Return to Transcripts main page

Don Lemon Tonight

House Removes GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene from Committees; Rep. Raskin Responds to Trump's Refusal to Testify; Smartmatic Files Lawsuit Against Fox, Rudy Giuliani and Sydney Powell; President Biden Declares America is Back; Threat of Far-Right Extremism Grew as Trump Focused on Antifa; Johnson & Johnson Asks for FDA to Authorize Its COVID-19 Vaccine; More Than 100 Bills That Would Restrict Voting are Moving Through Legislatures in 28 States. Aired 11p-12a ET

Aired February 04, 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: So, the House taking decisive action tonight against GOP Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene stripping her of committee assignments. Democrats pushing Greene for pushing lies or punishing I should say for pushing lies about 9/11 and the deadly school shootings and embracing the dangerous QAnon conspiracy theory. Only 11 Republicans voting with Democrats.

Lawyers for the former president refusing to -- refusing a request by House impeachment managers that Trump testify at his upcoming trial in the Senate.

And a major move by Johnson & Johnson in the battle against coronavirus, asking the FDA for an emergency use authorization of its single-shot COVID-19 vaccine. So as you can tell we have a lot to talk about.

I want to bring in now CNN's White House correspondent Mr. John Harwood. John, thanks for joining. Good to see you. I'll start with John, since he's the only one here. Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene officially removed from her committee assignments, but only 11 Republicans chose to hold her accountable for her dangerous conspiracy theories. Her last minute to try to rewrite history did not work. Where does this leave the GOP you think, John?

JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: The GOP, Don, does not feel that it can afford to alienate people like Marjorie Taylor Greene and those who follow her. The Republican Party has become dependent, heavily dependent to win elections, to compete in elections on the energy and the intensity and the turnout of a lot of blue collar white voters, especially evangelical people in small town and some in rural areas, who feel alienated from the way American society is changing.

And society is becoming more diverse, more racially diverse, or (inaudible) diverse, less white, and they think the culture is passing them by. They think the economy is passing them by. And a lot of those people have turned in recent years, to more extreme political messages. We saw it during the Obama years, after the first black president was elected.

You saw the rage of the Tea Party movement, and that has continued and you simply have a, you know, it's not all QAnon, or any particular group but it is the anger and it's the bitterness and the alienation and it is very broad swath of the Republican electorate they can't turn away.

LEMON: What you said is fascinating, and that every study shows that what you're saying is exactly right, I think we need to study why that's happening or more thought needs to put into why that's happening. How is Greene, by the way responding to this House vote tonight?

HARWOOD: Well, Greene is appealing to the sense of shared grievance of those voters and Republican politicians as well. You know, the most common thing you hear from Republican politicians and voters alike is they're out to get us. The media is out to get us. Big business is out to get us. The drift of American society is taking away our freedoms and our rights.

And she made the argument that, well, if they can come after me, they can come after anybody. Well, she's an extremist. And the fact that she's able to appeal to that common sentiment tells you how radicalized the Republican Party has become.

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

So, I want to bring now, CNN political commentator Amanda Carpenter and Doug Heye. Hello, good to see both of you. Amanda, so listen. You have been getting a lot of attention for the things that you have been saying on this show and I'm sure in other places as well because you have been very candid about how you feel and not holding back.

You have been saying for a while, it's not just a few conspiracy theorists. This is the Republican Party now and they're fine with it. Today's vote confirms just how right you are.

[23:05:04]

AMANDA CARPENTER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: These are things that I don't want to be right about. I will say, there's a sense of there's a little bit more fight than there was when Donald Trump was president in pushing back on this movement, but here's the conflict.

Say, you know, a never Trumper like me. Say there's a small never Trump faction within the party. There was the hope that after Donald Trump left office, things would reset and maybe go back to normal. But that's just not the case. The Republican Party is largely clinging to Trumpism in the way that he defined his candidacy, his campaigns with politically driven lies, OK?

And so, whether it's Marjorie Taylor Greene today or what's going to happen in the Senate with impeachment next week, the party has to confront these politically driven lies. And so far, I feel like they have been hiding behind this fake argument about procedure, whether its constitutionality or we don't like the fact that the Democrats stripped a Republican of her committee assignment.

But this is coming. When future elections are decided, they are not going to look back and say, oh where is the Republicans on whether Donald Trump should be convicted as a former president. They're going to say, are you guys still doing all this lying stuff about elections? Like, that is coming, and that is the central thing why we're in this mess.

LEMON: Doug, listen, Amanda's a -- Amanda, you're still a Republican, right? Are you still Republican?

CARPENTER: Yes, I mean, I'm still the same person. I still have the same ideas about woman and government, freedom, blah, blah, but --

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: I'm just want to make sure because several people have said, I'm not in the Republican Party anymore. I'm not a Democrat, but I'm no longer identify as Republican. I'm so conservative, but not just a Republican. But Doug --

CARPENTER: I don't have like a Republican tattoo getting remove or anything.

LEMON: All right. Got it. So, Doug, how do you feel as a member of the Republican Party tonight? A Party that overwhelmingly gave their approval to a woman who harass school shooting survivors, supported executing prominent Democrats?

DOUG HEYE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, look, I tweeted earlier in the day that I was ashamed for my country, for my party and for Congress. You know, when we see a member of Congress boldly saying being fictitious there that I believe that 9/11 happened, I believed that school shootings are real, that we're really at the bottom of the barrel. Although we know that that bottom keeps getting lower and lower.

And look, I think the Republican arguments on process are fine, except, well, assassination is a bit more important than dealing with precedent and process. And the reality for Republicans, which they should remember is -- I'd say two things. One, we know we're going see and hear more from Marjorie Greene Taylor of what she said in the past and what she said on the future.

And two, you know, I didn't really have the same hope that Amanda did that once Donald Trump went away that things would get better because this predated Donald Trump. To me, Donald Trump was as much a cause as he was a symptom. You know, to me it goes back to the primary politics that Republicans face.

And I suffered through that when I worked for Eric Canter, who was really teethe up to be the next Speaker of the House that losses primary. That happened before Donald Trump. And so yes, we are somewhat in a transitioning to a post-Trump phase, you know, but when set the forest on fire you still got a lot of trees that are smoldering and that's the problem from the party right now. LEMON: Amanda is a glass half-full kind of woman, you know. So listen,

Doug, I find it interesting that when it's a public vote, 10 House Republican vote impeach Trump for inciting an insurrection. 11 vote to remove Greene from her committees. But when it's a secret vote, 145 members vote to keep Liz Cheney in leadership. How do you explain this difference?

HEYE: Very easy -- it goes down to their voters and how they're scared of primary politics. When I work in the House leadership, Don, we used to refer to this as the vote no hope yes caucus. Which means, they are going to vote no, and they would tell you, I know this is a good bill, I should support, but I can't because I'll get hurt in my district about it. This happened time and time and time again on things that aren't really make a break for a legislator.

No one's lost their (inaudible) because they voted for or against the labor HHS appropriations bill, which we've never talk about on CNN or any other network. But members feel so fearful of their primary politics. They're worried about losing in the spring and summer, not in the fall.

LEMON: It sounds like Republicans are in the sunken place right now. Or I don't know hostages. It's weird. Amanda, is this all about keeping Trump happy? I mean, we know he's been calling members of Congress. He's even summoned Kevin McCarthy to Florida.

CARPENTER: You say, is it making Trump happy?

LEMON: Yeah. Is this making him happy?

CARPENTER: Yes, I mean, I'm sure he likes the fact that he has such influence and control over the party when he's not even there. But I think the biggest development that will be happening, honestly, is what happens to Fox News and how they're held responsible for the big election lies that were told. Because the biggest influencer in Republican politics is the conservative media complex that drives a lot of this, you know, from the QAnon chat boards to Facebook groups to Fox News and the primetime screens.

[23:10:13]

Like, that has more influence in the primaries than probably any other factor, more than Donald Trump. And so when the new lawsuit that was filed against Fox talk about how they invented a villain, right? Out of thin air because they needed to have a good versus evil narrative. I looked at that and said, bingo. That's exactly what is going on. That is the fear factor that drives Republican politics.

And so, whatever happens, if there's a way that those people who have told those lies, who pedaled those conflicts are held responsible, that would have much more influence than Donald Trump could ever hope to have.

LEMON: It's interesting. When I saw that cross the wire, I thought about, you know, the everything Trump touches dies. And I mean, look -- he's gotten people in trouble. This lawsuit is enormous. And all those people who followed him and spread those conspiracy theories. I mean, it's because they followed that wackiness.

Doug, 109 Republicans are now on record voting for Marjorie Taylor Greene. Democrats are gleeful about this ahead of 2022. Should they be? What are the implications here?

HEYE: Well, maybe politically gleeful but on the substance, not gleeful, because obviously its terrible topics of what she said and will continue to say, most likely. But politically Democrats know they've learned from recent history when Republican have had Canada to have just been terrible like Todd Aiken or Richard Murdoch, who cost us not just two Senate seats in 2014, but then allowed Republicans to be tagged throughout the country as being anti-woman and have to answer questions they didn't want to answer about, because they worried about their campaigns.

Marjorie Taylor Greene could well be the face of the Republican Party in 2022. And if you're running in a competitive seat, you don't want to be talking about Marjorie Taylor Greene. You want to be talking about your issues, why you running for Congress, what you want to do. You're going to be saddled by this and that's a real problem moving forward for Republicans politically.

LEMON: Amanda, Doug, always appreciate it. Thank you so much.

CARPENTER: Thanks.

HEYE: Thank you.

LEMON: Congressman Jamie Raskin, the lead Democratic impeachment manager responding to the former president's refusal to testify at his impeachment trial next week. Raskin says Trump's immediate refusal to testify speaks volumes and plainly establishes an adverse inference supporting his guilt. So joining me now, CNN legal analyst Elie Honig. Elie, good evening to you.

ELIE HONIG, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Good evening, Don.

LEMON: It's a bold move by Democrats. What's the strategy here?

HONIG: Yes. Indeed. Here's why it's such a bold move. Because they're calling out Donald Trump's bluster. We know Donald Trump loves to talk tough, right? On Twitter, back in the old days when he had Twitter. From the White House on his favorite cable news stations. What the House impeachment manager said today is, you want to keep talking tough? Come on into the Senate, put your hand on the bible, take an oath and you can testify.

By the way, Don, in his four years in office, Donald Trump had a lot of things to say, but he never wants testified under oath. He dodged it in the Mueller investigations. He dodged it Ukraine. And now I think they're showing that Donald Trump is not willing to back up his bluster.

LEMON: Let's talk about this. We just mentioned it a moment ago, this $2.7 billion lawsuit filed today by the voting technology company, Smartmatic. Smartmatic is accusing Fox News, some of their star host, the Trump attorneys, Rudy Giuliani, Sydney Powell of intentionally lying about the company by pushing the big lie that the election was stolen.

I just want to read this. This is from the filing. And Amanda mentioned it just moment ago. It says, they needed a villain. They needed someone to blame. They needed someone whom they could get others to hate without any true villain, defendants invented one. Defendants decided to make Smartmatic the villain in their story. What do you make of their case? Is it a strong one?

HONIG: It is, Don. This is a real case. Look, what they have to show, Smartmatic, is that Fox News and the other defendants made false statements and that made those statements knowing they were false or reckless as a falsity. I think the reason that you heard that theory that you just read is because they're trying to explain why. What was in it for Fox?

Why would Fox knowingly and so many anchors there knowingly make these false statements? Well, because they want a narrative, they want a villain. Well, there's consequences for that. This is a very serious lawsuit. They're going to get into discovery. Smartmatic is going to get to see what was happening behind the scenes at Fox, what did they know? Who knew what? What were they saying about, should we keep doing this? Is this even true? Is this false? This is going to be ugly for Fox.

LEMON: Wow. I want you to listen to some of what was said on Fox. Here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNKNOWN: Let's turn to Smartmatic and dominion -- are they or are they not linked?

[23:15:03]

SIDNEY POWELL, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: Oh, they're definitely linked. I would call them inextricably intertwined. The way it works the votes can be changed either on the ground as they come in. President Trump's lead was so great at that point they had to stop the vote counting and come in and back fill the votes. They needed to change the results.

RUDY GIULIANI, FMR. ATTORNEY FOR PRESIDENT TRUMP: They're using a Venezuelan company as the vote counter, which is known for changing vote votes and also known to have the most insecure computers in this business.

UNKNOWN: Rudy, we're going to have to --

GIULIANI: Because they want to cheat.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: OK. That's just some of it, right? And that was Fox business. A spokesperson for Fox tells CNN this, we are proud of our 2020 election coverage, and we'll vigorously defend this meritless lawsuit in court. I want to know what you think of that statement and -- because the company says, Smartmatic says that all that is demonstrably false, and Fox was motivated by ratings. So how much trouble -- what do you think of Fox's statement?

HONIG: I mean, look. Defend away if you're Fox. I mean, you're going to have to defend those statements that we just heard. Rudy and Sidney Powell and Lou Dobbs saying. I mean, I don't think they can. Unless they know something that the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security and 60 judges around the country don't know, they're not going to be able to defend those.

And I think the unifying team of all this, what we're about to see with impeachment, with the Smartmatic lawsuit. Even with the Marjorie Taylor Greene stuff, is there just has to be such a thing as truth. There is -- not everything is true if you say it enough times. If you repeat it enough times. If you're strident enough. That to me is the unifying theme of all this. We need to get back to a place where there's actually is some concept of objective truth.

LEMON: Elie Honig, I appreciate you joining us. Always a pleasure. Thank you.

HONIG: Thanks, Don. Alright.

LEMON: So, you might think Marjorie Taylor Greene would lie low after getting here wrist slapped today, right. Nope. We're going to tell you what she is teasing tomorrow as her party turns into the Q- Trumplicans.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. STENY HOYER (D-MD): Republicans have yet to offer a clear and unambiguous declaration that political violence is unacceptable and has no place in their ranks. And I've heard too much about process and not enough about accountability.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[23:20:00]

LEMON: So, the House voting to remove Marjorie Taylor Greene from both the education and budget committees but only 11 Republicans joined the Democrats in holding here accountable for her dangerous rhetoric. The other 199 making it clear where they stand on conspiracy theorists.

Let's discuss now, former Democratic Congressman Joe Kennedy is here. He is now a CNN political commentator. Welcome to the family, thank you for joining us. We really appreciate it.

JOE KENNEDY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Pleasure (inaudible). Thanks for having me.

LEMON: So, Rep. Kennedy, 199 Republicans gave Marjorie Taylor Greene their stamp of approval tonight. You, sir -- many of these people. Were you surprised by their votes?

KENNEDY: No. I think disappointed, Don, but not surprised. Look, I heard your panel here. I think Doug hit it on the head -- look, you've got an awful lot of members there that wish the trajectory of the Republican Party were different, but it is what it is, and they're going to do what they need to do to hold on to their own seats to do what they can to hold on to power and to think that if they're somehow able to come to keep a Donald Trump base motivated and within their ranks that they can reclaim a majority in the House and Senate.

And the question, obviously, to ask is, at what cost? Right? These aren't just words. This isn't just comments that somebody made that has to. You have a member of Congress that has glorified assassination and will not apologize. She distanced herself from the comments, but she will not apologize.

And I think, if you think of it that way, about what it means to be a representative of the United States, to be able the travel internationally and wear that badge of honor of representing the people of this country and have somebody do so in our name, in your name and in my name and not be willing to say, you know what? Shouldn't try to entice assassination.

LEMON: Yeah.

KENNEDY: I don't know.

LEMON: Yeah, but -- and on top of that, she is fundraising off of a House vote to remove her from committees. She's teasing a big press conference tomorrow. Doesn't seem remotely contrite at all. Does it bother you that she's making a mockery of what it means to serve in the Congress?

KENNEDY: Of course, it does. And you know, I think, I would tell you, I was on with a number of my former colleagues today, and even fellow Republicans that I served with, but for those Democrats, anybody who thinks that anyone is taking any joy out of this, no one is. No Democrat is celebrating having to remove a sitting member of Congress from committee. No one feels like you have a choice.

You've got Republican leadership that has decided not to do this. And given that fact, what else are we supposed to do? What else are my former colleagues was supposed to do? What is Congress -- what is the body supposed to do?

Right and for those that say, hey, it sets a precedent, yes, there might be a challenging precedent there, but if the precedent is as a member of Congress you should not promote assassination, and if you do so, there will be accountability? I don't know, man. I think that that seems like a pretty low bar to have to enforce and unfortunately Republicans chose not to enforce.

[23:25:06]

LEMON: Indeed. I also want to get your take on President Biden's foreign policy speech today. Take a listen and we'll talk. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: America is back. Diplomacy is back. At the center of our foreign policy. American alliances are our greatest asset and leading with diplomacy means standing shoulder to shoulder with our allies and key partners once again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Look, I think it's an important question here -- how difficult is it going to be to repair the U.S. standing abroad especially considering in less than a month ago the world watched in horror as Americans attacked our own Capitol?

KENNEDY: Don, I don't think you can underestimate the scope of the challenge before the Biden administration. The State Department want to need to revitalization, needs to bring a lot of folks back into it. You saw that commitment obviously from the president today, and obviously somebody who has been at the leading edge of U.S. foreign policy for literally his entire career. So, I think all of that is a good thing.

I think, the place to look also here which I give the Biden administration credit for is, they understand the linkage between foreign policy and domestic. And you're never stronger abroad if you're not strong at home. And the real challenge for this moment is making sure that the American public understands that those alliances and those friendships are done because it empowers American people (inaudible) to our benefit.

What Republicans have been able to do is make sure that those gains from captured from U.S. diplomacy ends up going to a smaller and smaller slice at the top, rather than actually being empowering a broader base middle class and working class to be able to capture those gains. That's the real challenge that I think a Biden administration confronts, not the willingness of others to engage with the United States.

There are plenty of countries around the world that have been begging for that. But to be able to take down the blockages that Mitch McConnell was so clearly tried put out to inhibit that growth and revitalize American middle class.

LEMON: Yes. Thank you, Representative Kennedy. It's good to have you on. And I'll see you soon.

KENNEDY: My honor. OK.

LEMON: Thank you.

Proud Boys, QAnon, Oath Keepers, all these and more right-wing groups stormed the Capitol. Trump's own DHS warned white supremacists were the country's biggest threat, but Trump wanted you to think otherwise.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Antifa. Antifa.

Antifa. Somebody's got do something about Antifa.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[23:30:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: The attack on the Capitol giving new urgency to facing right- wing extremism in America. But even as the threat of far-right groups grew under President Trump's presidency, well, the former president wanted all of us to believe Antifa was the real danger.

CNN's Alex Marquardt has the story now.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As the danger of violence from far-right groups grew over President Trump's term, emboldened and encouraged by him, the Trump administration tried to get the American public to believe there was a bigger domestic threat.

RUDY GIULIANI, ATTORNEY TO PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP, FORMER NEW YORK CITY MAYOR: Antifa.

UNKNOWN: Antifa.

UNKNOWN: Antifa.

MARQUARDT (voice-over): With the Black Lives Matter movement and demonstrations exploding last summer, some violence and destruction that followed gave top Trump officials an opening, to allege that Antifa and other elements from the left were, in fact, more dangerous.

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: It was a bad group of people, very, very bad, very dangerous group of people, and we are doing a big number on Antifa. They're bad.

MARQUARDT (voice-over): When it came to extremism, then Attorney General Bill Barr, the country's top law enforcement official, and his boss, the president, hardly ever addressed the threat from the far- right.

WILLIAM BARR, FORMER UNITED STATES ATTORNEY GENERAL: I've talked to every police chief in every city where there's been major violence, and they all have identified Antifa as the ramrod for the violence.

MARQUARDT (voice-over): The president's Antifa focus was at odds with what the FBI and Homeland Security officials were seeing. The FBI director, Christopher Wray, who was often a target of Trump's, risked his job making clear that he saw white supremacists making up the bulk of the domestic threat. CHRISTOPHER WRAY, DIRECTOR OF FBI: Within the domestic terrorism bucket, category as a whole, racially motivated violent extremism is I think the biggest bucket within that larger group. And within the racially motivated violent extremist bucket, people ascribing to some kind of white supremacist-type ideology, is certainly the biggest chunk of that.

MARQUARDT (voice-over): A Department of Homeland Security whistleblower accused DHS officials of blocking a threat assessment report. When it finally came out in October, it called white supremacy the most persistent and lethal threat in the homeland. Acting Secretary Chad Wolf, a Trump appointee, tried to have it both ways.

CHAD WOLF, ACTING HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: We talked about white supremacist extremists, but we also talked about anarchist extremists. We specifically mentioned again back in September of 2019, Antifa and concerns that the department was seeing at that point.

CROWD: USA!

MARQUARDT (voice-over): The New York Times reports that Trump aides suppressed the term domestic terror. According to law enforcement officials, Barr would encourage prosecutors to be more aggressive in bringing cases against rioters and was frustrated when they didn't.

The administration looked for links to international terrorist groups. Barr told CNN in a statement there was no prioritization of Antifa. The FBI already had robust program to combat violence driven by white supremacy and nationalism, he said. I wanted there to be a comparable one for Antifa and Antifa-like groups.

[23:35:04]

MARQUARDT (voice-over): According to one study, in the first eight months of 2020, white supremacists and similar far-right extremists accounted for two-thirds of the domestic terror plots and attacks.

FBI agents maintained their focus on pursuing far-right extremists, including those who are planning to kidnap the Michigan governor, Gretchen Whitmer.

FBI Director Wray agreed that Antifa was, in his words, a real thing, saying there were investigations.

WRAY: We look at Antifa as more of an ideology or a movement than an organization. To be clear, we do have quite a number of properly predicated domestic terrorism investigations into violent anarchist extremists, any number of whom self-identify with the Antifa movement.

MARQUARDT (voice-over): For that, the president lashed out on Twitter, accusing the FBI of letting Antifa get away with murder. When asked whether he condemned the Proud Boys, he did the opposite.

TRUMP: Proud Boys, stand back and stand by. But I'll tell you what. I'll tell you what. Somebody's got to do something about Antifa and the left because this is not a right-wing problem. BIDEN: His own --

This is a left problem.

BIDEN: His own FBI.

MARQUARDT (voice-over): We now know the Proud Boys were among the insurrectionists at the Capitol on January 6th. At least 11 have been charged with federal crimes.

Since January 6th and the start of the Biden administration, focus has returned to the threat of far-right domestic violent extremists, now a major priority for the White House, the Intelligence Community, and the new secretary of Homeland Security.

ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS, UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: The threat is persistent. It was exemplified. It was illustrated horrifically by the events of January 6th. The threat of domestic terrorism preceded that terrible day and it persists to this day.

MARQUARDT: The Biden administration now faces the daunting task of how to label and crack down on these extremist groups. On Wednesday, Canada labelled the Proud Boys and other groups as terrorist organizations. The White House says they won't make a decision until after an intelligence review.

Not only is there a new attitude about these extremist groups from the White House, but January 6th showed us the very real threat that they pose and significantly raised fears about what they'll do in the future. Don?

(END VIDEO TAPE)

LEMON: Alex, thank you so much. Appreciate that.

Next, about 1.3 million vaccines are getting into arms a day. OK. But Johnson & Johnson submitting their vaccine approval, will that number go way up soon?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[23:40:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: So, as of tonight in the battle against COVID-19, the CDC saying it has distributed more than 57 million vaccine doses and more than 35 million doses have been administered.

And breaking news, the U.S. could be on the verge of getting a third vaccine. Johnson & Johnson asking the FDA for an emergency use authorization for its single shot COVID vaccine.

Let us discuss now with Dr. Rick Bright, a former COVID adviser to Biden-Harris transition team. Doctor, thank you. I appreciate you joining us. Listen. It is great news but everyone is being -- they're excited but with some caution because we still have a long way to go. Thank you for joining us.

Today, Johnson & Johnson officially asking the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for that emergency use authorization, and unlike the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, this one is just one single shot and it can be kept up to three months in regular refrigerated temperatures. No deep freeze needed. What does this mean?

RiCK BRIGHT, FORMER BIDEN-HARRIS TRANSITION COVID ADVISER: Don, it means a lot actually. Thanks for having me back on. It is good to see you again. This is really a completely different type of approach for vaccinating people as quickly as possible.

Imagine the complexities we've already been talking about trying to get two doses and people back in line three weeks later or four weeks later for their second dose of vaccine, and people are concerned about maybe what the adverse events might be after the second dose of vaccine. You don't have to worry about that with a single dose vaccine.

One and done, it is low-cost, it's refrigerated, and Johnson & Johnson is committed to making, I think, about a billion doses around the world by the end of the year. We've already ordered 100 million doses that I think they're going to deliver in the U.S. by the end of summer.

So that is going to open the floodgates for even more people to get vaccinated faster, which is really important at this time of the outbreak with these new variants coming our way.

LEMON: Do you expect J&J's vaccine is going to be authorized, and if so, how long before we see it getting into the arms of people?

BRIGHT: Well, the meeting has been set for February 26. The FDA has set a meeting for their external scientific advisory panel on February 26. And the previous vaccines took the data review, and I think in a few days afterwards, the CDC has to have their meeting and final review and recommendation.

So, I would guess that it will be somewhere by the end of February. If it gets authorized by the FDA, then it will have that green light to be distributed and the vaccination can start soon after that, maybe the first week of March.

LEMON: OK. Let's talk about global phase three trial data of the J&J vaccine efficacy against moderate and severe diseases.

[23:45:04]

LEMON: That was 66 percent, 72 percent in the U.S., and 85 percent effective in preventing hospitalizations. Are those numbers good?

BRIGHT: Those numbers are really good, if you look at the prevention of death, prevention of hospitalizations. No one died in this trial that got the vaccine. No hospitalizations. Over 85 percent of the people were protected from that most severe disease, didn't go to the hospital. That's really fantastic.

The other numbers, I wouldn't get too mixed up about. They're as good, I think, as the numbers we would see from the other vaccines if the other vaccines had been tested in the same conditions at the same time against those variant viruses.

The Johnson & Johnson phase three study faced a stiff hurdle when they took and collected data in South Africa because we know that those South African, those variants that were identified in South Africa, actually escaped the immunity from these vaccines just a bit.

So therefore, I don't think any of the vaccines that were tested in that setting would have as high numbers that we're seeing in some of those.

LEMON: OK. So --

BRIGHT: This is a really good outcome.

LEMON: OK. Sorry. Will you finish your thought?

BRIGHT: I said this is a really good outcome. I would focus on the reduction of death, reduction of hospitalization. This vaccine can help save your life.

LEMON: OK. The logical question to follow with that you said is how readily can these vaccines be updated to protect against new variants if that needs to be done?

BRIGHT: The nice thing with the new technologies such as messenger RNA and the adenovirus technology that Johnson & Johnson vaccine is based on is you can make a new variant vaccine pretty quickly. It just takes a few weeks or a few days actually to modify, within probably a few weeks to a couple of months to start manufacturing large volumes of those vaccines.

We want to make sure that if we vaccinate everyone with the vaccines we have now, however, then the virus won't have room to mutate and have as many people to infect and to further spread those variants around the country.

So the biggest goal right now is to vaccinate people with what we have, and if they have to switch, I think within a few months, we would have a different vaccine out in the marketplace.

LEMON: Doctor --

BRIGHT: The FDA will require some additional clinical data, but they can make that pretty fast.

LEMON: Always a pleasure. Dr. Rick Bright. I appreciate it. Hope to you see you again soon. Be safe.

BRIGHT: Don, good to see you. Thanks. Have a good night.

LEMON: More than 100 bills being filed across the country to restrict voting. Where -- why are they making it harder for people to vote?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[23:50:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Voting rights are being put to the test in more than two dozen states across the country. Since Donald Trump's loss in November, more than 100 bills are moving through legislatures in at least 28 states, aimed at changing election procedures and limiting voter access, despite no evidence of widespread voter fraud. Republicans are intent on changing election laws.

Here is national correspondent Dianne Gallagher.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Georgia still has voting on its mind.

UNKNOWN: Senate bill 70 by --

GALLAGHER (voice-over): Just one month after Democrats pulled off a surprise Senate sweep then three months after President Joe Biden turned the southern state blue, Republicans are reacting with a slew of proposed legislation.

CAMIA HOPSON, GEORGIA STATE REPRESENTATIVE: It's definitely a knee- jerk reaction.

GALLAGHER (voice-over): Nearly a dozen bills that could make it harder to vote have already been introduced in the state Senate, a headline grabbing proposal requiring two copies of photo ID just to vote by mail. Others would end automatic voter registration, the use of ballot drop boxes, and no excuse absentee voting. That's something Republican state Senator Burt Jones supports.

BURT JONES, MEMBER OF THE GEORGIA STATE SENATE: I do believe that voting in this country is a privilege and --

GALLAGHER: It's a right.

JONES: -- and it's a right, as well. But it ought to mean enough where you can put forth a little bit of effort in trying to cast your ballot.

GALLAGHER (voice-over): What some call effort, others call suppression.

HOPSON: We definitely see it as a way to keep the Democrats from voting easily. But in the end, it really hurts everyone.

JONES: We're not taking away anybody's rights, but what we are asking is we want a fair and honest election that doesn't have all the allegations that we had in this past election cycle.

GALLAGHER (voice-over): Those allegations, baseless claims of fraud, were promoted by Jones, who was recently stripped of a committee chairmanship following his efforts to undermine the presidential election. That decision made by his fellow Republican, the state's lieutenant governor, who has vehemently defended Georgia's election integrity.

GEOFF DUNCAN, LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR OF GEORGIA: Republicans have a credibility problem right now because we are having to carry the baggage of all of that misinformation.

GALLAGHER (voice-over): In a statement, Fair Fight, the voting rights groups founded by Democratic activist Stacey Abrams, called the bills an unhinged set of voter suppression legislation, appearing to -- quote -- "appease conspiracy theorists like those who stormed the Capitol."

But it's not just Georgia. Other states where former President Trump pushed election fraud lies to protest his losses like Arizona and Pennsylvania are also seeing a surge in election reform bills sponsored by Republican lawmakers. In Arizona, one proposal would even allow the legislature to override the secretary of state's certification of the electoral votes.

[23:54:59]

MYRNA PEREZ, DIRECTOR, BRENNAN CENTER'S VOTING RIGHTS AND ELECTIONS PROGRAM: I think it's pretty clear that there are some politicians who would rather put barriers in front of the ballot box than compete for voters.

GALLAGHER (voice-over): According to the Brennan Center for Justice, so far in 2021, at least 28 states have introduced pre-filed or carried over more than 100 bills that would restrict voting access, more than triple what was filed this time last year.

One of the biggest targets, according to voting rights groups, minority voters. When elections like in 2020 offer more ways to vote, turnout in communities of color tends to increase. Eliminating options and adding extra steps has been shown to decrease participation.

PEREZ: Having one more barrier in front of the ballot box may be a reason why you vote or you don't vote.

GALLAGHER: Of course, these are just proposals and bills right now. There is a whole process that still has yet to happen at the state level. But the pendulum, Don, also swings pretty heavy in the other direction.

According to the Brennan Center, more than 400 bills and pieces of legislation have already been introduced this year that actually expand or improve access to voting. In some cases, they're simply making those pandemic protocols from last year permanent.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

LEMON: Dianne, thank you so much. Appreciate that. And thank you for watching, everyone. Our coverage continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)