some of them were charged in the plot to kidnap and kill me. whether it is directed at me or dr. fauci or republican secretary of state or congress, every one of us has a responsibility to call it what it is, it's domestic terrorism. these people need to be held accountab accountable. we as a nation of leaders need to say this will not stand. >> governor whitmer, i appreciate your time. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> thanks very much for to all of you for being with us. anderson starts now. good evening. there are a lot of developments in the wake of yesterday's failed attempt on the capitol including a new video from the president. in it he concedes the election he lost but evades responsibility for the insurrection and continues to lie. we'll play that video because it's important for you to see it in a moment. among the other headlines growing calls mostly from democrats but some republicans for the president to be impeached a second time or be removed under the 25th amendment. one cabinet member has resigned along with senior white house

staffers. there have also been recriminations as well over the massive security failure. the chief of the capitol police is resigning, so, too, the sergeant at arms. the law enforcement spent much of today securing the area around the capitol. the president haz been indefinitely banned as you know from facebook by that company. we've also witnessed today and late last night the attempts by some of the president's enablers to rewrite history. and duck responsibility for their lies and their inflammatory rhetoric. we are all flawed as human beings. we all make mistakes and we're sometimes seduced into telling ourselves we're doing the right thing when it turns out later we're not. what we're seeing now is not a recognition of that by remorseful people. it seems it's people trying to save the reputation and political kreecareers or trying rewrite history. exhibit "a," congressman mo brooks, republican of alabama. he's pushing the lies that it wasn't trump supporters who attacked the capitol tweeting this morning in a quote, he says, "evidence growing that fascist antifa orchestrated capitol attack with clever

mob-control tactics." congressman brooks got a firsthand look at that mob when he encouraged them to start kick ass, in his words, yesterday morning, before they attacked the capitol. >> we are not going to let the socialists rip the heart out of our country. we are not going to let them continue to corrupt our elections. and steal from us our god-given right to control our nation's destiny. today is the day american patriots start taking down names and kicking ass. >> looks like he switched into a "fire pelosi" hat for that part. patriots, that's what he called them, like i guess this guy with his feet up on nancy pelosi's desk. his name is richard barnett of grivett, arkansas, self-proclaimed white nationalist. not a member of antifa. boasted to several media outlets about when he did. he's, of course, hardly alone. the attackers wore "maga" hats,

trump t-shirts, flew trump flags and supporters of the president. not black lives matter protesters in costumes. no, congressman brooks, these were plain fascists in some cases, qanon cult members in some cases, searching for pedophiles. part of the qanano conspiracy theory. in other words, just the kind of, quote, very fine people, unquote, as the president praised after the attack as very special people who he loved. >> i know your pain. i know you're hurt. we had an election that was stolen from us. it was a landslide election and everyone knows it. especially the other side. we love you. you're very special. you've seen what happens. you see the way others are treated that are so bad and so evil. >> now, remember those words as you see what the president has now said just a short time ago. we're going to play that for you in a little while. just keep that in your mind. by the president's way of thinking, it's the people who work the polls during the

pandemic and counted the votes over and over again. and zecertify the results and recounted and passed judgment in court case after court case. all those good and decent americans of all political stripes, republicans and democrats, apparently in the president's eyes, they're the ones who are evil. today he was nowhere to be seen except in that just-released video spreading more lies and, of course, trying to save himself and rewrite history. this evening white house press secretary kayleigh mcenany read a statement for supporters. his acting department of homeland security secretary, though, he did issue a critical statement without mentioning everything that he, himself, has done enabling the president's worst impulses. transportation secretary elaine chao resigned today. so did the president's envoy in northern ireland and former chief of staff mick mulvaney. >> i called mike pompeo last night, let him know, tell him

i'd be resigning. i can't do t i can't stay. we didn't sign up for what you saw last night. we signed up for making america great again. we signed up for lower taxes and less regulation. the president has a long list of successes that we can be froupr of. for example, you can go and talk about the lowest in i in history. talk about the fact he's the first president in recent memory not to start a war overseas during his term. there are great successes there we can take pride in. all of that went away yesterday. i think you're right to ask the question as to how did it happen? >> yeah. gosh, how did it happen? mr. mulvaney? perhaps you should look in the mirror because whenever the president said or did something beyond the pale, he had people like you, mick mulvaney, to back him up and help him. >> look, the president is a fighter. there's to question about it. and you will see him fighting down to the very last, the end of that press, joe biden's the president, you can absolutely guarantee a peaceful transition

of power. i just hope the same is true on the other side. >> yeah. now he's backing away from enabling the boss. so it elaine chao's husband, senate majority leader mitch mcconnell. to his credit, his break with the president came before the insurrectionists tried to break down the door. >> if this election were overturned by mere allegations from the losing side, our democracy would enter a death spiral. we'd never see the whole nation accept an election again. voters, the courts, and the states, have all spoken. they've all spoken. if we overrule them, it would damage our republic forever. >> that is undefinal bli strong

stuff and well spoken and well thought out. and probably comes from the heart. but it comes also from a figure who had the power and the platform to put an end to this nonsense weeks ago, months ago, but instead enabled and normalized it. he let his members continue to spread lies about the election under the disingenuous and cynical guise of, oh, just asking questions and people are talking. talking about people like ted cruz. >> we've seen in the last two months unprecedented allegations of voter fraud. and that's produced a deep, deep, distrust of our democratic process across the country. i think we in congress have an obligation to do something about that. >> unprecedented allegations of voter fraud. from the president of the united states. that's who's been spreading unprecedented allegations of voter fraud. unprecedented, comma, false, allegations about voter fraud. ted cruz knows better but he wants to be president 2024 and he's hoping that the president will continue to maybe throw him

a nice tweet. well, not continue to insult his wife for her looks. what the president believes about her looks. that the president will like him and his supporters maybe, maybe, just like him. ted cruz said the same thing yesterday on the senate floor when he had the gall to speak out against the very flames that he was fanning. >> we have seen and no doubt will continue to see a great deal of moralizing from both sides of the aisle. but i would urge to both sides, perhaps, a bit less certitude and a bit more recognition that we are gathered at a time when democracy is in crisis. >> he says in a very certain and moralizing tone. he issued a statement today reading in part, "the attack at the capitol was a despicable act of terrorism and a shocking assault on our democratic system." he also reissued his call for a commission to investigate the alleged election fraud which we

should say, yet again, has never, ever, not even once, been proved. as for josh hawley, the up and coming senator who first fueled the false hopes of the president and his violent followers that congress would somehow overturn the election, he, too, decried the violence. even though just a short time earlier he'd been raising his fist in solidarity with the crowd. tough guy. still hoping to keep the president and his supporters on their good side for future elections, senators hawley and cruz maintained their objections, though they were, to the electoral count throughout this episode. to the end, they were there trying to cover their role as enablers and their standard layer of smooth talk and debating points. other enablers, though, blew a different kind of smoke. here's senator graham seeming to say the real damage here was to his friend, not democracy. >> as to yesterday, it breaks my heart that my friend, a president of a consequence, were to allow yesterday to happen.

and it will be a major part of his presidency. it was a self-inflicted wound. it was going too far. >> this from a man who back in 20 is a wh 2015 when he was running against him for president said the president's comments were going to, quote, kill my party more recently, though, this recent profile in courage had a role to play leading up to yesterday trying to get the state of georgia to reverse the president's defeat there. >> ask that the ballots could be matched back to the voters and i got the sense it implied that then. you could throw those out. really, would look at the counties with the highest frequent error of signatures. so that's -- that's the impression that i got. well, just an implication that look hard and see how many ballots you could throw out. >> remember, that's the guy the president and his supporters demonized for simiply following

the law. whether it was lindsey graham's dubious phone calls, mitch mcconnell's cynical tolerance, mo brooks' out and out war cry, people invaded the capitol yesterday. the persons or persons who set pipe bombs and swung makeshift clubs had plenty of validation for what they did and encouragement. as democratic congressman conor lamb pointed out yesterday, it continues. >> that attack today, it didn't materialize out of nowhere. it was inspired by lies. the same lies that you're hearing in this room tonight. and the members who are repeating those lies should be a ashamed of themselves. their constituents should be ashamed of them. >> we should point out that a number of republican lawmakers have not gone along with this. they've stood up. senator mitt romney for one, also congressman adam kinzinger. other gop lawmakers who planned on objecting to the vote count yesterday, they changed their minds. sure. only after the rioters came and went. only after they felt a sense of fear. knew the fear others feel when

people were pounding at the door. and, again, to congressman lamb's point, even so-called grown-ups like senator marco rubio were still sowing election fraud doubts hours after the attack ended. >> democracy doesn't depend on having elections. it depends on people's confidence in thaez electiose e >> right. >> and willingness to abide by the rultss. i don't now why the senate can't do watergate style, titanic-style hearings. it wouldn't change the outcome of this race but would give people the clarity, the answer. and by the way, the changes that we need to make. >> remember the president's voter fraud commission, kris kobach, big hoopla, they were going to find out, get to the bottom of it, it got disbanded because there's no widespread voter fraud in the election. there are cases here a there. that should be prosecuted. there's no widespread voter fraud, not in this country, not now. again, it cannot be said too often, there's no evidence of any koconsequential voter fraud

anywhere, not now, now in decades. as the president showed during that call this weekend to brad raffinsburger it's a token of faith to republicans who mainlined in body politic using social media. today facebook blocked the president from posting. yesterday twitter suspended his awe count. been restored, i understand. not just social media. mainstream outlikes li soutlets same news. even today it was too much for trey gowdy, he was surprised web the anchor on fox he was talking to seemed not to make the connection between the president's speech yesterday and the rioters storming the capitol. >> who told them to dhoo that? >> did you hear the speech? did you listen to the president's speech yesterday? >> i did. >> then you tell me. who said that? who said go fight? who blamed mike pence? who blamed republicans? who said the election was stolen? >> shortly before that moment fox anchor brian killmeade

admitted, "the president's behavior has been terrible since the election." any case, 13 days before the end of the administration, it's a little late in the game, which as we saw and we're still seeing is no game at all. >> but what we witnessed yesterday was not dissent. it was not disorder. it was not protest. it was chaos. they weren't protesters. don't dare call them protesters. they were a riotous mob, insurrectionists, domestic terrori terrorists. it's that basic. that's that simple. and i wish we could say we couldn't see it coming. that isn't true. we could see it coming. the past four years we've had a president who's made his contempt for our democracy, our constitution, the rule of law, clear in everything he has done.

he unleashed an all-out assault on our institutions of our democracies from the outset and yesterday was the culmination of that unrelenting attack. >> now, again, the president just put out a video in part seeking to justify his actions yesterday. we're going to show it in its entirety because it is important from a news standpoint given we have not heard from the president all day today. but i do just want to, you know, give you a hetads-up, he lies i this video about his actions yesterday claiming he called in the national guard right away, claiming he was outraged by what he saw. we know he was lying not just because of reporting but what he said previously about what he witnessed. we'll tell you what he said previously after we play you this. about 2 minutes, 41 seconds. this is the president's latest statement released just a short time ago. >> i would like to begin by addressing the heinous attack on the united states capitol.

like all americans, i am outraged by the violence, lawlessness, and mayhem. i immediately deployed the national guard and federal law enforcement to secure the building and expel the intruders. america is and must always be a nation of law and order. the demonstrators who infiltrated the capitol have defiled the seat of american democracy. to those who engaged in the acts of violence and destruction, you do not represent our country. and to those who broke the law, you will pay. we have just been through an intense election and emotions are high. but now tempers must be cooled and calm restored. we must get on with the business of america. my campaign vigorously pursued every legal avenue to contest the election results. my only goal was to ensure the

integrity of the vote. in so doing, i was fighting to defend american democracy. i continue to strongly believe that we must reform our election laws to verify the identity and eligibility of all voters and to ensure faith and confidence in all future elections. now congress has certified the results. a new administration will be inaugurated on january 20th. my focus now turns to ensuring a smooth, orderly, and seamless transition of power. this moment calls for healing and reconciliation. 2020 has been a challenging time for our people. a menacing pandemic has upended the lives of our citizens. isolated millions in their homes. damaged our economy. and claimed countless lives. defeating this pandemic and

rebuilding the greatest economy on earth will require all of us working together. it will require a renewed emphasis on the civic values of patriotism, faith, charity, community, and family. we must revitalize the sacred bonds of love and loyalty that bind us together as one national family. to the citizens of our country, serving as your president has been the honor of my lifetime. and to all of my wonderful supporters, i know you are disappointed, but i also want you to know that our incredible journey is only just beginning. thank you. god bless you. and god bless america. >> now, think if he had said that to the mob before they marched on the capitol. would it have made a difference? listen to what he actually did say to that mob before they attacked the capitol. in fact, encouraging them and claiming, making it sound as if he was going to be walking with them toward the capitol.

this is what he said just before the attack. >> we're going to walk down, and i'll be there with you, we're going to walk down -- we're going to walk down -- any one you want, i think right here, we're going to walk down to the capitol -- [ cheering ] and we're going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women and we're probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them. because you'll never take back our country with weakness. you have to show strength and you have to be strong. >> "never take back our country with weakness, you have to show strength, you have to be strong." as for those people he called into action that he claimed he was going to be marching with, the ones that mo brooks told to, you know, kick some ass, he now says those people defiled the seat of american democracy. that's quite a change from what he said while it was happening,

as he was watching it on television and then immediately afterward when he made a taped statement. here's what he said yesterday just after the attack while there were still people on capitol grounds. >> we love you. you're very special. you've seen what happens. you see the way others are treated that are so bad and so evil. >> perspective now from cnn's senior political analyst gloria borger and cnn chief white house correspondent jim acosta. jim, it seems to me the president is now saying these people defiled the capitol. he's soon probably going to be saying that it was antifa just like mo brooks is suggesting it and matt gaetz and others and now i guess this is his way of sort of saying, you know, his supporters he loved and they're great people, but it was these rogue elements dressed up, i guess, in, you know, trump paraphernalia pretending to be that actually defiled the capitol. you have new reporting about what led up to this video tonight.

what did you learn? >> yeah. anderson, i mean, if you believe that the president was trying to bring healing to the country with that video, i have an exciting array of trump products to sell you. but putting that to the side, anderson, let me tell you, i talked to a white house adviser earlier this evening who said, listen, president put out this video because he was facing imminent resignations from his senior staff and because he is facing potentially an imminent impeachment process. and this adviser went on to say that message and tone should have been relayed on election night, shovertly thereafter, no after people died. the president released this message this evening because his house is on fire and he is facing the prospect of losing his presidency before it's over. and i will tell you, one of the people he has to be worried about right now is vice president mike pence. now, we are being told that it is unlikely that pence is going to pursue the 25th amendment option, but at the same time, i will tell you, his people are telling me that they are very

upset with president trump for not checking in on the vice president and his family. he was with his wife and daughter yesterday up on capitol hill. and they're very upset with the president because the president essentially tried to strong arm the vice president into carrying out a procedural coup which obviously didn't happen. vice president pence is the last person in the world that president trump wants to upset right now because if vice president pence becomes president, remember, donald trump probably would like a pardon at the end of this process. >> i don't understand -- >> so, yeah. >> what do these people expect? what does vice president pence expect? >> oh, god -- >> he's been at the side of this man through, as this man has, you know, mocked, you know, disabled people, i mean, the -- >> yeah. >> what do these people expect? >> anderson, i 100% agree with you. it is one of the, i think, story lines of this presidency. people thinking they could ride the tiger without ending up in its mouth. >> yeah. >> and, you know, for far too long, too many administration

officials thought that they can manage this president, deal with this president, benefit from this president, take advantage of this president, only to find out that it only works in one direction with this president. the loyalty only works in one direction. and that's in the direction of donald trump. >> gloria, the whole 25th amendment thing which is, you know, there was all this reporting about members of the cabinet kind of whispering and talking about it. it would require vice president mike pence, my understanding, correct me if i'm wrong, vice president pence to "a," want to do this and get a majority of the cabinet in secret to do it. that seems highly unlikely. >> right, it does at this point. as jim was saying mike penceunin it. nancy pelosi tried to get in touch with him today. he didn't return her phone call. one can presume is because he doesn't want to talk about this because she has said if you don't invoke the 25th amendment, we're going to impeach him. and what you see trump doing in that ridiculous video is caring

about himself. he's staring at the 25th amendment. his people are jumping ship. he's looking at a congress that wants to impeach him. even the people he thought would be loyal to him, of course, are not loyal to him because he incited violence the other day. and so they gave him a speech, what we saw was, you know, teleprompter president there. he read it and the real one we saw was the one the other day who said, i love you guys, because at the end of the speech tonight he said i'm going to be back. and this is the message he wanted to give. so he expects loyalty. but he current gidoesn't give i. he's loyal to himself and not the nation. if he were loyal to the nation, he would have conceded two months ago when the election was over. >> jim, the acting u.s. attorney for washington, d.c., says his office is looking to anyone involved in the insurrection for possible charges. is the white house concerned about possible legal exposure for president trump or donald trump jr., rudy giuliani who talked about trial by combat?

"the new york times" reported white house counsel pat cippalonne warned the president he could be at risk. >> there are concerns about that. this is a catch me if you can president. the president has done this so many times. he's an escape artist web w isi comes to evading accountability and responsibility. people around donald trump know that. they believe this evening this video helped sort of stem the tide that's running against the president right now. for the 25th amendment. for impeachment and so on. they believe this video is going to be helpful to that end. and i will tell you, there are just some white house officials here who are not dealing with the reality of the situation. i talked to one just recently who, about the protest and the riots that took place yesterday, anderson, who said, oh, this was just a small group of trump supporters who got out of -- i mean, come on. i mean -- >> right. >> -- there are people inside this building behind me, anderson, including the president, they're just not living in the real world right

now. >> there are people who are dead. a capitol officer is dead. there's a woman, you know, whether she was a conspiracy theorist or not, she was a woman who had a family. she's dead for no reason. >> right. >> because she -- >> blood on their hands. >> she believed this crap that they've been spewing and other -- other people, you know, died from medical conditions. i mean, it's just -- it's ludicrous. >> it's sickening. it's sickening. >> yeah. >> what i've been told is that the president has cordoned himself off. he's not talking to anybody, i'm told. >> yeah. >> i was told no serious person has access to donald trump anymore. >> all right. gloria -- >> except the ones who got him to give the speech tonight i guess. >> appreciate it. jim acosta as well. i'm joined now by senator bernie sanders who demanded vice president pence and other officials invoke the 25th amendment and remove president trump from office. senator sanders, thanks for being with us. you called on vice president pence to invoke the 25th amendment, remove the president from office. "a"s, how likely do you think that will happen, if it doesn't hap happen rnlg, will you support an effort to impeach the president?

>> i would. i don't know how likely it is. look, we have a very, very unstable president at the end of his term and god only knows -- nobody knows what this man is capable of. just yesterday he incited people to invade the u.s. capitol. as you've indicated, people died. what happens tomorrow? i don't know, you don't know. so i think the best bet right now is if we can get him out of office as quickly as possible. >> the likelihood that trump is actually removed from office the next 13 day probably seems low. if he does remain in office, what else could be done to contain him? >> i think what you've already seen, your commentators have made this point, when you're already talking about the 25th amendment, when you were talking about impeachment, when you're seeing resignations from longtime associates of donald trump, he is catching on. that he is becoming increasingly isolated, people are not supporting him, and he's going to have to be on good behavior. i hope that is the case. >> do you think president trump should face legal repercussions for his role in what happened

yesterday? >> well, there's a lot of legal issues regarding donald trump. i'm thinking about his discussion with the georgia secretary of state where he asked him to find 12,000 votes, reverse that election. we will see what a new attorney general in the justice department will do after biden becomes president. >> you know, even if -- the president's going to leave 13 days from now, however it happens, he will be gone. he'll still be out there at mar-a-lago tweeting, whatever else happens in the future. there's obviously a lot of people in kithis country who stl follow him, believe what he said, have legitimate grievances, have real pain out there, economic pain which you've spoken to time and time again. what do we do to bring this together? >> anderson, that is the most important point. trump has been a disaster, the worst president in the history of the united states.

that's terrible. but what i worry about even more is something like 74 million people voted for him. that tens of millions of people believe his outrageous lie that this election was stolen. and what we have got to do, let me just be very clear, as the incoming chairman of the senate budget committee, i remember what happened in 2010. that is the democrats during the 2008-2010 period controlled the white house, they controlled the senate, controlled the house. you remember that? and you remember what happened in 2010? democrats got wiped out. they had the power but they did not deliver for the american people. so what we have got to do, right now, no ifs, buts, or maybes, is have an aggressive agenda that says, we understand that millions of people, including my neighbors right here in vermont, people lining up in their cars in order to get emergency food,

people can't pay their medical bills. people are going deeper and deeper into debt. people are facing eviction. millions of people have lost their jobs. we have to act and act now. and the first order of business, by the way, is to pass an emergency covid-19 bill which among many other things says to working-class americans, we know you're in pain and we're going to get you a $2,000 check for every working-class adult in this country. we are on your side. we are prepared to take on the big-money interests who have so much power. we're going to expand health care to cover the uninsured. we're going to deal with student debt. we have got to be bold in a way we have not seen since fdr in the 1930s and if we do not do that, those millions and millions of people who vote for trump, they're going to continue to believe the government does nothing. nothing for them. and we've got to change that attitude. the only way i know how to do that is to do the work that the people need us to do. and by the way, we have got to

develop -- strengthen grassroots organizing all over this country. instead of investing in consultants and 30-second tv ads, we need to put tens of millions of dollars into neighborhood and community organizing all over this country. talk to people. knock on their doors. not just the week before the election but two years before the election. listen to what they have to say. can they afford health care? can they afford prescription drugs? so we need to be bold. and i will do everything in my power to see the congress moves in that direction. >> it's hard to be bold. i mean, you know better than anybody, you know, when the senate, yes, democrats can, you know, have a -- will have a majority with vice president harris at the top of it, but in order, you know, it's not 60 votes which to really get big things done, you probably need more than the majority that they have, no? >> no, i don't think so. yes and no. there's a lot that we can do through biden's executive

actions. you know, trump showed us the power of executive orders. it's not the best approach, but there's a lot that you can do. on day one, you can make sure that you undo all of the racist, anti-immigrant legislation that trump has promulgated over the years. what you can also do is use what we call budget reconciliation. i won't bore you with the crazy rules of the united states senate, but in fact, we can move forward with 51 votes to pass some very significant legislation which among other things is what republicans have done in the past. >> senator bernie sanders, i appreciate your time on this really mementos part of our history. thank you. >> thank you. just ahead, someone with insight into what the president may be planning for the final days of his administration, particularly as pressure mounts for him to resign. his niece, mary, joins us. also the law enforcement efforts to bring the attackers to justice. what authorities are doing to

name, find and prosecute the rallygoers who attacked the u.s. capitol. for veteran families,

when it comes to finding and buying your dream home, we'll be there to make it happen. we'll be there when you want better rates too. or to get money for retirement.

we'll be there because we work only with veteran families like yours to help you get the most life out of a home for the life of your family perhaps the most frightening question right now, what will president trump do over the next 13 days of his administration? particularly with democrats counting votes for possible impeachment. the role in sparking yesterday's violence and conservatives calling him to resign. more reaction tonight, the new video that his focus is a smooth, orderly and sooeceamles

transition. mary trump joins us. also author of the book "too much and never enough." first of all, your reaction to the new video message that the president released this evening given what he's just been saying to the mob before the attack and even after the day before. >> the video was clearly coerced. by that i mean somebody was able to convince him that he was in serious jeopardy and if he didn't do something to mitigate the horrors he basically incited yesterday, he would be in even more trouble. so it was obviously a way to cover himself. there was not an ounce of truth in that video and i think it's also really important to point out that he still hasn't conceded. >> right. and, in fact, he didn't say, you know, president biden -- president-elect biden's name at all. >> right. >> as you said, no concession there. i mean, your uncle is a man who's really never faced

consequences for his behavior. i mean, he's had really close calls, casinos going bankrupt, you know, endless lawsuits, all of that, but that's sort of -- that's a normal day for him. he seems to have always gotten away with lying and cheating. he's increasingly isolated. you know, may be facing some legal challenges. i don't put much, you know -- doesn't seem like the 25th amendment thing is going to happen. there may be some sort of impeachment by democrats. i mean, you're a psychologist. when a person is backed into a corner like this, i guess there's what normal people would do and then there's people who are -- whose lives are played out backed into a corner. what do you expect him to do? >> absolutely anything he thinks will help him get out of this and by that i mean overturn the election results -- he still thinks that's a possibility because you're right, he's never been in a situation like this before. in the sense that he's always

been able to get the win. even if it had an asterisk next to it, you know. so whether he cheats, lies, and steals his way, he was able to get of a bad situation. he can't do that here. he's tried everything. so in addition to being desperate, he still has all of the power which is why it is so vitally important that he be impeached and removed immediately. >> it does seem to me and, again, i don't, you know, like to speculate about stuff, but it does seem like the next step for him is claiming that it was antifa or, you know, provocateurs who actually were behind the storming of the capitol. that's what mo brooks and some of these enablers of the president's are already saying. >> yeah. i mean, i don't -- we can't put anything past him, honestly. he's desperate.

he's terrified. as you mentioned, he's increasingly isolated. people are resigning. people in the cabinet are resigning not out of protest but so they don't have to be involved in any 25th amendment issues. so as we get closer to the inauguration and he continues to run out of options, we have to be prepared. i hope nothing happens, but the possibility is there and we saw that yesterday. he incited those people. he -- he is those people. >> you know, he -- there's some who have suggested maybe he could just resign, you know, go play golf for a while, resign. mike pence would take over for the last, you know, week or two. do -- i don't see that as being something he would actually do, but, i mean, do you have a thought on that? >> i think it's extraordinarily unlikely he resign. i think it's much more likely he try to pardon himself. and, you know, the other thing

we need to keep in mind is that despite his actually having people storm the capitol on his behalf, he failed in his efforts to have senate and house republicans overturn the results of the election. so he's also running out of allies and i think he's going to come to the conclusion that the only way out of this is a self-pardon, which, you know, creates a whole other set of issues which could be completely avoided and obviated if he's impeached and removed as he should be because he has committed sedition against his own country. >> it's so interesting because, you know, he raised, obviously, a lot of money off this latest grr grift over the election fraud grift. quarter billion dollars the last i paid attention to it. a lot of the money he can use for his own purposes however he wants because of the kind of pac

it's actually dedicated to. do you think he -- the political capital he would have enjoyed, a lot of that now is gone because of this attack. i think it's just going to be fascinating to see how the republican party, i mean, already, you know, seeing people distancing, lindsey graham has suddenly now been born again and is now kind of shocked by trump's behavior and says he's out. you know, mitch mcconnell has clearly voiced his disdain. do you think he can regain that sway over the republican party? >> i don't for a couple reasons. and first of all, lindsey graham, mitch mcconnell, are as responsible for all of this as donald is. so we cannot ever forget that. a couple things are going to be happening. after he no longer has the power and the protection of the oval office, he's looking at serious state-level charges. he's looking at very serious

lawsuits. and he's looking at this distinct probability that banks are going to start calling in his loans. so he's going to be very busy giving depositions and crafting a defense against all of these things so he may not have that much time to continue to stoke division and i think as importantly as you said, people are, you know, the rats are fleeing the ship. he's going down and most people have finally figured out that it's a bad thing for them to be associated with it and they've been making the wrong calculation all along. not sure why josh hawley and ted cruz haven't figured that out, but i think most people have. >> ivanka trump tweeted and then deleted this tweet yesterday saying, "american patriots, any security breach or disrespect to our law enforcement is unacceptable. violence must stop immediately. please be peaceful." you know, this idea of being

american patriots, the complicity of her, her husband, donald trump jr. who, again, addressed this crowd, tried to get them all riled up, eric trump and lara trump who also addressed this crowd trying to get them all riled up. there's a lot of blame to go around. >> there is, which is why i hope that if donald does try to pardon them, which i'm pretty sure he will, he's not allowed to. it would be a corrupt pardon. and if for whatever reason they're allowed to get away with that, this increases the urgency that state-level charges be filed against them for the various financial crimes they've allegedly committed over the years. these people are as complicit in this act of insurrection yesterday as anybody else. and if we can hold them accountable the way they should be through the department of justice, we have to find other ways to do it. >> what do you think, i mean, knowing what you know about him,

his life will be like, you know, he's now, i guess, officially going to be a resident of mar-a-lago. you know, he'll still have places in new york, obviously. i assume part of it is for tax purposes that he'll be down in florida and, you know, easier to evade lawsuits and stuff like that. what do you think his life will be like? >> i think it's going to be pretty grim. yesterday was a bridge too far for people who for whatever reasons have stuck with him until then. and i -- it increases the likelihood that on august 20th donald loses relevance precipitously as he should and it's -- he's not going to adapt well to that because i think other than money, the thing that's most important to him is power and he's also with this ridiculous video that he put out this evening betrayed the people

who put it all on the line for him yesterday. so he's not going to have an easy time of it. >> he's not going to turn on the television and hear his name all the time and see his picture, which will be, perhaps, you know, the saddest thing to him of all. mary trump, i really appreciate you being with us. thank you. >> thank you so much, anderson. we have new reporting just in on efforts to remove the president under the 25th amendment. our jim acosta is back by phone with late details. jim, what are you learning? >> anderson, i can tell you some of what we were talking about earlier this evening which is the vice president mike pence at this point is highly unlikely to pursue the option of the 25th amendment to force the president from power. at the same time, though, there's some other discussions under way. my colleagues are reporting that a couple of cabinet secretaries have begun to have discussions about whether or not to confront the president about his behavior

and demand some sort of public address to the nation so he can, you know, further account for his actions and what took place at the capitol yesterday. obviously, all of this sounds like it's at a preliminary stage. it's an indication as to how seriously this is being taken by some members of the cabinet. you and i were talking earlier this evening about, well, should the administration officials be all that surprised by trump's behavior and what happens because of his behavior? but those discussions are happening. they're under way right now as a result of what took place at the capitol yesterday. in addition to these conversations that are taking place regarding the 25th amendment, though, we should point out at this point we're getting some indications from the vice president's team that he's not likely to pursue that option at this point, anderson. >> fascinating. jim acosta, appreciate the reporting. you and all the others at cnn. up next, the effort to track down some of the attackers who invaded the capitol. cnn knows who some of them are by looking at photos taken during the mayhem. utiful. state of the art technology makes it brilliant.

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more breaking news. both federal and local authorities are casting a wide net in an effort to locate

rioters who took part in the capitol insurrection. cnn's senior investigative correspondent drew griffin identified some of them, all clearly visible in photos taken during the riot. man dressed in what looks like buffalo horns and is shirtless is a guy named jake angeli from arizona. he has referred to himself as a qanon shaman, qanon conspiracy theorist. he not only broke into the senate, he posed on the senate dais. man who broke into speaker nancy pelosi's office is richard barnett, a gun rights supporter from arkansas who has at one point referred to himself as a white nationalist. we mentioned him at the top of the program. tim gionet is a far-right activist who live streamed himself inside the building for more than 25 minutes. nick ochs is a member of the proud boys group in hawaii. then there's another man, an elected state representative from west virginia, a republican named derek evans.

he can be heard shouting, "we're in, we're in, baby," while moving among a crowd of rioters through a capitol doorway. evans' attorney released a statement saying his client is an independent activist and journalist who did nothing wrong and was merely filming, what are authorities saying about how they plan to prosecute those responsible? >> reporter: well, it's pretty serious, anderson. we're talking about sedition. that's what the u.s. attorney here in washington, d.c. are saying. this is a sedition conspiracy, far ranging, wide-ranging investigation involving the fbi and other authorities. this is about as serious as it gets. and what they're going to try and do is they're going to try and figure out how many of these people were working together, exactly what groups they were part of, and use that evidence as part of their investigation and to potentially bring

charges. all those people that you mentioned, those are the people that authorities are looking for. many of them do not live here. they have all since, what we're told, have all since fled washington, d.c. so the local police here, the washington police here, they've put out photos of them to outside police agencies to be on the lookout for them. so they are actively looking for them. but this is about as serious of an investigation, certainly listening to the d.c. u.s. attorney today talk about how serious of an investigation this is and the resources that they're putting behind this, we could see so many of these people, up to about 30 people in all that they're looking for, be charged in this sedition conspiracy. >> one of the men i read an article-b the guy who put his feet up on pelosi's edit desk, he's raised money for local law enforcement in his town according to one article i read. top federal prosecutor for washington, d.c. said the office is looking at anyone involved in the insurrection for possible charges. did he say anything specifically

about the president or rudy giuliani or donald trump jr.? >> reporter: well, certainly anyone who was part of this or incited this, their comments. that is what the u.s. attorney said. including the president. because he was specifically asked. and he said he's going to be looking at everything, to see how that played a role in this conspiracy. and whether or not that incited. it's obvious that it did. but this is something they're going to have to try to prove. and they are going to use some of the words from the president. what we can wind up seeing here eventually, anderson, is that a criminal complaint, an indictment, the words from the president, the words from rudy giuliani and other people who took the stage here yesterday, and even in the days leading up to this, all be included in court documents used to show that these words helped incite what went on here yesterday. >> shimon prokupecz, appreciate it. one thing that may aid law enforcement is how vocal the attackers were, how willing they were to broadcast events as they

were happening. cnn's elle reeve has the story. >> [ bleep ] you! oath breakers! oath breakers! we're standing here! we're just standing here doing some [ bleep ]! >> what are we supposed to do? okay? the supreme court's not helping us. no one's helping us. only us can help us. only we can do it. >> a masked group of trump supporters stormed the u.s. capitol on wednesday to stop the certification of what they believe was a fraudulent election. >> unquestionable that our votes were stolen. it's unquestionable. there's so much proof. >> come on. tell nancy pelosi what you think. >> we want our representatives to do the right thing and

decertify the seven swing states. >> usa! usa! usa! >> reporter: the rally started peacefully as tens of thousands gathered outside the white house. they cheered donald trump and his allies as they continued to lie that the election was stolen. >> let's have trial by combat. >> he just said trial by combat. i'm ready! i'm ready. >> reporter: people marched down two avenues to the capitol, and once they got there some broke through barricades. once a few rioters broke into the building, the mob followed. >> i was actually here when this guy started breaking in with a cane. obviously there's a power struggle. there's peaceful guys that were like no, no, we don't want to do that. then there was that guy. he just said oh, well, i'm breaking it in. >> broke down the barriers and we rushed them, we charged them. we got all the way to the steps

and made a line. so we stood there and we tried to push them back a little bit until finally they started getting rough with us. so we kind of pushed them back. so that's what we did. we pushed them back. we tried to get up the steps. they wouldn't let us up. so then they started pepper spraying, macing everybody. >> thank you. >> are you okay? >> get some mill nic your eyes. >> they maced me. they pushed me out and they maced me. >> reporter: we spoke to some people who broke into the capitol. >> what happened in there? tell us what happened. >> we went in there and then i walked in and just a whole bunch of people lighting up in some oregon room. there's a ton of oregon things. they were smoking a bunch of weed in there. then they moved it down, the statues. the cops were very cool. they were like hey guys have a good night. some of them. it's crazy. you can see some of them are on our side. >> reporter: we reached out to the capitol hill police for comment but have not yet heard back. >> long time now. long time. >> a huge group of us stormed inside. and as we started -- we were basically shouting like cops.

there were people arguing that were on our side basically. >> reporter: clashes with police happened sporadically throughout the day and waves of tear gas wafted over the crowd. they said they felt like they were doing something good. >> this is our capitol! we built it! >> it was a bunch of really, really pissed-off regular folks. i've got a job. this is wednesday. i'm supposed to be at work. yeah. >> that's what we're doing. fighting back. >> and what's the point? what's the end game? >> what's the point? >> yeah. >> we're losing our freedom. what do you mean what's the point? >> taking our freedoms, locking us down and turning our country into a blasted socialist republic. and that is not right! that's what i'm doing here. >> reporter: ellie reeve, cnn, washington, d.c.

>> thank you to ellie reeve for that reporting. a firsthand look at the assault at the heart of american democracy. as you heard, many of those who stormed the capitol did so motivated by all kinds of false beliefs including conspiracy theories. yet another challenge facing america in the days and weeks and years ahead. up next one of the most reliable allies of president trump in the republican party breaks with him and calls for him to resign. we'll tell you who that is when we return.

the conservative editorial board of the "wall street journal" to those now making the case for the impeachment of donald trump. tonight they published this editorial. donald trump's final days. in it they lay out the case for trump's ouster. writing about yesterday's events they say, "this was an assault on the constitutional process of transferring power after an election. it was also an assault on the legislature from an executive sworn to uphold the laws of the united states. this goes beyond merely refusing

to concede defeat. in our view it crosses a constitutional line that mr. trump hasn't previously crossed. it is impeachable." later they write, "if mr. trump wants to avoid a second impeachment his best path would be to take personal responsibility and then resign." that from the conservative "wall street journal," that the editorial that has just come out today suggesting the president should resign lest he be impeached. saying that there is a case for impeachment. that is something obviously a lot of democrats are looking at. there are reports that nancy pelosi had been trying to reach vice president pence, that he was not returning her call knowing that it would be about the 25th amendment. so we continue to follow up tomorrow to see whether or not impeachment is something that the democrats are going to be