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Man Arrested with Gun and 20 Rounds Near the Capitol; Pelosi on Threats to Lawmakers: "Enemy is Withing the House"; House GOP Silent Over Lawmakers Endorsing Killings of Democrats; Interview with Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Il), Democrats Handling of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green; Anger Erupts After Stock Apps Restrict Trading in GameStop Stock interfering with Massive Rally. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired January 28, 2021 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00]

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: Got some breaking news for you out of Washington D.C. where this West Virginia man was just arrested by U.S. Capitol Police armed with a handgun and 20 rounds of ammunition. Investigators say they found him outside the American Veterans Disabled for Life Memorial near the U.S. Capitol. You see the map just to see how close he was.

CNN justice correspondent Jessica Schneider is on this for us today. And so who is this guy? What happened?

JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Brooke, so this is 71-year-old Dennis Westover. He's from Charleston, West Virginia. And what he told police is that yesterday just before he was arrested, he said he drove up from Charleston, West Virginia, at 5:30 in the morning and wanted to see the fencing and perimeter around the Capitol.

But when police actually started to question him, they realized that he had a handgun and 20 rounds of ammunition in his car that was parked in the middle of an intersection right near the Capitol.

So that's when they placed him under arrest. But Brooke, he had some disturbing things inside his car. Police say that he had a "stop the steal" paperwork that had a list of members of Congress, as well as legislators in the West Virginia legislature, and that he had contact information for these lawmakers.

So that's obviously very disturbing that he was here. He had come here specifically yesterday. And what we also know is that according to a Facebook post from his fiance, he was also here on January 6th. He was part of that rally.

Now the Facebook post that we've seen indicate that he was not actually part of the riot, did not actually go to or into the Capitol, but he was here. And he's been to many "stop the steal" rallies. He's posted as well about QAnon and Donald Trump. However, Brooke, he did appear in court today and he has been

released. The judge released him basically saying that the statements he made to police were not threats. They were merely points of view.

So, this 71-year-old man, he's been released. He's been ordered to stay out of Washington. So presumably he'll go back to West Virginia. He'll be back here for a court appearance in July.

But, you know, these are the types of concerns we're seeing that led to that DHS bulletin yesterday warning about these violent threats from domestic extremists, you know, not tying this guy to being a domestic extremist, but this is what they are concerned about.

And law enforcement is on heightened alert right now and they're keeping a very close eye on anyone who gets anywhere close to the Capitol. In this case, the man had left his car in the middle of an intersection, he had a gun that was not permitted here in Washington D.C.

So law enforcement is sending a message here, that do not mess around when you are near the Capitol because you will be arrested -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: This is just one guy of who knows how many. They should be on high alert. Jessica Schneider, thank you so much. We'll let them investigate that.

Staying in Washington, while Republicans remain mostly silent over Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, the QAnon supporting conspiracy theorist who harassed a Parkland shooting survivor over her second amendment rights. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi not having it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA) HOUSE SPEAKER: What I'm concerned about is the Republican leadership in the House of Representatives who are willing to overlook, ignore those statements. What could they be thinking or is thinking is too generous a word for what they might be doing?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: CNN congressional correspondent Jessica Dean is live on The Hill. And Jessica, I mean it's clear how Democrats feel about this woman. What are Republicans doing about her?

JESSICA DEAN, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, there's no official movement on that right now, Brooke. But what we do know is that House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy through an aide said that they did find those comments that she's made disturbing. They plan to have a conversation with her.

So that's where the Republicans stand on this right now.

To your point, the Democrats, they're moving much more expeditiously on this. So to that end, there is one representative, Jahana Hayes who has put together a letter that is asking for Representative Greene to be removed from the House Education Committee. Let me read you part from that letter.

It says, in light of the onslaught of reports that have emerged depicting Representative Greene espousing hateful rhetoric and conspiracy theories about the legitimacy of mass school shootings, it has become clear that she should not be seated on this committee to further this narrative.

Now two more things to keep in mind, Brooke, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, another congresswoman is considering a resolution to have Greene taken off the committee if Kevin McCarthy doesn't do that.

There's also another congressman, Jimmy Gomez who is considering putting forward a resolution to have her expelled.

Now I talked to one House Democratic aide this afternoon and they told me, look, getting someone expelled is really tough. But getting them off the committee, in their words, is not. They said Republicans did this with Steve King over his racist comments, and they consider what Marjorie Taylor Greene has done to be worse. So that's where the state of play is right now here at the Capitol.

[15:35:00]

BALDWIN: So, I hear you saying Kevin McCarthy is going to be having a conversation with her. But it seems to me his priority is going down to Mar-a-Lago to find the former President Donald Trump to have a much bigger conversation with him. What do you know about that meeting?

DEAN: So he is in Florida. He did meet with former President Trump today. Our reporting indicates that he wanted to go down there to get back in President Trump's good graces.

You'll remember actually after the January 6th riot right here at the Capitol, McCarthy went on the floor and said that Trump did bear some responsibility. He then walked those statements back and now today he's in Florida.

So what they said is that he's going down to talk about getting Republicans back in power in the House in 2022. And to that end, President Trump's office did put out a statement about that meeting. They called it a good meeting. And they said in part that President Trump has agreed to work with leader McCarthy on helping the Republican Party to become a majority in the House.

And Brooke, the big picture here, what to take away from this meeting, there's a lot of questions about where the Republican Party is going, especially after January 6th, especially with this impeachment trial starting.

And if you want to know where the House Republicans are, their leader is with President Trump today talking to him about taking back the House majority. So, that should tell us a lot.

BALDWIN: Speaks volumes, doesn't it? Jessica Dean on The Hill. Jessica, thank you.

Joining me now, Democratic Congressman Mike Quigley of Illinois. Congressman Quigley, welcome, sir.

REP. MIKE QUIGLEY (D-IL): Good to be back. Thank you.

BALDWIN: How does Marjorie Taylor Greene still have a job? What consequences do you think she needs to face?

QUIGLEY: You know, I'm not worried anymore. The minority leader is going to have a stern talking to her with about all this, something akin to going to the principal's office.

BALDWIN: So, you're being totally facetious. Yes, I'm like, conversation?

QUIGLEY: Just the flip of it. You've got to put this in the context. Obviously, I was in the room on the 6th. I'm aware of members -- a new member who wanted to bring a gun on the floor from Colorado. Mr. Harris from Maryland who tried to bring a gun on the floor, and obviously a long list that you've begun to detail about this new member's action.

And the reaction from the minority leader is extraordinarily poor at this time and absolutely tone deaf given the totality of things that have taken place.

BALDWIN: So, what needs to happen to her?

QUIGLEY: Look, at the very least as with Mr. King she needs to be removed from that committee and any and all committees. And then do believe that they, the Republicans, the onus is on them. They need to leave a censure of her, her statements and her actions. This has to happen now or somehow, like the president of the United States and his actions and words, she will be emboldened, and others like her.

BALDWIN: To your point about Republicans because I listened to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi this morning, and she slammed Republican leadership, you know, over Congresswoman Greene saying it is up to them to handle it.

I know you have colleagues, friends on the other side of the aisle who I'm sure you're talking to behind the scenes. What are the whispers? What are the consequences that they think she should face? Are they equally disgusted by her past behavior?

QUIGLEY: I think it's a mixed bag. I mean, frankly I have heard more people on Republican side talk about going after Liz Cheney because, what, she showed some moral backbone in voting to impeach the president of the United States who broke a 240-year history of a peaceful transfer of power. So, it's very --

BALDWIN: But they're OK with Marjorie Taylor Greene liking on Facebook a comment inferring an execution of Nancy Pelosi and other Democratic leaders? I mean, this is entirely serious Congressman. What specifically have Republicans -- are you saying they're just more irked over Liz Cheney than Marjorie Taylor Greene period?

QUIGLEY: I think that's -- look, if you look at what people have said publicly, that is absolutely the case. They seem to be more irked with Liz Cheney than this new freshman. Privately do I hear others who express greater concern? Absolutely.

BALDWIN: What are they saying? What are they saying?

QUIGLEY: Look, they're disgusted by her anti-Semitic, racist remarks from the beginning. They're aghast at the QAnon -- that she's a QAnon person and that she somehow got elected, which I suspect should bother us all more than anything.

BALDWIN: But they're just not saying it out loud. That is the problem. They are not saying it out loud. And to your point about, you know, this falls on Republican leadership.

When you heard -- when you heard Speaker Pelosi also this morning Congressman Quigley saying, you know, that the enemy is within the House of Representatives, you mentioned this off the top.

[15:40:00]

When you hear about members of Congress threatening the lives of Democrats, do you feel safe? Are you worried about your own security?

QUIGLEY: Well, I think there's two things here. I respect that I have Democratic colleagues who feel directly threatened. My concern and the security I have -- concerns I have now is they think that the House floor is what, like the O.K. Corral. It's OK to have a weapon there?

Obviously, you can't do this in the Supreme Court. You can't do this at the White House. You've never been able to do it in the House of Representatives and tempers flare. It is incredibly dangerous to suggest anything other than that.

BALDWIN: Do you feel personally threatened, Congressman?

QUIGLEY: I feel that I am in harm's way of incidents that could get out of hand and idiots who don't know what they're doing having weapons on the House floor.

BALDWIN: Congressman Mike Quigley. I'm sorry you feel that way. Thank you so much for sharing it and your candor. Thank you.

QUIGLEY: Take care.

BALDWIN: And a quick reminder to all of you, join Anderson Cooper for a look at the origins of QAnon conspiracy. How did this fringe theory become a movement that includes members of Congress? And what role did it play in the Capitol insurrection?

The CNN special report "INSIDE THE QANON CONSPIRACY" airs Saturday night at 9:00 Eastern.

Still ahead here, the Wall Street showdown sparking this huge debate. Should stock apps be allowed to step in and stop a group of small investors from sparking a huge rally in stocks like GameStop. We'll talk about this with the real life Wolf of Wall Street, Jordan Belfort next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:45:00]

BALDWIN: All right, GameStop. We've got to talk about this today. Outrage erupting in this wild and expensive battle that's playing out between Wall Street heavy weights, small investors and these popular stock trading apps.

So in one corner you have these massive hedge funds that were using enormous amounts of money to bet against a group of struggling companies that's known as shorting, including video game retailer GameStop and theater chain AMC.

In the other corner you have a group of small retail investors who banded together through this online forum on Reddit. They call themselves "Wall Street Bets."

Now they started buying up these shares of these stocks hand over fist in an effort to put a check on the hedge funds and make a bit of money in the process. So the stocks initially soared. AMC was up some 1,200 percent in a matter of days. The little guys, you know, they were winning.

But now the stocks are falling because investing apps like Robinhood, TD Ameritrade and others stepped in to restrict small investors from trading these stocks.

Now the retail investors, they are totally furious. They're accusing these apps of siding with the big Wall Street hedge funds, and the battle is creating some strange bedfellows.

Look at this, Republican Senator Ted Cruz tweeting he agrees with Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez after she called for an investigation into why these apps suddenly stopped these small investors from trading these stocks. AOC added that she is happy to work with Republicans on this but also said Senator Cruz can, quote, sit this one out. Because he, quote, almost had me murdered three weeks ago. She also asked him to resign. That's for another segment.

Let's bring in the guy who knows a thing or two about Wall Street, he is the real Wolf of Wall Street. He is Jordan Belfort. He wrote the book about his life that was adapted into that Scorsese movie. And, of course, he was famously played by none other than Leonardo DiCaprio. So Jordan, good to see you, welcome.

JORDAN BELFORT, AUTHOR, "THE WOLF OF WALL STREET": Is it wrong to say I'm laughing about what you said about AOC?

BALDWIN: I mean no, it's not because you would never see the two of them, you know, agreeing on something, but then obviously she offered much shade. But let's talk about you and let's talk about GameStop. So you know what's happening better than anyone.

BELFORT: Yes, yes. BALDWIN: And just to back up, a bunch of these Reddit investors they

saw that the big wigs on Wall Street were shorting these companies and they decided to call them on it. How did they pull this off?

BELFORT: It's real interesting because I used to go through this way back in the '90s before there was an internet like this and it was always the shorts against the longs and usually the shorts are right, by the way, when it comes to the fundamentals.

Every once in a while, they get it wrong but usually they've done deep research. And they find something that is either, you know, remarkably overvalued or it's, you know, was a great company past its prime that needs to, you know, kind of, you know, like a Blockbuster situation, which is similar to where GameStop is right now.

It's shocking to me that a bunch of individual investors could muster enough buying power to do this, but it just shows you the power of the internet and forms like Reddit. Now, the problem is that the question is are they just doing it -- you said the word "banded together." Now that could also mean colluded.

BALDWIN: Correct, correct.

BELFORT: It's a very fine line between collusion and trading. So and the reason, if you want to understand why the platforms are shutting this down, it's not -- I believe it's not so much that they are on the sides of big business or big hedge funds. They have massive liability on their side because here's what's going to happen. I promise you this will happen.

[15:50:00]

When this is over -- and it will end -- and all these stocks come crashing back down to their fundamental values, there are going to be lawsuits flying.

And you know who's going to be made in at every one? Robinhood, Ameritrade, all the platforms that did the trades are going to say you should have known better. You knew there was fraud. Because all it takes is that they prove collusion or manipulation, the platforms had a fiduciary responsibility to protect people. So that's why they're shutting these things down because they have massive liability.

BALDWIN: Let me jump in, because you're -- yes, and one of the questions is, like, is this legal? But I don't know if you read -- let me back up a step. So there was this whole letter --

BELFORT: Sure.

BALDWIN: -- and had quoted part of the letter, that how shall I say, is like the cleanest section for television. This is from Wall Street Bets. And this is part of what they wrote.

We don't have billionaires to bail us out when we mess up our portfolio risk and a position goes against us. We can't go on TV and make attempts to manipulate millions to take our side of the trade. What do you say to that, Jordan?

BELFORT: I say it's -- I love you guys but it's laughable because what -- yes, what you will do is hire a class-action attorney who will file a class-action and sue everybody on your behalf and you'll have 8,000 people, average people, suing in one giant class. And it's the same thing.

BALDWIN: Doesn't it seem like there's two sets of rules here? I mean, the perception of Wall Street, from a lot of Americans, is that you see these super-ultra-wealthy, you know, some billionaires, and they -- they're trading, and they get richer and richer on Wall Street. How is this any different from what hedge funds and these activists investors do every single day?

BELFORT: Brooke, I'm not saying that -- I'm on the side of the investor. All I'm saying is I understand why -- all I'm saying is I understand what's going on, why --

BALDWIN: No, I'm not asking you to take sides. I'm presenting the full picture to everyone --

BELFORT: Right.

BALDWIN: -- to try to just follow along.

BELFORT: Sure. Yes, I don't want to say I'm not sympathetic. I get it. You're right. There's massive fraud, manipulation that goes on all the time at the big firms. We saw it back in 2008.

If you watch the movie, "The Big Short," you can't believe they got away with this stuff, where they artificially inflate the market, and wait until they're out of that position and allow it to crash and America pays the bill.

You're right. You're absolutely right. So, of course, that's where the outrage comes from because Wall Street rips off America all the time. And then now little guy finally had their own little chance to get in on the action, the big firms shut it down. That -- you're 100 percent right.

BALDWIN: When you look at your past, you know, you were always sort of, like, a step ahead, a step ahead, a step ahead until you weren't, and you served prison time for running afoul of the S.E.C. this is --

BELFORT: Right.

BALDWIN: -- this goes back to what you were saying off the top. Like this is a bit more of a gray area and you had alluded to maybe, maybe collusion. We don't know. Do you think anything illegal is happening here?

BELFORT: Yes, yes. I do.

BALDWIN: You do? BELFORT: I do but I think it's illegal. But it's also something called

Scientia. Like did they know it was illegal when they were doing it? I think a lot of these people were jumping on the bandwagon probably not realizing they're in inadvertently violating these arcane security laws.

The security laws are written in a way that's very gray. You know, you can almost always be violating them. I don't think most -- virtually any people are actively doing that. So it wouldn't be a criminal thing.

But I don't think it would be very difficult if they really wanted to go back into these chat rooms and start like taking every person who said, hey, stay strong, we got to do this together.

BALDWIN: Yes.

BELFORT: They could actually say that's collusion. So I'm not saying it's a criminal thing but certainly you could make -- it's pretty easy for a smart lawyer to make the argument that there was collusion here going on.

BALDWIN: We'll see what the S.E.C. says, right? So to be continued there.

But bigger picture -- my last question to you is, you know, no matter how this unfolds, this is the kind of thing that is going to now be an entire chapter in a business schoolbook, right? There will be movies made about what has happened. That there's now this opening for the little guy on Wall Street. What do you think at the end of the day, Jordan, what comes of this?

BELFORT: I think that all of you Redditers, if that's a word, right, you'd be better off doing the same thing you're doing, just be a big smarter with the companies that you pick.

Pick one that probably -- like, that's undervalued. It's a great strategy to have going. It really is. They should be more careful with the stocks they pick. Not -- don't pick it just to spite a short sell. Pick it because it's a good company and you guys will make even more money. I think they should keep doing it and make a fortune doing it, that's what I think.

BALDWIN: Jordan Belfort, real life Wolf of Wall Street. With advice for some Redditers. We'll see what happens with the S.E.C. maybe you and I will have a chat again. Great to see, thank you so much.

BELFORT: Likewise. Take care.

BALDWIN: Thank you.

New concerns about the latest COVID variant to hit the U.S. and there are quite a few mass vaccinations sites all across the country, but where are the vaccines? We'll be right back.

[15:55:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Georgetown law students are getting their first look at a new instructor. The nation's first second gentleman, Doug Emhoff, begins teaching there today. The spouse of Vice President Kamala Harris will be teaching a course on entertainment law, based upon his nearly three decades of legal practice in Los Angeles.

By the way Merriam Webster officially added second gentleman to its dictionary today.

Meantime, first lady Jill Biden also plans to continue her longtime teaching career at Northern Virginia Community College where she taught during her two terms as second lady. It is totally unprecedented to have both first and second spouses working day jobs.

I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thank you so much for being with me. Let's go to Washington. The Lead with Jake Tapper starts right now.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Welcome to THE LEAD. I'm Jack Tapper.

We're in a bizarre and disturbing moment in American history.