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U.S. House to Urge Pence to Take Steps to Remove Trump; Capitol Security to Be Enhanced for Biden's Inauguration; U.S. Vaccination Rollout Stumbling; China Promising Pandemic Aid to African Nations; More Companies Sever Ties with Trump; U.S. Democracy Resilient Despite Violence in Washington; How Trump Impeachment Could Impact Biden Presidency; Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) is Interviewed about Deadly Insurrection. Aired 12-1a ET

Aired January 11, 2021 - 00:00   ET

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

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

[00:00:20]

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. I'm Michael Holmes, coming to you live from CNN's world headquarters in Atlanta, and we begin with the breaking news.

Democrats in the U.S. House are hours away now from taking action against President Donald Trump for last week's riot at the Capitol by his supporters. Lawmakers will give Vice President Mike Pence a short deadline to take steps to remove the president from office using the 25th Amendment. Now, if he does not do that, an unprecedented second impeachment is on the horizon, though that process could take some time from start to finish.

One Democratic House leader says they might want to wait to send the articles of impeachment to the Senate to give President-elect Joe Biden time to tackle his agenda in his first 100 days.

We get more now from CNN's Ryan Nobles.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RYAN NOBLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is ready to move forward with articles of impeachment against President Trump, if Vice President Mike Pence does not begin the process of invoking the 25th Amendment.

In a letter to her colleagues on Sunday night, Pelosi said that she is going to introduce a resolution on Monday morning that will essentially put Mike Pence on the clock, give him 24 hours to decide whether or not he's going to take the step of moving forward on the 25th Amendment. And if he doesn't, then the House will begin impeachment proceedings. That could happen as early as Wednesday. And there is certainly enough votes for Pelosi to get the impeachment passed here in the House. The question is what happens when it gets to the Senate? There doesn't

appear to be an appetite by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to begin a trial and convict President Trump, especially before he leaves office now in less than 10 days.

So the question is what does Pelosi do after those articles of impeachment are passed? She could send them over to McConnell for him to do nothing with them, or she could actually hold onto them and wait until President Trump is out of the office, and when the Democrats are in control of the Senate, and begin the trial then.

There are still some benefits for the House Democrats to move forward with the impeachment, even after President Trump is out of office. There are long-term consequences that President Trump could be in store for if he is ultimately convicted of those impeachment proceedings.

So still a lot we don't know. The only thing we know for sure is that Speaker Pelosi is ready to take that first step of doing something to hold President Trump accountable for his role in those riots that took place here last Wednesday.

Ryan Nobles, CNN, Capitol Hill.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Now, there are some Republicans calling for the president's removal, or resignation. Among them, Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, who says President Trump should resign and that he could face legal charges.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. PAT TOOMEY (R-PA): Yes, I think the president has disqualified himself from ever, certainly, serving in office again. I don't think he would -- is electable in any way. And I don't think he's going to be exercising anything like the kind of influence that he has had over the Republican Party going forward.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: But with only days left of the Trump presidency, other Republicans say they simply want to let the clock run out on his time in office.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. NANCY MACE (R-SC): One of the issues that I have right now, whether it's the 25th Amendment, whether it's impeachment right now, is further dividing the country and pouring gasoline on a fire.

I risked my life to take the vote on Wednesday night to certify the Electoral College. There are many of us out there that that happened to. Our lives were -- people were threatening us. I was accosted in the street on Tuesday night. And I worry about that, because the impeachment articles, if it passes with a simple majority in the House, it needs two-thirds in the Senate. I don't know that there's an appetite for it there, but it doesn't get to the U.S. Senate until the 19th of January, the day before Joe Biden is sworn into office.

And I think that, for unity in this country, we need to be really thoughtful and careful about how do we go from here, and how do we ensure that there is a peaceful transition of power, that the inauguration goes smoothly, so that we can get a fresh start starting on January 20?

SEN. ROY BLUNT (R-MO): My personal view is that the president touched the hot stove on Wednesday and is unlikely to touch it again. And if that's the case, we get -- every day we get closer to the last day of his presidency. We should be thinking more about the first day of the next presidency than the last day of his presidency, in my view.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Jessica Levinson is a law professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. She joins me now.

[00:05:02]

Good to see you, Professor.

So advisors recommending there are other solutions to punish Donald Trump without sort of hijacking the first hundred days of Biden's presidency. It's perhaps understandable. But what are the moral risks of waiting?

JESSICA LEVINSON, LAW PROFESSOR, LOYOLA LAW SCHOOL: Well, you know, the moral risks are that we say this is OK. I mean, if we have constitutional provisions, not just one, not just two, but possibly even three, that say if you engage in this type of behavior than you can be removed, then those constitutional provisions need to mean something.

So the risk is that we essentially, in silence, that silence becomes acceptance and we say that's OK. I don't think that's -- we're talking about the kind of society that we want to design and live in.

HOLMES: Yes. If you don't impeach, as you say, there is the risk of looking like you're letting the president's actions slide. But is there -- and this is your field. Is this a legal risk of the argument already being made that you can't impeach a former president, and it might end up going nowhere, in terms of once he's out of office?

LEVINSON: So you know, you heard me say this before, but this is something we haven't tested. We have only, luckily, impeached presidents a handful of times, and we've never impeached one in a lame-duck session. And we've never had a situation where the trial would have to occur after the presidency is over.

Having said that, I think the Constitution absolutely does allow for it. And the benefit here would be that, as part of a potential conviction, you could say to the president, you can never run for office again. That would eliminate his ability to tell his supporters he's running for office, and it would eliminate his ability to use the campaign finance system, raise money for his benefit.

So there are some real benefits. And again, I think that the Constitution does allow for it.

HOLMES: And to put your political hat back on, it's extraordinary, is it not, that we have not seen a single White House news conference after an insurrection or attempted insurrection. No Homeland Security briefing, no FBI, DOJ, cabinet, department heads, no one. Nothing. Where is the government on what happened and what could be yet to happen?

LEVINSON: It's extraordinary. I mean, this is not opacity; this is darkness. The lack of information that we have about something that happened, again, remember, in the people's house. The peoples house was under attack.

And remember what happened to our representatives. I mean, reports of representatives cowering in place, praying, using chairs to protect themselves. This is not something that happened in a private corporation. And again, all incited by the president of the United States.

We don't know -- and the information was out there for a long time about what happened to the people who passed away. Think about, you know, this is a terrible example but a police shooting, where we have information very, very quickly. We haven't had this type of reporting. And I think a lot of people now are worried about what's going to happen in the next few days. And I know that there's been some chatter about how to appropriately protect the inauguration.

HOLMES: Well, Donald Trump, he will continue to hold sway over his hard-core base, but do you think he can possibly still have the hold on the broader Republican Party as -- as his term comes to an end this way?

LEVINSON: This is the question going forward. You know, about 74 million people voted for him. Probably about 35 to 40 really believe all of the lies and conspiracy theories, the falsehoods.

The question is what happens in the next month, year, two years? What happens to the Republican Party? Do they say, now that he's out of office, I no longer am so worried about being primaried. I'm no longer worried so much about a mean tweet that I am going to go back to telling the American people what is actually reality, what is actually the law?

There's a real question here about whether or not the Republican Party has so much institutional weakness that Donald Trump can again capture that.

I don't know the answer to that. I wish I did. I suspect that for a lot of people who tolerated him, this was a last straw.

HOLMES: Always great to talk to you, Jessica. Thanks so much.

Jessica Levinson in Los Angeles. LEVINSON: Thank you.

HOLMES: Well, we are learning new details about the violence that unfolded at the U.S. Capitol on Friday. New video obtained by CNN showing a police officer being brutally assaulted by rioters as they tried to storm the building.

A warning: The video is disturbing, but it is important to show.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(CROWD SHOUTING)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: USA! USA! USA!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: USA! USA! USA!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: USA! USA! USA!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: And you can see that mob pulling the officer to the ground. They drag him down the stairs by his helmet, and then beat him as he laid their helplessly. Somebody even hitting the officer with a pole that has the American flag on it.

[00:10:16]

CNN has reached out to police for more information on this particular assault, as well as that officer's condition.

And authorities, of course, are still trying to identify many of the rioters involved in Wednesday's attack.

CNN's Jessica Schneider with the latest on the investigation and what police are doing to prevent more violence.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: There's a lot of concern as we move into a new week and closer to the inauguration in the wake of last week's attack on the U.S. Capitol.

The Capitol, now surrounded by a 7-foot non-scalable fence and hundreds of National Guard members. They will be sent in for the inauguration next Wednesday. That includes 1,000 members from New York, 6,200 from across the country.

And so far nearly two dozen people have been charged federally for their involvement in the violent mob that stormed the Capitol. That includes a man who was found with 11 homemade bombs in his truck parked near the Capitol. Plus, a handgun, assault rifle, and ammunition.

And prosecutors say that that man actually had two hand guns on him when police finally found him. Then there was another man charged with allegedly sending text

messages threatening injury to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. When he was found, he had firearms, including an assault rifle and hundreds of rounds of ammunition. That was in the truck that he had parked outside of a Holiday Inn hotel outside of Washington.

But you know, this is likely just the beginning of the charges. The acting U.S. attorney in D.C. now says hundreds of people may end up under arrest as they continue this investigation. That encompasses hundreds of prosecutors and FBI agents working from three command centers, 24/7.

And finally, there is some growing concern for the safety of members of Congress, many of whom we've seen in videos yelled at, surrounded in airports as they travel to and from Washington. Well, this weekend, we learned that all members will be able to get increased security when they travel through airports. U.S. Capitol Police, they're coordinating with other law enforcement agencies to make sure those protections happen to keep those members of Congress safe.

Jessica Schneider, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: President Trump has finally ordered flags on federal buildings to fly at half-staff in honor of two fallen officers who were both on duty during the riots.

Mr. Trump says all flags, including this one outside the White House, will remain lowered until January 13.

Now, this move comes days after police announced the death of the officer, Brian Sicknick. Sicknick passed away from injuries he sustained during the insurrection.

And on Sunday, a funeral procession was held in his honor, police in Washington saluting as the hearse passed by. They remembered him as a friend who served on the force for more than 12 years.

A second officer also died after the riots, but the cause of his death is unclear. We'll have much more on this later in the program.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:17:06]

HOLMES: There are now more than 90 million coronavirus cases around the world, but there is hope, of course, in the form of vaccines for those nations who have access to them.

In the U.S., where the pandemic is raging, more than 22 million doses have now been distributed, but only about 6.6 million are being actually administered.

One former U.S. official says the U.S. vaccine strategy is failing, and it is time to try something new. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. SCOTT GOTTLIEB, FORMER FDA COMMISSIONER: The game has changed on the vaccine.

We really need to get this vaccine out more quickly. Because this is our only tool, our only backstop against the spread of these new variants. If we can get a lot of people vaccinated quickly, we might be able to get enough protective immunity into the population, if this stops spreading at the rate that it is.

So we need to acknowledge that it's not working. We need to hit the reset and adopt a new strategy in trying to get that out to patients.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Dr. Robert Kim-Farley is a professor at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. He joins me now from Los Angeles.

And thanks for doing so, Professor.

When it comes to distribution, getting the vaccines into arms, where are the bottlenecks? How can they be overcome?

DR. ROBERT KIM-FARLEY, PROFESSOR, UCLA FIELDING SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: Firstly, Michael, thanks again for having me on your program.

Well, I think we did an amazing job of getting the vaccines developed at warp speed, but I think at this time, we've actually had, in terms of its distribution, a warped speed. In the sense that there have been a number of glitches.

I think, firstly, there was probably a situation of over-promising and underperforming that the 20 million doses into arms was probably aspirational, by the end of December.

But there have been a number of things that have shown the problems of our infrastructure to be able to deliver that many doses in that amount of time. Many of the persons that were in hospitals, for example, to deliver the doses, are themselves, you know, crushed with the overwhelming number of COVID cases they're trying to care for.

I think that we also were holding back the second dose for a while there, and I think under the new policies that will be done that will actually start getting more of the first doses out, recognizing the manufacturers will be able to continue to make vaccines, if not even speeding up the manufacture. So we can -- don't have to hold back the second doses at this stage.

HOLMES: Yes, because this is the thing. I mean, 22 million distributed, 6.6 million actually going into arms. I mean, there is -- there's a problem with coordination and actually getting the end result. I mean, you touched on this. What do you think about the Biden plan to, you know, release all or most doses and not hold any back for a second dose. Do you think that's a good idea?

KIM-FARLEY: I think it is a good idea, for a number of reasons.

Firstly, just as you pointed out, I think it's going to get more vaccine into people's arms. If we can just, you know, open up that pathway to get more out into people.

[00:20:06]

Secondly, you know, although it's not as ideal as having, ultimately, two doses with over 95 percent protection, even one dose will actually provide some protection. So that's going to be good news, for even the persons first getting it.

And I think that, because the manufacturers will be able to continue to ramp up production, we shouldn't have any problem for getting those second doses into people when it's timely to do so.

HOLMES: And on the virus, generally, I mean, the Capitol riot was many things. But it also might have been a super-spreader event. I mean, the Capitol attending physician has actually officially warned lawmakers and staffers about potential exposure following the assault. I mean, there was a lot of people running around, yelling with no masks.

KIM-FARLEY: Exactly correct. And I mean, these are the events that are properly called super-spreading events, in that they are people close together, not wearing masks and, in this case, indoors. So those are all the set-up for being able to have COVID transmission.

HOLMES: The vaccines are, obviously, a game-changer, but is it fair to say the game is still maybe at halftime? I mean, there's still 4,000- odd people a day dying in the U.S. alone. I mean, people are getting used to that number, but it is staggering, 4,000.

How concerned are you about the weeks, even months to come?

KIM-FARLEY: Yes, I think we have to recognize that we really are in a -- not a wave, or a surge, or even a surge upon a surge. This really is a viral tsunami that's washing across California and the nation, as well.

So I think that we're going to see, actually, continued increases in the number of cases over this next week, because that'll be the two- week period out since the New Year's events that were happening. And the incubation period of the disease is about two weeks. So that's going to happen.

Then, toward the end of January, we're going to see our peak hospitalizations, because it will be one or two weeks after coming down with the disease that you're going to end up getting serious enough to get into the hospital. And I think you're going to find it's going to be mid-February where we'll be peaking in the number of deaths. Because again, it will take a while for someone that's serious enough in the hospital to actually die.

HOLMES: And that is terrifying. It really is. And already hospitals and ICUs are overflowing in many cases. That is -- that is terrifying. KIM-FARLEY: You have some light here in the sense here, in the sense

that, in reality, come the end of January, we actually should see some decreases in cases happening, at least plateauing off. Because we don't have that amplifying effect of the back-to-back holiday seasons that we had, of Halloween, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah and Christmas, New Year's. I think people won't be traveling as much.

And actually, those people who perhaps weren't following public health guidance of not being out or not visiting and not traveling. Actually, some of them are -- probably came down with disease and now have some immunity themselves, before even getting the vaccine.

HOLMES: Well, we'll take the silver lining. Dr. Robert Kim-Farley in L.A., thank you so much. Appreciate it.

KIM-FARLEY: My pleasure, Michael.

HOLMES: Well, China is promising to provide vaccines to African nations and other developing countries who haven't been able to secure many doses.

CNN's Kristie Lu Stout takes a look now at how Beijing is attempting to use vaccine to bolster its political ties with nations.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Africa first. despite a raging pandemic to China's top diplomat, Wang Yi, continued a long-held tradition of making the continent its first port of call in the new year.

And because of a raging pandemic, many African nations need help. During the visit, the Democratic Republic of Congo announced China granted some pandemic-linked debt relief with an elbow bump.

Nigeria and China pledged to deepen bilateral cooperation in economic development and pandemic response.

Before the visit, Wang spoke to state-run media, pledging China's continued cooperation to rain in the virus.

WANG YI, CHINESE FOREIGN MINISTER (through translator): China has called for global cooperation since the start and worked with other countries to fight the pandemic.

STOUT: In May, President Xi Jinping pledged to make Chinese vaccines a global public good.

China has promised a growing list of developing countries across Africa and Asia priority access to its vaccines. And it's planning to send hundreds of millions of doses to a long list of countries that have conducted last-stage trials, including Brazil, Turkey and Indonesia.

(on camera): It's been called vaccine diplomacy. Analysts say that it's a soft power play by China to reshape the pandemic narrative and repair its image, damaged by initial mishandling of the outbreak.

YANZHONG HUANG, COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS: So they want to improve China's image. And secondly, they want to expand the market share of the Chinese vaccines. Third, they want to use that, the vaccine sort of as a strategic tool, especially in those countries which -- where China has strategic interests.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And the idea of Beijing launching a "vaccine diplomacy" campaign.

STOUT: The term doesn't sit well with China. State media rejects the notion that its vaccines are a bargaining chip.

China's vaccines do have their public health advantages. Compared to the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, they don't require ultra-low temperature for storage, making shipment easier in the developing world.

China's Sinovac and Sinopharm may have announced efficacy rates lower than Pfizer/Moderna, but they are higher than the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine.

But vaccine diplomacy is not as easy as a shot in the arm. There is a worrying lack of transparency. No detailed efficacy data has been released for China's leading vaccine candidates by Sinovac and Sinopharm.

But to developing nations, they are a potential lifesaver. According to the People's Vaccine Alliance, rich countries have purchased enough COVID-19 vaccine doses to immunize their populations three times over. In 67 poor nations, including Nigeria, only one in 10 can hope to be vaccinated by the end of the year, according to the international vaccine watchdog group.

Having largely contained the virus at home, China can focus its vaccine drive on those very countries, a chance to restore its reputation and position itself as the solution to, rather than the cause of, the pandemic.

Kristie Lu Stout, CNN, Hong Kong.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: And next hour, I'll be speaking with Tom Bollyky about all of this. He is the director of global health at the Council on Foreign Relations. You don't want to miss that. He's got some interesting things to say about what should be happening globally and not leaving other countries behind.

Well, the U.S. House is ready to take action against President Trump. What House Democrats plan to do to remove Mr. Trump from office, just before his term ends. We'll have that when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:30:36] HOLMES: and welcome back to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. I'm Michael Holmes. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM and thanks for doing so.

Now, in the coming hours, the U.S. House is expected to urge Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment to declare President Trump incapable of fulfilling the duties of his office.

Now, if the vice president doesn't act within 24 hours, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says she will move ahead with an unprecedented second impeachment of the president.

Now, a new poll shows the majority of Americans believe Mr. Trump should be removed before his term ends in just 10 days. And two-thirds of Americans believe the president shares blame for the riots.

President Trump is continuing to face backlash from corporate America, meanwhile. Stripe says it will no longer process campaign donations for him, while Twitter and Facebook, of course, stripped him of his social media profiles.

CNN's Brian Stelter with the latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Corporate America is taking dramatic action against President Trump in his campaign. Many technology platforms basically disassociating themselves from Trump over the weekend. We have seen an avalanche of these announcements Friday, Saturday, into Sunday.

And the end result of all of it is that the president is increasingly isolated. His platforms are shrinking, shrinking, shrinking to the point where he has very few megaphones, very few ways to communicate or, at this point, even raise money.

We have seen no emails from the Trump campaign since Wednesday. Up until Wednesday, the campaign was emailing supporters many times a day.

One of the reasons why the emails may have stopped is because the campaign is having a very hard time accepting donations. On Sunday night, we learned that Stripe, which is a payments company that processes credit cards, has halted its service with the Trump campaign. Long story short, Trump can no longer accept donations via Stripe.

This is another example of how Trump and his allies are being isolated by corporate America.

And it is striking to see how in some ways businesses are taking swifter, stronger action than government entities, than the House or the Senate, for example. And it is clear that corporate America, in all its different ways, is making a statement, trying to distance itself from hate speech, trying to distance itself from incitements to violence. And this is going to pose serious problems for Trump. Not just, now

not just in the next nine or 10 days, but also in his post-presidency. Any of his plans for launching new businesses, any of his plans for months or years down the road, could be imperiled now that he has been de-platformed by Twitter and Facebook, and by lots of smaller companies, as well.

Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Our thanks to Brian Stelter there.

We're going to take a quick break. When we come back, a look at how America's democracy and values prevailed, despite the violence in the Capitol on Wednesday.

You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Now, it goes without saying, the scenes of violence we witnessed at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday were extraordinary. Yet, America woke up the next day to relative order, if not fall-out.

CNN's Nick Paton Walsh looks at how the day's events underscored the strengths and the flaws of the American system.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I think, as argued in a piece in CNN digital, that there are many similarities here between the violent, ugly scenes of rioting, frankly, that forged their way into the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday.

But there are also some key differences, frankly, in how the United States reacted to that situation.

Now, in so much of the attempted coups that I or others have seen around the world, there is, the next morning, an extraordinary sense of uncertainty, a real sense of fear, perhaps, that something fundamental has changed in the fabric of the country. You might see the president, perhaps, in hiding or appearing much more bullish on television, depending on what's just happened. You might find state TV playing propaganda. There can be a real sense of an abyss opening up.

What was quite extraordinary the morning after Wednesday was to see how the system simply picked up again in the United States. Perhaps comforting vision of seeing cable news, rolling news channels, reporting the events openly, transparently, dissecting them.

Other branches of the government, parts of Congress, parts of the Democratic opposition, standing up, expressing their fury about what had, in fact, happened.

The capacity, frankly, for people to do that openly is something that is extraordinarily rare around the world, particularly after attempted coups.

And certainly, I think some of the language that was used around that particular violence, it reflects how extraordinary surprised people were to see this. There had been multiple warnings but still no sight like that.

But the key thing, I think, we need to remember, particularly that will be urged on, perhaps, in that sense of recognition by people who have genuinely have survived or still live under tyranny, is that the U.S. system did still manage to prevail. Yes, it has flaws. Yes, it had flaws to enable it to get to that particular savage point outside the Congress, where five people lost their lives. Important to remember that.

But still, there were parts of democracy there that kicked into action. There was law. There was order. The rioters, when they got inside those buildings, didn't, to some degree, seem to get what it was they perhaps had gone there for. They were stopped by brave police officers. They were prevented from achieving whatever it was, in fact, their goals had, indeed, been.

And then swiftly afterwards, finally, the Pentagon moved into action. Other law enforcement, as well. So I think it's important to Americans who perhaps look at those scenes and think, gosh, what is happening to our democracy, is the fabric of our system falling apart, to remember that it isn't.

And to remember that there are many around the world who have been through similar scenes of unrest, who've seen the foundations of their daily lives shaken by coups or attempted coups, by scenes like that, who will look at how America managed to recover quite so fast; how it had law and order, how it had those guardrails; and feel an extraordinary sense of -- possibly, of jealousy to some degree.

[00:40:17]

Yes, America has a deeply flawed system, where extremists are often allowed too much of a voice, many might argue. But it's important to remember how much order there was still there, how much fairness the law still seemed to provide to those who sought justice. And how that may hold America in a better position as it navigates the complicated nightmarish political environment that's in the weeks ahead.

Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Now, the U.S. plans to designate Yemen's Houthi rebels as a foreign terrorist group. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says the move will provide additional tools to confront the Iran-backed militia, but diplomats and aid groups fear the designation could damage the U.N.'s work on peace talks in Yemen and also hinder the delivery of vital humanitarian aid. And it could also pose challenges for the incoming U.S. president, Joe Biden, to create a Yemen policy.

Thanks for watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Michael Holmes. For our international viewers, WORLD SPORT is coming up next. If you're here in the U.S., I'll be right here with more news after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sir, how disruptive will impeachment be to your agenda? Sir?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: U.S. President-elect Joe Biden there, refusing to answer how the potential impeachment of Donald Trump would affect the start of his own administration.

Biden has a lot planned for his first 100 days in office, and an impeachment vote could interfere with all of that.

CNN's Athena Jones reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, there.

A busy week ahead for President-elect Joe Biden. With much of the focus among Democrats in Congress this week on how to hold President Trump accountable for inciting Wednesday's attack on the Capitol, Biden is focused on his agenda and on making sure he is protected from COVID. He is set to receive his second dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine on Monday, 21 days after he received the first dose.

Just like he did in December, Biden will receive the shot publicly to help instill confidence in the vaccine's safety and efficacy.

He'll also be meeting with transition and economic advisors Monday.

On Thursday, Biden is set to lay out what he wants to see in the next COVID relief package, things like the $2,000 in direct economic relief that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell blocked in December, but that the president-elect is hoping to push through in a Democrat- controlled Senate.

Biden has also pointed to paid sick leave as a critical tool for stopping the spread of the coronavirus. We know that tens of millions of workers lost their right to paid sick and family leave at the end of December after Congress failed to extend them in that relief package.

Biden will also discuss his plan to release all vaccine doses and whether he can guarantee that everyone will receive both necessary doses. He has criticized the administration's vaccine rollout, saying, "Vaccines give us hope, but the roll-out has been a travesty."

Athena Jones, CNN, Wilmington, Delaware.

(END VIDEOTAPE) HOLMES: Well, with his days in office now dwindling, Donald Trump has a lot more golf to look forward to, of course, but one of his golf courses is losing a major event.

The PGA says it is cancelling plans to play next year's prestigious PGA championship at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, where Donald Trump plays a lot.

Now, that decision came, of course, after last week's riot at the U.S. Capitol. The Trump Organization, for its part, calls it a breach of a binding contract that the PGA has no right to terminate.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOE MANCHIN (D-WV): There's no doubt about it. He should be impeached.

SEN. CHRIS COONS (D-DE): President Trump, by his actions over the last two months since the election, has lost the right to be president.

TOOMEY: I think the president did commit impeachable offenses. There's little doubt in my mind about that.

REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-NY): I absolutely believe that impeachment should be scheduled.

REP. MONDAIRE JONES (D-NY): This president must be impeached and removed; and anything less than that is an abdication of Congress's constitutional responsibility.

REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D-NY): Donald Trump presents a clear and present danger to the health and safety of the American people, as well as our democracy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Well, you heard it there. Calls for President Donald Trump to be removed from office are growing, even among some Republicans in Congress.

This, of course, all fallout from the riot that took place on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, those outrageous scenes. Five people have died as a result of the events that occurred that day.

Many questions still remain about what took so long to get help to the Capitol. Maryland Governor Larry Hogan spoke to CNN about the steps that were taken to deploy his state's National Guard.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. LARRY HOGAN (D-MD): Within minutes of this attack, I called a security team together, to send in several hundred specially-trained mounted state police, a rapid response team. And I called up 500 members of the National Guard.

While I can't speak as to what was going on on the other end of the line, back at the Pentagon or in the White House, I can tell you that within -- I was in the middle of a meeting when my chief of staff came in and said the Capitol was under attack.

We contacted -- we were in contact with the mayor's office, who requested assistant. We immediately sent police assistance. I immediately called up the National Guard.

It's a little bit of a tricky situation. In most cases, one governor could send his National Guard into another state to help another one. But in D.C. only the Defense Department can do that.

So our -- our guard mobilized and was ready, but we couldn't actually cross over the border into D.C. without the OK, and that was quite some time. We kept running it up the flagpole, our generals talking to the National Guard generals. And eventually, I got a call from Ryan McCarthy, the secretary of the Army, you know, asking if we could come into the city.

[00:50:03]

But we had already been mobilizing. We already had our police there. We already had our guard mobilized, and we were just waiting for that call.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Many, many questions still unanswered about what happened in terms of the security posture.

Meanwhile, one of Georgia's newly-elected senators is delivering a message of hope after last week's chaos in Washington. Democrat Raphael Warnock returning to the pulpit at Atlanta's Ebenezer Baptist Church on Sunday for the first time since winning the Senate race. And he shared what the victory means for him, for the state of Georgia, and for the country as a whole.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REV. RAPHAEL WARNOCK (D), GEORGIA SENATOR-ELECT: As a teenager growing up in Waycross, Georgia, my mom used to pick somebody else's cotton. But the other day, she went to the polls and picked her youngest son to be a United States senator.

That's a glimpse of God's glory, a glimpse of God's justice. The arc being bent a little bit closer to justice in the world. And it is here and at hand.

The emergence of human possibility and God's dream that embraces all of us. The kingdom of heaven, Jesus says, is here. But it suffers violence.

We witnessed that tension in such a powerful and such a tragic way. Here in the wee hours Tuesday night into Wednesday morning, Georgia had elected its first black senator and its first Jewish senator, and then, as we were basking in the glory of all that that represented, seemed like we could only have a few hours to celebrate. Just as we were trying to put on our celebration shoes, the ugly side of our story, our great and grand American story, began to emerge as we saw the crude and the angry and the disrespectful, and the violent break their way into the people's house.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Well, in the days leading up to Reverend Warnock's win, many people were criticizing President Trump for pressuring Georgia's secretary of state to overturn the presidential election. But Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, by the way, stood strong. He followed the law.

CNN's Amber Walker sat down with Raffensperger to talk about the attack on the U.S. Capitol and the president's attacks on him.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRAD RAFFENSPERGER (R), GEORGIA SECRETARY OF STATE: It's just horrifying, because it really -- Things have just gone too far.

AMBER WALKER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For two long months, Georgia's secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, endured standing in the firing line of Trump's baseless attacks.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES; He's an enemy of the people.

WALKER: And even with death threats against his own family, he never budged.

RAFFENSPERGER (via phone): We believe that we do have an accurate election.

TRUMP: No -- no, you don't.

WALKER: And then, Trump's reckless lies of a rigged election culminated with this.

(BREAKING GLASS)

(SHOUTING)

RAFFENSPERGER: People have been spun up for two months about the election results. People have been misrepresented, you know, the facts. Spreading disinformation, saying whatever they wanted to out on social media. And there were consequences, and we saw what those consequences were yesterday.

WALKER (on camera): And when you say people, specifically, we're talking about President Trump. He was at the Ellipse --

TRUMP: We're going to walk down to the Capitol.

WALKER: -- as we all know, right before the riots broke out, telling his supporters to walk on the Capitol. This was incited by the president. Do you blame President Trump? And what would you say to him?

RAFFENSPERGER: Well, obviously, that's why I've said from day one that we have to be really mindful of our speech, because we can't spin people up and play people and get them into emotional frenzy and emotional state. Deal with the facts. And the facts are on our side. We had fair and honest elections in Georgia.

WALKER: Did he betray our country?

RAFFENSPERGER: I believe that -- You have to really recognize, when you hold a high office like that, that you're really called to call people up to a higher standard of behavior. If maybe you don't like an answer, you don't like a result, but you never want to go down the road of violence.

At the end of the day, that lady lost her life. I've lost my oldest son, so I know what their parents are going -- her parents are going through today, that grief that they're having. And it seems so needless.

WALKER (voice-over): And it seems this was the last straw for Raffensperger, who just last month still declared himself a Trump supporter.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And you still support Donald Trump, despite him sowing doubt in the integrity of the election?

RAFFENSPERGER: Yes, I wish he would have won.

WALKER: Now he admits things have changed.

Do you regret that vote? Do you still prefer that he had won this past election?

RAFFENSPERGER: The actions that he's taken since then were not what you would expect from a president.

[00:55:05]

When something like this happens, then his accomplishments really get negated. They get obscured. And you actually go out with a black mark on your record, and it's a shame it had to come to that.

It's also a shame that many people, political leaders, elected political leaders in the Republican Party didn't have the courage to stand and say, Mr. President, here's what the real numbers are. And I believe the real numbers.

WALKER: I mean, he still does have a grip on the party, clearly, and he still has a grip on his supporters.

RAFFENSPERGER: I think after today, I think there will be a reevaluation of a lot of things.

WALKER (voice-over): Including a reevaluation of how two incumbent Republican senators lost their seats to Democrats, making Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff the first Democrats to win Senate seats in Georgia in 20 years.

RAFFENSPERGER: President Trump really hurt the Republican Party here on the senator run-offs and them getting involved in that. They would have just tended to, you know, focus on their races, they would have done well. They came up short.

He filled up stadiums. I get that. But at the end of the day, you've got to fill up the ballot box with your vote. The other side in this race did a better job than we did as Republicans.

WALKER: Raffensperger's party may have lost, but he trusts democracy will prevail, as it did in Georgia.

Through the chaos, Raffensperger hasn't lost his sense of humor. He credits his wife and sons for keeping him grounded.

RAFFENSPERGER: They're real proud. They -- they have some fun with it at times, but they're real proud. They gave me a beautiful framed picture, and it was the Luckovichajc article [SIC] of people that were in the boxing ring, and I was the referee. And so it was kind of like that whimsical humor. And so we had a good laugh over it. And so -- and that's good, because it keeps me humble. And it keeps me real.

WALKER (on camera): They see you as a referee. And is that how you see yourself?

RAFFENSPERGER: In this job, yes. And, you know, and that's why the players did learn, their job is to win the game. It's not the play -- not the referee to -- to make, you know, one call or another so you can go ahead and score a touchdown. Play the game fair and go out and, you know, play your guts out. Leave it all on the field.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Amber Walker there.

I'm Michael Holmes, and I'll be back with more news in a moment.

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