WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.320 On January 6, 2021, the United States Capitol, 00:00:04.580 --> 00:00:07.080 which is, you know, this literal fortress of 00:00:07.080 --> 00:00:10.560 heavy stone, marble columns and this massive 00:00:10.560 --> 00:00:13.560 cast iron dome. Right. Built to withstand centuries. 00:00:13.619 --> 00:00:15.679 Exactly. It was basically brought to its knees 00:00:15.679 --> 00:00:19.800 and. It wasn't defeated by some foreign military 00:00:19.800 --> 00:00:23.000 or like a highly sophisticated covert operation. 00:00:23.079 --> 00:00:25.359 No, not at all. It was breached because of a 00:00:25.359 --> 00:00:28.260 cascading failure of human systems. And I think 00:00:28.260 --> 00:00:30.859 the most shocking part, according to the encyclopedic 00:00:30.859 --> 00:00:33.359 record we're unpacking today, the entire blueprint 00:00:33.359 --> 00:00:35.460 for this breach was just published in plain sight. 00:00:35.630 --> 00:00:37.789 Yeah, on the public internet. Right, weeks in 00:00:37.789 --> 00:00:39.909 advance. It's honestly a stunning paradox. I 00:00:39.909 --> 00:00:41.869 mean, you have the physical embodiment of American 00:00:41.869 --> 00:00:44.450 stability completely overwhelmed by a highly 00:00:44.450 --> 00:00:46.950 motivated, organized force. Yeah. A force that 00:00:46.950 --> 00:00:49.789 was loudly broadcasting its intentions, you know. 00:00:49.950 --> 00:00:51.929 It really forces you to realize that all that 00:00:51.929 --> 00:00:54.310 immovable architecture is, well, it's really 00:00:54.310 --> 00:00:56.750 only as strong as the people and the protocols 00:00:56.750 --> 00:00:59.890 defending it. Welcome to our deep dive. Today, 00:00:59.929 --> 00:01:02.390 we're taking you inside one of the most exhaustively 00:01:02.390 --> 00:01:05.750 documented yet intensely debated days in modern 00:01:05.750 --> 00:01:08.730 American history. Absolutely. Our mission is 00:01:08.730 --> 00:01:12.409 to unpack a comprehensive encyclopedic source. 00:01:13.109 --> 00:01:14.870 Specifically, we're looking at the Wikipedia 00:01:14.870 --> 00:01:17.069 article on the January 6th United States Capitol 00:01:17.069 --> 00:01:19.629 attack. And this is the version updated and current 00:01:19.629 --> 00:01:23.310 as of March 2026, which is a remarkably dense 00:01:23.310 --> 00:01:25.980 timeline. Yeah. It really is. We're going to 00:01:25.980 --> 00:01:27.959 use this massive document to try to understand 00:01:27.959 --> 00:01:32.420 the timeline, the tactical failures. the rippling 00:01:32.420 --> 00:01:34.840 aftermath that is actively shifting our legal 00:01:34.840 --> 00:01:36.780 and political landscape today. Right, because 00:01:36.780 --> 00:01:39.599 we are looking at everything from the weeks of 00:01:39.599 --> 00:01:41.659 logistical planning, the minute by minute physical 00:01:41.659 --> 00:01:44.359 breach, the systemic paralysis at the Pentagon. 00:01:44.519 --> 00:01:46.859 The Pentagon delay is just wild to me. It's unbelievable. 00:01:46.879 --> 00:01:48.519 And we'll take that all the way up to the legal 00:01:48.519 --> 00:01:51.060 realities and the presidential pardons of 2025 00:01:51.060 --> 00:01:53.540 and 2026. Now, before we go any further, I want 00:01:53.540 --> 00:01:55.819 to pause and address you, the listener, directly, 00:01:56.099 --> 00:01:58.579 because this is obviously an intensely debated, 00:01:58.840 --> 00:02:01.219 politically charged topic. Very much so. So here 00:02:01.219 --> 00:02:04.120 is our unbreakable rule for this deep dive. We 00:02:04.120 --> 00:02:06.579 are never taking any political sides, not left 00:02:06.579 --> 00:02:09.180 wing, not right wing. We are impartially reporting 00:02:09.180 --> 00:02:11.400 on the factual content provided in our source 00:02:11.400 --> 00:02:14.919 material. Our sole purpose is to convey the ideas 00:02:14.919 --> 00:02:17.599 and facts contained within this original text. 00:02:17.849 --> 00:02:20.930 without endorsing any viewpoints. Exactly. We're 00:02:20.930 --> 00:02:23.050 looking strictly at the mechanics of what the 00:02:23.050 --> 00:02:25.250 source document says happened, how it happened, 00:02:25.289 --> 00:02:27.849 and the recorded consequences. We're just your 00:02:27.849 --> 00:02:29.729 guides through the document. OK, let's unpack 00:02:29.729 --> 00:02:33.189 this. To understand January 6, you really can't 00:02:33.189 --> 00:02:35.169 start on the morning of January 6. No, you have 00:02:35.169 --> 00:02:38.210 to go back weeks earlier. Right. The post -election 00:02:38.210 --> 00:02:41.270 atmosphere was incredibly tense. You had, like, 00:02:41.449 --> 00:02:44.389 60 rejected lawsuits attempting to overturn the 00:02:44.389 --> 00:02:47.280 2020 election results. Yeah, 60. But alongside 00:02:47.280 --> 00:02:50.360 those courtroom battles, the source details this 00:02:50.360 --> 00:02:53.819 parallel mechanical plot to use fake electors. 00:02:54.080 --> 00:02:56.180 And this wasn't just some vague idea floating 00:02:56.180 --> 00:02:58.680 around. No, it was a logistical strategy. Exactly. 00:02:58.879 --> 00:03:01.960 To create competing alternate slates of electors 00:03:01.960 --> 00:03:05.060 in key swing states. The ultimate goal there 00:03:05.060 --> 00:03:07.979 was to hand Vice President Mike Pence a pretext 00:03:07.979 --> 00:03:10.560 to halt the certification process. Right, and 00:03:10.560 --> 00:03:12.219 basically throw the election to the House of 00:03:12.219 --> 00:03:15.099 Representatives. And while that legal and political 00:03:15.099 --> 00:03:17.659 strategy is being formulated, the environment 00:03:17.659 --> 00:03:20.960 on the ground is just being primed with massive 00:03:20.960 --> 00:03:23.599 funding. Huge amounts of money. By December, 00:03:23.759 --> 00:03:26.080 there was a concerted effort to bankroll a massive 00:03:26.080 --> 00:03:29.560 physical presence in Washington. Julie Fancelli, 00:03:29.659 --> 00:03:32.199 the public supermarket heiress, she budgeted 00:03:32.199 --> 00:03:35.180 three million dollars. Wow. And ultimately spent 00:03:35.180 --> 00:03:38.960 at least 650 ,000, partly funneling money through 00:03:38.960 --> 00:03:42.060 conspiracy theorist Alex Jones just to fund the 00:03:42.060 --> 00:03:44.039 main rally and reserve the ellipse. So you have 00:03:44.039 --> 00:03:47.099 this massive public event being financed. Right. 00:03:47.259 --> 00:03:48.900 And looking at the timeline, the events leading 00:03:48.900 --> 00:03:51.669 up to that day operate a lot like a funnel. The 00:03:51.669 --> 00:03:53.870 funnel. How so? Well, at the very wide top of 00:03:53.870 --> 00:03:56.650 the funnel, you have this broad political rhetoric, 00:03:56.889 --> 00:03:58.750 the millions of dollars in funding, the public 00:03:58.750 --> 00:04:01.169 rallies, millions of people just hearing claims 00:04:01.169 --> 00:04:03.930 of a stolen election. Right, a huge broad audience. 00:04:04.090 --> 00:04:06.090 But as you move down to the narrow spout of the 00:04:06.090 --> 00:04:09.250 funnel, you find highly coordinated paramilitary 00:04:09.250 --> 00:04:12.069 groups acting as this concentrated pressure point. 00:04:12.169 --> 00:04:15.009 What's fascinating here is how the source details 00:04:15.009 --> 00:04:17.350 the operations of those groups right at that 00:04:17.350 --> 00:04:19.850 narrow spout. Specifically, we're talking about 00:04:19.850 --> 00:04:22.329 the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys. Yeah, those 00:04:22.329 --> 00:04:24.889 two groups. For weeks on social media, there 00:04:24.889 --> 00:04:27.189 were over a million mentions of storming the 00:04:27.189 --> 00:04:30.490 Capitol. People were posting literal maps online 00:04:30.490 --> 00:04:32.810 showing the underground tunnels connecting the 00:04:32.810 --> 00:04:34.930 Capitol to the surrounding office buildings. 00:04:35.189 --> 00:04:37.689 Which is terrifying. It was a tactical operation 00:04:37.689 --> 00:04:40.129 being crowdsourced right out in the open. They're 00:04:40.129 --> 00:04:42.930 running like military style logistics. Yeah. 00:04:43.170 --> 00:04:45.569 The source says the Oath Keepers actually set 00:04:45.569 --> 00:04:48.209 up what they called a Quick Reaction Force or 00:04:48.209 --> 00:04:51.569 a QRF. Right. Which is a standard military doctrine 00:04:51.569 --> 00:04:54.129 concept. Yeah. It's a heavily armed unit kept 00:04:54.129 --> 00:04:56.470 in reserve to rapidly respond to a developing 00:04:56.470 --> 00:04:59.949 situation. The Oath Keepers stockpiled an arsenal 00:04:59.949 --> 00:05:02.750 of weapons across the river in Virginia. Just 00:05:02.750 --> 00:05:05.649 waiting there. Exactly. They even discussed procuring 00:05:05.389 --> 00:05:08.170 boats to ferry those weapons across the Potomac 00:05:08.170 --> 00:05:11.089 River into DC if the bridges were locked down 00:05:11.089 --> 00:05:13.629 by law enforcement. I mean, ferrying weapons 00:05:13.629 --> 00:05:16.029 on boats, that's a level of planning you don't 00:05:16.029 --> 00:05:18.529 associate with a spontaneous riot. Not at all. 00:05:18.600 --> 00:05:21.139 And meanwhile, the Proud Boys leadership received 00:05:21.139 --> 00:05:25.800 a document on December 30th called 1776 returns. 00:05:26.100 --> 00:05:28.639 Right. The 1776 document. Yeah. And this wasn't 00:05:28.639 --> 00:05:31.819 just a manifesto. It explicitly load out plans 00:05:31.819 --> 00:05:34.199 for the occupation of crucial buildings and storming 00:05:34.199 --> 00:05:36.819 the Capitol complex. So the pressure at the bottom 00:05:36.819 --> 00:05:39.060 of the funnel is just building to a boiling point. 00:05:39.079 --> 00:05:41.740 Right. And that brings us to the morning of January 00:05:41.740 --> 00:05:44.660 6 itself. We have the Save America rally at the 00:05:44.660 --> 00:05:47.220 ellipse. Right. Right. President Trump speaks 00:05:47.220 --> 00:05:50.899 at 11. 0 .58 a .m. From behind bulletproof glass 00:05:50.899 --> 00:05:53.560 and he tells the crowd if you don't fight like 00:05:53.560 --> 00:05:55.839 hell You're not gonna have a country anymore 00:05:55.839 --> 00:05:58.240 and the documentation notes that he was allegedly 00:05:58.240 --> 00:05:59.980 aware that some of his supporters were armed 00:05:59.980 --> 00:06:02.379 at that point Oh, really? Yeah, he demanded that 00:06:02.379 --> 00:06:04.899 the magnetometers the metal detectors be removed 00:06:04.899 --> 00:06:07.360 He reportedly stated, you know, they're not here 00:06:07.360 --> 00:06:10.720 to hurt me let my people in Wow And he then directed 00:06:10.720 --> 00:06:13.600 that massive crowd to march directly on the Capitol 00:06:13.920 --> 00:06:16.040 Okay, so I was looking at the timeline of the 00:06:16.040 --> 00:06:19.060 physical breach and there's this tactical diversion 00:06:19.060 --> 00:06:21.100 that happens right as that speech is wrapping 00:06:21.100 --> 00:06:23.800 up and it feels almost too perfect. The pipe 00:06:23.800 --> 00:06:26.300 bombs. Yes. You don't just happen to find a bomb 00:06:26.300 --> 00:06:28.360 at the exact minute the perimeter of the Capitol 00:06:28.360 --> 00:06:31.269 is being rushed. The night before... Someone 00:06:31.269 --> 00:06:33.490 placed pipe bombs outside the headquarters of 00:06:33.490 --> 00:06:35.810 the Democratic National Committee and the Republican 00:06:35.810 --> 00:06:37.509 National Committee. And these weren't fakes. 00:06:37.709 --> 00:06:40.370 These were crude but fully functional devices. 00:06:40.810 --> 00:06:43.410 Galvanized steel pipes, homemade black powder, 00:06:43.829 --> 00:06:46.350 and kitchen timers. So for years, the identity 00:06:46.350 --> 00:06:49.769 of this bomber was a massive mystery. In 2025, 00:06:50.069 --> 00:06:53.670 former FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino was publicly 00:06:53.670 --> 00:06:56.410 claiming it was an inside job. Right. That was 00:06:56.410 --> 00:06:59.009 a huge talking point. But the source has this 00:06:59.009 --> 00:07:02.949 major update. In December 2025, the FBI finally 00:07:02.949 --> 00:07:05.430 arrested a man in Virginia named Brian Cole. 00:07:06.149 --> 00:07:08.850 Cole admitted to believing 2020 election conspiracy 00:07:08.850 --> 00:07:11.350 theories, though interestingly, he also stated 00:07:11.350 --> 00:07:13.430 he didn't really like either political party. 00:07:14.029 --> 00:07:16.629 That's an interesting detail. Yeah. Bongino leads 00:07:16.629 --> 00:07:19.470 the FBI shortly after, and Cole is indicted in 00:07:19.470 --> 00:07:22.910 January 2026. But getting back to the mechanics 00:07:22.910 --> 00:07:25.579 of the day itself. How did the discovery of these 00:07:25.579 --> 00:07:27.680 pipe bombs critically compromise the Capitol 00:07:27.680 --> 00:07:30.019 Police's defensive perimeter right at that moment? 00:07:30.360 --> 00:07:32.740 If we connect this to the bigger picture... The 00:07:32.740 --> 00:07:35.399 pipe bombs functioned as a devastatingly effective 00:07:35.399 --> 00:07:38.279 resource drain. Like a distraction. Exactly. 00:07:38.860 --> 00:07:41.060 Capitol Police Inspector General Michael Bolton 00:07:41.060 --> 00:07:44.160 later testified that the discovery of those bombs 00:07:44.160 --> 00:07:47.300 drew three entire squads of police away from 00:07:47.300 --> 00:07:49.699 the Capitol. Three squads. Three squads. Just 00:07:49.699 --> 00:07:52.339 to investigate and secure those secondary locations, 00:07:52.839 --> 00:07:55.759 it left only one squad. at the Capitol itself. 00:07:56.000 --> 00:07:58.399 Oh my God. And the timing is everything here. 00:07:58.779 --> 00:08:01.060 Just as law enforcement is distracted and totally 00:08:01.060 --> 00:08:03.660 depleted, the Proud Boys, who had actually left 00:08:03.660 --> 00:08:06.939 Trump's speech early, arrive at the Capitol barricades. 00:08:07.100 --> 00:08:08.879 They didn't even stay for the climax of the rally. 00:08:08.939 --> 00:08:10.680 They just marched straight to the perimeter. 00:08:11.139 --> 00:08:13.480 And this is where we see the Proud Boys acting 00:08:13.480 --> 00:08:15.360 as that tip of the spear. Yeah, they were right 00:08:15.360 --> 00:08:18.759 at the front. The source isolates a very specific 00:08:18.759 --> 00:08:21.870 tipping point. A man named Ryan Samsel is at 00:08:21.870 --> 00:08:24.470 the barricade, and he is being goaded by Proud 00:08:24.470 --> 00:08:28.430 Boy leader Joe Biggs. Biggs allegedly questions 00:08:28.430 --> 00:08:31.410 Samsel's manhood, kind of pushing him to challenge 00:08:31.410 --> 00:08:34.110 the police line. So Samsel physically pushes 00:08:34.110 --> 00:08:36.850 the first barricade. That knocks over Officer 00:08:36.850 --> 00:08:39.169 Caroline Edwards, causing her to hit her head 00:08:39.169 --> 00:08:41.549 on the concrete and lose consciousness. And that 00:08:41.549 --> 00:08:43.610 physical breach at the first line, that was the 00:08:43.610 --> 00:08:46.960 spark. From there, the Proud Boys utilized organized 00:08:46.960 --> 00:08:49.240 teamwork. It wasn't just random pushing. Not 00:08:49.240 --> 00:08:52.139 at all. They would identify access points, they'd 00:08:52.139 --> 00:08:54.379 rile up the previously peaceful crowd behind 00:08:54.379 --> 00:08:57.139 them to add sheer physical mass to their push, 00:08:57.360 --> 00:08:59.220 and they just systematically overwhelmed the 00:08:59.220 --> 00:09:01.279 outnumbered police. Here's where it gets really 00:09:01.279 --> 00:09:03.779 interesting, though. When you dig into the mechanics 00:09:03.779 --> 00:09:06.600 of the assault itself, it completely destroys 00:09:06.600 --> 00:09:10.289 the idea of a mindless, chaotic riot. How so? 00:09:10.409 --> 00:09:12.870 It operated much more like a coordinated penetration 00:09:12.870 --> 00:09:15.590 test in cyber security, like they didn't just 00:09:15.590 --> 00:09:18.370 waste energy banging on the firewall. The source 00:09:18.370 --> 00:09:20.409 notes that the first wave of attackers ran past 00:09:20.409 --> 00:09:24.350 15 reinforced windows. 15 of them. They bypassed 00:09:24.350 --> 00:09:27.149 them entirely because they were looking to exploit 00:09:27.149 --> 00:09:30.429 an unpatched vulnerability, which was a recessed 00:09:30.429 --> 00:09:32.830 area near the Senate where there were unreinforced 00:09:32.830 --> 00:09:35.360 doors and windows. Whether they had advanced 00:09:35.360 --> 00:09:37.720 knowledge of the building's architectural vulnerabilities, 00:09:38.000 --> 00:09:40.460 or they just found it through rapid trial and 00:09:40.460 --> 00:09:42.820 error, they identified that weak point. Yeah. 00:09:43.220 --> 00:09:47.460 At 2 .11 PM, Proud Boy Dominic Pizzola used a 00:09:47.460 --> 00:09:50.620 stolen police riot shield to smash one of those 00:09:50.620 --> 00:09:53.720 unreinforced windows. And that was it. The Capitol 00:09:53.720 --> 00:09:56.620 was officially breached. And we really have to 00:09:56.620 --> 00:09:59.600 conceptualize the staggering scale of this. The 00:09:59.600 --> 00:10:03.299 FBI estimates 2 ,000 to 2 ,500 people poured 00:10:03.299 --> 00:10:05.320 into the building. That's a small town moving 00:10:05.320 --> 00:10:08.000 inside the building. Exactly. You had oath keepers 00:10:08.000 --> 00:10:10.440 marching up the steps in military -style stack 00:10:10.440 --> 00:10:12.379 formation. Sands on the shoulders, right? Right. 00:10:12.700 --> 00:10:14.279 Keeping their hands on the shoulders of the person 00:10:14.279 --> 00:10:15.779 in front of them so they can move through the 00:10:15.779 --> 00:10:18.279 crowd efficiently. You had attackers coordinating 00:10:18.279 --> 00:10:21.620 movements using two -way radios. So once they're 00:10:21.620 --> 00:10:23.649 inside the building, just descends into total 00:10:23.649 --> 00:10:26.309 chaos, but it's punctuated by these incredible 00:10:26.309 --> 00:10:28.889 moments of desperate heroism. It's like Capitol 00:10:28.889 --> 00:10:32.009 Police Officer Eugene Goodman. He finds himself 00:10:32.009 --> 00:10:35.809 entirely alone confronting the mob. He realizes 00:10:35.809 --> 00:10:38.169 they were just steps away from the Senate chamber 00:10:38.169 --> 00:10:40.690 doors, and those doors hadn't been sealed yet. 00:10:40.909 --> 00:10:43.429 The lawmakers were entirely exposed. Completely 00:10:43.429 --> 00:10:46.429 exposed. So Goodman deliberately shoves the lead 00:10:46.429 --> 00:10:50.220 attacker. He essentially baits the mob. tricking 00:10:50.220 --> 00:10:52.620 them into chasing him down a completely different 00:10:52.620 --> 00:10:55.360 hallway, away from the Senate. A split second 00:10:55.360 --> 00:10:57.899 calculation that undeniably saved lives. Yeah, 00:10:58.080 --> 00:11:00.259 an incredible presence of mind. And simultaneously, 00:11:00.580 --> 00:11:03.019 you have Vice President Mike Pence being evacuated 00:11:03.019 --> 00:11:06.039 to a subterranean loading dock. His Secret Service 00:11:06.039 --> 00:11:08.080 detail attempts to put him in an armored car 00:11:08.080 --> 00:11:10.659 to move him from the complex entirely. And he 00:11:10.659 --> 00:11:13.720 says no. Right. Pence looks at the agent and 00:11:13.720 --> 00:11:15.879 flatly refuses. He says, I'm not getting in the 00:11:15.879 --> 00:11:18.070 car. because he understood the mechanics of the 00:11:18.070 --> 00:11:20.590 constitutional process. If he left? If he left 00:11:20.590 --> 00:11:23.029 the building, the certification of the election 00:11:23.029 --> 00:11:26.129 would be halted indefinitely. Wow. And the violence 00:11:26.129 --> 00:11:29.830 inside the complex was just severe and really 00:11:29.830 --> 00:11:32.370 intimate. You have the fatal shooting of Ashley 00:11:32.370 --> 00:11:34.929 Babbitt, who was wearing a Trump flag as a cape 00:11:34.929 --> 00:11:36.769 as she attempted to climb through the shattered 00:11:36.769 --> 00:11:39.669 window of a barricaded door. And that door led 00:11:39.669 --> 00:11:42.029 directly into the speaker's lobby. Lawmakers 00:11:42.029 --> 00:11:44.139 were just on the other side. Right. You also 00:11:44.139 --> 00:11:46.940 have Metropolitan Police Officer Daniel Hodges 00:11:46.940 --> 00:11:49.559 literally being crushed in the doorway of a tunnel 00:11:49.559 --> 00:11:52.240 as the mob tried to force their way in. That 00:11:52.240 --> 00:11:54.379 tunnel entrance essentially became a medieval 00:11:54.379 --> 00:11:57.279 style siege line. I mean, officers were dragged 00:11:57.279 --> 00:11:59.039 bodily into the crowd. They were beaten with 00:11:59.039 --> 00:12:01.379 heavy pipes, stripped of their gear and stunned 00:12:01.379 --> 00:12:04.039 with tasers. So you have local cops being crushed 00:12:04.039 --> 00:12:06.740 in doorways fighting hand to hand for hours. 00:12:06.740 --> 00:12:08.860 And I think the immediate question any listener 00:12:08.860 --> 00:12:10.899 would have is Washington, D .C. is one of the 00:12:10.899 --> 00:12:13.179 most heavily militarized cities on earth. Yeah, 00:12:13.340 --> 00:12:15.740 it is. How does a siege on the seat of government 00:12:15.740 --> 00:12:18.240 last for hours without the military stepping 00:12:18.240 --> 00:12:20.139 in? Where was the chain of command? Well, this 00:12:20.139 --> 00:12:23.240 brings us to the systemic bureaucratic paralysis 00:12:23.240 --> 00:12:25.940 that really defined the afternoon. Let's look 00:12:25.940 --> 00:12:28.519 at the commander in chief. According to the source, 00:12:28.940 --> 00:12:31.620 President Trump was in the West Wing watching 00:12:31.620 --> 00:12:35.059 the attack unfold on television. Staffers reported 00:12:35.059 --> 00:12:37.879 he was impossible to talk to and he refused to 00:12:37.879 --> 00:12:39.919 issue a public statement to call off the mob. 00:12:40.929 --> 00:12:43.690 Earlier in the day, when his Secret Service detail 00:12:43.690 --> 00:12:46.169 refused to drive him to the Capitol after his 00:12:46.169 --> 00:12:49.389 rally, he allegedly lunged at his driver in anger. 00:12:49.590 --> 00:12:51.970 And while the breach is actively happening while 00:12:51.970 --> 00:12:54.070 his vice president is literally hiding in a loading 00:12:54.070 --> 00:12:57.690 dock, Trump sends a tweet at 2 .24 p .m. saying 00:12:57.690 --> 00:13:00.210 Pence didn't have the courage to do what should 00:13:00.210 --> 00:13:02.090 have been done. Which only poured gasoline on 00:13:02.090 --> 00:13:04.429 the fire. It led directly to the mob chanting 00:13:04.429 --> 00:13:06.870 hang Mike Pence. Meanwhile, the Capitol Police 00:13:06.870 --> 00:13:09.129 were suffering these massive internal logistical 00:13:09.129 --> 00:13:11.850 failures. The source details that under orders 00:13:11.850 --> 00:13:14.509 from leadership, they deployed without proper 00:13:14.509 --> 00:13:17.169 riot gear or less lethal weapons. That's right. 00:13:17.470 --> 00:13:20.269 And their riot shields have been improperly stored 00:13:20.269 --> 00:13:23.850 at the wrong temperature for years. It degraded 00:13:23.850 --> 00:13:26.690 the polycarbonate material. So when officers 00:13:26.690 --> 00:13:29.549 tried to use them to defend themselves, the shields 00:13:29.549 --> 00:13:32.549 literally shattered upon impact. And they also 00:13:32.549 --> 00:13:35.470 had expired ammunition. Just a complete breakdown 00:13:35.470 --> 00:13:38.070 of resources. But the internal police failures 00:13:38.070 --> 00:13:41.070 are terrible. But the Pentagon's delay is what 00:13:41.070 --> 00:13:43.629 absolutely stops me in my tracks. Yeah, the Pentagon's 00:13:43.629 --> 00:13:46.230 response was deeply flawed. Acting Defense Secretary 00:13:46.230 --> 00:13:48.389 Christopher Miller had heavily restricted the 00:13:48.389 --> 00:13:50.370 deployment of the D .C. National Guard before 00:13:50.370 --> 00:13:54.190 the event. And then at 2 .26 p .m., so the Capitol 00:13:54.190 --> 00:13:56.850 is breached, officers are screaming for help 00:13:56.850 --> 00:13:59.750 on the radio. There is a conference call. Right. 00:13:59.929 --> 00:14:01.970 DC officials are begging for the National Guard 00:14:01.970 --> 00:14:05.559 to be deployed. And Army Staff Director LTN General 00:14:05.559 --> 00:14:08.720 Walter Piat says he doesn't like the visual of 00:14:08.720 --> 00:14:10.600 the National Guard standing in a police line 00:14:10.600 --> 00:14:13.019 with the Capitol in the background. He was explicitly 00:14:13.019 --> 00:14:15.500 concerned about the public relations optics of 00:14:15.500 --> 00:14:17.639 putting military uniforms on the Capitol steps. 00:14:17.779 --> 00:14:19.379 Wait, I have to push back on this just to make 00:14:19.379 --> 00:14:21.179 sure I am grasping the reality of the source 00:14:21.179 --> 00:14:23.820 test. In the middle of a literal siege on the 00:14:23.820 --> 00:14:26.120 United States government, with police officers 00:14:26.120 --> 00:14:29.379 bleeding, military leadership was actively debating 00:14:29.379 --> 00:14:32.259 the PR visuals of sending in the National Guard. 00:14:32.360 --> 00:14:35.080 This raises an important question about how our 00:14:35.080 --> 00:14:37.320 national security apparatus is fundamentally 00:14:37.320 --> 00:14:39.980 structured, because yes, that is exactly what 00:14:39.980 --> 00:14:42.759 happened. That's just wild. It comes down to 00:14:42.759 --> 00:14:45.659 a fatal loop of jurisdictional red tape. You 00:14:45.659 --> 00:14:48.759 see, D .C. Mayor Muriel Bowser does not have 00:14:48.759 --> 00:14:51.179 authority over the Capitol grounds. Okay. And 00:14:51.179 --> 00:14:52.960 more importantly, she does not have the authority 00:14:52.960 --> 00:14:55.850 to deploy the D .C. National Guard. Only the 00:14:55.850 --> 00:14:57.830 president or the Pentagon can do that. Oh, I 00:14:57.830 --> 00:14:59.789 see. So the Capitol Police chief is begging for 00:14:59.789 --> 00:15:02.210 help. The D .C. mayor is begging for help. But 00:15:02.210 --> 00:15:05.730 the Pentagon withholds permission until 4 .32 00:15:05.730 --> 00:15:08.750 p .m. Because of how the command structure is 00:15:08.750 --> 00:15:11.309 legally wired, the local police were left to 00:15:11.309 --> 00:15:14.450 fight alone for over three hours. It is a staggering 00:15:14.450 --> 00:15:16.950 failure of the system, which brings us to the 00:15:16.950 --> 00:15:19.710 long tail consequences of that day, because obviously 00:15:19.710 --> 00:15:22.409 the justice system eventually moves in. Over 00:15:22.409 --> 00:15:25.110 1500 people are ultimately charged. A massive 00:15:25.110 --> 00:15:28.809 investigation. We see historic, seditious conspiracy 00:15:28.809 --> 00:15:32.370 sentences handed down. Proud Boys chairman Enrique 00:15:32.370 --> 00:15:35.450 Carrio gets 22 years. Oath Keepers founder Stuart 00:15:35.450 --> 00:15:38.850 Rhodes gets 18 years. But the legal landscape 00:15:38.850 --> 00:15:41.070 begins to shift dramatically over the next few 00:15:41.070 --> 00:15:43.629 years. The Supreme Court issues the Fisher ruling, 00:15:44.070 --> 00:15:46.309 which severely limits the government's ability 00:15:46.309 --> 00:15:48.690 to use the Sarbanes -Oxley Act for obstruction 00:15:48.690 --> 00:15:51.049 charges against the rioters. And we should explain 00:15:51.049 --> 00:15:53.090 the mechanics of that because it's vital. The 00:15:53.090 --> 00:15:55.529 Sarbanes -Oxley Act was passed after the Enron 00:15:55.529 --> 00:15:57.570 corporate fraud scandal. Right, the financial 00:15:57.570 --> 00:16:00.570 scandal. Right. It makes it a crime to obstruct 00:16:00.570 --> 00:16:03.490 an official proceeding. The DOJ was using this 00:16:03.490 --> 00:16:06.230 law to charge rioters for stopping the certification. 00:16:06.710 --> 00:16:08.970 But the Supreme Court stepped in to decide if 00:16:08.970 --> 00:16:11.690 smashing windows at the Capitol legally equals 00:16:11.690 --> 00:16:13.830 shredding accounting documents. And they ruled 00:16:13.830 --> 00:16:16.690 it largely didn't. Right. Which forced the DOJ 00:16:16.690 --> 00:16:20.029 to reopen or alter a ton of these cases. That 00:16:20.029 --> 00:16:22.009 judicial shift was massive, but it was followed 00:16:22.009 --> 00:16:24.750 by a tectonic political shift on January 20, 00:16:24.870 --> 00:16:28.029 2025. President Trump takes office for his second 00:16:28.029 --> 00:16:31.440 term. The 2025 inauguration. Yeah. And on his 00:16:31.440 --> 00:16:34.519 very first day, he grants clemency to approximately 00:16:34.519 --> 00:16:37.860 1 ,500 rioters, including those convicted of 00:16:37.860 --> 00:16:41.000 violent offenses against police officers. Furthermore, 00:16:41.259 --> 00:16:43.539 he orders the Department of Justice to purge 00:16:43.539 --> 00:16:46.480 their digital records, scrubbing the press releases 00:16:46.480 --> 00:16:49.200 detailing the rioters' arrests, evidence, and 00:16:49.200 --> 00:16:52.179 convictions from the DOJ website entirely. Literally 00:16:52.179 --> 00:16:54.779 memory -holing the digital footprint of the prosecution. 00:16:55.080 --> 00:16:58.279 Yes. And on the flip side of that, outgoing President 00:16:58.279 --> 00:17:01.690 Biden on his very last day in office, preemptively 00:17:01.690 --> 00:17:04.150 pardon the members of the January 6th investigative 00:17:04.150 --> 00:17:06.369 committee just to protect them from potential 00:17:06.369 --> 00:17:09.150 retaliatory investigations. The contrast is just 00:17:09.150 --> 00:17:11.289 stark, and it really highlights how the narrative 00:17:11.289 --> 00:17:14.049 of the event is actively being fought over. But 00:17:14.049 --> 00:17:16.630 the physical and human toll of the day remains 00:17:16.630 --> 00:17:19.230 a documented fact. You can't erase that. No. 00:17:19.670 --> 00:17:21.650 The architect of the Capitol estimated repairs 00:17:21.650 --> 00:17:24.670 and required security upgrades exceeded 30 million 00:17:24.670 --> 00:17:28.250 dollars. And the human cost was devastating. 00:17:28.640 --> 00:17:32.559 Five people died within 36 hours. That includes 00:17:32.559 --> 00:17:35.359 Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, who suffered 00:17:35.359 --> 00:17:38.359 strokes after engaging with rioters, and rioter 00:17:38.359 --> 00:17:40.519 Roseanne Boyland, who overdosed in the crush 00:17:40.519 --> 00:17:42.900 of the crowd. It was awful. And in the months 00:17:42.900 --> 00:17:45.299 that followed, four police officers who responded 00:17:45.299 --> 00:17:49.039 to the attack died by suicide. And yet... A physical 00:17:49.039 --> 00:17:51.259 plaque honoring the Capitol police who fought 00:17:51.259 --> 00:17:54.140 that day sat in a basement just surrounded by 00:17:54.140 --> 00:17:56.700 maintenance equipment for years. It's hard to 00:17:56.700 --> 00:17:59.059 believe. It wasn't finally installed on a wall 00:17:59.059 --> 00:18:03.119 until March 2026. And even then, it was placed 00:18:03.119 --> 00:18:05.640 in an area completely closed off to general public 00:18:05.640 --> 00:18:08.380 tours. Think about what this means for you, witnessing 00:18:08.380 --> 00:18:10.619 history. We usually think of history as something 00:18:10.619 --> 00:18:13.559 carved in stone, something immutable. But here, 00:18:13.920 --> 00:18:15.900 the legal and historical reality of what happened 00:18:15.900 --> 00:18:18.759 is literally being rewritten, purged, and boxed 00:18:18.759 --> 00:18:20.980 away depending on which administration holds 00:18:20.980 --> 00:18:23.339 the levers of power. The physical reality of 00:18:23.339 --> 00:18:25.359 the violence is being aggressively overwritten 00:18:25.359 --> 00:18:27.740 by competing political narratives. So what does 00:18:27.740 --> 00:18:29.529 this all mean? When you pull back and look at 00:18:29.529 --> 00:18:32.329 the whole encyclopedia of events, January 6 was 00:18:32.329 --> 00:18:34.950 not a spontaneous organic riot that just got 00:18:34.950 --> 00:18:37.529 out of hand. Not at all. It was the violent collision 00:18:37.529 --> 00:18:41.170 of months of escalated political rhetoric, systemic 00:18:41.170 --> 00:18:44.329 law enforcement and military failures and highly 00:18:44.329 --> 00:18:48.329 organized premeditated militia planning. It was 00:18:48.329 --> 00:18:50.910 the pressure at the bottom of the funnel, finding 00:18:50.910 --> 00:18:53.410 the untouched vulnerability in the system. And 00:18:53.410 --> 00:18:55.269 the ripples of that day are far from settled. 00:18:55.829 --> 00:18:58.519 To leave you with something to ponder, The source 00:18:58.519 --> 00:19:00.940 notes a pretty chilling sociological statistic. 00:19:01.119 --> 00:19:04.259 What's that? A June 2023 poll found that about 00:19:04.259 --> 00:19:07.339 12 million American adults, that's 4 .4 % of 00:19:07.339 --> 00:19:10.099 the population, believed violence was justified 00:19:10.099 --> 00:19:12.180 to return Donald Trump to the White House. 12 00:19:12.180 --> 00:19:14.819 million people. Yeah. What happens to the foundation 00:19:14.819 --> 00:19:17.460 of a democratic society when a statistical fraction 00:19:17.460 --> 00:19:20.160 of its citizens, numbering in the millions, begins 00:19:20.160 --> 00:19:23.339 to view political violence not as a tragic aberration, 00:19:23.720 --> 00:19:26.240 but as a legitimate and acceptable tool for change? 00:19:26.480 --> 00:19:28.420 It brings us right back to where we started, 00:19:28.640 --> 00:19:31.000 that stone and marble of the Capitol. It looks 00:19:31.000 --> 00:19:33.900 heavy. It looks permanent. But a building is 00:19:33.900 --> 00:19:36.599 just a building. It's the human systems, the 00:19:36.599 --> 00:19:39.059 protocols, and the shared agreements we make 00:19:39.059 --> 00:19:40.640 with one another that actually hold the roof 00:19:40.640 --> 00:19:43.220 up. That's right. And on January 6, we saw just 00:19:43.220 --> 00:19:46.500 how easily those agreements can fracture when 00:19:46.500 --> 00:19:48.380 the pressure gets high enough. Thank you for 00:19:48.380 --> 00:19:50.680 joining us on this deep dive. Keep examining 00:19:50.680 --> 00:19:53.019 the sources around you. Keep asking questions. 00:19:53.460 --> 00:19:54.839 And we'll see you next time.