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Heavy Security in Washington Ahead of Biden's Inauguration; Georgia Lt. Governor Astonished by Elections Misinformation; How Social Media is Still Fueling Extremism; Trump to Issue Around 100 Pardons and Commutations; World Gets Ready for Biden Administration; Kremlin Critic to Remain in Custody for 30 Days. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired January 19, 2021 - 04:30   ET

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

[04:30:00]

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back, everyone.

Well, in a little more than 24 hours, Joe Biden will be sworn in as U.S. president amid some of the toughest security Washington has seen in years. No spectators will be allowed on the National Mall, as is normally the case. The assault on the Capitol almost two weeks ago has forced much of the area near the Capitol into lockdown to prevent another potential attack.

Roads, sidewalks and bridges are closed, and barricades and fencing are in place. Already National Guard troops along with other law enforcement agencies have been deployed to watch over Washington. And the FBI is vetting troops as details emerge linking some Capitol rioters to the U.S. military.

Well meantime, Republicans are grappling with what the events of the past few weeks mean for the future of their party. The state of Georgia was a flash point in the original election misinformation. And you'll remember President Trump pressured officials here to find votes for him. Well, now Georgia's Republican lieutenant governor is sticking out. And here is part of his interview with CNN's Jake Tapper.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LT. GOV. GEOFF DUNCAN (R-GA): I'm still astonished at the amount of misinformation that continues to fly in and folks just being misinformed to complete conspiracy theories.

But I will tell you that that -- it's in the process of slowing down, that chatter, but it's still with us. And, certainly, this is going to be a pivot point for us to move forward. The tragic events on the 6th were awful. But I truly see it as a catalyst moment for this party to move on to better and brighter days.

And I have said this before, Jake. We let ourselves put a person in front of the party. And that, I assure you, should never happen again in the Republican Party. JAKE TAPPER CNN ANCHOR: You know, from your mouth to God's ears, sir. But, you know, in a new CNN poll, it's very clear that only 19 percent of Republicans say that Joe Biden legitimately won enough votes to win the presidency, 75 percent of Republican voters falsely believe he did not.

How do you fix that, when a majority of your party, not just people in Congress, but rank-and-file just normal citizens, believe these lies, and there are so many members of your party who are spouting them, including elected officials?

DUNCAN: Certainly, we've got a lot of work in front of us. I'm -- you have heard me talk about this before, GOP 2.0. We're actually starting the wheels in motion and got an exploratory committee together. Not to create a new party, but -- and not to try to reinvent the wheel, but to reform and start to heal the party through reminding folks of the policies and reminding ourselves of the policies that make us Republicans. Community outreach, tone and messaging that rivals Ronald Reagan, and not Donald Trump's messaging patterns for the last four years.

We got our work cut out for us. But there's brighter days ahead and more civil days ahead for the Republican Party. I can assure you of that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Well social media companies have had nearly two weeks since the storming of the Capitol to crack down on posts promoting violence and conspiracy theories. But many extremists are still finding way to use online platforms to promote their views and openly call for unrest.

[04:35:00]

Sara Sidner has our report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The conspiracy fueled deadly Capitol attack on January 6th maybe just the beginning of an explosion of far-right violence.

OREN SEGAL, VICE PRESIDENT, CENTER ON EXTREMISM, ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE: The plots of tomorrow, the activities of tomorrow, the efforts for them to maintain this movement and create threats in the future are literally being planned today.

SIDNER (voice-over): Far-right radicalization has been building in America for years. Evidence of it all over the largest social media platforms on earth. And even after mega sites like Facebook said they were cracking down, the tech transparency project, a nonprofit watchdog group found it's still easy to find extremist content calling for violence on the site. Three days after the attack, this post.

We need to organize our militia. Wars are won with guns and when they silence your commander in chief, you are in a war.

Another post of January 14th.

Patriots, January 20th, 2021 is your Tiananmen Square moment.

SEGAL: Social media to extremism is like oxygen for fire. It's required. It has shown itself to be one of the organizing factors for extremists.

SIDNER (voice-over): Facebook removed the post from the site and the public group calling itself the Patriot Party, but the poison has already set in.

In Michigan after an armed rally at the Capitol against the Governor last year, federal and state authorities thwarted an alleged violent plot to kidnap the Governor. A few of the same men who say they stood by some of those alleged plotters returned. And as with the Capitol Hill terrorists, these guys are out in the open sharing their extreme views.

SIDNER: And tell me about your patch?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Patch, this one, this is a Boogaloo.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We do not want a civil war or anything. We want to exercise every possible way before that comes an option.

SIDNER: Is that an option? In your mind? A civil war?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I will not fire the first shot, but if it comes to that, I will fight.

SIDNER (voice-over): The Boogaloo Boys are burgeoning antigovernment group which started online. Some of its members are pushing for civil war. At least one Michigan Boogaloo boy was arrested this fall in the plot to kidnap the Governor. A plan for violence that law enforcement thankfully prevented, and yet those who support the plan are all right out in the open.

SIDNER: Would you have supported them if they had kidnapped the Governor?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I would have supported a citizen's arrest on a felony because that is with the law states. If a felony is committed, a citizen can arrest another citizen.

SIDNER (voice-over): The Governor has not committed a crime, but instead was a potential victim of the violent crime. And yet, the lie persists among extremists, threatening Michigan legislator's safety. They brought their weapons. They do have the right to open carry, but some see their firearms as clear threats. This guy said he does not support violence and would only use his AR-15 to save an innocent life.

SIDNER: That's weapon you hear this a lot of times that are used in attacks that are not to save innocent people. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah.

SIDNER: Why carry it? I mean, have you been in the armed forces?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was a National Guard, yes.

This right here is not dangerous unless a person behind it is dangerous. I would say that this ain't any different than the muskets, the men carried back in the revolution.

SIDNER (voice-over): While he stood outside the Capitol, current national guardsman stood nearby at the ready to protect Michigan seat of government, much like guardsmen are doing across the country in case the next wave of violence erupts.

SIDNER: We should point out that a musket back then can shoot about two rounds per minute. An AR-15, 45 rounds per minute. We should also mention that this kind of mentality has spread much farther and wider because of social media sites, and experts say they have some responsibility in what happened on January 6th.

Sara Sidner, CNN, Lansing, Michigan.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Larry Sabato is the director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia and joins me now from Charlottesville. Always a pleasure to talk with you.

LARRY SABATO, DIRECTOR, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA CENTER FOR POLITICS: Thank you so much, Rosemary.

CHURCH: So, President Trump leaves office in disgrace Wednesday with the lowest approval rating for a first term president since polling began. And in the hours ahead, he plans to announce more than 100 pardons and commutations after many wealthy felons paid large sums to Trump allies to gain access to a pardon. What impact will his final act of exerting presidential power have on the legacy of Donald Trump?

SABATO: When you are the worst president ever, and history is going to judge you that way. And you are already in the polling basement or maybe the basement of the basement, I don't think you can't go any lower. So, pardon away, mister president.

CHURCH: So what do you expecting when he announces these 100 plus pardons and commutations?

[04:40:00]

SABATO: I'll put it this way. What are the odds that Donald Trump is going to pardon 100 people and there won't be lots of embarrassments in there? Zero. That's what the odds are.

CHURCH: Yes.

SABATO: Zero. CHURCH: Exactly. So, of course as Trump focuses his final hours on pardons and his sendoff, because he wants that to be spectacular, he leaves office as a twice impeached president and with a pandemic out of control that has triggered numerous other crisis left for Joe Biden to deal with, of course, should Trump received post presidency intelligence briefings and other courtesy's offered to previous presidents, do you think?

SABATO: Absolutely not. And I've been arguing this for some time. He should be completely cut off in terms of briefings, certainly intelligence briefings but also all briefings. He doesn't deserve the courtesies that other former presidents have received. He doesn't deserve the perks. He certainly should be banned from running again.

But I'm talking about the pension, the travel expenses, the office expenses, any help with, if it's hard to imagine, a presidential library built around Donald Trump, it will simply become a MAGA destination and so I don't think we want that.

CHURCH: And will impeachment -- an impeachment conviction do that? Will it put an end to all of that?

SABATO: Well, it should. Usually, the follow-up to an impeachment conviction in the Senate is a statement that's very clear passed by the Senate indicating that that individual having been convicted on an impeachment charge shall never hold any office of public trust again. And the other perks can be taken away quite easily.

In fact, simple majority of both Houses can take away all the perks I just mentioned. Now, the briefings are a matter for the president to determine, the new president. And I can't imagine that Joe Biden would permit Donald Trump to learn one single thing about American policy abroad or a single piece of intelligence that could benefit him in his say private business dealings, which he would have no hesitation about using it if he could.

CHURCH: Larry Sabato, many thanks for your analysis. We appreciate it.

SABATO: Thank you, Rosemary.

CHURCH: And this is CNN NEWSROOM. Coming up, the world will be watching as Joe Biden becomes the next U.S. president. We will have some international reaction live from London. That's next.

[04:45:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHURCH: U.S. Vice President-elect Kamala Harris and her husband Doug Imhoff spent the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday honoring the spirit of its namesake, volunteering in service of the community. They spent their Monday in Washington preparing bags of food for families in need. The vice president-elect says the commitment to serve others and fight against injustice are important parts of Dr. King's legacy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) KAMALA HARRIS, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT-ELECT: When we look at where we are in the country today, when we look at recent events, we know that the fight that Dr. King was engaged in is still a fight in America. Which to recognize the connections and recognize our collective responsibility to address these injustices.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: And of course it won't just be the United States. The eyes of the world will be on Washington Wednesday as Joe Biden is sworn in as the 46th president. And world leaders are getting ready to work with the Biden administration after a tumultuous four years of the Trump presidency.

Our international diplomatic editor Nic Robertson has more now from London. He joins us live. Good to see you, Nic. So what are the expectations and how long do some international leaders think it will take to restore relations with the U.S. to where they were before Donald Trump was president?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Look, I'm not sure that the world and the United States allies in particular really wants to go back to precisely what the relationship they had with the United States before President Trump. It would be nice, but the real reality of the situation is, what the world has witnessed in Washington on the 6th of January instigated at the hands of President Trump and President Trump's presidency and the support for him, 79 million people voting for him in the U.S. election. I don't think world leaders feel that the United States is quite the same country they thought it was prior to Trump's presidency.

So while there's great hope, you know, and we've heard this today from former senior official in the British government that, you know, Joe Biden can help restore global diplomacy to where it was before President Trump, and there's a reality to that and a desire for it and a hope for it. I think the relationship is ultimately going to be a little bit different. So how long before it gets back to sort of a normal even keel, if you will, the one that the world is more familiar with from the United States.

Well, Joe Biden has already said, you know, that he'll roll back what President Trump did with climate change accord, that he'll rejoin that Paris Climate Change Accord. That he'll work with his allies to find a coordinated and agreed position and measures on China. That's something President Trump wasn't doing. Just sort of grown the problem.

On Iran, Biden is going to look to allies as well to find a way to lower tensions with Iran and bring Iran back into compliance with the international agreed nuclear deal. But the time frame, you know, all that I said about what Trump has done over four years and the diminishment of confidence in the U.S. long term because of that, and of course, Biden has his hands full politically at home. Divided country, handling COVID and the economic outfall of it.

CHURCH: Yes, he certainly does. Nic Robertson joining us live from London. Many thanks.

And be sure to stay with CNN for extensive live coverage of the Biden inauguration. Our special coverage will take place all day this Wednesday, January 20th.

Well Russia is defending jailing a prominent Kremlin critic and authorities held an impromptu court hearing inside a police station for Alexey Navalny. We will have a live report from Moscow next.

[04:50:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHURCH: A strong earthquake has hit 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 1,000 kilometers away. The quake was powerful enough to rattle clothing racks in this shop. There is no threat though of a tsunami at this time.

Well Russia is defending its detention of Alexey Navalny. A court ordered the Kremlin critic to remain in custody for 30 days during an impromptu hearing at a police station on Monday. Governments around the world are slamming Navalny's arrest, but Russia's foreign ministry said the criticism is an attempt to distract from problems in those countries.

And CNN's Frederick Pleitgen joins us now live from Moscow. Good to see you, Fred. So what more are you learning about the fate of Navalny and of course, his message to supporters?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well his message to supporters is basically go out onto the street and protest.

[04:55:00]

What Alexey Navalny said yesterday when he was inside that hearing where they determined he would remain in custody for another 30 days, he said that he was calling on people to come out. He told people to not have any fear. He said the only thing that they have to fear is fear itself. Of course, quoting Franklin Delano Roosevelt. And he said that they should come out for themselves and not him. And that actions should take place on January 23rd, so this upcoming Saturday. Going to wait and see how many people are going to turn up for those rallies that set to take place.

And for Alexey Navalny, it's really a very difficult situation. So he's going to remain in custody for another 30 days. He also has a couple of other pending criminal trials against him. One of whom a fraud trial in the case from 2014 which he says is politically motivated. But that alone could then see him remain in prison for another roundabout 3 1/2 years.

And a little word about the place where he's being held right now. That's a jail in the east of Moscow. It's a really infamous jail here in Russia, very tough conditions there. Mikhail Khodorkovsky was held there for a while. Sergei Magnitsky died there in that jail. So there is certainly a great deal of concern about the safety of Alexey Navalny, especially in light of the fact of course that last time that he was in Russia he was poisoned by the chemical nerve agent Novichok.

One little more word, Rosemary, we are looking in the next couple of minutes, there's going to be a conference call between the Kremlin and journalists. Might get more information from the Kremlin there or get their line and see how they see the situation. We'll obviously update you once we hear from the Kremlin, hopefully in a couple of minutes -- Rosemary.

CHURCH: Yes, we'll stay on top this. Fred Pleitgen bringing us the very latest there. Many thanks.

And thank you for your company. I'm Rosemary Church. "EARLY START" is up next. You're watching CNN. Have yourselves a wonderful day.

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