Transcripts For CNN The Lead With Jake Tapper 20240711 : vim

Vote count angre that day, despite the fact that President Trump said he hopes Vice President pence, quote, comes through for us on the morning of the electoral vote confirmation. And the day before the count tweeted, quote, the Vice President has the power to reject fraudulently chosen electors, which is not true, but he did tweet that. The House Democratic Impeachment Managers argue that President Trump over months and months filled a powder keg and then lit a match. Joint session of congress after losing an election is not an Impeachable Offense. It is hard to imagine what would be, unquote, as cnns chief domestic correspondent jim acosta reports for us. The arguments set the stage for the kickoff of the trial one week from today. Reporter Donald Trumps Impeachment Lawyers are trying to build a wall of their own, separating the bloody siege at the Capitol On January 6th and the then president s words before the riot. We will stop the steal. Reporter in its response to the Impeachment Allegations brought by House Democrats, the Trump Defense team writes, it is denied that The 45th President engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the United States, adding The 45th President exercised his First Amendment right under the constitution to express his belief that the Election Results were suspect. This is a very, very dangerous road to take with respect to the First Amendment, putting at risk any passionate political speaker, which is really against everything we believe in, in this country. Reporter as for trumps instructions to the crowd to, quote, fight like hell and if you dont fight like hell youre not going to have a country anymore. Reporter his lawyer stated it is denied the phrase if you dont fight like hell youre not going to have a country anymore had anything to do with the action at the capitol, as it was clearly about the need to fight for Election Security in general. In their filing, which misspells United States on the first page, trumps attorneys insist he never tried to subvert the Election Results. Thats not true, as he pressured state Election Officials. What are we going to do here, folks . I only need 11,000 votes. Fellows, i need 11,000 votes. Give me a break. Reporter even his Vice President to do his bidding. If youre not, im going to be very disappointed in you. Reporter House Democrats plan to use clips of trumps speech as well as comments made by his violence supporters to prove the former president instigated the riot, writing, if provoking a riot against Joint Session Of Congress after losing an election is not an Impeachable Offense its hard to imagine what would be. The democrats counter theres no january exception to impeachment or any other provision in the constitution. Still, some democrats worry this trump trial will end like the last one. Im very worried about going through this trial and having the punch line at the end being trump acquitted again. Reporter trump clearly won the battle with his own lawyers over whether to include the expresident s bogus claims that the election was stolen. Trump allies say he remains tied to that big lie. Even though polls show that he lost the election because, quote, he was so dishonest. Who would have thought. Lets start with this constitutionality idea. Specifies impeachment for the president and hes no longer the president. Democratic house Impeachment Managers say theres no free pass to commit crimes near the end of the term, no january exception to impeachment. But i know most constitutional scholars agree with the democrats that a former official can be impeached but historically, i dont think one has ever been convicted, right . I think thats correct. The historical precedent is on the side of the democrats. Another important fact that distinguishes this from a case of an Impeachment Trial that occurs after someone has left office. In this case, the first phase of impeachment, the bringing of the article of impeachment and adoption of it by the house did happen when donald trump was still in office. It was a proper and appropriate impeachment of a sitting president if you think thats an important argument which postally people dont think it is. That was done legitimately and constitutionally. Then the constitution says thereafter the senate shall have the sole power to try all impeachments. And so the way the argument is on the democrats side. It probably doesnt matter because we already had a vote in the senate on this question and 55 senators, including five republicans, voted in favor of the constitutionality of proceeding with this trial even though trump is out of office. Kaitlan, democrats cited that the words the mob heard from the president before they stormed the capitol mattered. Take a listen to one of those moments. We fight like hell. And if you dont fight like hell, youre not going to have a country anymore. So, fight like hell. Fight like hell. And the context of the president saying stop the steal. Stop the steal. The trump team is trying to argue that that specific part was about Election Security in general and didnt have anything to do with inciting the attack on the capitol. It is true fight is a common word in politics but this wasnt just this morning, right . This had been going on for months. Reporter they also ignored that during that same speech he told the people in attendance to walk down to the capitol, saying he was going to walk with them there, instructing them multiple times, even saying which path to use to get to the capitol. They ignored that in their filing. But basically what his attorneys are trying to argue in here is that the president was under this belief that he actually did not that he actually did win the election and because of that belief, he was right to use his free speech to argue that the results of the election were suspect. But they completely ignored how for months he was really laying the groundwork for this, not just raising questions about the legitimacy of the results but outright saying that they were not real and they were fraudulent, and that basically his supporters had been scam me out of a victory. So, he had been inciting them for months. Not just the day of the speech, which youve seen a lot of his allies point to, ignoring what he had been saying on the road, in speeches from the white house and on twitter for several weeks. And preet, lets talk about that. Trumps team says in their filing of President Trumps lies, quote, The 45th President exercised his First Amendment right to express his belief, belief that the Election Results were suspect. Insufficient evidence exists in which a juryist could conclude that The 45th President s statements were accurate or not and therefore denies they were false. Obviously, this big lie about the election having been stolen is utter crap and has been found as such by dozens of courts, election boards, everybody who is credible. There is this issue in the law of mens rhea. As George Costanza once said, its not a lie if you believe it. Does it matter if donald trump believed it . No, i dont think so. He wasnt just expressing his view of what the Election Results were, whether they were proper or not. Kaitlan is absolutely right. You have to look at the context of all of this. The House Managers did an excellent job in laying out over dozens of pages the narrative. Remember, donald trump was not just complaining about the election from the day of the election onwards. He was taking action through his speech, by calling up Secretary Of State in georgia, by trying to meet with officials in michigan, by telling his Vice President that he wanted him to take a particular action. All along the way, trump wasnt just whining about the election. He was trying to get people to do things to overturn the election up to and including the rally on january 6th. So, looked at against the backdrop of all the things he was trying to get people to do, i think, is very, very foreseeable and you could make the argument for this in the Impeachment Trial that, donald trump knew he was rallying up the crowd to do what . Not just to bemoan the results, not just to complain, but do something about them. His last clear chance for a nonviolent way or nonforceable way to change the election had expired when his own Vice President chose not to do that. Yeah. There was intelligence being collected on this point, too, that there was the potential for violence. He knew what he was doing. He was asking them to act. Thats not protected by the First Amendment. Most charitable interpretation is that he was asking them to go to capitol hill to intimidate people to overturn the election, not commit acts of violence. But, i mean, kaitlan, its in the eye of the beholder at a certain point. We all had been covering for months this is not true. This is not true. This is going to result in somebody getting hurt. Georgia Election Officials pleading for the president to stop. He wouldnt stop. Reporter yeah, thats right. He wouldnt. A big question of this is the legal team thats also representing the president here. Look what happened over the weekend. We found out Saturday Night his entire Election Team his entire Legal Defense team was leaving. This is a hastily arranged defense we got from the president today in this brief that they had to file at deadline by noon to do so. They misspelled United States in this. That really shows you the level of how last minute all of this is. Really more doesnt need to be said. We should note a key reason we were told part of that legal team left on saturday is because the president wanted them to argue his bogus claims about the election and, of course, they did not want to. They wanted to focus on the Constitutionality Argument of it. Thats what youll see made in this brief and next week. Notably the legal document refers to him as The 45th President not the former president , still feeding this delusion. Kaitlan collins, thank you so much. The Biden Administration Just Announced it will send vaccines directly to pharmacies across the u. S. There are a lot of questions about whether this will speed up shots going into the arms. Why a Conspiracy Theory around baseball legend hank aaron is now linked to one communitys vaccine fears, keeping some from going to get that muchneeded shot. Stay with us. Pp and its ready to go with contactless curbside. Turkey sub in a hot tub now get 15 off any footlong when you order in the app. As carla wonders if she can retire sooner, shell revisit her plan with fidelity. And with a scenario that makes it a possibility, shell enjoy her dream right now. Thats the planning effect, from fidelity. announcer this is chet. He loves workoy her dream but lives for the weekend. And now, he needs a new truck. So he came to truecar and he saw what others paid for the truck he wants. Now he can recognize a great price. Truecar. Buy smarter. Buy from home. In our health lead today, the Biden Administration saying it will soon send Covid Vaccines directly to pharmacies across the country. As erica hill reports this could be critical in getting more americans vaccinated faster. Reporter local pharmacies next in line to administer vaccines. This will provide more sites for people to get vaccinated in their communities and its an important component to delivering vaccines equitably. Good afternoon, folks. Reporter the Biden Administration will begin shipping directly to pharmacies next week, part of a longpromised plan to expand access. Cvs says its ready in 11 states. Walgreens announcing plans in 14 states including puerto rico. This site in phoenix can accommodate 10,000 to 12,000 shots a day. Im just trying to do my part. For now theres only enough vaccine for 500 a day. Were hearing well be about this same level for the next few weeks. Reporter 16 lanes up and running at the texas motor speedway. Its very impressive. Reporter the states largest drivethrough Vaccination Site where Officials Say they can process a thousand people an hour. We do know we have several thousand second doses that are coming due, and so we will be allocating those second doses. Reporter moderna asking the fda for permission to increase the number of doses in each vial from 10 to 15. A new Study Suggests one dose may be enough for one people who already had the virus, but previous infection does not seem to protect you against reinf reinfection, at least with the South African variant. Reporter prompting new urgency. When we have to deliver 500 million immunizations between now and late spring, early summer to get ahead of these variants, its going to be tough. Reporter a drop in new cases, hospitalizations and positivity rates, prompting some areas to loosen restrictions on indoor dining. It feels good. Its nice to be out. Reporter even extending bar hours. It allows us to hire more people, and bring more of our own employees back to work. Reporter experts warn this reprieve may not last. The variants are here. Theyre circulating and they are going to cause a large spike in cases. Reporter we talked a lot in the last 24 hours about the impact of weather on Vaccination Sites in the northeast, here in new york city and new york state, many sites remaining closed for a second day. Most are expected to open tomorrow, jake. As for who is going to get those vaccines, they say first and most important is to take care of all the canceled appointments. New york city wont be scheduling any new appointments until they can get through those. Jake . Dr. Sanjay gupta joins us now. I want to start with the white houses launch of this program that says it will ship vaccines directly to pharmacies across the country. What does it mean for people out there who wants to get vaccines . I think hopefully it will make it easier for people who want to get vaccines. Typically Neighborhood Pharmacies are a place people know, along with their primary doctors. Having the vaccine had those pharmacies and hopefully ultimately having a steady supply will make a difference. 10. 5 million doses per week is now what the states are being promised overall. But theres going to be an additional million doses to the federal pharmacy retail program. That number is not obviously a big number. The hope, the expectation is that that will start to expand. Remember, jake, some of the big pharmacies have been largely focused in the month of january, at least, on taking care of longterm care facility residents. Hopefully now they can shift their attention to everyone else. Sanjay, dr. Fauci is warning that people who have already had covid19 could be at risk for reinfection, especially if the Variant Virus Strains become dominant. We can see those variants have been identified all over the u. S. Right now. Whats the potential impact of that . Well, this is you know, this is a concern. These variants are the viruses are different enough that even if you have antibodies from having been previously protected, it doesnt appear that those antibodies completely protect you from becoming infected again. Do they protect you enough so you dont get that sick . Perhaps. If its just that youre getting infected but not sick, that would obviously be an important distinction to make. We dont know that yet. We can tell you if youve been previously infected, youre less protected. If you get the vaccine youre going to be more protected. Novavax, Johnson Johnson, theyre currently finishing up their trials, Johnson Johnson will be applying for emergency use authorization. When it comes to south africa and Johnson Johnson, 56 protective against moderate disease that. Bottom line, ill keep coming back to this, 85 protective against overall disease at all. People are still getting infected but if theyre not getting as sick, not as likely to be hospitalized or die, thats still, obviously, a tremendous benefit. You wouldnt want people to get infected in the first place but theres still protection from these vaccines and thats why weve got to get them out quickly. Sanjay yesterday you suggested with caveats there may be some m