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Trump Presidency: How It Started, How It's Going; NSA Installing Trump Loyalist & Pelosi Demands Pentagon Halt the Hiring; U.S. Coronavirus Death Toll on Verge of 400K. Aired 1:30-2p ET
Aired January 18, 2021 - 13:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[13:30:00]
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Coming up, as we are rolling the tape on President Trump -- we're going to roll the tape on President Trump's presidency then versus now.
Plus, the country could reach nearly half a million COVID-related deaths by next month. What top medical experts are warning about dark days ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KEILAR: The Trump presidency will likely be defined by its assault on truth, its damage to democracy, and its denial of science that experts say would have saved American lives from coronavirus.
[13:35:03]
As we near the end of Trump's final week in the White House, we're taking a look back at the beginning of his presidency.
How it started, with a big show of his business councils attracting some of the biggest names in corporate America to visit the White House, like Apple CEO Tim Cook and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.
How it's going, the My Pillow guy is now the biggest in business to grace the White House visitors' logs these days, a regular in the conspiracy theory rings encircling planet Trump.
In week two of the Trump presidency, he announced the nomination of his first pick to the Supreme Court.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Today, I am keeping another promise to the American people by nominating Judge Neil Gorsuch of the United States Supreme Court -- to be of the United States Supreme Court.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: There would also be two more. And now the Supreme Court with three Trump picks on it ended Trump's efforts to overturn the election in the courts, throwing out a Texas lawsuit.
How it started, with two of his highest profile cabinet picks confirmed in the Senate, retired Marine generals, James Mattis, at the Pentagon, and John Kelly at Homeland Security.
How it's going, both retired generals directly blaming the president for the insurrection at the capitol.
Mattis calls Trump a, quote, "stain," and a man deservedly without a country.
Speaking with CNN's Jake Tapper, General Kelly says he, quote, "poisoned the people's minds of people with lies."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEN. JOHN KELLY, FORMER WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF (voice-over): The behavior yesterday and in the weeks and months before that has just been outrageous from the president.
JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST (voice-over): If you were in the cabinet right now, would you vote to remove him from office?
KELLY: Yes, I would.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: It also began with Rex Tillerson's confirmation for secretary of state moving forward in the Senate.
And now Secretary Tillerson said last week that the U.S. is in a much worse place now than it was when he entered office, that the president lacked understanding of global events in history and lacked the attention span to learn it.
Tillerson also said, quote, "It's really hard to have a conversation with someone who doesn't even understand the concept for why we're talking about this."
How it started, Trump's first news conference with America's closest ally.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I am honored to have Prime Minister Theresa May here for our first official visit from a foreign leader.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: And how it's going, Britain putting Trump on blast.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BORIS JOHNSON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: What President Trump has been saying about that has been completely wrong. And I certainly condemn encouraging people to behave in the disgraceful way that they did in the capitol.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: The Trump presidency began with hundreds of thousands of women descending on the nation's capitol and in cities across America to demonstrate against the newly elected president.
Now nearly 60 percent of women voted against the president in the election, according to CNN exit polls.
How it started, the president showed up at CIA headquarters to give a speech. And standing before a sacred memorial that honors CIA officers who died serving American, he went off on grudges and politics in a campaign-style rant instead of talking about sacrifice or service.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Probably, almost everybody in this room voted for me, but I will not ask you to raise your hands if you did.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: Is Donald Trump an intellectual? Trust me, I'm like a smart person.
And I have been on the cover 14 or 15 times. I think we have the all- time record in the history of "Time" magazine.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: How it's going? Trump's second CIA director, Gina Haspel, reportedly threatened to quit recently if the president assigned a conspiracy theorist, Trump loyalist, as her deputy, according to "Axios."
Also from his speech at the CIA that first week:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: As you know, I have a running war with the media. They are among the most-dishonest human beings on earth.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: Trump supports have carried that mantel. And now, harassing reporters during the insurrection on the capitol, destroying media equipment.
That crowd getting an assist from Trump's fact-adverse sycophants on FOX.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TUCKER CARLSON, FOX HOST: It wasn't AN insurrection. It was a political protest that got completely out of control.
Whatever you thought happened yesterday, what was racist about it? Well, nothing, of course. There was nothing racist about it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: How it started, the president's travel ban got predictably messy in airports and the courts. He promised extreme vetting of visitors from several predominantly Muslim nations.
How it's going, his successor announced he will reverse the ban on day one.
[13:39:59]
And the extreme vetting now underway is of the National Guard assigned to Washington in the wake of President Trump's incitement of violence at the capitol.
Day one of the Trump presidency began with an absurd, unnecessary lie.
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SEAN SPICER, FORMER WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: This was the largest audience ever to witness an inauguration, period, both in person and around the globe.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: And that was followed by a lying absurdity.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KELLYANNE CONWAY, SENIOR ADVISER TO PRESIDENT TRUMP: You're saying it's a falsehood, and they're giving Sean Spicer -- our press secretary, gave alternative facts to that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: But now, in the middle of a deadly pandemic in the wake of the capitol siege, Trump can be assured that Joe Biden's crowd won't compare to his.
But it's really irrelevant, anyway, since this is actually the crowd that is going to define Trump's legacy, the crowd at the capitol.
How it started, with a lie about telling the truth.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SPICER: It's an honor to do this. And, yes, I believe that we have to be honest with the American people.
Our intention is never to lie to you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: That one, of the first press secretary's, successors repeated.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAYLEIGH MCENANY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I will never lie to you. You have my word on that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: How it's going? Countless lies later, the credibility of every Trump spokesperson is in tatters.
And McEnany is a Trump secretary departing the White House days before Trump finishes his term like someone leaving a party without saying goodbye.
Even though he clearly won the Electoral College, Trump began by falsely pushing fraud to try and explain away his nearly three million-vote overwhelming popularity vote loss to Hillary Clinton.
He tweeted that he would be launching an investigation, but that investigation was disbanded after finding no evidence of widespread voter fraud.
And now, much of the same, except his baseless claims of widespread voter fraud are how he explains losing the election rather than winning it.
This time, his lies led to dozens of failed lawsuits, Republican allies trying to overturn democracy, and, of course, the insurrection at the capitol.
How it started, the president's tax returns hidden from the public. The president's excuses that they're under audit.
And this one from Kellyanne Conway.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CONWAY: He's not going to release his tax returns. We litigated this all through the election. People didn't care.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: How is it going? A "New York Times" investigation revealed that the president only paid a grand total of $1,500 in taxes in 2016 and 2017.
He owes banks hundreds of millions on loans that will come due soon. And he is a prolific loser of money, lots of money, perhaps the real reason that the president did not release his taxes.
His term also started with a headline raising questions about the president's national security adviser, Michael Flynn.
And now, following a conviction, Trump has pardoned Flynn, who is now spitting out conspiracy theory after conspiracy theory on fringe outlets as he suggests that the president implement martial law in the nation's capitol. But the moment that fully encapsulates how this all started was this
line from Trump's inaugural speech.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: This American carnage stops right here and stops right now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: He was referring U.S. crime, abandoned factories, and America First.
But the real American carnage was only beginning, from Charlottesville to the White House and now to the capitol.
A rampage incited by the president and organized by his supporters, costing several of their lives and the lives of at least one police officer.
And even after all of that, the president wanted a farewell spectacle with all the fanfare of a military sendoff.
He seemed unaware that he was already getting one in this city, now guarded by more military presence in Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq combined.
Where the president will skip the city without attending Joe Biden's inauguration and exiting his presidency through a war zone of his own creation.
[13:44:16]
Ahead, the nation's top spy agency is moving forward with hiring a Trump loyalist as its top new lawyer, and it's creating a problem for the incoming Biden administration.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KEILAR: In a last-minute move before the end of the Trump administration, the National Security Agency is installing a Trump loyalist as its top lawyer.
Before joining the Trump administration, Michael Ellis served as head counsel to Republican Congressman Devin Nunes, who is one of the president's most loyal supporters. He's expected to start serving in his new role tomorrow.
But a short time ago, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi sent a letter to acting defense secretary, Christopher Miller, demanding that he halt this hiring.
CNN's national security correspondent, Vivian Salama, is with me with more reporting on this.
Vivian, what are Nancy Pelosi's concerns here? VIVIAN SALAMA, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Brianna, the
concerns are twofold among Democrats in Congress. First, the timing of this move, obviously coming two days before President Trump leaves office, and also Michael Ellis' inexperience.
To folks at home, Michael Ellis is probably not a household name, but those of us who cover national security have been following him very closely.
[13:50:04]
Because he was one of these more inexperienced younger people who rose in the ranks of the administration primarily because he was a staunch loyalist to President Trump.
We saw in the early days, when he was still a National Security Council at the White House, he allowed Congressman Devin Nunes to get inappropriate access to some intelligence that he wasn't supposed to get access to.
And later on, he refused to testify during the first impeachment. So his name has come up on numerous occasions.
But in recent months, he moved over to go with acting secretary of defense, Chris Miller, to the Department of Defense.
And Chris Miller since has wanted him to rise to ranks within the National Security Agency, which is the intelligence agency within the Pentagon.
Chris Miller demanded over the weekend that Michael Ellis, again, very junior, take on the top lawyer role at the National Security Agency.
In fact, other candidates were seemingly more qualified for the job, but Chris Miller demanded that it go to Michael Ellis.
Now, it's important to note, Brianna, that this is a career position. Michael Ellis had previously was a political staffer.
The difference, to folks at home so they understand, career jobs come with a lot of career protections, civil service protections.
That's the job that now this loyalist to Trump will have. And he will continue on during the Biden administration.
KEILAR: This is such a unprecedented move.
I wonder if it is going to be difficult for the Biden administration to remove Ellis from this post. Can they?
SALAMA: It's going to be very hard. That's the whole point of these career jobs. They come with a series of protections that make it really hard to remove them.
They could probably demote him if they found cause to do so. But removing him from the job is going to be very difficult. Remember, this is the head lawyer job for the National Security
Agency. This is a job that comes with extreme responsibility as far as national security intelligence, very sensitive matters. It's also a very senior job.
All in all, a lot of questions surrounding why this candidate, in particular, at this time, is being installed in that job -- Brianna?
KEILAR: Definitely.
Vivian, great reporting. Vivian Salama, live for us in Washington.
Next, President-Elect Biden will also be inheriting the worsening COVID-19 crisis. What experts are warning as the U.S. is nearing 400,000 American deaths.
Plus, we are live in D.C. as the capitol is on lockdown and the FBI is screening National Guard troops to weed out any potential insider threats.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[13:57:33]
KEILAR: The country's coronavirus death toll is on the verge of crossing the 400,000 mark. To put it in perspective, this is more than the number of American who died in World War I, the Vietnam War and Korean War combined. And it's going to get worse before it gets better.
CNN senior medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, is here with us.
Americans are getting vaccines, Elizabeth, but the incoming director for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has warned there are still dark weeks ahead. Tell us why.
DR. ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Brianna, because we're seeing a dramatic increase in cases and Dr. Walensky knows that when you see a dramatic increase of cases, hospitalizations follow, and deaths follow that.
Let's take a look at a graph that puts this all too well, which is that you can see that line as it's rising, rising, rising. It takes this sharp rise around November.
So as people started to celebrate the holidays, travel, gather together, the number of people with COVID went way up. Thank goodness, most of those people will recover.
But a certain percentage of those people will end up in the hospital, a certain percentage of those people will end up in the ICU on ventilators, and a certain percentage of those people will end up dying.
That's why Dr. Walensky talked about the dark days that are ahead.
We've been talking about the vaccine. It's not going to help much in the short term unfortunately.
Only 12 million Americans have had any dose of the vaccine, and that's just not a big enough percentage to really kind of put -- to get that line down -- Brianna?
KEILAR: Elizabeth, thank you so much for that update. We appreciate it.
It is the top of the hour. I'm Brianna Keilar. And I want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world.
We are less than 48 hours away from a transfer of power unlike anything we've seen before.
There should be an excitement building in Washington with parades and inaugural balls being organized. Instead, D.C. is under a massive security lockdown. And President Trump's legacy on full display.
He is leaving office with a country that is dying by the thousands from coronavirus and is so bitterly divided that it needs thousands of National Guardsmen and women to protect its capitol and democracy from insurrectionists.
Sources say that his last days in office will be spend issuing 100 pardons and commutations.
The president hasn't been seen in public in almost a week.
And sources say invitations have gone out for a farewell at Joint Base Andrews.
[13:59:58]
But a big White House event is unlikely because of intense security around D.C., which is a consequence of the insurrection that Trump incited.
