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U.S. Says Capitol Rioters Planned to Capture and Assassinate Officials; U.S. Capitol a Fortress, D.C. on Lockdown as Threats Grow; Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) Has Strong Interest in Congress for 9/11- Style Probe of Riot. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired January 15, 2021 - 13:00   ET

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

MAYOR MURIEL BOWSER (D-DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA): What would that reset look like?

[13:00:04]

REPORTER: And, Mayor, you touched on it, but I want to ask one more time since the world has seen your city, the nation's Capitol look more like a fortress, look more like a military base, you touched on it, but I have to ask you, what goes through you when you see your city looking the way it does now? Is there disappointment, is there or a realization that this is the reality that we are in?

BOWSER: I'm sad about it. I have to tell that it looks that way. I'm committed to making sure that we get our city back, our visitors, our residents, our workers will be able to get through the city with ease, but I also know that we have a special responsibility, that there is a peaceful transition of power in our country. We're proud in Washington to host the federal government and we want to make sure that that event is peaceful.

REPORTER: Thank you, Mayor. Thank you.

AMANDA GOMEZ, JOURNALIST, WASHINGTON CITY PAPER: Hi, Amanda with the Washington City Paper. A follow on that, Mayor, do you think that fence around the Capitol should stay or do you think that should be the first to go after all of this?

BOWSER: Amanda, I generally don't like fences, as you know, but I also see why it's important, especially now. It's important for a couple of reasons. First of all, those fences allow these police professionals to be able to deploy the human resource that they have, the officers, in a more efficient way. In other times, we were more concerned about interactions between police and people, and that fence is an additional barrier to reduce some of those interactions.

So I think we are concerned about any fencing that's up in the District of Columbia would move. It is a temporary fence. It's not a permanent fence. You've see how quickly it goes up, it can just as quickly come down. But we want to make sure that there is not only a real replacement for what it provides but the sense of safety that everybody in and around those facilities has is important.

So we haven't fully developed a recommendation to our federal partners about when and how it comes down.

GOMEZ: Thank you. And my last question is what are the estimated costs for all of this given the heightened security? I mean, I know the last I heard the district requested was at 45 million to Congress. Do you have any --

BOWSER: For the inauguration?

GOMEZ: That's correct.

BOWSER: Okay. I'm going to ask Chris Rodriguez to come up, who is the director of the district's Homeland Security Agency. He's also going to talk to you about a very specific process that we put in place to protect the district and make sure that we had a seamless process for federal assistance. Director Rodriguez?

CHRIS RODRIGUEZ, DIRECTOR, D.C. HOMELAND SECURITY AND EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT: Thank you, Mayor, and thank you for the question, Amanda. The district over a year ago, as we were beginning preparations for the inauguration, reached out to all our public safety and support agencies to estimate our costs for the inauguration. And we estimated those costs at $34.9 million. That was our request to Congress for the district's inauguration fund.

It's important to note that part of our request was also looking at deficits that we had run in our emergency planning and security fund, which is annually appropriated by Congress, because of the heightened number of First Amendment demonstrations we've seen throughout the year.

So as we were planning for this specific inauguration after the First Amendment demonstrations that we saw over the summer, we changed that number to, as you mentioned, 44.9 million, roughly $45 million. We -- that additional 10 million was not approved and still has not been approved at this time.

In terms of our mayor mentioned some of the federal assistance we're putting in place, Mayor Bowser requested of FEMA a pre-disaster emergency declaration for the inauguration last week. That was approved on Monday.

And as Administrator Turney mentioned, through the district's Emergency Operation Center, we've been able to coordinate all of our resource requests not only for public safety but also for health and medical, for public works to make sure that they had all the assets, federal assets that they needed to support the entire inauguration process.

So that's being run out of our EOC and we have FEMA there are now helping us with those coordination and requests.

GOMEZ: Thank you. BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN RIGHT NOW: All right, you've been listening here to officials here in Washington, D.C., talking about security preparations for the coming days before the inauguration of President- elect Joe Biden.

[13:05:00]

As the FBI warns, the nation's Capitol and all states that there is a growing threat of armed protests involving domestic extremists. You just heard the National Mall is going to be closed on inauguration day. This is at the request of the Secret Service. Any moment now, the Justice Department will hold a briefing about last week's insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

But federal documents are now confirming that some rioters were planning to murder lawmakers. These Trump supporters plotted to, quote, capture and assassinate elected officials, according to the Trump Justice Department.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PROTESTERS: Hang Mike Pence! Hang Mike Pence! Hang Mike Pence!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Here you can see on camera some were chanting, hang Mike Pence.

And we have some breaking details from The Washington Post revealing just how dangerously close the violent mob came to reaching the vice president. The Post is reporting that had the rioters arrived just seconds earlier to a location by the Senate floor, they would have been in sight of the vice president.

So far, CNN has tallied at least 44 arrests. the FBI says it has identified more than 200 suspects. As federal authorities continue to investigate and arrest suspects in last week's insurrection, the nation's Capitol has been largely shutdown in advance of the inauguration next week. Right now, the National Mall is closed until the day after Joe Biden will take office.

There are more than 20,000 National Guard troops that are manning the streets, that are blocking off roads with military vehicles. It's unlike anything I have ever seen in this city. It is a bigger U.S. military presence than in Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq combined.

The final days of Trump's presidency have turned downtown Washington really into something out of a war zone, and it has robbed the country of one of its more important rituals, the peaceful and dignified transfer of power with one president handing off to the next.

I want to start with breaking news. Prosecutors now saying that rioters intended to kidnap kill elected officials. We have CNN Senior Justice Correspondent Evan Perez who is joining us now with much more.

And you know, Evan, it was not just a protest that spilled into the Capitol. As awful as what we saw on the day that it happened, we are now seeing, and seeing more clearly with this new information just how much planning some rioters had done.

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, for the first time, Brianna, we're hearing from prosecutors telling us some of the stuff that they've uncovered as part of this investigation, and some of it is emerging in some of the detention hearings that are going on around the country. After all, this is now a nationwide dragnet, frankly, to try to catch some of these people who were here in Washington more than a week ago and have now returned home, and they're trying to get them back to Washington so that they can prosecute them.

In one case in particular yesterday in the northern district of Texas, a man by the name of Larry Brock was brought before a judge. And one of the things prosecutors said that they believe he was seen carrying zip ties, and one of the things that they believe was there was an intention by some of these people to capture members of Congress, to try to perhaps assassinate them.

And in particular, a prosecutor talked about a Facebook post by Mr. Brock that called for a second civil war, called for fire and blood and to fight the outcome of the 2020 elections, obviously inspired by the words of the president who held a rally on that day just down Pennsylvania -- on the opposite end of Pennsylvania Avenue.

And so, the picture is emerging from this case and from others around the country that this is what prosecutors are going after. They believe these people were trying to interrupt the transition of power. This is part of the effort to perhaps build a seditious conspiracy case against some of these people, and that's what we're seeing in some of these court cases.

As you pointed out, things could have been a lot worse, right? The fact is, according to The Washington Post, Vice President Pence was cleared out of the Senate chamber just about 60 seconds before these protesters, which we've now seen the pictures of, coming up the stairs and they are distracted by a U.S. Capitol police officer who heroically, frankly, puts himself in a position of danger to draw them away from where these people who are in the order of succession were standing.

So, again, a lot more coming out of these court documents indicating how much worse this could have been.

KEILAR: Evan, thank you so much for bringing us that report from the Justice Department.

Michael Chertoff is the former secretary of Homeland Security under President George W. Bush. He is now the chairman and co-founder of the Chertoff Group. Secretary, thank you so much for being with us.

Prosecutors say that perpetrators were planning to kidnap and execute lawmakers.

[13:10:03] I know that you've seen this report now. How does that affect your assessment of the U.S. government's response to the attack on the Capitol?

MICHAEL CHERTOFF, FORMER HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: Well, I think that the Capitol police were woefully unprepared to repel this attack. Apparently, they turned down offers from the National Guard. They didn't really coordinate with other law enforcement agencies, and I think it was foreseeable you were dealing with people who were potentially violent and were going to be focused on the capitol in an effort to interfere with the vote.

Now, I have to say the individual actions of some of the police officers are commendable and heroic, but in terms of having the accurate resources as well as the kind of fencing and barriers you would normally want to have, they didn't have that erected (ph).

KEILAR: Pence, as you have now probably heard, left the Senate chamber with only about a minute to spare, according to The Washington Post, and he was sheltering not far from some of the worst of these riots. How concerning is that to you?

CHERTOFF: It's extremely concerning. It's pretty obvious now we were dealing with an insurrection. There were people involved who had seditious intent. They wanted to overthrow the government process. They potentially wanted to kidnap and hold hostages or even kill lawmakers, and that was evident when I saw the individual with the zip ties, and we came very close to what would have been a lot of mayhem and death on the floor of the Congress. And, again, credit to the individual police officers who were heroic and managed to avert what could have been an even worse catastrophe.

KEILAR: Trump actually had put a target on Pence's back. He did this even during the attack when he was tweeting about the vice president. Should he be criminally charged?

CHERTOFF: Well, I mean, I think the U.S. attorney in D.C. has indicated that that's -- you know, all charges are on the table. I think when you look at what Donald Trump did not just on the day in question but on the weeks leading before, he basically lit matches and threw it on a pile of gasoline-soaked rags and then he professes to be astonished when it all blows up in a giant fire.

I mean, I think you've got to look in context at all the things he did and said and then they're going to have to make a judgment about what (INAUDIBLE). And that's putting to one side in process to pardon himself, although his the ability to do that, I think, has a serious (INAUDIBLE).

KEILAR: This -- somewhere in Portland, there were unidentified officers. It turned out that they were with DHS. They were in camouflage. They had no identifying markers. They had unmarked vehicles. They were arresting people during the protest and putting them in unmarked vehicles.

And we also know that DHS was compiling reports on journalists who covered protests and covered violence. DHS did not have its eye on this threat in Washington. You know, especially from your perspective as a former Secretary of DHS, how far off of the department's mission has it gone?

CHERTOFF: Well, I think what's happened is in the Trump administration there's been an excessive focus on building a wall on the south border. And while many part of DHS continue to do their job admirably, for example, TSA, with aviation security, the U.S. Coast Guard, and certainly with respect to the border agencies, they became kind of a tool of a political agenda.

And part of the problem is there was a rapid turnover of leadership at the top of the department with a number of acting senior leaders, some of whom, in fact, may not have been properly appointed. So that weakened the strategic direction.

And the good news is Alan Mayorkas, the nominee that President Biden is preferred, is experienced, he understands what needs to be done, and I think he will restore the department to its balanced correct mission, which will now include an increase focus on domestic terrorism as well as global terrorism.

KEILAR: Yes, he certainly has some work before him here. Secretary, thank you so much, Secretary Chertoff, we appreciate it.

CHERTOFF: Thank you.

KEILAR: I want to go now to the Capitol where, in just five days, President-elect Joe Biden will be sworn in as the 46th President of the United States. That is where CNN' Shimon Prokupecz is.

Shimon, the Capitol has been turned into a fortress. The area, I mean, very widespread around the Capitol, same thing. It is a city under lockdown here.

[13:15:00]

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: It is. And everywhere you go, you see fencing, military, right, the National Guard. It might be a little hard to see behind this fencing. But this continues to go on here. The National Guard out here, heavily armed all along this road here. This is the west side of the Capitol. And whether you go to the east side of the Capitol, the west side, whether you're on Pennsylvania or Constitution here, there's National Guard everywhere.

One of the things that they've been locking down a lot is they don't want any cars on the road here. And so we've seen cars pull up here, police cars, Secret Service vehicles, and they're not even letting them through. They've tied these metal gates down so as to prevent vehicles from coming through.

Notably, when the Secret Service was having their press conference there with the mayor, they actually talked about being concerned about vehicles coming here. They're setting up roadblocks all across Washington, D.C., and even outside of Washington, D.C., and they may be potentially inspecting some of the cars.

Also, one of the other things that the Secret Service said is that they're on basically the 11th plan of their security overall plan for here, and a lot changed since the insurrection on January 6th, that they have to go back, obviously, and change a lot of the plans.

So here along also, Brianna, I just want to show you, this is Constitution and then there's the Pennsylvania where usually you would have the parade and people would be gathered on inauguration day. Obviously, that's not happening this year.

But even all along the road here, there are fences everywhere. Everywhere you go, you see fencing, you see police, you see military. And it's really striking to think that we have 20,000 military members on the streets of Washington, D.C. And it just tells you the level of threat here. They are taking this very seriously, the Secret Service director saying there are extremists they are very concerned about, and so that's why we're seeing this level of security here in Washington, D.C.

KEILAR: Yes. It is something to behold. Shimon, thank you, live for us on Capitol Hill.

And for the first time we are hearing from some of the brave men and women who fought back against the mob, police putting their own lives on the line to protect our democracy. In one video, you can see the crowd of insurrections grab a D.C. Metropolitan police officer, pull him to the ground, and then they begin to beat him. Well, that officer is Michael Fanone. He survived and now he's speaking out about his horrific ordeal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OFFICER MICHAEL FANONE, D.C. METROPOLITAN POLLICE: I was just, you know, trying to fight as best I could. I remember like guys were stripping me of my gear, these rioters, pulling my badge off my chest. They've ripped my radio off my vest, started pulling like ammunition magazines from their holder on my belt. And then some guy started getting a hold of my gun, and they were screaming out, you know, kill him with his own gun.

At that point it was just like self-preservation, you know, how do I survive this situation? And I thought about using deadly force, I thought about shooting people, and then I just came to the conclusion that, you know, if I was to do that, I might get a few, but I'm not going to take everybody and they'll probably take my gun away from me, and that would definitely give them the justification that they were looking for to kill me if they already hadn't made that up in their minds.

So the other option I thought of was try to appeal to somebody's humanity, and I just remember yelling out that I have kids, and it seemed to work. Some people in the crowd started to encircle me and tried to offer me some level of protection. And they gave -- you know, that provided me with like enough time or other officers, specifically my partner, Jimmy Albright, enough time to get to me and get me the hell out of there and back into the west front of the Capitol.

A lot of people have asked me, you know, my thoughts on the individuals in the crowd that helped me or tried to offer some assistance, and I think kind of the conclusion I've come to is like, thank you, but (INAUDIBLE) you for being there.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KEILAR: CNN's Mike Morales spoke with Officer Fanone and also others who defended the Capitol during the siege. Mark, listening to that is -- I mean, you feel like you're right there with Officer Fanone, and it was a scary situation. And the fact that he and other officers were able to survive is really, truly incredible.

MARK MORALES, CNN REPORTER: Right. And for each of those officers, survival really became the theme of what was going on. And just to put Officer Fanone in a little bit more context, he works for the crimes suppressions team.

[13:20:05]

That means they do narcotics investigations, violent crimes, he works in plain clothes. He's not really wearing his uniform. So his uniform that was issued to him by the MPD was hanging in his locker. And when he heard what was happening , he pulled all the tags off, took all the plastic off. He put on his uniform for the first time, took his partner with him and they went to the Capitol. And as he put it, he wasn't going to be sitting at a desk when an insurrection was happening at the Capitol.

And also at the Capitol was Officer Daniel Hodges who we've seen in that dramatic video where he's being crushed behind the door. For Officer Hodges, that was his very first time at the Capitol. Now most people would go for, say, a tour or if they're a lawmaker and they have business, but for him, his first time there, he was there for the fight of his life.

And just to put the violence that he experienced in a little bit more context as well, on his way to the capitol, he was struck in the head with a large object, which to this day he doesn't really even really know, but he credits his helmet for only leaving a mild concussion. At some point he's battling with one of the rioters who tries to gouge his eye out. But the most surprising thing for Officer Hodges is how some of the rioters actually thought they were going to get sympathy from Officer Hodges and some of the other officers. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

OFFICER DANILE HODGES, DC METROPOLITAN POLLICE: There was a guy ripping my mask off, and he was able to rip away my baton and beat me with it. And he was practically foaming at the mouth, so just these people were true believers in the worst way.

That was all I really had to defend myself against the crush, so I was holding on, but eventually he was able to get away from me because my arms were pinned, so I couldn't really effectively defend myself. Now, I wish I could say I was surprised, but we've seen this kind of talk online for years now, and it all came to a boil over there.

And being out there, just the cognitive dissonance and the zealotry of these people was unreal. You know, they were waving the thin blue flag and telling us, we're not your enemies, while they were attacking us and killed one of us. So it's hard to say exactly what's going through their minds because it doesn't make sense to me.

Some of them felt like that we would be fast friends because they have been -- so many of them had been vocal or at least virtue signaling their support for the police over the past year. They say things like, you know, we've been supporting you through all these Black Lives Matter stuff, you should have our back, and they felt like entitled. They felt like they would just walk out there and tell us that they were here to take back Congress, and we would agree with them, and we would walk in hand in hand and just take over the nation. But, obviously, they do not know that it was not the case and it will never be the case.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MORALES: You know, looking at these officers, your first impression is they don't look like they've been through anything, no discernible marks. But yet, Officer Michael Fanone is recovering from a mild heart attack. Officer Daniel Hodges, we've seen the footage of him being crash behind that door. Officer Christina Lori, she was getting essentially what is known, what they were calling among themselves was bear mace, which is just pepper spray that is used for bears.

The other interesting thing is, these officers didn't mince words. They were very forthright and very direct as for what their experiences were, and that really speaks to the magnitude of what happened that day.

KEILAR: Mark, those are some powerful interviews. It is amazing what they went through. We are so glad they survived. Thank you so much for bringing that to us.

The Justice Department is holding a news conference right now on the Capitol riot investigation. We are going to hear what they're saying about the plan to capture and assassinate government officials.

Plus, the president's approval sinking to a new low as he demands a military-style sendoff on the morning of the inauguration.

And his legal defense begins to emerge for his role in the riot, but will it be enough to escape criminal charges?

This is CNN's special live coverage.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:25:00]

KEILAR: In the wake of the Capitol riot today, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is calling for a 9/11-style commission to investigate the insurrection that took place last week. She is also vowing to investigate and prosecute any members of Congress if they aided or abetted the mob that stormed the Capitol.

Gloria Borger is our Chief Political Analyst and she's with us now. And, Gloria, what kind of message is Pelosi sending here with these announcements?

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: That enough is enough, that this storming of the Capitol is so serious that everything needs to be reexamined, everything. Not only the security inside the Capitol, but people who work there.

That there are people inside the Capitol, as you know, and you've been reporting who are saying, well, some of my colleagues may have aided and abetted this. This is not like anything we've ever seen before, Bri. And so she's got to say to her membership, we need to take control of this because otherwise it's going to get out of control.

KEILAR: And the president is seeing his support drop. He's hit his lowest approval rating since taking office, according to the latest Pew survey. 29 percent is where he stands right now.

BORGER: Yes.

KEILAR: That poll also shows that more than half of Americans want him removed from office. Will numbers like that impact, Gloria, how Republicans decide to vote when it comes to whether or not to convict Trump at his impeachment trial in the Senate?

[13:30:07]

BORGER: You know, it may impact some.