♪ >> assault on democracy. a mob of protesters angry over the election results stormed to the hallowed halls of our nation's legislative beacon. unprecedented scenes of chaos and fear, witnessed live in our homes and around the world on a day when congress had gathered to carry out what our constitution's most sacred traditions. column has been restored in the capital but the scar is more a time-honored peaceful transition of power. this could take a while to heal. hello, i am jon scott in new york.

>> hi, john, i am gillian turner in the nation's capital tonight, continuing live coverage of wednesday's astonishing events here in washington. the images frightening and shocking. the results, deadly and destructive. now, four people are confirmed dead, including a woman fatally shot inside the capital. all of these events triggering a locked on capitol hill and causing lawmakers to fear for their lives. the extent of the mob violence also overshadowing two elections in georgia, flipping control to thtoin the senate democrats. one winner will be the first black senator to ever represent the peach state. >> john: at this hour, washington is under curfew orders come under the watch of national guard and d.c. police. congress has reconvened, and is in the process of certifying joe biden as the next president of the united states. in the coming days, troubling questions remain to be answered. could it happen again? who is responsible?

and why was the u.s. government caught unprepared? >> gillian: let's go now directed to the scene of the crime. injured by congressional correspondent chad pergram, who is on capitol hill this morning. hi, chad. >> good morning, gillian. right now, the house of representatives are debating the pennsylvania slate of electors. we have had two objections to different states slates of electors. they started earlier today, objecting to the arizona slate. in fact, they were in the middle of debate in both the house and senate when chaos broke out here the capitol. so right now, the senate in just the past 15 minutes or so, the have voted to accept the pennsylvania slate of electors. the vote there was 92-7. house of representatives continues to be in session. democratic pennsylvania congresswoman susan wilde's on the floor right now. she is debating and making the case before joe biden. the vote to accept of the arizona slate of electors, that was 93-6. so what will happen after the

house concludes this debate? the house will have to vote on this, and then the house and senate will be in alignment. they will continue alphabetically the rest of the way through the remaining states come in at the very end, vice president pence, one of the constitution provides under over this, the winning vote total goes to joe biden, and it says joe biden shall be president. house speaker nancy pelosi thought it was very important to bring the house and senate back to continue this process despite the mayhem earlier today. i'm going to redo something from house speaker nancy pelosi. she said "today was a shameful assault on our democracy. it cannot, however, deter us from our responsibility. we always knew that this responsibility would take us into the night, and we will stay as long as it takes. we must show the world we will not be diverted from our duty." now we thought this was to be a long process, anyway. we thought this was going to bleed late into the night as

they consider multiple states slates of electors. we thought they might consider two or three more, frankly, but you had a republican senator who started to peel off, saying no, no come after the chaos today, we do not want to force a debate. in fact, even though josh hawley, republican senator from missouri, he was the copetitioner, he needs one post member and one senator to trigger the debate in the house and senate. the senate did not debate the pennsylvania slate, they went immediately to the roll call vote, and you attenders like james lankford, republican of oklahoma, steve daines, republican of montana, kelly loeffler from georgia, who remains a senator for the time being, you know, we haven't had her successor raphael warnock be sworn in yet, she initially said i want to challenge these electoral slates. those senators, they peeled off and said no, no, let's get this done because we need to calm everybody down. the other thing people are going to be looking out over the next few days is what led to this incursion? were capitol police not prepared?

did they not have manpower? they have a training facility in suburban maryland, mocked up like the u.s. capitol, house office buildings and offices, and also staircases that pretty much resemble some of the grand staircase is here in the capitol. they trained to evacuate the house chamber, the senate chamber, all the time, and the fact that people were able to breach the u.s. capital, get into the senate chamber, get into the speaker's office, the fact that they had to use lethal force, shooting and killing one woman today, this is really a remarkable, ignominious scene here at the united states capitol. jillian? >> gillian: chad, it has been a day, and now, a new day is dawning, hopefully soon. stay safe over there, and godspeed. >> thank you, gillian. >> gillian>> john: let's turn ne streets of our nation's capital, where fox news correspondent kevin corke for standing by. kevin, what's going on now?

>> john, all quiet here on the northeast corner of the capitol at this hour. obviously, that is in sharp contrast to what we saw happening earlier here. a deadly day here in the district of columbia, as one person is shot and killed, three others died here due to emergency medical emergencies, but clearly, the big story from what i saw here, and i walked over here from the bureau, john, shortly after 1:30, 2:00 this afternoon, we anticipated we would be joined by a large throng of demonstrators. we saw them over at the ellipse. thousands of people making their way from there over here to the capitol, and while by and large, the vast majority were, in fact, doing what most people do when they take part in big events like this, you have some folks who were rowdy. but we certainly saw things beyond that. we saw people trying to gain access to this building, pounding on the doors, engaging with law enforcement officials and officers right here at the capitol theater they were forced, at one point, to use

dispersal agents to get the crowd to backup, flash grenades, as well. we were here for all of that. and out of sort of what we have come to expect, especially after the summer of violence that we saw grip the city and cities all over the nation. below is different obviously today was the incursion into th. you heard chad describe it. unlike anything i've ever seen in my 30 years of journalism, and i can tell you, this is going to demand answers in the days, weeks, and months ahead. asked for the activities outside here, in particular on the north side of the capitol, it was mostly measured when compared to what we saw on the west side. i saw my colleague mike tobin talking about that. we saw a multiagency response to what was happening here. you have the capitol police, the metropolitan police of washington, d.c., the fbi was obviously here, the national guard, and later on this evening, the atf, as well. we are hopeful that this is an anomaly. this is something we will never

see happen again, and i think i speak for all americans when i say this is a day we won't soon forget. john? >> john: it was an awful day, and the scenes were quite repulsive. thanks very much, kevin corke, reporting live outside the u.s. capitol building. gillian? >> gillian: lots of americans anticipated to showdown on the hill today over electoral college vote counting. but no one could have foreseen a violent mob would penetrate a joint session of congress. leaving four americans dead and many more injured. mike tobin has been on the scene literally all day long. he joins us live from the streets just outside the capitol. hi, mike. >> hi, gillian. we know now come of this work of people who died in the chaos out here, you had that one woman who was shot, the chief of the metro police has confirmed she was shot by a capital police officer. her name is ashli babbitt, she is from the west coast. she was a 14 year veteran of the air force. her mother-in-law said she had

no idea what this woman was doing in the middle of all of these protests, and witnesses to the shooting describe the chaos. >> yeah, she didn't say anything. she hit the ground, and that is when i was filming, and i stopped filming, that's why my videos are split into, because i had to shine a flashlight on her to see if we did stop the bleeding. we put hands on her neck to try and stop it. just watched her eyes go wide, and there was nothing we could do. >> capital police estimate 40-45000 people participated in these demonstrations. is not clear how many people reach the capitol because i got to the capitol around 1:00 1:00a scale the walls, climbed of scaffolding, force their way, smashed windows, once inside they ransacked offices and some of the legislative chambers. we know from the chief of the metro police that they left behind two pipe bombs. >> we are going to be issuing

some be on the lookout or bolos, as the police called them, alerts, featuring people who breached the capitol, were in the building. i don't -- npd will start to release those. we will be able to release more when the -- when we have some more discussions with the capitol police and can review further their video. but we will be on the lookout, and we ask everybody out there to be on the lookout for these individuals who breached the capitol. and some of them, we think, very much have to be held accountable for the carnage. >> now the capitol building was cleared around 4:00 p.m., and the crowds amassed on the west side of the capitol, on the lawn there. that is when police started using flash bangs, they started using tear gas, and a multiagency force formed a

police line, and with great deliberate force marched west across the lawn behind the capitol and for a couple of the streets for quarters behind the capitol, forcing them a direction of the washington monument. they would move the crowd a distance, stopped for a moment, rest, and then they would move them again. any period of two hours, they had successfully distributed the bulk of the crowd, 14 police officers were injured during the course of this. two of them were hospitalized and one of them said to be hospitalized with serious injuries. some 52 people were arrested during the course of this, 47 of them for curfew violations. it should be noticed d.c. mayor muriel bowser has extended the emergency declaration by 15 days. that gives her a number of different powers, including the power to extend that curfew. gillian, back to you. >> gillian: mike tobin. stay safe out there. we will check back in a few later this hour. thank you. >> john: shocking images of rioters climbing the walls of capital -- of the capitol

building on capitol hill wednesday. they were quickly overshadowed by even more frightening pictures of the insurgents inside the building. so why was it so easy for the mob to breach the halls of congress? joining us now from a cia station chief dan hoffman. so how did thing go so wrong so quickly, dan? >> well, this was just a horrific security failure which put the lives of our elected officials at great risk, and it was just a failure of preparation. we knew the date, time, and location where our elected officials would be at risk at the capitol, and there wasn't enough that was done to prevent what was today's attack, you know, from these insurrectionist spirit traditionally, what you want to do is prevent this sort of attack. having a force that is strong enough to deter anyone from attacking, and that was an utter failure.

i don't know why there weren't more helicopters in the air to provide the intelligence of what was going on on the ground and why the force was not large enough. >> john: when i was watching some of these scenes live, it took me back to 1979 and when the iranian mom overran our embassy in tehran. that is the closest thing i remember seeing to what we saw in the capitol of the united states today. >> i mean, a besieged capital breached by rioters, certainly i agree with you, more reminiscent of some of the war zones where i served than the nation's capital. we are supposed to be a bright, shining city on a hill, a beacon of hope to those aspiring to democracy, and i can only imagine how our enemies in the kremlin and in beijing are portraying this, today's horrific acts. >> john: yeah, that is another thought that i had, that the people who are truly rejoicing today are vladimir putin and

she's in pain. anything that makes america look weak and divided is something that fills them with great glee. >> yeah, i think what scares vladimir putin and xi jinping the most as they want to disparage our democratic process is much as possible. we need obviously an investigation as quickly as possible. we don't have much time before the inauguration, and that is certainly the next flash point. >> john: you honestly think there could be an investigation conducted that quickly? >> i think that the investigation needs to begin immediately, and we need to learn the lessons from today's incident, and then incorporate those lessons learned into again but we should expect to be, again, more potential for violence on the 20th of january. we need a capability-based strategy. we always need to assume the worst might happen, and we need

to be prepared. today, we clearly were not, and we suffer the consequences dearly. >> john: ken cuccinelli was on with shannon bream earlier, and he has with homeland security these days, and he made an interesting point. he said that a lot of the people who were protesting today watched all summer long as mobs ransacked american cities and threw paint on statues and set buildings on fire, and many of those people were never caught, certainly never punished, and he said, you know, violence begets violence. they saw that kind of activity happening on the left, and it brought about that same kind of response from people who were primarily present trump supporters. >> yeah, well, breaching the capitol, i think, is taking it to yet another level, and again, this is a target that we knew -- we knew this was the target, and the capitol police needed more reinforcements from

federal agencies, department of homeland security, department of justice, maryland and virginia police departments and others, they didn't have it and they did not successfully harden the target, the barricades are not sufficient. again, in whole lack of preparation on our part today, and it frankly could have been a lot worse, and we are grieving the loss of the four who were killed, and those who were injured, but frankly, when i watched today, i thought this could've been far, far worse, and we need to take steps -- not just here in washington, d.c., but in other state capitals, as well, which were also under siege today. >> john: dan hoffman. dan, thank you. >> gillian: we are continuing to get new, frightening images from the nation's capital tonight, where lawmakers were forced to hide out in fear for their lives earlier yesterday, as rioters breached the capitol complex. joining me now by phone to give us a first-hand account is texas congressman pat fallon.

sir, a harrowing day for the nation. most specifically for you and your colleagues. how are you feeling, first off? >> gillian, thanks for having me on. it was something that i just never thought -- i just never thought i would see this in our nation's capital, and particularly in the house chamber. it was surreal when it was unfolding. >> gillian: do you still feel like that now? do you still feel like it was all sort of a nightmare, a little bit surreal, out-of-body experience? that happens a lot with trauma like this. >> you know, what was interesting ones, the bravery and the courage of some of my fellow members. when we got to a point where the mob was banging on the doors, and all that kept them from breaching the chamber itself was the doors, and then some furniture that we had moved, some capital police, and they needed to be augmented, and so tony gonzalez, a new freshman rep from texas, ronny jackson,

to try now, mark wayne mullen, stepped in, and we broke off furniture. some of the hand sanitizer stations are on the big giant falls, wooden poles, and returned them upside down, and we were ready to actually have the street fight in the house chamber, it was unbelievable. >> gillian: you know, sir, tales of your bravery have reached us here at fox news. we understand you are on the front lines there, helping to fend off some of these attackers. when you think back to earlier in the day when this was first happening, what sort of jumps out at you? what memory is on the top of your mind tonight? for this morning? >> gillian, it was a hell of a third day to be in congress. i'm a freshman 72 hours deep, but i was really so proud of what these other members did, and it really made me -- ronny jackson said "i'm not going anywhere." mark wayne mullen said "i'll be

the last person out," and they were acting as the rear guard, as the other members, both democrats and republicans, are being ushered to safety, and i was just so proud to be part of that. >> gillian: it might be a little soon to look into the future, but i've got to ask if you get the sense from any of your colleagues that the trauma from today is going to have any kind of a unifying effect on democrats and republicans going forward? >> you know, gillian, i certainly hope so. i came from the texas legislature and we really worked together in a bipartisan faction. the republicans are the senior partner, but we got a lot of things done and we need to do more of that here. unfortunately, it is like parallel universes, republicans and democrats, and i think that certainly our republican leadership is looking to get things done for the american people and i want to support that effort. so i hope that is the case. because i can -- you know, we can disagree without being disagreeable, and that is with the american people really want, and we have to be americans first.

we have to be americans first. i mean, i am a conservative republican, but i am an american before that, and i'm a christian before that. we have to put our priorities in order. today, although it was an ugly day, we only see some -- i don't want to say silver linings, but silver linings and those clouds, that was the bravery of our colleagues today. >> gillian: i was going to ask you about something you just mentioned. minority leader kevin mccarthy said on our air earlier tonight that we saw some of the worst of america today. he said this was the saddest day he's ever lived through as a member of the house of representatives. it sounds, though, like you also saw some of the best in americans. does that kind of give you a little bit of faith moving forward into the new congress? >> absolutely come and leader mccarthy has done just a fabulous job in the freshman orientation was very effective, reaching out and guiding us, any armed when we got here.

probably a bad analogy. fully ready to go come january 3rd. i do think that there could be - some good that comes from this. we also need to reject all political violence. we set a horrible precedent -- a horrible precedent, gillian, as you know, this past spring and summer, with the riots and cities burning ants businesses being destroyed, really no repercussions or consequences. we condemned that command we need to condemn this. there is no excuse for this. people lost their lives. we were in there debating the finer points of the constitution and electoral college. we were doing our jobs being represented, we are a representative republic, and those folks have no business being in there. there were 300 from 400, i don't how many, maybe a thousand, for the 300,000 that came out here today. >> gillian: congressman fallon, we've got to leave it there. thank you for taking us time. we wish you speeding healing feeling moving forward.

>> gillian, thank you so much, god bless you. >> john: what a story. coming up, with the president and president-elect have done in response to this terrible unrest. stay with us. ♪

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♪ >> john: welcome back. we heard from president trump throughout the day wednesday,

beginning with a rally outside the white house, during which he told his supporters "we will never give up, we will never concede." that was shortly before congress was scheduled to begin certification of the electoral college vote results. his supporters then went to the capitol building, where protests turn violent. the president did not back down from his position on the results of the election, but he did urge his supporters to stay peaceful via tweet. president-elect biden spoke, as well, telling americans that what we saw today the capitol does not represent who we are. joining us now to discuss what's been said and what else needs to be said, adjunct fellow at the manhattan institute, judith miller. former deputy assistant to president george w. bush, brad blakeman, and editor and ceo of the dispatch, steve hayes. thanks to each of you for being with us this morning. steve, let's start with you. it seems like the gathering outside the white house

certainly lit the match, and then the mob headed over to the capitol building and try to take out, i don't know, some weird twisted kind of revenge. >> yeah, john, i think that's exactly what's happened here. and look, this is been boiling now for weeks, since the election, with the president in effect misleading his voters, lying to them repeatedly about a stolen election, whipping them up into a frenzy, and then as you say, sort of lighting the match and sending them over to the capitol today. you have rudy giuliani, the president's lawyer, saying he hopes he would see trial by combat. young donald trump jr. saying we will come for you for the people who didn't support the president or don't support the president and his efforts to overturn the election. i think the president is responsible for this. irresponsible rhetoric. we have had irresponsible rhetoric for the last several weeks on the president. i would argue we have had irresponsible rhetoric going back where the president has threatened violence repeatedly against the people who opposed

him. that's what we saw today. it's deeply unfortunate and i think what he did at both the rally and then in his statement -- his taped statement was exacerbate the problem. he reiterated, as you point out, the underlying claim, which was that the election was stolen. the election wasn't stolen. the president lost. the fact that he is continuing to say that is appalling. the one i want to play part of that rudy giuliani speech, judy, and then get your reaction. here is what rudy giuliani told the crowd outside the white house. all right, we don't have that yet, but stephen had it pretty much accurately. he said over the next ten days we get to see the machines that are crooked and if we are wrong we will be made fools of, but if we are right, a lot of them will go to jail, so let's have trial by combat. rudy giuliani, a former u.s. attorney, former new york city mayor, talking about trial by combat, judy?

>> this is part of the outrageous message that president trump and his acolyt acolytes, his lapdog loyalists, have been spewing for weeks, as steve pointed out, and today, it finally inspired the kind of danger to our democracy that people have been afraid of for weeks. i think if you compare the message of joe biden to donald trump today, you will see that joe biden effectively became the president today. his message was pitch-perfect, and he spoke as a president watched the violence on tv. it was joe biden's responsibility to call this for what it was, seditious behavior bordering on insurrection. it was his role to call for calm, and he did. it was his role to remind americans that we are better than that and that we still need

to unite. what did donald trump do? he came out, finally, goaded by his aides to say something to stop the violence. he appeared almost giddy about the violence that his lie had inspired, and he basically called these insurrectionist and domestic terrorists patriots, which is outrageous, and said he would never recognize the results of a legitimate election. i think trump and trump is him has been exposed for what they . mitch mcconnell has been deposed as the leader of the senate. democracy will prevail, but today has shown us how very, very fragile it is and how much it depends on inspired political leadership and courage. >> john: i read the words of rudy giuliani, that he spoke to the crowd this morning before all the trouble began at the capitol hill. we do have it on tape now, and i want to play it for you.

listen. >> perfectly reasonable and fair to get ten days, over the next ten days, we get to see the machines that are crooked, the ballots that are fraudulent, and if we are wrong, we will be made fools of. but if we are right, a lot of them will go to jail. so, let's have trial by combat! >> john: brad, we haven't heard from you yet this evening. your former boss, president bush 43, put out, i thought, a very good statement, saying that he and laura were saddened by the events that took place at the capitol. your thoughts, brad? >> well, let me tell you something. watching the rally, watching the speakers, you know, as a lawyer, it sounded a lot to me like yelling fire in a crowded theater. those speakers are responsible for the violence that ensued.

they lit the match. they incited it. and they should be held to account for it. this reminded me of 9/11. '01. almost 20 years ago. i was in the white house and we evacuated. i saw the chaos. i saw the very best of america, from the very worst of those who intend to harm on us, from without our country. and i saw today, the chaos. and the horror of an enemy from within our country. it was amazing to me, the analogy of what i saw then to what i saw today that shook donation to the core. we are better than this. there's more that unites us then divides us. this tribalism has to end. we need to unite our country at every level. restore respect for the rule of law, and our institutions. you know, rudy giuliani was a hero 20 years ago. america looked to him to guide

us and to unite us, and today, what did he do? he was a leader to divide us. this just doesn't make sense. >> john: we have the good fortune of having the three of you with us throughout these morning hours, and we have more to talk to you about it, and more sound to play from our nation's various political leaders. some interesting hours ahead. so, thank you all for joining us. we will be talking with you again shortly. gillian? >> gillian: well, the nation's capital is putting on a tremendous show of force tonight. national guard troops for multiple states, putting d.c., virginia, new york, new jersey, have all converged on washington. coming up, can law enforcement now maintain the very fragile piece that has been so hard one tonight? ♪

♪

>> john: a fox news alert on a dark day for the history books, we haven't seen this level the violence in the nation's capital and maybe a hundred and 50 years. lucas tomlinson is in washington with more on what transpired. lucas? >> and john, certainly not since puerto rican nationalists opened fired on congress from the ladies gallery back in 1954. this time, another violent mob ransacking members offices, forcing the evacuation of congress. mitt romney spoke earlier on the senate floor. >> now we gather due to a selfish man's injured pride. what happened here today was an insurrection. those who choose to continue to support his dangerous gambit by objecting to the results of a legitimate, democratic election will forever be seen as being complicit in an unprecedented attack against our democracy. >> now because the police were

overwhelmed, the national guard, which has been reluctant to get involved, were mobilized. 1100 national guardsmen are now mobilized. 6,000 national guardsmen from pennsylvania, new jersey, new york, delaware, virginia, maryland, and out joining 400 members of the virginia street e troopers. never thought he would see a day like this in america. the mob was estimated 40,000 strong. a statement from the acton defense chief christopher miller said he and the joint chiefs of staff, spoke to the vice president, speaker pelosi, leader mcconnell, and other congressional leaders. president trump was not on those phone calls. secretary jim mattis blasted president trump and blamed him for the violence. "today's violent assault on our capital and effort to subjugate american response eddi democrac- destroy trust in our election and fellow citizens have been

enabled by pseudo-political leaders whose names will live in infamy in profiles of cowardice. our constitution, our public, will overcome this stain. we the people come together again, neve never ending efforto preserve a more perfect union while mr. trump will be left a man without a country." a former officer and iraq war veteran tim condon said "it is past time for the president o accept the result of the election, quit misleading the american people and repudiate mob violence." the senators who fan the flames by encouraging the president and leave their supporters to believe their objections and reverse the election results should withdraw those." the police got overwhelmed here on capitol hill, they had no choice but to ask for

reinforcement. those reinforcements came from the national guard. they will not be armed and no active duty forces have been requested at this time, john? >> john: quiet there now. lucas tomlinson. lucas, thank you. gillian? >> gillian: well, fragile peace has settled over d.c. tonight, but is it going to last? the entire d.c. national guard has been mobilized, along with the fbi, d.c. metropolitan police, secret service, atf, and national guard troops from five other states. joining us now, former homicide detective, also a fox news contributor, ted williams. ted, it's great to see you on a day like this. thanks for taking time out so early in the morning to be with us. the first thing i've got to ask you is, our congressional correspondent chad pergram has been saying all day that we have not seen an incursion like this for over 200 years, since the british set fire to the u.s. capital. >> i've got to tell you,

gillian, i so much agree with him. i wasn't around, of course, 200 years ago, but i can tell you, in my lifetime, i've never seen anything like we saw here at the capitol today. but the question is, is there going to be this kind of activity in the future? i can tell you, the one person who holds the match, that lets that match, is the president of the united states, donald john trump. and it's up to him as to whether we are going to see this kind of activity, i believe, here in the near future. i can tell you what i would like to see is that individuals who breached the capitol today, they need to be criminally prosecuted, and i would like to see a grand jury convened right away, and i would like to see donald john trump be brought before the grand jury, to account for donald john trump and people like rudy giuliani should be reported to the mob,

this matter may not have happened the way it happened today, gillian. >> gillian: so, it appeared, based on everything we saw, the live footage, our recording all day from reporters, that the mob so easily and quickly overwhelmed capital police, who were protecting the u.s. capitol. howe, ted, would you describe what we saw a? is security breach, a systemic security failure, what are we talking about here? >> it's a combination thereof. would no doubt about it at the capitol police was not prepared for the action that took place t the capitol today. they should have been national guard in place. there should have been virginia and maryland state troopers called in. they should have at other people there. >> gillian: all right, ted, we've got to leave it there. breaking news coming in now hot off the wire. thanks so much.

>> my pleasure. >> gillian: we go now to congressional correspondent chad pergram, over on capitol hill. how is voting on this pennsylvania electoral college certification, what's going on, chad? >> we have had a major dustup on the house for. conor lamb, a democratic congressman from pennsylvania was speaking, you had a couple of members on the republican side of the aisle, morgan griffith from virginia, and also clay higgins from louisiana, there was a bit of a verbal tussle. house speaker nancy pelosi was trying to get order, yielded again to conor lamb to continue to talk, and they are debating again the ventilating a slate of electors, and all of a sudden the camera shot pulls back, deep in the chamber, and it looked like there may have been, may have been some sort of a physical confrontation. now again, keep in mind, this is not a security breach, that there was some sort of confrontation going on between members in the back of the chamber. let's just listen here for a minute to the house floor. >> a time to ask for the words

be stricken and taken down. >> exactly when the words are spoken. you are late. what is your purpose, gentlemen from louisiana? are you seeking recognition? who will seek time to speak on the objection? gentlemen from louisiana? >> madam speaker, in support of the objection. >> the gentleman is recognized for 5 minutes without objection. >> thank you, madam speaker... >> clay higgins, republican congressman louisiana, who wanted come along with morgan griffith, a question of what we call on capitol hill of taking downwards. this is where you may have uttered words on the house floor that are out of order. they don't match parliamentary decorum. and what they do is they say, okay, you might have violated that, we are essentially going to pull you over and go back and see if this matches within the rules of the house of representatives.

nancy pelosi ruled that whatever was said on the house floor was appropriate and said the republicans were late in their appeal, and like i said, you had some sort of both a verbal, and it looked like briefly a physical dustup, may be between members toward the rear of the chamber, and that is what we are trying to get to hear. now regardless, they are getting toward the end of their time to finish debating the pennsylvania slate of electors. the senate voted just a little bit ago to accept the pennsylvania slate of electors. the vote there was 92-7. what has to happen is the house has to finish this debate, and then they will actually take a roll call vote to accept pennsylvania slate of electors, and then the house and senate are in alignment. the house and senate then come bacback to session together in e joint session of congress and continue going through the rest of the alphabet, the rest of the states, and then you finally get to the end, and mike pence, the vice president presiding, announces the total, that

joe biden is the winner, that he had more electoral votes than president trump, and he "shall" be president, according to the 12th amendment. we are going to dig in here and try to figure out what the skirmish was inside the house chamber. you can imagine, gillian and john, that nerves are absolutely afraid after the bedlam we had here the capitol today. members, this is a very intense process, because some of the members feel very passionate about either accepting or rejecting slates of electors. it is late at night. it has been a long day. we had a weekend session this past week. we have the house and senate in session over christmas, over new year's, really remarkable, so people are really at wits' end, culminating in what is going on here tonight, and punctuated by the mayhem inside the u.s. capital today when the mob broke through. back to you. >> gillian: and chad, these are lawmakers are not 12 hours ago, some of them, were in fear for their actual lives, and they are now checking back in, clocking back in, trying to

return to this debate about electoral college certification. i want to just make sure we've got this straight. if there was -- we know there was at least some kind of a verbal tussle, and if there was any kind of physical altercation there on the floor, you think it had something to do with this request to strike language from the record, right? >> that's right. >> gillian: okay. >> the thing started very early on. this is 1:00 in the afternoon, when morgan griffith, he used to be the majority leader in the virginia state house, and knows parliamentary procedure pretty well, was trying to make a parliamentary inquiry to mike pence presiding, and mike pence basically had ruled that you can't do that under these circumstances, so here we are, 12 hours later, morgan griffith -- again, this was another type of appeal over something that was set on the house floor, and we're going to dig into that and figure out what the dispute was here, but sometimes, you know, you have a verbal tonsils, and it is not uncommon, once in a while, on capitol hill, do have a

physical tussle. we have had members tugged on one another's ties, challenging people to fights in the back, there was an occasion about 15 years ago with actually call the capitol police to the ways and means committee library. the republicans called them on the democrats. i mean, we've seen it all here from time to time over the years, gillian. >> john: chad, it's jon scott. how much longer are they expecting keep the house in session tonight, do you have any ideas? >> you get two hours of debate for each state that is objected to. the senate, even though josh hawley, the republican senator from missouri, objected to the pennsylvania slate, prompting, ostensibly, a debate of the senate, they didn't have any debate on pennsylvania. they went immediately to the roll call vote, which excepted the pennsylvania slate 92-7, but you get two hours per chamber, two hours per chamber, plus members can only talk for 5 minutes apiece. during that window of time. so this could go on for a while, and considering the fact we

thought we might be here this time anyway if they were debating a couple of other contested states, slates of electors, you know, georgia, michigan, wisconsin, nevada, those were in play, but that is not the case now. pennsylvania should be the last one. this probably could go on another, oh, 30-40 minutes, not to mention the actual roll call vote on this, and then coming back into the joint session to finally, finally, finally, later on, sometime in the wee hours, wrap this up and certify joe biden is the winner. >> gillian: all right, chad pergram, thanks for staying with us. we will come back to you shortly. >> thank you. >> gillian: jon? >> jon: after the chaos on wednesday, congress is still in the process of certifying the electoral college results. joining us now, pennsylvania congresswoman chrissy houlahan, who was inside the capitol when those protesters stormed in. give us your account, i mean, what did you see, where did you

go? >> sure, of course, and thanks for me tonight. for me, personally, i am a member of the delegation from pennsylvania, so i had spent much of the morning and evening before with the pennsylvania delegation talking about what would unfold here in the capitol this evening. so, for me, i was walking to my office at around 1:00 when i entered my office area to see the capitol being under siege, and to see people climbing the walls and scaling stairwells and stairways that never have people on them, frankly, and it was an enormously alarming and discomforting feeling to know that the people's house, which is where i am standing right now, was under siege. >> jon: so what did you do? capitol police or somebody, you know, get you to safety? >> i went to my office. i locked and barricaded the door, and i followed the instructions of sheltering in

place. spent the day in my office until this evening. >> jon: all right, so, take us now to this evening. the pennsylvania vote is apparently, is it being discussed right now? that is what i would chad pergram was just telling us. >> have to imagine it is forthcoming. i am 1 of 9 democrats in pennsylvania... the pennsylvania delegation, and we were planning on an hour and a half or so of conversation book ended by introductions, and i was a little bit, maybe three quarters of the way through that lineup, so i would imagine now that we are pretty close to the conclusion of the conversation and settling in for the vote. >> jon: all right, so the vote is not expected to change anything. would you agree? >> absolutely. what is normally a pretty ceremonial and perfunctory process. particularly right now, even with what we are experiencing right now, the senate has

already taken a vote on pennsylvania, and taking a vote on the house side. it's expected it will go similarly to the vote we took this morning, or i guess it was this afternoon, where the majority -- vast majority of the house and the senate said that there was no reason -- the state of pennsylvania and in this particular case. >> jon: so where do we go from here? i read from your bio. you say you ran for congress after doing many, many other things, because you wanted to help people. you wanted to serve the people of pennsylvania. we have obviously got a very fractured electorate right now. what can members of congress do to begin the healing to what we saw it earlier today? >> and in fact, that's exactly why i raised my hand and ran for congress. i took my second oath of office my sophomore year now just a little less than a week ago, and i raised my hand because i have a very eclectic background,

including having been a veteran. and decided it was really important at this point in time to bring people together and to be a healer. and i think we are at a terrible inflection point right now. we should be very concerned about the future of this republic. and we need to be thoughtful about how we bring ourselves together. one of the things i was able to share on the floor just now with my conversation is i come from a district -- a very long time ago, general washington brought troops to winter over at that park, and it was a horrible, horrible, cold winter, and many people died of disease, starvation, and a variety of other things, but we still found ourselves there in the cold fields of valley forge, and we have the ability to take a lesson from that experience and to emerge stronger, more united, and a better america if we are able to work together through this dark winter that we are in right now, and i have hope.

i believe that we can heal, and i believe that we are better than this. >> jon: famous portrait of george washington kneeling in prayer at valley forge comes to mind. chrissy houlahan, member of congress, democrat from pennsylvania. glad you are okay. thanks for spending time with us this morning. >> thank you. be well and be safe. >> jon: sure. >> gillian: a tense peace has settled overnight in washington after a violent protesters stormed the capitol building, forcing a joint session of congress to stop counting electoral votes. in a moment, we will take you back to the house floor, where members are literally fighting over certification of pennsylvania's electoral votes. that is next. ♪

>> gillian: chaos and pandemonium in washington as a violent mob storms a joint session of congress earlier yesterday. now this morning, four americans are dead, dozens injured, and millions of americans left shocked and in fear. the nation is left wondering this morning, can this happen again? listen. >> today is a reminder, a painful one, democracy is fragile. it requires people of goodwill to stand up. good early morning to you. we are in the nation's capital today. we are tracking all of these developments plus what is going on on the house floor this our. >> we have live coverage of wednesday's assault on capitol hill. things are quiet in washington this hour. the city is under curfew. it's under