kind of cyber communication going on online. interestingly, our reporting found as president trump was contesting the election results and as he was taking to twitter and using the mega phone of his office to claim the election was rigged to tell people to show up in force on january 6th, that was a galvanizing effect on his supporters. it created more chatter online about coming to washington on the sixth, more chatter about being armed, about the violence, about the threats to lawmakers. so what happened in the run up to january 6th was not a failure of intelligence because our intelligence agencies, the fbi, they saw all of this, they detected all of this, they saw it bubbling up, but it was a failure to act and a failure to imagine that these threats could actually be real. and that the violence being talked about online could actually happen the day, the afternoon of the 6th at the capitol. professor, i have nowhere near your portfolio.
it sort of drags down every other democrat running across the country right now because when they look to their leader in the white house, he doesn t seem to be handling things as aggressively. if congress had passed both bills, if they were signed, done and dusted and people started feeling deliverables would this race be different. if donald trump had come to richmond or virginia beach or fairfax county and done his usual two-hour outdoor riff on behalf of the candidate, would this race be different now? yes to both of those. that was kind of the environment mr. mcauliffe was hoping for to be honest. he was hoping that the democrats in the house and senate would get at least one of these legislative packages done, particularly the one where you had 19 republicans sign off on
november 8th. we should also note white house press secretary jen psaki has tested positive for covid and is quarantining. she credits being vaccinated for the fact that she s having only mild symptoms. today the official number of covid cases in our country topped 36 million. it s now estimated this virus has taken over 5 million lives in under two years, but experts say the actual global death toll is likely much higher sadly. with that, let s bring in our starting line to start this new week on a monday night, philip rucker, pulitzer prize winning senior washington correspondent for the washington post, co-author with carol len ig of the new york times best seller i alone can fix it: donald j. trump s catastrophic final year ashley parker also with the washington post, and larry sabato who is the veteran director of the university of virginia s center for politics. that means he is considered the
violence and possibly smuggling weapons into districts. he was with the district of columbia department of homeland security. he speaks from experience. what were some of the other red flags that looking back on them are glaring now? brian, there were so many red flags. there was a wealth of chatter on social media sites and other online forums among trump supporters about gathering in washington on january 6th just as then president trump had urged them to do but importantly to do so armed, to bring their weapons, to prepare for violence. there were threats made against the lives of sitting members of congress, including senator mitt romney, the utah republican who was the chief foil to trump all of those years. there were other plots that intelligence officials were gathering or piecing together based on their review of this
optimistic tonight. i just have to believe what the president says. and the president said right after the senator spoke he is confident he can deliver 51 votes for this plan. i am going to trust the president. our members are going to trust the president, and we are going to do the job we need to do which is pass those bills through the house, and whatever senator manchin feels is up to him. luckily for our guest, jason johnson and michael steele remain. jason, i m kind of surprised knowing your love for manchin that you don t have more manchin swag behind you. absent that, a question i have nevada asked you directly and forthrightly, what s his game, do you think? it s changed, brian, my initial assumption is that a lot of his resistance is so that he can have sort of a john mccain moment, that he will be able to come forward and he will be the