Our Democratic law makers investigating
the first coup attempt this country
has ever seen, taking a butter knife to a
gun fight?
Or will they, as they're signaling
tonight,
truly get tough on those who stand
between them and the truth?
Also, did President Biden just wheel a
Howitzer into the battle?
John Berman here, in for Anderson,
A string of new developments to bring you
from both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue.
They all touch on this: Whether those who
tried to undermine democracy itself will
be held accountable. Because as one
political observer Tweeted today,
"An unpunished coup is a training
exercise." Those are the stakes as the
committee tries to enforce subpoenas
on four ex-Trump aids and allies. As of
tonight, only two, former White House
Chief-of-Staff Mark Meadows and former
Pentagon official Kash Patel, are even
engaging at all in the process after a
midnight deadline came for producing
documents came and went;
and that's the committee's word,
by the way.
Engaging,
which could mean anything, and is a far
cry from cooperating. Dan Scavino, it's
not clear whether he has responded at all,
or has even been served. However, he has
not even mentioned in the joint statement
from committee chair Benny Thompson and
vice chair Liz Cheney. As for Steve
Bannon, he's flat out defying the
committee. His lawyer, citing the former
president's executive privilege, which is
a pretty braising claim to make given
that Bannon hasn't worked in the White
House since 2017. And for the record,
January 6, 2021 wasn't in 2017. Bannon is
acting on the former president's orders.
A Trump lawyer last night, telling all
four not to comply. As you know, the
former president has made is clear that
he no longer even sees January 6 as a
thing, saying this week, the real
insurrection was on election day. And last
night on Fox he made his contempt plain
for those who have tried and failed to
hold him accountable. "They had fake
impeachments, two fake impeachments, where
the Republicans were great, I have to say,
they stuck with us. The whole thing was
fake, and I had to survive. And to survive
you had to be tough. And you had to be out
there. You didn't have time to be
necessarily dainty and nice." 'Dainty and
nice,' or as it used to be called,
following the rules, obeying the law, that
sort of thing. Faced with that kind of
attitude, the Biden White House today
broke a tradition, saying the president
would not invoke executive privilege over
Trump documents sought from the national
archives by the select committee. In other
words, Biden would allow the release. So
there is now a conflict, because we
learned late today that the former
president has sent a letter to the
archives asserting privilege and threating
to, quote "take all necessary and
appropriate steps to protect the office of
the presidency." And President Biden?
Listen to how his press secretary framed
it. "The administration takes the events
of January 6 incredibly seriously. As the
president said on its six month
anniversary, that day posed an existential
crisis and a test of whether our democracy
could survive." 'Whether our democracy
could survive.' That's really something to
hear from anyone, let alone someone
speaking for the president. It's also
where we are tonight.