Summary:
Former President Donald Trump lashed out at Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, signaling a growing feud between the two most senior Republican voices after the party lost the White House and control of the Senate. U.S. nears 500,000 confirmed COVID-19 deaths. Health experts are closely watching COVID variants. States are pushing White House for faster vaccine timeline. Winter storm has blanketed large parts of the U.S. in snow and ice has disrupted the COVID-19 vaccine program, forcing clinics and sites across the South and North to close temporarily and reschedule appointments. Texas officials rush to distribute vaccines after generator fails at storage facility. President Joe Biden talks COVID, aid, and agenda in Milwaukee. Ron Johnson said that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell`s excoriation on former President Donald Trump put him out of step with the GOP caucus he leads. GOP is facing fractured post-Trump world. Trump, Giuliani accused in lawsuit of conspiring to incite Capitol riot. COVID wars launch DeSantis into GOP "top tier."
Transcript:
LAWRENCE O`DONNELL, MSNBC HOST: George, thank you very much for joining us tonight. Your perspective on this is invaluable. George Takei, thank you very much. "11TH HOUR" with Brian Williams starts right now.
BRIAN WILLIAMS, MSNBC HOST: Well, good evening, once again, day 28 of the Biden administration. The President`s in the midst of his first trip outside the White House to move public support for his massive coronavirus relief bill on this very same day when his predecessor launched a vicious attack of the highest ranking Republican elected official in our land.
While there are glimmers of hope we indeed remain in an uncontrolled pandemic. Let`s not forget the folks at the COVID tracking project showcases falling in 46 states even though the total number of cases is closing in on 28 million and we`re nearing 490,000 deaths. Sadly, we`re going to get to half a million in short order.
Tonight at a CNN Town Hall in Milwaukee, the President made a cautious prediction about when he thought our lives might get back to normal.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, (D) U.S. PRESIDENT: A year from now, I think that there be significantly fewer people having to be socially distance, have to wear masks, it is highly unlikely that by the beginning of next year school -- traditional school year in September, we are not significantly better off than we are today.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: Biden also made a pitch for his nearly $2 trillion relief bill which of course is under attack from Republicans.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: Now`s the time we should be spending now`s the time to go big.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: Health experts are now keeping a close eye on the spread of these variants of the coronavirus. These virulent new strains coming in from overseas, they`re now present in more than half the states. USA Today reports that experts warn of a, "fourth wave if they`re not contained."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. ATUL GAWANDE, BIDEN-HARRIS TRANSITION COVID-19 ADVISORY BOARD: We`re in a race against the strains that in the U.K. not only have proved to be more contagious, 30 to 50% more contagious, we now have new data indicating they`re also more likely to put people in the hospital and more likely to cause deaths. So we want to get out of that fourth surge.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: Now these concerns that you just heard from the Doctor, there are also behind the growing calls to increase the pace of vaccinations. President said he expects they will be available to the general public by the end of July. Some 15 million Americans have received both doses so far. But a bipartisan group of governors has written to the White House asking for better coordination between the feds and the states on this rollout. Today the administration announced that it would make even more vaccines available.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: We`re increasing the vaccine supply to 13.5 million doses per week. That will go out to states. This is a 57% increase from the amount states received when the President was inaugurated.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: Indeed tonight, the CDC is warning that the severe weather conditions we`re witnessing across our country have stalled efforts to give out shots. And they`ve also delayed shipments of more. Several regions just about paralyzed by ice and snow. Millions of our fellow citizens are without heat and light tonight, dozens have already died, much more on all of it just ahead.
As we mentioned earlier, former President Trump has unleashed this new scathing attack on Mitch McConnell after dutifully carrying Trump`s water for four years in the Senate. McConnell voted to acquit Trump then minutes later said Trump was responsible for the insurrection at the Capitol.
Well, late this afternoon, Trump released a statement about McConnell that reads in part, "The Republican Party can never again be respected or strong with political `leaders` like Senator Mitch McConnell at the helm. Mitch is a dour, sullen, and unsmiling political hack, and if Republican senators are going to stay with him, they will not win again. Where necessary and appropriate, I will back primary rivals who espouse making America Great Again and our policy of America First."
Meanwhile, Pennsylvania Republican Senator Pat Toomey, who is not seeking reelection, has come under fire from his state`s Republican officials for voting his conscience, voting to convict Trump and the second impeachment trial. And a local party official back home in Pennsylvania, has just been overheard saying the quiet part out loud.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVE BALL, CHAIR, WASHINGTON COUNTRY REPUBLICAN PARTY: We did not send him there to vote his conscience, we did not send him there to do the right thing or whatever.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: Just tonight, Biden was asked about the entire impeachment trial and the acquittal of Trump.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: For four years, all that`s been in the news is Trump. The next four years, I want to make sure all that`s in the news is the American people. I`m tired of talking about Trump. It`s time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: And with that, let`s bring in our leadoff guests on this busy Tuesday night, Ashley Parker Pulitzer Prize -inning White House Bureau Chief for The Washington Post, Sam Stein, Veteran Washington Journalist who is now White House Editor over at Politico and Dr. Kavita Patel, Clinical Physician, former Senior Policy Aide in the Obama administration now a non- resident Fellow at Brookings, and is among our medical contributors.
And Dr. Patel is indeed where we are going to begin tonight because of the urgency of the matter. Doctor, I assume you listen to Joe Biden, what about his remarks, gave you perhaps peace, gave you optimism, all that matters is what you doctors tell us these days?
DR. KAVITA PATEL, FORMER AIDE TO VALERIE JARRETT IN THE OBAMA WHITE HOUSE: Well, thank you, Brian. Good evening. And first and foremost, I got a -- I had a lot of peace, really, just from his compassion, his empathy, and his ability to be pretty honest in his answers, I think by saying that, you know, it`ll be potentially by Christmas, when we`ll see things put back getting back to normal that most Americans will have not been able to receive their vaccine until by the end of July. I think all of those things are level setting. And that did give me comfort.
What did give me pause and it didn`t come up as much tonight, because there are so many issues to cover is what you just covered, Brian, with the kind of race we`re in against these variants, the ones from abroad. But then we also know and have proof of more transmissible variants here grown in our very own country, which is no surprise. So that is what`s causing me to be concerned about a fourth possible wave or potentially have seen some of that vaccination urgency be really front and center and contingent on getting these stimulus funds passed, because so much of that funding would give incredible relief for states to be able to push vaccines into arms, as well as giving relief to health systems and hospitals that are over capacity.
WILLIAMS: Ashley Parker, whether it was the president talking to a second grader, or the President`s last comment there that he prays every day that he is up to this awesome job. The change in tone and empathy and connection is positively neck snapping as it must especially be for you, given the last four years that you covered. Though I didn`t sense he is trying to minimize the job, he is facing quite the opposite?
ASHLEY PARKER, THE WASHINGTON POST, WHITE HOUSE BUREAU CHIEF: That`s exactly why and he did show that you can sort of do all of those things. You can be honest with the American people, even when that honesty is about a grim reality, having this over or looking a lot better by Christmas is simultaneously encouraging and pretty grim. That`s basically another year. But you can tell the American people the truth, while being empathetic, while being a leader while explaining what progress is being made on the vaccine, and getting it most importantly into the arms of people in it where the challenges are. And that is the contrast with President Trump. He wanted to be -- former President Trump rather, I still need to get used to that. But he wanted to be a leader who could sort of wish it all away, tweeted away, derogatory nickname it all away. And as we saw that simply didn`t work. And so President Biden is hoping that this approach that the American public and adults can handle several different things, bits of progress and empathetic leader and the reality that is still not what anyone really wants to hear.
WILLIAMS: Sam Stein, Biden said tonight he didn`t want to talk about Trump anymore. Good. Many Americans agree with that and would like to abide by that. For Trump`s part, it`s reported tonight, Trump was talked out of having a press conference. So that`s why we got that scathing takedown of McConnell electronically. Is this a possibility if you believe in the old bromide, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Could this say good things about a potential Biden-McConnell relationship proving useful?
SAM STEIN, MSNBC POLITICAL ANALYST: I would be hesitant to get that far. McConnell has a playbook that is used pretty well in the past, which is obstruction to prove that the sitting president, a democrat, can`t get stuff done or can work in a bipartisan manner, which is one of the sort of nebulous goals of the binding administration unity and restoring good government relations.
Also -- I would also note that while Biden said he did not want to talk about Trump, he has and continues to use Trump as a useful foil here on a couple of occasions, he`s noted that Trump and his COVID response set the stage for the deed poll that he inherited, that`s talking about Trump all referencing to it. Tonight, even after he said he didn`t want to talk about Trump, he referenced Trump`s comments about the Proud Boys as a way to say we need to stop coddling up to white nationalists, or at least what, you know, we need to recognize that white nationalism is a huge problem. So he`s not totally avoiding Trump.
But to your point, can you triangulate, can you use the fissures in the Republican Party to break off some support for your own agenda? You can, I just don`t think it`s going to come from McConnell. There`s a number of different Republicans who may find it necessary to work with Biden on a whole host of things. We`ve seen Mitt Romney, for instance, push a child allowance, we see some talk of a Romney, Tom Cotton minimum wage bill today. There`s the, you know, the green shoots of a potential bipartisan collaboration there. But I really don`t think it`s going to come from Mitch McConnell history, any guide.
WILLIAMS: All right, Sam Stein. Dr. Patel over to you and your life`s work, Nicolle Wallace aired a devastating segment during her 5 p.m. Eastern Time hour today about European nations in the midst of full on lockdowns, wondering what we`re doing quietly, politely wondering what we`re doing by reopening indoor, dining and relaxing mask restrictions depending on the state, city or locality, because they`re dealing with these variants, because they know from these variants, and how sick people are getting, are we in a foot race now with getting a certain percentage of our population inoculated?
PATEL: Yeah, absolutely, Brian. And I -- this is where I will say that I`m currently nervous, because we just don`t know what we don`t know, we do not have the genetic surveillance system that many of the E.U. countries do, where they are able to actually detect these variants, and able to detect the spread of these variants. We`re trying to set those up. But it is entirely possible as the CDC and others have predicted that by March, the B117, and the B1351 emanating from South Africa and the U.K., are going to be one of several variants that are highly transmissible and as you mentioned, more virulent, which can cause more death. And because we just heard from President Biden, the reality is that 13.5 million vaccines a week, Brian, still does not get us to hundreds of millions of Americans vaccinated for months. So I do think we`re going to see a fourth surge. And if we can try to do everything that the U.K. is doing, the E.U. is doing, which we`re not, then we will be in better shape to deal with that fourth surge. But if not, we`re going to hopefully not see what we saw this past surge. I`m hoping that it mirrors more like what we saw on the July kind of March, April timeframe.
But as a reminder, when we were here talking about this almost a year ago, we thought this was devastating that we had 10s of 1000s of cases. And so look where we`re at now. And I really do worry that we`re getting too many things at the same time, the threat of variants that we don`t understand and don`t understand the extent of. Number two, really how to get the states to kind of flywheel in vaccine distribution because they`re as the governor is pointed out, they`re crying for the supply.
And then number three, this pressure all the states and the country is under to reopen everything. Everything from schools, which actually should have been the priority, should have been talking about reopening schools before we were reopening bars and gyms, but here we are. So I think that the perfect storm not to steal from what my fellow Texans are dealing with, but it is where we`re at and who will win is going to determine what that fourth surge looks like not whether it will happen.
WILLIAMS: Ashley Parker we learned a lot today, we learned that Donald Trump despite being banned in a lifelong timeout from Twitter, managed to put out a statement perhaps dictated to the pool boy at Mar-a-Lago. We know that he used the word dour. We don`t know the extent of his understanding of the definition of the word and it really did read like a Twitter thread of a statement. That said, he has grievances obviously one of them can`t be, boy, I don`t like how this Biden fellow is ruining our meticulous coronavirus rollout plan nationwide. He continues to just leave that lane untraveled because he has no game, no case?
PARKER: So far, he hasn`t weighed in on that, in particular, I would say that having no game and no case has not proved an impediment in the past, for Donald Trump to weigh in. So that doesn`t mean we might not hear from him on that front in the future, but the bar for him to weigh in is a smidge higher. Again, it`s still pretty easy. He`s a former president, he could call a press conference, he could call into Fox News. She could do what he did today and release a statement that feels like it could have been distributed on Twitter, but he does not had that easy trigger finger tool of quick and dirty grievance early in the morning and late at night. He waited on Leader McConnell because Leader McConnell very forcefully and clearly criticized him. As Sam said, President Biden is sort of doing a mix. He is certainly leaning on that crutch of things that went awry under former President Trump. But he has made a point of not wanting to elevate Donald Trump, wanting to try to move on. But you could see if at a certain point Donald Trump gets frustrated with Joe Biden, he could very well weigh in on any number of things, whether or not they`re actually based in any sort of fact.
WILLIAMS: Sam Stein, I`m going to play for you some comments by Lindsey Graham tonight on fox news that I and others found astounding, we`ll discuss on the other side.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM, (R) SOUTH CAROLINA: What I would say to Senator McConnell, I know Trump can be a handful, but he is the most dominant figure in the Republican Party. We don`t have a snowball`s chance in hell of taking back the majority without Donald Trump. I`m sorry, what happened on January the sixth, he`ll get his fair share of blame. But to my Republican colleagues in the Senate, let`s try to work together realize that without President Trump, we`re never going to get back in the majority and to President Trump, you`re going to have to make some changes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: Sam, how is that going to go over with members of the party in the House and Senate with ours after their names? And did he just as a national Republican, kind of obliquely green light some primaries that people didn`t want?
STEIN: Yes, I think that`s true. I think he basically gave Trump cover to attack McConnell there. I mean, if you`re looking for Lindsey Graham testing allegiances, in that instance, you didn`t take much to read between the lines, he was talking about how McConnell needs to be kinder to Trump, essentially, what struck me about that was how he sort of dismissed the severity of the January 6 riots, in terms of the threat it poses to democracy for him. It was more about Republicans recognizing their electoral path forward, in which case, you have to sort of push aside any concerns you might have had about January 6, and the role Trump played in it, because it`s more important to keep that coalition of Trump people, Trump fans, the MAGA faithful and traditional Republicans together. That`s an interesting set of priorities. And it goes to show really, honestly that Trump`s grip on the Republican Party while it seemed maybe a little bit diminished, in the past couple of weeks is still pretty ironclad, you would have to find -- it would take really hard to find another pivot point than the insurrection at the Capitol for Republicans to say you know what we`re done with this, in fact, Lindsey Graham initially did say that, but here Lindsey is right now, saying that McConnell needs to watch his words about Trump and vice versa. So it really is Trump`s party.
WILLIAMS: He`ll always have a friend in South Carolina to, Ashley Parker, to Sam Stein, to Dr. Kavita Patel so much going on tonight, our thanks for helping us get through it at the top of the broadcast this evening.
Coming up, winter weather has messed with Texas. One Hospital in Houston battles snow ice power outage and the clock giving away 1000 doses of vaccine in order to keep them from going bad. Our next guest standing by to tell us how they pulled that off.
And later, who wins, who loses when the GOP goes to war with itself talking, about that guy, THE 11TH HOUR just getting underway on this Tuesday night.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WILLIAMS: Depending on where you live, it is hell out there. 100 million Americans remain under winter weather advisories of some sort tonight. At least 30 people have died in storm related incidents since late last week. Parts of the State of Texas are a straight up disaster area and a cascading power grid failure has plunged people into the cold and dark between three and 4 million customers we believe still without power across that frigid state, outages wreaking havoc on vaccine distribution as well.
Yesterday, officials in Harris County, Texas said 1000s of doses of the Moderna vaccine had to be immediately distributed after a backup generator failed at a refrigerated storage facility. Remember that`s the vaccine that has to be kept very cold, no doses went to waste. Our next guests, hospital received 1000 shots for emergency distribution. And they pulled it off.
Back with us again tonight, Roberta Schwartz, Executive Vice President, Chief Innovative Officer of Houston Methodist, a healthcare group with multiple hospitals across the largest city in Texas, fourth largest city in our country.
Thank you for joining us amid all you`ve got going on. And Roberta first off, we`ll talk about the hospital business in a second but tell us about your life, your family, your home, your loved ones, the people in your life, how many have power, how many don`t and talk about your community suffering?
ROBERTA SCHWARTZ, HOUSTON METHODIST EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT: Yeah, when we think about my family, my extended family here at Houston Methodist Hospital, a huge amount of our employees are without power including myself and my family at this point in time. We have a lot of those employees who have had to sleep here at the hospital because we are on disaster and they are really unable to get home and safely back to work when we need them to take care of the patients, so they have been sleeping in COVID safe sleep areas to make sure that we have staffing for the patients who are at the hospital.
WILLIAMS: That`s remarkable. And I`m sorry, for your suffering there, we all are. It`s a powerless feeling, no pun intended watching all of this. Tell us how you were able to get 1000 doses into arms. Because of course, during an ice event, the most basic travel is impossible. During a power outage, getting the word out of anything is difficult?
SCHWARTZ: So we were informed by the county that they had doses of vaccine that they needed to get administered within about three hours, and ask all of the hospitals and the medical center whether they could mount a campaign to get this vaccine into arms. We reached out to the county and said we will take them. We will get them into arms. And we began getting to work. We set up a vaccine area contacted all of our physicians that if they had both patients and people that needed the vaccine, in walking distance to the hospital, or in a safe, very short driving distance I could get here that we would like to take care of them. We worked with Rice (ph) University that was across the street. And we also worked with a community that was about 10 minutes away, that had a series of doctors and nurses that were able to basically mount a quick campaign in that community to bring people in. We were able to distribute all of the doses of vaccine in the required time. The county did call and said that Moderna gave us some wiggle room on the timeframe. But we had outlines that we`re able to accommodate inside our buildings, safe and warm, and able to take care of all 1000 doses of vaccine within that period of time.
WILLIAMS: Of course, across the state, this is the opposite of what you`re all trained to do, and that is serve people. This makes this kind of whether this kind of emergency makes serving people so difficult. And I imagine that at hospitals and communities that aren`t as fortunate as yours, a lot of people are going without the vaccine and the effort to stop COVID has probably been interrupted?
SCHWARTZ: Yeah, I think that there`s no doubt across the state that vaccine efforts have been disrupted at this point in time. For us with our doses here at the hospital, we have delayed those by a few days. But our vaccine efforts begin tomorrow morning at seven o`clock in the morning. And we will catch up by this weekend with all doses that we plan to give this week. And I anticipate that everyone will be working anywhere from 12 to 24 hours a day, and to catch up as soon as we are able to get back on track. And some of the roads are passable at this point in time. There are certain parts of the community that are not yet totally passable.
WILLIAMS: Thank you for the work you`re doing. On behalf of everybody watching I`m sorry that you and your family are suffering through this as well, along with your patients and employees, Roberta Schwartz, it`s been our pleasure to have you, thank you for making time to take our questions tonight.
Coming up, how the events of 1/6 have drastically deepened the fractures within the GOP, but not to worry, they`re still the GOP.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO AUDIO)
SEN. RON JOHNSON, (R-WI): From my standpoint, Leader McConnell speaks for himself in this case, I don`t believe he speaks for the conference. I think it needs to be a little careful. You know, when I speak, I do actually try and take in mind how it might reflect on the party.
(END VIDEO AUDIO)
WILLIAMS: Mitch McConnell`s decision to acquit Donald Trump before he then excoriated Donald Trump is a perfect example of the split in the Republican Party. In fact, here is Ben Sasse, one of the seven who voted to convict earlier today.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
STEVE INSKEEP, NPR`S MORNING EDITION HOST: Is this still Donald Trump`s party?
SEN. BEN SASSE (R-NE): I mean, if you look at polling in the short term, it surely appears that way. I think there`s a whole bunch of stuff. The party of Lincoln and Reagan needs to do to persuade people. We have a 2030 agenda, not a 30 minute Twitter agenda.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: Back tonight, two of our returning veterans Jason Johnson, campaign veteran journalist, contributor to The Greo, a professor of politics and journalism at Morgan State University and Tim Miller, a contributor to The Bulwark and former communications director for one Jeb Bush.
And Tim indeed, as advertised as I threatened. I am about to play the Lindsey Graham comments. Again, this is tonight on Fox News, we will discuss on the other side.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GRAHAM: What I would say to Senator McConnell, I know Trump can be a handful, but he is the most dominant figure in the Republican Party. We don`t have a snowball`s chance in hell of taking back the majority without Donald Trump.
I`m sorry, what happened on January the sixth, he`ll get his fair share of blame. But to my Republican colleagues in the Senate, let`s try to work together realize that without President Trump, we`re never going to get back in the majority and to President Trump, you`re going to have to make some changes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: Tim, what does this mean for the party when that guy says publicly and in front of all of them in effect we`ve got no other game?
TIM MILLER, THE BULWARK CONTRIBUTOR: Well, Brian, I don`t know why you`re punishing me makes me watch Lindsey Graham again. But look, I`ll give points to Lindsey Graham and Ron Johnson for this.
It was a rare honest comment from both of them over the past four years. I think Lindsey used to speak his mind but lately it`s been a lot of bad faith BS from him, but he is telling the truth, and so is Ron Johnson. They have both decided that they need to swallow their true feelings about Donald Trump in order to do what`s best for the party.
And so if they need to, you know, pretend like an armed insurrection and a coup on our Capitol that resulted in the death of at least one police officer was actually no big deal or not really an armed insurrection, as Ron Johnson said, or maybe something that he might have to be held a little accountable for, but not worth getting into a fight over like Lindsey Graham was saying, that`s them being honest about what the kind of moral sacrifices they feel like they need to make to keep this party together.
And I think their political calculation is sadly right. You know, Rand Paul said that a third of the party would have left had had they convicted Donald Trump. I think Graham is right and Ron`s right. And Lindsay`s right, they might be wrong morally, but they`re making the political calculation that they need in order to keep this party afloat. You know, insurrection, and dead police officers be damned.
WILLIAMS: Jason Johnson, deep breath. Is it at minimum clarifying for the other party to hear the opposition say, we got no other game.
JASON JOHNSON, PROFESSOR, MORGAN STATE UNIVERSITY: I mean, Brian, I think they should have known this about the Republicans a long time like Lindsey Graham basically said, you know about Trump, like you had me at there`s good people on both sides, right. Like they have been in love and committed to Trump for years now. This is not new.
What I what I think is compelling though, is I think their math is actually off. Donald Trump has never given them a majority. Donald Trump didn`t win the majority of the popular vote. Donald Trump, after getting into office had a streak of losing special elections time after time after time. Donald Trump lost them the House and the Senate.
So the idea of hitching yourself to Donald Trump is mythmaking at this point, because the proof of the pudding, the proof of actual election success doesn`t seem to happen with this guy. So, this commitment must be ideological, because if they`re really thinking about the future of the party, they shouldn`t be looking for Donald Trump. They should be looking for somebody who actually has an ideology and a record and a message that can win you majority seats, not just keep these thin margins from place to place that you got to fight every two years.
WILLIAMS: So Tim, there`s a political piece about Ron de Santos, governor of Florida being a possible 2024 GOP presidential nominee. I`m guessing it`s based on the strength of his robust leadership on coronavirus. Just kidding. There was nothing of the sort. Can you believe we`re having this conversation?
MILLER: Yes, I can. I think, look, there was a 2024 poll that came out this morning that had Trump in his kid up over 60 percent together with Republican primary voters. So I think that anybody that`s not inside the Trump family apparatus right now is kidding themselves. They think they`re going to run a 2024. But you know, it`s a long time out.
Look, I think to Jason`s point, though, you know, here`s the thing. I think Jason`s point was right in 2015. Right, like did that this party could have grown and could have added voters in the suburbs, could have added voters of color, could have added women in a time PT, pre-Trump.
But now they are stuck with him. I understand that it`s possible in an imaginary world that they could grow without him. But there is this huge percentage of the party that would leave. They are in a cult, Trump cult.
And so no matter who it is in 2024, they are going to have to run a platform where they pretend that Donald Trump did a good job, and where they pretend that the election was stolen from the 2020. So whether that`s Trump or Ron DeSantis, or Christie (ph) know, that will be the platform of the Republican 2024 nominee. All of the policy stuff, you know, it doesn`t matter at this point, believe it or not, Brian.
WILLIAMS: Jason, I`m coming to you at the top of our next segment. Both of these gentlemen have agreed to stay with us. Coming up more on how Trump world is reacting specifically to this new lawsuit against the ex president. More on that when we come back.
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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. BENNIE THOMPSON (D-MS) HOMELAND SECURITY COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN: The Senate refused to do what I feel was their job is to convict Donald Trump. This lawsuit is another opportunity.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAMS: So the federal lawsuit filed by the NAACP on behalf of Mississippi congressman Bennie Thompson accused -- accuses the impeached former president and Rudy Giuliani and the extremist groups like the Proud Boys and the Oathkeepers of conspiring to incite the insurrection.
The suit alleges a violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1871 known as the Ku Klux Klan Act, and preventing members of Congress from carrying out their constitutional duties in this case, counting up the electoral votes.
Here is part of what Trump`s advisor Jason Miller has to say in response and we quote, President Trump has been acquitted in the Democrats latest impeachment witch hunt, and the facts are irrefutable. President Trump did not plan, produce or organize the January 6th rally on the Ellipse.
Miller goes on to say Rudy Giuliani no longer represents Trump in any legal matters, though, we`ve confirmed he has stopped oozing. So he has that going for him.
Still with us are Jason Johnson and Tim Miller. Hey, Professor, if I`m one of your students at Morgan State, I did hear a law professor today say this lawsuit may have some really good kick in it. Remind us what this could accomplish?
JOHNSON: Basically, like I said, if you can`t throw a white nationalist in jail, you can empty their pockets, right? This is a civil case. And so there could be financial damages if Donald Trump or members of his administration are seen to be guilty of starting this insurrection.
And here`s the thing, unlike what Jason Miller is trying to pull off another sort of sleight of hand. Well, you know, he was acquitted in the Senate, as Republicans were fond of mentioning throughout the entire impeachment, that was actually not a legal court trial. It was not following the rules of actually being in the courthouse. And the threshold for convicting someone in a civil case is much lower than what it is in a criminal case.
So these guys can be found financially liable, and that could be in the millions for Donald Trump or Rudy Giuliani, given the damage to the Capitol building, the pain and suffering inflicted upon people and the potential damages throughout the entire area, not to mention the police officers who are harmed so this is a serious case. They need to be concerned about and they need to be going to a GoFundMe because it`s going to cost them a lot of money.
WILLIAMS: Tim, let`s agree that these were terrorists on 1/6 if they ban al Qaeda terrorists who had taken over the well of the Senate, nation would be going crazy, heads exploding up in arms. This brings us to the possibility of a 9/11-style commission. I made the point last night that sadly, most Americans can`t tell you what was in the 9/11 Commission report. So maybe this one can have teeth.
But do you believe Republicans should join democrats in pushing for it? And I asked, because then you mentioned this earlier, there is this effort to fuzz up what happened already videotape and still pictures not withstanding, from several people, including but not limited to, Ron Johnson, whose pronouns are comrade and Vladimir.
MILLER: Yes, Brian, look, I`m to answer the question. Absolutely there should be a 911 Commission. I think if you look back 9/11-style commission for 1/6, if you look back to the 9/11 Commission, it was chaired by former elected officials, which I think is appropriate here. I think that if you looked at former Republican elected officials who are not, you know, beholden to the cult of Donald Trump, they might be able to work with Democrats and do this fairly, and put together a pension that looks at what -- what happened with the security failures are, but also what led up to it. And that`s the key point.
And I saw that, you know, my friend Dan Crenshaw down there, Texas said that any commission that looks into what caused this is just going to be a political hatchet job or whatever. And you can understand why they wouldn`t want to look at, what caused it because they would know that the, you know, that the terrorist incitement was coming from inside the House, that it was coming from people, you know, that signed those letters calling for overturning the results, it was calling for the people that went on Newsmax and OAN, and all the various far right news outlets.
So it is important to go through all of that. And I think that for one reason to help prevent people from white washing what happened, so we don`t have to live through it all again. I mean, it is crazy to me, I think how many of folks are now Republicans are is going back on Newsmax, they`re going back on the same channel with the people that were calling for the cooler (ph), you know, and you didn`t see, you know, people in October of 20 -- 2001 going on, you know, Al Qaeda News Network, right? It is the difference is very stark in how it`s been treated. And so I think looking into it, and exposing it is going to be important.
WILLIAMS: Because the big lie is still alive and well out there in our country. Our thanks. This is always a great group to Jason Johnson and Tim Miller. Gentlemen, greatly appreciate you taking our questions tonight.
Coming up an exclusive update on the mystery that still surrounds a lab in Wuhan, China, one year after it was pegged as the start of a global pandemic.
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WILLIAMS: The World Health Organization is preparing a preliminary report on the origins of the initial Coronavirus outbreak in Wu Han they were recently just allowed to inspect that vastly cleaned up outdoor market where the outbreak was traced to originally. But questions over whether Chinese officials withheld key information are clouding this report`s conclusions even before it`s been released. We get the story tonight from NBC News foreign correspondent Keir Simmons in London.
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KEIR SIMMONS, NBC NEWS FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Tonight as the World Health Organization team investigating COVID-19 says it most likely originated from animals. American and Western government officials say the United States still isn`t ruling out other possibilities, including a research lab accident, though many scientists say that`s unlikely.
One Western intelligence official telling NBC News the U.S. has substantial intelligence that has not been made public about actions the Chinese government took related to the Wuhan lab and other issues designed to obscure the origins of COVID-19 and conceal its impact early on.
This month, President Biden`s Secretary of State told Andrea Mitchell`s China is not being transparent.
ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: That lack of transparency. That lack of being forthcoming is a profound problem and it`s one that continues.
SIMMONS: In January former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo alleged researchers at a Wuhan lab had COVID like symptoms as early as fall of 2019. WHO investigators say they`ve seen no evidence of a lab leak. And they`re focusing on the early outbreak trying to determine if it was larger than reported.
China`s official case count in December of 2019 is 174.
DR. DOMINIC DWYER, UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY MICROBIOLOGIST: Actual infections is probably much harder.
SIMMONS: Investigators say China did not yet provide enough specifics about those early cases. Instead, they released more general data.
DWYER: In the ideal world you`d go through a patient by patient to see how was done and we didn`t quite get to the stage.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
SIMMONS: The two government officials who spoke to NBC News say the evidence the US has about China`s actions is significant, though inconclusive. Tonight, one crucial question is will it ever be published? Brian?
WILLIAMS: Keir Simmons, thank you for that report from London tonight. Coming up for us. Have you heard what they say about Mother Nature? It`s the same thing she is proving in real time tonight.
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WILLIAMS: Last thing before we go tonight. You`ve perhaps heard the phrase which is also a bumper sticker that uses baseball phrasing to remind us how insignificant we are in the scope of things. It goes like this, nature always bats last.
Sure enough for a whole lot of folks around the world tonight, it must feel like we are deep into the ninth inning. Most urgent Mount Etna in Italy it got angry again today. Second eruption this year. This one is impressive. No danger yet to surrounding population. The regional airports been closed in Katanya (ph) home with a Bufalino family. One European volcano expert who enjoys tempting fate said quote, we`ve seen worse. Perhaps he needs to be reminded about nature batting last as it did in Greece.
Did you have snow covered Acropolis on your 2021 bingo card. You can live your whole life and not see scenes like this in Greece. The Norwegian Ambassador was psyched. He was able to go skiing in Athens for the first time.
Back in our country, condolences are due to the people of North Carolina after freak weather hit last night. A full on tornado in North Carolina where the death toll stands at 350 injured, 50 homes gone a frequent or storm event that happened along the coast near Wilmington which of course we associate with hurricanes and not tornadoes and not this time of year.
Then there`s the continued suffering we`ve been talking about in Texas no power for three to four million people. Great portions of some of America`s great cities lying in the cold and dark tonight. Already Congresswoman Lauren Bovard of Colorado the Trump loving gun toting, gun themed diner owning and criminal record having Republican freshmen tried on Twitter to blame it on the Green New Deal but like planes in a Texas ice storm that won`t fly.
Members of the Trump right have tried to blame the failure of the Texas power grid on them. Liberal wind turbines freezing over but that won`t fly either.
The truth is closer to this, Texas which provides so much of the energy for so much of our country set up a power grid with an emphasis not on improvement but on price and privatizing, meaning everybody got theirs except for the customers.
What`s the word for this kind of thing? Oh, yes, I`m pretty sure it`s infrastructure. Put another way, infrastructure is our chance to put in our best clothes are late in the game knowing that nature always bats last, just as it is tonight, all over the world.
That is our broadcast for this Tuesday evening. Thank you so much for being here with us. On behalf of all my colleagues at the networks of NBC News, good night.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. END