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House Democrats Threaten Impeachment Unless Trump Resigns; Twitter Permanently Suspends Trump's Personal Account; Pfizer BioNTech Vaccine Appears to Work against Mutation in New Virus Strains. Aired 12-12:15a ET
Aired January 09, 2021 - 00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Hello and welcome to our viewers all around the world. I'm Michael Holmes. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. Let's get straight to the top story.
Donald Trump losing his favorite megaphone as he faces something that no president in the United States history has faced before. That is a second possible impeachment.
Less than 3 days after pro Trump rioters stormed Capitol Hill, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says Democrats are ready to fast-track impeachment proceedings if President Trump doesn't resign immediately.
They plan to introduce the resolution on Monday during the next House session. There's even growing support among Republican lawmakers for the move. Although there are only 11 days left in the Trump presidency, Pelosi says the stakes are too high to let this go.
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REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): Sadly, the person running the executive branch is a deranged, unhinged, dangerous president of the United States. And only a number of days until we can be protected from him. But he's done something so serious that there should be prosecution against him.
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HOLMES: And Twitter has taken the extraordinary step of permanently banning Mr. Trump's personal account. The company says keeping him on the platform risks, quote, "further incitement of violence."
They're trying to figure out what to do with the official government account while Mr. Trump is still in office. Here is one tweet Mr. Trump made from the official POTUS account, which was quickly deleted by Twitter, quote, "I predicted this would happen.
"We've been negotiating with various other sites while we also look at the possibilities of building up our own platform in the near future. We will not be silenced," he says. CNN's chief media correspondent Brian Stelter joins me now from New
York.
It's hard to overstate how extraordinary it is to see a United States president dumped off Twitter.
BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: And, Michael, he is the first world leader to be removed from the platform. I checked in with Twitter just a couple hours ago. They said they are not aware of any other case of a world leader being banned. They call it a permanent suspension.
It means, wherever Trump tries to tweet, if he launches a new account, if he goes onto somebody else is account, he will be blocked by Twitter. That is a stunning move.
What Twitter is really saying here, what Jack Dorsey is really saying, is that he believes the president is a threat to the American people and that he will use the Twitter platform to incite violence.
That's an astonishing thing to say and, by the way, Twitter's not the only one saying it. Facebook is taking action, YouTube is taking action, practically every major technology platform has taken action against the outgoing president.
HOLMES: Predictably, Brian, there are cries of censorship and so on.
Do Twitter and other platforms have to tread carefully on what they do and to whom?
STELTER: Certainly, there are a lot of complaints from Trump fans about this. But the First Amendment does not apply here. The First Amendment, as many viewers know, is a relationship between Americans and their government, not between Americans and private companies. It's always worth a reminder.
Censorship is a word that comes up all the time. Yet it doesn't really apply here. When we are on Facebook or Twitter, we are using it because the platforms allow us to. And in this case, Trump is not being allowed.
However, I do think this will cause even more resentment and grievance among Trump's base. And that is something to be concerned about.
HOLMES: A very good point. Is it fair to say, let's face it, Twitter doing this now, it's a bit like senior administration official resigning with only days left in the administration; that is, too little, too late. The damage is done. He's been like this for years.
STELTER: The damage has been done.
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STELTER: I remember being on the air with you in June, when the president tweeted, "When the looting starts, the shooting starts," talking about unrest in major cities. That was also incendiary. Yet Twitter did not take this kind of action. I think it's been a real
struggle for Silicon Valley. They've had to come to grips with how much power they have, how much responsibility they have. Finally, belatedly, they are coming to terms with that. People can say it's too little, too late.
And it probably is. It's a remarkable statement about online radicalization, that being online, reading crazy lies on the internet, can and does radicalize people, not just in the case of ISIS, not just in the case of terrorists halfway across the world but also in the U.S. And I think that's what Wednesday demonstrated to the world.
HOLMES: That is a really good point. Brian Stelter, as always, we're grateful, thank you.
STELTER: Thank you.
HOLMES: In a show of respect, the U.S. Capitol has lowered its flags to half-staff to honor Brian Sicknick, the officer who died after being injured by the pro Trump mob. A federal murder investigation will be opened into his death.
This comes as law enforcement intensifies and charges more of those rioters so far more than a dozen facing federal charges, including a man from Alabama, who investigators say had a car nearby packed with 11 homemade bombs, incendiary devices, a handgun and an assault rifle.
And this man, Richard Barnett, seen sitting with his feet on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's desk, has been tracked down and arrested as well. Officials say he faces 3 federal charges.
CNN takes an in-depth look at the storming of the U.S. Capitol, in the Trump insurrection. That is Sunday night in the U.S.
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HOLMES: Believe it or not, the new year began a little more than a week ago.
It feels longer, doesn't it?
In that time, more than 20,000 people in the U.S. have lost their lives to COVID-19. That data is coming from Johns Hopkins University.
Now compare that with the 40 days it took for the country to reach the first 20,000 deaths last year. Health experts say they are in touch with the incoming Biden administration about scaling up vaccination efforts.
Biden's team plans to release much of the vaccine supply to the states instead of holding back some for a second dose. It is a risky move that would require production to be stepped up.
California, just one of the states where hundreds of people are losing their lives to the virus every day, it is so bad there that dozens of refrigerated trailers are now being used as makeshift morgues to handle the crisis. Nick Watt is in Los Angeles for us.
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JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: Good afternoon.
NICK WATT, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Team Biden tells CNN they have a radical plan: release nearly every vaccine dose on hand. Stop holding back for second doses.
GOV. ANDY BESHEAR (D-KY): We would certainly pick up the speed of our vaccination. We need some assurances that those second doses are going to be there.
WATT: Pfizer and Moderna won't say if they're able to manufacture those second doses in time.
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: The second dose is absolutely critical. That one dose of Moderna and one dose of Pfizer has not been proven to be efficacious to the degree that we want.
WATT: The latest numbers reported just over 22 million doses distributed, fewer than 7 million actually in arms, calls for easing the rules on who gets it when.
MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO (D-NY), NEW YORK CITY: If we can't vaccinate the people who are most in danger, we're going to lose lives we did not need to lose.
WATT: So, New York's governor just expanded the pool of people who can get a shot and now includes first responders and over 75s.
GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D-NY): That's, by far, the largest group and those are people who desperately need it.
WATT: Just look at New York's new case count line, exploding way higher than spring. The NYPD commissioner just tested positive.
Across America 4,085 people reported dead yesterday. The most COVID deaths in a day ever and here in Los Angeles?
MAYOR ERIC GARCETTI (D-CA), LOS ANGELES: We had 259 deaths. That's one more than all the homicides in 2019 in L.A. city combined, in a single day, equal to a year of homicides.
WATT (voice-over): Arizona has now overtaken California, leads the nation in new cases per capita. But still no statewide mask mandate to control the virus.
WATT: A crumb of comfort:
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WATT (voice-over): The Pfizer BioNTech vaccine does appear to work against that more contagious coronavirus strain first identified in the U.K., now spreading across the U.S. -- Nick Watt, CNN, Los Angeles.
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HOLMES: Now several European countries are also being pushed further into crisis by rising numbers of cases and deaths. Infections and hospitalizations in the U.K. are at record levels. And officials say the National Health Service is on the brink of being overwhelmed.
The COVID variant first identified in Britain has now spread to more than 40 countries around the world. The World Health Organization calling for even stricter measures to try to contain this more contagious strain.
European leaders vowing to continue the collective E.U. strategy, meanwhile, for buying vaccines. They've announced steps to move the vaccine campaign forward after coming under fire for the slow pace so far. Here's Melissa Bell.
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MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The European Union has confirmed that it's in talks with Pfizer and BioNTech to look at buy an extra 200 million doses of their vaccine with an option to buy an extra 100 million.
That could mean, by the end of 2021, the E.U. has purchased 500 million doses and potentially 600 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine. Good news in a part of the world where several countries have been criticized for the slowness of their vaccination programs rollout.
Now another piece of good news this week, the European Medicines Agency has approved the Moderna vaccine for use in the E.U. The European Commission purchased 160 million doses of that and in some of those countries where the rollout has been criticized for its pace, countries like Germany, it really has been about supplies.
We heard from the German health minister this week, who spoke of the vaccine as a scarce resource, urging people to be patient -- Melissa Bell, CNN, Paris.
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HOLMES: Brazilian health officials have gotten requests for emergency use of two COVID-19 vaccines. One request is for 2 million doses of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine on an experimental basis. The other is for the approval of the CoronaVac vaccine for experimental use.
Brazil surpassed 8 million total COVID cases on Friday. Only the U.S. and India are being hit harder, according to Johns Hopkins data.
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HOLMES (voice-over): Now you may remember this video, 81-year-old Stefano Bozzini of Italy becoming an internet sensation back in November, when video surfaced of him serenading his wife outside her hospital room window.
Because of COVID restrictions, he wasn't able to go inside. Well, sadly, Carla, his wife of 47 years, passed away last year from health issues unrelated to the coronavirus. And now Bozzini himself has been diagnosed with COVID and has been admitted to an assisted living facility.
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HOLMES (voice-over): Despite his hardships, Bozzini still finds a way to bring joy by playing that accordion. He's been serenading nurses, doctors and fellow patients from his room. And we wish him well.
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HOLMES: Thanks for watching, I'm Michael Holmes. Stay tuned for "MARKETPLACE AFRICA." I'll see you a little later.
