Hi everyone, happy Friday. It's 4 o'clock in New York. There are two things that happened

yesterday that underscore how the threat to our democracy that made itself most visible

on January 6 indoors and how it just might very soon come up against the push for accountability

for the insurrection. Washington Post reports this, Donald Trump on Thursday praised and embraced

a woman convicted of defying police orders on the U.S. Capitol grounds on January 6.

Quote, Listen, you just hang in there. Donald Trump told the woman, Mickey Larson Olsen, who

was found guilty on a misdemeanor charge of resisting police efforts to clear the grounds

after the insurrection by a pro-Trump mob. Quote, you guys are going to be okay. Trump,

who was campaigning in New Hampshire, then agreed to sign the backpack she said she carried

to the Capitol complex on the day of the interruption of the congressional proceedings to formally

certify Trump's loss in the 2020 election. Just hours before the ex-president and GOP

front-runner literally embraced an insurrectionist where you can't make that up territory now.

A member of the mob that chanted Hang Mike Fence at the Capitol, a watershed moment took

place somewhere else in the federal criminal investigation into January 6. As we reported

on this program yesterday during this hour, the former VP Mike Pence testified before

a federal grand jury. New York Times reports this, it is not clear what testimony Pence

provided Thursday, but prosecutors were surely interested in Pence's accounts of his interactions

with Trump and Trump advisers, including Johnny Smith, a lawyer who promoted the idea that

they could use the congressional certification process on January 6 to give Trump a chance

to remain in office. Pence's testimony could help prosecutors grasp what would be a vital

building block of any potential criminal case against the ex-president, his state of mind.

Here's what former January 6 committee member Adam Schiff had to say about that right

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