🔍
Republicans Freak Out About DC Statehood and the Green New Deal: A Closer Look - YouTube
Channel: Late Night with Seth Meyers
[0]
-Today, House Democrats voted
[2]
to admit Washington, D.C.
as the 51st state,
[6]
despite some truly dumb
objections from Republicans,
[8]
who've spent the week
[9]
freaking out about everything
from D.C. statehood
[11]
to voting rights,
to the Green New Deal.
[13]
For more on this,
it's time for "A Closer Look."
[15]
♪♪
[19]
I have to say,
it is such a relief
[21]
to not have to care
[22]
about what Donald Trump says
or does anymore.
[24]
I mean, he did
a sit-down interview
[25]
with Sean Hannity
earlier this week
[27]
and we haven't mentioned it once
or played a single clip from it.
[30]
If he was still president,
we would've had to cover it,
[32]
but, now,
we can just ignore it.
[33]
It's the same kind
of freedom I felt
[34]
once I gave myself permission
[36]
to stop caring about all
the various plotlines
[39]
in the
Marvel Cinematic Universe.
[40]
It used to be that, when I
watched one of those movies,
[42]
I was trying to retrace
every decision Dr. Strange made
[46]
in the time loop
that, somehow, led to the blip
[48]
and The Avengers
defeating Thanos.
[50]
And then, you know what?
I gave myself permission
[51]
to just sit back, relax,
[53]
and enjoy Loki's antics.
[55]
Oh, you trickster, you!
[57]
I cannot wait to see
what kind of goofs
[59]
you get up to with Owen Wilson.
[60]
Although, as much as I love
Tom Hiddleston,
[62]
I really wish mid-2000s
Vince Vaughn was playing Loki.
[65]
[ As Wilson ]
I'm just not sure
I can trust you, Loki.
[67]
[ As Vaughn ]
Buddy, buddy, buddy,
you're breaking my heart, here.
[69]
I would never lie to you.
[71]
Sure, I would embellish
for effect, sure.
[73]
Have I told a fib,
here and there?
[74]
Guilty as charged.
And, if that's a crime,
[75]
by all means, lock me up
and throw away the key.
[77]
But to lie to you?
No, not ever. Not ever, buddy.
[79]
[ As Wilson ]
Alright, I'll give you
the Tesseract, Loki,
[81]
but I'm vouching for you, here.
[82]
Bring it back.
[83]
[ Laughter ]
Even when I scroll Twitter
[85]
and see stills
from that interview,
[87]
it's a little shocking
to remember that he even exists
[89]
and that he still
looks like this.
[90]
I mean, presidents are supposed
to look more relaxed,
[93]
once they're out of office.
[94]
Trump looks like he's been
up all night,
[96]
trying to find the sailboat
in a Magic Eye poster.
[98]
Meanwhile, Obama somehow
looks ten years younger.
[100]
He's cruising around
with his shirt unbuttoned,
[103]
like the CEO
of a music festival
[105]
and he's doing a podcast
at Bruce Springsteen.
[107]
Soon, he's going to start
taking over
[109]
the Little Steven parts
in "Glory Days."
[111]
[ As Obama ]
♪ Oh ♪
[112]
♪ Alright! ♪
[113]
♪ Oh ♪
[115]
♪ Oh, yeah ♪
[116]
[ Laughter ]
I guess that's the difference
[118]
between being a former
president who's beloved
[120]
and a former president who's
under criminal investigation,
[122]
although, I will say,
[124]
before Trump even answered
a single question --
[126]
and I know, I said
we're going to ignore it,
[128]
but I'm like
a moth to a flame, baby!
[130]
Plus, it's what
the audience wants.
[131]
Right, you guys?
[134]
[ Laughter ]
Thanks for having my back, Baze.
[136]
Where was I?
[137]
Oh, yeah, before Trump
answered a single question,
[139]
the interview was already off
to an absolutely ludicrous start
[143]
when Hannity said this.
[144]
-Alright, so,
I know a lot of people
[147]
that are around you every day.
[148]
This is what
they're all telling me.
[150]
You are working
as hard as you did
[152]
when you were
in the White House,
[154]
except,
you play a little golf more.
[156]
That you're keeping
an insane schedule
[160]
seven days a week.
[162]
You really don't stop.
[164]
-Man, there are softballs
and then, there are tee balls,
[166]
but that was like
Hannity put the ball
[168]
on the other side of the fence
and then told Trump
[170]
to walk around the bases
like he hit a dinger.
[172]
[ As Hannity ]
You did it, sir, not me.
[174]
Now, let's see
that home run trot.
[176]
What was the next question?
[177]
[ As Hannity ]
I heard there were a lot of
[178]
behind-the-scenes pranks
at the White House.
[180]
[ As Trump ]
Oh, yeah. One time, we tied
a chicken nugget to a Roomba
[183]
and made Eric chase it
for three days.
[185]
It wasn't all laughs, though.
[186]
He came back.
[187]
[ Laughter ]
But, as that clip proves,
[189]
as much as a relief it is
[191]
to not have to cover
or care about Trump anymore,
[193]
the Republican Party
he left behind
[194]
is still very much committed
to both the ideology
[198]
and the performance
of Trumpism --
[199]
the paranoia,
conspiracy theories, racism,
[202]
and lies about everything
from coronavirus
[204]
to climate change, to voting
reforms, to D.C. statehood.
[207]
In fact, in some cases,
[208]
they're still pushing some
of Trump's trademark lies,
[211]
ones you may have
even forgotten about,
[213]
like his debunked
and dangerous claim
[215]
that hydroxychloroquine
can cure coronavirus.
[218]
Remember that oldie
from summer 2020?
[220]
Well, it's back,
thanks to former
[221]
Housing Secretary Ben Carson,
who resurrected
[224]
the hydroxychloroquine lie
on Fox News this week
[226]
and even Fox had a hard time
letting him get away with it.
[229]
-We as a nation, for instance,
[232]
wanted to be focused only
on one thing -- vaccinations.
[236]
There were people telling us,
you know,
[239]
there are ivermectin and other
kinds of things that work --
[244]
hydroxychloroquine
-There's a number
[246]
-has worked as well.
-of medical experts who've
[247]
looked at that, Doctor,
as you know,
[249]
and pooh-poohed that connection
with hydroxychloroquine.
[252]
-You know, you just said,
you know, a bunch of people
[254]
have pooh-poohed
the hydrochloroquine,
[256]
but the evidence is there.
[258]
-It's nice to have a marker
[260]
that shows exactly
when Ben Carson fell asleep.
[262]
It's like when your girlfriend
falls asleep
[264]
during "Law & Order" and says,
"Hey, was it the husband?"
[267]
No, they ruled the husband out
five minutes in.
[268]
And also, God forgive me,
[270]
I really don't want this
to be my primary focus,
[273]
but I do love that Cavuto
inadvertently got Carson
[276]
to repeat the word pooh-pooh.
[278]
You never want to hear a doctor
use the word pooh-pooh,
[281]
unless they're
a gastroenterologist.
[285]
[ Laughter ]
[286]
Where's the rimshot?
Is Fred not here today?
[289]
Because we needed
the rimshot there.
[292]
Okay, but can we just get him
to record a rimshot,
[294]
so we have something to play?
[296]
Do we have anything on hand
for the end of that joke?
[300]
Okay.
[301]
Alright, I'll do it again.
[303]
You never want to hear a doctor
use the word pooh-pooh,
[305]
unless they're
a gastroenterologist.
[307]
-♪ Shots, shots, shots, shots,
shot-shots ♪
[310]
[ Laughter ]
Why that?
[312]
Oh, right, right, right,
because we already used
[314]
our entire music allowance
when we played it on Monday?
[317]
[ Laughter ]
Fine, but that's the last time
I want to hear it!
[319]
Also, can we go back to this?
[320]
-The evidence is there.
[322]
-No, it's not.
Where are you getting
[323]
this evidence from?
Who are you talking to?
[325]
[ As Lindell ]
It cures everything --
[326]
coronavirus, hemorrhoids,
[328]
joint pain, sleep deprivation.
[330]
It even acts as a steroid
to help you build muscle mass
[334]
so you can fight antifa
when they come to your door.
[336]
You give 'em a little one-two.
[338]
[ Laughter ]
Or you can become an athlete
[340]
and win the Super Bowl
with Da Bears!
[343]
[ Laughter ]
[344]
You know, usually we film
"Late Night" in New York,
[347]
but on Thursdays, we do it
from Callback City, baby!
[349]
[ Laughter ]
[350]
We get five cents back
for every joke we recycle.
[352]
Happy Earth Day.
[354]
[ Laughter ]
Anyway, the point is
[355]
the GOP is still very much
committed to the toxic,
[358]
paranoid, authoritarian
ideology of Trumpism.
[361]
People like Matt Gaetz
and Marjorie Taylor Greene
[363]
are perfect examples.
[364]
As President Biden prepared
[365]
to hold a climate summit
with world leaders
[367]
and as progressives,
led by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez,
[371]
reintroduced
the Green New Deal,
[372]
Marjorie Taylor Greene,
who craves attention,
[374]
challenged AOC
to a debate on Twitter,
[376]
which, for AOC, is not
even worth responding to.
[379]
It's like George Foreman getting
challenged to a boxing match
[382]
by DJ Qualls.
[383]
Quallback.
[384]
[ Laughter ]
But Greene persisted,
[386]
posting a photo of herself
yesterday,
[388]
talking to AOC on the House
floor, in a tweet that said...
[399]
First of all,
I doubt AOC agreed.
[401]
Second, you want us
to be impressed
[402]
that you can read 14 pages?
[403]
My cable bill
is longer than that.
[405]
The script for this segment
[406]
is usually like
three times as long,
[409]
much to Shoemaker's chagrin.
[410]
That's right, his chagrin.
[412]
You see, as a producer,
it's Shoemaker's job
[413]
to make sure the entire show
fits into an hour
[415]
and that it starts on time
and, you know, works
[417]
as a coherent television show.
[418]
And, every day,
we do a hilarious prank
[420]
where we tell him "Closer Look"
will be a normal length
[422]
and then, when Sal turns it in,
it's got nine different tangents
[424]
about TV shows from the '80s
[426]
and it's longer than the final
episode of "M-A-S-H."
[428]
Suicide may be painless,
[429]
but cutting his jokes
hurt Sal deeply.
[432]
You see, "Suicide Is Painless"
is the name
[434]
of the "M-A-S-H" song,
which doesn't have lyrics,
[436]
but it does have lyrics
in the original "M-A-S-H" movie,
[438]
which is from 1970,
[440]
which is also
where Shoemaker's from.
[442]
[ Laughter ]
Oh! And he's looking
chagrined again.
[445]
Anyway, Greene helpfully
followed up this morning
[448]
with another tweet,
where she informed us
[449]
that she had, in fact,
read the bill
[451]
and was now ready
for the debate, tweeting...
[458]
Okay.
Thanks for keeping us posted.
[459]
Greene's just dying to grab
some of AOC's spotlight.
[463]
She reminds me of the doorman
at my old building,
[465]
who always said, "You should
have me on your show.
[467]
A lot of crazy stories
happen here.
[468]
One time, a package game,
[470]
but it was
for a different address."
[472]
[ Laughter ]
[474]
But Greene's a perfect avatar
of Trumpism
[476]
because it's all performance.
[477]
I mean, she admitted
she hadn't even read the bill
[479]
before she challenged AOC
to a debate.
[481]
That's the state
of the modern GOP.
[482]
We saw it on display
yet again this week
[485]
during hearings
on voting rights.
[486]
For example, former Georgia
gubernatorial candidate
[488]
Stacey Abrams testified
in the Senate
[491]
about Georgia's Draconian
new voter suppression laws.
[494]
Louisiana Senator John Kennedy
challenged Abrams
[496]
to list off her objections
to the bill
[498]
and you could tell
he was not ready
[500]
for her to actually have such
a detailed, substantive list.
[504]
-Tell me, specifically,
just give me a list,
[508]
of the provisions
that you object to.
[511]
-I object to the provisions
that remove access
[514]
to the right to vote,
[516]
that shorten the federal
runoff period
[517]
from nine weeks to four weeks...
-Okay.
[519]
-...restrict the time
that a voter can request
[521]
and return an absentee ballot
application.
[523]
-Right.
-It requires that a voter have
[525]
a photo identification or some
other form of identification
[529]
that they're willing
to surrender,
[530]
in order to participate
in absentee ballot process.
[534]
-What else?
[536]
-It eliminates over 300 hours
of dropbox availability.
[540]
-Okay. What else?
[541]
-It bans nearly all
out-of-precinct votes.
[545]
-Is that everything?
[547]
-No, it is not. [ Laughs ]
No, sir.
[549]
It restricts
the hours of operation.
[552]
Instead of those hours being
from 7:00 to 7:00,
[554]
they're now from 9:00 to 5:00,
[555]
which may have
an effect on voters
[557]
who cannot vote during business
hours during early voting.
[562]
It limits the hours --
-Okay. I get the idea.
[566]
-It's so cathartic
to watch a person
[567]
who actually knows
what she's talking about
[569]
school these bad-faith goons.
[570]
Kennedy and his ilk
weren't expecting
[572]
such a detailed response
[573]
because they're so encased
in their right-wing bubble.
[575]
They're used to dealing
with their fellow MAGA weirdos.
[577]
The hardest questions
they're ever exposed to are --
[580]
[ As Hannity ]
You work so hard.
How do you do it?
[582]
Also, my favorite part
of that clip is
[584]
that his only comeback is,
"What else?"
[586]
He's like a guy who repeatedly
gets dunked on
[589]
during a pickup game
and says, "That all you got?"
[591]
And then, after you score
21 unanswered points on him
[594]
and he's limping off the court,
he says...
[596]
-I get the idea.
[597]
-And then, this week, the GOP
continued hitting home runs
[599]
with some more lowlights
ahead of today's House vote
[602]
on admitting D.C. as a state.
[603]
Now, as we've explained before,
admitting D.C. is one
[605]
of many steps necessary
to rebalance
[607]
a democracy tilted heavily
in favor of small, rural,
[611]
and disproportionately
white states.
[612]
D.C. has zero senators,
[614]
with a population
of nearly 700,000 people,
[616]
which is more
than the state of Wyoming,
[618]
which has two senators,
[619]
the same number of senators
as California,
[621]
a state that has
39 million people.
[623]
Hell, at any given time,
there are more people stuck
[625]
in traffic on the 405
than there are in Wyoming.
[627]
[ Laughing ] Hey, Fred,
speaking of the 405,
[629]
you want to give us a little bit
of "The Californians"?
[632]
[ Laughter ]
[635]
He didn't he didn't record
that, either?
[637]
Do we have anything else
we can play?
[639]
-♪ Shots, shots, shots, shots,
shot-shots ♪
[642]
-I told you guys I didn't want
to hear that again!
[644]
And, yet,
I'm the one who set it up.
[645]
It's like I'm working
against my own interests.
[647]
[ Laughter ]
[648]
Now, I'm chagrined.
[650]
[ Laughter ]
Then, today,
[651]
Kentucky Congressman James Comer
claimed
[653]
to know what this whole D.C.
statehood thing is really about.
[657]
-Let's be clear what HR 51 is
all about.
[660]
It's about Democrats
adding two new,
[663]
progressive US senators
[666]
to push a radical agenda
championed by The Squad,
[669]
to reshape America
[671]
into the socialist utopia
they always talk about.
[675]
-Yeah, we wouldn't want some
sort of socialist utopia
[677]
with ridiculous ideas
like healthcare for all,
[679]
green energy, free college,
and a $15 minimum wage.
[682]
I mean, how long is this bill,
anyway, 14 pages?
[685]
And we're supposed to read that
in, what, one night?
[687]
These guys talk about the
so-called socialist utopia
[689]
as if it was a bad thing,
when polls repeatedly show
[691]
that the core ideas
of what progressives
[693]
are actually proposing
[694]
are overwhelmingly popular
with voters.
[696]
In fact, that's why
they're opposed
[698]
to rebalancing our democracy --
because, if we do,
[701]
those popular ideas have a much
better chance of becoming a law.
[703]
Republicans are like
substitute teachers
[705]
who threaten to punish their
class by putting on a movie,
[707]
instead of continuing
with the lesson plan.
[709]
"Look, if you guys don't want
to learn fractals,
[712]
then I'll have no choice
[713]
but to make you watch 'Amadeus'
on laser disc
[716]
and, looking at the back, here,
[717]
it says there's adult language
and brief nudity.
[721]
Okay, I'm not seeing
a lot of hands for fractals."
[724]
Of course,
it won't shock you to learn
[725]
that Republicans don't actually
have any convincing,
[727]
principled arguments
against D.C. statehood,
[729]
because there aren't any.
[730]
They act like there have been
[731]
exactly 50 states
in the Union since 1776,
[734]
which, obviously,
isn't the case.
[736]
In fact, rural states
have done this same thing
[738]
throughout history, to grow
their own political power.
[770]
Exactly. You think the framers
envisioned, not one,
[773]
but two Dakotas when they
wrote the Constitution?
[775]
Those dorks barely knew
where the Dakotas were.
[777]
Back then, they just rode
one horse until it died
[780]
and then hitchhiked
onto another one.
[781]
And that only got you
to West Boston.
[783]
And, back then, West Boston
was not a neighborhood
[786]
you wanted to get lost in.
[787]
[ Boston accent ]
Bro! Bro, you lost?
[788]
[ Posh accent ]
I'm not lost.
I'm Benjamin Franklin
[790]
and I was born here.
[791]
[ Boston accent ]
I don't know you, bro.
[792]
[ Laughter ]
You live here now?
[794]
[ Posh accent ]
No, I moved to Philadelphia.
[795]
[ Boston accent ]
Oh, he moved to Philly.
Alright, bro,
[797]
I'm going to need your waistcoat
and your knee breeches.
[799]
[ Posh accent ]
I invented electricity!
[801]
[ Boston accent ]
Well, I invented
I don't [bleep] care!
[803]
[ Laughter ]
[804]
Where were we?
[805]
Oh, right, present day.
[807]
In fact, Republicans have
so few legitimate arguments
[809]
that, last month,
during a hearing
[810]
on the D.C. statehood bill,
Congressman Jody Hice,
[813]
who, incidentally,
is the Trump-backed candidate
[815]
for secretary of State
in Georgia,
[817]
running on the big lie that the
state was stolen from Trump,
[820]
made this absolutely
ludicrous argument.
[823]
-Under this bill,
[824]
D.C. would, in fact,
[825]
become the first among states,
[827]
which is exactly what
our founders sought to avoid.
[831]
D.C. would be the only state --
[834]
the only state --
[835]
without an airport,
[837]
without a car dealership,
without a capital city,
[841]
without a landfill.
[843]
Without even a name
on its own.
[845]
And we could go on
and on and on.
[847]
-It's hard to know where
to even begin with that.
[849]
A full list of fact checks
would be at least 14 pages long
[852]
and we can't do that
because, then, it would take
[853]
Marjorie Taylor Greene
an entire day to read it.
[855]
First of all, there are
car dealerships in D.C.
[858]
You don't need to be
like a geography genius
[860]
to know that little tidbit.
[861]
Just look for one
of those goofy tube men
[863]
flapping his arms
on the side of the road.
[864]
Of course, if this moron
ever saw one of those guys,
[867]
he'd probably think it was
a distressed motorist.
[869]
[ As Hice ]
You need a ride, man?
Hop in the back.
[870]
I'm listening to this new
recording of "Glory Days."
[873]
[ As Obama ]
♪ Oh ♪
[874]
♪ Alright! ♪
[875]
[ Laughter ]
♪ Oh ♪
[877]
♪ Oh, yeah ♪
[879]
♪ They'll, uh ♪
[880]
♪ Pass you by ♪
[881]
[ Laughter ]
[883]
Second, D.C. does have
a name, right?
[885]
I mean, when you go on Kayak,
there's not an option
[887]
to stay at hotels
near the National Mall
[888]
and "You know where."
[890]
Trump himself
has thankfully gone,
[892]
but, as we've seen,
yet again, this week,
[893]
both the ideology
and performance of Trumpism
[895]
are still very much
at the core of the modern GOP.
[897]
They've spent the last few days
trotting out
[899]
incredibly dumb lies,
about everything
[901]
from D.C. statehood
to voting rights,
[903]
to the Green New Deal,
and, yet,
[904]
no matter how many times
they miss,
[907]
they won't stop taking --
[908]
-♪ Shots, shots, shots, shots,
shot-shots ♪
[911]
-This has been "A Closer Look."
[ Laughter ]
[912]
♪♪
[916]
God's Love We Deliver
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[922]
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[924]
and they need your help,
now, more than ever.
[925]
If you're watching this online,
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[927]
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[928]
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