>> i'm john dickerson in washington, and this week on "face the nation," the committee investigating the january 6 attack on congress says it was the culmination of an attempted coup. >> president trump summoned the mob and lit the flame of this attack. >> more than 17 months after supporters of former president trump assaulted the u.s. capitol in an effort to overturn the 2020 election results, thursday's hearing provided new details and dramatic testimony. >> i was slipping in people's blood. i was catching people as they fell. it was...carnage. it was chaos. >> plus, new insight into the

conduct of the former president. >> and aware of the rioters' chants to hang myocardial myocae result said maybe our supporters >> what does the american people hope it will take from this fresh look at this riot. >> tonight i say this to my republican colleagues who are defending the indefensible. there will come a day when donald trump is gone, but your dishonor will remain. >> we'll hear from adam kinzinger, a member of the panel, and get the latest reporting on upcoming hearings from our cbs washington team. then, thousands of rallied across hundreds of teas this weekend, demanding tougher gun regulations, as lawmakers in the senate work to find an agreement

on even a modest plan for gun violence. we'll here from an expert on why people decide to commit mas mass shootings. and there is another month of price hikes, we'll talk with mohamed el-erian. it's all just ahead on "face the nation." ♪♪ >> dickerson: good morning, and welcome to "face the nation." we have a lot to get to today, but we want to begin with some news out of idaho last night. where 31 people were arrested, accused of planning a riot at an lgbtq pride event. those arrested who police say came from 11 different states,

were affiliated with the white supremacist group p patriots front. they warned that domestic violent extremism remains one of the biggest terrorist threats in the country. we turn to the violent extremism that took place on january 6, 2021, which will be a topic for the committee looking into that attack. congressman adam kinzinger sits on the committee, and he joins us this morning from illinois. good morning, congressman. >> good morning. >> dickerson: the committee is called the january 6 committee, but it seems like january 6 is encased in a larger argument that you're making, that president trump made a series of efforts to over throw the election and the january 6 attack was just one of them? >> yeah, that's exactly right. it is kind of unfortunate we're

focused on the day of january 6. we understand why it was really the visible kind of symptom of everything that led up to it. but what is important and what we're going to delve into this week, and on wednesday i'm leading a hearing specifically talking about the justice department, but you saw a president that spreads misinformation, tries to install his own people in the justice to do his bidding, justice, which is supposed to be representative of all of us. preciouspressures the vice pres, and eventually, when we can't get his way, he tries to pressure congress in a public attack. what is very important to notice in that is it is a whole set leading up to january 6, but i think the thing that is most concerning to me is nothing has chairched. changed. the only thing that has changed since january 6, if they want to run that play again, they will put more loyal people into the

administration. it is important for the american people to see this and make a decision what kind of country we want to live in. >> dickerson: who is "they?" you said they want to, who is they? >> if donald trump gets elected again, there is no doubt in my mind, zero doubt, that he will, instead of screening candidates, like he probably did when he got elected in 2016, for qualifications, he is going to screen people based on their loyalty to him. i don't know if that would go beyond anybody else but him, but i think it is important for us as a country to recognize that, to recognize the importance that the oath to the united states plays. john, we could pass any law in this country, but if we have people in power, whether it is in politics or law enforcement or the military, if we have any people that are unwilling to put their oath above any loyalty to a person, no law matters.

so what matters in the bottom line is that we, as a country, recognize, even when we're on the receiving end of politics, even when we don't get our way, if we follow through our oath, that basic compact of self-governance will work. otherwise it won't. >> dickerson: one of the findings on thursday even, we were shown for the first time, is several people close to the president telling him there was no widespread fraught, he was s going to lose. how many people close to him do you think were sending him that message? >> i don't really know many people around him that truly believe that the election was stolen and told him so. yet a lot of people told him it wasn't. >> dickerson: were there people who knew it was a lie and yet carried on in his inner circle? >> oh, for sure.

all you have to do is look at he was surrounded by "yes" people that want to tell him everything that pleases him. we'll get more into at. i don't want to spoil the deep dive into some of this stuff. i think if anybody truly believed, after what you see, after what the attorney general says, for instance, after what every piece of information comes in, if you truly believe the election was stolen then, if the president truly believes it, for instance, he is not mentally capable to be president. i think he didn't believe it. i think the people around him didn't believe it. it was about keeping power against the will of the american people. >> dickerson: during covid, president trump at the time said it is like the flu. later we heard bob woodward had audio saying it is nothing like the flu. so he was on record or in private, saying the opposite. do you have evidence of that

about this? >> i won't go into -- i don't want to go into the evidence we haven't put out yet. let me tell you my belief that i can say right now: the president absolutely tried to overthrow the will of the people. he tried to do it initially through misinformation, through pressuring vice president, and then on january 6. he was told repeatedly by people he trusted, that he respected, people like the folks around him, that the election wasn't stolen. that there is no corroborating proof of any kind of a stealing or corruption that would change the outcome. and so i think it pretty obvious he knew, but he didn't want to lose. >> dickerson: let me ask you about pardons. how many pardons are we talking about? and why were they asking for pardons? >> well, look, more of that is going to be released this week. in fact, we're going to talk a little about that in my hearing. why would you ask for a pardon?

let's just say in general, if somebody asks for a pardon it will be because they have real concerns maybe they've done something illegal. i'll say that more information will be coming. >> dickerson: your colleague, congressman perry, denied he asked for a pardon. the notion i ever sought a presidential pardon for myself or other members of congress is an absolute shameless and soulless lie. is the testimony you have hearsay, or do you have the goods? >> i don't want to tip my hand on this. we'll put out what we need to put out. we're not going to make accusations or say things without proof or evidence backing it. >> dickerson: one of the other disclosures in the hearings on thursday night was the role of the proud boys. quite a lot that was painstakingly put forward. some people have said is one of the things you proved is that the proud boys were on the march before the president gave his

speech on january 6. if they were already off to march, how could president trump have incited them? what is your response to that comment? >> again, i think what we want to do thursday is show the top lines of what happened with some kind of overall things to be aware of. more information will come out on that. let's keep in mind that the whole thing on january 6 and the violence wasn't just about the president standing on stage saying what he was saying. it was also about tweets about this will be wild. january 6 will be wild. come out on january 6, knowing darn well he was spewing out lies before the american people. we'll take a look and we'll see. here is the other thing: we are inundated with people saying this was the f.b.i.. you now see members of congress, again, talking about the ray eff conspiracy, that somehow he was an informant for the f.b.i., and that led to all of these people doing an insurrection.

it is garbage, but that is the kind of misinformation coming around. people like ted cruz and sheriff troy nells have been repeating this conspiracy. >> dickerson: the president has claimed he, in fact, did reach out to the national guard. your testimony showed that mike pence had to jump in when the president wouldn't. what is your response to the president's claim? >> i think it is very obvious that the president didn't do anything but glee fully watch television when thais w this was going down. >> dickerson: adam kinzinger, thank you very much. we'll be riack with me ace thtion

>> dickerson: we now want to welcome a panel of our washington correspondents. chief white house correspondence nancy cordes, robert costa, and congressional correspondent scott mcfarland. good morning to all of you. great to be with you. nancy, i want to start with you. you covered the hill for a very long time. covered a lot of hearings. what is the purpose of this hearing? >> there are a couple of main goals here. first of all, john, it is important for the present time and prosterity for americans to have a set of facts of what happened led up to that day and on the day. there are some powerful

politicians who stories are already changing. and we're heading the a mid-term election. it is important to remind people what actually happened. any time this nation history ever had a major trauma, a major incident, congress has been the body that takes the big 360 view of what happened so we learn what can be gleaned from that experience. imagine after 9/11 if there had been no 9/11 commission to examine not just what happened the day that those planes flew into buildings, but also were were the intelligence gaps that led to these different agencies not talking to one another? that led to the creation of the department of national intelligence. >> dickerson: bob, from the 360-degree view, let's go down to a single moment of testimony. we're going to play from the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, general milley. we're going to play some of the testimony. >> there were two or three calls

to vice-president pence. he issued very explicit, very direct, unambiguous orders to secretary miller. get the military on it. get the guard down here. push down this situation, etc.. >> dickerson: so, bob, your book, "peril," opens with milley. explain why that testimony was important and what it led to? >> that testimony showed the entire nation that january 6 was an attack on the capitol. it was a constitutional crisis in terms of how it was unfolding on capital hill. was president trump doing his duty as command in chief of the u.s. military. there was an attack on the capital, and he was sitting idle in the oval office, or in the dining room, and it fell to the

vice president to make calls to the national guard. it raises questions of who is in charge in the united states. and the rest of the world were on high alert about the stability of the united states. it is something that is almost hard to think about that the rest of the world was wondering, is the united states stable? >> dickerson: and general milley worried about who was in charge beyond just that moment. at the end of the hearing, the chairman said something tantalizing about the proud boys and the administration. >> i'm absolutely struck about how much time was spent on thursday talking about the proud boys. the revelation that the proud boys, according to this committee, was doing reconnaissance before president trump ever spoke. they were looking for vulnerabilities, places to lead the crowd into the capitol. they were in court that morning to plead not guilty. that the january 6 committee is

so interested in them is striking. they were referenced a half dozen times in the open hearing because it is clear the committee is going to draw some kind of line between the proud boys and the organizers of this rally and president trump. president trump said stand back and stand by to the proud boys. they played part of the interviews they had with the proud boys members, in which they said that was an incitement to action. we know from the court filings a member of the oathkeepers, the leader of the oathkeepers, is accused of trying to call donald trump during the riot. >> dickerson: nancy, what else struck you in this hearing? >> it was eye opening as someone who was at the capital that day, to see these depositions with

the president's family members talking about how strenuously they tried to get him to do something, to make that call the department of defense, to bring in the national guard, and the fact that he refused to do it. when you look at the capital police officers who were getting beaten up, when you know there were lawmakers who were sitting ducks, and this ravenous crowd came within a couple of minutes of actually being able to get to them in the chambers, to hear these individuals say, i tried to tell him to act and he knm bob' reporting and though scott's reportingt r it their mu was fascina. same individuals behind the scenes were telling the president you need to act, they were telling him there was no fraud when it came to the fraud he was talking about, but in public they were still supporting him and standing by him. >> dickerson: nancy talks about hearing it from the mouths of the advisors, bob, don't we

need to hear from mike pence? >> former vice-president pence is probably not going to cooperate with this committee. he is not going to play some kind of john dean moment. but we are likely to hear from greg jacob, his former counsel who was part of crafting that statement that pence came up with. they have cooperated extensively with the committee so far, and they are likely to testify under a subpoena in the coming weeks, that will help us fill in the gaps of the intense pressure campaign pence was under. recall it wasn't just that trump was asking pence to walk away frhe january 6, trump wanted to weaponize the vice president to try to stay in power. >> dickerson: we'll hear about how the vice president's office was taking this pressure and what the vice president did in that moment responding to these riots. scott, what questions do you

want to have answered or hear answered, and which ones do you think we will never have an answer to. >> one million and one, john. the committee has this tidalwave of evidence and records, 140,000 records, and they have to dispense in it in drinking glass size for americans. one thing they probably won't be getting to, did the conspiracy of the people who deposited those pipe bombs -- they are nowhere in finding that person. it was clearly coinciding with the attack on the capital. the committee has been unequunequivocal. >> dickerson: we have 20 seconds left, bob. you were om.

i thought what it was like during the watergate. it wasn't just about an attack. it was about a systemic shock to the american system. and you could see it in the testimony that day. >> dickerson: thanks to all three of you. we'll be right back. stay with us. in real time

>> dickerson: the investigation into the riots on january 6 take place at a time of fresh challenges to america. testing lawmakers and straining the public's ability to pay attention to the past and the present. but in a healthy democracy, we must be able to do both. president eisenhower warned that in managing national affairs, you can't let urgent matters eclipse important ones. the nation's leaders faced a test of that theory this week in the urgent category is inflation. up 8.6%, compared to may a year

ago. a 40-year high. in the important category, the house hearing about the attempted overthrow of the 2020 election. eisenhower's advice was aimed at a truth. if you only attend to the urgent, important problems will become urgent soon enough and you won't be prepared. for example, it was important to knock back donald trump's proof-free claim that the election was stolen. >> we will win this. and as far as i'm concerned, we already have. >> dickerson: that lie became urgent soon enough. >> i was slipping in people's blood. you know, i was catching people as they fell. you know, i was -- it was carnage. it was chaos. >> dickerson: officer carolyn edwards testified as to what happens when you let important matters slip. >> i ran towards the west front,

and i was trying to hold the line. >> dickerson: president trump's lawyer held the line by threatening to resign when trump pressed the justice department to over turn the election. the entire leadership of the justice department held the line. vice-president pence held the line. the reason these hearings are important enough to be considered at the same time we focus on the urgent matter of inflation is the hearings redefine what the line is. to hold the line is to put courage and action behind ideas that are true and enduring. we reaffirm the strength of those ideas in public moments like these hearings. reaffirming that in american democracy, the winner of an election is not determined by anger and force, but by the will of the people. that a presidency cannot be oriented entirely around the maintenance of power, as donald trump's was after the november

election. that wishes are not facts. and, finally, the hearings reaffirm that concern exclusively for things that are immediately before us risks distancing us from our contact with where the bright lines are. which means when the moment comes, those of us who lack officer edwards' courage will fail to hold the line because we won't know where to find it. and we'll be right back. at makeg from home, work. ur favorite vc apps so you'll never miss a meeting. and neither will she. meta portal, make working from home work for you.

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>> dickerson: and we'll be back with more on inflation, prices for everything from grocery to rent have gone up. we'll have the analysis coming up. tv.

i'm elise preston, cbs news, new york. tonight, there's legislative progress to report in the nation's capitol on the issue of curbing gun violence. a bipartisan group of senators announced they have struck a deal to, quote, protect america's children, keep your school safe, and reduce the threat of violence across the country. there's proposals are modest but do represent some movement. it's a response to the massacre in uvalde texas that claimed the lives of 19 school children and two teachers, and prior to that, the murder of 10 people at a grocery store in buffalo, new york. cbs's caitlin huey burns on

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