still a portion of the party that believes it is time to move on. >> appreciate your reporting tonight. the news continues. want to hand it over to chris for "cuomo primetime." chris? the house gop conference just voted on ousting liz cheney from leadership for standing up against the incitement of an insurrection. cheney survived the vote. i want you to hear the numbers. she got 145. okay? but 61 republicans in the house voted against her for her telling the truth about the accountability of donald trump for what happened on january 6th that we just remembered last night. those men and women were hunted, too. and yet they voted against somebody who decided to vote her

conscience not her fealty to trump. 60 out of that number. one vote was present. we have manu raju on capitol hill. an historic vote. there was a lot of talk. the feel of it was as you were reporting earlier that cheney might lose. >> she went behind the scenes for several weeks in the aftermath of the vote to impeach donald trump, talking to members trying to get them on their side explaining her vote. it appears to have paid off. she was listening to the concerns and did not back away from her vote. in fact today she said she does not regret voting to impeach donald trump. she made that clear to her conference but there were an outspoken contingent of members who came after her very aggressively through the course of this more than four-hour closed door meeting. at the end of the day the members decided it is more important to unite at this moment than engage themselves in a divisive leadership fight and

the ouster of the highest ranking republican woman in leadership. now, at the same time, this debate tonight, chris, was not about marjorie taylor-greene. yes, that was part of it. her comments that have gotten so much attention over the last couple weeks, last week in particular, her conspiracy theories and everything else, that was really not the focus here tonight. greene addressed those controversies, seemed to have walked back from what she said, said it doesn't represent her. that seemed to be good enough for the republicans. instead the focus was almost exclusively on liz cheney and whether she is to continue to serve as the republican conference chairwoman, the number three person, because she voted to impeach donald trump. >> manu, give me a little context then i want you to take me in the room. on context, 145-61, one present. ordinary circumstances, she won by a healthy margin, but given what they had her up on charges for essentially, which was voting to impeach the president,

what do you make of that margin, that 61 votes plus one present were trying to oust her for the vote of impeachment? >> reporter: it shows a sizable and healthy influence that donald trump still has on the republican party. the thing to remember about this, though, chris, this was a secret ballot. we will never know how people actually voted in the room. i talked to many republicans who left who just refused to comment one way or the other how they voted. and we'll never know because there is no record of their vote. but there was a majority of the house republican conference on the night of the riots, after the riots, that voted still to get rid of the electoral results for arizona and pennsylvania. but, still, not a majority of the conference to get rid of liz cheney. i'm not sure how to interpret that other than the fact that a lot of this is personal relationships. she has personal relationships. she went behind the scenes to ensure that that paid off at the end of the day. it seems like it did. >> she was very quiet and

straight in her statements when she came out. she was like look i want to take on these hostile democratic policies. she seemed a little brow beaten to be honest not the normal energy we are used to seeing from her. behind closed doors is it true that the vibe about cheney was completely the inverse of what was up there with the qanon lady, that she got people supporting her and applauding after she spoke? >> yeah. i talked to several people who were in the room who told me that after marjorie taylor-greene addressed the republican conference which was actually a couple hours into the session, she finally addressed the room. she contended that her statements that she's made, all the conspiracies including qanon don't represent her. she said she said some things in the past before she was elected that she does not necessarily agree with now. that seemed to be good enough. that actually led to this round of applause i'm told about half of the republican conference actually stood up and applauded her for those statements. that seemed to be good enough for them. then there were others who came out and defended her through the

course of this session. i want to emphasize though this was not the focus. even though it got all the attention over the last several days including from the senate republican leader, mitch mcconnell, who said marjorie taylor-greene's views amounted to a cancer for the party, that was still not the focus here. it was almost all about liz cheney. >> mccarthy, the minority leader, didn't hold a vote on the qanon lady, did he? he decided not to. >> he decided not to. he could have, if mccarthy wanted her off those committees he absolutely could have done that, gotten the steering committee a group of republican members essentially loyal to him to push her off those committees. he decided he did not want to do that. he did propose something else to the democrats to swap committees so she could serve on something besides the house education committee. that has gotten a lot of criticism given the conspiracy theory she said about the school shootings that happened but that offer was not taken by democrats. they want her off all committees

all together and are going to move tomorrow to do just that. >> let's play a little bit of the minority speaker mccarthy talking about this. literally he made gumby look stiff in terms of how he twisted around to make this into a point of integrity. listen >> i denounce all of those comments that were brought up. everybody -- she came inside our conference and denounced them as well. she said she was wrong. she has reached out in other ways and forms. and nothing that she said has been based upon since she's been a member of congress. the voters decided she could come and serve denouncing qanon i don't know if i say it right. i don't even know what it is. any from the shootings. she said she knew nothing about lasers. >> boy, there is a page of the trump book i can't wait till it gets turned. i don't even know what qanon is. remind him the next time you see him remember all the signs people were holding up as they

savagely attacked our capitol? remember it said qanon? that's qanon. boy, the lies. he relies on two bases. the first one is she denounced all these things. there has been no public statement to my knowledge of her saying that to anybody outside this conference. i wonder if anybody asked her what exactly do you renounce and denounce? >> i'm not told that anybody asked her that. it may have come up but i really don't believe there was a back and forth based on the sources that i talked to. she made her statement. they applauded her for what she said. other congressmen voiced support for her. they moved on. i don't sense there was any sort of exchange with her. but what mccarthy said is that he does believe she should say this publicly and other republican members i talked to, even ones who are supporting her staying on the committees for now, still want her to go out publicly and denounce qanon and say she does not believe these conspiracies that she has said

as recently as 2018 and 2019 believed. will she do that? we don't know. we've been asking her questions for the last two days in the halls. everywhere she's gone. she has refused to answer any of our questions. will she say it publicly and actually do that? we'll see. i tried to ask mccarthy. some of that exchange you played was my back and forth as i was trying to get him to explain how he appears to be endorsing this woman whose views mitch mcconnell called a cancer to the republican party. i said well how can you just take one private comment and suggest that this long pattern of things that she said, that one private denial is enough to wipe away everything she said in the last couple years? he did not answer that question. i tried to ask him toward the end. that is a question, too. was that enough for the republican leaders? they're saying if she says it now as a member of congress they may act differently. they are giving her a pass now because they said she said it before she was elected. >> a new rule for them.

you can say whatever you want before you get elected but once you're elected even though you say the same things during that campaign, supposedly, that's still okay for mccarthy. boy oh, boy. now, what happens tomorrow? what votes happen tomorrow and are they open or private? >> reporter: they're public votes on the house floor. the house democrats are making clear they are moving forward. a vote will be on the house floor, a simple majority of the house. democrats have the majority in the house to strip her from the two kmutees the house education committee and the house budget committee. >> we'll know tomorrow which republicans want a qanon member to be promoted within their ranks. >> no question about it. and i'm expecting very few republicans are going to side with the democrats. a vast majority will side with marjorie taylor-greene. just as we're seeing with the impeachment trial they are making a process argument. this happened before she was a member of congress. we should not set the precedent. to be fair democrats, too, are a bit concerned about the precedent they are setting, too.

what if the republicans take the majority in 2022 and go after their members? that seems to be a possibility here with this vote tomorrow so it is a bit of a risk that democrats are taking but they're still moving ahead. i expect only a handful of republicans to break ranks. a vast majority will make that process argument saying don't go after our members on our committee. we make decisions who sits on our committees and don't go after them for things they said before they were elected. >> i think the democrats should have learned a lesson that hoping that the republicans won't do something wrong to them so they'll play it nice doesn't get you very far. manu, thank you very much. thank you for asking the questions to mccarthy that count. what he wouldn't answer says as much about what he did answer. let's bring in john kasich and michael smerconish. gov, do you think tomorrow we'll have an introduction to the new qanon wing of the republican party when the democrats put it to a vote? you think the republicans will stand by this qanon member? >> in listening to this, chris, if this lady had, you know, she wanted to try to make things

right, she should go down into the well of the house and she should apologize to everybody including nancy pelosi. and the comments she has made that were in the area of violence. and denounce all that she said because i understand she had a tweet out the other day saying i'm not going to apologize for anything. >> that's right >> i don't really know what happened in there but what i can tell you is if she were to go down into the house floor and say, look. i'm going to tell you everything. give me the extended time and let me explain everything and apologize, you know, she may survive it. but without that, i don't see how they can support her. i went home tonight, chris. we all talk about family. my wife looked at me. she's on her computer. she said, i teach my daughters how to behave. and i look at the comments from this woman and from the party and i don't even understand why i'm a republican. how do i change that? if i want to? i said, well i'll get you the details of how you do that,

sweetie. she says, i can't teach my daughters one thing and then see our elected officials behaving another way. so, you know, this is a really serious matter. i don't think she is going to apologize. if she doesn't she should lose her committees. i was the first one to say that. this woman should be isolated and lose her committees. let's see what she does tomorrow. it's up to her. >> if somebody can make the case it will be smerconish because he is mr. it's good for business when it comes to the ugly trappings of the new republican party. but i don't understand first of all, i get what the gov is saying but michael we both know she can't go down on to the floor and say all right. when i said the jewish laser beams thing i didn't mean it and shouldn't have said that. when i said killing pelosi is a good thing and i like that i shouldn't have done that either and drinking baby blood? i don't really think they do that. and jfk's plane? yeah. i don't think the clintons killed him. and the 9/11, yeah. i think it hit the pentagon. i don't think she is going to go down there and say that.

i don't think the party will require her to. how does this work what mccarthy did tonight? how is this not establishing a qanon wing? >> a couple things. first of all, liz cheney was saved by a secret ballot. those 61 votes would have been a hell of a lot higher if it had been in the light of day. it allowed republicans to exhibit their beer muscles among colleagues, talk tough, please the base, then go behind the curtain and vote their conscience for what's in the party's best interests. i think that the big picture is they're dopes. i mean, do they really want a public record tomorrow of how they stand on marjorie taylor-greene? if they had disciplined her in their own house they could not then therefore have been held accountable the way they will tomorrow. chris, i want you to think about something. you might not think this apples to apples but 61 republican house members were willing to vote against liz cheney behind

closed doors. do you remember the number 147? that was how many republican house members were challenging the electoral college votes on that infamous day of january 6th. i think it's a similar mindset. what i'm pointing out to you is the difference how they act behind closed doors versus when the light is on them and they think the base is paying attention a know they better behave for the base or there could be repercussions. >> two quick takes. first for you michael. how does this work for mccarthy what he did tonight? >> i don't think it works well for this reason. there are parts of the country i guess where to be against liz cheney but supportive of the qanon congresswoman plays well. but that's not where i live. and in suburbia, which is where john kasich runs well, a kasich type republican, this is a nonstarter. all you're going to do is keep the base coming back and you will continue to lose those

areas that allowed joe biden to become the president of the united states. >> gov, last question to you, which you absolutely will not answer. did you tell your wife after this happened today, oh, shoot. i got to get ready. i have to run because i'm going to be the only kind of candidate that can win for this party in four years for the next presidency? >> i didn't tell her that because i wanted to get home. she'd have locked the door and not let me in. here's the interesting thing, chris. you remember when trump said during the debate to the proud boys, you stand back and stand by. what mccarthy is doing is playing a very dangerous game. he doesn't want to make these people angry who support people like greene and there are people like that in this country. but you know what? getting power and being in charge for what? to play this kind of game? i know him. shame on this. this is a very bad move and it is not going to help the republican party over time. if these kinds of things -- these kind of things damage the party. it shrinks the party. they've lost their sense of

ideas. we'll see if they can get them back. >> trump said stand back and stand by. mccarthy all but told them tonight come ahead and come strong. doing this the day after we commemorated january 6th and the man who gave his life that day. governor kasich, thank you. michael smerconish as always appreciate you, brother. another big story the cdc director warns covid variants, vaccine versus variants, that's our race. the variants are getting more troubling. they could reverse the only good trends we've had lately in this pandemic fight. there are only a handful of states getting even a fraction, a small fraction of the data that we need to know how far the strains are spreading. the need for testing and contact tracing never went away. it never went away. we never caught up with the need. so will the vaccines do the catching up for us? we have the chief doctor on that and whether we need to rethink who gets the shot first. how? the answer is ahead.

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>> it's variants versus vaccine and we're losing. okay? the vaccine and the variants, which one will make us sicker or which one will get us to a place where the variants can't hurt us, okay? it is no longer a question of when people start dying from the mutated covid strains. it's happening. and the pace at which it is spreading, these different variants, they, it is scary. remember how long it took covid to move from the coast to the heartland. okay? this is exponentially faster. why? because that's what the variant is. it is an improvement on the virus. that allows it to spread more quickly. that's how it survived. okay? the variant found in the uk those cases skr almost doubled in the last week. we're not really even looking for it the way we should.

once someone tests positive for covid then the states can take the test and go to sequence it or dig into the genetic makeup of the case to know what they're dealing with. ballpark experts, you know, tell us sequencing is like 5% to 10% of the cases. we're not even looking. does that matter? are cases cases? only six states have done even 1%. the national average is just over 0.3%. we're not really even looking for the most dangerous aspect of the virus. why? because we're stupid. no. resources. man power and resources. i know it gets tired. and i know that the re-trumplicans did a great job of making this look like a blue state bail out. if you don't have the money, laboratory access, the funding for it, and the testing kits, and the genetic tracing materials, you can't do it even if you want to. so are we getting better at the vaccine? yes. not everything has to be bad or good. there is subtlety here,

complexity. and we have to deal with that. but we are not making up enough ground with the vaccine in the communities hardest hit. we have systemic inequality. and it affected who got sick. okay? more poor people. more black people. who are the essential workers? by percentage more black people. more poor people. now who is getting the vaccines? not them. in all 23 states that we actually have data for, remember again there is no central clearing house of data. not looking at it on a national level. how are we going to know? state by state if you trust them. black people are getting a smaller share of vaccinations relative to how many are getting sick. it is wrong. we are not qanon. not yet. okay? we care about each other. same thing for hispanics. 21 out of 23 of those states. it's not equitable. it's not fair. it's not right. we're not going to be able to get ahead if we don't treat the

communities the right way. listen to this. >> we're not, because the situation is we still have a demand that far exceeds the supply. >> you have more people who want and need the vaccine than we can supply. look, we're lucky that's the problem because if you had to really create demand, if we were really that dumb that we didn't want this we'd be in a worse place. key question. we've been asking this from jump on the show. how much vaccine do we have? the biden team came in saying we don't even know where to look. okay. that was ten days ago. we've heard a lot of talk about how much more is coming. i still don't know what this number of 16% then move to 20% -- i know the biden administration said no that's not the difference between five shots and six we can get with the extra syringe that for some reason we never make but can now for pfizer. that is 20%. five to six is 20%.

the number went from 16% to 20% states are going to get. is that the number? we've been told no. i think we should be asking how much supply do you have? why don't you know? let's bring in chief dr. sanjay gupta. good to see you. i'm not baeth up on somebody who just started but you got to get your hands around the administration. if you had gone to work for the administration which i know every administration asks you to do. lucky for us you stay with us. that is the first thing you need to have. we have to press that. there is no way we're going to beat the variants if we don't mask up. no way. there is pressure for more masks because you can't be wearing your fishing sock. you have to wear the n 95 or the kn 95. the defense production act is the best way for the federal government to get more of them. is that in the atmosphere of discussion? >> yeah. you know, very much. i'm surprised that it hasn't come up earlier because we've been talking a lot about masks

for sometime. the idea that not all masks are created equal we did a report a couple weeks ago basically showing what would happen if people wore the n 95 masks regularly in high risk situations. not all the time but when you're out in public in population dense areas if you wore n 95 masks according to the doctor at harvard he says just that could essentially end the pandemic in four weeks. masks are almost more surgical in how quickly they could work. there is discussion now. senator sanders and others have written a letter to president biden basically saying invoke the defense production act. make enough of these masks. get the postal service to distribute them so household have them and can use them regularly and that can make a big difference u wearing a mask the most important thing but wearing the right kind of mask also very important. it is a discussion that's happening. >> one other point for tonight.

these disparities based on color and ethnicity, is there any good answer for it? >> no. there really isn't. i have to say that since the beginning, first of all as you point out there is still not enough data being collected which boggles the mind. this was a problem at the very beginning of the pandemic. people suspected there would be significant disparities in terms of who was affected and who was more likely to be hospitalized or die from this but we weren't even collecting data initially. now when it comes to vaccinations we are collecting some data but still less than half the country. if you think about medicine as just over all, the idea that you would provide the best, whether it be a therapeutic or preventative as the case of the vaccine to the people who have the highest disease burden, that's what's logical. it's what's driven how we think about this. older people more likely to die. give them the vaccine first. health care workers more likely to get exposed. give them the vaccine first. black americans. brown americans. three to four times more likely to be hospitalized.

they should be at the front of the line. they're not. part of it is access. part of it's hesitancy. part of it is that there are still the structural inequalities that exist and must be addressed. that may be one of the biggest lessons that comes out of all of this, chris. >> the hard part for biden is, actually i think a blessing as much as a burden, trump would have run away from this. he would have lied and said it wasn't true and he would have said it was some radical reckoning. it's not. it's the truth. biden knows it's the truth. will he do what he needs to do in this situation? we'll see. one quick thing because i am afraid now of getting sick as anybody with the variants. i don't see how we'll stay ahead of it in a society that doesn't want to mask up and wants to get back to restaurants. all these states preparing to open back up. the case flow is worse now than when they shout down. what is the reality of what the variants will do to the case numbers in the coming months? >> chris, i share your concern. i think about you a lot when i look at these numbers. i think the tough news first of all is that i think these

variants will become the dominant strains in this country. it is just the way it goes. if you have something that is more trans misibl it crowds out the other circulating coronavirus. we know that as you increase the numbers, even if the virus, the new variant is less lethal it is more likely to get into vulnerable communities and that is why you have to vaccinate those communities first. that is the bad news. we'll have more of it. case numbers will go up. the good news i think and it's worth pointing this out to people that the vaccines do work well. it is this race as you point out but the vaccines work well. if you go back and look at the five trials people have really focused on over the last several months out of 75,000 people in those trials the people who got the vaccine, none of them died. there were a few hospitalizations but none of them died. it counts for variants as well. that is what matters the most. does the vaccine protect against people getting really sick, being hospitalized, and dying? yes. i'm not suggesting you want this

virus. >> right. >> as you well know, chris. it is not just about living or dying but i think the vaccines protect against some of the awful metrics, the hospitalizations and deaths we've seen tick up over time. >> i'd take being a little sick any day. i am definitely going to get the vaccine. i don't know that i could take a second round of that illness. we'll see. dr. gupta, always a pleasure. thank you. >> thank you, chris. we know it has to be on the federal government. you can't undo that the states have to handle a lot of this. it's too late. there is too much infrastructure and planning that's gone into that. it was a bad decision early on. should have been federalized from the start. but the relief bill top down help is therefore huge. we have a perfect guest to discuss the relief bill and the need for relief in our political culture. we have senator tim cain key voice on whether joe biden can keep his majority together and in shaping policy during these two years. senator, good to see you. welcome to "primetime." >> thank you so much.

>> in terms of what is making us sick, we have the pandemic and then we have the disease of our own making in our politics. what do you make of what you saw out of the house gop tonight? >>. >> there is so much denial about the need to excise bad behavior, cut it out, you know. we have a political virus just like a health virus. and if you're not willing to take the steps to beat the political virus, the body politic is going to stay sick. so far the gop doesn't show signs of being willing to deal with the political virus and they're often challenging us for trying to deal with the health virus. >> on the senate side you and senator susan collins of maine who i also invited on the show, always invited, you tried to get a censure bill to hold the

president to account that way. you didn't have support on either side of the aisle. what does that tell you? >> chris, we didn't. it was censure but more than that. we had a bill that was going to make two factual findings under the 14th amendment to the constitution that would have barred donald trump from running again and found the attack on the capitol was an insurrection against the constitution and would have found donald trump gave aid and comfort to the insurrectionists. and the effect of that finding in our view would have barred him from running for office which is exactly the same effect of a conviction, which is really tough to get. this is a simple resolution that we could have gotten done with 60 votes. you're right. republicans didn't want to hurdle donald trump and democrats didn't want to accept anything less than conviction in an impeachment trial. if the republicans are saying nothing and the democrats are saying all or nothing we'll go to that trial and see what we

see. the but i am very, very concerned we'll get to the end of it and the headlines all across the country is donald trump acquitted again. >> oh, yeah. you'll be hearing it from him and his new qanon pal and all the other kooks who just attacked the capitol. a win for them. a dicey proposition. another dicey proposition. it is seeming all or nothing on the relief bill. is that your feeling? do you believe that the democrat demand to go big makes a compromise that is anything significant off of those $2,000 checks or whatever it is, is any of that likely from the democrat side? >> you know, chris, here's what i think. i think you're going to see a bill. we're setting up this budget reconciliation process which is not -- neither partisan or bipartisan. it is a tool that's been available to majorities of both sides since 1974. we are setting it up. budget reconciliation enables you to go big and do it soon when the nation needs it.

and the nation needs it right now. budget reconciliation has been used for some of the most bipartisan things we've ever done. >> you think you'll get past the bird rule and the parliamentarian in terms of whether or not these things qualify as emergency funding or budgetary funding? >> i do. there will be some. you know the details of this. there will be some pieces where there may be some challenges with the parliamentarian but as long as -- >> minimum wage is the big one. >> yeah. as long as it's primarily budgetary in nature we should be able to do it. guess what? we are in dialogue every day with our republican colleagues and so is president biden to make sure that the bill when it is voted on is chock full of priorities that are not just democratic priorities, that are republican priorities, too. i don't know at the end of the day. they may decide to do what they did when obama and biden first got into office and say they're going to vote against it no matter what it is but when you look at the substance of what we

will do -- unemployment, helping small businesses, vaccine deployment, more research, when you look at the substance of the bill you'll see a bill that is not a partisan bill but that is a bill that will be good for red states, blue states, and in between states. >> i covered that. the republicans were saying the same thing about the first relief bill. this was before the aca. 2008-2009. and they said work with us. work with us. don't cram it down. all they wanted from that bill ultimately were the tax cuts. and they wouldn't vote for any of it. not one of them voted for it. you wound up needing the cram down. 78% of americans are in favor of $1400 stimulus payments. 18% oppose. that is probably the best number you have going for it into that if you can get democrats to want to negotiate at all and there is an argument for them especially after tonight that these are not a group of people you want to work with. senator tim kaine thank you very

much. appreciate you. >> chris, we will get this done. thank you very much. >> hope so. let's turn to someone on the house side. democrat tim ryan. now, he is looking into what happened at the capitol and where you should have responsibility and accountability. what does he make of what just happened on the other side of his chamber? next. [sniffing] is the salmon wild-caught? she only eats wild caught. [cash register beeps] uh, i need a price check on honey. don't get mad. get e*trade and get more than just trading. investing. banking. guidance.

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i wonder if she would have survived. the question is, whether republicans will do the same tomorrow. the k non-kook is basically going on trial before the house. the democrats don't believe she should be o know a committee. the minority leader says he doesn't know what qanon is but she renounces everything. who is qanon? do you remember all these signs in front of the capitol in the hands of people who are hunting you? believe me. they existed. go online and you'll find them. not on this show. but all over the place. not just jackets like this. signs all over the place in the hands of the people who were hunting you, mr. mccarthy, and others that day. that's who they are. democratic congressman tim ryan joins me now and we are learning new information that they were even more brutal that day than

we already knew. what have you learned, sir? thank you for joining us. >> thanks, chris. yeah, i mean, i think we're seeing what you're seeing as we review more and more of these videos. you see and i think everybody understands now what could have potentially happened in the house chamber or if they found a member of congress especially somebody in leadership. nancy pelosi screaming about pence and all the rest. they were prepared to we can assume kill somebody and i think that is becoming more apparent and more shocking every day. >> is it true some of the injuries were more grisly than we knew that somebody lost several fingers? >> i didn't hear that report. but i will tell you there were cops who got hit up side the head with lead pipes. you know, this was after a big campaign where the republicans were talking about the democrats

not liking cops. the democrats being abbntiblue d here this crew is, lead pipes up side the head. i think 60 to 70 cops were injured. we know about the one that we memorialized last night and honored last night and the two others who died by suicide. that is just on a scale and continue the issues with so many cops who are exhausted, traumatized, and just want to get some reprieve. so they're from the beatings, the deaths, all the way down to some of the mental health issues they are experiencing so a complete spectrum of pain pushed on to the capitol police here. >> there is another officer who is still battling to keep one of his eyes. we'll check in on their situations as the reporting comes out. what more have you learned about why there was such a failure to respond and whether or not there was any inside help?

>> well, we're looking into it, chris. this is going to take a while as you know. i wish i had a quick answer for you. my committee the appropriations committee led by rosa de-lora, we're going to be looking into this. the house administration committee, obviously the u.s. attorney, the fbi, they're all pursuing this. the 2,000 cameras on capitol hill and all of the film going back for a number of days. it has to be reviewed. i think it is going to come down to people making a political decision. i can't say that outright but i just think that people were afraid to be prepared at the level we needed to be prepared. why? i don't know. it's insane to think about. it's why the sergeant at arms is gone. it's why the chief of the capitol police is gone. and we have other people in place and we're doing an entire review now. general honore is doing a phenomenal job taking this very,

very seriously about how we move forward protecting the capitol. a bunch of bad decisions were made and i think that is what it comes down to. >> sometimes the concern isn't who leaves but who remains afterwards. we'll be watching your investigating on this. you are always welcome here to talk about it and i love your take even if it is tomorrow night if you can make it about what will happen on this vote tomorrow and how republicans decide to stand up for a qanon member in their own ranks. that organization was all over the insurrection. it'll be interesting to watch. congressman tim ryan, god speed. you're always welcome here. >> thanks, chris. always great to be with you. >> all right. if you want to look at how bad the qanon situation can be, wait until you see when we come back. e table until your finished. fine, we'll sleep here. ♪ it's the easiest because it's the cheesiest. kraft. for the win win.

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you have to get the right perspective on what's happening in the republican party. this isn't about fringe. this isn't about extreme conservative. these are extremists. these are cultists. these are conspiracy whackos. okay? so the fact that joe biden's

inauguration came and went without incident left believers of this conspiracy kook show qanon stunned. so many bought into the baseless theory that trump would declare martial law and that everyone at the event would be rounded up and donie o'sullivan spoke to a former "q" follower about how she reacted we one of the qanon predictions came true. >> when president biden was sworn in -- >> i joseph robinette biden jr. -- >> i was just crying. i mean, i couldn't stop. that ugly cry that you do. just kept going. i was like, oh my gosh, i'm seeing the funeral of our country. instantly, i went into panic mode. i had to call my mom. i just told her, i was like we're all going to die, we're going to be owned by china. i was like i might have to pull my daughter o ut of school because they're going to take her. i was scared to death. >> reporter: ashley vanderbilt, a south carolina mom who says she lost her job early in the

pandemic, fell deep down the qanon conspiracy theory rabbit hole before november's election. how did you get into this world and go down this rabbit hole? >> well, i started seeing tiktoks and i didn't know that it was conspiracy things. i just thought it was -- they were telling me something that nobody else knew. so then i would reach out to different friends of mine that were bigger trump supporters. i would say, you know what, i saw this on tiktok, what do you think? and they'd start sending me youtube videos. they would start sending me digit facebook live videos. and one thing led to another. i just went down this rabbit hole learning all this stuff, but, i mean, what have we heard the last four, five, years? don't watch the news. fake news. fake news. i don't watch the news, i don't read newspapers. i don't do anything. i've always been someone you just tell me what to do and i do it. i grew up being told we were republicans so i've always been the great red ticket. >> reporter: how do you think videos started showing up in your feed? >> oraiginally i was following

campaign stuff. when people started campaigning i started liking a lot of trump posts and things that were anti-biden and the algorithm must have brought that stuff to me. >> reporter: right before the inauguration you didn't believe biden was really going to get sworn in. >> no, i expected a blackout, i expected the tv to go back and nothing would work. the assumption of what would happen would be that most of the democratic lead there, quite a few of the republican leaders, all the hollywood elite that had attended, they'd all be arrested. the military's going to haul them off. they said trump opened back up guantanamo bay and the military would run the country, put us in martial law because the left had become too unhinged and they'd be a danger to us and then trump would come back when the government was rebuilt. i know, it sounds crazy. >> reporter: you believed this? >> i did. >> reporter: and then biden got sworn in. >> uh-huh. >> reporter: how did you feel? >> i was devastated. >> reporter: the belief among qanon supporters that biden would not be inaugurated was wrong. ashley vanderbilt realized she had bought into a conspiracy

theory. >> i was wrong. >> reporter: how do you feel now knowing that you believed all this stuff? >> it's weird. i think i spent a lot of time this year isolated from everybody. you know, i'd just been home a lot. i lost my job last april in 2020 and i was super depressed. and i think in a way i probably lost touch with a little bit of reality. in that almost that common sense. and so i'm not so much embarrassed for what i believe, but, i mean, i feel foolish. >> reporter: a spokesperson for tiktok said the company is committed to countering misinformation and content promoting qanon is not allowed on its platform. after finding qanon through tiktok, ashley said the only thing that might have pulled her out of it before the inauguration was if trump spoke out against it. >> i was the biggest trump supporter there was. if he were to have said something, i and if he were to just say, q's ill legiegitimate nothing's real in there, some

people would leave. i think it would help a lot of -- >> reporter: it would have helped you? >> uh-huh. i thought the world of him. if he would have said that's not real, i'm not coming back, it is over, i would have believed him. >> donie o'sullivan joins us now. that's exactly why trump went soft on them. it's the same reason kevin mccarthy is doing it now n. they want people like her. people watch this, donie and say she's not smart, this is all on her. how easy is it for somebody to become radicalized in this environment? >> yeah, i mean, chris, you heard it there, she didn't even realize she was being pulled into this qanon rabbit hole. right? she started seeing some tiktok videos and before she knew it, she was in facebook groups and watching youtube live streams. and she said to me, you know, she is a religious person. she's a christian. and it struck her one day that she was spending more time in these groups every day reading about this conspiracy theory than she was going to church. and, you know, she said she got to the point where she was

wondering if she was putting trump, this sort of idol figure in the qanon conspiracy, above god. >> how dangerous is the placating of the qanon kookoos in congress right now in terms of what this does to the ability of that conspiracy group and others like it to find people like her online and say, we're legit, she's in congress, listen to us. >> yeah. look, i mean, it's incredible, really, you have this 27-year-old mom in south carolina who's been able to do many republican leaders are not and to come out and say qanon is bs and it's wrong and disavow it, and she said, i asked her, i said what message does it send when republican leaders like kevin mccarthy do not come out and totally disavow this sort of thing? and she said it sends two messages. one, that they're endorsing it, that republicans are endorsing this, and two, most conc concerningly, it sends the message, she said, to believers if they're not coming out condemning this that there's something to it, that they should continue to believe in qanon. >> donie, thank you so much.

i appreciate you doing the digging and finding these people. frankly, getting her to do this interview and the way you handled it really makes a difference for people and for her. thank you very much. >> thanks, chris. >> all right. remember that. it's not just wackos. people can be radicalized. we'll be right back. at. rakuten's app is super helpful, i open the app, find the store i want to use, start buying and it gets me tons of cash back. i'm an on the go kind of rakuten user for sure. i love the rakuten app, it has all my favorite stores at the top. i use rakuten for almost everything i buy. i just got paid to shop. my favorite thing about rakuten is just getting money back in the mail. i mean, who wouldn't want cash back. you should sign up using my referral code because then we both get money. shop. get cash back. repeat. sign up today and get cash back with rakuten.

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what a night. thank you for watching. the big show, "cnn tonight" with its big star, d. lemon, right now. >> i was watching your show and, i mean, chris -- >> which part? >> what the -- when mccarthy came out and started blaming everybody but the lights in the room for the horrible decision that they had just made. >> i don't even know what qanon is. did i say it right? qanon? >> come on.

>> q -- >> yeah. >> remember all those signs in front of the capitol, the people that came to kill you? that was qanon. >> that reminded me of, you robe -- i don't know -- david duke -- >> all the who dat. who? >> yeah. i don't know him. it's just embarrassing. you know, you -- we used to get into this playful tit for tat about i said it should be called the trumplican party, you said retrumplican. i have re-branded them for both of us. it is called the qtrumplican party right now. >> ooh. that's catchy. >> no, that's really what it is. i'm being honest. they're the party of the qanon believers. they're the party of, you know, i mean, i don't have to go on. >> 61 did it in a hidden ballot. do you -- i wonder how many of them it would have been in an open ballot. we'll see tomorrow. because, you know, these guys wanted to flex up then they didn't have the own the vote, right? >> yeah. >> so you didn't have as many in that secret ballot. i wonder what happens tomorrow. that piece that donie o'sullivan just brought --