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Don Lemon Tonight

State Rep. Cannon Facing Two Felony Charges; President Biden Wants Congress to Pass Voting Rights Bill; Actions Have Consequences; Former President Trump Sees a Different Picture of the Riot; Sen. Mitt Romney Received JFK's Profile in Courage Award; Former CDC Director Don't Buy China's Report on How Virus Get Started. Aired 10-11p ET

Aired March 26, 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]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DON LEMON, CNN HOST: Top of the hour. This is CNN Tonight. I'm Don Lemon.

So glad you can join us because we have important things to talk about right now. And that is Jim Crow 2.0. alive and well in 2021. Georgia's governor is signing a bill that is nothing less than on the assault of the right to vote, surrounded by white men while an elected representative, a Black woman is arrested for knocking on the door.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNKNOWN: You're coming close to her like that, why you all came up close?

UNKNOWN: Please don't touch me, though. Don't touch me though.

UNKNOWN: I'll tell you one more to stand back.

UNKNOWN: Why does she have to stand back?

UNKNOWN: Why is the governor trying to sign something in private? Why is he keeping a representative --

UNKNOWN: Why does she have to step back?

UNKNOWN: The governor is signing a bill that affects all Georgians. Why is he doing it in private, and why is he trying to keep elected officials who are representing us out of the process?

UNKNOWN: Exactly. Exactly.

UNKNOWN: And you're using your badge and your ability to talk --

UNKNOWN: Yes, you said you give her one more time like you are going to do something.

UNKNOWN: Are you serious?

UNKNOWN: No, you are not representing --

UNKNOWN: No, she's not under arrest, what?

UNKNOWN: For what? Under arrest for what?

UNKNOWN: Why is she under arrest?

UNKNOWN: For trying to see something that our governor is doing?

UNKNOWN: Why is she under arrest.

UNKNOWN: Our governor is signing a bill that affects all Georgians. And you are going to arrest an elected representative. Why does the governor have more power than a representative?

UNKNOWN: Why are you arresting her?

UNKNOWN: Why are you arresting her?

UNKNOWN: That's what I am asking you.

UNKNOWN: Stop arresting her.

UNKNOWN: Why are you arresting her? Why?

UNKNOWN: Cite -- cite the violation. Cite the code. What is she in violation of? I want you to cite the code. Site the code. Cite it. Why don't you cite the code? Cite the code! Cite the code. Why are you arresting her? Under what? Under what?

UNKNOWN: Ma'am, let's go.

UNKNOWN: Under what law are you arresting her?

UNKNOWN: That's what I'm asking you.

UNKNOWN: Why are you arresting her?

UNKNOWN: Let her go! Let her go!

UNKNOWN: Why are you arresting her? Tell us now. Why are you arresting her?

UNKNOWN: Let her go!

UNKNOWN: Cite it! Give me a reason why you are arresting her. Give me a reason why you are arresting her?

UNKNOWN: Let her go!

UNKNOWN: Why are you arresting her?

UNKNOWN: She's an elected representative.

(END VIDEO CLIP) LEMON: You know what the honest truth is? That's a damn shame. Every time I look at that video. I'm sure every time you look at it. Regardless of what side of the political isle you are on. It's a damn shame, a travesty. Those troopers, I mean, really?

I was speaking to a friend today in Georgia, and he's like, I can't believe those troopers even sit there and did that. Why? For knocking on a door, knocking on a door. Think about what happened at the capitol. A lot of those people weren't arrested, right, until they got home. Turned yourself in some of them, convenience for the court or whatever, knocking on a door.

So, that is Georgia's State Representative Park Cannon, right? Literally locked out. While the bill that is designed to keep people of color from voting was signed into law, the President of the United States Joe Biden today angrily calling the bill an atrocity.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It is an atrocity. The idea, there weren't any indication that had nothing to do with fairness, nothing to do with decency. They passed a law saying you can't provide water for people standing in line while they're waiting to vote? You don't need anything else to know this is nothing but punitive, designed to keep people from voting. You can't provide water for people about to vote. Give me a break.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: That is the dually elected president, that is the President of the United States who was elected by a free and fair election and the most secure election in our nation's history, saying those words.

[22:04:56]

So, think about that for just a minute. It's a crime in Georgia to give water to voters waiting online. Think about how that's going to look. Imagine arresting someone for handling a bottle of water to an elderly Black woman who lived through the last fight for the right to vote. Somebody's grandmother, someone's great grandmother.

Take a look at the people who are being targeted by this blatantly discriminatory law, people of color waiting on line to vote, waiting on line to exercise one of the most sacred rights for all Americans.

How does denying water to voters online for hours -- how does that make the vote most sacred? More secure, excuse me. Can we go back to those people waiting in line? Because I just want to explain to people why so many people feel their passion about going and casting their votes on certain days, especially Souls to the Polls and on and on.

Because it is a visceral and tangible thing because you grow up like I did, hearing these stories about voter's suppression and poll tax and on and on. So, people want to, many of us, people of color, we want to go there and go through the process for all of those people in our history who would deny the right to vote, lost their lives for us to have the right to vote.

And so, for Sunday after church, right, all these Christians in America who love talking about going to church during the -- and doing the Christianly, God-like thing? After you go to church on Sunday, you want to go and cast your vote as an American. It's passion there. It's a right. You are inspired but no, they don't want that to happen.

So how does that -- how does that make the vote more secure? It doesn't make the vote more secure not in any universe at all. You know it, you know it, I know it. Everyone knows it. But everyone is just pretending like, yes, there is some higher thing going on. Something must be going on. The election must be in secure. The election was not even secure.

It's the most secure in the history by everyone according to everyone. All intelligence, all courts, conservatives, every single person, except for the president and his apologists. And it's not denying voters waters. The law allows unlimited challenges to voter registrations. It limits the use of drop boxes, which, by the way, get this, Governor Kemp himself used in November.

Ironic much? And it gives Georgia's Republican control legislatures, this is -- this is -- this is really important. Governors Republican control legislatures the power to take over local election boards. And if you have any question, any question at all what this is about, this tells you everything that you need to know.

The disgraced twice, impeached one-term former disgraced president who lost the election fair and square two tried to strongarm the Georgia's election official finding votes for him now congratulating Georgia for changing the law. Saying too bad these changes could not have been done sooner.

Yes, that's what this is all about. They couldn't give the former president what he wanted in 2020 because it was illegal to do so. So, what do you do? You change the law. Come on. We are talking about Sunday. Where I grew up, the church I grew up in on Sunday they say like, come on you all, am I the only one in here?

That is the truth. And you all know it's the truth and they know it's the truth. Changing the law to make it harder for Democratic voters, many of them people of color to cast their ballots.

President Biden calling it Jim Crow in the 21st century, urging Congress to pass the voting rights bill, going on to say that he's going to take his case to the American people. And, quote, "if you have the best ideas, you have nothing to hide, let the people vote."

But Republicans like Georgia's governor are just doing anything they can to get back in the good graces of the former president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. BRIAN KEMP (R-GA): Well, it wasn't a voting rights bill. It was a security bill that actually increases early voting opportunities on the weekend here in Georgia. [22:10:05]

Also requires a photo I.D. for absentee by mail just like when you vote in person. And it continues to, I think it will allow Georgia to have a secure, accessible, fair elections in Georgia.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: By the way, you know who created the election laws and rules in Georgia? Republicans. And now they're changing them because it doesn't suit them. This is not about election security. Not when you're making it a crime to give food or water to voters in line. How is that make elections not secure? Not when the governor signs a bill behind closed doors.

Senator Raphael Warnock whose election win gave Democrats the majority in the Senate laying it on line, tweeting, they are afraid of the people so they are trying to silence us.

This is not about election security, not when an elected official is arrested and led away by police. But the former president supporters fueled by his big lie, they attack police, but they try to take down our government.

We all know what this is about. We have seen it for ourselves. This is about the big lie. The big lie that the election was stolen has been revealed to be fake. Fake. But everything that stems from it is very, very real, the assault on your right to vote. The insurrection incited by the former president all of it, right? And the GOP is going along with all of it, building everything on a big lie.

The same big lie that is getting Fox sued $1.6 billion by Dominion. And its complaint against -- in its complaint against the network Dominion lays it out again and again how Fox anchors parodied bogus claims about non-existent voter fraud.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARIA BARTIROMO, ANCHOR, FOX BUSINESS: Sidney, we talked about the Dominion software, I know that there were voting irregularities, tell me about that.

SIDNEY POWELL, PRESIDENT TRUMP'S LAWYER: That's to put it mildly, the computer glitches could not and should not have happened at all. Those -- that is where the fraud took place where they were flipping votes in the computer system or adding votes that did not exist.

JEANINE PIRRO, HOST, FOX NEWS: The president's lawyer alleging a company called Dominion which they said started in Venezuela with Cuban money and with the assistance of Smartmatic software. A back door is capable of flipping votes.

POWELL: This is a massive election fraud and I'm very concerned it involved not only Dominion and its Smartmatic software, but that the software essentially was used by other election machines also. LOU DOBBS, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK HOST: I think many Americans have

given no thought to electoral fraud that would be perpetrated through electronic voting that is these machines, these electronic voting companies, including Dominion, prominently Dominion and least in the suspicions of a lot of Americans.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: But they're arresting the Black lady for knocking on the door. Really? Here is the thing. Sidney Powell argued in her own court filing she is being sued by Dominion, too, by the way. She argued no reasonable person would have believer her claims. So, what she said was a lie, the big lie that the election was stolen. It wasn't stolen.

But that didn't stop Fox anchors from buying in to her claims. And then there is this second big lie that nothing really happened during the insurrection at the capitol, the former president who, let's not forget, incited the insurrection with his repeated bogus lies about the election being stolen is out there trying to whitewash the whole thing, trying to convince us that we didn't see it with our own eyes, trying to convince us that those were flag- waving patriots, instead of bloodthirsty rioters who hunted lawmakers in the halls of the Congress. Trying to convinced us the rioters were hugging and kissing the police when we saw them being to within an inch of their lives.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They go after people that, I guess you'd call them lean towards the right, and they wave American flags, in many cases, they are waving the American flag and they love our country. It was a zero threat right from the start. It was zero threat.

[22:14:56]

Look, they went in, they shouldn't have done it. Some of them went in and they're hugging and kissing the police and the guards, you know? They had a great relationship. A lot of the people were waved in and then they walked in and they walked out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Does anybody believe that? Come on, does anybody really believe that? Do I have to show that video again? I -- OK. All right.

You know, so, yes, they were flag-waiving. You know what kind of flags that they were waiving? Flags like the confederate battle flag. That's the flag they were waiving, right? Do you know what they were doing with other flags? There they are, the lives matter flags, right? Pole, police, Trump flags. They were beating police with the flags. That's the kind of flags that they were waiving, that's what they were doing. We saw it. Don't ever forget what you saw on that day at the seat of our government. You cannot whitewash it.

We saw rioters trying to take down our government and now we see elected officials waging an assault on one of the most precious rights we have as Americans, and that's the right to vote.

Jim Crow 2.0, alive and well in 2021. But think about this. Wherever you are, wherever you are right now, do it with me. This is why someone was arrested, knocking on a door. Imagine facing jail time for it, knocking on a door, outrageous.

So, what will it take to protect that sacred right? Who will stand up for your right to vote?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. RAPHAEL WARNOCK (D-GA): That wasn't just Representative Cannon knocking on the door. The people are knocking on the door saying that this democracy belongs to us. It doesn't belong to the politicians. And in this moment, we're going to stand up for that sacred American right, one person, one vote.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[22:20:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: So, President Biden slamming Georgia's sweeping new election law which restricts access to voting, calling it an atrocity and Jim Crow in the 21st century. And White House officials expressing deep concern about the arrest of Georgia State Representative Park Cannon who knocked on Governor Brian Kemp's office door as he was signing the bill in private.

She's facing two felony charges for obstruction and disruption. Joining me now is Gerald Griggs. She is -- Gerald Griggs is a representative for -- representative -- he's Representative Cannon's attorney, I should say.

Thank you for joining us, attorney Griggs. I appreciate it.

GERALD GRIGGS, ATTORNEY FOR GEORGIA REP. PARK CANNON: Thank you for having me, Don.

LEMON: How is Representative Cannon doing today following her arrest in this forcible removal from the state capitol?

GRIGGS: She's shaken but she's resolved to fight for justice and fight for the voices of the people she represents. You know, the millions of Georgians whose voices will be affected by this law.

LEMON: Listen, I would imagine she's never had this kind of spotlight even though she is in the public eye. And I'm just going to be honest with you, is she scared, is she worried?

GRIGGS: Well, I mean, she's always worried. Any time you spend a substantiate amount of time in jail, and then you are facing prison time, you will be worried but she's resolute and she's focused on getting justice and making sure people's voices are heard. LEMON: What -- people are -- a lot of people are concerned about her

and a lot of people are asking this like how can, you know, this woman who is an elected official, how can she be arrested for knocking on a door and treated this way? What do you want people around the country to know about this situation and about your client?

GRIGGS: I want them to know that Park Cannon has served in the statehouse for years, she's always been advocate for disenfranchise, for the marginalize and for all of her district. But she's also been the voice that spoken truth to power and she did that and she continues to do that. And she plans on doing that.

And I want people of America to know that Georgia is on the front lines, we're fighting for voting rights as we always have. And I'm proud to represent Park Cannon. She's proud to stand up for what's right in Georgia. And it's unfortunate what happened to her. But she's going to stand resolute and make sure that we don't go one step further backwards that we don't go to 1850 or 1950. But we stand up and protect our voting rights.

LEMON: Does she tell you what is her -- what was her goal for knocking on the door?

GRIGGS: Her goal was to get transparency and to see the process and to make sure that voters, as well as elected officials got to see the governor sign the bill. So, she wants to be present as other members of the statehouse were present at that signing. And she was prevented and so she knocked on the door.

LEMON: So, you know, I asked if she was scared, I mean who wouldn't be facing this, right? And I know --

GRIGGS: Yes.

LEMON: -- who wouldn't be worried about two felony charges? What penalties, what are the penalties that she's facing now and how do you -- how do you plan to fight it?

GRIGGS: Well, she's facing up to eight years in prison. We're planning on having conversations with the district attorney hopefully to convince her to dismiss the charges. But if not, we are going to take this case all the way to jury trial and convince the jury that she did not violate any code section of the Georgia code and that she should not have been arrested.

So, she's resolute. We have a great team that we've compiled. We're compiling the witnesses. Many people have already seen the videos. We are containing to get the rest of the videos and we're going to fight this case all the way to jury trial.

LEMON: The governor, Governor Kemp was asked, asked about Cannon and this is what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEMP: As far as Representative Cannon, you know, you have to question or ask the Georgia's Department of Public Safety about, you know, what happened there. It's unfortunate that a sitting state representative would actually stomp and kick a Georgia state patrol officer.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: You want to respond to that?

[22:25:00]

GRIGGS: Governor, respectfully, where is the evidence of that? And a jury will see all of the videos. So, I would just ask the governor to stop commenting on stuff that he doesn't know about and we would respectfully say wait for the evidence to determine what she did or did not do.

LEMON: Do you understand the optics and the significance of what happened last night? You know, there are comparisons, I'm just saying what I'm hearing from other people to Rosa Parks, right, to civil rights activists or lawmakers who were fighting during the civil rights movement, that she has now become the face of modern-day voter suppression, the fight against modern day voter suppression.

Do you understand that? Does she understand the significance of that? And that people actually want to see her and they want to hear from her because they want to support her.

GRIGGS: Yes. We definitely understand the historical moment that we're in. She embraces that. She will speak at some point. But we appreciate the moment historically. You know, we just lost several titans of the civil rights movement here in Atlanta being Representative John Lewis and C.T. Vivian.

So, we understand where we are and that's why it's important at this moment to speak in one voice and to say we're not going to allow our voting rights to be taken away.

LEMON: And let me ask you a similar question. So, the idea that the governor is behind closed doors signing a bill to restrict voting while your client was knocking on the door to witness it. I mean, you are a civil rights social justice activist, what is -- what does that look like? Is this Jim Crow 2.0? Do you believe that?

GRIGGS: It's obviously Jim Crow 2.0. And they need to understand that we are our ancestors so we will fight back just like they fought back against Jim Crow 1.0. And so, we understand how bad the optics are for that many Caucasian individuals to be signing a bill that would take away the rights of many minority individuals under a painting of a plantation. The optics could not be worse for Georgia.

But the good thing about Georgia is we have produced the civil rights movement and I'm hopeful that we produce results in the new movement and we will push back on this attempt to drive us back into a foregone era.

LEMON: So, I'm asking just for the folks at home, because I know what they -- I know what they've been asking me and I know what I've been reading. They want to know, what do I -- how do I help her? How do we support her? That's what they want to know. What do you say to those folks?

GRIGGS: We have to get the district attorney to drop the charges. We have to make sure --

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: Let me -- folks around the country, I'm talking about beyond Georgia. There are people around the country, and quite frankly, worldwide who are watching this. This is an international show. Go on.

GRIGGS: Yes. We have to make sure that everyone around the world understands the fight that we are in. You know, Georgia delivered in November. It delivered in January. It's time for the world to deliver for Georgia and protect Georgians' rights. So, we have to make sure that we suspend the filibuster rule and we pass H.R. 1 and H.R. 4 the John Lewis' Voting Rights Act to complete the goal of John Lewis. And that's protecting our voting rights.

So that's what the world can do. The world can demand that we protect voting rights not only in Georgia but for the entire country so we do not go backwards.

LEMON: Representative Griggs, meaning her representative, thank you attorney Griggs. And Representative Cannon is welcome here anytime as are you. Thank you so much. I appreciate you joining, joining us.

GRIGGS: Thank you, Don.

LEMON: Thanks. Well, the big lie having a major impact on the health of our democracy. Can anything be done to undo the damage? We'll talk about that.

[22:30:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: So, President Biden is so outrage by the restricted new election law in Georgia that he is having the Justice Department review it. And he is calling on Congress to pass a voting rights bill to stop GOP state lawmakers from imposing laws based on Trump's big lie.

There was no election fraud but Republicans are using the big lie as cover to pass voter suppression laws.

Lots to discuss now. Mark McKinnon is here, former adviser to President George W. Bush and Senator John McCain. He is the executive of the Circus on Showtime. Also, the person that you sometimes see sitting in this chair, is Laura Jarrett -- Laura Coates, our senior legal analyst and former federal prosecutor. I read it all out of order. Sorry.

So, I just was -- Valerie Jarrett was just interviewing me the other day about my book. So good to see both of you. Thank you so much. Good evening. I'm going to start with you, Laura. There were three counts of a ballot -- on the ballot in Georgia, right? Biden won every time. They counted the votes three times. He won every time. There was no fraud. The election was secure. This Georgia voter law grew out of this big election lie that the election was stolen. Is this just really trying to steal about the next election? What is this about legally as you it?

LAURA COATES, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: This is a pretextual reason to use some sort of methodology to convince people this is about voter integrity, about election integrity, about to solve the problem that they themselves have said did not exist.

Remember, don't just take Don Lemon's words for it, talking about William Barr, the then attorney general. You're talking about the leadership in Georgia including those who knew that they would incur the wrath of Donald Trump and did in fact incur the wrath when they refused to go along with the big lie.

And now you have this notion that somehow acting as if there was this widespread fraud where we're going to try to solve this problem. It's not about that at all. And this is the kind of thing that made me go to the voting right section at the Department of Justice. The idea of pretextual voter infringement cases that tries to undermine and fatally undermine in some extents the work of the civil rights movement.

[22:35:00]

The idea of access to the polls without using race as a pretextual reason to actually deny people that in Georgia. I guess the question is, it's Friday night, do you know where your democracy is? Because apparently, it's not in Georgia right now.

LEMON: Yes. Real quickly, Mark, before I -- I'm going to stick with Laura. Laura, I mean, listen, let's just be honest here. So, you saw the pictures, right? We saw all the insurrection and what happened and then you see, you know, all of these white guys in a room signing behind closed doors, right?

And this woman is an elected official, she has every right to be and where she was. She was knocking. What does a knock mean? Knock, knock, I'm here, can you let me in? You say yes or no or whatever it is. So, what is this, what is this look like especially you have this Black woman who is arrested while they're signing this law under a picture of a slave plantation.

COATES: I mean, Don, the idea of what we saw people breaking down windows and barging through the door of the House of the people, the United States Capitol. And they were allowed to walk home freely in many instances.

The reason there's all of this manhunt going on and the idea of trying to get there images on social media and assistance to try to locate people, is because they were allowed to walk right back out, right pass law enforcement who I admit obviously was handicap by the over -- overwhelming number of people who were there were not able at every instance to be able to repel the attacks against them.

Then you have somebody who is knocking on the door. The symbolism here is that even when Black people in Georgia tried to knock and get into the room, the room we were talking about their voting. They are constrained. Then that instance you saw them physically strained, you saw her physically constrained.

And there's actual rules of the new changes in Georgia, what they're trying to do is do the same thing to other people who tried to access the polls. That they're trying to knock, they're following the rules and somehow, they've done the wrong thing again.

And it's not just, Don, as you articulated beautifully early in the hour, it's not just about the idea of food and water being denied. It's about having the rules and having the people who were able to implement the rules and decide whether the rules are followed or who's qualified voters or not.

That's now been removed from the county boards and is now in the hands of Republican-led legislatures and majority. Knocking on the door is what so many voters will do. And this law will ensure that they too will be arrested in their quest to have the access symbolically.

LEMON: Mark, thank you. You've been sitting back patiently and I really appreciate it, so to you now. You know, this was based on the first big lie which is that the election was stolen. And then there was the second big lie that the insurrection wasn't that bad, right, what she said last night on Fox News. Now there is the GOP effort in states to restrict voting access. What is all of this doing to our democracy?

MARK MCKINNON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, few things, Don. One, the greatest fraud in American politics right now is the notion that there is any systemic voter fraud, there's just not, as Laura said, the attorney general said there wasn't -- Trump's own attorney general. The Texas attorney general spend 22,000 hours of investigating voter fraud and came up with what? Sixteen bad addresses. That's 1,300 hours for work manhours for per address.

So, you know the party has a problem when first of all its entire strategy is to try and get fewer voters to vote. You know that's a big problem. And the other problem is when you're trying to solve a problem that doesn't exist.

And so, by the way, I think this whole thing, Don, will backfire in a big way. Because what it's going to do is it's going to activate all the Stacey Abrams of Georgia in every other state across the country, Democrats are going to get the message.

I think this happened to some degree in 2000 -- in 2020. I think the Democrats got the message that these Republican voters' suppression are going on because they're going on then, too. They're just doubling down now. But I think Democrats are getting the message that Republicans are trying to hold your voters back and as a consequence, I think Democrats across the board, activists and volunteers and everybody is going to double down and they'll see higher voter turnout than ever than before. So, I think the strategy is going to backfire spectacularly.

LEMON: And not the mention the optics what that -- I mean, that is --

(CROSSTALK)

MCKINNON: No food and water?

LEMON: Yes. That inspires people. And the optics of having this woman arrested while they're inside, I mean, you know, even if you, look, you can be the staunches conservative or Trump supporter, I mean, if you have your wits about, and you see this woman knocking and she's going to be, she's facing two felony charges and eight years or eight and a half years or what her attorney said, come on, anybody would be like, all right.

(CROSSTALK)

MCKINNON: Exactly right. It's a Rosa Parks kind of moment.

LEMON: Yes.

MCKINNON: And Democrats are going to see that. I can see all the ads now and I guarantee you Democrats are going to be fired up and ready to go and they will be at the poll.

LEMON: Can we just talk real quickly about this whole insurrection thing that they were hugging and kissing police and that it was not a big deal and they were flag wavering patriots who pose no threat to the capitol that the president, the president -- the former president said last night?

[22:39:58]

MCKINNON: Well, that's the big lie number two or 2.0, right, Don? I mean, the first lie was that the election was stolen which caused the insurrection and we know Donald Trump, you know, got those people at that speech, I was at that speech and I would have been surprised if they hadn't inflicted violence at the capitol given all that he said and Rudy Giuliani said and Donald Trump, Jr.

So, yes. And now he's -- now he's taking it one step further, saying, yes, the insurrection wasn't that bad. I mean, people were hugging each other and loving each other. They're really, you know, -- I think he even want the party say there really wasn't any violence.

LEMON: Yes.

MCKINNON: I mean, had he not seen the test? I don't get it.

LEMON: It was a love fest.

MCKINNON: Yes.

LEMON: It was, yes. Sad.

MCKINNON: I mean, there was a point of which even Donald Trump supporters saying, you know, come on.

LEMON: Yes. Thank you, Mark McKinnon. Thank you, Laura Coates. Laura Coates.

COATES: You got my last name right. Thank you.

LEMON: I knew you're -- look, I was like, I was like, either I get it in the text after the segment or I get it now live on TV. So, I'll take my licks live because I deserve it.

COATES: I love Laura Jarrett, she's fabulous. I love Valerie Jarrett. But Martha Coates is my mother and I love her dearly. Thank you so much.

LEMON: Hi, Martha Coates. That was some shame, right, out in the open. Hi, Martha Coates. Thank you, Laura Coates.

(CROSSTALK)

COATES: I love them all. But I have one mother. Thank you, thank you.

LEMON: We love you. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks. You all have a great weekend. Thank you.

MCKINNON: You too.

LEMON: Trump's former CDC director pushing a controversial theory about the origin of the coronavirus and he's giving no evidence to back it up. Dr. Sanjay Gupta is next.

[22:45:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Really good news today in the battle against COVID-19. The CDC reporting nearly 3.4 million doses of vaccine administered since yesterday, setting a new daily record. And as of today, one in four people in the U.S. have received at least one dose. But experts are still warning the pandemic is far from over.

I want to bring in CNN's chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Doctor, thank you very much.

So, on Sunday -- and I wanted to say that he has a new CNN's special report. It's called COVID, war, the pandemic doctors speak out. I can't wait to see that, doctor, so best of luck.

Let's get to the news. OK? The U.S. number of COVID vaccine doses administered jumped by nearly 3.4 million doses. A new record. I mean, this seems like great news but is this fast enough in the race against the spread of variant or should we be vaccinating even more people or even faster?

SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think it's one of things where you'd like to go as fast as you can. But it is worth sort of taking a step back and reminding people that this is the fastest vaccination project that we've ever seen. I mean, it's really quite extraordinary for what it is. But at the same time, you know, cases may go up in certain places, not because of the -- not vaccinating fast enough but because people are starting to pull back.

You know, 77 percent of the country, Don, is looking at this thing in the rearview mirror at this point and that it's been the same problem throughout this entire pandemic. We know what to do, we wait for science to rescue us. Science starts rescuing us, we start even pulling back further.

So, that's the real race. It's almost more, you know, the vaccines are really important and it's great that they're speeding up. But we've got to hang in there a little bit longer. We're so close at this point to actually being able to say we brought this thing under control. We can get our hands around it for the first time, we're just not there yet.

LEMON: So, Sanjay, I want to talk to you about your documentary, it airs Sunday night. Let's take a look at a clip, it's from where you were speaking with the former CDC director Robert Redfield about where he thinks this pandemic originated. Here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT REDFIELD, FORMER DIRECTOR, CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION: If I have to guess this virus started transmitting somewhere in September or October in Wuhan.

GUPTA: September or October?

REDFIELD: That's my own views, my own opinion. I'm allowed to have opinion. You know, I have the point of view that I think the most likely ideology of this pathogen in Wuhan also from a laboratory, you know, escaped. The other people don't believe that. That's fine. Science will eventually figure it out. It's not unusual for respiratory pathogens that are being work on a laboratory to infect a laboratory worker.

GUPTA: It is also not unusual for that type of research to be occurring in Wuhan. The city is a widely known center for viral studies in China including the Wuhan Institute of Virology which has experimented extensively with bat coronaviruses.

It is a remarkable conversation I feel like we're having here because you were the former CDC director and you were the director at the time this was all happening.

For the first time the former CDC director stating publicly that he believes this pandemic started months earlier than we knew. And that it originated not at a wet market but inside a lab in China.

These are two significant things to say, Dr. Redfield.

REDFIELD: That's not implying any intentionality, you know. It's my opinion. Right? But I am a virologist. I have spent my life in virology. I do not believe this somehow came from a bat to a human and at that moment in time the virus came to the human became one of the most infectious viruses that we know in humanity for human-to-human.

Normally when a pathogen goes from a zoo to human it takes a while for it to figure out how it become more and more efficient in human to human transmission. I just don't think this makes biological sense.

GUPTA: So, in a lab, do you think that that process of becoming more efficient was happening? Is that what you are suggesting?

REDFIELD: Yes, let's just say I have coronavirus that I'm working on. Most of us in a lab who are trying to grow a virus we're trying to help make it grow better and better and better and better and better so we can do experiments and figure out about it. That's the way I put it together.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[22:50:05]

LEMON: So, Sanjay, just to underline here, there is no concrete evidence to back up his claim. But this is significant especially coming from the former CDC director.

GUPTA: Yes. That's the thing, Don. I mean, in some ways I wasn't surprise at what he said, this theory has been out there for some time.

LEMON: Yes.

GUPTA: But I was surprised that he's the one who said it. And he showed up and he was ready to talk about it. That was a long conversation, Don. It was hours' worth or interview and we're going back and forth. I want to make sure he was being precise. He stuck to it. He really believes that this, this virus and this pandemic essentially originated in a lab. Not at that wet market.

He thinks it started months earlier than we were told. We weren't told until December 31st, 2019, Don about this unusual cluster of pneumonia patients. He is saying September, October, they already knew that this was spreading in Wuhan. So, these were considerably important things that he was pointing out.

The World Health Organization, I should point out, Don, they say the lab leak theory extremely unlikely. Chinese officials are now saying they're pointing to a multi origin theory saying it emanated from many different places. That's unsubstantiated. But you know, it is striking to me. We don't have evidence of this lab. We don't have evidence of how it emanated from a wet market either. A year into this, we still don't have clear knowledge of just how this pandemic started.

LEMON: Do you think we'll ever figure it out?

GUPTA: That is a great question. I mean, the World Health Organization sent in a team. They did their investigations. There's a 400-page report that is forthcoming. They say they're putting the final touches on this. I'm really curious. I'll be the first in line to read these reports. But I don't know. In the end if it will be conclusive or not. There are ways to base, you know, Dr. Redfield said science will eventually give us the answer but we'll have to wait and see. It hasn't done it yet.

LEMON: I'll be first in line to hear what you say after you've read the report.

GUPTA: OK.

LEMON: Thank you, Dr. Gupta. Thank you, Sanjay. I appreciate it. Make sure you watch Sanjay's special report to see what else he learned from medical leaders on the war on COVID. That is Sunday night at 9 right here on CNN.

GOP Senator Mitt Romney getting the JFK Profile in Courage Award for voting to convict the former president in his first impeachment trial. But will he and the rest of the GOP have the courage to stand up for voting rights?

[22:55:00]

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LEMON: So, take this. Republican Senator Mitt Romney is this year's recipient of the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award. The honor given to the Utah senator for being the lone GOP vote to convict then- President Donald Trump in his first impeachment trial.

JFK's daughter, Ambassador Caroline Kennedy, says this. That Senator Romney's commitment to our Constitution makes him a worthy successor to the senators who inspired my father to write Profiles in Courage. He reminds us that our democracy depends on the courage, conscience and character of our elected officials.

The award comes despite the differences in historic political leanings of the Romney and Kennedy families. So, you might remember that Romney, unsuccessfully challenged JFK's brother Ted Kennedy to represent Massachusetts in the U.S. Senate, this was back in 1994 before going on to be elected governor. Doing the right thing, its own reward and it has no party.

President Biden slamming Georgia's new elections law that suppresses the vote. Now he's saying the Justice Department is reviewing it.

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