The former president being asked about systemic racism and saying no, there isnt, but no one said anything. And thats the problem, dont you think . Didnt hear, didnt hear it. Look at the time. Am i wrong . No, you are right. But they were wrong. And you have to speak out. I know its scary when somebody is powerful. I know you want the job. I know theres a lot of shine on it. Its not worth it if at the end of the day you wind up becoming a stain on society. Its not just a job, chris. Its in friendship, its in the workplace, its in maybe someones not your friend. Its in the line at the bank, its at the supermarket, its wherever you are, if someone says something thats racist or sexist or misoj nistic or antisemitic, its up to all of us to say hey, stop, dont do that. And not to coddle people and say why would you do that and i dont understand. No. You know what coddling people and not confronting them you know what that got snus that got us an authoritarian figure elected as figure. Do you know what else that got us . A racist insurrection on the capitol. Do you know what else that got us . That got us lawmakers in washington trying to make excuses for that because of what . Coddling. Because people did not stand up for whats right. And so whether this goes anywhere and i think it will. This is a lot for the new president to put on the table, even if it is an executive order. I think the black president did not even do that. For him to do that, hes got to follow up on it. Hes got to make good on it or thats going to look really bad over the course of history. Because he doesnt have ignorance as an excuse, and his agenda is supposed to be the opposite of what we just lived through. Systemic inequality is real. Call it out. Stop, why did you do it . And wait for their answer. See something, say something. And if they dont have an answer, you know something, right . Youre great at this in your personal life. Right. When somebody doesnt know why theyre wrong, you are very good at giving people a break and helping them understand what it is theyre not paying attention to. Yeah. You dont have to judge. You dont have to hurt. You dont have to stick it in their face. You can do it in a way that would encourage people to want to be better. We can do it. We do it all the time. Heres what i want us to do if you will. Im not going to tell you how to live. But im tired of saying the conversations about race, that theyre not hard. These are not tough conversations. These are easy conversations to have especially with the moment, with the four years weve gone through and what happened a few days ago. These are easy conversations to have. The only way theyre hard is if you dont want to have them or you want to make excuses for them. Thats how theyre hard. But if youre willing to open yourself up and have the conversation, it aint hard. True. To the extent it takes effort, theres discomfort. What in life thats worth while did not that not apply to. Every night, my pain, the cross i have to bear is having to talk to you. I feel for you. I do. I love you. There but for the grace, d. Lemon. There but for the grace. I love you, d. Lemon. More than you know. This is cnn tonight. Im don lemon. Theres sorry. Ive got to it can a breath now. Its so good to see you. I hope youre happy to be here. Theres a lot going on tonight. Theres major news on the impeachment trial,less than two weeks away that trial. President biden making a big announcement on vaccines to fight the pandemic thats killed more than 425,000 americans. Thats a lot of people. And i want to begin with what happened in the senate today, okay . Its really important. Senators sworn in as jurors in the impeachment trial and immediately facing a challenge from a top trump ally. We were just talking about it, right . The Senate Voting down rand pauls effort to declare impeachment unconstitutional. Only five republicans voted with democrats. That means 45 republicans voted against holding the impeachment trial. 45 republicans reconfirming their commitment to preserve and protect the former president personally rather than what is the oath and their sworn duty to the constitution. And to the facts. Rand paul saying this today. Impeachment is for removal from office. And the accused here has already left office. Hyperpartisan democrats are about to drag our great country down into the gutter of ranker and vitriol, the likes of which has never been seen in our nations history. Rand paul, what are you talking about . Rand paul, look at the video, rand paul. The gutter of ranker and vitriol . The likes of which weve never seen in our nations history . That is exactly what the former president brought us, brought us to when he incited the mob that stormed the u. S. Capitol. Do your job, rand paul. Do your job. Someone send him show him these videos. Are you kidding me . Todays vote in the senate shows just how difficult its going to be to grapple with the big lie and break the hold on the former the former president has on the gop. What more do those republicans need to hear . What more . I dont i dont get i know youre having a hard time getting it. I dont either. Perhaps it is just straight up politics. Maybe who knows whats going on. I dont know. But what could possibly be worse than what we all saw and heard when rioters incited by the president of the United States attacked the capitol . Hang mike pence hang mike pence hang mike pence hm, hang mike pence. Okay. Maybe rand paul didnt hear that. Rand paul just, they said, hang pence. They cant pretend they dont know exactly what happened. They were there. No, im not an identifier. I dont need to repeat what was on your screen. You saw it. Not kind language. Did you see that, rand paul . They know what the president said. They know the violence that followed. That put every one of them in danger. And as much as they might want to sweep it under the rug, they may not be able to. So sources telling cnn impeachment managers want to use social media videos showing how the president s words and actions motivate td rioters to storm the capitol. That is going to be hard for republicans to ignore evidence like this, evidence that we first showed you we showed you here last night. This video, its from the National Security form just kurt juxtaposing the thenpresident s own words at the rally on january 6th with what people in the crowd posted on facebook and parler. Here it is. Now it is up to congress to confront this egregious assault on our democracy. And after this were going to walk down and ill be there with you. Were going to walk down were going to walk down any one you want, but i think right here. Were going to walk down to the capitol. Were going to walk down to the capitol. Yeah take the capitol take the capitol take the capitol right now take the capitol hi, rand paul. Take the capitol. Cnn has not independently verified the video and impeachment managers havent decided yet exactly how theyre going to use it. But, you know, like i said, what could possibly be worse than what we already know, what weve already seen . Yet even after all this, 45 republican senators still dont want to hold the former president accountable. Voting against even having a trial. And their argument that you cant impeach a former president would basically mean a president could do anything at all at the end of his term, like say, shoot someone in the middle of fifth avenue and get away with it. Or incite a riot at the capitol and get away with it. But enablers will enable. Nicky haileys plea, give the guy a break. I dont even think theres a basis for impeachment. The idea theyre even bringing this up, they didnt have a hearing in the house. Now theyre going to turn around and bring about impeachment yet they say theyre for unity. They beat him up before he got into office, theyre beating him up after he leaves office. I mean, at some point, i mean, give the man a break. I mean, move on. If you truly are about moving on, move on. The idea theyre going to do impeachment, thats not going to bring our country together. Thats only dividing our country. The moving on part is something that those are her words. Im not hearing anybody saying they want to move on except for republican enablers. Thats whos saying they want to move on. Bring the country together . What about not voting to overturn the will of millions of americans . What about questioning the votes of africanamericans strong holds in this country . What about unity for that . What happened to that unity . What happened to unity where was that energy for very fine people on both sides . For enemy of the people . For grab them by the p . Where was that call for unity and kumbaya when this the former president was spewing hatred into the public, inciting a riot . Where was that call for unity then . But now you want to unify, niki hailey . What happened to you . What . Is it worth it to thwart ambition to do what youre doing . President ial ambition probably. Hm, hm. And marco rubio. Marco rubio who just last summer accused democrats of cowering from what he called the terror of the mob in the wake of protest now wants to knuckle under to domestic terror. I think the trial is stupid. I think its counterproductive. We already have a flaming fire in this country and its like taking a bunch of gasoline and pouring it on top of the fire. Okay. Whatever thing youre taking for loss of memory, ill have what theyre having. Remember that ill have what shes ill have what theyre having. That must be nice to live that way. You dont have to no repercussions, no guilt, no accountability. You just move on to the next thing because of ambition, because you want to hang on to power. And the big lie that started it all, the thenpresident s desperate attempts to steal the election, the big lie is still out there. The Republican Party putting out a stunningly false proclamation claiming there is growing evidence the capitol was designed to discredit President Trump. By his own supporters . That makes that makes sense, yes. That is a lie. And thats all the former president s defenders have left, lies. And people who are on the side of the big lie are showing up on state tv i mean fox news. Exhibit a, Maria Bart Romo and her false flag disinformation without a shred of evidence because there isnt any. It is a lie. Security in the nations capitol is at an unprecedented level this morning ahead of the inauguration tomorrow. A new report says that some far right protesters have discussed posing as members of the National Guard to infiltrate the inauguration the way democrats infiltrated two weeks ago and put on maga clothing. I will not have what shes having. Like i said, people on the side of the big lie, this just shows you how big the challenge is, how big it is for the Biden Administration trying to restore any semblance of order or, you know, reality, anything based in reality, anything fact based. So, theres rand paul. In the senate today not only trying to declare the impeachment trial unconstitutional, but refusing to wear a mask while on the senate floor. And hes a doctor. And hes ignoring the science. Hes ignoring the facts that masks are the best weapon that we have right now against the virus. Dr. Jonathan reiner tweeting, quote, the senator is an embarrassment to the senate and to medicine. When that was going on in the senate, what we heard from the president of the United States today was something we havent heard from for a very long time from the white house, and that is a factbased, sciencebased plan to take on the pandemic, the pandemic the former president routinely ignored, even as more americans died. Died. Hundreds of thousands of them. President biden today announcing the purchase of 200 million more vaccine doses, enough to get in the arms of every adult in america by the end of the summer. We also heard Something Else from the president today that we havent heard from this white house in a long time from the white house in a long time, not this particular administration. President biden signing a series of executive actions on Racial Equity and saying this. I ran for president because i believe were in a battle for the soul of this nation. And the simple truth is, our soul will be troubled as long as systemic racism is allowed to exist. We cant eliminate it overnight. We must change, and i know its going to take time, but i know we can do it. And i firmly believe the nation is ed are i did to change. But government has to change as well. We need to make equity and justice part of what we do every day. Today, tomorrow and every day. How did that hit your ears . Did you go, its about time . Or did you say, oh, god, here we go, that again . If it was the latter, youre the problem. Because after four year of racial division, charlottesville, george floyd, breonna taylor, ahmaud arbery, so many other those are the striking examples the embrace of confederate statues and symbols, a rise in hate crimes and domestic terror, how about a capitol insurrection to overturn the government with White Supremacists and neonazis galvanized by our very leader, the president leading the way . Finally finally racial issues are a priority, not a Political Tool to use to bash america into submission. We have got a long, long way to go to undo hundred of years of racism in this country. And four years, five maybe, of legitimizing and prioritizing the wrong types of action and elements in this society. Racists. White supremacists. Antisemimites. Prioritizing ignorance. Racism that is not hiding, still painfully on display. By the way, did you know that is actually not the confederate flag. Thats the battle flag. Thats not the original one from the confederacy. Know your history. And then perhaps you wont act on ignorance. And there wont be insurrections. This president saying the right thing today. But now it is time to put those words into action. The impeachment trial, the president s orders on Racial Equity. Lots to talk about with this man. Senator cory booker. Next. Smooth driving pays off you never been in better hands allstate click or call for a quote today getting ready for a special day . Spice things up at adoreme. Com. With bras and lingerie in sizes up to 4x. Get ontrend bodysuits or lacy babydolls, just because. This valentines day, sets start at just 24. 95. Thats 50 off at adoreme. Com. So, saying its time to act, President Joe Biden sign executive orders seeking to heal racial inequities in this country. That is one topic i want to discuss with democratic senator cory booker of new jersey. Senator, its always a pleasure to have you on, especially in these busy times. Thank you so much. Ive got to start with trumps second impeachment trial. He incited insurrection on the capitol to keep himself in power. Five people and still only five five people dead and still only five republicans voted to hold the trial. What does that tell you, senator . Look, if this is not an impeachable offense, i dont know what is. Here is a president that before the election was even over he started whipping up a lie that if he lost it was rigged. He kept pushing it and pushing it. Did his attorney general agree with him . No. Did his Election Officials, republican Election Officials around the country agree with him . No. Did he show any shred of evidence . No. Did it gettic canned out of dozens and dozens of courts . Yes. And he whipped it up tie fervor to the day we were supposed to do the constitutional process of accepting the electorates from the states he whips up a crowd and sends them to the capitol. This is something that he should be held to account. People died. But more than that, it is the second siege in American History to our capitol. The first was done by the british in the war of 1812. This other one, of people trying to take the seat of power, was done at his behest. I think he should be held accountable, and im sorry that more of my colleagues in the Republican Party could not see that. If we could please rerun the video the, i think that video is very powerful and people should be reminded of whats at stake here and what happened, senator. So, look at your screen. Look at this. So, if you dont think that thats a problem, then i have no words. The president signed executive orders on housing discrimination, fighting bigotry, on ending private prisons, on strengthening relationship with native american tribes. What sort of concrete results will americans see from this do you think . A lot. First of all youve got to give it to joe biden. It wasnt just the four executive orders today. He started rolling back toxic things donald trump had done, like banning training on people, something hes done from corporations to Big City Police chiefs. He started enacting plans to undermine one of the great pillars of the civil rights movement, which was the fair housing ability. Here comes biden saying all of government, we need to get this country together. And doing that means starting to focus on equity, attacking systemic racism. As susan rice said today this is what americans have to understand. And king said so eloquently. Racism doesnt just hurt black people. It hurts our nation to cancel our soul. Susan rice put it to figures, which everybody from mckinsey to academic settings have shown that if we just heal the racial wealth gap, we will add trillions of dollars to our economy over five yores. Thats how much we will grow. Were as a nation thats always shown when you give equal access and inclusion. Look at the Hidden Figures being brought to the table with nasa astronauts. We literal he defy gravity and weve got to solve these problems for all of america. These concrete actions from beginning to phase out private prisons to focusing on discrimination against asianamericans to talking about housing policy from the damages of mortgage discrimination to red lining. All these things are the beginning steps of the administration not committed in words but showing real actions towards equity and inclusion and frankly racial justice. So, ive got to ask you about lets talk about what the current president said about george floyd, and then well talk about it. Those 8 minutes and 46 seconds that took George Floyds life opened the eyes of millions of americans and millions of people around all over the world. It was the knee on the neck of justice and it wouldnt be forgotten. It stirred the conscious of tens of millions of americans. And in my view it marked a turning point in this countrys attitude toward racial justice. I think that was a wake up call for a lot of people. George floyds death ope