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Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) Interviewed on President Trump Delaying Ban on TikTok; President Trump Signs Numerous Executive Orders Upon Taking Office; President Trump Issues Pardons to All January 6th Rioters Including Those Who Committed Violent Acts against Law Enforcement. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired January 21, 2025 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: As he says, it's largely used by young people. Let me play this for you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) U.S. PRESIDENT: And remember, TikTok is largely about kids, young kids. If China is going to get information about young kids, I don't know. I think, I think, to be honest with you, I think we have bigger problems than that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Congressman, what's your reaction to that?

REP. JOSH GOTTHEIMER (D-NJ): We know that TikTok is a threat to our national security, right, to the point before we were just talking about, Iran, who is one of our key enemies, along with North Korea, Russia, and China, and the government of China, right. They're focused on doing everything they can to undermine our democracy and freedom and pump in disinformation into our country, right, anti-American sentiment into our country, especially, yes, targeting young people. If you're under 30, TikTok is your number one news source.

But you're talking about 170 million Americans that are using TikTok. And the reason why in a massive, bipartisan way everyone came together to say TikTok cannot be continued to be owned by China and controlled by ByteDance, the Chinese, another Chinese company that is overseen and controlled by the Chinese government, there's a reason why we all flagged the national security concerns, is because we know there are national security concerns. Democrats and Republicans came together on that. And to ignore that is outrageous.

Now, I believe we should do everything we can to have TikTok sold to another company and to an American interest and to, of course, take it away from our one of our top enemies in the world, right. That's got to be our focus. And trying to make excuses about this is ridiculous. We've got to focus on doing everything we can to ensure the Chinese government is not able to pump disinformation into our country and to collect information on our citizens. BOLDUAN: Yes, it's a big TBD on how this pans out. We do know the

TikTok CEO, though, was kind of front and center-ish throughout the inaugural festivities yesterday.

Congressman, thank you very much for your time.

A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

SIDNER: Shock and awe, President Trump signing a slew of executive orders in an effort to transform the federal government. He signed off on a swath of orders obliterating Biden era policies and cracking down on immigration, as well as pardoning even the violent January 6th rioters. Today, he meets with top congressional Republicans as he continues his sweeping and aggressive executive actions.

Plus, a new study shows those popular weight loss drugs may have untapped health benefits, including treating substance abuse and dementia.

Also, a blizzard warning in Texas, 40 million Americans under threat from winter storms bringing rare snow and bone-chilling temperatures to the south.

I'm Sara Sidner with Kate Bolduan. John Berman out today. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

This morning, President Trump aggressively wielding his broad executive power to kick off what he says will be the golden age of America. Today, on his first full day back in the White House, he's expected to announce even more executive actions. Just hours after his swearing in, he signed off on a tidal wave of orders, 78 of them reversed Biden era policies. Many are on his campaign promises, including pardons for nearly all January 6th rioters, and an aggressive crackdown on immigration that begins with a national emergency declaration and a push to end birthright citizenship.

The president also pulled the U.S. out of the Paris Climate Agreement and the World Health Organization, and he delayed enforcement of the TikTok ban for 75 days.

CNN's Jeff Zeleny is joining us now. Jeff, what can we expect from President Trump today knowing that there are more executive orders on the way, we understand?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, Sara. Look, that was a, just a partial list of all that President Trump did on day one. And now here comes day two. Part of day two is the government reacting to what President Trump did on day one. The remarkable sweep of clemency granted to a January 6th, the defendants, is obviously still being processed by the Department of Justice as well as jails. That will certainly be front and center, the reaction from that.

But also so much more, immigration chief among them. Of course, that has been one of the presidents central campaign promises. He waited until later in the day to declare that national emergency. So the fallout of the immigration executive orders certainly is going to be consequential. The reality, though, is as day two begins, governing takes center stage.

[08:05:03]

He'll be meeting with Republican leaders here at the White House later this afternoon, we're told, and that is to discuss how to enact his agenda. The sweeping power of his executive authority, of course, is something that we saw during the first administration, but not to the extent we saw yesterday. That is just one example of how President Trump knows his way around the West Wing and intends to get started very early.

But we also got that window, that first look inside the Oval Office and seeing him sitting at that Resolute Desk again. So, so interesting. Sarah.

SIDNER: Yes. Speaking of the Resolute Desk, it is customary for presidents to hand the incoming president a letter with whether it is advice or welcoming. What happened in this case with President Biden and Donald Trump?

ZELENY: Sara, that certainly has been a modern day tradition from president to president, to leave a private letter in the drawer of the Resolute Desk. While the president last night, when he was signing these executive orders, he spent a lot of time taking questions from reporters, essentially reveling in the fact that he was back in his office. He said it was a beautiful place. It's been redecorated. But watch this moment when he pulls out the note that President Biden left for him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) U.S. PRESIDENT: Maybe we should all read it together.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's read it.

TRUMP: Well, maybe I'll read it first and then make that determination. Peter, thank you very much. I may not have seen this for months.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: So it was marked "Number 47." Of course. He is the 47th president. The 45th as well. We'll see if we ever learn the contents of that note. Usually those are kept private, but I'm not sure history is our best guide here.

In any case, another busy day two here at the White House as this Trump administration tries to hit the ground running. But again, governing now the bigger challenge of all. Sara?

SIDNER: All right, true, true words this morning. Jeff Zeleny, thank you so much, live from the White House for us. Kate? BOLDUAN: And Jeff was talking about those January 6th pardons. This

morning, the Justice Department has asked the federal court in Washington, D.C., to dismiss cases against January 6th rioters now pardoned by President Trump. The president granted sweeping clemency to 1,500 defendants who stormed the Capitol, including some of those who violently attacked police officers on that day. Overnight, the first two defendants were released from jail.

CNN's Katelyn Polantz is live outside the jail in Washington with much more on this. And what are you learning about this process now, Katelyn?

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: Well, the process is in play right now. We're standing here outside of the D.C. jail waiting to see who else is going to be released. This morning, there were those two rioters who were convicted and sentenced for their crimes, one for tearing or trying to tear a police baton out of the hands of an officer at the Capitol, another throwing a chair at the police line, hitting a police riot shield during the Capitol riot. Those two men, they were just sentenced on Friday, the Valentines (ph). And so they were sent over here to the D.C. jail to wait to be transferred to a Bureau of Prisons facility. This is a local facility. So this is where people are held as they're waiting, being sentenced, or as they're waiting to be transferred out. And so we're waiting to see exactly who else may be coming out of these doors this morning.

The pardons, though, from President Trump, are very widespread. It's more than 1,000 people who are convicted of January 6th related crimes. There's 14 people that have had their sentences commuted as well. So not a full pardon for those people. But those 1,000 people who are being pardoned, they are people who aren't just going into the Capitol, taking pictures, and then leaving, convicted of misdemeanors. They are also people who have been convicted of violent felonies, things like throwing a chair at police or even hurting police in a very much more distinct and violent way.

Michael Fanone, one of the one of the metropolitan police officers from D.C. who was attacked by a group of six people during the Capitol riot and suffered tremendously, he was on CNN last night. Here's what he had to say in reaction to the president's pardons.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL FANONE, FORMER D.C. METROPOLITAN POLICE OFFICER: I have been betrayed by my country, and I have been betrayed by those that supported Donald Trump. Whether you voted for him because he promised these pardons or for some other reason, you knew that this was coming. And here we are.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

POLANTZ: So you do see this winding up of these cases now very quickly, people being released who have been pardoned or having their sentences commuted. And then just this morning and last night, were seeing those filings in court where prosecutors are saying it's time to drop the case, even a case against January 6th rioters that was ongoing in federal court, a jury had already been selected. It was a couple days into trial, dismissed. Kate?

[08:10:11]

BOLDUAN: Yes, showing the power of the presidency, stopping that right in its tracks. Katelyn, thank you. Sara?

SIDNER: All right, I'm joined now by CNN senior legal analyst and former federal prosecutor, Elie Honig, to sort of dig through all of this and what this all means.

Let's start with this. The scope of these pardons is enormous. Was this a surprise to you? Because it certainly seemed like a surprise to J.D. Vance, who had said that he didn't agree with the January 6th pardons for violent offenders.

ELIE HONIG, SENIOR CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Absolutely, Sara. When Donald Trump first said the number 1,500 in that Oval Office conference, I thought he misspoke. I thought he was just mistaken. But no, it is 1,500, and that is all of them. So that people understand, the reason it was a surprise is because Donald Trump himself had suggested, he didn't quite commit, but he suggested that he would be drawing lines and perhaps not pardoning violent offenders. J.D. Vance, as you said, he said, quote, obviously they should not be pardoning people who had been convicted of violent crimes.

The numbers here are astonishing. Over 1,500 people were charged, over 1,200 people were convicted. Somewhere around over 300 people are in jail now. They will be released today, and about 160 plus of those defendants were convicted of some sort of violent crime. But Donald Trump has swept the table here. Everybody is going to be either pardoned or have their sentence commuted. All those cases are going to be over.

SIDNER: And we should say, because I've been to a couple of these trials, including the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys, that in many of these cases, people pled guilty to the charges against them as well. You know, with the stroke of a pen, he pardoned all of these people, as you mentioned, even those convicted of violence during the January 6th Capitol attack, where the 140 police officers that were trying to secure the capitol were attacked. And now we're seeing those people being let out.

How does this work exactly? Are they just going to, you know, in the courts, they just say, OK, this just happened. The pardon has gone through. You can now walk out of jail free.

HONIG: So there are basically a few different groups of people. There are those who have already pled guilty or been convicted and finished serving their time. Those people have been pardoned, meaning essentially the record is wiped clean on them. The convictions themselves are essentially erased.

Then you have a group of people who are in prison now, as I said, over about 300 or so. They get released immediately. There is no appeal here. Theres no trying to undo this. The pardon power is a very blunt instrument that the president holds. So Katelyn Polantz will be seeing people released from that D.C. jail today and probably from other federal prisons around the country.

And then there's a group of pending cases still in the court, a few hundred of them. In Donald Trump's order last night, he said, I instruct the attorney general to dismiss all of those cases. So again, throughout the day, we should see dismissal orders being entered by the Justice Department, and those cases will end, midstride sometimes.

SIDNER: I want to ask you about the difference between a couple of things, because Trump commuted the sentences of the men who at the time of the attack were the leaders of the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers. What is the difference between a commutation and a pardon?

HONIG: So a pardon essentially erases the conviction altogether. If someone is in prison when they're pardoned, they get out immediately. A commutation is a little bit of a lesser measure. It does not actually erase the conviction. What it does do is reduce the amount of prison time. Now you can issue a partial commutation. But what Donald Trump has specified in this case is all the people, there's 14 or so, including the leader of the Proud Boys that you mentioned before, Sara, their sentences are commuted down to what we call time served, meaning to the time they've already served, meaning they get out now. But I should also add, a person can have their sentence commuted first and then later receive a full pardon. So that's still in play for Stewart Rhodes and some of the others.

SIDNER: Elie Honig, thank you for talking us through that. It's a big day for a lot of people watching all of this happen who were inside of that Capitol. A lot of hearts broken here.

All right, President Trump with a packed schedule for his first full day back in the White House. He's meeting with top congressional Republicans as they map out their plans to carry out his aggressive agenda.

And powerful Santa Ana winds fuel yet again new, dangerous wildfires in southern California. Now, families in San Diego are on alert.

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[08:19:00]

BOLDUAN: This morning, President Trump is waking up at the White House for the first time as the 47th president of the United States, now.

And today, he is set to, among other things, meet with congressional leaders at the White House as they plot and plan their agenda from now, both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue.

Let's get right to CNN's Lauren Fox on Capitol Hill.

Donald Trump is already, we know very clearly, was influencing the agenda on Capitol Hill even before Inauguration Day. But what are you hearing about today?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Kate, and Donald Trump has already been to Capitol Hill to have discussions about what he wants to see and what he's calling one big, beautiful policy bill.

But I will lay out just some of the dynamics going into this meeting today. You have Republicans in the House and Senate still pretty divided about what they think the best strategy forward is.

Senate Republicans, many of them believe that the best opportunity for Donald Trump to win early in his presidency is to try to secure some kind of border deal in the first months of his administration, and then move on to a larger tax package toward the end of the year.

[08:20:07]

Meanwhile, Speaker Mike Johnson has been emphatic with Donald Trump, as have many House Republicans, that they believe the best strategy is to put everything in one major policy bill and get that moving as soon as possible.

Here are some of the challenges ahead, however, before you even get into what precisely is going to be in these bills, what tax policies everyone can agree on, you have to agree one bill or two. After that, there's also a larger discussion among some House Republicans and conservatives in particular, who believe that there should be dramatic spending cuts in this big package.

You have members of the House Freedom Caucus who sent a letter to Speaker Johnson, making clear that they actually preferred two separate bills, with the first one including border security and steep spending cuts. Again, that is running counter to what Johnson has been moving forward.

So, you can see here, there's a ton of moving parts. And I'll just point out that they are already behind the marker that was set back in 2017. When Donald Trump was inaugurated back then, what you had was the House had already passed a budget resolution to begin the process of trying to repeal and replace Obamacare.

Right now, we are still weeks away from what Speaker Johnson has laid out as his deadline for passing that same budget resolution. That is an essential first step to passing a bill with just Republican votes in the weeks ahead -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Lauren, it's good to see you. Thank you very much.

Coming up for us, the president's border czar said last night, immigration crackdown operations start today. So, what is expected and how cities are preparing for it?

And, a tragedy at a ski resort. More than 60 people now reportedly killed after a fire breaks out in a hotel. Witnesses say people were trying to escape by jumping out of windows.

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[08:26:15]

SIDNER: President Trump wasting no time following through on his biggest campaign promises. A total crackdown on immigration, including starting the process to try to end birthright citizenship. The Supreme Court has weighed in on this issue in the past, saying the 14th Amendment protects this right, so expect a battle to ensue over this executive order.

But on the whole, what do Americans think about birthright citizenship? CNN senior data reporter, Harry Enten is always looking at the numbers, no matter what it is. What do the numbers tell you on this particular case, where, you know, if you are in this country and you have a child, even if you are not legally here or here illegally, that child is still considered a citizen.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: Yes, I mean, look, I think Donald Trump is by pushing policies like this, are just trying to eliminate his honeymoon period completely because this is just not a popular policy. End birthright citizenship for children born to immigrants illegally here.

Look at this, just 35 percent support, the clear majority, 53 percent opposed. And I've looked at multiple polls, looked at the question asked multiple different ways. If anything, this undersells the opposition by a little bit. If you don't in fact mention for children born to immigrants here legally and just and ask about ending birthright citizenship, the opposition shoots all the way up to about 70 percent.

So, but this 53 percent is clearly indicative of a country that does not want to end birthright citizenship. Simply put, this is not a popular policy and if Donald Trump pushes policies like this, his honeymoon period will squeeze and be even shorter than it was back in 2017.

SIDNER: Okay, have opinions changed over the years on this?

ENTEN: Yes, so look, they have asked this question numerous times. Remember, this is not some new policy idea. Republicans were pushing this during the anti-immigration, you know, era that was in the early 2010s.

And look here, support ending birthright citizenship, in 2011, it was 35 percent, in 2015, it was 31 percent, in 2025 it was 35 percent or it is 35 percent. You don't really see consistently like consistency like this across many poll questions, but you see it here.

Consistently, the percentage of Americans who support ending birthright citizenship is only about a third of the country and it's simply put, Sara Sidner, has not moved. No matter which politicians get in, the 35 percent we see now is most likely going to be the 35 percent we see a month, two months, three months, four months, five months down the line.

SIDNER: It hasn't changed a whole heck of a lot.

ENTEN: No.

SIDNER: Speaking of politicians, what about by party, what are you seeing there?

ENTEN: Yes, so you might expect that Republicans would overwhelmingly support this. Now, the majority do support ending birthright citizenship, but its only 56 percent. It's only 56 percent. Donald Trump's approval rating among Republicans. I assure you, when the first poll comes out of his presidency will be much closer to 90 percent.

So, he is losing about 30 to 35 percent of Republicans on this particular question. You look at Democrats, its just 21 percent. You look at Independents, it's just 19 percent.

The bottom line is the base, a large chunk of the Republican base abandons Donald Trump on this question of supporting an end to birthright citizenship. And Democrats and Independents, simply put, don't like it.

Trump would be much better off focusing on lowering taxes, on cracking down on immigrants who are here illegally and have committed crimes. That is much more popular policy. Support ending birthright citizenship, Sara Sidner, simply put, is not popular.

SIDNER: All right, Harry Enten very clear this morning on this Tuesday.

ENTEN: I'm trying.

SIDNER: Appreciate it.

All right, how are Democrats on Capitol Hill planning to respond as Donald Trump is staffed.

All right, and ahead, and the popular weight loss drug may be new wonder drugs. Why we say that. What other things could these drugs have an effect on? Guess what? Dementia and potentially cancer.

We'll talk about that ahead.

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[08:30:15]