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New Day
January 6th Committee Subpoenas Trump to Testify; New Video Shows Pelosi, Schumer Scrambling to Save Capitol; Whitmer, Dixon Clash Over Abortion Rights inn Michigan Governor Debate. Aired 6-6:30a ET
Aired October 14, 2022 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. BENNIE THOMPSON (D-MI): The clerk will report the vote.
[05:59:36]
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Chairman, on this vote, there are nine ayes, zero nos.
THOMPSON: The resolution is agreed to.
TERRI MCCULLOUGH, CHIEF OF STAFF FOR NANCY PELOSI: He is not coming, but that could --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Change.
MCCULLOUGH: -- change.
REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): If he comes, I'm going to punch him out. I've been waiting for this. For trespassing on the Capitol grounds. I want to punch him out, and I'm going to go to jail, and I'll be happy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: A subpoena against a former president and never-before-seen footage, including that of lawmakers scrambling to save the Capitol.
I'm Brianna Keilar. John Berman is off this morning. Alex Marquardt is here with us. Great to have you.
ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT/ANCHOR: Great to be back with you.
KEILAR: The January 6th Committee presenting new testimony and evidence in its final hearing before the midterm elections to show that all roads lead back to Donald Trump. The committee voting unanimously to subpoena him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: Do you think that he's actually going to testify? REP. ADAM KINZINGER (R-IL): We'll have to see. I know he should. It is very clear that he knew what he was doing. He wanted to stay in power. And now we want to hear from him.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: President Biden says he believes the work of the January 6th Committee will lead to real change.
In the meantime, former President Trump fired back. He said he will have his answer to the committee two hours from now.
MARQUARDT: Also, there is new, never-before-seen footage showing a rare moment of bipartisan efforts from congressional leadership, pleading and calling former Vice President Pence and Trump officials to stop the violence.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (DN=-NH): This cannot be just we're waiting for so and so. We need them there now, whoever you want. OK.
REP. STENY HOYER (D-MD): You also have troops -- This is Steny Hoyer.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MARQUARDT: You can see there lawmakers huddling in a secure location at a nearby military base. We'll have much more on that video in just a moment.
But first, we begin our coverage with CNN's Sara Murray. It's a major day on Capitol Hill.
SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. A huge day. An extraordinary and historically rare move for the Select Committee, as they voted to subpoena the former president for documents, as well as testimony, saying they believe he should appear before the panel and defend his actions around January 6th.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
REP. LIZ CHENEY (R-WY): The central cause of January 6th was one man, Donald Trump.
MURRAY (voice-over): The January 6th Select Committee focusing squarely on former President Donald Trump in its last hearing before the midterm elections and closing with an extraordinary move.
THOMPSON: Those in favor will say aye.
CHENEY: Aye.
MURRAY (voice-over): Unanimously voting to subpoena Trump for testimony in their ongoing probe.
CHENEY: We are obligated to seek answers directly from the man who set this all in motion.
MURRAY (voice-over): After members revealed new evidence showing Trump planned months before the 2020 election to try to stay in office, no matter the outcome.
CHENEY: President Trump had a premeditated plan to declare the election was fraudulent and stolen before election day, before he knew the results.
ROGER STONE, TRUMP ALLY: The key thing to do is claim victory.
STEVE BANNON, FORMER ADVISOR TO DONALD TRUMP: If Biden is winning, Trump is going to do some crazy (EXPLETIVE DELETED).
MURRAY (voice-over): In the days after the election leading up to January 6th, Trump's own officials repeatedly tried to dispel the false claims of election fraud Trump continued to repeat.
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Suitcases of ballots out from under the table. You all saw it on television. Totally fraudulent.
RICHARD DONOGHUE, FORMER ACTING DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL: There is no suitcase. The president kept fixating on this suitcase that supposedly had fraudulent ballots, that the suitcase was rolled out from under the table. And I told him, "No, sir. There's no suitcase."
BILL BARR, FORMER ATTORNEY GENERAL: I told them that it was -- it was crazy stuff, and they were wasting their time on that. And it was doing a grave disservice to the country.
MURRAY (voice-over): Using witness testimony to show Trump had privately admitted he lost the election.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He was looking at the TV, and he said, Can you believe I lost to this "F"-ing guy?
CASSIDY HUTCHINSON, FORMER AIDE TO TRUMP CHIEF OF STAFF MARK MEADOWS: He said something to the effect of, I don't want people to know I lost, Mark. This is embarrassing. Figure it out.
MURRAY (voice-over): The committee also disclosed new documents received from the Secret Service, detailing how officials knew about violent rhetoric, days before January 6th.
In a December 26th email, a Secret Service field office relayed a tip from the FBI that the Proud Boys planned to march into Washington, saying they --
REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): "They think that they'll have a large enough group to march into D.C. armed and will outnumber the police so they can't be stopped. Their plan is to literally kill people. Please, please take this tip seriously and investigate further.
MURRAY (voice-over): The committee unveiled never-before-seen footage of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rushing to safety as protestors breached the Capitol.
REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): We have got to get -- finish the proceedings, or else they will have a complete victory.
MURRAY (voice-over): Anger and disbelief in the hours that followed as Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer scrambled to get help to the Capitol.
SCHUMER: I'm going to call up the "F"-ing secretary of DOD.
PELOSI: They're just breaking windows. It's really -- they said something was shot. It's just -- it's just horrendous. And all at the instigation of the president of the United States.
SCHUMER: Why don't you get the president to tell them to leave the Capitol, Mr. Attorney General, in your law enforcement responsibility? A public statement they should all leave.
MURRAY (voice-over): Showing witnesses testify that, at the same time, Trump was in one place.
MOLLY MICHAEL, FORMER EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT TO THE PRESIDENT: It's my understanding he was watching television.
MURRAY (voice-over): One question the panel left unanswered: whether recommendations for criminal referrals will be sent to the Department of Justice.
[06:05:04]
CHENEY: Our committee may ultimately decide to make a series of criminal referrals to the Department of Justice. But we recognize that our role is not to make decisions regarding prosecution. A key element of this committee's responsibility is to propose reforms to prevent January 6th from ever happening again.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MURRAY (on camera): Now lawmakers on this panel previously said that they also wanted to speak to the former vice president, Mike Pence, but when I talked to the chairman about this after the hearing, he said they felt satisfied that the former vice president did his job that day but so many people around former President Trump either refused to testify or invoked their Fifth Amendment rights or refused answer questions, that they felt like they need to hear from Trump in order to complete this story. Back to you.
MARQUARDT: All right. Sara Murray, thank you so much for that report.
Now, in just a moment we are going to be taking you inside Fort McNair, where raw footage shows lawmakers from both parties working the phones, scrambling to save the Capitol as the insurrection unfolded.
KEILAR: The decision for the January 6th Committee to subpoena Donald Trump is one that raised eyebrows, but it is not without precedent. Let's bring in CNN senior legal analyst and former federal prosecutor Elie Honig to talk about this.
What is the precedent here?
ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Well, Bri, this is a rare but important event in our nation's history. We have seen this before.
Now we've had situations before where a sitting president has gone in front of Congress to testify. George Washington did it. Abraham Lincoln did it.
But it hasn't really happened since 1974, 48 years ago when Gerald Ford went in front of Congress to testify about his pardon of Richard Nixon.
Now important to note, this was not under subpoena. This was technically voluntary testimony in all these incidents.
Former presidents have also voluntary testified in front of Congress. Usually in non-controversial scenarios. Most recently, again, Gerald Ford in 1983, he testified in connection with the bicentennial celebration of the U.S. Constitution.
Now, Congress has issued subpoenas before to presidents and to former presidents. Most famously in 1974, a Senate committee issued a subpoena, a congressional subpoena to Richard Nixon. They trying to get those tapes.
Now, Nixon challenged this in court. Nixon actually won in court. The courts sided with Richard Nixon. But you're probably thinking, Wait a second. Didn't Nixon also lose a subpoena case in the court? The answer is yes. Because a couple months after that, Richard Nixon received a criminal subpoena, a grand jury subpoena.
He went to court, and this time Richard Nixon lost. The courts are more likely to enforce grand jury subpoenas than congressional subpoenas. Nixon lost at the Supreme Court. He had to turn over those White House tapes, and a couple weeks later, he resigned.
Of course, the most famous recent example, Bill Clinton received a subpoena from the independent counsel, Ken Starr. He agreed to testify in the grand jury, and of course, that's where Bill Clinton gave the famous quote, "It depends on what the meaning of 'is' is."
So we've seen some important historical precedents here, but this happens very rarely, Brianna.
KEILAR: If Trump refuses to testify, then what does the committee do?
HONIG: Yes. So it seems like a safe assumption that Donald Trump will decline to testify. He's already indicated that. The committee has a couple options.
First of all, they can do nothing we subpoenaed him. He didn't show up. If the committee wants to enforce this legally, there's two things they can do. First of all, Bennie Thompson and the committee can take this case
into the courts and ask a judge for an order requiring Donald Trump to testify.
But as a practical matter, that takes many months. There's no way the committee gets that done by January 3, 2023, when a new Congress will take over.
The other option is the committee can refer Donald Trump holding in contempt of Congress, send it over to the Justice Department. DOJ will then have to make a decision, Do we charge him with criminal contempt of Congress?
Now, we've seen this happen four times already with this committee. Steve Bannon was charged by DOJ. He was tried and convicted. He's actually getting sentenced next week.
Peter Navarro also was charged by DOJ. His trial is coming up next month.
DOJ elected not to charge Mark Meadows and Dan Scavino.
So in the unlikely event that the committee decides to pursue this, DOJ is going to have to make a really difficult decision on what to do about Donald Trump.
KEILAR: What's the unfinished business of the committee here?
HONIG: Yes. So the hearings appear to be over now. The committee will be issuing a written report. The question is whether they will show the world a draft of that before the midterms. But we should see that report soon. It will be an important part of the historical record.
Will they legislate? The committee has gone into courts, said to judges, hey, our purpose here is to consider legislation. They're looking at reforms to the Electoral Count Act, the way that we count up the electoral votes, to try to tighten up that procedure.
And finally, will the committee make a larger criminal referral for January 6th for the coup attempt as a whole over to DOJ. A criminal referral, Brianna, technically has no legal significance, but it certainly would up the pressure on DOJ to take action here.
KEILAR: We'll be watching for that. Elie, thank you.
[06:10:02]
HONIG: Thanks, Bri.
KEILAR: Ahead, we will speak with the documentary team that followed Roger Stone for more than three years. They were also at yesterday's hearing on Capitol Hill as the committee released new footage of Stone threatening violence. But first, this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) PELOSI: Oh my God. They're just breaking windows. They're doing all -- this is just horrendous. And all at the instigation of the president of the United States.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MARQUARDT: This never-before-seen footage obtained by CNN, showing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other lawmakers on the phone, making calls pleading for help as the insurrection on January 6th unfolded.
I want to bring in CNN's Kristen Holmes.
Kristen, this is just incredible new video.
KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it absolutely is. And I talked to a number of former Trump aides who thought that they had seen everything. And even they were surprised by this footage, particularly when it came to Trump's inaction.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES (voice-over): It's never-before-seen footage.
PELOSI: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, ma'am.
HOLMES (voice-over): House Speaker Nancy Pelosi shown fleeing the U.S. Capitol as it was under attack on January 6th. The videos captured by her daughter, Alexandra Pelosi, a documentary filmmaker.
PELOSI: We have to get to finish the proceedings. Or else they will have a complete victory.
HOLMES (voice-over): She provided some of her footage to the January 6th Select Committee, who played clips in their hearing Thursday.
But in the roughly hour of additional footage obtained exclusively by CNN, we see lawmakers transforming Fort McNair, a military base two miles away, into a command center to communicate with Vice President Mike Pence and others, even considering reconvening the congressional proceedings at the military base.
PELOSI: We're being told it could take days to clear the Capitol and that we should be moving everyone here to get the job done. We're at the (EXPLETIVE DELETED), which has facilities for the House and the Senate to meet. We'd rather go to the Capitol and do it there, but it doesn't seem to be safe.
HOLMES (voice-over): While Pence evacuated the Senate chamber, he stayed behind in the Capitol with his security detail.
PELOSI: I worry about you being in the Capitol. Don't let anybody know where you are.
SCHUMER: I'd like to know a good Goddamn reason why it's been denied. HOLMES (voice-over): Then-Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer
shouting at Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy after hearing a rumor Trump blocked the National Guard going to the Capitol.
SCHUMER: The whole Capitol is rampaged. There's a picture of someone sitting in the chair at the Senate. We've all been evacuated. There's been shots fired. We need a full National Guard component. I'm going to call up the "F"-ing secretary of DOD.
HOLMES (voice-over): A group of lawmakers, including Republican leaders Representative Kevin McCarthy and Senator Mitch McConnell, calling acting defense secretary Christopher Miller, urging a faster response.
SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): By getting here in one hell of a hurry. You understand?
CHRISTOPHER MILLER, ACTING SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: I got you loud and clear, Leader.
HOLMES (voice-over): And Pelosi and Schumer also confronting acting attorney general, Jeffrey Rosen, in a heated phone call.
SCHUMER: No, no, no. Please answer my question. Answer my question.
JEFFREY ROSEN, FORMER ACTING ATTORNEY GENERAL (via phone): Senator, I'm going to do everything I can do.
SCHUMER: Does that include asking the president to get these people who are followers of his to leave the Capitol?
HOLMES (voice-over): Finally, word coming from Pence that it was safe to return.
MIKE PENCE, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES (via phone): I'm literally standing with the chief of the U.S. Capitol Police. He just informed me their best information is they believe that the House and the Senate will be able to reconvene in roughly an hour.
SCHUMER: Good news.
HOLMES (voice-over): Which they did just after 8 p.m.
PENCE: Let's get back to work.
HOLMES (voice-over): The footage also showing Pelosi before the attack.
PELOSI: And let us hope that they will see the light and have their own epiphany on the other side.
HOLMES (voice-over): Participating in a video call with House Democrats from her conference room, the same room that was ransacked hours later by rioters.
TRUMP: We're going to walk down to the Capitol -- PELOSI: If he comes here, we're going to the White House.
HOLMES (voice-over): Pelosi later seen reacting to Trump's speech.
PELOSI: You can see them marching up.
HOLMES (voice-over): And the rioters making their way towards the Capitol.
MCCULLOUGH: Secret Service said they have dissuaded him from coming to Capitol Hill. They told him they don't have the resources to protect him here. So at the moment he is not coming, but that could --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Change.
MCCULLOUGH: -- change.
PELOSI: I hope he comes. I want to punch him out.
MCCULLOUGH: I would pay to see that.
PELOSI: I'm waiting for this. For trespassing on the Capitol grounds. I'm going to punch him out. I'm going to go to jail. I'm going to be happy.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[06:15:03]
HOLMES (on camera): Yes, some pretty incredible stuff there. But Alex, one thing that really stuck out to me, it was this moment where Pelosi is talking to Pence.
And she sounds genuinely concerned about him. She's asking about the vice president's wellbeing. This is after a very contentious relationship with the Trump administration.
We know at the exact same time the riot is unfolding, she's asking are you OK, Make sure that you're safe. That Trump, the president at the time, his president, was tweeting out, "Mike Pence didn't have the courage to do what should have been done," which aides have pointed to as a pivotal moment during that riot, when things seem to have escalated.
MARQUARDT: Yes, putting that partisanship aside. Really just wanting to get on with the business of the day.
Kristen, no matter how many times I see that Pelosi clip, I just -- it's incredible to hear her talking about punching the president of the United States, who she blamed directly, of course, for the events of that day.
Kristen Holmes, thank you so much for that report. Appreciate it.
HOLMES: In the meantime, abortion rights are taking center stage in the Michigan gubernatorial debate. The Democratic incumbent facing off against her Republican challenger, a Trump-backed election denier.
And Elon Musk now under federal investigation, relating to his $44 billion takeover deal for Twitter.
Plus his.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR MARY-ANN BALDWIN (D), RALEIGH, N.C.: We have to wake up. I don't want other mayors standing here at the podium with their hearts breaking.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: Raleigh, North Carolina, the scene of another mass shooting. Five dead, including an off-duty police officer.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:20:38]
KEILAR: This morning Elon Musk is under federal investigation. That's according to the company that he's taking over.
In a new court filing, Twitter is claiming that it's over his conduct regarding the $44 billion purchase of the company.
Now, it's not clear which government agency is purportedly leading the probe. It accused Musk of not providing key documents to the Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC.
Musk's attorney was quick to offer a counter claim, suggesting that it's Twitter executives that have fallen under federal scrutiny.
KEILAR: In a high-stakes race for abortion rights and election integrity, Michigan Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer took on Trump-backed Tudor Dixon in their first and only debate last night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. GRETCHEN WHITMER (D-MI): When Roe fell, Mrs. Dixon celebrated that. She said it didn't go far enough. She said she wanted to make abortion a felony, no exceptions for rape, incest or health of the woman.
We know that our fundamental rights are very much at risk right now.
TUDOR DIXON (R), MICHIGAN GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: You should understand her position. It's extremely radical. It's abortion up to the moment of birth.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: Governor Whitmer also criticized Dixon for echoing false claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WHITMER: This is a candidate who still denies the outcome of the 2020 election. This is a candidate who will not pledge to accept the outcome of the November 8 election.
So for her to stand here and say she will respect the will of the people when she has not even embraced the outcome of the last election or pledged to embrace the outcome of a future election tells me we cannot trust what she's saying.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: Dixon did not say whether she accepts the outcome of the last election during the debate.
Joining us now is CNN correspondent Omar Jimenez, who is tracking what went down last night -- Omar.
OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They hit on a lot here. This is the first time these two met on the debate stage. Abortion, a very big part of it, and partly because after hundreds of thousands of signatures and a state Supreme Court decision, the right to an abortion will be on the ballot here in Michigan for voters to decide.
Now you heard a little bit of some of the other person's characterization of their opponents' position on abortion. But Dixon has said she supports a ban on abortion. And even in cases of rape or incest, but except to save the life of the mother.
And Whitmer backs what would be on the ballot proposal, which would enshrine the right to an abortion here in Michigan. But even past the point of fetus viability if it's to protect the life of the mother or her physical or mental health.
It wasn't just abortion but also the economy, which was the top issue In a recent statewide poll, where part of this was blaming Whitmer for the economy under COVID-19, Dixon blaming her for shutting down businesses, while Whitmer said if Dixon had been governor at the time, thousands of more people would have died.
KEILAR: Omar, you spoke to both candidates after the debate. What did they say?
JIMENEZ: Well, they were both optimistic about how it went. They were both hoping that this will help move the needle in their direction, especially with Dixon, who has shown to be down in the polls.
But also earlier this year during a primary debate, Dixon was asked in a show of hands whether she believed Trump had won the state of Michigan, and she raised her hand in the affirmative, though that's, of course, not true.
It was -- she believed that there was so much fraud there was cause for concern. And then last night, she said this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DIXON: I said that, once an election is certified, an election is certified. It's OK to question the results of an election. People in this country are allowed to question elections. It doesn't mean that you're not going to accept the will of the people. That's ridiculous.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JIMENEZ: And that, of course, was in response to claims that Whitmer said that she wouldn't follow the will of the people if they, in fact, voted to enshrine abortion rights here in Michigan -- Brianna.
KEILAR: All right. Omar Jimenez, thank you so much for that report.
We have more next on the January 6th hearing, including the filmmakers who captured some of Trump's allies predicting chaos and staging a coup.
MARQUARDT: Plus, disturbing new details in connection with the fatal shooting of police officers in Connecticut. What police are saying led them to that deadly trap.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:29:13]
MARQUARDT: The House January 6th Committee releasing new footage in its latest hearing. And among the video, they showed clips of Trump's ally, Roger Stone, that was captured by a Danish documentary crew, in which Stone threatens violence and details plans to fight the 2020 election results. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STONE: Let's just hope we're celebrating. I suspect it'll be -- I really suspect it will still be up in the air. When that happens, the key thing to do is to claim victory. Possession is nine-tenths of the law. No, we won. (EXPLETIVE DELETED) you. Sorry, over. You're wrong. (EXPLETIVE DELETED) you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's get right to the violence. Start smashing pumpkins, if you know what I mean.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MARQUARDT: The filmmakers followed Stone over the course of three years while shooting their documentary and captured these moments and many more. The committee obtained their footage.
