the january 6th investigation tonight. according to a letter obtained by nbc news, the secret service erased, i m gonna say it again, erased text messages from january 6th, 2021, and from the previous day. the letter to house committees from homeland security watchdog says, those messages were deleted, after being requested as part of an investigation into the capitol riot. that inspector general says he was told, many of the messages have been erased as quote, part of a device replacement program. tonight, the secret service issued a statement, saying this. that insinuation the secret service maliciously deleted text messages following a request is false. in january 2021, before any inspection was opened, the secret service began to reset its mobile phones to factually settings, as part of a preplanned, three months system migration. in that process, data on some phones was lost. there s also new reporting that efforts to get testimony from the two most important figures on
it was illegal, the next question is, did they try to pull it off anyway? if the answer to that is yes they try to pull it off anyway, my next personal question is always, well when they try to pull it off was it occasionally hilarious? [laughs] whether or not the answer that is yes, then next obvious question is, did they get caught? and then of course the final question is, will they get in trouble for it? that is pretty simply where we are. and sort of how we know how to orient ourselves in this ongoing saga which will be, you know, our generation story in american history. was illegal? did they know? did they do it anyway? was it ridiculous when they did? did they get caught? will they get in trouble? now, the answer to all the first five questions, we now know, is yes. it s only that last one that is uncertain. but in this particular part of the plot to overthrow the u.s. government, i didn t really expect to be talking about this is our lead story tonight. it surprised
that we now know to ask. question number one, was illegal? if the answer is, yes it was illegal, the next question is, did they know it was illegal? if the answer was yes they knew it was illegal, the next question is, did they try to pull it off anyway? if the answer to that is yes they try to pull it off anyway, my next personal question is always, well when they try to pull it off was it occasionally hilarious? [laughs] whether or not the answer that is yes, then next obvious question is, did they get caught? and then of course the final question is, will they get in trouble for it? that is pretty simply where we are. and sort of how we know how to orient ourselves in this ongoing saga which will be, you know, our generation story in american history. was illegal? did they know? did they do it anyway? was it ridiculous when they did? did they get caught? will they get in trouble? now, the answer to all the first five questions, we now know, is yes. it s only that last one
pouring gasoline on the fire by tweeting that. the secret service couldn t control the situation and do their job to keep him safe. at 2:26 p.m., the secret service rushed vice president pence down the stairs. approximately 40 feet. that s all there was. 40 feet between the vice president and the mob. make no mistake about the fact that the vice president s life was in danger. the recent court filing by the department of justice explains that a confidential informant from the proud boys told the fbi that the proud boys would have killed mike pence if given the chance. that s just some of what we heard from yesterday s hearing into the attack on the capitol. as the committee detailed the close call for vice president pence, good morning and welcome to way too early. on this friday, june 17th. i m jonathan lemire. we re glad you re with us. the third day of testimony in the january 6th hearings focused on donald trump s efforts to pressure mike pence into overturning
campaign team, that his claims of election fraud were just lies. but they were proposing, that was nuts. the mayor was definitely intoxicated. law firms were not comfortable making the arguments that rudy giuliani was making publicly. evidence today that former president trump knew he lost, and kept telling lies about it. the president accepted that. he said, okay, fine, but what about the others? i told them that it was it was crazy stuff, and i was doing great, doing service for the country. and why the investigation now involves fundraising off claims that were notably false? not only was there the big lie, it was the big group off. tonight, committee member zoe lofgren, republican election lawyer and witness from today s hearing, ben ginsberg. plus, nicole wallace, joy reid, chris hayes lawrence o donnell, ari melber, in our special primetime coverage of the second day of the january 6th hearings. good evening and thank you for being with us toni