hello, everyone, i'm kate bolduan thank you for joining us this hour. even with the country still reeling from the horrific attack on the capitol last week, the nation is on higher alert with growing security concerns surrounding the inauguration of joe biden. officials are warning domestic extremists are likely more emboldened now to carry out attacks on inauguration and throughout the year on the wake of last week's siege. one source describing the online chatter as being off the charts at this point. with sources also telling cnn that officials are considering raising the terror threat level ahead of the inauguration and are worried about explosives.

more than 20,000 national guard troops are expected in d.c. next week. to give you a sense of just how massive of a security presence that is, those 20,000 guard members are more than three times the number of active duty u.s. military current any in afghanistan, iraq, and syria combined. quite a statement on where the real threat to america is coming from right now. and the threat is not isolated to washington. states all across the country are on heighten ed alert and security being tightened in all 50 state capitols now. with all of this in mind, it is confounding and unbelievable there hasn't been a single briefing from a top official from any of the key agencies. nothing from the fbi director or whoever is running the department of homeland security, nothing from the acting attorney general. now a week after the attack and more threats to come, no briefings for the public on what happened in our nation's

capitol. there is a lot to get to today so let's start with jessica schneider. what could you tell us about these new warnings from federal law enforcement officials? >> reporter: so, kate, the takeaway here is that domestic extremists are feeling really emboldened because of their supposed success last week and that is heightened the likelihood for attacks on joe biden's inauguration on wednesday. so we've gotten our hands on an intelligence bulletin and it points out that extremists are infiltrating peaceful protests and doing so because of the conspiracy theories that are propelling them into action. the same conspiracy theories they're often hearing from the president. this is the first thing we've gotten from the bulletin. the violent breach of the u.s. capitol building is part of an ongoing trend in which extremists exploit lawful protests and rallies and demonstrations and other gathers to carry out motivated violence and criminal activity.

now, law enforcement has also been making calls where they're asking for an urgent assistance in security to secure washington in addition to what we're already seeing on the ground here, 20,000 national guard troops who already are here and stationed near the capitol. the bullet also talking about the range of possible attacks. they're describing it in the bulletin anything from attacking government officials and institutions to maybe racial and religious minorities. so it spans far and wide. and they're also saying that it is possible that the attack last week may have served as a launching pad, because it enabled these extremists to foster connections with other people from around the country. here is something else from the bulletin. it said with the perception among some extremists that the breach of the u.s. capitol building was a significant advance toward achieving their ideological goals, they may be inspired to carry out for violence. so kate, the warnings are stark

from law enforcement. chris wray held a call with law enforcement agencies across the country yesterday warning about what might be to come. and obviously the alert is throughout the country, not just here in washington. >> thank you so much. so we're also learning more about last week's siege at the capitol. a federal law enforcement official said the evidence uncovered so far suggested it was not just a protest that spiralled out of control but that it was planned. evan perez is joining us now with this. what are you learning about the investigation into the attack? >> reporter: well, kate, the indications that they're getting certainly from the evidence that the fbi and prosecutors are now in possession of, indicates that there were people who left the rally where the president was speaking outside of the white house where, by the way, because of security precautions on that side of the city, they to leave behind backpacks, they could not bring any weapons anywhere close to where the president was. they left a little early and

then they went to go retrieve the items that were then used in the assault on the capitol and that includes things like crowbars, we saw people with sledgehammers, people with climbing ropes and climbing gear. people who clearly had trained and know exactly how to use these to get into a building. and so that is what is leading law enforcement to increasingly believe that there had to be a greater level of planning than was first thought. and that may not be that there was one centralized group but there is a number of desperate groups that talked about getting into the u.s. capitol. i'll play this clip right now of some people who well into the assault were talking about some of the knowledge that they had. take a listen. >> i've been in the other room with -- on the other room on the other side of this door. right here where these people are standing. there is a glass that if somebody is broken you could drop down into a room underneath

it. there is also two doors in the other room. one in the rear and one in the right when you go in. so, we should probably coordinate together if you're going to take this building. >> reporter: and, kate, now you have prosecutors that typically do counter-terrorism cases and who do public corruption cases who are now trying to put together a sedition conspiracy case because they're going to look at a travel records, looking at the money to figure out who exactly was in on this and how much planning ahead of time there was and try to build a bigger case. >> and some members of congress to add to what you just reported, they're asking for an investigation into what they think are suspicious tours of the capitol that other members gave in the days before the attack. what are you hearing about this, evan? >> reporter: the fbi is very much aware of these -- there are sitting president videos that have been shared, members of congress are writing letters and

there is a deep concern about this. were there members of congress who gave tours to people beforehand and allowed them to have a little bit more knowledge about this building before the assault happened on the 6th. that is a big question. again, nothing has been proved. there is still a lot of investigation to be done. but it is definitely on the radar of the investigators. >> thank you very much. so states all across the country are facing threats as well. security being stepped up in all 50 state capitols ahead of possible violence. in wisconsin, the national guard has been deployed to madison to support security efforts there. and as we show you here, windows at state capitol buildings have been boarded up as a precautionary measure. so joining me now on what is expected to happen and what is feared is wisconsin attorney general josh call. thank you for coming in. the threat is real and immediate as evan perez just laid out all over the country. how concerned are you in

wisconsin? >> i think we need to make sure that we're on high alert in state capitols across the country. we saw a domestic terrorism event at the u.s. capitol and as your reporting has been discussed saying there are a lot of concerns that there is a follow up from this. what we need is leadership from the federal government and we need the presence to look into the camera and to be clear to people, he's been lying about the results and this is a fair election and that joe biden won. >> attorney general, assuming that you do not get and we're assuming you're not going to get that from the president of the united states to come to a camera and say that he lied, what are you most concerned about happening in wisconsin? >> well, again, a lot of this has been spurred on by the false claims of election fraud. so more leaders of the republican party could talk about how those claims are totally baseless the better off

we'll be. we're worried that people will show up armed and extremists will take advantage of that. just as we saw in washington, d.c. we're taking precautions and law enforcement is going to -- in that criminal conduct -- to the fullest extent of the law. >> we're having a bit of a technical issue with your shot. how are you prepared? officials are saying that extremists are feeling emboldened after the siege and at tack on the u.s. capitol. how are you preparing? i've seen images of doors boarded up in madison at the capitol building. what else are doing? >> that is right. and the physical security of the capitol building has been operated and that is including having national guards groups deployed and working with other agencies to make sure that information is being shared and we have a wisconsin state wide intelligence center that

monitors potential extremist activities and the safety of wisconsinites. if we get threats we're going to make sure that they're acted upon and that people are held accountable. >> you said that you need leadership from the federal government. you have gotten the information that you need from the fbi, from federal law enforcement officials? what information are you getting from them about the potential threat? >> on the law enforcement side, there has been great coordination and that is continued professionally and in the way that we needed to and we're sharing information. they're keeping us updated about information that they received. so i'm confident that those relationships will work effectively. but we need the leaders of the federal agencies to be briefing the public about this. to make sure that the tension is raised and to make clear that the federal government is going to use the full force of its resources to hold anybody who engages in criminal activity and

activities, that they'll hold them accountability. >> attorney general, thank you for coming on. coming up for us, mitch mcconnell will not start a impeachment trial until after president trump leaves office. but where does he stand on conviction. and how donald trump is responding to being impeached a second time and how he might try to use pardons to divert attention from the fallout.

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making clear that it will not start that senate trial until after president trump leaves office. but that is about all we know about what this senate trial is going to look like in this moment. we also don't know where senator mitch mcconnell stands on this. he is sending signals that may be considering backing impeachment of donald trump and reportedly furious with the president and wants him out of the republican party for good but still we don't know where he stands on this. a lot of questions. so let's get to phil mattingly. how will the senate trial will go. >> you're setting me up for failure here. everything is so fluid right now term in terms of the next process. mitch mcconnell making clear that the senate will not come back before january 19th to consider that trial. and his rational was rather clear. i want to read what i said in a statement. imt believe will best serve our nation if the congress and the

executive branch focus on facilitating a safe inauguration and an orderly transfer of power to the incoming biden administration. the back story is the security situation in washington. mcconnell is the member of the gang of eight and everybody is being briefed on the security concerns that have only grown. so there is no senate trial until january 19th. when it gets complicated, what happens next. and once they go into the senate trial, in the afternoon, that is the only thing they could do. and the biden hopes are hoping they could bifurcate things, work in the morning on his nominations before turning over to the trial. but keep in mind, these trials aren't short. the shortest one up to this point was 21 or 22 days. so right now the dynamics of what the trial will look like, when the trial will start, what will trigger the trial, we know once the house managers bring over the article of impeachment, the trigger starts and things

start to move very quickly. when speaker pelosi decides to make that move, we still don't know the answer. but that will go a long way to dictating what happens next in this process as the senate looks to convict or might convict president trump. >> and phil, i mentioned how mitch mcconnell is leaving the door open for possibly supporting impeachment, possibly supporting conviction here. what would that mean? give some perspective for folks for other republican senators if did he and what you have heard from other republicans since the house vote yesterday? >> reporter: well, it is enormous. some people have drawn the conclusion that mitch mcconnell decides to support impeachment that 16 of his colleagues will join him or more to convict the president. that is not where things land right now. and that underscores the reality in the center of the conference. until mcconnell sent a email to his colleagues yesterday when the house vote occurred, they had not heard from mcconnell. "new york times" broke the story and we matched the story about the misgivings about president

trump and his openness to impeachment and his feeling that the president had committed impeachable offenses and that caused disenchantment as members figure out where they're supposed to land. it is a very high hill to climb. and mitch mcconnell will move from majority to minority leader will be the most powerful republican in the country. he has a serious of loyalists in the conference and in the republican party over the course of the last 36 or 37 years. where he goes, matters, where he is trying to take the republican party, that is what is happening where he is trying to take the republican party away from president trump, that matter tooz. but i want to read one statement from rob portman, close ally of mitch mcconnell and he put out a statement making clear he's going to be a juror and he

hasn't made up his mind yet and wants to see how the trial plays out. if the senate conducts an impeachment trial among my considerations is what is best to help heal our country rather than deepen our divisions and if you're trying to read tea leaves, that echoes a lot of what we heard from house republicans who imposed impeachment over the course of yesterday as well. and so keep an eye on this. i would say this, nothing is settled right now. the republican conference is still very much up in the air. lindsey graham trying to get members to support the president on this. this is still very much an open ball game here and where mcconnell lands will be very, very important as to where the rest of the conference goes. >> phil, thank you so much. so the white house and president trump is apparently wallowing in self pity, spending final days largely isolating and still denying the reality that he lost the election. yes, he is, according to the "new york times," trump on tuesday aboard air force one repeatedly told folks on board,

quote, i won. sources also again, let me say it one more time. that is a lie. did he not. i hate that we haven't even to fact check it still. but still sources are telling cnn that he is considering another round as pardons as soon as today as a way to divert away from the violence, the siege and the mess he creates an the impeachment. we have much more on this. john, essentially nothing has changed but everything has changed. what are you hearing there? >> reporter: kate, one of the ways in this donald trump is psychologically disfigured is he could not accept responsibility or culpability for the consequences of his own bad behavior. he has to insist that he is falseless and been wrong by others. as a result, even though he left the election with only this fantasy that it had been stolen from him, he blames rudy giuliani for not successfully

prosecuting the case for election fraud and won't pay giuliani. he faults weak republicans willing to accept the reality that he lost the election. as ken mccarthy did on the house floor, even as he opposed impeachment and trying to keep his party together, even mike pence who has been slavishly loyal to him throughout four years, he faults mike pence because pence is not willing to in a futile gesture try to subvert his constitutional dutsy. so he attacks mike pence for not having courage and sets the mob on mike pence. that is showing how deeply the president is committed to the idea that he's done nothing wrong. he is capable of grasping is when there is severe pressure on him that might generate adverse consequences so that is why in the group of pardons the idea is very much alive that he would attempt to pardon himself. legally dubious and never tested before but if you're donald trump with just a few days in

office and you recognize that you've got some serious legal exposure from this insurrection, why not take a chance on it. we're expecting he may do that. >> that looks like desperation. let's talk about the bigger picture of the final weeks of his presidency looks like. and impeachment just the latest. what does this mean for trump and his future. >> well his future is problematic. he has problems all over the place. he will live with the disgrace being the ome president impeached twice by the house of representatives. might become but not sure as phil just reported, might become the first president to be convicted. setting that aside, he has big, big financial pressure. he owes hundreds of millions of dollars, his bankers have left him. corporate america is sprinting away from him. people are associated with his post-election lies and the insurrection are finding

themselves pariahs. so he'll have a difficult room to operate within the business world. and then finally there is the legal exposure. even if he makes a self-pardon stick with respect to the insurrection, he has possible state charges from the manhattan district attorney that are beyond the reach of a presidential pardon and bearing on him as he looks at the last few days of his presidency, kate. >> thank you so much. still ahead, breaking news on the security preparations underway in washington right now. this is just coming into cnn. the national mall will now be closed to the public on inauguration day. we'll be right back. e protein yd with less of the sugar you don't. [grunting noise] i'll take that. woohoo! 30 grams of protein and 1 gram of sugar. ensure max protein. with nutrients to support immune health. robinhood believes now is the time to do money. ensure max protein. without the commission fees so you can start investing today,

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we have breaking news coming in. the national mall in washington is being shut down. public will not have access to the area on inauguration day. this is clearly a response to the heightened security alert in the nation's capitol. amid the growing threats from domestic extremists. cnn's pete muntean is on the streets of washington looking at what that means an looks like right now. pete, what are you seeing? >> reporter: it is jars and frankly a little bit unbelievable. this is constitution avenue leading down to the national mall which we know is closed. and it is very deserted right now. with the mall closed, no bunting, no crowds no,

jumbo-trons and an inauguration like no other. anybody who shows up here will be separated by this massive wall ejected and you could see some of the 20,000 national guardsman who are arrived here in washington right now. the security threat is real. according to the secret service, which is now leading the security operation for this upcoming inauguration. it said that it is concerned about more possible protests. it is following chatter online and the pentagon said it is concerned about explosive devices, more pipe bombs like those found outside of the rnc and the dnc. the threat is reel and they do not warnts people to come to d.c. for inauguration day. here is what he said. >> as the mayor has encouraged residents as chief has encouraged visitors from around the country, we're not asking people to come to d.c. for this. there is a major security threat and we are working to mitigate

those threats so again we are gist intently focused on the job that is at hand. >> reporter: kate, a little more context on the massive security fortress going up here in d.c. this is the fence. i'm six feet tall. it is about eight feet tall. even if someone did get on the other side of this, there will be met by national guardsman with m-4 guns. this is very serious here. we may get a little bit of an update about the extent of the threats from mike pence later on as he meets with fema about the inauguration like no other. >> it is almost unbelievable to see what you're looking at right now. thank you for setting the stage. joining me now is jason crow from colorado for more on this. it is unbelievable to see that on the national mall at this moment. >> it is unbelievable, kate. i haven't seen a sight like that since i was in iraq in a war zone. it is truly heartbreaking to see the pam pee on of our democracy,

a place that so many hold so dear and sacred to us to be turned into a war zone like that. we saw the birth of a domestic terror movement last week and we'll have to deal with that in the months and years ahead. >> congressman, i was struck when talking about inauguration security, you told my colleague john berman that you didn't know yet if you felt the inauguration was going to be safe. why is that? >> well, i went into january 6th with confidence and the security measures on that day. that was a misplaced confidence so i'm of the view right now that i'm going to verify things and i'm going to speak up and make sure that i'm conducting my own assessment and i've been doing that, talking to law enforcement and secretary of army, congressional leadership. i believe we're on the right path. we have expedited the national special security event that occurred yesterday to the command and control and

resources are in place. so we're on the path to making sure that it is secure and it is going to be secure. we have some time to get there. but we're almost there. >> that is -- it is weird to say that that sounds comforting but at this point it does sound comforting to hear you say that, congressman. about last week, evan perez is reporting that investigators are pursuing signs that the riot was planned and a couple of your colleagues have raised concern yesterday about members, other members of congress showing rioters around the capitol in the days before the attack. what do you know about this? >> yeah, well, there is no doubt this was a catastrophic security failure. maybe one of the most shocking things about it is it was planned in the wide open, looking back in the weeks and months leading up to january 6th people were online in open platforms saying they were going to assault the capitol and

conduct an insurrection. so the law enforcement was there and we'll get to that in the months ahead. but we have every reason to believe that they mean it and we are going to see whether members of congress and their staff are complicit in this. with the extreme threats that were being made, in the days and weeks leading up to january 6th, for members of congress to disregard standing house guidelines that currently say no public tours because of the pandemic, which have been in place since march, to disregard that and do that anyhow raising serious questions about why they were doing that. we're going to follow when the facts lead us. we're not going to make any assumptions. i'm not a mind reader. we'll follow the facts where they lead. >> it is unbelievable that it is a consideration of just where this potentially is headed in terms of investigation. do you leave open the possibility that this could have been an inside job and assisted

by sitting members of congress? >> yeah, i think we have to look at everything. we cannot leave any stone unturned. listen, we have to leave open all possibilities because the president of the united states incited and called for this insurrection. the president of the united states, let's wrap our brain around this for a moment. we have 15 to 20,000 national guard soldiers that are coming into or already in washington, d.c. on capitol hill to guard against an insurrection and the violent movement that has been created by the commander-in-chief. those national guard troops, it is mind-boggling to me, the situation that we're in, the reality that we are into. but we're going to deal with it. we have tremendous leaders at all level. we're going to step up and lead and get the country through this. >> the president's video that he released last night, he condemned the violence of last week but he also called for calm moderation and grace, something

that we know that he has not offered or been capable of in the last four years at very least. what do you think of his statement? did it do anything? >> the president is a violent and unstable man. the overwhelming communications that have come out of this president have been violent and incitement rhetoric. we didn't get to january 6th overnight. this just didn't happen in one day. this happened over years. the president has been building this, he has been radicalizing his most fringe supporters, he started with dog whistles and now this outright rhetoric by him and his top supporters. so talk is really cheap right now. if the president wants to de-escalate this, what he'll say is that president-elect biden is the president of the united states and that he was lawfully elected. because that is the fact. and if he wants to be de

escalate, he will stop these conspiracy theories and he will say that out right. i'm not holding my breath. >> i would not. really quickly, you've spoken about this, but i find it completely confounding that there hasn't been a single public briefing by any top level federal official on what happened last week. chris wray of the fbi, we've heard nothing publicly. department of homeland security, nothing. doj, we've not heard from the acting attorney general. just nothing. i don't understand it. >> nor do i, kate. i think people have to wrap their brain around the fact that we've gone a week, on one of the biggest terror attacks in our nation's history, and insurrection against our democracy, against our electoral process to try to derail the process and there haven't been any briefings. i took matter news my own hands about a week ago and reached directly out to the secretary of

the army ryan mccanaly and he called me back and we had a 40-minute conversation and i told him, i'm going to release the notes from the conversation because the american people deserve to know what is happening and they need answers and they need to be reassured that people are taking that seriously. and he didn't object to that and that is what i did. but i shouldn't be in a position, congress should not be releasing notes from a phone call of a service secretary to get that information out there. we need leadership and we need it now. the administration is not going to lead. i'm pretty confident about that. the president of course has not been leading for a very long time. so the united states congress, the house of representatives, we're going to step up, we're going to be the leader to the nation and get our country through this. >> congressman, thank you for coming on. >> thanks. >> joe biden is about to roll out a massive covid relief proposal. is the congress able to work on

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when you're through with powering through, it's time for theraflu hot liquid medicine. powerful relief so you can restore and recover. theraflu hot beats cold. president-elect joe biden is weighing in on historic second impeachment of donald trump but also imploring congress to do something it often has a very hard time with. walking and chewing gum at the same tiemt. in a statement he wrote this, in thnation is the grip of a deadly violence and a reeling economy, hoip that the senate leadership will deal with impeachment wild

also working on the other urgent business of the this nation. later today biden is expected to unveil a massive $2 trillion covid relief package, a big proposal that the biden team wants congress to address immediately as he takes office. joining me for more is kirsten gillibrand. do you think-the senate and the house has a hard time doing this often. do you think that the senate is capable of moving on this massive covid relief package and getting through a senate impeachment trial at the very same time? >> i do, kate. and while it is a procedural question, we have to see if we could do them simultaneously with one day doing trial or the next day doing covid relief or making sure that president biden has his cabinet in place right now away. we certainly stand ready to do both at the same time. we certainly could walk and chew gum at the same time. but it is a procedural question. if we can't, then maybe we delay

the trial for a while so that we could actually get president biden's nominees and cabinet up and running so that we could get a covid relief package out of the door immediately. >> that is your priority. the senate majority leader indicated in a statement yesterday that he will consider convicting trump for inciting the insurrection. at least leaving open the possibility in a letter to republican senators. what do you read into that? do you think that mitch mcconnell could vote to convict trump? >> i don't know. i've been hoping that senator mcconnell would stand up to trump for sometime now so i'm definitely not holding my breath. but the consequences of president trump's actions are very serious. and it is deeply concerning that we have a president of the united states who could incite a mob to violence and to have have him be impeached twice. this is something that we all must take seriously.

we have to take our constitutional responsibilities very seriously. so we will conduct the trial and we will vote, i certainly will vote in favor of conviction. i don't know how many republicans will stand up to president trump. i find it hard to believe we'll get 17 of them, which is what we need for a conviction. but if we did have conviction, we could then move to bar president trump from serving in public office again. which i think would be the best thing to do. >> and in the reason some house republicans at least have given for voting against impeachment was that they said that it would further divide the country. i mean kevin mccarthy said that he thought it would fan the flames of partisan division. does that make any sense to you? >> no. this is not a partisan issue. this is about our constitution, our democracy, and standing up for what we believe in. for a president to commit the acts that president trump has done, to so deeply undermind the

democracy and mislead the american people and continue to put forward the lie that he won the election and that obviously inspiring people to fight for him physically and take down the capitol just shows how important it is that we do do our constitutional duty. this can't be ignored. because it is so serious. and so i do believe we could get these articles of impeachment, we could vote on the house impeachment measure and i think that is the appropriate oversight and accountability that should be done. it doesn't mean that prosecutors can't prosecute president trump either state or federal prosecutions. but in terms of my responsible in the u.s. senate and the responsibility we have as senators, it is to do that important job of conducting a trial and then voting on conviction. >> president trump was not the only person egging on supporters or pushing the election lie. he had two lieutenants if the senate leading it, that was ted cruz and josh hawley.

do you think they should face consequences? >> i do. an i think we should consider a censure motion for both of them. again to continue the lie that the electoral college votes shouldn't have been counted or that some extra judicial was needed and this is a state's rights issue. i think it was extremely irresponsible and i think that the appropriate response would be a censure motion. >> senator, thank you for your time. >> thank you. come up for us, as the pandemic reaches the deadliest and most dangerous days sh cdc is out with a grim new warning. details on that next. nicorette knows, quitting smoking is freaking hard. you get advice like: just stop. get a hobby.

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the coronavirus pandemic is at its highest it's ever been. the u.s. adds nearly 40,000 new deaths. how much worse can it get? >> these are just awful. in the past few weeks, 40,000

have died from the coronavirus. the prediction is it will be 92,000 in the next three weeks, so that's more than double. it's saying that the weekly death rate is going to go up substantially. so what is a horrible situation right now is projected to get even worse. kate? >> and the white house task force is warning right now about more transmissible strains of the virus. what are you hearing about what is most kconcerning about this, elizabeth? >> two things are concerning which you just said, kate, and that's that we know at least two variants that appear to be more transm transmissible. one was spotted in the u.k., the other was spotted in south africa. let's talk about the one in south africa first. that one is causing concern that the vaccine may -- and i want to stress the word "may" -- may not work as well against this variant as it does against the

coronavirus currently out there. there is concern this south africa variant could pose a challenge to the vaccine. the vaccine would still work, but perhaps not as well. south african scientists i've been talking to, they call this a mutation in the south african variant, an escape mutation, that's what they call it, because there is a concern it will escape antibodies produced by the vaccine. so this variant first seen in south africa causing a lot of concern. kate? >> absolutely. just the mere fact we're looking at 40,000 americans purported to have died in the first 14 days of this year, ilt's amazing. elizabeth, thank you. coming up, the senate is facing an impeachment trial of donald trump. when will it start and how long will it last? stay with us.

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hello to our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm john king in washington. thank you for sharing this big news day with us. it is a history-making week. president donald trump impeached for the second time. when the senate impeachment trial starts, how long it will last, how many republicans will vote to convict, and if the senate can bar president trump from another presidential run, all unknowns this hour. this, though, is certain. the top republican mitch mcconnell holds giant influence here. mcconnell said he will listen to the legal arguments,ea