adviser to mike pence. in advance of that life testimony, nbc news has obtained exclusive new video ahead of today s hearing. highlighting how the events of the 6th were only the end of a pressure campaign against mike pence to overturn the election results that began much earlier with pence consistently pushing back according to testimony from his chief of staff mark short. was it your impression that the vice president had directly conveyed his position on these issues to the president not just to the world, through a deer colleague letter, but directly to president trump? many times. and had been consistent in conveying his position to the president. very consistent. okay. we ll see more on that coming up in the hearing. another angle to the january 6 story, we re getting new details on how protesters may have known their way around the capitol. now video from the january 6 committee raising questions about what happened the day before the riot on the fifth. the
further inflamed the rioters as they were raging through the capitol hunting down the vice president and shouting, hang mike pence. in a preview video released this week, you saw liz cheney referencing a federal judge s ruling back in march that the former president probably violated federal statutes throughout that pressure campaign. a campaign conceived, in part, by lawyer john eastman, a character you will meet today. a big player inside that circle of election deniers working around the clock to try to keep donald trump in power. this hour, we will expand that inner circle with a look at ginni thomas, the wife of supreme court justice clarence thomas. bennie thompson saying that it is time for the committee to hear from thomas, quote, soon. this is a change in the committee s position and it comes after new bombshell reporting from the washington post on the emails between thomas and john eastman about overturning the election. we are going to talk about the new foc
reject any electorate votes! i m telling you, if pence game, we re going to drag mother [ bleep ] through the streets. you [ bleep ] politicians are going to get drug through the streets. hang mike pence. hang mike pence! hang mike pence! hang mike pence! this was real. this is the evidence. this has nothing to do with partisanship or how one might feel about how vice president pence conducted himself in government, his view, his ideology. that sometimes gets lost partly because of right wing lies. this was about america. a threat to the vice president pushed and organized by the president, and we re learning new details that people need to understand for our society and future, how close these rioters and criminals and would-be indicted insurrectionists came to locate pence as they plotted his assassination during what you have to remember then, no one knew how it would end, how long it would go, how bad it would get. as they got that close to him during that insu
that includes 18 more howitzers on top of what the u.s. has sent in. more than 36,000 rounds of artillery ammunition, and ammunition for the himars system, approved earlier this month. four of those weapons systems, multiple launch rocket systems that can strike at a far greater range. that s about a third of the billion dollars. the other two-thirds is known as the ukraine security assistance initiative and that will go to purchase through direct contracts with weapons manufacturers more weapons for ukraine. that includes two harpoon coastal defense systems, thousands of night vision goggles, thousands of radios so that won t be as fast, but the u.s. s position is the fight in eastern ukraine is an incremental fight. russia, yes, is making gains, but there is still time to get the critical systems in. how will we find out and when will we see this? the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff said the training on that advanced himars system for the first group wrapped up today.
reporting on what authorities now say happened at the robb elementary school. they re saying what they knew about survivors were still inside as they waited and waited and waited for orders to storm the classroom with an active shooter and wounded children still inside. we want to welcome our viewers here in the united states and around the world. i m wolf blitzer. you re in the situation room. we are now less than two hours away from the first televised select hearing on january 6th. proceedings like this don t come along very often. the incident that sparked these particular hearings has never happened before in this country s history and we don t yet know what their impact will be. we do know that some of what we will see and hear and learn tonight and in sessions to come will be for the very first time. in a moment i ll talk to committee member adam schiff, but first, cnn s ryan nobles on the committee s work so far. it has been just over 17 months since rioters vio