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Impeachment Trial; Democratic Candidates Make Final Pitches Ahead Of Iowa Caucuses; Coronavirus Outbreak; Senate Set To Acquit President After Divisive Trial. Aired 11a-12p ET

Aired February 01, 2020 - 11:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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[11:00:13]

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. I'm Poppy Harlow.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Jim Sciutto.

Senate Republicans, the President -- they're ready to move on from the impeachment trial, but it's not over quite yet. Both teams now preparing their closing arguments before the Senate almost certainly votes to acquit the President.

But Democrats fought to make sure that vote does not happen until Wednesday, of course, the day after the President's State of the Union address forcing him to deliver his speech before the Senate trial is over.

HARLOW: And this morning new evidence contradicting the President and his team just hours after the Senate defeated an attempt to subpoena documents and witnesses. Court filings show that the President was involved in discussions about withholding that

aid to Ukraine far earlier than previously thought, contradicting even what his lawyers he said on the Senate floor just a few days ago.

For the latest, let's go to the Capitol. Our congressional reporter Lauren Fox is there and Anita Kumar, White House correspondent and associate editor for Politico joins us as well.

Lauren -- let's just begin with you. If you could lay out for everyone what the week ahead holds?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER: Well, essentially Poppy -- everything is just on pause with that inevitable vote on Wednesday where we expect that the President will be acquitted. Now on Monday, senators can expect to hear closing arguments and they will have an opportunity to speak themselves on the Senate floor.

Remember, they have been silent on the floor or at least, they're supposed to be silent on the floor over the last ten days. So Tuesday will be an opportunity for them to basically stand up and defend why they plan to vote the way they plan to vote on Wednesday -- whether or not that is to remove the President or not to remove him. But again, we expect that Wednesday this vote will be around 4:00 to acquit President Trump but it will come the day after the State of the Union. And that is on purpose.

Democrats really wanted the President to have to deliver his address under the pressure of impeachment, with that looming over his message to the entire country.

And Republicans didn't have the vote to cut off Democratic debate last night. They couldn't just end this because a lot of senators wanted an opportunity to say their piece on Tuesday. So that was the dynamic last night.

And it was a little uncertain as the evening went into night whether or not they were going to be able to end this or not. And then it became very apparent that senators, when given the opportunity to speak on the floor, want that opportunity.

Jim and Poppy.

SCIUTTO: So Anita -- the question, of course, now political consequences of this. Donald Trump's senior adviser, of course, his son-in-law as well, Jared Kushner he says it has not hurt the President, the impeachment. He even went so far as this. Have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JARED KUSHNER, SENIOR ADVISER TO DONALD TRUMP: What I've seen is that the cream has risen. And I'm not going to say what the word is, but that has sank. And what's happened is that he cycled out a lot of the people who didn't have what it took to be successful here. And a lot of the people who have come in and been excellent are not out there complaining and writing books because they're too busy working.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: Quite a shot at the folks who criticized him. Are you seeing the President bolstered by impeachment, politically?

ANITA KUMAR, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, POLITICO: Well, I mean he has been very upset about it, for sure. But now that he knows that acquittal is coming, he feels very good about it. He wishes, obviously, it could have been yesterday and that it could be done before the State of the Union. But he's feeling good about it.

And listen, the campaign is very excited about it because they think it's energizing the base. Now that doesn't really help them with Independents and some of these suburban women they need. But it really has energized their base. They've gotten a lot more donors, a lot more volunteers.

SCIUTTO: Yes, I mean it's clearly, clearly a base-driven strategy here. They're not looking to bring over those Independent voters -- Poppy.

HARLOW: Yes, absolutely.

Thank you both very much -- Lauren Fox, Anita Kumar. We appreciate it.

SCIUTTO: Now, for the latest on these new court filings, let's bring in CNN crime and justice reporter Katelyn Polantz. So Katelyn, remarkable, you know, during a trial to refuse to consider any new evidence or witnesses that on the day that trial ends, you have new evidence show up. Tell us about it.

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: That's right. What we saw in a court filing late last night is a formal acknowledgment from the administration that there are additional documents that the House and the Senate were not able to access whenever they were doing an inquiry into the President. And these documents are about what the President was knowing and what he was deliberating over and the decision-making that he had during these proceedings from June to August when there was a discussion over Ukraine aid and the withholding of it.

SCIUTTO: Ok. So witnesses who are government officials, we should note, that they testified in the House impeachment inquiry, the existence of what appears to be some of these very emails -- and these were the very emails that the House was seeking and were blocked by the Trump administration.

What did we already know about the substance here? What was confirmed? And what new information did we hear?

[11:04:55]

POLANTZ: Well, there isn't actually a lot of new information in these emails. What it is, is a list that says these are the emails that the administration has that the Budget Office was sending.

One of the emails from June is titled "POTUS follow-up". So clearly it is about privileged communications that the administration claims to not be public, that the President was directly involved in.

SCIUTTO: And contradicts a consistent argument from the beginning, right -- Poppy, as if there is nothing to tie this directly with the President. Now you have witness testimony as well as emails.

HARLOW: Yes, that's true.

So let's bring into this conversation Elie Hoenig for the latest on the impeachment fight and the legal moves and what these -- all these court filings actual mean. He is former assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.

Elie, I mean the sort of OMB overnight, these emails come out that go way back into the spring and early summer showing communication from the President about aid to Ukraine.

Does it matter at this point in terms of what it could mean for the administration, or this will clearly further and inform the public both legally, anything? ELIE HONIG, FORMER ASSISTANT U.S. ATTORNEY: Yes, legally it's too

little too, late in terms of impeachment. I think it's so interesting that these are coming out now because if you remember during the question and answer session in the Senate, one of the senators posed the question that said when exactly did the President first order this hold on Ukraine?

And it was one of the very few moments we saw the President's legal team, which did a very good job for him, stammer. They didn't have a straight answer. They couldn't give a straight answer. These emails give us an important indicator that it was earlier than was already known.

And this is why documents, emails are so important when you're building a case. The fact that they had been held back I think really undermines the integrity of this whole process.

HARLOW: And Jim and Anita -- I mean politically, to your -- in terms of your reporting, Anita -- where does this go from here? Is the White House concerned about this new revelation? Or they already are and no witnesses are going will be called and this thing is going to wrap up on Wednesday?

KUMAR: Well, I do think that it's going to wrap up. I think there's a sense now from Republicans close to the President, close to the White House, that this is just going to go on all year; that we're going to see more and more drip, drip, drip. Things coming out all the time. And it's not going to be good for him as he runs for re-election.

But there's that well, a feeling at least he has that acquittal and perhaps Americans won't be paying attention to all these different things that are coming out.

SCIUTTO: Anita -- there was remarkable coordination between McConnell, GOP senator who should arguably be independent of the executive branch during an impeachment trial. And a final note on that McConnell calling the President, got the support of the President, before he made this deal for the Wednesday vote here.

Is that unusual and is that a sign of how closely they've been working together all along?

KUMAR: They've been working together all along. And if you remember right before the trial started, Mitch McConnell was getting all sorts of criticism for being in lockstep with the President.

But look, you saw where the Senate Republicans are. He only got -- you know, a couple of people broke with the President but they have decided that being with the President is worth the risk of alienating some other voters.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

KUMAR: That he is the Republican Party now and they need to be on his side to win. SCIUTTO: I mean Poppy -- that's the ultimate political calculation

here, right, that the greater damage to be done would be breaking with the President, almost whatever the cost.

HARLOW: Yes.

Elie, before you we go, you make the point that you believe the Democrats are going to try to win by losing. What's your read?

HONIG: It's one of the things I've learned from hanging out with the political people here. There's a way to win by losing. They know that the idea of calling no witnesses is very unpopular with the American public -- 70 percent, 75 percent.

And so I think what we're seeing is they're forcing the Republicans to own it, to stand up in front of the camera, to have to explain it and to really drive home to the American public that what we have seen here is really not a real trial. It's a trial where people are willing to come forward, documents exist and they've been hidden.

HARLOW: Thank you -- Elie. Appreciate it.

Anita -- thanks very much.

Still to come -- Democratic senators return to the campaign trail in Iowa where voters are getting ready to make their first pick on Monday. We will take you live to the ground there.

SCIUTTO: And researchers are now estimating the number of people infected with the coronavirus in Wuhan, China could be more than seven times -- seven times the official count here. Hear what the Trump administration is now doing -- attempts to do to stop it from spreading across the U.S.

[11:09:13]

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HARLOW: Just two days left until the critical Iowa caucuses. Iowa Democrats gathering on Monday night all over -- churches, schools, you name it -- to give the first official verdict on the 2020 Democratic field.

SCIUTTO: It is crunch time for these presidential candidates who are racing across the state this weekend trying to win over undecided voters there. The candidates already out today holding events across Iowa.

So are our correspondents. CNN's Arlette Saenz, she's in North Liberty. CNN's Abby Phillip in Davenport. Plus we're joined by Erin Murphy. He is the Des Moines bureau chief for Lee Enterprises -- a key group of newspapers across Iowa.

And Erin -- just given your spot on the ground there, I wonder if I could begin with you. You say the field has been remarkably consistent for candidates --

Biden, Sanders, Buttigieg and Warren in the lead here. Do you see any differentiation among that in these final hours? And what issue might be driving that for Iowa voters?

ERIN MURPHY, DES MOINE BUREAU CHIEF, LEE ENTERPRISES: I think if anything, maybe foreign policy has become a little bit more front of mind for Iowa Democrats when you had the issue with Iran.

But I think overall the main issues remain the same -- health care, the environment, gun safety. Those are the ones that you hear most often, especially health care.

So I think those are still the main driving issues. And if not a policy but the biggest issue that you hear from Iowa Democrats is trying to find a candidate who will beat Donald Trump in November.

HARLOW: Yes. The issue and the question of electability.

[11:14:53]

HARLOW: So Arlette, let's go to you because you have been traveling with Joe Biden's campaign and covering him obviously. As Erin just said, foreign policy coming to the fore, he's going to try to play that up, obviously, given his experience in that realm and his work overseas.

But then also on the issue of electability -- is that their sort, you know, dual final punch this weekend?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It definitely is -- Poppy.

You've heard Joe Biden in these final few days really stressing that he is the best candidate to take on Donald Trump in the general election. He's been on the ground here for the past week and he's argued that those attacks from the President and Republicans are signs of concern about facing Biden in a general election.

He's also been arguing that the character of the nation is on the ballot. That's a consistent message that he's driven since he launched his campaign back in April.

But we're also hearing a little bit of setting expectations from Joe Biden and his campaign. You know, last night I asked him what would a second, third or even a fourth place finish here mean for him. And he said he thinks they're going to do well but that the race is likely going to be very bunched up.

Take a listen to what he had to tell me last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Let's say everybody comes out of here with, you know, 19, 20, 21, and 22 percent. Well, it's essentially a tie. And so everybody goes to the next town.

If you come out here and somebody is a 25 and you're a 12, you know, well then you're done, you know, in terms of Iowa.

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SAENZ: Now, Biden's campaign also released an email this morning arguing that if the candidates come out of Iowa and New Hampshire with just a small difference in the amount of delegates that they acquire, that that's going to be beneficial to Joe Biden.

Biden told me he sees South Carolina as his firewall. They believe Super Tuesday is an advantage for them based on the diverse demographics in that state.

But Joe Biden and every candidate knows that coming out of Iowa, you're going to have a lot of momentum if you pull off a win here. And that's something that they're all hoping for on Monday night.

SCIUTTO: So Abby Phillip -- there's been some talk of some Klobuchar momentum, some of (INAUDIBLE) Klo-momentum, you could say.

As you look at the race there -- you have been covering this very closely. Is there expectation in her campaign that they might overperform here?

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think Amy Klobuchar feels like Iowa is clearly a sort of do-or-die situation for her. This is where she had a lot of goodwill among the voters. A lot of voters I talked to here talk about Amy Klobuchar in the same breadth that they would talk about a Joe Biden or a Pete Buttigieg.

And it's not just because of this ideological question. And I think there's a question of temperament. And also for Iowa voters they feel like they know her because she's from a nearby neighboring state.

So for Klobuchar, I think they're trying to take advantage of this momentum. And you saw her speeding back here to Iowa after being in the Senate all week, trying to get here on the ground to build on that momentum.

But I think for a lot of the other candidates, especially for Biden and Buttigieg, there's some thinking right now about what happens if in certain parts of the state Amy Klobuchar does not make what they call a threshold here in Iowa -- where do her supporters go?

And so you're seeing a lot of these other candidates making a case that they're the best prepared to take on Trump. They're starting to get sharper against each other, making those contrasts a lot more clear.

And for Buttigieg in particular, he's really been leaning on this unity message, saying he's the candidate to really unify all corners of the Democratic Party, something that Iowans seem to be particularly interested in. And you hear from a lot of voters here, some weariness about the political in-fighting, particularly what's been going on in Washington over the last week, and the Buttigieg campaign is definitely trying to take advantage of some of that. HARLOW: Erin -- give us a sense of how many Iowa voters are undecided

still, two days out form the caucuses, and what you might know or at least the reporting is in terms of how high this turnout could be.

MURPHY: The number of undecided Iowa Democrats is quite remarkable. The polling shows that still as much as roughly half of likely caucus goers are, if not undecided, still willing to have their minds changed.

And that matches with what we see and what we hear on the ground when we talk to people. There's still people who have a short list. We have been talking to undecided Iowa Democrats. Talked to one woman who said she just recently narrowed her list down to four.

You know, that's something you would expect to hear last, you know, October, November -- not two days out from the caucuses. So it is incredible how many Iowans still have not made up their minds.

And you mentioned turnout, everyone I talk to expects a very high turnout, if not a record number. Again, going with what we see on the ground, that wouldn't surprise me at all. The enthusiasm, the interest, the turnout for these events is high. I would be shocked if we don't have record turnout for these Democratic caucuses.

HARLOW: Wow.

[11:19:58]

SCIUTTO: Listen, Iowans take it seriously. If you ever covered these caucuses, no question.

Arlette, just to you -- you have been covering the Biden campaign for some time now. You know, the campaign is talking about -- coming out of this you might have a tight race and small delegate differentials might be to their benefit if they don't win or there's no clear winner here.

I just wonder if that was from your view some expectations management from the Biden campaign as they head into the final hours there?

SAENZ: I think it certainly is. AND I think all of these candidates are looking at how this Iowa caucuses can turn out on Monday night and kind of gaming out where they head from here.

You know, Joe Biden, he told me that New Hampshire is going to be an uphill race for him because he's not one of those candidates from a neighboring state.

But what they're looking at is he believes that he's going to have strong support from African-American voters, from older voters, as they head down to South Carolina. That could potentially be a boon for them.

And also a lot of those Super Tuesday states where there is a much more diverse population. So I think in the coming days we're going to hear a little bit of spin, a little bit of expectation settings for various candidates as they're all trying to game out where this all goes after Iowa.

SCIUTTO: Abby-- when you think about some of the -- you know, you think of a Bloomberg campaign, for example, or Tom Steyer who was just on earlier -- I think they're looking at these first three contests and see do they leave a window open for them more so after we see Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada? What do these three first contests tell us?

PHILLIP: Yes, I mean for sure. Right now what we are seeing in this race is just a really fractured Democratic electorate. You're seeing a progressive candidate in Bernie Sanders really rising and the moderate candidates splitting the vote.

And I think that that's where Mike Bloomberg sees the opportunity. You know, he's seeing in all of the moderate candidates a certain amount of weakness that they're not able to consolidate that part of the electorate.

And so the strategy from the Bloomberg campaign is essentially to say -- and this is correct on a fundamental level -- this is a delegate game. In order to win the nomination, you have to win delegates.

And frankly, you're not going to get most delegates in these first four states. So they're moving past that. Going to the delegate-rich parts of this campaign and doing two things. Showing to voters that they're going to the places where Donald Trump is campaigning right now and saying this is how we prove that we're serious about beating Trump in November, which they know is voters' number one priority.

And then they're also -- they're laying the foundation to win -- to potentially compete for a lot more delegates that will be at stake once we get to these Super Tuesday states.

So it is a strategy that is very different from what we have seen before but it is borne out of this belief that because these moderates -- Biden, Klobuchar, Buttigieg -- are splitting that vote, there is an opening for someone like Bloomberg to take a different strategy --

HARLOW: Right.

PHILLIP: -- take a strategy that is later in the process where more voters are.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

HARLOW: Abby -- thank you so much. Arlette Saenz, Erin Murphy -- good to have you. Big few days ahead with only 48 hours before the Iowa caucuses -- the final "Des Moines Register" poll, those number will be revealed tonight, right here on CNN during a live special event, 9:00 Eastern, right here.

SCIUTTO: And coming up next this hour -- President Trump is preparing his State of the Union speech as the impeachment vote and his expected acquittal loom. What the White House thinks of the decision to hold that vote until after his address coming up.

[11:23:34]

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SCIUTTO: The Senate impeachment trial of President Trump will now extend to one day after his State of the Union address. A source tells CNN the President signed off on that decision but Republican senators reportedly said McConnell did not have a choice but to cut a deal with Democrats.

Joining me now, CNN White House Reporter, Sarah Westwood and Karoun Demirjian, she's a congressional reporter for the "Washington Post".

So Sarah you cover this White House. Trump aides once viewed the Tuesday's State of the Union as an opportunity to walk vindicated onto the floor of the House in front of Speaker Nancy Pelosi -- kind of wave the flag a bit. That will have to be delayed. How does he approach this thing?

SARAH WESTWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: That's right. And sources tell CNN that last night at Mar-a-Lago President Trump seemed a little bit distracted, seemed a little bit more subdued.

White House aides had wanted, as you mentioned, to have the President walk on to that floor and be vindicated, have this be sort of hitting the reset button and could pivot towards his reelection.

With this deal with -- McConnell and Republicans say they had no choice but to take Democrats, could have gunned up the wheels forces anyway with late nights and weekends with procedural measures. Now they have no choice but to do this.

And at best now, the President is going to get maybe about a half day of positive coverage about his State of the Union. The coverage is going to be tainted by the fact that he's still facing a trial in the Senate.

And so White House aides have had to resign themselves to the fact they're not going to have that moment that they wanted.

SCIUTTO: I mean you might expect him to claim vindication anyway, right.

Karoun -- you have covered him for some time. And a senior Trump administration official said to CNN that the speech was planned to be forward looking, right. A kind of campaign speech -- look at all I've done. This is what I could do.

Does he stick with that message in light of this?

KAROUN DEMIRJIAN, CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER, "WASHINGTON POST": I mean I think that he's going to have to really because he's making this speech on this podium in an election year and that's kind of what State of the Union addresses have to be. They have to be positive even if you don't have the whole Congress behind you, which frankly, this president never had.

[11:29:57]

DEMIRJIAN: But I think the fact, you know, we all know what the vote outcome is going to be, there are not 20 Republican senators to vote to convict. Even if maybe one does -- or two do decide to take that vote he's going to be acquitted less than 24 hours after he makes that speech.

And knowing that should be able to give him some air of confidence as he does make that speech. But again, it's probably going to be a certainly divided reception which it has have been for President Trump before but specially now with this being, you know -- the impeachment question being on the table for just the next day. I think you're probably going to see a lot of stone faces from Democrats as they listen to any pitch he made.

SCIUTTO: Well, Democratic talking points, they've been using this, including on our broadcast for a number of days now, is that acquittal in an unfair trial, as they describe, is not exoneration, right -- it's not vindication. You will, of course, have a Democratic response after the President's State of the Union address. What message do they go with at this point?

WESTWOOD: Well, I think you nailed it. Democrats are going to focus on the fact that in their eyes this wasn't a thorough trial or a fair trial and they're going to try to deny to the extent that they can the President's ability to claim that vindication.

But you saw the President successfully in hindsight get away with claiming vindication after the Mueller report, for example --

SCIUTTO: Yes.

WESTWOOD: -- even though the nuances of the report were very far from exonerating him, the President used the total absence of criminal charges as itself a vindication, so he could use acquittal itself as a vindication.

You also saw the White House run with the fact that Democrats lost two votes on the vote for the articles of impeachment in the House, claiming bipartisanship was on the side of opposition to impeachment. If you do have some of those moderate Republicans vote against one or both articles of impeachment, like Kyrsten Sinema, like Doug Jones -- you could see the White House really harp on that as well.

SCIUTTO: I would brace yourself at home for an all-caps total exoneration tweet -- just guessing.

Let's look at this campaign -- I mean impeachment. It was already ugly before impeachment made the politics of this town and this country uglier. What does the 2020 election look like as we go forward? What should folks prepare for?

DEMIRJIAN: Well, I mean the big question is, is the President going to feel emboldened after this? And what does that mean for the next quick math, I guess -- the next ten months in between now and when the election is going to be. The Democrats still don't have their candidate right now and the President is very, very good at doing -- at messaging. He's very good at doing pithy messages and, you know, making tough -- slapping at his opponents in a way that they're not as equipped to slap back.

SCIUTTO: And also perhaps seeking foreign help, right? I mean this is -- you've covered this president before. I mean the call to the Ukrainian president came the day after Robert Mueller's testimony on the Hill. If the President feels not only he's been acquitted but sort of given license, right, to seek the kind of help that he was impeached for, do you see the President applying pressure on other countries for dirt on his political opponents, or at least opening the door to it? I mean this is a genuine possibility.

WESTWOOD: It is a genuine possibility but I think that the impeachment fits right into the narrative that the President was already going to run on, right? Which is that he spent his entire presidency being persecuted by Democrats, investigated for what he claims is nothing.

Obviously, that's not the case and yet he's been able to accomplish a list of things that we're going to hear in the "State of the Union".

We're going to see some --

SCIUTTO: Yes.

WESTWOOD: -- of in the Super Bowl ad tomorrow --

SCIUTTO: Yes.

WESTWOOD: -- that the Trump campaign is rolling out.

This does fit perfectly into the story line that the President is trying to sell to the American people. And so in a lot of ways the President could use this to try to benefit himself, and allies and certainly argue that impeachment helped just a little bit.

SCIUTTO: And the money's been rolling in to his campaign coffers.

Sarah, Karoun -- thanks to both of you. I hope you get a weekend.

Poppy.

HARLOW: Or a little bit of one, right?

Still ahead -- researchers now estimate that more than 75,000 people in Wuhan, China could be infected with the coronavirus. More on the global crisis ahead.

[11:33:41]

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HARLOW: Well, the number of coronavirus cases in Wuhan, China could be as much as seven times higher than the official count. SCIUTTO: And this of course, follows (ph) China hiding some of the

early signs of the outbreaks. Researchers in Hong Kong writing in a medical journal that nearly 76,000 people may be infected today. The official count from China is only 11,000.

CNN international correspondent David Culver is in Beijing. He's been following this with more.

DAVID CULVER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Jim and Poppy -- more and more countries are advising their citizens not to travel here to mainland China as the country steps up its massive effort to contain the deadly coronavirus outbreak.

The U.S. and Australia are also preventing four nationals who have traveled in China in the last two weeks from entering their country. American citizens who have traveled to China's Hubei Province, which is the epicenter of the outbreak in the two weeks before they return to the U.S. are going to be subject to up to 14 days of mandatory quarantine. The CDC says it's the first mandatory quarantine in the U.S. in more than 50 years.

Meanwhile, American travelers returning from the rest of mainland China could face health screenings and up to two weeks of self- quarantine.

Within China, more local governments are imposing more extreme containment efforts. On Saturday the city Huanggong (ph) prevented residents from leaving their home requiring folks who live in the city center to designate only one family member who can leave their home every other day for grocery shopping. The exception will be those who need medical treatment and those who work in pharmacies and supermarkets. That immediately impacts 400,000 people.

But surrounding communities are recommended to implement the same policy. That would include 7.5 million people, more than the population of the state of Arizona.

State media also reports that local officials are using drones with speakers attached to educate people in a lighthearted but serious manner, essentially flying over people and calling them out if they're not wearing face masks.

[11:39:51]

CULVER: China is becoming increasingly isolated in the world. At least 62 countries are implementing a wide range of immigration restrictions against both Chinese nationals and people traveling from mainland China.

As a result, this country of 1.4 billion people is essentially in quarantine -- Jim and Poppy.

SCIUTTO: I mean those pictures of the drones, I mean it's straight out of science fiction.

HARLOW: Right. SCIUTTO: Let's get more details on the efforts here in the U.S. to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

Natasha Chen, CNN national correspondent -- she's at Atlanta's airport. Natasha -- what are you seeing there?

NATASHA CHEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Well, a lot of people who are traveling to the region to Asia, we're seeing coming through. They're wearing masks for precautionary reasons.

And of course, they're not going to China. Delta, United, American Airlines -- they've all temporarily suspended their flights to and from China at this point.

And you heard David talk about the restrictions for Americans coming back from China as well. That all begins at5:00 p.m. Eastern on Sunday.

And at the same time all flights from China to the U.S. at that point will be funneled through seven airports, and Atlanta is one of those seven.

We also have heard -- the Pentagon has told CNN that they expect to receive a request from Health and Human Services to find additional space potentially for further quarantine purposes.

Right now you've heard of those nearly 200 people in Riverside County, California who are quarantined for 14 days. That facility is already at capacity so it's possible they may be looking for more space for government contractors and other government personnel and dependents who may be coming back from China via U.S. government-sponsored charter planes at this point.

HARLOW: Natasha -- you were recently traveling in Asia. You were not in mainland China but you were nearby.

CHEN: Right.

HARLOW: What was it like there? I mean how many precautions are people taking even outside of mainland China?

CHEN: Absolutely. So I was in Taiwan and Japan. And of course, this is during the lunar new year, holiday -- so there's typically a lot of travel going on during the biggest holiday of the year for them over there.

And what we're hearing is while we were over there, that many tour groups got canceled, hotel reservations got canceled. So it was a lot more quiet than it typically would be.

Now, culturally it is very acceptable to wear masks even long before this virus became an issue. People typically wear them to prevent common cold and not get spit on with coughs and sniffles. So I was used to seeing people wear them typically.

But this trip it was much more pronounced. 90 percent of the people I saw on the streets wearing face masks, people in the Service industry especially and when we entered restaurants and other businesses, there would be folks waiting with hand sanitizer to spritz our hands before we walked in and even in one case, using a device pointed at my forehead to take my temperature, to make sure I didn't have a fever before I walked in.

HARLOW: Wow, wow -- that says a lot. Natasha -- thank you for that reporting for us very much. We appreciate it.

SCIUTTO: Well this just in to CNN this morning. President Trump appeared to confirm reports stating that the U.S. killed or attempted to kill the top al Qaeda leader in Yemen -- one of the most dangerous al Qaeda groups in the world.

This morning, the President retweeted a report on the death of Qasim al-Raymi, the leader of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. This comes on the heels of CNN reporting from myself and Barbara Starr, in which an official told us the U.S. recently conducted a strike targeting al- Raymi.

Many counterterrorist officials consider AQAP one of the most dangerous terror groups in the world, they have a particular focus on airline, commercial aviation, sneaking bombs on the planes, very sophisticated bombs contained in laptop computers and other electronic devices.

Raymi reportedly became came the leader of AQAP in 2015. When asked about the report, the Pentagon would not confirm it or elaborate on it. This is the third or would be the third major terrorist leader killed by U.S. forces in just recent months. I

Iranian general Qasem Soleimani killed in a drone strike just last month and Abu Bakr al Baghdad, of course, died during a raid in Syria in October.

HARLOW: Most Republicans standing by the President during his impeachment trial. Up next we will talk with one lifelong Republican who says she is leaving the party next.

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HARLOW: It's going to be a big week of special political coverage right here on CNN. In addition to Monday's Iowa caucuses, on Tuesday it is the State of the Union address. Wednesday and Thursday we have back-to-back presidential town halls live from New Hampshire. And don't miss all the special coverage starting next week only right here on CNN.

So unless something earth shatteringly big, unexpected happens between now and Wednesday, the President's impeachment trial will be over by then, will very likely end in his acquittal. Senate Republicans standing firmly by his side as my colleague Chris Cuomo put it, Republicans quote "chose pride and Trump over truth". So what does this all mean for the future of the Grand Old Party moving forward. With me now, Sophia Nelson, a lifelong Republican until recently, senior adviser for the Lincoln Project and former House GOP investigative counsel.

Sophia -- it's so good to have you. When you look at these statements, whether it's form Lamar Alexander or Lisa Murkowski or Marco Rubio saying even if it's enough to impeach, that doesn't mean it's the right thing for the country to remove the President. Where do you think it leaves your former party, now that you're an independent?

SOPHIA NELSON, SENIOR ADVISOR, LINCOLN PROJECT: Well, let me say this. I think what we watched as a country over this last week is a very divided, not just America, but a very divided House of Representatives and Senate -- too partisan. And I think that the system is broken.

[11:50:01]

NELSON: So I agree with what Chris Cuomo said that this party is now squarely Donald Trump's Republican Party. And look, I'm a believer in conviction. I'm a believer in following my ethics, my code. And if I can't be in a party and support Donald Trump and support who he is and what he does, I don't need to be in that party.

And I think those of us at the Lincoln Project have made that very clear that we're going to do everything in our power, Poppy, to make sure that Donald Trump doesn't get reelected and try to get the Republican Party back on track post Donald Trump.

HARLOW: Why do you think you're sort of the exception to the rule in this case, right? Because even Lisa Murkowski's statement, and let's just remember the context there, she was willing to vote against the President on Kavanaugh, right. So she had to vote (INAUDIBLE).

And she just said essentially the whole thing is broken, Congress is broken, the Senate is broken, I am sad but I'm not going to vote for witnesses.

Why are you sort of the exception to the rule here and everyone, even her, is standing by the President?

NELSON: Well, again, I can't speak to that, you have to ask her. But if you look at these statements by Marco Rubio, by Lamar Alexander, by Lisa Murkowski -- they're very cowardly. They're saying yes, I think you did it. Yes, I think the House managers proved their case, but it doesn't rise to the level, a la Alan Dershowitz, right.

HARLOW: Right.

NELSON: Or we can't impeach him for that, or as Lisa Murkowski said to me, her statement made me sad because you're a United States senator, girl. You can do a lot. You have a lot of power, you're 1 of 100. And to say basically the system is broken, so I will go along to get along instead of pulling a Margaret Chase Smith (ph) and railing against it and declaring your conscience and being like an Edmond G. Ross who was the one vote that saved Johnson, he went against his party in 1860.

HARLOW: Right.

NELSON: I mean there are profiles in courage. And we have seen zero from this Republican Party -- zero.

Mitt Romney, you can argue yes, and Susan Collins, but I think they allowed Collins to vote that way, Poppy -- because she's got a tough re-election campaign.

HARLOW: Ok. But you know what, it is not totally over here. I mean the President all but surely is going to be acquitted, but there's a possibility of censure, and sending a message. And it's not unheard of. Look at Joe McCarthy, look at Andrew Jackson -- it has happened. It could happen again. And you only need a simple majority. This isn't a two-thirds, you don't need, you know, 67. Is it going to happen?

NELSON: I have been pushing for censure on this network and in my pieces for months, probably since before the impeachment happened. Because again, all you could do is know the math. You knew that they didn't have votes in the Senate to remove. We've never removed a president in three trials. And that's because you've got to have two- thirds which is not easy to do.

So I think a censure, particularly given the statements of Republicans, very hard for them now to back down and say well, I don't support censure. Yes you do, because you told us that you think he did it. You've told us that it's is inappropriate, that it's wrong, that it's not ok.

But now you're telling us to not do it and the President has got to be rebuked, he's got to be slapped hard and have him understand you can't obstruct Congress, you can't abuse your power. We may not remove you, sir, but we're not going to tolerate this kind of conduct.

HARLOW: Why did you leave the party -- Sophia?

NELSON: Because I am a person of moral conviction, and I'm a woman of faith, and I follow my faith principles. It doesn't mean other people aren't. I can only speak for me.

And we need a revolution in this country. We need a third party. We need an independent movement. Look at the voter rolls in most of this country, Poppy -- and you see the majority of voters are independents, they're not Republicans and they're Democrats. But they're sleepy. They need to be awakened. They need to be called back to we the people.

And I want to be part of that movement with the Lincoln Project. And that's what we're all about. We're going to get this country back on track in the politics and we're going to hopefully save the Republican Party at some point from Donald Trump.

HARLOW: Sophia Nelson -- thanks for coming in on a Saturday morning. Appreciate you being here.

NELSON: My pleasure. SCIUTTO: Marie Yovanovitch, the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, has now retired from the State Department after more than 30 years of service. It's unclear exactly when it happened, but it was sometime in the last two weeks.

Yovanovitch, of course, was thrust into the spotlight and the center of the impeachment of President Trump after she was removed from her post last May. That came after a targeted smear campaign against her led by President Trump's personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani.

On the infamous July 25th phone call with the Ukrainian president, President Trump made a negative reference to Yovanovitch, calling her bad news. Said things were going to happen to her.

Yovanovitch testified in November that she was devastated to hear that. And in a recently released recording, the President himself was overheard at a fundraising dinner in 2018 telling an aid to, quote, "take her out".

Other news we've been following this morning, the Trump administration is expanding its travel ban to include six new countries with significant Muslim populations. Many already planning -- panning the move, rather as anti-Muslim.

[11:54:53]

SCIUTTO: The expansion adds new immigration restrictions to Nigeria, Eretria, Tanzania, Sudan, Kyrgyzstan, and Myanmar also known as Burma. This comes three years after the President introduced his first travel ban.

His administration argues the ban is vital to national security. The new restrictions will take effect February 22nd, it affects thousands of people.

After all the talk, all the campaigning, Iowa voters will finally make their choice for president. CNN speaks to voters ahead of the nation's first caucus.

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