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Immigration Crackdown To Start On Day 1 Of Trump Presidency; TikTok Vows To Go Dark On Sunday; Phase One Of Israel-Hamas Ceasefire And Hostage Deal To Start Sunday; Inside Israeli Hospital's Preparations For Hostages' Arrival; Trump's Threat To Return Panama Canal To US Control; Law Enforcement Changes Plan To Indoor Ceremonies. Aired 7-8p ET

Aired January 18, 2025 - 19:00   ET

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


[19:00:22]

JESSICA DEAN, CNN HOST: You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Jessica Dean in New York.

And right now, President-elect Donald Trump and his family are on their way to Washington as they prepare to celebrate his return to the White House, which is now less than 48 hours away.

Tonight, we're learning new details about Trump's plans for his second term. Sources telling CNN the president-elect is privately expressing interest in visiting China after he's sworn in, hoping to create an open dialog with America's biggest competitor.

CNN's Alayna Treene is joining us now live from Washington with this new reporting.

Alayna, what are you hearing from your sources on this?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right. Well, I'm told, Jessica, that behind closed doors Donald Trump has privately told his advisers that he wants to take a trip to China once he is sworn into office. Once he is president. Now, there's no indication that any details or any decisions on this have been made. There's no exact timeline for this, but this is something he has said privately to those around him that he wants to do.

Now, when I talked to these different sources who are familiar with the conversations on this, they said that Donald Trump has actually expressed interest in wanting to visit several countries once he is president once again, including also taking a trip to India to meet with its prime minister, Narendra Modi, someone who Donald Trump also has a warm relationship with.

But just to go back to him saying that he wants to go to China, I mean, that is a huge deal. Just noting, you know, Donald Trump's posture on China, both during his first term but also throughout his time on the campaign trail. He has made targeting China really a pillar of his future agenda, his agenda once he is in office, wanting to impose a sweeping tariffs on the country and other things as well. But we also know that he has really been kind of trying to keep this

open dialog with Beijing. We know on Friday he spoke with Xi Jinping over the phone. They talked about trade and fentanyl and TikTok, among other subjects. And he also invited Xi to attend his inauguration on Monday. Instead, they're going to be sending his vice president. Really the first time we're seeing China send one of its top most high ranking communist party officials to an inauguration.

All to say this is part of what we've been hearing from different advisers. I know Jason Miller, actually, when he was on your show earlier today, said this as well, that Donald Trump believes in wanting to have this open dialog even with some of his foreign adversaries. And I'd remind you as well that throughout his time on the trail, he often tried to tout that how he had great relationships with people like Xi Jinping or like Russian president Vladimir Putin arguing that you can be tough on policy and tough with them, but you also still need to meet with them directly.

This is all kind of, I think, playing in to how Donald Trump is approaching China. And this also falls into, you know, this idea of him wanting to visit once he is in office kind of plays into that theme as well.

DEAN: And Alayna, we're also learning more about these executive orders that the president-elect plans to put -- to announce his first day in office that obviously a lot of those centered around immigration. What more can you tell us about those?

TREENE: That's right. Donald Trump is expected to release a flurry or have a flurry of executive orders be sent out once he is sworn in. Some, I'm told, immediately after he is sworn in. But then also later in the day on Monday when he is in the White House. Many of them expected to be focused on immigration policy.

Now, just to walk you through some of what those plans are, we know that he wants to begin some of the ICE sweeps, the Immigration and Custom Enforcement sweeps in major metropolitan areas, begin trying to round up illegal migrants with a focus specifically on illegal immigrants who are here who have been committing crimes.

But also, we know that there have been talks to have him issue a national emergency declaration to try to free up some of the Pentagon's resources and send them to the border, as well as looking at reforming some of the asylum restrictions. We also know that "Remain in Mexico," this has really been something that Donald Trump has harped on repeatedly. He did this during his first term, but talked about it a lot on the campaign trail as well, trying to get that into one of his earliest executive actions as well.

Now, when you had Jason Miller on your show earlier, I know he talked about some of this, specifically the orders that would be targeting immigration. I want you to take a listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JASON MILLER, SENIOR ADVISER TO PRESIDENT-ELECT TRUMP: There are already 1.3 million people who are in this country illegally that are already approved for deportation, but for various reasons, they haven't been sent back either to the country that they came from or if they're going to be sent to a third country. But these people are already processed and approved to be deported, but it hasn't been done yet.

So I think when President Trump starts moving on this on Monday and the entire administration makes this a top focus, I think people are going to notice an immediate difference.

[19:05:05]

And I think it's really going to send a signal for anyone thinking about coming into the United States and thinking they might be able to pull this off.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TREENE: Now, Jessica, when I talked to Donald Trump's advisers about some of these plans and specifically these early, early immediate plans, I should say, regarding some of these executive orders, they say that a lot of this is him trying to have this idea of showing that he is tough, that he is committed to what he has promised to making these day one actions, but also to, as one adviser described it to me, have it be a shock to the system with all of these different orders.

But again, specifically, a very heavy emphasis on immigration, especially since this was one of the issues that Donald Trump believed was the most important, the highest priority while he was on the trail.

DEAN: All right. Alayna Treene, with the latest reporting on this. Thank you so much for that reporting.

And joining us now, the former acting director of ICE, John Sandweg.

And John, thanks so much for being here with us. We just heard Alayna laying out some of the plans. I talked with a senior adviser to Trump in our last -- in the last couple of hours ago, and he talked about what this might look like.

You have actually been in the trenches here. You know how ICE works. Help us understand the magnitude of these plans and the immediate impact we might see from these actions.

JOHN SANDWEG, FORMER ACTING DIRECTOR, ICE: Well, I think immediately what they're talking about right now, these national raids focused on criminals, it's something that ICE has historically done, certainly something we did a lot of in the Obama administration. And what you're doing there is you're taking -- you're looking at the criminal justice system, and you're looking for individuals who escaped ICE's grasp when they were in jail or prison.

And what you look often that we're doing is you're looking at probation records, court records, and you're trying to match those people up. So they'll have a targeted list of people who've been caught up in the criminal justice system, and then they kind of blast out those targeting lists nationwide. They have operational plans, and they'll go, you know, bang on doors through the cities doing this.

Now, I think, look, in doing it, right now they're trying to send a message, obviously, right, to make it look like this mass deportation thing is going on on day one. But again, this is not something necessarily new that ICE has done. It's just more going to be a concentrated effort I really think in order to kind of send that political message.

DEAN: And you noted what was going on during the Obama administration in which more people were deported during that than the Trump administration. What is the difference between what the Biden administration has been doing and what's about to happen now? Why -- as you mentioned, this has been done before. Is it just surging the resources? Is that why they'll be able to do more of this?

SANDWEG: Yes, well, ICE was doing this during the Biden administration as well, but just not putting as much fanfare around it, right? These kind of operations consistently happen because, look, ICE has been very good. I think one of the misnomers that's been going on is this idea that there's a large number of criminal migrants, you know, immigrants who have committed crimes, who are escaping ICE's detention, or that ICE hasn't been focused on that population.

Really since ICE was created in the Bush administration, this has been its top priority. It's just that I think the Biden administration didn't put as much emphasis on it. But of course, look, the biggest game changer here is the situation at the border. And when the border, when we were inundated with all those asylum claims, that ties up ICE's hands.

ICE has to take those people into custody, they fill up ICE detention beds, they tie up the hands of ICE prosecutors, and they tie up the hands of ICE officers. And so really, since, you know, over the last four years, more than anything, the biggest restriction on ICE hasn't been Biden policies but the crisis at the border.

DEAN: I want to play a clip from the incoming border czar, Tom Homan, where he's kind of describing what they're planning to do and then I do want to get your reaction. Let's just listen to that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM HOMAN, TRUMP'S INCOMING BORDER CZAR: There's going to be a big raid all across the country. You know, Chicago is just one of many places. And we've got 24 field offices across the country. On Tuesday, you're going to expect ICE because ICE is finally going to go out and do their job. We're going to take the handcuffs off ICE and let them go arrest criminal aliens.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: And do you think there have been kind of these, like proverbial handcuffs around ICE? Do you think that's a fair kind of description of the situation? SANDWEG: No. Listen, during the Biden administration, there were

policies put in place that restricted ICE from making, you know, deprioritize certain individuals. But what we're talking about here are individuals who are, you know, charged with typically crimes that have no nexus to public safety. Right? So people charged with driving offenses, traffic offenses, you know, those are the populations that basically the Biden administration said, I didn't say, don't take them. Said we don't want you to focus on that population. We want you to focus on people who, you know, committed violent felonies or pose an active threat to public safety.

And so look, what we're talking about to the numbers here are very marginal at best, right? If you look at the Obama administration, as you noted earlier, it did have -- certainly we had more deportations certainly than the Trump administration. But we had these same types of rules in place where we said, hey, if somebody has been in this country a long time, they have U.S. citizen children, and let's say they get caught for driving without a license because they couldn't get a driver's license because they're undocumented.

[19:10:02]

We're not going to treat that person as a high priority just because they had a brush with the criminal justice system. Instead, what I want is I want ICE officers putting in the time and effort to find that transnational gang member who's out there on the street committing violent crimes, who's hard to find. But instead of burning our resources going to get that traffic offender, let's go get that tough guy, right, and get him off the streets, even though it takes more time.

So I think, again, when Tom says we're taking the handcuffs off, what he's really saying is, you know, they're reducing these policies, but that doesn't mean they're promoting public safety and doing it. And quite frankly, oftentimes it's the opposite because you just start burning the resources on these lower level offenders.

DEAN: Yes. And I know you and I have talked before and this really stuck with me how you kind of described it. I'm paraphrasing here, but you were saying essentially, you know, it's about quantity versus quality in terms of the arrests and the deportation, that you can arrest and deport a lot of kind of lower level people like you're talking about and that does get your numbers up and it makes a splash.

But in order to get some of these transnational gang members that really do need to get out of this country and are a true threat to public safety, that takes time. It takes effort, it takes resources, but it may not go as quickly as some of these others. Do you think that they --

SANDWEG: Well, that's exactly --

DEAN: Yes. Can they do that all at the same time, or does one give because of the other?

SANDWEG: No, I mean, look, I got to tell you, quantity almost always comes at the cost of quality when it comes to immigration enforcement. Look, the populations you just heard referenced from Mr. Miller on his interview that we listened to a moment ago where he said 1.3 million people have been ordered deported but didn't leave the country for some reason. And look, I'll tell you why they didn't leave the country.

They were not detained as they went through deportation proceedings. And then ICE oftentimes gave them a stay of removal. Why? Because they had no nexus to, you know, public safety. They had no criminal history. Oftentimes they had a very long term presence in the United States, and Jessica, you have to understand 75 percent to 80 percent of the 12 million people who are in this country have now been here more than 10 years. During those years, they married citizens. They had U.S. citizen children. They go to our churches. They have jobs in our communities. Their kids go to our schools.

And ICE, when oftentimes, believe it or not, will say, hey, we're going to give you a stay of removal. We've ordered you deported, but we're sympathetic to your situation. We're going to let you stay here. And I think what concerns me is that, as you talk about mass deportations, they want to focus on that population because they already have the court order in place. The biggest problem in the immigration system, those backlogs in the courts.

But by grabbing that population, that is the low hanging fruit of the immigration system, those are the individuals who pose no threat to public safety, who've been here the longest time and stayed here and were allowed to stay here usually for a reason. And I think that's where we're going to see this disconnect between this rhetoric about public safety and the reality when this kind of these plans go into force.

DEAN: And just logistically, too, how do you feel that ICE and its officers are going to be in terms of capability of doing all of this? Do they have essentially the resources to logistically carry this out?

SANDWEG: Not at current, right? Not the numbers that the Trump administration has been talking about. Right? There's, again, there's this misnomer that somehow during the Biden administration, they had ICE officers sitting at home instead of going out and doing their jobs. You're not going to see ICE make any more, you know, certainly not very many more arrests given these kind of changes or these executive orders.

Now, as additional resources come online, Jessica, that will change, right? ICE's capacity will increase. The number of officers will likely increase. But, you know, look, that's going to be years down the line. I mean, I think that's one thing that even if Congress appropriated the money tomorrow, you still have to go out there and find agents, background check them, train them, get them out in the field.

That's going to take years, right? But in the short term, again, I do worry, though, that the temptation in order to make it look like things are -- there's immediate action is to really target that low hanging fruit of the system, which is the population that has the, you know, the most distant nexus to public safety. I mean, really, it's the population that's the most sympathetic and the least likely to be committing crimes.

DEAN: All right. More to come on this as we inch closer to Monday.

John Sandweg, thank you so much. We appreciate it.

SANDWEG: Thank you. My pleasure.

DEAN: Still ahead, is this the last day of TikTok in the U.S.? What could happen at the stroke of midnight and how the incoming Trump administration might give the app a lifeline?

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:18:53]

DEAN: And breaking President-elect Donald Trump has arrived in Washington. We're about 48 hours away from his inauguration on Monday. You see him there arriving at Dulles Airport with his wife Melania, his son Barron. We also know his daughter Ivanka Trump and her children and family on the plane with him.

Again, this is kicking off what will be inauguration festivities as he takes office for a second time. And when he takes office, one item he's going to have to deal with, TikTok. What's going to happen? What's he going to do with it?

At midnight, America's ban on the popular video sharing app goes into effect, and TikTok is saying that tonight it plans to cut off service, threatening to go dark unless the U.S. government explicitly says Apple and Google won't face fines if they keep hosting the app. Meantime, the Biden White House calling TikTok's actions a stunt, says it's leaving this decision to the incoming Trump White House.

President-elect Trump says he most likely will try to delay the ban for 90 days once he's sworn in on Monday.

CNN's chief media analyst Brian Stelter is joining us now.

Brian, I think a lot -- hundreds of millions of Americans, let's say, are very curious if TikTok will actually go dark at midnight.

[19:20:05]

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST: Yes. There's never been a case quite like this when it comes to apps and new technology. This is a one-of-a-kind situation, and no one actually knows for sure what's going to happen after midnight.

Here's why I say that, Jessica. We know that TikTok has warned that it will have to go dark, but it's not going to turn off the lights by itself. If the app starts to become unavailable in the overnight hours, it will be because service providers like Apple and Google, as you mentioned, believe they can't carry the app anymore. We've reached out to those companies, asked for comment, we have not heard back.

But my sense from TikTok executives is that they believe these service providers are fearing the new law. They're fearing the ban, and they will start to remove the app as a result. The Biden administration has signaled that it's not going to enforce the law on Sunday because this is essentially Trump's problem now. But even though the Biden administration has sent that signal, maybe some of these service providers might still begin to take the app down. Now, does that affect users who already have the app? That's unclear.

Simply put, we don't know exactly what's going to happen tomorrow, but it's likely there will be some change in TikTok's availability. But even if it does change tomorrow, they might come back on Monday.

DEAN: Yes, we just don't know. That's exactly it. We also know that TikTok's CEO is expected at Monday's inauguration. So is China's vice president. We also have Alayna Treene's new reporting that Trump has privately expressed interest in visiting China while he's president.

It does make you start to wonder what this relationship is going to be like. I had his senior adviser on in the 5:00 hour, Jason Miller. He said, listen, this isn't about being buddy-buddy with them, but this is about opening a dialog. But in terms of the TikTok of it all and the relationship with China, it is interesting to track all these different points.

STELTER: This scenario sets up Trump for a victory on his very first day in office, a victory that he can turn around and say, I am saving TikTok. I am making sure it stays online, with the caveat, at least for a few months while he seeks out a deal. And so he has that ability in the law, although some people have some doubts about whether he has the capability. He has signaled that he's going to try to use that capability, make sure TikTok stays online.

And on day one, he's going to have this very big talker of a news story. I've been talking with Wall Street analysts about this, asking, what do they think is going to happen? Because TikTok has implications for the wider tech industry. Rich Greenfield, LightShed Partners, he said to me, look, this is going to give Trump a major victory and it's another loss for Biden on the way out the door.

Dan Ives, another prominent analyst, said this. He said, this is all a game of poker, he said, and TikTok is a chip on the table when it comes to U.S.-China negotiations. That's certainly how the incoming president seems to perceive TikTok. He seems to perceive this as a negotiating opportunity with China.

DEAN: It's so interesting. I also want to ask you about the alternatives because some TikTok users are flocking to other Chinese apps that are -- and they're encountering Chinese censorship for the first time. I found it so interesting in talking with the content creator right after I talked to you in the 4:00 hour, who said among her peers on TikTok, literally no one is talking about national security or the threats or all these things that that these officials are very worried about. STELTER: That's right. The voices that are calling TikTok a digital

spy balloon, the Republican lawmakers who passed this ban nine months ago, their voices are pretty muted right now. The loudest voices are the influencers and business people that are going to be affected by a ban. At the same time, as you said, people are downloading alternative apps, including Chinese owned apps. There's this incredible cultural exchange underway. Some people even trying to learn mandarin, some Americans wanting to speak with their neighbors in China.

At the same time, people are also coming up against the Chinese firewall. Internet restrictions. There's a lot that people are learning right now about the differences between the Chinese internet and the American internet. The bottom line is there's no perfect TikTok clone out there, but there's lots of alternatives and people are flocking to those apps right now. I'm really curious to see a year from now who are the winners and who are the losers.

DEAN: Yes. Me too. All right. Brian Stelter, as always, thank you so much. We appreciate it.

And still ahead, a ceasefire and hostage deal between Israel and Hamas is set to take effect now in just hours. We're going to take you inside the Israeli hospitals preparing for the hostages' arrival.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:28:45]

DEAN: All right. By this time tomorrow, if all goes according to the plan, Israel and Hamas will be in a ceasefire and three Israeli hostages now held by Hamas for 469 days, will be safe. It's a breakthrough that has taken many months of negotiations, and it's not without opposition. A number of far-right Israeli ministers saying they plan to resign if this deal goes through, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has praised the deal as recently as today.

He's also been careful to qualify his support. He demanded a final list of hostages to be freed, which has yet to be released at this hour. He also said Israel reserves the right to return to war if necessary, and that it would do so with American support.

The incoming Trump administration already getting involved. A source telling CNN Mike Waltz. Trumps incoming National Security adviser, met with the families of American hostages today in -- held in Gaza today and Waltz told those families the return of all hostages is a top priority for the Trump administration and also committed to making sure that happens, saying the president-elect is committed to all phases of that ceasefire and hostage agreement.

CNN's Bianna Golodryga visited an Israeli hospital preparing for the arrival of hostages. Let's take a look inside.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN SENIOR GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST (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 were simulating the arrival of hostages.

[19:30:14]

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

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

GOLODRYGA (voice over): 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 (on camera): But 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 (voice over): 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 (voice over): With hostages ranging in age from two-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 (on camera): 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.

GOLODRYGA (voice over): Bianna Golodryga, CNN, Tel Aviv.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DEAN: Still ahead, the Panama Canal. Definitely on the radar of President-elect Trump and has been for a while.

New CNN reporting on what's behind Trump's threat to reclaim the critical waterway. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:37:57]

DEAN: In recent weeks, President-elect Donald Trump has talked about getting the Panama Canal back in US hands. And during his Senate confirmation hearing this week, Trump's choice for Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, said China's influence over the Canal may have violated an agreement over who should control the waterway.

But CNN's Phil Mattingly reports Trumps obsession with Panama goes back decades.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CHIEF DOMESTIC CORRESPONDENT (voice over): This is the Panama Canal, a 51-mile corridor linking the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. Its creation helped the United States become a global superpower.

MATTINGLY (on camera): Most people don't get access to this, but what you're standing on top of right now, it's a modern marvel. It is an engineering miracle. Only twice in the history of the Panama Canal has transit actually stopped. It's that invaluable to world trade, to the world economy, to geopolitics in general.

It also underscores why any president, President-elect Trump being one of them, cares so deeply about its operations.

MATTINGLY (voice over): Now, Trump's interest in the Panama Canal, it makes a lot of sense. It is four percent of global shipping. That's what comes through here on an annual basis, 40 percent of US containers come through this waterway.

But what people here unequivocally do not understand is why, after 25 years of smooth operations under Panama's control, all of a sudden, Trump is threatening to take it back and refusing to rule out using military force to do so.

DONALD TRUMP (R) PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: The Panama Canal is a disgrace.

MATTINGLY (voice over): He's railed against how the canal is being run and China's growing influence around the waterway.

TRUMP: They charge more for our ships than they charge for ships of other countries. They charge more for our Navy than they charge for Navies of other countries. They laugh at us because they think were stupid, but were not stupid anymore.

China's at both ends of the Panama Canal. China is running the Panama Canal.

MATTINGLY (voice over): I asked the man who was in charge of the canal for seven years, Jorge Luis Quijano, about those claims.

MATTINGLY (on camera): Does the canal charge US ships more than others?

JORGE LUIS QUIJANO, FIDIC, PANAMA CANAL ADMINISTRATOR: No.

MATTINGLY (on camera): Does the canal charge the US Navy more?

QUIJANO: No.

MATTINGLY (on camera): Are there Chinese troops operating in the Canal?

QUIJANO: No.

MATTINGLY (on camera): Does Beijing or the Chinese Communist Party operate the Canal?

QUIJANO: Definitely no.

[19:40:15]

MATTINGLY (voice over): Trump's current Panama fixation has left officials here perplexed and frustrated, but also cognizant of the former real estate magnate's roots in the country long before his turn to politics.

TRUMP: Well, my interest in Panama really began when we had the Miss Universe contest in Panama, which I own. I own the Miss Universe, and it was one of the most successful contests we've ever had.

MATTINGLY (voice over): Not all of his business dealings in Panama have been a success.

MATTINGLY (on camera): There's a complicating factor for Panamanian officials trying to figure out what the president-elect actually wants here. And that starts right here, because this building is the tallest building in Central America, and it is a building that used to be known as the Trump international Tower and Hotel, also home of the Trump Ocean Club. Now, it is neither.

MATTINGLY (voice over): The gleaming 70-floor resort marked Trump's first international hotel venture, a massive project mired by mountains of litigation and confrontation that led to the removal of Trump's name from the property halfway through his first term in the White House.

As for Trump's attack on the terrible deal that set in motion the US handover of the Canal and its surrounding zone to Panama, that's rooted in an even longer standing preoccupation.

TRUMP: Jimmy Carter gave the Panama Canal away for nothing, zero. In other words, they said, we want the Canal. He said, oh, okay. Even though we spent the equivalent of many billions of dollars to build it.

MATTINGLY (voice over): Now, Trump is calling for Panama to reduce the tolls and rates US ships pay to transit the Canal, or else.

ILYA ESPINO DE MAROTTA, DEPUTY ADMINISTRATOR OF PANAMA CANAL: That was one of our dredges working on it.

MATTINGLY (voice over): I put that to Ilya Espino de Marotta, deputy administrator of the Canal.

MATTINGLY (on camera): You know, one of the things that you hear from people in the United States is just, all Trump wants is you just cut the rates a little bit for US ships or make some adjustments there just for US ships. Is that a plausible option?

MAROTTA: It's not a possible option.

MATTINGLY (on camera): Why not?

MAROTTA: Because of the treaties.

MATTINGLY (voice over): The same treaties Trump rails against mandate equal treatment of all vessels. No US carve outs.

Trump has also ignored that the Canal today is far bigger than the one handed over by the United States.

MATTINGLY (on camera): There was an expansion.

MAROTTA: Yes.

MATTINGLY (on camera): The US government played what role in the expanded version?

MAROTTA: Okay as far as financially, none.

MATTINGLY (on camera): More than half of the revenue that comes in from the Panama Canal doesn't come in through the one that the United States was integral in building. It comes in through the expansion.

MAROTTA: That's right. This is the Atlantic side --

MATTINGLY (voice over): Marotta led the massive $5.2 billion project, which dramatically expanded the size of cargo ships that can traverse the Canal.

MATTINGLY (on camera): :So, when President-elect Trump says he's taking -- he wants to take the Canal back. Do you guys get to keep the one you did?

QUIJANO: No, no. But this is what I know, no, no, no, we get we get to keep everything.

MATTINGLY (voice over): Phil Mattingly at the Panama Canal, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DEAN: And still ahead with the bitter cold in Washington, DC forcing inauguration ceremonies indoors, organizers now scrambling to make last minute adjustments. How security measures are changing.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

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[19:48:04]

DEAN: Much of the planning still taking shape tonight ahead of Monday's inauguration for President-elect Donald Trump. The events are moving indoors due to the frigid temperature forecast for DC.

The inaugural stage where the president is sworn in will now be inside the Rotunda of the Capitol building. You see it there, kind of coming together today.

The move inside will make security easier for the Secret Service, but it also brings with it new challenges.

To discuss is someone who knows DC law enforcement quite well, CNN's senior law enforcement analyst, Chief Charles Ramsey. Great to have you here. You were also the chief of Washington's Metro Police for both of George W. Bush's inauguration. So you know how this goes and how much planning goes into it.

How challenging is it for law enforcement to shift gears like this so close to the event itself?

CHARLES RAMSEY, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, the planning starts about 18 months out, and so obviously this was unexpected, but there's always flexibility that's built into the plans. I mean, with this, I believe it's the second Reagan inauguration because of the weather had to be brought inside as well.

So, there is a plan for that sort of thing. It does simplify the security in a lot of ways, but obviously now it creates other types of issues. For example, people who had planned on attending, you know, they have their color coded tickets, depending on, you know, where they sit and so forth.

Well, the Rotunda is very small. You're going to have a hundred senators, 435 members of the House. You've got three ex-presidents, you've got other guests that the president himself has invited.

So, it's going to be pretty jammed in there, and not everyone is going to make it. And it certainly won't be open to the public. So they may have an overflow room. Maybe the Visitor Center or some other locations that will have to be secured.

But there will be a lot of people that will be disappointed that they aren't able to physically watch -- physically be there for the act of swearing.

DEAN: Right. What about moving indoors in terms of does it make it more secure or easier to secure?

[19:50:09]

RAMSEY: Anytime you're inside, it makes it all the outside threats pretty much go away. I mean, they are locked down. I was in DC earlier today for the US Conference of Mayors meeting and everything is set up.

In fact, they were setting up, they have some event tonight at Union Station. And so, you saw all the security around Union Station and that location is going to be locked down at some point in time. The Capital One Arena is going to be used for something.

So, you're starting to see security go around locations that perhaps weren't expected originally, but now they are. They still have all the barricades and the fences up along Pennsylvania Avenue even though the parade has been canceled, as well as the inauguration ceremony.

DEAN: Yes, and look, we have to remember Trump also, just within the last several months, the subject of two assassination attempts. So obviously -- I mean, the Secret Service always, you know, wants to make sure they're safe.

I'm sure it's top of mind for everyone, including probably the president-elect himself. And then there is this Capital One Arena that you mentioned. They're going to have some events there.

In terms of securing that, obviously, a big arena is used to hosting a large amount of people, but what does that look like for law enforcement?

RAMSEY: Well, again, its indoors. So that simplifies it a little bit. You have to set up your magnetometers and all those kinds of things. But you know the police are used to doing that sort of thing and the Secret Service are used to doing that. They'll probably use to a large extent, the uniformed branch of the Secret Service to do a lot of that sort of thing. So they'll secure that site. I believe it seats around 19,000 or so somewhere in that vicinity.

But again, it's a location that is used all the time, it is where the basketball team plays. Everybody is very familiar with it. It won't be any problem securing that location.

DEAN: Chief Charles Ramsey, as always, thanks so much. We appreciate it.

RAMSEY: Thank you, Jessica.

DEAN: Yes. Don't miss our special coverage, "The Inauguration of Donald Trump." It's live Monday morning starting at 8:00 Eastern right here on CNN.

We'll be right back.

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[19:56:52]

DEAN: Tens of thousands of people still under evacuation orders and warnings tonight as firefighters continue to fight the deadly Los Angeles fires. There is hope that those teams will continue to make progress over the weekend ahead of another round of fire fueling winds expected next week.

More than 12,000 structures have been destroyed and it's not just homes and businesses lost in the fires.

Entire schools have had to relocate students after the wildfires destroyed those schools.

CNN's Natasha Chen went to Brentwood as kids from the burnt down Palisades Charter School began classes at a new campus.

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STACEY BERMAN, PARENT: Honestly, this morning is the best I've felt in a week. Like, I'm with my people. I'm with my people. And so yes, we all just fall in each other's arms and cry. And this is who I belong with.

So yes, this is a good day. NATASHA CHEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): A good day compared to January 7th, when the flames from the Palisades Fire began.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh my God.

CHEN (voice over): As some scrambled to pack what they could from their homes, this close-knit community banded together to scoop up their children to escape.

LAURA SHOCKLEY, PARENT: I brought them with me to Brentwood and they are all in the car, crying, looking behind, and one of them came to me the other day and said, you know, you pinky swore to me that my house won't burn down. And I -- I feels so horrible because I know I promised her that her house would be okay.

CHEN (voice over): But many of their homes are gone, just like their beloved school, Palisades Charter Elementary. This first grader's family is moving into their third Airbnb in one week.

CHEN: How you're feeling today. It's your first day here?

VIVALDI ALAVIAN, FIRST GRADER: I'm good. A little freaking out.

CHEN (voice over): Amid the personal upheaval, this entire student body of more than 400 is now joining another existing school, Brentwood Science Magnet Elementary.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You can go into the hallway.

CHEN (voice over): It's a first day of school, unlike any other.

HALEY OSORIO, FIFTH GRADER: My friends lost their homes. And I can't go back to my school anymore.

CHEN (voice over): Can't go back to the campus where she grew up. The two charter elementaries that burned in the Palisades had educated children from all over Los Angeles, not just the immediate neighborhood, but every single member of this community is connected to someone whose homes turned to rubble.

JULIET HERMAN, PRINCIPAL, PALISADES CHARTER ELEMENTARY: I have two teachers who are unable to be here because of their displacement. I have substitute teachers in those classrooms. That's hard for kids.

So really, just being here for people, making sure everybody is feeling okay.

CHEN (voice over): The principal of Palisades Charter Elementary says many staff and students lived in homes passed down by their families who cannot afford to move back. The tight-knit community doesn't know if they'll ever be geographically close again, but going to school together in a new location is a start.

JACKIE SENIS, PARENT: I tell my child, these are your people. We're Pali-Strong and we'll get through this. STACY BERMAN, PARENT: Everything's gone except for this. That's all we

have.

CHEN (voice over): Natasha Chen, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DEAN: It's going to be a long road for those people in Los Angeles and we certainly are thinking of them as they continue to put their lives back together.

Thank you so much for joining me this evening. I'm Jessica Dean. I'm going to see you again tomorrow for special coverage as we head toward the inauguration. We're going to get started at 1:00 PM Eastern.

An encore presentation of "Real Time" with Bill Maher is next. And then at nine, it's a special edition of NEWSROOM with Erica Hill and Jim Sciutto.

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