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Security Increased in Washington D.C. Due to Threats Surrounding Inauguration of President-Elect Biden; New Reporting Reveals Vice President Pence Narrowly Escaped Mob Storming Capitol Building; Authorities Received Intelligence of Possible Violence Days before Storming of Capitol Buildings. Aired 10-11a ET

Aired January 16, 2021 - 10:00   ET

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

[10:00:00]

MICHAEL SMERCONISH, CNN ANCHOR: And that does place us in unchartered territory. So, it was a law class today, and I hope that means it was a good thing.

Thank you so much for watching. Big week coming up, and I'll see you next week.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. I'm John Berman. Thank you for joining us for special live coverage. Right now, our nation's capital is a city in lockdown. Law enforcement preparing for unrest and security threats ahead of Joe Biden's inauguration. As many as 25,000 National Guard troops will converge on the city. That's more than are in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria combined. Around the country state capitals making preparations as the FBI warns there are armed protests planned in all 50 states in the coming days.

It comes as we're learning about some potential intelligence and security failures ahead of the January 6th Capitol Hill siege. As of now, U.S. investigators have opened 275 criminal cases, nearly 100 alleged insurrectionists have been charged. But according to a new, damning report from the "Washington Post," Capitol police were warned three days before the deadly insurrection of a violent scenario in which, quote, Congress itself would be targeted. Let's start with CNN's Pete Muntean in Washington on the streets. Pete, what more are you learning about just how tight security will be there?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Security getting more and more strict all the time here, John. In fact, this is about as close as you can get to the Capitol right now. We are blocks away, pushed back from where we were a lot closer about an hour ago, when a Secret Service security sweep began. You can see the concrete block here and the police tape followed by the eight-foot tall fence that surrounds the Capitol complex and is also going up around the National Mall. Beyond that, about 7,000 members of the National Guard coming from all 50 states and U.S. territories, and the head of the D.C. guard leading this mission says 25,000 members of the Guard will be here by Inauguration Day. They are armed with M4s. He says that this is not a war zone, though, and those guardsmen may be here for a week or more. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAJ. GEN. WILLIAMS J. WALKER, COMMANDING GENERAL, D.C. NATIONAL GUARD: So, the guardsmen on the ground right here right now, they understand that they'll be here until the end of the inaugural period, which is 24, January. Now, if conditions change, they'll stay here longer. So, the bottom line is the National Guard will be here as long as we're required to be here, as long as we're needed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MUNTEAN: Major General William Walker speaking to me in his dress uniform after coming from Capitol Hill, where he reassured members of House leadership that this will be a peaceful transition of power, thanks to the guard.

The flipside of that, though, is that this could be a very quiet transfer of power. The streets of Washington are deserted, roadblocks at almost every corner. In fact, some of the bridges from Virginia into the District of Columbia will close starting on Tuesday through this Inauguration Day like no other. John?

BERMAN: Pete, I've got to say, I know exactly where you are right now, and it's not that close to the Capitol steps. So, to see it completely deserted with that security presence there, it's just stunning. So, you talked about the bridges. What else is being done to keep people out of Washington?

MUNTEAN: The TSA is ratcheting up security at all three of the area airports, Reagan National, Dulles, and BWI, extra police, extra canine patrols, and the TSA is actually considered putting people who were involved in last week's failed insurrection on the federal no-fly list. Also, on airplanes will be extra air marshals. The key here is to make sure that people do not act up on flights. It's a real concern after a lot of social media videos popped last week of people behaving badly. The FAA says that they will fine people tens of thousands of dollars if they do so.

BERMAN: Pete Muntean on the streets of fortress Washington. Please keep us posted. Pete, thanks so much for being there.

We're also learning this morning about just how close the Capitol Hill invaders actually got to Vice President Mike Pence. Members of the mob came within just 100 feet of him that day, that's according to the "Washington Post." CNN's Tom Foreman breaks down just what happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

CROWD: Hang Mike Pence! Hang Mike Pence! Hang Mike Pence!

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: As the mob chanted "Hang Mike Pence" and makeshift gallows went up, the vice president, his wife and daughter, were just seconds away from being spotted, according to the "Washington Post." At one point they were hiding less than 100 feet from the violent crowd attacking police officers, journalists, and others. The timeline tells how it happened. Just before 1:00, President Trump demands Pence toss the election results. [10:05:00]

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Mike Pence, I hope you're going to stand up for the good of our Constitution and for the good of our country. And if you're not, I'm going to be very disappointed in you, I will tell you right now. I'm not hearing good stories.

MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The Senate will now retire to its chamber.

FOREMAN: Pence has no legal power to reject the vote, but in little more than an hour as he leads Congress in certifying the vote for Joe Biden, the Trump crowd is hammering through Capitol barricades. Inside --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have been told by Capitol police the Capitol is in lockdown.

FOREMAN: Outside, by 2:11 the mob smashes into the building. Moments later, "The Post" says Pence is hustled out of the chamber.

SEN. CHUCK GRASSLEY (R-IA): We'll stand in recess until the call of the chair.

FOREMAN: At 2:14, Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman is singlehandedly slowing the surge of rioters, some shouting "Where is Mike Pence?" Based "The Post" reporting, the few seconds Goodman buys keeps the mob from seeing Pence and his family being hurried into hiding in an office. Goodman lures the crowd toward other officers, likely giving other lawmakers time to escape, too. Soon after the violent mob seizes the Senate floor anyway. Taking the very seat, the vice president occupied minutes earlier.

And President Trump during all of this, he was watching events unfold on TV, according to many witnesses, taking no action for action to stop the attack, and tweeting at 2:24, Mike Pence didn't have the courage to do what should have been done. It was later deleted.

Of course, the vice president came back later to declare Joe Biden the winner, and the Secret Service says Pence was secure at all times, but that security we now know was far more tenuous than we thought.

Tom foreman, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

BERMAN: Our thanks to Tom for that. What a stunning timeline.

So ahead of the deadly insurrection, sources tell CNN that both the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security failed to share the intelligence that they had on potential violence on Capitol Hill. Neither agency issued threat assessments or warnings despite warning signs and online chatter. This along with the "Washington Post" reporting that Capitol police knew days ahead of the attack that something of this nature could happen, raises a lot of questions this morning about what went wrong and what could have been done to avoid this.

Joining me now, CNN senior law enforcement analyst and former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe. Andy, you worked at the FBI for years, through 9/11, when we first heard of siloed information, which means information that wasn't shared between different agencies. So how is it possible that that went on now?

ANDREW MCCABE, FORMER DEPUTY FBI DIRECTOR: It's really striking, John. And I think, first of all, it simply reiterates the incredible importance of going back in the way we did after 9/11 with a comprehensive investigation to understand exactly what our law enforcement agencies knew and what they did with that information. Now, our interoperability and our disseminations of intelligence between agencies is light years ahead of where it was before 9/11, but at the end of the day, intelligence is simply information for decisionmakers. And if the decisionmakers with that intelligence aren't making the lean-forward, best decisions they maybe should have, then the system falls apart. It's ultimately human beings with information deciding how to move that stuff around.

BERMAN: So, what should have happened? If the FBI knew, as has been reported, that there were people on different terror watch list, white supremacists mainly, coming to Washington, if DHS knew that, what should they have done with that information?

MCCABE: Ideally, John, that information gets processed, it gets shared, and then proper steps are taken to mitigate those threats. But one of the things that often undermines the effectiveness of the decisions we make around intelligence are the preconceived assumptions we bring to analyzing that information. And I thought one of the quotes from the report, the Capitol police department intelligence report that was prepared days before the attack, there is a quote there, and I'll read it to you quickly. It says, unlike previous post- election protests, the targets of the pro-Trump supporters are not necessarily the counter-protesters as they were previously. I think that's incredibly telling, and I think once we peel this back, you'll see that law enforcement decisionmakers were thinking about pro-Trump protesters as posing a problem only if counter-protesters were added to the mix. They weren't thinking about pro-Trump protesters being the threat themselves. And that is, unfortunately, exactly what happened.

BERMAN: Yes, it's a failure of imagination in some ways, a failure to perceive threats for what they are.

[10:10:01]

Andy, there are also reports swirling that these people who mobbed the Capitol had some help or at a minimum acquiescence from the inside. So, let me read to you what two men who stormed the Capitol told the FBI about that day. They say they "remembered encountering a police officer after they entered. According to Bauer, one of the men, the police officer grabbed his hand, shook it, and said "It's your house now." The other man similarly recalled the officer shaking his hand, and he said "Sorry," to which the officer replied, "It's your house now, man," and gave him a half-hug." So, you have that account, coupled with the "Washington Post" report

that the Capitol police as well had a sense of the intelligence available. So, what do you make of all of this?

MCCABE: Well, those acts by individual officers on the Capitol grounds that day have to be thoroughly looked into, right. What that report seems to suggest is that individual officers may have essentially walked away from their posts, or given up resistance to the mob, and that's a dereliction of duty, possibly misconduct, and we have to get to the bottom of that, because it has an insidious effect on the organization.

Of course, we shouldn't over-focus on that. Let's remember how many acts of heroism took place that day by members of the Capitol police, the fact that all of our decisionmakers and lawmakers were safe, were taken to safe spaces and protected. So, you've got to keep that in balance. But at the end of the day, an incredibly thorough investigation needs to take place here, rounding up all of these facts, all of these reports, and to see exactly how well or not well we all performed.

BERMAN: So the acting deputy secretary of homeland security, Ken Cuccinelli, I've got to get all of those modifiers in place because everyone is acting at this point, told me that some of the online chatter they are hearing refers to the fact in their minds that the election was still stolen. President Trump still has not said he lost. He has still not said it was a free and fair election. How important is that lack of a public acknowledgment, Andy?

MCCABE: I think it's incredibly important. It's the lies that got us to this place that are the most significant. And honestly, John, I'm not sure that if President Trump came out today and said, you know what, this is all false, I lost fair and square, Joe Biden is the president, I'm not sure that that would even undo the problem we currently have. I think he's been lying for so long, his supporters have been propping up this ridiculous lie about the theft of the election, and it is clear that his supporters, they believe this, truly within their core, that it's been stolen. And it is that grievance of the stolen election that's motivating the violence now. I'm not sure he could unwind it even if he wanted to, which clearly, he doesn't want to.

BERMAN: All 50 states under some kind of alert right now and warning. How concerned are you, Andy, about so many possible locations under threat?

MCCABE: That, to me, John, is the biggest problem we're looking at over the next days, weeks, and months. This is not going to go away on Inauguration Day, and there are millions of soft targets around this country, places where motivated extremists could just decide to walk into with an automatic weapon or semiautomatic weapon and wreak havoc. It's the same sort of concern that we had for operatives of Al Qaeda or agents of the Islamic State, when those organizations started telling their adherents, go out and act in your own communities, don't wait for us to tell you to do it. We're now actually looking at that same sort of situation here in the

United States with terror possibly being committed by our fellow citizens. It's really a place that I don't think any of us ever thought we'd be, but we are here now, and it's something we need to protect against.

BERMAN: Andrew McCabe, you provide such a unique perspective. Thank you so much for joining us this morning.

MCCABE: Thanks, John.

BERMAN: Up next, the eyebrow-raising meeting that President Trump took with the My Pillow CEO this weekend, the notes he was carrying in, as downtown D.C. is fortified. We go to the White House where the president hunkered down for his final weekend in office.

Plus, how the NBA is handling coronavirus challenge. Minnesota Timberwolves star Karl-Anthony Towns has been vocal in his warnings about the virus after losing his mother and several relatives. Now he's the latest player to test positive. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: John Berman here. This is CNN's special coverage of the final weekend of Donald Trump's presidency, and it comes as the FBI warns the nation's capital and states across the country face serious security threats. President Trump plotting his departure, now said to be considering a red carpet and 21-gun salute. Yesterday he took a meeting with the CEO of My Pillow at the White House. CNN's Joe Johns joins us now from the White House. This My Pillow CEO is erupting with conspiracy theories, Joe. What was that meeting about?

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: As you know, he is a confidante of the president. He's been here many times, and Mike Lindell was seen leaving the West Wing yesterday, and he had a bunch of papers in his hand. A "Washington Post" photographer got a picture that was close enough to read of the front page of those papers, and it said things like, talking about, among other things, the martial law and making a leadership change at the CIA. Of course, many questions about why Mike Lindell would be here at the White House talking to the president about that.

[10:20:00]

Nonetheless, CNN's Jim Acosta got on the phone and talked to Lindell briefly. Lindell said that he talked to the president about five minutes, wanted to give him some information about election fraud. It sounded like the same kind of conspiracy theories we've been hearing many times before. One thing is for sure, Mike Lindell would like to see another term for Donald Trump, but fact of the matter is, that train has lost the station ever since the election's votes were counted, John.

BERMAN: It's amazing that that's the kind of guy who is in the Oval Office in the president's waning days, the My Pillow guy who wants to rearrange the CIA. Think about that. Joe, the country saw a rare Republican pushback of Donald Trump this

week. Ten Republicans voted to impeach him in the House. Some Republican lawmakers openly condemned the president for what he said last week. Is he facing any criticism from within the administration?

JOHNS: Well, he sure is, and we're really starting to hear it. For example, the director of the National Economic Council, Larry Kudlow, who has been very loyal and very careful to stay on message in his talks with reporters, and he's had a lot of them out here on the driveway. This time he has taken the president to task in an interview in the "Wall Street Journal" about the president's treatment of Mike Pence and other things, including the president's handling of the riots up on Capitol Hill.

Here is one of the quotes. "I was very disappointed in the president. The vice president's legal experts were very clear in providing Mike with the knowledge that he had a very, very limited role in the congressional certification of the electors, and except for a few extremists, the entire legal profession agreed with Pence."

Not only him, also Alex Azar, who turned into the president his resignation letter. He, too, took the administration to task and the president. It says, "Unfortunately the actions and rhetoric following the election, especially during this last week, threatened to tarnish the legacies of this administration. I implore you to continue to condemn unequivocally any form of violence, to demand that no one attempt to disrupt the inaugural activities in Washington or elsewhere, and to continue to support unreservedly the peaceful transfer of power," John.

BERMAN: Welcome comments from Secretary Azar and Larry Kudlow, but we can file those under things that could have been said for two months but weren't. Joe Johns at the White House, thanks very much.

Up next, security precautions this weekend extending far outside the Capitol. The mayor of Austin, Texas, joins us next on the serious protections under way there.

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[10:27:08]

BERMAN: John Berman here. This is CNN's special live coverage. Fear of violence from armed protesters prompted Texas to shut down the state capital building in Austin overnight. The capital and its grounds will remain completely closed through Wednesday, the day of President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration. In a statement released last night, quote, "The Texas Department of Public Safety is aware of armed protests planned at the Texas state Capitol and violent extremists who may seek to exploit constitutionally protected events. As a result, DPS has deployed additional personnel and resources to the Capitol, and are working closely with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Austin Police Department to monitor events and to enforce the rule of law."

Austin's Mayor Steve Adler joins us now. Mayor, thanks so much for being here. Texas home to several militia groups, and multiple people with different political ideologies. What's your biggest concern about security this morning?

MAYOR STEVE ADLER (D-TX), AUSTIN: I think the biggest concert at a time like this is violence. It's a large crowd that gets out of control. But this is what you plan for or prepare for, get ready for, and I believe we're ready. A lot of coordination between the police department here in Austin and the Department of Public Safety with the state, and I'm hopeful that this is just one of many kinds of protests we have in Austin all the time.

BERMAN: What makes this different is that the U.S. Capitol was invaded a week and a half ago, and obviously we know that the people who were involved in that, there's online chatter and concerns about something like that happening again. So what are you hearing from state police? What are you hearing from federal officials about that chatter and what it might say about Texas?

ADLER: Well, you're concerned about that chatter, and it's generalized and nonspecific, but obviously there are large groups of people that went to the Capitol last week, not intent on protesting, but actually taking over a building. And the expertise that was shown by some of the people that were involved in that was greater than what you would normally see with a protest. And I think that probably has at this point not only Washington on high alert, but obviously the Capitol cities in all 50 states.

BERMAN: Obviously the capital grounds in Austin shut down. What are your concerns from other areas of your fine city?

ADLER: The same concern, because if they're not going to be able to get onto the capital grounds, then the question is where do they go. And we have spots in our city where we've seen demonstrations and protests end up -- city hall, the police department, and you just have to be prepared for anything that might happen.

BERMAN: Gretchen Whitmer, the governor of Michigan, obviously has come under personal attack, or at least target. The governor of Minnesota, Tim Walz, his son, 14-year-old son had to be evacuated from his residence the other week. What security concerns do you have for you and your family?

[10:30:07]

ADLER: In this day and age, what we're seeing is a lot more personal attacks than we've ever seen before, protesters going to elected officials' homes. So, my colleagues as mayors had their homes vandalized. This is not a healthy thing that is happening in the country right now, but it's pretty widespread, and a lot of elected officials are feeling it.

BERMAN: Texas Senator Ted Cruz was sort of the political general for Donald Trump in denying the outcome of the election. What impact do you think these people who told lies, frankly, about election results have had on the security threats that you and your family and your city are now under? ADLER: I think it has a real significant impact on the polarization,

on -- the famous line is that you're entitled to your own opinions, not your own facts. When we start creating facts, we're on really thin ice. So, yes, I think that a lot of what we're seeing right now is the result of lies, the result of untruths, and people get wrapped up and caught up in that. It seeks to further polarize the country, it demonizes one another, and I think that is incredibly unhealthy and creates great danger.

BERMAN: President Trump still has not stood up and said that Joe Biden won a free and fair election. I'm not really sure Ted Cruz has either. Austin Mayor Steve Adler, we appreciate you being with us this morning. Thank you so much. Please stay safe.

ADLER: John, thank you. You take care, too.

BERMAN: Still ahead, President-elect Joe Biden says he's going to, quote, manage the hell out of vaccinations when he takes office. How realistic is his plan to deliver 100 million vaccinations in the next 100 days? Next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: President-elect Joe Biden's promise to make vaccinations more easily available to Americans is all the more important now that the death toll from COVID is projected to reach nearly 560,000 by May 1st. Researchers do say more rapid vaccination efforts could bring that number down. On Friday, the president-elect announced he will use a wartime law to make more vaccine and make it faster.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, (D) PRESIDENT-ELECT: Our plan is as clear as it is bold -- get more people vaccinated for free, create more places for them to get vaccinated, mobilize more medical teams to get shots in people's arms, increase supply and get it out the door as soon as possible. This could be one of the most challenging operational efforts ever undertaken by our country, but you have my word, we will manage the hell out of this operation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: The president-elect's vaccine plans gains even more urgency now that we're learning that the Trump administration's promised reserve vaccine doses no longer exist. We got that news from Trump's outgoing secretary of Health and Human Services.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALEX AZAR, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES SECRETARY: No, there's not a reserve stockpile. We now have enough confidence that our ongoing production will be quality and available to provide the second dose for people. So we're not sitting on a reserve anymore. We've made that available to the states to order.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BERMAN: I want to bring in vaccine specialist Dr. Peter Hotez, who is a professor and dean of Tropical Medicine at Baylor University. Doctor, welcome, it's always great to see you. Biden's new plan puts the federal government right in the middle of vaccination distribution. How much of a difference is that from now, and what will it do?

DR. PETER HOTEZ, DEAN, NATIONAL SCHOOL OF TROPICAL MEDICINE AT BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE: Yes, we've got a daunting task ahead of us, John. If you do the simple math, we need to vaccinate three-quarters of the U.S. population to halt virus transmission, preferably by the end of the summer. So that's 240 million Americans that need to be vaccinated. For many of the vaccines, it's two doses, so you're looking at upwards of half-a-billion immunizations between now and the end of August.

So I think the Biden administration is now coming to terms with that, and they're doing the appropriate thing, recognizing that leaving it to the states and the pharmacy chains and the hospitals are a good start, but that will not be adequate. We're going to need federal intervention, create vaccination hubs, including large-scale hubs, preferably some of the open-air football stadiums or soccer stadiums, baseball fields. And so now that's getting under way. I wish we'd had that planning all through 2020. I'm disappointed that didn't happen, but here we are.

The other piece to this, though, is going to be a bit more daunting, and that is the supply of vaccines. That MRNA technology has looked really promising in terms of efficacy, but it's a new technology, and was never really meant to be the workhorse of vaccinating the American people. It was to get us started, but then the other vaccines were supposed to get up where you could scale it up easier. The adenovirus vaccines, the particle vaccines, maybe our vaccine, and that's where a lot of emphasis has to be to see if we can accelerate those other vaccines. Hopefully those discussions are now under way between the FDA and the Biden administration to see what we can do, what levers we can pull and push to accelerate those other vaccines.

BERMAN: It is interesting, even with the limited supply, the distribution, as in getting the shots in people's arms, hasn't kept up with the supply insofar as it exists. So that's a problem, or might be a problem. But it's not the problem now. The problem now is getting the shot in people's arms.

Dr. Hotez, other news that developed overnight, fears that this new variant, whether it be the U.K. variant or South African variant, the new variants could be the dominant version of coronavirus in the United States by March. This is a more contagious variant. What does that do to all of this?

[10:40:00]

HOTEZ: Yes, that's right. This variant appeared in the U.K. in September, and then by November it occupied 50 percent of the virus isolates in southeastern England. So these can outcompete the other variants. We think that is due to more transmissibility, although the evidence is still not entirely firm.

But it just redoubles our resolve to get the people vaccinated. Remember, those are the ones we know about. Because we so profoundly underperformed in virus genomic sequencing surveillance, we've only done 0.3 percent of the virus genomes of those viruses isolated, compared to 50 percent for Australia, 10 percent from the U.K. So we've come up small again in that. There's likely homegrown variants that are also out there that we still haven't identified. So that's got to be another part of the Biden plan to scale that up.

And, again, it reminds us of the urgency to vaccinate the American people. Remember, that's all we really have right now. We've squandered every other opportunity to control the virus as we've spoken about all through 2020, and now our last arrow is to vaccinate. And we can't fail. And this has to be the number one priority for every elected leader, every public official in the United States right now. Every journalist should be asking them, what are you doing to vaccinate the American people, and they should have the answer.

BERMAN: What are you doing to get those shots in people's arms more quickly and to more people. To understand how to do it better, professor, we have to understand what's been done incorrectly up until this point. And there's finger-pointing, right. You have the outgoing secretary of Health and Human Services, Alex Azar, his last day on the job will be Wednesday, he's saying it's the governors who blew it. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALEX AZAR, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES SECRETARY: We've had some governors that have been overly prescriptive and restrictive in the groups of people that they're trying to get vaccines out to. We said we would have doses available for 20 million people that could be available, and of course that was a projection based on estimates of when FDA would approve. FDA ended up approving later, close to Christmas. You've got a natural scale-up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Why does that miss the mark, professor?

HOTEZ: Yes, it's tone-deaf to the fact that the Trump White House created this monster, the monster being that the federal government would not be in the lead for anything related to COVID-19 control. It was all up to the states to lead, and the U.S. government would provide backup supply chain management or FEMA support. It was a failed strategy that began in January of 2020. We're a full year into that failed strategy. It caused us to miss the entry of the virus in from southern Europe into New York. It caused us to never get the diagnostic testing up to speed. It caused us to prevent any kind of prevention during that awful surge in the southern states over the summer, that awful surge in the Midwest over the fall.

And there was this insistence, this digging heels in that said the states had to be in the lead, the states had to be in the lead. And it was never going to work, and it's failed catastrophically, leading to 400,000 American lives lost. So the Biden administration is looking at this and says, you know what, we're not playing that anymore. We're going to bring in the federal government in order to take the lead in certain aspect and try to create some kind of partnership between the states and the federal government. And it's primarily being acted out through vaccinations. And that's a good thing. It's just unfortunate, it's tragic that we had to let it get this far.

BERMAN: Dr. Peter Hotez, thanks so much for being with us. Everyone should check out your piece in "The Lancet" about how you've been looking at this and talking about this since the very beginning. Really appreciate your time.

HOTEZ: Thank you, John. Appreciate it.

BERMAN: Tomorrow, join our own Abby Phillip as she talks with soon-to- be Vice President Kamala Harris and her family. It is a wonderful "CNN Special Report, Kamala Harris Making History." It airs at 10:00 p.m.

Up next, Democrats face perhaps the ultimate test of walking and chewing gum at the same time. How will they manage an impeachment trial and the transition of a new president? The sticky timeline, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: John Berman here. This is CNN's special live coverage. Democrats are wrestling with the timing of the impeachment trial of soon to be ex-president Donald Trump and how it will interfere with President-elect Joe Biden's cabinet nomination and legislative agenda. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is expected to send the article of impeachment to the Senate next week, but did not commit to that during a press conference yesterday. Instead, Pelosi focused on the Capitol attack itself.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. NANCY PELOSI, (D-CA) HOUSE SPEAKER: I find this to be a very emotional time. I said to the members we're very passionate to our reaction to this assault on our democracy, on this temple to democracy. We're very passionate about our reaction, but we must be very dispassionate in how we make decisions to go forward.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Joining me now is Susan Glasser, staff writer for "The New Yorker." The president-elect, Susan, has made clear that he really does want to make sure that the Senate focuses on his agenda. He does not want the impeachment trial to take over. Where do you see this heading?

SUSAN GLASSER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, that's right, especially because of the Trump administration's refusal to engage in a normal transition process, the Biden administration in the middle of so many interlocking crises starts out behind the eight ball. There are currently no cabinet secretaries confirmed. There are a number of hearings, confirmation hearings scheduled for the 19th, which is when the Senate returns to session.

[10:50:00]

The problem is, when Nancy Pelosi transmits the article of impeachment, it will immediately trigger and require the Senate to meet the very next day by 1:00 p.m. And so obviously nobody really wants to go right from Biden's inauguration to literally minutes later at 1:00 p.m. -- that's at noon. At 1:00 p.m., is the Senate really going to sit in a trial?

So this is a complicated matter, but because Trump is an ex-president by the time this trial presumably begins, this is unprecedented. But there are rules in place that have governed previous impeachment trials of non-presidents, things like federal judges. And so they could potentially choose to treat it more like that kind of an impeachment trial and have a two-track process basically where the Senate is in session perhaps in the morning and doing its regular business, and then in the afternoon is meeting. John Roberts, the chief justice of the Supreme Court, may not be called to preside at this trial, unlike the last one, because it's a trial of a former president.

BERMAN: It's all so interesting. And add to that, obviously, COVID protocols. Normally they require all 100 senators to be sitting at their desks. Not totally clear whether that's the safest option.

Susan, you have such a wonderful way of framing reality. I want to read back to you, do a dramatic reading of your own writing from "The New Yorker" this week. You said, quote, "The second impeachment of Donald John Trump, just like his first impeachment, will go down in history not as an exercise in forcing the president to face consequences for his actions, but as a stark confirmation of how enthralled to Trump the Republican Party remains." What do you mean by that, and what does it mean in the Senate?

GLASSER: Well, look, I think we're all confronting something we never thought we would confront. So every day, writing the unthinkable is very hard. You can see this through the lens, as many optimists did, and say, well, this is the most bipartisan impeachment ever, which is true. There were 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Donald Trump. That's more. The previous record was five during the impeachment of Bill Clinton. But the truth of the matter is that was 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Donald Trump, and 197 Republicans who voted to take no action even after having lived through and experienced this riot and this invasion of their own workplace, the U.S. Capitol.

And so I think that right now you also have a situation where Senate Republicans certainly are even more skeptical of Trump, and you have the Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, soon to be minority leader, who has said basically I'm done with Donald Trump. There's a chance he might even vote himself to convict Trump.

But the flipside is, this is a caucus that has gone along and gone along with Donald Trump. Abandoning him now, they may calculate, will just enrage their Republican base, while at the same time offering them no plaudits from Democrats who see them as the very enablers who made Donald Trump happen in the first place. I think you'll see a lot of them who just come back and say, this is illegitimate, there's no reason to try someone once they're out of office. Or to say, well, it's a First Amendment free speech matter, and we can't condemn the president, even as awful as his words were, he didn't bash those windows in himself, he didn't kill that policeman himself. And so I think there's a lot of exit ramps for these Republican senators, truthfully, other than conviction.

BERMAN: They're looking for lots of different ways out of this. We'll see over the next few days. Susan Glasser, thank you always for being with us. Appreciate it.

GLASSER: Thank you, John.

BERMAN: Up next, he lost his mother and six other relatives to coronavirus. Now NBA star Karl-Anthony Towns says he has tested positive. That's next.

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BERMAN: New disruptions to the NBA due to coronavirus. Minnesota Timberwolves center Karl-Anthony Towns, the latest player to confirm that he has tested positive. This news especially worrisome because Towns shared last month that he has already lost seven family members to COVID-19, including his mother, who died from complications last April. Coy Wire, CNN sports anchor, joins me now for more on this really troubling news, Coy. Towns said on Twitter he's vowing to beat this.

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John, good morning to you. A two-time all-star said he'll be following every protocol as he deals with the same virus that took the life of his mom, Jacqueline Cruz Towns, at 59 years old after a month-long battle, and as you mentioned, six other family members he's lost. Towns tweeted yesterday that his sister and dad, who also contracted COVID, are battling anxiety from how the virus hit the family. Towns promised his niece and nephew in that tweet that he, quote, will not end up in a box next to grandma, and he will beat this. The league was forced to postpone yet another game as a result of two positive Timberwolves players tests, John, within the past three days, including Towns.

BERMAN: We certainly wish our best to Towns and his whole family there. Look, Coy, I'm a Celtics fan, so I know the season, had to cancel three games this week. Where does the league stand right now on player infections, and are these numbers getting worse?

WIRE: We're seeing much different COVID testing results in the NBA than those from last season in the bubble in Orlando where the league reported zero positive tests over the course of nearly 100 days. Sixteen positive tests in the latest testing window, that's more than double the number of positives during the first three windows dating back to the start of the season on December 22nd. Just one month in, John, here we are, the league has already postponed 14 games.

BERMAN: Very quickly, Coy, what is the league doing to try to slow this down?

WIRE: Some examples, banning guests from visiting players' hotel rooms on the road until January 26th, requiring players and staff to stay home, except for team-related activities. Masks required for everyone on the bench during games. And the league is also handing out punishments. Brooklyn Nets guard Kyrie Irving fined $50,000 for violating the league's health and safety protocols by attending a party last weekend.