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Don Lemon Tonight

Trump Allies and Opponents Wants Him Impeached; Twitter Silenced Trump's Account; Media Witnessed Horror at the U.S. Capitol; Security Officials Ignored Warnings; Trump's Era an Unforgettable Memory; FBI Now Hunts Rioters. Aired 10-11p ET

Aired January 08, 2021 - 22:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[22:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN HOST: What a week. God bless you, my brothers and sisters and thank you for giving me and the team the opportunity to live this history with you and help one another through it. That's it for us. Time for the big show, CNN Tonight and its big stat getting bigger all the time, D. Lemon.

DON LEMON, CNN HOST: You're talking about my waistline.

CUOMO: No, no.

LEMON: But listen, though. I mean, you are right. You said what a week, you kind of blew it off, but really, what a week when you think about everything that went on. And then then at the end of the week you have an article of impeachment possibly coming on Monday, probably, and then you have the President of the United States who has relied upon Twitter for so long really to make his political career getting banned from Twitter. Have you -- would you ever have thought? I didn't think it would happen.

CUOMO: No. But you know what? There is no check on the guy because the natural check in the political sphere is Congress, and half of it won't do anything about him.

LEMON: Right.

CUOMO: The re-Trumplicans are just going to go down. That's just how it is. They are going to ride him or die. And what we saw tonight is, you know, the working theory is he has been suppressed now. He is worried. That's why he put out the right video. Yes. And then they kick him off Twitter. He sneaks into other account and puts out some of the worst stuff he's put out. You know, basically saying they are coming after me. They are coming after me. He is inciting again --

LEMON: Yes.

CUOMO: -- this guy.

LEMON: Yes. As you were saying to me, we were talking just a second, for a second, he is capable of coming back doing something worse. CUOMO: Absolutely.

LEMON: Than before. And that's the problem. They are not only concerned about what he has done, right? What he did this week inciting violence, but what he could do in the future.

CUOMO: He could try to declare martial law.

LEMON: Yes.

CUOMO: Now he doesn't really know what that means or how it would work.

LEMON: Yes.

CUOMO: But he could say it.

LEMON: Yes.

CUOMO: And look, if he keeps telling these people, look, listen, if you have people, OK, deranged enough, passionate enough, confused enough, OK, to do what they did to the U.S. Capitol --

LEMON: That's a problem.

CUOMO: One, you are not getting a second free pass.

LEMON: Right. And you shouldn't.

CUOMO: They do that again on the 17th or the 20th.

LEMON: You shouldn't.

CUOMO: -- the same members of law enforcement that they celebrate and they should --

LEMON: Yes.

CUOMO: -- they are going to see the other side of that situation, and you will see what it's like to get to the business end of those who are here to protect the law at any cost.

LEMON: Yes. Got to run. There is a lot. Listen, we started with a phone call.

CUOMO: It's not over, D. Lemon.

LEMON: We started with a phone call this week. We had a Senate race. We had the president, we had an insurrection happening at the -- I mean, it's crazy.

CUOMO: It's not over.

LEMON: It's not over yet. But we will get through this. Thank you, Chris. I'll see you. Have a great weekend.

CUOMO: I love you, D. Lemon.

LEMON: I'll see you this weekend, actually watch some football together.

CUOMO: Love you.

LEMON: Love you, too.

So, as he said, this is CNN Tonight. I'm Don Lemon. Thanks for joining.

As we said what a week, what a week, what a week. And you know what? At the end of this week, not over for me, maybe not over for you guys, as well. Donald Trump is dealing with something that he has never, ever experienced before. And you know what that is? Consequences for his actions.

A second impeachment looming, allies abandoning him, social media cracking down on him, banning the president permanently from Twitter, saying this about the inauguration could be interpreted as Trump hinting that it would be a so-called safe target for violence because he wouldn't be attending, offering a stark warning of people on its platform plotting a possible second attack against the capitol on January 17th. OK?

So tonight, the president is in the White House. He is enraged. He is isolated. Increasingly a pariah, right? And he cannot tweet. What could go wrong? But here's the thing. He told an NBC town hall, this was back in October, that he couldn't get the word out without Twitter.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I do a lot of re-tweets and, frankly, because the media is so fake and so corrupt, if I didn't have social media, I don't call it Twitter, I call it social media, I wouldn't be able to get the word out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: He got the word out about the rally he used to incite violence in the capitol perhaps. The headline here, people, I want you to listen to me, is this is happening because there is a real fear that what we saw on Wednesday could happen again before the president's term is through.

And we have chilling new details about what happened during that attack and who has been identified and who has been arrested. Well, tonight, we are focusing on the effort to bring the rioters to justice and the effort to bring the President of the United States to justice as well.

That effort is picking up speed tonight with multiple Republicans saying that they are considering supporting impeachment, multiple Republicans. Let me show you this. And it is in black and white, the latest draft of the draft of the impeachment resolution. This was obtained by CNN, with one article of impeachment for incitement of insurrection.

[22:05:04]

And that's exactly what happened in the U.S. Capitol. Insurrection is what happened. But as the riot was literally raging, the president and Rudy Giuliani were trying to call senators not to find out if they were OK, but in a last-ditch effort to get them to delay certification of the Electoral College votes while the mob was raging. Don't let anybody tell you that these were protesters because they were not protesters. They were rioters, rioters. Just look at the video. Look at your screen, rioters, President-elect Joe Biden saying this today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: They are a bunch of thugs, insurrectionists, white supremacists, anti-Semites. Six n is not enough. I mean, come on. These shirts they are wearing, these are a bunch of thugs.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Remember why Joe Biden ran. He said it when he announced his campaign for president. The presidency he secured after the riot. He ran because of Charlottesville and the president's disgusting claim that there were very fine people on both sides.

What if the Republican Party had taken Charlottesville seriously? What if when they came to that fork in the road, a fork in the road that led us to that infamous day on Capitol Hill, what if they had decided to repudiate the president at his -- and his very fine people remark? What if they had decided to do that and not his remark, but the very fine people as well?

Cut off the hate and the lies at the root. But they didn't. They took the road that led us to where we ended up on Wednesday, and now the GOP is reaping the whirlwind. Lindsey Graham, who after the attack on Capitol Hill finally broke with the president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): All I can say is count me out. Enough is enough.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Well, now confronted by an angry mob.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNKNOWN: Lindsey Graham, you are a traitor to the country. You know it was rigged. You know it was rigged. You are a garbage human. It's going to be like this forever, the rest of your life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: So, no matter what you think about Lindsey Graham, this is what happens when you think you can control a mob. When you think you can stoke their hate and anger and division for your own purposes. You can never control a mob. Now, they are not all the people who carried out torches in Charlottesville, but we saw plenty of confederate flags waving in the crowd. And we heard Illinois Congresswoman Mary Miller quoting Hitler.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MARY MILLER (R-IL): This is the battle. Hitler was right on one thing. He said whoever has the youth has the future.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: She apologized for referencing Hitler today, said he is an evil dictator. Listen, when you have been on the job less than a week and you find yourself apologizing for saying Hitler was right to an insurrectionist mob of people, some of whom are carrying confederate flags and wearing Holocaust denial shirts, well that goes on to storm the capitol and kill people, you might be doing it wrong.

You cannot control people who were incited by the president and his supporters. Like Congressman Mo Brooks, who stirred up the mob that stormed the very capitol where he serves.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MO BROOKS (R-LA): Today is the day American patriots start taking down names and kicking ass.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Incitement of. Senator Ben Sasse saying this.

(BEGIN VOICE CLIP)

SEN. BEN SASSE (R-NE): He wanted chaos on television as this was unfolding on television. Donald Trump was walking around the White House confused about why other people on his team weren't as excited as he was, as you had rioters pushing against capitol police trying to get into the building.

(END VOICE CLIP)

LEMON: He wanted chaos on television. He thought it was all a great show, a show that killed five people, including a capitol police officer, a show that killed some of his own supporters. The family of one of those supporters Roseanne Boyland speaking out to Fox in Atlanta.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JUSTIN CAVE, ROSEANNE BOYLAND'S BROTHER-IN-LAW: And was really passionate about her beliefs, like a lot of people are. I've never tried to be a political person, but it's my own personal belief that the president's words incited a riot that killed four of his biggest fans last night and I believe that we should invoke the 25th amendment at this time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[22:10:08]

LEMON: So that's where we are in terms of bringing the president to account. What about the insurrectionists? More rioters being identified and arrested just tonight. The founder of the Hawaii chapter of the Proud Boys, remember when the president told them to stand back and stand by, charged after admitting to CNN he entered the capitol during the riot.

The man photographed sitting at Nancy Pelosi's desk Richard Barnett, arrested and charged with three federal counts. A West Virginia Republican state lawmaker Derrick Evans who posted then deleted a video of himself storming the capitol taken into custody and facing a criminal charge. And some people in the mob at the capitol said this about police.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNKNOWN: Cops are very cool. They are like, hey, guys, have a good night. I mean, some of them. It's just crazy. It's really weird. You can see that some of them are on our side.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: There will be investigations of all of that. You can be sure of that. But the police were also under siege, too, from that mob, a mob that physically removed one officer after capturing him and locking him in an elevator during the riot. A mob that repeatedly stormed the capitol yelling, where's Pence?

I guess tonight will tell you how he heard multiple people say they were going to get the vice president and hang him. President Trump's vice president, a mob where people carried zip-ties, plastic restraints and invaded the chamber. What do you do with plastic restraints or either around the ankles?

A mob that attacked the seat of our government. A mob incited by the president. The same one who had his Twitter shut down days after he incited a riot in the U.S. Capitol, a possible second impeachment looming. Is this the breaking point for 12 days from inauguration day? Is it?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: I was told that on the way up here, way over here, that he indicated he wasn't going to show up at the inauguration. One of the few things he and I have ever agreed on. It's a good thing of him not showing up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[22:15:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Tonight, Donald trump's presidency is unraveling and his Republican support is starting to crumble. Twitter permanently banning him over, quote, "the risk of further incitement of violence."

And the House Speaker Nancy Pelosi demanding Trump resign immediately or Democrats will move to impeach him starting Monday, accusing him of inciting insurrection.

I want to bring in now CNN's Kaitlan Collins and Donie O'Sullivan, as well. Good evening to both of you. Thanks so much for joining.

Kaitlan, the president is in crisis. His Twitter megaphone has been taken away permanently and he may face a second impeachment next week for inciting an insurrection. The wheels are in motion to hold the president accountable.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And, Don, people around the president are stunned. This is what the last two weeks of his presidency are looking like. And I think the Twitter being suspended permanently which was really kind of the topping of all of this and all of this week has been, White House officials say that they've witnessed.

And I think the president obviously is upset because this is something he often brags about as his way to reach these 80 million people, whether it's he is criticizing the vice president, pushing policies that he wants or what have you. It's still pretty stunning that this is the time that Twitter has decided to go after the patient.

And of course, it does come as people in the White House are kind of in disbelief that they are facing down a second impeachment now. And that it seems likely that at least it's going to go to the House, potentially of course not the Senate given the condensed timeline.

But that, as other people inside the White House are still weighing their resignations given the way that the president responded on Wednesday. You know, you are just really seeing the West Wing in turmoil in a way that it has not been during this presidency which is saying a lot given what they've gone through over the last four years.

LEMON: Yes. Everyone has been citing -- I mean, many people have been citing different standards for the president than for the average person on social media, Donie. I mean, why now President Trump has been saying unhinged things on Twitter for years. Why were his last two tweets the breaking point? And then he tried right away to get back on Twitter again.

DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN REPORTER: Yes, Don, I mean, I think, you know, executives in Silicon Valley might have woken up on Thursday morning and maybe they realized that they were culpable in this violence that we saw here in the capitol on Wednesday, that allowing conspiracy theories and hateful speech to fester on their platforms for years had a role to play in what we saw in the capitol on Wednesday.

And you know, you're right. There is really thousands of tweets and posts on Facebook that the companies could have taken action on in the past few years and Twitter pointed to a pair of tweets that Trump sent in the past 24 hours which they basically, which Twitter basically is saying was signaling to his supporters that, you know, encouraging them to possibly commit more acts of violence. Don?

LEMON: Well, one, the second tweet about not attending the inauguration specifically, Donie, Twitter says it could be read as a dangerous cue to his supporters?

O'SULLIVAN: Yes, that's right. Twitter is saying about that tweet that it may also serve as encouragement to those potentially considering violent acts that the inauguration would be a safe target as he will not be attending, which is, you know, somewhat, I guess ironic given that Joe Biden doesn't want him at that inauguration.

So again, it's really Twitter reading the tea leaves here and picking and choosing, I guess. But you know, we've seen them bend the rules for Trump all these years, and they've decided to just sort of make up their own rules today.

And also, as you mentioned, there is sort of a pathetic attempt right now by the Trump campaign to allow the president to continue tweeting Trump -- Twitter is now suspending multiple accounts.

[22:20:05]

LEMON: Kaitlan, listen, I know you can't look into the future, but you have tons of experience of what happens on the weekend. And we have seen many, many tweets coming out from the president's Twitter fingers over the weekend. What is in store? Do you have any idea what we can expect? Are you hearing any word from your sources?

COLLINS: It's kind of bizarre. To be a White House reporter and to know that you are not going to be looking for the president's tweets is something that I know that my colleagues were -- it's an unusual feeling to not be able to know what the president is thinking because that is the first place people look for his reaction. It's not his spokespeople. It's his Twitter account.

And so, that is really a window into what he is thinking much he has always been incredibly honest on there, obviously. And so, it's interesting because this is going to be a weekend where we are seeing the president so isolated, more isolated than he's probably ever been in his presidency, you know, even when he was running, and Access Hollywood aftermath, Charlottesville aftermath, Helsinki aftermath, and now we're experiencing this.

And it's different, I think. Because look how the president is responding with his own aides. He and the vice president have not spoken since Wednesday. that's incredibly unusual. The vice president was at the White House today. They typically talk a few times a day on the phone at least, in person, and that's not happening.

The president was supposed to go to Camp David this weekend to get into a good head space for this last, you know, 12 days in office. They canceled that trip yesterday. He is not going there anymore. So he is going to be at the White House. And so, it really remains to be seen.

But several people I have spoken to, Don, over the last, you know, 24 hours they are kind of bracing themselves for what the next 12 days are going to look like because despite that video we got last night, I'm told the president has not changed his view of what happened on Wednesday and seeing his supporters go and breach the capitol and what happened, you know, he viewed that not in a negative way. And they don't think that opinion has changed. So, it really remains to be seen what he will say next of course.

LEMON: All right. Kaitlan, Donie, thank you so much. We'll be watching, Kaitlan. We appreciate it. Thanks.

So, it took a deadly riot to get Trump banned from Twitter. But people have been fighting against the lives he's been spreading there for years, including my next gust who got fired for telling the truth. Former DHS cybersecurity official Chris Krebs, he's next.

[22:25:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: So, I really need you to take a look at this but I also need to warn you what you are about to see in this video is really disturbing, OK? So, there is a warning, if you have kids or any. Just fair warning. So, these are rioters at an entrance on the west side of the capitol trying to force their way in. Look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNKNOWN: I'll tell you don't step on the mark. Just go home, OK? You see me. Just go home. I talk to you, buddy, and go home. Don't try to on me. I am not hurting you.

UNKNOWN: Run!

(CROWD CHANTING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: So, obviously, that's new video. My gosh, into CNN. It's -- did you see that officer? This is America. Or at least it's part of who we are right now. We don't know the condition now of the officer being crushed in that doorway. We certainly hope that he is OK.

CNN reached out to the person who shot this video. He said that police eventually succeeded in rappelling rioters from entering the building from this spot. The exact location of this particular breach is unclear. But what is clear is that this isn't freedom of speech in motion. This is violence. That is a mob. That is domestic terrorism. That is insurrection in reaction to the outgoing U.S. president inciting his supporters into a mob by lying to them, by telling them he won the election, that their rights were stolen from them.

[22:29:55] This is the cost of the president's lies. I saw that for the first time that you're seeing it. Perfect time to bring in Christopher Krebs, he is a partner of Krebs Stamos group and former director of Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. He was fired from CISA by Trump via tweet after debunking the president's election lies and affirming the 2020 election, that it was the most secure in history.

Chris, good evening. What do you think of what you just saw?

CHRISTOPHER KREBS, DIRECTOR, DHS CYBERSECURITY & INFRASTRUCTURE SECURITY AGENCY: Don, I didn't see it. I don't have a return feed. I heard it. I think I saw a clip of that, you know. You said it, right. This might be, this might have taken place in America, but this is not an America that I recognize, this sort of full-frontal assault on democracy.

Call it what it is. This is insurrection. And it was stoked. It was provoked. It was directed by the President of the United States. I mean, what kind of example are we setting to other countries and other freedom fighters around the world that are seeking to escape autocracy and dictatorship, that the beacon of democracy in the world is behaving like this? Again, it's not an America I recognize.

LEMON: I just -- all I can think of as you're talking there is, I hope that officer was OK, if you had seen the pain on his face.

KREBS: Yes.

LEMON: It was being just crushed by the force there. Again, we pray for him and we hope that he is OK, and all of the officers. As you alluded to, Chris, this is -- before I ask you that, having worked in intelligence and what you do, who should be held responsible for that, and what should -- what do you think the consequences should be for the person or people who are responsible?

KREBS: Well, you know, from what I saw today, the Department of Justice and the FBI are actively investigating. They are calling through the social media posts of a number of these actors. They are clearly not too good at operational security. They provided their own evidence against them. It's the same thing as, you know, declining to take the fifth.

So, they are going to continue to roll out these people. I think we have to have an investigation into what happened on the operational planning side and the preparation. There was no question that there was going to be violence on the 6th.

And I'm going to tell you one thing. There is going to be more violence. There is going to be violence in the run up to the inauguration. This is not over. There will be more. There are steps that can be taken by various individuals, and I hate using the passive voice there, so I'm just going to call it out.

The president has to declare that this was a free and fair election. He lost. He still has time to do what's right. It has to happen. There will be more bloodshed.

LEMON: Let's dig in a little bit more because and talk about that. It was, as you said, he has to come out and declare, according to you, that it was a free and fair election, but it has been a massive campaign of lies and disinformation, Chris, spearheaded by the president and his followers. That's what created this situation.

Now he is banned from Twitter. But this genie is out of the bottle now. So, what can be done? Even if he gets up there and says, which I highly doubt it, I mean, you know, I would like to be proven wrong, prove wrong, but what can be done now?

KREBS: Well, today I think some of the social media platforms took a good first step in de-platforming the most active purveyors of nonsense, of garbage related to election claims, like these Dominion systems that were hacked and Dominion filed a pretty hefty lawsuit today against Sidney Powell. These are the right steps that we need to take, to hold people accountable.

But again, those objectors in the Senate and the House that fired this up on Wednesday, they also need to come clean and they need to denounce the objections. This is not just a federal issue. It's happening at the state halls of the legislatures and elsewhere. They need to denounce these actions.

We need the networks or the, you know, the edge fringe networks like Newsmax and OAN, they need to denounce this. They will also be held accountable for this in courts of law, and ultimately, the president. The president has, if he cares about this country, if he cares about democracy, he will do what's right and he will announce and accept his defeat.

[22:34:59]

LEMON: OK. Well let me ask you this because you know, you already are hearing the folks who had been given the disinformation, some of whom, some of whom you mentioned there. Well, it's, you are trying to silence a certain group of people, conservatives. This is censorship, so on.

And I ask you that because your new firm is all about stopping cybersecurity threats. This disinformation cesspool is now so vast that people are trying to blame the riots --

KREBS: Yes.

LEMON: -- on antifa, some far-right social media users actually think that Trump's video statement yesterday is a deep fake. How long are we going to be dealing with the consequences of this, Chris?

KREBS: So, this specifically, it's a great question, and frankly, I don't know. I think there are immediate steps that can be taken that I just ticked off to ensure that there is no further bloodshed between now and the 20th. What happens the next four years if there is some element of the Republican Party that clings to a nonsense lost cause narrative? I mean, look at it. You saw the confederate flag in the capitol

building on Wednesday. They didn't get there in the 1860s and yet they are there now. None of this makes sense. We have to put an end to it. Responsible adults, responsible elected officials need to step up and take back their party and stop being intimidated by these voices on the -- well, I use to say on the periphery, but now they are the heart of it. Take back the party.

LEMON: Chris, Christopher Krebs, Chris Krebs, thank you so much. I really appreciate you joining us. Try to have a good weekend if that's possible at this point.

KREBS: Thanks, Don.

LEMON: Thank you. Thank you very much.

So, as you saw, CNN just got new video of one of the areas that was breeched at the capitol this week, an officer being crushed. Police officers they are doing everything they can to try to keep that mob back and out of the capitol. And 13 people now are facing federal charges over that riot at the capitol.

One of my next guests was there and he witnessed rioters calling for the vice president to be hanged. Stay with us.

[22:40:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: I want you to pay attention to this segment because maybe you can help out. I really mean. And you never know if you have information. Because law enforcement tonight asking for your help bringing the rioters who stormed the capitol to justice, OK? Pay attention. Look at the screen. With several arrests and more charges coming, who were the perpetrators of the chaos, and how is law enforcement pursuing them?

Let's discuss now. Chris Swecker is here, the former FBI assistant director or the criminal investigative division, and Jim Bourg is here, the Washington editor for Reuters News Pictures. Gentlemen, thank you. I'm sorry. The video that we ran made me a little bit emotional watching that. I'm not sure if you guys got to see it, but it is just awful.

Chris, I'm going to start with you, in this crowd you had your average Trump rally and boat parade attendee, but also people who came suited up in what looks like tactical gear. How does the FBI start locating these people?

CHRIS SWECKER, FORMER ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, FBI CRIMINAL INVESTIGATIVE DIVISION: Well, it's all hands on deck for the FBI, Don. This is federal. This is not a state capitol. This is not a rally, you know, anywhere across the country. This is our nation's capitol. This, the center of our democracy.

They are going to bring in field office resources from every field office in the surrounding area. Richmond, Baltimore, Delaware, Philadelphia, and it is going to be a full-court press. They'll get all -- they'll take all of this video, all of this footage that has been posted from the surveillance cameras, they are going to make stills out of each individual perpetrator whether they damaged a door or window or assaulted an officer. It's all going to be sent out to local law enforcement and sheriff's departments across the country. Of course, they are asking the general public for tips and leads, too.

So, I think every single person that participated in property damage and injuring officers and violence, every one of them is going to get tracked down.

LEMON: You think they will get them?

SWECKER: I do.

LEMON: OK. Good.

SWECKER: I think this is a challenge for Chris Wray and I think it's a challenge that they are up for. They are good at forensics, the bureau is. This is their forte. Of course, they will be working with their state and local partners. But this will go out across the country no matter where these people go back to. They are going to find them.

LEMON: Jim, you were in, right in the middle of that riot, the chaos of the riot. Were some of these people clearly from extremists or militant groups? Could you tell that?

JIM BOURG, EDITOR IN CHARGE OF WASHINGTON, REUTERS NEWS PICTURES: Yes. I mean, absolutely. I think it's important to note that, you know, some of the coverage I am seeing implies that this was a really coordinated effort, and as if it was one group and it was far from that. It was many, many different groups coming together with the common denominator being intense anger, and that was the feeling of the day.

And I think we all experienced that. We all felt that and had a lot of that directed at us as members of the media, as law enforcement had it directed at them, as members of law enforcement. I saw quite a bit of that. You know, that video I had not seen before and was horrific.

But there were horrific scenes with members of the media as well. I know your crews, with our TV crews, with many still photographers who were out there. And the anger was just intense. But to get back to your question, you know, there were many extremist groups that we have seen before at major rallies in D.C. really across the spectrum of right-wing extremism.

LEMON: Is there -- is there -- was there any indication to you that some of these rioters in tactical gear are current or former law enforcement or military?

[22:45:02]

BOURG: Well, I did -- I did -- I did see people involved in the rioting and going in and out of the capitol who had apparent military gear. You know, I actually did see one or two that had police patches on their body armor or the tactical stuff that they were wearing. None particularly identifiable to a particular, you know, branch of service or law enforcement agency. I can't say that. But there were certainly some very well kited out people there involved in the attack on the building.

LEMON: Interesting. Chris, for years, you know, we have heard warnings about white nationalist groups, anti-government groups like the Boogaloo Boys, domestic terror has been a growing threat. Is there a direct line that we can draw from the warnings that we have been given by the intel community and what we saw yesterday?

SWECKER: I think so. I mean, we have known about these groups since the '90s. And of course, they have evolved over the years. And they went quiet after 9/11. They got back active again in the 2000s. And the FBI tracks them very closely. Then there are other organizations, when I was head of the criminal division, you know, we -- that was our number one priority, was domestic terrorism.

So, I am sure the FBI is tracking the extremists on both ends of the political spectrum. There should have been some intelligence provided to the metropolitan police and the capitol police.

But I got to tell you, Don, this was a failure of leadership. I'm sure they had intelligence. They were flatfooted and the poor officers on the street, on the front lines bore the brunt of it. And they should have some heads roll in this case, poor preparation, poor equipment, poor training, no anticipation, all reactive.

LEMON: Listen, it's been a long weekend, I am forgetting what day it was. I said yesterday but that was Wednesday. It was actually the day before yesterday.

SWECKER: Right.

LEMON: Jim, you heard multiple rioters saying that they were looking to find and execute Mike Pence. I want to play this for you. Listen and then we'll talk.

BOURG: Sure.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CROWD: Hang Mike Pence! Hang Mike Pence! Hang Mike Pence! Hang Mike Pence! Hang Mike Pence!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: So, it sounds like they were saying hang Mike Pence, right?

BOURG: They were.

LEMON: You are shocked that more people don't know this was being said at the capitol. Was this something you heard frequently out there?

BOURG: Yes, I mean, it was really, as I said earlier, you know, that the anger was intense throughout the day and you heard that expressed in a lot of ways. But one of the most common ones that I heard was anger specifically directed at the vice president. And over the course of the, you know, the five or six hours I was in that crowd outside the capitol, it was really kind of a constant.

I was, frankly, surprised, you know, when I wrote a tweet earlier today, you know, recalling, reporting what I had heard that this was news to people because I was surprised it hadn't been more widely reported because it was just, you know, such a constant.

I mean, that audio that you just played was hundreds of people at the top of the east front steps of the capitol, at the doors going right into the rotunda of the capitol, chanting that for quite some time. It wasn't a momentary thing. And you know, I heard multiple conversations loudly and publicly. Not anything people were trying to hide, you know, discussing what are we going to do with the vice president? We should find the vice president. You know, we should hang the vice president. It wasn't a momentary thing. It wasn't a single conversation. It was, you know, it was repeated.

LEMON: And there is lots to talk about and more to discuss. But we don't have time for it. We will be discussing it in the coming hours on the network like the pipe bombs and the plastic restraints and so on and so forth. Thank you, gentlemen.

BOURG: Yes, I did, if you have a moment, I wanted to clarify that about the plastic restraints.

LEMON: Go for it.

BOURG: Because one of my colleagues -- one of my colleagues made some of those photos that you have shown of the rioters inside the Senate chamber, and in the area of the Senate chamber with those plastic zip- ties and restraints. And there has been a lot of reporting today that they brought those with them.

But he actually corrected that and said that moments before he made those photos, he actually saw them break into the capitol --

LEMON: Stole them.

BOURG: -- storage box, yes, right there outside the chamber and took them out of that storage box where they were with the escape hoods and other safety materials that are kept on hand right outside the Senate chamber.

LEMON: Yes.

BOURG: So, so whether -- whether any of those were brought with them, with any kind of intent or purpose, I don't know. But that seemed worth clarifying.

LEMON: Well they still grabbed them. And for what reason?

BOURG: Yes, absolutely.

[22:50:00]

LEMON: When you have those kinds of restraints, what do you -- what's your intention, is to use them, right? One would think.

BOURG: Absolutely.

LEMON: Thank you, Jim. Thank you, Chris.

BOURG: You're welcome.

LEMON: I appreciate it.

Social media companies slapping down big bans today, but plans for the riot, including calls for violence were being posted and viewed thousands of times across multiple platforms. How did law enforcement miss this? CNN investigates, next.

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LEMON: Law enforcement saying they had no idea the capitol would come under attack. But experts who monitor online extremist chatter say the writing was on the wall, months ago.

CNN's senior investigative correspondent Drew Griffin reports.

[22:55:00]

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DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: Caught flat footed federal and local officials insist they had no idea the siege would happen.

ROBERT CONTEE III, CHIEF OF POLICE, WASHINGTON, D.C.: There was no intelligence that suggest that there will a breach of the the U.S. Capitol.

GRIFFIN: But that seems hardly believable. In the days and weeks before the insurrection the warning signs were clear. Violent and threatening online posts and online call to arms. Occupation occupy the capitol, one viral post called it. Go to Washington January 6th and help storm the capitol. We will storm the government buildings, kill cops, kill security guards, kill federal employees and agents. And demand a recount. Trump or war today. That simple. Another user posts it.

JOEL FINKELSTEIN, DIRECTOR, NETWORK CONTAGION RESEARCH INSTITUTE: The writing was on the wall months ago that this could turn into something extremely violent.

GRIFFIN: Researchers who track hate violent speech and extremist groups say what happened at the capitol shows what some dismiss as just online boasting. It was actually a plan of action, and some of those who sieged the capitol were prepared.

JOHN SCOTT-RAILTON, SENIOR RESEARCHER, THE CITIZEN LAB, UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO MUNK SCHOOL: There were men on the Senate floor wearing tactical equipment carrying zip-tie restraints that the kinds that police use to handcuff people. I somehow doubt that they just brought those to a protest.

GRIFFIN: The violent rhetoric had wide reached. The nonprofit advanced democracy tracked 1,480 violence-related QAnon twitter posts just since January 1st. On TikTok, violence promoting violence reviewed 279,000 times.

SCOTT-RAILTON: If you look at the work of anybody who has been tracking non-extremism in the United States, you will find that they have been issuing warnings regularly about these groups and the language that they're using.

GRIFFIN: One of the main stop, the Steal rally organizer, Ali Alexander told followers on periscope, he and three congressmen were planning something big.

ALI ALEXANDER, PROTEST ORGANIZER: We force scheme of putting maximum pressure on Congress we could change the hearts and the minds of Republicans who were in that body, hearing our loud war from outside.

GRIFFIN: He told followers bring tents, sleeping bags, and other supplies, and added this, if D.C. escalates, so do we. A follower responded to the post, bring a gun. Investigators at the Anti- Defamation League say they were sharing the violent posts and concerns about January 6th with law enforcement right up until this week.

JONATHAN GREENBLATT, CEO & NATIONAL DIRECTOR, ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE: We've been in touch with law enforcement on a very regular basis.

GRIFFIN: Fearing the warnings were being ignored, the ADL went public.

GREENBLATT: Our level of concern rose so dramatically, that on Monday we actually published a blog to put it out on the public record about our degree of alarm. We weren't surprised by the intensity of what happened.

GRIFFIN: What's next? January 20th. Researchers are worried about the increasing chatter of a violence at the inauguration.

FINKELSTEIN: I think it's very plausible that we are just at the beginning of this.

GRIFFIN: Round two on January 20th, one poster writes on the online forum that Donald, I don't even care about keeping Trump in power. I care about war. Please take urgent action to save our country. On January 20th, says another post, it's our last chance.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN: All of this means, Don, that the same people who came to the capitol on January 6th could already be planning to be back in Washington, D.C. for the inauguration. Hopefully this time law enforcement will be prepared. Don?

LEMON: Drew, thank you so much.

Just days left, days, in the Trump presidency, and it's all unraveling. Stay with us.

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