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Trump Promises Start of Golden Age of America; Trump Pledges at Inauguration to Take Back Panama Canal; Trump Grants Mass Pardon to January 6th Defendants. World Leaders Congratulate Trump; Palestinians in Gaza Look to Rebuild from the Rubble. Aired 12-1a ET
Aired January 21, 2025 - 00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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JOHN VAUSE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: And so begins the next four years.
I'm John Vause. Ahead here on CNN NEWSROOM.
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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The golden age of America begins right now.
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VAUSE: Donald Trump's inaugural address promised a thrilling new era. A greater, stronger, more exceptional nation. World peace and unity. On the seventh day, he plans to rest. As promised during the campaign day one saw a flurry of executive orders and pardons.
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TRUMP: So this is January 6th, and these are the hostages. Full pardon.
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VAUSE: More than a thousand protesters who stormed the Capitol four years ago, killing and wounding police officers, all formally forgiven by the new president.
On the first day of his second term, Donald Trump took aim at the U.S. immigration system, issuing a series of sweeping executive orders, including an attempt to end birthright citizenship, declaring a national emergency at the southern border, and reshaping the federal government by removing senior officials at the Department of Justice who oversee immigration courts.
President Trump has also withdrawn the U.S. from the World Health Organization, as well as the Paris Climate Accord for a second time. But perhaps most controversial of all, the incoming president granted full pardons to more than a thousand protesters, including those who assaulted police and destroyed property when they stormed the Capitol on January 6th after Trump lost the 2020 election.
But that's not all. The president commuted sentences for 14 far-right extremists from the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys who've been charged with or convicted of seditious conspiracy in trying to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power four years ago.
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TRUMP: We're going to release our great hostages that didn't do, for the most part, they didn't do stuff wrong. You take a look at what went on and look what happens in other parts of the country, in Portland, where they kill people, they destroy the city. Nothing happens to them. In Seattle, where they took over a big chunk of the city, nothing happened. Minneapolis, where they burned down the city. Nothing happened. Essentially, nothing happened. All they want to do is go after the J6 hostages.
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VAUSE: President Trump also ordered an immediate freeze on new or pending government regulations, and rescinded dozens of Biden era policies on sex discrimination, gender identity, government ethics and others.
CNN's Jeff Zeleny begins our coverage.
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JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: President Trump stepping into the Oval Office for the first time on Monday night and delivering on campaign promises to commute the sentences of January 6th defendants and deliver a mass pardon of some 1500 defendants and some 14 sentences. Many serious cases were commuted. Certainly answering the question that's been hanging over his campaign really for many months and even years.
Would he distinguish between the violent offenders and the nonviolent offenders on that horrific day on January 6th? President Trump saying he would not, delivering that blanket mass pardon and the commutation of those serious sentences as well.
That was just some of the executive actions that the president did on his first full day in office. From speaking on Capitol Hill to speaking at a rally at a downtown arena, the president arriving at the White House and stepping into the Oval Office for the first time in his second term. He said it felt great to be back.
He immediately signed a large stack of executive orders, including on immigration, declaring a national emergency on the border, calling the cartels a terrorist organization, did not rule out using special forces in Mexico. The list goes on and on. Taking a series of questions on a range of topics.
But the president made clear he was very excited to be back in power. Also, at one point opening the drawer of the Resolute Desk, pulling out a private note that President Biden sent to him. It was marked 47. He joked with reporters in the Oval Office saying, should I read it aloud? He did not read it aloud, but there is no question on the first full day back in power, President Trump doing actions on the January 6th defendants. That certainly is going to be controversial in his own party and at the Justice Department.
Jeff Zeleny, CNN, the White House.
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VAUSE: During his inaugural address, President Trump promised the golden age of America begins right now. He told the crowd inside the U.S. Capitol rotunda, from this moment, America's decline is over, and he vowed to be a peacemaker and a unifier.
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A number of tech titans were on hand, including Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos and Tim Cook. The 47th president used his inaugural address to discuss the assassination attempt on him, and what he sees as a divine calling.
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TRUMP: Those who wish to stop our cause have tried to take my freedom, and indeed to take my life. Just a few months ago, in a beautiful Pennsylvania field, an assassin's bullet ripped through my ear. But I felt then and believe even more so now, that my life was saved for a reason. I was saved by God to make America great again.
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VAUSE: And joining us this hour from Rogers, Arkansas, is the former governor of Arkansas, Asa Hutchinson. He's now a resident fellow at the Institute of Politics at Harvard University. And Jamal Simmons is with us now from Essex County in New Jersey. He's a CNN political commentator and former communications director for Vice President Kamala Harris.
Thank you both for being with us. Appreciate it.
ASA HUTCHINSON, RESIDENT FELLOW, HARVARD INSTITUTE OF POLITICS: Thank you.
JAMAL SIMMONS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Absolutely.
VAUSE: It's been a busy Monday. There's been a flurry of executive orders. There's no more Paris Climate Change Accord. The U.S. is pulling out of the WHO, and we just heard the president talking about how badly the January 6th insurrectionists have been treated and why they've received this executive order.
So on that, Jamal, did Donald Trump justify that order to halt DOJ cases relating to the Capitol Hill riots by simply wildly exaggerating or making stuff up about a lot of bad stuff about liberal or progressive protesters? SIMMONS: We've spent the last few years of Donald Trump sort of
claiming that he not sort of claiming that he won the 2020 election. What we know is that he didn't win the 2020 election. He brought up several lawsuits that failed along the way. And then those January 6th protesters, based on what Donald Trump had been telling them for weeks, went into the Capitol and tried to stop the rightful counting of the votes, tried to stop the certification of the president of the United States.
I think back to 1865, when Andrew Johnson was president after the civil war, and he was considering giving amnesty to the Confederate soldiers, who also mounted a violent act against the United States government. They gave amnesty to those soldiers and those leaders, but they made them swear allegiance to the country. They made them agree to the 13th amendment. They put some conditions on them. And I think if Donald Trump was going to do it, he should have at least made these folks agree that they were not going to engage in violent acts against the government or his officials.
And certainly I think people who committed violence against police officers like Brian Sicknick, who ultimately took his life, I don't understand why we would be letting those folks out of jail.
VAUSE: And, Asa, to you, as the youngest United States attorney ever appointed in this country, as a former federal prosecutors, does this way of thinking, just giving these guys a free pass in many ways, does that raise red flags or perhaps the hair on the back of your neck?
HUTCHINSON: Well, first of all, this has been a day of ups and downs. There are so many things that Donald Trump has said that the American people want, increased border security, dealing with inflation, greater energy production. And so there's a lot of positive things today. But whenever you look at some of his executive orders are great, but then the pardons really tips the scale in the Justice Department away from the rule of law, away from building confidence.
And he makes a false comparison. You can criticize that more should have been prosecuted in Minnesota or in Portland, Oregon. You can make that case, but it doesn't change the fact that we all saw on our television sets the attack on the Capitol, attack on law enforcement that embarrassed the United States across the globe. And sure, you can look at pardons individually, but you should not be giving a mass pardon and calling them hostages.
They went through, in fact, many of these, many of these actually pled guilty, admitted their wrongdoing, and he's disregarding the working of our justice system.
VAUSE: Well, eight years ago, Trump's first inauguration speech was all about American carnage and decline and the hellscape we all lived in. Now things are looking up. You talked about some of the positives. Well, let the golden era begin. Listen to this.
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TRUMP: 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 love. And we love it so much.
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VAUSE: But wait. There's more. There's also global peace and unity on the way. Listen to this.
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TRUMP: We will be a nation like no other, full of compassion, courage and exceptionalism. Our power will stop all wars and bring a new spirit of unity to a world that has been angry, violent, and totally unpredictable.
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VAUSE: So, Asa, I just want to start with you. Did this sound almost like a campaign rally? Kind of a toned down version of a MAGA rally with all the promises, and which were really far beyond aspirational? Some of them just weren't even really practical.
HUTCHINSON: Well, first of all, those remarks were aspirational, consistent with what he said in the campaign. And I think it reflects the will of the American people that we not get into endless wars. Now it gets a little bit tougher when you start looking at the individual issues. He says he's going to end the Ukraine war on day one. Well, you know, he's got a plan. It's going to take longer for him to address that. He's got Congress who's got to go along with it.
But I think that his aspirational comments were the high watermarks of his inaugural address. And certainly whenever you look at some of the specifics, it does remind you of some of his campaign rallies. But that's Donald Trump for you.
VAUSE: And Jamal, I guess, you know, when you look at the inauguration, it's a moment for the country to come together. The election is over. Politics should be left behind. Did we see that today?
SIMMONS: Well, you know, I hoped for it. I think the president, the new president, Donald Trump, did say some things that were aspirational that, you know, I would agree with. Of course America is a place where people want to fulfill their dreams, live the American dream, and do the best they can. I know people who I think voted for Donald Trump. And when you talk to the folks who voted for Donald Trump, who were either Democrats in the past or not really very political, but they voted for Joe Biden the last time, what they'll tell you is they voted for him for economic reasons.
They wanted to get the economy moving. They wanted to lower prices. They wanted to make sure that the priorities of the president were on their concerns and not on these niche concerns, that maybe they were concerned the Democrats were spending too much time focused on these niche concerns. It sounds like Donald Trump is pretty focused on niche concerns, too. VAUSE: Well, after the inauguration speech, the president talked to
the, you know, the crowd, which was the overflow crowd. Listen to what he says here, especially the bit at the end. Here he is.
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TRUMP: We fixed the border. It was totally fixed. There was nothing to talk about. In 2020, by the way, that election was totally rigged. But these are the -- that's OK.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
TRUMP: It was a rigged election.
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VAUSE: OK, Asa, to you first very quickly. You know, I'm going to ask. Do Republicans support a peaceful transfer of power when they win but when Democrats win, it's the election must be rigged?
HUTCHINSON: Well, that should not be the case. And today, a peaceful transfer of power was showcased to America. And I saw a lot of breaks from tradition. I mean, you saw President Trump escorting President Biden to the Marine helicopter as he departed. I thought that was a good gesture. Clearly, it was not a great day whenever he hits a very hard on the Biden administration without calling them by name.
But what you saw today was a break in many traditions. He spoke to the American people just like he did during the campaign. He has momentum right now on the major issues that he wants to address. And so he's going to have a honeymoon. It's interesting to see how long it will last in a second term. It's like a second wedding here. But he's off to a powerful start. He's had his ups and downs today, and he's going to have a lot of difficult road ahead with the slim margins in Congress.
But today was a day of American democracy at work. And I think Donald Trump did what Donald Trump does best, and that is lay out his agenda in words that everybody can understand.
VAUSE: Jamal, last word to you.
SIMMONS: Well, I disagree on one point. I don't think that President Trump really did anything outside of protocol in terms of how he dealt with President Biden. That's pretty typical to walk out to the helicopter and that sort of thing. But I think what he did do, which is -- which was against protocol was he really situated himself right in the middle of the people. That rally that he did at the arena, that was a festival. It was a circus event.
But it was something that I think people in this modern day and age they really get into. So the Democrats are going to have to figure out, in a world where reality television and WWE wrestling and spectacle has really returned to American politics in a big way, how the Democrats are going to have big events and not just policy conversations that are, you know, loved by the eggheads at the Brookings Institution, but nobody else in the country is paying attention to. Democrats got to do a better job of how they talk to the American people.
VAUSE: On that, Jamal Simmons, thank you for being with us. Asa Hutchinson as well. Appreciate your time, sir.
SIMMONS: Thank you.
HUTCHINSON: Thank you.
VAUSE: The new president has ordered the federal ban on TikTok delayed by 75 days.
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TRUMP: Essentially with TikTok, I have the right to either sell it or close it, and we'll make that determination.
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And we may have to get an approval from China, too. I'm not sure, but I'm sure they'll approve it. And if they don't approve it, it would be somewhat of a hostile act I think.
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VAUSE: The White House has directed the Justice Department not to take action until the incoming administration determines a, quote, "appropriate way forward."
TikTok restored access to American users nationwide on Sunday after Trump said he would delay the ban. It's not clear if TikTok owner ByteDance will sell the app under a Trump brokered deal.
Part of Donald Trump's immigration reform efforts focuses on birthright citizenship, a constitutional right enshrined in the 14th Amendment. Any attempt to change the definition of birthright citizenship will almost certainly face legal challenges and could end up before the Supreme Court. Here's more from the president explaining why these changes are needed.
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TRUMP: I'm fine with legal immigration, I like it. We need people and I'm absolutely fine with it. We want to have it. We need it because we're going to have a lot of companies coming in to avoid tariffs. You know, if you don't want tariffs, all you have to do is build your plant in the U.S. so we're going to have a lot of workers coming in. But we have to have legal immigration.
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VAUSE: Donald Trump repeated his promise to take back the Panama Canal in this inaugural speech.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TRUMP: We have been treated very badly from this foolish gift that should have never been made. And Panama's promise to us has been broken. The purpose of our deal and the spirit of our treaty has been totally violated.
China is operating the Panama Canal, and we didn't give it to China. We gave it to Panama. And we're taking it back.
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VAUSE: Well, the president of Panama has dismissed those claims.
Let's talk more about this with CNN's Patrick Oppmann, he joins us now from Havana.
Let the fact-checking begin. So what is the situation with the Panama Canal, and how accurate are those claims by Donald Trump?
PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, I was just in Panama a few weeks ago, and people were celebrating the anniversary, the 25th anniversary of the Panama Canal being turned over to Panamanians. And they've expanded that canal. They make much more money than the U.S. ever did running off it.
And we should point out that Panama is a stalwart ally of the U.S., and is also kind of a bastion of prosperity in a region that otherwise has problems with drug cartels and migration that is heading to the U.S. border. So Panama would seem to be an ideal U.S. ally. And then you have these claims by Donald Trump that the rates to go for U.S. ships to go through the Panama Canal are too much, that they're out of whack with international prices elsewhere, which Panamanian officials have pushed back very hard against.
They say that operating the canal, of course, is very expensive, particularly when you've had a couple of years of droughts, which has meant that the number of crossings, transits that happen every day are so much fewer. And then you have this other issue that somehow China is secretly running the Panama Canal, something that would seem impossible because you have to be a Panamanian ship pilot to actually take any of the ships to go through the Panama Canal.
And while there are ports that belong to this Hong Kong company, that, of course, has relations with China, you know, that company has been doing business in Panama since the 1990s, when the U.S. helped run the canal. And there is just no evidence that they have the ability to shut the canal at all, or that they are in charge of the canal. Panama consistently says and shows that Panama is in charge of the canal. So Panamanian president Jose Raul Mulino has called for better relations with the U.S. has pushed back very, very hard.
But we should point out, John, that the Panama after the 1989 U.S. invasion does not have a military anymore. So Donald Trump followed through on these threats to essentially take back the Panama Canal legally or not. There will be very little to stop him. Of course, 5 percent of the world's maritime trade runs through the Panama Canal. So certainly if you're trying to lower prices, stabilize the world economy, this is not the way to do it.
VAUSE: Patrick, thank you. Patrick Oppmann there live for us in Havana. Thanks for staying up late.
Well, an historic return to the White House for Donald Trump. He's now claiming that he's been challenged more than any president in U.S. history. More on that in a moment.
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VAUSE: During his speech, Donald Trump portrayed himself in his second term as a peacemaker and unifier, ending wars and bringing prosperity. But there are also some darker moments. A flurry of executive orders and actions upon his return to the Oval Office, among them a near blanket pardon about 1500 January 6th rioters and a pullout from the Paris Climate Accords. He also declared a national emergency at the southern U.S. border.
After taking the oath of office, Trump described his vision of America's future.
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TRUMP: My recent election is a mandate to completely and totally reverse a horrible betrayal, and all of these many betrayals that have taken place, and to give the people back their faith, their wealth, their democracy, and indeed their freedom. From this moment on, America's decline is over.
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VAUSE: To Los Angeles now and Ron Brownstein, a CNN senior political analyst as well as a senior editor for "The Atlantic."
Ron, good to see you.
RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Hey, John, good to be with you.
VAUSE: Yes, it was a big day. There was a lot going on. Trump made good on a lot of his campaign promises, in particular the executive orders for the J6 hostages, as he calls them, or the insurrectionists from 2021. So now the DOJ or the Department of Justice has been instructed to drop the case all outright.
What does this actually mean? What are the implications of this in the big picture?
BROWNSTEIN: Yes, I mean, think about everything that happened today. I mean, signing an executive order that attempts to repeal the 14th Amendment and end birthright citizenship, designating cartels as a terrorist organization in a way that basically sets the predicate for unilateral military action in Mexico, threatening Panama, Elon Musk's strange Nazi echo salutes and all of that is relegated, I think, to basically a footnote to what happened at the end of the day when Trump issued blanket clemency for essentially everyone involved in the January 6th riot, including people who beat and attacked police officers who later died either by suicide or stroke.
Donald Trump is releasing from prison people who violently attacked police officers who later died. It's hard to overstate the implications of this for the American criminal justice system, for American democracy, for American society. You know, it extends what he has been doing for several years, which is to reinterpret January 6th in a way that normalizes and excuses and perhaps even encourages political violence.
VAUSE: Then there comes foreign policy. I think this was foreign policy. Here's what the president said about his global view.
BROWNSTEIN: Yes.
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TRUMP: We will measure our success not only by the battles we win, but also by the wars that we end. And perhaps most importantly, the wars we never get into.
My proudest legacy will be that of a peacemaker and unifier. That's what I want to be, a peacemaker and a unifier.
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VAUSE: Let the isolationism begin. An absence of war is not peace. And while the president seems to be embracing, you know, what seems to be an anti-war policy, is the reality he's just a pro-autocrat, pro- dictator agenda here?
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BROWNSTEIN: Well, I think he views allies and adversaries and dictators as essentially indistinguishable. I mean, he basically approaches all other nations with a single minded kind of focus on what can, you know, transactional, a transactional approach to foreign policy, which is about what can we get out of it? And maybe in many cases, what can he get out of it? And of course, you know, that all of that peacemaking rhetoric was kind of dissonant against threatening Panama over the canal, everything he's been saying about Greenland and then this new reality of him designating the Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, which could be the predicate for unilateral military action inside Mexico over the objections of the Mexican government, which is something that he wanted to do in his first term, but was resisted by some of his appointees.
And that really goes to a larger point we should mention right here on day one, as demonstrated by these pardons and commutations of the J6 rioters, you know, Trump, when he was first elected, was compelled to make concessions to other power centers in the Republican Party by appointing senior officials who are not really part of his MAGA movement, particularly in the defense area and national security. And they ultimately resisted many of the more extreme things he wanted
to do. Well, that just didn't happen this time. Trump has conquered every other power center in the Republican Party, and he's staffing the government with loyalists, which I think in some ways will make his life easier, but also means there are fewer barriers between him and his most excessive instincts, as I think today demonstrated.
VAUSE: We also know what to expect this time around from Trump, the lies, the exaggerations, the untruths, the alternative facts, self- aggrandizing. What you're about to hear, though, seems to be at a whole new level. Here he is.
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TRUMP: Over the past eight years, I have been tested and challenged more than any president in our 250-year history. And I've learned a lot along the way. The journey to reclaim our republic has not been an easy one. That I can tell you.
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VAUSE: The 16th president ended slavery, kept the union together, and won the civil war. If Abraham Lincoln was alive today and heard that, he'd probably drop dead. In the grand scheme of things, though, does that stuff matter? Are there far more serious issues that we should be looking at?
BROWNSTEIN: Yes, it only matters in the sense of revealing his mindset. As I tweeted today, Lincoln and FDR, who dealt with the depression and World War II, would both like a word on the president that had been most tested and challenged. But I think, you know, that was kind of a crystallization of a larger theme throughout the day that Trump's resentments and his grievances are still front and center for him.
As I said, there is no question he has a bigger, broader opportunity than he did in 2017. He improved compared to 2020 in this last election among virtually every demographic group and in every part of the country. There were a lot of people who were disappointed in what they got out of Biden, and that caused them to be more open to Trump. But the question of whether he is capable of addressing, you know, speaking to that larger audience, addressing their needs, or is he focused on really pursuing the kind of idiosyncratic priorities of his base and his own personal grievances today, like much of the transition, has leaned you more toward the latter than the former.
I mean, you know, people are still going to give him a lot of room if they think he's going to bring their cost of living down and maybe get control of the border. But I think if you're a Republican looking at 2026 and 2028, what you saw today was again, at age 78, there is no new Donald Trump on offer for a second term, and you are going to get all the tumult and turmoil that comes with it, as well as the powerful ability to control the message and the national dialog.
VAUSE: So there will be no pivot.
Ron, thank you for being with us. Appreciate it.
BROWNSTEIN: Thanks for having me.
VAUSE: Breaking news. A prisoner exchange years in the making between the United States and the Taliban has finally been reached in the final hours of Joe Biden's presidency. Two Americans held in Afghanistan have been freed in exchange for a Taliban member serving a life sentence in the United States. Sources tell CNN Americans Ryan Corbett and William McKenty are now on their way home. At the same time, Taliban Khan Mohammed, convicted in 2008 on narco-terrorism charges has been flown from the U.S. to Doha, Qatar.
Well, no specific mention of Ukraine by Donald Trump during his inauguration speech, but he did talk about plans to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin. What that could mean for the Ukraine war is up next. Also, returning to destroyed homes and flattened neighborhoods in Gaza. The latest on day three of the fragile Israeli- Hamas truce.
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JOHN VAUSE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Welcome back, everyone. I'm John Vause. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM.
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The Russia-Ukraine war didn't rate a direct mention by Donald Trump during his inauguration in Washington, but he made it known efforts to end the war are underway. And he wants that conflict over as quickly as possible.
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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: He's told me he wants to make a deal. I mean, he wants to make -- Zelenskyy wants to make a deal. I don't know if Putin does. He might not. I don't know. He should make a deal. I think he's destroying Russia by not making a deal.
I think Russia's going to be in big trouble. You take a look at their economy. You take a look at the inflation in Russia. So, I would -- I would hope -- I got along with him great. And you know, I would hope he wants to make a deal.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Donald Trump is planning to meet with the Russian president, Vladimir -- yes -- Putin.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is optimistic President Trump will bring about a resolution to the war. In a congratulatory post on X, he described Donald Trump's inaugural day as one of change and hope, expressing his readiness for cooperation. He also praised President Trump.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): He is a strong person. I wish President Trump and all of America success. Ukrainians are ready to work together with Americans to achieve peace, real peace. This is an opportunity that must be seized.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: And Russian President Vladimir Putin also expressing a readiness to cooperate with the new U.S. administration. Putin says he's open to dialog with the Trump administration on the Ukraine war.
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VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): The pre- election period has been difficult for Mr. Trump in every way. He and even members of his family were constantly under severe pressure. There were even attempts on his life, but he showed the courage to win in a convincing manner.
Hear his statement about the need to do everything possible to prevent World War 3. We certainly welcome this attitude and congratulate the president-elect of the United States of America on his assumption of office.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Putin also talked about the importance of achieving long-term peace, while also reaffirming Russia's commitment to protect its own interests.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also congratulated President Donald Trump on his second term. Netanyahu sent warmest wishes to the U.S. first family via X and highlighted U.S.-Israeli ties during Mr. Trump's first term.
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BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: Your first term as president was filled with groundbreaking moments in the history of the great alliance between our two countries.
I believe that working together again, we will raise the U.S.-Israel alliance to even greater heights. I'm confident that we will complete the defeat of Iran's terror axis and usher in a new era of peace and prosperity for our region.
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I'm sure, Mr. President, that under your leadership, the best days of our lives are yet to come.
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VAUSE: An Israeli official says the prime minister is planning to meet President Trump in Washington in the coming weeks, where they will discuss Israeli-Saudi relations, Iran's nuclear program, and the ongoing ceasefire and hostage deal.
Meantime, the fragile Gaza truce is now into its third day. While the ceasefire has finally brought a moment of reprieve, it has also allowed Palestinians in Gaza to begin processing and grieving all they've lost.
CNN's Nadia Bashir has details.
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NADIA BASHIR, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is what returning home looks like after 15 months of unrelenting war. There is little left to salvage here in what once was Gaza's densely populated al Bureij refugee camp, Israel's military onslaught leaving this small strip of land almost entirely uninhabitable.
"This was our house, our garden," Amal (ph) says. "This was our whole life. All our memories."
Her daughter clutches on to whatever toys they were able to recover from their destroyed home. Like all families here, they will now try to carry on with life, no matter what uncertainty lies ahead.
In Gaza City, the streets have already begun to fill in the absence of airstrikes and artillery. Little girls dressed in the traditional Palestinian thawb. Celebratory cakes being shared in the streets.
For many, amid so much loss, the ceasefire is both a moment of long- awaited respite and a moment of rare joy.
"Even though we are heading into a difficult and uncertain phase, the thought of no longer losing the people you love, of being able to sleep one night without the fear of losing someone dear to you, is truly a relief," this woman says.
For over a year now, Palestinians in Gaza have spent each night hoping to survive just one more day.
"Gaza is small, but it's survived against the world. The whole world was defeated, and we endured. To persevere is, in itself, a victory."
But even under a ceasefire, the war has made survival, at its most basic level, a persistent challenge for Palestinians in Gaza.
In Rafah, an area once designated a safe zone, the remains of decomposing bodies are a reminder of the kind of brutality Gaza's people have survived.
Buildings stand hollowed beside mountains of rubble, some returning to their now destroyed homes, but this time alone, their loved ones killed over the course of the war.
"We are defeated. We have no life left. We will live in the streets," Mohammed (ph) says. "I came here hoping to see my house still standing, but I found it destroyed." With so much lost in Gaza, the road ahead will be long and difficult.
But despite the incomprehensible suffering this small enclave has faced, there remains an unwavering sense of hope.
Nada Bashir, CNN, Jerusalem.
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VAUSE: We'll take a short pause. We'll be back in a moment after a short break.
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[00:40:35]
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(MUSIC: "BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC")
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VAUSE: President Trump and first lady Melania Trump dancing to the Battle Hymn of the Republic on stage at the Commander in Chief Inaugural Ball. Later, Trump promised the crowd that he'll bring peace through strength.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We will measure our success not only by the battles we win, but also by the wars we end. And perhaps most importantly, the wars we never get into. It's called peace through strength. We won't have to fight the war.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Also on Monday, Joe Biden spoke for the first time as a former U.S. president, and it was a gesture he made which perhaps said the most.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We have a lot more to do. We heard the inaugural address today. We've got a lot more to do.
(CROSSES HIMSELF)
BIDEN: Look, I know from many years of experience, there are up and downs, but we have to stay with it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: In case you didn't see it, Biden made the sign of the cross before boarding a special helicopter flight out of Washington.
He told the crowd he is leaving office but not leaving the fight, and he called on those in the room to stay engaged.
Now, in U.S. college football, the Ohio State Buckeyes are national champions for the first time in ten years. That's after defeating Notre Dame.
Ohio State built a commanding lead early in the second half, then held off a late rally by the Fighting Irish for a 34-to-23 win. The first championship game played in college football's new 12-team playoff format. How about that?
I'm John Vause, back at the top of the hour with more CNN NEWSROOM. But first stay with us. WORLD SPORT starts after a break.
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[00:45:45]
(WORLD SPORT)
[00:57:55]
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