special counsel jack smith is looking for in the classified documents probe. as with the $5 million defamation and sexual abuse judgment against donald trump, his own words are once again being used against him in a court of law. this time we re of course talking about that stunning february 2021 audio recording. donald trump bragging about a secret document with plans to attack iran at bedminster. to a writer working on a book, the discovery of that recording according to report from the wall street journal we discussed on this program last week, we know was a watershed moment that helped spur doj into pursuing a criminal case against the ex-president. days after his indictment on 37 felony counts, the ex-president claimed this. there was no document. that was a massive amount of papers and everything else talking about iran and other things, and it may have been held up or may not, but that was not a document. i didn t have a document per se. there was nothing to declas
hung. he thinks mike deserves it. he doesn t think they re doing anything wrong. tonight new testimony from witnesses who were inside the white house with the president when it happened. it was bad and the situation was getting out of hand. we were always in the dining room. it was my understanding he was watching television. i thought the president needed to tweet something. i read that tweet and made a decision to resign. mike pence didn t have the courage to do what should have been done. the chairman of the investigation, bennie thompson, out with covid. joining tonight by video. we will walk through the events of january 6th minute by minute. we ll tell the story of that supreme dereliction by the commander in chief. a supreme dereliction. tonight s january 6th hearing live from washington with nicole wallace, joy reid, chris hays, lawrence o donnell, stephanie rule, alex wagner. all here for msnbc s primetime hearing on the january 6th investigat
i don t know that the president and i differ on issues. but we may differ on focus. i truly do believe that elections are about the future. it is absolutely essential at a time when so many americans are hurting, so many families are struggling that we don t give way to the temptation to look back. mike pence just spoke about an hour or so ago. the former president himself is speaking this afternoon to a crowd of loyal supporters one day after president biden slammed his predecessor for his actions on january 6. for three hours, the defeated former president of the united states watched it all happen as he sat in the comfort of the private dining room next to the oval office. while he was doing that, brave law enforcement officers were subject to the medieval hell for three hours, dripping in blood, surrounded by carnage, face to face with crazed mob that believes the lies of the defeated president. the police were heroes that day. donald trump lacked the courage to act.
adviser to mike pence. in advance of that life testimony, nbc news has obtained exclusive new video ahead of today s hearing. highlighting how the events of the 6th were only the end of a pressure campaign against mike pence to overturn the election results that began much earlier with pence consistently pushing back according to testimony from his chief of staff mark short. was it your impression that the vice president had directly conveyed his position on these issues to the president not just to the world, through a deer colleague letter, but directly to president trump? many times. and had been consistent in conveying his position to the president. very consistent. okay. we ll see more on that coming up in the hearing. another angle to the january 6 story, we re getting new details on how protesters may have known their way around the capitol. now video from the january 6 committee raising questions about what happened the day before the riot on the fifth. the
Right, youre jen psaki. You had that job. Im reminded many times that youre rachel maddow. Ive been reading your book. Its such an important reminder of history. It scared me a little. It should, maybe. How can this happen . It is so topical at this moment. Thank you for writing it in between Everything Else. You are very, very kind to say so. Much appreciated. And thanks at home for joining us this hour. Ive been happy to have you here. One note before we get started. I know things might look a little different than usual. Thats just because im doing the show from someplace new. I am in los angeles tonight. Im at what is essentially the mid point of this book tour for my new book. Thats why im here. I am not a great traveller. I am not great at this. But i just, before i start the show, i briefly wanted to say thank you to all the book stores and the venues weve been at and all the moderators who have been on stage with me. Thank you in particular to everybody who has come out to one