President Trump is so freaked out
about Democrats winning back the House
that he's already moving
to hamstring the Russia investigation.
For more on this, it's time for "A Closer Look."
♪♪
The more results we get from Tuesday's elections,
the clearer it becomes that this was a blue wave
and a national repudiation of Trump's presidency.
Democrats had their biggest net gain in the House since Watergate,
they won the popular vote in the House by about 7 points,
and they won statewide races in key swing states
like Michigan, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Wisconsin.
Or as Trump put it...
-The Republican Party defied history
to expand our Senate majority
while significantly beating expectations in the House
for the midtown and midterm year.
-Sorry. Did you say the "midtown year"?
Oh, okay. I see what's happening.
Trump thought it was the midtown election,
not the midterm election.
That's why he spent all his time campaigning
at the M&M's store with the Times Square Spider-Man.
[ Applause ]
[ As Pres. Trump ] "And tonight...
tonight I am happy to announce that Dirty Elmo
has been elected to the House of Representatives
at Bubba Gump Shrimp."
[ Laughter ]
So for a few hours -- for a few hours,
the big story was Democrats
massively outperforming Republicans in the House
and in swing states across the country,
which, of course, meant Trump had to do something crazy
to get the spotlight back, and that's what happened yesterday
when Trump lost his mind on national television in a press conference.
In fact, at one point, he got so mad
at a question about the Russia investigation
that he had to walk away from the podium.
-On the Russia investigation,
are you concerned that you may have --
-I'm not concerned about anything
with the Russia investigation, because it's a hoax.
-Are you -- -That's enough.
Put down the mic. -Mr. President, are you worried
about indictments coming down in this investigation?
[ Laughter ]
-Look at him.
President Ralph Kramden over there.
"One of these days...!"
But aside -- aside from his usual theatrics,
Trump's performance yesterday was deeply revealing
because it made it clear that he sees himself as above the law.
In fact, he can't even explain
how laws work or how they're made.
Listen to Trump ramble about how he can't pass tax cuts
because he doesn't have the votes in Congress.
-This will have to be now proposed
because if we did it now,
we don't have the votes in the Senate.
We would need 10 Democrat votes. We probably couldn't get them.
If we could, we could pass it very easily in the House,
but there's no reason to waste time
because you don't have the votes in the Senate.
So now we go into the Senate, we don't have the 10 votes.
And what happens? It doesn't get passed.
Even if it gets out of the House, it doesn't get passed.
-It's like watching an episode of "Schoolhouse Rock!"
if the bill overdosed on Ambien.
Now, one feature of our Constitutional system
is that Congress gets to constrain
the power of the president and investigate him.
And right after their victory in the House,
Democrats announced that they would use that power
to request Trump's tax returns,
which he has hidden from the public
despite the fact that presidents going back decades
have released theirs.
And when he was asked about that yesterday,
you could tell Trump was freaking out
from how much he rambled through his answer.
-Point blank, Democrats go after your tax returns.
Will you try to block that
or will you allow them to have them?
-Well, look, as I've told you, they're under audit.
They have been for a long time.
They're extremely complex. People wouldn't understand them.
They're done by among
the biggest and best law firms in the country.
Same thing with the accounting firms.
The accountants are a very, very large, powerful firm
from the standpoint of respect.
They're highly respected. Big firm.
But when you're under audit,
and I'm under very continuous audit
because there's so many companies
and it is a very big company,
far bigger than you would even understand.
But it's a great company.
But it's big, and it's complex, and it's probably feet high.
It's a very complex instrument,
and I think that people wouldn't understand it.
-In other words, yes, I have a girlfriend,
but she goes to another school, and the school is in Canada,
and also she died.
[ Laughter ]
Also, what do you mean people wouldn't understand it?
They're tax returns.
Trump sounds like a dad who doesn't know how to answer
a question from his 5-year-old.
"Dad, where does wind come from?"
"Uh, you wouldn't understand.
I definitely know the answer...
but you wouldn't understand."
Trump cannot abide any checks on his power
because he sees himself as above the law.
For him, laws aren't constraints.
They're weapons to be wielded against your opponents.
For example, he was asked what would happen
if Democrats exercised their Constitutional authority
to investigate him,
and he said that if they did that, he would consider it war.
-Are you offering
a "my way or highway" scenario to the Democrats?
You're saying that... -Negotiation. Not at all.
-...if they start investigating you,
that you can play that game and investigate them?
-Better than them. -Can you compartmentalize --
-And I think I know more than they know.
-Can you compartmentalize that and still continue to work
with them for the benefit of the rest of the country?
-No. -Or are all bets off?
-No, if they do that,
then it's just -- All it is, is a warlike posture.
-A warlike posture?
I'm sorry, but I wouldn't say posture is your strong suit.
[ Laughter ]
You look like someone let the air out of the Michelin Man.
In fact, Trump is so petty and vindictive
that he actually took time out of his press conference
to slam members of his own party who lost their re-election bids,
implying that they lost because they didn't support him enough.
-Candidates who embraced our message of low taxes,
low regulations, low crime,
strong borders, and great judges
excelled.
Barbara Comstock was another one.
I mean, I think she could have won that race,
but she didn't want to have any embrace.
Peter Roskam didn't want the embrace.
Erik Paulsen didn't want the embrace.
-Why does he keep calling it "the embrace"?
Sounds like a Mike Pence euphemism for sex.
[ Laughter ]
[ Cheers and applause ]
"Once a, uh...
Once a year, on my birthday, we engage in...the embrace."
[ Laughter ]
It's like a "Seinfeld" episode where George Costanza
complains that he went in for a hug on a date and got rejected.
"I didn't get the embrace, Jerry!"
"No embrace?" "She de-embraced!"
"Looks like you'll have to embrace...yourself."
[ "Seinfeld" bumper music plays ]
[ Cheers and applause ]
It's so much like a "Seinfeld" episode,
Trump is even doing the Babu finger now.
-You are a rude, terrible person.
-He's a very bad man.
-And it's not just his petty score settling.
Trump's vindictiveness was very much on display
with his power grab at the Justice Department
and his decision to fire Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
In that press conference, reporters tried to ask Trump
how he would approach the Russia investigation
now that the midterms are over
and whether he would try to install a new attorney general.
But Trump, who spent the entire press conference
rambling and yelling at people, was suspiciously coy.
-Can you give us clarity, sir,
on your thinking currently now after the midterms
about your attorney general and your deputy attorney general?
Do they have long-term job security?
-I'd rather answer that at a little bit different time.
-You can say yes or no,
but saying, "I'd like to answer that later,"
is the most suspicious answer you can give.
If you get pulled over,
and your answer to, "Have you been drinking?"
is, "Let me get back to you,"
it's breathalyzer time.
Of course, it turned out that Trump had already decided
to fire Sessions, although he refused to do it himself.
-Jeff Sessions was fired.
He wrote a letter today saying
that he was resigning at the request of the President.
-The President, who became famous
for the phrase "You're Fired,"
punting to his chief of staff to give Sessions the boot.
John Kelly didn't even do it face-to-face,
but opted to fire Sessions by phone.
-These guys are such cowards.
Trump didn't want to fire Sessions himself,
so he had Kelly do it, and Kelly didn't want to do it, either,
so he just called him.
I'm surprised they didn't just send Stephen Miller
to perch on Sessions' window sill.
"Caw! You're fired! Caw!"
[ Laughter ]
With Democrats regaining power in Washington,
Trump is now seriously threatened for the first time in his presidency,
and in response, he's becoming more lawless.
He sees the law not as a constraint on his power,
but as a tool to protect himself.
And as Jeff Sessions just learned,
he'll attack anyone in his way,
whether you're an opponent who hates him
or a supporter who gives him...
-The embrace.
-This has been "A Closer Look."
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