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Don Lemon Tonight

President Biden Announces Purchase Of 200 Million More Vaccine Doses; Only Five GOP Senators Join Democrats To Agree Trump's Second Impeachment Trial Is Constitutional; At Least 150 People Have Been Charged By Justice Department In Capitol Riot; Republican Party At War With Itself: Pro And Anti-Trump Factions Battling It Out; CDC: It Is Safe To Open Schools As Long As COVID Precautions Are In Place; Health Experts Warns Every Day Activities Are More Dangerous Due To New COVID Variants. Aired 11p-12a ET

Aired January 26, 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]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DON LEMON, CNN HOST: President Biden moving aggressively today to get the COVID-19 pandemic under control, announcing the federal government will buy 200 million more doses of vaccine. He says that will be enough to fully vaccinate 300 million Americans by the end of the summer or early fall.

Also today, senators have sworn in to act as jurors in Donald Trump's historic second impeachment trial. Forty-five Republicans are voting in favor of a motion calling the trial unconstitutional.

And prosecutors are filing federal criminal charges against at least 150 people in connection with the Capitol riot. More than 400 are still under investigation. And that is where we are right now.

Joining me now are CNN's White House correspondent John Harwood, CNN's senior political analyst John Avalon, and political commentator Amanda Carpenter. Good evening, again, 18, yes.

John Harwood, President Biden making a major announcement about another 200 million vaccine doses. He's trying to get everybody -- every adult vaccinated and trying to push through a COVID relief package. But how hard is it to move forward when the former president still has a grip on everyone's attention?

JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Don, I don't agree that Donald Trump still has a grip on everyone's attention. He has a grip on a portion of the --

LEMON: I should say Republicans.

HARWOOD: -- news media and he's got a grip on the Republican Party. But Joe Biden and Democrats have a grip on the government in Washington right now.

Joe Biden, as we saw today, rolled out some progress on vaccine distributions. He's invoking the Defense Production Act, starting a pandemic testing board. He is racing ahead with Democrats through the reconciliation process to push through a very large COVID relief package.

They're very confident they can do that. We'll see if they can actually get the votes. But if they can, that's going to produce a significant amount of change in a short time. They're going to follow that with another big bill on infrastructure, perhaps health care, also done with democrats only, presumably, through reconciliation process.

And so there's a prospect of very large change coming from a Congress that's not used to delivering a lot of changes. It's used to delivering a lot of gridlock. To me, that is more important thing happening in Washington right now than this trial, which we, of course -- it has to take place.

History demands that it take place because of the gravity of the crime that is committed against the United States. We do know the outcome, though, and it's just a matter of getting Republicans on record, and we got a very strong hint today of what they're going to show when they have to go on the record.

Nevertheless, they need to do that and the trial is going to be over in a couple weeks and Biden will be going on trying to deliver on his agenda.

LEMON: John, John Avlon, I wonder if the convention -- listen to what John Harwood just said. I wonder if the conventional wisdom or the conventional thinking may have been wrong all along that, you know, that Joe Biden, President Biden didn't need this whole impeachment thing going on because it would distract him from his agenda. Maybe it's a cover he needs to get some of this stuff passed, no?

JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST AND ANCHOR: Look, I think both things can and need to be done. You can't stall an agenda in the middle of a pandemic that's been raging out of control solely to make sure that the ex-president actually faces justice and accountability in the eyes of history through impeachment.

But I agree with you that, first of all, that it doesn't mean his agenda gets derailed. And two, I disagree that this is a done deal, that we can just assume that no progress will be made and there's not a chance of more Republicans crossing now. Seventeen is a high bar and that's what is needed.

That said more information is going to come to light. They're going to be forced to confront information that is truly damning with indictments that are still coming down the pike.

And confronting that evidence and saying it doesn't matter, saying it doesn't matter if a president incites an insurrection after an election, that's a tough pill to swallow.

A lot of them will do it because his power with the base is strong. But other folks, especially ones not running for office, might look into their conscience and vote differently than they did today.

LEMON: Head scratcher for me, Amanda, is you know all along Republicans have been saying -- the GOP has been saying that they are the party of law and order. I thought they were the party of law and order. But a violent mob attacks our Capitol, attacks police officers, caught on tape. It happened live on television.

[23:05:00]

LEMON: And Republicans like Marco Rubio say impeachment is like pouring gasoline on a fire? Are they essentially waving the white flag to domestic terrorists?

AMANDA CARPENTER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, FORMER SENIOR COMMUNICATIONS ADVISOR AND SPEECHWRITER FOR SENATOR TED CRUZ: I mean, I don't even know if it's that. They're just closing their eyes and looking away to it. I mean, I was shocked to hear Nikki Haley's comments this morning where she just said, you know, leave Trump alone.

LEMON: Give the guy a break.

CARPENTER: Big deal.

LEMON: Give the man a break.

CARPENTER: -- a break. And she was asked about it and she goes, yeah, January 6th wasn't great, like it was a bad Netflix choice. I mean, that is really disappointing. And so the worst thing that could happen to our country is for people just to move on and brush this under the rug because it will get worse.

That said I do want the Democrats to sharpen their arguments when it comes to the Senate trial if there's any hopes of getting more republican votes because the biggest thing happening in republican Trumpy politics right now is the debate over being censored and free speech.

And you can see the ground shifting where this -- Rand Paul and others want to make this a free speech issue. Everybody says we should fight for our country. Everybody says we should take the fight to the Capitol.

And so the Democrats need to really focus on the president's actions that led up to this, not just the things he said on TV, not just the things at the rally, but the deliberate and sustained ways that he tried to overturn an election that led to the violence on the Capitol. And so I just would really like to see more focus on that.

LEMON: So, John Avlon, Amanda Carpenter just stole the answer to your question, but I'll ask you anyway.

(LAUGHTER)

LEMON (on camera): I want you to take a listen. This is what we heard from Senator Lindsey Graham on Fox News tonight. Here it is. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): If there is an effort by the Democrats to call a single witness in the United States Senate, they had no record in the House, there will be a delay of this trial, there will be a Pandora box being opened. We will want witnesses and this thing is going for weeks if not months. So I'm hoping that we have a trial based on a stipulation of fact, not witnesses, and we get this behind us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON (on camera): So, John, weren't we just sitting here not so long ago and Lindsey Graham was saying, I'm done with Trump, I'm done -- over this, this is way gone, way -- let me --

AVLON: Yeah.

LEMON: What?

AVLON: And then he got a final ride on Marine One and apparently changed his mind.

(LAUGHTER)

AVLON: Look, I mean, you know, you could roll the tape with --

LEMON: Uh-oh. Well, there we go. Amanda, you answered the question.

CARPENTER: I think Lindsey Graham's words were count me out. He was done with this until --

LEMON: Yeah.

CARPENTER: -- he wasn't, right?

LEMON: Yeah.

CARPENTER: And so they want to drag this this out by threatening witnesses. The thing is they don't want to confront the question of what led to the violence. They're doing anything to avoid that question. They have 45 Republicans saying we don't even want to have a trial.

You have to find a way to focus them on the president's actions that led to the violence. That's it. They refuse to see it.

LEMON: All right. So, John Avlon took his marbles and he went home, so I'm going to let everybody go. Everybody is going to get a half day right now, early day off. Thank you all. I appreciate it. I'll see you soon.

Now, I want to bring in former Nixon White House counsel John Dean. John, good evening to you. There are so many questions about Trump's actions the day of the insurrection. Why didn't we hear from him for hours? Did he try to stop the violence? Who did he speak to? What did he say? How will impeachment managers get these answers?

JOHN DEAN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR, FORMER NIXON WHITE HOUSE COUNSEL: Well, I don't know they will get the answers. That's one of the real questions of this trial. You just heard Lindsey Graham talking about what would happen if they called witnesses. He was speaking like he was the president's defense lawyer. He used the term "we" will object, like he's supposed to be a witness -- excuse me, he's supposed to be the court and the jury and not trying the case.

So I think Amanda is correct. They do not want witnesses. They do not want to learn what Trump did that led up to the insurrection. And that's what they're going to try to block. So, stipulated facts won't sizzle and that's what they want.

LEMON: And so here's the thing, which is -- which is -- I don't know if Democrats are going to do it or not, but all you have to do, John, is speak to one or two of the police officers who were involved in the insurrection, who were fighting for their lives, whose lives were on the line.

They'll tell you when they heard the president on the radio, when they heard his speech as they were coming into work. They knew it was going to be problematic that day because, guess what? They're trained in that sort of thing. They knew what the president was doing.

They don't understand why Republicans in Washington and around the country don't understand why the president -- why -- don't understand -- they don't understand why they believe the president didn't incite this. It is obvious to anyone who is watching, listening, who has been trained in law enforcement.

[23:10:02]

LEMON: They know the president's words meant a lot and it helped to incite this violence.

DEAN: No question, Don. In fact, there is --

LEMON: Why don't they call some of those guys or ladies?

DEAN: They should. They actually should. But as I say, the Senate appears like the republican strategy is to block all witnesses. There is a video circulating online. Anderson had some clips of it earlier tonight from an online legal blog. And it's damning stuff. They went through Parler and pulled out all the videos, and those show how the crowd itself --

LEMON: We showed those last night. I know which one you're talking about. And they put them together, how they were reacting to the president's words. Yeah, it is --

DEAN: Yes.

LEMON: It's pretty obvious. By the way, we haven't independently verified that.

DEAN: Powerful.

LEMON: It's from The Washington Post. But it is powerful. As we understand, impeachment -- the folks who are doing the impeachment are looking at it. Do you think that that would be strong evidence?

DEAN: I think it's certainly a good starting place. But Don, we all know and certainly I know as somebody who worked at the White House as White House counsel, that the president was very informed about this group, what was going on and before it was going on.

The reason he didn't react is he liked what was going on. He clearly wanted it to continue. He didn't want to disrupt it. He didn't want to turn these people off. He told them how much he loved them when he finally was forced to do a hostage video to try to tone it down a little bit.

So, you know, the Senate knows this. And the question is can the House managers get some evidence heretofore has not been made public that's going to make it impossible for some of these moderate Republicans to stay on the fence? Maybe they'll get closer to 17. Seventeen is a big number. I think they can hold all the Democrats, but getting 17 is going to be tough.

LEMON: John Dean, always a pleasure. Thank you, sir. I'll see you soon.

DEAN: Thank you, Don.

LEMON: A new CNN KFile investigation reveals GOP Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene repeatedly indicated support for executing prominent Democratic politicians before being elected to Congress. Greene has also repeatedly posted far-right and debunked conspiracy theories on social media, including support for Qanon.

Joining me now to discuss is the CNN KFile senior editor Andrew Kaczynski. Andrew, good to see you. Thank you so much. We appreciate you joining us. What did you find on her Facebook?

ANDREW KACZYNSKI, CNN KFILE SENIOR EDITOR: Yes. So what we found on Marjorie Greene's Facebook is that, as you mentioned in the intro, in comments that she made before she ran for Congress in 2018 and 2019, she repeatedly indicated in the form of Facebook likes, comments in Facebook videos, support for executing Democratic members of Congress, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, former President Barack Obama, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, FBI agents who she claimed were part of the deep state against President Trump.

And some of these claims were pretty violent. There was somebody, you know, one of the comment who said to her, when do we get to hang them, and she was talking about Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, and Greene replied, the stage is being set.

There was another comment where Greene had this petition that she wanted to impeach Nancy Pelosi, and somebody responded, you know, literally said a bullet to the head would be quicker. Yeah, I mean, it's really, really sick stuff. And she responds by liking that comment.

And sort of the backdrop to a lot of this is that she was leading this petition that she said would impeach Nancy Pelosi for treason. And in one speech in 2019, which we're going to play a clip of here, she actually suggests that Nancy Pelosi, again, could be executed.

LEMON (on camera): Wow.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-GA) (voice-over): By our law, representatives and senators can be kicked out and no longer serve in our government. It's a crime punishable by death, is what treason is. Nancy Pelosi is guilty of treason.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON (on camera): Andrew, have you heard -- has she addressed any of these -- any of these posts?

KACZYNSKI: So we reached out to her earlier today for comment. She -- a couple hours before we posted the story, she actually attempted to get out ahead of it on Twitter. She put out this statement where she didn't really deny liking the post or making the comments on Facebook.

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KACZYNSKI: But she sort of that -- she didn't deny it, but she said over the years, I've had many people managed my pages. Many posts have been liked and many have been shared. Some did not represent my views, especially the ones CNN is about to spread across the internet.

So, she didn't actually directly deny liking or making the comments, but she made sort of this claim that maybe somebody else did it.

LEMON (on camera): Yeah, she seems to be deflecting there and blaming others for inciting violence. Thank you so much, Andrew. I appreciate your time. Thank you.

The acting Capitol Police chief is apologizing to lawmakers behind closed doors today. We are going to tell you why. That on the day that President Biden says this about racism in this country.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Those eight minutes and 46 seconds that took George Floyd's life opened the eyes of millions of Americans and millions of people all over the world. It was the knee on the neck of justice, and it wouldn't be forgotten.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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[23:20:00] LEMON: At least 150 people are now facing charges connected to the January 6th siege on the Capitol. A top prosecutor says investigators are building towards charges of sedition, a crime that carries a penalty of up to 20 years behind bars.

And tonight, we're learning more about just how unprepared law enforcement was for the angry mob that attacked the Capitol.

Let's discuss now with CNN's senior justice correspondent Evan Perez, and he joins us this evening. It is good to see again here, Evan. Thank you so much for joining.

So, information is coming out about a closed door meeting on the hill today where the acting Capitol Police chief apologized to lawmakers. What are we learning here?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Don. This is stunning. Even though -- look, it's been plainly obvious to you, to me, to anyone that the Capitol Police were woefully, woefully unprepared despite all of the public signs that this was going to happen.

And so we heard from Yogananda Pittman, who is the acting U.S. Capitol Police chief, and we'll just show you some of her words. She said -- quote -- "We knew that the militia groups and the white supremacist organizations would be attending. We also knew that some of these participants were intending to bring firearms and other weapons to the event. We knew that there was a strong potential for violence and that Congress was the target."

Don, we've seen some of the reporting since January 6th from the FBI, from other organizations that were producing some of these intelligence that was being shared with the U.S. Capitol Police, and yet what we see in those pictures repeatedly are these officers who were not prepared, they didn't have any of the gear, any of the riot gear, and they needed the help of the metropolitan police from D.C. to come in and help them, you know, after the Capitol had been breached.

LEMON: And, you know, as I said, at least 150 people are facing charges, Evan, in the riot. But investigators are signalling that there could be a lot more, like up to 300 or so, 350?

PEREZ: Yeah, they have -- right now, there are about 400 subjects who already -- they already have open investigations on, Don.

LEMON: Wow.

PEREZ: And 150 people we know already are facing charges. One of the things we heard from Michael Sherwin, who is the acting U.S. attorney here in D.C., he said, look, if you were inside or even if you were outside of the Capitol, if you committed a crime, they are going to charge you. So it doesn't matter whether you went in. If you were on the premises and they can prove that you committed a crime, they are going to charge you.

So they're not worried about overwhelming the court system. They are going to try to bring these people. They mentioned that there were over 200,000 digital media tips that have been brought in.

One of the most interesting things to me is that people's family members, their friends are turning them in. These are average Americans who are outraged by what happened on January 6th, and they are doing the right thing.

LEMON: We saw the son of one of them --

PEREZ: Yeah.

LEMON: -- who turned his own dad in. And investigators are asking the public for tips still?

PEREZ: Right. The big priority is to try to find the people, the persons, group as one of the suspicions, who were behind the two pipe bombs. One was found at the RNC building, another one at the DNC building. This is just outside of the Capitol, Don.

You can see right there some of the pictures that they've been sharing. So far, it appears that that has not yielded any solid leads. They've increased the reward to $75,000.

And Don, here's the thing. You know, they've been doing all of the regular things that they do, which is to look for cellphone data to try to look at surveillance video. None of that has yielded anything, and it's scary because there's somebody out there who planted these bombs, they were real bombs, and they're still out there.

And of the concerns that the investigators have is that this was a plot to essentially draw police away from the Capitol while the insurrection was happening. So there was something here, there was a greater planning. And again, that's what they're trying to get to the bottom of.

You mentioned sedition, conspiracy. That is one of the things that they're building towards because they believe that there are multiple groups that were working together perhaps that day to try to breach the Capitol and carry this attack out.

LEMON: Hey, Evan Perez.

PEREZ: Yes, sir?

LEMON: Thank you very much. It's always a pleasure.

PEREZ: Thank you.

LEMON: Good to see you. See you soon. Good information.

Republicans in Washington are battling over control of the direction of their party. And wait until you see what's happening with the GOP in states like Texas and Arizona.

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[23:25:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON (on camera): A battle is underway inside the Republican Party now that Trump is out of office. Some members of the GOP establishment want the party to move beyond him, especially now that he has been impeached for a second time. But other Republicans at the state level are still all in for Trump and they're angry at members of the GOP who supported impeaching him.

More on this growing rift in the party from CNN's Kyung Lah.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is the storming of a capitol you may not have seen. Rioters breached the Oregon State Capitol and assaulted police less than a month before this, the insurrection in Washington, D.C.

CROWD: USA!

LAH (voice-over): As former President Donald Trump faces a second impeachment trial, charged for his role in inciting the deadly D.C. riot.

BILL CURRIER, CHAIRMAN, REPUBLICAN PARTY OF OREGON: It was a sham impeachment, just like the first one.

LAH (voice-over): The Oregon Republican Party defiantly defends Trump.

CURRIER: Patriots are not going away. The president is not going away.

LAH (voice-over): The state party passed a resolution condemning 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump, calling it a betrayal.

[23:29:58]

LAH (voice-over): Then dived into this conspiratorial lie about the insurrection, that there is growing evidence that the violence at the Capitol was a false flag operation designed to discredit President Trump.

CURRIER: This is a time for choosing. But it's a time for choosing what you really believe and want to stand for and not for just giving lip service to being a Republican.

LAH (voice-over): That's not helping to win over more Republicans, says Oregon Republican State Representative David Brock Smith.

DAVID BROCK SMITH, REPUBLICAN OREGON STATE REPRESENTATIVE: Extremism on either side only benefits a small minority, and it's not the majority of the constituents that we represent.

LAH (voice-over): Choosing to side with the far-right fringe or not, that's the battle at the state party level. In Texas, the GOP continues to use the slogan "we are the storm," the same slogan used by followers of the QAnon conspiracy. The Texas Republicans deny that connection.

In Hawaii, a top GOP official resigned from his post after he tweeted sympathy for QAnon followers from the state party account. He later called it an error in judgment.

BARBARA WYLLIE, ARIZONA GOP PARTY MEMBER: It'll be the Trump Republican Party.

LAH (voice-over): In Arizona, it's open warfare among Republicans. These women believe the baseless claims pedalled by Trump.

CORKY HAYNES, ARIZONA GOP PARTY MEMBER: This election was stolen. Trump won, i think, by a landslide.

WYLLIE: I'll be with him wherever he goes, however he goes.

LAH (voice-over): The state party shows no sign of moving away from Trump. Members re-elected a fervent Trump follower as their chairwoman, despite Democrats flipping the state blue in 2020. Arizona Republican Party members don't seem to care.

EUGENE PEPLOWSKI, ARIZONA GOP PARTY MEMBER: Unification at what cost? Selling out America? I can't do that.

LAH (voice-over): There will be a price, warned establishment Republicans.

JEFF FLAKE, FORMER ARIZONA SENATOR : It really is driving normal, regular, rational people from the Republican Party and we can't afford to lose many more.

LAH (on camera): And that's more than just a fear that the former senator is talking about. There are real numbers behind this. The Arizona secretary of state's office tells CNN that 9,944 registered Republicans -- that's almost 10,000 of them -- have officially switched their party registration since the U.S. Capitol riots.

Establishment Republicans here in Arizona say that's not just a warning. That is a blaring siren that something is very wrong. Don?

(END VIDEO TAPE)

LEMON (on camera): Kyung Lah, thank you so much. I want to bring in CNN's political commentator Ana Navarro. Ana, hello to you. Thank you so much for joining. I appreciate it. You heard Kyung's report there. How far does the GOP go? How long do they stay on this path before, as former Republican Senator Jeff Flake puts it, normal, regular, rational people move away from the Republican Party?

ANA NAVARRO, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I don't have the answer to that, but I can tell you that the longer they hold on to Donald Trump, the longer they are in fear of Donald Trump, the longer they are complicit with Donald Trump, the longer they're going to let Donald Trump get away with abuses of power and crime that he committed while president, the longer this will last. There are people -- there are regular people who watch state media, who listen to their congress people, who trust their congress people, who absolutely believe these things.

And so it becomes very difficult to argue with somebody that there is not a deep state being run by a bunch of celebrities and people who are molesting children. It sounds so insane, that it's almost difficult to argue against it.

But, look, Don, it's going to go on. This level of fringe is going to go on as long as Republicans continue giving Donald Trump a pass and being in fear of him. He is controlling them right now.

LEMON: You know, nearly 10,000 Republicans have requested to change their party registration from Republican to independent, Democrat or libertarian since that Capitol riot. That's according to the Arizona secretary of state's office.

Major companies continue to say that they won't donate money to people who enabled the insurrection by voting to overturn the election results. Do any of the Republicans care about these things?

NAVARRO: I think the elected Republicans care about staying elected. I think that's why people like Rob Portman are choosing not to run because they don't have the stomach for it.

Look, you know, it takes some reckoning. It takes some looking to introspection and looking inside of yourself and asking, what did I do the last four years that I enabled this man to be able to incite a mob to raid the Capitol and commit domestic terrorism?

[23:35:03]

NAVARRO: And so I think a lot of people in elected office don't want to look at themselves in the mirror and accept their complicity, accept their culpability, accept their responsibility.

And until there is accountability and unless there is accountability and responsibility taken for what Republicans in elected office have done to embolden these actions that Donald Trump took that culminated on January 6th, they can't move on, right? They can't move on.

It takes a level of humility and self-introspection to realize because I was silenced so often, because I looked the other way, because I pretended not to read the tweet, because I pretended not to hear him say there are good people on both sides, because I didn't want to blame him for inspiring a white supremacist to go hunt down Latinos in El Paso, because I gave him a pass for so long, it led to what happened on January 6th.

And so they don't want to do that. They don't want to blame themselves for what their part has been in this. So they continue pretending that this is normal. That's why -- that's why they voted the way they voted today, with the exception of the five Republicans on process.

Because, Don, they don't want their names to go down on the wrong side of history. And history is going to judge Republicans who have enabled him in part of this incredibly harshly. It's not going to be in a hundred years. It's going to be in a few years.

Their children are going to ask, what did you do about the day that a rabid mob raided the Capitol and led to the death of people? What did you do? And they're going to have to look down in shame. And I just don't think they can accept that.

LEMON: Yeah. Ana Navarro, thank you so much. I appreciate your time and your words.

NAVARRO: Thank you.

LEMON: A CDC study adding to the evidence the schools can be safely reopened. One of the authors of that study tells me how. That's next.

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[23:40:00]

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LEMON: President Biden ordering the federal government to buy an additional 200 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine, saying that should be enough to vaccinate 300 million Americans by the end of summer or early fall.

And more good news today, the CDC is reporting that children can safely go back to school as long as COVID precautions are in place.

I want to bring in now Margaret Honein, who is the lead for the CDC's state and local health department COVID task force. Thank you so much for joining us. We really appreciate it, doctor.

So what is the main takeaway of your study for parents and school administrators who have been trying to figure out what's best for kids, teachers, and their families?

MARGARET HONEIN, LEAD FOR STATE AND LOCAL HEALTH DEPARTMENT COVID TASK FORCE, CDC: Well, thank you very much. The main takeaway message here is we've been watching the data very closely and the data is really accumulating to show us that we can safely reopen schools as long as we have the right prevention measures in place.

We need universal face masks, we need at least six-foot distance between students and students and teachers, and we need to cohort students so we can minimize the number of contacts they have.

LEMON: Are there specific activities or classes that are less safe and schools should stay away from?

HONEIN: So an important message here is we can safely open schools if we prioritize the education settings. So there are activities that increase risk and one example we released today was about a wrestling tournament where you can't safely wear face masks, where there's close contact between participants, and it's happening indoors. So, all those things are going to increase risk of transmission.

LEMON: And are there certain conditions in the community where you would not recommend reopening?

HONEIN: So it's really important that communities and schools work together to reduce the level of transmission in a community. So it's going to be safest to open schools when we have community transmission lower.

We know that we can do good prevention in schools now, but we're going to have cases whenever there's a high level of transmission in the community, even if those cases are being acquired in the community.

So we need to work together, have policies in the community that can reduce transmission. You know, closing places that are nonessential or putting restrictions just to reduce that transmission.

LEMON: Listen, we are maybe two months shy of a year that we have been dealing with the quarantine part of it. You know, we've been dealing with the COVID situation since January of last year. How did you determine that this, what you're doing now or you're recommending now, is safe? Tell me how your study was done.

HONEIN: Right. So, you know, last summer, we were investigating a lot of outbreaks and high-density work sites and congregate living facilities, and we were all really concerned that there could be rapid transmission in schools that would accelerate into the community.

[23:44:56]

HONEIN: So we feel much more confident now as we have had data from a number of different states and a number of different areas where they've put very careful mitigation in place, high face mask use, distance between students, sometimes using a hybrid model so that there's fewer contacts with each student, and we've seen that we can really minimize transmission in schools.

So that's really the key message here, that those educational settings can be safe, but we may need school policies that postpone activities that are not safe like indoor high-contact sports where we can't wear face masks.

LEMON: Can we apply these lessons across the board, doctor?

HONEIN: So I think it's really important for communities and schools to work together to have a plan that makes opening schools as safe as possible. But everything will have to be tailored to individuals. And it's important to make sure that there is, you know, parental involvement and choice. So it's making the decisions that are best for everyone's child.

LEMON: In some districts, teachers are in school teaching. In other districts, some have been reluctant to return. I'm not sure if you heard of Chicago. They said they're not going back, right? They're having a bit of an uproar there. Should teachers be at the front of the line to be vaccinated nationwide?

HONEIN: So teachers are part of our essential workforce that will be prioritized. So when it's the time for that group, that's going to be an important step to further safeguard our schools. So we are definitely supportive of teachers having the opportunity to be vaccinated when it's prioritized in their state.

LEMON: Doctor, thank you so much. I really appreciate your time. Great information.

HONEIN: Thanks so much. I appreciate the opportunity to talk about this and to emphasize the importance of really safeguarding our children.

LEMON: Concerns growing over what effect the new COVID variants could have in the coming months. Some health experts are saying everyday activities like going to the grocery store are now more dangerous.

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[23:50:00]

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LEMON: The CDC supports sending kids back to school as long as COVID precautions are in place. But how do parents feel about that? Let's ask a dad, CNN contributor Erin Bromage, who is also an associate professor of biology at University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. So, how do you feel about that? You heard what Dr. Honein had said.

ERIN BROMAGE, CNN CONTRIBUTOR, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF BIOLOGY AT UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS DARTMOUTH: My kids have been back at school since September. They went to back school starting yesterday. So, kids should be in school. But you need to do it correctly.

The school needs to put in place effective safeguards to stop transmission between kids and teachers at school. That's the masks, the ventilation, the filtration, the cohorting, and all things that are needed to keep kids safe.

LEMON: So they've been back since September? I saw you posting. You said that all the staff, faculty and students, were tested last week and there were no positive cases, and that's since September?

BROMAGE: So, this was -- we took a little bit of a break, coming back after the holidays, to get through what might have built up through people gathering and things like that.

LEMON: Got it.

BROMAGE: Today was the first day to come back. Our plan was we tested every single child, every single staff member and faculty member, and then based on those numbers, we determined what was going to happen going forward.

And it was -- I mean, in a community of really quite high prevalence of new infections per day, one of the highest in the state of Massachusetts, not a single positive case in the entire school.

LEMON: Wow! So, the CDC is watching four COVID variants right now that seem to be more transmissible.

BROMAGE: Yeah.

LEMON: What does this mean for our everyday lives? Should we change our behavior when we're going out in public like even to the grocery store?

BROMAGE: Not yet. I mean, we really got to focus on the variant that is ticking out backside right now. I mean, we're in trouble right now with the one that we've got. We've turned a bit of a corner, but the one that we have here is the one that we need to focus our attention on right now.

We do need to be mindful that we are in a race at the moment between vaccination and the new variant, especially the one that originated in the United Kingdom. So, you know, the important thing to think of, though, is the measures that we took to keep ourselves safe with the current variant, the same measures we need to put in place to keep ourselves safe from the new variant.

We just need to do them a little bit better, a better-fitting mask, wearing it more often, be mindful of going inside and in closed spaces with lots of people. Just be a little bit more mindful than what we were. It's not time to worry in the future we need to focus on right now.

LEMON: Yeah. So, you know, I'm not -- you know, I'm concerned when I'm going out, right? But the masks give me some degree of comfort. You heard what Dr. Fauci says. He suggested wearing two masks. I've done that before. It's more effective in stopping the spread. Other experts say we should be wearing K95 masks in public. Your thoughts on that, quickly, please?

BROMAGE: Masks are important. The fit is more important than the mask itself.

[23:54:58]

BROMAGE: And when you wear a mask, even a KN95 and you don't have it hugging over the nose or around your cheek, air is just going to shoot out through the path of least resistance. So wearing two masks is not necessarily about the filtration of two masks. It's about one mask really hugging the other mask on to your face to make more of your breath go through the mask, and on your inhalation, the breath gets through the mask. That's where two masks come in. It gets a tighter seal on your face.

LEMON: Look, it's been so cold here, I'm happily wearing two masks, keeps me warm. Thank you, Erin Bromage. I am glad your kids are all safe and you are, as well. Thanks for joining us.

BROMAGE: Thank you for having me on tonight.

LEMON: And thank you for watching, everyone. Be safe out there. Stay warm. Our coverage continues.

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