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U.S. House Will Urge Pence to Take Steps to Remove Trump; Biden to Unveil Plan for Pandemic Relief Package; U.S. to Designate Houthi Rebels as Foreign Terrorists; Former FDA Chief: Need to Hit Reset on Vaccine Strategy; German Death Toll Tops 40,000; Search Underway for Indonesia Crash Victims; Schwarzenegger Urges Unity in U.S. After Capitol Riot; Officer Died After Physically Engaging with Rioters. Aired 4:30-5a ET
Aired January 11, 2021 - 04:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:30:00]
ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back, everyone, here in the United States and across the globe.
U.S. House Democrats are set to introduce a resolution in just a few hours aimed at getting President Donald Trump out of office. The measure would demand Vice President Mike Pence invoke the 25th Amendment to remove Mr. Trump. If it passes and Pence fails to respond, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says she will bring impeachment legislation to the floor.
President-elect Joe Biden has a busy schedule as he prepares to be inaugurated in just nine days. CNN's Athena Jones walks us through his plans for the week ahead.
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ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, there. A busy week ahead for President-elect Joe Biden. With much of the focus amongst 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.
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CHURCH: The United States 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 hinder humanitarian aid. It also could pose challenges for the incoming U.S. President Joe Biden to create a Yemen policy.
So joining us now with more on all of this is senior international correspondent Sam Kiley standing by in Jerusalem. Good to see you, Sam. So what could this mean for the incoming Biden administration and of course for humanitarian aid?
SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, for the Biden administration it doesn't cripple any future policy. But it certainly hamstrings the Biden administration putting it really in a real bind. It's very hard to unravel a terrorist designation, not the least because you have to kind of prove a negative.
But equally the Biden administration had said -- or at lease Joe Biden during his election campaigns -- had said he would start turning the screws on Saudi Arabia. Which is an enemy force arranged against the Houthi administration in support of the internationally recognized government in Yemen, which has largely lived in exile in Saudi Arabia.
Biden has said he will move to restrict the operations or get the Saudis to restrict or end their operations in Yemen because of the humanitarian disaster that continues to unfold there. 80 million -- beg your pardon, 8 million Yemenis, 80 percent of the country are facing imminent famine. They are dependent on some kind of international aid and clearly a terrorist designation makes it very, very difficult to distribute aid, particularly in the Houthi areas.
The United States with about $680 billion worth of foreign donations to the international community, mostly through the United Nations, is the biggest donor to Yemen.
[04:35:00]
Yemen has a program or in Yemen the U.N. has a program that it is sponsoring on all sides of the fight to try to get salaries paid directly to Yemeni government employees rather than have aid distributions that can be manipulated. Particularly in the past they have been manipulated by the Houthis who have been skimming off the top and manipulating food aid in order to help prosecute their war. The reason for this terrorist designation is that the Houthis are deemed to be proxies of the Iranians in that region. I think that's an exaggeration. They are certainly supported by the Iranians. But I've been to Sanaa. I've mixed a lot with the Houthi officials. And there's no love lost ideologically or even personally between Iranians and the Yemenis in the north of the country. Even though the Iranians continue to support them, support them too with the sort of missiles that have been used against targets within Saudi Arabia.
It's for that reason that the Trump administration argues the Houthis are terrorists. The Houthis have condemned obviously this move by the Trump administration. It's also been bitterly criticized by the Norwegian Refugee Council which works a great deal with humanitarian operations in the region. And it has been resisted over the previous months by members of the State Department and others who see this as a very substantial roadblock in any future peace negotiations which have been stumbling forward. One of the main problems has been getting the Houthis to come to the table. That is now going to be a lot harder -- Rosemary.
CHURCH: Indeed. Sam Kiley bringing us the very latest on that. Many thanks.
Well COVID cases and hospitalizations are soaring in the United States. The latest numbers and how New York is now working to boost its vaccine rollout. We're back in just a moment.
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[04:40:00]
CHURCH: We're now just 11 days into the new year and the U.S. has already added more than 2.3 million coronavirus cases as hospitalizations and deaths continue to climb. January is now on track to be the deadliest month of the pandemic. Since the first of the year, more than 28,000 people have died. Nowhere is the situation worse than in California. The state just added nearly 50,000 new cases and a surge in infections is showing no signs of letting up.
All of this as the vaccine distribution across the U.S. continues to move very slowly. The CDC says of the more than 22 million vaccine doses that have been distributed, just over 6.6 million have been administered.
Let's bring in Dr. Scott Miscovich. He is a family physician and a national consultant for COVID-19 testing. Thank you, doctor, for being with us and for all that you do.
DR. SCOTT MISCOVICH, NATIONAL CONSULTANT FOR COVID-19 TESTING: Hi, Rosemary. How are you today?
CHURCH: I'm good. I'm good. So, the U.S. is seeing these record numbers of COVID deaths and hospitalizations, as we watch a very slow rollout of vaccines, just 6.6 million administered so far. President- elect Joe Biden is considering releasing all available doses for vaccination once he takes office. Is that what needs to happen, or do you see problems with that solution? MISCOVICH: It's part of the solution, but the solution has to be more federal help at the state level or the county level. Again, this is unprecedented time in the United States and the world to think that everyone at every corner of the world has to get a vaccine is just unimaginable. And there's no direction. There is no leadership.
We're seeing all the states and counties being left to their own accord. There has to be plan. We have to give guidance of what those 20 million and the next 20 million, and the next 100 million of how the federal government will not just throw money at it but put more resources including bodies, and leadership and what we call logistics and helping it happen. So, I'm looking forward to the Biden administration stepping up.
CHURCH: Right, and you say we have to have a plan. The problem is no one seems to have a plan. Former Food and Drug Administration commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb says we need to hit the recent reset button on vaccine rollout because the current system isn't working. So why have so few doses being administered and how can this be done better?
MISCOVICH: Well again, I think the biggest issue now is the number of bodies to do it. I mean, it's a very big effort. My group right now, I will be heading into Arizona tomorrow to help lead efforts to do vaccine rollout there and, you know, getting the people together, whether it's hiring retirees that are qualified to do it or bringing together people from the National Guard or retired guard or other personnel.
That maybe right now, we take, like, six weeks and put a training program together so that when we hit the national effort where everyone becomes eligible, not just first responders, that is where we're really going to need the effort. So, there's got to be that type of guidance and that type of leadership to show how to do it instead of just saying well here it is, and here's money in your accounts.
CHURCH: I want to turn to Europe now and the coronavirus death toll in Germany now stands at more than 40,000. Official numbers released Friday reported the deadliest 24-hour period of the pandemic to date. The German government has extended a national lockdown which was set to expire yesterday.
Melissa Bell has been tracking this story for us from Paris. She joins me now live. Good to see you, Melissa. So Germany did so well at the start of this pandemic. What went wrong and what is the latest on the situation there?
MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. It's now one of the countries that is really having the toughest time bringing down those COVID-19 figures. Not only the ones you mentioned, the numbers of COVID-19 related deaths with sad passing of the 40,000 mark but also the number of new cases. And what we heard from the German chancellor over the weekend is that the worst is still to come. And she was really hinting there, Rosemary, at the idea that it could be that people having gathered at Christmas and new year could lead to a surge that has yet to be recorded in the numbers. So yes, not only an extended lockdown until January 31st but a tight
lockdown since those areas where the virus is spreading the fastest now has travel restrictions, restrictions on the movements of people as well.
Looking ahead, she did, however, express some hope. Half a million people have now been vaccinated in Germany. And what she said she hoped was that even if the start of that vaccination rollout had been slow, that things would now improve. The Moderna vaccine arrives in Germany today. And she said she hoped more people would be vaccinated in order that those figures can be brought down.
[04:45:00]
We're also been hearing by the way, Rosemary, this morning from French government officials saying that they do not believe that France will have to enter for the time being a third lockdown. They speak of the virus circulating two to three times faster in neighboring countries than it is in France, because of restrictions that have been put in place here appear to be keeping the spread of the virus under control. But a great deal of concern of course throughout Europe especially when it comes to the fast spread of this new variant.
CHURCH: Yes, there is such a worry. Melissa Bell joining us live from Paris. Many thanks.
To Indonesia now and search operations are ongoing after Saturday's plane crash. Navy divers and search boats are working nonstop looking for wreckage and the victims. 50 passengers and 12 crew members were on board when the Sriwijaya Air flight went missing. Divers have found the plane's black boxes among the wreckage.
CNN's Selina Wang is following these developments. She joins us now live from Tokyo. So Selina, those black boxes are found. So that will at least give some guidance on what happened here. But what is the latest on that search effort in the wake of this tragedy?
SELINA WANG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Rosemary, the family members of the people on that plane are still waiting in anguish. So far 16 body bags with human remains have been retrieved. The relatives have been sharing their DNA samples to help the authorities identify the victims.
But we are continuing to learn more about the 62 people on this Sriwijaya Air plane. There were 7 children. There was a pregnant woman with her 2-year-old daughter. There was a couple, they were on the airplane to travel to a funeral. We spoke to the brother of the wife and he told us the following.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
YUDIANSYAH YUNUS, BROTHER OF MISSION PASSENGER (through translator): There were only three of us. Our father has passed away, our mother has passed away. Now their children are orphans whom I have to take care of.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WANG (on camera): Divers are still searching at the crash site which is about 20 miles northwest of Jakarta. In addition to human remains, they found children's clothing. They found wrecked plane pieces, personal belongings. As you said, those black boxes have been located. Once it's retrieved it could provide critical information about how this accident happened.
Indonesia is a nation made up of thousands of islands. And that makes air travel critical for its population. But unfortunately Indonesia also has a history of airplane accidents. That's partly because of aging infrastructure. Because of the aviation industries rapid growth. And the airline CEO, however, has said that the airplane that was flown was in good condition, but it was 26 years old. But just to be clear, the plane that was flown was a Boeing 737-500, it was not the Boeing 737 Max which had led to two fatal crashes because of flawed software in the cockpit. That led to the fatal crash in 2018 in Indonesia and another one several months later in Ethiopia -- Rosemary.
CHURCH: Selina Wang bringing us those details. Many thanks.
And still ahead, saluting a man being remembered as a hero. U.S. Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick died after Wednesday's riot and we will look at his career in service.
[04:50:00]
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CHURCH: Arnold Schwarzenegger is condemning Wednesday's siege on the Capitol. In a powerful 7-minute video, the former governor of California compared the riot to the violence done by the Nazi regime. He also offered words of inspiration for anxious Americans.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER, FORMER CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR: Over the past few days friends from all over the world have been calling and calling and calling me. Calling me distraught and worried about us as a nation. One woman was in tears about America, wonderful tears of idealism of what America should be. Those tears should remind us of what America means to the world.
I have told everyone who has called, that as heartbreaking as all of this is, America will come back from these dark days and shine our lights once again.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: And if you can, watch the whole 7 minutes. It is worthy of your watching.
Well flags at the U.S. Capitol and now the White House are flying at half-staff to honor two late police officers. Brian Sicknick and Howard Liebengood were both on duty when pro-Trump rioters stormed Capitol Hill. CNN's Brian Todd looks at Officer Sicknick's career in service.
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BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): With flags lowered to half-staff the Capitol Hill community is reeling over the death of a respected police officer, forty-two-year-old Brian Sicknick. But with their sorrow, some including members of Congress are also expressing anger.
REP. KATHERINE CLARK (D-MA): My heart goes out to Officer Sicknick's family. There are a lot of people who have Officer Sicknick's blood on their hands.
THEORTIS 'BUTCH' JONES, FORMER CAPITOL POLICE OFFICER: The way that they went out or the way that he died was unnecessary.
TODD (voice-over): Capitol Hill police say Officer Sicknick was injured on Wednesday while, quote, physically engaging with protesters. That he then returned to his division office and collapsed. He died late Thursday. The youngest of three sons born and raised in South River, New Jersey, Brian Sicknick is being called a hero by his family.
In a statement sent to CNN, the family is saying he wanted to be a police officer his entire life. As a means to that end, they say, he joined the New Jersey Air National Guard. That branch says Sicknick joined in 1997, was deployed to Saudi Arabia and Kyrgyzstan and served in a security force's quadrant, the air guard's military police.
Sicknick was honorably discharged from the New Jersey Air National Guard in 2003 and joined the Capitol Hill police in 2008.
[04:55:02]
Capitol Hill police say Sicknick most recently served in of the force's first responder's unit. One former Capitol Hill officer says the job is dangerous, even under normal circumstances.
JONES: Every day your life is in danger. It's no promise that you are going to come home the next day or the same day that you go out, every officer that swears in take the job very seriously to protect Congress.
TODD: Officer Sicknick and his colleagues, though by most accounts overwhelmed by the rioters, are drawing praise from members of Congress who they fought to protect.
REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): Many of our Capitol police just acted so bravely and with such concern for the staff, for the members, for the Capitol, for the Capitol of the United States. Many of the men and they deserve our gratitude.
REP. ANNIE KUSTER (D-NH): We were all very fortunate that the Capitol Hill police that were there were thinking as quickly as they had if they had automatic weapons, they could have killed hundreds of members of Congress. TODD (voice-over): Now, one of the men who helped prevent that horror is being remembered by his family for his empathy, his commitment to rescuing dogs, his love of the New Jersey Devil's hockey team. Brian Sicknick had no children but lived with his girlfriend of 11 years.
TODD: In a statement to CNN, Brian Sicknick's family asks the public and media not to make his passing a, quote, political issue. But his death will be the subject of a federal murder investigation with the U.S. attorney's office. The Capitol Hill Police and D.C. Metropolitan Police taking part.
Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.
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CHURCH: And thank you so much for your company. I'm Rosemary Church. "EARLY START" is up next. You're watching CNN. Do stay with us.
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