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Security at U.S. Capitol on High Alert for Trump Trial; House Managers Preview Their Case with Dramatic Video of Insurrection; Six GOP Senators Break Ranks to Vote Trump's Trial As Constitutional; House Managers Preview Their Case with Dramatic Video of Insurrection. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired February 10, 2021 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:29]

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. I'm Poppy Harlow.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Jim Sciutto.

They have laid the foundation and in just three hours House impeachment managers will begin presenting their case against Donald J. Trump. Democrats expected to unveil new evidence, they say, today, as they look to convince some Republican senators that the former president was responsible for the deadly insurrection at the Capitol.

Day one of the trial was reliving the horror of January 6th in a powerful 13-minute video. Some of the brutal details never seen or heard before. This is disturbing, but it is worth a watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Traitor! Traitor!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Yet still, after that preview, only six of 50 Republican senators turned jurors voted for the trial to even keep happening. The lead impeachment manager Jamie Raskin made this plea just before that vote.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JAMIE RASKIN (D-MD): Senators, this cannot be our future. This cannot be the future of America. We cannot have presidents inciting and mobilizing mob violence against our government. History does not support a January exception in any way, so why would we invent one for the future?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: The president's defense team is vowing to be more prepared today after an objectively dismal start. Just ask Republican senators. They are admitting that. As for former President Trump, he is reportedly fuming over all of it. His acquittal still likely, though. And we cannot overstate this. What happens in the next few hours is consequential for the future of democracy and for the future, Jim, of the Republican Party.

SCIUTTO: So let's begin on Capitol Hill. Lauren Fox is there.

Lauren, day two. Walk us through what we can expect.

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, this really begins the arguments that the House impeachment managers are going to lay out, Jim. And this is the meat and potatoes. Yesterday was the discussion about whether or not this trial should continue on constitutional merits. This is about what happened on January 6th and what happened leading up to January 6th.

Expect that the managers are going to be using more compelling video like that 13-minute video we saw at the start of this yesterday. But also expect that they are going to be talking about how this was a buildup, this was a culmination. This was not just something that happened because Trump went out and gave a speech about how his supporters should fight like hell. This was something that started before November.

This was something that continued after Biden had already been deemed the winner of the election. This was something that Trump continued. And I think that that is going to be what you're going to see on the floor.

Now yesterday was something that brought members back to that moment at the Capitol on January 6th. Raskin really talking about the fact that people died. I mean, he had members of his own family that were in a room barricaded to protect themselves. His daughter, his son-in- law, that became part of the emotion of the day yesterday. And, you know, it was broken a bit by the fact that the president's defense team also had an opportunity to give their arguments.

There's not going to be a break. For the next two days, this is all the House managers making their case. Expect it to be compelling. Expect it to be chilling. That is what we are being told from our sources -- Jim and Poppy.

HARLOW: You know, Lauren, the focus really should be on what was presented. The evidence, right? The hard facts. But I mean, I -- you have to also mention what happened and the Republican reaction from conservative senators to the president's defense team and what they put out there.

FOX: Well, I think that a lot of Republican senators, even those who voted that this was not constitutional, to move ahead with the trial, were very disappointed, very underwhelmed by the president's defense team's, you know, protection of the president.

[09:05:02]

And I think that one of the things that I thought was surprising was that we heard from Senator Bill Cassidy who he said he went into this with an open mind. He was a juror. He said his mind could be made up. This is what he said about why he voted with the House managers that this was a constitutional process.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BILL CASSIDY (R-LA): President Trump's team were disorganized. They did everything they could but to talk about the question at hand. And when they talked about it, they kind of glided over it, almost as if they were embarrassed of their arguments.

Now I'm an impartial juror. And one side is doing a great job and the other side is doing a terrible job on the issue at hand, as an impartial juror, I'm going to vote for the side that did the good job.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOX: And we also heard from Senator Kevin Kramer, a Republican from North Dakota. He said it was just simply a rocky start -- Jim and Poppy.

HARLOW: See what today brings. Lauren, thank you for the reporting.

Now to the president's defense. Former president and Republicans hope today goes better for them.

SCIUTTO: Well, hope is not a plan. Boris Sanchez is covering Trump's lawyers.

So, Boris, listen, they know, apparently even the president wasn't happy with their performance. Beyond optics, do they have new arguments to make today?

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It certainly doesn't appear that way right now, Jim and Poppy, but things may change throughout the day. Clearly a failure here by the Trump legal team acknowledged privately by some of the president's closest aides. They did not feel that Bruce Castor and David Schoen landed any punches on House Democrats. In fact, Bruce Castor commending House Democrats for their presentation, acknowledging that the Trump legal team had to rearrange their strategy because of the effectiveness of it.

Privately, those Trump aides say that it was a failure. Publicly they're spinning it as some sort of grand strategy, as a way to tamp down the temperature that was ratcheted up by the Democrats' presentation. Notably, David Schoen was on FOX News last night and he was asked about the meandering, rambling performance, specifically of Bruce Castor. He had this to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID SCHOEN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY FOR DONALD TRUMP: Well, the fellow who you say did the opening today has his law firm there. Seemed to be very capable people. I'm sure -- today he hadn't planned on going, and so I'm sure that they'll be very well prepared in the future and do a great job in the case.

(END VIDEO CLIP) SANCHEZ: Sources indicated that Bruce Castor and David Schoen both planned to speak yesterday so it's unclear there when he suggests that Castor didn't plan to have opening remarks. Notably, he did say that they will be more prepared today. Hopefully that inspires the president who reportedly was furious at their performance. Sources indicate that he was nearly yelling at his TV while he was watching the proceedings -- Jim and Poppy.

HARLOW: OK, Boris. Again, we'll see how this afternoon goes. Thank you for that reporting.

Joining us now, Asha Rangappa, former FBI special agent and CNN legal and national security analyst. Also Elliot Williams, former deputy assistant attorney general at the Justice Department.

Good morning. Thanks for being here.

Elliot, I have to start with you and impeachment manager Congressman Jamie Raskin's simple but to the point argument that nothing in history shows that there should be a January exception for any president. And let me pull up this graphic because it kind of says it all, right? That you can sort of impeach a president for all the other years of his presidency but you can't do it right there at the end. How effective --

ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: What -- I'm sorry.

HARLOW: Go ahead.

WILLIAMS: Sure. What that graphic did was what Raskin did throughout his entire comments. He started, if you remember, everybody is remembering the end of his speech, that heartfelt tale, story he told about his son, but he started by saying, I'm not going to bog you down in constitutional arguments. I'm just going to tell a story. And he made it digestible and understandable for people to make sense of.

And that graphic made it clear. If a presidency is 48 months long, it's not that in the final month, anything goes and the president can engage in any reckless or unlawful behavior that he wants. And so they crafted this concept, this term of the January exception, which is a great way to explain the case to people, right, that President Trump's simple argument is that, well, because it was the end, just disregard everything I've done.

It was a crystal clear argument from beginning to end. And including Raskin's very touching closing. The way he did it by saying in the third person, this is what he did. This is what the president did. And the second person, this is what you did, Senators. This is how this affected you as a body of Congress. And then ending on himself by saying, but also me. Like my -- and I'm one of you. And look, my daughter was here and so on.

It was just an incredible way to pull people in and simplify what could have been a really messy, convoluted constitutional argument.

[09:10:05] SCIUTTO: Yes. Prosecutors and prosecutors are among those House managers. They know that simple phrases, simple arguments stick or can stick with jurors.

Asha, the big question here, the legal constitutional -- granted, it's a political process, but the legal question is, is the president responsible? We know what happened January 6th. Did the president contribute, incite what we saw then? Who on that first day is winning that legal argument?

ASHA RANGAPPA, CNN LEGAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: The House managers are clearly winning that argument because that's what their video focused on.

You're absolutely right, Jim. The main case that the House managers have to make is to establish the causal relationship between the president's words and actions and the violence that resulted. That basically he set in motion a chain of events that led to the violence. And I think the House managers also invoked another legal idea which is the but for cause. But for the president's speech, would this have actually happened?

I didn't even see the defense lawyers make -- address that argument at all, and, you know, they were making the legal constitutional argument that this court had no power over Trump to begin with. But right now, I would say the House managers have made a lot of headway on the actual claim that needs to be proven.

HARLOW: Elliot, the president did not accept the voluntary invitation to testify, but we don't know about a subpoena yet. We don't even know if there will be any witnesses in this trial yet. Can you help me understand, why wouldn't they subpoena the president?

SCIUTTO: Yes.

WILLIAMS: Well, here's the thing. This is the -- perhaps the only proceeding in American history, criminal trial impeachment whatever, where the entire body of evidence needed to convict the individual that's on trial is already available on the public record. Yes, the president's testimony would be useful. Yes, testimony of White House staffers or the mayor of D.C. or the head of the National Guard could all help fill in additional facts.

But on the question, just like Asha said, the legal question is, did the president incite the individuals that led to the wrongdoing at the Capitol building? And it's all there starting with the president's tweets going back to, frankly, July of 2020, where he's undermining the results of the election. Then the tweets in December where the president first says January 6th, be there, be wild, and then the day of when he talks about taking the country back.

Look, I've done a bunch of trials in my life. Never did I have a trial where the whole thing was captured on video. And you can just show that to the audience. So yes, it would be great to hear from the president but not necessary.

SCIUTTO: Yes. So many of the comments were public.

Asha, I want to ask you a question because this speaks to the president's -- not just what he said but his power to move these people, right, to assault the Capitol. And his attorney said something interesting last night on FOX, which I wonder was revealing and might be -- might weaken his case. Have a listen then I want to get your response.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOEN: They're using rhetoric that's just as inflammatory or more so. The problem is they don't really have followers. You know, their dedicated followers and so, you know, when they give their speeches.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: David Schoen there saying, in effect, the president's followers listen to him. Does that help or hurt his case?

RANGAPPA: It hurts his case, Jim. Basically, he is admitting that Trump ordered the code red. I mean, he's saying that Trump used inflammatory language, and that he had the authority and influence over the people that were listening to it to basically result in them listening and following through. He called them dedicated followers.

This was a huge gaffe by his lawyer. And if I were the House managers, I would play that clip because that is an admission, a concession on some major points about incitement. The authority over the person speaking to the audience.

SCIUTTO: And then they could follow up by saying, you can't handle the truth. Movie references aside. Had to follow on yours, Asha.

Asha Rangappa, Elliot Williams, thanks so much to both of you. We know we'll have more questions for you as the trial goes forward.

Still to come this hour, one month after the deadly insurrection at the Capitol and new filings show that officials are treating the threat of organized violence at locations across the country as not only possible but likely.

HARLOW: We are also this hour going to speak with two former Republican senators who say former President Trump should not escape accountability on a technicality. Their message ahead.

And a new COVID-19 relief bill in the House could make more Americans eligible for Affordable Care Act subsidies. We'll tell you what it could mean for you at home, ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:15:00]

POPPY HARLOW, CO-ANCHOR, NEWSROOM: This morning, just a month since the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and with former President Trump's impeachment trial now in full swing, federal law enforcement officials are remaining very -- on very high alert in Washington and across the country for potential violence especially by domestic extremists.

JIM SCIUTTO, CO-ANCHOR, NEWSROOM: It's a remarkable warning here. Comes as sources within the Capitol Police Department tells CNN that officers are physically and mentally exhausted and worried that leadership is not equipped to handle this growing threat. CNN's Josh Campbell is outside the Capitol building where the security is just alarming to see as the trial carries out. But Josh, tell us what you're learning.

[09:20:00]

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: That's right. As you mentioned, over a month since that deadly attack here at the U.S. Capitol. And yet, there are still physical signs of the potential threat that remains. I'm standing here outside a Capitol police checkpoint. This did not exist on January 6th. This is a result of that insurrection, authorities pushing back several blocks of standoff between the Capitol and where the public can actually come. You see they've erected these metal fences here, including this razor wire at the top, an added precaution and, of course, it's not just the Capitol police protecting the building now.

You can see right behind us, members of the National Guard armed. They are out here surrounding this building, again, serving as that added layer of security because authorities are concerned that there could be some type of protests, perhaps a violent protest associated with the second impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump. Now, inside the Capitol building where this impeachment trial is continuing, about to get under way for a little bit longer as it goes through, authorities are still concerned about security there as well. Take a look at this photo I took yesterday. You can still see remnants of the January 6th insurrection. This photo was looking out towards the Supreme Court.

You see some of the damage there. I talked to a member of Congress yesterday who was here on the job, but said that she and so many of her colleagues are still afraid about coming back into that building. The emotional scars that continue from that insurrection. Now, finally, it's worth noting that the toll of that insurrection is not just physical, it's not just emotional. It's also financial. We're told by Pentagon officials that the cost of keeping these military members here over the next month, half a billion dollars. Jim and Poppy?

HARLOW: Wow.

SCIUTTO: I mean, I have not seen security like that in Capitols in the west. I've seen it in a lot of war zones. It's alarming to see here in D.C. Josh Campbell, thanks very much. Joining us now to speak about all this, Kirsten Powers, CNN's senior political analyst, columnist for "USA Today" and CNN political commentator Amanda Carpenter; she's a political columnist for "The Bulwark", former communications director for Senator Ted Cruz. Good morning to both of you. KIRSTEN POWERS, COLUMNIST, USA TODAY: Good morning.

SCIUTTO: Amanda, I wonder if I could begin with you. You know, politics does not move fast, right? But there have been -- there has been some movement in the last 24 hours that may be notable. Mitch McConnell telling members of his conference that the vote to convict or not to convict is a matter of conscience. In other words, it's up to them, even signaling that his mind is not closed to that. And Bill Cassidy yesterday joining the five who had already said that constitution -- that the trial is constitutional. Five Republicans. Keeping to his word, what he said on this broadcast last week, I just want to play it and then get your reaction. Have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BILL CASSIDY (R-LA): I'm a juror. Jurors are supposed to go in with an open mind. And everybody wants to push you to make a decision, and if you don't, they read into that. I am there, as I was a year ago, explicitly to listen to what people say and to judge based upon the evidence presented.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: So he moved yesterday. McConnell is telling other Republicans they can decide as they want to. Have we eliminated the possibility that the president could be convicted?

AMANDA CARPENTER, POLITICAL COLUMNIST, THE BULWARK: Listen, it's going to be a stretch. I would feel much better if Mitch McConnell straight up said, I am likely to vote to convict. They haven't gone there yet. But the Bill Cassidy element is significant because everyone was trying to call this a fait accompli and he couldn't avoid the evidence. What a lot of Republican senators are doing are refusing to confront the facts of this case, hiding behind process arguments, trying to start a fake debate about free speech. But look at that report from Josh Campbell. Look outside the doors.

There are extremists in the party who believe they have support within the party. And so, what these Republican senators have to grapple with while they sit there and watch videos and footage that they've avoided for so long is that Donald Trump is on trial, yes, but so are they. Their judgment is on trial. Everyone saw what happened and they may vote to acquit Donald Trump, but this question and their responsibility in this attack will follow them for the rest of their political lives. And Donald Trump isn't going to bail them out. These lawyers who give terrible arguments aren't going to give them any kind of cover. They have to answer for this in their words, and that is very uncomfortable thing. And look, Bill Cassidy broke on the first votes on a process argument.

HARLOW: Yes, and Kirsten, that process argument might have a little wrinkle because of a lot of constitutional issues aside, but listen to what the president -- former president himself, Trump said, one year ago to the day. Here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Remember

President Obama, you can keep your plan, you can keep -- 28 times, you can keep your doctor. That didn't turn out very good. We should impeach him for that. Why aren't we impeaching him? Twenty eight times, you can keep your doctor. We should impeach President Obama.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[09:25:00]

HARLOW: That was years after he was out of office. I'm just going to assume he was serious.

POWERS: Yes --

HARLOW: I mean, give me a break.

POWERS: Right, yes. Well, I think that it's been pretty well established that it's perfectly constitutional to impeach a president after they've lost -- left office. But I don't -- you know, I'm just going to -- I'm sorry, I'm very skeptical about Republicans. I think that past behavior is the best predictor for, you know, future behavior. And if we're going to look at the last four years, I don't really see a lot of people with seared consciences up there. And you know, these are not -- these are people that have been able to overlook a lot of things and put their fingers in their ears and cover their eyes when they want to. And they're not driven as much by conscience as they are by electoral concerns.

And if they believe that going against former President Trump is going to be harmful to their electoral chances, that's what they'll do. And they've shown this -- they've shown us that time and time again. And so, I think the only way they would do something different is if they were convinced it wasn't good for them. Personally, in terms of their own races, they -- I think there's an argument, certainly to be made that this is very bad for the Republican Party. And -- but I think each individual senator really looks at it specifically. What's good for me? And I think too many of them come to the conclusion that what's good for them is to go along with --

SCIUTTO: Yes --

POWERS: Donald Trump.

SCIUTTO: Yes, I mean, listen, certainly a lot of evidence to that. After all, I mean, you had two-thirds of the house Republican conference vote still to overturn the election after --

POWERS: Yes --

SCIUTTO: What we saw on January 6th. So I hear you. Trust me. Amanda, to the point here, we talked a lot about the president's lawyers' bad presentations. But at the essential core of this, the argument, do they have an answer that you've heard to the essential charge here?

CARPENTER: I mean, I guess the best sort of desperate answer I've heard is probably from Marco Rubio who just says, well, if there was a problem, it should be handled in the courts. Somebody, you know, take a criminal prosecution. But that is just the biggest dodge ever because this was an attack, Marco Rubio, on your house. Would you be willing to be a witness to that crime? Would you testify on Donald Trump's behalf? Then go to the stand. And so, this is -- this is something they can't escape because the problem came to their door. They can't say, oh, we want an election to handle it, oh, we can't do it because Donald Trump is not president anymore.

They've used every excuse in the book. They have to confront it, and these answers that, well, I just don't think it's constitutional. Voters aren't going to buy that, OK? They're not going to buy that. This kind of nonsense is why Republicans lost the White House, the Senate and the house. And so, if you want to keep living in the state of denialism, you can prepare to go home on those -- on these grounds, I believe.

HARLOW: Kirsten, quickly to you. Looking forward, I thought David Ignatius' column in "The Washington Post" was interesting because it was actually about President Biden. And he essentially argued that silence isn't enough after this from Biden on impeachment, right? It seems like the White House is doing everything they can right now not to talk about the trial. But afterward, what do you make of his argument?

POWERS: I mean, I don't know. I didn't see his specific argument, but I don't think that Joe Biden needs to get involved in this. This is not -- I mean, we're in the middle of a pandemic. We have -- you know, a global crisis. President Trump left the country in shambles. And I think that Joe Biden is trying to focus on that and trying to move forward. I don't think he has any obligation. And I mean, honestly, do any of us really wonder what his opinion is? I think, you know, it's pretty --

HARLOW: I think it's --

POWERS: Obvious what it would be.

HARLOW: Yes, I hear you. I think his point is, is silence enough after this is over when you talk about unifying the country.

POWERS: I don't know how talking about it would help anything. I mean, he -- certainly, he could say something about it, but I -- you know, I can sit here and say I am sure that Joe Biden thinks that he should be impeached.

HARLOW: Yes.

POWERS: We know that Joe Biden thinks that what happened on January 6th was an absolute travesty, but I do think that he's trying to, you know, stay above sort of the day-to-day sort of, you know --

HARLOW: Yes --

POWERS: What's going on in Washington and focus on --

SCIUTTO: Yes --

POWERS: The bigger picture. And you know, that's a very different way of governing, obviously, than what we've had in the last four years. So I think it's -- you know, it's very Joe Biden. It's very on brand. And, you know, sure, he could say something about it, but I think it's much more important for him to be just focused on governing and dealing with the crisis that we're in.

HARLOW: Thank you both for being here.

SCIUTTO: Thank you.

HARLOW: Come back soon. Kirsten Powers --

POWERS: Thank you --

HARLOW: Amanda Carpenter. Well, there's on the crisis some promising news on the vaccine rollout that one in ten Americans have now received their first dose of a COVID vaccine. But there are still supply challenges, how the Biden administration is trying to combat those ahead.

SCIUTTO: And we're just moments away from the opening bell on Wall Street. Futures pointing higher again this morning after yesterday's losses broke a six-day winning streak.