lincoln. when i saw the images from washington, the first thing i thought about was abraham lincoln's speech on rule of law. it is iconic. it is so much so it has been quoted by liberals and conservatives and legendarily by joe mccarthy. the key sentence is it cannot come up, if the structure -- we must ourselves be its finisher. i don't think it has much to do with the markets, it is frankly the economy. this is a constitutional crisis that has to be worked out. romaine: you are the ultimate historian here, whether you go back to abe lincoln's speech, the contested election that some republicans, including ted cruz, seem to be using as an objection this time around. is there a sense these

constitutional crises in our history has any material effect on what goes on in financial markets? tom: i think they do. it is an important question. understood in the basic formula, our economic output, which is consumption plus investment and then net exports. what is so important is the most elastic part of that equation is business investment. seeing not so much in this historic moment but the last five years, even in the election in georgia, that bring does at some point back to business investment. likedne: the markets have perhaps not the ongoing tweeting, but the ta c -- the tax change enacted under president trump.

perhaps the new music will start to calm somewhat from the president. we want to go to a video posted by the president. pain.trump: i know your i know you are hurt. we had an election that was stolen from us. it was a landslide election and everyone knows it, especially the other side, but you have to go home now. we have to have peace. caroline: of course using his favorite social media outlet to post that video. twitter has been flagging trump's video tweet and cites the risk of violence. does talke still about how the election was somehow taken from him. that is not in any way moving toward a more unifying discourse. your perspective on perhaps the market reaction to the handing over of power and what social

media is doing as well. mon, you mentioned james di jp morgan, there is this resilient belief we will move on as we always do to peaceful transfer of power. that was an issue a few years ago with a country called great britain 300 years ago. the issue here is there is a huge confidence in peaceful transfer of power. what we see now is almost a political moment around one individual. it's a real question within politics and economics, the linkage of the trumpian model within the republican party and whether that moves forward in the future. affectser how that president trump and former president trump.

i was thunderstruck when i heard kevin mccarthy of the house on cbs -- you could tell he was shattered by what he observed on his capitol hill. joe: bloomberg anchor -- b loomberg anchor tom keene, thank you for your perspective. appreciate it. bloomberg with more a opinion columnist. we just had you yesterday on, right before the georgia votes. we were not sure if the polls were going to be accurate, showing momentum for the democrats. that feels like ages ago. where time just was elastic and contracts and so forth, is going on into 2021 very tragically. what was a great night for the

democrats seems like it was two months ago because of what we witnessed today. and goodness knows how long it will go on. we just heard the president where he tells the protesters to go home right after he is continuing to lie to them, telling them the election was everybody knows this. he is goading them on. romaine: he is definitely making it clear where he stands. he did of course attend that rally a little bit earlier where included speech that his claims about election fraud. for the't a time democrats to celebrate, but at some point today we will have a new president should the constitution survive this.

the business of this country will have to get back to normal. is there a general sense in your mind that we will have any degree of cooperation following these events today? i honestly don't know how to answer that. the way you presented that question, well, if the constitution holds. that is really what's in front of us right now. nevering like this has really occurred. before thiss actually started, we had senator cruz talking about the election ended up being resolved after violence and the installation of a republican

president and the disenfranchisement of black voters in the south. that is not exactly the best way to resolve a crisis. surprised, a, if everything is going to be completely resolved. i think joe biden will be inaugurated on the 20th, but between then and now, we really don't know what kind of forces have been unleashed. caroline: it was an important speech, probably the most aborted political speech of the year -- most important political speech of the year thus far made by joe biden. he said the world is watching. he evoked the nation's feelings at this particular time. to do you feel he will look bring about a more united states ? robert: one of the things joe biden does have going for him is

while everything has unraveled in the two months since his kept his he really pride, despite all the provocations president trump put out, despite the strong pushback from democrats urging biden to speak out more loudly. he kept an even temperament. his words today were forceful, but he's trying to keep these passions as low as possible. goingkeeps that tone forward, that's definitely a positive. contractamericans that the histrionics and violent rhetoric coming from the trump camp versus the measured almost statesmanlike attitude coming

from the incoming president, i think that is better. we all pray to god there is sti ll a broad middle in the country that will look for even-tempered theyrship and whether voted for biden or not, will support him in this crisis. joe: we are talking about any plausibility of republicans and democrats working together. republicans seem angry at what other republicans are doing. we heard from mitt romney, from mitch mcconnell. how much anger and distrust is brewing within the gop coalition towards members who attempted in some way to capitalize on this movement that we are seeing in hopes of raising their profile? i think i said this yesterday on the show when there

were republicans who screaming at the top of their lungs and pulling their hair. they have hair out because of what the objectors were pulling. -- especially in terms of the "leadership" of ted cruz and josh hawley as seeing it as a blatant play for the trumpist wing, hoping to inherit them inn 2024 -- in 2024. i think there is a lot of anger directed at them. i said in a bloomberg column today, these trump supporters to washington today and in a sense, energized by the president and these members of didress who stood by him,

the members of congress think after they have been amped up so much that they will just go home peacefully and quietly? this was totally predictable. i think some of these republicans who questioned the election just out of craven political motives -- they've got a lot of explaining to do. some members of their own congress will be very angry with them and demanding explanations as well. romaine: robert george of bloomberg opinion. an amazing day in washington. we want to bring to the conversation a political strategist and policy advisor for over 20 years, including working as a senior aide to hillary clinton. he is a frequent contributor to this network. a lot of people clutching their pearls today looking at these images. given the rhetoric we have seen

over the past years, are you surprised by this? no one should be surprised by this. i don't want to say shocking, but what has made me step back quite a bit is this to many of us -- the best way to call it was an attempted coup. you can't make sense of this, though it was predictable. especially as an african-american man, i also look at the difference in treatment between black lives protesters and how they were talked about as being rioters and so on versus what we are seeing here. this is an absolute disgrace that was entirely predictable. hope that for americans going forward -- i

heard robert talking about joe biden doing the best he could to subdue the passions of americans in this moment to call for some peace, particularly in the transition of power. as americans we need to look closely at our government leaders. there might be many others in the ranks that are still signing trumpism,is, and -- and this is the impact of it. joe: i want to go back to the point that this was totally protectable, discussing that people would come to d.c. for this protest on the state. the president earlier essentially calling on protesters to go to the capital. what do you make of the seeming complete failure, it appears, of the security forces that it turned out the capital was so

easy to overrun? inil: how many of us politics have been in that building and realized how difficult it is just to get inside to walk around, particularly after the police officers were shot years ago. it is remarkable to me that the number of people that not just were standing around the capital, but on the steps had gotten as close as they did into the offices, pictures of people anding out with lecturns podiums from the floor of the house and senate. how thiscannot imagine could be possible with the kind security i would assume would exist. i would point you to an article i read in the last few days.

there was a report talking about a shakeup at the secret service because there was some concern about the number of trump supporters in a sensitive position to the secret service. it goes back to a point i was thinking earlier -- there are potential enablers in many parts of government. that is not to say they are not good public servants, not to say that they would even condone this type of behavior, but if there are people in sensitive positions in our government that are going to continue carrying the flag of trumpism, that is something we need to pay attention to. caroline: i want to take a step back, because this is a moment where people have been hurt, shots fired. people angry at the seams -- the scenes they see.

at this moment thousands of americans are dying because of covid. people are left without earnings. they are hurt from a financial perspective. the economy is still hurting, though we see uptick in certain parts of the data. your perspective on how there has been a failure of leadership from both sides of the aisle. how do we move forward to bring back a more positive america, a financial,y from a economic perspective? moreu think we can have a united america? basil: after this -- it certainly was protectable, but as breakable -- was predictable, but as predictable as it was, i don't think many americans thought they would be seeing the pictures they are seeing today. voters specifically will realize the consequence of this vote. if they go to the polls in

2021, whether it is federal or local elections, they will go to the polls with these images in mind, thinking the people they elect perhaps should be striking more moderate duns, should not be of -- moderate tones, should not be of the extremes. the reasons we don't have the kind of collaboration in congress we would like to see is there is a penalty of going across the aisle, that individual elected officials feel there is a disincentive to working with someone else of a different political party. as a result, we don't have that collaboration. hopefully voters will go to the polls realizing we cannot continue in this fashion. romaine: i find that interesting. you have been a political consultant for a while. if a candidate is looking for

the best way to win, we have seen in several states and districts the best way to win is to go to the far reaches of the right or left and play to those people. the middleground is not necessarily win you elections the way it used to. basil: one of the reasons that has happened is because of gerrymandering. these districts are drawn for the purpose of electing leaders who are to the ideological extremes. we just had a census. we will begin this process of redistricting. catalyst for a that type of movement, for that are of reform, where we thinking about drawing districts where you have more moderation so you don't have folks in these extreme positions, so when they

get to someplace like washington, there is more incentive to work across the aisle. incentive has been taken out of our elections and therefore our government. elected,when trump got most of my students asked me "can the president do this?" when it was executive orders he was signing. is voters clear understand the connection between politics and governance. i think we can start to build in this message that your vote mat ters, that elections have consequences. electionequence of an and growing concern and sentiment that has been

perverted even longer than that. caroline: we thank you so much, basil smikle from columbia and with decades of experience inside politics. let's turn our attention to a safety perspective. the chief of police during the marathon bombing is with us. we want to bring him in from an expertise perspective. what's happening on the ground? we are hearing from our previous guest that this is entirely predictable. feltow he felt -- have you the police responded? >> they need to have a regional response where law enforcement around the greater beltway region, maryland, virginia, delaware, both state law andrcement, regional police

national guard resources, we of peoplet a number into the area so we can start clearing people out of the capital in the most efficient manner, and at the same time taking up perimeter around the capital. we also have to be prepared for other protests and challenges in the region in the next couple days. we clearly need to surge resources and have a unified command working on various problems going forward. romaine: the question people have is why wasn't that done prior? >> i cited 2020. one thing that will happen is there will be an after action review. what was the intelligence known and should have been known? what was the resources deployed? know only from national news sources of what

was building up this week, i imagine -- i would have had visible security resources, limited access control, and large numbers of rapid response teams that could surge with withrs to platoons officers in riot gear who are trained to keep crowds back on standby at a moment's notice. i don't know why that didn't happen. thereht have been -- might have been challenges. all of that will be figured out by somebody. the u.s. capitol should never be a situation where those elected ar e concerned for their physical safety. we have to figure out why that happened and now figure out how we get enough resources to get people out of there in an

effective way that limits the use of force and at the same time protect not only the building, but the sanctity of the operations. you can do what you want to do, but you can't destroy government property and assault elected officials. you need to be held accountable if that is the case. joe: in terms of the security failure we witnessed, is this unprecedented in your view? daniel: we saw a lot of protests where capitol buildings were taken over and frankly more violence was engaged in than what i have seen so far today. this has happened before. when you have people in a crowd public building and are overwhelming the security resources, you can't

use traditional means that you would use in an outside crowd. you don't want to compromise the environment of the capitol where people are sheltering in place while sections are being held down. this has happened before, not to thesextent, but challenges have happened before. d.c. has a very strict firearms policy. i have not seen in this crowd a those of firearms amongst in the protests, which lowers tensions and lessens the likelihood of someone getting hurt in lethal violence. -- heesident's message wanted people to leave the area. i i was the capitol police,

would be showing that to the crowd, saying it is over, and if you don't want to go home we will take action against you. caroline: d.c. mayor muriel bowser is speaking, saying the actions at the capitol are shameful. a 6:00 p.m. curfew will be enacted. the long-term ramifications of visiting the capitol now, we talk of this bygone day when you could walk in and out of this sanctum -- unlikely going forward for the time being. daniel: this is something that has to be dealt with. ordinarily the security measures at the capitol are above the requirement to keep our congressmen and senators safe. we want resources to secure that ruth -- to restore that secured a program. the best thing about our capitol

is we can go visit it and listen to our congressional operatives do what they need to do. that is what we value most. we also value peaceful protests. but we don't value is when protests turn violent, try to shut down the constitutionally obligated duties of our elected america havecause voted for them to do it. caroline: we thank you so much. congressional leaders are being evacuated from the capitol complex, according to cnn. what a day. one that is painful to watch, i'm sure. romaine: painful to watch. thank a lot of folks in d.c. who were in harm's way bringing us coverage.

joe: we expected theatrics today, i think would be the consensus, nothing like the images we have seen today. caroline: stay tuned for our special coverage at the end of this with david westin. this (announcer) do you want to reduce stress? shed pounds? do you want to flatten your stomach? do all that in just 10 minutes a day with aerotrainer, the total body fitness solution that uses its revolutionary ergonomic design to help you maintain comfortable, correct form.

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david: from new york to around the world, this is a special edition of balance of power, covering the unrest in washington dc today as pro-trump demonstrators, really rioters, ultimately charged capitol hill and the capitol building itself, entering the senate chamber while trying to tally up votes. for a review of this deeply disturbing day, we welcome our colleague laura davis.