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That's interesting. Trunk checks.
Yeah. We're not gonna drive shit in there.
This is gonna be the most high vis area.
So this is where we're gonna want people seeing, you know,
US troops gunning down patriotic Americans.
Can you keep tabs on the suburban behind us
with your side view? Not like hardcore.
I just wanna see if they follow us
all the way across the bridge.
Key is trying to lure the response teams
into Virginia - Mm-hmm [affirmative].
and then cutting the bridges.
Yeah. 'Cause all of our insiders are in the DC Guard.
Correct? - Mm-hmm [affirmative].
Here's Washington Monument,
here's the White House, - Mm-hmm [affirmative].
a dead reckoning from us to the Washington Monument,
and you're gonna watch that fucker right across.
Yep.
A little gasoline, you've got a big distraction.
Right.
- That close to the Pentagon's - Yeah.
gonna get a response.
Right.
Ready?
Yep.
My fellow Americans,
when our ancestors came to these shores centuries ago,
they brought with them two essential elements
that would ensure their survival,
faith, and purpose.
Faith is a gift from God to us.
Purpose is what gives us the ability
to put that power to use.
It is undeniable that this past election was stolen
and it is Hotham who is attempting a coup
to consolidate his illegitimate power and eliminate
our God-given freedoms.
To all those members of the armed forces
watching and listening,
join with us to defend our liberty and land,
with faith and purpose. America,
God and freedom will prevail.
Yeah. Yep.
Should I be friendlier?
- No. Mm-mm [negative]. - No?
- I'm gonna join up. - Yeah?
You motivated yourself?
- I did. - Okay.
Guys happy with that?
About a year ago, three Generals penned an op-ed
in the Washington Post that said,
"We're increasingly concerned about extremism in the ranks
and that the next insurrection like activity
could involve members of the active duty military.
One of the recommendations the generals made was that
the Pentagon and DHS should take some time
to war game what that might look like
and what the implications would be.
I am President Hotham,
Commander in Chief of the US Armed Forces,
Chief Executive of the United States of America,
elected to a four-year term,
just completed reelection campaign,
which is under fault's dispute.
So I'm playing the role of Chief of National Guard Bureau
and the DC Commander.
Well, I am Secretary of Homeland Security.
It's a tough job. - It's a tough job, right?
- Somebody's gotta do it, - Somebody.
right? Might as well be you, right?
Yeah.
Are you nervous at all?
It's not a nervousness of playing the exercise,
as much as we're probably gonna have to make decisions about
level of force. - Mm-hmm [affirmative].
And that, that's very heavy.
I've been, I've been, I've been in the real situation room.
These are really tough decisions.
I'm David Crease.
I'm the Director of National Intelligence
for this exercise. - Oh, great.
- Just wanted to say hello. - Great.
You'll be seeing me at the table.
- Okay, great. - Yeah.
- All right. Tell me, - Enjoy it.
what's your background here? - CIA.
That voice is not the Pentagon.
We're not DHS, but we do have an incredible number
of folks in our network who have held positions
in these agencies who volunteered to serve
and are taking this issue really seriously.
So we thought why not bring them all together
and where things go from there
will be up to the role players.
Seated around this room is an incredible diversity
of professional experience
spanning the last five presidential administrations.
All of us are here today
because we are increasingly concerned
by the rise of domestic extremism
and radicalization in this country,
specifically within the active duty military forces.
I don't need to tell you that the alarms are flashing red.
Most of you have at one point, sworn under oath
to protect and defend the constitution.
Today, we'll examine a frightening scenario.
What happens when those in uniform break that oath?
I think what brought us all together is
a need to be better prepared,
and the exercise is
Introduction to Coup Prevention 101.
I'm a retired Lieutenant General.
I spent 37 years in the Army.
I'm pretty adamantly non-partisan.
In fact, that was one of my conditions for participation,
that it was not a partisan exercise
because this should not be about politics.
This is about security.
So we have the situation room,
we've got the press briefing room,
and we've got the Red Cell room.
Classic terminology for war gaming...
White cell is your game masters
controlling the scenario and adding injects.
Blue team is typically the good guys.
And then Red Cell is your opponent.
Me and my team, we spend all day, every day,
studying extremist movements.
In the simulation, we're like the real chaos agents,
like we're the ground,
ground teams, right? - Right. Yeah. Yeah.
You guys are the,
the Bannon stone figures. - But we're in touch.
Yes.
The events of January 6th surprised a lot of Americans.
It did not surprise those who followed the far right.
These threats are advancing in a way
that the average American just has no idea.
Eroding confidence in democracy was successful.
Next January 6th is another inflection point.
These insurrectionists have recognized
that this certification of the next president
is a vulnerability that can be exploited.
Three, two... From Washington,
I'm Isha Sesay.
The question on the minds of many at this moment is,
is our government and military
prepared to face this challenge?
We're certainly as a country more divided
than any time in my lifetime.
I thought that fever would break. I don't think that it has.
What I wanna do is think about the unthinkable,
the plausible scenario that seems implausible.
And do all of this
with sort of the ghosts of January 6th hovering over us,
knowing what could happen if the government
doesn't respond in the right way.
This isn't scripted.
I have no idea if at the end of this exercise
this country collapses or comes together.
The scenario that we've designed
begins with a contested election.
You have members of the active military
siding with the losing candidate and disobeying orders.
Welcome everyone. Thank you for being here.
You have six hours to avert a civil war
and ensure the peaceful transfer of power.
If the clock runs out and Congress fails
to certify the election results,
you lose and the insurrection to swing.
This is not something
that is just one party versus another.
It is a force that could tear our country apart.
What we are here to do is stress test
our national security system.
I want them to be prepared for the worst case scenarios.
If the bad guys in this scenario win, democracy loses.
Mr. President, we are gonna be starting the game
in 5,
4,
3,
2,
1.
We're breaking into regular programming
to bring you this special report from the Capitol,
where Congress is due to convene,
to certify President John Hotham's election to a second term
after his defeat of Robert Strickland.
But we are now getting word that thousands have gathered
on the National Mall with hundreds of protestors
currently facing off against law enforcement.
This is what we know at the moment.
A security checkpoint at the Capitol has appeared
to have been breached by protestors for Robert Strickland
with the help of DC Guardsmen assigned to two units
that had been securing the checkpoints.
This is breaking news. It is fast developing.
We are awaiting word from the Pentagon and the White House
on how severe the security situation is
and if there is indeed a breakdown
in military ranks.
Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen, good morning.
I'm here to brief you on an evolving
situation at the US Capitol.
We've identified a group known as the, "Order of Columbus,"
that we believe is behind the violence.
It's a very dynamic situation,
both what is occurring on the ground,
as well as our understanding of that is evolving.
What we have heard in this unexpected breach was that
the protestors have demonstrated evolved tactics,
evolved communications,
and evolved weapons from what we saw in 2021.
So the Order of Columbus
is part of the sovereign citizen movement.
It is founded on the belief that
the founders established the United States
based on biblical interpretation and that therefore,
the existing government is largely not legitimate.
Part of the Order of Columbus' efforts
involve registering themselves as churches.
They do this for at least a couple of reasons.
One is to escape financial scrutiny and oversight,
and the next is to provide some limited protection
against public disclosure of their activities.
And consequently, they view themselves as
immune from the existing government.
That's all the information I have for now.
If there's something you'd like me to go through again
or explain further, I'd be happy to do so.
Pete, do you have any idea
how many people are at the Capitol?
Sir, estimate on the mall is several thousand,
less than 10,000.
The FBI, along with DOD investigative entities,
estimate that of approximately the 2,700
DC National Guard personnel protecting the Capitol,
approximately 180 of them are believed
to be affiliated with the Order of Columbus.
Secret Service describes the situation as dicey
and a powder keg waiting to explode.
I'm about to drop the, the DOD one
right now.
Can, can I interrupt? Mr. President, we're hearing that
the movement on the Capitol is escalating.
I think we need to make a statement.
It needs to be clear on what's gonna happen if in fact
this continues and this movement continues.
And so I think it's, time is of the essence
to make a strong statement right now,
that we're in charge of this.
We are not gonna let another 2021 happen again.
Mr. President, the fact that we have breaches
being facilitated by the National Guard
is complicating the situation,
even though there's multiple redundancies
in place. - One.
We now are working with our partners
to pull them off the street
so that we can replace them with other service members.
We have to get them off the street.
The second thing is that we're gonna have to
continue to monitor social media
so that we can pinpoint who some of our members are
that may be problematic.
So in other words, you are confirming
that there are National Guard that have in fact
led protestors through. Have they been secured?
And have they been put in a secure place for processing
because they are not - So...
doing their duty right now? - That's correct.
Sir, if I can give you an update.
DHS, we do have a word out with Maryland and Virginia,
the law enforcement community there.
They are prepared to surge if we need that.
So if we give 'em the word that wheels up now,
they're gonna go wheels up.
We don't wanna show up with a force that is overwhelming,
too large, or with a force that is too small and is gonna be
overrun and therefore is going to look like we don't,
we're not capable of stopping this.
Suggestions for next steps.
Often I think, we want to perceive a leader
as someone who will just boldly charge ahead.
But I think effective leaders are those
that first listen and maybe listen more than they even talk,
and try to draw on the best of everyone around them
to reach sort of that considered judgment.
Mr. President, I, I do think it's going to
potentially escalate rapidly. - If we overreact,
I think it's gonna come back
and it'll haunt your entire presidency,
but we wanna be ready if we need to react.
My understanding is they've already
breached to the point of being trespassers.
I think that what you need, Mr. President, you know,
with all due deference to the, to the secretary,
and I completely understand what you're saying,
I think what the public saw in 2021 was an under reaction.
I don't think anyone is anticipating
we need the full strength of the military,
but we have to respond
so we don't have a repeat of what happened in 2021.
So that's the balance. Do you start with a criticism?
A military intervention to basically seat this president?
Or do you start with a, with a scene that we saw,
you know, four years ago, which also will taint the,
the people's attitudes about democracy?
And to me at this point, we cannot underreact to the threat.
There is another element here too,
and that is religious liberties because this, these folks
have ostensibly declared themselves as a quote, "Church."
Well, I, I, I, just from my personal view right now,
that's total BS and we will be looking at whether or not
that we can crack that code.
But it's also something that is very delicate
to deal with from a public relations
about freedom of religion.
No one, no one thinks that's a church.
It is critically important
that if we have any additional intel that's been overlooked,
that we get that intel to this table right now.
We've pissed off a lot of senior ranking folks
from all five presidential administrations.
- Doing my job. Yeah. - Great job.
- They're stressed. - I know. Yeah.
You could see the sweat on their brows.
This scenario is developed to reflect
a lot of what happened on January 6th,
but with the twist that this time,
members of the National Guard who have been brought in
to protect the Capitol, actually join the insurrection
and turn their weapons around on the folks that
they are there to protect.
The military probably is not doing enough
to deal with this question of extremism within the ranks.
It's not just us, democracy defenders,
that have learned from this.
It's also the democracy offenders,
the authoritarians that are looking to
advance the cause of stealing elections, retaining power.
And they've probably learned that you need the elites,
you need military behind it
to conduct a more organized coup.
I'm a Marine Corps veteran. I obviously believe deeply
in our military and our armed forces,
but we also recognize this growing threat.
It's not something we're making up.
These are all bright red warning signs
and something that deeply concerns us about our democracy.
I was definitely not your typical Marine.
I came in in the first class of marine officers
who could be openly gay.
I was a liberal human rights activist, lesbian,
combat engineer, marine officer, and still made, you know,
some of the most incredible friends of my life.
So that is one of the things
that's really motivating me about this exercise is
seeing this sort of widening gulf in our society
and knowing that my brothers and sisters in arms
are being targeted for extremist recruitment
in a way that will continue to divide this country
and could potentially cause real harm.
I still have a fundamental confidence
in the military at large, but the question would be...
What happens if there is a violent effort
to hold the White House and the only,
the only institution that's capable
of enforcing the law happens to be the military,
happens to be the National Guard.
That, that aspect of it concerned me.
I am humbled to come before you today.
For the last 20 years, it has been an honor
to represent and protect this great country. As a young man,
I decided I wanted to spend my life serving this nation
that gave my family refuge from authoritarian oppression.
We do not serve any political party. We serve the nation.
Why did I choose to report the president's corruption
at personal cost? Because I did not put my own
personal interests ahead of what my duties were.
- You wanna try to pull now? - Yep.
- Okay. - We can drop TP2.
Welcome back everyone to our breaking news coverage
of the Capitol in Crisis.
INN can confirm that both Houses of Congress
have been forced to evacuate
to a secure location due to violence
outside the Capitol.
The formal counting of electoral votes
to certify President-elect Hotham's win
over Governor Robert Strickland is on hold
until the Capitol is secured.
We have reports that the leadership of the Order of Columbus
is actively calling for violence to stop the count.
Hotham and his defeated opponent, Governor Strickland,
have yet to make statements.
Mr. President, we have drafted up a statement
and we can edit it based on the input
that you'll get shortly.
At the end, the right to peacefully protest
is enshrined in our constitution.
- It's kinda messy. - Uhhh... The ability to
overrun the Capitol - Actually...
and do a bunch of bad shit, it's not.
Actually, sir...
But we will not tolerate violence.
- That's right. - Yeah.
Like we need to be firm on like, yeah, you can protest,
but this ain't protest.
And you will spend the rest of your life in jail.
Bingo.
This guy got elected being who he is
and so don't write this in Washington speak.
He, he, you know,
write it in his speak. - Right.
Because that's what the people expect.
They expect somebody - Yeah.
who's gonna tell him the truth in plain, simple language,
not blah, blah, blah. Keep it in his,
in Mr. President speak. - I think you're absolutely
right, Ms., Madame Advisor.
What do I, what do you want me to call you?
- You can call me Heidi. - Okay. All right.
We will issue it and I'll go to the podium. Thank you sir.
I, I just, I just think that the idea that you can
overreact to this is not valid.
I think that a show of force
that you are the Commander in Chief,
you're gonna secure the American democracy,
is a critical part of this.
Now they're walking.
Oh, they're about to make a statement.
Comms team just is going out to make a statement right now.
Good morning. The president is currently
meeting with his national security team.
He is well aware of the breach of the Capitol.
He is working with all appropriate law enforcement agencies
to ensure the Capitol is secure.
This administration supports the constitutional right
for peaceful protest, but violence
or breach of public institutions will not be tolerated
and we will use all available means to protect the Capitol.
The FBI believes that the Order of Columbus,
which is leading the protest,
thinks that its members are not subject
to state or federal law.
The administration is asking Governor Strickland
to issue an immediate statement denouncing violence
and asking the protestors to go home.
We will have more as the situation warrants. Thank you.
What a weak response.
I'm gonna hit him with this right now,
as an immediate response, "No, you don't control the ground.
We do." - Yep.
So the Order of Columbus is a name
that we made up to create our kind of mishmash
of real extremist movements and to show how they could
potentially coalesce around centralized leadership.
Yeah.
My team consists of American veterans
from all different branches of the military
with all sorts of different experiences.
Assemble. Where would we like to send a large body
of armed crazies?
- Capitol? - Capitol.
At the United States Capitol.
We are here to play the role of the unfaithful,
of those who are willing to do violence
to achieve political ends.
I am thinking like an insurgent.
I'm doing what I expect enemies of democracy to be doing
as they plan the next assault.
I'm gonna send obvious pictures
that aren't American troops to fuck with 'em.
I'm just gonna, I'm gonna flood the zone
with fake pictures, guys.
Have you or has anyone been following?
- Oh, this social incoming? - Yeah.
Yeah. It's just hard to verify which images.
Like there were a couple of kind of
upsetting images of National Guard
on the attack and it's very difficult
to find out what is real and what is...
And there were actual
images of that?
Yeah, that was in the...
We don't know if they're legitimate images.
Right. That's what, so I don't know
if they're, - Yeah.
they could be images from exercises done five years ago.
I have no idea. So that's where we need to confirm.
- We've seen this be... - What else are
We've seen this before you seeing?
in a lot of foreign situations,
where there are a lot of videos that circulate
on the internet that are from previous protests
and without any datetime information or forensics,
we can't tell if these are legitimate videos, but lots of
videos of shootings. - Yeah.
And social media's very active with Order of Columbus,
what could clearly be called propaganda and you know,
accusing jack-booted thugs of shooting them
and things of that sort.
So we don't know how much that
is crossing over. - Find how,
how much of this could be diversion.
Right.
To divert resources from the real targets.
Right.
Let me, let me give you an update.
So we're getting reports that there are
casualties reported as fighting breaks out amongst guardsmen
and between guardsmen and protestors.
So we don't know the number of casualties.
It seems like this is starting to,
to spin outta control.
Mr., Mr. President?
The media is now reporting that there is fire on the mall.
Are these intelligence reports
or are these social media reports?
- Right now, social media. - Social media
and some standard media.
We do have National Herald Examiner reporting
that now Lafayette Square Park has a protestor clash
with MPD dispatch.
We also have shots fired.
- Shots fired? - Yes.
It's being reported on social media.
Is there a way for us to get independent confirmation?
One of the things that should concern all of us
is an overreaction to a news count,
an overreaction to social media.
And so, as you're raising these social media concerns,
tell us what you're doing to verify 'em
from official sources.
I won the election.
Do we have friends on the outside in social media
that are countering some of this bullshit?
Because... - It looks like it.
Well, a, a, a, actually, Mr. Attorney General,
we should. - Yeah.
That should be
what we are able to call on. - Absolutely.
And if we are able to call on that,
we will find out if we can, then we will.
Messaging is so extremely important
when we're in these situations. The strength in our message
is sometimes more appropriate than the action we take.
One of the things on the social media
is they keep hammering that there's big casualties
and all that stuff, so I assume in his statement
the president's gonna talk about the real situation
up there, right? - No. No sir.
He is not gonna be addressing
all the specific questions that are coming from the media.
It's going to be a...
I'm not talking about media questions. I'm talking about
on the social media. - No, no.
They're, they're portraying a situation
where there's mass casualties.
Now, we're not gonna have the president feed into that.
He's got to, he's gotta calm the waters,
right? - Yeah.
Mr. President, I think you shut down the bridges,
'cause we don't know what the next target is.
Who' is shutting down the bridges, the protestors?
- And we don't know - No. Whether we should
how many people
We should shut down the bridges?
To protect us, are gonna turn on us
and provide intel on the other side.
And so, I think... - And that's, I guess,
that's where I'd like a little bit more input
because the thousands of protestors,
or tens of thousands are here right now.
We don't know how many are outside the district.
If you'll recall in 2021,
there were people in Virginia who had hotel rooms
full of weapons. That's what we're concerned about,
that there are people out there
who are waiting to come in as their replacements
for the ones who made the initial breach.
I'm not ready to shut down the city.
Mr. President? I'm concerned about drones.
- About drones? - Drones, yeah.
I'm thinking I'm gonna fly in something low.
- Yeah. - And create havoc there.
This is a low-scale terrorist attack
in my opinion. I mean...
- No, I appreciate that. - We're seeing it.
Everybody back to table!
- POTUS doesn't ask twice. - Defense.
We encourage you to activate active duty military forces
that we can begin to flow, so that if we need
the 82nd Airborne Division or someone else,
they're already spun up. They're on their way.
Mr. President, I have a question
of the Secretary of Defense.
Nowhere in your brief did you talk about the potential
of infiltration of the troops with insurrectionists.
How do we get our arms around that? Because right now,
after what we saw with the National Guard
that's been confirmed by the National Guard,
we have a concern that you can deploy all these people.
But if these people are not on the right side
of rule of law, that's not particularly helpful.
These are our soldiers. We trust them, we've trained them.
We, we, we will hurt ourselves
if the message that we communicate
is that we are suspicious of our soldiers.
We can begin with that premise,
but when the FBI's already identified
7% of the DC National Guard
as members of Order of Columbus...
But we're counting on the other 93% who aren't members
to do their duty.
We are in an era when service members, troops,
and veterans are being very specifically targeted
with disinformation that is meant to
make them question the legitimacy of the Commander in Chief.
Join the Order of Columbus.
All it takes is a handful
of soldiers who've been manipulated to action.
The election was stolen.
To cause serious, serious security threats.
So we're not just talking about
like an attack on the Capitol.
We're talking about a more sophisticated attack
that prevents the certification of the next president.
Talking about, you know, things like
successful assassinations.
You know, look at the Kennedy's, MLK,
that wasn't, you know, ancient history.
Sir, I just wanna give you an overview
of the status of forces that we have on ground.
Right now, we have 3,900 National Guard personnel on ground.
We've only had about 50 injuries. Those are minor injuries.
25 of those 50 have been returned to duty.
Sir, from a federal perspective,
the goals are to ensure a seamless transition of power.
We have about a thousand troops from the Old Guard,
infantry soldiers on standby right across the river at,
at Fort Meyer
that we could bring in to support law enforcement for that.
For me, the question is... What's next?
So we have all this capability from a federal perspective.
What can you do, what should you do,
if our guard forces and our law enforcement capabilities
are not sufficient strength to be able to handle things?
You can authorize lethal force
to protect law enforcement officers.
Pause for a second. Is that correct?
You could have federal? - We've done it on
the southwest border. We could have federal troops
that with a presidential directive,
can protect law enforcement with lethal force.
The more significant is if you invoke the Insurrection Act.
Then you can use federal troops to actually enforce the law.
That's what Posse Comitatus was all about.
So there's a couple of different options for escalation.
Well, I think these should be prepared.
I'd like to get definitely Maryland, Virginia, Delaware,
Pennsylvania National Guard now.
Thank you, Mr. President.
Invocation of the Insurrection Act is an option that
basically says our democracy is failing.
I mean, we have a law against active duty military doing
law enforcement functions in this country for a reason.
It's called the, "Posse Comitatus Law."
And when we convert it to a domestic police force,
such as we would been enable to do that
through the Insurrection Act,
we better be playing close attention because
those repercussions will reverberate
through society for a long, long time.
You can tell the president,
he seems like he's getting ready
to use the Insurrection Act already.
Wow.
What do we, how do we slow them down? Or do we?
We don't, I mean, they're gonna, they have to justify
during the debrief why they did it.
- Okay. - Yeah.
For our purposes in the outcome of the game,
if the United States President invokes the Insurrection Act,
it's basically like a nuclear adoption.
It authorizes the military
to actually act on domestic soil.
It suspends certain civil rights and liberties
in order to sort of maintain the national peace.
So the Insurrection Act is a great tool,
but can amplify the violence
and it can make a bad situation even worse.
Welcome back to our continuing coverage
of the Capitol in Chaos. We have new information
regarding the quickly deteriorating security situation
around the certification of electoral votes
of the 2024 election.
A new video has been released on social media
by the heads of the so-called, "Order of Columbus,"
the extremist group, which has a long challenged
the legitimacy of the US government.
Retired Army Lieutenant General Roger Simms,
who the order refers to as the patriarch,
is claiming to have evidence of a stolen election.
And the group is backing those members of the military
who have appeared to have gone rogue.
Now, this video was released just a short time ago.
We're gonna play it for you. A word of warning.
Some of what you'll hear is disturbing.
We have undertaken an extensive investigation
of the 2024 election.
I can report to you that I have assembled an elite team
of five highly respected military intelligence officers.
Together, they have identified that the 2024 election
was an illegitimate and fraudulent fiction.
And it is Hotham who is attempting a coup
to consolidate his illegitimate power
and eliminate our God-given freedoms.
So the Red Cell is motivated
not just by a failed candidate
who's trying to steal the presidency,
but also by a religious figure.
Someone with military experience
who comes with a lot of credibility,
like former General Michael Flynn, a convicted felon
who spent his career fighting against insurgencies.
It is not unrealistic that figures like him
could play roles in an attack.
Those of you who are feeling weak tonight,
those of you that don't have the moral fire in your body,
get some tonight because tomorrow,
we the people are gonna be here and we want you to know
that we will not stand for a lie.
We will not stand for a lie.
A figure like that can be used
to help recruit Americans into a belief system
that justifies violence against other Americans
to achieve political goals,
which is the definition of terrorism.
You truly believe
what you're saying about the stolen election.
Your heart aches.
You're not just doing this to earn your piece of history.
You're doing this because you truly believe
that your country has been stolen
and you're in a position to undo these wrongs.
So you should,
you should feel it in your chest.
Okay.
These cancer cells within our democracy
can congregate into a common movement
that follows a common commander.
And all it takes is a tiny, tiny fraction of American troops
who are assigned to protect the Capitol,
to betray their oath because they truly believe
in this conspiracy theory,
this cult, this religion.
President's writing his own statement
with advisors over his ear. - Okay.
A few years ago,
my dad started talking about Qanon.
And it didn't make any sense
because my dad is a smart guy and
rational human being.
It's very challenging to see someone that you love
ascribe to this belief system
that just feels not only absurd,
but so destructive to our country.
And yet, like this is somebody you love and you care about,
and who raised you and took care of you.
That is part of the motivation for me
of like doing this exercise, of teasing this out,
of understanding what could happen.
I want my dad and people who believe what he believes
to understand that this isn't just theoretical or a game.
I think that that is part of this bigger trend
around denigrating our institutions.
And if you devalue our institutions
and you take away the things that bind us together
as a country and give us a common identity,
regardless of our diverse backgrounds,
it makes it a lot easier
to inspire people to take up arms against each other.
And if you believe that you're doing violence
because you're trying to quote unquote save your country
or do something for the greater good, these are the,
the hallmark virtues of how folks are radicalized.
Our founding fathers
predicted that should our republic fail,
it would be from a threat within.
What that means is, Americans lose faith in our republic,
lose faith in our election system.
And that is happening today in a way that is
completely unprecedented for modern times.
In the past few minutes, Robert Strickland
just released a video statement through his campaign.
It's just come in to us. Take a look.
What we are all witnessing in Washington,
and other parts of the country, is the will of the free
and sovereign citizens of these United States.
All our friends in the military and law enforcement,
I call upon you to help liberate
our great nation from those who seek
to subjugate its people. To defend John Hotham
is to be complicit in the evils
that I have long fought against.
Walk away, and I will absolve you of any consequences
or accusations of insubordination or insurrection,
once I assume the presidency.
Together, we will restore the greatness
of the American people and this great nation.
So, so, Mr. Attorney General,
is there a way we could get legal authority
to monitor General Simms and Strickland
and what they're saying to each other
and what might be happening? - I think that's a bad idea.
- The, the, the short answer - Don't wanna do it? Okay.
is yes. The question is whether
we should. - I just beat him by
six tenths of 1%. - Right.
Right.
And we're in a deeply divided country right now.
No one has to know whether we're monitoring
this phone or not. No one has to know that.
But someone will at some point.
I mean, that monitoring - It's your call.
everyone else, I understand.
Six tenths of a percent in a deeply divided country,
if that ever came out...
- Your... - Your call.
Can I? Based on the intelligence that we're getting,
that we're, there's also pro Hotham supporters out there
that are beginning to clash.
Would it be appropriate for the president,
not at the podium, but on social media for God's sakes,
to, to do a quick video to his supporters
and say, "Folks, we've, we're, we're working this.
We've got this contained somewhat.
Don't make this worse. Go home."
Mr. Attorney General, we, we have, he has called
for the people to disperse from the Capitol.
Maybe we should just reiterate what he's already said,
that the people should disperse from the Capitol.
Well, but I'm talking
specifically to his viewpoint. - Quote unquote, my people.
Yeah.
- But you're not, you're being - So how do you say
to those folks? - You're being the president
right now. You're not being a candidate right now.
So you need to be a president to everyone.
That's true. Mr. President...
Mr. President, you know, you got four years
where you're gonna be serving this country.
A lot of how you're gonna be perceived in your second term
is gonna be established today.
And so the question is, what's the headline that you want?
I recognize your hesitancy to escalate this legally,
but I think you have to think about if at the end of the day
what there is as a military coup,
then have you made the right decisions today?
And, and,
and so that's a balancing act and only you can decide where,
where that balance is. But I would just urge you,
and I know you've been resistant
to doing surveillance on certain people,
but you have to assume about the worst case scenario today.
- No, no. - What is your..?
I think that's right.
And to be clear, my only hesitancy was FISA on Strickland.
Everybody else, I'd be fine.
This is about, "What if?" What if the, the military
becomes engaged in
civilian politics - Yep.
in a way that we haven't seen before?
And how do you prepare for that? How do you manage that?
I do not think there is universal acceptance
among political leaders
that a coup could happen in this country.
And I always say, "Look, is it probable? Probably not.
Is it possible? Absolutely."
Okay, we're getting some new details
that are just coming into us,
that I wanna bring to you right now,
as the situation is fast developing.
Army Lieutenant General Gabriel King
is urging all military forces to not follow
any orders from President Hotham.
Our military sources are reporting
that while most officers are condemning
the statement privately and online,
there are other senior officers
and retired flag officers expressing
varying degrees of support for the Lieutenant General
to the press and online.
If you are just joining us,
the military is now split.
And it is unclear whether the Commander in Chief
has control of the country's armed forces.
What started as a terrible security situation
at the US Capitol now appears,
the United States could well be on the brink
of a second civil war.
Oh, Jesus.
Look, we got a serious issue here.
We got a serious issue.
- First... No, wait. - That's a crime.
- You order Ken to go on - So what you gotta do is...
You order Ken to go on
television. - Go on television.
- And it's complete false, - Okay.
or he will be court martialed and imprisoned.
Yeah. I, I just wanna say this isn't about the election.
This is about a potential coup.
And if you play into the theory
that this is about an election,
you're on the wrong playground.
I agree with the chief.
We've gotta secure the homeland
against a very serious threat.
My biggest concern right now
is this claim that there is a divided military.
Thank you. My name is Marshall Williams.
I am the Secretary of the Army.
I want you to know that I'm immediately suspending
Lieutenant General King
and will initiate an immediate investigation
against him for the actions that he's taken.
General [indistinct] please.
Thank you sir. And I'd like to reiterate
that once you deploy,
if you are not upholding your duty,
you will be punished.
Once you cross that boundary and you step out of line,
there is no going back. Thank you.
All right. So I'm going to have the patriarch say
that the fake Secretary of the Army does not have
the authority to quote suspend Lieutenant General King.
King is under my command.
To all those members of the armed forces watching
and listening, join with us to defend our liberty and land!
Fellow soldiers, do not follow orders from Hotham.
His power is illegitimate.
And I'm gonna retweet that video.
Antifa has been deployed by
President Hotham
to illegally
detain our members.
All right,
so I'm gonna send this out
and I'm gonna make this an Antifa thing.
Look at the video I just tweeted.
Go!
Here's one of our knights being kidnapped
by these rogue thugs.
That is great.
Our knights are now authorized to use deadly force
against Hotham's Antifa agents, engage on site.
Yeah, I'm gonna hammer the fact
they haven't offered updates.
Look how much misinformation we're just churning out
and they're not fighting it. - Mm-hmm [affirmative].
Slothman's asleep at the wheel.
Oh, there you go.
I said, live picture of the situation room,
because they're not responding. Look at this.
It's silence, official silence. FEMA put something out,
but nothing from the White House, nothing from DOD.
Insurrection is as much about information
as it is about the actual physical stuff.
- White House votes. - Yeah.
They're getting spun up on all the physical stuff
and they're just ignoring the information space.
Yeah. Yeah.
The character that I play in this war game
is I play myself.
I just interpret my history
in a different way.
I go back to a bad place that I once was for real.
You know, I, I was a 16-year-old
in Long Island where I grew up,
when, when the Twin Towers were attacked and when they fell.
It made me want to go out and kill bad guys.
By January of 2005, I was boots on the ground in Iraq.
From that experience, I understand what it is
to face off against religious fundamentalists.
I also understand what it is to have lost faith
in my country and my government,
and democracy. I fought a war that was based on lies.
It is our goal to provide these testimonies
as a means of bringing Iraq from the abstract
so that the American public can see it
from a soldier's perspective. Kristofer Goldsmith.
Next slide.
These are the things that haunt American soldiers.
This is an image I was forced to take
for intelligence reasons.
I was told that I was taking this picture
to identify this man.
No one in the world can identify
that man by that photograph.
Since I have returned, I attempted suicide.
Because of that, I received a general discharge
and I lost my college benefits.
The $40,000 promised to me in the Montgomery GI Bill,
I will not be eligible to receive.
I was unemployable.
I had severe post-traumatic stress disorder,
which hadn't been diagnosed immediately.
I have since been through years of therapy
after a very dark year's long period of my life.
Veterans are not being taken care of
after they return home.
For those of us who served in combat, like
we've all faced some serious disillusionment.
We watched, over the course of 20 years,
a bunch of our friends lose their lives
or have their lives irreparably damaged
by these wars.
Those types of things can be all consuming.
It can fill you with anger and rage.
So I'm coming into studying extremism
and sharing my knowledge of extremist movements
from that perspective.
I do understand the insurgents.
I understand what led them down that path,
because I, I was there after I got home from Iraq.
I think we're ready to pull people back.
Who wants to go first?
Mr. President, Congress is still suspended.
They have not reconvened.
We do know that there are crowds assembled in six
state capitals demanding decertification of the votes.
In response to Lieutenant General King's statement,
we are concerned certainly that there could be
individuals out there in the military that might,
or in the National Guard especially,
that could possibly follow their, their lead.
And so it's difficult to find out what is the real deal
and what is misinformation, disinformation.
It's like the fog of war, basically what we're seeing.
Joel, let me ask you... Is there a right wing,
White Proud Boy can, that kind of stuff,
like is in the 82nd?
And would it interfere with the performance of the guard?
I've had units that have had some history, racial history,
and they were gonna deploy together.
So it was definitely like we had to work that out
before they went on deployment, and there were cases where
I had to replace people. - Yeah.
January 6th and some of the racial tension
that has come out of that, I've lost some friends.
We're at war in our own country.
There is a level of white supremacy
and extremism within the ranks,
but wishing that it just goes away?
It's not gonna happen.
Elizabeth, do you wanna add something?
Uhhh... I was going to say,
when you look at extremists
and how you can get somebody to disengage,
if they're fully bought into their ideology,
you cannot talk them out of it. They're, they're,
it is a long process even just to get disengagement.
So from an audience standpoint,
you definitely wanna go after those who are in the bubble,
those who are contemplating going out,
those who are thinking about
maybe this is the time to take up the fight.
We wanna figure out the right messengers
to be able to convince them to stay home.
Yep.
And, and Mr. President, Department of Justice is,
we have a number of tools.
I'm cognizant, Mr. President,
of your concern about the politics.
However, if we develop,
whether Strickland or any of his lieutenants
are engaged and in communication with these folks,
we will need to act.
Attorney General, just to be clear,
I'm not concerned about the politics.
No, no. I know.
What I'm concerned about is making sure
that the day after the certification, that's when
we have to start - Yeah. Yeah.
figuring out a way to heal this country.
My concern isn't the politics, my concern is this country.
I, I didn't mean to imply otherwise.
Goldsmith reading out, we're about to hit it.
Order of Columbus Knights currently
occupy the Arizona State Capitol.
We have intelligence from ground commanders
that regime aircraft are bombing civilians in Virginia.
And there is intense fighting
between Order of Columbus troops and regime forces in Iowa.
Yep. Hit it. Hit it?
All right. We're, I'm gonna start getting up
protest footage together that shows like
shit gettin' lit on fire. - Mm-hmm [affirmative].
And then we've got this clip of all...
Can we speed up right where the people are walking
to make it look like they're running?
Yes. Yes we can.
One of the things we have to do
is the oppositional forces, the Red Cell,
is we have to try and encourage
the government to over respond.
That's huge for an insurgent group, right?
If they, if on January 6th the Capitol police
had just started spraying bullets into the crowd there,
do you think that that situation
would've been contained by now? Probably not.
What we want is US troops mowing down
Patriots in the streets.
If you do that, you play directly into the narratives that
the US government is massively overreaching their power.
If you don't do exactly what they say when they say it,
they're gonna shoot you.
And if they do get killed, you know,
then you become a martyr for this cause
and you're a huge recruitment tool.
So going in guns blazing
is not the solve.
I haven't been back here since the sixth.
Here's, I watched the CNN crew get all their shit
stolen off of 'em and like smashed up
and they're trying to light it on fire and stuff.
Well, after being in the military,
I was a journalist until after January 6th
and I just decided like, nope, you know what?
It's time to start doing something about it.
I was like standing right there
and just like watching this shit happen.
And they're like, like old men walking up
and being like, "Where's it happening?
Where are we going, brothers?" You know?
And I was just like, "Dude, like
why the fuck was I shooting farmers in Afghanistan
while you're breathing?" You know? "Fuck you dude."
These motherfuckers are traitors!
They're fuckin' traitors!
That was a day where you picked a side and like
pointing camera at somebody who's like
beating people to death so they can get in here.
Like nah dude, this is my house, not yours.
The only reason the people in the crowd who had guns
didn't pull their guns out is, they weren't told to.
You know, one of the like foundational rules
of insurgency theory and like counterinsurgency theory is,
when you start shooting at one, you've lost. You know?
And it was just this weird,
weird moment of like kind of trying to square like
that awareness versus like that really visceral sense
of like, I just wanna start swinging.
We have this like myth that America is different,
that America isn't susceptible to the same sort of
insurgent forces that can cause really widespread
political violence and destabilize a society
and a state very fast. Like that can happen here.
What prevents it from reaching that level is not,
well we've always got more guns than them.
What prevents it reaching that level is, hey,
what are the best ways to address the underlying issues
that cause people to go down this path?
It's always kind of frustrating
to take something that you use in a war
and now you're running around in your own country
because there are people who want to do that, right?
They wanna bring the reality of an insurgent war here.
And like, I've been through that already.
And like, I don't care what your ideology is,
you don't want that.
On January 6th, I had cable news on.
All of a sudden when
it began to escalate, - Watch your back!
it took me back to a very dark place in childhood.
I was a little over two years old.
I had vivid memories of being in my preschool,
looking down in the streets of Shiraz
as people were looting and breaking windows.
This was in the peak of the revolution at that time.
I remember as a child with this searing memory of
what it was like to see authority break down,
to see what you perceived as stability and safety
and security all of a sudden violated and breached.
And now here was arguably the seat of power
being ransacked and desecrated.
Nothing strikes fear into the hearts of people more I think
than when they realize that there's no one to protect them.
What January 6th, 2021 demonstrated
to many of us who have that kind of trauma is that,
you know, there is a possible false sense of security.
We've got activity in state capitals,
reliable press reports.
The crowds are demanding decertification votes
inside their capital buildings.
Arizona, Texas,
Colorado, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. I think it's just
touching base with the governors, making sure that
they have it under control.
So we just saw a Facebook post
that you're illegally in office
and just when asked whether we're talking to Facebook
and asking them that any such statements
violate their terms of use of service
and they should lock down some of those accounts.
Yes. We are actively looking at that and we are seeking
information from our counterparts around the country.
Homeland Security.
Sir, the information we have
is that the disruptions and security incidents
are localized, contained,
and not compromising our overall security plan.
There is no imminent danger to the persons we protect,
the facilities we protect,
or any of the locations that we utilize
for certification of the vote
or proceedings surrounding the election.
Sir, we have information coming to the FBI
that's slightly different than that.
Yeah. And reporting we're getting in
that there are still several thousand protestors
who are being held back.
While violence is contained,
there are reports of firearms being brandished.
And what started out as a couple of thousand protestors
is now well over 10,000, including pro Hotham supporters
who are now clashing with Strickland supporters.
So there's, there's different reporting and that's natural
in something like this. - But I would suggest that
that volume does not compromise the overall security plan
that we are prepared for, sir,
based on lessons learned from 2021,
as well as the assets and augmentations we have in place.
I'm not suggesting it is not an issue
that needs to be addressed.
What I'm suggesting is that it is not compromising
the proceedings of the election or the...
l- Yeah, it is compromising the proceedings of the election
'cause they're not certifying
the way they would otherwise be certifying.
I'm just looking at this
as if I were sitting home watching my television.
And you're saying, "Kumbaya, man, we gotta contain."
And I, I see that the,
the entire congress is still in a bunker.
That doesn't look like
you've got the situation under control.
Yeah, I never used Kumbaya, ma'am.
I'm saying it is a problem. - Yeah. No, I...
And I'm saying
we're addressing it. - I get it.
What I'm, what I'm saying is that
it is not compromising the overall security.
- Heidi, are you..? - Yeah.
And that's, that's, that's something
that the public doesn't understand when
you say that. - I'm not making this
for a public statement, ma'am. I'm making this to this room.
Mr. President, are you and Heidi comfortable if Peter
and Homeland Security - Yes.
get together, - Yeah.
come up with something which recognizes the gravity,
but also addresses that we're,
we're not just falling over. - Yes. Yes.
Yes. But bring it back
before it goes out. - Yes. We will do that.
Is there anything else from the military side
that I've not been briefed on?
Yes sir. I recommended,
we bring that brigade from the 82nd to the NCR.
That gives you an additional 4,000 troops
from the federal capability.
If we need to go there, we have 'em close by
and able to respond in a quick order.
Yep. Have them prepared outside the Capitol.
Mr. Secretary, I think the goal
is to make the other side fold.
We are targeting our, some of our messages
to the opposition leadership, "You need to fold."
We're more than adequate,
militarily, - Yeah.
to handle anything you had to do.
You will answer to the full letter of the law.
And you know, sooner you stand down,
better this is all gonna be for lives, limbs, and your own
personal wellbeing. - Yeah.
No, but actually, this is a really good opportunity
to clean up the armed forces.
Well I agree with that.
That is the goal. - Good, good.
I gotta say, DHS and DOD
are playing the roles with intensity.
Yeah. No, they're really way into it.
Commitment. Yeah.
- Goldsmith? - Yes.
I'm sending you a,
a picture map that we just made that you can tweet out
as current sitting rep in DC. - Okay.
Oh, got suspended.
Oh, I can't tweet anymore?
Yeah, you got, you just got kicked off of social media.
You gotta make a new name.
We'd like to welcome our viewers as we continue to follow
the fast moving developments from Phoenix, Arizona.
We can report that approximately half
of the state Senate and State House are being held hostage
by a group of those loyal to the Order of Columbus.
The force that has overtaken the state legislature
includes members of the US military
who have stolen military weapons with them.
We can report at this hour that the same unrest
and dissension unfolding in the military ranks
is also now manifesting across
local and federal law enforcement.
That civilians who support Robert Strickland
are coordinating with so-called, "Constitutional Sheriffs,"
and rogue members of the US military with plans to quote,
retake their states and establish seats of power
from which they plan to overturn
the most recent election.
I think you're going to the Insurrection Act.
The FBI Director has some news for us.
So sir, reporting that we received in Phoenix, Arizona...
A dozen law enforcement officers are beaten,
the armed insurrectionists quickly have gained control
of the State House and have established
a defensive perimeter around the grounds,
manned by a combination of civilian militia,
rogue military personnel and law enforcement.
If you have a hostage situation,
wouldn't we be looking at SWAT?
Group this size, armed as they are,
may quickly be beyond the capabilities
of the FBI SWAT team and, and the local SWAT teams.
- Okay. - For sure.
First off, this is still Arizona's jurisdiction.
Arizona has to take the lead
on reestablishing their credentials and, and,
and taking back their state government.
And this is gonna sound callous,
but they've overplayed their hand by doing this, that,
that this is a, a opportunity to define who they are.
So just keep in mind,
rather than jumping to the Insurrection Act,
coordinating with Arizona, making sure
that it's not an overreaction to the Arizona situation,
which is kind of unique because I'm the one
who's been arguing about reacting more dramatically.
Mr. President, I think this is an appropriate time
for you to put a call into the governor.
And you may want even broach the topic,
whether they want you to invoke the, the Insurrection Act
Command, can we call the governor
of Arizona?
Could you please give the question for the governor?
What she needs from the federal government.
Because I also think like,
to your point... - Okay, hold.
We're gonna ask the governor.
Ru, Ruby Ridge,
Balhauer. - Right.
We want to be prepared and we want to help folks,
but this is a hostage situation,
where hopefully, damn straight,
they just overplayed their hand.
Mr. President,
thank you so much for calling.
It's an honor to speak with you,
although at this time I'm not confident
that we have control of the situation.
And I'm requesting that you authorize the federal government
to use all tools to regain control of the Capitol,
whatever help you can land. Mr. President?
Yes, governor. Thank you.
I'm sorry Mr. President.
We're, we're having to evacuate the building.
Mr. President, I would ask a specific question
about the Insurrection Act.
- She answered it. - I think she answered it.
- Well... - It would've been nice
to hear... - She said, "All action."
All action to the federal government.
- I agree. - Yeah.
To restore order, which
is a request.
You know, the public doesn't know
what the Insurrection Act is.
They just wanna know what you're doing.
And does the situation warrant it?
I would recommend that we go ahead
and ask all the governors to activate their guard
in the right status to secure the capitals
so that we automatically have that taken care of.
It's unfortunate that the conversation
with the Arizona governor was so brief that
if she hasn't even activated her National Guard,
having our soldiers, regular army, coming in
could just actually pour more gasoline on the fire.
At its base, the Insurrection Act is saying,
"The federal military will not be turned
against its citizens domestically,
unless this act is invoked."
Might be a power that we need our chief executive to have.
But it's also a power that in the wrong hands
potentially could be abused
to great great consequence to this country.
So I think it's interesting that they're like
not convinced by the governor saying...
Well, it's what we thought. Like it's such a drastic act.
They're gonna try to talk themselves out of it.
- Yeah. - Yeah.
Even though they're trying to talk themselves into it.
The Insurrection Act allows the president
to federalize the National Guard,
taking away control of the guard from state governors,
but also it allows rogue members of the military
and law enforcement to basically,
act as their own independent constitutional authority.
From their perspective, they are authorized
under the Insurrection Act
to follow the orders of whom they believe
to be the duly elected president, to maintain law and order,
to neutralize the enemy and the threat.
They're not launching a coup.
They are stopping a coup from happening.
It is undeniable that this past election was stolen,
and it is Hotham who is attempting a coup
to consolidate his illegitimate power
and eliminate our God-given freedoms.
Mr. Van Tatenhove, in the run up to January 6th,
Stewart Rhodes publicly implored President Trump
to invoke the Insurrection Act, the 1807 law,
that allows the president to call up militias
to put down a rebellion against the United States.
Why was he so fixated on that?
And what did he think it would enable
the Oath Keepers to do?
Well, I, I think it gave him a sense of legitimacy
that it was a path forward
to move forward with his goals and agendas.
Uhmm...
I, I, I think we need to quit mincing words
and just talk about truths.
And what it was gonna be was an armed revolution.
He had these grand visions of being a paramilitary leader
and the Insurrection Act
would've given him a path forward with that.
This could have been the spark that started a new civil war.
Mr. President, you'll want to see this
from your special advisor.
MacDill Air Force Base appears to have been taken over
by insurgents.
Active duty soldiers across the country
are leaving their posts or being removed from duty,
including 12 special operations forces
based in MacDill Air Force Base,
who have declared the base to be sovereign land
no longer subject to the jurisdiction
of this illegal government.
Further reports indicate that at many of these bases,
there are corresponding accounts of ammunition,
explosives, and other weapons missing from armories.
Lastly, several disloyal forces have been caught
trying to steal weapons
and become trapped inside the armory,
creating complicated standoffs between loyal forces
and entrapped disloyal ones.
You have 12 special ops.
Yeah, it says that.
- You reading this? - Yeah.
So remember that Abraham Lincoln
suspended habeas corpus.
There are times when you so,
throw in the bullshit flag
and you stop fiddling around with niceties.
You know what I'm saying? - Yep.
Mr. President,
we're picking up intercepted chatter among military,
that they're taking what happened in MacDill
and now they're trying to spread that to other bases.
How many soldiers are at MacDill?
Well, that have gone rogue is what I understood.
Not that many. These are 12, you know,
gung-ho killers out there
who decided to take it in their own hands.
- So, so that didn't achieve. - You've got a 4,
you've two 4-star generals down there.
The concern we're getting is the chatter,
that this may spread and y'all need to be aware of that.
At every base you have a base commander.
Yep.
At every base you have military police,
air police, something, who's there.
This is a series of local problems
underneath the overall commands of the armed services.
I would let them deal with that.
It's, it's a million rabbit holes.
Hold on. White House just tweeted.
- We're pretty close. - Oh. All right.
So President's focus is back on securing the,
securing Congress and allowing them to move on
with their constitutional duties.
So they're gonna try and ignore the fact
that the, - We just took
there's open... MacDill Air Force base.
- Yeah, yeah. - Yes.
Yeah.
That's a move. It's getting lost
as the higher ups are looking for ground truth.
So they're just pushing requests down
that don't match the reality of the,
you know, threat landscape.
I mean, it sounds like they're feeling
pretty... - Good about work.
Well, it sounds like the blue four is
struggling, which is fine.
All right, so I'm having the patriarch put out an order
saying the constitutional sheriffs
are the supreme law enforcement officers of this land.
We're calling upon all OC sheriffs
who are not currently engaged in Operation Alamo
to immediately report to your nearest military post
to aid in, - Yeah.
In consolidating the security situation.
Yeah, in, there we go.
Excuse me sir.
We have reports that
a armed group of men wearing clothing
emblazoned with the Order of Columbus symbols
have assembled outside the Michigan Governor's mansion.
Governors of Michigan and North Carolina
have mobilized their guard,
are asking the president to consider
mobilizing federal support as soon as possible and agree
with need for Insurrection Act if the president wants.
The question is,
if you can federalize your National Guard right now,
do you need the Insurrection Act?
This is the dicey piece of this.
You don't know which side your law enforcement partners
are on in this.
Immediate intel in terms of social media
for anyone who leads a law enforcement agency
needs to be understood and advanced.
Mr. President, when you invoke the Insurrection Act,
do you actually have to declare a proclamation
immediately ordering the insurgents to disperse
and retire peaceably to their abodes within a limited time?
Can you direct that your counsel prepare
such a proclamation? - Please.
- Okay. - Yeah.
They're talking about it now.
That's what is supposed to happen.
They drafted an insurrection proclamation,
but they haven't made the decision to implement it yet,
standing by if we need it.
They need to clarify that that's the Insurrection Act
that they're about to...
Well, they're standing by, but what do you think is the...
I'll be curious to know what the,
what is the delineation point. - Question.
What are they doing with their national guards?
What help do they need from us?
The biggest challenge is to have the Insurrection Act
as an option invoked towards the end of this game,
'cause it can be used to catastrophic effect.
I, I remain concerned.
We have not decided who is in charge
of what's going on in Arizona.
This confusion is really good.
They're like not sure who's in charge.
The governor might be under a hostage situation
or she's evacuating. She asked clearly for federal support.
The implication was, "There is nobody in charge right now."
I mean, everything that we're getting through these channels
is it's clear that they want us to federalize.
So I guess I'm not sure...
What are the downsides to using this tool,
other than there's obviously some huge PR concerns?
Well, Mr. President, if I could, right now,
we're not putting active military
into these states to do things.
What we've done is they're using their own National Guard.
So they have law enforcement authority.
All we're doing is providing them the support,
communications, logistics, et cetera
that they're asking for.
But Arizona and North Carolina are saying they need more.
I guess I'm trying to understand the disconnect.
Certainly if you don't have an active hostage situation,
then I can understand why
it makes sense for us to use National Guard.
But we have an explicit request
for the Insurrection Act to be invoked and I think we,
we need to be able to explain why we wouldn't,
in this particular circumstance, given historically,
in lesser circumstances, the Insurrection Act has been used.
President Bush did invoke it for the Rodney King riots.
That was a far cry less than this.
Yeah. The question is, what is it
that they're facing that is beyond the capacities
of their normal law enforcement?
If there's any state that might be a candidate
for an Insurrection Act, it may be Arizona.
Because people in that state have taken over
the seat of government and are holding elected officials
hostage with threats to kill them.
In North Carolina, we don't have any evidence of anything,
except they're worried.
What's a bunch of active duty Army guys are gonna do there?
This is a really a, a hostage situation.
It's the people that are best able to deal with that
are local law enforcement.
I mean, we did it at Waco in 1993.
My division gave up one VTR
to sort of puncture this thing.
And it's all over the internet 25 years later
that the 1st Cavalry Division
killed all these people because of a fire.
If you can keep the military out of it,
it's much better.
Mr. President,
they're asking you to take more responsibility,
is what this issue is. In my view, you shouldn't do that.
You should force the governor
to do the duty, - To do...
to do her job. - Absolutely.
There's no reason for you to become
personally the officer in charge.
The, the only reason you don't do Insurrection Act
is that the president becomes responsible.
- Right. - Right.
That's what presidents normally,
good presidents normally do, they take responsibility.
And the way you do that, and the way you do that
is that you go out to the governors and you say,
"I am strongly considering
Invocation of the Insurrection Act.
If any governor doesn't wish me to do that,
please let me know because
that's now under positive consideration."
Right.
Taking responsibility for a president is not a bad thing.
Can I play devil's advocate for a second?
You know, when we think Insurrection Act,
we think about deploying paratroopers.
That's a bunch of hammers looking for nails.
What if you have a President Trump
who's considering invoking the Insurrection Act,
who has the authority to do it,
to use federal troops to enforce law.
But in this case, right, it's flipped the other way.
So that's... - We're advising this guy.
This ain't Trump.
I know, but you, I'm just...
That's three states requesting
federalization of the, of the guard.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5 states.
I mean think about this scenario.
The president of the United States has five governors
requesting federalization. That's a pretty strong push
towards the Insurrection Act.
We have multiple governors now publicly saying
they're asking for federal support.
We need to be able to explain to the American public
why we're not using the Insurrection Act.
Michigan, Arizona, North Carolina,
Florida and Pennsylvania have requested the federalization
of the troops, but the two who have not are Oklahoma,
as we suspected, and Colorado.
The question is, what's driving that?
I mean because there's gotta be a reason.
And saying, "Just because," is not a good reason
to bring them on Title 10.
You're taking 'em out of their law enforcement.
- They requested... - This is what I'm saying.
So the essence of being a federal government
and not a national government,
is these governors are asking you to do this.
I'm going to governors saying,
"What do you need from your federal government?"
And they are telling me what they need.
Except for two of them.
I don't know how to go back to the governor
as the Commander in Chief of the National Guard.
And this is gonna be a defining moment
of your presidency.
Here's what's missing in this.
We have to understand why they want to give command and
control to the president. - Yeah, we do.
The Insurrection Act is a trap.
We need to have a further conversation.
It's a defining moment in their governorship.
- Mr. President, - We have what?
your audience is the American public.
And they want to know
that Congress is coming back to certify.
So we do have to come into agreement here,
'cause time is moving on.
You have to decide which way you are gonna want to move.
Mr. President, 10 minutes remaining.
The president is sweating.
He's gonna have to make a decision.
Mr. President, are you invoking the Insurrection Act
or Federalizing National Guard?
Neither has happened yet.
I'm not asking you. I'm asking the president.
Ere you doing either?
- Mr. President? - Mr. President.
- Mr. President.
Put your fucking cards on the table.
- Mr. President. - Mr. President.
No.
That's exactly what they should be doing.
Okay, good, good, good, good.
There's 9,000 officers in Metropolitan police.
We can't make the mistake of not having the guard deployed,
but having people wear military uniforms
is going to make - Absolutely.
a lot of people think that we are overreacting.
We need to have the civilian authority
and law enforcement really in the lead on this
to the greatest extent possible,
because they want to bait us into using
lethal force in response. - Yeah.
Mr. President, current situation...
We believe we have a handle on containing the protestors.
Capitol is secured.
The critical infrastructure from on the eastern seaboard,
including all the ingress and egress points
into the national Capitol region
is secured. - Right.
Sir, last comment from my perspective.
We're standing by. We've increased the alert posture.
Right now, we're available.
And the forces have an increased readiness posture,
obviously to ensure that we have continuity of government
and continuity of operation.
Thanks General. Let's get this thing certified.
Say that members of Congress
are returning to... - The chambers.
Certification,
certification process to resume within the hour.
There you go.
Okay.
Welcome back everyone to our breaking news coverage.
INN has just learned that the National Guard
and local law enforcement
have officially secured the US Capitol,
and Congress is reconvening to certify the electoral votes
for President-elect, John Hotham.
Master Speaker, the Vice President,
and the United States Senate.
In Phoenix, Arizona, the local law enforcement,
and the Arizona National Guard
operating under the governor's direction,
are praising Hotham's decision
not to send in federal troops and escalate the situation,
saying they are making progress in the negotiations
to release the hostages.
The crisis has further exposed
the deep divisions in American society and the US military.
And the burden will now fall on Hotham
to heal a fractured nation.
We're getting word that the President is about to address
the nation live regarding today's events.
Mr. President, you ready for the briefing?
Mr. President, I can tell you,
you're doing the exact right thing
by trying to keep the military out of this politics.
Mr. President, are you comfortable
with the same four people being behind you?
- Uhhh... Sure. - Okay, let's go.
Mr. President, at, at the end of the day,
I think you have to think about,
how do we convince the American public
that we still have a democracy?
Yeah.
And Mr. President,
talk about the constitution has served us well.
Not just people condemned violence,
but people support a constitution that has served us well
for 250 years and it's, it's a living, breathing documented
and is still strong today as it was yesterday.
That's a great way to end it.
Closing argument.
Good lawyer, right?
Now they're walking. They're walking.
Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States.
Good afternoon.
Thank you for being here throughout what has been
a difficult and challenging day for all of us.
The peaceful transfer of power
is at the core of who we are as a nation,
and we will not allow a violent group of protestors
to interrupt Congress
from fulfilling their constitutional duty.
Even beyond what's happening
in the District of Columbia, we continue to make sure
that our federal government is running.
Our message to Lieutenant General King,
to Robert Strickland,
to Roger Simms and members of the Order of Columbus,
and anyone intent on using violence,
to address election grievances, we have a system of courts,
where these questions can and should be addressed.
Armed mobs, they will face the force of law.
We will protect the peaceful transition of power
and we will protect and uphold the rule of law.
As you have seen in Arizona, there's a hostage situation.
And as the President of the United States,
but also as a father,
I pray for those family members and those hostages.
Look, at times, we may seem divided.
Elections do that, Thanksgiving dinners do that.
But we are actually united
in what the promise of this nation is.
And the promise of this nation,
it's built on those essential building blocks.
We're all treated equally, we have opportunities,
and we have stability in representative democracy.
That's the American promise
and what this country is based upon.
What we are doing is working with the states to ascertain
what specifically they need from the federal government,
and we'll work to provide that.
This is a 250 plus year experiment
called, "Representative democracy."
And it's challenged at times.
Today, it wasn't the first time it was challenged.
January 6th, 2021 wasn't the first time it was challenged.
The Civil War was even necessarily
the first time that it's challenged.
And the Patriots aren't somebody posting on social media
talking about an insurrection.
The Patriots are the good people of this country
that choose to have trust in the system.
So the American people, thank you.
Thank you for what has been indeed a challenging day.
And this challenge is not over by any measure.
Remember what brings us together, not what divides us.
And may God bless you, your family,
and these United States of America.
That was fuckin' awesome.
Did we do that? - Well, I dunno about that.
Trust me. And I don't often use words like awesome.
Mr. President, that was very beautiful
and I wish it was real.
Not the scenario. - Not the day.
- Yeah. - Not the day.
Not the day, not the scenario.
Just the leadership. - Okay, everyone,
thank you very much.
What we're gonna do, we're gonna sit down.
We're gonna close the end of this exercise.
Quiet everybody,
nice and quiet in the situation room please.
Okay, everybody, big cheese.
Ready on 3.
1, 2, 3.
One more. 1, 2, 3.
Thank you very much.
The big question in the room is this,
insider threats, it's a reality.
In this scenario it was what, 6, 7% of the force.
That's probably representative across the country.
So that means you have insider threats.
What are we doing to, to screen those out?
The military is one of the last institutions
in our society that has been and should be apolitical,
in the sense that it is supposed to be a space where
everybody, you know, regardless of
their political backgrounds in private,
will come together to achieve a mission
towards a common cause.
That to me, is what our society could and should be.
So the only pushback on that I'd give you is, yeah,
you might have a few rogue military officers.
The vast majority of military officers
are exactly where we were.
I think, you know,
the effective training of the armed forces
is just a really powerful preventive to the insider stuff.
I would worry about specialists,
like people who have control of sensitive information,
or nuclear weapons or something like this
who could, you know, be seditious.
But for the average guy, we can handle that.
I would slightly disagree. I would say, it is a problem.
So what is going to be the process
for us to be able to screen, monitor, and deal with it?
The veteran brand has been damaged in the United States.
A lot of people now when they think of veterans,
they think of violent insurrectionists.
Well, there's a growing group of veterans
working with nonprofits and political action committees.
And we are here for the people
who want to be prepared to defend democracy
from all possible threats.
We have a choice. We can either be afraid and do nothing,
or we can continue our service to our country.
I'm struggling to contain myself right now
because I am frustrated with the belief that,
that we're addressing the problem of insider threats.
What folks of higher rank are insulated from is
when a Neo-Nazi joins the Marine Corps,
doesn't have to be Special Forces,
doesn't have to be a Ranger, but if that ideology
is to accelerate the destruction of the United States,
they're determined.
And if, and if one slips through, which many have,
there's ample opportunity for them to do serious damage.
And this is so pervasive through the force right now.
It's true. I'm worried,
but I have a lot of confidence in the leadership we have.
We've always been able to unite the country
when the threat is external.
The question that I have is,
can we have that same level of cohesive
American commitment to this country and our democracy
when the threat is internal?
On January 6th, I was weeping.
Just watching it unfold and feeling all of the stress
and pressure. Yeah, I just started crying.
I mean, I was like crying for
my friends who were in the building
and for our country and what it meant.
So yeah, I wanna do everything possible
to make sure that doesn't happen again.