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Erin Burnett Outfront

Lawmakers Told to "Remain Vigilant" Amid Security Threat; Sources: Police Stationed Outside Some Lawmakers' Homes; Graphic Bodycam Video from Capitol Attack Shows Rioters Charging at Police, Over Woman Who was Trampled and Later Died; Two Vaccine Trials Show Lower Effectiveness Against Variant; GameStop's Shares Up 400 Percent This Week Even As Wall Street Has Worst Week Since October. Aired 7-8p ET

Aired January 29, 2021 - 19:00   ET

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

[19:00:00]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: You don't think I've aged since then, do you? I really didn't know much about anchoring, but he was there for me and it clearly worked out.

For the last 22 years, he's been in charge of CNN's new standards and practices and we are also grateful. I speak for all of the thousands of current and former CNN employees when I say thanks, Rick, for always being there for us. We will miss you. But after 40 years at CNN, we know you will enjoy your well-deserved retirement.

Erin Burnett OUTFRONT starts right now.

ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: OUTFRONT next, new video tonight showing just how brutal the Capitol riot really was as Republicans failed to rein in Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene for comments supporting violence against Democrats.

Plus, Dr. Fauci warning a highly contagious strain of coronavirus is a wakeup call as more evidence shows vaccines are less effective against one of the new strains spreading in the United States.

And markets with their worst weekend months, but GameStop has gone up five times over the week as amateur traders echo the stop the steal mantra. Yup, let's go OUTFRONT.

And good evening. I'm Erin Burnett.

OUTFRONT tonight, under threat. Warnings to members of Congress and staff tonight to stay on alert as the Department of Homeland Security has warned of more politically motivated violence. All of this as CNN obtains horrifying new video of what police witnessed during that riot. Bodycam footage shows a woman being trampled to death on the steps of the Capitol.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Save her. Save her.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Move out. Out. Out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She's dead. She's dead. Please.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I need somebody.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: It's unbelievable. I mean, deeply disturbing video now being used in federal court. It also shows rioters attacking police with a hockey stick and a crutch. Just all out attacking them. We're going to have much more in this video. You'll see much more of it. I mean, it is hard to watch, but this is what happened in this country and also what law enforcement is now saying it means in a moment.

But also, tonight the FBI is releasing this video, I'll show it to you. See that man there, they want to track down that person. They believe that that is the person who planted pipe bombs near the headquarters of the DNC and the RNC.

Now, in this video obtained by The Washington Post, you see the man at 8:13 pm, that's the timestamp. That is the night before the attack, carrying a backpack and walking towards an alley that curves towards the RNC headquarters. Moments later, 8:17, the suspect is seen walking away from the area where that pipe bomb was discovered.

Obviously, the pipe bombs could have caused serious damage. Investigators say they were real devices. They had igniters and timers. So, who incited the entire thing?

Now, you're seeing these new videos, all of this new and horrific detail coming out. Just again a reminder who incited this attack.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): The mob was fed lies. They were provoked by the president and other powerful people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: The President and other powerful people. And those powerful people who bought into spread and sold Trump's election fraud lie are not taking it down now. In fact, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is in no rush to lower the temperature. He is still not met with QAnon supporter Marjorie Taylor Greene after CNN's reporting uncovered messages that indicated her support for executing Democrats and hanging forum President Obama.

Three days ago, McCarthy's spokesperson said, "Leader McCarthy plans to have a conversation with the Congresswoman." That conversation has not happened. It is now not expected to happen until next week, because after all remember Kevin McCarthy was very busy this week meeting with Trump, going down to show fealty.

But the longer McCarthy waits, the longer the conversation he is going to have with Congressman Taylor Greene, because new video is coming to light of Greene tonight. This video is from one week before the election.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-GA): If this generation doesn't stand up and defend freedom, it's gone.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

GREENE: And once it's gone, freedom doesn't come back by itself. The only way you get your freedoms back is it's earned with the price of blood.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Earned with the price of blood for this generation right now. And Greene releasing a statement after this video became public today not backing down. Instead, she is saying without irony, "Every attack. Every lie. Every smear strengthens my base of support at home and across the country because people know the truth and are fed up with lies."

[19:05:00]

OK. Greene supports hanging a former president, executing Democrats. She supports a completely fabricated lie about the election. OK.

And I'm putting aside her claiming there's no evidence a plane flew into the Pentagon on 9/11 and her suggestion that lasers from space caused California wildfires. Greene is not just a believer in crazy things, she has repeatedly supported political violence.

And even 24 hours ago, after more than 60 courts dismissed Trump's made up election lie, Greene is still spreading it right now to her supporters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GREENE: We had done a lot of work in our preparation, talked to a lot of people, looked to a lot of evidence that I think still needs to be looked at and should be presented in court. I truly believe that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: I mean, there's nothing to say to this anymore. I mean, she believes it. The problem is that no one in the Republican leadership is willing to take her on.

Manu Raju is OUTFRONT on Capitol Hill. And Manu, McCarthy obviously no rush to meet with Marjorie Taylor Greene. He's clearly not looking forward to this. You're now getting some new information from Senate Republicans about how they feel about what happened on January 6th.

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. They believe that Donald Trump was responsible for the riot, but they also don't believe that they have a role in holding him accountable. I've spent the last several days talking to top Republicans on down to the rank and file and that is the overwhelming assessment from the Republicans, including Sen. John Thune who I asked him, "Can you defend what Donald Trump did in the run up to the January 6th riot?" He told me, "No, not at all."

He said, "The way he handled themselves, I cannot defend him." And I said, "Well, then what do you do? How did the Senate Republicans hold them accountable?" He said, "That's a good question. That could be up to a court of law."

Also, Sen. John Cornyn, another member of the Republican leadership said, "I can't defend what Donald Trump did." I said, "Well, what are you going to do about it?" He said, "Well, he's being held accountable by the court of public opinion."

So, Erin, you're seeing a difference in rhetoric between the Republicans on the House side and the Senate side. But the ultimate outcome is the same, both parties, both caucuses in the House and in the Senate, neither of them want to do anything to take action against Donald Trump because of what they're seeing about the backlash that has occurred from the right going after those 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Trump earlier this month, including Congresswoman Liz Cheney, the number three Republican who Trump defenders are targeting and trying to oust from her leadership post, trying to push her to defeat her in her primary next year.

Senate Republicans don't want to encounter that same fate and they're resting on the process argument that they believe a former president should not be tried in the Senate, because their view it would set a precedent that they don't want to follow and they believe it's not constitutional. On top of that, of course, it's disputed.

But nevertheless, that's how Republicans are positioning themselves. Overall though, Erin, this is a party still divided about how to move forward, whether to blame a former president, whether to do anything about it and a lot of them like Mitch McConnell, just want to move on from the Trump era and move on to what's next, Erin.

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

So, I showed you very briefly at the top of the show that small clip of a terrible video of a woman dying, dying then died, trampled by rioters all on tape. They're ignoring her, continuing their assault in the Capitol. I want to show you more of the video, because there's a lot of people who may want to say, you know what, let this go. Let's move on.

You have Capitol Police who were there who have chosen to die by suicide after this. You have people there who died. You have lives who were irrevocably changed all because of this. It is important to see exactly what happened on that day. I do want to warn you, though, that what you will hear and see in this piece by Tom Foreman is disturbing.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Save her.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is what police saw as they furiously tried to fight off the mob on this bodycam footage released by the U.S. Attorney's Office and this is what they heard as a man shouted for help near a woman who was down.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Save her. She's going to die. She's going to die. She's going to die. She's dead. Please. She's dead. I need somebody.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOREMAN (voice-over): Still this group of rioters which had converged on the east side of the Capitol on the same steps the new president would use in just days pressed forward. Across you could say among them was Michael Foy, the man they say is wielding a hockey stick in this video as the brutal hand-to-hand fighting rages.

Foy has been charged with assaulting a law officer, obstructing law enforcement, entering a restricted building and more. Others angles from other cameras give a better sense of how huge the mob was as it surrounded police.

In this video, dragging one down the stairs where he was beaten with a flagpole.

[19:10:02]

But few images have captured the raw fury quite like this bodycam.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: F*** you. I'll F***ing kill you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOREMAN (voice-over): The crash was so intense, some first responder says even though they knew police and rioters were being injured, they could not safely access patients due to the crowd activity.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She's going to die.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOREMAN (voice-over): And that woman being trampled on the stairs while calls for help went unanswered, The New York Times has identified her as 34-year-old Rosanne Boyland, who later died.

(END VIDEOTAPE) FOREMAN (on camera): We have watched dozens of videos of that

calamitous day, many of which are right now being introduced as evidence against the rioters. But this one, I must say, truly stands out for the sheer unhinged, up close personal lunacy and violence of a supposed political march gone mad, Erin.

BURNETT: Yes. Tom, thank you very much. The fury and the rage, it just - you see it, you feel it. Thank you very much.

I want to go now to a lifelong Republican and major GOP donor who is now leaving the party, Jacob Monty is OUTFRONT. Jacob, I appreciate your time. And I know you just spoken out here in an op-ed in the Houston Chronicle. Over your lifetime as a conservative and a member of the Republican Party, you've raised over a million dollars, donated money to the GOP, but you watch the Capitol riot and cried.

And you say the response of many in the GOP including your Sen. Ted Cruz, the way you write it, you might as well have joined the insurrectionists in smashing the windows and rampaging the Capitol. Those are your words and that's why you're leaving the party, isn't it?

JACOB MONTY, LIFELONG REPUBLICAN AND DONOR, QUIT PARTY AFTER CAPITOL RIOT: Yes, Erin. That was a bridge too far for me. And what you just saw is the natural result of Trump's America first policy and that's what it got us. But no one - in Texas, it was ready to vote to impeach the ex-president. They're still afraid of him.

Texas is known for patriots that have courage. And we haven't had one Texan stand up and call what Donald Trump did treason and vote to impeach him. So that's why I decided that I could no longer stay in this party. This is a party that brags about being tough and brave but doesn't have the courage to stand up to an ex-failed president.

BURNETT: So, you've left the party and Marjorie Taylor Greene is still a Republican, believer in QAnon and a lot of really, truly insane stuff. And she's a sitting member of Congress, she got a plum committee assignment. I mean, I'm wondering where you said, Jacob, is the GOP more of the party of QAnon at this point than of conservatives like you?

MONTY: Absolutely. Trump owns the party and Trump has always loved the conspiracy theories. And this is Trump's party now and I tried for many years, four years to try to be a never Trumper in the Republican Party. But it's obvious now, everyone is paying homage to this ex- president.

No one will stand up to him. You have McCarthy going down and begging for forgiveness in Florida. I mean, I'm a Texan, I don't lick anyone's boots and to see what we saw this week is disgusting. I'm out. That's enough. But that was a bridge too far for me. And more people are leaving the party, Erin.

Look, I don't agree with everything the Democrats stand for, but that's the big tent party. The Democratic Party is the party that has more diversity of opinion. If you stay in the Republican Party, you have to pay homage to Trump, I don't do that. I don't pray to any man.

BURNETT: And, of course, paying homage to Trump is continuing to perpetuate this lie as Congresswoman Greene did last night at a town hall. And as you point out, because Kevin McCarthy was down begging for forgiveness from Trump this week for calling him out briefly, briefly for the riot. Most of Republican leadership has not denounced the words or actions of Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene.

And I guess, why is leadership so terrified of Trump even now? And I guess you're going to probably tell me it's something about the base and I know that matters in the primaries. But obviously, it is not the majority of America, that's the reality.

MONTY: Erin, the Republican Party has always had a fringe or radical element to it. What changed with Donald Trump though is that he took it mainstream and he made it OK to say things out loud. And now they're afraid of that base. They're afraid of Donald Trump and his Twitter power. He doesn't have Twitter right now, but they're afraid of anything he'll say against them.

And this is a party I loved, a party that believed in a strong difference, a party of patriots but it's now become a party of Donald Trump.

[19:15:05]

And that's not what I signed up for and I have a home now with the Democrats and I feel much more at home there as a Texan with the Democrats.

BURNETT: And I encourage people to read your op-ed, because your politics, you are conservative, you're a longtime conservative. There are many basic tenants of the Democratic platform that I know you don't agree with. So, for you to say that you feel more at home there, it makes it all that much more significant.

I want to ask you, Jacob, about Ted Cruz. Over the years you've given him money. You have supported him. The rioters at the Capitol said that they were there in part because of Ted Cruz who, of course, voted to overturn the election. But they told us that they were there because of Cruz themselves. Here they are.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a good one. This is a good one.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hawley Cruz. I think Cruz would want us to do this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Jacob, do you think Ted Cruz bears direct responsibility for any of this?

MONTY: Absolutely. Absolutely, he does. And you would think he would show some remorse. But no, he's following the Trump playbook, which is when they attack you, you hit back even harder. And he's trying to deflect, he should apologize. If he's not going to resign, he should apologize. But he won't.

And he loves to tout the slogan come and take it. That was on the flag in Gonzales, Texas when we were fighting for independence from Mexico. The problem is that's not just a slogan, Ted Cruz. The patriots that we're fighting against the dictator, they stood up to that dictator and he won't even stand up to an ex-president. I was disappointed that no Republicans voted to impeach. That was the last straw for me that this cult personality has to stop and I'm out.

BURNETT: All right. Well, Jacob, I appreciate your time. Thank you very much.

MONTY: Thank you, Erin.

BURNETT: And we're just learning that the Capitol Police officer who was killed during the January 6th riot will lie in honor next week. The House Speaker and Senate Majority Leader Schumer just announcing that Brian Sicknick will lie in honor next Tuesday night in the Capitol rotunda. Sicknick died from injuries suffered during the violent attack.

And next, President Biden saying Congress must act on his coronavirus relief package and do it now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I support passing COVID relief with support from Republicans if we can get it but the COVID relief has to pass. There's no ifs ands or buts. Thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Plus, the makers of two vaccines say their vaccines are now as effective against some of the most contagious strains. The science behind the film Contagion is my guess.

And why are amateur traders who are pumping up GameStop share saying stop the steal?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:22:12]

BURNETT: Tonight, President Biden urging a swift passage for his $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief plan, saying Americans will be, his words, badly, badly hurt if Congress doesn't act quickly.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: I support passing COVID relief with support from Republicans if we can get it, but the COVID relief has to pass. There's no ifs ands or buts. Thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: This comes as the White House says Biden will sign more executive actions next week. Now, so far President Biden has already taken 42 executive actions in his first 10 days. That is more than any other president in modern history.

Now, nearly half of them are related to the pandemic crisis, things like rejoining the WHO and extending eviction moratoriums. But this is not how President Biden said he was going to govern.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: Well, that's Trump. He doesn't have the authority to do half of what he's doing by executive order. That is not democracy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Making his view clear there. Biden also telling The New York Times a year ago, "What I love hearing my colleagues say that I'm running with, saying, 'Well, I'm going to by executive order.' And my mother would say, 'Who died and left them boss?' We have three branches of government, equal." OK.

So pretty clear that he said he wasn't going to do this. But obviously, context is important, many of President Biden's executive actions at least 13 so far specifically undo or reverse actions former President Trump took, like halting the construction of the border wall with Mexico, allowing transgender individuals to serve in the military and rejoining the Paris Climate Accord. Those are things that Biden promised to do during his campaign.

But even The New York Times editorial page which, of course, endorsed Biden for president is saying, "Ease up on the executive actions, Joe." Writing in part, "This is no way to make law. Undoing some of Mr. Trump's excesses is necessary, but Mr. Biden's legacy will depend on his ability to hammer out agreements with Congress."

Kaitlan Collins is OUTFRONT at the White House. And Kaitlan, is the White House worried at all about the appearance that President Biden is relying much too heavily on executive actions and not legislating through Congress?

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, we should note they push back pretty heavily on that New York Times editorial board article. But the other questions have been legitimate, why is he governing so much by executive order. Because not only did he, as you noted, signed those 42 executive actions just in his first few days in office alone, we know that there are more plan on immigration next week. A few others slated so far for the days following ahead.

But then they said the White House that he's going to push ahead with just arguing for this legislative proposal, this coronavirus relief proposal that he's pushed for so much. But it is something that he talked about on the campaign trail, as you noted time and time again but also privately to donors telling them that you can't do everything by executive order.

[19:25:02] Yes, you can do some things but not everything. And so, if you look at

what he has done and these dozens of executive actions, some of them have been undoing Trump policies. But some of them have been just pushing Biden policies and what he wants to do.

And he's already facing the same legal pressure that we saw Trump and Obama faced with some of theirs, the one with stopping deportations at the border. That's been temporarily halted by a federal judge in Texas this week after the Texas Attorney General brought a lawsuit there.

So those are things that are open not only to court orders pushing back on them, but also, they can be easily undone by the next president or as we saw with Trump. It wasn't really a concern of the Trump White House about these executive orders and then they realized he wasn't going to get two terms in office and so now you're seeing Biden undo so many of them.

And so the White House is pushing back on this by saying, well, look, we are trying to get some legislation across the board. It's the coronavirus relief proposal. This massive $1.9 trillion package. And one thing that we should note that some of my CNN colleagues just noted is that Biden is unable to sell this package in the way that you typically would see him doing, where he's going up to Capitol Hill or having lawmakers in the Oval Office, maybe even flying to their districts.

Instead, it's a lot of phone calls and public pressure through television hits and in the White House press briefing, where you're seeing they make the case for that that you wouldn't normally see. So the question of whether he actually gets that is going to be a massive one and whether or not any Republicans get onboard with it seems unlikely right now, that could potentially change. But that's what the White House is watching as well.

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

And I want to go now to our Senior Political Analyst, John Avlon. John, 42 executive actions in 10 days, more to come. How can he address the issue here that this is more than any president in history, modern history, and certainly it does go against his campaign rhetoric?

JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes. I mean, look, I think he addresses it by saying he's got a pandemic he's dealing with, he's taking aggressive action, he's only been in office for just under a week, but he's undoing a lot of things Trump did by executive action order.

Look, I'm not buying the hypocritical pearl clutching about this. Republicans jumped on Obama about executive orders, but Trump had more in his first term than Obama's first term and W had more than Obama before that.

So, this is a game of gotcha. This is the new deficits only matter when a Democrat is President. BURNETT: Which is, I think, a really important context. So then when

you talk about the legislation here, the COVID legislation that needs to pass, President Biden, part of it is, he said bipartisanship is going to be a key message of the campaign. So his critics are quick to seize on this to say, well, if you wanted to have unity, you do it with us, you wouldn't go around us and do it around our back.

Former Democratic Congressman Joe Kennedy just talked to our Wolf Blitzer about trying to work with Republicans and here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FMR. JOE KENNEDY (D-MA): Bipartisanship is not the goal. The goal is relief for the American public. Bipartisanship hopefully is the way to get there, but that depends on Republicans being willing to come to the table. If they're not willing to do that with Joe Biden, show me who they'd be willing to do it with.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Does he have a point? I mean, is it too early to basically say they're not going to be willing to work with him on anything?

AVLON: It is too early to say, but it's also too early to say Joe Biden's been in office more than a week and he still hasn't united the nation.

BURNETT: Right.

AVLON: Bipartisan is a means not the end. It's an important part of how Biden campaign. It is the promise of his presidency to make government work again, but Republicans have to meet him halfway. And if they can't on COVID relief when so many were willing to support Trump, when he called for raising that individual payment to $2,000, then you see lack of faith.

But it takes leadership. It also takes goodwill on the part of the opposition. The loyal opposition. Something we haven't seen a lot of recently.

BURNETT: No. No. All right. John Avlon, thank you very much.

AVLON: Thank you.

BURNETT: And next, a warning tonight about one of the more contagious strains of coronavirus, fears about how fast it is spreading in the United States.

Plus, several women with one thing in common, they all accused Trump of sexual misconduct. And then they got together during Biden's inauguration and watched, they celebrated the end of Trump's presidency.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:32:37] BURNETT: Tonight, Johnson & Johnson preparing to submit application to the FDA next week to become the third coronavirus vaccine approved in the United States.

Now, the company releasing data that it has from its trials showing it is the second vaccine to see effectiveness drop against the variant first identified in South Africa.

And that coming as Dr. Anthony Fauci predicts another highly contagious variant first detected in the U.K. could become the most dominant strain in the United States by the end of March.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, INSTITUTE OF THE ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: This is a wakeup call to all of us that we will be dealing as the virus uses its devices to evade pressure, particularly immunological pressure, that we will continue to see the evolution of mutants.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: OUTFRONT now, Ian Lipkin, director of the Center for Infection and Immunity at Columbia University, the scientist behind the movie "Contagion" as well.

Doctor, I'm glad to have you with me.

So, I want to start specifically with that variant that was found in South Africa because we know the variant is in the United States, where we are not tracking variants, we know it is here in one person, we know that means it's here much more broadly than that. Two companies have shown their vaccines are significantly less effective against that specific strain. How concerned are you?

DR. W. IAN LIPKIN, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR INFECTION AND IMMUNITY, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY: I am very concerned. Not only about the variants but the fact that the virus will continue to adapt to us and probably to all life in domestic animals that will be reservoirs for the foreseeable future. That doesn't mean the vaccines that we've already developed, Pfizer vaccine, Moderna vaccine are useless. They still have 95 percent efficacy against the original virus. And there's a new Novavax that looks excellent, and J&J, slightly less but respectable.

But as you've said, we know the J and J virus vaccine, whereas 72 percent against the original strains, less than 60 percent with the South African strain.

The same thing is true with Novavax. It dropped from 96 to 60 percent. Good news is that once we identify these strains, these new platforms that we have for making vaccines are much more rapid than we used to have.

[19:35:04]

So, we can keep up with the virus as long as we continue to invest in surveillance and in vaccine technology.

BURNETT: Well, I also, and I think this is really an important part of understanding this, right? There's a rush for people to get the vaccine. Of course, then they have questions about it because if you're vaccinated and the other strain is what you get, you could still get really sick. So there's that whole problem.

There's also the problem, however, of the fact that variants are coming out of places, you know, different places around the world, Brazil, right, and in Manaus, right, in the middle of the jungle, gateway to the Amazon, South Africa.

Dr. Fauci just said it, there's going to be more and more of them.

And how worried are you about that, that they are just going to continue to evade the vaccines?

LIPKIN: We are going to see the continued evolution of the virus. I don't think there's any question about that until we get ahead of it.

This is why we need to vaccinate people not only in the United States but worldwide. This is a worldwide problem, a global problem, as it was from the very beginning. So, we need to make certain as we build vaccines that we don't just use them here but make them available elsewhere.

And as I said earlier, we can get ahead of this curve because we can rapidly create new and improved vaccines. What is most important just as in the film "Contagion", the way we got out of that fictional pandemic was with a vaccine. This is the same thing we need to do here. You need to get out front with vaccines, employ them widely.

BURNETT: Right. So --

LIPKIN: So, during the interim, what can we do to keep ourselves safe? We need to improve our efforts in terms of masking and physical distancing and contact tracing and all of the things necessary to isolate people who are infected. I know there's a lot of enthusiasm for trying to close certain borders, but what we learned repeatedly with infectious diseases, is by the time you do that, it is already here.

So, almost certainly we are generating our own variants. So, Erin, while you talked about the gateway to the Amazon and so forth, we have the same sorts of immunological pressures in the United States. I would not be surprised if we had our own unique variants, we are generating right here in the United States that are going to frighten people elsewhere. We have to treat this as a global problem.

BURNETT: Yeah, yeah. Gosh.

All right. Dr. Lipkin, thank you very much. So important for people to understand. Thank you.

And next, GameStop still surging, its stock up 68 percent today, as some of the amateur investors fueling the surge have a new motto. Well, I guess new to them. Stop the steal.

And tonight, seven women that accused Trump of sexual misconduct, why they chose to watch Joe Biden's inauguration together.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:41:52]

BURNETT: Tonight, stocks sinking, thanks to a group of amateur traders. Dow falling nearly 621 points, which is a 2 percent decline and a worst week for stocks since October. Wall Street concerned about ripple effects of amateur traders investing in stocks like GameStop, or AMC Entertainment, the movie company. It sent those stocks soaring, creates uncertainty because the prices now are not reflective of the value of the companies.

But here's what we saw with stocks. GameStop up 400 percent this week.

My next guest has been following the story, says this movement is becoming a financial version of stop the steal, a fascinating way of putting it, and, you know, this is why we're seeing the politicians weigh in on this now.

OUTFRONT, James Surowiecki is back, former business reporter for "The New Yorker". So -- and also author of "Wisdom of Crowds."

I'm sorry, James, I'm having trouble speaking right now. I want comments about stop the steal in a moment, because I have found the political pickup on this incredible as former financial reporter myself. But GameStop stock up nearly 70 percent today, where the stock is trading is not reflective of the company's real value, right, there's a battle going on in the stock.

So, can amateur traders in this now and the other day traders that might have jumped on this, trying to make a quick buck, can they avoid a crash at this point or not?

JAMES SUROWIECKI, FORMER BUSINESS REPORTER, THE NEW YORKER: I don't know. We talked about it yesterday. Today was really fascinating because the stock did, in fact, rebound. Yesterday as you remember trading was restricted at a lot of brokerages, hard to buy GameStop, certainly for retail investors. And that in turn fueled conspiracy theories.

Today at most brokerages, you could buy GameStop, but only a small amount at a lot of retail brokerages, and yet as you said, the stock was up a ton. And it wasn't just GameStop, AMC, which is another one of these named stocks was like up 54 percent maybe, (INAUDIBLE) which is another was up at the time.

So, you really saw this kind of resilience in the face of what might have been panic, might have been in the wake of yesterday, you might have thought the will of these people would have cracked. It seems not to have. And that is really, really interesting.

BURNETT: I mean, it is fascinating. So, we saw, you know, traders start using the hash tag stop the steal yesterday when the training platforms restricted the trading in the stock. And this is now what you have been looking at, finding similarities between these traders and stop the steal election fraud movement, and it goes beyond a shared hashtag. Tell me what you found, James.

SUROWIECKI: Well, the way I think about it is that when this story started, it was kind of lighthearted. I mean, obviously there was a lot of money at stake, not that much in the grand scheme of things, a lot of money for people involved, it was rag tag band of underdog outsiders, kind of internet nerds challenging the man, somehow managing to pull it off.

[19:45:01]

It was, you know, revenge of the nerds the movie, but for finance. And it was people using social media for something kind of interesting, maybe not that nefarious. And there was something fun about it, which is why people got kind of fascinated by it.

But what happened yesterday when all the brokerages, in particular Robinhood, sort of the most popular brokerage among the kind of people that buy, have been buying the stocks, when they said you can't buy GameStop, you can sell it but you can't buy it, it really set people off and it really fueled this really deep conspiratorial, paranoid rage at the system. And, you know, a lot of accusations that this had basically been orchestrated by hedge funds who were trying to protect themselves, and that was what Robinhood in particular had done.

And the evidence is that that's not at all what happened.

BURNETT: Right.

SUROWIECKI: If you want, I can talk about what I think happened, but the anger in it was really interesting.

The other thing I would say, the reason it reminded me of two months after the election, when every single day on Twitter was a battle with people trying to explain why the vote dump in Wisconsin was an example of fraud was that the financial system is very complicated and if you don't know how it works and what the inner plumbings are, things happen for reasons that are just the way the system works that very easily can be interpreted in conspiratorial terms. I think that's what happened here and during the post-election period.

BURNETT: I think it is fascinating you point it out. And I guess to me I find it also a little bit of a wakeup call and disturbing, there's just a rush to believe in conspiracies from all corners, right? You have the left and right, and the people that are aligned siding with traders, my gosh. People in bed together politically now, I would laugh if we weren't in such serious times.

Thank you very much, James.

SUROWIECKI: I appreciate it. Thanks for having me on.

BURNETT: All right. Next, they call themselves sisters of a strange sorority, seven women who all accuse Trump of sexual misconduct, and we were with them as they watch Biden's inauguration together.

Plus, Congressman Matt Gaetz's response to our segment last night after we flip the script on his outrage over cancel culture.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:51:28]

BURNETT: Tonight, a cathartic and emotional moment of closure. Seventh women who accused Donald Trump of sexual misconduct gathering together to mark the end of his presidency.

Sunlen Serfaty is OUTFRONT.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Every emotion.

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For these seven women who have all accused Donald Trump of sexual misconduct, the end of the Trump presidency was personal.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: So, help me God.

(CHEERS)

SERFATY: And they needed to watch it happen together. For nearly two hours on Inauguration Day, the woman gathered on a CNN call they gave CNN access to. They burn sage --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is our salute.

SERFATY: Read poems they wrote.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I found no support, nothing seemed to change, for Donald Trump to suffer seemed out of range.

SERFATY: And gave blessings as they watch.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Today, I call for a balancing out of the pain and trauma that has filled each of our lives.

SERFATY: One woman who worked for Trump in the past set fire to her old Trump campaign business card.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Burn, baby, burn.

SERFATY: It was a party.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALES: Bye, bye.

SERFATY: And it was therapy.

ALVA JOHNSON, ACCUSED TRUMP OF SEXUAL ASSAULT: As unfortunate as all of our situations have been, the bright spot out of it all is that we have come together.

SERFATY: A chance for the women forever connected by their public allegations against Donald Trump, allegations he's consistently denied to get some closure.

KRISTIN ANDERSON, ACCUSED TRUMP OF SEXUAL ASSAULT: We were really alone until we came together and then we were able to make sense of the absurdity.

SERFATY: CNN spoke to many of the women who have started calling their group the Sisters of the Strange Sorority.

E. JEAN CARROLL, ACCUSED TRUMP OF SEXUAL ASSAULT: Having these women around me makes me feel great.

SERFATY: In January of 2019, many of the women met for the first time. They started a group text, a group playlist.

With cheeky songs like "Hit the Road Jack" and "You Can't Touch This."

After the pandemic hit, they took it to zoom, first in October and then again on election night.

CARROLL: There are groups all over America of women who get-togethers to talk about sexual harassment. Our group gets together to talk about a man who was the most powerful man in the world who put his hands on us.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A final toast.

CARROLL: Together toasting a turning point for Trump and for themselves.

NATASHA STOYNOFF, ACCUSED TRUMP OF SEXUAL ASSAULT: This moment watching them with the women was like a healing. We've been through a war together and we were seeing the triumph together.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ladies, we did it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BURNETT: So, Sunlen, you know, pretty amazing they did that and got together to share that moment. What happens to the group now that Trump is no longer in office?

SERFATY: Well, Erin, many of the women said they still need this group. They still need the support even with the former president out of the office and in fact, they are planning the next session where they will get-togethers on zoom to the start of the impeachment trial, they will jump on Zoom again. At these turning points, they really need to lean on other women and notably three of the women, Erin, they are still wrapped up in legal battles with the former president. Two of them are suing him for defamation.

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

And next, Matt Gaetz on defense tonight after we called out his cancel culture hypocrisy.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:58:26]

BURNETT: Tonight, Matt Gaetz is out of bounds and defensive about it. The congressman from Florida taking issue with something we pointed out on OUTFRONT last night, that his trip this week to Wyoming, 1500 miles from his Florida district, was to purge Liz Cheney from the party, cancelling her for not buying into the lie the election was stolen and cancelling her because she then voted to impeach President Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: It seems that Matt Gaetz should probably, I mean, if he's consistent, be outraged.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

REP. MATT GAETZ (R-FL): You are cancelled. That is the news of the day today. Cancel culture is in its ultimate zenith. We are living in the renaissance of cancel culture.

I'm not for the cancel culture.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

BURNETT: Well, except for you are.

So, Gaetz responded to our segment tweeting, cancellation is about removing someone from public debate. I welcome Liz Cheney's contribution to the debate, but I intend to win it from Washington to Wyoming. Except, he does in the welcome her contribution. That's the whole point. He went all the way to Wyoming during a pandemic to tell voters to end her contributions, to end part in this conversation, to kick her out of office.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GAETZ: We are in a battle for the soul of the Republican Party and I intend to win it. You can help me! You can help me break a corrupt system and send a representative who actually represents you and you can send Liz Cheney home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: The fact is Congressman Gaetz, you are trying to cancel Liz Cheney and for a person who rails against cancel culture, that's out of bounds.

We are learning from Jamie Gangel that George W. Bush plans to call Dick Cheney tomorrow and one reason is to thank him for his daughter's service. Thank you so much for joining us.

"AC360" starts now.