-President Trump's defenders have moved on
from insisting he didn't collude with Russia to arguing that
even if he did, it's not a crime.
For more on this, it's time for "A Closer Look."
[ Cheers and applause ]
At some point, everyone who's close to Trump turns on him.
His ex-lawyer Michael Cohen
might be cooperating with prosecutors,
Omarosa is writing a tell-all book about him,
three different people who worked for him
called him stupid.
Even Grimace admitted that when he shot a McDonald's commercial
with Trump, he was wearing a wire.
[ Laughter ]
And, of course, we all remember
when Grimace testified before Congress.
-Do you believe Donald Trump colluded with Russia?
-[ Blink! Blink! ]
[ Laughter ]
-And Trump, who demands loyalty but never returns it,
always abandons the people closest to him.
For example, when Cohen's home and office
were first raided by the FBI, Trump, who trusted Cohen
with handling some of his most personal and sensitive matters,
insisted that he had nothing to do with Cohen.
-Let me just tell you that Michael is in business.
He's really a businessman.
And fairly big business, I understand.
And I don't know his business.
Michael is a businessman. He's got a business.
I would say probably the big thing is his business,
and they're looking to something having to do with his business.
I have nothing to do with his business.
He's got businesses, and from what I understand,
they're looking at his businesses,
and I hope he's in great shape, but he's got businesses.
-Trump says the word "business" like Hodor says "Hodor."
[ Laughter ]
At his next rally, Trump's gonna show up
carrying Vladimir Putin on his back.
[ Laughter, cheers, applause ]
Trump --
Trump almost immediately threw Cohen under the bus,
so it's no surprise that Cohen is now apparently
turning on Trump.
First, he released his secret tape
of Trump discussing a hush payment to cover up an affair.
Then, it was reported that federal authorities
have seized more than 100 recordings made by Cohen.
And Trump, unsurprisingly, is not happy about that.
-"The Daily Beast" reporting, "Two sources who have
spoken to Trump about Cohen this week said the President
was furious, hurling expletives, per one confidante,
after CNN revealed Cohen had covertly recorded
at least one of their conversations.
-I love that they reported that Trump used expletives,
as if that's newsworthy.
I mean, Michael Cohen seems like a guy you use expletives with
even when you're on good terms.
"I love this guy.
Give me a kiss, you [bleep] prick!"
[ Laughter ]
Well, White House staffers should get ready to hear
some more expletives, because last week,
Cohen dropped what could potentially be
one of the bigger bombshells yet in the Russia investigation,
claiming that Trump knew in advance
about the June 2016 meeting in Trump Tower
in which Russians were expected to offer his campaign
dirt on Hillary Clinton.
Which would explain a lot.
Like this mysterious promise Trump made a few days after
his son Don Jr. got the e-mail from the Russians
offering dirt on Hillary Clinton.
-I am going to give a major speech
on probably Monday of next week.
And we're gonna be discussing all of the things
that have taken place with the Clintons.
I think you're gonna find it very informative
and very, very interesting. [ Cheers and applause ]
-That's like buying a ski mask and telling the cashier,
"You're gonna want to watch the news tonight."
[ Laughter ]
"You got any money at First National?
Might want to get it out of there."
[ Laughter ]
So, now Trump's team is trying to paint Cohen
as a liar, desperate to cut a deal.
Trump's current lawyer, Rudy Giuliani,
lurched out of a fog bank to go on CNN last week
to make that case.
Giuliani was asked first why Trump would've hired someone
so willing to lie to protect himself.
-He put his trust in this man for years.
He entrusted him with his most sensitive matters and said,
"I gave him full discretion to do things
I didn't need to know."
It's a fundamental aspect of the president's narrative
of what happened with the women.
Why did he have somebody so close to him
if the guy is so incredible?
-That's kind of part of the human condition, right?
I mean, we all make mistakes
about people who turn out to be disloyal to us.
You know, Benedict Arnold was disloyal to George Washington,
the greatest president, right?
-Did you just compare
Donald Trump to George Washington?
Because the only thing they have in common is wooden teeth.
-God bless the United Shtates.
[ Laughter and applause ]
-Shtates.
Giuliani then attacked Cohen's credibility
and insisted that no jury or prosecutor
could ever believe Cohen over Trump.
-I expected something like this from Cohen.
He's been lying all week. I mean, or for --
He's been lying for years.
There's nobody that I know that knows him
that hasn't warned me that if his back is up against the wall,
he'll lie like crazy, 'cause he's lied all his life.
The man is a liar -- a proven liar.
There's no way you're gonna bring down
the President of the United States
on the testimony, uncorroborated,
of a proven liar. -I understand what you--
I guarantee you this guy is a proven liar.
-But I'm saying credibility is a problem for the president, too.
That's not me being unfair. That's me being objective.
-But you don't --
The President's credibility is not at issue.
-You don't think the President has a similar
credibility problem? -He does not.
-Yeah, no, no, he does. He does, he does.
He's a liar, whose lawyer is lying
about his lying lawyer's lies.
[ Laughter, cheers, applause ]
This whole story is like a Dr. Seuss book,
called "The Lie Ax."
[ Laughter ]
So, there you go. Giuliani said Cohen
has been a proven liar for years,
and I'm sure Giuliani has always been consistent on that.
-Are you concerned at all that Michael Cohen's
gonna cooperate with prosecutors?
-No. I expect that he is gonna cooperate with them.
I don't think they'll be happy with it,
because he doesn't have any incriminating evidence
about the President or himself.
The man is an honest, honorable lawyer.
-Oh, my God.
You don't need to secretly tape these guys
to catch them in a lie.
Just point a camera at them and say, "You're on TV now."
[ Laughter ]
So Trump entrusted Cohen
with some of his most sensitive personal matters for years
and now is attacking him. And of course he is.
Trump, his son, and their allies have denied dozens of times
that Trump had any knowledge of the meeting when it happened,
like last year, when Trump defended his son to reporters
and said he would never do anything wrong.
-After spending the past few days hunkered down
at the White House, reportedly fuming over the news
that his top campaign aides,
including his son and son-in-law,
met with a Russian lawyer last summer
to try and collaborate on defeating Hillary Clinton,
the President told reporters,
"Don is, as many of you know Don, he's a good boy."
-He's 40, and you're talking about him
like he's a Golden Retriever.
[ Laughter ]
"He's a good boy, very loyal, and house trained.
You never hear the fake news
talk about how he's house trained.
But it's been weeks since he's had an accident."
[ Laughter ]
Although it would explain a lot
if Trump thinks the older you get,
the more you can act like a little boy,
because Trump's a 72-year-old man who eats McDonald's,
wants a Space Force, and gives people dumb nicknames.
By the end of his presidency, his motorcade will just be
Secret Service pulling him in a Radio Flyer.
[ Laughter ]
So their story's already shifted from saying the meeting
wasn't about getting dirt to saying nothing came of it
to saying even if something did come of it, that's politics,
and today, Giuliani moved the goal posts even further,
arguing that even if collusion did happen, it's not a crime.
-I've been sitting here, looking in this federal code,
trying to find collusion as a crime.
-It's not. -Collusion is not a crime.
I don't even know if that's a crime,
colluding about Russians. -Okay. [ Chuckles ]
-You start analyzing the crime, the hacking is the crime.
-Well, that certainly is the original crime.
-But the President didn't hack. -Of course not.
-He didn't pay them for hacking.
-Nothing makes me happier than imagining Donald Trump
personally doing the hack, hunched over his keyboard,
blue light on his face,
just banging away with his tiny sausage fingers.
"And...we're in."
[ Laughter and applause ]
"We're in."
[ Applause ]
I can't even imagine
what Trump using a computer would look like.
I'm guessing one of those videos of a dog playing a piano.
[ Off-key notes playing ]
[ Laughter ]
So after it seemed like Giuliani was suddenly shifting
from saying that Trump didn't collude
to arguing that collusion isn't a crime,
he called in to Fox News later in the day
to clarify his stance
by insisting that both things can be true.
-So, I said today that there was no collusion,
and, therefore --
And that collusion, also, is no crime.
I've been saying that from the very beginning.
So has John Dowd.
It's a very, very familiar lawyer's argument
that the alternative, "My client didn't do it,
and even if he did it, it's not a crime."
-Oh, really?
Because it looks like the police are already here.
[ Laughter ]
Seriously, this argument's insane.
Just because Trump didn't do the hacking
doesn't mean he's not complicit in the crime.
And besides, Trump's already been very clear
about who he thinks did the hacking.
-On Tuesday, he told "Time" magazine
that "I don't believe they interfered.
It could be Russia. And It could be China.
And it could be some guy in his home in New Jersey."
-I mean, it could be Russia, but it could also be China,
could also be lots of other people.
It also could be somebody sitting on their bed
that weighs 400 pounds, okay?
-There you go -- it couldn't have been Trump.
It was a guy in New Jersey who's fat.
-We start this hour with President Trump,
who is spending the weekend
at his golf resort in Bedminster, New Jersey.
-Wait. New Jersey?
-At 6'3", 239 pounds,
President Trump is just short of obese.
-Oh, my God!
♪♪
This has been "A Closer Look."
[ Cheers and applause ]
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