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Official Says, No National Mall Access on Inauguration Day; Biden Seeks to Keep Focus on COVID, Economy amid Impeachment; U.S. Adds Nearly 40,000 New Deaths, 3 Million-Plus Cases in January. Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired January 14, 2021 - 11:30   ET

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

[11:30:06]

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And you could see that there're 20,000 National Guardsmen who are arriving here in Washington right now. The security threat is real, according to the Secret Service, which is now leading the security operation for this upcoming inauguration. It says that it is concerned about more possible protests. It is following chatter online, and the Pentagon said it is concerned about improvised explosive devices, more pipe bombs like those found outside of the RNC and the DNC.

The head of the Metropolitan Washington Police Department says, the threat is real, he does not want people to come to D.C. for inauguration day. Here is what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHIEF ROBERT CONTEE, D.C. METROPOLITAN POLICE: As the mayor has encouraged residents, as chief has encouraged visitors from around the country, we're not asking people to come to D.C. for this. There is a major security threat and we are working to mitigate those threats. So, again, we are just really intently focused on the job that is at hand.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MUNTEAN: Kate, a little more context on the massive security fortress going up here in D.C., this is the fence. I'm six feet tall. It is about eight feet tall. Even if someone did get on the other side of this, they will be met by National Guardsman with M-4 guns.

This is very serious here. We may get a little bit of an update about the extent of the threats from Vice President Mike Pence later on as he meets with FEMA about this inauguration like no other. Kate?

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: It is almost unbelievable to see what you're looking at right now. Thank you, Pete, for setting the stage.

Joining me now right now is Democratic Congressman Jason Crow from Colorado for more on this. It is unbelievable, Congressman, to see that on the National Mall at this moment.

REP. JASON CROW (D-CO): It is unbelievable, Kate. I haven't seen a sight like that since I was in Iraq in a war zone. It is truly heartbreaking to see the pantheon of our democracy, a place that so many of us hold so dear and sacred to us to be turned into a war zone like that. But we saw, really, the birth of a domestic terror movement last week and we're going to have to deal with that in the months and years ahead.

BOLDUAN: Congressman, I was really struck when talking about inauguration security. You told my colleague, John Berman, that you didn't know yet if you felt the inauguration was going to be safe. Why is that?

CROW: Well, I went into January 6th with confidence and the security measures on that day. That was a misplaced confidence. So I'm kind of of the view right now that I'm going to verify things and I'm going to speak up and make sure that I'm conducting my own assessment. And I've been doing that, talking to law enforcement, military officials, including the secretary of the Army, congressional leadership. I believe we're on the right path.

We have expedited the designation of the national special security event that actually occurred yesterday, so the command and control is in place, the resources in place. So we are on the path to making sure that it is secure and it is going to be secure. We just have some time to get there but we're almost there.

BOLDUAN: That is -- it is weird to say that that sounds comforting but, at this point, I guess it does sound comforting to hear you say that, Congressman.

About last week, my colleague, Evan Perez, is reporting that investigators are pursuing signs that the riot was planned and the attack was planned. And a couple of your colleagues have actually raised concern yesterday about members, other members of Congress showing rioters around the Capitol in the days before the attack. What do you know about this?

CROW: Yes. Well, there is no doubt that this was a catastrophic security failure. Maybe one of the most shocking things about it is it was planned. It was in the wide open. Looking back in the weeks and months leading up to January 6th, people were very clearly online in open platforms saying that they were going to assault the Capitol and conducted an insurrection.

So, the intelligence failure there by law enforcement was extreme and we're going to get to the bottom of that in the months ahead, but they're saying the same things right now. So I think we have every reason to believe that they mean it and we are going to see whether members of Congress and their staff are complicit in this.

With the extreme threats that were being made in the days and weeks leading up to January 6th, for members of Congress to actually disregard standing House guidelines that currently say no public tours because of the pandemic, which have been in place since March, to disregard that and do that anyhow raises some very serious questions about why they were doing that.

Now, we're going to just follow where the facts lead us. I'm not going to make any assumptions. I'm not a mind reader. But this is a criminal investigation. We will follow the facts where they lead.

BOLDUAN: It is unbelievable that it is even a consideration of just where this potentially is headed in terms of investigation. Do you leave open the possibility that this could have been an inside job and assisted by sitting members of Congress?

[11:35:00]

CROW: Yes, I think we have to look at everything. We cannot leave any stone unturned. Listen, we have to leave open all possibilities because the president of the United States incited and called for this insurrection, right? The president of the United States, let's wrap our brain around this for a moment.

We have 15,000 to 20,000 National Guard soldiers that are coming into or already in Washington, D.C., on Capitol Hill to guard against an insurrection and the violent movement that has been created by the commander-in-chief, covered (ph) with National Guard troops. It is mind-boggling to me, the situation that we're in, the reality that we are in. But we're going to deal with it.

We have tremendous leaders at all level. So we are going to step up. We're going to lead and we're going to get the country through this.

BOLDUAN: The president's video last night that he released, he condemned the violence of last week but he also -- he called for calm moderation and grace, something that we know that he has not offered or been capable of in the last four years at very least. What do you think of his statement? Did it do anything?

CROW: Well, the president continues to be a very violent and unstable man. The overwhelming communications that have come out of this president have been violent and insightful rhetoric. We didn't get to January 6th overnight. This just didn't happen in one day. This happened over years. The president has been building this. He has been radicalizing his most fringe supporters. He started with dog whistles and now this outright rhetoric by him and his top supporters.

So talk is really cheap right now. If the president wants to de- escalate this, what he will say is that there was -- that President- elect Biden is the president of the United States and he was lawfully elected, that that is the fact. And if he wants to be de-escalate that, he will stop these conspiracy theories. He will attempt to try to de-radicalize his supporters, and he will say that outright. I am not holding my breath.

BOLDUAN: I would not. Really quickly, you've spoken about this, but I find it completely confounding that there hasn't been a single public briefing by any top level federal official on what happened last week. Chris Wray of the FBI, we've heard nothing publicly, the Department of Homeland Security, nothing, DOJ, we've not heard from the acting attorney general, just nothing. I don't understand it. CROW: Nor do I, Kate. I think people have to wrap their brain around the fact that we've gone a week, on one of the biggest terror attacks in our nation's history, an insurrection against our democracy, against our electoral process, to try to derail our electoral process and certification of our election, there haven't been any briefings.

So actually I took matters in my own hands about a week ago and reached directly out to the secretary of the Army, Ryan McCarthy. He called me back and we had a 40-minute conversation. And I told him, Secretary McCarthy, I'm going to release the notes from this conversation because the American people deserve to know what is happening and they need answers and they need to be reassured that people are taking that seriously. He didn't object to that and that is what I did.

But I shouldn't be in a position -- a member of Congress should not be releasing notes from a phone call of a service secretary to get that information out there. We need leadership and we need it now. The administration is not going to lead. I'm pretty confident about that. The president, of course, has not been leading for a very long time.

So, the United States Congress, the House of Representatives, we're going to step up, we're going to be the leader to the nation and we're going to get our country through this.

BOLDUAN: Congressman, thank you for coming on.

CROW: Thanks.

BOLDUAN: Coming up for us, Joe Biden is about to roll out a massive COVID relief proposal. Is the Senate capable of working on that and the second impeachment trial of President Trump at the very same time? Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand joins me next.

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[11:40:00]

BOLDUAN: President-elect Joe Biden is weighing in on the historic second impeachment of Donald Trump but he's also imploring Congress to do something it often has a very hard time with, walking and chewing gum at the same time.

In a statement last night, Biden wrote this. This nation also remains in the grip of a deadly virus and a reeling economy. I hope that the Senate leadership will find a way to deal with their constitutional responsibilities on impeachment while also working on the other urgent business of this nation.

Later today, Biden is expected to unveil a massive $2 trillion COVID relief package, a big proposal that the Biden team wants Congress to address immediately as he takes office.

Joining me right now for more on this is Democratic Senator of New York Kirsten Gillibrand. Senator, do you think -- the Senate and the House has a hard time doing this often. Do you think that the Senate is capable of moving on this massive COVID relief package and getting through a Senate impeachment trial at the very same time?

SEN. KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND (D-NY): I do, Kate. And while it is a procedural question, we have to see if we could do them actually simultaneously with one day doing Senate trial, the next day doing COVID relief or making sure that President Biden has his cabinet in place right away.

We certainly stand ready to do both at the same time. We certainly can walk and chew gum at the same time, but it is a procedural question. If we can't, then maybe we delay the trial for a while so that we could actually get President Biden's nominees and cabinet up and running so that we could get actually get a COVID relief package out of the door immediately.

[11:45:09]

BOLDUAN: Yes, that is your priority. The Senate majority leader indicated in a statement yesterday that he will consider convicting Trump for inciting the insurrection, at least leaving open the possibility in a letter to Republican senators. What do you read into that? Do you actually think that Mitch McConnell could vote to convict Trump?

GILLIBRAND: I don't know. I've been hoping that Senator McConnell would stand up to Trump for some time now, so I'm definitely not holding my breath.

But the consequences of President Trump's actions are very serious. And it is deeply concerning that we have a president of the United States who could incite a mob to violence and to have him be impeached twice. This is something that we all must take seriously. We have to take our constitutional responsibilities very seriously. So we will conduct the trial and we will vote, I certainly will vote in favor of conviction.

I don't know how many Republicans will stand up to President Trump. I find it hard to believe we'll get 17 of them, which is what we would need for a conviction. But if we did have conviction, we could then move to bar President Trump from serving in public office again, which I think would be the best thing to do.

BOLDUAN: And the reason some House Republicans at least have given for voting against impeachment was that they said that it would further divide the country. I mean, Kevin McCarthy said that he thought it would fan the flames of partisan division. Does that make any sense to you?

GILLIBRAND: No. This is not a partisan issue. This is about our Constitution, our democracy and standing up for what we believe in. For a president to commit the acts that President Trump has done, to so deeply undermine this democracy and mislead the American people and continue to put forward the lie that he won the election and that obviously inspiring people to fight for him physically and take down the Capitol just shows how important it is that we do do our constitutional duty. This can't be ignored because it is so serious. And so I do believe we could get these articles of impeachment, we can vote on the House impeachment measure and I think that is the appropriate oversight and accountability that should be done. It doesn't mean that prosecutors can't prosecute President Trump either state or federal prosecutions. But in terms of my responsibility in the U.S. Senate and the responsibility we have as senators, it is to do that important job of conducting a trial and then voting on a conviction.

BOLDUAN: President Trump was not the only person egging on supporters or pushing the election lie. He had two lieutenants if the Senate leading the charge on the election frontline. That was Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley. Do you think they should face consequences?

GILLIBRAND: I do. And I think we should consider a censure motion for both of them. Again, to continue the lie that the Electoral College votes shouldn't have been counted, that some extra judicious review was necessary, after it had been through the courts, certified by states, this is a state's rights issue. I think it was extremely irresponsible and I think the appropriate response would be a censure motion.

BOLDUAN: Senator, thank you for your time. Thanks for coming on.

GILLIBRAND: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: Coming up for us, as the pandemic reaches its deadliest and most dangerous days, the CDC is out with a grim new warning. The details on that, next.

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[11:50:00]

BOLDUAN: The coronavirus pandemic is at its deadliest and most dangerous point right now. Nearly 40,000 Americans have reported to have died of COVID so far this year. Yes, just this year, just this month. More than 38,000 deaths were reported just yesterday.

CNN's Elizabeth Cohen is joining me now with some perspective on this. This is where we are right now with the numbers, Elizabeth. What does it mean for how much worse it can get?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Oh, these projections are really just so awful, Kate. Let's take a look at these numbers. In the two few weeks, so, since the beginning of the year and the past two weeks, 38,000 people in the U.S. have died from COVID-19. The projection is that it's going to be 92,000 in the next three weeks, so that's more than double. It's saying that the weekly death rate is going to go up substantially. So what is a horrible situation right now is projected to get even worse. Kate?

BOLDUAN: And the White House task force is warning right now about more transmissible strains of the virus. What are you hearing about what is most concerning about this, Elizabeth? COHEN: So, two things are concerning, what you just said, Kate, which is that we know of at least two variants that appear to be more transmissible. One of them was first spotted in the U.K., another one was first spotted in South Africa.

Let's talk about the one in South Africa first. That one is causing concern that the vaccine may, and I want to emphasize the word, may, may not work quite as well against this variant as it does against the variants of coronavirus that are currently out there. There is concern that this South African variant could pose a challenge to the vaccine.

[11:55:02]

The vaccine would still work, but perhaps not as well.

South African scientists that I've been talking to, they call this a mutation in the South African variant an escape mutation, that's what they call it, an escape mutation, because there is a concern that it will escape antibodies produced by the vaccine.

So this variant that was first seen in South Africa causing a lot of concern. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. And just the mere fact that we're looking at nearly 40,000 Americans reported to have died in just the first 14 days of this year, it's amazing. Elizabeth, thank you.

Coming up, the Senate now is facing a second impeachment trial of Trump. How will it start, when will it start and how long will it last? Stay with us.

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[12:00:00]