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New Day
Damning Videos Show VP, Lawmakers Narrowly Escape Deadly Mob. Aired 6-6:30a ET
Aired February 11, 2021 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In never-before-seen Capitol surveillance videos, the managers demonstrated just how close the rioters came to many of the senators in the room.
[05:59:22]
REP. ERIC SWALWELL (D-CA): You were just 58 steps away from where the mob was.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Showing that tape over and over again, it's continuing to open wounds.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If they have blood running through their veins, they have to have been moved. But that's a very different question than whether or not they're going to break with their political realities that keep them in power.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everyone was engaged watching, and I just hope it changes some of their minds and some of their hearts.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is a special edition of NEW DAY. It's Thursday, February 11, 6 a.m. here in New York.
"I'm angry, I'm disturbed, I'm sad." That's what Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski said this morning of the stunning presentation by House impeachment managers. She says, quote, "I knew what it meant to be running down this hallway with my colleagues. I wasn't fully aware of everything else that was happening in the building."
Now that they know, what will they do about it?
What other surprises are in store from the House managers today, in the impeachment trial of the former president? They've already revealed a series of never-before-seen videos. Vice President Pence right there, looking behind himself, and his family evacuating the Senate chamber just before it was breached. Senator Tommy Tuberville confirming overnight that he told the former
president on the phone that Pence was being evacuated, but the former president did nothing.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's staff, running to hide from the mob, moments before the insurrectionists tried to break down the door. Senators Mitt Romney, Chuck Schumer, also seen on surveillance video. We have never seen this before, narrowly escaping the mob.
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: And this morning, we have new reporting on what the House managers plan to present today.
Some Republicans inside the Senate chamber were reportedly refusing to watch the videos. They were doodling or looking down at their laps, instead. But outside the chamber, CNN has learned that more than 120 well-known former Republican officials are actively discussing forming a new anti-Trump, more centrist party.
If you missed what happened yesterday, here is a condensed version of the prosecutor's evidence. And we warn you: some parts are silent, because the security cameras had no audio.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GRAPHIC: January 6, 2021.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE, OFFICER: Cruiser 50, we're going to give riot warnings as soon as the LRAD is here. We're going to give riot warnings. We're going to try to get compliance. But this is now effectively a riot.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE, DISPATCHER: 1349 hours, declaring it a riot.
(BREAKING GLASS)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Kill! Kill!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is my house. Go home!
DELEGATE STACEY PLASKETT (D-U.S. VIRGIN ISLANDS): You can see that the rioters first break the window with the wooden beam that you saw previously. And a lone police officer inside responds and begins to spray the first man who enters, but is quickly overwhelmed.
I want you to pay attention to the first group of assailants, as they break into the building. The second man through the window is wearing full tactical body armor and is carrying a baseball bat. Others are carrying riot shields.
Among this group are members of the Proud Boys, some of whom, like Dominic Pezzola, who was recently indicted on federal conspiracy charges, we will discuss later.
In this security footage, you can see Officer Goodman running to respond to the initial breach. Officer Goodman passes Senator Mitt Romney and directs him to turn around in order to get to safety. As the rioters reach the top of the stairs, they were within 100 feet of where the vice president was sheltering with his family, and they were just feet away from one of the doors to this chamber, where many of you remained at that time.
You can see Vice President Pence and his family quickly move down the stairs. The vice president turns around briefly as he's headed down.
Journalists in the Capitol reported they heard rioters say they were looking for Pence in order to execute him.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hang Mike Pence! Hang Mike Pence! Hang Mike Pence!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hang Mike Pence! Hang Mike Pence! Hang Mike Pence!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hang Mike Pence! Hang Mike Pence! Hang Mike Pence!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bring out Pence!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bring him out!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bring out Pence!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bring him out!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bring out Pence!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bring him out!
PLASKETT: About the same time, Capitol Police announced the Capitol had been breached, Speaker Pelosi's staff heeded the call to shelter in place.
As you can see here, the staff moves from their offices through the halls, and then enters a door on the right-hand side. That's the outer door of a conference room, which also has an inner door that they barricaded with furniture. The staff then hid under a conference room table in that inner room.
This is the last staffer going in and then barricading themselves inside of the inner office.
After just seven minutes of them barricading themselves and the last staffer entering the door on the right, a group of rioters entered the hallway outside and, once inside, the rioters have free rein in the speaker of the House's offices.
Pay attention to the door that we saw those staffers leading into and going into. One of the rioters, you can see, is throwing his body against the door three times until he breaks open that outer door.
Luckily, when faced with the inner door, he moves on.
The staffer is whispering into a phone as he hides from the rioters that are outside the door. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're with -- We need Capitol Police, I think,
come into the hallway. They're pounding on the doors, trying to find us.
PLASKETT: Now infamous pictures of Barnett with his feet on the desk. You might see something that you didn't notice previously. Here's a better look. As this photo highlights, he's carrying a stun gun tucked into his waistband.
The FBI identified the device as a 950,000-volt stun gun walking stick. The weapon could have caused serious pain and incapacitated anyone Barnett had used it against.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- Officer Christoph (ph). We're taking projectiles. Let's go! We need units outside on the terrace ASAP. We need units. We're surrounded. They have breached the scaffolds. Let Capitol know they have breached the scaffolds.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Cruiser 50 they've breached the scaffolds. Let Capitol know they have breached the scaffolds. They are behind our lines.
SWALWELL: This video shows members of Congress exiting to the side of the podium, where we would go through the House lobby and downstairs.
GRAPHIC: Rep. James P. McGovern (D-MA).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)
SWALWELL: Minutes later, at 2:44 p.m., Ashli Babbitt attempted to climb through a shattered window into the House lobby. To protect the members in the lobby, an officer discharged his weapon, and she was killed. I want to warn everyone that the next video, which shows her death, is graphic.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He has a gun! He has a gun! He has a gun!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's got a gun!
(GUNSHOT)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pins off. Pins off.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The (EXPLETIVE DELETED) --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Take your pins off.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pins off.
SWALWELL: About six minutes after the shooting, downstairs, remaining members, staff, and journalists in the gallery were finally able to flee. In this security footage video, you can see them exiting. Many members
are still wearing their gas masks. They walk just feet away from where Capitol Police are holding an insurrectionist at gunpoint.
Just minutes earlier, that insurrectionist had tried to open the gallery door and, thankfully, was stopped by a tactical team.
Although members were now being moved to another location, the mob continued to fight to stop the count, to find the members, to engage with the police. The building was not yet secure.
This security video from 2:56 p.m. shows the mob in the House of Representatives wing on the second floor of the Capitol. Insurrectionists who are still inside the building are fighting with the police, who are overwhelmed and trying to get them out.
This new security footage of the senators and staff leaving the chamber will be displayed on the screens. It is silent.
[06:10:04]
As you were moving through that hallway, I paced it off. You were just 58 steps away from where the mob was amassing and where police were rushing to stop them.
The Capitol Police created a line and blocked the hallway with their bodies to prevent rioters at the end of the hall from reaching you and your staff.
Here in this new video, you see Leader Schumer walking up a ramp, going up the ramp with his detail. He'll soon go out of view.
Seconds later, they return and run back down the hallway, and officers immediately shut the door and use their bodies to keep them safe.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Cruiser 50, I copy. We're still taking rocks, bottles and pieces of flag and metal pole. The crowd is using munitions against us.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Multiple deployments U.S. Capitol with pepper spray.
(SOUND OF PEPPER SPRAY BEING DISCHARGED)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, yes, yes!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Cruiser 50. We lost the line. We've lost the line. All MPD, pull back.
SWALWELL: I want to show you that same attack from the officer's perspective, from his body camera footage.
(SOUNDS OF A SOLID OBJECT STRIKING FLESH)
(SOUNDS OF GRUNTING)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Fuck you! Fuck you!
OFFICER DANIEL HODGES, WASHINGTON, D.C., METROPOLITAN POLICE: No! No! (SCREAMING IN PAIN) Ow! Ow, my back!
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CAMEROTA: That's the video that I actually have to often avert my eyes from. Like, I still wince when I see that one of him caught in the turnstile there.
BERMAN: We had seen that, but so much of what was revealed yesterday was new. We hadn't seen. The senators who lived through it hadn't seen. And so many of them had visceral reactions. I think, for the most part, it was pieced together in a way that revealed a different or a deeper side to all of this.
CAMEROTA: And being able to see the proximity, how close the insurrectionists were. Like, right down the hallway, but they didn't realize it, as they -- as the senators were being secreted, you know, into other rooms.
BERMAN: And how much worse it could have been. Which is important. Because it gets to the base of this conversation, which was, who was responsible for it.
Which brings us to this. What will the prosecutors reveal today? What surprises do they have in store? What will be their final argument today, as they present their case? Next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:18:07]
CAMEROTA: House Democrats will wrap up their opening arguments today. What is left for them to prove?
Joining us now, CNN legal analyst and Republican election lawyer, Ben Ginsberg, and CNN senior political reporter Nia-Malika Henderson. She is the co-host of the CNN podcast, "Politically Sound."
So Ben, first question to you. What do they need to do today? What do the House managers need to do? We just showed that condensed version of so much of the new video, the security footage that they played yesterday. So now what?
BEN GINSBERG, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: It was a remarkably effective performance. But, at least according to the public statements, it didn't sway the jury, the Republican senators.
So in order to be able to bring along the Republican senators, they need to tie Donald Trump even more directly to the actual incitement of the -- of the rioting and the violence. They need a conversation between Donald Trump and one of the organizers at the rally.
They could use a witness who was with him in the White House the afternoon of January 6, who can talk about his state of mind, some of his reactions to what he saw on TV, how much TV he was watching. What did he say when members of his staff and family came in to tell him to -- to make it stop?
BERMAN: I think it's interesting, because whether or not they can convince some of these senators, Nia, to change their minds on this, I do think the House managers have reframed the choice a little bit yesterday. Yes, they presented the visceral, emotional video, which you know stirred almost every senator in that chamber.
But they also made this a choice for Republicans between Mike Pence and Donald Trump. I mean, they really could not have been more specific about it, showing the video of Pence being evacuated from the chamber.
People like Eric Swalwell, who I doubt has ever said a kind thing about Mike Pence, praising his patriotism, holding Pence up for what he did on that day.
[06:20:05]
So now, whatever choice they make, these Republican senators, it feels like it might have a different impact going forward.
NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: I think that's right. We, I think, know what their choice is going to be, given that they're already on the record saying that this is an unconstitutional process. It's hard to imagine that they can then also say that the president should be convicted under an unconstitutional process.
But I do think one of the things that Republicans are hoping on. I think it's always dangerous to try to assess what -- where they're going and what they're thinking -- I think one of the things they're betting on is that the trial alone, even without a conviction, will be enough to end Donald Trump's political career, put him in enough financial trouble, as well, and really banish him from public life in a way that he certainly didn't anticipate going into the presidency, going into this -- his second impeachment.
Whether or not they're right about that, I think that is the bet that they're making. You heard Lisa Murkowski come out and say that she could never imagine after all of what the American public has seen -- And remember, it's the American public that is, you know, the jury, as well -- that she couldn't imagine this president ever being re-elected the president.
And I think, you know, that is probably the hope, if you're somebody like Mitch McConnell, that the trial, in and of itself, is going to be sufficiently damaging. And if you're a Republican, you don't necessarily have to push Donald Trump off of the ticket, off of the world stage. Your hand doesn't have to be in that. But the Democrats' trial, in and of itself, will be enough to do that.
Donald Trump won't become more popular with more people after this trial. He will become possibly more popular with the people he already has. We've already seen his sort of political power diminish over these
last, you know, months or so, certainly this last year. So it's hard to imagine that this impeachment trial adds to his popularity.
And we see that historically within impeachment trials. You know, presidents who have been impeached don't become more popular. They basically go down to defeat. You think about somebody like Andrew Johnson, you know.
CAMEROTA: Yes.
HENDERSON: And then of course, Donald Trump over his first impeachment. So I think that's the calculation in many ways.
CAMEROTA: But Ben, if you're saying that you believe that calling a witness who knew why Donald Trump was MIA during those hours when people were begging for their life and begging for help, if you are saying that that would be the silver bullet for his political future, why aren't House managers doing that? And are they afraid that by calling one witnesses or a few witnesses, they then open Pandora's box, and it's off to the races for the other side?
GINSBERG: Well, my guess is cross-pressures --
HENDERSON: Listen, I think --
CAMEROTA: Hold on, Nia. Hold on. Go ahead, Ben.
HENDERSON: Was that for Ben Ginsberg? OK. OK.
GINSBERG: I think there's cross-pressures on the Republican senators -- I'm sorry, on the Democratic senators because of the Biden agenda and wanting to get things done. So I think there's probably a test point where they -- they will see and sort of get permission for calling witnesses.
But I think that test point comes after Donald Trump presents his case.
Think of it from the point of view of Republican senators looking at that. They've got these two lawyers whose opening statements they were not impressed with. They've got a client down in Palm Beach who is not pleased with what's going on and who is very aware of his brand, and knows that his brand and his reputation is really getting damaged by this process.
What does he have? Those two lawyers, who are not familiar with impeachment, not familiar with constitutional law, not particular with this case, particularly. How do they present something that saves Donald Trump's brand?
So I think part of the Democratic calculation is seeing whether there is anything that Trump's lawyers can do to sort of change the calculus. If they do, then witnesses become more important.
BERMAN: It will be very interesting to see that framing going forward. One other thing, Nia. Our friends at Punch Bowl, Jake and Anna, this
morning posed the question in a way that I think is interesting. They sort of turned it on its head, what Ben said initially. And what they asked is, based on what we saw yesterday, how could you not say Donald Trump was responsible, at least in part, for the violence there?
HENDERSON: I think that's right. I mean, given what we saw, given what we know of what the president said. Given the fact that those people are clad in Make America Great Again hats and Donald Trump T-shirts, waving Donald Trump flags. And their own words, and essentially saying that Donald Trump sent us here. And they are watching his Twitter feed and repeating what he was saying on Twitter.
[06:25:02]
So these are Donald Trump's people. He is connected to them. He apparently was at the White House watching them, as well as, after this all unfolded, saying that this is what you get and also that he loved those people.
So I think that's exactly right. I mean, and that's why you see Republicans not even really making that argument, right? They are making a procedural argument. They are pretending that this is an entirely illegitimate process.
That's why you see somebody like Rand Paul doodling and other folks essentially saying, they are where they are with this, and that is to say that they're not really going to look at the evidence, because the evidence doesn't really matter.
CAMEROTA: Well, his lawyers are making that argument, so we will hear from them tomorrow. Maybe. Thank you both very much.
So did -- is President Biden breaking his campaign promise for reopening schools in his first 100 days? What the White House is now saying.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
