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U.S. COVID-19 Hospitalizations Fall Below 100K; California Ends Regional Stay-At-Home Order; Republicans In Turmoil Over Controversial Georgia Representative; Small Town Mayor Embraces QAnon; Putin Tries To Discredit Navalny; Biden Administration Inherits Numerous Middle East Crises; COVAX Initiative On Track To Meet Goal. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired January 31, 2021 - 01:00 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 and welcome, everyone. I am Michael Holmes.
Coming up on CNN NEWSROOM, calling it quits. Donald Trump's impeachment defense team resigns just over a week before the former president's impeachment trial begins.
The number of Americans infected with COVID hits a new marker but there is some good news regarding the pandemic.
Bracing for a major snowstorm. It could dump up to a foot of snow in New York City and close to that in D.C.
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HOLMES: But we begin with breaking news.
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HOLMES: With a little more than a week before former president Donald Trump's second impeachment trial begins, we're learning his five defense team lawyers have quit, all of them.
Butch Bowers and Deborah Barbier from South Carolina were expected to be the two lead attorneys; they're no longer with the team. Also gone Greg Harris, Johnny Gasser and Joshua Howard. According to people familiar with the matter, the problem was legal strategy.
Mr. Trump wanted the attorneys to argue his false claims that the election was stolen, instead of focusing on the legality of convicting a president after he's left office.
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HOLMES: Let's talk more about this surprising development in the impeachment case. Harry Litman joins me now from La Jolla in California, a former U.S. attorney and is legal affairs columnist for the "L.A. Times." Harry, this was mind-blowing. It started as news of two senior lawyers
leaving. And within a couple of hours, it was an exodus, five of them gone. The trial's a week away.
Where does this leave the defense?
HARRY LITMAN, FORMER DEPUTY ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL: It's a disaster for the defense. And five is all that there are. It's not simply that they open a week from Tuesday; he has briefs due with his basic legal position on Tuesday.
It's inconceivable to me that he could get any kind of halfway professional lawyer and get together his basic claim to submit by Tuesday, especially since he seems to be insisting on staying the course with the sort of Big Lie fraud claim that actually was the source of the problem in the first place.
It was his sort of insistence and, at all costs, clinging to that claim that's what led to the insurrection here. So if he were to go in it would be the ultimate leading with his chin.
But now that all his lawyers have deserted him, I don't know what any litigant, much less the former president of the United States in an impeachment trial, is going to do, when there are really 72 hours until he has to state his basic legal position.
HOLMES: Yes, Trump, as you pointed out, the reporting from Kaitlan Collins is that he wanted the attorneys to argue that there was mass election fraud; it was stolen, rather than focus on, you know, proposed arguments on constitutionality or guilt or innocence when it comes to insurrection.
As a legal strategy, does that even hold water, to make that argument in this case?
LITMAN: It not only doesn't hold water, it's one big leak. I mean, really, if he were to go in front of the Senate and repeat the Big Lie that essentially no one, short of Marjorie Greene, believes anymore, that would really just be, in essence, actually going halfway toward pleading guilt. So it's a disastrous legal strategy.
It's also completely untenable for his lawyers, who are not able, for ethical reasons, to stand up and support a lie. It would normally be a prestigious engagement to represent the former president. He already couldn't get any top-drawer lawyer.
And now these others are abandoning him en masse. So it's really -- it both shows he's asking them to lie, which is a big problem, and that it's a -- on the merits, as it were, a disastrous defense.
HOLMES: And real quick, Harry, Maggie Haberman of "The New York Times" is reporting that Steve Bannon is telling Donald Trump to represent himself in front of the Senate. It may come to that.
But is it a good idea?
LITMAN: Can you imagine?
No, it's obviously the catastrophe of catastrophes. He very cunningly avoided saying anything on the record through the whole Mueller probe, et cetera. The normal adage, "Someone who represents themselves has a fool for a client," applies in spades where Donald Trump is concerned.
HOLMES: And again, if he is going to argue election fraud -- which, of course, is not a defense -- I mean, what can happen in the Senate?
Can they bar that defense, declare it an improper argument?
LITMAN: They can do whatever they want. We found this last week. It really is the law of the jungle there. They can say it's unconstitutional, even though the Senate has held otherwise.
But, wow, would that be a poke in the eye, even to his supporters?
And who knows whether it would be flirting with an actual conviction?
Right now it seems relatively safe that the Republicans, hiding behind this constitutional defense, will acquit him. This would be tailor- made to actually try to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
HOLMES: Extraordinary times. Harry Litman, thanks so much. Appreciate it.
LITMAN: Thank you, Michael.
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HOLMES: Now to a glimmer of hope in the battle against coronavirus.
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HOLMES: For the first time in nearly two months, current COVID-19 hospitalizations in the U.S. have fallen below 100,000. The U.S. reporting just over 97,000 hospitalizations on Saturday.
But the numbers are still grim overall. The U.S. has now surpassed 26 million confirmed infections since the pandemic started and, of course, leads the world in its number of cases.
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HOLMES (voice-over): And then this: Anti-vaccination protesters in Los Angeles on Saturday, another reminder that some people oppose COVID-19 vaccination efforts, even as case numbers rise across the globe. There were some reports the protesters temporarily halted operations at the Dodger Stadium vaccination site.
But the Los Angeles Police Department says that's not the case.
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HOLMES: While battles rage over the use of vaccines, we have learned January is now the deadliest month for the U.S. since the coronavirus pandemic began. CNN's Natasha Chen reports now on the latest efforts to curb the virus.
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NATASHA CHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The CDC says starting Monday night, everyone over two years old using any form of public transit must wear a mask, even if one has already had the COVID vaccine.
It's a mandate that comes a year after the first reported U.S. case of COVID-19, a virus that has killed more than 437,000 people in the U.S.
ZORA BRENGETTSY, BEREAVED FAMILY MEMBER: We didn't expect to lose any of them. To be honest, we all thought they were going to bounce back.
CHEN (voice-over): This family lost three loved ones.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: To wake up and know that he's not there, I can't call him.
CHEN: January was the deadliest month of this year-long pandemic, more than 90,000 people in the U.S. have died this month alone and to give you some perspective, that's about 20,000 more people that could fit in this entire NFL stadium.
CHEN (voice-over): The Mercedes Benz Stadium that hosted the Super Bowl just two years ago is now a vaccination site.
DR. LYNN PAXTON, DIRECTOR, FULTON COUNTY BOARD OF HEALTH: We can actually get more vaccines out given the resources that we have or that are shortly coming to us. But if you don't have the vaccine, then we can't do it.
CHEN (voice-over): Johnson & Johnson is expected to apply for Emergency Use Authorization for its vaccine next week. Its global Phase III trial results showed the vaccine is 66 percent effective, but 85 percent effective specifically against severe disease.
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: This is a single shot vaccine in which you start to see efficacy anywhere from seven to 10 days following the first and only shot. It is very, very good with regard to cold chain requirements, namely requiring only a refrigerator.
CHEN (voice-over): Meanwhile, a new study suggests children are safer from the virus in schools than out of them. The author of the first detailed study of two K-12 schools said in order to reopen schools safely, they need Federal centralized guidelines and better access to testing.
Health experts are also eyeing new variants of the virus including the first domestic cases of the variant first identified in South Africa and more than 400 cases of the variant first identified in the U.K. Experts believe these variants will be more dominant by the end of March.
DR. ROCHELLE WALENSKY, CDC DIRECTOR: I believe that we should be treating every case as if it's a variant during this pandemic right now.
CHEN (voice-over): A pandemic that's far from over. The virus killed nine nuns in a retirement home in Michigan, all within a few weeks.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is numbing. And we have -- I do -- a much deeper appreciation for all the other families who have gone through this, the hundreds of thousands of families and until it personally touches you, I don't care how much we can have a sympathetic heart, it is different when you've already been there.
CHEN (voice-over): Natasha Chen, CNN. Atlanta.
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HOLMES: California alone reported more than 600 new COVID deaths on Friday, the same day the governor's regional stay-at-home order came to an end. CNN's Paul Vercammen shows us what the situation is like there now.
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PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So 638 deaths in California. That pushes the death toll in the state to more than 40,000. But officials are saying that other numbers are going down and they are projecting that way more intensive care unit beds will open up in the future.
And that's why they are relaxing a lot of the stay-at-home orders. That includes restaurants here in L.A. County. They open today with new restrictions, tough rules. Among them, tables have to be eight feet apart. No more than six people at a table.
And a rule that is really bothering some of the restaurateurs, they say they want to be allowed to have televisions, especially for the Super Bowl. But right now they can't.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If you put people out of safe spaces for Super Bowl, you are putting them literally in danger.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You are putting them into homes and house parties, which will take place.
So please, have some common sense. Let us use the TVs. Give us the chance to keep people safe and give them a little bit of community because that's what people need right now. And I don't know what else to do, other than get on my knees and just pray or beg, you know?
Like let's use some common sense here.
VERCAMMEN: There are 1,830,000 food services worker jobs in California, according to restaurant.org. So a lot of celebration.
Down the street, one restaurateur actually started the Macarena.
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VERCAMMEN: That's from Casa Vega, a tradition-rich restaurant in Los Angeles. But the owner, Christie (ph), says she's not going to open until February 22nd, National Margarita Day. She says she's just not ready to implement all of the new rules and restrictions that have just been handed out by L.A. County -- reporting from Los Angeles, I'm Paul Vercammen -- now back to you.
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HOLMES: Now the World Health Organization team investigating the origins of the coronavirus is expected to head today to the seafood market linked to many of the first cases in Wuhan, China.
Earlier on Sunday, the team visited a wholesale market's cold storage area. This investigation coming a year after Wuhan went into lockdown. And many are skeptical about just how much these experts will be able to uncover this late into the pandemic.
Going to take a quick break. When we come back, millions of Americans are under a winter weather warning. Heavy snowfall in the forecast from New York to D.C. We'll get the latest developments from the CNN Weather Center when we come back.
Also, a small town's mayor embracing the QAnon conspiracy nonsense. And it's causing a divide with the residents. Coming up, we'll hear from the mayor and his worried constituents.
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HOLMES: At least 100 million Americans are under some form of winter weather alert. That includes those in the nation's capital, which will see several inches of snow for the first time in two years. New York City could get a foot of snow.
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HOLMES: A simple snow day, pleasure for Washington, D.C., residents, is off limits this year. U.S. Capitol Police say there will be no sledding allowed on Capitol Hill after that expected snowstorm on Sunday.
The Capitol complex remains closed, with fencing and increased security after the attack there earlier this month.
D.C.'s delegate to Congress is calling for a reprieve, saying it's been a tough enough year for children. But police say they hope to welcome sledders back sometime in the future, just not now.
The forecast just as stormy in U.S. politics within the Republican Party. All eyes on controversial Republican representative Marjorie Taylor Greene. Democrats calling for her to be tossed out of Congress. Meanwhile, she is staunchly declaring her allegiance to the former president. CNN's Joe Johns with the latest.
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JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene continues to do her thing up here on Capitol Hill. She tweeted out on Saturday that she had a great conversation with former president Donald Trump, that she was grateful for what she referred to as his support and said Democrats are now coming after her the way they used to go after him.
We have no confirmation of that telephone call but no reason to doubt it.
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JOHNS: If that call did occur, it tells a little bit about how the president is operating in the background, making telephone calls, even though he doesn't have the Twitter megaphone, while Republicans continue with their identity crisis.
There was a back and forth on Saturday on Twitter between Marjorie Taylor Greene and Republican Utah senator Mitt Romney. Romney tweeted about her lies; she tweeted back that he needed to "grow a pair" or get a spine.
Marjorie Taylor Greene continues to be unapologetic about everything that Democrats are coming after her for. Democrats have suggested she ought to be ousted from the United States Congress because she has supported the idea of assassinating Democrats, including Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi -- Joe Johns, CNN, the Capitol.
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HOLMES: And yet another of Marjorie Taylor Greene's controversial social media posts has surfaced, a Twitter user posting it Thursday. It shows Greene discussing the deadly mass shooting in Las Vegas back in 2017.
Steven Paddock opened fire on a huge crowd gathered for a music festival; 58 people were killed and hundreds wounded in the attack. Paddock later found dead in his hotel room, self-inflicted wound. Greene questioned if the massacre was staged to discourage support for the Second Amendment.
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REP. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-GA): Maybe you accomplish that by performing a mass shooting into a crowd that is very likely to be conservative, very likely to vote Republican, very likely to be Trump supporters, very likely to be pro-Second Amendment and very likely to own guns.
Are they trying to terrorize our mindset and change our minds on the Second Amendment?
Is that what's going on here?
I have a lot of questions about that. I don't believe Stephen Paddock was a lone wolf. I don't believe that he pulled this off all by himself. And I know most of you don't, either.
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HOLMES: Head-smacking, isn't it?
CNN has reached out to congresswoman Greene for comment on this post. We are still waiting for a response.
The QAnon conspiracy theory movement isn't just constrained to political figures on the national stage. In one town outside of Seattle, Washington, the mayor supports these baseless fringe theories.
CNN's Kyung Lah spoke with residents about it as well as the mayor himself, who had some startling conspiratorial thoughts about the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol, have a listen.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I want to welcome Mayor Armacost to the program.
MAYOR WILLIAM ARMACOST (R-WA) SEQUIM: Thank you. Good morning.
KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR U.S. CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The small community of Sequim, Washington --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And the next question is, for the mayor --
LAH (voice-over): -- has a big question for the mayor.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why do you publicly support QAnon?
LAH (voice-over): Question after question, QAnon and the mayor are the talk of the town.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. Mayor, excuse me, we -- you owe it to the citizens of Sequim.
LAH (voice-over): Residents fear that Sequim, population 7,000, may be the first to have a QAnon conspiracy theorist in power. William Armacost is the mayor.
ARMACOST: It does not influence me at the role of a city council mayor in here.
LAH: But you still believe it?
ARMACOST: I am not saying that I believe that.
LAH (voice-over): "That" is QAnon, the ludicrous conspiracy that a cabal of Satan-worshipping pedophiles are part of a deep state plotting against Donald Trump and operating a global child sex trafficking ring.
QAnon burst into the mainstream during the U.S. Capitol attack. Insurrectionists were seen wearing Q symbols inside the Capitol and in the crowd outside.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Most people think of QAnon as something that is so far off the spectrum it will never come to their town.
LAH: Do they?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's what we thought.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't know, yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I mean, this has -- this has been shocking.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
LAH (voice-over): It began last August. Few in this quiet community, two hours from Seattle, expected the mayor's monthly radio broadcast to include a message like this:
ARMACOST: QAnon is a truth movement that encourages you to think for yourself. I want to encourage you to search for Joe M on YouTube and watch his videos, starting with "Q: The Plan to Save the World."
LAH (voice-over): That ominous video --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Every president after Reagan was one of these deep state criminals --
LAH (voice-over): -- full of absurd lies, ends by promoting Trump as the savior. Mayor Armacost has also spread disinformation online. He shared this QAnon rallying cry on his personal Facebook page, short for, "Where we go one, we go all," posting that nearly 20 times in one month.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Go ahead and have those theories. It doesn't matter. But don't let somebody who has those theories get put in a position of power.
ARMACOST: I never said I believe that.
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ARMACOST: I believe there are, unfortunately --
LAH: You called it a truth movement.
ARMACOST: What I call is the opportunity as a patriot and as an American citizen to seek truth. LAH (voice-over): As far as that video he encouraged residents to
watch --
LAH: Do you believe what the video suggests?
ARMACOST: I'm not committing to that. I think, again, there are many different resources that can influence our thought pattern. Again, I encourage people to seek truth.
LAH (voice-over): For 15 minutes, Armacost returned again and again to his idea of truth.
LAH: So you're not going to categorize what QAnon is?
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ARMACOST: I'm not in a position to do that.
LAH: Despite what we saw at the U.S. Capitol, despite ...
ARMACOST: You know, I've watched a lot of different videos that showed many different -- what appeared to be scenarios versus what has continued to run. I have no way of confirming that that was one group versus another.
LAH: But there is a difference between fact and fiction.
ARMACOST: Again, back to the authenticity of the information that we are seeing. Just because one angle of the camera showed this view, they may not have seen the other angle that shows a totally different scenario.
LAH: What I'm confused about is you don't think Q was involved in what happened.
ARMACOST: You know, I have no way of validating that.
LAH (voice-over): But some say his words aren't enough. They're petitioning to replace him.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This isn't just a conspiracy theory. This is serious.
LAH: As far as whether it's having any direct impact on this town, there have been some sudden vacancies in city leadership.
The city manager suddenly left; there have been some vacancies on the city council for a variety of different reasons that they've publicly stated, those city council members have stepped away from the job. Critics of the mayor fear though that this is somehow all connected to the mayor and QAnon -- Kyung Lah, CNN, Sequim, Washington.
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HOLMES: Many parents and others want to know, is it safe for students to return to in-person learning? Ahead on CNN, hear from a teacher in Chicago, who says now is not time
to go back.
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HOLMES: Welcome back, everyone, I'm Michael Holmes. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. Appreciate your company.
Now here in the U.S., a new study suggesting the transmission of COVID-19 in schools can be limited if kids take proper precautions like masking up. Researchers found just 9 percent of students who brought new infections to school infected others.
The study followed 3,500 students from two different schools during the fall semester. One of the study's authors says it supports the argument schools need centralized guidelines to reopen safely.
But not everyone feels safe returning to in-school learning. The debate raging in Chicago, where the teachers' union has told its members to strike if they choose to continue teaching online and the school system retaliates. CNN's Omar Jimenez reports it is an issue being argued across the country.
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OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Are you, as a teacher, prepared to strike if necessary?
LORI TORRES, SPANISH LANGUAGE TEACHER, MONROE ELEMENTARY: I am.
JIMENEZ (voice-over): Lori Torres is a Spanish teacher at a Chicago elementary school and in the middle of a battle between what she sees as her livelihood and her life. As Chicago Public Schools, the nation's third largest school district, is pushing to have kindergarten through eighth grade students return in person to the classroom.
JIMENEZ: And as it stands right now, you don't feel the school district is doing enough?
TORRES: I don't. I think it's OK that at a time like this that I take a step back and consider me.
JIMENEZ (voice-over): But Chicago School District says it has put in place safety strategies, like masking, smaller class sizes, hand sanitizing stations, air purifiers and daily screening for the thousands of pre-k and special education students who were able to return weeks ago.
JANICE JACKSON, CEO, CHICAGO PUBLIC SCHOOLS: To date, we have not had to close a single school due to outbreaks of COVID-19.
JIMENEZ (voice-over): That's not enough for Torres and the Chicago Teachers Union, which this week voted to stay in remote learning, just as the district was getting ready to reopen.
The union demanding vaccinations and mass testing for students and staff among other things before teachers step foot back in the classroom, a goal President Biden laid out in his first few days in office.
But the president and his team are walking a political tightrope. On one hand, claiming to support the science of COVID-19, which shows very little risk of transmission at brick and mortar schools, while, on the other hand, wanting to support teachers unions.
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: Why do you think that the unions in many cases are overruling what the studies show?
RON KLAIN, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: I don't think unions are overruling studies. I think what you're seeing is the schools that haven't made the investments to keep the students safe.
JIMENEZ (voice-over): And it's not just Chicago dealing with this issue.
PROTESTERS: We want school time.
JIMENEZ (voice-over): This week, in Montclair, New Jersey, just outside New York City, a similar fight. Plans to reopen schools, scrapped when teachers refused to return.
In West Virginia, one of the state's largest teachers' unions is suing the board of education which voted unanimously to resume in-person learning by the end of the month.
And in Los Angeles, the superintendent says all of its teachers should be vaccinated before returning to in-person instruction.
AUSTIN BEUTNER, LAUSD SUPERINTENDENT: Once that's done, we'll be at the school front door with big smiles under our masks, to welcome students and their teachers back to classrooms where they belong.
JIMENEZ (voice-over): But as both sides of the debate await a solution, parents and students await answers, with the experiences of virtual school top of mind, given the educational, emotional and even psychological trauma it's caused.
REELLA GARCIA, PARENT: They just walk away from the screen, so you hear the teacher like, "OK, we don't see people. People disappearing."
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The way in which they're learning right now is not the norm. But returning to school right now will not be school as they have known it.
(END VIDEOTAPE) HOLMES: This coming in to us now; as expected, supporters of the jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny have been holding mass protests today.
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HOLMES: We are seeing demonstrations; they are planned all across the country. This one has just unfolded in the last hour or so. The crowds coming out.
And that is despite police crackdowns, of course, which we've seen in past demonstrations.
Alexei Navalny was detained two weeks ago for what were described as parole violations. He says they're politically motivated. His detention has rallied not only supporters but other opposition members, who denounce Russian president Vladimir Putin.
We're keeping an eye on these demonstrations and we'll let you know how they develop.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Jill Dougherty is adjunct professor at Georgetown University and a Wilson Center fellow. She's also CNN's former Moscow bureau chief.
Jill, always good to see you. So more demonstrations getting started.
What impact do you think they are having in terms of pressure on Vladimir Putin?
JILL DOUGHERTY, ADJUNCT PROFESSOR, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY AND WILSON CENTER: You know, I think basically they're -- Navalny is trying to consolidate his base, which is still a minority. So I think it is motivating people to come out.
Now it will be very, very difficult, with the center of Moscow completely shut down, be very important to see how many people can actually even physically make it out there.
But in terms of any, you know, change in the country, it's very difficult to really measure that. You can't quantify it. But I think there's a sense of frustration and some anger among people, who just feel that this is unfair whether they support Navalny or not.
HOLMES: Yes. I guess, you know, I keep coming back to this question. Putin has always sort of played down Navalny. He is clearly afraid, though, of Navalny's influence. He's clearly worried.
Why is that?
DOUGHERTY: You know, I think he has a problem, President Putin, because, on the one hand he says -- or the Kremlin says -- that Navalny is an agent of foreign intelligence and that he is trying to bring about a color (ph) revolution and basically bring down the Putin government.
Now if that is what they feel, then that is an existential threat to the country. But on the other hand, the president, President Putin, as you mentioned, doesn't even use Navalny's name.
So which is it?
Is he just a nobody or is he a threat?
And obviously he's a threat. And I think, because he can communicate very effectively and he is tapping into frustration that goes beyond Navalny, I think this is as important to understand -- this is not just about Navalny.
It goes way beyond that. Prices are higher. Food is more expensive. That's becoming a big issue, food prices. People are frustrated about COVID and the regulations around COVID. There's a lot going on.
HOLMES: Tapping into dissatisfaction. It's interesting, too; Vladimir Putin is on his fifth president. Joe Biden's calling on Putin to release Navalny.
But what leverage does the U.S. have?
DOUGHERTY: I don't think the U.S. has very much, really. I mean, more sanctions, yes; speaking out, yes. But I think it's very difficult for the Biden administration right now because they have to obviously support Navalny because somebody tried to kill him and poison him. That is very serious.
But if the United States tries to overplay its hand and treat Navalny like, I don't know, kind of like the old Soviet days, you know, a dissident, that's not really quite what's going on.
And especially if the United States tries to start preaching to Russians about how to do democracy, that probably, at least in my opinion, will not work and could even backfire. So it has to be handled in a very balanced way. It's not easy.
HOLMES: Great analysis, as always. Jill Dougherty, a pleasure. Good to see you, my friend.
DOUGHERTY: Thank you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: President Biden facing many challenges, from the COVID pandemic to bringing Americans together. But he's also facing a number of foreign policy challenges in the Middle East. We'll look at them and how the new president might handle them with our man on the spot, Ben Wedeman, when we come back.
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HOLMES: The Biden administration has had to hit the ground running to address the many crises plaguing the U.S. The president is also inheriting a long and complicated list of other problems in other regions, particularly the Middle East. CNN's senior international correspondent Ben Wedeman takes a look at some of those daunting challenges.
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CHIEF JUSTICE JOHN ROBERTS, U.S. SUPREME COURT: Congratulations, Mr. President.
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BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The new resident of the White House faces a Middle East deep in a confusion of crises.
Yemen remains the world's worst humanitarian emergency, followed closely by Syria, where millions are struggling through a brutal winter as their country's agony goes on.
Blood still flows in Iraq, even though the scourge of ISIS appears for now to have been diminished.
Four chaotic years of Donald Trump saw the U.S. cozy up to the region's autocrats, careening close to the brink of war with Iran. Already the new administration is showing it will do some things differently.
TONY BLINKEN, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: We will end our support for the military campaign led by Saudi Arabia in Yemen.
WEDEMAN (voice-over): Tensions could recede as the Biden administration tries to revive the Iran nuclear deal, the JCPOA, says the Carnegie Institute's Mohanad Hage Ali in Beirut.
MOHANAD HAGE ALI, CARNEGIE MIDDLE EAST CENTER: Iranians can't continue to bomb and help their allies or support their allies, bomb the U.S. embassy in Iraq or the -- Riyadh's airport or any of these important facilities while they negotiate the JCPOA and as the JCPOA is (INAUDIBLE).
WEDEMAN (voice-over): Have knock-on effects in Syria, Yemen, Iraq and Lebanon, where Iran is a major player.
The Trump administration did manage to orchestrate the establishment of ties between Israel and several Arab states, a move praised by its successor.
[01:45:00]
WEDEMAN (voice-over): Washington also recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital, opened an embassy there and generally sided with Israel as never before, all but killing the two-state solution, which means Washington now needs to come up with new ways to address the conflict, as do the Palestinians themselves.
ALI: Perhaps the one-state solution has a more viable option, calling, asking for their rights as full citizens in the state rather than calling for a second state, which has no now basis on the ground.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Ben Wedeman joins me now from Beirut to talk more about all this.
I guess, Ben, you live and work in the region.
What were the major impacts of the Trump presidency on the overall Middle East dynamic in the context, perhaps, of what many say was cozying up to dictators and strong men?
WEDEMAN: Well, certainly on the question of dictators and strong men, president Trump, from almost the very beginning, sent out a flashing green light to the autocrats and dictators in the Middle East, that, as far as the United States was concerned, things like human rights were a very low priority.
Sort of all the hopes that we saw born in the aftermath of the Arab Spring in 2011 had already evaporated by then. But he really did bolster the rule of dictators and autocrats in a way that no U.S. president had in the past.
Let's remember, for instance, that he basically sided with Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, after his own CIA came out and said they believed he had ordered the killing of Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018.
He called Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the president of Egypt, "my favorite dictator."
And of course he, after a brief conversation of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the president of Turkey, the United States rather precipitously announced it was pulling out of northeast Syria, which precipitated a massacre of the Kurds in that part of Syria.
So definitely he changed the entire atmosphere in the Middle East. Now with the Biden administration, we'll have to see how that works out because, of course, the Obama administration, of which, of course, President Biden was an integral part, did, in a sense, turn a blind eye on the coup d'etat in Egypt in 2013 and the subsequent unprecedented crackdown on human rights in that area.
So President Biden will be back to that old balancing equation that United States has traditionally followed, of lip service to democracy and human rights and backing up its favorite autocrats and dictators in the region.
HOLMES: Yes, I wish we had more time. We've only got a couple of minutes left. I wanted to talk to you about Iran.
How important is that, is what happens regarding Iran and the U.S., in the bigger regional picture?
In terms of the potential flow-on effects or impacts of Iran and the potential reviving of the nuclear deal?
At the moment, you've got both sides saying, you first.
WEDEMAN: Yes. If somehow the United States and Iran resume a dialogue, whether within the JCPOA or outside of it, it certainly would have huge positive effects on the region. You have Iran supporting the Houthis in Yemen, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria and the various Shia militias in Iraq.
And in almost all of these places, they are in sort of a hostile confrontation with U.S.-backed regimes and governments and whatnot. So if you could remove some of the tension in the relationship, there could be a huge positive effect.
For instance, here in Lebanon, where we are deep in a political, economic and financial crisis, that crisis essentially began when Mohammed bin Salman kidnapped, held hostage and forced to resign Saad Hariri, who was the prime minister, and went on to become the prime minister again of Lebanon.
And that was all part of this ongoing hostility between Iran's proxies in the region and American allies. If that hostility can be removed, then that would really make a huge difference in this part of the world.
HOLMES: It is all interconnected. Ben Wedeman, great analysis as always.
[01:50:00]
HOLMES: And you're watching CNN NEWSROOM. We'll be right back.
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HOLMES: Now so far, nearly 30 million coronavirus vaccine doses have been administered in the U.S. That amounts to about 59 percent of the total distributed so far. And as wealthy nations try to protect themselves, a program backed by the World Health Organization will soon be delivering vaccines to some of the poorest countries.
The COVAX program, as it's known, has raised enough money now to supply 92 developing nations. CNN's Ivan Watson was able to get an exclusive interview with the managing director of the COVAX facility and she struck an optimistic tone about their mission.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) AURELIA NGUYEN, MANAGING DIRECTOR, COVAX: So the COVAX facility is on track on its primary goal, which is making sure that we have access to supply. We need about 2 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines in 2021. But it's not going to be a straightforward pathway throughout the whole year, that's for sure.
[01:55:00]
IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The European Union was just slamming Pfizer and AstraZeneca for delays in production and in supply of vaccines.
Are you seeing the agreements that are being made, are you seeing slowdowns because of not only demand but about unforeseen problems in production?
NGUYEN: Manufacturers are scaling up at a speed that's unprecedented. So I think we can expect that it's not going to be all smooth sailing as the vaccine manufacturing is scaled up and distribution happens.
I think it's important for everyone to be able to be accountable to the commitments that they've made.
WATSON: The head of the WHO has been quite critical about wealthier countries doing advance orders and setting back supply of vaccines to poorer countries; to COVAX, for example.
How much of a problem is that for you?
NGUYEN: In 2021 we are in a situation where demand is going to outstrip supply. This is exactly the reason why COVAX was created, to avoid a bidding war for vaccines. Without concerted effort, lower- income countries will be left behind because of the restrictions on their financial capabilities to be able to buy vaccines.
WATSON: What is the budget like to provide and distribute hundreds of millions of doses of vaccine essentially for free to the world's poorest countries?
NGUYEN: We've had very, very strong endorsements by donors. We've been able so far to secure pledges of $6 billion from over 2020. But we do need at least another $2 billion in 2021 to carry on being able to procure and also to be delivering doses.
WATSON: The new Biden administration announced that it wanted to join the COVAX facility.
What kind of an impact will that have?
NGUYEN: I think it's a very strong endorsement of the COVAX facility, of the aim to have a global and multilateral approach to fair and equitable access for COVID-19 vaccines.
So the very welcome news from the Biden-Harris administration to join COVAX is also coupled with a very significant pledge of $4 billion, which covers the procurement of COVID-19 vaccines and delivery. (END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Ivan Watson there.
I'm Michael Holmes. Appreciate your company today. But don't go anywhere. Robyn Curnow is locked and loaded. We'll be here with more CNN NEWSROOM in just a moment.
