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Congress Certifies Biden Victory After Deadly Insurrection At U.S. Capitol. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired January 07, 2021 - 05:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[05:00:09]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to our viewers in the United States, and all around the world. This is a special edition of NEW DAY. It's Thursday, January 7th, 5:00 here in New York.

And breaking just a time ago, the insurrection failed. The coup failed, the weaponized attempt to block the election of Joe Biden failed. Donald Trump sent a mob to overrun the Capitol, to stop the moment you are about to see, it failed.

And Vice President Mike Pence read aloud the results of the election, formalizing the count of the electoral vote.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Within that whole number, a majority is 270. The votes for president of the United States are as follows: Joseph R. Biden Jr. of the state of Delaware has received 306 votes. The announcement of the state of the vote by the president of the Senate shall be deemed a sufficient declaration of the person's elected president and vice president of the United States, each for the term beginning on the 20th day of January, 2021.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Being in the middle of that moment of domestic terror, these seven Republican senators joined with more than 100 House Republicans to try to overturn the election results.

The question this morning, can America stand 13 more days of Donald Trump bearing the title of president, a man deemed so dangerous by Twitter that he was banned from that site for 12 hours? That man still controls the nuclear codes.

This morning, sources tell CNN that some cabinet members have begun preliminary discussions about invoking the 25th Amendment to remove Donald Trump from office for condoning domestic terrorism.

Trump did release a statement a few minutes ago committing to a, quote, orderly transition, but he maintained his lunatic, dangerous lie about the election. ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: And, John, inside sources tell CNN that

during that deadly insurrection, the president was, quote, borderline enthusiastic about the attempted coup, he did not want to condemn his violent supporters.

That's how sociopaths feel and think. The sad truth that came into stark focus yesterday is that president Trump is unfit and unwell. That's what doctors have been saying for a long time.

A former White House official tells CNN the president is out of his mind. This morning, four people are dead, including one woman shot inside the Capitol. And we're seeing more of these revolting images, images we never thought we would see in our lifetimes, an armed standoff on the floor of the house -- lawmakers having to hide in fear of their lives.

Here are the vandals sitting in the vice president's seat in the Senate chamber. Throughout the morning, we speak with lawmakers who were there and law enforcement officials about how this massive security breach happened, and if for the sake of the country's security, it is time for Donald Trump to get out.

Let's begin our coverage with CNN's Suzanne Malveaux. She is live on Capitol Hill with all of the breaking news.

It has just happened. They just certified or called it or counted officially moments ago, Suzanne.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Alisyn, good morning.

It was 3:41 in the morning, Vice President Pence officially announced the next president of the United States will be Joe Biden. Of course, Kamala Harris, vice president as well. It was before they dissolved the joint session of Congress.

We heard from the Senate chaplain, and he said this, what so many people were thinking, he said Congress was a quagmire of dysfunction. He also said that they deplore the desecration of the building, the spilling of innocent blood, and went on to say, this reminds us that words matter.

And in fact, that played out throughout the day, throughout the process, the tone and tenor that the president's words matter, and at the end of the day, four people dead, dozens arrested and, of course, those rioters, pro-Trump supporters rushing the U.S. Capitol.

What we saw throughout the day was really quite stunning, quite surprising. There were two objections to the electoral votes for two states, one being Arizona, that being introduced by Senator Ted Cruz. That failed 93-6. It was expected that there would be other senators who would join, but as we saw this process play out throughout the day, people, Republicans coming forward, calling these rioters and what had happened at the Capitol, criminal, disgraceful, un-American, atypical of democracy.

These are just some of the things that spilled out as the day played along.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MITT ROMNEY (R-UT): The best way we can show respect for the voters who are upset is by telling them the truth.

(APPLAUSE)

[05:05:10]

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): Trump and I, we've had a hell of a journey. I hate it to end this way. Oh, my God, I hate it. All I can say is count me out. Enough is enough.

REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): Look at the damage that was wrought in this house today, to this country today. Is that not enough?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: And it was just after midnight that they also took on the objection for the Pennsylvania electoral vote count. The Senate didn't even bother to debate with that, but the House did for several hours. That, too, was roundly rejected as people saw this as a clear global embarrassment.

At the end of the this process, we did see a sense of relief, if you will, Speaker Pelosi, as well as Vice President Pence doing a bit of an elbow bump, if you will, at the end of the prose, acknowledging the end of this harrowing experience -- Alisyn, John.

CAMEROTA: Even Vice President Pence seemed relieved when he uttered those words that Joe Biden will be the next president.

Suzanne, thank you very much.

This morning, President Trump is now trying to pledge an orderly transition of power on January 20th, when President-elect Joe Biden will be sworn in. But after weeks of fuelling and inciting the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, his damage is already done.

CNN's Joe Johns is live at the White House.

What's the situation, John?

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, Alisyn, this was the closest thing to a concession speech that the president has ever given and it wasn't even a speech. It was a couple of paragraphs on the Twitter account of his social media director, Dan Scavino, because the president had been locked out of his Twitter account for bad behavior just a few hours ago.

Here is that statement. He says: Even though I totally disagree with the outcome of the election and the facts bear me out, nevertheless, there will be an orderly transition on January 20th. I have always said we would continue our fight to ensure that only legal votes were counted. While this represents the end of the greatest first term in presidential history, it's only the beginning of our fight to make America great again.

Now, that statement, of course, came out at a time that can only be described as a low point in the history of the American presidency because of the president's essentially inciting an insurrection at the United States Capitol, which of course has led to a lot of questions up on Capitol Hill here at the White House and in other places about whether the president is fit to serve even though last two weeks of his administration.

CNN has been told that members of the cabinet have begun preliminary discussions about possibly invoking the 25th Amendment. That is the amendment to the Constitution that allows the substitution of the vice president for the president of the United States in the event he is unfit to serve.

So those discussions continue but I can tell you, there is some concern about whether he can actually pull that off. People have talked about this for two years, quite frankly, and never done anything about it. It's also a very bureaucratic idea. Some other people as well suggesting that, in fact, the 25th amendment at least in principle has already been instituted because as we all know, it was Mike Pence who ordered the National Guard up to the Capitol yesterday which helped end the problem.

Back to you.

BERMAN: Look, there have been senior staff members who have resigned over the last few hours. We're waiting to see if more have. The fact is, a man deemed too dangerous to have a Twitter account still has the nuclear codes. So, this is something that America has to stare at square on this morning.

Yes, the president did release a statement, but it was filled with the same dangerous lie that has now led to the death of four Americans.

Okay. So after this deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, four Americans are dead. Remember, it was President Trump who sent these people to the Capitol. At one point, he said he was going to march with them, but maybe he was too scared for his own personal safety.

He wasn't up to the task maybe physically to walk all the way to the Capitol. He stayed to the White House after suggesting he would walk with the mob he sent to the Capitol. What we're about to show you are some of the scenes that happened there.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(CHANTING)

(INAUDIBLE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[05:10:08]

BERMAN: And, look, that was just some of it. There were people inside the Senate chamber, a man sitting at Nancy Pelosi's desk. And these were people sent to the capitol by Donald J. Trump, and his right-hand man henchmen, Rudy Giuliani, who called for a trial by combat.

This morning, we're learning new details about how this ultimately happened, how these people even got into the Capitol. How was it that there was such a huge breach of security?

CNN's Boris Sanchez live outside the capitol with the latest -- Boris.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John.

Truly, a disgraceful moment in history here at the United States Capitol. A site that hadn't seen this level of violence since 1814, more than 200 years, and the fallout, as you noted, is four people killed, including one woman who was shot while inside the Capitol by police.

Just one of many scenes of chaos as you outlined with these rioters breaking into the chambers of lawmakers, an armed standoff at one point, multiple people needing to be helped. Vice President Mike Pence having to be evacuated as well.

Obviously, there were a lot of questions about what would happen after President Trump's speech yesterday at the ellipse. I was there at that rally, and speaker after speaker continued with incendiary apocalyptic rhetoric about how these supporters had to do something to save the republic by keeping President Trump in office goes on down the line from President Trump himself to his son Donald Trump Jr. And as you noted, Rudy Giuliani who called for combat.

I want you to listen to some of specifically what President Trump told his supporters before they ended up coming down here to Capitol Hill.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And we're going to the Capitol, and we're going to try and give the Democrats are hopeless. They're never voting for anything. Not even one vote, but we're going to try and give our Republicans, the weak ones because the strong ones don't need any of our help, we're going to try and give them the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country. So let's walk down Pennsylvania Avenue.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Of course, the president himself as you pointed out, John, didn't come here to Capitol Hill. His supporters certainly did.

But this leads to a lot of questions about how this wasn't anticipated, this vitriol had been building for weeks, and the crowd was anticipated to be huge and angry, and it seems like the law enforcement up here on Capitol Hill simply was not prepared for their anger and the influx of people.

Very quickly, I want to point out what we're seeing here this morning, several streets around the Capitol are locked down. There is a perimeter around the Capitol, and there is a sizable National Guard presence as well.

So, as for right now, there is calm and there is peace but there are still many of the president's supporters here in Washington, D.C., we'll see how they behave later in the day, John.

BERMAN: All right. Boris Sanchez at the Capitol Hill, we'll have time to talk about how this did happen, how these people manage to get on Capitol Hill. The question now is, can America stand 13 more days of Donald Trump?

CAMEROTA: I have the answer.

BERMAN: Will it be safe?

CAMEROTA: I have the answer. What more evidence do you need that four people were killed yesterday during this insurrection? What more are we waiting for?

BERMAN: Just so happens, an amendment in the Constitution, the 25th amendment that does allow for the removal of the president and the vice president to take over if the president is not deemed fit to serve.

Joining us now to talk about this, CNN political analyst, John Avlon, CNN political analyst, Margaret Talev. She's politics and White House editor at "Axios". And CNN contributor, Miles Taylor, he's the former chief of staff at the Department of Homeland Security. The 25th Amendment, people can see how complicated.

But simply put, if a majority of the cabinet and/or the majority of a congressional committee that has not been appointed decides the president isn't fit to serve and the vice president signs on, then the vice president takes over. As I said, a lot of this is a little bit silly or has been silly but this morning it's different. This morning, there is real cause to have a serious discussion about it, and our understanding is that some cabinet members are engaged in a discussion about it.

What are you hearing?

MARGARET TALEV, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: John, that tracks with the reporting that I heard yesterday from Republicans I spoke with and that my colleague Jonathan Swan heard conversations inside the White House. Aides that still work for the president, former aides, aides on Capitol Hill, former aides, lobbyists, political consultants, in conversation with their bosses, all saying it is -- we have to talk about what to do.

[05:15:09]

Can Republicans let the president's actions stand? How do they respond if they can't? Do they try censure, which seems like the weak tea alternative, do they pursue impeachment, which couldn't possibly be a process that would be completed in 13 days?

Or do they pursue the 25th Amendment that requires buy-in from the vice president? We do not know where he stands at this moment. It requires in practical terms, at least half of the cabinet to go along. What happens because so many of the cabinet members are interim cabinet members, legal questions about their power, is this practical. Would it serve the purpose that they wanted to serve? And if not, could it boomerang and loft the president up for this obviously sort of a dangerous minority of Americans who were activated yesterday.

So, these are the questions that are swirling and what's not entirely clear to me is how much of this is a letting off of steam or, like, just an "oh, my God" reaction to what happened yesterday which shocked the country, shocked the world. And how much of it is in the sort of, as the morning sun burns off what happened yesterday, how much of this is real. How much will actually be pursued? And I think that we still need to see.

But what I heard consistently yesterday was, can the country take 13 more days? What could happen if President Trump remains in office for the final two weeks?

CAMEROTA: John Avlon, this wait and see attitude that I feel like the country has taken for four years. Well, how much worse could it be? Well, this is an interesting experiment. Well, he won't really do that, will he?

We saw it. It was bound to end this way. It always was. He telegraphed it all along. It started with American carnage. That's how he sees the country, and it ends with American carnage.

And even before he predicted American carnage at his inauguration, there was violence at his rallies. He liked it. He liked it. He laughed when people, he said he wanted people carried out on stretchers.

Well, he got his wish, and yesterday, four people died as a result of this. So, I just am not sure we should take a wait and see attitude for 13 more days.

JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Look, you're absolutely right that yesterday was the culmination of Donald Trump's presidency. His legacy is American carnage. He incited violence during the campaign. He told us that he wouldn't accept the results of an election, and that he wouldn't agree to a peaceful transfer of power.

And his supporters have been lied to. And they have been lied to, to the extent that they stormed the Capitol in the belief that they were defending the republic, when in fact they were attacking it.

Look, you know, the 25th Amendment is a complicated process because it's designed for physical infirmity, not mental illness. We have been dealing with the mad king. People in the White House have been trying to contain his worst impulses.

But I think the bottom line is that's a bad bet. One of the many things we have learned from this is that you can't harness hate in a constructive direction. You can't take a mad king and hopefully you'll skate through it as a republic, because yesterday is what we got. And we have a lot to learn and a lot of accountability that needs to occur for our desecration of our democracy.

BERMAN: Miles, you worked in this administration. You still know people inside of it. Can America stand one more day of this? Is there a sense on the inside that America can stand one more day?

MILES TAYLOR, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: John, it's a great question, and you know what, it pains me to say this, but this is an absolute five alarm fire for democracy, and when I saw in the Trump administration, as far back as 3 1/2 years ago, members of the cabinet were having conversations about whether the president was stable enough to do his job, and they talked about the 25th Amendment.

Now, at that point in time, they decided, and they felt that it would destabilize democracy to remove the president from the inside and that the country would see it as a coup, but you know what, John, the president destabilized democracy anyway, so even though there's this argument that there's only two weeks left in Donald Trump's term, look at what happened in a single day.

What I would say to the cabinet right now, if I had a chance to speak to them, is the people of the United States have already voted to remove him from office. It's now the cabinet's job to speed up that process to protect our democracy. The Constitution lays out that when the president is unable to discharge the duties of his office, there is a mechanism to remove him from office.

This is a very sobering thing to do. But frankly, I think it's the appropriate thing to do, and I'll cite back what someone else just said in this conversation, this is the ultimate outcome of Trumpism, and that is the defacement of democracy.

[05:20:04]

And it's something many of us have been warning about for years.

CAMEROTA: Margaret, it sounds like Vice President Pence is already in charge in some ways because President Trump, the reporting is, did not call in the National Guard, though he was quick to, as you'll recall, for peaceful protests over the summer. And so, Vice President Pence was apparently at the helm trying to somehow reign some of this in.

And you know, everybody, as Miles Taylor can tell us, has a breaking point, and yesterday, we saw resignations of interesting people, people who had been with the Trump family and Donald Trump for a long time. And so the ones that we know of thus far, Stephanie Grisham is one I'm referring to. As we all know, she's the first lady's chief of staff, was press secretary for a while.

And then there are others, Anna Christina Niceta. Matt Pottinger, deputy national security adviser.

What do we know?

TALEV: We expect to get a lot more clarity today. There are many officials who overnight, the sort of notion that their prospective resignations will be floated. That's different than a formal statement.

So, I think there's some members inside the president's inner circle at the White House who are considering whether it would -- whether there's anything to be gained from stepping away at this point. What signal it sends?

We saw reporting yesterday, my colleagues at Bloomberg initially reporting, we confirmed it that the vice president's chief of staff was not permitted to come into the White House yesterday.

So I think what we're seeing with the Pence/Trump relationship is not entirely sure. Mike Pence stepped into his role as guardrails yesterday, declining to do what the president was pressuring him to do, and trying to move to protect national security, but he's not doing that with the full force of, you know, the presidency at his control, and it's certainly different to be vice president and perhaps in consultation with the president making decisions about calling in elements like the National Guard rather than acting as president yourself.

There's a world of difference between the steps we saw yesterday from Pence, which were important and basic steps to protect democracy, and him acting as president. I don't think we're there right now. And so, these resignations are going to send important signals. The vice president's role both publicly and behind the scenes in the coming days will send very important signals.

That statement that the president put out via Dan Scavino was essentially the product of a ton of internal pressure on the president to --

(INAUDIBLE)

BERMAN: Yeah, that statement, by the way, was still filled his lunatic dangerous lie.

Mike Pence, you have a chance. You have a chance to stand up for America today. It's not too late.

Rudy Giuliani, it's too late for you.

Josh Hawley, Ted Cruz --

CAMEROTA: Get out (ph).

BERMAN: -- it's too late for you. This is what you wrought.

A lot more to discuss. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:27:15]

CAMEROTA: This is the marauding mob that broke into the Capitol yesterday. This -- take a look at this crowd. Look at their faces. Look at what they're wearing. This is who Senator Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, decided to align themselves

with yesterday. This is who they wanted on their side or to be on the side of, I suppose.

And their dangerous game of chicken exploded in their face yesterday. But it didn't stop them.

Back with us, John Avlon, Margaret Talev and Miles Taylor.

You know, look, the president obviously has blood on his hands for this, never mind the 335,000 coronavirus people who have been killed but for this, yesterday.

And "The Kansas City Star" singled out Senator Josh Hawley in particular. They say it's an assault on democracy. Senator Josh Hawley has blood on his hands. Hawley's actions in the last week had such impact that he deserves an impressive share of the blame for the blood that's been shed.

John Avlon, I mean, even after this, they still went through with contesting the results.

AVLON: Yes. They sure did, and Hawley and Cruz and the other four who joined them and the you know, 120, 130 members of the House of Representatives, they own this. They're culpable.

They decided they would contest an election and perpetuate the president's lie, which they knew to be a lie, however they tried to dress it up, and that -- you reap what you sow. We're all reaping what they sowed by coddling this president, by encouraging his lies, and so there is special culpability.

Their names should not be forgotten. And they should not be forgiven.

BERMAN: Rudy Giuliani was calling them --

AVLON: Yes.

BERMAN: -- telling them to do it. Rudy Giuliani, Benedict Arnold is a good historical figure to recognize here. Benedict Arnold, a pretty good general for George Washington and then he turned his back on America and was a traitor.

AVLON: Yeah, what you may be referring to is when I worked for Rudy Giuliani when he was mayor of New York during 9/11. What Rudy Giuliani said during a rally yesterday is there's trial by combat. He is responsible for this as well. He is culpable for this as well because that rhetoric leads to violence and you cannot be forgiven, and it cannot be wished away.

BERMAN: Miles Taylor, again, as someone who has worked within Republican circles and for this administration, it does strike me as bloody of a day as it was, as a horrific of a day as it was, I do wonder if it's a turning point. I do wonder, Alisyn says it's an administration that began with American carnage and end with American carnage. Was yesterday the bookend, the end of it? And will the Republican Party now.