With investigations now ongoing following last week’s insurrection at the Capitol, the president facing down his second impeachment by the House, there are worries over new threats of violence at the U.S. Capitol and at other Capitols across the United States.
Major Garrett, the Chief Washington Correspondent for CBS News joined Chad Hartman on Friday and shared his shock and disbelief about what he has seen and heard over the last nine days.
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“When I say it’s all too dramatic and real, it almost happened,” Garrett said about the threats to the vice president and other lawmakers. “We need to understand what this says. The Vice President of the United States was almost surrounded by fanatics inspired by his president. And many of them chanted for his arrest or his death during an assault launched by the executive branch on the legislative branch of government to stop and undermine the counting of electoral votes in a presidential election.
“To say, I never thought I would utter those words and the sequence I just uttered them is the largest understatement of my professional life.”
Garrett also said there is no question the relationship between Trump and Pence is destroyed.
“To say that the current relationship between the vice president and the president is strained is also another understatement,” Garrett says. “It’s almost impossible to describe how much of an understatement it is. But on behalf of a monstrous lie, the president unleashed a crowd of fanatics that sought to arrest and possibly harm, possibly kill, the vice president, his wife and his daughter, all of whom were in the United States Senate at the time.”
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Garrett also talked about how the work of some in law enforcement helped keep them safe.
“That none of that happened is because of bravery, ingenuity, and the quick work of Capitol police and Secret Service. That it almost happened is yet another grotesque stain on that day, and those people on the president who set it in motion.”
Much of the unrest came about because of the calls coming from the president and others of a fraudulent Election, something that the facts to not back up. Garrett says those that are reacting to those calls of fraud are unpatriotic.
“Joe Biden is going to be the President of the United States, fairly, duly, and verifiably elected, and they don't like that. And their brand of Americanism, their counterfeit patriotism, is to deny that which is true. Deny that which is legal and deny that that which is constitutional. I suffer mightily in my attempt to find a shred of patriotism there.”
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Major Garrett also hosts two podcasts. “The Takeout” can be heard Sundays at 5:00a.m. and 11:00p.m on News Talk 830 WCCO. There is also “The Debrief” which this week looks back at that reprehensible day and how those in and around the Capitol experienced it. You can listen to that here.
Listen below to the conversation between Garrett and Chad Hartman.