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Don Lemon Tonight

National Archives Found Possible Classified Material In Records Returned By Trump; McConnell And McCarthy Split Over RNC Censure; Russia Adds Another 2,000 Combat Forces To Ukraine Border Areas; China's President Xi Jinping Invites Strongmen And Autocrats To Olympics; Roger Goodell Says NFL Won't Tolerate Racism; Numerous States Dropping Indoor Mask Mandates; Trump Supporter Says He Was Addicted To Politics, Now Calls Stop The Steal Movement A Cult; Department Of Homeland Security Warns Trucker Protests Could Begin In The U.S. Aired 11p-12a ET

Aired February 09, 2022 - 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 (on camera): Classified documents mishandled. "The New York Times" is reporting tonight the National Archives had discovered what could be classified materials in the records the former president took with him when he left the White House. Records which were returned last month.

Also this hour a Trump supporter who went to a Stop The Steal rally and -- or Stop The Steal rallies and was at the Capitol on January 6th now calling it a cult.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEITH SCOTT, FORMER STOP THE STEAL DEVOTEE: So after January the 6th I came here, and I kept mumbling, I feel like I just got out of a cult.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: And confronting racism in professional football. The NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell admitting the league falls short in opening up head coaching opportunities for black and minority candidates.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROGER GOODELL, NFL COMMISIONER: We won't tolerate racism. We won't tolerate discrimination. If there are policies that we need to modify, we're going to do that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: A lot to discuss this hour. I want to bring in now CNN White House correspondent, John Harwood. And CNN political commentator, Ana Navarro. Good evening to both of you. John, we are learning that the National Archives has asked the DOJ to

investigate Donald Trump's handling of White House records, including the handling of classified information. "The New York Times" is reporting they found classified information. What else are you learning?

JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Well, we're learning, Don, that this is chapter 985 of Donald Trump doesn't follow the rules, doesn't think they apply to him. We've been talking the last couple of days about how he in defiance of the presidential records act would routinely rip up official documents. His aides would have to tape them together.

Now we learn that he took stuff out of the White House that he shouldn't have taken. Some of that stuff has been sent back, and some of it was classified material. What we don't know is whether he did this for some nefarious purpose, whether the classified material was particularly sensitive or damaging in some way to national security. We don't know that.

And we don't know whether or not there will be any consequences from whatever DOJ does with this information. And I also think though, Don, we can't but reflect on the massive journalistic and political failure that occurred in 2016 with the attention to Hillary Clinton's e-mails.

The journalistic failure of course, was not one of honesty, it was one of proportion. We took a legitimate story and blew it up way beyond its importance. And that fueled the political use of it by Donald Trump, whose every word on this subject was disingenuous crap.

As we saw throughout his presidency when members of his family were using private e-mails and now we see the president himself taking classified materials out of the White House to his private home after his presidency.

LEMON: There isn't a lack of hypocrisy to go around here. Ana, let's talk more about what he just mentioned. Trump was relentless during the 2016 campaign, day after day slamming Hillary Clinton for how she handled classified information. And now this. Talk about the irony here.

ANA NAVARRO, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR (on camera): You know, but I also think that, you know, as John just alluded to, the barrage of things that Donald Trump has done wrong. The amount of times that it's rules and regulations and laws that apply to others but not to him that it's almost -- this is almost one more drop in the glass. Right?

I mean, at what point is that glass going to overflow for his supporters? We know the answer. Never. I think this is -- I think this is tacky. More tacky behavior from the Trumps. It's a miracle, thank God they went in there and recovered these boxes so that it doesn't end up public documents and classified documents don't get end up being auctioned off on EBay by Melania Trump along with her NFTS and her used hats.

I mean, it really defies logic. But you know, I would like DOJ to look into who helped him with this because we know that Donald Trump did not sit sorting through and reading 15 boxes' worth of documents. If you told me maybe it was paint by numbers, I could believe it.

But there's no way that he was the one sifting through all of this, putting them in boxes and carrying them out of the White House into Mar-a-Lago.

So there's got to be a bunch of people, as there always is with Trump issues, a bunch of minions who were helping him and who knew that this was a violation of federal law.

LEMON: John, also tonight, one of Trump's most loyal allies, Peter Navarro, subpoenaed by the January 6th Select Committee. This is a man who was pushing the big lie, conspiring to overturn the election. I mean, out in the open he was doing it. So what are the chances that he actually cooperates?

[23:05:05]

HARWOOD: Zero. Peter Navarro, first of all, he's a kook. And second of all, like the others very close to Trump who were pushing this ridiculous nonsense about the election, they have no intention of helping this committee.

They're going to do everything possible to drag out, delay, and if ultimately dragged in to testify will take the Fifth or figure out some way not to cooperate. There is no interest in the Trump team of helping this committee get to the truth, and Peter Navarro's not going to be any different.

LEMON: Ana, I have to get your take on this divide in the GOP over calling January 6th legitimate political discourse. Why did that set off McConnell and other Senate Republicans? Is there more to this moment than meets the eye, do you think?

NAVARRO: Because it's so egregious. Right? I think the idea that these Congress people and Senators who were at the Capitol when this occurred and ran for their lives and were protected by Capitol police and law enforcement would stay silent and pretend that they're not going to opine and that they don't have a view on calling it political -- legitimate political discourse is egregious.

And so I'm very glad that people like Mitt Romney, that people like Mitch McConnell have spoken up. But I also think it reflects the fact that Mitch McConnell does not have to kowtow to a bunch of crazies in his caucus. Kevin McCarthy does.

Kevin McCarthy is afraid of the capacity of, you know, kooks like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert and Cawthorn and Gaetz to mobilize against him should the Republicans retake the House and challenge his speakership.

And so what you continue seeing is ridiculous cowardice. I mean, it looked like he was competing in the Olympics yesterday, the way he was running so fast down the halls. We finally found something he's good at. Running away from the truth. And running away from questions. LEMON: Oh, Ana.

HARWOOD: Don, if I could just add one postscript to Ana. In terms of how slavish Kevin McCarthy is. Any gazpacho that Marjorie Taylor Greene gives to Kevin McCarthy, he's going to drink.

(LAUGHTER)

NAVARRO: Do you think people know the reference?

LEMON: I've got to go. I'll get the reference later. I'll tell you what it means.

NAVARRO: Go look up what (inaudible) -- even Cha-cha is upset now. Goodbye.

(DOG BARKING)

LEMON: Thank you both.

Let's turn now to the tension at Ukraine's border. The White House has now approved a plan for U.S. troops to help evacuate Americans if Russia invades Ukraine.

Joining me now, Fareed Zakaria. He is the host of "Fareed Zakaria GPS." Thanks for joining, Fareed. Good evening to you. In just the last 24 hours we're told Russia added another 2,000 combat forces near Ukraine's border. That's on top of the 100,000 troops already there. All this movement in the direction of conflict, can it be stopped at this point?

FAREED ZAKARIA, FAREED ZAKARIA GPS SHOW HOST (on camera): It's a great question, Don, because what Russia has now done is it has really surrounded Ukraine on three sides. Most significant is not just the fact that they're moving troops but they've moved troops into Belarus. So between Belarus and Russia that means they have Ukraine in a kind of pincer.

Now, point number two, you can't keep this level of mobilization going forever. So at some point Putin has to decide to either de-escalate or use these troops where he has placed them. It's difficult to know which of -- there are two possibilities.

One, he is building a very credible threat because he is trying to pressure Ukraine and the West to make the kinds of concessions he's asking for. Or this is all just a prelude to war. You know, in a sense it's like poker. If you're bluffing, you have to be willing to have the bluff called and carry through with what you were claiming to do. So you know, at some level one man is making this decision. But it is a very, very credible threat at this point.

LEMON: Yeah. And let's talk about the Olympics right now because the Chinese president is using the Olympic Games to showcase his alignment with Vladimir Putin and other authoritarian leaders. From places like Egypt and Serbia. What message do these alliances send to the world at a time when democracy is under attack here in the U.S. and so many other places?

ZAKARIA: Well, I think they're trying to show that they're not alone. To a large extent one of the challenges for the Putin's of the world folks, even China, has been the sense that they are maybe isolated. And what they're doing is sending the signal no, we're not isolated.

[23:10:13]

We are -- you know, we have friends, we have allies. It is not as convincing, particularly in the case of Putin, as it is in the case of the Chinese. China is a very different power than Russia. China is a rising power. It has enormous, broad economic, technological sophistication.

Russia is fundamentally a declining power, and it can be a spoiler in places like Ukraine. But it doesn't have countries clamoring from all over the world to do business with it.

So the Chinese are exercising what is in fact true, which is that for large numbers of countries around the world they're very important. They're the most important trading partner. They're the most important source of loans. They're the most important source of foreign aid.

You know, China has a belt and road initiative which is by some measures five times larger than the Marshall plan was where they're providing aid to all their neighbors. So the Chinese do actually have friends and allies.

LEMON: In Hong Kong pro-democracy reporters and politicians are being jailed. They're shutting down local media. This is all happening in a place where democracy was thriving. Should this be a wake-up call to the global community, Fareed?

ZAKARIA: Look, everywhere we are seeing this democratic recession that is taking place. After 30 years, you know, with the collapse of the Soviet Union you had a 30-year period where democracy seemed unstoppable. It was moving in all kinds of places.

And then you started to see problems, reversals. Hong Kong is a particularly dramatic and tragic case because people there had really gotten used to a lot of freedom. But perhaps the biggest tragedy, Don, is that it's not just happening in far-off places like Hong Kong. It's happening in the United States. It's happening in Europe.

A kind of corrosion of democracy. An erosion of democracy. An erosion of these values. And those two things are connected. As you see democracy erode here, as you see it, you know, flail, the autocrats make this point again and again.

If you watch Russian media, this is one of the constant themes. Democracy in America is dysfunctional, it's divided, it's partisan, they can't get anything done, people don't trust each other, people don't trust in elections.

The sowing of the seeds of doubt about the legitimacy of our democracy, you know, which is frankly one of Donald Trump's chief accomplishments, has probably been one of the greatest victories he has handed the autocrats of the world.

And it's a very sad -- because I don't think -- you know, he was doing it for his own personal self-interest. But the result is the Russia and Chinas of the world rejoice.

LEMON: Fareed Zakaria, host of "Fareed Zakaria GPS," 10:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. on Sunday right here on CNN. Thank you, sir. I appreciate that.

The NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell going in front of cameras and pledging to do more about the lack of diversity in the league. But what will it take to put those words into action?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOODELL: We want to see black head coaches in the NFL and coaches of people of color and eventually gender that we think is all important.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[23:15:00]

LEMON: Just days after a major lawsuit accusing the NFL of racial discrimination, the Commissioner, Roger Goodell, says the league won't tolerate racism.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOODELL: We won't tolerate racism. We won't tolerate discrimination. If there are policies that we need to modify, we're going to do that. And we will absolutely do it. If we've seen evidence of discrimination, we will deal with that in a very serious way. That would reflect the fact that we won't tolerate it. And I think our clubs understand that from all the discussions we've had. I believe its part of their values.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Last week the former Miami Dolphins head coach, Brian Flores, filed a lawsuit accusing the league along with three NFL teams of alleged racial discrimination. With the recent hiring of Lovie Smith as head coach of the Houston Texans, the NFL now has just two black head coaches despite black players making up 70 percent of the league.

Let's discuss now. Jemele Hill is here, the host of "Jemele Hill Is Unbothered" podcast, which I had the honor to be on. Good evening, Jemele. Thank you for joining. Those are strong words from Goodell. But based on that Flores suit and what you have seen with your own eyes, do they hold up?

JEMELE HILL, STAFF WRITER, THE ATLANTIC (on camera): I hate to correct you on your own show, Don, but those are not strong words from Roger Goodell. The fact is the NFL does have a problem and he's talking about how seriously they take diversity and inclusion. How can you take it seriously when you've had one black team president in 100 years of football?

Taking -- of the last 35 hires, there's only been five black coaches. How can you be taking it seriously when since the Rooney Rule was instituted in 2003 there have now only been 17 black coaches? And not including the two that were recently hired the other day in Mike McDaniel and Lovie Smith.

[23:20:02]

So what about the NFL -- what have they shown you that lets you know they've taken anything seriously? They're not. The owners have made it clear they do not care and they're going to hire whoever they want to hire and they're going to freeze black men out of certain leadership positions. And that's why they have this lawsuit.

And listen, God bless Roger Goodell. This is what they pay him, is it like 50, 60 million dollars a year to do. He has taken all the hits for what should be questions addressed to all these individual owners in the National Football League.

They make the decisions about who is the head coach, who is the general manager, who is on the coaching staff, not Roger Goodell. So honestly, his entire press conference today when it comes to this issue completely pointless.

LEMON: This is -- look, and you can correct me anytime. You have forgotten more about sports than I'll ever know. But this is -- so this is really not about Goodell. It's not about the commissioner. Are you saying he has limited influence, it's about the owners?

HILL: It is completely about the owners. Now, what Roger Goodell does control is what happens in NFL offices, what happens in his executive leadership tree, which there are definitely issues there. But as it relates to what Brian Flores is talking about, he can't force Steven Ross to -- or any of these NFL owners, Jerry Jones, he cannot force them to hire anybody.

He is paid to do exactly what he did, stood before the media, gave you some empty platitudes, some placating words. He's paid to do stuff like pay end racism in the end zone. He's paid to do stuff like hire Jay-z to do the halftime show as if that and having Dr. Dre, Mary J. Blige, Kendrick Lamar, as if that is going to gloss over this hideous situation that they have when it comes to hiring.

That's what Roger Goodell is paid to do. He's paid to smooth things over. He has no control over who is hired in the league. So ultimately to me it's an empty conversation. Don, I can't tell you how many years in a row I have written a column about this same issue. I have had to write this column at least eight or nine times.

And lucky for me I'm a hell of a writer and I know how to repurpose words because I am sick of writing about this issue. So imagine how the coaches who are denied opportunities time and again feel about always having to go through this every single hiring cycle with the NFL. LEMON: Jemele, OK. You say that black coaches need to stop playing

along. But could that jeopardize their careers by speaking out? We all saw what happened to, you know, a player, right? Colin Kaepernick. After he took a knee and spoke out over racial justice in 2016.

You heard Lovie Smith. I had Stephen A. on last night and he said look, I'm glad Lovie's there, I'm glad he said it, but he could have even -- you said Roger Goodell's words weren't strong. He believed that Lovie could have even been stronger. They're in a tough position, no?

HILL: They are in a tough position. But here's the thing. Part of the reason why the NFL so easily blackballed Colin Kaepernick is because the other players didn't stand with him. I mean, you had a couple players who did. I should say the other players didn't kneel with him.

See, they can't blackball everybody. And at some point it becomes so egregious and so in their face that they're forced to confront certain things. So I think that all the black coaches should join Brian Flores's lawsuit because they're not going to be able to stop all of you.

Now, if it's just one man standing alone, they could stop one man. They can't stop Lovie Smith. They can't stop Jim Caldwell if all of you guys are together, (inaudible), Byron Leftwich. They need to all band together and really embarrass and humiliate and take on the NFL because that's the only way that I feel as if things will be shaken up.

We have to remember with the Rooney Rule, what got the Rooney Rule put in phase -- put in place was litigation. It was Johnnie Cochran threatening to do the same thing that Brian Flores has done. So we know that they will respond to legal action.

Now I think his case needs to be strengthened by other coaches who we know have experienced some of the same things that he has. They need to join the fight because I'm telling you, there's strength in numbers.

LEMON: What about the players, then? I mean -- so Colin Kaepernick -- it's been six years since Colin Kaepernick first began his protests. Would the reaction be different if players did that now, maybe what you're suggesting the coaches do?

HILL: Well, I think the players, they certainly could show a level of solidarity. But ultimately I think the coaches really have to be the lead on this. Obviously players, they hold a position of power because they are the product.

You know, they are the labor for lack of a better way to put it. And the NFL engine can't go without them. But I think in this case -- be resilient and try to make an example of the NFL to let them know that this isn't tolerated. We know from how the owners responded when Donald Trump took on the NFL because of Colin Kaepernick. They are very sensitive to being ashamed rather publicly.

[23:25:05]

So (inaudible) the coaches and the players if they want to join as well, that's what they need to do. Because right now I guarantee you the owners resent the fact that their showcase event, the major storyline is their lack of inclusion, the fact that they have a systematic -- they don't want these to be the kind of headlines that dominate the Super Bowl. So keep it in the news and all the coaches need to join Brian Flores's lawsuit so that we can finally see some historic change happen in the NFL.

LEMON: Jemele, you're the best. Thank you.

HILL: I appreciate you.

LEMON: See you. More states committing to ending indoor mask mandates. But the CDC isn't fully on board yet.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[23:30:00]

LEMON: Tonight a growing number of states moving to end their indoor mask mandates as COVID cases fall. Illinois now joining the list along with New York, Delaware, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts in the East as well as Oregon and California in the West.

But the head of the CDC says that while the agency is working on updating its guidance on mask wearing it's not completely on board with those states rolling back their mandates.

I want to bring in now CNN medical analyst, Dr. Jonathan Reiner. Doctor, thank you for joining us. There is a growing number of states, they're dropping their indoor mask mandates even though the CDC Director says that we're not out of the woods yet. Hospitalizations are still too high. Do you agree? Are you concerned about mixed messaging here?

JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST (on camera): I agree with the CDC Director. Look, we're clearly moving overwhelmingly in the right direction in this country. Cases are dropping very rapidly. But the problem is at the peak of Omicron a few weeks ago we were at stratospheric levels. So even though they've dropped a lot, our case numbers are still really high.

For instance, during the peak of last winter's terrible surge in January of last year, the United States was averaging 240,000 cases a day, and that's exactly where we are today. Today the United States had 3,000 deaths.

So we are clearly moving in the right direction, and I expect in a lot of places we're going to be able to drop some of these mitigation methods over the next few to several weeks. But it's still pretty hot in a lot of places in the United States.

You know, New York, which was looking at 100,000 cases a day a few weeks ago, is now down to 7,000 cases, which looks great. Except in July there were 200 cases a day in New York. So we need to be a little bit more patient, maintain masking in crowded areas, don't drop them in schools yet because most of our kids are unvaccinated, and be patient. We'll get there.

LEMON: Should the government have some kind of metrics, the number of cases, hospitalizations, ICU admissions, something that state health officials and communities can use as a guide to know when it is safe?

REINER: Yeah, we should have all of that. So we've learned that the time to really ratchet up mitigation or even to consider shutting down parts of our, you know, businesses is when our hospitals are packed. And a few weeks ago there were about 250 counties in the United States that had no bed capacity. Now that number is less than a fifth of that. So we're really moving in the right direction.

A colleague from across the country today suggested to me that, you know, perhaps we should start to look in terms of the overall viral threat, compared to Influenza. In an average year Influenza kills somewhere between 30,000 and 60,000 Americans, which equates to about 100 to 200 people a day.

When we start to have mortality rates that start to approach that, we can really, you know, start to move back to more of a completely normal situation. And we're still far from that. So we're moving in the right direction. We just have to be a little bit, you know, more patient.

You know, when you're treating a person with cancer, you don't stop the chemotherapy when things are looking better. You stop the chemo when their tumor's gone. And we still have a ways to go.

LEMON: Dr. Paul Offit of the Children's Hospital in Philadelphia said that right now we have about 90 percent population immunity, meaning people who have either been naturally infected or vaccinated or both. He also said that masks should be worn indoors for a few more weeks. What does being at 90 percent immunity actually mean in terms of getting out of this pandemic?

REINER: You know, a lot of people have been infected. And we have much more of an immunity wall, so to speak. And even people -- even a lot of the people who are getting infected now aren't getting really that sick. So we are in many ways in a much better place.

But I don't think anyone really knows what it's going to take to have so-called, you know, herd immunity or what I like to call community immunity. A lot of people have been exposed to this virus or one of the other variants.

[23:35:08]

A lot of the country, although not nearly enough, has been vaccinated. And that mix is going to put us in a much better place this spring. Omicron infected an amazing amount of people. At its peak we were recording about 800 to 900,000 cases per day. But those were only the cases that were reported. And what we -- again, don't forget, many people were using home rapid

tests, none of which, you know, are officially reported. So the number of cases per day was probably a multiple of that, you know, in the millions per day.

So a lot of people have attained some degree of immunity from Omicron. We don't know how long that will last, and we don't know that if it will protect against, you know, future variants. But this spring could look really good in the United States. If we're patient.

LEMON: All right. Thank you, Doctor. I appreciate you joining us.

REINER: My pleasure, Don.

LEMON: He was addicted to the former president and his "Stop The Steal" rallies. Now a Trump supporter is calling the movement a cult.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[23:40:00]

LEMON: Tonight a Trump supporter who says he was addicted to politics now calls the "Stop The Steal" a cult. But breaking free from Trump world may not be as easy as that.

CNN correspondent Elle Reeve has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KEITH SCOTT, FORMER STOP THE STEAL DEVOTEE: January 6th, 2021 was the greatest day of my life.

ELLE REEVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Why?

SCOTT: I felt like a patriot that was standing beside our founding fathers, speaking up against King George. I felt like Braveheart.

REEVE: We first met Keith Scott at a small rally on the anniversary of January 6th. He told us he spent months after the 2020 election living in his car and going to every "Stop The Steal" rally. Now he's carrying a huge flag calling the movement a cult. But leaving a cult, whether real or metaphorical, is messy.

SCOTT: Something was posted saying that there was a rally, like, I was not in control. I was going. No matter what.

CROWD CHANTING: Stop The Steal!

SCOTT: How did I get caught up in this? I'd never been to a Trump rally. You know, I wasn't one of those people.

REEVE: The whole crew for this interview was also at Jan. 6. So we had the same question. How did so many people get to a place where they were willing to commit crimes to stop a Democratic election, all while calling themselves patriots?

UNKNOWN: They pushed me out and they maced me.

REEVE: So we spent four hours listening to every detail of Keith's political journey.

SCOTT: At the time I lived in Georgia. I get there on Election Day and there were only a couple cars in the parking lot. The record turnout that they say that there was in Fulton County, Georgia which is the county that I voted in, it didn't happen.

REEVE: Wasn't there a significant amount of early voting, though?

SCOTT: In that demographic, it's a poor area. It's predominantly black area. You'll never be able to convince me that they were sitting around watching CNN and Fox News and all these things and that's what they were most concerned about, was the election and getting that ballot and mailing it in. If you were to ask people is Joe Biden going to get more of the black vote than Barack Obama, people would say no. And Biden supposedly did. It doesn't make any sense.

REEVE: But the bigger picture here is actually one I'm really interested in because it is a recurring theme, which is that you have skepticism about the black vote in this election. Part of it, it seems to me, you know, you said you lived and voted in a black area and how could those people have the time to pay attention to the election. Why do you think you would be able to pay attention to that if black people wouldn't?

SCOTT: I don't think that everyone is interested in politics like I am. It's not necessarily about racial lines.

REEVE: Trump himself has repeated this same trope. It's a quip, not a fact. In 2008 an estimated 95 percent of black voters voted for Obama. In 2020, 92 percent voted for Biden. But lies like this one were repeated until they seemed like cold hard truth. As Keith drove from protest to protest and "Stop The Steal" grew.

I'm not like trying to say like you're a bad person or like you would use a racial slur. What I'm just trying to get at is that you might not be sensitive to the big picture about what it looks like, disputing votes only in places where most of the voters are people of color. And that people of color might take some offense to that.

SCOTT: That's not what "Stop The Steal" was about and --

REEVE: "Stop The Steal" is about those votes don't count. Somebody's votes don't count. Not your vote. But someone else's.

SCOTT: I'm not going to be painted into this narrative that you're trying to -- trying to go down this rabbit hole. I'm kind of done with the racial part of this.

UNKNOWN: This is the party of Trump.

SCOTT: I got introduced to all these other people that I'd never heard of that week in Georgia.

UNKNOWN: We the people.

REEVE: I remember Nick Fuentes being there, Alex Jones being there, Ali Alexander, the founder of "Stop The Steal." I actually met the leader of the Proud Boys, Enrique Tarrio. He was just really nice. He's not a really big guy. He's a little bigger than me.

[23:45:13]

REEVE: There is (inaudible) is that like, these small groups who've always been on the fringe seized a mass movement and then --

SCOTT: Yes. 100 percent.

UNKNOWN: And the crowd is going wild.

SCOTT: The movement was growing.

UNKNOWN: There's mountains of evidence. This election was a fraud on America.

SCOTT: Sidney Powell's going to come up. Everybody felt like she is the one that is going to unveil all the evidence of election fraud. But the people that were giving evidence of election fraud, it was the same message that we had heard a day before or weeks before. But it was like its coming. It's going to be revealed. Like just keeping us -- keeping us holding on for the next breath.

REEVE: all that energy was released on Jan. 6. Keith saw what we saw, but he didn't take the same lesson.

SCOTT: I felt like a proud patriot on that day. And I know that's not popular to say. But that's what I felt like. Then just some crazy fight scenes started happening.

REEVE: Did you think are we the bad guys?

SCOTT: I thought this doesn't end well.

REEVE: What made you realize this was a cult? This is like deeply immoral behavior. It's not patriotic either.

SCOTT: So after January the 6th I came here and I kept mumbling, I feel like I just got out of a cult.

REEVE: What makes Keith a frustrating interview is that though he calls it a cult he still believes much of the cult's propaganda and he still excuses its actions. Because our crew was in the middle of the violence it's hard not to want Keith to say it was wrong and he's sorry. Which isn't really fair because no one with any power has said they're sorry.

SCOTT: It was a lot of self-analysis to get over the trauma of January 6th itself and the things that I saw on both sides --

REEVE: I don't understand on how you cannot pick sides after what happened. It just seems like a really clear side. SCOTT: The things that I saw were bad. Regardless of which side

you're on is what I'm saying. There's nothing illegal about watching a fight that's happening. That's not -- that's not illegal.

REEVE: Well, when you're part of a mob that's storming the Capitol --

SCOTT: I was --

REEVE: And setting aside illegal, what about moral?

SCOTT: But I wasn't doing anything wrong.

REEVE: You were part of the crowd. Your very presence was giving them support.

SCOTT: You were part of the crowd as well.

REEVE: I was a journalist. They were screaming in my face.

SCOTT: I'm just a citizen, just standing there yelling. But I feel like we're getting sidetracked.

REEVE: I mean, I think actually, this is really at the heart of the question is, this is the problem of a mob. It absolves people of their moral culpability. I was just one person.

SCOTT: Oh, I want to be clear, the people that actually, you know, had physical confrontations with police officers, they should be held accountable for that.

REEVE: Do you think the leaders who made these promises that they couldn't keep, that there would be evidence that would change the results of the election, do you think they bear responsibility for the mob that stormed the Capitol?

SCOTT: No, I don't. They created a grassroots movement that was "Stop The Steal." I realized that I had been addicted to politics, I had created this reverence for the leaders of "Stop The Steal." I felt like I was -- which is more than ironic looking back. Helping prevent a second civil war. And this is just --

REEVE: He's writing a book that he says will help people who got addicted to Trump the way he did. So we followed him around a Trump rally to see if he could get through.

SCOTT: How are you doing, patriot?

UNKNOWN: How are you doing?

SCOTT: Good. I know you don't remember me. I saw you several times last year. Right now it's like a drug because I'm going to get one of these patriotic t-shirts.

REEVE: Keith was nervous that he'd get yelled at and rejected by the people who were once his allies. And that is what happened. SCOTT: I was at the Capitol on January the 6th, and my book is about

all the stuff that I saw at all the "Stop The Steal" rallies and then how --

UNKNOWN: Were you contacted by the FBI?

SCOTT: Not yet.

UNKNOWN: You're the feds.

SCOTT: I get that a lot.

UNKNOWN: Because it's true.

UNKNOWN: CNN?

SCOTT: Yeah.

UNKNOWN: No, I have nothing. I mean, that is the definition of fake news. I don't care about your book and I'd prefer you just go away.

REEVE: How'd that go?

SCOTT: Wow.

REEVE: Are they in the cult?

SCOTT: So first of all, just their demeanor.

REEVE: Yes.

SCOTT: And the way that by my flag and by CNN how they were just completely triggered. I guess I feel like I'm going to take incoming fire from both sides as the marketing continues.

REEVE: Maybe you just switch from the cult to being a grifter.

SCOTT: I'm losing money by doing this honestly. I can have a great business career doing something else. I don't have this big political message that I'm trying to promote. I'm not out here trying to make a bunch of money. I mean, if I make money that's, you know, that's cool.

I've taken a year of my life writing this book.

REEVE: But if you're not here making a political point, what's the point at all?

[23:50:01]

SCOTT: My point is I'm doing this to look out for people. I met people on my "Stop The Steal" journey that lost their job because they were going to go to the rally, no matter what. People, that were estranged from their family, whether it's politics or something else, don't get so caught up that you are not making your own decisions anymore.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

REEVE (on camera): It was interesting to watch Keith experience a Trump rally the way we experience it, with people yelling at us and at him. He said of one guy, a year ago, we'd have been trading conspiracy theories, and now he doesn't want to have anything to do with me. At the end of the rally, Keith, said maybe people weren't quite ready to hear his message. Don.

LEMON: Canadian trucker protest already having an effect on the U.S. supply chain. Now, DHS is warning the protest could happen even closer to home.

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[23:55:00]

LEMON: Breaking news tonight. The Department of Homeland Security warning that a convoy of truckers protesting COVID vaccine mandates could, soon, begin in the U.S., possibly disrupting the Super Bowl or the upcoming State Of The Union Address.

Meanwhile in Canada, no end in side to the protest by truckers clogging the streets of Ottawa right in front of parliament.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DYLAN FRIESEN, PROTESTING VACCINE MANDATES IN CANADA: I want all these mandates gone, and I'm not leaving until all the mandates are gone. So, I'm here for the long haul. They can try and get rid of us, but we're not leaving.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: The protestors are a vocal minority in Canada, but they're getting support from American-conservative politicians, and right-wing media.

Thank you for watching, everyone. Our coverage continues.

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