WEBVTT - Episode 5: The Inside Man 0:00:01.200 --> 0:00:04.160 Before we get into it, be advised that this series 0:00:04.240 --> 0:00:14.880 contains bad language and references to violence. It's twelve thirty 0:00:14.920 --> 0:00:20.840 pm on January six. On the east side of the 0:00:20.880 --> 0:00:24.040 Capitol Building. A crowd of Trump supporters is growing in number. 0:00:25.960 --> 0:00:37.240 They're chanting familiar slogans, shouting through bullhorns impossible broth, waving 0:00:37.280 --> 0:00:42.800 banners and Confederate flags. But they are for now peaceful 0:00:46.680 --> 0:00:49.360 as we know. Of course, this piece won't last long. 0:00:50.960 --> 0:00:54.080 This crowd outside the east wing of the Capital will 0:00:54.120 --> 0:01:03.360 soon overwhelm the police barrier, knocking officers to the ground, 0:01:08.040 --> 0:01:15.520 shouting in their faces, advancing on the Capitol Building itself, 0:01:28.800 --> 0:01:36.560 But not quite yet. For now, these protesters are simply 0:01:36.640 --> 0:01:39.800 waving their banners and trying to keep warm. On a 0:01:39.920 --> 0:01:45.520 January morning, It's freezing bro It is so cold. Until suddenly, 0:01:46.400 --> 0:01:52.960 out of the blue, their posture changes. They spot something 0:01:53.400 --> 0:01:56.240 behind the barricades on the police side of the line, 0:01:57.360 --> 0:02:00.720 a boyish looking man in a navy suit emerging from 0:02:00.720 --> 0:02:07.000 a black dad as u V. He's energetic and sprightly, 0:02:07.640 --> 0:02:11.679 booie by the crowd's reaction to his arrival. The young 0:02:11.720 --> 0:02:14.720 man looks out at the protesters. He can't know what 0:02:14.880 --> 0:02:17.280 some of them are about to do, but they know 0:02:17.400 --> 0:02:21.760 full well what he intends to do today. He's been 0:02:21.760 --> 0:02:24.960 telling them for weeks, speaking on Fox News, on the 0:02:25.040 --> 0:02:29.600 Senate floor, posting on social media. His plan has cost 0:02:29.680 --> 0:02:33.240 him many friends, even lifelong mentors, have turned against him, 0:02:33.240 --> 0:02:36.320 but that won't stop him, and that's why the crowd 0:02:36.440 --> 0:02:40.800 cheers him on. In response to their appreciation, the junior 0:02:40.840 --> 0:02:44.840 Senator for Missouri, fourty year old Josh Holly, raises his 0:02:44.880 --> 0:02:51.880 fist and salute. This moment, one of solidarity between a U. 0:02:52.000 --> 0:02:55.000 S senator and a small crowd of protesters, is captured 0:02:55.120 --> 0:03:08.239 by a nearby photojournalist. Before the day's end, the image 0:03:08.240 --> 0:03:12.360 will be plastered on news websites around the world. It 0:03:12.400 --> 0:03:15.840 will become one of the many iconic moments of January six. 0:03:17.160 --> 0:03:20.760 A sitting senator showing solidarity with the very people who 0:03:20.760 --> 0:03:25.160 are about to invade his place of work. Unaware of 0:03:25.160 --> 0:03:28.160 what lies ahead and focused on his day's work, Senator 0:03:28.200 --> 0:03:31.600 Hally gives the protesters a thumbs up and disappears into 0:03:31.639 --> 0:03:36.080 the Capitol. He's heading for the Senate Chamber, where he 0:03:36.120 --> 0:03:41.880 plans to mount a challenge against American democracy from the 0:03:41.920 --> 0:03:44.760 team's at Clues, Own Media, I Heart Radio, and novel. 0:03:45.520 --> 0:03:51.320 This is The Assault on America Episode five, The Inside 0:03:51.360 --> 0:04:16.159 Man MHM. So far in this series, we've dissected the 0:04:16.240 --> 0:04:21.760 vast Stop the Steel disinformation campaign headed by Alley Alexander, 0:04:22.480 --> 0:04:25.359 who came up with the idea of January six and 0:04:25.480 --> 0:04:30.720 spread by the likes of Baked Alaska. We've also met 0:04:30.760 --> 0:04:34.279 a rioter from Rule, Ohio who swallowed Alexander's poison and 0:04:34.360 --> 0:04:41.719 is now facing decades in prison along with his commanding officer, 0:04:41.839 --> 0:04:45.800 the Mercurial Grifters, Stewart Rhodes, who runs the extremest Oothkeeper's 0:04:45.839 --> 0:04:50.640 Militia the necessity of the regular militia. This time in 0:04:50.680 --> 0:04:54.080 The Assault on America, we're moving up the chain. Today 0:04:54.160 --> 0:04:58.320 the virus enters the main frame. This is the tale 0:04:58.480 --> 0:05:01.200 of how the youngest sitting you s Senator, welcome the 0:05:01.200 --> 0:05:04.640 big lie into the political machinery of the United States. 0:05:05.720 --> 0:05:10.320 It's Senator Josh Holly who on December triggers a vote 0:05:10.400 --> 0:05:13.680 on whether or not the election result should be upheld. 0:05:14.320 --> 0:05:17.479 That vote is scheduled for the afternoon of January six. 0:05:18.760 --> 0:05:21.840 That's why organizers like Ali latched on to this day 0:05:21.880 --> 0:05:25.520 as their big chance. By objecting to the certification of 0:05:25.560 --> 0:05:29.200 the election, Josh Holly gave the far rights something to 0:05:29.320 --> 0:05:34.240 focus on. He gave them an event without Josh Holly. 0:05:34.720 --> 0:05:42.680 January six is just another day in Washington. If you'd 0:05:42.720 --> 0:05:46.239 heard of Senator Josh Holly before the election, you most 0:05:46.240 --> 0:05:49.640 likely heard him discussing a culture war issue, perhaps railing 0:05:49.680 --> 0:05:52.480 against the mainstream media. The New York Times won a 0:05:52.520 --> 0:05:57.440 Pulitzer Prize for the six nineteen Project, a propaganda campaign 0:05:57.800 --> 0:06:02.160 designed to recast America's founding as an evil event or 0:06:02.200 --> 0:06:06.440 speaking about wokeness or antiva, or some dastardly scheme dreamed 0:06:06.520 --> 0:06:09.680 up by the radical left to destroy America. We've seen 0:06:09.760 --> 0:06:13.920 a literal insurrection in the streets of Seattle, a breakaway 0:06:13.960 --> 0:06:18.440 Antifa enclave ruled by a self described warlord. You cannot 0:06:18.440 --> 0:06:20.920 make this stuff up. You can make it up. I 0:06:20.960 --> 0:06:23.159 was there, and while the chap was a very messy 0:06:23.200 --> 0:06:26.440 and ultimately deadly place, it was not ruled by a warlord. 0:06:26.760 --> 0:06:29.599 But Holly's rhetoric here and everywhere else prior to the 0:06:30.279 --> 0:06:34.080 election sounded like any other Republican senator. He was just 0:06:34.279 --> 0:06:37.840 fresher faced, more eloquent, and judging by his TV appearances, 0:06:37.880 --> 0:06:41.599 angrier than the rest of them. The bitter resentment of 0:06:41.640 --> 0:06:45.719 a professional political class cannot accept the verdict of the people. 0:06:45.920 --> 0:06:50.320 Probuses and distortions, secret meetings, outright lies at time to 0:06:50.360 --> 0:06:54.799 bring this fiasco to a close. But Senator Holly didn't 0:06:54.800 --> 0:07:02.760 always sound so angry. Twenty two years ago, long before 0:07:02.760 --> 0:07:06.200 he got into politics, Josh Holly was a very different person. 0:07:06.920 --> 0:07:09.920 His journey to high office begins at exactly the kind 0:07:09.960 --> 0:07:13.080 of liberal elite institution he now derives from the floor 0:07:13.120 --> 0:07:17.280 of the U. S. Senate, Stanford University. If you're a 0:07:17.320 --> 0:07:19.840 fellow student and made Josh's acquaintance when he was a 0:07:19.880 --> 0:07:23.400 Stanford undergraduate, you would probably have your as the saying 0:07:23.400 --> 0:07:27.400 goes your socks charmed off, meet Professor David Kennedy. If 0:07:27.400 --> 0:07:30.280 there was a video game about coastal liberal elites, he'd 0:07:30.280 --> 0:07:33.320 be the final boss. He's an urbane academic who writes 0:07:33.360 --> 0:07:36.679 books with titles like Freedom from Fear, the American People 0:07:36.720 --> 0:07:39.880 in Depression and War. He won a Pulitzer for that one. 0:07:40.040 --> 0:07:43.360 By the way, When Josh Holly arrived at Stanford in 0:07:43.480 --> 0:07:46.680 nineteen ninety eight, David Kennedy was exactly the sort of 0:07:46.680 --> 0:07:50.880 prestigious advisor Holly set out to cultivate. Well. I first 0:07:50.920 --> 0:07:53.760 heard Josh Holly's name when he walked into my office 0:07:53.840 --> 0:07:59.040 in nineteen night as a freshman student and declared that 0:07:59.120 --> 0:08:02.520 he had a very big interest in the American presidency 0:08:02.520 --> 0:08:05.640 as an institution, and he would like me to put 0:08:05.680 --> 0:08:07.840 together some reading a reading list for him so that 0:08:07.840 --> 0:08:12.040 he could learn more about that. Professor Kennedy was kind 0:08:12.040 --> 0:08:14.480 of amused that an eighteen year old would bounce into 0:08:14.520 --> 0:08:16.960 his office in the first week and demand extra reading, 0:08:17.320 --> 0:08:20.000 but he humored the young Holly. He put together a 0:08:20.040 --> 0:08:23.320 list of classic works about the presidency, by the Talkville, 0:08:23.360 --> 0:08:26.080 by James Bryce, by the other people whose books I'm 0:08:26.120 --> 0:08:29.000 never going to read, and he sent Holly on his way. 0:08:29.480 --> 0:08:32.080 That Kennedy thought was the last he'd ever see of 0:08:32.120 --> 0:08:36.400 the over ambitious freshman, But about two three, no more 0:08:36.440 --> 0:08:39.800 than four weeks later, he reappeared in the office and 0:08:39.840 --> 0:08:42.520 he said, well, Professor Kennedy, I've done the reading you 0:08:42.600 --> 0:08:46.360 assigned me, and now I'd like some more. I thought, 0:08:46.440 --> 0:08:50.559 there's no way that this young fellow could have completed 0:08:50.679 --> 0:08:53.880 that pretty heavy duty reading list, and there's certainly no 0:08:53.960 --> 0:08:55.640 way he could have taken it on board in a 0:08:55.679 --> 0:08:58.360 way that he comprehends or really got anything out of it. 0:08:58.920 --> 0:09:01.520 So I sat him down started asking him some questions 0:09:01.559 --> 0:09:03.720 about some of these texts, some of which are a 0:09:03.720 --> 0:09:07.200 bit arcane, and it is really demanding kind of reading. 0:09:07.960 --> 0:09:10.640 And he nailed every question I put to him. It 0:09:10.760 --> 0:09:13.280 was clear that in the brief span of time that 0:09:13.400 --> 0:09:16.400 had elapsed, not only had he done all the reading 0:09:16.440 --> 0:09:18.199 I had asked him to do, but he thought about 0:09:18.200 --> 0:09:23.719 it analytically, critically, synthetically. And I thought to myself, this 0:09:23.800 --> 0:09:27.760 is an unusual student. David wasn't the only person who 0:09:27.760 --> 0:09:31.040 thought Holly was different. Friends and teachers alike had him 0:09:31.040 --> 0:09:33.720 pegged one day to become at least a U S senator. 0:09:34.480 --> 0:09:37.200 It's a crazy thing to say about any student, but 0:09:37.280 --> 0:09:41.479 Holly really was that gifted. I became his academic advisor. 0:09:41.520 --> 0:09:45.440 He majored in history, and then I eventually ended up 0:09:45.480 --> 0:09:48.640 as the supervisor of what we here call a senior 0:09:48.800 --> 0:09:53.360 honors thesis that he wrote about the intellectual formation of 0:09:53.400 --> 0:09:59.200 Theodor Roosevelt. And that thesis, I'll say, without qualification, was 0:09:59.280 --> 0:10:02.800 one of the two best senior honors thesis, and I 0:10:02.840 --> 0:10:07.520 supervised an half a century here a Stanford. In two 0:10:07.520 --> 0:10:10.560 thousand eight, Holly turned his thesis into a book. He 0:10:10.640 --> 0:10:13.520 seemed to be on track to become a renowned academic 0:10:13.640 --> 0:10:17.080 like his friend and mentor David Kennedy. Holly even gave 0:10:17.120 --> 0:10:19.360 his book the kind of title that Kennedy might use 0:10:19.400 --> 0:10:23.880 for one of his Theodore Roosevelt Preacher of Righteousness. He 0:10:24.040 --> 0:10:27.119 had what was clear to me, a deep scholarly temperament. 0:10:27.200 --> 0:10:30.640 He had all the attributes of somebody who could develop 0:10:30.720 --> 0:10:34.120 into an absolutely first rate scholar. But Holly always had 0:10:34.160 --> 0:10:38.080 bigger plans than academia. He'd never hidden his political ambitions, 0:10:38.120 --> 0:10:41.320 and he understood that in American politics there is one 0:10:41.400 --> 0:10:45.880 tried and tested fast track to the top. Over one 0:10:46.000 --> 0:10:49.920 third of US politicians started their career this way, including 0:10:49.960 --> 0:10:53.480 half of all U S presidents. So you've guessed it. 0:10:53.679 --> 0:10:59.120 After Stanford, Josh Holly joined a biker gang. Just kidding, 0:10:59.160 --> 0:11:06.560 he studied law at Lee. Yes. After graduating from Stanford, 0:11:06.559 --> 0:11:09.839 the future scourge of US elites headed to Yale University 0:11:09.920 --> 0:11:12.680 to pay fifty thou dollars a year to become an attorney. 0:11:14.520 --> 0:11:16.599 From there, he moved to d C and snagged a 0:11:16.679 --> 0:11:20.559 slew of prestigious clerkships, including with the Supreme Court Justice 0:11:20.640 --> 0:11:25.120 John Roberts. Ten short years later, Josh Holly decides he's ready. 0:11:25.520 --> 0:11:28.800 In two thousand sixteen, he steps into the political arena. 0:11:31.800 --> 0:11:34.320 My background as a lawyer, as a practicing lawyer is 0:11:34.440 --> 0:11:38.600 fighting for businesses and individuals and nonprofit groups farm groups 0:11:39.040 --> 0:11:43.000 against government regulation. Holly leverages his legal background and makes 0:11:43.000 --> 0:11:46.240 a run for Attorney General of Missouri. I'm Josh Holly, 0:11:46.400 --> 0:11:49.920 and I'll fight for Missouri's values as attorneys General. He 0:11:50.040 --> 0:11:53.480 breathes through the primaries and eventually beats his Democratic rival, 0:11:53.679 --> 0:11:56.680 becoming the first Republican to hold the office in almost 0:11:56.679 --> 0:12:00.800 ten years. His former mentor from Stanford, Professor David Kennedy, 0:12:01.000 --> 0:12:04.640 had stayed in touch with Josh. Of course, I was 0:12:04.800 --> 0:12:08.160 proud of Josh having notched those kinds of achievements at 0:12:08.200 --> 0:12:11.520 a very young age, and when he ran for attorney general, 0:12:11.880 --> 0:12:14.000 I actually joked with him. I said, I'd be happy 0:12:14.040 --> 0:12:16.520 to send you a contribution, Josh, but maybe it would 0:12:17.040 --> 0:12:19.679 prejudice the case there for you in Missouri if it 0:12:19.800 --> 0:12:24.080 got out that a California Democrat professor was contributed to 0:12:24.080 --> 0:12:27.600 your campaign. But I wished him well, and I attended 0:12:27.640 --> 0:12:34.240 his inauguration as Attorney General of Missouri in two thousand seventeen. Clearly, then, 0:12:34.440 --> 0:12:36.839 at this point in his life, Josh Holly is still 0:12:36.880 --> 0:12:40.800 the charming young man from his Stanford days. He's willing 0:12:40.800 --> 0:12:43.440 to joke with liberal friends like David and clearly doesn't 0:12:43.480 --> 0:12:47.840 think they're colluding to destroy the United States. Holly was 0:12:47.880 --> 0:12:54.000 a partisan, but not an a rational one. There were, however, 0:12:54.320 --> 0:12:57.599 early signs that he'd started to change. He'd won the 0:12:57.679 --> 0:12:59.720 race for attorney General with the help of a TV 0:13:00.160 --> 0:13:03.160 that blasted career politicians who use state office as a 0:13:03.200 --> 0:13:06.840 stepping stone for their national ambitions. Jefferson City is full 0:13:06.840 --> 0:13:10.680 of career politicians just climbing the ladder, using one office 0:13:10.720 --> 0:13:14.640 to get another. As Holly addresses the camera, men in 0:13:14.720 --> 0:13:17.839 suits are literally climbing ladders all around him. It's a 0:13:17.880 --> 0:13:23.440 real work of art. Conservative outsider Attorney General. I'm Josh Holly. 0:13:23.520 --> 0:13:27.800 I think you deserve better. Seven months after becoming Attorney 0:13:27.840 --> 0:13:31.360 General in Missouri, Josh Holly thought that he deserved better too. 0:13:31.679 --> 0:13:35.679 In August two thousand seventeen, he formed an exploratory campaign 0:13:35.720 --> 0:13:38.720 committee for a U. S. Senate run now he was 0:13:38.760 --> 0:13:42.240 the one climbing ladders. He wins again, this time by 0:13:42.320 --> 0:13:44.760 leaning on his Missouri roots and setting up a theme 0:13:44.800 --> 0:13:47.560 he'll return to again and again in the future, the 0:13:47.600 --> 0:13:51.600 demonizing of elites. Here's a schmulti campaign ad he put out. 0:13:51.960 --> 0:13:54.760 You'll see what I mean. The elites you run our nation. 0:13:54.960 --> 0:13:58.559 Call this flyover country, big squares. They only see out 0:13:58.600 --> 0:14:01.600 the windows of jet airport they pull. The lovers of 0:14:01.640 --> 0:14:05.480 power in Washington at Hollywood call the shots on wall streets. 0:14:05.960 --> 0:14:08.679 They're not just distant from our lives, they're distant from 0:14:08.679 --> 0:14:12.000 our values, making decisions to enrich themselves. I'm not sure 0:14:12.040 --> 0:14:14.679 what Hollywood has to do with Missouri, but the message 0:14:14.720 --> 0:14:17.760 from privately educated Josh Holly, son of a bank manager 0:14:17.800 --> 0:14:20.440 and a high flying graduate of Stanford in Yale, was 0:14:20.480 --> 0:14:26.920 that the elites have dominated Missouri for too long. On 0:14:27.000 --> 0:14:30.240 the campaign trail, Holly ties his campaign as closely as 0:14:30.280 --> 0:14:33.520 possible to Donald Trump, who had taken Missouri by eighteen 0:14:33.560 --> 0:14:36.080 and a half points only the year before. When I 0:14:36.120 --> 0:14:39.000 think about President Trump, there's one word that comes to mind. 0:14:39.040 --> 0:14:43.600 That word is courage. Do you agree? And well? It works? 0:14:46.920 --> 0:14:50.080 Smash cut to the two thousand eighteen midterm election, and 0:14:50.280 --> 0:14:52.920 I had a very nice call with the President of 0:14:52.960 --> 0:14:57.040 the United States. Josh Holly has just become the youngest 0:14:57.080 --> 0:15:01.360 sitting United States Senator. Thank you, MS President for your leadership, 0:15:01.440 --> 0:15:04.320 Thank you for believing in Missouri. Tonight the people of 0:15:04.440 --> 0:15:10.280 Missouri have delivered, but things were about to take a 0:15:10.400 --> 0:15:18.600 darker turn. Any teacher is proud of students being successful, 0:15:18.640 --> 0:15:21.160 and I was. I was very proud of his success. 0:15:21.480 --> 0:15:23.600 I mean it killed me that he was a Republican. 0:15:24.800 --> 0:15:28.720 That's another one of Josh's former teachers, Professor Elizabeth Bernhardt. 0:15:29.080 --> 0:15:32.440 Like David Kennedy, Professor Bernhardt remained friends with Josh beyond 0:15:32.520 --> 0:15:35.200 his years as a student, even attending his wedding in 0:15:35.240 --> 0:15:38.560 two thousand ten. But as Josh Holly became more involved 0:15:38.600 --> 0:15:42.600 in politics, Professor Bernhardt found herself worrying about the trajectory 0:15:42.640 --> 0:15:46.040 of his career. There was one event, in particular that 0:15:46.120 --> 0:15:49.360 she could not reconcile with the traditional conservative she'd known 0:15:49.360 --> 0:16:01.360 at Stanford Charlotte Sville no question. On August eleventh, two 0:16:01.240 --> 0:16:08.920 thousand seventeen, a white supremacist rally was held in Charlottesville, Virginia. 0:16:09.840 --> 0:16:13.000 Far right activists and supporters of all stripes marched through 0:16:13.000 --> 0:16:20.800 the city, carrying tiki torches and fighting with counter protesters. 0:16:20.800 --> 0:16:23.600 Back a fuck up like com back a buck up. 0:16:27.040 --> 0:16:29.440 One of their number would eventually drive his car into 0:16:29.480 --> 0:16:33.240 a crowded street, not throw into people, killing a thirty 0:16:33.240 --> 0:16:36.240 one year old woman named Heather Higher. Oh my god, 0:16:36.400 --> 0:16:43.000 Oh my god, Oh my god. The event led to 0:16:43.040 --> 0:16:46.320 one of the most infamous comments of Donald Trump's presidency. 0:16:46.760 --> 0:16:52.720 You also had people, very fine people on both sides Charlottesville. 0:16:53.240 --> 0:16:57.880 That is a moment for me when I thought all 0:16:58.360 --> 0:17:03.880 persons need to abandon ship. That is just no. And 0:17:03.920 --> 0:17:07.520 you can't have taken my course and say yes or 0:17:07.560 --> 0:17:11.560 maybe at that moment. The course that Elizabeth Bernhardt is 0:17:11.600 --> 0:17:14.080 referring to is the one that she taught Josh Holly 0:17:14.119 --> 0:17:16.879 back when he was at Stanford. It was called Letters 0:17:16.880 --> 0:17:20.800 and Diaries of Resistance in Nazi Germany. The course was 0:17:20.880 --> 0:17:26.320 about where do you get the strength to essentially sacrifice 0:17:26.359 --> 0:17:31.840 your life for doing the right thing in a situation 0:17:31.880 --> 0:17:34.360 where you know you probably are not going to win. 0:17:35.320 --> 0:17:38.400 Elizabeth's course looked at the writings of Germans who knew 0:17:38.440 --> 0:17:41.200 that resistance to Hitler would get them killed and decided 0:17:41.240 --> 0:17:46.840 to resist anyway, the class was focused on the emotion 0:17:47.080 --> 0:17:51.200 I guess of courage. Now this wasn't just any old 0:17:51.240 --> 0:17:54.160 class that Josh Holly happened to take as an undergraduate. 0:17:54.520 --> 0:17:57.840 This was a class that he specifically sought out, deploying 0:17:57.880 --> 0:18:01.640 the same charm and industrious nous that had pressed David Kennedy. 0:18:01.880 --> 0:18:06.080 He wrote in his application, I've already read all of 0:18:06.119 --> 0:18:11.320 this stuff that you're offering in this class. And I said, 0:18:11.480 --> 0:18:15.240 I don't understand. You've applied for this class, but you've 0:18:15.240 --> 0:18:19.600 read everything. Why do you want to be in this class? 0:18:20.280 --> 0:18:24.399 He said, very nicely, I'm really interested in knowing what 0:18:24.600 --> 0:18:29.760 other people think about this material. And I eventually hired 0:18:29.880 --> 0:18:33.440 him to work in the class as he became a senior, 0:18:33.600 --> 0:18:36.840 and I took more sophomores in. So he was wonderful 0:18:36.880 --> 0:18:41.439 to work with, wonderful to know. Holly was so taken 0:18:41.480 --> 0:18:43.680 with this class that he mentioned it in a speech 0:18:43.720 --> 0:18:46.480 in two thousand two, saying that what he learned from 0:18:46.520 --> 0:18:48.720 it became a quote so much a part of me 0:18:48.800 --> 0:18:50.800 that I could not help but share it with others. 0:18:51.480 --> 0:18:54.280 But the fact that Holly stuck so closely to Trump 0:18:54.440 --> 0:18:57.960 during his Senate campaign, even after Trump described neo Nazis 0:18:58.000 --> 0:19:02.359 at Charlottesville as very fine people, caused Elizabeth Bernhard to 0:19:02.359 --> 0:19:06.560 ask herself a question, what lessons could Josh Holly possibly 0:19:06.600 --> 0:19:10.199 have taken away from her? Course, there's probably no question 0:19:10.240 --> 0:19:13.760 about him that troubles me more I I would have 0:19:13.840 --> 0:19:21.880 to say none. I'm just stupefied by any support for 0:19:21.960 --> 0:19:27.959 any group of people who would either carry a swastika, 0:19:28.520 --> 0:19:34.320 would wear a sweatshirt with Auschwitz on the front, who 0:19:34.400 --> 0:19:39.840 would yell Jews will not replace us. This is one 0:19:40.320 --> 0:19:45.879 thousand percent at athetical to anything that we discussed or 0:19:46.000 --> 0:19:51.600 read after Charlotte'sville. Josh Holly went about his business as 0:19:51.600 --> 0:19:57.080 a senator. Maybe his friends and mentors thought maybe his 0:19:57.160 --> 0:20:00.600 transgressions up till now were the compromises one has to 0:20:00.640 --> 0:20:04.440 make in politics. But if further proof was needed that 0:20:04.560 --> 0:20:08.120 Josh Holly was willing to move beyond the usual compromises 0:20:08.160 --> 0:20:12.800 required up a politician, it came in November. The really 0:20:13.000 --> 0:20:17.639 bad part then came about the big lie. The process 0:20:17.880 --> 0:20:24.000 is rigged, This whole election is being grigged. After the 0:20:24.040 --> 0:20:26.960 presidential election, Josh Holly was one of the first high 0:20:27.040 --> 0:20:30.679 profile politicians to fall in line with Drump's falsehood that 0:20:30.760 --> 0:20:39.399 the election had been fraudulent times election, But Holly didn't 0:20:39.400 --> 0:20:42.240 approach the lie in the same crass, lazy way that 0:20:42.359 --> 0:20:48.399 Trump did. Not a conspiracy theory post. No, Josh Holly 0:20:48.480 --> 0:20:51.520 has the guile and eloquence to make it sound like 0:20:51.600 --> 0:20:54.800 he's simply doing the job of a responsible elected official. 0:20:55.440 --> 0:20:57.879 I have heard from people like I've never heard before 0:20:58.320 --> 0:21:01.160 over the last month about this election, and they have major, 0:21:01.200 --> 0:21:04.600 major concerns about the integrity the fairness of this election. 0:21:04.680 --> 0:21:07.080 And somebody has got to take their concerns seriously and 0:21:07.160 --> 0:21:10.600 speak up. And that's what I'm gonna do. Holly presents 0:21:10.680 --> 0:21:13.439 himself as someone who's merely trying to start a debate 0:21:13.560 --> 0:21:18.200 about electoral integrity. Meanwhile, he starts publicly questioning whether Joe 0:21:18.200 --> 0:21:21.959 Biden will even become president at all. If Joe Biden 0:21:22.040 --> 0:21:25.280 ends up being sworn as president, if he if Joe Biden, 0:21:25.400 --> 0:21:27.879 if he is the president, if Joe Biden ends up 0:21:27.880 --> 0:21:33.720 his president, any worry Joe Biden, if if? If? If? 0:21:36.040 --> 0:21:39.280 But Holly's next step takes the matter beyond mere rhetoric. 0:21:39.720 --> 0:21:44.080 On December he announces that he's going to challenge the 0:21:44.119 --> 0:21:49.399 electoral College results in the Senate, the Republican leader of 0:21:49.440 --> 0:21:53.200 the Senate, Mitch McConnell, has been dreading this move, understanding 0:21:53.240 --> 0:21:55.600 that it would put other Senators in a tight spot. 0:21:56.160 --> 0:21:59.040 Do they vote with Trump and against democracy, or do 0:21:59.119 --> 0:22:03.600 they go on record accepting Joe Biden's victory. McConnell feared 0:22:03.640 --> 0:22:05.840 that if Holly triggered such a vote, it would breach 0:22:05.880 --> 0:22:09.840 the damn He was exactly right. As soon as Holly 0:22:09.880 --> 0:22:13.040 announced his intentions, a host of Senators and congress people 0:22:13.119 --> 0:22:17.199 followed suit, vowing to challenge the electoral college results on 0:22:17.320 --> 0:22:24.159 January six. At this point, more than ninety federal and 0:22:24.240 --> 0:22:27.639 state judges had rejected Trump's lawsuits seeking to overturn the 0:22:27.680 --> 0:22:31.080 outcome of the election. Trump's own Attorney General, Bill Barr, 0:22:31.119 --> 0:22:35.120 had dismissed allegations that there was widespread voter fraud. There's 0:22:35.119 --> 0:22:38.359 been no discrepancy reported anywhere that's looked at that, and 0:22:38.520 --> 0:22:43.800 I'm still not aware of any discrepidanst That didn't stop Holly. 0:22:44.400 --> 0:22:48.000 His mentor David Kennedy, was alarmed. That was a shock 0:22:48.040 --> 0:22:50.520 to me across the board. Frankly, I thought it was 0:22:50.600 --> 0:22:55.960 a really, really dangerous to be honest, and I was shocked, 0:22:56.040 --> 0:22:59.199 and I dare say appalled that the President stuck with 0:22:59.240 --> 0:23:03.439 that line of our ument, and compoundedly appalled when others, 0:23:03.480 --> 0:23:06.880 including someone for whom I in answers respect that's Josh, 0:23:07.119 --> 0:23:09.960 I got on board with that. David wasn't the only 0:23:10.040 --> 0:23:14.120 person shocked at Holly's decision. His former political mentor in Missouri, 0:23:14.280 --> 0:23:18.760 former Republican Senator Jack Danforth, was also astounded. He publicly 0:23:18.800 --> 0:23:21.879 declared that supporting Josh Holly had been the greatest mistake 0:23:21.920 --> 0:23:26.400 he'd ever made. Holly's biggest donor, a businessman named David Humphries, 0:23:26.520 --> 0:23:29.880 who had donated over six million dollars to Holly's campaigns, 0:23:30.040 --> 0:23:33.880 wrote that Holly had revealed himself as a political opportunist, 0:23:33.920 --> 0:23:37.160 willing to subvert the constitution and the ideals of the nation. 0:23:37.240 --> 0:23:40.760 He swore to uphold. We always allow for a little 0:23:40.840 --> 0:23:45.760 hyperbolean politics, but that strong stuff. And the reason is simple, 0:23:46.040 --> 0:23:48.919 Josh Holly was pushing the big lie harder and harder. 0:23:49.200 --> 0:23:52.959 On January four, he went on Fox News for an 0:23:53.000 --> 0:23:57.000 interview with anchor Brett Bear. I just want to pinion 0:23:57.040 --> 0:24:00.119 down on on what you're trying to do. Are you 0:24:00.400 --> 0:24:04.960 trying to say that as of January that President Trump 0:24:05.000 --> 0:24:08.760 will be president. Well, that that it depends on what 0:24:08.800 --> 0:24:14.199 happens on Wednesday. Wednesday is, of course, January six. Holly 0:24:14.320 --> 0:24:17.399 is implying to Fox News viewers that their actions in 0:24:17.480 --> 0:24:20.520 d C and his actions on the Senate floor might 0:24:20.600 --> 0:24:24.120 still swing the election for Donald Trump. As it turns out, 0:24:24.359 --> 0:24:27.800 Holly pushed things too far, even for Fox News quite 0:24:27.800 --> 0:24:31.280 an achievement. What happens on Wednesday in the States, by 0:24:31.280 --> 0:24:35.800 the constitution, say they certify the election. They did certify it. 0:24:36.119 --> 0:24:39.440 By the constitution, Congress doesn't have the right to overturn 0:24:39.480 --> 0:24:44.199 the certification for this interview and for many others. The 0:24:44.240 --> 0:24:47.600 Senate would later open an ethics inquiry into Holly's actions, 0:24:47.840 --> 0:24:51.240 claiming that he quote lint legitimacy to the mob's cause 0:24:51.320 --> 0:25:01.640 and made future violence more likely. And when the violence starts, 0:25:01.720 --> 0:25:07.359 Josh Holly is in the Senate chamber preparing to mount 0:25:07.400 --> 0:25:11.200 his challenge against the election. He doesn't get the chance. 0:25:12.840 --> 0:25:16.119 At two thirty three p m. Secret Service agents abruptly 0:25:16.200 --> 0:25:19.600 rush into the chamber and remove Vice President Mike Pence. 0:25:21.119 --> 0:25:26.000 Somewhat unsettled, the senators continue debating, ignoring the lingering questions, 0:25:26.600 --> 0:25:30.960 we need to do something. At two pm, with the 0:25:31.000 --> 0:25:33.840 senators still in the chamber, shots are heard from the 0:25:33.880 --> 0:25:36.240 other side of the building, and I will stand in 0:25:36.320 --> 0:25:40.920 recess until the call of the chair. At this point, 0:25:41.520 --> 0:25:44.800 rioters are less than two minutes away from preaching the chamber. 0:25:44.960 --> 0:25:53.320 Protestors are in the Michael Cranish, an investigative reporter for 0:25:53.359 --> 0:25:56.600 the Washington Post, has the inside scoop on Holly's movements 0:25:56.640 --> 0:25:59.399 at this time. As the storming of the capital occurs 0:25:59.400 --> 0:26:02.240 in the Holly's in the Senate with the other senators. 0:26:02.640 --> 0:26:07.720 Senator Mitt Romney, Republican of Utah, confronts Holly and he says, quote, 0:26:07.720 --> 0:26:10.639 you have caused this, So there's a lot of tension 0:26:10.680 --> 0:26:14.040 going on. I can't help, but wonder did Holly have 0:26:14.240 --> 0:26:16.919 second thoughts as he stood in the Senate chamber with 0:26:17.000 --> 0:26:19.919 a mob seconds away and a party elder pinning the 0:26:19.960 --> 0:26:23.439 blame directly on him. The senators are then taken away 0:26:23.880 --> 0:26:26.840 to a secure room in an office building near the 0:26:27.280 --> 0:26:31.480 Capitol building, the Senate Office Building, and one senator looked 0:26:31.480 --> 0:26:34.000 over in this room, and every time he looked over, 0:26:34.480 --> 0:26:39.280 he saw Holly standing alone, basically in a corner. The 0:26:39.359 --> 0:26:43.600 question for Holly was simple, should he go through with 0:26:43.720 --> 0:26:47.000 his plan to challenge the election, even in the face 0:26:47.119 --> 0:26:50.919 of a historic ransacking of the Capitol building. There were 0:26:50.920 --> 0:26:52.840 efforts trying to talk him out of going through with 0:26:52.920 --> 0:26:57.000 his challenging of the results, but Holly refused and he 0:26:57.040 --> 0:27:00.000 went forward in fact with the challenging of the results. 0:27:00.720 --> 0:27:03.000 In the end, he was only one of seven Senators 0:27:03.000 --> 0:27:06.240 to vote to challenge those results, so his effort failed. 0:27:06.680 --> 0:27:08.760 But the people who are critical of them would say 0:27:08.840 --> 0:27:29.120 the damage was done. Following the carnage on January six, 0:27:29.400 --> 0:27:33.320 Josh Holly became one of the most toxic politicians in Washington. 0:27:33.720 --> 0:27:38.760 Even some Republicans were calling for his resignation. But the 0:27:38.800 --> 0:27:42.399 truth is his political prospects have only risen since the riot. 0:27:43.760 --> 0:27:46.360 Any donors he lost after the riot were more than 0:27:46.400 --> 0:27:48.600 made up for by the flood of cash that poured 0:27:48.640 --> 0:27:51.840 from Americans who bought the big lie to them. Josh 0:27:51.920 --> 0:27:54.679 Holly is a patriot, one of the few suits in 0:27:54.760 --> 0:27:57.720 Washington brave enough to take a stand against the biggest 0:27:57.760 --> 0:28:03.120 fraud in American history, the of a presidential election. Now 0:28:03.240 --> 0:28:05.840 our man. Josh Holly has said that if Donald Trump 0:28:05.920 --> 0:28:09.560 runs again in he'll fight for the former president with 0:28:09.640 --> 0:28:13.600 everything he has. But if Trump doesn't run, then perhaps 0:28:13.720 --> 0:28:17.160 Josh Holly will. I mean, his clean cut, youthful looks, 0:28:17.200 --> 0:28:19.480