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Trump's Top National Security Officials Urged not to Resign; DC Officials Speak After Deadly Insurrection at U.S. Capitol; DC Police: 68 People Arrested Yesterday, Only One was a Local. Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired January 07, 2021 - 11:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[11:30:00]

ERIN BURNETT, CNN ANCHOR: I'm sorry. I can see your lips moving, Olivia, but I can't hear you. So, let's give her a second to see if she can fix it.

You got it. You got it.

OLIVIA TROYE, FORMER HOMELAND SECURITY OFFICIAL: There you go.

BURNETT: It's good. I'm sorry. So, go ahead. I know you heard my question but again, are there more resignations coming?

TROYE: You know, I think there will be. I know that there are National Security Council colleagues who are reconsidering their decision to stay. And I appreciate these people who are willing to finally come forward as late as it may be.

You know, but my point with saying that is that nothing about President Trump has changed. He has been the same person for several years now while in office, right? And so, this is a man who played down the pandemic. He encouraged this type of violence.

He has not at all the president of law and order. He used that narrative to perpetuate conspiracies that led to what we saw yesterday. And so, I hope that -- actually I think that there should be a walkout at the White House in protest but I had hoped that that walkout would come before the presidential election but luckily this president did not get reelected and I strongly support the 25th Amendment being enacted now. I think the cabinet should be meeting right now. Vice president should convene them and have a serious conversation.

BURNETT: And you know, you heard the Acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf, you know, I implore the president to strongly condemn the violence was his comment. He says he is going to remain until January 20th citing you know security concerns. It is important to note that Olivia that would not preclude him from also supporting the 25th Amendment. I mean, that there's a way for people to try to keep continuity but also support what you are talking about, right?

TROYE: Yes, there is. And you know Chad Wolf, I actually wondered where DHS and the security posture were yesterday. They certainly fortified D.C. at previous moments. I was in the White House on the day at the Lafayette Park situation. I saw peaceful protestors, but I also saw a fortified fortress around the White House that looks like the aftermath of post-9/11. I saw none of that at the Capitol yesterday when we had known that there were going to be threats and we knew the threat of violence was significant.

BURNETT: So, Olivia, what do you make of Adam Kinzinger? He is the first Republican to support the 25th Amendment. He just said to me he may be the only. He is alright with that. He doesn't care about the politics here. He is doing what he thinks is right. Do you think that there will be more on Capitol Hill, more Republicans?

TROYE: I think that there will be because you know sometimes doing the right thing is a hardest thing to do but you got to do it. And I applaud Representative Kinzinger for coming forward and putting this on the table. He has actually have been calling out the president on a lot of the things that have been happening recently.

BURNETT: All right, certainly has. Olivia, thank you very much. I always appreciate talking you.

TROYE: Thank you.

BURNETT: And I just want to show all of you this. This is Washington, D.C. the Washington Mayor Bowser is set to speak moments from now. We are going to bring that to you as we are learning more about arrests and what's happening in Washington. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:37:59]

COOPER: D.C.'s mayor is speaking about the events of yesterday. Let's listen in.

MAYOR MURIEL BOWSER (D-WA), DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: Senator Warnock and Senator-elect Ossoff. I also want to make a few priorities clear for the new Congress that are very important to the district.

First, we must get statehood on the president's desk within the first 100 days of the 117th Congress. Congress must immediately transfer command of the District of Columbia National Guard from the President of the United States and put it squarely under the command and control of the mayor of the District of Columbia.

The Congress must create a nonpartisan commission to understand that catastrophic security failures that happened at the Capitol on January 6th, 2021 both to hold people accountable and to ensure that it never happens again.

We must also understand why the federal law enforcement response was much stronger at the protests over the summer than during yesterday's attack on Congress. I also call on the Joint Terrorism Task Force to investigate arrests and prosecute any individual who entered the Capitol, destroyed property or incited acts of domestic terrorism observed yesterday. More immediately, we know that the current president must be held accountable for this unprecedented attack on our democracy. What happened yesterday is what he wanted to happen, and we must not underestimate the damage he can do to our nation and our democracy over the next two weeks.

It is not just the president who must be held accountable. So, too, must the domestic terrorists who stormed the Capitol and threatened members of Congress. What happened yesterday is textbook terrorism. Let me read you a definition.

[11:40:00]

It is from the Federal Code of Regulations. This defined as the unlawful use of force and violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives.

The FBI has already set up a website where Americans can report tips. And today, MPD is releasing its own look out information. Any tips that are reported to MPD will also be shared with the FBI. So, I encourage Washingtonians who can provide information to do so by texting 50411. 50411. Or by calling 202-727-9099.

We are still in the midst of our response. We have aided the federal government in establishing the security of the United States Capitol. These incidents were contained to the United States Capitol and its grounds. We will review for ourselves what occurred yesterday to commend those who performed heroically and to learn what mistakes were made.

With that, I want to ask Chief Contee to provide any update from the Metropolitan Police Department followed by situational update from Secretary McCarthy.

CHIEF ROBERT CONTEE, D.C. METROPOLITIAN POLICE: Thank you, Mayor Bowser. And good morning, everyone.

As communities across the country are still processing the images of the violent mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol, I want to start this morning by thanking the members of the Metropolitan Police Department.

When U.S. Capitol police called for assistance it was you that answered their call without hesitation. Your actions to restore democracy were nothing short of heroic and should be recognized.

As MPD members you serve the D.C. community each and every day but yesterday evening you answered the call to serve all Americans. Many of you here today understand that the district is unique in respect to the number of law enforcement agencies operating in local D.C. the many federal buildings and national parklands.

But I have seen some misinformation out there that I would like to clear up. MPD's responsibility is to provide public safety services to the vibrant communities that make up this great city. MPD assisted U.S. Capitol police when they requested our assistance on their grounds.

What we did do was restore democracy for all of America and assisted our partners the U.S. Capitol and their approximately 2,000-member force by providing swift - by providing a swift response to an escalating situation. MPD members will continue to be responsible for local D.C. but we are willing and capable as we saw yesterday of assisting our partners at any moment. Again, when U.S. Capitol call for assistance, MPD answered the call.

I would also be remiss if I did not recognize the support of law enforcement partners regionally and the D.C. National Guard assets. Please allow me to provide an update in regard to arrests made by MPD related to unrest.

There were 68 individuals arrested yesterday evening and into the early morning hours of January 7th. Of the 68 arrests, 60 were adult males and 8 were adult females. 41 of those arrests occurred on U.S. Capitol grounds and to my knowledge only 1 of the arrestees is from the District of Columbia. I just want to underscore that only one of the arrestees from the District of Columbia.

However, we have a significant amount of work to identify and hold each and every one of the violent mob accountable for their actions. We have collected numerous images of persons of interest that we are asking the community to help us identify.

These images depict individuals engaged in various acts of violence or property destruction and we have made these images available on our website and social media platforms. We shared these images last night with the D.C. bids, the Hotel Associations and other community partners along with the FBI.

We also have shared these images with the regional airport authorities. As we speak, we have members of the Metropolitan Police Department that are scouring the area hotels, businesses, et cetera, trying to identify some of these individuals that still may be taking up residence within our city.

The FBI, we are working with them to aggressively pursue those who are responsible for these shameful and violent acts.

[11:45:01]

You can help by taking a moment to view them and provide us with assistance. Again, they have been publicly released on our website. Anyone with information on their identities or whereabouts is encouraged to reach out to MPD at 202-727-9099 or text us at 50411. Information can be provided anonymously.

In addition to what I have already mentioned, we will also be sending these images out across the country to the FBI offices in every state. We have authorized a reward up to $1,000 for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of persons responsible and I should add that we already are receiving information and tips in valuable tips in from residents and people who identified some of these individuals. We'll continue to assist the United States Capitol police with security without compromising the quality and professional police service to our district neighborhoods. Residents and visitors should continue to expect traffic disruptions and large law enforcement presence in and around the National Mall and U.S. Capitol.

Now, I would like to take this opportunity to provide the identities of the persons that lost their lives yesterday. As I mentioned late yesterday, the Metropolitan Police Department is handling the investigation of the U.S. Capitol police officer involved shooting that occurred in the House lobby area.

The decedent in that shooting has been identified as 35-year-old Ashli Pamatian, Ashli also known Ashli Babbitt of Huntington, Maryland. This remains an active MPD investigation. There were three additional deaths that occurred which we believe all to be the results of medical emergencies.

The decedents have been identified as 50-year-old Benjamin Phillips of Ringtown, Pennsylvania, 55-year-old Kevin Greeson of Athens, Alabama and 34-year-old Roseanne Bolin of Kenosha, Georgia.

Lastly, I would like to thank all of D.C. and our neighboring jurisdictions in Virginia and Maryland for adhering to the mayor's and the governor's curfew orders. And now I can turn it over to Secretary McCarthy.

RYAN MCCARTHY, ARMY SECRETARY: Thank you, Chief Contee and Mayor Bowser.

Yesterday was a horrible and shameful day in our history. One thing we did see was incredible leadership by Mayor Bowser and Chief Contee and saw the best of the city.

When they called us over at the Pentagon, we started getting awareness yesterday afternoon about the breach within the Capitol and quickly worked to support move our resources forward in support of Metro P.D. and the Capitol police and responded and truly saw some incredible heroic things from the Metro P.D. and our D.C. guardsmen. We are very proud of those men and women.

At present there are the entire D.C. National Guard has been mobilized. We have also received the support from State of Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and New York. There will be 6,200 guardsmen in total by the weekend here at the U.S. -- on the U.S. National Capital region in support of the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department as well as the Capitol Hill Police.

At present we have over 150 personnel up on the Capitol grounds and we will have 850 on the Capitol grounds by noon today. At 9:00 a.m. this morning we began erecting a 7-foot non-scalable fence which will be from Constitution Independence in First Avenue to the -- in front of the pond right there in front of the Capitol, that road right there.

So, these personnel and this security measures will be in place for no less than the next 30 days. And we'll be keeping all of these support mechanisms in place in constant coordination with the Capitol police and the Mayor's office. Thank you.

BOWSER: Thank you, Mr. Secretary. We are -- should have also noted that we are joined by the Deputy Mayor Roger Mitchell as well as Chief Donnelly, the Chief of D.C. Fire and EMS and we are available for questions.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- in the house.

BOWSER: Do we have anything available with it printed? Can we print that? We'll get that to you. OK. Thank you.

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Mayor Bowser given yesterday I mean, I was --

BOWSER: Can you just introduce yourself?

MUNTEAN: Pete Muntean with CNN.

BOWSER: OK.

MUNTEAN: MPD making arrest for the curfew. So MPD out at the Capitol, it seemed like MPD was out in numbers, but Capitol police were not. What do you say to that? How do you classify Capitol police and their response?

[11:50:09]

BOWSER: Well, I think that there's going to be a lot of time for us to figure out what happened. Obviously, it was a failure. Or you would not have had police lines breached in people enter the Capitol building by breaking windows and terrorizing the people, the members of Congress who were doing a very sacred constitutional requirement of their jobs.

So, clearly, there was a failure there. I think that I won't be able to answer your question right now. There's going to have to be a real investigation into what happened. Yes?

MUNTEAN: Do you wish you got more federal support early on? You sent a letter earlier before the 6th saying we don't need the federal help when it comes to policing in the district. Do you wish you did something differently there?

BOWSER: Well, let me be clear about what the district's responsibility is. I know that you heard Chief Contee's remarks but let me step back a little bit. We, of course, have a nearly 4,000-person police department and we are responsible for policing non-federal properties in the District of Columbia.

That's an important distinction because I think you know part of our founding and the creation of the District of Columbia was the federal government's concern that the local jurisdiction could not overtake the federal part of government.

And so, the Capitol, the White House and other federal installations in the district have their own police departments, the United States Capitol police.

And we cannot decide for the Capitol, the members of Congress that we are going to be their police department. But we stand ready to assist them at any case and that's why we have so much regional planning for big events, for demonstrations, for protests that turned riotous like this one for the inauguration, for the 4th of July, you name it we have a regional cooperation system and planning.

Now, as we planned with all of our federal partners for this event on January 6th, I made the decision that I needed MPD to focus on law enforcement activities and being able respond to any hotspots and that's why we needed our National Guard, the D.C. National Guard, to help us maintain a perimeter around our areas of concern.

The Capitol police and the leadership at the Capitol, they did not make the decision to call in on guard support. I cannot order the army, the National Guard to the United States Capitol grounds. I can in the district with the approval of the Secretary of the Army.

So, I guess we called up our guard and we have had guard support throughout the COVID pandemic but specifically for public safety issues I'll issue an additional request to the army which I think I did at the end of December. And the Secretary of Army approved that request and we put our guard troops on the ground to support MPD.

Yes?

QUESTION: Mayor, you said there was a state of emergency. You were declaring for I guess two weeks. What does that mean? How's that different from what we would expect any way over the next two weeks?

BOWSER: The state of emergency is a way that I can organize the resources of D.C. government to move on an emergency basis. So, some things that you might expect would have community notice, we may not be able to have that type of notice because we need to move urgently. It helps me organize all of my procurement resources on this issue. That's all administrative.

But more than that, it's a notice to the public that we may have to do some extraordinary things to maintain public safety. And a curfew is an extraordinary thing that we have to use to maintain public safety. When I tell residents of the District of Columbia to stay in your home or you could be subject to arrest that's an extraordinary thing.

And the state of emergency puts D.C. residents, visitors and our businesses on notice that we may have to do something extraordinary like that that would require you to stay at home or close your business or stop transit or other public transportation earlier so that we can maintain public safety in the district.

[11:55:03]

QUESTION: It was just so people are kind of aware that things could happen quickly because obviously you did a curfew like that yesterday, right?

BOWSER: We gave about four hours -- three or four hours notice.

It is important when we do a curfew so that everything is legal and the arrests that our officers make are prosecuted, that we follow a certain protocol. We issued a public emergency. We justified why that infringement on people's liberty is necessary.

We give a public statement that you all carry widely so people are aware. I think we issued several -- what do you call those? VR alerts that went out on people's cell phones that includes district residents and people visiting the district. So, we make every effort that people can comply with our public safety order.

Just please introduce yourself.

IKE EJIOCHI, FOX 5 REPORTER: Ike Ejiochi from Fox 5. There is a moment yesterday when a riot was declared, there was a same type of thing that happened during the summer at the protests. Can you run me through some of the things that can happen -- the differences between when you declare a riot and when a state of emergency is declared? The law enforcement gets certain liberties in one thing and the --

BOWSER: Sure. Let me ask Chief Contee to talk about that.

EJIOCHI: Sure.

CONTEE: Sure. As the Mayor mentioned, you know the state of emergency, it allows the city to do extraordinary things, as she mentioned, a curfew. Again, the great infringement you know on just the day-to-day business in the city.

In this particular case, when a riot was declared that means that we have a situation where individuals are actively, violently engaging in crimes and that's the clear distinction. At the time that the riot was declared, I believe that was MPD personnel on the grounds of the Capitol that were on the air declaring this a riot. So that's the distinction between the two.

Yes?

EJIOCHI: When a riot is declared what liberties does that give MPD?

CONTEE: So, for MPD it may determine the level of force that we use so, for example, you know, in some cases we may use pepper spray. In a riot situation we could very well use tear gas or CS gas, that kind of things.

EJIOCHI: What time was the riot actually called?

CONTEE: I don't have the exact time that I it was. But I can tell you that MPD was requested round about 1:00 p.m. were when MPD was requested by U.S. Capitol to respond and things were already pretty bad at that point.

EJIOCHI: So, my question is, over the summer when the riot was declared, that gave MPD the chance to use these munitions per se. From what happened yesterday, is there a train of thought possibly that maybe declaring a riot earlier could have prevented some of the things that happened?

CONTEE: Well no, you can't declare a riot until you have violent acts occurring and I think that MPD is very careful about when we do declare a riotous situation. I mean, there are situations where we have officers that are having bricks thrown at them, bottles thrown at them. Everything you name it. Urine and we have not in every instance declared a riot.

In this one we had projectiles being thrown at our officers and we have people trying to breach the United States Capitol in the nation's capital. I think if anything, I mean, that certainly warrants declaration of a riot. And clearly, we experienced that yesterday.

BOWSER: Yes?

MICHAEL BRICE-SADDLER, REPORTER, "THE WASHINGTON POST": Michael Brice- Saddler with "The Washington Post." For Chief Contee or perhaps Chief Donnelly. The three decedents who died from medical emergencies yesterday, have we determined whether they were part of the riots or other people who were on Capitol ground?

BOWSER: What was that question, Michael?

BRICE-SADDLER: My question was for the three people who died from medical emergencies yesterday.

BOWSER: Thank you.

BRICE-SADDLER: Yes.

CONTEE: There were a lot of people on the grounds of the Capitol yesterday and I guess the extent that we couldn't say right now is that they were on the grounds of the Capitol when they experienced the medical emergency.

BRICE-SADDLER: You can't specify?

CONTEE: I can't specify.

BRICE-SADDLER: OK.

And then, there was a stabbing yesterday at 12th Pennsylvania, separate shootings on 200 K Street Northwest and also 9th and N Street Northwest. Have police determined if any of those were related to the unrest in the city?

CONTEE: It does not appear that any of those were related to the unrest in the city and those matters are actually -- actively being investigated but it doesn't appear they were related. Thank you.

BRICE-SADDLER: OK, thank you. And then for Mayor Bowser, could you talk about how the events of yesterday will impact how the city is preparing for the inauguration?

BOWSER: I can't speak to you with any specifics at this stage.