Trump and GOP Face a Government Shutdown of Their Own Making: A Closer Look

-Republicans control all three branches of government,
and yet they're facing a possible government shutdown
over an immigration impasse
created entirely by President Trump.
For more on this, it's time for "A Closer Look."
[ Cheers and applause ]
Democrats and Republicans have been trying to work out
a deal that protects undocumented immigrants
brought here as children, also known as Dreamers,
before the government runs out of money on Friday.
But, of course, that effort has been complicated
by President Trump's racist tirade last week,
in which he said he wanted to keep out immigrants
from Haiti, El Salvador, and African nations,
which he referred to as [Bleep] holes.
And yet, even after those comments became public,
Trump keeps insisting that what he really wants
is what he calls a merit-based immigration system.
-The President tweeted,
"The Democrats want to shut down the government
over amnesty for all and border security.
The biggest loser will be our rapidly rebuilding military,
at a time we need it more than ever.
We need a merit-based system of immigration,
and we need it now."
-Oh, my God, give it up, man.
You can't go back to saying "merit-based" publicly
after what you said privately.
No one is buying it.
You can't put the toothpaste back in the tube.
Or to put it another way,
you can't put the [Bleep] back in the hole.
[ Laughter and applause ]
Now... [ Cheers and applause ]
Trump -- Trump has been insisting
that he did not say what's been reported,
even though he took days to issue a weak denial
and reportedly bragged about it to friends.
And yesterday, in the Oval Office,
after a meeting with the President of Kazakhstan,
he again denied that he made the comment,
although clearly he was annoyed with the reporters in the room.
-Mr. President, did you say
that you want more people to come in from Norway?
did you say that -- -Thank you very much.
Thank you very much.
I want them to come in from everywhere.
Everywhere. Thank you very much, everybody.
-Thank you again. It's time to exit.
-Just Caucasian or white people, or do you want people
to come in from other parts of the world?
-Thank you. -Out.
-Ugh. [ Laughter ]
He's like a Roman emperor who's tired of the court jester.
"Take him away, Chris! Now feed me my grapes."
[ Laughter and applause ]
[ Cheers and applause ]
Meanwhile, Trump's White House
has been struggling to defend him.
Yesterday his Homeland Security Secretary, Kirstjen Nielsen,
who was in the meeting when the [Bleep]hole comments were made,
was grilled in the Senate on what happened.
Nielsen insisted she couldn't recall
Trump using the language he reportedly used,
even though one senator, Patrick Leahy,
decided to have an aide stand behind him
and hold up a printout of Trump's comments.
-The context, I believe, in which this came up
was the concept that the President would like
to move to a merit-based system.
He would like to not --
no longer look at quotas for countries.
-Did he use what would be considered vulgar language,
referring to certain countries?
-The President used tough language in general,
as did other congressmen in the room, yes, sir.
-Yes, the others aren't, uh, President.
-Damn, that is one crappy internship.
[ Laughter ]
imagine describing that job to people at a party.
"Oh, you work for Congress. What do you do?"
"I'm an easel!"
[ Laughter ]
"But I'm up for a promotion to desk lamp."
[ Laughter and applause ]
Leahy also pressed Nielsen on Trump's comments
about wanting more immigrants from Norway
and how those comments undercut his supposed desire
for more merit-based immigration.
And Nielsen's answers weren't all that convincing.
-He said he wanted more people from Norway.
Being from Norway is not a skill.
Norway is a predominantly white country, isn't it?
-I'm -- I -- I actually do not know that, sir,
but I imagine that is the case.
-You don't know if Norway is a predominantly white country?
[ Laughter ]
Norway is whiter than an episode of "Frasier"
projected on the side of a polar bear.
[ Laughter and applause ]
But, of course... [ Applause ]
the most eye-catching moment from the hearing came
when New Jersey Senator Cory Booker
tore into Nielsen for her failure
to recall exactly what the President said.
-The commander in chief, in an Oval Office meeting,
referring to people from African countries
and Haitians
with the most vile and vulgar language.
That language festers.
When ignorance and bigotry is allied with power,
it is a dangerous force in our country.
Your silence and your amnesia is complicity.
-Damn! Look at her face.
Either she's silently contemplating her own complicity
in a system of racial oppression
or she's thinking, "I wonder if he's Norwegian."
[ Laughter and applause ]
Maybe?
Now, all of this is happening
because Trump canceled the DACA program
and Democrats are trying to secure a deal
to restore it through legislation.
They want an agreement on DACA to be included
as part of any budget deal,
and Republicans have claimed, at least, they want a deal, too.
In fact, Trump even went so far last week as to suggest
that if lawmakers manage to broker a deal
that he didn't completely agree with,
he would sign it anyway.
-My positions are going to be
what the people in this room come up with.
If they come to me with things that I'm not in love with,
I'm gonna do it.
-Trump's position is literally,
"I'll think whatever you want me to think."
He's like the bad boy from every teen drama.
-Who are you?
-Whoever you want me to be.
[ Laughter ] "Well."
[ Cheers and applause ]
"Okay.
Hmm."
[ Laughter ]
So Democrats and Republicans,
led by Senators Dick Durbin and Lindsey Graham,
left that meeting
and actually did what Trump asked them to do.
They worked together and came up with a deal.
But when they went back to Trump with the details of that deal
on Thursday, his tone had changed dramatically.
"The Washington Post" reported that Trump told the group
he wasn't interested in the terms of the bipartisan deal
that Durbin and Graham had been putting together.
Trump's tone seemed so different
than it had been days or even hours before...
ping-ponging from dealmaking to feuding,
from elation to fury."
That's right, Trump ping-pongs back and forth,
although I don't even think he has the mental capacity
for Ping-Pong.
I think his brain is just a game of Pong.
-Huge... [ Beep ]
...wall. [ Beep ]
China. Golf. [ Beep ]
[ Beep ] Huge.
[ Beep ] [ Laughter ]
-So, it turns out Trump lied when he made a big show
of televising his immigration meeting with senators last week.
He wasn't going to sign whatever they brought him.
In fact, it was reported that after that meeting,
the immigration hardliners in Trump's administration
intervened and convinced him to change his mind --
most notably, White House senior policy adviser Stephen Miller.
Aah! [ Thunder crashes ]
[ Laughter ]
In fact, Trump is apparently so susceptible to suggestion
that Miller was concerned the bipartisan group
would convince Trump to go along with a deal
that Miller saw as soft on immigration.
"Some White House officials, including Miller,
feared that Graham and Durbin would try to trick Trump
into signing a bill that was damaging to him
and would hurt him with his political base."
That's right. Stephen Miller was worried
that Trump might get tricked into signing something.
The same Stephen Miller who said this.
-The President is a political genius.
-Yeah, but I'm sorry,
actual geniuses aren't susceptible to trickery.
[ Light laughter ]
If you said to Albert Einstein, "Got your nose,"
he wouldn't scream, "Meine nase!"
[ Laughter ]
So, Miller thought Trump was about to get tricked,
intervened, and managed to change his mind
in the span of two hours. Think about that.
Even Trump's closest aides and advisers
treat him like a toddler
capable of changing his mind on a whim.
In fact, he's so childlike,
some lawmakers have literally tried using candy
to curry favor with him.
Take this true story
about Republican Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy,
a key figure in the immigration talks.
McCarthy and Trump were on Air Force One recently,
when "the President reached for a handful of Starbursts.
But instead of unwrapping all the treats,
the President was careful to pluck out and eat
two flavors -- cherry and strawberry.
McCarthy said, 'We're there, having a little dessert,
and he offers me some. Just the red and the pink.
A bit later, a couple of his aides saw me with those colors
and told me those are the President's favorites.'
Days later, McCarthy bought a plentiful supply of Starbursts
and asked a staffer to sort through the pile,
placing only those two flavors in a jar.
McCarthy made sure his name was on the side of the gift,
which was delivered to a grinning Trump."
[ Light laughter ]
Man, I'll bet Putin is so pissed.
He spent millions of dollars and years of effort
hacking into our election,
when he could have just stopped off at CVS
and won Trump over for $2.99.
Seriously, though... [ Laughter and applause ]
...you can get Trump to do anything
as long as you offer him candy.
People think Robert Mueller is going to be the end of Trump,
but it might just as likely be a weirdo in a van.
[ Laughter ]
"Hey, man, do you, uh, want some candy?"
"Uh, I probably shouldn't. I have a Cabinet meeting.
What colors do you have?"
[ Laughter and applause ]
"Oh, the pink ones are in the cage?"
"So, an erratic, childlike President with no principles
and virtually no understanding of policy
changes his mind wildly from one minute to the next,
depending on who he's talking to.
And yet Republicans who are close to Trump
are still somehow flabbergasted when he flips on them.
Graham, for example, has cozied up to Trump
in the last few weeks and even suggested
that Trump was better equipped to get an immigration deal done
than any President in history.
-Obama couldn't do it. Bush couldn't do it.
I think you can do it.
I've never been more optimistic
about an immigration-reform proposal
making it to the President's desk
than I am right now. -There you go.
Lindsey Graham says he's never been more optimistic
about getting an immigration deal,
and it's all thanks to Donald Trump.
So, five days later, how does Lindsey feel now?
-This has turned into a "S" show.
-Oh, Lindsey.
It's been an "S" show because the President is a "D"
and we're all F'ed.
[ Laughter ]
Also...
[ Cheers and applause ]
I love -- I love how Lindsey is censoring himself
as if the news hasn't been 24/7 "[Bleep]hole"
for the past five days. [ Laughter ]
Have you not been watching CNN? Wolf Blitzer has been unleashed.
He's starting every show with "I'm Wolf Blitzer,
and you're in the situation room, mother[Bleep]."
[ Laughter ]
In fact, despite Trump's lengthy history of erratic behavior
and his penchant for changing his position
based on whoever he's talking to,
Graham still seemed bewildered somehow,
about how he had gone from optimist to "S" show
in less than a week.
-Tuesday, we had a President that I was proud to golf with,
call my friend,
who understood immigration had to be bipartisan,
you had to have border security,
it's essential you have border security with a wall.
But he also understood the idea
that we had to do it with compassion.
Now, I don't know where that guy went.
I want him back.
-You can't wait for him to come back, Lindsey.
You got to fill up a jar with pink Starbursts
and go get him back! [ Laughter ]
You can do this! [ Laughter and applause ]
Let's be clear about why all this is happening.
Trump was the one who ended DACA and created this crisis
in the first place. He could have easily accepted
a bipartisan deal to fix it. And on top of that,
Republicans control all three branches of government.
If they can't even get an immigration deal
or keep the government open,
I think I know what voters will say in the fall.
-Thanks, everyone. -Out.
-This has been "A Closer Look."
[ Cheers and applause ]
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Trump and GOP Face a Government Shutdown of Their Own Making: A Closer Look

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