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Trump Speaks At Pre-Inauguration Rally. Aired 6-7p ET
Aired January 19, 2025 - 18:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[18:00:00]
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: First, let me thank my incredible family, and I want to thank in particular somebody that headed up the Republican Party, along with Mike. The two of them, Lara Trump, who you saw before, who produced those two beautiful children. Lara Trump is unbelievable. She was the chairman of the Republican Party, and nobody ever said, oh, gee, it's a family member. They actually said, how the hell did you get her to do it? And she did a phenomenal job.
We had a minimum of cheating. We watched them like a hawk. Where is Lara? Where the hell is she? But she did some job. See? She wants to be nice and quiet. She's here someplace. Thank you, Lara. Thank you very much. She's phenomenal. The job she did, and her son who was up, didn't they do a beautiful job? The son and the daughter. How many young kids know that one? They don't know that one.
But her husband is somebody I'm very proud of. He's doing a great job. He's been subpoenaed more than any human being in history I believe. Every day he'd get a subpoena from Congress on something. All bullshit. But he got a subpoena. He's got a PhD in subpoenas, but he did a fantastic job. And, Don, you know all about Don, how he did. He's great. He's very popular, too. He knows a lot about guns, I want to tell you that.
We had -- by the way, I have to tell you, we had great support from every gun group, including the NRA, who's really worked hard.
And Ivanka and Jared are here, and Tiffany and Michael are here, and Barron, and my 10 incredible grandchildren and another one coming through Tiffany. And of course, I want to thank our next vice president of the United States, J.D. Vance. Wherever he may be. There's a lot of people. Wherever the hell he is, he's here someplace. It's a lot of people. It's a little tough when you say, where is he? You know, you got a lot of people in here.
But J.D. Vance has been extraordinary and he's got an unbelievable wife. The second lady of the United States. Usha Vance. So, Usha, thank you very much. It's a beautiful couple, great people.
We're also pleased to be joined tonight by Hulk Hogan. The Hulkster. The Hulkster. One thing it's not, it's not hard to find him. All he has to do is stand up and just say, there he is. But he's great. And Kid Rock. Wow. Kid Rock is a friend of mine. He's a friend of mine for a long, long time. He did that thing on Budweiser. Budweiser will never be the same. When he did the gun with the MAGA hat. That was the commercial that everybody saw.
Also with us tonight is a great actor, tremendously talented guy. Jon Voight, who's great, and a friend of mine. And Sylvester Stallone is here. Great guy. And, you know, I got Mel Gibson, Sylvester Stallone, and Jon Voight to become ambassadors to Hollywood, California, to put it back on track. So they're all ambassadors. You have to refer to them as ambassadors, Mr. Ambassador.
And a man who's got an army of young people. Charlie Kirk is here. And I want to thank Charlie. Charlie is fantastic. I mean, this guy. Don't believe the stuff when you hear the kids are liberal. They're not liberal. Maybe they used to be, but they're not anymore. You got to see how many people are for us.
And I want to thank Megyn Kelly. She's been terrific. She's been really great. And Billy Ray Cyrus and Lee Greenwood, wow. Has he been (INAUDIBLE). What a song and what a man. And you know, by the way, these microphones, you see the microphones. I said, what the hell are those microphones doing standing behind me?
You're going to have a little special treat at the end of this speech. I don't want to tell you because you'll rush me off the stage. Get off the stage. But you have a little special treat, and I won't tell you. But let's put it this way. It's the people that 30 years ago had a hot song, never hit number one, hit number five.
[18:05:02]
But 30 years later, it hit number one week after week. And they're here to sing. They're here to sing for you and you won't recognize them. They're slightly larger than they used to be. But that's the way life goes. We can all tell you that's the way life goes. There's nothing we can do about that.
Sebastian Gorka, stand up, Sebastian. I see Sebastian here. There's a patriot. He's been with me through thick and thin. Right, Sebastian? Now he's with the administration. Thank you. Great guy.
And again I want to thank Elon for what he did in Pennsylvania. He worked so hard. He worked so hard in Pennsylvania. A great guy and a man who is a champion, a man who took something from nothing. Nobody, everybody said, this is something will never work. It's too violent. But he understood people. He said they like violence unfortunately, right? But a man who understood fighting better than any man ever. There's never been anything like this. What Dana White did with the UFC and building it into a monster sports franchise.
So I want to thank Dana White of UFC for being here. And, Dana, you've done a job like nobody could have done. Thank you. A great guy and a friend of mine. A great friend of mine. He's a tough cookie. You want him on your side at all times. Every one of those people you want on your side. And we have dozens of other celebrities and everything, but we're going to get back to what we're doing.
But I do want to say in the audience, we have many governors, many, many senators, many members of Congress and other distinguished guests, far too many to name, unless you'd like me to name them. No? Do you want me to name governors, senators and congresspeople? No. I thought you were going to say that. Sorry, governors. No. But we appreciate all of the love that we've gotten from them.
I'll tell you, our House and our Senate, Republicans have been unbelievable. And the governors are unbelievable. The job they're doing of the crime ridden cities, the top 25, every single one of them is run by a Democrat. Does that tell you something? We don't have problems in the Republican cities.
Tonight I also want to send our love to everyone affected by the terrible wildfires raging in California. We're praying for you all. We love you all. We're going to be there very soon. I'm going to go out there on Friday to see it and to get it moving back. We're going to get some of the best builders in the world and we'll get it moving back.
And I also want to pay my respects to the great people of North Carolina. You know, I won it every single time. And they've been treated very badly. FEMA almost didn't know it existed. And we're going to get North Carolina rocking and rolling, OK? We're going to get them rocking and rolling. They've been treated very badly as a state.
Together we will rebuild Los Angeles better, more beautiful than ever before. We're going to get it going. We have the best builders in the world. It's the only people that could do it. Nobody else knows what the hell they're doing. And in 2028, the Los Angeles Olympics will be one of the great sporting events and patriotic celebrations in history.
I was with Gianni, the head of the Olympics, and because of the wildfires, they're going to do a special, special job. They're going to really do something very special on the Olympics. And the opposite. Some people said, oh, maybe the Olympics can't go there. Turned out just the opposite. They came to see me the other day and the committee, and it's just the opposite. So the Olympics is great. And Gianni, for the other, as you know, the World Cup, Gianni is the head of it.
We had our top people, Wasserman. They all came in on the Olympics. And then I saw Gianni, and we got the World Cup, too. And you know, it's only because they rigged the election that I'll be your president representing you there. You know, I got both of them. I got the Olympics and I got the World Cup. And I said, you know, it's too bad one was in 2026 and the other was in 2028. And I said, I won't be there. I won't be your president.
But then they rigged the election and now we won. So I'm going to be your president for the Olympics and for the World Cup. So, Gianni, thank you for the World Cup and everybody, thank you for the Olympics. We're going to have a great time. We have another thing happening. 250 years.
[18:10:03] A celebration like no other. 250 years. And that's going to be taking place next year. So we have a lot of big events coming and everything we do, we do everything. We take it very, very seriously. But what do we do more than anything else? We put America first and it all starts tomorrow when I raise my hand on the bible to be sworn as your -- we'll be sworn in tomorrow. We're all going to be sworn in together.
That's the way I look at it. It's not me, it's you. Greatest of all time. So we will be sworn in tomorrow. I'll be representing you as your 47th president of the United States. And just in conclusion, together, we're going to cut your taxes and inflation, slash your prices, getting them back down, raise your wages and bring thousands of factories back to the USA, right where they belong. And that will be done through tariffs and smart policy.
We will build American, we will buy American, and we will hire American. I will end the war in Ukraine, I will stop the chaos in the Middle East, and I will prevent World War Three from happening. And you have no idea how close we are. We will crush violent crime in our cities and give our police the support, protection, resources and respect they so dearly deserve. We will strengthen and modernize our military again. We did it. We rebuilt our entire military.
And then they gave billions and billions of dollars of it to, you remember, to the Taliban. They gave it to the Taliban. They gave our military equipment, a big chunk of it, to the enemy. Do you know that we pay billions of dollars a year? Do you know this? Does anyone know this, to Afghanistan? Do you know that? And I say, if we're going to pay billions of dollars a year, tell them we're not going to give them the money unless they give back our military equipment that these poor, stupid people allowed, allowed for them to have.
So we'll give them a couple of bucks. We want the military equipment back. We will rebuild our once great cities, including our capital in Washington, D.C., making them safe, clean and beautiful again. And we want to make this city again safe. We don't want people coming to Washington and getting mugged, shot, killed. We're going to stop it. Law enforcement. And they have very good police here, but they have to be allowed to do their job.
We're going to stop it. We're going to beautify it. We're going to make it the most beautiful capital in the world. We will teach our children to love our country, to honor our history, and to always respect our great American flag. And we will get critical race theory and transgender insanity the hell out of our schools.
And always remember, this is so easy. This will be done tomorrow. We will keep men out of women's sports. It's over. I will defend religious liberty. I will restore free speech. And I will defend the right to keep and bear arms. We're going to defend that right.
After years of building up foreign nations, defending foreign borders and protecting foreign lands, we are finally going to build up our country, defend our borders, and protect our citizens. And we will stop illegal immigration once and for all. We will not be invaded. We will not be occupied. We will not be overrun. We will not be conquered.
We will be a free and proud nation once again. And that will take place tomorrow at 12:00. Everyone in our country will prosper. Every family will thrive, and every day will be filled with opportunity and hope and also filled with a thing called the American dream that you don't hear much about anymore. For the past nine years, you and I fought side by side against the most sinister and corrupt forces on earth.
[18:15:06]
And in our magnificent victory on November 5th, you showed them once and for all that this nation does not belong to them. This nation belongs to you. From New York to Los Angeles, from Philadelphia to Phoenix, from Chicago to Miami, and from Houston to right here in Washington, D.C., our country was won and built by generations of patriots who gave everything they had for our rights and for our freedom.
They were farmers and soldiers, cowboys and factory workers, steelworkers, coal miners, police officers and pioneers who pushed onward, marched forward, and let no obstacle stand in their path. Nothing could get in their way. Together, they laid down the railroads, raised up the skyscrapers, built the great highways, won two world wars, defeated fascism and communism, and launched American astronauts to the moon.
It was hard-working patriots like you who built this country. And 75 days ago, on November 5th, it was hard-working patriots like you who saved our country. You saved our country. Now, after all, we have been through together, we stand on the verge of the four greatest years in American history. With your help, we will restore America's promise and we will rebuild the nation that we all love so much.
We are one people, one family, and one glorious nation under God. We will never give in. We will never give up. We will never back down. And we will never, ever, ever, ever surrender. We will fight, fight, fight, and we will win, win, win. And together we will make America powerful again. We will make America wealthy again. We will make America healthy again. We will make America strong again.
We will make America proud again. We will make America safe again. And we will make America great again.
Thank you very much. Thank you very much. What a great victory for everybody. Thank you, America. Thank you very much. Thank you.
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: And you've been listening to the president-elect of the United States, Donald Trump, speaking at his final rally before he is sworn in and takes the oath of office here in Washington just before noon tomorrow.
Right now the president-elect has been going over a lot of his campaign promises that he had been making on the campaign trail for the last several months that delivered him to this victory. He is now being joined on stage by The Village People to sing his all-time favorite song, "YMCA," who, I should note, were planned to perform here.
Jeff Zeleny, you've been watching all this. Your takeaways?
JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Look, look, I mean, this is one of the moments in history that you really cannot fully sum up. Why has this become Donald Trump's anthem? But indeed it did. And look at the next 47th president of the United States standing right in the middle of this cultural song from a different moment in time. Only one member of the original Village People is on stage tonight, I am told. The rest are newer members, but the crowd now will be doing YMCA.
But one thing I'm struck by, Kaitlan, is at the very beginning, the president talked about his popular vote win, and that is something that is so different from eight years ago when he arrived in Washington.
COLLINS: Exactly. I mean, all of Washington is so different than eight years ago. And he was reflective of his legacy at the beginning of this speech, saying, what will people think of what he did 30 to 40 years from now? And then he went through a lot of what he promised to do, but also a little bit of what we knew, starting with the executive orders tomorrow. He said that he has so many to sign and staff urged him to actually spread them out and not do them all tomorrow. He said that he said to hell with that.
[18:20:01]
And we know some of those executive orders will be on TikTok, which he referenced there during this, but also on energy and drilling and rolling back a lot of what President Biden has been putting into place in his final days in office. And also just listening to what he said about another thing we know that's coming tomorrow, which are the pardons, the January 6th pardons. Trump referred to them again as hostages, which they are not, of course, but at this rally took that moment and said, turn to the people in the audience here and said he thought that they would be very happy when he does make that decision tomorrow in terms of this span of what those pardons are going to look like.
ZELENY: And he was on the verge of it sounded like offering more detail of which pardons he would issue tomorrow on January 6th. But he stopped short and moved on to other things. So that is really a question. Will it be a blanket pardon? Will it be a more targeted pardon of nonviolent or some of the offenders who were not as violent? We shall see.
But, Kaitlan, again, I think we have to take stock of this moment. Again, the Village People standing out there. Normally --
COLLINS: Anything like this.
ZELENY: We have not. Normally President Trump, at his rallies, listens to the music. They are normally not performing. So you see the construction worker, the headdress there. This is literally a song from Donald Trump's early New York days when he was not in politics, when he was indeed more of a liberal. And this has become his anthem.
Watch him dancing there. And it's hard to imagine another president getting away with being able to do this. His crowd loves it. He gains energy from it, and it's one of the things that made him so popular that really connected him to a new generation of people.
COLLINS: Yes, it just kind of speaks to the moment that we're in. And we saw Kid Rock performing beforehand. Dana White got on stage and introduced the president-elect as he was coming out here. And these are the hallmarks of all of his campaign stops, kind of all coming in to. Also what this inauguration tomorrow will look like in terms of how much they've had to change the actual mechanics and logistics of it.
They've also prioritized what Donald Trump himself wants there. And it's a lot of his friends and allies from the campaign trail that will be joining him inside the rotunda tomorrow when he is sworn in.
And you know what's notable, Jeff, is they didn't bring up the Vice President-elect J.D. Vance. He was scheduled to speak and introduce the president. But another notable figure we did see come on stage was Elon Musk to talk about his effort at cutting costs in the federal government. And he was calling for changes to be made. Still a big question about what that's going to look like.
ZELENY: That was striking. He mentioned the vice president-elect at about 40 minutes in, 45 minutes in, long after he mentioned the cabinet. And you're right, he had Elon Musk up on stage. Elon Musk is going to be front and center in this administration. We know that. Absent, of course, was Vivek Ramaswamy. He initially was going to be the co-chair of this Government Efficiency Committee, the DOGE Committee.
Vivek Ramaswamy is no longer involved. They're saying he wants to run for governor of Ohio. That's not for two years. So that is perhaps one of the first casualties of the Trump second term even before it formally begins.
COLLINS: Donald Trump has just exited the stage. He is getting off on the other side of the stage from where he came on. There are a lot of people here in this arena that you're not seeing on camera right now, I should note, including the vice president-elect. Elon Musk, Shou Chew, the CEO of TikTok, is here hours after TikTok was taken offline and then brought back online after Trump essentially indemnified the companies that were worried to continue hosting at the services because of the law that is a bipartisan law that passed here in Washington to ban it if they could not sell from its parent company.
I should note there's Walt Nauta in the top left corner of your television. We're in a little bit of a delay, but that, of course, was Trump's co-defendant in his classified documents case. And this whole moment, Jeff, seeing this rally, this homecoming for Trump in Washington speaks to the comeback that he did have in November in terms of four years ago when he left Washington. It was a very sad ceremony at Joint Base Andrews. He skipped Joe Biden's inauguration. He had this thing where he said,
you know, he touted his supporters, said, we'll be back. And I don't think anyone then, whether covering him or even working for him or his allies, thought that this is what that moment would look like when he did say four years ago we'll be back.
ZELENY: We certainly didn't. And I don't think President Trump thought that would happen either. But he came out. His first words were we won. And that is something that really is his triumph.
[18:25:03]
I mean, he left Washington effectively in shame, but he's slowly rebuilt his career with the help of a lot of some Democratic prosecutors, a Republican failed primary. But now it's a new era. And I was struck in this speech when President-elect Trump talked about all the challenges facing the country.
Let's take a listen to how he built up all the things that are waiting for him but now the burden of governing is also awaiting him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Our new administration will inherit disasters at home and abroad, an economy plagued by inflation and high interest rates, a catastrophic border crisis. Nobody can believe they let people in. They have an open border policy. Do you think that makes sense? Open borders. Anybody wants to, jails, prisons, mental institutions, gangs being emptied right through that ugly open border.
A government that cannot care for its citizens in a time of emergency. Look at what's happening in Los Angeles. Look at what's happening in North Carolina. They've treated them so badly. And a planet on the brink of World War III. It's not going to happen. That's not going to happen. But starting tomorrow, I will act with historic speed and strength and fix every single crisis facing our country. We have to do it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZELENY: To fix every single crisis facing the country. And we were talking earlier, there are signs in this arena that said Trump will fix it. It's just a reminder that in a very short period of time, the burden on governing and on all the nation's and the world's problems are on his desk and finding a foil to blame people for which has been a hallmark of what he did with President Biden, of course, and other rivals, as most do, it's soon his burden to bear.
So that was a striking sort of juxtaposition of how bad the country is in some respects. But tomorrow he'll fix it.
COLLINS: Yes, it's a great point in terms of what he is going to be tasked with tomorrow at noon because he is coming into office with very high approval numbers, some of the highest he's ever had politically. But also that means high expectations from these voters when it comes to immigration, foreign issues, the crises and the war in Ukraine that he promised to end, and also immigration.
I should note the border numbers are actually the lowest they've been since Trump left office. Of course, we'll be watching all of this very closely. That was President-elect Trump's final rally before he does take office and is sworn into office tomorrow. And Trump also said that he will be going to Los Angeles on Friday to visit where the wildfires, of course, have devastated and taken the homes and lives of so many people.
We'll see if that date holds firm. He had been considering that. We're watching all of this as there are more events to go this evening with President-elect Donald Trump after he's just left the stage here just hours before he is slated to take the oath of office tomorrow.
We'll be right back after a quick break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[18:32:28]
PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to a special edition of CNN's NEWSROOM. We just heard from President-elect Donald Trump as he spoke at his victory rally in Washington, D.C.
My panel is back with me. Scott Jennings, a CNN senior political commentator, also with us Bakari Sellers, a CNN political commentator.
All right, Scott, your takeaways.
SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, a couple things. Number one, you can see how fired up Donald Trump and his people are. And one of the things about the Republican Party right now, and this is, I think, different than when he came in before, is that this party is sure of itself. It's confident in itself. Trump knows what he wants to do by and we're already seeing that by virtue of these orders that he's going to sign tomorrow, 200 executive orders.
I mean, these people have a plan. They are fully confident in what they're doing. They know how the levers of power work, and they intend to use it. And it's just -- it's hard for me to describe to you the level of confidence and unity inside the Republican Party right now for what he is about to do. Optimism abounds in the party. And I think if you look at some of the polling, you'll see that Americans are optimistic that the economy will get back on track, that the border will be secured, and that we can actually feel good about being the United States of America again. So I think you saw that reflected in the speech, and you'll see it again tomorrow on the Capitol.
BROWN: Bakari, I want you to respond. And how did you see the speech?
BAKARI SELLERS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I mean, it's the same old, same old. It's what we've heard from Donald Trump. But tomorrow the reins are his. He'll be president of the United States. A lot of the promises that he's made, we'll see the effects. I mean, people, for me and many others who pay way too close attention to, you know, politics and inside the beltway will see the tangible effects of these executive orders that he signs tomorrow. I think it's going to be about 200 of them.
So we'll see what happens then. We'll -- and you know, I disagree slightly with the unity in the Republican Party. I think that they are unified under the personality of Donald Trump. But it's a very slim margin in the House. We'll see those fractures in the TikTok debate. You've already seen Tom Cotton come out and take one position that's diametrically opposed to the president of the United States.
I think the grave difference that Donald Trump has in terms of putting wind at his sails between now and 2016 is the positioning of conservatives in different elements of controlling the free flow of information in this country. And what I mean by that is, if you listen to what Erick Erickson or many others, they've complained, and even my friend Scott here, have complained about the "Washington Post" or the "L.A. Times."
They've complained about censoring on Facebook, Twitter, et cetera. And even if you give them the benefit of the doubt and say, that's true, we can disagree or whatever, now, the facts are, not only do they have a FOX News juggernaut behind them, but they also have all the Sinclair local news stations.
[18:35:08]
They now have talk radio, but they have X, they have Instagram, they're about to have TikTok. They're going to control the flow of information. And so that is going to be an enormous hurdle. They have the "Washington Post," the "Wall Street Journal" is already decently conservative. They have whatever the guy out there at the "L.A. Times" and Scott's paper is doing.
So, look, they have the control of the flow of information, which is different than 2016. That's going to be intriguing in terms of the way Americans receive what's happening in D.C.
JENNINGS: So the difference between the left and the right as it relates to censorship and the free flow of information is this. We're not interested in controlling things for the purpose of pushing narratives. We're interested in the free flow of information for the purpose of defending free speech and allowing people to have full access to everything.
The great complaint of conservatives over the years has been that the American people, people worldwide, have had restrictions put on what they were allowed to see, what they were allowed to know, and that narratives, narratives were more important than facts. And one of the reasons he won this election, Donald Trump, is because we got out of the narrative business in this country, and we got into the information business.
The defense of free speech, the promotion of free speech is really the defense and the promotion of Western civilization. And it's important here and it's important around the world, so all these things you just mentioned about who controls what, it's not about control. It's about transparency and honesty and truth over narrative. And that's what we're all about.
BROWN: But you say --
SELLERS: I think that what we're going to see, I mean, I have a hard time digesting when you say truth, for example, because what we see is a bastion of anti-intellectualism and a bastion of disinformation. I mean, Jeff Bezos, for example, has stripped the "Washington Post" --
JENNINGS: Disinformation.
SELLERS: Yes. I mean, if you -- if you want --
JENNINGS: You mean like, you mean like, oh, the president is fit for office. You mean disinformation like that? Or are you talking about something else?
SELLERS: Well, I mean, I'm interested to see the way they cover an 80- year-old president in, what, in a year and a half in terms of Donald Trump.
JENNINGS: How did they cover the last one?
SELLERS: They didn't do a good job. I think we've recognized that.
JENNINGS: Good point.
SELLERS: So maybe we can learn from that.
BROWN: All right. Let's get -- let's go back to the speech here and listen to what Trump said about immigration, what he's going to do in his very early days back in the White House.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We have to set our country on the proper course. By the time the sun sets tomorrow evening, the invasion of our borders will have come to a halt and all the illegal border trespassers will, in some form or another, be on their way back home. Millions and millions of people and lots of those people are murderers, 52 percent of them killed more than one person. Other than that, they're quite fine. They're nice people.
The border security measures I will outline in my inaugural address tomorrow will be the most aggressive, sweeping effort to restore our borders.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: OK, that 52 percent number is wrong.
SELLERS: Disinformation.
BROWN: That is actually disinformation.
JENNINGS: But what point is he saying? Was he saying that 52 percent of the people who had murdered someone had killed more than one person?
BROWN: It sounded like he was saying out of the undocumented immigrants --
JENNINGS: That's what I heard. I don't know, I didn't obviously --
BROWN: He was saying 52 percent.
JENNINGS: I thought he meant of the murdering -- of the murderous pool of which there is a pool of murderers that they had killed more, but I don't know. But it's all right.
BROWN: OK. Well, bottom line is --
JENNINGS: Bottom line is there's murderers here. And we need to get rid of them. Isn't that the bottom line?
SELLERS: No, that's not the bottom line. But --
JENNINGS: It's not?
SELLERS: But no, we would like to. But that's not the bottom line. And I think what we're talking about here goes back to the free flow of information. And you were bringing up things about disinformation and narratives. And look, I don't mind, I don't mind this kind of free flow. In fact, I still engage on Twitter or X. I didn't flee X and go to any other app. I, you know, I have a profile on Blue Sky, but I'm still there on Twitter trying to engage with people who come with hyperbolic racism or sensationalism or misinformation or disinformation, call you anything under the sun.
If that's what we want to call the free flow of information, that's fine. But I also have to remind you, I think there were about 785 million reasons or thereabout, I may be off on that 80 some, but there were 700 million plus reasons why FOX News got sued. And so we recognize that that misinformation is pervasive. And if we're going to have to sort through that over the next four years, that's fine. I just think --
JENNINGS: And by the way, there's mechanisms to do that. I mean, you can go to court and if somebody does something to defame you or whatever, you can go to court and get a ruling on that.
SELLERS: Sure.
JENNINGS: So there's mechanisms to solve that. But here's the bottom line. The people in this country this year had access to more information and more -- and fewer gatekeepers than ever before. And I think they kind of liked it. And I think that's what -- I think that's what people want. They want less gatekeeping and more access to information, and they're tired of being told things that they -- that we all can see with our own eyes that are not true, but we just have to walk around, OK, I guess we have to buy into it. I mean, that's over.
SELLERS: But is -- so is that the example? BROWN: But as Tom --
SELLERS: One second real quick. But I want to make sure that we're talking about the same thing. Like you see for your own eyes things that we know are not true.
[18:40:01]
But the 47th president of the United States today still believes he won the 2020 election. Can we verbally -- can you agree with me tonight that that's not true?
JENNINGS: Of course. I've long said Joe Biden won the election.
SELLERS: Why does he say that?
JENNINGS: I don't know.
SELLERS: I mean, that is not a fact. That's disinformation. That's not accurate.
JENNINGS: That's not disinformation. Joe Biden was clearly the president and tomorrow he won't be, thank God.
BROWN: Yes. But, I mean, it is disinformation for Trump to continue to say he won the 2020 election.
JENNINGS: So what? I mean, are you saying --
BROWN: To Bakari's point, that's a lie.
JENNINGS: Are you saying that he could alter the past by saying that --
SELLERS: No, I'm giving you an example of what we're talking about.
BROWN: Yes.
SELLERS: And so when we --
JENNINGS: I'm sorry, Bakari, your party just engaged in the biggest cover-up in modern American political history on Joe Biden. It's all coming out. We all now know that every Democrat knew it, and you and everybody else came on TV and lied about this man's condition. I don't want to hear it. I don't want to hear it.
SELLERS: Well, the vision --
JENNINGS: The Biden cover-up is the worst thing we've seen in this country in your or my lifetime.
SELLERS: First of all, that is --
JENNINGS: In political misinformation.
SELLERS: That is hyperbolic. JENNINGS: It is not.
SELLERS: It's not only hyperbolic, but it's actually incorrect. And yes, I mean, I wish --
JENNINGS: It's incorrect?
SELLERS: I hadn't been around the president. I wish I would have known that he was not in the condition that he was in.
JENNINGS: Do you not have a television and eyes and ears?
SELLERS: But I didn't -- first of all, I didn't see it until the debate. But yes.
JENNINGS: He's on TV, he's on TV all the time.
SELLERS: But you also just want to sit here and say that that is the biggest whatever of misinformation we've seen, the biggest cover-up.
JENNINGS: Yes. Correct.
SELLERS: The biggest, the most hyperbolic and sensationalized incident that we've had in American political history, and you and I, our generation or lifetime, when you sit here on January 6th and did not believe that the person right there should be president of the United States or run again in his human lifetime, because they --
JENNINGS: It was a terrible thing.
SELLERS: Not --
JENNINGS: It was a terrible thing.
SELLERS: So we're going to sensationalize this because I can actually sit here honestly and say that whoever covered up his infirmity in the White House, whoever -- whether or not he is going downhill fast or taking pills for whatever it is, early onset Alzheimer's, dementia, whatever Joe Biden is going through, people who knew about it and covered it up, they should have -- they should be able to have their day and have their consequences and accountability.
JENNINGS: They just had it on election day.
SELLERS: All I'm asking you for is that same -- because 140 officers were injured. People were killed that day on January 6th. So for you to sit here and say that that is the biggest cover-up, I would simply say that people saw with their own eyes people storming the Capitol. And that is, well, is an issue that this president is going to usher in and wipe away.
JENNINGS: Here's what I lived through. Four years of Trump, then I lived through January 6th. Then I lived through four years of Biden, and me and tens of millions of Americans processed all of it and went running back to Donald Trump because you cannot put the same people back in charge who just ran the country off into the ditch. SELLERS: What you just -- now what you just said outside of the ditch
part is actually a fact. But if you're going to sit here and minimalize it --
JENNINGS: No, we're in it. We'll get out of it tomorrow.
SELLERS: That's fine. Whatever. But if you're going to minimalize January 6th, right?
JENNINGS: I'm not minimizing it, but I have to take it in with everything else I know.
SELLERS: No, I'm saying by -- we were talking about disinformation and misinformation, and you accused me and everybody else of a cover-up.
JENNINGS: Yes.
SELLERS: When you sit here and minimalize January 6th.
JENNINGS: I'm not minimalizing it.
SELLERS: All I'm saying is, listen.
JENNINGS: I'm saying it happened and I processed it.
SELLERS: My bad. I didn't mean to touch you, Scott. I don't want to go there. I don't want to go --
JENNINGS: You're doing it again.
BROWN: You know what, let me tell the viewers something about these two. They actually really like each other. And then during the commercial break, they're chatting. They're talking about the football game. But I think that that was a really important conversation because obviously you have a very different --
SELLERS: Of course, because I was a part of it. I mean, Scott weren't here would have been better.
BROWN: Well, uh-oh, I want to wrap it up on that point.
Bakari Sellers, Scott Jennings, thanks so much.
Kaitlan, back to you with the rally.
COLLINS: Pam, you're going to have to do some refereeing there once you guys are off cam. Good luck with that.
BROWN: Yes. But actually sitting back. It was pretty relaxing actually, Kaitlan. I just let them talk.
COLLINS: No, you got to cut Scott off sometimes. We love it. No, I'm kidding, but we're sitting here at the rally. I should note.
JENNINGS: You're unbelievable. Come on, Kaitlan. Tell me, what did I do? COLLINS: I'm just kidding, Scott. Scott knows I love him.
We are here at the rally, though, I should note, President-elect Trump has left. So has his whole team that was here.
And Jeff Zeleny, you know, one of the biggest things is thinking about the influence of what this is going to look like and who Trump brought on stage today. Elon Musk was the main person that came out there. And, you know, as someone who's going to obviously play a critical role in what this is going to look like, he's going to have office space on the White House grounds and just seeing what this is going to mean in terms of the power influences around him, some of them are still similar, like Stephen Miller, who also spoke at this.
ZELENY: Right.
COLLINS: Elon Musk, though, is a new figure and one who is quite close to Donald Trump.
ZELENY: And I think that's probably one of the best reminders that this is not necessarily a redo of the first administration. Obviously, the president is the same, but he's surrounded by an entirely different set of people. And Elon Musk was not involved in politics eight years ago, certainly not on the Trump side. He, in fact, was much more likely to be a Democrat. But a variety of things happened.
He thought he was mistreated during the Biden years, et cetera. So here we are. So that was interesting. But you're right, we did not see J.D. Vance, the vice president-elect on stage. The president finally mentioned him.
COLLINS: Trump said he's here somewhere.
ZELENY: He's like, apparently he's here somewhere and thanked his wife and him. So look, I mean, but J.D. Vance will be sworn in tomorrow as the vice president. So he will have his own portfolio.
[18:45:03]
But it is clear that President Trump puts Elon Musk in a higher category than anyone else in his cabinet. He mentioned those people tonight, but no one else was on stage except Elon Musk. And of course, the Village People.
COLLINS: The Village People. You know, one interesting thing that's going to happen, and speaking of the second gentleman who is coming in, or the second, excuse me, Vice President Vance, as he's coming in, and the second first lady Usha Vance, who Trump mentioned there, they are going to be arriving actually first at the White House in the morning because President Biden is hosting them for a tea with First Lady Jill Biden.
And then, of course, President-elect Trump and Melania Trump, who are staying just across the street at the Blair House, which is the house where foreign leaders stay or dignitaries when they come to visit or incoming presidents. And they are, according to the guidance that was just issued by the White House, Donald Trump, Melania Trump, Joe Biden and Jill Biden will all ride together to the Capitol tomorrow for that inauguration.
ZELENY: And that is the final normal piece of the peaceful transfer of power. This has been something that's been very important to President Biden. He's talked about it a lot. And it always was normal, except four years ago. Of course, that did not happen because President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump left town and they were not at the inaugural. They, of course, didn't ride along during that time.
So it will look more like eight years ago when the Trumps arrived on the South Lawn of the White House or the North Lawn. Excuse me. And they arrived and the Obamas were there, and they did ride to the Capitol together. But this is something that, despite the animosity between them, tomorrow that will be a critical, interesting moment to watch. Just the arrival by the Bidens and the Trumps and then the departure as well from the Capitol. That is always one of the most, you know, history making moments of seeing the president.
And I still remember President Trump, newly sworn in, walking down the steps with the Obamas and giving a final handshake and watching as they set off. So tomorrow we will see that with the Bidens. And that is a turn of the page in every sense.
COLLINS: Yes. And just to imagine the conversation during that car ride, Trump was just trashing Biden and his presidency and saying, it's time for those four years to be over and to move on to his four years, which he promised will be historic. We'll see when he does regain the power of the office tomorrow.
Jeff, thanks for being here at the rally with us covering this live.
Our CNN's special live coverage the day before Trump's inauguration will continue here in a moment. We're going to take a quick break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[18:50:57]
BROWN: Welcome back to a special edition of CNN NEWSROOM.
We just heard from President-elect Donald Trump as he spoke at his victory rally in Washington, D.C. My panel is back with me.
Earlier we were talking about January 6th and Trump himself talked about the pardons that are coming up for some of the J6 rioters. He said everyone would be very, very happy. He said he was going to, quote, you know, a source familiar said he was going to deliver on his long held promise. We don't know what it's going to entail.
JENNINGS: Yes.
BROWN: But certainly if those pardons include people convicted of violently attacking police officers, for example, how will that be received among his supporters like you, Scott? JENNINGS: Yes. Well, number one, I do think you can delineate in this
population between people who got swept up and didn't commit any violent acts and people who did, and I mean, we've even heard J.D. Vance talk about that recently. Number two, I do think it's fair to look at all these cases and realize some of these people did get swept up and may have been treated unfairly, or at least not proportionally compared to people who did commit violent acts.
And for those people, some of these pardons may be seen as just a way to move us past this, move on, and put this behind us. Look, I interpreted the election results in part as people analyze January 6th, they analyzed the argument that the Democrats made, and they decided that they had moved on from it and were ready to make decisions about the future. So I think the way Trump will probably position some of these pardons is, look, I'm trying to put all of this behind us and move into the future. I would expect that to be their argument.
BROWN: And I believe we have the sound of him talking about it. Let's listen to that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: And tomorrow, everybody in this very large arena will be very happy with my decision on the J6 hostages. Very happy. I think you'll be very, very happy. I would say about 99.9 percent in this beautiful arena. And by the way, I want to thank the owners of this arena. They are great. They're up here someplace in one of those beautiful --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: All right, so there he was talking about clearly deliberately using the word hostages.
You know, Bakari, what do you say to that? And what do you say to the fact that Democrats for years, especially after January 6th, talked about that day, talked about Donald Trump and tried to make the argument that he was this existential threat to democracy, you know, this resistance movement? Where does that stand now?
SELLERS: I mean, I think it was an issue. I just think that it was an issue that didn't necessarily come in anybody's top three, four, five. People were concerned about other things like making ends meet. And, you know, one of the things we were talking about in the break is I'm not sure any Democrat could have won in this environment when two- thirds to 75 percent of the voting public said that they were better off four years ago due to the economy.
And we oftentimes look at this in a vacuum. Well, this happened in the '90s, some elections we've had around the world where individuals who were in power, they may not have lost, but they either lost power and some of them actually lost their seats. And so we saw that happen globally.
But Donald Trump tomorrow has a wide swath of pardon power. I mean, that is inherently given to the president of the United States. Every president has issued pardons that people go ape over. Some of them love them, some of them hate them. My hope that you're going to have a wide swath of pardons in the morning from the 46th president of the United States. He's still president until 12:00.
JENNINGS: Why? You think there'll be more?
SELLERS: Yes, certainly.
BROWN: You know any inside --
SELLERS: No. I mean, I just, I mean, they're working around the clock. They're doing great work. You saw the 2500 people who got pardoned for their nonviolent drug crimes, right, there where you had some disparities. I mean, you saw Marcus Garvey, who's one of the greatest Pan-African movement leaders we've ever had, got pardoned today. And so, you know, when you have these things, you'll have more tomorrow and then you'll have some on January 6th.
And just my last thing is, I do appreciate Scott for recognizing and J.D. Vance and others for recognizing that you can put these in batches. The people who got swept up, who were disturbing the peace, whatever, they're fine. But the people who assaulted officers don't need to be pardoned.
JENNINGS: Well, one thing I agree with Bakari about, and by virtue of his support of some of Biden's pardons, is that it is possible for the criminal justice system to make mistakes.
[18:55:04]
SELLERS: Correct.
JENNINGS: It's possible for it to overdo it on certain people.
SELLERS: Correct.
JENNINGS: And you may see that with some of the J6 people. I do think it's going to be hard for Democrats to raise too much hell tomorrow about this, given the way Biden has used his power on Hunter Biden. I think his commuting all the sentences of the people on death row, except for a couple, I mean, that wasn't a principled stand. That was just saying, you know, I'm going to do the ones that were politically convenient to do and leave out the ones that weren't politically convenient to do.
That is the position of the current Democratic president. So it will be hard for Democrats tomorrow to criticize Trump on pardons given Biden's all-in record on it.
SELLERS: I don't -- yes, I think Democrats have to figure out what to put your hair on fire on and what not to. And I think tomorrow's pardons of Donald Trump is not going to be a -- I mean by not of Donald, but by Donald Trump is not going to be a hair on fire moment unless you have people that we can point to who are abusing police officers on the Capitol steps, then I'm going to raise hell about that. BROWN: All right. Well, we shall see. Reporters like me, we have our
work cut out for us, for sure.
Bakari Sellers, Scott Jennings, thanks.
JENNINGS: Do you want to fist bump, too?
BROWN: Sure. We'll be right back.
SELLERS: She had to think about it first.
BROWN: I did. Although --
(END)
BROWN: Welcome back to CNN's special coverage. We just heard Trump speak at a victory rally here in Washington, and we're learning some new details about tomorrow, his inauguration day. At 9:40 a.m. Eastern, Trump and incoming First Lady Melania Trump are expected to arrive at the White House for a tea and coffee reception hosted by the Bidens. Then the Bidens and Trumps will travel together to the Capitol for the inauguration ceremony, which will be held inside the Capitol rotunda. It will be a moment that was not afforded to President Biden when he took the oath of office four years ago.
