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Don Lemon Tonight

New Security Bulletin Says Domestic Extremists Most Likely Threat to Biden's Inauguration; All 50 State Capitols on High Alert; Trump Taking Names of GOP Members Who Voted to Impeach Him; FBI And DHS Failed to Issue Threat Assessment; U.S. Attorneys Saying 275 Cases Opened In Capitol Siege Investigation; Mob was Seconds Away From Vice President Pence; Despite Trump Administration Promise, Government Has No More 'Reserve' Second Vaccine Doses; Biden Announces Plan to Speed Up COVID Vaccinations; Veterans Clean Up After Capitol Riots. Aired 11p-12a ET

Aired January 15, 2021 - 23:00   ET

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

[23:00:00]

DON LEMON, CNN HOST: In the wake of the deadly Capitol Hill riot, a warning tonight from U.S. Intelligence Agencies that the main threats of the Inauguration are coming from domestic extremists who falsely believed the election was stolen from Donald Trump.

And federal prosecutors ramping up their crack down on the Capitol. Insurrectionist on the Capitol -- insurrectionist I should say, excuse me. Investigators opening up at least 275 criminal cases charging about 100 people so far. And those numbers are rising by the day.

Joining me now to discuss, CNN's White House correspondent, John Harwood, global affairs analyst, Susan Glasser and Mark McKinnon. Mark is a former adviser to George W. Bush and John McCain. And an executive producer of The Circus. Big resumes here, big brains.

Good evening to all of you. Thank you for joining us. John, I'm going to start with you. Our nation reeling is on edge tonight. Our Capitols are quite fortresses. This Capitol looks like a fortress.

And that, you know, they are all over the country, right. They're gearing up for this. Thousands of Americans are dying every day, but our president is spending his final days in office meeting with the My Pillow guy, about voter fraud. How is Trump dealing with the end of his presidency?

JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: It's pitiful, Don. Donald Trump is broken by his loss. He can't handle it. He has completely retreated from the duties of his office. He never enjoyed the actual work of the presidency, he's long since stopped doing the actual work. But he's not doing even the perfunctory ceremonial goodbyes that a president would do and the circumstance like Mike Pence the other day when he was greeting some of his guard troops guarding the Nation's Capital.

He's consumed with the injury to his psyche. He's meeting and consulting only with people who are as crazy as he is like the My Pillow guy, Rudy Giuliani and Steve Bannon, all these people who are basically crack pots. And it's sad for the country on the world stage to see that this is the way the president of the U.S. goes out.

A new poll came out today, Pew Research showed approval rating down to 29 percent among Americans overall. Even among non-college white Americans who are the base of his movement. He's underwater, 44 approved, 52 disapproved. So, it's a sad situation.

LEMON: Susan, Sue Gordon is a top former national intelligence professional for part of Trump's tenure. He's out with an op-ed arguing that Trump should be cut off from Intel. And she writes in part my recommendation as a 30 plus year veteran of the intelligence community is not to provide him any briefings after January 20th with this simple act which is solely the new president's prerogative.

Joe Biden can mitigate one aspect of the potential national security risk posed by Donald Trump, private citizen. Does she have a point? He's not entitled to it. And there's no reason to believe that he won't misuse it?

SUSAN GLASSER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, I think she is certainly got a point. In fact, right from the beginning of his presidency that was an issue. You know, he was talking about national security matters. Having meetings with foreign heads of state in the dining room at Mar-a-Lago. I mean, this was an issue all along. He was -- from the very beginning. He was talking on his unsecured cell phone, sending messages on that cellphone.

You know, I remember once talking with a U.S. Senator who was pleading with Donald Trump not to speak to him over an unsecured phone line about whether or not he should have retaliation in Syria. And so, this was all the way back to the beginning of the Trump presidency. But the problem is, right, we are all looking for what are the consequences going to be from this four years of sort of epic, you know, bonfire of the vanities that he's made of our national government.

And you know, right now we have the second impeachment ever of a single president. But what's it going to lead to in terms of actual consequence? We do not know yet. There are prosecutors looking at him in New York and now potentially Georgia. But we don't know what those consequences are. So, you know, there's taking away his security clearance. It's not really going to really be a full measure of you know, the damage done to the country, is it?

LEMON: Yes, Mark, a source is telling CNN that Trump is demanding to know if the Republicans who voted against him on impeachment can be primaried in 2022. Do you think is grip on the Republican Party ever fates?

MARK MCKINNON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, Don first of all, I would like to reveal tonight that I'm openly white.

LEMON: I'm glad, you are in the closet for such a long time. The hat did not (inaudible).

(CROSSTALK) (LAUGHTER)

[23:05:00]

MCKINNON: And therefore I can give some observations on the Republican primary. Listen, I think this is kind of a man who would be king moment. As he recalled the story. You know, he was believed to be a mortal until he bled. And then it the minute that happened, the support evaporated. I don't think it is going to completely evaporate overnight. But it's fading more quickly than I thought possible.

And then he had a hammer look on this party two weeks ago. And he was going to run in 2024, (inaudible) up until he didn't and maintain a real, you know, monopoly on the power there. So, including the ability to primary other Republicans. I think that he's still going to try to exercise that power. I just think that there is some liability now with the aligning with Donald Trump in way that there was in a week ago. They will have political implications.

LEMON: Some real liability, you're right about that, Mark. That's a good observation as an openly white guy. Thank you so much. So, John, you know, folks were thinking that the pardons, right, will start rolling in tonight, you know, this weekend. What about pardons? It's hard to believe that there won't be more before the end of this. So, how did the insurrection and impeachment potentially impact that?

HARWOOD: Well, first of all it expanded the range of criminal liability that President Trump and his son Donald Trump Jr. face among other people for the rhetoric that they used. And you know, Susan mentioned a moment ago we've got potential criminal investigations of him in Georgia over attempted to interfere with the election tabulation in New York for the operations of the Trump organization.

So, he's got big problems. Only the federal crimes potential crimes would be covered by pardons. I think we cannot rule out the idea that before Wednesday at noon that he will attempt to pardon himself, pardon family members and pardon other associates particularly those who might know things about him that could damage him.

Now, I think one constraint that he faces is the White House staff has basically cleared out. And he can't just right these pardons on a piece of paper. He's going to need some White House lawyers to execute the documentation for that.

And I think as the hours get short, and as the president gets more and more isolated and tormented by his defeat, I think that is a potential problem. But no, I fully expect that there will be pardons either over the weekend or the first couple days of next week before Joe Biden takes over.

LEMON: We mentioned, you know, I was talking to Mark about his grip on the party, Susan. I want to put up this poll for you. It shows 80 percent of Trump voters over 50 years believe this ridiculous lie that Trump definitely won the election. That also goes to 67 percent of Trump voters with college degrees, 82 percent without college degrees. How can we move forward as a country with this level of disillusion or delusion?

GLASSER: Well, you know, you want to think that Mark is right in the sense that, you know, it should be a fatal blow to anyone's political aspirations to have done and said the things that Donald Trump has done. I don't think I can think of a worse action by any American president in any of our lifetimes than attacking the actual constitutional system itself. And you know, that is so striking.

However I would say, look, 197 Republicans in the House voted just this week against impeaching Trump on the single article of his role in the storming of the Capitol and inciting that. 140 Republicans nearly even after the storming of the Capitol actually voted to challenge the Electoral College results.

And so these are breathtaking numbers. There was 10 Republicans in the House who voted to impeach Trump. That is just a miniscule number. So, I think that the question is really can Republican elected officials, will they seize the moment to do whatever they can to finish him off entirely? And part of that, of course rests in the U.S. Senate and whether Mitch McConnell, who was reported to be furious and done with Trump. Whether he's able to rally 17 Republican Senators to sort of put the final (inaudible).

LEMON: You know, Mark, you spoke to several Trump supporters living in this alternate universe while filming for The Circus. This is what they said about the attack on the Capitol. And then we'll talk about it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNKNOWN: Who's responsible for the violence?

UNKNOWN: The Antifa went in first. Antifa went in first. There are videos out there that showed that they let them in first. They bust them in.

[23:10:02]

UNKNOWN: Trump supporters don't go around wearing helmets. And they don't go around wearing all black. We're nothing but lovers, supporters and we support the blue.

UNKNOWN: What do you think about the impeachment proceedings?

UNKNOWN: It should not happen. I mean, he's about to go. Willingly.

UNKNOWN: Do you think you he's going to -- can still be president a week from now?

UNKNOWN: Yes, 100 percent. I will eat a shoe on camera if he's not.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: So, whose shoe will she be eating next week? By the way, that Antifa thing, law enforcement, the intelligence said there's absolutely no -- it's not true. But anyway, whose shoe is she going to be eating? Did you offer her one or?

MCKINNON: Well, we are definitely going to go back to have that for our next episode, Don. But you can see, I mean, that sentiment was across the board. And this Antifa stop has been denounced across the board by anybody with any sort of sense or authority. Including Kevin McCarthy in league of the Republicans. So, but that gives you an idea of just how deep, you know, these stains are in our country and how hard it's going to be to eradicate.

LEMON: Is that -- I know you're not a psychologist or psychiatrist, but what is that?

MCKINNON: Well, I think you know, it's people who feel like they've been left behind, and they found somebody in Donald Trump, who was a you know, sort of chariot for all the things in life they thought they've been cheated out on. And he just became a symbol of sort of their taking back power into their lives. And creating this false sense of patriotism. And pulling this incredible notion that -- you know, I mean, he told us what he was going to do.

He said, you know, he said he was either going to win, or if he lost, the election was rig. And he convinced a whole lot of people in this country. By the way you are just talking about the numbers in the Republican Party. The most astonishing and chilling number to me is 45 percent of Republicans endorse what happened at the Capitol.

LEMON: Wow, OK, more to discuss.

MCKINNON: We got a lot of work to do.

LEMON: We got a lot of work to do. Amen, amen, brother. Thank you all. I'll see you all soon. Be safe.

So, sources telling CNN there was a failure to distribute crucial intelligence before the attack on the Capitol. That as Washington is under a virtual lockdown with the inauguration just days away.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MATT MILLER, SPECIAL AGENT IN CHARGE, WASHINGTON FIELD OFFICE UNITED STATES SECRET SERVICE: There's a great deal, a very concerning chatter. And it's what you don't know that we are preparing for.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[23:15:00]

LEMON: Breaking news on the investigation into the deadly riot at the Capitol. Sources tell CNN that the FBI and homeland security failed to issue that threat assessments, I should say about potential violence before the attacks. CNN's senior justice correspondent, Evan Perez joins me now. Evan, good evening.

Evan, you're working the midnight oil. You are up early and late. And we appreciate it. What are you hearing about this failure to distribute intelligence before the attack on our Capitol?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Don, if this stands in contrast to the way the Homeland Security department and the FBI handled for instance the time, the period before the election or even during the summer when the big concern at the Justice Department and certainly at the Trump administration was about Black Lives Matters protestors.

The officials we've been talking to today said simply that they could not have anticipated that this was the way, this was going to turn out. They said that obviously we have been talking about all the threats that were visible to everyone who has social media, and they said that they just did not believe that these things were going to turn out this way.

Now, of course this is all under investigation internally by these agencies to see why, why nobody decided to beef up the security at the Capitol given the fact that there were so many signs.

LEMON: Security at the Nation's Capital, it's a huge concern just days before the inauguration. You have now reporting on how law enforcement officials are tracking travel to D.C. And what are your sources saying to you?

PEREZ: Yes, look, they are now tracking dozens of people who are of particular concern who they believe could be responsible or could incite violence. And we are told that there is essentially a surveillance net that has gone up around these people. They want to now make sure that where they are, make sure they're not coming here, and you know, they are looking at communications obviously, phones.

And one of the things that they are particularly concerned and you can see it certainly a block away from my house, you can see it, they are turning away cars because they are particularly concerned about vehicles being used to try to get through the perimeter. So, you can walk through some of these areas but you cannot get through with a vehicle.

LEMON: Investigators have charged nearly 100 people in connection with the riots. Some of the details from the court documents are chilling. Anything stand out to you?

PEREZ: Yeah, look, there was a couple them that have stood out, especially today. There was a couple of guys, one named Robert Bower, second one Edward Hemingway. They came from Kentucky and Virginia, drove here to Washington, and they said that you know, after hearing President Trump essentially inspire them and say to march down Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capitol. That's what they did.

And so, here's one part of the FBI affidavit and they talk about going into the Capitol. And they said quote, both men remembered encountering a police officer after they entered, according to Bower, the police officer grabbed his hand, shook it and said it's your house now.

Now, he goes on to say that he believes -- especially the police officer was fearing for his life. But it does really, Don, underscores a lot of the suspicion that people have about what went on in the Capitol.

[23:20:03]

Was there perhaps some sympathetic officers who essentially let some of these men, or some of these people in to the Capitol? Again, that something that is being looked at not only internally by the Capitol police, the FBI, the prosecutors, all very much interested to make sure that people in positions of trust did not betray that trust. That's something that is still on the radar.

LEMON: All right, Evan Perez, thank you very much. We appreciate it.

PEREZ: Thanks, Don.

LEMON: So, now I want to get to Tom Foreman with a closer look at just how close the rioters got to Vice President Mike Pence.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As the mob chanted hang Mike Pence and a makeshift gallows went up, the vice president, his wife and daughter, were just seconds away from being spotted according to the Washington Post.

At one point, they were hiding less than 100 feet from the violent crowd attacking police officers, journalists and others. The timeline tells how it happened. Just before one o'clock President Trump demands Pence tossed the election results.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Mike Pence, I hope you're going to stand up for the good of our constitution and for the good of our country. And if you're not I'm going to be very disappointed in you. I will tell you right now. I'm not hearing good stories.

MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The Senate will now retire to its chamber.

FOREMAN: Pence says he has no legal power to reject a vote. But in little more than an hour as he leads Congress in certifying the vote for Joe Biden, the Trump crowd is hammering through Capitol barricades. Inside --

-- we have been told by Capitol police that the Capitol is in lockdown.

Outside, by 2:11 the mob is smashing into the building. Moments later the Post says Pence is hustled out of the chamber.

SEN. CHUCK GRASSLEY (R-IA): We will stand in recess. Until the call of the chair.

FOREMAN: 2:14, Capitol police officer Eugene Goodman is single handedly slowing the surge of rioters, some shouting where is Mike Pence? Based on the Post reporting the few seconds Goodman buys keeps the mob from seeing Pence and his family being hurried into hiding into an office. Goodman lures the crowd towards other officers likely giving other lawmakers time to escape too.

Soon after the violent mob seizes the Senate floor anyway taking the very seat the Vice President occupied minutes earlier. And President Trump during all of this? He was watching events unfold on TV. According to many witnesses taking no action for hours to stop the attack. And tweeting at 2:24, Mike Pence did not have the courage to do what should have been done. It was later deleted.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOREMAN: Of course, the vice president came back later to declare Joe Biden the winner. And the Secret Service says Pence was secure at all times. But that security we now know is far more tenuous than we thought. Don?

LEMON: All right. Tom Foreman. Thank you so much. Law enforcement warning about dangerous online chatter and threats to the inauguration. Next. An expert on internet extremism tell us what she is seeing. Plus, Joe Biden laying out his plan to get vaccines in arms.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's going to be one of the most challenging operations efforts ever undertaken by our country. But you have my word that we will manage the hell out of this operation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[23:25:00]

LEMON: So, we are hearing more from some of the officers who defended the Capitol. D.C. Police officer Daniel Hodges who was crushed in a door by rioters says this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OFFICE DANIEL HODGES, D.C. METROPOLITAN POLICE DEPARTMENT: If it wasn't my job I would've done that for free. It was absolutely my pleasure to crush a white nationalist insurrection. And I'm glad I was in a position to be able to help. So, I would do it as many times as it takes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Officer Hodges, I want to tell you how much it means to me and how many people need to hear that. So, thank you very much. And prosecutors are saying today, there are 275 open investigations of subjects involved in the Capitol insurrection. And that number is only going to grow as more of the rioters are identified. It's part of the herculean effort facing law enforcement as they try to bring rioters to justice and prevent any more attacks as the inauguration gets closer.

So how is law enforcement finding these individuals, these extremist groups move deeper online? Time to discuss with CNN reporter, Donie O'Sullivan, and Chloe Colliver, the head of digital policy and strategy at the institute for Strategic Dialog.

So, good to have both of you on this evening. Chloe, I'm going to start with you. Right now we are living with insurrectionist among us. And we expect -- we can expect I should say, these people will change their minds after Donald Trump leaves office next week. How do we walk people back from the ledge really and de-radicalize them after the president and his allies have convinced so many that this election was illegitimate?

CHLOE COLLIVER, HEAD OF DIGITAL POLICY AND STRATEGY, THE INSTITUTE FOR STRATEGIC DIALOG: Well, first off, de-radicalization is a resource intensive and long term project. So we need to acknowledge for the first time really for (inaudible) in the U.S. in recent years. The real severity of this problem of radicalization to the extreme right- wing. And what that means both online, offline and the ramifications for violence and (inaudible) activity.

So, we need to first take that step before we can start to understand what programming, what practices needs to take place to force these people out of the extremist ecosystem that they've been taken into in over the past few years.

[23:30:00]

And some of that de-radicalization could take place through peer networks, with credible messengers trying to sow the doubt doubt in some of the disinformation and propaganda that these people have been consuming for years now on social media platforms (INAUDIBLE) response from government to really put the programming in place to recognize these problems and address at the local level.

LEMON: Donie, now that social media companies are cracking down some of the most dangerous elements, right, they have begun to -- they've begun organizing in the dark. How does that complicate the job of law enforcement? Does it complicate, does it help?

DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN REPORTER: Yeah, it makes it tougher, Don. And, you know, I have been speaking to people at the social media platforms who work in this area, and one of them compared to what they have done over the past week against QAnon as to what they did with ISIS a few years ago in terms of a total wipe out of thousands of these accounts. You know, in just a few days last week, they knocked out 70,000 QAnon accounts on Twitter.

So, what happens then is you're forcing a lot of these groups underground and it's sort of like the physical world equivalent of organizing a rally through public meetings and sticking of fliers to having secret meetings in basements. They have no doubt -- what Facebook and Twitter has done have undoubtedly disrupted the organization capabilities of these groups, but they forced them into darker corners of the internet.

And just as it's harder for us to see what is now being said, it is harder for law enforcement, too. So there is a potential pot that we might see more folks as they go into these darker places on online getting more radicalized.

LEMON: Chloe, I understand you have been monitoring online extremism for the last 10 years and say that you're seeing a lot of chatter online about the 17th and inauguration day. Tell us what that -- can you tell us what that chatter is exactly?

COLLIVER: Yes, that's correct. We have been watching these movements in the larger platforms but also the smaller, darker spaces that Donie has just mentioned as well for a number of years.

The chatter around the week to come is a lot more confused than before the 6th of January. So it's a little hard to predict what it means, that world events. We have certainly seen increased fear or uncertainty around falling explicitly for violent activity in the way that we have openly done on platforms across the internet before the 6th of January.

But we are seeing violence, the promotion of specific events not only in Washington, D.C. but across cities in the U.S. And so we are keeping a very close eye on various rounds of the extremists (ph) ecosystem that have been involved in that planning, whether it's QAnon, white supremacists, militia groups and the kind of (INAUDIBLE) that we have seen moved from platforms like Facebook and Twitter for the most part over to Telegram, (INAUDIBLE) and others.

LEMON: Donie, quickly before I have to go. Facebook today is opposing special restrictions ahead of the inauguration. You have a new reporting about how 'stop the steal' groups are hiding in plain sight on Facebook. What are you learning about that?

O'SULLIVAN: Yeah. I mean, there is this -- there is a crackdown, as we mentioned. But look, the basis of what we saw last week here in Washington was built on a foundation of misinformation. And you can still very easily find these lies about the election on the social media platforms, and the groups like 'stop the steal' are adapting.

We saw today groups just making slight changes in their names on Facebook to evade detection and to live on. So the misinformation is still proliferating online. I am afraid, Don, that once this week passes and, you know, maybe there is less of a spotlight on these social media companies, they might take the foot off the gas a bit and not be as tough on misinformation as hate as they have in the past seven days.

LEMON: Yeah. We will know in the next week, Donie and Chloe. Thank you so much. I appreciate it.

Joe Biden is promising 100 million vaccines in 100 days. How he says he is going to get that done. Plus, a group of vets horrified by the Capitol riot getting together to do something about it. I'm going to speak with one of them.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[23:35:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: The Trump administration handling this country another -- handing this country another setback in the fight against the coronavirus with less than a week until the president leaves office.

Governors absolutely furious after learning that there is no reserve stockpile of second vaccine doses after being promised there was.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. KATE BROWN (D-OR): Let me be very clear. This is deception on a national scale. I am shocked and appalled that the federal government would set an expectation with the American people on which they knew they could not deliver with such grave consequences.

GOV. JARED POLIS (D-CO): I am just, you know, devastated by these flip-flops on life or death items and the way that Secretary Azar misled the entire country. What we really need is a new administration. We need President Biden and Secretary Becerra to restore some confidence and sanity to this to figure out what the hell is going on and if they have extra doses to get them out.

[23:40:05]

GOV. TIM WALZ (D-MN): It is not debatable that the United States did this more poorly than any nation on earth. They were lying. They don't have any doses held back.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Wow! This is happening as president-elect Biden lays out his own vaccination plan.

Time to talk about it. CNN political correspondent MJ Lee is here and Dr. Celine Gounder, a member of the Biden Transition COVID Advisory Board. Hello to both of you. MJ, it sounds like a disaster. And president-elect Biden inherits in just five day. He laid out his plan today. What is he going to do?

MJ LEE, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, I know, Don. This is a massive, massive problem that president-elect Joe Biden is about to inherit. And this week, we saw him talk about two things, right? Yesterday, it was laying out how he hopes to pump a ton of money into the economy to the tune of $1.9 trillion.

And then today, it was really about how he hopes to streamline and speed up the vaccination process. The streamlining really is saying that the federal government needs to be a whole lot more involved than the Trump administration has been in getting these vaccines into arms. And remember, the goal is 100 million vaccine shots in the first 100 days that he is office.

So we heard him talk about setting up these federal vaccination sites, making sure that the federal government is actually coordinating with pharmacies, using FEMA, maybe using a National Guard.

And in terms of speeding things up, he talked about raising the eligibility for who can get vaccines. And essentially, the core idea was, we should never have vaccines that are just sitting in freezers unused.

But, yeah, this is a really daunting task. I think we actually have sound of Biden talking today in Wilmington just about what a big undertaking this is going to be.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: Our plan is as clear as it is bold. Get more people vaccinated for free. Create more places for them to get vaccinated. Mobilize more medical teams to get shots in people's arms. Increase supply and get it out the door as soon as possible.

This will be one of the most challenging operation efforts ever undertaken by our country. But you have my word. We will manage the hell out of this operation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEE: You know, I will say these ideas that we heard today, they were pretty familiar ideas. They were ideas that Biden has talked about before. So I think in the coming weeks, what we will need to see from the Biden administration and his COVID team, including Dr. Gounder, will be the fine details of exactly how his administration is going to execute every single one of these ideas.

LEMON: So, I see you nodding your head, Dr. Gounder, because Biden is hoping for 100 million vaccines in his first -- or vaccinations in his first 100 days. But clearly, the reality is that supplies are limited right now. Is that goal realistic?

DR. CELINE GOUNDER, MEMBER OF BIDEN'S COVID-19 ADVISORY BOARD: Look, Don, he remains really committed to this goal of 100 shots in 100 days. If you look at how many Americans are dying from coronavirus right now, we've hit a death toll of about 4,000 people dying a day across the country. That is not acceptable.

If we allow that to continue, at that pace, we are in for more than doubling of the overall death toll in this country over the next 100 days. So, he is very committed to making sure that we accelerate the pace of vaccination, that we do it more efficiently and yet equitably.

LEMON: Mm-hmm. MJ, the Biden administration is planning on retiring the Operation Warp Speed name. Is this a rebuke of Trump? What are they signaling would be different here?

LEE: Well, you know what, we have heard consistently about Operation Warp Speed is the concern, that it appears to have really prioritize making the vaccines in a quick way, in a quick manner, but didn't really focus at all on actually putting up a system and creating a system in which to distribute the vaccines.

We know the incoming administration is worried about that. We have heard this concern from state officials and other folks that we have been talking to.

And I was struck yesterday when I spoke briefly with Jeff Zients, the COVID coordinator for Biden. He really was not mincing words. He said quite literally there is no system in place to get these vaccines distributed.

So, this is a huge problem. I think it is not surprising that the new government that is coming in to Washington doesn't even want to continue with this name because they see it as such a failure. And I think this is part of what the Biden administration that is coming is finding so daunting.

[23:45:02]

LEE: It is not that they feel like there is sort of a poor and flawed system that they can improve upon. They really feel like starting on day one, they are going to have to start from scratch.

LEMON: Dr. Gounder, Secretary Azar has submitted his resignation as a standard for any cabinet secretary on an outgoing administration, but he is complaining about his department's legacy being tarnished and doesn't mention that nearly 400,000 Americans have died from this virus. The fact is the failures of this administration, that's why we are where we are.

GOUNDER: Unfortunately, it is where we are. However, as I mentioned, the president-elect is really committed to addressing this issue. He announced a massive American rescue plan to rescue Americans from the current situation, from the economic disaster and the coronavirus pandemic.

He is going to be very focused on ramping up, accelerating the distribution of vaccines. And so that is going to mean really trying -- you know, entire all of government response. So, he's going to be leveraging everything from community mass vaccination sites to your local drugstore to primary care doctors and other local federally- qualified health centers.

Many of the primary care doctors and federally qualified health centers that will be focused on are imbedded in vulnerable communities, in communities of color, and some of hardest-hit communities. So that is going to be a big focus of the plan moving forward, as well.

LEMON: All right. Thank you both. I appreciate it.

I want you all to pay attention because I think you're really going to enjoy this on Sunday. Make sure you tune in on Sunday. My colleague Abby Phillip is going to talk with the soon-to-be vice president, Kamala Harris, and her family. CNN's special report is called "Kamala Harris: Making History." It airs Sunday night at 10:00 and it's hosted by Abby Phillip. Make sure you tune in for that on Sunday.

So, he was nearby when the riot started, horrified by the crowd and the destruction they caused. So, Navy Vet David Smith decided to stand up. He tells me all about it. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[23:50:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: We are sadly learning that veterans of the military, men and women sworn to defend the Constitution, were part of the mob that stormed the Capitol. That fact hurt and angered many other veterans.

So, a group of them did something about it. Gathering to clean up some of the trash and mess that rioters left at the Capitol and surrounding areas.

David Smith, a just retired Navy vet, organized a cleanup operation through a group that he founded called Continue to Serve, and he joins me now. David, thank you. Thank you for your service. You're an amazing human being before we even get started. Thanks so much for joining us.

DAVID SMITH, FOUNDER AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, CONTINUE TO SERVE: Thanks for your support.

LEMON: So, you just retired less than a month ago after serving in the Navy for 13 years. What did you think when you saw the riots at the Capitol and now learning some of the people invading the Capitol and attacking people were also vets?

SMITH: It was pretty gut-wrenching. It was kind of double edge sword really attacking the soul of America, the seat of democracy, and it's our own people doing it, especially our own veterans. There is also a lot of anger, too.

Our organization has been involved since June 2nd, since the clearing of Lafayette Square. We have been out there standing with our BLM allies, amazing local grassroots organizations like D.C. Protests (ph) and the Palm Collective here in D.C.

We have seen how they police these organizations or these events, the BLM events. It was very -- it was very upsetting to see the lack of escalation of force they utilized against protesters who are obviously predominantly white.

So, I think it was -- it was a showing of the white privilege and the white supremacy that existed in our country right now.

LEMON: So, you know, around the Capitol, the area around the Capitol and downtown D.C. was littered with not only trash, but signs, stickers, messages with racist Neo-Nazi and alt-right symbols all over the place really.

We're looking at amazing pictures of your group working to clean it up. Tell me how that happened and what it meant to you and your fellow veterans to do this.

SMITH: Yeah. It was actually (INAUDIBLE) on January 6th. I was with one of my colleagues from the -- from our organization, one of our volunteers, veteran volunteers, and we were walking through and we couldn't help but notice all the stickers, all these fascists, racist stickers all over street signs and different things like that.

He was taking them down. I had asked him not to do that because it was starting to get dark. I was afraid the officers would think we were putting them up. I told him we would make sure we get back out here and clean them up.

And so that is what we did. We tried to organize something. Honestly, we kind of expected maybe 15, 20 people to show up. And we got fortunate.

[23:54:57]

SMITH: My director was really smart and savvy with Instagram and was able to get some good feedback from there and we were able to get over 150, almost 180 people out to help us clean it. So it was pretty amazing.

LEMON: It's pretty amazing what you do. Pretty shocking what happened, obviously to -- it was a shock to the system. But we did see it coming. But I just think it's wonderful that, you know, when you talk about real patriots and real patriotism, what you guys did, you are real patriots. That is a sentiment that we need more of in the country. Thank you, David. Thanks for joining.

SMITH: Appreciate it. Thank you.

LEMON: And thank you for watching, everyone. Our coverage continues.

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