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New Video Of Capitol Rioter In Aftermath Of Attack: Trump Is Still Our President; Trump Faces Dems-Controlled Senate In Unprecedented Second Trial; Ahead: The Truth Behind Trump Big Election Lie; FOX Business Cancels Lou Dobbs' Show After Defamation Lawsuit Filed. Aired 7-8p ET

Aired February 06, 2021 - 19:00   ET

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

[19:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: I'm Pamela Brown in Washington. Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. You are in the CNN NEWSROOM on this Saturday. Shocking new video is emerging just days before the unprecedented second impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump.

It was taken just moments after the attack on the U.S. capitol and underscores how some of the rioters were taking their cues directly from Trump. We have to warn you that what you're about to watch contains profanity.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How did you get out?

JACON CHANSLEY, RIOTER: How did you get out of what?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How did you get out?

CHANSLEY: From the senate?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

CHANSLEY: Cops walked out with me.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They just let you go. Like what are you yelling at? What's your message to everybody now?

CHANSLEY: Oh, Donald Trump asked everybody to go home. He just said - he just put out a tweet. It's a minute long. He asked everybody to go home.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why do you think so?

CHANSLEY: Because he won the (BEEP) day. He (BEEP) won.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And how did we win? CHANSLEY: Well, we won by sending a message to the senators and the Congressmen, we won by sending a message to Pence. That if they don't do it as is their oath to do and they don't uphold the constitution, then we will remove them from office one way or another.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This guy's recording you. He's not on our side.

CHANSLEY: I'm fine with recording. All I can say is we won the (BEEP) day. Donald Trump is still our president.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I do have one more question. There's a lot of people - you were just able to go in there and come out? Like what do you have to say to them that how you just walked out?

CHANSLEY: Well, lot of people doubted a lot of prophets saying - lot of people doubted Christ. You know.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: So that's Jacob Chansley, the so called a QAnon Shaman after leaving the capitol building. Here's his mugshot before he was sent to jail. He recently switched prisons so he could eat organic food. Chansley's lawyer had argued that his client was just following Trump's invitation to march to the Capitol.

CNN's Jessica Dean joins me now from the Capitol, Capitol building where the impeachment trial threatens to bring a lot of other important business to a halt. Just got that $1.9 trillion COVID-relief plan is the biggest legislation that could be stalled by this trial. Where do things stand?

JESSICA DEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right Pam, that's the legislative agenda that Senate Democrats most have their eye on right now of course is getting that COVID-relief bill through and once this impeachment trial starts, that's stalled out.

It's one of the reasons that senate Democrats and others are looking to perhaps a shortened impeachment trial, a second impeachment trial for former President Donald Trump so let's zoom out for a second. Here we are on Saturday, the impeachment trial is scheduled to begin on Tuesday and there's still a number of unknowns right now.

Namely we don't know how long this is going to go. I just told you that perhaps it will be shorter, it is likely to be shorter than former President Trump's first impeachment trial. That perhaps this could be two weeks or even shorter than that. We also don't know if witnesses will ultimately be called to testify during the second impeachment trial.

It is a unique situation in a number of ways but chief among them is the 100 senators who will also be the 100 jurors in this case were also witnesses to what happened on January 6 during the insurrection here at the U.S. Capitol. So it remains to be seen if they will call on witnesses. We do know that House impeachment managers did request that former President Trump testify in person. But he has rejected doing that but there really does not seem to be an

appetite here Pam for a subpoena so it's not likely that we'll see that testimony but again, the key thing, this trial gets underway on Tuesday and we should know more about it as Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer hammer out all the final details. Pam.

BROWN: Yes, a lot of unanswered questions just days from the trial. Jessica Dean, thank you so much and coming up, I've got an inside look at former President Trump's big election lie. How prominent Republicans jumped on the bandwagon, how it fueled the deadly violence at the capitol and how it sparked a second impeachment trial.

But first I want to bring in CNN political commentator Margaret Hoover. She's also the host of Fire in Line by PBS. She served in President George W. Bush's administration and worked on his reelection campaign and also with me CNN Political Analyst Ron Brownstein. He is a senior editor at The Atlantic. Thanks both of you for coming on.

Margaret, first to you if the president is acquitted this time as well as is expected does that only serve to empower him?

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MARGARET HOOVER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Pam, as you know, anyone whose been around Washington for a long time, I think realizes that as soon as the president is out of power, their power wanes pretty precipitously and I think there's a hangover in terms of how much power Donald Trump is going to have behind the scenes.

His most powerful tools, Twitter his major megaphone have led him to really be silent and you're seeing for the first time amongst the Republican base, Trump - previously people who defended Donald Trump like Liz Cheney stand up to the mob mentality and the conspiracy theories on the right and lives and survive it, right?

Liz Cheney survived that in her vote with the caucus. So while there's a long way to go, I actually wouldn't go so far as to say, let's just - let's not assume this trial's over and he's acquitted. All right? Let's wait and hear it and see what happens. You can tell the Majority Leader, go ahead--

BROWN: You can tell the majority leader--

HOOVER: This is a real trial so let's just not rush to say this thing is over and Donald Trump still has a ton of power in the party. I think all evidence points to waning power.

BROWN: But you're saying all evidence points to waning power but Liz Cheney was censured off Wyoming, several other Republicans who have spoken out against Trump, Ben Sasse is another one have been censured by their state parties so how can you say that his influence is waning?

HOOVER: Well precisely, I mean, I think that's what you're pointing to, I mean that's the real civil war. You have these party apparatchiks at the state level parties who would try to - truly the most problematic and the most really infested with the conspiracy theories.

The people that Ben Sasse went straight to the camera spoke to directly and said those people have a political sickness and they are far more tied up in politics and unhappy people is literally what he said than any of the Republican voters in the state of Nebraska who supported me and by the way, oh by the way, I also over performed Donald Trump in Nebraska.

So you're seeing the real civil war for the heart and soul of the Republican Party play out but it's really at this grassroots base level, meanwhile in the Senate, you know I don't think people are quivering about Donald Trump as uniformly as they used to when he was president.

BROWN: So then why Ron on that note, aren't we seeing more Republicans senators speak out? As we know they haven't - most have not focused on his behavior when it comes to the riot. They talked about this trial being unconstitutional but if he doesn't still hold sway, why aren't they condemning his behavior more forcefully?

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, I'm not sure he doesn't still hold sway. I'm not sure I agree completely with Margaret and I think the issue is really less about Trump personally than about their reliance on the Trump base and when we talk about a civil war in the Republican Party, they are in a difficult position at this point because roughly three-quarters of the party continues to believe Trump's you know baseless claims that the election was stolen, continues to believe that he's done nothing wrong since the election.

And continues to believe that Republicans who joined him in the effort to subvert the vote did nothing wrong. So that is I think the dominant force in the party but on the other side, if you're talking about 20 to 25 percent of the party depending on the question in the poll is unhappy about all of this, does see all of this as a sign of extremism.

If you lose even half of those voters, that is a kind of a death blow for the party so they are in a difficult position where the voices that are uncomfortable with Trump's turn toward - turning the party toward extremism postelection have the dominant hand but there are enough unhappy with that it would be catastrophic if Joe Biden and the Democrats can figure out a way to pull them away from their - from their Republican roots.

BROWN: I mean when you look at the state of play right now Margaret, the bottom line is Liz Cheney is being censured by the Republican Party. Marjorie Taylor Greene is not.

HOOVER: Look Pam, I didn't say Donald Trump holds no sway over this party. Let me be very clear. Donald Trump still hold sway over the base of the Republican Party but the longer he is out of power, I do think the - there opens up some space to breathe and make no mistake about it, I mean if Donald Trump had full sway over this party still, Liz Cheney would not have survived her vote to hold her leadership position in the House of Representatives. I mean that would have been over. Donald Trump, you can - what you're

seeing now is people stand up to the bully and survive and so give it a little time, let's not assume this is a Fait Accompli.

Look at Ben Sasse. I mean Ben Sasse finished his primary, he got reelected, he's got six years ahead of him. What you see in Ben Sasse and what you see in contrast to the House of Representatives is the real difference, the removal of this six-year term gives those senators some space from their base and the ability as the founding fathers intended for them to be more the wiser and more thoughtful, reflective leaders in the capitol, right? Because they have the time, the protection from the retched democracy of the base.

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BROWN: Very quickly Ron.

BROWNSTEIN: Very quickly, I mean if you think about what just happened last week though in the House, Kevin McCarthy finished a short-term problem and conceded a much bigger long term problem because he basically created a moral equivalency between Liz Cheney voting to sanction Trump for precipitating a riot in the Capitol and Marjorie Taylor Greene and everything that she said over the years.

And the idea being that we are big enough party, we can forgive Liz Cheney her offense and we can forgive Marjorie Taylor Greene her offense. What he's done is kind of legitimize that kind of far right extremism as I wrote this week, there was more push back in the Republican Party in the sixties on the John Birch society than you're seeing against extremism now.

There was more push back in the fifties on Joe McCarthy's lies and conspiracy theories than you're seeing from Republicans in the post- election period on Trump and this is the conundrum that is the dominant strain in the party but there is a piece that is simply unwilling to go along with it and they are - at the moment, they are creating more and more space for this kind of extremism with the risk of further alienating the kind of suburban white collar voters who have moved away from the party pretty steadily in the Trump years.

BROWN: So what I hear from both of you is this is a pivotal point in the Republic party - Republican Party and where it goes from here remains to be seen. We'll be watching it closely. Margaret Hoover, Ron, thank you so much for coming on.

BROWNSTEIN: Thank you.

HOOVER: Thanks Pam.

BROWN: And as the House works on a COVID-relief package, the Senate is about to focus on President Trump. One of the men to decide his fate joins me ahead. Plus new insight into how many Americans are getting a coronavirus vaccine shots and just how effective are these vaccines to the different mutations of the virus. Dr. Peter Hotez will answer our questions up next.

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BROWN: Encouraging new numbers from the CDC. The agency reports more than 39 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have now been administered in the United States. That is two million more doses reported since yesterday and in the past week, we've seen Americans are getting shots at a faster rate than people are getting the virus but multiple COVID-19 variants are here and CNN is learning tonight that the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine provides limited protection in cases caused by the variant first identified in South Africa.

That vaccine is not yet one of those authorized for emergency use in the U.S.. Joining me now to discuss is Dr. Peter Hotez, Professor and Dean of Topical Medicine rather at Baylor College of Medicine. Dr. Hotez, thanks for coming on.

What is your reaction to this news that I laid out that the AstraZeneca COVID vaccine provides a limited protection against mild diseases in cases because by the South African variant?

DR. PETER HOTEZ, PROFESSOR OF TOPICAL MEDICINE, BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE: Yes, the AstraZeneca vaccine does seem to protect against the U.K. variant but we're seeing these reports and I haven't seen the actual data that is dramatically diminished activity against the South African variant.

All of the vaccines coming out of Operation Warp Speed are not as effective as the South African vaccine. Until now they seem to be good enough to provide partial protection but it's a wakeup call for the American people because the South African variant is not here in the United States and the U.K. variant is also here even in larger amounts and now the U.K. variant in some areas has picked up and the United Kingdom has picked up an additional mutation to make it look more like the South African variant.

So we're in a race Pamela, we've got to vaccinate the American people ahead of these variant and that really means by the spring so we have to find a way to really expand and accelerate vaccinations in a faster timetable than the original Biden plan was which was to vaccinate by the fall.

BROWN: So given this news about AstraZeneca, should people find out what strain they have of COVID before picking the vaccine that they're going to use. It seems like some vaccines are more protective against certain strains than others. What are people supposed to do?

HOTEZ: Well, right now there are limited options in terms of what vaccines are available. They're all protecting against the original strain and most of them are also partially protective and adequately protective against the South African variant so whatever vaccine you're offered in the United States through emergency use authorization, you definitely want to take and then as the South African variant and other variants come along later on in the fall or next year, we may be looking at booster vaccines.

So there's no reason to panic at this point. The key now is how can we increase the number of Americans that we're vaccinating. Ideally, we'd like to do this by the summer so even though we've hit 2 million immunizations yesterday or today, now we have to really go to closer to three million immunizations and whether or not we have the vaccines in time is going to be a big issue because we're hearing that the JNJ and the Novavax vaccines may not be here in terms of 100 million doses until the summer.

So this is probably one of the number one issue now facing the Biden administration and the COVID-19 vaccination team.

BROWN: And as more time goes on, more - more variants could pop up. Dr. Peter Hotez, thank you so much for coming on.

HOTEZ: Thank you so much Pamela.

BROWN: Well, time is up on Capitol Hill to get any meaningful work done before the start of former President Trump's second impeachment trial. I'll talk to a member of the jury about it. Senator Ben Cardin joins me next.

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BROWN: Well, just three days from now the Senate grinds to a halt as the unprecedented second impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump gets underway. Trump however will be a no show. His legal team quickly rejected an invitation this week from House impeachment managers to testify, a move some Democrats say only makes their case stronger.

Democratic Senator Ben Cardin of Maryland joins me now. Senator, thank you for coming on. House Democrats are signaling, they don't need Trump's testimony in order to effectively make their case. Your democratic colleague in the Senate Joe Manchin said Trump's appearance would only amount to a dog and pony show. Do you think Donald Trump should be subpoenaed or would it be too much of a spectacle?

[19:25:00]

SEN. BEN CARDIN (D-MD): Well, Pamela first, it's good to be with you. I'll leave that up to the House managers. I have a great deal of confidence in Jamie Raskin. He's a congressman from Maryland who will be the lead manager on using the right strategy to present their case.

It's really up to the managers to determine whether they want to have witnesses appear in person or whether they want to use video or whether they just want to use a lot of the information we already have in the record.

BROWN: But you're a juror in this case and senate Democrats can subpoena him. So what do you want in that regard? CARDIN: You know quite frankly, I think we all know what happened on

January 6. I think what we're trying to do is connect the dots and I will be interested to see how the House managers can present what happened at the rally, what happened in the - in the Capitol itself and what happened immediately thereafter.

I think all that's going to be very relevant information for us to hear. Remember, we're jurors. We really are at the mercy of both the managers and the defense attorneys as to how much information we will get and how we'll be able to go about making our judgment.

BROWN: But it sounds like what I'm hearing from you is you think that there's enough where you don't need to hear from the president, former president directly, correct me if I'm wrong. We're just days right now. Go ahead. OK.

CARDIN: I was saying you're right about that. I don't think we need to hear from the president directly.

BROWN: OK, just to mention I mean. Here we are just a few days away. There are still so many unknowns including whether other witnesses will be called and I want to get your reaction to what Senator Lindsey Graham had to say. This is sort of a warning to Democrats.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): But if you open up that can of worms, we'll want the FBI to come in and tell us about how people actually pre planned these attacks and what happened with the security footprint of the Capitol.

You open up a Pandora's box if you call one witness. I hope we don't call any and we vote and get this trial over next week when it starts.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: First of all, I'm not sure how calling in the FBI's saying that the attack was pre-planned would exonerate trump but what is your reaction to that? He's basically saying that you're going to open up Pandora's box if you allow witnesses.

CARDIN: I really don't understand what he's trying to say. Look, this trial is about Donald Trump and the charges that he incited insurrection in our country. It's not about how well we were prepared to the Capitol. We have an investigation going on about that. We need to take better precautions about the people who could invade the Capitol.

We all know that but this is about Donald Trump. It's about what he said it's about how these people are motivated. What he did when he heard that they were entering the Capitol itself and what he didn't do. That's what this is about.

It's about the President of United States referred over and over again the only way you can hold a president accountable for actions while he was president is through the impeachment process and that's exactly what the House did in sending us articles of impeachment and it's our responsibility now to try to case determine whether President Trump, while he was president committed these impeachable of inciting an insurrection.

BROWN: Do you plan to vote for conviction and are you concerned if he's not convicted as is expected that a second acquittal will just hand and empower the president, former president even more?

CARDIN: Well as I've said, everyone who was responsible for an insurrection needs to be held accountable whether it's individuals who walked into the capitol or marched in. or broke into the Capitol or whether those who encouraged this insurrection to take place.

No one 's above the law including the President of United States. I'm a juror. Obviously, I'll be bound by how the testimonies are presented and how the evidence is presented at the impeachment trial. These are very serious charges and no one 's immune from accountability.

BROWN: So you haven't made up your mind then yet on how you're going to vote, whether to convict him or not?

CARDIN: As you know, I was in the - you may not know, I was in the United States Senate chamber when this - when the crowd approached. I know exactly what was happening that evening. I remember how anxious all of us were when we saw the capitol being invaded.

We remember how silent the president was in trying to calm these - the group down after they invaded the Capitol. I obviously have a lot of information to date but it's my responsibility to the oath that I took as a juror is to listen to how the record is presented during the trial itself and reach judgment at that point.

But as I said before, no one 's above the law.

BROWN: All right, Sen. Ben Cardin, thank you for coming on.

CARDIN: Thank you. It's good to be with you.

[19:30:00]

BROWN: And coming up, my special report on the truth behind the big election lie and why it matters so much for the future of this country.

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BROWN: FOX Business host, Lou Dobbs has been let go 24 hours after he was named in a $2.7 billion lawsuit. Smartmatic is suing Dobbs and other FOX hosts for allegedly defaming their company with disparaging claims about its election technology.

And as the senate gears up for Trump's unprecedented second impeachment trial, there is renewed scrutiny tonight on the former President's role in spinning the quote, "big lie" about the election being stolen, and we uncovered some new details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN (voice over): First, 2016, a Trump tweet falsely saying, "I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally."

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're going to launch an investigation to find out --

BROWN (voice over): Fast forward to 2018, the same year President Donald Trump's voter fraud taskforce disbanded without finding any evidence of widespread voter fraud.

[19:35:05]

TRUMP: In many places, like California, the same person votes many times. You probably heard about that. They always like to say, oh, that's a conspiracy theory. It is not a conspiracy theory folks, millions and millions of people.

BROWN (voice over): Then leading up to the 2020 election, Trump laid the groundwork early.

TRUMP: The only way we're going to lose this election is if the election is rigged. Remember that.

BROWN (voice over): The stage was set for Trump's big election lie.

TRUMP: If you count the legal votes, I easily win. If you count the illegal votes, they can try to steal the election from us.

BROWN (voice over): Soon after, prominent Republicans amplified the big lie.

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): We lose elections because they cheat us.

BROWN (voice over): A Trumpian coalition formed by Women for America First crisscrossed the country in Trump red buses pushing out the big lie and the Trump fantasy that the election was stolen, permeated the minds of millions of Americans.

According to a Reuters/Ipsos poll from November 2020, sixty eight percent of Republicans said they were concerned that the election was rigged.

But where is the proof? I asked republican attorney Ben Ginsberg, who represented the Republican Party in elections for years.

BENJAMIN GINSBERG, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Donald Trump continuing to repeat what he said about the election being fraudulent has given root to the lie that it somehow was fraudulent. And of course, the lack of any proof in any courtroom or any sort of public exposition has led to this really unfortunate situation.

BROWN: What do you say to those who would say well, just because there's no proof doesn't mean it didn't happen? A fraud could still exist, even if you don't have the evidence of it. GINSBERG: In this election, Donald Trump had a 50,000 person poll

watcher army according to his own descriptions, so they had people in place to spot any fraud.

BROWN (voice over): The 2020 election was unprecedented because of COVID-19. Republican and Democratic-led states across the country allowed more access to mail-in ballots to accommodate voters during the pandemic.

Along with that came lawsuits over drop boxes, receipt deadlines, signature requirements and curing ballots.

GINSBERG: Republicans wanted to cut down the number of absentee ballots because they feared it would be a Democratic win, and they used fraud as their pretext.

Democrats tried to put in a number of provisions in different states that they felt would give them an advantage on the grounds of allegedly making it easier to vote.

BROWN (voice over): In total, Democrats and Republicans engaged in hundreds of state and Federal lawsuits related to the 2020 election.

GINSBERG: This was unprecedented. There was a general litigation bonanza in the 2020 cycle.

BROWN (voice over): Trump made it known he thought more access to voting pushed by Democrats was bad for Republicans.

TRUMP (via phone): They had things -- levels of voting that if we ever agreed to it, you'd never have a Republican elected in this country again.

BROWN (voice over): In the months leading up to November 3rd, election experts alerted the public that final results likely would be delayed because it would take longer to count the unprecedented number of mail-in ballots in battleground states like Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

They described a red mirage where Trump would likely be leading early with more Election Day voters, but then Biden would make up ground through the mail-in ballots favored by Democrats.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's because states want to do their jobs in validating that every vote has been properly cast.

BROWN (voice over): That inevitable delay would be weaponized by Trump and his allies to sow doubt.

TRUMP: We were winning in all the key locations by a lot actually, and then our numbers started miraculously getting whittled away in secret.

BROWN (voice over): Even before the election, White House officials said results should be known on Election Night despite no legal basis for that. KAYLEIGH MCENANY, FORMER WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: But we want

Election Night to look like it's a system that's fair, a situation where we know who the President of the United States is on Election Night. That's how the system is supposed to work.

BROWN (voice over): Questions were also raised about whether Trump would commit to a peaceful transfer of power if he lost.

MCENANY: The President will accept the results of a free and fair election.

BROWN (voice over): But what constitutes a fair and free election and who gets to decide that?

GINSBERG: The ultimate decision that an election is free and fair comes in the certification of the vote totals by the state which is what you saw this year on December 14.

[19:40:02]

GINSBERG: A source tells CNN right after that December 14 vote, pressure began to build on Vice President Pence to stop Biden's victory, and conspiracy theories tested the foundation of democracy like never before.

GABRIEL STERLING, GEORGIA ELECTION OFFICIAL: It's Looney Tunes crazy town. Man bites dog. I can't even equate every kind of cliche I can come up to show how crazy they all are.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: The Dominion software lie spread after human error led to a change in results in Antrim County, Michigan. At first, votes were erroneously awarded to Biden, but when officials questioned those unofficial results, they found a clerk failed to update important software, which led to the wrong voting machine totals. The mistake was quickly corrected, and did not affect the state's official election results.

But within days, Trump tweeted without evidence that the system had deleted 2.7 million Trump votes nationwide. Right-wing media fanned the flames.

[19:45:28]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know, and some of these reports show that you got ties to Dianne Feinstein's family and Nancy Pelosi's family. You've got a Russian oligarch with ties to ownership in some of these voting system companies.

BROWN (voice over): Those same outlets were then forced to admit they had no evidence of those claims after Dominion threatened to sue. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We, at Newsmax have not been able to verify any of

those kinds of allegations. We just want to let people know that there's nothing substantive that we've seen.

BROWN (voice over): But the lie had already taken on a life of its own. At one point, White House officials and Trump's outside lawyers got into a heated exchange in the Oval Office over using the power of the U.S. government to seize Dominion voting machines. That never happened.

Dominion released a strongly worded statement refuting the disinformation and sued Trump lawyers, Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell for $1.3 billion each for spreading the false claims. They have denied wrongdoing and have said they will fight the suit and court.

Gabriel Sterling, a Republican Georgia election administrator who voted for Trump, said the Dominion machines were used successfully at every county in Georgia.

STERLING: We did a hand tally that showed the ballots cast matched what the machines counted. That's just essentially way beyond any reasonable doubt.

BROWN (voice over): Also in Georgia, another false claim that went viral centered on this video conspiracy theorists claimed showed ballots being pulled from a suitcase at a polling center. It turns out --

STERLING: Oh, they called it a suitcase. What it was, it was a ballot carrier. And you can see in all the videos, there's ballot carriers all over the place.

The monitors and the press were all in the room, so there was nothing nefarious about this.

BROWN (voice over): In fact, many of the ballot county places across the country allowed for live stream monitoring for the general public to watch or had video that could be scrutinized by the public later, as was the case in Georgia.

Then it was dead people voting, Trump claimed there were thousands of dead people voting in Georgia. The reality --

STERLING: We're aware of two dead people, not 10,000, who voted.

BROWN (voice over): Biden's victory in Georgia was verified with recounts. But that didn't stop Trump from pressuring the Georgia Secretary of State to find just enough votes to overturn Biden's victory.

TRUMP (via phone): So look, all I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have because we won the state.

STERLING: It was just such a weird phone call to listen to because you don't expect to hear that. It was -- this sort of hit me as a clanging cord in my head like this doesn't really happen. This isn't normal, especially with the terminology and the way the President was speaking.

BROWN (voice over): Another state that drew Trump's ire was Pennsylvania, a crucial state he won in 2016, but lost in 2020. The Trump Campaign alleged in court that Republican poll watchers weren't in the room during the counting of votes in Philadelphia.

The allegations were provably false and even the Trump campaign lawyer said so in court.

"Are your observers in the counting room?" The Pennsylvania judge asked, "There's a non-zero number of people in the room," the Trump lawyer replied. The attack on Philadelphia was also undercut by the fact Trump had more votes in the city in 2020 than 2016.

And the allowance of no excuse mail-in ballots was passed by the Republican lead Pennsylvania legislature in 2019. Philadelphia City Commissioner Republican, Al Schmidt helped run the election.

AL SCHMIDT (R), PHILADELPHIA CITY COMMISSIONER: I have seen the most fantastical things on social media making completely ridiculous allegations that have no basis in fact, at all.

We just had the most transparent and secure election in the history of Philadelphia.

BROWN (voice over): Then there was Arizona, another state Trump won in 2016, but lost in 2020. The Trump Campaign zeroed in on so-called Sharpiegate, another local disinformation campaign that blew up online.

People claimed ballots filled out by Sharpies could not be read by vote county machines. Arizona election officials confirmed repeatedly their machines were capable of reading Sharpie marked ballots and lawsuits on the matter were dismissed.

[19:50:07]

BROWN (voice over): The Trump campaign swung hard and missed more than 60 times in courts of law. It is the ultimate sign that the Trump arguments about fraud were not well taken, were in fact false. Many of those decisions came from Republican judges, and even from Trump appointed judges.

BROWN (voice over): Perhaps the most brazen legal attempt came from a lawsuit led by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. He asked the Supreme Court to toss out millions of votes in four states Biden won.

The suit signed on by six other states Trump won alleged the other states held illegitimate elections, and therefore that wasn't fair to the voters in their own states.

That conservative leaning Supreme Court tossed it out on standing, meaning the plaintiffs did not show harm. GINSBERG: While standing is a valid point not to take the cases, but

the merit arguments were before many of the courts. And I think in rejecting the cases on standing grounds that certainly indicated that the judges didn't believe the charges were meritorious either.

BROWN (voice over): The Republicans who are part of the dismissed Supreme Court suit argued election officials made last minute election law changes in the states circumventing the state legislatures in violation of the Constitution.

But in other states where Trump won like North Carolina, that same thing happened yet Republicans didn't contest the votes there.

BROWN: North Carolina also changed a lot of the rules, even after voters had started voting. Why didn't you have concerns about your own home state of North Carolina?

REP. MADISON CAWTHORN (R-NC): Well, you know Pam, I'm actually not aware of the laws that were changed inside of North Carolina.

BROWN (voice over): In total, nearly 100 judges rejected Trump related lawsuits after the election. Trump administration officials said it was the most safe and secure election in U.S. history.

The Attorney General at the time said there was no evidence of widespread fraud, and Republican governors certified the results in their states even after facing pressure from Trump.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Some 74 of my Republican colleagues and I object to the electoral votes from the State of Georgia.

BROWN (voice over): But that didn't stop nearly 150 Republican lawmakers in Washington from the party that is supposed to champion states' rights from signing on to throw out state's election results in an effort led by Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley.

SEN. JOSH HAWLEY (R-MO): That depends on what happens on Wednesday.

BROWN (voice over): Around the same time, Trump's attention focused increasingly on his Vice President Mike Pence. CNN has learned after this Lincoln Project ad --

ANNOUNCER (voice over): On January 6, Mike Pence will put the nail in your political coffin.

BROWN (voice over): Trump asked Pence to send them a cease and desist letter to stop the ad from running. That letter was never sent, a source tells CNN.

He also asked his Vice President multiple times to overturn the election results during the formal counting in Congress on January 6th, something Pence did not have the authority to do under the Constitution. Pence refused as Trump pressured him privately and publicly.

TRUMP: I hope Mike is going to do the right thing. I hope so. I hope so. Because if Mike Pence does the right thing, we win the election.

BROWN (voice over): It all culminated in this -- thousands of rioters storming the Capitol Building, trying to stop Congress from certifying Biden's election victory.

Five people died as a result of the insurrection including a Capitol Police officer, Brian Sicknick. On January 20, 2020, the non-peaceful transfer of power was complete.

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I, Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr. do solemnly swear.

BROWN (voice over): So what is the consequence of so many Americans still believing the big election lie?

DANIEL DALE, CNN REPORTER: I have devoted the last four years to fact checking. I obviously don't think the work is useless. I remind people that President Trump's hardest core supporters are not the only real America there are lots of other people who are interested in facts and getting the truth, who don't believe wild conspiracy theories, even people who voted for President Trump, they are not all, you know, like that.

And so how do you get through to people who are down these rabbit holes or who even support or enjoy the lie? I honestly don't have answers.

BROWN: Can you now say that the election was not stolen, that it wasn't a fraudulent election?

CAWTHORN: Yes, I think I would say that the election was not fraudulent. You know, the Constitution allowed for us to be able to push back as much as we could, and I did that to the amount of the constitutional limits that I had at my disposal.

So now I would say that Joseph R. Biden is our President.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[19:55:02]

BROWN: So to be clear as well, voter fraud does occur in elections, but at a rate that is statistically insignificant, certainly not at a rate that would overturn the more than seven million votes received by Joe Biden.

The second impeachment trial against Donald Trump is set to begin next week. Trump's lawyers say it has denied that President Trump intended to interfere with the counting of electoral votes.

Although on January 5th, one day before the insurrection on Capitol Hill Trump tweeted, "The Vice President has the power to reject fraudulently chosen electors." As we know that is not true.

Well, coming up next hour, a Wisconsin mother battling coronavirus gives birth while in a medically induced coma. And for nearly three months, she was unable to be with her newborn baby girl, until now, an incredible story.

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