Transcripts For CNNW Erin Burnett OutFront 20201222 : vimars

CNNW Erin Burnett OutFront December 22, 2020

Bill. Good evening, everyone. Im kate baldwin in for erin burnett. Out front tonight breaking news. The president holding a meeting with members of congress at the white house this evening to promote his Election Fraud conspiracy further. The president s chief of staff tweeting moments ago this. Several members of Congress Just finished a meeting in the oval office with President Trump, preparing to fight back against mounting evidence of voter fraud. Stay tuned. To be clear, there is no such evidence or it would have been presented in court. The president has tried and failed to present any evidence at dozens of court hearings. This is just the latest example of an unraveling situation at the white house, quite frankly. Multiple senior trump advisers and people close to the president telling cnn they fear trumps final days. One Administration Official saying very simply, quote, its scary. They say the president is no longer governing. Instead hes focused solely on his futile effort to overturn the election result. Hes turned now to a fringe group of advisers pedaling increasingly dubious tactics. Advisers like Sidney Powell who was at the white house again today. Thats after she was there last night and friday. Shes the attorney who has pedaled some of the craziest election theories. Her ideas so out there, Rudy Giuliani a man not afraid of a Conspiracy Theory himself, he has even tried to distance her from the Trump Campaign legal team. The president is also apparently listening to steve bannon again. Hes pushing trump to appoint a special counsel to investigate Election Fraud, widespread fraud, which we know didnt happen. I strongly recommended to the president , we need a special counsel named immediately. Hes not an attorney, but he is under federal indictment, and he may very well be under consideration for president ial pardon. Heres who does know the standards for appointing special counsel, bill barr, who said this today. If i thought a special counsel at this stage was the right tool and was appropriate, i would do i would name one. But i havent, and im not going to. Now, bill barr is leaving the administration this week. He and the president clearly dont see eye to eye on a number of issues anymore. But this is significant. First, the obvious. Bill barr is the attorney general of the United States. And second, barr hasnt been shy in the past to back up some of the president s wild claims including claims that didnt bear out. You cant do the mailin ballots because youre going to have tremendous fraud. Elections that have been handled with mail have been found with substantial fraud and corruption. Those things are delivered to mailboxes i, can be taken out. They spied on me. They spied on our campaign. I think spying did occur. Attorney general bill barr is the attorney general of the United States. We now know this. Hes not been backing away from a lot of what the president says. But this is why when you hear this, what he just said today compared to what he has said in the past, that is why this is so significant that barr is breaking from President Trump, that is why it is so significant in part. Lets dig into this a little bit more. Out front now, retired colonel lawrence wilkerson. Hes also a member of National Task force of election crises, something were going to lean on here. Ben ginsburg, a long time republican election lawyer. He served as National Counsel to the Bush Cheney Campaign in 2000 and 2004. And julie pace is a Washington Bureau chief for the associated press. Colonel wilkerson, if i could start with you. What do you make of what were hearing from people like Sidney Powell, steve bannon and the president s former National Security advisor michael flynn, and were learning it was floated in the Oval Office Meeting pushing for martial law in order to rerun the election . I think were seeing just how desperate trump is becoming himself and how desperate the last remaining rats on the ship, if you will, are becoming because of that. We see bannon apparently coming back on scene again probably most ardently seeking a pardon. We see things like you just pointed out, general flynn i dont know if i was in charge of the military, but id call flynn back to active duty and proskite him under the code of military justice. You can pick your charge there. Incitement of insurrection or whatever. But these are desperate people. Dont take counsel with your fears. And thats one of the things we need to do now. Weve just been through an election that was monumental. More americans voted and voted by different methods. States upheld their laws, upheld their precedents, upheld their protocols. They did a good job. Maybe in kentucky there was a little cheating. I think the kentucky race Mitch Mcconnell was reelected in against all percentages that contained beforehand in exit polling and maybe there was something there, but you never look into the republicans for cheating, i can tell you that. Im a republican. But i think this election was incredibly welldone, magnificently welldone. We should praise the states and all the people in the states that did it. And now we need to understand were going to get through this. And at noon on the 20th of january joe biden is going to be the new president of the United States. But before then, one other thing we do know is we have reporting that Rudy Giuliani has called over to the department of Homeland Security to inquire if dhs could seize voting machines. Bill barr was asked about that also today. Let me play for you what he said. I see no basis now for seizing machines by the federal government. I see no basis now for seizing machines by the federal government. What did you think of his answer . Is there a legal basis for any of this . The truth is theres not authority in the federal government to go seizing a states voting machines. So it is as the colonel said twrsha sign of the desperation. I suppose if the desperation gets too great we do have the 25th amendment out there that says the Vice President and a majority of the cabinet can declare the president incapacitated. So there is a fail safe even if it gets really, really crazy. I guess were not there yet, julie, but these conversations they did happen. That seems to be clear what happened in the oval office. Sidney powell being there now three times in the last few days. Do you have a sense how serious people are taking these conversations within the white house . Well, i think within the white house theyre taking them with some measure of seriousness because of the seriousness of what were talking about here. You dont just throw out things like martial law in the oval office and brush it aside. At the same time the response from the Republican Party and from people around the president has been to say essentially, well, he wont go there, even President Trump wont cross that line. And theyre waiting out the clock hoping we get to january 20th and biden is sworn in and we do have a peaceful transition of power. But i think the reality is the president has increasingly surrounded himself with people telling conspiracy theories and telling him the things he wants to hear. Even though the guardrails of this election have held up and pointing ato one obvious thing. Let me play what the president s former National Security advisor, michael flynn, not only suggested in an interview last week but we now know it was floated in this Oval Office Meeting on friday. Martial law. He could within the swing states if he wanted to he could take military capabilities and place them in those states and basically rerun an election in those states. Its not unprecedented. These people out there talking about martial law like its something weve never done. Martial law has been instituted 64 64 times. Your task force, as part of the task force you all game out scenarios what President Trump might do in the final days if he lost the election. When you did this, did you game out invoking martial law . We gamed out if you want to say gaming out is discussing it because we didnt actually put it on the floor of the game, but we did discuss such moves of that. And there were not that many military People Consulting the congressional integrity project. And it was my advice and my counsel that the United States military would not perform unless it was in the process of a civil action, a revote, an insurrection, something really of an order of magnitude of Law Enforcement, civilian Law Enforcement could not handle. And when flynn said that about all those times im not sure hes right about 64 times. But when we have had some form of military assistance to Law Enforcement, something thats referred to by a latin term, thats especially what its been. And thats what my advice was. The only way military would only handle anything in this country is if Law Enforcement could not handle it and military had to back it up. In 1982 during the riots there with very good guidance from colin powell, to make sure we maintained an equity that was necessary for the use of the mailitary and such certain things. Because when we did and everything turned out okay, and just dont think the military is going to get involved in any way, fashion or form. Were hearing from mark meadows that President Trump just met with a group of republican lawmakers who as mark meadows put it are preparing to fight back against mounting evidence of voter fraud. I can almost feel you rolling your eyes at me because i know youve hit on this many times, but what could they possibly have as members of congress that hasnt been presented and already dismissed in court . Well, i think nothing is the truth of the matter. One thing about bill barr announcement today is that it strengthens Mitch Mcconnells ability to say to the senators at least dont go along with this because in point of fact when the attorney general of the United States says theres no evidence of fraud, thats nothing that i think republican senators will absolutely listen to. So the longterm significance of what bill barr said today is pretty great. And it goes directly to your question of how much evidence there is. It its also worth pointing out on the martial law point, martial law may have been imposed on the United States, but never to overtrch a free and Fair Election or any election for that matter. So it would be totally unprecedented to use the military for this. Maybe a small point of context, but a crucial one when youre talking about it in the way we are. Ben, juli, its not just kind of all of this. Trump is also praising the senatorelect Tommy Tuberville. He has said hes open to rejecting Election Results during joint session of Congress Next week. Its not going to stop joe biden from becoming president , but it is clear President Trump is taking notice. Listen. And spoke to a great gentlemen, Tommy Tuberville last night and hes so excited. He said you made me the most popular politician in the United States. I said hes great, great senator. Does the president , youll ae, you think understand this is futile . People know this is way to ingratiate yourself with this president which is not to tell him hard truths but to validate what he already believes. And so tuberville is one of those people. Sidney powell is one of those people there and theyre essentially feeding the president. And i think the president is showing he plans to play a pretty active role in the Republican Party going forward. He sees himself as a king maker and someone that can toip to help proper up and support candidates in line with his views and philosophies. And think youre going to see him continue to do it afterwards. I do think a big question is how he responds after the 6th of january when as you say this effort on capitol hill will be futile. What is his next step there. I dont think anyone is holding their breath for idea hell say its over, joe biden is president elect. But i think its a big question open what follows. Out front next we have breaking news. The white house may require travelers from the United Kingdom to present proof of a negative coronavirus test before arriving into the United States as a new and maybe faster spreading form of coronavirus is causing new concern. Plus, we now know how a critic of Vladimir Putin was poisoned. The victim himself tricked a russian agent into revealing how the lethal nerve agent was introduced. Translator the most risky piece of clothing, which one is that . Underpants. Underpants. And we also have breaking news. A vote anything anytime now on a historic coronavirus rescue package. But has any lawmaker actually read that entire 5,000plus page document . May your holidays glow bright and all your dreams take flight. Visit your local mercedesbenz dealer today for exceptional lease and financing offers at the mercedesbenz winter event. Stand up to moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis. And take. It. On. With rinvoq. Rinvoq a oncedaily pill. Can dramatically improve symptoms. 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Usaa and breaking news, the white house is considering requiring travelers from the United Kingdom to show proof of a negative coronavirus test before entering the United States. It comes amid global concern tonight about a new and potentially more contagious variant of the coronavirus hitting the u. K. So hard right now. Dozens of countries are implementing a massive travel crack down to try to contain the spread. But the big question tonight for scientists is this variant more dangerous or more resistant to the current vaccines . Out front now, dr. Jonathan rhiner. And dr. Jahadeen. I think this is something we need to keep our eye on but im not overly concerned. We know this virus has been mutated many times since it was first identified almost exactly a year ago. This particular variant might be associated with a more rapid spread of the virus in the United Kingdom, and thats still under investigation. What we also know is that this is still a coronavirus, and all the usual Public Health measures that are very effective at preventing the spread of this like Wearing Masks and social distancing and avoiding crowds and washing your hands, all those work with this virus. And maybe most importantly theres really no data at all to suggest that this virus is somehow resistant to the new vaccines that are now being widely distributed in the United States and in europe. And also the manufacturers of money clonal antibodies today issued statements their agents are effective against this variant. Something to keep an eye on, not something to become overly alarmed about right now. In terms of the Public Health response were seeing dozens of countries halting travel from the u. K. At least temporarily. I want to play for you what new York Governor Andrew Cuomo said about there was a lack of a ban on travel to the United States here. Why dont we act intelligently for a change . You have many countries that have just restricted flights from the u. K. Many European Countries have done it. Why are we doing nothing . Now sources are saying the white house is considering travelers from the you can showing proof of a negative test. I think a couple of things. First, travel bans can slow down the spread of a virus by a couple of weeks. Theyre not going prevent that variant from showing up in the United States. I think the idea of getting a negative test may be a bit more useful. But i understand governor cuomos concerns. Certainly it would give us a little bit more time if we put in that

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