Accountable again. Tonight, the growing urgency to remove donald trump from office before it gets worse. The reckoning for everyone who enabled the president s insurrection, the alarming crop of republicans continuing to support sedition for trump, and the National Security failure that allowed the president s mob to breach the capitol. When all in starts right now. Good evening from new york, im chris hayes. Tonight, the house of representatives appears to be moving closer to impeaching donald trump for a second time. That would be the first time in history thats been done. Speaker nancy pelosi earlier today said trump needs to be removed from the white house, called upon the president s cabinet and Vice President mike pence to immediately invoke the 25th amendment and declare the president unfit to dispatch his duties. It would immediately move the power into the hands of mike pence. And failing that, congress will act. I join the Senate Democratic leader in calling on the Vice President to remove this president by immediately invoking the 25th amendment. If the Vice President and cabinet do not act, the congress may be prepared to move forward with impeachment. That is the overwhelming sentiment of my caucus. You might have caught that may there, which i have been thinking about. May be moving forward with impeachment. New reporting tonight that Vice President pence will not budge on the 25th amendment, and again, why would he . Hes hitched to donald trump for all eternity. Mike pence, donald trump, those two names will be together forever. Theyll be judged together forever, for better or more likely, for worse. Jerry nadler, chairman of the Judiciary Committee who impeached the president a year ago, said its time to do it again. Can sfoert the immediately impeachment of the president and his removal of the office in the wake of this deadly attack on the capitol. There must be consequences. Those consequences must be commensurate with the offense and must begin with the president of the United States. And chairman nadler is correct. Donald trump needs to go, now. It is no coincidence that less than an hour ago, the president released a stilted teleprompter video conceding a new administration will be inaugurated on january 20th. It was clearly a bid to halt a 25th amendment or impeachment, even as Rupert Murdochs wall street journal editorial pager despite his hostage video concession, it is still clear that donald trump cannot be trusted to hold the office for a minute longer. You know, when history comes knocking, when we arrive at these moments, its strange and surreal because it feels weirdly normal. But our country is, im telling you this right now, in the midst of a National Emergency as acute and severe as anything since the civil war. It is urgently important the president of the United States be removed from office as quickly as legally possible. The president is a clear and present danger to american democracy as exemplified by many things but certainly by his actions yesterday. As eric levts aptly put it, he must be evicted from our white house immediately. He must be frog marched out of our civic life in disgrace. Amen. Donald trump has 13 days left, not even two weeks. But in that time, hes the commander in chief and the most powerful armed forces in the world. In fact, in human history. He has access to the nuclear codes, but short of that, theres all kinds of powers that adhere to him as president of the United States. Among them, the pardoning power, which he is now reportedly discussing to use to pardon himself, which again, would be unprecedented. But above all that, yesterday, the man charged with protecting the country and defending the constitution and american democracy, led an armed mob to the capitol and unleashed them to overrun it. And were going to have to fight much harder. And mike pence is going to have to come through for us. And if he doesnt, that will be a sad day for our country. Were going to walk down to the capitol. And were going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women. And well probably not be cheering so much for some of them. Because youll never take back our country with weakness. Lets all go down to the capitol, dont be weak. And dont cheer the ones doing the wrong thing. Ensuing assault on the Capitol Building resulted in the deaths of at least four people. There are four people who are dead after that. And members of the article i branch of congress, the first branch described in the constitution, cowering behind makeshift furniture barricades as the armed mobs rampaged around and the president rooted them on. At one point after the capitols breached, as people had guns drawn in that building, the president tweeting out an attack on mike pence, who at that moment had been cleared to a secure room by the secret service. Its a miracle more people didnt die, a miracle. It could have been much worse, as the Justice Department confirmed two explosive devices found in the capitol yesterday were real explosive devices. Also reports of devices outside the rnc and dnc. They said President Trump was not off limits in his investigation of what happened yesterday. Well, he sure shouldnt be. The plain truth, this is not hyperbole or partisanship. The plain truth is that the president has been openly engaged in sedition and seditious conspiracy since he lost the election. In fact, before it, honestly. Yesterday was just the capstone of it. He needs to be removed from office quickly, and then he should be arrested and tried for sedition. Thats where we are right now. Anyone who pretends otherwise is deluded. Is disqualified from the sober duties of public life at this important moment. Congress needs to take the steps they can control. They cannot rely on people in Donald Trumps cabinet to do the right thing. Why would we . Theyre the people who have colluded with the president as he has over seen the deadliest year in American History and lied to us about an epidemic that as of today is killing a 9 11s worth of people every day. Senator Chuck Schumer made that clear moments after pelosi spoke. Speaker pelosi and i tried to call the Vice President this morning. To tell him to do this. They kept us on hold for 25 minutes, and then said the Vice President wouldnt come on the phone. So we are making this call public. Because he should do it and do it right away. The president incited a violent mob to attack the capitol. There is no analog or precedent really for it in American History. Perhaps the caning of charles summoner in 1856 and ten years later we had a civil war. It should live in infamomy and blood soaked honor as that moment does. And the Vice President is a coward, complicit in ducking congress calls. Congress should impeach trump. They absolutely should not go home as apparently many have. He sent his armed mobs into your workplace, congress. They sent the speaker fleeing into a secure room while they ransacked her office at the president s behest, if that is not a crime, i do not know what is. What are we doing here, everyone . Last night, senator mitt romney, the only republican who voted to remove trump from office, and for that, he deserves credit, said were going to have to hold our breath until trump is gone. I have a news flash, senator. You cant hold your breath for 13 days. Not good enough. We are in completely uncharted territory here. Everyone is grasping for the right word or analogy, whether in our own history or comparatively in other countries and Everyone Wants normalcy. But this is what it is. We face what we face. The president is a threat to the republic and to american democracy. Hes not just plotting to overturn american democracy. Hes actively trying to make it happen. He needs to go right now. Assistant speaker of the house Katherine Clark is one of the lawmakers caught up in yesterdays sedition riot. The massachusetts democrat became the first member of house leadership to call for the president s removal. And she joins me now. First, let me ask you at a human level how you are doing, and i guess how youre processing yesterday and what happened yesterday. Thank you, chris. Its difficult to take in. I am never going to forget that scene as i walked up independence avenue towards the capitol to go to work, seeing hundreds of people carrying trump flags, confederate flags, the smell of tear gas and burning in the air. Up on the steps of the capitol, its a scene that i thought maybe would happen in some other country, but not here in the United States. And that fear for my colleagues, for the safety of the staff, of everyone who works in that room, in that building, has been replaced by rage. Rage that this president would commit this seditious act, would commit these acts of treason against our country. What explain this to me. This morning, i saw the congress, both houses, had entered into recess with the next plan to convene, i guess, right around the inauguration. And i thought it was a joke or i was misunderstanding something. Like, it seems to me there are these battling imperatives. It seems to me that much of the governing class and Political Leadership in washington, democrat and republican, would like to avoid some final confrontation with the president. Move on and turn the page. Let him walk off. He is not going to allow that. I dont know how it could be any clearer. Do you all understand that . You are going to have to confront him. There is no other option. Is that understood by you and members of the caucus . It is well understood, appreciated, and we are resolute about holding this president accountable. And we are also resolute in holding our republican counterparts accountable. They have enabled this president , and after the outrageous and horrifying and dangerous events of yesterday, to have over half of the Republican Caucus continue the myth, the lie that is fueling this violence, that somehow our elections were anything but fair. They voted, you know, to say that these elections somehow shouldnt be certified. That we have to move forward, and we have to do it on parallel tracks. We have to push for the 25th amendment, but we dont have a good record with Vice President pence of doing anything to stand up to his oath of office, the same one that i took, that every member of congress took, just on sunday to uphold this constitution. Now is the time to step up. So we will ask them to do whats the fastest thing to remove this president. To go forward with the 25th amendment removal process. But if they wont, we will act. We will move forward with impeachment, and we can do that on a parallel track. There are 13 days left of this presidency. And each one of them is too long for the security of americans. Yeah, there are two sources of urgency that strike me here. The first sense of urgency is that there are 13 days in which hes president of the United States. He has demonstrated that he is a threat to the republic yesterday. Thats just clear. So there is a threat to americas constitutional democratic order occupying the most powerful position that we have to deal with that, but second of all, even as the clock ticks, what does it say about American Public life and Democratic Health if someone can do that and just leave and maybe run again . I mean, this is it. This is how democracies fall, right . When this kind of thing is brooked . Thats exactly right, chris. Theres a moment in all of our lives and in our collective lives as a country where history shows us there arent really any options here. We cannot only not do this to the American People, to our fundamental belief in a constitution. This american experiment in democracy, we also cant do it to the world. Our capitol is a symbol with deep meaning for the world about a democracy and what that means. What elected leaders by the people of a country represent that freedom, our quest for equality and justice for all, and although we dont have that perfect union, if we let this act, this horrible, seditious act stand unchallenged, we are sending the message not only to the country but to the world that we have given up, that we have turned our back on those very ideals. And because this is the president , it means that we have a responsibility to act and to act swiftly and decisively. And we know that we have to have republicans find this moment to step up, to honor their country over this one person who seems to have such a grip on them. But theres a point in everyones life, if its a political decision or a personal decision, where you just have to listen to Martin Luther king and do whats right. It is always the right time to do whats right. And theres no gray area here. This is a clear decision. This president is a danger. This president is a traitor. And this president must be removed from office. Katherine clark of massachusetts, im glad youre safe, and im glad youre well, and im grateful for you coming on. I know that David Cicilline is working on drawing up impeachment in the house Judiciary Committee. And chairman nadler supports it, along with ted lieu and jamie raskcon, thank you for making time tonight. Thank you, chris. So if the president s impeached hell face trial in the senate, as he first did almost one year ago. Chris van hollen will be sitting in judgment again of this president. He joins me now. Let me start with the same question i asked congressman clark. How are you doing . How do you understand the events of yesterday . Well, chris, its good to be with you. Im still in shock that we had a violent mob attack the capitol of the United States, attack our capitol. At the same time, it was predictable given the lies and the poison and the incitement of so many people by the president of the United States, that Something Like this could happen, something violent could happen in the attempt to prevent the peaceful transfer of power. And thats what we witnessed yesterday. The result of a president inciting insurrection and sedition. And people trying to essentially overturn the will of the people and the election in our country. Sad day for our country. There has to be active and urgent reaction. Yeah, so i have no illusions about anyones come to jesus moments about the nature of this president. Everything i think on, well, largely in capitol hill, but i think precisely now with the republicans are sort of cynical calculations, but its striking to me, elaine chao, who is Mitch Mcconnells wife, resigned ostensibly in protest 13 days before it all ended today, Rupert Murdochs wall street journal editorial page is now calling for him to step down. The president also helped lose those two senate seats thats now kicked over the senate to the democratic party. Its the thing that people like Rupert Murdoch and Mitch Mcconnell care about more than anything else, frankly, including insurrection. So i guess the question is, do you feel were headed towards a Joseph Mccarthy denumont here, where for a bunch of self interested reasons, people are like, enough with this dude, or is it going to be the same nonsense we have seen for four years of like, well, its only 13 more days . Well, look. You have got the rats leaving the sinking ship here. And trying at the 11th hour to somehow redeem themselves. Thats not going to happen. And thats why its so urgent that we take steps to remove the president , because he remains an active threat to our democracy, and we need to establish very clearly the precedent that this is unacceptable conduct. The 25th amendment would be the fastest and most likely successful route to actually removing the president s power and getting his finger off the nuclear button, but obviously, impeachment needs to be pursued if the 25th amendment wont work. And i have to say, chris, the possibility of bringing a criminal indictment against the president for sedition has to be pursued. Youre saying after the president is no longer the president , and that would be by the department of justice, which obviously would be very difficult politically, but i mean, i agree with you on the merits, its all there. Hes been doing it for weeks in front of everyone, but you think that has to be pursued . Look, one thing we know about the incoming president , joe biden, is he will allow the Justice Department to be independent. Yes. It will not be his political pawn. But in the interests of preserving our democracy, i think that they need to look into charges of sedition. A lot of the elements of, you know, the conspiracy and sedition are there. And it needs to be it needs to be pursued. Again, totally independently. Obviously, from the president of the the next president of the United States. Senator chris van hollen, who represents the state of maryland, in the capitol yesterday, if i am not mistaken, i saw you giving a speech late in the night. Thank you very much for making time. Good to be with you. Thanks, chris. Ahead, as the senator just mentioned, some of the trump enablers are jumping ship, abandoned the president ostensibly as his days in the white house tick down. What those political calculations could mean for the country, after this. 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We have come to the point we always feared that the presidency would come to. Its brought about something of a reckoning for the people who have been all too willing to enable donald trump because it served their own personal cynical purposes. And thats a lot of people. Theres an entire universe of the Institutional Republican Party and political appointees, congressional staffers, staffers in the white house, people in the white house. All of whom have been part of this project, this project thats led us to here, the deadliest year in American History, a plague thats killing almost 4,000 people a day, and violent insurrection aimed at the capitol. And they have all told themselves all sorts of stories about why it was okay. That they were empowering this transparently narcicisstic sociopath who is obviously a threat to american democracy. Some of them actually liked him and they shared those traits. Some of them just said, well, it would be worse if i wasnt here. And now with less than two weeks left, with the capitol reeling from the mob assault and occupation directly egged on by the president , these people in the institutional gop are making all kinds of calculations about what to do in the final days to salvage the reputations and or stop trump from pulling down the temple on all of our heads. Transportation secretary elaine chao, as i mentioned, a kbinate member, announced her resignation today, citing the mob attack. Former trump chief of staff john kelly said he would vote to remove trump, using the 25th amendment, if he were still a member of the cabinet. Another former chief of staff, mick mulvaney, resigned as special u. S. Envoy to Northern Ireland and claimed absurdly that trump was not the same as he was eight months ago. You bet, mick. This is a list of some of the resignations we have seen in the wake of yesterdays assault in the capitol. People who stuck with trump all the way until now, when theyre just two weeks left before hes set to leave office. Im joined by a lifelong republican who did not wait until now to quit this administration. Elizabeth neumann, from the department of homeland security, who resigned in april over the administrations refusal to address the threat posed by rightwing extremism. Its good to have you on. Let me start on that. This is what you resigned over. It is what you talked about in the ad that you cut for Republican Voters against trump, and yesterday, we saw people wearing shirts that said things like camp auschwitz and 6 million was not enough, and things like that as they violently stormed the capitol. I cant imagine what you were thinking as you saw that happen. Well, look, we have seen people like that march before. We saw it in charlottesville. Yep. So seeing it wasnt the shock. The lack of security around the capitol, the fact that they could break through that, that was a shock. But that they were going to march, that they had plans for violence, that was pretty well known in the leadup to what happened yesterday. I think theres a huge security failure in what happened yesterday. And i am so puzzled at what seems to be a blind eye that was turned to this threat. I have talked to my former colleagues. Its not that they didnt see the same thing that i have been seeing on open source social media. But they clearly did not take the steps that they needed to to be prepared for these violent threat actors. So the shock is not that they culminated to this crescendo. It was inevitable. Trump was inciting them, pouring fuel on the fire. It was just a matter of figuring out when it would happen, and im just the shock is that somehow our Law Enforcement and counterterrorism agencies werent prepared. We have been warning about this for months, even years, and its shocking they were so unprepared. As someone who worked in this administration, who spent a life as a professional republican, essentially, i feel like things are balanced on a knifes edge in terms of how the party institutionally relates to trump. They have essentially seen him as a useful vessel for their purposes, if youre Mitch Mcconnell, retaining power, getting the corporate sax rate from 35 to 21 , which by the way, i would just remind everyone, thats still the case. If youre feeling bad about things, theres still the Corporate Tax cut. That now, as he has proven to be a loser and lost them the senate, and is a threat to american democracy, like what do you think those calculations are . The Rupert Murdoch wall street journal editorial page saying if trump wants to avoid a second impeachment, his best path is to resign, that was an interesting cue from powerful people in those circles. It would be great if he resigned. Huge security concerns about him continuing to be the president for the next 13 days, but to answer your question about the republican party, honestly, i have kind of a sick to my stomach feeling about the way that republicans are reacting. There are a handful that, like senator romney, who have been pretty clear and consistent in their viewpoint that trump was dangerous. He would work with him when it was, you know, from a policy standpoint, appropriate to do so, but he would not kowtow to trumps bullying. But theres so few people that stood up. And then i was grateful when a few of them did postelection, that matters in terms of im not giving them credit, but from a counterterrorism perspective, we needed those voices to try to break into the ecochamber and say, hey, he lost. No, for real, he lost. We need those credible voices. So im glad theyre finally starting to do that. But the sickening feeling is, i think they think they can just rebrand themselves and move on. And they dont appreciate the depth of the rut. They have got to do some serious introspection and confess to the American Public all of their grave mistakes here and own it, way before they can move forward. Like, theres a lot of work to be done before they can move forward. Theres been lots of stories we have gotten Top White House officials led by obrien National Security adviser consider resigning, that Kaitlan Collins tweeted about how pompeo, ratcliffe, and brian got similar messages from people calling them saying you have to stay for continuity of government. We have a cnbc report that mnuchin and pompeo discussed the 25th amendment. I cant tell how much of this is essentially Brand Management and how much is real. I mean, are people concerned, they should be, they should be talking about this. They should move for it, or is it like, hey, world, i know this is going to be done soon. I wont be secretary of state, but just know i was thinking about it. Yeah, i kind of put pompeo in the political category of those that are trying to preserve whatever is left of their political career, because he wants to run for president. Obrien, he has some pretty legitimate ability to try to contain trump, if trump decided to follow his worst instincts. Im glad he decided to stay. That was probably the right decision. When all this started bubbling up yesterday, i was having conversations with colleagues that had left, like me, a couple months ago. And the consensus was, while we totally wish they would have resigned way earlier, it probably is necessary for them to stay on for the security of our country. Its only 13 days, and thats what they need to do. Certainly, there are some that are absolutely doing this for Brand Management, and its kind of obvious and disgusting. Yeah. Yeah, the problem is at the top, obviously. The president needs to be removed from office. Elizabeth neumann, thank you so much for your time tonight. Thank you, chris. Up next, just hours after mob attacked the capitol yesterday, a majority of House Republicans still voted to invalidate the will of the voters and keep the president in power against the people. Minnesota congresswoman ilhan omar is here to react to that after this. Up at 2 00am again . Tonight, try pure zzzs all night. Unlike other sleep aids, our extended release melatonin helps you sleep longer. And longer. Zzzquil pure zzzs all night. Fall asleep. Stay asleep. My hygienist cleans with a round head, so does my oralb. My hygienist personalizes my cleaning, so does my oralb. My hygienist uses just the right pressure, and so does my oralb. Oralb combines a dentistinspired brush head with the gentle energy of microvibrations for the wow of a professional clean feel every day. My mouth says wow and so does my oralb. You need to see in the dark. To have the wisdom to understand multiple cyber threats. The precision focus to end attacks instantly. On computers, mobile devices, servers and the cloud. Join the worlds leading companies in our mission to defend. Cybereason. End cyber attacks. From endpoints to everywhere. After a semblance of order was restored at the capitol yesterday, when the blood was still on the floor and the statues and the windows of the capitol were still smashed in, lawmakers emerged from their hiding places and returned to the house floor, where the majority of House Republicans voted to overturn the will of the people in key swing states and keep the president in power against the wishes of the nations voters. Eight republican senators including several who clearly view themselves as rising stars and future president ial contenders also voted against the will of the people. And 45 of republicans polled yesterday approved of the storming of the u. S. Capitol. So we are dealing with about half of the entire party if not more that is essentially in the bag for sedition. Joining me now is someone who was there on the Capitol Grounds yesterday, democratic congresswoman ilhan omar of minnesota who already prepared new articles of impeachment for donald trump. Let me start by asking your experience yesterday and as someone who has firsthand experience of places in which Governmental Authority has broken down, how you understood what was happening yesterday. Yeah, thank you so much, chris, for having me. It was really astonishing to wat watch. You know, as our nations capitol was attacked by armed domestic terrorists, to watch the storming of the capitol, the breach that was taking place, to hear about the warnings, the evacuations. A lot of my colleagues have reached for thirdworld analogies to utilize. They have spoken of like somalia and baghdad, and this is what america looked like yesterday. This is not, you know, other countries. And we have to reckon with that reality. Our nation has seen just how fragile our democracy has been. Just the danger a president like trump poses. And what happens when people are complacent to the warnings of that danger. And im just quite devastated to know that we had to endure what we endured yesterday. You are someone who obviously, i think, is often very targeted, very publicly, by the rhetoric from the president and the right, and also i think not to get into jour security situation, but that raises Security Issues for you personally. I know thats been reported. What was it like to be in that secure position yesterday . I was thinking about you specifically, actually, because of frankly the target thats been put on you by the president and others on the right. What your experience was as you heard these people marauding through the building. Yeah. Its its been hard to be targeted by the president of the United States. I mean, my life has been altered by the threats that he has incited against my life and my family. And you know, i think a lot of my colleagues did not appreciate the extent of what those threats meant until it showed up for all of us. And you know, as i sat in my office and watched what was happening outside of the capitol, and heard about the evacuations that were happening in other buildings and i had to be evacuated from my building, you know, it really sort of centers and put into context for people just how inciteful this president has been and how many lives have been threatened by the violence that he has incited when he has when he told the proud boys to stand down and stand by. This is what he was talking about. When he says, you know, we need to go and fight and we need to march and we need to show those people who dont have a backbone how to stand up for our country, this is what he was talking about. And i think for far too long, you know, so many people have excused his actions, have excused his rhetoric. And today, we are all living with the reality that the capitol of the United States was attacked. Members had to hide under their chairs, be summoned into one room. Some members hiding in their own bathrooms in their own offices. I mean, this is just a complete tragedy. And that pain is not only being felt by the members. Its being felt by our staff, you know, everyone who works at the capitol, every Single Person who cares about our democracy and the state of our republic. And to come back and to say, you know, were just going to move on and there are not going to be consequences and accountability is something that i am not comfortable with, and no one in the United States should be comfortable with. You have drawn up articles of impeachment, i talked to a member of the house judiciary, Katherine Clark, earlier today. Earlier in the show, and i think theres a Movement Toward that. Let me ask you this about the vote that was taken where a majority of the republican colleagues voted to block those electors, the seating of those electors that represent the will of the majority of those states and of the American People. And how you what that means about one of two major parties that the country shares power with. Yeah, i mean, i wasnt really surprised. You know, you had these members join the president in urging this violent mob to descend on us, the capitol, as we carried out democracy on behalf of the American People in certifying the president ial election. And even after everything transpired, and after we made a conscious decision to uphold our oath and to show up to finish the job, these people still decided to object and to continue with the fallacy that our elections were not secure, that the people who had cast their votes to elect a president did not deserve to have their president be certified. And it is, you know, again, not shocking because republicans have been complacent in his crimes. They have been complacent in the danger that this president has posed. And you know, its completely devastating to know that they are selfserving. Theyre craven in their selfserving. And that theyre only worried about what this means for them politically and are not worried about fulfilling their oath of office. Theyre not worried about protecting our republic. Theyre not worried about the strength of our democracy. Theyre not worried about how dangerous the president they are enabling is. And what it means for our nations history. I believe they have blood on their hands. And no one should forget that. Congresswoman ilhan omar of minnesota. Thank you so much for coming on tonight. I really appreciate it. Thank you for having me. Still to come, what led up to the massive security failure in our nations capitol. Jelani cobb and ben collins join me ahead. 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And covered many protests in my life, peaceful protest is obviously an important core First Amendment right. Being able to go to the capitol and protest is important, even if you do it in really loud or obnoxious ways, still protected. But theres a specific method of, um, i dont know if you want to call it protest, but political practice, the far right has been developing that is distinct in that it is armed and meant to intimidate and overrun. We saw this nearly a year ago in richmond, virginia. Remember that . Virginia. Remember that . More than 20,000 people gathered for a progun rally. That was amid a push for stronger gun control measures in the state. Now, it was peaceful, but many rally goers brought firearms and openly carried them through the streets, some even donning militarystyle tactical gear. Then there were the protests against coronavirus shutdowns this spring in michigan, late april, hundreds of people showed up at the capitol, some with firearms, and stormed into the building to protest stayathome orders. Remember the michigan senator capturing this image of protesters, in quotes, standing menacingly in the gallery of the senate chamber, carrying long guns and staring down at legislators. Is that First Amendment protected . Two of the rally goers at the capitol that day were later charged with plotting to kidnap the governor of michigan, gretchen whitmer. The violence we saw yesterday was a culmination of all this. It wasnt only happening in d. C. , though, where at least eight people were arrested on gun charges. We know now there were bombs planted at the capitol and elsewhere in the city. But in state capitols around the country, in salem, oregon, for inns sta, Trump Supporters gathered to protest the ratification of joe bidens victory, many looking like they were ready for battle, in camouflage and tactical vests. Large weapons and military gear were also on display in phoenix, arizona, where about 1,000 protrump demonstrators showed up at that capitol. In olympia, washington, a group of Trump Supporters oh, look at that. They broke through the gate in front of the governors mansion, rushing onto the property where governor inslee was at home. And there are chose who have seen this danger coming. Two people have written extensively about the lead up to what we saw yesterday. Jelani cobb wrote back in september about our long forgotten history of election related violence. And ben collins who wrote a piece titled, as trump meets with qanon influencers, the conspiracys add heerntds beg for dictatorship. How obvious was it in forums that this was going to happen yesterday . I think a lot of people think, hey, its on the dark web. Its hard to find this stuff. Thats not where this was planned. This was planned in plain sight. It was planned on instagram. You know, there was an occupy the capitol event created by some of the people who went to charlottesville. You know, people who are on the radar hopefully of Law Enforcement. They put up an Instagram Post saying, you know, go storm the capitol on january of6th. For months people planned. They planned this, and they said donald trump crossed the rubicon like julius caesar. Go kickstart the civil war. They were saying this over and over for a month. It trended on twitter. I dont know how this wasnt seen. You coauthored a piece about Trump Supporters storming the capitol. We have people that showed up with their own merch that said civil war. A reporter saying i asked these guys if civil war is what they wanted. Yes, they he are pli replied. Jelani, youve written about policing. The double standard here just smacks you over the head, but it is just it is very hard to have watched the way police have dealt with Peaceful Protesters against, say, Police Violence and the sort of air of like intimidation, menace, huge amounts of people, the very Quick Deployment of tear gas, and then watch that footage from yesterday. Yeah, it is. And just to the civil war point, which i think is pertinent, you know, the civil war was sparked, you know, by people coming to the conclusion that Abraham Lincoln was going to be too favorable to the cause of the knee gr negro. That is essentially what were looking at right now. When we look at that stream of lost cause thought, its also a lamentation for the days of excite supremacy. Thats what donald trump has promised to restore. This is just kind of embracing this concept of, you know, all dressed up. Lets find someone to shoot, this kind of civil war cosplay. On the reality of what we saw was just quite frankly the inability of people to ever recognize those people as a threat. And thats a long historical threat. Weve talked about this for forever. The parameters of american democracy map exactly to their willingness to grant rights to africanamericans and the inability to see that the real threat comes from the people trying to deny those rights. Yeah, theres obviously a colossal failure here, and we should note that the Capitol Police the head of the Capitol Police has tendered his resignation. It was asked for. I think, ben, there will likely be, you know, sustained oversight hearings. Theres videos that allege that there were members of the Capitol Police who were essentially fraternizing with folks. Again, videos can be misleading in any given moment, but clearly there is a bottom to get to here. Its striking theres been no official briefing. Theres no readout. Theres no, like theres no one saying, like, here is what we know and what happened yesterday. Chris, these people left the capitol. Like they left the building. And, you know, suddenly theyre saying theres this manhunt and all this stuff. Ive been covering some of these qanon influencers and altright influencers for a while. I can give you their names. I can tell you some that were in the capitol. I dont know why this is so hard right now. These people were in Nancy Pelosis office, and i know their names from covering them for years, and i know they were planning this forever. And the other portion of this thats so frustrating is that half the aisle here, you know, still doesnt even believe that these people were in there. They say it was antifa. They said that, you know, one of the lamest excuses that i heard was that these people thought the capitol was open. Like it was like a walmart or something and they thought they could just waltz right in. There needs to be accountability for this. This cant happen again. And the only way to do it is to make sure these people are arrested. Well, and i think, jelani, again, you know, this is not done, right . I mean theres going to be an inauguration on those statement steps of the United States capitol on january 20th. Now, it will be pared back because of covid, but theres very pressing questions and concerned about the security and integrity of that event. Yeah. And really the security and integrity of the four years that follow it. Yes. So what weve just seen is the delegitimization of the incoming presidency before he has made one official act, before he has signed any piece of legislation, before he has placed his hand on any bible and taken any oath, he is already being set up to be viewed as an illegitimate president by a significant number of people in this country, the same way that birtherism functioned during the obama era. And that ratchets up the belief that some radical cell or group of people, same thing weve seen in michigan, will take it upon themselves to these are very significant things, and exactly to the point you made earlier, the way that democracies fail. People are playing with very dangerous, very volatile things right now. The presence of weapons go ahead, ben. No, i mean i dont know if you were just going to talk about weapons, but that is the missing piece here, right . This could have been so much worse. You were talking about improvised explosive devices that were there, molotov cocktails, a bag full of molotov cocktails there. We are frankly lucky this wasnt worse. Yes. There was a large section of Trump Supporters in the Boogaloo Movement whose whole point is to get rid of the government and then go from there. Like theres no theres no second step for them. The point of it is to destroy the government. The fact that those people werent organized enough is that just means were lucky, and thats why its so imperative that these people come to justice because if this becomes standard fare for american democracy, were in deep trouble. Yeah. Jelani, the thing i keep coming back to, if i knock on your door. Im your neighborhood and im angry you have not kept up your fence and i want to have a conversation with you, thats one thing. If i do the exact same thing with the exact same problem but i have an ar 15 when you open the door, were just in different territory. Thats right. Were not doing the same thing. Those are not the same thing. And thats where we are. I mean its just the sort of way in which armedness suffuses all this just puts things in a different category. And if you recall, there was that debate early on in the administration when charlottesville was happening. Ahead of time, the city of charlottesville was saying, no, we do not authentthink this a free speech rally. The people are coming here for a different person. But members of the far right billed it as a free speech rally. They got people who were free speech advocates onto their side, and then they showed up with the long guns. It was clear they were using the constitution to subvert the constitution, and they do that time and time again, use one thing thats allegedly thought of as a virtue in order to undermine other things that are virtues. And it seems that people have not gamed out that thats the game plan and thats the strategy and they continue success. Jelani cobb and ben collins, thank you both for making time tonight. I guess theres some breaking news that betsy devos resigning. These got only a few days left. That is all in for this evening. The Rachel Maddow show starts right now. The wall street journal is in fact reporting that betsy devos has resigned. We are working to confirm it at this moment, but so far thats a journal report. And, you know, who knows, chris, at which point do you bother counting the dominoes or you just put them back in the bag and wait to start the next game . Yeah, and whether this is like this is serious and this means somethings going to happen or whether people have had enough Vacation Days saved up that theyre ready to head to the beach. The straw broke the camels back. Thank you, chris. Thanks to you at home for being with us this hour at this remarkable time in our countrys history. The sergeant at