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Trump Preparing To Head To Washington, D.C. Ahead Of Inaugural Events; Organizers Scramble After Ceremonies Shifted Due To Cold; Israel Says Ceasefire On Hold Until It Gets Hostage List From Hamas; Inside Israeli Hospital's Preparations For Hostages' Arrival; Tiktok Countdown Continues; Thousands Rally In D.C. To Protest Trump, GOP Policies; Inside The Home Of Auschwitz Death Camp Commandant. Aired 3- 4p ET

Aired January 18, 2025 - 15:00   ET

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


[15:00:00]

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, again, everyone. Thank you so much for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

All right. In just a few hours, President-elect Trump will board a plane bound for Washington, D.C., making his triumphant return as celebrations begin for his second inauguration. Right now, Trump is in Florida preparing for a busy weekend before he takes the oath of office on Monday. Many of his supporters have already started showing up to the nation's capital in advance of the big events, and they will look very different.

The events that is, very different from nearly all other past presidential inaugurations. Because of the bitterly cold forecast for Monday, Trump decided to move the inauguration ceremony, this swearing in, inside the Capitol rotunda.

CNN's Steve Contorno is live for us in West Palm Beach, Florida, near the president-elect's Mar-a-Lago home.

So what does the weekend look like as he's about to embark on a plane and head to Washington, D.C.?

STEVE CONTORNO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fred, in just a couple of hours, Donald Trump will leave South Florida for the last time as president-elect and head to Washington, D.C. for a weekend of festivities. It begins tonight at his Trump property in Sterling, Virginia, where there is a reception planned for him. And then tomorrow he will attend a wreath laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier inside Arlington National Cemetery, followed by a rally that evening at the Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C.

This is his first time addressing a D.C. crowd since January 6th, 2020. That speech he gave just on the National Mall right before a mob of his supporters rushed the U.S. Capitol in a bloody attempt to keep the certification of the election from taking place. And of course, all of this leads up to Donald Trump's second inauguration, which, as you said, will be inside, not outside this year because of this cold weather that is coming to hit D.C. in the next 24 hours. WHITFIELD: And then, Steve, you know, we're also getting a clear

picture now of some of the first items of action Trump wants to take after his swearing in. Executive orders, some including immigration. What are you learning?

CONTORNO: That's right. Yes, absolutely. Immigration at the top of the list for Donald Trump. No surprise here. He has made that one of the hallmarks of his campaign. And he is promising to act incredibly quickly soon after taking office. He just spoke moments ago with NBC and told them, quote, "It will be begin very, very, very early, very quickly. I can't say which cities because things are evolving and I don't think we want to say what city. You'll see it firsthand. We have to get the criminals out of our country. And I think you would agree with that. And I don't know how anyone could not agree with that."

And this coming with reporting just in the last couple of days from within CNN that Donald Trump is planning a flurry of executive orders for immediately after taking office, reversing Biden policies, moving more resources from the Pentagon to the U.S. southern border, and clearing the deck for ICE raids and deportation operations to begin across the country.

It's something he promised to do, and in many respects, Fred, it's something the American people actually want him to do. "New York Times" coming up with polls today that suggest more than half the country are looking for Donald Trump to deport people who are not in the United States legally. An overwhelming majority open to him deporting people, especially if they arrived here during the last four years.

So that is certainly where Trump's focus will be in those first 24 hours. And he is already indicating he will be moving quickly on that front -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right, Steve Contorno, thank you so much.

All right. With the bitter cold in Washington, D.C., forcing inauguration ceremonies indoors, organizers are scrambling to make last minute adjustments just as tens of thousands of people arrive in the nation's capital to take part in the events.

CNN's Holmes Lybrand is in Washington ahead of the ceremony.

So, Holmes, what are some of the biggest challenges that organizers are facing as they try to get things ready?

HOLMES LYBRAND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it's a giant challenge. The Secret Service, Metro Police and others have been planning for months since early 2024 to have the inauguration outside. I went to a facility outside of D.C., watched the Secret Service prepare the parade, and how they would kind of walk with Trump and whether or not he would get out of the vehicle, go greet supporters.

[15:05:06]

That obviously is not happening anymore. Those plans are being scrapped and new plans in just three days are having to come together. So that's 25,000 law enforcement and military personnel in D.C. to secure the inauguration being scrambled, kind of being reorganized and shuffled.

Now, the good part of this is that these events are both being moved inside. So the Capitol, the rotunda, will hold the inauguration. We expect about 700 attendees, which will include members of Congress, their spouses, as well as VIPs to attend, not members of the public. Members of the public will be moved to the Capital One Arena. So because both of these are inside and that parade will now happen or take place somehow in the Capital One Arena, that makes security a lot more simple.

Now, the Secret Service as well as MPD, are working to expand fencing around Capital One Arena. They're going to have to adjust all of their security plans, but it makes it easier to secure not only the president, but participants. Now, it's still unclear how the Capital Arena, which holds only 20,000 people, is going to kind of take in these 200,000 people that were ticketed for the inauguration. It's really unclear how that's all going to play out.

WHITFIELD: Yes. All right. Still a lot to work out. And the clock is ticking. All right. Holmes Lybrand, thank you so much.

LYBRAND: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: All right. Joining me right now to talk more about the inauguration, Stephen Neukam. He is a congressional reporter for Axios.

Stephen, great to see you.

STEPHEN NEUKAM, CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER, AXIOS: Yes. Thanks for having me.

WHITFIELD: So traditionally, how much of a tone is set for an incoming president through inaugural activities?

NEUKAM: I think the interesting part here is that the tone is already being set. If you look at what's happened in Congress before President-elect Trump even, you know, enters the Oval Office later this next week, he is going to have a border crackdown bill on his desk in the first day, and he's likely to sign it because a handful of Senate Democrats decided to partner with Senate Republicans.

Obviously, the House passed the bill. It will have to go back to the House because it was amended in the Senate. But he will very quickly be able to check off an agenda item that was at the top of his list during the election. So I think the tone before the inauguration has already been set when it comes to the legislative agenda for the Trump administration.

WHITFIELD: You know, a lot of times, you know, the general populace feels like they have a real connection with a president by either watching or being in attendance for an inauguration. Something that makes it so memorable is that it really does involve the people on the mall, you know, folks bundled up, et cetera. That's not going to happen, or even along the parade route, you know, waving and cheering.

Will that absence take away from what might make this a memorable part of presidential history?

NEUKAM: I think it's certainly a bookmark that you can put in the history. We know that other presidents have been inaugurated indoors before President Reagan, but we also know that President-elect Trump is one to talk about his crowd sizes a lot. And we know that it was going to be bitter cold in Washington, D.C. this week. So this is also could be a convenient way to, you know, not talk about a crowd size if it was going to be blistering cold and not nearly as much folks are showing up.

But I'm sure at the Capital One Arena will be packed. I'm sure that the capital -- the area around the Capitol will still be packed, and I think President Trump will probably take, you know, as he is every opportunity to connect with supporters.

WHITFIELD: Had there been any big talk about that, that it was going to be so cold and that perhaps, you know, the crowd wouldn't be optimal and that that might be an impetus for this decision making?

NEUKAM: Well, I think that the, you know, chief among it is the health concerns, again, like it really was going to be blistering cold. And having that many folks outdoors, I mean, we saw walking around the Capitol complex this week just how massive the setup was. And my heart goes out to the workers who spent the last week setting up the outdoor infrastructure that will no longer be in use. So I think chief among it was the health concerns and moving it inside, it's easier to keep attendees safe.

WHITFIELD: You mentioned, you know, one of the first items that the new president plans to tackle is immigration and executive, you know, orders.

[15:10:04]

Also, he has been focused on energy type policies. Is there a feeling that this is going to be, you know, after swearing in, after, you know, some inaugural activities that he is essentially going to be, you know, in the White House just from one, you know, policy or executive order to the next. That was a scene that we saw similarly in the first administration.

NEUKAM: Yes. I think you're going to see a flood of executive orders come in in his first day. It's something, you know, similar that President Biden did in his first day, especially repealing all of the border related policies that the Trump administration had set up. So I think you're going to see a lot from the White House.

I also think that you're going to see a lot of Republican attempts on Capitol Hill to peel back other Biden rules that have been passed down through legislation. Congress has the ability to, after an administration to roll those back. So I think you're going to see that both on Capitol Hill and from the Oval Office. WHITFIELD: OK. And also top of mind for the incoming president is

seeking confirmation for, you know, his cabinet. We had, you know, we all witnessed confirmation hearings last week. But you recently wrote a piece for Axios where you say Trump's team is worried, you know, that former GOP leader Mitch McConnell's silence, particularly on Tulsi Gabbard, could spell trouble for her path with the nomination for director of National Intelligence.

What more can you tell us on that?

NEUKAM: Yes, I think of all of the nominees that Trump has sort of pending in the Senate, I think Democrats have sort of zeroed in as Gabbard as the most likely to be able to be sunk. And while the odds may not be great, we know that the Trump transition team has been nervous, the Gabbard team has been nervous about the silence. Leader McConnell, both publicly and privately, has been silent and has not tipped his hand either way.

And the thinking is, is that if Mitch McConnell comes out and is no vote on Tulsi Gabbard, that might open the floodgates for some more moderate Republicans to also buck the president-elect. So that is certainly a space to watch for Senate Republicans and for the president-elect.

WHITFIELD: All right, Stephen Neukam, great to see you. Thanks so much.

NEUKAM: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: All right. Coming up, the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas remains fragile. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu now saying Hamas must provide a list of hostages to be released first.

And is this the last day of TikTok in the U.S.? The signs of hope the Sunday showdown may just be a hiccup for the video sharing app.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:17:31]

WHITFIELD: All right, we've got breaking news. A ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas that was set to begin hours from now has hit a roadblock. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said earlier today that Israel would not proceed until Hamas provided a list of Israeli hostages to be freed as part of the deal.

The Israel Defense Forces are still preparing for a gradual withdrawal from Gaza. That's according to a senior military official.

CNN anchor and senior global affairs analyst Bianna Golodryga is in Tel Aviv.

Bianna, what happens now?

BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN SENIOR GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, Fred, I'm standing here in Hostages Square, as in just the hours prior when you and I spoke there was a crowd full of people here honoring the hostages that remain in Gaza. The hostages that will not be part of this phase one of the deal, the 33 hostages are expected to come home. We heard from family members of hostages and hostages that had been released as well during the last ceasefire hostage deal in November of 2023.

Your point about there being some hurdles now and that things are not going accordingly, as they had been expected to in terms of Hamas was supposed to deliver a list of the three names, what we were expecting to be three female Israeli civilian hostages that were expected to be released tomorrow at 4:00 p.m. local time, was when we were expecting to hear and see that list that Hamas would have delivered to Qatar and Qatar then to Israel.

That has not happened yet. And hence there is a bit of apprehension here as to whether this deal will go forward. For now, there's no sense from Israeli officials, government officials, that this deal will not continue. But as we've been talking about for the last week, it is very fragile ever since a deal was agreed to. What we're expecting to see now, tomorrow is at 8:30 in the morning when this ceasefire local time will go into effect, at 4:00 p.m. is when we are expecting to have news about possibly the hostage names and have Hamas deliver the hostages to the Red Cross and the Red Cross then would deliver them to the IDF.

Once they are in IDF custody is when we would see the release of Palestinian prisoners. So we are still waiting to get a list from Hamas to see who the names are on this list. And we also heard from Prime Minister Netanyahu earlier this evening local time in a recorded, prerecorded message to the Israeli public stating that the goals of this deal and the war are still intact, that Israel plans on seeing that all hostages, all 98, come back to Israel and that they are still committed to the destruction and dismantling of Hamas.

[15:20:20]

As you know, he's facing a lot of pressure here domestically, especially within the far-right elements of his government to have rejected this deal, and thus he is speaking not only to the Israeli public but to members of his own coalition as well.

WHITFIELD: And then, Bianna, even though, you know, this deal may be on pause for the moment, you know, how are Israelis preparing for the possible return of hostages?

GOLODRYGA: Well, one of the reasons, Fred, that the atmosphere here has been subdued throughout the week, even when news of a hostage deal came to light, was because there have been so many times where we've come close to a deal, only to see one not come to fruition. So people here are very apprehensive. Sunday can't come soon enough. And they also know that not all of the hostages would be part of this deal as well.

And that is also why there is a lot of emotion and a lot of devastation among Israelis, knowing that the hard part continues then after phase two to bring the remaining hostages home. But as for preparations for the first hostages to be released, the hospitals, about six of them here in Israel, have been preparing for months for this day, and they are waiting to see how these hostages come out, their physical, their mental conditions. And when they are assessed by the IDF tomorrow afternoon, tomorrow early evening, that's when they will be designated to specific hospitals.

We visited one of the possible hospitals where they may be checked into to see how they've been preparing. Here's what we found.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GOLODRYGA (voice-over): As Israelis anxiously await the release of hostages, six hospitals have spent the past several months preparing for this moment.

PROF. ELI SPRECHER, CEO, TEL AVIV SOURASKY MEDICAL CENTER: We had some large exercise where we are simulating the arrival of hostages.

GOLODRYGA: The Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center says they treated 17 of the 105 hostages released during the last ceasefire hostage deal in November 2023.

SPRECHER: There is a lot of data suggesting that they may all be suffering from severe malnutrition and this requires a very specific program.

GOLODRYGA: On hand will be emergency doctors, nurses and psychological support staff. Hospital officials are also prioritizing privacy for returning hostages and their families.

YAFFA HILLEL SHAKAROF, NURSE, TEL AVIV SOURASKY MEDICAL CENTER: We learned to give them their whole privacy.

GOLODRYGA: That there was not enough privacy.

SHAKAROF: Yes.

GOLODRYGA: When the last hostages were released.

SHAKAROF: Yes.

GOLODRYGA: And what was the consequence of that?

SHAKAROF: Well, a huge pain.

GOLODRYGA (voice-over): What was a dermatology unit has been transformed to a private returnee floor. The first among the hostages to be released are female civilians who will be treated in rooms like this one. Also expected to be released in the first phase is 20-year- old Agam Berger, along with four other female IDF soldiers taken captive from their military base on October 7th.

Video of their capture released by their families show the physical violence they experienced that day. Agam's cousin speaks to the anxiety families are experiencing and preparing for. ASHLEY WAXMAN BAKSHI, COUSIN OF ISRAELI HOSTAGE AGAM BERGER: We know

what they did on October 7th. We also know from released hostages who came home what they did to hostages in captivity. That's the biggest fear. The physical aspect of it, but more importantly the mental and emotional aspect of what kind of trauma something like that can do to a young girl who's 20 years old, who has her whole life ahead of her.

GOLODRYGA: Sixty-five-year-old American Israeli, Keith Siegel, is also expected to be released in the first phase of the deal. His brother, Lee, still out rallying for the return of the hostages, is worried about Keith's health.

LEE SIEGEL, BROTHER OF AMERICAN-ISRAELI HOSTAGE KEITH SIEGEL: Our last formal sign of life for Keith was nine months ago, a Hamas video clip, where he appeared 65 years old. He was not yet 65, he was 64, looking almost 84, very worn.

GOLODRYGA: With hostages ranging in age from 2-year-old Kfir Bibas to 86-year-old Shlomo Mansour, medical staff are prepared to treat each hostage case by case.

For family members, the thought of a reunion with their loved ones is almost too much to bear.

GOLODRYGA: Have you thought about what you will say to Agam when you do see her face to face?

BAKSHI: I have been doing everything to get you home. Thank you for making my dream come true, for coming home.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[15:25:02]

GOLODRYGA: Now, Fred, the Israeli public, even Israeli doctors here and nurses and medical staff, know there's going to be a stark difference from the hostages that will be returning tomorrow and those that returned to November 2023, 105 were released then. They were physically thin, dehydrated and ill, some of them were, but they were all alive. And there's a dark reality here, knowing that some of the hostages that will be released will be coming home sadly in body bags as well, Fred, this time.

WHITFIELD: Yes. It's all so sad. All right. Bianna Golodryga, thank you so much.

All right. With us now is Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib. He is a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and grew up in Gaza.

First, what is your reaction to today's developments involving the Prime Minister Netanyahu, who says he is demanding a list of those to be released before anything is to move forward?

AHMED FOUAD ALKHATIB, SENIOR FELLOW, ATLANTIC COUNCIL: Well, I question what this exercise is about. I mean, there are back channels with the Qataris and the Egyptians who negotiated this deal with Hamas, with the U.S. involvement. And so I'm not sure what Mr. Netanyahu is trying to achieve by doing this publicly.

My gut feeling is that this is an attempt to appease some of his far- right elements within the coalition, who are basically deploying maximum pressure on him not to go through with the deal, or to at least attempt a final Hail Mary to obtain maximum concessions from Hamas. Nevertheless, I think between the United States and the political capital that the incoming Trump administration has invested in this deal, between all the arrangements that are in place, I don't really see this as something that will torpedo the effort, even if it might temporarily derail it.

Though I agree that there should have been things set in place to have the list in advance of who will be released, I'm confident that we will see the first phase of the deal go through nevertheless.

WHITFIELD: And so that means you feel confident that there will be the release of hostages. It would be just hours from now, in the early hours of Sunday.

ALKHATIB: I believe so. Yes, I mean, obviously there are so many developments could take place and derail this, but I feel strongly that so much has been invested in this by multiple governments, regional and certainly the United States. Hamas is desperate for an off-ramp, the Israeli government and certainly Mr. Netanyahu, I will say, is out of options. He cannot be going up against Mr. Trump before he even begins his presidency.

The Trump administration has invested heavily in seeing this war at least for the time being stop so that he could focus on some of his domestic and regional agendas, like the Saudi normalization between -- Saudi normalization, maximum pressure on Iran, and possibly the rejuvenation of a peace process between the Palestinians and Israelis.

WHITFIELD: In this first phase of this deal it also provides for, you know, several hundred trucks of aid to flow into Gaza each day. So many people, you know, are dying of starvation. What kind of impact do you think that's going to have? Aid trucks being able to get in but then, you know, what about the distribution of it to people and how people can actually get to these trucks? Because logistical, you know, obstacles still exist.

ALKHATIB: Well, let's take a couple of steps back real quick. I mean, thinking about the safety considerations, the unfortunate reality is that Hamas will fully retake control of the Gaza Strip or of the parts where the IDF withdraws from during the first phase, and certainly during the second phase, where we're expecting a broader withdrawal of IDF ground troops, including from the Netzarim Corridor, including from the northern areas of the Gaza Strip, such that we're going to see a miniaturized example of the Taliban retaken over Afghanistan on a much quicker and smaller scale by Hamas.

What that means is that all the looting, all the lawlessness and chaos that we saw with trucks getting attacked and desperate people or organized crime, I suspect we'll see a curtailing of that such that Hamas will be able to control the aid, but that will, in effect, facilitate smoother, hopefully. As much as I'm not a fan of Hamas, it will facilitate smoother distribution. There will obviously be the destroyed infrastructure, the destroyed warehouses, the trucks. Who's going to be able to deliver this aid to those who need it the most?

So there's the safety component that I think will change in a way that we haven't seen over the past months. This aid couldn't come any faster.

[15:30:03]

WHITFIELD: OK. We'll leave it there for now. Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, thank you so much.

ALKHATIB: Thanks for having me.

WHITFIELD: Straight ahead, time is running out for TikTok. By law, the hugely popular social media app is set to be banned in the U.S. at midnight. But the White House just said implementing that law will fall to the next administration. What it could mean for the 170 million Americans who use the platform, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. The clock is running out for TikTok. The company says the app will go dark across America within hours unless the Biden administration intervenes.

[15:35:04]

Come Monday the question of enforcing the ban or not will be Donald Trump's issue to confront. And earlier today, the president-elect told NBC that he is considering a 90-day delay on the ban.

For more, we're joined by CNN's Julia Benbrook at the White House.

Julia, a lot of developments. Which way is it going?

JULIA BENBROOK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, TikTok says that Americans won't be able to access it in just a matter of hours unless President Joe Biden's administration acts urgently and assures the company that it won't be punished for violating the terms of its looming ban. The Biden administration says that TikTok should take up any concerns that it has with the incoming Trump administration.

In a recent statement from White House Press Secretary Karine Jean- Pierre, she said, quote, "We have seen the most recent statement from TikTok. It is a stunt and we see no reason for TikTok or other companies to take actions in the next few days before the Trump administration takes office on Monday. We've laid out our position clearly and straightforwardly. Actions to implement this law will fall to the next administration."

CNN has reached out to TikTok for a response to that statement. They did not immediately respond or comment on that.

This, of course, follows the Supreme Court's decision to uphold a bipartisan law banning TikTok in the United States following concerns from the Biden administration and on Capitol Hill that the popular app poses national -- poses grave national security threats because of its connection. It's a Chinese owned app. And they went on to say that data collection practices, that's one of those main concerns.

So just about two days left here in office for the Biden administration, they say this is the Trump administration's issue. Trump, in that interview with NBC News that you mentioned, said that he is considering a 90-day extension. But any sort of announcement on that would likely come on Monday -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right. Julia Benbrook, thanks so much.

All right. CNN's Marc Stewart has more on the growing relationship between the incoming president and TikTok leadership.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARC STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: TikTok is moving forward with its plans to go dark. Any last-minute deal-making or diplomacy could be tricky. In the past, ByteDance, its Chinese parent company, has made it clear the platform is not for sale.

Even though this involves a private company, the Chinese government has taken a stance, at one point accusing the U.S. of acting like a bully. But this is political. China wants to stand strong, being the one who calls the shots, not the U.S. Nonetheless, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew has issued a video message thanking President-elect Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHOU ZI CHEW, CEO OF TIKTOK: We are grateful and pleased to have the support of a president who truly understands our platform, one who has used TikTok to express his own thoughts and perspectives, connecting with the world and generating more than 60 billion views of his content in the process.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STEWART: And Chinese citizens are curious about this. This drama is a dominating topic on social media. Some of the posts support TikTok and its CEO for refusing to back down to the U.S.

Marc Stewart, CNN, Beijing.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: All right, we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:43:11]

WHITFIELD: All right. We just saw some images at Palm Beach International Airport in Florida, where members of the Trump family boarded Air Force One as it prepares to take off. There you go. Prepares to take off from Palm Beach to Washington, D.C., just in time for the weekend's and Monday's inaugural festivities.

You see there, Trump's daughter Ivanka, her husband Jared and their kids. They are boarding the plane.

All right. Meantime, in the nation's capital, thousands of protesters are there and marched across that city alongside a coalition of activist groups today to protest President-elect Donald Trump and Republican policies. Organizers say they hope to see a day of joyful resistance, community building and powerful action.

CNN's Shimon Prokupecz was there for the rally.

Shimon, what have you heard from protesters today?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Thousands of people gathered Saturday in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., to voice their concern over various human rights issues and the war in Gaza and Ukraine as the Trump administration comes into focus wanting to make sure that their issues are not forgotten.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I wanted to be back as a witness, that we are not happy with who's going to be coming into the White House.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We are going to be working with and for the people that the Trump cabinet and presidency is going to be affecting. And I'm talking about immigrants, LGBTQ.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We can make a difference if we just keep coming out and speaking up and doing our homework at home and out here in every way we can.

[15:45:05]

PROKUPECZ: Many of the people traveling here for hours to come together. They're calling this the people's march, and they were making speeches, voicing, as I said, many of their concerns over different issues concerning civil rights. It's a very peaceful march. This is one of many events that are expected to take place here in Washington, D.C. over this weekend as we head into Monday for the inauguration.

Shimon Prokupecz, CNN, Washington, D.C.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: All right, Shimon. Thank you so much.

All right. In a moment, a stunning look into a family house and the lifestyle lived in it while unspeakable horrors at the Auschwitz concentration camp took place right next door.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:50:32]

WHITFIELD: It was a family home next to the site of one of the most horrific chapters in global history. The 2023 film "Zone of Interest" portrayed the idyllic lives of the Nazi commander of the Auschwitz death camp and his family while over a million people were murdered next door. Now the house is opening its doors to visitors ahead of the 80th anniversary of the camp's liberation.

CNN's Melissa Bell has a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: The blocks of Auschwitz, a view that's now grimly familiar. But from a house that until now had never been open to the public before, the home of the camp's longest serving commander, Rudolf Hoss, who lived here with his family. His wife, Hedwig, described it as a paradise in which they were able to raise their five children with a well-tended garden, manicured flower beds, a pool, and a sauna.

It's a massive house. And you get a sense of just how comfortable they would have been. The presents, the toys, the domestic joy. Inside, a lot of effort was put into protecting the family from the horrors outside, including frosting on the windows.

JACEK PORSKI, SENIOR ADVISER, COUNTER EXTREMISM PROJECT: So the Hoss family has left a couple of those things. One of the most important things that we have found are those trousers that belong to the prisoner, probably a person that died here in this place. You can see the red triangle, which means it was a Jewish political prisoner. But next to this, you can also see this wire that was probably actually a way to be able to wear it for a person that was -- that was starving here.

BELL: The only hint of anything out of the ordinary in this house is down here in the cellar, where this tunnel allowed the commander to go from his idyllic family life to the slaughter he was organizing next door.

(Voice-over): Just a couple of hundred yards from the house, inside the camp, what Rudolf Hoss did was refine the techniques of mass killing. He felt they were too inefficient at Treblinka, so he took the gas chambers and scaled them up here to an industrial level.

It's really only when you're inside the gas chamber that you get a sense of the horror of this place. More than a million people were killed here, but 900,000 of them died on the very first day that they arrived.

Back inside the property, everything was done to obscure the sights and the sounds of what was happening just next door. So trees had been grown along the wall so that no one inside the house had to see or understand or know about the horror next door. The point of the house now, though, is going to be to shed light.

MARK WALLACE, CEO, COUNTER EXTREMISM PROJECT: We're standing in an ordinary house, quite warm, I might add, while the -- while those that suffered over there froze in a winter like this. The ordinary cannot be extreme. We want to take this place and make sure that extremism is no longer ordinary.

The first thing that we did was, OK, we have to open this house to everyone. And symbolically, we said, what can we do? And we thought putting a mezuzah on the door was the way to do that. It was symbolic that it was fully open to everyone. It's almost as if it's a mezuzah of humanity.

BELL: This month, the world will mark the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the camp. But by the time this footage was shot by the liberating troops, Rudolf Hoss was on the run. But he was then captured, taken to Nuremberg and then brought back here, where he was hanged from these gallows within sight of his home, that paradise from where he'd run hell.

[15:55:10]

Melissa Bell, CNN, Auschwitz-Birkenau.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. Live pictures right now out of Palm Beach International Airport in Florida, where President Trump is set to board soon. And then that plane will take off and make its way to Washington, D.C. for his inauguration, swearing-in scheduled for Monday.