Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

U.S. Capitol Police Warns of Threat Today, House Cancels Session; Texas Governor Greg Abbott Faces Backlash For Lifting Restrictions; Pelosi: Changed House Schedule "Mostly" to Accommodate GOP Issues Sessions, Not Due to Security Threats from Right-Wing Extremists. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired March 04, 2021 - 11:00   ET

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

[11:00:10]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Kate Bolduan. Thank you so much for joining me.

Less than two months after the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, Washington, D.C. is once again on high alert at this hour. Federal officials warning of a possible plot by domestic extremist groups to assault the Capitol again. Faced with this intelligence, Capitol police have increased security on Capitol grounds. The House canceled its session for the day, moving up a key vote on a police reform bill to last night to accommodate this.

But we still do expect to hear from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at any moment. She's going to be talking to reporters and she is sure to face questions about Capitol security right now. That is the room we're bringing that to you live when it does begin.

The security threat all goes back to really what amounts to a wild and absurd conspiracy theory pushed by some QAnon followers who have keyed in on today's date as the day that Donald Trump will return to power and be inaugurated as president.

Joining me right now is CNN's Shimon Prokupecz and Donie O'Sullivan, both in Washington for us at this hour.

Shimon, what are you seeing at the Capitol today first and foremost and hearing about these threats?

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, certainly there is a sense of high alert because of the threat. We have the fencing, which has been out here for weeks now, this fencing with the razor wiring. The other thing that we're seeing a lot of today, certainly is more national guard troops on the front line here. I've been out here since about 5:30 this morning, Kate, and more troops have shown up from when we were here first this morning. You could see there is about a dozen or so here heavily armed. So the idea that anyone would be able to get through here would be pretty difficult.

Of course, this threat that officials have been talking about is based off of chatter, chatter of a militia wanting to breach the Capitol either through explosives or other measures to try and get inside. And authorities here are not taking anything for granted. Certainly there is a lot of chatter before January 6th and we could now say they did take a lot of that for granted.

But they are not taking any of it for granted now. FBI officials saying that this threat is more aspirational than operational. It's not like the FBI is out there hunting anybody down, trying to stop this plot in some way. But nonetheless, officials here very concerned and so as a result these measures remain in place here at the Capitol, Kate.

BOLDUAN: And, Donie, as Shimon was saying chatter. You could explain the thinking about this chatter, behind this conspiracy theory that's focused on today's date?

DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN REPORTER: Yeah, QAnon believers who are Trump supporters are obsessed with the idea that military is on their side. They believed many of them that the inauguration of Joe Biden would never happen. Even up until the hours before the inauguration, they were obsessed, hoping that Trump would declare martial law.

Obviously, after Joe Biden got elected, they quickly moved on to this day, March 4th. The significance of March 4th, wait for it, because back in the 19th century, March 4th was date that quiet a few presidents got inaugurated. So they somehow became convinced that today was going to be the day that Trump would come back.

But, look, as ridiculous and crazy as this conspiracy theory is, obviously, it has contributed to some of the security posture we see here outside of the U.S. Capitol and it does come back. It's all still based on the big lie that the former President Trump is continuing to perpetuate that he in some way did not lose the election.

BOLDUAN: Yeah. And, Shimon, we've learned in just the last couple of hours, actually, that the security review that was ordered by the House speaker, that's done. And it is been shared now with members of Congress. What are you hearing about this?

PROKUPECZ: Yeah, this comes from reporting from our colleague Jim Sciutto. And a lot is focusing on the training but a lot is focused on the bureaucracy within the Capitol, the organization of how the police are structured and that you need several people, this board, this Capitol police board to approve the movement of National Guard troops, to call up National Guard troops.

So as one of the things that this review was looking at, whether or not they need to do away with that process and that is a recommendation. Also a quick reaction force to be on stand by here, that is something that this review is recommending, that there be some kind of a team together to just move in case of some kind after disruption, in case of some kind of riot that police can move in a moment's notice and, of course, the other thing really, and this is a big part of it, is the training.

Do they need to go back and look at how some of the officers have been training to deal with disruptions, with civil disobedience, with riot?

[11:05:07]

And that is something also that this review is saying that they need to take a look at.

BOLDUAN: I'm interested to hear. Obviously, the House speaker will be asked about this today. Kind of her reaction as this comes forward.

Donie, really quickly, this all comes back to a new -- not really a new but a renewed focus on domestic extremism. The FBI director warns this week that the threat of domestic terrorism is metastasizing is the word that he used.

You've been deep into looking into a lot of these online groups, and how they connect. How big of a role do these online groups play into this threat?

O'SULLIVAN: Yeah, Kate, it is essentially the mainstreaming of that radicalization. You know, we've heard so many conspiracy theories at this point, I'm rarely stunned. But over the past few weeks, I spoke to Trump supporters who believe QAnon and chilling on the military coup in Myanmar that killed 18 people on Sunday, they want to see that happen here.

Americans want to see that happen here because they believe that Trump, the election was stolen from Trump. They want to see Trump put back in office by the military. And this is something that is extremely scary but something we're hearing more and more of.

BOLDUAN: Yeah. When you -- when you release that part of the interview, I saw that earlier this week, I was stunned as well, I guess is a word that we must use.

Guys, thank you. Really appreciate it.

OK. So, while the House is not in session as we mentioned, the Senate is. Senators will begin debate this afternoon on President Biden's COVID relief bill.

So let's go there. Joining me right now is CNN's Manu Raju who is looking into all of this.

Manu, first and foremost, has the Senate explained why it decided to stay in session and continue working today when we now know the House has canceled business?

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, Senate, the number two Senate Democrat, Dick Durbin, said that essentially there's an apparent contradiction between the way Democrats in the Senate and the Democrats in the House viewed it.

And the one top Democrat Senate Intelligence Chairman Mark Warner suggested that the House was acting out of over abundance of caution and that is not how the senators have reacted because a lot of is revolving around internet chatter. There are not demonstrations planned and none that are happening so they feel generally secure in the building even as they say they take the threats seriously.

But the more perhaps more significant thing here is they need to get this COVID relief package done if the Democrats want to meet the deadline to get the bill done by March 14th, because they are moving into a series of very complicated and long days to get the bill out of the Senate. Now, today, we do expect the bill to be formally introduced, a Senate version of the bill that passed the House last week. A $1.9 trillion proposal, once it is finalized.

Once that comes out, then we're going to see both theatrics and a lot of votes. And then there will be -- the bill will be introduced. Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin plans to formally request a full reading of the 600 to 700-page bill. That could take ten hours alone.

And then at that point, expect there to be 20 hours of debate followed by an endless -- seemingly endless series of votes that could take this into the weekend potentially. So Democrats want to be here to try to finish up business here.

BOLDUAN: And just -- you know this, but just for our viewers, Ron Johnson is going to be doing -- it doesn't change the outcome, it literally just is a ten-hour delay, that is what that is. Not that that doesn't happen on the Democratic side as well when Republicans in the majority just so folks now.

You mentioned this, so we have these hours and hours of debate ahead in the Senate. The term used is voterama. Can you explain to folks what that really means?

RAJU: Yeah, it basically means that any senator could offer as many amendments as he or she would like, so long as there are enough, about 12 or 13 senators on floor to provide what is a sufficient second. Now, why is this different than usual because typically to get a vote on an amendment, you need support of all 100 senators to schedule one amendment vote and if there is not a agreement, then the majority leader will take several days to get a vote on that amendment.

But under this process that their employing to try to pass the bill by just Democratic votes, just 51 votes in the Senate, they have to allow as many amendments to be offered as possible under this process, which means that any senator could just offer dozens of amendments and pile it up on the floor for days and that's what Ron Johnson and other Republican senators plan to do.

Will this change the outcome, though, Kate? Unlikely. But still, it could drive things out for days -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Some amendments could be relevant. Some amendments can be completely not. That is likely, that's what is going to happen.

Thanks, Manu.

Coming up for us: this week, Texas governor made a big announcement that he is fully reopening his state, ending the statewide mask mandate.

[11:10:01]

So why is he saying today that it is not that big of a deal and not that big of a change. We're going to get to that.

BOLDUAN: And a government watch dog said that Elaine Chao should face a criminal probe for allegedly abusing her office as transportation secretary. So why didn't that happen?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced that he's reopening the state. Businesses could fully reopening and he is removing the statewide mask mandate.

Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. GREG ABBOTT (R), TEXAS: It is now time to open Texas 100 percent.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: He's excited when he announced that this week. He faced immediate blowback for this as experts say that it's not based in science.

[11:15:02]

But Abbott is now claiming that these rollbacks aren't that big of a deal. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ABBOTT: These changes that we've seen in Texas are not really that transformative. Maybe in the people in New York, it seems like this is a big difference. In Texas, we went from 75 percent to 100 percent occupancy. On the mask requirement, before now, there actually has not been any enforcement of the mask requirement.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: He also says that the rate of vaccinations and other metrics show that it is time to open up. But according to the CDC, Texas is 48th in the country in administering vaccines per capita. The seven- day average for new cases has gone up 12 percent and for deaths it has increased 22 percent in the past week.

One state lawmaker dumbfounded by this move is Democratic House Member Erin Zwiener. She joins me now from Austin, Texas.

Thank you for being here.

You actually have a very unique perspective on this, because you spoke to the state health commissioner who confirmed that he was not directly consulted by the governor before this decision. So do you think this is not that big of a deal as the governor is

trying to say this morning?

ERIN ZWIENER (D), TEXAS STATE REPRESENTATIVE: Yeah, I agree with the governor that there was very little enforcement, but where we disagree is that I think he sent a dangerous message to Texans and it is going to create confusion around the state over whether or not masks are still needed.

In my conversation with Commissioner Hellerstedt yesterday, he did affirm that Texans still should be wearing masks. At best, we've vaccinated 7 percent of our population fully. At best, you know, another 40 percent or so of our state may have previously had COVID.

So we still have about 15 million people who we know at a minimum have no immunity to COVID-19 right now. It's way too early to ease up on restrictions and the fact that our governor did not even consult with our commissioner of state health services, our chief medical officer for the state of Texas, shows that this was a political decision, not a public health decision.

BOLDUAN: Well, that's what I was going to ask you. I mean, he's up for re-election in 2022. There's a lot of talk that because of just the nature of politics especially a primary in Texas, that his political future could be hanging in the balance. Is that trend -- do you think that's 100 percent driving this?

ZWIENER: Yeah, I absolutely think this was a political attempt to appease a very small minority of our population who is loud and angry about masks. And I'm disappointed that our governor gave in to those folks, instead of providing clear and consistent information about protecting ourselves from the virus to the rest of the state.

BOLDUAN: Here's how the governor was describing it this morning. You say clear consistent message and it seems to be the opposite of what he was offering. When he was on CNBC this morning, he said, look, I'm lifting the mask mandate. It wasn't really enforced anyway, but I still want to be clear, he said it a couple of times in the interview that he wants people to wear masks.

I'm curious as to what you think the impact is going to be of what clearly is a mixed message. I'm lifting the mask mandate, because I for some reason thought it would be effective previously, but now I don't think it's needed but I do still think you should wear a mask.

ZWIENER: Yeah, I think the impact is folks are only going to hear that first chunk of the message, which means that millions of Texans who are not as tight in as those of us who hold office or who are watching CNN today, are just going to be confused and think that we're past the danger and that they could safely remove their masks now. And unfortunately, that is not how it works.

The other impact we're going to see folks like small business owners and school administrators being put under even more pressure from these angry anti-maskers to not enforce policies on their own properties. Even though they still have the ability to do that. BOLDUAN: I'm really quite concerned. I think in general when things

start opening up and if people think they don't need to wear masks, we're going to be back to seeing a lot of video and seeing a lot of accounts of people being injured because they are there to enforce a mask rule and in a store, in a retail location, at a restaurant, anything like that. We saw that, we've seen that already. I'm afraid that is happening again.

One thing that the governor came out with the gate this morning in his interview is that he is blaming migrants for any increases in COVID cases in the state. I want to play that for everybody. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ABBOTT: My point is this: the Biden administration has been releasing immigrants in south Texas that had been exposing Texans to COVID. Some of the people have been put on buses taken that COVID to other states in the United States. The Biden administration must stop importing COVID into our country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: State Rep, I'm sorry. I'm going to have to jump out of that and head over to Capitol Hill where House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is speaking now about security.

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: -- we promised that to the Republicans, we would not prolong anything because they are going to their issues conference.

[11:20:07]

We had ours virtually this week, as you may be aware, I hope you are, and theirs was started around now, in another hour, we would be -- at the latest, we would be adjourning so they could go on theirs.

So it was really just as a convenience and frankly there are a lot of us, you know, there are senators in and they should be in that, we're four -- at least four times more people, and therefore, all that that implies in terms of numbers of people in the Capitol, if, in fact, there are any troublemakers around and it made sense. I don't think anybody should take any encouragement that because some troublemakers might show up, that, in fact, we changed our whole schedule.

No, we just moved it a few hours and it largely will accommodate the Republicans going to their own session.

REPORTER: Madam Speaker?

PELOSI: Yes, ma'am?

REPORTER: Madam Speaker, there were reports that the Capitol Police have asked the National Guard to stay for the two additional months, in addition to how long they've been here. Do you think that need exists (INAUDIBLE) and you agree you want them to continue to stay here? PELOSI: Well, the -- that's a question for them. The decisions about

security are made by the security leadership here and we'll see what that ask is.

Right now, we have some drafts that have been put together, a draft that has been put together by General Honore. He's briefing leadership of committees in bipartisan way, leadership of the Congress and hopefully next week, we'll have presentation -- we'll be able to have presentations to the fuller membership of -- the issue about the National Guard is one that will be made by the Capitol police and the police board and the rest. But I'm not in a position to respond to that.

But we should have them here as long as they are needed and the silliness of this being inauguration day and that in May the president will be inaugurated is -- falls into the realm of -- let's not waste our time on it.

But in terms of that, what we need, we have to what we need when we need it and in the numbers that we need it. But that's a security decision.

Yes, sir? Yes, ma'am?

REPORTER: Thank you, Madam Speaker.

About the rescue plan, critics including Senator Mitch McConnell this week said, the extension of Obamacare insurance subsidies will disproportionately benefit wealthy people and they argued that the rescue plan could give subsidies to (INAUDIBLE) $300 or more and often discourages going to work, from going to work?

PELOSI: Are you talking about the Affordable Care Act?

REPORTER: Yes. Expansion in the rescue plan.

PELOSI: No, this is -- this is a two-year extension of an improvement on the Affordable Care Act, so that the subsidies would be available to the next tier of incoming people. It is not about wealth.

If they want to talk about wealth, they should look at their own tax scam that they passed in the dark of night in the speed of light that gave 83 percent of the benefits to the top 1 percent, forcing nearly $2 trillion of debt on our children for -- to pay in the future in order to give tax breaks to the high-end. They ought not to be complaining about some people making a little more money getting a subsidy.

Yes, sir?

REPORTER: You mentioned the Senate staying possibly late because of amendment reading on the rescue plan.

PELOSI: Late? I don't know if I said late. I mean -- you mean late at night?

REPORTER: Yeah.

PELOSI: Oh, I don't know how late to say. I don't think there is anything that -- staying longer, yeah.

REPORTER: All right. Staying longer. My apologies.

At the beginning of the year, there was also a kerfuffle over the organizing resolution, there are still nominations that are worth making their way through the process, I'm wondering, do you think that Republicans are --

BOLDUAN: All right. We've been listening into the House speaker. Speaker is taking questions.

I want to bring in Manu Raju real quick.

Manu, what I heard from the House speaker in terms of the security situation, the heightened security at the Capitol right now is she's not -- she was not critical of the Senate's decision to stay in session with the House is out.

Did you hear her offer any more, I don't know, background of what drove her decision to have the House out of session today?

RAJU: Well, she downplayed the decision to scrap today's sessions. She said, really, it was a matter of a few hours is the way she put it. Because she said that there was only one vote that was going to be scheduled for this morning and they just moved it up to last night for just a few hours as a matter of convenience.

[11:25:08]

She said that Republicans had already planned to be gone for most of the day with their own private retreat all day. So, it just made sense as a matter of convenience to actually have the vote last night. And then she said on top of that, if there are any troublemakers around, meaning any of these conspiracy theorists or anybody designed to try to create havoc in the Capitol, it just made sense to move their session up one day.

She compared the House to the Senate and the House is 435 members, there are 100 senators, so there are more -- members of the House to be concerned about. So she said it is convenient for them to move up early.

So she didn't necessarily indicate, Kate, that there is any specific intelligence that indicated they had to get out of session because of an imminent threat on the Capitol or anything like that or that they may have heard something different than what senators have had. But more of it is a simple scheduling matter.

So she sort of downplayed that decision because it did provoke a fair amount of questions about where the House would scrap its plans but not the Senate, and was the House adjusting its plans in the aftermath of just some people suggesting that they may do something, even though on January 6th, the Senate and the House came back as a demonstration they will not disrupt congressional proceedings but this time they did.

She's saying it should not be interpreted as that they changed everything because a few people who were making some comments, that should not be the interpretation here. She's just downplaying it as a matter of convenience in the scheduling matter of why they moved up the vote to last night and decided not to have a vote today, Kate.

BOLDUAN: All right. Great to see you, Manu. Thank you so much. Really appreciate it.

Coming up for us, what Democrats are doing to advance legislation to expand voting access, while Republicans pushing to restrict it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)