4.2 • 2.5K Ratings
🗓️ 14 December 2021
⏱️ 44 minutes
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The January 6 House Committee votes to hold Mark Meadows in contempt of Congress as the investigation releases texts from several Fox News hosts, GOP members and Trump’s son, to Meadows, urging the then President and his team to calm tensions as the Capitol riot exploded.
Plus, Chris Wallace leaves Fox News after 18 years to join CNN+ in a surprise move which may have been influenced by his objection to Fox’s conspiracy theory content ‘Patriot Purge’, the Philadelphia D.A. apologizes for downplaying the City’s violence problem, and Rand Paul’s disaster relief hypocrisy: suddenly, it’s not socialism.
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0:00.0 | News continues. Let's hand it over to Michael Smerchanish and see you next time. |
0:06.0 | Anderson, thank you. I am Michael Smerchanish and welcome to CNN Tonight. Something stunning |
0:11.4 | happened this evening. The committee investigating January 6th held the man second only to Donald |
0:17.7 | Trump in the West Wing on the day of the attempted insurrection in contempt of Congress. |
0:23.4 | And moreover, for the first time, we heard that not only were Republican members of Congress |
0:28.0 | privately texting the chief of staff seeking help in stopping the siege, but so too were some of the |
0:35.4 | president's favorite mouthpieces. Who, since January 6th, are the least willing to talk about the |
0:41.7 | reality of that day? In fact, I couldn't help but notice that their network didn't even carry |
0:47.0 | live the events that I'm now showing you. This witness must testify like 300 other witnesses before |
0:56.1 | him have done, either voluntarily and proudly as a patriotic citizen, or at least under compulsion |
1:04.1 | of subpoena by the Congress of the United States. But he has no right anywhere in our constitutional |
1:09.8 | system to defy a subpoena from the House of Representatives. What we saw tonight was a committee |
1:16.8 | making clear that even some of the biggest names in Trump world knew what we all were watching unfold |
1:22.8 | on January 6th was not just a protest, and many of the president's most public supporters |
1:29.3 | were privately urging the White House to get the president to call off the attack. |
1:35.3 | Members of Congress, the press, and others wrote to Mark Meadows as the attack was underway. |
1:42.7 | One text Mr. Meadows received said, quote, we are under siege here at the Capitol. |
1:48.6 | Another quote they have breached the Capitol. In a third, Mark protestors are literally storming |
1:59.4 | the Capitol, breaking windows on doors, rushing in. Is Trump going to say something? This is hurting |
2:07.7 | all of us. He is destroying his legacy, Laura Ingram wrote. Please get him on TV, destroying |
2:18.0 | everything you have accomplished. Brian Kilmead texted. Quote, can he make a statement, ask people |
2:26.8 | to leave the Capitol. Sean Hannity urged. As the violence continued, one of the president's sons |
... |
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