Transcripts For MSNBCW The Beat With Ari Melber 20210108

Network, i felt like the crazy lady screaming the news in the eloqueevator and its a sad thio be right about. You look at covid and every single person, every single number destroys someones family and world and grief takes years. There is millions of years of grief thats been put in motion by Donald Trumps failures to contain and control covid. So i wish i had been wrong about donald trump. I appreciate you putting it that way. Its something were exploring later in the show and not anyone taking a victory lap but as we do this as a nation and have this reckoning, lets be clear who was right when and whether people were coming around are doing it the right way, otherwise we risk repeating mistakes. Youve had a long week as we all have. I hope you have some rest. Well be, im sure, counting on you monday. Thank you so much, my friend. Thank you. Thank you, nicole. I want to welcome everybody to the beat. Im ari melber. Were tracking breaking news. President trump facing this new growing push for what will be potentially his second impeachment. Democrats drafting these articles that formally accuse President Trump of abusing his authority and power to insight the insurrection the nation witnessed laying out what everyone saw and heard how ine. This is not a drill or exercise. The congress of the United States is responding to the illegal invasion of its literally building and the president s months long attacks on what the building represents and is supposed to practice. Attacks on american democracy itself. This is the most serious measure the congress has for accountability. This is the constitutions formal method for confronting a criminal president. I know there is a lot going on. We covered an impeachment before. Let that sink in. The constitution states if the president is a criminal acting to perpetuate abuse of power and crimes in office, there is one way to deal with that, charge them in the house. Try them in the senate. Now this tonight is the swiftest push for an impeachment weve ever seen in American History but these are unusual times. Youll be surprised to hear what is pafaster and bigger and wer lets than two days out from when this emergency was first contained in the capcapitol, 20 m members support impeaching donald trump. They support it tonight. These articles speak to accountability for the president s actions and preventing further danger. Were not through this. The articles state the president remains a threat to National Security, democracy and the constitution if allowed to remain in office. Speaker pelosi today saying trump is unhinged and unfit and if he does not resign they will move forward with impeachment. Another leader is backing impeachment and calling on the other executive branch of government to act, as well. This is bad stuff. And its time for everybody to call it what it is. It is time for the Republican Leadership to invoke the 25th amendment. They need to do it. Pence needs to do it, but if he doesnt, we need to impeach. Its my job to tell you this is a big deal. Indeed, there are Many Political reasons why many in congress, in both parties might rather move on, get through the next two weeks and not launch into this. There are people serious people who just live through something terrible that could have been far worse and even more violent than the tragic death that already occurred who dont think that is a risk america can afford tonight. Im not trying to scare you. We work hard to give facts not hiyperbole hyperbole, members of congress say this must occur before something far worse occurs. Thats an approach on the rec n reckoning for the insurrection. Another big story is even if the Trump Administration failed on wednesday, there is huge pressure on them and all government to go to work to try to fix this, to investigate and get facts about wednesday including reporters that have information im about to tell you about, leads i want to mention. Some are the same journalists under fire for donald trump for years literally attacked at the riot, more on that later but also the ones getting america the evidence so you can decide as a citizen what to do about it on the plotting, on the action of the rye riots. Rioters breaking down a barricaded door and evidence showing criminal plans that went down wednesday. Some ryeioters exposed and taug with kidnapping, zip ties that could be used to kidnap or legally restrain hostages and others bought bombs. An alabama man brought 11 molotov cocktails and gas line amounting evidence shows the tools of terror that were amasked for those explicit plans to commit terrorism by americans by some of these trump supporters. S some plotters were writing on a website we will storm the government buildings, kill cops, kill security guards, kill federal employees and agents and yes, this is where the trump plot comes back quote demand a recount. An insurrection, not a random one to make good on and deliver what their president had been telling them to do that the golgoa goal was to stop the count and steal and use violence to do it. There are so many aspects to this. Our coverage documented the Police Double Standard on display with the number of arrests for a mob crime scene unfolding for hours on television. I can report tonight a tiny bit of that is changing. There are arrests of prominent people who apparently could have clearly been apprehended on site. Take Richard Barnett who famously now broke into speaker pelosis office bragging about stealing her mail, arrested and charged remaining on restricted grounds, violent entry, theft of property. There are 13 federal charges. Thats a step. Thats more than wednesday. Each case may yield more information or even some accountability. But remember, that number occurs even as one House Presses for impeachment for what they call a president ial crime. Its a low number. The d. C. Police still arrested black lives matter protesters at over six times this rate for far more peaceful marches just this past summer. Im joined by Michael Steele who used to run the Republican Party and endorse joe biden this past cycle and sally, progressive activist and Heather Mcgee and the author of the poufourth com the sum of us what racism causes everyone and who we can prosper together out next month. Heather, i give you the floor. You know, this week has been an example of both the beauty and potential and the power of the american experiment. A multi Racial Coalition transforming an attack that started with decades of Voter Suppression that accelerated under brian kemp and robbed stacy abrey abrams of her seat anchored by black activists and leaders giving the democrats the senate and therefore the ability to recover this economy to address the pandemic, to address so many of the challenges we face and then the next day, the slow burn of this president deciding that this democracy was completely inconvenient to his aims for power. I want to be clear were not out of the woods on the threat that the rise in white supremacist terror has created, the threat to our democracy and threat to human life. This is really a question. Thankfully, overnight polling from avalanche has shown that 62 of americans want donald trump impeached and removed. Thats 71 say that the people i hope dont get off in this, the gop members who incited attack, the enablers of this president s attack on the foundations of our country are wide spread and the fact that there are people who are still at the tip of the spear who actually committed the violence who have still not been arrested gives good citizens in this country no peace but at the same time, there are people in media. There are people at the top of corporations and hundreds of politicians including 147 republicans who have just as much responsibility for enabling the lives and the Conspiracy Theory out of a short term political gain that need to be held accountable, as well. Michael . I think i just really narrated very well and summed up this week for so many of us. I want to speak as a washingtonen born and raised. The high school is a couple miles down north capitol street. To watch the scenes unfold were horrifying but even more disturbing and quite honestly disgusting was it was my fellow americans engaged in this. You know, my fellow citizens who instead of, you know, whatever grievances they have presenting them the way we have in the past and as weve seen even over the past year with peaceful marches, not having to, you know, go after and attack members of congress and destroy the capitol itself, just really sent, i think, to the points that heather made sort of a resinating reality that there is out there a lot that we need to attend to. That we have to begin to speak as citizens about who we are and why it matters and why this matters. Why does this matter so much . Because if it doesnt matter to you, we are done. We are done. But the fact that the polling is starting to reflect that it does matter, that people want these elected officials like josh hawley and ted cruz to be held accountable for those who stood with this president on those platforms the day of this violence and egged on that crowd to capitol hill, they need to be held accountable. He needs to be impeached. He needs the 25th amendment to be applied if impeachment isnt the way but we cannot allow for and take the risk that the next 12 days will just be okay, that somehow because the president gave a well written timed, planned speech last evening that he did not believe, weve been in this room before. We saw it after charlottesville. He gave a well timed and planned speech after that when tit occurred to quail the moment. Youre not going to quail in moment with a nice speech. The only way this moment is quailed is by your removal because thats what the constitution requires when youre inepted in your job. I want to play a Little Something from the attorney general of washington and i want to mention to michaels point, were not covering a debate to hear from both sides and make sure we understand them and work it out. Were covering a mob crime scene. Were covering the evidence i just showed of attempted terrorism of potential hostage taking. Were covering an insurrection. Those were the words of Democratic Leaders schumer and republican leader mcconnell. Both agree at least on that. Its an insurrection. Were not doing that. So when we get to what is the statements of those who are a party to it, to michaels point about a welltimed statement, well, that is more like a denial or defense and we can accurately mention it but we dont treat the denial by an individual facing serious evidence of a crime the same way we treat two sides in an american debate. I wanted to draw that out. Sally, take a listen to the attorney general from washington. Everyone who was a Law Enforcement officer or a reporter knew exactly what these hate groups were planning. They were planning to descend on washington d. C. , Ground Center was the capitol. There were no surprises there. Sally, there is such a thing as surprises in Law Enforcement planning, but there is an official saying what others have said and what reporting shows, this wasnt one of them. No, look, there is so much, where to begin. We spend billions of dollars in this country on Law Enforcement and on National Security, billions. And yet, it is clear that our nations investment in every sense in White Supremacy is far greater. I mean, this was clearly our, the halls of washington, our president a full party suggesting that that has to take priority and in some cases appearing to literally open the doors to what we now know are laptops being stolen with National Security secrets with threats to hang the Vice President. I read this week that sorry, ive been on the verge of crying all week. Let not do it right now. I read this week that White Supremacy is the greatest right to democracy. I think thats right and to heathers point, the Silver Lining we have to hold on to here is why this is all happening. This isnt just about trump. This isnt truly just about trumpism but 50 plus years of a rightwing Reaction Movement against a slowly but perfectly gradually perfecting democracy and the idea that democracy is the greatest threat to White Supremacy. And so it is no accident what happened on tuesday was followed by what happened on wednesday. It is encouraging as hell that there are signs that most descent americans are against what happened and horrified. It is disturbing how many republicans are only coming out now and had nothing to say as this fire was being lit, i will say one final point, which is there seems to be too much fear about the optics of this in washington or some notion you can appease the people that did an armed takeover of our government and this idea of lets give then another chance. Let wait until monday to impeach, impeach them now. Do it now. I dont understand for the life of me, i dont understand. Listen, i hope this puts the Republican Party out in the woods for a generation, but i dont care. This isnt about winning optics. This isnt about winning the message. This is about sending a message to our fellow citizens and our children that this isnt okay that were not okay with this. This is a crisis and you deal with it tonight. Sally, why is it emotional for you . You know, this is one of those things where you know it can happen. You know you saw the kindling being laid and you felt like an alarmest. Right . I know michael and heather are there with me. You felt like an alarmist at every moment and when it happens, its still shocking. Thats a good thing, right . We should manage to be surprised but still shocked. I know what this country is. I know what this country is capable of. And it is still shocking. Everything that unfolded over the last few days, how it unfolded and the utter complicity and lack of accountability on the part of a full on Political Party charged with governing our nation. Again, i know im not i am shocked. This is amoment. Even for those of us who knew this was exactly what our nation was. Yeah. You know, i have to say heather, i wause youve joined us before you know were actually way over on time with everything we have. I wanted to give you a final thought flagging that im running over. Yeah. Absolutely. Sally said it so well. I think there is a racial divide in the degree of shock with my friends and people who texted me and my timeline. I was not surprised and not shocked because i know this country actually has only had real democracy for about 55 years since the Voting Rights act was passed and the idea of a multi racial democracy was fought and hard won with blood. Ive known that blood and terror is part of the American Enterprise and that we have always been fighting tooth and nail to make the promise of american democracy real. That said, this country has never before had so much awareness and ability to be informed about the stakes and thats why this moment and what happened in georgia is for me the take away of this week. Im not surprised by what happened on wednesday. I am emboldened and empowered and excited about what happened in the confederacy of georgia. Thats my take away this week. I think its so important. There are so many pieces to this and each of you have really shined a light on several of them and heather, the fact you begin and end with a level of change that is measurably so much broader and involves the lawful exercise of civic and political power by so many voters in november in georgia, against what we see, which is a much smaller slice of people willing to resort to violence to stop that which the lawful Civic Community is pushing forward on, which is a different policy, a different demographics, a different approach to what this country can be even as we are in a dangerous time for the reasons youall state. I thank each of you, Michael Steele, Heather Mcgee, sally cohen. The u. S. Government with plans to entact a reporter at t riot making a debut to share firsthand journalism. More after were back from our shortest break at just 30 seconds. The rx crafted by lexus. Get 0. 9 financing on the 2021 rx 350. Experience amazing at your lexus dealer. The Trump Presidency is literally almost over as Congress Pushes to end it potentially even sooner. Trumps own loyalists claim to be turning. They see that he is unmoored, psychologically fragile, a total monster acting like king george and Administration Officials say they are working to resist, resist any dangerous or unlawful orders. This is serious. This is very serious. But do you also notice how absurd, how laughable some of this new found concern is from a longtime trump loyalest who worked so hard to carry his agenda up through this bitter end . Lets have real talk. These are the same people who spent five years finding every single possible or inconceivable reason to down play minimize or lie about the actual project of trump and trumpism. You live here. You watch the news. I bet you remember it like i do. The talk of not taking him literally or not overreacting to his entertaining pexaggeration. That was crap. Th that was wrong. It was then and is now dangerous. If there is any accounting here, we do have some receipts who fought trumpism and who used the tactics to advance it. The things that donald trump is saying and doing are genuinely a threat to the democratic process. Clearly, the president was making a joke. Nobody should treat it like a joke now. I doubt the china comment was serious. Its important for us to take seriously the statements hes made in the past. When you win in a landslide and they steal it and its rigged, its not acceptable. A few Legal Inquiries from the president do not exactly spell the end of the republic. That last politician mitch mcconnell, that was november. He was with trump until the very end as you know but on wednesday when trumpism sparked a literal threat to the safety of mcconnell and colleagues, senator mcconnell found there was indeed an effort as he d disappoidi disavowed to end. An insurrection is an effort to end the republic. Im showing you this because it matters now. We have a special guest who is the person we think you need to hear from about this now. A writer on the right side of this history. The New York Times Michelle Goldberg insisted from the start we should take trump seriously in his first month in office she warned that anyone stating that trump is a quote menace to our democratic way of life under states the crisis saying he was truly and provably a quote cruel authoritarian and if america survives this presidency, it will take some sort of truth and Reconciliation Commission to rebuild a functioning policy. Thank you for being here, michelle. Hey, thanks, ari. Thats very kind of you to say but i dont think it took any special insight to understand what trump was. I would point out that most Senate Republicans understood precisely who trump was before he won. You know, you can look at the words of ted cruz. You can look at the words of Lindsey Graham during the president ial campaign before they saw that their future of getting judges on the bench and tax cuts required them to pretend trump was something other than he was but it has all been out there and obvious from the beginning and i think one of the problems in our political life over the last four years is that if you kind of could see clearly who trump was, which he told us almost every day, then you had to treat his presidency as a daily on going emergency. And people didnt want to treat his presidency as a daily on going emergency so they kind of refused to see who he was and try to write it all off as a joke, write it all off as taking seriously and not literally and not to make any comparisons between trump and hitler except to say that it is very common in history for people looking at the rise of authoritarians in hitler and all of these char tkt characters to look at these people and say they are too ridiculous to be serious threats, that they dont really means the things they say or if they do, theyre not capable of carrying them out. Take a look at what we are seeing in spin minuimizization, the same tools and lies about what is happening this week and some conservative media. There is a lot of people calling for the end to violence, the men at lexington and concord didnt feel that way. What happened today will be used by the people taking power to justify stripping you of rights you were born with as an american. Obviously, this is a huge victory for these protesters. You dont know who is behind this. I guess you could call these for lack of a better word antifa like. Antifa sympathizers may have been sprinkled throughout the crowd. If antifa was there, we need to root it out. Michelle . You know, i think if we know what donald trump thought about these protesters. Before he was kind of forced by growing condemnations to make the hostage like video in which he finally condemned these people and kind of did, went about as far as hed go conceding the election, what he said when we all saw what was going on was we love you, you know, if he thought that these were antifa who were going in there and vandalizing the capitol and calling for heads on pikes and running around with zip tie handcuffs and desecrating congress and breaking into the office of nancy pelosi, if trump thought for a second and he has access to the best intel jenligenceint there was any evidence this was antifa, we would have heard that. Instead, we saw him celebrating these people up until the moment when he realized hess siis celen of them put him in a political situation. It makes sense and while i appreciate humility you mentioned and culpability because you mentioned elected republicans on record knew how bad it was, they flipped for other reasons, i do think it important as we go through the reckoning to be clear about who said what and did what and move forward and if people are joining your ranks, fine. But lets be clear about how we got here so that was my observation. Michelle goldberg, thank you so much. Thank you. Appreciate it. Still ahead, Video Evidence that shows trump fans allegedly assaulting journalists. Speaker pelosi calling for trumps ousting also worried about nuclear codes. Michael beschloss and more coming up. Michael beschloss and more coming up. Rigerators, microwave, gas ranges and grills. And if youre looking for. And i live in san francisco, california. I have been a sales and Sales Management professional my whole career. Typical day during a work week is im working but first always going for a run or going to the gym. 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Breaking news this moment coming from the Company Twitter announcing they are permanently banning donald trump from their platform. The president , of course, used twitter extremely frequently and to extreme controversy throughout his rise. You can see here real donald trump account suspended and this is permanent, what you see on your screen is not an error. It is what everyone will view when they go to real donald trump on twitter reading from the com pan knee. After close review of recent tweets from the real donald trump account and the context around them, we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence end quote a development that comes amidst this reckoning for Donald Trumps actions and scrutiny in hois role. This is of course, a breaking story so professor murray, youre getting it as soon as i am. As you know, walk us through the difference between free speech and theyre not the government but use a similar frame work they refer to the incitement of violence is not protected speech, professor. Well, as you suggest, the First Amendment only applies to state action, it doesnt apply to private parties. This was part of the discussion last summer when the heads of the social Media Networks appeared before congress but again, there is a lot of discussion in the last few years about this question of platform liability for acts that are under taken on these various social media platforms and especially in the context of the political nature of some of these disputes with regard to the president. So it is not surprising that its come to this. There has been a lot of building toward this over the last four years but it is very likely that the events of last wednesday really was the final straw and there are real questions whether or not these kinds of social media engagements between the president and his followers have really flown into a violence that cannot be tolerated and this will surely have some litigation from donald trump and his supporters but again, this is something thats been building for awhile. As you say in contrast to government actions, based on the precedent, is it your view that the Company Twitter is on firm ground here or not . It would be hard to say not knowing more about the background assumptions that were made in undertaking this stance but again, private entities have broader license and some of these particulars to limit the kind of speech they permit on their platform but again, this is only part of, i think, a broader kind of question about what kind of liability, legal liability will be available to those on the social media platforms when certain things happen. Think for example of next door and Racial Discrimination that happened on that platform. All of these are live questions in a digital age where so much of our engagement happens in the course of social media. Professor, stay with me. I want to bring in president ial historian michael beschloss, an expert for us here at nbc. As one way to look at it, michael, this was Donald Trumps approach to a fire side chat but with according to twitter, ensie incitements to mob violence rather than discussion. I believe we have marcus on the screen, as well. There is a later guest but there is michael right now. You know, i think its one thing to say oh, this or that tech company did a slap on a wrist for a day or two, we wouldnt always even cover those. Im curious your view of the significance given the role that did the has cast twitter in which has affected a lot of other press, print and television. What it means that now as president and ex president and whatever else comes hes permanently banned from what was one of his most impactfm inpac impactful platforms. I think trump will have a harder time giving up twitter than the presidency. Im saying that jokingly. This is not only a way to instantly communicate with as hes told us so many times, his 88 million followers or whoever they are but this is psychiatric. All day long trump is about the next ten minutes and we hear sometimes about people getting a shot of dopamine pleasure when they have a tweet and feel its being sent out. I think that probably applies to donald trump. So this guy is going to go through terrible withdraw. The problem, twitter is a wonderful thing in all sorts of ways. The problem is if you have a would be tyrant, this is a way for a president who should never be a would be tyrant to send out orders and expressions of his inner feelings to all americans almost every single second as if its the emergency broadcast system. Thats the way hes abused it. Yeah, id like you to build on that point, michael because were talk thanksgiving aboutinw stuff if i can put it simply and weve covered the historic racism, the issues of White Supremacy at the top of this program and the double standard yesterday but the other piece is the total interaction of that, this kind of thuggishness from donald trump with these very powerful tech mediums and that put these decisions not in the hands of, say, the public in any way or the government in any way and not in the hands of the press which suspects i would say at least tries to have some standards about facts but with companies that said were not getting into what is true or not and said were not getting into what is a good idea or not and they have been dragged by this insurrection or violence to say many would argue late to the party we have a responsibility here because nobody is rushing to Donald Trumps pinterest board to look at his ideas for outdoor decorations at maralago. Twitter has played a unique and specific role in the problem. True. President s have too much power as it is. What twitter and other social media do is they enhance that power by allowing a president to get into your head whenever he feels like it even if its every five minutes as it sometimes seems with donald trump. Look at the way hes abused twitter and these other platforms over the last month saying everyone who supports me taking back this stolen socalled election should come to washington d. C. On january 6th. Quote end quote it will be wild. No president should have that kind of power to get into the heads of so many americans. Professor do you have a view about this from the Wider Perspective given the concern about violence and the discussion of racism in civil rights that trump has not yet left office but we are seeing this week more than most weeks as someone who follows this a higher level of consensus around limiting him or decredentialing him if he is the out going president of the United States . Well, here we are with two weeks left in this administration. It seems that everyone has suddenly gotten religion about this question that the president has in fact gone too far. I will note a year ago we were actually in the midst of the impeachment proceedings and whether the president had gone too far and it seems he had not gone far enough. What it took was thousands of people storming the capitol, the hallmark of democracy, the place where our Representative Government works and does business for everyone to recognize the growing threat to the republic under this president and to finally take action. And michael can i come in for a educational background i second ari . Please, give us your thoughts as well as the image on the screen whether you watch tv or follow the news, there are tens of millions of people who dont always follow the news, any channel but they will see what we see on the screen right now. Your thoughts about that role in History Today as well as what else you want to tell us, sir. It used to be president s had the ability to get on nbc and abc and cbs to give a speech of 20 minute ms. Thats what kennedy did during the cuban missile crisis. Kennedy never had the power to put his political slogans and partisan desires out to americans almost every single second and we were just talking the professor was talking about going too far and donald trump has gone too far for years. He started attacking a private company for something he didnt like. Now you have not only the president with his powers but now he can use his bully pull p we have not seen that before. Hes abused these plat forms for to four years. My view is good riddance, should have happened a long time ago. Professor, the statement i mentioned after close review of the tweets and the account and the context twitting saying we permanently suspended the account. Trump is openly amazed about potentially running for office in the future. What does it tell you twitter is willing to go on record with this as a permanent position knowing both what happened this week but also the intense push back theyre sure to get from someone who other than obama was actually one of the most followed accounts on the whole site worldwide. Well, certainly, this follows a period of time where twitter has done a lot to try to regulate content on its platform including disinformation from the president with regard to the election so there are a number of different efforts to mark the president s tweets as perhaps spreading disinformation or promoting untruthful statements and so this is sort of that hasnt worked and we got to this point and they are willing to take a permanent stance. There is something of an exodis and they are going to parlor and for the president , one way to state his interest in social media is to leave twitter where hes been banned and instead, migrate to parlor where hell certainly find a more hospitable reception. A reception with fewer people. This is a guy used to 90 million followers and when hes feeling lonely or his wife is not talking to him or hes not getting enough publicity. He can put out another tweet and change the world. Those days are in his past. They should never have been true of a sitting president made much too powerful and dangerous. Hes been shouting a fire in a crowded theater for four years finally we saw the result on wednesday this should never happen again. Yeah, you know, if someone was just landing on earth tonight, from a far away land or foreign planet, michael, they might wonder why this is a huge breaking news event. Many of our viewers are in the news and broadly for those who may not be on twitter and hear of the twooeets and think of th as a nuisance or negative, in many ways and i remember being in newsrooms in 15 and 16 as an entertainer and reckless individual fair to say, donald trump used this platform more than any other and to more effect than press releases than television ads. There is a lot of facts well continue to sift through but he got more out of twitter and studying showing he got more paid media out of it than hundreds of millions in the primaries spent the old way. So im really and im here doing live coverage with you so im thinking about it myself but im thinking this is a signal day, not as important as the violence in the blunting of this political individuals largest platform. Its been an enormous weapon for him which hes abused and abused and abused and the problem is two things. Number one, twitter is instant. If he wants to have a sudden impact on people or to move the stock market, maybe hes got friends investing in certain stocks they will give him a kick back but it allows a president to do things like that in the way we havent had before make it easy. If he had done it on television for instance, you have to get through a news divisiodivision. If a News Division like nbc news is carrying a president who is lying they can take him off the air. We seen that in recent times. Were coming to see social media is not neutral conveyer belts but just like publishers. They have to exercise some judgment. Twitter has done wonderful things in labeling some of the president s more dangerous lies saying this claim is disputed or deceptive. That label has been tried assen effort to put limit on trumps power on twitter, it obviously didnt work. I think every american should be grateful to twitter tonight and facebook and instagram, as well for saying this person lies and says Dangerous Things and people could be killed if terrorists invade the capitol and should be equivalent of a public menace and has to be conconstrained. I want to thank the professor and melissa murray. Michael beschloss stays with us. Ill turn to other experts from the New York Times Michelle Goldberg and rnc chairman and Michael Steele who endorlsed joe biden. Twitter suspending donald trump permanently. This is a development that has major media and political ramifications, particularly with a politician who has rode tweets into the white house quite literally. Michael steele, your reaction . Thank you, hello. Weve been talking in this space about this for awhile now, okay, better late than never. A lot of damage done. Understood. Be prepared for the noise of the anti tech stuff and how big tech is undermining the president and the other side of the coin we need to be vigilant about. There are other sites down that are being created informing like parlor and others where this will continue to go on and fester. So it is important that we be prepared and recognize not just whats in front of us in terms of twitter, facebook, instagram and the other big name institutions. Whats on the side and behind us. That is being formted and informed and shaped to carry on this antidemocratic messaging. Narrative, get out the call to arms. And crush it. At every possible turn. Do not let it live nor breathe a minute longer because we know what its about. We have seen it play out in front of our eyes. Lets not pretent its not happening elsewhere. Our panel stays. This is a developing story. Msnbc followed this administration. Kp moderated the debate is at the white house. The center of the action. You know so well the way this president has used twitter. Im curious what you can tell us. Good to be with you. This is just a stunning move by twitter because this is how the president communicates with his supporters. He attributes his use of twitter to him winning the white house. He may not be wrong. This is how he gets mess anding out and hes changed the way president s communicate. As you have been discussing were seeing really ugly language from some of the supporters coming out threatening big tech. No official response from the white house. There is mounting pressure on this president to resign. This comes against that backdrop. Nancy pelosi is ready to move on articles of impeachment. She wants the 25th amendment. Mike pence the Vice President who needs it be on board in order to move forward with the 25th amendment is not going to support that move. Its hard to see that happening. The focus will shift to capitol hill and the president growing increasingly isolated as more and more administration fishes cabinet officials resign and leave office and say enough is enough. The question becomes how will he communicate with the public. There will be some type of video tape released later on this evening. Were waiting for that to happen. I dont think it has anything to do with the twitter announcement. This was a preplanned video. None theless, this is a striking move by twitter. Before we lose you, i know you hopped with us on breaking news. From your working knowledge of the white house do you have sense of whether there is a person left who would walk in to Donald Trumps office of residence and tell him this news whether he would learn it from tv or might open his phone . Open his phone kp find he maybe the leader of the free world and doesnt have the right to tweet anymore . He is still communicating with his chief of staff. Mark meadows. And his family. Ivanka and jared kushner. These are the people around him still giving him realtime information. And i think you can under score the role theyre playing for example they pushed him to tape the video last night that was aimed at trying to lower the temperature on this entire discussion. I expect he will learn it first from them. Well have to wait and see. And be certainly looking to see what it if reaction we get from the president and the top aids. Well be following. I know you will be. Thank you for jumping on the breaking news with us. At the white house. Well release i want to turn to michelle. As we continue forward. Your reaction to this news . I think that im going to have to think through the First Amendment imp plications of thi. Its a long time coming. Its more of a sign of trumps declining power than cause of it. Donald trump incited violence much more directly in the past than the tweets that are the proximate cause of the him being banned. I think twitter is well within its rights to treat trump like anyone else. Which is what theyre doing. Other people have been banned from twitter for good for less. Over his history and the platform. In that sense, he hes been given special rights and special access because of his position. Which has come to an end. Theres an argument that all of these platforms have too much power and are too big and are state actors. They can pull their own version of a 25th amendment and say donald trump is too dangerous to be using the tools of mass communication. I think theyre right. But i think that these couple men should not be the ones to single handedly make the decisions. Ultimately, theres also such a narrative symmetry to this. People talk a lot in the administration about the invisible screen writers. The metaphor for the strange narrative ta persisted throughout the trump years. Its hard to think of a bigger one than trump riding twitter to political fame. And then losing access to it. Shortly before hes about to get booted out of office. Yes, very literally losing his voice in that sense. Thank you on more than one topic tonight. We turn on a related issue with new reporting. Attacks on the press from trump. Which reached their logical conclusion at the insurrection. Rioters smashing cameras sp assaulting the press. Including the ap photographer in this video. Were coming for you we can tell you the photographer was eventually taken to safety. The growing questions about the Police Response and the videos with officers taking selfies. And this video. Showing Police Officers appearing to have trouble with the barricade at the capitol. It went viral. The police were only backing away from the barricades after they were out numbered. New york times reported an officer tried to give directions. To senator schumer office. More than one thing going on. He joins now. He filmed the video we showed you near the barricades. Thank you for being here. Thanks so much for having me. A quick note on the previous video. He is one of the nicest people. I met him when i covered hurricane sandy. He helped me during that hurricane. One of the nicest guys out there. Its good to know hes okay. Yeah. Very heroing. They pulled him to safety. These are human beings who do their work. You were on the ground. What is important from what you could see 360 degrees that is different than just some of the clips that went viral . I think one of the scaryiest things that bothered me the most is normally when i cover protests i soo countless park police and secret service. Mi mixed in with police. On that specific day, they were nowhere to be found and im assuming they werent requested in advance. It would be interesting to find out why they werent requested in advance or if they were and were denied. At the barricades did you see Police Actively trying to open or help people enter or what did you see . I saw people fighting with police. One guy pulled his fist back as if he was going to punch the cop in the fist. The cops backed off and realized they were out numbered 600 to one. If they fought off the 600, there were thousands coming up pennsylvania avenue. It was a losing battle. I saw them pull away from the barricade. And form a line at northeast entrance. With batons in front of them. And protesters just bulled them over. They went around and beside because there were enough cops to block the steps. They spread out in reaction and they bowled them over. 20 seconds, anything else you saw by being there that might be different from afar . Seeing that smashed window in the capitol. It was one of the scariest experiences i have had. Myself and a lot of the reporters that have credentials and worked on the hill reporting just its a sacred place. It was a very scary experience to see that mashed window. Yeah. And to be there on the ground inside the way you and others were. Like security. You dont know how it will end when youre in the middle of it. Thanks. Thank you for joining us here on the beat. Well be back monday night 6 00 p. M. Eastern. Stay safe. The the reidout with joy reid is next. Is next. Breaking news tonight. After thousands of 280 Character Communications to his tens of millions of followers that range from stupid and juvenile to lying and frankly dangerous, donald trump has been stripped of the precious. Jack and company permanently suspended trumps