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Washington And State Capitals Tighten Security; Biden To Sign Executive Orders On First Day; CDC Warns U.K. Variant Could Be Dominant Strain By March; California Opens Mass Vaccination Sites; U.K. Has Vaccinated Nearly Half Of Population 80 And Over; Far Right Extremist Groups "Most Persistent And Lethal Threat"; U.S. Politics Under Global Scrutiny; Uganda Incumbent Declared Presidential Winner Amid Vote-Rigging Allegations. Aired 4-5a ET
Aired January 17, 2021 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN HOST (voice-over): Authorities across the U.S. ramp up security, warning of further domestic threats ahead of Joe Biden's inauguration this week.
This as President-Elect Joe Biden says he'll immediately roll back some of Trump's policies on his first day in office.
And waking up to a nightmare every day, health officials in Los Angeles say the COVID-19 crisis is desperate as cases and deaths soar.
Live from CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta, welcome to all of you watching here in the United States, Canada and around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber and this is CNN NEWSROOM.
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BRUNHUBER: From Washington, D.C., to every state capital, the threat of armed protests over Joe Biden's upcoming inauguration has led to a level of security unlike any in recent memory.
Now this isn't what you expect to see around the seat of America's government. And it's not just around the U.S. Capitol building. Much of official Washington is sealed off in all directions by trucks, barricades, troops, armed security. The National Mall is closed.
Up to 25,000 National Guard are pouring into Washington from all over the country. Authorities say the immediate threat appears to be domestic extremists upset by Donald Trump's election loss and emboldened by the deadly Capitol siege.
The FBI warns that all 50 state capitals could be targets. Most of them have greatly enhanced their security. For his part, the president-elect has readied about a dozen executive actions as soon as he's sworn in. We'll have more on that in just a moment.
But we begin with CNN's Shimon Prokupecz and the scene right now in fortress Washington.
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SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE PRODUCER: Roadblocks like this, all across Washington, D.C., the National Guard, now patrolling almost every intersection across the district.
This is a checkpoint, one of the areas where, sometimes, cars will come through. The National Guard will ask for credentials, in order to come through. This is blocks from the Capitol.
The perimeter across the Capitol, across Washington, D.C., is wide. Every iconic structure, from the White House to all of the monuments, the National Mall, all fenced in. Everything around there has fences.
Authorities, here very concerned over the threat that the district faces and also, the threat that much of the country is facing -- Shimon Prokupecz, CNN, Washington.
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BRUNHUBER: Authorities in all 50 states are also on high alert amid concerns domestic extremists will express their rage at their state capitals. We have reporters have deployed to capitals across the country, monitoring developments.
Our Natasha Chen at the Georgia state capital in Atlanta; Miguel Marquez is at Pennsylvania's capital in Harrisburg, which will close to the public in just a few hours.
But we're going to start with Matt Rivers in Austin, Texas, where demonstrations are expected later today.
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MATT RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Matt Rivers outside the state capital building in Austin, Texas, which was the scene for very small protests during the day on Saturday, a handful of protesters showed up. All was peaceful.
Now the attention of the public safety authorities here in Austin, Texas, goes to Sunday. We know the Department of Public Safety is expecting at least two potential events during the day. We still don't know exactly how big those events are expected to be.
But what we do know is the capital grounds and the state capital building will remain closed at least through the inauguration.
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MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Miguel Marquez in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where authorities say they are prepared for whatever protesters may throw at them.
They're not entirely sure protesters will come but the capital here in Harrisburg will be shut down Sunday through Thursday.
They put up some barriers but they haven't fenced it off like other capitals around the country.
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MARQUEZ: One thing they will do here is shut these streets in front of the capital to traffic. They are concerned about people open carrying, bringing long guns and other guns to these protests.
Pennsylvania is an open carry state. They've had several protests throughout the last year, both against COVID restrictions and then against the outcome of the election. One thing authorities are very concerned about is a counter protest erupting and mixing it up with pro-Trump protesters.
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NATASHA CHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Natasha Chen in Atlanta. There are barriers wrapping all around the Georgia state capital and the sidewalks on many sides of it are closed.
You can also see armored vehicles and a strong law enforcement presence. The Georgia Building Authority says no one has requested permits to protest at this time but that may not stop groups from still trying to gather here.
The Republican lieutenant governor Jeff Duncan acknowledged to CNN that President Trump's words have made Georgia less safe. He also said he cannot fathom seeing such heightened security to ward off potential threats from people in his own party.
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BRUNHUBER: Well, we got a glimpse of the intimidation caused by armed protests last April in Michigan. Militant demonstrators angry over COVID restrictions swarmed into the state capital, some of them carried firearms. As frightening as that episode was the current threat is worse. CNN's Sara Sidner is at the Michigan capital.
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SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Here at Michigan's capital there is a great deal of concern but you are not seeing the kind of security that you're seeing in Washington, D.C. There is, yes, a fence, it's more of a visual deterrent. There also will not be any legislators in here Monday through Thursday.
That is partly because of a credible threat the police said that they have gotten concerning the capital. So just out of an abundance of caution, the legislators have decided to go to their safer spaces, whether it be their homes or elsewhere.
One of the reasons why things have been taken very seriously isn't just what happened on January 6th in D.C. It is what happened over the summer and this fall here in Michigan itself.
There was an alleged plot to kidnap the governor. That plot, by the way, according to federal and state authorities, also had to do with some of the men talking about storming the capital, getting inside and kidnapping those inside, particularly the governor.
And so they've already dealt with what could be said is, you know, an alleged blueprint, kind of what happened in Washington, D.C., and there is a great deal of concern that there may be some kind of violence.
And so out of an abundance of caution, there will be no legislators here, this is closed down. But you're also going to see some security. They have called in the National Guard, they have accepted that call so we will see National Guards and we have already seen state police here.
One thing will be clear to people, the experts who have been tracking extremism for years in this country, we've talked to a few of them and they said, you have to be ready a slow burn on this.
Nothing may happen in the next day, week or month. But they believe what happened on January 6th is just the beginning of what could be unrest here in this country -- Sara Sidner, CNN, Lansing, Michigan.
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BRUNHUBER: Well, as we mentioned, Joe Biden plans to get right to work the moment he becomes president on Wednesday. CNN's Arlette Saenz has those details.
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ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: President-Elect Joe Biden is readying dozens of executive actions to sign, once he takes office on January 20th. Many of these executive actions he outlined during his presidential campaign.
And on the first day alone, he plans to sign roughly a dozen executive actions. Some of them undoing policies from the Trump administration. One of those executive actions he will sign will rescind the travel ban on travelers from majority Muslim countries. That is something that President Trump unveiled early on in his administration that Biden plans to undo.
The president-elect is also planning to rejoin the Paris climate agreement, something that was negotiated during the Obama-Biden years but President Trump pulled out of.
There are also some items relating to the pandemic. Biden will be halting foreclosures on evictions, something that is happening right now, as well as keeping that pause on payments for student loans and interest.
The president-elect will also be issuing what they are calling a 100- day masking challenge, trying to get people all across the country to wear masks. While Biden doesn't have the authority to mandate masks everywhere, he can do it in federal buildings and interstate travel.
These executive actions, rolled out over the coming weeks, are also joining his legislative priorities. He will be sending an immigration bill to Congress in his first 100 days and he is also unveiling a $1.9-trillion-dollar COVID stimulus relief package, something he is hoping that Congress can get to right away.
What the president-elect is making clear with these executive accidents is that he's looking to hit the ground running on January 20th --
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SAENZ: -- Arlette Saenz, CNN, Wilmington, Delaware.
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BRUNHUBER: When Donald Trump leaves office on Wednesday, he will have just about the worst approval rating of any U.S. president after the first term since scientific polling began.
Just 33 percent now approve of him and 60 percent disapprove of his job performance, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll. He is also facing an unprecedented second impeachment trial, which will likely start after Joe Biden's inauguration.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is expected to set that process in motion next week. And as Trump enters the final days of his presidency, he's spending most of his time away from the public eye. CNN's Jeremy Diamond has that part of the story.
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JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Silence on social media and now becoming the only president in American history to be impeached not once but twice. President Trump spent his last weekend in office here at the White House, holed up inside the building behind closed doors with no public events listed on his schedule.
What we do know though, is President Trump was still meeting with some of his advisers; Rudy Giuliani, the president's personal attorney, who led the president's efforts to try and overturn the results of the 2020 election which he lost. He was spotted at the White House on Saturday.
That was just a day after Mike Lindell, the CEO of My Pillow, who has been spreading many of these conspiracy theories relating to the 2020 election, he was also meeting with the president at the White House Friday night, discussing many of these debunked allegations of voter fraud in the 2020 election.
And so as the president does that, what you are seeing is vice president Pence really beginning to fill a leadership void that the president has left in this final week in office.
While we haven't seen President Trump talk about the coronavirus pandemic, we haven't seen him really substantively address security around the inauguration; what you've seen vice president Mike Pence do is lead Coronavirus Task Force meetings.
On Saturday we saw the vice president touting the Trump administration's national security achievements, as he sees them, in a speech at a military base in California. And just a couple of days ago the vice president also calling Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris to congratulate her and offer his assistance as she steps into his role.
All of this would be traditional in any transition, peaceful transition, between administrations. But President Trump has avoided all of those niceties, all of those traditions, during this period of transition. No communication between him or President-Elect Joe Biden.
Of course, President Trump is not planning to attend Joe Biden's inauguration. Instead, sources are telling us that the president is expected to leave Washington on Wednesday morning before, just hours before that inauguration, to head to his Mar-a-lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida.
But the president has been asking aides for a last taste of the trappings of the presidency, asking for a huge military-style sendoff. It's not clear whether that will happen at the White House or at Joint Base Andrews before President Trump sets foot on Air Force One for the last time as president.
But that is what he is looking to do. He's also hoping to have a large crowd of supporters there to send him off in his final hours as president -- Jeremy Diamond, CNN, the White House.
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BRUNHUBER: California COVID infections surged to new heights. But a massive vaccination campaign is bringing hope. How the state plans to get the most vulnerable vaccinated as soon as possible.
Plus, Norway is investigating why 23 elderly patients died after receiving the Pfizer BioNTech COVID vaccine. Stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: Researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have a warning: vaccinate the public more quickly or watch the more contagious U.K. COVID variant make the spread of the disease even worse.
So this is where things stand right now: nearly 400,000 people dead, among close to 24 million cases worldwide. That CDC warning all the more stark now that we've learned that the U.S. government has no more reserve vaccine doses. The Trump administration had promised to release them on Friday but,
in fact, they've already been distributed. Now this news blindsided many state governors, who were making plans to administer those vaccines.
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GOV. TIM WALZ (D-MN): It is not debatable that the United States did this more poorly than any nation on Earth. They were lying. They don't have any doses held back.
GOV. KATE BROWN (D-OR): Let me very clear. This is deception on a national scale.
GOV. JARED POLIS (D-CO): What we really need is a new administration. We need President Biden and Secretary Becerra to restore some confidence and sanity to this to figure out what the hell is going on, and if they have extra doses, to get them out.
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BRUNHUBER: The CDC is predicting the U.K. variant could become the most dominant form of the virus here in the U.S. by March.
Los Angeles County has now reported its first case of that COVID variant from the U.K. It's also become the first U.S. county to report more than 1 million total COVID cases. California health officials are rolling out a massive vaccination campaign in an effort to stem the spread. CNN's Paul Vercammen has more.
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PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: 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.
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 1 million COVID-19 cases.
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VERCAMMEN: 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.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DAVID ORTIZ, LOS ANGELES FIRE DEPARTMENT: They are working nonstop, they're working hard. Talked to a captain who had two hours of sleep, trying to set this up, trying to set up the logistics part of this huge ontaking here at Dodgers.
And you see him and he has a smile on his face because he's doing everything he possibly can, humanly, to make a success, to make us efficient.
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VERCAMMEN: One of the concerns here at Dodger Stadium is the supply of vaccine does not get stuck up somewhere in the pipeline. They say they have enough to 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. Back to you.
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BRUNHUBER: Last hour, I spoke with Dr. Stephen Parodi, an infectious disease specialist, about how doctors in California are coping with their soaring number of cases and the importance of vaccination efforts. Listen.
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DR. STEPHEN PARODI, ASSOCIATE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, PERMANENTE MEDICAL GROUP: it is very busy right now. We have over 3,000 hospitalized COVID patients, 650 are in the ICU and it's time to put this to a stop.
And the efforts for mass vaccination are critical right now. We're deeply involved with it. Numerous other health systems are involved. And this is really going to take all hands on deck to put a stop to this pandemic.
BRUNHUBER: Yes, that's what I want to get to. The national vaccine rollout has been widely criticized as a disaster. Your hospital system is part of a huge effort. Your phone centers are overwhelmed with calls about the vaccine.
I understand you don't have enough vaccine supply to meet demand and you're not alone. The federal government expanded the list of people eligible to everyone over 65 but didn't increase the shipments of the vaccine.
So how are you coping with this?
And do you expect to run out?
PARODI: So we've actually been matching the supply to demand as best as possible. We're working with the state and the federal government to inform them about how much we do need. In the meantime, we're asking people and actually proactively
outreaching people to wait. And this is actually providing us with some time to set up those mass vaccine sites.
As you referenced in the earlier report, it takes a ton of logistics to put this together. We're working and taking that that time to be ready for when that vaccine is going to be coming in the next few weeks and hopefully months.
And actually, the incoming Biden administration, their national vaccine program that they've outlined in the $400 billion package that they have put together, is an encouraging sign, at least from my perspective.
BRUNHUBER: Yes, concretely on that, how will that help?
There's billions in funding for vaccine distribution and testing and so on.
How specifically will it help?
And maybe more importantly even, how long do you think it will take for that help to sort of filter through to the system, on the ground where you are?
PARODI: Well, you know, what I'm encouraged by is that they are going to invest in community clinics. They're going to invest in mobile clinics. And that's going to be critical because we want to bring the vaccine to where the people are.
Some of them will be able to come into the health system but some of them are socially disadvantaged patients and they need to be -- actually have the vaccine brought to them.
The other big investment here is the public health infrastructure. We've been talking about this for the past 10 months.
It's been hollowed out. This program is going to invest in getting 100,000 workers on the ground. We, the health systems, need that help. We need that public health infrastructure.
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BRUNHUBER: Our thanks to Dr. Stephen Parodi for his analysis there.
England's historic Salisbury Cathedral was transformed into a COVID-19 vaccination center on Saturday. Patients received their shots while organ music played in the background.
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BRUNHUBER (voice-over): People aged 80 and over were among those invited to visit the cathedral to receive their first vaccine doses.
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BRUNHUBER: CNN's Scott McLean joins us from London with more on the U.K. rollout.
There have been calls to vaccinate more of U.K.'s elderly population, is opening up more churches as vaccination centers.
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BRUNHUBER: Is that part of the initiative?
SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They have definitely gotten creative. On top of the places that you would expect vaccines to be administered, doctors' offices, pharmacies, hospitals, there are also, you know, opening up a horse racing track, a convention center, even a soccer stadium in Manchester in order to get the vaccines out even quicker.
The U.K. is already leading Europe in terms of vaccinations; 45 percent of people over the age of 80 and about 40 percent of people who are in care homes have already gotten the shot.
The health minister, though, yesterday put out a statement, really urging British people, if they have friends or family who are in that most vulnerable category and eligible for a vaccine right now, to actually go and get it.
Now meanwhile, in Norway, health authorities there are investigating the deaths of 23 people who died after getting the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine. Context is important here. The medicine's regulator -- or the vaccine regulator in Norway was quick to point out that all of the 23 people were already elderly and frail to begin with.
So of the 23, 13 have been assessed so far and reports indicate that common adverse reactions to vaccines, things like nausea and fever, may have contributed to the deaths of their patients. So they're perhaps not unexpected. Or that's what the health authorities there are saying.
Pfizer, the manufacturer of the vaccine, said their thoughts are obviously with the families of those who have died. They say that they're working with Norwegian authorities to gather all of the right relevant information.
But they also pointed out that this incident is not alarming, they say, and it's in line with expectations. There are going to be adverse reactions.
One other thing to point out is that Pfizer also says that Norwegian health officials are now going to be updating their guidance to make sure that people's health is taken into account more closely before they're actually administered these vaccines, Kim.
BRUNHUBER: All right. Thank you so much, Scott McLean, appreciate it.
Ahead here on CNN, why the assault on the U.S. Capitol is part of a right wing extremist movement that some officials say has been growing for years. And Joe Biden is set to face some familiar challenges from North Korea
and its nuclear program. So we will talk about how his foreign policy would differ from President Trump's. That's coming up ahead. Stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: Thank you for watching here in the United States, Canada and around the world, I'm Kim Brunhuber and you're watching CNN NEWSROOM.
The threat of armed protests over Joe Biden's upcoming inauguration has turned Washington and many state capitals into fortresses. The U.S. Capitol and much of Washington is sealed off in all directions by trucks, barricades, troops and armed security. The National Mall is closed.
The FBI warns that all 50 state capitals could be targets. Security has been ramped up significantly in most, if not all of them. Authorities say the immediate threat appears to be from domestic extremists, upset by Donald Trump's election loss, who are emboldened by the deadly Capitol siege.
In fact, the Department of Homeland Security calls right wing extremists the most lethal threat to the U.S. But the Trump administration has downplayed that assessment. CNN's Jim Sciutto explains.
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JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The deadly assault on the U.S. Capitol, the alleged plot to kidnap Michigan's governor, just two recent instances of a violent right wing extremist movement that has been growing on U.S. soil for years.
According to current and former counter terror officials, the threat now rivals that from international terrorism.
PETER BERGEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: There is no debate. The facts show that right wing extremists have killed more people since 9/11 than any other political ideology and that includes jihadi terrorists.
SCIUTTO: Since 9/11, 114 people have been killed in attacks by far right-wing terrorists in the United States, 107 by jihadi terrorists. And right-wing attacks are increasingly outpacing jihadi terrorism, responsible for two-thirds of attacks and plots in the U.S. in 2019 and more than 90 percent between January 1 and May 8, 2020.
Attacks and plots by such groups have now occurred in 42 states and the District of Columbia in the past six years.
Fueling right wing extremists are the conspiracies propagated by the president of a system organized against them and two essential ingredients.
JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: The first is a leader who tells them what to do, who tells them how to feel, who makes them believe that they are part of something bigger, that this is a mission.
The other is a network, whether it's social media or platform, or ways of communication, that lets them essentially talk amongst themselves, get organized.
SCIUTTO: The growing degree of organization particularly alarms U.S. officials. Investigators are pursuing signs the assault on the Capitol was planned and not spontaneous, including knowledge of the Capitol's layout, radio communications among protest leaders and planting of explosive devices to divert law enforcement.
The worry now is that the targets could expand along with the planning from the U.S. Capitol to all 50 state capitals to so-called soft targets, mirroring those attacked by jihadi terrorists.
CHRISTOPHER KREBS, FORMER DIRECTOR, CYBERSECURITY AND INFRASTRUCTURE SECURITY AGENCY: Infrastructure hitting soft targets, the disruption of services, those are the sorts of things that every systemically important infrastructure owner, operator, CEOs needs to be assembling their crisis management teams yesterday.
SCIUTTO: Fact is the FBI and Justice Department have been warning about right wing extremism for years and the DHS now identifies it as "the most persistent and lethal threat in the Homeland." However, political appointees in the Trump administration, at times, downplayed it.
BERGEN: The political signals have been that the right wing terrorism is OK, certainly what the president said at Charlottesville - after the Charlottesville terrorist attack. And he continues to some degree.
SCIUTTO: Downplaying the threat and even echoing extremist rhetoric.
TRUMP: Our country will be destroyed and we're not going to stand for that.
SCIUTTO: That has had consequences.
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KAYYEM: The failure to identify it, to name it and to focus resources on the growing threat of white supremacy terrorism has meant that agencies have not focused on it in the way that they should.
SCIUTTO: January 6th laid that vulnerability bare. Despite weeks of chatter online, U.S. authorities were not prepared for a deadly assault in the heart of the U.S. Capitol. (END VIDEOTAPE)
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BRUNHUBER: I want to bring in Jessica White, an expert on terrorism and domestic extremism. She's with the U.K.'s Royal United Services Institute, the world's oldest defense think tank.
Thank you so much for coming on to speak with us. You wrote a piece at the end of November, called "Far-right extremism steals the show in 2020." Seems prescient to say the least.
What surprised you most by what you saw January 6th and what are you expecting to see across the country on January 20th?
JESSICA WHITE, RESEARCH FELLOW, ROYAL UNITED SERVICES INSTITUTE: Thank you for having me this morning. I think, you know, obviously that piece was written before the events of January 6th. And I can't say that I didn't expect something of that kind to happen.
I mean, unfortunate as it was. And I think we should expect to see more of the same kind of protests and potential violence. Obviously, everyone is gearing up for that.
I think, you know, long after the transition happens, there will be the need to sort of ratchet back, ratchet down the polarized nature of the political discussion in an effort to sort of -- to lessen the base of support for far-right extremism in the United States.
The trust needs to be rebuilt in the democratic process and the public conversation brought back to the discourse of moderate and collaborative politics. I think that will take some time. And I think we should be ready to deal with what might happen before that.
BRUNHUBER: I mean, who's the onus on there for that?
You know, there's -- I imagine only so much that President Biden can do.
Is it on Republicans to sort of dial back and maybe distance themselves from President Trump and his rhetoric?
WHITE: I think the onus is on everyone actually. I think it's on all politicians and it's on the public themselves as well. I think there is a need for everyone to sort of push out the extremist discussion, out of the mainstream political conversation.
In the last several years, there's been uptick in how much conspiracy theory and disinformation has made its way from social media into mainstream political and public conversations. So I think it's the onus of everybody, you know, from the president down to the public to make an effort to sort of push the extreme out of the mainstream.
BRUNHUBER: I mean, the growth of that extremism, it predated President Trump. But you know, it certainly took off and was emboldened during his administration. Do you see that changing with a new president in the White House?
And how do you think that the new president will confront this?
Do you think authorities will be sort of better equipped to deal with right-wing extremism under a new administration, which might be less liable to undermine them?
WHITE: Yes, I mean, I think under the Biden administration, that he will put more attention and more focus on sort of the resources and the research that's needed to understand how to dial back the base that they have developed over the last several years.
Like you say, far-right extremism is not a new thing but it's been given a new voice. And especially with the polarization of U.S. politics and with the pandemic and the racial inequality movements in the last year and before that, these are all feeding an environment that makes it very easy for them to sort of grasp onto narratives that are running.
So I think, you know, there's certainly -- there needs to be resources put towards an engagement with national security organizations as well as state and local governments and civil society and how to handle this and to, you know, to sort of lessen its base of support. And I think that the Biden administration will put more attention to that, yes.
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BRUNHUBER: Our thanks to Jessica White for her analysis there.
Well, the eyes of the world will be on Joe Biden's inauguration. From North Korea to the Paris climate deal, he faces some major foreign policy challenges and opportunities after four years of President Trump. So for more on this, let's bring in CNN's Will Ripley, who is live in Hong Kong.
Will, I want to start with China.
What's been China's reaction to all of this, the political chaos, the fall of the U.S. economy, the continued surge in COVID cases here, even the relative failure of the vaccine rollout?
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BRUNHUBER: How has China benefited from the perception that America's international stature has shrunk?
And what do you expect to change with the Biden administration?
WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I think it's safe to say, Kim, that U.S.-China relations are at their lowest level in decades. Tensions have ratcheted up over trade and, even in the final days of the Trump administration, there is the threat of new potentially $1 trillion in tariffs against Chinese tech giants.
So that is still a very much open question, where the trade relationship goes in the new Biden administration.
President Xi Jinping of China has been basically drawing a lot of contrast as of late of the American system, which is obviously politically divided and dysfunctional, arguably, the most divided and dysfunctional of the advanced industrial democracies in the world right now, and the Chinese model which has an economy that is now rebounding post-COVID.
Life in Mainland China is pretty much back to normal, even though there are some restrictions. The level of damage to the economy isn't what it is, the disruption isn't at the level that it is right now in the United States because, remember, China, early on, basically kept nearly a billion people in their homes for a period of three months.
Short-term pain but now we're seeing the long-term gain. That's something that they can do in China. They're even doing it in Hong Kong. I have a 21-day quarantine that I'm right in the middle of, where I can't even leave this hotel room, with this electronic wristband to make sure I don't leave.
You would never see that in the U.S. I just came back from the U.S. a few days ago and, even though quarantines are suggested, there is no enforcement. So Xi is definitely saying that the COVID pandemic is showing the advantage of the Chinese system over the American system or at least what he perceives to be the superiority of the Chinese system.
And on top of all of this you have the chaos in Washington, the insurrection and militarization in America's Capitol and the ban from President Trump on Twitter and Facebook, privately owned social media companies in the United States, that, under the First Amendment are allowed to ban whoever they want.
But the Chinese propagandists are saying, even in the United States, there's censorship. Nothing like the government-imposed censorship in Beijing. But that's not the spin Chinese citizens are getting.
BRUNHUBER: You referenced the trade war that President Trump entered into; we all remember his now infamous tweet that trade wars are good and easy to win.
We saw a recent study by a group representing American companies doing business in China, saying that the trade war, at its peak, cost a loss of 245,000 U.S. jobs. I know you said we don't know exactly how Biden will address this. But surely this has to be a priority to ease some of that economic tension.
RIPLEY: It is. And I was actually reading an editorial in the "Global Times," a Chinese tabloid, very nationalist in China, saying that, if this trade war were to continue, that the United States would lose hundreds of thousands of more jobs. But if trade circumstances were to improve, the United States would gain jobs by 2025.
So that's the spin that China is giving its own people. And in this very nationalist tabloid, they were expressing hope that, with the Biden administration, there might be some opportunity to push the reset button on U.S.-China trade because certainly both countries' economies are arguably more dependent on trade and globalization than they have been in the past because that is the trend that the world is going.
From the Chinese perspective, Democrats are certainly more pro- globalization than the America first policies of the Trump administration.
BRUNHUBER: All right. So much on his plate. Thank you very much for breaking that all down for us, Will Ripley, appreciate it.
Uganda's president took power 35 years ago and he's not looking to leave. The latest on a disputed election ahead. Stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: We'll be watching Moscow later today, as opposition figure Alexei Navalny is set to fly back to Russia. The Kremlin critic was taken to a hospital in Berlin after nearly dying aboard a flight in Russia in August.
In a CNN exclusive, Navalny duped a Russian agent into revealing he was poisoned with a nerve agent. Navalny is due in court in a fraud case when he returns. Russian officials have said they're obliged to arrest him.
Election officials in Uganda say president Yoweri Museveni has won his sixth term in office. His chief rival, singer turned candidate Bobi Wine, is alleging vote rigging and wants the results dismissed.
The internet was blocked ahead of Thursday's vote; a day later Wine was placed under house arrest. For the latest, let's bring in CNN's David McKenzie, who is live in Johannesburg.
Museveni claims these were the most cheating-free, in his words, election since independence in 1962, which seems doubtful, to say the least.
What can you tell us about the allegations of fraud and vote rigging here?
DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kim, there are a lot of serious questions about this election. Just look in the pre-election period, you had violence and a crackdown by the security forces; in effect, the opposition party criminalized through multiple arrests of Bobi Wine, the popular singer turned politician.
I spoke to him right after this result was announced by the electoral commission. He was still on house arrest. He again claimed there was fraud and intimidation, though didn't provide any evidence of that fraud. And the internet is still shut down in the country.
So there is a sense there are question marks. And international observers were barely present in this election. But it seems that Museveni is going into a sixth term as president more than 30 years in power, Kim.
BRUNHUBER: All right. So I understand we have a clip from the president. Let's play that.
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YOWERI MUSEVENI, UGANDAN PRESIDENT: I am not in politics looking for anything for myself. I don't need to be in the government to have a good life because I have a good life already as a farmer. However, my going into leadership was to deal with the number of serious historical challenges.
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BRUNHUBER: All right. So David, that was the president.
What now for Bobi Wine, you know, what role might he play in -- as opposition -- if any?
MCKENZIE: Well, you heard there from the president, that he says he isn't that fussed if he's president or not. But over the years that certainly hasn't borne out in Uganda. They have twice adjusted the law to allow Museveni to run again, first for term limits, then for age limits. You asked about Bobi Wine in the future.
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MCKENZIE: The next few days will be critical. It's unclear when they might release him in house arrest. There is some good news from an opposition point of view, they have made significant inroads in parliament and will become the official opposition.
But really, like I said before, many observers of Uganda and certain other countries in Africa really believe that opposition is being criminalized and that these elections that are occurring in these countries are almost like show elections.
Of course, there isn't any evidence directly of fraud at this point. But with the internet shut down and biometrics really struggling to work during the votes, you know, that evidence may never really come through, Kim.
BRUNHUBER: All right. So shifting gears now, I wanted to take the opportunity to ask you, because you're in South Africa, that South African variant, there's plenty of concern about that spreading across the world.
What can you tell us, what kind of update can you give us here?
MCKENZIE: Well, currently, the country is in the middle of a very dramatic second wave. That, as you say, the South African COVID variant, which was discovered here in November, has shown to be at least 50 percent more transmissible. No evidence at this point that it makes people sicker.
But like the U.K. variant and other troubling variants around the world, it has shown to be an even bigger challenge for public health measures. Just last week, the president here extended a lockdown or sort of a semi-lockdown without giving an end date to that.
In the coming days, we should hear just how dangerous this variant is, whether antibodies from the previous variants will work or even vaccines. There is some optimism they will.
But it is proving very challenging to South Africa. In the last couple days, there is a sense that the peak is easing somewhat, probably because of those strict public health measures. Kim.
BRUNHUBER: A little good news there. Thank you so much, David McKenzie in Johannesburg.
And CNN NEWSROOM will be right back. Please do stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: Now this just in. We have to end on a sad note here about an admired member of the CNN family. Chris Cramer has died at age 73. Now he ran CNN International for 11 years and was executive vice president and managing director.
Cramer also spent 25 years at the BBC. He was head of news gathering and sat on the BBC's news and current affairs management board. His experience in 1980, when he was taken hostage at the Iranian embassy in London, helped make him a pioneer and innovator in field safety for journalists. Chris will be missed here at CNN.
And that wraps this hour of CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Kim Brunhuber. For our viewers in the U.S. and Canada "NEW DAY" is next and for everyone else it's "CONNECTING AFRICA."
