>> all the members of blm and antifa that have been charged with sedition and conspiracy, have you noticed that? >> i mean the numbers. i've got pages and pages of, oh, wait, nothing. >> that's right. it hasn't happened. if what happened today isn't proof to all these people saying oh, it must have been the fbi, must have been antifa, must have been blm, the democrats were behind it. and none of that has shown up in any of the charges. look, you're the law. you're the law lady. this should be proof today what you're believing is bs. >> for some reason i had an image walking with caw boy boots talking about i'm the law in these parts. that was my immediate image. you know what? think about it. the problem is it was never about what common sense and logical. that's the frustrating part. it was never about that. because you know it was going to be spun. now suddenly it's going to be a criticism of this doj being political, and that wasn't the case before for the prior doj and attorney general. it's sometimes i think the point is to frustrate, and so the arguments come out, don, they're like,

for blm and antifa and the democrats? >> they only do it when they have evidence it happened. that's laid out in great detail here. so stewart rhodes, the alleged leader of this group, he disabuses that himself. he says are these real patriots or people posing as patriots trying to start up trouble? he says quite clearly, no, these are real patriots, they're pissed off and getting the job done, something to that effect. >> it's a very interesting idea of what patriotism is. it's actually a warped idea of what patriotism is. is the next step in this investigation likely happening now to see if there was any coordination between these seditious conspirators or others with any trump white house officials or cronies or the so-called war room? >> there's no question. what d.o.j. will do in a case like this is try to continue going up the chain of command. now, i am confident they have several cooperators already. they wouldn't have this indictment without insiders and the way we know that is these encrypted communication chann

all of the members of blm and ant that that have been charged with sedition and conspiracy. have you noticed that? >> i mean the numbers. i've got pages and pages of -- oh, wait, nothing. >> it hasn't happened. if what happened today isn't proved to all of those people who are saying oh, it must have been the fbi, it must have been an antifa, it must have been blm. none of that has shown up in any of the charges. you're the law. you're the law, lady. this should be proof today that what you're believing is bs. what you're saying is bs. >> for some reason i have images of walking with cowboy boots, talking i'm the law. it was my immediate image. but you know what? think about it. the problem is that it was never about what was common sense and logical. that's the frustrating part. it was never about that. because you know it's going to be spun. now suddenly, it will be a criticism of this doj being political, and that wasn't the case before for the prior doj and attorney general. they're going to talk about. so sometimes i think the point is to frustrate. the arguments come o

proof to all these people saying oh, it must have been the fbi, must have been antifa, must have been blm, the democrats were behind it. and none of that has shown up in any of the charges. look, you're the law. you're the law lady. this should be proof today what

image in my mind from june the 2nd, the day after trump and william barr unleased that police riot and blm came to the capitol the next day. i had this image of national guards and women standing at the capitol steps armed and protecting the capitol. i could not imagine somehow the capitol would be breached and much lessover run and sieged by an angry mob. my book describes what happened on that terrifying day. >> you also describe during and you were talking about that in your speech about impeaching donald trump and that very day. let's listen to it and we'll continue to discuss. >> the kids hiding under the desk, placing what they thought for their final texts and whispered phone calls to say their good-byes, they thought they're going to die. my son-in-law never been to the capitol before. when they were finally rescued over an hour later by capitol officers and we were together, i hugged them and i apologized and i told my daughter, tab tabatha -- who's 24, a brilliant algebra teacher and teach for america now i told her how sorry i was and i promised her it would not be like this aga

to the january 6th rioters that they have about blm. the daily show did to prove the point. they edited together comments that the fox channel made about antifa and black lives matter with video from january 6th, and it looks like the joke is on fox. >> this kind of mob-like behavior has got to stop before somebody gets hurt. violence, intimidation, unacceptable in this country. >> it is not a protest. these aren't children. these are adults and they're destroying our country. >> i think what is so jarring to so many americans right now is just the fact that there's so much lawlessness. >> why isn't anybody stopping the looting and the vandalism and the destruction of public and private property? >> that giant lie handicapped the police so they couldn't do a thing to stop the riots without being accused to attacking mostly peaceful protesters. >> these include people that threw projectiles at cops. >> screaming the most disgusting things an inch away from their face. >> well, there you go. we're now just a few minutes from the one-year anniversary of january 6th. cnn is mark

i use that word all in 2020 for the antifa and blm terrorists that assaulted cops and fire bombed police cars. but i agree it was a mistake to use the word yesterday. >> homina, homina. joining me now, cnn political commentators alice stewart and bakari sellers. bakari is the author of a new chu children's book, "who are your peo people?" hello to both of you. alice, let's talk about ted cruz. i understand that you have some news for us. you spoke to senator cruz about that disaster of an interview. what did you learn about this debacle? >> well, first off, don, i expressed to him that he should have just left well enough said. what he said initially in his comments before the hearing, thanking the capitol police for their work, was the right thing to say, that attacking a police officer is wrong and it is an act of domestic terrorism, and violence is wrong. peaceful protest is right. that comment and those comments should have stayed. and going on with tucker carlson, i think took a lot of what he did say out of context. what he said and the way he explained to me was what he had explai

but where are the charges for blm and antifa and, you know, the democrats? i haven't seen any sedition or conspiracy charges there. >> you haven't, and the reason you haven't is because the government is very careful about bringing a big, complicated, hard-to-prove case like this. they only do it when they actually have evidence that it happened, and that's laid out in great detail here. i would also add, don, so stewart rhodes, who is kind of the alleged leader of this group, he disabuses that myth himself. he's quoted in the indictment. somebody says, you know, are these real patriots, or are these just people posing as patriots trying to start up trouble? and he says quite clearly, no, these are real patriots. they're pissed off, and they're getting the job done or something to that effect. so it's right there. stewart rhodes lays waste to that lie. >> it's a very interesting idea of what patriotism is. it's actually a warped idea of what patriotism is. is the next step in this investigation likely happening now to see if there are any -- there was any co

i use that word all in 2020 for the antifa and blm terrorists that assaulted cops and fire bombed cop cars. i agree, it was a mistake to use yesterday. >> joining me now cnn political commentator. bakari, bakari, this is important. the author of a new children's book "who are your people?" i'm going to talk to you about that in a minute. that's what my dad did every time we brought someone over, he would say and who are your people? chances are, he knew the people's people. i digress. i understand you have news for us. you spoke to senator cruz about the disaster of an interview. what did you learn about this deb debacle? >> first off, don, i expressed to him that he should have just left well enough said. what he said initially in his comments before the hearing thanking the capitol police for their work was the right thing to say. that attacking a police officer is wrong and it is an act of domestic terrorism and violence is wrong and peaceful protest is right. that comment and those comments should have stayed and going on with tucker carlson i think took a lot of what he did say o

. >> these protesters and blm activists don't care about the evidence, and they don't care about justice either. >> at this point there was no remaining doubt that kyle rittenhouse acted in self-defense. >> this is a clear cut case of self-defense. >> actually, it's a clear cut case of how to cultivate an ecochamber or a gremlin. water it, feed it until it multiplies. the only thing that stops it, sunlight. next, we'll speak to a former fox political editor who was a key figure in one of the network's most consequential projections in the 2020 election but was fired after helping fox make the right call on election night. his insight when "democracy in peril" returns. >> vo: my car is my after-work decompression zone. ♪ music ♪ >> vo: so when my windshield broke... i found the experts at safelite autoglass. they have exclusive technology and service i can trust. >> singers: ♪ safelite repair, safelite replace. ♪ well, would you look at that? jerry, you gotta see this. seen it. trust me, after 15 walks... gets a little old. i really should be retired by now. wish i'd invested when

i don't think there are any oath keepers that are blm, antifa, so and so forth. >> i think they called them marxist. the person who is the leader has been outspoken on that very issue, which you know is not the case. but he doesn't even have lawyers. i was talking to his committee lawyer, but not the actual criminal lawyer. he does not yet have one. i'm wondering if he'll get the rittenhouse treatment in terms of funding to see who really does have his back. >> we shall see. i've got images of annie oakley. laura oakley. that's it. thank you, laura. i'll see you tomorrow. >> oh, god. goodbye. >> have a good one. so everyone, thank you for joining us. this is "don lemon tonight." so what we have been talking about just now is called seditious conspiracy. seditious conspiracy. sedition. you guys know what that is. it's a chilling charge. the u.s. code charges sedition as two or more people who conspired to overthrow the u.s. government or, quote, prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of u.s. law by force. two or more people who conspire to overthrow the u.s. government or, quote, preve

everything that sort of lines up with this theory of these sort of -- these either people who are secretly blm or antifa or going undercover to be trump supporters just doesn't make any sense. we've seen repeatedly over and over it was disproven. these are actually people who believed the big lie and the election was stolen and they're taking what they see in their minds as justifiable action in order to respond to that what they see as the crime of the century as been described to them by their leader, by donald trump. >> i feel like that's why as a psychological level this remains such a big story. there's not a lot of examples like this in history, nicole, a masked illusion of thousands of people who believed trump won. we're in chartered territory in america because of fox and media outlets, we're experiencing a mass delusion event and in january 6th it happened in real life but it kind of continues in virtual life. what are the receoots? what do we know from the research? >> the denialism is very much rooted in kind of a desire not to be pinned with something that was so horrific. remembe

i use that word all in 2020 for the antifa and blm terrorists that assaulted cops and fi firebombed police cars. but i agree. it was a mistake to use the word yesterday. >> it's uncomfortable to even watch. let's bring in cnn chief media correspondent, brian stelter. brian, he -- that went on for seven minutes where he tried to get forgiveness from tucker carlson for calling a thing a thing. >> right. cruz folded like a paper airplane. i think what it shows is the republican messaging about being tough on crime, which is something that's gone back decades that cruz was trying to lean into has come up against this denial of the january 6th crime. so you have tucker carlson trying to take a position that what we saw with our own eyes didn't really happen. not that many police officers were injured, even though some of the officers that were attacked that day still can't get back to work because the injuries were so severe. but carlson's in such profound denial about that, that he has to put on this performance and cruz, absolutely begged for forgiveness. about a year ago, edmedia reporters l

remember the time you told me i shouldn't go to blm protests because they could get violent. this you? she saw pictures of her mother at the in sur recollection. >> yeah. she saw that video. a video had gone viral of her mother kind of goading a capitol police officer. her mother ends up getting punched in the face by the officer. the video goes viral. helena sees it and tweets her own message which also goes viral. >> yeah. and then there's jackson, a 19-year-old young man who actually called the fbi before the insurrection because he was worried what his father would do. what went on there? >> yeah. jackson was in a really difficult position. he was only 18 at the time. he was hearing these messages from his dad saying something really big is coming, something really big is coming. so jackson started worrying about what his father meant by that. he was especially worried because his father had ties to three percenters, a white supremist group. no stranger to violence. when he knew his dad was in a militia, he felt something violent could happen and did what we're all told t