Former senator says new film shows ‘how close’ we came to losing democracy on Jan. 6

Former Alabama Sen. Doug Jones (D) said that the new film “War Game” shows “how close” the U.S. came to losing democracy on Jan. 6, 2021. 

During his appearance on CNN Saturday, the former lawmaker was asked by anchor Jim Acosta to share his thoughts about the new movie which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival this week.

Jones, who was acting as the attorney general in the movie, said that the film is a reminder for the public about the possible outcomes of the attack on the Capitol.  

“I think that these kinds of films are very, very important for the public to see, to be reminded of how closely we came on January 6, 2021, of losing our government, of losing our democracy,” Jones said.

The former senator also warned about “forces” in the country who are currently plotting how to execute a similar attack. 

“And there are forces still out there that are making plans for the future doing the exact same thing or a variation of that,” Jones said. 

The documentary portrays an exercise where members of the federal government, intelligence services and armed forces run a simulation in which a paramilitary group attempts to disrupt the certification of the 2024 presidential election that the sitting commander-in-chief fairly won. 

The military group is called the “Order of Columbus” and shows some resemblance to QAnon and Oath Keepers. 

The film’s director, Tony Gerber, suggested that the Biden Administration should be doing similar exercises.

“Absolutely, they should be,” Gerber said during his appearance on CNN Saturday. 

Gerber said that Vet Voice, a nonpartisan veterans group that organized the simulation for the documentary, has written a report based on the exercise and is sharing the findings with “top levels of government.” 

When sharing his takeaways from the movie, Gerber emphasized that the democratic norms in the country can be “fragile.” 

“The extraordinary thing is the realization that could happen here,” Gerber said. “We’ve all fallen victim to the idea of normalcy bias, that because things have been one way for our lives, right, that thinks that the ship has always righted itself, right. That means that it always will that’s normalcy bias, and the realization that it’s possible that these democratic norms that we take for granted, are actually fragile.”