Time. In july, 1998, a delusional seriously mentally ill man walked through the Metal Detectors at the Capitol Building while he was carrying a loaded smith and wesson resolver. A u. S. Capitol Police Officer stopped the man when he set off the alarm and asked the man to go through again. The man turned without a word and shot officer chestnut in the head and killed him. The man then shot and wounded another Police Officer, officer douglas mcmillan, who then returned fire and hit the attacker. The attacker then shot and mortally wounded a u. S. Capitol police detective, detective john gibson, as he was telling members of congress and their staff to take cover. Detective gibson was killed by the atactor that day, in 1998, but before he died, he nevertheless was able to return fire as well, and that is apparently what took that gunman down sxended that oneman attack on the u. S. Capitol in the summer of 1998. The attacker, although he was shot by officers who returned fire, he survived. A u. S. Senator who was a heart surgeon, senator bill frist, was nearby when the gun fight broke out. He may have actually saved the gunmans life after the shooting stopped and he accompanied him to the hospital where his life was saved. One tourist was caught in the cross fire and was wounded in that attack, as was officer mcmillan, the first officer who shot the attacker, but officer chestnut and Detective Gibson were killed that day. And soon thereafter, they lay in honor at the u. S. Capitol. Youre looking live tonight at the building that was the scene of chaotic violence on friday. Tonight, its a place of grief and lasting tributes. The Capitol Steps serving as an Impromptu Memorial to show their appreciation for the two officers who died in service to their country. And inside, a formal goodbye fit for a head of state. Gwen eiffel has that. Hundreds of Police Officers march into the capitol today in a moving display of national grief. Fathers brought their daughters, strangers wept together. Mourning two men nearly all of them never knew. What makes our democracy strong is not only what congress may enact or a president may achieve. Even more, it is the countless individual citizens who live our ideals out every day. There wasnt any precedent for this. Both houses of congress voted special hoppers for Jacob Chestnut and john gibson, each killed in the line of duty in a Shocking Gun Battle At The Capitol last week. Hundreds of school children, capitol hill employees and lawmakers filed into the soaring rotunda today to pay tribute. The capitols ornate and spectacular rotunda echoed with expressions of grief. Many wore blue ribbons as sign of respect. Blue for The Thin Blue Line often used to describe Police Officers, no member of the Capitol Police force had ever been killed in the line of duty before, and no one here was quite prepared to cope. This loss hit a nerve. It was an assault on the nations most recognizable symbol, its capitol, an assault no one wants to live through again. Gwen ifill, nbc news, the capitol. An assault no one wants to live through again. An assault on the nations most recognizable symbol. That was the last time the u. S. Capitol was attacked and u. S. Capitol Police Officer were killed in defense of the capitol and the line of duty, the summer of 1998. The Ceremony Tonight offering u. S. Capitol Police OfficerBrian Sicknick, who was killed in the mob attack on the capitol last month, will look very different than that footage that we saw from gwen ifill and nbc news in 1998. Obviously, now, because of the pandemic, the crowds cant come, to a certain degree, thats a Security Condition now as well, as the Capitol Grounds are just closed. The public cant come through in any numbers, let alone huge numbers. But in some ways, this will be tonight the first chance the country has had to kind of have a moment here, to recognize the loss and the terror of that protrump mob attack last month on the capitol. In the Court Filings for those who have been arrested and charged in the attack thus far, the fbi says more than 100 Police Officers were injured in the attack, at least 15 officers severely injured. So severely injured they had to be hospitalized. Capitol Police Officers union told congress that the number even just in the u. S. Capitol police is more like 140 officers injured, including, they say, officers who are working that day without helmets, who suffered brain injuries, officers with cracked ribs and smashed spinal discs. One officer, according to the union, is going to lose his eye. Another was stabbed with a metal fence stake. And of course, officer Brian Sicknick died. The circumstances of his death have still not be officially described in detail. There have been reports that the rioters hit him in the head with a Fire Extinguisher and that was the cause of his delthd, but no release of any information from the medical examiner. Prosecutors office in washington, d. C. Has opened a federal Murder Investigation into Officer Sicknicks death, but havent briefed the public on any arrests in that murder case or any suspects or even indeed any progress in the case, but officer Brian Sicknick will lie in honor tonight at the capitol rotunda, like the officers before him who were killed by a madman back in 1998. This time, it was a mad mob of hundreds of rioters. Hundreds of them. Who were trying to find and kill the speaker of the house and the Vice President , broke into the office of the speaker and broke into the office of the parliamentarian. They broke into the senate floor, to go through senators desks, search for senators, to try to find the Vice President. They were trying to stop the count of the electoral votes on the floor of the senate, to keep donald trump in office as president. They thought they were the violent part, the physical force part of a coup, a multifaceted coup by the outgoing president that somehow would keep him in power. They thought they would succeed. They thought they were there to keep donald trump president and by their actions that would happen. The head of the Capitol Police, the House Sergeant in arms, the Senate Sergeant in arms all resigned in the immediate wake of the attack. Of course, no politician has. And some things proceed apace. Today in washington, u. S. Senators got their Committee Assignments as republicans have apparently finally consented to let the democrats take control of the u. S. Senate. Democrats are in control of the senate. They won that in this year in the elections. But republicans had been dragging out that handover of power for weeks now. In the house, tonights the vote on issuing fines to members of the house who refused to go through Metal Detectors that are designed to keep guns off the floor of the congress, because thats the kind of thing they have to do now. With the house voting tonight to establish fines of up to 10,000 for individual members of the house refusing to go through Metal Detectors. They voted today in the senate to move ahead toward the covid relief bill under rules that mean it doesnt matter if no republican senators vote for it, democrats can pass it themselves if they have to do so. Pete buttigieg, former democratic president ial candidate, was confirmed today as the secretary of transportation, first openly gay cabinet official confirmed by the cabinet. Alejandro mayorkas, who played a role in the obama administration, he will be president of security. He was confirmed by the senate and sworn in. At the white house today, Executive Action from President Biden to reverse one of the, i think inarguably, one of the most unconscionable things the Trump Presidency did and left in its wake. With the first action today, were going to work to undo the moral and National Shame of the Previous Administration that literally, not figuratively, ripped c arms of their families, their mothers and fathers at the border. And with no plan, none whatsoever, to reunify the children. With that, im going to sign the first order. Which is a reestablishment of an Interagency Task force and the reunification of families. Remove the stain of the reputation of what the separation caused. As promised, a task force on reunification, on finding the kids that the Trump Administration took away from their moms and dads at the southern border, in the text of the executive order, signed by the president tonight, it spells out tat the chair of the task force will be the new secretary of homeland security, mayorkas. The vice chairs of the task force are also cabinet members, Secretary Of State and house secretary. The task force will also include the attorney generals, so this is a high powered thing. Theyll have 120 days to report back to President Biden on their progress, including recommendations for how to insure that the u. S. Government can never, ever do this to kids again. So the work of setting up the new administration is under way, and congress is starting its work. And we know that covid relief is going to come first, and the republicans cant stop it, even if they try, and they will try. The Covid Response at the white house includes announcements today that theyre dramatically increasing shipments of vaccines to local pharmacies in the hopes that that can help boost the number of americans who are able to get Vaccine Shots near to where they live and settings to which most of us have fairly easy access. In the world, the new administration is taking a new and very, very different hard line against Vladimir Putin and russia. Thousands of russians turned out to protest in the streets again tonight. Today, they put the main Opposition Leader in russia, Alexei Navalny, in prison. They tried to kill him with a nerve agent months ago. He fell into a coma. He survived. He came back to russia. They immediately locked him up. After two weeks of protests on his behalf, today, they sentenced Alexei Navalny to years in prison. Thats why there are large protests in moscow and across russia again tonight. Navalny spoke from the dock in court today as he was sentenced. He spoke about Vladimir Putin. He said, quote, hes never participated in any debates or campaigned in an election. Murder is the only way he knows how to fight. He will go down in history as nothing but a poisoner. He said, quote, we all remember alexander the liberator. Alexander ii, and yaroslav the wise. Now, well have vladimir the poisoner. He said, quote, im standing here guarded by the police, and the National Guard is out there with half of moscow cordoned off, all this because that small man in a bunker is losing his mind. He said the main thing in this whole trial isnt what happens to me. Locking me up isnt difficult. What matters most is why this is happening. This is happening to intimidate large numbers of people. Theyre imprisoning one person to frighten millions. Alexei navalny speaking today as he was sentenced to years in prison. Hes the main Opposition Leader and the most serious challenge to Vladimir Putins authority that russia has ever faced. The u. S. State Department Today demanded that russia release Navalny Unconditionally and immediately. After four years of the previous president not only looking the other way but actively excusing the behavior of Vladimir Putin, rationalizing it, justifying it, taking putins word over the word of even u. S. Intelligence agencies about it, its Night And Day in terms of the Biden Administration now. So the work of the country proceeds. Cleaning up from the disastrous previous presidency, getting on with the work of the new one, but through all of this, even on days where lots happened, like today, january 6th looms very large. It looms in the pending Impeachment Trial of President Trump for inciting the attack. There was initial reporting over the weekend that President Trump had lost his Legal Defense team for the Impeachment Trial this weekend, when they refused his demands that they use that senate trial to advance his false claims that the president ial Election Results in our country somehow shouldnt be recognized and he somehow should still be president. Subsequent reporting late last night from axios suggests that in addition to that, President Trump may also have not wanted to pay his lawyers. And that might have contributed to their decision to dump him this weekend. But he got new lawyers on sunday. Well see about whether in the end they get paid, but they did submit a brief today on behalf of the former president. That responds to the charges laid out against him in the article of impeachment. Their brief on his behalf was 14 pages. It included multiple misspellings and typos including literally misspelling the United States in the first line of the thing. But more substantively, the president s defense brief did in fact argue trumps line that joe biden maybe wasnt legitimately elected to be president. The whole brief, for one, never once describes donald trump as the former president. It describes him over and over again as the 45th president , as if he is still the president. They never describe him as the former or previous president. Apparently, he thinks he still is the president. The brief argues that the Election Results that voted trump out and biden in, it argues that those results are, and i quote, suspect. It argues that when President Trump told his supporters on the day of the attack that he had actually won the election in a landslide, well, they argue in their brief today that theres no evidence to say thats false. Who can say, really . That claim that President Trump won the election somehow and that President Biden isnt really the president , hes a pretender and hes stolen it, and trump is the rightful president. I mean, that was the basis for the mob attack on the capitol On January 6th. The former president is still trying to advance that claim. He spelled out today in black and white, typos and all, that thats going to be part of his defense in his Impeachment Trial that starts next week. The Election Results are suspect. Who can say whether or not its actually a false claim that trump won the election in a landslide . Maybe he did win the election in a landslide . Were not saying. I mean so yes, the work of the country and the work of the government continues. Days like today, a lot gets done. But january 6th looms every day because it isnt over. The former president is still trying to undermine democracy. He is still telling his followers, including now through his legal filings and his Impeachment Trial that hes the rightful president. He needs to be avenged. I mean, his followers now are still being arrested for their various roles in the attack on january 60sth, increasingly and interestingly, theyre citing the words of former President Trump as what they took to be their instructions to violently attack the capitol that wednesday morning less than four weeks ago. The person who placed the operational pipe bombs at the republican and Democratic Party headquarters the night before the capitol attack. That person has still not be caught. Theres a 100,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and capture of that person. The murderers of u. S. Capitol Police OfficerBrian