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One Year On, U.S. Nears 25 Million Coronavirus Infections; Trump Plotted To Fire Acting A.G. In Last-Ditch Effort To Overturn Election Loss; Rioter Charged With Threatening To Assassinate Ocasio- Cortez; Experts Support U.K. Decision To Delay Second Dose; Remembering Larry King; Chinese Foreign Ministry: Trump Officials Were "Anti-China"; Hundreds Detained In Pro-Navalny Rallies. Aired 5-6a ET

Aired January 24, 2021 - 05:00   ET

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

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KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): An alarming new report details the lengths that former president Trump was willing to go to overturn the election results. The latest on those allegations.

And more charges are brought against Capitol rioters for their actions on January 6th as details emerge about some disturbing threats. We'll discuss the growing problem of domestic extremism.

And honoring a TV broadcast legend and an icon of the CNN family. The life and legacy of Larry King as told by those who knew and loved him.

Live from CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta, welcome to all of you watching here in the United States, Canada and around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is CNN NEWSROOM.

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BRUNHUBER: Stunning new reporting reveals just how far the former U.S. president was willing to go to overturn his election loss. According to "The Wall Street Journal," Donald Trump considered using the Justice Department to push the Supreme Court to invalidate President Joe Biden's victory.

And if that's not enough, sources tell CNN Trump nearly replaced the acting attorney general with a relative unknown, who supported his false election claims. Trump's refusal to accept his loss helped provoke the riot at the U.S. Capitol and led to his historic second impeachment.

And we've got new information about an alleged participant. Authorities say this Texas man, Garrett Miller, made death threats against a Capitol police officer and House Democrat Alexandria Ocasio- Cortez.

The U.S. House sends its article of impeachment to the Senate tomorrow. Sources tell us there's some quiet Republican lobbying going on in support of a conviction and that minority leader Mitch McConnell privately says he wants Trump gone. Still, he hasn't taken a public position. Here's Ryan Nobles.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RYAN NOBLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The impeachment trial of former president Donald Trump is now beginning to take shape here on Capitol Hill. On Monday, the House will send over the articles of impeachment, starting the clock on the trial itself. On Monday the senators will be sworn in. On Tuesday they'll pick a presiding judge.

But the trial itself won't begin until February 8th. That gives the former president roughly two weeks to get his legal house in order in time for the trial to begin.

Now Republicans pushed for that. They believe that that was part of the due process that the former president should be afforded. But it also comes with an issue for president Trump because, in that time frame, more information could come out that could be damaging to his legal case.

Like for instance, this "New York Times" bombshell that came out over the weekend, that suggests the president was putting pressure on members of the Justice Department to look for examples of voter fraud that would help him overturn the election.

Now that's not directly connected to the Capitol insurrection but, remember, impeachment is not a legal argument. It is a political argument. And if there are more examples of issues that Republicans could potentially find with president Trump, that could mean that Democrats could convince the 17 necessary to cross party lines and vote to convict president Trump.

At this point it doesn't appear that there are enough of them to make that happen but we're still waiting to see how the Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell will rule on this case.

He said he wants to hear all of the arguments before making a decision. If McConnell were to break from former president Trump, there are a number of other Republicans that could follow suit -- Ryan Nobles, CNN, on Capitol Hill.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: Meanwhile, authorities are still focused on their investigation into the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and arrests are piling up. A Texas man is now charged with threatening to kill a Capitol police officer and a prominent House Democrat. Jessica Schneider has that.

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JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Another major arrest connected to that January 6th Capitol attack, this time against a Texas man, accused of posting online death threats not only against Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez but also against a Capitol Police officer. Now prosecutors say Garrett Miller of Texas tweeted, quote,

"Assassinate AOC" and also said the police officer who fatally shot a female Trump supporter inside the Capitol, quote, "deserves to die."

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SCHNEIDER: And also said, won't survive long because, quote, "it's hunting season."

SCHNEIDER (voice-over): Now officials say Miller participated in the Capitol attack and then posted extensively on social media before and after the attack, saying a civil war could start and that also, "next time we bring guns."

Now congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez has been very vocal in the days after the attack. She's talked about how she and other members weren't sure they'd make it out alive.

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REP. ALEXANDRA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-NY): I had a very close encounter where I thought I was going to die. It is not an exaggeration to say that many, many members of the House were nearly assassinated.

It's just not an exaggeration to say that at all. We were very lucky that things happened within certain minutes that allowed members to escape the House floor unharmed. But many of us nearly and narrowly escaped death.

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SCHNEIDER: This man who posted those threats against AOC is facing five federal criminal charges, including for his participation in the attack as well as the death threats.

Garrett Miller's attorney is telling CNN, his client regrets the threats and also says this, quote, "He did it in support of former president Donald Trump but he regrets his actions. He has the support of his family and a lot of the comments are viewed in context as really sort of misguided political hyperbole."

Given the political divide these days, there is a lot of hyperbole. And, of course, this is yet another suspect who said they were inspired by the president to attack the Capitol. At this point more than 120 people have been charged. Hundreds more could still be charged, as prosecutors now zero in on that next round of charges, that will likely be even more serious against those people who evaded law enforcement so far.

And the charges could even include sedition and conspiracy. Those include hefty sentences of up to 20 years in prison -- Jessica Schneider, CNN, Washington.

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BRUNHUBER: In the wake of the Capitol riots, the Biden administration is planning to overhaul the government's approach to domestic terrorism.

On Friday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki outlined some of the steps it will take. She says the administration's initial work includes compiling a comprehensive threat assessment and building up the National Security Council's ability to fight domestic extremism.

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JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The January 6th assault on the Capitol and the tragic deaths and destruction that occurred underscored what we have long known, the rise of domestic violent extremism is a serious and growing national security threat.

The Biden administration will confront this threat with the necessary resources and resolve.

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BRUNHUBER: Randy Blazak is chairman of the Oregon Coalition against Hate Crime and joins me from Portland, Oregon.

Thanks so much for joining with us. I want to start with the federal government's new emphasis on fighting domestic extremism.

Yesterday you wrote that, "2021 will see a post-Q anti-government movement that, with the help of social media, will fuse all the bad actors of the past."

I mean, that sounds ominous to say the least.

So to tackle that, what should President Biden's first concrete priorities be?

DR. RANDY BLAZAK, CHAIRMAN, OREGON COALITION AGAINST HATE CRIME: Well, we do have this looming threat. I think some thought it would disappear after Inauguration Day. But there's been a growing anti- government movement out there, probably most famously expressed in the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. And it's only grown since then.

It's grown online. It's grown in the sort of vacuum of social media and the conspiracy theories. And so what the Biden administration really needs to do is sort of tackle four main areas.

You've got to get down on the threats that are looming, that are out there, being planned, that include domestic terrorism and acts to kind of create this momentum around a civil war.

You've got to work on the infiltration of white supremacists in the military and law enforcement, which is a big issue.

You've got to work on the root causes that drive people into these movements, which was sort of a fringe subculture in the 1990s and now it's become kind of a mainstream movement in 2020. And also we need sort of a leadership about what kind of country we

want to be going future, how we'll tackle issues like race and the demographic changes that are coming.

BRUNHUBER: That's a long, long laundry list there. We're seeing on the right of screen pictures of the attack on the Capitol.

Just going back to that, I mean, the FBI and Justice Department, considering not charging all of those who stormed the Capitol.

Does that make sense to you, to focus more just on the most violent offenders?

Or does that send a bad message that committing this kind of crime, it's OK as long as you don't go overboard?

BLAZAK: Well, we see a similar tactic on the Left, where the real agitators are the ones who get the attention.

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BLAZAK: And the people who just get caught up in the moment are really less culpable. So I think what we'll be seeing is a strategy is to really break up some of these organizations that were behind the Capitol coup attempt, bringing people to Washington, D.C.

And the people that were just there, that got caught up in the moment are less important to sort of stopping this momentum than sort of going after the main actors.

BRUNHUBER: You mentioned the -- the Left there. So with the focus on the attack on the Capitol, we haven't really been paying attention to what's been going on. The protests in Portland, where you are this week, they really ramped up. We saw rioters vandalize the state Democratic Party headquarters and a federal immigration building.

You might think, with Donald Trump out of White House, the temperature would have cooled but obviously that's not the case.

Why is this happening now?

BLAZAK: Yes, these issues don't go away because we have a change of administration. The systemic racism in policing goes on, whether there's a Democrat or a Republican in the White House. So there's still a need I think from these protesters to keep the fire burning on these issues, to not let the momentum created in the summer of 2020 die just because we have a new president.

But you know, these are sort of apples and oranges, these two different wings we have of protests. One are trying to expand democracy. The other are trying to stop democracy and stop elections from being counted.

One side is about trying to get civil rights to as many millions of Americans as possible and the other side is really about the rights of one individual to be president, as long as he wants to be. So we get into sort of a false equivalency when we compare them. But

there is kind of an overlap in how they impact the public discourse around protests, including bringing people in and pushing a lot of people away.

BRUNHUBER: So I asked you this, you know, a couple of months ago, when this was really in the forefront.

You know, do you feel that anything is actually being achieved with this, other than fueling the right wing?

I mean, you mentioned that false equivalency. We hear that all the time. Look at FOX News Web site, with three stories of what's going on in Portland so they are using it as ammunition.

But is it actually achieving its ends, these sorts of protests?

BLAZAK: Well, we've moved the discussion to the public forums about institutional racism. We're talking about defunding police departments and what that looks like. We're talking about issues of implicit bias and police profiling.

And so there are systemic changes that are happening. And I think what's happening now, especially with the change of the administration, there's a lot of conversations that were happening in the streets of America, including here in Portland, are moving inside to the halls of justice, to office buildings, to places where these real changes can be made.

So we are seeing real change and the main change is how we're talking about these issues.

BRUNHUBER: Yes. I think the problem is, when it descends into violence, that conversation stops and people just talk about the pictures that they are seeing on their screens. We'll have to leave it there but certainly plenty of issues to talk about with you in the future. Thank you so much for coming back on, Randy Blazak, we appreciate it.

BLAZAK: Thank you.

BRUNHUBER: President Biden has made COVID vaccinations a top priority but states are still seeing problems with the vaccine rollout. Coming up, why they say supply can't keep up with demand.

Plus for years, Larry King was CNN's brightest star. Later, we'll look back as his remarkable legacy as we bid him farewell.

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(MUSIC PLAYING) BRUNHUBER: The U.S. is moving closer to 25 million known cases of

coronavirus. This comes just more than one year since the first infection was reported here.

On Saturday, California recorded nearly 23,000 new cases. The number of people in the hospital is falling but, as you can see there, that's not taking the pressure off overwhelmed health care workers.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control says more than 20 million vaccinations have been administered in the U.S. But many states are struggling to get the doses they need.

President Joe Biden is pushing to get his goal of 100 million shots into people's arms in his first 100 days in office. But for many state governments, vaccine supply is rapidly becoming a pressing concern, as demand grows. CNN's Natasha Chen has more from Atlanta.

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NATASHA CHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As the Biden administration went into its first weekend promising to remain laser focused on the pandemic, the virus continued its lethal now year-long rampage; 764 deaths on Friday alone in California, an all-time single day record for the state.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on Saturday, more than 1.4 million vaccine doses were administered. So far, the Biden administration has been meeting its goal of one million shots per day about double what the U.S. was averaging in the month before the President took office.

But local health providers are hitting roadblocks in ramping up. CHEN (on camera): What resources would you need to be able to double what you're doing every day?

ERIC NICKENS JR., SPOKESPERSON, DEKALB COUNTY HEALTH: A dependable vaccine supply. Right now, we're having to kind of dance a delicate dance between opening up additional appointments and the amount of vaccine that we have on hand.

CHEN (voice-over): Friday night, the Board of Health and DeKalb County, Georgia offered new appointments for the first time in nearly two weeks because they had been uncertain of how many new doses they get.

Publix grocery stores, which are offering the vaccine in three states told CNN they're also only releasing new appointments when they've confirmed and verified shipments of vaccine.

GOV. PHIL MURPHY (D-NJ): I'm less worried unless new news pops up about running out, as I am. This is going to take at the moment a lot longer than we had expected in early December. I think the Biden team has found that the cupboard is a lot barer than anyone thought.

CHEN (voice-over): The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health says they've only received enough vaccine to inoculate one in every four people who are currently eligible.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All the work of getting here was worth it.

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CHEN (voice-over): About 5 percent of the U.S. population has gotten at least one dose, around half of the doses distributed to states still haven't been administered according to data from the CDC.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Feds need to, you know, take control so that they can help the states. The line was long. And I waited an hour and a half. But you know, that's okay. If you really want to get this, you'll wait.

CHEN (voice-over): And there's hope for improvement because Dr. Anthony Fauci says, now science is guiding the way.

FAUCI: That's a different tone, actually, that's strikingly different. And that's the reason why even though there's still going to be a lot of challenges ahead, if you stick with the scientific data and are transparent, open and honest with the American public, I think you're going to see things that are going to be different as we move forward.

CHEN (voice-over): Natasha Chen, CNN, Atlanta.

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BRUNHUBER: Even as the coronavirus rages, parts of southern California, some people there are seeing a glimmer of hope on the horizon. CNN's Paul Vercammen tells us why.

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PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The L.A. County numbers in some ways are just mind-boggling. 269 new deaths. Also, 15,162 COVID deaths overall. But the number that just is so stunning is 5,000 deaths since December 30th.

Now a little glimmer of hope: we are seeing the hospitalizations go down. They've dipped below 7,000 for the first time in a long time.

How do you address a pandemic in Los Angeles County?

Well, they've been opening up these super vaccination sites. This one at the Forum in Inglewood. People had been trying to get these prized vaccination appointments, many of them struggling for days on end, having problems with websites and making phone calls. So you have never seen so many people so happy to be stuck by a needle.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Relieved, relieved. The hunt for trying to get it has stopped. Now I got the first one, I just wait for the message to come back and get the second one.

VERCAMMEN: How long did you hunt for? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: From the beginning of time, from the beginning that this started.

Wherein going to be something to help me not groan so much about it?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And I feel great. And I don't want to be actually away from my kids and grandkids. I want to be able to hug them and kiss them and be with them.

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VERCAMMEN: And the Los Angeles county supervisor for this district, Holly Mitchell, saying, we have the infrastructure to get these shots in people's arms; we need more vaccine. Of course, that is being echoed throughout the nation right now -- back to you.

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BRUNHUBER: The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is in touch with British health officials to review how deadly a coronavirus variant found in the U.K. is. British data suggests it's not only more contagious but could also have a higher death rate.

Although the data isn't conclusive and it has British health officials scrambling to get more people vaccinated in the U.K. Scott McLean explains.

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SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A measure of success in the U.K. in the fight against the coronavirus. On Saturday, the government said more than 5.8 million people had received their first dose of vaccine. That's nearly 9 percent of the population.

But critics say rolling out the second doses should be happening sooner. Doctors from the British Medical Association want to reduce the gap between the first and second dose of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine from up to 12 weeks to six weeks.

The chief medical officer says the longer wait allows more people to build up immunity. But Pfizer says the vaccine was only tested at a 21-day interval.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No other nation in the world has taken this stance. We want to be sure that, if this delay is occurring, we're not compromising and we're not going to result, we hope, in people becoming infected, who may have been protected by having an earlier second dose.

MCLEAN (voice-over): The vaccines even more vital, as a more contagious variant of the virus sweeps through the U.K. and beyond. The World Health Organization says it's been detected in more than 60 countries.

Early data suggests current vaccines can be effective against this variant. But the U.K.'s chief scientist says there is some evidence this strain may be more deadly than others. But it's too soon to tell.

PATRICK VALLANCE, U.K. CHIEF SCIENTIFIC ADVISER: There's a lot of uncertainty around these numbers and we need more work to get a precise handle on it. But it obviously is of concern that this has an increase in mortality as well as an increase in transmissibility as it appears of today.

MCLEAN (voice-over): In January, the U.K. went back into lockdown because of an alarming number of new cases, many driven by the variant.

And as even more strains of the virus are identified, in Brazil and in South Africa, and questions about how they will respond to vaccines.

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MCLEAN (voice-over): The U.K. suspended its travel corridors on Monday and says it's considering a full border closure to protect the population.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: Scott joins me now from London.

Scott, the British government is taking some heat over its vaccination strategy.

Are there any signs that it could change course?

MCLEAN: Well, the short answer is no. The British health secretary said this morning that he's confident that the government's strategy of spacing out vaccine doses by 12 weeks instead of the usual six will save lives.

The idea is that, as long as you get some level of protection or a decent level of protection from one dose -- and he says you do -- you can double the amount of people that has some protection. The problem he says is vaccine supply. So he gave this example.

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MATT HANCOCK, BRITISH HEALTH SECRETARY: If you have two grandparents, who are in their 70s or 80s and you want -- and you have two doses of vaccine, you obviously would want each of them to have one dose when you know that one dose is effective rather than one to have the full two-dose schedule and then the other to have no protection at all.

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MCLEAN: So the concern from doctors that we're hearing is that if you mess with the dosing schedule or the vaccine dosing schedule, that the vaccine may not be as effective as intended, simply because it hasn't been studied before.

Now on the question of whether the U.K. variant of the coronavirus is more deadly than the original, the health secretary acknowledged that the messaging has been confusing because the science is uncertain.

On the one hand you have studies that suggest that this variant is more deadly based on the data. On the other hand, you have hospital data that shows that you are no more likely to die from the U.K. variant than you are from the original virus -- Kim.

BRUNHUBER: All still very confusing but thanks for shedding light on it. Scott McLean in London.

Well, the world is remembering beloved broadcaster Larry King. He was a familiar voice on radio and a friendly face on TV for decades, a key part of the CNN family. Next, we'll hear from some of those who knew King well as we mourn the loss of a friend.

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BRUNHUBER: And welcome back to all of you here in the United States, Canada and around the world.

The world has lost an iconic and legendary broadcaster. Larry King has died at the age of 87. The cause of his death hasn't been released but a source close to the family said in early January, King had been hospitalized with COVID-19.

He was known the world over for his likable, one-on-one interviews with world leaders, celebrities and everyday people. King dedicated his life to broadcasting, spending six decades on radio, TV and digital media. For more than 25 years, he hosted "LARRY KING LIVE" right here on CNN.

Our Anderson Cooper takes a look back at King's extraordinary life and legacy.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): More than 50,000 interviews, an infinite amount of what, where, when and --

KING: Why? Why? Why? Why?

The secret of my ability was stupid. In other words, I didn't know and I readily confessed I didn't know and I would say, help me to the guest. Help me, why did you do that?

Why do you have one name?

MADONNA, SINGER: As opposed to what?

KING: Two names, like, you know, Madonna --

MADONNA: Ciccone.

KING: -- Lebovitz.

MADONNA: That's good. That's good. I like that.

COOPER: I was asking around to people who've been on the show about what is it that makes it worked so well and they said that you make guests comfortable to the point where they feel they can say anything.

KING: You know the secret. I want the guest to be good. I want them to be responsive. I want them to react. And I'm going to be that tomorrow night.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A lot of good memories. And look at me now.

KING: I look back on my life and I sometimes think I'm looking at someone else. I look at the things that have happened to me. The good and the bad and I can't believe it sometimes. I mean, I can't believe it.

I look at my teenage boys. Who is that, come on, somebody's kidding. Somebody's kidding. It's all a whirl. I'm still doing it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: Larry King became synonymous with CNN, thanks to a savvy hiring on the part of this network's founder, Ted Turner.

He called King a consummate professional and says, quote, "Larry was one of my closest and dearest friends and, in my opinion, the world's greatest broadcast journalist of all time. If anyone asks me what are my greatest career achievements in life, one is the creation of CNN and the other is hiring Larry King."

Another longtime member of our CNN family, Christiane Amanpour, often appeared on "LARRY KING LIVE," reporting from hot spots from around the world. She also sat down with him one-on-one for frank discussions of the day.

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KING: Is religion a failure?

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN HOST: It depends what you mean by success or failure. I would say it's a struggle.

(CROSSTALK)

KING: The world's in chaos. They've been preaching this for hundreds of years.

AMANPOUR: The world is in a very, very serious and dangerous state. The figures show that most of the civil wars right now are fought about religion and that there is --

KING: God's in every war, right? AMANPOUR: Yes. And increasingly so. But -- and I have covered religious civil war all my career --

KING: I know.

AMANPOUR: -- there is a way out of it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: And our chief international anchor, Christiane Amanpour, joins me now from London.

Christiane, I want to start with Larry's own words, the simplest question is the best. So a simple question then.

What did Larry King mean to you?

AMANPOUR: Well, Larry King meant CNN to me and I think meant CNN to the world. As you heard from Ted Turner's statement, you know, Ted created a global media revolution with CNN 40 years ago.

And Larry was integral to the rise and the ascent and cementing CNN on the consciousness and on the reality of our public space, whether it was inside the United States or globally.

And he became the -- you know, we've said, the must-see appointment to view program. But he was also the global confessor. He was the person who convened just about anybody who was anybody at any time.

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AMANPOUR: And that meant every single night, five days a week for 25 years, while he was at CNN. Everybody from, you know, world leaders to American politicians to sports people to celebrities.

And, remember, he also pioneered having a call-in. So he had come from radio. So on television he brought ordinary viewers to talk to the extraordinary people he had on set. And that was also, you know, revolutionary at that time. And it made his program accessible to a lot of people.

BRUNHUBER: Well, let's go back to the beginning. You joined CNN before Larry King.

So what did you think of him when you first saw him, this radio personality with such an unconventional interviewing style?

What were your first impressions back then?

AMANPOUR: Well, Kim, I was a peon. I was just out of, you know, university, climbing my way up the ladder. Larry was an established mega star, who as you rightly say, began on radio with "The Larry King Show" and developed this style of conversation with all these incredible people.

And then he transported that to television and to CNN. He joined in 1985. I joined in 1983. But you know, he was the big star in Washington. I was in Atlanta and we didn't really have any connection whatsoever until I became, you know, relevant enough to be on the air.

And really started with the first Gulf War in 1990 and 1991 and, of course, that's when CNN exploded on the world stage as well and became indispensable television for anyone trying to figure out what was going on in that huge war and in real time.

It was really the first time that that cliche was absolutely relevant, in that the news and the war was in your living room. and Larry was a huge part of that, talking to all the diplomats, talking to all of us in the field, talking to all the leaders who were involved in that war.

And I think that, you know, if you heard from Anderson's tribute, you heard Larry's own words. He was a guy who was in many ways an ordinary guy. He, of course, was not devoid of a pretty extraordinary ego.

But he wasn't arrogant and he, you know -- clearly, it was a career well spent and a life well lived and he was always grateful for everything that came his way. And he was so relatable, I think.

BRUNHUBER: I want to go back to you saying you were in the field. You were on with him countless times, doing live shots from all around the world.

So are there any specific moments that spring to mind, you know, good or bad?

AMANPOUR: They were all good, you know. It was, you know, when we were out in the rest of the world, you'd have to get up at some crazy 0 dark 30 to be on "LARRY KING LIVE" but we always wanted to be on "LARRY KING LIVE" because it was The Show. And we all knew it.

It had the highest ratings and the most important audience. And remember CNN, when it started, it was all about breaking news. Ted Turner has very famously said, the news is the star.

And then Larry came and created an hour every night of something different. Now you have interview shows and panels and all the rest of it as a matter of course. But at that point, every night on one of the major stations, to have this kind of caliber of talk show, news show, interview show, was quite -- was quite rare.

So we wanted to be on the show for sure. And, I mean, I remember being, from all over, as I said, the first Gulf War with Scud missiles going off and this and that and being in Baghdad.

You know, I started in Saudi Arabia, where the U.S. launched the war and I ended up in Baghdad, where, you know, it was all raining down on Saddam Hussein and being able to tell the two different ends of that story on Larry's show, often with accompanying noise and soundtrack in the atmosphere of exploding shells and the like.

You know, it was very exciting. It was very dramatic. You always felt that, you know, that you really were telling people news for the first time.

Again, remember, it was before social media. It was before everybody could get on and tweet about what was happening. Often people just saw it first on CNN and really first on Larry's show.

So it was -- it was very, very exciting. And he was an amazing talker. He said himself that, you know, he didn't often act like the expert.

And that was kind of fun, too, because he would always say that he'd never read the books of anyone he was interviewing because he wanted the audience, you know, to be enlightened at the same time as him. He was a funny guy.

BRUNHUBER: Listen, we really appreciate you sharing your memories of this absolute legend of broadcasting. Thanks so much, CNN's chief international anchor, Christiane Amanpour.

AMANPOUR: Thank you, Kim.

BRUNHUBER: Well, China's relationship with the U.S. hit some major lows during the Trump presidency.

How will both countries manage things, now that Joe Biden is at the White House?

We'll answer that question just ahead.

And protesters marched and rallied by the thousands across Russia on Saturday.

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BRUNHUBER: When we come back, how their effort to free a prominent opposition politician didn't work out as they wanted.

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BRUNHUBER: Well, just in to CNN, a police officer in a vehicle plowed through a group of pedestrians. We want to warn you, the social media video you're about to see is disturbing.

It happened in Tacoma, Washington, so here's the video.

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BRUNHUBER (voice-over): So in the clip, you see the vehicle rev its engines and then suddenly drive through the crowd. The Tacoma Police said the officer, while fearing for his safety, ran over at least one person and possibly hit others.

We don't know that person's condition right now. Local reports say the crowd had gathered in downtown Tacoma, Washington, to watch a street race. And they were blocking an intersection. They were also pounding on the windows of the officer's vehicle. The officer will be placed on leave while the investigation of the incident is underway.

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BRUNHUBER: President Joe Biden is making calls to foreign leaders as he settles into the White House. His outreach includes talks with Canada's prime minister Justin Trudeau, Mexico's president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and British prime minister Boris Johnson.

Mr. Trudeau told President Biden he was disappointed in his executive order to rescind permits for the Keystone XL pipeline, saying it would cost jobs on both sides of the border.

Mr. Biden outlined his plan to Mexico's president to reverse Trump's immigration approach.

And Prime Minister Johnson welcomed Biden's move to rejoin the Paris agreement on climate change, reversing Donald Trump's decision to pull the U.S. out of it.

Meanwhile China is expressing hope that the Biden administration will meet it, quote, "halfway," to achieve a sound and stable relationship.

[05:45:00]

BRUNHUBER: Beijing's relationship with the U.S. hit some major lows during the Trump presidency so let's bring in CNN's Will Ripley in Hong Kong.

Will, it didn't take long for China to stick the boot into the outgoing Trump administration and to test the incoming Biden team.

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. Over the weekend, China flew more than a dozen of its military aircraft over the Taiwan Strait. The United States State Department immediately said that's a continuation of what they call Beijing's bullying of Taiwan which China considers a renegade province.

China has repeatedly told the U.S. to butt out of the Taiwan issue and the issue of the United States condemning the suppression of the pro- democracy movement here in Hong Kong and the accusations of genocide against Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang.

So on the issues of human rights, China and the U.S. are butting heads now, just like they did during the Trump years and before that.

BRUNHUBER: So the Biden administration will be probably less outwardly hostile. But it hasn't signaled that it's going to reduce pressure on China on a couple of key issues. You mentioned some of them there.

So the broader question is, how different will Biden's China policy be from Trump's?

RIPLEY: The signals in Chinese state media are that, on the Beijing side, they are hopeful that they can have a more productive working relationship than they did during the Trump years, which were basically seeing U.S.-China ties plunge to their lowest levels in decades.

The new White House coordinator for the Indo-Pacific, Kurt Campbell, is actually a familiar name to a lot of stakeholders here in this region as someone who was able to contain China's power while also working productively with China during the mid-1990s.

He was actually behind former President Obama's pivot to Asia, which may be an indication that President Biden is also going to be prioritizing Asia and trying to work productively with China on key issues of mutual interest to both countries, such as trade and also climate change.

BRUNHUBER: And finally, before we go here, you know, President Biden's been talking to leaders who felt a bit snubbed by the Trump administration, trying to rebuild some of those bridges.

What's been the reaction from Asia?

RIPLEY: A very warm welcome from U.S. allies, like Japan and South Korea and India; even though the Indian prime minister was close with president Trump he's welcoming in President Biden.

Same thing in Singapore and in Indonesia. Other countries are a little more cautious such as the Philippines, which has had its own rocky relationship in recent years with the U.S. under Trump and under Obama as well.

And also in addition to the Philippines, Thailand, which relies very heavily on Chinese tourism and trade, just like pretty much every other country in the region here. Obviously, we've talked about how China is going hawkish but also extending an olive branch to work together on key issues.

And certainly from the perspectives of the big players in this region, other than China, such as Japan and Australia and India, there's been an expression of interest in working together with the United States to try to rebalance this region and take back some of the ground that the U.S. has lost to China over the last four years.

But of course, from the Beijing perspective, they look at that as the United States trying to suppress and contain China, something they promised repeatedly they will push back very hard on.

BRUNHUBER: A very fraught relationship. Thanks very much, Will Ripley. Appreciate it.

A two-week long ordeal is over for 11 miners who were rescued hours ago after being trapped in a gold mine in China for two weeks. But it seems about 10 others are still stuck underground.

State media earlier said 22 miners were trapped in a mine blast on January 10th. The man seen here was the first rescued. He was described as extremely weak and was taken to hospital. The U.S. State Department, the E.U. and the British foreign secretary

have all condemned Russia for using force against opposition protesters.

Tens of thousands of people demonstrated across the country on Saturday. Hundreds of people were detained and police were seen wielding batons on the crowd. The protesters were demanding the release of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, whose arrest last week sparked widespread outrage.

We're paying our respects to the late Larry King and looking back at some of his most memorable moments. The King of Talk was known for his friendly, personable interviews. We'll see one of them next.

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[05:50:00]

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KING: This?

JANET JACKSON, SINGER-DANCER: This, hit your chest and push your arm out.

KING: Same arm.

JACKSON: Yes. And let that go out at the same time.

There you go.

Bring this leg in and put that hand down.

Hit your chest. And push it out.

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BRUNHUBER: I've seen that a bunch of times and, every time, it still makes me smile. That was CNN's Larry King, of course, learning dance moves from Janet Jackson.

Well, all day we've been remembering Larry King, a titan in broadcasting and a beloved member of the CNN family. King died at the age of 87.

For more than 25 years, he hosted "LARRY KING LIVE" on CNN. More than 6,000 episodes, interviewing everyone from the biggest newsmakers and celebrities to everyday people.

Larry King's family say they will always remember him as fiercely loyal, an amazing father who was lovingly obsessed over their well- being. No cause of death was released.

But he had been treated in hospital for coronavirus. People around the world have been paying tribute. He was on TV and radio for decades, with countless incredible interviews and classic moments.

Here he is with civil rights hero, Rosa Parks, as they talk about the day she refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man and changed history.

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KING: You did not get up?

ROSA PARKS, CIVIL RIGHTS ICON: No.

KING: Do you know why?

PARKS: Yes.

KING: Why?

PARKS: Because I didn't think I should have to get up. I had already paid my fare and I'm sure he didn't pay any more than I did.

[05:55:00]

And I didn't think that, once we took a seat, even under the segregation conditions, that we should be made to stand up in a crowded bus and not be --

KING: Did you have any idea you were starting something that day?

PARKS: No. No, I didn't know what would be the outcome of my taking a stand except I knew that when the driver said he would have me arrested, that was he was going to do and I would be on my way to jail.

KING: Were you frightened?

PARKS: I wasn't really frightened but I thought about things that I had to do at home and felt a little bit annoyed about that. And then I took this as an opportunity to let it be known that, as a passenger, I was not being treated fairly and, as a person and we as a people, were not treated fairly to have to undergo this type of treatment.

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BRUNHUBER: And here is Larry's heartwarming message when he signed off on CNN for the last time.

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KING: It's not very often in my life I've been without words, but I want to thank everybody associated with this program. All the people behind the scenes, as I mentioned, Wendy and the staff. The floor people, everybody who makes it possible, even the suits at the top. I love them, too.

When I started 25 years ago at a little studio in Washington, D.C., I never thought it would ever last this long or come to this.

So I'm going to go on and do a lot of other things, we're going to do specials here on CNN and I'm going to be seen in other places and do some radio work, be around baseball.

So you're not going to see me go away, but you're not going to see me here on this set anymore. For two weeks they're going to be playing highlight shows.

I don't know what to say, except to you, my audience, thank you. And instead of goodbye, how about so long?

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