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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees

Convicted January 6 Rioters Being Released From Prison; Interview With Rep. Daniel Goldman (D-NY); Trump Defends Pardoning Individuals Who Assaulted Police Officers On January 6; Trump Pardons Man Accused Of Founding Silk Road Criminal Marketplace; Trump DOJ Shake-up Sidelines Prosecutors In National Security, Criminal Division; Trump Admin: ICE Can Raid Churches, Schools To Arrest Immigrants; TX Panhandle City, One Of Many Across Nation, Fearing Trump's Threat Of Mass Deportations; L.A. Area Wildfires Lead To Spike In Rental Prices; Trump: "We're Talking To Zelenskyy" And We'll Talk To Putin "Very Soon". Aired 8-9p ET

Aired January 21, 2025 - 20:00   ET

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


[20:00:00]

ALEX CLARK, HOST, CULTURE APOTHECARY PODCAST: What is wrong with saying we want to make sure that every single vaccine on the schedule is completely foolproof, that there's evidence that these are working, that these are necessary.

CALLEY MEANS, AUTHOR, "GOOD ENERGY": We are the sickest country in the developed world. So the worst thing we could possibly do is more of the same.

VANI HARI, INFLUENCER: This movement is unstoppable. We have had this pent up frustration that we have not been heard from our government leaders. And for the first time, we are being amplified and it gives us an electrification that cannot be measured.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MEENA DUERSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And it's important, you know, for me to note that this issue of child vaccine schedule and safety and efficacy of vaccines comes up repeatedly in MAHA-sphere but the agency that Kennedy is slated to lead if confirmed, the Department of Health and Human Services, the CDC, state unequivocally that they are safe and effective and scientifically proven to be better than the alternative.

ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: All right, Meena, thank you very much. And thanks so much to all of you. AC360 starts now.

[20:00:54]

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, "ANDERSON COOPER: 360": Tonight on 360, the president defends his blanket pardons of January 6th rioters, even the violent ones he once suggested would not go free, keeping them honest.

Also tonight, with the president's new immigration policy starting to take effect, the impact at the border and what mass deportations might entail.

And later, after the high winds and high flames, people in Southern California are looking for places to live. Now, face another problem sky high rents and no place to go.

Good evening, thanks for joining us.

We begin tonight keeping them honest with President Trump defending the blanket pardons and sentenced commutations he granted last night to more than 1,500 Capitol rioters, including the most violent offenders, people who attacked and badly injured police officers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: You would agree that it's never acceptable to assault a police officer, right?

DONALD TRUMP (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Sure.

REPORTER: So then, if I can, among those you pardoned DJ Rodriguez. He drove a stun gun into the neck of a DC Police officer who was abducted by the mob that day. He later confessed on video to the FBI and pleaded guilty for his crimes. Why does he deserve a pardon?

TRUMP: Well, I don't know. Was it a pardon? Because we're looking at commutes and we are looking at pardons. Okay, well, we'll take a look at everything, but I can say this. Murderers today are not even charged. You have murderers that aren't charged all over.

No, I'm the friend of -- I am the friend of police. More than more than any president that's ever been in this office --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: The president this evening and he certainly did not mind being surrounded throughout the ceremonies yesterday by law enforcement, all of whom he embraced back when he was asking for their votes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: To all of the law enforcement men and women here today, I respect you so much. I admire you, and as your president, I will always back the blue as I did. I back the blue more than any other president.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: That was candidate Trump speaking to the Fraternal Order of Police back in September. Today, that same organization declined to comment after what the new president did last night and defended doing tonight.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: First, we have a list of pardons and commutations relating to events that occurred on January 6th, 2021. TRUMP: Okay, and how many people is this?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think this order will apply to approximately 1,500 people, sir.

TRUMP: So, this is January 6th, and these are the hostages approximately 1,500 for a pardon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: He calls them hostages, they weren't, they were prisoners, as he called them, took part in the violent attack on the Capitol and members of law enforcement trying to protect it. Members like former DC Metro Police officer Michael Fanone, highlighted there on the left of your screen, being dragged into the mob that would beat him bloody, as the man mentioned by the reporter in that first soundbite, Daniel Rodriguez, repeatedly shocked him with a stun gun until Officer Fanone lost consciousness and later suffered a heart attack.

Rodriguez, whom the judge in his case called a, "one-man army of hate" before sentencing him to 12 years in prison, but President Trump pardoned him last night.

A short time later, Officer Fanone told me, "I have been betrayed by my country". He spoke late today to CNN's Jake Tapper.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST, "THE LEAD": Do you fear that any of these freed criminals might now attempt retribution?

MICHAEL FANONE, FORMER DC METRO POLICE OFFICER : I don't fear it, but I anticipate it. I expect that individuals who were pardoned by the president and others who were emboldened by the presidential pardons of these violent criminals, will eventually, attack me or members of my family physically.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Now, again, his attackers, all of them, including the one who nearly killed him with a stun gun, are all now free. People like the man seen here in the Capitol tunnel aiming a can of bear spray at police. He also used a crutch to smash an officer's head. A judge sentenced him to 20 years, telling him, you have a long and well- documented history of inflicting violence on political opponents, as he was going free, yet as recently as late November, then President- elect Trump was saying he would approach any clemency on a case-by- case basis and suggested he would prioritize nonviolent offenders and just nine days ago, his vice president-elect said this.

[20:05:09]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JD VANCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If you committed violence on that day, obviously you shouldn't be

pardoned.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Not so obviously, but they were pardoned or in rare cases, had their sentences commuted to time served.

Today, a handful of Republicans, including Senators Mitch McConnell and Thom Tillis, criticized this blanket approach. Some said they had not read the executive order. And somehow the Senate's new Republican leader tried to say the president actually did take a case by case approach.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You had thought that these were not going to be blanket in the past. Do you believe this is case-by-case?

SEN. JOHN THUNE (R-SD): I don't think they are blanket. I think there's a lot. I think there's some case-by-case.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Well, keeping them honest, Leader Thune is making the words case-by-case do an awful lot of work. Unless, of course, those words mean this. The president took a case-by-case approach and decided in every single case, nonviolent and violent alike, to either issue a pardon or commute the offenders prison sentence to time served, which means that even organizers and instigators like Stewart Rhodes and Enrique Tarrio went free.

Rhodes, on the right, leader of the so-called Oath Keepers from an 18- year sentence. Tarrio, leader of the so-called Proud Boys, serving 22 years, both men for seditious conspiracy.

Tonight, the president was asked about Tarrio. His answer could say a lot about the next four years.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: The leaders of the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers were freed following the pardons yesterday. At the at the time, back in 2021, you urged them to stand back and stand by. Is there now a place for them in the political conversation?

TRUMP: Well, we have to see they've been given a pardon. I thought their sentences were ridiculous and excessive.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: We will have to see.

Today, Tarrio spoke to Alex Jones and told him, "The people who did this, they need to feel the heat. They need to be put behind bars and they need to be prosecuted." More now on all of this from CNN's Donie O'Sullivan, who is outside the DC jail last night when all this went down and spoke today with some of the pardoned inmates.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Edward, you're a true patriot.

RACHEL POWELL, PARDONED JANUARY 6 DEFENDANT: I don't even know what to feel. I mean, I guess I should feel joy. I just -- maybe I'm just shocked.

DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The end of a long road for Rachel Powell, pardoned by President Trump and released Tuesday from a jail here in Washington, DC. Rachel became known as the pink-hat lady when footage emerged of her breaking a window at the Capitol with an ice ax during the January 6th attack.

A mom to eight and a grandmother to seven, I interviewed Rachel before she began what was supposed to be a year's long prison sentence last year.

POWELL: How do I have time to plan an insurrection when my life is busy like this?

O'SULLIVAN: On her release on Tuesday, she was met by activists who gave her new clothes, new boots and a new pink hat.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Whoa! Glory Hallelujah! Thank you Lord.

TRENISS EVANS, JANUARY 6 DEFENDANT: This man came from the Philadelphia jail. He got out at 3:00 AM. That doesn't make sense. He's wearing prison shoes and Philadelphia's finest prison gear.

O'SULLIVAN (voice over): Pardoned January 6thers from elsewhere began arriving in Washington, like William Patrick Sarsfield III, who was convicted of a felony offense of obstruction of law enforcement during a civil disorder.

WILLIAM SARSFIELD, PARDONED JANUARY 6 DEFENDANT: While I was heard through different apps and different programs and different phone calls from people that we still had, brothers and sisters that were still locked up and haven't been released. And being somebody that's been in DC, that everybody should be released. If it's a pardon for J6ers, it's for all of us.

O'SULLIVAN (on camera): You got out of prison last night?

ROBERT MORSS, PARDONED JANUARY 6 DEFENDANT: Well I was locked up for three and I was taken to halfway house on August 29th.

O'SULLIVAN (voice over): Robert Morrs says he was released from a halfway house in Pittsburgh late last night and came to DC to celebrate.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Back up. O'SULLIVAN (voice over): Morss, a former Army Ranger, was found guilty of assaulting police officers, among other crimes, on January 6th.

MORRS: I had no intention of going anywhere near the Capitol that day. That's how crazy this got. So a lot of people were taken advantage of, and we were lured into a lobster trap. That January 6th was designed to be.

O'SULLIVAN (on camera): In terms of personal responsibility. Do you take, I mean, do you regret --

MORRS: Completely, without a doubt, I said that in my sentencing speech. I said the words Donald Trump did not force me or coerce me to do what I did that day. I did it on my own accord.

O'SULLIVAN: What's your message to people watching this who say she shouldn't have been pardoned? None of these people should have got out of prison. They're criminals.

POWELL: Okay, you know what? It's time to stop worrying about that and move forward in this country.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: And Donie joins us now. What's happening at the jail tonight? What are you seeing?

O'SULLIVAN: Hey, Anderson. Yes, just in the past few minutes, three more January 6ers were just released from the dc jail here. You can see they're giving interviews to local media and international press also gathered. But also a lot of MAGA media here. And one person who was just speaking over there - I think we're showing on the screen at the moment, is Jake Lang.

He's a prisoner who has really built up a social media, big social media following while he has been in prison over the past. While and he's speaking there. So really, you can see just how emboldened these folks are. A lot of them are kind of going off and planning basically MAGA media careers, but what we've also seen here over the past few hours today is different groups and people, obviously big fans of us here, Anderson.

Groups gathering throughout the day, including the Proud Boys here. So, really, it gives you a sense of the types of folks who are celebrating at least here at the DC jail.

[20:10:34]

COOPER: All right, Donie O'Sullivan appreciate it. Thank you for being there.

Joining us now is New York Democratic Congressman Daniel Goldman.

Congressman, what is your reaction were seeing tonight, President Trump defending his pardons, people who assaulted police officers while claiming no president has ever been as good a friend to law enforcement as he has.

REP. DANIEL GOLDMAN (D-NY): Anderson, I'm absolutely horrified and just devastated to see these pardons for so many reasons. First of all, these are violent criminals who were convicted either by a jury or admitted their own guilt for assaulting police officers, for assaulting about 170 men and women of the Metropolitan Police Department and the Capitol Police Department who defend us, elected officials every single day.

I don't want to hear anybody, especially Donald Trump, tell me or anyone else that he backs the blue when he just pardoned hundreds of people who assaulted the blue, who assaulted police officers.

But this is incredibly dangerous as well, because he has now emboldened and uplifted these far-right extremists, these domestic violent extremists like the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers and he has done it intentionally because he knows that they will be his militia.

And this is how democracy dies. It does it slowly. It doesn't happen overnight, but it starts to happen when you undermine the rule of law in such an egregious way.

COOPER: I mean, did you have any expectation that, I mean, Stewart Rhodes, the so-called Oath Keepers founder, Enrique Tarrio, the alleged, you know, so-called Proud Boys organization, I mean, they were convicted of seditious conspiracy. They had sentences of, I think, 18 and 22 years.

GOLDMAN: That's a crime that is almost never charged. It's incredibly serious. And it's a crime that has a very high bar in order to prove it and a jury convicted, a unanimous jury of 12 convicted both of them.

These are extremists that Donald Trump told to stand back and stand by. And on January 6th, they did exactly what they understood Donald Trump to be saying. And now Donald Trump has said, you know what? You guys are free to go. You can attack the Capitol. You can beat police officers, you can try to overturn an election, and I'll take care of you. I'm the president for the next four years.

What do you think that says to these people? It absolutely creates an emboldened and buttressed group of far right extremists that exert and conduct political violence. And it is corrupting our system, because I know some of my colleagues are afraid right now.

And if you're afraid physically and you're afraid for your family, that has an impact on how you do your job as an elected official, that is authoritarianism. That is not democracy.

COOPER: In comments outside the DC jail, Stewart Rhodes, the Oath Keeper founder, said he had no regrets for his actions, said Trump supporters were provoked by police on January 6th.

You heard the person in Donie O'Sullivan piece claiming they were lured in. President Trump yesterday in the Oval Office, talked about the FBI being involved outside agitators. He pointed the blame at for some of the violence. It seems like the whitewashing of January 6th is now, at least in this administration, going to be the official version of events as far as the US government is concerned.

GOLDMAN: Well, that's clearly what Donald Trump is trying to do, is to whitewash what happened. But we all saw it with our own eyes that many of these defendants went through trials. They admitted guilt. This is, you can't whitewash this as much as Donald Trump tries to.

But you know, Anderson, when you see some of those clips that you showed in your lead in here about how he backs the blue and he starts distracting and diverting his attention from the question that Peter Alexander asked and decided that he was going to talk about some phantom murderers who aren't charged, what the American people need to understand is you cannot believe what Donald Trump says.

You must pay attention to his actions because he will say anything, but he does the opposite. And that was true in his inaugural speech yesterday. He, of course, doesn't mention tax cuts for the billionaires. That's all the Republicans are working on right now. But he doesn't mention that because he course, doesn't mention tax cuts for the billionaires. That's all the Republicans are working on right now. But he doesn't mention that because he wants to talk about middle class, lowering costs. None of his executive orders did that either.

So this is really important for the American people to understand. He cannot be trusted. He cannot be believed. And you must pay attention to his actions. And his actions show that he doesn't believe in law and order. He just believes in his own supporters.

[20:15:40]

COOPER: Congressman Goldman, appreciate your time. Thank you.

Coming up next, more on the political impact, whether all of this is overshadowing the administration's initiatives. A live report from the White House. And later, a report from the southern border, where some new border policies are taking effect and some are on edge about what comes next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: We're talking about the president's impromptu defense tonight of his mass clemency for January 6th inmates. It came after an announced new private sector AI initiative in this country. Shades of the old combo in the first administration of Infrastructure Week, followed by something to upstage it.

CNN's Jeff Zeleny is at the White House for us. So is the White House concerned that January 6th pardons are already taking them off message? I mean, it was the first thing they did last night in terms of the executive orders.

[20:20:15]

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Anderson, in a word, no. There is no indication that they are concerned about this being, you know, sort of blocking the other message.

This, of course, is something that was, you know, the central part of the campaign theme. Every rally that Donald Trump went to over the last couple of years, he talked about this. It's part of his effort to essentially try and erase the history and rewrite the history of that. This is one piece of that.

He was asked about that extensively as you played earlier this afternoon, and he said he loves police officers. No one in this office has loved police officers more. Well, several police unions and others disagree with that.

Today, there is some disagreement from Republicans, a handful of Republicans have said that they wished there would have been a delineation between the violent defenders and those who were not, but the White House doesn't seem that concerned about it at all.

I mean, the president certainly was asked about it, but he changed the subject and he said, murderers get away with crimes all of the time. So a mixed message. But look, this is one more example of the whitewashing of history. And this president, he's not running for reelection. In fact, he campaigned as a part of this.

COOPER: He also, you know, he talked about retribution. He pulled the Secret Service detail of one of his former top National Security aides, John Bolton.

ZELENY: Right, and John Bolton, of course, has been one of the loudest critics of this president, really for several years now. Of course, he served in the administration. And one more of the official acts on the first day of Donald Trump returning to power was to rescind that Secret Service detail.

Of course, John Bolton has been the subject of Iranian threats. He and several other US officials have been.

The president was asked about his decision. He had this to say earlier.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: You take a job, you want to do a job. We're not going to have security on people for the rest of their lives. Why should we? I thought he was a very dumb person.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: So look, that was the president's response. But the reality is those Iranian threats are still very real. And John Bolton tonight does not have Secret Service protection, Anderson.

COOPER: Jeff Zeleny, thank you.

Joining us, CNN senior legal analyst, Elie Honig, senior political commentator David Axelrod, Republican strategist Erin Perrine, also "Wall Street Journal" White House reporter Meridith McGraw. Do you think, David, that it seems like the president relishes the reaction to these pardons? I mean, again, it was the first executive order he signed.

DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: One of the things that he -- one of the habits of Donald Trump is he doesn't tolerate prosperity very well, his own prosperity. And I think the lesson he's drawn from the last four years is he can get away with anything. And I think he's sort of daring people in some ways with these pardons. It's also true that the whole thing we talked about this last night flows from the fundamental lie.

Remember, on the day of the insurrection, he issued a video to the protesters and said, we love you. You're very special. I know your pain. I know you're hurt. We had an election that was stolen from us. It was a landslide election and everyone knows it. And so, this whole thing flows from the original sin that he is trying to expunge.

And at this point he said, look, I got reelected. I dodged four indictments, and I'm just going to put my foot to the pedal. And these people supported me. And, you know, at the end of the day, for Donald Trump, that's the litmus test. Are you good to me?

COOPER: Yes. And Elie, he compared these pardons to then President Biden's last minute pardons of his family members.

ELIE HONIG, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: It's a complete non-sequitur. I mean, look, I've been critical of Joe Biden's pardons of his family members. I think they're outrageous. But to argue that those pardons justify or make these pardons that Donald Trump just issued to over a thousand January 6th defendants that they that they make those pardons acceptable, it's preposterous.

I mean, it's almost a childlike rationale of that was bad. Therefore, I get to do bad. And if this is the standard, if a president can just say, well, someone else issued a lousy pardon, therefore I can do whatever I want, we're in a race to the bottom here. So all of these explanations Donald Trump's been offering throughout the day, one has been weaker than the next. That one holds zero water for me.

COOPER: Erin, we mentioned Stuart Rhodes, the so-called Oath Keepers founder, who was sentenced for seditious conspiracy, was commuted. I want to play the clip of Rhodes where he said he has no regrets.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: Any regrets?

STEWART RHODES, SENTENCE COMMUTED: No, I don't because we did the right thing. We were there to protect Trump supporters from Antifa. We were there to protect and secure two permitted events on Capitol grounds where members of Congress were going to speak. The guys that went inside, they're not committing the crimes. In fact, they helped people, they helped the police and helped the people out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: I mean, again, this idea of Antifa being the people who attacked the Capitol is just ridiculous. Late today, a press conference, Trump didn't rule out the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers having a role in the national political conversation. Do you think that's a good idea?

[20:25:05]

ERIN PERRINE, FORMER DIRECTOR OF PRESS COMMUNICATIONS, TRUMP 2020 CAMPAIGN: They're not going to have a role in the national political conversation and anybody who attacked --

COOPER: Why not?

PERRINE: -- a police officer -- because there is no room for that kind of conversation in the United States. We need to be elevating the discourse in this country. And for Republicans, it also means that making sure that our message is clear, that we are standing up and saying, hey, you know what? There are disagreements right now in this party when it comes to the full pardons. There are plenty that are standing up and saying those who assaulted police officers should not have been pardoned or commuted.

And so, now Republicans need to be looking forward. Donald Trump said he was going to do this. He was going to pardon the J6 defendants. The American people litigated that on Election Day and said, you know what, we are still good with this and were going forward.

He's doing what he said he would do. Its causing division in the party slightly, but tomorrow he's going to keep going forward and doing what he's doing, and he's going to go to North Carolina and California this week on recovery efforts to move the US forward.

COOPER: Meridith, what is your sense of why Vice President Vance and other top allies of the president were saying until recently that those who assaulted police officers should not get clemency? I mean, I guess Vance is just not in the loop or didn't think he would go that far. Do you have any explanation?

MERIDITH MCGRAW, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER," THE WALL STREET JOURNAL": Well, I know from talking to sources that Trump had discussions with some January 6th advocates last week before he even was installed in the Inauguration yesterday. And, you know, these pardons have been something that Trump and his team have talked about for a long time.

But it really seemed to take even Trump's close allies on the Hill by surprise today, when they were asked about why it was a blanket pardon for all of these people, especially those who had committed serious offenses. So, even within Trump's own party and people who may have said that some of the sentences were they did go too far, that, you know, people who assaulted police officers, that's something that we saw JD Vance or even Pam Bondi, Trump's nominee for attorney general, say that they would have to consider on a case-by-case basis.

COOPER: I mean, David, if the you know, these Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, they are pardoned, they don't think they did anything wrong. The president of the United States is saying essentially they didn't really do anything wrong. Why wouldn't they have some potential future role in the political conversation?

AXELROD: Well, the question is, what would prevent them from doing things similar to what they've done before? And I think that's the thing that the president and the Republican Party should worry about.

If you're pardoning 1,500 people, some of whom have acted violently, many of whom have tangled with police, and you've got these militia group leaders who say they're unrepentant and they did nothing wrong. And if they go out and do other things of this nature because they think it is somehow okay, and the president has given them his blessing, that's on them. They own all of this now, that would be a concern if I were them.

And as to Erin's point, let's be clear, Americans did not go to the polls and say, yes, we're cool with that. They went to the polls and they voted despite their misgivings about January 6th, because they were worried about their costs. They were worried about the border. But polls are very clear on this. And the thing that people most didn't want were folks who assaulted police officers being paroled, which is what happened yesterday.

So, the president just drew -- he blew right through public opinion on this one,

COOPER: Elie, He also a short time ago announced a pardon for Ross William Ulbricht, who is this guy, he had this drug marketplace, Silk Road, the president, explaining the pardon, said, "The scum that worked to convict him were some of the same lunatics who were involved in the modern day weaponization of government against me." You're a former federal prosecutor. What do you think a DOJ remade in the image that Trump would like it to be looks like?

HONIG: Well, my former office, the Southern District of New York, is the one that tried and convicted Ross Ulbricht, the "scum" I want to quote that he's referring to there. Just so people understand who this guy is.

COOPER: By the way, the scum is not the man convicted of this --

HONIG: No, right, Trump is referring to the SDNY prosecutors as the scum. Let me tell you who the other guy is Ross Ulbricht. He ran a website called Silk Road if you've ever been -- well, everyone's been on Amazon. The way you would go on Amazon and order soap or a book, people go on Silk Road and order hundreds of millions of dollars of drugs, of hacking activities.

Also, it was a marketplace for crime and he was tried with a jury. He was convicted on all counts. The judge sentenced him to life and now he is out for this purely, almost overtly political rationale by Donald Trump.

I think it completely undermines what DOJ is all about and he's letting go a very dangerous individual. AXELROD: He's also fulfilling a campaign promise. He went to the libertarian party convention. They are for drug legalization. They wanted him released. And so, he's following through.

COOPER: Erin, what is pulling John Bolton's Secret Service detail accomplish other than possibly putting him in danger. I mean, is it to send a message to people who criticize the president?

[20:30:19]

ERIN PERRINE, FMR. DIRECTOR OF PRESS COMMUNICATIONS, TRUMP 2020 CAMPAIGN: I don't know the inner thinking that made that decision. But if John Bolton needs security protection because that's what the standard is, then that shouldn't have been pulled. But to David's point earlier about the fact that the American people didn't go to the polls about January 6th, they also didn't go to the polls about John Bolton.

But they did go to the polls about the cost of living and about the weaponization of government against them. They saw this time and, again, and they saw it in Donald Trump, and that's why they voted to put him back in the White House.

They may not love everything about the man, but they're willing to give him a shot to get this economy and this country back on track. And he's taking a sledgehammer to do it. Nobody should be surprised.

COOPER: Meridith, the Trump administration made a big changes among personnel in the Justice Department, Criminal and National Security Divisions today, basically sidelining top officials, and that's before his attorney general, Pam Bondi pick, even gets confirmed. What do you think the DOJ could look like once she gets there and has full control?

MERIDITH MCGRAW, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: Well, Donald Trump had promised on the campaign trail that he wanted to upend the Justice Department, that he felt treated him unfairly, and we've seen almost immediately how he's worked to install some of his own picks and move people within divisions.

You know, speaking of January 6th, Ed Martin, he was a January 6th advocate, and he was installed in the U.S. Attorney's Office and worked almost immediately to reverse or to end some of the cases that were ongoing. So I think pretty immediately, we've already seen how Trump plans to remake the DOJ, and I think it's going to continue as we move forward.

COOPER: Everyone, thanks very much.

Coming up, fear and anxiety in an immigrant and migrant community in Panhandle, Texas, where residents do the jobs that many Americans do not. Ed Lavandera has that story.

And residents who've lost their homes in the L.A. area fires now finding they can't afford skyrocketing rents. Natasha Chen has that report next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:36:17]

COOPER: The day after President Trump issued new executive orders to crack down on immigration, as anxiety and anticipation grows over his campaign promise of mass deportations among some communities, his administration issued more directives today. One would let authorities arrest people near and inside places previously considered off-limits, like schools and churches.

The announcement came shortly after the president and vice president and their families attended services at Washington's National Cathedral. One speaker, the Episcopal Bishop of Washington, made a direct appeal to the president on behalf of marginalized communities, including immigrants.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

BISHOP MARIANN EDGAR BUDDE, SPEAKER AT SERVICE OF PRAYER FOR THE NATION: I ask you to have mercy, Mr. President, on those in our communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away, and that you help those who are fleeing war zones and persecution in their own lands to find compassion and welcome here.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

COOPER: Well back at the White House, reporters asked the president about the ceremony.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What did you think of the service?

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: What did you think? Did you like it? Did you find it exciting? Not too exciting, was it? I did think it was a good service, no. Thank you very much.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you, press. Thank you, press.

TRUMP: They could do much -- they could do much better.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

COOPER: We're now in the fears of mass deportations across immigrant communities, and one in Texas City. Here's Ed Lavandera.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

T.J. FUNDERBURG, PRINCIPAL, CACTUS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL: Good morning, Cactus Elementary.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Every school day at Cactus Elementary starts like this.

(SINGING) LAVANDERA (voice-over): Moments of patriotism and reflection with a high-energy dose of inspiration from Principal T.J. Funderburg.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why are we here?

ALL: To learn!

LAVANDERA: You do that every morning?

FUNDERBURG: Yes, sir.

LAVANDERA: When I looked out on the student body this morning, I mean, it's quite something to think that we're in the Texas Panhandle, and that's what your student body looks like.

FUNDERBURG: It's always very eye-opening to people that come here. We've got 13, 14 different languages, all these different cultures represented. And, yes, we're up here in the heart of the Texas Panhandle. Everybody would think it'd be farm and ranch and country and kids in cowboy hats, and we've got just about a little bit of everything.

LAVANDERA: The population in Cactus, Texas, is about 3,000 people, but the diversity is staggering. There's an African restaurant, Safari Restaurant and Halal Meat. There's an Asian grocery store. There's a Mexican butcher shop. There's a Guatemalan grocery. There's also an Islamic center.

What draws so many immigrants and migrants here to a community like this is the work, and it is brutal, back-breaking work. There is a meat processing plant that runs 24 hours a day. There are dairy farms that run nonstop.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): These are the kinds of jobs that the United States economy and food supply rely on every day. It's also the kind of work that only immigrants, by and large, are willing to do.

There are towns like Cactus, Texas, all over the country. And with President Donald Trump promising to carry out mass deportations, a sense of fear and uncertainty looms over these streets.

LAVANDERA: What are you hearing specifically from people?

ELIZABETH OLIVEROS, IMMIGRATION ATTORNEY: They -- well, they're scared. They don't know if they're going to be able to stay here. You know, a lot of them have been here for decades. They've built their lives here. Their kids are here. You know, everyone they know is here.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): Elizabeth Oliveros grew up in Cactus, the daughter of immigrants who became citizens and earned their living working in the city's meat processing plant. She went away to college, became a lawyer, and moved back to Cactus to work as an immigration attorney.

LAVANDERA: If there were to be mass deportations here in this city, what would happen to it? [20:40:02]

OLIVEROS: It'd be quite empty. I think there's a lot of people here that don't have status that keep a lot of the businesses, the smaller businesses around here running. So if immigrants leave, I don't know where they're going to find workers as hardworking as some of the immigrants.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): As we walked the streets of Cactus, it was clear that most residents, regardless of their immigration status, didn't want to speak with us on camera, and especially didn't want to talk about President Trump's deportation dreams.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know, I don't like politics. I don't like it.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): The fear among many in this town and other agricultural communities across the country is that vital food production would be paralyzed and communities torn apart. The meat processing plant here says it only hires people authorized to work.

Under different management in 2006, the plant was raided by immigration authorities. About 300 people suspected of identity theft or being in the country illegally were detained, many of them deported. Elizabeth Oliveros remembers the day clearly.

OLIVEROS: I was in elementary school, and I remember they had to keep us because they didn't know how many of us. Our parents were gone, and a lot of my friends, their parents were gone.

LAVANDERA: Wow.

OLIVEROS: They got deported.

ALL: Nine.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): The children at Cactus Elementary are mostly oblivious to the political storms brewing outside these school walls. Principal T.J. Funderburg is bracing for whatever comes next.

FUNDERBURG: It's just the unknown that --

LAVANDERA: Right.

FUNDERBURG: -- scares me to death.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): He says as many as half the kids in the school could have undocumented family members. These are the kinds of places where the reality of mass deportations could play out.

LAVANDERA: To the people who are going to be making these decisions about deportations, whether it's mass deportations, just broad or targeted, what's your message to them?

FUNDERBURG: Just -- I mean, come talk to me. Come meet these kids. I think, you know, I know there has to be rules, there has to be checks, there has to be balances, but it can't just be paper. This community of people that have come together, that are here now from all these different countries, all these different places, we can do amazing things if we work together.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

LAVANDERA (on-camera): Anderson, what places like Cactus, Texas capture is the complexity of this issue. The idea of carrying out deportations is not as simple as waving a wand and making undocumented immigrants disappear.

There's a gamut of immigration cases in Cactus alone. People who are legal refugee status, who are here on green cards, who are pending asylum cases, and of course some who are undocumented. It really captures the complexity and just how difficult it is to carry something like this out. Anderson?

COOPER: Ed Lavandera, thank you very much.

Coming up next, displaced people in the Los Angeles area already paying a price for the wildfires in the form of soaring rent.

Also more than 24 hours later, President Trump has missed his campaign promise deadline for bringing peace to Ukraine. Nick Paton Walsh joins us from Kyiv.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:47:16]

COOPER: Dangerous fire conditions across Southern California saw San Diego firefighters today battle at least three fires, prompting evacuation orders. There's the Lilac fire from early this morning. Cal Fire has reported last hour it is now at 50 percent contained. A second one is now 100 percent contained and firefighters were able to stop the progress on the third early on.

In the L.A. area, firefighters are hoping the possibility of rain forecast for this weekend is going to help their battle against the fires, particularly as winds may start to gust again tomorrow. Now residents who've lost their homes are facing a new problem, which is sky-high rental rates.

Natasha Chen has that.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

ROSA OLVERA, LOST ALTADENA APARTMENT: I opened up my curtains and all I see was orange, red, black, smoke, everything. All the parking structure was on fire. So my instinct was to get out.

NATASHA CHEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Rosa Olvera escaped this Altadena apartment.

OLVERA: I could literally feel my windows hot.

CHEN (voice-over): Covering her two daughters in blankets. They've been staying at an evacuation shelter in Pasadena ever since.

OLVERA: One day I was good with my daughters. Next day, I don't have anything.

CHEN (voice-over): Her scorched two-bedroom unit cost her $2,400 a month. But now the single mom says similar units nearby are going for almost $3,000, which she cannot afford. Those looking for larger single-family rental homes are also finding stiff competition and inflated pricing.

JACKIE SENIS, LOST PACIFIC PALISADES HOME: They chose a family that was willing to sign a three-year lease and pay one year full in cash over us.

CHEN (voice-over): The Los Angeles area's housing market was already tight before the fires, but now tens of thousands of displaced residents are looking at the same limited supply.

STACY BERMAN, LOST PACIFIC PALISADES HOME: You walk into these open homes, there's hundreds of people there. And they're just price -- I mean, it's how much are you going to give me, how much are you going to give me?

CHEN (voice-over): By one estimate, rental data website Zumper shows average rents so far in January for houses in the city of Los Angeles jumped 42 percent compared to the average in December. And anecdotes of soaring rental prices have become commonplace.

HUGH ADAIR, LOST ALTADENA HOME: I feel lost. My wife feels lost.

CHEN (voice-over): Hugh Adair and his wife lost their recently renovated Altadena home now as they search for a rental.

ADAIR: Yes, let's see here, $10,000 deposit. That's --

CHEN: In fees (ph).

ADAIR: Who has that, right? Just had in the back pocket. Oh, yes, let me just -- here's 10 grand cash.

CHEN (voice-over): He says they lost out on a rental home when someone else bid $1,000 more a month. Since the fires, California's price gouging statute has been in effect, prohibiting a price increase of more than 10 percent on things like food, emergency supplies, hotel rooms and rental housing.

Violators could spend a year in jail, be fined up to $10,000 plus civil penalties. Landlords can't get around this by encouraging a bidding war. They've now sent at least 200 warning letters to hotels and landlords who could be violating the law.

[20:50:07]

But with enforcement just beginning and long term scarcity of supply coupled with overwhelming demand, Olvera wishes she could tell landlords -- OLVERA: When things like this happen, that's when everybody comes

together. It doesn't even matter what you have because you can lose it.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

COOPER: And Natasha joins us now. Have the people you talked to had any luck finding a place to live?

CHEN (on-camera): Only one person in that piece, Anderson, told me she's getting keys to a rental today. So, it does not matter how much money you have, it is just so hard to find a temporary home. So, most people there, Rosa, Hugh, they don't have a place yet.

Now, the California attorney general's office tells me this is really hard to enforce. That is, it's taking a lot of due diligence on their part to enforce the price gouging. And when you think about the bidding wars, you actually don't know how much that house might have leased for.

And by now, a lot of listings that were potentially in violation may have come off of rental websites. But in those cases, we're not sure if they're simply off the market or if they were leased and at what price. Anderson?

COOPER: Yes. Natasha Chen, thanks so much.

Coming up next, what President Trump said tonight about Russia's war in Ukraine and what action he's open to taking on it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:55:30]

COOPER: As a candidate, he promised to end Russia's war in Ukraine within 24 hours of taking office. That obviously has not happened. Instead, tonight at the White House, the president said they're talking with Ukraine's President Zelenskyy, and very soon, in his words, they'll be talking with Russia's President Vladimir Putin. He also acknowledged he's open to additional sanctions on Russia if Putin doesn't broker a ceasefire.

CNN's Nick Paton Walsh has more.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Neither Ukraine or Russia got a mention here. But hours later, Trump gave reporters his most stark criticism yet of Putin's war.

TRUMP: He should make a deal. I think he's destroying Russia by not making a deal. I think Russia's going to be in big trouble. You take a look at their economy, you take a look at the inflation in Russia. So I would hope -- I got along with him great, and, you know, I would hope he wants to make a deal. PATON WALSH (voice-over): He said Europe should almost double its defense spend, and he would meet Putin soon. Trump's words long- awaited and welcomed here in central Kyiv's fog.

PATON WALSH: All the talk of peace deals, the conditions for it, of negotiations, somewhat distant and theoretical from the real dangers people in Kyiv here go through every day, the sirens sounding so frequently, and this vast sea of loss.

Clearly, so many Ukrainians desperate for peace, but also to see the sacrifice that's made yield some kind of future they can be happy with.

PATON WALSH (voice-over): As the sea of grief spreads to fresh grass, hope is their only option. Nazar (ph) is just back from the recruitment office.

Perhaps even in the coming days, he says, Trump should give more information about what he plans to do. But I don't believe in Trump alone. This is such a war that it will not be ended by the actions of one person.

Yulia (ph) is here to remember her son, Yevgeny (ph), who died fighting two years ago. Maybe we'll be given more planes and weapons to win faster, she says. We really hope so. We have great hope that he will help Ukraine.

Ukraine's president delivering a gentle dressing down of his European allies in front of their elite in Switzerland.

PRES. VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINE: The European leaders should remember these battles involving North Korean soldiers are now happening in places geographically closer to Davos than to Pyongyang.

PATON WALSH (voice-over): As his forces fought to hold back Russia here in Toretsk, he reminded the European elite some of its governments were less powerful now than TikTok's algorithm. Trump baiting Putin, Zelenskyy baiting Europe. Day one and change of the less expected sort is here.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

PATON WALSH (on-camera): Look, Anderson, there is extraordinary hope voiced by people here in Ukraine. But you get the sense that underneath it, they perhaps feel they have little choice. But to try and believe that Donald Trump with the stark words he had to say, frankly, about the Kremlin's choices in this war, genuinely wants to put pressure on Moscow.

But they also know, too, that their situation on the front line is deteriorating, frankly, daily, incrementally, yes, but in a steady way that suggests the curve of this war is working not in Kyiv's favor. And I think it is that clock that is ticking in the background that will dictate so many of the choices ahead.

But it was remarkable to hear Donald Trump exert rhetorically so much pressure on the Kremlin heads in his first comments since coming to office, Anderson.

COOPER: Nick Paton Walsh, thank you very much.

Tonight, we remember Cecile Richards, the former president of Planned Parenthood and advocate for women's rights. She died yesterday. Just two months ago, President Biden awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The Texas native served as leader of Planned Parenthood for 12 years.

I spoke to her this past June. She shared her battle with an aggressive brain cancer. We discussed her family's legacy as the daughter of the late Texas governor, Ann Richards, and she shared some of her mom's advice with us.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

CECILE RICHARDS, FORMER PRESIDENT OF PLANNED PARENTHOOD: Two things I never forgot. One is, this is the only life you have. So do it now. And whatever needs doing. And the other thing she felt so strongly about and why she was in public service, she used to say, why should your life only be about you?

And that really helps, especially at times like this, when you're facing a really tough diagnosis and -- but it's important to me and it's important to my kids that they see me doing things in the world as long as I can.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

COOPER: Cecile Richards was 67 years old.

The news continues. The Source with Kaitlan Collins starts now.