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President Trump Set To Sign 100 Pardons And Commutations Tuesday; Biden Plans Orders To Rejoin Paris Accord And Rescind Travel Ban; Calm Reigns After As Capitals Prepare For Armed Protests. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired January 18, 2021 - 05:30   ET

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

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[05:31:35]

LAURA JARRETT, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, and welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Laura Jarrett.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Thirty-one minutes past the hour on this Martin Luther King Day. I'm Christine Romans, 5:31 in the east.

And federal investigators say an Army reservist with secret-level security clearance and a long record of posting extremist views online is among the latest wave of rioters charged for the insurrection at the Capitol.

The FBI says it is also investigating a tip that a woman who participated in the siege may have stolen a laptop from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office to potentially sell to Russia. However, there's no indication that a laptop was actually taken. The FBI says the matter remains under investigation.

Meanwhile, as officials braced for armed protests at state capitols, most demonstrations over the weekend -- they turned out small and quiet. We'll get to that in just a moment.

JARRETT: Well, meanwhile here, President Trump is preparing to pump out a final batch of about 100 pardons and commutations on Tuesday, his last full day in office. Three sources tell CNN the last big batch of clemency actions is expected to include white-collar criminals, high-profile rappers, and his political allies. But aides say they don't think he'll try to pardon himself, his kids, or his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani.

We get more on the plan for Trump's final days in office from CNN's Jeremy Diamond at the White House.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Good morning, Christine and Laura. President Trump has been holed up inside the White House for the past five days as he was impeached for a second time -- the first time for a president in American history.

The president has been unusually quiet given his track record over the last four years, but that doesn't mean that President Trump will be leaving the White House on a quiet note. In fact, sources have told us that the president has been asking for a military-style sendoff either here at the White House or at Joint Base Andrews as he leaves the White House on Inauguration Day in his last hours as the President of the United States.

And separately, we're also hearing that President Trump is expected to issue more pardons before he leaves office. We know the president, over the last several weeks -- he's already issued a series of controversial pardons, but we're told that the president is going to be issuing more of those pardons. And, of course, there is that question looming of whether the president will pardon himself, something that's been hotly debated among constitutional scholars but hasn't yet been tested in the courts.

Then there's also this question of whether the president might try and pardon those rioters who stormed Capitol Hill on January sixth as senators and congressmen were certifying the results of the 2020 election. But at least one of the president's allies, Sen. Lindsey Graham, is urging the president against doing that.

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): There are a lot of people urging the president to pardon folks who participated in defiling the Capitol -- the rioters. I don't care if you went there and spread flowers on the floor, you breached the security of the Capitol. You interrupted a joint session of Congress. You tried to intimidate us all. You should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

And to seek a pardon of these people would be wrong. It would be -- I think it would destroy President Trump and I hope we don't go down that road.

DIAMOND (on camera): Now, these final pardons that President Trump is expected to issue before he leaves office, they're not unusual for a departing president. But what is unusual is the way in which this scramble has taken place over the last several weeks with aides and allies meeting with the president to try and get him to issue pardons for political allies and to dole out these things as political favors, really. That is how President Trump has approached this rather than going the typical route through the Justice Department's office of the pardon attorney.

[05:35:15]

Now, that's why, according to "The New York Times," some of the president's allies have actually been cashing in on this, charging tens of thousands of dollars to help secure pardons for convicted felons. And we'll have to see whether or not those people will get their money's worth in these last couple of days -- Christine, Laura.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: All right, Jeremy, at the White House. Thank you for that.

The National Security Agency says it is installing a Trump National Security Council staffer, Michael Ellis, as its general counsel. Acting Defense Sec. Christopher Miller ordered the NSA Dir. Paul Nakasone to place that Trump loyalist into the role.

The move is significant because the role of general counsel at the country's largest intelligence agency is a civil service position -- it is not a political post. So it could be difficult for the Biden administration to remove Ellis.

JARRETT: President-elect Biden's incoming chief of staff is not ruling out blocking President Trump from receiving intel briefings once he's out of office.

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RON KLAIN, INCOMING WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: We'll certainly look for a recommendation from the intelligence professionals in the Biden administration -- Biden-Harris administration -- once they're in place, and we'll act on that recommendation. So, obviously, we don't have those intelligence professionals in place yet. We hope that Senate moves to confirm them quickly and then we'll look at what they recommend in terms of intelligence sharing going forward.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JARRETT: President Trump's former deputy director of National Intelligence wrote an op-ed in "The Washington Post" on Friday warning that Trump might be unusually vulnerable to bad actors with ill intent once he's no longer the president.

ROMANS: President-elect Biden plans to sign about a dozen executive orders on his first day in office. That includes rejoining the Paris Climate Accord, ending the travel ban on predominantly Muslim countries, and halting evictions and student loan payments. Mr. Biden also plans to implement a mask mandate on federal properties.

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KATE BEDINGFIELD, INCOMING WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: You're going to see him move on promises that he made on the campaign trail to ensure that we are focused on workers. You'll see him make good on his 'Buy American' promise. You're going to see him make good on promises to move us to -- toward a more just and racially equitable society. You're going to see him make a movement on racial equity, and you're going to see him make movement on climate, on jobs.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Mr. Biden also plans to use his executive powers to change the course of the COVID-19 crisis and safely reopen schools and businesses. Join CNN for live coverage of the inauguration of President Joe Biden.

We have special all-day coverage of this historic event. It starts Wednesday morning on CNN.

JARRETT: Well, as we mentioned, law enforcement officials have been bracing for armed protests at state capitals over the weekend.

CNN has reporters across the country covering that part of the story.

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BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT (on camera): I'm Bill Weir in Madison, Wisconsin where the governor had the outside of the Capitol protected with plywood and put National Guardsmen inside. But all day, we counted a grand total of three pro-Trump protesters -- two men with long guns; one with a Bicentennial flag. No sign of crowds beyond that.

Most of downtown Madison completely shut down. A lot of the plywood that went up there in unrest during the summer still there in places.

Interestingly enough, some lawmakers here in Madison proposed banning the police use of tear gas and rubber bullets to stop violent protests.

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (on camera): I'm Miguel Marquez in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

And I want to show you what it looked like all day on Sunday -- empty. Not a single serious protester, as far as I can tell, really showed up here today. That's a very good result for authorities here who prepared heavily to protect the Capitol. The Capitol will remain shut for the rest of this week, at least through the inauguration of Joe Biden.

But the state of Pennsylvania, like many, have issues going forward with extremism. There are 10 Republican members of the congressional delegation. Eight of them voted against the Electoral College going forward in favor of Joe Biden.

This is not going to end today. Authorities are going to be on watch this week and certainly in the months and years ahead.

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): I'm Josh Campbell in Lansing, Michigan outside the state capitol. Behind me, you see members of the National Guard and the state police protecting this building. This following that warning from the FBI about possible protests with armed members across the country.

Now on Sunday, we saw a small group here -- about 25 people, some of them armed, including some self-described members of the Boogaloo Movement -- but no violence, no instigators.

We asked authorities how long they plan to keep these military and police out here. They say that they are doing a threat assessment, looking at all available intelligence. That will dictate how long we will see this show of force.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (on camera): I'm Martin Savidge at the Georgia State Capitol in Atlanta where there was an overwhelming show of force. You had armored vehicles and police cars parked right on the Capitol steps. National Guard Troops, Capitol police, even state police all heavily armed.

[05:40:03]

And streets nearby not just closed but barricaded, using dump trucks to protect from people ramming through.

In the end, only a handful of protesters showed up, so the show of force clearly worked. But the wide-open question remains, what happens next?

KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (on camera): I'm Kyung Lah in Sacramento at the California State Capitol where the security posture here remains high. You can see that there is a six-foot-high fence that is completely surrounding the Capitol. On the steps -- the entranceway to the Capitol -- you can see police cars, CHP vehicles, as well as officers all around the building. But in the sign that the protests here did not materialize, those street barriers are just now starting to come down.

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JARRETT: All right. Thanks to all of our correspondents for those updates.

We move now to coronavirus as overnight, we learned of more than 1,700 new deaths from the virus. A new administration takes over this week in Washington with its own new plan to combat COVID-19, but officials on the Biden team are already warning the pandemic will get worse before it gets better.

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DR. ROCHELLE WALENSKY, INCOMING CDC DIRECTOR: Nearly 4,000 deaths a day. Almost 400,000 deaths total. By the middle of February, we expect half a million deaths in this country. And we still, yet, haven't seen the ramifications of what happened from the holiday travel -- from holiday gathering -- in terms of high rates of hospitalizations and the deaths thereafter.

So, yes, I think we still have some dark weeks ahead.

KLAIN: We're inheriting a huge mess here, Jake, but we have a plan to fix it and the president-elect laid out that plan on Friday -- five concrete steps to move us forward to make pace with the vaccination. I want to give the vaccine makers credit. They are producing vaccine. We think there are things we can do to speed up the delivery of that vaccine.

One thing the president-elect mentioned yesterday was using the Defense Production Act to ramp up the production of particular kinds of syringes that allow us to get six doses out of the vials instead of five.

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JARRETT: CNN's Paul Vercammen has more now from hard-hit California.

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PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN REPORTER (on camera): Laura, Christine, California continues to be bludgeoned by these cases. Forty-two thousand new cases at the last count. Also, 432 deaths. And over the weekend, an absolutely horrific benchmark eclipsed in Los Angeles County. That is one million coronavirus cases -- confirmed coronavirus cases.

So how do they get in front of that? They have now launched these new mega coronavirus vaccination sites. One of them is at Dodger Stadium. They suspended the vaccinations for Sunday but they hope to, at one point, vaccinate 12,000 people. It is just daunting -- all of this, every day -- on these nurses, these firefighters, and others in the battle against the virus.

DAVID ORTIZ, LOS ANGELES FIRE DEPARTMENT: People are working nonstop, they're working hard. I talked to a captain who had two hours of sleep trying to set this up. Trying to set up the logistics part of this huge on-taking here at Dodgers. And you see him and he has a smile on his face because he's doing everything he possibly can humanly to make a success and to make this efficient.

VERCAMMEN (on camera): And the vaccination focus in Los Angeles County right now is for healthcare workers and first responders, and people in related fields. Again, they want to vaccinate people over 65 years old as they are in most of the rest of California, but they are trying to get after those healthcare workers first.

It's just a tense situation. Of course, they're crossing the fingers and hoping that they don't somehow run out of vaccine.

Back to you now, Christine, Laura.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: All right, Paul Vercammen. Thanks, Paul.

U.S. financial markets are closed today in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., but a busy week awaits. Companies will release earnings for the last three months of 2020 and the outlook, frankly, is grim. S&P 500 companies likely lost seven percent as the pandemic hit profits.

JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citigroup kicked things off on Friday. Those banks reported that the pandemic devastated consumer spending and small business. Delta Airlines also reported a record loss as travel stalled.

This week, Wall Street will hear from Goldman Sachs, Netflix, Bank of America, United Airlines, and Intel. But despite weak expectations -- you know, investors are more interested in the future and profits should rebound in 2021 as vaccines and stimulus help business return to normal.

While Wall Street is poised to bounce back, the American jobs market heading in the wrong direction, folks. The U.S. lost jobs again in December. Unemployment claims are still soaring. A total of 1.4 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits in the week ending January ninth and that's the most since mid-September.

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I'm hoping -- wow, Laura, I'm hoping 2021 is the year that Main Street catches up with Wall Street.

JARRETT: It better.

ROMANS: But right now, there's a lot of work to be done in this economy. The Biden administration comes in with a big mess to fix.

JARRETT: Yes, a full plate -- that's for sure.

Well, on this Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the incoming Vice President of the United States talks about her historic journey. Hear from the senator, Kamala Harris, in her own words, next.

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JARRETT: Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny is in police custody this morning. The Russian opposition leader detained moments after arriving back in his home country five months after he was poisoned by suspected Russian agents and nearly died.

A last-minute court hearing is currently underway, so let's get straight to CNN's Fred Pleitgen who is live in Moscow for us. Fred, bring us up to speed. What's going on in this hearing?

[05:50:00]

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Laura.

Well, it certainly is very fast-moving and certainly very controversial as well. Alexey Navalny actually managed to post a video from inside that court hearing.

And he said essentially what happened is that he had no communication whatsoever with his lawyers or with his team. And then this morning, they came into his cell and took him out and he thought he had a meeting with his lawyers. But then they said, by the way, there's a hearing going on against you right now. And that hearing is to determine whether or not he's going to remain in detention.

And one of the things that he's obviously very angry about is the fact that that hearing is not even taking place inside a real court. It's a makeshift court inside a police station, just to give you an idea of how fast things are moving here in Moscow.

And you're absolutely right. This comes, really, just hours after Alexey Navalny touched down here in Moscow -- and that, itself, was really remarkable. Because his plan was supposed to land at an airport in Moscow and in the last second got diverted to a different airport, which means all the journalists and all his supporters were working -- were waiting at that one airport and they didn't get to see him. And then he was detained before he even made it onto Russian soil. And at that point in time, throughout the entire night, his supporters had absolutely no access to him.

Now, he continues to say he believes that all of this is happening because Vladimir Putin is afraid of his return. He believes the Russian state is afraid of his return. Of course, in the past, the Russian government has said that is not the case.

But certainly, judging by what we're seeing right now, we do see a lot of very, very interesting things going on around this return of Alexey Navalny. An entire airport in Moscow essentially shut down for an extended period of time. And now, this hearing inside a police station that's not even a real court, Laura.

JARRETT: All right, Fred. Thanks so much for staying on top of this for us. Appreciate it.

ROMANS: All right, let's get a check on CNN Business this morning. U.S. financial markets, as we told you, are closed today to honor Martin Luther King Jr. On Friday, stocks fell just a little bit. Disappointing bank earnings to start the earnings season. Also, investors getting their first look at Biden's $1.9 trillion rescue plan.

Taking a look at markets around the world this week, you can see Asian shares closed mixed. And a mixed performance -- narrowly mixed performance in Europe right now.

Chinese stocks higher today as China becomes the only major economy to record growth in 2020. The only economy to grow was China, up 2.3 percent from last year. That's the country's slowest annual growth in decades but strict coronavirus measures enabled China to bounce back faster than the rest of the world.

The U.S. economy likely contracted 3.6 percent last year. The Eurozone -- look at that -- likely shrunk more than seven percent.

All right, the tax season -- the 2021 tax filing season kicks off a little late this year. The IRS is pushing back the start date to February 12th to get ready for tax law changes in the December relief package. The extra times ensures Americans will get both their tax refunds and any missing stimulus money as quickly as possible. Eligible Americans will receive any remaining stimulus after filing their 2020 returns.

Even with the delay, the filing deadline, of course, remains April 15th.

Some health and tech giants want to ensure all Americans have a secure digital record of their vaccination. Microsoft, Oracle, SIGNA, and the Mayo Clinic are teaming up. The goal here is to create an encrypted vaccine passport that can be

stored on our smartphone. Right now, immunizations are tracked on paper but COVID-19 vaccination data will be needed beyond health care purposes. A safe digital record can be used for everything from air travel to entering concert venues.

So that digital passport idea is something that we're going to be learning a whole lot more about, Laura.

JARRETT: Yes, that seems really important.

Well, today, as we celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., we also want to recognize the significance of the holiday coming the same week that Sen. Kamala Harris will be inaugurated as the first black, South Asian, and female Vice President of the United States.

In her autobiography, Harris writes that some of her first memories were of attending civil rights protests with her family.

And in a CNN special, Harris and her sister, Maya, described how their mother would view Kamala's historic moment.

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MAYA HARRIS, SISTER OF KAMALA HARRIS: Our mother would be so proud. She would be so proud.

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Do you think that she always saw this for you, in you? Did she raise you to do this?

KAMALA HARRIS (D), VICE PRESIDENT-ELECT: She did not raise me to be Vice President of the United States, but she did raise me and my sister to believe that we could do anything if we put the hard work into it -- and there you are.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JARRETT: You know, there's so much happening right now -- so much news -- but you just cannot miss this moment.

ROMANS: Yes.

JARRETT: This historic moment for not only Sen. Harris but for the country.

ROMANS: Yes, savoring this moment this week after all we've been through really important.

And I hope that everybody today can try to find a service project to do. I know it's different this year because of the pandemic, but I wish everybody a safe and peaceful day as you try to serve your community today.

[05:55:03] JARRETT: Absolutely.

ROMANS: Thanks for joining us, everybody. I'm Christine Romans.

JARRETT: I'm Laura Jarrett. "NEW DAY" is next.

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ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Here on the streets of Washington, D.C. it does feel somewhat like the calm before the storm.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is a profound threat from domestic violence extremists of the nature we saw on January sixth.

MAYOR MURIEL BOWSER (D), WASHINGTON, D.C.: We don't want to see fences. We definitely don't want to see armed troops on our streets. But we do have to take a different posture.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Protests have popped off in a handful of states.

LT. MICHAEL SHAW, MICHIGAN STATE POLICE: We wanted to make sure that what happened in Washington did not happen here in Michigan.

CAPITOL RIOTERS: Freedom! Freedom! Freedom!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: New video from "The New Yorker" magazine giving us a fresh look at the deadly attack.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think what the video.