John Berman on what's at stake in January 6 investigation

Our Democratic lawmakers 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 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 the 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 it clear,
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 todau

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 threatening
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 as 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.