t. now, that's making a difference. >> inspired by a delusion, an enraged mob of true believers attempting insurrection. >> we were in a medieval battle.

>> trump's soldiers. >> there is a sea of nothing but red, white, and blue. patriots of trump. >> trump's true believers. >> i feel like he was anointed by god. >> i don't think joe biden is the president. >> new exclusive interviews. >> the sound surrounded us but then once they started banging on the door, that's all i heard. >> new details. >> overran the capitol. >> i never dreamed that he would ever do anything like that. >> new denials. >> you call january 6th a peaceful protest? >> i do. >> and why it's not over. >> in fact, it is just getting started. >> tonight, a cnn special report. "assault on democracy: the roots of trump's insurrection." the early morning of january 6th, 2021, started for many as a day of anticipation.

they had come from across the country. tens of thousands, americans from all walks of life. led by a lying president, and egged on by propaganda, they would converge on the united states capitol with a singular goal -- do whatever it takes to prevent the peaceful transition of power in the greatest democracy on earth. president donald j. trump lost the election. they were deceived into believing the presidency had been stolen, their country was threatened. they had come to washington to fight for what they thought was right. >> they feel they're the heroic revolutionary courageous warriors who are saving democracy.

>> but they were wrong. it was all a lie. january 6th was insurrection, disguised as patriotism. wrapped in a trump flag. fed by their members of congress, their television shows, their friends on social media. >> it should have been predictable. you know, we saw people who had been whipped up into believing an election was being stolen and then they were being told it would happen straight away. so you have both radicalization and motivation. that's the perfect recipe for acts of violent extremism. >> that threat continues to this day, driven by lies that endanger our democracy. how did it happen? how did millions believe a network of lies so deep, so vast they would ignite an insurrection? to find the answers we have to

go into that sea of people. see through their eyes. their beliefs. this is that story, and it is not over. >> i hate that i lost so many friends and i hate that my family thinks i'm crazy and i hate that it is such a struggle and i hate that people don't see the truth. >> welcome to communist america. i'm so proud. >> yvonne, 54, from idaho, facing two federal charges filmed herself inside the capitol. the former marine and mom began her twisted path to this protest with weight loss surgery and a documentary about the food industry. >> they lie to us what is in our food and what is acceptable. and what is not acceptable. >> that path to nutrition led to qanon. >> this is truly the great awakening. this is bigger than q. this is biblical. i believe the corrupt systems

are the antichrist. i believe we are living the book of revelation. >> she stormed the capitol and livestreamed the protest and is unrepentant. >> i don't believe joe biden is the president and they lost the election and they tried to steal it and trump did what he needed to do, step away to wake america up. >> josh pruitt, a bodybuilder and bartender from the d.c. area came to the capitol because he, too, believed the election was stolen from donald trump. >> if biden had won, if at 10:00 at night they had announced biden won, nobody would care. we don't care that much. we care that much because we thought we were cheated. >> your idea of this election has been batted down by courts, by republican election officials, by secretaries of every state, that this was a fair election. >> all i can tell you is 85 million americans feel differently than what you're saying now. guaranteed. the election was stolen.

it just was. >> this is untold reams of proof that it wasn't. >> there is absolute proof it was but nobody wants to show it and everybody wants to hide it. >> where is the proof of that? >> there just is. >> his journey was more convoluted. >> i voted for obama. >> he is now a proud boy. he being initiated into a far right extremist group went viral. >> i'm a western chauvinist. >> got 30 million views, i think. >> and gained thousands of followers on social media. on january 6th, video would capture him again in the first wave of rioters storming the capitol. >> we didn't storm any capitol. okay? we did protest. we peacefully protested. >> you call january 6th a peaceful protest? >> i do. >> you don't feel any responsibility? >> i do not. absolutely not. i don't feel i did anything wrong. >> took over the capitol.

overran the capital. >> we're in the capitol. >> donovan was a member of the oath keepers. he was in a right wing militia. he refused to speak to cnn. his sister and mother describe him as an ex-marine who went from being a little league coach to becoming an alcoholic. >> he was just a genuinely good person. he was always someone that i looked up to and that i was extremely proud of. >> his son idolized him and everybody idolized him because he had a great personality. >> crowl's life would spiral downward after his second marriage fell apart. his mom, battling leukemia, said he was a mean drunk. >> he was dr. jekyll and mr. hyde when he's drinking. >> it's all snowballed. then he started going on these websites that essentially were a

vacuum. >> he would move to rural ohio and find companionship from a transgender bar owner and militia leader named jessica watkins who would recruit him into the oath keepers. >> he found a purpose in his life because he was at rock bottom, and anybody that cared about him didn't want anything to do with him anymore because of his drinking. >> do you consider him a domestic terrorist? >> i didn't. but i do now. >> crowl's family says trump shares the blame. >> trump gave them a boogeyman. trump gave them someone to fear or to blame things on. he gave them an excuse for their rotten life. >> are we live?

>> coy griffin was at the capitol amid thousands on january 6th. he climbed a capitol balcony, borrowed a bullhorn, and tried to preach. >> we've been screaming and we've been fighting. but now i want you to pray with me. >> the next day he would post a much more menacing message about if the building's future. >> there will be blood running out of that building. >> the cowboy and new mexico county commissioner began his career as a cowboy performer for disney paris. raised listening to rush limbaugh, he saw in president trump someone who finally understood rural america. he feels the democratic party hurt his family business and pushed unfair regulations and didn't take problems at the border seriously. he launched cowboys for trump and later rode 170 miles from western maryland to washington, d.c. griffin appeared on fox and got

noticed by the president himself. it was life-changing. >> i was nothing but a locally elected county commissioner with a mess of problems and the president invited me to sit down at his desk with him and hear me out. >> griffin went to the border with trump crony steve bannon and when he posted this video about dead democrats, president trump retweeted him. >> the only good democrat is a dead democrat. [ cheers and applause ] i don't say that in the physical sense and i can already see the videos getting edited where all i say is murder democrats. no. i say that in the political sense. >> we're not going to get our election stolen from china. >> he sees conspiracies in almost everything. january 6th. it may have been a setup by democrats. he says he doesn't follow qanon but it sounds like he shares some of the same believes.

>> the deep state is just satan because the devil wants to destroy things. there is those foot soldiers of the deep state, those like hillary clinton, george soros, dr. fauci, bill gates. they're the big wheels. they're the controllers. >> griffin even doubts the undeniable, that the riot led to deaths. ashli babbitt, an air force veteran from san diego, shot and killed by capitol hill police. >> he's got a gun! [ gunshots ] >> sounds like a gunshot. >> u.s. capitol police officer brian sicknick died from a stroke one day after being attacked by rioters. griffin, like others, cannot accept their so-called peaceful protest led to death so they deny it. so let me just ask you, do you believe officer sicknick died because of the riot? >> i'm not even so sure officer sicknick is even dead. >> coy.

>> i'm serious. that's how -- and i hate to be so crazy conspiracy minded. i'm not so sure ashli babbitt is dead. >> coy. >> who is to say -- have you seen anything of her family? >> up until the point she passed, we lived two blocks apart. >> the answer is yes. >> i'd say through high school me and my sister were best friends. >> this is ashli babbitt's brother roger. he says he and his 35-year-old sister were very close. >> it was weird because we saw it on the news and it was like, you know, that's my sister. >> he says his sister was a tomboy who joined the military out of high school. >> she could do anything. she was invincible. that's the way i looked at her. >> after the air force ashli bought a pool company in san diego which she ran with her husband and her brother. >> she was happy. talked about how she lives in a beautiful place, you know, does what she wants, it's the american dream. >> and he says his sister voted

for barack obama. >> i think that proves in itself she wasn't as crazy as a lot of the media is portraying her to be. >> then she became a trump fan. >> we can make america great again. >> ashli's brother says they rarely discussed politics because he just wasn't interested. her passion for donald trump would eventually lead her to qanon, then the capitol, where a single shot ended her life. >> i don't think she deserved to be shot. >> ashli babbitt died in defense of a lie, convinced by powerful forces that her beloved united states was in jeopardy. she and millions of other trump supporters were barraged by

the false election fraud on tv, internet, social media, and for some, their place of worship. >> if i go down and the antichrist will take over, i'll go down with a fight. >> pastor ken peters runs patriot church near knoxville, tennessee and preaches trump's make america great again message. >> we know something crooked went on. there is actual evidence. >> he is a supporter of what is called the black robe regimen, inspired by pastors that fought in the american revolutionary war. >> oftentimes these preachers would have their military gear under their pastor's robes and would get done with the sermon and unzip the robe and say let go out and fight for independence. >> would you call it a militaristic view towards religion? >> we talk about warfare, we're talking about spiritual warfare. >> are you ever concerned there is somebody in the audience who actually takes your words literally? >> not a chance. we aren't attacking anything physically. we are attacking this onslaught of the enemy upon our nation.

we believe that this country is being taken over by satan. we're fighting against demonic forces. not earthly forces. >> peters called on his followers to protest the election results in person on january 6th. >> president trump has asked every patriot that can possibly be there on january 6th to go to d.c. all right? i'm going to be there, god willing. >> and went there himself. preaching before a crowd near the white house the day before. >> and it's important in this moment we stand up like never before. this is our time. and if we don't hold up the shield of faith, satan will take over this land. >> january 6th, 2021, was a disastrous culmination of misinformation, lies, and

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>> november 2008, the election of the first black president. >> change has come to america. >> change is what the country had voted for. but to some, change brought fear. >> everything obama. >> and a right-wing media then led by rush limbaugh whipped the audiences into a collective opposition. >> i know what his politics are. i hope he fails. >> that was a shocking moment when you have one of the biggest voices in american media and global media saying i hope he fails. there were people who let themselves get spooked by the skin color. i think that his name, barack hussein obama, i think there were people that couldn't get past that. he never had a chance. >> it was the beginning of a path that led to donald trump's insurrection.

new mexico county commissioner coy griffin listened to rush limbaugh every day. >> barack obama was somebody that i don't feel like i could ever trust. >> preachers should be up in the grill of filthy politicians, immoral politicians. >> evangelical preacher ken peters looked at this christian president and saw a threat to his own religion. >> seeing how pro-muslim he was versus pro-christian, i hated how he apologized for america to other nations. >> joann rose's son donovan crowl called obama racist names. >> he'd call him a porch monkey and it would always make me mad when he would say comments like that. i ended up hanging up on him because i would get so upset with him. >> he felt that he would take his guns. what started it was the tea party movement, and then it just grew from there. >> the tea party.

a political revolution launched in opposition to president obama's plans to tackle the financial crisis. >> usa! usa! >> there was a lot of white rage. sure, some of the tea party activists were out there talking about government spending and so on but i remember being at tea party rallies seeing t-shirts that said put the white back in the white house. >> we are going to fire president barack obama. >> a former airline flight attendant named amy cramer would use a painted bus, the tea party express, for protests across the country. a decade later, she would be a key organizer of president trump's rally on january 6th. the tea party would capture a new kind of political activism and anger. >> there is a direct link between the tea party rebellion and the trump rebellion and then ultimately the insurrection.

>> in 2011, donald trump would capture that same energy of the tea party and embrace a conspiracy theory that would launch his own political career -- birtherism. >> all i want to do is see this guy's birth certificate. >> that lie that barack obama was not born in the united states is as real in the eyes of some of those who stormed the capitol as it was a decade ago. >> it was in the obama era that something started to stir my soul into politics. i mean, the whole birth certificate thing, there is so much proof he's not a u.s. citizen. >> i don't feel like barack obama is a believer in america or what america is and what america stands for. >> do you believe he's american? >> yeah, you know. i guess. i haven't seen his birth certificate. have you? >> barack obama would make two versions of his birth

certificate public. it didn't matter. >> i think the lesson learned from trump in that entire saga is that he could get away with a lie. >> lighting a fire that will burn all the way to washington. >> trump's rise was happening at the same time a former investment banker and movie producer named steve bannon was building a conservative news site so powerful it would turn the republican party upside-down. named after its founder, andrew breitbart. breitbart news would launch the alt-right into the mainstream. >> this tea party energy. there was a populous power. this was totally different. this wasn't standard republican party and breitbart became the blog site for that. >> the former breitbart spokesperson said the aim was to

change america, and bannon directed it. >> truth and facts aren't words there. the goal isn't objectivity. it more about what does the conservative side believe about this and how do they amplify that? >> breitbart's headlines were built on fear, fear that the second amendment was being threatened, fear of obama, and most of all, fear of illegal immigrants. >> this is why bannon and trump are perfect for each other because they're ultimately perpetuating a massive con. they could give two craps about their base. >> trump had emerged as the perfect candidate to drive bannon's alt-right vision straight to the white house and it would be perfectly timed with the rise of social media. >> donald trump would not have become president were it not for

facebook and, more broadly, algorithms on social media. >> bannon worked with a company skilled in psychological war fare and created cambridge analytica to target americans. >> during my experience -- >> whistle-blower chris wiley says the delivery weapon used would be facebook. >> as soon as you start clicking on things, it starts to remove other kinds of content and shows you more and more of that thing you're clicking on. you start to move further and further away from a common reality with others. >> it was the beginning of a new era of disinformation that continues to tear americans apart today. anyone could create a so-called news story and have it spread like wildfire. >> i think we have fundamentally misunderstood what happened with social media and the scale of change it has brought about. >> trump supporters like coy

griffin increasingly tuned out regular news outlets and paid attention to facebook. >> facebook is where i got a lot of my media from. facebook or social media i feel like you can glean more of the stuff that maybe interests you and isn't coming from a mainstream media outlet. >> social media launched a turning point, deliberate disinformation competes equally with truth and facts. a perfect moment for donald trump to launch a presidential bid. >> i will build a great, great wall on our southern border and i will have mexico pay for that wall. >> trump's followers were led to believe american society was under attack and only trump could save them. trump shared more stories from breitbart than any other source and he would make steve bannon the ceo of his campaign.

>> he had political advisers that recognized this grievance, figured they could tap into it, amplify it, and went off of it. >> completely scare the crap out of white people. >> yes. >> just to get elected? >> yes. >> it was working. donald trump was racing through the republican primaries, picking up wins and picking up believers. >> i spent a lot of time screaming and yelling during 2016, saying trump can win. people who were looking only at elite mainstream media didn't see it coming. >> this is for my trump supporters out there. >> bartender josh pruett, who says he voted for obama, was now a trumper. >> i just like the straight to the pointness of him and, you know, his combativeness with people. him not being scared to say stuff. >> i was so sick of politicians. >> yvonne st. cyr says she went from supporting ben carson to trump. >> i saw in his heart and soul

how much he loves our country and our military. >> absolutely. >> pastor ken peters would also eventually get on the trump train. >> i was much more for ted cruz than i was for donald trump. and i knew hillary or trump, there is only one choice. it's got to be trump. >> by 2016, donovan crowl is becoming more and more detached from reality. >> he wanted me to start collecting water and cash. don't keep my money in the bank. >> his really main thing with president obama was that he was going to declare martial law so he could stay president. he was trump all the way. but he hasn't voted in his life. >> never voted? >> never voted. >> by november, predictions favored hillary clinton by a wide margin. her campaign had readied a

fireworks display for election night. then it happened. >> unlike anything we've seen in our lifetime. donald trump wins the presidency of the united states. >> he won the presidency. but for trump, it wasn't enough. hillary clinton had beat him in the popular vote. trump would tweet she only beat him because of the millions of people who voted illegally. it was a complete lie and it was only the beginning. >> and we will make america great again. spray, lift, skip, step. swipe, lift, spin, dry. slam, pan, still...fresh move, move, move, move aaaaand still fresh. degree. ultimate freshness activated when you move. like many people with moderate to severe ulcerative colitis or crohn's disease,

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get started with a great offer, and ask how you can add comcast business securityedge. plus, for a limited time,ask how to get a $500 prepaid card when you upgrade. call today. i, donald john trump, do solemnly swear. >> donald trump's presidency would begin with a lie. >> i get up this morning and turn on one of the networks and they show an empty field. i said, wait a minute. i made a speech. i looked out. the field was -- it looked li a million, million and a half people. >> this was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period. >> i think he in his own mind couldn't tell the difference between what was true and what was false.

and i don't think it particularly mattered to him. >> john bolton was trump's national security adviser. >> if he could convince people that what he wanted to be true was true, he would try to do it. >> in the weeks before he took office donald trump would launch the phrase he would use to get away with almost anything. >> you are fake news. >> with those two words, donald trump had told his supporters they no longer needed, nor could trust the institutions, the official accounts, the news outlets that dedicate themselves to present actual facts. from now on, it was trump who would tell them what to believe. >> a few days ago, i called the fake news the enemy of the people and they are. they are the enemy of the people. >> he would lie about anything. >> just remember, what you're seeing and what you're reading is not what's happening. >> he could have told folks that

grass is actually blue and the sky is red, and he would have had some segment of his followers believe him. there is a cult-like phenomenon as it pertains to trump. >> somebody had to do it. i am the chosen one. >> this might sound extremely strange to a lot of your viewers but i feel like he was anointed by god. i really do. >> donald trump? >> yeah. >> anointed by god? >> yeah, i feel like he carried god's anointing in there because he won all the time. >> he's an unbelievable leader and when he speaks, he strikes a chord in us that grabs us and we go, yes, that's the truth. that's right. not everything but most everything he says grabs us. >> others saw in trump a rare opportunity to further push an alt-right agenda.

>> and yes, by the way, they are trying to take away our history and our heritage. you see that. >> steve bannon, who had hand-delivered trump's messaging, was now in the white house turning his worldview into policy. >> it not time to bring the country together, it's time to take on elites, hit him with the blow torch. >> trump's blow torch would be the executive order. with bannon at his side, he would sign a series of orders, one nicknamed the muslim travel ban. others restricting immigration, building the wall, and increasing border security. all based on the lie that a mass invasion of dangerous criminals was under way. >> people hate the word invasion but that's what it is. it's an invasion of drugs and criminals and people. we have no idea who they are. >> build that wall! build that wall! >> trump followers were being fed conspiracy theories by the

president on tv, radio, and online. >> the migrant caravans, yeah, i completely believe they're staged. with all my heart i do. there is evidence. >> ashli babbitt would post video rants about problems on the southern border. >> i live about 15 minutes from the tijuana tborder so this is something i take personally. because i can see the effects. they are trying to paint the migrant caravan full of migrant as full of women and children. but let me tell you now, the border is an absolute shitshow. >> i believe that donald trump is the only president we have ever had in office that actually was speaking out to represent us, the forgotten americans. >> coy griffin, who would start cowboys for trump, would stake his future on the president. >> anybody that lives on the southern border knows that it's extremely dangerous. >> much like his claim of fake news, trump would use the power of fear over and over again to motivate his base. >> he never thought of himself

as president of the united states. he thought of himself as the president of his base. he accentuated their sense of resentment, bitterness, and loss. >> part of his political base included white supremacists. >> he saw those people as trump supporters and he just lacked the ability or the willingness to consider the broader implications. >> the former spokesperson for steve bannon's breitbart news could see the news site attracting more and more racists. >> the overt racist comments from the breitbart audience was littered across their pages. we can proudly proclaim our white pride and it's okay because the most powerful person in the world is with us right here, too. >> joann rowe could hear it all coming from her basement.

her son, an ex-marine whom she and other family members call an unemployed drunk, was constantly listening to right-wing and conspiracy news, especially the internet show of conspiracy theorist profiteer alex jones. >> he would listen to, like, breitbart, alex jones, bring it upstairs full blast. >> i said it treason and we're reversing it. period! >> for the last four years, alex has been bar none the loudest and most outspoken donald trump supporter. and he will tell people when it comes to the conspiracy theory du jour. >> robert jacobson worked for alex jones for more than a decade. he says the conspiracy theories jones pushed on info wars like mass shootings being fake were about making money, which he did by selling questionable health

supplements on the info wars website. big stories equalled big profits. >> to alex, that means that he is going to sell some product that day because of the spike in audience based on somebody else's tragedy. >> jacobson says he doesn't know if alex jones believes his own conspiracies. donovan crowl's mom and sister say crowl believes them all. >> he would constantly facebook message me, sending me stuff about hollywood pedophiles eating babies. and i'm like, i would just shame him. i mean, that's absolutely ridiculous. i would be like, you're a dumbass. this is not true. >> he would tell us such crazy things. hillary clinton had a sex ring in the basement of a pizza parlor. tom hanks and his wife were the head of a pedophile ring. >> your son believed in qanon,

basically? >> yes, absolutely. >> a new conspiracy was seeping its way into right-wing social media and news outlets. qanon. >> qanon believed that basically all democrats are evil, satanic worshipping pedophiles and the only person who can stop this evil and save the world is donald trump. >> qanon believers would seek out encoded messages on the internet and parse out numbers and words of trump's messages waiting for some big action from the president. at trump campaign rallies, q followers became a noticeable portion of the crowd. >> q is a real thing. >> corruption, child exploitation, and sexual abuse. human trafficking. >> like he did with white supremacists, trump would speak

to the q supporters with a wink and nod. >> i heard these are people that love the country. i don't know anything about it other than they do supposedly like me. >> ashli babbitt had gone deep into the q conspiracy, posting qanon hashtags including the slogan, where we go one, we go all. >> she had a shirt with a giant we are q on it. i had no clue what it was and she just said it was some political thing and that's basically where the conversation ended. >> for yvonne st. cyr, q was more than political. >> i felt like q catapulted me to truth because that was my prayer in the beginning is, god, show me the truth. i want the truth. give me the truth. i think trump is part of q, he's q plus-plus. >> q is very empowering. what qanon allows a person engaging in conspiracies to do is feel like they're taking action. they're fighting back. of course, it is all profoundly mistaken and none of it is real.

>> and as the calendar turned on 2020, a global pandemic would take conspiracy theorists down a darker hole. >> america at war with coronavirus. >> the infection is driving fears of a global recession. >> 75 million americans have been told to stay home. >> josh pruett, a bartender and personal trainer, lost work. you don't believe in covid? >> i didn't say i don't believe in it. i don't believe it is that big of a deal. covid is a big deal and the flu went away. all of a sudden there isn't such thing as the flu anymore. because everyone that had the flu has covid. >> i feel like the coronavirus played on everyone's mental health. i don't want to say just my sister's. i don't want to say it made her crazy but put it stress and strain on everyone, everything. >> protests against business shutdowns broke out at state capitals across the country. >> so covid started the mask

mandate and things started to feel wrong and they started to have protests. so i went to my very protest ever and it was very, very patriotic. >> it was all coming to a head. >> a lot of qanon believers do sort of see this in biblical terms, almost. >> a cabal of blood drinking pedophiles, covid shutdowns trying to destroy the american economy. a conspiracy to replace white people. the election of 2020 would be a battle between good versus evil. and donald trump would be ready to tell the biggest lie of all. >> who is not going to at least listen? i mean, he's the president. swipe, lift, spin, dry. slam, pan, still...fresh move, move, move, move aaaaand still fresh. degree. ultimate freshness activated when you move. if you're 55 and up, t-mobile has plans built just for you.

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there is tremendous vulnerability. >> the kill switch goes in. >> these guys have been cleating for years. >> years of lies, self-adulation, and the echo chamber of right wing media. >> vote by mail is probably the worst way to hold elections. >> some completely deny that fraud even exists. >> would set the stage for many trump supporters to believe what eventually would become the biggest lie of them all. >> the only way we're going to lose this election is if the election is rigged. remember that. there's going to be fraud all over the place. >> again and again and again, he told people that the election was going to be stolen. >> one of trump's main complaints, the increased use of mail-in ballots overwhelmingly used in 2020 by democrats,

setting up a covid-year phenomenon called the red mirage. in key swing states, the absentee ballots favoring joe biden would be counted last. >> you could see trump go way up, and then you could see him plateau and go way down. >> this is cnn's coverage of election night in america. >> it is exactly what happened. on election night, early results seemed to favor president trump, then turned. >> it has flipped wisconsin to joe biden with the lead right now. >> he would try to stop him. >> trump has a press conference. it's in the middle of the night. he was trying to essentially declare victory before all the ballots had been counted. >> we were getting ready to win this election. fr frankly, we did win this election. [ cheers and applause ] we want all voting to stop. >> that is not what democratically elected presidents or candidates for the presidency say. that's what authoritarians say. >> he called it a fraud to count

ballots in the united states of america? [ applause ] >> trump had primed the lie, spread the lie, and most of his supporters would only believe the lie. >> i said, we're going to bed. then i woke up, and it was like, holy crap, what just happened? >> how are certain states red and then at 4:00 in the morning, they all of a sudden become blue? >> it's called counting the votes, though. >> no, it's not. it's called cheating. >> as the election hung in the balance for days, viral videos and fraudulent news stories painted pictures of widespread fraud. it was all a lie. >> in georgia, look at this new circumstantial footage we'll be showing you. mysterious suitcases potentially filled, we believe, with ballots rolled out from under a table. >> i saw videos where there was suitcases of ballots that were being produced that were all for joe biden. >> the mysterious georgia

suitcases that couy griffin saw were actually bins of legitimate ballots. election workers doing their job. like other viral videos, there was no fraud. it didn't matter. >> are you saying that you don't think that there was any fraud at all in this last election? >> i'm saying that all 50 secretaries of state who are in charge of elections, republicans and democrats, found no widespread fraud that could have tilted this election in any way. so i'm just wondering where is the fraud? >> whenever you have the president of the united states making those statements -- >> this was a massive fraud. >> senator ted cruz making those statements as well. >> and we've seen in the last two months unprecedented allegations of voter fraud. >> they hear a lot more. they're on upper level intelligence briefings. whenever you have those high-ups

saying that, yes, there's cheating, what do you do, you know? >> the ballot counting in key states continued, and on saturday, november 7th -- >> cnn projects joseph r. biden jr. is elected the 46th president of the united states. >> don't be ridiculous. networks don't get to decide elections. courts do. >> actually, voters decide elections. trump and his allies would unsuccessfully take their stolen election case to court after court, nearly 60 times. but millions of trump supporters stuck in an echo chamber of right-wing propaganda, news, and social media would hear only of more and more allegations of fraud. >> they know they stole this, and they also know that we're going to show they stole it. >> will you accept joe biden as

president? >> no. he'll never be my president. >> i mean how could that change at this point? >> well, it could be a civil war. you never know. >> the news cycle day after day was hit with things that were designed to look as if something bad was happening. claims of fraud, claims of stolen blaallots you, misleadin video. and social media platforms played a huge role in rapidly expanding those claims. >> we haven't looked at all the dead people that voted, people without actual residences. >> dead people voted. so explain that. >> but where did you get that particular news that dead people were voting? >> it's on multiple sources. i don't have my computer in front of me, so i can't really look it up. i could find it for you. >> just like the other made-up election tales you can find on the computer, the dead voting conspiracy isn't true. >> i want to first welcome and thank -- >> trump-appointed elections security officials would be

called to testify before congress, only to declare trump really did lose. >> this was a secure election. of that i have no doubt. >> in no way do i believe it wasn't stolen. >> no way? >> no way. >> even though all those people who watch elections -- >> they're all bought. >> all of them? >> yeah. >> trump's own attorney general, bill barr, said this was a fair election. >> yeah, to save himself. >> trump would not accept defeat. >> he couldn't take an election loss because donald trump wants his gravestone to read "i won." he is preoccupied with this idea that he never loses. >> stop the steal! stop the steal! >> for trump supporters "stop the steal" would be their battle cry, and what began online would take to the streets.

>> we were on the trump train early on. >> amy kramer's group launched a facebook page that quickly went viral. and recycling an old tactic from her tea party days would paint a new bus and travel across the country in what she called the march for trump. >> this is like tea party on steroids, amplified a thousand times. i've never seen anything like it. >> it's going to be lit out here at the stop the steal, stop the coup rally. >> and a right wing activist named ali alexander would push his own stop the steal movement, staging protests and asking supporters to send him money to keep going. >> how much money are you making on all this? >> zero. zero. i'm dedicating my time and my company's team. >> how do we know that with all the money that's going to your private account? >> 1776! >> the stop the steal movements would merge into one major day of protests december 12th in washington, d.c.

president trump buzzing the crowd in a helicopter would energize his base for what was coming next. that same weekend, donovan crowl, the out-of-work alcoholic attended a training camp in north carolina according to prosecutors, though crowl's lawyer denies it. crowl had been recruited into the oath keepers, a paramilitary group that opposes the federal government. jessica watkins, who owned this rural bar in ohio, was the group's local leader. bartender julie harvey says she saw the group meet every week. >> they were going to d.c. for the original million maga march. i was working, and i walked out on the patio, and i saw them sawing the pool cues in half, putting on the zip straps. the way that jessica explained it was it was just preparedness in case they were in harm's way.

>> who are the oath keepers in your mind right now based on what you know? >> they're a terrorist organization. they're white supremists. >> you consider your son one? >> yes, i do. i hate to say that, but yes. it makes me sad to say that. yes, i do. >> with no realistic prospects of overturning the election in court, trump turned his supporters' attention to the day congress would convene to confirm biden's victory, january 6th, telling them, we'll be there. will be wild. >> president trump said come to d.c. it's going to shalbe wild. i knew it was going to be history. >> part of the reason january 6th happens is because donald trump picked the place, the time, the location. and then everybody could organize around that.

>> ashli babbitt, the air force veteran in san diego, was making plans. >> trump 2020. >> i think my sister truly believed that them going there, they were going to change america for the greater. >> both the oath keepers and proud boys would put out an all call for members to go to washington, d.c. on january 6th. all across social media, the date loomed with ominous posts. operation occupy the capitol. we will storm the government buildings, kill cops, kill security guards, kill federal employees and agents, and demand a recount. capitol hill police received numerous warnings of violence but failed to properly prepare. criminal complaints would describe trainings, planning, and preparations for an insurrection. joanne rowe says the real orders came from just one person, donald trump. >> it's like they're a cult.

he's got 'em brainwashed. why, i don't know. i also think they believed so much in what trump was saying that they truly were believing they were following his orders. >> the lies, the anger, the escalation of violent rhetoric had been building for months. >> haven't i told y'all this fight would escalate? >> the day before january 6th, crowds started pouring into washington, d.c. at a rally there, pastor ken peters would preach revolution. >> we will rise up in this time and say like paul revere, the leftists are coming, the leftists are coming, the leftists are coming. >> later that evening, trump's political trickster, roger stone, would speak in biblical terms. >> this is nothing less than an epic struggle for the future of

this country between dark and light, between the godly and the godless, between good and evil. >> ashli babbitt tweeted, nothing will stop us. in less than 24 hours, dark to light. to anyone paying attention, a powder keg of violence had been set and was waiting for a match. >> 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. all hell is going to break loose tomorrow. like many people with moderate to severe ulcerative colitis

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pain? yeah. here. aspercreme with max-strength* lidocaine. works fast and lasts. keep it. you're gonna need it. kick pain in the aspercreme early morning, january 6th, 2001. >> they will have to make it through about four different areas and then go through security. >> i think there was a heightened sense of the importance of that day. >> for aides to nancy pelosi, ali sa law and kelsey smith, it would be a big workday. the certification of the 2020 presidential election. in an exclusive interview, they admit the growing number of trump supporters in the city were unsettling. >> my parents were definitely a little concerned for my safety

going into work. my husband was a little bit worried, but everybody said once you're in the capitol, you'll be totally fine. >> all across washington, trump supporters had been turning out for hours. >> that's how we got up, which we thought was early. the line was so big, it was worthless to even get in line, so we just found a spot out there in the sea of people where we thought we could see a little bit and hear a little bit. but it was -- it was absolutely packed. >> pastor ken peters had spoken at the d.c. stop the steal rally the night before. couy griffin arrived early too, believing he would speak before trump. >> i went to the rally on the mall. i thought i was going to be able to speak at it, which unfortunately i wasn't included in it. >> yvonne st. cyr began the day posting her excitement. >> hello. good morning. we're here. >> we came off the metro, and it was just eerie. it was like they had the roads blocked off and dump trucks.

>> just got a different sense in the air that this is a little weird, but still nothing to raise the hairs on your neck. >> reporter: u.s. capitol police officer harry dunn called into work for what he thought would be a routine day of protests, saw the early crowds and took note. >> these people like wrapped their selves in their flags and it was like nothing i've ever seen before. it was like a cultist mentality. >> there is an enormous crowd here. it's hard to really get a grasp of it. >> i'm here because my president called me. >> the crowds waited for hours watching speech after speech. >> today is the day american patriots start taking down names and kicking ass! >> this wasn't just a political show of support for the president. this was a historic day, an historic moment, and action might be required. >> let's have trial by combat. >> behind the scenes at the

rally to save america, donald trump jr. was all smiles. >> kimberly. >> yes. do the right thing. fight. >> but president trump reportedly in a bad mood, was glued to the monitors showing the crowds. >> we'll wait and see what he has to say at 11:00 when he's set to speak. after that, all these reporters are expected to march over to the u.s. capitol. >> members of the extreme right-wing group the proud boys were already assembling on the capitol's east side. they had not come to listen to any speeches. >> take the fuckin' capitol. >> they had arrived in small groups, dressed without their usual proud boy attire to blend in and equipped themselves with radios for communication. their day would begin with a prayer and a march to the capitol's west side. >> two men on a mission with

about 500 behind them ready to kick some butt, stand up for this country. >> josh pruitt, who would be among the first wave of proud boys to breach the capitol, claims he knew nothing of their plan. >> i didn't hear about any plans with the capitol at all. i was just with the guys that were part of the maryland chapter. so there was probably like 20 of us. we all hooked up like around 10:00 in the morning, and that was down where trump was speaking. >> at the rally, trump was finally taking the stage and repeating his election loss lies. >> we won it by a landslide. this was not a close election. >> members of the right-wing militia the oath keepers, including jessica watkins, begin to leave the speech. watkins and donovan crowl make their way towards the capitol. she uses a walkie-talkie app to communicate to other oath keepers. >> everybody's marching on the

capitol, all million of us. it's insane. we're about two blocks away from it now, and police are doing nothing. they're not even trying to stop us at this point. >> now it is up to congress to confront this egregious assault on our democracy. and after this, we're going to walk down, and i'll be there with you. >> people from the ellipse where the president has spoken are going to start making their way up here. >> back at the capitol, a group led by proud boys are taunting police at a small barricade. >> this is our capitol. >> blocking the entrance to the capitol grounds' northwest side. then they make their move, overwhelming officers. >> usa! usa!

>> the proud boys are rushing the capitol. >> police continue to fall back. >> you want your house back? >> yes! >> take it! >> as the house comes to order for this important historic meeting -- >> usa! >> i started looking out, and i saw a lot of commotion. this is not -- this is not right. >> are there any objections? >> on the floor of the house, paul gosar, the republican from arizona, who had previously been in communication with stop the steal organizer ali alexander, is launching his own protest. >> what purpose does the gentleman from arizona rise? >> i rise for myself and 60 of

my colleagues to object to the counting of the electoral ballots from arizona. so there you have it. the first objection. they're going to be separated now. >> i didn't have a view into the outside, but somebody texted me a photo of people on the inaugural platform. that was the first time i thought, wow. i can't believe we're at this point. >> it was almost the same moment donald trump was delivering this prophetic line. >> and we fight. we fight like hell. and if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore. so we're going to walk down pennsylvania avenue. >> outside the walls of the capitol, mayhem. a member of the proud boys named dominick pa zola got his hands on a capitol police riot shield. >> you hear officers on the radio screaming for help.

>> harry dunn stationed on the capitol's east side races to help his comrades on the west and is stunned at what he sees. >> full capitol entry. multiple capitol entry. >> you're seeing these officers come up the steps, being dragged up the steps. i can't see, almost in tears, help me, help me. they're walking out with just their arms forward because you can't see. we had supervisors there in white shirts, and they're orange-stained because the orange is the pepper spray. and they're just soaked in just orange spray. and it's just like, ah, help, help. you got officers coming up the steps bloodied, and you're thinking to yourself, oh, my god. what is happening? and just seeing the fear in some of these officers' faces. and i'm sure it was present on

mine because i was scared. i was absolutely scared just seeing that fear. it's something i don't think i'll ever forget. >> a full-scale riot is under way outside the capitol. yvonne st. cyr has no idea what awaits her. >> i was so kpexcited to get to the capitol. i just wanted to see what would happen. 1:11 we started marching. >> 1776! >> alex jones, the conspiracy theory profiteer with the organizer of stop the steal, ali alexander in tow, begins his own march to the capitol grounds. >> this is history happening! >> i skipped, literally skipped with my flag all the way to the capitol. >> in the crowd, ashli babbitt. >> we are walking to the capitol in a mob. there's an estimated over 3 million people here today. so despite what the media tells you, boots on ground definitely say something different.

there is a sea of nothing but red, white, and blue patriots. >> at 1:26 p.m., u.s. capitol police order the capitol complex to begin evacuations. two minutes later, a call is made requesting the national guard. pipe bombs are being investigated nearby at the headquarters of the dnc and rnc. >> hold the line! >> whoa, this is bad. this is bad. >> by 2:00 p.m., both sides of the capitol are surrounded with mobs fighting police. >> we're still taking metal, sharpened objects, missiles, to include bottles and rocks. this is now offensively a riot. >> capitol police are fighting a two-front row.

>> total chaos. total chaos. the screaming, yelling. >> leave it alone! >> bullhorns being blown. >> cheers of america. >> this is our capitol! >> and traitor. and we want trump. and just absolute pandemonium. it's so loud, you can't even hear your radio that's right here in your ear. they were prepared for war. >> then the moment happens. >> they have breached the scaffold. >> usa! usa!

>> at 2:12 p.m., using a stolen police shield, proud boy dominick piz ola breaks a window. the capitol has been breached. the danger has only begun. that new dove breakage remedy gives damaged hair the strength it needs. even with repeated combing hair treated with dove shows 97% less breakage. if you're 55 and up, t-mobile has plans built just for you. strong hair with new dove breakage remedy. switch now and get 2 unlimited lines and 2 free smartphones. shows 97% less breakage. and now get netflix on us. it's all included with 2 lines for only $70 bucks! only at t-mobile. is your cleanser doing enough for your sensitive skin? cetaphil gentle skin cleanser defends against 5 signs of skin sensitivity, and actively hydrates as it cleanses.

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pet hair is no match for bounce. with bounce, you can love your pets, and lint roll less. tonight...i'll be eating crab cakes with spicy aioli. (doorbell rings) thank you. can we be besties, simone biles? i guess? yessss! should we dismount now? at 2:12 p.m. using a police shield, proud boy dominic pezzola breaks a window on the capitol's west side, and the mob starts pouring in. josh pruitt jumps a railing and follows other proud boys through a now open door. >> what did you do?

>> walking through a front door being held open by cops that waved me in. >> you know that's not true. >> i know that is true. there's proof of it. there's video of it. when i walked into the front door, the cops were at the door, and they were standing to the sides of the door, and they were waving people in. >> yeah. the video i saw of that moment -- >> mm-hmm. >> -- was a couple of cops overwhelmed by a mob. >> well, you didn't watch all the videos, then. >> i didn't? i think i did. it was all caught on video. here is josh pruitt walking through the door 70 seconds after the window breaks. it is almost the same moment rioters smash windows on the east side. >> attempting to break a window on the east front. capitol has been breached on the east side. >> armed with sticks, flagpoles,

riot shields, they had stormed past and overpowered police, who could do little but coax and steer them away from lawmakers. >> my challenge today is not about the good people of arizona -- >> we'll stand in recess until the call of the chair. >> the rioters weren't just in the building. at the moment the senate adjourned, they were streaming straight toward the senate chambers and vice president mike pence. senator mitt romney is about to head straight into a mob but is intercepted by a single capitol hill police officer. a moment later, that same officer, eugene goodman, somehow coaxes the mob away from the senate and straight into a waiting row of capitol police.

>> my hero. gene's great. he's great. he did a great job. there were a lot of eugene goodmans that day that did a lot of great, heroic things, and people will never know their name. >> there are now hundreds in the mob. >> you work for us! >> roaming halls, banging on doors, taking photos and video. >> defend your liberty! >> some members of congress are being escorted to safety, but scattered behind doors, staffers, news media are in hiding. >> then i remember telling my colleagues, i think we need to go into lockdown. >> inside house speaker pelosi's office, her staffers rush to a conference room, lock the door. among them, alisa la and kelsey smith speaking exclusively to cnn. >> then we started hearing the banging and, like, the hooting

and the hollering. >> nancy! >> very close to us. then i realize, okay, music off. everybody silence your cell phones. turn the lights off. do not say anything. >> we're coming for you, nancy! >> it was menacing. >> can i speak to pelosi? >> they were like, where's nancy? where's nancy? where are the people that work for her? >> we're going to find you. >> yeah. >> they had barricaded themselves in hoping the door would hold. >> the din was coming from all directions, and we heard somebody yell, i found nancy pelosi's office. people were chanting nancy, nancy. they come through this way. so we're hearing it from behind us and in the front of our door. so it was completely -- the sound surrounded us to the point we're just hearing shouting and the yelling and the banging and the crashing and shattering of

glass. but then once they started banging on the door, that's all i heard. that's what i still think about, the door sound. one of us said to the other, they take us hostage, right? i said, yeah. i think. that was one of the few words i said out loud in the room. >> you want a fight? you better believe you've got one. >> reporter: one of the trapped staffers whispers a phone call plea for help. >> they're pounding on the doors trying to find her. >> it was pure terror. >> where are you, nancy? we're looking for you. >> just the way he was chanting her name. ♪ nancy ♪ ♪ oh, nancy ♪ >> it was not going to be nice if he found her or someone associated with her. >> it could have been multiple men that were doing that too. we don't know ♪ nancy, ♪ ♪ where are you nancy ♪ ♪ >> we don't know what was

happening because it was the eight of us in a dark room, and all we could hear is what was outside. >> inside the halls of congress, the mob refuses to stop. >> stop the steal! out >> outside, more and more are trying to get in. in the midst of the massive protest, what appears to be a single-file military column climbs the eastern staircase as the crowd sings. these are the oath keepers, and in the column is joann rowe's son, donovan crowl. >> i never dreamed he would never do anything like that, never. it's just heartbreaking to me. >> it's alleged the oath keepers had stashed weapons in a nearby hotel, had been planning, practicing military tactics since the election. now over radio communications, they were broadcasting their triumph.

>> we are in the mezzanine. we are in the main dome right now. we are rockin' it. they're throwing grenades. they're frickin' shooting people with paint balls, but we're in here. >> do it. this is what we lived up for. everything we trained for. >> took over the capitol. overran the capitol. >> we're in the fuckin' capitol. >> in almost every corner inside and out, mini battles are raging . >> it's over! you better run, cops! >> police officers are being crushed trying to keep the surging mob from gaining entry to the lower west tunnel.

one officer, daniel hodges, screaming as his body is pressed into the door. officer michael fanone had heard the radio calls and rushed to help. >> this is not a law enforcement operation. >> his body camera captures the moment he faced the mob of thousands. >> we were in a medieval battle. this is hand-to-hand combat in its most brutal form. >> the rioters had come armed and were fighting to get inside. they hit police with bats, sticks, batons, tasers. >> guys were bleeding. these were officers that i think under normal circumstances, they would be in an ambulance on the way to the hospital, but they weren't because there was nowhere to go.

if you left that line, we were going to lose that door, and that just wasn't an option. >> fanone trying to defend the line. was yanked across it. >> i was pulled away from the other officers out into the crowd. >> i got one. >> video would capture fanone being tossed, pulled, beaten. his own body camera a jumble of confusion and violence. >> i was getting the shit kicked out of me. that was like the ass beating of a lifetime. >> you're in a police uniform. >> yes. >> the mob grabbed for his gun. someone repeatedly tased him in the neck. >> they were trying to kill me. >> fanone struggling to survive outside the capitol was trying to defend lawmakers still trapped inside. >> we were just told that there has been tear gas in the

rotunda, and we're being instructed to, each of us, get gas masks that are under our seats. >> armed capitol police are now blocking the doors of the united states house of representatives. >> you're a traitor! >> up in the gallery, colorado congressman jason crow was in a group of members trapped. >> everybody stay down. >> we were the targets. we were the ones, the members that they were going to try to kill or capture. >> crow called his wife, told her "i love you." then the former army ranger with more than 100 combat missions in iraq and afghanistan, plotted to escape. >> there was a part of me that was thinking, if this mob breaks through those doors, they're going to try to kill us all, and i need to do what i need to do to protect myself, protect my colleagues, protect others. >> on the capitol's front lawn, the mob was becoming incensed. >> usa! >> donald trump had just tw

tweeted. >> there is a scaffold and a noose and chants of "hang mike pence." security is now whisking pence and his family down a back stairway. >> i think trump wanted the crowd to turn into a mob. i think he wanted them to disrupt the certification of the electoral college votes to give him more time to play out some other scenario that might yet end up with him being president. and that's the most dangerous part, not the crowd in the capitol, although that was sad and tragic. the worst part was donald trump himself. >> well, we came this far. what do you say? >> back inside, ashli babbitt is approaching a mob that has reached the doors of the house speaker's lobby. it's a hallway that leads

directly to the floor of the u.s. house of representatives. members and their staff just steps away. reinforcements arrive. three uniformed officers holding the doorstep aside. all that separates members of congress from the mob is a wood and glass door barricaded with furniture. >> he's got a gun. he's got a gun! >> in that split second, ashli babbitt tries to climb through a broken window. >> that's one of the hardest parts about seeing the video is you just want to grab her and shake her and be like, dammit, ashli. why did you have to do that? you know? >> it sounds like a fuckin' gunshot. >> ashli babbitt is shot. >> i know gunshots pretty well.

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take the house! >> the battle raging for nearly

two hours, is showing no signs of stopping. rioters are on the senate floor. >> whose office is this? >> and rummaging through offices. >> oh, wow. >> outside, more and more are trying to fight their way in. >> come on, americans! >> d.c. police officer michael fanone dragged into a mob, being beaten, is heard on his body camera pleading for mercy. >> i think it saved my life. >> officer fanone suffered a mild heart attack after being repeatedly tased and beaten. one of nearly 140 police officers wounded in the protest. another, officer brian sicknick, sprayed with a chemical, would die the next day officially of a stroke though the riot played a role according to the medical

exa examiner. >> usa! >> proud boy josh pruitt walking around the capitol is spotted at the front lines and smashing a wooden sign. he calls it all a peaceful protest. >> there's a picture of me picking up a sign. okay. cool. >> and holding it over your head and throwing it. >> trust me, i've seen all the pictures because that's their narrative. >> i think we got so lucky that this didn't become worse. and what was remarkable is the hours that went by without a word from trump. >> it's been an hour since the capitol was breached. at 3:13, donald trump would make his first response to the violence, tweeting, i am asking for everyone at the u.s. capitol to remain peaceful. no violence. remember, we are the party of law and order. >> i don't think the people that came to the capitol that day had a lot of respect for my

co-workers and i. >> i mean this is insane. >> lawmakers, including republicans, calling in to cnn, were astounded at the president's detachment. >> the election's over, and the objectors need to stop meddling with the primal forces of our democracy here. so call it off, mr. president. we need you to call this off. >> president trump did not call it off. on a perch overlooking the crowd, alex jones begins to spin the lie, antifa was causing the violence. >> we have the witnesses. we have the footage. >> couy griffin, who claims he didn't see any fighting, makes his way to the inauguration stage. >> but it wasn't part of the capitol building. it was an exterior staircase. i never went inside. >> and tries to get a mob shouting "fight for trump" to

pray for trump. >> take your knees. take your knees. >> wonderful opportunity to pray with people. after that, we left. we walked down the staircase. we walked away from the capitol. >> the aftermath of ashli babbitt's fatal shooting is playing out on live tv. >> by the time i had made it to my parents' house, my other younger brother had met me out in the -- the parking lot and told me she had passed. one of only two times i've ever seen my father cry. i mean go down to your knees sobbing like a kid cry. my mom was tore up about it, but i mean which mother wouldn't be, you know? >> yet the president had still not told his followers to stop. republican house minority leader kevin mccarthy urges trump, call

it off. >> i begged him to go talk to the nation. don't do it by twitter. >> he was resisting phone calls from people. he did talk to kevin mccarthy. kevin mccarthy told him what was happening, that people were breaking into mccarthy's office, and trump's reaction was, they must be more upset than you are about the election results. >> donald trump is watching this on television, and i wondered, what is he doing to stop this? i think we know now. he didn't do anything. not doing anything while the capitol was being desecrated, i thought, was unforgivable. >> pastor ken peters says he didn't make it to the capitol till later. >> there were still people all over the stairs and waving flags. i saw people standing and letting their voices be heard. >> people bashing in windows, pushing through doors, fighting with cops. do you believe that did happen? >> i do. i do. >> and was it right, wrong? >> it was horrible. it was terrible. as christians, we stand, but we don't riot.

christians are never to be destructive. >> capitol hill police now formed in tactical units were performing rescue missions. congressman jason crow among those trapped in the house gallery was being escorted past rioters spread eagle on the ground. >> they were holding rioters at bay, at gunpoint, on the other side. >> nancy pelosi staff waited two hours barricaded and terrified before they too were escorted to safety. >> that was easily the worst day of my life, the worst two hours of my life easily. >> amidst the chaos, qanon believer yvonne st. cyr climbed through a window to get inside. >> i was caught up in the moment. oh, my gosh. we're storming the capitol. i was inside the capitol. so i went live in the moment and stuck my head out the window and said, this is our house. and all of the energy of emotion that i was feeling. >> super sad that this is america and americans are being beaten for wanting to save their

country. so welcome to communist america. aren't you so fuckin' proud? >> by 4:00, vice president pence was calling the acting secretary of defense, demanding he clear the capitol. a moment later, battle raging, trump finally tweets a pre-taped statement. >> i know your pain. i know your hurt. we had an election that was stolen from us, but you have to go home now. >> then inexplicably tells the mob -- >> you're very special. >> donald trump asked everybody to go home. he just said it. he just put out a tweet. it's a minute long. he asked everybody to go home. >> josh pruitt, who claims he was only in the capitol for a half hour. >> it got a little too rowdy for me in there personally, so i decided to leave. >> says he believes it was all a setup. >> i think that they let a bunch of people in so they could use their facial recognition and get

every trump supporter with charges that they could. that's what i think happened. >> now you're seeing these pictures, you know, the cavalry, if you will, has arrived. >> let's get out of here, guys. >> by 6:00 p.m. january 6th, the riot was largely under control. at 6:01, donald trump would signal to his supporters they had done the right thing, and he shot a warning to the rest of the country that the insurrection he launched was not over. these are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously and viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly and unfairly treated for so long. he finishes, remember this day forever. >> congress has returned to the capitol. >> but the day was not over. >> we went back and did our job. we fulfilled our constitutional duty, and they will never break us. >> to those who wreaked havoc in

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on the morning of january 7th, like the country itself, the united states capitol appeared in shock. broken glass, smashed doors. damaged but not broken, democracy had survived trump's mob. joe biden's election had been certified but at tremendous cost. five people died, nearly 140 police officers injured. in the immediate aftermath, there was no doubt who had caused it. >> president trump is practically and morally responsible. >> republicans briefly united with democrats in disgust.

>> the president bears responsibility for wednesday's attack on congress by mob rioters. >> republican house leader kevin mccarthy, who begged donald trump to stop the riot while it was happening -- >> i called the president, i begged him to go talk to the nation. >> within weeks would do an about-face. >> i don't believe he provoked it if you listen to what he said at the rally. >> if you don't believe trump had anything to do with this insurrection, why were you calling on him to have it called off? >> in the heat of the moment, everybody knew what the deal was. >> kevin mccarthy would fly to mar-a-lago. mitch mcconnell would signal to the nation, trump was still in charge. >> if the president was the party's nominee, would you support him? >> the nominee of the party, absolutely. >> in that hypocrisy, lower-level republicans, many conspiracy believers themselves, found their opening to rewrite the history of january 6th. congressman andrew clyde from georgia, who actually helped capitol police barricade that door that day, later said

this -- >> you know, if you didn't know the footage was footage from january the 6th, you would actually think it was a normal tourist visit. >> no one could look at this vi video, this video, or this video -- >> sounds like a gunshot. >> -- and call january 6th a normal tourist visit. >> it's kind of eerie and haunting to me that for the rest of my life, i can go watch my sister die on camera. a horrible, horrible video. but it will always be there. >> the scars of the siege on the capitol are permanent. the lives of those who took part have been up-ended, many face prison time, lost jobs. >> this cost me a lot. it's cost me a lot. >> coy griffin faces federal charges and his county

commission seat is being threatened. >> sorry, i'm not quitting. i'm not resigning. >> and still he is a believer. >> i personally will never recognize joe biden as president of the united states as long as i have the type of questions that i have regarding the elections. >> ivan also charged for storming the capitol thinks it's all part a grand plan. >> i don't regret going on january 6th at all and i don't even regret going through the window. >> bartender josh pruitt says he can't find a job because of his role in the riot. as for the charges against him -- >> you're in serious trouble. >> i'll be just fine. because i didn't do anything. >> oathkeeper donovan crowell is facing some of the most serious criminal charges in the capitol breach. >> took over the capitol, overran the capitol. >> we found him in ohio, where he's awaiting trial. >> i'm with cnn.

>> excuse me? >> i'm with cnn, mr. crowell, drew griffin. >> no thanks, man, i'm good. how's your day? >> i've been talking to your mom and sister. they mentioned you might want to say something to us about -- >> about what? >> about your case and whether or not you feel bad about it. >> i feel bad about my case? >> feel bad about what you did. >> well, actually, the things i did, i was hanging out with some of the wrong people, it seems like, but i didn't really do anything, so i feel pretty good that my case is going to come out and show that. >> do you feel like you were manipulated into going to the capitol? >> no, no, i really got nothing to say to you. i don't watch your garbage anyway. >> i love the person that he used to be, but i despise the person that he is now. he's not my son. and i still have a hard time believing that he did what he did. if he gets 20 years in prison, he'll be 70 years old before he gets out of there.

trump doesn't care about any of those people that stormed the capitol for him. he doesn't care one iota about them. hasn't even mentioned them since he's been out of the white house. >> january 6th only intensified the collective madness around the lie of a stolen election. amateur republican attempts are under way to recount ballots in sham audits, only in states trump lost. republican governors and legislatures are passing new laws targeting mass vote fraud that never occurred. scariest of all, the conspiracy theory that trump could return in a military coup. >> the military is doing their own investigation and at the right time, they're going to be restoring the republic with trump as president. >> once people are already radicalized, it is very difficult to bring them back. >> so, just giving them facts doesn't work? >> it definitely does not work, especially for conspiracy theories. you can't give people facts and

expect them to believe. they will just see that as feeding into the same conspiracy. >> if you are watching cnn, reading news based in fact not fiction, you're missing what is driving the delusional views of so many americans. >> do you think he's going to come back? >> oh, he's coming back. >> in 2024? >> i think he's coming back then. >> trump's true believers get their so-called news from unapologetic propaganda, conspiracy profiteers on social media and lying politicians who are putting their personal careers aed that of the country they claim to serve. most influential of all is the liar in chief trump himself. who fuels the hysteria. >> i am not the one trying to undermine american democracy. i'm the one that's trying to save it. please, remember that. >> donald trump's lie united

ordinary americans with radical extremists on january 6th. and that could lead to an even darker future. >> there's still a lot of angry people. it absolutely emboldened them. it's like it's finally happening. the civil war, this is the start of it and it's encouraged people to plot and plan for what their next series of attacks are going to be. >> the movement threatens the very functioning of the united states government. >> you don't change anything, we're on the path way to having a failed state which means the government can't govern which means people are doing whatever they want to do. you could wind up with very bad outcomes in the united states over the next ten years or more. >> it is an america where white supremacists can march in the open. politicians can spread lies, push hate and make millions from it. and violent mobs can storm capitols and threaten politicians if they don't like the result of an election. this is donald trump's america.

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w . just ahead on cnn, the covid delta variant is spreading across the globe especially where vaccines have yet to reach. we'll look at how it could impact the fight against the disease. plus, the united states is battling an epidemic of its own. the details of the latest lives lost in a weekend of gun vio violence. and polls are open in what ethiopia calls the first free and fair election. not everyone i