's only by air.

  • As soon as they fact-check her, she turns into Paul Revere.

  • It's one if by land, two if by sea, and 4,000 by air!

  • [ Laughter ]

  • Also, look at her face.

  • She has literally never heard a reporter use the words,

  • "I studied up on this before."

  • [ Laughter ]

  • That's her "Oh, [bleep] face."

  • She can't -- cannot believe...

  • [ Cheers and applause ]

  • She cannot believe she is being fact-checked

  • by someone on Fox News.

  • As soon as that interviewed ended,

  • she stormed off the set and screamed,

  • "Who let them have Google?!" [ Laughter ]

  • Trump is totally incoherent and incapable of telling the truth.

  • He shouldn't get to address the nation just to repeat his lies.

  • If he calls up the networks asking for air time,

  • they should pick up the phone and say...

  • -President Trump? We don't know who that is.

  • [ Laughter ] -This has been "A Closer Look."

  • [ Cheers and applause ]

  • ♪♪

-There is no sign that the government shutdown

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