one of those heads of state was in charge as recently as 2022. and in these many cases, the failed autocrats were ousted and exiled sometimes on a path to prison for abuses of power. that's a historical comparison that we should keep in mind for a different development today in washington where a failed coup leader returns to the site of his failed coup. a man indicted for plots to obstruct congress is making his first return to congress since january 6th. donald trump returning to the scene of a now-convicted crime. the violent militia leaders who led the storming of the capitol are currently in prifrp. they have been tried, convicted and sentenced for sedition. that's a grave charge tantamount to treason. trump himself is awaiting his own supreme court ruling this month on when or how he'll face a trial for jack smith against him. while it has swiftly ousted leaders of failed coups and the united states judicial branch is trying to hold this failed coup leader accountable, the news tonight is how the legislative grafrn is failing on this front because while democrats and a handful of republicans did pursue accountability, no matter where it led, most republicans are now embracing trump and minimizing or lying about january 6th, undercutting the very capitol police who protect them and who protected the capitol that day. before cynics pop up and say, well, isn't this just politics? or okay, ari, this is what republicans always do? that's not actually true. so we begin with a pack fact check here to bear witness to the history of that day. members in congress were in grave danger. people died that day and the day after. police were brutally attacked. what you see on your screen is how members of congress had to flee in the first hours after control was regained. republicans and democrats alike stood up to trump's insurrection as republican leader mcconnell called it that very word and the thugs and the mobs that trump unleashed, again, mcconnell's words and that trump was responsible for it. here was the republican response then. >> the united states senate will not be intimidated by thugs, mobs or threats. we will not bow to lawlessness or intimidation. this failed insurrection only underscores how crucial the task before us is for our republic. >> i have spoke tonight president. i asked him to talk to the nation to tell them to stop this. this is not who we are. >> there's no question. done, that president trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day. >> trump and i, we've had a hell of a journey. i hate it to end this way. all i can say is count me out. enough is enough. >> senator graham out. journey over, enough is enough. the top house and senate republicans condemning what trump unleashed and refusing to bow. in fact, let's play that mcconnell part again. >> we will not bow to lawlessness or intimidation. >> will not bow. here's senator mcconnell today. politically bowing and shaking hands with the leader of what he called an insurrection. that's today. a long ways from the january 2021 statements where mcconnell's team is telegraphing the very next month that trump committed impeachable offenses and that democrats moved to impeach trump would make it easier to purge trump from the party. impeachable offenses are high crimes, mcconnell was saying trump was guilty of high crimes and that would help purge trump once and for all. he said trump was morally responsible for the insurrection. that was mcconnell then and here he is today. so today marks a key moment in history and in an era where images and memes can matter more than the words or what it might feel like receiving history and let alone re-written history which i'll return to and the top republican embracing the convicted candidate and embracing it as if mcconnell's own moral denunciations do not exist. although mcconnell has been at the top and currently is the top officeholder at the senate. he's not running for office anymore. he doesn't need to go out like this if this is how he's going out. joining this parade of republicans who know better which is a public fact because they told us already they know better. >> con artist is about to take over the republican party and the conservative movement and we have to put a stop to it. >> this man is a pathological liar. >> he's a race baiting, zeen phonetic, religious bigot. >> the man cannot tell the truth and he combines it with being a narcissist. >> i think he's a kook. i think he's crazy. i think he's unfit for office. >> the man is amoral. >> his policies are bad for the country. >> his reaction to everything is to throw a fit. >> those warnings came true. trump's approach to lying did go beyond political hyperbole or what politicians do. trump ensnared his lawyers and allies at fox news and some of the most costly defamation punishments ever. lies that formed the propaganda arm for the crime spree that stretches from his '20 campaign on the right and that's all about january 6th and the assorted plot to overthrow the election to the right to other enterprises and campaign, number one all of those convictions. the kind of thing that attorney mike johnson warned about in calling trump unfit for office back in 2015. he's now the speaker of the house and here he was today. >> said very complimentary things about all of us. we had sustained applause. he said i'm doing a very good job. we're grateful for that. >> that's why today's return to the capitol matters. return to a literal crime scene and it's very different from how other countries have recently dealt with these kind of failed coups. at this meeting, trump reportedly trashed the host city of the republican convention, the kind of attack on fellow americans that used to be a big political gaffe repeat his attacks on the doj while speaking inside the very capitol where he unleashed the crimes at the center of this trial at the doj. and the republicans who once criticized trump now bend the knee so completely it's a reflection of kind of total craven knee-bending to power that's so brazen, it's more commonly seen in fiction and film than a real world display like we saw today. >> come to king's landing, bend the knee or suffer the fate of all. >> bend the knee, and i will name you warden of the north. >> you're a rival. >> bend the knee. that's why they're rulers. >> no. >> bend the knee. the u.s. is still a constitutional democracy, however, not a kingdom. our constitution makes congress an equal branch of government and not some subservient arm of the president and let alone a former president, let alone a felon, let alone a coup leader returning to the congress he attacked. trump and his allies in congress tried to lie to people to get them to commit violence that day which happened. now they're trying to control and re-write that recent past, and there is nothing new about these authoritarian tactics. george orwell said it best. you can say it better, he said who controls the past controls the future. who controls the present controls the past. >> he meant that people's understanding of the past will define their politics and what they will do and what they will allow and what they will put up with going into the future. so demagogues ypically try to re-write history and it's parts of the ongoing propaganda campaign. remember, the attack is and was still a very significant, big deal. >> that's why they have to lie about it. if people didn't care, they might have moveded on and it was to recast the convicted felon and to continue over what happened over time. now star witness cassidy hutchinson, his own secret service agents who stopped him trying to protect his own safety that day. you may recall if you followed the news, while trump team was attacking her as a liar to try to discredit her account. her testimony. nowadays, trump has shifted from running from the jan 6th attack and they initially did because they thought it was so bad they had to do something other than admit it to now making a bet that his side has accepted thissor well spin i'm telling you about to completely re-write the past so that the president might forge him a path to power in the future and they've done that so much that now trump does admit trying to join that now unfolded edition. >> i sat in the back. you know what i did say? i said i'd like to come down there. they said we think it's better that you don't. >> that was the whole tone of the conversation. >> that still dif errs from hutchinson's in some way. he admits he wanted to be in with them and he says that now after we know how bad the violence was. well, today, for the first time since jan 6, he did make it in. welcomed by the lawmakers that his fans had targeted with violence and worse, potential assassination. that's a crime spree that includes over 1,400 people indicted for crimes that day. new york felon donald trump is one of them. that's the reality and faced with that in person, physically today, republicans are trying to control and re-write their own past from what trump did and what i just showed you, they condemned re-writing that while publicly bending the knee. bill crystal are here and we're back together on this story in 90 seconds. on this story in 90 seconds if you have chronic kidney disease you can reduce the risk of kidney failure with farxiga. because there are places you'd like to be. farxiga can cause serious side effects, including ketoacidosis that may be fatal, dehydration, urinary tract, or genital yeast infections, and low blood sugar. a rare, life-threatening bacterial infection in the skin of the perineum could occur. stop taking farxiga and call your doctor right away if you have symptoms of this infection, an allergic reaction, or ketoacidosis. ♪ far-xi-ga ♪ you know what's brilliant? boring. think about it. boring is the unsung catalyst for bold. what straps bold to a rocket and hurtles it into space? boring does. 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(♪♪) at evernorth, we combine medical and pharmacy data with behavioral health data to identify members in need of care. predicting and treating behavioral health issues quickly... while lowering costs for plan sponsors and members. that's wonder made possible. evernorth health services bend the knee and i will name you warden of the north. >> the pep rally for president trump. >> lots of unity. a lot of support. >> no. kneel before him. >> we are joined by vanity fair's molly joan and bill crystal, of the bush white house. bill, i see you shaking your head. go ahead. >> you expressed it well. it's really an outrage and disgusting and depressing, hon least. it's been building up for three years and mcconnell didn't prevent it and didn't encourage the senate to go ahead and convict trump after they impeached him and will to see the contrast and the just to see the bending of the knee is really extraordinary. you know, this is something that we can say it's horrible, so cynical and pathetic. if you're a normal republican business time and you voted for trump once or twice and you don't like trump that much and you would have preferred nikki haley and tim scott or desantis, maybe, and it's a bridge too far and then you look at haley in the primary, she's okay with trump. you give money and mitch mcconnell the chief republican in the senate is okay with trump and you think, okay. i get what they're doing. they're professionals. they deal with these guys all of the time. he'll be okay. he's a little crazy. he's a little unpleasant and he'll be a normal republican president at the end of the day, that's why i think this mcconnell thing as part of a pattern of accommodations for trump has the ability to vote back in some of those republicans who were on the fence over whether they could support trump again. >> molly? >> you know, he was the reporting that came out of the first meeting with the congress described him as a drunk uncle, that he was rambling and he was saying a lot of stuff, that he criticized milwaukee. look, you know, this guy -- i mean, i think bill has a really good point about how, you know, this is the republican sort of selling an autocrat once again even after he was involved in an insurrection, and i do think they're sort of given a permission structure here that is anti-democratic and quite scary and i agree with bill. this is a craven power grab and they've made a calculous that this is the way they're going to grab and keep power and that's why they're continuing in this lie. >> yeah. you know, bill, it's a complicated question for the biden campaign. we were just reporting last night about how a lot of domestic issues including a cost of living and economy and other frustrations that really matter to the public. they are, of course, also hitting this a lot. there's a new biden ad on it. take a look. >> on january 6th, donald trump lit a fire in this country. >> 140 officers were injured, the siege lasted for seven hour. >> stoking the flames of division and hate. now he's pouring gasoline. >> we will give them pardons, enciting them to try again. >> i wonder what you think given your experience. is the best balance here and the history i mentioned that obviously the trump folks still feel the need to re-write history. they know the actual facts are bad for them. >> it's important to remind people of january 6th including the republicans and conservatives and remind people can do more. the republicans today say they cannot accept drama because of what they did and liz cheney, of course, and it's also mike pence and paul ryan. people like me didn't like mike pence and they're disappointed he didn't step up when he was speaker. the republican speaker of the house that served under trum for two years, neither of them believe i can can support in good conscience, trump for basically. >> i think that can do more good. >> it makes sense and then you have people like paul ryan who is also part of the slide although in an ad you can run any sound, and we just reminded people of what was called moral clarity at that time. here is paul ryan adopting something strange given the loss of life and the huge impact of jan 6th. here's how he put it. >> january 6th never had a chance at being successful because the institutions were too strong to have anything overturned. so i don't think given the legislative branch and the judicial branch and the executive branch and the tension that they have that we'll have anything that this disables our democracy. >> bill? >> i think that's the kind of complaint that the guardrail and there were too much complaints between november 3rd and january 6th and i was involved with the arguments and the idea that you can say it now three and a half years later, we know what the agenda is and how much more committed he is and how much institutional support he has and the organizations outside of the government committed to an authoritarian agenda. everything is okay and the guardrails will hold. he's not going to be in a second term. mcmahonis, mattis, and they're not going to be there. a lot of people say wha paul ryan just said and the biden campaign has to push back hard against this kind of complacency to say, hey, ultimately we got through it in 2021. >> yeah. molly, to bill's point, if you had a different vice president and you had a different congress and you had this kind of pressure, you might not have a certification if trump didn't want one. >> and then you say okay and then you play it out on the streets and then you only have what the supreme court wants to find. >> yeah. i think the question is will we be lucky again. there were so many generals who said they would not serve with him again. who came out against him privately. these are not political actors. these are not -- they think of themselves to be non-partisan and even they were, like, this is too much which i think is really a meaningful warning. >> yeah. that's why today you market, the visuals show what's happening of the return and that embrace to the capital that they stormed. molly and bill, thanks to both of you. coming up, another ethics scandal hitting the supreme court and again, it involve it is clarence thomas taking money from a mega donor. this is not a re-run, this is live news, as well. there is another chapter in this embarrassing scandal for thomas. will the court ever police itself? this new ruling over reproductive rights and pro-choice activists celebrating and we have a break down on that that's important coming up. k dot that's important coming up on everything with just one card. chase freedom unlimited. so, if you're off the racking... ...or crab cracking, you're cashbacking. cashback on flapjacks, baby backs, or tacos at the taco shack. nah, i'm working on my six pack. switch to a king suite- or book a silent retreat. silent retreat? hold up - yeeerp? i can't talk right now, i'm at a silent retreat. cashback on everything you buy with chase freedom unlimited with no annual fee. how do you cashback? chase. make more of what's yours. life with afib can mean a lifetime of blood thinners. and if you're troubled by falls and bleeds, worry follows you everywhere. ♪♪ over 400,000 people have left blood thinners behind with watchman. watchman is a safe, minimally—invasive, one—time implant that reduces stroke risk and bleeding worry, for life. ♪♪ watchman. it's one time, for a lifetime. 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