CNN’s Brianna Keilar had a contentious interview with a lawyer for several members of the Oath Keepers — a far-right militia — who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.
Oath Keepers Stewart Rhodes and Kelly Meggs were among those recently arrested by the FBI and charged with seditious conspiracy in connection with the storming of the Capitol. Attorney Jonathon Moseley, who is representing the pair, told Keilar on New Day that his clients are candidates for potential pardons from Donald Trump, which the former president just floated if he is elected to office again.
The interview delved into the Justice Department’s allegations against the Oath Keepers, and included video of rioters forcing their way into the Capitol through the famed Columbus Doors.
“You know it wasn’t some peaceful little, you know, walking up the steps into the Capitol,” Keilar said. “We have video that the doors were physically breached on the East side where they entered. They weren’t allowed to be there and they knew that.”
“No you don’t,” Moseley countered, saying his clients didn’t open the Columbus Doors. Keilar noted that Meggs was among the rioters caught on video inside the Capitol after the doors were forced open.
“Your clients were there, walking through doors that had clearly been opened that they were not supposed to be in,” she said.
The conversation turned to the allegation
Keilar was clearly exasperated as she cut in with “Oh give me a–, oh John!”
“There was no permit to be where your clients were, and they knew that,” she said. “They had gone past barricades. They know that. They were in an area certainly they were not supposed to be, that was forcibly entered. They went in there armed, kitted out like they were in the military. This was not a permit! Don’t tell me they were permitted to be there!”
Keilar asked Moseley for the permit that supposedly allowed Capitol rioters to forcefully make their way past the East Doors. The CNN host pronounced these actions “clearly illegal” while airing footage of the doors being opened to let Moseley’s clients and other rioters into the Capitol.
“I’ve had lunch in the Capitol for no reason,” Moseley offered in a bizarre defense. “It’s not illegal to go inside the Capitol.”
“Did you break through the window to get into lunch?” Keilar retorted.
“Hundreds of people do it everyday,” Moseley said, apparently ignoring
The interview ended up going in circles as Keilar and Moseley kept duking it out over the Capitol rioters vandalizing the building in the process of their violent trespass. Moseley kept claiming the infiltration had “nothing to do with my clients.
“I do not feel like you’re having a discussion in good faith with me,” Keilar said.
“I would say the same,” Moseley responded, and when the interview wrapped up, New Day co-host John Berman offered a summary: “There was a lot there.”
Watch above, via CNN.