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Don Lemon Tonight
Margaret Taylor Greene Pulled Off Racist Posts; GOP Remains Loyal to Donald Trump; Capitol Police Chief Wants to Fence Capitol Vicinity; GOP Enablers Says OK to Rep. Greene; Joe Biden Approves Access to a New Healthcare; Trump Supporter Charged by FBI; Mother of Parkland Victim Burst Out in Anger. Aired 10-11p ET
Aired January 28, 2021 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[22:00:00]
JAIME ROGOZINSKI, FOUNDER, WALLSTREETBETS: Robinhood is not known as necessarily being the best one but this particular -- that the people that are coming into this type of type of trade, they don't care about those little things. They don't care if the other -- that the people that want that are behind these orders are front running them. They don't care --
(CROSSTALK)
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN HOST: I hear you. But what they care about is it being fair? And it's interesting.
ROGOZINSKI: They want --
(CROSSTALK)
CUOMO: You build a place to come together, and they did something that was really interesting about power of the people. Even against the power --
ROGOZINSKI: That's right.
CUOMO: -- power of the powerful.
ROGOZINSKI: That's right.
CUOMO: And I appreciate you for talking to us about it. Thank you for being with us to kind of give shape to this story. We'll be watching it, all right?
ROGOZINSKI: Thank you for having me.
CUOMO: Taking the opportunity was your choice. And thank you. Thank you for watching. The big show CNN Tonight with D. Lemon starts right now. D., I have never seen anything like that before.
DON LEMON, CNN HOST: Well, this is -- this is the layman's part of it. Because I just sort of look at, OK, this is what the 401K is doing, and the investment people are doing that. So, but this is the layman's part and I think most people, which is relatable to our audience. So, the establishment is, these are the rules that we've created, and
it's been this way for a long time. And then all of a sudden, the little guy, the regular guy said listen, time to change, we found that there's a loophole or what you. This is the way that we're going to do it according to your rules, you can't get mad at us.
So, I think that it is a reflection of what's happening in our larger culture, in the larger society right now as it comes to women's rights and me too and issues of race and equity and equality and all of that. It's like, people who have been there, the establishment who's been there for so long, the entitled, right, the people who, hey, look, we're the wealthy. These are the rules. We want to live by and continue, and the underdog is saying no, no, no, we deserve a place as well and now this is the clash. So, hey, that's what's happened.
(CROSSTALK)
CUOMO: The rule, you know, what I find interesting about it is I love that these people came together to prop something up. Now, you can say no, no, no, you're ascribing virtue where there's only value. They saw that it was a short --
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: There's that, too. There's that, too.
CUOMO: -- they decided to reverse it and play it.
LEMON: Yes.
CUOMO: But I don't see it that way.
LEMON: Yes.
CUOMO: I see it as people saying, you know, I don't like that these guys are just selling down our community so that there can be just vacant strip malls all over the country.
LEMON: That's true.
CUOMO: Because they take away all their liquidity, all their cash. And we're going to go the other way on it and I choose to see it that way. We can't ask everybody their intentions. You are right, D. Lemon.
LEMON: Yes.
CUOMO: We're seeing a conflation of what happened here as a metaphor for society.
LEMON: Yes.
CUOMO: The rules for thee but not for me.
LEMON: But not for me.
CUOMO: And God will help those He has helped already and who are we to question His intentions. The big guy has got to win even if we have to stop the game to figure it out.
LEMON: There are --
CUOMO: And that pisses people off and that's why we cover it.
LEMON: There are a lot of arrogant hedge funders out there who are mad --
CUOMO: A lot of hedge funders who took a bath on this also.
LEMON: Yes.
CUOMO: They took a bath at the hands of the little guy. And I've never seen that happened before.
LEMON: They'll be all right, though. Hey, I've got a lot to get to. And someone I'm sure I wanted to talk about -- talk about later, that is the legendary Cicely Tyson a little bit later on.
CUOMO: May see rest in peace.
LEMON: My God. It's an amazing --
(CROSSTALK)
CUOMO: And thank you for the legacy of her greatness and her choices.
LEMON: I sat down with her for, like, an hour, or maybe more a couple years ago. And it was fascinating. And you'll see a little bit of that. I got to run, get to the show. Thank you.
CUOMO: She that with you for an hour, she's not only a great actor, great voice --
LEMON: No, she's a great actor.
CUOMO: -- but very patient. D. Lemon, I love you.
LEMON: I love you as well. I'll see you soon.
This is CNN Tonight. I'm Don Lemon.
So, another working day for a president determined to undo the legacy of his predecessor, a president today taking action to re-open Obamacare at a time when Americans are in desperate need of health care. Roll this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Today, we're about to sign two executive orders, basically the best way to describe them, to undo the damage Trump has done. There's nothing new that we're doing here other than restoring the Affordable Care Act and restoring the Medicaid to the way it was before Trump became president. Which by fiat he changed, made more inaccessible, more expensive, and more difficult for people to qualify for either of those two items, the Affordable Care Act or Medicaid.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: So, this is a reality, right? More than 430,000 Americans have died thus far in this pandemic. Millions more are desperate for healthcare and vaccines. Eight hundred forty-seven thousand people filed for unemployment just last week.
This country is in desperate need of leadership. And President Biden is pushing forward, believing bipartisan is possible but well aware of the rocky road still ahead. Yet, the Republican party is obsessed, obsessed, obsessed, and that's not hyperbole. I'm not exaggerating. With the previous president.
[22:04:56]
Obsessed with protecting him and refusing to hold him accountable. For what? The big lie, the one that incited one of the worst moments in this country's history. The House Minority leader Kevin McCarthy making a pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago today. Who paid for that? That's what I want to know. I want to know. I'm just asking the question. Did taxpay -- can we find out if taxpayers paid for this? I hope not.
But making this pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago. A source saying it made him look like he was, quote, "crawling back to Trump." That's exactly what it looks like because that's exactly what it is. The Republican Party is in full retreat from any kind of account accountability. Actually, embracing the former president and his loyalists.
This one, right, she's one. Marjorie Taylor Greene is in Congress and they want to kick Liz Cheney out. Interesting times that we're in. Right? Because the QAnon congresswoman is closer to the center of the GOP now than Republicans like Mitt Romney or Liz Cheney. Marjorie Taylor Greene who is still pushing the big lie in a town hall tonight.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-GA): We had done a lot of work in our preparation, talked to a lot of people, looked at a lot of evidence that I think still needs to be looked at and should be presented in court. I truly believe that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Still, still, and they know it's a lie. Marjorie Taylor Greene has removed dozens of Facebook posts from 2018 and 2019 in which she endorsed conspiracy theories, repeatedly indicated support for executing prominent Democrats, executing prominent Democrats.
But CNN has obtained videos so shocking that I want you to hear them and think about the fact that Marjorie Taylor Greene is now a United States congresswoman. OK? So, pay close attention to your screen. We don't know the exact dates, but we believe that they were recorded over the past few years before she was elected to Congress in November. So, listen to her false, racist, claims about black men and gangs. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GREENE: OK. So, going on, you know -- you know what keeps -- I'm going to cover this, too, but the generations of black and Hispanic men, do you want to know what holds them down? Gangs. Being in gangs and dealing drugs is what holds them down. The lack of education is what holds them down. That's -- that's not a white person thing but gangs control them.
They -- they tell them -- they tell the young men in their communities, don't go to school. Don't -- no, don't you move out of this -- out of this project. Don't you move out of this community. You join this gang. And that's where you belong. You belong with us. The gangs are holding them back. It's not white people. It's crazy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Marjorie. Marjorie. White people aren't in gangs? White people aren't in gangs? OK. I want you to tell that to the police officers and lawmakers menaced by rioters including Proud Boys and oath keepers at the capitol. What would you call them? Huh? OK. Think about that.
And there's more. More vile garbage from a woman who -- and I remind you again -- is now a U.S. congresswoman. Here it is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GREENE: If you want Islam and Sharia law, you stay over there in the Middle East. You stay there and you go to Mecca and do all your thing and you know what, you can have a whole bunch of wives or goats or sheep or whatever you want. You stay over there. But in America, see, we made it this great, great country. We don't want it messed up.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: We sure don't. Can you play that for yourself? Everything that you said about say that about you, we don't want it messed up so stop messing it up, Marjorie. You know these people love to talk about making America great again. Immigrants made and make America great. Religious tolerant made and make America great. Free speech makes America great.
But ignorance, bigotry, hateful comments, bigots, hateful comments, cloaked in false patriotism, that doesn't make America great. You are shaming this great country with those comments, and you should be ashamed of yourself.
[22:10:08]
And this is a congresswoman that the Republican Party is embracing? Come on, you all. That whole party of family values thing, can you really claim that? And especially the Christians. After the porn star and all of that and now this? Was that ever really real? Example after example. Mirror. Need a mirror.
But here's the thing. Even if they censured Marjorie Taylor Greene, it wouldn't solve the problem. You know why? Because Marjorie Taylor Greene is just a shiny object. Just like Donald Trump was, symptom of a much larger problem. That's the trap.
If you get blinded by Marjorie Taylor Greene, by her, you let everybody else get off scot-free for what happened at the capitol and what's happened in this country over the last five years. Culminating with what happened at the capitol. She's a symptom of what is wrong with the Republican Party, a party that is turning on its own. Turning on Liz Cheney? Liz?
You know how conservative Liz Cheney is? You know how dedicated to the Republican Party Liz Cheney is? Come on, you all. Her daddy's Dick Cheney was a -- come on. Really? Liz Cheney who dare to do the right thing and vote to hold a former president accountable. A crowd of Trump supporters showing up to condemn her. Boy. At a Matt Gaetz rally today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. MATT GAETZ (R-FL): If you want to prove that you have the power, defeat Liz Cheney in this upcoming election and Wyoming will bring Washington to its knees.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: So, it's really tough -- it's -- it's so transparent, Matt Gaetz is so transparent, he wants publicity so bad, it just -- he reeks of it, right? It's like, do you give him that? Because that's what he wants. That's what he wants. So, do you really elevate that?
But, anyway, that's a whole other show. This is a party that tries to kick Liz Cheney to the curb while embracing Marjorie Taylor Greene. She's no outlier. There's Madison Cawthorn as well. Madison Cawthorn sewed cloth masks emblazoned with the word, useless, on his web site before taking them down.
A spokesman for Cawthorn's campaign telling CNN upon hearing that the masks were being sold on his campaign web site, Representative Cawthorn firmly requested they be removed. He promoted his web site today, though, with this tweet. First, they came for our free speech, then they came for our free markets. Next, they'll come for our free shipping on orders on $50 or more with promo code, freedom 50.
OK, so that proofs my point about him, about Gaetz, about Hawley. This is all selling -- he wants to sell a book, you all, and you're falling -- we're being silenced, this is not who we are, they're taking away our whatever.
They want to sell books, they want to sell web sites, they want attention, media attention. This is not about values and what's best for the country. It really isn't. This is about what's best for them to stay in power to make money. Attention. Come on. You all know I'm telling the truth.
So, as we were talking, Josh Hawley who now says his objection to Joe Biden's Electoral College win wasn't about keeping Trump in office, he just wanted to spark a debate about what he called voting irregularities in Pennsylvania. So, I used to live in Pennsylvania. I know all about Pennsylvania voting. I used to live in Atlanta. I know about theirs as well.
There's irregularities in every precinct, nothing unique about Pennsylvania. The senator telling CNN, quote, "I was very clear from the beginning that I was never attempting to overturn the election." Kind of makes you wonder why he didn't say that to Fox News on January 4th, two days before the insurrection.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[22:15:05]
BRET BAIER, ANCHOR, FOX NEWS: Are you trying to say that as of January 20th that President Trump will be president?
SEN. JOSH HAWLEY (R-MO): Well, Bret, that depends on what happens on Wednesday. I mean, this is why we have the debates.
BAIER: No, it doesn't. I mean, the states --
(CROSSTALK)
HAWLEY: This is why we have the votes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Think it's a game. Well, it is a game. To them. Josh Hawley who saluted the crowd before the riot broke out, who voted to overturn the results in Arizona and Pennsylvania even after the riot, says he has no regrets and was never attempting to overturn the election. Give me a break. Come on.
This is what we have come to, the acting chief of the U.S. capitol police calling for permanent fencing around the capitol. Congresswoman Elise Stefanik tweets -- tweeting this. It's the people's House. And she's adamantly opposed. She's saying that we can't have fences around the capitol but inside the capitol she votes to uphold the big lie that brought them -- that brought the folks there. And against doing anything to hold the president accountable so it won't happen again.
So, if you don't want it around, if you don't want fences around the capitol then maybe you should vote in a way that it doesn't happen again so you don't have to put fences, right? That would make sense. That would be logical, but you know, hey, who am I, just a dumb constituent out here. I don't know.
It really is the people's House. And the people should be able to freely come and go and be a part of our democracy. But the reason that we can't is because the president and his enablers incited a violent mob and nobody is being held accountable. Now get this, Nancy Pelosi says members are concerned for their own safety and she goes on to say this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) REP. NANCY PELOSI (D), UNITED STATES SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: When the
enemy is within the House of Representatives, a threat that members are concerned about in addition to what is happening outside.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: And let's remember, it was Marjorie Taylor Greene who in January of 2019 liked a comment that said, quote, "a bullet to the head would be quicker to remove Pelosi."
This is what we've come to. We don't have to stay here. We don't. There is a choice. It's a choice of the American people. The choice the American people already made. Let's remember, the Republicans' dear leader, the former president, led the Republicans right out of the majority in the House, right out of the White House, right out of the majority in the Senate.
So, go ahead, everybody. Do it. Go kiss the ring of the defeated king in exile. The rest of us will move forward with our democracy and with the work that needs to be done. And here's the picture for you. I want you to think about this of where we've been and where we're going.
I'm talking about a legendary person, actress and civil rights activist Cicely Tyson. After nearly a century of life on this earth, she died today. Remember her, and I want you to remember that America wasn't always great for everyone, especially if you didn't have white skin. Listen to the elders.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CICELY TYSON, ACTRESS: When I hear young people deny the fact that Rosa Parks could not sit on the bus or that I could not go to the soda -- to an ice cream parlor and sit at a lunch counter. They don't -- they don't believe it because it's not tangible. It's not real to them. They hear tell of it. They don't believe it.
And so, I said, you know, we hand, we fought for everything so that the next generation wouldn't have to do that.
LEMON: It could be better.
TYSON: That's right. That's right. That's right.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: Those are the people who made America great. And now we have the GOP embracing people like Marjorie Taylor Greene and her racism and refusing to hold the previous president responsible for inciting insurrection. Is that really where Republicans want to be?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[22:19:58]
REP. PETER MEIJER (R-MI): There are better ways for us to govern that don't devolve into threats of political violence, into, you know, these illusions of just insane theories. I mean, that is not a strong party. That is a party that is nearing its end.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Kevin McCarthy leaving no doubt it's -- in anyone's mind, I should say, he thinks Donald Trump a twice impeached disgraced former president is firmly in control of the Republican Party. Visiting Trump in Florida today to kiss the ring after McCarthy said just two weeks ago Trump bears responsibility for the deadly capitol insurrection.
Lots to discuss now. CNN's senior political correspondent Abby Phillip is here and Republican strategist Doug Heye as well, the former RNC communications director. Look at that. I had the 18 -- yes, I must be living right.
Good to see both of you. Thanks for coming on.
Abby, I'm going to start with you. You just heard the racist xenophobic vile coming from Marjorie Taylor Greene. Why is the GOP embracing her? They're running away from holding President Trump accountable. And instead, Kevin McCarthy is kissing the ring. Please explain to the viewers what is going on.
ABBY PHILLIP, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Look, I think that Republicans in Washington, some Republicans in Washington, and elsewhere, have been in denial for a long time about the degree to which this sort of conspiratorial thinking and really kind of this sort of out-of-the-box world that Marjorie Taylor Greene is in is actually the Republican Party right now. This is really at the core of the Trump base.
[22:25:01]
And the interesting thing about this is that President Trump, himself, has known this for a long time. It's why he was sort of soft on Marjorie Taylor Greene for a while and then eventually when she -- when she was elected, when she became the Republican who was likely to win that seat, he invited her to the White House. They had her over multiple times.
So, president Trump has known for a long time that this is part of the Republican base and now we're seeing it really in full view. That is why Kevin McCarthy is so afraid to reprimand her because if he does that, he knows that there's a risk of offending a very large swath of the party right now.
The same swath of the party, maybe 75 percent of them who believe that the election was rigged, many of those same people think that there's really not a whole lot wrong with some of the things that Marjorie Taylor Greene is saying.
LEMON: Doug, you know, you're calling on GOP house leadership to strip representative Marjorie Taylor Greene's committee assignments. Or expel her. Look, it's becoming clear that she is closer to what the current GOP represents than Republicans like Mitt Romney or Adam Kinzinger.
DOUG HEYE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I think that's the tug-of- war that Republicans are facing right now. You know, fortunately, I'm going to tell you that there's a precedent for how Kevin McCarthy and Steve Scalise should do this.
And, Don, I would tell you I've known Kevin McCarthy since 1996. I've known Steve Scalise for at least eight or nine years now. They set a precedent when they pegged Steve King from Iowa as being a racist who shouldn't be on committees. He had made so many awful racist comments over the years that they finally said enough is enough. They stripped him of his committee assignments.
That was the right thing to do. Follow the precedent that you've set then and look at what's going on now with Marjorie Greene Taylor -- Marjorie Taylor Greene, excuse me -- and strip her of her committee assignments. The fact that she's on the education and workforce committee of all committees when she's out there saying things like the Parkland shooting didn't happen, it's a conspiracy and so forth, means she shouldn't be on any committees but she certainly shouldn't be that committee, in particular.
LEMON: You know, Abby, Manu Raju, our colleague, Manu Raju, our colleague caught up with the new Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock it's calling for comments -- he's calling her comments, meaning Marjorie Taylor Greene's, deeply repulsive. And he said this. And I quote. "I think the onus is really on the people in her own caucus to answer this fundamental question, where's the line, what's too much?"
So, Congresswoman Greene is among the many GOP members that support the election lie. Isn't that the bigger issue here, Abby?
PHILLIP: Yes. I mean, look, it's all part of the same thing. I mean, the willingness of people in Congress to back up a lie that has almost, I mean, really no basis in fact, that is so on its face false, and that they all know are false, is -- it's a broader problem.
It makes them -- it makes it harder for them to condemn people like Marjorie Taylor Greene because many of them are all in on it, too. I mean, you just talked about Josh Hawley who is now trying to pretend as if he wasn't saying to, you know, the mob of people that gathered outside of the capitol that the outcome of the election could be changed on January 6th even though he knew that that was not the case.
At the highest levels of government, these lawmakers are not doing the right thing and it -- I think the onus is on Republican leaders to decide whether they're going to lead their party or just be dragged along by this base that is -- that has been misled, that is deeply engrained in conspiracy theories. And it seems right now that the consensus is, they are being dragged along by the base. They are not leading. They are following where the masses are.
LEMON: So, you know, Doug, we sit here all the time, right, we report on it, whatever. I just wonder how do Republicans look right now to the country, falling all over themselves to support a defeated president while Joe Biden he just plows right on ahead with jobs, COVID, healthcare issues, issues that really matter.
HEYE: Yes, look. You know for Republicans, and Abby knows this so well having covered Capitol Hill so closely, there is a big part of the Republican Party in Congress, in the House and in the Senate that is what I would call a, vote no/hope yes caucus, meaning they know something is a bad idea but they can't really do anything about it. Or they know something is a new idea and can't support it.
That's clearly what was the case with challenging the election results. What I would tell you, Don, is there a resistant strain within the Republican Party. There is good news there. You talked about Liz Cheney earlier. For me, the real question is, do we want to be the party of Liz Cheney or do we want to be the conspiracy theory party? Maybe we also answered that question with the election of Donald Trump and four years of it.
[22:30:01]
But there are people who are backing Liz Cheney right now, a GOP super lobbyist John Scofield, massive fund-raiser Sara Rose Bonjean are organizing fund-raisers to support Liz Cheney. John Boehner supporting this.
This is the real fight within the Republican Party now and, you know, basically, and you know this, Don, most Americans don't really care about the heart and soul of the political party, but this is not just about a political party. It's about the heart and soul of the country. And that's why these fights are so important right now.
LEMON: Doug, thank you. Abby, congratulations. Abby has a new show. Well, she's the new host of our show.
HEYE: Congratulations.
LEMON: Inside Politics on Sunday morning. Make sure you tune in.
PHILLIP: Thanks, Don.
LEMON: Abby did a great job as usual. I'll be watching again this Sunday.
PHILLIP: Getting up early for me?
LEMON: Get up early.
PHILLIP: Thank you.
LEMON: And DVR. Thank you. Good to see both of you. Be safe and warm. It's cold up here in the northeast.
HEYE: Thank you.
LEMON: Thank you.
Outrageous conspiracy theories from Marjorie Taylor Greene, re-opening tragic wounds especially over the Parkland shooting. The mother of Scott Beigel, a teacher and the coach who was killed trying to save his students joins me with her message to Greene, next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: So, everyone, you should watch this. You really should because I want to talk about the painful consequences of Marjorie Taylor Greene's conspiracy theories. Imagine experiencing the most horrific thing imaginable, and that's losing a child, and then someone questioning what happened, harassing the victims, spreading conspiracies. That's what parents who lost children in Parkland, in the Parkland shooting are dealing with tonight.
[22:35:04]
Before joining Congress, Marjorie Taylor Greene tried to make a name for herself suggesting that the Parkland massacre was a false-flag operation. In March of 2019 she was recorded harassing shooting survivor David Hogg and his group inside the halls of the U.S. Capitol.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GREENE: David, do you really think red flag gun laws are going to prevent mass shootings?
CROWD: Enough is enough! Enough is enough!
UNKNOWN: You're right. Stop taking our second amendment.
GREENE: People will still do mass shootings. They will still do mass killings. They don't need guns. What you're doing, you guys are being used, being used by the left because you're young.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Hogg confirmed on Twitter that Greene continued to harass him outside.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GREENE: David, why are you supporting the red-flag laws? If there had been -- if Scott Peterson, the resource officer at Parkland had done his job, then Nicholas Cruz wouldn't have killed anybody in your high school or at least protected them. Why are you supporting red-flag gun laws that attack our second amendment rights? And why are you using kids as a barrier? Do you not know how to defend your stance?
So, he's walking. He's got nothing to say. Sad. He has nothing to say because there really isn't anything to say, you guys. He has nothing to say because he's paid to do this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Seventeen people lost their lives at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on February 14th, 2018, including Scott Beigel, a geography teacher and a cross country coach who was shot trying to save his students. Scott's mom, Linda Beigel Schulman, Linda Beigel Schulman joins me now. Linda, thank you so much for sorry. Just reading that just upset me so
much. I'm sorry. I hope you're doing OK. How are you?
LINDA BEIGEL SCHULMAN, SCOTT BEIGE'S MOTHER: I'm great. Thank you for having me tonight.
LEMON: Yes.
SCHULMAN: It really means a lot to be able to -- to speak my mind and explain how I feel about what's going on right now.
LEMON: You know, you have to live with the reality that your son, Scott, was gunned down in a school massacre, sadly, and I can't imagine having anyone question that tragedy, never mind someone who is now an elected member of Congress?
SCHULMAN: Well, as painful as it is, silence right now is not an option and I feel that failing to speak out with the actual truth gives credence, you know, and life to any conspiracy theories. So, we have to speak out.
LEMON: Let's talk about what else you do because you do speak out. You fought with the county sheriff to get access to security camera footage from the Parkland massacre. The video shows how your son, Scott, opened the door to his classroom to bring more students to safety and was killed in the process.
You asked us to play this video, and there's no audio. I must warn our audience it is very graphic and very disturbing to watch.
Linda, again, you asked us, you wanted us to show this. Why was this so important for us to see tonight?
SCHULMAN: Because Congresswoman Greene talks about the shooting as a staged event. It was not a staged event. You know, I only wish that the body in the casket that I identified was a prop and not my son. For the, you know, for the past 1,080 days, and that's how many days it was since the massacre, and I will probably be counting days for the rest of my life, I wish the shooter was a paid actor.
If that was so, then my live would be allowed today and I'd be watching your show not be on it responding to her lies. I mean, she has no right to trivialize the murder of 17 innocent lives that were taken on February 14th, 2018. She has no right to negate Scott's heroism and she has no right to demean my son's memory with her conspiracy theories. She just has no right, and we need to speak out because we need to take that right away from her.
[22:40:07]
LEMON: What do you say to -- I mean, you have a message to her, but what do you say to her? She's not the only one with these conspiracy theories. Anyone who spreads these conspiracy theories or calls these events, this one in particular, but others as well, false flags.
SCHULMAN: You know, it's really sad right now, it seems like with the culture that we're all living in, unless it touches a person directly, we look away. I mean, we talk about shootings like they just happen every day and it's not a big deal. You know, when they first happen, we heard about -- we hear about them. When the Parkland shooting first took place, we heard about it day in and day out and day in.
And now we hear, there's just another mass shooting. There's no such thing as just another mass shooting. Until somebody is touched personally, it seems like they don't want to do anything about it. And we need to do something about it. We need to stop this because it's hurting -- it very, very much hurts me and I can speak for the other 16 families.
And it has to stop. It's just -- it can't go on like this where everybody just looks away. Whether it's this, whether it's what just happened on January 6th. It happened and then we look away. We have to stop looking away.
LEMON: Linda, there are, you know, her fellow Republican colleagues, what do you think about them? Because they're staying silent now. They're even appointing her to of all things the education committee.
SCHULMAN: You know, they seem like -- or they are -- so fearful. All they want to do -- all that they want to do is make sure that they get re-elected, and I'm sorry, but that's really how I feel. It's all about getting re-elected. It's not about doing your job and working for those of us -- those of us who elected you.
They need to stand up. They need to grow a conscience. They need to find their conscience if they don't have one. OK? And they need to do what's right. They don't need to go, just like today, running over to get our former president's approval because he want -- because he's going to help them get re-elected.
They need to get re-elected because -- because of what they do for all of us. Not what they do for a little group of people who maybe donate to their cause or so on and so forth. It's time for them to start working for all of us. And I -- I apologize for repeating myself, it's time for them to grow a conscience.
LEMON: Don't apologize. I think, as often as you can say it, people need to hear it. What do you -- Linda, what do you want people to know about your son? What do you want people to know about Scott?
SCHULMAN: You know, Scott was a really humble person and very private. And what Scott really wanted for himself was to live his life the way -- he wanted to live his life and teach younger people, teach the youngsters, no matter what age they were, to live their lives the way they wanted to be treated. And that's what Scott did. OK.
He literally lived his life the way he wanted to be treated and he taught school the way he would have liked school to be taught to him. And he coached and he coached and he -- he learned about -- he learned about the people on his -- the kids on his team. He loved -- he loved his students. He loved the people, the students he coached.
I get letters all the time, at least once a week, I got one yesterday, about a student who's graduating this year who Scott had in his class in 2018 and why that young man was able to go forward. Why when somebody laughed at him class when he was giving a speech, he'd look at Scott and Scott gave him the thumbs up and stop laughing and he knew it was okay.
Scott, he was just, he was a normal guy who really had finally come into his own and learned to love life and to learn -- to be a mentor and love the kids that he could help. You know, especially, especially the child who maybe wasn't the most popular or having a hard time.
You know, he -- I -- a quick story. He, in the grocery store, he saw a youngster having a hard time with his mom and the youngster was carrying on and Scott bent down and went over to him and said, you know, is it really that bad?
[22:45:05]
You know, let's talk about it. What, is it really that bad? You know, or in camp when he was a counselor at camp, he had one of the campers who wasn't there, you know, when he was younger, he had just come into camp maybe when he was 9 or 10 and everybody else had started when they were younger.
And he really wasn't in a group and couldn't find his way and he wasn't, you know, he wasn't very sports-minded and Scott said to him, you know, what is it that you really like to do? And he said, you know, I like crafts and, you know, maybe I'd like to be in one of the shows.
And, again, by the end of the summer, that child was happy and got an award, whether it was an award from the theater group or whether it was an award for arts and crafts. Scott really loved helping the underdog, so to speak. And that was Scott. Scott did not grow up with a silver spoon in his mouth. We always say, you know, let's not forget from where we came. And he never forgot from where he came. And he passed that along.
LEMON: Guess what, got one hell of a mama.
SCHULMAN: Thank you.
LEMON: One hell of a mama. Thank you so much, Linda. Thank you for honoring us with his memory and for speaking the truth. OK? We love you.
SCHULMAN: Thank you.
LEMON: And you come back any time.
SCHULMAN: Thank you, Don. Thank you so, so much.
LEMON: Thank you.
We'll be back.
[22:50:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: So, with the pandemic raging, President Joe Biden is giving people another chance to sign-up for Obamacare. Open enrollment which the Trump administration cut in half to just six weeks ended on December 15th. Biden signing an executive action today that calls on DHS to reopen enrollment on healthcare.gov from February 15th to May 15th.
So, joining me now is Dr. Michael Osterholm, the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy and a former Biden coronavirus advisor. Thank you, sir. So good to have you on.
You can talk about a host of things. You know about all this stuff. So, we know a lot of people are hurting during this pandemic. Medicaid enrollment has jumped. There's about 15 million uninsured people who could now get coverage on the exchanges. Does that help in this war on the virus?
MICHAEL OSTERHOLM, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR INFECTIOUS DISEASE RESEARCH AND POLICIES: It absolutely helps on this war, and we need more. Right now, so many small businesses and people who work in those small businesses are suffering mightily, and we want them to do the right thing. And I think small businesses want to do the right thing. They don't want to be open and transmitting the virus when we see levels of virus like we've recently seen in our communities.
So, anything Congress can do right now to help move forward the president's plan will help us immensely out here in the field.
LEMON: Two cases of the South African coronavirus variant have been discovered in South Carolina. And officials say that the two adults have no travel history, no connection to each other. It is clear that this is spreading in this country. Should another lockdown be imposed?
OSTERHOLM: Well, first of all, when we talk about these variants let's just be clear these are mutated viruses that have spread from their origin. In this case we talk about the South African origin or the Brazilian origin. We also talk about the U.K. variant. Right now, the U.K. variant is clearly throughout almost all the United States and spreading probably very quickly.
We don't have a good system in place to detect that. We are 42nd in the world as far as countries go in sequencing these viruses. We've got to change that. The current administration has vowed to do just that. And that's important.
As far as the South African and the Brazilian variants which we've just reported on this past week, they, too, are here now. They're spreading, and this really poses a significant challenge for us. In terms of what do we do about it? Well, I think right now we have to help Americans understand, yes, the case numbers are dropping. They've gone from 300,000 cases a day to 150,000 cases a day. But these are what we call baseline numbers.
Think about when it used to be 32,000 or 60,000 or 70,000 or a big number? We're at a very high number now. And one particular variant, the U.K. variant has the possibility of raising the number of cases in this country mightily over the course of the next 6 to 14 weeks.
And so, I think we're going to have a whole new round of responses to this -- to this virus in particular. And I guess just to sum it up, I'd say, Don, we're really good on pumping the brakes after the car has been wrapped around the tree. We need to look at what we can do now to hold back those numbers of cases from getting to that large number.
LEMON: So then what about -- speaking of what -- what about the possibility of a mandatory quarantine for anyone traveling into the country at this point?
OSTERHOLM: Well, in a sense right now we are doing that with the travel restricts, but, you know, make no mistake the virus is already here. If another person did not enter the United States in the next six months, we've got all the virus we need right here to spread.
So, it's important that surely we slow down the international spread of these viruses. But everyone understands they're here now. They are going through our communities as we wake and as we sleep. And that's what we have to understand. That's why we need to be really much better prepared and not be lulled into this, boy, look we're over the hump. You know, we've beaten this thing. We have not.
And vaccine, it's so important. But understand the amount of vaccine we're going to have available over the course of the next 60 to 70 days is only going to vaccinate about 12 percent of our population. So that, too, is not nearly enough to attack this. So, we really have to understand the next 6 to 14 weeks could be the very darkest of the entire pandemic, and we've got to start planning for that right now.
[22:55:02]
LEMON: Doctor, thank you so much. I appreciate it.
OSTERHOLM: Thank you.
LEMON: Thank you.
A Trump supporter who threatened to attack Democrats charged after being found with five pipe bombs. And that's not the only thing the FBI discovered on the man that's deeply disturbing.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: So, take this. A supporter of the former president, president, former President Trump facing federal charges after law enforcement discovered five pipe bombs, explosive material and thousands of rounds of ammunition in his home. OK?
Authorities say that California's Ian Rogers discussed attacking Democrats and Twitter. Investigators obtained various text messages documenting threats. One saying, I want to blow up a Democrat building bad. [23:00:07]
