first lady as one that, you know, was just as challenging as her husband in terms of popularity. >> yeah. thank you verypreciate your tim >> thank you. and thanks to all of you. anderson starts now. good evening:. with thless than two days until joe biden takes office, a celebration of democracy is locked down tight. there was a brief light show in the mall rep ceresenting 50 sta which tonight feels like a reminder how far from normality we are. the acting defense secretary said there is quote no intelligence indicating an insider threat to the president elect which in itself would be jarring with fbi agents screening thousands of national guard troops to prevent a threat from coming to pass and that in

turn is incredibly sad. it where we are in large part because the out going president has brought us to this point by his words, his actions and these days by his complete inaction in the wreckage. as has become typical for weeks, his official schedule today contained nothing more than the following boilerplate, i quote president trump will work from early in the morning until late in the evening. he'll make many calls and have many meetings, that's what is on his official schedule, which is kind of how a 5-year-old might describe what a president does. he works from early in the morning until late in the evening and he makes many calls and has many meetings. now of course, even that ridiculous description is a lie, which of course is also where the president has brought us. george w. bush actually woke up early every morning and got to work, so did president obama. neither one had as many americans die on his watch as this president, not by a long shot. at some point tonight or early tomorrow morning deaths from covid in this country will top

400,000. earlier today, the case total hit 24 million. think about that for a moment as you listen to the president last february. >> and again, when you have 15 people and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero, that's a pretty good job we've done. >> that's the president boasting the job he's done before doing the job, which he never did. with nearly 400,000 mothers and fathers and friends and neighbors gone, think about that or think about how quickly he moved the goalpost a. few weeks later and how willing he was to claim victory before the fact for 100,000 or even 200,000 american lives lost. >> if we could hold that down as we're saying to 100,000, it's a horrible number. maybe even less but to 100,000 so we have between 100 and 200,000, we are all together have done a very good job. >> we learned since then that he

never really took the job of saving lives seriously at all or uniting the country in a shared purpose the way the presidents in both parties have in the face of every single other national crisis since the great depression. the president was not interested before the election or after it and there is no indication he's using many phone calls and meetings to make up for lost time. nor is he just for instance devoting time to getting more americans vaccinated or ensuring the incoming administration is up to speed on vital national security matters. no, instead he's dumping it all, covid, tanking jobs market, failed rollout of vaccines and divided country right into joe biden's lap and while the virus will eventually be conquered and jobs will return, the divisions will linger and no small part because the out going president that stoked the division with lies about the election has yet to disavow the lies and never will. nor have many in his party with some notable exceptions. >> our lives were put at risk

because the american people, millions of american people were lied to about the election. congrelss had no business, authority or power to overturn the results of the electoral college and neither did the president. the president said the date, the time, the location of this event that happened on capitol hill and rhetoric leading up to it is why all of this happened. >> again, as best we can tell, none of the president's many calls and meetings if in fact there actually were any have dealt with what he's unleashed on the congress and country and if there is any doubt the people rioting felt they were acting on president trump's wishes, there is video taken by a journalist for "the new yorker." we'll let it play for a bit because we think it remains important to show what was really going on and how dangerous and disgusting the whole episode was and a warning, this video, some of the language is profane. >> easy!

easy! >> f you police! >> go trump! >> there is a fing million of us out there. >> we're listening to trump, that man yelled at capitol hill police officer. listening to a lie that again, so many republican lawmakers simply will not flatly

disad he's an enabler and this is his non-answer answer. >> so my question for you is will you admit that joe biden won fair and square and the election was not rigged or stolen? >> at 4:00 a.m. on thursday, january 7th when we concluded our business on the floor, joe biden became vice president biden became president elect biden. >> see, that's the problem right there. he won't answer because i guess he's scared of his own supporters of the trump base. no matter how intellectually dishonest and absurd it gets. two gentlemen went back and forth for sometime and later when pressed by another committee member, congressman jordan said yes he won but there are serious problems with this election that deserve an in investigation. you just can't quit that big lie, the big lie the president

of the united states will likely go to his grave repeating to anyone that will listen. cnn political anna list says he won the election with less than 48 hours to go before he leaves office. that's according to his -- that's according to aides she says in addition she reports that associates of the president tell her that he continues to rail against house republican leader kevin mccarthy who by the way has done serious damage to whatever reputation he had by lying so much for the president. but with donald trump, no amount of debasement is enough. he is according to maggie's reporting using the same vulgarity about mccarthy, a word used to refer to a cat beginning with the letter p he's also called the vice president and as if on queue on this day dedicated to dr. martin luther king's vehicle of healing but call for honest reckoning with what divides us, the first lady released a farewell video. >> in all circumstances, i ask

every american to be an ambassador of the best. to focus on what unites us, to raise above what divides us, to always choose love over hatred, peace over violence, and others before yourself. >> so there is that. there is everything that the president is not doing to live up to those words and perhaps the only thing he's still hard at work on, namely, pardons. latest from the white house and cnn's jim acosta. how exactly is president trump spending his final days in office? because they actually say of his schedule, it's just -- it really is a child's description of what a president, what a 5-year-old might think a president does. >> anderson, i should tell you that the president has been dictating that to aids to put that on the schedule. so your description -- >> is that really true? >> reporter: that is true. your description is apt. >> i did not know that.

>> reporter: now you do. yes, this is what has been happening the last several weeks here. as for what the president is up to, we do know he recorded a farewell message or video message at the white house done out of the view of the press because he's been in hiding avoiding reporters like you and me and avoiding our cameras but that video message is expected to be released obviously before he leaves office at some point we're told during that video he refers to the next administration. you know, he has also been having meetings with advisors and lawyers behind the scenes to work out who he's going to pardon in the last remaining hours in office. he has been getting security briefings because as you know, anderson, this city is turned into a fortress to protect the american people from the president and supporters and, you know, as maggie has been reporting and i'm hearing the same, the president continues to lie to the people around him that the election was stolen from him. so this lie that never dies is one that he keeps repeating right up to the very end.

>> and what's the deal with the farewell ceremony that the president wants for himself? >> reporter: yeah, well, the president obviously is not going to be at the inauguration of joe biden despite the fact that all the signs on pennsylvania avenue in front of the white house are there to remind him that he's leaving office shortly. he's going to be over at joint base andrew outside washington. hits going to be something of a send off that you would see for a departing head of state. there is going to be a military band, color guard, maybe a flyover, 21 gun solute. the president and his team have been sending out invites to people that come to this event and anderson, we obtained one of those invitations. it says that people who come can bring get this, five guests of their own. they can bring five guests. i talked to a trump advisor that says he wants a big crowd so anderson, right up until the end it's about crowd size with this president. >> wow, that's how it started. >> reporter: that's how it started. >> i want to bring in beng --

benjamin. if there are no plans for president trump to pardon him himself, do you think it would be challenged in court? >> the way it would work is the justice department, the biden justice department would need to bring some sort of indictment. nobody can just take a self-pardon to court. there would be an indictment of donald trump and then donald trump would have to go in and try to get the indictment dismissed on the grounds it was unconstitutional. that would be a long conas a rule -- conas a rule luted legal process that would cost donald trump private citizen lots of money as it goes to the supreme court. >> after the insurrection, the president's advisors urged him not to pardon himself because he would look to be guilty of something. do you agree with that? >> i do agree with that. i think the other factor he's considering about himself as well as many other pardons i

suspect is that it's going to play before a direct jury that will be hearing his impeachment trial. so if donald trump did all the impeachments he probably wants to do, that's going to have a really negative impact on the 100 senators, particularly the 50 republican senators who feel that they have been put in uncomfortable position after uncomfortable position by what donald trump has done. >> ben, you know, i want to get your perspective. you were central to bush v gore but after that vice president gore and governor bush met during the transition and cdid you ever think you would see a sitting president treat the way the president is treating joe biden? >> no, i thought the florida recount was as close and contentious as any election could possibly be.

al gore was clearly in the best interest of the country including presiding over the electoral vote count in the joint session of congress and that was the way you would expect the american traditions, which made us strong over the years would be carried out and that's why this is so distressing and again, particularly to the 50 republican senators who really most of them all know that. >> jim, who is left around president trump? i mean, i read that kelly has left and went to florida somewhere. who is around the president. >> reporter: not many people. i was walking through portions of the west wing we're allowed to go and the offices are empty, the press staff has cleared out. there are empty walls where there used to be picture frames of the president and the first lady and so on. and right now he has, you know,

the people who have been feeding him this false information about the election, these lies about the election, people like mike lindell, the my pillow guy. i talked to a source today that is familiar with the things going on, the impeachment team he has at this point, which isn't much and essentially, this source was saying that the president has been pushing away advisors and so on who will not tell him what he wants to hear and so anderson, you know, this is not a president who is leaving office busting norms. this is a president who is leaving office disgracing himself, disgracing his entire presidency and it really is embarrassing the united states before the entire world. what we're witnessing over the next 40 hours or so is something like we've never seen in more than 100 years and that's because most presidents know better. and they want to do what is best for the country. donald trump is not doing that, anderson. >> jim acosta, benjamin, appreciate you being with us. thank you. i want to look at the

security picture. what's the latest measures in place tonight? >> reporter: yeah, so anderson, behind me military police now guarding the capitol which essentially has become like a military base. more national guard troops arriving here today. more secret service agents out on the street and more law enforcement just all across washington d.c. today being out here pretty much all day, i saw dozens of national guard troops arriving in buses and also, heavy military equipment being brought in. one of the remarkable things to watch is the capitol police as these buses and as the military vehicles were coming in, they were using bomb sniffing dogs to check them out to make sure there were obviously no bombs on them. certainly very remarkable to watch as the police are checking on the military, anderson. >> and what about the fbi was said to be vetting national guard troops involved in securing the capitol and

inauguration. what's that about? >> reporter: yeah, so anderson, one of the biggest concerns is extremism right now across the country. the fact that so many people have been consuming a lot of what's been on the internet on social media and obviously, a lot of what caused the insurrection here. officials have been very concerned that some of the people perhaps there could be an inside threat have been consuming some of this social media so they've been scouring social media, facebook for some of the people they have been bringing in law enforcement and also the military concern that some of them could have been consuming this. there is a really big concern over some of the extremism that is going on across the country. it's unprecedented times and it is something that this country has never seen before and there is a lot of concern obviously that there would be a threat inside from the military or even law enforcement, anderson. >> appreciate you being there. thank you. perspective now on how far from normal this all is. jay johnson served as hope land

security secretary under president obama. he joins us tonight. thanks for being with us. you ran the overall security for the trump inauguration four years ago. when you hear about the extra vetting by the fbi with national guard troops, it incredibly sad. is that unprecedented and something that would normally be done? >> anderson, i can't help but note some of the cruel and really tragic ironies here. four years ago, the inauguration that i had the overall responsibility for securing, donald trump stood on the western from the of the capitol and talked about american carnage and a lot of us wondered what he was talking about. that's exactly what donald trump inspired the week before last. switc seven months ago he put american troops on the streets of washington d.c. and portland and other cities but that's exactly what we must do now because of

the violence donald trump himself incited. so those insecurity and thags l security and law enforcement always are concerned about an insider threat. that is the most dangerous thing to look for. i do have a lot of confidence in our national guard particularly in our secret service, our fbi, don't forget the national guard in their private life are very often law enforcement officers, first responders, as civilians and these people in law enforcement, gun carryiers witha badge got where they got for a certain process and i do believe that a certain heightened vetting is appropriate here. i'm concerned that we may not be able to accomplish it all in such a short period of time. >> yeah, i mean, certainly given the number of troops and the number of people involved, that's obviously a lot of vetting to do in a very short amount of time and very close to the event, obviously.

>> yes, that's true. we're talking about some 25,000 members of the national guard. that's a lot of people. i have a lot of confidence in these people. this event is what we refer to as an m nsse, a national specia security i vevent. the secret service works with law enforcement agencies to make the grounds of the u.s. capitol virtually unobtainable from land, sea and air. this will certainly be the most secure domestic event we've seen in a very, very long time. >> you know, one of the things that when you're running a security operation for a big event, obviously, your primary focus is the security. but one doesn't want security to overwhelm an event as well, an event that has national importance, global importance, that -- >> correct --

>> -- it's important just in the history of our nation. i don't know what message is going to be sent with all the security given, you know, what we're used to seeing on inauguration day. i'm not sure what this inauguration day kind of looks like. >> that's a good question to ask. when i was in office as secretary of homeland security, we had the 2017 inauguration, three state of the unions, three u.n. general assemblies with a lot of world leaders and a visit and so forth. there is a balance that needs to be struck. i recall in particular when the pope visited in 2015 we were very concerned about foreign terrorists organizations like the islamic state. the pope was determined to be close to the people he was visiting and so we had to find the right balance there. this inauguration because of covid and the security concerns, i wouldn't be surprised if there

is between the attendees and the actual sec courity personnel a ratio but what we'll see that day is a new president and a new day taking office the trump presidency will be over and hopefully, this very, very dangerous and frankly reckless experiment that we engaged in four years ago of electing donald trump someone with virtually no qualifications for president will be over. >> before we go, today is obviously, martin luther king day. i understand you graduated morehouse college and you're a lifelong friend of his son. what message do you think dr. king would have for the nation right now at this sort of -- during this crew vil? >> i think he would be saying today if he were alive what he said many, many times during his lifetime. we all are part of a single garment of destiny as part of an

inescapable network of neu neutrality. what affects one directly affects all of us indirectly. those words now are as relevant as any point in the 1950s and 1960s and i hope we can rededicate ourselves to that prin principle, anderson. >> well said. former dhs secretary jason jay johnson, appreciate it. what we're learning what joe biden plans to say wednesday and tom freed man joins me and his take on this moment and any potential ways out of it. between what is hoped for and what can be, there's a bridge. between endangered and protected, there's a bridge. between chaos and wonder, there's a bridge.

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breaking news tonight on the inauguration.

what president elect joe biden will say. what are you learning, jeff? >> we're learning the speech is really still coming together in the final stages and of course, it is one of the most, the most important speech that joe biden has given in his life and it's strikingi it's on the very step of the capitol where he's delivered volumes of speeches inside but this speech outside on the west front of the capitol i'm told is going to strike themes of unity. he's been talking about that from the beginning of the campaign and restoring the soul of the nation but that's not enough. his advisors realize that is not enough for his task now so he's also going to talk about things of competence, try to reassure americans that the government is about to sort of right the ship if you will on the pandemic on the economy, on so many other issues but i'm told this is not details of policy. he's saving that for his congress in february. it is going to be steeped

inninnist -- history and answering the call help is on the way. >> do you know how much the draft of the president elect's speech has changed since january 6th? >> i'm told this is a closely guarded speech. a few advisors has seen it. he's been adding words. when he thinks of something and over the weekend, he was getting into the final drafts of this. the overall themes have not changed. in fact, the events of the capitol have under scored and highlighted his call for unity so he has been calling the rioters thugs. he's called them repeatedly that. we'll see if he actually uses that language during his address, i'd be surprised if he does. certainly, it changes some of the sharpness. the overall he is sage remarkably is the exact same since he jumped in this presidential race at the

beginning trying to restore the soul of the nation and now that's needed more than ever before certainly afterjanuary 6th. >> tonight, despite the worsening pandemic, president trump lifted covid relateded travel restrictions for much of europe, u.k. brazil effective january 6th. he won't be president then. has the biden harris team said anything about that? >> they did. they responded quickly and the incoming white house press secretary said look, now is not the time to be lifting any travel restrictions. essentially not so fast. the biden administration is almost in charge. they will be in charge by wednesday. certainly by january 26th. she says if anything, these restrictions are going to be strengthened because of the deepening pandemic, not lifted at all. so this is one thing the biden administration of course is able to stop the president from doing and they say they certainly plan to. >> jeff zeleny, thanks. whether it the last-minute moves or challenges ahead for the next

can't be over stated how far from normal this s. i'll talk about it with tom freedman, best selling author of a number of books, "the lexus and the olive tree." what's it like in washington now. >> i walked with my daughter and her husband this morning, anderson. it's sad. the city is a maze really of cement blocks preventing suicide bombers and military vehicles. i was able to get a mile from the capitol, close enough to hear the band playing. and it's just sad that this is going to be the backdrop for joe biden's inauguration but we'll get past this. they will be lifted. i hope the barriers around the capitol aren't permanent. i think it important not to let a few thugs reshape the face of this beautiful city. >> i do think it going to be one of the extraordinary things about this inauguration is just

how different it looks from what we are used to seeing, you know, the first lady and the president getting out of a vehicle, walking for a certain amount of time, and i'm wondering what sort of the message overall is sent because of this backdrop. >> you know, anderson, this is just such a bizarre year from the beginning to end. the combination of covid-19 pandemic and a donald trump pandemic. we've seen unusual things i think people are punchdrunk. they want this over. when it's over i think they will put it in their rearview mirror. >> what does it say the fbi feels the need to vet 25,000 national guard troops to make sure there is no internal threat. i was talking to jay johnson about this earlier. it makes sense but certainly sad. >> you know, anderson, i think what was realizing now is what

happens when you have the power of the presidency, the bully pulpit of the presidency combined with 80 million twitter followers and a president who really will violate any norm and tweet conspiracy theories, lies, attacks on people and say i'm passing them on. i think what we've really saw at the capitol is how deep that rot went. how many people in the country have been marinated in these conspiracy theories, qanon craziness and it is frightening and so i've been thinking a lot lately anderson about what i learned trying to combat islamic radicalism and there is two things to keep in mind here. the first is ideas don't just win. they require power to win. you know, bin laden was powerful. when the soviet union collapsed, so did communism. when the nazi germany collapsed, so did nazi-ism.

the free markets and free people for the 50 years after world war ii because we were strong. the fact trump is leaving the presidency indisgraced and the party may fracture, that's important because the bad ideas will not be a harness to the power they had but the second thing and this goes to really what jay johnson was dealing, we learn from the middle east is these ideas once they are embedded, they really require a war of ideas within. so what i called first for so many years was the war of ideas within islam. muslim leaders and muslim collar i cans took on these ideas to shrink and what we need here is republicans, conservatives to take on these ideas that's got to be a war of ideas within conservatives to root this out. you know, one of the things i learned from israelis about

after n9/11, i asked what did yu learn about suicide bombing? they said the most important thing we learned is it takes a village. if the wider community says it's martin, there will be more suicide bombing. if they say it murder, there will be less. what we need more now than anything is conservatives to call this out for what it is. that this is craziness. this is madness. it has nothing toc conse conservatism. >> you've written about this a lot particularly recently. there are qanon folks in the halls of congress now. there are all these house members who still even after the insurrection, you know, there was still rubble around the inside the halls of the capitol were voting to overturn the will of the vast majority of americans. >> it terrifying but there are many things that are necessary

to root it out. you know, but i think the most important thing is that that party fracture because the reason the ideas scaled is the party was split inside the republican party. we've seen that. but because they had the white house and the senate they were able to cement over a lot of those splits with goodies. they will not have the senate. they will not have the white house. you're about to see conflict within that party. i mean, it will be scorpions in a bottle. that's actually healthy because that fight has to happen because when that happens, if they are out of power for awhile, there is nothing that cures crazy ideas in washington more than being out of power. >> that makes sense. it's interesting, though, like you see somebody like lindsey graham who, you know, the night of the insurrection got up and said i'm out.

this is -- i hate that it ended this way. we had a hell of a ride. the president was a person of consequence which that doesn't really mean anything. i mean, but -- >> a lot of consequences. >> exactly. >> but, you know, then he gets, i don't know if him being yelled at in the airport which is always unprecedented to have that happen had a big effect but he's back on fox talking to the president and riding on helicopters with the president down to the border. i mean, you know, it's not exactly long list of profiles of courage. >> yeah, i mean, there is lindsey graham has danced at so many weddings, i simply have no no clue. what happens when they have no power to be close to? and that's why for some of these young men i watched the video you had earlier, it so reminded me of people i met in the middle

east from so many extremist groups. all of these young men that never held power, a job or a girl's hand. not all of them. that's what you had young men who had fallen behind, couldn't get married as a result. couldn't get a house or an apartment and that's the third leg of this stool which i'm looking forward to and that's what joe biden does. what he does to lift up the working class, the dignity of people, that's also part of this story. and it's going to take a week, a war of ideas within the conservative movement and the success by biden lifting the economy and just bringing normal back to the country. you know, anderson, we are like abused children. we had this guy, we've never had this before. a president with a bully pulpit of the presidency and 80 million twitter followers injecting these terrible ideas into the main line of them. into the minds of these people. what is so scary about those people in the capitol is they

actually believed it. that's really scary. so we didn't get into this in a quick way. we're not going to get out of it in a quick way. but it does take a successful biden administration and it's going to take a real war of ideas within the conservative movement and that's what you, i, the rest of us principle republican haves to hold their feet to the fire for. lindsey graham is never going to deliver for you. he's simply sold out to too many people but there are people there, the liz cheneys, we have to defend them and protect them and enable them because they are taking a risk. they're the muslims, the democrats who took a risk and took on ben laden and his ideas. >> i mean, do you have any sense of what president trump's after life will be? i mean, how long he actually sticks it out in mar-a-lago before trying to go back to new york? what do you think he becomes? >> he's right now facing

humiliation, liquidation and incarceration and i think that's one of the reasons we haven't heard much from him. i mean, he must be staring at a really scary future and, you know, one of the things we just have to tell everybody, okay, fox people, the facebook people, that if you are trucking and if you are amplifying and per per vaing these conspiracy theories, yo u you have got to stop. you're hurting this country. rupert murdoch, mark zuckerberg, what the hell are you people doing? what do we have to do to get you to realize these ideas have been main lined into people now so far so deep that we've had to check the national guard to see who has been infected or not.

and so every one of us, we all have to be on the aga game. the liberal press, you, i, we've been mobilized. but we got to calm down, too. we got to get back to separating news from opinion. >> yeah -- >> we got to get back to people wanting to read our papers, watch our cable shows because they trust it for the news and if we are -- because we were so mobilized against trump and if everyone is just been just on total edge, we've got to all calm down but we also got to understand the stakes if you are p talking about conspiracy th the theories, your an enemy of the nation and if i see you on the street or at a conference, i'll call you out. business has to do it. politicians has to do it. media has to do it. >> tom freedman, appreciate it. thanks. as rioters invaded the

capitol, a lot screamed out they had been invited. how some helped lay the groundwork of the siege. if your dry eye symptoms keep coming back, inflammation in your eye might be to blame. looks like a great day for achy, burning eyes

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with the inauguration only hours away, there is dark and disturbing new images of the rioting coming to light. we showed you pictures from the new yorker. chanters taking time to acre knowledge texas republican senator ted cruz. >> defend liberty! defend the constitution!

defiend liberty! defend the constitution! >> 1776! >> guess what? america showed up! >> the notion thousands of these rioters were invited is an accident. here is drew griffin. >> reporter: the protesters came to washington d.c. some of them prepared to storm the capitol. because that's what they were told to do. a cnn analysis finds president trump's inner circle just like trump himself has been spewing ominous lies, militant language and helped stoke the flames of an attempted insurrection. >> all hell is going to break loose tomorrow. >> it has to be vindicated to save our republic. we will win this fight or america will step off into a

thousand years of darkness. >> reporter: the battle cries wrapped in delusional lies about a stolen election. steve bannon whose twitter and youtube channels were removed for rhetoric like this. >> i'd put the heads on pikes. >> reporter: spent weeks on a pod cast he calls "the war room" comparing the republican's fight to overturn an election to a revolution and world war ii. >> so many people said if i was in the revolution, i would be with washington. well, you know, this is where -- this is for your time in history. >> reporter: ominously, this the day before the siege. >> it's not going to happen like you think it's going to happen. okay? it's going to be quite extraordinarily different and all i can say is strap in. you've made this happen and tomorrow it's game day. >> reporter: the president's own lawyer a constant war room guest with nonstop disinformation about election fraud. >> we should have spit up to

hitler, stand up to these people, it will stop. >> reporter: all the president's liars were on the same page. january 6th would be monumental. >> let's have trial by combat. >> reporter: roger stone the origination of the stop the steal slogan would speak in apocalyptic terms. >> this is nothingless than an epic struggle for the future of this country between dark and light. >> reporter: what is so frightening according to an international expert on hate groups is these are not members of the fringe hiding in corners. ban bannon stone and giuliani are confidence to the president. >> they're speaking to the president and he's listening to them and broadcasting ideas out to his millions of followers. what we do is have a dangerous feedback loop growing a radicalized population in the quite that some of whom are prone to violence. >> those behind it say they were

all speaking all these years. >> i don't believe they were speaking med forrickly. this is a social movement building and organizing since trump came into office that we're getting more and more extremists, more and more people angry and it just exploded on the 6th. >> reporter: building for months in social media, pod casts and dozens of stop the steal protests across the country. ally alexander, a key stop the steal organizer and roger stone ally told followers to prepare. >> haven't i told y'all this fight would escalate? and i said escalate always, escalate always. >> reporter: on the day of the siege, alexander was in washington tweeting to his followers, get down to the u.s. capitol orders from potis. >> i was tracking it for months and it began to feel like a cocked rhetorical gunpointed at the capitol and that gun. >> reporter: that day january

6th before a crowd of thousands, many caught in the echo chamber of delusion from trump's inner circle would hear the president himself pull the trigger. >> you'll never take back our country with weakness. you have to show strength, and you have to be strong. >> reporter: john scott researcher at the university of toronto's citizen lab is concerned the mob is not through. >> they're ready. it what they have been prancing around in the woods playing dress up preparing for and i'm terribly worried they sat 'tisfied with the 6th and will come for more. >> reporter: bannon and giuliani did not respond and ally alexander claimed no responsibility and roger stone said his lawyers will be watching for deattempts to say he's inciting violence. >> perspective from andrew mccabe, cnn contributor and kat kathleen, author of "bring the

power home white power movement." andrea, you hear the fbi is trying to vet some of the 25,000 troops in case there is any kind of internal danger to the inauguration. how the inauguration. how concerned are you about the extremist threats the next 48 hours or the coming weeks and months that concern you? >> really the coming weeks and months. the fbi and all of their partners across law enforcement and the military have done a remarkable job in securing d.c. for this event. i think we're going to have a safe inauguration. you may have isolated acts of disruption here and there. you know, anybody's chance of really causing a huge problem in the face of this massive force brought in to protect the capitol would be very small. i think they're doing the right thing, the responsible thing by checking and making sure they're not inviting an insider threat. the concern that there might be somebody in that massive force

that harbors extremist views. that is a responsible check to make. i think the inauguration will likely be secure. it is the days and weeks that follow when the tail of this extremist movement is still wagging that we have a real problem on our hands. >> kathleen, obviously any group is aware of all the security precautions being taken and state houses now and around the capitol. but in the weeks and months ahead it is not always going to be that way and there are plenty of other targets if what somebody is interested in is terrorism as we all have seen from terrorism that comes from overseas orr islamic terrorism e know anybody can really do anything if they're trying to just make a statement. >> yeah. one of the concerning things about white power activism which is one of the militant right strands involved in the ground swell we're seeing at the focus of our discussion right now is

that it's really organized around a model called leaderless resistance which most of us would think of as simply cell style terrorism but the idea is one or a few people can carry out an act of mass casualty violence without a whole network of ckpratariats and the ties tht can be easily prosecuted. what that has meant over the history of m movement with us since the 1980s is it is very difficult to mobilize our resources in confronting this movement. the events this week are a notable exception in that our public discourse is focused on the inauguration. our law enforcement and surveillance operations are focused. our journalists are focused. everyone has their eye on this day. that may be enough to forestall danger right now. i agree the longer question is what happens afterward. the storming of the capitol on the 6th show some groups were

using it for violent purposes was not ever intended as a mass casualty attack. we know that because the body count was so low. even had the bombs exploded. this movement has carried out mass casualty attacks on infrastructure, synagogues, water supply, gas lines. and on targets that, like the oklahoma city federal building where the death tolls have been quite large. >> andrew, the video released over the weekend have you ever seen a trove of potential evidence and intelligence quite like that? this is all stuff that, i mean this is from a journalist from the new yorker who was there but all these people using their own cameras and that is what the fbi has been relying on. >> yes, you know, in the bureau when you're working investigations, you're very familiar with the phrase that sometimes we get lucky. and i think this is one of those

times. the amount of video shot by insurrectionists themselves is truly remarkable. many of the statements captured on the new yorker video will become particularly problematic for, could become particularly problematic for the president as he defends himself in an impending impeachment trial. you have people saying we are here because the president invited us. we are following the president's order. he's your boss. it will be very hard for him to say he never had anien tension to incite or persuade these people to do exactly what they did. certainly they got a loud and clear message. those videos will be important evidence not just in the individuals' prosecutions but also potentially for the president. >> with the president out of power and his bully pulpit vastly less powerful, assuming he can get back on some sort of twitter like network, parler, or

whatever it may be, and, you know, have some radio show or something, does this just dissipate? or does this just kind of not make the headlines as much and, i mean, the people who did this are still many of them still out there and still have the beliefs they have and the anger and the qanon is still out there. >> it is all still out there. more than that, the action on the 6th provided this huge recruitment moment for a lot of these groups. we see already a concerted effort from the more extremist factions to recruit from the more main stream people who were there that day. even the people who were there perhaps just to defend their first amendment rights or just to participate in an action they believed they truly loved the president might be victims of further radicalizing action by extremists. >> always fascinating to talk to you. thank you so much. appreciate it. up next we have more

breaking news on the lingering question on the covid vaccine. two full doses or would two half doses work just as well? a preliminary answer from dr. fauci when we come back. ay of advanced safety systems. or it isn't. it's either the peace of mind of a standard unlimited mileage warranty. or it isn't. for those who never settle, it's either mercedes-benz certified pre-owned. or it isn't. the mercedes-benz certified pre-owned sales event. now through march 1st. shop online or drop by your local dealer today. dry, distressed skin that struggles? new aveeno® restorative skin therapy. with our highest concentration of prebiotic oat intensely moisturizes over time to improve skin's resilience. aveeno® healthy. it's our nature™.

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there's more breaking news as we mentioned at the top of the hour the united states is nearing 400,000 deaths. meanwhile dr. anthony fauci said today americans should stick with two full doses of the current vaccines. speaking today at a dr. martin luther king day event in the black community on covid-19 fauci said the quote scientifically developed approach" is to follow a full dose followed 21 days later and 28 days later by another full dose. he said the experiment of half doses shows the level of

antibodies were the same as two full doses but they don't have clinical proof that half doses give the protection needed only lab data. you have to get that clinical proof and eventually may get there but for now fauci says stick with full doses if you can get them or as soon as you can. the news continues. let's hand it over to chris. thank you. i am chris cuomo. welcome to "primetime." this week will be remembered for a long time. the question is, how? hope with me. that today dr. king's example inspires the many striving for better and enlightens the toxic few determined to be their worst. we could not have a better reminder that you can't kill an idea with violence. only a better idea can prevail. equality and justice as dr. king taught us. they are the best ideas. darkness can only be removed by the light of truth. and lo i