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The Situation Room
Biden Stays Focused On COVID-19 Relief Package; Trump Impeachment Trial Begins; Interview With Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL); Sources Say, Trump Unhappy With Performance of 'Defense Team;' Vaccine Rollout In The U.S. Said To Be Working, Especially In Nursing Homes; Two-Hundred-Plus Now Charged In Connection With U.S. Capitol Riot. Aired 6-7p ET
Aired February 09, 2021 - 18:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[18:00:02]
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: But he couldn't get them because they didn't want to represent him.
JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: All right, our coverage continues right now with Wolf Blitzer in "THE SITUATION ROOM."
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: And welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer in THE SITUATION ROOM.
We're following breaking news on the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump. After an opening round of arguments, the U.S. Senate just voted that the trial is, in fact, constitutional, six Republicans agreeing with all 50 Democrats that the Senate can move forward with trying the 45th president of the United States, even though he's no longer in office.
Starting tomorrow at noon Eastern, House Democrats and Trump defense lawyers will begin arguing the merits of the single article of impeachment charging Trump with inciting the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol a month ago.
Let's go right to Capitol Hill right now. Our congressional correspondent, Ryan Nobles, is joining us.
So, Ryan, we got a taste of both sides' cases today, including dramatic video evidence.
RYAN NOBLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Wolf, you could describe it as the pregame show before the trial begins in earnest tomorrow, an argument over the constitutionality of these proceedings.
And it was six Republicans joining all 50 Democrats and agreeing that even though former president Donald Trump is no longer in office, this impeachment trial against him is still constitutional.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NOBLES (voice-over): On day one of the second impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump, the Democratic House impeachment managers wasted no time getting to their most damning evidence. The prosecutors unveiled a documentary-style video that meticulously constructed the timeline of events on January 6.
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: After this, we're going to walk down. And I will be there with you. We're going to walk down. We're going to walk down to the Capitol.
NOBLES: Editing together Trump's speech, his tweets and his video messages to supporters, while they responded and attacked the Capitol.
SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): President Trump claims the election was stolen. But, my colleagues, nothing before us proves illegality anywhere near the massive scale that would have tipped the entire election.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's not about the good people of Arizona.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And we will stand in recess until the call of the chair.
NOBLES: The video was designed to remind the Republican jurors in particular of the riots they experienced a little more than a month ago, pinning the blame on the former president.
REP. JAMIE RASKIN (D-MD): That's a high crime and misdemeanor. If that's not an impeachable offense, then there is no such thing.
NOBLES: Their presentation even impressed the Trump legal team.
BRUCE CASTOR, IMPEACHMENT ATTORNEY FOR DONALD TRUMP: The House managers who spoke earlier were brilliant speakers. I will be quite frank with you. We changed what we were going to do on account that we thought that the House managers' presentation was well done.
NOBLES: Today's debate, though, was not over impeachment, but instead the constitutional standing of the trial itself.
Trump's legal team argues that, because he's no longer in office, he cannot be convicted.
CASTOR: The majority in the House of Representatives does not want to face Donald Trump as a political rival in the future. That's the real reason we're here. And that's why they have to get over the jurisdictional hurdle, which they can't get over. But that's why they have to get over that in order to get to the part of the Constitution that allows removal.
NOBLES: But Democrats came prepared to offer evidence to the contrary. They used opinions from conservative constitutional experts who've argued former officials already out of office can still be impeached.
REP. JOE NEGUSE (D-CO): The text of the Constitution makes clear there is no January exception to the impeachment power, that presidents can't commit grave offenses in their final days and escape any congressional response. That's not how our Constitution works.
NOBLES: Lead impeachment manager Jamie Raskin making that case on a personal level.
RASKIN: And when they were finally rescued over an hour later by Capitol officers, and we were together, I hugged them, and I apologized, and I told my daughter Tabitha, I told her how sorry I was, and I promised her that it would not be like this again the next time she came back to the Capitol with me.
[18:05:00]
And you know what she said? She said: "Dad, I don't want to come back to the Capitol."
Of all the terrible, brutal things I saw and I heard on that day and since then, that one hit me the hardest.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NOBLES: And one person who was disappointed with this first day of the impeachment trial, the person who it matters the most to, the former President, Donald Trump, two sources telling our Kaitlan Collins that he was very upset with the presentation of Bruce Castor, the first attorney who made the case in his favor, almost screaming at the television at certain parts.
He wasn't the only one. A number of Republican senators echoing that disappointment in Castor's presentation. Wolf, one of them, Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, actually changing his vote. He originally voted a couple of weeks ago that he thought that this trial was unconstitutional. Today, he agreed with Democrats that he should move forward.
BLITZER: Yes, that lawyer, Castor, was awful, awful, indeed.
All right, thanks very much, Ryan, for that.
Let's dig deeper right now.
Our chief political correspondent, Dana Bash, is with us. Our senior political correspondent, Abby Phillip, is here, CNN chief national correspondent John King, and CNN contributor former impeachment counsel for House Democrats Norm Eisen.
John, the former president very unhappy right now with the performance of his, let's say, so-called defense team. They weren't much of a defense team at all.
Are Bruce Castor and David Schoen simply outmatched by the House impeachment managers?
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: They certainly were today, Wolf. The question today was, is this fitting? Is this constitutional? Does
the Senate have jurisdiction over a now former president? Important to remember he was president when he was impeached by the House, now a former president. Do they have jurisdiction. They were outmatched today. They were blown away today.
Again, the House Democrats came in with a historical argument about the founders and the framers and what they meant for accountability. They came up with the facts of January 6. They made a very powerful video presentation as well. And the president's lawyers mostly -- former president's lawyers mostly rambled.
That does not mean they can't adjust. Now we get to the facts. Now this is not about the constitutionality anymore, although the House Democrats certainly today brought facts into their presentation about the Constitution. We will see.
But if you are on the president's defense team, you're nervous tonight, and you're calling every friend you have trying to get help, because you were outmatched today, without a doubt.
BLITZER: Yes, no doubt.
Norm, you have a lot of experience in this area. You were the impeachment counsel for the House Democrats during the last Trump impeachment trial a year ago. That was the first one he had to go through.
Give us your assessment of the performances by Mr. Trump's lawyers.
NORMAN EISEN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Wolf, it was abysmal.
But the style of it -- Castor, of course, was terrible. I can't remember seeing any advocate in a high-stakes matter in the 30 years that I have been at the bar face-plant as spectacularly as Mr. Castor.
Schoen was marginally better. But the style points match the substance, Wolf. Look at the extraordinary nature of what these lawyers, the president and the president's enablers are asking us to swallow, the worst conduct, I think the most impeachable conduct by a president in the history of the United States.
He incited an insurrection against his own government. Five people died. And yet many in his party, his lawyers, the president himself, defend that. That is indefensible. So, we shouldn't let the tragic, total collapse of style blind us to the substance.
Maybe they didn't make the good argument because this conduct is indefensible.
BLITZER: You know, Dana, the former president's defense team, these two lawyers, they lost the support of one key Republican senator, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana. He changed his mind. What does that tell you?
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: That he listened. And he said so. He said to our colleague Ted Barrett that he listened to the arguments on this specific issue of constitutionality, and was persuaded that it is in fact constitutional to try a former president.
And he was not persuaded by the president's -- former president's defense team, largely because they didn't even really try to make that argument. And so I think what it tells you is that there aren't very many Republicans -- when I say very many, there was only one Republican -- actually willing to listen and be the open-minded juror that they all took an oath to be.
I just hung up with a Republican senator who did not vote that way, who was among the many who were saying how horrible the Trump defense team was.
[18:10:03]
And the question is, OK, so why didn't you vote the way that the House Democrats argued? And the answer was: "I already made up my mind. I already believe that it is not constitutional, regardless of what happened today."
So, there's your answer as to how this trial is actually going and probably will go in the days and maybe week to come.
BLITZER: Yes, we will see how many days it continues.
Abby, on the part of the House impeachment managers, especially the lead manager, Jamie Raskin, the Democratic congressman from Maryland, we heard a serious and very emotional appeal. This is very personal for all of them as well. It's very personal for members of the House and the Senate, because they were attacked on January 6.
ABBY PHILLIP, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right.
I mean, this is -- they are sitting in the scene of the crime. They are all witnesses of that crime. And particularly for Jamie Raskin, you heard him talking about his personal experience, having his daughter and son-in-law with him while experiencing this just days after he lost one of his children to suicide.
It also brings up the horror of what happened on that day. The House impeachment managers recognize that what is going to happen on the other side of this argument is an attempt to desensitize everyone to what happened, an attempt to take out the emotion from the room, to make people forget that what happened on January 6 was actually a deadly, bloody riot in which people lost their lives, in which police officers were maimed.
And the House impeachment management argument here is that you can't forget, you can't disassociate the horror from the actual case that they are making against former President Trump.
And part of that is the emotion not just of Jamie Raskin's personal pain, but also of what they all experienced, the terror, the post- traumatic stress that many of them are experiencing that they still live with today.
BLITZER: And so many of them now have to go walk around Capitol Hill and elsewhere with security guards as a result of what happened then.
Everybody, stand by. We're following all of these developments.
Just ahead, the Senate majority whip, Dick Durbin -- there he is -- he standing by. We will discuss about this dramatic opening day of Trump's second impeachment trial and what comes next. We will discuss that.
And we will also have the very latest on President Biden. He's trying to ignore the trial, at least publicly, right now, his focus, understandably so, on COVID relief legislation.
We will be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[18:16:38]
BLITZER: This hour's breaking news, the United States Senate voted to go ahead and hold former President Trump's second impeachment trial. Six Republican senators joined with all 50 Democrats in a vote agreeing that the trial is, in fact, constitutional. That's one more Republican than the last time the Senate voted to go ahead with the trial.
The sixth vote was from Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BILL CASSIDY (R-LA): The House managers were focused. They were organized.
They relied upon both precedent, the Constitution, and legal scholars. They made a compelling argument.
President Trump's team were disorganized. They did everything they could but to talk about the question at hand. And when they talked about it, they kind of glided over it, almost as if they were embarrassed of their arguments.
Now, if I'm an impartial juror, and one side is doing a great job, and the other side is doing a terrible job on the issue at hand, as an impartial juror, I'm going to vote for the side that did the good job.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: We're joined now by Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois. He's the majority whip, the second-ranking Democrat in the Senate leadership.
Senator, thanks so much for joining us.
What do you make of that explanation we heard from your Republican colleague Bill Cassidy?
SEN. RICHARD DURBIN (D-IL): I couldn't have said it better myself. I mean, Senator Cassidy really laid it out. It was a powerful presentation. Let me tell you, it's been a number of
years since I have been in a courtroom. The last thing you want in a courtroom is a surprise. The president's lawyer opened up by saying, well, we were surprised by what the other side just told us.
And what they told us, Mr. Raskin, the congressman who's leading the House argument, he started off by telling us what happened on January 6. They played a compelling, moving, vivid video that really capsulized the entire time frame, from the president's speech until the end of the day.
You couldn't take your eyes off of it for a minute. They captured the scene right there in the Capitol that many of us were running away from, for fear we were going to be hurt or worse.
BLITZER: And that video clearly captured the former president's words with what was going on, the deeds that were going on in the House of Representatives and the Senate, the U.S. Capitol, that day.
The defense team, the former president's defense team, they are arguing the trial will only further divide the country, that former President Trump is already out of office. How do you counter that?
DURBIN: Listen, we have got to get down to the bottom line.
And I will tell you, my feeling is a little different than some. I want to record for future generations to refer to, to know what actually happened on January 6. Already, that conspiracy theorists and the big lie artists are out there dreaming up what they think happened, and it has nothing to do with the truth.
I want to make that record. I don't know what the ultimate outcome of this trial is going to be. But I want to make sure that the truth is in front of the American people and for generations to come.
BLITZER: Before then President Trump's first impeachment trial a year ago, then Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said -- quote -- "Trials have witnesses. That's what trials are all about."
That's a direct quote. So, what are you hearing from Democrats? Will there be witnesses? Will the Democrats, the House impeachment managers forcefully call for witnesses this time?
DURBIN: I don't know. I don't know if the House managers will ask for it.
The difference is compelling. The difference is, we have a roomful of 100 eyewitnesses, senators who were there January 6. And we happen to be meeting at the crime scene. We are in the Capitol. We know what happened that day. We saw the videos as they went ransacking the Senate chamber.
So, a lot of this is known to us personally. You don't have to prove it up, as they say in a courtroom. It's been proved up to each -- each and every one of us as individuals.
[18:20:09]
BLITZER: The lead -- as you know and all of our viewers know, the lead House impeachment manager, Jamie Raskin, the congressman from Maryland, he delivered a very emotional argument at the very end.
Do you think that will actually persuade Republicans who insist that they reject the entire constitutionality of this trial?
DURBIN: I don't know whether it's persuasive, but it was moving for him to talk about what he went through with his family that week. It was a compelling story.
I don't know how he made it through it. But at the end of it, when his daughter said, "I don't want to come back to the Capitol" after the experience of hiding as the terrorists came roaming through the building, it really was -- it choked him up and choked all of us up to think that a young person would say, I don't think it's safe to be in the seat of our government in the United States Capitol Building.
BLITZER: And it's amazing that Congressman Raskin can do what he's doing right now, given all the emotional suffering...
DURBIN: It is.
BLITZER: ... the pain that he and his family have gone through in recent days.
Senator, thank you so much for joining us.
DURBIN: Thanks, Wolf.
BLITZER: Just ahead: President Biden and his team are trying to ignore the drama of the impeachment trial on Capitol Hill, at least publicly. They keep focusing in on passing the coronavirus relief program.
Plus: growing concerns right now about the danger posed by the coronavirus variants that are, sadly, spreading across the country.
We will be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[18:25:52]
BLITZER: We're following all the breaking news on the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump, including the former president's reaction to the performance by his legal team today.
Let's go to our chief White House correspondent, Kaitlan Collins.
Kaitlan, while President Biden tries to ignore the impeachment trial, at least publicly, Trump is paying, we understand, very close attention. Tell our viewers what you're learning.
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, he is. And that's not really a surprise, Wolf. Of course, we were told he was
expected to watch from Florida. But he was not happy with what he saw today, especially with that first attorney, Bruce Castor, who went and was making an argument that was meandering at times. It confused Republicans, who weren't sure where he was going with it.
And I'm told that President Trump was also unhappy with that argument, was borderline screaming, according to two people who are familiar with how the president was responding to that, unhappy that they weren't pursuing the defense he believed they were going to make.
Of course, often, President Trump is someone who wants people to deliver a full-throated argument in his favor, and we did not see that initially from that attorney. So, the president was unhappy. The former president, I should note, was unhappy with that, while the current president, however, Wolf, was not paying attention, we were told.
He commented earlier today on the proceedings that were happening just down the road on Capitol Hill, but he said he did not plan to watch much of it.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SEN. PATRICK LEAHY (D-VT): ... as a court of impeachment.
COLLINS (voice-over): With his predecessor's impeachment trial sucking up the oxygen in Washington, President Biden says he's keeping his focus elsewhere.
(on camera): Are you going to watch the trial?
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I am not.
Look, I told you before, I have a job. My job is to keep people -- we have already lost over 450,000 people. We're going to lose a whole lot more if we don't act, and act decisively and quickly.
COLLINS (voice-over): Meeting with top CEOs in the Oval Office today, Biden told reporters he's focused on pushing his pandemic relief bill through Congress, not Trump's fate.
BIDEN: The Senate has their job. They're about to begin it. I'm sure they're going to conduct themselves well. And that's all I'm going to have to say about impeachment.
COLLINS: The president's top aides have declined to say whether he believes it's constitutional for a former officeholder to stand trial.
JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: This is obviously a big story in the country. No one's denying that here. And there's certainly going to be a lot of attention and focus on it. Joe Biden is the president. He's not a pundit. He's not going to opine on the back-and- forth arguments, nor is he watching them.
COLLINS: Instead of tuning in, Biden is seeking to rally support for his $1.9 trillion pandemic package.
BIDEN: The American people are hurting. A lot of people are in real, real trouble.
COLLINS: The president endorsed legislation put forward by House Democrats to send $1,400 stimulus checks to Americans earning up to $75,000, which Republicans and moderate Democrats had suggested lowering.
(on camera): Do you agree with that?
BIDEN: Yes.
COLLINS (voice-over): Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said he's fighting to include Biden's proposed $15 federal minimum wage in the bill, after Biden told CBS News it likely wouldn't survive.
SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): We're trying to work as well as we can with the parliamentarian to get minimum wage to happen.
COLLINS: Schumer rejected the notion that Trump's impeachment trial would stall Biden's agenda during a critical time.
SCHUMER: We are here today to say we are not letting that happen. We can do both at once.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: Now, Wolf, of course, as the White House tries to distance themselves from the predecessor's trial happening on Capitol Hill, it's impossible to be entirely removed, because, of course, this is historic.
We have never seen a president newly into office have to deal with his predecessor's impeachment trial happening on Capitol Hill. But they are trying to counterprogram it this week. Joe Biden, President Biden, has got a trip to the Defense Department planned, another one to the National Institutes of Health.
They are going to keep up these daily briefings, as they are trying to keep the focus on this legislation, this debut legislation that they're trying to get passed by next month.
BLITZER: Which is so, so critical.
Kaitlan, stand by.
I also want to bring in our chief domestic correspondent, Jim Acosta, and our CNN special correspondent, Jamie Gangel.
You know, Jim, you're down there in West Palm Beach, right across from Palm Beach, where the former president is at Mar-a-Lago.
[18:30:04] What more are you hearing from Mr. Trump's inner circle, because I know you're really well plugged in? Are they planning on making any changes based on today's pretty awful performance by the so called legal team?
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CHIEF DOMESTIC CORRESPONDENT: I don't think they could make any changes at this point, Wolf. We have seen that the legal team has added a couple of different attorneys and that was happening basically as this trial was getting underway in the Senate. I will tell you, talking to Trump advisers, you know, to get their reaction as to how this day went for the president -- former president's impeachment team.
I talk got from one adviser, who said about Bruce Castor's performance, what the hell is going on. And his adviser went on to say that the former president could be in serious jeopardy if he's ever charged criminally outside of these impeachment proceedings. And the words of this adviser, Trump is f'd if anybody ever charged him.
And I think that is the general reaction that you'll get if you talk to anybody who is close to the former president right now. This is just, I think, viewed as an overall disaster for the president's impeachment team.
And this -- we have to keep in mind, Wolf -- there's a loud noise down below us, forgive me. The thing you have to keep in mind, Wolf, is that, this is a president, former president, when he was president, who, you know, made his judgments about people based on how they performed on television.
Remember how former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer fared in the eyes of Donald Trump? Not well. He didn't like Spicer's ill-fitted suits and so on. And so, this is a president, a former president, who judges everything by what he sees on television.
The other thing we should point out, Wolf, though I talked to a couple of Republican Senate sources who said, despite badly things went for the Trump team earlier today, this really hasn't changed the equation in terms of how things are breaking down in the Senate. You saw the vote earlier this afternoon on the constitutional question of whether you could convict a former president while he's out of office, and besides Louisiana Senator Cassidy, this vote essentially went as everybody expected.
BLITZER: Yes, 56-44. You need 67 to convict.
You know, Jamie, how is the opening day performance of Mr. Trump's defense team being received by Republican sources you're talking to, because you're also really well plugged in?
JAMIE GANGEL, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT: Not well. And to Jim's point but it not changing votes, that is really embarrassing for these senators. These Republican senators, by and large, have said they're going to stick with Trump on this. And then you see this performance today, and let me just read you a couple of quotes from one member. This was a disaster. From another, this was lunacy. From a third, if Trump could fire him, he would fire him. And from a former senior administration official, someone who worked at the White House, it may not change votes, but it should.
Just one other thing to mention, as Trump is not happy with this defense, these are the lawyers he could get to represent him and this is the case that they have to defend. I think we saw that both of those things are really flawed today, to say the least, Wolf.
BLITZER: Yes, you're absolutely right. You know, Kaitlan, the White House where you are, the current president, President Biden, they are remaining steadfast in where they're keeping their attention and their attention is the COVID relief bill, nearly $2 trillion. And there is a very, very concerted strategy on their part, right?
COLLINS: It is. They have tried for weeks basically ever since Joe Biden took office and when he was sworn in to stay away from impeachment and not get into the details. When asked if they believe that President Trump, former President Trump should be held to account, President Biden's aides have often said that, the way that his response to that, would be that look at that he ran against him and that is what their argument is.
They will not weigh in whether or not they believe that this is a constitutional trial. Of course, that has been a big argument, talking about the precedent it could set for a president to have to take trial once he has been -- once he's actually left office and vacated office, as we've seen President Trump do.
And so President Biden has weighed in on several occasions. He did with me once when I caught him in the west wing. He said that this trial, he believe, was something that had to happen because, of course, they have to move forward of this given what had a happened on January 6th and the role that former President Trump played in on that.
But you know, they can't really escape it, Wolf. Even though they do counterprogram, they have these other events, and it is still hanging over the White House, and aides will admit that. And so, they're hoping that it moves on quickly, they don't want it to stall their agenda or slow down getting this legislation passed on Capitol Hill. But the inevitable fact is that it does hang over the White House, it does hang over Washington and it is something that they're going to continue to be asked about until it is over.
[18:35:02]
And we'll see whether or not President Biden does weigh in to offer what he believes should be the appropriate response to former President Trump, but so far, they are trying to keep it at a distance and focus on the agenda that they have planned.
BLITZER: Yes, they certainly want the Senate to confirm the remaining members of the incoming cabinet. They've got to have confirmation for that.
You know, Jim, the caliber of the attorneys that the former president was able to cobble together for this trial, it is certainly a far cry from the legal team that actually represented him the last time, a year ago, during his first Senate impeachment trial.
ACOSTA: That is right, Wolf, you had Alan Dershowitz the last time around. You had Jay Sekulow who has argued in front of the Supreme Court. You know, this is a president who is not able to put together the kind of high-powered legal team. They had the first time around.
But, you know, when you talk to people who talked to the president, this is what he prizes the most. He likes to fill out his roster for his administration, for his legal teams, what have you, based on what he sees on television. And you can't -- you can't think that the president saw anything other than a train wreck earlier today when he watched these lawyers make their presentations. This looked like dime store lawyering on behalf of a former president.
And, Wolf, you and I -- you know this better than anybody who has covered Washington for so many years, can you imagine a former president of the United States having a legal team in any proceeding making the kind of presentation that we saw earlier today. It just boggles the mind that Donald Trump was not able to get a more high- powered, more well-respected and better prepared legal team than what we saw today.
You know, there was talk about, well, there were jostling back and forth because they weren't sure which one were going first and I had a Trump adviser saying earlier today, well, Bruce Castor wanted to go first because he wanted to lower the temperature in the room and so on, trying to explain as to why Bruce Castor delivered the performance that he did.
And, Wolf, whether you go first or second, you're representing the former president of the United States, you should be ready to go no matter what. And they just weren't today.
BLITZER: They certainly were not ready. You would think a former president would have some of the best most prestigious lawyers, legal minds out there representing him. That certainly was not the case today. Everybody stick around. There is more news we're following.
Are new coronavirus variants reversing any progress that the U.S. has been making in fighting the pandemic?
Plus, more than 200 people now facing charges, serious charges in the Capitol siege, we have details, new developments emerging right now in the investigations. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[18:35:00]
BLITZER: We're continuing to follow the breaking news on the Trump impeachment trial. But right now, let's turn to the coronavirus pandemic. There is escalating concern tonight about the danger from COVID-19 variants and how they're threatening to reverse new progress against the pandemic. CNN's Nick Watt has the latest.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. CELINE GOUNDER, INFECTIOUS DISEASES SPECIALIST, BELLEVUE HOSPITAL: This is the calm before the storm.
NICK WATT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The average daily case count just plummeted nearly 25 percent in one week. But faster spreading variants could reverse that progress.
DR. PETER HOTEZ, DEAN OF TROPICAL MEDICINE, BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDECINE: We're looking at potentially a very difficult April and May, maybe as soon as March, and that's going to be the tough time because the vaccines are not going to be here and in large quantities.
WATT: Here in Los Angeles County, there are no first dose appointments available.
DR. BARBARA FERRER, DIRECTOR LOS ANGELES COUNTY PUBLIC HEALTH (voice over): Scheduling an appointment right now is challenging. Because of the limited supply of vaccines that we're receiving on a weekly basis. For the rest of the week, and all of the counties sites, all we're able to offer were second dose appointments.
WATT: The federal government just again upped the doses it will distribute every week, this time from 10.5 to 11 million.
JEFF ZIENTS, WHITE HOUSE COVID-19 RESPONSE COORDINATOR: It's the manufacturers doing a good job and the president and the team doing all we can to support that manufacturing process.
WATT: In an effort at equity, they'll also start shipping a million doses direct to community health centers across the country.
DR. MARCELLA NUNEZ-SMITH, CHAIR, WHITE HOUSE COVID-19 EQUITY TASK FORCE: Two-thirds of their patients live at or below the federal poverty line and 60 percent of patients at community health centers identify as racial and ethnic minorities.
WATT: The average number of vaccine doses in arms every day is going up.
HOTEZ: We're about 1.5 million immunizations per day. We should be at around 3 million to 4 million to really halt this virus.
WATT: Still, restrictions are rolling back many places. Iowa just lifted its mask mandate.
GOUNDER: I know people are sick and tired of the coronavirus, they're sick and tired of having to wear a mask, of having to socially distance but the virus is not sick and tired of us. The virus is not done with us.
(END VIDEOTAPE) WATT (on camera): And we might be dealing with it for some time. Today the CEO of Johnson & Johnson says that because of the variants, people might need a COVID-19 vaccination every year for many years to come. Wolf?
BLITZER: All right, Nick Watt reporting for us. Nick, thanks very much. Let's bring in our Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta. He's here to take our questions. Sanjay, help us understand exactly why this new variant is potentially so dangerous even though new cases here in the U.S. are steadily falling.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the concern is because it is so transmissible, so much more contagious that it could cause a spike in the overall cases.
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Again, Wolf, when you look at transmissibility, what may have been chance encounters, something that you could get away with in terms of not spreading the virus, those are all become riskier, you know? So, that's a concern. If people are letting their guard down at the same time, you have more contagious strains, that's an issue.
Let me show you Denmark, Wolf, this is -- gives you an idea. We're looking at Denmark because this sort of spiked around the same time they peaked around the same time we did here in the United States, mid-December. They've been coming down. It is hard to tell but the red represents the new strain. The gray is the circulating virus.
What you find is that every week to ten days or so, the amount of circulating strain, this new variant, tends to double. So after a while, Wolf, it will become the dominant strain, you'll have more contagious strain, and that's what makes the vaccines that much more urgent.
Now, you want to vaccinate quickly. You want to vaccinate people who are at the greatest risk of getting very sick or hospitalized or dying the quickest as well.
BLITZER: We are, Sanjay, seeing some of the first evidence that the vaccine rollout here in the U.S. is working especially let's say in nursing homes. Tell us about that.
GUPTA: Yeah, we've been following this very closely, Wolf, and we could show you the numbers in nursing homes. But you remember, Wolf, going back last year, if you looked overall at the percentage of deaths that were attributed to long-term care facilities, it is close to 40 percent. I think 36 percent of all the deaths initially came out of the long-term care facilities.
So the idea of vaccinating within nursing homes first, early, makes a lot of sense. And we could show the numbers but in areas that you've had vaccine clinics, these long-term care facilities have had significant reduction in the overall number of cases. And places that haven't had the vaccine, they've also had reduction but not nearly as much. It goes to show that the vaccination programs are working. They are still not fully vaccinated, Wolf. You're looking at the
numbers. It's about 3 million residents in long-term care facilities, but also 4.5 million staff. And right now, close to 4 million total out of that entire population have received at least one dose.
So they've got some work to do, but that is -- that is the most critical population, Wolf, probably in this entire thing in terms of people who might get sick from COVID.
BLITZER: Yeah, that's important indeed. It is critically important.
Sanjay, thank you very, very much.
Just ahead, the list of people charged in connection with U.S. Capitol riot keeps growing and growing. We have new information. We'll share it with you when we come back.
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BLITZER: More than 200 people now face criminal charges in connection with the riot at the U.S. Capitol.
CNN's Brian Todd is keeping track of this exploding investigation that's going on.
What's the latest, Brian?
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, we have new information tonight on an explosive claim made by a key defendant in this case and new information on how this investigation is gaining critical momentum.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TODD (voice-over): Tonight, a rapidly expanding investigation hits a crucial milestone. Prosecutors have now charged more than 200 people with federal crimes in connection with the January 6th attack on the capitol. That's according to CNN's analysis of court records and announcements from the Justice Department.
CHARLES MARINO, FORMER DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY ADVISER: You're starting to see the ongoing of the net tightening on remaining suspects as further information and tips come in, analysis of social media. So you're going to see this tempo continue around the country.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Every single (EXPLETIVE DELETED) in there is a traitor. Every single one!
TODD: One suspect facing a more serious charge of conspiracy. Thomas Caldwell of Virginia, who prosecutors say is a member of the extremist militia group the Oath Keepers and helped coordinate activity at the riot, has declared in court papers that he worked for the FBI from 2009 to 2010 and held a top-secret level security clearance for decades. Neither the FBI nor the Justice Department are commenting. Caldwell,
whose assertion was part of an unsuccessful effort to get himself released from jail pending his trial denies being an Oath Keeper, but experts say his claim still serves as a warning.
MARINO: Immediately, the U.S. government needs to really initiate a reinvestigation of backgrounds of anybody that holds a security clearance to identify and get rid of these folks that may have any allegiance to this radicalization of these militias.
TODD: Meanwhile, tonight, more alleged rioters are filing claims in court, insisting they were just following the direction of then- President Trump in storming the capitol.
Patrick McCaughey of Connecticut who prosecutors tried to crush a police officer in a doorway says he didn't plan to attack that day. That Trump is a, quote, de facto unindicted co-conspirator in his case.
And the so-called QAnon Shaman, Jacob Chansley, who donned face painting and a head dress inside the Capitol, now says in a statement, quote, I deeply regret and am sorry that I entered the Capitol building on January 6th. I should not have been there, period.
But Chansley also says he's, quote, deeply disappointed in Trump. And his lawyer says Chansley was duped for years by what he calls Trump's lies and propaganda.
ALBERT WATKINS, ATTORNEY FOR JACOB CHANSLEY: For people like Jake, for millions of Americans, they truly did hang on every word of their president, our president, the person that we permitted day in, day out, to speak to us in ways and in fashions that simply weren't true.
TODD: Chansley's lawyer likened his client to people who followed cult leader Jim Jones and implied that Chansley has to be essentially deprogrammed.
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ANNE MILGRAM, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: That does not remove him from being liable and culpable under the law for having done the actions that he did, for having entered the capitol or interfered with property of members of Congress.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TODD (on camera): Anne Milgram, a former attorney general in New Jersey, also says regarding the broader probe that she believes investigators are much further along than they have let on in trying to find out who killed Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick and who planted pipe bombs near the capitol the night before the insurrection. Investigators have not yet publicly announced any arrests in either of those cases -- Wolf.
BLITZER: All right, Brin. Thank you.
Brian Todd reporting.
And we'll have more news just ahead.
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BLITZER: Stay with CNN for complete coverage of the second Trump impeachment trial. I'll be back at 11:00 a.m. Eastern tomorrow for day two of this truly historic trial. House impeachment managers will lay out their case against the former president in new detail.
Until then thanks very much for watching. I'm Wolf Blitzer in THE SITUATION ROOM.
You can follow me on Twitter and Instagram @WolfBlitzer. Tweet the show @CNNSitRoom.
"ERIN BURNETT OUTFRONT" starts right now.
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