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Republicans Continue to Object to Trump Impeachment; Live Coverage of President Biden's Racial Equity Announcement; Donald Trump Expands Legal Team. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired January 26, 2021 - 14:00   ET

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

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: These executive orders today, as Susan Rice, the top domestic policy adviser, laid out, will put the issue at the center, not just of the White House or of a particular agency, but as part of a whole-of-government approach.

And where they will be starting, Wolf, will be on a couple of issues. First, on the issue of housing; then also discontinuing any Justice Department use of private prisons due to how those prisons are operated up to this point.

You will also see issues of discrimination, particularly with Asian- American communities, addressed as well, something that has been at the forefront of a Democratic agenda in the wake of some of the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic over the course of the last year.

So I think the broader picture here is, if you take a look over the course of these 33, soon to be 37 executive actions that have been signed by President Biden in his first now nearly a week in office, you get a sense of what the priorities are for this White House.

Whether it's on COVID, whether it's on the economy that they're trying to address right now, not just through executive actions but also through legislation. You also have had immigration bill that the administration has released. You're going to hear issues on climate as well in the course of the next couple of days.

But today, making very clear that among the key priorities of this administration, agency by agency, department by department, will be the issue of racial equity and trying to address some of those systemic issues that have become so clear, moved so clearly to the forefront over the course not just of the last several years, but really, Wolf, over the course of the last several decades.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST, NEWSROOM: So we're about to hear from the president on racial equity. Later today, he's also, I take it, going to be speaking more about COVID. This crisis is continuing, it doesn't seem to be getting better at all.

MATTINGLY: Yes. Look, I think what you're going to hear later today -- and White House press secretary Jen Psaki talked a little bit about this, a senior White House official also confirmed -- this is going to be about vaccine distribution and production.

And I think if there's anything you've picked up from the administration over their first six days in office, it's their effort to try and get their arms around what the infrastructure is for the actual distribution, what the level of supply is for the actual distribution. If the country wants to move forward, if things are going to get better, the vaccine is an absolute necessity.

Now, you saw the president have some optimistic projections yesterday. Hopes is what Jen Psaki, the press secretary, said it was today in terms of perhaps everybody getting vaccinated by spring. Perhaps their goal of 1 million vaccinations a day over the course of the first hundred days could tick up to 1.5 million vaccinations a day.

White House officials have walked that back a little bit -- gently -- over the course of the last 24 hours, making clear their goal is still 100 million vaccinations in 100 days, though they hope they can do better than that. And in terms of supply and distribution, again, as they get a better sense of where things stand, they will have more of an idea of what they will actually be able to produce.

One thing to keep an eye on, the expectation is that the president will announce today that more supply of vaccine will be headed out to states. There's also a call with governors today, being led by the top COVID official in the administration, Jeff Zientz.

We have heard -- and Wolf, you have heard on your show -- repeatedly from governors, from state officials, saying they have no sense of what's coming next, saying their stockpiles are depleted, they just want answers so they can plan. The administration will be trying to address some of that today with the president's remarks in just a couple of hours -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Yes, we'll stand by for live coverage of both of these presidential addresses.

You know, Jake, there's a lot going on right now.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: And our senior political correspondent Abby Phillip. Let's take a moment here to acknowledge the historic moment we're in right here, the second time in history that Donald Trump is facing an impeachment trial, the second time he's been impeached. It's not clear that the outcome will be any different this time, even though Democrats do control the Senate this time as opposed to last year.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. You know, we have not had any Republicans -- which is understandable, but -- formally say, yes, I'm going to vote to convict President Trump. We've had some like Mitt Romney say that he clearly committed impeachable offenses.

But this is going to be, as you said, a moment in history because all the senators are going to be sworn in as jurors, then they're going to pause and wait for a couple of weeks for the actual trial to take place. But we have to say -- and we're going to be saying it, you know, as

we're watching this trial, they're raising their hand and taking an oath to be jurors while standing on a crime scene, because that is where it happened, it happened --

(CROSSTALK)

TAPPER: And many (ph) of them are witnesses.

BASH: And they're witnesses. And so there are so many -- you know, there's a confluence of so many issues that are happening here, not the least of which is the history of this impeachment trial.

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: It does seem that we are likely to have probably a more bipartisan impeachment vote in the Senate, just like we did in the House.

But as you said, I mean, Republicans are clinging to this notion that not even necessarily actually that it is unconstitutional to impeach the president or convict him -- the former president -- but that it's just not the right idea in the interest of -- you know, they're saying unity in the interest of setting a precedent.

[14:05:10]

And so it is in some ways the thinnest of the thin arguments that they have left. No one out there is saying you know, what the president said and did was fine. No one's out there saying that you know, that the idea that he's being impeached for this moment is not an impeachable offense, they're just saying the timing is wrong.

And I think that's a really extraordinary thing to point out here, that we're going into this impeachment trial over probably the most serious issues. Of all the impeachments that this country has seen, there have only been four. You could argue that this is the most serious of offenses, that a president has ever been accused of.

And yet the vast majority of Republicans in the Senate are clinging to a procedural argument to argue against not even the merits of the case, but just the fact that it's happening at all. And saying, you know, we just shouldn't do this right now because we should allow the country to move forward.

TAPPER: Yes, of the four impeachments including this one, it is the only one -- and you could add Nixon's even though it didn't actually take place --

PHILLIP: Yes, yes.

TAPPER: -- that resulted in loss of life.

Let's listen to President Biden right now.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, in my campaign for president I made it very clear that the moment has arrived as a nation where we face deep racial inequities in American systemic racism that has plagued our nation for far, far too long.

I said that over the course of the past year that the blinders have been taken off of the nation and the American people, but what many Americans didn't see or had simply refused to see couldn't be ignored any longer.

Those eight minutes and 46 seconds that took George Floyd's life opened the eyes of millions of Americans and millions of people around -- all over the world. It was a knee on the neck of justice and I wouldn't be forgotten.

It's stirred the conscious and of tens of millions of Americans and in my view it marked a turning point in this country's attitude toward racial justice.

When the 6-years-old daughter, Gianna, who I met with when I met with the family, I leaned down to say hi to her and she said -- looked at me and she said, "Daddy changed the world." That's what Gianna said, his daughter. "Daddy changed the world."

And I believe she is right. Not because this kind of injustice stopped, it clearly hasn't, but because the ground has shifted, because it's changed minds and mindsets, because it laid the groundwork for progress.

COVID-19 has further ripped a path of destruction through every community in America, but no one has been spared, but the devastation in communities of color has been nothing short of stunning. Just look at the numbers. Forty percent of frontline workers, nurses, first responders, grocery store workers are Americans of color and many are still living on the edge.

One in 10 Black Americans is out of work today, 1 in 11 Latino- Americans is out of work today, 1 in 7 households in America, about 1 in 4 Black and 1 in 5 Latino households in America report that they don't have enough food to eat in the United States of America.

Black and Latino-Americans are dying of COVID-19 at rates nearly three times that of white Americans. It's not white Americans (inaudible), but just a fact and the Americans now know it, especially younger Americans.

One of the reasons I'm so optimistic about this nation is that today's generation of young Americans is the most progressive, thoughtful, inclusive generation that America has every seen.

And they are pulling us toward justice in so many ways, forcing us to confront the huge gap in economic -- excuse me -- economic inequity between those at the top and everyone else. Forcing us to confront the extensional crisis of climate and, yes, forcing us to confront systemic racism and white supremacy.

It's just been weeks since all America witnessed a group of thugs, insurrectionists of political extremists and white supremacists violently attack the capitol of our democracy. And so now -- now's the time to act. It's time to act because that's what the faith and morality call us to do.

Across nearly every faith the same principles hold, we're all God's children, we should treat each other as we would like to be treated ourselves. And this is time to act, and it's time to act because it's what the core values of this nation call us to do.

And I believe the vast majority of Americans, Democrats, Republicans and Independents share these values and want us to act as well. We've never fully lived up to the founding principles of this nation and state the obvious, that all people are created equal and have a right to be treated equally throughout their lives.

[14:10:07]

And it's time to act now, not only because it's the right thing to do, but because if we do we'll all be better off for it.

For too long we've allowed a narrow, cramped view of the promise of this nation to fester. You know, we've -- we've bought the view that America is a zero sum game in many cases. If you succeed I fail, if you get ahead I fall behind, if you get the job I loose mine.

Maybe worst of all, if I hold you down I lift myself up. We've lost sight of what President Kennedy told us when he said a rising tide lifts all boats. When we lift each other up we're all lifted up.

You know, in the coral (ph) is true as well; when anyone of us is held down we're all held back. More and more economic studies in recent years have proven this, but I don't think you need economic studies to see the truth.

Just imagine if instead of a consigning millions of American children to under-resourced schools we gave each and every 3, 4-year-old child a chance to learn, to go to school, not daycare, to school and grow and thrive in school and thrive -- when they've done that, the places it been done, it shows they have an exponentially greater chance of going all the way through 12 years of schools and doing it well.

But you know, does anyone -- does anyone in this whole nation think we're not better off if that were to happen? Just imagine, if instead of denying millions of Americans the ability to own a home and build generational wealth, we made it possible for them to buy a home, their first home and begin to build equity to provide for their families and send their children off to school.

Does anyone doubt that the whole nation would be better off? Just imagine instead of denying missions of young entrepreneurs the ability to access capital who made it possible to take their dream to market, great jobs, reinvest in their own communities.

Does anyone doubt this whole nation wouldn't be better off, just imagine a more incredibly creative and innovative -- how much more creative and innovative we'd be if this nation held the historic black colleagues and universities to the same opportunities and minority service institutions that had the same funding and resources of public universities to compete for jobs and industries of the future. You know, just ask the first HPCU graduate elected as vice president if that's not true. But to do this I believe this nation and this government need to change their whole approach to the issue of racial equity.

Yes, we need criminal justice reform but that isn't nearly enough. We need to open the promise America to every American and that means we need to make the issue of racial equity not just an issue for any one department of government, it has to be the business of the whole of government.

That's why I issued among the first days, my whole government executive order that will for the first time advance equity for all throughout our federal policies and institutions. It focuses on the full range of communities who have been long underserved and overlooked; people of color, Americans with disabilities, LGBTQ Americans, religious minorities, rural, urban, suburban communities facing persistent poverty.

And I've asked Ambassador Susan Rice to lead the administrations charge through the White House and domestic policy council because I know we'll -- she see it through it through.

Every White House -- every White House component and every agency will be involved in this work because advancing equity has to be everyone's job. Today I'll be shortly signing an additional package of executive actions to continue this final work.

Housing, for example. Housing is a right in America and home ownership is an essential tool to wealth creation and to be passed down to generations. Today, I'm directing the Department of Housing and Urban Affairs and Urban Development to redress this historical racism in federal housing policies.

Today, I'm directing the federal agency to reinvigorate the consultation process with the Indian tribes. Respect the tribal sovereign -- respect for tribal sovereignty would be a cornerstone of our engaging with Native American communities.

This builds on the work we did last week to expand tribe's access to the strategic national stockpile for the first time.

[14:15:04] To insure they receive help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA, to fight this pandemic.

Today, I'm directing federal agencies to combat resurgence of xenophobia, particularly against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders that we've seen skyrocket during this pandemic.

This is unacceptable and it's un-American. I've asked the Department of Justice to strengthen this partnership with the Asian American and Pacific Islander community to prevent those hate crimes.

I've also asked the Department of Health and Human Services to put out best practices for combating xenophobia in our national response to COVID.

Look, in the weeks ahead I'll be reaffirming the federal government's commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion and accessibility; building on the work we started in the Obama-Biden administration.

That's why I'm rescinding the previous administration's harmful ban on diversity and sensitivity training, and abolish the offensive counterfactual 1776 Commission. Unity and healing must begin with understanding and truth, not ignorance and lies.

Today, I'm also issuing an executive order that will ultimately end the Justice Department's use of private prisoners -- private prisons, an industry that houses pre-trail trainees and -- detainees and federal prisoners.

The executive order directs the attorney general to decline to renew contracts with privately-operated criminal facilities, a step we started to take in the end of the Obama administration, and was reversed under the previous administration.

This is the first step to stop corporations from profiting off of incarcerating -- incarceration that is less humane and less safe, as the studies show, and it is just the beginning of my administration's plan to address systemic problems in our criminal justice system.

Here's another thing we need to do: We need to restore and expand the Voting Rights Act, named after our dear friend, John Lewis, and continue to fight back against laws that many states are engaged in to suppress the right to vote, while expanding access to the ballot box for all eligible voters.

Because here's the deal, and I'll close with this: I ran for president because I believe we're in a battle for the soul of this nation. And the simple truth is our soul will be troubled as long as systemic racism is allowed to persist. We can't eliminate it. It's not going to be overnight.

We can't eliminate everything, but it's corrosive, it's destructive and it's costly. It cost every American, not just who've felt the sting of racial injustice. We're not just less of a -- we are not just a -- a nation of -- of morally-deprived because of systemic racism. We're also less prosperous. We're less successful. We're less secure.

So we must change, and I know it's going to take time, but I know we can do it, and I firmly believe the nation is ready to change. But government has to change, as well. We need to make equity and justice part of what we do every day -- today, tomorrow and every day, and I'm going to sign these executive actions to continue the work to make real the promise of America for every American.

Again, I'm not promising we can end it tomorrow, but I promise you we're going to continue to make progress to eliminate systemic racism, and every branch of the White House and the federal government is going to be part of that effort. Thank you.

OK. (inaudible). This first executive order is a memorandum for the secretary of housing and urban development to redress our nation's and the federal government's history of discriminatory housing practices and policies.

Next -- next executive order is reforming incarceration system by eliminating the use of privately-operated criminal detention facilities.

[14:20:00]

Third executive order is a memorandum for the heads of the executive departments and agencies, tribal consultation in strengthening nation- to-nation relationships.

And the last executive order is condemning and combating racism, xenophobia and intolerance against Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders in the United States.

I think the country's ready, and I know this administration's ready. Thank you.

QUESTION: Mr. President, what did you talk to Vladimir Putin about?

BIDEN: You. He sends his best.

(LAUGHTER)

(CROSSTALK)

TAPPER: There you go, President Biden announcing more executive orders, these today aimed at achieving -- or attempting to achieve -- racial equality in America. Among the changes, Biden has directed the Department of Justice to not renew any federal contracts with private prisons. they say private prisons are sub-par when it comes to the safety and security of the inmates.

Biden, also announcing steps today to promote equitable housing, and he says he will establish the policy of his administration to be to condemn any anti-Asian bias. These are just some of the steps he took today.

Abby, what stood out most to you?

PHILLIP: I think this entire event is something that is part of a longer process this administration is having to address directly the concerns of the people who put them in the White House in the first place: black voters, voters of color who came out in large numbers to elect Joe Biden wanted to see some of these policies, which, you know, they would argue are incredibly divisive, rolled back.

And it's an important step, I think particularly on the private prisons. This is something that Democratic activists have been pushing for for a really long time, not just because of the conditions within private prisons, but because the idea that incentivizing private corporations to profit from the incarceration of, you know, mostly or disproportionately black and brown people, is part of the systemic problem in the criminal justice system. So it's a huge step for Biden to take so early on in his

administration, and it makes me think back to what he said in his acceptance speech, when he won the presidency in November. He said, you know, African-Americans have always had my back, and I will always have yours.

And a lot of people in the black community took that as a promise that he would not just take the votes of black voters, but he would actually do things pretty immediately to address some of their main concerns. And I think this is one of those efforts to do that.

TAPPER: Well, I think without question, he wouldn't be president right now if it weren't for black voters --

PHILLIP: Without black (ph) -- yes.

(CROSSTALK)

TAPPER: Specifically James Clyburn --

PHILLIP: Right.

TAPPER: -- and black voters in South Carolina who basically renewed his presidential hopes.

Let's go to Laura Coates. Laura, as a former prosecutor, how significant do you think it is for Biden, President Biden to not renew federal contracts for private prisons?

LAURA COATES, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Extraordinarily so. I mean, the idea of incentivizing is one you really have to unpack. Remember, if you're a private prison, you're not held to the same standards of transparency on reporting data, you don't have to abide by the same discussions about early releases.

Because, remember, the longer the person's in prison, the longer they're going to have the term, the more money they may end up being able to get. So you're not only incentivizing their actual introduction into the prison, but you're also not adhering to the principles that we have in terms of rehabilitation and release.

And so if that's not a priority for you, if you're driven more by the profit, you're less concerned with the very fundamentals of our justice system.

it's also of note to mention that of course this is Joe Biden who, years ago, before he was running for president and he was somebody early in his campaign, was talked about as somebody who was -- had a relationship with black Americans and brown populations because of his stance on crime, because of his omnibus bill, because of the fact that a lot of this overpopulation in our prisons is a direct result of the crack-cocaine distinction and other things.

So when you have him now going full throttle to say, look, we're going to no longer incentivize, I'm going to hold our prisons to the standards that we have of every other federal prison. You're talking about the ideas of not cruel and unusual punishment, having more security for not only the prisoners but the guards? This is a very big step and one that needs to be done.

[14:25:19]

TAPPER: Also, if I can just say, Laura, this is different from where Joe Biden was on a lot of these issues in the beginning of his career, in the 1970s and 1980s. In fact, it was in this very room when then- Senator, now-Vice President Kamala Harris first learned about, from me, that Joe Biden had opposed busing. She, of course, had a different view of it because she had benefited from the integration of schools in California.

That became a campaign issue to a degree during one of the first debates, when Kamala Harris, Vice President Harris talked about that little girl was me. And so there's -- this has been an evolution for Joe Biden, just as it has been an evolution for the country.

COATES: That's true. And of course, his evolution leads to progress in terms of criminal justice reform. Remember, we as a society are evolving. You talk about lawyers as practicing law? The reason for that is of course because we expect there to be evolution, we expect there to be interpretations.

We are not a draconian system, we are intended to be one based on precedent. And that also bakes in the recipe the evolution of how we view accountability in our country, how we view criminality in our country, the way in which we prosecute and pursue justice.

And so to have evolution coming from the head of the executive branch of government, Jake, whose job it is to enforce the laws, does bode well.

Now, of course, there is a lot to be desired still. This is but one step, a very important one, but one step. If you don't address of course some of the reasoning or some of the laws and reforms that you need to take into consideration (ph) about accountability overall, who you actually fund prisons by is not going to solve all the dilemmas.

But it certainly does bode very well for those who are justice reform advocates, who are looking to simply level the playing field or at a bare minimum, allow for people who are placed in our prisons to be treated fairly, humanely, and not to be rats in a rat race for profit.

TAPPER: All right, Laura and Abby, stay with me -- Wolf.

BLITZER: It's interesting, we're getting some breaking news, Jake. Right now, significant, the former president, Donald Trump, is now expanding his impeachment legal team by tapping a former prosecutor turned criminal defense lawyer. Let's bring in CNN's Jeff Zeleny.

Jeff, the president still scrambling to shape up his team, he's got less than two weeks to go before the trial on the Senate floor actually begins.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, two weeks exactly before President Trump is again standing trial in the Senate for this second impeachment. We are learning that he has now added another South Carolina lawyer to his defense team, this is the second South Carolina lawyer he's added. Her name is Deborah Barbier. My colleague Kara Scannell and I are reporting that he is, you know, still looking for his legal team, focusing on a lot of South Carolina lawyers.

Why is that? Because of Senator Lindsey Graham, of course, the state's senior Republican senator and close ally of the president, is trying to help President Trump build his legal team, so he is focusing on, you know, really finding lawyers who are in private practice, who are willing to come aboard to help the former president.

And this is someone who is a former federal prosecutor, now she's in private practice, has experience as a criminal defense attorney as well, really taking on some controversial clients over the years.

But we are learning that the former president is still expanding his team, still looking for some more lawyers. And, Wolf, one question over all of this is, some law firms simply are not interested in signing onto this. You know, there are a variety of questions over, you know, just the controversy associated with this, as well as will they get paid. Of course, the president has a long history of sometimes not paying all of his bills, legal matters and otherwise, so that is an essential question here.

But two weeks from now, of course, this legal team will be in place. And the Senate Republicans are also hearing from a constitutional lawyer as well about the -- you know, just the questions of can a former president be impeached and tried.

So these are some of the things that, you know, his defense team will be presenting, but for now at least he has a new lawyer, and we're told that others will likely be added to the team in the coming days -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Yes, we'll see if just his lawyers show up on the Senate floor during the actual trial, or if he perhaps makes an appearance as well. So there's a lot that still out there. Stand by, I want to bring in Phil Mattingly --

ZELENY: Sure.

BLITZER: Phil, I understand you're just getting word about the Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell's latest statements just ahead of this trial. What are you hearing?

[14:29:55]

MATTINGLY: Yes, Wolf. Jeff was talking about the closed-door lunch that Senate Republicans held before the swearing in that should start shortly. And my colleague Manu Raju reports from a source inside that lunch that everybody is very closely watching Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.