Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
Trump's Second Impeachment Trial Begins Today; South Africa Will Modify Rollout Of AstraZeneca Vaccine; North Korea's Nuclear Program Continues Unabated; Climate Change Ultimately Responsible For Dam Collapse In India; Myanmar Protestors Met With Water Cannons; Senate to Begin Trial with Debate on Constitutionality; U.S. Infections and Hospitalizations on the Decline; Oil Prices Rise to Highest Levels in More Than a Year; Blinken Outlines Biden's Foreign Policy Priorities; U.N. Calls on Israel to Halt West Bank Demolitions; Believers Say President Trump will Soon be Reinstated. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired February 09, 2021 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[01:00:00]
JOHN VAUSE, ANCHOR, CNN NEWSROOM: Wherever you are around the world you're watching CNN NEWSROOM. Hello, everyone, I'm John Vause. And coming up this hour.
The very bad, no good, nonsensical defense arguments that Donald Trump -- at his second impeachment trial. And why it doesn't really matter.
Protesters in Myanmar hit with water cannons as demonstrations against a military coup spread to cities and towns across the country.
And new questions over how effective current vaccines are against the coronavirus mutations which are quickly spreading around the world.
Donald Trump will soon cement a unique place in history; a one-term president who was impeached twice. Only two other presidents haven been impeached. Trump's second senate trial set to begin in a few hours.
Democrats say the evidence is overwhelming. He incited his supporters to storm the capital January 6th. By day's end five people were dead.
But Republicans already voted once the trial is unconstitutional and it's highly unlikely they'll vote to convict.
CNN's Manu Raju begins our coverage reporting from Capitol Hill.
(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)
MANU RAJU, CNN SNR. CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: House Democrats making their final preparations in a case expected to vividly detail the deadly insurrection of the Capitol last month and accuse Donald Trump of intentionally inciting it.
The Democrat's case will rely heavily on video.
JACOB CHANSLEY, CAPITOL HILL RIOTER: We won the (bleep) day.
RAJU: And court filings from charged insurrectionists claiming they were taking their cues from the president.
CHANSLEY: 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.
RAJU: Trump's team provided their most detailed argument to date. And even defending these remarks from the January 6th rally right before his supporters stormed the Capitol seeking to stop certification of Joe Biden's victory.
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And we fight, we fight like hell. And if you don't fight like hell you are not going to have a country anymore.
RAJU: His attorneys downplaying those remarks.
Writing -- "Of the over 10,000 words spoken, Mr. Trump used the word fight a little more than a handful of times. And each time in the figurative sense that has long been accepted in public discourse."
Democrats responded in their own brief, writing --
"This is not a case about protected speech. The House did not impeach President Trump because he expressed an unpopular political opinion. It impeached him because he willfully incited violent insurrection against the government."
While it still hasn't been decided whether there will be witnesses, Democratic sources tell CNN that is unlikely.
The two sides will argue whether the trial is constitutional before the full Senate votes on that question.
Democrats got a boost when conservative attorney, Charles Cooper, wrote in "Wall Street Journal" that the constitution doesn't bar Trump's impeachment trial.
CHUCK SCHUMER (D-N.Y.), U.S. SENATE DEMOCRATIC LEADER: That's no liberal, that's Chuck Cooper, a lawyer who represented House Republicans in a lawsuit against Speaker Pelosi, a former adviser to Senator Cruz's presidential campaign driving a stake into the central argument we're going to hear from the former president's counsel.
RAJU: Already five GOP senators have indicated they believe the constitution gives the Senate the authority to try a former federal officeholder.
SEN. BEN SASSE, (R-NEB): The president lied to you. He lied about the election results for 60 days.
RAJU: But to convict Trump, there would need to be 17 Republicans joining all 50 Democrats, something incredibly unlikely amid the vocal Trump wing of the party looking to punish anyone who defects. Congresswoman Liz Cheney, one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump last month censured by the Wyoming State GOP this weekend.
Cheney offering no regrets.
REP. LIZ CHENEY, (R-WYO): We've never seen that kind of an assault by a president of the United States on another branch of government and that can never happen again.
RAJU: And Congresswoman Liz Cheney also warned the party not to embrace Donald Trump, the former president.
There are some Republican senators who agree with that including Senator John Thune, the number two Republican senator who told me on Monday that the party should be embracing ideas, not a quote, "cult of personality," something he believes will not be durable for the future of the party.
Senator Lisa Murkowski, who's one of five Republican senators who might vote to convict Donald Trump says she's looking for the Republican party, not the party of Trump.
RAJU (On Camera): Manu Raju, CNN, Capitol Hill.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Joining us now is CNN political commentator, conservative and host of "S.E. Cupp: Unfiltered," S.E. Cupp herself. S.E., good to see you. Thanks for being with us.
S.E. CUPP, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Thanks for having me.
VAUSE: OK. Both parties have agreed to the rules for the impeachment trial and with that I give you the leader of the senate, Democrat Chuck Schumer. Here he is.
[01:05:00]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SCHUMER: The structure we have agreed to is eminently fair. It will allow for the trial to achieve its purpose; truth and accountability. That's what trials are designed to do, to arrive at the truth of a matter and render a verdict.
VAUSE: Has he actually told the Republican senators that that's how it's meant to work?
CUPP: Yes.
VAUSE: Because right now, almost all of them are on the Trump Express to Freedom Town.
CUPP: Yes. I think Chuck was waxing a little eloquent but this actually isn't not really a trial in the traditional sense, this is politics. It's political theater and it's important politics. Accountability is important.
But at the end there won't -- there won't really be a verdict, I think it's pretty clear where this is headed, Republicans, as you say, are determined to give the president a pass for his clear incitement of rioters on January the 6th.
VAUSE: Yes. Who would've thought that a Cheney would be the voice of moderation standing up to the far right? I want you to listen to Republican Congresswoman, Liz Cheney.
Here she is.
CHENEY: We have to make sure that we are able to convey to the American voters we are the party of responsibility, we are the party of truth, that we actually can be trusted to handle the challenges this nation faces, like COVID.
And that's going to require us to focus on substance and policies and issues going forward. But we should not be embracing the former president.
VAUSE: But there's been no big political price for standing firmly by the racist, misogynist, bigoted, fine-people-on-both-sides former president. And if you oppose him, like Liz Cheney did, well, there is a price to pay.
And doesn't this Republican Party -- maybe the country needs to admit -- that 74 million Americans, if they're not racists and bigots, they voted for one?
CUPP: Oh, at the very least. Yes, I think it's long past time to come to terms with some of the motivations of -- again, some of the voters. But not a small amount, a significant amount of the voters and why they voted for Donald Trump.
And I think a lot of folks, especially in the media, have been trying to give cover to a group of people by saying they were motivated maybe by economic grievances -- I don't think you get to make that code for racism.
And, as you say, that's not what motivated everyone. My parents voted for Trump, it had nothing to do with any of that, in fact, they hated that part of him.
But clearly, in their own words, what a lot of folks were doing on January 6th was trying to preserve a way of life President Trump had promised them and defend it and told them was about to be torn away from them if Joe Biden actually became president.
VAUSE: But, as you say, you can't separate out the economic policies, if you like, away from the misogyny and the racism and the bigotry --
CUPP: Yes.
VAUSE: -- and everything else. So, in a way, even if you don't like that, you still voted for it, you still supported that. You had a choice.
CUPP: Absolutely. It was a choice I did not make, right. And a number of Republicans like me decided we could not vote for President Trump, for Donald Trump in 2016, and certainly not President Trump again in 2020.
But I think there was a project by Republicans to sort of normalize and compartmentalize what Donald Trump was doing -- and, frankly, I don't know how you sleep at night doing that -- but you did see that happen over and over and over again over the many inflection points of the past four-plus years.
And I have to look at Republicans and ask, was it worth it to lose the presidency, the House and the Senate in just four years, was it worth it? It's really hard to argue that it was.
VAUSE: There's not a lot of elected Republicans like Liz Cheney speaking out against Trump which I think is your point.
But there's a whole lot of voices who sound like the Republican senator from Wisconsin, Ron Johnson.
Listen to this.
SEN. RON JOHNSON, (R-WIS.): Well, again, I've always believed the Russian hoax was an diverging operation from the corruption that was occurring within certainly the FBI and potentially some of our intelligence agencies.
You have to kind of ask the question, what is this impeachment all about? We now know that 45 Republican senators believe it's unconstitutional, is this another diversion operation?
Is this meant to deflect away from potentially what the speaker knew and when she knew it? I don't know, but I'm suspicious.
VAUSE: The drunk guy at the end of the bar saying that stuff, whatever. A U.S. senator on a major political talk show on a Sunday..?
CUPP: Yes.
VAUSE: That's beyond crazy.
CUPP: Well, it's appalling. It's absolutely appalling and it just shows how desperate some of these Republicans are to cling to the lie, to cling to the cult. To relive what they thought were the glory days and the refusal to let go of it.
[01:10:00]
And it's worse than appalling, it's really dangerous. It's how we got to January 6th and the death of 5 people and injuries to many more. It's how we got to QAnon in Congress, it's how we got to this level of anger and rancor in this country that is tearing us apart. Now Trump fomented that, that's what Trump wanted, but he's gone now. And we have an opportunity and a chance to start healing and listening to each other and understanding each other and righting some of those wrongs. And some people are really just not willing to do that.
VAUSE: S.E. Cupp, we're out of time but, as always, thank you so much for being with us. We appreciate it.
CUPP: Thanks, John. Thank you.
VAUSE: And you can watch history being made with CNN's special live coverage of Donald Trump's second impeachment trial. Tune in today, 5:00 p.m. in London, 9:00 p.m. in Abu Dhabi.
Well, for a fourth day, protesters in Myanmar have taken to the streets in defiance of their new military leaders.
In the capital, Naypyidaw, security forces used water cannons to try and disperse the crowd who were also demanding the release of the former civilian leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.
An 8:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m. curfew has been ordered for the second largest city, Mandalay. Public gatherings of more than five people and public speeches are also prohibited.
CNN's Paula Hancocks following developments live from Seoul, she joins us now.
So the military which overthrew a democratically elected government seized power and now warning the protesters who want the return of the government they voted for that they are the ones who could destroy democracy.
Square that circle for us.
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's right, John. And not even with a hint of irony.
This is what we are hearing from Myanmar's military at this point. Pointing out that, as you say, it could be the protesters that are jeopardizing democracy.
So what we've heard from Min Aung Hlaing -- this is the military leader who's taken control -- is that they believe, the military, that the elections were not fair and free because of COVID-19 restrictions saying that there were issues with campaigning and unfair campaigning before that.
Now the electoral commission within Myanmar has already said that even if there was slight irregularities, there's no way that it would have changed the overall result.
And the overall result in November of last year was a landslide victory for the NLD, the National League for Democracy, Aung San Suu Kyi's party, that has now been kicked from power by the military. So certainly, there is a concern about that. The general saying that
there will be free and fair elections and the winner will take control.
But, of course, what does fair and free elections mean? And this is what many leaders around the world are concerned about. Calling on the military to pull back, to release the detainees, Aung San Suu Kyi and others, and to return the country back to its democratically elected government.
And we are still seeing thousands of people on the streets of Yangon, of Mandalay, of Naypyidaw, the capital, and other areas calling for their democratically elected leaders to be put back into power as well.
Now we are watching, obviously, very closely to see what the military and the police reaction is. We are seeing a slight step up on their behalf, we have seen water cannons being used in Naypyidaw, in the capital and also threats from the police saying they will use force if protesters do not disperse.
Now on Monday when that happened protesters did disperse. But what we're seeing from many different livestreams of videos on the ground is that the protesters aren't dispersing so much at this point.
So of course, the main concern now is what will the reaction be by the military and the police? John.
VAUSE: I guess that's the question too. And this also seems to be a situation where international sanctions can be effective but this is a military leadership which doesn't really listen to condemnation coming from Western governments.
HANCOCKS: Well, that's right. And it's a military leadership that up until recently had 50 years of rule so it's certainly not a military leadership that is going to be cowed by potential sanctions.
You've already had some companies for example, Japan's drinks giant, Kirin, pulling out from an alliance within the country. So they know that there will be an economic cost to this, but at this point that it doesn't seem to be of any concern.
So while we are hearing condemnation from around the world, the U.S. state department saying they have grave concerns, the U.N. as well, the secretary general concerned -- they are going to have a human rights council convening on Friday to discuss this.
But it is a question of no matter how many sanctions you have against Myanmar, a country that has been used to dealing in spite of those sanctions in the past, how can you put pressure on a military that is hell-bent on carrying on with this coup?
They are not being swayed at this point by the calls from international leaders to pull back.
[01:15:00] And they're certainly not being swayed either by thousands, tens of thousands of protesters, going on to the streets. John.
VAUSE: Paula, thank you. Paula Hancocks with the very latest there from Seoul. Thank you.
Just a day after putting AstraZeneca's COVID vaccine on hold, South Africa has now announced modifications to the national vaccine rollout.
100,000 people will receive the vaccine to determine if it's effective against severe illness or if it reduces hospital admissions. If so, officials will release the remaining million doses; if not, they may switch to another vaccine.
CNN's Eleni Giokos, live for us in South Africa.
VAUSE: This has been kind of -- I don't want to say screw up from the get-go, but there have been a lot of problems with this AstraZeneca vaccine. This is just the latest.
ELENI GIOKOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, absolutely. Look, the problem with the variant that became dominant in South Africa towards the end of last year always raised flags, red flags, and the big worry was what would the efficacy be of the first generation of vaccines that were produced around the world.
The results, the preliminary results, until the end of October showed that it had a 75 percent efficacy rate on the original strain of COVID-19.
And then, when they started doing trials and research with regards to the variants, that's when there was really a big worry it diminished protection against the variants here in South Africa.
Now what they don't know is whether it will have an impact on the severity of illness. That's why they're saying they're thinking about rolling it out to 100,000 people to cast the net wider, to ascertain whether it's going to impact hospitalizations and then severity.
They want to focus on people over the age of 65 and people living with HIV and other comorbidity so they can really get the metrics down.
You've got 1 million doses sitting in South Africa right now. The other worry is whether these are going to expire anytime soon. They've ordered another half million.
And, of course, this derailed the COVID-19 vaccination strategy, which of course was right on time to try and avoid a third wave. Right, now South Africa is still sitting in second wave, we're starting to see numbers coming down slightly.
But, John, this is a really big worry. Because this variant firstly is more transmissible, it's spreading beyond South African borders and then the big concern comes in, what is the efficacy going to be of other vaccinations that are available?
They want to expedite the use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, Pfizer, Moderna, they want to conduct trials to see whether they can get a better rate of protection against mild and moderate infections. And then, of course, focus on the severity of cases.
So this is a moving story, and of course, government is constantly trying to see what they'll be doing with the current doses of the (inaudible), and then, of course, what that will mean for new procurement. John.
VAUSE: Eleni, thank you. Eleni Giokos there live for us with the latest on the situation in South Africa. Thank you.
Well, sanctions monitors say Kim Jong-un is moving ahead with North Korea's nuclear program. And they've taken up a new business venture to fund it.
Also, the search continues for survivors from Sunday's glacier collapse in India as experts try to explain what caused this tragedy.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(100 CLUB)
CNN VOICE OVER: This is the 100 Club. Our look at companies that are 100 years old or older.
NARRATOR: The dark, cramped archives at Encyclopedia Britannica feel like hallowed ground.
THEODORE PAPPAS, EXECUTIVE EDITOR, ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA: We have business records and logs, minutes of boards' meetings going back to the late 19th Century. So it's really quite an array -- a mirror, in essence, of the history of the West.
Encyclopedia Britannica was founded in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1768.
NARRATOR: In 2018, Britannica celebrated 250 years in business with a special anniversary edition honoring the past, but still looking far to the future.
PAPPAS: We feed off of our past in order to get a momentum for the future. And that's very exciting.
[01:20:00]
VAUSE: North Korea back in the nuclear weapons business. In fact, a new U.N. report says it never really left.
According to details obtained by CNN, North Korean hackers stole hundreds of millions of dollars last year to fund new missile testing and production in defiance of international sanctions.
CNN's Will Ripley live for us this hour following the story from Hong Kong. International sanctions being defied by North Korea, not exactly
breaking news. But what is interesting in this report, it does sort of spell out how futile, almost the stupidity of those meetings that Donald Trump held with Kim Jong-un?
WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, three meetings in 2018 and 2019, lots of made for TV moments. We said all along there wasn't a ton of substance there, especially after President Trump walked out of talks in Hanoi.
And basically from that point forward, when Kim Jong-un rode his train back to Pyongyang really humiliated after going into that summit fully expecting some sort of big deal with the U.S., it was all systems go on the North Korean side to step on the gas and start developing these weapons that they then started parading towards the end of 2020 and into this year.
So you have brand-new submarine launch ballistic missiles on parade, short-range, medium-range and long-range missiles that analysts say very likely North Korea could put a nuclear warhead on.
Now whether North Korea has the technology to launch an interconnectional ballistic missile into space and have it re-enter the earth's atmosphere intact is really an unknown question according to this U.N. report.
Which is why a lot of analysts believe, John, that another North Korean test is a very likely probability, we just don't know exactly when. But they've been signaling they're going to do it for quite some time.
VAUSE: I guess the question then is for the United States or the new president, Joe Biden, what can we expect will be the reaction from the international community because this is a country which has already been sanctioned?
And those sanctions were basically relaxed during the Trump Administration so this maximum pressure campaign which was fairly effective in crippling the North Korean economy, that's sort of gone out the window.
RIPLEY: Well, certainly, COVID-19 has crippled the North Korean economy far more than 15 years of United Nations international sanctions that have been in place since 2006 because North Korea had shut down its borders.
And yet, according to this U.N. report, they're still managing to exchange critical parts to assemble missiles with an old partner that they now are alleged to be back in cooperation with, Iran.
So North Korea needs cooperation with other rogue states, if you will, to get all the parts to keep building these missiles. Iran denies that this is the case, they called this U.N. report based on fabricated evidence.
And we know the difficulties of getting intel out of North Korea, one of the most closed off countries on earth.
Another interesting thing here when you talk about sanctions, obviously it all comes down to China. And Beijing and Pyongyang are at some of their best level in terms of their relationship in many years.
Now if Pyongyang were to start launching or nuclear testing again because they still have people at Punggye-ri, their nuclear test site, that I watched them give us a demonstration and say they blew up back in 2018 but yet satellite imagery shows there are still people on the ground there.
So if North Korea started that provocative behavior, would they incur President Xi of China's wrath or would China sort of hold its nose and look the other way and allow North Korea to continue on as they have because relations with the U.S. are at such all-time lows that Beijing just won't consider anything that would possibly destabilize the northern end of the Korean Peninsula, putting at risk a potential U.S. allied Korean Peninsula in the north and south if some sort of conflict were to actually break out.
That said, the chances of a conflict were a lot higher in the early years of the Trump Administration when he was using that fire and fury rhetoric than they will be under a Biden Administration.
Which is going back to the traditional talking points seen by Presidents Obama and Bush and Clinton; negotiations, sanctions, try to make progress. Multiple U.S. administrations have failed.
We'll see what happens with this one, John.
VAUSE: It's never been an easy question, to be fair. Will, thank you. Will Ripley in Hong Kong. Thank you.
Scientists say a landslide likely triggered Sunday's glacier collapse in India. An avalanche of water and rocks was sent crashing down a mountain gorge destroying a dam and flooding towns and villages below.
Almost 200 people remain unaccounted for and search and rescue efforts continue at this hour.
Our correspondent in New Delhi is CNN's Vedika Sud.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
VEDIKA SUD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The lucky ones are pulled from the muddy ground.
Rescuers in Northern India cheer as one man weak but jubilant after cheating death raises his arms in victory.
CROWD: (Cheer)
[01:25:00]
SUD: His survival against the odds after a wall of water and rocks swept through a mountain gorge on Sunday and crashed through a dam after part of a Himalayan glacier melted then cleaved into a river.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER (Through Translator): Were working on the crown of the tunnel when we heard screams, get out, get out. We didn't know what was happening.
We started running to escape when the force of the water gushed in through the mouth of the tunnel. We had lost hope, we didn't think we would survive.
SUD: Most of the missing are workers from two hydro-electric projects. Front loaders haul mounds of slush from a tunnel where rescuers believe some people are still trapped.
Some have been found alive.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER (Through Translator): I was working in the tunnel that was inundated. The rescue team saved us and brought me to their hospital.
SUD: But the large volume of debris has slowed the work to find others. Dogs searched the mud for any scent of survivors.
It's a scene environmentalists have warned about. The Himalayan region is prone to flash floods and landslides with glaciers becoming more unstable because of the climate crisis.
Family and friends can only wait and pray for a miracle.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER (Through Translator): My brother was here. He used to work here and now I am hearing that he is trapped inside. We have no information about him. There were six people from our village over here.
SUD: This is the outcome families fear most. Rescuers carry a body over the rocks, one of the several already located.
But there are signs of progress. The pace of this group is much quicker, they have found a survivor. As they race to a waiting helicopter, one more life hopefully saved from this disaster.
SUD (Voice Over): Vedika Sud, CNN, New Delhi.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Donald Trump's second impeachment trial is about more than just his alleged incitement of insurrection.
Democrats say the big picture is trying to prevent Donald Trump from ever holding public office again.
We'll have more on that when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[01:29:24]
JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Back now to the second impeachment trial of Donald J. Trump.
In the coming hours, both sides will present their legal arguments. Democrats say it's an open and shut case. The president incited the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol last month which left five people dead.
Trump's defense is this. The whole process is unconstitutional because he is no longer a sitting president. Almost every credible legal expert though has dismissed that argument as a nonstarter.
And here's more from the Trump dream team. "Despite the House managers' charges against Mr. Trump the statements cannot and could not reasonably be interpreted as a call to a immediately violence or a call for a violent overthrow of the United States government.
Democratic House managers responded to that with Trump's repeated false claims about a rigged and stolen election which fueled the attack, they say. And they go on, "The evidence of President Trump's conduct is overwhelming. He has no valid excuse or defense for his actions. And his efforts to escape accountability are entirely unavailing.
With us now is Kim Wehle, law professor at the University of Baltimore and a former assistant U.S. attorney. Thank you for being with us.
KIM WEHLEY, LAW PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF BALTIMORE: Thank you for having me.
VAUSE: Ok. Right off the top, here's Senator Tom Cotton, Republican and apparently a graduate of Harvard Law.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SENATOR TOM COTTON (R-AR): I think it's beyond the Senate's constitutional authority to have an impeachment proceeding the point of which is to convict and remove from office, a man who left office three weeks ago.
I think it's also set misplaced priorities. The Democrats continue to obsess about Donald Trump when Donald Trump left office and went to Florida three weeks ago.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: What are they teaching the kids at Harvard Law, these days? I mean the man clerked for the U.S. Court of Appeals. He knows, I would imagine, that what he said there was total BS?
WEHLE: It's certainly not legally sound, because I think the impeachment managers of the House makes the argument in their brief that it is essentially a green light for committing crimes in office towards the end of a term, because then there would always be an argument that once you leave office, anything that was in the last 30 to 60 days would be fair game.
And of course the framers did not expect that and it's particularly problematic given the first impeachment where the primary argument in the Senate Republicans was we have to wait for the election.
Now, there's been an election. Trump tried to steal the election, but the election is over so you cannot impeach. So you can't impeach no matter which direction you are coming from.
VAUSE: You know, beyond the trial is unconstitutional even though it really is argument, Trump's lawyers plan to argue with a straight face that he was horrified by the attack on the Capitol. In fact he was so horrified that he could not stop watching live TV coverage of it.
Or as one former White House senior adviser put it, Trump was loving watching the capitol mob." You know, it said when you put all the stuff behind the scene together with what they are arguing, it's just bumpkin (ph) --
WEHLE: Yes, I mean this is really a factual argument. And it defies common sense in part, because Donald Trump was watching what was going on. And, you know, when the mob started shouting "Hang Mike Pence" and erected a noose, Donald Trump, after that in the midst of the chaos and violence on television tweeted that Mike Pence was a coward.
So kind of egged them on, so the notion that somehow he was horrified of course is undermined by the fact, that I find it a bit troubling that in the Trump team's brief, they are essentially disavowing all of those thousands that showed up and basically said it's they're responsible for whatever they did. There were crimes committed. It was awful. Donald Trump has nothing to do with it.
And some of those people could actually go to jail. Impeachment can't send anyone to jail. So these people are paying for Donald Trump's role in this, effectively, and he is, you know, disavowing, washing his hands of any of it. It's really quite sad.
VAUSE: Well, Trump's legal team is basically the guy who as district attorney did not press charges against the serial rapist Bill Cosby. Another TV lawyer who reportedly considered representing six (INAUDIBLE) against Jeffrey Epstein, they do not have a very strong hand to play.
Even so CNN is reporting that Trump has been reaching out to aid and advisers to discuss his upcoming Senate impeachment trial. One source saying Trump thinks there won't be enough Republican senators who will vote to convict him.
In other words you don't need a good legal argument when the fix is in.
WEHLE: Well, it looks like pretty much across the board, that is the expectation. You know, it is hard to say that for sure in this political environment that once there are days of video evidence at a minimum reminding Americans of what led up to the January 6, and the extreme violence that led to five deaths that the public won't shift perceptions, and that is really wet with take moving the Senate of course, that's really what would take moving the Senate Republicans.
But again, it's kind of a sad day for the constitution that this kind of behavior is sort of pre determined as acceptable by one of the two major political parties in the United States, because this kind of a redo over and over, I don't think anyone would want to see. I should hope not I should say.
VAUSE: What we've heard from Democrats is the argument that this is primarily about not just holding the president accountable, but making sure he does not run for office again or it's prevented this from doing that.
You argue there's -- legal door number two when it comes to this which would prevent an individual running again not just for president but, you know, seeing "Dog Catcher" I imagine.
It's an amendment, the 14th Amendment, Section 3. I'll read out some of it. It says "Former elected officials are prevented from holding public office again if they've taken an oath to support the constitution of the United States shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability."
[01:35:03]
VAUSE: So this should (ph) actually work against removing this provision if you like so that someone could stand (ph) for office again. So explain how does this actually work?
WEHLE: So it was passed after the civil war, and the idea was to keep former members of the confederacy, the South that lost the war from getting in office and then basically upsetting the reconstruction process.
And so congress passed a law essentially saying if you supported the rebellion, if you were -- or as said, per the constitution -- if you were part of that uprising against the union you cannot hold office again unless Congress says you can.
At the time, Congress did pass a law making that a crime that could be enforceable to misdemeanor, that can be enforced and carries a short prison term. But essentially if someone did participate in an insurrection, tried to run for office they could be prosecuted.
What I argue is the easier mechanism is to have a civil remedy, that is, to have a statute passed that allowed, say another -- somebody on the ballot to go in and try for an injunction to basically keep people who participated in insurrections potentially including Donald Trump off the ballot as a matter of a civil injunction, not a criminal statute.
VAUSE: You give hope that there are more than one way, I guess to skin a cat, perhaps.
Kim, thank you for being with us. Appreciate it.
WEHLE: Thank you for having me. I enjoyed it. VAUSE: Again, do not miss CNN's special live coverage of the
impeachment trial. It starts at 5:00 p.m. Tuesday in London. If you are in Abu Dhabi, that would be 9:00 p.m.
The spread of the coronavirus in the U.S. has been dramatically slowing since the beginning of this year. And with that, hospital admissions are also down. Experts are warning though, the new more contagious variant of the virus could see those numbers once again surging.
CNN's Nick Watt explains.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NICK WATT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The lowest daily case count in the U.S. since early November was just logged Sunday. Numbers in the hospital also falling fast, but still higher than the summer surge and --
DR. ROCHELLE WALENSKY, DIRECTOR, CDC: The continued proliferation of variants remains a great concern and is a threat that could reverse the recent positive trends we are seeing.
WATT: Nearly 700 cases of the more contagious variant first found in the U.K. now detected here and doubling roughly every 10 days, according to a new study that is not yet peer-reviewed.
DR. JORGE RODRIGUEZ, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: I think we have to assume that there are maybe tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of those variance.
WATT: Meantime, nearly 10 percent of the U.S. population has now had at least one dose of vaccine.
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: The encouraging news is that the vaccines that we're currently distributing right now are quite effective against that particular variants, less so against the South African.
WATT: In fact, South Africa just paused it's roll out of the Oxford- AstraZeneca vaccine after a small study found it offers little protection against mild and moderate illness caused by that variant.
Dr. CELINE GOUNDER, EPIDEMIOLOGIST: If we allow the virus to continue spreading and mutating, we may well find ourselves in a place where the vaccines no longer work at all.
WATT: So a negative test before you are allowed on even a domestic flight might become mandatory.
PETE BUTTIGIEG, U.S. TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: There's an active conversation with the CDC right now. What I can tell you is it's going to be guided by data, by science, by medicine and by the input of the people who are actually going to have to carry this out.
WATT: Representative Ron Wright of Texas tested positive January 21st, died yesterday, the first sitting congress member to die after catching COVID-19.
Chicago and it's teachers union just reached a tentative agreement to get back into the classroom this week. New York City, now plans to bring back tens of thousands of middle schoolers end of the month.
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think it's time for schools to reopen safely. Safely. You have to have fewer people in the classroom. You have to have ventilation systems that have been reworked.
WATT: Detailed CDC guidance on that and more is expected Wednesday.
(on camera): There is optimism. Take New York City. They're going to open indoor dining at reduce capacity, but they're going to open indoor dining again before Valentine's Day.
A note of caution. The CDC director said very plainly, we have yet to control this pandemic.
Nick Watt, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Oil prices have risen to pre-pandemic levels, $16 a barrel on Monday, driven by supply cuts, stimulus hopes and vaccine optimism.
[01:39:57]
VAUSE: CNN's John Defterios is live in Abu Dhabi with more on this. You know, oil, pretty good barometer for where the global economy might be in terms of recovery, but two of those three factors -- hopes of a stimulus and hopes of vaccines could be seen as a little tenuous at the moment at least.
JOHN DEFTERIOS, CNN EMERGING MARKETS EDITOR: Yes. It's a great read, John, because we've seen a nice recovery here. But a lot of that is being driven by the hedge funds who jumped into oil as an investment here because supplies were cut back. They saw a kind of a one way bet.
But what a heck of a ride over the last 12 months. If we take a look at the chart here. This chart starts at $54 a barrel, but earlier in 2020 at the start of the year, we were at nearly $70 a barrel.
And then we went negative, if you have the U.S. chart up there. That's the global benchmark, North Sea Brent at zero on April 20th and below $20 a barrel for Brent there.
So this triggered a number of different actions. We had the OPEC plus players after a price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia in March, at the meeting now (INAUDIBLE) they came back later and cutting 10 million barrel a day. And that was met with stimulus worldwide in the first half of 2020 of $10 trillion dollars.
So that started to restore demand. So let's put it into perspective here. We, before the pandemic, consumed about 100 million barrels a day. That dropped 30 percent in the first half of 2020. And overall for the year, dropped nearly 10 percent.
So where does that leave us today? Saudi Arabia decided to cut another million barrels a day for this month and next to ensure this recovery.
But road transport, carrying goods around the world, the demand is down, but that represents 70 percent of global demand. And air transport is about 8 percent and we know the state of global travel at this stage as well.
VAUSE: And also, talk (ph) of this demand for jet fuel. I'm looking at the Biden administration, they're actually considering these PCR tests for COVID, the nasal swab ones which are considered to be more of the gold standard. Are they going to make than mandatory for domestic travel?
DEFTERIOS: Well, you know, they should, John. This seems to be basically the global standard here in the Middle East. I know it's the case in Europe when I've been traveling there and also, Asia.
So it's the U.S. trying to catch up, it's a big country obviously, five hours from coast to coast. And they have not made it mandatory.
Pete Buttigieg, the transport secretary, the new one coming in with the Biden administration, says it is an effort to restore confidence in the system overall. Let's take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BUTTIGIEG: What I can tell you, is it's going to be guided by data, by science, by medicine, and by the input of the people who're actually going to have carry this out.
But here's the thing. The safer we can make air travel in terms of perception, as well as reality, the more people are going to be ready to get back in the air.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DEFTERIOS: And it's also important here to have the right infrastructure, John. You remember Emirates Air and I covered it in July and Dubai decided to open up back then? They had the testing infrastructure to pull this all off. I'm not sure if the U.S. is there yet.
By the way, the president of Emirates Air, Sir Tim Clark was saying overnight to aviation business, we could be back to the glory days in 2023. So two more years to restore demand to where it was prior to the pandemic, if, if, if. If the testing is right, the vaccines hold up and economic growth is back in order as well. A lot of ifs, let's put that out.
VAUSE: A lot of if. That timeframe seems a little shorter than what they were talking about earlier, I think. So positive news, I guess.
DEFTERIOS: It is.
VAUSE: Yes. John, thank you. John Notorious in Abu Dhabi, appreciate it.
Coming up here on CNN NEWSROOM, from a U.S. president who made no secret of his support for Israel and its West Bank settlements to one who has said very little, and that worries the Palestinians.
[01:43:31]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: In a wide-ranging interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer, the new U.S. Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, laid out the Biden administration's plans for new engagement with leaders around the world.
Here is Blinken now on Russia and the poisoning of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: What we are doing is, first of all, consulting and working closely with other countries who are very concerned about what is happened, not just to Mr. Navalny but others who have stood up to exercise their rights.
But second, Wolf, as you know, it seems apparent that a chemical weapon was used to try and kill Mr. Navalny. That violates the chemical weapons convention, and other obligations that Russia has. It violates clear sanctions that Congress has, we are reviewing that. We are looking at that very carefully, and when we have the results, we'll take action in the appropriate way.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: On China, America's rival for global leadership, Blinken said the former president had taken the right idea with a tougher approach but the implementation was wrong.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BLINKEN: We have to engage China from a position of strength. And whether it's the adversarial aspects of the relationship, the competitive ones, or the cooperative ones which are there in our mutual interest, we have to deal with it from a position of strength.
That means having strong alliances. That's a source of advantage for us, not denigrating our alliances. It means, as we were talking about earlier, showing up again in the world and engaging because if we don't, when we pull back, China fills in. It means standing up for our values, not advocating them. When we see the abuse of the rights of the Uyghurs in Xinjiang or democracy in Hong Kong.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: On Israel, Blinken says Joe Biden is not giving the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the cold shoulder. He says the two spoke during the transition. He's sure they will do again shortly. But do not expect sudden progress towards Mideast peace.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BLINKEN: The hard truth is we are a long way I think from seeing peace break out and seeing a final resolution of the problems between Israel and the Palestinians and the creation of a Palestinian state.
In the first instance now, it is do no harm. We are looking to make sure that neither side takes unilateral actions that make the prospects for moving towards peace and a resolution, even more challenging than they already are.
And then, hopefully, we'll see both sides take steps to create a better environment in which actual negotiations can take place.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Well the Palestinians say a change in Washington is reason for hope. The U.N. and the E.U. pushing back now against Israel's recent rush to authorize thousands of new housing units in the West Bank.
And for more on that, here's senior international correspondent, Sam Kiley.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): A convoy of European ambassadors, trooping out to the West Bank to complain against Israel's forced removals of Arab farmers from this land. The moment a grand gesture meets grim reality.
The day before, Israel had destroyed a Bedouin camp, declaring the farming area a closed military zone.
(on camera): So how many times has your shelter been confiscated this month?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Three times. Every month, three times.
KILEY: Do you have any hope that there is now a new president in America that he could maybe help with this sort of problem?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We say insh'Allah (ph). the situation will get better with a new president. Maybe, insh'Allah.
KILEY (voice over): These Bedouin farmers show little enthusiasm for these fleeting visits. Seeing them as empty gestures while Israel continues to build on the West Bank.
This year, ahead of Joe Biden's presidential inaugurations, Israel rushed to announce the construction of 3,352 new homes. Effectively, for Jews only on the West Bank and in East Jerusalem.
The Trump administration said that Jewish West Bank settlements were not inconsistent with international law. Palestinians hope that Biden would reverse this, interlined with Europe and the U.N. But he did not mention the Palestinians or Israel, and in his first foreign policy speech as president.
(on camera): Do you think you are a priority? It doesn't look like it, to be honest.
[01:49:54]
MOHAMMED SHTAYYEH, PALESTINIAN PRIME MINISTER: At the moment, we are a priority. We know that Washington and that Joe Biden with (ph) so many problems -- corona, the economy -- all these sort of things, which we understand.
KILEY (on camera): Things like this for the agricultural communities of Bedouins are all too familiar on the West Bank. So there's growing anger It seems like for the agricultural communities of better win, they are all too familiar on the West Bank.
So there is growing anger among the Palestinians against the Israelis, against their own leadership, and against the international community.
(voice over): The Europeans spend about $780 million a year on the Palestinians. They are the biggest donors to the Palestinian Authority. It is almost entirely reliant on foreign donor money to run about 40 percent of the West Bank. But, U.S.-led peace talks with Israel are in a deep coma.
(on camera): Some people would say, you are simply renting peace off the Palestinians.
SVEN KUEHN VON BURGSDORFF, E.U. REPRESENTATIVE, WEST BANK: That is (ph) -- how do you allow hope to continue to exist?
KILEY (voice over): Meanwhile, a top Israeli official, says the Bedouin are pawns in a political stunt orchestrated by the Palestinian Authority.
MARK REGEV, SENIOR ADVISER TO ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: The Israeli government was willing to go an extra mile here. We offered them to be relocated. We offered to build housing in the area. I think for political reasons, the residents were told not to do -- to accept those proposals.
KILEY: Trump support for Israel was hot. Israel may see a little cooling from Biden but there is no change in the diplomatic weather for the Palestinians.
Sam Kiley, in Humsa (ph) on the West Bank.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: When we come back, a look inside the disturbing world of QAnon and why it supported and actually believed Donald Trump is still weeks away from being sworn in as president. Yes.
(END VIDEOTAPE) VAUSE: Donald Trump's defense team has thrown his MAGA insurgents under the bus. Going at his second impeachment trial, the former president was horrified by the attack on the Capitol.
One of the strangest and more unforgettable insurgents from that day, the so-called QAnon shaman, Jacob Chansley (ph). He released a statement through his lawyer saying he's deeply disappointed in the former president, that he is not honorable and let a lot of peaceful people down.
Now facing some very real jail time, Chansley admitted the election was not rigged. He is very sorry for entering the Capitol and arousing fear in the hearts of others.
Chansley, who is very much the poster boy for white privilege is receiving special organic food which he requested while in jail. It's required, he says by his Shamanism religion.
Well the Shaman's fellow QAnon followers are gearing up for yet another conspiracy theory. This time they are saying that the former president Donald Trump that is, will actually be sworn into office in the coming weeks.
CNN's Donie O'Sullivan has the details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't believe -- it sounds so crazy and I recognize how crazy this sounds, but I don't believe Joe Biden is going to be sworn in as president today.
DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A popular QAnon conspiracy convinced some Trump supporters that Biden was not going to be inaugurated on January 20th.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Please raise your right hand and repeat after me.
O'SULLIVAN: But as soon as Biden was inaugurated, a new conspiracy theory took hold.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Trump will take office as the 19th president of the United States on March 4th under the restored republic.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, hey, hey. It's your favorite truth seeker holding the light for everyone out there who has given up hope that Trump is not the president of the United States of America when in fact, he is.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When you think about it, you know, Biden is not in the White House. And they have proof that he is out in California and it is all staged.
[01:54:56]
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Executions will be happening on March 5th. That is a big statement. And I'm really looking forward to it. O'DONNELL: Trump will return as president in March, they falsely
claim. The conspiracy theory is apparently rooted in the belief that an 1871 law turned the country into a corporation. And any president elected after that is illegitimate.
The last president to be sworn in before that law passed was Ulysses S. Grant on March 4th, 1869.
It is this latest bizarre conspiracy theory that Trump would be president again in March that made former QAnon believer Ashley Vanderbilt realized the whole thing is a fraud.
ASHLEY VANDERBILD, FORMER QANON BELIEVER: It doesn't make sense that all this is happening and then all of a sudden Trump is going to come back March 4th. And it's going to change.
I was like it does not seem right. So that is I guess, what started -- I just had that little bit of doubt.
O'SULLIVAN: But while Ashley was able to get out, others are still clinging on to QAnon. "Re-post if Trump is still your president." Read a message posted to Gab late Sunday after the Super Bowl. Gab is a hate filled social media platform that some QAnon followers have turned to since platforms like Twitter shut down some QAnon accounts after the insurrection.
A QAnon account on Gab has more than 200,000 members and in it believers continue to look for signs that QAnon is a real thing.
A photo purportedly of the White House at night posted with the message, Q did say something about if the lights go out, please know we are in control.
Echoing the false conspiracy about executions on March 5th, a person posted a picture of the media risers outside the White House used during the inauguration with a message, "It is beginning to look a lot like gallows".
And ahead of the impeachment trial a plea for QAnon believers to call their senators. It is not Q. It's you that makes the difference.
(on camera): And QAnon followers will be watching closely the impeachment trial of former President Trump this week. Of course, for them, Trump is a hero. He is the hero of the whole QAnon conspiracy theory that is perhaps the reason why he has praised QAnon followers.
And you saw Ashley Vanderbilt there in that report, the QAnon, former QAnon believer who is a mom in South Carolina. She said one way she could have got out of the conspiracy theory sooner was that if President Trump came out and said the whole thing was false.
We have not seen the former president do that. We have actually seen him embrace the QAnon believer like Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Back to you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Donie O'Sullivan, thank you.
And thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause.
Please stay with us. The news continues here on CNN after a short break with Robyn Curnow. Thanks for watching.
[01:57:41
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
