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The Lead with Jake Tapper

White House Releases Statement on Possible Second Trump Impeachment; White House Task Force Warns of Possible Fast-Spreading U.S. COVID Variant; GOP Senator Murkowski Calls on President Trump to Resign, According to Anchorage Daily News. Aired 4:30-5p ET

Aired January 08, 2021 - 16:30   ET

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

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: We have breaking news for you now. The White House has just responded to efforts being mentioned to impeach President Trump again.

Let's go right to CNN's Kaitlan Collins.

Kaitlan, tell us what you're learning.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Jake, this is notable. This is the first time the White House has talked about this as the talk of impeaching President Trump for a second time seems to be a real possibility now. And a White House spokesman says that as President Trump said, this is a time for healing and unity as one nation.

[16:30:04]

A politically motivated impeachment against the president with 12 days remaining in his term will only serve to further divide or great country.

So, of course, naturally, they are coming out and saying impeaching the president is not a good idea, but saying that it's only going to further divide our great country. Now, this comes out as the White House has been playing quite a big role with several of the president's surrogates and pushing his lies about the election for the last several weeks.

But this is the first they've weighed in. And, Jake, our sources behind the scenes are saying they do realize there's this chance that this could actually happen and the president could be impeached with only less than two weeks left in office.

TAPPER: A time for healing and unity says the president who incited a mob to attack the Capitol causing death. Interesting.

Kaitlan Collins, thanks so much.

Joining me now to discuss, former Republican Senator Bob Corker who represented the state of Tennessee.

Senator Corker, you said that it would be great if President Trump resigned. He has said he's not going to.

Do you think President Trump should be removed before his term ends either by impeachment or the 25th Amendment?

FMR. SEN. BOB CORKER (R-TN): So, look, Jake, he's lost all legitimacy and I don't think anybody can debate that that. I look at it over the longer term. And not only will I be anxious to see him leave the White House, but I don't want to see him ever come back. And the thing about an impeachment is he becomes a victim again.

And whether he ends up, you know, trying to run again in '24, and let's say the impeachment is not successful, which I don't recommend, all you're doing is strengthening him with the people who support him.

So I'm sorry, I think the best route would be for him to resign. But if not that, we have 12 days left. Let's move on. Let's don't do anything that causes him to rise in strength, if you will, with a base that so strongly supports him right now.

TAPPER: Senator, do you think President Trump has blood on his hands from what happened this week?

CORKER: Well, look, I -- I -- there's no question that he fomented this. I watched what was happening at the -- and the expectations that have been raised. I mean, there's a lot of people that raised expectations as to what was going to happen that day. You get people fomented, you get them out of control, and things like this happen.

So there's no question that because of his actions and others who were accomplices, people have died. There's no doubt. And certainly, there's a lot of blame to go around for what has happened, which has obviously been devastating for our country.

TAPPER: Just horrible, a horrible tragedy. You talk about other accomplices. Look, you were criticizing President Trump publicly, talking about how he needed adult supervision. You didn't get a lot of backing from your colleagues.

How much do you think people like Josh Hawley, or Ted Cruz who've been out there pushing these election lies, raising hopes in this futile effort at sedition, how much you hold Hawley and Cruz responsible for fuelling this angry mob?

CORKER: Look, I know people do things as stunts and are opportunists to make themselves be looked upon by the base in a more favorable way, but I think when you get to something like this, it's totally, totally inappropriate.

And so, those people that made people -- hardworking people. I mean, most of the people are not front gentleman (ph) folks. They're hardworking people from all across America.

No offense to you, they don't have a lot of trust in the media. Let's face it. They do not.

And so, when they support someone, they believe someone in spite of all the untruths that have been told for four years. And when you have other people around them raising their expectations that something is going to happen if they come up there, that the election is going to be reversed, that the president is going to be there for another four years, you -- you create this kind of environment. And people -- people are just not fully aware of the strength of this and the strength of people's faith in the president and his accomplices and what they say.

So, you know, if no senators had said they're willing the object, there would have been no debate about the Electoral College.

TAPPER: Yeah.

CORKER: So there's no question that that led to it.

I could -- I could have said also, the first time that the president said that the vice president could turn it around -- well, I appreciate greatly what Vice President Pence did while he was there that day, two weeks ago raising your hand and saying, look, that's not going to happen. The vice president can't -- even if I could, I wouldn't.

So, there's been a lot of things along the way that kept those expectations out there. There were certain House members -- not all of them that objected. But some of them making people believe that if they came up there, if they supported what was happening, and put pressure on these representatives and senators, that this election could be turned around.

[16:35:03]

That is absolutely irresponsible.

And now, we've damaged our democracy, and, by the way, further divided our country.

And that's why the impeachment piece -- I know, you know, an at love editorial writers that I really respect -- I'm sorry, if I look at the mid to long-term, let's get out of here.

TAPPER: Uh-huh.

CORKER: Let's ask him to resign. If he doesn't, let's move on down the road.

But let's do not strengthen this president --

TAPPER: Yeah.

CORKER: -- so that it gives him a chance possibly to come back or at least play an outsize role in the political process in the future. He's damaged himself. He has lost support.

Let's -- let's just get him out of there without an impeachment.

TAPPER: Senator Corker -- Senator Corker, I appreciate your words. I would just also note that some of the people who were storming Capitol Hill were not just looking to pressure representatives. Some journalists have talked about how they overheard some of them saying they wanted to find and kill Vice President Pence. So, I mean, it's even worse than you say.

Thank you so much for your time, sir.

CORKER: Yeah.

TAPPER: Hope to have you on again sometime soon.

We have some breaking news now on the pandemic -- the White House Task Force is warning of a new highly contagious COVID strain found here in the U.S. We'll have the details next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:40:14]

TAPPER: Some more breaking news in our health lead. The White House Coronavirus Task Force just warned that the U.S. may have its own variant strain of the virus spreading at an even more aggressive rate. This as the U.S. shatters records, horrific records for deaths for a third day in a row. Four thousand eighty-five Americans died of COVID yesterday. That's more than 1,000 more than deaths that happened on 9/11. Nearly 1,700 more than happened during Pearl Harbor.

CNN's Nick Watt joins me now.

Nick, what do we know about this potential U.S. variant strain of COVID?

NICK WATT, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jake, frankly, not enough. Because like so many other things in our response to this pandemic, the monitoring of these mutations is lamentable. There's actually no hard evidence yet. This is just the White House coronavirus task force looking at the huge acceleration of cases in the fall and winter saying, well, maybe this is a U.S. mutant variation.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WATT (voice-over): Four thousand eighty-five people reported dead yesterday in America, the most COVID deaths in a day ever.

And here in Los Angeles --

MAYOR ERIC GARCETTI (D), LOS ANGELES: We had 259 deaths. That's one more than all the homicides in 2019 in L.A. City combined. In a single day, equal to a year of homicides.

WATT: Arizona has now overtaken California, leads the nation in new cases per capita, but still no statewide mask mandate to control the virus.

And New York? Look at that line. New case counts exploding. Way higher than the spring.

The NYPD commissioner just tested positive.

MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO (D), NEW YORK CITY: If we can't vaccinate the people who are in most danger, we're going to lose lives we did not need to lose.

WATT: Like everywhere, there are rules on who gets it when, leading to doses sitting in freezers unused, just one part of the problem.

MAJ. GENERAL CHRIS SHARPSTEN, OPERATION WARP SPEED: Up to 660 million doses if it's a two-dose regimen for all of America, takes a long time for the production to ramp up to support that.

WATT: Latest numbers reported, more than 21 million doses distributed, fewer than 6 million actually in arms.

Joe Biden's team tells CNN of their radical plan -- release nearly every dose on hand. Stop holding back for second doses.

GOV. ANDY BESHEAR (D-KY): We would certainly pick up the speed of our vaccinations. We need some assurances that those second doses are going to be there.

WATT: A crumb of comfort, the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine does appear to work against that more contagious strain first identified in the U.K. now spreading across the U.S.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WATT (on camera): Now, this afternoon, Pfizer wouldn't say if they will be able to manufacture those second doses fast enough if that Biden plan goes ahead, and in New York, the governor has now expanded the pool of people who can be vaccinated. It now includes first responders and those over 75 -- Jake.

TAPPER: All right. Nick Watt, thank you so much.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta weighs in on President-elect Biden answer plan to release all the available vaccine as soon as possible. Is it a good idea? Could it lead to more delays?

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:48:21]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: I mean, it is amazing. It really -- I'm not just saying it, but it really does not hurt. We'll see how -- (END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: In our health lead, CNN's own Dr. Sanjay Gupta who's a neurosurgeon gets his second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine today. CNN reports that President-elect Biden plans to release every available dose of the vaccine when he takes office instead of holding back half to ensure that people get their second dose.

Sanjay Gupta joins us now live to talk about this. He's also out with a new book about brain health. It's called "Keep Sharp: Build a Better Brain at Any Age". A great book.

That's obviously a pre-COVID photograph with the short hair, Sanj.

So, what do you make of President-elect Biden's plan to release every possible dose of the vaccine? Is that the right move?

GUPTA: Well, it certainly could be. When you do the modeling and you look at holding back a fewer percentage, a smaller percentage of the doses, you do see that it would have a demonstrable impact on getting people vaccinated but reducing hospitalizations and saving lives.

The big questions are, can the manufacturing keep up to get second doses to people at the same time?

To give you an idea, you know, I spoke to Albert Bourla, who's the CEO of Pfizer. They anticipate that they would be able to manufacture 1.3 billion doses by the end of the 2021. As you know, most of those doses are going to other countries around the world. Two hundred million total are coming to the United States.

What is going to be the manufacturing capacity of these other companies? Will Johnson and Johnson and Oxford/AstraZeneca come online? If they do, it's a good move.

But it's a bit a gamble because if you start to push people's doses back too far, we don't have to data --

[16:50:02]

TAPPER: Yeah.

GUPTA: -- in terms of how that impacts the efficacy.

TAPPER: Sanjay, what do you know about the new U.S. variant of the virus?

GUPTA: Not much at this point, Jake. This is -- the news is out there. There's a genetic sequencing done on these viruses. There's some concern that maybe a new faster spreading variant could account for the surges that we're seeing, or it could just be all things that you and I have been talking about for so long, that people are still not abiding by the public health practices and we have the travel over the holidays, and that could be accounting for it.

So, I don't think we have enough to say there's a definitive U.S. variant. There was a definitive U.K. variant, a South African variant, an Italian variant, if you remember. I think we have to -- we have to pause a little bit and gather a little more information on this.

TAPPER: So, let's talk about your book. So many of us are thinking about our mental health amidst this pandemic. You write a lot about the negative effects of stress on the brain. There's a lot of stress this week.

How do you combat stress and the damage it might do to the brain?

GUPTA: Well, I -- the -- I think the first thing is the realization that you can. I think for a long time the idea was that the brain was thought to be immutable when you had this chronic stress that would cause these fixed changes in the brain, and what we're realizing is a lot of that can be reversed at any age. In the book I go through these various pillars of how you can approach this, and recognizing that people can have a best way to sort of protect their brain.

How you move. It's movement, not necessarily exercise. And I say, you know, inactivity is the disease more than activity being the cure. So, simply trying to move as much as you can.

Truly creating and discovering turns out to be incredibly beneficial for reducing stress. Painting, pottery, just something that you can create. Discover a new skill set. Even doing little hacks, Jake, like eating with your non-dominant hand at night for dinner that will recruit different areas of the brain to work. And that will can be quite stress-relieving.

Relaxing the way that you do and figuring out what really works for you.

The last two, you know, the diet in terms of how you nourish your body is critically important. That's an entire book in and on itself. Biggest headline there -- sugar is so toxic to the brain, perhaps even more toxic to the body. Dementia is even referred to as type 3 diabetes by some of these neuroscientists.

You could eat a lot of food and still be starving your brain. I talk about how not to do that.

And, finally, connection. You know, we are social creatures. My mom was asking me, as parents often do, give me the headline of the book. I said, mom, you should read the book. But what should I do?

I said -- I said here's how I boil it down for you at least, mom, take a brisk walk with a close friend and talk about your problems. And the reason I say it that way, the brisk walk, obviously, close friend connection, but talking about your problems adds a little profundity to your relationships. It makes them deeper, being a little bit vulnerable and asking, in this case, your parents for help makes a big difference.

TAPPER: You write that the single most important thing to do to increase brain function and to lower your risk for cognitive decline isn't going crosswords, which is bad news for me, because I've been -- that's what I've been doing. It's exercise. Tell me more about that.

GUPTA: Well, exercise has the most evidence behind it in terms of what is good for your brain. We have these what are called neurotrophic factors in the brain. Think of that as miracle grow for the brain. It's -- you can't take it as a pill or any kind of medicine, but it's release in the abundance just through movement.

It's almost as if the body is signaling, hey, I still want to be here. Keep my brain alive and well functioning as much as possible, for as long as possible, and movement really does. So, you know, there's all sorts of things to do.

Crossword puzzles are great, Jake, that's part of the practice makes perfect.

TAPPER: Uh-huh.

GUPTA: But if want to build reliance in your brain, try something new. Try different things.

TAPPER: Well, I've been doing crosswords to do it, but I'll take your advice now, although now I know a lot of four letter words for Ireland. Appreciate it.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thank you so much. Congratulations again on your new book, "Keep Sharp". It's a great book.

GUPTA: Thank you, sir.

TAPPER: Everyone should get it. I'll be tweeting out a link after the show.

Coming up next, video of Republican senator and friend of president confronted by angry Trump supporter, screaming at him.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:58:05]

TAPPER: Breaking news, Alaska Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski is now the very first Republican senator to call for President Trump to resign. Murkowski told "The Anchorage Daily News", quote, I want him to resign. I want him out. He's caused enough damage.

Murkowski also says if the GOP is nothing more than the party of Trump, she questions whether she will remain a member of the Republican Party.

Now, take a look at what happened this afternoon to Murkowski's Republican colleague and a close friend of President Trump, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Lindsey Graham, you are a traitor to the country! You know it was rigged! You know it was rigged! You know it was rigged. You --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: An unhinged mob motivated by lies that Graham helped spread. Graham surrounded and screamed at by supporters of the president because Graham finally the other night acknowledged reality and said that Joe Biden was the president-elect and that the election was legitimate and that Donald Trump lost.

Graham, of course, has been a longtime ally of the president and has propped up some of his lies and conspiracy theories for years, fueling supporters such as these. But, of course, now that he's no longer backing up Trump's lies because he's no longer president, the beast comes back to bite him.

Today, Democratic Senator Patty Murray joined Chris Coons in calling for Republican Senators Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley to resign. Before Wednesday's Capitol riot, Hawley was outside raising his fist in solidarity with this pro-Trump mob that turned into MAGA terrorists. The Missouri Republican was the very first senator to say he would challenge President-elect Joe Biden's victory based on lies and conspiracy theories about the election.

Twenty-four hours later, Hawley lost a major book deal with Shimon and Schuster. His mentor, former Senator John Danforth told "The St. Louis Dispatch" that backing Hawley was the worst mistake of his life and the editorial boards of the two biggest papers in his home state of Missouri called for his resignation. Congratulations.

Be sure to tune in to CNN's "STATE OF THE UNION" this Sunday. My guests are the number three Democrat in the House, Congressman James Clyburn, Pennsylvania Republican Senator Pat Toomey, Maryland's Republican Governor Larry Hogan and Democratic senator from West Virginia, Joe Manchin. That's at 9:00 a.m. and noon Eastern Sunday morning.

Our coverage on CNN continues right now. I will see you Sunday morning.