Transcripts For CNNW New Day Weekend With Victor Blackwell And Christi Paul 20210117

Of those areas that were slightly on the cooler side. The north pole region also dealing with extreme temperatures in 2020. All right. Allison, thank you. We now have 25,000 National Guardsmen and women in washington, d. C. Thats ten times the amount of troops that we currently have in afghanistan. I certainly think that weve done Everything Possible to prepare for the course of this week. A very large part, as an american, the peaceful transition of power is not something that we are able to take for granted. The new variant threatens to become the dominant form of coronavirus by march. This virus is so efficient in transmitting. Thats what makes it more dangerous. A much more effective virus is going to spread a lot more easily in a community. Honest truth is this. Things will get worse before they get better. I told you, ill always level with you. Announcer this is new day weekend with Victor Blackwell and christi paul. Tens of thousands of National Guard troops around that building and around the city of washington, d. C. Good morning to you as we look at capitol hill. Law enforcement is on high alert not just because of threats in and around washington, but because of armed protests and threats of those in all 50 states ahead of the inauguration. Take a look at some of the video we are getting in overnight. At least 500 wisconsin National Guard soldiers and airmen loading on to flights there. All of them headed to the nations capital. Also we have details of president joe bidens plans for the first day in office and the executive orders he plans to sign. One of those is a mask mandate on all federal property. We begin with cnns brian todd who is in washington, d. C. We know Law Enforcement and state officials, brian, on high alert there. Talk to us about what you are seeing in the nations capital. I know you said this is something that you have seen that you have never seen before. Reporter thats right, we havent seen this even after 9 11. You are talking layers of security here in the nations capital. Very intense layers. These layers keep getting pushed further out. We are at the corner of constitution street. Security right there, thats the outer security perimeter. But its not really the furthest out because there is more security perimeter beyond that. So you have got at least two going that way and again they are pushing these security perimeters further and further out. Razor wire and high fencing all [ inaudible ] extending down first street up independence avenue up that way. Armored personnel carriers and National Guard there. I have got that, plus bridges are going to be closed down here, these bridges coming from virginia to the district starting this week and through inauguration day. Thats a major step. Another security perimeter. As you mentioned, armed protests possibly planned in 50 states and here in washington. Law enforcement officials telling cnn they are using a huge amount of surveillance to try to track extremists who may want to come to washington to make sure that they dont come to washington, including monitoring cellphones and other communications according to Law Enforcement officials. There is a concern about streamists possibly using vehicles to breach these checkpoints. Again, these checkpoints are heavily fortified here in area and there are several layers of them around the city, guys. The threat does not subside after wednesday. We will have to see how long that posture will land. Brian todd for us there in d. C. Thanks so much. Cnn counterterrorism analyst phil mud is with us now. Former fbi Senior Intelligence advisor as well. Phil, good to see you. When we look at the fortification of d. C. And we hear these stories about what the threat is in all 50 states, what is your greatest concern this morning . There is a couple of things i would be thinking about. If you have 20,000 plus National Guard around the inauguration, the inauguration would not be my number one concern. There is a couple of things looking out into the 50 states beyond d. C. That i would be thinking about. The first, obviously, is weapons. If one National Guard member gets shot at in any state capitol, trying to predict what happens outside that incident i think is almost impossible. The second thing is locations. You look at what happened at michigan recently. One of the locations that was, that michigan plot including about a half a dozen men who were going to triery try to att the state capitol, they eventually turned to the governors Vacation Home as a potential target. So looking at places that are outside the norm. Also looking at tactics outside the norm. National guard can deal with demonstrators, deal with 100 or 200 people. If you are a creative person sit being a couple of buddies in a basement, you can come up with a scenario. So i think weapons, locations and tactics. You put those things together. Give us a perspective historically of what you have seen in the past and compare that to how organized or not what you are seeing the threat is right now. Boy, okay. Can we go to 8 00 a. M. . Let me do a perspective. In some ways i would regard this as more concerning not just from a sort of obviously, i am an american. Not just from a cultural perspective, but a practitioners perspective. Lets go back to the thing we know, al qaeda, isis, 9 11. There are characteristics more trudge. Number one, breadth. I know where to go after the al qaeda and isis guys. There is no nerve center here. Number two, numbers. At any one time we might at 7 00 a. M. , 7 15 a. M. With the fbi director be briefing lets say half a dozen major cases across the United States. I guarantee you virtually every county in this country has some sort of extremist presence of the kind that we saw on january 6th. So breadth is a big problem. Let me close with a simple problem. Civil liberties. Going after isis in front of a grudge or a Congressional Committee is pretty easy. Thats an isis member, i am going up on their email, their phone, get human surveillance on them. How do i say that i want to go up on your neighbor because he a qanon member . This is something america has not confronted and its going to get ugly. Are you more concerned about rightwing extremism as a group or the lone potential lone wolves more of a problem . Less the groups for a simple reason. Once you have a group, you have a couple of things you can do. The first is human informants, that is, i know what to target. I know where the cancer is. And also i can it get technical coverage. Once the human informant is in, i can figure out who the key players are, go up on their cellphones, their laptops. We often worried in the past not about a group, but about somebody who says the following. This group is too quiet. This group doesnt do enough. This group is all talk and no action. The spinoff person who says i want to do more because the group is too conservative, that person, a, is hard to cover because they are not part of the group anymore, but, b, is more extreme. So what do we know specifically about these rightwing extremists . We know a few things. I mentioned earlier breadth. The willingness to do violence is a second key element. The thing that i think about most is propaganda. It is very hard to persuade someone to join a movement that potentially is going to get them in jail. We now have this movement in all 50 states, the ability to turn someones mind. What wurp you were talking abou decline after President Trump left twitter is really critical. Peoples brains arent being turned on. So i think that propaganda piece, and i use that word advisedly. People talk about political debate. This is propaganda the same signed isis used. The decline of that is important. Somebody will not be recruited today because there is less propaganda out there. You acknowledged that there were intel gaps leading up to the capitol siege and you talked about questions that we need to be asking in todays day and moment. What are your top three questions you are asking right now . Boy, my biggest question is about the future. If you look at this country, when we have had major social upheaval, you look at the 60s, i dont think we really recovered from the forget about the war, not for get, but the social upheaval. I dont think we recovered from that until the 80s. I dont think we got out of being focused on al qaeda and isis for a year or two ago. Think 10 or 20 years in there are for this to work its way through. Question one, how do we handle that . Question two, how do we have a debate about whats appropriate for people to say . Is it okay to say i hate somebody . Other countries like fgermany have done this successfully in their free societies. In the last thing as a practitioner is you, the media. The people. The congress. What do you want your state, local, federal, the fbi and others to do about your neighbor next door . Do you want them to follow these people or not . If you do, it better be on paper because people like me are not going to take the word of a congressman who says go out and look at qanon. I want it on paper and i want it in law and those are u. S. Citizens you want us to look out. I learn so much from you. Thank you for taking time to be with us. 6 00 a. M. Out of memphis. See you. President trump is spending his final weekend at the white house huddled with white house. Lets go to the white house now. Sarah westwood is there. Good to see you. The president we know staying out of the public eye. What do we know about what he is doing in private . Reporter well, the Washington Post is reporting that acting defense secretary Christopher Miller directed the head of the National Security agency to install white house official and a former gop operator Michael Ellis as the nsas top lawyer. This is a trump loyalist. The pentagon general counsel put him in that role in november but, as is the case with most highlevel government roles, there are a lot of steps, a lot of requirements that need to be fulfilled. So ellis hadnt yet assumed that role because those boxes hadnt yet been checked. Miller gave the nsa to 6 00 p. M. Yesterday to put ellis in that job. The deadline came and went. The trump loyalist not put in that position and its unclear if the head of the nsa will be facing repercussions. Miller said earlier this week though that he, quote, cant wait to leave his position. So miller eying the exits with three days left in this administration. He is not the only one. Cnn is reporting that President Trump also considering how he is going to leave office. And that trump has floated to aides an elaborate sendoff ceremony at joint base andrews that involves anything from a 21 gun is a lawsuit to a red carpet where he jets off to florida where he is expected to spend a significant part of his time after his presidency. Thank you. And be sure to watch state of the union today at 9 00 a. M. Eastern. Dick durbin and former National Security advisor h. R. Mcmaster are two of jakes guests today at nine right here on cnn. All right. Here is an unbelievable statistic out of california. Los angeles county alone has topped more than 1 million coronavirus cases. Just los angeles. One official compares the situation there to waking up to a nightmare every day, and now new worries over that more contagious covid variant. President trump is not doing a victory lap in his last couple of days in office. 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When he takes office the president elect joe biden plans to roll back some of the trump administrations policies through a spate of executive orders. Lets talk about them and more with democratic congressman seth moulton of massachusetts. Congressman, good to see you again. Good to see you. So weve talked this morning about the executive orders. I want to get to this reporting that immigration, a huge immigration bill to offer a pathway to citizenship for 11 Million People in this country is on the way to congress. Is that where you want after the crises are dealt with, coronavirus, the economy, jobs, is that where youd expect this president or want him to put his chips before the midterms in 2022 . Its not my job to judge whether or not biden has the right plan. He picked an issue that is popular with the American People. We have heard so much divisive outright racist rhetoric from the current president of the United States that a lot of americans forget that having a path bay to citizenship is something that the overwhelming majority of our country supports. I am a u. S. Marine. I served overseas with some of the most amazing americans i have met in my life. 17, 18yearold kids willing to put their lives on the line for their country. When you later learn that these heroes, some of them dont even have their paperwork to be american citizens, you recognize just how essential this issue is. Its something that the American People support and thats why joe biden is doing it. Its been decades though since there has been any immigration, massive kind of comprehensive Immigration Reform passed through congress. In this environment, do you think thats realistic . Look, your point its going to be challenging. Thats right, it is going to be challenging. Just about everything in congress is challenging these days. There is no question biden has his work cut out for him. In a sense because the congress is so closely divided, democrats hold the majority in the house and senate but only a narrow majority in both houses. We have to find ways to work across the aisle to get many of these things across the finish line. I think what you will see out of the Biden Administration is a unifying agenda. I will give you another example of an issue that is seen as very contentious but has broad support of the American People and thats gun reform. I am a huge advocate of gun reform. I used guns overseas. I have seen the effects of gun violence firsthand and i recognize it has no place on our streets or in our schools. Guess what . So do 96 of americans who want eun sprers al backgrounds checks for guns. Its only this gop group in congress beholding to the National Rifle association that doesnt want to see that issue move forward congressman, let me get in here. I want to get to gun reform more acutely from your position level, but also joe biden led an effort after the shooting at sandy hook to get gun reform through. And if after the killing of 4 and 5yearolds congress couldnt come together to get Gun Legislation passed and signed by the president then, i dont know what suggests it could happen now. Let me get to guns on capitol hill. Several Republican House members have talked about and have bragged about carrying on the hill. Congresswoman lauren boebert, she recorded an ad that said she would carry a blglock on capito hill. Madison cawthorn was armed on the 6th during that insurrection there. Listen to your Democratic House colleague john garamendi. I am concerned that any member that brings a gun into the capitol, into a hearing room, into the Office Buildings or into, on to the floor of the house poses a danger. A danger to me and a danger to the other members of the congress and the staff. Do not need to have guns anywhere in this is complex. You brought up guns and in this environment should members be allowed to carry on Capitol Grounds . Absolutely not. I mean, neither cawthorn nor boebert were in the military, were in Law Enforcement. They dont have proper training. What they should be doing as lawmakers is passing laws to prevent violence in america, to prevent gun violence from coming up the capitol steps. Thats their responsibility. Not to try to be some cowboys and cowgirls who are going to protect themselves in the halls of congress. Lets not be ridiculous here. You served in iraq. You brought that up today. Some of the insurrectionists were military veterans. The founder of a, founder of vets for trump was seen on the senate floor on the 6th in the chamber at least. The Southern Poverty Law Center has urged house Armed Services, a exit which you serve, to ensure that military branches vet enlistees for signs of White Nationalist i can beliefs. Do you support that and what the progress on trying to find out why this wing of the trump support base is likely to involve themselves in Something Like what we saw on the 6th . Yes, absolutely i support this. This is actually closely related to the answer i just gave. Congress and the American People, and the u. S. Government in general, need to come face to face with the rightwing domestic terrorist threat to this country. Its a lot of White Supremacists and racists. Its many followers of donald trump, and it includes some veterans. We have to stamp that out. As a veteran myself, i am disgusted that there were any veterans in the capitol hill riots. Now, so far its emerged that there are about two dozen. Thats truly a strikingly small percentage of the overall number who assaulted the capitol. It should be zero. The majority of veterans in america do not support donald trump. They know what it means to support and defend the constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and they are oppose to the capitol hill riots. But we got to make sure that there are no veterans involved in any of this at all, and i think that the measures that are being discussed, including really being careful about when these threats infiltrate the Armed Services themselves are steps we have to take. Last thing here. I want to listen to part of your interview with wbar. You were on lockdown in our office. Lets listen. We are going to be okay. We are going to pull through this. But i am not sure that our country at least since the civil war has ever been in a more precarious position, has ever been under more direct assault from within. Direct assault from within. I glean from the context that you were talking about within the u. S. Borders in that conversation, but as we have learned more in the interim period about tours the day before, what we saw on the 6th, and Text Messages or tweets about the whereabouts of leadership and claims from some of the insurrectionists, do you believe that there was coordination from members within the house, within the body, and what should happen to and with those members . Well, i am not going to speculate on members that could well be under criminal investigation here, but let me tell you my concern. The fact that i even have to worry about colleagues of mine in the United States congress being with the other side here, being on the side of outright racist domestic terrorists, thats a frightening position for our country. When you go to the u. S. Capitol today, i was down there last week and i will be heading down this week for the inauguration, it looks like the green zone in baghdad. I expected that as a u. S. Marine in iraq. I expected troops everywhere guarding the seat of democracy. I never imagined it in the United States of america. We have more troops in the u. S. Capitol right now than we do in afghanistan. And they are here to protect us from the president of the United States and his mob. What does that say about the state of democracy today . All right. Congressman seth moulton, thanks so much for your time this morning. Thank you. So Opposition Leader navalny is going back to russia today. Well, now he is facing quite a threat when he returns home. Ana russia today. Well, now he is facing quite a threat when he returns home. Lna russia today. Well, now he is facing quite a threatat when he returns home. E russia today. Well, now he is facing quite a threat when he returns home. Xna russia today. Well, now he is facing quite a threat when he returns home. Ena russia today. Well, now he is facing quite a threat when he returns home. Ina russia today. Well, now he is facing quite a threat when he returns home. Nava today. Well, now he is facing quite a threat when he returns home. Is today. Well, now he is facing quite a threat when heeturns home. Iwn moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis. Psoriatic arthritis wasnt going to change who i am. When i learned that my joint pain could mean permanent jnt damage, i asked about enbrel. Enbrel helps rieve joint pain, and helps stop permanent joint damage. Plus enbrel helps skin get clearer in psoriatic arthritis. Ask your doctor about enbrel, so you can get back to your true self. Play ball enbrel may lower your ability to fight infections. Serious, sometimes fatal events including infections, tuberculosis, lymphoma, other cancers, nervous system and Blood Disorders and allergic reactions have occurred. 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So when youre away, you dont have to worry. The tent. We forgot. The tent. Except about that. Xfinity home. Simple. Easy. Awesome. Hey look, i found the tent get xfinity home with no Term Contract required. Click or call today. Milestone in the coronavirus pandemic. 400,000 deaths. Another 3,200 deaths were reported yesterday along with nearly 200,000 new cases. More than 126,000 people are fighting covid in hospitals. So states are juggling that challenge by trying to boost the rate of vaccinations, obviously. 12. 2 million shots have gone into arms so far nationwide. Thats according to the cdc figures. That equates to 39 of the 31 million doses distributed. Palau sandoval following this for us. Talk to us about what you are learning about the push particularly as we learn more about this variant and how contagious it really is. Reporter well, this variant is increasing that sense of urgency in terms of those vaccination efforts. When you hear from the health experts, as they said before, this variant, its not that its more deadly than the current form of the coronavirus, its much more contagious, and thats why the centers for disease and prevention basically renewing that guidance that we have heard for the last ten months, but saying that now perhaps more than ever extremely important to mask up, avoid groups and continue to social distance. The list of u. S. States seeing whats possibly a faster spreading covid19 variant is growing. This weekend michigan reported its first case with a woman west of detroit who Officials Say this recently traveled to the u. K. Where the variant was first discovered last month. And there will be more of these cases, as the new variant threatens to become dominant form of coronavirus by march warns the cdc. The agency now imploring americans to double down on preventative safety measures. This virus is so efficient in transmitting, thats what makes it more dangerous. What we are hoping is that there is not a mutation in the future that makes the virus immune to the current vaccines. So a much more effective virus is going to spread a lot more easily in a community. Reporter the viruss mutation adding urgency to vaccination effort that continue at a frustratingly slow pace. Take new york, for example. The state reporting a recent expansion of eligibility means 7 million residents can get a shot. Pro problem is, Vaccine Supplies from the feds is covering only a fraction of those eligible. We are receiving 300,000 vaccinations per week. It takes about six months to do 7 Million People. Our con strabt is the federal supply. Reporter new York Governor Andrew Cuomo pleading for patience and asking residents to stay out of lines unless they have an appointment. In new jersey frustration is building among unvaccinated essential workers. The state announced it will allow smokers under the age of 65 to get vaccinated as per federal guidelines considering them as high risk. Teachers in the garden state, however, are still waiting their turn. This weekend covid ravaged l. A. County became the first in the u. S. To surpass 1 million covid cases. This l. A. City ifirefighter describing the number of deaths as impossible to fathom. Its hard to imagine that many people pass ag way and each is a story. Its a family. Its horrible to just imagine. We in our Fire Department have lost two of our members. Two valuable members to this disease. And so it hits home. Reporter those losses even being felt by First Responders not just in california but across the country. Staying in california, u. S. Representative confirming he tested positive for the coronavirus. The latest member of congress to do so. Last week three lawmakers, democratic lawmakers reported being infected after sheltering in place with colleagues who refused to wear masks during the january 6th siege on the capitol. Paolo sandoval, thank you so much. Alexei navalny is expected to return to russia today having survived an attempted assassination. Navalny is an outspoken critic of the russian president vladimir putin. He was poisoned in august and nearly died. You may remember this story. The kremlin has repeatedly denied any involvement but a cnn investigation with the group bellingcat found Russian Security agents trailed navalny for years before he was poisoned. Navalny says he never doubted hed return. I am russian politician, and even when i was not just in hospital, i was in intense therapy, and i said publicly i will go back and i will go back because i am russian politician, i belong to this country, and definitely which i, especially now, when these actually crime is correct open revealed, i understand the whole operation, i would never give putin such a gift. Cnn chief International Correspondent Clarissa Ward joins us now. Clarissa, the list is long of risks that taking by returning to russia. But he is calling for a big crowd to meet him there. He is. He went on instagram. I guess the theory is safety in numbers. The more vocal and verbal and public he is about his return, the less chance that he may be arrested. Nonetheless, victor, that does appear to be what the russian state is planning to do when he returns to moscow. His flight leaves in just about one hour. He is flying on flight 936, a bizarre coincidence. It means victory in russian. He is expected to land at about 11 20 eastern time. Already authorities in moscow have said that no one is allowed permission to film or take footage inside the airport terminal. We are getting reports of a sort of beefed up security presence there. Also, a lot of journalists outside the airport in berlin, we are understanding that he will be led by German Authorities directly to the departure gate, that he will not be going through the sort of usual public boarding procedure. So, clearly, everyone understands that the risks are huge. The Russian Authority has said they will have to choice but to arrest him because he was in germany, that technically violates the terms of his suspended sentence that he was serving on embezzlement charges. So now they are being asked to make that suspended sentence actually a jail sentence, meaning that he would spend up to 3 1 2 years in prison. Believe me, thats not the only risk here. This is someone who survived an attack with novichok, a lethal nerve agent. So certainly he is fearful and yet choosing to remain positive about the risks ahead. Victor, christi. Clarissa ward with us from london. Thank you. President elect biden is taking steps to reverse some of President Trumps most controversial decision. Coming up, the executive orders president elect biden is expected to sign on day one. hi jen so this aveeno® moisturizer goes beyond just soothing sensitive skin . Exactly jen calm restore oat gel is formulated with prebiotic oat. And strengthens skins moisture barrier. Uh i love it aveeno® healthy. Its our natuture. ™ get ready our most popular battery is now even more powerful. The stronger, lastslonger energizer max. grandmother thank you for taking me home. Its so far. young woman the stronger, dont worry about it,slonger grandma this will be fun. 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With our highest concentration of prebiotic oat intensely moisturizes over time to improve skins resilience. Aveeno® healthy. Its our nature™. So president elect biden is planning to start rolling back some of the trump administrations policies and he is starting to do this op day one, he says. Cnns Jasmine Wright is joining us right now. Tell us about president elect bidens priorities day one. Reporter well, victor, joe biden will have a busy day on wednesday. The president elect will sign about roughly a dozen executive orders on his first day that he is inaugurated, and those orders, like you said, will reverse some of those actions taken by trump over the last four years, but also add in areas where people did not think it was possible under trump, and some of those executive actions include rejoining the Paris Climate Accord that trump removed the u. S. From over the last four years. It includes reversing the travel ban from predominantly muslim countries as well as signing a 100day mask mandate in federal areas as well as taking actions on evictions and student loans. These are things that president elect joe biden promised he would do on day one on the campaign trail from the primary in general election. So now these are ways he will fulfill those promise. For his Vice President kamala harris, she will also be inaugurated wednesday as a historic first, the first woman, the first black woman, the first south asian woman, and she spoke about the task ahead for the administration who will inherit one of the worst Public Health crises to date. Take listen to her here. We must remember the work, the fight that lies ahead, the fight to save lives and beat this pandemic, the fight to rebuild our economy so it works for working people, the fight to root out systemic racism, combat the Climate Crisis and strengthen the democracy we all ch cherish. The road ahead wont be easy. Reporter now, cnn has learned some details about her inauguration. She will be sworn in by Supreme Court Justice Sonia sotomayor and she will be sworn in using two bibles. One that belonged to thurgood marshall, someone that harris credits as an inspiration for her own legal career, and one that was owned by family friend mrs. Regina shelton who harris says was a second mother to her growing up. Jasmine wright there in willingham, thank you. Alex burns, a cnn political analyst and National Correspondent for the New York Times with us now. Good morning to you. Good morning. Well, the interparty fighting we are seeing within the Republican Party, is there any sense that that might actually help ease some of the battles that biden may have once he gets into office . Well, christi, there certainly is a sense among joe bidens allies and among some republicans on capitol hill that there is more of a window for biden to reach out to and potentially secure cooperation from a handful of major republicans in the house and senate because the gop is so divided right now. It is totally a matter of political course that the defeated party is usually divided. But republicans right now are divided more deeply and more bitterly than any political i have ever covered. The recriminations over the mob attack on the capitol earlier this month and the sense among moderate republicans that their fellow conservatives further to the right may have some culpability in that event has folks at the Leadership Levels of the gop just completely fed up and, frankly, looking for other options. Lets talk about that. You wrote a piece for the New York Times. I want to read from that. You write, as President Trump prepares to leave his office, Republican Leaders including Mitch Mcconnell are maneuvering to thwart his grip on the gop in future elections while poreses aligned with mr. Trump are looking to punish republican lawmakers and governors who have broken with him. What is the expectation in the Republican Party of where they go with all of this . The expectation in the party on both sides of that divide that you just described is essentially a state of political civil war, that you have people close to Senate Republican leader Mitch Mcconnell who told me and told my colleague Jonathan Morton that they are planning a National Effort in the 2022 elections to crush these farright candidates in primary elections, that they see what happened in the 2020 campaign and especially in the georgia runoffs this month and they see what happened on capitol hill and the president s role in that and they say enough is enough. There are a lot of people in the party, including some important financial backers of the party, who say its about time that you said enough is enough, that this went too far along time ago. But at the same time the president is still the most prominent and probably the most popular person in the Republican Party and that actual rank and File Republican voters are still likely to take his support for a candidate or his opposition to a candidate like a Governor Brian Kemp in georgia or like senator john thune in south dakota as a very, very serious recommendation. Talk to us about the consequences of the big business backlash. We are already seeing examples of the Republican Partys more corporate donors and more mainstream wealthy individuals saying that they are not comfortable with the state of the gop right now. You saw the lowes Hotel Corporation cancel an event at a property just yesterday proving josh hawley, the missouri senator who was a ringleader in trying to block the congressional acceptance of joe bidens victory. Thats a big step. You have other republican donors. I spoke to one multimillion dollar donor to Mitch Mcconnells super pac who said he was going to be watching closely to see which republicans voted in favor of impeachment because the party made a mistake by not removing President Trump when they had a chance in 2019. Excuse me, in 2021. They are looking for the party to to take a more principled stance this time. As they look ahead to 2022, and you mentioned it briefly there, do you get a sense that the capitol siege greenlighted some republicans to take a stance that they had wanted to take previously . I think there is no question about it. And you talk to republicans in the house. Of course, there are people like liz cheney who have taken enormous Political Risk his conduct around and on the day of the siege but other republicans have not gone quite as far as cheney are far more willing now than they may have been a few years ago or even a few weeks ago to say that the president s day has come and gone. And that is, i think, maybe an even more meaningful indication of where the internal currents in the party are. There may not be all that many republicans who are willing to say, yeah, im going to put my career on the line for an impeachment vote, but the sense of just dissatisfaction, even from people who voted against impeachment and saying, you know, i wish this guy would kind of move on, that is really palpable. Alex burns, always appreciate your perspective. Thank you for taking time to be with us. You bet. We will be right back. Sofi made it so easy to pay off my student loan debt. They were able to give me a personal loan so i could pay off all of my credit cards. I got my mortgage through sofi and the whole process was so easy. Express yourself express yourself americas golden girl betty white is celebrating her 99th birthday today. 99. She is a tv legend, right . Right. Career lasted more than 75 years. And, listen, shes never been one to complain. I think ive been lucky enough to do just about so much that i if i start complaining about anything under the sun, throw me out of the business. Listen, happy birthday to her and we have to say thank you to adam charlton, our executive producer who is trading in his alarm clock probably for some alcohol on saturday and sunday nights. Later. Later saturday and sunday nights. You said t i didnt. Later. Here is a picture of the weekend Team Christmas oh, i dont like this picture. Adam is there next to christi, over her shoulder in the red sweater. We will miss you. Great work. Adam, thank you so much. 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Plus, for a limited time, ask how to get a 500 prepaid card when you upgrade. Switch today. An inauguration like no other, fencing, troops, a capitol city fortified against attacks and insurrection. Were monitoring all incoming leads, but the volume of information up there is significant. A new president inherits a dangerous political divide and a raging pandemic. The only way we can do it is to come together as fellow americans, as neighbors, as a United States of america. And the departing president is angry, isolated and impeached again. The p