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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

U.S. Verges on Extraordinary Transfer of President Power; Trump Expected to Issue About 100 Pardons on Last Day in Office; WaPo: Extremists Discussed Posing as National Guard at Inauguration; U.S. Approaching 400,000 Coronavirus Deaths; Putin Critic Navalny Being Held for 30 Days After Return to Russia. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired January 19, 2021 - 05:00   ET

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

[05:00:25]

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. This is EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.

LAURA JARRETT, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Laura Jarrett. It's Tuesday, January 19th. It's 5:00 a.m. here in New York.

And this morning, America's on the verge of a transfer of power unlike any we have ever seen. A presidency built on breaking norms and customs ending the same way. President Trump has not invited the Bidens to the White House, has not urged his supporters not once to accept the incoming president and, of course, he will not participate in the inaugural.

There will be no repeat of scenes like this. Mr. Trump will not greet the new president and the first lady at the White House door. The chief usher will have that duty.

But snubs are about optics. None of it will stop Joseph R. Biden from becoming the 46th president at noon tomorrow. The gravity of the job ahead not lost on Biden or his incoming Vice President Kamala Harris.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS (D), VICE PRESIDENT-ELECT: We're going into Wednesday knowing that we're ready to work and we've got a lot to do. It's not going to be easy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: A man who called himself the best president since Lincoln ends his single term in office after a riot incited by lies and disgrace, a perfect finale to four years of pandemonium that it will take many more years to recover from.

But at the moment, the nation's looking forward. Today Biden attends a sendoff event in Delaware prior to an event at the Lincoln Memorial to honor coronavirus victims. Thousands of flags are already on display at the National Mall in their honor. CNN's Jeff Zeleny is with the soon to be president in Wilmington.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Christine and Laura.

Joe Biden is waking up in Wilmington today one last day before making his way to Washington to become the 46th president of the United States. One thing has been on his mind fro the last several weeks, even months, that is the inaugural address. Now, we are learning some new information about what his plans are for what really is the most important address of his life.

He's given so many speeches over the last four decades inside the Capitol, but this, of course, outside the capitol on Wednesday at noon will be the most important address tackling so many crises that are happening in the United States and, indeed, around the world. He is, I'm told, going to try and effort towards unity. He's going to call on Americans to unify and really believe in the promise of America as well as recognizing all of the challenges.

Now, there is no question his job has gotten considerably more difficult just in the last two weeks alone because of the insurgent, the uprising in the Capitol. Impeachment is certainly going to be one of the things that complicates his presidency. But he's also going to, I'm told, look beyond all of the immediate challenges to the promise of what America can be.

So, even as he really puts the finishing touches on the inaugural address, he'll be making his way to Washington by this evening where he'll be participating in a few events and then, of course, on Wednesday, he'll be attending Catholic mass and then returning to the U.S. Capitol where he spent the bulk of his career in timely making his way up to the west front where he is expected to deliver his inaugural address and be sworn the oath of office.

Now, all living presidents, with the exception of Jimmy Carter will be in attendance. And, of course, President Trump, he'll be flying off to Florida Wednesday morning. But he will be joined -- President Biden will be joined by George W. Bush and Laura Bush, Bill and Hillary Clinton, Michelle and Barack Obama as well.

So, this is the beginning of a much more somber inaugural activity. But 24 hours from now inauguration is set. Joe Biden will soon be the 46th president -- Laura and Christine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JARRETT: Jeff Zeleny, thank you so much for that.

Well, President Trump is leaving the White House more on a whimper than a bang. Moving vans have already arrived at Mar-a-Lago, and the only left to deliver is Trump and his baggage.

So, what's in store for his final day in office? Here's CNN's Kaitlan Collins at the White House.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Christine and Laura.

It's President Trump's final full day in office. His schedule looks a lot like it has for the last several weeks, ever since, of course, he lost that presidential election to Joe Biden where he says he has many calls and many meetings. But beyond that, not a lot of details on Trump's schedule.

And, of course, we have not seen him publicly since last Tuesday, when we went in Texas to visit the border wall. And one thing we are expecting, though, in this final full day that Donald Trump is in office is a list of pardons to come our way, because the president is expected to pardon or commute the sentences of about 100 people today. That's what we're hearing from sources so far.

And we know he has spent several days reviewing that finalist of what that's going to look like, including meeting with Jared and Ivanka Trump as he did on Sunday.

[05:05:08]

He had another meeting on pardons Monday. So, we are expected to get that list today because Wednesday is going to be the president's time trip out of Washington as a current president.

He is leaving before Joe Biden is going to be sworn in. But there are new questions about just how many people are going to be at that sendoff ceremony for the president at Joint Base Andrews because we know the White House has invited a lot of people. They can bring up to 5 guests per invitation. But we've heard from some people who say they are not going because of the travel restrictions, they're happening in D.C. given that seats on Capitol Hill, or the fallout from the president's response to that attack.

And so, it's an open question of what that ceremony is going to look like for the president. That's what we're monitoring. Whether the president is going to be here in public or just make that video that we know he taped on Monday, that final farewell address highlighting his accomplishments. That is something we expect the White House released today. But beyond that, it still remains to be seen what the president is going to do publicly facing.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: All right. Kaitlan, thank you so much for that.

Hard lockdown around the Capitol building this morning ahead of President-elect Biden's inauguration on Wednesday.

Overnight, "The Washington Post" obtained an intelligence document showing the FBI privately warned law enforcement that far right extremists have discussed posing as National Guard members at the inauguration. The document did not specify any specific plots, but the reports said people were downloading and sharing maps of vulnerable locations in Washington, D.C.

Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller said Monday there is no intelligence indicating an insider threat. But National Guard members arriving in Washington are being vetted now by law enforcement.

JARRETT: One group not being vetted, however, guests of lawmakers for Wednesday's inauguration. Sources tell CNN that guests won't undergo background checks this year as is typically the case. But, of course, this isn't just any other year.

Washington, D.C.'s mayor says the security perimeter for the inauguration encompasses almost five square miles with an eight-foot high non-scalable fence encircling the Capitol complex. As of this morning, more than 80 people are facing federal charges for their role in the Capitol riot, and there have been some notable new arrests, including a woman, an FBI tipster says may have stolen a laptop from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office.

Now, the FBI is already investigating that claim and whether she planned to sell it to Russia. Also, a 22-year veteran of the New York City Fire Department was charged with illegally entering the Capitol building that day, and two members of an Ohio militant group are facing charges as federal investigators appear to be shifting their sites onto the role that organized extremists played in the insurrection.

ROMANS: So fortress D.C. will deprive local businesses of their inauguration day windfall. Of course, every four years, the peaceful transfer of power is a cash influx for the local economy. Not this year. Officials in D.C. are urging people not to travel to the city because of the pandemic.

After the riots on Capitol Hill, the area around the Capitol has been closed down like never before. The pain is being felt outside D.C. as well. Windows and doors have been boarded up in major cities including New York City, Salt Lake City and Austin because of concerns about violence.

One glass company in Austin says it received dozens of requests to board up businesses while other businesses are waiting to see what happens over the next few days.

Small business owners were struggling because of the pandemic, tensions even higher now surrounding the inauguration.

JARRETT: It just shows you some of the ripple effects on this.

ROMANS: Yeah.

JARRETT: You know, it's not all of the ceremony that goes along with it, but the effects on businesses are really significant.

All right. Still ahead for you, some American cities are at a breaking point with this pandemic. Hospitals forced to close, vaccines running dry. Now one state wants to bypass the federal government to get more vaccines to its residents.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:13:10]

ROMANS: Twelve minutes past the hour.

The U.S. is nearing 400,000 deaths. Imagine eliminating the population of American cities like Tampa, or Arlington, Texas, or Tulsa, Oklahoma. That is the scale of what is happening here in this health crisis. On his way out the door, President Trump tried to lift travel restrictions for much of Europe, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Brazil on January 26th after he is already gone.

Incoming White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki says the order will not go through.

JARRETT: Overnight an independent panel of medical experts said China and the world Health Organization could have acted more quickly and more forcefully to contain the start of the outbreak. Cases detected as early as December 12th were not reported until December 1st.

The situation meantime across the U.S. could not be more dire. The city of Laredo, Texas, has run out of ICU beds and sent out an emergency message urging its residents to stay home. And in Houston, CNN affiliate KTRK reports one hospital actually had to close down because according to a notice on the door, the owners are behind on their rent.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I tried to contact the owners. They aren't responding. The title company is not responding so we're really not getting any answers and at the end of the day, like I said, my primary concern is my patients.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Front line workers are still in harm's way. An Alabama nurse, Betty Gallagher, refused to retire when the pandemic began so that she could monitor the younger nurses. She died last week from coronavirus one day before her 79th birthday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTFIED FEMALE: She was the person that for me was definitely always be encouraging, always the one reaching out to encourage us for the next step, encourage us for the next shift, always keeping a smile on her face.

[05:15:05]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She's in a better place and her fight's over. She fought a good fight and won the race. (END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: In New York the governor, Andrew Cuomo, has asked to buy vaccine doses directly from Pfizer. He says the quantity coming from the federal government is just not adequate.

JARRETT: Part of the frustration is the vaccine rollout is just still behind the promised pace. West Virginia and the Dakotas are leading but only with 5 to 6 percent of the population vaccinated. Remember, we need 70 to 80 percent of the nation vaccinated nationwide for any type of normalcy.

Meantime, in hard hit California, Los Angeles County is opening vaccine eligibility on Thursday to seniors 65 and older. That, of course, runs the risk, at the same time, of depleting supplies as the government struggles to keep up with demand. California is also pausing Moderna vaccines from one lot containing more than 330,000 doses while they investigate possible severe allergic reactions last week in a number of people who got shots at a community vaccination clinic.

ROMANS: All right. It is one of the most guarded pieces of equipment on the planet, so why will there be a second briefcase with highly classified nuclear codes on inauguration day?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:20:43]

JARRETT: Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is being held for 30 days after returning to his homeland despite international calls for his release.

CNN's Fred Pleitgen is live in Moscow with the latest.

Fred, bring us up to speed.

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

Well, we're actually just at this very moment hearing from the Kremlin for the first time. A lot of conference calls with the spokesman for Vladimir Putin, Dmitry Peskov. Well, they essentially justified all of this. They said that Alexei Navalny was detained because he violated terms of a jail sentence that he's under here in Moscow, when he arrived here in the city a couple of days ago.

Obviously, Alexei Navalny was saying all of that is politically motivated. And also, the way that this court hearing happened yesterday was really remarkable. Navalny was saying he was inside his jail cell, had not had any sort of access to his lawyers and all of a sudden, guards came in and said, by the way, there's a hearing against you. It starts right now.

And in that hearing, he was sentenced to those 30-days in prison. And that feeds directly into a couple of other cases he has going against him as well. So, he's going to be in custody and then there are further cases including a fraud case where he could spend a considerable amount of time behind bars.

One of the things that we have to mention, Laura, was that the jail that he's in right now, it's in the east of Moscow, that is known as a really, really tough and somewhat dangerous place as well.

Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Russian opposition figure, was in there. Sergei Magnitsky actually died in that jail. Of course, he's the namesake of the Magnitsky Act for sanctions against Russia. So, a lot of concern for Alexei Navalny. These, of course, are ready.

One of the issues that the Biden administration is going to be facing once they take office, are they going to take a hard line against Russia for putting Alexei Navalny in jail. He himself actually managed to get video out where he called on his supporters to go out into the street. There's big protests planned here by Alexei Navalny supporters on January 23rd. The Russian authorities are already saying they believe it's irresponsible to call for that, Laura.

JARRETT: Yeah, the Trump administration, of course, has been criticized for their response to his case. It will be interesting to see how the incoming administration now handles it as you say. Thanks, Fred.

ROMANS: All right. To the U.S. now, one important transfer of power you will not see tomorrow, the handoff of the nuclear codes. With the outgoing president skipping tomorrow's inauguration and heading to Florida, some logistical juggling is in store for the U.S. military.

CNN's Barbara Starr has more from the Pentagon.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The most important briefcase in the world carried by the military and never far from the president of the United States. It's often called the nuclear football. The case holds the highly classified equipment and authorities needed for a president to order the military to launch a nuclear weapon.

On this inauguration day, with President Trump planning to depart early and not attend the swearing in of Biden, there will be two nuclear footballs and a challenge of insuring it goes smoothly. One for Joe Biden in Washington, D.C., the minute he becomes president. One that will accompany President Trump to Florida until he no longer has power and his nuclear authorities are deactivated.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi questioned whether Trump should still have the authority to launch a war.

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: I have sought information from those who are in a position to know that there are protections against this dangerous president initiating any military hostilities or something worse than that.

STARR: Pelosi recently said she spoke to General Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, about the safeguards in place for ordering a nuclear strike.

Senior military officials say while the president has sole authority to launch nuclear weapons, he cannot do it alone. If an adversary were to launch a missile at the U.S., the president would immediately be on a classified communication network, receiving minute by minute intelligence and recommendations on how to proceed. There are safeguards against illegal attack orders whether it's nuclear or conventional.

To be legal, orders must have a legitimate target, a clear military objective and use proportional force.

[05:25:04]

The general who recently commanded strategic weapons and is number two at the Pentagon is adamant, the military will not follow any illegal orders from any president.

GEN. JOHN HYTEN, COMMANDER, L.S. STRATEGIC COMMAND: It's illegal, guess what's going to happen?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You say no.

HYTEN: I'm going to say, Mr. President, it's illegal. And guess what he's going to do? He's going to say, what would be illegal? And we'll come up with options, of a mix of capabilities to respond to whatever the situation is, and that's the way it works. It's not that complicated.

STARR: Barbara Starr, CNN, the Pentagon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JARRETT: Barbara, thank you so much for that piece. Fascinating.

Joe Biden preparing to be sworn in as the next president of the United States. We have new CNN reporting on what to expect in the inaugural address, what's on the agenda tomorrow, and what's coming up for the next four years.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JARRETT: Good morning. Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Laura Jarrett.

ROMANS: Good morning. I'm Christine Romans. It's just about 30 minutes past the hour.

And this morning, America.