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  • President Trump is threatening a government shutdown

  • over funding for his border wall

  • just as he faces the most serious legal peril

  • of his presidency.

  • For more on this, it's time for "A Closer Look."

  • [ Cheers and applause ]

  • It's worth remembering that when 2018 began,

  • we didn't know anything about illegal hush payments

  • to porn stars, a secret resister inside the Trump administration,

  • or the fact that Rudy Giuliani

  • always looks like he just sat on a box of thumbtacks.

  • When the year began,

  • Republicans controlled all three branches of government

  • and they were celebrating the passage of a corporate tax cut

  • to line the pockets of millionaires.

  • And to take a victory lap at the time,

  • Trump turned to his creepiest aide,

  • senior adviser Stephen Miller.

  • [ Thunder crashes ]

  • [ Witch cackles ]

  • -You rang?

  • -Miller decided to go on TV and make the President look good --

  • A, by comparison, and, B, by calling him a genius.

  • -On the campaign, I had the chance to travel

  • all across the country with the President,

  • and I saw a man who was a political genius.

  • The reality is is the President is a political genius.

  • All these so-called political geniuses in Washington,

  • whether it be at the big lobbying firms or --

  • -The only person who's called him a genius in the last week

  • is the President.

  • -Because it happens to be a true statement.

  • -Ugh.

  • Stephen Miller is the only person on Earth

  • who'd be less creepy if he wore a hockey mask.

  • But, hey, maybe some of Trump's supporters

  • still thought he was a genius,

  • and yet in the almost 12 months since that comment,

  • Trump has rambled at length about how people in Finland

  • rake the floors of the forest,

  • left an umbrella outside

  • when he couldn't figure out how to close it,

  • got on Air Force One with toilet paper stuck to his shoe,

  • and said this about a hurricane.

  • -They haven't seen anything like what's coming at us

  • in 25, 30 years, maybe ever.

  • It's tremendously big and tremendously wet.

  • [ Laughter ]

  • -Tremendously big and tremendously wet

  • sounds like something Stephen Miller would say

  • about Donald Trump.

  • As we've learned this year,

  • the President is just a weird, weird man.

  • He's like a space alien with a head injury

  • who just took his first bong rip.

  • "It is a pleasure to meet you, fellow human.

  • I am enjoying the traditional Earth greeting of shaking hands

  • for exactly one full minute.

  • And now let us all display our patriotism

  • by engaging in the customary hugging of the flag.

  • I am normal!"

  • [ Laughter ]

  • [ Applause ]

  • But you'd think a political genius

  • could at least figure out a way

  • to deliver on the one thing he repeatedly told his supporters

  • he would absolutely do, and that's build the wall.

  • And yet today, Trump threatened

  • the very real possibility of a government shutdown

  • because he didn't get any money for the wall.

  • In fact, it's finally starting to dawn on his supporters

  • that the wall is never going to happen,

  • and they are very upset about it.

  • -Democrats are going to win on this.

  • There will be no money

  • for the President and his wall this time.

  • -Not a penny!

  • Forget wall. Think border security.

  • -I think that not funding the wall is going to go down

  • as one of the worst, worst things

  • to have happened to this administration.

  • Forget Mueller. The wall, the wall, the wall has to be built.

  • And this was a scandal that it hasn't been built.

  • -Well, it's very sad. We needed the wall.

  • -That's a real fight, and I don't know

  • that he minds dragging it out for a while.

  • -Is it something he just needs --

  • -...series of two-week agreements.

  • -It is something he just needs to give up on, though?

  • -Wow, man. They're talking about the wall

  • like they just lost a pet.

  • Trump's gonna have to have

  • a special chat with the Fox & Friends.

  • "Mr. Trump, where'd the wall go?"

  • "It went to a farm upstate

  • to live with all the other walls."

  • Because he knows he's never

  • gonna get any money for his wall.

  • Trump has been lying

  • and claiming he's already building it

  • just by putting up some fencing with existing money.

  • But now supporters are starting to figure out

  • that's also a lie.

  • Here's Trump lying about the wall followed by a very confused

  • Laura Ingraham trying to figure out what he means.

  • -A lot of wall has been built. We don't talk about that.

  • But we might as well start because it's building --

  • It's being built right now. Big sections of wall.

  • And we will continue that.

  • -Uh, wh-- I must have missed the wall being built.

  • What wall? Where's it being built, Tom?

  • -I think what he means is they're upgrading certain parts of the wall.

  • -That's not a wall. Stop saying it's a wall. There's no wall.

  • If you want a wall, say, "We don't have the wall."

  • I know it's bad because he made the promise,

  • but they're not building the wall.

  • -Wow!

  • She went through all five stages of grief in five seconds.

  • It's like watching someone

  • realize they're in the Matrix in real time.

  • "This isn't real! None of this is real!"

  • So, today, Trump, the political genius,

  • said at the last minute he would not sign a deal

  • to keep the government open, and in response,

  • outgoing House Speaker Paul Ryan

  • scrambled to find a way to get him money for his wall,

  • which is a fitting end to Paul Ryan's career.

  • Ryan had spent all year loyally serving Trump

  • and ignoring his many abuses of power,

  • even openly admitting

  • he doesn't pay attention to Trump's scandals.

  • -Mark Sanford yesterday,

  • speaking on the Stormy Daniels story,

  • said allegations of hush money are a big deal.

  • I guess first question is,

  • do you agree with that characterization?

  • -I haven't put a second of thought into this.

  • It's just not on my radar screen.

  • -This must bother you.

  • "Access Hollywood," Stormy Daniels, Karen McDougal.

  • At a certain point, it must be embarrassing.

  • -Well, look, I didn't read the article.

  • -Is it appropriate, in your view,

  • for the White House to invoke executive...and deny --

  • -No. I'm not familiar with exactly what happened yesterday.

  • I've been a little busy with some other tasks.

  • -Man, Paul Ryan might be a bad House Speaker,

  • but he'd be a great roommate.

  • "Hey, Paul, my friends are coming over to watch

  • the UFC fight, and then my punk band's gonna practice."

  • "That's cool. I'll be busy with other tasks."

  • Yesterday in his farewell address,

  • Ryan decried what he called our broken politics,

  • but Ryan is the one who spent two years

  • ignoring Trump's many scandals

  • and actively praising Trump in truly absurd ways,

  • like when the GOP passed their corporate tax cut.

  • -Something this big, something this generational,

  • something this profound could not have been done

  • without exquisite presidential leadership.

  • -I'm sorry. Did you just use the word "exquisite"

  • to describe Donald Trump?

  • You're talking about him like he's an art installation

  • at the Guggenheim.

  • He's not exactly a Picasso.

  • I mean, look at him. If he looks like anything,

  • he looks like he was painted by Edvard Munch.

  • [ Laughter ]

  • Although, you know what? He'd fit right in

  • in that Salvador Dalí painting with all those melting clocks.

  • Watching Ryan frantically try to scrape together money for Trump's border wall

  • is a fitting way for his career to end.

  • Ryan used high-minded rhetoric

  • about the importance of our institutions

  • while Trump degraded those institutions.

  • For example, Ryan had nothing to say

  • when the President's lawyer, Rudy Giuliani,

  • went on TV and literally said that truth isn't truth.

  • -When you tell me that, you know, he should testify

  • because he's going to tell the truth and he shouldn't worry,

  • well, that's so silly because

  • it's somebody's version of the truth, not the truth.

  • He didn't have a conversation --

  • -Truth is truth. I don't mean to go, like --

  • -No, it isn't truth! Truth isn't truth!

  • The President of the United States says, "I didn't --"

  • -Truth is a truth. Mr. Mayor, do you realize what --

  • This is gonna become a bad meme.

  • -No. No, no. Don't do this to me.

  • -In every interview, every interview,

  • Rudy sounds like a grandpa

  • whose adult children just put him in a nursing home.

  • "Don't do this to me!

  • I can live on my own! Just get me a stair lift!"

  • Also, can we go back to this part real quick?

  • -This is gonna become a bad meme.

  • -Chuck Todd, why are you talking to this guy about memes?

  • He doesn't know what a meme is.

  • Rudy probably things a meme is one of those guys

  • who pretends to be trapped behind an invisible wall.

  • Well, truth is truth, and now the truth

  • is starting to catch up to Rudy and Trump

  • like when we learned recently that Trump

  • and his former lawyer, Michael Cohen,

  • had lied about plans to build a Trump Tower in Moscow

  • during the 2016 campaign.

  • After insisting that he never

  • had any business deals in Russia,

  • Trump went back on all that and admitted he did try

  • to build a Trump Tower in Moscow

  • but insisted it wasn't that big a deal.

  • -It was during the early part of '16

  • and I guess even before that.

  • It lasted a short period of time.

  • I didn't do the project. I decided not to do the project.

  • So I didn't do it. So we're not talking about doing a project.

  • We're talking about not doing a project.

  • We decided -- I decided ultimately not to do it.

  • There would have been nothing wrong if I did do it.

  • If I did do it, there would have been nothing wrong.

  • That was a project that we didn't do, I didn't do.

  • It was just reported very well by Catherine Herridge,

  • who's a terrific reporter on Fox.

  • She talks about a letter that he signed.

  • I don't even remember it.

  • And it specifically talks about this deal.

  • -Trump only knows three words, and then when he runs out,

  • he starts drawing invisible squares with his hand.

  • I guess you could call him a French meme.

  • The Trump Tower project was apparently so serious

  • that there was actually an official letter of intent

  • signaling that Trump wanted to go forward with it.

  • Now, you heard Trump there say

  • he didn't really know anything about that letter.

  • And on top of that, Rudy insists that the letter

  • wasn't a big deal for one important reason.

  • He told CNN there was a letter of intent to go forward

  • but no one signed it.

  • Oh, come on, Rudy. That's your excuse?

  • No one signed it? What's next?

  • "He tried to mail it, but he doesn't know Putin's address."

  • [ Laughter ]

  • Well, you will never guess what happened.

  • This week, we found out that Rudy was either lying

  • or very wrong when he said no one signed the letter.

  • -This is the letter of intent

  • for the proposed Trump Tower Moscow.

  • All right? It is signed by Donald J. Trump.

  • It's a lot of pages, man, with a lot of detail

  • about what they wanted and how they wanted it

  • and how he'd be paid.

  • And there's his signature. Okay?

  • -So Trump lied about the letter, too.

  • Mr. President, let me put this in a way you'll understand.

  • You went on TV and said you didn't sign the letter.

  • But now the feds might bust down your door and put you in a cell,

  • and then we'll be stuck with President Mike Pence.

  • [ Cheers and applause ]

  • So...

  • how did Rudy explain the fact that Trump's signature

  • actually does appear in the letter?

  • He said he was confused.

  • -Rudy Giuliani is commenting to our Dana Bash, a new comment.

  • I'm seeing that he was wrong

  • if he said that the President didn't sign this letter.

  • He said, "I haven't seen the quote,

  • but I probably meant to say that there was never a deal,

  • much less a signed one."

  • So some very, very confusing statements from Rudy Giuliani.

  • You don't want a lawyer,

  • especially one working for the President of the United States,

  • who is going to say two things

  • completely opposite of one another.

  • -You wouldn't, but that's exactly

  • the kind of lawyer Donald Trump wants.

  • He thinks he's psyching everyone out

  • by putting a crazy person on TV.

  • Trump watched "Lethal Weapon" and thought,

  • "I want a lawyer like that!"

  • Every Rudy interview basically goes like this.

  • -Joining me now is the President's attorney.

  • -Yeah, you want to see crazy?

  • -Trump is in serious legal jeopardy

  • just as Democrats prepare to take over the House,

  • and he's hoping he can salvage his presidency

  • by threatening a shutdown over his wall.

  • I'm not saying he's scared, but his pants are...

  • -Tremendously wet.

  • -This has been "A Closer Look."

President Trump is threatening a government shutdown

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