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Justice Department Releases Dramatic New Video From January6; Biden Was Not Informed Defense Secretary Was Hospitalized For Days; FAA Grounds Some Boeing 737 Max-9 Jets After Part Of Cabin Blows Out; FBI Arrests Three Jan. 6 Defendants In Florida Today; Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) Discusses About January 6th Third Anniversary; Tornado Touches Down In Fort Lauderdale. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired January 06, 2024 - 18:00   ET

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

[18:00:58]

JIM ACOSTA, CNN HOST: You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM, I'm Jim Acosta in Washington.

Good evening.

Tonight, three years after the attack on the US Capitol, the Justice Department has released a shocking new video of the violent insurrection.

In this never before seen footage, two rioters aggressively confront two Republican members of Congress who are barricaded inside the House chamber. We want to show you the entirety of this shocking video, but we have to warn you some of this footage is very disturbing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(INCOMPREHENSIBLE CONVERSATION)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... building, they are trying to get in. We've got the glass broken.

(INCOMPREHENSIBLE CONVERSATION)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is our house.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our house.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How do you handle this --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Open the door, brother. Come on, man, Open the door.

(KNOCKING)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They are socialist pigs --

(INCOMPREHENSIBLE CONVERSATION)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What's wrong with you? (SHOUTING)

(INCOMPREHENSIBLE CONVERSATION)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can't hear what this guy is saying.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, you all. What are you all saying? We are your friends. Why?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't think they are going to --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, we just got pushed up in front. I've never had a ticket in my life.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hold on, man.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ever.

(INCOMPREHENSIBLE CONVERSATION)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You want my license number?

(INCOMPREHENSIBLE CONVERSATION)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are real American citizens. For a second there -- and we're making it known that we're sick of it.

(INCOMPREHENSIBLE CONVERSATION)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get out of here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And I've never had people --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Say again?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've been in (INAUDIBLE) in Texas for 30 years.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Talk a little louder.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And I've never seen people --

(INCOMPREHENSIBLE CONVERSATION)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's because you've never seen corruption like we have seen this last month.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm ashamed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And I am ashamed of my Congress people. They don't even stand up for it.

(INCOMPREHENSIBLE CONVERSATION)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're giving away --

(INCOMPREHENSIBLE CONVERSATION) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're giving away my grandchildren's and your grandchildren's freedom.

(INCOMPREHENSIBLE CONVERSATION)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You need to back up.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Freedom is at hand.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go find another door, everybody.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you understand we're fighting for you?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You ought to put the guns down, we're not going to do anything.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're just constitutional --

(INCOMPREHENSIBLE CONVERSATION)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know? Scum.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Your constitutional --

(INCOMPREHENSIBLE CONVERSATION)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Please. Hey, guys, you've got to breathe.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You guys can get the same pension when the government gets replaced with real governors.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

(INCOMPREHENSIBLE CONVERSATION)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is not going to be good for your future, man.

(INCOMPREHENSIBLE CONVERSATION)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Real congresspeople --

(INCOMPREHENSIBLE CONVERSATION)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They are fake. It's all fake.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Three years later, the former president is still spreading lies and disinformation about the events of the insurrection.

On the campaign trail this week, he is once again finally referring to rioters, like the ones you just saw in that video as hostages.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You have the hostages, the J6 hostages, I call them. Nobody has been treated ever in history so badly as those people.

But those J6 hostages, going to jail for 20 years and 18 years.

It'll go down as one of the saddest things in the history of our country.

By the way, there was Antifa and there was FBI. There were a lot of other people there, too, leading the charge.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: And we should note, those preposterous claims have been debunked time and time again. Earlier this evening, I spoke with former Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn. He heroically defended the Capitol that day, the democratic process, and America's lawmakers during the violent insurrection.

Here is how he feels about the former president's characterization of those who broke the law and assaulted him and his colleagues that day.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRY DUNN, FORMER CAPITOL POLICE OFFICER: ... right now, they're in jail because they believe the lies that he was spewing.

Now, obviously they're grown individuals who made decisions to go down there and commit crimes, but it kind of was a good nudge being emboldened by the arguably most powerful person on the planet.

So they're hostages of his lies, I guess, if anything.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: "Hostages of his lies." Let's discuss more now with CNN senior political commentator, Ana Navarro; and CNN political commentator, Karen Finney.

[18:05:07]

Ana, what do you think of that new footage?

ANA NAVARRO, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: You know, it's hard to watch, and it is hard to watch the way you just put it, which is, you know, we watched the video then we heard Trump, then we heard Harry Dunn.

When you put those three things together back to back, I just -- I'm feeling such anger again, just the way I was January 6th three years ago, and I'm angry.

I'm angry that this man, Donald Trump, who promoted and incited and influenced these people to go out there and do these things is leading by such huge margins in the Republican primary. It really is surreal.

I am angry that Republican congressmen, after what we just saw in that video, then went on to call those terrorists, those domestic terrorist "tourists," to say that they were on a tour of the Capitol that day, and to try to whitewash what happened on a day when their own lives were in danger when their own vice president was being told, "Hang Mike Pence." How dare they?

How can they live with themselves with the lies, with the stupidity, with the conspiracy, with the complicity, with the cowardice? How can they live with themselves after what they went through?

ACOSTA: Yes, and Karen, I mean, you know, you heard Donald Trump in that video a few moments ago is still talking about Antifa.

I mean, it has just been debunked and nobody takes that seriously anymore.

KAREN FINNEY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Right.

ACOSTA: And he is still spouting this off. Your reaction to this video?

FINNEY: Well, and you see that video, I agree with everything Ana said, but also you remember that he is still peddling those lies as that video of him reminds us right now.

Right now, as all of that has been debunked every effort he had to try to overthrow the election and as we learn more and more about how deep that scheme went, that was his goal. His goal was to overtake the will of the American people. It's disgusting, but it shows that absolute power corrupts absolutely, to answer Ana's question with those Republican members of Congress.

I also think about, you know, some of the members, particularly members of the Congressional Black Caucus, who were praying because they knew that if those folks had broken through, they would know they are Democrats and not Republicans, as some of them talked about.

But you know, I think it is also a reminder as President Biden tried to do yesterday about what is really at stake in this country, and just today, Trump was, I believe he submitted paperwork in the state of Illinois, where they said, well, you promised not to do an insurrection. He wouldn't sign it.

He said in 2020 and 2016 that he wouldn't sign it this time. So you watch that video, and that tells you if he has to try to take it by force again, he would.

ACOSTA: Yes, Ana, I mean, I have to ask you about this poll that found that a shocking 34 percent of Republicans believe the false conspiracy theory that the FBI organized and encouraged January 6th. Obviously, that is not true. But you heard Trump say that as well.

He said Antifa, he said FBI -- people are still eating this stuff up, like it's Chiclets.

NAVARRO: They are.

ACOSTA: And it is just -- it is astonishing. NAVARRO: It's inexplicable, frankly, and it is concerning. It's scary to think that that many Americans could possibly still at this stage of the game, be buying the bullshit that Donald Trump keeps selling.

It is -- you know, it is hard to reconcile. I think it's, frankly, Republicans who know better. I think a lot of them do know better, but they're just looking for an excuse.

They are looking for a justification, because it looks like this man is going to be the nominee, and they're going to vote for him again. So then they can't then -- they can't accept that the man who they are about to nominate, again, as the Republican nominee was the head promoter and inciter of an insurrection on January 6th, so they've got to find a scapegoat. They've got to find some conspiracy, they've got to find some explanation, so that then they can live with their choice.

ACOSTA: Yes.

FINNEY: You know, Jim, it feels to me a lot like when you read about the lost cause. I grew up in a family on my mother's side that we are descendants of Robert E. Lee, so I was -- I got the indoctrination all the time, although I resisted it, about what the war was really about.

It's the same idea. They can't accept the truth. And so instead of accepting the truth, they are now just -- he is peddling a lie. And that's more convenient for these members of Congress and for those in his base to believe. It is like the lost cause part two and Trump sees himself as the Redeemer who is going to redeem and change the narrative about what happened, and I think that's part of why it was so important.

[18:10:10]

Now, President Biden did something that no one in the Republican primary has done, and that is, he called Donald Trump out on the carpet in very tough language and really talked about this election as a question between who are we going to be? Are we going to keep moving forward or are we going to, you know, I almost think of it as, you know, accept the lies of the lost cause, accept the -- you know, Trump's lies and just go about our business as if, you know, the progress we're trying to make doesn't matter.

ACOSTA: Yes, Ana, I mean, he has kind of become his own lost cause this time around.

NAVARRO: ... because there have been some Republicans who have bravely in the Republican primary, who have bravely called the spade a spade, Asa Hutchinson, the former governor of Arkansas, but he wasn't so much as a blip on the radar screen.

Chris Christie has done it. He's got no shot in hell. But certainly, you're right that the two leading candidates after Trump, DeSantis and Haley are tiptoeing around it and don't have the spine to call it out.

ACOSTA: And I do want to -- because this is also something that's important in the context of Iowa, as we all know, evangelical voters are very key to winning that state. And former President Trump has shared a bizarre video on his Truth Social account claiming he is an instrument of God. Let's watch a little bit of that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And on June 14, 1946, God looked down on his planned paradise and said, I need a caretaker. So God gave us Trump.

God said, I need somebody willing to get up before dawn, fix this country, work all day, fight the Marxist, eat supper, then go to the Oval Office and stay past midnight in a meeting of the heads of state. So God made Trump

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Karen, your jaw is dropping.

FINNEY: Well, because I just finished reading Tim Alberta's book about what has been going on among conservative White evangelicals and this is exactly what he talks about. That part of the way that evangelicals have been really able to make their peace with the fact that Trump maybe not so godlike in his behaviors, but that he is the person who can deliver and restore America to what they believe it ought to be.

And also that once again, without saying it, the image of the socialist Marxist, I think it was, is Tish James, who is African- American. She also happens to be my cousin, so I generally don't tend to comment on her cases.

But you know, there again, racial grievance is at the center of his message.

ACOSTA: Yes, that didn't seem actually -- and I mean, this is part of the playbook, you have to think in a place like Iowa.

NAVARRO: Let's remember this is not new, right? These are the same evangelicals who somehow justify to themselves voting for a guy in 2016, who we all heard both on video, we all heard him in his own voice, boasting about committing sexual assault.

It's a man who cheated on his first wife with a second wife, cheated on his second wife with his third wife, and cheated on the third wife with a stripper and a "Playboy" bunny. And yet the Evangelicals lined up behind him. And so this is not new, I agree with Karen, I think it's how do you explain it to yourself? How do you look at yourself in the mirror? How do you then go to church on the weekend and get on your knees and pray?

And the only way to do it is by pretending that, that he is a -- that he is a good Christian, which his entire life negates. I've been seeing -- I have actually seen polling that says that some of these evangelicals think he is much more religious than the other Republicans in the race. And then Joe Biden, a man who has been going to church his entire life. You explain it. If you can explain it, that's better than I can do. ACOSTA: I can't explain it.

Karen, let me ask you this. The Supreme Court has agreed to review whether Trump is disqualified from the Colorado ballot. There are all these other states that are in play, of course.

I did want to play this one piece of sound there from Florida governor and presidential candidate, Ron DeSantis. He is suggesting that Joe Biden could be removed from his state's ballot. Let's listen to this.

FINNEY: Yes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL), 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This is just going to be a tit-for-tat and it's just not going to end well.

You could make a case -- and we're actually -- I'm actually looking at this in Florida now, could we make a credible case that Biden, because of the invasion of eight million and again, I don't think that's the right way to do it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[18:15:06]

ACOSTA: Yes, Karen, I mean it sounds like, you know, what he is threatening is a sort of tit-for-tat, you know.

FINNEY: Yes.

ACOSTA: You remove our guy, we're going to remove your guy.

FINNEY: Yes. With just one little PC left out, right? Their guy engaged in an insurrection, their guy tried to overthrow the will of the American people. But he is sort of -- he has been making this claim for quite some time.

I mean, this is obviously going to be a very tough case and politically, I wish we had been dealing with this question two years ago, rather than right before as we enter this election year. But we'll see what the Supreme Court decides.

ACOSTA: All right, Karen and Ana --

NAVARRO: Well, listen, obviously, I'm really a Florida voter and if he tries that, he's going to end up in court and he's going to end up losing just like he's lost to the drag queens, just like he's lost to Mickey Mouse.

And, you know, it's just one more pathetic lame last minute attempt by Ron DeSantis, to ingratiate himself to Trump voters because his campaign and he himself has turned out to be such a flawed and failed candidate.

ACOSTA: All right, ladies, thank you so much. I knew it was going to be a great conversation having you both on. Really appreciate it. Enjoy your Saturday evening. Thanks so much.

In the meantime, this Wednesday, a make or break night for Republican presidential hopefuls just five days before the Iowa Caucuses.

The CNN Republican presidential debate live from Iowa moderated by Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, Wednesday at 9:00 PM Eastern.

Breaking news to tell you about, in just a few moments, the FAA taking action tonight after a major scare up in the skies that prompted an emergency landing, a portion of a plane blew off midflight, more on all of that coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:20:41]

ACOSTA: Breaking news, just in, involving the hospitalization this week of Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, which was not publicly disclosed for days.

Arlette Saenz signs joins us now from the White House. Arlette, you have some new information tonight on who knew what at the White House. What can you tell us?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Jim.

CNN has learned that President Biden himself did not know for days about Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin's hospitalization. That's according to a source familiar who told that to our colleague, MJ Lee.

Now National Security adviser,. Jake Sullivan did not brief President Biden about it until Thursday afternoon shortly after Sullivan learned himself about the hospitalization. The Pentagon did not disclose the fact publicly that Austin had been hospitalized since New Year's Day following an elective procedure and then complications from that elective procedure. They have not disclosed that until Friday.

And just moments ago, we also received the first statement from Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin where he said he is on the mend and looks forward to returning to the Pentagon soon. But he did acknowledge these transparency issues. He wrote in the statement: "I also understand the media concerns about transparency, and I recognize I could have done a better job ensuring the public was appropriately informed. I commit to doing better," he added. "But this is important to say, this was my medical procedure and I take full responsibility for my decisions about disclosure."

Now we still do not know if President Biden has since spoken with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, but this hospitalization does come at a critical time in National Security matters. When you think about the US dealing with the war in Ukraine and also this conflict between Israel and Hamas.

Now the Pentagon really still has provided very limited information about why he was hospitalized. They simply said that there was an elective medical procedure, and then he was admitted to the hospital at Walter Reed on New Year's Day due to complications. They have not said whether he was unconscious during any of this time, or really provided any further details.

The Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks was able to assume responsibilities from time to time, and they have said, the Pentagon, that he has now resumed full responsibilities as he remains in the hospital, but still some pretty serious questions about the lag time in notifying not just the public, but also President Biden about this matter.

ACOSTA: Yes, I mean, Arlette, I was just looking at a piece about this in the "Military Times," and it says, back in October, when Marine Commandant, General Eric Smith suffered a heart attack, in that case, the Marines announced the event in an e-mail to reporters the following day, that's according to the "Military Times."

So there appears to be -- I mean, it appears to be the standard operating procedures that the public is notified, the press is notified. I suppose the administration would be notified as soon as possible. But that didn't happen here. Do we know why? What gives? What is the normal procedure?

SAENZ: Now, we really don't know why, and in that statement that I read from Austin, he said that the disclosure was up to him. But it is typical that senior administration officials and military officials do provide some type of notice if they've been hospitalized within 24 hours.

There have been instances, for instance, President Biden had a colonoscopy, they advised that in advance. People were aware.

And so there's still some very serious questions about the timeline for this, why they decided not to disclose this right away, and ultimately, why they didn't inform the president of the United States of this as well.

ACOSTA: All right, some big questions there.

All right, Arlette Saenz, thank you very much.

Developing now, the FAA taking drastic measures by ordering certain Boeing 737 Max-9 passenger planes to be grounded until they are inspected. This order coming just one day after an alarming emergency on board an Alaska Airlines flight that had just taken off from Portland.

Passengers say part of the cabin suddenly blew open, creating a gaping hole on the side of the plane. Jeffrey Lindblom from CNN affiliate KPTV in Portland, Oregon walks us through those terrifying moments and what followed.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PILOT: ... declare an emergency. We need to descend down to 10,000.

JEFFREY LINDBLOM, CNN AFFILIATE KPTV, PORTLAND, OREGON (voice over): Flight crew in Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 declaring an emergency. As these photos show, the aircraft appearing to be missing a panel.

[18:55:06]

EVAN SMITH, ALASKA AIRLINES FLIGHT 1282 PASSENGER: It was about as wide as a refrigerator and about as high as two-thirds of a refrigerator in height.

LINDBLOM (voice over): Evan Smith says he was among the 174 passengers aboard the flight heading to Ontario. He says, they've just reached cruising altitude at around 10,000 feet as disaster struck.

SMITH: There was a really loud bang towards the left rear of the plane and a whooshing noise and all the air masks dropped.

PILOT: We have to turn back to Portland if we can get one.

LINDBLOM (voice over): Flight crew made the call to return to Portland. While Smith says he looked back about six rows and saw what he believes is a missing side panel in the aircraft.

PILOT: Yes, we need -- we needed to -- we declared an emergency.

SMITH: I just kind of sit there. It is not anything I have any control over. I mean, it's just wait and see what happens.

LINDBLOM (voice over): Smith says he spoke with another passenger who said they were a row behind where the incident occurred.

SMITH: And they said there was a kid in that row who his shirt was sucked off in and out of the plane and his mother was holding on to him to make sure he didn't go with it.

LINDBLOM (voice over): He believes some cell phones and other items may have blown out too, and he says it is fortunate they weren't higher in the sky.

He also credits the cabin crew for doing what he calls a good job. As he says, he watched crew members help some women who were fearful, move to a different spot on the plane.

PILOT: ... emergency aircraft.

SMITH: It says something that those planes can take that kind of a hit and still go ahead and land safely.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA: And our thanks to Jeffrey Lindblom for that report.

And joining me now is Mary Schiavo, CNN transportation analyst, former inspector general with the Department of Transportation. We should disclose that you currently have ongoing litigation against Boeing from a 2019 crash. I hope I have that correct, that litigation now concerns damage amounts. I just want to get that out there.

But let's have the conversation -- MARY SCHIAVO, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: That's right.

ACOSTA: Mary, this video we were talking about this earlier with Richard Quest, Stephanie Elam. This is pretty terrifying video and it seems kind of remarkable that this did not end with some terrible tragedy.

SCHIAVO: Well, you're exactly right.

When an aircraft in-flight, specifically a pressurized aircraft loses a door, there have been instances of this in the past and most of the time there have been -- there's been a loss of life. It's called a rapid decompression or an explosive decompression depending upon how fast it is.

In the 70s and 80s, they happened more. Turkish Airlines had one, United had one, even a C-5A, you know the big military plane. American had one, but no one lost their lives.

So these are very, very dangerous. And the fact that this was a door, not a window is even more significant in which it is probably why the FAA joined the airline's voluntary grounding of the planes.

ACOSTA: And Mary, apparently this was a plug. Richard Quest was explaining this earlier. You know, in some of these planes, you might have an exit door there, but on other carriers, you might not need an exit door there, so they put a panel in place as a plug, to plug that hole, I hope I'm describing it correctly.

SCHIAVO: Right.

ACOSTA: You can do better than me. But I mean, does that call -- does this incident call into question whether or not it is safe to plug those holes like that? Or is it possibly something to do with this aircraft?

SCHIAVO: Well, I think it's probably -- it could be either or both of those two. I mean, you can clearly see from the pictures that it is a door, and when you read the company materials, it's up to the airlines how they want to order the plane.

If they have more seats, remember, it's federal aviation regulation that lets the airline know how many exit doors they have to have depending on how many passengers they have.

And so if they order the configuration where they don't need quite so many emergency exit doors, they can just tell Boeing when they order, just put the panel on the inside, but on the outside, it's still a door. So it will call into question whether they installed the same kind of door locks and then just put the panel over because we've all heard, oh, you can't use the door, in-flight, the door can't be opened in-flight, which of course they can.

Or if they had another system to simply put this door patch in place, and it was improperly installed or they had some sort of, you know, a maintenance or mechanical failure. And we've had accidents, I am not saying that here, where there were literally the improper bolts placed or things were missing.

So there's a lot to be seen whether it was an actual door with an internal panel over it, or if it is some other latching mechanism for this panel.

ACOSTA: Oh, interesting. Okay, we still need to get to the bottom of that.

SCHIAVO: Right.

ACOSTA: And help us understand what these passengers were going through at this particular altitude, I suppose because they were still ascending, that they kind of lucked out. I mean, we did hear one anecdote about a child's shirt being ripped off and his mother having to hold on to him. That just sounds absolutely terrifying.

SCHIAVO: It absolutely does and lots of people are commenting of course on social media about always keep your seatbelt fastened and that's of course true as well, but there's actually a federal aviation regulation about a decade or so ago. They put in place more restrictions on airplanes going very high altitudes, and the critical altitude was 15,000 feet.

[18:30:21]

So at that altitude, an airliner for passengers has to be able to withstand a depressurization event, and passengers will still survive. So the fact that they were at about 16,000 feet, and there's this critical 15,000-foot FAA regulation, probably spelled the difference for these passengers' outcome. And that is literally embedded in the FAA regulation, this 15,000-foot requirement, so that probably helped them.

ACOSTA: All right. Well, glad it worked out the way it did and not something terribly, terribly worse.

All right. Mary Schiavo, thank you very much for your expertise. We always appreciate it.

SCHIAVO: Thank you.

ACOSTA: All right. In the meantime, in the three years since January 6th, Americans' views of what happened that day have shifted. Up next, we're talking with Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren. She sat on the January 6th Committee about this rising belief in these conspiracy theories surrounding the attack on the Capitol and what former President Trump just said today about January 6th, we want to bring that to you as well. We'll have that next. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:35:51]

ACOSTA: Today, three years to the day after the January 6th insurrection, the FBI arrested these three people who were facing charges for their actions in the Capitol attack. They were considered fugitives after fleeing from law enforcement. All are facing several charges for what prosecutors say was a coordinated assault on several police officers.

Olivia Pollock and Joseph Hutchinson have pleaded not guilty. Jonathan Pollock has not entered a formal plea.

And with me now is California Congresswoman, Zoe Lofgren. She's a member of the Judiciary Committee, and she served on the January 6th Committee.

Congresswoman, thank you so much for being back on the program with us.

It's been a little while. We haven't really had the chance to talk about this, but today is the third anniversary of the attack on the Capitol. And I did want to ask you about this new video that was released by the Justice Department today. It shows, and I'm not sure if you've seen it, but it shows a confrontation between a couple of the rioters with some Republican members, and it's a pretty alarming video.

It just strikes me as rather stunning that we're still learning new pieces of what took place that day, even now, three years later. Have you seen this video and what was your impression of it when you saw it?

REP. ZOE LOFGREN (D-CA): Well, I hadn't seen it, but I'm sure you'll remember there was some still photos of the two Republican members attempting to talk to the crowd through the broken window and that was reported on and certainly the January 6th Committee knew about it. I think in a way, I thought at the time it was bizarre that Markwayne and Nehls thought that these were their friends and they could talk them out of the riot. I mean, I guess they thought they could talk them down. Obviously, that was not the case.

But, this was a very dangerous riot. I've been reflecting on it today, as I think many of us who were in the Capitol have been doing. I've been reaching out to some of the police officers who helped defend us and who were injured. That some are trying to say that this was not actually a riot, that this was a peaceful protest is stunning and sickening. You can imagine how the officers who were so injured feel when that is said.

ACOSTA: Absolutely. And I'm sure you saw something about this. If not, I'll play it for you, that former president, Donald Trump, was out on the campaign trail on this third anniversary of January 6th. And he was still peddling some of the conspiracy theories that have been debunked, frankly, about what took place that day. Let's play a little bit of that and I'll get your response.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You have the hostages, the J6 hostages, I call them. Nobody's been treated ever in history so badly as those people. But those J6 hostages going to jail for 20 years and 18 years, it'll go down as one of the saddest things in the history of our country.

By the way, there was Antifa and there was FBI. There were a lot of other people there, too, leading the charge.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Yes, he said this yesterday in Sioux City. I mean, Trump is saying that he's still saying Antifa and FBI. I mean, all of that has been debunked.

LOFGREN: It's a lie.

ACOSTA: What's your impression of that?

LOFGREN: It's a lie. It's sick, really. And he's a very dangerous sick man. And how offensive this is to the family of Officer Sicknick who died, to the many, many officers who sustained injuries so huge they had to retire from the force. I mean, really. And that members, American members of our public, believe these sick lives is very alarming.

ACOSTA: And I - that leads me to my next question, Congresswoman, which is a recent poll found that a shocking 34 percent of Republicans believe this false conspiracy theory that the FBI organized and encouraged January 6th and the attack on the Capitol.

[18:40:01]

I know you worked and your colleagues worked day and night on that January 6th Committee to try to get the truth out to the American people and yet folks are still stubbornly clinging to some of these lies that just persist to this day. Do you - I mean, do you know why that might be? What's going on there?

LOFGREN: I can't explain it, but I saw an interview with - on your channel of a woman who had been released from jail, who had been in the mob and who had seen the light. And she described those who follow Trump as a cult. And I thought that was an interesting observation, especially from someone who had been suckered into believing those lies.

I think there's something seriously amiss here in the body politic when a party can peddle complete, obvious and provable falsehoods and have their followers believe them and try to lead them into really a change from our system of government. If you listen to some of the things that Trump is saying these days, and one of the things I learned in the January 6th investigation was to understand and believe that when the president - ex-president - speaks, he means it. He said his words that he intends to terminate parts of the Constitution. He said he intends to eliminate the civil service, replace it with political appointees to go after his political enemies.

He has outlined publicly and directly a plan to replace our current system of government with an authoritarian one. It's very, very dangerous and we ought to pay attention to what he's saying. ACOSTA: And so what is your impression in terms of what is going on in this country if he - as it's widely expected, sweeps through these Republican primaries and caucuses and becomes the nominee?

LOFGREN: Well, I think President Biden said it pretty well, just - I think it was yesterday. We know who he is. The question is, are we? Are we going to change a system that is imperfect, but has served us well, our democratic system, for over 200 years? Or are we going to trash it because President Trump wants to cling to power and be an authoritarian. That's for the people to decide.

ACOSTA: And I do want to ask you, the Supreme Court is going to decide whether Trump can remain on the ballot in Colorado. And I want to read to some of what Trump's lawyers are arguing in their appeal to the Colorado ruling - they write this, we put it up on screen - the Colorado Supreme Court erred in how it described President Trump's role in the events of January 6, 2021. It was not an 'insurrection' and President Trump in no way 'engaged' in insurrection."

You were on the January 6th Committee. What's your response to that?

LOFGREN: Well, that's simply false. We uncovered that he was at the center of a multifaceted effort to overturn the Constitution, overturn the election. He summoned a - the mob, an armed mob. He knew they were armed and he sent them to the Capitol to stop the proceedings. I think that's an insurrection.

Now, there are other issues that the court needs to examine in this case. There are various qualifications for being president. You have to be over a certain age. You have to be a natural born citizen. Those are easy facts to determine. The 14th Amendment involves an exercise of judgment. And it would not be crazy for the court to say, well, we need - Congress needs to set some standards and procedures for how to decide that question and who decides it.

But there's no question that Trump did engage in insurrection and the only question really is - is a technical one for the court to address.

ACOSTA: And speaking of the Supreme Court, I mean, you - this was something else that was explored to some extent by the January 6th Committee, maybe not to the satisfaction of everybody. But Ginni Thomas, the wife of the Supreme Court justice, Clarence Thomas, had some involvement in the effort in trying to overturn the election results. I think she made some pleas to the chief of staff at that time, Mark Meadows, about some of this. Do you think Clarence Thomas should recuse himself?

LOFGREN: Of course he should. She was very much involved in this whole mess and he - of course, she's an interested party and he - even if it's just for the appearance of a conflict should recuse.

[18:45:02]

I'll note during the Nixon - U.S. v. Nixon case, one of the justices recused simply because he knew and had served in the Department of Justice because he didn't want the appearance of bias. I think Justice Thomas ought to follow that lead and do the court a favor. Their reputation is a bit tarnished right now, and he could avoid tarnishing it further.

ACOSTA: Yes. I guess that leads me to this question, is if the Supreme Court ultimately rules in a way, I suppose, on the presidential immunity question, as well as the ballot question, and Clarence Thomas is involved in both of those decisions, does it call into question to some extent the outcome of the rulings from the high court?

LOFGREN: Well, I mean, he's recused himself on certain other January 6th related cases. So, even to follow his own guidance, he should recuse. If he doesn't, it does lead to, obviously, to concerns that he is not an unbiased justice simply following the facts and the law. And that's what we expect of our justices.

Whatever their political leanings, they are supposed to apply the facts and the law, adhere to the precedents, and render a judgment that is unrelated to their partisan political views. The American public has doubts about our court when it comes to that now. I hope that they will take this opportunity to start to dispel those doubts.

ACOSTA: And just finally, I wanted to ask you about another Supreme Court question. One of the members of the Trump defense team appears to be trying to put some pressure on Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh in some comments that she made. Let's listen to that and talk about it on the other side.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: All I want is fair, I fought really hard to get three very, very good people and they're great people, very smart people and I just hope that they're going to be fair because the other side plays the ref and I just hope we get fair treatment, because if don't our country is in big, big trouble.

ALINA HABBA, LEGAL SPOKESWOMAN FOR FORMER PRESIDENT TRUMP: I think it should be a slam dunk in the Supreme Court, I have faith in them. People like Kavanaugh, who the president fought for, who the president went through, helped to get into place. He'll step up. Those people will step up, not because they're pro-Trump, but because they're pro- law.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: What's your response to that? It sounds as though she's trying to say that Justice Kavanaugh owes Trump something here.

LOFGREN: Yes. It's very unfortunate. It's sort of like a mob family with you owe us. Fortunately, the justices have lifetime tenure and I would assume that they are not going to be pressured simply because they were appointed by Trump. I think it's very unfortunate to engage in that kind of discussion. It really further undercuts confidence in the rule of law and our system of justice and I have - I'm very hopeful that the judges, even the ones that I didn't want appointed, will put all of that to one side and simply rule on the facts and the law and the precedents and help to start restore confidence in their court.

ACOSTA: All right. Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren of California, thank you very much for your time. We appreciate it.

LOFGREN: Anytime. You take care.

ACOSTA: All right, you too.

In the meantime, on the weather front, rain, snow and ice, much of the eastern U.S. is expecting at least one of those, maybe a combination as two winter storms bear down on millions of people. And this just in, take a look at this, a tornado touching down just this past hour in South Florida. There it is in Fort Lauderdale. We'll have the very latest on this next.

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[18:53:31]

ACOSTA: A new video into our newsroom at this hour showing a tornado that just hit Florida's Atlantic coast. The National Weather Service says the twister touched down in Fort Lauderdale just before 6 PM as strong thunderstorms moved through the area. We're still gathering information on this. Reports of the - big damage come in, we'll bring that to you as it comes in.

Elisa Raffa is in the CNN Weather Center for us.

ACOSTA: What's the latest on this tornado? Was this being predicted or forecast? It sounds like this may be caught some folks by surprise. What's the latest?

ELISA RAFFA, CNN METEOROLOGIST: So it's attached to the winter storm that we've been talking about and they did have that threat for damaging winds and tornadoes that we were monitoring today. Of course, our focus, though, has been on the snow. But you can see where we had that line of some strong thunderstorms. You see that little kind of hook there. That's the kind of what gave the Weather Service that that eyeball to say, hey, we've got this hook. You could see where you had that funnel come down, sparking some power flashes, possibly in Fort Lauderdale and all of this happened just before six o'clock.

And they issued tornado warnings for this. A tornado warning was issued. And then that cell with the tornado kind of worked its way offshore into the Atlantic. So this is the only tornado that we've had out of this system and it is the first of 2024. We're in January, so it is our first tornado here of the year.

And like I said, all of this is attached to the winter storm that we've got playing out to the north.

[18:55:06]

That's dropping all of the snow, but that's how potent the storm is. It's packing the cold air to the north. It's got a ton of twist to the south. And that's where we've been able to pack some of those stronger thunderstorms across Florida and get one of them to spin up. But the bigger system you could see here, still packing all of the snow in from Pennsylvania into Upstate New York, where we could still see six to 12 inches of snow in that area. That rain snow line has been pretty much riding the I-95 corridor. And you've got some heavy rain that's starting to move into parts of New Jersey, where some flooding has been a concern. And we've got some of that rain washing away that trace of snow in New York.

So it just shows how potent this system is, where we continue to pack some six to 12 inches of snow that you see here on all of the pink in Upstate New York, parts of interior New England, also coupled with some gusts to 40 miles per hour. So it continues to work its way up to the northeast as we go through the overnight with some pretty hefty snowfall rates. Jim?

ACOSTA: All right. Elisa Raffa, busy afternoon and evening for you. Thank you for all your work. We appreciate it.

And we are still following the breaking news. The U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was apparently hospitalized for days before the Pentagon told key officials in the White House where Congress and President Biden apparently did not know for some period of days. What we know about the timeline, we'll talk about that in just a few moments.

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