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January 6 Committee Votes to Subpoena Trump for Document, Testimony; Committee Plays Never-Before-Seen Footage of Congressional Leaders. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired October 13, 2022 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00]

REP. LIZ CHENEY (R-WY): And is Mr. Clark testifying before our committee.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Clark, when did you first talk directly with President Trump?

JEFFREY CLARK, FORMER ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL: Fifth.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Clark, did you discuss with President Trump allegations of fraud in the 2020 election?

CLARK: Fifth.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHENEY: Other witnesses have also gone to enormous lengths to avoid testifying about their dealings with Donald Trump. Steve Bannon has been tried and convicted by a jury of his peers for contempt of Congress. He is scheduled to be sentenced for this crime later this month.

Criminal proceedings regarding Peter Navarro continue. And Mark Meadows, Donald Trump's former chief of staff has refused to testify based upon executive privilege. The committee's litigation with him continues.

Mr. Chairman, at some point the Department of Justice may well unearth facts that these and other witnesses are currently concealing. But our duty today is to our country and our children, and our Constitution. We are obligated to seek answers directly from the man who set this all in motion, and every American is entitled to those answers so we can act now to protect our Republic.

So, this afternoon, I am offering this resolution that the committee direct the chairman to issue a subpoena for relevant documents and testimony under oath from Donald John Trump in connection with the January 6th attack on the United States Capitol. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back. REP. BENNIE THOMPSON (D-MS): Gentlelady yields back. If there's no

further debate, the question is on agreeing to the resolution. Those in favor will say aye.

All: Aye.

THOMPSON: Those opposed as, no? In the opinion of the chair, the ayes have it.

CHENEY: Mr. Chairman, I request a recorded vote.

THOMPSON: A recorded vote is requested. The clerk will call the roll.

CLERK: Ms. Cheney.

CHENEY: Aye.

CLERK: Ms. Cheney, aye. Ms. Lofgren?

REP. ZOE LOFGREN (D-CA): Aye.

CLERK: Ms. Lofgren, aye. Mr. Schiff?

REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): Aye.

CLERK: Mr. Schiff, aye. Mr. Aguilar?

REP: PETE AGUILAR (D-CA): Aye.

CLERK: Mr. Aguilar, aye. Mrs. Murphy?

REP: STEPHANIE MURPHY (D-FL): Aye.

CLERK: Mrs. Murphy, aye. Mr. Raskin.

REP. JAMIE RASKIN (D-MD): Aye.

CLERK: Mr. Raskin, aye. Mrs. Luria.

REP. ELAINE LURIA (D-VA): Aye.

CLERK: Mrs. Luria, aye. Mr. Kinzinger?

REP. ADAM KINZINGER (R-IL): Kinzinger, aye.

CLERK: Mr. Kinzinger, aye. Mr. Chairman?

THOMPSON: Aye.

CLERK: Mr. Chairman, aye.

THOMPSON: The clerk will report the vote.

CLERK: Mr. Chairman, on this vote, there are nine ayes and zero noes.

THOMPSON: The resolution is agreed to. Without objection, a motion to reconsider is laid on the table. The chair requests that those in the hearing room remain seated until the Capitol police have escorted members from the room. Without objection, the committee stands adjourned.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: And there you have it. A moment in history. Nine aye votes, zero no votes. The committee has now just decided unanimously to subpoena Donald J. Trump for both testimony and documents relating to the attempt to overturn the election.

It is a theatrical display in a way. They could have just announced it in a press release, but they wanted this moment recorded before everyone in history. Very strong statements from the members, particularly from the vice chair, Congresswoman Liz Cheney who literally has sacrificed her political career to try to get to the bottom of what happened on January 6th and hold Donald Trump accountable.

Jamie Gangel, one of the things that was so interesting I think was they talked about and Liz Cheney talked about there would likely be criminal referrals for another day, not for today of multiple individuals she said, and then she gave a hint as to who those individuals were, who would be criminally referred to the Justice Department.

JAMIE GANGEL, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT: My report is that they do expect to have criminal referrals.

TAPPER: Plural, yes.

GANGEL: Plural, and they expect it to be a unanimous vote by the committee. But what we saw here today was Liz Cheney really lay out Donald Trump and I use the word coconspirators. Roger Stone, Michael Flynn, John Eastman, Jeff Clark, Steve Bannon, Peter Navarro, and then Mark Meadows the former chief of staff who's refused to testify.

[15:35:00]

That is what they have been leading to. But over and over again today, we heard the most important thing -- all roads lead to Donald Trump. These people were in effect, she's saying doing his bidding. They were part of the group.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Also, the drama of that ending there. The climax of all of these hearings with the vote to subpoena the man that they over and over have argued for testimony and evidence was the reason for the insurrection, the reason for the attack on the Capitol. And the last thing they do is vote unanimously, gavel --

TAPPER: Out.

BASH: Out. Lights out. They're obviously going to have a final report, but when it comes to the public testimony, that was clearly intentional the way that they did that.

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: You've heard the chairman Bennie Thompson saying this was about accountability. The accountability that Trump has to the American people for what happened on January 6th for his actions after the election for the way in which he was an integral part at the heart of everything that transpired over those -- those days.

The committee wants to be clear that Trump actually owes answers. And I think this is -- this is the -- you know, we hear a lot from Trump on Truth Social and there are all these rantings, but he's never been really subject to real questioning on what has been laid out over these last few months. And I do think that it would be revelatory if we were to hear from him. We probably won't, but I do think it would be revelatory. I do think the American people are owed that, and they're owed, I think, more than just the spin we have been getting from the various social media accounts.

This is a very serious thing. It's not just about partisan politics and I do think that that's one of the points that the committee is trying to make here, is that he has an opportunity to come clean about his version of events, and he just won't do it. I think we know he won't do it.

GANGEL: Could I just add two words? Hear from him, quote, under oath.

TAPPER: Under oath.

GANGEL: That's the difference. We hear from him all the time. The point is under oath.

TAPPER: And John King, one of the most devastating parts of the hearing today leading to this, it's not unprecedented, but shocking move by Congress, a bold move by Congress by the committee to subpoena President Trump or former President Trump for documents and testimony. The violence, the incitement, the determination of individuals to come to the Capitol and kill people laid at the floor of the president of the United States.

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And the compelling testimony again, not from the media, not from Democrats, not from what Trump calls Republicans in name only, Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, but his own people. His own aides in the White House, his own Secret Service detail, his own Pentagon, his own intelligence agencies as they watched the crowds in the days before January 6th.

Again, this is the testimony -- you're a broken record of sorts, but that there are still Trump supporters out there who think this is some fabrication, that Donald Trump did nothing wrong, that those people did nothing wrong. Because they are under that spell.

Again, people close to Trump, not just about the violence, he was warned that morning, it was his people. They were armed and they were talking about going to the Capitol, and then with Kevin McCarthy, hours later Donald Trump says it's Antifa. He knows better.

Mike Pompeo, a member of his cabinet, saying he also was among the people who told the president this is over. We all know it's over. So, he knew it was over. He continued to challenge the election. He knew about the potential of violence and he continued to support what was happening. It's essentially like everybody in the fire department telling the chief the town is on fire, and the chief says, cool, let's go watch on television.

TAPPER: And you talk about it being -- there are all these people who still believe that Donald Trump did nothing wrong being under his spell. I think it's also worth pointing out that he unlike Richard Nixon for example, has an entire right wing MAGA media ecosystem. And fact totems on Capitol Hill who share his lies, whether they believe them or not. More likely --

KING: Financial and political incentive to continue it.

TAPPER: Yes, there's an entire channel -- there are several channels that all they do is spew Donald Trump's lies. That's also part of the spellbinding nature of it all. George, do you think Donald Trump has any legal exposure here?

GEORGE CONWAY, CONSERVATIVE LAWYER: Yes, he has an enormous amount of legal exposure, and you know, this was all of this, all of that evidence, all of the pointing at Trump. It was a dramatic and as you say, a theatrical moment. It was this moment of sha-kus, and you have to come to us to testify under oath.

He won't do it. And they highlighted the fact he won't do it by noting in fact that so many around him took the Fifth Amendment or otherwise avoided testimony and that's what he's going to do here obviously, but it really puts it to him. And why can't he answer? Why can't he answer directly?

[15:40:00]

Why can't he answer under oath? And he won't, and that's -- that's the gauntlet.

All right -- Anderson.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Jake, thanks very much. You saw during the hearings, several minutes of a never before seen video that was taken inside essentially what was a bunker. It was actually Fort McNair, which has been previously reported. But we've never really seen images from inside the place where members of Congress were evacuated to while the Capitol was under attack. They played several minutes of it.

We have obtained the entire -- nearly all of the video that was turned over to the committee. They had more than 40 minutes of material to choose from. They only played several minutes. I want to show you about a minute or so of what they played earlier.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA) SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: We have got to get -- to finish the proceedings or else they will have a complete victory.

PELOSI: There has to be some way we can maintain this sense that people have that there is some security or some confidence, that government can function, and that we can elect the president of the United States. Do we go back into session?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We did go back into session, but now apparently everybody on the floor is putting on tear gas masks to prepare for a breach. I'm trying to get more information.

PELOSI: They're putting on their --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Tear gas masks.

PELOSI: Do you believe this?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can't.

PELOSI: Oh my gosh. They're just breaking windows. They're doing all -- all kinds of -- it's really -- they said somebody was shot. It's just -- it's just horrendous, and all at the instigation of the president of the United States.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Now as I mentioned, we just showed you about a minute or so clip. They showed probably a few more minutes during the committee hearing today. I've actually seen the entire 40-plus minutes of video which was provided to the committee. I've seen most of it what was provided to the committee. And we're going to be airing most of that tonight on my program at 8:00 p.m. tonight. We're also going to be airing other footage that has never been seen before that was taken in Speaker Pelosi's office while the -- before the attack began, and also as the Speaker, her family, her staff watched the mob approach the Capitol, ultimately leading to their evacuation. And also, video of their return to Capitol Hill after the -- it was secured.

The video was taken by Alexandra Pelosi who is a very respected documentary filmmaker. She's the daughter of Speaker Pelosi. She was there that day with members of her own family taking to be part of history and to watch the transfer of power, and she started to record and obviously once this turned into an attack on the Capitol, she continued to roll with her cameras as she followed her mother to the -- to the evacuation point.

So, it's really a remarkable piece of just history that has been captured that has never before been seen. You only saw a little glimpse of it. We'll show you nearly the entire thing tonight at 8:00 p.m.

But it's really -- I mean, when I saw this video, it's -- it is obviously -- it's extraordinary. You see members of Congress, Republicans and Democrats, at Fort McNair huddled together trying to figure out what they can do to keep these proceedings going. We see much more than we ever knew before about their attempts, their discussions about moving the entire Congress to a location to actually continue the vote and then deciding, no. It has to take place at Capitol Hill.

You see on the phone, Senator Schumer, Senator Pelosi. You see Speaker Pelosi talking twice with Vice President Mike Pence, expressing concern for his safety. Discussing plans to try to make sure that this -- that this attack does not succeed in the sense of stopping the certification of the vote.

You see Senator Schumer arguing with and demanding the acting Attorney General tell the president of the United States to make some sort of a statement. The acting Attorney General who at that point had lost favor of the president, acting-Attorney General Rosen, essentially avoids Schumer trying to get him to do this. We'll show all of that to you. I'm just stunned by the historic importance of these images and that they are just now coming out.

[15:45:00]

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Was it striking to you, Anderson, that it seemed to be that these people in Congress were trying to get the security that should have been sent there originally by the president of the United States, and that they had spoken to Mike Pence more than the president had?

COOPER: Well, they are clearly -- they are calling up, you know, people at the Pentagon. They are calling up governors --

BORGER: Yes.

COOPER: -- in Maryland, in Virginia. Speaker Pelosi talks about calling up the mayor of D.C. They are trying to get whatever military or police assets to be brought to bear as possible knowing -- and they're also hearing stories of was there a hold on getting the D.C. National Guard there? So, they called the defense secretary to try to -- or the acting secretary of defense to try to understand is there some sort of a hold in place.

He tells them there's not, but that he had to get permission of the chain of command. It is -- it's just extraordinary when the first time I saw these images, I just -- you feel like you are -- you're witnessing history. And we think we have seen so much of this event. We feel like we've seen all these images. You have not seen the behind the scenes of what is happening like we're going to show you tonight.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: It pushes back also on what we've heard from so many Republicans saying that they're pointing the finger at Pelosi. Saying she didn't act. And maybe if they don't disband the committee in the way that it is now, they'll change it to focus on what happened with law enforcement that day. And to see Pelosi calling and Schumer calling people --

COOPER: And you see Steve Scalise is in the room with her. You see McCarthy as well.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mitch McConnell.

COOPER: McConnell at one point. Sidney Hoyer. Some of them are with them in the huddle. Some of them don't seem as engaged and are probably making phone calls of their own. But I mean, you can judge for yourself in the 40-plus minutes of video that you will see tonight who was doing what. LAURA COATES, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: What you don't see in these

scenes though, which was the striking part, not one of these people was the commander in chief. I mean, just think that we're seeing these video images after having seen the testimony that the president of the United States was alone in a room, the chief of staff flipping through his phone. Oh, are people attacking the Capitol? I mean, just the state of dismissive nature compared to the frenetic energy to try to keep people safe. I mean, Pelosi in that conversation, she's calling governors. She's trying to get anyone from the District of Colombia to help.

COOPER: She's saying, somebody at the Pentagon -- well, imagine this was the Pentagon, imagine was the White House as if, you know, you have to remind them, Capitol, you know, the Capitol is, you know, the third branch of government.

COLLINS: And that clip of Chris Miller who was at the Pentagon at the time -- he wasn't saying, yes, we will help you right away. Yes, we're see this. Yes, we're monitoring this. He was kind of speaking in circles trying to answer to her about executing certain things. He didn't have a clear answer.

BORGER: Because they didn't have permission necessarily.

COOPER: And I think you hear some of that frustration in a lot of these phone calls that will play tonight. We'll hear more fully.

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: I'm just wondering on a human level, Anderson. Of course, the Speaker's daughter, Alexandra, was there and filming this. But my understanding is other family members including grandchildren were there. How does that play on the tapes and what did you get out of that?

COOPER: Yes, there is a -- I believe both of her grandchildren were there. There's one image if my memory serves me correct of actually one of the grandkids watching out the window of Speaker Pelosi's office as thousands of people are approaching the Capitol. And I believe in one of the shots that was shown in there, you see one of the grandkids in a theater at Fort McNair. So, it's obviously -- it is, you know -- and this was not how they expected the day to go obviously. Their entire family was there to witness this historic event. Turned into a very different kind of historic event.

COATES: In the clips you're going to show tonight on your show, are we going to hear more from the responses of people? We didn't hear -- we (INAUDIBLE) the Attorney General, Mr. Attorney General, do something about this. Will we hear that?

COOPER: You will hear the entire exchange with the acting Attorney General as well as with others. I got to toss back to Jake in D.C. -- Jake.

TAPPER: All right, Anderson, thanks so much. Let's talk more about this new subpoena going to Donald Trump for documents and testimony, and the new evidence that Donald Trump had a premeditated plan to declare victory, regardless of the actual election results. We're joined by Olivia Troye who served as an adviser to Vice

President Mike Pence and Sarah Matthews, a former deputy White House press secretary who testified before the January 6 select committee.

Sarah, so, you know, we saw a lot of testimony today, a lot of evidence that Donald Trump, the plan all along as far back as the summer of 2020 was, well, no matter what happens, Trump's going to go out there and declare victory one way or another. Had you ever heard anything about that when you were in the White House?

SARAH MATTHEWS, FORMER DEPUTY WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: So, I don't think I had ever heard there was a plan for him to declare victory. I wasn't privy to those conversations. But I do think there was a lot of evidence of him, you know, kind of saying that mail-in voting would be fraudulent.

[15:50:00]

That was something that the campaign was pushing and that the White House was pushing, you know, in the summer leading up to the election.

So, I do think that he was building that case come November if he did lose that he might have something to point to. Because I think he wanted there to be a scapegoat for if he did lost.

TAPPER: Yes, as opposed to him being a president that they didn't want to be in the White House anymore. Olivia, testimony from multiple, multiple officials in the White House officials shows that Trump knew that he lost the election. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GEN. MARK MILLEY, JOINT CHIEFS CHAIRMAN: So, we're in the Oval Office and there is a discussion going on. And the president says, I think -- it could have been Pompeo. But he says words to the effect of, yeah, we lost. We need to let that issue go to the next guy -- meaning President Biden.

ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN, FORMER WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: I remember maybe a week after the election was called, I popped into the Oval just to like give the president the headlines and see how he was doing. And he was looking at the TV and he said, can you believe I lost to this f'ing guy.

CASSIDY HUTCHINSON, FORMER AIDE TO MARK MEADOWS: Mike raised it with me on the 18th. And so, following a conversation with the motorcade drive back to the White House, I said does the president really think that he lost? And he said, you know, a lot of times he'll tell me that he lost, but he wants to keep fighting it. He thinks there might be enough to overturn the election. But you know, he's pretty much has acknowledged that he's lost.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TAPPER: What do you think? OLIVIA TROYE, FORMER WHITE HOUSE HOMELAND SECURITY ADVISOR TO MIKE

PENCE: Look, I think this is a very dangerous scenario that they lead out. Honestly, it brought back some memories to Sarah's point of the previous summer.

I had a conversation with someone on Mike Pence's staff talking about what happens if he doesn't leave if he loses. And I have to tell you, that it was kind of jarring to watch this today, know about the memo that Greg Jacob, Pence's counsel wrote prior to the election. And where they were preparing and saying hey, make sure that Pence is careful that he doesn't go along with a victory call by Trump. You got to be careful with that. And looking forward at the extent of this, that it goes on. That Trump is fully aware of this.

And also, I've got to say for someone who worked in counterterrorism for so long, the sort of like actions that Trump was trying to take in the immediate after that, knowing he lost about the withdrawal from Somalia, that is frightening that he was going to take such rash actions. And I think it speaks to what the future for this country would look like if Trump comes back into the office or someone like him, who are of this mentality. Where they undermine our democracy, they do these types of actions and the rash sort of action they can take in response to something like this.

TAPPER: And the committee played this shocking new video played from inside the Capitol as leaders reacted to the insurrection in realtime, including your former boss, Mike Pence. In your view -- well, here it is, some of the video. You think Trump abdicated his responsibility, Olivia?

TROYE: Yes, absolutely. I mean, there is the entire leadership trying to do everything they can in this moment to figure out how they get through this situation. Mike Pence is, you know, taking leadership, ownership of the situation, knowing there is a person sitting in the Oval Office who is just behaving complete dereliction of duty and doing nothing, nothing to stop this situation.

TAPPER: And Sarah, there's this new secret service text messages revealed today that show that a number of agents spotted numerous guns in the crowd the morning of January 6th before Donald Trump was set to speak. Which squares with Cassidy Hutchinson's testimony that Trump had been told that a number of people couldn't get in because the magnetometers were keeping them out. That's just shocking and upsetting. We're honestly lucky that more people didn't die that day when you think about it.

MATTHEWS: No, you're absolutely right. And I think it -- he can try to claim that he was unaware that the people in the crowd were armed, but we're talking about the president of the United States. Of course, they're going raise something like that to him. And so, he can't claim that he didn't know that. And now that we're seeing Secret Service was well aware, that corroborates Cassidy Hutchinson's testimony.

And I also think something really alarming that was revealed from the Secret Service messages was, they were well aware there could be violence. I think it was up to ten days in advance leading up to the rally. And so, they knew that there could be violence happening. And you would think that they would warn the president of something like that.

TAPPER: Yes, it's shocking that more was not done given that information. Thanks to both of you. Appreciate it.

Coming up, we're going talk live with the January 6th committee member, Congressman Jamie Raskin, Democrat of Maryland. And then we're going replay all of the dramatic new video of Congressional leaders holed up at that military base during the insurrection. Stay with us.

[15:55:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Extraordinary move by Congress a short while ago, the January 6th Select Committee just voted unanimously to subpoena former president Donald Trump, seeking his testimony and documents in their investigation of the insurrection.

I'm Anderson Cooper.

TAPPER: Special edition of THE LEAD. Committee members are demanding answers and accountability from Donald J. Trump after presenting damning new evidence designed to show that he was at the center of violent and unlawful efforts to overturn the 2020 election.