Return to Transcripts main page

New Day

President-elect to Travel to Washington for Inauguration; Trump to Release Farewell Video Today; FBI Warns Extremists Discussed Posing as National Guard; Poll: Biden's Favorability on Rise Ahead of Inauguration; U.S. Capitol Police Officers Say They Were 'Unprepared' and 'Betrayed'. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired January 19, 2021 - 06:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Washington right now is not taking any chances on this inauguration.

[05:59:50]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Those who will guard the U.S. Capitol during President-elect Biden's inauguration are now being vetted in an attempt to head off any insider threats.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The president, he's not going to be at the inauguration of Joe Biden. He's going to be over at Joint Base Andrews. It is going to be something of a send-off that you would see for a departing head of state.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The inaugural address is still being written. It is going to be steeped in history, talking about restoring the soul of the nation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's just sad that this is going to be the backdrop for Joe Biden's inauguration.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want to see Joe Biden do what is necessary, try to find common ground. Help bring this country back together.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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 Tuesday, January 19, 6 a.m. here in New York.

It's been quite a four years. I think that's fair to say. Today is the last full day of President Trump's time in office. And we will reflect on that today as we watch President-elect Joe Biden make his journey to Washington for his inauguration tomorrow.

Thirty hours from now, Biden is scheduled to raise his right hand to be sworn in as the 46th president of the United States and to deliver the most consequential speech of his life. It will take place in front of the thousands of flags on display on an empty National Mall, which would normally be packed with supporters, but that cannot happen this year because of the extreme Trump supporters who staged that deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol two weeks ago.

This morning, we have new details about the message that President- elect Biden plans to deliver to this deeply-divided nation.

Hearings for five of Mr. Biden's cabinet nominees get under way today, but he will enter the Oval Office with none of them confirmed.

CNN has just released a new poll showing Biden's favorability on the rise as he assumes the presidency. So we'll break down all of those numbers ahead.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: We have new reporting on inauguration security. "The Washington Post" reports that the FBI is privately warning law enforcement agencies that far-right extremists, including QAnon followers, have discussed posing as National Guard members to disrupt the event. Remember, Donald Trump has heaped praise on QAnon.

In that vein, Alisyn said, this is history the final full day of Donald Trump's presidency. He has not been seen in public for a week, Unclear whether it is because of shame or spite or both.

After four years of smashing norms, he leaves office flouting all the traditions of grace and dignity of a departing president. We have new reporting on what Melania Trump could not be bothered to do this week.

So Trump himself is expected to issue a round of pardons today and release a video he taped already. This as he leaves with the lowest approval after one term of any president in modern times.

But that was then. This is now. Today begins the pomp of welcoming a new president. It begins in Wilmington, Delaware, shortly. M.J. Lee is there.

M.J., what can we expect?

M.J. LEE, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John.

Well, this will be the last morning that Joe Biden wakes up here in Wilmington, Delaware, for a while. This is, of course, where he finished out his campaign, where his transition was headquartered for the last couple of months throughout this pandemic. So in some ways very fitting that he will first be attending a send-off event here in Wilmington, where we will hear him speak. That is before he, of course, heads to Washington, D.C., ahead of tomorrow's inauguration.

You might recall that he initially had hoped to take the train, the Amtrak, to Washington, D.C., but because of heightened security concerns, he will no longer be doing that.

And this evening is where he will participate in inauguration events, starting with a memorial at the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool, where he and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will be honoring the many lives that have been lost in America and around the world because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

And of course, tomorrow we are looking ahead to the most important speech that President-elect Joe Biden has ever given. We are told by advisers and those close to him that this is a speech that he has been working on, really, since his general election victory.

And while it is not surprising that we are expecting to hear him talk about themes of national unity and healing and bringing the country together, we know that the burden is now just going to be that much higher because of what we saw two weeks ago, this insurrection and violence that we saw on Capitol Hill.

So a very big day ahead for President-elect Joe Biden and, again, his final day here in Wilmington, Delaware, John.

BERMAN: All right. M.J. Lee, keep us posted on what you hear and any movements that we see there.

As we said, this is history. The last full day of Donald Trump's presidency. He leaves with a slew of expected pardons, a videotaped message, and reports of all kinds of behind-the-scenes rantings and grievances.

CNN's Jeremy Diamond, live at the last day of the Trump White House with the very latest -- Jeremy.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: John, as President Trump begins his last full day in office, what we are witnessing here, let's make very clear, is nothing like the peaceful and dignified transfer of power that we have witnessed every four years for so much of American history.

Instead, President Trump becomes the first sitting president in American history in the last 152 years who will not attend his successor's inauguration.

[06:05:07]

And that is not the only courtesy that President Trump is not extending to President-elect Biden. There was no Oval Office meeting, no phone call to President-elect Biden to concede this election.

And unlike President Obama four years ago, who greeted President Trump, President-elect Trump at the time, on the steps of the White House, President Trump won't be extending that courtesy either to President-elect Biden.

That's despite the fact, of course, that President Trump was the main proponent of the birther lie. And yet, Obama still greeted President- elect Trump at the time here at the White House.

The president is, however, taping a farewell video that is expected to address his four years in office. He taped that video yesterday. We're expecting to see that release at some point today.

And he will have this splashy good-bye tomorrow at Joint Base Andrews, where he is having some kind of a military send-off to cap off his term in office.

But today, John, you can expect to see more action from President Trump on his final full day in office. Sources telling me that President Trump is expected to issue 100 pardons and commutations at some point today -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Jeremy, when you look at that video of President Obama extending a hand to Donald Trump as he walks up the stairs, and the warm greeting that they greet Melania Trump with, it's just all the more astonishing what -- what had happened, what the precursor to all that was, and what's happened in the four years since.

BERMAN: A couple of birthers. They welcomed a couple of birthers --

CAMEROTA: They did.

BERMAN: -- to the White House.

CAMEROTA: Because that's the tradition.

BERMAN: Yes.

CAMEROTA: That's the tradition. That's what you do in a peaceful transfer of power. Jeremy, thank you very much.

This morning, "The Washington Post" reports that the FBI is privately warning law enforcement agencies that far-right extremists have discussed posing as National Guard members to disrupt the inauguration.

CNN's Pete Muntean is live in Washington with more. What do we know, Pete?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Alisyn, it only gets more and more locked down here in D.C. from here on out.

Police right now are closing the bridges from Virginia into D.C. This is one of the checkpoints, staffed by members of the National Guard. And the FBI tells "The Washington Post" that it is worried about domestic extremists posing as members of the Guard.

The goal is to have 25,000 members of the Guard here on the ground in D.C. by tomorrow. But now the question is how long all of this protection will have to las. And the head of the D.C. Department of Homeland Security says it could be some time. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTOPHER RODRIGUEZ, DIRECTOR, WASHINGTON, D.C., HOMELAND SECURITY: Right-wing extremism is not going anywhere. And I think we can definitively say that. And so one of the things that we want to do is see what does the new normal look like? And certainly, you know, this domestic terrorism, this right-wing extremism is going to be with us for some time in the months and years ahead.

(END VIDEO CLIP) MUNTEAN: Now President-elect Biden will look out onto an inauguration crowd like no other: 200,000 American flags planted in a completely emptied-out National Mall. All of that symbolic to represent those who could not be here in Washington, either because of the pandemic or all of this protection on inauguration day like no other -- John.

BERMAN: The tragic beauty to this. A poignance, in a way, not the crowds that we would all love to see there, wish could be there; but something very meaningful nonetheless.

Pete Muntean, thank you so much for your reporting. Please keep us posted.

All right. CNN releasing at this moment a new poll that shows how Americans feel about the incoming president. CNN political director David Chalian with the numbers. What do you got?

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Hey, John, Alisyn, how are you doing?

Let's take a look at where Joe Biden is standing with the public on the eve of his inauguration. In terms of his approval of handling the transition: 66 percent of Americans in this poll by SSRS for CNN approve of the way Joe Biden handled this transition.

How does that stack up with some of his predecessors? Well, take a look. It puts him more in the category with Bill Clinton and George W. Bush there in the '60s, 60 percent range in terms of approval of transition, not as sky-high as Barack Obama had back in 2009, but also well above what Donald Trump was at four years ago, when only 40 percent of the country approved of his handling of the transition.

And then as you noted, Joe Biden's favorability rating is at 59 percent in this brand-new CNN poll. That is the highest number for a favorable rating that Joe Biden has scored in CNN polling since he was elected on the ticket with Barack Obama as vice president in November 2008.

CAMEROTA: That's really interesting. And what about how do Americans feel, David, about whether he'll be able to accomplish his goals?

CHALIAN: Yes. Americans are pretty optimistic that Joe Biden is going to do a good job in this role. Sixty-one percent say that he's going to do a good job, compared to 35 percent who say he's going to do a bad job or poor job.

[06:10:12]

But take a look compared to his two most recent predecessors. Again, sky-high numbers when Barack Obama took office 12 years ago. Seventy- nine percent said he'd do a good job. Donald Trump, at the other end of the spectrum, never got a majority who thought he was going to do a good job. It was 48 percent. Joe Biden there in the middle, 61 percent.

The challenges are steep, folks. Take a look at how the country assesses sort of the state of play in America right now. How are things going in the country today? This is just sort of a temperature gauge we ask. Seventy-seven percent of Americans in this poll say things in the country are going badly. We have not seen a "going badly" number that high in 12 years, since April 2009, when we were facing that financial crisis.

But in terms of your question, Alisyn, about his goals, Joe Biden's stated goals, the country really believes he's going to get most of it done. Eighty-three percent say he's going to sign an additional stimulus bill. Seventy-four percent say he's going to restore relations with allies around the world. Seventy percent says he's going to deliver on that 100 million shots in the first 100 days there. Sixty-four percent say he's going to get a public option going for healthcare.

But here, the only one without majority support: only 44 percent say that he is going to reduce political division, that call for unity that Joe Biden is out there saying.

BERMAN: You know, on that front, David, Donald Trump is flouting every tradition of grace, dignity and courtesy as he departs the presidency. How much do Americans care about that?

CHALIAN: Well, listen, we just asked in general, not attaching Donald Trump's name to it, to give you a sense. And Americans think it's really important for a president to attend the inauguration of a successor. Thirty-six percent say very important; 22 percent say somewhat important. So you've got 58 percent there who say that it is important for the outgoing president to attend the inauguration.

And as you said, Donald Trump is deliberately not doing that, because of course, he's attempting to try to give Joe Biden as tough a start as possible.

BERMAN: All right. David Chalian, don't go far. I have a feeling we're going to want much more from you very shortly. So stand by for that.

In the meantime, we're waiting to see Joe Biden depart Wilmington, Delaware, for the last time as president-elect. We're getting new details about what he will say to the nation in Washington, his inaugural address.

And here's a pop quiz for you.

CAMEROTA: Oh, good.

BERMAN: Who is the only first lady to leave the White House with a net negative approval rating?

CAMEROTA: How much time do I have?

BERMAN: I'm going to give you the answer shortly.

CAMEROTA: Oh, good.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [06:16:15]

CAMEROTA: President-elect Joe Biden arrives in Washington this afternoon. And, in a series of inaugural events, his team will honor the nearly 400,000 American lives lost to coronavirus.

CNN has learned that Biden has been crafting his inaugural speech for weeks. He will talk about the challenges of trying to unify a deeply- divided nation.

David Chalian is back with us now. Also joining us, CNN political analyst Margaret Talev. She's the managing editor for Axios.

Guys, what a moment. I mean, what a moment, you know? We've -- we've talked to you for the past four years, you know, if not every day, certainly every week. And this is just such a sort of, I don't know, strange moment. It feels a little precarious, because we have still 30 hours to go before this transition. And who knows what will happen?

But Margaret, I mean, let's just start there, that we expect Joe Biden, he's been crafting this speech. He's been working on it. But how will he begin to address everything that's happened over the past four years and how deeply divided we've become over these four years?

MARGARET TALEV, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Good morning, Alisyn.

And I think that's right. I mean, look, you don't have to be in Washington -- You can see this on TV -- to understand just the stark -- starkness and the austerity of the moment. It's almost like time has been put on pause. Nobody is out on the streets also unless they're armed and in camouflage, basically. There are barricades everywhere. It is like every restaurant is closed. People are home. People are, in a way, waiting to get through the inauguration so that they can exhale, so that people can breathe a sigh of relief that it is -- that the change of the guard has happened and that we're not repeating January 6.

And I think it is kind of in that moment of almost like silence that President-elect Biden is going to become President Biden and that Kamala Harris is going to become the vice president.

And so, I think we already know the answer to how he will begin to govern, because it is he is who he has always been and who he has taken great pains since the nomination to show that he wants to be, to find a spot, perhaps not in the center, but as close to the center of American politics as his politics allow him to exist; and to begin to reach across the aisle to talk to Americans about unity, about moving forward, about reconciliation, about moving on.

He's probably not going to begin that moment with an upswell of support from the Republican Party as exists right now in Washington or around the country. And that's why we're going to see a series of executive actions, executive orders, and a broadcasting already. Like, there's no mystery about what's going to happen on the first day.

Ron Klain, his incoming chief of staff, has already laid it all out, whether it involves environmental policy, immigration policy, the approach to COVID and economic recovery, and so on and so forth.

But I think there's a very deliberate effort to show that his feathers aren't particularly ruffled.

And we're talking about expectations and norms. The -- just the sort of history-making nature of President Trump's refusing to participate in the change of power.

But I think inside Joe Biden's immediate world -- Biden, his wife, their inner circle of family and advisers -- I don't think they're terribly upset about it. I don't think that Joe Biden necessarily wants to figure out how to navigate that moment where President Trump is, you know, handing him a letter. What could the letter possibly say? Or pretending to wish him well when we all know that he doesn't.

BERMAN: Yes. Harry Enten, by the way. The answer to my trivia question from Harry Enten --

CAMEROTA: Is Harry Enten.

BERMAN: -- is that Melania Trump is the only first lady to leave the White House with a net negative approval rating. So I'm not sure that Joe Biden cares so much about that. Although I do think the Bidens do care about ritual.

[06:20:02]

David, you know, it's not like this is going to be that season of "Dallas" where Patrick Duffy is in the shower, and it turns out it didn't happen.

CAMEROTA: Are you sure?

BERMAN: I mean, you know, this season happened. The last four years happened. And I'm just curious what you think the lingering impact of that will be on the beginning of the Biden presidency.

CHALIAN: Well, I think in practical terms, John, the first -- the first real impact that you're going to see is that Joe Biden is not likely to get much of a honeymoon here.

As Margaret was sort of getting at, these divisions exist. The polarization that existed before Trump and that Trump sort of turbocharged have solidified. And -- and you see it in our brand-new poll numbers that are out.

You see that Joe Biden, while he has the goodwill of the country, if you look at just how Republicans feel about how he's handled the transition or if they think he's going to do a good job, I mean, they are as poor on Biden as Democrats were on Trump four years ago.

This is totally different than even at the beginning of the Obama administration, where there really was some bipartisan goodwill. So I think that's one thing you're going to see, is that Joe Biden, who does plant himself the middle of American politics, who does have this desire to really reach out and get his way through Congress through relationships and the way that he sort of grew up in the Senate of how things got done, just doesn't meet the reality at the moment. We'll see if he's successful at that. But it's not how it's currently constructed.

And the only other thing I would just note is his call for unity, this moment in time, it's going to all go through getting his arms around the COVID crisis. I mean, this has been the entirety of his campaign in 2020 since -- since the pandemic hit. And they are attacking it at the very start with that huge rescue package. They're going to get vaccine -- vaccine distribution ramped up, or at least that's their goal.

And if they are successful at those things, that is going to be their best, best hope at actually rallying the country around what Joe Biden is doing.

CAMEROTA: I mean, who knows how it's going to go? But at least he's going to try. At least Joe Biden has articulated a plan to try to get our arms around the vaccinations, the testing, bringing the positivity rate down.

David, one more thing. Back to that poll that you shared with us last segment, where it said that 44 percent, only 44 percent believe that Biden will achieve the goal of reducing political divides. I think that that is underestimating the American spirit, No. 1.

And No. 2, that tone comes from the top. By definition, Joe Biden is not a divider. He brings down the temperature just naturally. That's sort of who he is. You know, you've heard him in all of his speeches. He's so much more even-keeled. He's not throwing any bombs. I think we might be able to do better than 44 percent.

CHALIAN: Yes, I mean, the flip side of that number -- and again, this is the respondents in our polls. So this is America telling us what they think, what their expectations are. But 53 percent, a majority, says he won't be able to do that.

To your point, though, Alisyn, you have to remember there -- there are huge -- a huge majority of the Republican Party, big swaths of the Republican Party right now, don't even believe that Joe Biden was legitimately elected.

So yes, it does come from leadership. Joe Biden is a uniter in nature. He's not going to have rhetoric daily that is aimed at actually dividing the country and dividing neighbor from neighbor in America. That's not his approach at all. So, there's reason there to be hopeful, because he is -- he has set this goal to really try to bring America together.

And he actually says he thinks it's the only way to succeed at battling COVID. And so, it's his mission. So I think you're right to be optimistic, but I think you have to understand the country is so divided; and that number I think exposes the division more than anything else.

CAMEROTA: David Chalian, Margaret Talev, thank you both very much for your thoughts.

So U.S. Capitol Police officers tell CNN they were unprepared and outnumbered. They say they feel betrayed by their leadership after the Capitol insurrection. One officer says he was just trying to survive. All of that is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:28:30]

BERMAN: New this morning, CNN has learned about a sense of betrayal among some U.S. Capitol Police officers. They say their feeling after they say leadership left them unprepared for the insurrection.

CNN's Jessica Schneider has these revelations. What have you learned?

JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, several Capitol police officers, they're speaking out to CNN. They say they feel betrayed by their leadership, because there was no planning, no pre-planning, and no direction on how to handle the thousands of people who descended on the Capitol that day.

These officers tell us there was no all-hands planning session that usually proceeds major events. And when they finally got that reinforcement from Metropolitan Police, they actually had to shout out that they were officers, too, in what was a chaotic scene inside and outside the Capitol.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is our Capitol!

SCHNEIDER (voice-over): When a pro-Trump mob overran the U.S. Capitol earlier this month, some law enforcement officers left to protect Congress say they were unprepared to fight against the rioters.

Five U.S. Capitol police officers, speaking to CNN on condition of anonymity for fear of losing their jobs, describing a feeling of betrayal by leadership. One saying, "There was no planning, no pre- planning. Nobody was giving direction on what to do."

The officers said they knew about President Donald Trump's rally and of a protest but were not briefed as normal for major events and said they were left unable to defend themselves or the Capitol or make arrests.

The insurrection was not completely unexpected. The U.S. Capitol Police chief, who resigned after the assault, told "60 Minutes" he asked to activate the National Guard days before the siege, a request.