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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Bidens Pay Tribute To Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick; FBI Raids Homes Of Two Men Who Held Rally On Eve Of Capitol Attack; Alexey Navalny Ordered To Service 2 1/2 Years In Prison. Aired 5:30-6a ET
Aired February 03, 2021 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[05:30:00]
JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Was on the move from the White House. He arrived a short time later. President Biden, along with the first lady, walking into that Rotunda and paying their respects.
We saw Biden walked up to that table. He and Dr. Biden placed their hands over their hearts -- again, paying tribute to this fallen service member. No speeches, just the commander in chief paying his respects to this fallen police officer.
We do know that there will be another departure ceremony later today at the Capitol and Brian Sicknick, that Capitol Police officer, will be interred at Arlington National Cemetery -- Christine.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Josh, we've seen so many hours of this footage of thousands of people storming the Capitol, but investigators are still having a hard time building a case to hold any of those people responsible for Sicknick's death, we're learning.
CAMPBELL: Yes, that's right. We've seen so many people arrested and charged for their alleged actions that day at the Capitol riot. We have not got an indication yet from authorities on where the murder investigation into the person or persons responsible for Officer Sicknick's death stands.
We're told from our sources is that they are actually trying -- they are struggling to build a murder case despite this video evidence that they have -- you know, mountains of it from that day. They haven't yet pinpointed the exact moment where this officer may have received some type of injury.
We do know from our sources that based on the medical examiner's review he didn't receive any blunt force trauma. He collapsed later that evening and then succumbed to his injuries.
But again, that investigation remains -- we're waiting for authorities -- on new details. But that is one thing they are struggling with right now, trying to bring the justice -- bring to justice the person or persons responsible for his death.
ROMANS: All right, Josh Campbell in Washington for us. Thanks, Josh. CAMPBELL: Thanks.
LAURA JARRETT, CNN ANCHOR: All right.
New this morning, the FBI has raided the homes of two men who held a rally on the eve of the attack on the Capitol.
CNN's Marshall Cohen shares the byline on this story with our colleague Paul Murphy. Marshall, great scoop here -- great work. No arrests were made in the case but these are the first known search warrants involving people who organized rallies that led up to that insurrection. What more are you learning?
MARSHALL COHEN, CNN REPORTER AND PRODUCER: Laura, the Feds promised to investigate everything and everyone -- not just the people that made it into the Capitol. And now we're starting to see the first indication that part of the probe is ramping up with these raids targeting two people who claim they didn't even make it into the building on January sixth.
These search warrants were executed at properties in Orange County, California that public records indicate belong to Taylor -- excuse me, Russell Taylor and Alan Hostetter. Now, they've promoted conspiracy theories ranging from QAnon to the deep state to the pandemic, and then the 2020 election, and that's how they ended up co-sponsoring a pro-Trump rally near the Supreme Court on January fifth. That's one day before the attack.
Footage of their rally shows the two men spewing some pretty militant vitriol. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALAN HOSTETTER, FOUNDER, AMERICAN PHOENIX PROJECT: We are at war in this country. We are at war tomorrow and our voices tomorrow are going to put the fear of God in the cowards and the traitors, the rhinos, and the communists of the Democrat Party. They need to know we, as a people, 100 million strong, are coming for them if they do the wrong thing.
RUSSELL TAYLOR, BOARD MEMBER, AMERICAN PHOENIX PROJECT: In these streets, we will fight and we will bleed before we allow our freedom to be taken from us. Now these anti-Americans have made the fatal mistake and they have brought out the patriots here (ph), only to be safe (ph). And they did so without knowing that we will not return to our peaceful way of life until this election is made right.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COHEN: Laura, to be clear, Taylor's lawyer told us he was speaking metaphorically there. But one day later, during the riot at the Capitol, photos placed these two men just outside the complex. Taylor's lawyer told us he was outside but never made it inside. In a video obtained by CNN, Taylor was walking towards the Capitol wearing a flak jacket with what looked like a knife in his pocket.
Laura, I want to be crystal clear. Neither man -- neither of these men have been hit with any criminal charges as of this time -- Laura.
JARRETT: So Marshall, of course, CNN reached out to both of these guys. What are they saying?
COHEN: Well, Taylor acknowledged the raid on his Orange County home in a social media post that he was using a pseudonym. But he told his followers to hold the line and said he was going to be laying low for a little bit at the advice of his lawyer. We reached out to Hostetter multiple times and did not get any comment from him about the rally that he threw or the raid on his home -- Laura.
JARRETT: Laying low, I'm sure.
All right, Marshall. Great work on this. Thanks so much for coming on.
COHEN: Thank you.
ROMANS: All right.
Even with that homegrown threat and the biggest FBI investigation since 9/11, there's still no attorney general confirmed and it's all because of the haggling that's typical of the dysfunction in Washington. Senate leaders are still debating the final details of a power-sharing
agreement. It means Democrats can't chair the committees still under Republican control even though Democrats won the majority.
[05:35:08]
JARRETT: That's right. This means Sen. Lindsey Graham is still chairing the Senate Judiciary Committee and is, so far, refusing to schedule even a hearing for Merrick Garland as attorney general. Hmm, where have we seen that before?
Graham says Democrats need to schedule a two-day hearing like in the past but says incoming chairman Dick Durbin wants it on February eighth, the day before Trump's impeachment trial starts. So in theory, Graham could stall until whenever that trial is over if the power- sharing agreement isn't finalized here.
The Senate was able to confirm Alejandro Mayorkas as Homeland Security secretary and Pete Buttigieg as Transportation secretary on Tuesday. That brings President Biden's confirmed cabinet members to only six out of 23.
ROMANS: All right.
Republican leaders in the House will meet today to determine the direction of their fractured party. They're expected to discuss the future of Congresswoman Liz Cheney, the third-ranking House Republican facing backlash within the Republican Party for her vote to impeach President Trump.
Lawmakers also met last night about Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. Republicans face growing pressure to strip away her committee assignments. No decision yet. They will meet again today. JARRETT: Greene met last night with minority leader Kevin McCarthy. We're told she didn't show any remorse or contrition for her comments denying school shootings and suggesting Jewish space lasers cause wildfires.
But there's concern for some in the GOP about punishing members for things they did before they won elections, like this newly-unearthed video from two years ago that seems prescient for all the wrong reasons.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-GA): If we have a sea of people, if we shut down the streets, if we shut down everything, if we flood the Capitol Building, flood all the government buildings, go inside -- these are public buildings -- we own them. We own these buildings. Do you understand that?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JARRETT: Now, some but certainly not all Republican leaders in the Senate are distancing themselves from Greene. Newly-elected senator archconservative from Alabama, Tommy Tuberville, tells CNN he doesn't know anything about the congresswoman because the bad weather kept him from reading the news. Yes, that's right.
And let's not forget Senate Republicans did not stop all the countless lies and the conspiracy theories that were spewed by the president and his allies for the last four years.
ROMANS: Fines for House members who refuse to pass through new metal detectors. The $5,000 fine for a first offense and a $10,000 fine after that will be deducted straight from lawmakers' salaries.
Every Republican present voted against this new rule proposed by Speaker Nancy Pelosi in the wake of the Capitol insurrection. Some Republicans, like Louie Gohmert of Texas, Lauren Boebert of Colorado, and Andy Harris of Maryland -- they have already tried to defy these new security screenings.
JARRETT: Defense Sec. Lloyd Austin dismissing hundreds of members from Pentagon advisory boards. The move includes controversial appointments made by the outgoing Trump administration.
Now, the Pentagon has made no secret that Austin had concerns that Trump packed the boards with loyalists and he wants to make sure that the advisory committees are now providing the best possible advice to leadership. Sec. Austin is now reviewing all advisory committees to determine their purpose and effectiveness.
ROMANS: All right.
In the what goes up must come down department, Game stock -- GameStop stock plunged 60 percent Tuesday, extending Monday's decline. Shares of AMC, the price of silver, and silver mining company shares also fell. The fall partly due to trading restrictions from Robinhood and other brokers on how many shares retail investors can buy at a time.
And as we feared, small investors who jumped on the GameStop bandwagon recently are on the losing end of GameStop mania. On the popular WallStreetBets chatroom, these new traders were hoping the stock would bounce back. Other traders posted screenshots of their bank accounts that showed thousands of dollars in losses.
Sure enough, one research firm told CNN what's going on with GameStop and AMC is like driving without a license. If average investors get burned by stocks like GameStop it could lead to less confidence in Wall Street and the wider market. Still, although momentum appears to be on hold, amateur investors have shown they are a force to be reckoned with on Wall Street. Analysts say younger investors are starting to buy and sell stocks more and the market will need to adapt.
We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:43:38]
JARRETT: Two and a half years in prison. That is the sentence for opposition leader Alexey Navalny, sparking condemnation around the world and inside Russia where protests against the Putin regime are gaining momentum.
Fred Pleitgen is live in Moscow with the latest. Fred, where do things go from here after that crazy trial yesterday?
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Laura.
Well, it certainly doesn't appear to be that things are slowing down. One of the things that happened immediately after that verdict came down against Alexey Navalny is that his supporters called for people to march on the Kremlin and to start protesting there. And what we saw then was -- I can only describe it as a suffocating response by the Russian authorities.
They came out with riot police that surrounded the Kremlin. They came out with riot police who then went into the streets and started detaining people -- mass detentions that we saw. Just a lot of people being put into those police buses and being wheeled away. The latest number that I have for you is that more than 1,100 people were detained just in Moscow throughout the course of the day yesterday.
But it certainly was a remarkable trial that we saw here in Moscow yesterday. Alexey Navalny really going out there and whipping into Vladimir Putin. He said that Vladimir Putin will be remembered as quote "Putin the Poisoner" in the future. That's an extremely dangerous thing to say in a public trial here in the Russian federation.
[05:45:02] And then, of course, we had that verdict. He's going to spend at least 2.5 years in jail. It's a 3.5-year suspended jail sentence. It's now been turned into a real jail sentence but he's already served some time, so that would be deducted.
We did manage to reach the Kremlin this morning, Laura, and they justified everything that happened here last night. They said the police response was justified.
Also in the past, they've been loathed even mentioning Navalny's name. They now call him the convict. And the quote was the convict does not decide how Vladimir Putin will be remembered in the future, Laura.
JARRETT: Fred, you know, this level of public protest isn't something that you normally see a lot of Russia. I know it's something you've mentioned a lot on this issue. So how does Vladimir Putin weather this growing resistance?
PLEITGEN: Well, I think that it's certainly put him in a very difficult place and that's something that hasn't happened here in a very long time.
There have obviously been protests in the past. There have been larger protests in the past in Moscow. But certainly, to have protests like this throughout the entire country as we've seen over the past couple of weekends, that is something that does make all of this a lot more challenging for the Kremlin.
So far -- you know, as we just reported, the Kremlin shows no sign of backing down or trying to give in to any of the demands the protesters have.
But one of the things that we have to keep in mind Laura in all of this is that the protesters that we speak to that are coming out, many of them say that Alexey Navalny is one of the reasons why they're coming out.
But general discontent with some of the situations here in this country as far as free speech is concerned, as far as the economic situation is concerned, as far as future perspectives for people are concerned, those are really the main reasons why people are taking to the street. And it doesn't look as though those issues are going to be solved anytime soon, Laura.
JARRETT: Yes, such an important point. This is a larger issue and Navalny is, of course, symptomatic of it.
All right, Fred. Thanks so much for all of your reporting on this.
ROMANS: All right.
Three people suffered critical injuries after an explosion and fire near a popular film site in the hills north of Los Angeles. Fire officials say the blast occurred in an industrial center in Santa Clarita where several semitrailers were parked. No filming was taking place at the time. The explosion sparked an acre-wide brushfire that was extinguished by firefighters and water-dropping helicopters.
JARRETT: A very dark day for the FBI. Two agents fatally shot and three others wounded as they tried to serve a warrant in South Florida on Tuesday. Officials say the search was connected to a case involving violent crimes against children. They say the suspect opened fire through the door, killing special agents Daniel Alfin and Laura Schwartzenberger.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE PIRO, SPECIAL AGENT IN CHARGE: The FBI is a family and our chosen profession is fraught with danger. Today, this grim reality has taken two of our best from our family.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JARRETT: The FBI, in a statement, says the subject of the warrant was killed in the shootout.
ROMANS: Oklahoma police have a 25-year-old man in custody for a shooting that left six people dead, including five children. Police are not saying what Jarron Pridgeon's relationship is to the victims. The dead appear to be part of one family and it's believed the suspect lived with them.
The names and ages of the victims have not been released and there's no information about a motive. One surviving victim is in stable condition at a Tulsa hospital.
JARRETT: New charges have been filed against three suspects in a murder-for-hire scheme in Louisiana that left two women dead. Beaux Cormier now faces conspiracy and attempted murder charges, in addition to a murder charge.
Police say he hired two men to kill a rape victim who was set to testify against him. Now, one of the men went to the victim's home and asked for her by name. And in an attempt to protect the real victim -- get this -- Beaux's sister, Brittany Cormier, pretended to be the victim. Police say Brittany and her neighbor, Hope Nettleton, were both shot and killed.
ROMANS: That's a terrible story there.
All right.
Are acronyms racist? The San Francisco Unified Public School District thinks so. The board has changed the name of its visual and performing arts department formerly known as VAPA to SFUSD Arts Department. The decision is based on a 1999 research paper that says acronyms are a symptom of white supremacy culture because they tend to alienate non- English speakers.
The district still has a ways to go. There are 85 other acronyms that remain on its Website.
JARRETT: In Tennessee, a principal now forced to apologize after announcing the school's Black History Month theme is "All Lives Matter." Principal Christy Caldwell Drake says her inspiration was a school mural that says quote "Where Every Child Matters," but she failed to consider the context and, of course, how the phrase "All Lives Matter" minimizes racism.
By the way, 71 percent of the school's students are Black, Hispanic, or Native American. The school district says they are not planning a specific theme for Black History Month now. Instead, they'll celebrate the sacrifices made by so many Black Americans.
[05:50:01]
ROMANS: All right.
The Northeast digging out after that monster storm dumped nearly three feet of snow in parts of New Jersey and Pennsylvania and more than 17 inches in New York City. Forecasters say showers and high winds are expected today as it moves into northern New England.
The storm led to the death of a woman with Alzheimer's who wandered from her home in Pennsylvania. Three other people in the state died in a shooting police say was a murder-suicide following a dispute over shoveling snow.
JARRETT: New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo signing a bill Tuesday repealing the so-called "Walking While Trans" ban. The lawmaker who sponsored the new bill says the 1976 anti-loitering law was meant to target prostitution but advocates argue that the archaic law led to discrimination instead, allowing police to stop and frisk law-abiding transgender and cisgender women of color, leading to scores of unnecessary arrests.
ROMANS: All right.
Google posted record revenue in the fourth quarter even though its cloud business is losing money. Google's core search advertising business helped boost revenue nearly $57 billion.
It's a different story for its cloud business. Cloud computing has been a huge profit driver for rival Amazon. But Google Cloud posted an operating loss of $1.2 billion in the fourth quarter, losing $5.6 billion for the full year.
Google's cloud business is seeing sales grow even as losses mount. Last week it announced a partnership with Ford to make Google its preferred provider for cloud storage.
Apple is testing new software that would allow users to unlock their iPhones with their masks on. But there's a catch -- you're going to need an Apple watch. The update will allow an iPhone to communicate with a synced Apple watch when the phone is raised to use face I.D. The iPhone will automatically unlock and the watch will vibrate.
Apple said users will need to opt in to this new feature. The update will only work to unlock the phone. Users still need to have -- to enter their password to make purchases. Wearable tech that doubles as a credit or a debit card getting a boost as more shoppers move toward contactless payments. People have gotten used to waving their phones and debit cards while checking out of their favorite grocery or clothing store.
Now companies are introducing bracelets and watches that are more fashionable and cheaper. A Purewrist bracelet cost just $25.00 and can be used to spend up to $1,000 at a time. Retail experts say wearables may be ahead of their time.
JARRETT: A traveler in Chicago now in a desperate hunt to find a $22,000 flute that he left on the subway. Donald Rabin says he tried alerting the Transit Authority. He spent the night train hopping and he's been spreading the word on social media.
Now, he's been a musician for nearly 11 years but the flute's main worth is sentimental. It was left to him by his late grandmother at the time when he couldn't afford his own flute. Rabin is now back in school at Boston but still working with Chicago police to hopefully find it.
ROMANS: And we close this morning remembering a hero of the pandemic. Captain Tom Moore raised millions of dollars to fight coronavirus in the U.K. walking laps in his garden just before his 100th birthday last April. He hoped to raise about $1,400. He ended up raising $45 million.
Moore's efforts captured hearts around the world. He was knighted by the queen, officially giving him the title Captain Sir Tom Moore.
His family says he tested positive for coronavirus and was taken to a hospital Sunday where he died. Prime Minister Boris Johnson says Moore was a hero in the truest sense of the word. He sure was.
Thanks for joining us this morning, everyone. I'm Christine Romans.
JARRETT: I'm Laura Jarrett. "NEW DAY" is next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:58:58]
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Today we must never forget, and it's a day the officer's family will never forget.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's just inherently so empathic. These Capitol Police officers were a part of his life for so many years.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: An officer is murdered, close to 100 officers injured. It is so incumbent on leaders to call out these dark, divisive conspiracies.
GEORGE CONWAY, FOUNDER, LINCOLN PROJECT: I think we are watching the moral collapse of the Republican Party. This is a product of four years of people being silent about Donald Trump.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't think Ms. Greene should lose her committee assignments.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think Marjorie Greene is going to be gone -- kicked of her committees.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is NEW DAY. It is Wednesday, February third, 6:00 here in New York.
And we begin this morning with the U.S. Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick who was killed during the insurrection. His body now lying in honor inside the building that he died defending.
Overnight, President Biden and first -- the first lady, as you can see there, as well as the lawmakers who Sicknick died protecting paid their respects.
