tv CNN Special Report CNN July 2, 2021 7:00pm-9:00pm PDT
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cnn. >> announcer: the following is a cnn special report. multiple injuries. >> an assault on democracy. >> capitol has been breached. >> an attack on the capitol. foorl fueled by the president's lies. >> trump wanted the crowd to turn into a mob. >> inspired by a delusion by true believers attempting insurrection. >> you're in a medieval battle. >> trump's soldiers. >> there is a sea of red, white and blue patriots for trump. >> trump's true believers. >> i feel like he was anointed by god. >> i don't think joe biden is the president.
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>> new exclusive interviews. >> the sounds surrounded us but then once they started banging on the door that's all i heard. >> new details. >> over ran the capitol. >> i never dreamed he would ever do anything like that. >> it 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 came, tens of thousands from all walks of life.
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led by a lying president they would converge 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 saving democracy. >> but they were wrong. it was all a lie. january 6th was insurrection, december december -- da
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skiezed as patriotism 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 being told it would happen straight away. so you've got radicalization and mobilization. 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 millions believe a network 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. this is that story and it's not over. >> i hate i lost so many friends and i hate my family thinks i'm crazy and i hate it such a
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struggle and i hate people don't see the truth. >> welcome to communist america. i'm so proud. >> yvonne 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. >> that path to nutrition led to qanon. >> this is bigger than q. this is biblical. i believe the corrupt systems are anti christ. i believe living the book of insurrection. >> she stormed the capitol and live streamed the protest and unrepenaltied. >> 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
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up. >> josh pruett, 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 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 is batted down by courts, by republican election officials by secretaries of every state 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 was. >> there is proof 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.
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i liked obama. >> he is now a proud boy. a video of him being initiated into a far right extremist group went viral. >> i'm a western chauvinest. >> 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. >> overran the capital. >> we're in the capitol. >> donovan crowl was in the right wing militia. he refused to speak to cnn.
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his sister and mother describe him as an ex marine that went from being a little league coach to becoming an alcoholic. >> he was just a genuinely good person. he was always someone i looked up to and extremely proud of. >> his son idolized him and everybody idolized him because he had a great personality. >> his life would spiral downward after his second marriage fell apart and his mom battling leukemia said he was a mean drunk. >> he was dr. jekyll and mr. hide 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
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transgender bar owner named jessica watkins that 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. >> you consider him a domestic terrorist? >> i didn't. but i do now. >> his family says trump shares the blame. >> trump gave them a bogeyman. trump gave them someone to fear
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or blame things on. he gave them an excuse for their rotten life. >> are we live? >> couy griffen was at the capitol amid thousands on january 6th. he climbed a capitol balcony, borrowed a bull horn and tried to preach. the next day he would post a much more menacing message about the building. the cowboy and new mexico county commissioner began his career as a cowboy performer for disney. 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.
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it was life changing. >> i was nothing but a locally elected county commissioner with a mass 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 crow knee steve bannon and when he posted this video about dead democrats, president trump retweeted him. >> the only good democrat is a dead democrat. 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 states just say because the devil wants to destroy things. there is those foot soldiers of the deep state those like hillary clinton, george soros,
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dr. fauci, bill gates. they're the big wheels. they're the controllers. >> griffin 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. couy griffen like others cannot accept their so-called peaceful protest led to death so they deny it. let me just ask you, do you believe officer sicknick died because of the riot? >> i'm not so sure officer sicknick is even dead. >> couy. >> i'm serious, that's how -- and i hate to be so crazy conspiracy minded. i'm not so sure ashli babbitt is dead. >> couy. >> 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.
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>> through high school me and my sister were best friends. >> this is ashli babbitt's brother roger. 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 she 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
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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, than 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 lot convinced by powerful forces her beloved united states was in jeopardy. she and other trump supporters believed the false election fraud on tv, internet, social media and for some, their place of worship. >> if i go down and the anti christ 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
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went on. there is actual evidence. >> he is a supporter of the black robe regimen inspired by pastors that fought in the revolutionary war. >> often times these preachers would have their military gear under their pastor's robes and would get done with the sermon and unzip the rope and say let go out and fight for independence. >> would you call it a military view towards religion? >> we talk about warfare, we're talking about spiritual warfare. >> are you 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 on slot of the enemy upon our nation.
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we believe that this country is being taken over by satan. we're fighting against damonic forces. >> he called on 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 combination of misinformation, lies and manipulation steeped in suspicion, racism and fear. a movement that began more than a decade earlier when america was ushering in another historic change. >> i barack obama do solemnly swear.
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one-on-one coding classes taught by expert teachers. join our summer program at byju's future school dot com. book a free trial class today! usa! usa! usa! >> to understand how america got to this, we have to go back to this. november 2008, the election of the first black president. >> change has come to america. >> change is what the country voted for but to some, change brought fear. >> everything obama.
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>> and a right wing media run by rush limbaugh whipped the audiences into an 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 hussain 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 couy griffen 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 a filthy politician, immoral politicians. >> evangelical preacher ken
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peters looked at this christian president and saw a threat to his own religion. >> seeing how pro-muslim he was versus prochristian, i hated how he apologized for america to other nations. >> joann rose's son donovan crowl called obama racist names. >> he'd call him porch a monkey and would 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 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!
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>> there was a lot of white rage, sure, some of the tea partiests 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.
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>> 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
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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 main stream. >> there was a populous power. this was totally different. this wasn't standard republican party and breitbart became the block side for that. >> curt former breitbart spokesperson said the aim was to change america and ban bannon directed it. >> the goal isn't objectivity. it more about what does the conserve ti side believe about this and how do they amplify
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that? >> breitbart's headlines were built on fear, fear the second amendment was being threatened and fear of obama and fear of illegal immigrants. >> this is why bannon and trump are perfect for each other because they're 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 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 fair and created cambridge analytics to target americans. >> during my experience -- >> whistle blower chris wiley
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says the delivery weapon used would be facebook. >> as soon as you start clicking on things, it starts to remove other content and shows you more and more of the 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 couy griffen increasingly tuned out regular news outlets and paid attention to facebook. >> facebook is where i got a lot of my media from. facebook or essential media i
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feel like you can glean more of the stuff that maybe interests you and isn't coming from a main stream 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 advisors that recognized this grievance, figured they could tap into it, amplify it and went off of it.
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>> 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 main stream media didn't see it coming. >> 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 went from supporting ben carson to trump. >> i saw in his heart and soul how much he loves our country and 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,
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there is only one choice. it 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. 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 and then it happened.
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>> 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. ♪ welcome to allstate, ♪ ♪are you down, d-d-down, d-d-down, d-d-down♪ where we're driving down the cost of insurance. ♪ ♪ are you down, down♪ ♪d-down, down? are you♪ drivers who switched saved over $700. ♪ allstate. here, better protection costs a whole lot less. you're in good hands. click or call for a lower rate today.
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i donald john trump do solemnly swear. >> his 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 like 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. >> john bolton was trump's national security advisor. >> if he could convince people
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that what he wanted to be true was true, he would try to do it. >> and 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
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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. >> donald trump? >> yeah. >> anointed by god? >> yeah, he carried god's anointing because he won. >> 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 tlump a rare opportunity to further push an alt right agenda. >> yes, by the way, they are trying to take away our history and our heritage. you see that. >> steve bannon who hand
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delivered trump's messaging was in the white house turning his world view 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 on his side he would sign a series of orders one nicknamed the muslim travel ban and others restricting immigration, building the wall and increasing border security. all based on the lie that a mass invasion of dangerous criminals was underway. >> 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. >> trump followers were being fed conspiracy theories by the president on tv, radio and online. >> the migrant caravans, yeah, i
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completely believe they're staged with all my heard i do. there is evidence. >> ashli babbitt would post video rants about problems on the southern border. >> i live about 15 minutes from the taijuan border so this is something i take personally. they are trying to paint the migrant caravan full of migrant women and children. let me tell you now, the border is an absolute shitshow. >> donald trump is the only president we had in office that actually was speaking out to represent us, the forgotten americans. >> couy griffen 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
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states. he thought of himself as the president of his base. he exacerbated the loss and bitterness. >> part of his political base included white supremacists. >> he saw those people as trump supporters and just lacked the ability or the willingness to consider the broader implications. >> curt, 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 probably proclaim our white pride and it's okay because the most powerful person in the world is with us right here, too. >> joann row could hear it all
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coming from her basement. her son and 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 theorists profiteer alex jones. >> he would listen to, like, bright part, alex jones, bring it upstairs full blast. >> i said it crazy and we're reversing it. >> 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. >> robert jacobson worked for alex jones for more than a decade. he said the conspiracy theories joaned pushed on info wars like mass shootings being fake were about making money, which he did by selling questionable health supplements on the website. big stories, equalled big profits. >> to alex, that means that he is going to sell some product
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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. i would shame him. 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.
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>> a new conspiracy was seeping its way into right wing social media and news outlets. qanon. >> qanon believed that basically all democrats are evil, satan worshipping pedophiles and the only person to 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, exploitation and sexual abuse. human trafficking. >> like he did with white supremacist, he 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
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into the q conspiracy posting hashtags including the slogan, where we go one, we go all. >> she had a shirt with a giant we are q on it. 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, q was more 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 truth. give me truth. i think trump is part of q, he's q plus plus. >> q is very empowering. what q allows a person engaging in conspiracies to do is feel like they're taking action fighting back. of course, it 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.
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>> 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 don't say i don't believe in it. i don't believe it 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. everyone that had the flu has covid. 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 stress and strain on everyone. everything. >> protests against business shutdowns broke out at state capitals across the country. >> covid started and 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.
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>> a lot of qanon believers do see this in biblical terms almost. >> 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? he's the president. line. now we've created a brand-new way for you to sell your car. whether it's a year old or a few years old. we wanna buy your car. so go to carvana and enter your license plate answer a few questions. and our techno wizardry calculates your car's value and gives you a real offer in seconds. when you're ready, we'll come to you, pay you on the spot and pick up your car, that's it. so ditch the old way of selling your car, and say hello to the new way at carvana. i've been telling everyone, the secret to great teeth...
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there is tremendous vulnerability. >> these guys have been cheating for years. >> years of lies, self-aggregation and the echo chamber of right wing media. >> probably the worst way to hold elections. >> some completely deny that fraud even exists. >> they would set the stage for many trump supporters to believe what would eventually become the biggest lie of all. >> the only way we're going to lose this election is if the election is rigged. remember that. it'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
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setting up a covid year phenomenon called the red maraje in key swing states favoring last. >> you could see trump go way up, plateau, and go way down. >> this is cnn's coverage of election night in america. >> that's exactly what happened. early election results seemed to favor president trump, then turned. he would try to stop it. >> 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. fra frankly, we did win this election. 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?
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to count ballots? in the united states of america? >> 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 at 4:00 in the morning all of a sudden become blue? >> it's called counti iing the votes, though. >> no, it's not. it's called cheating. >> viral videos and fraudulent news stories painted a picture of fraud. it was all a lie. >> in georgia, look at this new surveillance 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 being produced that were all for joe biden.
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>> the mysterious georgia suitcases that coy 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 you don't think there was any fraud at all in this last election? >> i'm saying 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 is 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.
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when you ever 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 7 -- >> 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 we're going to show they stole it.
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>> will you accept joe biden as president? >> no, he'll never be my president. >> how could that change at this point? >> there 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 ballots, misleading 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. explain that. >> but where did you get that particular news that dead people voted? >> it's on multiple sources. i don't have my computer in front of me so i can't look it up. i can 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.
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trump-appointed election 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? >> period. 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. >> 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
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early on. >> amy kramer's group launched a facebook page that quickly went viral. and recycling an old tactic from her tea party days, she painted a bus and went across the country for trump. >> this is like tea party on steroids, amplified a thousand times. >> we're going to be out here at the stop the steal rally. >> a right wing activist, 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. >> 1776! >> the "stop the steal" movements would merge into one major day of protests, december 12, in washington, d.c.
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president trump, buzzing the crowd in a helicopter, would energize his base for what was coming next. that same weekend, donovan crowell, the out of work alcoholic, attended a training camp in north carolina, according to prosecutors. though crowell's lawyer denies it. crowell had been recruited into the oath keepers, a paramilitary group that opposes the federal government. jessica watkins, who owned thi 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 queues in half, putting on the zip straps. the way jessica explained it, it was just preparedness in case they were in harm's way.
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>> who are the oath keepers in your mind right now, based on what you know? >> they're a terrorist organization. they're white supremacist. >> 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, "be there, will be wild." >> president trump said come to d.c., it's going to be wild. i've asked you to do two things. i asked you to vote and to go to d.c. i knew it was going to be history. part of the reason january 6th happens is donald trump picked the place, the time, the locations. and everybody could organize
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around that. >> ashley babbitt, the air force veteran in san diego, was making plans. >> 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 --
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donald trump. >> it's like they're a cult. he's got them brainwashed. why, i don't know. i also think they believe 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 you all this fight would escalate? >> the day before january 6, crowds started pouring into washington, d.c. at a rally there, pastor ken peters would prepach ref lufgs. >> revolution. >> we will rise up in this time and say like paul revere, the leftists are coming, the leftists are coming. >> later that evening, trump's political trickster roger stone would speak in biblical tells
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me. >> 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.
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early morning, january 6, 2021. >> 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 and the pressure that have day. >> for aides to nancy pelosi lisa and kelsey, 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
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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. >> by the time 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. it was absolutely packed. >> pastor ken peters had spoken at the d.c. stop the steal rally the night before. coy 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, it was eerie.
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they had the roads blocked off and dump trucks. >> it just had a different sense of the air, all right, this is a little weird, but still, nothing to raise the hairs on your neck. >> 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 had wrapped themselves in their flags. it was like nothing i had ever seen before. it was like a cultist mentality. >> there is an enormous crowd here. it's hard to get a grasp of '. >> i'm here because, uh, my president called me. >> the crowds were here 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 spo aupport for the president. this was an historic day and an historic moment. action might be required. >> let's have trial by combat!
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>> behind the scenes at the rally to save america, donald trump jr. was all smiles. >> do the right thing, fight! >> but president trump, reportedly in a bad mood, was glued to the monitors showing the crowds. >> we'll wait to see what he has to say at 11:00 when he's set to speak. after that all these supporters will go to the u.s. capitol. >> members of the extreme right wing group the proud boys were already assembling at the cap tomorrow's east side, flashing the "okay" sign associated with white power. >> do you want to see all the proud boys today? >> taking the fucking capital! >> they had arrived in small groups, dressed without their usual proud boy attire, to blend in and equip themselves with radios for communication. their day would begin with a prayer and a march to the
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capitol's west side. >> two men on a mission with about 500 behind ready to kick some butt for the country. >> josh pruitt, who would be among the first wave of proud boys to braeeach the capitol, claims he knew nothing of their plan. >> i didn't know anything about plans to breach the capital at all. i was part of the maryland chapter. there was probably 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 staining 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 lead the speech. >> we want trump! >> watkins and donovan crowell make their way towards the capitol. she uses a walkie-talkie app to communicate to other oath
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keepers. >> everybody is marching on the capitol, all million of us. it's insane. we're two blocks away from it now. and, uh, police are doing nothing, they're not even trying to stoppis at t us at this poin. >> 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 will 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' north side. then they make their move. overwhelming officers. >> usa! >> back up! [ shouting ]
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>> this is the fucking capitol, brother! the proud boys are rushing the capitol! >> police continue to fall back. >> as the house comes to order for this important historic meeting -- >> usa! usa! >> i started looking out and i saw a lot of commotion. 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. >> for what purpose does the gentleman from arizona rise? >> i rise both for myself and 60
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of my colleagues to object to the, uh, counting of the electoral ballots from arizona. >> so there you have it, the first objection. they'll be separated now. >> i didn't have a view into the outside but somebody texted me a photo of people on the inaugural platform and 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 got his hands on a capitol police riot shield. >> they're throwing bricks at the capitol!
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>> 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. >> capitol injuries, multiple capitol injuries! >> you're seeing these officers coming up the steps, being dragged up the steps. i can't see, almost in tears, help me, help me. and 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, the orange is the pepper spray, and they're just soaked in orange spray. it's just like, help, help! you had officers coming up the steps, bloodied. and you think to yourself, oh, my god, what is happening? just seeing the fear in some of these officers' faces.
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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, leaving the rally down pennsylvania avenue. yvonne st. cyr has no idea what awaits her. >> i was so excited to get to the capitol, i just wanted to see what was going to happen. so, umm, 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 in the making! >> i literally skipped with my flag all the with a toyota capcall the way to the capitol. >> there's an estimated 3
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million people here. there is a sea of nothing but red, white, and blue, patriots for trump. >> at 1:26 p.m., u.s. capitol police order the capital 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. >> usa! >> by 2:00 p.m., both sides of the capitol are surrounded with mobs, fighting police. >> we're still taking metal, sharpened objects, to include rocks and hand-grown chemical grade fireworks. this is now specifically a riot. >> capitol police are fighting a
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two-front war. >> total chaos. it's total chaos. the screaming, yelling. >> leave it alone! 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. [ screaming ] they were prepared for war. >> then the moment happens. >> i breached the capitol! they have breached the capitol! >> usa! usa!
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juntos con smokey bear podemos hacerlo! go to smokeybear.com to learn more about wildfire prevention. at 2:12 p.m., using a police shield, a proud boy 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? >> walk in through a front door being held open by cops waving
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me in. >> now, you know that's not true. >> i know it is true. there's proof of it. there's video of it. the cops were at the door, standing to the sides of the door and they were waving people in. >> 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. >> be advised they're attempting to break a window on the east front. the capitol has been breached on the east side. >> armed with sticks, flag poles, riot shields. >> whose house! >> our house!
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>> they had 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. >> 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.
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gene is great. he did a great job. there were a lot of eugene goodmans that day that did a lot of graeat, 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 videos. >> defend your constitution! defend your liberty! >> some members of congress are being escorted to safety but behind doors, staffers and news media are in hiding. >> i remember telling my colleagues, we need to go into lockdown. >> inside house speaker pelosi's office, her staffers rushed to a conference room, locked the door. among them, alisa and kelsey, speaking exclusively to cnn. >> then we started hearing the banging. and, like, the hooting and the hollering. >> nancy!
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nancy! >> very close to us. >> there you go, brother. >> then i realize, okay, music off, everybody silence your cellphones, 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. >> they had barricaded themselves in, hoping the door would hold. >> the din was coming from all directions. we heard somebody yell, "i found nancy pelosi's office." people were chanting, nancy, nancy. they came through this way. so we're hearing it from behind us and in 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
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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. >> one of the staffers whispers a phone-called plea for help. >> we need capitol police. they're banging the doors, trying to find her. >> it was pure terror. >> where are you, nancy, we're looking for you. >> it was the way he was chanting her name. it haunts me. he 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. i mean, we don't know. >> nancy! where are you, nancy? >> we didn't know what was actually happening because it was just the eight of us in a completely dark room and all we
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could hear was what was outside. >> inside the halls of congress, the mob refuses to stop. >> stop the steal! stop the steal! >> 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 joanne rowe's son donovan crowell. >> 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 main dome right now. we are rocking it.
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they're throwing grenades, they're fricking shooting people with paintballs. but we're in here. >> get it, jess, do your -- this is what we lived up for, everything we trained for. >> in almost every corner, inside and out. many battles are raging. [ shouting ] >> 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. [ screaming ]
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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.
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>> 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. >> getting the shit kicked out of me, that was the ass kicking of a lifetime. >> you were 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
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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 are a traitor if you go against -- >> 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 a hundred combat mission 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. donald trump had just tweeted.
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>> "mike pence didn't have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our country and our constitution." >> there was a scaffold and a noose and chants of "hang mike pence." >> 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. >> we came this far, what do you say? >> drag them out! >> 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
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u.s. house of representatives, members and their staff just steps away. reinforcements arrive. three uniformed officers holding the doors step aside. all that separates members of congress from the mob is a wood and glass door barricaded with furniture. >> 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, damn it, ashli, why did you have to do that? [ sound of gunfire ] >> it sounded like a fucking gunshot. >> ashli babbitt is shot. >> i know gunshots pretty well. i knew that this was real and
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of stopping. rioters are on the senate floor. >> hey, whose office is this? >> and rummaging through offices. >> oh, wow. >> outside, more and more are trying to fight their way in. [ shouting ] 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 protests. 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 examiner. >> usa!
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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. >> 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.
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>> this is insane. >> lawmakers, including republicans, calling in to cnn, were astounded at the president's detachment. >> the election is 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 phenomenally. >> coy griffin, who claims he didn't see any fighting, makes his way to the inauguration stage. >> it wasn't part of the capitol building, it was an exterior stai staircase. i never went inside. >> and tries to get a mob, shouting fight for trump, to pray for trump. >> take a knee!
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>> 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 younger brother had met me out on the -- uh, the parking lot and told me she had passed. one of only two times i had ever seen my father cry. he's sobbing like a kid. my mom was tore up about it. i mean, which mother wouldn't be? >> 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
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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. people were breaking into mccarthy's office. 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 felt was unforgiveable. >> pastor ken peters says he didn't make it to the capitol until later. >> there were still people all over the stairs, waving flags, standing, letting their voices be heard. >> people bashing through windows, 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
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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 eagled on the ground. >> they were holding rioters at bay, at gunpoint, on the side. >> nancy pelosi's staff remained barricaded, terrified, before they too were escorted to safety. >> easily the worse day of my life, the worst two hours, easily. >> amidst the chaos, qanon believer yvonne st. cyr climbed a window to get inside. >> i was caught up in the moment, we were storming the capitol. i stuck my head out the window and said, this is you our house. super sad that this is america and americans are being beaten for wanting to save their country. so welcome to communist america,
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aren't you so fucking 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 pretaped 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 put out a tweet, it's a minute long remember 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 they let a bunch of people in so they could use their facial recognition and get every trump supporter with charges that they could.
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that's what i think happened. >> but now you're seeing these pictures, the cavalry, if you will, has arrived. >> you have to get out of here, guys. >> by 6:00 p.m., january 6, 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 our capitol today, you did not
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win. >> trump lost. the insurrection failed. congress certified joe biden as the 46th president of the united states. but the big lie has not gone away. the assault on democracy is escalating. >> our movement is far from over. in fact, it is just getting started. of your financing. at carvana, get personalized terms, browse for cars that fit your budget, then customize your down payment and monthly payment. and these aren't made-up numbers. it's what you'll really pay, right down to the penny. whether you're shopping or just looking. it only takes a few seconds, and it won't affect your credit score. finally! a totally different way to finance your ride. only from carvana. the new way to buy a car. people were afraid i was contagious. i felt gross. it was kind of a shock after i started cosentyx.
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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 is 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
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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. >> >> 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. >> reporter: in that hypocrisy, lower-level republicans, many conspiracy believers, themselves, found their opening to rye ewrite the history of january 6th. congressman andrew clyde from georgia, who actually helped capitol police barricade the door, that day, later said this.
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>> you know, if you didn't know the tv footage was a video from january the 6th, you would actually think it was a normal-tourist visit. >> reporter: no one could look at this video, this video, or this video. >> that 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. >> reporter: the scars of the siege on the capitol are permanent. the lives of those who took part have been upended. many face prison time, lost jobs. >> this cost me a lot. it's cost me a lot. >> reporter: coy griffin faces federal charges, and his county-commission seat is being
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threatened. >> sorry, i'm not quitting, i'm not resigning. >> reporter: and still, he is a believer. >> i, personally, will never recognize joe biden as the president of the united states, as long as i have the type of questions that i have regarding the elections. >> reporter: evan, also charged for storming the capitol, think it's all part of a grand plan. >> i don't regret going on january 6th at all and i don't even regret going through the window. >> reporter: bartender josh pruitt says he can't find a job because of his role in the riot. and as for the charges against him? >> you're in serious trouble. >> i'll be just fine. because i didn't do anything. >> reporter: oath keeper donovan is facing some of the most serious-criminal charges, in the capitol breach. >> overran the capitol. >> reporter: we found him in ohio where he is awaiting trial. >> i'm with cnn. >> excuse me? >> i'm with cnn.
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>> man, i'm good. >> i've been talking to your mom and your sister. they mention that 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. so -- >> do you feel like you were manipulated into going to the capitol? >> no. no, i really got nothing to say to ya. i don't watch your garbage, anyway. >> i love the person that he used to be. but i despise the person that -- 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 for he gets out of there.
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trump doesn't care about any of those people that stormed the capitol for him. he doesn't care, one iota about 'em. hasn't even mentioned them since he's been out of the white house. >> reporter: 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. 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's doing their own investigation. and at the right time, they are going to be restoring the public w republic with trump as president. >> once people are radicalized, it is very difficult to bring them back. >> just giving them facts doesn't work. >> it definitely does not work. especially conspiracy theories. they will just see that as
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feeding into the same conspiracy. >> reporter: if you are watching cnn, reading news based in fact, not fiction, you are missing what is driving the delusional views of so many americans. >> you think he is going to come back? >> oh, he is coming back. >> absolutely. >> in 2024? >> i think he's coming back before then. >> reporter: 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, ahead 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
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extremists on january 6th. and that could lead to an even darker future. >> there are still a lot of angry people. it, absolutely, emboldened them. and it's like it's finally happening. this civil war. this is the start of it. and it has 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. >> if you don't change any -- anything, we are on the pathway to having a failed state which means that the government can't govern. which means people just start 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. >> reporter: it is an america, where white spupremacists 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 results of an election. this is donald trump's america.
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turns out there is a good reason some republicans have no appetite for investigating the january insurrection. they are too busy hobnobbing with one of the participants. i'm john berman, in for anderson. and this uncovered by cnn's k file is anthony, seen with lauren boebert, republican members took to the border on tuesday and wednesday, when claegs were voting on a select committee to investigate january 6th. a close ally of congresswoman marjorie taylor greene was there for the attack on the capitol. but unlike a number of republican lawmakers, who have tried to blame it on antifa, black live
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