hello. this is "don lemon tonight." a moment in history moments ago. the january 6th committee beginning to make its case to the american people with revelations we have never heard before. tonight with some of the more than 1,000 witnesses told the committee behind closed doors. this new video from members of the then-president's inner circle, even his daughter, ivanka trump. >> this is the president's daughter commenting on bill

barr's statement that the department found no fraud sufficient to overturn the election. >> how did that affect your perspective about the election when attorney general barr made that statement? >> it affected my perspective. i respect attorney general barr. so i accepted what he said, was saying. >> but the committee is making it clear this is not just about what happened on january 6th, or in the days leading up to it. it's about a clear and present danger to our democracy and what could happen in the next election. we've got a lot to talk in the coming hours here on cnn. here with me, so glad you could join. first manu and ryan in washington on capitol hill with the latest on this. gentlemen, good evening. ryan, you first. stunning first night here. shocking new video. emotional live testimony. taped testimony from people close to the former president

and the january 6th committee making the case that the former president, donald trump, was at the center. tell us more about what we heard, sir. >> and, don, i think if there is a takeaway tonight is that committee didn't shy away from placing the blame on what happened here on january 6th directly at the feet of the former president donald trump and they is it by very calmly laying out a wide range of evidence from a number of different factions and factors, and from hearing from the people closest to him during this period of time. just listen to how the committee members laid out the case as part of this hearing tonight. >> you will hear that president trump was yelling and, quote, really angry at advisors who told him he needed to be doing something more. and aware of the rioters chants to hang mike pence, the president responded, quote, maybe our supporters have the right idea.

mike pence, quote, deserves it. >> and while the committee definitely didn't shy away from blaming president trump for what happened here, they certainly did not play the entire hand. this was more than anything a tease of what's to come. >> this is just the beginning of a long set of hearings that are going to take place throughout june and the committee promised tonight we are going to hear a lot more about what they have uncovered over the past 11 months. >> manu, talk to me about what you are learning. you are learning about the committee's knowledge about the house republicans seeking pardons from the former president trump? >> yeah, one of the things that liz cheney said in her remarks during this hearing was that there were some house republicans who asked donald trump for pardons about their actions involving january 6th. now, one person she did point out was congresswoman scott perry. he is a pennsylvania conservative, a leader of the house freedom caucus, a

conservative faction within that conference. she contended he was one of those individuals seeking a pardon. now, i caught up with the chairman of the committee, bennie thompson, right to try to get more information about that as well. he said that they have, quote, documentation proving that some of these members had asked for pardons. now, he would not say how many members that there were that asked for pardons but he said that this will come out in the course of the hearings. jamie raskin, another member of the committee, wouldn't divulge those details. he said it shows a clear consciousness of guilt some of these members would ask for pardons and just knowing that their actions could lead them in some legal jeopardy. but the good question, too, for this committee, don, is what will they do with these republican members of the house who have defied the subpoenas from this committee, including congresswoman -- the leader of the house republican conference kenny mccarthy, perry and others, in asking these members

of the committee whether they will go as far as holding these members in contempt of congress. they will simply just not say if that is what they plan to do. so it's uncertain if they will get the testimony from these members who allegedly asked for pardons. but that was one of the key revelations here showing just how many people were involved in what happened in the run-up to january 6th and whether any one of them thought they could be in trouble for what they did. >> i found it interesting that the first closed-door testimony to the committee tonight was from the former attorney general bill barr. what did we hear? >> it's important to point out that that interview with bill brr was conducted eight days ago. but the committee found what he had to say so important that they made it the first piece of sound that we heard from any of these closed-door testimonies that have taken place the past 11 months. and what they were trying to show here was that donald trump was told by people he trusted that he is not win the election. listen to what attorney general

bill barr told the committee. >> i had three discussions with the president that i can recall. one was on november 23rd. one was on december 1st and one on december 14th. i have been through sort of the give and take of those discussions. in that context, i made it clear i did not agree with the idea of saying the election was stolen and putting out this stuff rg which i told the president was bull shit. and, you know, i didn't want to be a part of it. that's one of the reasons i went into me deciding to leave when i did. i observed, i think it was on december 1, you can't live in a world where the incumbent administration stays in power based on its view, unsupported by specific evidence, that the election -- that there was fraud in the election. >> so, what was remarkable about what barr had to say was, first, he was very clear with donald trump that he did not think that

he won the election, and also that he thought that donald trump's actions were a danger to the republic. that's significant because that is part of the central thesis of the january 6th select committee. it's important to point out ivanka trump said she changed her mind or was influenced by what bill barr this to say. you already played that sound a little bit earlier today. we have only seen a very small fraction of the interviews that this committee has conducted. around 1,000 different interviews and there are a number of hearings left to go. there is a lot more we are probably going it learn before the end of june. >> stick around. we have a lot to go live on cnn. since we are on the subject of the former president trump, kaitlan collins, i understand that you have some new information about how former president just responded to the hearing. what is he saying? >> yeah, unsurprisingly, don, he is lashing out, criticizing them for their first primetime hearing for what happened january 6th and said they failed to use the positive witnesses

and statements that he claims back up his allegations about election fraud which of course you heard from the former attorney general there himself who says they were patently false. i am told in the coming days one thing you can expect to see is potentially those witnesses who were used tonight saying that their comments were taken out of context. you saw the president who he is talking about saying they were not positive witnesses. it's his own former pick for attorney general, campaign advisor, his son-in-law and even his daughter, who were the ones that the committee chose to use their testimony tonight though we know there are dozens of others of former trump staffers who testified to the committee and they are coming out and we are expecting them what we are told by sources they are likely to say they were taken out the context as a defense against the president in case he is angry about what they said. you often saw his cabinet secretaries when they testified on capitol hill and maybe said something he didn't like, they would claim the committee or lawmakers took them out of

context. but we should note that all of these witnesses who went in there, many of them knew they were being recorded, knew their sboer views were being transcribed, some knew they would be used in these televised hearings which we knew were going to be happening this summer. bennie thompson, the chair, just committed to jake tapper they will release the full transcript. when you see the claims they are being taken out of context, it is on camera, it is transcribed weekend we will get to see the full context of what they said. >> thank you very much. i appreciate that. i am wondering, i mean, before when i get the panel a little bit later taken out of context the new i'll plead the fifth or i don't recall. we will discuss that in a moment. first, i want to bring in a member of the committee, congresswoman elaine luria, a democratic from virginia. thank you for joining us. the vice-chair, liz cheney, said that trump summon the mob and lit the flame of this attack and the committee ended showing how rioters went because of trump,

how they went down to the capitol and what they did. let's play it and then we'll talk about it. >> you mentioned that the president asked you. do you remember a specific message? >> basically, yes, for us to come to d.c. things are going to happen. >> he said i have something very important to say on january 6th, or something like that. what one? what got me interested to be there. >> trump is only asking for two things. he asked me for my vote and for me to come on january 6th. >> what should americans take away from this, congresswoman? >> well, i think that the wrap-up here really follows perfectly with what liz cheney said about how the president's words were taken literally, that these individuals were amongst thousands as we can see who heard the president say come to washington, d.c., on january 6th.

be here. it will be wild. then they were here after the rally at the ellipse and they followed his orders to come to the capitol. so i think that tonight we use this as an opportunity to lay out the things that we are going to be talking about over the course of these hearings. we outline what's to come next, the multipronged conspiracy that led to the events of january 6th and the attempt to undermine the results of the election and really we want to highlight the dangers that still exist in the future por our democracy and institutions and there is a lot yet to come in the hearings that will be following. do you think tonight, do you think the case was made tonight or tbd, to be determined? >> well, this was essentially an opening statement. we did lead in, as you said, with comments from trump's own former attorney general who said that the president knew, point blank, that he had lost the election. he was told that multiple times. and we pointed out as well there

were others close to him who were his advisors who told him the same thing, but he continued perpetuating this lie and turn on the tv today, he is still perpetuating the same lies about the election. >> the committee showed a trump tweet and reading that tweet to other insurrectionists. let's play it. >> didn't have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our country and our constitution giving states a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify. u.s. demands the truth. >> bring the truth! [ crowd chanting ] >> "hand mike pence."

>> a direct line from the actions of the insurrections? >> those were the words that the president chose rather than being presidential, being the commander in chief, having the platform and the microphone to speak to the nation about stopping violence and actually being responsible for carrying out our laws. he chose to point his anger towards the former vice president. as that tweet went out, the world saw it. and there you saw literally one the rioters with a megaphone reading it outloud and almost immediately after that you hear these chants in the background of hang mike pence. pretty clear correlation that the words that came from the president led directly to what the rioters were doing and the violence that day. >> let's talk about that, about more of what we are told we are going to learn about trump's reaction to the hang mike pence chant. trump quoted as saying they had the right idea and mike pence deserves it.

>> yes. liz cheney mentioned that in her comments and i think that's some of sort of many impressions that we'll get from those who surrounded the president on that day and his reactions to what was happening. so i think that is just an initial sort of entree into much more information about his reaction, his peace of mind at the time. and we all know 187 minutes went by before he actually stood up, got on camera and ostensibly told these people to go home. rather than saying go home, stop the violence, this is unacceptable, something along those likes that one would anticipate from the president, he told them you're special. we love you. >> gui guess if this divided political climate that we are in now and you can call it a hos hostile political climate, perhaps par for the course, but i need to ask about the gop's response saying they are blasting, calling it pelosi's

sham, primetime show. and they want payback if they take back control of the house. >> you know, i didn't see that live touring the hearing because i was participating in the hearing. i saw kenny mccarthy's press conference earlier. the thing that i would say is, you know, honestly he is supposed to be the minority leader in the house. he is patently embarrassing himself. days after the january 6th riot he was saying and doing the right things. saying we need to hold people accountable, get to the bottom of this, we know everything that happened that led to the failure to establish an independent 9/11-type commission. and now he doesn't want to get to the bottom of anything. he wants to cover it up, not talk about it, deflect, and essentially he is no gobeing th adult in the room. if you were truly a leader in the house, he would want to get to the truth and facts which is where he started but somewhere he went off the rails on that. >> thank you for your time. see you soon. this is, as you said, the

opening statements. there is much more to go. the stakes couldn't be higher here. did the committee succeed in laying out just how close we came to a disaster? we have got some folks here, more analysis on cnn and no holds barred. i want to hear from you, scott jennings, what you think tonight, because he is never at a loss for words. >> the white house staff knew t that president trump was willing to entertain and use conspiracy theories to achieve his ends. they knew the president needed to be cut off from all of those who had encouraged him. they knew that president donald trump was too dangerous to be left alone.

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january 6th committee laying out their case in the first public hearing tonight with revelations that we have never heard before. i want to bring in cnn political analyst seth, andrew mccabe and political commentator scott jennings. alysa, we would have a woman on the civil affairs joining us later. it wasn't supposed to be just guys. glad you are here to talk about this, seriously. i want people -- people say why don't you say how you really feel. say how you really feel. the committee knows the stakes are high. do you think they succeeded in showing americans making their case to americans, reminding them of the disaster that we came close to? >> i think they accomplished their goals in terms of refocusing the political energy on this moment on this day. we have to be honest here that

democrats are -- the committee, you know, a bipartisan committee, is doing multiple things here. they are trying to lay out a legal case and refocus political energy on this moment. it dovetails with the democrats midterm strategy to paint republicans as irresponsibletu stewards of democracy. that's what -- and this is -- >> you think this is a midterm strategy? i that from the right. maybe it is -- >> i am not -- >> no, no, no there is definitely a little case being played. i am saying there is also politics happening. i don't think there has to be any ignorance around that. this is part of a democratic party argument that republicans are irresponsible stewards of the american democracy. i think part of this case is making that clear to the american public and they are doing that through a step by step evidentiary basis we saw tonight be laid out in a more explicit form than we have seen previously. >> okay. let's talk about the legal case,

the person who knows about that evidentiary, they are playing, of course, to the attorney general, they are playing to merrick garland, the department of justice. do you think that this he made their case tonight? >> you know, they are playing to doj. they are playing to the ag, merrick garland. but first and foremost, they are playing to the american people. they have to convince people that this is important. it's morne important than the price of gas, more important than inflation. this should matter to you. that's their hardest sell, i think, right now. they tried to really emphasize that point by constantly going back to the point here is this was an intentional conspiracy by the president and those around him to undermine the results of the election, to essentially take away the will of the voters and that is something that should matter to every republican no matter where you sit on the political spectrum. i think they got that message out. did they convince the american people that's why they should

see this as important? we will see. >> the committee said that they at least -- four trump aides testified they told trump he lost the election. whether he believed it or not, that's another story. he says he didn't believe it. what do you think? they say he knew he was lying to the american people. >> well, they lost all the court cases, all the evidence, you know, all the evidence that was coming in from the field was, you know, you lost the election. and he kept up the charade and, obviously, it led to what happened on january 6th. i thought that was compelling to use his own people against him, right, in this opening night. i think the political challenge for the democrats though is to try to get people who are currently paying 150, 180 bucks to fill up their car to believe something that happened 18 months ago under a president no longer is in office matters as much as the current economic situation in their household i believed this since the day it happened. this will matter more this 2024 than it does in november 2022.

there is no evidence voters are holding this against republicans. but if he runs again, this is the great question. can he be trusted with the office again? should he be trusted with awesome power? that's when republicans and voters at large are going to have to do some soul searching about his impact on another administration. >> okay. i'm going to say this. i think that you're right in a lot of your assessment. i think much of what you said doesn't matter. i think what matters is what happened, what this means for our democracy. what this means for politics, i think that is secondary and, you know, let them -- it's always going to be politics. i think for something like this to happen, to have an attack on the capitol, on our democracy, to have a president of the united states saying that he won the election when he didn't, i think that is more important than anything. if you don't have a functioning democracy, then it doesn't matter if you have a penny gas

prices. you don't have a functioning democracy. i think the case, the biggest case that should be made is how do we save our democracy, how do we hold the people accountable who were trying to steal the democracy in order for us to be able to fix all of those problems that we have that are fixable because we have a functioning democracy and a republic and a republic that is intact. am i wrong? >> i don't think those are disconnected issues. when we think about what democrats want to do to, quote, unquote, save democracy in this moment, it is about passing bills of protection that is going to require a motivated voting base, particularly in november. these are things that they need the american public to be rallied around to be able to put in place -- >> listen, of course, that is going to happen. as said, much of what you said is right, but at this point i don't believe that it is important. people are going to think what does this matter, gas prices,

whatever. fine, we will get to the gas prices. what does this mean for inflation? fine, we will get to that. we talk about that all the time. what this means for our democracy is the most important thing and that's what we should be focusing on. >> we don't even have the opportunity to argue over economic policy if we don't have a functioning democracy to rely upon. and that's the message they are trying to get out tonight. i think they did a pretty good job of that. early on i thought liz cheney's presentation was remarkable for the scope, for the detail and for her tone. she laid out some really compelling evidence in a way that didn't come off as overly politicized. it was absolutely targeted at the person that they clearly think is responsible for and that is -- >> i thought a strategic -- something that would have been strategic if they let the republicans on the panel instead of the -- i know bennie thompson is the chairman. if they have liz cheney and adam kinsinger do the questioning tonight. because then republicans would

be attacking their own. >> i think that thompson's opening 14 minutes were the least effective portion of the night. if you are an average person, i will see what they have, you were treated to the normal congressional pablem. liz cheney, trump turned her into public enemy number one -- >> she was comfortable. didn't look like she was reading t telep teleprompter -- >> imagine if they started now, for the average person -- you put it in primetime for a person. the average person would have been more compelled out of the gate. >> bennie thompson said i am going to start with i moo republican, the co-chair of this committee, elizabeth, and let her lay it out, it would have been more effective to have a republican there talking about it. >> i see that argument. i think what the democrats are trying to do with the bennie thompson opening is really position the history of american democracy in this moment, right. that he was invoking mississippi, he was invoking the racial history, the folks who

died to kind of bring that forth and then to call back to the violence that happened on that day. whether it was effective is a separate question. that was the thinking -- >> the former television producer to do it, you produce it with the person who is most effective to convey the message you are trying to convey. we have to get to the break. where is the doj in all of this? we will talk about that next. ♪ my name is austin james. as a musician living with diabetes, fingersticks can be a real challenge. that's w why i use the freestyle libre 2 system. with a painless, one-second scan i know my glucose numbers without fingersticks. now i'm managing my diabetes better and i've lowered my a1c from 8.2 to 6.7. take the mystery out of managing your diabetes and lower your a1c. now you know. try it for free at freestylelibre.us lemons. lemons, lemons, lemons. look how nice they are.

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we are back with more on tonight's historic hearing from the january 6th committee. let's dig in on the legal analysis with elie honig. hello to you. this is liz cheney where she alleges that the former president acted illegally or criminally. watch. >> what president trump demanded that mike pence do wasn't just wrong. it was illegal and it was unconstitutional. witnesses in these hearings will explain how the former vice president and his staff informed president trump over and over again that what he was pressuring mike pence to do was illegal. the judge evaluated the facts and he reached the conclusion that president trump's efforts to pressure vice president pence to act illegally by refusing to

count electoral votes likely violated two federal criminal statutes. in our final two june hearings, you will hear how president trump summoned a violent mob and directed them illegally to march on the united states capitol. >> we talked about this before. the actual power that congress has. they can't really decide anything legally. she is sitting there waving her arms at the doj saying, hey, look at this? >> she is waving her arms, stamping her feet, yelling into a megaphone. it's more clear that the primary audience, yes, the american public, but is doj, because these hearings are going to end. you know what happens in? they end. and in the early days of this committee, if any of the committee members were asked do you think there is a crime, they tip-toed around. now more and more explicit calls like we saw from representative cheney saying this is a crime in

our opinion. >> bennie thompson started off the hearing saying president trump was at the center of a conspiracy to overturn the election. let's watch. >> donald trump was at the center of this conspiracy and ultimately donald trump, the president of the united states, spurred a mob of domestic enemies of the constitution to march down the capitol and subvert american democracy. >> so how does a conspiracy become illegal against or against the law here? >> we need to be careful with this phrase conspiracy. there is a colloquial everyday meaning, a plan with bad intent. there is a specific legal definition. >> we learned about that during the mueller hearings. has a another conspiracy theory -- >> it means a meeting of the mind to commit a specific crime. it's one thing for congress to say it's a conspiracy. doj is going to have to prove to beyond a reasonable doubt if they want to charge it.

it's apples and oranges. when we hear the members talk about conspiracy, that's not necessary a criminal conspiracy. >> your takeaway from the first night? you heard this was an opening statement. as a former prosecutor, as an attorney, how did they to? >> i am a tough critic and they had a difficult task. i think it was very effective. they were prosectorial, representative cheney in particular. there is a miss eperception tha they pound the table and yell and scream. good prosecutors are what we saw from liz cheney. methodical, calm, and most importantly she let the evidence to be the tar, not her. i thought it was very effective. >> thank you very much. he defended the capitol on january 6th. michael pen own is here to react to what he heard in tonight's primetime hearing. that's next.

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. the january 6th select committee kicking off their first public hearing tonight in primetime with never-before-seen video from the insurrection. i want to play part of it but i have to worn you, okay, it is very graphic. >> we can't held, there are two many people. we're [ bleep ].

>> we need an area 4 b house members, her walking over now through the tunnels. >> we're trying to hold the upper deck. we're trying to hold the upper deck now. we need to hold the doors of the capitol. >> it's awful. every time you see that video. joining me one of the officers who ricked his life defending our capitol on january 6th, former d.c. metropolitan police officer michael fanone, now a cnn law enforcement analyst. mike, good to see you. thank you for fighting for our democracy before we get started. i appreciate it. >> yeah, thanks. >> today i'm sure and in the

coming days as these hearings play out on television it's going to be tough. you lived through that horror we saw playing out if that video and were in the room during the hearing tonight. what was it like for you? what was your takeaway? >> i didn't really have any expectations going into it, but i guess listening to your last segment, what elie honig said, i thought they did a good job. i thought that they were methodical in their presentation. in some ways, it brought me back to, you know, my days as a police officer and testifying in court. i thought that the prosecution in this case had an excellent opening argument. i mean, they have got a difficult task ahead of them. >> do you think they conveyed the horror of that day? because the video is compelling, as i said, every time i see it, it just, you know, it's like i

have seen it -- i'm just seeing it for the first time. do you think they conveyed the horror of that day the best it could be conveyed, because, obviously, it was awful if you lived through it? >> i felt they did an outstanding job coupling video with officers' testimony. but then again, i mean, so much video has been made available for so long, i don't understand how people could not recognize how violent that day was. >> mike, do you think tonight's hearing, do you think it's going to help achieve the accountability that you have been pushing for since january 6th, 2021? >> i don't know. i mean, the committee i think has done its job. we'll see how it plays out with the rest of these hearings, but, you know, like some of your earlier guests said, now is the ball is in the department of

justice's court. by that i mean merrick garland's court. they are going to be the last line of defense when it comes to preserving our democracy. i mean, it's important that the american people understand how close we came to losing our democracy, but more importantly is for, you know, the one agency that we have available to us to hold those individuals accountable. >> mike, do you think that they will be held accountable? you have been very critical of, obviously, the reaction from many people in this country, especially the supporters of the president, the former president of the united states. are you optimistic tonight? >> i mean, i'm -- i'm not optimistic. i'm not pessimistic. i'm just realistic, you know. i mean, the reality is, like one

of your earlier guests said, trying to convince people that live hundreds or even thousands of mail away from the u.s. capitol that had attack wasn't just a physical attack on the capitol complex or the police officers defending it. it was actually an attack on their democracy and their way of life. i think that's very difficult, especially, you know, in the times that we are living in now. >> former metropolitan police officer michael fanone, who defended our democracy on that day. michael, thank you. is now a friend. i am grateful you are here and very thankful for what you did and the entire country should be as well. thank you very much, sir. >> thank you. love you, don. >> love you, as well. much more coverage on tonight's primetime hearing from the january 6th committee. and "the new york times" getting transcripts of what police were saying standing in the holloway of robb elementary school waiting to confront the gunman. we'll be right bacack.

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joining me now, cnn analyst philip mudd. it seems to get worse the more that we learn. we know protocol in the active shooter situation requires officers to immediately neutralize them. this is from "the new york times." people are going to ask why we're taking so long, a man could be heard saying. we're trying to preserve the rest of life. preserve the rest of the life? what do you think that means? the "times" believed this is the school's police chief saying this. >> well, i can't defend what's going on here, but i'll explain what i think we're seeing and what we might see in the coming months. as a citizen, you look at this and say you have to move in immediately. but when you hear a phrase like that, you have to ask the question about whether the officer in charge is saying we think the officers who might go in and storm that room would

risk their lives because of how the individual who died, the shooter, was armed. it's a story of confusion. we're seeing a lack of clarity on what they knew about 911 calls, what the officers knew, what dispatch was telling them, what officers on the scene knew, what officers who showed up later knew different from the original officers who appeared. boy, this is a tragic story of a frenzied situation where the picture was unclear, and i'm not sure anybody on the scene knew what was going on at any moment. >> right on. "the new york times" also reports officers grew impatient and voicing their concerns. chief arredondo again says we were ready to breach, but that door is locked, according to the transcript. the "times" quotes other officers saying if there are kids in there, we need to go in there, one officer could be heard saying. another responded, whoever is in

charge will determine that. what does this say about the leadership on this force? >> boy, it tells me a couple things. first, one of the lessons learned is going to be about how to get clear communication. but there's going to be a simple question coming out of this, which is why did you give the officer in charge the latitude to make that choice? an officer doesn't have the choice to say i should or should not risk the officers under me, i have to go in. that's going to be a difficult policy change and it underscores the second major thing, which is we're seeing a lot of data that is stuff like what's on video, what happened at dispatch and 911 calls. what we're not hearing obviously is the initial interviews from the department of justice with the officers. if you want pain, don, those are going to be painful if you have officers say we wanted to go and we were held back. >> philip mudd, always appreciate your perspective. thank you, sir.

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for the first time, the january 6th select committee making its case directly to the american people tonight with never-before-seen video and testimony from people within trump's inner circle. cnn's ryan noble live for us on capitol hill. you are right ther