Return to Transcripts main page
CNN NewsNight with Abby Phillip
White House Considers Military Force to Take Greenland; Trump Says, Venezuela to Turn Over 30 million to 50 million oil barrels to U.S.; Trump Targets Some Autocrats While Embracing Others; Donald Trump Expects Impeachment if his Republican Bets Loses Midterms; White House Rewrites History in the Jan. 6th Microsite, Blaming the Police and Mike Pence During the Capitol Insurrection. Aired 10-11p ET
Aired January 06, 2026 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[22:00:00]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ABBY PHILLIP, CNN HOST (voice over): Tonight, the administration openly flirts with taking a NATO ally by force.
STEPHEN MILLER, WHITE HOUSE DEPUTY CHIEF OF STAFF FOR POLICY: Greenland should be part of the United States.
PHILLIP: Would the world fight back?
Plus, in the Trump era, some autocrats get captured --
DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: Outlaw, dictator, the illegitimate dictator, the dictator in terrorists.
PHILLIP: -- while others get loved.
Also in his political reset speech instead, of new material, Donald Trump breaks out the hits.
TRUMP: When you weave and you go here and, bomp, bomp, bomp, always coming back,
PHILLIP: But also revealed the president's worries.
TRUMP: They'll find a reason to impeach me.
PHILLIP: And fantasies fiction and the fifth anniversary of January 6th. The White House publishes a website accusing Capitol Police, Mike Pence, and Democrats of staging the attack.
Live at the table, Ana Navarro, Joe Borelli, Neera Tanden, Lydia Moynihan and Kmele Foster.
Americans with different perspectives aren't talking to each other, but here, they do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP (on camera): Good evening. I'm Abby Phillip in New York.
Let's get right to what America's talking about, Greenland. Is it the next target in President Trump's vision for a new world order? Well, tonight, as the Trump administration takes a victory lap after the capture of Venezuela's leader, Nicolas Maduro, the White House now says that Trump is discussing a range of options to acquire Greenland and make it clear using the military is not off the table for them. A source tells CNN that Secretary of State Marco Rubio also told lawmakers this week that the administration is even considering buying the region.
Now, Greenland is an autonomous territory of Denmark, a NATO ally. It's rich in natural resources, like oil, gas, and rare earth minerals, and it's in an area that Trump has long set his sights on with a renewed interest in the days following the U.S. military strike in Venezuela.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We need Greenland from a national security strategic situation. It's so strategic. Right now, Greenland is covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place. We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security and Denmark is not going to be able to do it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: A Trump's top White House adviser is doubling down on the administration's ambition for Greenland, and even suggesting that the U.S. is simply entitled to it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MILLER: The real question is by what right does Denmark assert control over Greenland? What is the basis of their territorial claim?
The United States should have Greenland as part of the United States. There's no need to even think or talk about this in the context that you're asking of a military operation. Nobody's going to fight the United States militarily over the future of Greenland.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: So, it does seem based on all of that that the Maduro operation was sort of a proving ground for Trump and his aides. And, you know, Joe, I guess a lot of people are asking today why not just increase U.S. military presence in Greenland, which we could easily do, vis-a-vis a treaty that already exists. Why the threats?
JOE BORELLI, MANAGING DIRECTOR, CHARTWELL STRATEGY: Well, I think part of that is that NATO and specifically Denmark haven't done that. They haven't done that. I think one of the interesting things about this --
PHILLIP: I'm talking about the U.S. military personnel.
BORELLI: My point is, I think, the interesting thing is that while Democrats are up in arms about what Trump said vis-a-vis, you know, throwing the idea of military intervention out there, none of the Democrats are actually challenging the premise that Greenland is a strategic asset that should be perhaps in the United States' control, or that it would be a great benefit to the national security, right? Yes, Greenland's a vital part of the G.I./U.K. gap.
PHILLIP: I think a lot of people are questioning that premise though.
BORELLI: So, you're saying that if Trump acquires Greenland -- are you saying that if Trump acquires Greenland, the Democrats would give it back?
PHILLIP: So, Ruben Gallego, he is introducing a resolution to block Trump from invading Greenland. He says, wake up. Trump is telling us exactly what he wants to do. We must stop him before he invades another country. Many --
[22:05:00]
BORELLI: But he's not saying we shouldn't take over Greenland. Look, two third of Greenlanders --
PHILLIP: I mean, he's literally saying we shouldn't take over Greenland.
BORELLI: Two thirds of Greenlanders just released the poll, right, Greenland government released a poll, two thirds do not want to be a part of the Kingdom of Denmark, right?
PHILLIP: So, do they want to be a part of the United States?
BORELLI: No, I'm not saying that The Independence Party in Greenland is the largest party, the largest bloc of voters are people who want to be independent. I don't, why can't the Trump administration negotiate to acquire --
PHILLIP: There's a long way between, you know, we want to have a closer relationship with Greenland. We want to stop China and Russia from having influence, and we're just going to take it because it belongs to us. That's a big leap.
ANA NAVARRO, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: And I think, you know, listen, Greenland is very different from Venezuela. It's got very strong allies. Venezuela has allies and dictators, like Ortega and Cuba, who are even more bankrupt than a Venezuela is, and who depended on them for oil. But Greenland does have allies and is part of a NATO treaty that would come to its defense.
Frankly, I wish that, and if he really isn't going to purchase it, of course, it needs to be approved and appropriated by Congress unless he's going to get Elon Musk and his pack of billionaires to pay for it, like they do for the ballroom. Let's see how much more, you know, they're willing to put up.
But before he sets his sights on Greenland, it's not like the Venezuela thing is mission accomplished. If you remember, you know, the famous George W. Bush term, right now, as we sit here, there are political prisoners in Venezuela. There are U.S. hostages being held by the Maduro regime, which is intact in Venezuela.
So, I don't -- you know, I don't know how you can say, oh, what happened in Venezuela is just absolutely great, so now let's move on to what other region we can appropriate. It makes no sense to me.
KMELE FOSTER, EDITOR-AT-LARGE, TANGLE: Yes, that situation's certainly very much unresolved, but it does feel like we're having a very theoretical conversation as well with respect to Greenland. And the president isn't so much saying over and over again, we're going to invade. There's been some conversation and this question keeps getting raised. Would you rule out military operations in the region? They won't rule out anything. Okay, fine.
But how serious an issue is this? I think the point you made, Abby, is precisely the right one. We have a military base in Greenland. If we wanted to put more things there, we could. The real question here is, for such a transactional presidential administration, why aren't they making better efforts to cultivate stronger relationships with Greenland, with Denmark, so that we can have a greater influence in the region?
There is a totally reasonable aspiration to project more power into that region. The Russians and the Chinese want to be able to control the Arctic. We would prefer that it was us who's doing that. And I suspect that that's a lot of the reason for the Venezuelan operation as well.
NAVARRO: Well, he now woke up -- he woke up one day and he wants to be James Monroe.
PHILLIP: Well, and not just that, but, I mean, maybe he and perhaps and Stephen Miller as well. Stephen Miller seems to be hankering for a world in which it's just about who's strongest. And here's what he told Jake Tapper about that in an interview yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MILLER: We live in a world in which you can talk all you want about international niceties and everything else, but we live in a world, in the real world, Jake, that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power. These are the iron laws of the world that have existed since the beginning of time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: So, govern by strength. I mean, here's what The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board says about that. Western military power is indispensable, but the corollary is that a successful U.S. president doesn't reduce America's role in the world to might makes right. Why? Why are they saying this? Well, because might makes right, not just -- it doesn't just embolden you. It then emboldens the bad guys. It emboldens the Irans, the Putins and others who want to use their force to throw their weight around the world. LYDIA MOYNIHAN, CORRESPONDENT, NEW YORK POST: Well, I think with Greenland, their prime minister said they're open for business. I don't see a world in which we militarily intervene in there. But I think what Stephen Miller is noting and I think is important to be aware of is we are approaching the world like the status quo is just going to maintain itself. And the reality is there are foreign adversaries, like Russia, who invaded Ukraine, like China, they are going to be aggressive.
And so I think it's very reasonable to be concerned about the fact that if we aren't aggressive in asserting our own sovereignty in this hemisphere, there will be other countries that do. And China already has a presence there.
So, to your question about why would we need to cobble together some sort of deal, you know, Marco Rubio has said, maybe we purchase it. Truman wanted to purchase it. William Seward wanted to purchase it. They aren't the first people to want to purchase Greenland.
PHILLIP: Put a deal on the table.
[22:10:00]
MOYNIHAN: If they agree to this, I think it could work because we don't want China to have a presence there, have access to these rare earth minerals that we need.
PHILLIP: Yes. I mean, Trump could put a deal on the table. He has not. But I also think that when you're talking about the way that the world works won't self-perpetuate, that's true. But it's also bizarre to be in the White House and then try to be destroying the very world that we created. I mean, that's what Putin wants to do. That's what China wants to do. Why are we throwing a wrench into our NATO allies, our relationship with our NATO allies as opposed to trying to strengthen it?
NEERA TANDEN, PRESIDENT AND CEO, CENTER FOR AMERICAN PROGRESS: I mean, a world, a Stephen Miller world where strong powers just are able to invade weaker powers is a world in which weaker powers are going to want to get nuclear weapons or ally with China or live in a world where Europe now thinks that because they have to be scared of the United States, maybe they should ally some more strongly with China.
It's not that it's to say that we are sovereign and South America is just factually wrong. We are not sovereign in South America.
(CROSSTALKS)
TANDEN: No, he's not. He's describing --
(CROSSTALKS)
MOYNIHAN: No, of course not. But that's the reality.
TANDEN: Well, you are basically creating -- you are rationalizing --
MOYNIHAN: Couldn't we rather live in a world where are aware of the reality than pretend it doesn't exist?
TANDEN: Of course, we were. But we say that invading Ukraine is bad, not good. That is why going into another country on our side is bad, not good. I mean, I don't understand the logic of saying they did a bad thing, so we do a bad thing. That makes zero sense.
BORELLI: You're talking about these scenarios as they're hypothetical. We did see --
TANDEN: I'm not taking them as -- I'm not talking about them.
BORELLI: A nuclear power, Russia, invading a sovereign country that its neighbor --
TANDEN: Which was wrong.
BORELLI: This couldn't -- right.
TANDEN: Right?
BORELLI: But the solution to that is not to sit back and play tiddly- winks, like NATO does. It's actually to go out and perhaps be more aggressive beyond our forward footing and make sure that the G.I./U.K. gap is stronger, that have to --
TANDEN: I'm sorry. Maybe the answer is to defend Ukraine. It's weird to me --
BORELLI: That we have missile defenses in Greenland, that we have ship monitoring --
(CROSSTALKS)
BORELLI: But this is quintessential for Trump. Throw the idea out there that's the most aggressive, the most farfetched, right, we're going to invade, and then come back to a negotiated point in there.
FOSTER: He threw this idea there more than a year ago. What has he done --
(CROSSTALKS)
PHILLIP: He actually threw this idea out in his first term.
BORELLI: And he named -- the man he named an emissary.
NAVARRO: And let's not forget, he was also going to take over the Panama Canal. Let's not forget that he was going to turn Gaza into some sort sea town full of Trump Towers. You know, I mean, there's a lot of things that come out of his mouth. I'm not saying that he -- that you should not take it seriously.
BORELLI: But that's a great example. He pushed the Chinese out of the Panama Canal. He said, we're going to invade the Panama Canal, right? That was the first point. And now the Chinese have less of a presence in the Panama Canal. FOSTER: I don't know that the bluster is what's responsible for that.
BORELLI: Isn't that justifying exactly what he's doing right now?
FOSTER: No.
BORELLI: Well --
TANDEN: I mean, I guess it's weird to me to use Russia's invasion of Ukraine as a reason to actually justify military engagement with Greenland.
BORELLI: Yes.
TANDEN: I mean, that just seems like --
(CROSSTALKS)
TANDEN: It's not a defense. Actually -- no. Actually, if you care about the Ukraine, why --
BORELLI: You're the only person who doesn't think that Greenland would be a defense and a check on Russia.
TANDEN: I'm not saying that, but, you know, like the United States has strong relations with Japan. We're not taking it over, but we have military bases there. The idea that the only way you can strengthen America is through taking over a country is ludicrous. We have bases around the world. No country has more military --
(CROSSTALKS)
MOYNIHAN: China also have bases in Greenland.
(CROSSTALKS)
PHILLIP: China does not have bases in Greenland, okay? We have bases in Greenland.
(CROSSTALKS)
PHILLIP: No, they don't. What Trump said in that clip -- I actually think it's important, what Trump said in that clip, he said there are Chinese and Russian ships surrounding Greenland, that is completely false. That's not true. We could increase the number of bases, if we wanted, in Greenland. We could do that tomorrow if we wanted. These are all things that are on the table.
But it really raises some questions about whether that is even the thing. Because, ultimately, just like in Venezuela, which we'll get to in the next segment, this seems to also be about the natural resources that Greenland has, that Trump wants. Rubio, according to CNN reporting in recent months, provided an analysis of the untapped resources in Greenland, including the rare earths, according to a source familiar with the matter. So, everything is now tied up in Trump's desire, not just in Greenland, but in Venezuela and Ukraine, to tap into natural resources that are in other countries, even if it means taking it by force.
FOSTER: And it's not an imprudent goal. Being aware of where natural resources are, making certain that the country has access to these things and that your rivals aren't operating in your sphere of influence and able to make it impossible for you to gain access to these vital resources that we need for industry, absolutely reasonable.
[22:15:00]
It's just I don't see the administration taking practical steps to try and do all of that. It's not even clear that the Venezuela operation, for all of the military success we've already seen, is likely to yield beneficial results for the United States in the years to come. This could very well --
BORELLI: (INAUDIBLE) emissary, Governor Landry to Greenland to be an emissary for this deal is not a practical step?
PHILLIP: What deal? There's no deal.
BORELLI: He names Governor Landry to go to Greenland and be emissary --
(CROSSTALKS)
PHILLIP: We're going to hit pause because we have more on the other side.
Next for us, 30 to 50 million barrels of Venezuelan oil are now being turned over to the United States. That's according to Trump. So, what does that say about this new relationship between the two countries?
Plus, Trump's political reset turns into his greatest hits concert, including new impeachment warnings if there isn't a red wave in November.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[22:20:00]
PHILLIP: Tonight, President Trump says Venezuela will be turning over 30 to 50 million barrels of oil to the United States. It's the latest in this episode that is raising many questions about what exactly the White House's strategy is here, questions like, where does Trump draw the line when it comes to authoritarian dictators? Is it oil, flattery or is it just politics? Well, historically speaking, Trump has been hesitant to call other strong men, quote, a dictator, but for Maduro, President Trump was quick to use the D word,
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: The illegitimate dictator, Maduro, was the kingpin. To bring outlaw dictator Nicolas Maduro to justice.
Under the now deposed dictator Maduro.
The dictator and terrorist Maduro is finally gone in Venezuela.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: But when those dictators fall more on the right of the political spectrum, Trump sings are very different too.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: President Xi is a man who knows exactly what has to be done. He's a very smart man.
He just runs 1.4 billion people with an iron fist.
Kim Jong-un, and under his leadership, North Korea has great potential.
He wrote me beautiful letters, and they're great letters. We fell in love.
The problem is not that Putin is smart, which, of course, he's smart, but the real problem is that our leaders are dumb.
Viktor Orban and -- he's the head of Hungary and he runs it tough. Let me tell you, he runs it properly. He runs it strong.
We have an extremely respected man in the Oval Office today, and a friend of mine for a long time, a very good friend of mine, and I'm very proud of the job he's done.
It's a great honor to have the leader of Argentina.
He's MAGA all the way, he's make Argentina great again.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: Now Ana, I do have to wonder if Maduro had agreed to give Trump the oil, just to put it in his terms, would we be talking about a very different scenario right now in which Maduro is still there? Because the rest of his regime is still there, they just seem to be more amenable to giving Trump what he ultimately wants out of this whole situation.
NAVARRO: I have a hard time answering that because we have been all over the place. We, by we, I mean the Trump administration, the U.S. government has been all over the place when it comes to Venezuela. Let's remember that when Trump presidency began, the first thing he did was send Rick Grenell to Venezuela as a special envoy to negotiate with Maduro to get a release of U.S. hostages and to negotiate about the oil with Venezuela.
Then I think Marco Rubio got a firm hold of foreign policy, edged out Rick Grenell. And I think he has -- Marco has learned what buttons to push to prime the pump with Trump and get him to do what Marco thinks should be done.
Look, I think Marco and Corina Machado, that's part of the reason that apparently the White House has -- she's fallen into not the best of favors with the White House, thought that getting rid of Maduro was going to be a lot easier. I don't think they thought it was going to take five months, one fourth of the naval arsenal, billions of dollars --
PHILLIP: They gave him a lot of deals and he rejected them.
NAVARRO: -- and ultimately a distraction, right?
So, what is distressful to me, Abby, and I will continue saying it every time I have a platform, and, you know, and we were talking about who he calls dictator and who he doesn't call dictator. Maduro is a dictator. Maduro jailed, killed, and tortured tens of thousands of Venezuelans. Maduro led to the exile of over 8 million Venezuelans. Maduro has led to the family separations of millions of Venezuelan families, has thrown the country into dire poverty while he has stolen from the government coffers. All of those things are true. He held every single institution in Venezuela, the courts, the legislature.
Here's the problem. They've taken Maduro out. So, Trump has his trophy and his scalp to show off, but every single person that was implementing Maduro's policies and some Venezuela experts will tell you, even worse than Maduro, people like Diosdado Cabello, the minister of defense, people like Padrino. I mean, the minister of defense is Padrino. Diosdado Cabello is the minister of interior, are still there.
And I'm going to say it again because I have friends right now whose relatives are political prisoners in Venezuela. Their rights for visitations have been removed in the last three days. We have --
PHILLIP: they're cracking down on --
[22:25:00]
NAVARRO: Venezuela is cracking down -- they have jailed journalists yesterday.
So, and Venezuela is far from free. And it distresses me that instead of the first thing that the U.S. is focusing on is how to free the political prisoners, they're focusing in on oil. That's shameful.
PHILLIP: Yes. I mean, the idea of a more free Venezuela seems to be extremely low on the list of priorities for this administration. And I get that they're trumpeting these 30 to 50 million barrels, but there's no sense being conveyed to the American public what is the plan to actually dismantle the repressive regime, the socialist regime, the regime that has destroyed Venezuela from the inside out. That doesn't even seem to really come up.
BORELLI: I think the US should actually be more formal and discuss what the plan is for the governing coalition, whoever it is. Look, no one would've wanted the country to fall into a state of chaos, right? There had to be some order left when the U.S. troops took out Maduro. But they should have a plan and they should be public about it.
But the idea that, you know, this is some soft footing and allowing Maduro to exist when the last administration put a bounty on their head and did nothing, I mean, the idea, even the whole premise that we just started this conversation with, that Trump is soft against some dictators and hard against others is ridiculous.
We just debated how Trump is probably looking to make the most strategic and serious geopolitical check against Russia with respect to Greenland. We watched Trump bomb the Iranian dictatorship. We watched the last administration allow the Russians to invade Ukraine. We watched the --
PHILLIP: What about the love letters from North Korea?
BORELLI: We watched the Obama administration allow Russia to invade Crimea.
NAVARRO: Or the red carpet (INAUDIBLE) in Alaska.
(CROSSTALKS)
BORELLI: The appeasement of Russia, that was the Biden administration --
(CROSSTALKS)
NAVARRO: And he welcomed him into Alaska with a red carpet.
PHILLIP: How do you explain it? How do you explain the love notes to Kim Jong-un? How do you explain the envy at how Xi Jinping rules with an iron fist? How do we explain the red carpet to Putin in Alaska? Explain it.
BORELLI: So, again, actions speak louder than words. We know President Trump --
NAVARRO: Those were actions.
BORELLI: We know President Trump likes flattery. We know President Trump's like backslapping with people, and that's part of his whole shtick, and that has been successful at some points. Saying we're going to take over Greenland, right, is a real threat against Putin that we just had the conversation that Trump is bad, we shouldn't be doing that.
(CROSSTALKS)
TANDEN: Can I just go back to Venezuela, which is, I mean, just a few hours ago, Donald Trump said he's taking personal control over 30 to 50 million barrels of oil from Venezuela, okay? Now, I just think the truth of this reality is, you know, Marco Rubio goes out and talks about democracy for a few hours and on Sunday morning and then in by evening time, Donald Trump is basically saying, this entire effort is really about control of oil. And the fact that American military forces and actually American military forces have been harmed in order to get oil under the control of Donald Trump. I'm sorry, that's piracy plunder. That's plundering.
(CROSSTALKS)
BORELLI: They're going to sell the oil at market price for the benefit of the people of Venezuela and the United States. You can't leave out the second half of the statement that he says he's not doing that.
(CROSSTALKS)
BORELLI: Before, it was being stolen, the money was being stolen. Now, it's being -- at least half of is going to the Venezuelan people.
PHILLIP: I don't think we really know what this arrangement is because what we know from the --
BORELLI: But Trump says it's false.
TANDEN: It's literally what Trump said.
PHILLIP: I'm just saying, the Truth Social post, he -- the one thing he says in that post is, I will control the money.
TANDEN: Yes.
PHILLIP: So, what gives him the authority to do that? What is he going to do with it? We don't know. But, Lydia?
MOYNIHAN: I do want to address, because we've been dancing around this whole question of international law and I think it's really important when we're having this conversation to recognize there is no such thing as international law. When Russia invaded Ukraine, the international police did not show up because they don't have any. And I think what we've seen in the wake of this is that when we have a stronger America, that means that there is a less powerful Russia, a less powerful Iran, a less powerful China. That has been the outcome of this.
There was a report even in just the last few days, the Ayatollha Khamenei is now looking at escaping to Moscow.
TANDEN: So, I'm sorry, you --
MOYNIHAN: The Ayatollah Khameini is now looking --
TANDEN: That's great.
MOYNIHAN: This is the outcome with Pete Hegseth saying, F around and you find out.
TANDEN: You just talked about Russia, okay? Donald Trump has a policy towards Russia. It is to allow Russia to hold onto the Donbas. That is making Russia stronger. I do not know why you keep articulating this idea that us just talking about Greenland makes Russia weaker.
[22:30:02]
The thing that makes Russia stronger, the thing that makes Russia stronger is allowing the rest of the world, allowing them to have this position. And that is why Putin is so ecstatic and why it was so odd to roll out the red carpet.
KMELE FOSTER, EDITOR-AT-LARGE, "TANGLE": Just with respect to Russia, Russia is engaged in a conflict with Ukraine today. If the United States was interested in impairing Russia's ability to project its power abroad, etc., it would make things very hard for them in Ukraine.
It's actually been putting a lot of pressure on Ukraine to try and bring that conflict to a close, not giving them the sort of material. And we all remember what happened when Zelenskyy visited the United States and was getting screamed at in the Oval Office as if he were not an ally, but were some sort of strategic enemy of the United States.
I think the Trump administration does not seem to have a clear, coherent, strategic foreign policy vision. And that is the only thing that is transparent.
LYDIA MOYNIHAN, CORRESPONDENT, "NEW YORK POST": I think the last day is pretty clear. We care about our hemisphere. We care about the countries that impact that.
ANA NAVARRO, CNN SR. POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: For the sake of facts, let me just say this. The Ayatollah Khomeini died in 1989. It's the Ayatollah Khomeini who succeeded him.
PHILLIP: Well next for us, the President says the quiet part out loud and reveals his midterm fears at an event that was meant to hit the restart button, but it turned into a replay of his greatest hits.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[22:35:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIP: Tonight, it was supposed to be a political reset speech, but Donald Trump took his first opportunity to address House Republicans in a completely different direction. Abandoning his teleprompter today, he offered some of his greatest hits and a lounge act.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: The election was rigged. He had no idea what happened. He still doesn't.
Got impeached twice on nothing. On a perfect phone call, remember? Perfect phone call. My wife, by the way, my wife hates when I do this. She said, you know, she's a very classy person, right? She said, it's so unpresidential, but she gets it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: I don't know. Okay.
In addition to, I guess I was imitating female weightlifters, as you saw there, he was dancing. He offered his usual bravado. Over the course of 90 minutes, the President also revealed some of his anxieties for the new year.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: You got to win the midterms, because if we don't win the midterms, it's just going to be, I mean, they'll find a reason to impeach me. I'll get impeached.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: So a stream of consciousness, admission, whatever you want to call it, Trump does seem to be worried that the consequences of losing the midterm elections will be personal for him, let alone his agenda that I think he thinks is also on the line.
TANDEN: Yes, I mean, I think the news out of that was also the fact that he recognizes that the Republican Party's position on healthcare is a disaster and wants them to fix it. I think he wants to talk about impeachment. I will say, clearly, I do not think Democrats are going to impeach Donald Trump.
I think they're going to offer oversight and really try to stop some of the excesses and actually have things like war powers, votes, etc. But the idea of just throwing out impeachment as a way to rally the Republican side is something that he's doing to drive up his base.
And the reason why he wants to do that is because, as we've seen in special elections and in November, Republican turnout has really dissipated. It's really weakened. And the more he yells and screams and does the lounge act like that, he still cannot get Republicans to match Democratic enthusiasm at the ballot box.
NAVARRO: I congratulate you for analyzing that speech because I was actually watching it live on the air. I was on with Wolf and Pam Brown this morning and trying to follow that speech is like trying to follow lab mice that have been injected with cocaine and are running wildly through a lab room. It just made absolutely no sense when he wasn't talking about the auto pen.
He was talking about how, you know, upset he'd been about Maduro mocking his ridiculous dance that not even Melania likes. Well, I mean, it was just all over. He went through a checklist name called every Republican who was naughty or nice.
PHILLIP: You want a little bit more? Let's play a little bit more. This is not so funny because he's here
lamenting the fact that he has to run against Democrats in elections.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We had the worst president, did the worst job, had the worst policy. We have to even run against these people.
Now, I won't say cancel the election. They should cancel the election because the fake news will say he wants the elections canceled. He's a dictator.
They always call me a dictator who nobody's worse than Obama and the people that surrounded Biden.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: I mean, would you like to take a stab at analyzing that one?
FOSTER: I'm not sure what to say. I don't know that it's so difficult to follow.
The reality is, as you said, this is the greatest hits album. If you've seen a Trump speech beginning to end, you've heard a lot of these bits over and over again.
It's so interesting that in a week when they've taken this consequential, they hope consequential action in Venezuela, hopefully consequential in a beneficial way. They're not talking about foreign policy and sort of setting the course here. They're not talking about Russia and the geopolitical strategy.
[22:40:09]
It's petty grievances. It's all of this kind of nonsense and antics that we've heard before. It's interesting that at this stage, the Trump administration and even Stephen Miller, when we were watching clips of him earlier, there seems to be something of a kind of a lack of power and seriousness there.
Not that there was ever any kind of gravitas. There's not a coherent sense of what it is they're trying to achieve and accomplish or what even Make America Great Again could potentially mean. There are so many Americans who are concerned about health care policy.
They're concerned about inflation. They're concerned about a great array of things. And the cultivating upset about the culture war stuff, suggesting that there's going to be an impeachment.
It's just the President. You've set the stage for yourself.
That's I mean, it's barely even read me.
JOE BORELLI, FORMER REPUBLICAN LEADER, NEW YORK CITY COUNCIL: It's very different. Neera here has miscalculated. I mean, you have Democrats. I mean, Maxine Waters, I think, coined the phrase impeach 45. This was
a rallying cry for Democrats for the better part of four years.
Are you telling me that you -- I think, you tried to make the claim that if Democrats happen to take the house, they're not going to impeach Donald Trump. That's bizarre. That's not going to happen.
The first thing they're going to do, the algorithm in the world, you want to make all glad that I'll take that. Where's the poly market people right now? Try it.
NAVARRO: How much is the bet? I want to know how many barrels of oil we're talking about.
TANDEN: 30 to 50 million.
PHILLIP: I mean, that is the only why Republicans want to say that Trump is going to be impeached. But what rationale would Democrats have to launch another?
BORELLI: What rationale do they have? By the way, Ukraine focal Hunter Biden was on the Ryan. That was the guy's name, Sean Ryan.
We really came out and said, that --
TANDEN: Perfect call.
BORELLI: Hunter Biden came out and said --
PHILLIP: -- in that first impeachment where people who worked for Trump.
BORELLI: Hunter Biden came out and said there was rampant corruption in Ukraine and he regrets being on the board of Burisma. President Trump said, hey, there's rampant corruption in Ukraine and why don't you figure out what Hunter Biden's doing over there? He got impeached for that.
That's bizarre. That is bizarre.
MOYNIHAN: Donald Trump has entered the political scene. He's been impeached twice. The Biden DOJ was weaponized against him, tried to put him in jail.
PHILLIP: Well, hold on a second. That's a perfect segue, because we are actually going to talk about one of the reasons that President Trump was impeached because of his conduct on January 6th.
And now that he's President again, he's trying to rewrite history. The President wants you to believe him, not your own lying eyes about what happened on that day five years ago. And he calls his former vice president who crowds called to be hanged a coward.
We'll discuss that next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [22:45:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIP: Five years since the January 6th attack on the Capitol, the White House is trying to rewrite one of the darkest chapters in U.S. history. They launched this taxpayer funded website of WhiteHouse.gov that paints a very different picture than what we all saw with our own eyes.
According to the site, it wasn't the rioters who instigated violence that day. Instead, it was law enforcement and Nancy Pelosi. It was the rioters who were the real victims of January 6th.
And President Trump was the hero for pardoning nearly 1600 of them. This is exactly what many people, myself included, warned Trump and his people would try to do if they were able to get back into the White House.
They are literally trying to lie about what happened on January 6th. They are putting it on a government website, they are maligning law enforcement officers. And that's after they pardoned 1600 of these people.
Is that really acceptable to Republicans like you?
MOYNIHAN: What are they lying about?
PHILLIP: They said that the Capitol Police instigated the attack. Is that true or false?
MOYNIHAN: Look, I think a lot of people.
PHILLIP: I'm going to call it a lie. Do you think it is true the Capitol Police instigated the January 6th attack?
MOYNIHAN: I think there were a lot of things that went wrong that day. I think Nancy Pelosi should have called in the National Guard for one.
PHILLIP: You asked me, what was a lie? They said that Capitol Police instigated the crowd and caused violence on that day. That's a bald- faced lie.
It is actually incredibly offensive to the many Capitol Police officers who were injured, some of whom later lost their lives. So True or False.
MOYNIHAN: No police officer died on that day.
PHILLIP: No police officer died on that day, but several lost their lives in the days after. Officer Sicknick, who was pepper sprayed by the rioters, suffered multiple strokes and died. So True or False? Are these things that they're putting on the website, is it true or is it false?
MOYNIHAN: Look, I think most people in the MAGA base look at what happened on January 6th and they look at the fallout, Trump being debunked, him being kicked off major social media platforms, him being basically put in jail for not winning this election.
PHILLIP: I'm sorry. Donald Trump--
MOYNIHAN: Was he ever convicted of that? Jeff Smith actually said he could not develop direct evidence to say that Donald Trump intended to cause the rioters.
[02:50:01]
PHILLIP: Let me quote Donald Trump's son, Don Jr. He says on January 6th at 2:53 PM to Mark Meadows: "He's got to condemn this shit ASAP. The Capitol Police tweet is not enough."
Meadows says, "I'm pushing it hard. I agree."
Don Jr. says, "This one, you have to go to the mattress on. They will try to F his entire legacy if it gets worse."
Trump, on that day, sent out a tweet blaming Mike Pence, then writes on the White House website today that Mike Pence was a coward for certifying a free and fair election in this country.
You're good with that?
MOYNIHAN: I think I understand where the Trump base is coming from because they feel frustrated that for four years, this is what put Donald Trump back in the White House.
BORELLI: When Democrats routinely assert that the NYPD, federal law enforcement, any law enforcement, not the Capitol Police on January 6th, are instigating violence in response to protesters, right? We heard that routinely in Minnesota in protest, the police were instigating.
We hear that routinely in New York. We hear that routinely when federal ICE is involved in a protest surrounding one of their arrests. Do you ever push back on the Democrats when they say that the police are instigating?
PHILLIP: Listen, This is not about being anonymous about just blanket saying--
BORELLI: I'm asking if you're being fair.
TANDEN: They do not. They do not.
BORELLI: They're telling me Democrats don't say.
TANDEN: I am totally willing to say.
PHILLIP: Hold on. Just one second, I don't even want to go down this completely fallacious road.
Who instigated the violence on January 6th? I'm just asking, what are the facts around that?
BORELLI: I think when police shoot tear gas and flares and things like that, they have been accused in other instances. They have been accused in other instances.
PHILLIP: Joe, I'm going to ask you one more time.
TANDEN: And what did you say in those other instances, Joe?
PHILLIP: Who instigated the violence?
TANDEN: Did you defend the police in those other instances?
BORELLI: I'm going to be consistent. I'm going to say that it's not right.
PHILLIP: I'm not even asking you to be --
BORELLI: I've never been a big J6 defender.
PHILLIP: Joe, I am not asking you to be consistent.
TANDEN: Then just answer the question.
PHILLIP: I'm not asking you to be consistent. I'm asking you to be consistent. I'm asking, no, I'm asking you, what are the facts? Because we have video.
We know what happened on January 6th. Who instigated the violence on January 6th?
BORELLI: I would say for the most part, the protesters. The police didn't escalate when they shot Ashley Babbitt.
They shot her through a door. That's not escalating the violence.
PHILLIP: Wait.
BORELLI: Because she was going through a door.
PHILLIP: She was breaking in.
BORELLI: Did she deserve to get shot? Are we saying Ashley Babbitt deserved to get shot?
PHILLIP: Hang on a second.
BORELLI: Is that the consensus?
PHILLIP: If you are breaking in to a secure space, the United States Capitol.
TANDEN: And the Secret Service tells you to stop.
BORELLI: You think that woman deserved to die. You think that woman deserved to die. PHILLIP: And they tell you to stop and you continue to do it?
BORELLI: You think in another law enforcement circumstance where someone's unarmed and they break into a building, they have the right to unarmed and they're expected to be unarmed?
PHILLIP: Hold on a second.
TANDEN: If you want to be consistent, why don't you actually think about what you're saying? Because this has happened in other instances.
BORELLI: Ashley Babbitt should not have been shot.
NAVARRO: Do you think Brian Sicknick should have died?
BORELLI: I don't want him to die. He died of a heart attack. I don't want him to die.
NAVARRO: He died of a heart attack after engaging with protesters. He died of a heart attack the next day after getting a will.
BORELLI: I'm pro law enforcement.
NAVARRO: Do you think before other police officers, law enforcement officers who did die as a result--
BORELLI: I don't like it when Democrats come out and say that the NYPD specifically and other law enforcement agencies.
NAVARRO: I'm willing to say I don't know why you keep changing this argument.
BORELLI: Mayor Mamdani, I just asked a question. Mamdani, who's been here on this set, has made that point.
NAVARRO: There is ample evidence that you can try to whitewash it all you can and you're not going to be able to.
PHILLIP: You're repeatedly changing the subject. The simple question is this.
I asked it to Lydia, she didn't really want to answer it. Let me ask it to you.
When the White House writes on the website of the United States government that the Capitol police officers were responsible for the violence on January 6th and that the Vice President of the United States, Mike Pence, was a coward for certifying the free and fair election. Is that a line too far for you?
BORELLI: The President has a right to his opinion. It's an opinion that Democrats have made about the NYPD and other law enforcement agencies in response.
PHILLIP: I'm sorry. BORELLI: You might not like it. I don't care.
PHILLIP: It is extremely shameful. It is shameful for somebody to sit here and say that you support law enforcement and also say it is okay to tell a bald-faced lie that maligns them and that put it on a government website and then have the people who are paid with taxpayer dollars tweet out those very lies. How on earth can you defend that?
BORELLI: The President has a right to his opinion and I think we have only heard for the past five years one side of the story on January 6th.
NAVARRO: We know who else wouldn't accept the election results. Nicolas Maduro.
PHILLIP: We got to go. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[22:55:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIP: For the first time in over 50 years, the Grammys will present the award for best album cover. So for tonight's Nightcap, what's yours, Lydia?
MOYNIHAN: "Fearless." I am basic for saying this, but this is my favorite era. I listened to this on repeat in high school.
PHILLIP: All right, Anna.
NAVARRO: I'm going to say Bad Bunny's, "Debi Tirar Mas Fotos," and I'm going to say that because I want to remind people there's 33 days to the Super Bowl when he's going to do the half time for you.
You have got 32 days to learn Spanish.
PHILLIP: I'm working on it.
FOSTER: There's only one right answer. It's Marvin Gaye's "I Want You," which has a beautiful piece of art on the cover as well, and the album is unbelievable.
[23:00:00]
PHILLIP: I did look at this because you gave this answer, and I have to say you might be correct. Go ahead.
TANDEN: I went with U2 "War." I thought it was very appropriate for the times. I think we could all learn from it these days.
PHILLIP: All right, Joe?
BORELLI: Snoop Doggy Dogg, "Doggy Style." I was ready.
I had to hide that cover and that parental advisory from my mom every day. Like, am I six in it under my bed and stuff?
PHILLIP: All right, guys. Thank you very much.
Thanks for watching "NewsNight," and "Laura Coates Live" starts right now.
