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House Democrats Pushing to Impeach Trump; More Arrests After Wednesday's Riot in Capitol Hill; January Deadliest Month in the U.S. Due to COVID; Pelosi Prepared To Move Forward With Trump Impeachment; Final Controversy For Trump Presidency; Flags Lowered In Honor Of Fallen Capitol Police Officer; U.K. Government To Announce Vaccine Delivery Plan; Germany Records 40,000 Plus Total Deaths; China Promising Vaccines To Developing Nations; China Promising Pandemic Aid To African Nations; India To Start Vaccine Drive January 16; U.S. To Designate Houthi Rebels As Foreign Terrorists; U.S. Democracy Resilient Despite Violence In Washington; Apple, Google & Amazon To Boot Parler; PGA Pulling 2022 Championship From Trump Golf Course; Kamala Harris' Teams Blindsided By Cover Change. Aired 2-3a ET

Aired January 11, 2021 - 2:00   ET

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

[02:00:00]

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ROBYN CURNOW, CNN HOST (on camera): Hi. Welcome to all of our viewers joining us from around the world. You're watching CNN. I'm Robyn Curnow. So just ahead, wasting no time, U.S House Democrats are taking steps to oust President Donald Trump with just nine days left in his term.

New details also about unspeakable horrid violence at the capital as rioters now face justice. Plus, skyrocketing coronavirus deaths here in the U.S., but alarmingly low vaccinations.

Good to have you along. So, extremist supporters of President Donald Trump are now calling for more violence in the U.S. capital and it's against that backdrop that lawmakers will now take action against the president in the coming hours.

The House is expected to vote to urge Vice President Mike Pence to take steps to remove President Trump from office. If Pence doesn't, the president faces a possibility of an unprecedented second impeachment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVE: Sadly the person who's running the executive branch is a deranged, unhinged, dangerous president of the United States. And with only a number of days until we can be protected from him. But he has done something so serious that there should be prosecution against him.

(END VIDEO CLIP) CURNOW (on camera): Well, arrest from last week's riots are still being made and officials are investigating whether some of the rioters planned to take lawmakers hostage. Ryan Nobles has more now on what's ahead in the U.S. House. Ryan?

RYAN NOBLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is ready to move forward with articles of impeachment against President Trump, if Vice President Mike Pence does not begin the process of invoking the 25th amendment.

In a letter to her colleagues on Sunday night, Pelosi said that she is going to introduce a resolution on Monday morning that will essentially put Mike Pence on the clock, give him 24 hours to decide whether or not he is going to take the step of moving forward on the 25th amendment.

And if he doesn't, then the House will begin impeachment proceedings. That could happen as early as Wednesday and there are certainly enough votes for Pelosi to get the impeachment passed here in the House. The question is what's happens when it gets to the Senate?

There doesn't appear to be an appetite by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to begin a trial and convict President Trump especially before he leaves office now in less than 10 days. So the question is, what does Pelosi do after those articles of impeachment are passed?

She could send it over to McConnell for him to do nothing with them or she could actually hold on to them and wait until President Trump is out of office. And when the Democrats are in control of the Senate and begin the trial then.

There are still some benefits for the House Democrats to move forward with the impeachment, even after President Trump is out of office. There are long term consequences that President Trump could be in store for if he is ultimately convicted of those impeachment proceedings.

So, still a lot we don't know. The only thing we know for sure is that Speaker Pelosi is ready to take that first step of doing something to hold President Trump accountable for his role in those riots that took place here last Wednesday. Ryan Nobles, CNN, Capitol Hill.

CURNOW (on camera): Thanks Ryan for that. So, as we wait for the House to start impeachment proceedings, a growing number of Republican lawmakers are speaking out. They're publicly placing at least some of the blame on President Trump for Wednesday's insurrection. One senator says, the president's political careers is virtually over.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. PAT TOOMEY (R-PA): I think the president has disqualified himself from ever certainly serving in office again. I don't think he would -- he is electable in any way and I don't think he's going to be exercising anything like the kind of influence that he has had over the Republican Party going forward. LARRY HOGAN, GOVERNOR OF MARYLAND: No question in my mind that he was

responsible for inciting this riotous mob. This was an insurrection and, you know, they stormed the capitol and threatened to kill the vice president and put the lives of people in danger, and he had a huge part - a huge role to play in that.

REP. NANCY MACE (R-SC): I've talked to some of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle today. I do believe there is an appetite whether that a censure (ph) or some other resolution or opportunity to move forward. Somebody has got to be held accountable and we have to hold the president accountable for what happened.

[02:04:59]

The rhetoric leading up to this vote, the lies that were told to the American people, this is what happens. Rhetoric has real consequences, and people died.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CURNOW: So we're also learning new details about the violence that unfolded at the U.S. Capital on Wednesday. New video obtained by CNN shows a police officer being brutally assaulted by rioters as they try to storm the building. Now, a warning. This video is disturbing but take a look.

(VIDEO PLAYING)

CURNOW: As you can see, the angry mob there pulls the officer to the ground, drags him down the stairs and beats him as he lay their helplessly. Someone even hit the officer with a pole carrying the American flag.

Now, the attack happened about 10 minutes after President Trump told the crowd to go home, but clearly, clearly his message was too little too late. Well, CNN has reached out to the police for more information on this assault as well as the officer's condition.

Now, authorities are also still trying to identify many of these rioters involved in Wednesday's attack. Jessica Schneider has the latest on the investigation and what police are doing to prevent more violence. Jessica?

JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: There is a lot of concern as we move into a new week and closer to the inauguration in the wake of last week's attack on the U.S. capital. The capital now surrounded by a 7 foot non-scalable fence and hundreds of National Guard members. They will be sent in for the inauguration next Wednesday.

That includes 1,000 members from New York, 6,200 from across the country. And so far, nearly two dozen people have been charged federally for their involvement in the violent mob that stormed the capital. That includes a man who is found with 11 homemade bombs in his truck, parked near the capital, plus a handgun, assault rifle, and ammunition. And prosecutors say that that men actually had two hand guns on him

when police finally found him. Then there was another man charged with allegedly sending text messages, threatening injury to how Speaker Nancy Pelosi when he was found. He had firearms including an assault rifle and hundreds of rounds of ammunition that was in the truck that he had parked outside of a Holiday Inn Hotel in Washington.

But, you know, this is likely just the beginning of the charges. The acting U.S. attorney in D.C. now says hundreds of people may end up under arrest as they continue this investigation that encompasses hundreds of prosecutors and FBI agents working from three command centers, 24/7.

And finally, there is some growing concern for the safety of members of Congress, many of whom we've seen in videos yelled at, surrounded in airports as they travelled to and from Washington.

Well, this weekend, we learned that all members will be able to get increased security when they travel through airports. U.S. Capitol Police, they're coordinating with other law enforcement agencies to make sure those protections happen to keep those members of Congress safe. Jessica Schneider, CNN, Washington.

CURNOW: Michael Genovese is a political analyst and author of "How Trump Governs." He joins me now from Los Angeles. Michael, lovely to have you on the show. Thanks for joining me.

MICAHEL GENOVESE, POLITICAL ANALYST: Thank you.

CURNOW: So, how much momentum is building for a fast-track impeachment?

GENOVESE: Oh it's very, very close. I think, you know, Nancy Pelosi said it very clearly. If the president doesn't resign, if the vice president doesn't start the 25th amendment, then Congress will impeach. They could impeach very quickly. They have a very short insurrection and incitement of violence charge.

It can be done very quickly. A Senate trial would take much longer, but I think the key is impeachment because I think they have to find a way to make a very clear statement that Donald Trump is not going to be part of our future, that we have to put him in a rearview mirror and he's got to be behind us.

He's put a lot of pollution in the system. We've got to get rid of that pollution. And impeaching him a second time would do that. It would end his political future and end his career.

CURNOW: As more videos are emerging of just how violent this insurrection was, I just want to play some of them because before we came to you, there was really disturbing images. As we see more fallout from this week, what is the impact politically of images like this especially for Republicans?

GENOVESE: You know, the Republicans have got to make a choice because this was a completely different set of circumstances than they faced in the past. In the past it was Donald Trump's excessive verbiage, his attacks, his, you know, breaking of norms. This is insurrection. This is violence against the United States government.

[02:10:01]

This is what you put people in prison for life for. And so, there are Republican senators like Ted Cruz and Hawley who have sided with them, sided with the president. They are jeopardizing their careers as they should -- their career should be jeopardized because they are siding with insurrectionists.

This is something that Republicans have to get a space from. They have to get distance from that because their brand has already been tarnished. They can't just re-brand. They need to do a mea culpa first -- we did it wrong, we'll do better.

On the Republican side, the positive is that if you look historically at this, the Republican Party can come back. Parties are very resilient. In 1964 Republicans got crushed with Barry Goldwater. Four years later they won the White House.

CURNOW: You talk about this as domestic terrorism, extremism, just sheer incitement. I mean, we see an image for example of a man who wore a Camp Auschwitz sweatshirt. It's almost unbelievable to see an image like this. There he is on the left with the beard. We know he's been arrested and identified. But none of this hatred, that kind of hatred, magically ends on January 20th. Does it? Now, that is a problem.

GENOVESE: That's right. It's in our bloodstream now. He has given permission for people to do that, to be that way. And before Donald Trump, those people were existing but they all state under a rock wherever they were and they knew that they can't come out because they would be criticized, they would not be accepted.

They felt accepted by Donald Trump. He gave them permission to come out in the open. And now they are so out in the open that, you know, you saw them on January 6th. They're taking selfies of each other. They're just having a party.

Thank goodness that the people who went into the capital where so incompetent that they had no plan. Let's go rush the capital, and then when they're there, it was, what would we do now? It was almost like a college prank for some of these folks.

And they did a lot of damage, but thankfully no one was killed in the House or the Senate, but there were five people killed. That's a whole new level of violence and a whole new set of circumstances the Republicans have as an albatross around their neck.

CURNOW: This is going to be the first full week of this president not tweeting. How does it change things and where does the social media ban leave President Trump and his supporters?

GENOVESE: Well, in normal times, the media band would have been something that Donald Trump would have just jumped at and would've said this is an example of their out to get us and the bad guys are all after me. He doesn't have the capacity to do that the way he used to.

Plus, the circumstances are so different. He is on the defensive because what was done in his name by people who thought they were following his lead was so heinous, so disgraceful. The rug has been pulled out from underneath Trump and he did it to himself.

And so, if he doesn't have a megaphone it's because the megaphone has been taken away from a spoiled child.

CURNOW: Michael Genovese, thank so much for joining us.

GENOVESE: Thank you, Robyn.

CURNOW (on camera): Legendary Watergate journalist, Carl Bernstein, has strong, strong words for President Trump and Republican leaders when he spoke with CNN on Sunday. He says events at the Capitol last week have stained Trump forever, adding that GOP leaders must constrain the president now to prevent more damage to democracy, listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CARL BERNSTEIN, JOURNALIST: Look, one way or another the stain of what has happened is going to cling to Donald Trump's person and his movement forever in history. The important thing at this moment is to make sure that in his state of utter madness, that he is constrained, that he is put in a constitutional straitjacket that he cannot do further damage to the interest of the United States and the safety and health and welfare of its people and its Constitution, whatever that takes.

And it's damn time for McConnell, McCarthy and the others and Pence to say, that's what needs to be done. But something else is really -- I think we need to look at a bigger picture here. And that is that it really -- Donald Trump is the enemy of the constitutional republic that is the United States of America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CURNOW (on camera): Also, coming up, soaring cases, hospitalizations, and deaths. Ahead, the fight against the coronavirus in the U.S. and the vaccine roll out that is falling far short of expectations. You're watching CNN. Stay with us.

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[02:15:00]

CURNOW (on camera): We're now just 11 days into the New Year and the U.S. has already added more than 2.3 million coronavirus cases as hospitalizations and deaths continue to soar. So, right now, January is on track to be the deadliest month of the pandemic. Since the first of the year, more than 28,000 people have died. Nowhere is the situation worse down in California. Just look at these

images. The state added nearly 50,000 new cases in the surge and infections is showing absolutely no sign of letting up. But California is now looking to boost its vaccine rollout as distribution across the U.S. continues to move very slowly.

The CDC says more than 22 million vaccine doses have been distributed, just over 6.6 though have only been administered. The former head of the Food and Drug Administration says it's time for a new strategy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT GOTTLIEB, FORMER FDA COMMISSIONER: The game has changed on the vaccine. We really need to get this vaccine out more quickly because this is really our only tool, our only backstop against the spread of these new variants. If we can get a lot of people vaccinated quickly, we might be able to get enough protective immunity into the population if this stops spreading at the rate that it is. So, we need to acknowledge that it's not working. We need to hit the reset and adopt a new strategy in trying to get it out to patients.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CURNOW (on camera): Well, joining me now to discuss all of these developments is CNN medical analyst Dr. Esther Choo. She's also a professor of emergency medicine at Oregon Health and Science University. Doctor, hi. Lovely to see you again.

[02:28:00]

And I do want to get your take on this vaccine rollout. It's flawed. It's slow in the U.S. Are you surprised or is this just another example of America's very patchwork health care system?

ESTHER CHOO, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Hi Robyn. I agree with the latter. I think every time we've had to rule something out, whether it's testing or contract tracing, or a supply or a support for hospitals, it's really been disorganized. No lack of -- complete lack of central coordination and guidance and resources.

And so, vaccine distribution is pretty much the same. There just hasn't been a strong centralized, well-organized, coordinated effort across state that would give kind of turnkey approaches that would allow us to hit the ground running and be efficient.

And certainly not the level of resources we need in terms of - particularly in terms of the health care workforce to really make mass vaccination happen.

CURNOW: So then what must the Biden team do as soon as they take office? What needs to change? How do you centralize this vaccine rollout?

CHOO: Yes. Well, the Biden administration first of all have the expertise for the operational aspects and also for the scientific pieces. These are all public health and science and medicine people who have done the sort of efforts before.

And I think the main thing is that they're excellent communicators. So they've made a lot of efforts already to try to bring people together around the same table so that you can have the same strategic conversations, figure out what states need and also mobilize every resources needed to get to states what they need to do this efficiently and well.

CURNOW: Are you in agreement with the thinking that perhaps all these vaccinations need to be given out and not stockpiled for the second dose for the first - -the people in the beginning of the queue? What is your thought on that?

CHOO: Yes, you know, there is so much debate around this and I think people that I respect fall on different sides of it. I think there's an argument for scientific purity. We know what happens, what the outcomes are if we have a 2-dose regimen that is precisely timed at a way that it is in the phase 3 trials.

I am actually of a different camp though on this. I think from an equity perspective and to give people more hope, I do think that we should use the vaccine we have as quickly as possible to get it to as many people as possible.

I think the public, if we communicate well, can understand why we're doing that. And I also think, again, the Biden administration is prepared to shore up the manufacturing and the distribution in every way that is needed in order to ensure that everybody still gets that 2-dose regimen roughly in the right time period.

Ans so, I have a lot of faith in this team and I think that's really the issue, is if we believe that the manufacturing can be boosted then nothing is lost by distributing what we have now as quickly as possible.

CURNOW: So folks just need to hold tight for a little while longer in your opinion.

CHOO: Nine more days.

CURNOW: Let's talk about - let's just talk about California. Absolutely desperate. The numbers are crazy. I think it's one in five people who have it. It might be worse than that now. What do you make of what's playing out in California? Do we have any sense of the disaster that's unfolding?

CHOO: It's just bone-chilling, I'm hearing directly from colleagues there and just following them very closely. I think it's just very hard to imagine unless you're on the ground there, but simply whole health systems that are overwhelmed by COVID.

I mean, in some counties, as much as two-thirds of patients in hospitals are being treated for COVID. And then there is all the rest of the patients who need regular care who are clearly being crowded out. It is very difficult to even get transport to a hospital. You call the ambulance for an emergency. You're transported and you have to be managed there in the ambulance bay because they simply cannot bring more patients into the hospital.

Nurses have an incredibly high burden right now. Of course, the governor lifted the usual restrictions on how many patients each nurse can take care of. Ans so their workload has just gone through the roof. That doesn't feel safe to a lot of people, but it's simply what's necessary right now.

These are unimaginable conditions on the ground there, and of course we're only part way through January which as you said, is really looking like it will be the worst month in this pandemic so far and I think that will stretch into February.

CURNOW: Doctor, we've spoken a lot over, I think, the past eight months or so, and I've asked you every time how you are doing, how your team is doing and what's it like in the E.R. at the moment. Tell us please, how are you doing?

[02:25:03

CHOO: Yes. You know, there is kind of good news and bad news. I'm in Oregon where we are, knock on wood, nothing like California right now. We've managed to keep things at bay with more - with pretty aggressive social restrictions, but it's been still, a very sustained effort.

I think the nice thing is at this stage in the pandemic, we have a lot of things in place, you know, our protocols around treating COVID patients, we're much more confident in the medical treatment of these patients. We know better how to keep ourselves, our colleagues, and our family members safe.

So, there certainly are things that get easier as we go, but it is, of course, very discouraging to have been in crisis mode for this long, really almost a full year now.

CURNOW: It is. Dr. Esther Choo, as always, thanks for everything you do. Appreciate it.

CHOO: Thank you, Robyn.

CURNOW: So coming up here on CNN, U.S. Democrats will attempt to compel the vice president to remove Donald Trump with impeachment as the next step, if he doesn't. The latest on that, after the break.

Plus, China is offering to help developing nations gain access to coronavirus vaccines, but the country is also facing criticism for that effort. We'll explain why western nations are skeptical.

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CURNOW: Welcome back to all of our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. I'm Robyn Curnow.

[02:30:00]

It is 29 minutes past the hour and I am live here at the CCN Center in Atlanta. So in just a few hours' time, the U.S. Democrats will introduce the resolution calling on the Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 24th amendment and remove Donald Trump from office now the resolution is expected to get a full vote on Tuesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says she will bring impeachment legislation to the floor if Mr. Pence does not respond, to the first measure within 24 hours. Pelosi announced, that plan late on Sunday. It's the first time she has definitely said, the House will move to impeach the President if he's not removed.

Now this all means, we're in for a pretty eventful week. Let's get more on that from Jeremy Diamond, Jeremy.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Well, as House speaker Nancy Pelosi indicates that the House will move this week to impeach President Trump, the President faces the increasing possibility that he will become the first President in American history to be impeached twice by the House of Representatives. Now the trial in the senate is a whole other matter and it's very unlikely that will happen before present electoral Biden is inaugurated, on January 20th. But the President is facing not only this prospect of impeachment, he's also facing calls for his resignation, including from several key Republican senators. And he's also facing this question of the 25th amendment, so with some calling for the President to be stripped of his Presidential powers through that amendment.

Now President Trump making very clear according to our sources, that he has no intention of resigning, despite his role in citing that mob on Capitol Hill last week. But there is this question of the 25th amendment, and the move by the House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, will put a lot more pressure on Vice President Mike Pence to make clear what his position is on this 25th amendment. So far, we've just heard from sources close to the Vice President that first of its highly unlikely that he will actually invoke the 25th amendment. And second of all that he's still not taking it completely off the table, because he wants to preserve it as an option should President Trump's behavior become more unstable.

But it is remarkable, that despite 4 years of unfailing royalty to President Trump, we have yet to hear Mike Pence say himself we're or thrown on the record statement on his office, that he does not support invoking the 25th amendment to strip President Trump of his Presidential powers. That in of itself is remarkable and this move by the House Speaker could increase the pressure on Mike Pence to actually make his position much more clear.

Now on Sunday, President Trump also finally move to lower the flag on top of the White House, to order flags across the country to lower half staff in honor of Capitol Hill police officer, Brian Sicknick who was killed in the line of duty during that siege on Capitol Hill. Remarkable though, that it took President Trump 2 days longer than it took the House speaker Nancy Pelosi to order that move and only after a lot of withering criticism, Jeremy Diamond, CNN, the White House.

CURNOW: As Jeremy mentioned there, officers Sicknick passed away from injuries he sustained during the insurrection, on Sunday a funeral procession was held in his honor, a line of police officers saluted his versus a pass by the capital. The site of his brutal attack, his colleagues remembered him as a friend who served on the force for more than 12 years.

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[02:35:00]

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CURNOW: The coronavirus has now infected more than 90 million people around the world and nearly 2 million people have died. That's according to John Hopkins University, and those are just the cases we know of. Vaccines are offering a measure of hope the British government says it will publish its vaccine delivery planned later on Monday. More than 1,000 have already been established across the U.K. German health officials say more than 40,000 people there have died from the virus, the country has also counted nearly 17,000 new infections in the past day.

Officials there have already extended the country's national lockdown, until the end of the month. And China is promising to provide vaccines to African nations and other developing countries who have been able to secure many doses. Kristie Lu Stout takes a look at how Beijing is attempting to use vaccines to bolster its ties with nations.

KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Africa first, despite a raging in pandemic. China's top diplomat, one he continued a long held tradition of making the continent, its first port of call in the New Year. And because of a raging pandemic, many African nations need help. During the visit, the Democratic Republic of Congo announced China, granted some pandemic linked debt relief. With an elbow bump, Nigeria and China pledged to deepen bilateral cooperation in economic development and pandemic response. Before the, visit long spoke to state run media, pledging continued cooperation to aid in the virus.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: China has called for global cooperation since the start and worked with other countries to fight the pandemic.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STOUT: In May, President Xi Jinping pledge to make Chinese vaccines a global good. China has promised a growing list of developing countries across Africa and Asia, priority access to its actions. And it's planning to send hundreds of millions of doses, to a long list of countries that have conducted last stage trials, including Brazil, Turkey, and Indonesia.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STOUT: It's been called vaccine diplomacy, and we will say that it's a soft power play by China to reshape the pandemic narrative and repair its image damage by the initial mishandling of the outbreak.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So they want to improve China's image and secondly they want to expand the market share of the Chinese vaccines. Third they want to use that as - the vaccine sort of, as a strategic tool, especially in the countries where China has strategic interests.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And the idea of Beijing mounting a vaccine diplomacy campaign.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STOUT: The terms doesn't sit well with China, state media rejects the notion that its vaccines are bargaining chip. China's vaccines do have the public health advantages, compared to the Pfizer BioNTech and Moderna vaccines. They don't require ultra low temperature for storage, making shipment easier in the developing world. China's Sinovac in Sinopharm may have announced efficacy rates lower than Pfizer Moderna, but they're higher than the AstraZeneca Oxford vaccine. But vaccine diplomacy is not as easy as a shot in the arm. There is a worrying lack of transparency, no detailed advocacy data has been released for China's leading vaccine candidates by Sinovac and Sinopharm.

But two developing nations, there are potential lifesaver. According to the people's vaccine alliance, rich countries have purchased enough COVID-19 vaccine doses to immunize their populations three times over. In 67 poor nations, including Nigeria only one in 10 can hope to be vaccinated by the end of the year.

[02:40:00]

According to the International Vaccination WHO Group, having largely contained the vaccine at home, China can focus its vaccine drive on those very countries, a chance to restore its reputation and position itself as the solution to rather than the cause of the pandemic, Kristie Lu Stout, CNN, Hong Kong.

CURNOW: Thank you Christy for, so health officials in India say they plan to start their coronavirus vaccine drive on Saturday. Now they say their first phase will prioritize health care and frontline workers, followed by people age 50 and all of those who are vulnerable. Official plans reach millions of people with this vaccine drive. India has the 2nd highest case count in the world behind the U.S., with nearly 10.5 million recorded infections. So thanks for watching CNN Newsroom, I'm Robyn Curnow, for our international viewers world sport is next. I am going to hand you over to them for everyone else I will be back with more news, after the break.

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[02:45:00]

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CURNOW: Welcome back. I'm Robyn Curnow. Its 45 minutes past the hour. So the U.S. plans to designate Yemen's Houthi rebels a foreign terror group, Secretary of State Mike compares this move will provide additional tools to confront the Iran back militia, diplomats and aid groups fear the designation could damage the U.N's work on peace talks in Yemen and hinder humanitarian aid. It could also pose challenges for the incoming U.S. President Joe Biden to try and create a Yemen policy.

Now, in the coming hours the U.S. House is expected to urge Vice President Mike Pence to take steps to remove President Trump from office by enact the 25th amendment. If he doesn't act within the 24 hours House speaker Nancy Pelosi says she'll move ahead with the unprecedented second impeachment of the President. And new poll shows majority of Americans believe Mr. Trump should be removed before his terms ends in 10 days time. And two thirds of American believes the President shares blame for those riots.

And those scenes the world watched unfold at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday were of course extraordinary. Yet American woke up the next day to relative order. Nick Paton Walsh looks at how the day's events underscore the strengths and flaws of the American system.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN NEWS INTERNATIONAL SECURITY EDITOR: But I think as argued on a piece on CNN digital there were many similarities here between the violent, ugly scenes rioting frankly, the forged their way into the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday but there are also some key differences, frankly in how the United States reacted to that situation. Now in so much of the attempted coups that I or others have seen around the world there is the next morning an extraordinary sense of uncertainty, a real sense of fear perhaps that something fundamental has changed in the fabric of the country.

You might see the President perhaps in hiding or appearing much more bullish on television depending on what's just happened. You might find state TV playing propaganda that can be a real sense of and best opening up. What was quite extraordinary the morning after Wednesday was to see how the system simply picked up again in the United States. Perhaps competing vision of seeing cable news, rolling news channels reporting the events, openly, transparently dissecting them other branches of the government, of parts of congress, parts of the Democratic opposition standing up, expressing their fury about what had in fact happened, the capacity, frankly, for people to do that openly is something that is extraordinarily rare around the world particularly after attempted coups.

And certainly I think some of the language that was used around that particular violence, it reflects how extraordinarily surprised Americans were to see this. There'd been multiple warnings but still no sight like that. But the key thing I think for many to remember particularly they'll be urged on perhaps in that sense of recognition by people who genuinely have survived or still live under tyranny the U.S. system did still manage to prevail.

Yes, it has flaws. Yes it flaws to enable it to get that particular savage point outside the congress where five people lost their lives, important to remember that. But still there were parts of democracy there that kicked into action. There was law. There was order. The rioters when they got inside those buildings didn't to some degree seem get what it was they perhaps had gone there for. They were stopped by brave police officers. They were prevented from achieving whatever it was in fact their goals had indeed been.

And then swiftly afterwards finally the pentagon moved into action, other law enforcement as well. So I think it's important to Americans who perhaps look at those scenes and think, gosh, what is happening to our democracy, is the fabric of our system falling apart, to remember that it isn't. And to remember there are many around the world who have been through similar scenes of unrest seen we've seen the foundation of their daily lives shaken by coups or attempted coups, by scenes like that who will look at how America managed to recover quite so fast, how it had law and order, how we have had those guardrails and feel in some sense an extraordinary sense of gel jealousy to a degree.

Yes, American has a deeply flawed system where extremities are often allowed too much of a voice that many might have argue, but it's important to remember how much order there was still there, how much fairness the law still seemed to provide to those who sought justice and how that may hold America in a better position as it navigates the complicated nightmare of the political environment in the weeks ahead. Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, London.

CURNOW: Well, the U.S. President is vowing to fight tech companies during his final days in office after getting booted from twitter and other social media giants. In less than an hour Amazon will remove Parler from its cloud hosting service effectively taking it off the public internet until it can find a new web hosting provider.

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This comes after Apple and Google banned the alternative social network from their platforms. Apple gave Parler 24 hours to remove hateful and violent comments before removing the app. Well, here to discuss this is John Defterios; John joins us now live from Dubai. John, hi, this is certainly a defiant and coordinated response by tech companies?

JOHN DEFTERIOS, CNN BUSINESS EMERGING MARKETS EDITOR: Indeed, Robyn. At first Silicon Valley was seen as being too soft on Donald Trump, his base and the traffic they developed both to web hosting companies and for mobile phone groups as well. That all changed after the attacks on Capitol Hill last Wednesday. Let's cover the mobile platform of Apple and also Google. Apple has suggested Parler was the number one free app on the platform, so this says a great deal. They're willing to take action in the name of hate and organizing a violent protest like what happened on Capitol Hill.

They said the language continued thereafter, Amazon web services a major web hosting platform saying they warned Parler in a letter before they had to change the practices. They said there were nearly 100 examples that continued even after that warning. Now from Parler's standpoint the CEO John Matze was saying that this is politically motivated and that Silicon Valley wants to kill off competition. Parler said it would take publicly about a week for them to find a new web host. We don't know what that will mean or who will step up to do so.

But this is part of also a bigger move here by Silicon Valley to be seen as proactive. You remember the Republican senate called Silicon Valley CEO's to hearings suggesting they were violating free speech. This is an effort to try to balance free speech but also being seen as proactive for the future, Robyn, because they don't want to be overly regulated by a new Biden administration.

CURNOW: That's interesting. Let's talk about silencing the President's twitter feed. It's certainly going to hit him hard. He's relied very heavily on communicating through that medium. But we also know what will hit him hard and potentially it will be this move from the PGA. Tell us more.

DEFTERIOS: Yes. A very busy weekend against Donald Trump and his organization, you almost feel like a light has switched on here, Robyn, and that the Trump brand has become very toxic quickly. The PGA hosts one of the big four golf championships every year in the United States. They were to host their championship in May 2022 at Bedminster, Trump of course in New Jersey so think about it. In May 2022 they've taken the decision now saying it's detrimental to the PGA brand. That was the board decision. Jim Richardson who's the President of the PGA said they could no longer work in collaboration with the Trump organization.

The Trump organization was suggesting for its part that this was a binding contract, so they planned legal action. But obviously the PGA thinks that they had an exit clause in that contract for something like this taking place. But you have to think about it. Donald Trump lives off that brand, Robyn, as you're suggesting. Not just on social media but on apartment buildings, hotels and on golf courses around the world. I think this is something that's going to just be the start of something in terms of a trend not only in the United States but abroad as well. There's a Trump course here developed in Dubai as well.

CURNOW: John Defterios it was good to speak to you. Thanks so much for that update there.

DEFTERIOS: Thanks Robyn.

CURNOW: Thank you, John. So vogue magazine's sparking controversy with a cover shoot to Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris. I want to show you this cover. This is for the February feature which was leaked on Twitter. It shows Harris wearing a dark suit and her trademark converse sneakers. Now there's nothing obviously wrong with it except a source says this is not the picture Vice President-Elect Harris agreed to.

The magazine later released this picture and says it will run both images in digital editions. Vogue said they felt the more informal images captured Harris "authentic approachable nature". Well, thanks so much for joining me here on CNN. I'm Robyn Curnow. The news continues with my colleague Rosemary Church.

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