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New Day

U.S. Capitol Police Chief Apologizes; Biden Confronts Putin in Call; Pandemic Update from Around the World; State Republican Parties Embrace Conspiracy Theories; Former Rep. Denver Riggleman (R-VA) is Interviewed about the Republican Party. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired January 27, 2021 - 06:30   ET

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

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[06:30:45]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Developing this morning, the acting Capitol Police chief is apologizing for the failed response to the Capitol insurrection.

CNN's Whitney Wild is with us.

Whitney, the acting chief is admitting the department knew about a strong potential for violence days before the attack?

WHITNEY WILD, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. She admitted in a closed-door congressional hearing that they knew two days before that this event would be unlike any of the protests they saw in 2020. She said that they knew there was a chance that people would, for example, bring firearms. They knew, again, that there was a strong potential for violence.

Here are some of the quotes from her prepared remarks yesterday. She said that, we fully expect to answer to you and the American people for our failings on January 6th. As the acting chief, I take responsibility for the mistakes that were made by the department and I pledge that we will do better going forward, but we need to make changes.

She also said that there were several breakdowns that day. They knew, again, that there was this potential for violence, but they simply did not do enough. She listed out a few places where there were recognizable problems. And this is one thing I've heard from many law enforcement agencies, that there was just a lack of manpower. Sources telling us that that was the most glaring and obvious issue.

The other breakdown she noted is proper equipment was not on hand or readily available. The process for sealing the building may not have been consistently followed. And communication over radios and public address systems were difficult to hear.

Now, this all comes as the Capitol Police -- members of the Capitol Police Department are considering a vote of no confidence. This is after so much CNN reporting that these officers on the ground simply felt abandoned by their leadership, John. And now they seem to be considering acting on that emotion, again, consider initiating a vote of no confidence for not only the acting chief, but also other leaders who were on the scene that day, John.

BERMAN: All right, Whitney Wild for us this morning.

Whitney, thank you so much for your reporting. And I should also say, welcome to NEW DAY. Great to have you on.

All right, the first phone call between President Biden and the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin. We have new reporting on what they said, the new attitude from the U.S. towards Russia, and the interesting Russian reaction. That's next.

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[06:37:00]

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: President Joe Biden holding his first call with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The White House says Biden confronted Putin over a range of issues.

CNN's Frederik Pleitgen is live for us in Moscow.

So what do they say happened on this call?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, there, Alisyn.

Well, certainly, neither of them said -- neither the White House or the Kremlin said this was a particularly friendly conversation, but they certainly did say that it was very matter of fact and it certainly does seem to have been very productive. In fact, impressively productive. Both men agreed to extend the New Start Nuclear Treaty and Vladimir Putin really followed through on that very quickly. Just moments after the readout came out, he sent that to Russian parliament. And just a couple of minutes before we went on the air right now, we just got confirmation that both houses of Russian parliament have actually ratified that extension. So, certainly, President Biden managed to do something that the Trump administration did not manage to do in the last days that it was in office.

Nevertheless, the White House saying that while there were areas where there could be cooperation, that the White House would also take a very firm stance on other areas of concern.

I want to listen in to what the White House press secretary had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: His intention was also to make clear that the United States will act firmly in defense of our national interests in response to maligned actions by Russia.

(END VIDEO CLIP) PLEITGEN: So there you have the U.S. taking a firm stand. Some of those topics included, according to the White House readout, Ukraine and Ukraine sovereignty. Remember, that was an issue where the Trump administration was always seeing as not being very tough on Russia. Then the Solar Winds hack. The possible bounties placed on American soldiers by Russians. That also discussed, as well.

And then, of course, right now, the topic of the treatment of Alexey Navalny, his poisoning, the fact that he is in prison. Also the treatment of some of the protesters that are trying to get him out of jail. That was also discussed. The Kremlin acknowledged that and the Kremlin said, quote, that there was an explanation provided by the Russians. So certainly it really seems as though it's a whole different way of going about these calls under the Biden administration than it was under the Trump administration. And it certainly does seem to have yielded some very early and very quick results, as well. John.

BERMAN: Frederick Pleitgen, great to see you. Thank you so much for your reporting. This is going to be a relationship that bears watching, to be sure.

So global coronavirus cases now top 100 million. Hospitals around the world teetering on the brink.

CNN has it covered all around the world.

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ISA SOARES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Isa Soares in London.

Doctors in Lima, Peru, tell us COVID-19 is battering their health care system, leaving them at breaking point. The situation so severe, in fact, there are no longer any intensive care unit beds left in Lima according to official figures. Doctors also say demand for ICU beds has quadrupled. And when the bed is eventually freed, they have to make the decision of who takes up that bed, with one nurse adding, it's an impossible decision to make.

[06:40:04]

But even if they had more ICU beds, they simply don't have any more doctors to run those intensive care units.

The government says it's working to improve the situation.

Peru has recorded over a million COVID-19 cases and is nearing 40,000 deaths.

Meanwhile, no vaccine has been approved by Peruvian regulators.

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN REPORTER: I'm Salma Abdelaziz in London.

It's a somber day here. The U.K. has reached a grim milestone. More than 100,000 people have now lost their lives in this country due to coronavirus. It makes the U.K. the high death rate in the world per capita. Prime Minister Boris Johnson saying he accepts full responsibility for all of the government's actions, but that the authorities did everything they could. The prime minister also warning this country is still very much in crisis and that death toll will only climb.

CYRIL VANIER, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Cyril Vanier in Paris.

COVID vaccine maker AstraZeneca says its two months behind schedule for deliveries to the European Union. The EU, which has pre-ordered 300 million doses, is calling on the pharmaceutical giant to fulfill its contractual obligations, but the AstraZeneca CEO says the contract didn't have a fixed timetable for deliveries and they only agreed to do their best. Another meeting is scheduled between AstraZeneca and European officials later today as EU countries battle a third wave of the coronavirus.

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BERMAN: Our thanks to our reporters all around the world.

So a Republican member of Congress repeatedly indicated support for executing prominent Democrats. The Oregon Republican Party passed a resolution calling the assault on the Capitol a false flag operation. In other words, a fake. We have new reporting on this, next.

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[06:45:52]

CAMEROTA: House Republicans facing a reckoning over Donald Trump's impeachment, while some state GOP parties are fully embracing insane conspiracy theories.

CNN's Kyung Lah investigates.

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KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): This is the storming of a capitol you may not have seen. Rioters breach the Oregon State Capitol and assaulted police less than a month before this, the insurrection in Washington, D.C.

As former President Donald Trump faces a second impeachment trial, charged for his role in inciting the deadly D.C. riots --

BILL CURRIER, OREGON REPUBLICAN PARTY CHAIR: It was a sham impeachment, just like the first one.

LAH: The Oregon Republican Party defiantly defends Trump.

CURRIER: Patriots are not going away. The president's not going away.

LAH: The state party passed a resolution condemning ten House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump, calling it a betrayal, then dived into this conspiratorial lie about the insurrection, that there is growing evidence that the violence at the Capitol was a false flag operation designed to discredit President Trump.

CURRIER: This is a time for choosing, but it's a time for choosing what you really believe and want to stand for and not for just giving lip service to being a Republican.

LAH: That's not helping to win over more Republicans, says Oregon Republican State Representative David Brock Smith.

DAVID BROCK SMITH (R), OREGON STATE REPRESENTATIVE: Extremism on either side only benefits a small minority and it's not the majority of the constituents that we represent.

LAH: Choosing to side with the far-right fringe or not, that's the battle at the state party level. In Texas, the GOP continues to use the slogan, "we are the storm," the same slogan used by followers of the QAnon conspiracy. The Texas Republicans deny that connection.

In Hawaii, a top GOP official resigned from his post after he tweeted sympathy for QAnon followers from the state party account. He later called it an error in judgment.

BARBARA WYLIE, ARIZONA GOP PARTY MEMBER: It will be the Trump Republican Party.

LAH: In Arizona, it's open warfare among Republicans. These women believe the baseless claims peddled by Trump.

CORKY HAYNES, ARIZONA GOP PARTY MEMBER: This election was stolen. Trump won, I think, by a landslide.

WYLIE: But I will be with him wherever he goes, however he goes.

LAH: The state party shows no sign of moving away from Trump. Members re-elected a fervent Trump follower as their chairwoman, despite Democrats flipping the state blue in 2020. Arizona Republican Party members don't seem to care.

EUGENE PEPLOWSKI, ARIZONA GOP PARTY MEMBER: Unification at what cost? OK. Selling out America? I can't do that.

LAH: There will be a price warned establishment Republicans.

JEFF FLAKE (R), FORMER ARIZONA SENATOR: It really is driving normal, regular, rational people from the Republican Party and we can't afford to lose many more.

LAH (on camera): It's more than just a fear that the senator is talking about. There are real numbers behind this.

The Arizona secretary of state's office says 9,944 registered Republicans, that's almost 10,000 of them, have officially switched their party registration since the U.S. Capitol riots. Now, establishment Republicans here in Arizona say that is not just a warning, it is a blaring siren.

Kyung Lah, CNN, Scottsdale, Arizona. (END VIDEOTAPE)

CAMEROTA: Our thanks to Kyung for that.

Meanwhile, this.

A CNN investigative report finds that Congresswoman Marjory Taylor Greene has pushed some insane and evil stuff online. How will her congressional colleagues respond? We have the CNN investigation, next.

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[06:53:49]

BERMAN: A Republican member of Congress repeatedly indicated support for executing prominent Democrats. The Oregon Republican Party passed a resolution calling the assault on the Capitol a false flag operation. In other words, a fake.

Joining us, former Republican Congressman Denver Riggleman. He's also chief strategist for the Network Contagion Research Institute.

Congressman, let me just ask you, are you a Republican this morning?

DENVER RIGGLEMAN (R), FORMER U.S. REPRESENTATIVE: Listen, based on the definition I thought it was, I would say yes. But what I see right now, no. And, you know, that's been my -- I think my biggest problem with where we're at right now, do I -- do I stay Republican and try to fix it from the inside, do I leave the Republican Party, just be who I am from the outside? And right now, I've got to tell you, John, I'm leaning towards leaving the party at this point. The more that I see -- and it's not just what you talked about with the state committees, it's a massive number of local committees that are going after specific congressional representatives, like Fred Upton up in Michigan, Anthony Gonzalez in Ohio. You know, I know these individuals and they're friends of mine. And, you know, I'm getting the calls and the texts, guys. I -- you know, I still talk to them. And it's very difficult right now. And it's just very difficult to keep pushing forward on the GOP side of things, when you see what's happening around the country.

[06:55:02]

BERMAN: What does it tell you, the Oregon Republican Party, we're talking about the state party, this is an organization, passed a resolution calling the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol a false flag operation. Basically a set-up to make Donald Trump look bad. That's a state party saying that. What does that tell you?

RIGGLEMAN: It tells me that crazy has started to metastasize at every single level in the GOP. And, you know, I'm seeing it here in Virginia. And I'll tell both of you, I was in a town here in central Virginia and saw that there were Trump/Pence signs on the road. Somebody had taken a black can of spray paint and spray painted out Pence's name on some of these signs and also put some pretty nasty words there. It rhymed with "luck Pence," right. And, you know, and this was -- this is still on the road. This is still in storefronts. This is happening right here in Virginia.

So I'm not seeing this incredible redemption of the party right now. All I'm seeing is a doubling down in a lot of these committees and a lot of these individuals who believe in stop the steal nonsense and conspiracies. And you're seeing even representatives now saying such incredibly ridiculous things or trying to cover up or trying to have people forget. And that's not going to happen as far as with normal, rational people that are -- that are sort of looking around, well, what's happening around me?

And -- but, again, I think it's about re-election. It's about the fact that you want to appeal to your committees and you want to have that support. And, you know, facts be damned. Let's push forward and see if I can get re-elected again.

BERMAN: You're referring, I think, obliquely to Marjorie Taylor Greene, this member of Congress from Georgia. In the K-File, Andrew Kaczynski and others have just gone through and done a remarkable bit of reporting from her social media posts, things that she liked, you know, on her FaceBook page. She liked a post which suggested of Nancy Pelosi, a bullet to the head would be quicker. Basically, expressing support for killing the speaker of the House.

Now, you can call that crazy. And I'm perfectly willing to agree that that's a crazy thing. But to call it an aberration is probably not fair this morning. Marjorie Taylor Greene won in her district with 74 percent of the vote -- 75 percent of the vote. I'm underselling what Marjorie Taylor Greene did there, 75.6 percent of the vote. It seems to me she's not a bug, she's a feature right now.

RIGGLEMAN: Yes, I mean, let's not be oblique then, let's be directed. Not only is it crazy, it is par for the course for Marjorie Taylor Greene. And I -- and I have to wonder at this point, is there something mentally there that we have to worry about, or there's some kind of IQ limiter that's been applied to what comes out of her mouth or what actually goes on to a keyboard.

BERMAN: Seventy-five percent of vote! She won 75 percent of the vote!

RIGGLEMAN: Well, look at the committee votes, right, John? I think they actually are indicative. You know, usually the committees seem to skew further right than the normal constituency, but if you look at the vote, for instance, down in Arizona, when you look at what McCain -- I'm talking about McCain and you're talking about Jeff Flake, you're talking about Doug Doocy, two of them had votes in the 60s out of 100. Doug Doocy still had 59 votes against, right, to censure these individuals.

So this is not an aberration. I -- I have been warning people about this. I do not see some kind of ground swell where people are all of a sudden anti-President Trump. It is not happening. I don't know how else to say it in the most blunt terms possible. This ground swell against President Trump, that people might think they're seeing, whether it's media, whether it's other politicians, whether it's individuals that are looking at analysis and statistics, not happening. It's just not happening. So, you're right, it's not an aberration.

BERMAN: If you're one of these ten House Republicans who voted to impeach the former president, how scared are you politically this morning of him?

RIGGLEMAN: I think -- yes, well, I know Liz and Anthony pretty well, too. I don't know if they're more scared than they're pissed. And I think right now -- and you're looking at Liz Cheney, who's tougher than most of the individuals in Congress, and that includes all the males. And when you look at Anthony Gonzalez, who played football, these individuals aren't afraid. I think they're pissed off. And they're going fight.

But as far as losing, you know, I've talked to Anthony, you know, I've talked to Liz, they're going to stand on principle. But if you're going to scare some of these individuals, you're not. They'll go down. And if you talk about Adam Kinzinger, you talk about the individuals that voted against it, they understood what they were doing.

I hope they're not afraid because service shouldn't be about fear, it should be about facts. Service should be about serving your fellow men and women without regards to insanity or applying some kind of test or some personal test where you're loyal to one person. I think that's what you're going to see, John. And, again, I just -- I think the fight is still there. If you're not GOP, you're going to keep pushing forward, the fight is still there to have facts-based policies and ideas and not to go down the rabbit hole of worshiping one individual believing in things like stop the steal.

BERMAN: Denver Riggleman, spitting fiery truth this morning. Thank you so much for coming on NEW DAY.

RIGGLEMAN: Thanks.

BERMAN: We look forward to speaking to you again.

RIGGLEMAN: Thank you, sir.

BERMAN: NEW DAY continues right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We will defeat this pandemic.

[07:00:00]

Help is on the way.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: President Joe Biden announcing the U.S. will buy 200 million more doses of coronavirus vaccines.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Every state will now have.