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  • A president accused of a crime

  • is insisting we need a border wall to prevent crime.

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

  • [ Cheers and applause ]

  • There's a phrase politicians on both sides of the aisle

  • have been using for decades,

  • and that is "we are a nation of laws,"

  • but in particular, Republicans and President Trump

  • have used it in recent years to justify policies

  • that target groups they want to punish

  • like their political opponents or undocumented immigrants.

  • -We are a nation of laws, and we need to uphold those laws.

  • -You have to understand we're a nation of laws.

  • Do you respect that?

  • -Under the Trump administration,

  • America is once more a nation of laws.

  • -Of course, the more we learn about Trump,

  • the more I think he means that as a complaint.

  • "They won't let me do anything around here.

  • It's like we're a nation of laws."

  • [ Laughter ]

  • And Trump has even used the "nation of laws" line

  • when asked specifically about vulnerable people

  • fleeing poverty and violence

  • and seeking asylum here in the U.S.,

  • which is a legal right

  • under both U.S. and international law.

  • -The caravan has arrived at the U.S. border.

  • -We've been watching it. We've been watching it.

  • -And I'm just wondering in your opinion or in your estimation,

  • what percentage of those people do you believe

  • are deserving of asylum in the U.S.?

  • -Well, I won't get into percentages,

  • but we are a nation of laws.

  • -I love when Trump says, "I won't get into percentages,"

  • because what he really means is

  • "I don't understand percentages."

  • If you asked him how much fat is in 2% milk,

  • he'd be up all night at a chalkboard

  • doing math like in "Good Will Hunting."

  • And when you asked him what the answer was, he'd say,

  • "All I know is I ate the chalk.

  • How do you like them apples?!"

  • [ Laughter ]

  • But it's especially infuriating to watch Trump

  • pretend to care about the law when his own Justice Department

  • just accused him of a crime

  • for paying hush money to cover up affairs.

  • Today the man who made those payments,

  • Trump's ex-fixer Michael Cohen,

  • was sentenced to three years in jail.

  • And during the hearing, Cohen told the court

  • in no uncertain terms that he committed those crimes

  • at the direction of Donald Trump.

  • -The former Trump attorney and fixer Michael Cohen

  • speaking moments ago inside a New York federal courtroom.

  • Cohen now says he accepts

  • "full responsibility" for his crimes,

  • the one he committed on his own

  • and the ones he and prosecutors say

  • he committed at the direction

  • of the President of the United States.

  • -Federal prosecutors working for the Department of Justice

  • now claiming that then-candidate Trump

  • directed illegal hush money to two women

  • during the 2016 campaign.

  • -For the first time, you have federal prosecutors

  • essentially saying

  • that Donald Trump committed a felony.

  • -Damn. Forget running for re-election.

  • In two years, Trump might be running from the feds.

  • The FBI is going to bust into a cabin in Montana

  • and find Trump with a Unabomber beard

  • surrounded by Burger King wrappers.

  • "Wait. Wait. How -- How did you find me?"

  • "Um, you put your name on the cabin."

  • [ Laughter ]

  • [ Cheers and applause ]

  • "Ohh. Ohh!"

  • Republicans have spent years insisting

  • that we can't admit immigrants fleeing poverty and violence

  • because we're a nation of laws,

  • and yet now that the actual Justice Department

  • has accused the President of the United States

  • of committing a crime, suddenly Republicans

  • are getting very squishy on that whole "nation of laws" thing.

  • And the best example of that is Utah Senator Orrin Hatch,

  • who tried to claim the Cohen charges

  • were part of a Democratic conspiracy to take down Trump.

  • -The Democrats will do anything to hurt this president.

  • Anything.

  • -But it's not the Democrats.

  • It's the Southern District of New York, the U.S. Attorney.

  • I mean, that's what's making this allegation.

  • -Okay, but I don't care.

  • -I love how he starts out with one argument

  • and then, when that argument is rebutted,

  • just says, "I don't care."

  • That is such a classic old-man move.

  • "Grandpa, you can't park there." "But it's empty."

  • "It's a sidewalk!" "I don't care!"

  • What all this makes clear

  • is that the GOP's immigration rhetoric

  • was never about respect for the rule of law.

  • It was about punishing immigrants.

  • And that was on display yet again in yesterday's

  • surreal meeting with Democratic leaders in the Oval Office

  • where the President threatened to shut down the government

  • unless he gets funding for his border wall.

  • Watch him bicker with Democratic leaders

  • Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi, who successfully bait him

  • into admitting that he actually wants a government shutdown.

  • -I think the American people recognize

  • that we must keep government open,

  • that a shutdown is not worth anything

  • and that we should not have a Trump shutdown.

  • -You said Trump --

  • -You have the White House, you have the Senate.

  • -The one thing I think we can agree on

  • is we shouldn't shut down the government over a dispute.

  • And you want to shut it down. You keep talking about it.

  • -The last time, Chuck, you shut it down.

  • -No, no, no.

  • -And then you opened it very quickly.

  • I don't want to do what you did.

  • -20 times, you have called for --

  • "I will shut down the government if I don't get my wall."

  • None of us have said -- -You want to know something?

  • -You've said it.

  • -You want to put that on my -- I'll take it.

  • -Okay. Good. -You know what I'll say?

  • Yes, if we don't get what we want, one way or the other,

  • whether it's through you, through our military,

  • through anything you want to call,

  • I will shut down the government. -Okay. Fair enough.

  • We disagree. -And I'll tell you what.

  • I am proud to shut down the government

  • for border security, Chuck.

  • -Look how happy Chuck Schumer is

  • that he got Donald Trump to admit.

  • That's how he looks when he sees a sign that says "free soup."

  • [ Laughter ]

  • Pelosi then reminded Trump that until January

  • Republicans still control all three branches of government

  • and could easily pass a government funding bill

  • on their own, and Trump responded

  • by trying to teach Pelosi how Congress works.

  • -You have the votes, you should pass it.

  • -No, we don't have the votes, Nancy, because in the Senate

  • we need 60 votes, and we don't have it.

  • -No, no, but in the House. You could bring it up right now.

  • -Yeah, but I can't -- Excuse me.

  • The House we could get it passed very easily, and we do,

  • but the problem is the Senate

  • because we need 10 Democrats to vote.

  • Nancy, I'd have it passed in two seconds.

  • It doesn't matter, though,

  • because we can't get it passed in the Senate

  • because we need 10 Democrat votes.

  • And the House would give me the vote if I wanted it,

  • but I can't because I need --

  • Nancy, I need 10 votes from Chuck.

  • -I'm sorry. Are you explaining

  • how legislation works to Nancy Pelosi?

  • You might as well try explaining basketball to LeBron James.

  • "And if you stand behind this line,

  • it counts as 3 points, LeBaron."

  • Of course if you don't want to say something stupid,

  • the other option is to not say anything at all,

  • and that's the strategy Vice President Mike Pence chose.

  • I mean, look at how still he was during this meeting.

  • He looks like a grandpa staring off in the distance

  • while his children fight

  • over whether to put him in a nursing home.

  • [Grumbling]

  • "Uh...I want to stay.

  • I want to say in my..." [ Laughs ]

  • Every few minutes, he'd shoot out of his chair

  • and have a flashback to Vietnam.

  • "They're in the trees!"

  • He barely moved!

  • Is that the real Mike Pence or did he pull a Ferris Bueller

  • and put a mannequin in his place that looks exactly like --

  • During that meeting, the real Mike Pence

  • was driving a Ferrari to a Cubs game and singing in a parade.

  • [ Laughter ]

  • Even Nancy Pelosi,

  • who has been in professional politics for decades,

  • had to admit that arguing with Trump in front of the TV cameras

  • was one of the most surreal experiences of her career.

  • And her description of the meeting kept getting weirder.

  • For example, she later described to her Democratic colleagues

  • what Trump said in private once the cameras were off.

  • "He said at the end of the meeting,

  • 'We can go two routes with this meeting --

  • with a knife or with a candy.'"

  • Why is he so weird?

  • [ Laughter ]

  • Knife and candy aren't the two ways to have a meeting.

  • They're the two ways to get somebody into a van.

  • [ Laughter ]

  • It's like "Head Injuries Untouchables."

  • "They bring a knife, you bring a candy.

  • That's the Dum Dum way."

  • What all this makes clear is the GOP's immigration rhetoric

  • was never about respect or the rule of law.

  • All they want is their stupid border wall,

  • and they want us to pay for it.

  • And Democrats are responding by saying...

  • -I don't care.

  • -This has been "A Closer Look."

A president accused of a crime

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