for no good not for profit purpose. that's not consistent with the law. that's why we're going to pursue that. >> well, attorney general, i appreciate your time. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> thanks to all of you. anderson starts now. good evening. we begin tonight with the contrast between incoming and outgoing administrations at a point in time unlike any the country has ever seen before. just moments ago president-elect biden outlined his plan to fight covid and boost the economy at the end of a week that saw deaths top 4,000 a day and nearly a million more americans file for unemployment benefits. >> there is real pain, overwhelming the real economy. one where people rely on paychecks, not their investments, to pay for their bills and their meals and their children's needs. and it's not hard to see that

we're in the middle of a once in several generations economic crisis with a once in several generations public health crisis. the crisis of deep human suffering is in plain sight, and there's no time to waste. we have to act and we have to act now. >> the president-elect laying out an emergency package which includes $1,400 stimulus checks, extending and expanding unemployment benefits, $400 supplemental payments. also additional food aid and assistance to restaurants and small businesses and a $15 an hour minimum wage. the price tag, $1.9 trillion. mr. biden saying the spending will yield greater returns to the economy and society in the long term. clearly he's choosing to try to go big tonight. at the white house, meantime, a few signs of normality for a transition such as moving vans and staffers departing but also a president with just six days left still determined to go small and angry and petty. certainly not doing what his

predecessors in both parties have. instead of thanking staffers, writing traditionally gracious note for the next president to find inside the resolute desk he's reported to be seething in self-pity mode our sources telling us. advisers and associates telling the "washington post" he is "lashing out at some of those who remain angry that his allies have not mounted a more forceful defense of his incitement of the mob that stormed the capitol." so angry that shortly after we left you last night we learned he has decided to stiff his lawyer rudy giuliani and not pay him for his legal work such as it was. perhaps it was making this post-impeachment statement which upset him so. >> today i am calling on all americans to overcome the passions of the moment and join together as one american people. let us choose to move forward united for the good of our families, our communities, and our country. >> the president reading from a teleprompter, not acknowledging at all his role in inciting the

insurrection that left five people dead and made him the first president ever to be impeached twice. calls for unity from the president ring especially hollow because he's not done the one thing that actually could help bring this country together, admit that there was no widespread voter fraud. admit there is no evidence. admit there never was. admit he lofst fair and square and that he made it up and people are dead as a result. now, he won't do that of course. he would rather the country tear itself apart. there is breaking news tonight on the insurrection itself and some of the people involved in it. we want to show it to you now. so again, you're reminded of the gravity of what happened just a week and a day ago, so you're reminded that it has never happened before and should never happen again. specifically, the moment you're about to see, which as you might imagine is tough to watch. >> usa! >> a fire extinguisher thrown at police with such force it bounced off one police officer's helmet and over the heads of others. today a newly filed criminal

complaint identifies the alleged attacker as robert sanford, a retired firefighter from the philadelphia area. also today federal prosecutors have charged a man named peter francis stager saying he is the man seen in this video beating a police officer with an american flag. prosecutors say a video interview he did helped lead to the charges. in did he says this about people in the capitol. "everybody in there is a treasonous traitor. death is the only remedy for what's in that building." additionally a man with a confederate flag has also been arrested, a law enforcement official telling us he is kevin seyfried of delaware. charging documents were not immediately available so we don't yet know how much trouble he may be in. also arrest john sullivan from utah, taken into custody in provo. sullivan took video of insurrectionists trying to break through a barricade set off -- a barricaded set of doors during which one of them was fatally shot. we spoke with him on "360" that night. he said he was a left-wing activist. according to the charging document, he was seen inside the

capitol using a microphone as he told the crowd, "we about to burn this s down. we got to rip trump out of office, f-ing pull him out of that s. we ain't waiting until the next election." meantime, as some of the people involved face accountability there, remains none from the white house. in the president's call yesterday for unity he was essentially echoing an argument his enablers in congress were making during the impeachment. >> a vote to impeach will further fan the flames of partisan division. >> we should be focused on bringing the nation together. instead democrats are going to impeach the president for a second time. >> today is a moment for members of congress to put aside partisan politicking and place people over power. >> i'm increasingly concerned the democrats are drafting articles of impeachment to further divide america. >> all of us must resist the temptation of further polarization. let's link arms with one another and begin to heal. >> i urge that we all vote to

finally put america first. >> unity is not an option. it's a necessity. >> a necessity, says one of the 140 house republicans and seven senators who tried to overturn the election and disenfranchise millions of american voters. here's what he, congressman jordan, congressman cawthorn, gates and so many others were saying before they all suddenly discovered the need for healing just yesterday. >> americans instinctively know there was something wrong with this election. >> president trump won this election, so everyone who's listening, do not be quiet. do not be silent about this. >> the ruling would be that you've got to go to the streets and be as violent as antifa and blm. >> republicans will not back down. we will not wait for four years to change this. we are going to fight this now. >> get on the phone, call your congressman, and feel free -- you can lightly threaten them. >> this is our 1776 moment. >> and i've got a message that i need you to take to your heart and take back home and along the

way stop at the capitol! >> if you don't stop supporting election integrity, i'm coming after you. madison cawthorn's coming after you. everybody's coming after you. >> the swamp isn't truly drained until we've nailed the hides of the alligators to the wall. >> today is the day american patriots start take down names and kicking ass! >> feeling unified yet? maybe this will help. the nation's capitol is now an armed camp with new concerns about violence this weekend at next week's inauguration. today the president put out a statement praising himself for bringing troops home from afghanistan, iraq and syria. in te said nothing about the men and women being called away from their homes to protect washington. the other thing that he failed to mention is that the mall which he once boasted was filled with -- overflowing with his supporters for his swearing in is now off limits to anyone. more now on what the president is seething about tonight. cnn's jim acosta joins us from

the white house. what's the latest on what you're hearing about the president? >> well, he is really unstable right now, anderson. and what we've been hearing from our sources over the last several days is that he has been ranting and raving about any number of things. obviously, he's upset about the impeachment. obviously, he's upset about the fact that he's going to be leaving office in just about a week from now. and one of the things we're hearing in just the last several minutes, anderson, we've been able to confirm that the president has been pushing away advisers who won't tell him what he wants to hear about the election and impeachment and so on, and he's been listening to people like steve bannon. we understand that he's been back in touch with his former chief strategist. they've been talking about the president's conspiracy theories about the election. in addition to that, my white house colleagues are also reporting that the president has been having discussions with aides about the prospect of resignation. every time that has come up he has pushed that aside and yelled at his aides when the subject has come up. he has also warned his aides,

according to my colleagues, that any talk of richard nixon is not welcome in the oval office. he doesn't want to be compared to richard nixon. and one of the reasons why he doesn't want to resign or isn't even considering the prospect of resigning is he doesn't think mike pence would pardon him. i've also heard that from a white house adviser in recent weeks, that the president has doubts as to whether mike pence would pardon him. so his mind, anderson, at this point is filled with so many things other than the responsibilities and duties that come with running the country. >> does he have a legal team assembled for the impeachment in the senate? >> reporter: my understanding, anderson, is that yes, he does have i guess the beginnings of an impeachment team. it is nothing like we saw during the first impeachment process when he had sort of a legal dream team. i'm told that, you know, he is talking to people like rudy giuliani even though he may not be paying his legal fees, people like more fringy lawyers like

john eastman. but there are some attorneys who are not going to be part of the legal team like last time, people like jay sekulow. and anderson, what we're hearing at this point is that what the president's legal team is planning to argue is that if he leaves office he is essentially no longer legally eligible to be convicted and removed from office now that he's -- once he's an ex-president, that that is something that his own legal team will be arguing during this impeachment process and that the president's remarks on january 6th while incendiary fall under the category of protected speech. those are the expected arguments that we're planning to hear, we're hoping to hear, thinking we'll hear from the president's legal team according a source familiar with those discussions, anderson. >> jim acosta, stay with us. the nixon comparison, part of your reporting, is interesting. wanted to bring in someone who masterfully told the story of nixon's final days, carl bernstein, the investigative journalist, is also now a cnn political analyst. carl, president trump lashing out over comparisons to nixon is particularly interesting. nm ways you and i talked about

this i think it was last night, the end to this presidency you were saying is much worse than nixon's. >> well, first of all, nixon was not a secessionist, seditious president of the united states who inspired and celebrated a riot to burn down the capitol, which is really what occurred. he encouraged it. those people went there because of his incitement. nixon was in a different category in that regard. he was a real criminal president who deserved having to leave office, and republicans got him out of office, forced his resignation. very different than what we've seen with trump. the republicans have enabled him and allowed him to stay in office. we saw in the house yesterday how republicans continued to defend him. don't want to see him impeached and convicted, at least in the house they don't. yet at the same time there's something fascinating in what jim has just reported, and

that's about the pardon question. look, the worst place you can be probably in the world, not just in america, is in donald trump's head. but you know that when donald trump says things about he doesn't want to hear anything about something often he does want to hear about it. i hear in there perhaps a little bit that if pence indeed was willing to pardon him perhaps he would be willing to take it but he doesn't trust pence to do it. in nixon's case president ford waited a month before he pardoned nixon. he refused to pardon nixon in the final days, but a month later decided for the unity of the country and for him to have his own presidency at a time of great economic crisis in the country and other crisis that he would pardon nixon. so there's something quite fascinating in what jim acosta is reporting there. >> do you think -- we've discussed this. do you think the president cares about his legacy as president,

or is it simply the trump brand and the potential to make money and business deals down the road? >> my understanding, anderson, and this is from talking to sources, is that the president is basically clueless about what this is going to do to his legacy, that he doesn't fully grasp the magnitude of the fact, i think the very real likelihood that he's going to be placed at rock bottom of the list of presidents in terms of how they're viewed by historians. i mean, this is a president who has been more jefferson davis than thomas jefferson. and you know, to pick up on what carl was saying a few moments ago, the fact we've never had a president of the united states foment a riot and insurrection and a potential takeover of another branch of government in the way that we saw with president trump. and i think the key question that republicans are going to have to deal with during the senate impeachment trial is whether that crime goes

unpunished. and i think that has the potential to take the trump stain that is on the trump brand and really just paint with a broad brush, you know, i guess another shameful stroke across members of his own party unlike what we saw during the watergate saga. obviously, richard nixon was guilty of a great many things but there were good republicans who took it upon themselves to make sure that richard nixon was not able to get away with what he was trying to get away with. it's a very different situation with donald trump because you know, the republicans might once again in a second impeachment trial let him get off scot-free. anderson? >> carl, nixon -- and correct me if i'm wrong. nixon worked on rehabilitating his reputation. that was his sort of major post-presidency project, wasn't it? becoming a counselor, a senior statesman to other politicians. it's unclear if that's something president trump is even capable

of. >> well, it's also unclear the degree to which nixon succeeded. he wrote some very interesting and remarkable books but he still was a pariah because of the horror of his crimes, which included very similar in some ways to trump undermining the very basis of american democracy, the electoral system, through a series of burglaries and trying to engineer the nomination of a particular democrat through undermining the electoral process. but the real difference in the final days is nixon was not a deluded, deranged, out of control president of the united states who has to be restrained in a constitutional straitjacket, which is really what is going on now. the military won't heed his words. we know some about that. the people around him are trying to restrain him because they think he is dangerous, that he does not have any idea of the

national interest of the united states, nor has he for a long time. nixon in his final days, though he was drunk part of the time, went to introspection. he summoned henry kissinger to the lincoln sitting room on the second floor of the white house. they got down on their knees. nixon said, henry, you're not an orthodox jew and i'm not an orthodox quaker but let's pray. nixon started sobbing and pounding the carpet and saying "what have i done? what have i done?" and then the next day -- remember what nixon's crimes were. his abuses of power in going after his enemies, seeking vengeance on his enemies, much like trump does. and the next day at his farewell he said the ultimate intd roh spectacularive comment about what he had done. he said, "i gave them a sword" to destroy him. we'll see nothing like that, that kind of understanding from donald trump. >> carl bernstein, jim acosta, i

appreciate it. as we speak, security being tightened in a highly visible way around the capitol. our shimon prokupecz where it's happening joins us now. talk about what you're seeing, what the security is like now. >> reporter: so anderson, these fences now are lining all across here on the east side of the capitol. the workers out here have been bolting them down, hammering away here, for the last several hours. and the fences stretch all the way down to pennsylvania avenue. and then they go all the way to the other direction. and then i want to show you here behind me there are the national guard, the military surrounding the capitol with heavily armed weapons. they've been out here all day as well, just surrounding the entire capitol. and here you can see more fencing that is being brought in. anderson, i can tell you that walking here, we parked our cars about two miles away. and basically, the entire area

around washington, d.c. is fenced off from the mlk monument to other monuments, all across the d.c. area now is being fenced off as you see out here. >> and what's the latest on arrests connected to the insurrection? we talked a little bit about it at the top of the program. >> reporter: yeah, so there have been several arrests today. the fbi director saying they've identified about 200 people now that they are looking to arrest. some they have arrested. one person specifically that they really wanted to arrest and identify was the man who you mentioned at the top of the show with the confederate flag, kevin seyfried. he was arrested today. his son hunter also arrested in delaware. and he was a focus, a big focus of the fbi. and they were finally able to arrest him. they were arrested, as i said, in delaware. interestingly, he told the fbi when he was arrested that the flag, this was a flag that he kept outside his home, and that

he brought here with him to washington, d.c. >> and do members of congress have any more clarity tonight on whether any of these attackers might have had help from people inside the capitol? they voiced some concerns in recent days. >> reporter: yeah, so certainly, anderson, that is something that the fbi and others are investigating, looking at. a lot of members of congress certainly have their suspicions that somehow these individuals had help, somehow specifically knew their way inside the capitol. some of them were heard on video saying that they knew their way ar around the capitol, they knew where certain rooms were, they seemed to know where to go, specifically different members and their offices. that certainly has a lot of them concerned that they had some inside help. that is something that the fbi and the department of justice are investigating, anderson. >> shimon prokupecz, appreciate it. thank you very much. another sign of the times and how poison the atmosphere now is, notwithstanding all the

calls for national unity, we learned today that the director of the secret service has sent out an agency-wide memo reminding all employees to remain professional and act in a non-partisan manner as they carry out their duties next week. something that should go without saying except now it no longer can. joining us tonight, former fbi director james comey, author most recently of "saving justice: truth, transparency and trust." director comey, thanks for being with us. what concerns you the most about the inauguration, you know, knowing that the attack on the capitol last week has probably only galvanized extremist groups? >> the nature of the threat concerns me most. i mean, this is akin to an international terrorism threat because you have a group of individuals who believe they're on the side of the angels. they believe the lies. they've internalized them. that an election was stolen and it's their mission to take back the united states of america. they talk about 1776. and they all have guns. and so it's a serious threat but it's also one the government can lock down as the ability of

expertise to protect against. >> we've spent so many years reporting on and talking about how people become radicalized into islamic terrorism. we're now -- this is radicalization of a wholly different sort. and yet you know, it's still radicalization based on a big lie and based on false information and based on a whole host of factors. >> it's very similar. it's hard to get your head around because it's the united states. these are our fellow citizens. they don't look like what he with they've terrorists looking like. but they've consumed the same propaganda, the endless preaching of lies that surrounds people at an al qaeda terrorist camp in afghanistan before 9/11 has surrounded these people through social media, through the president of the united states telling them your government has been stolen, you need to fight to get our government back. that's a frightening thing and very, very effective as

propaganda to a disturbed mind. >> do you know of a comparable situation in which the fbi has sent a bulletin warning of armed protests being held in all states of the union and washington, d.c.? how do you think our current situation ranks in terms of threats we've seen to the u.s.? >> i don't know of any similar circumstance. there were times in the '60s and '70s where we worried about particular groups and using explosives in some cities. but a threat to all 50 states at the same time is unprecedented in my experience. >> you've said that it would be a mistake to alter our rituals, that things should be free, open and safe. when you look at washington, d.c., i mean, tonight turned into a fortress, authorities shutting down the mall. is that the right approach? >> i think so. i had heard people suggesting that maybe we move the inauguration inside or to a secure basement location. and i oppose that because again, we talked all the time after 9/11 been letting the terrorists win. that would be a win for a group

of terrorists. instead i think it's a healthy balance in an unhealthy situation. protect but don't change in a way that concedes that the terrorists have chased us off the spot. >> do you believe president biden -- president-elect biden will be safe taking the oath of office at the capitol next wednesday? >> i do. >> it's clear president trump incited his supporters and based on this big lie that he has been telling both before the election even happened and certainly after. before the attack on the capitol last week you wrote in your book it also isn't the time for the justice department to pursue a criminal investigation of donald trump no matter how compelling the road map left behind by special counsel mueller or how powerful the evidence strewn across his history of porn stars and financial fraud, although those cases might be righteous in a vacuum the mission of the next attorney general must be fostering the trust of the american people that the institution is not a tool of political payback. given the events of the last eight days, do you still believe that, that he shouldn't be

prosecuted? >> i said when i wrote that it was a really hard call back in the fall. it's even harder now. as a private citizen and former prosecutor i'd like to prosecute him myself. the question i'm asking, though, is is it in the government -- the nation's interest to have donald trump on our screens every single day in the united states versus trump in the nation's capitol as the trial moves along? i think on balance, although it's a very close call, we're better with accountability through impeachment and conviction, barring from further office and prosecuting him in new york as they're seeking to do for being the garden variety crook he was before he was elected president. i think that's a healthier place for the nation and for a new president as he tries to heal our nation physically through the terrible scourge we're dealing with and spiritually. >> as we're in this sort of holding pattern waiting for president trump to pardon more people including possibly himself, i'm wondering how you felt when he pardoned michael flynn. that whole investigation was central to your -- what happened between you and the president.

ultimately your firing. and that whole episode was erased with the stroke of a pen. >> yeah, in a way it didn't surprise me, anderson. it was donald trump taking a flame thrower to the rule of law, which he had been doing almost since the very beginning when he took office. it was just lawless and corrupt. but it's a sad thing to say, i wasn't surprised by it. it was just him acting to type. >> and you know, you were certainly a 23rek target of president trump's attacks via twitter. what was your reaction to his suspension? >> i think it was a healthy thing. i saw it as like turning off the gas to an apartment building that's on fire. i think we need to have an important conversation in this country about what the role is of private parties now that they own our public square, twitter and facebook, but this was an emergency and this was turning off the gas to a building that was already on fire. >> is the fbi set up -- and obviously there's a long history of right-wing extremism in this country. you know, ruby ridge.

in the '90s we saw an awful lot of this. obviously oklahoma city. is -- i don't know how it's been under this administration. but has that continued to be a priority for the fbi and law enforcement around the country? right-wing extremism. i know there have been a lot of reports saying it's a major threat. >> i think so. one half of the fbi's terrorism division, counterterrorism division, is domestic terrorism. the other half being international. so when i was director and i think since, hundreds much people woke up every morning worrying about nothing but this. and the current director said this was the number one threat in the united states. so i'm confident they've been devoting a lot of resources to it. which begs the important question we have to have answered, so what happened with the attack on the capitol? why wasn't it stopped? why weren't the forces positioned to defend that hill? >> james comey, i appreciate your time. thank you. >> thanks. >> quick programming note. we're going to be taking an hour this weekend to dig deeper into

some of the forces behind the attack last week and the ongoing threat that remains. our cnn special report "the faces of the trump insurrection" airs saturday night 10:00 eastern time. next tonight to jim acosta's question earlier about the stain on the trump brand such as it is, we'll look closer at what's ahead for him and his family. anthony scaramucci joins us. and later reaction to president-elect biden's plan for tackling covid and reviving the economy among other massive challenges. woah, is this real gold? where did it come from? you know i'm not sure. who's peter samuel? daddy? yeah? who's peter? well sweetie, he's your great-great grandfather. does he look like me? yeah. yeah? yeah. turn questions you've always had into stories you can't wait to share; with ancestry.

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the president in his final days reportedly angry about being compared to richard nixon. nearly alone in the white house, stripped of twitter, with only aides to yell at. it's something fewer and fewer will have to bear as more staffers depart. joining us now, someone who knows what some of that must be like. former white house communications director anthony scaramucci. anthony, it's good to see you. thank you. i'm sorry it's under these circumstances. so president trump described tonight as sullen, vengeful, lashing out at any comparison to the final days of nixon. how do you see the next six days playing out? >> well, i think the very good news, and i think director comey said that, i think they've got most of this under control. you know, delta airlines not allowing guns on planes into d.c. airbnb, et cetera. so if he could have one more big insurgency, he would. but i don't think he's going to be able to get that now because he doesn't have the communication, the direct messaging that was going on on social media and stuff like that. i think it's going to be sullen,

angerbased and somewhat solitary, anderson. i don't see this thing mushrooming the way it could have if we didn't get it under control in the last week. >> do you think he will go quietly? i mean, that his aides will be able to keep any remarks to something scripted and on the teleprompter? they've been able to do that the last couple of days. >> listen, you know, you always get this wrong with president trump. if you say he's going to go quietly he'll act like a maniac on the way out. and then he might end up going quietly. i think lawyers, legitimate lawyers are telling him that he's in a lot of trouble. he incited a riot. he incited an insurrection. he's arguably, at least in the 21st century, you could say timothy mcveigh for the 20th century, but he is the domestic terrorist frt of the 21st century in heterms of the histo of the 21st century -- >> you think he'll be viewed as a domestic terrorist? >> i think right now we're all in shock about it because he's the president of the united states and we always try to normalize that office.

you and i, the rest of the world, still has an august opinion of the office of the presidency. so you're reacting to it like wow, we can't really have the president be a domestic terrorist. but 50 years from now a presidential historian will look at this situation and say my god, he didn't accept the election, he signaled prior to the election that he wasn't going to, and he incited an insurrection where people descended on the capitol building calling for the death of his vice president. so you've got to step back, anderson, and look at it objectively and look at it from 2071, not 2021. and yes, i do think he will be known throughout history as somebody that incited domestic terrorism. >> do you think he will be held accountable, either in the senate or afterward? >> well, again, i think director comey was spot on about the balancing test. but my personal view is that he has to be held accountable. he has to be convicted in the senate. the guy really should go to

jail. he's the president of the united states. so we're going to be cautious about that. but they've got to make this very punitive on him. as speaker pelosi said, there's nobody above the law. and so if you look at it prima facie, yes, something very damaging has to happen to him which will send a signal to others. and oh, by the way, if you want unity in the united states, you have to stamp out the venality of trumpism and the expression of donald trump in the last two weeks. you're not going to get unity unless you detrumpify an element of the country. you just have to go to 1946 in germany to understand that, anderson. so yes, he's got to be punished. and my personal opinion, i'd love to see him in jail. that will likely not happen. but taking away the powers of an ex-president through the conviction i think would be a good start. >> it's so startling to me because there are -- you know, there are a lot of good and decent people, millions of people, who support the president, who believe his lies

about the election, and i guess to me how does the country move forward with a new administration? and whether you're democrat or republican or not. we'll see how this new administration does. and we'll report aggressively on them. but how do you move forward if so many people in the country believe that the election itself was stolen? i mean, unless you have trump -- you know, he's not going to be man enough to stand up and say you know what, i lied, it was a big lie, you know, it was a free and fair election. how do you -- how does the country move forward? >> well, listen, you could look to history for how the country moves forward. i mean, in particular i would go back to what franklin roosevelt said in 1940. he was running for an unprecedented third term. he had the america first movement that was really being sponsored by charles lindbergh at the time. and in a very great speech, you can find it on youtube, he talked about creating aspirational opportunity for the average american. people don't agree with me on, this but i think that this is

factual. economic aspirational opportunity soothes anger, ends tribalism, and helps to knit the country back together. and that's why i applaud president-elect biden in terms of the stimulus package that he's offering. we need to right-size some of these inequities that have been worsened by the pandemic. and i do think we can get to the other side of this with a very healing, optimistic message but it has to be concomitant with this notion of economic aspiration. so i'm optimistic about it. remember, when he falls from power at 12:01 on january 20th, he's going to descend very quickly and you've got 10 or so republicans that look in the mirror every morning and see a future president. they'll do everything they can to put him lights out, anderson. so there's a lot of forces working against him right now, both legal and political, that will be very good for the country. >> i mean, i don't know why -- i know why some republicans who

are zealots and believers in trumpism would want him to be hanging over the party for the next four years, but many republicans obviously don't want that. this seems to be an actual opportunity. in fact, probably their only opportunity to make it so that he will not be able to do that. >> yes. i agree with you. a student of history would recognize that this is the reckoning for donald trump. and this would call a sxhaelg a pos healing and a possible reset for the party. but you've got to remember, these guys are loaded with fear. they've got a lot of cowardice in that party. they're afraid to be primaried. they're afraid about the donor community. it looks like the corporate donors are fading now on the republicans because of their actions. and they're looking for those small donors that were tribally tied to president trump. they're hoping they can cling on to them. so it's a very mixed-up group of people. a visionary republican would say okay, enough of this nonsense, we have to restore our principles, we have to dial back

the anger, we have to open up the tent and make it look more like the beautiful mosaic of the american people, change the demographics if you will as well. but they don't have bold enough leadership standing up and delineating what they need to do to go forward. and so that's why many of these people are cowardly clutching to trumpism still. >> how much do you buy the argument that there's fear not just the fear you spoke of but also just frankly fear of trump supporters, of -- lindsey graham being shouted down and mitt romney being shouted down, you know, on planes and airports by, you know, people who decide that it's a good idea to get in somebody's face for their political beliefs? >> well, listen, it's very unnerving. but just go back through the tapes of the president over the last 4 1/2 years. he gives license to that. he gives license to that anger. every once in a while a lawyer will get to him and he tones it down and he reads something off a teleprompter in a clumsy manner.

but that's what he's done to these people. he's incited them. and it becomes very binary for these people. what i would say to those people, it's not america first, it's first we are americans. we have to stop the nonsense of america first and think of ourselves as americans first, less tribal, less hyphenated, less state-related, more unified as a nation, and then maybe some of that stuff will get knocked off. listen, i can tell you it's unnerving. i've gotten death threats. i've gotten people threatening my family. all of that sort of nonsense. i personally don't care because i grew up in a neighborhood, i know how to take it on. but there's a lot of representatives in the house of representatives that are telling their friends they voted with the president because they fear these types of attacks and those types of death threats. >> anthony scaramucci, i appreciate your time. thank you. >> good to be here. >> we'll look next at the challenges face the president's successor. we'll dig into the details president-elect joe biden laid out a short time ago tonight

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we want to dive deeper into what we reported at the top of the broadcast moments before we went to air, president-elect joe biden spoke from delaware laying out his nearly $2 trillion covid relief plan to boost the economy and help the struggling vaccine rollout. he also previewed a plan to invest more in infrastructure, manufacturing and clean energy. certainly a big agenda he's talking about. in his favor democratic control of the house and senate. working against him, massive challenges that will absorb a lot of his time, including the forthcoming trump impeachment trial, republicans who deny he

won the election and of course covid. our jeff zeleny's in delaware and joins us now. how achievable is what we heard from president-elect biden tonight? because it certainly was big. >> reporter: anderson, it was very big and sweeping. i mean, the dollar amount alone, $1.9 trillion, that of course is going to give heartburn to some republicans in the is that the. but as you said, democrats now control the senate. it's a 50-50 split. but kamala harris when she's vice president can split that. but they do still need some republicans to come aboard. but look, as joe biden framed it tonight, this is the moral obligation of our time. and he talked about bread lines. he talked about the fact that never mind the pandemic, the economy is deeply, deeply in trouble here. so he framed it as a fight that he believes he can get some bipartisan support. and we saw at the end of last year, we saw president trump and some republicans supported these large checks to people. so he is proposing $1,400 more on top of the $600 given late

last year for a total of $2,000. of course that comes with a big price tag. but most importantly, he believes all of this is possible and achievable because of coronavirus, because of the need to fix the vaccination rollout and the need to open schools. so all of this is one big package he believes can get through. now, will this whole $1.9 trillion budget get through? probably not. but they believe a big plan is the way to go. and without question as the first big test of his presidency. >> and is the biden team expressing concern at all about security threats leading up to the inauguration? >> reporter: they certainly are following these security reports very carefully. in fact, yesterday the president-elect himself sat in on a briefing with the fbi, with the secret service, others. his team has been doing that for weeks. but he heard firsthand himself what these threats are. now, he's still planning on going forward to accepting his oath of office and delivering his inaugural address outside on the west front of the capitol.

that could always change. we've seen sofrp change over the past week or so. but that is their plan right now. but they certainly are adjusting to all this. but anderson, one thing not mentioned tonight in this pretty sweeping address from the president-elect, impeachment. he does not want to dwell on that or talk about that. but the reality is that is what is awaiting him once he takes office. so of all the things he's inheriting from president trump, it's the impeachment of him that certainly will linger in the first days of his administration. >> jeff zeleny, i appreciate it. thanks. perspective now from our chief medical correspondent dr. sanjay gupta. political correspondent abby phillip. and former adviser to president obama david axelrod who's a cnn senior political adviser. abby, listening to the president-elect tonight it's clear economic recovery, vaccine rollout are the first priorities. of course anything he proposes is against -- as jeff was just saying, the backdrop of the impeachment trial. how does he navigate that? >> well, i think that he starts with the things that republicans have already said, some of them, that they want, which is $2,000

checks. president trump actually made that a big deal just before the new year, and many republicans as a result were on the record saying that that's something that they wanted as well. so i think that that helps biden in a lot of ways. but i do think the impeachment is going to hang over all of this. it's going to create an environment in which republicans are being forced to choose between resisting biden and showing allegiance to trump and getting things done. and i'm not sure many of them are going to choose to get things done under those circumstances considering how many of them are still living very much in fear of trump and his supporters, even as he's about to leave office. >> david, you know what it's like for a new president trying to get things done. how do you see the challenge ahead? >> look, they're difficult. it's a difficult environment. i think he's right to strike quickly. this is the crisis that's gripping the country right now, this pandemic. it has led to economic hardship

that we see is worsening as the virus worsens. so he wants to rally the country around this common cause rather than focus on the battle over impeachment, and it's the right thing to do. but he's got, you know, just the time consumed on impeachment is going to be difficult because it's time that's not focused on dealing with his agenda. it's time that we're not talking about his agenda. so it creates challenges for him without question. >> he's dealing with massive economic loss, the impeachment trial, bringing the country together, pandemic. do you think any incoming president has ever faced more challenges than president-elect biden? >> you know, when we took over in 2009, anderson, i used to say this is the worst set of circumstances any president has faced since franklin roosevelt. i have to say i think what biden is facing is more difficult now. just the array of challenges that he's facing. and the impeachment on top of

it. it's going to be very, very difficult. >> sanjay, you heard president-elect biden's plan for tackling a pandemic and the rollout. in his first 100 days he says we'll hear even more tomorrow. what do you make of what he said tonight, the details that he said? >> yeah. he's hitting all the right notes. these are some of the same issues we've been talking about for some time. he focused on the vaccine. we've heard a lot about that. the idea of 100 million shots in 100 days. but also testing. there was a lot that was discussed about testing. something we haven't heard as much about recently. but $50 billion toward scaling up testing. both the gold standard pcr testing but also these rapid antigen tests, putting those out in locations like schools, which was sort of the third prong of what he really talked about with regard to directly addressing the pandemic, opening up schools, and saying, again, within 100 days schools should be able to open because of testing, because of more resources given for things like

ventilation and providing more square footage, things like we'll see. there's a lot of money he's proposing and that would pay for vaccination fairs and units. how will the states and the feds work together on this? one of the steps appears to be manpower, enough people to inject the shots. how is that going to be addressed specifically? as you said, we're going to hear more, anderson. the big issues, testing vaccine in schools he hit on. >> president-elect biden, yes, he has the democratic majority in both chambers but there are still republicans who refuse to accept he won the election. is the burden on him to find a way to deal with them or them to accept reality? >> i think the burden is clearly for them to accept reality. biden is going to be focused mostly on the people that he views as reasonable, people he thinks he can work with.

it seems as though there are not very many moderates left in congress but there are some and many of them have worked together on other issues. in fact, just getting the last stimulus bill through congress was done because moderate republicans and democrats came together to do that. i think biden is going to be focusing on those individuals and trying to leverage them to get progress made. and then on top of that leveraging his relationship with mitch mcconnell, which dates back, you know, some 30 years. the two are going to have to figure out a way to trust each other even in this era of acrimony. i think biden seems fairly confident that he can do that considering how often the two have been communicating even through this time of impeachment, the riots of last week. they've been communicating through it all. >> david, be does it help that biden has relationships with people in congress, or are those days overmattering?

>> he's the person president obama would send to the hill during some of the difficult negotiations during that administration, and it was precisely because he had relationships principally with mitch mcconnell but others on the hill. he also understands the process well. things have changed. no doubt in certain ways both parties are somewhat prisoners of the base of their parties, compromise is more difficult. but i think in the senate that's less true. we saw it, as abby mentioned, on the negotiation over the stimulus. and i think what biden is going to try to do is build a coalition of the willing around what the nation wants, which is quick and decisive action to bring this virus to heal and get the economy moving again and some republicans, however they vote on impeachment and however they feel about trump, are going to want to demonstrate that they're there to try and get things done. and perhaps there are enough of them to join with him to move

this forward. >> and, sanjay, it seems clear president biden's transition team was right when they said the trump administration wasn't fully prepared to roll out the vac vaccine. is it that much different? i know they're talking about, well, yeah -- how different is it? >> well, you know, it's interesting because we're getting close to vaccinating about a million people per day as it turns out. 900,000-plus were vaccinated over the last day. in some ways it's not that different. i think the biggest challenge was not really the manufacturing of the vaccine. it was actually taking these shots and getting them actually into people. how you address that specifically is what we're hearing from the new task force. but if you bring on the pharmacies, not just vaccine fairs or mobile units, but the pharmacies, i was talking to

some people who are sort of responsible for large-scale vaccinations, they're capable of doing 100 million doses a month potentially within these pharmacies alone. there's calf veat with this particular vaccine, people have to be observed 15 to 30 minutes if they've had a history of allergic reactions, medical official have is to be on site. not a flu shot fair at these pharmacies. in some ways i would say that 100 million shots in 100 days is sort of undershooting. we could and shoot, frankly, move faster. we need to be closer to 250 million people to get to that herd immunity. we have to be moving very quickly on this. >> so why not do more than 100 million? is it just the man or woman power? >> i think when you sort of look and distill it down what are the

various obstacles. that's a big one that was underappreciated just how many people you need to actually be delivering the shots and then the medical professionals on standby to be monitoring patients after they get the shots. all of that is really important. that can be addressed. and i think we can get to more than a million shots per day pretty easily. >> thank you very much. more breaking news up next, we'll hear from the d.c. police officer crushed in the doorway of the capitol by a mob of attackers. he'll walk us through what happened.

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breaking news as we end our program tonight, one of the most searing images among many we've seen during the capitol hill attack is this, the police officer crushed in a doorway. the officer's name is daniel hodges. this is the first time we're hearing from him. >> it was just a double door with glass panes that was pushed out. i was caught in there because at that point that's where i was to support the defense, and just i ended up getting pipped by the crowd, a guy ripping my mask off and he was able to rip away my baton and beat me with it. he was practically foaming at the mouth, so just these people were true believers in the worst way. that was all i had to defend myself against the crush, so i

was holding on. eventually he was able to get away from me because my arms were pinned so i couldn't effectively defend myself. >> officer hodges is 32 years old and says he had a headache for a week after that and may have had a concussion. he says it was his first time at the capitol. the news continues. i want to hand it over to chris for "cuomo prime time." >> the question for us, why was he put in that position? we'll get after that right now. thank you, anderson. i am chris cuomo and welcome to "primetime." we have new information the trump insurrection at the c capitol was more dangerous than expected. >> everyone in there is a disgrace. that entire build something filled with treasonous invaders. death. every single one of those capitol law enforcement officers death is the remedy. >> they have defied their oath. >> let