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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Allies Abandon Trump, Who Faces Growing Calls to Leave Office; Biden Introduces Merrick Garland As Attorney General Nominee; U.S. COVID Death Surpass 4,000 in a Day For the First Time; World Leaders Condemn Trump for Inciting Capitol Riot. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired January 08, 2021 - 05:00   ET

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

[05:00:26]

LAURA JARRETT, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world.

This is EARLY START. I'm Laura Jarrett.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, Laura. I'm Christine Romans. It's Friday. It's January 8th, 5:00 a.m. exactly in New York.

And so much for the end of American carnage. Overnight, Capitol police confirming the death of one of their officers, Brian Sicknick, injured, responding to the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

A riot that now has walls closing in on President Trump, threats of a second impeachment, a historic second impeachment, calls for his resignation, a staff exodus, potential criminal charges against the president and escalating concern over his mental state at this hour.

For the first time in a new video clearly edited, the president acknowledges a new administration will be sworn in soon. No doubt that grudging admission was forced by self-inflicted catastrophe.

JARRETT: Sources tell CNN that several cabinet secretaries have informally discussed invoking the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office.

Overnight, a second cabinet member, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos resigned over Trump's role in the attempted coup. Of course, it's easy to walk away with 12 days left in Trump's term, it's called two weeks' notice, this after enabling him from day one.

In that spirit, "The Wall Street Journal" editorial board adding its voice to those calling for the president to resign.

ROMANS: The paper is owned by the same family that runs Fox News. "The Wall Street Journal" says this: We know an act of grace by Mr. Trump isn't likely. In any case, this week has probably finished him as a serious political figure. He has cost Republicans the House, the White House, and now the Senate.

Worse, he has betrayed his loyal supporters by lying to them about the election and the ability of Congress and Mr. Pence to overturn it. He has refused to accept the basic bargain of democracy, which is to accept the result, win or lose.

JARRETT: Turning on his supporters for doing the very thing that he encouraged, President Trump released a bizarre new video Thursday night which can only be understood as a desperate ploy to keep him from being removed from office. Now, he's saying he's, quote, outraged by the violence after telling that crowd on Wednesday they couldn't take back this country with, quote, weakness as his lawyer advocated for, quote, trial by combat.

CNN's Kaitlan Collins has more on all of this from the White House.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Laura and Christine.

This was the first time that we have seen the president come out on camera and say that there is going to be a peaceful transition of power when Joe Biden takes office, even if he did not mention Joe Biden by name, this is the first time we have seen this kind of language from the president. It's basically a non-concession concession speech. Probably as good as we are going to get from Donald Trump.

But, of course, it comes after he spent the day listening to these calls coming from Capitol Hill, and not just from Democrats for his removal from office. In these waning days of his administration led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who is calling on the Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment, calling on the cabinet, signaling out cabinet secretaries by name. We should note that we have spoken to the vice president's office. They have not responded to what the vice president plans to do, but an administration official did say he has not discussed invoking the 25th Amendment with any of the cabinet members.

However, those cabinet members are dwindling. We are now seeing at least two of them resign in the wake of the president's response to that, and that is Elaine Chao, the transportation secretary who, of course, is also married to the Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

But also the education secretary, Betsy DeVos, who submitted her resignation letter late last night and was talking about the accomplishments of the Trump administration but did say at one point that this is what we should be talking about but, quote, there is no mistaking the impact your rhetoric had on the situation and it is the inflection point for me, saying that was the final straw for her, and that is what is leading her to leave her job with just two weeks left in the Trump administration and, of course, the big question right now is whether or not there are going to be more of them.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JARRETT: Kaitlan, thank you so much for that. Christine, she calls it an inflection point. DeVos does, but this is after Charlottesville, this is after Helsinki, this is after any number of episodes where they could have walked away, but now these cabinet secretaries are walking away with two weeks. It just seems like all too convenient when in fact what they have at their feet is a decision about the 25th Amendment, which they, of course, avoid by resigning.

[05:05:01]

ROMANS: It also on the flip side of that, you have the president left in the White House without his full team. He is angry. He is agitated.

There are fewer voices in his ear now, voices of reason one would expect in his ear. It's pretty clear that this is someone who still has control of the nuclear codes, could still potentially launch some kind of, you know, military incursion somewhere in the world. You know, we have 13, 12 days left here where the other side of the argument is maybe he needs voices in his ear just first, as a stabilizer, a shock absorber, and you could argue either way.

JARRETT: It's a stunning thought.

ROMANS: It really is.

All right. The president's political capital may not be the biggest problem at the moment. Federal investigator looking at everyone involved in the unrest at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, including the actions of President Trump himself in inciting that crowd.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

MICHAEL SHERWIN, D.C. ACTING U.S. ATTORNEY: We're looking at all actors here and anyone that had a role and the evidence fits the elements of a crime, they're going to be charged.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

JARRETT: Trump, of course, loses legal immunity from prosecution after leaving the White House which could be part of the reason CNN has learned the president is asking aides and lawyers about his ability to pardon himself, as he faces scrutiny for comments like this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're going to the capitol, and 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)

JARRETT: Meantime, despite weeks of online chatter about plans for storming Washington, D.C., officials say they had no intelligence indicating that there was a threat that the Capitol could be overrun. The response from capitol police, a catastrophic failure by any measure that resulted in rioters stealing electronics and documents that could possibly include sensitive national security information.

The chief of the U.S. Capitol police has resigned. The sergeant at arms in the Senate and the House are leaving as well.

ROMANS: The images of those protesters holding things from inside those offices is just stunning. So far, dozens of people have been arrested. Several face federal charges including one who official says had a military style automatic weapon and eleven Molotov cocktails. Thousands of people, thousands stormed that building, many readily identifiable from TV and social media images.

So, the work is just beginning here. The FBI and local police turning to the public for help in identifying anyone involved in the violence.

Laura, it's interesting. There were journalists and others who were in local hotels who said that in the lobbies of these hotels, people were smoking cigars and talking about their antics, very relaxed, no one worried about any kind of repercussions from a failed insurrection, failed coup attempt, remarkable.

JARRETT: Well, and, of course, now, some have gone home which will make finding them much more difficult.

One person who has no appetite for impeaching the president is Joe Biden. Sources say the president-elect prefers to keep his focus on taking office. Impeachment would not help unify the country in his view, and it's a matter for Congress to decide.

Mr. Biden introduced his pick for attorney general yesterday. Judge Merrick Garland who if confirmed will lead the Justice Department as rioters will be prosecuted in federal court. The president-elect also highlighting the way the mob was treated by the police on Wednesday, compared to demonstrations over the summer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT-ELECT: No one can tell me that if it had been a group of Black Lives Matter protesting yesterday, there wouldn't have been -- they wouldn't have been treated very, very differently than the mob of thugs that stormed the Capitol. We all know that's true. And it is unacceptable, totally unacceptable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JARRETT: And even though it's been somewhat lost in the chaos, the last two days has resulted in a fundamental shift for Biden's presidency, he will now have Democratic control in the Senate after the runoff wins in Georgia, the first cabinet hearing is now set for his defense secretary nominee Lloyd Austin on January 19th.

ROMANS: All right. The historic week we are all living through as Americans has taken focus away from another critical topic, the pandemic. For the first time, more than 4,000 Americans reported dead in a single day.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:13:44]

JARRETT: Welcome back.

The country's focus this week has been on politics and for good reason, what started with a call by President Trump to shake down Georgia's secretary of state to steal votes away from President-elect Biden to the Senate runoffs in that state and then the coup attempt of course at the Capitol, all of that happening.

But looming behind that all, coronavirus, almost 15,000 Americans died this week and overnight for the first time, the U.S. surpassed 4,000 deaths reported in a single day. Vaccine shipments behind schedule, but states are still having trouble putting what they have into people's arms. As of last weekend, 33 percent of available doses were administered. As of yesterday, that's now down to 27 percent.

CNN has the pandemic covered coast to coast.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Sara Murray in Washington, D.C.

Nearly 6 million people have received their first dose of coronavirus vaccines nationwide, and more than 21 million doses have been distributed. Obviously, that's good news for fighting the virus, but it's not nearly moving fast enough, and that 6 million doses, that's well short of the 20 million doses that Operation Warp Speed wanted to get out to Americans by the end of December. It's very clear that officials in the Trump administration overpromised and are under delivering.

States are finding it more difficult to get these vaccines into people's arms than they expected. That's prompting the Trump administration to try to move faster to get these vaccines out to pharmacies, and they're encouraging states to move beyond these initial priority groups of health care workers and long-term residents.

NICK WATT, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Nick Watt in Los Angeles where the moment somebody is dying from COVID-19 on average every eight minutes.

The county health director said this, people who were otherwise living healthy productive lives are now passing away because of a chance encounter with COVID-19.

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Rosa Flores in Miami.

The state of Florida shattered its single day case record reporting more than 19,000 cases yesterday. That is the backdrop for the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine. According to the Florida Department of Health, more than 384,000 people have been vaccinated in this state.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has expanded the distribution of the vaccine by offering the shot at testing sites, grocery stores and churches.

JACQUELINE HOWARD, CNN HEALTH REPORTER: I'm Jacqueline Howard in Atlanta.

COVID-19 cases jumped 56 percent in counties where large colleges and universities held in-person classes last fall. While cases rose in counties where universities held in-person classes, cases dropped 18 percent in counties where universities held remote classes. And cases fell 6 percent in counties with no universities at all.

The CDC says students, faculty and staff should remember, wear a mask, and social distance.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: All right. Thank you to our correspondents for all of those reports.

So, the U.S. role as a moral authority around the world in legitimate jeopardy. Will the damage done by Trumpism in the U.S. and elsewhere outlast Trump's time in office?

CNN is live in London.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:21:28]

ROMANS: Violence in Washington suffering on Main Street, but stocks hit record highs Thursday, as investors looked past the ugly events on Capitol Hill.

The Dow, wow, finished above 31,000 for the first time in history. The Nasdaq and the S&P 500 also closed higher. The Nasdaq above 13,000 for the first time ever.

Historically, stocks have been unmoved by civil unrest as long as it has no tangible effect on earnings or economic growth. Investors instead are looking to the future, and here is what is key, that Georgia runoff critical for the economic outlook for millions of Americans. Control of all three branches of government gives the incoming Biden administration's agenda an advantage.

The president-elect has called the $900 billion stimulus package a down payment. He wants more relief to get the economy back on track, and he now has all levers of government potentially to do that.

Today, investors are focused on the December jobs report, economists predict 100,000 jobs were added in December. But there are big concerns by some economists. This report could show jobs lost instead. A big miss.

The pandemic wiped out a decade of job gains. You can see it here, the economy has recovered some but is still down 9.8 million jobs.

And, Laura, look at that chart. You heard the president -- President Trump talk about the V-shaped recovery in the jobs market. That is -- looks like a backwards square root sign. That's not a good sign there. That is a job market that is petering out again here, Laura.

JARRETT: That's scary.

Well, President Trump has said repeatedly the world is laughing at the United States and he may be right about that, but not for the reasons he claims. Global reaction to the Capitol Hill insurrection has been harsh. Some of it coming from the very leaders who made Trumpism part of their own brand.

Nic Robertson joins us live from London this morning.

Nic, nice to see you. It's interesting who decided to speak out right away, some of them seeking to get things off their chest they have wanted to say for quite a while.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: There's certainly a sense of that. The number of people, speed with which they spoke up. One of the sort of most startling if you will in the vein of what you're saying, people who have been relatively close to President Trump in populism and nationalism, Boris Johnson here in London yesterday saying unreservedly criticized President Trump's essentially stirring up the crowds to go and storm Capitol Hill.

This was not something you would have expected to hear from Boris Johnson even a week ago perhaps, and that's perhaps not only a reflection of what happened on Capitol Hill but a reflection on the outcome of the recent voting in Georgia as well. I mean, the message is very clear that it has all changed for any country doing business with the United States.

Also look at what we saw this the past 24 hours from the prime minister in the Czech Republic. He's got rid of his MAGA type red cap, one which said essentially make the Czech Republic great. He's decided to get rid of that.

So, this criticism that we're seeing from President Trump coming from people unexpectedly who were close to him, like Boris Johnson, perhaps not surprisingly seeing criticism of him and his actions from Angela Merkel, the German chancellor who had a rough ride from President Trump during his leadership.

So, a lot of people really sort of putting that bit of distance, leaders putting distance between themselves and President Trump.

JARRETT: And, Nic, the president, of course, leaves office in 12 days, but once he's gone, the damage done by his time in office, it can't just be wiped away overnight.

[05:25:02]

And leaders obviously recognize that. I mean, think of all the agreements that he just tore up out of nowhere.

ROBERTSON: Absolutely. I mean, building trust in the United States was always going to be a huge challenge after President Trump had gone. A doubly big challenge, if you will, when you saw how many people voted for him and his type of Republicanism, the sort of more isolationism, the more America first, that kind of view.

The world has sort of taken that on board. But let's not forget as well that, you know, these kind of nationalist populist type views are not singular to the United States, in many countries in Europe and other places around the world. There's a trickle down effect when you have a president like President Trump, national security interests are going to dominate decisions. Leaders are going to not fall out of step with President Trump, try to go along with him where it wasn't easy, they have mostly tried to do that.

They're going to try to unpick that now. In forming the new relationship, with President Biden, a global summit on democracy in the first year of his presidency is not going to be a quick fix. It's not going to be a quick change. And those sentiments in the United States that President Trump represented and they continue to exist around the world. No leaders at the moment would be fooling themselves that this challenge to democracy has actually gone.

JARRETT: All right. Nic, always great to get your perspective on all of these things. Thanks so much.

ROMANS: All right. An important moment to mark here, two months after Joe Biden won the election, two months later, Donald Trump now admits his time in office is over, but with allies jumping ship and the 25th Amendment on the table, will he stay until January 20th?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)