00:01 Seth Meyers There's just a little over one day left in the presidency of Donald Trump, and as we survey the damage he'll leave behind and the impeachment trial he faces ahead, we're learning more about the insurrection he incited, his premeditated plan to steal the election, and the complicity of virtually the entire Republican Party. 00:18 Oh, and also, Trump met with the MyPillow guy. 00:20 For more on this, it's time for A Closer Look. 00:26 On Friday, as an incoming Democratic administration was preparing for the second time in 12 years to take the reins from a deeply unpopular outgoing Republican president who left the nation in ruins, we got a revealing split-screen of what our politics are like right now. 00:40 With the Trump White House being boxed up and the Biden administration preparing to take over, we were presented with a very stark choice for where we want to go as a country. 00:48 On the one hand, 00:49 President-elect Biden unveiled a five-point plan to overhaul the botched vaccine rollout and stem the tide of the deadly coronavirus pandemic that's been willfully neglected by the Trump White House. 00:59 Soundbite President-elect Joe Biden is pushing ahead with plans to activate the Defense Production Act and ramp up the national supply of the coronavirus vaccine. 01:06 The incoming administration pledging to get 100 million doses in the first 100 days after Joe Biden takes office. 01:13 The plan including mass vaccination centers and training an army of vaccinators, among other steps. 01:18 Joe Biden And to staff up these centers, we will mobilize thousands of clinical and non-clinical professionals. 01:25 This will be one of the most challenging operational efforts ever undertaken by our country. 01:31 But you have my word that we will manage the hell out of this operation. 01:36 Seth Meyers Whenever he's giving a pep talk, Biden's got the vibe of a retired high school football coach taking his grandkids to Chuck E. Cheese. 01:42 All right, let's draw it up on the chalkboard. 01:44 Taylor, you're gonna run a slant route to the super slide. 01:46 Katie, you're gonna post up at the arcade. 01:48 And, Tim, you're gonna go deep in the ball pit. 01:50 But remember, you must come back in 30 minutes so we can manage the hell out of some pizza. 01:56 But I got to say, the whole president with a plan thing is a genuine relief after four years of doctor head injury over here swinging wildly between everything is fine and we're all gonna die. 02:05 This coronavirus is just gonna go away, folks. 02:08 It's gonna go away! 02:09 And as soon as it does, the Antifa caravans are gonna arrive, and it's not gonna be pretty. 02:14 You'll be praying for coronavirus when the caravans show up. 02:18 So that's what the incoming president was doing on Friday. 02:20 What about the outgoing president? 02:22 Who was he meeting with? 02:23 Can I assume it was also an expert of some kind, perhaps a doctor or a scientist, or maybe it was someone who specializes in public health infrastructure and mass vaccination planning? 02:33 Ooh, wouldn't that be great? 02:34 You know what? 02:34 Let me just set up the old chin cradle and find out. 02:37 Soundbite One of the president's visitors today, Mike Lindell, the founder of MyPillow, was seen over here at the White House outside the West Wing. 02:45 The White House official did tell me, Wolf, that it is believed that the president and Lindell met. 02:49 A Washington Post photographer got a close-up of the notes that he was carrying with him. 02:54 And, Jake, when you zoom in on them, you can see that he is talking about the election. 02:58 Things like martial law are mentioned, the words taken immediately to save the Constitution. 03:04 Seth Meyers The guy from MyPillow is carrying documents and talking to President Trump, presumably, about declaring martial law. 03:11 You know what? 03:11 I think this chin cradle is bad luck. 03:13 I'm going to stop using it. 03:14 But that's just great. 03:15 The MyPillow guy, a.k.a. 03:16 the notorious MPG, who, it should be noted, is not even good at pillows, is walking into the White House with an insane suggestion for the president. 03:24 What's next? 03:25 The ShamWow guy strolling in with a notepad that says, Become an X-Man. 03:29 Also, not to be judgmental, but if I was going to a meeting, 03:32 To tell the President he should declare martial law, I might not need to write it down. 03:38 Was there a risk you were gonna forget that part? 03:40 Good meeting, Mike. 03:41 Anything else? 03:42 Oh, let's see. 03:42 I told you Hugo Chavez hacked the election, filled you in on our new three-ply mattress topper. 03:47 You know what? 03:48 I'm sorry, Mr. President. 03:49 Let me check my notes. 03:50 Oh, duh-durr! 03:51 I forgot you should declare martial law. 03:54 This is why I write things down! 03:57 Also, just a random thought here, but this is one of those moments where I'm reminded that there were voters, not many but some, who were torn between Trump and Biden. 04:06 Hmm, a guy with a five-point plan to build the infrastructure for mass vaccination during a deadly pandemic, or a guy whose best friend is obviously a psychotic pillow salesman. 04:15 It's a coin flip. 04:16 Although, I think my favorite detail from the Lindell meeting involves White House counsel Pat Cipollone, who met with Lindell after a series of White House officials basically kept trying to pass Lindell off to someone else. 04:28 First, Trump met with Lindell, but it was a brief meeting. 04:31 Trump sent him upstairs to the White House counsel's office. 04:33 Lindell was then escorted 04:34 by the National Security Advisor Robert O'Brien. 04:36 O'Brien, seeking to end the conversation, said if there was evidence of what he was saying, it should go to White House counsel, and he steered Lindell upstairs to the counsel's office. 04:44 Then, once Lindell got to the counsel's office, Lindell spoke sharply to one of Cipollone's assistants. 04:50 After he was brought upstairs, Cipollone told him he wouldn't speak to him until Lindell apologized to her. 04:55 So, everyone, 04:55 just kept trying to get rid of him by passing him off to someone else. 04:58 In fact, Lindell's still in the White House as we speak, getting shunted from office to office. 05:03 The White House chef just got done telling him what kind of flour they use, and now he's pitching his plan to the lawnmower kid. 05:08 Do you know how to declare martial law? 05:11 You know, you can also just not let him into the building. 05:15 Why is it easier to get into the White House than a restaurant in Chelsea during brunch? 05:18 Also, I'm glad Cipollone stood up for his assistant, but that's the line you're drawing? 05:23 I'm sorry, but I simply will not allow you to spread your deranged theories about Hugo Chavez coming back from the dead to hack the election unless you learn some manners. 05:33 I'm sorry. 05:35 Will you declare martial law, please?" 05:37 This whole situation is so perfectly indicative of the entire Trump era. 05:41 Instead of just saying, no, get out, they all go to absurd lengths to debase themselves to accommodate Trump in a circle of crazy old men with mysteriously brown hair. 05:51 That's why he had to invent his own pillow. 05:52 All the other ones looked like a saddle after three nights. 05:55 And indulging Trump, as we have learned, has real-world consequences. 05:59 Thanks to Trump and his allies in the GOP and right-wing media repeating their deranged lies about the election, a new CNN poll found that 75% of Republicans believe Biden isn't the legitimate president. 06:10 Virtually the entirety of the Republican Party, with only a few exceptions, like the 10 Republicans who voted for the impeachment, 06:17 has taken a hard turn against democracy and towards authoritarianism. 06:22 And instead of standing up and saying clearly that we need to tell the truth about the election and ostracize anyone who doesn't accept it, senior Republicans are insisting that we all need to capitulate to Trump in order to appease his lunatic base. 06:34 Lindsey Graham, for example, pleaded with his party not to hold Trump accountable for inciting the violent insurrection at the Capitol. 06:41 Lindsey Graham Mr. President, your policies will stand the test of time. 06:44 You're the most important figure in the Republican Party. 06:47 You can shape the direction of the party, keep your movement alive. 06:51 If we embrace an unconstitutional impeachment of Donald Trump after he's out of office, it will destroy the party. 06:58 The Republican Party wants to move forward. 07:01 President Trump's going to be the most important voice in the Republican Party for a long time to come. 07:06 He's going to accept responsibility for his part on January the 6th. 07:11 But impeaching him after he leaves office is not only unconstitutional, from a Republican point of view, it would destroy our party. 07:19 Seth Meyers You know what? 07:19 If holding Trump accountable for inciting violent insurrection destroys the Republican Party, then so be it. 07:25 You want to build it back up again into something decent? 07:27 Be my guest. 07:28 But now Lindsey Graham's like an admiral in the Galactic Empire saying, guys, don't leave the exhaust port open or it'll destroy the Death Star. 07:35 Also, what do you mean Donald Trump's gonna accept responsibility for his part on January 6th? 07:41 Are you nuts? 07:42 Just because you sound like a character in a Tennessee Williams play doesn't mean you have to act like one, too. 07:47 What's Lindsey doing on the front porch? 07:49 Oh, he's still out there waiting for Donald Trump to accept responsibility for January 6th. 07:54 Oh, Lindsey, when will you ever learn he's coming, mama? 07:58 He knows he was wrong and he's coming. 08:01 Isn't that right, glass unicorn? 08:06 At this point, it's difficult to ignore the reality that the Republican Party is, from the top down, a threat to our democracy. 08:10 Trump is leaving the nation in ruins with the lowest approval rating of any president in modern history. 08:16 400,000 Americans have died in the coronavirus pandemic. 08:19 There are 3 million fewer jobs than when Trump took office. 08:21 The vaccine rollout is a disaster, a violent insurrection fueled 08:25 by a deranged authoritarian movement, killed multiple people, ransacked the Capitol, and nearly toppled American democracy. 08:31 There are 20,000 troops guarding D.C. and instead of banishing Trump from politics to jail or to his golf course, where he'd be glimpsed only rarely through blurry photos like some sort of fairway Bigfoot, Lindsey Graham wants him to remain a leader in the Republican Party for years to come. 08:47 You know what that makes you, Lindsey? 08:48 A co-conspirator. 08:49 It's like if a guy on your bowling team turned out to be a cannibal and you said, don't turn him in. 08:53 The championship's next week. 08:54 So what if he ate Carl? 08:55 Carl was dead weight anyway. 08:58 Seriously, is there anyone slimier than Lindsey Graham? 09:01 He called Trump a crazy bigot who was unfit for office, warned accurately that if the GOP nominated Trump, they'd get destroyed and deserve it, then did an about-face and became Trump's loyal foot soldier, golf buddy, and mini-me, then, after the insurrection, said, count me out, enough is enough, then flew with Trump on Air Force One, and now he's saying we shouldn't impeach him. 09:22 He's like a hostage negotiator. 09:24 He says, you want a helicopter and a million dollars? 09:26 I'll give you something better. 09:27 Me! 09:28 These people had four years rationalizing and excusing Trump's behavior because they were all in on it. 09:33 Long ago, they decided to disgrace themselves and serve as this monstrous and irredeemable man. 09:39 And this dismantling of our democracy is just the culmination of all that. 09:42 And even the ones who didn't technically object to the electoral votes, the way Josh Hawley or Ted Cruz did, are complicit. 09:49 It's a moral rot that runs through virtually the entirety of the Republican Party and conservative movement. 09:54 You might remember that when it first became clear Trump had lost the election, more than a few Republicans said there was no harm in indulging him. 10:01 Remember, we knew in advance it would take days to count the votes, and it was clear soon after the election that Joe Biden hadn't just won, he won handily, with 7 million more votes across the country and a total of 306 electoral votes, including states Republicans have held for decades, like Georgia and Arizona, and yet Republicans 10:18 insisted on going to absurd lengths to pretend that the result was still up in the air. 10:22 They were like Browns fans holding out hope for a comeback on Monday morning. 10:26 You're telling me a 35-year-old backup quarterback runs for 13 yards with a minute left to ice the game? 10:33 I call fraud. 10:34 And I'm sorry, Browns fans. 10:35 I was nice last week, but you beat my Steelers, and now you get a gentle payback burn. 10:41 Even aside from propagating the malicious lie that the election was stolen, they kept repeating the ridiculous talking point that Trump had every right to pursue his legal objections, which is a little bit like Browns fans saying they have a right to protest the results of the game after the Super Bowl. 10:53 Okay, okay, the second burn was unnecessary, and I apologize because that's piling on, kind of like how the Chiefs defense piled on your quarterback last night. 11:00 Okay, and now I'm sorry. 11:01 I'm sad about the Steelers. 11:03 It's not about you. 11:04 It's about me. 11:06 My problems. 11:09 I can't let go. 11:12 I don't like being like this." 11:17 Anyway, the point is, Republicans did what they've been doing for five years now, indulging Trump, hoping they'll be able to appease him and his voters while getting everything they want with no damage to the system, a strategy that's worked out great so far. 11:29 In fact, they went to absurd lengths to humiliate themselves in service of a man they knew to be craven and sadistic and deranged. 11:35 You might remember one of the most infamous examples from North Dakota Senator Kevin Kramer, 11:40 who was asked if he considered Joe Biden the president-elect after the Electoral College, certified Joe Biden's win, and this was Kramer's full answer. 11:48 Well, it seems to me that being elected by the Electoral College is a threshold where a title like that is probably most appropriate, and it's, I suppose you can say, official. 11:57 if there is such a thing as official president-elect or anything else-elect. 12:01 And there's an inauguration that will swear somebody in, and that person will be the president of the United States. 12:05 But whether you call it that or not, you know, there are legal challenges that are ongoing. 12:09 Not very many, probably. 12:10 Not a remedy that would change the outcome. 12:12 But so I don't, again, I don't know how a politician refers to another politician, but it does look to me like the big race is really between the inaugural committee and the Justice Department at this point, so we'll see how the e-mails turn out. 12:24 Oh, my God. 12:25 That was like if Gary Busey body-swapped into an eighth grader who was just about to do his oral report on the Electoral College. 12:32 What now? 12:34 These guys are such spineless weasels that if you ask them one simple question about who won the election, they turn into malfunctioning droids. 12:40 He sounds like an echo that just got dropped in the toilet. 12:43 Alexa, is Joe Biden the president-elect? 12:46 Soundbite Well, it seems to me that being elected by the Electoral College is a threshold where a title like that is probably most appropriate... 12:53 Seth Meyers Okay, never mind. 12:53 Never mind. 12:54 Just play Taylor Swift. 12:55 Soundbite Playing Po-Po-Zau by Kevin Federline. 12:57 Seth Meyers No, no, no. 12:58 Play Taylor Swift. 12:59 Soundbite Playing Po-Po-Zau by Kevin Federline. 13:01 Seth Meyers I said play Taylor Swift. 13:03 Soundbite Playing Taylor Swift. 13:04 Seth Meyers Thank you. 13:04 Soundbite Covering Po-Po-Zau by Kevin Federline. 13:09 Seth Meyers Now, Kramer and Graham are the kinds of guys who don't get as much attention as, say, Hawley and Cruz because they just went along for the ride while Hawley and Cruz led the way. 13:17 For example, new footage from The New Yorker reveals that once the insurrectionists got inside the Senate chamber, they made clear they considered Cruz an ally. 13:24 Soundbite Look here, look. 13:26 Ted Cruz's objection to the Arizona... 13:27 He was going to sell us out all along. 13:31 Objection to counting electoral votes of the state of Arizona. 13:35 Wait, no, that's okay. 13:38 Joe Biden All right, all right. 13:39 He's with us. 13:41 He's with us. 13:44 He's with us. 13:46 Soundbite I think Cruz would want us to do this. 13:51 Yeah, absolutely. 13:52 I think we're good. 13:54 Seth Meyers Cool shout-out, Ted. 13:55 Congrats. 13:56 That's like the seditionist version of getting a song dedicated to you by the morning zoo crew. 14:00 This insurrection goes out to Ted from Calgary. 14:03 Thanks for helping us overthrow democracy, Ted. 14:09 This Taylor Swift cover of Popozao is going out to Ted Cruz. 14:14 Trump telegraphed for months that he was going to do exactly what he did, try to steal the election, then refuse to accept the outcome. 14:19 And over the weekend, we learned from new reporting what we basically already knew from Trump's own words and actions, that the attempt to steal the election was premeditated and planned long in advance. 14:29 According to Axios, for weeks, Trump had been laying the groundwork to declare victory on election night, even if he lost. 14:34 Trump wanted Americans to believe a falsehood, that there were two elections, a legitimate election composed of in-person voting and a separate, fraudulent election involving bogus mail-in ballots for Democrats. 14:45 His former chief of staff, Reince Priebus, told a friend he was stunned when Trump called him and acted out his script, including walking up to a podium and prematurely declaring victory on election night if it looked like he was ahead. 14:55 Oh, really? 14:56 You were stunned? 14:58 That's like watching that Werner Herzog documentary about the dude who hangs out with grizzly bears and being stunned when he gets eaten by a grizzly bear. 15:05 You think Werner's gonna make a documentary where the dude and the bear end up as buddies? 15:09 And as I watched man and bear frolic in the stream, their friendship unbreakable, I realized something to be clear. 15:18 This movie was a dud. 15:22 Second, I love when they bring back characters from season one for the finale. 15:25 Now they're gonna have to call Reince Priebus as a witness in the impeachment trial. 15:28 It's gonna be like the Seinfeld finale. 15:30 Oh, you know who else is gonna be a witness? 15:31 Trump's lawyer. 15:32 Soundbite New this morning, Rudy Giuliani now says that he will not represent President Trump 15:37 THE PRESIDENT'S PERSONAL ATTORNEY SAYS HE CANNOT BE PART OF THE PRESIDENT'S LEGAL TEAM BECAUSE HE ALSO GAVE A SPEECH TO SUPPORTERS MOMENTS BEFORE THE SIEGE ON THE CAPITAL. 15:46 DURING HIS SPEECH HE TOLD CROWDS TO ENGAGE IN QUOTE TRIAL BY COMBAT. 15:54 Seth Meyers Trump is such a criminal, his lawyers are also criminals. 15:57 Your Honor, my client isn't the murderer. 15:59 I am. 16:00 Just ask my client. 16:01 He was there because he helped me. 16:03 It's going to be impossible for Trump to find a lawyer who isn't also an accomplice. 16:06 I mean, no credible lawyer wants to get anywhere near this guy. 16:09 I mean, just look what happened to Rudy. 16:11 He was already under criminal investigation. 16:13 Now he could get charged for inciting a riot. 16:14 He might get kicked out of the New York State Bar Association, and he hasn't been watered in months. 16:18 Every soulless Republican today who accommodated this obviously deranged president for four years, every spineless factotum who carried out the business of keeping the institutional Republican Party aligned with Trump shares in the destruction they've wrought and the shame that comes with it. 16:33 And we all have to reckon with the fact that this isn't going away. 16:35 Trump's not unique. 16:36 He's not alone. 16:37 He's the emblem and embodiment of the modern Republican Party. 16:40 If they want to fix that, the bare minimum they can do is cast him out and disqualify him from ever holding office again. 16:45 But even then, the rot, 16:47 will remain throughout the GOP, from Fox News to Lindsey Graham to Rudy Giuliani to... 16:53 The guy from MyPillow. 16:55 This has been A Closer Look. 17:00 God's Love We Deliver cooks and brings over 2 million meals a year to men, women, and children living with HIV, AIDS, cancer, and other serious illnesses. 17:08 They need your help now more than ever. 17:10 If you're watching this online, you can click the Donate button. 17:13 Stay safe, wash your hands, wear a mask. 17:16 We love you.