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Erin Burnett Outfront

House Republicans Silent Over QAnon-Aligned Lawmaker's Comments; DHS Warns Extremists May Commit Violence Over Election Results; WH COVID Task Force Warns "It Will Be Months" Before Everyone Can Get Vaccine; Kaine To PBS: Censure Resolution Seeks To Bar Trump From Office; Three Members Of Oath Keepers Indicted In Capitol Hill Attack; Coronavirus Variant First Spotted In Brazil Found In U.S. For First Time. Aired 7-8p ET

Aired January 27, 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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"ERIN BURNETT OUTFRONT" starts right now.

ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: OUTFRONT next, Republicans reward a QAnon follower who indicated support for executing Democrats. Is the GOP becoming the party of QAnon?

Plus, he warned someone was going to get killed by Trump's attacks on the free and fair election and he was right. The former top Georgia election official Gabe Sterling is my guest.

And a race against time, more cases of COVID variants are discovered in the U.S. The Biden administration warns there is no stockpile of vaccines. Let's go OUTFRONT.

And good evening. I'm Erin Burnett.

OUTFRONT tonight, the party of QAnon. Tonight, the Republican Party is doubling down and giving credence to a group that is a megaphone for dangerous and deadly conspiracy theories. Most of the 211 of House Republicans are silent tonight over Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene's past comments supporting the execution of prominent Democratic politicians. Instead, Greene, a QAnon supporter has been given a seat on the Education and Labor Committee and that should alarm everyone, all of us.

For one, she tried to make a name for herself by suggesting the 2018 massacre at the high school in Parkland, Florida was a false flag. In other words, a planned event. A planned event to kill kids. And then posted this video in March 2019, where she is seen confronting a survivor of that shooting, student David Hogg.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-GA): David, why are you supporting the red flag laws? If there had been - if Scot Peterson, the Resource Officer at Parkland had done his job, then Nikolas Cruz wouldn't have killed anybody in your high school or at least protected them. Why are you supporting red flag gun laws that attack our 2nd Amendment rights? And why are you using kids as a barrier? Do you not know how to defend your stance?

So I'm walking, he's got nothing to say. It's sad. He's nothing to say because there really isn't anything to say to you guys. He has nothing to say because he's paid to do this. Guess what? I'm a gun owner. I'm an American citizen and I have nothing. But this guy with his George Soros funding and his major liberal funding, he's got everything. I want you to think about that. That's where we are. And he's a coward. He can't say one word because he can't defend his stance.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: So that was Marjorie Taylor Greene, going after a teenager who lost 14 classmates in a horrific school shooting. Tonight in an unapologetic statement to CNN, she says, "I was going from office to office in the Senate to oppose the radical gun control agenda that David Hogg was pushing."

Well, now Greene has been validated by the Republican Party, promoted by the Republican Party, placed on an education committee. And that's not all there is from Greene, by the way. I just want to be clear, if you're not familiar with her, you should be familiar given how she's being promoted now, with her extensive track record in the land of conspiracy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GREENE: It's odd, there's never any evidence shown for a plane in the Pentagon.

There is an Islamic invasion into our government offices.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Never any evidence of a plane flying into the Pentagon. This person is now a sitting member of Congress with a position on the Education Committee, put there by Republican leadership. And then there's comments unearthed by our own KFILE, comments like, "The stage is being set. Players are being put in place. We must be patient."

That comment responding to a comment about hanging former President Obama. And that comment actually forced the House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy to respond. Well, I want to be clear, actually, it was his spokesperson who responded. The spokesperson says, "These comments are deeply disturbing and Leader McCarthy plans to have a conversation with the Congresswoman about them."

Well, we don't know when that conversation is going to happen. Maybe McCarthy is putting it off until he's back from Florida, because he's heading there tomorrow to meet with former President Trump. Perhaps he's still trying to make up to get back in Trump's good graces because remember he blamed Trump for the deadly insurrection and then backtrack and said that his comments had nothing to do with it. So while McCarthy's office calls Greene's comments deeply disturbing,

the House Minority Leader is about to go and meet with a former president who by the way has not only embraced QAnon, but also Marjorie Taylor Greene.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Marjorie Taylor Greene right here from Northwest Georgia. Oh, boy, I don't want to mess with her. No, she's great.

This one, I never ever want to have her as my enemy, Marjorie Taylor Greene. There is she. She is so unbelievable.

Also joining us tonight our Georgia representatives, Marjorie Taylor Greene. I love Marjorie.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[19:05:05]

BURNETT: So, Trump says he loves Marjorie. Then, Trump and Greene are also in lockstep when it comes to the lie that Trump told the world. The lie that inspired his followers to attack the U.S. Capitol.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Make no mistake, this election was stolen from you, from me and from the country. We won in a landslide. This was a landslide.

GREENE: We aren't going to let this election be stolen by Joe Biden and the Democrats. President Trump won by a landslide.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: The Republican Party right now is the party of Trump and Trump's big lie about the election being stolen is a core tenant of QAnon. And for those Republicans who want to still hope that this is just going to go away, it isn't. QAnon is not going anywhere. It's coast to coast.

In Arizona, the Republican Party voted Saturday to censor Cindy McCain and two other prominent Republican officials because they cross Trump. In Oregon, the state Republican Party is buying into the conspiracy theory that the Capitol riot was a false flag. In this case, false flag meaning an attack that was engineered by Trump's opponents to make him look bad.

And in Virginia, the leading Republican Gubernatorial candidate Amanda Chase who calls herself Trump in heels said the attack on the U.S. Capitol was justified and said this about the rioters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. AMANDA CHASE (R-VA): The people I met were patriots who love their country and drove from as far away as California to witness history, which they hoped would be overturning of the election results.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: This is the kind of thinking and talking that the Republican Party is embracing by its silence and by putting people who say the election was stolen on committees. And they're playing with fire. We all saw what happened at the Capitol and now the Department of Homeland Security issuing a bulletin this week warning of more potential violence from domestic extremists who may be emboldened by that attack.

Manu Raju begins our coverage live tonight on Capitol Hill. And Manu, you're getting some new details about a private conversation that Leader McCarthy who we know is heading to meet with Trump. We know obviously put screen on this committee, but a conversation that he just had with his members.

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And on that same call, Erin, actually Marjorie Taylor Greene spoke up and made clear that she plan to donate to the Republican cause to take back the House majority to the tune of $175,000, I am told by multiple sources on the call to give that money to the National Republican Congressional Committee. A sign how she is still welcome within the party despite these disturbing comments that even the House Republican leader's office says these comments are disturbing and that he plans to have a conversation with her.

Now, on the same call, McCarthy called out his members for attacking one another. Greene has been criticized by some fellow Republicans, including Adam Kinzinger of Illinois who has urged his party not to follow the type of politics that Greene espouses. And the other side, Republicans who are very close to Donald Trump, Trump defenders in the House Republican Conference are going after Liz Cheney, the number three Republican for her vote to impeach Donald Trump.

She joined nine Republicans to do just that over the charge that Donald Trump incited the insurrection that led to the deadly violence on Capitol Hill. McCarthy, I'm told, from multiple sources told his colleagues to 'cut that crap out'. His argument was that they are focusing on each other. They're attacking each other over Twitter and that effort will only undercut their efforts to take back the majority. Instead, he wants them to focus on Democrats.

Whether that will work though, Erin, is still an open question. How far he ends up taking it also an open question. The man he's meeting with tomorrow, Donald Trump, is angry at the Republicans who voted to impeach him. Some of former President's allies, including Matt Gaetz traveling out to Wyoming to rally support against Liz Cheney. So whether he has any success in that remains to be seen, but it's a sign of the tension that's still building within this party, Erin.

BURNETT: All right. It certainly is. And they believe that they feel to still show fealty to a man who is no longer president. Manu, thank you very much.

I want to go now to Gabriel Sterling. Now, you all know Gabriel well. He's a lifelong Republican. He was Georgia's voting system manager. Became a household name when he stood up to President Trump's lies about election fraud in Georgia. He's now the CFO and COO for the Georgia Secretary of State. Gabe, I really appreciate your time.

So Congresswoman Greene who, as I pointed out, who's on tape saying there's no evidence for a plane flying into the Pentagon is now an elected member of Congress, says the election was stolen and she's now on this committee. She has harassed you on Twitter. She called you a moron, an idiot, little Gabriel, because she blamed you for the loss of the Georgia Senate seats and Trump's loss there as well. I mean, Gabe, how concerned are you about people like her gaining such prominence in your party?

[19:10:02]

GABRIEL STERLING, GEORGIA VOTING SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION MANAGER: Well, she's duly elected by the people of the 14th District, so they have her for two years and there are primaries that can happen. And I think her continued behavior may invite a primary and she may well hold on to that. I mean, if that's the will of the voters, that's what's going to happen.

What we need to have I feel for Leader McCarthy trying to hold a caucus together like this that has Marjorie Taylor Greene on one side, just sending out wacko stuff, but she gets encouraged because she gets literally thousands of donations from across the country when she says the wackier stuff she says, the more it's fallen into. And Liz Cheney on the other side trying to be responsible and do some of these things.

I don't know if I would go the same way as Liz Cheney did, but she has every right to do it. I mean, Leader McCarthy said this cause this, Leader McConnell said that it's the crowd inspired by Trump's lies are lies were fed - maybe he didn't say Trump's lies, but I think we all know what he was talking about.

We need to get to a point of where everybody kind of gets into a responsible phase and the President remains angry and the real issue you have is there's millions of Republican voters who are Trump voters who believe - they want to believe in their heart that it was stolen from them and they can process that it wasn't.

BURNETT: Right. Now, of course, they only believe that because he told that to them and it was amplified as McConnell said, by people in positions of power. By the way that includes McConnell himself who took five weeks to formally acknowledge Joe Biden was the president- elect.

But on this issue of Kevin McCarthy, his office says Marjorie Taylor Greene's comments are deeply disturbing, that he plans to have a conversation with her. Obviously, as far as we know at this point, yet, he hasn't. You mentioned the donations and the money. But I'm curious, Gabe, as you speak as a lifelong Republican, who's disgusted by this stuff, as a lot of Republicans are, why do you think party leaders are kowtowing to this, are scared of people like Congresswoman Greene and Qanon? STERLING: Well, the reality is Trump and this strong base, a populace

that they have, can hurt the party. What one side cannot win without the other side and most districts in this country and definitely in most Senate statewide elections. So for years, there's always been sort of a governing group and sort of a populist group and they interchange sometimes of what they believe and what they focus on. You can't win one without the other.

There's far left looney tunes people out there that's part of Democrat Party now with different kind of conspiracy theories who are part of that coalition too. But this particular one right now is being led by the person who was formerly the President of the United States. And I think presidents, and I've said this numerous times, should be held to a higher standard and should be more conscious of the things they say they can undermine democracy.

BURNETT: Right. And, of course, he was - I mean, I'm going to say he's perfectly conscious of what he was doing when he was undermining democracy. But this brings me to the point about him in his - yes.

STERLING: (Inaudible) to be aware that it's wrong, so that's maybe that's where the disconnect is.

BURNETT: Right. But McCarthy is going to Florida tomorrow to kiss the ring of Trump even now even though he's no longer in office and this may be part of the reason why. Let me just play McCarthy after the riot happened. He called it like it was and then let me play what happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CA): The President bears responsibility for Wednesday's attack on Congress by mob rioters.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you believe that President, former President Trump provoked?

MCCARTHY: I don't believe he provoked if you listened to what he said at the rally.

I also think everybody across this country has some responsibility.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: So what do you think happened there? I mean, it completely backed off.

STERLING: Well, I think it's like many elected officials, if you can say things and try to get the nuance of it to get by. But like I said, he has an unenviable job of trying to lead a caucus that is very divided right now between - listen, there's a lot of these Republicans who know that this election wasn't stolen. There's a lot of them that know the President's lied about this.

There's a lot of them that want to go back and tell their constituents, we're doing something to give you confidence back in this and they're trying to get their legs under them. January 6 was a wakeup call and I think it really led a lot of air out of the balloon of the conspiracy side of it.

So there's people out there who are normal, everyday Americans who are believing some of this stuff, but then they're like this is what it leads to, this is a little nutty. So I still think with time some of the air will get out of this balloon and people will get back to a rational, regular governing. The problem we have is we are so polarized and the President plays on that. He enjoys that and he has a strong voice as a base still within this party.

Like I said, I think over time some of that will change but we can't, as Republicans, get in a position where we totally disregard one side and then never win election again and Democrats win everything.

[19:15:00]

That's not something that is a smart thing to do politically and this worshipping at the altar of no compromise and owning the libs is unproductive in the long run.

BURNETT: No. Well, certainly it is. I mean, I just want to remind everyone, Gabe, as you're saying now, you had no fear all the way through of saying these things were lies. So I just want to make a point that that can be done by Republicans, because it was done by some Republicans, including you. And you actually, a moment I remember, and I think many of our viewers probably remember well, when you went on national television you said this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STERLING: Mr. President, stop inspiring people to commit potential acts of violence. Someone is going to get hurt, someone is going to get shot, someone is going to get killed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: You said that on December 1st. So then there were people killed, people killed at the Capitol. The Department of Homeland Security now is issuing a threat due to the ongoing potential violence, saying domestic extremists could be emboldened by what happened at the Capitol. So you said it was going to happen and then it happened, people died.

STERLING: This is the worst-case scenario I had in my head. When I was talking about it originally - you can see that happening, but then you think there's no way that happens and then it happened. I hate being right. I'm disgusted that I was right. We have to get back to a place where we can have disagreements, but that the other side is not going to set you on fire, that's true for Republicans in the far right and Democrats in the far left that believe the other side is essentially evil.

And they get fed into and I think COVID has fed into this because we dehumanize people, because we're not around people, I think, as much anymore. And algorithms on Facebook and Twitter do the same thing where we only listen to the people we want to listen to and we never get opposing views or humanize those people.

People are allowed to disagree and we used to have a really good job of doing it in this country. We had the best system in the world. We still do. All of the institutions are there, but we're only as strong as the individuals within it. It never occurred (inaudible) and I not to follow the law and do the right thing.

BURNETT: Right. So I just want to be clear here that the sound bite that I played, of course, was based on the things the President was saying and you said what could happen and then, of course, it did. That's at the heart of the entire impeachment trial was whether the word echo we heard of what he said and what they said, whether he bears responsibility, which McConnell has said he does and, well, McCarthy said he did until he didn't.

So you're actually mentioned by name in the supporting documents for the impeachment article. I don't know if you're aware of this, but everyone watching should be aware.

STERLING: (Inaudible) ...

BURNETT: Yes. You are and your exact comments are there, exactly what I just played. "And President Trump had every reason to know that, incited by statements, the thousands of people pouring into D.C. would engage in actual violence. As early as December 1st, elected officials warned President Trump of the consequences of his rhetoric." That is - and then they have your exact quote.

Would you be willing to be a witness at the impeachment trial?

STERLING: I have zero desire to go to D.C. to be part of anything. I've got a job down here in Georgia that I have to do. But, of course, if it comes to that, I don't have a choice in the matter. In fact, no one has even talked to me about that, so I'm really contemplating it.

BURNETT: All right. Well, now you know your input documents, the supporting documents to the article itself. You're there, Gabe. All right. Well, I appreciate your time. Thank you very much as always.

STERLING: Have a good night.

BURNETT: All right, you too.

Next, the Biden administration warning it will be months before everyone who wants a vaccine can get one.

Plus, one Democrat now working on a resolution to censure Trump. Well that really fly if conviction won't.

And a CNN exclusive, we're going to take you to ground zero of the Coronavirus strain that Dr. Fauci calls ominous and we're literally in a town where they believe this mutant variant started. The horror inside the hospitals there is unlike anything doctors have seen so far.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [19:22:33]

BURNETT: New tonight, grim warning from the CDC. Its forecast now projecting up to 514,000 Americans dead from coronavirus in the next few weeks by February 20th. So just to be very clear about what that means, that means 85,000 more people in this country are going to die in the next three weeks from coronavirus, 85,000 people who right now are alive, some of whom think it could never be me.

This as the senior advisor to President Biden's COVID response team also warned during their first virtual briefing, the cupboard is bare when it comes to vaccines.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDY SLAVITT, SENIOR ADVISOR TO THE WHITE HOUSE COVID-19 RESPONSE TEAM: It will be months before everyone who wants a vaccine will be able to get one. The stockpile that may have existed previously no longer exists. Our practice is to maintain a rolling inventory of two to three days of supply that we can use to supplement any shortfalls in production and to ensure that we are making deliveries as committed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Kaitlan Collins is OUTFRONT. So Kaitlan, this is another warning that things are going to get worse before they get better. This is the day after they said, well over the next three weeks we're going to increase supply by 16 percent from what you thought you were going to get. But now they're warning there's a bare cupboard and they're pointing the finger at the Trump administration for that.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, they are. So yesterday, you did see this optimism talking about those doses and the commitments they've secured from the companies that are making the vaccines that are actually being distributed now. But we are so far off from when people are actually going to be getting those vaccines that they were talking about and that's what they made clear today in this first coronavirus briefing where they made a concerted effort to put the experts out there.

Notice, President Biden was not on that briefing, answering questions about the pandemic. Instead, they just had his top COVID-19 advisors taking those questions and they said there is basically no stockpile. That had been a big question that people have been asking lately, how much vaccine is the federal government actually have its hands on and they had kind of declined to say skirted the question.

And they made clear today, there's only a two to three days of supplies in that and they said they're distributing it basically as they get it. And I think that's not the picture that a lot of people have in their minds right now. We knew at the end of Trump that they said that there was none left really in the stockpile and so you're really seeing them exemplify that. And then, of course, that timeline of when those restrictions of who can get one get a vaccine are falling away. They said that's going to be months from now, several months.

Biden said the other day he believed it could be by spring that anyone who wanted one can get one.

[19:25:03]

Of course, that goes until the end of June technically and his advisors were saying today, it could be a long time. And one other thing we should note they push forward today was to get Congress to approve that proposal that Biden has put forward of rescue America package that they want to put forward and get passed. Right now, it is struggling to get bipartisan support on Capitol Hill, but they said that will be key to how the next few months ago.

And, of course, they are judging their response. They've inherited this pandemic and now it's theirs to deal with. And we should note we will hear from these advisors again on Friday in another virtual briefing, Erin.

BURNETT: All right. Thank you very much, Kaitlan.

I want to go now to Dr. Ashish Jha, Dean of Brown University School of Public Health. Dr. Jha, I'm glad to see you again. As we learn about multiple variants that could be more transmissible or more deadly and I want everyone to know we have a special report coming from the epicenter of one of these in Brazil, from the hospitals there later on this hour.

What people are going to see there is pretty horrific in terms of the hospitals right now. Do you think, Dr. Jha, that we are really in a race against time here when it comes to these variants, which they're more transmissible, they're going to be favored by natural selection.

DR. ASHISH JHA, DIRECTOR, HARVARD GLOBAL HEALTH INSTITUTE: Yes. So, Erin, first of all, thanks for having me on. We are absolutely in a race against time. We are in a race against these variants becoming dominant in the U.S., the one that I'm most worried about in the short run is the U.S. variant, which is in 20 some odd states already and is spreading. And obviously, we've got to do the regular public health stuff, that mask wearing and social distancing.

BURNETT: Yes.

JHA: But the big thing we got to do is get vaccines into arms. And that's going to be the big push from the administration in the days and weeks ahead.

BURNETT: So President Biden said states are going to get a 16 percent increase in doses beginning next week. And obviously, this is based on population, so I suppose it depends state by state. But the states are getting more and they're happy about it. The Democratic Governor of Colorado, Jared Polis, told me he sees this as glass half-full.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. JARED POLIS (D-CO): We'll have to run the exact math, but we'll be talking about approximately a hundred thousand doses for the following weeks. Still just a small step in the ramp up and we certainly hope that there's several times that as level of doses we get into March. It's going to take an awfully long time at these levels to end the pandemic.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: I mean, Dr. Jha, to be specific just with the State of Colorado, he's going to go from 83,000 doses in a week for just the next couple weeks to a hundred. He needs more than 300 to even get close to where he is, so it's an improvement but it's nowhere near where we need to be.

JHA: Yes, absolutely. So there are two parts of this. The first is that we were promised by Operation Warp Speed even in like November, December that we'd essentially have a hundred million doses by the end of January. We're obviously not going to be anywhere near that. So that's sort of the problem is we're much further behind than we thought we were.

The Biden team is trying to do what it can to try to ramp up production, but none of this stuff can move on a dime. And so we've got to keep pushing and we've got to get the vaccines that are out there into people's arms. That's the other part of this, the distributions got to get better.

BURNETT: Right. Now, let me just ask you in terms of - we talked about the mutations and we've all discussed the math, but something that's 50 percent more transmissible is much exponentially more deadly than something that's 50 percent more deadly over the short-term, just because it's spreading more quickly. But we had been told that there were hopes specifically with a U.K. variant that vaccines would be effective.

But we talk about these more ominous strains as Fauci called, Brazil and South Africa, and today a study comes out saying that the virus is traveling in a direction that could ultimately lead to escape from our current therapeutic and prophylactic interventions directed to the viral spike. That's pretty scary.

JHA: Yes. So let's take a look at the big picture here. We do have these variants, more variants will come up. What can we do?

If we want to prevent more variants and viruses escaping, the most important thing we can do is reduce the number of infections, because every infection creates more opportunities for mutations and for more variants. So the single biggest thing we can do is slow down the pandemic, slow down the infections.

Obviously, vaccines are an important part of that, I still remain pretty hopeful that the vaccines we have today are going to get us through this time period. But we do need to start to sort of planning for what happens if they don't and I think the vaccine makers need to start making additional sort of variations of their vaccines to be able to deal with these variants that are coming up. BURNETT: Right. Yes. I mean, and I guess the reality of it is, of

course, is we're faced again with so much we don't know. If you get one variant, is there another variant - you're just not going to get it or get sick with it, so much we just don't know. Dr. Jha, I really appreciate your time as always.

JHA: Thank you, Erin.

[19:30:00]

BURNETT: With so many questions about all of these, please join tonight a Coronavirus Town Hall with Anderson and Sanjay. It is tonight at 8.

[19:30:08]

And next, impeachment trial plan "B." A top Democrat has another idea tonight for holding Donald Trump accountable. Could it work since it appears conviction won't?

And security concerns growing over lawmakers once they leave Washington. Are they safe at home from extremists?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BURNETT: Breaking news, as Democrats face the unlikely reality that they will have enough votes to convict President Trump in an impeachment trial, Senator Tim Kaine doing an interview today with Margaret Hoover, host of PBS's "Firing Line", where he offers more details on a censure resolution that he is working on with Republican Senator Susan Collins.

And here's the crucial thing about this, OK, this idea. He says it would seek to bar Trump from ever holding office again without the conviction vote.

Take a listen to Senator Kaine.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TIM KAINE (D-VA): It would find that President Trump gave aid and comfort to the insurrectionists who attacked the capitol. Under the wording of part of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, Section 3, anybody who participates in an insurrection against the Constitution or gives aid and comfort to those who do is barred from ever serving in office again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: All right. OUTFRONT now, Gloria Borger, our chief political analyst and John Avlon, CNN senior political analyst.

So, John, Senator Kaine, you know, is -- this is really interesting idea, right? They basically are saying they know they're not going to get the votes, to two-thirds required for a conviction.

[19:35:00]

We've all been told again and again that was a prerequisite for a simple majority vote that would prevent Trump from ever holding office again.

But what Senator Kaine is telling Margaret, happens to be your wife, is that he thinks that a censure vote, he's working on it with a Republican, would be enough because it accomplishes the same point of saying Trump did this so then they could prevent him from holding future office. This actually could be possibly very significant.

JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: It could. And look, this is sort of a cut to the chase backup plan.

BURNETT: Yeah.

AVLON: But what it's saying is a simple resolution. The threshold wouldn't be two thirds, it would be 60 votes. And this resolution would achieve what many of them hope to achieve which is to basically say, look, this was an insurrection against the Constitution, the president aided and abetted it under the 14th Amendment, that means he can't hold office. Now, the important thing is that first of all, this would need to be adjudicated by a court later.

But it's a strong statement and a threshold they feel they can hit. And that's what's so significant about the conversations that Kaine is apparently having with Collins in this direction.

BURNETT: Right. Certainly, Gloria. I mean, they're not going to get 17 votes. We saw from the constitutionality vote yesterday, they may only get five. This would shoot for ten.

But it is significant, Gloria. You've got a Democrat and Republican working on it together, that they think this might achieve what they had thought was unachievable.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Right. And a senator like Democrat of Delaware Chris Coons today said that he found interesting because it has some element of accountability. But, first of all --

BURNETT: Yeah.

BORGER: -- there's a question of whether it's legally enforceable.

BURNETT: Right.

BORGER: And that's a big question. And the second question is timing. When would you do it? Would you just sort of throw up your hands and say oh, never mind, we're not going to have this impeachment trial, we're not going to have a trial whether to convict.

I don't think they can do that at this point. I think they're pretty far down the road. So, the question is if this fails as people expected it will, then would you say, okay, there is this plan "B" and we want to prevent him from holding office again in the future? BURNETT: Of course, you know, John, with all of this comes just the

political risk of it, right? If you fail once and you possibly fail again because the vote threshold here would still be 10 votes to get to the 60 you're talking about. They don't currently have that. So it's all a gamble.

AVLON: It is. But I think frankly, you know, those votes some said they wanted to debate the constitutionality. I don't think the towel should get thrown in. This is still a very serious act by any standard, incitement of insurrection by a president after an election.

And, you know, for those Republicans who are saying, we all need to get over it like Ted Cruz did the other day, move on, you know, it's divisive. You know what's divisive is inciting an insurrection against the capitol, spreading a big lie about election fraud. That's what divisive and it needs to be confronted for reasons of historical precedent. Not that it's inconvenient.

BORGER: I do think you're going to have a lot of Democrats who say that it is too much of a slap on the wrist, that it's not legally in enforceable, that you've got to go through this impeachment trial and see if you can convict. And even if you can't convict, the fact that you had that trial means it was important enough. And if you then go to censure, it's going to mean like, oh, maybe it wasn't that important.

So there are lots of discussions going on about this now because it is very interesting as you and John point out. The question is really what would it mean?

BURNETT: Right, well and also, John, of course, one would say President Biden made the point originally not being that eager on impeachment maybe because he saw some of this, right? You're going to end up with some really difficult choices and put in corners.

All right. Thank you both so very much. Appreciate it.

And next three veterans now indicted for their role in the deadly riot as prosecutors reveal alarming details about their alleged plot to overturn the election.

Plus, we take you to Brazil where a new strain of coronavirus and decimating the country's health care system. Two beds in a hospital you'll see for 15 patients, and the situation is getting worse.

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[19:42:43]

BURNETT: Breaking news: the Justice Department indicting three people associated with the Oath Keepers -- it's an anti-government extremist group -- for their alleged role in the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. And prosecutors tonight are revealing new details about their coordination. And this coordination -- keep this in mind -- goes back months before the attack.

So, let's go to Evan Perez. He's covering all of this.

Evan, the federal grand jury indicting three people in this. Jessica Watkins, Donovan Crowl and Thomas Caldwell, all three of them are U.S. veterans. Those are the pictures that we have.

What are you learning about their planning that the feds are saying goes back months before the attack?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, that's right. It goes back according to prosecutors to November 3rd. That's when they first started communicating. And now, according to prosecutors they've recovered text messages. They have recovered some of their walkie- talkie communications, some of their Facebook messages as well as they were trying to get ready.

They even have information apparently that they did some military- style training in some kind of basic training class, Erin, in Ohio to get ready to come to D.C. Another one went to a basic training class, another military training class in North Carolina before they traveled up to Washington. Now, according to those documents, you know, you could see in the videos that prosecutors have that they're walking and they're coordinating with hand signals. They are wearing paramilitary gear. They belong to a group that's called the Ohio state regular militia and a sort of self-styled paramilitary group, and they have a lot of anti-government views.

You know, one of the things you hear from Watkins in one of these messages prosecutors have recovered, she says if Trump activates the insurrection act, I'd hate to miss it. This is part of, again, you know, they were stashing -- according to prosecutors -- weapons at a hotel in Arlington so they could have it nearby before storming the building.

BURNETT: Right. And, of course, the insurrection act, something that was being put forth by prominent advisers to the president and the president himself.

PEREZ: By the president.

BURNETT: Yeah. Evan Perez, thank you very much.

Let me just ask you one other question here before we go because some lawmakers I understand are having safety concerns when they travel outside of Washington, D.C., and they're being told that by federal authorities who are worried about their safety.

[19:45:00]

Can you tell us anything about that?

PEREZ: Yeah, I mean, you saw that warning from the Homeland Security Department, and I think part of that is this concern about members of Congress. The concern, Erin, is that, you know, especially for member of Congress who did not support the president's big lie on January 6th that when they go back home to their districts and they have to have events -- for instance, they're doing town halls, that there could be threats to their lives.

Obviously, we've seen that before and it is a scary prospect. So they're adding security for some of these folks and we've also seen some charges recently against the man who was threatening family members of Hakeem Jeffries, who is a congressman from New York.

Again, it is very visible. You see Lindsey Graham being harassed at the airport. So, we know -- we've seen additional security at the airport here in Washington for the lawmakers once they make their way home. But once they get home, you know, they're going to be -- obviously, there's going to have be additional security from local police in those jurisdictions.

BURNETT: All right. Evan, thank you very much.

And next the disaster, and it is a disaster. A humanitarian disaster unfolding in Brazil, I there is a new coronavirus strain that may be re-infecting people. This is the one Dr. Fauci says is deeply ominous.

We're going to show the nightmare confronting doctors right now. This is a CNN exclusive. Our Matt Rivers is actually there. You're going to see that.

And also we'll then tell you about the former first lady and what she is doing next.

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BURNETT: Tonight, a highly transmissible variant of coronavirus that Dr. Anthony Fauci told me is ominous is now in the United States. A case just confirmed in Minnesota. Now that variant was first identified in Brazil.

Okay, and by the time it's identified, it's there, it's spread, and it is taking a deadly toll.

[19:50:05]

Matt Rivers is there at the epicenter OUTFRONT.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATT RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The tense quiet outside the small hospital in Iranduba, Brazil, can change so fast.

An ambulance suddenly pulls up in front of the hospital as a woman inside is given CPR. Medics desperately trying to save her, but a hospital source told us she died soon after this video was shot. The woman was the third COVID patient to die here this morning alone.

The overwhelmed hospital is a small example of a massive outbreak here in Brazil's northwest. Its epicenter known as the gateway to the Amazon, the city of Manaus, the city of about 2 million is replete with scenes like this, patients packed into unsanitary hospitals with a startling lack of ventilators or even just oxygen. Recovering is a mirage in what's been the city's deadliest month of the pandemic. By far, many here are just simply waiting to die. This doctor says

we've got 15 patients and there's two beds. It's difficult to say we choose who lives and dies but we do try and save the ones with the best chance to live.

Health officials at all levels have now shortcomings and doctors and nurses are clearly doing their best with the little they have. But Manaus has been here before. In April and May last year, the health care system collapsed for the first time during the first COVID-19 wave. Some studies suggested up to 75 percent of Manaus got the virus. Thousands of newly dug graves pockmarked the city cemetery but now, even those aren't enough.

So, that's why the government is quickly building these, so-called vertical graves. They're basically coffin size sections that will stack on top of one another and doing it this way because they're running out of space. By the time this project is done, the government says they will have built 22,000 vertical graves to meet the expected demand.

So many people got sick the first time, many here simply believe that herd immunity would prevent another round. Despite many warnings from experts that that might not be true, Brazil's COVID skeptic president, Jair Bolsonaro, said there wouldn't be a second wave.

Things opened up. Life got back to normal, and then came a new COVID variant, P1, originating right here in Brazil, a kind of a perfect storm.

SCOTT HENSLEY, VIRAL IMMUNOLOGIST, UNIVERSITY OF PENNYSLVANIA: I'm usually not an alarmist about these kind of things and I'm concerned what we're seeing in Brazil right now.

RIVERS: A recent study in Manaus found two-thirds of recent infections are caused by the variant prompting fears this variant spreads faster. Back outside the small hospital in Iranduba, we meet Maxileia Silva da Silva. Her brother has been inside with COVID for weeks in desperate need of better care that doesn't exist here right now.

Next to the hospital, a refrigerated container was brought in to store bodies.

Take our cry for help to the world she tells us, tell them this system is killing Brazilians, people that can't get into hospitals are dying.

Half way through our interview, though, we had to pause. There was a new suspected COVID patient arriving, crying as he's admitted. Because everybody here knows what can happen once you go inside.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BURNETT: Incredible reporting.

Matt, what are you able to tell us? I know this will become so crucial about these cases of re-infection? RIVERS: Yeah. Well, we're actually outside one of the hospitals we

showed you footage of from the inside. I can tell you that the scientists here in Manaus have identified at least one case where somebody who was infected positively with this new variant also still had antibodies from a previous infection. So, there's, of course, a risk of re-infection but scientists say two things. One, it's too early to draw anything conclusive from that and two, it does appear vaccines will still work.

I can tell you, Erin, we know that this variant has been found in the U.S. this week and there a lot of people in Manaus who will tell Americans, take this seriously. Look what's happened here.

BURNETT: All right. Matt, thank you very much.

And next, Melania Trump is making plans, but for what?

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[19:58:27]

BURNETT: Tonight, former First Lady Melania Trump hiring staff and setting up a post-White House office in Palm Beach. Sources tell CNN her intention is to maintain her loosely defined Be Best initiative.

Kate Bennett joins me now.

And, Kate, obviously, it was not really clear what Be Best was when she was in the White House but now, Melania Trump actually wants to keep it going, not dropping it.

What are you hearing?

KATE BENNETT, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Erin. I mean, Be Best was a very sort of convoluted platform with three pillars. I know what they are but you and other people in America might not know what they are.

You know, we have to think about the way first ladies put these things out. Nancy Reagan used Mr. T, if you remember, for just saying no to drugs. Michelle Obama did talk shows and interviews.

Melania Trump did none of that during her tenure. In fact, no print interviews at all, no talk shows at all during her four years. So, she wants to extend this Be Best platform which is helping children. There are different ways she goes about that. One is through social media, cyber bullying, people latched on to that because of the president.

Another is general health and wellbeing, and another is helping kids affected by the opioid crisis in this country. So, it's unclear yet how exactly she will take the platform that she was often challenged communicating with while she was in the White House and prolonged it into something after the White House but she has established an office. She's hired three people that worked with her at the White House. Director of operations who is now her chief of staff at her new office, a senior advisor and someone else helping her with administration and operations work.

So this is certainly something she's focused on. Many first ladies do establish an official office after the White House but we'll have to wait and see whether be best is something she can communicate to the public and work on in a way that's more efficient than she found it during her four years at the White House -- Erin.

BURNETT: All right. Kate, thank you very much.

And thanks to all of you for joining us.

CNN's Global Town Hall "CORONAVIRUS: FACTS AND FEARS" starts now.