Original subtitles

- 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.

and then cutting the bridges.

- Yeah. 'Cause all of our insiders are in the DC Guard.

Correct? - Mm-hmm.

- Here's Washington Monument,

here's the White House, - Mm-hmm.

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. - 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.

- 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.

I won the election. 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 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.

- 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.

- 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. - Mr. President.

- Mr. President. - Mr. President.

- Mr. President. - Mr. President.

- Put your fucking cards on the table.

- Mr. President. - Mr. President.

- 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.