01/06/22 01/06/22 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> usa! usa! usa! amy: one year ago today, january 6, 20 21, the deadly attack on the u.s. capitol took place a violent right wing mob incited by president trump stormed the

u.s. capitol in what has been described as an attempted coup. attorney general merrick garland has vowed to continue investigating and prosecuting those who organized the insurrection. >> the justice department remains committed to holding all january 6 perpetrators at any level accountable under law most of amy: will garland do what it takes to bring the insurrectionists to justice? we will speak with elie mystal. and as false claims about voter fraud feel republican efforts to restrict voting access, especially for like voters, we will speak with professor carol anderson, author of "white rage and "one person, no vote." and we will speak with ryan goodman and newsweek's william arn. >> there's so much we don't know

about who the people were, who were there, about what the link is to nald trump, and to me, like understanding who these people were is key to our moving forward and improving and enhancing our democracy. amy: all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. today is the first anniversary of the deadly insurrection of january 6 when supporters of donald trump attacked the capitol in a bid to overturn the 2020 election. president joe biden and vice president kamala harris will address the nation today. white house press secretary jen psaki said biden will lay out "the singular responsibility president trump has for the chaos and carnage that we saw." on wednesday, attorney general merrick garland vowed to continue investigating who -- the insurrection. he said so far 725 defendants have been arrested and charged.

>> the justice department remains committed to holding all january 6 perpetrators at any level accountable under law, whether they were present that day or were otherwise criminally responsible for the assault on our democracy. we will follow the facts wherever they lead. amy: trump's former press secretary stephanie grisham met wednesday with the house select committee investigating the insurrection. former president jimmy carter has issued a stark warning on the anniversary of the capitol insurrection. in an op-ed in "the new york times," the 39th president warns about right-wing attacks on the country's electoral system and the spread of disinformation. carter writes -- "our great nation now teeters on the brink of a widening abyss. without immediate action, we are at genuine risk of civil conflict and losing our precious democracy."

jimmy carter is now 97 years old, the longest living former president in u.s. history. we will spend the hour looking at the january 6 insurrection after the headlines. the centers for disease control and prevention has endorsed giving pfizer booster shots to children between the ages of 12 and 15 as covid cases continue to skyrocket amid the omicron surge. the united states has reported an average of nearly 600,000 new covid infections a day over the past week, by far the highest anywhere in the world. hospitalizations continue to rise but are still lower than during the surge last winter. the surge is leading to a growing number of public events being cancelled across the globe. the grammy awards have been postponed. the sundance film festival has canceled in-person screenings. brazilian officials in rio de janeiro have cancelled the carnival street parade for a second year in a row.

and royal caribbean and norwegian cruise are canceling new cruises. meanwhile, in chicago, schools are closed again for a second day following a vote by the chicago teachers union to teach remotely. police in kazakhstan have killed dozens of protesters who took to the streets in the largest demonstrations since the oil-rich former soviet republic became an independent nation three decades ago. there are reports as many as 1000 people have been injured in the police crackdown. the russian that collective security treaty organization is now sending in troops to help the security forces after protesters in a city set the presidential palace and mayor's office ablaze. state media in kazakhstan is reporting 12 members of the kazakh security forces have been killed during the unrest, which began as a protest against rising fuel prices. north korea is claiming it carried out a successful hypersonic missile test.

state media said the missile hit a target more than 400 miles away. north korea carried out a similar test in september. while the biden administration condemned north korea's test, the u.s. is spending billions of dollars investing in hypersonic missile technology, as is russia and china. in chile, members of the constitutional assembly have elected epidemiologist maria elisa quinteros as its new president. the assembly is tasked with writing chile's new constitution that will replace the current document created under the u.s.-backed dictator augusto pinochet. quinteros spoke after the vote. >> thank you with all my heart. that we can unite every sector in favor of what we need for the people of chile --unity, transformation, peace, and justice. amy: incoming chilean president

gabriel boric welcomed the news and said he looked forward to collaborating on his nation's new constitution. it is expected to include major reforms addressing social and economic inequalities, the environment and indigenous rights. in philadelphia, at least 12 people died wednesday, including eight children, in the city's deadliest fire in over a century. the dead included two sisters and several of their children. the blaze occurred in a row house owned by the philadelphia housing authority. as many as 26 people were inside the building when the fire began. authorities say none of the building's four smoke detectors went off when it started. lawyers for convicted sex-trafficker ghislaine maxwell have asked a federal judge for a new trial after two jurors revealed they were survivors of sexual abuse and had talked about it during jury deliberations. maxwell faces up to 65 years in prison for helping jeffrey epstein recruit and sexually assault teenage girls.

the pentagon is building what "the new york times" has described as a new secret courtroom for the u.s. military prison at guantanamo. while president biden has promised to close the prison, the military is spending $4 million on the new courtroom which is being built without a gallery for journalists and other members of the public to view proceedings live. this month marks 20 years since the opening of guantanamo where the u.s. still holds 39 men. most have never been charged with a crime. the group witness against torture plans to hold a rally outside the white house on tuesday, january 11, to mark the anniversary. in california, state investigators have concluded the utility company pacific gas & electric is responsible for last year's massive dixie fire which burned over 1 million acres and destroyed over 1300 homes. investigators say the fire began after a tree fell on electricity lines owned and operated by the

company. two years ago, pg&e pleaded guilty to 84 counts of involuntary manslaughter for the company's role in causing the deadly 2018 camp fire. the new district attorney of manhattan has announced a plan to reduce the number of people in jail by not prosecuting some nonviolent offenses, including marijuana misdemeanors, fare evasion on city buses and trains, traffic offenses, and sex work. alvin bragg, who is manhattan's first black district attorney, ran on a platform calling for criminal-justice reform. in a memo to staff, bragg wrote -- "reserving incarceration for matters involving significant harm will make us safer." investigations are continuing after nine historically black colleges and universities received bomb threats on tuesday. campuses were evacuated or put on lockdown but no bombs were found. schools targeted included

spelman college in atlanta and howard university in washington, d.c. in california, a man has been arrested for attacking a covid vaccination clinic outside of los angeles. thomas apollo reportedly entered the mobile clinic and started punching two workers, accusing them of being "murderers" who were "making people sick." the clinic was run by the group families together of orange county. one of the workers sustained serious injuries and was sent to a hospital in an ambulance. australian authorities detained serbian tennis star novak djokovic at a melbourne airport after his visa was revoked amid outcry over a covid vaccine exemption he received so he could play in the australian open. the number 1-ranked men's tennis player and defending champion had announced the vaccine exemption earlier this week. but a day later, australian prime minister scott morrison announced his visa had been

cancelled, saying, "no one is above the rules." australia has been experiencing a record-breaking covid surge. in news from england, four anti-racist activists who toppled the statue of a slave trader in bristol in june 2020 have been cleared of criminal charges. the four activists were arrested for pulling down a statue of edward colston and then throwing it in the river. the activists celebrated on wednesday after being found not guilty. >> a victory for racial equality and a victory for anyone who wants to be on the right side of history. thank you, everyone. you are all amazing. amy: in other news from the u.k., outcry is growing over former prime minister tony blair becoming a knight with the highest possible ranking. more than 750,000 people have signed a petition calling for his knighthood to be rescinded due to his key support for the 2003 invasion of iraq.

the petition states -- "he was personally responsible for causing the death of countless innocent civilian lives and servicemen in various conflicts. for this alone he should be held accountable for war crimes." and louisiana's governor john bel edwards has issued a posthumous pardon to homer plessy, who was the plaintiff in the landmark 1896 u.s. supreme court case plessy v. ferguson that upheld the separate but equal doctrine. plessy was a black man who was arrested in 1892 for refusing to leave a whites only passenger car of the east louisiana railroad. governor bel edwards spoke wednesday in new orleans. >> together today to celebrate, is not limited to writing a historical wrong. the effects are felt still in terms of race relations,

equality, justice. we are not where we should be. quite frankly, we are not where we would have been had at least four other justices had the same fidelity to the constitution. amy: and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. one year ago today was the deadly january 6 insurrection at the u.s. capitol, when a violent, right-wing mob incited by president trump stormed the capitol in what's been described as an attempted coup. >> usa! usa! usa! amy: a senate report found at least seven people were killed in connection with the attack. the insurrection began shortly aftethen psident trump aft then predent tru spoke aa rally ging suprters toead to the capitol after once again

falsely claiming that the election had been stolen. pres. trump: we going to lockdown to the capitol and we're going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women, you're probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them. because you will never take back our country with weakness. you have to show strength d you have to be strong. amy: today, president joe biden and vice president kamala harris are addressing the nation to mark this first anniversary. republican leaders are not expected to attend any of the days events at the capitol. on wednesday, attorney general merrick garland vowed to continue investigating who organized the insurrection. he spoke from the justice department's great hall. >> the justice department remains committed to holding all january 6 perpetrators at any level accountable under law,

whether they work present that day or were otherwise criminally responsible for the assault on our democracy. we will follow the facts wherever they lead. because january 6 was an unprecedented attack on the seat of our democracy, we understand there is broad public interest in our investigation. we understand there are questions about how long the investigation will take an about what exactly we are doing. our answer is and will continue to be the same answer we would give to with respect to any ongoing investigation, "as long as it takes and whatever it takes for justice to be done consistent with the facts and the law." i understand that this may not be the answer some are looking

for, but we will and we must speak to our work. anything else jeopardizes the viability of our investigations and the civil liberties. of our citizens. amy: for more, we're joined by elie mystal, the nation's justice correspondent who asks in his new piece, "will garland do what it takes to bring the insurrectionists to justice?" his forthcoming book is titled "allow me to retort: a black guy's guide to the constitution." elie mystal, welcome back to democracy now! you're very critical to what mayor garland, the attorney general, had to y. why? >> i have been critical of what he has been dog up to this point. i wa to be clear, if merrick garland has a secretnd to one day hold the people responsible for january 6 accountable, his investation will look kind of like it looks right now. the problem is if merrick

garland does not have a secret plan and has no intention of holding this people accountable and was only going to go after the hanging fruit come his investigation would look pretty much like it looks right now. the question is simply, do you trust merrick garland? do you believe what he just said come he will do everything it takes to hold people accountable -- the people responsible accountable? do? you believe him or not? you don't see any evidence he is actually going to do that. amy: he said in his remarks yesterday, these acts and threats of violence are not associated with any one set of partisan or ideological vie. your response? >>e is wrong. one set of partisan ideological views attacked the capitol and the other set did not. it is as simple as that. this kind of both sideism, this is why i have concerns.

what we're seeing from garland is he will say the right things, he will stand up and say "we will pursue these people to the --" but when you look at what he does does not match what he says. he says he's going to look for people and hold people accountable whether they were there or not but his -- he said he's going to follow the money but he is only arrested people who have done the deed. he said he is going to pursue people to the fullest extent of the law but so far only sentenced 71 people. so far though 71 people have latively received very light sentences, very few people have received jail time. 56 of the 71 people he has sentenced have only been

sentenced for parading or picketing inside the capitol building. which is a couple of weeks. you get more than that possession with intent to distribute. people were storming the capitol looking for mike pence to hang him. what comes out of his mouth is appropriate. what he does so far has been underwhelming. amy: and the sentence, less than 10% of those arrested and they still say they are looking for hundreds more people. but as you point out, you tweeted, "so one thing you should notice about garland's framing ofanuary 6 bang is he starts as storing the capitol, not the rally before." >> when he's given the recap, he starts for the people have already amassed around the capitol before they are about to go in. that is interesting to start. if you're going to bring conspiracy charges, you would start at least where you started

on your show, amy, with the trump speech. i would start with the donald trump, jr. speech when he tells them to go down and fight like hell. you might start a week before the events of january 6 as the big lie early starts to take hold in the senate and in the public. you might start two weeks before or a month before because the lies happen over the course of weeks. if you are going to make the conspiracy charge and really hold people accountable who are responsible for those 700 or so people who breached the capitol, you would not start at noon on january 6. you would start earlier. a garland -- listen to his words carefully. he is a lawyer. he is going to holdverybody who can be shown criminally responsible. he is always try to give himself out, a hedge, a way to avoid holding the most powerful people accountable.

look, garland is happy putting his foot down on the qanon. the guy with the horns, he is going to get the long arm of the law, right? but what about the congresspeople who allegedly were apparently were giving people a tour? i haven't heard of any investigation about them from his office. if you trust it is happening, good for you. that is a fool's story. i need more evidence before i trust this man to do what i believe is necessary. amy: elie mystal, what you say to those who say when you're talking about, perhaps, holding president trump criminally responsible who was not there though he told the folks he would be there come he in fact was watching from his dining room as we are not continually hearing reports of and we will hear more from the select committee, and did not comment for more than three hours as people begged him to issue a

statement that he ultimately said vocal go home, we love you" after over three hours where republicans and democrats legislators were hiding away to prevent themselves from being attacked? of course, vice president pence, key among them, was taken out by security. but what do you say to those who say, he has got to build this case carefully? it is going to go to the courts, the appeals court. i have underscored the expanded right of the president and the executives? >> i'm sorry? amy: the question is, they have to build this case very choir carefully. >> that is exactly what they said about mullins. amy, this argument is the exact argument they gave me about robert muller. he is causing the t's and dotti ng the i's and mueller did

nothing. if garland wanted to prove he is this dog public server that is going to pursue justice, he still got the rubber mueller report there. mueller outlined to instances of obstruction of justice and they did not ask you. merrick garland could. you notice he is not. that is why i keep saying, he can talk the game, but look at the man's actions. if he was willing to go after trumper crimes of trump committed, he already has the mu eller report but he is not acting on it. maybe -- like he said, goes back to trust most maybe this great life institutional liberal prosecutor will totally get trump this time. not like the last 1 -- that is

what you're selling to me. there will be people who believe that. but again, i went actual evidence that this man is willing to take on the powerful politically connected republicans who did this to us. and so far, i don't see that stuff amy: elie mystal, thank you for being with us, the nation's justice correspondent and we will link to your piece "will garland do what it takes to bring the insurrectionists to justice?" forthcoming book "allow me to , retort: a black guy's guide to the constitution." restrict voting access, especially for black voters. we go to georgia to speak with professor carol anderson. among her books, "white rage" and "one person, no vote." ♪♪ [music break]

amy: "lift every voice and sing" performed by alicia keys. a version of this song was played yesterday at the louisiana ceremony for governor john bel edwards issued a posthumous pardon to plessy. the supreme court case plessy versus ferguson came out of this, which upheld the separate but equal doctrine. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. more than 200 vigils and events across the united states today will mark the first anniversary of the deadly january 6 insurrection at the capitol, when a largely white mob of trump supporters tried to stop the certification of the 2020 presidential election and subvert democracy. many of today's events will focus on voting rights as former president trump's false claims about voter fraud have fueled republican efforts to restrict voting access. senate majority leader chuck

schumer vowed tuesday to proceed with a vote to change the filibuster rule to prevent republicans from blocking new voting rights legislation. >> there is no better way to heal the damage of january 6 than to act so our constitutional order is preserved in the future. if we do not act to protect our elections, the horrors of january 6 will risk becoming not the exception, but the norm. the stakes could not be higher, so we are going to move forward. amy: but democratic leadership may lack the votes needed. on tuesday, democratic senator joe manchin voiced skepticism about changing the filibuster rules. >> let me just say to being open to a rules change that would create a nuclear option. this is very commemorative of. amy: for more, we go to atlanta, georgia, to speak with carol

anderson, professor at emory university, author of "o person, no vote: how voter suppression is destroying our democracy" and "white rage: the unspoken truth of our racial divide." welcome back. can you talk about what you think is at the root of trump's big lie about the election? it was a year ago today, january 6, not only the deadly insurrection, but black man and a jewish man had just won the two senate seats in georgia. >> yes. for me, what is at the root of this is the delegitimization of black voters of african-americans as citizens who have the right to te. and we heard that in november and december when you kept hearing about the big lie and you heard newtingrich talking

about "ty stole the election in philadelphia. they stole the election in milwaukee. they stole the election in atnta." notice that he identified cities that have sizablelack populations. linking those citi with the theft of democracy, with the theft of this election. stealing it from good, hard-working, honest folks. that was the subtext that led to the insurrection. the dilent of his age and of lack -- the delegitimization of black voters. amy: can you talk about what was at the root of what was happening a year ago, the server of the national election, but also it was not only about biden . at this point year ago, by the afternoon, it was very clear that the senate would be democratic.

and you had this group of white supremacists, of right-wing extremists --one carrying a confederate flag -- maruading through the capitol. >> the connection is an assat on american democracy. what i call this bureaucratic violence of voter suppression. what we saw in the 2020 election and the 2021 runoff in georgia, the senate runoff, was thayou had this massive voter turnout by democratsbut african-americans, asian americans, by latinos, by indigenous people who were voting for the democrats. d that flipped the house, the white house, and it flipped the senate. and that flipping of the senate to blue, that is whatade the election in the eyes of the

white supremacist and white nationalists illegitimate. when you have mo brooks out of alabama talking about if we only count the legal votes, then trump is the winner. that means the legal votes are those of -- for african-americans, or those coming from african-americans, are those votes coming from latinos, are those votes coming from native americans, are those votes coming from asian americans. it is saying the only real americans are white americans. white conservative americans. those are the only real americans. that is the foundation of this assault. that is why you saw the confederate flag being hauled up in the capital, something that robert e. lee was not even able to do. amy: professor anderson, your fellow georgian, the oldest ever

living president jimmy carter, just wrote an op-ed in "the new york times, saying -- amy: there are 200 vigils being held today across the country about voting rights. you have this, well, some call them senator, some call him the other president joe, joe manchin, questioning whether he would change the filibuster rules. talk about how filibuster links to voting and what the weight of voting suppression laws, what has to be done. >> what really has to be done is what we saw in the face of the big lie, you have a number of states, including georgia, that passed the voter suppression

laws. that figured out how did african-americans, how did tinos,ow did asian americans, how did youngolk, how did poor folk access the ballot box? and figure out aay how to shut that access down or make it much more difficult. and you also had lowering th guardrails that protected this democracy from trump being able overturn theill of the voters. so that two-pronged attack is what is happening right now in our state laws. we need federal legislation to come in and protect the rights of amecan citize to vote. that ithe freedom to vote act and the john lewis voting rights act advancement act. we need both of those in place. but we have got this filibuster thing that says you need to have 60 votes in order to even discuss this thing?

to discuss protecting american democracy? to protect voting rights for american citizens? we need to have the laws passed so we can have a free and fair election in 2024. the election is being rigged right in front of our very eyes. the way to stop american citizens from voting is jim crow 2.0. it is designed to ensure we have minority rule in the united states, that we don't have a democracy. it is a way to subvert having a fully vibrant multiracial, multiethnic, multireligious democracy. that is what is on the table. that is why the filibuster that is blocking federal voting rights legislation has to be stopped. joe manchin is wrong. amy: i want to go to peter navarro who was speaking with

msnbc and outlined his support for what he called the green bay sweep, plan to overturn the election results in six states, including yours. >> the plan was simply this, we had over 100 congressmen and senators on capitol hill ready to implement the sweep. the sweep was that. we were going to challenge the results of the election in six battleground states. they were michigan, pennsylvania, georgia, wisconsin, nevada. >> do you realize you're describing a coup? >> no. i totally reject many of your premises there. amy: that was peter navarro, professor anderson. he included georgia. president trump was putting enormous pressure on your republican secretary of state to find the 11,000 plus those. the republicans resisted.

today there is no republican leadership at the ceremons at the capitol. your thoughts? >> it begins to tell you -- right after the insurrection, the invasion of the capitol, you had republicans coming out being appalled but that flipped retively quickly. you saw this loyalty to trump being the defining characteristic of being a republican. you were loyal to trump, you will loyal to overthrowing the will of the voters. you saw in georgia when raffensperger and brian kemp basically refused to been to trump's though, how they have become -- so that raffensperger lost the new law legislation here has removed his power on the state election brd. saw there were billboards defining cap and raffensperger

as enemies, as enemies of democracy. because they did not abide by trump's will. at is whee are right now. we have a party that is loyal to a man and not loyal to the country. not loyal to american democracy. not loyal to the united states of america. amy: finally, would you call president trump racist? would you call the voter suppression laws that are being enacted around the country straightforward racist? >> trump is racist. trump gained his political power on birth tourism, which was denying the legitimacy of barack obama, a black man. and the laws that are being passed, they are as subtle and as vicious as the jim crow laws at came up in the 1890's and early 20th century. they don't say we don't want

black folks to vote, but the laws are written in the way they use the socioeconomic characteristics of african-americans to stop and block african-americans from being able to vote. if you thought the jim crow laws were racist, than the ones we are dealing with right now are equally racist. amy: carol anderson, professor at emory university and the author of the new book "the second: race and guns in a fatally unequal america." also the author of "one person, no vote: how voter suppression is destroying our democracy" and "white rage: the unspoken truth of our racial divide." next up, we look at the lead up to the insurrection and what followed with newsweek's william arkin. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: "this house is on fire" by broken social scene. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. exactly one year ago today, on the morning of january 6, 2021, we spoke with our next guest,

william arkin, national security reporter for newsweek. our show broadcasts at 8:00 a.m. eastern. we interviewed him before the violent attack on the capitol. as we spoke, thousands were set to protest in washington, d.c., over trump's 2020 election loss to joe biden as congress met to certify the results. i asked bill arkin what the police and the authorities were most concerned about happening that day. >> they're most concerned about donald trump, whether he is going to instigate the thousands of people who have flooded into the district to take up violence, either to march on the capitol or even try to enter the capitol during the elector count. the people i've talked to -- and it's been a broad range of national guard, law enforcement, and military officials -- all say to me that this is an unprecedented moment,

unprecedented because you have a president who is not only instigating protest and violence against this constitutional process, but also because there are other conditions which have been introduced. first, talk of martial law. second, talk of an implementation of the insurrection act, which would allow the military and the national guard to engage in law enforcement. third, a kind of break between the district of columbia and the federal government as was exemplified by a letter sent yesterday by the mayor of the district to the acting attorney general, to the acting secretary of defense, asking them not to any non-uniformed people oo the streets of d.c. and then, finally, the question of who is actually in charge of the u.s. capitol police, the u.s. park police, the uniformed

branch of the secret service today and in the coming week? because there's really no one in charge. amy: that was the morning of january 6. william arkin joins us again now. he is a national security reporter for newsweek, where he has a series on the road to january 6. his recent piece "exclusive: , secret service intel saw 'no indication of civil disobedience'." bill arkin, your predictions are very significant. talk about how you knew what seemed like even the president did not know. >> well, i have to say, amy, a year later, i about dissatisfied with the investigationnd i am alarmed the federal government has not been held accountable for its failures on january 6. there was a riot at the capitol and there was an insurrection by

some of the people who were there. and it is really stunning to me that we haven't looked more closely at what the role of the federal agencies were, what the intelligence was, and what the intelligence agencies new. i was here year ago and i have been studying this ever since. i was hearing people say not only there was going to be a riot at the capitol and expected there may be an attempt to stop the joint session of congress from counting and accepting the electoral vote, but i was also hearing from people who were protesting and people who were in the organizations like the proud boys and the oath keepers -- which were present at the capitol that day. and those people were saying to me they had plans to be there long before donald trump gave any speech, to act against the congress.

so i was hearing this from all parties, from people inside the pentagon, from people inside the fbi, from knowledgeable observers within the military, and also from protesters themselves. we have to ask ourselves the question, why was the federal government so unprepared? also ask ourselves the question as to whether or not the select committee is focusing on the right thing. focusing on something, i would say, donald trump and the supposed smoking gun, at the exclusion of not looking at the performance and the activities of the federal government. because ultimately, that is what we can influence. we can influence the federal government agencies. ultimately, we can begin to understand why 120,000 people were at the capitol in the first place, what they hoped to

achieve, and what they were doing. we should remind ourselves that only 1% of those 120,000 entered the capitol building. and of those, only 700 or so have been so far arrested. the fbi says there may be as and as 2500 people when they are finished with their investigation, but what were the other 99% there? what were they thinking? what were they doing? what were they helping? and that is the cadre of the 70 million people voted for donald trump who are today the roots of this civil unrest that jimmy carter refers to. amy: if you can talk about -- you talk about the failure of intelligence. was it a failure of intelligence or they were directly told to allow this to move forward? whether we're are talking about the national guard or the

police, now we have heard repeatedly from the police saying they were not instructed in the morning that this was going to be violent. in fact, they were told the very opposite. why they were so unprepared. but they were the individuals on the ground. what was happening at the highest level? and what have you uncovered of deliberate preventing law enforcement from taking action? >> well, i know this is the narrative that most peopleave grasped upon, that somehow the law-enforcement agencies or the federal government was taking direction from donald trump or was actively standing in the way of an effective response to the protests and the riots. i have not found that in my investigation. i have been working on this for a year. i have been talking to people from the inside, look at secret documents. i just don't the the narrative

being confirmed. what i see is donald trump completely isolated from the rest of the federal government on january 6 as an example. he was watching television in the dining room. he did not speak to anyone within the federal government. now the attorney, not the secretary of defense. the secretary of homeland security was in the middle east. the national security advisor ryan o'brien was in florida vacationing. the truth of the matter is, there was a complete disconnect at this point between donald trump and the government. when you look at the performance of those individuals, jeffrey rosen acting attorney general or chris miller, the acting secretary of defense, they were befuddled by what was going on that day. they were not grand spirit tours somehow of facilitating the riot and the insurrection. they were ignorant and who are

completely out otouch. so the u.s. capitol police and the metro police departments, the deep-sea police, you know, they operated valiantly on january 6, but they were unprepared for the crowd. intelligence failure. th were not adequately understanding the protesters and their nature, and that is our failure. and finally, i think they were just not getting any direction. the time people were begging donald trump to take action, the riot was in full swing. there was not much hope of getting the mob to stop because at this point, nobody is watching their phones. nobody is thinking text or twitter or caring what dond trump had to say. there was a mob. the mob was basically following its own direction. amy: "the washington post" reported there were 17 request

for backup in 78 minutes, an hour. >> the reality is, the national guard was not ready to provide backup. that is really the greatest lie about the military. there were not enough people obliged and ready even if they had rapidly responded. therefore, other than the department of justice -- which is the fbi, the atf, u.s. marshals service, etc. -- ultimately brought 500 people to capitol hill at 6:00 p.m., when everybody had already been ejected from the capitol, when they had already found a way to restore the capitol -- joint session of congress could resume. those people a came too late. even though they had mobilized some 500 people from various special operations groups to be

ready, none of them moved in time to have any impact on either the breach of the capitalists out for the evacuation of people from the building. -- capitol itself or the evacuation of the people from the building. the police did what they could do, but even there 1000 people and probably no more than three or 400 law-enforcement officers inside the capitol, or just no match for the size of the crowd. amy: you also write the day after christmas, trump tweeted, see everyone january 6. you talk about the trump -obsessed media meeting the threat of the insurrection itself but clearly his supporters did not. you write, "the trump supporters who called themselves insurrectionists and spoke openly about war work still not taken seriously within the federal government and congress." end with that, william arkin. >> the reality is the terrorists

wer't taken seriously before 9/11. and here we have a repeat of the same thing, a failure to connect the dots, a failure to remove the information that they did have. and the saddest thing of all, a failure on their part to see in american society, what was going on, to actually read the social media, to be able to realize that these were people who already had declared they're going to be bringing weapons to the capitol, who came with the intent of an insurrection. that is to interrupt and overthrow the processes of the u.s. government. that is the reality. and if we continue to look for smoking gun against donald trump, we are missing the fact there are thousands if not millions of people in america who are intent upon overthrowing the current system.

amy: william arkin we will end without warning, a national security reporter for newsweek. we will link to your two-month series on the road to january 6. we now look at the timeline for anniversary of january 5. it was just published by just security energies while we mark the first anniversary of january 6 insurrection "an important facet involving the january for 2020 georgia sunna runoff may easily be lost in the mix. for more, we're joined by ryan goodman, professor of law at new york university, former special counsel at the department of defense. welcome to democracy now! professor goodman, no relation. talk about the high points or low points of this timeline that you have laid out, beginning with january 5. >> the high point is the justice

department used a lot of its resources, including the fbi investigations to basically affect the outcome of the georgia runoff most of that was their attempt. we have from very good reporting that the speaker -- speaker of the senate edge mcconnell and bill barr engaged in a side agreement that they wanted to convince republican voters in georgia that biden hadwon an election was done fairly. this is now in december. that is an extraordinary politicized use of the justice department and the fbi to do anything like that, to try to use it to shape the outcome of an election. many people have thought about barr's actions and the like post presidential election and being if various in different ways after people voted, but this is

even more nefarious in a certain sensbecause he was trying to affect how people were going to vote. that is one of the high points. the other high point in a low point for our nation is it also demonstrates the power of disinformation. ways in which giuliani and members of the republican members of the house promulgating these conspiracies around georgia and how the election had been run, that actually pushed pressure inside the justice department that it wasn't just bill barr but other senior members of the justice department and the fbi say, "oh, we have to open these investigations to respond to what the public is conceiving of in these elections, not to predicate the investigations they are supposed to do, which is evidence that a crime is been committed but instead they open these investigations based on the effectiveness of the disinformation campaign. remarkable case study in how the

disinformation effort has affected powerful institutions like the justice department. and not just people we have heard of a lot before like bill barr, but people below him. amy: can you talk about how then secretary of defense christopher miller and general mark milley come the chair of the joint chiefs of staff, were both concerned about applying the military? what had happened in the black lives matter protest from this whole argument that they did not want military in uniform on the streets again? >> there is very strong evidence that was very much thereoncern in that one of the best explanations of why we did not see the national guard to play more quickly is that they actually wrote to the rules for the deployment of the national guard specifically for january 6 of all sorts of limitations. they were concerned about the "objects" but also concerned very much that if the national guard went into the capitol,

then president trump come as commander of the d.c. national guard, could at the stroke of a pen or essentially a tweet, recommissioned the guard to use the military force to hold onto power. they were concerned that he would do something like invoke the insurrection act. one of the most remarkable episodes is on january 4, miller and miller, convene a cabinet level meeting and they are so concerned that they raise the question, can we rescind the permits of these trump supporters of the capitol? they are very aware of the threat of violence. on their minds were there proud boys and others. they say this together cabinet members. there strong evidence that explains the delay on january 6 itself, this remarkable piece in which the national guard -- william just describes come together after the capit has

already been secured. very strong evidence what was going on at the highest levels of the military inside the pentagon is is deep concern of donald trump, that he would do the very thing of using the military to try to hold onto power. amy: what could prevent that from happening again? >> in the future? unfortunately, we need legislation on this, and it is not just the executive binding itself. it needs to be reform of the insurrection act. for one. i think another piece that is chilling about the episode is if you think about it as the military is basically defying the commander-in-chief. and that is not exactly the structure we want in our government. it is a chilling lesson in what happened with civil and military relations. in that instance, in certain sense, the military did in a

way prevent that kind of an abuse of power stop but i am very worried for our country, both in terms of what it might mean for another despicable president who would use the military for their own clinical purposes and i am also worried for the country in terms of what it means about the military's concerns that they have people within the military that would have resnded to trump in that instance. and that right now the secretary defense aims to be on the road to trying to route out som of the extremists within the military post i think that is part of the concern that is here, not just about the laws, but about political culture and white supremacists that are part of different institutions, including, unfortunately, the dod. amy: we want to thank you for being with us. ryan goodman, coeditor in chief of just security, and former special counsel at the justice

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