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New Day

Trump Faces Growing Pressure To Resign Or Face Second Impeachment; Trump Condemns Violence At U.S. Capitol, Ignores His Role In Inciting It; Federal Prosecutors Investigate Trump's Role In Inciting Capitol Siege; U.S. Reports 4,000+ Deaths In Deadliest Day Of Pandemic; U.S. Capitol Police Officer Dies From Injuries Suffered During Siege; Assistant Speaker: House Could Hold Trump Impeachment Vote Next Week. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired January 08, 2021 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00]

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: --a number of people. Everything is on the table and that includes the president.

U.S. have seen a record number of people die by COVID-19. The daily death toll passed more than 4,000.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Every six seconds now, a new case, and every eight minutes, somebody is dying.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is "New Day" with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.

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ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is "New Day." And this morning, there are more calls for President Trump to leave.

"The Wall Street Journal" says the time has come for Trump to resign. There is a new death toll from the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Five people are dead, including a U.S. Capitol police officer. And only now, after the carnage that he incited is President Trump finally saying, he will not be president 12 days from now.

Last night, the president released a new video message finally acknowledging that his presidency is coming to an end. Mr. Trump attempted to condemn the violence, but he left out the part about how he incited it.

Dozens of the rioters who stormed the capitol have now been arrested. The FBI is asking for the public's help in identifying those who vandalized and stole things from the offices of lawmakers and caused violence. A federal prosecutor is now investigating President Trump's role in this deadly siege. JOHN BERMAN, CNN HOST: Brian Sicknick is the name of the capitol police officer who died overnight from injuries in the insurrection. Brian Sicknick.

Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, I hope you learn his name.

A white house adviser tells CNN that Trump recorded that video only because his presidency is threatened by looming calls for resignation and an impeachment process that Nancy Pelosi promised would begin next week. Two cabinet secretaries resigned now.

Betsy Devos joining Elaine Chao in quitting. Nancy Pelosi will have to fast track impeachment if she wants to make it happen with just 12 days left. We are going to speak to a member of house Democratic leadership in just a moment.

Also breaking overnight, for the first time, the United States recorded more than 4,000 deaths from coronavirus in a single day. Nearly 20,000 have died in the first week of 2021.

We're going to begin with Jeremy Diamond at the White House this morning. Jeremy, "The Wall Street Journal" is calling for the president's resignation. What's going to happen today?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, it took two months for President Trump to do on what many have been calling on him to do. And that is to finally acknowledge the reality that he will not serve a second term.

Come January 20th at noon, the president - President Trump will no longer be the president of the United States. And he acknowledged that in a video message last night. What he did not do was congratulate President-elect Joe Biden, nor has utter his name at any point during that video.

And while he did condemn the violence that took place, the president did not acknowledge his own role in inciting that mob that stormed Capitol Hill just the other day. Listen to the difference in the president's message from one day to the next.

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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: To those who engaged in the acts of violence and destruction, you do not represent our country.

Go home, we love you. You're very special. And to those who broke the law, you will pay. We're going to the Capitol. We're going to try and give them the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country.

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DIAMOND: And the president also misstated his role in deploying the National Guard to Capitol Hill. The president said that he immediately did so, even though sources told us that the president actually resisted doing so and it was instead Vice President Mike Pence who coordinated that effort to deploy the National Guard.

Of course, we need to talk about what led to this message from the president. And that is the wave of resignations that we have seen from senior officials in this administration, including now two cabinet secretaries and also the threat of these discussions about the 25th Amendment.

Multiple sources told me and my colleagues that at least two cabinet secretaries just yesterday were making calls to other secretaries to take their temperature about the possibility of calling a cabinet meeting to confront the president about his behavior, hanging over that cabinet meeting would be of course the threat of the 25th Amendment to strip the president of his presidential powers.

But a source tells us that Vice President Mike Pence would have to go along with such a scheme that he is highly unlikely to do so. But inquiries have been flowing into the vice president and his staff about that possibility. Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Jeremy, thank you very much.

Joining us now is Elizabeth Neumann, she is the former assistant secretary of Homeland Security in the Trump administration; also with us is CNN political Director, David Chalian; and CNN senior political reporter, Nia-Malika Henderson.

Together, those two host the fabulous CNN podcast called "Politically Sound." Everybody should check it out.

Elizabeth, I want to start with you. You say the president has proven time and again he can't keep the country safe. He's made dangerous decisions. So what now? What is the right move for these 12 days?

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ELIZABETH NEUMANN, FORMER ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY: Look, I don't trust his statement yesterday. He has exhibited time and time again. He has this pattern where he refuses to condemn what he should condemn. And then a day or two later, he finally gives into his staff and he reads a statement, like what we saw yesterday. And then a day or two later goes by, and he bucks the system again and he will return to praising these domestic terrorists.

He can't be trusted. We already saw on Parler the reaction to the video as nobody believed it was him. They believed like it's a double - or I mean, the conspiracy theory is just kind of mind boggling when you read how they interpreted his statement yesterday. But the problem that he created that culminated on Wednesday still is there.

So I think there were some staff members, clearly a number of them freaked out. They finally realized, oh, my gosh, what monster did we create? We've got to put the genie back in the bottle. Hey, guys, you can't. It's done. The damage is done.

There are white supremacists, neo-Nazis who view Wednesday as this culminating crescendo moment, the starting pistol for leading a number of other violent attacks. So we should expect to see more. And because we are in such a grave, dangerous moment, he needs to be removed from the office. This doesn't go away quietly in 13 days at an inauguration. We need to execute the 25th Amendment or congress needs to impeach and remove him. He is dangerous.

BERMAN: Brian Sicknick is the name of the capitol police officer who died overnight from his injuries suffered during the insurrection.

David Chalian, the Vice President Mike Pence, says he does not support the 25th Amendment. So that shuts down that avenue, we believe. Impeachment proceedings may begin as early as next week and we are going to speak to members of Democratic leadership in the next hour to find out exactly the mechanics of that.

But this morning, what interests me the most is the call for resignation coming from "The Wall Street Journal", the Rupert Murdoch- owned "Wall Street Journal" now calling for the president's resignation and you're beginning to hear others suggest the same.

I do wonder if that's an opportunity for more Republicans to come out and say the president should resign today and what pressure that might create.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Well, it's the last point that you just made, John. The pressure it might create, that I don't know that we have an answer to. I don't know that Donald Trump will succumb to even an incredible amount of pressure from Republican elected officials or Rupert Murdoch's "Wall Street Journal" editorial page to resign.

Now, we did see the pressure clearly created that moment for him to make that video, and an attempt to try and keep people from heading to the exits in his administration. So perhaps he would respond somewhat to that. But with 12 days left, I will be shocked if he decides to give up the power and trappings of the Oval Office that he wants to enjoy to its full extent, all the way through to the end of his term.

You mentioned impeachment. The House Democrats are gathering at noon this afternoon, I think, on a conference call, to discuss the way forward. Clearly, they can move really quickly. They can get an impeachment vote out of the house really quickly.

The question is going to be, how does that work in the senate with 12 days left to get a trial going and is Mitch McConnell going to expedite that process through on the impeachment front, John?

BERMAN: I was just curious. The resignation thing, one of the things that interest me though, it's also an avenue for Republicans, whether or not the president listens. If you're a Republican in congress, you can stand up and say the president should resign today. Nia?

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Yes. I think that's right. This also goes to show that Republicans did have power at some point. We see in the last 12 days, these resignations, and then forcing the president to do what he always should have done, which is to condemn the violence, this violent mob that he spurred on, that he created. And we see him acting, because of the fear of people resigning.

So this tells us that four years ago, three years ago, whatever heinous behavior he engaged in, whether it was his terrible comments after Charlottesville, whether it's Helsinki, taking the side of Putin over the Intelligence Community, that if Republicans had stood up way back when, maybe they could have corralled this president in a way where a lot of the damage that we've seen over these last many, many months, could have been avoided.

Even as the president was going around the country, saying that the election was going to be rigged because of mail-in balloting, would Republicans really publicly stood up and said, Mr. President, that is not true. Mr. President, you are lying.

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HENDERSON: And of course, I mean, you think about all of the media outlets who also advanced his lies, which led to the brainwashing of millions and millions of his supporters. And then that terrible incident we saw this week. It's just a sad commentary on Republicans. They are in some ways trying to save face now in these last days of this president.

You saw Betsy Devos, obviously, resign. Someone sort of joked that she is essentially using her vacation days at this point with 12 days; and the same with Chao as well. So we'll see what the two houses of congress are able to do, if Nancy Pelosi, who is reluctant way back when to impeach the president, very much wants to seemingly do it. And we'll see what comes out of that 12:00 call today.

CAMEROTA: Elizabeth, you have our attention in terms of trying to sound the alarm of what violence has succumbed. We just talked to Congressman Riggleman in the last hour and he said that there is this online chatter and that I know you are always aware of that suggests, of course, this isn't over.

This wasn't the end, what happened to the U.S. Capitol, but it was this, as I've said, horrible deadly fire drill for how badly things can go and how we didn't - how the police didn't handle it right. And so the inauguration is 12 days from today. I think there is cause for concern about what that will look like. And so what should Homeland Security be doing today?

NEUMANN: The good news about the inauguration is that the security apparatus that is set in place for that has been working for over 18 months to prepare for the inauguration. So that's the good news. There is a lot more resources that they can call up that are already planning to be there.

The concern I have is the more that we read about what happened on Wednesday, it's almost as if warnings were not heeded. It's not that the intelligence wasn't there, it's that they didn't understand the intelligence. So hopefully, what we saw on Wednesday wakes everybody up, anybody that thinks that this is not a real threat, anybody who thinks that because they're white, they don't actually have the potential for damage. I mean, shame on you, because for the last ten years, 76 percent of all terrorist attacks have come from right-wing violent extremists and the predominant version of that is white supremacy.

So shame on you for not understanding where the true thread is. But you now have no excuse. This is a real threat. They have intentions and their stated aim is to overthrow the U.S. government, treat it seriously, get all of the resources to their posts and make sure that they understand that they will be held accountable if they do not treat a domestic terrorist the same way we would treat a foreign terrorist.

Yes, you have to allow for first amendment, rights to protest, and you need to follow the law. I'm not saying that we're in a war zone, but we need to demonstrate a show of force here that sends a strong signal that what happened on Wednesday will not be allowed to happen again, because they think they have free rein right now.

BERMAN: David Chalian, President-elect Joe Biden, we are told, by Jeff Zeleny through his reporting, has no an appetite for impeachment, no appetite, we're told, for pushing for removal of the president.

Explain to me his thinking behind that and the impact you think it will have.

CHALIAN: Well, his transition put out a statement, the spokesperson said that Kamala Harris and Joe Biden are just solely focused on actually taking over on January 20th. And that instead of shutting it down entirely, though tacitly, it's what Joe Biden is doing, John, as you point out.

They said, "There is a role here for the cabinet to play. There is a role here for congress to play". Those should proceed as they want to. But Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are going to focus on taking over on the 20th. And I think that that is simply Joe Biden not wanting to be mired down here in the final days of this transition in the political machinations about whether or not Donald Trump leaves early. He wants to keep his eye on the ball.

He also is not sure that that is the best way, obviously, for him to start his administration. So this is something he is going to leave to the cabinet, which, as we discussed, doesn't look like that's going to happen, and to the congress, where there may be some action on impeachment. I don't think you're going to see Joe Biden, John, stand up and say, "Stop, I don't think the Democrats should do this". I just think he's not going to be out in front carrying the flag to pursue that course.

BERMAN: Elizabeth, David, Nia, thank you all so much.

CHALIAN: Sure.

CAMEROTA: We have some breaking news. The United States shattering its record for coronavirus deaths, reporting more than 4,000 deaths just on Thursday. That is the deadliest day since the pandemic began.

CNN's Stephanie Elam is live in Los Angeles with more. What's the situation there this morning?

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STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Alisyn, when you think about that number, 4,085 people lost their lives to the coronavirus in one day. If you actually just think about those deaths as being individuals, it really does hit home just how bad this situation is right now.

And it's playing out clearly here in California, where we have a record number of hospitalizations, almost 23,000 people in the hospital. We have a record number of patients in the ICU, as well here in California. And the positivity rate is almost 13 percent, which is at the highest level since widespread testing has been around. So it shows you how rough things are here in California.

And that picture painted very clearly here in Los Angeles County, which is really just the pinpoint of the worst of it right now in the United States as we are the densest and most populous county in the U.S.

In fact, take a listen to how Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti portrays how things look right now.

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ERIC GARCETTI, (D) MAYOR OF LOS ANGELES: Every six seconds now, a new case and every eight minutes, somebody is dying here. But we've seen this across the country and we've seen it particularly here, where we have the densest metropolitan area in America.

We're seeing heroes in our hospitals, we're seeing angels in our ambulances stretched thin to just deal with the onslaught right now of what's happening here, the epicenter, Los Angeles.

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ELAM: And I've been in touch with an official from the Los Angeles fire department, who says they started planning for this a day before Christmas and have been implementing it for almost about two weeks now, and now it's really what they're doing is having an engine or an ambulance go to these hospitals that are inundated and even had ambulances waiting for hours before they can release a patient and transfer care to the hospital.

There now they are watching over some patients so these ambulances can go back out on other calls, really just stepping up to try to help and alleviate some of that congestion that we've been seeing at the hospitals here who are really overwhelmed with just too many patients as these healthcare workers are trying to battle in and help all these people make it through this really terrible virus. Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: It's such a nightmare scenario. Stephanie, thank you very much for being on the ground for us.

So do Democrats plan to impeach President Trump for his role in the capitol siege? We'll ask a top Democratic leader in the house, next.

[07:20:00]

BERMAN: Sources tell CNN that House Democrats will discuss today whether to proceed with an expedited impeachment vote if Vice President Mike Pence and the cabinet will not remove President Trump from office. And indications are the vice president has no intention of pursuing the 25th Amendment.

Nearly 100 members of congress are calling for the president to be forced out with just 12 days left in his presidency.

Joining us now is assistant speaker of the house, Democratic Congresswoman Katherine Clark of the commonwealth of Massachusetts. She is in favor of impeachment. Congresswoman, thanks for being with us.

Our reporting is that Mike Pence is not inclined to pursue the 25th Amendment. Has the house been officially informed that he will not do so?

REP. KATHERINE CLARK (D-MA): Donald Trump needs to be removed from office. And we are going to proceed with every tool that we have to make sure that that happens to protect our democracy.

If the reports are correct and Mike Pence is not going to uphold his oath of office and remove the president and help protect our democracy, then we will move forward with impeachment to do just that.

BERMAN: All right. Talk to me about the mechanics of that. Starting when and how? How exactly is this going to work?

CLARK: So we know that we have limited time, but that every day that Donald Trump is president of the United States is a day of grave danger. So we can use procedural tools to get articles of impeachment to the floor for a house vote quickly. We have already had Chairman Jerry Nadler, chair of the Judiciary Committee, say that he will use those tools to bring the articles as fast as possible.

BERMAN: When is that?

CLARK: Well, that will be as early as the mid-next week. We do have a process. We have to go through, but let's be clear what's at stake here. We have a president who incited a seditious mob to storm the capitol. We now have five deaths from that. And the harm to our democracy is really unfathomable. So we have to--

BERMAN: I just want to get a few more - I just want to understand a little bit more about the process. And I will let you talk about this. Again, you think you may be able to vote on impeachment. In other words, the house may be able to impeach the president as soon as mid- next week.

Does it matter to you whether or not the senate could complete a trial to determine whether to remove the president by January 20th? CLARK: Listen, what we have here is a crisis for our country. We have a president who has turned on us. He is a traitor. He has incited violence and perpetuated a lie that he won this election. And we have members of the GOP, 147 or 148. 66 percent of the Republicans in congress after the capitol was stormed, after the violence that we saw, incited by our own president, turn around and vote to perpetuate the lies about our election.

So I can't answer for the GOP, but they are going to have to answer to history. They are going to have to answer to how they took that oath of office, just on Sunday, and turned around and voted for this president after the actions that occurred on the capitol on Wednesday.

BERMAN: Will you move to reprimand or censure - will you move to reprimand or censure any of those house members?

[07:25:00]

CLARK: What my focus is now and the focus of the Democratic caucus is how do we secure our country, so that we can get to the hard work of helping Americans meet the incredible challenges of this pandemic and the economic fallout. But we are at a crisis point.

And it's not only Americans who need security, it is the world looking at us and saying, this is the democracy that we look to for guidance. We are the symbol of freedom around the world. And if we do not hold this president accountable, if we do not remove him from office, we cannot underestimate the damage we will do to the American experience and experiment of democracy.

BERMAN: One last procedural question. Do you think constitutionally a senate can hold a trial to remove a president after he is no longer in office? If you impeach the president before January 20th, do you think the senate can actually hold a trial after he is no longer president?

CLARK: We can act very quickly when we want to. You have seen the GOP when they want to do tax cuts, totally eliminate any hearings and bring things to the floor very quickly, when it's helping their wealthy friends. So let's make sure that we stand up now. This isn't a question of process or procedure. We have a tool of impeachment.

If Mike Pence will not do what is required of him and invoke the 25th Amendment, we don't have a choice, and we cannot hide behind procedural rules. This is the time for action. This is a crisis of our constitution and of our democracy.

BERMAN: I want to ask you about Brian Sicknick, who is the capitol police officer who we learned died overnight from injuries suffered during the insurrection. I wanted to give you a chance to talk about his death and what that means.

CLARK: It is - my heart goes out to officer Sicknick's family and to all of those who suffered loss in this. And it's - there are a lot of people who have officer Sicknick's blood on their hands. We are powerful actors in congress. And when we use that power to perpetuate a lie that this was not a fair election, when we use that power to appease a president and act for short-term political goal of fending off a primary, or whatever else my Republican colleagues thought they were doing, by being part of this malicious attack on our constitution and our elections, real consequences happen. People lose their lives, people who are devoted to defending us and protecting us when we do our critical work for the American people.

So I hope there is some soul searching by my colleagues and by those who surround the president. And that we act swiftly to make sure that this president and his harm to this country is ended.

BERMAN: Congressman Katherine Clark from Massachusetts, we appreciate you being with us this morning.

CLARK: Thank you.

BERMAN: So we talked about impeachment, which may happen as soon as mid-next week, according to the assistant speaker. But will Donald Trump face criminal charges for inciting the insurrection? We'll discuss with legal experts, next.

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