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Donald Trump's Second Impeachment Trial Is Set To Begin In Two Weeks; Dr. Fauci And Dr. Birx Reveal Frustrations With Donald Trump; Biden Administration's Call For Unity And Bipartisanship; High Unemployment Rate Inherited By The Biden Administration. Aired 5-6p ET
Aired January 24, 2021 - 17:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[17:00:00]
ANA CABRERA, CNN HOST: The "Wall Street Journal" today citing people present in the final days of Trump's presidency who say Trump was pressuring his Justice Department to directly urge the U.S. Supreme court to invalidate Joe Biden's victory.
Add that to a list of reported plans hatched by the Trump White House to change the verified election results. Plans like firing the acting attorney general and replacing him with someone who would do whatever Trump wanted. None of these plans ever went anywhere in part because officials threatened to resign en masse.
But timing is important. These new details emerging as the timeline takes shape for Trump's Senate impeachment trial, his second. Some symbolic parts of the process begin tomorrow, but arguments are set to start in the Senate a little over two weeks from right now.
At least 17 Republicans in the Senate in addition to all the Senate Democrats would have to vote yes to convict Trump for inciting the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. It's not yet clear if those 17 yes votes exist, but at least one senate Republican says a trial is definitely justified.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. MITT ROMNEY (R-UT): I believe that what is being alleged and what we saw, which is incitement to insurrection is an impeachable offense. If not, what is? The preponderance of the legal opinion is that an impeachment trial after someone has left office is constitutional. I believe that's the case. I'll, of course, hear what the lawyers have to say for each side, but I think it's pretty clear the effort is constitutional.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CABRERA: CNN crime and justice correspondent Shimon Prokupecz is in Washington and CNN senior Washington correspondent Joe Johns is on Capitol Hill. Shimon, you first. Are there, you know, any of these reported power moves by then President Trump problematic for him legally even though they all failed to keep him in office? SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think
the key here is that it didn't work out as he planned. The fact that, A, that the Supreme Court, he tried to get the Department of Justice lawyers, top lawyers at the Department of Justice to try and get some kind of court action at the Supreme Court. They pushed back on that.
More significant of course is this reporting that he tried to fire or thought about firing the acting attorney general to put someone in his place who was going to do something more favorable to the president. That certainly could be more problematic for the former president. The fact that didn't work is a good thing obviously and will probably ultimately help him.
But, nonetheless, an investigation could likely ensue an internal investigation. We have Senator Chuck Schumer asking the inspector general at the DOJ to look into it. So that could open up doors to things coming out that maybe would not have otherwise come out if the inspector general was to take on the investigation.
The other thing of course is the impeachment trial. Does this become part of that and does information from this entire incident and certainly other incidents where the former president tried to exert his power or influence on the Department of Justice, does that come out in some way during the impeachment trial? So in those venues, certainly, some issues for the former president.
CABRERA: And Joe, what about the impeachment math? Democrats in the Senate have some work to do to get the votes they need to convict Donald Trump. What is the confidence level that they can do it?
JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: That's right. And you know, Ana, the math is very simple, isn't it -- 50/50 Senate. You need two-thirds to convict. That means 17 Republicans have to go along with the Democrats if all 50 Democrats vote together.
As a matter of fact, the calculation is pretty simple for Democrats isn't it? Those who have been highly critical of Donald Trump in the past think they know exactly where this needs to go. Listen to Senator Elizabeth Warren.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA): I can't imagine how Republican opposition to insurrection would fade over the space of a couple of weeks. We are talking about a president who stood in front of a mob and told them to go to the capitol and invade. Told them to go to the capitol and stop the lawful business of government so that he could try to stay in the White House. That is so fundamentally wrong. How about if we're unified against insurrection? How about if we're unified for accountability? Unity starts with accountability.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JOHNS: Unity starts with accountability, but for Republicans it's a much different calculation. At least three different camps from what I can tell. The first camp is pretty obviously those who think there needs to be accountability. We heard from Mitt Romney just today about that. Then there are the others who are more practical.
[17:04:55]
And people like Marco Rubio who say, well, we don't need to do this. This is stupid. The country has too many more things to do. Then there are the Trumpists. Those are the people who have followed the former president again and again and again.
And it's important to also say that this event, if you will, that kicks off tomorrow night here up on Capitol Hill is not just a quasi- legal procedure. It's also a political procedure in many ways. And there are going to be Republicans who have to make that calculation about what kind of power they think Donald Trump is going to have down the road before they make any decisions on this. Ana, back to you.
CABRERA: 6:55 Eastern tomorrow night is when the House impeachment managers deliver that article of impeachment to the Senate. Joe Johns, Shimon Prokupecz, my thanks to both of you.
Joining us now is CNN Senior Political Analyst John Avlon and CNN Political Commentator and host of "Firing Line" on PBS, Margaret Hoover. John, ahead of this impeachment trial we are getting all of this new information about just how intent Trump was on overturning the will of the people.
"The Wall Street Journal" reporting he wanted the DOJ to directly ask the Supreme Court to invalidate Biden's win and there is more. CNN also confirming that he wanted to fire then acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen and install a loyalist, a relatively unknown Justice Department lawyer, to help him overturn the Georgia election results. What is your reaction to all this?
JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: The information that's coming out makes it indelibly obvious that Donald Trump was doing everything he could to abuse the power of president to stay in power and overturn an election. If that's not impeachable, I don't know what is.
Because take a look at it. Treason, bribery, high crimes, misdemeanors, a failure to faithfully execute the office and protect and defend the constitution. All of the above get covered and guess what? The information is going to come out over the next week or two. It's not going to get better.
It's going to become more obvious that anyone straining to defend Donald Trump is doing so out of blind partisan loyalty and willful ignorance of the facts, and that is simply untenable at least in the realm of honor and honesty in American history.
CABRERA: Margaret, we know Trump loves the spotlight. He doesn't have social media anymore. Is there any scenario in which you could imagine former President Trump showing up to testify in his own defense?
MARGARET HOOVER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Sure can, Ana. Sure can. I mean, what better finale to "The Apprentice." No. In all seriousness, it's a possibility. You, know, I don't know what his legal -- who his legal counsel. I mean, we understand who the team being assembled is but what they will recommend we don't know.
And there is a lot of supposition about this being a fait accompli, just like the last impeachment. Just a political charade and there is no way Republicans will get behind it. I mean, encourage us to recall how different the circumstances are at this time.
I think it's quite clear Mitch McConnell has left the bread crumbs out, that he has no interest in letting President Trump off the hook and that in fact, if he might be able to create the climate for 17 other Republicans to join him to vote to convict, that they might just well do that.
And I think that's why you see Mitch McConnell asking for a two-week delay because it gives time for this case to present itself to the public, for us to learn more information. By the way, every day that passes is a bad day for Trump. We learn more and more about how bad this was.
And so I would encourage us not to just suggest or to just rush to judgment here. We're asking the senators to be impartial. The public should also take in this information and let's have a transparent and fair process for this president that is going to get a trial in front of the Senate.
CABRERA: I wonder though if the senators really are impartial, John. You have Senator Lindsey Graham playing a very odd role. According to "The Wall Street Journal" --
AVLON: Lindsey Graham?
CABRERA: -- he personally recommended a lawyer for Trump. Listen to him here.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): The president has a very good legal team, a great legal team and we're going to fight like hell to make sure that the second impeachment of Donald Trump ends as quickly as possible.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CABRERA: John, what happened to being an impartial juror?
AVLON: Lindsey Graham exhibiting situational ethics? I'm shocked! I'm shocked, Ana. Look, I mean, you know, he helped get a South Carolina lawyer from down here, the former partner of the current governor of South Carolina, McMaster. But it's also because, I mean, they've been straining to find any legal representation who would sign on to Donald Trump. So they are down to sort of the D, C, you know, the "D" team at best.
This is going to be a lot of the senators who are still afraid of Donald Trump and afraid of the base. They're going to try to curry favor, and they won't be impartial. We all get the joke but it is a question whether 17 of them who believe that it's important to actually honor the Constitution when you call yourself a constitutional conservative.
[17:09:58]
HOOVER: Yes. I mean, that's it. I mean, there is, of course, there is gambling in Casablanca. Of course, there is partisanship and there are people who are going to just toe the line and we know who they are, right.
But there are some who, you know, are actually thinking about their legacy. They know they're not going to run again. There are, you know, five or six of them that we know that could be in that category. But what about another 10, 15 or so? They're thinking about it and I think they're thinking about it because Mitch McConnell has indicated that he is creating a climate for them to potentially have a vote of conscience.
AVLON: Yes.
HOOVER: And so let's not rush to judgment and let's -- let the facts lay themselves out and come to the forefront. A transparent and fair adjudication of this president's actions in office should speak for themselves.
CABRERA: It seems like if there ever were a perfect opportunity for the Republican Party to break with President Trump, this would be the time, John. And yet you have the Arizona Republican Party sending a clear signal about where its loyalty remains, voting to censure Arizona governor, Doug Ducey, former senator, Jeff Flake and Cindy McCain, the widow of Senator John McCain.
It just happen all three, of course, opposed Trump's efforts to overturn the election results and the presidency of Joe Biden. In the case of Flake and McCain, of course, they endorsed Joe Biden before the election. Cindy McCain is now calling this censure a badge of honor. But what does this tell you?
AVLON: It tells you how deep the rot has got. It shows the divisions and the fault lines in the Republican Party are going -- are probably to some degree unbridgeable because you've got have all the hallmarks of a cult. I mean, Ducey is a Trump supporter. He just said that -- he just acknowledged reality and that's apparently a firing offense for some folks whose official twitter account has actually endorsed violence.
And so this is really the question of Trump's threatening to form a MAGA party. It will split the Republican Party, but maybe that's the kind of reckoning that needs to occur because it's Donald Trump versus democracy, Donald Trump versus reality. The folks who are going to choose Trump over reality and democracy probably should be off on their own little island.
HOOVER: Well, let's be clear. There's not been a better opportunity for the Republican Party to divorce itself from the conspiracy theorists and the kooks than this impeachment trial that is coming forward. And you have a real difference, Ana, as you've seen between the Republicans in the House of Representatives and the Republicans in the Senate.
I think the Republicans in the Senate are taking that very seriously. They're taking the future of the party seriously and they are thinking about this differently and they have the luxury, six-year terms, to think about it differently than the knee jerk reactions of the conspiracy theory rot in the base of the party.
CABRERA: Although I don't know if I would agree with you on that when you hear Marco Rubio today calling the impeachment trial stupid. You have, you know, Senator Mike Rounds also saying --
HOOVER: That's because he's up. He has an election coming up.
CABRERA: -- you know, that this isn't -- that (inaudible) be having the trial because it's, you know -- he says unconstitutional despite what the academics have said. And you have the "The Washington Post" reporting that, you know, former President Trump, he has entertained the idea of creating a third party called the Patriot Party.
And he has instructed his aides to prepare election challenges to lawmakers who crossed him in the final weeks of office. And if you look at the latest polling, it's like 50/50 in terms of where the Republican Party wants to go. If they want to go with Trump versus have Trump gone. I just think about all of these things, Margaret, and I guess how big of a crisis is this right now for the Republican Party?
HOOVER: Look, it is a real reckoning. I am in no way diminishing that, but you just cited Marco Rubio. He's got an election in two years. I mean, the people who you are seeing cowering are the people who actually are going to have to be accountable to the base.
The ones who are going to have the chance at having moral courage are the ones who are -- who don't have that kind of accountability. Nobody is saying like, you know, that may not be a proud moment for you John Avlon in American history, Okay.
AVLON: No. No.
HOOVER: But that's the reality here. And so, if you're reading the tea leaves, you are looking at the people who were just re-elected that are going to long out live Trump. And by the way, we have a history of third parties that are conservative populist movements in this country. They're not powerful.
They've become footnotes to history. I'm looking at the Dixiecrats. I'm looking at George Wallace's party, the American Independent Party, and the know nothings. Okay. So, they can do that. That will even expedite our reckoning in the Republican Party.
AVLON: And while, you know, I love my wife dropping the American history mic. The other thing about this what she pointed to in terms of the senators who are finding -- tough to find their spine because they are up for re-election for the most part, speaks to how screwed up the incentive structures are in our politics because they are afraid of the base. Closed partisan primaries have made these people moral cowards and to
contradict the oath they take, and that's the problem. We need election reform. We need democracy reform to adjust the incentive structure so you can't have hostile takeovers of political parties by demagogues and responsible senators cowering in the face of what they -- just divided about whether they should know what they is right versus what they might think may keep them in power.
CABRERA: Remember this was all supposed to be about public service, this elected official.
AVLON: Isn't it pretty?
CABRERA: Isn't that what they're supposed to be all about?
[17:15:01]
AVLON: Yes.
CABRERA: John Avlon, Margaret Hooper, as always. It's a spirited conversation. I can always count on you both to bring it. Thank you.
AVLON: Thank you.
CABRERA: Meantime, Dr. Deborah Birx is speaking out publicly about what really went on inside the Trump White House as it dealt with the deadly pandemic. What she is revealing, next.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DEBORAH BIRX, FORMER WHITE HOUSE CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE COORDINATOR: To this day, I mean till the day I left, I am convinced there were parallel data streams because I --
MARGARET BRENNAN, CBS HOST: Disinformation.
BIRZ: -- I saw the president presenting graphs that I never made.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CABRERA: Today, the U.S. passed another grim milestone in the coronavirus pandemic. More than 25 million COVID-19 cases have been confirmed in this country just a little more than a year after the first confirmed case was reported here. Five million of these cases just since the beginning of January.
[17:19:58]
This comes as Dr. Anthony Fauci is speaking out about what it was like working with former President Trump. In a new interview with the "New York Times," Fauci says, "I would try to express the gravity of the situation and the response of the president was always leaning toward, well, it's not that bad, right? And I would say, yes, it is that bad." The former White House coronavirus response coordinator, Dr. Deborah Birx, is also speaking out revealing more of what went on behind the scenes.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIRX: I saw the president presenting graphs that I never made. So, I know that someone or someone out there or someone inside was creating a parallel set of data and graphics that were shown to the president. I know what I sent up. And I know that what was in his hands was different from that. You can't do that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CABRERA: And that's what he did, she says. With us now, Dr. Jonathan Reiner, professor of medicine at George Washington University and a CNN medical analyst. Dr. Reiner, we have heard Dr. Fauci speak out and contradict the president before, but this is really I think the first time we're hearing such a revelation from Dr. Birx. What is your reaction to what we learned from her?
JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Hi, Ana. You know, I've tried to give Dr. Birx the benefit of the doubt because of her really very distinguished career with the global AIDS/HIV pandemic. But this is really disgraceful. Look, there have been two big lies this year.
One obviously has been about the election, but the other big lie that has resulted in probably the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans was the lie that this virus was not so severe, that it was a hoax, that masks maybe don't work, and she's been silent through this.
And silence is complicity. If she knew that some of the data coming from the president of the United States was false or misleading, she had a responsibility as a servant of the country, of the public, and also as a physician to speak up. But being silent makes her complicit in this gigantic lie that has probably resulted in 200,000 to 300,000 unnecessary deaths in this country.
CABRERA: Is it malpractice?
REINER: Is it malpractice on the medical standpoint? I don't know. I'm not a lawyer. But as a doctor, I would say that if you're in the -- if president of the United States is spouting nonsense, if he is playing down the pandemic when you believe the public needs to understand what's going on, you need to speak up.
Imagine what would have happened if in March instead of Dr. Birx telling the Christian Broadcasting Network that the president's ability to analyze and integrate data came from his business experience and that he is so attentive to the scientific literature.
If she had told the public the truth, which was the president wasn't listening and was always downplaying the risks and trying to present a rosier picture. If she had told the public how dire this situation was, people would have taken it more seriously in parts of the country that later were ravaged by the virus. CABRERA: Yes. And now look where we are. More than 25 million cases.
REINER: Right.
CABRERA: More than 418,000 deaths in the U.S. We know, you know, the variant that was first identified in the U.K. It spreads more easily. We know it's here in the U.S. as well. Here's what Dr. Fauci said this morning about whether this variant is also more deadly.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLEGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: We need to assume now that what has been circulating dominantly in the U.K. does have a certain degree of increase in what we call virulence, namely the power of the virus to cause more damage including death.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CABRERA: Earlier, we heard this variant was more transmissible but not more deadly. Now, we are hearing it may in fact be more deadly. Are you surprised by this change?
REINER: No, I'm not surprised, but even on just a very basic level, if the virus is more likely to spread, it's more likely to cause more disease and the more people that become infected are the more people will die.
So, it's either more virulent on a person-to-person basis or in a population basis, but the net effect is the same. The more people who become infected the more people are likely to die. But the good news, and as we spoke about last weekend, is that cases are dropping in the United States.
And that last week compared to the week before saw a 20 percent decrease in the number of cases. And hospitalizations are also dropping rapidly.
[17:25:00]
We'll see deaths, if this continues, we'll see deaths start to drop sometime over the next two to three weeks. Now is the time to put this virus down by vaccinating the country. This is going to be the sweet spot and we need to do it now. We need to be much more aggressive in vaccinating the public than what we've already done over the last six weeks.
CABRERA: So there is that action that is happening right now, and as we work to establish your video connection which was having some snafu going on, we heard you very clearly.
Let me ask this next question as we learn new information that tomorrow, President Biden will reinstate the COVID-19 travel restrictions on non-U.S. citizens who have been in Brazil, Ireland, the United Kingdom, and much of Europe. He will also extend the restrictions to travelers who have recently
traveled to South Africa. Do you think this is an important step? Is it needed?
REINER: I do. It's just another step to slow down the spread of the virus in the United States, to slow down the entry of these variants into the United States while the United States ramps up our vaccination program. So it's just -- it's a very proactive position. It's a shame that it's come literally 12 months into this pandemic.
CABRERA: Dr. Jonathan Reiner, always appreciate your insights and expertise. Thanks so much for being with us.
REINER: My pleasure. Thank you.
CABRERA: Be sure to join Dr. Sanjay Gupta and Anderson Cooper for an all new "CNN Global Town Hall: Coronavirus Facts and Fears." It airs live this Wednesday night at 8:00 eastern.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[17:30:00]
CABRERA: Today, with the $1.9 trillion COVID bill hanging in the balance, the White House held a call this afternoon with a bipartisan group of senators to try to build support for this package on both sides of the aisle.
It is the latest sign of the Biden administration's attempt at bipartisanship, but not all Democrats see this path, which could take longer, as absolutely necessary. Here is Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): All of that must get done quickly. We hope our Republican friends will see the need and work with us. But if not, we will get it done. There are other means that we can use including reconciliation that will enable us to do this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CABRERA: Ashley Allison served as the national coalition's director for the Biden/Harris campaign and was a senior policy adviser in the Obama administration. Ashley, great to have you with us. With so many Americans suffering, is Senator Schumer right here or would it hurt Biden's efforts to try to unify the country and really set, you know, the pace with bipartisanship?
ASHLEY ALLISON, FORMER NATIONAL COALITIONS DIRECTOR, BIDEN/HARRIS CAMPAIGN: Well, thanks for having me here. You know, Joe Biden has said from the very beginning that he was going to work to unify this country. And so he has been in office for five days and he hasn't changed course. He has his staff meeting with senators today, making sure they can try and move the package forward. But what I do know about President Biden is that the American people
come first. And so he is going to make an effort to bring the country together by moving the package in a bipartisan way, but ultimately, he's going to do what is best for the American people.
And if it can't get done in a bipartisan fashion, I have an assumption that he will do what he needs to do to make sure that the Americans get the relief they need and deserve.
CABRERA: As I mentioned, you served in the Obama White House. We know the roll out of Obamacare was not the smoothest to say the least. Are there lessons from that experience that President Biden can apply to improving the vaccine roll out?
ALLISON: Absolutely. You know, healthcare.gov got off to a rocky start. And there were people that President Obama brought in at that time to get it back on track. One of those people was Jeff Zients, and President Biden has brought in Jeff Zients to actually lead the COVID effort.
And so sometimes when you roll something out in government or when you start in government just five days like the Biden administration and you pull the curtain back, it's not always as you expect. But what you need is a team around you that is going to put their heads down and get to work to make sure that it gets on track.
The other thing though that there are lessons from the roll out of Obamacare is that you -- it's not just going to be the government that is going to be able to fix this problem. We're going to need NGOs. We're going to need state and local officials. We're going to need health departments to all give in, give their effort to make sure that people can get vaccines.
And that was something that happened during health care enrollment. In fact, I worked for one of the organizations that helped go into communities of color that might distrust the medical system or have never had insurance before and help them learn about what the process was and get them enrolled.
And I know there are efforts on the outside right now being stood up to make sure that people who are a little skeptical of the vaccine, that they get the information that they need so that we can get beyond this pandemic.
CABRERA: The pandemic is obviously a huge priority, but the Biden administration has also talked about taking on essentially domestic terrorism as another priority in the wake of the insurrection. Their new, you know, antiterrorism legislation is aimed to tackle the rise in white supremacy.
But the ACLU is expressing some concern saying in part, "by using the domestic terrorism label to promote more criminal statutes and police authorities, our country's leaders are invoking systems that have been and will continue to be used to target and harm black and brown people." Do you agree that this will end up disproportionately affecting minorities? [17:35:02]
ALLISON: Well, you know, in addition to working in government, I used to also work at civil rights organization and 135 civil rights organizations signed a letter somewhat similar to what the ACLU is saying, and that the statutes are already on the books to hold the people who stormed and tried to take the capitol. They're already in place.
And so, lawmakers should use those statutes. We want to make sure that if we are going to put new statutes on the books like around domestic terrorism, that they don't disproportionately impact black folks like they have traditionally done.
I think unity is going to be important but people definitely still need to be held accountable and we should use the tools that we already have to make sure that the people who tried to divide and take our country down are held to account for it.
CABRERA: I think a lot of people would argue the tools that are currently in place aren't enough, hence, why there would be need for additional legislation in order to hold people accountable because as we've talked about on this show with our intelligence officials like Asha Rangappa, you can't hold people accountable who are inside the U.S. as you can foreign terrorists like people who are, you know, committed to doing acts in the name of ISIS. Ashley Allison, I appreciate the conversation. Thank you so much.
ALLISON: Thank you.
CABRERA: Now that the election is over, we want to take you back to a very small county in Texas whose residents overwhelmingly supported Trump. Gary Tuchman visited there in 2017 and he went back now to gauge what people there think of President Biden. That story, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[17:40:00]
CABRERA: Breaking news on CNN. This from Indianapolis. Police are investigating a horrific act of violence. A mass shooting that authorities there are calling the largest mass casualty shooting in more than a decade.
At least five people are reported dead, one of them was a woman who was pregnant. Her unborn child also did not survive. A young male at the scene was wounded and is expected to live we are told.
The police chief in Indianapolis believes this rampage was a targeted incident at one home that more than one person did the shooting and that they are treating this incident as a mass murder. CNN is still working to get more information and we will update this awful story when we know more.
Meantime, President Biden's call for unity has already found some uneven political ground just days into his new administration. We wondered how it's playing deep inside the places where support for the former president is still as strong as ever. So, Gary Tuchman hit the ground to find out.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is Roberts County in the Texas Panhandle.
(On camera): Do you think he could be a good president, Joe Biden?
CHAD BLACK, TRUMP VOTER: Everybody has a capability of being good. We'll see.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): It's a very small county. Roughly 850 people live here.
VICTOR CASTILLO, TRUMP VOTER: I just tell him good luck and do what's right.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): Except for the frequent freight trains, Roberts County is quiet. But it's getting a high profile because in the last two presidential elections, Roberts County gave Donald Trump a higher percentage of the vote than any other county in America.
(On camera): In this election Donald Trump got over 96 percent of the vote in this county. Joe Biden received a grand total of 17 votes. So we asked these most loyal of Trump voters --
(On camera): What do you think Joe Biden needs to do to be a good president?
GARY MCFALL, TRUMP VOTER: Well, he's going to have to get everyone together, first. Get the whole United States together again. And I don't know that he can do that because he's got too many people behind him that's against getting the Trump supporters together with the Democrats.
TUCHMAN (on camera): You voted for Donald Trump twice.
BRETT HALL, TRUMP VOTER: Yes.
TUCHMAN (on camera): Do you think there is a possibility that you could ultimately believe that Joe Biden is a good president?
HALL: Yes, sir.
TUCHMAN (on camera): And what would he have to do to earn that from you?
HALL: He is going to have to keep the people together and quit being so divisive.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): Several of the Trump voters here told us the same thing. They believe President Biden needs to unite the country, be less divisive, despite the obvious irony.
TUCHMAN (on camera): Do you think Donald Trump has been divisive?
HALL: In certain ways, sure.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): Debbie Howard has owned the family hair care salon in the county seat of Miami for almost a quarter century.
(On camera): If Joe Biden walked into your salon and said, Debbie, I'd like an opinion from a Trump voter, someone who voted for Trump twice. What can I do to make you like me, to make you think I'm a good president? What would you say to him, first thing?
DEBBIE HOWARD, TRUMP VOTER: That's really hard because I'm just going blank right now. Just try to unify this country. Try to, you know, listen to both sides and meet in the middle. Compromise with the Republicans.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): Certainly not every Trump voter we met here is willing to give President Biden a chance. Randy Massey works in the heating and air conditioning business.
TUCHMAN (on camera): So is there any chance you could see him being a good president?
RANDY MASSEY, TRUMP VOTER: No.
TUCHMAN: So you've given up on him already?
MASSEY: I don't know if I had faith in him for 47 years and I'm only 44 years old.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): But others are hoping they end up being pleasantly surprised.
On camera: Do you think you could be happy with him, potentially?
HOWARD: There is potential there, yes.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): Gary Tuchman, CNN, Roberts County, Texas.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CABRERA: Republicans are seizing on President Biden's order to cease construction of the Keystone Pipeline saying it kills jobs while doing little to actually address climate crisis. The facts first, coming up next.
But first, Joe Biden took office inheriting the worst job market of any modern president. So what's next on Wall Street? Here's Christine Romans with your "Before the Bell" report. Christine?
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Hi there. President Joe Biden is inheriting an economy in deep distress. Another 900,000 Americans filed for first time jobless claims in the latest week. Overall, nearly 16 million Americans are receiving some form of government unemployment benefits.
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So just how much has the recovery slowed? This week, the government releases the first reading on fourth quarter gross domestic product. Economists believe the U.S. economy grew at an annual rate of maybe 4.4 percent, a sharp slowdown from the third quarter rebound.
Economic growth is also a major focus for the Federal Reserve which meets on Wednesday. The Fed is expected to keep interest rates at zero and continue its bond buying program. Wall Street will be listening for any changes in tone from the Fed chief, Jerome Powell.
It is also a big week for corporate earnings. Apple, Facebook, Tesla, Microsoft, and McDonald's are all companies reporting quarterly results. In New York, I'm Christine Romans.
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CABRERA: The nation's special presidential envoy for climate, John Kerry, telling European leaders the U.S. was absent from the global effort to fight climate change under the previous administration. Take a listen.
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JOHN KERRY, U.S. PRESIDENTIAL ENVOY FOR CLIMATE: They said to me, hey, guys, you've been gone for four years. And we really have high expectations for what you're going to be able to do here. And they started giving me numbers of what we have to try to achieve. So I said to them, yes, we realize. We come back with humility.
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CABRERA: This follows President Biden's dramatic shift in the U.S. approach to climate change. On day one of the Biden presidency, he signed executive orders to rejoin the Paris Accord. He revoked the permit for the Keystone Oil Pipeline. He put a temporary moratorium on oil and gas leasing in the Arctic.
Let me bring in CNN's chief climate correspondent, Bill Weir, to talk more about this. Bill, help us see Biden's path forward on climate change. Let's start with, you know, his effort to rejoin the Paris agreement on day one. What changes come because of that?
BILL WEIR, CNN CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's interesting. As John Kerry was saying there, we have a lot to prove. It's one thing to join if you have kids, it's another thing to join something. It's another thing to actually execute on the promises there.
And the world is watching and saying, okay, don't tell us, show us. You got to start rapidly decarbonizing your economy since you're the -- is directly the world's largest problem -- emitter in this problem. And there is a moral obligation to help fix it.
Part of the U.N.'s climate pledges and part of the Paris Accord is something called the Green Climate Fund which Barack Obama promised $3 billion. And this goes to developing countries to help them decarbonize because it's so unfair that countries that emit least are suffering (inaudible) most especially on coastal cities.
So Obama held -- promised that and Trump held back $2 billion. So the world first will be waiting to see if Joe Biden makes good on that promise and kicks into that fund. And then it comes down to, you know, breaking our addiction on fossil fuels, which is the greatest challenge any president will ever have.
Democrats will try to pass new big sweeping bills that failed, but now it will, I think, as you see with his cabinet and some of his executive orders. Climate touches everything -- its agriculture, its transportation, its education, its public health, its foreign policy. And you'll see a little bit of climate in everything going forward.
CABRERA: Let's talk about President Biden's move to stop the work on the Keystone Oil Pipeline, which is drawing a lot of criticism from Republicans. This project spans roughly 1,200 miles from Canada to Nebraska. Take a listen to Republican Senator Marco Rubio.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL): President Biden is talking like a centrist. He's using the words of the center, talking about unity. But he's governing like someone from the far left. At the stroke of a pen, he literally put thousands upon thousands of hard-working blue-collar union members out of work.
These are people that were working on Monday, that were working on Tuesday, and then the president goes into the Oval Office, signs an executive order wiping out the Keystone Pipeline and they're out of work. These folks now have to go back to their families in the middle of a pandemic and tell them, we just lost our job, and I don't know where I'm going to go work next.
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CABRERA: Bill, Rubio claims this kills jobs while not actually addressing the climate crisis. What are the facts?
WEIR: Well, the facts are that when it comes to permanent employees with the pipeline, you know, your average Bennigan's probably has more employees there. I'm sure it takes hundreds, if not a thousand and two to build it. Then that's a temporary job.
There are lots of pipelines. Keystone XL became sort of the poster child for stopping this because it's bringing the dirtiest fuel, its tar sands oil from Canada through past aquifer. And so you had farmers and land owners, Native-Americans and scientists all rallying against this. You have to draw a line in the sand if we're going to get off fossil fuels. If you ended up ditching --
CABRERA: -- extracting the oil in that case, when you talk about the tar sands. That takes a lot of energy, right, in terms of when he talks about the impact on climate? WEIR: Yes, exactly. Tar sands is like, imagine it's like scraping the
bottom of the barrel. It's not putting a straw into liquid and sucking it out. It's like thick cookie dough and you have to use tons and tons, you know. A lot of freshwater goes into it to heat it up and get the oil out of it.
And it never made sense to even dig for that stuff when oil has been as low as it is. This will also really upsets Canada. Justin Trudeau who tries to run (ph) is agreeing. He's got a lot of oil deals because their economy is so tied to that.
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And he tweeted about it saying he's disappointed with the decision about Keystone XL. But this is just a microcosm of all the fights that will happen nearly in every center (ph) of the economy.
CABRERA: I only have about 30 seconds, Bill, but when you look at Biden's proposals that impact the environment, what is likely to have bipartisan ship? What can get done quickly?
WEIR: You know, the only thing Republicans really put out is its trillion trees program. And yes, it does help to plant trees. It's not like we're going to grow our trees and grow our way out of this problem there. Infrastructure, everybody talks about infrastructure, wanting that. It's green if you do it smart. If there is innovation and sort of incentives for companies to come up with everything from clean air, concrete, to jet engines.
CABRERA: OK.
WEIR: (Inaudible).
CABRERA: Yes. Got to leave it there today, Bill, but I want to continue this conversation another day. I think it's such an important topic and issue. Thank you very much. That does it for me this evening. I'm Ana Cabrera. Thank you so much for joining me. CNN's NEWSROOM with Pamela Brown starts right now.
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