january 6th committee bennie thompson making a plea on msnbc. >> i hope the senate works its wheel so we can keep people employed, we can continue to secure the capitol and give our opportunity of a committee review of exactly what went wrong on january 6th. we are concerned about it. >> we're also getting a brand new look at the violence that unfolded during the capitol riot as the justice department releases new video evidence. the doj making this footage public at the request of msnbc and other news organizations, and again we're warning you, it's violent and graphic. [ bleep ]. >> wow, just the relentness beatings. let's go to nbc's amanda golden joining us from capitol hill. what is the mood around the capitol as the fencing is coming down? >> reporter: alex, in stark contrast to the footage we just saw, there is a lot of relief, a lot of joy around the fencing finally coming down here at the capitol. we're seeing for the first time people being able to go up into the courtyard where you can then on the other side see the supreme court and then face the capitol on the other side.

chairman bennie thompson telling msnbc those hearings will start either july 21st or 22nd, and telling my colleague tiffany cross what the first hearings will focus on. >> the first committee hearing will be, we'll talk to the rank and file employees who had to fight some of these people off on that day. we will talk to the custodial help who had to clean the mess up after we got the people out of the capitol. none of these people have been talked to, so we want -- >> right. >> -- to set the tone. we want to set the tone for our committee's work, that we care about the employees who work every day in the capitol. >> and overnight the first high-profile firing of the biden administration. andrew saul, the head of the social security administration and a trump-era holdover. the white house saying saul's actions ran contrary to the agency's mission. saul, however, rejecting the move, saying his term was protected and telling "the washington post" he plans to be back at work on monday morning. let's go to nbc's josh letterman standing by for us in wilmington, delaware. josh, clearly andrew

we heard from congressman benny thompson just yesterday on air, he's going to chair the committee, speaking into what the committee is hoping to do with their power. take a listen. >> the view you are showing right now is what all of america saw. but what our challenge is, is to look and see what caused this to happen, to see where the systems broke down. not to just let people walk through the united states capitol, but why we were not better prepared when this breach occurred. >> reporter: lindsay, as you heard, democrats want to get to work. it's been nearly seven months since january 6th. what this committee is hoping to do is ultimately produce a report that's a mix of both public hearings and closed-door depositions and that's going to start with a public testimony from capitol hill police officers into what they experienced during that deadly day. that could be happening very soon. but democrats are not waiting to see how and if republicans are going to fill those remaining seats on the committee. they're ready to get to work and they have a quorum to do so. >> amanda golden, thank y

bennie thompson praising the move on msnbc earlier. >> the congressman is a welcome addition to the committee. he demonstrated that he can express his opinion despite what some of his republican colleagues might want him not to express. so an independent voice to this select committee is always welcome. >> joining me now is illinois congressman mike quickly a democratic member of the house appropriations and intelligence committees. always good to see you my friend. let's get into this. what's your reaction to adam kinzinger being added to this committee? and do you want to see more republicans appointed? >> i think it is a great pick. want to see more republicans appointed but as you know, it is a small pool that could qualify. only as -- as miss cheney said only 35 voted for an independent commission. and so many have respoken the big lie and voted against measures that would change this, like a defense supplemental. i would like to see more republicans but i think it takes more republicans willing to choose country over party and truth over power. ed isly, there is just not that big a grou

thompson, spoke on our air earlier today to give us a look at what the panel is going to seek to do in the coming weeks. >> the first committee hearing, we'll talk to the rank and file employees who had to fight some of these people off on that day. we'll talk to the custodial help who had to clean the mess up after we got the people out of the capitol. none of these people have been talked to. so we want to set the tone. we want to set the tone for our committee's work that we care about the employees who work every day in the capitol. >> reporter: and congressman thompson said earlier on our air yesterday that they intend to hold that first hearing as early as july 21st or 22nd, and as he noted there, really focusing on the capitol police force and those additional support workers that had that experience themselves on january 6th, alex. >> amanda golden, thank you so much. >>> let's go from there to a new court filing, this by the doj, that names donald trump, siting his false election claims in a legal argument to keep monitoring an accused capitol rioter. federal prosecutors re

thompson on whether president trump will be subpoenaed to testify. >> i am prepared to subpoena anyone who is identified based on the facts and circumstances behind january 6. >> let's go to monica alba. monica, there is a big event planned there tonight. people will be able to get much closer to the white house than they have in a long time. what can you tell us about what's different today? >> reporter: this is new, lindsey. if the crowd in front of the white house can hear the sound checks going on on the south lawn, i think way more people will be tuning in than we previously thought. and that's because the u.s. secret service has removed the fencing and the barricades that once stood right in front of that tall fence in front of the north lawn where i am here because for more than a year due to security reasons, the pandemic, and also some construction on this fence, people could not get as close as they are right now. so this is a shift sort of sending a signal, really, that we are getting back to some version of normal. of course, nothing is pre-pandemic levels yet but that is s

benny thompson, the chair of the committee, called mr. kinzinger a fine representative and the type of person who would be good for this committee. speaker pelosi a couple of days ago joked that everyone else seems to think he would be good. the bottom line is this is a decision for the speaker and the speaker alone to make and she's not given any indication that she will add new members to the committee. the eight appointees of hers are a quorum. they will have their first hearing on tuesday. and the reason for all of this, the speaker and many democrats want to bolster the bipartisan credentials of this committee to maximize the chances that the american public trusts its finding. you recently had congressman marc veasey on. i want to play some of what he said about that. >> we want this to be something that all americans can have faith in, we want all americans to see democrats and republicans on this panel asking real questions, not being sensational or silly, like oftentimes you'll see jordan do and how you see banks, when he says, y

but as we have heard previously from the chairman of this committee, that's congressman bennie thompson, he said the scope of it, no one is off limits, that they will proceed and follow the facts as requires, that no one would be off limits from a potential subpoena. that includes former administration officials, potentially former president donald trump. it was telling in your conversation just last hour with democratic congressman eric swalwell, speaking to what he hopes the select committee can really uncover here, especially as it relates to the former president's role. >> what did he know as the mob was descending on the capitol and what did he do and not do that could have saved life and saved democracy? for the first time in our country's history, we are not able to say that we had a peaceful transition of power. there was an attempted coup. hundreds of the president's supporters made their way into the capitol. i and others left the floor and stopped counting. a capitol police officer was killed. two others would take their own lives days later. hundreds were injured. officers l

you know, select committee chair bennie thompson told us yesterday that, you know, we could expect to see quite a few subpoenas coming out very soon, but the select committee and all of these other investigative committees are still figuring out who exactly they will call to testify. for that matter, who might even be a cooperative witness. >> uh-huh. again, that was a list from "mother jones." let me ask you quickly a couple of names, legislators. kevin mccarthy, paul goesse earth, andy biggs, mo brooks, tommy tuberville. having lawmakers testify would be unprecedented. any sense this might happen, that any members of the gop are willing to testify before this committee? >> well, the committee could certainly try to subpoena some of these lawmakers, but, again, you know, we are getting into somewhat uncharted territory where a committee would actually regard a fellow lawmaker to be, as some of them have called, a material witness to what happened on january 6th. so, yes, certainly there's been some interest in calling people like kevin mccarthy, like jim jordan, both of whom spoke to

the chairman benny thompson who says the committee will issue subpoenas soon without resorting to writing letters asking for voluntary information says we cannot let the liars and cheaters win. >> we did not ask for this, for the house of representatives did its job to give this country its first peaceful transfer of power. and we'll do our job now to make sure the peaceful transfer of power remains a pillar of our democracy. we cannot allow ourselves to be undone by liars and cheaters. >> liz cheney one of two republicans on the committee says that we need to know the truth about every meeting, every conversation, every phone call leading up to and during the attack. >> we must know what happened here at the capitol. we must also know what happened every minute of that day in the white house. every phone call, every conversation, every meeting leading up to, during and after the attack. honorable men and women have an obligation to step forward. >> you will hear more from liz cheney a little bit later on in this show as well as from other republicans on the committee or the other republi

democrats are saying -- bennie thompson said, look, they're simply trying to muddy the waters. this is not going to be a committee that is going to independently look at this. it's going to be another washington sort of drag-out fight. being out here in the country, one thing is clear. people are not interested in another food fight in washington regardless of what side you're on. but that is what sounds like is coming down the way. >> quite frankly it's a desperate attempt because it's hard to change the narrative when we have so many images coming out. >> and arrests. >> and none of them mention nancy pelosi except that they don't like her and they stuck their feet up on top of her desk. thank you very much. >>> i want to turn now to "washington post" investigative reporter carol leonnig. so happy to have her here. she's the co-author of the explosive new book "i alone can fix it: donald j. trump's catastrophic final year." again, so good to see you again. thank you so much, carol. listen, there are so many details from your book that we need to discuss. but i want to start w