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McConnell Remains Undecided On Convicting Trump In Senate Trial; Unemployment Claims Soar As States Try To Contain COVID-19 Surge; Liz Cheney On Calls For Her To Resign: "I'm Not Going Anywhere". Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired January 14, 2021 - 12:30   ET

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

[12:30:00]

GOV. JIM JUSTICE (R-WV): John, I would just say just this, just simply this, you know, this, the attacks on our nation's Capitol were despicable. That's all there is to it.

And absolutely, you know, when efforts or frustrations become, you know, way over your words, it's not good. It's just plain not good. You know, I know that our President was disappointed. I know that he was really frustrated from the standpoint of what's going on in regard to the impeachment. We are a divided nation right now, you know, we should first and foremost, not the Republicans and Democrats, we should be Americans.

And, you know, I know you hear so many say that. But I believe it. You know, so, John, really, from my standpoint, I think first and foremost, in West Virginia, we should be West Virginians. And we've made tremendous headway and tremendous scribes in West Virginia. But absolutely to answer your question and not dodge your question anyway, I wish to goodness that this was over. I wish we would just let our President finish four days and go on his way. And we should celebrate our new president, President Biden coming in. I've been great friends with the Trump family. I hope and pray I'll end up being great friends with the Biden family as well.

KING: Let me ask you, I want to talk about West Virginia's response to COVID because you deserve a lot of credit right now in terms of the vaccination rollout. And I want to talk about that in a second. But there's a conversation among Republicans in this town and all across the country and you know this, what happens to the President when he's gone? Does he continue to try to exert influence over the party? Is that a good thing or a bad thing if he does?

So we know from our reporting, we don't know how Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is going to vote on impeachment. But we do know and I'll read you this line. McConnell has privately indicated he believes impeaching Trump would be the way to rid him from the party. Does President Trump need to be purged from the Republican Party in your view?

JUSTICE: Well, I don't really think that I should have a real solid opinion in regarding to that. And John it's not a dodge in any way. It's just simply just this, the American people are the ones to judge that. And really, and truly from the standpoint of our President, I'm really hung up on honor and I am hung up on telling the truth all the time.

You know, from the standpoint of our President and everything, he did a lot of great things, you know, absolutely without any question, anybody with the brain would say, he's gotten way, way, way past out over his skis and what he's in his rhetoric and stuff like that. And, you know, in that rhetoric I'm sure that he regrets at this time. But absolutely, I don't think, I don't think that's a decision for me. I think all I can do is weigh in on something and make something worse. I mean, this country is way too divided. We don't need to be this. We just don't need to be this. We're too good to be this.

KING: I wish I shared your confidence that he regretted his rhetoric. Our reporting does not suggest that. But I sure hope you're right about that. I hope we learn about that in the future. I don't see evidence of that today.

Governor, let me talk to you about the vaccine rollout. Because as you mentioned, you think West Virginia is making progress. Well, you certainly are at the moment in one of the country's biggest challenges. If you look at your state numbers here, vaccines administered per 100,000 residents that each national average is about 3,100 per 100,000 residents, you're not quite twice that but over 6,100. What are you doing right? And how is this working? And what are you doing that maybe a governor somewhere else can steal from you and copy to get those shots in the arm more quickly?

JUSTICE: Well, John, we've taken a real practical approach, have we not? You know, just think about this. In West Virginia today and just imagine is in West Virginia, as of Monday, every single vaccine we have received was either in somebody's arm or had a name tag to it, that it was going to be in somebody's arm in the next day or so.

This coming Sunday, every one of the vaccines that we received yesterday will be in somebody's arm, 100 percent will be in somebody's arm. And the same thing will happen next week. And the way we've done it is we've absolutely not gone with the federal model and everything with the big chain drugstores, we've gone with the local pharmacies with absolutely pushing from the standpoint of our National Guard and our DHHR and all of our people.

But the bottom line is just this and it's as simple as mud. If you can get shots in arms, you're going to save lives, and how in the world we can't see one thing. This is all about age, age, and age, and the elderly, the ones that we created in a thing called Operation SOW, Save Our Wisdom. And absolutely we have done it. Little old West Virginia, one of the poor states, one of the states where people are spread out all over the place and everything but we've done it and we've done it repeatedly.

We're first in the nation so many different times, first in the nation to test all of our nursing home residents and first in the nation to vaccinate them all. And I, absolutely, John, we can do this but we don't need to sit around trying to develop systems or meeting with committees or whatever. We needed to act. We needed to move. And West Virginians are pretty darn gun practical and pretty smart people. We got it done.

[12:35:08]

KING: My props to you and your team for doing that. I like that, SOW, Save Our Wisdom. It's a great catchy phrase. I hope it catches on and other states as well. Governor, grateful for your time today. Sir, best of luck in the days ahead.

JUSTICE: And John, thank you for all you do each and every day.

KING: Thank you, sir, very much. Appreciate that. Thank you.

Up next for us Joe Biden about to unveil his first big initiative, it is a $2 trillion COVID stimulus package.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:40:12]

KING: Present-elect Biden later today announces a major new COVID stimulus package he will do so at a time the numbers whether you're looking at the Medical numbers, the case count, the hospitalizations, and deaths or the economic fallout, all the numbers bleak. Let's walk through the numbers then we'll get the details of the Biden plan.

Just look at this right now, 245,000 new infections a day on average right now, 245,000 new infections on average across the United States, stunningly sad, 3,300 is the average daily death toll right now from COVID-19. And 130,000 Americans, we've been stuck at that, 130,000 Americans hospitalized across the country right now on average until that number goes down, that number won't go down. There's -- we've know that from the past 10, 11 months of this.

The vaccine rollout also, frankly in a word, disappointing. More than 29 million doses distributed so far across the country. But 10 million, 10.2 million of those doses in arms already. So there is a lag time, a problem the new team, the new Biden team is trying to speed up once you distribute them why is it taking so long to get them into arms.

And then you look at the economic fallout and we see more devastation. The unemployment rate stuck at 6.7 percent, 4 million of our friends and neighbors, fellow Americans unemployed right now. Nearly 10 million jobs lost if you go back to December, just February, I'm sorry, February at the beginning of the pandemic.

And just this morning, the government telling us nearly a million, 965,000 Americans filed new unemployment claims just last week. Take this back to August. You see the weekly new filings they've been hugging around 800,000, sometimes a little below, sometimes a little higher. That's disturbing. If you're the President-elect taking office next week, 965,000 new first time unemployment filings. Just last week, the COVID fallout on the economy continues. Now we do know Americans are getting some help from the package passed back by the Congress with the Trump administration support in December, $600 direct payments per eligible adult, they're on the way out, $300 a week in federal benefits being extended through March. And there's extended benefits for gig workers, independent contractors, long term unemployed, so there is some help finally coming into the system.

Remember, it took months to get this package through the Congress. But Joe Biden says more has to be done and he is going to propose a very big package with a hefty price tag. CNN's MJ Lee tracking that debate for us, she is at the transition headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware. MJ, what are we going to hear?

MJ LEE, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, well, the focus in Washington this week has been entirely on impeachment, Joe Biden, again, trying to turn his attention to COVID. And he is going to be giving as you know, a speech this evening laying out the details of his COVID relief package. And what CNN has been reporting is that Biden advisors had recently told allies on Capitol Hill that they could see a total price tag around $2 trillion.

Of course, that could shift but it does give you a sense of how big of a spending relief package they're trying to aim for. And it should have things like direct payments to families, significant state and local funding, including for things like vaccine distribution, and other relief measures. Keep in mind, John, the stated goal from the Biden incoming administration is 100 million vaccine shots in the first 100 days that he is in office.

And other reporting that we have just coming today is that there is skepticism and concern from state level actors as to whether that goal is achievable, and what the problems and concerns that they are raising include things like, we don't know what these mass vaccination sites that Biden has been talking about, what exactly they will look like. We don't know whether there's going to be enough vaccine supplies. This is simply the question of will there actually be enough doses to meet this very ambitious goal.

There's also the issue of funding, right, there are a lot of states and local governments that are really strapped for cash right now. And they don't really know will we have the resources to do something as simple as administering these vaccine doses. So we'll see if the speech that Biden gives tonight here in Wilmington will help alleviate some of those concerns. But there are a lot of outstanding questions right now, John.

KING: A lot a lot of outstanding questions, this is the right way to put it. And one week from today will be the first full day of the Biden administration and the accountability shifts from Team Trump to Team Biden. We'll see how they handle that. MJ Lee, grateful for the important reporting and details there.

[12:44:16]

Up next for us, House Republicans wage a Family Feud now over the second Trump impeachment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: The impeachment case against the President of the United States now heads to the Senate for trial. But there is lingering fallout in the House among Republicans. Ten GOP lawmakers voted to impeach the President including the number three in the House Republican leadership Congresswoman Liz Cheney, top Trump allies in the House like Jim Jordan, Lee Zeldin want Cheney removed from her leadership post. You see some of their comments right there. But the Wyoming Congresswoman says she is not going anywhere and she's defending her vote.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. LIZ CHENEY (R-WY): There was no option other than voting to impeach. It was something that I did with a heavy heart, what that I did was a real understanding of the seriousness and the gravity of the moment.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Joining us now to discuss Republican Strategist Alice Stewart. So Alice, what should it be, Republicans forgive and forget or Liz Cheney, they have to have another vote, Liz Cheney perhaps gets voted out of the leadership?

ALICE STEWART, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I don't see that happening, John. I think she speaks on behalf of all Republicans. We do all of this moving forward with a heavy heart. I happen to agree with her that there has been no greater betrayal of the country than what the President did with regard to undermining the election and spreading false information and inciting an insurrection at the United States Capitol.

[12:50:09]

Look, I commend Liz Cheney for taking the action that she did. And then since giving cover or in some ways permission to the other nine members of the House to take this bold step to vote for impeachment, the question now is, you know, whether or not she will face consequences, I don't think so. She's pretty confident in what she did. And she has the support of the people of her state behind her, and time will tell how this plays out. But the question now is what will happen as this moves over to the U.S. Senate.

There are a lot of senators, Republicans and Democrats who have concern about what the President did with regard to questioning the integrity of the election. And there are many that were opposed to trying to stop the counting up the electoral votes. And that's been a big issue. But what they will do with regard to impeachment remains to be seen. There's a lot of arguments on both sides of this, but it will be a difficult decision for the Senate as that comes to their floor.

KING: It will be a difficult decision in the Senate. But when it comes to the House, settling their own internal differences, we know the President is mad. We know he's mad at Kevin McCarthy. We know he's mad at Mitch McConnell. We know he specifically mentioned Liz Cheney, in addition to the Vice President of the United States, his own Vice President, at that rally where he told his supporters to march on the Capitol. He specifically mentioned her as one of the weak Congress, people that they needed to go deal with. The question is what happens next? I want you to listen here, one of the other 10 freshmen, Peter Meijer of Michigan and the old Justin Amash, he also voted to impeach. Listen to what he says he has to do now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. PETER MEIJER (R-MI): I have colleagues who are now traveling with armed escorts out of the fear for their safety, many of us are altering our routines, working to get body armor, which is a reimbursable purchase that we can make. It's sad that we have to get to that point. But, you know, our expectation is that someone may try to kill us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: To listen to that from a member of Congress, our expectation is somebody may try to kill us. Buying body armor is now a deductible expense for a member the United States Congress. What does that tell you?

STEWART: It tells you that we're in a shameful time and our country, John. And look, I think what the President said yesterday was good. There should be no violence, no law breaking, and no vandalism. The problem is that came about two months too late. And not only do we have members of the House and our elected officials that are having to take extra precautions for security but all across our Nation's Capitol, we're doing the same thing.

And the tone and tenor should have been taken down a notch from the very beginning. Look, there should be no reason to question the integrity of our elections. They were free and fair when he won in 2016. They were free and fair this time. And anyone who has a problem with the outcome of the election should speak out in the next election and not question what happened.

Look, the President has always been quite vocal with those who don't agree with him and don't support him that he keeps lists and there's no secret that he has keeping a list and anyone who speaks out against him will face a primary challenge. But I think moving forward, once the next few steps going forward with regard to the Senate, I personally would not be opposed to an impeachment.

I know there are a lot of senators who are struggling with that because of the timeline wouldn't allow it when he is in office. But there needs to be consequences for this kind of behavior. There needs to be some kind of action taken against someone who incites an insurrection at the Capitol. And there does not need to be consequences for anyone who stands up to this President.

KING: Clarifying moment is what Congressman Meijer called his vote yesterday to impeach the President. We will see as this goes forward, how it impacts Republican unity. Alice Stewart grateful for your thoughts and insights on this day, we'll continue the conversation.

[12:53:53]

And up next for us, back to the COVID crisis, the World Health Organization team goes to COVID-19's original epicenter to investigate how it started and how it spread.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: The number of COVID cases worldwide now nearing 100 million with a stunning nearly 2 million deaths nowhere on the map left untouched. Let's get an important update now from China from CNN's David Culver.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID CULVER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm David Culver in Shanghai. A team from the World Health Organization has landed in Wuhan, the original epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak. But the WHO says two of its members did not enter China because they tested positive for COVID-19 antibodies, the other 13 experts will undergo two weeks of quarantine, which is standard as they investigate the origin of the virus. That is a topic that's become increasingly politicized.

China has faced harsh criticism most notably from U.S. officials questioning China's transparency. Chinese officials say they are committed to allowing the international experts to fully investigate. And this arrival of the team comes as China's dealing with a few cluster outbreaks. The most recent daily reported number of confirmed cases, 138, which when compared to other countries may seem insignificant but it is the highest number in China since mid-summer.

Its most concerning given China's kept the virus contained through strict but effective measures in recent months. The National Health Commission also announcing the first COVID-19 death here since May of last year.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KING: This important news just into CNN, authorities have now arrested demand pictured in this now infamous photograph, horrible photograph, from last week's coup attempt at the Capitol. The man holding the Confederate flag has been identified by law enforcement officials as Kevin Seefried of Delaware. No word yet on the charges he will face.

[13:00:01]

Appreciate your time on this day. I hope to see you back here this time tomorrow. Busy News Day, please stay with us. Brianna Keilar picks up our coverage right now. Have a good day.