What A Day - Raid To Recovery with Rep. Mondaire Jones

Episode Date: January 11, 2021

This week, Speaker Nancy Pelosi says the House will try to pass a resolution to get Vice President Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment, and if he doesn’t, the House plans to begin the process of impeaching Trump for a second time. We spoke to Representative Mondaire Jones of New York, who experienced the violent siege on his fourth day on the job, and was one of the first to call for impeachment.The FBI reportedly arrested two men yesterday who were pictured in the Senate chamber last week with zip ties and military-type clothing. Others, like the man who wore a fur headdress during the attack on the Capitol, have been arrested as well.And in headlines: Amazon Web Services to stop hosting Parler, Biden plans to release all the available vaccine doses at once, and Hilaria Baldwin loses her first sponsor following Spanish-gate.

It's Monday, January 11th. I'm Akilah Hughes. And I'm Gideon Resnick, and this is What A Day, coming to you from a country where the president is invisible and may not even exist. Yeah, honestly, my blood pressure's gotten a lot better, and I'm not exactly sure why, but, you know, maybe it has something to do with this. Yeah, I haven't read a post all weekend. I only read his posts and they're not there. So I don't read anymore. On today's show, a conversation with newly elected Representative Mondaire Jones

about the push for impeachment and accountability after last week's attack on the Capitol. Then some headlines. But first, the latest. And there's a lot to go over from the last few days. To start, there have been a number of high-profile arrests. Yesterday, the FBI reportedly arrested two men who were pictured in the Senate chamber with zip ties and military-type clothing. Among the other arrests so far have been Jake Angeli, the person pictured in a fur headdress, Adam Johnson, the person pictured taking House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's

lectern, and Richard Barnett, who was pictured with his feet up in Pelosi's office, among many, many more. I guess when you pose for pictures doing crimes, you tend to get arrested. I don't know. Well, according to the New York Times, the FBI received more than 40,000 tips as of Sunday night. And Michael Sherwin, the U.S. attorney in Washington, said on Sunday that there could also be charges for theft of national security information for the individuals who took things from congressional offices. Yikes. And there have also been numerous domestic terrorism cases that have been opened. That's according to a Democratic lawmaker who spoke with the Army secretary. So just the tip of the iceberg to all of this. Then this week, Pelosi says the House will try to pass a resolution

to get Vice President Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment. At this point, two Republican senators have now called for Trump to resign, and others are pushing for unity and thereby saying accountability doesn't fit into that picture. Funny explanation. If Pence doesn't act, though, the House is planning to begin the process of impeaching President Trump again. From there, the timeline becomes a little less clear. Just yesterday, Representative Jim Clyburn suggested waiting up to a few months to send the articles of impeachment to the Senate for an ultimate trial. But for other Democrats, that is too slow. To get some perspective on all of this, we spoke to Representative Mondaire Jones of New York, who experienced a violent siege on just his fourth day on the job and was one of the first to call for impeachment. Here's our conversation.

All right, Representative Jones, thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us. Thank you for having me. I'm so excited. Great. Well, we're going to start with what everyone's thinking about right now, impeachment. So it's almost January 20th. The clock is ticking. I know why I think impeachment is still worth pursuing, but why do you think this is an important step to take? Were Congress to do nothing in response to the attempted overthrow of the federal government, the violent insurrection that we saw on Wednesday, we would be abdicating our constitutional responsibility to be a check on the executive branch. We would be abdicating our constitutional responsibility to be a check

on the executive branch. We would be signaling to Donald Trump and those who would like to be like him, people who maybe want to run for president or for Congress, or domestic terrorists who think that they can successfully emulate, maybe with more success, what was attempted last Wednesday, we would be emboldening those people, were they to see that there were no consequences in response to what happened. And I have not lost hope that enough Republican senators will vote to convict in the event that it goes to a trial,

which I expect it will, after the House impeaches this president. Yeah, second time would be the charm on that one. And in terms of the timing of this, this is obviously early, but we heard Congressman Clyburn say on Sunday that the House could impeach this week and then potentially wait to send those articles to the Senate for up to a few months so that the proceedings don't get in the way of Biden's agenda in that first crucial 100 days. What do you make of that idea? Well, that idea has not been socialized. I read it through public reporting. And so as a member of the Democratic House leadership team, I certainly look forward to being part of those conversations. And I know that I speak on behalf of the entire Democratic caucus when I say that we would like that idea presented to us directly for our discussion.

I happen to think that we should not wait after impeaching this president 100 days to the point made by my colleague from New York, Congresswoman AOC. I think that the timing of confirmations after nominations can wait a few days until such time as we are able to finish the trial in the Senate. And again, I'm hopeful that he will be convicted and that a vote will then be taken to permanently ban him from running for federal office moving forward. Yeah, absolutely. So you and other Congress members like Representative Cori Bush are seeking to investigate and sanction or even remove GOP lawmakers who have been fanning the flames of the deadly coup attempt on the Capitol by trying to sell the voter fraud conspiracy for months and months.

Now they want to wave that memory stick from men in black and call for unity without accountability. So can you talk about why it's an important part of this? And is that effort gaining traction? You know, perhaps the biggest contributor to the events of last Wednesday is the sentiment that folks in power can get away with it, specifically Donald Trump and approximately 140 Republican members of the House, all of whom voted against the certification of Pennsylvania's electoral votes, can escape without consequence even a violent insurrection like what we saw on Wednesday, January 6th, I mean, it is beyond the pale that anyone who has sworn an oath to protect the United States of America

from enemies, both foreign and domestic, would then be allowed to continue serving after participating in this myth, this malicious lie about the election having been stolen from Donald Trump and the need to take back the government, which is what these people believe and it's what their Republican representatives are pushing. Yeah. Yeah. And you saw Peter Meyer, who has replaced Justin Amash from Michigan, Penn and Abed, and what I believe is the Detroit Free Press, talking about how on the House floor, he spoke with a Republican colleague who clearly was conflicted about how to vote with respect to the certification of the electoral college votes. And that member only voted to object because the member was afraid for that member's family's safety. And so on one hand, I feel for anyone who's in that environment, that is an abusive environment. Make no mistake about it. At the same time,

don't be part of a party that would hold you hostage. That is not public service. Yeah, that's right. And, you know, the Department of Homeland Security deemed white supremacists the deadliest domestic terror threat in a report last year. They've also been warning about it for more than a decade. And we saw more evidence on display last week in D.C., just like we saw it with the plot to kidnap Michigan's Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer. So when are they going to do something about it? Do you know of any plans to actually address this issue? I certainly want Congress to hold hearings on the infiltration of white nationalists into law enforcement agencies all across this country, not just the Capitol Police. Let me say, just to be clear, that most of those Capitol Police officers behave valiantly in protecting the lives of people like myself and my colleagues. I happen to be one of the approximately 200 members of Congress and staff who were locked inside the House chamber and were evacuated just minutes before that chamber was overtaken by that violent mob.

And so I'm very grateful. I'm very grateful to the security personnel for helping to save our lives. We also have to make sure that we have an attorney general who cares about the rule of law. And that's actually something that will be transformative. In just a few days, when Merrick Garland is nominated and confirmed to head that agency. I'm a DOJ alumnus. And my goodness, we just used to take things for granted, I guess. And without any legislative action, it will be transformative to have a new Attorney General of the United States. And I still look forward to that. And I want other people to look forward to it as well. And you mentioned, Congressman, just talking about what actually occurred. So can you actually talk a little bit about

your experience on Wednesday during all of this? What was going through your head? Can you take us through what happened? It's quite a way to embark on a new job that you've taken on? It was day four. Most people would quit a job where on day four, they almost lost their life. I've quit jobs for less. When Applebee's was like, you got to work all these microwaves. I'm like, I'm good. That was one day. I didn't even have my life in jeopardy. So yeah, absolutely. I appreciate that anecdote because there are a few things that have made me laugh and smile over the past several days. So I'm on I'm on the House floor sitting with with the Democratic leadership team. And eventually I start getting these text messages during debate.

And the text messages are describing the evacuation of various buildings, various legislative office buildings. And eventually there is an announcement from one of the security officers in the House chamber where we were located, and there were approximately 200 of us. Those who were not on the House floor, which is the ground level, were in the gallery overlooking the house floor. And the announcement said that the Capitol had been overtaken by these domestic terrorists, and that they needed to lock down the house chamber from the inside. They had to secure all the doors. And then we were told to look under our chairs for gas masks in the event that tear gas needed to be used. We were also told that it was possible we would have to lie down on the ground in the event of gunfire.

Minutes later, there is a very loud banging sound at one of the doors behind me. And that was extraordinary because anyone who has ever been to the House chamber knows there is security posted at every single entrance to only allow members of the House and their staff persons onto the House floor. And so that meant that there was no one protecting us on the outside of that door, which has historically been the case. And so then I look around the interior of the House chamber and there's only a sprinkling

of law enforcement agents there to protect approximately 200 people from what it turned out, I wasn't aware of this at the time, were dozens of domestic terrorists on the other side of that door. And so thankfully, we were evacuated. They had immediately evacuated the Speaker. I mean, I didn't even see her leave. They just so quickly

evacuated her and the Majority Leader. Chairman Hakeem Jeffries stayed behind with us. And so eventually, we were evacuated outside of the House chamber chamber past barricaded doors. I mean, the visual is just wild. I mean, there were like 15 or 20 chairs just stacked against and tables just stacked against one of the other entrances as we were as we were passing by down through the tunnels to get to another more secure location. You have members who, you know, weren't weren't able to move as quickly as others. I mean, it was just it was a mess. It was a mess. And you never knew what was going to be around another corner. You know, as at one point there was there was great confusion about where we were going. So I first ended up going to a cafeteria with a handful of other members.

That was not the right location. There was no one there to secure that cafeteria, by the way. We eventually made it to the right location where approximately 200 members of Congress and some staff persons were located in that more secure facility. There were various moments throughout the day where things could have been very deadly for us. When you watch the video back, I mean, have you seen any of the videos since? Have you subjected yourself to sort of what was happening on the outside? And what's it like comparing it to what you were experiencing on the inside? Like, is it worse now knowing how much, you know, how dangerous it could have become? It is it is much worse now, because I had no idea that there were that many people

who who had breached security and made it into the Capitol building. I want to ask one other thing. I know you're probably short on time. But on Sunday, the attending physician to Congress said that there could have been possible COVID exposure while lawmakers were grouped together for safety during all of those moments on the 6th. What is your response to that? And have you gotten any further guidance on what the hell is going on there? When the approximately 200 of us were evacuated from the House chamber to that more secure location, we had to stay there for at least three hours. As security forces confirmed that all people who had breached security had been ejected from the premises. And in that time, a large number of Republicans did what they have often done in various settings related to their job here, which is refuse to wear masks. And their staff do the same thing,

by the way. Despite the fact that members of the Republican caucus have died from COVID exposure and have otherwise contracted COVID-19. I mean, it was just so disrespectful. And I watched as my colleague, Lisa Blunt Rochester, there's now footage of her going up to people like Marjorie Taylor Greene and others offering them masks. She was, they declined her offer and they scoffed. They scoffed. I mean, regardless of whether you want to wear a mask or not, why not just be respectful of the fact that there are about 200 other folks in this one room in close proximity to you who could be harmed,

including people who had pre-existing conditions. Exactly. It's just, you know, the self-entitlement for me. It's a little ridiculous at this point. Well, thank you so much again, Congressman, for your time today. We really appreciate it. Thank you. You know, happy to participate and happy to be back in the future. Yeah. Thank you so much. Please stay safe. Thank you. That was Congressman Mondaire Jones of New York. And that's the latest. We will be back after some ads.

Let's wrap up with some headlines. Headlines. on net belong to women. Black and Latina women have been hit the hardest with the unemployment rate among Black women at 8.4% and 9.1% among Latina women. White women, on the other hand, have the lowest unemployment rate at 5.7%. According to government stats, women of color, especially Black and Latina women, disproportionately make up industries that were hit hard by the pandemic, such as retail, restaurants, and hospitality. Those roles also often lack benefits like paid sick leave or the ability to work from home. Some experts say the widening gender gap caused by the pandemic could have an impact on the job market for years to come. President-elect

Joe Biden said on Friday that he plans to release all available doses of the coronavirus vaccines once he takes office. His strategy is to get everyone who needs it most vaccinated as soon as possible by releasing some of the supply the government has been holding back in case of emergencies. Critics are concerned that his plan to vaccinate as many people as possible with their first dose might mean supply could run low for everyone else's second dose. Moderna and Pfizer's vaccines both require a second dose to be administered within three or four weeks, and some public health experts doubt that there will be a shortage of supply. And Biden's team assumes that the pharma companies will continuously be manufacturing more doses if they stick to their contracts. So they probably should. A recent study also found that distributing as many first doses as possible

would help the country prevent more natural infections. I hope everybody knows what they are doing. More updates on the Trump social media crackdown that began last week. For his role in posting his way to a coup, Trump has now been kicked off most of the Internet, losing access to his accounts on Twitter, Facebook,'s loss of, quote, free speech, which this is not an example of since these are private companies enforcing their rules and the downsizing of their own audiences online. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Sarah Huckabee Sanders and others complained that they lost tens of thousands of followers in a possible Twitter purge of the far right. Once that people usually don't share on social media is the percentage of their fans that are pro hate crime. The less discerning website parlor initially seemed like a good Twitter alternative for the Nazi inclined,

but it quickly showed signs of trouble. First Apple and Google removed it from their app store, citing calls to violence on the site. And then Amazon web services announced they'd stop hosting parlor starting last night due to its inadequate content moderation practices. QAnon types longing for a place to connect and organize will be comforted to know at least some of them will soon be reunited in a federal prison. Well, sounds good to me. And to wrap up another story that has huge implications for our nation's future, Hilaria Baldwin has lost the first of her brand partnerships following the scandal that saw

her accused of the all too common crime of impersonating a Spanish person. If you weren't following the story, the yoga teacher, influencer and Alec Baldwin wife has basically been sketchy about her background for years and was called out over the break for hiding her actual upbringing in Boston and assuming the identity of a native born, sometimes accented English word for cucumber-forgetting Spaniard. As of last week, she had reportedly been cut loose by Cutie's Baby Care, a diaper brand she had partnered with on her largely family-centric social feeds. It won't be easy to break back into the competitive field of infant waste marketing, and a representative for Baldwin disputed that the parting had to do with her inconsistent biography, saying, quote, the agreement expired at the end of December after all contractual obligations were filled. The lesson here is that you should always be yourself, assuming that yourself is interesting enough on its own to get at least five grand for sponsored posts. God bless her.

Well, God bless actual Spanish people. And those are the headlines that is all for today if you like the show make sure you subscribe leave a review bite us on shark and windmill truth or connect.com and tell your friends to listen and if you're into reading and not just diaper copy from cuties baby care like me what a day is also a nightly newsletter check it out and subscribe at crooked.com slash subscribe. I'm Akilah Hughes. I'm Gideon Resnick. And FYI, we're Spanish. I'm just now realizing that. So, uh, if you hear me doing an accent coming in the future, you know, that's why.

Yeah. I also didn't know the word for remote in English. Like hilarious. What a day is a production of Crooked Media. It's recorded and mixed by Charlotte Landis. Sonia Tan is our assistant producer. Our head writer is John Milstein and our executive producers are Katie Long, Akilah Hughes, and me.

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