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Biden To Sign Executive Order Lifting Transgender Military Ban; Timing Of Impeachment Trial Complicates Biden's COVID Relief Push; "New York Times:" GOP Representative Abetted Trump Plot With DOJ Official To Subvert 2020 Election; Republicans Resist Biden Push For $1.9 Trillion In New COVID Relief; Justice Department Watchdog To Investigate Alleged Plot From Inside Agency To Aid Trump's Efforts To Subvert 2020 Results. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired January 25, 2021 - 12:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[12:00:00]

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JOHN KING, CNN HOST: Hello to our viewers in the United States and around the world. Welcome to "Inside Politics." I'm John King in Washington. Thank you so much for sharing this very busy day with us today. President Biden puts Coronavirus travel restrictions back in place.

And this hour, the president and the vice president meet with their new Pentagon Chief as the administration reverses the Trump ban on transgender Americans serving in the military. The first full work week for the new administration is a big week for the Biden agenda.

Today is Buy-America Day and the president will sign an executive order designed to boost American manufacturing, criminal justice, climate change, healthcare, immigration, all slated to get big attention from the new president this week.

A new Coronavirus spending deal though remains the Biden Administration's top priority but already this effort faces a dual challenge. Part one is the price tag, Republicans is skeptical about shelling out more money so soon after the last Trump stimulus package.

Premature is how the moderate Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine frames weekend discussions over the $1.9 trillion price tag on that package - Mitt Romney as another skeptic.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MITT ROMNEY (R-UT): Well, I think at this early stage, just having passed over $900 billion in relief that before we were to pass a new program, we need to understand where the money is going? Are these to individuals or to entities that really need the help? How has the first $900 billion we just passed a couple of weeks ago? How has that been distributed, most of it hasn't yet? What impact will that have?

(END VIDEO CLIP) KING: The timing crunch is the second hurdle for the new administration. Federal unemployment insurance expires in March that's one deadline. And a two week clock starts tonight, that's when the House delivers the articles of impeachment to the Senate.

The Trump Senate trial begins in two weeks, leaving our small window for action on Biden White House priorities before Senate legislative business goes on pause for that trial. Let's get straight to the White House and CNN's Kaitlan Collins, Kaitlan, a big hour ahead and a very important beginning of the week for the new president?

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, John. And you're right that window is getting smaller and smaller as we're going on. Of course you're now seeing that the congress and the Senate are only going to be in session for about a week before of course, that trial is going to get kicked off.

So while maybe they will get some more of his cabinet nominees confirmed, they're not going to be seeing any real progress. It doesn't sound like right now, on that legislative proposal that they are hoping to get through. And that follows a meeting that they had with Biden's top economic adviser and a bipartisan group of Senators yesterday and there was pushback from even the more moderate Republicans.

So that's really what's going to prove to be such a challenge for President Biden, because right now they believe this package is too big. They want it to be more targeted, especially when it comes to things like those stimulus checks and that is not what the White House wants to hear.

Because of course he's going to sign some more executive orders today, but only so much you can do John, by governing by executive order. And the White House realizes that, they know that they've got to get some kind of legislative win here.

The question now is going to be how long does it take and how much does this impeachment trial for President Trump really try to impede that and get in the way of them trying to get any early wins here?

Because they've talked how critical getting this package passed that they believe is going to be to changing the response to this pandemic. And I should note we're about to go into the Oval Office right now, of course he is going to be in there with the first black Defense Secretary Austin in the room.

And that come shortly after the White House announce he did sign that executive order that is reversing President Trump's ban on most transgender people serving in the military. And John, just one more steps really and what we are seeing in these early days of the Biden White House where he's trying to undo his predecessor's legacy.

KING: And very important sometimes it's a dizzying pace of change sometimes, some of the details get lost on that, but critically important. Number one, first African-American Defense Secretary, number two, reversing that ban on transgender American serving in the military much more to come.

Kaitlan Collins, we'll get back to the White House live as we see the new president in just a few moments. And the new president keeps telling his aides and other Democrats are patient and give bipartisanship a chance here.

But the weekend conversations about the COVID stimulus plan do underscore how hard it will be for team Biden to win Republican help? And the looming impeachment trial now another piece in a very complicated senate dynamic right now.

Still no agreement on how to organize the 50-50 Senate, some progressives are in no more to wait or wait that long anyway to see if Republicans are willing to work with the new White House? Let's get straight to Capitol Hill and CNN's Manu Raju. You got a lot of moving parts up there.

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, no question about it because you got the impeachment trial. You have the president nominees. You have a senate that has not officially organized right now which has created a bit of a snap through here and trying to get nominees through the process.

In fact Republicans who are not in the majority anymore still officially control the Senate committees because they're operating under last year's rules because they have not gotten an agreement on this year's rules. And that issue is one thing that they still need to resolve and also the impeachment trial itself which will dominate Senate action in February.

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RAJU: Today is a key day when the Senate or when the House will send the article of impeachment charging Donald Trump with inciting an insurrection that led to the deadly riot here on January 6th then the Impeachment Manager in the House, Jamie Raskin, Lead Manager, will read that impeachment article aloud in the Senate tomorrow.

Then the Senators will be sworn in as jurors and then behind the scenes, the work will take shape. Each side will present its briefs to the Senate which will act as a court here in this case, and then February 8th that week, the trial will actually begin. There are still questions about how long the trial will last?

It's not expected to go as long as the 21-day trial in 2020 when Donald Trump was charged with abusing his office as well as instructing congress but it is expected to take some time. And in order to get legislation through or nominees confirmed while the trial is taking place, there needs to be a bipartisan agreement affirmed by unanimous consent.

All 100 Senators have to agree to schedule votes during that time period which makes the next couple of weeks critical when they're waiting for the trial to take place. Can they get other nominees confirmed? That will also require consent of all 100 Senators to schedule votes. Tonight one will happen Janet Yellen to be Treasury Secretary John, no question is about how quickly can other ones get confirmed and will Biden still be in that slow pace of getting his cabinet formed much slower than his recent predecessors here, John?

KING: It's very fascinating time and a busy time. Grateful you therefore as Manu with a lot of reporting and the insights. We'll keep in touch throughout the day. And with me now to share their reporting and their insights CNN's Nia-Malika Henderson and Maggie Haberman of "The New York Times".

Nia-Malika Henderson let me start with you. You have Mitt Romney yesterday on CNN saying, he believes it's constitutional. He believes you can have a Senate trial and vote aye or nay on the question of convicting the president even after he has left office? Donald Trump now of course a private citizen in Florida.

But let's listen to some other Republicans, other Republicans including the first one here who happens to be up for re-election in two years saying, we wish this would go away.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL): I think the trial is stupid. I think it's counterproductive. We already have a flaming fire in this country and it's like taking a bunch of gasoline and throwing it on top of the fire.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you believe Donald Trump committed an impeachable offense?

SEN. MIKE ROUNDS (R-SD): To begin with, I think its moot point because I think right now Donald Trump is no longer the president, he's a former president.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: So if you're looking at the 17 or 18 depending on if a Democrat, all the Democrats stay together. It looks pretty improbable right now but you do have this time and we'll see the managers get to make their case.

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: They get to make their case but it is so hard to get to 17. It's hard to get to seven even when you look at all the Republicans who might be open to convicting this president and saying that he can't run for office even when you sort of throw in people who are retiring maybe they would be open to that, but still it's incredibly hard.

It feels like they have their line essentially saying, this is unconstitutional. It doesn't make sense. It's further dividing the country. If you do and those are some of the - I think comments we heard early on from people like Joni Ernst.

Listen when Mitch McConnell came out to say, sort of privately say that he welcomed the impeachment there was a sense that maybe you would see a flood of people going behind him. But the Republican Party doesn't really work like that anymore.

It's still the party of Trump. There are true Trumpers in the Senate who will defend Trump to the very end, and then there are sort of transactional Trumpers as well. But in the end, all sort of end up standing by Trump even though their language might be different.

KING: And Maggie, one of the questions is how broad or how narrow a case did the managers present? Your part is a fantastic reporting in "The Times" today about some of the former president's conduct on the way out.

The question is, do the manager just present his words at that rally, then show images of the insurrection and say the president caused that order or they try to make a broader case about all the steps the president took to try to support his big lie that there was widespread fraud, essentially the building blocks to the rally and the anger.

This is from "The New York Times" today. Mr. Perry, this is Scott Perry, Congressman from Pennsylvania. Mr. Perry and Mr. Clark discussed a plan to have the Justice Department send a letter to Georgia state lawmakers informing them of an investigation to voter fraud that could invalidate the state's Electoral College results.

Former officials who were briefed on the plan said that the department's dozens of voter fraud investigations nationwide had not turned up enough instances of fraud to alter the outcome of the election. Mr. Perry and Mr. Clark also discussed the plan with Mr. Trump setting off a chain of events that nearly led to the ouster of Mr. Rosen, who was the Acting Attorney General of the time, who had refused to send the letter.

So the more and more we learn, this is a fantastic reporting. Donald Trump until the very end was either himself or listening to people who were trying to find ways to advance the lie. The question is does that become part of the impeachment case?

[12:10:00]

MAGGIE HABERMAN, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, THE NEW YORK TIMES: That's right John and I just want to make clear by the way that reporting I was writing along on Katie Benner's fantastic work. And she's been driving that story for several days now.

But it's a normal question as to whether this makes its way into the impeachment case? There are going to be Democrats who are going to want to do that because they're going to argue that to your point, there was a bigger buildup to this rally.

It wasn't just the rally in isolation. It wasn't even just the president's tweets about Jan 6th or about his questions about the sanctity of the election and so forth, that there were actually efforts to try to subvert democracy and will they make that part of the case? The danger for them and I'm not weighing that danger, but I am saying

this is the other side of the equation is, if they do that, will they then get further arguments from Republicans? And I think the answer is yes, that they're trying to expand the existing impeachment beyond what it already was that they're trying to make a broader case beyond what it already was that they are going beyond the scope of what they had said.

I think there will going to be such a focus on process argument around this, this time John, different than what we heard in the first impeachment, although we did hear some of that. Because this time there is not a lot of Republicans who want to say what the president did was just fine.

Even somebody like Kevin McCarthy who has been sort of all over the map on it at times has said the president did something wrong. And so, I think what you are going to see is a lot of Republican push back on the process and method that this impeachment is taking. And that's why I think it's less clear to me that Democrats are going to try to include a broader range of conduct.

KING: And to that point Nia-Malika Henderson, listen here to Senator Elizabeth Warren who says she's hearing this. She knows from a Republican Colleagues there, that coming up - number one to Maggie's point while it's not due process. You're trying to rush this. We don't like the process or Donald Trump is gone. Let's just let it go. Let's try to heal the country. Elizabeth Warren says no let's hold him to accountable for what happen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA): I can't imagine how Republican opposition to insurrection would fade over the space of a couple of weeks? We are talking about a president who stood in front of a mob and told them to go to the Capitol and invade. Told them to go to the capitol and stop the lawful business of the government so that he could try to stay in the White House. That is so fundamentally wrong.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: You see the passion there and Democrats want the accountability and you also heard the Senator, she is on board this, we're going to wait two weeks. The question is, is everyone - as most people start to go into their corners now you have another Trump impeachment trial?

Most Republicans are going to go back into the R corner, most Democrats if not all Democrats go into the D corner. Can you get other stuff done when everyone's building up for this moment?

HENDERSON: You know that is the big question. And listen, that was the big question about Joe Biden who was always tepid even when he wasn't president kind of going into his inauguration he worried about this. He's already behind the 8-ball in terms of a very few of his cabinet officials confirmed if you compare where he is the other incoming presidents. So they are going to try to pack it in. But listen, you already see the gridlock. What are the rules of this

sort of sharing power going to be with a 50-50 split and the 51 vote coming from Harris? So in some ways it is business as usual this gridlock, everybody going to their different sides.

And we'll see whether or not this impeachment hearing already inflames passions and also whether or not he can get stuff done as you're doing the impeachment, and also how long is this impeachment going to last?

You hear some folks saying maybe it will be three days, maybe it will be a week but there is certainly I think, an appetite from this Biden administration to get it over with. And then you have Democrats saying you've got to air this, you've got to hold the outgoing president accountable.

KING: And every day we have a brand new administration Maggie Haberman. It's always busy. So it's always busy in the early days of a new administration, plus you have this Trump impeachment unprecedented, the impeachment trial of a former president waiting at the same time. And today, one other thing when we try to do this Republican math, can they get to 17?

That's a very steep hill and I think you'd have to say it's unlikely at the moment. But you're trying to say, can you get there? This morning you would say Rob Portman, Ohio. Well, maybe, he's not a Trumpy Republican but he's on the ballot in 2022 and he's not going to want a primary challenge.

Well, he just announces he's not going to run free election. Is that a piece that you look at in terms of your math and I guess the question is even so, is that enough?

HABERMAN: It certainly - to look at in terms of your math, although I think the Portman has it many points and thought it is somebody who is going to vote along let's say Mitt Romney in opposing things that the president did at various points and he didn't.

So I'm not clear where he goes on that, especially because I don't know whether Rob Portman is actually hanging up his first politically completely or whether he's keeping his eye open possibly for national run?

I think that's unlikely, but it's possible. I don't know that it gets you at the moment John, again things can change. But right now the distance has been Donald Trump's friend, as you said. As time has gone on people who are believed to be likely votes are not seen as likely. We know that Lindsey Graham is helping try to whip votes against it.

[12:15:00]

HABERMAN: There are other Senators who unfold are against it who are having conversations, Republican Senators who are having conversations with their colleagues about it. And Mitch McConnell is the big open question. So that's where we stand. I don't know that Portman is what this hinges on, but he is certainly someone to watch. KING: Just one more piece of all these moving parts right now. Maggie

and Nia you're going to stay with us. Up next for us, the Republican sticker shock on that nearly $2 trillion price tag the new president wants for a COVID relief package.

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KING: There's clear weekend proof the new Biden team is quite serious about bipartisan outreach on big issues. And there is also pretty clear weekend proof that winning Republican support for the first big test of that outreach will be difficult.

Moderate GOP Senator Susan Collins of Maine, grateful to be invited on a call organized by top Biden economic and COVID advisors. But she says of the $1.9 trillion Biden package price tag, "It seems premature to be considering a package of this size and scope. The additional stimulus checks that the president is proposing are not well targeted. "

[12:20:00]

KING: That from Senator Collins, Utah Republican Senator Mitt Romney sounds a similar note.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROMNEY: And I think people recognizes important that we don't borrow hundreds of billions, actually trillions of dollars from the Chinese for things that may not be absolutely necessary. This is a time for us to act with prudence and care.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Back with us, Maggie Haberman of "The New York Times" and CNN's Nia-Malika Henderson. So Maggie, what is this right? People are translating this in so many different ways. You have a new administration. Joe Biden is dead serious about his.

This is who he is by DNA. He says my guys are going to reach out to them. And then you have a lot of progressives saying see, you're reaching out, you're being nice there saying no, let's just do this all democratic. But Biden is letting his aides, let's be patient, let's give this a chance.

HABERMAN: He may be wrong John. He may not be able to get Republicans to come to his side. But I do understand why somebody who number one, I think candidly comes from a Washington that was different in terms of how the Senate interacted with each other when he was a Senator before he became the vice president to President Obama.

But number two, I think that if you're going to, if you're him, the calculation is if you're going to try to build bipartisan consensus, you have to at least extend in all branch. But that doesn't mean saying and I am going to scrap my own priorities for yours.

And I think that, that is where you're going to see this White House coming up against over and over. I think they will come up against that from with progressives as well. I am not surprised Biden is handling it this way.

I think if you look at the arc of the campaign, he generally ignored a lot of what he was being told "Should do" and he won the election. So I think they're coming to it from that. That doesn't mean this deal will get done at this price tag. But I think that he'll probably get something higher than what Republicans would put at the table going forward.

KING: You think about that sense you just spoke we were using pretty much the same construct four years ago in a very different fashion, a very different fashion. But President of the United States saying you know, you're the people who told me not to do this, I won the election. We've been there before again, very different context. But to Maggie's point--

HABERMAN: It is a very different context though, it's important to note.

KING: Yes, it's an absolutely very different context. Maggie makes the point about progressives and how long they will wait? Joe Biden did win the election. Progressives did bite their tongue on some policy differences with him during the election, to their credit. They say it together and they won.

Listen to Bernie Sanders here who says, I understand what you're doing President Biden, however, I'm going to be the Budget Committee Chairman, we have this Senate process called Reconciliation. Reach out to Republicans? See how long.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT): I don't know what the word compromise means. I know that working families are living today in more economic desperation than since the great depression. And if Republicans are willing to work with us to address that crisis, welcome. Let's do it. But what we cannot do is wait weeks and weeks and months and months to go forward. We have got to act now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: We knew this was coming and now we're watching it play out. There is - I'm going to call it creative tension. Sometimes it's just creative tension, sometimes it gets a little more than that. But progressives there - they know Joe Biden, but we ran a campaign, let's go.

HENDERSON: Yes, and they also remember what happen with President Obama reaching out consistently to Republicans, having pizza parties. The months and months and months that ended up being a year that he tried to get Republicans on board with his health care plan and obviously we know what happened with that.

So that is what they're looking at. And they're looking at a real crisis, an everyday crisis that average Americans are having in terms of their health as well as in terms of their pocketbooks. And so, there is the sense of urgency and it looks like you will have this continue intension between Biden saying listen, I'll reach out to Republicans.

These are my friends, right? Mitch McConnell, I know him well and these other folks, he says that. But the reality is they got the 51 votes and you also hear this White House essentially saying they're not going to take the 51 votes off the table the reconciliation process. Reconciliation, that's a word that everybody should get used to hearing in this administration.

KING: The newer monuments. This is the - this is the first full work week so everybody needs to take a deep breath, including in our business and watch some of this play out as the new team gets in place. But a lot of moving parts, we'll be having policy conversations, policy debates in Washington. Nia-Malika Henderson and Maggie Haberman, grateful for the reporting and the insights.

And very important word this hour, of a brand new Justice Department Inspector General investigation into this, whether any former or current Department of Justice official engaged in an improper attempt to have the Department of Justice seek to alter the outcome of the 2020 presidential election?

Let's get straight to CNN's Jessica Schneider for the details here. This announcement following remarkable reporting that we talked about at the top of the program "The New York Times" that the acting head of the civil division did support a plot to try to throw out the election results in Georgia and to get then President Trump to get rid of the acting attorney general.

JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, the details of this alleged plot John, unfolding over the weekend. We're getting more of a glimpse of the timeline and the fact that the president it appears, was working for weeks behind the scenes with this top justice department official who is acting head of the civil division.

[12:25:00]

SCHNEIDER: And when other top officials at the Justice Department heard about this, they all planned if this happened if Rosen, the Acting Attorney General was fired and this other official took his place, they planned to resign en masse.

So now we're getting word from the Inspector General of the Justice Department that they will, in fact, be investigating all of these allegations. Putting it this way saying, they will look into whether any former or current DOJ official engaged in an improper attempt to have the DOJ seek to alter the outcome of the election.

They are putting this out there. They say they won't be giving any more details. But they want people to know that they are taking these claims seriously and they're investigating. And you know John we have tried to get in touch with Jeffrey Clark, this top DOJ official who it's alleged that he had these meetings with the president. He hasn't gotten back to us, but he did deny all of this to "The New

York Times" saying that all of his communications were proper, that he was just going over the pros and cons with the president.

But of course, it's serious enough now that the Inspector General will be looking into all of this trying to get to the bottom of what actually happened in this alleged plot to really overthrow the Acting A.G. and put in somebody who is definitely on Trump's side when it came to this election conspiracy. John?

KING: The specifics of this particular investigation are fascinating. And also just you see right out of the box again more evidence of the change from Trump to Biden. Inspector General's back having the freedom to do their job, the freedom to look at things without worrying the White House will tamp down on them.

Jessica Schneider, a very important reporting I appreciate the hustle for that. Up next for us, Former President Trump floats the idea of starting a new party. Is he serious or is this just his way to warn Republicans they will pay a price if they defy him?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: Take it straight to the Oval Office, the President of the United States.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: --who has been a great, great help and also the soon-to-be Secretary of Defense when we're through the system we sworn in a moment. And so don't stand there - changes mine, OK?

That all can decide, this is reinstating a position that the previous commanders as well as the secretaries have supported. And what I'm doing is enabling all qualified Americans to serve their country in uniform and essentially restoring the situation that - transgender personnel, if qualified in every other way can serve government and the United States military.

That's what I'm about to sign and I'm going to get a chance I'm told, later on another matter and later this afternoon when I speak to another order to answer all your questions on a whole range of things but I'm going to the swearing in shortly after this, OK? Thank you again. All right. Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you, guys.

BIDEN: That's a long way to come.