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Article of Impeachment Now in the U.S. Senate; Madrid Restaurants Close Early with New High Cases; Brazil's Amazonas State Goes into Lockdown as Cases Surge; Slow Distribution Affects E.U. Vaccination Targets; Farmers Stage Mass Protest on India's Republic Day; Dominion Voting Systems Suing Rudy Giuliani. Aired 2-3a ET
Aired January 26, 2021 - 02:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[02:00:00]
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JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. You are watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause.
Ahead this hour, the impeachment case against Donald Trump delivered to the Senate -- again. This time, the trial will be held at the scene of the crime.
Ending the coronavirus pandemic may soon be a lot harder with a new variant which is more contagious. The vaccines are less effective.
We are live in New Delhi, where farmers and their tractors are jostling for attention during a major military parade.
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VAUSE: For only the fourth time in history, the U.S. Senate will hold an impeachment trial for a U.S. president. Two of them for Donald Trump. House managers officially delivered the incitement of insurrection charge to the Senate on Monday, walking through the same hall where rioters attacked the Capitol three weeks ago.
The trial starts early February. Democrats need 17 Republicans for a two thirds majority to convict Trump. Sources tell CNN the former president is struggling to build a legal team. Some attorneys are concerned if they'll get paid.
I don't know why.
And Democrats are dismissing Republican claims that the trial is unconstitutional since Trump is no longer president.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. DAVID CICILLINE (D-RI): This was a direct assault on our democracy. And so he must be held accountable. And of course, we are all unified in condemning domestic terrorism and making sure that anyone who engages in this kind of attack on the government of the United States is held fully accountable, from the president on down.
And I know there has been some argument about the fact that he is a former president. But it's always been the practice of the United States Senate, from the very earliest congresses, that former officials are subject to impeachment and trial.
It would be a very dangerous precedent to depart from 200 years of history because you don't want to invite a president or a former -- or a federal official to just wait to the near end of their term and commit the most serious misconduct, an attack on our democracy, and figure they can avoid responsibility because it's near the end of their term.
A president is responsible from the first day in office to the last day in office for their conduct. And we have a constitutional responsibility to hold this former president accountable and to proceed with the trial in the Senate.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: The current U.S. president, Joe Biden, tells CNN he does not believe that 17 Republicans will join Democrats for a conviction but he added, the trial has to happen.
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VAUSE: For more, John Avlon is a CNN senior political analyst, joining me from Charleston, South Carolina.
Good to see you.
JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Good to see you.
VAUSE: Here is how some Republican lawmakers are reacting to the looming impeachment trial of one-term president Donald Trump.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
QUESTION: How do you anticipate the Senate -- ?
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): A post presidential impeachment has never occurred in the history of the country for a reason, that it's unconstitutional. It sets a bad precedent for the presidency and it continues to divide the nation.
CHUCK TODD, NBC HOST: Do you believe Trump committed an impeachable offense?
SEN. MIKE ROUNDS (R): To begin with, I think it is a moot point because I think right now Donald Trump is no longer the president. He is a former president.
SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL): First of all, I think the trial is stupid and I think it's counterproductive. We already have a flaming fire in this country. And it's like taking a bunch of gasoline and pouring it on top of the fire. (END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: For a start, legally, they are all wrong. But Republicans switched gears, backing away from criticizing and denouncing Trump and making these arguments over the legitimacy of the process.
What happened here?
Why the change?
AVLON: One, Donald Trump still has a lot of muscle to flex in the Republican Party. But Mitch McConnell has made it clear that this is a vote of conscience. Republicans are hoping to make this go away.
There is no taking away the fact that Trump is the only president in American history to be impeached twice by the House. And we are in unprecedented constitutional waters. But over 150 legal scholars, including many conservatives, have said you can impeach an ex- president.
In this case, it's for actions taken after the election, for inciting an insurrection. And there is an additional angle as well, which is the 14th Amendment, Section 3, specifies if someone takes part in an insurrection, they can be banned from holding political office.
That is relevant, at least given Trump's talk of running in 2024. But Republicans want to say they are above this, make a constitutional argument and hope it goes away because they don't want to take the vote.
VAUSE: They are still carrying water for Trump, right?
AVLON: Yes, certainly Lindsey Graham is.
[02:05:00]
AVLON: You've had other senators say that if this isn't impeachable, what is?
You already had, in the House, 10 Republicans support impeaching the president. That may sound like not very many. But it's still the most bipartisan margin for an impeachment of a president in the history of the United States on the House side.
And a lot of senators, particularly ones who are not running again or up for immediate reelection, know what Donald Trump did is just deadly wrong.
The question is, what is the appropriate censure for the Senate in the eyes of history and for precedent?
That's the question.
VAUSE: Well, here is Senate leader Chuck Schumer.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY), MAJORITY LEADER: There seems to be some hope that Republicans could oppose the former president's impeachment on process grounds, rather than grappling with his actual awful conduct.
Let me be very clear: this is not going to fly. The trial is going to happen. It is certainly and clearly constitutional. And if the former president is convicted, there will be a vote to disqualify him from future office.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Arguing process, though, has been incredibly successful for Republicans, coming to defend Trump against the indefensible.
Why won't it work this time?
AVLON: One, because Trump is no longer president. So the political ramifications that many of them feared after an election, which he decisively lost, after he spread a big lie, arguing that he did not lose the election, after that inciting an attack on the Capitol itself, you would think many of these folks would feel free to vote their conscience.
But still, the dynamic in American politics is twisted and driven by hyperpartisan polarization. And a lot of these folks are afraid of their base, afraid of close partisan primaries. And Trump is arguing he will primary anyone who stands up against him still.
So it's a question of conscience versus cowardice, political cowardice. It's about taking a vote to denounce what you know to be wrong or finding a way out by arguing process.
I don't think the same process arguments you heard in the first impeachment will fly for a variety of reasons, despite the unprecedented nature of what we are dealing with here.
VAUSE: In other words, it's the same dilemma Republicans have been facing for the last four years?
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VAUSE: Yes. Any Senate trial which establishes directly between what Trump said and what the insurgents did on January 6th, for the prosecution, I present Exhibit A. Here it is.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are listening to Trump -- your boss.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We were invited by the President of the United States.
ALBERT WATKINS, JACOB CHAZZLEY'S ATTORNEY: He loved Trump, every word. He listened to him. He felt like he was answering the call of our president.
JENNA RYAN, CAPITOL RIOTER: President Trump requested that we be in D.C. on the 6th. So this was our way of going and stopping the steal.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: As the defense, it will be hard to say, oh, the president was only joking and he didn't mean it.
If this gets to a Senate trial, what is the justification for finding Trump not guilty in this case?
AVLON: They will argue process, that the president is no longer in office. They'll say you cannot remove him and the Constitution didn't contemplate convicting a non-sitting president.
That said, the founders had a very expansive vision for impeachment. While they couldn't have anticipated every eventuality, this is clearly one that rises to those standards of treason, bribery, high crimes and misdemeanors.
Indeed, as more information has come out, even in the weeks since he has left office, we very clearly see Trump taking actions to try to overturn the election, abusing the power of the president to overturn the election.
If that's not a violation of his oath to faithfully uphold the laws and protect and defend the Constitution, nothing is.
VAUSE: Great to have you with us, John, really appreciate it.
John Avlon there, senior political analyst for CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: We will see an historic first later today. The first female vice president, Kamala Harris, swearing in America's first female Treasury Secretary, Janet Yellen.
Yellen was confirmed on Monday. She is no stranger to firsts. In 2014, she became the first woman to run the Federal Reserve. She will be the first person ever to have led the three most powerful economic bodies in the U.S. government, the Treasury, the central bank and the White House Council of Economic Advisers.
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VAUSE: As the number of coronavirus cases continues to rise, parts of Europe are now imposing new restrictions. Spain recorded 200,000 new infections in the last week, the most since the initial surge last spring. Authorities say health workers are stretched to the limit. In Madrid, those crucial late night tappers are now on hold.
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VAUSE: Restaurants are forced to close as part of the new containment measures. Extra police and drones are being deployed to enforce compliance.
Meantime, the Netherlands nightly curfew is getting pushback. Rioters in several cities clashed with police and hundreds were arrested. CNN's Cyril Vanier following all of this from Paris.
But let's go back to Spain. It does seem to be a record number of hospital admissions, infections and now they are right back to where they were.
CYRIL VANIER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We need to look at the numbers more closely, John, don't we?
Over the last week, Spain has announced 200,000 COVID infections, over 400,000 COVID infections in the last fortnight.
But we need to put that in perspective: 400,000 COVID infections for Spain over a fortnight means that 16 percent, remember this number, 16 percent of the total number of COVID infections that Spain has had, since the beginning of the pandemic, since spring of 2020, have occurred over the last two weeks.
That's not only huge, that's not only signaling an impending massive stress on Spain's intensive care units and intensive care beds, it also means that the pandemic is trending in all the wrong directions in Spain and in a couple other European countries.
The health authorities in Spain have said 40 percent of their intensive care beds are now occupied by COVID patients and that they soon will no longer be able to accept new patients, that they are close to being at capacity.
That's why the new curfew you mentioned was put in place. It started yesterday. The 10 pm curfew meaning people cannot be out. But it's also a 9 pm closing time for restaurants.
When you look at it from my perspective in France, restaurants here have been closed for weeks and the national curfew is 6 pm. Every country is doing what they think is right for their population.
In Spain, where people are used to being out late, it's a big imposition. We are seeing that in the Madrid region. The hope for authorities will be that that will limit social distancing to a point where they can bring the COVID numbers down, John.
VAUSE: You mentioned the nighttime curfew in France.
Is the question of a third national lockdown, given the rising numbers, sort of a question of when it gets put in place rather than if?
VANIER: That is the question on everyone's lips. There was intense speculation over the weekend that the French president might speak as early as this week to impose a new lockdown.
It looks like what the government is doing, they instituted a nationwide 6 pm curfew less than two weeks ago. We know that, when you put in place measures, you basically need to wait two weeks to see if they're working.
The latest word is that the government is still giving itself a few more days to see where the numbers go. The number of new infections in France is relatively stable, about 20,000 new COVID infections per day.
What's been going up since the beginning of the year is hospital admissions and admissions to intensive care units. If that continues to go up, many people here believe that the government will have no choice but to impose a new lockdown. The government has pretty much signaled that.
They said if the 6 pm curfew doesn't work, they will have to start shutting more things down.
What's left to shut down?
Restaurants have been closed for several weeks; cinemas, bars, sports venues.
What's left to shut down?
We are talking about nonessential businesses and schools. The government really wants to save the schools. They know it's important for mental health; for parents who need to be able to drop their kids off in order to go to work. But they might not be left with much of a choice in a few days, if the numbers keep getting worse.
VAUSE: Cyril, thank you.
Brazil's Amazonas state has now locked down to slow a second wave of the coronavirus. Hospitals are short on beds and oxygen. Medical staff have been working 36-hour-long shifts. Cemeteries are now stacking dead bodies. CNN's Matt Rivers reports on Brazil's spiraling cases.
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MATT RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We're here in Manaus, Brazil, a city abruptly of 2 million people in the middle of the Amazon rain forest, in a place where the health system has all but collapsed in the face of a second coronavirus wave currently hitting this city.
Officials say that, in recent days, in January, they have buried in this city five, even six times the number of people that they would normally expect in times outside of a pandemic, an increase that they are attributing to COVID-19.
As a result, officials have put in place a seven-day lockdown that started on Monday, which means in scenes like the one behind me, the street normally would be very crowded and now it's obviously less so.
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RIVERS: And this comes at a particularly fraught time for the country overall. In recent days, Brazil has seen some of the highest daily death counts from the coronavirus since this pandemic began -- Matt Rivers, CNN, in Manaus, Brazil.
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VAUSE: Mexico's COVID-19 death toll has passed 150,000. The fourth deadliest outbreak in the world comes amid another huge surge in infections. Officials say help is on the way.
On Monday, the country secured 24 million doses of Russia's Sputnik vaccine after the Mexican president spoke to his Russian counterpart by phone. They held the call the day after announcing the Mexican president tested positive for the virus.
Now the country's richest man, 80-year-old billionaire Carlos Lim, has also been infected. His son says he is recovering after experiencing mild symptoms last week.
The total number of COVID-19 cases are rising across the U.S. But President Biden is bringing back travel restrictions, imposing new ones. We will have details on that in a moment.
Also, Moderna says its vaccine can protect against some variants of the virus.
But how effective is it against one of the most concerning strains?
The very latest from a health expert when we come back.
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VAUSE: Moderna says its coronavirus vaccine appears effective against two strains first found in the U.K. and South Africa. It comes as officials warn a new variant is more infectious and likely more deadly. CNN's Nick Watt has details.
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NICK WATT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Is that more contagious coronavirus variant first found in the U.K. also more likely to kill you if you catch it?
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: I'm pretty convinced that there is a degree of increase in seriousness of the actual infection which we really have to keep an eye on.
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Good afternoon.
WATT (voice-over): Today, President Biden hoping to slow the spread of that and other variants reinstated travel restrictions for non-U.S. citizens coming from much of Europe and Brazil, also adding South Africa.
FAUCI: The vaccines that we have now do work --
WATT (voice-over): -- against these variants. Although Moderna now says its vaccine works but not quite as well against the South Africa strain. They'll test if a third dose or a variant booster might help.
For now, in the raw numbers there is some optimism. First time since mid-December fewer than 115,000 Americans in the hospital with this virus. These past two weeks average daily case counts have fallen 30 percent.
But the country still adding more than 1 million infections a week. On average more than 3,000 deaths still reported every day. And --
FAUCI: If the variant that has greater degree of transmissibility becomes dominant, were going to be faced with another challenge.
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WATT (voice-over): And six weeks since the first vaccine shot, only around 1 percent of the population double dosed. Team Biden says hamstrung by a Team Trump hangover.
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Is there at least a ballpark amount that officials are aware of how much vaccine there is?
JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Well, our team is working right now -- we've been here for five days -- to evaluate the supply. So the confusion around this issue -- which we acknowledge there is some confusion -- speaks to a larger problem which is what we're inheriting from the prior administration. Which is much worse than we could have imagined.
WATT (voice-over): There are more disturbing insights now into how hard it was to fight the pandemic and save lives when Donald Trump was in charge.
DR. DEBORAH BIRX, FORMER WHITE CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE COORDINATOR: I saw the president presenting graphs that I never made. So I know that someone or someone out there or someone inside was creating a parallel set of data.
FAUCI: There was a considerable amount of mixed messaging about what needed to be done from the top down. And that really cost us dearly.
WATT: Well, here in California the stay-home orders have been lifted now across the state. Tens of millions of Californians can again get their hair cut and eat, at least outside, a restaurant. But they say the darkest hour comes before the dawn, January is looking like it will be the deadliest month of this entire pandemic here in the United States -- Nick Watt, CNN, Los Angeles.
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VAUSE: Dr. Ashish Jha is dean of public health at Brown University. He joins me now from Newton, Massachusetts.
So Dr. Jha, thank you for being with us.
DR. ASHISH JHA, DEAN, BROWN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: Thank you for having me on.
VAUSE: OK. Well, the variant of the moment know as B1351, first detected in South Africa, drugmaker Moderna is now reporting that lab tests found that, quote, "there was a sixfold reduction in their vaccine's neutralizing power against B1351 than against earlier forms of the coronavirus."
"Sixfold" sounds like a lot.
So what does that actually mean?
JHA: Yes. A great question, John. And basically, at this point, based on everything we've seen I still believe that the Moderna vaccine's going to be effective against this variant but it may be a little bit less so.
So right now the vaccine is generating incredibly high levels of antibodies and that's why you get the 95 plus percent protection against this virus. It may be that the level of protection maybe a little bit less with this variant.
VAUSE: OK. So when the first coronavirus mutation was reported in the U.K. the official word was this variant is a lot more contagious, not more deadly. That assessment is changing, it seems.
Here's Dr. Anthony Fauci. Listen to this.
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FAUCI: When they looked at it, it did not look like on a case-by-case basis that it was actually more virulent -- is the word they use -- namely, more likely to make you more seriously ill or kill you.
When they went and became more granular and looked at the data they became convinced that it is, in fact, a bit more virulent, namely, making it more difficult when you get to the point of serious disease and even death.
So I believe their data. I haven't seen all of it but from what I've heard, I believe the data.
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VAUSE: So it's slightly higher in terms of mortality, vaccines may be slightly less effective.
Do two "slightly's" add to up to be a significant problem?
JHA: Yes. Look first and foremost, these variants are not great, they're not good news and we want to try to prevent more of them. The U.K. variant does look like it's a bit more deadly, it's a lot more contagious. For that one, the Moderna vaccine and the Pfizer vaccine are quite effective. There's no question in my mind that they're going to be effective against that.
It's the South Africa variant where we're starting to worry about how effective is the vaccine going to be. Again, I remain reasonably confident it will be.
But all of this suggests that we have some challenges ahead of us we've got to deal with. And we've really got to get these vaccines out as quickly as possible before more variants come online.
VAUSE: Yes. Moderna's now working on a vaccine for that variant which was found in South Africa.
Here's the president of that drug-making company, Stephen Hoge. Here he is.
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STEPHEN HOGE, PRESIDENT, MODERNA: The virus is evolving, it's not sitting still. It didn't start in a human host and it's still figuring out its best way through the human population.
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VAUSE: That really sounds like there's a lot worse still to come. And if we had vaccinated a lot faster, if we'd got people immunized quicker, would we be seeing these variants right now?
JHA: Yes. So variants arise basically because we keep giving the virus a lot more chances. Every time the virus spreads to more people you get more variants and more opportunities for mutations to become significant.
So no, if we had really been able to really stomp out this pandemic much earlier, if we had gotten vaccines out earlier, I think you would see a lot fewer variants than we're seeing right now.
Our playbook is still the same; get people vaccinated, bring the pandemic under control.
[02:25:00]
JHA: And then make updates to vaccines as we need to.
VAUSE: And if we had implemented social distancing and hand washing and implemented lockdowns on a much more significant, effective basis, that was the other way of stopping this pandemic, right?
Because that did not prove effective because of our own behavior, that's allowed this virus to flourish and mutate.
JHA: Yes, absolutely. You look at places like New Zealand and Australia that have had relatively few cases without having a vaccine. They have used what are called non-pharmaceutical interventions, the stuff you talk about, the public health measures.
We could have done that as well. And we haven't done that in the U.S. and in much of Western Europe for a variety of reasons but I think the lack of political leadership has certainly been part of that.
VAUSE: When the variants were first detected in the U.K. many public health officials and others warned yes, it was more contagious but not more deadly. And then they would add, "as far as we know," or "the available data suggests."
It seems there's a lot more emphasis on the "no more deadly" part of that message, compared to the "we really don't know for certain."
Given how this virus is mutating and the dangers it presents, perhaps the emphasis should be more about the unknowns at this point?
JHA: Yes, absolutely. This has been one of the challenges of the pandemic is -- obviously, this is unlike any health crisis we've dealt with and there are twists and turns that are not predictable.
And I think one of the things that we have to do a better job in public health is communicating to people that there is a lot we don't know. There is a lot we do know, of course and we should communicate that with certainty.
But there's a lot we don't know and we've got to keep working away at generating more knowledge so we can fight this pandemic more effectively.
VAUSE: And people have to listen, people have to actually follow what's happening across the news and these developments and be aware of the world around them as well.
Dr. Jha, good to see you. Thank you for being with us.
JHA: Thank you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Well, in an attempt to keep his job, Italy's prime minister will resign in just a few hours. Giuseppe Conte is hoping the president will invite him to form a new government with broader backing in parliament. Conte he lost his senate majority last week when a centrist party quit the coalition over concerns about coronavirus and the economic recession.
Coming up on CNN NEWSROOM, Indian farmers stage a massive protest, riding into New Delhi on tractors to challenge what they say are unfair new laws. We will get a live report in a moment.
Also, how the Biden White House plans to deal with Beijing.
How will it differ from the turmoil of the Trump years?
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VAUSE: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause.
The U.S. House has formally delivered an article of impeachment against Donald Trump to the Senate. The former president is accused of inciting an insurrection for his actions before that January 6th riot.
[02:30:00]
VAUSE: Sources tell CNN the former president is struggling to build a legal team. Some attorneys are concerned they won't get paid.
In a matter of hours, senators will be sworn in to serve as jurors in the upcoming trial. Then a week from now Trump's response is due as well as the House's pretrial brief. Trump's brief is due February 8th. A day later, the trial itself can begin.
Hundreds of thousands of angry farmers have traveled to New Delhi on foot and on tractors. These are live images from the capital. They are protesting new agricultural laws. It's one of India's biggest national holidays right now.
Police are using tear gas on the national highway. The farmers say new laws affect business at their expense. CNN's Vedika Sud is standing by live.
Explain to us what we are seeing right now, with these police moves with stun guns and flashbangs and tear gas, it looks like.
VEDIKA SUD, CNN PRODUCER: What we are hearing now from Reuters is there are clashes taking place between representatives from the farmer unions, taking to the streets of New Delhi through tractors and by foot between them and police.
At this point there were some barricades broken reportedly by the farmers entering Delhi, after which the face-off between police personnel and farmers took place. This is in the heart of Delhi. You can see there's some violent protests and clashes that are continuing.
We are trying to reach out to the Delhi police but they are very busy trying to fight the situation. Also India is commemorating a holiday on a day we have seen the parade go through Delhi to commemorate this whole Republic Day. We are seeing protesters right there in the heart of Delhi by farmers as well.
It was to be a peaceful protest. Delhi police had allowed them to carry up the protest around noon. Then they could commence the protest they promised would be peaceful. Now it turns out that it's turning violent.
We are trying to get more from the police to confirm what happened, because the farmers claim they were not too happy with some of the routes the Delhi police had granted them to go through. These farmers did break through some barricades and some areas they
were ordered not to venture through, because there is a standoff taking place. What was to be a peaceful protest has clearly turned violent already.
VAUSE: Explain the context here because the numbers of farmers we are talking about taking part in these protests is massive. Like 90,000 tractors, hundreds of thousands of protesters.
Is this isolated to one particular area or is this happening across the capital?
SUD: What we are seeing from Reuters at this point, this is how different pockets of Delhi are not just concentrated in one area. Five thousands tractors was the upper limit granted by the Delhi police for today's rally.
But clearly from the visuals today, there's hundreds of tractors that have come in, a lot more than what was expected, perhaps more than 10,000 at this point in time. What we are really looking at is a standoff. Some of the farmers were not happy with the routes that were granted to them.
What was to be a peaceful show of strength, unfortunately, has unfolded into violence on several roads and areas across the national capital region. The three border areas they were supposed to come in from, they did. But there are so many of them, more than expected.
We were expecting about 50,000 of them but now we are being told hundreds of thousands of these farmers have descended into Delhi to protest against the three controversial agricultural laws.
We need to see how the government will handle this as well as the center. The parade has come to an end and this is just the beginning of the protests that will go on, officially, at least they were granted time, until about 4-5 o'clock India time this evening. I don't see it really wrapping up by then. There could be some detentions.
[02:35:00]
SUD: We are just waiting to hear an official word from the Delhi police on how this is being managed. Perhaps the police will be blaming the farmers for breaking the barricades. And the farmers might say they just broke a barricade or two but we were not happy with the routes that were given to us.
VAUSE: Vedika, thank you for the update there on the violence in the capital of India, New Delhi. We will stay with this and have more later in the hour. Thank you. We appreciate the update.
The Biden White House says the U.S. will approach China with strategic patience after the Chinese president called for increased global cooperation on Monday. The White House says Beijing has engaged in conduct that hurts American workers and the U.S. needs to hold China accountable, especially in the field of technology.
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JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: China has been willing to do whatever it takes to gain a technological advantage, stealing intellectual property, engaging in industrial espionage and forcing technology transfer.
Our view, the president's view, is we need to play a better defense, which must include holding China accountable for its unfair and illegal practices and making sure that American technologies are not facilitating China's military buildup.
So he is firmly committed to making sure that Chinese companies cannot misappropriate and misuse American data. And we need a comprehensive strategy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: CNN's Selina Wang reports on a potential tech war between the United States and China.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BIDEN: I, Joseph Robinette Biden Jr., do solemnly swear ...
SELINA WANG, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The U.S.-China technology war likely won't end under a Biden presidency. Biden may take a more nuanced approach than Trump to diplomacy but the tech rivalry will likely intensify concerns over how Chinese bay (ph) technology can be weaponized for surveillance and hacking.
Plus allegations that Beijing steals American tech may persist. So will the battle for supremacy in 5G, quantum computing artificial intelligence, biotechnology and space.
BRIAN DEESE, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL ECONOMIC COUNCIL: China is our most serious global competitor and this competition will be one of the central challenges of the century.
WANG (voice-over): Trump set into motion the decoupling of the two economies, slapping tariffs on Chinese products, blacklisting top tech companies, banning popular Chinese apps.
In his final weeks in office, Trump attempted to cement his tough on China legacy. He signed an executive order, banning transactions with eight Chinese apps, including then tech giant Ant Group's Alipay, Tencent Holdings Ltd's QQ Wallet and WeChat Pay.
He slapped restrictions on China's smartphone maker Xiaomi and a top chip maker, cutting them off from U.S. suppliers. He also barred investment in Chinese businesses with alleged military ties.
It is unclear if these orders will be implemented. His previous efforts to ban TikTok and WeChat have been halted by legal challenges in U.S. courts.
WANG: Experts say Biden may reverse some of Trump's most recent actions against China's tech. But the key difference in Biden's approach will be his multilateral strategy and investments at home. Biden's campaign, including a $300 billion investment in technologies, like artificial intelligence, electric vehicles and 5G.
WANG (voice-over): Gone are the days of Donald Trump's unilateral brinkmanship.
SCOTT KENNEDY, CENTER FOR STRATEGIC AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES: We may see a refined, modified approach to protecting America's technology crown jewels, in particular, greater expansion of coordination, collaboration with our allies in Europe and Asia, who have faced the same types of challenges with China in technology.
WANG (voice-over): Trump's attempts to cut off China's tech giants showed Beijing how vulnerable it is to the U.S. Regardless of Biden's approach, China is doubling down on its strategy to become a self- reliant technological power. It's clear that this tech cold war is here to stay, a costly battle for both sides of the Pacific -- Selina Wang, CNN, Tokyo.
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VAUSE: After months of spreading false claims, Rudy Giuliani is now facing potential legal consequences from Dominion Voting Systems, which says they're owed big time for that really big lie. More when we come back.
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VAUSE: Donald Trump's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, is being sued by Dominion Voting Systems. The company, which was unfairly accused of being part of the whole made-up a voter fraud thing, want more than $1 billion in damages.
Dominion says Giuliani pushed the Big Lie about its machines being somehow part of the conspiracy.
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RUDY GIULIANI, ADVISOR TO DONALD TRUMP: This Dominion company is a radical Left company.
These crooked Dominion machines.
They cheated with the machines and a Venezuelan company counted our votes.
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VAUSE: Yes, it's that kind of stuff which made no sense, which Dominion says has harmed its reputation, irreparable harm. Earlier, the president and CEO spoke exclusively with CNN's Chris Cuomo and explained just how secure his company's machines really are.
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JOHN POULOS, CEO, DOMINION VOTING SYSTEMS: Our space is so highly regulated, all of our source code, all of our pieces of technology are submitted to federal and state authorities for independent testing. They have all our equipment.
We don't actually run elections. We supply technology for election officials, to help voters vote, and to help count paper ballots.
And when there is any, kind of, indecision, or concern, regarding the scrutiny of the election, election officials hand-count all of the paper ballots. They either do it in audits, or they do a full recount, as was the case in the state of Georgia.
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN HOST: Do you believe that your machines made mistakes?
POULOS: No, absolutely not.
And if you look at the case of Georgia, Chris, 5 million ballots were counted three times, one of which was done by hand, something our detractors have actually claimed never happened.
The ultimate goal here is for however many millions of Americans are looking at the past election, and they doesn't believe the result, the ultimate goal here is for them to understand how the process actually works, and the fact that there is one paper ballot, for every vote cast, in all of the territories and states that we've serviced, through election officials, and that the count actually was correct. That's the ultimate goal.
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VAUSE: It seems words do have consequences after all.
Thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause. Please stay with us. "WORLD SPORT" is up next. We will see you tomorrow.
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