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Trump Jump Starts Second Term; Trump Signs Executive Actions on Immigration; Winter Storm Sweeping the South. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired January 21, 2025 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:00]

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Now, they just might be miracle drugs. A new study is showing that GLP-1s, the super popular weight loss drugs that many people are now taking, could have a wide range of other health benefits. On top of weight loss, they may also potentially help to treat things like substance abuse disorders, infections, certain cancers and dementia. Having said that, don't go rushing out to take the shots just yet. The study also found some downsides, including a higher risk for health issues, like nausea, kidney stones and sleep disorders.

All right, rejoice, Buckeye fans, you are national champions, as you already know, once again. The first ever 12 team college football playoff was capped with The Ohio State going to victory over the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, 34-23 in Atlanta Monday night. Ohio State dominated from start to finish, ending a remarkable season many had thought was over after it lost to Michigan in the final weekend of the regular season. This is the Buckeye's ninth national championship in school history, and first since 2014. So, so it's been a while. Quarterback Will Howard was named game MVP.

And now to another MVP, that is Kate Bolduan. A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: The first full day of Donald Trump's second term begins with new moves on immigration. Cities across the country now bracing for the long promised mass deportations. And Trump's move to end birthright citizenship faces its first legal challenge already.

The battle of the billionaires to win influence in the new administration is well underway and on full display. Some of the world's most powerful tech CEOs front and center at inauguration.

And a once in a generation storm. The first ever blizzard warning for parts of Louisiana and Texas.

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

SIDNER: It is the start of a new era this morning, the Trump era part two. Moments ago, the White House press secretary promised a, quote, "massive announcement" on infrastructure.

And in just minutes, Marco Rubio will be sworn in as secretary of state. The first Trump cabinet member to be sworn in.

President Trump is also expected to sign more executive actions today after signing a tsunami of orders yesterday. They included an immigration crackdown, withdrawal from both the Paris climate agreement and the World Health Organization, and pushing back on TikTok.

Also, part of his first actions, pardons, for more than 1,500 January 6th rioters.

CNN's Jeff Zeleny joins us now.

What can we expect that is going to be happening today as the president is off to a very, very busy start?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Sara, good morning.

There is no doubt executive orders certainly were the rule of the first day of this new Trump administration. All of the sweeping executive orders, from granting the clemency, to the immigration crackdown.

Now, the government will be reacting to all of that. Immigration, of course, is chief among them in terms of how this -how the orders trickle down and are implemented. However, the act of governing will also start beginning today.

The president, we're told, is going to be meeting with Republican leaders here at the White House. And they are going to plot a path forward to how to actually get legislation done. That, of course, will be responsible for any big achievements or big ticket items here. Executive actions are important, something he can do, but certainly what this Republican Congress is able to do or is not able to do will determine the success of this administration. So, we're told those meetings will come this afternoon here at the White House.

As well as President Trump is also, at 4:00, we're told, is going to make an announcement on infrastructure. Now, of course, we have to put this into context. One of the biggest achievements of the Biden administration was that bipartisan infrastructure law. And that is going to be implemented for the next several years to come, with projects across the country. So, it's unclear exactly what the Trump administration can announce in addition to that. But President Trump will be talking about that, as well as a variety of other things.

But again, on day two of this new administration, how this administration works with Republicans in Congress and governs, obviously, that is still an open question. And those meetings begin today here this afternoon, Sara.

SIDNER: We're certainly seeing a difference in this administration than his first administration. We will see what happens later today and throughout the next 100 days.

Jeff Zeleny, thank you so much. Appreciate it. Kate.

[09:05:02]

BOLDUAN: ICE raids are coming. That is the message from President Trump as he has very clearly moved quickly to bring about his promised immigration crackdown.

Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can we expect ICE raids in major cities tomorrow?

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I don't want to say when, but it's going to happen. It has to happen or we're not going to have a country left.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: And his borders czar saying operations begin today.

Out of the gate yesterday there was maybe no bigger focus for the president than the southern border, declaring a national emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border, labeling Mexico drug cartels terrorist organizations, and moving to end birthright citizenship. The ACLU has already filed a lawsuit against that one.

CNN's Priscilla Alvarez is in Washington tracking all of it.

I named a few. I did not name all, Priscilla, that is for sure. What are you learning this morning?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, certainly, Kate. And even the small moves are the ones that had some of the biggest impact, at least in the initial hours of the Trump administration. That move that I'm referring to there being the closing down of a border app known as CBP One. It was important because it provided migrants a legal pathway to come into the United States and seek asylum. Those appointments were scheduled out over days, have been over the last several years under the Biden administration.

But then suddenly, at the stroke of noon, those appointments were canceled. So, that was a small move that had a vast effect along the U.S. southern border, in addition to all of these executive actions that we're still parsing through some of the details. But all the sources I've spoken with are really stunned by the scale and scope of these executive actions, including, for example, one that suspends refugee admissions for a period of time. Remember, refugee - the refugee program allows them to come to the United States after a quite cumbersome process that is going to kick off later this month. So, taken in totality, it is a dramatic overhaul of U.S. immigration policy.

Now, looking ahead, we are still waiting to hear more about those interior enforcement actions. Tom Homan, the border czar, had said yesterday that those enforcement actions are expected to start today. Now, sources tell me and maintain that they will be looking at the public safety and national security threats. But, and this is the but that is different from the Biden administration, anyone else that they encounter who is undocumented could also be swept up in those sweeps.

Now, we're still looking to see where exactly this happens and how it happens in other ways that are different from how ICE has been operating. But certainly multiple Democratic-led cities who have been receiving migrants over the last several years are on high alert. I spoke with the Denver mayor, who has drawn the ire of President Trump and Tom Homan, and he told me that he has been meeting with his city officials to prepare for this, knowing that there just aren't that many details at this moment, but trying to provide some guidelines for those city officials and for the community.

So again, we're still waiting to piece together how this mass deportation pledge is going to come together. But I will tell you, Kate, that ICE has been historically underfunded. They don't have enough resources. So, one of the big questions is going to be, how exactly will Tom Homan shore that up to try to execute on these promises and, in the interim, work with what he's got to start detaining and deporting undocumented immigrants.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: And you raised - and you raised something that is very important because while maybe the focus and the shift and the priority level, if you will, has shifted, the amount of funding that ICE has right now has not shifted. So, that is something to watch.

Thank you so much.

Sara.

SIDNER: All right, joining us now, CNN political commentators Maria Cardona and Scott Jennings.

Maria, first to you.

You know, Trump, as you saw, signed a slew 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 the Supreme Court upheld in part of the 14th Amendment's constitutional right.

When you see these many different orders, what does it tell you about where he is going with this and how severe this is going to be?

MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think it's going to be incredibly severe, Sara. But it shouldn't surprise us because he's been talking about this for a very long time. But the bottom line here is, is that none of this is going to actually fix the problem and the challenge of immigration that we face in our country. And all of it is focused on cruelty, on division, on separating families, and on inflicting as much pain as possible in communities across the country. And what you're seeing today is so many communities are in distress. Many families are panicking. Many families, as you know, live in mixed status situations. And so, there is going to be many, many people who are going to get caught up in this dragnet of cruelty, when, in fact, this is going to do absolutely nothing to fix the problem.

[09:10:10}

It's going to create so much more chaos. It's going to create so much more confusion.

And, you know, what Priscilla was talking about, this app that the Biden administration had put in place, was actually geared toward fixing the problem of that chaos that we had seen on the border. And it was working. The - what we have right now on the southern border in terms of illegal crossings, the numbers are lower than they were when Trump left office the first time.

So, if Trump really wanted to fix this problem, he would work with Democrats on a bipartisan solution, which we know is exactly what is needed. But when you have people around him like Stephen Miller, which we know is focused on getting rid of, I think, frankly, every immigrant in this country and shutting down immigration period, that is not the way to fix such a big problem that we are facing.

SIDNER: Scott, do you think, to Maria's point there, do you think that this is a move to try and stop all immigration at some point, especially since the birthright, you know, executive order was - was put in place day - day one?

SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: No, I don't. In fact, Donald Trump has said we're going to have a legal immigration system. And that's really the issue here is, is it going to be legal immigration, where we know who people are, where they're coming from, why they're coming here? Are they of a benefit to our country? Or are we going to continue to have the chaos of the last several years, where millions upon millions upon millions of people just flow across the border?

And I heard Maria say this is about inflicting pain. And I strongly disagree with that. I think a lot of pain has already been inflicted on our country. I'm sure Laken Riley's family would say they're in enormous anguish still to this day because of what happened to their daughter when she was violently murdered by an illegal immigrant.

There is pain felt in cities all over America. Talk to any local official, they're trying to deal with these illegal immigrant populations in New York and Chicago and many other cities. There's a lot of pain that's already been inflicted.

The point is this, we have to have a legal immigration system, and it has to benefit the United States. The current system is of no benefit to the United States in the way that it has been administered over the last four years.

And one final political point. The American people voted for Donald Trump to get this chaos under control. And "The New York Times" polling this weekend, it was not controversial. People want deportations of people who are here, especially if they are violent criminals.

SIDNER: Scott, you speak to something the American people did put Donald Trump in office, and immigration was one of the top two issues, as well as the economy.

But you mentioned pain. Both of you did. And there is a lot of pain being felt by the 140 police officers who were attacked during the January 6th attack on the Capitol.

When it comes to law and order, Donald Trump's spoken about it many times. Republicans have always said that they are the party of law and order. How can that be now after seeing that all of those who took part in that attack, those who were violent as well, have been pardoned by Donald Trump, or their sentences commuted?

First to you, Scott.

JENNINGS: Well, first of all, I don't particularly care for what happened on January the 6th. I didn't like it the day that it happened. I don't like it today. I think it was a terrible day. I don't think the people who participated in it should have done that, and it should never happen again. That's number one.

Number two, the people who did participate in it, by and large, all face some kind of punishment. A great many, hundreds, thousands went to jail. Some have already been in jail and completed their sentence. Most were financially ruined. Their lives have been ruined. They paid a severe price.

It's Donald Trump's position that they paid enough. And that's his prerogative as the president. I don't like the idea that people who assaulted police officers are getting any kind of leniency because I think that is a special kind of crime. I'm a strong defender of police officers, and I do take the term law and order and back the blue very seriously.

But there's no political benefit for Trump to do this. This isn't a particularly popular thing to do. However, I would point out, he did campaign on it. He made it perfectly clear what he intended to do. And he followed through on it.

I do think and hope that this now will put this behind us, that this is over. The American people adjudicated this in the election as a political matter. And hopefully it never, ever happens again in this country.

SIDNER: Maria, your sentiments on this. You know, with the same police officers, some of them are having to protect the Capitol to this day, as this administration comes in.

CARDONA: Yes, it's heartbreaking. And I think that the Republican Party, and Donald Trump in particular, have completely lost their credibility when they talk about law and order because of these pardons. And you've had the police officers who suffered that day, and we have the families who lost police officers, who are saying that this is a massive betrayal by their country of what they went through. [09:15:02]

And this is not popular. Scott's right, this is absolutely not popular. We saw some polling that say the American people do not believe that this should happen. And I think, from a political standpoint, it is a big loser for the Republican Party.

But I do want to go back to - I do want to go back to deportation for a second because while the American people do want this fixed, when you talk about mass deportations, and they realize who is going to be caught in this dragnet of cruelty, which are the dreamers, business owners, first responders, teachers, the people in our community, community leaders, the people who are injecting trillions of dollars into our economy, long standing families who have roots in our communities, the American people absolutely reject that. And that is something that we need to figure out.

So again, if Donald Trump and Republicans were really focused on a solution, this is not it, which is why I believe, at the end of the day, the cruelty and the pain and the division is what Trump is after because that is what his base wants. And instead of being a real leader and focused on solutions with Democrats -

JENNINGS: That - I'm sorry, that's - that's not true, Maria. That - that is - look -

CARDONA: He's focused on giving his MAGA supporters what they want.

JENNINGS: Maria, that's not true. I voted for Donald Trump, and I don't want cruelty and division. I want law and order, and I want an immigration system that works for the United States. And Donald Trump is -

CORDONA: Well, then work with Democrats, Scott.

JENNINGS: Donald - Donald Trump is not interested in deporting people who are here legally, legal, you know, people who have followed all the rules. They are interested in primarily, right out of the gate, two populations, violent criminals and people who have existing adjudicated deportation orders. That's millions of people.

And I refuse to accept the farcical argument that the U.S. economy -

CARDONA: That's already happening, Scott.

JENNINGS: That the U.S. economy is underpinned by rapists, murderers and people who are awaiting deportation. It's just not true.

SIDNER: Scott Jennings, Maria Cardona, thank you both -

CARDONA: That is a broad brushstroke that is unfair.

SIDNER: We're going to end it -

CARDONA: So -

SIDNER: We're going to end it here. Thank you to both of you.

All right, ahead, not included in the president's series of executive actions so far, those long-promised tariffs. However, when we might see them. It will be faster than you may think. And how that might impact the economy. We will discuss that.

And for the first time ever, parts of Louisiana facing a blizzard warning. We're tracking another round of extreme weather and rare, rare weather there in the south.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:21:42]

BOLDUAN: This morning, people in south Texas are waking up to their first ever blizzard warning. Roughly 40 million people across the south are under winter weather alerts. Frigid temps, potentially historic snowfall in cities, let's be honest, not used to harsh winter weather. The governors of five southern states have already declared states of emergency. The National Weather Service is describing it as a generational winter storm event. That sounds ominous.

CNN's Ed Lavandera is in the middle of it without a hat, but still in the middle of it.

Eddie, what's happening?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, we're tough out here. We have a legit snow event happening here in Houston, Texas. You can make snowballs. You can make snowmen. And I think people are in for a pretty good day.

But so far, you know, obviously, this - a storm like this, a winter storm like this in this part of the world that is used to hurricanes, not these kinds of events, is going to cause some problems. Airports are shut down. Schools are shut down. And that's going to - you know, a great deal of concern about the roadways.

Just to give you a sense of how unprepared places like this generally are for these types of storms, the state of Texas is having to bring in snow plows into the Houston area and these areas that are affected by these storms. That's not the kind of equipment that a lot of these cities just have sitting around on hand. It's usually not needed.

So, the great concern right now for city officials here in Houston is urging people to stay off the roadways.

BOLDUAN: All right, Eddie, thank you. Oh, thank you so much.

We have to break away really quick. Ed Lavandera in Texas.

We need to break away. We're watching, looks like now we can call him Secretary of State Marco Rubio just getting sworn in.

Let's listen in for a second. MARCO RUBIO, SECRETARY OF STATE: Thank you, Mr. Vice President, for

making time. It's been a busy 72 hours and - yes, maybe longer, but 96 hours, I guess.

But first I want to thank Janette, my wife, who has been so supportive. As the vice president knows well, it's impossible to do any of these jobs we do here, including the Senate, but now in this new role, without the support of our family and particularly of our spouses. And so, thank you for being supportive every step of the way. I would not stand here before you today without that.

I'm also thrilled and grateful that all four of my children are here. They're the most important legacy any of us will leave behind. The most important job I'll ever have is that of a father and a husband. And I'm honored that they are able to join us. Amanda, my oldest, Daniela, my second, Anthony, our third, and then Dominic. I'm very happy that they're able to see this today.

I also want to thank my colleague, Senator Risch and Mrs. Risch for joining us. He did a great job managing the committee, which brought us here to this point. But he's also been one of my closest friends in my time in the U.S. Senate. In fact, we, by reason of chance, certainly not by design, we wound up basically being first and second behind one another on seniority in every committee. So, we even sat next to each other on the floor. So, people thought it was a plot. It was not by design. And -

BOLDUAN: All right, we've been listening in, now Secretary of State Marco Rubio in his first comments in the role. He has a huge, huge task ahead of him for the administration, getting sworn in, as you see, by the vice president, J.D. Vance.

Marco Rubio, just as a note, he won unanimous support in the Senate to win this - win confirmation, 99-0.

[09:25:06]

And he begins his job today as America's chief diplomat. We're going to keep an eye on that.

But we're also keeping an eye on the opening bell. Minutes away from the opening bell. We're watching closely to see how investors are reacting to the new Trump term. We're going to bring that to you.

And Donald Trump's return to the White House already making waves around the globe as well. What the second Trump presidency means for, among many other things, the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal and the Middle East at large.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: This morning, the first member of Donald Trump's cabinet was just sworn in. Now Secretary of State Marco Rubio taking the oath with his wife at his side. And the oath administered by Vice President J.D. Vance. Now, one of Rubio's first tasks as America's now chief diplomat is

bringing to an end Russia's war on Ukraine, a conflict just one month away from entering its third year.

[09:30:02]

This morning, Rubio was asked about how he will approach negotiations to end that war.