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New Model: Variants May Lead to 85,000 More Deaths by May; U.S. Research: Two Masks Better than One?; Canada Announces Hotel Quarantine for Most Travelers; Bodycam Footage Shows Rioters Attacking Police; GameStop Rally Reignites After Stock Apps Lifts Restrictions; Biden Still Wants Bipartisan Relief Bill Despite GOP Pushback; Republican Party Faces Deepening Divide in Post-Trump Era. Aired 2- 2:45a ET
Aired January 30, 2021 - 02:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Hello, everyone, and welcome to Studio 7 here at CNN Center in Atlanta. I am Michael Holmes. Coming up on CNN NEWSROOM, a new vaccine expected to be cleared in the U.S. but there are concerns about the vaccine's effectiveness against the dangerous mutations of the coronavirus.
Plus, with hospitalizations on the rise, French leaders trying everything they can to avoid a third national lockdown.
A fractured GOP, supporters of the former U.S. president causing a split, promoting false claims, conspiracy theories and violence.
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HOLMES: A warm welcome, everyone.
A short time ago, federal health officials released a new transportation mask mandate in the U.S. Starting next week people will have to mask up on all forms of public transportation. We are talking about things like aircraft but also trains, subways, buses, taxis, ships, ferries and even rideshares. All to try to slow the coronavirus down.
This follows another reason for hope in a seemingly endless pandemic. Johnson & Johnson said that the latest trial data shows that its vaccine candidate is safe and effective. The company plans to apply for emergency use authorization in the U.S. next week.
There are new concerns as well, growing evidence that vaccines are less effective against one of the new strains spreading around the world, including the U.S.
Meanwhile, European regulators have recommended authorizing the oxford AstraZeneca vaccine in the European Union while a team from the World Health Organization has gone into a Wuhan hospital as it tries to retrace the origin of the virus. Right now, let's take a closer look at this latest dose of hope from
Johnson & Johnson. CNN's Nick Watt, with the details.
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NICK WATT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Global trial data is in: Johnson & Johnson says its vaccine is safe and 66 percent effective at preventing moderate and severe illness, 85 percent effective against severe disease.
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DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: There were essentially no hospitalizations or deaths in the vaccine group.
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WATT (voice-over): Some context: the flu vaccine reduces the risk of illness by between 40 percent and 60 percent.
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DR. MATHIA MAMMEN, GLOBAL HEAD OF RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT, JANSSEN DIVISION OF JOHNSON & JOHNSON: Our topline result is that we have 85 percent protection against disease that matters --
WATT (voice-over): Johnson & Johnson will apply for FDA emergency use authorization mid- to late next week. Their commitment is 100 million doses for Americans by June.
MAMMEN: -- which we're very much on track to deliver. Our plan is to have supplies immediately upon launch.
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WATT (voice-over): Yes, this vaccine was less effective than Pfizer and Moderna in trials but...
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DR. MICHAEL OSTERHOLM, DIRECTOR CENTER FOR INFECTIOUS DISEASE RESEARCH & POLICY, UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA: For many clinics out there, this is going to be the ideal vaccine to have. One dose, stable vaccine; use it.
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WATT (voice-over): Meanwhile Dr. Fauci says those more contagious coronavirus variants might be dominant in the U.S. by late March.
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FAUCI: This is a wake-up call to all of us. We will continue to see the evolution of mutants.
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WATT (voice-over): The strain first found in South Africa now found in South Carolina, assumed to be spreading in the country.
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DR. ROCHELLE WALENSKY, CDC DIRECTOR: By the time someone has symptoms, gets a test, has a positive result and we get the sequence, our opportunity for doing real case control and contact tracing is largely gone.
And so, I think -- I believe that we should be treating every case as if it's a variant during this pandemic right now.
WATT (voice-over): They're working on getting that data in real time.
Meanwhile, those University of Washington modelers project, these variants might add up to an additional 85,000 deaths in America by May.
WATT: And, of course, something else on many people's minds, when can more kids get back into school safely?
This was interesting from Dr. Fauci today: he said that tests are underway on the safety and efficacy of these vaccines for younger people.
And he said, hopefully, late spring or early summer, some children will at least be authorized to get a vaccine. Of course, whether there's enough supply is a whole different story -- Nick Watt, CNN, Los Angeles.
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HOLMES: Joining me now is CNN medical analyst, Dr. Leana Wen. She is a "The Washington Post" column analyst and a former commissioner of health for the city of Baltimore.
Good to see you, Doctor. Some good news with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, seeming to be very effective at preventing deaths. I know you have been part of the trials as well. It is a welcome addition, but I wanted to ask you about the risk of seeing a false dawn because of these variants.
How much of a risk are they to efforts of getting on top of the spread?
DR. LEANA WEN, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: I am very worried about variants, because we have seen what happened in countries like the U.K., South Africa, the Netherlands and Denmark, where these variants have become dominant and something that is up to 70 percent more contagious. That doesn't mean we're going to get 70 percent more infections; it's
not linear, it's exponential. When you have that many more infections, it runs the risk of overwhelmed the health systems and causing many more deaths. And so we are in a race against time.
Ideally, we're able to really expedite the vaccine rollout and we can keep people masking, physical distancing to try and suppress the level of infection. But the CDC in the U.S. is predicting we could have the U.K. variant, B117, becoming the dominant variant here in the U.S. by March.
HOLMES: The next thing I wanted to ask you about, when it comes to the issues of variants, the fact, is the U.S. is way behind the world when it comes to genomic sequencing that identifies the presence of variants in the community. I think the U.S. is 32nd in the world in genomic sequencing rates.
Is it fair to say that, when it comes to any of these variants, we have no real idea just how widespread they are in the U.S.?
WEN: That's right. It's actually very similar to where we were a year ago, when we thought we only had a handful of cases in the U.S. But actually, there were many that were spreading; we just were not doing the testing.
Without testing, without data, we were essentially flying blind, just as we are now. So I think we have to assume the community transmission of these variants is already quite rampant in the U.S.
HOLMES: I also wanted to ask -- and it's something we covered before on the program -- about vaccine nationalism. Rich countries, adopting a me-first attitude, even in some cases, hoarding way more doses than they need.
As an example, Nigeria's 200 million people haven't received a single dose of vaccine. The thing is, if wealthy nations are largely vaccinated but outbreaks are surging elsewhere, which spreads the variants, there could be the possibility that it then escapes back into countries, rich countries, and makes everyone vulnerable again. Just points that this is a global fight.
WEN: If it's anything that the coronavirus has taught us, it's that no one is an island. We are all in this together, for better or for worse. That said, I do, of course, understand the plight that rich countries are in as well. It would be very difficult for a prime minister to say, I will not vaccinate England. I'm first, I'm going first divert a lot of the doses to other countries.
So, I understand the need to vaccinate your own citizens but I think the attention must turn to how we can procure enough vaccines for the world. Unless we can vaccinate the world, we will not put an end to the pandemic.
HOLMES: Yes, it will just keep coming back again. I know you pointed out, too, in order for viruses to mutate and, again, create these variants, obviously they have to be transmitted to other people. The virus lives that way.
Transmission, especially now, vaccine or not, what's your take on the whole idea of double masking?
This suggestion the public use N95s, if not that, because the medical community needs them, the KN95s?
Obviously, if we slow transmission, we slow the variant spread.
WEN: Right. The best way for us to fight the variants is to stop the spread and stop replication. That is what leads to mutations and leads to the variants taking over and becoming dominant.
The other issue with having more contagious variants around, is the activities we thought were pretty safe, will now be higher risk. It will be higher risk with these variants that are more transmissible, just doing something like going to the grocery store, just having your kids go to school.
So, I think the idea of having double masking is not a bad one. If you have a surgical mask, it's pretty good at filtering but may not cover your nose or mouth the whole way. Putting your cloth mask on top of that could give you better protection.
I do think that N95s, as someone who wears an N95 for my work, it's very uncomfortable.
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WEN: Some people can tolerate it but some people cannot. The consistent wearing of whatever mask you have is better than inconsistent wearing, even if it's of a better-quality mask.
HOLMES: Yes, double masking, I've taken that advice myself. So, I urge everyone to do that. Dr. Leana Wen, always a pleasure. Thank you so much.
WEN: Thank you.
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HOLMES: Now the French prime minister says that more contagious coronavirus variants, namely the ones first identified in the U.K. and then South Africa, are, of course, a huge threat to France. He says more restrictions could be put in place, but a third nationwide lockdown can be avoided.
France reporting more than 22,000 daily COVID-19 cases on Friday, bringing the total to well over 3.1 million. CNN's Melissa Bell, joining me live from Paris.
First, France, like other countries, worried about the variants.
What is being done?
MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: One epidemiologist put it this way, that if things continue as they are going, it could be the dominant variant by the end of March. That is how fast it is spreading.
Here on the European continent, we heard from the French prime minister, we had been expecting -- with so much speculation from the press and this is what we have been prepared for by successive government spokesmen, statesmen, we were heading towards a third partial lockdown.
That was avoided but the prime minister made it very clear last night, this was the last chance. Restrictions coming on sudden, things like closing of the borders for anyone coming from outside the E.U., positive or a negative PCR test for those coming to France from within the E.U., extra measures to avoid a third lockdown.
But it's looking very likely will happen at some stage -- Michael.
HOLMES: Now the vaccine, there is some hope there, of course.
How is the rollout shaping up in Europe?
BELL: It has been slow and difficult and very controversial these last few days, given the row over the latest vaccine to be approved by the European Medicines Agency, AstraZeneca. This should be great news for the European continent, given the delays and the slow pace that have been involved in so many of the vaccination campaigns.
The European Union wants to vaccinate 70 percent of its population by the summer. At the moment, we're just over 2 percent. And in some countries, here in France and some regions but also in Germany and in Spain, the vaccination campaigns have slowed or put on hold in some parts because there are too few vaccines.
One thing I'm talking about here are the two vaccines that are approved so far, the Pfizer and Moderna ones. The approval should be excellent news but there's now this row about supplies and of course, this problem of vaccine nationalism that the European Union had hoped to provide a counterpoint to, hoped to do things differently, by getting together and proving that solidarity came first.
In fact, it's managed to be much lower the night of the United Kingdom where the United States in getting vaccines approved. More importantly in getting them to their populations.
So, a lot of difficulty ahead for the European Union getting its vaccination campaign up to speed. Simply, for the time being, it just does not have the doses it needs. Beyond that comes the question of vaccine hesitancy, a great problem here in Europe, that won't be helped by the fact that before the European Medicines Agency pronounced itself on the application by AstraZeneca, the German health authority had said it believed it was not efficient in over 65s or that the data didn't allow us to see it. Something that was also repeated by Emmanuel Macron yesterday.
HOLMES: Enormous challenges still ahead. Melissa Bell, in Paris, thank you, good to see you.
Canada is in the grip of a deadly coronavirus wave just ahead of spring break. Because of that, the Canadian prime major just announced strict new quarantine rules for people traveling into the country. That could cost travelers hundreds of dollars more than they budgeted. CNN's Paula Newton explains.
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PAULA NEWTON, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): With these new restrictions, Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau is doing all he can to try and keep Canadians home, especially during the spring break.
So, what has changed?
They always had a 14-day quarantine here in Canada, but you could do it at home. Now when you arrive at the airport, you will be tested. Once you are tested, you must go to a government approved hotel at your own expense for at least three days or until you get a negative COVID test back.
It will set you back about $1,500 and it will be quite cumbersome to do. The issue here, however, the prime minister says, is those variants. There have already been dozens of cases in Canada, but public health officials warn that these variants could be dominant in community transmission by March. Take a listen.
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JUSTIN TRUDEAU, CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER: We know that these variants represent a real challenge. We've seen public health modeling that shows what happens if these variants do take hold in Canada.
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TRUDEAU: We know that just one case of the variant that comes in could cause significant challenges. And that's why we need to take extra measures.
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NEWTON (voice-over): Canada will not get the help that it needs from that vaccine rollout. The problem here is with doses. Both Pfizer and Moderna have warned Canada that the vaccines that it promised to deliver will not be here on time. There will be significant cuts to those deliveries over the next few weeks.
NEWTON: The fact remains that public health officials here warn that this second wave is likely to be more deadly than the first, even though COVID cases, fortunately, have been going down, week over week, especially in Canada's largest cities -- Paula Newton, CNN, Ottawa.
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HOLMES: We will take a quick break and still to come on the program, the identity crisis of the Republican Party.
Is Trump loyalist and conspiracy theorist Marjorie Taylor Greene the new face of the GOP? We will be right back.
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HOLMES: Just one day after Afghanistan's president urged U.S. President Joe Biden to step up pressure on the Taliban, the Taliban is claiming responsibility for a deadly car bombing.
This happened on Saturday, on an army base in the Sherzad district of Nangarhar in Afghanistan. A spokesperson says that a Humvee full of explosives blew up, killing at least eight Afghan soldiers. The Taliban claiming responsibility for the attack in a message to the media.
Now the FBI says pipe bombs found in Washington D.C., on the day of the Capitol insurrection were planted the night before the attack. Investigators say that this suspect, you see on your screen there, may have wanted the bombs to divert law enforcement resources as the rioting began the next day.
The suspect wore a gray hooded sweatshirt and yellow, black and gray Nike shoes. The reward for information leading to the suspect now standing at up to $100,000.
Newly released video from the U.S. Capitol attack is giving us a deeper look at the pure violence coming from the crowd. Tom Foreman shows us -- and, a warning, the video is violent and disturbing.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Save her!
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is what police saw, as they furiously tried to fight off the mob on this bodycam footage released by the U.S. attorney's office. And this is what they heard. As a man shouted for help near a woman who was down.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (from captions): Save her! She's going to die! She's dead! Please! She's dead! I need somebody!
FOREMAN (voice-over): Prosecutors say among them was Michael Foy, the man they say wielding a hockey stick in this video as brutal hand to hand fighting rages.
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FOREMAN (voice-over): Foy has been charged with assaulting a law officer, obstructing law enforcement, entering a restricted building and more.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (from captions): Knock their masks off! Knock their masks off! FOREMAN (voice-over): Other angles from other cameras give a better sense of how huge the mob was as it surrounded police.
In this video, dragging one down the stairs, where he was beaten with a flagpole. But few images have captured the raw fury quite like this bodycam.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (from captions): Fuck you, I'll fucking kill you!
FOREMAN (voice-over): The crash was so intense, some first responders say even though they knew police and rioters were being injured, they could not safely access patients due to the crowd activity.
And that woman being trampled on the stairs while calls for help went unanswered?
"The New York Times" has identified her as 34-year-old Roseanne Boyland, who later died.
FOREMAN: We have seen dozens of videos of that calamitous day, many of which are even now being introduced as evidence against rioters. But this one stands out for the sheer, up-close, in-your-face brutality and violence of a supposed political march gone mad -- Tom Foreman, CNN, Washington.
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HOLMES: Ten years after Tunisians ousted their president and sparked uprisings across the Arab world, many are now back in the streets. We've been seeing clashes in some of the most vulnerable areas over an economic crisis that is only made worse by the coronavirus pandemic. CNN's Jomana Karadsheh reports.
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JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Ten years after overthrowing their regime and sparking uprisings in the Arab world, Tunisians are back on the streets. The same slogans from their Jasmine Revolution a decade ago, echo across the streets of the capital, Tunis, as they do in other cities.
"I am here to demand freedom, rights and justice," says 26-year-old Bilal (ph).
The unrest began earlier this month in some of the country's impoverished areas. Young protesters defy the COVID-19 curfew to protest rising poverty, unemployment and police brutality. That quickly escalated into violent confrontations, riots and vandalism.
The military was swiftly deployed to try and restore order. Hundreds have been detained, many of them teenagers. At least one protester lost his life this week, reportedly after being struck on the head by a tear gas canister.
Tunisia's revolution brought democracy and free speech to the North African nation. But successive governments have failed to provide the better life Tunisians have been promised time and time again.
A third government since 2019 elections produced a deadlocked parliament and political paralysis has had to deal with the rising anger over joblessness, poor state (ph) services and rampant corruption, all made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic that has brought the country's already struggling economy to its knees.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): "Today, after 10 years since the December 14th protests, the so-called revelation, we still have the same demands, the same slogans. And this is the biggest proof of what is called revolution did not happen. The revolutionary path has been compromised and, today, we protesters bringing back the path the revolution is on.
KARADSHEH (voice-over): Demonstrators gathered outside parliament this week; inside, the prime minister acknowledged their grievances and called on politicians to put their differences aside.
HICHEM MECHICHI, TUNISIAN PRIME MINISTER (through translator): We have heard so much about reforms, but we have seen nothing in reality. And proof of that is the youth protesting outside your parliament.
Why are they protesting?
Are they protesting a four-month-old government or years of failure?
Enough of this failure and let's work together for success.
KARADSHEH (voice-over): The prime minister has reshuffled the cabinet, promised reforms and a plan for more jobs but his nation has just run out of patience -- Jomana Karadsheh, CNN, Istanbul.
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HOLMES: GameStop stock is spiking again, and amateur investors are getting rich, at least on paper, many who are buying stock, hoping to change things on Wall Street. We will hear from one of them when we come back.
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HOLMES: Well, if you haven't noticed, it's been a crazy week on Wall Street, to say the very least. The Dow, closing down 2 percent on Friday. The SNP, about the same. Both logging their first monthly losses since October.
One stock not listed on these indices is seeing a windfall, GameStop closing nearly 70 percent higher on Friday, its value soaring, thanks to amateur investors, who are putting the squeeze on the professionals, the hedge funds and the short sellers, the suits. Now those traders are hoping for more than just profit. They want to
turn the tables on Wall Street titans, who control things -- or used to. Jon Sarlin speaks with one of them about his ambitions.
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AJ VANOVER, GAMESTOP INVESTOR: This is my account total, at the moment, on RobinHood.
JON SARLIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Right now, there is more than $1 million sitting in AJ Vanover's RobinHood trading account, all thanks to a hugely risky bet on GameStop.
VANOVER: And I knew I was going to make money, but I got lucky with how it actually unfolded.
SARLIN (voice-over): AJ is 31 years old, living in Missouri with his family. In 2019, he started following WallStreetBets, a chaotic and gleefully profane stock trading Subreddit.
VANOVER: People aren't really going to step in and help you if you didn't know how options function.
SARLIN (voice-over): Soon he was trading, and he had a hunch about the video game retailer, GameStop. AJ says he bought 100 shares and then some options, investing around $4,500 total. And then, this happened.
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BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: A new twist in the Reddit fueled stock roller coaster, taking the world by storm.
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SARLIN (voice-over): Now this battery store worker, making $35,000 a year, is a millionaire, at least, on paper -- for now.
SARLIN: You haven't sold your stocks yet.
VANOVER: I want to make more money. And I have confidence that it is going up. If it starts to run, I might see how far it goes now.
SARLIN (voice-over): AJ and the online army of amateur investors he is a part of have rocked Wall Street by buying up GameStop and other shares. The big hedge funds, who were betting against those stocks, lost billions, just icing on the cake for AJ.
VANOVER: I wasn't happy about the 2008 crisis. It was kind of upsetting to see everybody get bailed out that really caused it and nothing really happened. It is interesting this time to see them on the other end.
SARLIN (voice-over): But AJ is playing a risky game. Plenty of folks in the Reddit community have racked up huge losses.
In a 2020 farewell post, one member described losing years of savings, writing, "I went from a rational investor to some sick, irrational, desperate gambler."
But no matter how this ends, the Reddit army has rattled Wall Street to its core.
SARLIN: How much of this do you think is a paradigm shift?
VANOVER: This is the first time I have ever seen the masses be able to win this big. And I think it will get a lot more people interested in actually getting into the markets.
SARLIN (voice-over): Jon Sarlin, CNN, New York.
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HOLMES: We will be right back here on CNN NEWSROOM.
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HOLMES: Welcome back.
The U.S. President Joe Biden, zeroing in on gaining lawmakers' support for his ambitious COVID relief package. He said, time is of the essence and the bill must pass, with or without Republican support. CNN's Phil Mattingly with details from the White House.
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JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The risk is not doing too much; the risk is not doing enough.
PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Joe Biden ramping up the push for his cornerstone legislative priorities.
BIDEN: People will be badly, badly hurt if we don't pass this package.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): A sweeping $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package, one Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, amid a week of poor economic data, says is urgently needed.
JANET YELLEN, U.S. TREASURY SECRETARY: We need to act now and the benefits of acting now and acting big will far outweigh the cost.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): That decision to act big has created unified resistance from the congressional GOP. Biden himself has been on the phone with Senate Republicans, calling Republican senators Ron Portman and Susan Collins to pitch his plans, sources tell CNN.
All this as his team continues its own Capitol Hill lobbying blitz on the package. BIDEN: I support passing COVID relief with support from Republicans if
we can get it. But the COVID relief has to pass.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): And the White House, making clear, they will take their case outside of Washington as well in a COVID-19-safe manner.
JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: We are having to take a number of creative steps to do that, whether that is direct television or local media or from the president and the vice president and others.
We're doing that, whether it's engaging with governors and local elected officials, to ensure that we are answering all the questions they have.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): All as to this point Biden's primary action has been solely executive, 42 actions in his first nine days, a reflection of his push to undo much of his predecessor's work, even as he presses Congress to do their own.
PSAKI: He's the first to tell you as he has said many times publicly, he will not take executive action alone. That is why he put forward a number of packages that he is actively working with members of both parties to move forward on.
MATTINGLY: White House officials made clear, if they are giving up and trying to get bipartisan support for the COVID relief package. But again, they focus on two primary things, speed and size. Both of those issues have been severe problems for Republicans on Capitol Hill.
However, the outreach will continue. White House officials say they will continue to reach out over the course of the weekend, over the course of next week and, again, they want to move quickly. They want something done by mid-March.
But based on how things are going on Capitol Hill, particularly with congressional Democrats, that movement could start as soon as the end of next week -- Phil Mattingly, CNN, the White House.
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HOLMES: Now it's not just Congress that is divided. So, too, the Republican Party itself. House minority leader Kevin McCarthy expected to meet with congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene next week. This coming after many of her controversial social media posts resurfaced. CNN's Manu Raju has more on the deepening divide within the GOP.
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MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Donald Trump may be gone from Washington but Republicans still trying to pick up the pieces from his tumultuous tenure in office.
[02:35:00] RAJU (voice-over): At the center of one storm, the third ranking House Republican Liz Cheney, who joined nine of her GOP colleagues this month in voting to impeach Trump, sparking an effort from Trump's staunchest defenders to oust her from her leadership job and defeat her in next year's Wyoming primary.
REP. MATT GAETZ (R-FL): I love Wyoming.
RAJU (voice-over): Sources tell CNN that Trump is obsessed with taking down Cheney. Even his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr. howling into a rally yesterday, seeking Cheney's defeat.
DONALD TRUMP JR., FORMER PRESIDENT'S SON: And since the people of Wyoming are clearly not thrilled with Liz Cheney, let's find someone who can replace her and actually do that job well.
RAJU: The battle over Cheney's future could come to a head next week when Republicans meet behind closed doors, which many expect to turn into a venting session.
REP. PETER MEIJER (R-MI): If Liz Cheney is the person who suffers the most from the events on January 6th politically, it will be a very sad, sad day for my party. We can't be a party of conspiracy theories.
RAJU: That comment a reference to controversial freshman Marjorie Taylor Greene who won a seat in Northwest Georgia last fall despite her past promotion of a QAnon conspiracy theory.
Greene has been under fire after past social media posts have come to light, including one 2018 comment, where she indicated that the horrific massacre at a Parkland, Florida, high school was a staged operation. And there has been outrage over a video showing her harassing a Parkland survivor.
Those revelations along with CNN KFile's reporting of her posts, showing support for executing prominent Democrats in 2018 and 2019 prompting Democratic calls that she be expelled from the House or at least kicked off the Education and Labor Committee.
But House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy has been quiet, instead, attempting to get back into Trump's good graces after initially saying Trump was responsible for the Capitol riot and then later walking it back.
And after visiting the former president yesterday at his Florida golf club, saying he wants Trump's help to take back the House in 2022.
Amid the swirl in controversy, Greene stressing to her constituents that she's with Trump.
REP. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-GA): President Trump did not cause the attack on the Capitol on January 6th.
RAJU: The tension spilling out in the halls of the Capitol, with Speaker Nancy Pelosi allowing freshman Democrat Cori Bush to move her office away from Greene after the two got into an altercation in the hallway, with Bush scolding Greene for not wearing a mask.
REP. CORI BUSH (D-MO): Follow the rules and put on a mask!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stop (INAUDIBLE)
GREENE: You know what? Don't yell at people. Stop being a hypocrite.
RAJU: The fight over Liz Cheney's future, expecting to come to a head on Wednesday. This is the first time Republicans will have met behind closed doors for some time. They are expecting to discuss the vote that she cast with other Republicans to impeach Donald Trump.
Trump defenders indicating they won't back down anytime soon, but Cheney's defenders believe that she, ultimately, will have the votes to survive this effort to oust her from her leadership spot. That vote ultimately to oust her from her position will take some time to play out. But Wednesday will be the first time they can clear their air in private -- Manu Raju, CNN, Capitol Hill.
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HOLMES: Joining me now, Sabrina Siddiqui, a CNN political analyst and White House reporter for "The Wall Street Journal."
Good to see you again. Sabrina, I want to start with this extraordinary situation on Friday of a Democrat congresswoman, Cori Bush, saying that she was moving her office for safety reasons after she and her staff were berated by another congresswoman. We're talking about Marjorie Taylor Greene.
How much of an issue are the behaviors and the inflammatory statements of the new Republican members, not just Greene but Lauren Boebert as well. Precious little action or even comment from the Republican leadership.
SABRINA SIDDIQUI, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: I think what you are seeing is very much in line with the way that Republican lawmakers treated former president Donald Trump. They wanted to act like he was part of some fringe and not the leader of the party, who, very much, injected right-wing politics into the mainstream of the GOP.
So now they are contending with a lot of lawmakers, who have fashioned themselves into the image of Trump or who subscribe to a lot of the conspiracy theories in which he often trafficked.
Really, they are largely silent because they still want to hold on to support from the Republican base, which remains not just supportive of former president Trump and so-called Trumpism but in many ways is now infiltrated by that thought.
[02:40:00]
HOLMES: There is a number of members of Congress who have at least links or support from organizations and movements that played a role in the January 6th assault on the Capitol. There is also Representative Paul Gosar of Arizona, others, too.
I'm wondering, how damaging to the party are these more extreme elements that are operating under the Republican banner?
Does it risk fracturing the party itself or at least driving off more moderate Republican voters?
SIDDIQUI: It looks like it's doing the latter. There isn't a space anymore for the more moderate voices in the Republican Party. Ohio senator Rob Portman, who is very much known in Washington as a centrist, announced he will not seek reelection.
And he is one of many more moderate Republicans to step down in the age of Trump or what is now a post-Trump era. That's still very much reeling from the impact he has had on the party and the conservative movement.
Think of the insurrection and you are talking about ties some lawmakers have to these fringe groups or far-right groups. Even after the rioters stormed the Capitol, 147 Republicans still voted to overturn the results of the election.
HOLMES: I want to talk to you when it comes to the COVID relief package, we still hear the Biden team talking of bipartisanship, working with Republicans, who, let's be honest, showed no inclination for bipartisanship when held the majority.
How much pushback is there with Democrats to forge on alone?
Joe Biden aside, be tougher, despite what the president wants in terms of reaching across the aisle?
SIDDIQUI: I think right now progressives are willing to let President Biden, at least, try and broker some kind of bipartisan deal. He did, after all, make it a centerpiece of his campaign, to work across the aisle, to try and unite the country.
A lot of that inclination, on his part, is borne of his 36-year career in the U.S. Senate, as well as his two terms as vice president, where he was the one who the Obama administration often dispatched to Capitol Hill to negotiate a deal.
So, I think that's still very much how he operates. But it's telling that the White House is not ruling out using a process known as reconciliation, which would essentially enable Democrats to pass a COVID-19 relief package with a simple majority vote.
The fact that they are still keeping it on the table, I think, is a recognition on the part of the Biden administration that, yes, he wants a bipartisan deal but, at the same time, he's been here long enough to know what obstructionism looks like as well as just the way in which Washington and Congress is still very much broken.
So, it doesn't look like he will necessarily entertain this notion of bipartisanship for too long if it means not been able to pass what he says is essential relief for the American people. HOLMES: Yes, yes, yes, a lot of other things, too. CNN political
analyst, Sabrina Siddiqui, thank you so, much good to see you.
SIDDIQUI: Thank you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: "MARKETPLACE AFRICA," up next. I'll see you in 20.
