40 feet that the rioters got within the vice president within the range of the vice president s ceremonial office. this is a mob that would have killed him if they were able to. and knowing what danger the former vice president was in, donald trump didn t care. in fact, as my former colleague said, he poured gasoline on the fire. it s i mean, today what we saw was the committee masterfully broke down the pressure campaign and was smart to have, in my opinion as a republican, to have conservative attorneys, a conservative judge, walk through the undemocratic efforts we had seen by people like eastman and other advisers around trump. i think this was the most important hearing today. it really helped show just how far they were willing to go to stay in power. and it s just devastating and undemocratic. i couldn t help but wonder, though, did that translate the same way to the american public? i m not saying it wasn t compelling. it wasn t the most riveting of testimony from the del
except with, i don t know, you have been muslims, or you want to overturn elections, then you throw all these principles out. judge looting showed us the real principles today. and john eastman who is guiding donald trump s thinking on this great extent was all over the map on this issue. he argued against it at the beginning of this theory, as it was emerging. and then, on different days, when he was talking to jacob, when he was talking to the vice president s counsel, he would admit just how weak the idea was. let s listen to this discussion about how the supreme court would treat this idea. did dr. eastman ever tell you what he thought the u.s. supreme court would do, if it had to decide this issue? yes. we had an extended discussion, an hour and a half to two hours on january 5th. and when i pressed him on that point, i said, john, if the vice president did what you are
the results of the presidential election. we reported last night of the january six committee was considering whether to ask virginia thomas to testify. and today, chairman bennie thompson said the committee has sent a letter to virginia thomas, asking for her testimony. ginni thomas told the trump supporting daily caller, quote, i can t wait to clear up misconceptions. i look forward to talking to them. leading off our discussion tonight, barry berke, who served as special counsel to the house judiciary committee during trump s first impeachment trial. and chief impeachment counsel during donald trump s second impeachment trial. also with us, neal katyal, former acting u.s. solicitor general, and msnbc legal analyst. neil, what were the highlights of today s hearings for you? well, first of all, i want to say i think it started with exactly the right question, which is why vice president
any of the figures in the hearings today. well, something something can be explored. but as you know, as a former trial lawyer, there s a big difference between something that can be explored and a case that can be brought. if donald trump is famous for anything, it s for not hearing things that he doesn t want to hear. and not withstanding that he was being told by his then-attorney general bill barr by vice president pence and by a whole lot of other people that vice president pence did not have the authority to do anything other than open the envelope and the constitution says, the votes then be counted. he chose to believe a contrary story that he is being told by other people, or so he says. and that raises some question about about his role. in addition, the justice department itself is prosecuting people now, members of the proud boys and others, for committing these acts on their own. it doesn t make they don t
we ve got new insight tonight in the heated phone call between former president trump and his then-vice president. it comes from witnesses within trump s inner circle, including his own daughter, ivanka, about what they heard on the morning of january 6th in the hours before the capitol attack. when i entered the office the second time, he was on the telephone with who i later found out to be the vice president. could you hear the vice president or only hear the president? only hear the president s end. at some point it started off as a calmer tone, and then it became heated. the conversation was pretty heated. i remember hearing the word wimp. either he called him a wimp. i don t remember if he said you are a wimp, you ll be a wimp, wimp is the word i remember.