Transcripts For CNNW The Situation Room With Wolf Blitzer 20

CNNW The Situation Room With Wolf Blitzer January 8, 2021

Decision is up to the u. S. Congress. Lets go to our chief White House Correspondent jim acosta. Jim, as impeachment is clearly gaining momentum once again, the white house is in crisis mode, and just released a new statement. Update our viewers. Reporter thats right, wolf, the white house just released a statement in the last couple of hours on these pending impeachment proceedings which see them to be moving very rapidly. We can show you that statement and put it up on screen. It says, a politically motivated impeachment of a president with only 12 days remaining in his term will only serve to further divide our great country. Obviously House Democrats dont feel that way, they say its absolutely necessary after what happened two days ago. But aides to the president tell me there is no way that donald trump will resign from the presidency despite this latest threat of a second impeachment before he leaves office. As one trump adviser told me, there is zero chance he will step down because, quote, he doesnt think he did anything wrong. Two days after he incited a bloody siege at the u. S. Capitol, donald trump is facing the headspinning prospect of becoming the first u. S. President to be impeached twice. His commitment to an orderly transition may be too little, too late. My focus now turns to ensuring a smooth, orderly, and seamless transition of power. This moment calls for healing and reconciliation. Reporter House Speaker nancy pelosi and her fellow democrats are now marching towards impeachment proceedings against the president , all the while making sure mr. Trump doesnt do anything drastic. Pelosi said she spoke to general mark milley to make sure the president doesnt launch a nuclear strike. Were not just doing this for the next 12 or 13 days. Were doing this for generations to come. And if we are not willing to state that the acts by the president of the United States to incite domestic terrorism and insurrection is an impeachable offense, then nothing is an impeachable offense. Reporter if the house impeaches the president , some Senate Republicans who didnt vote to convict the last time around said they have had a change of heart. I will definitely consider whatever articles they might move because as i told you, i believe the president has disregarded his oath of office. Reporter white house advisers say there is zero chance the president will resign, one source telling cnn, quote, he doesnt think he did anything wrong. But even former white house officials said mr. Trump should consider stepping down. They allowed this myth, this lie to take a life of its own that the election might be overturned. When the moment called for leadership, he did not do the right thing and lives were lost because of it. Reporter some of the president s top enablers are also facing calls to resign, like republican senator ted cruz who now says, now we must stand side by side as americans and continue to defend our constitution and the rule of law. Thats after he was amping up georgia, likening them to revolutionary soldiers. You are patriots just like the patriots gathered at bunker hill, just like the patriots gathered at valley forge reporter other trump loyalists are feeling the wrath of the trump base. After senator Lindsey Graham told President Trump to give up his election fight. It is over. Reporter Trump Supporters were screaming traitor as he walked through the airport. Traitor traitor Lindsey Graham, you are a traitor to the country you know it was rigged its going to be like this forever, the rest of your Life Reporter mr. Trump signaled he wont congratulate president elect joe biden on his inauguration day, tweeting he wont be going, giving the capitol a break from having the instigator on chief on hand for the transfer of power. If you dont fight like hell, youre not going to have a country anymore. Reporter our sources tell us the president and first lady are expected to leave for mr. Trumps maralago resort on january 19, one day before the inauguration. Obviously with the president and the way things are going these days, those plans could change. To this date the president still has not taken any responsibility for what happened a couple of days ago. He has not offered any apologies for what happened on january 6. Wolf, lets go back to this video that was captured at Reagan National airport earlier today, senator Lindsey Graham, one of the president s longtime loyalists, once a critic of the president , then became a loyalist, arriving at the airport earlier this afternoon. He was met by an angry mob of Trump Supporters screaming traitor at him. Weve seen this kind of hostility, typically at trump rallies, and not directed as republican allies of the president. Its a reminder, if you turn against this president , the base will turn on you, wolf. They certainly will, thanks very much, jim acosta reporting. Lets dig deeper into the new impeachment effort on capitol hill. The draft article by cnn. Our senior Congressional Correspondent manu raju is on the scene for us as he always is. Manu, walk us through how this is likely to play out. Reporter already the draft is being circulated and is expected to be introduced on monday. Increaitement of insurrection i what the democrats are moving towards. The president would be the first president in history who would be impeached twice. A final decision has not been made on whether to move ahead but nancy pelosi, the House Speaker, is taking all steps to move in that direction. Moments ago she instructed her House Rules Committee to set the scene for a floor debate that could occur next week. Ultimately, the question is where would it go from there. Its expected to get the support from the majority of the house, enough to get it approved. But it would need twothirds support of the senate in an impeachment trial in order for the president to be convicted. There are questions about whether democrats will press ahead in the new Biden Administration to they could have a trial after donald trump leaves office, and essentially prevent him from ever running for office again. Those discussions are happening because there are concerns that it could put biden in a bit of an awkward spot as hes trying to move forward with his agenda and the democrats are trying to go after the former president , donald trump. Biden himself would not say if he supports the idea of moving ahead with an impeachment trial at the moment but there are signs republicans are breaking ranks. One republican, Lisa Murkowski, became the first Senate Republican to call on donald trump to resign. She said, i want him to resign, i want him out, he has caused enough damage. She went on to say, he doesnt want to stay there, he only wants to stay there for the title, he only wants to stay there for his ego, he needs to get out. Very strong words from a sitting republican senator, the first to do so so far. Some others are open to voting to remove him from office. Well see if it gets to that point. At the moment, wolf, nancy pelosi wants donald trump to resign. If he doesnt, expect an Impeachment Vote in the house presumably by the middle of next week. Manu, you also have new details about what the president was actually doing as that mob was storming the capitol. You were right in the middle of it, thank god youre okay. Reporter it was a Remarkable Development here that donald trump was actually trying to continue to fight the Electoral College certification even after the mob came on capitol hill, threatened so many people, cost lives, this deadly clash. The president was not consumed with that. He was consumed with trying to get more republicans to object, to further states that were awarded to joe biden, to delay the proceedings even further, even though there was no chance congress would overturn the will of the voters. The president mistakenly placed a phone call to mike lee, the utah republican senator on that afternoon on wednesday, thinking that he actually had called tommy tuberville, who is the new freshman senator from alabama. What the president wanted was to urge tuberville to object to more states, to drag out the proceedings further. Later in the night, at 7 00 p. M. , rudy giuliani, the president s lawyer, called mike lee, again, mistakenly, thinking he was calling tommy tuberville, and left a message on mike lees voicemail, thinking he was leaving a message for tuberville, saying tuberville should continue to object to allow the process to continue to play out. That was at 7 00 p. M. , roughly, eastern time, hours after the mob had come and stormed capitol hill, after all the chaos and destruction in the capitol, that was still the focus of the president and his legal team at that moment. Tuberville himself was one of seven republicans who voted to throw out the pennsylvania electoral votes and one of six to vote to throw out the arizona electoral votes. So sick indeed, especially after those dangerous riots developed on capitol hill. Manu, stand by, i have some more questions for you, but right now i want to cover whats going on with the president elect of the United States, joe biden going even further in his condemnation of the current president while trying to sidestep that issue of impeachment. Our Political Correspondent Arlette Saenz is covering the Biden Transition Team in delaware. Biden says he wants to focus on the work ahead. Tell us whats going on. Hes one of the most incompetent president s in the history of the United States of america. And so the idea that i think he should have been out of Office Yesterday is not an issue. Reporter president elect joe biden, blunt in his critique of President Trump. But refraining from calling for his impeachment in his waning days in office. So i think its important we get on with the business of getting him out of office. The quickest way that that will happen is us being sworn in on the 20th. Reporter the president elect says hell leave it to lawmakers to decide on next steps, while directing his attention to the challenges ahead. At that point it will be just a little over a week before the president leaves office. Do you believe this is a good idea . Im focused on the virus, the vaccine, and economic growth. What the congress decides to do is for them to decide. Reporter biden said his outlook would be different, if more time remained in the Trump Presidency. He exceeded even my worst notions. Hes been an embarrassment to the country, embarrassed us around the world. Not worthy. Not worthy to hold that office. If we were six months out, we should be moving everything to get him out of office. Impeaching him again, and trying to invoke the 25th amendment, whatever it took. Reporter but the president elect does want immediate action in investigating the Security Breach at the capitol, after rioters launched an insurrection incited by President Trump. The damage done to our reputation around the world by a president of the United States encouraging a mob, a mob. This reminded me more of states ive visited, of the hundred countries ive gone to, in tin horn dictatorships. Reporter biden said senators like ted cruz and josh hawley, who led the charge to challenge the Electoral College results, shared in the blame. I think they should be flat beat the next time they run. I think the American Public has a real good, clear look at who they are. Theyre part of the big lie. Reporter but he doled out praise for the large group of republicans who stood up to the lastminute attempts to overturn the election. Ive worked very hard with and against the former, soon to be former majority leader mitch mcconnell. I thought what he said on the floor of the United States senate was in fact the right thing to do. He stood up. Hes ashamed. I spoke with the guy i have enormous respect for, enormous respect for, and i ran against him, mitt romney. I spoke to mitt this morning again. This is a man of enormous integrity, enormous integrity, who lives his faith. Reporter after the tumultuous events of the week, biden welcoming the president s decision not to attend the inauguration. One of the few things he and i have ever agreed on. Its a good thing, him not showing up. Reporter now, even as President Trump plans to sit out the inauguration, president elect biden said he would welcome Vice President mike pence to attend the inauguration. He has said he has not yet spoken with pence since all of this has gone down. Then on the transition side, the Transition Team says they still want to see more cooperation between the outgoing and Incoming Administration and that they are hoping that some of those outgoing officials will soon meet with their counterparts with that transfer of power set to take place in 12 days, wolf. 12 days indeed. I want to bring in our special correspondent jamie gangel and senior political commentator axelrod. Is this how history is going to remember President Trump . I think so, wolf. And i think you were right to say let that sink in, because its never happened before in the long history of this republican, when a sitting president of the United States encouraged an insurrection against the government of the United States. And theres no doubt that thats what he did. You know, the president is doing cleanup now. And we saw his Statement Last night which had all the sincerity of a hostage video. But in it, he tried to back off the fact that he was the one who incited the crowd. He invited them to washington and he sent them down pennsylvania avenue. And that is how he will be remembered. He is going to be remembered not there are many other things that happened during these four years that were tumultuous and unprecedented and disturbing. But the last chapter of this trump story is the one i think that will brand him forever in the minds of the American People and in history. Jamie, the white house just released that statement saying that impeachment would, in the white houses words, only serve to further divide the country and that this is a time for unity and healing. Its a pretty ridiculous statement, given the way the president has governed, the things hes said not just recently but for four years. Right. Wolf, theres one person who is responsible for this division and that is donald trump. And i have to say, he has to be very worried about the Republican Party right now. There are a growing number of republicans who are saying they want him out, resign, remove. And we are hearing from more republicans now, my sources say that they are considering supporting impeachment. I spoke to two lawmakers on capitol hill, republicans who are former allies of President Trump, and they said they would consider impeachment even though there are just 12 days. They said to me, theres no reason for long hearings. We experienced what happened on there, we know what happened, and we can make a decision depending on what those articles say, wolf. If the president doesnt want to be impeached by the house of representatives for a second time, he can simply resign and there wont be an impeachment effort under way. Correct. Arlette, democrats want to hold the president accountable but dont want to make things more difficult for the incoming president. Is it possible for them to accomplish both . Wolf, thats the tricky question in all of this, whether the decision to move forward with impeachment would have any type of long tellrm ramificatio on president bidens hope to achieve his agenda and promote unity. During the Campaign Biden talked about how he wanted to lean on bipartisanship. You heard him talk today about how the covid relief package will have a high price tag. The question is if these movements towards impeachment continue, whether any republicans may reconsider or tie up things that the president elect would want to work on going forward. And the enormous challenge that hes faced with right now is uniting the country. He has billed himself as someone uniquely positioned to do that. And after the events of this past week, he believes that part of that will be easier for him to achieve. But it is an outstanding question whether these democratic attempts to pursue impeachment, whether that will affect any of the president elects agenda or perhaps maybe if the circumstances around thient and ultimately they wont hold him n it comes to impeachment. Everybody stand by, theres more breaking news were following. Ill also speak with a key House Democrat who is demanding President Trumps immediate, immediate removal from office, one way or another, representative jam aya pal is standing by. Well be right back. You. Look. Stunning. Want the truth to why i wake up feeling rawrrr. So darn awesome . I take care of my skin. Not this skin. That skin. And when youve got incontinence, you sure need to. Tena intimates pads lock liquid in, and are now 100 breathable to care for your intimate skin. Are you still here . Text tena5 to 52236 for your free sample. Kind to skin. Protects like tena. Text tena5 to 52236 for your free sample

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