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U.S. Capitol Attack Was Planned; Online Chatter Suggested Capitol Attack; Biden's Plan to Accelerate Vaccines. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired January 14, 2021 - 06:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:32:19]

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Developing this morning, a new intelligence bulletin warning that the attack on the U.S. Capitol will likely motivate extremists to commit more violence and that online chatter is, quote, off the charts.

This as CNN has learned that federal investigators have uncovered evidence that leads them to believe that the Capitol siege was planned.

CNN's Jessica Schneider is live in Washington with more.

What have you learned, Jessica?

JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn.

Video continues to emerge that shows many of these rioters had an intimate knowledge of the layout of the Capitol and they came armed with tools and weapons to force their way in. So prosecutors are now looking at all of this to determine how the attack was planned and organized, and they're also following the money for clues. And this as we've learned FBI Director Chris Wray gave a briefing to law enforcement officials across the country on Wednesday warning violent domestic extremists still pose the most significant threat next week at the inauguration.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SCHNEIDER (voice over): A federal law enforcement source tells CNN that surveillance footage indicates the domestic terror attack on the Capitol last week was not just a protest that spiraled out of control.

JAMES COMEY, FORMER FBI DIRECTOR: Look, there's no doubt there were at least some conspiracies. People wandering around exercising their First Amendment rights don't bring ropes and ladders and sledge hammers to a spontaneous event. This was a planned assault, as if going after a castle.

SCHNEIDER: The tactics and weapons seen on surveillance video suggest a high level of planning went into the attack, the law enforcement source says. Some attendees of President Donald Trump's speech left the event early, possibly to retrieve items to be used in the assault on the Capitol. Law enforcement officials are following the money to try to piece together the events of January 6th.

MICHAEL SHERWIN, ACTING U.S. ATTORNEY, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: We're looking at everything, money, travel records, looking at disposition, movement, communication records.

SCHNEIDER: Officials are also investigating reports that groups of people received tours from members of Congress the day before the attack. Investigators stress that does not mean any members of Congress are under investigation. More than 30 House members have called on the sergeant at arms and Capitol Police to investigate what one House Democrat is calling a reconnaissance mission.

REP. TED LIEU (D-CA): No one is above the law. Not the president, not his attorney, and certainly not any member of Congress. If any member of Congress incited the insurrection or gave inside information, the FBI should investigate them. And if prosecutors look at the facts and think they should be charged, then they should be charged.

SCHNEIDER: New video shows the chilling communication efforts near the end of the insurrection, showing how determined rioters were to penetrate the Capitol.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hey, guys, I've been in the other room. Listen to me. In the other room, on the other side of this door, right here where these feet are standing, there is a glass that if somebody, and it's broken, you can drop down into a room underneath it.

[06:35:06]

So, people should probably coordinate together if you're going to take this building.

SCHNEIDER: More have been arrested on charges related to the attack, including two off-duty Virginia police officers. They posted a photo from inside the capitol and had their first court appearance Wednesday.

This man, who wore a sweatshirt that read Camp Auschwitz, has been arrested and charged with entering the Capitol without permission and violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.

And Olympic Gold Medalist Klieg Keller has been charged for his alleged involvement in the insurrection after investigators say he was photographed in the Capitol wearing a Team USA jacket.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCHNEIDER: And looking ahead to January 20th, the National Guard has upped its troop count to more than 20,000. And multiple defense officials tell CNN that the guard expects that explosive devices could be a threat.

Now, because of these concerns, President-elect Joe Biden has now decided not to take the Amtrak train from Delaware to Washington next week as originally planned. And, of course, Alisyn, that upends what has been a decades-long tradition for Joe Biden.

Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: That is a shame. But, of course, safety over tradition at the moment.

SCHNEIDER: Absolutely.

CAMEROTA: Jessica, thank you very much for all of that.

So why did investigators miss key warning signs about the attack on the Capitol? One expert on pro-Trump extremists saw this attack coming weeks ago. He joins us with what he saw, next.

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[06:40:30]

CAMEROTA: CNN can report that federal investigators have uncovered evidence leading them to believe the attack at U.S. Capitol was planned, not some spontaneous riot.

Our next guest studies online extremist chatter of pro-Trump supporters and he saw this coming a month ago.

Joining us now, Arieh Kovler, he's a political consultant who studies extremism on social media.

Arieh, great to have you here.

ARIEH KOVLER, POLITICAL CONSULTANT: Hi.

CAMEROTA: It's amazing what you were able to see that somehow investigators missed. You wrote on December 21st, OK, weeks before this insurrection, you tweeted, on January 6th, armed Trumpist militias will be rallying in D.C. at Trump's orders. It's highly likely that they'll try to storm the Capitol after it certifies Joe Biden's win. I don't think this has sunk in yet.

Yes, it hadn't sunk in.

What did you see that allowed you to know this?

KOVLER: Hi.

Well, the first thing that's important to remember is that all of these people, by which I mean a very significant portion of the American public, maybe the majority of Trump's base, are absolutely convinced that President Trump won the election. And not just that he won it, but that he would be revealed as the winner in some way because, you know, they believe that Donald Trump is incredibly wise and intelligent and that therefore he knew that the Democrats would cheat and that therefore he would have a plan. So that's where these people start for (ph).

And the last possible day that they could keep clinging to that fantasy was going to be January the 6th. Up until then, they could always say, well, maybe tomorrow this will happen, maybe tomorrow the courts, maybe tomorrow the legislatures. On January the 6th, that fantasy was going to be proved to be a fantasy. The Congress was going to meet to count the votes and they were going to be angry.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

KOVLER: So when the call was put out by President Trump to come -- to come to D.C., everyone (ph) thought that this was their mission. They were -- the only thing that would make sense, why would President Trump summon these -- summon us to D.C. unless we're there to stop the count.

CAMEROTA: Yes. I mean this is very interesting, Arieh, what you say because they, according to you, parse his words to within like a syllable, I mean as though he's some oracle, and they listen for exactly what he says and what he doesn't say.

And so when he said, be there on January 6th, that was like a call to arms, obviously, as you can see how many people turned up. And so now, because you study this, tell us what we need to expect this weekend and for Joe Biden's inauguration. What are they saying now?

KOVLER: So, I think the mass event that we saw on January the 6th was in some senses unique because President Trump was calling for it, supporting it, and because, you know, the various institutions around Donald Trump and his campaign were trying to make it happen. Without that, I think we're going to -- we will see something significantly smaller in the coming days.

Inside these pro-Trump forums, there's a lot of confusion right now. They really thought Donald Trump was going to win. Until really a few days ago, they haven't had months to process the election results and they don't understand what's supposed to happen next. They saw this video from the president last night, and they -- they're not sure. They think maybe he's warning them to stay in their homes because the military is going to conduct a coup for him. There are some people who were even going as far as to parse his hand movements. And he did this hand signal a couple of times. And some of them think that's Morse Code. But --

CAMEROTA: For what? I mean what do they think this is Morse Code for?

KOVLER: Well, the people involved in the QAnon movement thought that he was signaling something related to that. Maybe the letter "q," maybe some other letter. I mean you can't be doing Morse Code with your hands, so I don't really understand the theory.

But right now there's a lot of confusion that there were even some parts of the Trump base, the most extreme, who are angry at him because they think, of course, if President Trump knew that there were going to be cheating, why couldn't he stop it. How could he possibly leave office and abandon us? I -- my sense is that there's not going to be anything like an event of the size or scale in the inauguration or in the days running up to it. CAMEROTA: Well --

[06:45:00]

KOVLER: And I think we're here -- sorry, go ahead.

CAMEROTA: Well, only, Arieh, that we hope you're right. I mean we hope you're right. And you seem to know more than so many investigators did. And so I suggest that everybody follow you on Twitter because you --

KOVLER: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: Again, you track this stuff and it's really interesting to hear the just complete cognitive dissidence that these extremists are having today after everything that's happened over the past few days.

Thank you very much, Arieh. I really appreciate all of your information this morning. And we'll talk again.

KOVLER: Thank you for having me.

CAMEROTA: We have new data on what would be the first one-shot coronavirus vaccine in America. How effective is it? When will it be available?

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JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Overnight, the U.S. reported 3,848 new deaths from coronavirus. The CDC now forecasts another 92,000 Americans will die in just the next three weeks. That averages out to more than 4,000 a day.

Joining us now is Dr. Carlos del Rio.

[06:50:00]

He's the executive associate dean of the Emory School of Medicine at the Grady Health System.

Doc, thanks so much for being with us.

Look, the news about the deaths is horrifying. Just horrifying. And it is hard to get your arms around.

One of the things long-term that we need to do in order to turn this around and it won't happen in weeks is get more people vaccinated. President-elect Joe Biden speaks to the country tonight about his plans to accelerate the vaccinations, and by that I mean actually getting shots in people's arms. He's promised 100 million vaccinations in his first hundred days. But at this point, there's a lot of skepticism around the country from state officials and from people actually doing the vaccinations that this can happen.

How do you see it? DR. CARLOS DEL RIO, EXECUTIVE ASSOCIATE DEAN, EMORY UNIVERSITY SCHOOL

OF MEDICINE: I think it's going to be hard, but I think it's also doable. And we, as you say, we must do it because the only way we can start decreasing mortality and decreasing hospitalizations, John, is really by vaccinating people. It's not going to be immediate, as you say, but if we don't vaccinate the number of people that President- elect Biden is suggesting, we are not going to get there.

And I would say that even a million day, which is what he's proposing, is low. We need to shoot for higher goals. We need to shoot for 2.5 to 3 million people a day. And I know it's going to be hard, but with resources and with ingenuity, we'll be able to do it.

CAMEROTA: Look, Dr. del Rio, I -- we always admire your aspirational goals of 3 million a day. But since we can't even do a million a day, we're at -- let me just give everybody a status report right now. Thirty million doses have been distributed right now. In a dream world, 30 million doses would have been administered. But 10 million have. As you well know, that is half of what the Trump administration promised and projected would have happened by the end of December. And so just to get to Joe Biden's goal of a million a day, what has to happen. How can states make that happen?

DEL RIO: I think they're going to need to do -- first of all, they're going to need resources. So, second, they're going to need to have, you know, very innovative plans. In other words, we've got to get our health care system. I'm excited to see Disneyland. I'm excited to see, for example, in New York, at the Mets stadium. We need to go -- Emory University, my employer, has been doing immunizations at a -- at an old shopping mall in Atlanta at an old shopping mall store and they have set up in there in such a way that in the first weekend they immunized over 7,000 people.

So I think we can do things, but we have to do pretty much a massive campaign. It cannot be this one on one approach. It really needs to be done very highly efficient.

And when we need to do something that -- in Africa it's called task shifting. In other words, we need to take the task of the doctor or the nurse and instead of having them immunize, move it down to other people. We need to move it down to medical students, to nursing students and we need to recruit them and just be open 24/7, work on weekends. And if we do that, we'll get to where we need to get to.

BERMAN: Very quickly, Johnson & Johnson, which has a single-dose vaccine, is reporting 90 percent efficacy in producing an immune response, or an immune response producing 90 percent of participants. What would the importance be of having a single-dose vaccine.

DEL RIO: Oh, John, that would be a game changer. I mean one of the challenges we have right now is some people are getting the first shot while some people are coming in for the second shot. Having a single- dose vaccine will be a game changer. So all of us are looking forward to seeing the results of the phase three Johnson & Johnson study, which they're saying will be available probably sometime in February because if the third -- phase three shows efficacy as high as that, then I think we have a -- we really have something that will revolutionize the way we can immunize against COVID.

BERMAN: Dr. del Rio, thank you, as always, for being with us this morning.

DEL RIO: Thank you.

BERMAN: We have some new information just into CNN about who will perform at Joe Biden's inauguration. We will tell you the big-name stars, next.

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[06:57:45]

BERMAN: We have some breaking news for you. President-elect Joe Biden's presidential inaugural committee has just announced the lineups for next week's inauguration. Lady Gaga and Jennifer Lopez will both perform at the ceremony for the 46th president of the United States at the U.S. Capitol. Lady Gaga will sing the national anthem. She, of course, has a history of activism, campaigning for Biden during the election. And Lopez will also give a musical performance. He has used her voice during the pandemic to speak out against the disproportionate toll on communities of color. An all-star lineup, to be sure.

Let me just make this one personal plea when it comes to inaugurations. There is a history of some performers lip syncing at the inauguration.

CAMEROTA: Here we go.

BERMAN: I hope that does not happen this time.

CAMEROTA: Lady Gaga doesn't lip sync.

BERMAN: I hope not. Beyonce -- I want to say, when you sing along with a recorded track, in 2012, Beyonce,, you know -- I'm just saying, Lady Gaga and J.Lo, I'm dying to hear your voice live. (INAUDIBLE).

CAMEROTA: First of all, don't diss lip syncing. You know it's the only thing I can do.

BERMAN: Yes. Well --

CAMEROTA: You know it's my only specialty.

BERMAN: Here's praying you're not going to do it at the inauguration in front of millions of people.

CAMEROTA: I do it every day, John. So, yes, I am going to do it at the inauguration, number one. And, number two, these are, obviously, mega superstars.

BERMAN: I -- do it live.

CAMEROTA: Incredible. BERMAN: Do it live.

CAMEROTA: I do lip sync live.

BERMAN: Do it live.

CAMEROTA: I do lip sync live, but nobody wants to hear the actual singing voice.

BERMAN: I -- not yours!

CAMEROTA: (INAUDIBLE).

BERMAN: I mean Lady Gaga's, I do!

CAMEROTA: Oh, you're back to Lady Gaga.

BERMAN: I'm back to Lady Gaga.

CAMEROTA: I got it.

BERMAN: I do. Do it live. Please, please, you've -- both of you have lovely voices.

NEW DAY continues right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: President Trump made history as the only president ever to be impeached twice. This time on a bipartisan vote in the U.S. House.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There was a domestic threat at the door of the Capitol and he did nothing to stop it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This was a vote of conscience and this is where my conscience led me.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's in self-pity mode. He feels like not enough people have come out to defend him.

JAMES COMEY, FORMER FBI DIRECTOR: People wandering around exercising their First Amendment rights don't bring ropes and ladders and sledge hammers to a spontaneous event. This was a planned assault.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: More protection than protesters here now outside of the United States Capitol.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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

BERMAN: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is NEW DAY.

So what happens now? What happens to the twice-impeached social media pariah, soon-to-be former president of the United States, who, according to "The New York Times" is still telling people, I won, I won the election.

[07:00:07]

What happens with the Senate trial? What does Trump do next?