reveal never before seen video of the attack. and the testimonies former president trump's inner circle. >> i told the president in no uncertain terms that i did not see evidence of fraud. >> tonight, i say this to my republican colleagues. they are defending the indefensible. there will come a day when donald trump is gone. your dishonor will remain. >> new details about the actions of trump and fellow republicans. a key question remains, what impact could this have on our divided democracy? ♪ >> this is "washington week." corporate funding is provided by -- >> consumer cellular's goal has

been to give wireless service to connect. our customer service team can find a planet fits you. >> additional funding is provided bythe yuan foundation. robert and susan rosenbaum. the corporation for public broadcasting. and contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> once again, from washington, here is our moderator. yamiche: good evening and welcome to "washington week." after a year of hearings behind closed doors, the january 6 committee publicly laid out its key findings for the first time. the primetime hearing featured

new details and graphic new video of the violent from that day. , including never before seen clips of the inner circle testifying that they tried to prevent the president from spreading lies about the election. the violence was not spontaneous. it was a month-long conspiracy by former president trump and his allies. they wanted to subvert the constitution and unlawfully remain in power. >> january 6 was the culmination an attempted coup, a brazen attempt to overthrow the government. the violence was no accident. it was mr. trump's last stand to halt the transfer of power. yamiche: liz cheney, who is one

of only two republicans on the committee, said this was a sophisticated, deadly plan. >> the president responded with this sentiment. maybe our supporters have the right idea. mike pence deserves it. yamiche: committee members warned that erican democracy remains in danger. joining me to discuss this is the national correspondent for the new york times. he is also the author of a book. the justice reporter for nbc news. in joining me here in studio is the washington post live anchor. and a congressional correspondent for cbs news. thank you for being here on this historic friday. you were reporting from the capital on january 6 in an

office building right near where this was happening. some have called this hearing a third impeachment. the new york times said it was the most damaging indtment of a president in u.s. history. what are your key takeaways? >> i was a little surprised that they beat expectations. we have covered this for more than a year. i was there on january 6. i was one of the people in the office building ready to go on camera when i worked nbc news. we were evacuated because we were so close to where a pipe bomb was. i have covered this and i've seen a lot of video. i have seen a lot of police officer video. there was still new stuff last night. that is something i was not expecting. i think the committee did a pretty good job, a compelling job of telling that story last night. yamiche: you think about the

idea of surpassing expectations. lawmakers painted this picture of president trump as radicalized. they made the case using his inner circle, including his own daughter, saying she believes the attorney general when he said that the election was not stolen. when you are talking to lawmakers, what has been their reaction? >> interesting that the former president did push back any of that. he chastised his own daughter for being a party to this hearing. saying she has checked out. she did not have anything to do with election result. in talking to lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, there were a number of democrats in the room last night. many of them were blown away by some of the revelations coming out of this hearing. especially when we learned that president trump not call the national guard.

it was vice president mike pence. he was all most a shadow president having to step in and do something. one would think the president would have done it. republicans out there continue to blast this as an illegitimate panel, a sham. many of them acknowledged they were not tuning in. yamiche: i want to come to you. about the fact that liz cheney said former president trump did not call the national guard. he did not get in touch with any law enforcement to try to stop this. you haveacn b akitrfllng o se's connected to the attack. what does it say to you that the president did not make any kind of attempts to try to stop this? how does this connect to people all over this country? >> it is pretty damning. i would be curious who would --

she was in communication with. we had an oath keepers say that the head of his organization was in a hotel room on the night of january 6 desperately trying to get in touch with donald trump. i think those crucial hours will really be important. we need to know that intermediary is. that could come out through the committee process. right now we are at over 820 cases and they are still hundreds of cases to go. the fbi list has 350 people on it. there is a long path ahead for the doj investigation. yamiche: you have also spent hours watching all of the video that came out of the attack. you are still surprised and

learning new information when you saw this hearing. talk about your reaction to what we saw. >> i was a lite bit surprised. are they really going to be able to find footage that people who have been looking into this for months? dated. -- they did. they had data and video. i was surprised at what they turned up. as the criminal cases result in more video being put out, it will become this mosaic where you can piece together components of what happened. you are in one of the most recorded parts of the country. in addition to all of the bodycam footage and the cameras in the crowd, there is a incredible surveillance network. i think that is something the committee was able to cap into -- tap. into they give you a new footage on this attack.

it showed you the size of the mob. something you could not see when you're right in the middle of it. that audio is really compelling. yamiche: certainly hearing the voice of president trump saying i love it while people were breaking into the capital. we have to talk about kevin mccarthy. lawmakers played new video of his staffers evacuating from their offices. mccarthy has over and over again claimed this committee is partisan and illegitimate. you and your co-author obtained new video of him saying this days after the attack. >> we cannot just sweep this under the rug. we need to know why it happened, who did it, and people need to be held accountable for it. i'm committed to make sure that

happens. yamiche: what is the significance of what is absolutely an about-face by mccarthy? what does it say about where the gop finds itself right now? >> it is another case study in kevin mccarthy's profound cynicism in how he has handled his role as a leader of the party. and the extent to which she is the standing for the journey that the establishment republican party has taken. you heard his voice. this is really an atrocity. he said he wants a cross-section of the republican party involved in the investigation. now he is doing everything he can to undermine the credibility of the investigation. i think what the committee put on this week makes it hard to do

that with a straight face. not that kevin mccarthy has some great credibility as a moral leader going into this conversation. if you're trying to make the case that this is all a partisan song and dance by a bunch of democrats who don't have anything new to say, that is not the case. i wanted to highlight another recording we released in the last few weeks. the same meeting with the house republican conference. it talks about having a call to president trump when the insurrection was in progress and having paraded him to make a statement. you have to tell these people to stand down. that is a call you would make if you did not think it was in his power to make it stop. the fact that mccarthy told house republicans that he had to raise his voice and made repeated requests reinforces that picture you heard from the committee last night about the president having been a reluctant person to take action. yamiche: all of the audio that

you have obtained is really critical and important during this time in history. thank you for getting that reporting. liz cheney was calling out a lot of republicans last night. one of them is scott perry. she said they saw pardons from the white house. i had to hear it's twice because i was so taken aback by that. what is the significance of that? that lawmakers were saying i might need a pardon? >> i think it is very significant. she did not lay out the significance she teased that there will be more of this in the next few weeks. the fact that one of the republicans from pennsylvania who was instrumental in trying to help the former president overturn the election results in pennsylvania, the fact that after january 6 he asked the president for a pardon shows

that the reaction and response and what happened, he got very nervous that perhaps he was personally criminally or civilly liable. scott perry put out a statement today saying that was absolutely false. he did not do that. i do not think the committee is very concerned about overrea. they have done that in the past and it is really it them. they said they would not put out out there if they did not have evidence. yamiche: something else i have to ask you about and that is capitol police officers. this lingering trauma on capitol hill. we saw one talk about slipping in blood. we talked about an officer who died the next day after the attack. you walk those halls every day. talk about the lingering trauma. >> it is not going away. last night at that hearing in

the first row you saw him weeping throughout. other members of the capitol police wervery pained. there were widows in that first row as well. husbands who died or partners who died in response to january 6. the capitol police have not recovered yet. they are still understaffed. the leadership is trying to increase their pay. they are still working up to 14 hours a day because of the security needs. they have not had time to recover. it is a very wounded horse. watching and seeing this footage over and over again is very difficult for a lot of them. yamiche: it is really something they have to live through every day. i had the opptunity to talk to one of them. he told me even everyday things can trigger this. he tries to avoid certain parts

of the building because they bring back memories. with a being reopened to the public, sometimes it makes them a little dish -- skittish. depending on who might approach him. it gives him because on occasion -- pause on occasion. he is recovering physically and mentally. many of these lawmakers that i have talked to have also gone through therapy after this. it is a trauma that has lingered not just for these officers but for lawmakers and staffers and journalists. yamiche: it is heartbreaking when you think about what these capital officers have to deal with. you can see how traumatized they are just in their eyes. >> i think the other part of it is some officers i have talked to just want to move on.

they worry that this process is being politicized. that is a concern that some officers have expressed to me. yamiche: that is an important part. as bad as this video shows as this was, it could have been worse. during this hearing the committee said the oath keepers created and armed reactionorce they were standing by at some point to see if there was an insurrection act that might be invoked. what more do you need about this plan? >> there were some weapons stored outside of washington in virginia at a hotel. they were basically waiting and ready to go in case trump invoked the insurrection act. that is what they were trying to do on the ninth of january 6. we are going to come in and help take over. he never got through to trump. the person he tried to reach was

of great interest to the committee as well as to federal prosecutors. in terms of where this investigation stands, next week at the same time this committee meeting will be happening on monday, an officer who was chased up the stairs by the mob will be offering his first testimony in a case. it will be a bench trial involving a couple of defendants including one who aired a confederate bag -- flag. that is one of the cases moving forward. in the first cases that have gone forward, they have been five jury trials. this is the first bench trial which will go forward. they will continue to generate news tories throughout the next few years as they make their way through the justices of even long after the committee meeting is over. yamiche: thether thing that happened during the hearing is

there was audio and video of jason miller. he was explaining that there was a person on the campaign who had told president trump he was going to lose. when y hear stuff like that, what is your sense of this committee's ability to effectively make the argument for some kind of criminal eingharged? or is that no other table? >> we he every reason to believe that it is on the table. part of the job the committee is ing right now, this is covered as a political thing. i am not making any predictions about what their final actions will be rated i think we are going to see that.

for essentially trying to overthrow the american government. to subvert the constitution and engage in a massive criminal conspiracy. you have to make the predicate for that with the american public. we have never seen anything like that happened before in american history. we do not have a great record of this. even for the most egregious deeds. when you see them laying out the ways in which president trump new in real-time or should have known in real time that the stuff he was saying was false and the steps he was taking or attempting to take were illegal, if they were going to make a criminal referral, that is stuff they would have to do. yamiche: the other big part of this when you think about the criminal complaint is can lawmakers breakthrough? we saw 19 million people tuned

into this. inflation just today is gting even worse and may get even worse. what is your sense of lawmakers concerned about breaking through to americans? >> democrats are under no illusion that this is what voters will head to the polls over. i have reporting last month that speaker pelosi told colleagues house democrats are stewards of democracy. that is not why voters are going to vote. they are going to vote on insulation and gas prices. they are very realistic about this. they think they still have to move forward with it because it is important. republicans know this as well. they are really playing into it. their counter programming to all of this is saying why isn't baker pelosi holding primetime hearing's about inflation? that is what americans care

about. there is acknowledge from both cody's -- parties that these issues are important. yamiche: lawmakers are trying to say the future of democracy is at risk. what will he be looking out for? >> what we will see in this next round of hearings is more about the former president's effort to sell this big lie. he tried to pressure his own vice president to overturn the results of the election. yamiche: we will see some local and state officials testify from george about what the president tried to do to pressure them to overthrow the election. i want to thank our panel for joining us tonight. we will continue our conversation. we will discuss bipartisan efforts on gun reform. find it on our website.

on saturday, a look at the wider impact of the attack. the impact it has had on american life and culture. we are mourning the death of the six moderator of the show. our hearts are with his family and friends. thank you for joining us. good night from washington. >> corporate funding for "washington week" is provided by consumer cellular. additional funding is provided by the yuen foundation, committed to bridging cultural differences. robert and susan rosenbaum. the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions from viewers like you. thank you. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute,

which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] ♪

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