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Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene Says She Had a "Great Call" With Trump; Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) Is Interviewed About Rep. Greene's Call With Trump; Manhunt Intensifies For Suspect Who Planted Bombs At DNC, RNC The Night Before Capitol Riot; Capitol Police Call For Permanent Fencing, Rapid Response Force; Trump And Allies Target Liz Cheney After Impeachment Vote; CDC: 29.5 Million COVID-19 Doses Administered In U.S. Aired 4-5p ET

Aired January 30, 2021 - 16:00   ET

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

[16:00:01]

ANA CABRERA, CNN HOST: You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Ana Cabrera in New York.

We begin this hour with the Republican Party facing an identity crisis in the post-Trump era, one that is forcing the GOP to decide and fast who and what it wants to be.

On one hand, you have congresswoman and conspiracy theorist Marjorie Taylor Greene who Democrats want expelled from Congress. But today, she is emboldened and unapologetic. She is tweeting that she had a great call with former President Trump.

This is a sitting congresswoman with a history of dangerous and incendiary rhetoric, a history that includes repeatedly indicating support for the execution of prominent Democratic politicians. And the former president she claims support from, he's staring down a second impeachment trial for inciting a deadly insurrection at the nation's capitol, but a party that once seemed to want to move on from President Trump now seems focused on finding a way to placate the former president.

Another former Republican president, George W. Bush, making a call in support of Liz Cheney, the congresswoman who voted to impeach President Trump, but it's quite a change from the days when Bush- Cheney were the ones who ruled the party, as Trump has become obsessed with bringing down Cheney. We're told she has repeatedly questioned his Republican allies about efforts to remove Cheney from her leadership position and run a primary candidate against her.

South Carolina gets it. They are punishing Republican Congressman Tom Rice. The Republican Party in that state voted to censure Rice for voting to impeach Trump after the deadly insurrection.

And next week, the Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy will meet with Greene, but today, CNN has learned he just cancelled a Tuesday leadership meeting, at a critical time, obviously, for his party. McCarthy spokesperson says he'll be traveling back to D.C.

OK, what do we make of this? Let's go to Capitol Hill. CNN's Suzanne Malveaux is there for us.

Let's just start, Suzanne, with what we are hearing from Congresswoman Greene today. Fill us in.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's a time to choose, essentially, the Republican Party must make a decision and lawmakers are taking sides, whether or not you are in the camp of Trump, the former president or whether or not you have moved on. She clearly, Congresswoman Greene, says that she is very excited, very happy about the phone call, the great phone call that she and Trump shared, that it is about 100 percent loyalty and that that is important to her and that she will not apologize, nor will she back down.

The important question here is where does she belong in this party? The House leader, Republican leader, Kevin McCarthy, recently having visited former President Trump at Mar-a-Lago emerged with him with a statement, essentially, saying they want to take the House and the Senate back, put it back into the GOP hands and that this was something that was about rejecting the Democratic agenda, what they feel is a radical agenda.

You have somebody, however, like Congresswoman Greene, who is beyond what many in the Republican Party have expressed in terms of her own views, speaking out in support of executing some Democratic politicians, including Nancy Pelosi, saying that, in fact, she felt that the 9/11 terrorist attacks were a hoax as well as other Sandy Hook shooting and the Parkland shooting that they too were hoaxes as well or run by the government itself.

And so, she is definitely outside of the mainstream Republican Party here and what to do with her is the main question that McCarthy faces and their identity going forward here. So what we have is a very, very public spat that is happening between Congresswoman Greene and Senator Mitt Romney who is speaking out against her. This in a Twitter fight, a battle occurring today.

Senator Mitt Romney saying lies of a feather flock together, Marjorie Taylor Greene's nonsense, and big lie of a stolen election. She's responding immediately saying Republican and in quotes, I might add, Senator Mitt Romney obviously cares nothing about the people's number one concern. Please grow a pair or a spine.

Ana, it is clear that the Democrats really want to see her in some form or fashion be punished here whether a censure, whether it is dropping her out of the committees or expelling from Congress altogether. That would be a very difficult task requiring two-thirds majority in the House to do that.

But clearly, Republicans have a real question here, a real dilemma in terms of how they respond, where they align or what they do next -- Ana.

CABRERA: Suzanne, what do you know about the timeline for impeachment?

MALVEAUX: The impeachment trial will happen in about a week. That would be Monday, February 9th. That is when the Senate trial will officially begin. It is something that will probably last couple of days. It is a single article of impeachment.

Democrats want it to really happen very quickly because what they're quickly realizing is that they do not have the numbers necessary to convict the president on the Republican side. They want to move forward and try to help President Biden with his agenda -- Ana.

CABRERA: Okay, Suzanne Malveaux at Capitol Hill -- thank you.

Joining us now is the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, Democratic Congresswoman Bennie Thompson of Mississippi.

Looks like we're having an issue with the shot, guys. Is he available?

OK, we have him, I'm told.

Chairman, thank you for being with us.

I first want to get your reaction to this, quote/unquote, "great call" between President Trump and Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. Someone who showed support for calls to execute members of your party and who said she doesn't regret any of her past comments.

REP. BENNIE THOMPSON (D-MS): Well, Ana, it's a sad day for Republican politics in America. It's a sad day for United States congressman, woman, and a president, former president to be having this kind of discussion.

Congresswoman Greene is an embarrassment to us all. But more importantly is in this era of domestic terrorism, the right we riot we just had in the Capitol on January 6th.

This is not a good statement. The Republican leadership has to step up at this point, and discipline this person who's a member of Congress who obviously is operating not with a full deck.

CABRERA: Some of your colleagues have spoken about the threat they feel from some Republican lawmakers like Greene. Democratic Congresswoman Cori Bush says she is moving her office away for Green's for her team's safety. She says this is after Greene berated her in the hallway and Congresswoman Ilhan Omar tweeting: imagine going to work with an armed, hostile, unstable colleague and not having much recourse.

Chairman, do you fear Marjorie Taylor Greene or any of your other Republican colleagues?

THOMPSON: Well, I've heard from some of my other colleagues that they're very concerned.

CABRERA: Are you? Are you afraid of her?

THOMPSON: Oh, absolutely not.

But the point, more importantly is we have to set an example. We set examples for not just our children, but we set an example for the world. Can you imagine having to take a gun to a legislative body? But whatever she's trying to prove, we are a democracy and we disagree, we disagree. We shouldn't have to carry a firearm or a weapon just to prove that I disagree with you.

So I think the Republican leadership has to assume the responsibility to discipline this member. You know, we discipline other members in the House. We have taken them off committees. We just basically silenced them.

The Republican leadership has to step forward and do what's in the best interest of this country and that is to take care of Congresswoman Greene.

CABRERA: So what does that mean? What level of discipline is appropriate here? We know there are at least 50 House Democrats calling for her to be expelled from Congress. Do you think she should be expelled?

THOMPSON: Well, if she continues to do as she's doing, she leaves us no choice. If she comes and says, look, I get it. I want to be part of this body, and I'm willing to conform to the rules.

I won't try to bring another weapon on to the floor of Congress. I won't threaten and intimidate other members. I will follow the rules of this body.

If not, then you're in the wrong institution.

CABRERA: When you look at -- I just think about previous resignations of Democratic members of Congress. Senator Al Franken, Representative Katie Hill. Do you feel your party holds it members to a different standard?

THOMPSON: Well, you know, we've had -- our members to have step back and resign and not run. So, I just think that Republicans have to do the same thing. This is a little different. You are now putting members of Congress in arm's way about banishing weapons by saying what you will do to other members of Congress. This is not who we are as a body. This is not who we are as a nation.

And so, Congresswoman Greene, in the interest, I think, of civility and the interest of making and demonstrating who we are as a nation has to do that. If not, she's in the wrong institution.

CABRERA: But she's saying today and I'm quoting here: I won't back down. I'll never apologize. That is her mindset and yet, you hear crickets from Kevin McCarthy right now.

THOMPSON: Well, you know, he has to assume the leadership now. He's the number one Republican in the House. He can't hide forever.

CABRERA: Do you have confidence in him disciplining her?

THOMPSON: Well, it's obvious he's not demonstrating it. So I have confidence. I don't know -- he has the number one position in the Republican Party in the House of Representatives. He has to demonstrate that leadership. Otherwise, he's complicit in what she's doing with his silence.

CABRERA: I want to ask you about President Biden's nominee for DHS secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas. He's the only Biden nominee right now, at least so far, to face a Republican filibuster. You wrote an opinion piece on CNN.com arguing the Senate must confirm Mayorkas to ensure Americans' safety.

What is the hold-up on his confirmation though? Do you just feel like Republicans aren't taking the domestic extremism threats seriously?

THOMPSON: Well, I'm clearly convinced that the acts of January 6th, the riot that occurred, the complicit examples of many Republican members by not criticizing what occurred has put a real damper on Mayorkas' nomination.

We have to move forward. In the past, the last two presidents were able to get their secretary confirmed right after swearing in. This would be no different. In this era of domestic as well as international terrorism, we have to say that this is important to who we are as Americans. It talks about our values.

And so him being confirmed, (AUDIO GAP) scheduled to come up for the vote. I look forward to a positive vote, but it shouldn't have taken so long. He's a qualified person. He's actually been confirmed, Ana, three times in the past before the Senate, as a number two person in DHS, as head of USCIS, and as a U.S. attorney.

So, there's no question about his competence as a professional. We need to go forward and get him confirmed. And I look forward to that confirmation occurring on -- this Monday.

CABRERA: Finally, I want to ask you about COVID relief. There are a couple of paths, right? One is go big and go quick. Even if it means jamming it through with no Republican support, or maybe take a little longer. Maybe not get everything Democrats want but have bipartisan buy-in.

Which is the riskier path for Democrats politically?

THOMPSON: Well, you have to go big. This COVID-19 package is important. Everywhere I go, people are talking about whether we have access to vaccine. The tourism industry in this country is struggling. The restaurant industry, small businesses in general, they need additional relief. State and local governments need help.

So we can't play politics with their future of this country. If Republicans say they love America, if Republicans want to help Americans, then they'll get on board and support the Biden proposal for COVID-19 relief as soon as possible.

But, Ana, we don't have a choice. We have to move forward. All the deaths that have occurred, we have to get our arms around this or else we'll be captive in this situation for quite some time. This package puts us in a forward position. FEMA is under my committee's jurisdiction. They have primary

responsibility for addressing this. So, from my vantage point, we have to support this, we have to move forward in an as expeditious manner as possible. So, if Republicans come, that's good. If they don't, Democrats are (AUDIO GAP) to go forward.

CABRERA: OK. Congresswoman, Chairman Bennie Thompson, thank you very much for your time.

In the meantime, we're getting new information about the pipe bombs found near Democratic and Republican Party headquarters on the day of the capitol riot. We'll bring you the latest from the investigation, next.

[16:20:01]

Stay with us. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: The hunt for the suspect who planted pipe bombs found near the Capitol on January 6th intensifies by the hour.

The FBI is shedding new light on the timeline of when those bombs were planted.

CNN's Whitney Wild is joining us now.

Whitney, just fill us in on what the FBI has learned and where this investigation stands now.

WHITNEY WILD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, at this point, the FBI believes that the suspect actually planted those two bombs between 7:30 and 8:30 on January 5th, the night before the insurrection. A law enforcement source has tell CNN those pipe bombs were made out of galvanized steel and explosive powder and rigged to egg timers, but interestingly, they never went off.

There is a growing theory among law enforcement that those pipe bombs were actually meant to be a diversion, drawing crucial resources away from the Capitol at the moment the insurrection was about to happen, Ana.

[16:20:02]

And interestingly as well, this reward has gone for $50,000 to $75,000. Now, the reward for information leading to the suspects stands at $100,000, and that underscores the high profile case with very few leads at this point.

CABRERA: There have been some new charges connected to the deadly insurrection, however, what can you tell us?

WILD: That's right. There are two defendants now who are charged with 11 charges. They are also members of the far-right group the Proud Boys and these are important charges because federal officials are now charging them with conspiracy and that represents a new phase in this prosecution. Many of the cases we've seen before recently were some of the smaller charges such as trespassing. Conspiracy, however, much more severe. It represents a ratcheting up in this case.

The accusation here, these two defendants conspired on January 6th to interfere with police who are defending the capitol. That's different from some of the other conspiracy charges in which defendants are accused of conspiring and planning the attack for months. But again, in this case, the conspiracy is limited to just January 6th, Ana.

CABRERA: Whitney Wild, I appreciate it. And welcome to CNN. I know it's the first time you've been on my show since you joined the family. Welcome.

WILD: Thank you for having me.

CABRERA: I want to bring in now, CNN national security analyst, Juliette Kayyem, and CNN counterterrorism analyst, Phil Mudd.

Phil, as we just shared, we are learning a lot more about what happened before the capitol attack. We heard this week that there are training camps that were alleged to have happened prior to January 6th. Explosives placed on Washington, D.C. ahead of time.

What does it all tell you about how well-organized these extremists may be and the potential threat that still exists?

WILD: I think what it tells me that we have a militia problem in this country. If you -- if you look at statutes and laws across the country, there are laws against having militias that parallel with state and federal governments can do and this is something we're doing for the Congress and state legislatures across the country. We're learning how many people organize in paramilitary ways to challenge the government.

There's already laws on the books about this, Ana. I'm going to predict over the next year that politicians are going to be under some really difficult pressure to say when are you going to apply laws to take apart militias? Other people are going to say, some of these militias represent free speech.

So we're seeing the impact of these militias in events like January 6th and the question is going to be, do people at the state, federal and local level have the courage to do something about it? That will not be pretty, Ana.

CABRERA: Juliette, the Department of Homeland Security issued a new bulletin this week, warning of a heightened threat environment right now. A part of it reads, we remain concerned that individuals frustrated with the exercise of governmental authority and the presidential transition as well as other perceived grievances and ideological causes fueled by false narratives could continue to mobilize a broad range of ideologically motivated actors to incite or commit violence.

You worked at DHS in the Obama administration. So, why do you think they issued that bulletin? What does it tell you about how imminent another attack may be?

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: So, it doesn't say anything about immanency, but it does talk about a theme out there, which is propagated, you know, have been propagated by the former president and then certainly leadership in the Republican Party, which is that President Biden is an illegitimate president, that the votes were fraudulent.

And then also, we can never forget that because African-Americans and others voted, that therefore, it's not legitimate, because this is really about minority votes. This is about the fact that a Democrat won. And so, put those all together and it's, the DHS bulletin is a statement to state and locals that this hate is not going away. That the lie continues.

Now, we're seeing evidence of, you know, sort of dissipation of some of the hate that some of these people are realizing they were put up by former President Trump, but ultimately, unless Trump, unless the party, honestly, unless the party can get this cancer out of its system, this will be a threat to all Americans, not just Democrats.

It will -- it will turn against the Republicans and the thing I can never believe is that Republicans think it's going to get better with President Trump. We're already seeing how much involvement there was with the White House, with planning for the Capitol rally and possibly the insurrection. It doesn't get better. It doesn't.

CABRERA: Phil, two Proud Boys are now facing conspiracy charges. Announced last night, we learned that the leader of the Proud Boys was a former law enforcement informant. Does that surprise you?

MUDD: No, it doesn't. I worked at both the CIA and FBI. If you're going to get into dirty organizations, you've got to deal with dirty people. The people that we used to deal with as informants in both the bureau and the agency, whether it's al Qaeda or it's a drug trafficking organization -- in this case, I think this individual was involved in fraud cases and he was flipping on some of his partners in these cases.

[16:25:14]

If you want to penetrate these organizations, when you watch the movies, Ana, people talk about how do you build somebody into the organization? Get an FBI individual and get them into the organization. Not my experience.

The best informants we had were already in and they started flipping. I look at this and said to the individual, the head of the Proud Boys had a case against him. It was a money case. He wanted less time in prison and he decided to flip. It happens all the time, but if you want to get dirty, you've got to go with dirty and that's what he was.

CABRERA: So, Juliette, picking up on that, what are the chances the FBI has penetrated these domestic extremist groups, whether with informants from within or planting their own? And is it more or less difficult to do this with domestic extremists like the Proud Boys versus international extremists like ISIS?

KAYYEM: Well, it is. It's certainly much harder because there are legal rules for how you start an investigation, but if there is a legitimate sort of foundation or grounding probable cause to begin an investigation, infiltrate, they are. Remember, it's not just physical. It is also monitoring, signal intelligence, phone calls, emails, all the stuff that we're seeing now.

But one important thing to remember is that these arrests, especially on conspiracy charges, are also a statement by the FBI to potential recruits or people who potentially may be violent, there's no more messing around. You know, the previous president may have coddled you, may have supported you, may have been with you and his racism and his anti-government stance. But there is a new focus by the FBI and certainly the White House.

And so, I'd like to see these arrests. I like to see lots of them. I like to see really tough charges because it's a statement to others, because we've got to lower the temperature at this stage and I think only these arrests can do it.

CABRERA: And, Phil, you talked about how it's so important to have all hands on deck, all levels of government and the population involved in trying to get a handle on this. A common conversation after the capitol insurrection was just imagine if these rioters had been to another country and how different the response and the aftermath might have been.

Are there any parallels you can draw between what happened January 6th and international terrorism or was this a uniquely American series of events?

MUDD: There's a lot of parallels. Let me give you one, and that is how you deal with -- how you deal with problems like this. Forget about domestic, forget about foreign. In 30 seconds, I could give you the characteristics you need to focus on.

You need to have leadership taken off the table, which is why I think the biggest effort under way is not what's happening in Washington. It's the consideration by the Facebook board on whether they keep the president off the Internet, off Facebook.

If you do not have leadership sending a message, you will see a decline in followers. The second and Julia was talking about it is deterrence. Whether or not the case is small as trespassing or big as conspiracy, you have to not only arrest people, but you need public coverage on CNN and "The New York Times" and "The Wall Street Journal" telling people if you do this, if you put your feet up on the table with a cigar and brag, you're going to go to federal prison and your life will be over. You're also going to lose your job.

You need the broad messaging beyond the president and those who support him to disappear. That's why the debate about who goes on -- about how much hate on Twitter is really important. So, whether it's ISIS, whether it's domestic extremism, the characteristics that you see about how to combat this are the same, almost identical in my world.

KAYYEM: Yes --

CABRERA: Juliette, I want to ask you about the visible and physical changes in terms of combating this and protecting -- being proactive and protecting, you know, the government, buildings in Washington, D.C., specifically with the capitol.

How much longer to keep all the fencing barriers up around the capitol. What would you advise?

KAYYEM: So it has to be based on the threat and risk. So maybe it's a little bit higher now. It will -- some will depend, exactly what Phil was saying. How long Trump remains deplatformed, because he cannot incite the kind of violence.

But we have a tendency to, you know, to solve security by walls and think that that's the problem. The problem is a, you know, radicalized Congress people who are bringing guns in. The problem is that radicalized party that is inciting violence, you could put fences up, sure, but what does that say about the United States?

I often say security is, to quote Frank Safra (ph), you know, we often do security by decapitate you know, you solve decap -- you solve dandruff by decapitation, and I think we're doing that here. We've got to get to the root cause of what this is.

And getting to Phil's point, it is about Donald Trump.

[16:30:00]

And for Facebook and Twitter, the sole question you really have at this stage: Does someone who incites terrorism deserve to be on your platform?

It seems that simple to me, given what we've seen since during January 6th and also during the raid itself when he failed to protect Congress. He just sat there and, in fact, egged it on.

To me, it's rather simple about terrorism and bringing him off the platforms. And then the walls can go away. They really can.

CABRERA: Juliette Kayyem and Phil Mudd, thank you.

KAYYEM: Thank you.

PHIL MUDD, CNN COUNTERTERRORISM ANALYST: Thanks.

CABRERA: Tonight, join Anderson Cooper for a closer look at the origins of the QAnon conspiracy. How did this fringe theory become a movement that includes members of Congress? What role did it play in the capitol insurrection? A CNN special reporter, "INSIDE THE QANOON CONSPIRACY," air tonight at 9:00 Eastern.

Next, to the pandemic. That worrying and highly contagious strain first detected in South Africa had just been found in Maryland now, just days after reported in South Carolina. What does this mean for the U.S.? Next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:35:25]

CABRERA: The race to vaccinate people from coast to coast as the nation surpasses 26 million confirmed cases of COVID-19. More than 438,000 people in the U.S. have lost their lives to the virus since the pandemic began.

Now the first 13 million confirmed cases took 311 days. The second 13 million took only 64 days.

But a significant new tool may be on the horizon to help fight the pandemic. Johnson & Johnson said it will ask the FDA next week for emergency use authorization for its single-shot vaccine.

The company said its vaccine was 66 percent effective at preventing the disease in a global phase three trial. It was 85 percent effective at preventing severe disease.

Joining us now, CNN medical analyst, Dr. Jonathan Reiner, professor of medicine at George Washington University.

Doctor, this vaccine is structurally very different from the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. Can you explain how it works?

DR. JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Sure. So the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines are single-strained vaccine incased in a thin lipid bubble.

The Johnson & Johnson vaccine is a more-robust double-stranded piece of DNA that codes for the spike protein.

And instead of being encased in that kind of fragile lipid bubble, it's encased in an attenuated adno-virus, sort of common cold virus that's been altered so that it cannot replicate in the body.

So the virus, the adno-virus enables the gene for the spike protein to enter cells and the cells elaborate the spike protein and that's what the antibody response is to.

The benefit of the way this vaccine is structured is it's less fragile and doesn't need the deep freeze that, particularly, the Pfizer vaccine, and to a lesser extent, the Moderna vaccine, requires.

This vaccine can be stored in a simple refrigerator for months, which makes the logistics much easier.

And as studied in this trial, this vaccine is only given in one dose.

We will be seeing more data evaluating a two-dose strategy but this vaccine was very effective when given as a single dose.

CABRERA: And that single-dose piece is very encouraging, right? But there's only two vaccines that have been authorized and they require two doses.

What happens if someone receives the first dose of the Moderna or Pfizer vaccine and is then exposed to the virus days later. Would they still have symptoms?

REINER: It depends how many days. With both the Moderna and the Pfizer vaccines, the curves seem to separate about 10 to 12 days.

So after about a week and a half, you start to get a benefit from the single dose.

Before the second dose of the vaccines, it appears the vaccines are about 50 percent effective. And they go up to 95 percent effective after the three week or four-week booster shots.

But there's benefit even after the single dose a couple of weeks after the shot.

CABRERA: Highly contagious variants of the virus are becoming a big concern right now.

South Carolina this week reporting at least a couple of cases of this variant first spotted in South Africa. It's now been identified in Maryland as well.

Take a listen to Dr. Anthony Fauci.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, CHIEF MEDICAL ADVISER TO PRESIDENT BIDEN: This is a wake-up call to all of us that we will be dealing, as the virus uses its devices to evade pressure, particularly immunological pressure, that we will continue to see the evolution of mutants.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: Dr. Reiner, do we know how effective the existing vaccines are at combatting these new variants?

REINER: The vaccine seemed to be completely effective at treating the United Kingdom variant.

As for the South Africa variant, less effective. But both the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines still appear to be above the threshold that for effectiveness.

What we know now from the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, even the effectiveness in South Africa seems to be more than other parts of the world, still the ability of this vaccine to prevent death or hospitalization is fantastic.

So as you said at the outset, this vaccine was 85 percent effective at preventing severe disease. It was 100 percent effective at preventing death or need for hospitalization. That's really the name of the game.

[16:40:11] Even with a significant subset of patients in that study who were in South Africa where the predominant isolate is that troublesome variant.

So we know that even the J&J vaccine, given in the single dose prevents death.

I want to say one other thing about these three vaccines. There hasn't been a single patient treated with one of these vaccines in the first three trials who has died. That's what I want people to remember.

And I think that even if one were to contract the COVID disease with the variant, these are likely to prevent you from becoming very sick or dying.

So everyone should not despair. These vaccines are a miracle that's come on the scene in less than a year. And everyone needs to be vaccinated.

CABRERA: Dr. Jonathan Reiner, thank you. Good information as always.

REINER: Thank you.

CABRERA: Still ahead in the CNN NEWSROOM, the fight for the soul of the Republican Party today centering on the biggest names, Trump, Bush, Cheney. President Trump has become obsessed with efforts to remove Liz Cheney after the daughter of the former vice president voted to impeach him.

We'll take you to Liz Cheney's hometown to see if they're willing to do Trump's bidding. That's next, live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:45:36]

CABRERA: Former President Trump is staring down a second impeachment trial for inciting a deadly insurrection at our nation's capitol.

But a party that once seemed to want to move on from President Trump now seems focused on finding a way to placate the former president.

Another former Republican president, George W. Bush, was making a call in support of Liz Cheney, the congresswoman who voted to impeach President Trump.

But it's quite a change from the days when Bush/Cheney where the names that ruled the party.

We're told Trump has repeatedly questioned his Republican allies about efforts to remove Liz Cheney from her leadership position and run a primary candidate against her.

But how do her constituents feel about feel about her vote to impeachment Trump?

CNN's Lucy Kafanov traveled to Wyoming to find it out.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LUCY KAFANOV, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Amidst the frigid beauty, Wyoming politics are red hot and getting ugly.

Wyoming is Trump country. The former president beat Joe Biden here by more than 40 points, the largest margin in any state.

So, when Congresswoman Liz Cheney voted to impeach Trump, it caused immediate blow back at home.

SHELLEY HORN, STARTED CHENEY RECALL PETITION: I usually just sit here and make tutus and mind my business.

KAFANOV: Shelley Horn has never thought of herself as political but after Cheney's vote, she started a petition to get her out of office.

HORN: I'm just amazed. They get 52,000 and it's been seen by 586,000 people.

KAFANOV: Cheney describes her vote as a matter of conscience. Horn calls it a betrayal.

HORN: You just can't go -- I need to vote with my conscience. No, vote for what your people put you in there to do. You're a Republican. You're supposed to back your party regardless.

KAFANOV: A handful of GOP County committees have voted to censure Cheney. And State Senator Anthony Bouchard has already launched a 2022 campaign against her.

The Wyoming GOP lashing out, saying, "The consensus is clear that those who are reaching out to the party vehemently disagree with Representative Cheney's decisions and actions."

Cheney's foes in Congress are also taking aim. Florida Republican Matt Gaetz is in Cheyenne rallying a support against her, positioning himself as the bearer of the Trump brand.

REP. MATT GAETZ (R-FL): If you want to prove that you have the power to defeat Liz Cheney in this upcoming election --

(CHEERING)

GAETZ: -- and Wyoming will bring Washington to its knees.

(CHEERING)

KAFANOV: A source in Cheney's office dismissed the Gaetz event as a publicity stunt, linking to this clip from HBO's the swamp, when the Congressman talk about getting ready for a TV appearance.

GAETZ: Got to get the makeup on first thing in the morning.

KAFANOV: The source saying, ahead of the visit, that Gaetz can, quote, "leave his beauty back at home." In Wyoming, the men don't wear make- up.

But in Wyoming, the energy industry pays the bills. Both the petroleum and mining associations have come out in support of Cheney.

TRAVIS DETI, PRESIDENT WYOMING MINING ASSOCIATION: We need a voice in Washington to continue to defend our industry. And it's going to be more important now than it has been in the last few years because, you know, President Biden's not going to be friendly to us.

TAYLOR HANES, REPUBLICAN VOTER: I don't care anything about committee assignments. It's just Kabuki Theater to me.

KAFANOV: Taylor Hanes, a retired doctor, cattle rancher and businessman, doesn't care that Cheney's the third-highest ranking Republican in the House.

HANES: In my view, she's done in Wyoming. Trump's the most successful, effective president in my adult life. We're going down the Trump road. And that's where we are.

REP. LIZ CHENEY (R-WY): It is my --

KAFANOV: With the primaries 18 months away, Cheney has time, not to mention money, influence and name recognition.

NICK REYNOLDS, "CASPER STAR TRIBUNE": The Cheney's are a huge name in Wyoming. Dick Cheney was one of the people who brought the state to, you know, real national relevance.

DONNA ARTERY, REPUBLICAN VOTER: She made the right decision.

KAFANOV: Supporters like Donna Artery says she'll judge Cheney on the future not the past.

ARTERY: Give her a chance. Let's let this administration go on and see how Liz stands up and represents our people.

KAFANOV: Lucy Kafanov, CNN, Cheyenne, Wyoming.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CABRERA: Up next, we'll take you to a sports-dome-turned vaccination site in Atlanta where the city is trying to ramp up its vaccination effort.

[16:49:49]

You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: The U.S. is racing to administer millions of COVID vaccines that have already been distributed. So far, just over half of the doses given to states have actually been turned into shots in arms.

CNN's Natasha Chen is in Atlanta, where a huge effort is under way to get more shots in the arms of residents there -- Natasha?

NATASHA CHEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Ana, we're at Mercedes-Benz Stadium that hosted the Super Bowl a few years ago and now we're in a completely different world.

This is one of three vaccination sites hosted by Fulton County. And they expect by the end of the day to have vaccinated about 1700 people today.

You can see a lot of people all have appointments. They lined up outside. And coming in, that line just wraps around all the way back.

[16:55:00]

Then they're called up to these tables in front of us to fill out some paperwork and register. After that, they get seated over on this side and wait for their names to be called to get a shot in the arm.

Most of these people here today are getting their second dose of the Pfizer vaccine. So they would have come for the first time around January 8th or 9th.

One troubling thing that we're observing is people getting vaccinated don't really reflect the demographics of the larger community.

Here is the Fulton County district health director talking about that issue.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. LYNN PAXTON, FULTON COUNTY, GA, BOARD OF HEALTH DISTRICT DIRECTOR: Unfortunately, we're not seeing as many people of color and the older age people of color who are older coming in for their vaccinations.

So what we are doing is we're doing a multipronged approach to try to remedy that. Because we need to get this vaccine to the people who are at highest risk.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHEN: Dr. Paxton also talked about messaging in other languages and sending strike teams to places like senior homes where they may not be as mobile to come to a vaccination site like this.

And overall, she said the challenge really is still getting enough supply of the vaccine to meet the overwhelming demand -- Ana?

CABRERA: All right, Natasha, thank you.

Next, we'll head to Washington and the growing call to expel Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. She has a history of making controversial and dangerous remarks, including repeatedly indicating support for the killing of top Democratic politicians. Will Republicans hold her accountable?

You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)