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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Trump Defense Team Prepares to Make Case for Acquittal; San Francisco Files Emergency Court Order to Force Schools to Reopen; Biden's Plan to Reopen Schools Clashing with Teachers Unions; U.S. Bolsters Supply, Expects to Have 300 Million Doses by July; Trump's Oxygen Level Dipped into the 80's While Infected; Video Evidence in Impeachment Trial was Originally Posted to Parler. Aired 4-4:30a ET
Aired February 12, 2021 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:00:00]
LAURA JARRETT, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world, this is EARLY START. I'm Laura Jarrett.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Good Friday morning. I'm Christine Romans. It is February 12th, and it is 4 a.m. in New York.
In any other trial Donald Trump's legal team would face a daunting challenge today fending off a devastating impeachment case against the former president. House managers have wrapped their case now painting Trump as a dangerous tyrant who turned his mob on fellow Americans. Laying out in graphic detail how the deadly siege terrorized the rank and file at the Capitol, including black police officers repeatedly called the N-word and janitors cleaning up blood and feces left behind by the pro-Trump rioters.
JARRETT: House managers tried hard to link the insurrection directly to the former president showing how long he tried to undermine the election. How his supporters were conditioned to attack. How Donald Trump drew them to Washington and then unleashed them on the Capitol. Democrats warned Senators a refusal to convict here could incite more of the same.
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REP. TED LIEU (D-CA) HOUSE IMPEACHMENT MANAGER: I'm not afraid of Donald Trump running again in four years. I'm afraid he's going to run again and lose because he can do this again.
REP. JOE NEGUSE (D-CO) HOUSE IMPEACHMENT MANAGER: We humbly, humbly ask you to convict President Trump for the crime for which he is overwhelmingly guilty of. Because if you don't, if we pretend this didn't happen, or worse, if we let it go unanswered, who's to say it won't happen again?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JARRETT: House Democrats used the most but not all of their allotted 16 hours. Former President Trump's lawyers won't go nearly that long we're told. CNN's Jessica Dean is live for us on Capitol Hill this morning. Jessica, nice to see you. How is the Trump defense shaping up? How are they planning to go about this?
JESSICA DEAN, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well first of all, Laura, it's going to be much shorter than the 16 hours by far, but also shorter than what the House impeachment managers did. We're expecting them to get started, of course, at noon and then go maybe three to four hours is what we're being told right now. So again, a pretty condensed presentation to the Senate.
And we also know that last night we saw three Senators, Senator Mike Lee, Senator Ted Cruz and Senator Lindsey Graham going in and conferring with former President Trump's defense team. Of course, these are supposed to be unbiased jurors in this case, but they did go in and talk with them. When Senator Cruz came out, he said they'd discussing strategy. Senator Graham didn't stop and talk, he just told all the reporters gathered that he'd see all of us tomorrow. So at that point everybody kind of disbursed.
We know that Trump's defense team is going to try to make the case that Democrats have used language similar to what former President Trump used. But of course, House impeachment managers making the case that that didn't lead to an insurrection, a deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on January 6.
And what was interesting was yesterday we heard one of Trump's attorneys, Bruce Castor, telling CNN that he did not believe that Trump instructed rioters to come here to the Capitol and that he did not believe they were following those orders. But video shows something different. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We were invited here. We were invited. We were invited here. We were invited by the president of the United States.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I thought I was following my president. I thought I was following what we were called to do.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: President Trump requested that we be in D.C. on the 6th.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are visiting Trump, your boss.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[04:05:00]
DEAN (on camera): We also learned that the Department of Justice is saying that one of the members of the far-right group, The Oath Keepers, said that she was coming here to follow the requests of then President Trump. So again, that coming from the DOJ just yesterday, that they believed that to be true. Now as far as today goes, I mentioned it's going to be pretty short in terms of the defense's presentation. Right now there's no indications that they are going to call witnesses
in this, and it is possible that the Senators will bypass giving any sort of speeches. Now if all of that holds up, Laura, this trial could wrap up as soon as Saturday or Sunday -- Laura.
JARRETT: Yes, it'll be interesting to see what the questions are for both sides here. Jessica, thank you.
ROMANS: What we've learned from this trial is that one of the most secure devices in the entire U.S. government was put at risk by the pro-Trump mob. We showed you video yesterday of then Vice President Mike Pence being evacuated from the Senate chamber. Watch five people behind him. You see a military officer carrying the so-called nuclear football. That contains classified launch codes. Military officials were not aware the device was potentially within reach of that mob since they never lost control of the nuclear football, they did not have to deactivate Pence's system.
JARRETT: Well the city of San Francisco filing an emergency court order to force its public schools to reopen for in person instruction. The order calls the school's district decision to stay closed during the pandemic unconscionable and unlawful. Claiming it violates the constitutional rights of the children. Nearly half of the 20 largest school districts in America are still fully online now after walking back expectations. The White House now says President Biden will not rest until every school is open five days a week. But that's going to be a challenge. John Harwood has more now.
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JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Today we're going to get a clue as to how the Biden administration is going handle a key early collision between its public commitment to the American people and the interests of a key political ally. President Biden ran for the White House promising to open American schools within the first 100 days of his presidency. But that promise is facing push back from teachers unions who are a key part of the Democratic coalition.
The administration's CDC Director Rochelle Walensky increased pressure on the administration recently by saying that schools could open without vaccinating all teachers, but teachers are concerned that it's not safe enough. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki has indicated that perhaps the president could meet his commitment if most schools were to open for in-person learning one day a week within the first 100 days. That is not good enough for a lot of teachers and others who are concerned about the students falling behind in the pandemic. Today we expect to the CDC to providing official guidance, not just the opinion of Rochelle Walensky. That's going to tell us how they're going to handle this collision of priorities -- Laura and Christine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: All right, John, thank you so much for that.
Keeping kids out of the classroom could hurt their future earnings. A professor at Stanford University, Eric Hanushek, warns students could see their lifelong earnings cut by an average of up to 9 percent unless schools can make up for learning losses brought on by the pandemic. Now that's the average. Poorer kids with fewer resources will most likely suffer more. Keeping kids out of school could have serious implications for the economy. Hanushek estimates the GDP could be 3 or 4 percent lower for the rest of the century. Warning that can't be fixed by returning to pre-pandemic education methods.
JARRETT: Well here's some hopeful news. President Biden's coronavirus team plans to have vaccines available for young children as early as this fall. Dr. Anthony Fauci tells ProPublica, when schools reopen in September, it's likely that first graders will be able to get vaccinated. Pfizer and Moderna have been on vaccine trials for your children that are starting off with older age groups.
ROMANS: All right, he had a nuclear launch authority even though he was almost on a ventilator. Disturbing new details about how sick the president with coronavirus.
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JARRETT: Welcome back. The U.S. is bolstering its medicine cabinet planning the purchase of an additional 200 million doses of vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna. The way President Biden sees it this morning, it will put the United State on track to have enough supply by late July to inoculate most Americans.
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JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And in further good news, both companies agree and are now contractually obligated to expedite delivery of 100 million doses that were promised by the end of June, deliver them by the end of May. That's a month faster. That means lives will be saved.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JARRETT: President Biden also took a shot at the Trump administration saying his team was led to believe there was a lot more vaccine available than there actually was. Now CNN has reported that despite a Trump administration promise reserve supplies and second doses were scarce when President Biden was sworn in and they remain that way.
ROMANS: The number of shots in arms per day has nearly doubled now since the inauguration. But keeping those numbers up means keeping up supply. Since the start of this month there have been 18 million doses shipped and 14 million doses in arms so not a lot of room for error if logistics or weather delay the shipments. Some cities are being forced to cancel appointments because of limited supply.
JARRETT: Starting today your local pharmacy may have the coronavirus vaccine. The federal retail pharmacy program aims to deliver 100 million vaccine doses in 30 days. The majority being allocated to CVS, Walgreens, Rite Aid and Walmart. CNN has the pandemic covered coast to coast. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: I'm Alison Kosik in New York. More than 100,000 Walmart and Sam's Clubs pharmacies will begin administering COVID-19 vaccines on Friday. The locations are in 22 states.
[04:15:00]
Walmart says it worked with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to identify pharmacy locations according to factors such as population density and infection rates and medically underserved areas.
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BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: I'm Bianna Golodryga in New York. In an effort to help students and teachers return to the classroom by March 1st, Maryland Governor Larry Hogan pledged nearly 1 million COVID-19 tests and an unlimited supply of PPE for the state's schools free of charge on Thursday. So far, the governor said all but two public school districts have either resumed in-person instruction or agreed to the March 1st date. Hogan previously said that he would use any legal means necessary to get students back into classrooms drawing criticisms from teachers unions.
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NATASHA CHEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Natasha Chen. The city of New Orleans has announced that all indoor and outdoor bars will be closed Friday through Mardi Gras which is next Tuesday. Bars operating as restaurants will also be closed to the public. Liquor stores will be prohibited in the French Quarter and all to go drinks will be banned during this time.
During a press conference New Orleans Mayor Latoya Cantrell said the crowds seen on Bourbon Street last weekend were unacceptable. She said she'd rather be accused of doing too much rather than too little when it comes to the health and safety of residents, especially hospitality workers.
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ROMANS: All right thanks to our reports for all of those.
Now the health of the commander in chief isn't just a personal issue, it is a matter of national security. And when Donald Trump contracted coronavirus last October, he was much sticker than anyone let on. Sources tell CNN his condition deteriorated so rapidly doctors even considered putting him on a ventilator.
Boris Sanchez is live near West Palm Beach near Mar-a-Lago for us this morning. So what are we learning about the president's health at that time?
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, Christine. Yes, as his lawyers get ready to defend him in the impeachment proceedings, we're learning that Donald Trump's bout with coronavirus was far more serious than the White House and his doctors at the time were sharing with the American public.
And you're right, sources indicating that the president was so ill and breathing became so difficult for him that there were discussions about putting him on a ventilator. We're also learning from "The New York Times" that the former president had lung infiltrates. That's one of the hallmark symptoms of COVID-19, when you have a buildup of bacteria and fluid in your lungs and that's why breathing becomes so difficult.
On top of that, we're learning that his blood oxygen levels dipped into the 80s. For context, a blood oxygen level in the 90s is considered dangerous. Of course, at the time his doctors publicly tap danced around all of these issues. This is Dr. Sean Conley back in October trying to clear this up for reporters. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I wanted to ask if his oxygen level ever dipped below 90?
SEAN CONLEY, WHITE HOUSE DOCTOR: We don't have any recordings here of that.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What about at the White House or here, anything below 90, just to follow up on her question?
CONLEY: No, it was below 94 percent. It wasn't down into the low 80s or anything, no.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ (on camera): Yes, so this underscores the disconnect between reality and the Trump White House. Certainly one of the legacies of Donald Trump's presidency, but it also reveals just how much he underplayed this virus. Not only in himself but to the American people. Obviously, the commander in chief sets the example for the nation. He received treatment that is not really available to the vast majority of Americans. Then he exposed secret service agents to the virus in the motorcade he had outside of Walter Reed Medical Center all so that he could wave to his supporters -- Christine.
ROMANS: Yes, back to October, it seems like a long time ago and just yesterday all at the same time, doesn't it? All right, Boris Sanchez, thanks so much -- Laura.
JARRETT: Well hours and hours of video from an app that's no longer available. How did House impeachment managers get their hands on all of that footage they showed this week?
[04:20:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: House Democrats made their impeachment case against former President Trump through video evidence. Surveillance video from inside the Capitol, and a lot of social media video we have never seen before. How did the managers find all of that material? Donie O'Sullivan reports.
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DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN REPORTER: The social media platform Parler which touted itself as a free speech platform but was actually full of misinformation and hate and a lot of pro Trump misinformation and false claims about the election was being used by a lot of the people who came here to Washington, D.C., on January 6th and took part in the insurrection.
They were posting a lot of videos, a lot of pictures, a lot of evidence to the website from that day. In the days after the insurrection Amazon which was hosting Parler on the servers announced that it didn't want anything to do with this website and that it was pulling support for Parler essentially taking it offline.
That's when a quick thinking computer programmer sprung into action. She realized that there were so many videos from that day, so much potential evidence she began downloading them. In total she got 30 terabytes of data, that's 30,000 gigabytes. And she posted them up publicly available to download.
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News organizations like ProPublica have used these videos and also now we are seeing the House impeachment managers using those videos. And to give you a taste of what sort of stuff was posted up on Parler, take a look at this.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey guys, we're here at the Capitol right now. We're going to go back in.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm the only one with a shield. So I don't know why. No one else brough a shield, but I brought one just in case.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Make sure if you ever take over the Capitol or any other big place, make sure you bring a shield. You can't get this anywhere except for -- all right, guys. Thanks for watching.
O'SULLIVAN: Important to point out that that video has not been used in the House impeachment trial, but it does give you a sense of how boastful people were being on this platform about their role in the insurrection and how that could be used as evidence and is being used as evidence in the trial and also by the authorities.
Now it is important to point out that this hacker who goes by the name of "crash override" online this anonymous activist pointed out everything they downloaded was publicly available, that they did not hack into any systems for this. Back to you. (END VIDEOTAPE)
JARRETT: So interesting. Donie O'Sullivan, thank you so much.
Well the first town hall of Joe Biden's presidency. He will join Anderson Cooper live from Milwaukee, Wisconsin in an exclusive CNN Presidential Town Hall Tuesday night at 9 p.m. Eastern.
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