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CNN Special Reports
American Coup: The January 6th Investigation. Aired 12-1a ET
Aired August 06, 2023 - 00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[00:00:00]
RICHARD DONOGHUE, FORMER U.S. ACTING ATTORNEY GENERAL: We came in on Monday, December 28, a hectic day as they all were, and then in the afternoon we got that email which I had to sit down and read more than once to make sure I understood what he was proposing.
JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: What was he proposing?
DONOGHUE: He was proposing sending out a letter signed by the three of us, the acting Attorney General, myself and Jeff Clark, to Georgia, but also the other states, the other swing states as well, suggesting essentially that they set aside the electors assigned to support President-elect Biden, and hold hearings, and basically had the state legislatures pick a new slate of electors.
TAPPER: That a letter claimed that the U.S. Department of Justice's investigations have "identified significant concerns that may have impacted the outcome of the election in multiple states, including the State of Georgia". Was that true?
DONOGHUE: No.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: While the letter was sent solely by Jeff Clark, it was written with the help of a new Justice Department employee named Ken Klukowski, who, according to the Committee, was also working with John Eastman, the architect of the multi-step plan to overturn the election. The letter mirrored some of Eastman's unconstitutional theories.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONOGHUE: It would have created chaos in the states, and I think that would have been disastrous for our country and our Constitution.
TAPPER: But, wasn't at the point of it, the letter, to create that chaos?
DONOGHUE: I think so. Yes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: Disturbed by the letter, Donoghue immediately responded to Clark writing, "This would be a grave step for the department to take, and it could have tremendous constitutional, political and social ramifications for the country.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONOGHUE: That I had to make it clear to him that there was no world in which I and certainly the AG we're going to sign a letter like that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: Rosen and Donoghue met with Clark later that evening.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONOGHUE: I do remember at the very end saying to him, what you are proposing is nothing less than having the United States Justice Department meddle in the outcome of an American presidential election.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: But, again, Jeffrey Clark ignored the direction of Justice Department leadership. He continued to claim falsely that there was widespread election fraud. He pushed to send out the letter again. And on January 3, he told Rosen, President Trump had offered him the role of Attorney General, and he had accepted it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONOGHUE: And that led to a series of discussions and meetings that day. At this point, it had gone so far that we had to bring all the leaders and explain to them. So, they were prepared in case it happened, but also to get their take on what they would do if that did happen.
TAPPER: And what did they say they would do?
DONOGHUE: They uniformly said they were resigning.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: White House call logs obtained by the Committee show that by 4:19 p.m. that day the White House had already begun referring to Clark as the acting Attorney General. That evening, Rosen and Donaghue went to the White House to argue against Trump installing Clark as Attorney General. The three-hour meeting took place in the Oval Office, and by all accounts joined the long list of wild White House meetings.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONOGHUE: The President turned to me and he said, well, one thing we know is you, Rosen, you aren't going to do anything. You don't even agree with the claims of election fraud, and this other guy at least might do something.
It was basically Jeff Clark advocating for the leadership change, and everyone else advocating against it. It was a very blunt, contentious conversation. Herschmann and I were on the same level of being a sort of the street fighters of the meeting.
ERIC HERSCHMANN, FORMER WHITE HOUSE SENIOR ADVISOR: When he finished discussing what he planned on doing, I said (inaudible) a-hole. Congratulations. You just admitted the first step or act you take as attorney general would be committing a felony and violating Rule 60. You're clearly the right candidate for this job.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: White House Counsel Pat Cipollone was vehemently against the plan as well.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONOGHUE: He referred to the letter that Jeff Clark had submitted as a murder suicide pact, that no one should have anything to do with it. I had basically made the point to the President that Jeff Clark was not even qualified to be the Attorney General. He is promising you he is going to conduct these very complex, nationwide investigations in record time, and this is coming from a guy who has never conducted a real investigation. Mr. Clark responded by saying that he has been involved in very significant environmental law briefing before various courts. And that reminded me that, yes, in fact you're primarily you're an environmental lawyer. How about you go back to your office, and we'll call you when there is an oil spill?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: Donoghue also informed President Trump that, upon Clark's appointment Justice Department leaders would resign on mass.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEVEN ENGEL, FORMER U.S. ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL: The President turned to me and said, Steve, you wouldn't leave. Would you? I said, Mr. President, I've been with you through four attorneys general, including two acting Attorney General, but I couldn't be part of this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: Finally persuaded, Trump decided against the idea. When Clark was subpoenaed by the January 6 Committee earlier this year, he refused to answer questions, pleading the Fifth more than 125 times.
[00:05:00]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you discuss this draft letter to Georgia officials with the President of the United States.
JEFFREY CLARK, FORMER ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL: Fifth.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: Coming up, inside the plot to pressure the Vice President. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL LUTTIG, RETIRED U.S. FEDERAL JUDGE: He would have immediately plunged the country into a paralyzing constitutional crisis.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
TAPPER: On December 14, 2020 --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- unanimously cast 16 votes for Joseph R. Biden.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: When the electors in each state gathered --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All 16 electors cast their ballots for Joseph R. Biden.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: -- so did fraudulent electors in seven swing states that Biden had won, such as Arizona.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Donald J. Trump of the State of Florida, number of votes, 11.
STEPHEN MILLER, TRUMP CAMPAIGN SENIOR ADVISOR: An ultimate slate of electors in the contested states is going to vote and we're going to send those results up to Congress.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: This desperate scheme to overthrow the election results had been conceived weeks earlier.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who do you remember being involved in those early discussions around the Thanksgiving time, regarding having alternate electors meet?
CASSIDY HUTCHINSON, FORMER AIDE TO MARK MEADOWS: Mr. Giuliani, several of Mr. Giuliani's associates, Mr. Meadows.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: One of the biggest supporters of this outrageous attempt to subvert American democracy was law professor and Trump Attorney John Eastman.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN EASTMAN, DONALD TRUMP ATTORNEY: The entire executive branch is headed by one guy.
[00:10:00]
KAITLAN COLLINS, ANCHOR, CNN THIS MORNING: Trump saw him on Fox News, and shortly after that, he was in the Oval Office.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: Fraudulent electors were just step one in Eastman's plan, which he outlined in these memos, and justified with false claims of "illegal actions by state and local election officials". Step two in his plan would have to be executed by Vice President Mike Pence on January 6, while presiding over the opening and counting of electoral balance.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: What you can do is you can say, due to these disputes in these seven states we're going to send this back to the states and the states would then be able to help Donald Trump win the election.
REP. LIZ CHENEY (R-WY): It was a lie. In fact, on December 19, 2020, just four days before Dr. Eastman sent this memo, Dr. Eastman himself admitted in an email that the fake electors had no legal weight, referring to the fake electors is "dead on arrival in Congress".
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: Trump campaign aides and outside lawyers shared their concerns about the scheme in emails reported on by the New York Times' Maggie Haberman and Luke Broadwater.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: And did they think what they were doing was legal?
MAGGIE HABERMAN, SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, NEW YORK TIMES: In one email, a lawyer working in Arizona literally describes them as "fake electors", and says, so what we would be doing is sending these fake electors, he has taken quotes, to go cast ballots. In another email, there was a discussion about fear from some officials. This would be seen as "treasonous".
TAPPER: What might have happened had Pence trying to go through with this idea that he could reject electoral votes and send them back to the states Biden won such as Arizona, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Georgia?
LUTTIG: He would have immediately plunged the country into, what I characterized would be, tantamount to a revolution within a paralyzing constitutional crisis.
GREG JACOB, FORMER LEGAL COUNSEL TO PENCE: There is just no way that the framers of the Constitution who divided power and authority, who separated it out, who had broken away from George III and declared him to be a tyrant, there was no way that they would have put in the hands of one person the authority to determine who was going to be President of the United States.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: But, President Trump now saw Vice President Pence as the man who could keep him in the White House for four more years.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. PETE AGUILAR (D-CA): On December 23, President Trump retweeted a memo from an individual named Ivan Raiklin, entitled "Operation Pence Card". They called on the Vice President to refuse the Electoral College votes from certain states that had certified Joe Biden is the winner.
EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: He has been pressuring him behind the scenes. So, now, he is going public. He is trying to get public pressure on Mike Pence.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: The January 6 Committee's interviews with White House attorneys made it clear that Pat Cipollone, Eric Herschmann, and many others were appalled.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JASON MILLER, FORMER TRUMP CAMPAIGN SENIOR ADVISOR: The way it was communicated to me was that Pat Cipollone thought the idea was nutty and had at one point confronted Eastman basically with the same sentiment.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What were your prior interactions with Eastman?
HERSCHMANN: He described for me what he thought the ambiguity was in the statute, and he was walking through it at that time. And I said, hold on a second. I want to understand what you're saying. You're saying that you believe the Vice President acting as President of the Senate can be the sole decision maker as to, under your theory, who becomes the next President of the United States? And he said, yes. I said, are you out of your f****ing mind?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: The Vice President decided he could not buy in to Eastman's theories.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Short, was it your impression that the Vice President had directly conveyed his position on these issues to the President?
MARCH SHORT, FORMER CHIEF OF STAFF TO VP MIKE PENCE: Many times.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And had been consistent in conveying his position to the President.
SHORT: Very consistent.
COLLINS: You basically cannot overstate the pressure that Trump was putting on Pence and the lead up to January 6.
DONALD TRUMP, 45TH U.S. PRESIDENT: I hope that our great Vice President, our great Vice President comes through for us. He is a great guy. If he doesn't come through, I won't like it but as much.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: That night, Pence's outside lawyer, Richard Cohen, phoned retired Judge Michael Luttig, an esteemed conservative Republican, for help and advice.
[00:15:00]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LUTTIG: He said, Judge, do you know John Eastman? And I said, yes. John was a clerk of mine about 20, 25 years ago. And he said, well, John is advising the President and the Vice President that the Vice President does not have to accept the Electoral College votes as they had been cast. I said, well, Richard, you can tell the Vice President that I said he has no such authority whatsoever.
TAPPER: Why did you take the Twitter?
LUTTIG: Well, the next morning, Richard calls and he said, look, we have to get your voice out to the country immediately, within the next hour.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: Judge Luttig, with the help of his son, sent his first ever Twitter thread.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LUTTIG: My son sent me Twitter instructions on how to tweet a thread of individual tweets that were 140K. I had no earthly idea what any of this was about. I just told my son, send this to me right now or I'll cut you out of the will.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: He read me some of that thread.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) LUTTIG: The only responsibility and power of the Vice President under the Constitution is to faithfully count the Electoral College votes as they have been cast. The Constitution does not empower the Vice President to alter, in any way, the votes that had been cast, either by rejecting certain of them or otherwise.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: That Twitter thread spread and garnered attention around the world. But, with just one day before Congress was set to certify Biden's Electoral College victory, Trump continued to apply maximum pressure. In this tweet, "The Vice President has the power to reject fraudulently chosen electors." And when they met at the White House on January 5.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AGUILAR: In the book, parallel journalists Bob Woodward and Robert Costa write that the President said "If these people say you have the power, wouldn't you want to?" The Vice President says "I wouldn't want any one person to have that authority". The president says, no, no, no. You don't understand, Mike. You can do this. I don't want to be your friend anymore if you don't do this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: Trump would not relent. At 1 a.m. on January 6, he tweeted "If Vice President Mike Pence comes through for us, we will win the presidency. Mike can send it back." And then, there was the morning phone call in which the President bullied and belittled the Vice President for refusing to go along with this potential coup.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEN KEITH KELLOGG, FORMER VP PENCE NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR: I don't remember if he said you are a wimp, you'll be a wimp. Wimp is the word I remember.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's also been reported that the President said to the Vice President that something to the effect that you don't have the courage to make a hard decision.
KELLOGG: I don't remember exactly. It was something like that. Yes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: Soon after the call ended, Trump would repeat his dangerous lies and put a target on Vice President Pence.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I hope Mike is going to do the right thing. I hope so. And Mike Pence is going to have to come through for us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: As that speech neared its end, inside the Capitol --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MIKE PENCE, FORMER U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: The Senate and House of Representatives are meeting in joint session to verify the certificates and count the votes of the electors.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: But, outside, headed their way.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I got three men walking down the street in fatigues carrying AR-15.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[00:20:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HUTCHINSON: As Mr. Giuliani and I were walking to his vehicles that evening, he looked at me and said something to the effect of, Cass, are you excited for the 6th? We're going to the Capitol. It's going to be great. The President is going to be there. He is going to look powerful.
CHENEY: On January 3, the Capitol Police issued a special event assessment, Congress itself is the target on the 6th.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now we are on, as I say, the point of attack.
CHENEY: Listen to what Mr. Bannon said that day after the first call he had with the President.
STEVE BANNON, FORMER WHITE HOUSE CHIEF STRATEGIST: All hell is going to break loose tomorrow. All I can say is strap in. They thought they could steal this away.
MURRAY: And then he had Donald Trump talk again. Now, we don't know what the contents of those calls were because of course Donald Trump has not provided that information, and Steve Bannon has not provided that information.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: The night of January 5, you were among those summoned to the Oval Office.
SARAH MATTHEWS, FORMER WHITE HOUSE DEPUTY PRESS SECRETARY FOR TRUMP: Yes. So, I was brought into the Oval Office that evening, and the entire press team was assembled in there.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The gates opened just a few minutes ago.
MATHEWS: The President had the door to the Rose Garden open, and you could hear the crowd on their lips, already assembled, and you could tell he was feeding off that energy and that he was really excited for the next day.
SHEALAH CRAIGHEAD, FORMER TRUMP WHITE HOUSE PHOTOGRAPHER: The President was making notes, talking then about we should go up to the Capitol. What's the best route to go to the Capitol?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: The January 6 Committee's presentation of testimony and documentation left no doubt that Trump had every intention of joining his supporters march to the Capitol.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did the President tell you this that he wanted to speak at the Capitol?
NICK LUNA, FORMER ASSISTANT TO THE PRESIDENT: Correct. Yes.
TRUMP: We have the power and the numbers. We came here to protect our republic.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: The morning of January 6, supporters began gathering for the rally.
[00:25:00]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Biden did not win this election.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What do you think happened?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Fraud.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's not made up.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: Meanwhile, the President's insistence on joining their march to the Capitol --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're taking this country back.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: -- had White House lawyers such as Pat Cipollone very worried.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HUTCHINSON: Mr. Cipollone said something to the effect of, please make sure we don't go up to the Capitol, Cassidy. Keep in touch with me. We're going to get charged with every crime imaginable if we make that movement happen.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: But, nobody could change Trump's mind. And as he, family and aides arrived at the rally, his Chief of Staff Mark Meadows was keeping the President's hopes alive.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HUTCHINSON: Prior to Mr. Trump taking the stage up that morning, he was under the impression by Mr. Meadows that it was still possible.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: At the rally, the President had a more immediate familiar concern, crowd size.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HUTCHINSON: When we were in the offstage announced tent behind the stage, he was very concerned about the shot.
MURRAY: For the pictures that were shared, he wanted to make sure that the rally space was full. And so, he is being told it's not that people are waiting to get through these mags, through these metal detectors. People don't want to go through them because they have weapons with them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: During the hearings, the Select Committee showed a Secret Service report that "some members of the crowd are wearing ballistic helmets, body armor and carrying radio equipment and military grade backpacks."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHENEY: Let's listen.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: The Committee also played Police radio transmissions from that day.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And the individual was answering. He has got blue jeans, and a blue jean jacket and underneath the blue jean jacket (inaudible) AR-15. He is going to be with a group of individuals, about five to eight, five to eight other individuals. Two of the individuals in that group they had Glock-style pistols in their waist.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. Three man walking down the street in fatigues carrying AR-15. Copy at 14th and independence.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: Yet, Trump wanted the metal detectors, the magnetometers or mags, removed.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HUTCHINSON: When we were in the offstage announced tent, I was in the vicinity of a conversation where I overheard the President say something to the effect of I don't care that they have weapons. They're not here to hurt me, take the effing mags away. When my people ended the march the Capitol from here, let the people win and take the mags away.
(VIDEO PLAYING)
CHENEY: Let's reflect on that for a moment. President Trump was aware that a number of the individuals in the crowd had weapons and we're wearing body armor. And here is what President Trump instructed the crowd to do.
TRUMP: We're going to walk down and I'll be there with you. We're going to walk down anyone you want, but I think right here we're going to walk down to the Capitol to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.
TAPPER: How would you characterize Donald Trump's speech at the Ellipse on January 6?
HABERMAN: Inciting. He said peacefully and patriotically, but he was telling people go up there, and it's hard not to see that that was fomenting and telling people that he had been harmed, and they should be angry on his behalf.
TRUMP: You'll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength and you have to be strong.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: Trump's national security advisors believe the President, codenamed "mogul", was going to join the procession.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHENEY: Mogul, the President, was "going to the Capitol" and "they're finding the best route now".
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: The chat log continues. Military Aide has confirmed that he wants to walk. They are begging him to reconsider. Current route will be 15 to F, F to six, six to Penn, Penn to the Capitol. So, this is happening.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is millions of us here. Don't let him lie to you.
TAPPER: What was he going to do up there?
HABERMAN: I think, just leave his people, leave his base, be with his base. I don't think this was something that he had thought out too well other than he was acting like somebody who didn't think he had anything to lose.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[00:30:00]
TAPPER: After more than an hour on stage, the President wrapped up his speech this way.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: You fight like hell. And if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore. So, let's walk down Pennsylvania Avenue. I want to thank you all. God bless you, and God bless America.
HUTCHINSON: When he got off the stage and everybody was making the movement back to the motorcade, I had overheard Mr. Meadows say to him that he was still working on getting an off the record movement to the Capitol.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: What happened next, as Trump and Secret Service agent Robert 'Bobby' Engel got into the Presidential limousine, known as 'The Beast', was relayed to Hutchinson by Trump's Deputy Chief of Staff Tony Ornato.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HUTCHINSON: When I returned to the White House, Tony proceeded to tell me that once the President had gotten into the vehicle with Bobby, he thought that they were going up to the Capitol. And when Bobby had relayed to him, we're not. We don't have the access to do it. It's not secure. We're going back to the West Wing. The President had very strong, a very angry response to that. Tony described him as being irate. The President said something to the effect of, I'm the f***ing President. Take me up to the Capitol now, to which Bobby responded, sir, we have to go back to the West Wing. The President reached up towards the front of the vehicle to grab at the steering wheel. Mr. Engel grabbed his arm, said, sir, you need to take your hand off the steering wheel. We're going back to the West Wing. We're not going to the Capitol.
REP. ADAM KINZINGER (R-IL): It's a shocking story. And we've now heard from at least a Washington, D.C. detective something very similar. (END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: Trump would return to the White House and watch his supporters heed his call to fight like hell.
(VIDEO PLAYING)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[00:35:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: The morning of January 6, what were your expectations for the day?
MATTHEWS: I think I woke up thinking that it was going to be a normal day, and I just thought that he was going to go out there and give a speech, and that would be it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: Sarah Matthews is Donald Trump's former deputy White House Press Secretary, and was in the White House on January 6.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MATTHEWS: It was kind of quiet, to be honest, in the West Wing that morning at least.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: That quiet would not last long. After the speeches at the Ellipse, the President returned to the White House and the rioters made their way to the Capitol.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They broke through. It's on.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: Already aware of the increasing violence, Trump went into the private dining room just off the Oval Office at 2 p.m. (ph) and remained there until 4 p.m.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HABERMAN: When Donald Trump is upset about what he is saying, he reacts. He was not reacting here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: For more than three hours, the President of the United States refused to call off the violent rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HABERMAN: He was watching television and admiring what he saw.
(VIDEO PLAYING)
HABERMAN: He was happy that the certification was delayed. There were myriad efforts to get him to issue some kind of a statement. Those did not work. He didn't make a single phone call to any member of his government.
(VIDEO PLAYING)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: At 4 p.m. --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- declaring a riot.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: -- when D.C. Police officially declared this a riot, Trump tweeted out a link to his speech on the Ellipse, the very one that had helped incite that riot. Realizing the severity of the situation, White House Counsel Pat Cipollone rushed to Mark Meadows, the President's Chief of Staff.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HUTCHINSON: And I remember Pat saying to him something to the effect of the rioters had got to the Capitol, Mark. We need to go down and see the President now. And Mark looked up at him and said he doesn't want to do anything bad.
(VIDEO PLAYING)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: Right as the violence surged, Trump tweeted "Mike Pence didn't have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our country and our Constitution."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MATTHEWS: It was the last thing that was really needed in that moment. It pretty much painted a target on the Vice President's back by tweeting that out.
(VIDEO PLAYING)
HUTCHINSON: I remember Pat saying something to the effect of, Mark, we need to do something more. They're literally calling for the Vice President to be f****ing hung. And Mark had responded something to the effect of, you heard of Pat. He thinks Mike deserves it.
MATTHEWS: Working in communications for President Trump, I was very aware of just the impact that his words have on his supporters. That tweet suggested to them that what they were doing at the Capitol was OK, and that they were justified in their violence and that it was Vice President Pence who was allowing an election to be stolen.
(VIDEO PLAYING)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: Inside the Capitol, the Vice President was rushed from the Senate floor. Secret Service held Pence along with his family and aides in his Senate office, as they work to clear a path to safety.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If we lose any more time, we may have -- we may lose the ability to leave.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: A White House security official who chose to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation explained exactly how dire the situation was for Pence and his Secret Service detail.
[00:40:00]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The members of the VP detail at this time were starting to fear for their own lives. If they're running out of options and they're getting nervous, it sounds like that we came very close to either Service having to use lethal options or worse.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: When the Secret Service made the call to move the Vice President again, rioters came within 40 feet of him. As he was held in an undisclosed location, it was the Vice President who directed a response to the riot.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(VIDEO PLAYING)
MATTHEWS: It was Pence who was on the phone with these lawmakers, Pence who was on the phone with people in the Pentagon about what was happening with the National Guard.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: At (inaudible) p.m., Trump tweeted "Please support our Capitol Police and law enforcement. They are truly on the side of our country. Stay peaceful." By this point, rioters were in both chambers, and the Capitol rotunda was filled with tear gas. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MATTHEWS: At the end of the tweet, he used the phrase "stay peaceful". Kayleigh McEnany shared with me that he did not want to include that, and that it took a lot of convincing on their part. That was extremely alarming to me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: The rioters were getting Trump's messages in real time, as heard on walkie-talkie communications between rioters.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Trump just tweeted, "Please support our Capitol Police. They are on our side. Do not harm them.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He didn't say not to do anything to the Congressman?
COLLINS: I think what the Committee showed about Trump's tweets is that they do take them literally. His messages were received by the people who were there at the Capitol very loudly.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: At any moment during the siege on the Capitol, the President could have addressed the country live from the White House.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: There is a camera on in the White House briefing room at all times. He could have walked over there, could have been on camera almost instantaneously, and blasted out a message to the American people. He had every opportunity and he chose to not do that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: When the President finally relented and released a video telling the rioters to go home, it was 4:17 p.m., three hours and seven minutes since the riot began.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KINZINGER: It became very clear that the feds basically had taken the Capitol back over, that they were not going to succeed in stopping the counting, and only then did he come out with that statement.
TRUMP: We had an election that was stolen from us. It was a landslide election, and everyone knows it.
MATTHEWS: Seeing him on camera and start the video by talking about a stolen election, I just immediately knew that he wasn't going to meet the moment and say what was needed in that time.
TRUMP: So, go home. We love you. You're very special. (END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: Yet again, many rioters took the President's words as instructions.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(VIDEO PLAYING)
MATTHEWS: Working in communications for him, I knew that I would be tasked with defending that. And we had just witnessed all this violence at the Capitol, and these folks attacking Police officers, chanting horrible things. And I knew that I couldn't defend that because it was indefensible. I resigned that evening.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: In the immediate aftermath of the riot, as blood and broken glass littered the halls of Congress, according to the January 6 Committee, there were those who were still trying to overturn the election. That evening, Rudy Giuliani called a number of Republican Senators and urged them to continue to try and delay the certification.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RUDY GIULIANI, DONALD TRUMP'S ATTORNEY: I'm calling you because I want to discuss with you how they are trying to rush this hearing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: The next day, John Eastman called White House Counsel Eric Herschmann to discuss an appeal in Georgia.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HERSCHMANN: I said to him, are you out of your f***ing mind? Now, I'm going to give you the best free legal advice you're ever getting in your life. Get a great f***ing criminal defense lawyer. You're going to need it. Then I hung up on him.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: And the President released a second video condemning the violence more forcefully on January 7.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Like all Americans, I am outraged by the violence, lawlessness and mayhem.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: But, according to White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, it was only the threat of his cabinet invoking the 25th Amendment that convinced him to make this video. [00:45:00]
Advisors warned Trump that talk of removing him from office was gaining traction.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HUTCHINSON: Think about what might happen in the final 15 days of your presidency if we don't do this. There is already talks about invoking the 25th Amendment. You need this as cover.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: And even then, he still refused to admit the election was over.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: This election is now over. Congress has certified the results. I don't want to say the elections are over. I just want to say Congress has certified the results without saying the election is over. OK?
CHENEY: That video just showed you that even after every single constitutional process had been completed and after over 60 courts had heard his challenges and rejected them, he still refused. It was fundamentally a rejection of the rule of law. And again, America can't sustain itself if we have a Commander in Chief who is at war with the rule of law.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: Coming up --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KINZINGER: I want the American people to look at these hearings and understand how close we came that day to losing that self-governance.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: -- the battle to prevent another January 6.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[00:50:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KINZINGER: What we showed in every one of those hearings and every one of those pieces is he knew what he was doing. Donald Trump knew he was pressuring the Vice President. Donald Trump knew that he was pressuring state officials. He knew he was lying. He was trying to basically change out the DoJ to be people sympathetic to him to give at least the air of federal complicity in challenging election results. And he knew when he was sitting in the office during the attack on January 6 that there was a chance that would succeed.
TAPPER: What do you want Americans to take away from the hearings?
KINZINGER: I want the American people to look at these hearings and understand how close we came that day to losing that self-governance. Freedom isn't free. You have to defend this, and not just overseas but sometimes here at home.
TRUMP: Do you miss me yet? Do you miss me?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: In the aftermath of January 6 and his election loss --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Anthony Gonzalez, that's another beauty.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: -- Donald Trump made it his mission to replace Republican opponents with supporters. He had mixed success. In Arizona and Pennsylvania, he backed the gubernatorial candidates Kari Lake and Doug Mastriano, and Senate candidates Blake Masters and Mehmet Oz. All of them lost. Of the 10 Republicans in the House of Representatives who voted to impeach Trump because of January 6, only two returned to Congress in 2023.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KINZINGER: They claim that --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: The others either declined to run for re-election, such as Adam Kinzinger, or lost the Republican primary re-election battles to more Trump supporting candidates, such as Liz Cheney.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHENEY: -- that I will do whatever it takes.
TAPPER: This mission that you've taken on has cost you your job. Do you have any regrets?
CHENEY: Our obligation, my obligation, very much is above politics. I can't imagine having done anything differently at any stage of this process. Since January 6, it saddens me that so many of my Republican colleagues have not met the moment.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: Kinzinger and Cheney were the only two Republicans on the House Select Committee to investigate the attack on January 6. They've become pariahs in a party where they were once seen as its future.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KINZINGER: We cannot survive as a party existing on the personality of one man.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: The Select Committee to investigate the January 6 attack had a herculean task set before it. Its members and staff conducted more than 1,000 interviews, filmed hundreds of taped depositions, and collected more than 140,000 documents. And finally, the week of December 19, the Committee showed us its full hand.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: Leading this hour, the January 6 Committee referring Donald Trump to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution.
REP. BENNIE THOMPSON (D-MS): The first criminal statute we invoke for referral therefore --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: At its last hearing, the Committee recommended Donald Trump be prosecuted for four different crimes, including obstruction of an official proceeding on January 6, 2021.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. JAMIE RASKIN (D-MD): The whole purpose and obvious effect of Trump's scheme were to obstruct, influence and impede this official proceeding.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: Conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to make false statements, and perhaps the most grave referral, the one for aiding or assisting an insurrection.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RASKIN: Anyone who incites others to engage in rebelling, assist them in doing so, or gives aid and comfort to those engaged in the insurrection, is guilty of a federal crime.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: It's a charge that may be particularly difficult to prove.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONOGHUE: You have to have criminal intent. Here, you have the problem of proving what was in the President's mind. I've heard people say, well, he was willfully blind.
TAPPER: Should he have known?
DONOGHUE: Yes. But, if he did not, I don't know that that's a crime.
LUTTIG: I said that --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: Not everyone shares that view.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LUTTIG: -- willful ignorance a fact or law by the President of the United States would not be either a legal defense or a political defense to the President. That's about as clear as a former judge could say it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: Ultimately, the Justice Department will decide whether to bring any charges against former President Trump or John Eastman, who the Committee also referred for criminal prosecution or anyone else. In November, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed a former war crimes prosecutor named Jack Smith as special counsel in charge of these ongoing investigations.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MURRAY: We know the Justice Department has been investigating Jeffrey Clark. We also know that John Eastman is someone who has been touched by this investigation.
[00:55:00]
EASTMAN: I'd like to see the warrant before you take my property.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: Both Jeffrey Clark and John Eastman have had their phones seized by federal investigators. Clark dismissed the investigation as politically motivated, and Eastman fought the DoJ's search warrant in court. But, there are state level investigations as well. Rudy Giuliani has been informed he is a target in a Georgia investigation --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GIULIANI: We will not talk about this until it's over.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: -- and appeared before a grand jury in August. At the moment, perhaps the most perilous investigation for Donald Trump has nothing to do with the attack on the Capitol.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago home in Florida has been searched by the FBI. HABERMAN: The investigation at the moment seems most directly threatening to Donald Trump. It is the one to do with his handling of classified documents and taking documents to Mar-a-Lago with him when he left office.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: The government has recovered more than 320 classified documents from Trump's home in Florida. The redacted search warrant identified three federal crimes that the Department of Justice lists as the foundation of its investigation, obstruction of justice, criminal handling of government records, and violations of the Espionage Act. Justice Department investigations of Donald Trump are certain to be helped by the 845 page Committee report, and the hundreds of documents and transcripts released by the January 6 Committee, as the Congress came to a close in 2022. Among the recommendations in the report --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The Committee believes that those who took an oath to protect and defend the Constitution on January 6 should be barred, disqualified and barred from holding government office.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: President Donald --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: That's aimed at Trump --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- Trump.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: -- who has already announced he is running for President in 2024, something the Committee has said should not be allowed.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I'm thrilled to be back.
CHENEY: No man who would behave that way at that moment in time can ever serve in any position of authority in our nation again. He is unfit for any office.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: Among the thousands of pages of transcripts released by the Committee, were new bits of information, including Cassidy Hutchinson's claim that she saw Trump's Chief of Staff Mark Meadows burn documents in his White House fireplace about a dozen times during the transition.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Even Richard Nixon didn't burn the tapes. There was a gap, but he didn't burn the tapes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: Also in those pages, claims from Hutchinson that Meadows told her the President knew he lost the 2020 election, despite what he was saying publicly. Does the President really think that he lost, Hutchinson asked Meadows, on one occasion? He said, you know, a lot of times they'll tell me that he lost, but he wants to keep fighting it. How much of the Committee hearings and findings have impacted the country's view of Trump remains unclear.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HABERMAN: I think the January 6 hearings actually presented a pretty concise case, and I do think that it got through to voters, and I think it was partly because it was Trump's own appointees, Republican appointees, who were the ones they used to testify against him. Whether that lingers in voters' minds, I think, is a real open question.
COLLINS: I don't think that they've wanted him in a sense of, they've changed a lot of minds. His supporters either don't care or still believe what he says, which is that the election was stolen and that Biden is not a legitimately elected President.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is any of this new revelations from these transcripts enough to loosen Donald Trump's grip on the Republican Party, you think?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I doubt it, not his base. His base is going to stay where they are. They don't care about the facts.
LUTTIG: Donald Trump and his supporters are a clear and present danger to American democracy.
TAPPER: You've been shouting from the rooftops. This is not just about 2020. You're worried about 2024.
LUTTIG: I am. And right now, the former president and his allies and supporters, including in Congress and including in the states, represent a clear and present danger to American democracy. That's not because of what they did on January 6. It's because of what they pledged to do in 2024.
TAPPER: Do you think that Republicans are hearing what you're saying?
LUTTIG: I hope they are.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: Our democracy in the United States relies upon good people in positions of power to do the lawful and right thing, from the President all the way down to local officials. We are having these discussions because there were enough people, enough Republicans who did the right thing in 2020, perhaps next time there won't be. January 6 has taught us anything. It's that nothing is guaranteed. This is the American experiment, not the American proven theorem for our republic to survive. We need our elected officials loyal, not to one man, but to the United States of America.
[01:00:00]
