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32 Hours Left in Donald Trump's Presidency; Threat of Violence Prompts Additional Screening of Troops; Videos of Insurrection Now Key Pieces of Evidence; Biden to Sign About a Dozen Executive Orders on Day One; Experts Fear Virus Variant Could Fuel a New Peak; 500,000 U.S. Deaths Predicted by Mid-February; Europe COVID Cases Trending in the Right Direction. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired January 19, 2021 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:00]

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us here in the United States and all around the world, you are watching CNN NEWSROOM and I'm Rosemary Church.

Just ahead, on the eve of President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration, Washington, D.C., is bracing for unrest with thousands of troops on the street for a transfer of power unlike any other.

And Donald Trump plans one more major move on his last full day of president mulling over more controversial pardons.

Plus, COVID-19 vaccine bottlenecks. Where are the extra doses and why aren't more going into arms?

Good to have you with us. Well, Donald Trump has just 32 hours left as President of the United States. With Joe Biden set to take the oath of office on Wednesday afternoon. The assault on the Capitol almost two weeks ago has forced much of the area into lockdown bracing for an unprecedented transfer of power.

Roads, sidewalks, and bridges are closed, and barricades and fencing are in place to prevent another attack. The National Guard is already out in force. The FBI is vetting all troops as details emerge linking some Capitol rioters to the U.S. military. More on that in just a moment.

Meanwhile, the latest video from the January 6th attack shows how the rioters echoed the president president's language and we have to warn you, it is explicit.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Protect our constitution.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's protect the constitution of the United States.

TRUMP: That's treason.

CROWN, CHANTING: Treason. Treason. Treason.

TRUMP: Antifa. Antifa.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're afraid of Antifa? Well, guess what? America showed up!

TRUMP: Looking out at all the amazing patriots here today.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These guys are fucking patriots.

TRUMP: We got to get Nancy Pelosi the hell out there.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can I speak to Pelosi. Yeah, we're coming bitch.

TRUMP: Mike Pence I will tell you right now, I'm not hearing good stories.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mike Pence and the fucking state

TRUMP: America first. America first agenda.

CROWD CHANTING: America first!

TRUMP: Make no mistake this election was stolen from you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well if the elections being stolen, what is it going to take?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Well as we've reported, Donald Trump will be the first U.S. president in modern history not to attend his successor's inauguration. He's spending his final hours as president hold up in the White House planning his last-minute pardons and meeting with advisers. CNN's Kaitlan Collins has more now from Washington.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: It's President Trump's final full day in office. His schedule looks a lot like it has for the last several weeks ever since of course he lost that presidential election. He has many calls and many meetings, but beyond that, not a lot of detail on Trump's schedule. And of course, we have not seen him publicly since last Tuesday when he went to Texas to visit the border wall.

And one thing we are expecting though in this final full day that Donald Trump is in office is a list of pardons to come our way. Because the president is expected to either pardon or commute the sentences of about 100 people today. That's what we're hearing from sources so far, and we know that he has spent several days reviewing that final list and what that's going to look like. Including meeting with Jared and Ivanka Trump as he did on Sunday. He had another meeting on pardons we were told on Monday. And so we are expected to get the list today of course because

Wednesday is going to be the president's final trip out of Washington as a current president. He's leaving before Joe Biden is going to be sworn in.

But there are new questions about just how many people are going to be at the sendoff ceremony for the president at Joint Base Andrews. Because you know the White House is inviting a lot of people. They can bring up to five guests per invitation. But we've heard from some people who say they're not going to go either because of the travel restrictions that are happening in D.C. given that siege on Capitol Hill, or the fallout from the president's response to that attack.

And so it's an open question of what that ceremony is actually going to look like for the president. But that's what we're monitoring today. And whether or not the president is going to appear in public or just make that video that we know he taped on Monday, that final farewell address really highlighting his accomplishments.

[04:05:00]

That is something we expect the White House release today. But beyond that it still remains to seen what the president is going to do at least publicly.

Kaitlan Collins, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: And some 25,000 National Guard troops have been authorized by the Pentagon to help keep the inauguration safe but fears of an inside attack have prompted additional screening of the troops themselves.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAJ. GEN. WILLIAM WALKER, COMMANDING GENERAL, DC NATIONAL GUARD: So they're screened and then they're repeatedly screened, a regular background check is enhanced with more screening, more details in its layers. So the FBI is part of it, the Secret Service is part of it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller has said there is no specific intelligence of an insider attack, but since several rioters have known military service backgrounds, security services are taking the threats seriously. CNN's Shimon Prokupecz explains what they're doing to head off any trouble.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: I think this is a case of where we're seeing the FBI and the secret service and all the intelligence officials and law enforcement officials leaving nothing to chance, throwing everything out on the table. And what they're picking up on social media chatter is you have the QAnon conspiracy theorists that think they can somehow infiltrate the National Guard and get in and somehow cause some kind of disruption.

There are layers and layers of security here. So if you go through one section. Let's say you do try to say you're a National Guard member. Very difficult to do. But let's say you do. There are multiple and multiple layers of security to get through. The other thing here is that a lot of the National Guard team -- certainly that I've come across and I've talked to -- they're all from the same division. They are all from the same state, so they know each other. So that if someone comes in as a stranger, they would be able to pick that up and say, OK, well his person here doesn't belong.

The other thing, one of the most secure areas right now is that inauguration stage inside the Capitol. The National Guard is not going to have access to any of that location. Most of them are on the perimeter, on the outside securing the outside areas all across Washington, D.C.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: And while Washington prepares for the inauguration, justice officials are pushing ahead with investigations stemming from the riot on Capitol Hill. There are now 80 known defendants facing federal charges and here is one of them. This is Riley Williams. She is accused of stealing a laptop from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office. Williams facing charges including violent entry.

And then there is Guy Reffitt. He is charged with obstruction of justice and entering a restricted building. An affidavit alleges that Reffitt threatened to shoot his own children if they turned him in

The January 6th insurrection was captured on video from hundreds of angles. And now investigators are using that very same footage to make arrests. CNN's Tom Foreman has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The videos are violent and triumphant.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I walked past the police. Look at that. They can't do nothing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can I speak to Pelosi? Yeah, we're coming, bitch. Mike Pence, we're coming for you, too, fucking traitor.

(YELLING)

FOREMAN (voice-over): They are profane and pious.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my gosh, we just got tear gassed in the middle of a prayer. Are you kidding me? We were kneeling down and praying.

FOREMAN (voice-over): But the hours of images and related GPS signals are also enormously valuable to police for identifying, tracking and perhaps prosecuting hundreds of people. TIM CLEMENTE, FORMER FBI SPECIAL AGENT: It's very easy, one, to identify people. Very easy to dictate in court where somebody was at a particular time. So it's going to be very hard for somebody who is on video at that time, with a time stamp and a GPS stamp to deny that they were there.

FOREMAN (voice-over): Potential trespassing and property damage may be just the start. The videos also include evidence of what appears to be attacks and threats aimed at police, journalists and others.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stand down. We have you outnumbered!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Traitors to the guillotine!

FOREMAN (voice-over): Remember that video of Officer Eugene Goodman holding back the mob by himself? This is what it looked like from their side as he was chased up the stairs.

There is video of rioters digging through the papers of Republican Senator Ted Cruz.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think Cruz would want us to do this, so I think we're good.

FOREMAN (voice-over): Certainly, some in the crowd seem aware of their legal jeopardy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, cover your face.

FOREMAN (voice-over): And some suggest there are limits even during an insurrection.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't break anything.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't do that.

[04:10:00]

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Shut the door.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't break stuff.

FOREMAN: Despite that, sedition, treason, murder may all be on the table and thanks for the rioters themselves, investigators may have all the video evidence they need.

Tom Foreman, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: In the leadup to the attack on the Capitol and in the days since, many Republicans in Congress have refused to publicly acknowledge that Joe Biden fairly won the election. CNN's Jake Tapper asked one of Biden's senior advisers if the president-elect is prepared to work with lawmakers who denied his legitimacy.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JACK TAPPER CNN ANCHOR: Two-thirds of your former colleagues in the House in the Republican Caucus, two-thirds of the Republican Caucus, including Kevin McCarthy, including a whole bunch of Republicans that you probably considered friends, voted for the lie, voted to disenfranchise millions of voters from Arizona and Pennsylvania after the terrorist attack. How are you going to work with those people?

CEDRIC RICHMOND, INCOMING WHITE HOUSE SENIOR ADVISER: Well, look, at the time, you definitely looked at them with the side eye. But, you know, what we have right now, the disasters, you have so many families that are hurting, you have so many people that are dying. We don't have the luxury of picking who we're going to work with and who we're not. Look, we're going to advance our agenda. Anybody who wants to help us, we want their help. If we have to go at it alone, we will do that. But we don't want to.

These problems that we're facing are not Republican or Democrat. These are American people that are dying. And it's Americans that can't put food on the table and can't pay their bills.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: And President-elect Joe Biden is ready to hit the ground running after his inauguration. He plans to unveil a sweeping immigration bill on day one of his administration. The legislation offers a pathway to citizenship for the millions of undocumented immigrants currently in the U.S. It is a massive reversal from the Trump administration's immigration policies. CNN's Jeff Zeleny has more on Biden's plans.

(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 and a capital fortified by wartime like security.

He's 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.

ZELENY (voice-over): 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 (voice-over): Yet 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, INCOMING WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: It's 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 (voice-over): Biden believes the inauguration is one way of beginning to open a door toward bridging that divide.

Jill Biden asked country star Garth Brooks to perform at the inauguration. He said yes, telling reporters, it was not a statement of politics, but one of unity.

GARTH BROOKS, COUNTRY MUSIC STAR: I might be the only Republican at this place but it's reaching across, loving one another, because that's what is going to get us through probably the most divided times that we have.

ZELENY: 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)

CHURCH: Nearly 400,000 people have died in the U.S. from the coronavirus.

[04:15:00]

Just ahead, we will find out why new variants have officials worried that number could skyrocket in just the next month.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHURCH: U.S. President-elect Joe Biden says his first priority in office will be tackling the coronavirus. And his nearly $2 trillion COVID relief package includes more money for vaccinations and testing, but new variants of the virus are causing concern as CNN's Erica Hill explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ERICA HILL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): First, the good news, testing is up. The daily average of new cases is down in 35 states over the past week. Hospitalizations also on the decline.

DR. JONATHAN REINER, PROFESSOR OF MEDICINE, GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY: All of those metrics point to the conclusion that we may have passed the peak.

HILL (voice over): But could a more transmissible variants of the virus soon fuel a new peak?

DR. SCOTT GOTTLIEB, FORMER FDA COMMISSIONER: In about five weeks this is going to start to take over.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's going to take a while to turn this around.

HILL (voice over): The pace is already increasing. 60 percent of all COVID cases in the U.S. have been added since election day, 40 percent of the nation's COVID deaths reported in that same period.

[04:20:00]

DR. ROCHELLE WALENSKY, INCOMING U.S. CDC DIRECTOR: By the middle of February we expect half a million deaths in this country. I think we still have some dark weeks ahead.

HILL (voice over): In Los Angeles County air pollution rules temporarily suspended to allow for more cremations to, quote, assist with the backlog caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. On the vaccine front continued frustration.

GOV. TIM WALTZ (D-MN): They were lying. They don't have any doses held back.

HILL (voice over): Pfizer telling CNN it has those critical second doses noting the government only recently asked the company to send them. Dr. Anthony Fauci batting cleanup over the weekend.

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: I think there was just a misunderstanding.

HILL: The governors of Minnesota and New York among several now calling on the Federal government to allow states to buy the vaccine directly.

GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D-NY): Public confidence is very important now. And they created public chaos. DR. LEANA WEN, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: I just don't understand how no one is able to give a straight answer to the question of how many doses are out there, that are ready to be distributed and at what point?

HILL (voice over): What we do know of the more than 31 million doses distributed, just 39 percent have been administered.

WALENSKY: Our job is to make sure that with the entire support of the federal government that we get -- we address all of those bottlenecks wherever we are so we can get vaccine into people's arms.

HILL: As we continue to track vaccinations, the state of Florida is now highlighting those who have not yet returned for their second dose that are now overdue. That's about 40,000 people in the state, about 5 percent of the total number of people vaccinated in Florida. Meantime on Monday, Dr. Fauci is reiterating the importance of that second dose.

In New York, I'm Erica Hill, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: CHURCH: Joining me now is Dr. Murtaza Akhter. He is an emergency physician. He is also an assistant professor at the University of Arizona's College of Medicine in Phoenix. Thank you doctor for being with us and for all that you do.

DR. MURTAZA AKHTER, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA COLLEGE OF MEDICINE: Thanks for having me, Rosemary.

CHURCH: So the incoming CDC director predicts we could reach 500,000 U.S. COVID deaths by mid-February, a daunting and shocking number. I did want to ask you with your experience is, what you are seeing in your hospital right now.

AKHTER: Yes, honestly, I think, I think we will get 500,000 based on the numbers and the hospitals who are having a sort of similar situation too like we did in the last summer in Arizona and in Florida, where we are getting a lot of patients coming in with COVID like symptoms. A lot of them test positive, almost all of them, honestly, for some of them it's their third time testing positive. And as you know it's a significant fraction of them coming quite sick a couple of weeks after they're positive. They come in short of breath. Struggling to breath.

And as you know, these people can often have a bad outcome. And we can't even get an ICU bed for so many of them like until there's a long, long delay. As you can imagine, sitting in the E.R. waiting for a long time to get to the ICU and a lot of them just do not make it. It's the same story we have heard before but at much higher numbers now.

CHURCH: That is a horrendous story, but I do want to ask you, how does someone test positive three times? What are they doing wrong here? How are they being exposed to that extent? AKHTER: You know, some of them could be that they just remained positive and they had a negative test in between. They thought they were negative, and we contracted it. Some of it may be reactivation, but some of it probably is indeed reinfection. They got it early in the pandemic, they got it a couple of months ago, and they got it again now.

It's a very obvious, to a lot of us in healthcare, there are plenty of people who are clearly not distancing, obviously not wearing masks. And there are plenty of people who are just saying whatever, it's just COVID. And yet, as we know, lots of people die of COVID. A very young teenager basically just recently contracted COVID for a second time and this time died from it.

CHURCH: That is a real concern. And doctor, of course nearly 400,000 Americans have already died from COVID-19 and vaccinations are lagging. How optimistic are you that once Joe Biden takes office, he could meet his goal of 100 million doses in 100 days?

AKHTER: That is an optimistic goal, but I think it's doable if done the right way. And not to get too political, but it's hard to do worse in the current administration, honestly. What the president-elect does have a rollout plan and he is planning on utilizing multiple resources. It doesn't always go perfectly, but if there is a national coordinated effort, we know from other countries that that was much more smoothly than if we rely on federalism and every state can do its own thing.

So, I think there's a good chance that at the very least, as much as can be done will be done. But remember, the biggest, the biggest roadblock with people themselves. People who refuse to get vaccinated. That will be their biggest roadblock.

CHURCH: Dr. Murtaza Akhter, thanks as always.

AKHTER: Thank you, Rosemary. Stay safe.

CHURCH: An international group of experts is criticizing China and the World Health Organization for their initial handling of the pandemic.

[04:25:00]

The new report concludes China could have tried harder to contain the coronavirus a year ago. It also says the World Health Organization took too long to declare an international emergency. The independent panel will public recommendations on how better to respond to a pandemic later this year.

Well there is good news and bad news for Britain today on the coronavirus. The good news, more than 4 million people have received their first dose of a COVID vaccine. That is a far higher rate than other European countries according to the government.

The bad news, the virus continues to rage. The U.K. has reported the highest COVID-19 death rate in the world over the last seven days. Overall in Europe things seem to be looking a little brighter though.

The continent is for the most part trending in the right direction and officials are doing their best to keep it that way.

And our Melissa Bell joins us now live from Paris with more on this. Good to see you, Melissa. So COVID trends are looking a little better in parts of Europe. How will officials ensure it stays that way?

MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There certainly is, Rosemary, a stabilization in the figures in the countries like France, Italy and Germany. But great fears still about what that variant that was first identified in the United Kingdom could mean now that it is spreading on the continent.

We heard from the French Prime Minister who spoke on French television last night explaining that this week would be crucial. Because it is in this week, he said that we'll start to see the effect -- if there is any -- of what loosening there may have been over the Christmas period. So that's something to keep an eye on.

But more than that, I think the thing that is really worrying authorities here is that new variant. The French health minister spoke to it this morning. Saying that whilst there had been a stabilization of those new cases, around about 20,000 a day, which is still historically quite high. It is those 2 to 300 new cases recoded every day at the moment in France that involve the new variant that are of particular concern.

Similarly over the border in Germany, there has been stabilization of figures. We've heard from the government spokesman this morning saying that the restrictions that are in place, that lockdown that's already been extended beyond January 31st is beginning to bear its fruit with a stabilization. You need only, for instance, look, Rosemary, at the very latest deaths reported every day for several days last week and into the week before, they were at about 1,000 COVID-19 related deaths a day. That's now below 1,000.

But it is the spread of that new variant that authorities want to now keep in check which is why Angela Merkel is meeting with the premieres from Germany's 16 federal states to look at what further tightening there should be. Not so much if there will be a tightening, but what it should be. They're going to be looking at making FFP-2 masks mandatory for instance in public transport or in shops. A possible system of curfews and certainly trying to encourage people to work from home. Even more than they have been so far, so worried are they, Rosemary, by the spread of the new strain.

CHURCH: Yes, and understandable as well. Melissa Bell bringing us the very latest there. Many thanks.

Still to come, fueling the fire. We look at how social media is giving those with extremist views a platform and renewed boldness. Back with that in just a moment.

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