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Trump Asks to Pause TikTok Ban; Trump Endorses Mike Johnson in Speaker's Race; Remembering Former President Carter. Aired 10:30-11a ET
Aired December 30, 2024 - 10:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[10:30:00]
ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: -- because the Chinese government has the ability to manipulate the content, so it's really a balance between national security interests on one hand, the First Amendment on the other.
PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: But it's interesting because Trump's legal filing took no technical position on the, that underlying First Amendment question, right? I mean, it nodded to it and nodded to the fact that a pause on the ban would preserve First Amendment rights of users. Are you surprised it didn't delve deeper into that issue as other legal filings have?
HONIG: Well, I'm surprised by the whole Trump filing here because you're right. He does not address the First Amendment issue or the national security issue. He just says basically with a bit of braggadocio, look, I'm the ultimate deal maker. I know how to get things done. I'm the master of social media.
And remember, as you said in the intro, this law kicks in January 19th, the day before Trump takes office. And so, what Trump has said is put the whole thing on hold, Supreme Court. Give me some time, some unspecified amount of time to sit down with TikTok, presumably with Congress, and try to work something out. By the way, he doesn't say what that solution would be.
So, again, I think it's logical and rational on its face, but the justices have to apply the law here, they have to apply the Constitution, and Trump doesn't even make a constitutional argument or try to.
BROWN: So, when you look at the vote, the votes for this law, banning TikTok, I mean, it was a bipartisan, right? If the court ultimately decides to uphold the law, what options would Trump have once he is sworn into office?
HONIG: So, if the court upholds the law, Trump can still -- it doesn't mean Trump's out of business -- it doesn't necessarily mean TikTok's out of business. If Trump wants, he can then go back to Congress and lobby Congress to pass a new law, really. So, if the Supreme Court upholds this law, the only way to undo the law then is for Congress to repeal it and pass something new in its place. So, even if the Supreme Court rules on this case, Trump still will have an opportunity to play deal maker here if he wants to do that. And it is important, as you mentioned, this was passed -- this law was passed by a bipartisan group in Congress and both the Joe Biden administration earlier in his first administration, Donald Trump had come out similarly saying TikTok is a national security ban. All of that is interesting atmospherically, but none of that is binding on the Supreme Court.
They can overturn things that presidents have done, presidents of both parties. They can overturn even bipartisan legislation.
BROWN: Elie Honig, great to see you as always and Happy New Year to you.
HONIG: Thanks, Pan. You too. All right.
BROWN: Still to come, remembering the long life and rich legacy of Jimmy Carter. We're going to look at the role faith played in his life up next.
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[10:35:00]
BROWN: And this just in to CNN, President-Elect Donald Trump just endorsed House Speaker Mike Johnson in the upcoming speaker race, posting on Truth Social, Speaker Mike Johnson is a good, hardworking, religious man. He will do the right thing, and we will continue to win. Mike has my complete and total endorsement.
Johnson is facing resistance from any within his own party to his re- election as Speaker. The new Congress is set to elect its new Speaker on Friday.
The White House confirms that Former President Jimmy Carter will be honored with an official state funeral on January 9th in Washington. The humble humanitarian and tireless volunteer passed away in his hometown of Plains, Georgia yesterday at the age of 100. And tributes have been pouring in from around the world, not only from leaders and politicians, but everyday people who say they were lucky to meet him.
Pope Francis is remembering Jimmy Carter for his firm commitment to peace and the welfare of those in need, all motivated, he said, by quote, "his deep Christian faith." CNN's Jake Tapper looks at how that faith guided Carter all his life.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JIMMY CARTER, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: I, Jimmy Carter, do solemnly swear.
JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Jimmy Carter faced the American presidency the same way he faced nearly everything else in his life, with unflinching faith.
CARTER: I have just taken the oath of office on the bible my mother gave me just a few years ago.
TAPPER (voice-over): And as Americans look to President Carter to lead them, President Carter looked to God for guidance.
CARTER: With God's help and for the sake of our nation, it is time for us to join hands in America.
TAPPER (voice-over): As a devout evangelical, the pride of Plains, Georgia was active in his hometown church well into his 90s.
CARTER: Well, thank you for coming this morning.
TAPPER (voice-over): Both as a student of faith and as a teacher.
CARTER: My father was a Sunday school teacher. He taught me and -- when I was a child, I still teach Sunday school when I can.
TAPPER (voice-over): A commitment to God and family were long held hallmarks of the Carter home.
DOUGLAS BRINKLEY, PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: The scripture was part of his daily childhood life. Every night at supper, they would not only say the Lord's prayer, but would read the gospel.
TAPPER (voice-over): When Carter left home for the Naval Academy, his faith followed.
BRINKLEY: He would spend his weekends on leave doing bible classes, tutoring people in scripture. He talks about Jesus Christ all the time.
TAPPER (voice-over): But in 1966, the lifelong Christian came to question his beliefs, his faith shaken after losing the Georgia governor's race in the primary.
CARTER: I really felt let down by God.
TAPPER (voice-over): Carter's younger sister read him scripture from the book of James, reminding the future president --
CARTER: That a setback in life should be an institution that results in perseverance and patience and self-analysis and renewed spiritual commitment.
STUART EIZENSTAT, PRESIDENT CARTER'S FORMER POLICY ADVISER: She made him into what evangelicals called a born-again Christian.
[10:40:00]
TAPPER (voice-over): With renewed conviction, Carter went on to serve as Georgia's governor and later as America's commander in chief. The 39th president and his new vice president, Walter Mondale, had Christianity in common. They bonded over it.
WALTER MONDALE, FORMER U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: I grew up in a minister's family, and he recognized what I was about. And I think that's one of the things that pulled us together.
TAPPER (voice-over): It was also one of the qualities that helped Carter become the first president to welcome the pope to the White House.
CARTER: Let all of us here of every faith stand as one, under God, for peace and justice and for love.
TAPPER (voice-over): The president's knowledge of world religion played a key role in his brokering of the Egypt-Israel peace treaty in 1979, a key accomplishment of his administration.
PETER BOURNE, PRESIDENT CARTER'S FORMER ADVISER: Because of his intimate reading of the Bible and other religious documents, he felt an intimacy with the almost the land of the Middle East. And he just thought that was the most important thing that he could do as president.
TAPPER (voice-over): But Carter's devotion to service did not end with his presidency. The former peanut farmer dedicated his energy to humanitarian work, building homes for the poor, even as he neared his 95th birthday.
CARTER: I happen to be a Christian, and it's a practical way to put my religious beliefs into practical use.
TAPPER (voice-over): While he continued to refer to himself humbly --
CARTER: I'm a Sunday school teacher, but I have a lot of people that confide in me.
TAPPER (voice-over): -- President Carter and his namesake Carter Center touched the lives of millions.
CARTER: Well, the work at the Carter Center has been, I'd say, more personally gratifying to me.
TAPPER (voice-over): Founded in 1982 as part of his presidential library, the Carter Center has worked to ensure the fairness of more than 100 elections in nearly 40 countries and is credited with virtually eliminating diseases like guinea worm that had long burdened parts of Africa.
CARTER: Guinea worm is probably one of the oldest diseases remembered by human beings. It's in the bible. We think it's a fire serpent.
TAPPER (voice-over): For his work, Jimmy Carter earned the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002. In addition to his philanthropic work, Jimmy Carter was a prolific author. He published more than 25 books touching on his belief in God, country, and kindness.
You only have to have two loves in your life, he wrote, for God, and for the person in front of you at any particular time. The person with Carter most was his wife, Rosalynn, who worshipped alongside him for more than seven decades.
CARTER: When I'm overseas or when she is, we read the same passage in the bible and we kind of, you know, communicate silently.
TAPPER (voice-over): Even when cancer threatened to take Mr. Carter from his wife and from the life he loved, he kept his faith and looked again to God.
CARTER: Now, I feel, you know, it's in the hands of God whom I worship, and I'll be prepared for anything that comes.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: And that was CNN's Jake Tapper reporting. We're going to have more news after the break. Stay with us.
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[10:45:00]
BROWN: From battles over artificial intelligence to the rise of streaming and a royal photoshop faux pas, CNN's Brian Stelter is counting down the top 10 media stories of 2024.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST (voice-over): Coming in at number 10 on the list of the top 10 media stories of 2024, a royal photo editing scandal. In an era of deep fakes and deep distrust of media, the Princess of Wales made some edits that backfired.
RICHARD QUEST, CNN BUSINESS EDITOR-AT-LARGE AND CNN ANCHOR, QUEST MEANS BUSINESS: Princess Charlotte's sleeve isn't where it should be. The zipper on Kate's sweater is misaligned.
STELTER (voice-over): The manipulated photo added to the mystery about Princess Kate's absence from public view.
MAX FOSTER, CNN ROYAL CORRESPONDENT: They are now caught in this storm which is pretty unprecedented because it's blown up in such an extraordinary way.
STELTER (voice-over): She took the blame for it and said she was just experimenting with photo editing. And then, weeks later --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And we begin with the breaking news out of London tonight and the outpouring of concern around the world for the Princess of Wales. Her stoic announcement that she has cancer, addressing some of the health questions she's been facing for weeks.
STELTER (voice-over): -- and that led the world to wish her well and lay off the conspiracy theories.
Number nine, the Caitlin Clark phenomenon. The Iowa superstar supercharged TV ratings for the NCAA tournament.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Interest in women's college basketball is skyrocketing, and Caitlin Clark is such a huge part of that.
STELTER (voice-over): And her WNBA debut at the Indiana Fever set ratings records too.
CAITLIN CLARK, BASKETBALL PLAYER: This league is a league I grew up admiring and wanting to be a part of.
STELTER (voice-over): Sports TV is a unifying force in a splintering world, as the Paris Olympics showed. Complete with new ways to watch, like the picture in picture Gold Zone. It was a multitasker's dream.
At number eight, big battles over A.I. 2024 was the year of the chat bot with tools like ChatGPT becoming a part of everyday life with A.I. tools now baked into phones and web browsers.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Artificial intelligence is the bright new shiny object of the tech world.
STELTER (voice-over): But while A.I. fever drove tech stocks higher, some media companies sued OpenAI and other firms, accusing them of stealing content.
CHRISTINA VEIGA, SENIOR DIRECTOR, NEWS LITERACY PROJECT: This is clearly trying to copy a lot of the hallmarks of what might be a quality news site. That's why it's so tricky right now for news consumers.
[10:50:00]
STELTER (voice-over): The battles will continue for years to come.
Number seven, streaming finally turns a profit. Companies like Disney and NBC have spent fortunes trying to catch up to Netflix. And now, after losing billions, the streamers are turning a profit.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What was your name again?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, I'm sorry. I can get ahead of myself. I'm Anxiety. I'm one of Riley's new emotions, and we are just super jazzed to be here.
STELTER (voice-over): And it's making the whole media business stronger. Disney's "Inside Out 2" and "Moana 2" were two of the biggest box office hits of the year, thanks in part to all the people who knew the originals from streaming. As the cable business contracts --
LESTER HOLT, NBC NEWS ANCHOR: There is breaking news tonight about our parent company, Comcast, and the future of its cable networks.
BRIAN CHEUNG, BUSINESS AND DATA CORRESPONDENT, NBC NEWS: It's a big shakeup in the media industry. Two sources confirmed to NBC News that our parent company, Comcast NBC Universal, will spin off the bulk of its cable networks.
STELTER (voice-over): Investors are betting big on streaming growth.
Number six, life imitates succession art.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am surrounded by snakes and (INAUDIBLE) morons.
STELTER (voice-over): It really is like something out of an HBO script. Fox patriarch Rupert Murdoch secretly petitioning a Nevada court to let him rewrite the family trust that he created 25 years ago. Murdoch wanted to take away power from three of his kids and make his eldest son, Lachlan, his permanent successor.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Rupert Murdoch is concerned that his other three children, if given control of these companies, might try to moderate a place like Fox News.
STELTER (voice-over): The family fought in court for days and a judge sided against Rupert and Lachlan, leaving the future of Fox News up in the air.
At number five, another courtroom drama, this one with Alex Jones.
ALEX JONES, INFOWARS HOST: This is probably the end of Infowars here very, very soon.
STELTER (voice-over): The Infowars conspiracy platform was up for auction to pay Jones' debt to the Sandy Hook families he defamed.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And this just in, the satirical news website, The Onion, has won the bankruptcy auction to buy conspiracy theorist Alex Jones' Infowars.
STELTER (voice-over): But in December, a judge put the deal on hold. The Onion says it is still serious about taking over Infowars.
At number four on the list, a presidential debate that rewrote history.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're live from Georgia.
STELTER (voice-over): Joe Biden and Donald Trump met on CNN's stage in June.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In their rematch for the nation's highest office.
STELTER (voice-over): And Biden's weak performance changed everything.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This was a game changing debate, in the sense that right now, as we speak, there is a deep, a wide, and a very aggressive panic in the Democratic Party.
STELTER (voice-over): When VP Kamala Harris stepped up weeks later, she put on giant, made for TV events.
KAMALA HARRIS, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: With your help this November, we will win. We will win. We will win.
STELTER (voice-over): But her campaign was up against not just Trump, but also people like Elon Musk. And that brings us to number three on the list. Musk transforms the site formerly known as Twitter.
DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT-ELECT: His name is Elon Musk.
STELTER (voice-over): As other social networks shifted away from politics, X went all in, promoting right-wing voices.
TRUMP: He saved free speech, he created so many different great things. Take over, Eladius. Take over.
STELTER (voice-over): This was led by Musk himself, who endorsed Trump right after the Butler assassination attempt.
ELON MUSK, SPACEX, CEO: Who do you want representing America? Yes.
STELTER (voice-over): And spent hundreds of millions helping Trump win the election. Some Twitterers have fled for bluer skies.
ROSE WANG, CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER, BLUESKY: Since the election, we've seen more than 10 million U.S. users join Bluesky.
STELTER (voice-over): But X remains a dominant real-time source of news and views.
At number two, adjusting to the new Trump normal. Even as 2020's election lies were litigated in the courts --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: An election denier is now admitting that he was wrong.
STELTER (voice-over): -- media outlets and owners figured out how to recalibrate in this election year, given Trump's history of threats and pressure. Jeff Bezos outraged Washington Post staffers by blocking the paper's endorsement of Harris. A quarter million subscribers canceled, with some saying Bezos was appeasing Trump. But --
JEFF BEZOS, FOUNDER, BLUE ORIGIN: I'm proud of the decision we made.
STELTER (voice-over): -- Bezos said opinion sections should not be endorsing presidents.
BEZOS: We knew there would be blowback, and we did the right thing anyway.
STELTER (voice-over): ABC settled a defamation lawsuit with Trump by giving $15 million to his presidential museum. Media experts fear that Trump will file more suits to punish the press.
And the number one media story of 2024, it's the rise of the influencers.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Joe Rogan Podcast, check it out.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The Joe Rogan experience.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Join my day Joe Rogan Podcast by night, all day.
[10:55:00]
STELTER (voice-over): The influencer election showed the power of podcasts, YouTube, TikTok, and other new media platforms. Both Harris and Trump did lots of outreach to podcast stars.
HARRIS: I was the first vice president or president to ever in office go to a reproductive health care clinic, ever.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Really?
HARRIS: Yes. Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I didn't know that, but I guess that makes sense.
TRUMP: My son's a big fan of yours, Barron.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Really Barron is?
TRUMP: Yes, he knows you very well. He said dad, he's big. You're a big one.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's cool.
STELTER: Traditional media is now battling for relevancy in this social media age, but we're still breaking all the news and giving those influencers something to talk about.
Brian Stelter, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Very good point, Brian. Coming up, the CDC pushing back after some health experts suggest the U.S. isn't working fast enough to contain the bird flu outbreak. Including Dr. Birx, who told me on this show last Friday, that government officials have their head in the sand right now about the bird flu. A doctor with the CDC joins me next, and response. Stay with us.
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[11:00:00]
