john harwood, cnn, the white house. >> thanks, john, for that. >>> so the chinese foreign ministry recently called trump administration officials, quote, anti-china politicians who had undermined the relationship between the u.s. and china. so how will president biden's asia policy differ from his predecessor's? with me now in hong kong is cnn correspondent will ripley. hi, will. you look dapper. lovely to see you. i suppose china flying war planes near taiwan, is this obviously muscle flexing going on? >> reporter: it is a new year but same old business in the south china sea, china continuing to assert what it views as its rightful position in this region as the superpower and the u.s. pushing back. the state department over the weekend saying that china by flying about a dozen war planes over the taiwan strait is, you know, doing what it has done repeatedly against taiwan, military, diplomatic and economic bullying and the state department says it needs to stop. that is a similar hard-line position to the stance taken by the trump administration. however, in other areas like climate chan

joining me now to discuss, cnn's white house correspondent john harwood and former obama adviser david axelrod. thank you, gentlemen. thank you for joining. john, we are learning betsy devos the latest to resign after trump inciting domestic terrorists to storm the capitol. if they're concerned, why not stay and do something about it? >> i think that's probably true for national security officials more narrowly since national security seems to be the greatest potential danger that trump would pose. i don't think he can do much damage at the vacant education secretary's position. but i think that the effect of the resignations -- elaine chao as transportation secretary and betsy devos is of a piece with a discussion to the 25th amendment and the calls for trump's impeachment and removal from office. i don't think those things are going to happen, but i think the collective weight of all of that discussion, with all the resignations within the white house, within the cabinet, the clear escalation of the talk that he must be removed, that is obviously made an impression on him. donald tru

let's begin with cnn's john harwood at the white house. john, the white house spokesman put out a statement after congress certified joe biden's win. talk about what it says. >> dan ask a screen know had to put out the statement because the president's twitter account had been locked for what he had issued earlier in the day. what conveyed in that statement was a president who had been browbeaten by aides saying finally that he would accept the peaceful transfer of power, but even while doing that it was better that he did it than that he didn't for the country, he displayed the pathologies that have underlied his behavior for some time, that is the inability to recognize the difference between reality and fantasy, between truth and lies and to act on those things. he says in the statement i disagree with the outcome of the election and the facts bear me out. there is no disagreement he lost the election and that there are no facts bearing out a contrary opinion. so he put out that statement in response to the horrific scenes that we saw ye

joining me now, cnn's white house correspondent, john harwood, senior political analyst john avalon, and political commentator, amanda carpenter. good evening again. 18, yes. john harwood, president joe biden making a major announcement about another 200 million vaccine doses. he's trying to get every adult vaccinated trying to push through a covid relief package. but how hard is it to move forward when the former president still has a grip on everyone's attention? >> don, i don't agree that donald trump still has a grip on everyone's attention. he has a grip on a portion of the -- >> i should say republicans. >> -- news media. and he's got a grip on the republican party. but joe biden and democrats have a grip on the government in washington right now. joe biden, as we saw today, rolled out some progress on vaccine distributions. he's invoking the defense production act, starting a pandemic testing board. he's racing ahead with democrats through the reconciliation process to push through a very large covid relief package. they're confident they can do that. we'll see if they can act

. >>> john harwood joins us from the white house. the president is going to speak today. condemn the violence, ask for a peaceful transition, what is he focused on, john? >> reporter: he's focused on the harm he believes has been done to him by the decision from technology companies to eliminate his mega phone, the mega phone that he used to in part to incite this insurrection. the president does not accept responsibility for what he's done. he's angry. he's still the president of the united states for the next nine days and the most powerful man in the world and filled with rage by what has happened to him. we don't know in what forum use going to communicate his thoughts about big tech. we've seen a lot of republicans whining in the same vain about using twitter followers. it is a remarkable scene. and one of the things that it tells you, jim, is not only the president sick, to a considerable degree, the republican party is also sick. and you mentioned the large number republicans who voted to overturn those electoral college votes and a large number of republicans befor

joining us now, john harwood. so elizabeth newman, former assistant secretary of homeland security in the trump administration. john, let's remind people of how president trump incited this armed insurrection on wednesday. what you're about to hear are his words at the rally beforehand and then the domestic terrorists parrotting them during the insurrection. listen to this. >> make no mistake, this election was stolen from you, from me, and from the country. >> they don't get to steal it from us! >> you'll never take back our country with weakness. you have to show strength. and you have to be strong. >> we want our country back! >> we're going to try and give our republicans -- we're going to try and give them the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country. >> this is our house. this is our country. this is our country. >> john, no wonder he wants to pardon himself. he must be scared. >> look, alisyn, president trump is like a wounded animal at this point. he doesn't have a lot of room to r

joining me is white house correspondent john harwood, senior political analyst john avlon, and presidentialistorian timothy naftali. what do i owe this -- i did something right. i got the "a" team. john harwood, you first. cnn just spoke to president biden about trump's impeachment. what is he saying tonight? >> he's saying some simple statements of fact. he's saying that donald trump's trial may pose some interference with his agenda, that donald trump is likely to be acquitted by the senate, but that the trial has to happen. and that's simply the reality. this was an enormous crime against the people of the united states. it was an act of domestic terrorism. it's inconvenient to have to deal with it just like it's inconvenient to have to deal with an act of foreign terrorism or a natural disaster like a hurricane or an earthquake. but you can't avoid doing it. republicans, of course, would like to have this go away. they want to hide behind procedure. they do not want to cast this vote on acquittal or conviction of the president, but they're going to have to, and there's simply no way aro

. >>> joining us now are cnn white house correspondent john harwood, cnn global affairs analyst, susan glasser and cnn contributor and republican election lawyer ben ginsburg. great to have all of you here. let's start, ben, with what we just heard from john's conversation with congressman ken buck. he spelled out why he can't go along with what other republicans in congress are going to attempt to do this week. you've heard the audiotapes. you heard congressman ken buck's rationale. tell us what the law is here. >> well, the law is that donald trump may have sort of wandered into a criminal violation, but the reality is more the constitutional and political ones of the votes they're going to be taking on wednesday. what ken buck was making and the six other house members was a constitutional argument, that the role of congress is not to do what the president wants. the tape itself is much more of an argument that will go to the way republican members are trying to think about their vote, and it's got to be making them cringe which ken buck hinted at but won't confirm. >> it was the in

will see the democrats in the house move forward with an article of impeachment. >> jamie gangel, john harwoodeek has been. thank you both so much for being with us this morning. >> thank you. >> oh, my gosh, john, i can't believe it's been only a week and we've survived. >> so far. >> thank you all for being with us during this historic week. cnn's breaking news coverage continues next. every veteran family has earned the right to their american dream. the freedom and pride that comes with owning their own home. at newday usa we help more veteran families every day make the most of their va home loan benefits. to buy a home with no down payment. it's just another way we're committed to veterans. ?e<ç'hqxú78 keeping your oysters business growing has you swamped. you need to hire. i need indeed indeed you do. the moment you sponsor a job on indeed you get a shortlist of quality candidates from a resume data base claim your seventy-five-dollar credit when you post your first job at indeed.com/promo you need to see in the dark. to have the wisdom to understand multiple cyber threats. the precis

. >>> joining us now cnn political commentator van jones, john harwood and andrew mccabe, the former deputy director of the fbi. john, i want to start with you on the breaking news which is that mick mulvaney, former white house chief of staff who up until a few minutes ago was was the special envoy to northern ireland, he has quit. he says, i just can't do it based on what he saw yesterday. i'm out. he went on to say -- do we have the sound? i want to play some of the sound from what he said because it's fascinating. listen. >> i called pompeo, i'm the special envoy to northern ireland and it's a small job, it's a part-time gig but it's all i've got in the administration. i called mike pompeo last night, left him a note, telling him i would be resigning from that. i can't -- i can't do it. i can't stay. it's a nothing thing. it doesn't affect the outcome, it doesn't affect the transition but it's what i've got, right, and it's a position i really enjoy doing, but you can't do it and i wouldn't be surprised to see more of my friends resign over the course of the next 24 to 48 hours. >

dana bash, john harwood, thank you both.ate it. >> thank you, chris. >>> a lot of the faces of this insurrection will go down in history. in textbooks. one of them will likely be this guy, the suspect who has become one of the faces of just how whacked out this was. he's become known as the qanon shaman. i want to be clear, i see nothing funny about this guy or his situation. but i do think it is worth speaking to his lawyer because his defense and his request goes right to the heart of the president's responsibility. you'll see next. before we talk about tax-smart investing, what's new? -audrey's expecting... -twins! ♪ we'd be closer to the twins. change in plans. at fidelity, a change in plans is always part of the plan. these folks don't have time to go to the post office they use stamps.com all the services of the post office only cheaper get a 4-week trial plus postage and a digital scale go to stamps.com/tv and never go to the post office again. your grooming business is booming. you need to hire. i need indeed. indeed

john harwood, david axelrod, bless you both and thank you.i'm telling you, this has to be investigated. you have to take the people who broke into our capitol and punish them, either as terrorists or just criminals of federal protected property. many suspects have already been nabbed, including a state lawmaker. who else, which way does this need to go? we'll give you a road map with an expert understanding exactly the cleaving effect of law in this, next. brush, the answer is yes. the clock may be ticking towards worse... parodontax is 3x more effective at removing plaque, the main cause of bleeding gums parodontax if you have obstructive sleep apnea and you're often tired durisunosi can help yould be missistay awake for them.ings. once daily sunosi improves wakefulness in adults with excessive daytime sleepiness due to obstructive sleep apnea. sunosi worked for up to nine hours at 12 weeks in a clinical study. sunosi does not treat the cause of osa or take the place of your cpap. continue to use any treatments or devices as prescribed by yo

let bring in john harwood and david axelrod to discuss. gentlemen, thank you.art with you. what are you hearing about what the fears are around trump about what he might do between now and the 20th? >> well, i think at a base level, you start with the fact that he's the commander in chief with access to the nuclear codes. so you had nancy pelosi put out the statement that she'd consulted with the chairman of the joint chiefs about trying to make sure that there were safeguards in effect in case an unstable president issued demands to start some sort of military conflict or even launch a nuclear strike. we saw earlier the ten living former defense secretaries, both parties, put out a letter cautioning members of the military against getting involved in anything untoward toward the end of the president's term. so i think that's the baseline, and, you know, you said a minute ago the white house is in crisis mode. i think all of washington is in crisis mode right now. and in the first instance, they're trying to figure out how to avoid something dangerous happening

. >> joining us now, cnn white house correspondent john harwood and cnn national political reporter, maeve reston. john, my question is, what happens now. what are the open questions you have about the senate trial that we now understand will not begin until joe biden takes office? >> well, the biggest questions, john, are how long the trial lasts and to what extent does it interfere with the open to joe biden's presidency. of course, there's also the question of whether donald trump is going to be the first president ever convicted by the senate. i would say that the chances of that are less than 50/50, but it's not impossible. and the fact that mitch mcconnell has maintained a strategic ambiguity is something that gives us all a question mark over that. my understanding is that senate democrats hope to get this wrapped up by the end of january, so it would only be about ten days if they can do that. ten days into joe biden's term. and obviously, he's going to need to stand up a government as rapidly as he can. and i think that's something that under the circumstances, republicans as

john harwood, i will go to you first.president trump saying to mike pence in that oval office meeting and what is pence going to do tomorrow? >> he was telling pence i want you to step up to the plate and help me, kind of like later in the speech he said, well, i'm disappointed in the supreme court, you know, three members of whom he has appointed because they haven't stepped up to the plate. the problem with donald trump is that he has driven the republican party into this cul-de-sac, there is no exit from it, he has lost. everyone is sort of pretending as they drive around in circles that they're going to get to some better destination but they're not. i don't know how mike pence is going to handle it. maybe it will be one of these deals like you remember steve harvey in the beauty pageant he called out the wrong winner or the oscars where they announced the wrong best picture and then they did an oops and corrected it. you know, maybe he will do some of that and faint and walk off the -- walk out of the capitol and the

dana bash, john harwood, thank you both.ppreciate it. >> thank you, chris. >>> a lot of the faces of this insurrection will go down in history. in textbooks. one of them will likely be this guy, the suspect who has become one of the faces of just how whacked out this was. he's become known as the qanon shaman. i want to be clear, i see nothing funny about this guy or his situation. but i do think it is worth speaking to his lawyer because his defense and his request goes right to the heart of the president's responsibility. you'll see next. start the year smiling at aspen dental where new starts happen, every day. get exceptional care at every step, unparalleled safety at every visit, and flexible payment options for every budget. now, during the everyday smiles event new patients get a full exam & set of x-rays with no obligation. no insurance? no worries, it's free. plus, now all patients can get 20% off their treatment plan. find every reason to smile. every day at aspen dental. call 1-800-aspendental or book today at asp

joining me is john harwood, john avalon and timothy natali. i got the a-team. hello to you gentlemen. john, cnn spoke to president biden about trump's impeachment. what is he saying tonight? >> he's saying some simple statements of fact. he's saying that donald trump's trial may pose some interference with his agenda. that donald trump is likely to be acquitted by the senate, but that the trial has to happen. and that's simply the reality. this was an enormous crime against the people of the united states. it was an act of domestic terrorism. it's inconvenient to have to deal with it just like it's inconvenient to have to deal with an act of foreign terrorism or a natural disaster like a hurricane or earthquake, but you can't avoid it. republicans would like to have this go away. they want to hide behind procedure. they don't want to cast this vote on acquittal or conviction of the president. but they're going to have to, and there's no way around it. >> tim, tonight we saw the house deliver the impeachment article to the senate during the fourth impeachment tr

. >>> and now to john harwood. so, john, tell us how the biden administration, how president biden views this power sharing deal when it comes to his legislative agenda? is there basically a shell life, right, for an attempt at a bipartisan agreement here, after which biden said i'm going to the reconciliation, we have to get this stuff passed. >> yes. and it is a short shelf life, gym. we're learning that first of all this is the starting gun for the process offing on that legislative package that the president is pursuing, yes he's going to try to get the ten republican votes he would need to make a fill -- to break a filibuster but that goal is left important to the biden white house than getting something close to the package this that he proposed. so when you have this power sharing agreement, bernie sanders takes over the chairmanship of the budget committee in the senate and he and john yarmouth will start moving budget resolutions. you have to pass a budget resoluti resolution before you could go to reconcil

. >> john harwood is at the white house this morning. good morning, john. important words but where were they a week ago? >> reporter: look, president trump finds it almost impossible to accept responsibility for his bad behavior. he is not capable of acknowledging that he actually lost the election, that he wasn't cheated. this is his -- his psyche requires him to assert that. but he does respond to pressure that he gets and he's under intense pressure from the political system from the american business community, including from fellow republicans. and mitch mcconnell has applied that pressure as lauren was just indicating. ten republicans who represented the most members of a president's party ever votes to impeach in history and they applied that pressure and donald trump responded by doing the bare minimum which is saying that he didn't not believe in violence. he did not repudiate what he's been saying since the election. that is the clearest signal to his supporters that would alleviate some of the concern around washington about this situation. he h

let's go to john harwood for more. has the president tweeted anything? is anyone working for the president saying anything this morning? >> reporter: no. but not much they can say. as you noted those were the president's words on the call. mark meadows, white house chief of staff, was also on the call. what's remarkable is not only that the president, in this hour long call, which the white house tried 18 different times to arrange, not only was he repeating this fantasy and nonsense about shredded ballots and altered machines not only was he asking for a specific number of votes to overturn joe biden's victory but he was pu punctuating those to brad raffensperger listen. >> the ballots are corrupt. you'll find they are. it's more illegal for you than it is for them because you know what they did, and you're not reporting it. you know, that's a criminal -- that's a criminal offense. and, you know, you can't let that happen. that's a big risk to you and to ryan. your lawyer. that's a big risk. >> reporter: now to brad raffensperger's credit, he stood firm

cnn's white house correspondent is john harwood, and our senior political analyst is john avlon. how will we distinguish? i guess i'll have to say last names. good evening to both of you. mr. harwood, president biden trying to restore access to health care, pushing hard behind the scenes to get a covid relief package through on the heels of dismal economic news. where do negotiations stand tonight? >> well, they've got a ways to go. there's a lot of details that are going to get changed, and it's unclear what the composition of the final coalition behind the legislation will be. but one thing that both the biden white house, democrats in congress, their outside allies are increasingly confident of is that they're going to get a very large bill, if not precisely joe biden's $1.9 trillion, something close to that. and that potentially has a huge impact on the country and on the biden presidency. it will speed the end of the pandemic with the funds for the vaccines and testing and all the steps needed to try to get the pandemic under control. it will sustain people who are hurting, w

here's john harwood with more. >> with a little over two weeks left in donald trump's presidency the bomb shells keep dropping. sunday it was "the washington post" audiotape of a phone call in which president trump pressures the republican secretary of state of georgia to find extra votes to overturn joe biden's victory there. never mind the electoral college tally has been certified in all 50 states, never mind that joe biden does not need georgia's 16 electoral votes to win. he's got 306 which is well over the 270 you need. never mind there is no evidence of widespread fraud or ireegularity in georgia voting or vote counting. the president was repeating fantasies about shredded ballots and altered voting machine. brad raffensperger resisted even though president trump appealed to him to act as a fellow republican. the white house is not commenting on this tape. hard to know what's they'd say but the biden campaign was quick to say the tape affirms president trump's assault on democracy since the election. vice president elect kamala harris said that this was a boldface abuse of pow

john harwood joins us this morning. john, it goes without saying the president's biggest microphone has been taken away. that is clear. and so his options for speaking to the american people are fewer now. what is top of mind for him? what is he going to talk about today? >> well, we expect if we do hear from the president today for him to condemn the actions of the technology companies that have shut down his access to his platform. which is a step they have taken because of the danger that the president poses to the country. the danger that was may evident by that violence insurrection last week. the president has been stewing in private. when you think about it the most powerful man in the world has a giant press contingent covering him believes and complains and whines that he has been silenced because he can't send out twitter messages. that doesn't make any sense. but that goes to show you how disturbed this president is. we expect him tomorrow to travel to texas to highlight the border wall, which is another test

i want to bring into this conversation john dean, tim naftaly, and john harwood. john dean, i thought this was reminiscent of watergate, the reportings, hundreds of hours that revealed answers as to whether the president knew, the white house knew about the break-in at the watergate of the democratic national committee. when you heard this reporting, i mean, what did you think? >> well, i just heard the 4:30 you played. that's a very small sample. my immediate reaction was that the secretary of state has taken a very safe precaution. georgia is a one-party consent state. you can't record your telephone calls. he knew he was being pushed, if not extorted by the president, so he flipped the script, and he made a record of this call. i think that's very smart. the president is marching up to the edge of extortion. there's probably more of this, fred, given the fact that trump has been cutting this angle far and wide. i think there's more tapes elsewhere. i think this is a special situation where the secretary of state wanted to protect himself from leaning on him and

. >> john harwood is at the white house. john, executive actions expected today on manufacturing, pandemic travel restriction and using his pen to overturn several of president trump's controversial orders also some movement forward on covid relief like this manufacturing order. >> that is right, jim. the huge overwhelming priority of the biden administration is to get that covid relief package through and they've got negotiations ongoing to do that. but while the negotiations go on, try to figure out whether it is bipartisan or all democratic approach to this bill, president biden is taking actions to try to signal his priorities and take some limited steps forward on them. so you've got the orderers today on buy american. these are orders that both parties tend to make gestures toward, economists hate them because they think they raise prices on americans, they don't usually do all that much. we'll see if this one is different. tomorrow he'll take action on racial equity. set up a policing commission to explore some of the

john harwood at the white house. john, walk us through president trump's final 24 hours or so in the white house. >> jim, there's a lot we don't know because the president's been hiding from the press and not having public events. what we've been able to see over the last few days has been pretty pitiful. this schedule he announces every day, many meetings and phone calls, gestures that amount to throwing thumb tacks under joe biden's incoming vehicle like lifting bans from six days in to joe biden's presidency will biden will reverse or this very amateurish report trying to rebut "the new york times" on diversity that came out yesterday on martin luther king day. but even with a presidency in ruins, even with historically low approval ratings, president trump still has the absolute power to pardon for the next 27 hours. and we understand that he's focused on how to use that pardon power. there will be some noncontroversial ones or some low-level people. some celebrities perhaps who have been lobbied, but also you've

john harwood joined me now. i'm curious, john, what and who moved the president here? it fear about legal jeopardy? >> reporter: i think, jim, there's fear of all kinds for donald trump. he's facing pressure like he's never felt before. yes, there is the fear of legal jeopardy, although he may try to pardon himself or -- as well as pardon other people involved in this, but there's also the tremendous blowback he's gotten from members of his own party in the senate, in the house. we heard from ben sasse this morning that he might support conviction in the senate if the house impeaches. i don't think it's likely he'll be removed from office ahead of time. but he's feeling the pressure and he got pressure from people like ivanka trump, white house counsel, pat cipollone, who's considering resigning, chief of staff mark meadows that he had to come out and say something he hadn't said before, which is acknowledge he's not going to be president after january 20th. he did it last night in that video. that's something his supporters needed to hear, they did hear it from him. e

let's begin with cnn's john harwood at the white house for more on president trump caught on tape. listen, john, the president has for weeks without basis said that he is the victim of fraud here, and that he actually won the election. we now have the president on tape pushing the secretary of state to find him votes. i wonder, is there anyone in that building behind you who acknowledges that this is wrong? >> not publicly. let's be clear about this, openly seeking to commit or to induce the state official to commit election fraud, the very thing he's been screaming about and the notable thing that you guys highlighted in the intro is the subtext of menace that he is raising against brad raffensperger, the georgia secretary of state, during this call, appealing, setting aside everything else for him to change votes on the grounds that people are angry about the outcome. take a listen. >> obviously, honest elections officials do not alter vote counts because the losers of the election are angry that they lost, and what you heard on that call was brad rchaffensperger trying to calmly

cnn white house correspondent john harwood joins me now. john, is biden on track to follow through on his early promises? that's a big question tonight. >> reporter: some he will follow through on and of course he is implementing executive orders to create a pandemic testing board, to invoke the defense production act, to expand production of vaccines. he's committed to 100 million vaccination doses in 100 days. that is a low goal. he is almost certainly underpromising in hopes of overdlifing. but it's going to take some time to ramp up that production. and most importantly, of course, the president needs to try to get that covid relief package that he's proposed, $1.9 trillion, through the congress. he's tried initially to do that with both republican and democratic votes. his economic adviser is about to have a phone call tomorrow with 16 republican and democratic senators who could be key to negotiating compromise, probably bring the price tag of that covid relief package down. but he needs early momentum not just in the executive orders

joining us now is cnn white house correspondent john harwood. this video, i just want to play a specific moment of this video because if this were a criminal trial, this would be exhibit a. this is where president trump says something about vice president pence and the mob then basically repeats it verbatim, it gets in their head and they go looking for mike pence. listen to this moment. >> it was awesome. some of you may have seen online he went over all the voter fraud. i am very concerned about mike pence. i have no idea what he's going to do. did not love the way the president talked about that. and i don't know. we'll see. anyways, we're walking over to the capitol right now. i don't know. maybe we'll break down the doors. >> this is a tweet from president trump about mike pence that they then parroted. >> mike pence is a bitch. >> can i speak to pelosi? >> we're coming. >> mike pence, we're coming for you. >> we're sending a message to pence. if they don't do as their oath to do, if they don't uphold the constitution, then we'll remove the

john harwood, cnn, washington. >>> well, joining me now from los angeles, ron brownstein is cnn's senior political analyst and senior editor for "the a atlantic." by now we've all heard portions of the stunning recording of president trump's stunning conversation with georgia's secretary of state demanding he finds specifically 11,780 more votes to tilt the election results in his favor. what was your response to this and how significant could it be with comparisons being made to watergate. >> if you take everything that's happened in the last few months since the election, we are witnessing the most sustained and broad scale assault on american democracy probably since the south seceded in 1960. the idea that some republicans said immediately after the election just humor him, how much damage could be done has really been exposed. we convene an ongoing effort by the president to subvert the result of a democratic election unquestionably in many spheres, through the courts, through the pressuring state legislatures, now this kind of direct mob-like intimidation of the republican secretar

let's ask our john harwood why, our white house correspondent. i was surprised reading that. they don't think he will pardon himself or his family? >> reporter: you know, poppy, i think we should brace for surprises between now and noon on wednesday. we don't know what he's going to do. one thing we know is that he will act in what he believes is his own best interest. because that's what he always does. just step back and think about the arc of his presidency over the last two-and-a-half months since he lost the election november 3rd. first of all, completely stopped doing the work of the presidency, in particular, of trying to get on top of the pandemic that we are now, that is still cresting in the united states that we are on track as john claimed the incoming white house chief of staff said we are on a track to have 500,000 deaths by the end of february. secondly, he's consumed himself with this fantasy that he won the election. the attempt to somehow overturn the will of the american people that culminated in that deadly insurrection on january 6th, that threatened the

. >> john harwood joins us this morning.t sounds like he's taking questions so we'll hear from him in a little bit. but while we wait for that, mike pence spoke last night for the first time in almost a week to the president after what happened. that is pretty stunning. >> yeah. >> it is poppy, and remarkable juxtaposition this morning. president leaving to head to texas to talk about a public policy issue, the border wall while washington is preoccupied with how to neutralize the threat he poses to the country in the last eight days in office. part of the efforts to neutralize that threat is holding out the potential for invoking the 25th amendment. we don't expect vice president mike pence to trigger that process or that you'd get the cabinet support to invoke it. but it remains as a deterrent to the president's conduct. mike pence met with the president yesterday in the oval office, we're told that was a constructive meeting and where they talked about the last four years and finishing out defending the american people. n

cnn's john harwood looks at how the president is prioritizing his agenda during his first week in office>> president joe biden is spending his first weekend in the white house doing some of the typical things new presidents do, reaching out to key allies. in this case, it's all the more important given some of those alliances were strained under the trump administration. he spoke by phone with british prime minister boris johnson. they talked about the importance of nato and climate change. johnson has cheered the president's return to the paris climate agreement. and talked to lopez obabout the. talked to justin trudeau about the keystone pipeline. that is a source of contention for joe biden. he has revoked the permit for the pipeline. all three leaders they talked about the importance of the covid-19 pandemic, and the broader agenda for joe biden, which he's trying to get early momentum is that covid-19 pandemic and the related economic recovery. he met with advisers at the white house today. vice president kamala harris was there. they're trying to gear up momentum for that covid rel

john harwood is at the white house. a lot of anticipation at today's briefing. i imagine a different tone, a different attachment to facts and data than we saw in the previous administration. >> reporter: the biden administration is trying, jim, as you indicated, to set the tone that they are relying on data. they're relying on science. they're going to start these briefings three times a week. they've made plain they are going to use federal power more aggressively than the trump administration had. yesterday they announced, of course, the purchase of another couple hundred million doses from moderna and pfizer to be obtained this summer and the addition of 16% of the vaccine allocations for states as well as a three-week projection for states to rely on. now, it's difficult to separate what -- which of those things might have happened under the trump administration anyway. what we can see is the way they communicate, and they're communicating more aggressively, both the president himself and his team. jeff zients, the covid response coordinator and the experts

joining us to talk, natasha of the grio and john harwood. the biden white house is facing questions about their willingness to negotiate with republicans or even talk to republicans. they are two days in. they're two days in. i get that people want answers and get impatient, but it's not like they've been trying for months and months to no avail. how much time do you think they're willing to give this? >> well, some, but i don't think they're going to take the approach that president obama took, for example, in 2009 to negotiating with republicans on the health care package. remember, because we all covered it, john, president obama tried to lure republican cooperation over an extended period. finally discovered that he could not get any on the health care bill and they moved ahead with a democrats only package. and that's what they had to do and it put constraints on how they could operate and what was in the final package, but that was the best they could do. in this case, joe biden's personal preference is to negotiate a bipartisan deal.

let's go to cnn's john harwood at the white house. how is the president prioritizing his agenda in just these first few days? >> pam, in a very real sense there is only one priority for joe biden and that is getting on top of this coronavirus pandemic. it is a public health crisis of course. we've lost 450,000 americans, 25 million cases. but it's also the cause of our economic issues. once the pandemic is brought under control the economy is likely to take off. that is job number one. we saw the president on his first full day in office sign those executive orders saying he is going to use the defense production act to enhance the production of vaccines, create a pandemic testing board, take other steps of that kind. on friday we had him sign executive orders to ease some of the economic strains on americans just the way -- adjust the way food stamps are calculated so americans who are hurting can get a few more dollars in their pocket. the real step he needs to take has to go through congress. that's that $1.9 trillion covid relief

. >> joining us now, cnn white house correspondents john harwood and kaitlan collins. kaitlan, last night the president put out a video condemning the violence. you know, took a week. and he didn't take any responsibility for inciting it. and the reporting is he had to be pressured from inside by jared kushner, among others, that it was an intervention to force him to do this. what's your reporting on what's going on? >> the president was encouraged to do this by advisers who had watched these republicans all day on capitol hill, people who were typically such close allies of the president, people like kevin mccarthy, have his favorite can-do ready. but mccarthy came out and said the president bid dare spent for what happened the wednesday before. the president was furious about what kevin mccarthy said. he had left hope the idea of censuring the president when discussing this possible impeachment with other republicans. and so the president has not taken any responsibility privately. he certainly has not done so publicly for the role that he played in that. he did not

john harwood, it means more to him than anything he's ever gotten. it's like the best promise present. it's like a sled under the tree for mccarthy. this pat on the head from the former president. i think the most important thing now is when you look at his picture. what does that tell you about where the republican party is today and going to be tomorrow and what it means for the country. >> john, the issue is that the republican party has walled itself off against the realities of 21st century america. demographically, economically, culturally. and they have, while doing so, been forced to appeal to a smaller and smaller group of americans, the people who are angriest about the way the country has changed, most bitter. they need that energy, that anger. that causes them to rely on extreme people, crazy people like marjorie taylor greene. they can't afford to alienate those people. they will do only what they are forced by events to do to distance themselves. when all of that anger exploded on january 6th, whipped up by president trump, then they ba

. >>> joining us now, cnn white house correspondent john harwood and cnn political commentator van jones. guys, we've been looking forward to talking to you this morning. van, i want to start with you and get your thoughts on what these four years have meant for you, for the country, and now at the end of them, what we're supposed to take away from all of this. >> well, you know, it's been a tale of two countries. i mean, for the people i care about the most, people i talk to the most often, it's been a nightmare. and daily escalating series of norm-breaking, rule-breaking and also i think we sometimes don't understand what this has meant at the grassroots level. i'm from small-town america. grew up in jackson, tennessee. people just going to the store, people just walking down the street. people trying to interact at work. and just being hit with a growing sense of, frankly, physical danger as people are more and more emboldened to speak out and say crazy stuff in staff meetings, in the lunch rooms and once you had the covid thing hit it got worse because people were more isolated. so w

joining us now, cnn white house correspondent john harwood cnn legal analyst is with us and cnn contributor michael d antonio the author of the book "high crimes" of the first trial. >> you will need a sequel. >> get on it, michael. the clock is ticking. john herewood, it was worse than we thought. i guess it was worse than our imaginations could even construct. as you watched what happened the siege on the capitol in real time. we didn't see all these videos. now they are coming out over the weekend. this is the blood thirsty mob beating a police officer in the name of donald trump. they are using bats, flag poles, some with their trump flags on them, as you can see right there. there was a police officer we saw over the weekend who was crushed in the doorway here. they were trying to crush him to death and he's begging for me y mercy. what is happening right now with president trump in the white house? is there anybody around him? is he alone? what is he doing in the aftermath of all of this? >> well, look, so we talked about this before. the president of the united states is mentally ill

cnn white house correspondent john harwood is standing by at biden's new residence. ohn, what is biden up to during his first weekend as president? >> well, pam, first of all, big congrats to you on the new show. that's wonderful. >> thank you. as for joe biden, he's doing the standard things that presidency do in terms of reaching out to close allies in the opening days of his presidency. and that's all the more important, given the way that donald trump often ruffled those allies. so today, he president, lopez obrador, who will be a key ally as he tries to change the immigration policies that donald trump practiced. he spoke with prime minister johnson of the uk, who will be an ally on climate change. he's already cheered. president biden's decision to rejoin the paris climate accord. earlier, he talked to canadian prime minister trudeau. there was a little stat tick there, because the president's efforts on climate change, including canceling that keystone xl pipeline, which trudeau and canada are in favor of. other than that, he's trying to get on top of the two t

john harwood is standing by at the white house. maybe there won't be any reaction from the white house but that silence will be a message in and of itself. control room, keep me honest on what we're hearing from the floor as things are moving along. but as we are waiting to see this happen, and it will be quick so i want to make sure we catch it, let me bring in dana bash, abby phillip and the former ambassador and special council norma mieasson. talk about what this moment means? >> it is huge. and it is going to be even bigger when we see the inevitable, which is that the white house is very unlikely to respond and when i say the white house, i should say the administration, mike pence and other members of the trump cabinet respond to the call that we're going to see for the 25th amendment to remove president trump from his office or at least from his duties so the inevitable is going to happen and that is a second impeachment vote. and it will be the first time in history we've seen this. and i want to echo about what phil matti

cnn's john harwood with the details. >> reporter: president joe biden is spending his first weekend in house doing some of the typical things that new presidents do, reaching out to key allies. in this case it's all the more important given that some of those alliances were strained under the trump administration. he spoke by phone with british prime minister boris johnson. they talked about the importance of nato as well as climate change. johnson has cheered the president's return to the paris climate agreement. talked to president lopez obrador of mexico about immigration policy. that had been a source of friction with the trump administration as well. talked to canadian prime minister trudeau about the keystone xl pipeline. that is a point of of contention with joe biden because biden has revoked the permit for that pipeline. canada favors it. and with all three leaders they talked about the importance of the covid-19 pandemic. and the broader agenda for joe biden which he's trying to get early moment sum that covid-19 pandemic and the related economic recovery. he met with adviser

cnn's john harwood has more from the white house now. >> reporter: with just a little more than two weeks left in donald trump's presidency, the bombshells just keep dropping. on sunday, it was "washington post" rev laugs elation of an a tape in which pressures the gop to overturn the election in their state. they certified the elects ral tallies. that shows joe biden with 306 votes. more than enough needed to win. never mind he doesn't need georgia's 16 electoral votes. or that there's been no finding of widespread fraud or irregularity in the georgia election. president trump in that tape is repeating fantasies about shredded ballots and altered voting machines. he is resisted by the republican of state of georgia even though the president appealed to him to act as a fellow partisan. the white house is not commenting on this audio tape. hard to know what they would say considering that president trump is on the tape and so is the white house chief of staff mark meadows. the biden campaign was quick to come out. the attorney said this was an affirmation of president trump's assault on de

we'll be joined by john harwood and manu raju. john, i want to begin with you. because she did say, jen psaki, that it should be bipartisan, the stimulus plan but her priorities getting it through. i wonder what the level of confidence is from white house officials about getting something big and quickly? >> reporter: very high. and it is also very high among democrats on capitol hill. this is a key dynamic here. joe biden earlier this week, when he was asked to define unity, he said unity is not going to be defined by whether it gets republican votes, it is going to bedefined whether it attracted support by the american people and economists will say it has an effect and we're seeing that ethos pushed by the white house, pushed by democrats on the hill saying we're going to talk to republicans, but we have the ability to pass it by ourselves and we're going to move as if we can. that makes it more likely not less that republicans will engage in negotiations, either way, i think there is a very high level of confidence they're going to get it done and get it don

cnn's white house correspondent is john harwood. john, this is it. trump is one more full day in office. biden's inaugural events kicking off while our nation's capitol is on lockdown. americans bracing for potential violence. i mean, you've covered a lot of presidential inaugurations, but i'm sure nothing compares to this one. >> nothing at all. this is what donald trump has produced, and, you know, donald trump, don, did not create the trends in politics that made white working class voters who were disaffected and aylienated within the republican party but he turbo charged those trends. since the election with the lying fantasy he won the election and it was stolen by black voters in inner-cities and places like milwaukee and detroit and philadelphia, he's given all that anger no place to go. and that's what exploded in the capitol a couple of weeks ago. it started long before the post election period, though. trump's entire political appear has been from the beginning to the grievance of whites. ironically today on martin luther king day, two day

joining me is john harwood and dr. jonathan reiner. gentlemen, hello to both of you. john, a pandemic killing thousands of americans a day, economic catastrophe, deep division and the list goes on. our country faces problems. it's all squarely in his lap. >> he's trying to generate a sense of momentum, both through his rhetoric, through some crisp action by his staff through some executive orders that he's signing on covid in particular. he's creating the pandemic testing board, signed that order today. that's something he's talked about for some time. also says he will use the defense production act to ramp up manufacture of vaccines and get that program going. he's going to impose a mask mandate on federal lands. that's not going to have a dramatic effect, but it can have some incremental effect. the president is racing against time because the things he needs to do to really move the ball forward to make progress on this vaccine distribution are, one, to get the covid relief package that he's got through the congress. he's got to figure out whether he can get republ