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President-elect Trump Readies His White House Return; Interview With Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-FL); Three Israeli Hostages Back In Israel; Ceasefire Holding. Aired 3-4p ET

Aired January 19, 2025 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:26]

JESSICA DEAN, CNN HOST: We are following major breaking stories this afternoon. a victory rally about to get underway before tomorrow's icy inauguration in Washington for President-elect Donald Trump, and then on the other side of the globe, three women, three female hostages back in Israel and the fragile Middle East ceasefire is holding for now.

You are in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Jessica Dean in New York.

Let's begin now in Washington with President-elect Trump, a day away from being sworn in as America's 47th president. And today, the incoming president and Vice President-elect JD Vance paying their respects at Arlington National Cemetery, where there was a wreath laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

Now the tone shifts from traditional and somber to this, to the Capital One Arena. It is far more celebratory there. Trump, preparing to speak to a victory rally in that arena in just a few hours. But obviously it is already quite full there.

CNN's Jeff Zeleny is live. He joins us there.

Jeff, it is quite cold in Washington. Things have been moved inside. I know that arena already filling up, and it is interesting to kind of compare and contrast, it really does speak to Donald Trump and who he is to have that somber, traditional moment earlier today at Arlington National Cemetery and then have this rally where you are this evening.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Jessica, this is a moment of celebration. There is no doubt about it. You can feel it. You can see it on the faces of Donald Trump supporters who have traveled to Washington from all corners of the country.

Never mind there is not going to be a parade outside. There is not going to be the traditional inaugural festivities, but that has not stopped people from really filling the streets of Downtown Washington and indeed the arena behind me here.

It is a few hours from the moment where the former president and soon to be future president will be speaking, but the energy is already palpable. And Jessica, this really -- you can feel that a new era is dawning in Washington and that starts at noon tomorrow. Of all the rallies, of all the countless, in fact, hundreds of rallies in battleground states and beyond, this is perhaps the culmination of all of that. There are people finally truly seeing what they've been hoping for so long, a return of Donald Trump to the White House.

Now, of course, that does not come without controversy. It does not come without a sense of resistance from Democrats. But Jessica, it is so different than it was eight years ago when there was that resistance out in the streets, that does not feel the same. It is a more targeted resistance, if you will, and there is far more support for Donald Trump on the eve of him taking office, so he will be having a rally here with his supporters and already behind-the-scenes, the work is beginning for day one.

DEAN: Yes, and to that point that you're making, Jeff, they are far more organized, and they have done a lot of preparation for what is going to transpire tomorrow, which is the business, of course, of being president.

We know that the president-elect has a slate of executive actions prepared and being prepared that he will sign into law tomorrow. What can you tell us about that?

ZELENY: Look, I mean, the one that will probably be getting the most attention, executive orders and actions aren't usually that sexy. But look, the TikTok whole issue over the last few days, that is going to be one of the first official acts of President Donald Trump, the 47th president of the United States. He is going to effectively stall the ban.

So effectively, its already been restored, service has been restored. But he is going to step in and much to the dismay of some of his fellow Republicans who believe that China has had too much influence in gathering Americans' data, but that will be one of the first executive orders he signs.

I am told he will also, at the Capitol tomorrow, shortly after taking the Oath of Office, will be signing executive actions on immigration. There could be raids in American cities. He also will be doing a variety of things, and all eyes probably are on those pardons for January 6th defendants. He has long promised to pardon some of those defendants. It is unclear if that will be a blanket pardon or a targeted pardon. But Jessica, that is where we find ourselves at this moment of history.

He will be standing in the Rotunda at noon tomorrow, the very site of where some of those defendants were arrested and charged for their crimes, for the insurrection just four years ago.

[15:05:06]

So this is a big moment in the country's history, a turning of the page moment. You can feel it in every respect.

President Biden just has one final day in office before President Trump returns to power. DEAN: Yes, you can tell, really, truly palpable, this change that is coming.

Jeff Zeleny, thank you very much for that reporting.

And joining us now, Florida Republican Congressman Carlos Gimenez.

Congressman, thanks so much for being here with us today.

REP. CARLOS GIMENEZ (R-FL): It is my pleasure.

DEAN: I want to ask you first, my colleague, Jeff Zeleny, just walking through a number of things that Trump wants to do, and I want to go through a few of them. I want to start with TikTok, it is on the minds of millions of Americans. You are one of many Republicans who voted for that ban. And you said then in a statement that TikTok poses a serious threat to our nation's national and cyber security.

Do you still believe that?

GIMENEZ: Yes, yes, I do. I absolutely do, or else I would not have voted for the bill. And so, yes, I believe that TikTok should be banned. It should be sold to an American company.

DEAN: And so the president-elect came out this morning. He says he wants to put in, you know, a 90-day extension, kind of give them a buffer zone that he proposed perhaps the America has a 50 percent stake with either the current owners or new owners. Is that acceptable to you? What do you want to see happen?

GIMENEZ: I want the law to be complied with. The fact that the president wants to give 90-day extension for that to happen, so that millions and millions of TikTok users, you know, are, you know, have the ability to have TikTok and maybe into the future, I may be able to be okay with that.

But at the end, I want the law to be complied with. They need to sell. They need to sell to an American company. It is an existential threat to America. The data that has been gathered on millions and millions of Americans goes right to the CCP.

Also, it helps them in their race for AI, which is and not in America's best interest. So that, you know, I believe the law should be complied with. But I will give the president, you know, his 90 days to see if he can come up with a better way. But right now I'd rather see the law just complied with.

DEAN: And I know you sit on the House Committee on China. The vice president of China is due to attend the inauguration. That's going to mark the first time ever a senior Chinese official of that level has done so. The CEO of TikTok is attending the inauguration. Also, our colleagues are reporting that he is going to be at this rally tonight.

Some people would say that by the looks of that, it looks like this administration is cozying up to the CCP. What would you say? GIMENEZ: It may be the other way around that the CCP is trying to gather favor with the new administration and so, again, look, like you said, I sit on the Select Committee. I know the kind of threat that China poses. I know how they go about influencing the world around them.

If I were China, I'd be trying to do the same thing, but I would hope that at the end that President Trump will let that law go and proceed as it should. It got wide bipartisan support. It was passed through Congress. And it is a law, and its upheld by the Supreme Court.

And so, you know, I think we did our part and I think that that the president needs to do his part. Like I said, I will give him the 90 days to see if he can work something out.

DEAN: Are you confident that you'll be satisfied with how this ends up?

GIMENEZ: No, no. We will see what happens. We will see at the at the end of the 90 days or before.

But at the end of the day, I still want TikTok to be sold to an American company. Look, I don't want TikTok to go off the air. I just don't want it to be controlled by the Chinese Communist Party. If it is controlled by an American company, I am fine with it. I am just not fine with it being controlled by the Chinese Communist Party. I am not so fine also, with a 50/50 split either.

I think it just needs to be an American company, then that's it.

DEAN: And there are senators, Senator Tom Cotton, Senator Pete Ricketts that that have voiced similar -- they are saying they -- stand by this as well. Do you -- are you all talking to the president's team? Are you trying to nudge him in that direction? Is there any sort of outreach?

GIMENEZ: No, I haven't talked to the president's team and the president's team has not spoken to me about it. And so I would hope that in the coming days now that when they get on board, that they speak to the Republican members of the Select Committee as to why we were all behind this law and why we think it is necessary, and the same thing on the Senate side.

And so, you know, I expect a robust dialogue on this, and we may have differences of opinion, but, you know, we need to row in the same direction.

DEAN: I also want to talk about immigration. That's another bucket that he is really focused on, and executive actions that are planned for tomorrow, including potentially that could lead to raids in cities across America. Also, you know, a variety of policies kind of tied into that. What is your expectation for how this goes in the immediate -- in the next, let's say, 48 hours or so?

[15:10:10] GIMENEZ: Well, I believe that he is going to write a number of executive orders that reverses the disastrous Biden administration's policies on the border, and secures our border, and then he -- the first order of business is getting those illegal immigrants that have entered the country that have committed crimes in the United States, that is going to be the focus of the first wave of deportations, and rightly so.

I mean, we don't need to have more criminals in the United States, and then I expect that he is going to follow the law. And that means that those that were given a pardon to come into the United States claiming asylum, they need to have their day in court. Those asylum claims that are invalid need to be deported according to the law. And those that do have a violent asylum claim can stay according to the law.

I just -- I think that all you need to do here is follow the law, which is what the majority of Americans want.

DEAN: All right, Representative Carlos Gimenez, thank you very much for your time. We appreciate it.

GIMENEZ: It's my pleasure.

DEAN: Coming up, a ceasefire in the Middle East is now underway with three hostages finally back in Israel after months and months of captivity. We are getting new video of them reuniting with their families. We are live in Israel tracking all of these developments.

Also, President Joe Biden is spending his final full day as president in South Carolina, a place that really helped him become president, delivering his farewell to the state that launched him into office in 2020.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

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[15:16:23]

DEAN: We have some new video to show you.

You see the three hostages released from Gaza today. They are tearfully embracing family at a hospital in Israel. The three of them have been taken to this hospital for assessment, to be able to recover, to spend time with their friends and family.

Our Jim Sciutto is in Tel Aviv right now.

And Jim, you have been there as this has been playing out, the first initial piece of a tiered ceasefire and hostage deal. What are you seeing and hearing there in Israel as this moment that so many people have been waiting for has now arrived.

JIM SCIUTTO CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: You know, this has been 470 days of almost exclusively sad and traumatic images of this war on both sides in Gaza, certainly from the relentless bombing there and here in Israel, the attacks we've seen going back to October 7th, but families waiting for just a shred of news of whether their loved ones are even alive in Hamas custody. And now three families at least are getting these joyful, just joyful moments like were showing on the screen there.

These hugs, these sort of endless hugs between young women, first with their mothers and now other members of their family; smiles, but also tears and really, strength. I've seen a lot of strength in those photos because these are three young women who suffered so much for more than a year-and-a-half, able to manage a smile in this moment.

And we shouldn't underestimate the length and difficulty of the recovery. I was speaking to one of the doctors who will be treating them in the coming days and weeks, who said that the smile can hide a lot of pain, a lot of trauma underneath, and one can only expect that they carry that with them. And then this doctor also made the point that when hostages come home and others are left behind, including perhaps people they know, right, that they don't feel completely relieved. Right?

They want to see, like the hostage families as well want to see. They want to see the rest of the hostages come home, too.

DEAN: Yes, and as you mentioned, it is just so psychologically traumatizing for these young women who now hopefully will be given the space to heal in the way that they need to. And again, to just be with their loved ones who I know have just ached for them for well over a year now.

Jim, what -- now, we have seen these first three hostages come back to Israel. We are seeing aid going into Gaza. What do we anticipate? How do we anticipate this flows from here?

SCIUTTO: This is a delicately choreographed, multi-tiered, multi-stage agreement. Today is just the first day. A ceasefire, the silencing of the bombing in Gaza for the first time in 470 days, that certainly a victory, a relief for the people of Gaza, but also the release of Palestinian prisoners.

The first day of the deal calls for Israel to release 95 Palestinian prisoners from a prison, the Ofer Prison in the West Bank, including ten teenagers. We should note that not all of those prisoners have been convicted of crimes. Many of them are held under what is known as administrative detention, which means that they were held, but not necessarily convicted of anything, and that is an exchange that going to continue every week over the course of this six-week first phase of the agreement.

[15:20:10]

Another handful of hostages, Israeli hostages to be released on Saturday, at which point more Palestinians will be released. And over the course of those six weeks, 33, a total of 33 Israeli hostages will be released.

And I'd be remiss, Jessica, not to also mention another piece of this, and that is the aid that is going into Gaza starting today. Thousands of trucks have been waiting outside to bring that aid in. And let's be frank, Gaza is in deep humanitarian crisis. A shortage of food. There is famine there. There is the outbreak of disease. And most, if not all of the hospitals are not functioning there because they have been the subject of attacks as well.

So there is a lot of suffering to be relieved in these coming days and weeks. And today, we saw the first installment of that and that is an important step, but is just one step. And we will of course, continue to watch and hope that that the subsequent steps are taken as well.

DEAN: Yes, and it comes, I don't have to tell you, after months and months and months of negotiations and US officials and other officials from around the world pushing for this moment.

All right, Jim Sciutto, thank you so much for that, reporting live from Tel Aviv.

Later this hour, we will speak with the grandson of a hostage set to be released during this first phase of the ceasefire deal. That's coming up in just a little bit.

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[15:25:51]

DEAN: This is a live picture inside a very lively Capital One Arena there in Washington, DC as that crowd prepares for the president- elect, the vice president-elect to arrive very soon. There is going to be a big rally there tonight. It is being billed as a victory rally and a lead up to tomorrow's inauguration, and already quite full as a lot of these festivities being moved inside, including the Inauguration itself, due to those very historically cold temperatures in Washington, DC. So as that is all happening, we are watching the page turn to a new presidency.

The current president, who has just a few hours left in his term, President Biden spending his final hours as president in the state that helped catapult him into power, South Carolina. CNN's Arlette Saenz is traveling with the president, and she joins us now live from Charleston.

And Arlette, it is a significant day for President Biden as he closes this chapter of a very decades' long political career and it is probably no accident that he is doing it there in South Carolina, a place that was so pivotal to his to him becoming president.

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right. Jessica.

And, you know, I actually spoke with Congressman Jim Clyburn, the man who endorsed Biden back in 2020 when his campaign was really struggling. That endorsement really launched Biden to a win here in South Carolina, and then on to winning the Democratic nomination.

Clyburn had told me that Biden personally called him just a few weeks ago and said he wanted to end his presidency right here in South Carolina, that he knew it was fitting and knows how important this state has been to him, both politically and personally, not just -- this day has not just revived Biden's campaign back in 2020, but it also offered the Biden family a bit of comfort and solace in the past after the passing of their son, Beau Biden, back in 2015. They had actually traveled here to South Carolina to have some moments as a family for the first time after Beau's passing.

Now, Biden this morning spoke at a church service at Royal Missionary Baptist Church in North Charleston. He talked about how he hopes that people will keep the faith, keep the hope and stay engaged as he is preparing to leave office and as President-elect Donald Trump is preparing for his Inauguration tomorrow.

Now, in a short while, we will be hearing from Biden as he is speaking at the International African American Museum here in Charleston. That is something that he has talked with often with a lot of the local leaders about here. But Biden has also been trying to push through some final actions as he is preparing to leave office tomorrow.

This morning, he spoke about that hostage and ceasefire deal that went into effect, saying that the guns in Gaza are finally silent after he and his team had collaborated with Trump's team to try to push that deal across the finish line.

Now, the president also took some other executive action today, granting pardons to five individuals, including the late Civil Rights leader Marcus Garvey, and offering commutations to two others. But there is still one outstanding question about whether President Biden will offer any preemptive pardons to those individuals who might be targeted for prosecution once Trump takes power.

I am told that Biden has not made a final decision on that, that he is still discussing the possibility of preemptive pardons. So, that is certainly a decision that is likely to go down to the wire as he is preparing to leave office tomorrow at noon.

DEAN: Yes, in less than 24 hours now.

Arlette Saenz in Charleston, South Carolina covering the president. Thank you so much.

Our panel is back with me now.

Thanks so much for coming back and talking through all of this.

Bryan, I want to start with you. As we were looking at those images inside the Capital One Arena, looking at what it looks like in there, and my colleague, Jeff Zeleny talking about this earlier this hour, just you can -- the palpable feeling of a page turning of a new era that's dawning on Washington, DC. It really is different than 2017, the way he is coming in now in 2025.

I remember covering that Inauguration in 2017, and it was a bit of a more muted affair. No one really knew exactly -- it was so unexpected. This is not that.

[15:30:07]

BRYAN LANZA, FORMER DEPUTY COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR, TRUMP CAMPAIGN: This is definitely a celebration. Listen, I was there in 2016. I remember sort of the feeling that people in Washington were just unhappy that Donald Trump had won because he was bringing disruption to Washington, DC. You get the feeling, you get the sense now that everybody here in Washington is, at least almost everyone on the Republican side, they are eager to have him because they want disruption.

So it is a complete 180 from when we first came in to where we are now. But it is also -- you know, there has been a lot that's happened. You've had COVID, you've had inflation, you've had huge things that had an impact on the American psyche. And they, more than anybody, are ready to turn this page.

They are certainly ready to turn this page on liberalism in America that they flat out rejected this last November, and they think going forward, they need something that is sort of more conservative, more sound, you know more business oriented and that is what you're seeing.

You're seeing the excitement in that arena is a lot of small business owners there that are just happy to turn the page and sort of start putting their bank accounts at full again and that is what President Trump brings.

DEAN: And Doug, you know, Bryan touches on something which is -- we were talking about earlier as well, which is this is a GOP again, unlike 2017 where there was resistance within his own party. That has faded away. This is Trump's GOP.

DOUG HEYE, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: No question.

I remember actually being on the member call, one that Paul Ryan had. I wasn't supposed to be on it, but I had the number where Paul Ryan told Republican members, you do what you need to in this election in 2016, and there will be no penalties for that, thinking that Donald Trump was going to lose. This is after "Access Hollywood" and you know, other revelations. That kind of conversation does not happen now within the Republican Party.

I was at an event two days ago with Speaker Johnson, and he is standing right with President Trump, not just as you would expect in, you know, conversationally in and around the days of, you know, an Inauguration. But clearly this has been months long of preparation, and he knows that he needs Donald Trump on his side as Speaker to get things through with such a small majority in the House.

DEAN: Yes, there is that just tiny, tiny majority.

Lulu -- I want to play -- I talked to Jason Miller, a senior adviser for the Trump campaign yesterday about a number of things, but on immigration, just what they're hoping to achieve, kind of from the jump. Let's listen to that clip.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JASON MILLER, PRESIDENT-ELECT TRUMP SENIOR ADVISER: 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, and I think it is 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)

DEAN: There has certainly been a lot of signals from them, they want this shock and awe. They want people to feel it. They want them, as he just said, to notice a difference.

Logistically, this is a tall order what they are proposing.

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: It is, and if you listen what he said there was I want the American people -- he is going to want the American people to really notice the difference. And so what they are planning are these kind of very showy things. Because the fact is, if you have people who have a criminal history, that isn't the vast majority of people who are here illegally in this country, undocumented immigrants.

That's persons -- people that you will find one by one, right? You do a raid, that's not showy. They're planning on going into Democratic areas. They are planning on really making a kind of show of force that, you know, cameras will be on them. You know, you'll see men in vests kind of, you know, knocking on doors.

They want to send a signal that America is closed to immigration and that you're going to see that in a number of different ways and they are planning -- this isn't just something on the first day. You know, they're going to be rolling this out over many, many months. But the fact is, this is a very tall order what they want to do.

And so there is substance, and there is what is for show and we will have to see where those two things meet.

DEAN: Right, right. And Karen, look, it could potentially set up this first clash between this new administration if they go into these blue cities that are run by Democrats to provide a contrast, and it will be interesting to see what that looks like as they try to push back against some of these Democratically-led governments in these blue cities.

KAREN FINNEY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, I mean, it suggests, unfortunately, that Donald Trump is about to make good on his promise of revenge and retribution. The fact that he is starting very intentionally in blue cities, cities with Democratic mayors, and obviously with Illinois, also a Democratic governor. And I think what Lulu just said is really important. You know what this looks like in this sort of big scooping up, I mean, this is not a country that does well with racial profiling. So what is going to be -- you know, if you're trying to scoop up lots of people and then trying to figure out who are the individuals that you've scooped up, and I mean, I've been racially profiled. It is not fun. Let me tell you. You know, then trying to sort out, who are the people we were trying to get versus the people who just maybe didn't look a certain way.

[15:35:14]

It is not just going to be a clash, frankly, with these Democratic mayors and governors, it is going to be very startling for the American people, and I do think there is the potential that some folks will look at that, particularly if you have instances wherein there are teachers and faith institutions preparing for the idea that some children, their parents maybe aren't coming home. And so what is that going to look like?

And so I do think, you know, they think it is going to be this shock and awe, but I just -- you know, without real coordination, it could also be terrifyingly against our values in terms of if we are seeing people treated harshly or without respecting their basic humanity and dignity. I think that could be -- that could actually backfire.

DEAN: And Bryan, so there is the immigration bucket. There is also, I think, the buzziest one at this particular moment in time for millions of Americans, TikTok. What is what is the president-elect going to do about TikTok? How do they, you know, move forward?

I talked to Congressman Carlos Gimenez just in the last hour. He really wants this ban to go through, as it was authored by Congress and upheld in a unanimous ruling by the Supreme Court, and he is not alone. There are some other Republicans that want that as well.

How do you see that playing out and within the party as well?

LANZA: I mean, they're going to have to sit down and talk with President Trump. Obviously, President Trump has seen a reason to come in and give TikTok its extension. You know, maybe they've done the right things to sort of to alleviate the concerns. And this has been something that President Trump brought up in his first term that he has seen it as a National Security concern.

He is clearly seen something in the leadership that he's willing to turn the page. You know, they are willing to sort of restructure. You have Project Texas, it would have been the ultimate sort of goal of this administration.

But you have a President Trump who is willing to engage, and so what you don't have is a President Trump who is sticking his head in the sand and saying he is not willing to talk to anybody. You know, when you have a president who --

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Bryan, the people that he -- what is actually motivating him is the 175 million TikTok users. That is a huge constituency, I think.

LANZA: You're right. You're right. And they create a lot of jobs.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: And, you know, he is a populist and it is popular.

No, I mean, I think -- I mean, I don't think it is confusing.

LANZA: Also TikTok is a billion dollar business. Lulu, TikTok is a billion dollar business. There are a lot of small business people who are making a tremendous amount of revenue for their families, and President Trump is the small business president.

So we shouldn't be surprised that he is sticking up for TikTok because he is sticking up for small businesses. Removing that from small businesses is going to cause extreme hardship. So what is wrong with having a process where you can come in and have a conversation of what works?

Let's be clear about TikTok --

GARCIA-NAVARRO: It's just -- the Supreme Court and bipartisan -- there were laws that were passed --

DEAN: We've got to go. Go ahead.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: -- that were bipartisan, and then the Supreme Court upheld it. So, you know, well, I think this is going to go back to the courts.

DEAN: Guys, we've got to get in a quick break because the president- elect is headed to Capital One Arena.

Very quickly, I want to say thank you very much to all of you for being here. We really appreciate it.

We are going to take a quick break. We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:42:49]

SCIUTTO: We are now less than half a day into what has been planned to be a six-week ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, which is holding for now.

Just a short time ago, Hamas released three Israeli hostages taken during the horrible October 7th attacks on Israel. The three women are the first of 33 hostages expected to be freed in the coming weeks, as part of a long awaited deal, just the first phase of it.

Daniel Lifshitz is the grandson of 84-year-old hostage, Oded Lifshitz, who is among the dozens of names on that initial list of 33.

Daniel, thanks so much for joining us.

DANIEL LIFSHITZ, GRANDSON OF 84-YEAR-OLD HOSTAGE, ODED LIFSHITZ: Thank you for welcoming me. That was such an exciting footage. It is unbelievable to see them coming back home. You know, they are all like family for me.

SCIUTTO: Yes, they must be. And I've noticed that speaking to the hostage families for all of these months since October 7th, that even when you personally don't get good news, your family, the relief of seeing your grandfather come home, you feel joy for your fellow family members who are having that moment of joy.

LIFSHITZ: Absolutely. And, you know, it is so amazing to see those hostages going out and feeling so much joy for them as each one of them, Amanda, Emily's mother is like a family for me already. And Eitan Gonen and Mierav, and as well Yamit and Oded, the sister of Doron. And I felt it when Omer Neutra was announced that he was murdered on October 7th and I cried so much over him and I said, wow, I've never felt so sorry and cried so much for someone I don't know.

SCIUTTO: Yes. They feel like family.

Well, tell me, because I imagine it must be difficult as well, because you are hoping and praying for the moment you get to see your grandfather again, Oded, that here we are showing the happy images of today's families reuniting.

We also have images of your grandfather. Folks watching -- oh, there we go. There he is and your grandmother, she was released in November 2023, soon after the October 7th attacks.

Tell us what your hopes are for your grandfather now.

[15:45:05]

LIFSHITZ: Well, first of all, to see them one more time, having the same picture there in the cactus garden, which -- that's why we have the symbol of the cactus of the family.

SCIUTTO: Oh, great.

LIFSHITZ: We made it for the Pope. My uncle made it. My grandma gave him. So I hope to see that. And -- but then, you know, my grandfather is 84 years old. He is the only great grandfather held hostage in the world. He has a lung disease and a blood pressure disease.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

LIFSHITZ: And we don't know nothing about him since November 23.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

LIFSHITZ: When there was the last hostage released, two hostages saw him in Gaza. Because when my grandmother came back, she said he was murdered because she saw him on the backyard of the cactus garden, which they built for 64 years. When the terrorists put her on a motorbike after they rolled her in a carpet, and when she looked back, she was on her stomach. She saw him on the ground, unconscious and bleeding. She thought he was murdered, but he was only unconscious because he fainted.

SCIUTTO: Okay, I see.

LIFSHITZ: So then on the -- when she came back for more than 30 days, we thought he was dead. And suddenly two hostages had been released. In the first agreement, told us they saw him on October 7th.

SCIUTTO: He was still alive.

LIFSHITZ: One of them in Gaza. Ada Sagi, after she was shocked from the amount of civilians in Kibbutz Nir Oz us and then Hanna Katzir, rest in peace, a hero, she was with him for about 20 or 30 days, and then he didn't feel good, and because he gave her treatment all this time because she was a handicapped, she told him she can't stay there, so they moved her.

And then we don't know if he came back to the same apartment. We have nothing about him.

SCIUTTO: That's the uncertainty.

Tell me about your grandmother's recovery, because we've been saying on the air that the moment of freedom is not complete freedom, right? Because you carry the trauma with you. How has your grandmother's recovery been since she was released?

LIFSHITZ: So, first of all, physically, when she came back, she was so tiny. She lost almost 22 pounds in 17 days. She had a very bad diarrhea. That's why she was released that she won't spread the disease inside the tunnels.

But then her physical problems kind of disappeared. She came completely steady when she was shaking before. That's why I believe those hostages are going into survival mode of the body that they can survive; and mentally, we brought her a really great psychiatrist that worked with her, but still, I asked her today, "Grandma, don't you feel joy from this moment?" She said, "Yes." And I can -- you know, do like that with the head. But I will feel relief only when the last hostage is home. I am still in the tunnel until the last hostage is home.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

LIFSHITZ: Then we can party as much as you want.

SCIUTTO: That is a common feeling I hear from so many hostage families. They want everybody to come home and won't feel relief until then.

Well, listen, I hope you get that moment soon with your grandfather, Oded. And we can certainly hope for the best for the other families as well.

LIFSHITZ: I really believe it will happen because we saw, you know, I am really thankful for President Trump, President-elect Trump, because I think the pressure he made and sending Witkoff here to make such a big pressure over both sides and I know that Witkoff pressured here and Prime Minister al Thani, the Qatari Prime Minister, the pressure he made on Hamas on both sides, on those moments made that work.

And that's actually in the end, Trump and I -- what he said is that he wants the end of the war and all the hostages to be released. That's why I believe we will move not to being six months until 18 months.

SCIUTTO: Well, we can hope, and the administration told hostage families this weekend that they're committed to getting the deal -- all of the phases of the deal done.

Daniel Lifshitz, thanks so much for joining this evening. We certainly wish the Lifshitz family that they will soon get the relief of seeing their loved ones come home.

Please do stay with us. We will have much more news right after a short break.

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[15:53:51]

DEAN: In just a few minutes, President-elect Donald Trump is expected to arrive there at the Capital One Arena in Washington, DC where you see thousands of his supporters have gathered for a celebration and rally ahead of tomorrow's Inauguration. It is slated to be one of the coldest inaugurations in American history. Look how wintry that looks.

Meteorologist, Derek Van Dam joining us now and Derek, very frigid temperatures forecast for DC. Obviously, they had to move the actual Inauguration inside the Capitol for that very reason.

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, indeed, Jessica.

And if you think about the VIPs, the delegates, and the thousands of people that were to line this area ahead of the Inauguration for several hours at a time, with Mother Nature just playing a factor in this, they are probably breathing a sigh of relief this morning, because you have to go back four decades, the last time the temperature was predicted to be around this cold.

So 85, that was Reagan's second Inauguration. It won't be that cold tomorrow, but it is the wind chill values. That is the apparent temperature on your exposed skin as you step outside. That will make it feel like the 85 -- seven-degree temperature that was actually taking place during Reagan's second inauguration.

[15:55:06]

There it is, five degrees in Washington, DC for your wind chill value, right, during that noon-time period. That is what makes this long exposure to this type of cold so dangerous.

The winds will be gusting out of the northwest at 15 to 25 miles per hour, and it is just going to be downright miserable, to steal, one of my colleague's terms to describe this. What is happening now is a rain-snow mix, but this is really just a curtain raiser. It will lay a fresh blanket of snow here in the Mid- Atlantic, but it is those temperatures that will be so frigid tomorrow that is going to make a lot of people happy that they will not be outdoors for this particular event -- Jessica.

DEAN: Yes. I don't think anybody loves to be that cold.

Derek Van Dam for us in Washington, DC, thanks so much.

VAN DAM: Right.

DEAN: Thank you for joining me today. I am Jessica Dean.

Our special coverage continues next with Pamela Brown and Kaitlan Collins.

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