[00:00:00] Speaker 1: Members of the former January 6th select committee are holding an unofficial hearing to re-examine their findings regarding what happened during that Capitol Hill insurrection. The discussion comes five years to the day after supporters of Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol, intent on stopping the results of the 2020 presidential election from being certified. The committee found the violence was fueled in part by the urgings of President Trump, who wrongfully insisted that the election was stolen from him. Last hour, one of the Democratic leaders of the committee spoke about why it's so critical to revisit what happened then. Listen.

[00:00:38] Speaker 2: Remembering January 6th is not an exercise in partisanship. It's an obligation to those who have sacrificed for this country and all those who will in the future. Democracy depends on the courage of those who will defend it and on our willingness to hold accountable those who wish to destroy it. Today's forum is another step toward the goal of justice, another way of honoring our oath, another way of showing that our constitutional republic is bigger and stronger than its enemies or one man.

[00:01:18] Speaker 3: All right, let's go live now to CNN chief congressional correspondent Mani Raju on Capitol Hill. Mani, what's the reaction been on the Hill to this meeting and this unofficial hearing?

[00:01:29] Speaker 4: Well, Republicans are ignoring this altogether, and that is in keeping in how this day, which once unified the two parties, has now led to deep divisions over the last several years because of, in large part, because of Donald Trump and what he has said about January 6th and what he has called this a day of love and defended January 6th rioters, ultimately leading to pardoning all of the January 6th rioters on his first day in his second term in office, much different than it was five years ago on this day. I was in this building at that time, and at that point, Republicans and Democrats alike were universally condemning what happened. They were condemning the rioters, but now we're seeing Democrats are having this hearing today. Remember, they're the minority in the House, so it's a mock hearing of sorts that's happening in the House, and in the House Republican majority, they're in a retreat right now with Donald Trump, talking about a whole host of other issues, not on this one. But perhaps one issue exemplifies the divide over January 6th. It's the hanging of a plaque that was required under federal law to be done by 2023 in the United States House of Representatives. The Speaker of the House has been criticized by Democrats for refusing to hang a plaque commemorating the police officers who defended the Capitol on that day, and this came up in the hearing earlier today from Congressman Jamie Raskin, who helped investigate the January 6th attack.

[00:02:55] Speaker 5: Republicans today are observing this solemn anniversary by doing exactly nothing. They've even refused to hang up the plaque, which a bipartisan congressional majority voted to put up to honor the officers who defended the Capitol, and the peaceful transfer of power, and the Vice President on J6. It took them 24 hours to put up a new plaque, allegedly changing the name of the Kennedy Center to the Trump-Kennedy Center. 24 hours, and that was illegal. That's like graffiti that was put up on the Kennedy Center building. They have a legal requirement to put it up, and I call on Speaker Johnson to put it up today.

[00:03:43] Speaker 4: And Speaker Johnson's office responded to questions about this just in the past day or so. A spokesperson saying that it's, quote, not implementable to hang up that commemorative plaque, didn't elaborate exactly what was not implementable about it, but went on to say, if Democrats are serious about commemorating the work of USCP officers, they are free to work with the appropriate committees of jurisdiction to develop a framework for proper vetting and consideration. So that there, Wolf, just shows you how this day now fundamentally divides the two parties at this moment in the Capitol.

[00:04:18] Speaker 3: What a change. What a change over these last several years. Manu Raju on Capitol Hill, thank you.

[00:04:23] Speaker 1: I want to play a bit of our live coverage from January 6, 2021, as myself, my co-anchor Pamela Brown and I, we were watching that historic day unfold live. Watch this. John, you and I have been in Washington for a long time. This is unprecedented, it is dangerous, and it is so, so embarrassing for the United States of America. This is the United States Congress, and you see these law enforcement officers with their weapons pointing toward that window. Looks like it was smashed. Pamela Brown, you're getting more information from inside as well.

[00:05:01] Speaker 6: I sure am. A law enforcement source tells me, Wolf, that there was an MPD officer inside the Capitol building who called in in distress, an officer in distress inside the Capitol building. This was around 15 minutes ago or so, and that officer is asking for additional assets to be deployed to him inside the Capitol building.

[00:05:22] Speaker 7: Today marks five years since the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol when rioters attempted to stop a joint session of Congress from declaring the winner of the 2020 presidential election. This morning, members of the former January 6 Select Committee will convene a hearing to quote, set the record straight on the insurrection. At the same time, members of the far right Proud Boys are expected to hold a march to the Capitol. They say it will be patriotic and peaceful. With us now is Nora Noose, founder of Longform Lab Media and author of a brand new book out this week, 24 Hours at the Capitol, an oral history of the January 6 insurrection. Nora also happens to be my former producer here at CNN, so it's great to see you. Thank you. Great work once again with these books that you do.

[00:06:06] Speaker 8: Fun to be on this side of it.

[00:06:08] Speaker 7: Why did you write this, and what do you think people are going to learn from this?

[00:06:13] Speaker 8: There are so many different narratives about what actually happened on January 6. Narratives that intentionally have become changed and politically modified and rewritten, really. And so this book is an attempt to kind of lay out almost a definitive account of exactly what happened from people that were at different parts of this riot. You know, different parts of the crowd, inside the building, outside the building, in law enforcement. At the end of the day, I think this book makes you feel like you were really there experiencing it yourself, and it's horrifying.

[00:06:45] Speaker 7: And it's so interesting because we keep showing these pictures, which we've become used to, I think, in a way. Numb to, in some cases. And it's the wide shots, even some of the more close up shots like this. But they don't always paint a full picture of what it was to be like there, witnessing it. And you get those accounts from people that you talk to. And we have Sam. We should make clear that all of the people you talk to, this is a pure oral history. You have recordings of all of it. I want to play one piece of sound from someone who was with National Geographic. Just explain to me where he was.

[00:07:16] Speaker 8: So he was in the crowd, and kind of this quote is when he's cresting up over this hill and kind of sees exactly the melee and the riot that has started to happen.

[00:07:26] Speaker 7: All right, let's listen.

[00:07:28] Speaker 9: They were within a bigger crowd, like a Trojan horse, because they used the mass. And I thought, oh, I know these guys. Kevlar vests, Kevlar helmets, baseball bats, two by fours, flagpoles that are really masking a club or a weapon of some kind. A lot of the gloves, you'd see them in Afghanistan, where they're gloves with these fiberglass knuckles. Just people who came prepared to fight, not to just protest, but prepared to attack.

[00:08:01] Speaker 7: And he was in the middle of it and feeling it, which can be different than seeing these big pictures that we see.

[00:08:06] Speaker 8: A lot of these photojournalists are actually war reporters who were only stateside because it was COVID. And so these are guys who have crazy experiences. This specific man is 10 years as a war correspondent, and he said he's never really seen anything quite like this.

[00:08:20] Speaker 7: You did not speak to the insurrectionists. Why?

[00:08:23] Speaker 8: Two things. First of all, best practice in combating the rise of fascism and the far right in the U.S. is to not give these guys any more oxygen, is to not let them spread their propaganda. But also, in a very real sense, I didn't need to. They love telling their own story. They have said as much as they're going to say about what happened that day. And there's depositions, there's court documents. I've read thousands of pages of them talking, and their voices are in this book.

[00:08:50] Speaker 7: Very quickly, there's been some resistance to this book in general as you've been trying to get publicity for it.

[00:08:56] Speaker 8: This is my fourth book, and it's the first time that I've had bookstores, libraries, universities say, we don't want to host you for an event because it's just too sensitive. I've had events canceled. I've had event folks say kind of amorphous security concerns that just feels like preemptive censorship.

[00:09:11] Speaker 7: It's interesting. It does tell you something about where this is right now in our country's history. Nora, it was great to see you. Good to see you. Great work as always. Thank you.

[00:09:19] Speaker 8: Thank you so much. Thanks for doing the work, Nora. It was good to see you again.