>> Representative Ayanna Pressley, specifically her Chief of Staff, has raised some concerns
about what they experienced as the riots were taking place in the Capitol. Sarah Groh, who is
her Chief of Staff says that every panic button in my office had been torn out, the whole unit.
That is, I mean, incredibly suspicious.
So the buttons had actually been there, and Ayanna Pressley had not changed offices, so there's
no other real explanation of what happened. She went on to say that the panic buttons were
installed because Ms. Pressley, a member of the progressive group of the House Democrats,
dubbed the Squad, had been on the receiving end of racist attacks by Donald Trump and his supporters.
Remember, there was a period of time where Trump was just laser-focused on pointing out members
of the Squad and using the same type of rhetoric that we've seen. Encouraging his supporters to go
after them, attack them. Two US Capitol Police officers, by the way, have since been suspended
and at least 10 more are under investigation for playing potential roles in the riot, in the riot.
And John, just before we went on air, you mentioned
an update to those numbers, which is terrifying. >> Yeah, so this is at least according to The
Appeal, the most recent number I've seen is 28 currently serving police from around the
country have so far been identified. And remember, we're still in the initial days of this thing.
People are combing through all the live-streamed video, going through the Parler posts, and things
like that, but 28. Well, I don't know why. It's good that we have a number, I don't know, I hope
nobody watching this is surprised, like really, cops would do this? Yeah, I feel like if you were
to rank by job, that would probably be one of the highest numbers that I would have expected.
>> So there were other questionable things that were noticed by Democratic lawmakers.
I wanna now turn to Representative Sherrill
who just noticed that a day before the riots took place, there were certain tours happening in the
Capitol Building. Let's watch what she has to say. >> We can't have a democracy if members of
Congress are actively helping the President overturn the election results.
And so not only do I intend to see that the President is removed and never runs
for office again and doesn't have access to classified material. I also intend
to see that those members of Congress who abetted him, those members of Congress who
had groups coming through the Capitol that I saw on January 5, a reconnaissance for the next day.
Those members of Congress that incited this violent crowd.
Those members of Congress that attempted to help our President
undermine our democracy. I'm going to see that they're held accountable, and if necessary,
ensure that they don't serve in Congress. >> So John, she mentions Republican lawmakers
taking people on reconnaissance tours of the Capitol building a day before the riots happened.
And she didn't provide any additional detail into that, but I wanted to get your thoughts.
Especially because you've seen a lot of Alex Jones-type people invited to
the Capitol, to the White House, by Republicans, by Donald Trump.
And I've always wondered about whether that would serve as a security risk in the future.
>> Yeah, well, I can say that them being invited to the conventions didn't work out great.
But anyway, back in 2016, anyway, with the panic buttons and with the tours, I mean,
hopefully we will see. There's a lot of little things like this,
and I'm sure some of them will end up not being what it seems like, sure.
The fact that the panic buttons were torn out, and I would assume, generally, I don't
have a lot of experience with panic buttons, I would assume they're hidden, seems especially
significant. The tours, they said that the tours hadn't been going on,
because it's a pandemic, so that seems incredibly suspicious.
I'm assuming investigations are ongoing. But I will just say that while we don't know for sure,
we can't say for sure that a member wasn't involved in either this, or that Capitol
Police were involved potentially. Or maintenance was involved potentially
in removing the panic buttons of what has to be one of the members at the top of whatever
lists these insane people would put together.
If anyone who is sort of new to engaging day-to-day with what America is like these
days thinks that someone being elected into office wouldn't do something like that,
they need to look at the history of some of these individuals.
Look at the things that Marjorie Taylor Greene has said and done.
And they present themselves in a way, we're used to people like Ted Cruz, who tries to create the
people seem like true believers to me, the idea that they wouldn't help from the inside. I don't
think that we should jump to that conclusion. >> Well, to that point, it's been reported in
multiple outlets, including The Intercept and The Washington Post, that the lead organizer for the
so-called Stop the Steal rally was working alongside Republican members of Congress.
Again, this is something that we can't confirm.
The investigation is ongoing, but here's what we know. Here's what the allegation is. Ali
Alexander, who organized the Stop the Steal movement, said he hatched the plan, coinciding
with Congress's vote to certify the electoral college votes, alongside three GOP lawmakers.
Representatives Andy Biggs of Arizona, Mo Brooks of Alabama, and Paul Gosar of Arizona,
all hard-line Trump supporters. And his statement was, we four schemed up of putting
maximum pressure on Congress while they were voting, Alexander said in a since deleted tweet,
or Periscope, I should say. And then he also said that the plan was to change the hearts and
the minds of Republicans who were in that body, hearing our loud roar from outside.
So that was his Periscope, which, again, has been deleted for obvious reasons. But, look,
I'm glad that there's an investigation taking place, if there is. First of all,
anyone who enabled Donald Trump and his lies about widespread election fraud? Gone, gone,
anyone who decided to challenge the electoral college votes for their own political careers,
they should be gone, they should be removed from office, 14th amendment.
But there should be criminal charges for any member of Congress who has been proven
to have engaged in organizing what happened in that insurrectionist riot,
and Democrats can't back down from that. >> Yeah, and look, one way that
hypothetically we could come to this is they've begun to track down people.
At some point, they're going to track down people who are involved in the organization.
Some of the people who are in the building, and they're going to try to get them to flip.
I saw that one of the alt-right online people who was live broadcasting from inside of it,
that Baked Alaska person, apparently right now isn't facing any charges.
Which could mean that our justice system is failing, as always,
or it could mean, hypothetically, that he's cooperating with law enforcement.
And if the coordination did happen and if it was electronic, there are gonna be some
people in there who, in theory, could provide that evidence to investigators.
Who knows, we'll see. But it's possible, the fact that every file on Parler or whatever had
been downloaded, that potentially is another way that some of this could be identified.
>> Right. >> It's gonna be
complicated, there's a lot of people, it was organized over a good period of time.
We don't know how long the investigation will take. But remember that the crazy people who've
joined our Congress don't seem like the smartest individuals either. So I think it
raises a greater chance that they could have slipped up and made some of this trackable.