Trump in Crisis - Grand Jury, Leaked Phone Calls and Low Poll Numbers: A Closer Look

-Donald Trump's presidency was already in a tailspin
before today's bombshell news
that the special council has impaneled
a grand jury in the Russia investigation.
And on top of that, Trump's embarrassing phone calls
with the leaders of Mexico and Australia were leaked.
For more on this, it's time for "A Closer Look."
♪♪
[ Cheers and applause ]
As we saw throughout the campaign,
Donald Trump's political career
has been declared dead many times,
so it's important not to get ahead of ourselves.
But still, judging from the newest poll numbers,
his presidency sure seems like it's in crisis.
-61% of those polled
disapprove of the job President Trump is doing.
62% of the American people say President Trump is not honest.
In addition, 71% of voters say
President Trump is not level headed.
And then there's this --
A majority of the American people -- 54% --
say that they are embarrassed
to have Donald Trump as their president.
-Those sound less like poll numbers and more like
your wife yelling at you after you got too drunk at a party.
"I married you because I thought you were level headed,
but you embarrassed me tonight, Michael.
I came home 54% embarrassed."
[ Laughter and applause ]
So it looks like Trump has hit rock bottom.
But hey, at least there's nowhere to go but up, right?
♪♪
-Breaking news -- NBC News confirms
Robert Mueller has impaneled a grand jury in Washington
to investigate Russia's interference
in the 2016 election.
-Although Trump's probably excited
because he thinks a grand jury is just a fancier jury.
[ As Trump ] So beautiful, not like one of those dump juries.
Beautiful, gold, 12 chandeliers.
[ Laughter ]
[ Normal voice ] As we know, when things aren't
going well for Trump,
he tends to retreat further into his alternate reality,
a reality where he's beloved by all
and the country is faring better than ever before.
For example, after the Boy Scouts
distanced themselves from Trump due to an outcry
over his highly partisan speech,
Trump out of nowhere insisted to The Wall Street Journal
that his speech was an unequivocal success.
He told the paper...
Okay, first of all,
that speech wasn't made to them, it was made at them.
Donald Trump basically held a group of Boy Scouts hostage.
In the movie version,
The Rock has to parachute in to save them.
[ Laughter ]
[ Cheers and applause ]
Second, when they were asked for details
about that alleged phone call with Trump,
The Boy Scouts told the Associated Press...
The president lied
about getting a phone call from the Boy Scouts.
I'm also starting to think
his merit badge for Best at All the Things
isn't real, either.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders
tried to clarify the discrepancy yesterday,
but reporters were not buying it.
-In terms of the Boy Scouts,
multiple members of the Boy Scout leadership,
following his speech there that day,
congratulated him, praised him.
They were direct conversations, not actual phone calls.
I wouldn't say it was a lie.
-"I wouldn't say it was a lie.
It was just a little, white lie
from a big, white liar."
[ Laughter ]
And then there's Trump's repeated...
[ Cheers and applause ]
Then there's Trump's repeated insistence
that the economy,
which he claimed was stagnant under President Obama,
suddenly roaring now that he's president.
For example, GDP rose by 2.6% in the second quarter,
and Trump celebrated that as an unprecedented success.
-We have GDP on Friday --
2.6, is a number
that nobody thought they'd see for a long period of time.
And 2.6 is an unbelievable number.
-Trump talks about numbers like he just got called up
to the front of the class to solve a math problem.
Johnny, what's 2.6 x 17?
[ As Trump ] So, you see, over here, 2.6.
And don't get me started on 2.6.
What an unbelievable number.
You've got a two, and you've got a six.
They're separated by a dot.
And oh, boy, what a dot this dot is right here.
And I'd love to finish,
but may I have the bathroom pass?
[ Laughter and applause ]
[ Normal voice ] In fact,
not only is 2.6 not an unbelievable number,
in the third quarter of 2016 when Obama was still president,
growth was actually higher at 2.9%,
a point made emphatically yesterday by MSNBC.
-We need to put this to rest.
He's been saying this all the time.
And if anybody who has anything to do with president Trump
is watching this, please send him this message --
This 2.6% economic growth, it is for one quarter.
You can spike growth for a quarter all sorts of times.
In fact, do you know how many times
during President Obama's eight years
growth was 2.6% or higher?
14 quarters. 14 quarters.
-One more time. Say it again.
-14 times during President Obama's administration.
-I like that MSNBC anchors
are now acting as hype men for one another.
One more time, say it again.
[ Applause ]
Soon, they're going to start
taking their lapel mics off and dropping them.
MSNB -- See ya!
[ Laughter ]
And then yesterday, we saw another feature
of Trump's alternate reality --
the idea that immigrants are pouring into our country
and hurting our economy.
Yesterday, Trump proposed new legislation,
cutting legal immigration by half
and imposing new language requirements
on immigrants before they come here.
Naturally, this policy was highly controversial,
which meant it was time to bring back a Trump spokesman
we haven't seen in a while.
That's right. I'm talking about Stephen Miller.
[ Thunderclap ]
[ Laughter ]
That's right.
Stephen Miller is back from the dead,
though, from the looks of him, only part way back.
And he took to the podium
and immediately started fighting with the press.
-Can you tell me how many -- -Glen.
Maybe we'll make a carve-out in the bill
that says The New York Times can hire
all the low-skilled,
less-paid workers they want from other countries
and see how you feel, then, about low-wage substitution.
-The Statue of Liberty says, "Give me your tired, your poor,
your huddled masses yearning to breathe free."
-The poem that you're referring to was added later.
It's not actually part of the original Statue of Liberty.
-Man, I'm surprised to hear
that kind of disdain for a statue
from a guy who looks that much like a church gargoyle.
[ Laughter ]
But he wasn't done bringing the charm.
Please continue, Stephen Miller.
-It reveals your cosmopolitan bias
to a shocking degree, that in your mind --
No, this is an amazing moment.
But that's not what you said.
And it shows -- it shows your cosmopolitan bias.
-And I just want to say --
-Jim, that is one of the most outrageous,
insulting, ignorant, and foolish things you've ever said.
-Man!
Is there anyone more off-putting than Stephen Miller?
He looks like a mortician's ghost.
He looks like the guy in a prison movie
who's in for eating his family.
[ Laughter ]
"I miss mother.
She was delicious."
He looks like the hitchhiker
other hitchhikers stay away from.
His catch phrase is, "I didn't mean to startle you."
[ Laughter ]
Stephen Miller knows what you did last summer!
And by the way, the idea of cutting back on visas
and slashing legal immigration in half
was not well received by Congress, either.
GOP Senator Lindsey Graham
of South Carolina had this to say.
-South Carolina's economy, the number one, is agriculture.
Number two is tourism.
So my farmers, my hotel owners, my restaurant owners
have a hard time finding labor.
It's not that Americans are lazy,
but these are jobs that are just hard to fill.
And when you can't find an American worker,
you can get a legal visa, it's a win-win.
You take that and cut it in half,
it will destroy South Carolina's economy.
Other than that, it's a good idea.
[ Laughter ]
-Just a warning, be careful with that sarcasm, Senator,
because sarcasm will be lost on Trump.
He will just hear the compliment.
[ As Trump ] Did you hear?
Lindsay said it was a good idea,
and it wasn't in the least bit sassy.
[ Normal voice ] Now, if it seems to you like Trump
is cynically playing to his base with these moves,
you're not the only one.
Today, the Washington Post released transcripts
of Donald Trump's January call with the president of Mexico,
and they illustrated the depths of his cynicism.
One thing that became clear quickly in the call
was that Trump seems to admit
that his signature campaign pledge
to get Mexico to play for the wall
was just an empty political ploy.
In general, Trump really wanted to hammer home
it would be best for him
if the Mexican President would stop saying
That Mexico was not going to pay for the wall,
saying among other things...
He's like a guy talking to his friend
on their way home from a bachelor party.
"We cannot say we went to a strip club.
Your wife will ask, and my wife will ask,
and it's best if we just say we had some steak,
and we went to bed early.
But this only works if we both do it!"
[ Laughter ]
Trump at one point tried
to connect with the Mexican president
by talking about his election victory.
But again, it was very unclear what he was trying to say.
Talking about himself in the third person, he said...
What?
In reverse?
So they dance backwards?
Like -- Like the moonwalk?
Trump sounds like he learned his facts about other countries
from a children's book.
[ As Trump ] Do you know that in Mexico,
they dance backwards?
They walk on their hands,
and they wear shoes on their heads.
[ Normal voice ] But more offensive
than anything Trump said about Mexico
is what he said about America.
When discussing drugs coming in from Mexico, Trump said...
[ Scattered laughter ]
You know, I'm from New Hampshire,
and as we discussed last week,
New Hampshire has been hit hard by the opioid crisis.
But still, don't call it a drug-infested den.
It's New England.
It's a drug infested inn.
[ Laughter ]
[ Cheers and applause ]
But this truly -- This truly is Trump at his worst.
He's openly talking about how he benefited politically
from a very real epidemic.
He took office and immediately tried to dismantle
a health care program that provides
treatment for that epidemic.
And the person he put in charge of handling the opioid epidemic
is Chris Christie, who was last seen in Milwaukee
having a Mexican standoff with a Cubs fan
over a plate of nachos.
[ Laughter ]
And the nachos lost.
But it gets worse because The Washington Post
also obtained a transcript of Trump's tense phone call
with the prime minister of Australia.
And immigration came up on that call, as well,
because Trump was angry about a preexisting agreement
from the Obama administration
to re-settle about 1,250 refugees
from Australian detention centers.
Trump tried to explain his concerns
about the refugees Australia was sending,
but it didn't really make any sense.
[ Laughter ]
Clearly, clearly this is a man
who has never been in a grocery store.
[ As Trump ] Mmm. Oh, this is delicious.
Send my best to the local milk people.
[ Normal voice ] So Trump's presidency is in crisis
with record-low poll numbers,
a rapidly escalating Russia scandal,
Draconian immigration policies,
and lies about the economy and the Boy Scouts.
Senator Graham?
-Other than that, it's a good idea.
-This has been "A Closer Look."
♪♪
[ Cheers and applause ]

Trump in Crisis - Grand Jury, Leaked Phone Calls and Low Poll Numbers: A Closer Look

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