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The Situation Room

Interview With Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE); FBI Chief: No Evidence "Fake Trump Protesters" Behind Attack, "Quite A Number Were "Racially Motivated Violent Extremist"; Biden Huddles With Senate Dems On COVID Relief; Senate May Take Up $1.9 Trillion Bill Tomorrow; Biden: There Will Be Enough Coronavirus Vaccine For All U.S. Adults By End Of May; NYT: Third Woman Accuses N.Y. Gov. Cuomo Of Unwanted Advances As Calls To Resign Grow. Aired 5-6p ET

Aired March 02, 2021 - 17:00   ET

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

[17:00:00]

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Right. Although there are some state legislators who are Democrats who have called for him. But Congresswoman Rice, I believe, has said that she wants him to resign, a Democratic congresswoman.

Thank you so much Brynn Gingras. Appreciate it.

Follow me on Facebook, Instagram Twitter at Jake Tapper. Our coverage on CNN continues right now.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: 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. President Biden just announcing a major boost to the country's coronavirus vaccine efforts saying at the White House just a little while ago that there will be enough shots for every American adult who wants one by the end of May. That's too much earlier than the previous goal.

Despite that, Texas, certainly one of the country's largest states is now getting ready to reopen. Republican governor Greg Abbott has just lifted almost all of the state's COVID restrictions, including mask mandates despite very dire warnings from the CDC. And I'm quoting now that "we aren't out of the woods yet."

Also breaking right now, FBI Director Christopher Wray, testified before Congress today for the first time since the January 6 Capitol siege, which he calls domestic terrorism, but he was unable to explain intelligence failures ahead of the attack. Wray also debunking Republican conspiracy theories about the insurrection saying there's absolutely no evidence that fake Trump protesters were behind the riot.

Let's get to the breaking pandemic news first. Our Senior White House Correspondent Phil Mattingly is joining us.

Phil, President Biden just significantly moved up the timeline when the vaccine will be ready for all American adults who want one. Tell our viewers what he said.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Wolf. It was supposed to be by the end of July, it is now the end of May. And the reason why is in large part because of that Johnson and Johnson single dose vaccine.

What the administration is putting in place to try and ramp up the production of the vaccine, something administration officials are calling historic, getting to large pharmaceutical companies, traditional competitors Merck and Johnson and Johnson to work together on the production of the vaccine, something the President has made clear his administration was working on behind the scenes to try and bring it to the forefront to make it happen. And today, it is now locked in. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: To the largest healthcare and pharmaceutical companies in the world that are usually competitors are working together on the vaccine. Johnson and Johnson and Merck will work together to expand the production of Johnson and Johnson's vaccine. This is a type of collaboration between companies we saw in World War II.

Here's what all this means. We're now on track to have enough vaccine supply for every adult in America by the end of May.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: Now it's important to note, Wolf, that doesn't mean every adult will be vaccinated by May that just means that the production or the supply will actually be there. The President cautioning that they still need vaccinators, they will still need people to actually go in and get the vaccine. But obviously moving up that timeline is significant.

The White House and the President also making clear for the month of March, they want the priority to be on vaccinating teachers. Saying they are going to use the federal pharmacy program to prioritize teachers and caregivers over the course of the month. Again, a recognition on an issue this administration has had a difficult time with throughout their first five weeks in office.

How do you get schools back reopen? The CDC saying it's not mandatory for teachers to be vaccinated in order for schools to reopen, but the President making clear they want that to be prioritized and directing states to try and make that happen.

One other element to keep in mind here obviously, Wolf, you mentioned it, with Texas and also Mississippi starting to put an end to their mask mandates. I'm told here in the White House there is extreme frustration from White House staff given the fact that they believe they're on the cusp of major breakthroughs. They believe they're on the cusp of finally getting a handle on this pandemic.

Now is not the time, White House, officials say to start pulling back on some of the restrictions that have been in place. The President making clear during his remarks will not specifically talking about Texas or Mississippi, that now is not the time to pull back saying in his words, lives are at risk. Wolf.

BLITZER: Yes, this is a critically -- critical important -- critically important moment. Phil Mattingly at the White House, we'll get back to you.

And we're going to have much more of the breaking news coming up, including my special interview with President Biden, Senior Advisor for the COVID response team, Andy Slavitt. He's standing by. We've got lots to discuss.

But right now let's get some more on the FBI directors' first public testimony about the Capitol siege. CNN's Brian Todd is working the story for us.

Brian, Christopher Wray, he was pressed on intelligence failures, but he strongly defended the Bureau's handling of the threats. Update our viewers.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Wolf. Those were the toughest questions directed at Christopher Wray on intelligence. And even though he did defend the FBI, Senators, were left with some questions on why some important dots were not connected.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

[17:05:04]

TODD: It was a single overlooked warning of potential violence planned for January 6, a report the day before from the FBI field office in Norfolk, Virginia, detailing online posts about going to D.C. ready for war, getting violent, and making lawmakers hear glass breaking and doors kicked in that the FBI Director got some of his most serious grilling on today by Senators.

SEN. RICHARD DURBIN, (D-IL) JUDICIARY CHAIRMAN: So it comes down to the basic question of what the FBI knew, when they knew it, whether they shared it, why this didn't rise to the level of a threat assessment.

CHRISTOPHER WRAY, FBI DIRECTOR: It was, as you noted, raw, unverified uncorroborated information that had been posted online. And my understanding was that that information was quickly, as in within an hour, disseminated and communicated with our partners including the U.S. Capitol Police, including Metro P.D.

TODD: That threat information Christopher Wray said was communicated on January 5 to the Capitol Police and the D.C. Metropolitan Police in three ways, an e-mail, verbal communication, and through a law enforcement portal.

WRAY: As to why the information didn't flow to all the people within the various departments that they would prefer, I don't have a good answer for that. TODD: In previous testimony, the former and current Capitol Police Chiefs acknowledged their department did receive the FBI's threat report the evening of January 5. Why didn't they act on it?

YOGANANDA PITTMAN, ACTING U.S. CAPITOL POLICE CHIEF: It was being shared for informational purposes, but has not been fully evaluated, integrate it with other information, interpreted or analyzed. Receiving agencies are requested not to take action based on this roll recording.

TODD: Wray also knocked down a conspiracy theory pushed by Republican Senator Ron Johnson and others that the January 6 riot was organized by people posing as Trump supporters.

WRAY: We have not seen any evidence of that. Certainly --

SEN. CHRIS COONS, (D-DE) JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: Is there any evidence at all that it was organized or planned or carried out by groups like Antifa or Black Lives Matter?

WRAY: We have not seen any evidence to that effect.

TODD: The director came under tough scrutiny from Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal with all the information the FBI had before January 6, about the Proud Boys and other extremist groups planning to come to Washington. Blumenthal asked,

SEN. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL, (D-CT) JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: Why didn't the FBI sound the alarm?

WRAY: There is so much chatter often attributed to somebody in a neatly identifiable way where people are saying unbelievably horrific, angry, combative things, using language about beheading and shooting and explosives and all kinds of things like that. And separating out which ones are getting traction, which ones reflect intention, as opposed to aspiration is something that we spend an enormous amount of time trying to do. Sometimes we don't have the luxury of time and the ability to make those judgments.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

TODD: And an ominous warning from the FBI Director today, he said that violent extremists and other bad actors are getting better at using encrypted social media platforms to evade law enforcement. Wray said that getting access to that information is one of the biggest challenges his agency is facing and trying to head off some of those threats. Wolf.

BLITZER: Brian Todd reporting for us, thank you very much.

Let's get some more in all of this. Our Chief National Correspondent John King is with us. Our Chief Political Analyst Gloria Borgia is here. And our CNN Law Enforcement Analyst Charles Ramsey is joining us, the former Washington D.C. police chief, former Philadelphia police commissioner. Chief Ramsey, Director Wray strongly defended the FBI his handling of this memo about possible violence the night before the January 6 insurrection. But did he ever really answer why the FBI didn't show more leadership? Raise more alarm bells just ahead of the deadly attack?

CHARLES RAMSEY, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: No, I don't think he did. I mean, clearly there was an intelligence failure on the fifth and sixth of January. What I would have liked to have heard was the fact that, I mean, it's been almost a month now since the insurrection took place that the FBI has since reached out to the Capitol Police, reached out to Metropolitan Police really broke this down to figure out what went wrong. And how do we fix it so that you don't have it happen again.

There is no one agency at fault here. But they need to get together and figure this out. Because this is the last time they're going to have to have information sharing that's going to lead to some kind of action taken on a part of one of those agencies.

BLITZER: Yes, it's been almost two months I should say. You know John, Wray said there was a, and you heard him say there was so much chatter, that it was hard to tell what was a real threat, what was just chatter, what was just talk, did he acknowledge the scope though of the intelligence failure?

JOHN KING, CNN ANCHOR: I don't think he did. I think he tried to defend what happened. He did try to defend itself. What I think he did try to defend what's happening saying, that it was unverified, it was raw intelligence. It was from the Norfolk field office, and they did raise it through three separate channels so that people in the Capitol Police and the Metropolitan Police should have known about it.

I think the question is, why didn't somebody say, well look at this piece of intelligence, and then look at this piece of intelligence, and this is the chief's wheel house, he's done this for a living. And then say somebody needs to pull the alarm.

I think what, what Director Wray did today, he answered the question. Some of the answers were on satisfactory. He, Wolf, he very much made the case for that 9/11 style commission, many members of Congress wanted to do because there are so many unanswered questions.

Should the FBI have sounded a greater alarm? Should the FBI have essentially grabbed the Capitol Police by the shoulders and said you need to follow this, you need to watch this. He raised as many questions as he answers, which I think makes the case for an independent, thorough review. So that six months from now we can look back at this maybe and have better answers.

BLITZER: Yes. They really need to do a review to make sure lessons are learned so it doesn't happen again.

You know, Gloria, Wray was crystal clear there was absolutely no evidence to back up these wild Republican claims that Antifa was behind the riot. This was a huge rebuke to those Republicans. GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes. That was the one thing he was clear on. He wasn't clear on what happened to the intelligence. He wasn't clear on why people didn't connect the dots. But he was clear that of the people they have looked into, and the people they know about that did the insurrection, that it wasn't the sort of fake Trump people that they were -- that he knows some of them were white supremacist.

He said he puts them in different buckets. And that the insurrectionists were the insurrectionists. They were -- they are who we think they are and nobody else.

And so there were -- there were some Republicans up there who were trying to kind of change the subject to talk about, well, what happened in Portland, maybe it was Antifa, maybe it was the same group. And Wray was crystal clear about that. And he said, we have not seen any evidence of anarchist violent extremists or people subscribing to Antifa in connection to the sixth period.

BLITZER: Lindsey Graham was asking questions about whether foreign intelligence operatives may have been involved in this, and Wray made it clear, there was no evidence of that.

You know, John, how far does Wray's testimony go with the Trump supporters who believe those conspiracy theories?

KING: Look, I'm not sure they're going to listen to anybody. They listen to, really to Donald Trump and his close inner circle. And remember, part of the byproduct here, part of the damage done during the Trump presidency is, you know, Christopher Wray, number one, he was very cautious. Number two, he said he didn't want to throw people under the bus. Number three, he didn't want to say that he faced pressure from the President or people around the president during the Trump years, not to be more candid about the threat of domestic terrorism and white supremacy.

But number four, remember, President Trump routinely attacked Director Wray, routinely attacked the FBI, routinely attacked the intelligence agencies. So to a Trump supporter, Director Wray is probably not viewed as a credible witness.

BLITZER: Chief Ramsey, are you hearing enough answers and accountability for that matter to make sure this doesn't happen again? Or official still right now playing what we call the blame game?

RAMSEY: Yes. I'm very concerned. That's exactly what they're doing, the blame game. It's not their fault. It's somebody else's fault.

You know, it doesn't matter if these extremists are from the left or right. If they are using violence to get their message across, we have to deal with it. That's going to require sharing of information and working together at the federal state and local level. And these elected officials that we have need to stop trying to spin and get their own agenda out. This is serious stuff and we need to deal with it as a nation collectively in order to be able to avoid having tragedies occur. I mean, what happened on the sixth of January could have been far worse. Had it not been for the actions of many of the Capitol Police officers and Metropolitan Police officers that actually were able to evacuate members of Congress. They may not be so lucky next time.

And today we're talking about Congress tomorrow, we could be talking about some other target. The bottom line is domestic terrorism is real. It's a threat. And right now, I'm not happy the way we're dealing with it.

BLITZER: Yes. I just want to read a sentence that he said today because I thought it was so significant. He was totally blunt in describing the nature of the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. He said this, "That attack, that siege was criminal behavior, plain and simple. And it's behavior that we at the FBI view as domestic terrorism."

Gloria, he minced no words. This was domestic terrorism that these Trump supporters engaged in as they stormed the U.S. Capitol.

BORGER: Right. And, look, I don't think there are going to be many people on that committee who were going to disagree with him. They were the ones who were attacked. They were the victims of the attacked.

What kind of surprised me about the entirety of the hearing today, Wolf, was that I think they tread kind of lightly on Christopher Wray. Except for maybe Senator Sheldon Whitehouse who took him on because the FBI hasn't been responding to a lot of congressional inquiries over the last four years. Maybe they were being kind of nice to him, because the Democrats know that he had had some issues with Donald Trump.

[17:15:21]

But I am surprised they didn't push him more on why the intelligence didn't get to where it needed to go. Why it was so last minute? If people knew about this stuff going on social media, what happened?

I mean, I think that, that it was sort of stunning to me that given the fact that they were the victims here, that they didn't learn more from him at this hearing.

KING: And we'll get to that point that Gloria makes. Look, you could hear from Director Wray, and we heard from the previous hearings, if you take all of the hearings together, there were some dots that were not connected. There simply were.

That last minute piece of intelligence might have been taken more seriously if you knew about this piece and that piece. It might have been the third or fourth piece that made you say, whoa, and get people to alert.

I think again, Director Wray, he was trying to be polite. He said you want to throw people under the bus. You don't want to throw his own agency under the bus. But to the chief's point, he raised so many questions about the lack of communication and coordination. That again, there have been a lot of calls for this 9/11 style independent commission to scrub this. I think Director Wray made the case for it today.

BLITZER: He certainly did. And he made the case also already about 300 of those guys who stormed the Capitol. They've been charged, criminally charged, and he says this investigation is continuing maybe only just beginning. Many more are going to be charged in the coming weeks and months.

All right, guys, thank you very, very much.

The breaking news here in THE SITUATION ROOM continues. Next, we'll have more on the decision by -- with Texas Governor to reopen his state amid growing concern about virus variants. We're going to talk about all of that much more with the senior advisor to the White House COVID-19 response team, Andy Slavitt. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:20:50]

BLITZER: We're following multiple breaking stories here in THE SITUATION ROOM, including FBI Director Christopher Wray in his first public testimony since the riot at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, labeling that attack domestic terrorism.

We're joined now by Democratic Senator Chris Coons of Delaware. He's a key member of the Judiciary Committee, took part in today's questioning of the FBI Director.

Senator, thank you so much for joining us.

Director Wray was grilled repeatedly about why the FBI didn't do more to sound the alarm ahead of the January 6 attack. Beyond that one memo, were you satisfied with his answers?

SEN. CHRIS COONS (D-DE): No, I wasn't. I wasn't satisfied that we are clear both about what happened on January 6, and why and about our path forward. I did get a very concise answer from Director Wray to my questioning about whether or not there is any evidence that the riot here at the Capitol, the assault on our nation's democracy that happened on January 6 was in any way caused by leftists, by Antifa, or Black Lives Matter, or might have been caused by folks who were dressing up and pretending to be Trump supporters.

He definitively said no, Senator, there's no evidence at all of that.

The reason I asked that is that there are folks in the other party and around the country, spreading false rumors that somehow the assault on the Capitol was caused by leftists rather than by a mob of mostly Trump supporters, right wing extremists and in some cases, white supremacists. As Director Wray confirmed in answering a number of senators questions, domestic violent extremism, which comes in a number of different shapes and sizes is the greatest threat we face here domestically. And a significant component of that is antigovernment extremists who are also white supremacists, and who played a central role in the assault here on the Capitol on January 6.

BLITZER: And he was --

COONS: Getting clarity about those facts is important towards our moving forward and understanding what to do next.

BLITZER: Yes, he was blunt in saying this was domestic terrorism, which means those who attack the U.S. Capitol, from the FBI Director's perspective, were in fact terrorists, not just rioters or demonstrators, but terrorists. He made that abundantly clear.

Let's get to some other significant issues, Senator, while I have you. President Biden today urged Democrats to reject poison pills that potentially could sink his nearly $2 trillion relief bill, that's coming up for a vote in the Senate later this week. How important is it the Democrats, as we say, don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good, especially some of the progressives who want that minimum wage included in the legislation, even though it's likely to be defeated if it is?

COONS: Wolf, it's critical that we get this bill passed. It's got support from three quarters of the American people, including 60 percent of Republicans in a number of polls. This will deliver $1.9 trillion worth of relief to the American people, 14 $100 checks to 10s of millions of American families, it will extend unemployment payments for 11 million Americans.

There are also 10s of millions of Americans who are facing eviction who are behind on their rent or their mortgage payments. Preventing further economic pain and resolving the challenge of this current pandemic. That's the core goal here.

And I agree with President Biden's message to our caucus today, that it's urgent that we move this bill forward. There's lots of other issues we're going to work on this year, Wolf. Many of those will be resolved in a bipartisan way.

But making sure that we deliver this relief package quickly, and that we get vaccines in arms, we get kids safely back to school, we reopen businesses, that's a key part of President Biden's agenda and it's got broad bipartisan support amongst the American people.

BLITZER: It has no bipartisan support among your Republican colleagues, not one Republican voted for it in the House and I suspect not one Republican is going to vote for it in the Senate, right?

COONS: That's right, Wolf. Republicans supported broadly amongst the country, just not here in the Capitol.

BLITZER: Senator Chris Coons, we'll see what happens on the Senate floor. Thanks so much for joining us.

[17:25:03]

COONS: Thank you. BLITZER: Coming off the Texas Governor lifts his state's mass mandate, along with most other COVID restrictions in defiance of strong CDC warnings. The Senior Advisor to the White House COVID-19 response team, Andy Slavitt, he's standing by. We've got lots to discuss.

Plus, growing calls right now for New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to resign amid a report of, yet, a third woman now accusing him of making unwanted advances.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Following breaking news, President Biden saying at the White House just a little while that there will be enough COVID vaccines here in the United States for all American adults by the end of May, the end of May.

[17:30:09]

That's thanks in part to a deal with the drugmaker Merck to help manufacture the Johnson & Johnson one-dose vaccine, which is being administered as of today. Let's discuss with President Biden's Senior Adviser to the COVID-19 response team, Andy Slavitt. Andy, thank you so much for joining us. This is a significant announcement, enough vaccine doses for all Americans by the end of May. How much did the deal between Johnson & Johnson and Merck contribute to this new timeline?

ANDY SLAVITT, SENIOR ADVISER TO WHITE HOUSE COVID-19 RESPONSE TEAM: Well, the relationship with Merck and Johnson & Johnson, which by the way, I think is just a great example of the country pulling together to get us as last few miles out of this crisis. It was one of a number of steps that the President announced today including use of the Defense Production Act, securing supplies, operating the Johnson & Johnson plant 24 by seven, and of course, headlined, as you say, by the agreement for Merck to use to their factories.

And Merck is one of the most expert vaccine manufacturers in the world to produce the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. All those things together is allowing us to pull up our estimation for when we'll have enough vaccines for the country by about two months.

BLITZER: At end of May, that's pretty impressive. Having an adequate vaccine supply is only one component, though, of this process. Will states have the resources? Will they have the vaccinators and the vaccinators that they need to get all those shots into an adult's arms?

SLAVITT: It's exactly the right place to focus not just vaccines but locations for vaccination as well as vaccinators. We've added over 2,500 vaccinators the last couple of weeks. I think what we really need is to use the Defense Production Act as we've done, but now we need Congress to pass this American Rescue Plan because the American Rescue Plan contains the rest of the resources needed for states to get the rest of the way there. I think all those things in combination -- that harmony of the country working together is exactly what we need to get us there. BLITZER: I thought it was also significant that President Biden also announced the new goal to get every educator, child care worker, at least one coronavirus shot by the end of this month. Will he also then be moving up his timeline for getting kids back into school five days a week?

SLAVITT: Well, his goal is to get kids back to school safely as early as possible and permanently. And the CDC has helped a great deal with guidelines that help schools figure out what it takes to open. And while the CDC has said teachers aren't required to be vaccinated for the school so but in person, the President made the decision that we can use this new capability we have, the new vaccines from Johnson & Johnson, the accelerated manufacturing from Pfizer and Moderna to say let's make it a priority to get our kids back to school by getting our educators and staff and bus drivers and daycare workers.

Let's get them vaccinated. Let's do it in the next few weeks. Let's pull together as a country and do that.

BLITZER: The breaking news, and its major breaking news, happening this hour, Texas and Mississippi, and I don't know if you heard about this, but it's really significant. They're lifting their mask mandates, they're fully reopening their states. What's the message from the White House to the states and potentially the other states may be considering doing the same thing right now?

SLAVITT: Well, look, we certainly understand the pressure governors are under and we appreciate the working relationship that we have with Governor Abbott, as you know, the President was just down there. But at the same time, we think it's a mistake to lift these mandates too early. Masks are saving a lot of lives.

The President has been very clear about the fact that in the first 100 days with his administration, we could say 50,000 lives if we stick to this. So I really hoping that the businesses and the community and people in Texas, the mayors, the county will rethink this. I hope the governor rethinks this. It's only a small piece of cloth that's needed.

So, you know, I don't think it affects the economy of the state. So, hopefully, states will stick with this until such time as we get through all the vaccinations and see the other side of this.

BLITER: Does it make sense for our President Biden to pick up the phone and call Governor Abbott? They met earlier in the week in Texas and suggested to him, maybe this is not a good idea?

SLAVITT: Yes. Well, I'm not paid to ask the President what he should be doing with his time, but I know he's been very clear and very forceful in all his conversations about what's important to him and to this country.

BLITZER: Yes. We've heard from the CDC Director, Dr. Walensky, this is not, repeat, not the time to lit up in these precautions because there are variants out there. It's still a very dangerous pandemic. As you know, Andy, more than 78 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine have now been administered here in the United States. Yet there's no clear guidance on what people who are fully vaccinated should or should not be able to do. When do you think Americans will get that much needed guidance? What will it include?

[17:35:07]

SLAVITT: Well, I think the President's chief science officer president, Dr. Fauci has begun talking about that, you know, this week. And I think he's really trying for people to speak in common sense terms and Americans for to understand how much their risk goes down when they take a vaccine, and what activities are safe and what activities aren't safe. I know the CDC scientists are spending a lot of time on this. I think they're thinking about recommendations.

It's important, because it's important that people can take the steps they can take, you know, when they can take them. But I'm not going to get ahead of the scientist. I think no one wants a White House who's driving the scientific answers. We're -- but we are working to make sure that scientists try to answer those questions the best they can.

BLITZER: Yes, we're still -- everybody says Dr. Fauci and Dr. Walensky, everybody else they're still learning so much even as we go along. We've learned a lot, but there's still so much more to learn.

Andy Slavitt, good luck to you. Good luck to a whole team over there. Thanks so much for joining us.

SLAVITT: Thank you, Wolf.

BLITZER: Coming up, new accusations of unwanted sexual advances by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo yet a third woman now has told her story in the New York Times and this time, there's also a photograph. there it is, standby. We have new information.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:40:28]

BLITZER: We're following new developments in the political crisis swirling around the New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. The New York Times has published a third woman's account of unwanted sexual advances. CNN National Correspondent Jason Carroll is joining us from Albany, New York right now. Jason, tell us more.

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, Wolf, another day, another woman has come forward with another accusation and that has made the Governor's political footing even more precarious.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D), NEW YORK: We're going through a difficult time here as everybody knows.

CARROLL (voice-over): A deepening crisis for New York Governor Andrew Cuomo after a third woman came forward accusing him of unwanted advances. The woman is Anna Ruch, who told "The New York Times" that Cuomo asked if he could kiss her at a crowded wedding in 2019.

She says after toasting the newlyweds, the Governor approached her and put his hands-on Ms. Ruch's bear lower back. When she removed his hand with her own, the Governor remarked that she seemed aggressive, Ruch told the paper. She said Cuomo then placed his hands on her cheeks and asked if he could kiss her.

The photo capturing the Governor placing his hands around Ruch's face. Ruch is the first woman to come forward with allegations of unwanted advances who did not work in Cuomo's office. She has not responded to CNN's requests for comment. Cuomo's office did not respond to CNN's repeated requests for a reaction to Ruch's accusation.

A spokesperson for Cuomo did not directly address the new allegations but pointed to a statement the Governor released Sunday evening in the face of backlash from two other accusers, former aides Lindsey Boylan and Charlotte Bennett.

The statement saying in part, "To be clear, I never inappropriately touched anybody. And I never proposition to anybody and I never intended to make anyone feel uncomfortable. But these are allegations that New Yorkers deserve answers to."

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I've already answered that one.

CARROLL (voice-over): Democrats pressed about the allegations in Washington expressing support for the New York Attorney General's investigation. Kathleen Rice of New York, the first democratic member of Congress, calling on Cuomo to step down, tweeting, "The time has come the Governor must resign". But many Democrats stopping short of calling for a full resignation.

SEN. DICK DURBIN (D-IL), JUDICIARY CHAIRMAN: It's a troubling situation, but I've been through this before with other colleagues. And I just have to say the investigation should be completed and should be as quickly as possible, and credibility given to the charges.

CARROLL (voice-over): And today, CNN reports state lawmakers in New York are moving to repeal some of the Governor's expanded emergency powers granted to him throughout the pandemic. The vote expected next week. The move coming after a top aide revealed Cuomo's administration delayed the release of data about nursing home deaths from state lawmakers. The administration's handling of that data currently under scrutiny by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Brooklyn and the FBI.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CARROLL: And, Wolf, there have been questions about how the Governor has been spending his time as of late. You know, people here in the public used to seeing and giving those press briefings. He hasn't done one of those since last Monday. But eventually he is going to have to come forward and face some very tough questions from the media. Wolf?

BLITZER: Eventually, yes, indeed. Jason Carroll in Albany, thank you very much. There's more breaking news ahead. The FBI Director calls the Capitol siege domestic terrorism in his first public testimony since the January 6th attack. We're going to have details of his grilling by lawmakers on intelligence failure.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:48:29]

BLITZER: A month long investigation has uncovered detailed evidence of the massacre of dozens of civilians in the Tigray region of Northern Ethiopia overcoming the information blockade around a pattern of atrocities that may have claimed thousands of civilian lives. Since November, the Ethiopian government has waged war in the Tigray region with assistance of troops from neighboring Eritrea.

Access by journalists has been severely restricted. But in this exclusive CNN report, CNN has been able to speak with dozens of people who say they witnessed a massacre at the hands of invading Eritrean troops in a town in Tigray on November 30th. Last year, one of its holiest days.

CNN Senior International Correspondent Nima Elbagir has the story for us. Nima, you and your team have been doing amazing reporting on this one. We want to warn our viewers what they are about to see, what they are about to hear is very disturbing. Tell our viewers what you've learned.

NIMA ELBAGIR, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, this is the story of just one massacre in just one village. But it also tells the biggest story of the pain and the heartbreak reverberating across this region. Take a look at this.

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ELBAGIR (voice-over): A bloody jacket, some rope used to tie the victims shoes worn by a Sunday school boy, the haunting remnants of a brutal massacre in a village in northern Ethiopia's Tigray region. A massacre perpetrated by Eritrean soldiers on Ethiopian soil.

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Fifty-two out of the 54 pictures you see here are victims whose identities have been verified by CNN. This is the village of Maryam Dengelat, was CNN's investigation uncovered the murder of dozens, possibly even more than hundred civilians. Witnesses tell CNN people were murdered here over three days of mayhem. With video and communication limited due to an Ethiopian government-imposed blackout on the region, and fear of government retribution rife, CNN has had to illustrate witness testimony through animation and use of actors voices to describe what happened in December last year.

One eyewitness Martha (ph), not her real name, told CNN they were returning from morning church service. When they got home, they were confronted by Eritrean troops. MARTHA (ph): They came to our house then they told us to get out. There were a lot of soldiers outside and they were saying, come out come out you bitch. We said we are civilian, we are civilians showing our IDs. They didn't ask any question. They just opened fire.

ELBAGIR (voice-over): To understand what happened here over the course of these three days, you need to understand what's been happening over the last few years in Ethiopia. Under the country's former rulers, the Tigray People's Liberation Front, Ethiopia waged hostilities with Eritrea for the TPLF almost 30 years in power. Ethiopia's President Abiy Ahmed won a Nobel Peace Prize for bringing all that to an end.

The Tigray region has always been distinct in culture and language, and its leadership is battling for autonomy from Ethiopia's government. Now the two former enemies stand accused of working together to crush to graze fight for autonomy, and civilians are being killed in what could be war crimes, and something the ousted Tigray leader described as acts of genocide.

This video was secretly taken and smuggled out to CNN to avoid Ethiopian and Eritrean troops. It's footage of the graves that eyewitnesses described to CNN in harrowing testimony. Underneath the branches and sticks are the grave sites for the victims. Another eyewitness Abraham (ph), again, not his real name, was supposed to help clean the church at Maryam Dengelat before the festival. Instead, he became a grave digger.

ABRAHAM (ph): They were all so young, and they took them and killed them together in a field.

ELBAGIR (voice-over): Among those he buried were 24 Sunday school children. Abraham (ph) and others registered the kids names as best they could. One by one, the shallow graves were uncovered, and parents came to identify their children. Some was so badly disfigured, they could only be identified by their clothing.

This is not the only massacre perpetrated in Tigray. Using satellite images and interviews with witnesses, Amnesty was able to find evidence of at least one other separate massacre involving hundreds of civilians, believed to be carried out in another city days earlier.

A day after the investigations by CNN and Amnesty International, U.S. Secretary of State Blinken said, "Those responsible for them must be held accountable". Strong words, but will words be enough when the crimes described by all the hallmarks of a possible genocide?

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ELBAGIR: CNN has put the findings of its investigation to the Ethiopian and Eritrean government and to the TPLF. In response to a U.S. statement, the Ethiopian government has said that it is fully committed to undertaking a thorough investigation of the alleged abuses, but it added it also regretted U.S.'s commentary on internal Ethiopian affairs. It also said that his forces were in the region as part of lawful operations. The TPLF told us that it did not have forces in Dengelat either before or after the massacre. And they're calling for U.N. investigation into these findings. The Eritrean government did not respond to our requests for comment, Wolf. But on Friday in response to Amnesty's investigation into that separate massacre, they said that their forces were not responsible. Wolf?

BLITZER: Nima, as you've been reporting, there's been widespread condemnation in the aftermath of our reporting, including renewed calls for investigation, as you point out from the Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken. What's been the response to all of that?

ELBAGIR: Well, we were able to speak exclusively to the leader of the Tigray region, Debretsion Gebremichael and he is calling what we have found a possible genocide and he is making an independent investigation into our findings and Amnesty's findings, a precondition for negotiations with Ethiopian government and for peace moving forward. And at -- for the time being, the Ethiopian government is rejecting

that, Wolf.

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What is clear is that this is a real foreign policy test for the Biden administration, how to bring a peaceful resolution, how to bring justice to this desperate region is such a big test.

BLITZER: Nima Elbagir and her team doing amazing exclusive reporting for us. We're going to stay on top in this. Nima, thank you, thank you so much for that.

And there's more breaking news here in THE SITUATION ROOM, the FBI Director Christopher Wray facing sharp questions from lawmakers about intelligence failures just ahead of the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol.

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