The Rachel Maddow Show weeknights at 9:00 Eastern on MSNBC. So he fought in the union army during the Civil War, he was wounded at the Battle of Shiloh, reportedly his his horse was shot out from under him and he himself was wounded but kept fighting state in the war.

He was reported to have personally taken at least one Confederate soldier prisoner by holding him bodily off the battlefield by his collar. After the Civil War, President Ulysses S. Grant named him to be America's secretary of war. And then stuff started to go wrong on the relatively meager salary that came with that cabinet position. William Werf Belnap, civil war hero, distinguished soldier, secretary of war, started throwing really, really lavish parties in Washington. And that was true with his first wife.

It was also true with his second wife. He was just very obviously living this ostentatious, high society life of conspicuous consumption in Washington that nobody knew he should be able to afford. Nobody knew where the money was coming from until they figured it out because it turned out where he was getting all the money from is that he was taking bribes. He was taking tens of thousands of dollars in bribes as secretary of war, people who wanted jobs related to the US military of the 70s.

Apparently, one of the ways you could get one of those jobs was to grease the palm of war secretary William Belnap. And he got caught for it. And as a cabinet secretary, he was subject to impeachment by the Congress and he got impeached for being that corrupt. They brought five articles of impeachment against him for him, prostituting his office for personal profit. And the vote looked like it was going to be a unanimous impeachment vote in the House on those five counts.

But upon figuring out that it was going to be a unanimous impeachment vote against him, War Secretary William Belknap raced bodily to the White House. He reportedly burst into tears upon his arrival and then quickly submitted his resignation to President Ulysses S. Grant. He appears to have thought at the time that if he just resigned quickly enough, if he just resigned before the impeachment vote was taken, then the House couldn't actually impeach him. That's what he thought. He was wrong just two hours after he started crying at the White House and turned in his resignation to President Grant.

The House went ahead and voted to impeach the war secretary. Anyway, there were five counts. It was a unanimous vote. He was impeached even though he was already out of office by then because Grant had accepted his resignation. Now, after he was impeached in the House, the impeachment articles against this now former official went over to the Senate for them to put him on trial. And interestingly, the Senate, they did put him on trial, but they didn't vote to convict him.

A majority of the senators at the time voted to convict him. But you need a full two thirds vote of the Senate and two thirds of the vote they could not get. So, William, that was impeached in the House. He was not convicted in the Senate, but his experience proved and provided the precedent that, yes, impeachment is a remedy to be applied by the Congress for a federal officeholder and its availability as a remedy does not evaporate once that person leaves office.

Now, as I mentioned, this disgraced war secretary was named William Belke now. Do you know Lauren Underwood, you might remember her if you were a longtime watcher of the show, she's a newish, super charismatic congresswoman from a swing district in Illinois. She's a nurse. She is just this incredibly winning manner. Did great shoe leather, door knocking campaign to win that seat. She unseated a Republican incumbent to win her district a couple of years ago.

Real rising star in Democratic Party politics. We have had Lauren Underwood on the show a couple of times. As I say, she's super impressive. One of congresswoman, Congresswoman Underwood's staffers is a woman named Endre Belnap. She is many generations descendant from the William Belknap, who gives us the historic impeachment precedent from his corrupt time as secretary of war. Today she wrote in USA Today about learning in elementary school about her ancestor and his shame. And she had this to say about his legacy.

She said, quote, His civil war heroism has been largely forgotten by history, even forgotten by his own family. Now instead, his impeachment is what remains in the history books. William Belknap never served in public office again. That's what impeachment does. And now today we know that times two will be the legacy of President Donald Trump as well. I mean, no matter what else he does, these front pages tonight on the country's news websites, look at that, impeached again, historic disgrace, Trump brand toxic.

These front pages tonight on on news websites and what we'll see from the print front pages and tomorrow morning's papers. He is the first ever US president to be impeached twice for high crimes and misdemeanors committed while in office. And it is worth remembering at this moment that had the Republican Senate voted to convict him after he was impeached the first time around, he never would have had the chance to commit more high crimes and misdemeanors in office because if they had convicted him at his first impeachment, that would have removed him from office.

But alas, they did not convict him and remove him from office. So he lived to crime again. And now this is the history that he has made because they held the gate open for him to do it. Tonight's vote to impeach President Donald Trump was the largest vote ever for a presidential impeachment, there were two hundred and thirty two votes for his impeachment. One hundred and ninety seven votes against no article of impeachment against the president has ever had that many votes for it before.

And there have never been anywhere near 10 members of the president's own party who have voted with the opposition party to impeach a president like there were ten Republicans who voted yesterday. So mazel tov. Records falling everywhere. Now, having been impeached, the president will face trial again in the Senate. After flirting last night with the possibility of actually moving meaningfully against the president, the Republican Senate leader, Mitch McConnell, now says he will not reconvene the Senate until next week.

So that means no Senate trial of President Trump will start until next week. What's next week? The inauguration of Joe Biden as the next president of the United States. So the Senate trial will start essentially around the same time that Biden is starting his presidency. Can a president face an impeachment trial in the Senate even after he's left office? Ask William Blake. Knap, right. He thought his tearful resignation, him leaving office just ahead of the impeachment vote would be enough to stop the impeachment proceedings against him.

It was not. He set the precedent and we know that that can proceed. There will be a fight about it. Certainly the president will probably bring a lawsuit about it. He likes to bring lawsuits, but it seems that the historic precedent is clear. And his own behavior tells you a little bit of something about where his head is, that right now, the president now having been impeached twice, appears to be a little rattled, appears to be trying to save his own skin from whatever other consequences might derive from his actions.

In the past week, the president, with his actions tonight, he may be trying to persuade the Senate to somehow try to not go ahead with putting him on trial. He may be trying to persuade Republican senators to not vote with Democratic senators to convict him in that trial. I mean, it was reported last night that as many as 20 Republican senators would be open to the possibility of voting to convict him. If so, that's enough to convict him.

I mean, it may also be that regardless of impeachment, President Trump is concerned about potential criminal liability for the same crime that's cited in the article of impeachment against him today, incitement to insurrection. That's a serious federal crime in addition to being the thing for which he was impeached for. Reporter Maggie Haberman of The New York Times reporting that President Trump has been told by advisers repeatedly that he has potential legal exposure over the violence by his supporters last week, which followed a speech in which he repeatedly called on them to fight for him.

We're seeing dozens and dozens, we're told there will be hundreds and hundreds of arrests and indictments of people for the violence in the capital. What about the president inciting them to do it? Whatever it is that the president is trying to head off, he is clearly now sort of paddling as fast as he can tonight, reading a prepared script off a teleprompter and a new video posted by the White House in which he says, I want to be very clear.

I unequivocally condemn the violence in Washington last week.

He's trying as hard as he can to seem very clear about that now in retrospect, because it's very much in his interest for everybody to forget what he actually said that day, to set the crowd off and point them at the Capitol to go do what they did. They rigged an election, they rigged it like they've never rigged it election before. That's what they've done and what they're doing. We will never give up. We will never concede it doesn't happen.

You don't concede with that big. Our country has had enough. We will not take it anymore. It's a disgrace, it's a disgrace. Even when you look at last night, they're all running around like chickens with their heads cut off with boxes and nobody knows what the hell is going on. There's never been anything like this. We will not let them silence your voices. We're not going to let it happen. Not going to let it happen.

We're stuck with a president who lost the election by a lot and we have to live with that for four more years. We're just not going to let that happen. We want to go back and we want to get this right, because we're going to have somebody in there that should not be in there and our country will be destroyed. And we're not going to stand for that. And we're going to have to fight much harder. And Mike Pence is going to have to come through for us now.

It is up to Congress to confront this egregious assault on our democracy. And after this, we're going to walk down and I'll be there with you. We're going to walk down. We're going to walk down any one you want. But I think right here, we're going to walk down to the Capitol. You'll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength and you have to be strong. We have come to demand that Congress do the right thing.

And only count the electors who have been lawfully slated, lawfully slated. I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building right over there. Right there. We see the event going to take place. And I'm going to be watching because history is going to be made. We will not be intimidated into accepting the hoaxes and the lies that we've been forced to believe over the past several weeks. You will have an illegitimate president. That's what you'll have.

And we can't let that happen. But it's never going to be the end of us. Never let them get out. Let let the weak ones get out. This is a time for strength. We can't let this stuff happen. We won't have a country if it happens. They want to steal the election. The radical left knows exactly what they're doing. They're ruthless. And it's time that somebody did something about it. This is the most fraudulent thing anybody said.

This is a criminal enterprise. This is a criminal enterprise. Fraud breaks up everything, doesn't it? When you catch somebody in a fraud, you're allowed to go by very different rules. It's the most corrupt election in the history maybe of the world. You better do it before we have no country.

Today is not the end. It's just the beginning. If we allow this group of people to illegally take over our country because it's illegal when the votes are illegal, something's wrong here. Something's really wrong. Can't have happened. And we fight. We fight like hell. And if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore. So we're going to you we're going to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue and we're going to the Capitol. Let's walk down Pennsylvania Avenue.

I want to thank you all. God bless you and God bless America.

And so they went to the Capitol to fight like hell for Trump, just like he told them if he if they didn't fight, they'd lose their country. They needed to fight much harder. He said history would be made in that capital when they went if he did what they told them to do at that capital, to make the Congress not count the votes from the election to demand it. They had to fight like hell.

And so they did. And so now he is impeached for a second time now saying, I don't condone anything that happened there. I want to make it very I want to make a very clear. There are fast evolving questions as to whether or not some members of Congress may also face repercussions for the ways in which they may have incited and even potentially assisted in the attack on the Capitol. We're going to speak in just a moment with us congresswoman and Navy veteran Mikey Sherrell.

She's the member of Congress who has now demanded an investigation by Capitol Hill police and security into why some members of Congress appeared on January 5th, the day before the attack, to give access to the Capitol for what appeared to be recon tours, reconnaissance tours around the Capitol by people who appeared to be in town for the following days. Rally, which, of course, turned in to the violent and murderous Capitol siege. Congresswoman Mikey Cheryl is going to be joining us live in just a moment.

As we start to realize that the next phase of this may be trying to root out and potentially expel or potentially prosecute members of Congress who were part of the insurrection effort, it's just an astonishing place to be. But for now, the focus remains on the president, who is now twice impeached this week, left in office, is now making these public statements, trying to, unlike the match that he used to set that fire last week in the hopes that that's the sort of tape that will play when we think about him in this incident instead of what actually happened that day and in the days leading up to it from him.

One of the 10 Republican members of Congress who voted to impeach the president today, Congressman Jaime Herrera Beuttler, in her statement about why she was going to vote to impeach as a Republican, she actually did something, I think, very helpful today. She put the spotlight back on something that I think hasn't received nearly enough attention. Congresswoman Butler said this in her statement. She said, quote, The violent mob bludgeoned to death a Capitol police officer. They defaced symbols of our freedom.

These terrorists roamed the Capitol, hunting the vice president and the speaker of the House. Hours went by before the president did anything meaningful to stop the attack. And then she says this quote, Instead, he and his lawyer were busy making calls to senators who were still in lockdown, seeking their support to further delay the Electoral College certification. This is true and good on that Republican congresswoman for putting a spotlight on it in her statement explaining her yes vote for impeachment today, because as much as the president is now pretending that he was shocked, shocked and quite surprised and oh, my goodness, about the violent attack by his supporters on the Capitol after he pointed them at the Capitol and said, go get it.

We actually know some of what the president did in the hours after the Capitol was attacked and all those people were killed. We know it in part because Rudy Giuliani, the the president's lawyer, apparently doesn't know how to dial a phone. At seven pm on the night of the Capitol attack, so the capital attack started roughly around two o'clock, so roughly five hours into that violent mob scene, Rudy Giuliani that night left a voicemail on a senator's cell phone.

He was apparently trying to reach Senator Tommy Tuberville from Alabama, but he accidentally called a different senator who then gave a copy of the recording to the dispatch, which is why we can hear it now because of their reporting. Again, this was the president's lawyer five hours after the Capitol was breached. This is before even the Capitol Police had given the all clear in the Capitol building, 7:00 p.m. that same night, the night of the attack. Senator Hagel, or I should say Coach Dubravko, there's Rudy Giuliani, president, lawyer.

I'm calling you because I want to discuss with you how they're trying to rush this hearing and how we need you, our Republican friends, to try to just slow it down. I know they re re convening at 8:00 tonight. But the only strategy we can follow is to inject. To numerous states, so if you could inject every state. And on with a congressman, get a hearing for every state I know, we would delay a lot. If you could object to every state, you know, people lay dead at this point, right, big swaths of the capital lay wrecked and ransacked.

Dozens of police officers are being hospitalized. Here's the president's lawyer calling as the president's lawyer, not just like Rudy Giuliani, concerned citizen, but like I'm calling as the president's lawyer, telling Republican senators even that night in the downdraft of the violence, hey, you need to block every state.

You need to object to every state's electoral votes being counted. We need you to do what the rioters were demanding. We need you to do what they were demanding. We need you to stop the votes being counted for Biden. Do it tonight. This isn't done. They're not done. They're not done, it's not like the attack on the Capitol and all these people dead and everything that they have seen wrought by their words and their incitement, it's not like this has made them like cowed and rueful.

And now they're trying just to save their own skin now from the repercussions of what they did, from the consequences and accountability for what they did. I mean, here's the president. Oh, I had no I was against this whole thing. It had nothing to do with me. I'm such I'm better now. Look, I'll be good. I'm totally against this kind of thing. Even after the attack on the Capitol, he's got his lawyer calling senators saying, stop the count, stop the count.

Let's do what the writers want. Don't let Biden be certified as the winner of the election and the president's lawyer did it. The president is reportedly going to use Rudy Giuliani as his defense counsel when the Senate impeachment trial starts, whenever that is. So you can imagine what the content will be of the president's defense in his impeachment trial. Perhaps they'll try to have the venue shifted to a nearby landscaping company so they can better showcase the Q and on Shamin affidavits about the big stolen election.

Right. Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell is not saying how he will vote himself on whether or not to convict the president in the Senate trial if enough Republicans do vote to convict the president, even in a Senate trial that starts once he's already gone from office. The effect of convicting the president would obviously not be to remove him from office. He would already be gone by that point, but it would lay the groundwork for him being banned for life from holding public office.

They could hold a subsequent vote that would only need 51 votes to pass that would ban the president for life from holding public office. There's precedent for that for previous impeachments. They could also deny him things like a presidential pension and the other perks of post presidential life if they want to. And and those are things President Trump is probably quite interested in having. He's a percs kind of guy. So Senator McConnell now holding out the possibility that he and by extension, other Republicans might vote to convict the president when his Senate trial starts next week.

You know, maybe that will have the effect of keeping the president on his best behavior for the next week and into the inauguration. Maybe he'll keep just making prepared statements written by other people that say things he plainly doesn't mean.

Right. Also, he can try to keep his perks and keep the fantasy alive of running again. But honestly, nobody thinks the president's best behavior is sustainable even for a week, even if he tries. And so what do we expect for the inauguration? What do we expect for the week leading up to the inauguration now and in the days after? Twenty thousand National Guard troops protecting the Capitol right now as we speak may go up to thirty thousand. Saw them laying down today, basically bivouacked inside the Capitol, resting there because they can.

Stunning, stunning to see. This isn't wartime, except to the extent that the president and his private army are waging war on the US government. Politico reports tonight that National Guard units have been told to prepare for Trump supporters using bombs using IEDs in an attack either leading up to or at or shortly after the inaugural. The Secret Service today and a bulletin obtained by The Daily Beast and then by Politico, Secret Service is warning that the next potential armed attack by Trump supporters may be this weekend in Washington.

That's in addition to the warnings they've given nationwide about armed Trump mob attacks on all state capitals this weekend. We've got a week with him still there now, a twice impeached disgrace. And then a trial of him to start the next presidency. What a catastrophe this has been from day one and now right through this bloody, bloody and what a catastrophe. We are not here to curse the darkness, we are here to light a candle.

I'm Chuck Rosenberg on my podcast, The Oath. I talk with people who served with integrity and honor, men and women who light the way. This week, former FBI assistant director Frank Losing. If you're all about harsh, rigorous, aggressive rules enforcement, you're not going to last very long as an organization because people will hate you for it. Your system won't have credibility. They won't report misconduct, and they won't cooperate with the core values you're trying to maintain.

So with any disciplinary system, with any attempt in your family, your team, your community, your company to enforce compliance, enforce regulations and values, you better have compassion along with consequences.

Join me for Season four of the Oath, an MSNBC podcast, Search for the Oath, wherever you're listening right now and subscribe new episodes every Wednesday. Today, the outgoing president became the first president in history to be impeached twice. Now we are getting the first reaction to that from the incoming president elect. This statement just released from President elect Joe Biden. It says, quote, Last week we saw an unprecedented assault on our democracy. It was unlike anything we have witnessed in the two hundred and forty four year history of our nation, a violent attack on the US capital itself, on the people's representatives, on police officers who every day risked their lives to protect them, and on fellow citizens who serve as public servants in that citadel of liberty.

This criminal attack, he says, was planned and coordinated. It was carried out by political extremists and domestic terrorists who were incited to this violence by President Trump. It was an armed insurrection against the US, against the United States, and those responsible must be held accountable. Today, the members of the House exercised the power granted to them under our Constitution and voted to impeach and hold the president accountable. It was a bipartisan vote cast by members who followed the Constitution and their conscience.

The process continues now to the Senate. He says, quote, This nation also remains in the grip of a deadly virus and a reeling economy. I hope the Senate leadership will find a way to deal with their constitutional responsibilities on impeachment while also working on the other urgent business of this nation. The process continues to the Senate. Joe Biden then goes on to essentially call on the Senate to do their duty in terms of Trump Senate trial, while also pushing forward on the confirmations to set up the new government and the vaccine program and what Biden calls the the urgent work to be done that will affect millions of American lives.

It's a tall order even in the best of times, and these are not the best of times. Joining us now is Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut. He serves on the Judiciary Committee and the Veterans Affairs Committee. Sir, thanks for your time tonight. Nice of you to be here. Thank you very much for having me, Rachel. Senator, you called on Senator McConnell to bring the Senate back into session immediately in order to start a Senate trial immediately, Senator McConnell saying today that he's not going to do that.

What should we expect in terms of what's going to happen now with the president's impeachment and the Senate trial? What I believe should happen is that there should be the beginning of a trial right after the scenario. We can do both, that is, meet the needs of the country to conquer the pandemic and revive the economy, but at the same time, do our constitutional duty to make sure that there is accountability. That's the core principle of impeachment. And not only that, but also federal judges have been held accountable after they sought to either run out the clock or evade accountability by resigning.

And there should be no question about the legacy of Donald Trump. The trial must go forward and we can divide our time between the urgent needs that the Biden administration will help to make and also our constitutional duty. Senator, should we be on the lookout for sort of procedural shenanigans by which I don't mean like little tricks with the rules, by which I mean the Republicans soon to be minority in the Senate. Senator McConnell and his caucus somehow trying to use the impeachment trial process in a way that is meant to hamstring the Biden administration or that is meant to otherwise sort of turn things to their advantage.

I think a lot of people, after all these years watching Mitch McConnell at work, don't really believe that he's truly undecided about whether or not he's going to vote to convict. They're worried that he might trying to be might be trying to put other cards up his sleeve here. We should be concerned about those kinds of procedural shenanigans, shenanigans, given Mitch McConnell's history, because all he cares about is retaining his power and majority, which he now lacks.

But that will be his agenda. He sought to make Obama a one term president and he obstructed a Democratic majority, then likely to do it again. But on impeachment, there is a limit to how much procedural shenanigans there can be, particularly since this trial is really pretty open and shut.

What you played from the president's speech at the Ellipse, the tweets that he issued before that rally of domestic terrorists and an armed mob and what he said afterward, no contrition, no apology, no regret, no remorse, certainly is evidence of guilty intent and is active incitement of an attempt to overthrow.

A lawful election. It's not just the five people who are dead or the injuries which make it so serious, but the attempt to stop the vote from going forward, Rudy Giuliani's call was part of that effort, a conspiracy involving many more. So there are others who likely fear criminal prosecutions and they may be engaged in procedural shenanigans. But the trial is simple. Straightforward can go forward in a very short time, giving him due process, but a prompt conclusion.

Senator Richard Blumenthal of the great state of Connecticut on the Judiciary Committee, so he knows of what he speaks on these things, sir. Thanks for being here on such a such a big night. A historic night.

Thank you. As I mentioned at the top of the show, another lawmaker who we're going to be speaking to tonight is Congresswoman Michy Cheryl. She says that some of her colleagues, Republican members of Congress, may have helped visitors get into the Capitol the day before the attack for what she describes as essentially reconnaissance missions, casing the joint before it was breached and attacked the following day. Congresswoman Cheryl joins us live on that matter, next. Hey, it's Chris Hayes this week on my podcast, why is this happening?

I'll be talking with author Tallahasse Coates about the precarious nature of America's experiment in multiracial democracy.

This picture that we paint of ourselves is this oldest democracy, haloed institutions, etc. You know, it really doesn't match. And if you understand that, if you understand it, this isn't the first attempted coup in American history. Why is this shocking? The inability to picture, frankly, a group of white people overrunning the Capitol is a lack of acquaintance with American history in and of itself.

That's this week on why is this happening? Search for why is this happening wherever you're listening right now and subscribe. And all the open questions that remain after Wednesday's violent attack on the capital, this violent attack on Congress, just one unnerving allegation that continues to be raised by members of Congress themselves. It's the idea that the attackers last week seemed prepared, that they not just had a plan or an idea of what they wanted to do, but perhaps that they had some kind of inside assistance to help them coordinate the attack and to help them choose and find their targets once they were inside the Capitol building.

The inside of the U.S. Capitol complex is a big labyrinth like confusing, multilayered thing. I have been inside the Capitol building a few dozen times. I have never not been lost on any single one of those trips, Congresswoman Val Demings said today. Even members of Congress get lost inside the Capitol all the time. How is it then in an environment like that, according to lawmakers who were there for the attack, that a large number of the rioters appeared to know where they were going once they broke inside?

Well, interesting development on that point. Congresswoman Mikey Cheryl is a two term member of Congress from New Jersey. She's a veteran. She's a former helicopter pilot in the United States Navy. And now the congresswoman says she saw something the day before the riots that disturbed her at the time. And it could end up being important in trying to answer that upsetting question. Not only do I intend to see that the president is removed and never runs for office again and doesn't have access to classified material, I also intend to see that those members of Congress who abetted him, those members of Congress who had groups coming through the Capitol that I saw on January 5th and reconnaissance for the next day, I'm going to see that they're held accountable and if necessary, ensure that they don't serve in Congress.

January 5th are reconnaissance for the next day. So let's just pause here for a second. Well, Congresswoman Cheryl is saying there is that the day before the attack, January 5th, she saw other members of Congress giving groups of people access to the US Capitol. This is at a time when all U.S. Capitol tours are closed. There aren't any of those. There haven't been since March because of covid. But somehow the day before the attack, Republican members of Congress are letting lots of people in to access the Capitol to show them around, help them orient themselves to the place.

She did not say who the groups were or which members of Congress gave them this access, but she did call it a reconnaissance for the attack the next day. Today, Congresswoman Cheryl elaborated on that allegation in a letter she sent to the House and Senate sergeant at Arms, as well as the head of the Capitol Police. It signed by more than 30 members of Congress who are backing up what the congresswoman says she saw the day before the riots. They write, quote, Many of the members who signed this letter, as well as various members of our staff, witnessed an extremely high number of outside groups in the Capitol complex on Tuesday, January 5th, the day before the insurrection attempt.

The lawmakers say these tours immediately arouse suspicion because they were a noticeable and concerning departure from the covid restrictions around Capitol tours. It was so concerning that they immediately that day, the fifth reported those tours, reported their concerns about them to the sergeant at arms. Again, the day before the attack. And just like Congresswoman Cheryl said in that video, the signatories on this letter are drawing a bright line between the groups given access to the Capitol by members of Congress on Tuesday and the people who attacked the building the next day.

They say, quote, The visitors encountered by some of the members of Congress on this letter appeared to be associated with the rally at the White House the following day. Given the events of January six, the ties between these groups inside the Capitol complex and the attacks on the Capitol need to be investigated. Joining us now is Congresswoman Mickey Sherman, Democrat of New Jersey. Congresswoman Cheryl, thank you so much for being here. I know that a lot of people want to talk to you about this, and I really appreciate you taking time to be here.

Thanks so much for having me, Rachel. Let me just ask if I summarize things well, you correct me if anything that I said was wrong. And just so describe describe for us, if you can, what you and your colleagues or staff saw the day before the attack that raised these alarm bells for you.

Sure, no, I think you provided quite a good summary of those events, and I'll tell you, I'm a former Navy helicopter pilot. I served for almost 10 years. And so at every duty station, whether it was in Norfolk or in Manama, Bahrain and every overseas place I was and I would enter as a military member, we would receive a security breach. And that security breach, we would be told to look for things that were out of place, look for things that were odd, and look at them with an eye toward security.

And so if somebody was loitering around my helicopter on the tarmac, that would be questionable to me, for example. And so I arrived in the capital the week of the 6th and I was very secure. I was very concerned about the violent crowds, a violent extremist groups that were coming to the capital for the the mobs on the 6th called there by the president. And I told my staff not to come in that day to work remotely, not to be anywhere near the hill.

And I was really shocked when I got into the House office building and saw these groups inside. And what was so shocking is that you brought, as you mention, visitors aren't allowed in the Capitol complex. You know, since March, since the start of covid that has been shut down, all tours are shut down. That was true in the last Congress and was reiterated on January 3rd in the new Congress that there would be no tours allowed, even tours given by members.

And so the only reason you'd have a visitor is on official business. So to see these groups around the Capitol complex was really striking. And given what we know the next day of what happened, it's really shocking that those ties were made. And it was so odd to see them that my chief of staff called the sergeant at arms to say what is going on. And he reiterated the only way these people could have gotten into the Capitol complex was with a member or that members staff.

And we now know that those violent groups that attacked the Capitol complex had inside knowledge of the Capitol grounds. Do you know which members of Congress or which congressional staff members allowed these groups into the Capitol and we're showing them around? I know that you haven't talked publicly about that yet, but do do you do you know that information of you conveyed that information to, for example, the House sergeant at Arms?

So as you showed, we have asked and other members over 30 other members have asked for an investigation. That investigation has started and is now ongoing. So I'm not talking about exactly the people that I saw, but I will be conveying that to them. However, make no mistake, the only way that these people, these groups could have gotten into the complex is if another member of Congress or their staff walked them in. And that was reiterated by the sergeant at arms on January 5th.

It is so disturbing to think about members of Congress facilitating the breaching of the Capitol building, facilitating an attack not just on the Capitol building, but on Congress. The attack was obviously timed to coincide with a joint session of Congress. Every member of House, every member of the Senate, they are at once doing the people's business, carrying out a constitutional responsibility. That attack was meant to menace the four hundred. Some odd of you who hold this job is very disturbing to think that one of your colleagues could have facilitated it and helped the mob do what they did.

If that possibility is borne out by the investigation that you're asking for, what's the right remedy? What's the right punishment for that? Rachel, I was in the chamber as the violent mobs were attacking, I was flat on the ground as other members were calling loved ones because they thought that might be the last phone call they made to imagine colleagues of mine could have aided and abetted. This is incredibly offensive and there is simply no way that they can be allowed to continue to serve in Congress and to attack other members of Congress and to incite an attack on other members of Congress and to do so as we're doing our constitutional duty to certify the election, something that every member of Congress should have really held sacred, an oath they took to the Constitution to perform that they will have to be kicked out of Congress if that is found to be true.

Congresswoman Mickey Sherman, Democrat of New Jersey, US Navy veteran, thank you for your service both in Congress and in the in the military. And thanks for your time this evening. It's always an honor to serve, and thanks so much for having me, Rachel. Thank you. All right. We'll be right back. Stay with us.

It's not a fear based decision, I am not choosing a side, I'm choosing truth, it's the only way to defeat fear.

Just over a year ago, I stood right there where you're standing today as we took the solemn step of impeaching the president of the United States for pressuring a foreign leader to take unlawful actions to help him in his reelection. And now, just one week ago, almost to the hour I laid right there on the floor of the gallery above us, I heard gunshots in the speaker's lobby. I heard the mob pounding on the door. This man is dangerous.

He has defied the constitution. He's incited sedition, and he must be removed.

For some members of Congress explaining their votes today to impeach the president, those Democrats and Republicans, for some of them, including Congresswoman Diana DeGette of Colorado, who you heard there at the end today, was actually just one part of her role in the impeachment of this president. Congresswoman Diana DeGette. Work here is really just starting. She's going to be an impeachment floor manager in the US Senate. She will be arguing the case for convicting this president at his Senate trial, whenever that may be.

Joining us now is Congresswoman Diana DeGette of the great state of Colorado. Congresswoman, to get it, it's a real pleasure to have you here tonight. Thank you so much. Good to see Rachel. So your remarks today on the floor, I thought were remarkable, I thought there was a lot of remarkable speeches today on the floor. And of course, today is history in so many ways. How are you preparing and how are you feeling about the prospect of making the case for this president's conviction at his Senate trial?

Well, we met the impeachment managers met today for the first time after the vote and started planning our case that we're going to make in the Senate. I tried cases for about 15 years, Rachel, and I will tell you that this is a pretty, pretty clear case. You have the president telling everybody to come to Washington, then you have him getting them all together for a big rally, and then you have him telling him to march up to the house and to stop the legal counting of the ballots.

And so this is what the impeachment managers. This is the case that we'll be presenting a case for for what the president did. Obviously, 10 Republicans and all the Democrats thought it was a high crime and misdemeanor. I can't think of a more clear case. So we're plotting now how we're going to present our case in the Senate in the clearest way possible. I mean, Donald Trump's the first president to have been impeached twice, but that's not enough.

He needs to be convicted. The president, it was interesting, didn't seem to mount the White House, didn't seem to mount any sort of defense today against his impeachment in the House, we assume that with at least a week to prepare for his Senate trial, that they will prepare some sort of defense for him. Does it affect your approach or will it affect the way that the trial is structured, that he almost certainly will be out of office by the time the trial starts?

I know there's been some legal arguments about that. It seems to me there's clear precedent for impeachment happening for four office holders who have already left office. But does that affect things in terms of how you're going to do this? I mean, not at this point.

We still have to present our case to the Senate and we still have to get two thirds vote in the Senate for impeachment. And so it's really up to the speaker right now when she decides to send the article of impeachment over to the Senate. But we still need to prepare our case. We need to be prepared to try to present it to the Senate. And we will do that.

We'll be ready whether we go over there on tomorrow or whether we go over there next week or whatever they decide. There's been some intriguing reporting, I think in some cases probably deliberately intriguing reporting that the Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, is an undecided vote as to whether he will vote to convict or not. There's also been some reporting in The New York Times that as many as 20 Republican senators are at least open to the prospect of a conviction. I felt like what happened in the first impeachment trial for President Trump was that the impeachment managers from the House essentially knew they weren't going to get probably any Republican votes.

They ended up getting one from Senator Romney, but they sort of knew that it really that conviction wasn't a real possibility. You and your fellow House impeachment managers are going to be heading over there with conviction being a real possibility. Are there ex parte negotiations that happen between the House and Senate or between the two parties when it seems like a conviction might really happen? Well, I think I mean, there may be ex parte communications, but I think you're right, this was so egregious and it was all on TV in real time.

You had the president, Talet, telling everybody, march up to the Hill, stop discounting. You had the people saying, we're coming up here to stop the counting. And by the way, we want to find Speaker Pelosi and we want to hand Vice President Pence. So the facts are so appalling and so clear. I think that's why 20 twenty 20 senators are saying they really may consider convicting. We need 17 votes to convict him. And so after the two Democrats from Georgia are sworn in.

And so so we are going up there with the intention of obtaining a conviction which would make Donald Trump not just the first president to be impeached twice, which he is, but the first president to be convicted. Colorado Congresswoman Diana DeGette, who will serve as an impeachment manager in the president's trial in the Senate. Congresswoman, good luck to you and your colleagues. I know this is a difficult job, difficult time for the country. Thanks for your service.

Thanks for being here. Rachel, thank you very much. We'll be right back. You are an American who lived through a president being impeached twice in one term at the at the beginning of your civic consciousness. Did you ever think of as possible? Now, if we can do it, America, we're capable of anything. If you just elect people that ill suited to the job, who that's going to do it for us on this historic night.

See again tomorrow on The Rachel Maddow Show weeknights at 9:00 Eastern on MSNBC. Hey, guys, Willie Geist here this week on the Sunday Sit Down podcast, I get together with Rachel Brosnahan to talk about another season of her hit series, The Marvelous Miss Masel, and why she still gets nervous playing mej. You can hear our conversation now for free wherever you download your podcasts.