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.