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[music playing] speaker: you want a fight? you better believe you've got one! [indistinct shouting] jake tapper: tonight-- speaker: this is now effectively a riot. jake tapper: what's the bottom line you want the american people to know? liz cheney: there was a very sophisticated multi-part plan overseen by donald trump-- donald trump: you can't ever accept when they steal and rig and rob-- liz cheney: --to attempt to stay in power. jake tapper: as the longest, largest investigation into donald trump's attempt to stay president comes to a close, we put it all together. speaker: i've got three men walking down the street in fatigues carrying ar-15. jake tapper: the explosive testimony. cassidy hutchinson: i overheard the president say something to the effect of, i don't effing care that they have weapons. let t my people in. jake tapper: new insight from witnesses. rusty bowers: i said you want me to take my state, 3.2 million voters and just throw them out the window?

jake tapper: was he asking you to commit a crime? richard donoghue: it gets back to the criminal intent issue. i don't know what he believed. [indistinct chanting] jake tapper: and what might lie ahead. michael luttig: the former president and his allies represent a clear and present danger to american democracy. speaeaker: it's s over! michael luttig: not because of what they did on january 6th-- speaker: you better run, cops! michael luttig: --it's because of what they pledge to do in 2024. jake tapper: a cnn special report. american coup, the january 6th investigation. [music playing] rusty bowers: i'm a very textural artist. i love a lot of texture. jake tapper: in arizona, the republican speaker of the house, rusty bowers, is an artist by trade. but last february, bowers was thrown into a real life drama. rusty bowers: the bill number was 2596. jake tapper: 2596. one of more than 100 bills submitted in arizona to tighten

access to the ballot b box. the measure would have scrapped early voting. all voting would be on election day only. rusty bowers: 90% of my district votes early. jake tapper: and it would have mandated paper ballots. but most egregious to rusty bowers was this. rusty bowers: with no guidance criteria, the legislature, after the election, could dismiss the election. and i said, welcome to fascism. speaker: hb 2596 elections. rusty bowers: and so i said i will give this the respect it deserves. education. so i sent it to 12 committees, so we would have a long vetting process. military affairs. typical is one or two. if it was a controversial bill, you might send it to three. if it goes to four committees, then you're getting a message. the judiciary-- i assigned it to 12 committees. transportation. it was theatrical, and i admit it. jake tapper: it's no overstatement to say that because bowers stood up for democracy,

he will no longer be in the state legislature. rusty bowers: i'm rusty bower-- jake tapper: term limited in the state house, he ran in the republican primary for a state senate seat. rusty bowers: i've stood up to the radicals and kept my conservative campaign promises. my opponent was david farnsworth. donald trump: david farnsworth is going to do the job. jake tapper: their positions on the major issues nearly identical except for one. david farnsworth: i believe the election was stolen. jake tapper: farnsworth bought into trump's election lies. bowers did not. speaker: arizona voters have picked david farnsworth over state house speaker, rusty-- david farnsworth: i lost big. it is very possible that the bill that i assigned liberally to my committees will be back. possibility of that getting a governor's signature would d just be a a disaster. i call it t the possibibilityf going baback into ththe dark as in arizonana.

jake tapapper: as ththe us heheaded into the 2022 midterm elections, there was, perhaps, more at stake regarding american democracy than ever before. from arizona to pennsylvania to georgia, in all the so-called swing states, the former president, donald trump, backed not only those who supported his lies about election fraud in 2020, but also often those who expressed a willingness to undo any future results that they don't like under the pretense of trumped up fraud. speaker: thank you, mr. president. jake tapper: as this was happening, the house select committee investigating january 6 was interviewing witnesses, holding hearings and gathering evidence to fully expose what the committee says was a plot designed to keep donald trump as president in 2020 and to try to make sure it can never happen again. what's the bottom line you want the american people to know

from these hearings? liz cheney: there are several things, but one is that there was a very sophisticated multi-part plan overseen by donald trump to attempt to overturn the election. no president in our history has ever done anything even close to that before. jake tapper: vice chair liz cheney, one of just two republicans on the committee, has spent the last year bucking her party and helping investigate donald trump's sophisticated multi-part plan. the first piece the committee focused on were the lies. donald trump: mail ballots are a very dangerous thing for this country because they're cheaters. jake tapper: in the lead up to the election, donald trump had been talking about the possibility of widespread voter fraud for months. donald trump: voting by mail is wrought with fraud. people steal them out of mailboxes. jake tapper: looking back, it's clear he was laying the groundwork for this. donald trump: this is a fraud on the american public. this is an embarrassment to our country. we were getting ready to win this election.

frankly, we did win this election-- [crowd cheering] jake tapper: trump may have been crying widespread fraud, but he had no proof. what the former president did have proof of, based on his own team's assessment of votes, was that he lost a fact made clear by the january 6 committee which exposed to the world that so many trump aides, despite toeing the trump line in public-- maria bartiromo: are you expecting the president to concede? jason miller: maria, that words not even in our vocabulary right now. jake tapper: --knew trump was going to lose legitimately and that he did lose legitimately. admissions they were forced to make under oath. jason miller: i was in the oval office, and at some point, in the conversation, matt oczkowski, who is the lead data person, was brought on. and i remember he delivered, to the president, in pretty blunt terms that he was going to lose. speaeaker: detroroit seats-- jajake tapper:r: trump camampn attorneys s followed u up on l

of the fraud claims, and they quickly concluded that fraud did not take the election from donald trump. voters did. the news was told to trump's chief of staff at the white house, mark meadows, in mid to late november. alex cannon: i remember a call with mr. meadows, and i remember sharing with him that we weren't finding anything that would be sufficient to change the results in any of the key states. jake tapper: during a meeting, several weeks later, the president got the same message from his white house counsel, pat cipollone, and another white house lawyer, eric herschmann. derek lyons: eric and pat told the group, the president included, that none of those allegations had been substantiated to the point where they could be the basis for any litigation challenge to the election. donald trump: it is statistically impossible that the person, me, that led the charge lost. jake tapper: but donald trump continued to refuse to publicly accept defeat.

donald trump: the evidence of the fraud is monumental and more is coming out. jake tapper: audacious claims of widespread fraud became a daily occurrence. donald trump: numerous times we found glitches and every single time that glitch went 100% to biden, and no percent to trump. rudy giuliani: the only thing left is to vote. that could have been mickey mouse. that could have been a dead person. jake tapper: standing near giuliani is an attorney named sidney powell, who became the face of one of the most notorious and frankly, most deranged lies that dominion voting machines were flipping votes for trump to biden. sidney powell: the dominion voting systems were created in venezuela at the direction of hugo chavez to make sure he never lost an election. jake tapper: after she was sued by dominion, powell's attorney eventually conceded that powell lied saying that, "no reasonable person would conclude that her statements were truly statements of fact".

but long before that happened, the president's attorney general, bill barr, was investigating all of trump's fraud claims. bill barr: a little getting awkward because obviously he had lost the election and-- jake tapper: barr said he made it clear to donald trump at a november 23rd meeting that he had lost. bill barr: our role is to investigate fraud, and it's just not meritorious. they're not panning out. speaker: he was going to win in spite of all the fraud-- jake tapper: but spurred on by the most ardent election liars, including many in maga media-- speaker: clearly the president won this election. jake tapper: --donald trump would not listen to reason or fact. maria bartiromo: where is the doj and the fbi in all of this, mr. president? donald trump: missing in action. bill barr: this got under my skin, but i also felt it was time for me to say something, so i set up a lunch with the ap reporter mike balsamo, and i told him that to date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have affected a different outcome

in the election. jake tapper: a heated trump, barr meeting followed and barr got another opportunity to debunk the lies. among the claims he focused on were the ones about dominion voting machines. donald trump: with the turn of a dial or the change of a chip, you can press a button for trump and the vote goes to biden. bill barr: i told him that the stuff that his people were shoveling out to the public was bullshit. i specifically raised the dominion voting machines. i saw absolutely zero basis for the allegations, but they were made in such a sensational way that they obviously were influencing a lot of people. jake tapper: before the end of december, barr had quit. his replacement, acting attorney general jeffrey rosen who came up with the blunt yet low key acting deputy attorney general named richard donoghue. like barr, rosen and donoghue took seriously and thoroughly investigated each of the fraud claims coming from then president trump. in late december, donoghue spoke with the president and told him the truth about numerous false claims,

including one involving dominion machines in northern michigan. richard donoghue: there you had, supposedly, a cyber expert group issue a report that said there was a 68% error rate. it was not a 68% error rate. in fact, it was a-- i think a 0.006% error rate. jake tapper: donoghue also debunked fraud claims trump made about the vote counting done at the state farm arena in atlanta, georgia. donaldld trump: i i don't runo see e if people are walking in with suitcases, and putting them under a table with a black robe around them. richard donoghue: there were allegations about suitcases of fraudulent ballots being smuggled into the facility. speaker: now they're going to start pulling these ballots out from under this table. david farnsworth: ballots being run through multiple times. the us attorney there looked at it, found that none of those allegations were true. jake tapper: donoghue's boss, jeff rosen, then forwarded an email from the white house chief of staff mark meadows asking the department of justice to look into the possibility that italian satellites were

changiging votes f from trumump to bidenen. brbradley johnhnson: they y t ththese new nunumbers backckp through this military satellite, italian military satellite-- richard donoghue: i was skeptical to say the least. we very quickly determined that was not a well-founded allegation, and we told the chief of staff and others as well. rusty bowers: whiskey, tango, foxtrot. i mean, what's going on over there? what were these guys doing-- jake tapper: the nation's top law enforcement officials were investigating and finding nothing substantive. and in the courts, the usual venue for claims about voting misconduct, the president's team lost over and over again. speaker: courts again shutting down more desperate attempts to overturn an election. jake tapper: you were on george w. bush's short list for the supreme court. you're not some raging liberal. is that fair? michael luttig: totally fair. jake tapper: michael luttig is a highly respected conservative retired federal court judge. luttig did not hear any of the trump fraud cases, but he and his colleagues did analyze more than 60 of them.

michael luttig: we reviewed each individual claim and decided that there was nothing that would have changed the result in a single precinct, let alone a single state, let alone nationally. jake tappeper: ahead.. rusty bowers: you'rere asking me to dodo somethingng that's against my oath, and i'm not-- i'm not going to do that. jake tapper: donald trump puts the squeeze on state house leaders s across thehe countr. donald trump: it's going to have a big impact on tuesday if you guys don't get this thing straightened out fast.

laying] rusty bowers: we're in my office. this is the speaker's office. jake tapper: it's not every day a state house politician gets a call from a us president but that's what happened to arizona speaker republican rusty bowers after the 2020 election. rusty bowers: came home from church. my wife and i were sitting in the driveway. donald trump: the white house popped up on his screen.

rusty bowers: so i take the call and donetta steps out goes in the house. i sat there in my little prius and had a chat with the president with bad phone reception and backed out in front of the house where i'd get better reception. jake tapper: rudy giuliani was on the line too, and bowers says it was giuliani who began making crazy claims about voter fraud in arizona. rusty bowers: i can't give you the exact numbers, but i'll throw out numbers, but they're kind of the audacious numbers like 200,000 illegal aliens voted, 6,000 military ballots were stolen and used. jake tapper: bower says giuliani wanted him to hold an official arizona house hearing to air these claims publicly. rusty bowers: and then i said, but what's the whole purpose of this? what are you trying to achieve? and they said, well, we've heard that there's an arcane law in arizona that if you have sufficient cause, that you can throw out the biden electors and put in trump electors.

and i said, that's a new one to me. i have never, ever heard of that. and so now you're asking me to do something that's against my oath, and i'm not-- i'm not going to do that. jake tapper: but bower says he told giuliani he had good lawyers and would be happy to put the former mayor in touch with them. rusty bowers: i don't do anything of this magnitude without having strong legal counsel and proof. and the president says, rudy, you got the proof? he said, yeah, i got the proof. i said, i want the proof. i didn't get it when he said he'd do it. he never called my attorneys. jake tapper: but the asks did not stop with giuliani. bowers would later get a call from another trump attorney, john eastman-- john eastman: we know there was fraud-- jake tapper: --whom the january 6 committee sees as a key player in this grand plan to undo the legitimate results of the 2020

presidential election. rusty bowers: the ask was that we would throw out the electors. and i said, has it ever been done? he said, no. i said, you want me to take my state, 3.2 million voters and just throw them out the window because i want to and that's responsible on my part? i said, ok, thank you. we're not doing that. jake tapper: bowers kept his caucus on the sidelines, but in the arizona senate, republicans there yielded to pressure from team trump and voted to conduct an audit of the results in arizona's largest county. rusty bowers: when they got the cyber ninjas, i thought, i'll watch. this will be interesting. i don't want to be close to that. jake tapper: you might remember the ninjas. the company was run by a trump supporter. they employed ultraviolet lights which could supposedly identify

ballots from china. rusty bowers: they came out that mr. biden won by a larger margin than previously and mr. trump lost a number of votes. jake tapper: bowers and his colleagues in arizona were not the only state officials to feel the heat from trump and/or giuliani. material discovered by the january 6 committee showed it happened over and over across the swing states that biden won. rudy giuliani: mr. speaker, this is rudy giuliani and jenna ellis. jake tapper: in pennsylvania, bower's counterpart republican house speaker bryan cutler got the calls. jenna ellis: hello, mr. speaker, this is jenna ellis, and i'm here with mayor giuliani. rudy giuliani: hey, brian. it's rudy. i really have something important to call to your attention that i think really changes things. jake tapper: the january 6 committee says cutler thought the calls were inappropriate and had his lawyers tell giuliani to stop them. rudy giuliani: i understand that you don't want to talk to me now.

i just want to bring some facts to your attention-- jake tapper: and then there was georgia where the republican secretary of state brad raffensperger got an hour long call from president trump. donald trump: brad, what are we going to do? we won the election and it's not fair to take it away from us like this. kaitlan collins: trump probably put more pressure on brad raffensperger than anyone else. it was immense. donald trump: all i want to do is this. i just want to find 11,780 votes. kaitlan collins: and i think it's the phone call that everyone remembers, that was later leaked, where he in turn berated brad raffensperger. donald trump: they're going around playing and laughing at you behind your back, brad. kaitlan collins: he praised him. he seemed to try to charm him at times, and even indicated that if he did not act, that there could be criminal liability for those actions. donald trump: you're not reporting it. that's a criminal-- that's a criminal offense.

jake tapper: and it was not just pressure, there were threats usually from trump supporters who felt empowered d or inciteded by h. take for instance the two men in this hummer with a qanon decal. prosecutors say they drove the vehicle filled with automatic weapons and ammunition from virginia to the philadelphia convention center in early november 2020 where votes were still being counted. at the time, al schmidt was the republican responsible for overseeing the vote count in philadelphia. he received threats aimed at his family. al schmidt: tell the truth or your three kids will be fatally shot. included our address, included my children's names, included a picture of our home. jake tapper: and the republican house speaker in that state had protesters show up at his home. [indistinct chanting] bryan cutler: there were multiple protests, at least three, outside either my district office or my home. my then 15-year-old son was home by himself for the first one.

brad raffensperger: we have now counted-- jake tapper: in georgia, brad raffensperger's wife received disturbing messages. brad raffensperger: people started threatening her, sending her sexualized texts, those kind of intimidations. speaker: do you swear-- jake tapper: georgia election worker shaye moss testified before the house select committee about threats she received via facebook messenger. shaye moss: a lot of threats, wishing death upon me, telling me that i'll be in jail with my mother-- jake tapper: these threats happened after rudy giuliani spread lies about her and her mother ruby freeman who was counting votes with moss at state farm arena in atlanta on election night. rudy giuliani: tape, earlier in the day, of ruby freeman and shaye freeman moss, and one other gentleman quite obviously surreptitiously passing around usb ports as if they're vials of heroin or cocaine.

i mean, it's obvious to anyone who's a criminal investigator or prosecutor, they are engaged in surreptitious illegal activity. adam schiff: what was your mom actually handing you on that video? shaye moss: a ginger mint. this turned my life upside down. i don't want anyone knowing my name. i don't want to go anywhere with my mom because she might yell my name out over the grocery aisle or something. i haven't been anywhere at all. i've gained about 60 pounds. it's affecting my life in a major way. jake tapper: congressman adam kinzinger of illinois, the only republican on the january 6 committee other than liz cheney, says all the threats are part of trump's plan. adam kinzinger: i don't think you can look at the words and actions of donald trump and think that he wanted anything except the explosion of these threats to people. he could stop that in a second if he wanted to,

but he likes it. there are a lot of members of congress that i think voted against impeachment because they were scared for their family and for themselves. what does that mean? it means threats of violence worked. jake tapper: up next. maggie haberman: hutchinson: they suggested that he use the apparatus of government to seize voting machines.

i think he's having a midlife crisis i'm not. you got us t-mobile home internet lite. after a week of streaming they knocked us down... ...to dial up speeds. like from the 90s. great times. all i can do say is that my life is pre-- i like watching the puddles gather rain. -hey, your mom and i procreated to that song.

oh, ew! i think you've said enough. why don't we just switch to xfinity like everyone else? then you would know what year it was. i know what year it is. [music playing] [indistinct chantingng] jajake tapper: a after six weeks of lieies and pressusue from the president of the united states-- speaker: take a moment to mark your ballots. jake tapper: --on december 14th, 2020, all 50 us states formally certified their results as their citizens had voted. speaker: the resolution is unanimously adopted-- jake tapper: and that, according to the january 6 committee, is what led to a boisterous white house meeting

where the former president considered horrifying action. maggie haberman: on december 18, three people, one of them trump's former national security advisor mike flynn, his lawyer sidney powell and patrick byrne, the founder of overstock.com, were let into the white house by an aide to peter navarro, another trump advisor. trump saw them, called them into the oval office, and they start arguing the case where everyone else is failing trump and that trump can take aggressive actions to keep himself in power and to try to impact the results of an election that he had already lost. they suggested that he use the apparatus of government to seize voting machines. now, as this meeting is taking place, another lawyer in the white house, eric herschmann, figures out what's happening, calls in the white house counsel, pat cipollone. mark meadows ends up joining at some point. derek lyons, then the staff secretary on his last day at work, joins. rudy giuliani gets called in, and this goes on for hours. speaker: how much time did you have alone with the president?

and i say alone, you had other people with you but before the crowd came running? sidney powell: oh, probably no more than 10 or 15 minutes. speaker: was in that-- sidney powell: i bet pat cipollone set a new land speed record. pat cipollone: i opened the door, and i walked in. i saw general flynn. i saw sidney powell sitting there. i was not happy to see the people in the oval office. speaker: explain why. pat cipollone: i don't think any of these people were providing the president with good advice. jake tapper: the team had arrived with a draft executive order that, had it been signed by donald trump, would have immediately ordered the secretary of defense to seize, collect, retain and analyze ballot boxes, and it would have created, "a special council to oversee the operation and institute all criminal and civil proceedings as appropriate". this is a draft of the executive order that would have allowed

trump to seize voting machines. what was your reaction when you heard about that? liz cheney: i think most americans could never imagine those things would happen here and that order and many of the other things that we've learned through our hearings have been really stunning to me because repeatedly, i found myself in a situation thinking, my gosh, how could this happen here? and we really thought it couldn't, but it's just continued to emphasize, for all of us, that our institutions are fragile. jake tapper: the appointment of the special counsel was not hypothetical. trump wanted sidney powell, a prominent peddler of election lies, in the spot. sidney powell: he asked pat cipollone if he had the authority to name me special counsel, and he said yes. and then he asked him if he had the authority to give me whatever security clearance i needed, and pat cipollone said yes.

and then the president, said, ok, i'm naming her that, and i'm giving her security clearance and then shortly before we left was when cipollone and/or herschmann and whoever the other young man was said you can name her whatever you want to name her and no one's going to pay any attention to it. speaker: how did he respond? how did the president respond to that? sidney powell: something like, you see what i deal with? i deal with this all the time. jake tapper: the meeting was extremely heated with cipollone arguing against the special counsel idea and against seizure of voting machines. pat cipollone: that's how the federal government sees voting machines, that's a terrible idea. that's not how we do things in the united states. there's no legal authority to do that. the three of them were really, sort of, forcefully attacking me verbally.

eric, derek, and we were pushing back, and we were asking one simple question as a general matter. where is the evidence? speaker: what response did you get? pat cipollone: a variety of responses like, what do you mean where's the evidence? you should know-- speaker: there was discussion of, well, we don't have it now, but we will have it or whatever. eric herschmann: derek and i both challenged what she was saying, and she says, well, the judges are corrupt. and i was like, everyone? every single case that you've done in the country you guys lost. every one of them is corrupt? even the ones we appointed? and-- speaker: what's-- eric herschmann: i'm being nice. i was much more harsh to her. jake tapper: the meeting very nearly devolved into a physical fight. eric herschmann: flynn screamed at me that i was a quitter and everything. kept on standing up and turning around and screaming at me. and at a certain point, i had it with him so i yelled back.

either come over or sit your effing ass back down. rudy giuliani: i'm going to categorically describe it as you guys are not tough enough. or maybe i put it another way. you're a bunch of pussies. excuse the expression, but that's-- i'm almost certain the word was used. sidney powell: i mean, if it had been me sitting in his chair, i would have fired all of them that night and had them escorted out of the building. jake tapper: the january 6 committee discovered text messages sent during and following the meeting by cassidy hutchinson, the assistant to mark meadows who testified live before the committee hearing in june describing the meeting as unhinged. she also snapped this photograph of mark meadows escorting rudy giuliani from the white house to make sure he did not get back into the mansion. you tweeted, "somehow the committee testimony featured

live underplayed how crazy that december 18th meeting was". how was it underplayed? maggie haberman: hutchinson: because donald trump faded into the background as this was all being described. one of the ways in which donald trump has escaped a lot of accountability over time is he gets people fighting with each other, and that's what people focus on. he considered extreme, really unprecedented actions. now he didn't take them, but he was unwilling to foreclose options until the last possible second no matter how extreme and potentially dangerous they were. jake tapper: i remember talking to you after that meeting and you were shaking. maggie haberman: hutchinson: i was. and it was frankly-- it took a little bit to process exactly what had happened, but i remember getting a text from a senior republican senate advisor asking me if there was going to be an issue in terms

of a peaceful transfer of power after this, and i said, yes, there is a legitimate issue here. and i think that was a real neon warning sign. jake tapper: it was floated, this idea, by retired general michael flynn in the oval office that donald trump should seize voting machines and ballot boxes from these states that joe biden won. what was your reaction when you heard that? michael luttig: i said to my wife, this is beyond all comprehension. i never utter a word like this, but that in particular sounded in a banana republic to me. had that happened, we would have been in a situation where literally we're in a constitutional crisis because nothing in our constitution gives you the answer.

jake tapper: at the end of the evening, no seizure orders were issued. the president decided to go in a different direction. he would take it in a tweet. kaitlan collins: what he wanted was to show everyone who was telling him he lost the election that people agreed with him. jake tapper: the tweet and the violence that followed ahead.

[music playing] hours before sunrise on december 19th, 2020, after a long, loud, disturbing white house meeting about seizing voting machines, president trump sent a tweet that would change history. [indistinct shouting] "big protest in d.c. on january 6th" it read.

"be there, will be wild!". kaitlan collins: what he wanted was to show these lawmakers, not just in washington, but everyone who was telling him he lost the election, he wanted to show them that people agreed with him, and people backed his lies about the election. jake tapper: donald trump was summoning his true believers to washington d.c. and evidence pieced together by the january 6 committee shows they heard that call and began planning immediately. jamie raskin: women for america first, a pro trump organizing group had previously applied for a rally permit for january 22nd and 23rd in washington d.c. but in the hours after the tweet, they moved their permit to january 6th. jake tapper: the next day, ali alexander, a trump supporter and leader of the group stop the steal created a website to share and promote logistics about the rally. jamie raskin: it included event times, places, speakers

and details on transportation to washington d.c. jake tapper: far right personalities such as conspiracy theorist alex jones almost immediately began spreading the word on their platforms. alex jones: one of the most historic events in american history has just taken place. president trump wants the american people to march on washington d.c. on january 6, 2021. the time for games is over. the time for action is now. jake tapper: as word spread , it became clear the trump faithful who planned to attend were also planning for the possibility of violence. matt bracken: we know the rules of engagement. if you have enough people, you can push down any kind of a fence or a wall. salty cracker: you better understand something, son. you better understand something. red wave, bitch. red wave. there's going to be a red wedding going down january 6th.

jake tapper: the term red wedding comes from the game of thrones tv series. it means a massacre. salty cracker: january 6, kick that fucking door open. look down the street. there are going to be a million plus geeked-up, armed americans. jake tapper: some of trump's twitter followers did consider his tweets to be orders, that's according to a former twitter employee whose identity was hidden while testifying to the committee. speaker: it felt as if a mob was being organized, and they were gathering together their weaponry and their logic and their reasoning behind why they were prepared to fight. jake tapper: members of the committee say they were finding similar types of chatter across social media platforms. jamie raskin: "calling all patriots. be in washington d.c. january the 6th. this wasn't organized by any group. djt has invited us, and it's going to be wild".

some of the online rhetoric turned openly homicidal and white nationalist such as "why don't we just kill them? every last democrat, down to the last man, woman, and child?" and "it's time for the day of the rope. white revolution is the only solution". jake tapper: thedonald.win, an openly racist and anti-semitic site, became a venue for those considering violence to exchange ideas. jamie raskin: on that site, many shared plans and violent threats. "bring handcuffs and wait near the tunnels" wrote one user. a commenter replied suggesting zip ties instead. one post encouraged others to come with "body armor, knuckles, shields, bats, pepper spray, whatever it takes." all of those were used on the 6th. the post concluded, "join your local proud boys chapter as well." crowd: (singing) we are the proud boys. we are the proud boys. the mighty, mighty-- jake tapper: according to the committee,

the proud boys, a far right militia, was active during this time preparing for january 6. jamie raskin: the proud boys launched an encrypted chat called the ministry of self defense. the committee obtained hundreds of these messages which show strategic and tactical planning about january the 6th, including maps of washington d.c. that pinpoint the location of police. jake tapper: even more alarming, some of the people making plans in the proud boys and in the oath keepers, another right wing militia, had direct ties to people close to donald trump. jamie raskin: one such ally was lieutenant general michael flynn, trump's former national security advisor. this photo from december 12th shows flynn and patrick byrne, another trump ally, guarded by indicted oath keeper roberto minuta. another view of the scene shows oath keepers leader stewart rhodes in the picture as well.

jake tapper: both minuta and rhodes were charged with seditious conspiracy, conspiring to use force against the federal government. they pleaded not guilty. but late last year-- the jury has reached a verdict in the seditious conspiracy trial for alleged leaders of the far right oath keepers. rhodes and another oath keeper were found guilty of seditious conspiracy. three others they were tried with were convicted on lesser charges. minuta's trial is underway. more than a dozen oath keepers and proud boys have been charged with seditious conspiracy. according to the committee, longtime trump ally roger stone had ties to these groups. jamie raskin: in the same time frame, stone communicated with both the proud boys and the oath keepers regularly. the committee obtained encrypted content from a group chat called friends of stone, fos, which included stone, rhodes, tarrio and ali alexander. jake tapper: tarrio is enrique tarrio, leader of the

proud boys. jamie raskin: the chat focused on various pro trump events in november and december of 2020 as well as january 6th. on january 6th, stone was guarded by two oath keepers who have since been criminally indicted for seditious conspiracy. one of them later pleaded guilty and according to the department of justice, admitted that the oath keepers were ready to use "lethal force if necessary against anyone who tried to remove president trump from the white house, including the national guard". jake tapper: members of the committee say roger stone's connection to the proud boys goes back years and showed him taking the oath required for the first level of initiation into the group. roger stone: hi, i'm roger stone. i'm a western chauvinist, and i refuse to apologize for creating the modern world. jake tapper: there are some missing pieces in the public record such as what, if anything, did donald trump or anyone inside the white house know about the organizing by the far right militias?

liz cheney: the night before january 6th, president trump instructed his chief of staff mark meadows to contact both roger stone and michael flynn regarding what would play out the next day. ms. hutchinson, is it your understanding that mr. meadows called mr. stone on the 5th? cassidy hutchinson: i'm under the impression that mr. meadows did complete both a call to mr. stone and general flynn the evening of the 5th. liz cheney: and do you know what they talked about that evening, ms. hutchinson? cassidy hutchinson: i'm not sure. adam kinzinger: i think what's important is that he was going through the process of selling that the election was stolen and then in convincing folks that look, if you believe that an election was stolen from you, violence is the only answer quite honestly. i mean, that's kind of the american tradition. if you truly believe that the constitution is being disobeyed, every american would actually be on the capitol.

jake tapper: up next, donald trump puts the squeeze on justice. richard donoghue: him telling us that we should say publicly that it was corrupt. that concerned me.

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jake tapper: you're obviously well aware of what donald trump was doing in terms of his election fraud claims. did you have any apprehension of becoming deputy attorney general? richard donoghue: no, i didn't have any concerns about that. i had a great deal of confidence in the team. i wanted to be part of the team. you want to be there when it matters. donald trump: can't ever accept when they steal and rig and rob. can't accept it. jake tapper: after attorney general bill barr resigned, richard donoghue was appointed to the number two position in the department of justice, the deputy to jeffrey rosen, the new acting attorney general. the two men inherited a department under constant and public attack by the sitting president of the united states fighting to hold on to an election he falsely claimed had been stolen. kaitlan collins: trump thought the justice department was an arm of his presidency in a way for him to tell them what to do and they should do his bidding and what he wanted.

jake tapper: as the new targets of trump's ire, rosen and donoghue fielded near-daily complaints from donald trump. jeffrey rosen: between december 23rd and january 3rd, the president either called me or met with me virtually every day. the common element of all of this was the president expressing his dissatisfaction that the justice department, in his view, had not done enough to investigate election fraud. jake tapper: but they were investigating. the department of justice had been debunking trump's wild election fraud lies one by one, but president trump chose to not listen. on a december 27th phone call with rosen and donoghue, president trump said the department had an obligation to "tell people that this was an illegal corrupt election" despite no evidence of widespread fraud. trump also pressed them to publicly "just say the election

was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the republican congressman". richard donoghue: that was an exact quote from the president. it indicated that he had some political avenue he wanted to pursue with the congress, but by him telling us that we should say publicly that it was corrupt, that concerned me. adam kizinger: what he intended was for the department of justice to say we have indications that there was corruption because from there, you can take that seed of doubt and donald trump and republican members of congress can water it, they can grow that doubt and then through there, you could do things get people to vote against certification on january 6th. jake tapper: as long as rosen and donoghue were in charge, they told the president they would not publicly back his false election fraud claims, so trump had to find someone who would help him do what he wanted to steal the election. richard donoghue: jeff clark's name had come up on december 27th in the phone call with the president. he brought it up and said, look, people are telling me i should

change the leadership, people are telling me that you two are not doing your job. i hear jeff clark is great. people tell me he could get in there, and do something and it was surprising to me. jake tapper: surprising because the president would have no reason to even know who jeffrey clark was. evan perez: even within the department, very few people had really heard of jeffrey clark. jake tapper: but donald trump had. unbeknownst to rosen and donoghue, pennsylvania republican congressman scott perry had brought clark to the oval office to meet with president trump on december 22nd the day after perry had been amongst republican members of congress who joined trump at the white house to discuss overturning the 2020 election. trump also mentioned jeff clark on a separate call with rosen. jeffrey rosen: he made, what i regarded as a peculiar reference. i don't remember the exact quote, but it was something about did i know jeff clark or did i know who he was or something like that.

i was quizzical as to how does the president even know mr. clark? jake tapper: rosen confronted clark who admitted he had broken the longstanding policy governing communication between the justice department and the white house. white house lawyers pat cipollone and patrick philbin also intervened and warned clark to not communicate with the white house. clark agreed. but just two days later escalated the situation with an email that set off a series of events that would rock the justice department. richard donoghue: we came in on monday, december 28th. hectic day as they all were. and then in the afternoon, we got that email, which i had to sit down and read more than once to make sure i understood what he was proposing. jake tapper: what was he proposing? richard donoghue: he was proposing sending out a letter signed by the three of us-- the acting attorney general, myself, and jeff clark-- to georgia, but also the other states, the other swing states as well, suggesting, essentially,

that they set aside the electors assigned to support president-elect biden and hold hearings and basically have the state legislatures pick a new slate of electors. jake tapper: the letter claimed that the us department of justice's investigations have "identified significant concerns that may have impacted the outcome of the election in multiple states, including the state of georgia". was that true? richard donoghue: no. jake tapper: while the letter was sent solely by jeff clark, it was written with the help of a new justice department employee named ken klukowski who, according to the committee, was also working with john eastman, the architect of the multi-step plan to overturn the election. the letter mirrored some of eastman's unconstitutional theories. richard donoghue: would have created chaos in the states. i think that would have been disastrous for our country and our constitution. jake tapper: but wasn't that the point of it, the letter,

to create that chaos? richard donoghue: i think so. yes. disturbed by the letter, donoghue immediately responded to clark writing, "this would be a grave step for the department to take and it could have tremendous constitutional, political and social ramifications for the country". i had to make it clear to him that there was no world in which i, and certainly the ag, were going to sign a letter like that. jake tapper: rosen and donoghue met with clark later that evening. richard donoghue: i do remember at the very end saying to him what you are proposing is nothing less than having the united states justice department meddle in the outcome of an american presidential election. jake tapper: but again, jeffrey clark ignored the direction of justice department leadership. he continued to claim, falsely, that there was widespread election fraud. he pushed to send out the letter again. and on january 3rd, he told rosen president trump had offered him the role of attorney general and he had accepted.

richard donoghue: that led to a series of discussions and meetings that day. at this point, it had gone so far that we had to bring the other leaders in and explain to them so they were prepared in case it happened, but also to get their take on what they would do if that did happen. jake tapper: and what did they say they would do? richard donoghue: they uniformly said they would resign. jake tapper: white house call logs obtained by the committee show that by 4:19 pm that day, the white house had already begun referring to clark as the acting attorney general. that evening, rosen and donoghue went to the white house to argue against trump installing clark as attorney general. the three hour meeting took place in the oval office, and by all accounts joined the long list of wild white house meetings. jeffrey rosen: the president turned to me, and he said, well, one thing we know is you rosen, you aren't going to do anything. you don't even agree with the claims of election fraud

and this other guy at least might do something. richard donoghue: it was basically jeff clark advocating for the leadership change and everyone else advocating against it. it was a very blunt contentious conversation. herschmann and i were on the same level of being the street fighters of the meeting. eric herschmann: when he finished discussing what he planned on doing, i said good fucking-- excuse me, sorry-- a-hole. congratulations, you just admitted a first step or act you take as attorney general would be committing a felony and violating rule six you're clearly the right candidate for this job. jake tapper: 49 37 white house counsel pat cipollone was vehemently against the plan as well. richard donoghue: he referred to the letter that jeff clark had submitted as a murder suicide pact that no one should have anything to do with it. i had basically made the point to the president that jeff clark was not even qualified to be the attorney general. he's promising you he's going to conduct these very complex nationwide investigations in record time, and this is coming from a guy who has never conducted

a real investigation. mr. clark responded by saying that he's been involved in very significant environmental law briefing before various courts and that reminded me that yes, in fact, you're primarily-- you're an environmental lawyer. how about you go back to your office, and we'll call you when there's an oil spill? jake tapper: donoghue also informed president trump that upon clark's appointment, justice department leaders would resign en masse. steven engel: the president turned to me and said, steve, you wouldn't leave, would you? i said, mr. president, i've been with you through four attorneys general, including two acting as attorney general, but i couldn't be part of this. jake tapper: finally persuaded, trump decided against the idea. when clark was subpoenaed by the january 6 committee earlier this year, he refused to answer questions pleading the fifth more than 125 times. speaker: did you discuss this draft letter to georgia officials with the president of the united states? jeffrey clark: fifth. jake tapper: coming up, inside the plot to pressure the vice president.

michael luttig: it would have immediately plunged the country into paralyzing constitutional crisis.

[music playing] jake tapper: on december 14th, 2020-- speaker: unanimously cast 16 votes for joseph r. biden. [cheering] jake tapper: --when the electors in each state gathered-- speaker: all 16 electors cast their ballots for joseph r. biden. jake tapper: --so did frfraudult electorsrs in seven n swing sts that biden had won such as arizona. speaker: donald j. trump of the state of florida, number of votes, 11.

speaker: an alternate slate of electors in the contested states is going to vote and we're going to send those results up to congress. jake tapper: this desperate scheme to overthrow the election results had been conceived weeks earlier. speaker: who do you remember being involved in those early discussions around the thanksgiving time regarding having alternate electors meet? cassidy hutchinson: mr. giuliani, several of mr giuliani's associates, mr. meadows. jake tapper: one of the biggest supporters of this outrageous attempt to subvert american democracy was law professor and trump attorney john eastman. john eastman: the entire executive branch is headed by one guy-- kaitlan collins: trump saw him on fox news and shortly after that, he was in the oval office. jake tapper: fraudulent electors were just step one in eastman's plan which he outlined in these memos and justified with false claims of "illegal actions by state

and local election officials". step two in his plan would have to be executed by vice president mike pence on january 6 while presiding over the opening and counting of electoral ballots. sara murray: what you can do is you can say, due to these disputes in these seven states, we're going to send this back to the states and the states would then be able to help donald trump win the election. liz cheney: it was a lie. in fact on december 19th, 2020, just four days before dr. eastman sent this memo, dr. eastman himself admitted, in an email, that the fake electors had no legal weight, referring to the fake electors as "dead on arrival in congress". jake tapper: trump campaign aides and outside lawyers shared their concerns about the scheme in emails reported on by the new york times maggie haberman and luke broadwater.

and did they think what they were doing was legal? maggie haberman: in one email, a lawyer working in arizona literally describes them as, "fake electors". it says so what we would be doing is sending these fake electors-- he has fake in quotes-- to go cast ballots. in another email there was a discussion about fear from some officials. this would be seen as "treasonous". jake tapper: what might have happened had pence tried to go through with this idea that he could reject electoral votes and send them back to the states-- biden won such as arizona, pennsylvania, wisconsin, georgia? michael luttig: it would have immediately plunged the country into what i characterized would be tantamount to a revolution within a paralyzing constitutional crisis. greg jacob: there is just no way that the framers of the constitution who divided power and authority, who

separated it out, who had broken away from george iii and declared him to be a tyrant, there was no way that they would have put in the hands of one person the authority to determine who was going to be president of the united states. jake tapper: but president trump now saw vice president pence as the man who could keep him in the white house for four more years. pete aguiler: on december 23rd, president trump retweeted a memo from an individual named ivan raiklin entitled operation pence card. that called on the vice president to refuse the electoral college votes from certain states that had certified joe biden as the winner. evan perez: he had been pressuring him behind the scenes. so now he's going public. he's trying to get public pressure on mike pence. jake tapper: the january 6 committee's interviews with white house attorneys made it clear that pat cipollone,

eric herschmann and many others were appalled. jason miller: the way it was communicated to me was that pat cipollone thought the idea was nutty and had, at one point, confronted eastman, basically, with the same sentiment. speaker: what were your prior interactions with eastman? eric herschmann: he described for me what he thought the ambiguity was in the statute and he was walking through it at that time. and i said to hold on a second. i want to understand what you're saying. you're saying that you believe the vice president acting as president of the senate can be the sole decision maker as to, under your theory, who becomes the next president of united states? and he said, yes. and i said, are you out of your effing mind? jake tapper: the vice president decided he could not buy in to eastman's theories.

speaker: mr. short, was it your impression that the vice president had directly conveyed his position on these issues to the president? marc short: many times. speaker: and had been consistent in conveying his position to the president? marc short: very consistent. kaitlan collins: you basically cannot overstate the pressure that trump was putting on pence in the lead up to january 6th. donald trump: i hope that our great vice president-- our great vice president comes through for us. he's a great guy. of course, if he doesn't come through, i won't like him quite as much. jake tapper: that night, pence's outside lawyer, richard cullen, phoned retired judge michael luttig, an esteemed conservative republican, for help and advice. michael luttig: he said, judge, do you know john eastman? and i said, yes, john was a clerk of mine about 20, 25 years ago. and he said, well, john's advising the president and the vice president that the vice president does not have

to accept the electoral college votes as they have been cast. i said, well, richard, you can tell the vice president that i said, he has no such authority whatsoever. jake tapper: why did you take to twitter? michael luttig: well, the next morning, richard calls and he said, look, we have to get your voice out to the country immediately within the next hour or two. jake tapper: judge luttig, with the help of his son, sent his first ever twitter thread. michael luttig: my son sent me twitter instructions on how to tweet a thread of individual tweets that were under 140 characters-- i had no earthly idea what any of this was about. i just told my son send this to me right now, or i'll cut you out of the will. jake tapper: he read me some of that thread. michael luttig: the only responsibility and power of the vice president under the constitution is to faithfully count the electoral college votes as they have been cast.

the constitution does not empower the vice president to alter in any way the votes that have been cast either by rejecting certain of them or otherwise. jake tapper: that twitter thread spread and garnered attention around the world. but with just one day before congress was set to certify biden's electoral college victory, trump continued to apply maximum pressure. in this tweet, "the vice president has the power to reject fraudulently chosen electors" and when they met at the white house on january 5th. pete aguilar: in the book peril, journalist bob woodward and robert costa write that the president said, "if these people say you have the power, wouldn't you want to? the vice president says, "i wouldn't want any one person to have that authority." the president says, "no, no, no, you don't understand, mike. you can do this.

i don't want to be your friend anymore if you don't do this". jake tapper: trump would not relent. at 1 am on january 6, he tweeted, "if vice president mike pence comes through for us, we will win the presidency. mike can send it back." and then there was the morning phone call in which the president bullied and belittled the vice president for refusing to go along with this potential coup. speaker: i remember he said you are a wimp. you'll be a wimp. wimp is the word i remember. speaker: it's also been reported that the president said to the vice president that-- something to the effect of you don't have the courage to make a hard decision. keith kellogg: worse-- i don't remember exactly either, but something like that. yeah. jake tapper: soon after the call ended-- crowd: usa! usa! usa! jake tapper: --trump would repeat his dangerous lies and put a target on vice president pence. donald trump: i hope mike is going to do the right thing. i hope so. and mike pence is going to have to come through for us.

jake tapper: as that speech neared its end, inside the capitol-- mike pence: the senate and house of representatives are meeting in joint session to verify the certificates and count the votes of the electors. jake tapper: but outside, headed their way-- speaker: i got three men walking down the street in fatigues carrying ar-15.

ds of people here already. this line wraps around the washington-- and the president is scheduled to speak in about-- cassidy hutchinson: as mr. giuliani and i were walking to his vehicles that evening, he looked at me and said something to the effect of cass, are you excited for the 6th? we're going to the capital. it's going to be. great. the president's going to be there. he's going to look powerful. [indistinct chanting] liz cheney: on january 3rd, the capitol police issued

a special event assessment. congress itself is the target on the 6th. steve bannon: now we're on, as they say, the point of attack. sara murray: listen to what mr. bannon said that day after the first call he had with the president. steve bannon: all hell is going to break loose tomorrow. all i can say is strap in. speaker: they thought they could steal this election-- sara murray: and then he and donald trump talk again. now we don't know what the contents of those calls were because, of course, donald trump has not provided that information and steve bannon has not provided that information. [indistinct chanting] jake tapapper: the night of january 5th, you were among those summoned to the oval office. sarah matthews: yeah, so i was brought into the oval office that evening and the entire press team was assembled in there. speaker: the gates open just a few minutes ago. sarah matthews: the president had the door to the rose garden open, and you could hear the crowd on the ellipse already assembled and you could tell he was feeding off that energy

and that he was really excited for the next day. shealah craighead: the president was making notes that-- talking then about we should go up to the capitol, what's the best route to go to the capitol. crowd: fight for trump! jake tapper: the january 6 committee's presentation of testimony and documentation left no dodoubt that trump had every intention of joining his supporters march to the capitol. crowd: fight for trump! speaker: did the president tell you this that he wanted to speak at the capitol? nick luna: correct. yes. [indistinct chanting] speaker: we have the power in numbers. we came here to protect our republic. crowd: fight for trurump! jake tapper: the morning of january 6-- crowd: usa! speaker: you will listen to us! crowd: usa! jake tappeper: --supportrters began gathering for the rally. speaker: biden did not win this election. speaker: what do you think happened? speaker: fraud. speaker: it's not made up. jake tapper: meanwhile, the president's

insistence on joining their march to the capitol-- speaker: we're taking this country back. jake tapper: --had white house lawyers such as pat cipollone very worried. cassidy hutchinson: mr. cipollone said something to the effect of, please make sure we don't go up to the capitol, cassidy. keep in touch with me. crowd: bullshit! bullshit! bullshit! cassidy hutchinson: we're going to get charged with every crime imaginable if we make that movement happen. crowd: fight for trump! fight for trump! fight for trump! jake tapper: but nobody could change trump's mind, and as he, family anand aides s arrived at t the rall, his chief of staff mark meadows was keeping the president's hopes alive. subject: prior to mr. trump taking the stage that morning, he was under the impression by mr. meadows that it was still possible. jake tapper: at the rally, the president had a more immediate familiar concern--

crowd size. cassidy hutchinson: we were in the offstage announce area tent behind the stage. he was very concerned about the shot. sasara murray: o or the pipictures that t were share, he wanted to make sure that the rally space was full. and so he's being told it's not that people e are waiting g tot through these mags, through these metal detectors, people don't want to go through them because they have weapons with them. jake tapper: during the hearings, the select committee showed a secret service report that, "some members of the crowd are wearing ballistic helmets body armor and carrying radio equipment and military grade backpacks." liz cheney: let's listen. jake tapper: the committee also played police radio transmissions from that day. speaker: there's an individual who's entering. he's got blue jeans and a blue jean jacket, and underneath the blue jean jacket, the complainants

both saw stock of an ar-15. he's going to be with a group of individuals about 5 to 8-- 5 to 8 other individuals. two of the individuals in that group, they had glock style pistols in their waistbands. speaker: i've got three men walking down the street in fatigues carrying ar-15s, copy, at 14th and independence. jake tapper: yet trump wanted the metal detectors, the magnetometers, or mags, removed. cassidy hutchinson: while we were in the offstage announce tent, i was in the vicinity of a conversation where i overheard the president say something to the effect of, i don't effing care that they have weapons. they're not here to hurt me. take the effing mags away. let my people in. they can march to the capitol from here. let the people in. take the effing mags away. speaker: --4-45th president of the e united statetes of ameri! donald j. trump. liz cheney: let's reflect on that for a moment.

president trump was aware that a number of the individuals in the crowd had weapons and were wearing body armor and here's what president trump instructed the crowd to do. donald trump: we're going to walk down-- and i'll be there with you. we're going to walk down anywhere you want, but i think right here, we're going to walk down to the capitol-- [cheering] --to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard. crowd: usa! usa! jake tapper: how would you characterize dononald trump'ss speech at the ellipse on january 6? maggie haberman: inciting. he said peacefully and patriotically, but he was telling people go up there, and it's hard not to see that was fomenting and telling people that he had been harmed, and they should be angry on his behalf. donald trump: you'll never take back our country with weakness. you have to show strength and you have to be strong.

jake tapper: trump's national security advisors believe the presidenent, code nameme, mogul, was going toto join the procession. liz cheney: mogul, the president, was, "going to the capitol" and, "they are finding the best route now". jake tapper: the chat log continues. "military aid has confirmed that he wants to walk. they are begging him to reconsider. current route will be 15th to f, f to 6th, 6th to penn, penn to the capitol. so this is happening." speaker: there's millions of us here. don't let them lie to you. jake tapper: what was he going to do up there? maggie haberman: i think just lead his people, lead his base, be with his base. i don't think this was something that he had thought out too well other than he was acting like somebody who didn't think he had anything to lose. donald trump: all vice president pence has to do-- jake tapper: after more than an hour on stage, the president wrapped up his speech this way. donald trump: you fight like hell and if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore.

so let's walk down pennsylvania avenue. i want to thank you all. god bless you and god bless america. cassidy hutchinson: when he got off the stage-- speaker: let's go! cassidy hutchinson: --and everybody was making the movement back to the motorcade, i had overheard mr. meadows say to him that he was still working on getting it off the record movement to the capitol. jake tapper: what happened next, as trump and secret service agent robert bobby engel got into the presidential limousine known as the beast, was relayed to hutchinson by trump's deputy chief of staff, tony ornato. cassidy hutchinson: when i returned to the white house, tony proceeded to tell me that once the president had gotten into the vehicle with bobby, he thought that they were going up to the capitol, and when bobby had relayed to him, we're not. we don't have the assets to do it. it's not secure.

we're going back to the west wing. the president had very strong, very angry response to that. tony described him as being irate. the president said something to the effect of, i'm the effing president. take me up to the capitol now to which bobby responded, sir, we have to go back to the west wing. the president reached up towards the front of the vehicle to grab at the steering wheel. mr. engel grabbed his arm, said, sir, you need to take your hand off the steering wheel. we're going back to the west wing. we're not going to the capitol. adam kinzinger: it's a shocking story and we've now heard from, at least a washington d.c. detective, something very similar. jake tapper: trump would return to the white house and watch his supporters heed his call to fight like hell.

[indistinct shouting]

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the morning of january 6, what were your expectations for the day? sarah matthews: i think i woke up thinking that it was going to be a normal day. i just thought that he was going to go out there and give a speech and that, that would be it. jake tapper: sarah matthews is donald trump's former deputy white house press secretary and was in the white house on january 6. sarah matthews: it was kind of quiet to be honest in the west wing that morning at least. jake tapper: that quiet would not last long. after the speeches at the ellipse, the president returned to the white house and the rioters made their way to the capitol. speaker: they broke through. it's on! jake tapper: already aware of the increasing violence, trump went into the private dining room just off the oval office at 1:25 pm and remained there until 4:00 pm. maggie haberman: when donald trump is upset about what he is seeing, he reacts. he was not reacting here.

jake tapper: for more than three hours, the president of the united states refused to call off the violent rioters who stormed the us capitol. maggie haberman: he was watching television and admiring what he saw. speaker: you want a fight, you better believe you got one! maggie haberman: he was happy that the certification was delayed. there were myriad efforts to get him to issue some kind of a statement. those did not work. he didn't make a single phone call to any member of his government. speaker: this is now effectively a riot. jake tapper: at 1:49 pm-- speaker: --49 hours declaring it a riot. jake tapper: --when d.c. police officially declared this a riot, trump tweeted out a link to his speech on the ellipse, the very one that had helped incite that riot. realizing the severity of the situation, white house counsel pat cipollone rushed to mark meadows, the president's chief of staff. cassidy hutchinson: and i remember pat saying to him

something to the effect of the rioters had gotten to the capitol mark. we need to go down and see the president now. and mark looked up at him and said, he doesn't want to do anything, pat. speaker: it's over! you better run, cops! jake tapper: right as the violence surged, trump tweeted, "mike pence didn't have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our country and our constitution". sarah matthews: it was the last thing that was really needed in that moment. it pretty much painted a target on the vice president's back by tweeting that out. crowd: hang mike pence! hang mike pence! hang mike pence! hang mike pence! cassidy hutchinson: i remember pat saying something to the effect of, mark, we need to do something more. they're literally calling for the vice president to be effing hung. and mark had responded something to the effect of, you heard him, pat. he thinks mike deserves it. sarah matthews: working in communications for president

trump, i was very aware of just the impact that his words have on his supporters. that tweet suggested to them that what they were doing at the capitol was ok and that they were justified in their violence and that it was vice president pence who was allowing an election to be stolen. speaker: mike pence has betrayed this president, and he has betrayed the people of the united states! jake tapper: inside the capitol, the vice president was rushed from the senate floor. secret service held pence along with his family and aides in his senate office as they worked to clear a path to safety. speaker: if we lose any more time, we may have-- we may lose the ability to leave. jake tapper: a white house security official who chose to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation explained exactly how dire the situation was for pence and his secret service detail. speaker: the members of the vp detail at this time were starting to fear for their own lives.

if they were running out of options, and they're getting nervous, it sounds like that. we came very close to either service having to use lethal options or worse. jake tapper: when the secret service made the call to move the vice president again, rioters came within 40 feet of him. as he was held in an undisclosed location, it was the vice president who directed a response to the riot. [indistinct chanting] speaker: it was pence who was on the phone with these lawmakers, pence who was on the phone with people in the pentagon about what was happening with the national guard. jake tapper: at 2:2:38 pm, trump twtweeted, "please suppot our capitol police and law enforcement. they are truly on the side of our country. stay peaceful." by this point, rioters were in both chambers. sarah matthews: this is our house.

jake tapper: and the capitol rotunda was filled with tear gas. sarah matthews: at the end of the tweet, he used the phrase stay peaceful. kayleigh mcenany shared with me that he did not want to include that and that it took a lot of convincing on their part that was extremely alarming to me. jake tapper: the rioters were getting trump's messages in real time as heard on walkie talkie communications between rioters. speaker: trump just tweeted, "please support our capitol police. they are on our side. do not harm them." speaker: he didn't say not to do anything to the congressmen. [laughter] kaitlan collins: i think what the committee showed about trump's tweets is that they do take them literally. his messages were received by the people who were there at the capitol very loudly. jake tapper: at any moment during the siege on the capitol, the president could have addressed

the country live from the white house. sarah matthews: there's a camera on in the white house briefing room at all times. he could have walked over there, could have been on camera almost instantaneously and blasted out a message to the american people. he had every opportunity and he chose to not do that. jake tapper: when the president finally relented and released a video telling the rioters to go home, it was 4:17 pm, three hours and 7 minutes since the riot began. adam kinzinger: and it became very clear that the feds, basically, had taken the capitol back over, that they were not going to succeed in stopping the counting and only then did he come out with that statement. donald trump: we had an election that was stolen from us. it was a landslide election and everyone knows it-- sarah matthews: seeing him on camera start the video by talking about a stolen election, i just immediately knew that he wasn't going to meet the moment and say what was needed in that time.

donald trump: so go home. we love you. you're very special. jake tapper: yet againin, many rioters totook the preresidens words as instrucuctions. speakeker: i'm herere deliverg the prpresident's s message. donald trump has asked everybody to home! sarah matthews: working in communications for him, i knew that i would be tasked with defending that, and we had just witnessed all this violence at the capitol and these folks attacking police officers, chanting horrible things, and i knew that i couldn't defend that because it was indefensible. i resigned that evening. jake tapper: in the immediate aftermath of the riot as blood and broken glass littered the halls of congress, according to the january 6 committee, there were those who were still trying to overturn the election. that evening, rudy giuliani called a number of republican senators and urged them to continue to try

and delay the certification. rudy giuliani: i'm calling it because i want to discuss with you how they're trying to rush this hearing. jake tapper: the next day, john eastman called white house counsel eric herschmann to discuss an appeal in georgia. eric herschmann: i said to him, are you out of your effing mind? now i'm going to give you the best free legal advice you're ever getting in your life. get a great effing criminal defense lawyer. you're going to need it. and then i hung up on him. jake tapper: and the president released a second video condemning the violence more forcefully on january 7th. donald trump: like all americans, i am outraged by the violence, lawlessness and mayhem. [i[indistinct t shouting] jakeke tapper: b but accordig to w white housese aide casssy huhutchinson, , it was onlnlye threatat of his cacabinet invog the 25th amendment that convinced him to make this video. advisors warned trump that talk of removing him from office was gaining traction. cassidy hutchinson: think about what might happen

in the final 15 days of your presidency if we don't do this. there's already talks about invoking the 25th amendment. you need this as cover. jake tapper: and even then, he still refused to admit the election was over. donald trump: this election is now over. congress has certified the results. i don't want to say the election is over. i just want to say congress has certified the results without saying the election is over, ok? liz cheney: that video just showed you that even after every single constitutional process had been completed, and after over 60 courts had heard his challenges and rejected them, he still refused. it was fundamentally rejection of the rule of law, and again, america can't sustain itself if we have a commander in chief who is at war with the rule of law. jake tapper: coming up. adam kinzinger: i want the american people to look at these hearings and understand how close we came that day

to losing that self-governance. speaeaker: this s is our capap! jake tappeper: the batattle o prevent ananother janunuary 6.

[music playing] adam kinzinger: what we showed in every one of those hearings

and every one of those pieces is he knew what he was doing. donald trump knew he was pressuring the vice president. donald trump knew that he was pressuring state officials. he knew he was lying. he was trying to basically change out the doj to be people sympathetic to him to give at least the air of federal complicity in challenging election results. and he knew, when he was sitting in the office during the attack on january 6, that there was a chance it would succeed. jake tapper: what do you want americans to take away from the hearings? adam kinzinger: i want the american people to look at these hearings and understand how close we came that day to losing that self-governance. freedom isn't free. you have to defend this and not just overseas, but sometimes here at home. crowd: usa! usa! usa! usa! donald trump: do you miss me yet? do you miss me? [cheering] jake tapper: in the aftermath of january 6 and his election loss--

donald trump: anthony gonzalez, that's another beauty. jake tapper: --donald trump made it his mission to replace republican opponents with supporters. he had mixed success. in arizona and pennsylvania he backed gubernatorial candidates kari lake and doug mastriano and senate candidates blake masters and mehmet oz. all of them lost. of the 10 republicans in the house of representatives who voted to impeach trump because of january 6, only two returned to congress in 2023. speaker: they claim that-- jake tapper: the others either declined to run for re-election such as adam kinzinger or lost their republican primary re-election battles to more trump supporting candidates such as liz cheney. liz cheney: --i will do whatever it takes-- jake tapper: this mission that you've taken on has cost you your job. do you have any regrets? liz cheney: our obligation, my obligation very much is above politics. i can't imagine having done anything differently

at any stage of this process since january 6th, it saddens me that so many of my republican colleagues have not met the moment. jake tapper: kinzinger and cheney were the only two republicans on the house select committee to investigate the attack on january 6. they've become pariahs in a party where they were once seen as its future. adam kizinger: we cannot survive as a party existing on the personality of one man. jake tapper: the select committee to investigate the january 6 attack had a herculean task set before it. its members and staff conducted more than 1,000 interviews, filmed hundreds of taped depositions and collected more than 140,000 documents. and finally, the week of december 19thth, the committee showed us its full hand. leading this hour, the january 6 committee referring donald trump to the justice department for criminal prosecution. speaker: the first criminal statute we invoke for referral, therefore-- jake tapper: at its last hearing,

the committee recommended donald trump be prosecuted for different crimes, including obstruction of an official proceeding on january 6, 2021. jamie raskin: the whole purpose and obvious effect of trump's scheme were to obstruct, influence, and impede this official proceeding-- jake tapper: conspiracy to defraud the united states, conspiracy to make false statements and perhaps the most grave referral, the one for aiding or assisting an insurrection. jamie raskin: --anyone who incites others to engage in rebelling, assists them in doing so, or gives aid and comfort to those engaged in insurrection is guilty of a federal crime. jake tapapper: it's s a chare that may b be particulularly didifficult toto prove. ririchard dononoghue: you u e to h have criminal intent. here, you have the problem of proving what was in the president's mind. i've heard people say, well, he was willfully blind.

should he have known? yes, but if he did not, i don't know that that's a crime. michael luttig: i said that-- jake tapper: not everyone shares that view. michael luttig: --willful ignorance of fact or law by the president of the united states would not be either a legal defense or a political defense to the president. that's about as clear as a former judge could say it. jake tapper: ultimately, the justice department will decide whether to bring any charges against former president trump or john eastman, who the committee also referred for criminal prosecution or anyone else. in november, attorney general merrick garland appointed a former war crimes prosecutor named jack smith as special counsel in charge of these ongoing investigations. sara murray: we know the justice department has been investigating jeffrey clark. we also know that john eastman is someone who's been touched by this investigation. john eastman: i'd like to see the warrant before you take my property. jake tapper: both jeffrey clark and john eastman have had their phones seized by federal investigators.

clark dismissed the investigation as politically motivated and eastman fought the doj search warrant in court. but there are state level investigations as well. rudy giuliani has been informed he's a target in a georgia investigation-- rudy giuliani: we will not talk about this until it's over. jake tapper: --and appeared before a grand jury in august. at the moment, perhaps the most perilous investigation for donald trump has nothing to do with the attack on the capitol. speaker: former president donald trump's mar-a-lago home in florida has been searched by the fbi. maggie haberman: the investigation that at the moment seems most directly threatening to donald trump is the one into his handling of classified documents and taking documents to mar-a-lago with him when he left office. jake tapper: the government has recovered more than 320 classified documents from trump's home in florida. the redacted search warrant identified three federal crimes that the department of justice lists as the foundation of its investigation. obstruction of justice, criminal handling of government records

and violations of the espionage act. justice department investigations of donald trump are certain to be helped by the 845 page committee report and the hundreds of documents and transcripts released by the january 6 committee as the congress came to a close in 2022. among the recommendations in the report-- speaker: the committee believes that those who took an oath to protect and defend the constitution on january 6th, should be barred-- disqualified and barred from holding government office. speaker: president donald-- jake tapper: --that aimed at trump. trump, who has already announced he's running for president in 2024, something the committee has said should not be allowed. donald trump: i'm thrilled to be back. liz cheney: no man who would behave that way at that moment in time can ever serve in any position of authority in our nation again. he is unfit for any office.

jake tapper: among the thousands of pages of transcripts released by the committee, were new bits of information, including cassidy hutchinson's claim that she saw trump's chief of staff mark meadows burn documents in his white house fireplace about a dozen times during the transition. speaker: even richard nixon didn't burn the tapes. there was a gap, but he didn't burn the tapes. jake tapper: also in those pages, claims from hutchinson that meadows told her the president knew he lost the 2020 election despite what he was saying publicly. "does the president really think that he lost?" hutchinson asked meadows on one occasion. "he said, you know, lot of times he'll tell me that he lost, but he wants to keep fighting it." how much the committee hearings and findings have impacted the country's view of trump remains unclear. maggie haberman: i think the january 6th hearings actually presented a pretty concise case, and i do think that it got through to voters, and i think it was partly because it was trump's own appointees, republican appointees who were the ones they used to testify against him,

whether that lingers in voters' minds i think is a real open question. kaitlan collins: i don't think that they've wounded him in a sense of they've changed a lot of minds. his supporters either don't care or still belelieve what hehe s, which is that the election was stolen and that biden is not legitimately elected president. speaker: i is any of this new revelations from these transcripts enough to loosen donald trump's grip on the republican party you think? speaker: i doubt it. not at his base. his base is going to stay where they are. they don't care about the facts. michael luttig: donald trump and his supporters are a clear and present danger to american democracy. jake tapper: you've been shouting from the rooftops, this is not just about 2020. you're worried about 2024. michael luttig: i am and right now, the former president and his allies and supporters, including in congress and including in the states, represent a clear and present danger to american democracy. that's not because of what they did on january 6.

it's because of what they pledge to do in 2024. jake tapper: do you think that republicans are hearing what you're saying? michael luttig: i hope they are. jake tapper: our democracy in the united states relies upon good people in positions of power to do the lawful and right thing from the presidents all the way down to local officials. we're having these discussions because there were enough people, enough republicans who did the right thing in 2020. perhaps next time, there won't be. january 6 has taught us anything, it's that nothing is guaranteed. this is the american experiment, not the american proven theorem. for our republic to survive, we need our elected officials loyal not to one man but to the united states of america. [music playing]