President Trump
has once again falsely accused
the FBI of spying on him,
but it turns out
there was one person who really
did secretly tape Trump --
his own lawyer.
For more on this,
it's time for "A Closer Look."
[ Cheers and applause ]
-The President is facing
an intense political backlash
over his press conference
last week with Vladimir Putin.
His administration still has
thousands of migrant children
jailed and separated
from their parents,
and his personal fixer,
Michael Cohen,
might be cooperating
with federal Investigators.
So, naturally, Trump has decided
the appropriate response
is to threaten a war with Iran.
-President Trump is once again
threatening the annihilation of
a country very late last night.
Trump tweeted out,
in all capitals,
"To Iranian President Rouhani --
never, ever threaten
the United States again,
or you will suffer consequences
the likes of which
few throughout history
have ever suffered before.
We are no longer a country
that will stand
for your demented words
of violence and death.
Be cautious!"
-Wow. You can take
the crazy old man out of Queens,
but you can't make him
stop yelling at foreigners.
[ Laughter ]
Also -- also -- you don't
get to say "Be cautious"
when you're tweeting
in all caps.
[ Laughter ]
That's like a British person
screaming at
the top of their lungs,
"Keep calm and carry on!"
[ Laughter and applause ]
"We're all gonna die!"
[ Laughter ]
Trump's threat of war
against Iran
was just the latest in a series
of unhinged comments
over the weekend.
Since the start
of his presidency,
Trump has also nursed
the paranoid fantasy
that the FBI and the Democrats
were spying on him.
Over the weekend, he tweeted...
I think my favorite part
of that one
is "surveillance" in
parentheses.
Like, in case you didn't know
what "spied upon" means,
here's a longer word for it.
[ Laughter ]
Surveillance must have been on
his Word of the Year calendar.
[ Laughter ]
"Surveillance --
Oh, spied upon.
See you next January, words."
[ Laughter ]
Trump's latest outburst came
after the Justice Department
released a redacted version
of the application
they filed to surveil
a Trump campaign adviser
named Carter Page.
There he is.
God bless him.
That's how your dog looks at you
when he's torn a pillow apart
and you haven't
started yelling at him yet.
[ Laughter ]
"I took care
of that pillow for you!
I did good, right?"
[ Laughter ]
The FBI believe that Page
has been collaborating
and conspiring
with the Russian government.
On Sunday, Page went on the TV
to defend himself
but would not answer
the simple question
of whether he had relationships
with Russian officials.
-You have relationships
with Russian government
officials, right?
-Well, let's see what they're
referring to, specifically.
-But, Carter, Carter,
you didn't answer --
You have relationships
with Russian
government officials, true?
Yes?
-Well, let's see
what they're talking about.
You know, I talked
with a few --
-I'm just asking you -- I'm just
asking you a straight question.
Do you have relationships with
Russian government officials?
I can tell you I don't.
-Oh!
[ Laughter ]
Oh, you don't, Jake Tapper?
You think Wolf Blitzer
is his real name?
[ Laughter ]
Beard, glasses?
That's obviously Vladimir Putin
in a disguise.
[ Laughter and applause ]
Page --
[ [ Laughter and applause ]
Smilin' Carter Page
was then asked if he had ever
served as an informal adviser
to the Kremlin,
a charge he denied
despite some powerful evidence.
-Did you ever
advise the Kremlin
or work with the Kremlin
on anything?
-Look, Jake, I, uh -- no.
-But you did advise the Kremlin.
I mean,
I just want to make it clear.
You did advise the Kremlin
back in 2013 or 2012,
somewhere in there?
-Jake, that's --
It's really spin.
I mean,
I sat in on some meetings,
but, you know,
to call me an adviser, I think,
is way over the --
over the top.
-Except, in a 2013 letter,
you wrote, it says,
"Over the past half year,
I have had the privilege
to serve as an informal adviser
to the staff of the Kremlin
in preparation for the
presidency of the G20 summit
next month, where energy issues
will be a prominent point
on the agenda."
That's August 2013.
That's yourself calling yourself
an informal adviser
to the Kremlin.
-You know, informal, having some
conversations with people.
-I have never seen anyone
so happy about a losing hand.
[ Laughter ]
"I have a full house, Carter."
"Well, I have a MetroCard
and a CVS receipt."
[ Laughter ]
But Trump's obsession with being
secretly taped is not new.
It's something he's been fixated
on throughout his presidency,
like when he falsely accused
President Obama
of having his wires tapped
or when he tweeted...
It's almost like he got
secretly taped at some point,
and waiting for
that tape to come out
is slowly driving him insane.
[ Laughter ]
And he tries not
to think about that tape,
but for whatever reason,
every time he pees,
he can't get it out of his mind.
[ Laughter ]
And even Trump's explanations
for his bizarre comments
about secret tapes
are themselves incriminating.
Like when he was asked
about his Comey tweet
and rambled like he was under
police interrogation.
-Why did you want him to believe
that you possibly did that?
-Well, I didn't tape him.
You never know what's happening
when you see that
the Obama administration,
and perhaps longer than that,
was doing all of this unmasking
and surveillance
that you read all about it.
And I've been reading about it
for the last couple of months
about the seriousness of the --
and horrible situation with
surveillance all over the place.
So you never know
what's out there,
but I didn't tape,
and I don't have any tape,
and I didn't tape.
-He's like the bus
from the movie "Speed."
[ Laughter ]
He can't stop talking,
or he'll explode.
[ Laughter ]
Trump's paranoia
about being secretly taped
doesn't just 'cause him to
accuse others of spying on him,
he has also repeatedly insisted,
without any prompting,
that there are
no secret recordings
proving that his team
colluded with Russia.
Like when he tweeted,
out of nowhere...
Or when the pee tape allegations
first surfaced in 2017,
Trump insisted he was always
careful when he traveled abroad
because he was always afraid
he was being recorded.
-I'm surrounded by bodyguards.
I'm surrounded by people,
and I always tell them --
anywhere --
but I always tell them,
if I'm leaving this country,
"Be very careful,
because in your hotel rooms,
and no matter where you go,
you're gonna probably
have cameras."
I'm not referring
just to Russia,
but I would certainly
put them in that category.
But in those rooms, you have
cameras in the strangest places.
Cameras that are so small,
with modern technology,
you can't see them,
and you won't know.
"You better be careful,
or you'll be watching yourself
on nightly television."
-Okay, so...
[ Laughter ]
So, hold on.
So, hold on.
Just --
Just a tip.
If someone asks you, "Did you
pee on a bed with hookers?"
the right answer is,
"No, that's disgusting.
I'm married," not, "No,
there are cameras everywhere."
[ Laughter ]
So, Trump is obsessed
with being secretly taped,
but it turns out,
it wasn't Russia or the FBI
he should've been worried about.
It was his own lawyer.
-The "New York Times"
is just reporting
that Michael Cohen
secretly recorded a conversation
that he had with Donald Trump
just two months before
the presidential election
and that the two men,
in this phone conversation,
discussed payments
to a former "Playboy" model
who said that she had an affair
with Donald Trump.
-So Trump has spent
his entire presidency
obsessed with being
secretly recorded,
and it turns out
the only one
who secretly recorded him
was his own lawyer.
Everyone from his past
is coming back to haunt him.
If he ever goes on trial,
it's gonna look like
the "Seinfeld" finale.
But instead of the Soup Nazi,
they'll be actual Nazis.
[ Laughter ]
So now there's
a secret recording
that directly implicates Trump
in a scheme to pay hush money
to silence a "Playboy" model
and possibly even implicates him
in campaign-finance violations
and bank fraud,
and it was made
by his own lawyer.
Now, you might
feel bad for Donald Trump
that his lawyer
secretly taped him,
but that's what you get
when you hire a terrible lawyer.
"Remember, this is all
hush-hush, Michael."
"Oh, I remember,
because when you said
it was hush-hush, I taped it,
and then played it back
to make sure I heard you right.
And then I put that tape
in a box that said
'Hey, FBI, these tapes
are none of your beeswax!'"
[ Laughter ]
But this explains why Trump
is so scared
of being secretly recorded.
Whenever there is a transcript,
a recording of a secret meeting,
or phone call
he or his team had,
we find out they
did something incriminating.
It also explains why
the people closest to Trump
have repeatedly tried to set up
secret back channels to Russia
or why he wanted
to meet privately with Putin
without aides
or why he wouldn't even
tell his own intelligence heads
about his plan
to invite Putin
to the White House,
which resulted in this amazing
clip last week of Dan Coats,
the Director
of National Intelligence,
finding out about the invitation
onstage from Andrea Mitchell.
-We have some breaking news.
The White House
has announced on Twitter
that Vladimir Putin is coming to
the White House in the fall.
-Say that again.
[ Laughter ]
-Vladimir Putin coming to the --
-Did I hear you?
-Yeah, yeah.
-Okay.
-Yeah.
[ Laughter ]
-That's gonna be special.
[ Laughter ]
-That's the Director
of National Intelligence,
which makes sense because,
under Trump,
our national intelligence
has basically devolved to,
"Say what?"
[ Laughter ]
Trump has spent
his entire presidency
doing everything possible
to evade both public oversight
of his actions and his own
intelligence agencies,
and now it turns out
it was his own lawyer
who secretly recorded him.
And I can't wait for that tape
to be played in court because...
-That's gonna be special.
-This has been "A Closer Look."
[ Cheers and applause ]
