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Don Lemon Tonight
Videos Of Violence Relived In Senate Floor; GOP Ignore Horrific Scenes; Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) Is Interviewed About What She Felt Today After Seeing The Videos Of The Insurrection; Republicans Care More About Political Career Than Democracy?; Trump Knew What To Expect From His Supporters. Aired 10-11p ET
Aired February 10, 2021 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN HOST: Friends, we will be back at midnight Eastern with a special live late night edition of PRIME TIME.
But now, it is time for the big show, "CNN TONIGHT" with its star, D. Lemon.
DON LEMON, CNN HOST: You know what, Chris? You know if we've been - all day, everyone's been saying "The big lie," right? "It was the big lie what - the President had people believing that."
[22:00:00]
And my Catholic school education taught me to go deeper and go deeper and I kept saying, tell people what the big lie is. Tell people what the big lie is. The big lie was what? The election was stolen. It was rigged. Where was it rigged? Who stole the election? Who stole the election? I'm asking you.
CUOMO: I don't know. Who stole the election?
LEMON: Who stole the election? The people in Michigan? The people in Wayne County and Detroit? Right? Eighty percent of the population are black and Hispanic. The people who were in Wisconsin and Milwaukee County where there is 27 percent of the county --
CUOMO: Yes.
LEMON: -- population is black, 15 percent --
(CROSSTALK)
CUOMO: Everywhere he alleged a fraud was a minority stronghold.
LEMON: And the people who came to that capitol today, and kept saying to the television somebody please say it, those people who were enraged, those people who came there with the Camp Auschwitz t-shirts, who came there from the Proud Boys, as Nazis and white supremacists.
CUOMO: With confederate flags.
LEMON: What they were saying? They were saying the president has been, not even been dog whistling to them, that this election was stolen from you, good people, white people, from the black folks in those counties, in Atlanta, in Philadelphia, in Detroit. That's who stole the election.
Why do you think the type of person, that type of person showed up at the capitol with confederate flags? Because the president was telling them your country -- what did he say? You're not going to have a country again. What do you think that means?
CUOMO: You're not going to have a country anymore.
LEMON: Yes, what does that means?
CUOMO: It means the black man is going to take over.
LEMON: OK. That's what this is all about.
CUOMO: Led by Cory Booker.
LEMON: That's what this is all about.
CUOMO: Coming into your white neighborhood.
LEMON: And I find -- I'm like kept looking like when is someone going to say this?
CUOMO: Do you remember when he said?
LEMON: Yes, that Cory Booker --
(CROSSTALK)
CUOMO: Cory Booker will be leaving them.
LEMON: -- is coming to your neighborhood. That's what this is all about. And that's why we continue to talk. We need to figure this out. That is the impetus, that is the start of this whole experiment here in America. And he is playing -- he has been playing on people. I hear people on other channels on conservative media saying, this has nothing to do with race. Really? Ask the guy with the Camp Auschwitz t-shirt if it has nothing to do with racism or bigotry. Ask the people with the flag.
(CROSSTALK)
CUOMO: Any time you're playing to white fright, white --
LEMON: White grievance.
CUOMO: -- then it has to have a racial component.
LEMON: Yes.
CUOMO: And look, it's not a secret --
LEMON: But that's --
CUOMO: -- why he doesn't have a huge black or minority following.
LEMON: But, Chris, it's not just a racial component. That is the source of the anger. That is the big lie that he told people. Those are the places -- this is a fact. I'm speaking here, people. Those are the places that he told people that he contested the election.
He contested the election in the counties that had large black and Hispanic populations. And he said it was a loss of democracies. Trump's campaign challenge of election results in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Arizona push the U.S. toward a loss of democracy.
He's saying that we are losing our democracy, and you're letting people steal it from you. Who's stealing it from you? The places where he contested the election. And that's what? Black and brown people. That's not just part of it. That's the whole thing in a nutshell. That's why those people were enraged.
(CROSSTALK)
CUOMO: It is absolutely something -- a button that he was pushing. But, you know, look, he plays to who the elites are. He plays to any layer of division. He's a demagogue.
LEMON: Yes, you're right about that.
CUOMO: And look, I mean, words matter. And I can't believe that they're going to forgive this. The reason that people are surprised by what they're seeing that happened on January 6th is because one-half of your political spectrum won't talk about it. They ran away from the 6th as fast as their legs could carry them because they knew it was bad for them.
LEMON: Yes.
CUOMO: And when they were told don't play with the Proud Boys like this, don't play --
LEMON: Yes.
CUOMO: -- with good people on both sides, don't say he didn't say it. Say you don't agree with it. Say it's wrong because then they'd come. Now out of the shadows, out of the wet earth where they live, out of the internet, they came. And you get guys like this (Inaudible) think he's a patriot attacking the capitol. These are bad guys. Stand back and stand by. They adopted it as a motto.
LEMON: Yes.
CUOMO: And now they are in the game.
LEMON: Nobody should be surprised. And no one should be surprised and saying I can't believe that these people are going to vote against him or they are going to vote for him not to be impeached or for him not to be convicted. I can't believe they're going to acquit him. Of course, you can believe it. Look what happened. Look what they condoned. Look what it led to. Of course, they're going to do it. That's what they do.
That's why -- everyone gets mad at me when I say this -- if you don't condemn it, then you're on the side of the people who were at that capitol doing what they did. I love you. I've got to run.
CUOMO: I love you, D. Lemon.
LEMON (on camera): I love you too, brother. I'll see you soon.
[22:05:00]
This is CNN TONIGHT. I'm Don Lemon.
And we -- this -- we're about the truth here. What I'm speaking, facts. You don't like it, look it up. Senators are getting looked today -- got a look today at just how lucky they are to be alive. That is the truth as well. Chilling never-before-seen video of what actually happened when they were under attack from a blood thirsty mob, a mob with tactical gear, some carrying flex cuffs. At least one had a stun gun.
A violent mob unleashed by the former president rampaging through the halls of Congress, looking for targets, looking for them. Look at this, the moment caught on camera right here, security camera, when hero police officer Eugene Goodman saved Senator Mitt Romney, the senator didn't even realize the significance of this or that the officer likely saved his life until today. Impeachment manager Stacey Plaskett narrating the silent video.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STACEY PLASKETT, DELEGATE TO HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES FROM U.S. VIRGIN ISLANDS, HOUSE IMPEACHMENT MANAGER: Officer Goodman passes Senator Mitt Romney and directs him to turn around in order to get to safety. On the first floor just beneath them, the mob had already started to search for the Senate chamber. Officer Goodman made his way down to the first floor where he encountered the same insurrectionists we just saw/watched breach the capitol.
In this video we can see the rioters surge toward officer Goodman. Recall that the rioters are in red and officer Goodman, in this model, is blue. Watch officer Goodman, who backs up the stairs.
(CROWD SHOUTING)
UNKNOWN: You work for us!
UNKNOWN: Why they're needing at.
UNKNOWN: And why are you killing the fucking cops?
UNKNOWN: Don't do it. Don't do it. Don't do it.
UNKNOWN: Hey, (Inaudible) coward.
UNKNOWN: hey, we got this (Inaudible). UNKNOWN: No.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON (on camera): That officer saving lives. Senator Mitt Romney, as you would expect shaken by that. He spoke with officer Goodman at the Senate. He came back from -- as they came back from recess and told reporters about their exchange. And here's what he said.
He said, I expressed my appreciation to him for coming to my aid and getting me back into the path of safety and expressed my appreciation for all that he did that day. And he took me through his full day. And he was exhausted going from one part of the building to the other, up and downstairs. He indicated that he had to breathe a lot of bear spray and tear gas and that he was nauseated. I'm sure he was. What a hero. And I have been nauseated just watching it.
There's been more never-before-seen video showing just how close the rioters got to the vice president, Mike Pence.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PLASKETT: You can see Vice President Pence and his family quickly moved down the stairs. The vice president turns around briefly as he's headed down. As Pence was being evacuated, rioters started to spread throughout the capitol. Those inside helped other rioters break in through doors in several locations around this entire building.
And the mob was looking for Vice President Pence because of his patriotism, because the vice president had refused to do what the president demand and overturn the election results.
[22:09:59]
During the assault on the capitol, extremists reportedly coordinated online and discuss how they could hunt down the vice president. Journalists in the capitol reported they heard rioters say they were looking for Pence in order to execute him.
Trump supporters had erected gallows on the lawn in front of the capitol building. Another group of rioters chanted, hang Mike Pence, as they stood in the open door of the capitol building. You can hear the security alarm through the door in the background, and you can hear the mob calling for the death of the Vice President of the United States.
CROWD: Hang Mike Pence! Hang Mike Pence! Hang Mike Pence! Hang Mike Pence! Hang Mike Pence! Hang Mike Pence!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON (on camera): Mike Pence and his family running for their lives, being hurried out so the mob couldn't kill him, which they wanted to do. You heard them.
And just two minutes earlier, the then-president was tweeting an attack on his own vice president for just doing his duty. This is the man to whom they pledged their undying loyalty. Give me a break. I want you to listen to what lead impeachment manager Jamie reskin says about one of the capitol officers there that day.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. JAMIE RASKIN (D-MD), LEAD IMPEACHMENT MANAGER: Afterwards overwhelmed by emotion, he broke down in the rotunda and he cried for 15 minutes. And he shouted out, I got called an n-word 15 times today. And then he reported I sat down with one of my buddies, another black guy in tears just started streaming down my face. I said what the f, man? Is this America?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON (on camera): So, you have the black officer there, officer Goodman and others, who saved lives. There are all ethnicities, but you have the black officers there who saved lives and then had to clean up the mess, the black and brown workers in the capitol.
And you have senators there. They're not fighting for the people who were there who clean up the mess. They're not fighting for the black folks all around this country whose votes that they tried to undermine. That's the truth of this. That's what this is all about. That's what the big lie is.
And even after everything we have seen, the former president hasn't shown one -- not a stitch of remorse, nothing. No remorse for the deadly riot that he incited. No remorse for the lives loss -- lost. For what he did to our democracy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. JOAQUIN CASTRO (D-TX), HOUSE IMPEACHMENT MANAGER: We know how Donald Trump acts on Twitter and otherwise when he has a message to convey. Senators, you have seen all the evidence so far, and this is clear. On January 6, President Trump left everyone in this capitol for dead.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON (on camera): So, you may be asking how can anyone who was there -- how could anyone who could have died that day, how could they look at all of that and not hold him accountable? I'll tell you exactly how. OK. Come close.
Trump's Republican enablers are making the exact same mistake, the same foolish cowardly deadly miscalculation now that they made in November and December right up to the day of the MAGA mob. They didn't take the threat seriously when the then-president pushed his big lie that the election was stolen. By whom? By all those people in black cities when he told his base that again and again from November right through that terrible day at the capitol.
They thought it was rhetoric, political game, playing to the base. They abdicated their responsibility to stand up for democracy. They thought that they'd play the game, make no sacrifice, take no principle stance and it would all just go away. And then they could just skate by under the radar.
[22:15:03]
Until the Proud Boys, until the confederate flags, until the Camp Auschwitz shirts and the nooses and the gallows showed up at the capitol, until people were killed, until they and their staffs were almost killed.
They are making the exact same mistake right now. Saying what happened that day was just rhetoric, playing a political game, playing to the base, abdicating their responsibility to stand up for democracy, missing the threat.
The inciter in chief unleashed a mob, a racist mob. Don't tell me it had nothing to do with that. Come on. We see and hear it. We have eyes and ears and a brain. And if you don't stand up this time, it's going to happen again. And as awful and deadly as this was, next time we might not be so lucky.
How senators are reaching, reacting to today's evidence, and what's in store for the trial tomorrow? I'll tell you after this break.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RASKIN: He did nothing to help us as commander in chief. Instead he served as the inciter in chief, sending tweets that only further incited he rampaging mob.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[22:20:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON (on camera): House impeachment managers revealing new evidence from the deadly insurrection to make their case against the former president, like this surveillance video from inside the capitol as rioters broke through the windows to get in and this body cam footage from a police officer being beaten by the violent mob.
I want to bring in now CNN's chief correspondent Dana Bash and chief White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins. Good evening to both of you. Thanks for joining.
Dana, I'm going to start with you. Can you believe how senators -- can what -- that's been the question to me, I'm not surprised by it, but people are questioning, how can senators watch this video of themselves almost getting killed by a blood thirsty mob launched at them by an impeached president, a twice-impeached president, now, and argue that he had, you know, he should face no consequences at all, Dana?
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Politics.
LEMON: Yes.
BASH: The same -- the same reason that this happened in the first place, because of the silence of so many Republicans in the face of the lie that the president began telling right after the election and frankly as we saw laid out in such an incredibly powerful way by the House managers today started to prime his supporters for -- even during the campaign before election day.
So, that's the answer to that question. Were they moved? You know, they had -- if they have blood running through their veins, they have to have been moved in some way, shape or form. Even if it was about something that happened far away from them, never mind it happened where they were actually sitting. And to them, you know, six weeks ago.
But that's a very different question than whether or not they're going to break with their, you know, political realities that keep them in power. And it look -- we'll see. Maybe there are people who are open to changing, but not in terms of my conversations and certainly not our team on Capitol Hill.
LEMON: Yes, I'm sure it had to give them some pause. I mean, you said if they have blood running through their veins to watch that and maybe gave them a smidge of shame. Who knows? But you're right. I'm not sure if it's going to change anything. But let's be hopeful in this moment, Dana.
Kaitlan, you have new reporting on how Trump's lawyers plan to respond to the House managers' presentation. What do you know? Tell me.
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, today you saw as they sat there quietly while the House managers were going through this video that no one has ever seen before of the vice president of Senator Mitt Romney and several others.
But what I'm told that when they are going to prepare to start to make their case, which is likely to happen on Friday, is they are going to try to argue that they believe Democrats are glorifying violence by trying to recreate what happened on January the 6th. As you saw them go through it step by step today including what the president was and was not doing. That's going to be the argument that I'm told they're going to try to make.
And then on top of that, they're going to say the Democrats are quoting President Trump out of context, whenever of course he was giving that rally on the ellipse when he was speaking. And there is one line, I'm told they going to point to where he told them to go patriotically and peacefully up to the capitol. Though of course that would be selectively editing the president as well because it would ignore the groundwork that we saw him lay for several months leading up to what happened on January the 6th.
Though I still think there is a lot of apprehension in the president's circle about what exactly it's going to look like when his defense team gets on the floor because you've seen how methodical and careful the House impeachment managers have been. And the president's team was only brought on a little over a week ago. Clearly, they believed they were unprepared when they started their opening argument. So, it's not really clear what it's going to look like.
LEMON: Yes. Well, I think it's obvious that they were unprepared. Go ahead, Dana. Sorry.
BASH: I just want to add to Kaitlan's reporting. I was told that because they were so ill-prepared and because they saw how powerful the video presentation was just the first day, never mind today, that the president's defense team, along with the help of his remaining political team, they've been scrambling to try to put together their own videos in which they're going to claim that, you know, Democrats have used words like fight at protests and that Democrats have refused to concede in tight elections.
[22:25:07]
I'm not so sure how much that is going to hold sway over people, you know --
LEMON: Yes.
BASH: -- I think because there are so many people who unfortunately have made up their minds even before this. But also, just the notion of glorifying violence, they just shined a light on violence. They didn't say -- glorifying it means to say how good it is.
I mean, and obviously, Kaitlan's reporting is, as always, you know, dead on, but when we hear that, it is going to be, I think, hard for a lot of people to swallow that that's something that, you know, should be taken seriously.
LEMON (on camera): Yes, people aren't stupid. They get the difference between political speech and inciting a mob. Thank you both. I appreciate it.
Close call is an understatement. What it's like for lawmakers to relive the terror of the insurrection. Senator Amy Klobuchar tells us next. She's next.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. ERIC SWALWELL (D-CA): 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.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[22:30:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON (on camera): New video from the former president's second impeachment trial showing how lucky lawmakers were to escape with their lives. House managers releasing never-before-seen surveillance footage of senators being evacuated from the chamber as a mob of rioters were just feet away trying to break in.
One of those evacuating, Senator Amy Klobuchar, who you can see here -- there these right there in the purple. She joins me now. Senator, thank you so much.
SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-MN): Thanks, Don.
LEMON: I'm so glad that you're OK. I'm glad you and all your colleagues. I can't imagine how emotional it was for you guys as you watched and the other senators evacuating within feet of the mob. What was it like for you seeing that today? Did you realize that before just how close you were to that mob?
KLOBUCHAR: No, but I don't consider us lucky. We were blessed because people saved our lives. And those people are those police officers. And literally when you see that video of the one officer wreathing in pain, shrieking, to think that he literally put his own body between this angry mob and us to save us, he defended our democracy. He was willing to put his body in between us and them, as were so many other officers, over 100 of them injured.
And Donald Trump wouldn't even send a tweet to do it when his own vice president was asking for help, when his family members. And to me it was the police officers who kept us safe, and they were the victims in these cases.
LEMON: I have been speaking -- you're right, I've been speaking to some of the officers, and they said that they would see -- some of them had, you know, the gas masks. Others did not. And they said once they would get overcome, come back in, throw some water on their faces from water bottles, and go right back into the action. I mean, it was just unbelievable. What's --
KLOBUCHAR: A number of them had cuts on their faces --
LEMON: Yes.
KLOBUCHAR: -- that had come to see us. And I think it was something that if people didn't know before, they sure know it after they watch the videos today.
LEMON: Amen. Let's talk more about watching that video. Because Senator Susan Collins says during the new video the chamber was so quiet you could hear a pen drop. Could you see how Republicans reacted when they saw this footage?
KLOBUCHAR: She's right about that. Everyone was engaged watching. And I just hope it changes some of their minds and some of their hearts. That's what trials are about. And while we had that vote yesterday which established once and for all that yes you can impeach a president after he leaves office, that there's no January exception in the U.S. Constitution, this is a different story now.
The law of the case has been set. It is very clear even if they didn't vote for going forward. We are now going forward. So, they have a different set of responsibilities now and a decision to make. And I don't know how you can watch that video without seeing the effect of what he did.
He incited -- we all know he incited them to go down the mall with his words and telling them to go wild, predicting the date, telling them what to do. But it's also what he didn't do. I think that was a lot about today. The fact that it was Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi and others that were calling in the National Guard. Vice President Pence, not Donald Trump.
That it was the Governor Christy and Kevin McCarthy going on Fox saying that he should do something about it and making very clear that they felt that it was wrong and people had to leave the capitol immediately, that they were going to be arrested. Other people were trying to fill the void, but those people at the capitol would only listen to Donald Trump.
LEMON: Yes. Tonight, Senator, Lindsey Graham saying this about House managers, the House managers presentations. He said, the legal theory they have is absurd, that somehow that Trump is a secret member of the Proud Boys. That -- that is not the case Democrats are making. But it sounds like he and many other Republicans -- many of those colleagues are signaling that they still stand with Trump.
KLOBUCHAR: Yes, I don't think he was one of votes that people thought we could get. But I think that their case was very clear. They showed how he provoked this. They showed the harm that he caused. And as you began your program today, they talked about how he had literally groomed this group of people with the big lies, with the words, this is the steal, with what he did to local election officials all leading up to even before the election because he knew very well that he was most likely going to lose.
[22:35:05]
And that this was all something that was leading to this moment in time where he finally just told them, go wild, go march down Pennsylvania Avenue, and kept saying as it went on, you are patriots, you are patriots, a word he even used the whole hinge was over, when there was still blood on the floor.
LEMON: Yes, and we love you. Thank you very much, Senator.
KLOBUCHAR: All right. Thank you, Don.
LEMON: Again, glad that you're safe. Thanks.
KLOBUCHAR: I'm fine.
LEMON: We'll see you soon.
KLOBUCHAR: Thank you.
LEMON (on camera): Senator Tim Scott says at best six Republicans will vote to convict Donald Trump. Why is it there are more outrage coming from the GOP when they're seeing evidence like this?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNKNOWN: It has to happen now! We are going to destroy the GOP!
CROWD: Yes! Let's go!
(APPLAUSE)
CROWD: Destroy the GOP! Destroy the GOP! Destroy the GOP!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[22:40:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BILL CASSIDY (R-LA): There were people, insurrectionists, who attempted to affect the peaceful transfer of power, and that should give anyone who loves our republic great pause.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON (on camera): Senator Bill Cassidy, one of only six Republicans to go on record saying the trial is constitutional. And it's important to remember that senators are not only sitting as jurors. They're also witnesses to the deadly violence at the capitol. House Democrats laying out a damning case against the former president, using his own words, tweets and chilling video.
I want to bring in now CNN senior political reporter, Nia-Malika Henderson and political commentator Ana Navarro. Good evening to both of you. Thank you so much for joining.
Ana, I'm going to start with you because a lot of folks have been wondering how can Republican -- any Republican senator ignore the mountain of evidence, how officer Goodman saved Senator Mitt Romney's life, how close the mob was to Pence, all the evidence showing how Trump incited a violent attack and did nothing to stop it. I don't expect otherwise. Maybe I'm a pessimist, but people are wondering how can they do it?
ANA NAVARRO, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I'm wondering that. Look, it's incomprehensible. Listen, there's some Republican senators who are hopeless, right, who are complicit. People like Ted Cruz, people like Josh Hawley. Ted Cruz was tweeting about breast milk, if you can believe it, during the trial.
But I think there's a lot of adults in the room. And I know some of these people personally. They have children. They have grandchildren. They have spouses. And I'm not sure how they were not shaken to the core by seeing how close those children came to being fatherless or motherless today.
I recognized the back of Rick Scott's head. He's got children and grandchildren and he's saying that this trial is a waste of time. How can he possibly say that? History needs to see what happened. And Republicans need to act not like cult members, they need to act like Americans. They need to act like adults.
I think it's incumbent on people like Mitch McConnell and John Cornyn, people like Rob Portman to act, to speak up. Forget the ones that are the lost cause. But there has got to be enough Republicans up there who respect the law enforcement officer who put their bodies between them and those senators, who kept them safe. They owe their lives to those people.
LEMON: Yes.
NAVARRO: And Don, think about -- think about the punishment we're talking about. We're not talking about sending Trump to jail. We're not talking about removing him from office. We're not talking about taking away his property. We are simply talking about setting the record right for history.
LEMON: Well, I think, Ana --
(CROSSTALK)
NAVARRO: We are talking about --
LEMON: I think it's about for them preserving a way of life that they are used to. And they see Trump as the vessel to that. I think that's what this is really all about. It's not about -- it's not really about any of that. They've already made up their minds. They've made up their minds throughout this entire five-year process of Donald Trump.
I just think -- I mean, listen, Nia, maybe I'm -- maybe I'm wrong, but there's an incredible what aboutism, Roy Blunt comparing it to what happened over the summer in Seattle and Portland, I mean, a disgraceful example of what aboutism. I think there's -- you know, talking about what happened with this and a black mob and a white mob. It's just -- this is beyond them having any sort of redemption. This is about preserving a way of life. That's how I feel.
NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Listen, I think this has been a long time coming with this president. I mean, he set up this scenario where he was telling his followers from the moment, he was beginning his assent to the White House that he was there to protect them from this diversifying America that he saw as dangerous and they saw as dangerous too.
And so, there began the attachment of his followers to Donald Trump. And listen, the Republican Party has trafficked in this rhetoric for years, even before Donald Trump. So, it was a party that was prime to be taken over by Donald Trump. It wasn't even much of a hostile takeover.
So, you see the results of that here with this violent white mob, who was lied to by Donald Trump and told that black and brown people have stolen their country from them. And that is what has made them so enraged. And I think you are going to have Republican senators there who rely on this procedural argument and not really talk about the roots that are going on here, the roots of racism in this country, the roots of white grievance and white rage. White rage has been such a powerful force in shaping this country's
history and culture going back hundreds and hundreds of years, and I think that's what we're seeing now.
[22:45:03]
We don't talk about it a lot. We don't like to really talk about whiteness in the way that we talk about blackness and black culture. You know, if that were a black mob, we would be talking about black culture and absent black fathers and hip-hop culture and all sorts of things and black leaders. But here we erase the whiteness of the mobsters there, the white mo. We erase it. And in that way, I think, you know, we are doing our self a real disservice in failing to name the thing, to name what actually is going on.
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: What it is. Because nobody is saying absent fathers and absent --
HENDERSON: Right.
LEMON: -- you know, fathers, and maybe, maybe it's country music or maybe it's hip hop because that's -- because white kids listen to hip hop more than anybody else. No one is saying any of those things, you're right, because whiteness is perceived as the norm in American society, not the anomaly, not something that is odd.
But Nia, many Republicans are signaling that they plan to acquit -- vote to acquit pointing to the fact that Trump is no longer in office. Again, that's a procedural thing that you're talking about. but come on, if he was still president, do you think they would vote to convict him?
HENDERSON: Well, they had that chance and they passed on it, right? I mean, they kicked it to Biden's administration. Mitch McConnell passed on that opportunity. This happened on January 6th as we're seeing this trial looks like it's going to happen pretty quickly over just a couple of days.
So, they could have moved to not only impeach him but move it over to the Senate and convict him if they wanted to. It's not something they want to do. And we've seen pretty immediately even after those impeachment articles landed over in the Senate they started talking about this procedural argument.
Listen, this is the party of Trump. They are Trumpists. I don't even think it's sort of a political expediency thing at this point. They're Trumpers and they have been for a number of years.
NAVARRO: Yes, but I mean --
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: I got to go, Ana. Quickly, please. NAVARRO: I have to tell you something. That excuse in rage mean so
much because it is nothing but cowardice. Cowardice. Listen, if you were in a court of law and the issue of venue of jurisdiction had been decided, any juror would have to then decide on the case, on the merits of the case.
LEMON: You're right.
NAVARRO: They are hiding behind this because they can't find their spines.
LEMON: Yes.
NAVARRO: Their spines are somewhere in Mar-a-Lago to say the truth and to be able to reckon, reckon with what they have done.
LEMON: It's got to be the last word, Ana.
NAVARRO: What happened on January 6th.
LEMON: Right.
NAVARRO: Shame on them.
LEMON: They're being legitimate process is a force of law behind it. It's already been deemed that and they have to take that into consideration that they're not doing their duties as lawmakers.
Thank you both. We'll be right back.
[22:50:00]
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LEMON (on camera): So, we're back with CNN political commentator Doug Jones, a former U.S. Senator from Alabama. Senator, thank you so much for joining us. As a former prosecutor give me the elements of the Democrats' case as they laid it out.
DOUG JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: They're connecting the dots, Don, I mean, from the very beginning, that's what they wanted to do. They wanted to show that this whole crowd was orchestrated. It was orchestrated for weeks and a couple of months in advance, where the stop the steal argument gaining momentum by the president. And they connected the dots to make sure that what happened on January 6th was the culmination.
That was not the entire case. That's the biggest thing that I think they've done a very, very good job of showing how the president really got this crowd, invited this crowd, knew the kind of crowd he was going to be there. He did not have to say, go try and hang Mike Pence. He knew this crowd, it was his crowd, he got them there. And that's how they've made this case, I think, so strong.
LEMON: So, speaking of knowing the crowd, the managers also making the case, Senator, that Trump knew people in the crowd, like the Proud Boys, were capable of violence, showing them attacking others after the million MAGA march in December. Why is it so important to draw that connection?
JONES: I think it's important because of the violence that we know that the Proud Boys and others are capable of. Remember, you know, there is one thing that hadn't been done yet, and I don't know if the House managers will do it.
But there's, you know, the same thing kind of happened in Michigan, and the president at that point tweeted -- tweeted out his support for those protesters that stormed the capitol in Michigan. And so, when, you know, those are just kind of dog whistle politics, dog are -- dog whistle kind of tweets that are just basically telegraphing to violent extremists, you've got a green light. We want you to come here on January 6th, it's going to be wild. let's do what we can and then we're going to march.
The other thing that's really important is the White House intervened in that permit to allow them to go to the capitol. That was not originally supposed to happen.
LEMON: Manager Plaskett also saying today that the date for the rally was changed after Trump told his supporters to come on January 6. It had been scheduled for after the inauguration. Does that tell you anything?
JONES: Well, it tells me, again, he in the -- he is orchestrating this crowd. That's the main thing, from the very beginning, he is orchestrating the crowd. He wanted this crowd on the day that Congress was going to be counting these ballots, doing their constitutional duty.
I keep thinking that when he was talking about marching to the capitol, what is it that his lawyers are going to say he wanted them to do? Was he just supposed to stand around the capitol and sing songs, or just shout? He knew that when he told them to the go to the capitol, there was something going to happen. You just don't go to the capitol and stand on the lawn. There was something that was going to happen. And that's why, by the way, he didn't go. He said he was going to go, and he didn't do it.
LEMON: Yes. Senator, our time is short tonight. We have so much to get in, I'm sure you'll understand and we'll have you back soon. Thank you so much for joining. I really appreciate it.
JONES: My pleasure, Don.
LEMON: So, thank you for watching, everyone. Our live coverage of the former President, Donald Trump's second impeachment continues with Anderson Cooper.
[22:55:00]
But first, here's a look at the new CNN original series, "Lincoln: Divided We Stand."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNKNOWN: Lincoln freed the slaves.
UNKNOWN: But it's a lot more complicated than that.
UNKNOWN: A new president, a prairie lawyer with no experience, trying to hold together the American experiment.
UNKNOWN: The stakes were extremely high.
UNKNOWN: This election is an earthquake.
UNKNOWN: The biggest misconception of Lincoln is that he was perfect.
UNKNOWN: The man who found a way to make democracy sing.
UNKNOWN: Lincoln, Divided We Stand premieres Sunday night at 10.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
