Return to Transcripts main page

The Situation Room

Democrats Promise Quick Move To Impeachment If 25th Amendment Push Fails; U.S. Capitol Police Names Acting Chief; Trump To Visit Border Wall On Tuesday In Texas; Source: Pence Has Not Ruled Out Invoking 25th Amendment; U.S. Reports 27,000-Plus Deaths Over The First 10 Days Of The Year; Officer Brian Sicknick Remembered As Proud Veteran. Aired 9-10p ET

Aired January 10, 2021 - 21:00   ET

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

[21:00:00]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN Breaking News.

WOLF BLITZER, HOST: Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world, I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington. This is a special edition to THE SITUATION ROOM. And we have breaking news right now here on CNN, the Speaker of the House laying out the steps to, if successful, remove President Donald Trump from office in the wake of that deadly Capitol Riot that shocked the country and indeed the world.

In just a few hours, the House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says she will attempt to pass a House Resolution by unanimous consent, calling for Vice President Mike Pence and the Trump cabinet to invoke the 25th amendment to the US Constitution. If the resolution ultimately fails and if Pence does not respond, Speaker Pelosi says the impeachment process on the floor of the House of Representatives will immediately begin this week.

CNN's Ryan Nobles is covering the breaking news from Capitol Hill for us. CNN's Jeremy Diamond is over at the White House for us. Ryan, there's also a pressing time issue, obviously, a short deadline that Speaker Pelosi is giving the Vice President to act, what are you learning?

RYAN NOBLES, CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Wolf, 24 hours. Nancy Pelosi essentially putting Vice President Mike Pence on the clock, asking him whether or not he plans to move forward with the effort to remove President Trump from office by using the 25th amendment. And if Vice President Pence says that he's not going in that direction or he doesn't respond to Pelosi within 24 hours, she said that she and her Democratic colleagues are prepared to move forward with articles of impeachment.

Now, the timing is a little bit vague from Speaker Pelosi. She said that she's going to introduce this resolution as early as Monday morning but then ask for unanimous consent. If she asked for unanimous consent, even one Republican could object and then force an up or down vote. That may not happen until Tuesday, which would mean that the impeachment proceedings wouldn't begin until Wednesday at the earliest.

Now, of course, we know that there is enough will in the House of Representatives right now with a Democratic majority, and even a few Republicans, to push through the articles of impeachment. The question is, what happens after them.

There appears to not be a similar will in the United States Senate with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to then begin the trial and then ultimate conviction of President Trump especially before he's scheduled to leave office in just the next 10 days, so there's the possibility that the Speaker holds on to those articles of impeachment until the Democrats take control of the Senate. Or perhaps, Mitch McConnell, if he receives those articles of impeachment just does nothing with him.

But at the very least, Wolf, this is the first tangible attempt by anyone here in the United States House of Representatives and the Congress of holding President Trump accountable for the actions that he partook in that led to this riot on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, Wolf.

BLITZER: There's something else, Ryan. In Speaker Pelosi's letter to her House colleagues today, it's about her concerns, serious concerns about other members of the House whom she says might have engaged in what she calls insurrection or rebellion. Tell our viewers what she's referring to, what potentially could happen?

NOBLES: Yes. Well, we talk a lot about the 25th amendment and how that relates to the president of the United States. But there is also a 14th amendment in the United States Constitution that allows the United States Congress to expel its own members if they believe that there's a problem or if they're engaged in "insurrection or rebellion."

And there have been some, you know, members of the House that have called on Speaker Pelosi to at least explore this option with some of these members, Republican members of the Congress that were either speaking at that rally that President Trump spoke at prior to the riot or the ones that have just engaged in kind of this false demagoguery as it relates to the election suggesting that President Trump won when he didn't.

Now, there have been some specific members that have been called out by other members. Democratic members of the House, we don't know specifically which one Speaker Pelosi is talking about. But it is interesting in this letter that she specifically says that she's going to elicit the opinions of her Democratic members to see whether or not it is worth it to take that step to invoke the 14th amendment. So this is just another wrinkle of the Speaker attempting to hold people accountable for what happened here on Wednesday.

BLITZER: Yes. I have the 14th amendment in front of me. And it concludes by saying, Congress made by a vote of two-thirds of each House removes such disability. So, you would need a two-thirds majority to remove these individuals from the House of Representatives. Jeremy, people close to the Vice President made it clear this weekend that using the 25th amendment was still potentially on the table that Mike Pence had not necessarily completely ruled it out, their silence from the President today and from people in his inner circle. Is there any indication at all, Jeremy, as to how these various tactics to remove the President from office are being received tonight?

JEREMY DIAMOND, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, one thing is clear, Wolf, is that according to our sources President Trump has no intention of resigning despite the pressure for him to resign and the calls for his impeachment or his removal from office through the 25th amendment. What is also clear is that, he's very likely, increasingly likely at least to become the first president in American history to be impeached twice.

[21:05:09]

That has never happened before in US history, and it may very well happen in the next week.

What this move though by the House Speaker Nancy Pelosi does, though, in terms of this resolution, calling on Mike Pence to invoke the 25th amendments along with the majority of the cabinet to strip President Trump of his powers. It ramps up the pressure on the Vice President to at least make his position clear on this. We don't know where Mike Pence stands on this other than the sources who have told us that, first of all, he's highly unlikely to actually invoke this but also that he's not taking it off the table.

We've, yet, to actually hear from the Vice President directly in terms of an on the record statement on what his stances on the 25th amendment, and this resolution by the House Speaker may very well increase the pressure on him to actually make his position known.

BLITZER: We'll find out presumably fairly soon. Jeremy Diamond, Ryan Nobles, guys, thanks very much.

I want to bring in Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna of California. Congressman, thanks so much for joining us. I know you support impeaching the President, but do you think the Vice President Mike Pence should invoke the 25th amendment to try to get rid of them even more quickly?

REP. RO KHANNA (D), CALIFORNIA: I do, Wolf. That's the simplest way because it just requires the Vice President and a majority of the cabinet. Now, President Trump could object but that would trigger a 21-day window. And by that time, his term would expire. And so, that would allow Vice President Pence to be able to assume the office and keep our country safe.

BLITZER: How do you think the Vice President might respond to this appeal from the Speaker?

KHANNA: I hope he will do the right thing. I mean, the key fact for me is he was the one by all reports, who ordered the National Guard to help save the Capitol. And to me that was the biggest dereliction of duty by the President. He wasn't willing to help save the Capitol.

And a lot of those protesters, Wolf, were actually attacking Republican lawmakers. So this is not partisan, this is about preserving our democracy. And I would have confidence in Vice President Pence to be president until Joe Biden takes office.

BLITZER: Pence clearly did the right thing, and when he was in the Senate. As president of the Senate, the Vice President, did the right thing in certifying the Electoral College results that Biden won the election. The President has been angry at him. We understand they haven't spoken to each other. President has not spoken to Pence at least since earlier on Wednesday.

The impeachment proceedings would be next, congressman, if the Vice President doesn't go forward with the 25th amendment. What do you say to your Republican colleagues who argue that impeachment would be divisive? Right now, earlier I spoke with Republican Congresswoman Nancy Mace of South Carolina, listen to what she told me.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. NANCY MACE (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: I've talked to some of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle today. I do believe there's an appetite whether that is censure or some other resolution or opportunity to move forward. And someone's got to be held accountable. And we have to hold the President accountable for what happened.

The rhetoric leading up to this vote, the lies that were told to the American people, this is what happens. Rhetoric has real consequences, and people died.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: So what's your reaction to her argument?

KHANNA: Well, she's right. Rhetoric has consequences. I mean, this was a seditious conspiracy, Wolf. You have the President of the United States giving a speech, telling people to go charge the Capitol, to go fight. Rudy Giuliani is there saying, call it a trial by combat. How can you have a president continue to represent us when you're attacking the very institutions of democracy?

I don't know, even in other countries where you have a leader tell people to go attack their own institutions. And so to me, it's just such a clear cut case that this person, Donald Trump, can no longer be president.

BLITZER: What do you think about this possibility of invoking the 14th amendment and passing a resolution to expel various members of the House of Representatives because they engaged in insurrection or rebellion?

KHANNA: Well, Wolf, I think we have to be very careful in fact base. I draw a distinction between those members who are actually inciting the protesters, who were either fist bumping or inciting a speech versus people who were actually opposing the results of certification. I totally disagree with those who oppose certification, but they were at least following some process. So, what I would do is have fact-based ethics investigations into people who actually incited the riots.

BLITZER: The House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, a man you know well, says the House may want to send the impeachment articles to the Senate, assuming it passes and everyone agrees. They have more than enough than the 218 votes. You need to pass a simple majority in the House.

[21:09:55]

He wants to potentially wait maybe 100 days to give the President- elect Joe Biden and his team an opportunity to get going, to get Senate confirmation of cabinet members, for example, to focus in on the deadly coronavirus pandemic, to make sure that people are getting vaccinated in huge numbers to deal with the economy, to deal with other issues. What do you think about that?

KHANNA: I have great admiration for Jim Clyburn, and probably no one is closer to President Biden. But I think we should send the impeachment articles right away for two reasons. First, it would put the ball in McConnell's court.

He shouldn't delay and let it be clear if he's not willing to hold the President accountable. And second, as you know, Wolf, these impeachment trials take three days. I think it was three days with President Clinton. It was three days in the first President Trump's impeachment trial. So, it's not going to cause that much delay.

BLITZER: Let me get your answer on another subject that's really clearly very important. The district you represent in Congress, Silicon Valley, the President has now been banned from Facebook, from Twitter, most other social media platforms, Instagram. It's controversial with some that are accusing these companies of what they call censorship, what is your response?

KHANNA: I don't think it is censorship because even Brandenburg, under the first amendment says that you cannot incite imminent violence. And that's what happened here. I mean, this is not the President being censored for his opinion.

Now, I do think it needs to be consistently applied. And if Khamenei in Iran is inciting violence in cases where he has that ought to be a permanent ban as well. But I think we can draw the line in saying no one should be on these social media platforms if they are actively inciting violence.

BLITZER: Congressman Ro Khanna of California, thanks so much for joining us. Stay safe out there. We'll be in touch with you.

KHANNA: Thank you, Wolf.

BLITZER: Coming up, we're going to take you inside the insurrection up on Capitol Hill with one CNN crew. You're going to want to see this video. It is so powerful, so dramatic. We'll share it with you when we come back. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[21:15:30]

BLITZER: If you want to know what happens when the President of the United States spends four years insisting the media is the enemy of the American people, look no further than these images we are about to show you. Our Alex Marquardt and our CNN crew, they braved Wednesday's violent and deadly riot up on Capitol Hill to capture what was unfolding. They were risking their lives.

Please be warned, the language you were about to see and the video you were about to see, very explicit and very graphic.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get out of here, motherfuckers.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. We got to go.

(Inaudible)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get out of here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't you touch me.

CROWD: USA. USA. USA. USA.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get out of here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get out of here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get the fuck out of here.

(Inaudible)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who are you with?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's more of us than you. There's more of us than you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: And that's just the beginning. It goes on and on, awful situation. That violence, the chaos that turned deadly on Wednesday has prompted lawmakers on both the left and the right to call on the President of the United States to resign.

And it's not just Congress, organizations including the Anti- Defamation League are echoing that sentiment, the nonprofit which works to combat bigotry here in the United States released a statement that says in part, "Wednesday will forever be remembered as one of the darkest days of American democracy and it makes unambiguously clear, President Trump is unfit for office and needs to be removed." Jonathan Greenblatt is the CEO and National Director of the ADL. He's joining us now. Jonathan, thank you so much for joining us. I understand as someone who's watched the ADL closely over the years, this is the first time in your organization's more than 100 year of history that it's actually called on a president of the United States to resign. Explain how you arrived at this decision.

JONATHAN GREENBLATT, CEO AND NATIONAL DIRECTOR, ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE: Well, Wolf, thank you for having me. And I'll just say, last Wednesday was a disgrace, and one of the darkest days our democracy has ever seen. And as you said, over 100 years, we've seen presidents from the Democratic side, the Republican side that have done things we really have not agreed with. That if we really held strong views about.

But as a 501C3, we cherish our status as a nonpartisan organization. But the sight of a president of the United States literally encouraging and egging on violence, inciting militants who stormed the Capitol, and literally via his Twitter account, cheering them on while they were assaulting police officers.

And then you had this scene, this image of neo-Nazis, people with Camp Auschwitz shirts, of KKK enthusiasts, of white supremacist and right wing extremists rampaging through the seat of our government, the temple of our democracy, and yet the President, not only could he not condemn them, he called them special people, and told them I love you.

Well, Wolf, that was a bridge too far for the ADL and myself, and my staff and my board. We all felt compelled that now is the time we need to think about what us, we as a country, can do and a president who would literally incite sedition, who would sanctioned violence against our own democratic government, the ADL, we had to say something.

BLITZER: And as you pointed out, Jonathan, one of those rioters who actually stormed the Capitol, and we got a picture, was wearing a sweatshirt that said Camp Auschwitz, Camp Auschwitz. That individual has now been identified. And there were others wearing neo-Nazi outfits as well making all sorts of declarations, hatred of Jews, hatred of blacks, hatred of Muslims, a lot of hatred that was going on.

How concerned, Jonathan, are you that all that hatred has been unleashed right now? And how much do you blame the President of the United States for promoting it?

GREENBLATT: Well, what I would say to you is that this past Wednesday, it was a watershed moment for the white supremacy -- was a watershed moment for the white supremacist movement in the United States, Wolf. And this administration will always, in the ranks of history, be bookended. From Charlottesville to Capitol Hill, to explosions of white supremacist violence, without any president in American history.

[21:20:08]

And to be clear, extremism and anti-Semitism and racism, it existed before President Trump and it will persist after. But his singular role in facilitating the ability to explode on our national mall, to literally lay siege at our nation's Capitol, Wolf, this was an American Benghazi, and he ignited it. And there is no parallel in our country's 240 year history.

I am very worried about what happens next. Make no mistakes, although indeed, as you said, individuals are being identified, arrested. Hopefully, they'll be prosecuted. And the ADL, our center on extremism is working with the FBI to identify these militants. That's what they are. They were militants who staged a terror attack.

But now, we're seeing chatter online on services like Telegram and Signal, Gab and Parler, how they are planning to stage more attacks. They feel energized and think of this as a victory, Wolf. They think of this as a high point. And so, I can't understate enough the alarm that we feel as these militants feel energized and more people feel radicalized across the country.

BLITZER: What can you tell us about these individuals who wear these shirts that say, it affects 6 million were not enough, 6 million Jews were slaughtered as you know during the Holocaust. But they have 6MWNE that they wear these shirts that they seem to be bragging about that. Well, I don't know much about it but what can you tell us about them?

GREENBLATT: Well, look, you have here, you had on display paraphernalia from many segments of the white, of the extreme right in the United States. You had neo-Nazis with Camp Auschwitz sweatshirts. Like you mentioned, there are 6 -- that 6MWNE, 6 million wasn't enough. You had right wing extremists who we can identify based on their different insignias and patches, Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, Three Percenters, (inaudible).

Wednesday was a who's who of the worst elements in society. People who despise Jews, hate blacks, and literally, Wolf, don't believe in our democracy. I want to be clear, this wasn't sort of the ladies auxiliary of the, you know, the Republican club. These were hardened, hardcore extremists. These were men who showed up with that military training in fatigues with weapons, ready to attack and kidnap our legislators.

It's difficult to put into words what this meant. But think of the Iranian revolution and the taking of the embassy, think of the siege of our consulate in Libya and Benghazi, and think of this event. That's how bad it was. And there would have been way more casualties, Wolf, way more casualties if these militants have their way.

BLITZER: I know the ADL monitors a lot of these hate groups and the hate incidents that have erupted over the United States. How bad is it right now, because you take a look every year at the explosion of this kind of hate.

GREENBLATT: Look, I'll tell you something. For almost 15 years, Wolf, the number of anti-Semitic incidents in the US was going down. In 2016, they spiked up in 2018. We had the massacre in Pittsburgh. And in 2019, we had the largest number of anti-Semitic incidents that we've ever recorded in 40 years. There's never been a time like this before. And by the way, anti-Asian racism is up and some reports are of almost 2,000 attacks on Asian Americans last year, a lot of hate spawned by the President around COVID-19. We've seen attacks on African Americans, anti-black racism spiked after George Floyd. So, you're seeing many different minority groups being attacked right now. I think this is literally DEFCON 1. We are very concerned.

And I'll tell you, one of the things we do at ADL is we have -- we really believe that social media has spread much of this hate, and the service Parler has become a big part of the problem.

BLITZER: It's an awful situation, indeed. Jonathan Greenblatt, thanks so much for joining us. Thanks for everything the ADL is doing. We certainly will stay in touch with you. Serious, serious problems unfolding, hard to believe this is happening in our country. Appreciate it very much.

GREENBLATT: Thank you, Wolf.

BLITZER: And please make sure to join me next hour, right at the top of the hour, for a CNN Special Report, "The Trump Insurrection: 24 Hours That Shook America." We're going to take a closer look at what exactly happened at the US Capitol and what's happening now. It airs, that's right after our SITUATION ROOM, top of the hour, right here on CNN.

President-elect Joe Biden says it's up to Congress now to decide how to sanction President Trump. A new CNN reporting includes details how the Biden team is actually working with the Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other top Democrats behind the scenes. We'll be right back.

[21:25:10]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: There's breaking news coming in THE SITUATION ROOM right now. It's directly related to the deadly riot here in Washington, DC on Wednesday. The US Capitol Police now naming a new acting chief. She is Yogananda Pittman now acting chief of the US Capitol Police.

Her predecessor, Steven Sund, resigned in the aftermath of the violent rioting at the Capitol, which left five people dead including a US Capitol Police Officer. According to the department, the acting Chief Pittman is a nearly 20 year veteran of the US Capitol Police Force and one of the first African American women in the force to achieve the rank of captain.

Meanwhile, calls to impeach President Trump for his role in inciting Wednesday's deadly siege up on Capitol Hill are growing on both sides of the aisle. And while President-elect Biden says it's Congress' decision on how to properly sanction Trump, he is concerned that an impeachment trial in the Senate will only bog down his pending agenda in his initial days.

CNN's Athena Jones is in Wilmington, Delaware, covering the transition for us. Athena, CNN is learning that Biden's advisors are recommending what potential ways to punish the President without necessarily hijacking the first 100 days of a new administration.

[21:30:02]

ATHENA JONES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Wolf, that's exactly right. The incoming Biden administration wants Congress to be ready to hit the ground running on legislation to bring the coronavirus pandemic under control to get vaccines into millions of arms and to jump-start the economy.

And so, to that end, President-elect Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and their respective advisers have been talking throughout this weekend, the goal being to try to find some sort of middle ground to, as you say, prevent his new administration from being bogged down with an impeachment trial from the beginning. And so they're trying to deal with some difficult dynamics here.

Among the things under discussion is what we heard from House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn this morning, this idea that the House would vote on this article of impeachment, but then wait until Biden's first 100 days in office have passed before sending that article to the Senate. The idea would be that, that way they can focus on this legislation and also focus on making sure that Biden can get his Cabinet nominees confirmed.

Another thing being discussed, another idea being discussed is censuring President Trump. The drawback there is that a censure would not prevent Trump from running for public office in the future. So, that is a drawback. And we now know that this is all going to begin tomorrow with this effort to push Vice President Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment with this resolution.

BLITZER: Yes, this is going to be a really, really dramatic and critically important week. And we'll watch it, of course, every step of the way. Athena, thank you very much for that report.

As the House debates how to go about impeaching President Trump for a second time, are there any political risks pushing through an impeachment with less than 10 days left in President Trump's terms? We'll discuss that and more when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[21:35:23]

BLITZER: We're following breaking news out of Capitol Hill right now. The House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will try to put the pressure on the Vice President Mike Pence following that deadly siege of Capitol Hill last week. House Democrats will introduce a resolution calling on Pence and the Trump Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment to the -- of the Constitution and remove President Trump from office.

He's got a deadline, 24 hours or else they will move forward with Trump's second impeachment proceedings on the House floor. And if that passes, as it almost certainly would, Trump would become the only the second American President in American history to be impeached twice. Rioters broke into the Speaker Pelosi's office during the insurrection. She spoke to "60 Minutes" tonight showed them the damage the rioters left behind. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), HOUSE SPEAKER: This door, they broke down, as you can see.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh my goodness.

PELOSI: They broke that down.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Look at that.

PELOSI: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They broke the door.

PELOSI: They smashed it and --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And went through to another door behind which Pelosi's young staff coward, terrorized.

PELOSI: The staff went under the table, that came with the door, turned out the light, and were silent in the dark --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Under the table --

PELOSI: -- under the table for two and a half hours.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Wow.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Let's bring in our Senior Political Analyst Ron Brownstein. Ron is also the senior editor over at "The Atlantic". We're going to speak about that in just a moment, but there's some news coming into THE SITUATION ROOM. I want to share with you and get your thoughts. The President now planning a trip this coming week to Alamo, Texas on Tuesday, specifically, to, in the words of the White House, mark the completion of more than 400 miles of border wall along the U.S.- Mexican border.

And effort supposedly the highlight his legacy promises kept in their words. But after Wednesday, it seems his legacy is likely to be much more about these last days of his presidency. First of all, what are you making this?

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, I mean, look, the President is unchastened as he has been and, you know, the fact that he is going to celebrate his wall, it took so long to even fly the flag at half-staff for the murdered police officer. I mean, all of it kind of suggests that he wants to go out on a note of bravado. And I think that is among the reasons why so many Democrats feel it is important to send an unequivocal signal, because unless you underscore the magnitude of what just happened, you are more likely to experience it again.

BLITZER: Yes, it's such an awful situation. What do you think one of the chances of Pelosi's call to the Vice President asking him to use the 25th Amendment of the Constitution? Get the cabinet to approve it to remove Trump from office, what are the chances you think of that happening?

BROWNSTEIN: Well, you would think that after the President sent him off to Capitol Hill that ended up chanting hang Mike Pence. He might be willing to kind of stand up for the Constitution for democracy for his own self-respect. But the fact that he hasn't done it to this point, I think makes it very unlikely that he is going to do that, which means the Democrats are going to have another vote on the floor in all likelihood to impeach President Trump.

BLITZER: So he'll be the second -- first time any American President has been impeached for a second time --

BROWNSTEIN: Right.

BLITZER: -- presumably, at some point down the road would go to the Senate for a trial and potentially conviction. What do you think is that likely to happen?

BROWNSTEIN: Well, look, I mean, again, I think, you know, you can't kind of look at what just happened in the past few days in kind of a normal political lens of kind of short-term advantage for either side. I mean, the question is, as Ben Jones (ph) said that night, is this the end of something or the beginning of something.

And if there is not a clear signal of consequences for all of those involved in this from top to bottom, given the extent of radicalization that the President has fomented over these last four years among white nationalists, the sense of empowerment he has created among them, the odds looked pretty grim that you will get more of this going forward unless you send a clear signal to everyone who was involved.

And I think, you know, the fact that Pelosi is talking about not only impeachment of the President, but the provisions of the 14th Amendment that relate to the ability of members of Congress to continue serving after advocating for sedition, I think is significant. And also the fact that Democrats like Joe Manchin, maybe a way of kind of, you know, pushing the issue off their own plate are talking about possible prosecution of the President and others who were involved in inciting this.

I mean, I think all of those questions are going to be very much front end center and the -- whatever desire of Joe Biden to kind of start with a clean slate look forward, not look back. I think there's going to be overwhelming demand in the party for accountability, not only because of the gravity of what happened, but also because of the recognition that if you don't impose accountability, you will allow this to further fester.

[21:40:18] BLITZER: Because we know that the incoming administration in 10 days, the Biden administration, they want to focus immediately on getting all the Cabinet members confirmed by the Senate. They want to deal with COVID, which is escalating big time. You're out in L.A., you know how awful it is over there. They want to focus in on the economy. They've got a lot of issues. A trial in the Senate, would that, you know, presumably, take a wave an opportunity to deal with all of that?

BROWNSTEIN: Yes. Look, there's no question that it is a complicate -- I mean, it would be an interruption, it would be a disruption. But, again, there have to be consequences (ph). Wolf, if I think one thing both of us have learned in the last year, when Jim Clyburn talks, it's important to listen to the signals of vis a vis, what it might mean for Joe Biden.

And if Jim Clyburn was on CNN earlier today saying, well, the House could impeach and the Senate -- and then hold the articles, and the Senate take it up after the initial consideration of Biden's appointments and maybe even the initial COVID relief package, you know, that's something to kind of file away because he doesn't speak ideally when it, you know, when it comes to Biden.

Again, I think there is an overwhelming consensus in the Democratic Party that -- and even a portion (ph) of the Republican Party, that there have to be serious consequences for what happened. That may not be Biden's instinct. His instinct may be to look forward. But this may be one where he may not have complete running room on his own.

BLITZER: And even if there were a trial in the Senate in 100 days, let's say, and he were convicted, that would mean he would never again be able to run for office here in the United States and that's something for the Democrats --

BROWNSTEIN: And that's a key a factor in that.

BLITZER: Yes, that's very important indeed. All right, Ron, thank you very, very much. Ron Brownstein --

BROWNSTEIN: Thanks, Wolf.

BLITZER: -- with some serious analysis.

Meanwhile, the world was certainly watching on Wednesday when that mob incited by President Trump shattered more than 200 years of tradition surrounding a peaceful transition of power here in the United States. The President of Ecuador has even postponed a scheduled trip to Washington, which was supposed to happen on Tuesday. CNN's Sam Kiley has more international reaction.

SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, it's Iran that is probably most relieved by the events that are unfolding now in Washington, D.C. to effectively try to tie the hands of Donald Trump in the dying days of his presidency, both within the White House and in the Democrat efforts to try to impeach him because it's Iran who was probably most fearful that he might do something erratic and potentially violent in the last few days of his presidency to cause a regional conflagration and permanently stymie any kind of diplomatic move forward towards restoring peace and lowering tensions. Wolf?

BLITZER: Sam, thank you very, very much.

And amidst all of these, as if the news were not bad enough, the U.S. now hitting records, awful records in the coronavirus pandemic. The former head of the FDA now says he's worried about how the vaccine is getting to people here in the United States. This is not good. We're going to update you on information you need to know about the vaccinations when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[21:47:11]

BLITZER: Much more on our breaking news in just a moment, but House Democrats -- that the breaking news, House Democrats moving forward with an impeachment of President Trump. But first, let's get the latest on this pandemic that continues to surge across the United States. Today alone, the U.S. has seen over 129,000 hospitalizations. So, why are a millions of coronavirus vaccine doses still sitting on the shelf?

Of roughly 22 million delivered doses, the CDC says, only about 6.7 million of them have actually gotten into Americans arms. The doctor who once ran the U.S. Food and Drug Administration says it might make sense to stop the vaccine rollout and start all over again. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. SCOTT GOTTLIEB, FORMER FDA COMMISSIONER: The game has changed on the vaccine. We really need to get this vaccine out more quickly because this is really our only tool, our only backs up against the spread of these new variants. If we can get a lot of people vaccinated quickly, we might be able to get enough protective immunity into the population that this stop spreading at the rate that it is. So we need to acknowledge that it's not working. We need to hit the reset and adopt a new strategy and trying to get that out to patients.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: We certainly do. Joining us now, the past President of the American Medical Association, Dr. Patrice Harris, and Dr. Peter Hotez, Professor and Dean of Tropical Medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine. Dr. Hotez, you heard Dr. Gottlieb, he is so concerned about the variants of the virus. He's so concerned about getting these vaccines out there. People are dying in record numbers here in the United States. What needs to be done?

DR. PETER HOTEZ, PROFESSOR AND DEAN OF TROPICAL MEDICINE, BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE: Yes, it's not just a variant, Wolf. You know, we were seeing -- we're moving up to 4,000 deaths per day. We're in freefall, and this is not become a full on homeland security crisis for the nation. We now have to vaccinate what I estimate about 1 to 2 million Americans every day from now over the next eight months in order to get 240 million Americans vaccinated or three quarters of the population. We're not even close to that, we've only -- we just turned only have given about 6.4 million doses.

So a few things have to happen. Number one, we've got to dramatically expand the number of sites where we're vaccinating. The pharmacy chains, it's great. The pharmacy chains have stepped up, it won't be enough. It's great. The hospitals have stepped up, it won't be enough.

We have to open up large venues that are adequately staffed and we did a beta test of that in Houston. Mayor Turner here in Houston opened up Minute Maid Park where the Astros play. And it was quite successfully, we got 3,000 vaccinated in a single day. We need to do more of that across the country, number one.

Number two, the -- we cannot manage complicated rules. We saw this with diagnostic testing, we've seen it with so many other aspects of our failed national COVID-19 response. We've got to be able to give a vaccine to anyone who wants it.

[21:50:01]

We cannot handle fussy regulations. Nobody understands it. We heard this tragic consequence of vaccine doses being thrown away because they didn't meet criteria is totally unacceptable. We need to vaccinate everyone who wants to get vaccinated. And three, we're going to need more vaccines.

The mRNA technology is not robust enough to do the whole job, we've known that from the beginning. We're going to have to bring in the adenovirus vaccines, the two of them from J&J and AstraZeneca, Oxford. The particle vaccine may be our vaccines. They're going to -- we're going to have to rely on those to be our workhorses as well.

BLITZER: Yes. It's hard to believe how awful it's started right now. Dr. Harris, I'm anxious to get your thoughts. Do they need to mobilize the U.S. military? What do they need to do to start getting these people vaccinated?

DR. PATRICE HARRIS, FORMER PRESIDENT, AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION: We are absolutely continuing to go in the wrong direction. We are setting records in California. They are looking at crisis standards of care. And so, we do need an all-in effort.

I agree with Dr. Hotez, we need these mass vaccination sites. In fact, just this past Friday, I received my first dose of the Moderna vaccine at a drive-thru mass site here in DeKalb County, in Fulton County. We had a mass vaccination site at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. So we need to call in FEMA. We need to call in all of our partners who can help get these vaccinations in arms.

It is absolutely tragic to be throwing any vaccine away. And I also agree it's a bit complicated right now. So many recommendations. Each state, of course, has their own processes. And it's very frustrating and very complicated. So we need to simplify it, get the vaccine in arms.

I think the President-elect has a good plan. Of course, they will also be looking at production. And that is the way to go. We need an all hands on deck moment here. We've actually needed that coordinated, comprehensive plan. We need it more than ever now.

BLITZER: It's a real serious problem. Very quickly, Dr. Hotez, in Israel, a country of about 8 million people, have already vaccinated what, 2 million, what are they doing right and we're doing wrong?

HOTEZ: Well, they have something called the National Health System where we don't. What we have, we have pharmacy chains, we have hospital chains, and we have allowed our public health system to decline, whereas, in Israel, it's well-suited for these kinds of mass types of initiatives. So, it's -- look, we can do it.

And let's face it, Wolf, we have to do it. I mean, we've squandered every opportunity to control this virus beginning when the virus entered Europe, into New York back in March. The stop failed to stop the southern surge, never got the diagnostic testing. We're not doing any genomic sequencing to speak up for missing variants. We failed to stop the fall search.

This is it. This is crunch time.

BLITZER: Yes.

HOTEZ: If we don't do this, we could, look, lose hundreds of thousands more American lives.

BLITZER: Yes. 4,000 Americans are dying almost every day. Dr. Harris, Dr. Hotez, thank you so much. Thanks for everything both of you are doing as well.

Meanwhile, we're getting new details just coming into THE SITUATION ROOM about the Capitol Hill police officer Brian Sicknick who lost his life during the Trump led insurrection on Capitol Hill. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[21:57:09]

BLITZER: I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington. I'll be back tomorrow 5:00 p.m. Eastern in THE SITUATION ROOM. A CNN special report, "The Trump Insurrection: 24 Hours That Shook America," that's coming up right at the top of the hour. That's coming up next.

But first, we leave you with Brian Todd's profile of U.S. Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, who lost his life during the insurrection on Capitol Hill.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: (voice-over): With flags lowered to half-staff, the Capitol Hill community is reeling over the death of a respected police officer, 42-year-old Brian Sicknick. But with their sorrow, some including members of Congress are also expressing anger.

REP. KATHERINE CLARK (D), MASSACHUSETTS: My heart goes out to Officer Sicknick's family. There are a lot of people who have officer Sicknick's blood on their hands.

THEORTIS "BUTCH" JONES, FORMER CAPITOL POLICE OFFICER: The way that they went out or the way that he died was unnecessary.

TODD (voice-over): Capitol Hill Police say Officer Sicknick was injured on Wednesday while, quote, physically engaging with protesters, that he then returned to his division office and collapsed. He died late Thursday. The youngest of three sons, born and raised in South River, New Jersey, Brian Sicknick is being called a hero by his family.

In a statement sent to CNN, the family is saying he wanted to be a police officer his entire life. As a means to that end, they say, he joined the New Jersey Air National Guard. That branch says Sicknick joined in 1997 was deployed to Saudi Arabia and Kyrgyzstan and served in a security force squadron, the air guard's military police. Sicknick was honorably discharged from the New Jersey Air National Guard in 2003, and joined the Capitol Hill Police in 2008.

Capitol Hill Police say Sicknick most recently served in the forces first responders unit. One former Capitol Hill officer says the job is dangerous even under normal circumstances.

JONES: Every day is your life is at danger. It's no promise that you're going to come home the next day or the same day that you go out. Every officer, they swears in, take the job very serious, protect Congress.

TODD (voice-over): Officer Sicknick and his colleagues, though by most accounts, overwhelmed by the rioters are drawing praise from members of Congress who they fought to protect.

PELOSI: Many of our Capitol Police just acted so bravely. And so, with such concern for the staff, for the members, for the Capitol, for the Capitol of the United States, many of the men -- and they deserve our gratitude.

REP. ANNIE KUSTER (D), NEW HAMPSHIRE: We were all very fortunate that the Capitol Hill Police that were there were thinking as quickly as they had. If they had automatic weapons, they could have killed hundreds of members of Congress.

TODD (voice-over): Now, one of the men who helped prevent that horror is being remembered by his family for his empathy, his commitment to rescuing dogs, his love of the New Jersey Devils Hockey team. Brian Sicknick had no children, but lived with his girlfriend of 11 years.

(END VIDEOTAPE)