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Trump's Last Full Day As President; Trump's Last 100 Pardons, List Unknown; Navalny Calls On Supporters To Take To The Streets; COVID-19 Death Toll Set To Reach 500,000 By Mid-February; America Now Has 25 Percent Of Global COVID-19 Infections; Trump To Issue Around 100 Pardons and Commutations; WHO Head Warns of Catastrophic Moral Failure; Sweden Imposes New Restrictions as Deaths Rise; Trump's Allies Stoked the Flames Ahead of Riot. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired January 19, 2021 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[01:00:00]
MICHAEL HOLMES, ANCHOR, CNN NEWSROOM: Hello, everyone, I'm Michael Holmes. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. Coming to you live from CNN's world headquarters here in Atlanta.
And ahead this hour. Donald Trump's last full day in the White House. But the outgoing U.S. president has at least one more big move before he loses power.
A winter surge in coronavirus cases in the U.S. More variants of virus are surfacing with the country's vaccination campaign still way behind schedule.
And Kremlin critic, Alexei Navalny, in court following his return to Russia and calling on his supporters to fill the streets.
Welcome, everyone.
Donald Trump is expected to release a farewell video touting his accomplishments as his last full day as president of the United States comes to an end.
But the nation's capital turning its attention now to Joe Biden. His inaugural committee lit up the National Mall late Monday with nearly 200,000 flags and 50 lights into the sky.
Those flags represent Americans unable to travel to Washington because of the pandemic and, of course, the threat of violence.
25,000 U.S. National Guard troops are positioned throughout Washington to keep the inauguration safe.
We get the very latest now from CNN's Alex Marquardt.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The streets of Washington D.C. tonight clearly making the point this has not been a peaceful transfer of power.
Among the extraordinary security measures being taken, vetting the National Guard troops, all 25,000, brought in to help protect the nation's capital during the inauguration.
The Army is working with the FBI to identify and screen anybody who could beat inside the threat.
MAJOR GENERAL WILLIAM WALKER, COMMANDING GENERAL D.C. NATIONAL GUARD: What happens is they're screened before they leave their state.
And what it is, is a credentialing process. So they're screen and then they're repeatedly screened until they are actually put on the street.
MARQUARDT: There's growing evidence of current and former military and law enforcement among the insurrectionists at the U.S. Capitol on January 6th.
Including Larry Rendall Brock, a retired Air Force reservist lieutenant colonel seen here in new video from "The New Yorker."
LARRY RENDALL BROCK, CAPITOL HILL RIOTER: It's a P.R. war, OK. You don't understand, it's an I.O. War.
MARQUARDT: The video showing remarkable moments from the start of the rioting --
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: You are outnumbered. there's a fucking million of us out here. And we are listening to Trump, your boss.
MARQUARDT: -- to the senate floor. Where rioters rifled through desks and papers, one saying that Texas senator Ted Cruz would approve.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: I think Cruz would want us to do this.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Yes, absolutely.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: So I think we're good.
MARQUARDT: And the man in the horns, Jacob Chansley, writing a note where Vice President Mike Pence had just sat reading --
JACOB CHANSLEY, CAPITOL HILL RIOTER (Voice Over): It's only a matter of time; justice is coming.
CROWD (Chanting)
MARQUARDT: Justice is indeed coming. For them and for dozens of others who have been arrested.
Including Riley Williams from Pennsylvania. Court records indicate that the FBI is looking into whether a laptop from speaker Nancy Pelosi's office was stolen to potentially sell to Russia. And federal investigators say an army reservist with secret level
security clearance has also been charged. According to court documents, federal investigators say that Timothy Hale-Cusanelli is an avowed white supremacist and Nazi sympathizer with a long record of extremist postings online.
Fears of more pro-Trump terrorist violence have turned in the nation's capital into a fortress with miles of fencing often topped with razor wire.
The National Mall, usually full of people celebrating, now closed. Streets blocked and guarded by thousands of National Guard from across the country.
MAYOR MURIEL BOWSER, WASHINGTON D.C.: So I think this will be an inauguration unlike any other.
MARQUARDT: We are learning more about the inauguration itself which, of course, the general public will not be allowed to attend but members of congress still will able to bring guests.
However, those guests will not be subjected to a background check. That is normal procedure.
[01:05:00]
But given the higher security posture this year, one might think that they might have to go through a background check, that is not the case. They will, however, have to take a COVID test and will have to go through security before they get to their seats.
MARQUARDT (On Camera): Alex Marquardt, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: A White House official tells CNN President Trump spent part of the day Monday meeting with advisers about pardons. He's expected to issue about 100 pardons and commutations before he leaves office.
But sources say neither he or his adult children will be on the list -- we shall see.
Allies of the president are also urging him to steer clear of pardoning anyone involved in the attack on the U.S. Capitol two weeks ago.
Joining me now from Los Angeles, Franita Tolson is a CNN election law analyst and the vice dean of the USC Law School. Good to see you.
You've written that the pardon powers are broad, but that should not be confused with quote, "unlimited or without constraints." Explain that a little for us in the context of what's about to happen.
FRANITA TOLSON, CNN ELECTION LAW ANALYST: So usually the president exercises his pardon power pretty broadly, right. The president and the past presidents have pardoned people and sometimes it's controversial, sometimes there's an outcry.
But usually, the pardon power's undisturbed but that does not mean it's not without constraints.
So, for example, if the president pardons insurrectionists, we might get another article of impeachment, right. Because impeachment is a political proceeding and if the president's pardon are really outrageous, theoretically he could be impeached -- they could add another article of impeachment to the current slate.
HOLMES: Yes. The thing is the founders really didn't give a whole lot of guidance on this thing, did they?
Could Donald Trump pardon his business, the Trump Organization?
TOLSON: Technically, he can. So he can pardon the Trump Organization. I think the more contentious issue is whether or not the president can pardon himself.
Now, arguably, that seems inconsistent with the president's duty to faithfully execute the law, right, how do you execute the law when you're pardoning yourself for crimes? But it's not explicit in the document and that's why there's a lot of ambiguity around this.
The department of justice position during the Nixon Watergate scandal was that the president could not pardon himself.
HOLMES: What -- I was thinking about it, there's all sorts of things -- we'll know tomorrow. But what are the risks of perhaps preemptive pardons of associates, people who perhaps haven't been charged with anything at the moment?
Is there a risk that in doing so those people then can't invoke the Fifth Amendment on incrimination if they are then later called to testify against Donald Trump?
TOLSON: Well, so you don't have to be indicted or convicted of a crime in order for the president to issue a pardon.
HOLMES: Right.
TOLSON: So the Nixon presidency, as I referenced before, is an example of President Ford pardoning former President Nixon -- even though he had not been indicted for any crimes -- but pardoning him with respect to any crimes that might have arisen out of the Watergate scandal.
So it's not that there has to be an indictment pending or anything. And so that kind of feeds into this idea that the plenary power is broad. But that doesn't mean that the president can just do whatever he wants to do.
So the president, for example, couldn't issue a pardon that forgives someone of any crime that they may commit in the future, right. I have a hard time believing a court would think that is OK.
HOLMES: Yes. One thing that could happen is he does all these things and then we just spend the next 10 years in court arguing about it.
It's not the number, supposedly 100 or so, I guess a lot of the conversation is about who has received and who might be getting a pardon.
The prediction's that Trump's pardons will include a lot of people who have helped him or could help him going forward.
Are there ethics involved in the process, or as we've been saying, is it a presidential free-for-all? There's not a lot of Founding Father guidance.
TOLSON: So it kind of has been a free-for-all, right. So there's no example of a president actually selling a pardon outright. But for example, Bill Clinton pardoned Marc Rich, who was the husband of a Democratic donor, right, and that was pretty controversial at the time.
And a lot of times these pardons are issued when the president is on his way out of the door. And so that makes it very difficult to hold him accountable.
Sometimes people just end up (ph) saying we'll get a new administration, it's a new page, let's move on. And so, typically, this isn't an area that's been significantly policed.
HOLMES: You touched on this -- and it's an interesting one to go back to. What if he did suddenly decide to pardon everyone charged over the Capitol insurrection and even those not charged? Many of those rioters have actually asked for a pardon saying they were there because the president asked them to be there.
Anything stopping him doing that, can there be consequences?
TOLSON: Michael, I don't think you'll like my answer to this. I think he can do it, right --
HOLMES: Yes.
TOLSON: So it would be incredibly controversial for him to pardon insurrectionists but I do think that's in line with some of the pardons he's issued already.
[01:10:00]
He's pardoned people who have committed atrocities in Afghanistan and in the Middle East, right. So the president has pardoned people who are controversial.
I actually don't think that that's controversial in the sense of the use of the pardon power, it's controversial because these people stormed the Capitol and should be held responsible.
But, again, in that situation I think impeachment -- which he's already been impeached -- but, under normal circumstances, an unimpeached president would face impeachment for issuing a pardon of that sort.
HOLMES: It's just amazing, isn't it? What a period we've lived through.
Franita Tolson in Los Angeles, great to have you on again. Thank you.
TOLSON: Thank you.
HOLMES: Well, after he takes office on Wednesday, Joe Biden plans to introduce sweeping changes to America's immigration system.
He's expected to propose new legislation that would offer millions of undocumented immigrants a pathway to citizenship, according to vice president elect Kamala Harris.
The plan would reduce the time it takes to become a citizen to just eight years. Biden has also vowed to address the root causes of migration and gradually reverse some of the president's restrictive policies at the U.S. southern border.
President elect Biden rejecting an effort by Donald Trump to ease some COVID restrictions.
With just a little more than a day left in office, Trump signed an executive order on Monday. It would lift restrictions on Brazil, the U.K., much of Europe where new COVID cases are on the rise in some areas plus those new variants, of course.
So far more than 120 cases of a variant of the virus first identified in the U.K. have been found in the U.S.
But this wasn't going to happen until the 26th of January and Joe Biden's incoming press secretary quick to respond, almost within the hour.
She said -- "With the pandemic worsening and more contagious variants emerging around the world, this is not the time to be lifting restrictions on international travel."
She went on to say it just won't happen.
Now of course the incoming Biden Administration is inheriting this colossal health crisis. The U.S. close to passing that 400,000 COVID- 19 deaths and experts warn vaccinations still aren't happening quickly enough to turn the corner on this pandemic.
CNN's Nick Watt has more from Los Angeles.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NICK WATT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Today, Moderna will follow Pfizer, second doses of COVID-19 vaccines should begin. The pace needs to pick up.
As of Friday, more than a month into this haphazard rollout, only 1.6 million Americans had received both doses. Less than 0.5 percent of the population.
DR. JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: We have 20 million doses that have not gone into arms yet.
DR. ROCHELLE WALENSKY, INCOMING U.S. CDC DIRECTOR: Where there are any bottlenecks in that supply, we will address those bottlenecks.
WATT: In L.A., the Dodgers Stadium parking lot is now a massive mass vaccination site.
DAVID ORTIZ, L.A. FIRE DEPARTMENT: It's surreal, it's surreal. It feels like you're waking up to a nightmare every different -- every day. We are trying to make a dent.
WATT: Sixty percent of all confirmed COVID-19 cases logged since election day. A dramatic spike.
But look at this map. That's two weeks ago. States in red and orange; average case counts climbing. And today, states in green, that's average case counts falling. Hope right there. If it holds. Big if.
Some places are already easing restrictions.
GOV. DOUG BURGUM (R-N.D.): We're utilizing that flexibility and authority we have to allow the statewide mask mandate to expire.
WATT: And a more contagious variant might derail progress.
DR. SCOTT GOTTLIEB, FORMER FDA COMMISSIONER: The only backstop against this new variant is the fact that we will have a lot of infection by then so there'll be a lot of immunity in the population and we will be vaccinating more people. BUt this really changes the equation.
WALENSKY: I think we still have some dark weeks ahead.
WATT: One model projects a U.S. COVID-19 death toll of half a million in mid-February.
DR. LEANA WEN, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST & EMERGENCY PHYSICIAN, GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY: If only we had a national plan the last 10 months, what a big difference that would have made.
WATT: President Elect Biden has one. His first full day in office will be exactly one year since the first confirmed COVID-19 cases in America.
WATT (On Camera): More than 24 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 now in the United States, that's about a quarter of all the cases on earth.
The U.S. leading the way -- in a bad way.
Nick Watt, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Anne Rimoin is a professor of epidemiology at the UCLA School of Public Health. She's with us from Los Angeles. Good to see, Doctor, we haven't seen you for a while or I haven't.
[01:15:00]
I saw a stunning -- to me -- statistic from Johns Hopkins University today, that 60 percent of U.S. cases have happened in this country since the election, 60 percent.
And now we've got all of these concerns about the variant, not more deadly, per se, but more contagious which means more deaths. Is there a sense of how -- a good sense of how widely spread this variant is?
DR. ANNE RIMOIN, PROFESSOR OF EPIDEMIOLOGY: Well, we don't know how widely spread this variant is because we've not been doing the kind of genomic surveillance that's necessary to be able to really understand what's happening.
We know that it's here, we're detecting -- now we're starting to see to see more -- more emphasis on viral genomic sequencing which is a good thing -- because otherwise, we're really flying blind.
Other countries have done a much better job than we have at this so it's really important that this becomes a priority, at the federal level, to be able to have as much information as possible so we can get in front of this virus. As opposed to constantly changing behind it and trying to understand what we need to do next.
HOLMES: Yes. The former FDA commissioner, Gottlieb, said when he was talking about the variant, he said that we're looking -- what we're looking at is a relentless strike from this virus heading into the spring. Do you agree?
RIMOIN: I agree with Scott Gottlieb. I think that the data that we've seen -- if this variant, if these variants -- and we're talking about the variants and the U.K. variants, for example -- behaves the way that it's behaved in U.K., Ireland and Denmark then we are in for a very difficult winter and spring. To be sure.
We also have the South African variant to be worrying about, the Japan variant. We know what's happening in Brazil as well.
And now we're starting to see variants pop up here in the United States, as we're starting to look. It's like yes, if you shine a flashlight into the dark you're going to finally be able to see what you've been missing all along. So I think that this is really very important to note.
It's also important to note that many of these variants are behaving similarly, they're involving to become more easily transmissible.
And so if we're seeing more transmissible variants across the U.S. as we are seeing globally, this is something we really need to be worrying about. HOLMES: Yes. The Biden plan, of course, is to get a million
vaccinations a day going. A lot of -- some people have said that's ambitious, a lot of other people have said that is not nearly enough.
How great the challenge for the Biden team, what needs to happen to get the shots in arms after what we've seen the last year in terms of logistical management or mismanagement?
RIMOIN: Well, Michael, I think it's actually both. It's going to be a very bold and difficult thing to be able to achieve and it's not enough.
So what we really need to be doing is making sure that we have the logistic capacity on the ground to be able to make this happen. And it's not just about, as we know, just having the vaccines in place and expecting them magically to get into arms.
We need to have all of the logistics in place, we need to have the manpower in place, the people who are actually going to be giving those shots in arms.
And so this is something that is going to be very difficult. We already have a health system that is overwhelmed, we don't necessarily have enough manpower. So I think using things like the National Guard, using FEMA, for example; anything that -- any mechanism that we can be using to get human capital on the ground to be able to get vaccines in arms is going to be helpful.
HOLMES: We've literally got a minute. But OK, so following on from what you said. I'm Joe Citizen and concerned about the variant spread and so on, when do I get a shot, ordinary people like me?
RIMOIN: Well, I think we can expect the same timeline that we've been discussing from the beginning, quite frankly. And as Dr. Fauci said, I think that we'll start seeing this happening probably late spring into the summer when we'll start to see the general population be able to be eligible to get a vaccine.
And it will still be a process. We're going to have all the mechanisms in place for people to be able to sign up and get vaccines, to be able to know where they're going, to be able to understand where if they need a second dose, where they're going to go to get it.
So there's quite a bit to be putting together. But as Joe Citizen or Joan Citizen, I think that we can be expecting close to this summer and into the fall.
HOLMES: Yes. That's still a long way out for a lot of people but this is what we're in.
Anne Rimoin, always good to see you. Thank you so much.
RIMOIN: Pleasure.
HOLMES: We'll take a quick break here. When we come back, lockdown opponents once championed Sweden's laid back approach to the virus. But now, with deaths on the rise, the country is imposing new restrictions.
Also a message from Russia's outspoken Kremlin critic to his supporters as Alexei Navalny remains defiant in a Moscow jail.
We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[01:20:00]
HOLMES: A strong earthquake has said the province of San Juan in Argentina. The U.S. geological survey says it was a 6.4 magnitude followed by a series of aftershocks, at least one of which came almost 20 minutes later and a thousand kilometers away.
The quake was strong enough to rattle clothing racks in this shop as a visual example of what it was like. No threat of a tsunami at this time, which is good news.
The Russian opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, has been ordered to spend 30 days in jail after a surprise hearing on Monday.
Navalny was arrested immediately upon his return to Moscow Sunday night. He'd spent months in recovering in Germany from being poisoned with the nerve agent novichok.
He's accused of violating a probation agreement on a fraud conviction and he's dismissed that, and many other observers have as well, as politically motivated.
Western leaders already condemning his arrest, demanding his release. Navalny, in the meantime, rallying his supporters.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALEXEI NAVALNY, RUSSIAN OPPOSITION LEADER: What is this toad afraid of, what are these crooks sitting in their bunkers most afraid of? You know very well. People taking to the streets.
That is the political factor you cannot ignore. That's the most important factor, the essence of politics. So come to the streets, not for me but for yourself and your future.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: And joining me to discuss all of this is Bianna Golodryga, she is CNN's senior global affairs analyst, and joins me now from New York. Good to see you, Bianna.
I was reading your Twitter feed. And earlier you tweeted about a Navalny aide posting on Facebook that his team had agreed on a list of people he felt should be sanctioned if the West wanted to be serious about pressuring Russia.
International pressure has started. What's your take, do you think it's going to work? It's certainly going to be a test for Joe Biden. BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN SNR. GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, look, we are
clearly seeing strong condemnation from Western leaders which is a positive sign.
It's something that we've seen over the past few years from at least European countries. We didn't hear as much from the president of the United States, we heard from the secretary of state and others that work with him. But, of course, it's meaningless unless it comes from the president.
This is something that Joe Biden has already said that he is going to address head on in terms of Russia's aggressive actions and Putin's aggressive actions, not only around the world but also internally. And obviously, he was referring to the poisoning of Alexey Navalny.
But words can only get you so far and sanctions can only get you so far. And you think of all the sanctions that have been levied against Russia and Russian enterprises, the years that have gone by doesn't seem to have hurt Putin himself yet it has really stymied the Russian economy.
[01:25:00]
So the question is can you go after targeted sanctions, can you use the Magnitsky Act to go after specific folks around Vladimir Putin, those cronies of his, his closest aides and those that's he's put at the top levels of corporations and government enterprises that could really hit him personally and directly.
Obviously, there's a lot of the allegations that money's funneled through these corrupt people as they are sitting at the helm of some of these very rich companies.
HOLMES: That's a very good point. And broad sanctions very rarely work, just ask Iran.
Legal proceedings are underway officially -- but I think I know your answer to this -- what chance a fair hearing for Alexei Navalny?
GOLODRYGA: I think we all know that there is no chance of a fair hearing. We know these charges have been cooked up prior to his return. This is something that Russia had been threatening.
Because at the end of the day Russia and Putin himself here few people more than they fear Alexei Navalny.
And I think their point was to threaten him from Russia while he was still in Germany signaling that he would be under arrest for violating the dubious probation sentence from a few years ago.
Obviously, the violation would be that he has not checked in with a probation officer. Well, it's hard to do that when you are recovering from a poisoning attack from the president that he orchestrated. As obviously some of our CNN reporting has brilliantly led to.
But given that he has now returned, he expected he would be detained and these charges are now going to be followed over the next 30 days as he's being remanded in a prison outside of Moscow.
HOLMES: He has urged his supporters to -- I think he used the words not be silent, take to the streets following that court decision.
What's your take on his support level and the risk that those supporters would take by hitting the streets?
GOLODRYGA: His support is high. Look, there's no doubt that he is the most popular opposition figure, one of the only opposition figure -- the leading opposition figures in Russia.
But, as one Russia journalist today put it, what has transpired over the past 24 hours with Navalny's return given that he could have stayed abroad and many people would understand why.
Given his return, given this arrest, given the clear signal from the Kremlin that they do fear him -- you saw that police presence at that airport, he was actually diverted to another Moscow airport later on.
But you see his supporters rallying, whether it's through their YouTube channels or whether it's through social media. And that alone, the galvanization there, the organic galvanization of his supporters is something that you typically don't see in Russia.
I was following some of the Russian media, the state media's reporting of Navalny's return. Only one network covered it, it was in the final few minutes of its programming and they didn't even show any pictures.
HOLMES: (Inaudible).
GOLODRYGA: One Russian reporter said that he went from being a popular opposition leader to now a symbolic figure. And that's a big difference, I think.
HOLMES: Yes. I think Putin called him merely a blogger.
GOLODRYGA: Right.
HOLMES: He's clearly more than that when you see what's happening.
I wish we had more time, we do not. Bianna Golodryga thanks so much. Appreciate it.
GOLODRYGA: Good to be with you.
HOLMES: Now the inauguration in just hours will be dramatically different from previous ceremonies.
The message Joe Biden hopes the event will send. We have that and much more when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[01:30:55]
MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. Appreciate your company, everyone. I'm Michael Holmes.
Donald Trump has mostly kept a low profile in his final days at the White House, but he has also been busy preparing for his impeachment trial after he leaves office and working on, of course as we've been discussing, another batch of pardons and commutations before his time is up.
The latest now from Kaitlan Collins.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Before leaving office Wednesday, President Trump is planning a pardoning spree as one of his final acts. Sources say Trump is expected to grant clemency to nearly 100 people after an intense lobbying campaign by former administration officials, political allies and old family friends.
The president met with top aides to review the final list as some advisers are urging him not to pardon those involved in the attack on the U.S. Capitol.
SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): To seek a pardon of these people would be wrong. It would be -- I think it would destroy President Trump. And I hope we don't go down that road.
COLLINS: Trump hasn't appeared in public in six days but moving trucks from a D.C.-based company were spotted at his Mar-A-Lago Club in Palm Beach is another reminder that he has less than 48 hours left in office.
Trump still hasn't spoken to President-Elect Joe Biden and will skip his inauguration Wednesday in favor of a military-style sendoff ceremony at Joint Base Andrews where Trump is expecting a red carpet roll out and adoring crowd to bid him goodbye.
But his second impeachment trial will still loom over the city long after he has gone from Washington. Rudy Giuliani was seen at the White House Saturday but says he will not serve on Trump's defense team because he told ABC News this speech that he gave at the rally before the Capitol attack could make him a potential witness.
RUDY GIULIANI, TRUMP LAWYER: So let's have trial by combat.
COLLINS: Trump has blamed Giuliani for his second impeachment and outside advisers like Karl Rove are warning that if he defends the president, Republicans could very well vote to convict him.
KARL ROVE, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: I think it really boils down to what is the defense that the president is going to make and if it is Rudy Giuliani's defense I think it raises the likelihood of more than 17 Republicans voting for conviction.
COLLINS (on camera): And the snub from the president is not just, you know, between that level with him and Joe Biden given he has not called him yet. It also extends to the first ladies, because we are told that Melania Trump has not reached to Jill Biden either.
And typically you see the first ladies give each other a tour of the residence at the White House. Of course, the Bidens know the residents of the White House very well given their years there with the Obamas, but that has not happened yet.
And typically you would see the outgoing president and first lady greet the incoming one, but this time we are told that Joe Biden and Jill Biden are going to be met by the White House chief usher on Wednesday instead of Donald and Melania Trump, given of course they will already be on their way to Florida by the time that Joe Biden is sworn in.
Kaitlan Collins, CNN -- the White House.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Ron Brownstein, is CNN senior political analyst and the senior editor for "The Atlantic". He joins me now from Los Angeles. Good to see you, Ron. You just wrote a piece for CNN.com and made the point that Donald Trump leaves America more divided than since the Civil War.
What will be the Trump legacy?
RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Look, I think, you know, there are many aspects of the legacy, the mishandling of the pandemic that has crushed the economy and overwhelmed the public health system. You know, from a conservative point of view, the number of judges that he appointed.
But I think above all the legacy is the divisions that he has fostered and extenuated in the country. I mean you see two different tracks here. On the one hand, his conspiracy mongering, his open echoing of racist language and kind of argument has emboldened and promoted and energized the far right white nationalist movements and he has kind of lowered the barriers between them and the Republican Party. So that is a change on the fringe of the coalition.
[01:35:00]
BROWNSTEIN: And I think in the heart of the Republican coalition what's happened has been equally worrisome in that he has advanced a trend that predated him -- which is a growing willingness to employ antidemocratic small-"d" means to try to maintain power in a country demographically moving away from them.
So I think on both fronts he has left America facing a level of social and political division that most experts I talked to agree has been matched only one time in our history, it exceeds even the 1960s, really the only parallel is the period around the Civil War.
HOLMES: Yes. Well, it's a little bit depressing really when you put it like that, Ron.
I was going to ask you about the pardon. What do you expect to be on this pardon list? I mean Trump's past record indicates he likes to pardon people who are connected to him, who've helped him or might do so in the future. That is a pretty risky sort of rationale for pardoning.
BROWNSTEIN: You know look, the pardons have often been an issue, you know, in the final hours of a presidency. And it certainly is one of the things that congress may want to review, you know, after. Obviously, there are limits to the constitution and how much you can constrain presidential pardon power.
I think, you know, what you'll see from Trump would be some combination of outrageous self dealing of people who are close to him, and some amount of celebrity, you know, kind of string pulling which he has shown a willingness to do and perhaps some kind of pardons that are meant to kind of signal social awareness and stand down the impact of his kind of promotion of racist theories and arguments throughout his presidency including that the election was stolen in largely African-American cities.
So I bet you see some combination of all three celebrities (INAUDIBLE) dealing, self dealings, and some efforts to kind of signal a social conscience.
HOLMES: It is hard not to shake your head when you hear senior Republicans particularly in Congress calling for healing and unity predictably, because they just want this all to go away.
But the fact is more than 70 percent of Republicans still think Joe Biden did not legitimately win this election.
BROWNSTEIN: Right.
HOLMES: In that context then how important is impeachment -- and accountability in general to that very concept of healing?
BROWNSTEIN: I mean, you know, when you talk to -- it's funny, I talked to a democracy scholar this week who said if you look around the world there is kind of a division of opinion, you know.
I mean sometimes the view is just get the bad guy off the stage by offering him a golden parachute and, you know, life on the Caribbean islands somewhere, but often the view is that you can't have real healing without accountability and I think in our case, the latter, that approach is more likely to be relevant.
Because the fact is that Donald Trump, you know, stoked these flames, fanned these flames, but he did not do it alone. You do not get to this point as I said to you before overnight and you do not get here on your own.
What we've seen is a broad willingness in the Republican Party to tolerate him moving in ways that threaten the rule of law from extorting the government of Ukraine, to weaponizing the Postal Service, to trying to distort the census. To everything that has happened since the election. And of course, Michael, as you know, even after the Trump-inspired mob ransacked the Capitol, the vast majority of House Republicans still voted to overturn the election and in effect try to make him president for four more years.
And then, of course almost all of them voted against impeachment. I think there needs to be a serious investigation of exactly who did what in here. But also beyond that, a kind of look in the mirror in the Republican Party at what I call Flight 93 rhetoric that tells their voters that if Democrats win, the country will cease to be as they have known it.
It's not surprising that some of their supporters move in a radical direction after receiving that message day after day, month after month, year after year.
HOLMES: All right. Ron Brownstein speaking to me there.
Now, President-Elect Joe Biden is clearly planning to hit the ground running after his inauguration. Though he will have to wait for confirmation of his cabinet nominees.
Jeff Zeleny now reports on the executive actions Biden plans to take immediately.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Two days before taking office, President-Elect Joe Biden and his family filling food boxes in Philadelphia at a community service project to honor the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.
It's his final stop before traveling to Washington on the eve of his inauguration where the pomp and circumstance from his own swearing in as vice president -- will be far different on Wednesday, amid the countries stubborn pandemic in a capital fortified by wartime like security.
He is still putting the finishing touches on his inaugural address, aides tell CNN with an overriding theme "A clarion call for national unity".
And just after the ceremony, Biden is planning for swift and sweeping action on his first day in office.
JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT-ELECT: And the first thing I will do, I will rejoin the Paris Accord.
[01:39:55]
ZELENY: In addition to making good on a campaign promise to rejoin the Paris Climate Accord, Biden will also end the travel ban on predominantly Muslim countries, halt evictions and student loan payments and issue a new executive order requiring masks on federal property.
BIDEN: It's not a political statement, it's a patriotic duty.
ZELENY: Yes, Biden will not be surrounded by his own cabinet when he arrives at the White House. The Senate has not confirmed any of his nominees, even those tasked with national security.
The confirmation hearings for secretary of state, defense secretary, intelligence chief and treasury secretary are set for Tuesday.
Incoming White House chief of staff Ron Klain told Jake on Sunday that confirming those nominees is critical and must be done even as the Senate begins an impeachment trial.
RON KLAIN, JOE BIDEN'S CHIEF OF STAFF: It is important for the Senate to do its constitutional duty, but also to do its constitutional duty to move forward on these appointments, on the urgent action the country needs.
ZELENY: Biden believes the inauguration is one way of beginning to open a door to work toward bridging that divide.
Jill Biden asked country star Garth Brooks to perform at the inauguration. He said yes, telling reporters today, "It was not a statement of politics, but one of unity".
GARTH BROOKS, SINGER: I might be the only Republican at this place but it's reaching across, loving one another, because that is what is going to get us through probably the most divided times that we have.
ZELENY (on camera): So when Joe Biden does take office on Wednesday at noon, none of his cabinet secretaries will be confirmed.
That is far different than from 12 years ago when he assumed the office of vice president and Barack Obama was president. At that point they had six cabinet secretaries confirmed.
That is why the Biden officials now are looking across the government to find acting secretaries who will effectively be in charge of the government when President Biden takes office.
Jeff Zeleny, CNN -- Wilmington, Delaware.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Now, the president-elect also has plans for the Keystone Pipeline project.
For that we turn to John Defterios in Abu Dhabi.
Yes, a long, controversial issue. Trump pushed it, environmentalist are horrified. What are you seeing?
JOHN DEFTERIOS, CNN EMERGING MARKETS EDITOR: Well, this is an 11th hour plea, Michael, by Jason Kenney,. He's the premier of Alberta in the heartland of Canada and the major oil producing state here.
This project kind of combines pipeline politics with U.S.-Canada relations. It's an $8 billion thing that has been around for 12 years now.
And the controversy is it would run through the Midwest of the United States through Native American reservations that have right of passage issues there but also the environmental threat, of course.
It is 800,000 barrels a day plus that would go all the way down to the Gulf Coast of the United States to the refineries there.
The refineries say they need this sort of project. And the product itself, because it is it's the Tar Sands (ph), it's a heavy industrial oil that is used.
The environmentalists say if Joe Biden is making this transition to renewable energy, perhaps will even develop a green new deal, what's the deal here? We are going for these megaprojects.
Here is the premier of Alberta and his last-minute plea, if you will.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JASON KENNEY, ALBERTA PREMIER: The United States government owes Canada the respect to at least sit down with us and talk about this vital project in the broader context of our shared challenge in addressing climate change, continental energy security and broader issues.
Surely, the relationship between Canada and the United States is worth at least having that discussion.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DEFTERIOS: Very interesting. He says it's all about respect here and having the relations between Canada and the United States get rebuilt.
He has even mixed in here the other side of the world, the OPEC players and suggesting why are we importing in the United States crude from Venezuela and Saudi Arabia who don't share the same democratic ideals.
This is not a great period of time, Michael, for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. He had this call with President-Elect Biden on November 9th suggesting look, let's keep this pipeline alive. Now the pressure from Alberta. But all indications are is that Biden is going to x this XL pipeline as a result of his move to green renewable future deal for America.
He wants to accelerate it, even maybe perhaps put $2 trillion into renewable energy and why the XL Pipeline is standing out during this period.
HOLMES: Fascinating.
You know, some changing times ahead. John Defterios in Dubai. Always good to see you, JD. Thanks.
And do join us, by the way, for exclusive and extensive live coverage of the Biden inauguration this Wednesday, January 20. And it will be something to see.
Now, Sweden is imposing new COVID restrictions. When we come back, could a spike in deaths have been avoided if the government had acted sooner.
We will be right back.
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HOLMES: An international group of experts is criticizing China and the World Health Organization for their initial handling of the pandemic. The new report concludes China could have tried harder to contain the virus a year ago. It also says the World Health Organization took too long to declare an international emergency.
At WHO annual meeting on Monday, its director general addressed what he called a me-first approach of countries around the world scrambling to get vaccines.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TEDROS ADHANOM GHEBREYESUS, DIRECTOR GENERAL, WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION: I need to be blunt. The world is on the brink of a catastrophic moral failure. And the price of this failure will be paid with lives and livelihoods in the world's poorest countries.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: He went on to say that we will only prolong the pandemic which is self evident, isn't it?
Despite a fairly hands-off approach last year, Sweden's government is now mandating new restrictions. But with new COVID cases and deaths on the rise, social distancing requirements may just be the start.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAX FOSTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Government-mandated limits on the number of people allowed into a store. that may not sound extraordinary but it is for Sweden. Health authorities have long relied on voluntary guidelines throughout the crisis.
But it wasn't not enough. And with an act of parliament, Sweden's government was granted the power to enforce COVID-19 restrictions which was seen as normal around much of the world. Such as closing restaurants --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's about that.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This people really didn't care. They would like stand close to each other then close to their personal, not keep their distance, generally.
FOSTER: After an initial spike in deaths the Swedish numbers fell. And by the end of the summer it looks like the country's more relaxed approach to lockdown might work out.
Authorities were so confident that in September they lifted a ban on visiting care homes. Just a few months later, contagions spiked. Hospitals were overrun and the death rate surged. The Swedish pandemic model had apparently failed.
Sweden now far outpaces its neighbors and per capita deaths. The prime minister has admitted the death toll revealed a failure.
"In retrospect," he said, "things should have been done differently."
FREDRIK ELGH, SENIOR CONSULTANT AND PROFESSOR OF VIROLOGY: Just only having a pandemic law is not enough, and the measures taken through this law now is in my eyes, not enough at all.
[01:49:58]
FOSTER: Scientists outside government are calling for the closure of schools, shops, gyms and restaurants to shock the virus into submission.
ELGH: You have to push this down to be able to save health care and save lives. And since there is such a short time now until we will have the vaccines, for many of our citizens, especially the vulnerable, I think it is very worthwhile that we get our acts together.
FOSTER: So will anti-lockdown campaigners at home and abroad continue to lionize Sweden's anti-lockdown approach?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In contrast, Sweden had a relatively softer touch.
FOSTER: Well, the mastermind behind the Swedish strategy, state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell still does not believe in blanket mandatory lockdowns.
ANDERS TEGNELL, SWEDISH STATE EPIDEMIOLOGIST: I'm not sure that legal stringent measures are so much more effective than voluntary measures. I don't really believe in introducing more measures. What we need to do is to see that those measures are used fully.
FOSTER: The lockdown debate still not locked down in Sweden despite all the evidence that their more relaxed approach hasn't worked.
Max Foster, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Quick break.
When we come back, President Trump has taken heat for spreading falsehood and divisiveness ahead of the Capitol Hill riot, but he wasn't the only one. Why his allies might have also played a role in the unrest.
We will be right back. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: President Trump has been widely condemned for inciting the U.S. Capitol riot almost two weeks ago, but experts say some of his closest associates could also be responsible for the unrest.
CNN's Drew Griffin looks at their rhetoric and their conspiracy theories.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DREW GRIFFIN, CNN INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The protesters came to Washington D.C., some of them prepared to storm the Capitol, because that is when they were told to do.
A CNN analysis finds President Trump's inner circle, just like Trump himself, has been spewing ominous lies, militant language and helped stoked the flames of an attempted insurrection.
STEVE BANNON, FORMER WHITE HOUSE CHIEF STRATEGIST: All hell is going to break loose tomorrow.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It has to be vindicated to save our republic.
ROGER STONE, FORMER TRUMP POLITICAL ADVISER: We will win this fight or America will step off into a thousand years of darkness.
GRIFFIN: The battle cries wrapped in their delusional lies about a stolen election. Steve Bannon whose Twitter and YouTube channels were removed for rhetoric like this.
BANNON: I'd put their heads on pikes.
GRIFFIN: Spent weeks on a podcast he calls "The War Room" comparing the Republicans' fight to overturn a legitimate election to historic periods in the American Revolution and World War II.
BANNON: I've met so many people that's in my life said, man, if I was in the revolution I would be with Washington (INAUDIBLE) -- well, you know, this is where, this is for your time in history.
GRIFFIN: Ominously, this the day before the siege.
BANNON: It's not going to happen like you think it's going to happen, ok. It's going to be quite extraordinarily different and all I can say is strap in. You have made this happen and tomorrow it is game day.
GRIFFIN: The president's own lawyer, a constant War Room guest with nonstop disinformation about election fraud.
GIULIANI: We should have stood up to Hitler. Stand up to these people it will stop.
[01:54:56]
GRIFFIN: All the president's liars were all on the same page. January 6th would be monumental.
GIULIANI: Let's have trial by combat.
GRIFFIN: Roger Stone, the originator of the Stop the Steal slogan would speak in apocalyptic terms to protesters.
STONE: This is nothing less than an epic struggle for the future of this country between dark and light.
GRIFFIN: What is so frightening according to Heidi Beirich, an international expert on hate groups is these are not members of the fringe hiding in corners. Bannon, Stone and Giuliani are confidants of an unhinged president.
HEIDE BEIRICH, GLOBAL PROJECT AGAINST HATE AND EXTREMISM: They're speaking to the president and he is listening to them and he is then broadcasting these ideas out to his millions of followers. What we end up doing is having a dangerous feedback loop, growing a radicalized population in the United States some of whom are prone to violence.
GRIFFIN (on camera): Those behind it now say that they were all speaking metaphorically for all these four years. Do you buy that?
BEIRICH: I absolutely don't believe that they were speaking metaphorically. This is a social movement that has been building, has been organizing since Trump came into office that were getting more and more extremist, more and people angry. And it just exploded on the 6th.
GRIFFIN (voice over): It was building for months in social media, podcasts and dozens of Stop the Steal protests across the country.
Ali Alexander, a key Stop the Steal organizer and Roger Stone ally told followers to prepare.
ALI ALEXANDER, PROTEST ORGANIZER: Haven't I told you all this fight would escalate? And I said escalate always. Escalate always.
GRIFFIN: On the day of the siege, Alexander was in Washington tweeting to his followers, "Get down to the U.S. Capitol. Orders from POTUS."
JOHN SCOTT RAILTON, CITIZEN LAB, UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO MUNK SCHOOL: I was tracking the Stop the Steal movement for months. And it began to feel like a cocked rhetorical gun pointed at the Capitol in that day.
GRIFFIN: That day, January 6th before a crowd of thousands, many caught in the echo chamber of delusion from Trump's inner circle would hear the president himself pull the trigger.
Donald Trump, President of the United States: You'll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength. And you have to be strong.
GRIFFIN: John Scott Railton, researcher at the University of Toronto' Citizen Lab is concerned the mob is not through. RAILTON: They are ready. It's what they've been prancing around in the woods, playing dress up and preparing for. And I'm just terribly worried that they weren't satisfied with what happened on the 6th and they're going to come back for more.
GRIFFIN: Of those mentioned in the story, Bannon and Giuliani did not respond. Ali Alexander said he was not involved in storming of the Capitol, and Roger Stone told us his lawyers will be watching for what he calls are defamatory attempts to say he was somehow inciting violence.
Drew Griffin, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: On that note, thanks for watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Michael Holmes. Appreciate your company.
Do stick around though. The news continues with Robyn Curnow right after the break.
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