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Trump Pressured Pence on Coup, Then Threw Him to Lions; U.S. Capitol Grounds Put Under Intensified Security a Day After Mob Breach; Interview with Representative Seth Moulton (D-MA) about the Capitol Hill Siege; Arrests Underway in Trump-Inspired Attack on Capitol. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired January 07, 2021 - 13:00   ET

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

[13:00:35]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Hello, I'm Brianna Keilar, and to our viewers here in the U.S. and around the world, this is another historic day in America.

Any moment now we expect to hear from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi whose office in the capital was breached by domestic terrorists yesterday.

And later this hour, President-elect Joe Biden talks about his Department of Justice priorities and his criminal justice priorities. We will bring both of those to you live.

We start, though, with the final days of the Trump administration. Thirteen days and counting until President Trump's term ends. But as we saw with the violent events in the nation's capital anything can happen in these last 13 days. A former White House official tells CNN that Trump is, quote, "out of his mind." The president believes his own lies and doesn't recognize the truth any more.

The president is not accepting responsibility certainly for inciting his supporters to overrun the Capitol. On the contrary, he is said to have been borderline enthusiastic, that is a quote, as he watched them on television yesterday. Former attorney general William Barr called the president's actions a, quote, "betrayal of his office and supporters," and he said orchestrating a mob to pressure Congress is inexcusable.

As the siege was under way yesterday, lawmakers scattered, some of them hid under desks, others barricaded themselves in their offices along with their staffs. And today, some lawmakers are calling for accountability.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. GRACE MENG (D-NY): Well, I really want to see people being held accountable. I haven't heard too much. There were people who died, a woman died on the -- being injured on the floor of our House chamber. Property was damaged, property was stolen. People were fearing for their lives, making calls to their families to say good-bye.

A message must be sent. There must be ramifications, there must be consequences for yesterday's actions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: We are learning that members of President Trump's Cabinet are considering what to do next. And among the options they're weighing is invoking the 25th Amendment which would remove the president from office. There's also a trickle of White House officials who are resigning, now including former chief of staff and current special envoy to Northern Ireland, Mick Mulvaney. He is not the first, he is likely not the last to leave this administration over these events that unfolded yesterday.

The Capitol building was cleared several hours after domestic terrorists broke through the windows and the doors on multiple sides of the building yesterday. And after order was restored, members of the House and Senate got back to their sworn duties. Early this morning shortly before 4:00 a.m., they completed the count that officially makes Joe Biden the next president of the United States.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The votes for president of the United States are as follows. Joseph R. Biden Jr. of the state of Delaware has received 306 votes. Donald J. Trump of the state of Florida has received 232 votes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Even after the unprecedented violence that rocked the Capitol building, eight Senate Republicans still stood up to object to the election results and try to overturn the will of the voters. Senators Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley voiced the objections and there were six other senators who voted with them. But their unfounded claims were overwhelmingly rejected by members of the House and Senate.

Remember this is a presidency that started with a relatively poorly attended inauguration. The crowd size comparisons to President Obama's so embarrassing to Trump, that he forced his press secretary to go out and lie about it. And this ends with a bigger-than-anticipated crowd of Trump supporters storming the Capitol building, putting an indelible stain on the president's legacy and on American history.

And we do have more breaking news. CNN is learning what is taking place behind some closed doors at the White House between the president and Vice President Pence, which includes a pressure campaign by the president to engineer a coup.

I want to go straight now to CNN chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta.

And what else are you learning there, Jim? JIM ACOSTA, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Brianna, we're

learning more about this pressure campaign that essentially the president was applying on the vice president earlier this week, talking to a source close to the vice president. Apparently the president and vice president were holed up in the Oval Office for hours on Tuesday.

[13:05:04]

And during this meeting the president repeatedly was pressuring Vice President Pence to help engineer this coup that we saw or almost saw yesterday up on Capitol Hill during the counting of the electoral votes. It was during this meeting according to the source close to the vice president that the president made it very clear to Pence that if he didn't participate in this coup attempt, that there would be major political consequences for Mike Pence.

In addition to that, this source close to the vice president says that the vice president and members of his family were up on Capitol Hill yesterday for that official counting of the electoral votes, and when the storming of the Capitol was taking place, according to this source close to the vice president, the White House, including the president, were not doing very much to check on Vice President Pence to make sure that he and his family were safe, according to a source close to the vice president.

The second lady, Karen Pence, and Pence's daughter Charlotte Pence were with the vice president for portions of that ceremonial event that we saw up on Capitol Hill that was delayed by the siege in Congress.

Brianna, I will tell you, talking to the source close to the vice president they are very concerned about this. This source said to me, and we can put this quote up on screen, about why the president, why top officials in the White House weren't doing more to check on the vice president and his family, the source says, quote, "was he concerned," talking about the president, "Was he concerned at all that an angry mob that he commanded to march on the Capitol might injure the vice president or his family?"

That coming from a source close to Vice President Mike Pence. In addition to that, this source said that the vice president's aides and advisers, some of them believe that essentially Pence is being set up as a fall guy in all of this, that basically after the president, people like Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, the president's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, put out this false hope that perhaps Pence could engineer some sort of procedural coup, that Pence is now being left out in the wind essentially in Trump world to take the blame for the fact that President Trump will no longer be in power after January 20th, when of course the reason why President Trump will no longer be in power after January 20th is he was voted out of office.

And so it sounds like at this point, Brianna, there are some hard feelings inside this Trump-Pence relationship that people close to the vice president feel like he has been betrayed by the president. And keep in mind, as you know all too well, Brianna, you used to work over here at the White House, the relationship between a president and vice president is a special one. And what we've seen over the last four years is that there is hardly anybody, I mean there is nobody who has been more loyal to this president than Vice President Pence.

And there are people around the vice president now who just feel like he has been thrown to the lions, that he was thrown to the lions yesterday by President Trump -- Brianna.

KEILAR: I mean, the president has problems with all interpersonal relationships. We've seen that. So, I mean, it's amazing that Trump -- or pardon me, Pence was able to maintain good standing for this long.

Jim, I wonder what is the president doing right now?

ACOSTA: Well, he's inside the White House. The Marina Station outside the West Wing, so we presume that the president is in the Oval Office. There's going to be a ceremony today where he's going to be awarding the Medal of Freedom to some professional golfers over here at the White House. I mean, there could not be a greater disconnect between what's happening over here at the White House and the events that took place yesterday.

The other thing that White House aides are dealing with right now, they're grappling with right now, is that you have multiple resignations happening all around them. Just about every hour there's a new resignation that they have to deal with.

And in addition to that, the president and his team are listening to what is being said on CNN and other news outlets throughout the last 24 hours, that there is some discussion going on about invoking the 25th Amendment to force the president out of office, that there is some discussion going on at least up on Capitol Hill about perhaps having some rapid impeachment and conviction and removal procedures up on Capitol Hill to force the president from power.

All of those scenarios seem unlikely at this point, but I can tell you a source close to the vice president has confirmed to me that yes, some inquiries are coming into the vice president's staff about invoking the 25th Amendment, that some on the vice president's team, they are hearing some inquiries about that and they're dealing with that as we speak -- Brianna.

KEILAR: We'll see where it goes. Jim Acosta, thank you so much for that live report from the White House.

ACOSTA: You bet.

KEILAR: A major, major security failure. That is how Washington, D.C.'s former police chief, Charles Ramsey, is characterizing this assault that we saw on our nation's capital yesterday. As the damage is assessed and this breach is investigated, it really prompts the question, will the violence intensify over the next 13 days? And if it does intensify, will law enforcement be ready this time?

[13:10:04]

CNN correspondent Brian Todd is live for us on the hill.

Brian, what kind of security are you seeing at the Capitol today?

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Brianna, it's a day late but right now the Capitol grounds are being converted into a fortress. I'm going to show you what's going on. Our photojournalist Christine Lien and I are going to show you the new security measures that have just been put up here. This is along First Street northeast between the Capitol and the Supreme Court. You see that fencing that had just been put up on both the east and the west front of the Capitol.

That is fencing that's metal, they're about eight feet high. You know, officials say that it's unscalable and it's going to be erected all around the Capitol. I can kind of walk you down this way. See, they're pulling up. They just pulled up a big truck with some more fencing over here. You've got -- these are Virginia State Police over here to our left. You've got National Guardsmen, Washington Metropolitan Police also ringing the grounds here.

Again, this all coming a day late. We'll walk you down here as we start to talk about this. Christine and I can kind of -- just kind of stroll down this way a little bit, and show you how they're putting up this fencing. The army secretary says this fencing will stay up for no less than 30 days, so it will clearly extend past the inauguration and then I guess it's an open question as to when they're going to take it down, when this place can start to return to normal.

But you can see now here visually just what they're doing to try to ensure the safety of the Capitol. This comes as multiple investigations are ongoing into the failures that led to the breach of the Capitol yesterday. The former Capitol Hill police chief Terrance Gainer was on CNN earlier today. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TERRANCE GAINER, FORMER CAPITOL HILL POLICE CHIEF: It's clear to me that the police were outnumbered and they apparently underestimated the strength and level of violence in that crowd and overestimated their ability to control the crowd.

We failed. We did not secure the Capitol. And people need to be held responsible and explain what went on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TODD: And the current Capitol Hill police chief issued a statement earlier today saying that his officers acted valiantly, that they were actively attacked by the people who led the insurrection, led the breach into the Capitol, that they had to respond, and that they responded valiantly, in his words. But of course we know that they are investigating the breaches that occurred, what led to them and why so many people were able to get so deep into the Capitol -- Brianna.

KEILAR: Yes. It was -- I mean, it was unprecedented. Brian Todd live for us from Capitol Hill. Thank you. I want to talk now with Democratic congressman and former presidential

candidate Seth Moulton who wrote a piece for CNN while sheltering in the capital complex yesterday. He is a former Marine Corps officer and he wrote in part, "This is no protest. This is anarchy. It's domestic terrorism. The people who are in the building right now are traitors to our nation." And Congressman Moulton is with us now to talk about this.

This, I mean, what you went through yesterday, what you all went through yesterday was unlike anything we've ever seen. You have maybe some experience going through something like this, obviously not in this setting. You were a veteran, you were among the first Americans in Baghdad after 9/11. You served four tours in all. So with that perspective in mind, tell us about this experience yesterday.

REP. SETH MOULTON (D-MA): I mean, look, Brianna, what I saw in Iraq was 100 times worse. But the point is that this should never happen in America. I mean, I expected a direct challenge to democracy when we were trying to bring it to a country that had never experienced democracy before. We knew that we were in a war zone.

I did not come to the United States Congress to be in a war zone. And the fact that the Capitol was breached for the first time since the war of 1812, when the British were burning Washington to the ground. It is truly unprecedented. Massive security failure, massive intelligence failure. But let's not lose sight of the fact that this comes directly from the president of the United States.

The president of the United States, just down Pennsylvania Avenue, called on his supporters to attack the United States Capitol. He refused to call out the National Guard to protect our government. He was the one behind an attempted coup. And that's why the commander-in- chief needs to be relieved of duty.

KEILAR: So right now there are certain avenues in which that could happen. There are Articles of Impeachment that are being circulated among House Democrats. What can you tell us about that?

MOULTON: This is the right thing to do and some people will say why are you doing this now, it's too late, the transition of power is about to happen. It's never too late to do the right thing, it's is never too late in America to uphold the law. And we're a country where the law applies to everyone. And that's why if the president breaks the law, he should be impeached. We should go through that proceeding.

[13:15:03]

We can have a debate, we can have a vote, but the process should go forward because we need to set the precedent for every future president and for every person in the free world who is watching how our democracy is functioning now that the president of the United States is not above the law.

I also think that his Cabinet and the vice president should invoke the 25th Amendment because the commander-in-chief's most fundamental responsibility is to keep us safe, to protect our government from all enemies, foreign and domestic. He not only failed to protect us, he incited the violence against us, against our government, against the American people.

KEILAR: Is this even feasible to do, though? I mean, do you have the political will from Democrats and Republicans? Do you have the time? With the goal with Articles of Impeachment be to force him to resign? I mean, can you even really get this done?

MOULTON: I mean, the articles are just beginning to be circulated so it's probably a little bit too early to answer that question politically. But I can tell you, I certainly have the political will, I can speak for myself. I'm a Democrat who's here to do the right thing. And I know that there are Republicans who are thinking this as well.

There is a Republican lawmaker who is a veteran like myself who came up to me while we were sheltered in place. He is one who was voting against the electoral count, something I'm almost embarrassed to report because I think that's so un-American, but even he as a lawmaker voting against the electoral college count said this man needs to be relieved of duty, he is a danger to the United States.

So whether or not Republicans like he will have the courage to come out and say that publicly, I don't know. But there's certainly widespread bipartisan concern about the safety of our nation under Commander-in-chief Donald Trump.

KEILAR: Even after the siege that we saw yesterday, there were 138 Republican House members who voted against certifying Pennsylvania's electoral college votes. What kind of conversations are you having with your Republican counterparts right now?

MOULTON: I'm telling them that what they are doing is inciting the violence that we see outside. And how they can possibly think that this is good for our democracy because that's the argument they sometimes make. We have to do this for the sake of our democracy, to make sure that the election is safe and that we instill confidence in elections in the future.

Well, they're doing the exact opposite. They're breaking the trust of the American people. They're breaking the confidence in our democracy, not just here at home but frankly around the globe. I think about how hard it was to bring democracy to Iraq. It wasn't a war that I agreed with, but it's the hardest thing I've had to do in my life. And the only reason we even had a chance was because we and the Iraqis could look at the United States of America as a shining example.

A democracy, the city upon a hill that we've talked about for centuries in America and around the globe, but that image is being shattered right now by the images we see on TV of an attempted coup right here in the heart of Washington, D.C. So the damage being done by these Republican lawmakers is long lasting. It's not even just here at home. It will extend for generations and it will extend around the globe.

KEILAR: I want to ask you as you are talking to some Republican colleagues, you are known as someone especially in the ranks of veterans there on Capitol Hill who has friends across the aisle, are you hearing even -- like privately, are you hearing any self- reflection, any sort of remorse that it went this far, or that they didn't expect that it would go this far? Are they saying anything like that to you?

MOULTON: I am hearing that, Brianna, but, you know, they don't teach you as a politician to admit when you're wrong. And whether or not these Republicans will have the political courage to come out and say that, I don't know. You know, if you read President John F. Kennedy's book, "Profiles in Courage," every example is of a politician who goes against his party. That's the definition of political courage. That's what's required of these Republicans today.

There's a few who had the courage to do that yesterday, to do it publicly. I know Representative Kinzinger, a fellow veteran, has already come out and said himself as a Republican that the 25th Amendment should be invoked, but we need to see a lot more political courage in Washington. You know, people for years since I have been up here, I've been here about five or six years, have asked me, Seth, why is Congress so stupid?

How can Congress not believe in climate change or frankly believe in election results? And what I've always noticed is that most of my colleagues are pretty smart. It's not easy to be a member of Congress. What's lacking in Congress isn't intelligence, it's courage. It's just the willingness to admit the truth and be willing to sell that truth to the people that you represent, to explain it to them.

[13:20:04]

That should be our job as representatives of this government. But a huge part of the Republican Party is failing in that job. Failing in that duty to uphold the truth. And I don't know exactly where this is going to go.

KEILAR: Yes. We will start where it went yesterday and it was a scary place.

Congressman Seth Moulton, thank you so much, joining us live from Capitol Hill.

MOULTON: Thanks, Brianna.

KEILAR: And we're very glad that you are safe, sir.

Republicans who enabled the president's coup attempt are now pretending that they are shocked and we'll roll the tape on why they should not be.

Plus, Speaker Nancy Pelosi speaks moments from now. Will she call for the president's removal? Her Democratic counterpart in the Senate just did.

This is CNN's special live coverage.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:25:08]

KEILAR: Just in to CNN, the acting U.S. attorney general says charges will be filed today against some of the rioters who participated in the attack on the Capitol.

We have CNN's senior justice correspondent Evan Perez who is working this story.

Evan, tell us what you're learning here.

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brianna, we're expecting dozens of cases -- charges to be brought against some of the people who were involved. At least 12 to 15 of these cases are going to be brought in federal court.

Some of these are going to be brought in the municipal courts. But we know that the FBI spent the night, digital teams spent the night looking at some of the surveillance video from the Capitol buildings as well as some of the buildings that surround that campus there, as well as looking at some of the -- some of those social media postings by some of these people.

They're trying to match up the faces of the people you see on some of the images that we have now shown with some of the stuff that was on social media even before this rally. As you know, there are a lot of these folks who were participating who were telling everyone, the world, ahead of time that they plan to storm the Capitol. So that is something that's going to play into the efforts by prosecutors to be able to bring charges.

So I'm told that you should expect to see more federal charges coming in the coming days. But the big question that still remains, I think the question that everyone is still asking is why the federal response was what it was. Why the posture was frankly a lot more relaxed than we saw during the summer when we had the Black Lives Matter protests or even for that matter during the Amy Coney Barrett hearings when you had a lot more armed presence to protect the Capitol.

There's a lot of failure that happened yesterday. And the question is, why did the U.S. Capitol police not expect frankly this kind of onslaught when they knew that a lot of this stuff was happening in the city yesterday.

KEILAR: Yes. It is huge questions there that hopefully we will get answers to soon. And we know that you'll be tracking that.

Evan Perez, thank you so much, live for us from the Justice Department.

As calls grow louder to remove President Trump, soon we will hear from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on where she stands on this after domestic terrorists stormed her office. We will bring that to you live.

And next, we will roll the tape on all of the president's enablers who all helped to -- who have all helped to fuel the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)