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D.C. On Lockdown As Threats Grow; Congressional Committees Open Review Of Insurrection At Capitol; Amid Nationwide Security Threats, Trump Considers 21-Gun Salute, Red Carpet Departure From D.C.; Trump Explodes At Nixon Comparisons As He Prepares To Leave Office; First Two Weeks Of 2021 Were Deadliest Of Entire Pandemic In U.S.; Dodger Stadium Becomes COVID-19 Vaccination Site. Aired 8-9p ET

Aired January 16, 2021 - 20:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:00:00]

ANA CABRERA, CNN HOST: Here in the CNN NEWSROOM, I'm Ana Cabrera in New York.

Tonight, four days before the peaceful transition of power set to take place with Joe Biden's inauguration, Washington, D.C., looks like it is preparing for a siege. Humvees fill the streets as 25,000 National Guard troops move in blanketing Capitol Hill. That's more troops in D.C. than in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria combined.

Meanwhile, this Saturday, with Washington effectively in lockdown, House Committees are demanding to know what law enforcement knew in the days leading up to the attempted coup. The Washington Post says an internal Capitol police Intel report produced three days before the riot warned that violent Trump supporters could target Congress itself.

State capitols are bracing for unrest too. In Texas, protesters at the state house reportedly carrying zip ties which can be used as handcuffs. We saw some of the U.S. capitol rioters carrying zip ties as well. And in California, signs of what you're about to see nationwide, mailboxes ripped out or locked up in several big cities, we are told, to reduce the risk of bombs being left inside, all of this, not because of hijacked planes or a nuclear threat from another country, but a nation turning on itself.

Shimon Prokupecz, joins us on Capitol Hill. Shimon, show us what it looks like tonight.

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Ana, you talked about humvees being all across D.C., in the military vehicles. This is one of those intersections. And it all -- this happens at almost every intersection around Washington, D.C., especially in the downtown area.

And as you can see, there are several National Guard troops at this intersection. This is a checkpoint. This is steps, blocks from the Capitol. And it is one of the checkpoints across the downtown area in D.C. They also have these other military-style vehicles here.

This is Massachusetts Avenue, usually filled with cars. That is not happening. The entire road here for the most part closed. And you can't go a block here without encountering some kind of military presence on this street, on some of the bigger intersections across D.C.

You have monuments that have been closed, the National Mall has been closed and pretty much all of the Capitol surrounded by heavy fencing, tall, up to 12-foot fencing. Some of the fencing even has razor wire around them and some of the more inner parts of the Capitol. We saw that today.

And the National Guard just surrounding all of the Capitol, and some 25,000 National Guard troops here in D.C. continuing to arrive. We've seen dozens arriving today and more are expected in the coming days. More law enforcement expected to be here as we are just days away now from the inauguration.

And as you said, this threat, there is a lot of concern over what law enforcement is seeing, chatter, raising issues, concerns over the threat here in Washington, D.C. and really all across the country. But for now, there is no place safer, I would say, given all the military here and all of the police here, than Washington, D.C., Ana.

CABRERA: And as I look at that image behind you, Shimon, I mean we see the Capitol in the background. It looks like your some several blocks away.

PROKUPECZ: Yes, let me get out of the way.

CABRERA: Just how far is the perimeter extending around the Capitol? Is it several blocks people on? Then I see a car drive through. So what is that like?

PROKUPECZ: So it's seven blocks away. It is somewhat unsettling, I'd say, and somewhat intense to drive through these streets and to see this type of military presence in a U.S. city, in a place where you just would not expect this, right? And many people have described that as being in the Middle East. And that is what it feels like.

You know, I drove around earlier today. I couldn't believe the amount of military vehicles on the road just blocking intersections. There is a lot of concern for law enforcement over vehicles. You know, there was -- during the insurrection, there were bombs found inside cars. You had two pipe bombs, and there was also one car which had 11 Molotov cocktails.

There's also concern that a lot of these vehicles were being used to store some of the equipment, some of the stuff that people were using to break through the Capitol, sledge hammers, pipes and bats. And so as a result of that, we are seeing this kind of response from the military.

CABRERA: OK, Shimon, we'll check back, thank you. Now to the White House where President Trump has been out of sight since Tuesday, the last time he made a public appearance. But sources tell CNN this weekend that Trump is not just making time or marking time until he leaves office, he is reportedly spending his final days as president identifying fellow Republicans who did not go along with his attempts to overturn the election and figuring out how to punish them politically.

[20:05:09]

CNN's Jeremy Diamond joins us at the White House. So, tell us who the president is singling out here and can he actually do anything to harm them politically if he wants to?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ana, what the president is looking at here is those ten Republicans who broke with the Republican caucus in the House, and instead voted to impeach president Trump alongside the Democrats in the House of Representatives. Ten Republicans, including some prominent names like Congresswoman Liz Cheney, the number three Republican in the House, and Congressman Adam Kinzinger, who has been a vocal critic of the president's, especially on this issue of election security.

Now, one source familiar with the president's comments said that the president is indeed looking into those ten Republicans. After that impeachment vote, he asked aides to give him a list of those ten Republicans who voted to impeach him, and he also raised the possibility of whether or not they could be primaried in 2022.

Of course, House of Representatives, you have a two-year term and primaries are certainly something where President Trump could have some leverage. Whether he has leverage on whether they actually keep their seats or not certainly depends on each member and the kind of district that they are in.

But one thing is clear, even as President Trump's approval ratings are sinking to historic lows, and even as he has that mark now of two impeachments, the only president in American history to have that mark, he still retains a pretty significant popularity in the Republican Party, as evidenced by the fact that it was only ten Republicans, more than the first impeachment, but still, only ten Republicans who actually broke ranks to impeach him over his attempts -- over his comments inciting this mob on Capitol Hill.

CABRERA: All right, Jeremy Diamond, thank you.

We are following some breaking news this evening. We're getting new details about how President-elect Joe Biden plans to make a clean break from Trump's policies on day one of his administration.

I want to bring in CNN's Arlette Saenz covering the Biden transition in Wilmington Delaware. Arlette, fill us in on the details.

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ana, President-elect Joe Biden is ready to show that he is going to hit the ground running, unveiling dozens of executive actions in the early days and weeks of his administration. Much of this will build on promises that he made during the presidential campaign. And on the very first day alone, the president-elect's plans on signing roughly a dozen executive actions, some of them with the goal of undoing some of the policies of the Trump administration.

Now, that starts with an executive action that would rescind the travel ban on predominantly Muslim majority countries. That's something that Trump put into effect in the early, early days of his administration. Biden also plans on rejoining the Paris climate agreement. That was something that was entered into and negotiated during the Obama/Biden administration that President Trump pulled out of. So Biden wants to start the U.S. involvement in that again.

There are also a few items relating to the pandemic that the president-elect plans to continue with these executive actions, and that is continuing the halt on evictions and foreclosures and also that pause on student loan payments and interest during the pandemic. That is something that a lot of American families have been grappling with over the past few months.

And Biden is also planning on issuing what they are calling a 100-day masking challenge, asking people across the country to wear masks. Biden is unable to actually require masks nationwide but he can require them in federal buildings and interstate travel.

Now, all of these executive actions, those are just coming on the first day. But that is just the very beginning. They are planning dozens more in the early weeks of his administration. Ana?

CABRERA: An ambitious plan, it sounds like. Thank you, Arlette Saenz.

So much to talk about tonight, from security concerns around the inauguration to the looming Trump impeachment trial. I'm joined by Democratic Senator Ben Cardin of Maryland. Senator Cardin, thanks so much for joining us.

SEN. BEN CARDIN (D-MD): Ana, it's good to be with you, thanks.

CABRERA: To see the nation's Capitol turned into a fortress tonight because of all the security threats that are looming, do you feel safe going to the Capitol right now, and doing your work as a Senator?

CARDIN: I do feel safe in the Capitol. Look, our first obligation is to make sure we provide for the safety of Americans, including the operations of the government in the Capitol. And I'm very confident that steps have been taken to protect the Capitol, to protect the workers, our staff, and those who have business in the Capitol itself.

CABRERA: Some of your Democratic colleagues are now saying they are afraid of some of the Republicans who serve alongside them in Congress, for Congressman Garamendi, it had to do with the idea some lawmakers are now wanting to bring guns into capitol chambers, and for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, it was the fear that some Republicans would lead the rioters to her.

[20:10:00] Just take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Are you concerned -- are you suggesting that one of your fellow members of Congress might harm you?

REP. JOHN GARAMENDI (D-CA): Of course. Why would you bring a gun onto the floor?

REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-NY): I did not go to the secure location because I feared other members of Congress that, you know, that would have allowed harm to me.

One of the most frightening things, as I had said earlier, was just not knowing who is there to help and who is there to hurt.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: It's stunning we've gotten to this point, but do you share those concerns?

CARDIN: Ana, it's ridiculous for a member of Congress to take a weapon onto this floor of the United States Congress. That's outrageous. And I certainly agree with Speaker Pelosi that that should not be allowed. I see no difficulty in going through metal detectors. That's what we go through frequently as we enter public buildings. But there should be no opportunity for anyone other than our security people being armed in the Capitol itself.

CABRERA: Several congressional committees have announced that they are opening a review of what law enforcement knew about the threats before the Capitol attack. Investigators are even looking into whether some lawmakers unwittingly, perhaps, gave Capitol Hill tours to people who would later be part of this mob, this domestic terrorist group that attacked on January 6th. What have you been hearing?

CARDIN: Well, Ana, our first responsibility is to make sure we keep people safe. And those steps have to be taken immediately. But we also need to hold everyone who had anything to do with this insurrection accountable, whether it's the president of the United States, whether it's the people who entered the Capitol building, or whether it was members of Congress. Anyone who had anything to do with insurrection needs to be held accountable. This was a serious breach and attack on our democracy. And there needs to be consequences.

And then we need to investigate as to why we were not as prepared -- we were not prepared for this type of an attack. Steps should have been taken to prevent the incursion into the Capitol. So we need to also have the answers to that question.

CABRERA: When you say, anybody who was involved needs to be held accountable, do you have reason to believe your fellow members of the Senate or the House were involved and are you talking about them specifically? CARDIN: Well, there's been certain allegations that have been made in regards to maybe encouraging or helping or planning. That information needs to be investigated and discovered. I must tell you, on a related issue, supporting the objections to the results of a free and fair election added to the inflammatory nature of this attack on the Capitol. So I have a hard time understanding how any of my colleagues could have either introduced or supported the objections to the vote counts and complied with their constitutional oath that they took to defend and protect the constitution of the United States.

CABRERA: So do you believe members of Congress need to resign or be expelled?

CARDIN: Well, ultimately, it's going to be up to the voters of their states as to whether they will continue in office or not. But we are looking at whether there're other accountability issues.

CABRERA: Like what?

CARDIN: Well, that's -- we'll see. We'll see what the investigation shows. We'll see what involvement they had, why they did what they did, whether there were some information about giving tours to some of the individuals who entered the building illegally. That information needs to come out in the public. We need to do our investigations.

CABRERA: Let's turn to impeachment. What do you say to Republicans who argue it's pointless to try someone who's out of office and that it will further divide the country?

CARDIN: We've seen over and over again that the only way that you can discipline the president of the United States effectively is through the impeachment process. And here, we have information that the president incited insurrection into our country, into the Capitol, taking over the Capitol for a short period of time. The appropriate avenue for disciplinary action is through the impeachment process.

So we have no choice. The House has filed articles of impeachment. The trial will take place in the United States Senate. It's important that the president be held accountable for his actions.

CABRERA: Do you worry that the impeachment trial will impact the ability for Joe Biden to have his cabinet go through the nomination and confirmation process, as well as get things done in his agenda, including the coronavirus bill that he wants to put forward?

CARDIN: Ana, this is a very important question. I would hope that we would have the cooperation of all senators to handle the impeachment trial in a way that would permit us to get President Biden's cabinet confirmed as quickly as possible, to take up the urgent issues that the Biden administration will be presenting as it relates to either the COVID or the economy.

[20:15:16]

So I would hope we could do both. But it will take some cooperation among all the members of the Senate so that we can do both and get our work done in a timely way.

CABRERA: I have to ask you, because one of the lasting images of the insurrection was a man inside the Capitol wearing a shirt glorifying Auschwitz. That man has been identified as Robert Keith Packer. He is facing two charges for his alleged role in the insurrection. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi strongly condemned him yesterday. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): There were so many disgusting images, but one figure, the man in a shirt with Auschwitz on it, Auschwitz.

To see this punk with that shirt on and his anti-Semitism that he has bragged about, to be part of a white supremacist raid on this Capitol, requires us to have an after action review, to assign responsibility to those who were part of organizing it and incentivizing it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: So, Senator Cardin, in terms of responsibility and accountability this week in the Jewish Times, you argued Trump and certain Republicans are enabling hate and allowing racism and anti- Semitism to flourish. So how do we root it out if it's being stoked in the very halls of government?

CARDIN: Well, we took steps to do that in the November election with the election of Joe Biden as president of the United States. We saw in Charlottesville early in the Trump administration where he gave room for white supremacists and anti-Semitic individuals to have a platform. And that just grew during the Trump Administration.

There were some very dangerous people that were part of the group that entered the Capitol of the United States, but they were enabled as a result of the language of the president, his actions during his term, and the way that he got a mob behind him that could cause the type of insurrection to our country. So, clearly, there's culpability with the president of the United States.

CABRERA: My question though is how do you root it out?

CARDIN: Well, you root it out by having leadership in our country that says there's no room for hate, there's no room for white supremacists, there's no room for racists, there's no room for bigots, there's no room for anti-Semites, and that at every time we see any episode, we take the strongest actions against it.

We know what we do to root out discrimination in our society. We need the laws, yes. We need law enforcement, yes. And we need the leadership. And we have not had the leadership during the last four years.

CABRERA: Senator Ben Cardin, I appreciate your time tonight, stay safe.

CARDIN: Thank you. CABRERA: Since he took office, President Trump tweeted more than 25,000 times, now silence after Twitter banned him from its platform last week. So what changed now that the nation's most powerful man cannot tweet? That's next live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

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[20:20:00]

CABRERA: He now holds the dishonor of being the only president to be impeached twice, but President Trump is still angling for a final Dear Leader moment next week. CNN has learned that on the morning of Joe Biden's inauguration, the White House is expected to stage a grand departure ceremony for Trump. That may include a color guard, military band, 21-gun salute, even a red carpet, final sendoff from a city that now resembles a fortress because of an insurrection at the Capitol that he helped incite last week.

Once Trump lands in Palm Beach, one thing Trump won't be able to do is tweet. A Twitter spokesperson reaffirming to CNN's Jim Acosta that Trump will remain suspended from the social media platform even after he leaves office.

Joining us now is CNN Chief Media Correspond ant and Anchor of "RELIABLE SOURCES" on CNN, Brian Stelter. Also with us is Trump Biographer Michael D'Antonio, he's the co-author of the new book, High Crimes, the Corruption, Impunity, and Impeachment of Donald Trump. So thank you both for being here.

Brian, let's just start here. Can we take a moment and reflect on the fact that it has now been more than a week since Trump permanently has been suspended from Twitter, after 25,000 tweets while in office. What did we learn this week about a world without Trump on Twitter?

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: We learned that there is less misinformation. We learned that there are fewer lies and smears that are spreading across social media as a result of this decision. Look, it was a controversial decision by Twitter. It was a damning verdict against the president because Twitter did not trust the president to stop using the platform to spread lies and disinformation and incite violence.

But there are already studies on it that show the amount of crazy misinformation has declined on Twitter, and that's because Trump's tweets were basically providing leadership, the worst kind of leadership, to trolls and spam farms and all the rest, spreading misinformation on the platform.

So it's remarkable how, in some ways, the air on social media platforms is a little bit cleaner now because the president is not there, Ana.

CABRERA: I made the comment, it feels like there's just less vitriol that I'm seeing as I scan Twitter this week.

STELTER: Oh, yes. CABRERA: Michael, how hard do you think it's been for the president to go a week without Twitter?

MICHAEL D'ANTONIO, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: I think he might actually be in physical pain over this. This is his air. It's his lifeblood. The way that Twitter allowed him to exercise his ego to project his anger and his rage, and as Brian said, his lies, out into the world, really made him feel alive.

I remember that the first time I met him in 2014, he said he was thinking of running for president because Twitter told him to do it. So that says it all about what Twitter means to Donald Trump.

CABRERA: That is really, really interesting. There's also been a reckoning, it seems, over the Trump brand. The PGA stripped his golf course of a tournament. We had New York City canceling contracts this week, banks cutting ties, the colleges revoking honorary degrees. Brian, how significant is this?

STELTER: I thought The Atlantic put it really well.

[20:25:00]

They call this a private sector impeachment. It's as if corporate America has impeached the president and has canceled the president. You know, we will see what the Senate does, if they decide to impeach and convict. But company has moved more swiftly than the House and the Senate. And that's a remarkable thing.

All of that feedback Michael is describing where the president was reading tweets on Twitter, even back in 2014 as a businessman, he was reading people's replies to him, people telling him to run for president. Well, all of that feedback is suddenly gone.

And I think what he will get in his post-presidency is he'll get lots of praise at Mar-A-Lago. He'll get lots of praise when he visits his golf resorts. But he's going to be even more isolated. He's not going to be hearing from the rest of the country. And he's not going to have a real handle on what the rest of the country feels about him.

That's ultimately I think what doomed some of his presidency was that he didn't know what the rest of the country was thinking. He was only watching Fox, only paying attention to his bubble. And, frankly, that would doom any president, and it turned out to hurt this president.

CABRERA: It dooms any individual when you stay in your echo chamber.

STELTER: Yes, that's right, right.

CABRERA: You really limit your perspective and your ability to see clearly. Michael, Trump is now asking for this major military-style sendoff before his last presidential flight to Palm Beach. He apparently didn't even want to leave D.C. as an ex-president, meaning that he'll get one last flight on Air Force One and he won't need Biden's permission to use that plane. Why is something so trivial so important to him? D'ANTONIO: Well, this is a fellow who was so petty as a private businessman, that he actually traveled with his own red carpet, that this is literally true. He would arrive at an airport. And if the dignitaries, the local dignitaries hadn't provided enough of a show, he'd have his own red carpet rolled out so he could walk it.

So we know that it's all about appearances, it's all about show, even the attachment to the military. You this is Cadet Bone Spurs who wants to surround himself with actual soldiers and military officers. It's pathetic. I think it's necessarily for his ego. But I actually think it looks quite ridiculous and is going to be mocked him around the world.

STELTER: But, Michael, are you saying that I should not request a red carpet when I land at an airport?

D'ANTONIO: Oh, I have one when I leave my office here, I've got a red carpet out in the hallway.

STELTER: That's sound great.

CABRERA: Okay, we're going to all cancel those now going forward.

Let me go back though to just these final days of the Trump presidency. It felt really weird for me to wake up today walking into work, thinking, this is the last weekend of the Trump presidency. And when you look at what the president is doing, who he is in touch with, he has been talking with Steve Bannon, as well as the My Pillow CEO. What do you know about this, Brian?

STELTER: Well, certainly, these conversations with Mike Lindell, apparently a five to ten-minute conversation with the CEO of a pillow brand that is best known for running ads on Fox News all day long, it shows that the president is still hearing conspiracy theories, still hearing people tell him that he could somehow basically steal the election and stay in power.

And we know that's not true. We know that it will be visible on Wednesday that Trump will leave. But he's still hearing people promote conspiracy theories to him. And that is troubling. Because it means that this big lie, this idea that Trump actually won the election when he lost, this big lie will continue in his post-presidency. It could be the new lost cause. And that's dangerous in America.

However, I do think what's going to happen in the coming week, Ana, is all the language we're used to, pro-Trump, anti-Trump, all of this kind of division that we've become accustomed to, some of it may go away a little bit. I know I'm not going to be pollyannaish about this, but the idea of everyone being pro-Trump or anti-Trump, everyone having to choose a side, maybe that's going to fade away a little bit once Biden takes office. We will find out in the coming days.

CABRERA: Maybe the intensity of the last four years --

STELTER: The intensity, yes. CABRERA: -- will at least ease or lift a little bit. Brian Stelter and Michael D'Antonio, it's great to have both of you, enjoyed the conversation. Thanks guys.

And a reminder, catch Brian on his show tomorrow morning, Reliable Sources, it airs 11:00 A.M. Eastern here on CNN.

The name not to be mentioned in the halls of the White House, Nixon. Why Trump doesn't want to hear anything about the 37th president these days.

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[20:30:58]

CABRERA: In his final days at the White House, CNN has learned there is one name that President Trump doesn't want mentioned, Richard Nixon. Trump exploding at any comparisons between him and the 37th president who resigned after Watergate.

Joining us now, John Dean, former White House counsel for President Nixon and co-author of the book, "Authoritarian Nightmare: Trump and his Followers." John, what's your reaction to President Trump banning White House aides from even mentioning President Nixon?

JOHN DEAN, FORMER WHITE HOUSE COUNSEL FOR PRESIDENT NIXON: Ana, I found it curious. And I think the reason he doesn't want to mention is that Nixon was the low watermark in presidencies. He's made Nixon look good. And I think in his heart of hearts, he -- Trump knows that. So the comparison is that he doesn't stack up well against Richard Nixon.

CABRERA: You know, it's funny, I was listening to our program this week and I heard presidential historian, Doug Brinkley, say President Trump is the worst president ever, by far. And then I talked with Tim Naftali who is, you know, former Nixon library, presidential historian as well, and he agreed. And so it's just really, I guess, not surprising. But when you think about it, it's pretty heavy, right? There's some gravity to all of that.

[20:35:12]

President Trump reportedly said that, you know, between -- the big difference between him and Nixon is that Trump can't count on Vice President Mike Pence to pardon him like President Gerald Ford did Nixon. So, how remarkable, do you think, is Trump's Pence Ford comparison, given the fact that Trump incited an angry mob to go after his own Vice President at the Capitol?

DEAN: Well, I don't think he has much reason to think that Pence has warm feelings about him. He knows exactly what happened. They obviously had that very strained conversation midweek this last week, to try to patch things up. I don't -- reports are -- I think it was pretty chilly and Pence has taken the forward look, and he's the person out front now. He called vice president-elect Harris and congratulated her. He's actually trying to put a face on the fact there is some remaining government. But, you know, back to the Nixon issue. Nixon has a legacy. He had a real legacy from his creation of the EPA, the Environmental Protection Agency, to his war on Congress or to -- excuse me, his war on cancer to a lot of policies that have had a lot of longevity, and Trump has virtually nothing. He has a tax cut that the Congress had already had in the works, and some really horrible immigration policy is going to be his legacy.

CABRERA: Now, Ford pardoned Nixon because he thought a long drawn-out trial of the President would further divide the country. As we now know, Trump's impeachment will bleed into a Biden administration. What do you think the impact will be?

DEAN: You know, one of the things that hasn't happened yet that I think we're going to have, and it's, again, a comparison with Nixon, Nixon didn't pardon anybody on the way out, not a soul because he was -- he was worried that it would make the nation either more -- even more divisive about Watergate, if he pardoned anybody.

I think Trump is going to have a pardon-palooza. We might not even be able to rack them all up, there'll be so many. If he pardons any of these people involved in the insurrection, I think he's added to the fuel of conviction in the Senate for his insurrection. So, you know, I think that the days ahead -- or the few days ahead are going to be troubling and difficult for Trump. And we'll just have to stay tuned and see what happens in these final hours, really.

CABRERA: We're hearing Trump's attorneys are planning to use protected speech as the President's defense in an impeachment trial. What do you think of that strategy?

DEAN: I don't think it'll work. First of all, to be in, he's been impeached by the House. It's a very broad incitement to an insurrection. Incitement is not a single word, it's a whole series of activities. It's a process. It's a procedure. It's a state of mind that he had, where he tried to provoke this activity. I don't think protected speech and a technical defense is going to work at all.

They're also going to try to say he can't be impeached, if he's out of office. Well, that's -- history has gone the other way. We've had judges who have left office, we've had other cabinet officers who have left office, and they've been impeached after departure. So, these are technical defenses, and there's no appeal, Ana. You can't go to the Supreme Court and say, oh, we want to reverse this. The Congress is the final judge of the Constitution on impeachment.

BREAM: All right. John Dean, good information there. Thank you. Good to have you here.

DEAN: Thank you.

CABRERA: It took six months for the world to report the first 500,000 COVID-19 deaths that was around the world. It took just six weeks for the world to report the most recent 5,000 deaths. What will it take to get this surging pandemic under control? We'll discuss next in the CNN NEWSROOM. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:40:58]

CABRERA: More than 395,000 people in the United States have died from coronavirus. That's how many lives have been lost to this virus in less than a year. It's easy to get lost in the numbers. So, I want to put this death toll in perspective. COVID-19 has killed more than the number of Americans who died in World War One, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War combined. And the death toll is quickly approaching the 405,000 Americans who died in World War Two.

More Americans have died from coronavirus than have died in any flu pandemic, by far. Except in the 1918 flu pandemic which killed about 675,000 people in the U.S. over the course of a couple of years. Unfortunately, this pandemic is nowhere close to under control. In fact, it's never been more out of control. The first two weeks of this year have been the deadliest of the entire pandemic in the U.S.

Let's turn to our expert, Dr. Jonathan Reiner, is a professor of medicine at George Washington University and a CNN medical analyst.

[20:45:00]

Doctor, this death toll is dire. It's incredibly tragic. We saw more than 4,000 deaths reported on two days, two different days in the past week. Why is it so much worse right now? And where do you see it going from here?

DR. JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Hi, Ana. It's so much worse because we had two surges. We had a Thanksgiving surge and we had a Christmas surge, like a stepladder, one rise after the next. And we're just now starting to come out of that. You're right, the death numbers are absolutely horrible.

But I see a ray of sunlight. For the first time this week, and for the last three days, we've seen a demonstrable drop in hospitalizations in this country, about 1,000 fewer people each day over the last three days, recorded as hospitalized with COVID-19. That's what we need to see, to start to see mortality drop. And if this trend continues, then two or three weeks from now, we might -- we might start to see a decline in mortality. So, I see a ray of sunshine.

CABRERA: That is -- that is the light at the end of this tunnel, we hope. According to the CDC's latest numbers, however, only 12 million vaccine doses have been administered. The Trump administration announced it would release reserved doses of the coronavirus vaccine a few days ago, but now, we've learned that when that announcement was made, many of those reserves had already been released into the system, meaning, there are no reserves. What's your reaction to that?

REINER: That this administration can and quick enough, almost nothing that we've heard from this administration, about this pandemic has been the truth. They underplayed the risks. They overhype the good news, they over promised and under delivered. So, they promised that we would have enough vaccine to vaccinate 20 million people in December. So, there'll be 40 million doses of vaccine. Today, only 30 million doses have been distributed to states. That's five weeks into the vaccination and now into the middle, almost the end of January. So, we're behind in production and distribution of vaccine.

The good news is that more vaccine is being produced. We're going to see very likely the Johnson and Johnson vaccine come on the scene, probably in the next month or so, and that's going to vastly increase vaccine availability. We'll get this right. The new administration has hired really good people who have promised transparency. So, I -- again, I'm optimistic going forward that we'll get this right and we'll start to see vaccine availability increase.

CABRERA: So, this pledge from President-elect Biden to administer 100 million doses in the first 100 days of his presidency, does that seem realistic to you?

REINER: Oh, it's super realistic, because we're doing that now. For the last few days, we've been administering about a million doses a day. So, we're able to do that.

But my criticism is that it's not optimistic enough. We need to -- not ambitious enough is the word. We really need to administer about two million doses a day to get to where we want to be by fall, which is having vaccinated 250 to 300 million Americans so that we can have herd immunity and get our lives back.

So, we need to be much more aggressive at putting together mass vaccination events, and we're finally starting to see these around the country. You know, we saw pictures today of the Armory in New York being set up to vaccinate thousands of people and we're seeing this in venues all over the country. We're going to start doing this in Washington, D.C. when we come out of the inauguration. Once we start seeing that, we'll see the numbers vastly increase.

CABRERA: I hope you are right. I haven't been able to hug my parents or my in-laws or other extended family members who live out of state, brothers and sisters, for the past year like so many other Americans who are trying to hunker down and do the right thing to protect ourselves and all of those around us.

Dr. Jonathan Reiner, we really appreciate your time and your expertise. Thanks for staying with us.

REINER: My pleasure.

CABRERA: Up next, Los Angeles is turning Dodger Stadium to a massive vaccination site. We'll take you there next, live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

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[20:50:05]

CABRERA: Some discouraging COVID news today from Southern California. Los Angeles County is now the first county in the United States to report more than one million coronavirus cases, more than one million people infected and that number is rising, just in L.A. County. Health officials there have now kicked off an ambitious mass vaccination plan in a huge open space custom-made to handle thousands of people in their cars.

CNN's Paul Vercammen is at Dodger Stadium. Paul?

PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Ana, a ray of sunshine in Los Angeles on this unusually warm day. The mega testing site at Dodger Stadium is up and running and business is brisk. You can see behind me the cars are snaking through these cones. And these are filled with people who are medical workers. That's the first wave here in Los Angeles. The cars stop at some point and they get the shots in their arm, in their cars, they then wait 15 minutes or more to make sure that they don't have any allergic reactions.

[20:55:08]

Down the road, they hope to process 12,000 vaccinations a day, and it could not come at a better time, as Los Angeles County has passed the grim milestone of one million COVID-19 cases. This has been an ordeal for the medical workers, the firefighters, the volunteers, all those people behind me down in that parking lot, who have been trying to get ahead and stop the virus from spreading.

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DAVID ORTIZ, LOS ANGELES FIRE DEPARTMENT: Our people are working nonstop. They're working hard to talk to a captain who have two hours of sleep, trying to set this up, trying to set up the logistics part of this huge on taking here at Dodgers. And you see him and -- he has a smile on his face. He's -- because he's doing everything he possibly can humanly to make a success one, to make us efficient.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VERCAMMEN: One of the concerns here at Dodger Stadium is that the supply of vaccine does not get stuffed up somewhere in the pipeline. They say they have enough, they keep on putting shots in arms until Wednesday. But this one glimmer of good news in Los Angeles County, which has been so hard hit by coronavirus.

Reporting from Los Angeles, I'm Paul Vercammen. Now, back to you, Ana.

CABRERA: Paul, thank you.

A quick programming note, join our own Abby Phillip as she talks with the soon-to-be vice president, Kamala Harris and her family. The CNN Special Report, "Kamala Harris: Making History," airs tomorrow night at 10:00 here on CNN. We'll be right back.

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