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Republicans Discuss Marjorie Taylor Greene's Future; Democrats Standing Firm on $1.9 Trillion Relief Plan; Biden Moves to Undo Trump's Immigration Policies; Team Trump: His Speech Protected by First Amendment; Fallen U.S. Capitol Police Officer Lying in Honor; New Details Outline Minutes Before Rioter was Killed; Jeff Bezos to Step Down as Amazon CEO. Aired 4-4:30a ET
Aired February 03, 2021 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:00:00]
ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us here in the United States and all around the world. You are watching CNN NEWSROOM. And I'm Rosemary Church.
Just ahead, the cracks are showing within the U.S. Republican Party as it debates whether to punish a Congresswoman over her incendiary views. How this fight could determine the GOP's future.
Also --
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JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm not making new law. I'm eliminating bad policy.
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CHURCH: President Biden rolls back Trump era immigration policies, pledging to reunite children separated from their parents at the border.
And paying their respects. The president and first lady are among those to honor officer Brian Sicknick who died after being injured in the Capitol Hill riot.
Good to have you with us. Well, the future of one controversial U.S. lawmaker is now being debated by her colleagues in the House. And in the coming hours, a group of Republicans could decide whether to punish Marjorie Taylor Greene for extreme comments she made before winning her seat. CNN's Manu Raju has the details.
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MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Republicans now in a battle for the soul of their party. Facing a major test this week about whether they should purge a party of conspiracy mongering conservatives or punish Republicans who stood up to Donald Trump. Their first test Marjorie Taylor Greene, a freshman who dabbled in
conspiracies, such as spreading falsehoods about whether the 2018 massacre at a Parkland, Florida High School was staged.
With more of Greene's controversial views coming to light, and top Republicans staying silent, Senate Republican leaders finally had enough. With the top Senate Republican, Mitch McConnell, calling out Greene's, "loony lies and conspiracy theories." Saying they amounted to a "cancer" for the party.
SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY), MINORITY LEADER: I think, adequately spoke out about how I feel about any effort to define the Republican Party in such a way.
RAJU (voice-over): But McConnell would not say if we should have pushed back earlier against Trump's conspiracy theories.
RAJU: Do you wish though you spoke out about Donald Trump's conspiracies about the election being stolen much earlier than you ultimately did?
MCCONNELL: Well, with regard to the former president, we're going into an impeachment trial next week.
RAJU (voice-over): Senator John Thune, the number two Republican said today that House Republicans have to make a choice. Do they want to be the party of limited government? Or do they want to be the party of conspiracy theories and QAnon? And I think that is a decision they have got to face
Some Republicans aren't taking sides yet.
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM, (R-SC): Before I judge what to do about her, I want to know what the facts are.
RAJU (voice-over): But even close Trump allies said there's no room for Greene's views. But North Dakota Senator Kevin Cramer telling CNN that he would support her removal from the House Education Committee, which House Democratic leaders are threatening to do this week if House Republicans don't do it themselves.
SEN. KEVIN CRAMER, (R-ND): The tent can only be so big. There has to be some sort of guardrails.
[04:05:00]
RAJU (voice-over): All of that comes as House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy has yet to weigh in publicly on Greene saying to a spokesman that her comments are deeply disturbing.
Greene has fire back at McConnell calling him the real cancer in the party. And she has begun to walk back some of her conspiratorial views including over the horrific school massacres.
REP. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-GA): That's terrible the loss that these families go through. RAJU (voice-over): As House Republicans deal with one internal battle, another messy fight also taking shape. This over the future of Liz Cheney, the number three House Republican who joined nine of her colleagues last month to impeach Trump on a charge of inciting the deadly January 6 insurrection at the Capitol.
On Wednesday, House Republicans will meet behind closed doors and what is expected to be a tense meeting, in part focused on Cheney's vote. McConnell and other top Republicans such as Lindsey Graham, have given Cheney their full throated endorsement.
But as McCarthy has tried to get back into Trump's good graces after criticizing him on the House floor last month, House GOP leader has offered only a qualified endorsement of Cheney.
REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CA), MINORITY LEADER: Look, I support her, but I also have concerns.
RAJU: While still have no decisions made by House Republicans about whether or not to get rid of Marjorie Taylor Greene's committee assignment. There was a meeting behind closed doors that Kevin McCarthy first had with Marjorie Taylor Greene on Tuesday. Then the House Republican's steering committee met. They make those decisions about whether to strip a member of his or her committees. They had not made a decision. They kind of continue to discuss it. One of the concerns, the precedent it would set by punishing a member for thing they did before they won their election. That is an issue, I'm told, they're going to continue to grapple with and ultimately see if they can make a decision come Wednesday.
Manu Raju, CNN, Capitol Hill.
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CHURCH: And while the Republicans debate thousand handle Greene, Congressional Democrats are making plans to pass their almost $2 trillion COVID relief bill without Republican support. President Biden told Senate Republicans their $600 billion counteroffer falls way short.
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JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The president's bottom line is that this is a package. The risk here, as he has said many times is not going too big. It is going too small.
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CHURCH: Republicans believe the Democrats' relief package is too costly. But Democrats are now laying the groundwork to fast-track their bill to use a short cut called budget reconciliation that requires just a simple majority to pass.
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SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY) SENATE MAJORITY LEADER: Joe Biden is totally on board with using reconciliation. I've been talking to him every day. Our staffs have been talking multiple times a day. We are not going to dilute this, so it doesn't help the American people get out of this crisis quickly.
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CHURCH: President Biden is using his latest raft of executive actions to undo the immigration policies of the Trump administration. Biden has signed three executive orders establishing a task force designed to reunite separated families. Tackling the causes of immigration at the source, with aid for central American countries. And reviewing current legal immigration systems to make sure they're accessible. Here's how the president explained the moves.
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BIDEN: We're going to do work on to undo the moral and international shame of the previous administration that literally, not figuratively ripped children from the arms of their families, their mothers and fathers of the world. And with no plan, none whatsoever to unify the children still in custody and their parents.
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CHURCH: So, let's talk with CNN legal analyst Elliot Williams. He is also former assistant director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, known as ICE. Thank you so much for talking with us.
ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Hey, Rosemary. How are you?
CHURCH: Good. So, when he signed three executive orders on immigration Tuesday, President Biden made the point he is not making new laws. He is eliminating bad policy. Are these the right moves at this time? And is the use of executive orders the way to do this?
WILLIAMS: Well, you know, he couldn't have said it better with I'm not making new law, I'm eliminating bad policy. But the simple fact is, this is where we are with immigration in the United States, in which successive presidents have to use executive action because Congress, the body that makes the laws in the United States, simply has failed to act for at this point probably, close to two decades now.
Ultimately, big change in America needs to happen with respect to our immigration laws. Congress has tried as recently as 2013 to reform the country's immigration laws and just hasn't gotten it done. And so what President Trump attempted to do was put in place a number of executive orders. President Biden -- and they were bad policy, to be very clear. And President Biden is now rescinding a lot of them and putting better policies in place.
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So this is the best that Biden can do. But ultimately, this really needs to fall on Congress's lap. CHURCH: Right. So how difficult will it be for the Biden administration to carry out these major immigration policy changes, particularly reuniting 600 plus children who were separated from their parents under the Trump administration.
WILLIAMS: So let's first focus on everything that was wrong with that policy. Not only was it morally wrong, because we know that the Trump administration deliberately separated children from their parents. So, there is -- set aside the moral questions, but there were -- it was legally suspect but also logistically unsound. They weren't prepared to deal with the very policy that they put in place. And so, at a minimum, simply applying a baseline level of normalcy and competence to the process was very important for the Biden administration.
So, what they've done is put in place a task force to review, number one, find where these 611 children are and then do everything practicable to try to unite them with their family.
So, again, at its heart, its basic competence.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH (on camera): CNN's analyst Elliot Williams joining me earlier.
Well Donald Trump's second Senate impeachment trial is less than a week away and we are getting our look at the arguments from both sides. House Democrats claim Trump is singularly responsible for the Capitol insurrection that left five people dead. CNN's Jim Acosta has more on the former president's defense.
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JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Donald Trump's impeachment lawyers are trying to build a wall of their own, separating the bloody siege at the Capitol on January 6th, and the then-president's words before the riot.
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: We will stop the steal.
ACOSTA (voice-over): In its response to the impeachment allegations brought by House Democrats, the Trump defense team writes -- it has denied that the 45th president engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the United States. Adding, the 45th president exercised his First Amendment right under the Constitution to express his belief that the election results were suspect.
DAVID SCHOEN, TRUMP IMPEACHMENT ATTORNEY: This is a very, very dangerous road to take, with respect to the First Amendment. Putting at risk any passionate political speaker, which is really against everything we believe in this country.
ACOSTA (voice-over): As for Trump's instructions to the crowd, to quote fight like hell.
TRUMP: And if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore.
ACOSTA (voice-over): His lawyers stated it has denied that the phrase if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore, had anything to do with the action at the Capitol as it was clearly about the need to fight for election security in general. In their filing -- which misspells United States on the first page -- Trump's attorneys insist he never tried to subvert the certification of the election results. But that's not true, as he pressured state election officials.
TRUMP: So what are we going to do here, folks? I only need 11,000 votes. Fellas, I need 11,000 votes. Give me a break.
ACOSTA (voice-over): Even his vice President to do his bidding?
TRUMP: And if you're not I'm going to be very disappointed in you.
ACOSTA (voice-over): House Democrats plan to use clips of Trump's speech.
TRUMP: You'll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength and you have to be strong.
ACOSTA (voice-over): As well as comments made by his violent supporters --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's f--ing millions of us out there, and we are listening to Trump -- your boss.
ACOSTA (voice-over): -- to prove the former president instigated the riot.
Writing -- if provoking an insurrectionary riot against a joint session of Congress after losing an election is not an impeachable offense, it is hard to imagine what would be.
As for the claim made by Trump's lawyers that he cannot be tried after leaving office, the Democrats counter, there was no January exception to impeachment or any other provision of the Constitution. Still, some Democrats worry, this Trump trial will end like the last one.
SEN. TIM KAINE (D-VA): I'm very worried about going through this trial and having the punchline at the end being Trump acquitted again.
ACOSTA: Trump clearly won the battle with his own lawyers over whether to include the ex-president's bogus claims that the election was stolen from him. Trump adviser say the former president remains obsessed with that big lie.
Jim Acosta, CNN, Washington.
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CHURCH: And as Jim reported, Trump's attorneys will be mounting a free speech defense at his trial. Earlier, I asked CNN political analyst Sabrina Siddiqui how that legal argument may play out. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SABRINA SIDDIQUI, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: The video evidence of former President Trump encouraging his supporters to storm the Capitol, to make themselves heard, not to give up the fight, framing it as really a battle of war, that is all there for everyone to see.
So, what they are doing is they are trying to focus on the idea, he is no longer in office therefor he cannot be convicted. But Democrats are pushing back saying not only was he impeached while he was still in office, but that the hard press to imagine that the framers of the Constitution -- this the word that Democrats are using -- would have left them defenseless against a presidents treachery in his final days of office. And without any system to hold a former president accountable.
[04:15:00]
Certainly, and especially when a lot of this also has to do with seeking to bargain from seeking public office again.
Now the other piece of this though is that there is just simply not enough support it seems from Republicans to actually convict former President Trump. So, it seems like a foregone conclusion that he will once again be acquitted. But clearly, as you point out, his legal team is focusing much more on process, not on really what is at the heart of this trial itself.
CHURCH: Right. That certainly how it's looking right now. But everyone will of course be watching to see what Mitch McConnell does at the impeachment trial. He's already flexing his muscle over the disarray within the Republican Party, using a scathing attack in QAnon conspiracy theorist -- against QAnon conspiracy theorist Marjorie Taylor Greene. While fiercely supporting Liz Cheney, who voted to impeach Trump. What might that signal about what he will do at the trial and where he wants the party to go post Trump?
SIDDIQUI: Well, I think this is the real challenge that there are some Republicans, including Mitch McConnell, who want to move on from so- called Trumpism and no longer let that define the party. But because Republicans including McConnell were willing to enable former President Trump's behavior, a lot of the conspiracy theories in which he and his supporters trafficked have now come out on the fringes and are now more part of the mainstream.
And that's what's you are seeing with Marjorie Taylor Greene. She is one of several Republican lawmakers who has rally fashioned herself in Trump's image.
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CHURCH (on camera): Many thanks to CNN political analyst Sabrina Siddiqui talking to me earlier.
A U.S. Capitol police officer is lying in honor inside the building he was trying to protect less than a month ago. Brian Sicknick died from injuries sustained during the January 6th insurrection. U.S. President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden paid their respects Tuesday evening. Lying in state is usually reserved for government leaders but multiple lawmakers called for Sicknick to receive the posthumous honor. He was one of five people killed during that riot. U.S. lawmakers are paying tribute to officer Sicknick saying some of their colleagues can learn from his example.
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SEN JOE MANCHIN (D-WV): It's just such a sad scenario, but when someone basically gives their life defending our democracy, defending our Capitol and defending each one of us who were in there. That's what they were defending. They were defending the government and we were the government that day, trying to make -- do our job and do what we were taxed to do. And here's a man that stood there and gave his life. So, I think it's very appropriate that we pay respects and we never forget him or his family.
REP. ADAM KINZINGER (R-IL): Democracy is not just worth defending for them. They found it worth -- you know, Brian Sicknick found it worthy to give his life for. And we have people that sit around and are scared to give their career for the same cause. Like look, I'm not sitting here saying everybody has to be a hero at all times. But something basic like just doing the right thing and telling your constituents the truth should be the really basic part of the job.
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CHURCH: And actions have already been taken to make the Capitol a safer place. The House has passed a new rule, fining members $5,000 for ignoring House floor security rules. Meantime, investigators are replaying the events of the Capitol attack, in an effort to learn more. CNN's Brian Todd has our report.
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BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Investigators have recommended that prosecutors not bring charges against a U.S. Capitol police officer in the fatal shooting of Capitol rioter Ashli Babbitt, people familiar with the matter tells CNN. But the sources say a final decision has not been made.
CHARLES RAMSEY, FORMER WASHINGTON, D.C. POLICE CHIEF: Deadly force can only be used in the defense of your life or the life of another. And in this case, the other would have been members of Congress.
TODD (voice-over): A spokesperson for the D.C. Metropolitan Police told CNN it's irresponsible to jump to conclusions until the investigation is over. An FBI affidavit in the case of alleged rioter Zachary Alam gives a clearer picture of the circumstances around Ashli Babbitt's shooting. Alam allegedly punched and kicked the glass panels of the closed door to a hall that led to the House chamber, tried to smash it with a helmet and shouted expletives in the faces of police officers.
The affidavit says after Alam smashed a window, Babbitt was shot and then Alam backed away. Alam could not be reached for comment by CNN.
RAMSEY: You could tell from videos that it was a chaotic moment. There was a lot of banging. It would have been easy to mistake one of those bangs for a being gun shot.
TODD (voice-over): Meanwhile, this woman in a pink hat helping to operate a battering ram to smash a window has been identified and interviewed by "The New Yorker", although she's lying low.
[04:20:00]
The magazine says she was also shouting direction to other rioters. "The New Yorker" says she's a 40-year-old mother of eight from western Pennsylvania. She told the magazine she was being spontaneous, was not part of any plot and, quote, listen, if somebody doesn't help and direct people then do more people die?
JOHN SCOTT-RALTON, RESEARCHER, CITIZEN LAB, UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO: So many of the people who showed up at the Capitol were not long term 20, 30-year lifetime conservative Republican voters. At some point, they got radicalized. A lot of that seems to have happened online and, in her case, we can actually see it playing out right across her Facebook.
TODD (voice-over): Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has given a harrowing account of her experience on January 6th. On Instagram live, Ocasio-Cortez said a man came into her office unannounced and banged on doors, the man she thought was a rioter she says turned out to be Capitol police officer.
REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-NY): Screams and these yells of "Where is she? Where is she?" And so, I go down and I just -- I mean, I thought I was going to die.
TODD: Meanwhile, investigators appear to be struggling to build a murder case in the death of Capitol police officer Brian Sicknick. Apparently frustrated by a lack of evidence that can prove someone caused his death. Law enforcement officials familiar with the matter telling CNN, that investigators have combed through video and photographs showing Sicknick engaging with rioters. But they have not yet identified a specific moment when he suffered his fatal injuries.
Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: And after this short break, a major shake-up at Amazon. Founder Jeff Bezos is stepping down at CEO. We will discuss what is next for Bezos and the company. Back in a moment.
[04:25:00]
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CHURCH: Welcome back, everyone. Well, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is stepping down from his role as CEO and handing over the reins to Andy Jassy, a longtime member of the company's leadership team. Bezos who is 57 will transition to the role of Amazon's executive chairman later this year. He has spent more than 25 years building what began as an online bookstore in his garage into a $1.7 trillion retail and logistics giant.
And for more, Anna Stewart joins me now live from London. Good to see you, Anna. So why is Bezos doing this now? And what impact might his move have on the company?
ANNA STEWART, CNN REPORTER: It certainly took us by surprise. We had earnings out yesterday from Amazon -- record earnings I might add. Revenue up 44 percent on quarter compared to last year. We weren't expecting this announcement that he's stepping down. But as you said, he's not stepping away from the company entirely. He will still be an executive chairman. And of course, his successor is a long-standing Amazon employee, (INAUDIBLE) the same as Bezos.
And what was so interesting is what Bezos wrote to employees. He said being the CEO of Amazon has been all-consuming. He wants to put his attention onto some other projects, and he listed a few. The Fund, "The Washington Post" and Blue Origin. Now that is a space company, space exploration. Bezos wants to make space accessible to all. So what we could see going forward is a bit of the heating up of the space race between the billionaires.
You have Elon Musk and SpaceX on one side. You've got Jeff Bezos and Blue Origin on the other. The two richest men in the world. They via for that position often, overlapping with each other. So that's what we expect to see next.
Now this is the man who was the ultimate disrupter, he started Amazon from a garage, as you said an online bookstore and turned into the titan it is today. So really, the sky is not the limit when it comes to Jeff Bezos -- Rosemary.
CHURCH: Apparently not. What a life. OK, Anna Stewart, many thanks for bringing us up to date on all things Bezos. Appreciate it.
Well variants of COVID-19 are worrisome enough, of course, and now some experts warn that some mutations could be resistant to vaccines. Details on the latest disturbing discovery out of the U.K. That's next.
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