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Erin Burnett Outfront
Trump Consumed by Presidency Unraveling as Senate Trial Looms; Source: Pres. Trump Won't Resign, Tells Adviser in Expletive-Laden Talk Not to Compare Him to Nixon; Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) Discusses About the Trial of President Trump on Impeachment by the Senate; Biden Speaks to Nation as U.S. Faces Deadliest Days of Pandemic; Biden Addresses Nation About COVID Pandemic as Trump's Impeachment Trial Looms & All 50 States Face Security Threats; Biden Unveils $1.9 Trillion COVID Relief Package, Which Includes Increasing Stimulus Checks to $2,000; FBI Director: 200+ Identified After Riot, 100+ Arrested. Aired 7-8p ET
Aired January 14, 2021 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: He worked as a cardiologist for over 40 years. He enjoyed crabbing and clamming at the Jersey Shore and adored spending time with his grandchildren. May they rest in peace and may their memories be a blessing.
Erin Burnett OUTFRONT starts right now.
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: OUTFRONT next breaking news, the President shutting down any talk of resignation as he stares down his second impeachment trial in the Senate. Tonight, key Republican signals she's open to convicting him.
Plus, more breaking news this hour, President-elect Joe Biden is about to address the nation and you will see that here live. It's going to begin momentarily.
And new arrests tonight in the Capitol insurrection. A man carrying a confederate flag appearing in court. That man accused of beating a police officer with a flagpole, charged. Let's go OUTFRONT.
And good evening. I'm Erin Burnett and we're going to bring you the President-elect speech live when it happens as I said in just a few moments.
But first OUTFRONT tonight, Trump at this hour obsessed with his demise as the President faces his second Senate impeachment trial. Trump is said to be consumed by the spectacular unraveling of his presidency and he is though still shutting down any talk of a possible resignation.
This as another Republican senators' signals support for his removal in the Senate trial. Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski in a statement writing, "The House has responded swiftly, and I believe, appropriately, with impeachment. I will listen carefully and consider the arguments of both sides, and I will then announce how I will vote."
The Alaska Senator open to convicting Trump in the impeachment trial as a GOP source tells CNN, "There is no love lost within the Senate Republican conference for Trump." Look if the ballots were closed, it'd be overwhelming for conviction. But we will see how they vote and thus there are senators to watch. At least 23, including the Senate Majority Leader himself who has not ruled out a conviction.
Sources also tells CNN that McConnell 'hates Trump'. Democrats need at least 17 of those Republicans to join them in convicting the President. But Republicans as a party in Washington are deeply divided. Take Sen. Rob Portman, a moderate. He says, "The President bears some responsibility for what occurred." Yet goes on to continue, "The President-elect Biden has rightly said he wants to set a new tone of greater unity as his administration begins. If the Senate conducts an impeachment trial, among my considerations will be what is best to help heal our country rather than deepen our divisions."
OK, so if the President bears responsibility, which he does, then he has to be held accountable just like everybody else involved. Absolving him of responsibility has been just a cover for protecting him that Republican after Republican use yesterday for their votes to absolve Trump.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. JIM JORDAN (R-OH): We should be focused on bringing the nation together.
REP. JEFF VAN DREW (D-NJ): Congress must be the glue that starts unifying everyone.
REP. RONNY JACKSON (R-TX): It is clear now more than ever that our country needs to come together.
REP. MADISON CAWTHORN (R-NC): I am willing to take the first step and extend my hand across the aisle to say vote against impeachment, vote in favor of unified nation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Voting against holding Trump responsible for something he sparked. And just to say the reality, again, Trump lit the bonfire. He threw on the accelerant and he did it not just on that day, he did it over months and months and months.
And in the attack on the Capitol, as it happened, we heard his words over those months and months and months repeated again and again by the attackers in all their ugliness.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We'll lose everything.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Man, we're going to - lose it all.
TRUMP: This is our country.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is our country. This is our house.
TRUMP: We're bringing our country back.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We want our country back.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: And then, of course, during the attack and after the attack, Trump was silent except on Twitter, where he celebrated and justify the riot using his great lie. This is what he said as we saw the images of police officers with guns drawn on the House floor.
He writes, "These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots."
That is what Trump really thought. Period. Full stop. And every single person in this country knows it if they're honest with themselves. And, of course, it took him seven days to release the video you see there, condemning the riot. He only did it on the day he was impeached the second time and we have learned that aides had to force him to do it and he did it because he was worried about his grave legal jeopardy and thought, OK, maybe I'll save myself now.
But there are still individuals who are willing to fall for it, to cover for him. Sen. Lindsey count me out Graham actually celebrated Trump's tone in the final video. He tweeted that it 'hit the mark'. Lindsey Graham ever willing to forget and forgive what the President of the United States said about the attack and the rioters for the past seven days.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We love you. You're very special. You've seen what happens. You see the way others are treated that are so bad and so evil.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
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BURNETT: Again, we all know what Trump thinks because he told us again and again and even in that final video that Lindsey Graham celebrated, the President still did not say the election was fair. He still has not acknowledged that Joe Biden won to this moment and that is crucial, because we've now obtained an intelligence bulletin that warns that the lies about the election will incite even more violence.
I quote the law enforcement warning, "Amplified perceptions of fraud surrounding the outcome of the General Election and the change in control of the Presidency and Senate, very likely will lead to an increase in violence."
The person who started, and perpetuated and fanned the flames of the lie of fraud is Donald J. Trump. It's a fact. We all know it. We all see it and he owns it himself.
Kaitlan Collins is OUTFRONT near the White House tonight. Kaitlan, what more are you learning about what the President is doing and thinking right now in his final hours in the White House?
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is not the last full week in office that aides thought that President Trump was going to have. He loves the trappings of the presidency so much and this week that has been replaced by warnings about legal exposure and upcoming Senate trial and concerns about the business ramifications he could be facing once he is out of office, given what's been happening with his golf properties over the last several days is the backlash from what happened on Capitol Hill is still being felt among the President and his inner circle.
And so we've learned that he is basically consumed by watching this unraveling of his presidency in these final few days in office. And that even included, Erin, a passing casual conversation we should note about whether or not the President should resign.
And we are told by sources that the President shut it down almost immediately. He has told aides not to bring up President Richard Nixon in any kind of comparison anything like that. There was at one point where he told people not to bring up Nixon at all.
Though, in this conversation, we should note when they were talking about whether or not he could resign, the President basically joked to another adviser that he could not count on the Vice President to pardon him in the way that Gerald Ford, of course, pardoned Richard Nixon. And so basically what you've seen is they are having conversations like that even if they are casual, even if they are not at all entertained in a serious manner.
It does give you a window into what this final week inside the Trump White House is looking like. And so you saw today they are packing up. Aides are cleaning out their desk, packing up their offices, seeing moving trucks on the White House grounds.
And this comes as the President is staying behind closed doors. He's letting the Vice President really fill that leadership void going to visit with the National Guard troops tonight on Capitol Hill, having a briefing on inauguration security at the FEMA headquarters. You're really seeing how the President is stepping back in a way that we have seen it oftentimes glimpses of during his presidency, but now it is on full display during his final week on the job.
And one more thing I should note is there are some aides who are trying to get the President to give a farewell address, listing his accomplishments. But Erin so far the President has seemed uninterested and has not committed to giving one yet.
BURNETT: All right. Kaitlan, thank you very much. Just incredible what Kaitlan is talking about there that Mike Pence doesn't invoke the 25th Amendment. The President has people saying hang Mike Pence. Mike Pence still stands by him by not invoking the 25th. He's doing all of these things and running the country right now. And Trump's comment to people is still I don't trust the guy to pardon me. It is stunning.
Phil Mattingly is OUTFRONT on Capitol Hill. Phil, whether Trump is convicted of impeachment or not, obviously, is now really in the hands of Republican senators. They control this. It doesn't matter if they're in the minority, their votes are required for the two thirds necessary. Any idea on where they now stand?
PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, 17 Republican senators at a minimum will have to join Democrats in order to convict President Trump. And for the most part, those Republicans are keeping their powder dry. You've had a couple of Republicans like Sen. Lindsey Graham come out and say they oppose the impeachment. You mentioned Sen. Lisa Murkowski's statement not committing to voting to convict but making pretty clear where she stood on things.
But Erin, let me tell you, behind the scenes, a couple things are absolutely true. The vast majority of the Republican conference is furious with President Trump. The vast majority of the Republican conference according to both senators and aides, I'm talking to, believes the President is culpable for what occurred on January 6th, an event that threatened their lives and may have cost their lives if other people had not acted heroically to save those senators.
Whether that means they're going to vote to convict, however, is still an open question. A couple of different elements here that I'm told are being discussed, one is the constitutionality of convicting a president after he leaves office. A number of Republicans are keying on that at this point in time. Other issue, well, politics. There are a number of Republicans who are up in 2022, the President still popular with the base. Still, obviously, has a lot of support in the Republican Party.
You have Republicans with presidential ambitions in 2024, where do they go with things. But obviously, the key figure looming over all of this is Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who very notably has not taken off the table the possibility of voting to convict.
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Where he's going to end up, however, still an open question. For now, Republican senators largely in wait and see mode, Erin.
BURNETT: All right. Phil, thank you. So, let's go now to Democratic Senator, Amy Klobuchar. She serves on the Senate Judiciary Committee. She's also the ranking member of the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies. And obviously, we're getting ready to hear the President-elect speak in just a moment, Senator.
Look, we know the President-elect Biden was lukewarm on the idea of impeachment, because he doesn't want it to interfere with his agenda. An impeachment trial of his predecessor, of course, would and let's just be real, take some air out of the bubble of his first hundred days if it happens immediately.
So, the choice is to hold the trial right away, maybe you get more momentum with those Republican senators or you wait for Biden to get some legislative victories and you do the whole impeachment trial months from now. Maybe you lose a lot of momentum. Either way it could fail. What do you think is best going right away or waiting?
SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-MN): You know what I'd like to see us do what Americans are doing every single day, Erin, they're juggling their kids on their knees, their toddlers on their knees, or laptops on their desks, their jobs and trying to get through this pandemic. I don't understand why we couldn't get an agreement.
And Sen. McConnell has at least signaled an openness to this to do two things, three things at once. You could have the trial running in the afternoon, say, and then work on the confirmation hearings every morning and pass legislation at night. I think these times demand that. We're going to see President-elect Biden come out tonight with a full-throated robust plan for getting us through this, including opening our schools, which so many people I talked to one of their number one priorities as well as getting the vaccine distributed.
So that's what's on our plate and I think that there could be a way. I looked at the rules, there could be a way to go and agree to do that and so that we could have it go on at the same time. And you laid out the evidence, Erin, it's pretty clear. It shouldn't take that long in time.
BURNETT: So, OK, so if you did that, obviously, you could basically you're saying walk and chew gum at the same time. You could do it right away, but this leaves open the question of whether it will succeed and the Senate Majority, well, he'll be minority, but Mitch McConnell has said he will listen to the legal arguments before deciding.
So, he's obviously making it clear, he's open to it. That is not how someone would act as the current Majority Leader if they intended not to consider it. But Murkowski, she was very clear tonight of where she stood, but a week ago in an interview she said I want him to resign, I want him out. He's caused enough damage. Was even a little bit more blunt then? Have you spoken, Senator, with any Republican senators other than Murkowski and Sasse, the ones that we know, who tell you that they will vote to convict?
KLOBUCHAR: I haven't directly spoken to them about that. I've spent a lot of time with them in the last week, of course, on the Electoral College. And I do want to note one thing, over in the House, I picked up 10 votes for impeachment. Well, they have more Republicans there.
But over in the House, 30 percent, about average of the two votes of the members who voted sided with the President. In the Senate, only 6 percent of the Senate sided with the President when it came to the electoral votes, so you saw a difference there. So, you saw a number of Republican senators that were willing to buck the President. I consider that a good sign as we head into an impeachment trial.
And a lot of them have a longer-term view of things than the House does. Some of it is by virtue of the fact that we have six-year terms. But I think the fact is that in America and a wise man once said this, the President is not king, the law is king. And we have a president that incited an insurrection, sent a mad angry mob charging down the mall to the Capitol with basic instructions to go fight it out, as he said the day before to go wild, as he also said, to basically be patriots, and then didn't do anything to stop it. I don't know what other evidence you need.
BURNETT: And we should point out and I'm sure this is on many senators' minds, if such a person is not fit to hold office, even if he's no longer in office, he can run again unless you all vote to prevent that. And in order to do that you have to first convict him. So, it's just important for people to understand the way that events must go for that step to happen.
Before we go, Senator, dozens of people on the terror watch list were in Washington for the events of January 6th, this is according to The Washington Post. And I just read law enforcement officials saying domestic extremists are likely more emboldened to carry out attacks. They're also saying that because they say that those individuals saw the success of last week's siege what they perceive as success. Why is the ceremony for Joe Biden still being held outside?
KLOBUCHAR: Erin, this is an important moment for our country.
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And we cannot let these thugs and these mobsters literally stop the peaceful transfer of power in our country. And that is why this ceremony is held in an incredibly important place, right in front of the Capitol. Abraham Lincoln held his ceremony on the other side of the Capitol, but he held it outside before we even had a dome to make the point that this was important to our nation to have this capital. Abraham Lincoln held another inaugural there in front of the Capitol in the middle of the Civil War.
So, my point is that when the security people tell us that it's securing, yes, they're ramping up security, multiple perimeters having many more guard members that have been envisioned. We obviously have a smaller inaugural. Unless they say that it's a no go, we go forward and that's what President-elect Biden believes as well.
It is so important to have all the members up there six feet apart, but Republicans and Democrats up there behind the President to show that in America as George Washington said when he posed the question to himself, he basically said, "What's important?" And he said, it wasn't the first election. It was the second election in America that matter, because we showed that in our country, we can have a peaceful transfer of power.
That's what this is about this inauguration. It's not just the ceremony. It is the culmination of hundreds of years of democracy.
BURNETT: Senator, I appreciate your time. Thank you very much.
KLOBUCHAR: Thank you, Erin.
BURNETT: And I want to bring in Gloria Borger and Michael Smerconish, host of SMERCONISH. So, Michael, obviously, you heard the case there from Sen. Klobuchar,
but also when she's talking about Republicans getting onboard, Sen. Murkowski really making it clear she thinks the House did the right thing, then saying she'll consider both sides, but she's been clear where she stands. Sen. Rob Portman, though, appears to be going the other way. Saying the President is responsible but unity. Do you think there is enough Republican support to convict in the Senate?
MICHAEL SMERCONISH, CNN HOST, SMERCONISH: Doubtful. Impeachment was the easy part. Now it gets complicated. And I listened carefully to your conversation with Sen. Klobuchar talking about whether the Senate trial should take place now or whether it should take place in the future. Having a third option, which is that it never takes place.
If it's headed for acquittal, are you emboldening the former president when that vote then takes place? Maybe the best strategy for Democrats is that insofar as he's politically wounded, just leave him out there and let him be the Republican problem for the next four years. Maybe he has a resurgence of sorts two years, meaning during the midterm election.
But I just think that he's so injured politically that he could never come back and win in 2024, but he could gum up the works, both for the midterms and for the 2024 election. So maybe the best strategy is he's now been impeached twice, let it go with that. I'm just theoretically posing that.
BURNETT: So, what do you think, Gloria? Is that something that could be seriously under consideration?
GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, it could be but from my point of view, I think that there is a reason to have the trial. And the reason to have the trial is to let the American people know exactly what happened at the Capitol that day. And at that point, they will have more information. And the more we learn about this, the more we understand that it could have been a hostage situation or a massacre even.
And I think that the severity of what occurred needs to really be detailed to the American people and to members of the Senate. And I think Michael is right, I think it's unlikely he's going to be convicted here.
BURNETT: All right. I'm sorry to interrupt, Gloria. The President- elect is starting to speak.
MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Good evening my fellow Americans. It's been 343 days since the virus that has ravaged our nation tragically claimed its first life. On February the 6th in 2020, Patricia Dowd took her last breath at home under the California sun in Santa Clara. She was 57 years old, a beloved wife, mother, daughter and sister. She never knew she had the virus at the time and most folks never heard about the virus. But just like that, she was gone.
And almost exactly one year later, nearly 400,000 of our fellow Americans have met the same cruel fate. Countless families and friends left behind with unrelenting grief and guilt, anger and frustration. And the emptiness felt by the loss of life is compounded by the loss of our way of life.
During this pandemic, millions of Americans through no fault of their own have lost the dignity and respect that comes with a job and a paycheck.
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Millions of Americans never thought they'd be out of work. Many of them never even envisioned the idea are facing eviction, waiting for hours in their cars to feed their families as they drive up to a food bank. Millions have kept their jobs but have seen their hours and paychecks reduced barely hanging on as well.
That's happening today in the United States of America, just is in the midst of a dark winter of this pandemic, as cases, hospitalizations and deaths spiked at record levels, there is real pain overwhelming the real economy. One word, people rely on paychecks not their investments to pay for their bills and their meals and their children's needs.
You won't see this pain, if your scorecard is how things are going on Wall Street. But you will see it very clearly if you examine what the twin crises of a pandemic and this sinking economy have laid bare. The growing divide between those few people at the very top who are doing quite well in this economy and the rest of America.
Just since this pandemic began, the wealth, the top 1 percent of the nation has grown roughly $1.5 trillion since the end of last year. Four times the amount for the entire bottom 50 percent of American wage earners. Some 18 million Americans are still relying on unemployment insurance. Some 400,000 small businesses have permanently closed their doors and it's not hard to see that we're in the middle of the once in several generations' economic crisis, with a once in several generations public health crisis.
A crisis of deep human suffering is in plain sight and there's no time to waste. We have to act and we have to act now. This is what economists are telling us. More importantly, it's what the values we hold dear in our hearts as Americans are telling us, a growing chorus of top economists agree that the moment of crisis in this moment of crisis with interest rates at historic lows, we cannot afford inaction.
It's not just as smart fiscal investments, including deficit spending are more urgent than ever, is that the return on these investments in jobs, racial equity will prevent long-term economic damage and the benefits will far out surpass, far surpass the cost.
A growing number of top economists has shown even our debt situation will be more stable, not less stable if we seize this moment with vision and purpose. And so tonight, I'd like to talk to you about our way forward. A two-step plan of rescue and recovery. A two-step plan to build a bridge to the other side of the crisis we face to a better, stronger, more secure America.
Tonight, I'll lay out my first step, the American rescue plan that will tackle the pandemic and get direct financial assistance and relief to Americans who needs the most. Next month, my first appearance before a joint session of Congress, I will lay out my build back better recovery plan. It will make historic investments in infrastructure that build back better plan; infrastructure, manufacturing, innovation, research and development and clean energy. Investments in a caregiving economy and skills and training needed by our workers to be able to compete and win in the global economy of the coming years.
Moody's, an independent Wall Street firm, said my approach will create more than 18 million good paying jobs. Our rescue and recovery plan is a path forward with both seriousness of purpose and a clear plan with transparency and accountability with a call for unity that is equally necessary.
And unity is not some pie in the sky dream.
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It's a practical step to get into the things we have to get done as a country get done together. As I said when it passed in December, the bipartisan COVID-19 relief package was a very important first step and I'm grateful for the Democrats, Republicans and Independent members of Congress who came together to get it done.
But I said at the time it's just a down payment. We need more action. More bipartisanship and we need to move quickly. We need to move fast. Our rescue plan starts aggressively in order to speed up our national COVID-19 response.
The vaccines offer so much hope and we're grateful to the scientists and researchers and everyone who participated in the clinical trials. We're also grateful for the rigorous review and testing that has led to millions of people around the world already been vaccinated safely.
But the vaccine rollout in the United States has been a dismal failure thus far. Tomorrow, I will lay out our vaccination plan to correct course and meet our goal of 100 million shots at the end of my first 100 days as President. This will be one of the most challenging operational efforts we have ever undertaken as a nation.
We'll have to move heaven and earth to get more people vaccinated, to create more places for them to get vaccinated, to mobilize more medical teams to get shots in people's arms, to increase vaccine supply and to get it out the door as fast as possible. We'll also do everything we can to keep our educators and students safe to safely reopen the majority of our K through 8th schools by the end of the first 100 days.
We can do this if we give the school districts, the schools themselves, the communities, the states, the clear guidance they need as well as the resources they need that they can't afford right now, because of the economic dilemma they're in. That means more testing and transportation, additional cleaning and
sanitizing services in those schools, protective equipment and ventilation systems in those schools. We need to make sure that workers who have COVID-19 symptoms are quarantine and those who need to take care of their family members of COVID-19 symptoms should be able to stay home from work and still get paid.
This will reduce the spread of the virus and make sure workers get the support they need to maintain their families. But we need about 400 billion in funding from Congress to make all of what I just said happen. It's a great deal, but I'm convinced we're ready to get this done. The very health of our nation is at stake.
A rescue plan also includes immediate relief to Americans hardest hit and most in need. We will finish the job of getting a total of $2,000 in cash Relief to people who need it the most. The $600 already appropriated is simply not enough. You just have to choose between paying rent and putting food on the table.
Even for those who have kept their jobs, these checks are really important. You see if you're an American worker making $40,000 a year with less than $400 in savings, maybe you've lost hours or maybe you're doing fewer shifts, driving truck or caring for the kids or the elderly. You're out there, putting your life on the line to work during this pandemic and worried every week that you get sick lose your job or worse. Two thousand dollars is going to go a long way to ease that pain.
It will also provide more peace of mind for struggling families by extending unemployment insurance beyond the end of March for millions of workers. That means that 80 million Americans currently run on unemployment benefits while they look for work can count on these checks continuing to be there. Plus, there will be a $400 per week supplement so people can make ends meet.
This gets money quickly into the pockets of millions of Americans who will spend it immediately on food and rent and other basic needs as the economists tell us that helps the whole economy grow. We'll also tackle the growing hunger crisis in America.
As I speak and the Vice President-elect has spoken of this many times, one in seven households in America, more than one in five black and Latino households in America report they don't have enough food to eat.
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This includes 30 million adults and as many as 12 million children.
It's wrong. It's tragic. It's unnecessary. It's unacceptable.
So we're going to extend emergency nutritional assistance for 30 -- for 43 million children and their families enrolled in the SNAP program through the rest of this year.
We'll help Hardee's restaurants prepare meals for the hungry, provide food for the families who need it.
We'll invest $3 billion in making sure mothers and their young children have the nutrition they need.
This will not only meet our moral obligation we have to one another, but it will also spur economic growth, get restaurants and workers back on the job.
And as we work to keep people from going hungry, we'll also work to keep a roof over their heads, to stem the growing housing crisis and evictions that are looming.
Approximately, 14 million Americans are falling behind on rent, many at risk of eviction. If we don't act now, there will be a wave of evictions and foreclosures in the coming months as the pandemic rages on. This would overwhelm emergency shelters, increase COVID-19 infections as people have nowhere to go and can't socially distance.
Next week, we'll take action to extend nationwide restrictions on evictions and foreclosures. This will provide -- this will provide more than 25 million Americans greater stability instead of living on the edge every single month.
And I'm asking Congress to do its part by funding rental assistance for 14 million hard-hit families and tenants. It will also be a bridge to economic recovery for countless mom and pop landlords.
These crises are straining the budgets of states and cities and tribal communities that are forced to consider layoff and service restrictions of the most needed workers. It means that people putting their lives at risk are the very people now at risk of losing their jobs -- police officers, firefighters, all first responders, nurses, educators.
You know, over the last year alone, over 600,000 educators have been lost -- have lost their jobs in our cities and towns.
Our rescue plan will provide emergency funding to keep these essential workers on the job and maintain essential services. It will ensure that vaccines are administered, and schools can reopen.
Vice President-elect Harris and I have been speaking with county officials, mayors, governors of both parties on a regular basis. We're ready to work with them to help them get the relief they need.
Our rescue plan will also help small businesses that are the engines of our economic growth, our economy as a whole, the glue that holds communities together as well. But they're hurting badly. And you realize they account for nearly half of the entire total U.S. workforce.
Our rescue plan will provide flexible grants to help those hardest-hit small businesses survive the pandemic, and the low-cost capital that will help entrepreneurs of all backgrounds create and maintain jobs, plus provide the essential goods and services that communities depend upon. Last week, I laid out how we'll make sure that our emergency small
business relief is distributed swiftly and equitably, unlike the first time around.
We're going to focus on small businesses, on Main Street. We'll focus on minority-owned small businesses, women-owned small businesses, finally having equal access to the resources they need to reopen and to rebuild. And we will be responsible with taxpayers' dollars, ensuring accountability that reduces waste and fraud and abuse like we did in the Recovery Act that I administered in our administration.
Direct cash payments, extended unemployment insurance, rent relief, food assistance, keeping essential frontline workers on the job, aid to small businesses. These are keys to the American rescue plan that would lift 12 million Americans out of poverty and cut job poverty in half. That's 5 million children lifted out of poverty if we move.
Our plan will reduce poverty in the black community by one-third. Reduce poverty in the Hispanic community by almost 40 percent.
And includes much more, like an increase in the minimum wage to at least $15 an hour.
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People tell me that's going to be hard to pass. Florida just passed it. As divided as that state is, they just passed it.
The rest of the country is ready to move as well. It should be a national minimum wage of $15 an hour.
No one working 40 hours a week should live below the poverty line. That's what it means. If you work for less than $15 an hour and work 40 hours a week, you're living in poverty.
It includes access to affordable childcare. It will enable parents, particularly women, to get back to work.
I look forward to working with members of Congress from both parties to move quickly to get the American rescue plan to the American people. And then we can move with equal urgency and bipartisanship to my Build Back Better recovery plan that I will call for next month to generate even more economic growth.
American manufacturing was the arsenal of democracy in World War II. It will be so again. Imagine a future made in America, all made in America, and all by Americans. We'll use taxpayers' dollars to rebuild America. We'll buy American products, supporting millions of American manufacturing jobs, enhancing our competitive strength in an increasingly competitive world.
Imagine historic investments and research and development to sharpen America's innovative edge and markets for global leadership is up for grabs. Markets like the battery technology, artificial intelligence, biotechnology, clean energy. Imagine confronting the climate crisis with American jobs and ingenuity leading the world. It's time to stop talking about infrastructure and to finally start
building an infrastructure so we can be more competitive. Millions of good-paying jobs that put Americans to work rebuilding our roads, our bridges, our ports to make them more climate resilient, to make them faster, cheaper, cleaner, to transport American-made goods across our country and around the world. That's how we compete.
And imagine millions of jobs and the care-giving economy to ease the financial burden of caring for young children and aged loved ones. Let's make sure our caregivers mostly women, women of color, immigrants, have the same pay and dignity that they deserve so we can do these bold, practical things now. Now.
You know, I know what I just described does not come cheaply. But failure to do so will cost us dearly. The consensus among leading economists is we simply cannot afford not to do what I'm proposing.
Independent and respected institutions from around the world, from the Federal Reserve to the International Monetary Fund, have underscored the urgency, even Wall Street firms have reinforced the logic. If we invest now boldly, smartly, and with unwavering focus on American workers and families, we will strengthen our economy, reduce inequity, and put our nation's long-term finances on the most sustainable course.
And where we're making permanent investments, recurring investments -- as I said in the campaign trail, we will pay for them by making sure that everyone pays their fair share. Not punishing anybody. We can do without punishing a single person by closing tax loopholes for companies that ship jobs overseas, or allow American companies, 90 of the top Fortune 500 to pay zero federal income taxes. Asking everyone to pay their fair share at the top so we can make permanent investments to rescue and rebuild America.
It's the right thing for our economy. It's the fair thing. It's the decent thing to do.
We not only have an economic imperative to act now. I believe we have a moral obligation. And this pandemic in America, we cannot let people go hungry. We cannot let people get evicted.
We cannot watch nurses, educators and others lose their jobs. We so badly need them. We must act now and act decisively.
My fellow Americans, the decisions we make in the next few weeks and months are going to determine whether we thrive in a way that benefits all Americans, or that we stay stuck in a place where those at the top do great while economic growth for most everyone else is just a spectator sport, and where American prospects dim, not brightened.
[19:40:05]
These investments will determine whether we reassert American leadership and out-compete our competitors in a global economy. We're better equipped to do this than any nation in the world, whether we watch them catch up and pass us by. Together, I know which path we'll choose. That includes all Americans so we can own the 21st century. We lead (ph) with all these bold steps, it's going to take time to get where we need to be. There will be stumbles, but I will always be honest with you about both the progress we're making and what setbacks we meet.
And there will -- here's the deal: the more people we vaccinate, the faster we do it, the sooner we can save lives and put this pandemic behind us and get back to our lives and our loved ones, and the sooner we can rescue and rebuild the American economy, the biggest and most profitable engine in the world.
I know it's been nearly a year. It's tested us beyond measure. For all of you who have lost someone, my heart goes out to you. I know that feeling looking at an empty chair across the table.
All of you have fallen on hard times, I know you can never get back what you lost, but as your president, I know that everyday matters and every person matters. From the very first to the nearly 400,000 lost American souls and counting, to the millions of you just looking for a fighting chance in this economy, I promise you, we will not forget you. We understand what you're going through. We will never, ever give up.
And we will come back. We'll come back together. And we didn't get into all this overnight. We won't get out of it overnight. And we can't do it as a separated and divided nation.
The only way we can do it is to come together, to come together as fellow Americans, as neighbors, as a United States of America. And when we do, there's nothing beyond our capacity -- I've said these many times. When America acts as one, there's never been a single thing we've been unable to do, no matter how consequential this year has been.
Out of all the peril of this moment, I want you to know, I give you my word, I see the promise, the promise as well. We've seen clearly what we face now.
Now we're being so optimistic about America, as optimistic as I've ever been. We have everything we need, but the will must be demonstrated.
So come Wednesday we begin a new chapter. The vice president-elect and I will do our best to meet all the expectations you have for the country and the expectations we have for it.
I'm confident, I am truly confident. Together -- together, we can get this done and come out better off than what we went into this crisis.
God bless you all, and may God protect our troops.
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: All right. The president-elect speaking there for just about 25 minutes addressing the country.
And just want to make sure everyone understands, the vice president- elect was sitting right behind him in the chair you see there, Kamala Harris was sitting there, the senator, vice president-elect as the president-elect gave a speech for 25 minutes talking about his plans for vaccinations, economic plans, obviously expressing empathy for those who have lost loved ones, and talking about unity and how he wants to be a president for all Americans.
Putting it together in the kind of speech that we have -- it's a presidential speech.
Joining me now, our chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Dr. Jonathan Reiner and Austan Goolsbee who is the chairman of the Council of the Economic Advisers under President Obama. Gloria Borger is also still with me.
Sanjay, let me start with you.
The president-elect obviously giving his overall picture of what he wants to accomplish here when he takes office. It's a very ambitious plan. But at its core, it's about the vaccinations, the virus, the economic damage from the virus. He says the very health of our nation is at stake.
What's your first reaction to what we just heard?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, it hits on all the notes that we've been talking about for some time from a public health standpoint within the direct, most direct COVID sort of part of the speech, he sort of focused on the vaccines as you mentioned.
[19:45:03]
And we've heard this goal of 100 million doses in 100 days. He laid out some plans for that.
And there are some specifics that are still going to be necessary. For example, actually the personnel to actually inoculate people has been one of the rates limiting steps. How do you address the manpower issues? Nevertheless, there was discussion about setting up large vaccination centers, community outreach around vaccines.
The second thing was testing. You know, we haven't been talking very much about testing at all, all the discussions have all been around vaccines. But vice president -- president-elect, I should say, is talking about $50 billion being spent on testing, massive testing increases, getting rapid tests out there and scale be up PCR testing.
Very important, you know. This is something --
BURNETT: Yeah.
GUPTA: -- that has been a real -- we've been really lacking in this for some time. Finally, all this around schools as well, using these strategies to open up schools. So, he says about $400 billion around those three sorts of particular areas. We'll see. I think with the vaccines is -- are the states and the feds going to work together? Is the private sector and the national pharmacies, like the CVS and Walgreens, are they going to be part of this? How do you get the extra manpower issue?
BURNETT: Right.
GUPTA: There's certainly a lot of money being proposed. You got to make sure the plan actually works, Erin.
BURNETT: And that's the question, Dr. Reiner. Sanjay is laying out some -- the numbers as he said, though, it does totals $400 billion. At this point, is it a money problem, Dr. Reiner? Is that going to make a difference?
DR. JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Well, money is important. What was even more important that we heard was the sense of urgency to get shots into arms. You know, science and industry and the government this past year has done an amazing thing by creating these vaccines in record time. But they're worthless unless we get them into people's arms.
So, today, we vaccinated about 900,000 people for their first shots. That sounds like a -- we're moving in the right direction. And the president elect has given us a goal of 100 million -- excuse me, 100 million shots in 100 days.
That's ambitious, but it's probably half what we need to be. We probably need to be vaccinating 2 million people a day.
BURNETT: Yeah.
REINER: Mind you, most of our vaccines right now are double dose vaccines. So, we need, we need to massively amp up our vaccination program and we need to take it into the community. We're about to start that here in Washington, D.C. with mass vaccination programs. We need to take the vaccines where the people are, not where we want them to be.
We can't expect -- we can't expect to vaccinate 250 million people by telling them to call the nearest Walgreens. We need to take the vaccines to them. And I think President-elect Biden gets that.
BURNETT: So, you know, he also, Austan, as part of this, right, made the line between the pandemic and the economy, right? Now, he makes -- made the case, right, for a whole lot of things -- rent assistance, unemployment extension, all of that. But at its core he made the case for those $2,000 checks.
Now, I just want to ask you about that. I understand that that is popular. I also understand Bernie Sanders liked the idea. Donald Trump liked the idea. Larry summers, though, who obviously you know, the National Economic Council under President Obama, recently said that $2,000 stimulus check idea which the president elect just laid out would be a serious mistake that would risk an overheat to the economy.
Is this more about politics than being good policy?
AUSTAN GOOLSBEE, FORMER CHAIRMAN, COUNCIL OF ECONOMIC ADVISERS UNDER OBAMA: I don't think so. I mean, I disagree. I'm friendly with Larry. I disagreed when he said that. I don't think it's going to overheat the economy.
BURNETT: Yeah.
GOOLSBEE: And I think the vice president's speech had an immense amount of content in it. He had a lot of policy details in there.
BURNETT: Yes.
GOOLSBEE: If we're only a $2,000 check, then I think there would be some criticism of that. But it sounded like the president elect has really thought it through and his advisers have put together a pretty comprehensive package which, when you get into something like this where you need to get relief out quickly, some of that needs to go out in the form of checks that you can get out the door rapidly and you don't apply as intense of a filter of who should get it.
But you also had other money to the unemployed, money for earned income tax credit, money for paid sick leave so people who are sick don't go to work and get other people sick. That was kind of -- I guess I would call it levels of nuance that are very welcome at a moment like this. So, it was not a pie in the sky. It was laying out a detailed road map of how you're going to confront it.
BURNETT: And, Gloria, a detailed road map of how we're going to confront this from a vaccine plan.
[19:50:01]
And again, one can debate how much of this makes sense or will actually happen, but a detailed plan, right, and in that detailed plan, empathy for those who have lost their loved ones, which the president-elect, of course, showed, is something we have not seen.
BORGER: Well, this was very big, $1.9 trillion economic plan that was described as a moral obligation. And that's the kind of language you that hear a lot from Joe Biden, talking about how we've all experienced the loss of our way of life and how we have to get through this together because that pain is overwhelming our economy.
So, you're going to hear this a lot. I mean, Joe Biden also -- Biden talked about a $15 minimum wage in all of this. What he's doing is he's throwing it all out there. He understands -- I talked to some Biden people today. They understand they have problems with Republicans on the total, you know, $2,000 stimulus, et cetera.
But they're putting it all out there because they have things, they know they have to do. They have to get these schools reopened in a safe way. They have to get vaccines in people's arms. And the president-elect said that the rollout has been a dismal failure and he would move heaven and earth to get these vaccines into people's arms. So, he let the public hear exactly what he's going to do. He didn't
mince words. And say look, I've got to do this because I've got to get moving and he's talking not only to the public at large but to Republicans in the Senate because he needs them to help him out on a bunch of things.
BURNETT: Yes. That's obviously very important. As I was indicating, just putting this all together, again, whether you agree or disagree, this is not something that we -- that President Trump ever did, in laying it all out and putting it there.
But to the point of what's ahead, Sanjay, how hard is it going to be to meet these vaccination targets?
GUPTA: You know, I actually don't think it's going to be that challenging. You know, 100 million doses in 100 days, as Jonathan was just pointing out, we're kind of close to a million doses a day right now. And, you know, when you start to really get all of these various sort of components working together, the federal government -- the state governments for potentially these large vaccination events and these community rollouts, things like that, possibly using things like the national guard, and bringing pharmacies and things like that online, they've been largely tasked with taking care of long-term care facilities so far.
They weren't really thinking they were going to start doing the general public until maybe in the spring. If they start doing that earlier, I think -- I think it's very doable. If we want to actually accelerate that number and other vaccines come online, we could exceed that I think.
BURNETT: Certainly, you've got the pharmacists, we can all get our flu shot at the pharmacy, right? They know how to get them, they know how to get them out, they know how to get them in people's arms. That infrastructure exists and many Americans have experienced it.
Thank you all very much.
As we just heard there from the president-elect, he, of course, is ready for inauguration in just days. And we are now following breaking news on the investigation into the Capitol Hill riot. FBI Director Christopher Wray has spoken publicly for the first time since the attack, and he has given us some new details about threats ahead of Joe Biden's presidential inauguration.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRISTOPHER WRAY, FBI DIRECTOR: We are seeing an extensive amount of concerning online chatter is the best way I would describe it about a number of events surrounding the inauguration.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Evan Perez is OUTFRONT.
So, Evan, we just heard there for the first time, you know, from the director. So, extensive amount of concerning online chatter. He says that's the best way I would describe it, about events surrounding the inauguration. He's also saying more than 100 people have been arrested after the riot, we know more are to come.
So tell us first about some of the new suspects you're learning about.
EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Right. He said they've identified more than 200 people that they want to arrest. Some of those people are coming in. Just a couple of them that came in today, for instance, one's name is Peter Stager. He is seen on this now infamous video, notorious video of someone using an American flag to attack a metropolitan police officer in Washington on the steps of the U.S. Capitol.
He's seen on various videos. In one video, according to prosecutors, he says: Everyone is a treasonous traitor. Death is the only remedy for what's going on in that building.
Those are the words of Peter Stager. He was arrested today by the FBI.
Another one arrested, Kevin Seefried. He's also fairly notorious. We saw the pictures of him marching around the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol with a Confederate flag. He and his son were both arrested, Erin. In this case prosecutors said that they entered the building through a broken window.
[19:55:04]
The prosecutors allege that the son, whose name was Hunter, is the one that broke the window.
Again, both were arrested in true form, right? Again, he was carrying a Confederate flag. He surrendered today to the FBI, sort of like the people who carried that flag originally.
BURNETT: All right, Evan. Thank you very much.
All right. So I want to go straight to the attorney general for the District of Columbia, Karl Racine.
And, Attorney General, I want to give you a chance to respond to what we just heard from the FBI director, right? Chris Wray said in his first comments to the public since the riot, quote, we are seeing an extensive amount of concerning online chatter about a number of events surrounding the inauguration.
How much are you aware of here and how concerned are you about the safety of the inauguration?
KARL RACINE (D), ATTORNEY GENERAL, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: Well, I think everybody in the District of Columbia government and including the Metropolitan Police Department are taking all threats very seriously. We saw last week the potential for mob violence in these hate groups and there's no reason to think they're going to stop now. That's why we have to fortify the defense for sure, prepare, and go forward with the public inauguration. We can do this. BURNETT: Now, we have laid out very clearly Trump's remarks over
months, right? About fraud and rigging and the only reason he loses is if it's stolen and rise up and all of those things that were echoed word for word by the mob. Okay?
So there's a very clear link over months to his role in this. However, we are learning that his lawyers are expected to argue that his remarks specifically before the riot fall under the category of protected speech. I guess First Amendment? I'm not sure.
Do you think this holds up?
RACINE: Well, you know, this is the hardest legal line in a case in which one would investigate the president for his words, inciting violence. The Supreme Court says that you can't prosecute someone just because of what they say unless there actually is an intent to incite violence.
And here -- you know, there's a lot of evidence, of course, of President Trump and others motivating, imploring, advocating for things like combat justice, fight, fight, fight. That is a question that we as prosecutors have to take a serious look at. And we'll make the decision, at best as we can, and in short order.
BURNETT: In terms of your decision to move forward with charges, correct?
RACINE: Yes.
BURNETT: OK. So there is video online, Attorney General, that shows riots discussing the floor plan of the Capitol, right? Expressing plans to, quote, take this building. Let me play a clip for you.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's also two floors in the other room, one in the rear and one to the right when you go in. So, people should probably coordinate together if we're going to take this building.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Okay. What do you make of the level of knowledge? Two doors in the other room, one in the rear, one to the right. They know what they were doing. They knew what they were doing. They knew what they were walking into.
RACINE: Yeah, there is no doubt that they were prepared, planned, and quite intentional, and seemingly in some places had knowledge of vulnerable areas, places to push, places to get into.
So all this has to be reviewed thoroughly and publicly and transparently because we cannot let this happen again.
BURNETT: Yeah.
RACINE: FBI Director Chris Wray talked about a lot of chatter. Well, there was a lot of chatter as well two weeks ago.
BURNETT: Yeah. So, Attorney General, I want to ask you, you and I have talked about the work that you have done about possible corruption and fraud with the inauguration and the Trump family. We've learned that your office has asked Donald Trump Jr. to sit for a sworn deposition related to your investigation into the misuse of a million dollars for the inaugural committee.
How confident are you now, Attorney General, that the Trump family, Donald Trump Jr., broke the law?
RACINE: I'm extremely confident of that. We're before a court, and at the end of the day the court will decide.
But the evidence is clear. The Trump business and the Trump family used a not-for-profit to profit themselves. That's why the Presidential Inauguration Commission paid so much money for rooms and event space that were far above market rate during the Inauguration Commission, and that's why we just amended our complaint to include that Donald Trump Jr.'s good friend essentially had a free set of rooms for a period of time during the inauguration for no good not- for-profit purpose.
That's not consistent with the law. That's why we're going to pursue that.
BURNETT: Well, Attorney General, I appreciate your time. Thank you very much.
RACINE: Thank you.
BURNETT: And thanks to all of you. Anderson starts now.
