WEBVTT

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Our Democratic law makers investigating
the first coup attempt this country

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has ever seen, taking a butter knife to a 
gun fight?

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Or will they, as they're signaling
tonight,

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truly get tough on those who stand

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between them and the truth?
Also, did President Biden just wheel a

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Howitzer into the battle?
John Berman here, in for Anderson,

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A string of new developments to bring you

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from both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue.

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They all touch on this: Whether those who
tried to undermine democracy itself will

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be held accountable. Because as one
political observer Tweeted today,

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"An unpunished coup is a training
exercise." Those are the stakes as the

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committee tries to enforce subpoenas
on four ex-Trump aids and allies. As of

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tonight, only two, former White House
Chief-of-Staff Mark Meadows and former

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Pentagon official Kash Patel, are even
engaging at all in the process after a

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midnight deadline came for producing
documents came and went;

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and that's the committee's word,
by the way.

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Engaging,
which could mean anything, and is a far

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cry from cooperating. Dan Scavino, it's
not clear whether he has responded at all,

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or has even been served. However, he has
not even mentioned in the joint statement

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from committee chair Benny Thompson and
vice chair Liz Cheney. As for Steve

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Bannon, he's flat out defying the
committee. His lawyer, citing the former

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president's executive privilege, which is
a pretty braising claim to make given

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that Bannon hasn't worked in the White
House since 2017. And for the record,

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January 6, 2021 wasn't in 2017. Bannon is
acting on the former president's orders.

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A Trump lawyer last night, telling all
four not to comply. As you know, the

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former president has made is clear that
he no longer even sees January 6 as a

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thing, saying this week, the real
insurrection was on election day. And last

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night on Fox he made his contempt plain
for those who have tried and failed to

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hold him accountable. "They had fake
impeachments, two fake impeachments, where

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the Republicans were great, I have to say,
they stuck with us. The whole thing was

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fake, and I had to survive. And to survive
you had to be tough. And you had to be out

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there. You didn't have time to be
necessarily dainty and nice." 'Dainty and

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nice,' or as it used to be called,
following the rules, obeying the law, that

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sort of thing. Faced with that kind of
attitude, the Biden White House today

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broke a tradition, saying the president
would not invoke executive privilege over

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Trump documents sought from the national
archives by the select committee. In other

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words, Biden would allow the release. So
there is now a conflict, because we

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learned late today that the former
president has sent a letter to the

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archives asserting privilege and threating
to, quote "take all necessary and

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appropriate steps to protect the office of
the presidency." And President Biden?

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Listen to how his press secretary framed
it. "The administration takes the events

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of January 6 incredibly seriously. As the
president said on its six month

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anniversary, that day posed an existential
crisis and a test of whether our democracy

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could survive." 'Whether our democracy
could survive.' That's really something to

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hear from anyone, let alone someone
speaking for the president. It's also

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where we are tonight.