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"big protest in d.c. on january 6. be there, will be wild!" he wrote. as the committee showed, supporters of the former president, including members of a far right militia group heeded his call. one person even predicted a "red wedding," a pop culture reference to a massacre, on january 6. jason van tatenhove, a former spokesman for the oath keepers, drew the connection and concern for the future. >> if a president is willing to try to instill a -- encourage, to whip up a civil war amongst his followers using lies and deceit and snake oil. and regardless of the human impact, what else is going to do if he gets elected again? all bets are off at that point. judy: representative stephanie murphy of florida read from a text exchae between two trump campaign advisors, including one-time campaign manager brad parscale, who after the events of january 6, blamed his former boss. >> mr. parscale said, quote, "this is about trump pushing for uncertainty in our country, a sitting president asking for civil war." and then when he said, "this week i feel guilty for helping him win." katrina pierson responded, "you did what you felt right at the time and therefore it was right." mr. parscale added, "yeah, but a woman is dead." and "yeah, if i was trump, and i knew my rhetoric killed someone." when miss pearson replied it wasn't the rhetoric, mr. parscale said "katrina. yes, it was." judy: and for more on what we learned from the hearing, i'm joined by our congressional correspondent lisa desjardins and white house correspondent laura barron-lopez. good evening to both of you. you were in the hearing room. let's start by talking about that dramatic confrontation inside the white house, december 2020. it was about whether and how to overturn the elections. >> the committee is going chronologically right up to january 6. this happened in the middle of december after the attorney general said there was no reason to believe there was fraud worth overturning the election. let's take you inside who was in this meeting. four people in particular were surprise guests to many staffers in the white house. rudy giuliani, the president's personal attorney, and three other people including michael flynn, former security advisor. by then he did not have a position at the white house. you see all of the people there who were advising him. sidney powell included and patrick byrne on the end who is the ceo of overstock.com. the testimony today was that it was not clear they had been invited to the white house. they somehow at the last minute were able to get into the oval office. they all presented the testimony today saying conspiracy theories that ran the gamut pushing the president to do things like declare martial law, to seize election machines, those kinds of things. also coming into the oval office during that meeting were actual white house staffers. there you see some of them who were involved. the attorney, the staff secretary, mark meadows, chief of staff in and out. and the president's house counsel pat cipollone. they were pushing back at the others in what was described in an extensive montage as a very hostile confrontation. let us listen to how they explained that in the hearing today. >> i opened the door and i walked in. i saw general flynn, i saw sydney powell sitting there. i was not happy to see the people who were in the oval office. >> was the meeting tense? >> oh yeah, it was not a casual meeting. >> explain. >> at times there were people shouting at each other, throwing insults at each other. it wasn't just, sort of, people sitting around on a couch, like chit-chatting. >> cipollone and herschmann and whoever the other guy was showed nothing but contempt and disdain of the president. >> i think it got to the point where the screaming was completely, completely out there. i mean, people walking in, it was late at night, it had been a long day, and what they were proposing, i thought was nuts. >> i'm going to categorically describe it as, you guys are not tough enough. or maybe i'll put it another way, you're a bunch of --. excuse the expression but i'm almost certain the word was used. >> that was essentially a battle for the soul of the white house. as that meeting ran on and on. after it ended around 1:42 in the morning came the tweet you talked about earlier tonight. the president asking people to come to january 6 for a wild protest. that tweet was sent after that contentious meeting. judy: the committee is charging the president did more than just send out that tweet about a wild protest. what more are they saying? >> that is right. as you get closer, here is more of what the committee said. steve bannon, the president's longtime advisor was on the phone with the president. they said white house call logs showed the morning of january 5, also on january 5 i want to remind viewers what steve bannon said on his broadcast show. listen to this. >> all hell is going to break loose tomorrow. it's all converging, and now we're on, as they say, the point of attack, the point of attack tomorrow. i'll tell you this: it's not gonna happen like you think it's gonna happen. it's going to be quite extraordinarily different. and all i can say is strap in. >> steve bannon had spoken with president trump before he made that statement. he spoke with president trump again that evening. also january 5, there was a rally down the street from the white house, one some of the advisors of president trump said was full of the crazies, people who had extreme views. also testimony we heard was that president trump opened the doors of the oval office to try to hear that rally from where he sat. leading up to january 6, the very day before, you have advisors talking to him and talking about an extreme they had on the sixth -- extreme day ahead on the sixth. judy: a former member of this extremist white nationalist group the oath keepers, the other, somebody who took part in the capital attack. >> that's right. you heard that concern from the former member of the oath keepers who was not president -- was not present with january 6. he said it was a violent militia group. we heard from another man, stephen ayers, from ohio. he said he was watching social media leading up to january 6 and he believed the election was stolen. he said he no longer sees it that way but the committee asked him exactly why he did what he did on january 6 and here is what he said. >> so why did you decide to march to the capitol? >> well, basically, the president got everybody riled up, told everybody to head on down. so we basically were just following what he said. >> did you think that the president would be marching with you? >> yeah, i think everybody thought he was gonna be coming down. you know, he said in his speech, you know, kind of like he's gonna be there with us. so i mean, i think i believed . >> mr. ayers is yet to be sentenced, he will be sentenced in september. to the question of whether the president wanted a riotous crowd to come to the capitol, the committee is trying to make the case this was not unintentional passions he inflamed, but something very intentional. i want to also call up a draft tweet the committee says it uncovered from that group of advisors who wanted things like martial law. they said this shows the president signed off -- this was never sent, but something the president himself saw, clearly before the january 6 rally, asking people to march to the capitol. the case they are trying to make in the committee is that in fact this was an intentional march on the capitol that president trump wanted to lead. this was actually an emotional day for some of the capitol police officers who were in there today. they did shake hands, one of the officers, with mr. ayers with the oath keepers. they said their lives are forever changed by january 6. those men have lives that have been changed as well. one of the officers told me, and i saw the look in his eye when he looked across at the man who had broken into the capitol and attacked him and other officers who had broken into the capitol. he said i am not sure what i felt, but it might have been anger, i am still processing. it was an emotional day certainly at the end of that hearing. >> it certainly had to be. i want to bring in our white house responded laura barone lopez. how does what we have learned today fit into this larger picture the committee is pulling together of what president trump did and any potential criminal charges against him? >> those things lisa just mentioned, the draft tweet the president saw as well as testimony from stephen ayers saying he was just following former president trump's lead and that was the reason he was there, that could inform if the justice department decides to charge the former president, it could inform an instruction of compressional proceedings -- congressional proceedings charge. that would potentially prove the president was trying to stop the lawful certification of the 2020 vote. another one that was revealed today was that congresswoman liz cheney said since the last hearing, the president tried to call a witness which we have not heard from yet and that they have referred that to the justice department as potential witness tampering. she said the committee takes that very seriously. that cld potentially be another charge but we do not know if the justice department is going to pursue this. one important piece of context as the hearings are happening, as the talk of potential charges against the president, is that president trump as recently as june said if elected again, he would pardon these january 6 rioters, people involved in the insurrection because he believes they are patriots. congressman jamie raskin said to the public that that potential for republicans, the republican party along with trump to continue down the road of authoritarianism could be a big problem. one final thing is that newshour can report a week from thursday, we expect what is going to be the final hearing in this series. there is a potential for more hearings. it is going to be focused specifically on the 187 minutes of when president trump was not putting out any statements as the insurrection was ongoing. judy: so these hearings are continuing. we thank you both. for more analysis of today's hearing, i am here with mary mccord, director of the institute for constitutional advocacy and protection, and a former justice department official. and jamil jaffer, a law professor at george mason university, and former associate counsel to president george w. bush. hello to both of you. thank you for being with us, and during our special coverage today. again, so much of this evidence we have just been hearing from our own correspondents today was around former president trump, his role, what he heard, what he did, what he did not do. he remains at the center of everything we are hearing. >> that is exactly right. what is clear is the president understood what was like lita happen. he was -- was likely to happen. he was speaking to folks outside the white house in the lead up to the events on january 6, including ostensibly either he or people around him were telling organizers there would be a call, they were not supposed to talk about it, by a call to march on the capitol. that was something they tweeted about internally we now know. what appeared to have originally been a sort of moment that would have happened spontaneously turned out to be planned. people around the president knew that was going to happen. there were other interesting points in today's testimony. judy: there was so much to look at. as you look at this, you see again just a cascading set of pieces of evidence, of information that add up to a president who was looking for affirmation for what he believed and what he wanted to do. >> that's right. one of the other really revealing things, the excerpts you played earlier at the top of the hour focused on this, the december 18 heated meeting where he and his own white house advisors basically said, we are not going to support you doing any of these things that sidney powell and michael flynn and rudy giuliani were suggesting he could do. they just went to the mat and it resulted in yelling and shouting. it seemed like he reached a decision point which was, ok, i'm not going to get help from my white house advisors. i'm going to go to the people. he tweeted that early morning, be there, be wild. that was the calling card for extremist groups such as the oath keepers, the proud boys, the three presenters, -- three percenters. people like stephen ayers who -- and stephen ayers said this, addicted to social media addicted to everything president trump had set a stolen election, all of which were lies and which he now knows relies -- which he now knows were lies. judy: watching this in real time we had very little idea what was going on inside the white house. i know there were certainly -- there was a certainly reporting at the same time. we are learning there were a number of people around th president saying to him and talking to each other about what was happening was wrong, it was illegal. >> that is exactly right. pat cipollone now it is clear made clear to the president he did not think he was getting good advice, that folks around the president, sidney powell, rudy giuliani, the overstock.com ceo, pat cipollone he asked him who he was in the oval office. it is worth mentioning, with the -- administration there was no chance you would have unidentified people in the white house around the president. the president is getting legal advice from these folks, it is catastrophic. he made clear to the president he did not agree, it was bad advice. then you look at what he told mark meadows, look, people are going to get hurt and i'm not going to allow this going forward. it is clear the president was aware there were concerns. his dni said the same thing. nobody can doubt today the president knew what the potential was to happen and he went forward nonetheless knowing all of that. that is the really troubling thing about what we have learned. judy: and an additional point i think that emerged today, this is something that you follow, is the role that these extremist groups play. the oath keepers, the proud boys. you were saying to us earlier that when you look at their picture of what happened, the former president was using them to achieve an end. >> he was, and they were willingly being used, the oath keepers. some people i think unaffiliated with extremist organizations really did get used and lied to and left out to dry. they are facing the consequences, criminal charges, loss of their jobs, reputations. groups like the oath keepers, this is the sort of thing stewart rhodes and other leaders of extremist organizations have wanted for years. they are antigovernment organizations. they are willing to use violence against the u.s. government. they have done it in the past. as jason explained today, a former propagandist or the oath keepers, they faced off against federal agents back in nevada in 2014. federal agents backed away because they had firearms -- they were in the sites of snipers on overpasses. but here was a chance to actually bring these groups together, coalesce with people in president trump's orbit who wanted to use that, who were willing, and trump himself willing to use these means to maintain his illegitimate power. those of us who study some of these organizations have been trying to point out for years their dangerousness. it was really there in living color and hearing from a former spokesperson gives us an insight we do t normally get. i hope people will understand these are threats and they need to be addressed. judy: they certainly need to be taken very seriously. another data point today, which adds to the evidence we have already seen that former president trump in that tweet he drafted about -- after the rally you will be going to the capitol -- it was not sent, but it does signal what was in the former president's mind at that time. >> that is exactly right. it was clear -- now we know. we know people around him told the rally organizers the president is going to send people to the capitol, don't tell anyone, keep it on the down low but that is what is going to happen. the whole thing that looked spontaneous clearly was planned ahead of time. then you add what the president said to cassidy hutchinson. i know they have weapons, i don't care, they are going to the capitol. we now know what the president knew before he called those people to go to the capitol and we know the aftermath of what happened. judy: it adds up to what you have just been saying. when y think about the potential lethality of these groups, the former president knowing, and he still was engaging them and urging them to move. >> it goes back to the famous stand back and stand by, and he made during a presidential debate directed to the proud boys who immediately recruited based on that and merchandised and made money. i think we really have to look to the future, look abroad. in other countries it was the willingness of politicians to ally with dangerous private militias that has caused real collapses in democracies where the inability to develop democracies and authoritarianism. the prospect in the future, representative raskin mentioned, and jason, it is real. judy: sobering. thank you both. vanessa: i'm vanessa ruiz in for stephanie sy with newshour west. we'll return to the full program after the latest headlines. ukraine's military said it destroyed a russian ammunition depot in the east. possibly with a rocket system supplied by the u.s. the overnight attack triggered a spectacular blast outside kherson. that city is occupied by the russians. at the same time, russian forces captured more towns in eastern ukraine. the u.s. military says it has killed the leader of the islamic state group in syria. central command says he died in a drone strike today outside the border with turkey. he is said to be a top-five leader is a nice is responsible for developing networks outside iraq and syria. on the pandemic, u.s. health officials issued new warnings today as omicron subvariants ba4 anda5 spread quickly. dr. anthony fauci advised against waiting for a variance specific vaccine due this fall. >> the threat to you is now. if you are not vaccinated to the fullest, namely you have not gotten the boosters according to what the recommendation are, t