Return to Transcripts main page

New Day Saturday

House Managers, Trump Defense Prepare For Start Of Senate Trial; CDC: Nearly 37 Million Vaccine Doses Administered; Report: More Than Half Of States Missing Vaccination Data By Race; Black Americans Only Received 5 percent Of Vaccinations In First Month Of Rollout; Capitol Riot Investigation: One Month Later: Still No Charges For Officer's Death; Fox Business Cancels Highest Rated Show, "Lou Dobbs Tonight"; NFL's "Inspire Change" Initiatives Spotlights Social Justice. Aired 8-9a ET

Aired February 06, 2021 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nationwide more than 9 million shots administered last week, that's 10 times the number of new cases added in the U.S.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: The NFL has pledged to make all 32 of their team stadiums available as mass vaccination sites.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think overall things are definitely getting better.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The impeachment trial is taking shape. We are learning that House Democrats say they have enough evidence to make their case

REP. VAL DEMINGS (D-FL): There is so much footage of what happened on that day. We see the images. We also clearly hear the President's words.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The $15 minimum wage is in the White House proposal. The expectation is it will likely have to be stripped out in order for Democrats to be able to pass the package on a simple majority vote.

LARRY SUMMERS, FORMER DIRECTOR, NATIONAL ECONOMIC COUNCIL UNDER PRESIDENT OBAMA: Look, the White House is in a complicated political position.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Republicans have proposed is either to do nothing or not enough.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY WEEKEND with Victor Blackwell and Christi Paul. CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: Good Saturday morning to you. We are now, as you wake up, three days to go until the start of the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump. There's still an awful lot that we don't know about how this week is going to play out.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, Democrats, the former president's impeachment lawyers, they both have to soon lock in their legal strategies, and there are a lot of outstanding questions. How will House impeachment managers present the case against the former president? Will witnesses be called? How long should we expect the trial to last?

With a few answers CNN's Daniella Diaz, on Capitol Hill, we could get some clues this weekend. Tell us where things stand now?

DANIELLA DIAZ, CNN CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER: Well, good morning, Victor and Christi. Look, the impeachment trial is supposed to start in two days, but we don't know a lot about how it's going to look.

Look, we know that it's going to begin on Tuesday and with - legal briefs will be due on Monday, which will give us a preview of how Donald Trump's defense will argue as well as the impeachment managers that will offer their case against Donald Trump.

We don't expect to see Donald Trump appear at his own trial. The impeachment managers actually sent him a letter last week asking him to testify under oath. But his spokesperson Jason Miller responded very quickly saying no, and called it a public relations stunt.

We know that Democrats want a swift trial. They don't want this to last three weeks like it did in Trump's first impeachment trial last year. They want to move quickly, because they want to focus on Biden's long priorities of legislation - his legislative priorities.

And look, we know - sources have told me that Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell are talking, trying to figure out some ground rules ahead of the impeachment trial on Tuesday. So far, we don't know how that's going to look. And we don't even know if there's going to be witnesses called. So, a lot of unknowns heading into Tuesday when the trial is supposed to begin. Victor and Christi?

BLACKWELL: Daniella Diaz, for us on Capitol Hill. Thank you,

PAUL: Daniella, thank you. So, let's bring in CNN Legal Analyst Ross Garber. He teaches politics - political investigations and impeachment law at Tulane. And Anita Kumar, POLITICO's White House Correspondent and Associate Editor. Good morning to both of you. So glad to have you both here.

Ross, I want to start with you, and a tweet that you put out. You say, "Bizarre, the Senate has adopted no rules or procedures regarding subpoenas, witnesses, depositions, arguments, et cetera, et cetera. Trial starts Tuesday, not a signal, the majority senate Dems are taking this very seriously." What do you make of the fact that none of that is there, do you really think Democrats aren't taking this seriously since it's out there, and they're putting so much weight on it?

ROSS GARBER, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Yes. So my concern is, imagine this scenario. Impeachment is supposed to be this very serious, very solemn proceeding and procedure with potentially dramatic consequences. We're heading into a trial in just a couple of days. And there are no rules. There are no procedures about witnesses, about depositions about, any of those things.

That doesn't send a signal that this is such a serious potentially consequential proceeding. If that were the case, one would presume that all of those things would be in place. And the fact that Donald Trump's lawyers are not squawking about it - imagine heading into a trial in just a couple of days and not even knowing if you can call any witnesses. The fact that the former president's lawyers aren't squawking about it, suggests that they're probably pretty confident in a not guilty verdict.

PAUL: So, Anita, what is POLITICO's reporting? What do you know about the potential for witnesses on either side here?

ANITA KUMAR, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT AND ASSOCIATE EDITOR, "POLITICO": Well, as we indicated they haven't said. But what we have heard from both sides is that they probably will not put witnesses out there. What both sides intend to do is to put videos out there, things that they've been working on.

[08:05:00]

So, for the Democrats - the House Democrats really did want witnesses, but it seems as if Senate leaders, Senate Democrats do not. They want a swift trial, as we've just indicated. So they're putting together a video that will include images from January 6th, from the riots and things that Donald Trump said.

They're also going to talk about how he did not agree with the results of the election, how he spent two months trying to overturn the election. So, they feel like they have enough evidence out there without having witnesses.

Now, on the on the president side - the former president side, they also want to put out a video. They want to talk about how Democrats have fiery, passionate speeches all the time. You can expect them to show some of those, and say, look, that doesn't mean that they incited a riot. People talk like this. Politicians talk like this. So, it's unlikely we'll see witnesses, and it's likely that we'll see things like video footage as they make their cases.

PAUL: So Ross, here's my question, because you've asserted that House Democratic managers need to have testimony - live testimony, they need to have new information, the videos that you've seen, that we've heard, is that enough?

GARBER: Well, at the end of this trial, just like at the end of every trial, there's going to be a verdict. And at the end of this trial either the verdict will be a conviction of Donald Trump, or he'll be found not guilty by the Senate. And so the question for House managers is, do they have enough to get to a guilty verdict? I don't think you're going to find too many people who say that the answer is yes. So, if they want to have a chance at a guilty verdict, then they are going to need new information, they are going to need witnesses.

And we'll here over the next few days, as Anita suggested, that they - they believe they've got a very compelling case without witnesses, without additional information, without subpoenas. The problem is, who's it compelling to? It's not going to be compelling enough to get to a guilty verdict. And also, my concern is it's not going to be compelling enough to tell the American people that this process has been treated seriously.

PAUL: We know behind the scenes politics, obviously very much at play here. And, Anita, an article today on POLITICO talks about how allies of former President - President Trump are imploring his impeachment team here to avoid a specific topic, the deadly riot that unfolded at the U.S. Capitol.

First of all, I mean, just let that sink in for a minute. How do you avoid the topic, when it is the core of this case? And how is it going to come down, I guess, to them for distraction? I mean, what do they fear will be the potential ramifications of this? Whether they bring that up or not, but why would they say don't go there? Don't go to Capitol riot?

KUMAR: Yes. I think first you're going to see them sort of argue two things. They're going to talk about how the president had the First Amendment right to speak as he did. And they're going to talk about how it's unconstitutional or they say it's unconstitutional to bring this proceeding against him, because he's not in office. They'd like to keep it to that.

Obviously, as you indicated, of course, they're going to - the trial is going to include what happened on January 6th, the Democrats are going to make sure of that. What is going on here is that President Trump and his team feel pretty confident, he's not going to be convicted.

They're still trying to talk about his legacy. They're still worried about his legacy. They don't want to bring up the idea that he tried to overturn the election, which we of course know is going to come up. And they don't want to talk about the details of January 6th, because not only do we remember what he did say, but after the riots started at the Capitol, he didn't quickly say everybody go home. Let's stop this.

And that was a key mistake that some of his allies feel like, that he quickly went to Twitter and did say, "We love you." He did talk about it being peaceful, but he didn't urge people to go home. And so, they're worried about his reputation for the future. They want to shore up his legacy.

I know that may sound sort of outrageous after two impeachment trials. But look, it could be more damaging than not, so they want to keep it to those two arguments, and not talk about the overturning of the election, or the specifics of what happened on January 6th.

PAUL: So based on the expectations, Ross, of what's going to happen, that he will essentially be acquitted, this is not going to go in the Democrats favor. POLITICO also reporting that there may be one other option here if the ultimate goal of Democrats is to keep this president - this former president from being able to run again, and that is Section 3 of the 14th Amendment and it reads this.

[08:10:00]

"No person shall hold any office, civil or military, under the United States or under any state, who having previously taken an oath to support the Constitution of the United States shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same." I know, there's no judicial test of this declaration in about a century. But give us a reality check on on the plausibility of using that section, Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to keep this former president from ever running again.

GARBER: Yes, so, as you noted, there's kind of no test for how that's applied. And, the big thing for a presidential race is that there's no enforcement mechanism. There's no - it's not clear who actually enforces it.

The problem with that notion is that, if the president were, say, impeached and removed from office for insurrection, I think, then there'd be a very good argument that that provision would apply. If he were charged criminally and convicted, there'd be a good argument, that provision would apply.

But the problem is, if he's impeached, and now acquitted, found not guilty of insurrection, I think it's going to be very difficult for Congress to now pass by a majority vote resolution saying that he engaged in misconduct, and for that, to preclude him from running for office. What would wind up happening is state by state by state by state litigation about whether he could appear on the ballot likely.

PAUL: All right, Ross Garber and Anita Kumar, we are so grateful to have both of you and your expertise with us. Thank you.

GARBER: You bet.

BLACKWELL: President Biden is calling for quick passage of his $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan with or without supportive Republicans. The President pointed to an underwhelming jobs report is proof Americans are still suffering, but it's unclear what a final package will include.

PAUL: CNN's Jasmine Wright is live in Delaware. Jasmine, good morning to you. We know the president defended this huge price tag, saying that a Republican plan would mean more pain for more people for a longer period of time. What do you know about the strategy here?

JASMINE WRIGHT, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, President Biden made it clear in his most direct criticism of Republicans, showing that he is ready to move forward with this COVID relief bill with or without them.

Now, he used those sluggish job numbers yesterday to really defend the COVID package, as you said, both the size of it that $1.9 trillion price tag, but also the speed and urgency in which he wants to get it passed, saying that Americans are really suffering. And he said that he is not interested in getting tied up in lengthy negotiations with Republicans, and that is really despite that bipartisan support push that he has been very vocal about.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: I've told both Republicans and Democrats, that's my preference to work together. But if I had to choose between getting help right now to Americans who are hurting so badly and getting bogged down in a lengthy negotiation or compromising on a bill that's up to the crisis, that's an easy choice. I'm going to help the American people who are hurting now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WRIGHT: Now, Biden is drawing some really clear lines here. He's saying that he is not going to come down from that $1,400 check to direct - I'm sorry, direct payments to Americans. But he did say that he is willing to negotiate who exactly qualifies for them.

Now, House Democrats are saying that they are ready to go forward to attempt to get this bill passed by their self-imposed March deadline. They said that yesterday after meeting with Biden in the White House. But Christi, Victor, it is still really an open question of how quickly this bill can get passed, as we know next week this Senate will turn towards that impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump, really tying up the chamber.

PAUL: Alrighty, gentlemen, Jasmine Wright, good to see you this morning. Thank you.

BLACKWELL: About 1,000 active duty troops will soon be deployed to support the country's vaccine efforts. Where they're going and what they'll do, next.

PAUL: And also, here in the U.S., Black and Brown Americans make up less than 20 percent of the people who've received the coronavirus vaccine thus far. What community leaders are doing to ease concerns and convince people to get vaccinated?

BLACKWELL: And Fox Business benches the anchor of its highest rated show. Why Lou Dobbs will not be back on air, that's ahead this hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:15:00]

BLACKWELL: COVID-19 vaccinations are up and the number of new cases and hospitalizations, those numbers are down. Nearly 37 million vaccine doses have been put into arms. PAUL: The U.S. is administering an average of 1.3 million vaccines per day, and that that's up from 1.1 million last week, and nearly 1,000 troops now are being deployed to states across the country to help get more shots into arms. Here is CNN's Oren Liebermann,

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin approved the deployment of about 1,100 troops to five different vaccination sites as part of the Department of Defense's effort to help FEMA build up and support COVID vaccination sites.

The first of these teams of about 220 will deploy within the next about 10 days or so to one of two vaccination sites in California, either in Oakland or in Los Angeles. That's up to FEMA, and it's unclear yet where those troops will be helping out.

The team of 220, each team in fact, will have nurses, vaccinators command and control, as well as clinical staff, general staff and others to build up what are intended to be these mass vaccination sites.

[08:20:00]

Now, 1,100 troops are still far short of the full FEMA request for 10,000 troops. But at this point, even FEMA has acknowledged that build up to those sorts of numbers that could deliver up to 450,000 vaccinations a day would be incremental, so this, it appears, is just the beginning.

One of the key questions here, how much vaccine supply is there, and is there enough to put out so many troops? And that is a key question we'll be asking as this process moves forward. How long will each of these vaccination teams remains in place? That will be discussion between FEMA and the Department of Defense before they can wrap up at one site and perhaps move to another site where they're also needed?

Oren Liebermann, CNN at the Pentagon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Now, of the more than 36 million Americans who have been vaccinated against the coronavirus, fewer than 20 percent of them are people of color. Analysis from the Kaiser Family Foundation shows that only 23 states report data on vaccines by race or ethnicity, and that's hindering efforts to get an equitable number of shots into minority communities that need it most.

The data shows that Black Americans in those states have received far fewer vaccinations, while making up a disproportionate share of COVID cases and deaths. Overall, 5 percent of the nearly 13 million Americans vaccinated in December were Black, 11 percent were Latino. So how do we bring more equity to the vaccine rollout?

Let's talk about that now with NAACP, President Derrick Johnson, and Dr. Gigi El-Bayoumi, Professor of Medicine at the George Washington University School of Medicine. Thank you both for being with me. And Dr. El-Bayoumi, let me start with you. 23 states report demographic information at least by race of vaccinations, should the CDC mandate that?

DR. GIGI EL-BAYOUMI, PROFESSOR OF MEDICINE, GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE: Absolutely. And good morning. I think the main issue is, if we're going to have an equitable distribution, we should look not just on numbers in terms of allocation, D.C. is a good example of this, but rather burden of disease.

And, furthermore, as what California is doing, they're actually looking at the workers, where are the workers coming from. So if you match the workers' burden of disease, the allocation will be much more equitable, because we at the Black Coalition Against COVID have actually - and others, NAACP and many other organizations, I believe have moved the needle when it comes to people being trusting and giving - and wanting to get the vaccine.

So right now, in Washington, D.C. 25,000 vaccines per week, the need is far greater. Our various partners, faith based and otherwise, are wanting to have mass vaccine efforts and including families, by the way, but we can't do that without the supply. That's really the rate limiting step.

BLACKWELL: So, Derrick, let me come to you on equity. This administration has a COVID Health Equity Task Force. They say that that is important. Why do you expect that is not happening? And is the administration engaging your group, other groups like the NAACP to make sure that they at least get closer to it?

DERRICK JOHNSON, PRESIDENT, NAACP: Well, we're only about three weeks - barely three weeks into this administration. They have done right in terms of directionally how they're going to approach this. We have been engaged - ongoing engagement with both CDC and the special COVID taskforce. Dr. Nunez-Smith has done an outstanding job.

So this is a great example to show that we have to capture race data across agencies for situations like this. There was this charge to remove race data during our Reagan Administration, and since that time, we have tried to do away with capturing race data. It's going to be really important for us to continue to do that moving forward, not only in the midst of this COVID disaster, it's going to be important for us to do that across all of government.

BLACKWELL: Dr. El-Bayoumi, how do you interpret the generational and gender divides on a willingness to get the vaccination. There's an NFID survey that found that 68 percent of Black Americans over the age of 60, were willing to get the vaccine. Only 38 percent of those 18 to 44 plans to get it. And when it comes to - let's stay with the 60 and over, 59 percent of Black women over 60 plans to get it. 78 percent of Black men over 60 plans to get vaccinated. How do you interpret those those differences?

EL-BAYOUMI: Well, let me start off by saying we have to pay attention to competing priorities that people have, as well as hope. When you're looking - this happened in the AIDS epidemic, by the way. When you're looking at young people, and there is gun violence in their communities, and they are weighing risks, because they're actually scientifically minded and very good at sort of looking at what their chance of making it beyond 25 years of age. They feel, well, gun violence has gone up in D.C., what does it matter whether it's HIV or COVID.

[08:25:00]

I think that we have to be careful about generalizing within the African American community or any other community, because there are actually differences within groups. So, another group that we don't want to forget about are the minorities within those communities, so the disabled, the mentally ill the homeless.

So whatever approach, we need to let the science and data and public health information, as well as the boots on the ground community organizers and community-based organizations and clinicians to really lead in terms of sharing their experience. I believe, if I were advising the Biden-Harris team, and Health Equity team, is that we have to get real-time data and find out what's happening and being careful to just sort of generalize, because it's much more nuanced than that.

BLACKWELL: There's also the question of the digital divide. We've talked a lot about misinformation, disinformation, Derrick. And access to even making these appointments often requires broadband, requires Wi-Fi. We know that people in rural America have less access to it than people in urban areas. And even in rural counties that have a majority of White residents, they have a greater share of access than rural counties with a larger percentage of African American residents.

So, speak to if you would have that broadband Internet access divide is impacting how people get the information, even get access to an appointment?

JOHNSON: Well, first of all, you have to have more places where people can actually receive the shot.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

JOHNSON: The inequity in terms of places is a problem. It is encouraging to see the best logistical operation in this country is now being involved, that's the U.S. military, so we can just provide basic access to COVID shots. Far too many communities like that.

I read a story earlier about West Virginia and how rural local pharmacies are leading the way to ensure that you have more West Virginians receiving their vaccine. That's being closer to the people, providing them the opportunity to get this shot.

If you consider to the City of New York, we need to provide access to public housing, we need to provide access to local government entities that are closer to the people. This is not about a digital divide problem. This is about access and logistics and the prior administration had nothing in place to deploy the vaccine. Now, we got to deploy it at a rapid pace. I am encouraged that now we're seeing the U.S. military have being involved, but we got to accelerate this so people can have basic access to take the vaccine.

BLACKWELL: Yes, also University of Pittsburgh found that 69 counties across the country, 26 million people, Blacks were far more likely to live more than a mile from vaccination sites than White Americans to speak to your point on access. Derrick Johnson, Dr. Gigi El-Bayoumi, thank you both.

JOHNSON: Thank you.

PAUL: Well, West Texas flower shop owner who was charged for participating in the Capitol siege last month is being allowed to take a four-day trip to Mexico. We'll tell you about the judge's ruling in a moment. Stay close.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:30:00]

PAUL: Didn't know if you realize this yet this morning, but today marks one month exactly since the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol. Now, the Justice Department is really struggling still to build this case surrounding the death of a Capitol Police officer who was killed during the riots.

BLACKWELL: And CNN's Marshall Cohen joins us from Washington. Marshall, over the last month, we've learned a lot about the people who were there, but still so many questions.

MARSHALL COHEN, CNN REPORTER: That's right, Victor. And as you mentioned, perhaps the most important part of this investigation into the murder of Officer Brian Sicknick, it is not where they want it to be, frankly. It's been a full month. They haven't made any arrests. The FBI hasn't named any suspects.

And part of the reason why is because they're having difficulty pinpointing the exact moment when he was killed. As you can imagine, they've been looking through surveillance tape, social media footage. There's a lot of video of what happened that day in the Capitol. But they don't have the exact moment of a fatal blow, the type of evidence they could use to secure an indictment and bring that very serious murder charge. So that is hitting a wall.

But other - in other parts of the investigation, they're moving full speed ahead. Just last night, we learned some new information about what the Justice Department is doing about "The Proud Boys," the Far Right extremist group. About 10 members of that group have already been charged in connection with the riot.

And the Justice Department said to a judge last night in a court filing, that they may be planning future attacks, and that there's no reason to suspect that they would stop "fomenting a rebellion." That's the Justice Department's words. So really some pretty serious stuff there. And finally, guys, you remember that woman from Texas who was charged in the riot and wanted to take a vacation to Mexico? Her name is Jenny Cudd. She requested permission to go to Mexico for a preplanned vacation, a retreat with her work colleagues. The judge ruled last night she's allowed to go. She has to come back and report back to her - the court officials when she's back.

[08:35:00]

But she will be allowed to go on that vacation. And then once she comes back, she'll have to face the music, because she's been charged with a felony and a few other counts, guys.

BLACKWELL: All right, Marshall Cohen, thank you.

PAUL: Thanks, Marshall.

COHEN: It's OK.

PAUL: So be sure to watch CNN next Sunday night. We have a new CNN Original Series for you, "Lincoln: Divided We Stand." Here's a preview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lincoln freed the slaves.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That is more complicated than that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: New president, a prairie lawyer, with no experience, tried to hold together the American experiment.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The stakes were extremely high.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This election is an earthquake.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The biggest misconception of Lincoln is that he was perfect.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The man who found a way to make democracy sing.

ANNOUNCER: Lincoln: Divided We Stand. Premieres next Sunday night at 10:00.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:40:00]

PAUL: Well, Fox Business Network has fired longtime Host Lou Dobbs. Fox's spokesperson confirmed Dobbs is off the air effective immediately. This is strange for a lot of people, given the fact that Dobbs was the network's highest rated host, often doubling the ratings of the show before him. BLACKWELL: But the cancellation did come just one day after Smartmatic, an election technology company filed a $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit against the network, Dobbs and others. The lawsuit asserts that Dobbs and other Fox hosts and guests defamed Smartmatic, while perpetuating former President Trump's debunked lies and comments about election fraud.

So, let's bring it now, of course, CNN Chief Media Correspondent Brian Stelter. So, Brian, first good morning to you.

BRIAN STELTER, CHIEF MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

BLACKWELL: Do we know how much of that factor, the lawsuit played in potentially to Dobbs firing.

STELTER: Right. There certainly seems like it was a factor. But sources at Fox say there were other factors as well. They say Dobbs' show, although, relatively high rated for Fox Business, was actually a loss leader, because advertisers did not want to be associated with his extreme right-wing content.

Of course, that's true for others at Fox like Tucker Carlson. But Carlson has a much bigger audience. So, there are definitely multiple factors here. But the timing is clear. The timing is obvious. He was on the air Thursday, the lawsuit was filed on Thursday, he was off the air on Friday, and he's never coming back.

That is a shocking move by a network to make. And you have to wonder if what the network is doing is, basically coming up with a sacrificial lamb in the midst of this massive lawsuit, and then waiting to see what will happen next.

I know that Dobbs and other hosts on Fox rail against cancel culture. They say they're being canceled. Well, this is - well, this is an actual cancellation. But this might really be more like consequence culture that there are consequences for constantly peddling falsehoods on television. And at least in this one case, perhaps, there are real consequences for Dobbs.

PAUL: So, you mentioned he may be a sacrificial lamb. But, I mean, Brian, really what is the assertion of legal experts when it comes to this suit, the gravity of it, the seriousness of it?

STELTER: Right, they say that getting rid of one host is not going to change the dynamics of this defamation lawsuit, because this lawsuit is about what was said on television in November and December, not about what Fox does in response in January or February. So, this lawsuit is serious. It has teeth. We will see how it moves through the court system and how Fox will try to defend itself.

But what we are seeing is that real consequences for the big lie, for people that desperately try to support Trump and prop up his bid to stay in power. Now, Dobbs was on Twitter this morning retweeting his fans who say they'll follow him wherever he goes. But he won't be able to go anywhere for a while. Dobbs is going to be sitting on the bench. This is the worst situation for someone like Dobbs who craves airtime. Fox is going to pay him to not work. They're going to pay him the rest of his contract just to sit at home. Really interesting dynamic. Again, it makes you wonder why are they punishing him, are they punishing him because of his election lies? But if they are, and that that seems like the situation here, it seems like there are consequences for him lying about the election.

If they're doing that, if Fox management, the Murdochs are doing that, why are they not taking action against the other Fox stars who were also promoting Trump's lies and pushing his propaganda. It's a curious move by the Murdochs with more questions than answers right now.

PAUL: Yes, it is perplexing. Brian Stelter, great job walking us through it. Thank you.

BLACKWELL: Thanks, Stelter.

STELTER: Thank you. Thanks.

BLACKWELL: Patrick Mahomes going for back to back Super Bowl wins tomorrow, but there's a pretty good quarterback standing in his way. Maybe you've heard of Tom Brady. We're live from Tampa next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:45:00]

PAUL: So, let's talk about the reset. What we're all doing in this time of COVID, shifting priorities and whatnot. I asked "New York Times" bestselling author and speaker Annie F. Downs, how she's made it through the quarantine. Her new book, "That Sounds Fun" acknowledges. Listen, 2020 did not start out fun, but she says she wants you to find fun again.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANNIE F. DOWNS, AUTHOR, "THAT SOUNDS FUN": And I'm not married yet and don't have kids yet, so it's just me at home. So, the first night I cried. But then the second day, I made a bucket list.

One of the questions I always ask when people want me to like fun coach them is I say, OK, when you are in third grade on a Saturday afternoon, what did you do? And everybody has an answer, because everybody remembers being eight and playing outside, or reading a book, or enjoying playing with trains.

What I've figured out is that there's this healing that comes when you reconnect with pieces of you let go when you grew up. I've picked up cross stitching again, which is hilarious, because I haven't cross stich since I was like, seven when my grandmother taught me.

[08:50:00]

I've really enjoyed that at the end of watching a show, at the end of watching a movie, I have something to speak up in my hand. And I even if you're cooking if you are, if you're building things, LEGO sets, LEGO sets, right, there for every age now, that's not weird. Because you got to let yourself love the stuff you've always loved, and not care what other people think anymore, so that you can have the genuine fun and hobbies that you're longing for.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: And Annie says one big element she discovered in 2020 is the joy of just getting back to basics.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DOWNS: Is not feeling the need to expand my life into 15 directions again, to go like hey remember the gift you are given of simplifying your life, you love that. So, while I do want to get on planes and I miss my friends in other cities and other countries, I see a future for me that continues to embrace the simplicity of the life we were given in 2020. In some ways we need to hold joy and sadness at the same time.

We've experienced a lot of loss in the last year and we don't have to pretend that isn't true. But I have been thankful for the joys I've experienced. That's the reset in me, is holding joy and sadness at the same time and finding fun where the world would tell you there is no fun anymore.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: Because we no fun is healing, tell me how the coronavirus and quarantine has changed you and your approach to life. I want to hear from you, your reset. You can find me on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

BLACKWELL: An assistant coach with the defending Super Bowl champion, Kansas City Chiefs is now under investigation after a car crash left a child with life threatening injuries.

PAUL: Andy Scholes has this morning's Bleacher Report. Andy? I'm sorry, Coy, we've got quite, Coy.

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Hi. I pulled one on you. It's me today. Good to see you, Christi and Victor. Yes, we have a serious situation in Kansas City where police say that Britt Reid, the son of head coach Andy Reid was involved in a multiple - multi-vehicle crash near Arrowhead Stadium on Thursday night that sent to children to the hospital.

In a search warrant first obtained by CNN affiliate KSHB, a responding officer noted that Reid smelled of alcohol and that Reid said he had consumed two to three drinks before driving. The police sought and received a judge's permission to collect blood from Reid to assist with their investigation. Reid has not been charged with any crime at this time.

A four-year-old and a five year old were hurt. The police describe the five-year old's injuries is life threatening. The condition of the children unknown at this time. In a statement the Chiefs said, "The team was aware of the situation and said its thoughts and prayers are with everyone involved."

Now, this has been a season filled with challenges, despite them, the League and the players continuing to use their platform to create change. Here in Tampa hundreds of hanging mini footballs, morphing to spell "Inspire Change," the NFL's Social Justice Initiative.

The League says more than $95 million in contributions have been made in support of social justice programs that say their stories, campaign, honoring social justice heroes and victims of police misconduct, the My Cause My Cleats, which players were to raise awareness for causes important to them. Chiefs star quarterback Patrick Mahomes is on a mission off the field as well.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PATRICK MAHOMES, KANSAS CITY CHIEFS QUARTERBACK: When you're given a platform like I've been given, you want to try to make - use it and make the world a better place.

And I'm - I truly mean that when I say that. I have a good understanding of people from all different backgrounds, growing up in a locker rooms, growing up around all different types of people. As I continue to learn about different people and different things in life, I'll try to use my voice to continue to try to bring people together and make the world a better place.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: We're going to see Patrick Mahomes facing off against Tom Brady in the big game. Join me, our Andy Scholes, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, and some surprise guests for kickoff in Tampa Bay. A CNN Bleacher Report Special today at 2:30 Eastern right here on CNN. Looking forward to share some more stories with you, Victor and Christi, as the morning continues right here on CNN.

BLACKWELL: Coy this game is - you know, we've watched the whole season where some stadiums don't allow any spectators, others allow just a few thousand. What should we expect for the game tomorrow?

WIRE: There going to be 25,000 fans here, a third of them victims are going to be vaccinated healthcare workers. We'll be speaking to one of them, the Head ICU nurse at a hospital here in Tampa. She treated the first coronavirus patient at that hospital. She'll join us to talk about how she feels being invited to attend as a vaccinated healthcare worker and what she's been through in this very challenging pandemic.

But the League, and the players especially, are really trying to highlight those, the real heroes in - over the course of the past year,

BLACKWELL: We know they deserve that. Coy Wire thanks so much.

PAUL: Thank you, Coy.

BLACKWELL: And be sure to join us again in an hour.

PAUL: Yes. In the meantime, SMERCONISH is with you next.

[08:55:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MICHAEL SMERCONISH, CNN ANCHOR: Character, it's what you do when no one is watching. I'm Michael Smerconish in Philadelphia. That quote is widely attributed to the late great Bruins John Wooden. And it was on full display this week in Washington.