Return to Transcripts main page

CNN News Central

Cities Across U.S. Prepare For Possible Mass Deportations; Rubio: Ukraine And Russia Will Have To Give Up Something To End War; Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N) Discusses Executive Orders Signed By Trump Yesterday. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired January 21, 2025 - 07:30   ET

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

[07:30:00]

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: So for all of our viewers at home who maybe haven't launched their own memo coins yet, these are cryptocurrencies. They're based -- they're inspired on internet or cultural trends but there's really no intrinsic value or utility behind them. They just sort of exist to exist. They trade on momentum. They go up and down dramatically.

And this is raising some concerns for obvious reasons among ethics experts, right, because the president was elected with a lot of support from the crypto industry. He has promised to make America the crypto capital of the whole entire world. And so now he's in a situation where he's going to preside over how the United States regulates crypto while potentially profiting off of --

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Yeah.

EGAN: -- the value of his own crypto currency.

Richard Painter, the top Bush administration -- George W. Bush administration ethics lawyer -- he told me that he thinks it's really dangerous to have a situation where people who are supposed to oversee financial instruments also invest in them at the same time.

So we have to watch this space very closely.

BOLDUAN: Yeah. The conflict seems -- is --

EGAN: Obvious.

BOLDUAN: -- obvious as one can be.

Thank you so much, Matt.

EGAN: Thanks, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Much to come.

Coming up for us, President Trump's immigration crackdown has cities across the country preparing. So what are they doing to prepare? We have some new reporting on that. And new reporting today also on the lawsuits that are coming at President Trump's government efficiency project, DOGE.

(COMMERCIAL)

[07:35:57]

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: This morning cities across the country are bracing for Trump's promised mass deportations in the wake of President Trump's sweeping and aggressive crackdown on immigration just hours after taking office.

Denver, Colorado, a focal point of the migrant crisis in recent years, is handing out a playbook to city staff on what to do in the event ICE agents attempt to enter buildings and public spaces like hospitals. And in Chicago, law enforcement is taking questions and hearing concerns from migrant residents who fear they may be targeted by ICE at their jobs, and their schools, and in their churches.

CNN's Whitne Wild is joining us now from Chicago. What more are you learning about how preparations are going for some of these cities who have called themselves sanctuary cities, especially when it comes to this new immigration push by President Trump?

WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: Sara, a lot of the preparation involves ensuring that city officials understand that the sanctuary status of their cities means that they cannot engage with ICE unless it is for a specific criminal action. Sara, the concern here is that these ICE actions will go well beyond targeting violent criminals and may include people who have no criminal history -- no violent criminal history.

We spoke with local elected leaders here who walked us through those fears from people in the community and what they are doing as the potential for these ICE actions unfolds.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JESUS "CHUY" GARCIA (D-IL): There's a lot of fear. There's great concern. People are having to decide whether to go out on the street, whether to go to work. Tomorrow they've got to face up to whether they should take their children to school. And just genuine concerns that President Trump wants to carry through on his promise to engage in the largest mass removal of immigrants from this country.

ANDRES VASQUEZ, ALDERPERSON, CHICAGO CITY COUNCIL: You know, clearly, we're all concerned about what's going to happen next, but we are kind of mobilizing more than we did that least time it occurred.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WILD: Sara, a lot of this comes down to educating migrants on what their rights are should they encounter an ICE agent. But the major themes here are do not interfere with a lawful ICE action. The major messages are stay calm, comply. Reach out to an attorney if you need to. And then ultimately, Sara, again, reminding local officials here -- that includes public schools, for example -- that they are not to engage with ICE unless there is a criminal action pending. So those are the major themes here, Sara.

But I'll tell you. On the ground people are making those granular decisions. Congressman Garcia said people are moving around because they're concerned that their address is accessible to ICE. And then further, one local church here has canceled in-person Spanish services, Sara.

SIDNER: Oh, all right. Whitney Wild, thank you so much for all your reporting on that -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Something else we are keeping a very close eye on, the Trump administration already facing multiple lawsuits over DOGE, the Elon Musk-led government efficiency project. The goal of DOGE is to slash trillions of dollars in federal spending but even before Donald Trump's inaugural ceremony was over lawsuits against DOGE were being filed.

Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, you'll remember, were both tapped to kind of co-lead this effort. But now Ramaswamy appears to be headed for the exits on this one already, expected to announce another run for public office.

Let's get to it. CNN's Rene Marsh has much more for us from Washington. What are the lawsuits against DOGE all about? What are you learning, Rene?

RENE MARSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kate.

Well, these two lawsuits -- at least two of them, I should say, filed allege that President Trump's DOGE is in violation of federal laws that require transparency and a balance of ideology. One of those lawsuits stating that "Only select DOGE members who adhere to particular philosophy, and the known members all share similar characteristics which reflect a particular background." So, lack of diversity on this DOGE initiative.

[07:40:07]

And the law -- the federal law that they're discussing -- that they're saying that DOGE is in violation of is called the Federal Advisory Committee Act also known as FACA, which essentially says that if you're going to have some sort of commission advising the president that there needs to be transparency. There needs to be a fairly balanced board of members.

The lawsuit though was filed under the assumption that DOGE would be this sort of outside entity advising the president, and then the president would carry out their recommendations. However, yesterday, once the president signed the DOGE executive order, we realized that the structure of this initiative would be a lot different from what the president originally said, and also those involved described it as this sort of initiative that would be outside of the government.

Take a listen to the moment when the president signed this executive order.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is an order creating and implementing the Department of Governmental Efficiency known as DOGE.

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: OK, that's a big one.

REPORTER: Is Elon Musk going to get a West Wing office?

TRUMP: No. He's getting an office for about 20 people that we're hiring to make sure that these get implemented.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARSH: So what we learned yesterday is that President Trump is creating a new government entity with DOGE, and it will actually be a part of the Executive Branch. It will have offices within the White House.

We also learned from this executive order that the United States Digital Service will be temporarily renamed the U.S. DOGE Service for 18 months. And the executive order is directing federal agencies to establish their own DOGE teams that will consist of a DOGE team lead, an engineer, human resource specialist, and an attorney. Again, all residing within the federal government, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Fascinating as we're learning much more about it. Because it was this amorphous thing from jump and now it looks like it's becoming much more than maybe what people first anticipated.

Rene, thank you very much -- Sara.

SIDNER: All right. Joining me now, Republican strategist and former RNC communications director Doug Heye. And Michael Blake, founder and CEO of Kairos Democracy Project. He is also running for mayor of New York as a Democrat. Thank you, gentlemen, to both of you.

First to you, Doug. Trump's pardons -- we're going to start there. He made no effort to distinguish between people who engaged in violence compared with those who were charged or convicted of non-violent offenses.

The Republican Party has always said it's the party of law and order. Donald Trump, himself, has used the law and order rallying cry.

How can they call themselves this after these pardons, which included men who beat D.C. police officer Micheal Fanone and pepper-sprayed U.S. Capitol police officer Brian Sicknick who then later died the next day?

DOUG HEYE, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST, FORMER RNC COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: Yeah. To be honest, Sara, I think -- I think it's really difficult for Republicans to do that. And we can talk about a larger issue about the pardon process. I think it's obviously very difficult to change things that are in the Constitution. I would love to do that with the pardoning process.

What Joe Biden did yesterday was bad. What Donald Trump did yesterday was also terrible -- and because of exactly what you laid out.

And I take it personally, Sara, because some of the rooms that were in the Capitol that -- in the Capitol that were stormed and people occupied, one of them was my office. So I look at it a little differently than obviously most voters would. Most voters haven't been to the Capitol or into the -- into the complex and certain offices and so forth.

It's a shameful thing. It's a terrible way for Donald Trump to start. He had a real opportunity yesterday and I think this starts things on a foot that really just is terrible for the country.

SIDNER: You head, Doug, though compare the two. He says what Donald Trump did was bad. What Joe Biden did was bad. Because Joe Biden pardoned some of his family members and the January 6 committee for fear that they were going to be charged, but none of them have been charged.

What do you make of that comparison because you're going to hear that a lot I think from Republicans?

MICHAEL BLAKE, (D) NEW YORK MAYORAL CANDIDATE, FOUNDER AND CEO, KAIROS DEMOCRACY PROJECT, FORMER VICE CHAIR, DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE: It's not even close. President Biden protected his family because he knows that Donald Trump is doing absurd things and he's going to attack them. Donald Trump pardoned insurrectionists. And so we can't even compare the two.

And I've got a lot of love for Doug. Obivously we both have been political fellows, but they're not even comparable.

You have someone in Donald Trump who used his first day when he talked about cost of living. He didn't do that. He had an executive order to actually address prescription drug costs in the wrong direction. He's trying to end birthright citizenship even for children that are born to mothers who are here.

So when we talk about a pardon the only person that was upset about yesterday was Eric Adams because he clearly went to D.C. to try to get a pardon, and he didn't get it.

So when we talk about what's going on, the difference between the two is you have a Republican leadership in Donald Trump who made it clear that he does not care about the country. He only cared about insurrectionists. So we can't compare the two. They're not even on the same playing field.

[07:45:05]

SIDNER: I do want to talk about immigration, and you brought up one of the issues. Trump signed a bevy of executive orders on immigration, including shutting down the app that allows migrants to legally apply for asylum. He also signed an order to end birthright citizenship -- something that the Supreme Court upheld in part as part of the 14th Amendment's constitutional right.

Doug, when you look at these many executive orders is Trump testing the waters to try and end legal immigration in this country?

HEYE: Yeah. Sure, Sara.

First, let me be clear. I'm very critical of Donald Trump here. And where a lot of Republicans aren't and haven't been, I've been consistent since day one, and day one was the day he came down that escalator. I'm never not going to be critical when he does the wrong thing.

On the issue of birthright citizenship and so forth, Donald Trump clearly is testing waters for what is possible. Clearly, the Constitution on the 14th Amendment is very clear on this. But what we've seen with voters quite often is that Donald Trump gets credit not for winning a fight per se but for engaging in the fight. I've heard it so many times.

I'm thinking of a friend who lives in Kernersville, North Carolina right now who says well, at least he tries. Now, I may disagree sometimes with what Donald Trump tries but that sentiment from voters is very real. It's part of why he won. He doesn't have to win this fight; he just has to fight the fight.

SIDNER: Doug brings up a point that immigration was a big, big issue for voters. Time and again they were polled, and they said so. Also, of course, the economy a big issue.

So when you look at some of these states that are saying they are not going to cooperate with ICE and that they are going to push back, is that a smart move since the citizens said look, we want Trump in office? We want something done about immigration.

BLAKE: It is a smart move because we have to have humanity. And when we think about what's happening right now, you have families that are going to be wondering do they take their child outside the school because ICE may roll up on them?

Let's be clear. What the American people said is they wanted someone to address cost of living, and Donald Trump is actually not doing that. His rhetoric, his language, his actions are actually completely against who we are as a people.

And when you think about yesterday, yesterday was the latest reminder that Donald Trump only cares about Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and those that are surrounding him. And so we have to ask ourselves what country do we want and what kind of leadership do we want? And we have people in places who have no business being there.

Yesterday, Sara, we -- think about this, MLK Day. You had individuals who canceled on MLK celebrations because they wanted to be in overflow rooms in D.C. The rooms we need to be in is actually helping our people. And when people actually are focused on that, whether it be new leadership at the DNC and new leadership here, we have to be clear that people are sick and tired of the foolishness they're seeing even on day one from Donald Trump.

SIDNER: Michael Blake, thank you so much. I appreciate it. And also to you, Doug Heye. I appreciate you both coming on early this morning --

HEYE: Thank you.

SIDNER: -- for us.

All right. Ahead, new college football national champions -- they are crowned. The Ohio State's late-night victory over Notre Dame winning them a national title for the first time in a decade. That story's ahead.

(COMMERCIAL)

[07:52:40]

SIDNER: This morning the Trump administration is already making it clear the U.S. is changing course on its Ukraine strategy with newly confirmed Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday -- today -- calling on both sides to "give something" to end the conflict.

Yesterday, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy described Trump's return to the White House as a day of change and hope. The president has said several times that he could end the war between Russia and Ukraine in a day.

CNN's Nick Paton Walsh is live for us in Kyiv. When asked about the war yesterday Trump said that Vladimir Putin is "destroying Russia" by not making a deal to end the war. And now we're hearing from Rubio saying that both sides are going to have to give something up.

What are you hearing there?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. I mean, very much as we expected -- a dive into diplomacy here. But I have to say the comments we heard from President Trump yesterday were starker, were more critical of Vladimir Putin, a world leader who has often been criticized of seeming quite chummy with.

He was quite direct in saying that he doesn't know if Putin wants to make a deal. He might not. He should make a deal. He's destroying Russia. Russia is going to be in big trouble. You take a look at their economy and inflation. I get along with him great -- I paraphrase here -- and I hope he wants to make a deal.

And so, a push there certainly to emphasize the economic damage being done to Russia where inflation is edging towards 10 percent at times and where interest rates are sometimes nearly 20 percent -- to try and keep that, indeed, down. The economy essentially overheating because of the injection of cash from the war into salaries of soldiers and payouts for deaths as well.

Also, Trump emphasizing how "Putin's grinding it out." That this war was supposed to be over in a week -- I paraphrase here -- and it's dragging now into its fourth year -- referencing the fact that Russia is nearing a million casualties. That's wounded and injured -- 700,000 according to Western officials.

So clearly, I think trying to put pressure on the Kremlin economically and simply due to the damage being done by this war here as well. And suggesting too that Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy who we'll hear from in about half an hour at the Davos Economic Forum -- suggesting that Zelenskyy is ready, indeed, to make a deal. And we've heard Zelenskyy suggest that they are willing to come to some kind of accommodation but also hoping that peace through strength is where Donald Trump wants to end up.

[07:55:07]

And so I think there were some concerns certainly that Trump might be softer on Russia -- his initial first comments. Remember, he didn't mention Ukraine or Russia in his inauguration speech. His initial comments there in the White House quite clearly trying to heap pressure on Putin, economic as well as a reminder of the damage this war is doing to Russia -- Sara.

SIDNER: Yeah. I mean, we're looking at the pictures of the destruction there in Kyiv. And this war has dragged on for so long with so many people dead and injured. We will see what happens with this administration.

Nick Paton Walsh, thank you so much for all your reporting there in Kyiv -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Joining me right now is Democratic congressman from New Jersey, Josh Gottheimer. He sits on the House Intelligence and Financial Services Committees. He's also running for governor in the great state of New Jersey. It's good to see you. Thanks for coming in.

You have all of that playing out --

REP. JOSH GOTTHEIMER (D-NJ) (via Webex by Cisco): Thanks, Kate.

BOLDUAN: -- in terms of what is Donald Trump going to do in order to bring about what he says is an end to the war and can do it on day one -- you have that.

You also have back here -- I wanted to ask you about some of the most startling things that happened yesterday after inauguration, which are the pardons of the January 6 defendants. Donald Trump is not making any distinction between people convicted of violent offenses linked to that attack, like attacking police officers, and people who were convicted of much lesser crimes linked to January 6. Sentences of 22 years behind bars seemingly just wiped out in a moment. That's what the power of a president can do.

But what do you think the impact of this move will be?

GOTTHEIMER: I mean, first of all, the whole thing is outrageous, right? Instead yesterday of focusing on making life more affordable for families, President Trump -- his first actions were to focus on pardoning 1,500 lawless thugs who attacked our democracy and our Capitol. I was there. The idea that you would pardon people, and you're talking about 20 years or more, and others who literally took flagpoles and beat police officers on January 6, and his first action is to pardon them is outrageous.

Put aside, of course, what he did pulling out what he did pulling out of the Paris accords and other actions that he took yesterday. But the fact of symbolically pardoning 1,500 lawless thugs -- to me, I don't understand it. And zero talk about where we can come together to focus on key issues like making life more affordable for families in New Jersey and around the country.

BOLDUAN: Um, one of the other issues that was very clear yesterday throughout the day was the Israeli hostage families were really center stage throughout the inauguration. Donald Trump's envoy brought hostage families on stage during the rally afterward as he was introducing the president at the rally.

One of your constituents is one of the hostages still being held by Hamas in Gaza. We have talked about this many times.

What are you hearing about the ceasefire deal now, and do you trust Donald Trump to usher it through?

GOTTHEIMER: So I think this agreement was brought on, as you know, with the outgoing and the incoming administration working together. I think very positive steps in the last days, right? Three hostages released. But, of course, we have -- there are still 94 hostages left, including the Americans -- the seven Americans, three we believe are alive.

And the key is to bring them all home immediately, including Edan Alexander, as you pointed out, who is a 21-year-old who is from New Jersey. An incredible family.

And I was glad to see all of the hostage families featured front and center because we can't lose sight of the ultimate goal here, which is to get all of the Americans home without any delay. Get all of the hostages freed as, of course, humanitarian aid surges into the region. And we continue to make sure that the terrorist organizations, including Hamas, Hezbollah, and all of the other Iranian proxies like the Houthis don't have the ability to attack our interests, our freedom, our democracy in America, as well as, of course, our critical allies.

BOLDUAN: One second. Sorry, Congressman. We are just having a problem with your signal. Let's continue. I think we're back together.

Another thing I want --

GOTTHEIMER: Did you hear me? I don't know what you heard. I don't know if you heard me there.

BOLDUAN: I heard -- I heard 99 percent of that answer, just not the end of it, which was probably --

GOTTHEIMER: OK.

BOLDUAN: -- yeah, we need to get it done.

You have also --

GOTTHEIMER: We've got to get it done.

BOLDUAN: You have also been a driving force for quite some time in pushing for the TikTok to be banned in the United States.

The president just gave TikTok an extension to find a seller of -- something like 75 days with this executive order that he signed. But when he signed the executive order last night, he also suggested that he's not concerned about the national security threat so much posed by TikTok because, as he says, it's largely used by young people.

Let me play this for you.