Transcripts For CNN CNN Tonight With Don Lemon 20240711

That cant help but make you smile. It is love, love, love. Send the love. Order now at edible. Com oh, you think this is just a Community Center . It is love, love, love. No. Its way more than that. Cause when you hook our community up with the internet. Boom look at ariana, crushing virtual class. Jamol, chasing that college dream. Michael, doing something crazy. This is the place where we can show the world what we can do. Comcast is partnering with 1000 Community Centers to create wifienabled lift zones, so students from lowincome families can get the tools they need to be ready for anything. Oh were ready. Heres our breaking news. Congresswoman liz cheney holding on to her Leadership Post. Her republican colleagues voting tonight to keep her in the number three position. She came under criticism for her vote to impeach President Trump for inciting the capital insurrection. In a contentious closed door meeting she insisted she would not apologize for her vote. That as house g. O. P. Leader Kevin Mccarthy refusing to strip assignments from q anons Marjory Taylor greene. Vote tomorrow. Stay tuned for that. John harwood is here and ryan nobles as well. Ryan, you have been following all of the drama on the capitol tonight. Tell us about what happened inside this gop meeting, please. It was pretty remarkable, don. This was a meeting that spanned more than four hours tonight here on capitol hill. Were told at times that the meeting was pretty tense, that, you know, members within books were given the opportunity to stand up and say whatever they wanted about either liz cheney or Marjory Taylor greene, really whats most interesting about the outcome of all this, were told that inside the room, most of the incoming fire was directed at liz cheney, not at Marjory Taylor greene. In fact, Marjory Taylor greene spoke, she even received a partial standing ovation, but that didnt reflect the ultimate results. In fact, liz cheney was able to hold on to her Leadership Post by a comfortable margin. After it was all said and done, Kevin Mccarthy said its evidence that his Republican Party is part of one big tent. Take a listen. Its just an example, this Republican Party is a very big tank. Everyones invited in. You look at the last election. We continue to grow. In two years well be the majority. He thinks thats enough for them to continue to grow their majority. What lies beneath all this is a sense of angst and division with these republican members. This was a Secret Ballot here tonight. Up in of these members will be held accountable for how they voted. You have to wonder tomorrow when we see all of them forced to make a public vote on whether or not to kick Marjory Taylor greene off these committees that she sits on if it looks remarkable different than what we saw with liz cheney tonight because many of them are nervous to draw the ire of the former president donald trump. Cowardice is what they call it. You mentioned theyre afraid to draw the ire. If that vote wasnt secret, the vote was 145 who voted tonight to oppose her. Its pretty even. I think its a great point. We have to ask the question, if these members had to be accountable for this vote and if they had to go back to their districts, many of which are districts that the former president won comfortably in this past fall election, would they have be as courageous to continue to support liz cheney . And we dont know the answer to that question. We may never know the answer to that question but it is certainly something worth pondering. What it also tells us is that even though some of these republican members will publicly continue to stay they embrace the former president , that they believe that they should continue to be the leader of the Republican Party, that privately, they actually dont feel that way, that they would be they are would be more than happy to move on from trump dominating the conversation in their party and moving to some sort of a new future. For many of them, theyre in a tight spot here because he is still part of the equation. Even if thats what they hope, its not necessarily what their supporters in the districts support. It would be the smart thing to do, the right thing to do. It would also be the strategic thing to do. But you know, who am i . Chain any survived the vote but we saw the Committee Side with Marjory Taylor greene over liz cheney. That is exactly what donald trump wants, you know, ive been calling the qop now, qanon old party. This is exactly what trump wants. Don, i would say i would not say that they sided with Marjory Taylor greene over liz cheney. They declined to strip Marjory Taylor greene of her Committee Assignments and left liz cheney in her position. That was a decision to try to avoid making anybody angry, avoid drawing any lines, avoid setting any firm partnerships. Now, let people vent against liz cheney but she ended up with a solid vote to hold her position. She cheered Marjory Taylor greene. You just heard that sound bide from Kevin Mccarthy. He came out and said big ten, everybodys invited in. Thats really the issue. Weve heard from republican senators last couple of days, mitt romney saying our tents not big enough to embrace both conservatives and cooks. Mitch mcconnell said looney lies are a cancer on the republican parties. They were not willing to draw the line. Yes, she spoke in that meeting and expressed regret for having put her colleagues in a bad spot. Has she come out publicly apologized for what she said . She has not. This is another display of Republican Leadership thats playing to the least common denominator and is not Strong Enough to stand up and draw clear lines. Republicans are breaking down in factions. Who are the democrats supposed to ignite with at this point . Its not likely that theyre going to unite with any large group of republicans. Its plain its not going to happen in the house. In the senate, you had that group of ten that proposed a measure on covid relief that was way, way short of anything that joe biden could deal with. Joe bidens package will probably change somewhat. The price tag will probably come down a little bit. It is not impossible that some a couple of republican senators might end up voting for that. Mitt romney said today, 1. 9, no republican senator will. So its possible they will get small number of republican votes, but they dont need them and theyre not going to wait for them. Gentlemen, thank you so much. I appreciate it. Charlie den is a former republican congressman from pitch. Brendan buck is here, who was a top aide to the Forum Republican House Speaker paul ryan. Gents, hello. Help me help the audience understand what the hell is going on in this country. Charlie, i got to jump right into it. Because if half the elected republicans in congress are given an antiConspiracy Theory theorist, is it time for republicans like you to form a new party . Well, theres a real debate right now, don, just about that. You know, should there be a new faction or a new party . I think right now that there needs to be a faction pushing back. I think somebody like Adam Kin Zinger is doing a really Important Service by standing up and saying we need reclaim the party and bring it back to core values and core principles. I mean, the fact that they are, you know, hammering liz cheney, although i have to tell you liz cheney, she called their bluff. They said they had the votes to take her down. She said lets call a volt. They won by better than a two to one margin, so good for her. On the other hand, Taylor Greene is going to be a boat anchor around the necks of so many of those republicans in wing and margin districts. Just as republicans tie democrat to aoc and the squad, its a fair turnaround. Democrats are going to do the same thing with Taylor Greene. Liz cheney survived by a big margin in a secret vote. Still, it was 60, 61 people. That was a lot. Mccarthy refused to take action on greene. Democrats are going to bring a vote to the floor tomorrow. Every republican will have to go on record. How does this all look . Well, its a terrible look. I expect almost every republican will vote against that resolution. Probably theyll argue on precedent terms and i think theres a real concern there. We are spire spiraling into a dangerous place where parties are dictating to other parties who gets to serve on what committees. I really fear what happens if republicans take back the house, what they will do to democrats if a retribution. Theyre all going to vote no but that will be intercepted as a vote in support of Marjory Taylor greene, which is a terrible look for the party. I really wish we had been able to head this off before we got to this point. And look, whats so upsetting to me to hear what Kevin Mccarthy said earlier about the big tent. I intercepted it as him saying we have to have a at the present time big enough for liz cheney. Thats the crazy part. Liz cheney should be the traditional republican whos always been there and now we have to make an accuse excuse that were big enough to support a liz cheney. If we cant have liz cheney, we have no principles, no ideas. This is the type of person we should be wanting to have. Somebody who actually has a Point Of View and isnt just this to get on tv. Im really glad we avoided complete disaster today, but i think what youre going to see in the vote tomorrow with Everybody Siding with Marjory Taylor greene is that we still have a very big problem and a long way to go. Liz cheney, folks like liz cheney used to be the tent pole. They were not just inside the pole. They were the pole that held up the at the present time. There was an interception you can intercept that they were making that the tent is big enough for a racist Conspiracy Theorist as well. Is that who republicans want to make room for inside the tent . I we cant. Look. We cant. Even the president s former president s campaign put out a memo that was reported this week looking back at why they lost. They lost because they had incredible erosion among educated suburban voters. Lets put the moral question aside, which obviously theres huge moral issues. You have cant win back suburban educated voters by having one of the most prominent faces of the party right now, and she is, the face of the freshman class of the Republican Party, a Conspiracy Theorist. You cant win back by that. You have to say what youre for. Im glad she got in front of the conference and apologized, i guess. I wasnt there. No, she din. Shes going to have to a, say that publicly. She didnt apologize. Ok. Were going to have to have more and more people push her aside or else were going to signal were ok with that and we cant be. Hmm. Charlie, siding with the extremes and the base, what effect does that have on the party long term . Where do the moderates go . Look, this is a continuing problem for the party. The erosion, as he just pointed out, of suburban educated voters is catastrophic to the party. Thats why donald trump lost as badly as he did. And when we talk about a big tent, i didnt think the idea of a big tent was to include these extremist Conspiracy Theorist White Nationalist elements. Thats what we were talking about. I thought we meant we were trying to grow the matter more towards center. I think we have to have a revisitation of whats a big tent. Long term, its difficult for republicans to win back seats in those Swing Districts largely in suburban communities where weve taken a beating. How do you win those seats back when we have you know, when basically theyve just embraced somebody like Taylor Greene. I argued since summertime, they should have told her that she was not going to get any Committee Assignments and not welcome her into the republican conference. Thats the way you deal with her. You have to margin allies and isolate them and it takes leadership to do that. Long term, the country is not moving in the direction the Republican Party is going right now. Its not moving in the Conspiracy Theory direction. Its not moving in the White Nationalist direction. As a matter of fact, the country is becoming more diverse. And so thats going to lead to a shrinking party. I have so run but let me ask you, do you think the party can recover from this or have they crossed the rubicon and theres no coming back . Were not there yet but were reaching the appointment. Whats happening is the base is shrinking. We talk about how intense the base is. But its a smaller base. So many people are no longer identifying as republican republican. They moved in to democrat, long term, thats catastrophic. Demography is destiny and we know. You cant escape it. Thank you, gentlemen. Paralyzed in the face of Marjory Taylor greene, why is his Party Choosing to go down the rabbit hole . And what does that say to people who actually believe her qanon lies . If theyre not going to call her out on it, then everybody else believing it, theres got to be some sort of truth. And if theres some truth, why would anybody leave . Only Tylenol Rapid release gels have laserdrilled holes. They release Medicine Fast for fast pain relief. Tylenol rapid release gels. I got this Mountain Bike for only 11. Dealdash. Com, the fair and honest bidding site. We sold an ipad worth 505 for less than 24. A stand mixer for less than 20. A 4k television for under 2. A macbook pro for under 16. As well as a Playstation 4 for under 16. And brand new cars for less than 900. Dealdash. Com offers hundreds of auctions every day. All auctions start at 0 and everything must go. And dont forget, we offer a full 90 day Money Back Guarantee on your first bid pack purchase. I won these Bluetooth Headphones for 20. I got these three suitcases for less than 40. And shipping is always free. Go to dealdash. Com today and see how much you can save. There are auctions going on right now, so what are you waiting for . So the Republican Party showing its true colors. Liz cheney hanging on to her Leadership Position after voting to impeach trump for inciting the Capitol Insurrection. But Marjory Taylor greene, a Conspiracy Theorist, gets a free pass. Analysts, david gurgen and Kirsten Powers are with me. This is where we are. Good evening to the both of you. David, you, first. Yes, sir. The Republican Party had a chance, really had a chance for a clean break with trump. He incited the deadly insurrection. Instead, they are continuing to plunge down this rabbit hole. Where does this lead them . To an unraveling of the Republican Party and possibly the replacement by another party down the road. Were not there yet but trump is gone but trumpism remains live and well. Its like a toxic virus thats taken over the party. It is extremely dangerous for the country that the republicans keep stirring this pot, keep continuing arguing that biden was fraudulently elected, make it more difficult to govern. One of the reasons that shes gotten away with this so far is that people are scared of her on capitol hill. Its the most its just its unbelievable to me. I got to get people like jim baker and George Schultz and people who have locked the walked the hallways of republican power and this woman whos i dont question her gender. I question what she beliefs and how she is positioning our politics. Kirsten, rick wilson, who is a Lincoln Project cofounder told anderson earlier tonight that Marjory Taylor greene broke Kevin Mccarthy and she is now the Minority Leader. It sounds wild but is there some truth to that . Well, i dont think its just her. Shes the face of this. And really donald trump is the original face, so its, you know, donald trump is largely responsible for stirring you have up a lot of these Conspiracy Theories and bringing the Republican Party to a place. Shes come and is sort of a standin for donald trump. He, of course, loves her. She unfortunately represents the views of a percentage that is significant enough percentage of the Republican Party that other members of congress are afraid of her. So she wouldnt be they wouldnt be afraid of her if she wasnt representing people who they thought could bring harm to them in terms of voting them out of office, right . So thats what i think is the particularly concerning issue about this just stepping back from Republican Party politics, but for the country that we have so many people, you know, i mean, ive seen the interviews and ive read interviews with people who have said if donald trump would have just said that the election was legitimate, i would have believed him, right, so these people are being led along all these different Conspiracy Theories and, you know, shes just another person whos basically pushing these ideas that already have gotten a lot of traction. Speaker pelosi, kirsten, called Kevin Mccarthy the Minority Leader qcalifornia, right . They know this is a mess for republicans. They know it. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I mean, theres no question that you know, i mean, i know that Marjory Taylor greene is basically saying democrats are stupid for doing this, they dont understand theyre making me more popular. And thats true. They are. But what she doesnt seem to understand is that its harming the Republican Party. Or maybe she doesnt care, also. So this is actually going to cause harm to the Republican Party in terms of politics because she will become the face of the Republican Party. I would say not without her it. I think sometimes you see where, you know, people try to take nancy pelosi, for example, the republicans exaggerate who she is. Nobodys exaggerating. You know, i mean, this is not an exaggeration of who she is. You really cant even do justice to the things that she has said and the things that she apparently believes. Right on. David, the government leader is calling Marjory Taylor greene a cancer. The house gop leader is coming to her defense. How do you explain explain the difference here. Between what and what . Between youve got the house doing one thing and youve got the senate doing another. One is saying theres a cancer, the leader there, and the other and the house is saying the republican leader is saying coming to her defense saying we got a big at the present time. We got to make room for everybody. Well, yeah. The people in the house are typically much closer to the voters, and you can really get knocked off very easily. What ive be told consistently for the last two or three weeks is that when members went home and the House Of Representatives went home after january 6th, they just got an earful, a blast from a lot of people in the base, who said you way too soft on this. You should have stood up for trump. You let them take him down. And they came back scared. I think thats what were seeing. Let me go back to this other point if i might for a minute. Sure. The position is we need and want a right of center party and we need and want a left of center party. Thats been our history. For most of those years the two teams played between the 40 yard lines. They were mostly mainstream kind of parties. Now we see a breakaway party occurring on the republican side thats extremely radical. Not playing between the 40 yard lines, this is way down on the other end of the field. Its something we havent seen before, and its why its so danger it is toxic. Its like a virus. It will spread. Uhhuh. Yeah, and unless we deal with it. And they are scoring for the other team while doing what theyre doing. Exactly right. Thank you. Appreciate it. The new Homeland Security secretary speaking out about the threat of domestic terrorism facing the country and ahead how conspiracies are flourishing in the pandemic. I had to call my mom. I told her were all going to die. Were going to be owned by china. 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Capitol was attack for the first time in more than 200 years by all fellow americans. How will the events of that day inform your new approach to your role as Homeland Security secretary . Ana, let me start on a personal note, if i may. My parents brought my sister and men to this country to enjoy the freedoms of our country, to have the opportunities that a democracy presented. The capitol represents one of the pillars of our democracy and to see the insurrection, to see the Horrific Acts Of January 6th were not only personally devastating but a commitment to redouble our efforts to fight hate and to fight one of the greatest threats that we face currently in our homeland which is the threat of domestic terrific. I want to dig into that specifically, because dhs put is the threat of domestic terrorism. I want to dig into that specifically, because dhs put out a bull tip just last week warning of a heightened domestic extremism. What is your plan to address it . Ana, the threat is persistent. It was exemplified. The threat of domestic terrorism preceded that terrible day and it persists to this day. What we in the department of security do is we gather intelligence, we gather information, we share that with our state, local, and tribal and territorial partners as we collectively in an all government effort, not just the federal government, but all government across the country combat hate and the violence that accompanies it. What are the biggest challenge in trying to combat this threat . I think is to identify where the line between hateful rhetoric and hateful action takes place, to be well ahead of the action before it occurs, and to stop it. Our primary responsibility as the department of Homeland Security is to protect the safety and security of the american people. And that means taking preventive actions before they occur, of course. Canada announced today that the proud boys would be designated a Terrorist Group there. Will you do that here in the u. S. . I think our focus is on actions that violate our social norms that violate our laws, and to ensure that those violations dont occur, that is where our focus is going to be. I want to turn to the topic of immigration, because this is an issue that must be personal to you, as you mentioned at the top. Your moms family fled the nazis during the holocaust and settled in cuba before you were born. Where your family emigrated to the u. S. How does it feel to be the first latino to hold the department of Homeland Security . Ana, it is a privilege, it is an honor and it is an awesome responsibility. It is an awesome responsibility to demonstrate not im from coast to coast and border to border but around the world what this nation can be and what it is. It is a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants and i think the president s vision of adhering to our laws and adhering to our values and serving once again as a leader throughout the world is a vision im extraordinarily proud to be part of executing. Biden named you to head a task force to reunite families separated as far back as 2017. As of last month, there are hundreds of children who have not been reunited with their families, with their parents. How hard will it be to bring these families back together . Do you have a clear sense of how many families need to be reunited . Ana, however hard it is, we will get the job done. I was sworn in as the secretary of Homeland Security yesterday. I had the privilege of being in the company of the president of the United States. And the president articulated yet again the urgency and the priority of this mission. The cruelty of the Provider Administration has come to an end and now we will demonstrate to the world what we as americans are. What was it like for you on a personal note to hear the cries we all heard on the tape of the children who were being taken from their parents and their familiar hi members . Ana, i am a father. I am a husband. I am a son. I am a brother. I have not heard before a pain as acute and heartbreaking as that, and it is our commitment to make sure that pain is not felt again. President biden has launched a review of trump immigration initiatives, including that remain in mexico policy. Weve spoken with advocates who say they dont have answers for their clients who are stuck at the border. When will those people trapped in life or death situations in some cases get answers . We, ana, are addressing that with a due urgency as well. The president is articulated clearly that the policy will come to an end and we are tasked with the obligation of operationalizing effectively, intelligently, and carefully the end to that policy and we are looking at that as recently as earlier today. I myself was involved in those discussions. The urgency of that also cannot be overstated. One of the biggest threats facing Everyday Americans today is the pandemic. You oversee fema, which is supporting Vaccination Sites right now, providing financial assist and providing supplies to state and local governments. What does that effort look like . And what more can fema and dhs do to increase the number of getting vaccinated . We are setting up Vaccine Centers throughout the country. The president outlined the goal of 100 centers in 30 days and we are well underway. The president outlined an effort to vaccinate a hundred Million People in a hundred days. Fema has dispensed 107 billion to state, local, tribal and territorial governments to assist them in that effort. This is an all of government, all of Community Effort and we are proud to play a pivotal role in defeating this pandemic once and for all. Weve talked about the domestic security threat. I also want to ask you about an emerging foreign threat to u. S. National security right now. The russian hack of the u. S. Government and american corporations has been described as the Modernday Cyber Equivalent of pearl harbor. Now the chinese have exploited this same vulnerability. What will it take to secure the countrys Cyber Infrastructure . Ana, there is no better catalyst, regrettably, for swift and decisive and bold action than an adverse event, which the solar winds hack the very sophisticated cyberattack that you referenced is. And we as a Government Working with congress are taking a look at what additional funding can be provided to enhance the security and safety of our federal infrastructure and our federal Information Systems and to work with the private sector in a Publicprivate Partnership to strength and to harbor hygiene of Critical Infrastructure throughout the United States of america. In the cyber arena specifically, theres a saying that were only as strong as our weakest link and we need to strengthen our weakens link to make sure that we as a nation are safe and secure from these pernicious attacks by our adversaries. Ana cabrera, thank you for bringing us that interview. Isolated, alone. Next, digging into conspiracies have thrived. Plus how the pentagon is combatting extremism within their own ranks. Conspiracy theorists and groups have come under scrutiny in the wake of the Capitol Insurrection. The same question keeps coming up why are so Many Americans falling down the rabbit hole of conspiracies. We talked to one mother who recently stopped believing in q anon. She explained the influence the pandemic had on our views. Listen to this. I think i spent a lot of time this year isolated from everybody. Ive be home a lot. I lost my job last april in 2020 and i was super depressed. I think in a way i probably lost touch with a little bit of reality in almost like common sense. Im not so much embarrassed for what i believed, but i mean, i feel foolish. I want to talk about this now with adam. Hes an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the university of louisville. Adam, thank you for joining. This country was incredibly polarized before the pandemic when people became isolated and anxious and had more time on their hands to spend on line. How does that make them more vulnerable to conspiracies like q anon . Thats exactly right . When people feel anxious or have any sort of negative feeling, they do things even unconsciously to try and alleviate those negative field goals feelings. Weve got anxiety fueled by powerlessness and feelings of helplessness are straightforward. As people are losing jobs, loved ones, they cant navigate life in the way that theyve become accustomed to, theyre not sure when things are going to go back to normal and all of this sort of pain starts so set in. Anxiety ramps up and theres this question of how can i alleviate some of this some of this anxiety and Conspiracy Theories are useful for this because they help sort of impose some structure on an otherwise messy world. Uhhuh. So take, for example, this Conspiracy Theory that was really popular earlier in the pandemic, in march, for example, that the Coronavirus Threat was being strategiccally exaggerated by democrats to harm Donald Trumps reelection chances. Well, you know, believing in an idea like that doesnt really make the Make Coronavirus Go away but it could make people feel a little bit better in terms of the threat being a little weaker than it is, the deaths being inflated. This is more of a political kind of thing, so Conspiracy Theories end up helping people feel a little bit better in stressful times. It also didnt help to have someone at the top helping to spread or promoting Conspiracy Theories as well. Really elevating it and giving them a platform. Absolutely. You know, one thing that any political scientist can tell you is that the parameters, the basic tenor of political discourse is set by elites. Its a topdown phenomenon where our lawmakers and our leaders, weve we kind of Follow The Leader and whats being talked about and how its being talked about, so the more that we have visible people that are trafficking in Conspiracy Theories and misinformation, the more rank and file supporters of those individuals are going to think well, there must be something to this and start adopting those beliefs on their s own. So adam rowen reporting about a mother of eight who was radicalized in part because she was outraged over the covid mask mandates. Did that play a role . Certainly. So we know that conspiratorial predispositions and populism and antigovernmental kinds of sentiments are all wrapped up together and are difficult to disentangle. It makes a lot of sense that the more people believe that the government is trying to control them that they would turn to Conspiracy Theories that posit exactly that. So these things directly feed into one another. We have the topdown element as well as this sort of interpersonal how is the pandemic personally affecting you element all pushing people in the same direction. I want to play another part of the interview and were going to ask you about it. Here it is. What have we heard the last four or five years . Dont watch the news. Fake news, fake news. I dont watch the news. I dont read newspapers. I dont do anything. You just tell me what to do and i do it. I grew up being told were republicans so ive always been that straight red ticket. This goes looping where what i asked you earlier. With trust in legitimate Information Sources becoming so damaged during the trump presidency, how many people are being introduced to conspiracies by friends and by family . Well, when you dont really know who to trust or what information to trust, and of course by the way, you know, most of what we know about politics and things that happen in the world is second handled, via news media, right. Most people cant experience those things. The more we distrust media and other secondary sources that we dont personally know, the more we turn to what we do know, which is our friends and Family Members, which is not always the worth thing. Our friends and Family Members arent probably Public Health experts. And youre average blogger online or somebody that is replying to comments on reddit, for example, are probably not people that have the highest quality misinformation. Adam enders, thank you. It deserves a much longer conversation. Well have you back. Thank you so much. We appreciate it. Thanks. More than 180 people charged in the Capitol Riots so far. 22 of them either current or former military, but the pentagon says theyre stepping up to combat conspiracies within their ranks. More next. Each febreze car vent clip gives you up to 30 days of fresh air. So, you can have open window freshness. Even with all the windows up. Enjoy fresh, any time, with febreze. The pentagon moving to address the issue of extremism in the ranks of the military. The defense secretary lloyd austin ordering a staggered pause in operations known as a standdown. Standdown, so military leaders can get a handle on the level of extremism among the troops. Officials call the Capitol Insurrection a wakeup for the pentagon over the number of current or former military members facing charges. I want to discuss now with shawn turner. Shawn, thank you. Appreciate you joining. Thanks, don. Austin held a meeting today with all the Service Secretaries in the chairman of the joint chiefs to discuss extremism within the ranks. Do you think this move is warranted . Absolutely, don. Look, i think that secretary austin, what he is doing is he is sending a strong message that he understands that what were seeing across society with regard to violent extremism is somewhat a reflection of what were seeing in the military. Everybody knows that the military is somewhat of a reflection of society. So when we see these trends, we expect to see them on the military side too. The problem, don, is when we see these things on the military side, the stakes are much higher. Look, one of the things were really good at in this country is training war fighters. We take young people. We train them to be we give them leadership and problemsolving skills. We teach them marksmanship, tactics, strategy. We empower them. We embolden them to be able to take charge and get things done. So in a military context, thats great. Its exactly what we need in a military context. But when you take those very same skills and you apply them in extremist activities outside of the military, what you end up with is a very dangerous situation where you have a Law Enforcement officials who are going up against people who are much more effective because of what theyve learned in the military. You also have these people who are much more effective at mounting attacks against our government and against our fellow citizens. Its a dangerous sort of mex and secretary austins actions today reflect that. As of tonight, shawn, more than 180 people have been federally charged for their involvement in the u. S. Capitol siege. Now out of those, these 22 or formerly or currently associated with the military, and that number could grow. The Chief Pentagon Spokesperson john kirby says that their involvement was a wakeup call for the department. Why did it take an attack on the capitol for this to be noticed by the general public . Did the brass and folks inside the military not notice this . Why did it come to this . Well, don, when i talk about extremism in the military, i dont talk about it growing or increasing. I talk about it being revealed, being unmasked, because we know that its there. You know, don, youve talked about this for the last four years in terms of whats happened to this country with regard to people who have these views feeling more emboldened to reveal themselves. And so whats happening in the military is the same thing thats happening in society. You know, these people for the longest time they kept their views to themselves. They stayed in the shadows. But for reasons that weve all talked about with regard to the last administration and the former president , these people felt more emboldened to come out and to reveal themselves. I think that certainly the pentagon has some responsibility to make absolutely sure that theyre watching for these things, and i think thats what speaking of the secretary as Lieutenant Colonel in 1995, he oversaw operations for the 82nd Airborne when there was a racially motivated Double Murder involving members of that unit. During his confirmation hearing austin discussed what he learned from that incident and signaled it would inform his approach. I want you to watch this and then well discuss. If leadership is not in touch with the people theyre leading, these kinds of things can happen. And i dont think that this is a thing that you can put a band aid on and fix and leave alone, i think that Training Needs to go on routinel