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Fox News Lies About the Texas Blackouts as GOP Lies About the Election: A Closer Look - YouTube
Channel: Late Night with Seth Meyers
[2]
-As the U.S. passed a grim,
new coronavirus milestone,
[4]
and Texas continued
to dig itself out of
[6]
an unprecedented power crisis,
[8]
Fox News
and the Republican Party
[9]
were laser-focused
on two things --
[12]
lying about the Green New Deal
and the 2020 election.
[14]
For more on this,
it's time for "A Closer Look."
[17]
[ Theme music plays ]
[21]
It's been this way
for a long time,
[23]
but right now, in particular,
if you look around,
[25]
it's easy to feel like virtually
everything in our country
[28]
is broken.
The past year has been
[30]
one of ceaseless misery,
dysfunction, and chaos.
[33]
And, yes, I know I'm starting
to sound like Werner Herzog
[36]
at the top of one
of these segments.
[37]
[ German accent ]
Time is an unforgiving mistress.
[40]
She will lure you in
with her siren song,
[43]
her beauty disguising
[44]
her unquenchable thirst
for misery and death.
[48]
[ Normal voice ] Werner,
you're scaring Baby Yoda.
[49]
[ German accent ] Oh, sorry,
[51]
I thought this was
a man-turtle puppet.
[53]
[ Normal voice ] Yesterday we
passed the horrific milestone
[55]
of half a million COVID deaths.
[56]
Poverty and child hunger
are on the rise.
[59]
Millions have lost
their health insurance.
[60]
Grocery stores in Texas
are barren,
[62]
and Texans had to sit
in their cars
[64]
or start fires outside
just to keep warm.
[66]
If you have
a platform of any kind,
[68]
you can spend any time at all
[70]
talking about
any of those things --
[71]
things that matter
to real people's lives --
[73]
or you could talk about
whatever the hell this is.
[76]
-Did you see the dog?
[77]
Let's -- I want to show you
something I noticed.
[79]
Doesn't he look a little, uh --
a little rough?
[82]
[ Chuckles ]
I love dogs,
[84]
but this dog
needs a bath and a comb
[87]
and all kinds of love and care.
[88]
I've never seen a dog in the
White House, uh, like this.
[92]
This dog looks like from --
I'm sorry -- from the junkyard.
[95]
And I love that dog,
[97]
but he looks like
he's not been well cared for.
[99]
-No, not not at all.
[101]
He looks very dirty
and disheveled
[102]
and very unlike a presidential
dog like Millie or Victory
[107]
or something else in the past
in the -- in the White House.
[111]
-Is the "Max" in "Newsmax"
supposed to be ironic,
[114]
like they definitely
can't be maxing out on news
[116]
if they're talking about
Joe Biden's dog.
[118]
Also, how out of touch
do you have to be
[119]
to think it's a good idea
to talk smack about dogs?
[122]
You know, who else can go
straight to hell? Paul Rudd.
[126]
You know you're desperate
when the best attack
[127]
you can come up with
on a president
[129]
is claiming
he's got a janky dog.
[131]
First of all, there's nothing
wrong with that dog.
[132]
He looks great. That's how
a Biden dog should look.
[135]
Joe Biden was never gonna have
a prize Pomeranian
[137]
named after
a Jane Austen character.
[139]
"Goddamn it, Mr. Willoughby,
sit still
[141]
while I file your nails!"
[143]
That dog looks like he'd be up
at 6:00, shoveling the driveway
[145]
and then packing his Milk-Bones
into a metal lunchbox
[148]
and heading to the mill.
[150]
Just by looking at that dog,
you can picture how they met.
[152]
Joe went into a local shelter,
either to use the restroom
[155]
or the pay phone to call Jill
[157]
and tell her he got kicked off
the quiet car again,
[160]
and he heard a whimpering
from a cage in the corner,
[162]
walked over and said, "Hey,
buddy, you remind me of me.
[165]
You're not the best-looking
mutt in here,
[166]
but you have a heart.
People always count you out,
[169]
but today I'm counting you in
to the Biden family."
[172]
And the dog was like,
"Can we go now?
[173]
And are you always gonna be
this long-winded?"
[176]
Second, is there anything
more pathetic
[177]
than a bunch of old pugs
calling a dog ugly...
[180]
Andy Samberg?
[ Laughter ]
[183]
Instead of a set, Newsmax
just shoots their show
[186]
on the porch
of an old-timey drugstore.
[188]
"The only thing uglier than her
disposition is her bloodhound."
[192]
So, that's a sample of what
the right-wing media
[194]
was spending time on,
amid a series
[195]
of urgent national crises,
exposing the potential
[198]
for even more disaster
down the road.
[201]
As "The New York Times"
put it...
[219]
Man, the U.S. is starting to
feel like a sci-fi dystopia
[222]
where Tilda Swinton plays
a blind oracle
[224]
who knows the location of
the last remaining life crystal.
[227]
I was leaning towards
making a "Mad Max" joke there,
[229]
but I didn't want to get
any more pronunciation notes
[230]
from Australians.
[231]
[ Australian accent ]
It's actually pronounced
[233]
"Mud Mix."
Good effort, though.
[235]
Good on ya for tryin'.
[ Laughter ]
[238]
[ Normal voice ]
Couldn't be blamed
[240]
for reading
that "New York Times" passage
[241]
and thinking it was describing
[243]
some failed Soviet state
you never heard of.
[245]
All we're missing is
a reclusive president-for-life
[247]
who wears designer scarves
[248]
and surrounds himself
with virgin guards.
[250]
Although we got pretty close,
Trump did have Rudy,
[252]
who only ever got
to third base with his cousin.
[254]
Sorry, it's true.
He married his cousin.
[257]
And I never want to pass up
the chance to remind you
[259]
that the former president's
lawyer thought ancestry.com
[262]
was a dating site.
And I know
[264]
some Rudy defenders will say
it was his second cousin.
[267]
And my response to that
is, "Okay."
[270]
[ Laughter ]
[274]
But this is very much
an American problem.
[277]
The problem
is unfettered capitalism.
[279]
Texas is the only state
in the continental U.S.
[281]
with its own power grid
[283]
in order to avoid
federal regulation.
[284]
And the state and local
governments have had trouble
[287]
getting people food
or safe drinking water --
[289]
in some cases,
running out of supplies.
[291]
And by their own admission,
[293]
that's because they deferred
so much of their preparation
[295]
for crises like this
to the private sector.
[298]
-Bluntly, we have
very limited supply
[301]
at the local government level
of cities
[304]
that just have warehouses
full of bottled water
[305]
that are owned by the city
or that have meals ready to eat
[308]
that are owned by
the local government.
[309]
They usually don't exist.
[311]
We rely on the private sector
for our everyday needs.
[313]
-Oh, yes, the private sector --
the same people who brought you
[316]
the Zune, Spirit Airlines,
and Jared Leto's Joker.
[319]
You know, if I could
put Bernie in charge
[320]
of one nonpolitical thing,
it would be that.
[322]
[ As Bernie Sanders ]
We have too many jokers.
[324]
All you need is one joker.
That's more than enough jokes.
[327]
Or everyone gets
their own Joker.
[330]
One or the other.
[331]
[ Normal voice ]
So, by their own admission,
[333]
they rely on the private sector
for their everyday needs.
[336]
And I'm sorry, but I'm not sure
we should get our food and water
[338]
during crises
from the same people
[340]
who spent a week
[Bleep] their pants
[342]
when a bunch of Redditors
[343]
drove up the stock price
of a video-game store.
[344]
If you could wreak havoc
on the markets
[347]
by telling your Internet buds
[348]
to buy stock in Blockbuster
as a goof,
[350]
maybe don't put those
same markets in charge
[352]
of -- I don't know --
electricity.
[354]
The private sector
can't be trusted
[355]
to provide everyone with the
basic material needs to survive.
[358]
I mean, we still have 30 million
people without health insurance.
[361]
But don't worry,
the private sector has come up
[363]
with 7,000 different flavors
of Ejuice.
[365]
Texas intentionally walled off
its power grid from regulation.
[368]
In fact, they basically admitted
[370]
they'd rather have
a deregulated energy market
[372]
run entirely by powerful
corporate interests,
[375]
even if that means suffering
through lethal storms
[377]
without power, water, and heat.
[379]
-Former Texas Governor
Rick Perry says
[381]
that Texans should be willing
to go days without electricity,
[385]
a sacrifice they should make,
he says,
[387]
to keep federal regulators
out of the state power grid.
[390]
-I don't live in Texas,
but something tells me
[392]
you don't speak for everyone
there, Rick Perry.
[394]
I mean, he's like
the guy at the frat party
[397]
who thinks everyone's
got his back
[398]
when he stands up to the cops.
"We'd all rather go to jail
[401]
than shut down this party,
coppers.
[403]
Right, guys?
Guys, why are the lights on?
[405]
Why are you turning -- Kyle?
[406]
Are you draining
the Jell-O pool?
[408]
I spent all day
making that Jell-O, Kyle."
[411]
In their quiet moments,
they're honest about it.
[413]
They'd rather keep oil and gas
deregulated, in order
[416]
to serve the interests of their
powerful corporate patrons
[419]
in the private sector,
at the expense of actual Texans
[421]
who desperately need
and deserve help.
[423]
But like clockwork, the Fox News
disinformation machine
[427]
went to work and blamed
the power outage in Texas
[430]
on a thing that does not
currently exist in any form
[433]
in Texas
or at the national level --
[436]
the Green New Deal.
[437]
-Many are now blaming,
believe it or not,
[439]
renewable green energy.
Wind turbines
[442]
in the Lone State --
Lone Star State are freezing.
[445]
This shows how
the Green New Deal
[446]
would be a deadly deal for
the United States of America.
[449]
-Joe Biden and Democrats
better think twice about
[451]
unleashing the Green New Deal
on the whole country.
[454]
-This is all more proof
that green energy
[456]
just is not ready
for prime time.
[458]
-These wind farms
that are frozen,
[460]
they're an eyesore,
they're not efficient.
[461]
-I mean, the bottom line is,
you had windmills that froze.
[464]
We have windmills
because of concepts and policies
[467]
that come
from the Green New Deal.
[469]
-The lesson is,
we cannot go down
[471]
this road, Laura,
of green energy.
[474]
-Unbeknownst to most people,
the Green New Deal
[476]
came to Texas,
the power grid in the state
[478]
became totally reliant
on windmills.
[480]
How would you like
a massive power plant
[483]
in your backyard,
humming and buzzing
[485]
and chopping up birds?
That's what a wind turbine is.
[488]
-"How would you like a windmill
in your backyard,
[491]
making noise, chopping up birds,
and sucking up all your air?
[494]
How would you like a windmill
to move in with you
[497]
and live with you
in your house,
[499]
eating all your food
and drinking all your booze?
[500]
How would you like that windmill
[502]
to get suspiciously close
with your wife,
[505]
to the point where they start
going on shopping trips together
[507]
without you,
leaving you at home,
[509]
wondering what they're doing
together at the outlet mall
[511]
while you look out the window
[512]
at all the chopped-up birds
on your lawn?
[514]
And how would you like
to come home
[516]
to find your wife's car
in the driveway?
[517]
But when you come inside,
you don't see her.
[519]
So you walk upstairs
to the bedroom,
[521]
and before you open the door,
[522]
the only noise you hear
is whoom, whoom, whoom?
[527]
[ Laughter ]
[528]
When my wife left me
for a windmill,
[530]
and it will happen to you, too."
[532]
Of course, it won't
surprise you to learn
[534]
that this lie is aggressively
mendacious and dumb,
[537]
About 80% of the grid's capacity
this time of year
[540]
was forecasted
to come from natural gas,
[542]
coal, and some nuclear power,
which of course, it does.
[544]
It's Texas.
They used to have
[546]
a football team called
the Houston Oilers,
[547]
not the Houston Solar Panels.
[549]
And I'm sorry
that I have to say this,
[551]
because it's insanely obvious,
because the New Deal --
[555]
the Green New Deal --
is not a thing
[557]
that exists in Texas
or at the national level.
[559]
I mean, this is like blaming
your problems on "Avatar 2."
[561]
It's not out yet.
[563]
The real problem
is that natural gas lines
[564]
and instruments were frozen
by the severe winter weather,
[567]
in part because they weren't
properly winterized.
[569]
The state of Texas has left it
to power operators
[571]
to decide to invest in
winterizing their equipment,
[574]
and many of Texas'
power generators
[576]
have not made those investments
[577]
necessary to prevent
disruptions.
[578]
Meanwhile, only 7% of Texas'
forecasted winter capacity
[582]
is expected
to come from various
[584]
wind power sources
across the state.
[586]
Kind of like how you can
only believe about 7%
[588]
of what you see on Fox News.
[589]
I mean, seriously,
can you imagine
[591]
how insane you have to be
to blame windmills
[593]
and the Green New Deal
for a power outage in Texas?
[596]
That's like blaming
Boston clam chowder
[598]
for the smell in New Jersey.
It's not fair.
[600]
They have their own reasons
for that smell.
[603]
[ Laughter ]
[605]
They don't have to go
out of state.
[607]
These guys really expect us
to believe AOC snuck into
[609]
the Houston oilfields
in the middle of the night
[611]
and replaced all the derricks
with vegan food trucks.
[614]
I mean, just think about that.
[616]
Millions of Texans
were left without food,
[618]
water, heat and electricity
in lethal temperatures for days
[621]
in a state
that is known the world over
[623]
as the U.S. epicenter
of oil and gas production.
[626]
And not only that, the people
who did manage
[628]
to keep the lights on
were stuck with
[629]
devastating electric bills,
[631]
thanks to surge pricing
imposed by the private sector
[633]
Rick Perry cares so much about.
[635]
A 63-year-old Army veteran
[637]
who lives on Social Security
payments in a Dallas suburb
[639]
was charged over $16,000.
I mean, that's horrifying.
[642]
The only people who should ever
get an electric bill
[644]
that's even half that much are
[646]
those people with massive
Christmas displays
[648]
synched up to
Trans-Siberian Orchestra.
[650]
So, not only
did the power go out
[652]
at the epicenter of gas and
oil production in the country,
[654]
but the people who are lucky
enough to keep their power
[657]
had to drain their savings
to afford it.
[658]
If that doesn't tell you
our country is broken,
[661]
then I don't know what will.
[662]
The fact alone should prompt
some serious introspection.
[665]
It's like if a Tom Cruise
movie bombed,
[667]
that should never happen.
It would be a national disgrace.
[669]
It would be on the front page
of every newspaper.
[670]
The number-one trend on Twitter
would be #TomSnooze,
[673]
and Congress would hold
emergency hearings
[674]
to find out
how he got dragged into making
[676]
"Top Gun 3:
Goose is a Goose Now."
[678]
[ Laughter ]
[681]
I mean,
I wouldn't not see it.
[683]
[ Laughter ]
[685]
Anyway, the point is,
it's a nightmare,
[687]
and Texas desperately needs
[689]
and deserves our immediate
help right now.
[690]
It's also a cautionary tale
about climate change
[692]
and emergency management,
deregulation, and overreliance
[695]
on the private sector
and fossil fuels,
[697]
as well as a warning about
our crumbling infrastructure
[699]
and the criminal neglect
of our political class,
[702]
which has failed to ensure the
basic needs of every American
[704]
are met,
as evidenced in part
[706]
by one of the state's senators
fleeing to Canc煤n
[708]
as his constituents froze
in their homes.
[710]
Yikes.
[712]
This is the most depressing
airport photo
[714]
I've ever seen
that wasn't taken at LaGuardia.
[717]
In fact, Ted Cruz is
the LaGuardia of people.
[720]
With that beard, he looks like
an out-of-work osprey,
[723]
too lazy to fly south
for the winter.
[725]
He looks like Pavarotti
walked through a car wash.
[727]
Then, once he was shamed
into coming back,
[729]
Cruz tried to pretend
[731]
he was actually interested
in helping out.
[733]
Saturday, he posted
photos of himself
[734]
handing out bottled water
with the hashtag TexasStrong.
[737]
Sure, dude,
we totally believe you.
[739]
Ted Cruz is the husband
who sits on his couch
[741]
watching football all day,
[743]
then sees his wife unloading
a car full of groceries,
[745]
waits until there's one bag
left in the trunk,
[748]
then goes outside and says,
"Oh, uh, can I help?
[750]
[ Chuckles ]
Lucky for me,
[752]
just the paper towel bag.
Honey?
[755]
Honey?"
[757]
Whoom, whoom, whoom.
[ Laughter ]
[760]
"Oh, Tucker, you weren't lyin'."
[ Laughter ]
[764]
The problems we're facing
as a nation right now
[767]
are structural.
They require radical solutions
[769]
and they demand that we face
reality and tell the truth.
[771]
And yet one of our two
major political parties
[773]
is continuing to plunge deeper
[775]
into an alternate universe
of delusion and disinformation.
[778]
I mean, just consider the fact
that Donald Trump
[780]
is no longer in office.
[781]
He no longer holds
any real power
[783]
over elected
Republican officials.
[784]
He's the most unpopular
president in the history
[787]
of polling, with a track record
of abysmal failure.
[789]
And yet high-ranking Republicans
still refuse to say the obvious,
[793]
which is that he legitimately
lost the 2020 election.
[796]
-Clear this up for me.
Joe Biden won the election.
[799]
He is the legitimate president
of the United States.
[802]
The election was not stolen.
Correct?
[805]
-Uh, look,
Joe Biden's the president.
[809]
There were a few states that did
not follow their state laws.
[813]
That's really the dispute
that you've seen continue on.
[816]
-But -- But, Congressman, I know
Joe Biden's the president.
[818]
He lives at the White House.
I asked you,
[821]
is he the legitimate president
of the United States?
[823]
And do you concede that
this election was not stolen?
[827]
Very simple question.
Please just answer.
[829]
-Once the elect -- Once
the electors are counted,
[832]
yes, he's
the legitimate president.
[833]
But if you're going to ignore
the fact that there were states
[836]
that did not follow their own
state legislatively set laws,
[840]
that's the issue at heart,
[842]
that millions of people
still are not happy with.
[844]
-First of all, that's not true.
Second, why are we
[847]
still inviting these lunatics
on national TV?
[849]
There should be
a basic litmus test.
[851]
If you can't trust them
to be honest
[853]
about something as simple
as who won the election,
[854]
how can you expect them to be
honest about anything else?
[857]
If my doctor walked into
the exam room
[859]
with a copy
of the "Weekly World News"
[861]
tucked under his arm and said,
"More bad news about Bad Boy;
[863]
apparently he's the Pope's
secret love child,"
[865]
I wouldn't necessarily trust
[867]
what he had to say
about my rash.
[869]
And I need to get some feedback
on the rash!
[873]
[ Laughter ]
[876]
Scalise is the latest
high-profile Republican
[879]
to fly to Mar-a-Lago
and curry favor with Trump.
[881]
And in that same interview,
Scalise refused to even admit
[884]
that Trump bore responsibility
for the insurrection
[886]
on January 6th.
[887]
-When you met
with the former president,
[890]
did you ask him
to take responsibility?
[893]
Did he take responsibility?
[896]
-Well, Jonathan,
I was in Florida
[898]
doing some fundraising
[900]
throughout a number
of parts of Florida.
[901]
I ended up at Mar-a-Lago,
[903]
and the president reached out
and we visited.
[905]
-Wait, I'm sorry, how do you
just end up at Mar-a-Lago?
[908]
Same way you end up
at a strip club?
[910]
"Honey, I didn't know
where the guys were going.
[911]
We were drinking Sprite
and playing board games.
[913]
The next thing you know, we
ended up at The Diamond Donkey.
[915]
I didn't want to be there, babe.
[917]
I wanted to be pounding Sprites,
playing Risk."
[921]
These election lies are
so insane that today
[924]
one of the chief disseminators
of the Big Lie, Mike Lindell --
[927]
A.K.A., the My Pillow Guy --
[928]
got sued for defamation
by Dominion Voting Systems
[931]
for $1.3 billion --
$1.3 billion.
[934]
Right now,
that dude's running around,
[936]
shaking the change out of
every pillow in his house,
[938]
which is no small amount
of money,
[939]
as MyPillows
are filled with nickels.
[941]
[ As Mike Lindell ] If it's good
enough for Thomas Jefferson,
[943]
then it's good enough
for yours."
[947]
"I'm Mike Lindell,
A.K.A. Mike the Pillow Guy."
[949]
[ Laughter ]
[953]
[ Normal voice ] Can you imagine
if that lawsuit succeeds,
[955]
the company will have
to change its name
[957]
to Dominion Pillows Inc.,
[958]
and Lindell will just be
"a" pillow guy.
[961]
Also, side note, why do
all these weirdos
[962]
look like they haven't slept
in a hundred years?
[964]
Ted Cruz looks like
a used MyPillow
[966]
that was struck by lightning
and came to life.
[968]
Did they all go to Canc煤n
for 36 hours?
[970]
[ As Giuliani ] "I think
I got drunk
[971]
and slept with my cousin."
[ Normal voice ] Rudy,
[973]
that was nonalcoholic beer.
[ As Giuliani ] "Oh, no.
[975]
Oh, I maybe did it on purpose.
[977]
You guys,
she's my second cousin."
[979]
[ Normal voice ] Why do you
think that makes it okay, Rudy?
[981]
Why do you keep saying that
like we're all going to say,
[983]
like, "Oh, our bad."
[ Laughter ]
[986]
"We all owe Rudy an apology."
[ Laughter ]
[989]
This week
has demonstrated once again
[990]
that we're facing a series
of towering crises,
[993]
unprecedented in our lifetimes,
[994]
that require bold action
and truth-telling.
[996]
And yet one of our two
major political parties
[998]
has become totally unmoored
from reality.
[1000]
They're lying about everything
[1002]
from the election
to the Green New Deal.
[1003]
And on top of that, they all
look like they could use...
[1005]
-A bath and a comb
and all kinds of love and care.
[1008]
This has been "A Closer Look."
[1010]
[ Theme music plays ]
[1014]
God's Love We Deliver
cooks and brings
[1015]
over 2 million meals a year
to men, women, and children
[1017]
living with HIV/AIDS, cancer,
and other serious illnesses,
[1020]
and they need your help
now more than ever.
[1022]
If you're watching this online,
you can hit the Donate button.
[1024]
Stay safe, wash your hands,
wear a mask.
[1027]
We love you.
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