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CNN Live Event/Special
Trump Impeachment Trial Day Two; Impeachment Managers Lay Out Timeline of Capitol Insurrection. Aired 4:30-5p ET
Aired February 10, 2021 - 16:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[16:30:00]
DEL. STACEY PLASKETT (D-VI): In this video, we can see the rioters surge toward Officer Goodman.
Recall that the rioters are in red and Officer Goodman, in this model, is in blue. Watch Officer Goodman, who backs up the stairs.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(SHOUTING)
RIOTERS: USA! USA!
(CROSSTALK)
RIOTER: Muffin!
RIOTER: It's my muffin. I paid for this.
(SHOUTING)
RIOTER: You work for us!
RIOTER: Where is that meeting at?
RIOTER: Hey, where are they counting the fucking votes?
(SHOUTING)
RIOTER: Don't do it. Don't do it. Don't do it.
RIOTER: Hey. Hey.
RIOTER: Where are they counting the votes? Where are they counting the votes? Where are they counting them? Where are they counting them? Where are they counting them?
RIOTER: These people -- these people -- these people have no weapons. These people have no weapons.
RIOTER: Go! Go!
RIOTER: These people have no weapons. We have no fucking weapons.
(SHOUTING)
RIOTER: He's one person. We're thousands.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PLASKETT: Although they were shouting that they did not have any weapons, we know from the earlier video that that's not true.
The second assailant through that breach was the one carrying a metal baseball bat. We know there were other weapons there that day.
Did you hear the other shouts? "We're here for you." "He's one person. We're thousands." And: "Where do they count the votes?"
They were coming at the urging of Donald Trump to keep Congress, a separate branch of government, from certifying the results of a presidential election.
As the rioters reached the top of the stairs, they were within 100 feet of where the vice president was sheltering with his family, and they were just feet away from one of the doors to this chamber, where many of you remained at that time.
I also want to show you a different angle from the security footage of Officer Goodman's acts.
This video is on the second floor of the Senate wing of the Capitol. The red dot, as you recall, represents the insurrectionists. The blue dot is Officer Goodman, who led the mob away from the chamber just minutes earlier.
On the left-hand side of the video, just inside the hallway, is the door to the Senate chamber. And watch how Officer Goodman provokes the rioters and purposefully draws them away from the door to the Senate chamber and towards the other officers waiting down the hall.
The rioter seen carrying a baseball bat in this video is the same one we saw moments ago breaching the window on the first floor.
While all of this was going on, Vice President Pence was still in the room near the Senate chamber. It was not until 2:26 that he was evacuated to a secure location.
This next security video shows that evacuation. His movements are depicted by the orange dot in our model. The red and blue dots represents the location where the mob and Officer Goodman were and where Officer Goodman led the mob away from the chamber just moments ago.
You can see Vice President Pence and his family quickly move down the stairs. The vice president turns around briefly as he's headed down.
[16:35:11]
As Pence was being evacuated, rioters started to spread throughout the Capitol. Those inside helped other rioters break in through doors in several locations around this entire building. And the mob was looking for Vice President Pence because of his patriotism, because the vice president had refused to do what the president demand -- and overturn the election results.
During the assault on the Capitol, extremists reportedly coordinated online and discussed how they could hunt down the vice president. Journalists in the Capitol reported they heard rioters say they were looking for Pence in order to execute him.
Trump supporters had erected a gallows on the lawn in front of the Capitol Building. Another group of rioters chanted "Hang Mike Pence" as they stood in the open door of the Capitol Building. You can hear the security alarm from the door in the background. And you can hear the mob calling for the death of the vice president of the United States.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RIOTERS: Hang Mike Pence! Hang Mike Pence! Hang Mike Pence! Hang Mike Pence! Hang Mike Pence! Hang Mike Pence! Hang Mike Pence! Hang Mike Pence! Hang Mike Pence!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PLASKETT: This wasn't an isolated area or incident where that was being told -- where that was being said. It was going on everywhere.
Here is another example of the crowd outside yelling "Bring out Pence. Bring him out."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PROTESTER: Bring him out.
PROTESTER: Bring him out.
PROTESTER: Where the hell is Pence?
PROTESTER: Bring him out.
PROTESTER: Bring out Pence.
PROTESTER: Bring him out.
PROTESTER: Bring out Pence.
PROTESTER: Bring him out.
PROTESTER: Bring out Pence.
PROTESTER: Bring him out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PLASKETT: After President Trump had primed his followers for months and inflamed the rally-goers that morning, it is no wonder that the vice president of the United States was the target of their wrath, after Pence refused to overturn the election results.
Listen to this man explain.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PROTESTER: Well, Congress cowards hid in their -- inside and were emergency escorted away because of the fear of the people.
Of course, they're cowards, can't face the people, can't do the right thing. Pence lied to us. He's a total treasonous pig. And his name will be mud forever.
Now the real battle begins. And it looks like the American people are very pissed. So, good luck with that.
Peace out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PLASKETT: "Peace out."
Several insurrectionists described what they had planned to do if they encountered the vice president or other lawmakers. One of them, Dominic Pezzola, also known as Spaz, is a member of the Proud Boys, as we discussed.
Pezzola came to the Capitol on January 6 with deadly intentions. He commandeered a Capitol Police shield, used it to smash a glass window, entered the Capitol, and paved the way for dozens of insurrectionists.
As you recall from an earlier video, Pezzola was one of the first wave of rioters to breach the building. On the left, you can see a screenshot from the video of the break-in we showed earlier, and on the right, you can see Pezzola in the mob chase Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman through the building.
Pezzola is the man in the center of the video with the gray beard. Pezzola has since been charged with eight federal crimes for his conduct related to January 6. According to an FBI agent's affidavit submitted to the court, the group that was with him during the sack of the Capitol confirmed that they were out to murder -- quote -- "anyone they got their hands on."
Here is what the FBI said -- and I quote -- "Other members of the group talked about things they had done that day, and they said that anyone they got their hands on, they would have killed, including Nancy Pelosi" and that -- quote -- "They would have killed Vice President Mike Pence if given the chance."
[16:40:05]
They were talking about assassinating the vice president of the United States.
During the course of the attack, the vice president never left the Capitol, remained locked down with his family, with his family inside the building. Remember that as you think about these images and the sounds of the attack. The vice president, our second in command, was always at the center of it.
Vice President Pence was threatened by death by the president's supporters because he rejected President Trump's demand that he overturn the election.
The mob also went after speaker of the House, who, along with the vice president, was presiding over the joint session of the certification in the House chamber.
The chilling evidence shows that, on January 6, armed and organized insurrectionists trained their sights on Speaker Pelosi. They sought out the speaker on the floor and in her office, publicly declared their intent to harm or kill her, ransacked her office, and terrorized her staff.
And they did it because Donald Trump sent them on this mission.
As the insurrectionists got closer, Capitol Police rushed the speaker from the House floor at 2:15 p.m., mere minutes after the Capitol was first breach. They recognized immediately that she was in danger.
The speaker was not just rushed from the floor. The Capitol Police deemed the threat so dangerous that they evacuated her entirely from the Capitol Complex, rushing her to a secure off-site location.
The insurrectionists intent to murder the speaker of the House is well-documented in charging documents that are now available. We know from the rioters themselves that, if they had found Speaker Pelosi, they would have killed her.
I have already discussed Proud Boys member Dominic Pezzola, who has since been charged with eight federal crimes for his conduct on January 6. As you will recall, according to the FBI agents' affidavit submitted to the court, the group he attacked the Capitol with confirmed that -- quote -- "Anyone they got their hands on, they would have killed, including Nancy Pelosi."
William Calhoun, a lawyer from Georgia, also participated in the insurrection that day, and he too has been charged for his actions. This insurrectionist detailed his criminal activity at the Capitol online.
Calhoun wrote about his involvement on his own Facebook page. Here's the post.
Calhoun stated -- quote -- and get this -- "The first of us who got upstairs kicked in Nancy Pelosi's office door and pushed down the halls towards her inner sanctum, the mob howling with rage. Crazy Nancy probably would have been torn into little pieces, but she was nowhere to be seen."
Crazy Nancy, that's Trump's nickname for the speaker of the House.
Then he explains that he and his group only abandoned their claim to the speaker's office when -- quote -- "A SWAT team showed up."
He writes -- quote -- "Then a SWAT team showed, and we retreated back to the Rotunda and continued our hostile takeover of the Capitol Building."
Retreated. Hostile takeover. He's using military terms for this attack. The mob continued to look for Speaker Pelosi throughout the time it occupied the Capitol, including invading her offices.
Watch now how the mob searches for Speaker Pelosi's office, which is marked in red, and the House chamber itself.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RIOTER: Where are you, Nancy? We're looking for you.
RIOTER: She's in jail.
RIOTER: Nancy? Oh, Nancy? Nancy? Where are you, Nancy?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PLASKETT: During the siege, the speaker's staff took cover in her office, hiding in fear for their lives for hours, as rioters broke in and ransacked her office.
As the rioters were breaking into the Capitol, her staff retreated into an interior room. Eight of them gathered in a conference room.
[16:45:00]
About the same time Capitol Police announced the Capitol had been breached, Speaker Pelosi's staff heeded the call to shelter in place.
On our model, you can see the rioters in the Rotunda in red and the Speaker's office again in orange. So this is a security video, so there is no sound.
As you can see here, the staff moves from their offices through the halls and then enters a door on the right hand side. That's the outer door of a conference room, which also has an inner door that they barricaded with furniture. The staff then hid under a conference room table in that inner room.
This is the last staffer going in and then barricading themselves inside of the inner office. After just seven minutes of them barricading themselves and the last staffer entering the door on the right, a group of rioters entered the hallway outside, and once inside, the rioters have free rein in the Speaker of the House's offices.
In this security video, pay attention to the door that we saw those staffers leaning into and going into. One of the rioters, you can see, is throwing his body against the door three times until he breaks open that outer door. Luckily, when faced with the inner door, he moves on. Another rioter later tried unsuccessfully to break through that inner door. At this point, the mob had already broken into the Speaker's formal conference room that is in the back of the hall, at the top of the video. I want to play some audio we have of the Speaker's staff, with the rioters at the door that day. You can hear the terror in their voice as they describe what's happening to them, as they are barricaded in that conference room. Please listen carefully because the staffer is whispering into a phone as he hides from the rioters that are outside the door.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(UNKNOWN): (Inaudible), we need Capitol Police, I think (ph), (inaudible). They're coming in the doors, trying to find her now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PLASKETT: You can hear the pounding in the background as that staffer is speaking. One of those staffers explained later that they could hear the mob going through her offices, breaking down the door and yelling "where are you, Nancy?"
The mob also pillaged and vandalized the Speaker's office and documented their crimes on social media. They stole objects, desecrated the Office of the Speaker of the House of Representatives of the United States. As you can see in these photos, rioters broke down a door, they also shattered a mirror.
At 2:50 pm, several rioters, including Richard Barnett, entered Speaker Pelosi's office. The world is all -- all now too familiar with the images from these slides. If you look closely, however, at the now infamous pictures of Barnett with his feet on the desk, you might see something that you didn't notice previously. Here's a better look -- as this photo highlights, he's carrying a stun gun tucked into his waistband. The FBI identified the device as a 950,000-volt stun gun walking stick. The weapon could've caused serious pain and incapacitated anyone Barnett had used it against.
Richard Barnett bragged about his actions. He was proud of the way he desecrated the Speaker of the House's office. He left a note, "we will not back down." Here's Barnett in his own words.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARNETT: ... office.
(UNKNOWN): How'd you get it?
BARNETT: I didn't steal it, I bled on it cause they were fucking macing me and I couldn't fucking see. Hands on bigger (inaudible). I'm in her office, I got blood in her office. I put a quarter on her desk, even though she fucking wanted it (ph), and I left her a note on her desk that says "Nancy, (inaudible) always hear you, bitch."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[16:50:10]
PLASKETT: Trump's mob ransacked the speaker of the house's office. They terrorized her staff. Again, that is a mob that was sent by the President of the United States to stop the certification of an election.
The vice president, the speaker of the house, the first, and second in line to the presidency were performing their constitutional duties presiding over the election certification and they were put in danger because President Trump put his own desires, his own need for power over his duty to the Constitution and our democratic process. President Trump put a target on their backs and his mob broke into the Capitol to hunt them down.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(UNKNOWN): We're taking projectiles. Let's go, we need units outside on the terrace ASAP. We need units. We're surrounded.
(UNKNOWN): Cruiser 50 they've breached the scaffolds. Let Capitol know they have breached the scaffolds. They are behind our lines.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SWALWELL: Shortly after 2 p.m. the Capitol Police and Metropolitan Police were overwhelmed by President Trump's mob. Perimeters were broken, the Capitol had been breached. Those officers kept fighting back for hours, and hours to hold the line, they fought to defend the Capitol building and all of us within it but they weren't there just to protect us, and they did, and our staff, and the custodial staff, and all the people who work so hard in this building.
And they were there to protect the votes of the American people that were being counted that day. I will show you more later about what that day was like for those brave officers but first let's go back to what was happening, where Manager Plaskett left off in the House Chamber. Riders who had entered the building through the Senate quickly spread out through the Capitol.
Many headed towards the House and Senate Chambers. After Speaker Pelosi was ushered out, Chairman McGovern was presiding in the House, attempting to keep the counting process going. On our phones, members were receiving security updates and watching social media to see the horror that was going on outside.
We never thought it would make its way in. By 2:25 p.m. rioters who were already in the building opened the east side doors of the Capitol Rotunda to let more of the mob in. They quickly flooded through the doors, overwhelming the officers. This is new security footage of those doors, and as before the mob is identified with the red dot on the model of the Capitol.
[16:55:00]
If you look closely, you'll see the first person through the door is holding a Trump flag. At the same time, just one floor below the mob violently pushed through a line of Capitol Police officers and overtook the area. We all know that area in the Capitol as the crypt. This is directly beneath the rotunda at the very center of the Capitol.
Inside the House Chamber, a security officer suspended the floor debate to update members.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(UNKNOWN): (Inaudible) of tear gas in the rotunda. Please be advised there are masks under your seats, please grab a mask and place it in your lap and be prepared to don your mask (inaudible).
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SWALWELL: We were told there were tear gas masks underneath our seats and be prepared to grab them. Determined to keep the count going, Chairman McGovern called the House back into session but only four minutes later, at 2:30 PM, the House abruptly recessed. A new security announcement was made.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
(UNKNOWN): Get down under your chairs if necessary so we have folks entering the rotunda and coming down this way. So, we'll update you as soon as we can, but just be prepared, stay calm.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
SWALWELL: As I heard that announcement on the floor I saw the new House chaplain on just her fourth day on the job walk to the front podium. Unannounced and amidst the chaos she started to recite a prayer for peace. Uncertain what would happen next, I sent a text message to my wife. "I love you and the babies, please hug them for me." I imagine many of you sent a similar message.
What we could not see from inside the Chamber was that outside the mob was growing larger and larger, and approaching our doors but we could hear them. This security footage which does not have sound shows a close-up of Trump's mob as they move toward the second floor of the House Chamber to stop the counting of votes.
The next video is the viewpoint of the insurrectionists. It begins with the mobs amassing and then cuts ahead to show you their surge to the House door.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PROTESTERS: We want Trump, we want Trump, we want Trump, we want Trump, we want Trump, we want Trump, we want Trump, we want Trump, we want Trump, we want Trump, we want Trump.
(UNKNOWN): All right, no violence.
PROTESTER: It's too late for that, they don't listen without that shit. PROTESTERS. Stop the steal, stop the steal, stop the steal.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Those doors, to orient you at home, are the doors that the President of the United States walks through when he or she gives a State of the Union Address.
[17:00:00]
