Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
Democrats Aim to Take Away Greene's Committee Assignments; Republicans Take No Action against Marjorie Taylor Greene; South Carolina Mom Explains why She Left QAnon; Some Voters Feel Betrayed by Lawmakers Impeachment Vote; Imprisonment of Navalny Expected on Biden's Agenda; Global Health Care Gets Creative with Unique Vaccine Sites. Aired 4:30-5a ET
Aired February 04, 2021 - 04:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:30:00]
ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back, everyone.
Well U.S. House Democrats are expected to remove controversial Republican lawmaker Marjorie Taylor Greene from her committee assignments when they call a floor vote later today. That's because Republicans took no action against Greene on Wednesday. They argued her history of violent rhetoric against Democrats pre-dated her arrival in Congress.
Instead, some of those Republicans directed their anger towards Congresswoman Liz Cheney. They wanted to take away her leadership role because she voted to impeach Donald Trump, but the effort to remove her failed when it was put to a secret ballot.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: So, let's talk now with Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics. Always a pleasure to have you with us.
LARRY SABATO, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR POLITICS, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA: Thank you so much, Rosemary.
CHURCH: So, the Republican Party is currently undergoing a reckoning of sorts. Attacking Liz Cheney for voting to impeach Trump while embracing whacky QAnon conspiracy theorist Marjorie Taylor Greene in a meeting Wednesday. Cheney survived a secret House vote on her leadership position, 145 to 61. Greene got a standing ovation. What does all this reveal about where the Republican Party is heading right now?
SABATO: I think it confirms what we have seen for some time. The Republican Party ought to be renamed the Trump party or maybe the QAnon party. Maybe it should be instead of GOP it should be GQP.
It's pretty clear that Marjorie Taylor Greene either has more support than the leadership of the party in the House and maybe the Senate but certainly the House. Or a lot of those members are afraid of her and the other QAnon members. The energy is with the more extreme parts of the Republican Party.
CHURCH: It appears to be, and of course House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy condemned Green's crazy conspiracy comments but with no consequences. He left that to the Democrats who set a date for later today to remove Greene from committees. How big of leadership failure is this for McCarthy? Leaving it up to the Democrats to do his dirty work in essence? And how do you expect that vote to go?
SABATO: It's a big failure for McCarthy. But it's just an extension of the earlier failure when at first, he condemns the insurrectionist riot at Capitol Hill and blamed correctly President Trump for energizing it and then took it all back.
This is -- this is a guy who can't figure out where he stands or he's doing a tap dance. He's trying to be everywhere at once and it's incredibly unimpressive, so that's the image he's projecting in the Republican Party. I think it's showing up, finally in a lot of polling about the legislative leaders.
A new one released today showed that the Democratic leaders Pelosi and Schumer doing very well relative to the Republicans, McConnell and McCarthy who worked very, very low. And people pay attention, they get a sense of where these leaders are coming from and whether they really are leaders as opposed to someone who is titled but a follower. That's what McCarthy is.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH (on camera): Larry Sabato talking to me earlier.
One former QAnon believer says that Marjorie Taylor Greene's ideas are dangerous. Ashley Vanderbilt is a Trump voter who says she bought into QAnon's wild theories until they didn't materialize. Donie O'Sullivan has her story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ASHLEY VANDERBILT, FORMER QANON BELIEVER: When President Biden was sworn in --
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I, Joseph Robinhood Biden Jr. ...
VANDERBILT: -- I was just crying. I mean, I couldn't stop. That ugly cry that you do. It just kept going and I was like, oh my gosh, like I'm seeing the funeral of our country. And instantly I went into panic mode, I had to call my mom. And I just told her like we are all going to die, we are going to be owned by China, and I was like, I might have to pull my daughter out of school because they are going to take her.
[04:35:00]
I was scared to death.
DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN BUSINESS REPORTER (voice over): Ashley Vanderbilt, a South Carolina mom who says she lost her job early in the pandemic fell deep down the QAnon conspiracy theory rabbit hole before November's election.
O'SULLIVAN: How did you get into this world and go down this rabbit hole?
VANDERBILT: Well, I started seeing TikToks, and I didn't know that it was conspiracy things. I just thought it was they were telling me something that nobody else knew. So then I would reach out to different friends of mine that were bigger Trump supporters. I would say, you know, I saw this on TikTok, what do you think? And they would start sending me YouTube videos. They would start sending me different Facebook live videos. And one thing led to another, I just went down this rabbit hole, learning all the stuff.
But I mean, what have we heard the last four or five years? Don't watch the news, fake news, fake news. I don't watch the news. I don't read newspapers. Like I don't do anything. I've always been someone that you just tell me what to do, and I do it. I grew up being told we're Republicans. So, I've always been that straight red ticket.
O'SULLIVAN: How do you think that videos like this started showing up in your feed?
VANDERBILT: Well originally, I was just following like entertainment stuff. But sometime when maybe people started like campaigning. I started liking a lot of Trump posts, and things that were anti-Biden, and the algorithm must have just brought that kind of stuff to me.
O'SULLIVAN: Right before the inauguration, you didn't believe Biden was really going to get sworn in.
VANDERBILT: No, I expected a blackout. I expected the TV to go black and nothing to work, and so we wouldn't see anything. The assumption of what would happen would be that most of the Democratic leaders there, quite a few of the Republican leaders, all the Hollywood elite that had attended, they'd all be arrested. The military is going to haul them off.
They said that Trump opened backup Guantanamo Bay and then the military would run the country, put us in martial law because the left would come to unhinged and they'd be a danger to us. And then Trump would come back when the government was rebuilt. I know it sounds crazy.
O'SULLIVAN: But you believe this.
VANDERBILT: I did.
O'SULLIVAN: And then Biden got sworn in.
VANDERBILT: Uh hmm.
O'SULLIVAN: How did you feel?
VANDERBILT: I was devastated. O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): The belief among QAnon supporters that Biden would not be inaugurated was wrong. Ashley Vanderbilt realized she had bought into a conspiracy theory.
VANDERBILT: Well, I was wrong.
O'SULLIVAN: How do you feel now knowing that you believed all this stuff?
VANDERBILT: It's weird. I think I spent a lot of time this year isolated from everybody. You know, I've just been home a lot. I've lost my job last April in 2020, and I was super depressed. And I think in a way I probably lost touch with a little bit of reality, and like almost like common sense. And so I'm not so much embarrassed for what I believe, but I mean, I feel foolish.
O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): A spokesperson for TikTok said the company is committed to countering misinformation and content promoting QAnon is not allowed on its platform. After finding QAnon through TikTok, Ashley said the only thing that might have pulled her out of it before the inauguration was if Trump spoke out against it.
VANDERBILT: I was the biggest Trump supporter there was. If he would have said something, and if he were to just say, Q's illegitimate. Nothing is real in there. I think some people would leave. Maybe not all, but people that are way too far into it, but I think it would help a lot.
O'SULLIVAN: It would have helped you?
VANDERBILT: Uh hmm, I thought the world of him. So, if he would have said that's not real, I'm not coming back, it is over, I'd have believe him.
O'SULLIVAN: And while Ashley Vanderbilt was able to get out of this conspiracy theory out of QAnon, many other Trump supporters are continuing to believe this conspiracy theory. Continuing to believe these lies. Vanderbilt says, she hopes that by speaking out she will help others see the light. Back to you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: Thanks for that report.
And some other Republican voters now say they feel betrayed after their representative from Washington state voted to impeach Donald Trump. Our Kyung Lah has this story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Back to the bottom line News Radio 610 KONA Monday morning.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a bottom line on News Radio 610 KONA.
KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the heart of Washington's fourth congressional district --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going to open up the phones.
LAH (voice-over): -- a conservative stronghold --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're very strongly behind President Trump.
LAH (voice-over): -- continues to react.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The votes from Representative Dan Newhouse in favor of impeachment.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We need to vote him out because he's a Democrat in sheep's clothing.
LAH (voice-over): Still angry at their congressman, Dan Newhouse, one of 10 Republicans in the House who voted to impeach Donald Trump.
REP. DAN NEWHOUSE (R-WA): There was a domestic threat at the door of the Capitol, and he did nothing to stop it. That is why with a heavy heart and clear resolve, I will vote yes on these articles of impeachment.
LAH (voice-over): It's not echoes of that applause here in this agriculture swath of central Washington state. Republican county leaders are calling on Newhouse to resign. He says he won't, in this district that the congressman and Trump both won easily.
ROBB FRANCIS, RADIO HOST, KONA: Betrayed is probably the word we heard the most from our listeners.
FRANCIS: Thanks for the call. Appreciate it.
LAH: And when you say majority, what does majority mean?
[04:40:00]
FRANCIS: Probably, I would say, 85 percent of our listeners. There are a lot of voters, especially on the right, that have developed a personal connection with President Trump unlike they have with any other politician.
FRANCIS: This is radio 610 KONA, your name, where you're calling from.
LAH (voice-over): They're already turning to 2022.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I will be voting for Mr. Brad Klippert.
LAH (voice-over): Washington State Representative Brad Klippert has already declared he is running, demonstrating with anti-abortion activists.
BRAD KLIPPERT (R-WA), STATE REPRESENTATIVE: I'm Brad, running for Congress for the fourth congressional seat. Yes, ma'am, in 2022.
I'm running for the values and principles that I believe in, the values and principles of growth and prosperity that took place during President Trump's presidency.
Love you, ladies. Thank you. Have a great day.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You too.
LAH: How did you respond when the congressman voted to impeach the president?
CHARLES SCHWAB, WASHINGTON STATE REPUBLICAN: He lost my vote.
LAH: Why would he lose your support completely because of this one vote?
SCHWAB: Because he has joined that group that is trying to destroy our president.
HAROLD HOCHSTATTER, WASHINGTON STATE REPUBLICAN: He needs to be in touch with his people and I think that he failed to do that.
LAH (voice-over): Newhouse, a farmer and businessman from Sunnyside, Washington, was popular before this vote.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I thought he was brave and did absolutely the right thing to do.
LAH (voice-over): But even this supporter acknowledges in a place that remains firmly pro-Trump, 2022 may not be kind.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think it's going to be tough over here for him again, yeah.
LAH: Of course, there's a lot of time between now and November 2022. Supporters for Representative Newhouse say there are plenty of votes, many months for him to turn it all around. As far as his critics, they say they doubt that their sentiments and they're support for Donald Trump will waiver between now and then.
Kyung Lah, CNN, Sunnyside, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: The so-called QAnon shaman who stormed the Capitol must be given organic food in a Washington, D.C. jail. A federal judge ruled that accommodations could be made for Jacob Chansley because he was allowed to stick to the diet while detained in Arizona. Chansley went on an apparent hunger strike says non-organic food was against his religion of shamanism. Representatives of the jail argued they could find nothing to show that eating organic was a tenant of shamanism.
Well still to come, President Biden is set to make his first big foreign policy speech later. How much will he have to say about Putin critic Alexey Navalny. We're live in Moscow.
[04:45:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) CHURCH: Well, all eyes will be on the U.S. State Department later as Joe Biden makes his first visit there as president. He will outline his foreign policy in a speech after meeting with Secretary of State Tony Blinken. World leaders will be keen to see the strategic differences between Biden and his predecessor.
President Biden's agenda could well include the imprisonment of Russian opposition figure, Alexey Navalny. Mr. Biden has already ordered an intelligence review of Russian actions including its treatment of Navalny.
On Wednesday Navalny's wife Julia spoke out thanking the crowds who came out to protest the decision and vowing that, quote, we will win in any case.
So let's go to Fred Pleitgen. He joins us live from Moscow. Good to see you, Fred. What is the latest on this story and how much is President Biden likely to say about Navalny's imprisonment? What are the expectations?
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well it could certainly be part of that speech. And it certainly appears to be, Rosemary, that that's something that the Kremlin also seems to be preparing for as well. In fact literally, just a couple minutes ago, got off a call with the Kremlin, with the spokesman for Vladimir Putin, Dmitry Peskov, where was also asked about President Biden's possible speech and in general the possible threat of sanctions over the treatment of Alexey Navalny and of course, very much also over the treatment of some of the protesters that have been out on the streets of Moscow and many other cities in Russia over the past couple of weeks. Specifically about a day and a half ago, the very harsh treatment of those protestors.
And Dmitry Peskov, he was very frank. He seemed to indicate that the Russian government is not going to give an inch on that topic. He said the threat of sanctions cannot be a basis for relations and for dialogue between two countries. He also said that any sort of calls to release Alexey Navalny and anything having to do with the detentions here in Russia is something that the Russians would not even be willing to talk about. He said it's an internal Russian matter, a matter of Russian judiciary and therefore not something that the Kremlin is going to be willing to discuss with the United States or with other countries as well.
In general it seems as though the Russian government is sticking to its very hard line. We heard yesterday from the Kremlin they believe that some of the detention that have been going on here over the past couple of weeks, that those are justified. There are widespread reports in this country, Rosemary, of the Russian authorities detaining so many people over the past couple of weeks that they've actually run out of space in their detention facilities. Some people have been apparently kept in detention buses for extended periods of time.
And one of the things that the Kremlin spokesperson said about that today. He said, yes, it's very possible that more people have been detained than there is space for, but he said, essentially said that it's these people's own fault because they came out and demonstrated in non-sanctioned demonstrations as the Kremlin calls them. So right now we can see the Russian authorities continuing with their very hard line -- Rosemary.
CHURCH: Absolutely. Fred Pleitgen bringing us the latest live from Moscow. Many thanks as always.
Well health care providers are adapting so they can give out as many COVID vaccines as possible. When we return, some unusual locations that are suddenly becoming inoculation sites.
[04:50:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHURCH: Welcome back, everyone.
A mass COVID vaccination site opens on Friday at New York's Yankee Stadium with 15,000 appointments available in its first week. The mayor's office says the site was selected because the Bronx where it's located has a high percentage of people who test positive for the virus. But Yankees Stadium is just one of many unique locations around the world being converted into vaccination sites. CNN's Robyn Curnow shows us.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROBYN CURNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): All aboard this bus in France, the seniors taking their seats inside are not taking a trip, but they are taking a big step in protecting themselves from the coronavirus by getting vaccinated.
Many residents in this rural town do not have the means to travel to bigger cities to get inoculated. The initiative by the local government, this mobile vaccination site came to them.
ROBERT ANCEAUX, VANDEUIL, FRANCE RESIDENT (through translator): It is a very good initiative to have done this with the bus. Because honestly, I wouldn't have gotten vaccinated right now. I would've waited because I would've had to go to the nearest big city.
CURNOW (voice-over): The Vacci Bus is just one innovative idea to make it easier for people to get the shots that are needed. To help slow the transmission of the coronavirus. Another incentive is to transform large places, that people are already going to in their communities into makeshift vaccination centers like cathedrals, department stores and cinemas.
ENID STAPLETON, VACCINE RECIPIENT: It's nice and open. Plenty of space for everybody. Good idea to use it if the film's not put on.
CURNOW (voice-over): Even some of the grandest places in the world are doing double duty like Sweden's Nobel Prize banquet hall. In previous years, the scene of black tie galas packed with patrons, its purpose now is more humble but no less important. ANNA KONIG JERLMYR, STOCKHOLM SWEDEN MAYOR: If we have this amazing place that is empty right now but is also a citizen's house. I feel like we should use it.
[04:55:00]
CURNOW (voice-over): Using it is just what people are doing around the world. From this parking lot in Disneyland to Fenway Park, home of the Red Sox, to Lords Cricket Ground in the U.K. Where empty spaces that once filled us with joy, now fill us with hope.
Robyn Curnow, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: Well, people across the United Kingdom stopped what they were doing yesterday to give Captain Tom Moore a huge round of applause. The World War II veteran died on Tuesday. The nation recognized him for becoming a symbol of hope with his simple, inspiring walk that raised millions to fight the COVID pandemic. Just watch.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BORIS JOHNSON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: I encourage everyone to join in a national clap for Captain Tom. Captain Sir Tom Moore dedicated his life to serving his country and others. Raising more money and achieving more in his 100th year than perhaps any centenarian in our history. He knew instinctively which organization he wanted to support. It was and is the NHS.
CAPTAIN SIR TOM MOORE: The National Health Service who are doing such a magnificent job for us all.
JOHNSON: He cheered us all up and he embodied the triumph of the human spirit. As Captain Tom repeatedly reminded us, please remember, tomorrow will be a good day.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: And may he rest in peace.
Thank you so much for your company. I'm Rosemary Church. "EARLY START" is next. You're watching CNN. Have a wonderful day.
[05:00:00]
