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The Situation Room
U.S. Capitol Becomes a Fortress and D.C. on Lockdown as Threats Grow; Trump Allies Being Paid to Secure Pardons?; Interview with Representative Nancy Mace (R-SC) about Capitol Riot; Trump Expected to Issue Flurry of Pardons; Interview with Andrew Yang about Capitol Hill Attack; Grim Prediction from Biden's Incoming CDC Director on COVID- 19; Outspoken Putin Critic Detained in Russia After Poisoning. Aired 8-9p ET
Aired January 17, 2021 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[20:00:20]
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN 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 of THE SITUATION ROOM.
Right now we're with just three days to go until Joe Biden's inauguration, and we see a country on edge and on guard, bracing for protests both in the nation's Capitol right here in Washington, D.C., as well as state capitols all around the country.
Washington is a city that historically served as a symbol of democracy, feeling more like a fortress right now with some 25,000 National Guard troops deployed to prevent another deadly siege like the one we saw on January 6th. And today, shocking new footage released by "The New Yorker" gives us a fresh look at that assault on the U.S. Capitol.
Please be warned, what we're about to show you is very disturbing and the language is profane.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go, go.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Easy, easy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Fuck you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Fuck you, police.
(CROSSTALK)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: CNN's Jeremy Diamond is over at the White House for us. CNN's Shimon Prokupecz is tracking the security setup across Washington right now.
Shimon, how prepared do city officials feel they are right now going into this historic week?
SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Certainly, Wolf, they do feel very prepared. We're going to see even more preparation and even more traffic restrictions and pedestrian restrictions starting tomorrow. The National Guard really occupying all of Washington, D.C. at this point. At every intersection, you see guards, like the ones you see behind me here, preventing vehicles from entering certain locations. Tomorrow they're going to start restricting even more vehicles as they build out the perimeter, the security zone, even more, Wolf.
BLITZER: Yes, it's very -- tell us where you are. You're not exactly on Capitol Hill. You're closer to the White House, right?
PROKUPECZ: Yes, that's right, Wolf. We're about two miles away from Capitol Hill. We wanted to give you a different perspective because, as we know, Capitol Hill is entirely closed off, all the streets are closed off. There's fencing everywhere. But even as you go further out into some of the district, the security is very obvious. There are national troops all across Washington, D.C. at every intersection, with military vehicles like the one behind me blocking roads, some of them blocking the pedestrian ways.
This is all, obviously, the concern. Their whole point right now is to keep a lot of vehicles out of Washington, D.C. and for the most part, Wolf, it has been a very relatively quiet night. There aren't a lot of people on the streets. There aren't a lot of cars on the road, even less today than I've seen in the last few days.
BLITZER: Yes. The mayor, Mayor Bowser, is telling everyone just stay away from any of those areas, but telling people from outside of Washington, don't even think about coming to D.C. anytime this week.
Jeremy, President Trump has, what, three days left in the White House right now and Wednesday, I take it Wednesday morning, he's going to fly down to Florida, not attend the inauguration. How is he spending his final hours?
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, for a president who has made so much noise during his four years in office, all has been quiet here at the White House. This weekend, the president with no events on his public schedule. And in fact, we haven't even seen the president in public in five days. But, Wolf, that doesn't mean that the president is going to be leaving office quietly. In fact, we're hearing that the president is asking aides to organize a military-style sendoff as he leaves the White House and ultimately Joint Base Andrews for his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
And the president is also preparing, according to our sources, a flurry of additional pardons. We are hearing, Wolf, that while the president has already issued several dozen controversial pardons in the last few weeks, the president is expected to issue more pardons before he leaves office in just a few days. And of course, there are a number of questions around what types of pardons the president will issue, whether he will pardon himself. And there is also, of course, that question of whether or not he will pardon those rioters who stormed Capitol Hill just a week and a half ago.
[20:05:02]
But, Wolf, Lindsey Graham, one of the president's top allies, the U.S. senator from South Carolina, he was on another show this morning making clear that while there are people urging the president to pardon those rioters, he says that the president should not -- Wolf.
BLITZER: All right, Jeremy, thanks very much. Jeremy is over at the White House, Shimon is on the streets of Washington. We're going to get back to both of you.
Right now, I want to play a little bit more of that newly released "New Yorker" video showing the rioters as they stormed Capitol Hill. And the video captures the state of their mind. I want to warn our viewers once again the language is disturbing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just take off the fucking day.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Millions of Americans, all.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Start making a list, put all those names down, and we start hunting them down one by one.
(CHEERS)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Traitors to the guillotine.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're outnumbered. There's a fucking million of us out there, and we are listening to Trump, your boss.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And look, here. Look.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ted Cruz's objections to the Arizona --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: His objection. He was going to sell us out all along. Look. Objection to counting the electoral votes on the state of Arizona.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know --
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right. All right.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look at this.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's got to be something in here we can fucking use against these scumbags.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're not going to fall, man. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is good. Hawley, Cruz.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think Cruz would want us to do this, so.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think we're good.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: Republican Congresswoman Nancy Mace is joining us right now. She represents her district in South Carolina.
Congresswoman, thanks so much for joining us. Let me get your reaction to this shocking video that we just showed. And there is so much more that we haven't yet showed, but we will. What's your reaction?
REP. NANCY MACE (R-SC): Well, my reaction is the more we learn the worse it gets, quite frankly. Our lives were put at risk because the American people, millions of American people were lied to about the election. Congress had no business, authority or power to overturn the results of the electoral college. Neither did the vice president. And the president of the United States set the date, the time, the location of this event that happened on Capitol Hill and the rhetoric leading up to it is why all of this happened.
And as you know, as I've talked about with the press in the last week or so but my kids were supposed to be with me because they're in a virtual school that week, and I sent them home early because I was worried that the rhetoric would lead to violence. And my worst fears as a mom came true, and thank God my kids were not with me. I would have been devastated.
BLITZER: Yes. Thank God you're OK. I know that you went through hell during those few hours as they stormed Capitol Hill.
MACE: Yes.
BLITZER: What would be your reaction, Congresswoman? I'm just curious, I have no idea that the president is going to do this, if he were to issue a blanket pardon to those rioters, they all claim, so many of them, have publicly said they want to get a pardon because they were doing what they thought the commander-in-chief, the president of the United States was ordering them to do, storm Capitol Hill.
What would be your reaction if the president pardoned them before leaving office?
MACE: Dismay and shock. And honest to God, I hope that that is not what's happening. I hope that there are not folks that are encouraging him to do that. These people, every single person who stormed the Capitol needs to be held accountable. And I've read stories about family members that saw their family storming the Capitol and turning them in. And this is -- it was a very sad day for our nation. But we've got to heal. We need to rebuild our country, and we as a party, we need to work on rebuilding the Republican Party as well. BLITZER: The rioters, they, as I said, they repeatedly say they were
sent there by the president, they were sent there by Senator Ted Cruz, they say, Senator Josh Hawley. The president has now been impeached by the House of Representatives.
Do you think these senators, for example, should face consequences for their role and maybe some members, Republican members of the House of Representative, should face consequences for stirring up these rioters?
MACE: I do. And I think that any person of any party in any chamber should be held accountable. They should be investigated to the fullest extent of the law. We also understand allegedly there was a member of Congress who was also live tweeting the whereabouts of the speaker of the House. And I don't care how much you disagree with Nancy Pelosi, because I am quite conservative and I disagreed with her plenty of times, but that's not a reason to live tweet her location when the Capitol the doors are being breached and we're being stormed, and there is a violent riot that killed five people.
And so I do believe that there are people that need to be investigated and held accountable to the fullest extent of the law. So I support those measures.
BLITZER: This "New Yorker" video, there was one scene, it shows some people building, you know, and putting together a noose scaffolding and then they were screaming elsewhere, hang Mike Pence, the vice president of the United States, hang him, because he did what he constitutionally was required to do.
MACE: Right. Right.
[20:10:02]
BLITZER: Certify that the electoral college vote was accurate and precise. When you saw that noose and you hear the screaming, hang Mike Pence, what was your reaction to that?
MACE: It was shock. It was shocking to see that. I have a friend that shot some of the video, and one of the messages was, send the women home and go grab your guns, and storm the Capitol. I mean, it's so insane to me to see the gallow that was built out there. I mean, they were looking for blood. And it put so many lives at risk. These lies that were told after the election, if you wanted to have a debate about voter fraud and election integrity, well, that debate is over.
You don't have the ability to do that now because millions of people were lied to about certifying the electoral college. That rhetoric ratcheted up this event and caused this violence to happen. The same thing with the vice president. The president was saying that the vice president could overturn the results of the electoral college. And thank God, Vice President Mike Pence stood up and spoke up and said no, actually, that's not true.
And so I think it's going to take a long time for the country, for us to heal and for Republicans to realize that they were lied to about what could and could not happen on January 6th in the halls of Congress.
BLITZER: You know, there is a new CNN poll that just came out today, Congresswoman. It found that only 19 percent of your fellow Republicans believe that Biden legitimately won the election. And many of them sort of fed that, what's called that Stop the Steal line for a long time.
MACE: Right.
BLITZER: Is Republican leadership from your perspective doing enough to stop these lies?
MACE: Well, I will always invoke Reagan's 11th commandment and I won't call anyone out by name, but I do believe that the Republican Party, that there has to be some reconciliation within our party to recognize that, number one, we have a problem in this country. Even within our own party. Number two, that we need to take responsibility for our word and our actions. And three, we need to stop being part of the problem and start being part of the solution.
One of the reasons I've been so vocal is I want to offer a new voice for Republicans across the board going forward. No more QAnon conspiracy theories. Those days are gone. That is behind us, and we want to make sure that QAnon conspiracy theorists don't lead us into another constitutional crisis in the future. It is imperative that we lead ourselves out of this, that we heal our nation. And that starts with Joe Biden being sworn in later this week and that we start to find ways that we can start working together as a nation.
BLITZER: I know you didn't vote to impeach the president of the United States.
MACE: Yes.
BLITZER: What do you think the Senate should do once the trial begins there?
MACE: Well, we will cast a pall over the inauguration and what can and can't get done because the Senate will be consumed with that trial. I have questions about the constitutionality of the impeachment overall. There will be a debate in the Senate chambers on whether or not you can impeach a president when he's out of office. So all these are questions that we're going to have to have answered in the days and weeks to come.
BLITZER: And we'll certainly continue our conversations as well, Congresswoman Nancy Mace, Republican of South Carolina, I know you went through hell on January 6th. I'm grateful that you're OK right now. Good luck. We'll stay in touch.
MACE: Thank you so much.
BLITZER: President Trump only has three days left in office, but there are new questions about who he may pardon on his way out. We have new reporting. And that new reporting suggests there's potentially a lucrative scheme. Lots of money behind what's going on right now. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:16:51]
BLITZER: President Trump is expected to use his pardon power during his last days in office. And that has sparked already a rush to get on his pardon list. According to the "New York Times," some of the president's allies are actually collecting fees from wealthy felons or their associates to get access to the president in hopes of securing a pardon in these final few days. CNN's senior legal analyst former U.S. attorney Preet Bharara is joining us right now.
Preet, is this legal?
PREET BHARARA, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Well, it depends on the circumstances, it certainly smells. It certainly could prompt an investigation. You know, people keep referring to the final day or days of the Clinton administration and talking about some of the unseemly and smelly pardons that he issued. What people forget is with respect to the pardon issued to Marc Rich, who was a fugitive from prosecution in my former office, the Southern District of New York, that caused a serious federal investigation for a period of months.
No charges were ultimately brought. But there was enough of a stink about it that it required investigation. And some of the things in that report that you just mentioned may cause the same thing to happen. If you have someone like Rudy Giuliani suggesting for a $2 million fee, I can get you a pardon, that sounds like something more than a legitimate legal fee.
BLITZER: The president has issued so far, what, 42 pardons, nine commutations since the election. Has the usual process been corrupted, from your perspective?
BHARARA: Well, in some ways, it's been corrupted. It's also been completely evaded. There is an Office of Pardon Attorney that exists in the Department of Justice, that among other things, that's these pardon applications, these commutation applications for the purpose of trying to make sure that there is a good recommendation made to the president. Is it a worthy cause? Is it a worthy case? Has it been investigated? Is there undue influence that's being brought to bear?
And then the president under the Constitution has the absolute right to accept or decline the recommendation, but in almost every instance here, and probably going forward until Wednesday when he leaves office, the pardon attorney has been completely bypassed, so, A, there's a bypass in the normal process that will give people faith and confidence that it's being used for a just purpose.
And then also like you point out, that story that you mentioned a minute ago, and the fact that the president seems only to want to pardon people who are connected politically or connected to him to absolve them if guilt that may attach to him because they have tried to help him, yes, I'd say that's a corruption of the process. BLITZER: Sources have told CNN, Preet, the president has actually
talked about issuing pardons to himself and his kids, especially in the wake of the deadly insurrection up on Capitol Hill. The D.C., the district attorney, the attorney general I should say here in Washington, D.C., says that prosecutors could charge him with a misdemeanor.
Do you think the president will pardon himself and does that save him from future prosecution?
BHARARA: So, you know, it's been my belief that begin what Trump thinks and how he conducts himself and he doesn't feel shamed, he doesn't feel embarrassment from taking certain actions that should put blame upon him like self-pardoning, without there being a charge, that he probably will sometime before noon on Wednesday.
[20:20:04]
And that would absolve him of responsibility with respect to any case that the attorney general in D.C. would bring. It doesn't stop other cases from being brought as we've discussed before. You have the Manhattan district attorney in New York City who was contemplating charges in connection with an investigation of President Trump's finances, it wouldn't absolve him from that. If there's an investigation by local authorities in Georgia because of what he did with election interference there. A self-pardon, even if it was permitted and upheld in court, wouldn't have any bearing on any action being brought in Georgia either.
BLITZER: Some of those who actually participated in the deadly insurrection up on Capitol Hill on January 6th, they publicly already asked that the president pardon him -- pardon them. They say they thought they were doing what the president, the commander-in-chief ordered them to do. Senator Lindsey Graham has urged the president not to pardon them.
But do you think the president could grant pardons to those individuals who have been arrested and maybe even issue a blanket pardon to those who have not yet been arrested?
BHARARA: So, I believe under the Constitution, he has the power to do that. He doesn't have to name the people individually. That's happened before with respect to the draft dodging, for example, earlier in the history. And there will be federal cases, even though under D.C. local law in some instances. So he has the power and authority to do so. I think the one -- and I think maybe he feels that they're allies of his.
I mean, after all, when that siege took place, he said to those folks, I love you. They're his base, there's reporting that he was enthusiastic about their barging into the Capitol and engaging in this insurrection. I think the one, you know, possible legal-slash- political constraint on him would be that Congress is not done with him. There is to come, still, a Senate trial that arises from his incitement of these very people for whom there is a pardon questioned. And so to pardon these folks now over the objection of even the very
loyal ally like Lindsey Graham would be to beg the question of whether or not senators on the Republican side would choose to convict him at trial.
BLITZER: The president didn't only say he loved those individuals, he also called them patriots.
Preet Bharara, thanks so much for your expertise. We're deeply appreciative.
BHARARA: Thanks, Wolf.
BLITZER: And as we see a new video of the riot at the U.S. Capitol, state capitols around the country are also now preparing for potential violence in the leadup to inauguration day on Wednesday. We have new details coming into THE SITUATION ROOM on the preparations underway. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:27:05]
BLITZER: In state capitals all across the state right now, police and National Guard units are keeping a very high security profile just ahead of inauguration day on Wednesday, especially on state capitol grounds and over at statehouses. The FBI is now warning about the potential for armed and possibly violent protests in all 50 states by people unwilling to accept the fact that Donald Trump lost, lost the election to Joe Biden.
Juliette Kayyem is a CNN national security analyst, former assistant secretary for the Department of Homeland Security.
Juliette, thanks for joining us. We have some more of this shocking new footage from the rampage at the U.S. Capitol that has not been seen before today here on CNN. I want to play a little bit of it. And I want to warn our viewers once again there is profanity in these videos.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Fuck you, police.
UNIDENTIFIED RIOTERS: Fuck the blue.
(CHEERS)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: Well, there is a lot more of that horrendous video out there. We'll show more of it coming up. But tell our viewers, Juliette, what you see in that video.
JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: So I see two different things. I see a group of men feeling righteous, having been told to go up the hill. Having been told for weeks since the election online and through various sources by the president of the United States to fight and take back the vote. Those are the two words that Donald Trump consistently said.
He also on one stage says it's going to be a party. Right? In other words, he's expecting something to happen and so they're animated and I had every expectation of violence. Right? The other thing that's sort of shocking about that overall video is you can't watch it and not feel assaulted as an American. Whether you're a Democrat or Republican. The sort of disgustiness of how these domestic terrorists act.
They walk into the most pristine role in the Senate chambers and they say, this is our room. Right. They lost an election. No big deal. Lots of people lose elections. And I think it's that sense of sort of ownership over the American -- over America's democracy that should make us realize we have a real problem here. That this is a domestic terrorism problem of people incited by the president who fundamentally do not believe in our institutions of government.
BLITZER: Juliette, I want you and our viewers to watch this moment that happened right in the middle of the pandemonium of that day, a U.S. Capitol police officer, seemingly all alone, confronts a number of intruders on the floor of the U.S. Senate. Watch this.
KAYYEM: Yes.
[20:30:04]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. Just want to let you guys know this is like the sacredest place.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know. Hey, no, I'm going to take a seat in this guy's chair. Because Mike Pence is a fucking traitor.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Any chance I could get you guys to leave the Senate wing?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We will. I've been making sure they ain't disrespecting the place.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. Just want to let you guys know, this is like, the sacredest place.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know. Hey, no, I'm going to take a seat in this guy's chair. Because Mike Pence is a fucking traitor.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: So, Juliette, from a law enforcement standpoint, how did that Capitol police officer handle that confrontation?
KAYYEM: He was completely outnumbered. And I'm glad that we're showing this because I think there's a lot of speculation and stories about the Capitol Police. No question that lots went wrong, in particular, they're pre-positioning. But the thorough review that's going to be done by General Honore is absolutely necessary because in that moment he needs to do two things. One is, he's outnumbered. And number two, he needs to deescalate.
And so I think you saw both of those happening simultaneously. So the fact that he didn't, you know, use his gun or try to physically move them but just sort of try to talk them out of sit appropriate. I should say, for all that we're showing, this is Luke Mogelson's video from "The New Yorker." And it's -- there is no other video you see. This is the thing that you should see. Because it does show just how violent this could have gotten.
I mean, they're dropping -- I mean, look, they're dropping the F-bomb every other moment about where the F are the senators, where the F is Nancy? They clearly were on a hunt. And I think we can't forget just how close this came to satisfying, you know, Donald Trump's sort of perverse vision of how he would go out. Right? He was going to go out with a fight.
BLITZER: Yes. They want to hunt for the vice president as well.
KAYYEM: Yes. Yes.
BLITZER: Because he did what he had to do, certify the electoral college vote and you could see that noose that was being created over there. And you can hear them screaming, hang Mike Pence, hang Pence, hang Pence. I mean, it was awful.
All right, Juliette, thank you very, very much.
KAYYEM: Thank you.
BLITZER: We're going to have, as I said, more of that shocking new video from inside the U.S. Capitol insurrection, just how dangerous it was that video shows us. This as new threats are forcing states around the United States to step up security precautions right now.
Andrew Yang is standing by. We have lots to discuss.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:37:11]
BLITZER: More now from that chilling new video shot and edited by "The New Yorker" on the Capitol Hill insurrection on January 6th. And once again, a warning that along with a truly shocking images you're about to see, you're going to hear more graphic language.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Knock, knock. We're here. (CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where the fuck are they?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where are they?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: While we're here we might as well set up a government.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, let's take a seat, people. Let's take a seat.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nancy Pelosi.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's vote on some shit.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where the fuck is Nancy?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We paid for it. This is our house.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, get out that chair.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. This is our chair.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I agree with you brother but it's not ours.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're a democracy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It belongs to the vice president of the United States.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But he's in here. It's not our chair. Look, I love you, guys. We're brothers but we can't be disrespectful.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, don't disrespect.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They can steal an election, we can't sit in their chairs?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: Former 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang is joining us. He is now formally running for the mayoral race in New York City, wants to win the mayoral nomination.
Andrew, thank you so much for joining us. Let's talk politics in a few moments. But the FBI has not only put Washington, D.C. on high alert but also 50 state capitals, major cities across the United States. You're in New York City. How concerned are you about what you're seeing as far as these ongoing threats are concerned?
ANDREW YANG (D), FORMER 2020 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think people should be concerned about what's happening around state capitals, Wolf, because the reality is a lot of these extremists know that D.C. is going to be on lockdown, that there's going to be a very, very stern reaction to anything that happens in D.C. and I think many of them will regard state capitals as softer targets and also they'll be more proximate to them. Instead of having everyone head to D.C. people may head to their local state capital to protest. And I hope that those protests are peaceful.
BLITZER: So who do you blame for what's happening in our country right now? Three days to go until the inauguration, I'm here in Washington and it's almost like a fortress. Who do you blame?
YANG: We've been having an ongoing disintegration in America for years, Wolf. And when I was running for president, I talked about the fact that millions of Americans have seen their livelihoods disappear over that number of years. Our media has become more and more polarized.
[20:40:02]
People are getting alternative sets of facts and then social media's supercharged conspiracy theories, where you have people who are in alternate versions of reality and then that was fed by partisan rhetoric. There have been a lot of factors contributing to this. But it's been building for years. And unfortunately, it's not going to end with Donald Trump's removal from the White House.
I think that this period, the inauguration, it's a very real threat and problem, but I am actually more concerned about what's going to happen ongoing because there are many, many Americans who are very much a part of this extremist movement that's going to persist for, in my opinion, years.
BLITZER: So what are your deep fears?
YANG: Well, my deep fears are that it's too late. That our institutions are not going to be able to reform the fabric of our society. And right now, you have to look at it and say that there are more things that are pulling us apart than are bringing us together. It's one reason why I am thrilled that Joe is going to be sworn in. Joe is naturally a unifier and Joe has been championing things like these $1400 checks on top of the $600 checks that I think are going to get the boot off a lot of people's throats.
Because a lot of folks are suffering an extreme economic deprivation right now, Wolf. I saw a recent study that said six in 10 American families, 60 percent are suffering with some form of financial hardship right now and a significant proportion of those are suffering extreme hardship. I'm seeing that around me every day.
BLITZER: Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in New York has said she doesn't think the Biden plan goes far enough. Do you agree with her? Is she right?
YANG: I think she is right. But I am confident that Joe has a plan and then as soon as that plan is kicked off, that he's going to see what the needs of the American people are and just continue to gather resource and deploy them and put them to work. The $1400 checks would be a game changer for tens of millions of Americans. Right now, the last thing I saw, 85 percent of Americans support cash relief during the pandemic.
But that cash will not last that long. Our economy is shattered. And it is not healing at all in the way that people might have hoped a number of months ago. I mean, you're still seeing coronavirus rates increase in various communities that are keeping people locked down in many environments. So I agree with AOC on this. But I have a feeling that Joe thinks the same thing. You know, I think that this $1.9 trillion plan is a fantastic way to start. But I don't think that anyone believes that that's actually going to be enough to heal the economy altogether.
BLITZER: Before I let you go, Andrew, I know you're running for mayor of New York City right now. What -- give me one or two or three of the main campaign issues you're focusing in on.
YANG: The big thing right now, Wolf, is we have to get New York City back on its feet and make it the post-COVID comeback city. Right now, New York City's unemployment rate is twice the natural average. We're missing 60 million tourists that used to support over 300,000 jobs. And so my plan is to make New York City a catalyst for people to be able to demonstrate that they've been vaccinated so that we can safely convene. Imagine just being able to flash your smartphone that says you were vaccinated two months ago and then you can go into that office or a theater or a restaurant safely. That the kind of leadership we need to get New York City back on the road to recovery. But it's a very, very tough time for many New Yorkers.
BLITZER: It's going to be an intense time for all of us here in the United States in the coming weeks and months and this COVID pandemic is by no means over. In fact, it's getting worse and worse.
Andrew Yang, thanks as usual for joining us.
YANG: Thanks, Wolf. Go Bills.
BLITZER: Go Bills. Go Bills, indeed. We won, but we got two more games to go. We hope.
A quick programing note for our viewers later tonight, you don't want to miss a CNN Special Report, "KAMALA HARRIS MAKING HISTORY." CNN's Abby Phillip takes a closer look at the woman set to make history as America's vice president. That's later tonight 10:00 p.m. Eastern right after THE SITUATION ROOM. And we'll have much more on the security preparations under way at capitals all across the United States right now.
We are also following major developments on the coronavirus pandemic. The U.S. is now on the verge of surpassing yet another horrific record. And now the incoming CDC director has a very, very stark warning. A prediction about what lies ahead. We'll be right back.
[20:45:00]
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BLITZER: As the U.S. closes in on a shocking 400,000 coronavirus deaths over the past year the incoming director of the CDC is now warning it's going to get much, much worse. Listen.
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DR. ROCHELLE WALENSKY, INCOMING CDC DIRECTOR: Nearly 4,000 deaths a day. Almost 400,000 deaths total by the middle of February. We expect half a million deaths in this country. That doesn't speak to the tens of thousands of people who are living with yet uncharacterized syndrome after they've recovered. And we still yet haven't seen the ramifications of what happened from the holiday travel, from holiday gathering in terms of high rates of hospitalizations and the deaths thereafter.
[20:50:08]
So yes, I think we still have some dark weeks ahead.
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BLITZER: Dr. Ashish Jha is joining us right now. He's the dean of Brown University School of Public Health.
Dr, Jha, thank you so much for joining us. Do you agree with Dr. Walensky?
DR. ASHISH JHA, DEAN. BROWN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: Good evening, Wolf. Thanks for having me on. And unfortunately I do. Dr. Walensky is telling the hard truth of where we are and how the administration is leading the pandemic, and what lies ahead over the next four to six weeks.
BLITZER: How confident are you, Dr. Jha, that the incoming Biden administration will address these critically important life and death issues and actually fix the problems?
JHA: Well, I do think they're going to address them and that really becomes obvious when you look at who they've hired into the critical roles. They're bringing in experts, they're bringing in people with experience, people who actually understand the disease. That's a sharp break from the Trump administration that had a lot of people who seemed to fundamentally not understand infectious disease outbreaks.
The challenge is that it's going to be very difficult for them to turn this around quickly. It's going to take weeks if not months to do the set up things that are necessary. We're all going to have to be patient. I do think we'll get there but it's going to be hard.
BLITZER: The key right now is getting everyone at least as many as possible vaccinated. There was some understandable confusion and outrage, Dr. Jha, this week when we learned that there was, quote, "no reserve stockpile of vaccines," that the Trump administration has released all the doses that it actually had. And today Dr. Fauci said the whole thing was a misunderstanding. So what is your understanding? What is your assessment of what's going
on right now? Because we have to vaccinate millions and millions of Americans and do it quickly.
JHA: Yes. It's just -- I've come to conclude having spoken with the companies, having spoken -- watching Dr. Fauci and others, that it's just poor communication on the part of the White House. And that actually is a real problem because when the White House communicates badly, gives bad information to states, it hampers states' ability to do what they need to do to get people vaccinated.
So clear communication from the White House is going to be really, really important. I do think we have vaccine doses that are coming to the states in the days and weeks ahead. But, boy, this was a lot of confusion that did not help the American people.
BLITZER: You've suggested that some of the highest risk communities here in the United States are not getting the vaccine that they needed right now. Explain your fear.
JHA: Yes, I'm worried about this, Wolf. We're just seeing some preliminary data. I don't want to overstate what data we have but the very early data suggests that we're not doing a very good job of getting vaccines into those communities that have been hit so hard. Communities of color, African-American, Latino, Native American communities. That's not where the vaccinations are happening right now. I'm worried that unless we really make a concerted effort to set up vaccine sites, to deal with vaccine hesitancy in those communities, we're going to end up creating a further divide that we can't afford.
BLITZER: And getting back to the fear expressed by Dr. Walensky the first two weeks of 2021 this new year have been the deadliest of the entire pandemic going back to January of last year when there was the first confirmed coronavirus case here in the United States. You know, what, think about it the next few days maybe as early as tomorrow 400,000 Americans will have died from this virus and so many more, I mean, have gotten it and are still suffering. They've got long-term ramifications from this disease.
What's your assessment? How much worse is it going to get?
JHA: Yes. So some of it is kind of baked in. Meaning that there are so many infections that we're going to see 3,000 to 4,000 deaths a day, that's 20,000 to 25,000 deaths a week. At least for the next three or four weeks. Maybe longer than that. What happens after that is really up to us.
It also depends on how quickly the new administration can really ramp up things. I think, you know, the bottom line is through the end of February into March we should expect a lot of people suffering, a lot of deaths. I'm hoping that things start turning around after that especially if we can really vaccinate high risk people.
BLITZER: Let's hope that happens. Dr. Jha, as usual, thanks so much for joining us. Thanks for everything you're doing. We're grateful to you. JHA: Thank you, Wolf.
BLITZER: A vocal critic of the Russian government who just survived a poisoning from five months ago is now back in Russia and behind bars. We'll update you on that and all the breaking news when we come back.
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[20:58:40]
BLITZER: A very vocal critic of the Russian government who survived being poisoned five months ago returned to Russia today and was immediately detained. Alexei Navalny is an opposition leader in Russia and is especially outspoken against President Vladimir Putin. He has been in Germany since August after nearly dying from a military grade nerve agent.
President-elect Joe Biden's incoming National Security adviser is joining top European diplomats in condemning Navalny's detention and calling for his immediate release.
CNN's Frederik Pleitgen is in Moscow.
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, there, Wolf. Yes, it's almost unbelievable the drama that unfolded here in Moscow tonight. Originally Alexei Navalny's plane was supposed to fly into a different airport here in the Russian capital. A lot of his supporters were waiting there, a lot of journalists were waiting as well. Riot cops were also on the scene. People had been detained there and then just minutes before that plane was supposed to land miraculously all air traffic into that airport was shut down and the plane had to divert here to a different airport in Moscow.
Now originally Alexei Navalny was let off the plane. However, once he got to border control he was detained there. Now the Russian Federal Prison Service is saying that he's wanted in connection to another criminal case which he says is politically cooked up. But they also say that he has to remain in detention until at least January 29th when a hearing is supposed to take place. Before he was detained, briefly spoke to some of the reporters that were with him on that plane.
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