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NYT: House Dems Briefed on Specific Threats to U.S. Capitol & Lawmakers; House to Vote on Resolution to Pressure V.P. to Invoke 25th Amendment. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired January 12, 2021 - 06:00   ET

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


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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: According to an FBI bulletin, armed protests are being planned in Washington, D.C., and all 50 state capitals.

[05:59:14]

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Our goals are to protect the District of Columbia from a repeat of the violent insurrection.

House Democrats took the first step today toward impeaching President Trump a second time.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is obvious that the president is no longer qualified to hold that office.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Kevin McCarthy has been telling colleagues that the president now feels like he bears some responsibility for all this. We should take all of that with a massive grain of salt.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This administration will always, in the ranks of history, be bookended to explosions of white supremacist violence.

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ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is NEW DAY. It's Tuesday, January 12. It's 6 a.m. here in New York.

And this morning, new and disturbing details about planned attacks on the U.S. Capitol. In other words, real fear this is not over. "The New York Times" reporting overnight that House Democrats have been briefed on several specific threats to the Capitol and to lawmakers. "The Times" reports that law enforcement is planning for a number of worst- case scenarios, including snipers and active shooters, suicide aircraft attacks, even armed drones.

A two-week state of emergency now in effect in the nation's capital. The FBI is warning of armed protests being planned in all 50 state capitals and in Washington, D.C., beginning this weekend. Up to 15,000 National Guard troops ready to secure the inauguration.

But so far not a single briefing from the U.S. Capitol Police, the FBI, the Justice Department, homeland security. And add to that the acting head of the Department of Homeland Security abruptly resigned last night.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: This morning investigators are also looking into the actions of a dozen Capitol Police officers at the insurrection who were supposed to be protecting lawmakers. At least two have been suspended. One of them took a selfie with a rioter. Another wore a MAGA hat and directed rioters around the building.

The clock is ticking for Vice President Mike Pence to force out President Trump from office using the 25th Amendment. If that does not happen, House Democrats plan to vote tomorrow to again impeach President Trump.

We will see President Trump, we're told, for the first time today since he sent that mob to storm the Capitol.

CNN's Jessica Schneider is live in Washington with our top story. What do we expect, Jessica?

JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn.

We've obtained an internal FBI bulletin that indicates last week's siege was potentially just the beginning of a cascade of violence from people determined to plunge this country into chaos.

Federal, state and local law enforcement agencies are now scrambling to understand and thwart those threats. Yet, law enforcement officials still haven't briefed the public about what to expect.

This comes as "The New York Times" reporting that House Democrats were briefed last night by Capitol Police and the sergeant at arms about just how dangerous a threat the Capitol and landmarks all across the country could face.

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SCHNEIDER: Six days after the riots at the Capitol, and law enforcement is bracing for more potential violence as an internal FBI bulletin warns of credible calls for armed protests at all 50 state capitals and Washington, D.C., in the lead-up to the inauguration.

The FBI also says it has "received information on a group calling for others to join them in storming state, local and federal government courthouses and administrative buildings in the event POTUS is removed as president prior to Inauguration Day."

Another critical concern are reports of threats against President- elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris ahead of inauguration.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm not afraid of taking the oath outside. And we've been getting briefed. SCHNEIDER: President Donald Trump approving a request from Washington,

D.C.'s mayor, Muriel Bowser, for an emergency declaration to provide assistance for inauguration day. Bowser has been urging people to avoid Washington entirely that day.

MAYOR MURIEL BOWSER (D), WASHINGTON, D.C.: If I'm scared of anything, it's for our democracy, because we have very extreme factions in our country. Trumpism won't die on January 20.

SCHNEIDER: According to the National Guard bureau chief, the Pentagon has approved an increase of National Guard troops for the inauguration.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're building that up to 15,000 between now and the inauguration to make sure that we meet every requirement from each of those federal agencies to make sure that they can conduct a peaceful transfer of power of inauguration on the 20th of January.

SCHNEIDER: The FBI bulletin obtained by CNN provides crucial information at a time when no federal law enforcement agency has held a public briefing since the Wednesday attacks, fueling questions of how the attack on the Capitol was able to happen.

REP. TIM RYAN (D-OH): I don't have any direct evidence of -- as yet -- of any kind of inside job. We do have a couple of Capitol Police taking selfies, and another -- another Capitol Police evidently put on a MAGA hat and was walking people.

SCHNEIDER: Several Capitol Police officers have been suspended, and several others are under investigation, according to the acting chief of the Capitol Police. She says that the department is reviewing video and other open-source materials for any potential violations that could result in termination for the officers.

Authorities say investigating ties between insurrectionists and law enforcement is a priority. This video has circulated widely on social media. It appears to show an officer posing for a selfie with a rioter.

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SCHNEIDER: So the investigation into these Capitol Police officers continues, but the preparations for possible violence come just as the acting homeland security secretary, Chad Wolf, has resigned from his role. He was facing court pushback to the validity of his position.

So while these threats mount, it appears the security leadership apparatus in our country, John, is also faltering.

BERMAN: All right, Jessica, please keep us posted. Jessica Schneider in the Capitol. Thank you so much.

[06:05:04]

CNN senior law enforcement analyst Andrew McCabe joins us now. He's the former deputy director of the FBI. And Andy, "The New York Times" reporting overnight that Democratic

lawmakers were briefed on concerns about the inauguration, including snipers, suicide craft, possible drones.

What we need from you is how much of this is standard issue for inaugurations and what are you most concerned about this morning?

ANDREW MCCABE, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: So good morning, John.

I read the same reporting that you're referring to. And you know, that laundry list of potentially horrendous terrorist acts, those are the exact sort of threats that people who plan events, national security special events like the inauguration, think about and develop counter- measures for all the time.

So that list sounds much more to me like a -- you know, at least bringing the -- our lawmakers up to speed on the range of possible actions that we could see, rather than a list of specific threats that they expect to happen.

The inauguration as a national security special event is typically incredibly well-protected. There is a massive effort across numerous agencies in D.C. Hundreds of officers are brought in from surrounding states. We now have a National Guard deployment of upwards of 15,000 troops.

I'm pretty confident -- although we likely will see disruptive activity here, I am pretty confident that the inauguration will be safe.

CAMEROTA: But Andy, what about --

MCCABE: The activity that we're thinking about now --

CAMEROTA: Sorry to interrupt. But what about the scope of the advisory? This is separate from the inauguration. The FBI advisory that went out that said expect armed protests in all 50 state capitals.

MCCABE: Alisyn, that's the piece that concerns me the most. The inauguration is a hard target, well-secured. The security posture of state houses in 50 states is very different, state to state.

Many states are struggling right now with resource challenges, especially coming out of the pandemic. The states haven't had the sort of preparation lead to get ready for this sort of activity in the way that maybe they should.

And it only takes success in one or two locations for this to turn into a galvanizing rallying call -- rallying call for this extremist movement. So that's the part that really concerns me the most.

BERMAN: What do you -- what do you feel about some explicit statements from lawmakers in what we're hearing occasionally behind the scenes, concerns about people on the inside, the fact that two Capitol Hill police officers were removed from their jobs? The fact that there are members of police forces from around the country that may have been at this insurrection in Washington, D.C.? What do you make of that?

MCCABE: You know, extremism of any stripe is an insidious and corrosive -- has an insidious and corrosive effect on law enforcement, on the structures that hold up law and order. So these sorts of investigations are absolutely essential. And I think all agencies will try to root those people out of their ranks.

However, even let's take the Capitol Police, for an example. You have, so far, the examples of a few individuals who may have committed acts of misconduct, balanced against the many actions of the men and women who heroically preserved the safety and security of our lawmakers and, ultimately, put themselves in harm's way to try to repel that attack.

So, you know, I think it's important that we maintain some balance here. If there are bad apples in the group, they have to be found and removed. That is not going to help us in any way, but I still have enormous confidence in our law enforcement community.

CAMEROTA: Andy, how about the idea, the fact I should say, that now the chief of the Capitol Police has resigned after this, the -- as of last night, the head of homeland security has resigned, the Senate sergeant at arms was ousted, the House sergeant at arms was ousted? So I'm not sure this is any time for, like, on-the-job learning for the people who are coming in to replace all these folks. I mean, how concerned should we be about this?

MCCABE: You know, it is maybe the worst time for that top level of law enforcement leadership to start crumbling.

The actions of Chad Wolf resigning yesterday, you know, essentially walking away on the eve of the fight, is inexplicable to me, and of course, the Department of Homeland Security, you know, in charge of the Secret Service, who has lead for the entire event, that is just a remarkably concerning step.

I think that some of the worst impact of it is the message that it sends to the troops below, you know, who are professionals and trained and dedicated to their jobs, but to have their own leadership walk away on the eve of the event is -- it's incredibly dispiriting for those folks who we need to put themselves in harm's way. It's a very, very strange move.

[06:10:15]

Andy, what do we need to be hearing this morning in public from the FBI, from federal law enforcement agencies? And what plausible explanation could there be for the silence of FBI Director Christopher Wray?

MCCABE: Well, John, we know from having been through many crisis events in the -- over the last decade that one of the key strategies to not only respond to a crisis but to prepare for a possible crisis is communication. And that is, first and foremost, communication with the public to let folks know not only what threats and concerns are out there but also to reassure them that we are taking the right steps to counter those threats. And really importantly, communicating with our lawmakers on the Hill.

Look, it's not a part of the job that anybody looks forward to. But it's absolutely essential. The fact that we haven't heard from that community is really concerning.

The law enforcement community in D.C. is -- is large and diverse and works together all the time. These people know how to do this. The fact that we're not hearing from them right now is -- it's concerning. I hope they turn that around very quickly. We have a few days to go before the inauguration. They need to be out in front letting us know what to expect.

BERMAN: Every day, honestly. With eight days left --

MCCABE: Absolutely.

BERMAN: -- why not come out every day and make us feel OK about it, or at least know what to look for and what's going on?

Andy McCabe, thanks so much for being with us. I really feel like you helped us understand a wide range of things this morning.

MCCABE: Sure.

CAMEROTA: So in just a few hours, the House will vote on a resolution to pressure Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove President Trump from office. The action sets the stage for a historic second impeachment vote in the House tomorrow.

CNN's Sunlen Serfaty is live for us on Capitol Hill with more. So what's going to happen, Sunlen?

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Alisyn.

Well, this certainly is a significant moment up here on Capitol Hill. Democrats are moving very quickly. Today, we will see them essentially laying the ground work, setting the stage essentially, to set up that vote tomorrow to make President Trump the first American president to be impeached twice.

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SERFATY (voice-over): Exactly one week after a pro-Trump mob held a deadly riot storming the U.S. Capitol, House Democrats plan to vote to impeach President Trump for the second time tomorrow. Formally introducing an article of impeachment Monday, charging the president with incitement of insurrection.

REP. COLIN ALLRED (D-TX): The Capitol of the United States was attacked by a mob of the supporters directed by the president of the United States, who called them there and who sent them there. And there has to be accountability for that. SERFATY: Some Republican lawmakers already calling on Trump to resign.

And one GOP congressman says he is strongly considering voting to impeach him.

REP. PETER (R-MI): To me, this is not the timing that we -- you know, that is ideal. I'd prefer that we have a more fulsome investigation into what happened. Most of what I know about January 6 came either from personal experience or from Twitter. But at the end of the day, I think it is -- it is obvious that the president is no longer qualified to hold that office.

SERFATY: Despite a source telling CNN House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy indicated Trump holds some responsibility for the attempted coup, he told his Republican colleagues in a letter, quote, "Impeachment at this time would have the opposite effect of bringing our country together when we need to get America back on a path towards unity and civility."

REP. JASON CROW (D-CO): Every hour that he sits in the White House is an hour where the American people and the world is less safe. So I will not rest until we ensure that he is removed from office as quickly as we possibly can, using whatever tools are at our disposal.

SERFATY: The House will vote on a resolution tonight, urging Vice President Mike Pence to use the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hang Mike Pence! Hang Mike Pence!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hang Mike Pence! Hang Mike Pence! UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hang Mike Pence! Hang Mike Pence!

SERFATY: Pence, one of the apparent targets by some rioters, was seen leaving the White House Monday night, after speaking to the president for the first time since last week's insurrection on the U.S. Capitol, two administration officials tell CNN.

President-elect Joe Biden says the decision to move forward with impeachment is up to Congress but wants to make sure that it does not derail his agenda.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: You go a half day on dealing with the impeachment and a half day getting my people nominated and confirmed in the Senate, as well as moving on the (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

SERFATY: Meantime, some Capitol Hill Democrats say it will be possible to hold an impeachment trial without slowing down the start of Biden's new administration.

SEN. SHERROD BROWN (D-OH): We can do impeachment while we're doing these other things that deal with this, to combat the coronavirus and rebuild the economy starting now, starting January 20.

(END VIDEOTAPE) SERFATY: And as we see all of this movement today and over the next few days in the House of representatives, it's worth reminding ourselves that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, he has said that he does not intend to bring his chamber back from recess until January 19. So, of course, a Senate trial would begin likely not until the start of the Biden administration -- John.

[06:15:19]

BERMAN: All right. Sunlen Serfaty on Capitol Hill. A lot of activity there this morning. Please keep us posted.

Meanwhile, we have new reporting on what President Trump was doing inside the White House during the insurrection. And also, the conspiracy theories he is still pushing on Republican lawmakers behind the scenes.

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CAMEROTA: House Democrats will vote today on a resolution to urge Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove President Trump from power. If that does not work, the House plans to vote on impeaching President Trump a second time for inciting the deadly Capitol insurrection.

Joining us now, CNN political analyst Margaret Talev. She's the managing editor at Axios. And CNN political commentator Errol Louis, political anchor for Spectrum News. Great to have both of you here.

Let me just pull up the Republican members of Congress, just to remind everybody, Errol, who were all in, you know, on trying to overturn the election. There were something -- you know, more than 100 of them who wanted to deny the vote count of the Electoral College. They still stuck with the big lie that the, you know, election was somehow illegitimate.

[06:20:23]

So, what's going to happen for this impeachment vote? And are we seeing any erosion of the Republicans who came out very strongly after the insurrection and said it was time for President Trump to go?

ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes. The -- the impeachment looks like it's a done deal. The Democratic leadership of the House, Nancy Pelosi and her top aides, they don't bring a vote unless they can win the vote on something like this. And so clearly, they've sampled their conference, and the Democratic majority is going to prevail. And they will get their impeachment vote.

What the Republicans do, of course, is a very big question. They were clearly unable or unequal to the moment. The country needed them to really do their duty and cut through a lot of the political B.S. and safeguard the Constitution and the integrity of this election. And they simply chose not to do so. They -- they went with the cheap politics of the moment. Some of them, we have to assume, are actually in fear of that mob.

Because when they go back to their districts far away from Washington or New York, they have to confront a bunch of people who were clearly violent and irrational and willing to do damage. When you see people chanting that they want to kill members of the government --

CAMEROTA: "Hang Mike Pence" --

LOUIS: -- they've got to take that into consideration.

CAMEROTA: -- was another -- was another chant.

LOUIS: Other than that, this is -- this is, I think, their own doing.

BERMAN: Margaret, you have some new reporting in Axios this morning that really should inform Republicans when they walk into that impeachment vote. Basically, within the last 24 hours, the president was still spinning conspiracy theories in a conversation with Kevin McCarthy. What did you learn?

MARGARET TALEV, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: That's right. And good morning, John and Alisyn.

So Jonathan Swan and Alayna Treene reporting for us last night two parts. The first part is this.

We know that Kevin McCarthy told his caucus yesterday that there was indisputably no evidence, that people linked to antifa were not driving that siege last week. But here's the rest of the story.

President Trump yesterday had at least a half-an-hour call with the Republican leader, McCarthy, insisting that they did, blaming, quote, "antifa people" for that siege on the Capitol. And it was our understanding a very tense call, with McCarthy saying, It's not antifa, it's MAGA. I know because I was there. And just getting increasingly exasperated during this call. At one point stopping to cut in the president and say, Stop it. It's over. The election is over.

McCarthy's frustration evident, but McCarthy has helped get the president as far as he is now. And so that's the situation we're in.

I think if you look at that, if you look at the president's meeting with the vice president last night at the White House, the read-out of which was meant to send a very clear signal that they have found some kind of peace at this moment, tells you that the 25th Amendment effort is not poised to go forward at this moment.

And that, despite -- despite Republicans trying to broadcast the notion that they've made their point and the president gets it, that he doesn't get it and is continuing to insist that things that didn't happen happened. And not to own what did happen.

CAMEROTA: Errol, not only does the president not get it, he was checked out. Where was he during those six hours of the insurrection while Republicans, lawmakers were calling him to ask for help, to ask for sending for backup? And he didn't take the call and didn't get back to them. Why?

There's new "Washington Post" reporting: "'He was hard to reach, and you know why? Because it was live TV,' said one close Trump adviser. 'If it's TiVo, he hits pause and takes the call. If it's live TV, he watches it. And he was just watching it all unfold.'"

Like a 5-year-old, he couldn't drag himself away from the stimulation of watching, you know, this deadly insurrection on television.

And I just have to pause one second for a major hypocrisy alert. I wish we had a gong right now.

Do you remember in 2012, do you remember the year that FOX News Channel devoted to beating the drum of where was Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during Benghazi? What was she doing during Benghazi? She was in her office being briefed, by the way, just for the record. And you don't hear the same question about the president of the United States that people were calling to try to save their lives.

LOUIS: That's right. Apparently, there were about six hours between when the terrorist attacked the Capitol and when we finally heard from the president.

[06:25:09]

Look, it's tempting to put a psychological overlay on it or even to compare it to the story of the sorcerer's apprentice, who set something in motion, or Frankenstein, who creates a monster and then loses control of it.

But the reality is it's -- the Capitol Hill is now a crime scene. And to the extent that the president set this thing in motion and then apparently sat paralyzed, perhaps he was waiting to see how it would play out. Perhaps he was hoping, like a failed gambler, that somehow the horse -- his horse was going to round the turn and make a miraculous recovery from behind.

That, I think, is the more likely explanation of why he sat there and waited and waited and waited and tried to see if he could finally succeed in overturning the election.

BERMAN: Margaret, we've got a few seconds left. What's the very latest you're hearing about how this process will play out? Impeachment is happening, right? We know that the impeachment vote will happen within the next 24 hours. It does appear definite the president will be impeached. Then what?

TALEV: Well, so the issue becomes when does this get sent over to the Senate for action and how do they proceed? And I think one wild card we need to watch is this idea of censure, which Pelosi has made clear she has no interest in pursuing in the House. But I think you're going to see a number of Republicans in the Senate, as well as the House, try to seize on this as a second alternative. That's going to be one roadblock.

And the other is going to be Biden's legitimate concern that he needs to be able to govern. And the discussions going on right now among Democrats in the Senate are, as Biden has said, can you bifurcate this? Is it possible, if this doesn't start until after he's inaugurated, which looks like would be the case -- McConnell has no interest in starting an emergency session with Chuck Schumer right now -- can Biden get his cabinet confirmed and get down to the business of COVID and helping the nation to heal, and the Senate pursue an impeachment trial at the same time?

So a lot of uncertainty in the days to come, but it certainly looks like this impeachment vote is going to happen in the House tomorrow. And then the ball is in the Senate's court.

And in the meantime, the hope of Republicans, as well as Democrats, is that the specter of all this will reign in President Trump, because even the threat of the Senate being able to convict him, perhaps would exert some pressure on him to try to keep the peace in the remaining days of his administration.

CAMEROTA: Yes. There's been a lot of Republicans in the past who thought, Well, this time it will do it. This time he's been, you know -- his wings have been clipped somehow. But that hasn't -- we haven't actually seen that yet.

Margaret Talev, Errol Louis, thank you both very much for the conversation.

BERMAN: I think we need some kind of roll-in. "This is a special hypocrisy alert."

CAMEROTA: Why don't we have that?

BERMAN: We're getting it.

CAMEROTA: OK. Thank you.

BERMAN: You're very powerful.

CAMEROTA: Thank you very much.

Will President Trump face criminal charges for inciting that deadly mob? A former federal prosecutor who was a key -- who is key to the first impeachment trial is going to join us next.

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