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Pressure Grows for Trump's Resignation; Live Coverage as President-elect Biden Announces Cabinet Nominees; Democrats Plan Speedy Impeachment. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired January 08, 2021 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:50]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Hello, it is the top of the hour, I am Brianna Keilar.

And America is a nation engulfed in competing crises. After the brazen insurrection at the nation's Capitol in Donald Trump's name, the president is now on the verge of becoming the only president to be impeached twice.

Today, he's announcing that he will not attend Joe Biden's inauguration, one of the country's most symbolic acts for a peaceful transfer of power, which has not been done in more than a century, just three other presidents chose to skip their successor's inauguration.

TEXT: Presidents Who Snubbed Successors, They Did Not Attend Their Inauguration: John Adams, 1801, Successor Jefferson; John Quincy Adams, 1829, Successor Jackson; Andrew Johnson,1869, Successor Grant

KEILAR: But while Trump plans to miss this momentous display of democracy at work, he cannot sidestep the mounting pressure for him to resign after he incited his supporters to attack the Capitol. "The Wall Street Journal" is calling for him to quit, more than a dozen of his officials are leaving including Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.

Democrats are threatening impeachment if Trump does not remove himself. Moments ago, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told her caucus there's more support now than there was for the first time he was impeached. The assistant House speaker is telling CNN that articles of impeachment could be brought to the House as early as next week.

This time around, a Republican senator says he is willing to weigh the option.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BEN SASSE (R-NE): The House, if they come together and have a process, I will definitely consider whatever articles they might --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[14:02:14]

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: Before I begin, let me just say two things. One, when this is all over, I'll take questions, when we finish the -- today's announcements.

But let me begin by expressing my deep sympathy for the family of Capitol Officer Sicknick, who has died in the line of duty. Our sympathies and our concerns go out for his family, and the people responsible should be held accountable. And they will be.

But today -- today, I'm pleased to announce the latest members of our economic team. With this -- with their announcement, I'm proud to announce, we have finished naming our Cabinet, saving the best for last here. Twenty-four outstanding women and men who will get our country moving again and who are going to restore trust in our government again, and who -- all of whom are ready on day one to do their job.

This is a Cabinet that I promised you -- and I fulfilled that promise, it looks like America. It taps into the full range of talent we have in our nation, and we have immense talent.

It's a historic Cabinet. This will be the first Cabinet ever that is evenly composed with as many women as men in the Cabinet. This will be the first Cabinet ever with a majority of people of color occupying this Cabinet. And it has more than a dozen history-making appointments, including the first woman secretary of Treasury, the first African-American defense secretary, the first openly gay Cabinet member, and the first Native American Cabinet secretary.

We're also on track, we've named a record 50 high-level appointments that are subject to president confirmation, more than any president ever elected has done.

We've done our job, we've begun my job of naming these people, and it's my expectation and hope that the Senate will now move to confirm these nominees promptly and fairly. It's especially the case for the nominees of secretary of State, Defense, Treasury, Homeland Security. I nominated them back in November.

Given what our country has been through the last four years, the last few days, given the threats and the risks in this world, they should be confirmed as close to January 20th as possible. There should be no vacancies at State, Defense and Treasury and Homeland Security. And we will remain in this dark winter of pandemic and with the economic crisis that's deepening, and we have no time to lose with regard to the entire team.

Consider the December jobs report released today. The anxiety and fear of the women and men out there reminds me of when President Obama and I were sworn in during the Great Recession of 2009. The December jobs -- this December jobs report shows millions of Americans are still hurting through no fault of their own.

We lost another 140,000 jobs, the first negative jobs report since the height of the pandemic in the spring. More people -- more people have just lost a job while many have been out of work for a long time. And the ongoing gap between black, Latino and black and Latino unemployment remains much too large, that gap.

And in many ways, the jobs report is a pandemic report. With the pandemic raging, people are losing work and losing hope. The hospital industry, restaurant and bars lost more than 270 -- excuse me, 372,000 jobs. State and local governments are slashing jobs, 20,000 local educators lost their jobs just last month.

In the midst of this pandemic, there are millions of people out of work, unable to pay their rent or their mortgage. They're waiting in line for hours to get food from a food bank. Think of this, the United States of America, people are lined up for miles in the automobiles, waiting to get a meal to put on the table to feed their family. And they're left staring at the ceiling, so many, unable to sleep, worried will they have their health insurance, wondering if they'll be OK.

The bottom line is, the job report shows we need to provide more immediate relief for working families and businesses now -- now. Not just to help them get to the other side of this painful crisis, but a larger purpose, to avoid a broader economic cost that exists out there, that will happen due to long-term unemployment, hunger, homelessness and business failings.

But by acting, the vast majority of leading economists suggest that that's what we need to do to revive the economy. In fact, economic research confirms that with conditions like the crisis today, especially with such low interest rates, taking immediate action, even with deficit finance, is going to help the economy long term and short term, reduce scarring in the workforce, increase growth and reduce our national debt burden. Failure to act will have the opposite effect.

I've said before the bipartisan COVID relief package passed in December was a very important step but just a down payment. Next week, I'll be here with you all laying out the groundwork for the next COVID economic relief package that meets the critical moment of our economy and our country that we face at the moment.

For example, vaccines give us hope, but their roll out has been a travesty. This would be the greatest operational challenge -- the greatest operational challenge -- we will ever have faced as a nation. We're going to need billions of dollars to get the vaccines from a vial into someone's arm with a vaccination for millions of Americans.

We're also going to need tens of millions dollars to help reopen our schools and to open them safely. State, local, tribal communities need tens of billions of dollars to keep educators, police officers, fire fighters, and other first responders and public health workers on the job.

We need more direct relief flowing to families, small businesses -- including finishing the job of getting people the $2,000 in relief, direct payment. $600 is simply not enough when you have to choose between paying rent, putting food on the table, keeping the lights on. I also hope that Democratic control of the House and Senate will raise the odds of prompt action on increasing the minimum wage. I've long said that we need to reward work, not just wealth, in this country. People in both parties now recognize it's time to raise the minimum wage so hardworking people earn at least $15 an hour, minimum. No one -- no one -- should work, as millions are doing today, 40-hours a week at a job and still live below the poverty line. They're entitled to at least $15 minimum wage per hour.

Folks, a big focus will also be on small businesses and how to correct the current administration's failure to get relief to Main Street small businesses that are most in need. Mom-and-pop stores are the backbone of the economy and they're also -- as you all know, they're the glue that holds communities together -- it holds them together.

But today, more than one in four small businesses are not open. At least 400,000 are closed for good. And as the month goes by a third of black-owned businesses, and more than a fifth of Latino-owned businesses, and more than a quarter of Native American-owned businesses have less than one month in reserves to cover expenses.

Previous amounts (ph) of economic -- previous rounds of economic relief last year helped millions of small businesses stay afloat and keep employees on the payroll. But there were clear problems. Black- and brown-owned small businesses had less access to that relief. Mom- and-pop shops were often the last in line, while big well-connected businesses jumped in front of the line and got more relief and got it faster.

And at every turn, this administration -- the Trump Administration -- has undermined accountability for every tax dollar spent -- weakening oversight, firing the inspector generals. So it's no surprise that an independent watchdog found that tens of thousands of ineligible companies received relief they should not have, including from fraud and abuse, siphoning off support for the very small businesses that are the -- need it so badly.

But the good news is that the relief package passed last month provides additional aid to small businesses and workers. But as I said from the beginning, the need to make sure that relief and future relief reaches everyone who needs it, we need to do more. These relief dollars will start to flow quickly, potentially while the current administration is still in office. And they may send out money that they won't have any control over.

But for what -- for what we have to control -- need control over, I want to be very clear what my priorities are for distributing this emergency aid swiftly and equitably. Our focus will be on small businesses on Main Street that aren't wealthy and well-connected, that are facing real economic hardships through no fault of their own.

Our priority will be black, Latino, Asian and Native American-owned small businesses, women-owned businesses. And finally, having equal access to resources needed to reopen and rebuild. But we're going to make a concerted effort to help small businesses in low-income communities, in big cities, small towns, rural communities that have faced systemic barriers to relief.

Think of the mom-and-pop owner with a couple of employees who can't pick up the phone and call a banker, who doesn't have a lawyer, an accountant to help them through this complicated process, to know if they're even qualified or who simply didn't know where -- where this relief is available in the first place. We went through this down (ph) when we were trying to bring -- when we brought Detroit back off its knees.

And as we saw in this morning's job report, restaurants, bars and hospitality industry have been slammed by this virus. We're going to direct relief to those businesses and others that have been so badly hit, hit the hardest. We owe them that support, to help them get through to the other side of this crisis.

And I promise you, we will investigate and prosecute waste and fraud in these programs so the money goes to the companies that deserve it and will use it to help their employees and their communities.

When the president -- when my president, President Obama, asked me to handle, implement the Recovery Act, along with Don (ph), who helped me a great deal, we invested more than $800 billion in our economy to help recover, rebuild. And less than two-thirds of 1 percent waste, fraud or abuse occurred. We know how to do this, we know how important predictability and clarity are to small businesses.

From day one, this administration will work to ensure that small businesses and financial institutions in every community understand the rules for these programs, the resources available to them, where they can turn for technical assistance if they need it. We will have navigators who will help guide them through each step of this process until the money they need is in their bank account.

And to the lenders who participate in these programs, you should move quickly without delay to begin extending relief. But I urge you not to -- not disabuse these funds, not -- excuse me, not to disperse these funds in the same inequitable way you have in the past.

Here's my commitment: In return, we'll make our -- our expectations of you crystal-clear, the banks, so that you can quickly and equitably deliver relief to the communities that you serve, unlike what's been happening in many places.

The bottom line is, we're in the midst of the most economic -- unequal economic and jobs crisis in modern history. Congress needs to act as quickly as possible on all the issues I just laid out. That's how we can contain the pandemic, build back better, with an economy that works for all Americans. And this is the team that's going to help get that done.

For secretary of Commerce, I nominate Governor Gina Raimondo of Rhode Island, the daughter of a working-class family, who knows what it's like when parent's factory job was shipped overseas. She never took her parents' sacrifices for granted. She always remembers where she came from. She became a successful entrepreneur who created jobs on Main Street and brought businesses back from the edge. She became a state treasurer who invested in local communities and took on financial predators.

And today, she's one of the most effective, forward-thinking governors in the United States of America, the first woman ever to lead the Ocean State. She created an innovative loan program that helped minority-owned and women-owned businesses access the capital they need but wasn't always available to them.

She's worked with employers to design skill-training programs so that local workers would be equipped to take the good-paying jobs in their own communities.

She's put Rhode Island on the path to achieving 100 percent renewable energy, and she'll be a key player in helping position the United States as a global leader in the 21st-century clean energy economy.

And she knows what her fellow governors, Democrats and Republicans alike, are dealing with on the frontlines of the pandemic and economic crisis they're facing, and how we can all partner together as one nation to contain COVID-19 to build back better.

I'm honored, Governor, that you're willing to join the administration, and really looking forward to working with you.

For secretary of Labor, I nominate a good friend and a standup guy, Marty Walsh of Boston, son of Irish immigrants from -- his only downside, they're not from Mayo, they're from Galway -- Galway, moved to Boston.

Marty was born and raised in Dorchester. I know him: tough as nails, diagnosed with cancer at age seven, beat it at age 11, joined the Labor Union 223 at age 21, elected to the state legislature, became union president and graduated from college at age 42.

He's now in his second term as a successful mayor of the iconic American city of Boston, who always puts working people first, fighting for a $15 minimum wage, paid family leave, providing frontline workers with emergency child care and protective equipment they need.

Marty understands, like I do, that the middle class built this country and unions built the middle class. He sees how union workers have been holding this country together during this crisis: health care workers keeping our hospitals safe, clean and effective -- and efficient, I might add -- public service workers fighting against budget shortfalls to keep communities afloat; port workers, car haulers, warehouse workers, folks keeping our air and rail systems running.

They're literally what's keeping us going, and they deserve a secretary of Labor who knows how to build their power as workers, who knows that, when I say our future will be made in America, it will be a future built by American workers, a future with historic investments in infrastructure, clean energy, manufacturing and so much more that's going to create millions of good-paying jobs. Marty knows worker power means not just protecting the right to unionize, but encouraging unionization and collective bargaining. The Fair Labor Standards Act way back didn't say -- didn't just say you can have unions; it said the government should encourage the formation of unions. It also means protecting pensions, ensuring worker safety, increasing the minimum wage, ensuring workers are paid for the overtime they've earned, like we fought for in the Obama-Biden administration that this administration has weakened, making sure that we have a trade policy where for every decision we make, unions are at the table, focused on winning good jobs for American workers.

This is one of the most important departments to me. I trust Mayor Walsh, and I'm honored he accepted, but I also want to say I did give serious consideration on nominating my friend, Bernie Sanders, to this position before. I'm confident he could have done -- he could have done a fantastic job. I can think of no more passionate, devoted ally to working people in this country. But after Tuesday's results in Georgia giving Democratic control to the United States Senate in a tie vote, Bernie and I agreed -- as a matter of fact, Bernie said this (ph): We can't put control of the Senate at risk on the outcome of a special election of Vermont, and he agreed we couldn't take that chance.

We also discussed how we'd work together, travel the country together helping Marty, meeting with working men and women who feel forgotten and left behind in this economy. We agreed that we'll work closely on our shared agenda of increasing worker power and to protect the dignity of work for all working people. I want to thank Bernie for his continued friendship and leadership, and I look forward to us working together, along with Marty, and he thinks I made a good choice.

For administrator of the Small Business Administration, I nominate Isabel Guzman. Isabel grew up in California, working alongside her dad in a small veterinary business that he built. She devoted an early understanding and developed an early understanding of what small business means to their employees and to the neighborhood they support, and to the families whose dreams they represent. She dedicated her career to creating jobs, to supporting entrepreneurs as a senior official on the Obama-Biden Small Business Administration. As director of California's Office of Small Business and -- and a small- business advocate, she worked tirelessly to ensure that everyone with an entrepreneurial spark had a fair and equal shot at getting off the ground and succeeding. The Biden-Harris administration will be locked in on helping small businesses recover, rebuild and remain the engines of our economic strength, and as head of the SBA, Isabel will be leading a critical mission not only to rescue small business in crisis, but to provide the capital to entrepreneurs across the country so they can innovate, create jobs and help lead us into recovery, and I'm grateful that she accepted the call to serve in Washington.

For deputy commerce secretary, I nominate -- and I have to admit to you, a good, loyal and great friend, Don Graves. Don is a long-time and trusted advisor. He was there at the Treasury Department during the depths of the Great Recession, helping small businesses weather the storm and stay afloat. When President Obama asked me to lead the effort to get Detroit out of bankruptcy and off its back and on its feet again, he said I could take anyone in the administration on my team to do it full time, so I went to the Treasury Department. I tasked Don to come over and work for me and work on it full time. It was the best decision I ever made, and that if -- I'm not sure how he thinks about that, but I think it was the best decision I've ever made, and did a great job working with the city officials, state officials on it road to recovery.

And by the way, it's the little things. It's getting to know what's happening on the ground. I remember how we went through the issue about the number of buses and lights, streetlights and the like. It gets down to the nitty-gritty of what has to be done. We found out that Detroit had a lot of qualified people, but during the Great Recession, almost everyone who knew how to program anything left. So when we finally got it back on its feet again, we found out there wasn't anybody left to know how to turn on the streetlights, literally, run the sewer department. So we went out and we got an outfit to come in and we said, "Find us the -- high -- some high-tech people." They came back -- what was it, 53, 55 people? They all happened to be women. Most were minority. None had more than a high school degree, and a quarter of them only had a GED. And I remember, even our very liberal friends, when we told them we were doing this, they said, "I'm not going to do this." Well, guess what? In a 14-week -- was it 14-week? -- program they were taught how to program. They were taught how to do it all, and they ended up putting the city back on its feet. Every one of them left after that time because they went to the graduation with the lowest starting salary, if my recollection is correct, was $49,000, the highest, $104,000. Point is, give people a chance, Americans can do anything, given a shot.

He also helped me lead our national strategy to equip workers with the skills they need for good-paying jobs in the 21st century in healthcare, I.T., clean energy, advanced manufacturing and so much more. He was there to help me launch the National Cancer Moonshot and marshal the full resources of the federal government to help end cancer as we know it. A cancer survivor himself, diagnosed and treated while he was working on this for me. Don knows about hope, and he knows about resilience, and I'm grateful to him and his wonderful family for once again answering the call to serve.

I want to thank you all, thank your families, and I don't want to embarrass him, but there's one guy up in a gallery here, Tommy (ph), who's my buddy, who's the son of the governor. Thanks, Tommy (ph), for supporting Mom doing this.

And to American people, I know these times are tough, but I want you to know that we're going to get through this. Help is on the way. These people know what they're about. They know what it's like. May God bless you all, and may God protect our troops.

Now what I'd like to do is turn this over to the team, starting with our next secretary of Labor, Marty Walsh. And after all is said and done --

[14:26:48]

KEILAR: All right, we're going to dip out of this for a moment. This is President-elect Joe Biden announcing his economic and jobs team. He actually is going to be taking questions, and so we will be coming back to hear what he has to say to those questions on this very pivotal day here in Washington. He is in Wilmington, making these announcements.

He did just say that he spoke with Bernie Sanders, he considered Bernie Sanders for one of these jobs, which is certainly something that the progressive wing of the Democratic Party would like to see. But he said that Bernie Sanders and he were in agreement that they couldn't put control of the Senate at risk with a special election in Vermont.

He did say they're going to work together, he said they are going to travel together. So to the degree in which he incorporates Bernie Sanders' ideas into his policies, that is something, of course, the Democrats on the left are really going to be looking at.

But this is a hugely busy day in the country. We heard the president- elect offering condolences for the Capitol Police Officer Sicknick, who has died. He -- that is how he began. And he also said that people responsible should be held accountable, he said they will be held accountable.

So he also said this of course is all coming on the day where Donald Trump is staring down the possibility of being the only president to be impeached twice.

So let's go back to that breaking news here in Washington. House Democrats are ready to move ahead with a vote on articles of impeachment against President Trump, and this could happen as early as next week. We're hearing this is movement that will take two, three, four days, one Democratic congresswoman told us last hour.

And among the concerns voiced by the House speaker is the danger of what the president, who has access to the nuclear launch codes, could do with his final 12 days in office. I want to bring in CNN's Manu Raju, who is on Capitol Hill. We also have Kaitlan Collins, who is covering all of this for us at the White House.

Manu, tell us what you're hearing about the fast-tracking of impeachment.

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, there is a big push to have a vote on impeachment by next week. Expect that push to continue, momentum is growing within the House Democratic Caucus to do just that.

And this would be unbelievably fast move for an impeachment inquiry. Typically there is an impeachment inquiry, that lasts some time. But what the Democrats are talking about here is to move something directly to the floor within just a matter of days.

And on a conference call that happened just now, the Democrats were talking about the pitfalls about moving ahead so quickly, even as support as building and going that way. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff discussed some of

those pitfalls, one of which is how would the Senate trial happen, given that President Trump is going to leave office on January 20th, in just a matter of days.

How -- Senate Republicans, who control the Senate majority, up until January 20th, have no desire, no appetite to have a quick trial before January 20th. But there's a possibility there could be a Senate trial after January 20th, when Donald Trump leaves office and when the Senate Democrats take control of the United States Senate and have the majority.

[14:29:55]

But the question that was raised on the call, I'm told, was that it could create a bit of an awkward situation for Joe Biden, who's trying to unite the country and trying to move on from the Trump years.