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CNN International: Today: Trump Meeting With GOP Congressional Leadership; Trump Pardons Nearly All January 6 Rioters Charged Or Convicted In Attack; Trump Signs Executive Actions Cracking Down On Immigration; Marco Rubio Sworn In As Secretary Of State; Trump To Implement Tariffs On Canada And Mexico February 1; Police: Several Injured In Suspected Stabbing Attack In Tel Aviv. Aired 3-4p ET
Aired January 21, 2025 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[15:00:36]
PAULA NEWTON, CNN HOST: Hello and welcome. I'm Paula Newton in New York. I want to thank you for joining me today on CNN NEWSROOM.
And we do want to get right to the news.
It is the first full day and a busy one for the new president of the United States, Donald Trump. Now, any minute he's expected to meet behind closed doors with GOP congressional leaders on how to enact their tax, energy and border agenda -- border agenda. And after that, he's scheduled to deliver remarks on infrastructure, where he is also promising an announcement.
But as they look forward, yesterdays sweeping executive orders on everything from immigration to DEI are still, as you can imagine, reverberating in Washington none more so than the widespread clemency announcement. Trump pardoning nearly all of the 1,600 January 6th rioters, including individuals who brutally assaulted police officers and brought weapons to the Capitol.
With me for more on this now is Alayna Treene, who has been covering all of the Trump administration's footsteps in the last day or so.
Alayna, so he's already had a busy day with more to come. What does he hope to get accomplished on? Again, it has to be said just his second day of this second Trump administration.
ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTTER: Right. Well, I really think one of the biggest parts of his days -- of his day today is that meeting with one. I'm told there's a couple of meetings. One is with House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, but then also some of the broader leadership team on Capitol Hill in both chambers.
And the reason that is so important is one, of course, there is a lot that he needs to work with Congress on from reconciliation, which is, you know, talking about a spending deal, a handling the deficit and whatnot. But also, we saw him sign, as you mentioned, Paula, dozens and dozens of executive orders yesterday. Some of them, though, may need congress's help to actually be implemented. Now is really the time that Donald Trump is going to have to see how
he can put those different actions into real action and make them a reality. Some of them aren't just as easy as signing a paper. So that's why these meetings today are so important. And I'm told they're really supposed to focus on how Congress can help implement his agenda and kind of the big priorities looking forward, you know, really, as they kick off this next four years.
Now, later today as well, we are expecting Donald Trump to make some sort of infrastructure announcement that was kind of previewed by the current White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt. She said that's going to be happening this afternoon, maybe around 4:00 p.m., so keep an eye out for that. We're told that it's going to be, you know, pulling on some -- some different businesses and leaders across the country to help kind of ramp up and beef up infrastructure.
I will also just note, as someone who covered Donald Trump's first administration as well. It's reminiscent to me of the infrastructure week that happened repeatedly or they said would happen repeatedly and never did. But we are supposed to have that infrastructure announcement later.
And then, of course, just lastly, Donald Trump is expected to sign more executive orders today, I'm told. Unclear how many or I will not be as many as we saw yesterday, of course, but I am told there are still more to come and likely we'll see some of those this evening.
NEWTON: Yeah, as you said, he's promised to use executive orders and the pens quite frequently in his second term.
Alayna Treene, thanks for this, as we'll continue to get updates there from Washington.
So day one, executive actions. Day two, litigation. New this afternoon, 18 Democratic state attorneys general filed a lawsuit seeking to prevent Trump from ending birthright citizenship for the kids of undocumented immigrants.
It's not the only case. As you can imagine, the legal challenges are already stacking up against a number of Trump's sweeping immigration moves.
CNN White House and immigration correspondent Priscilla Alvarez has more now on those actions and the fallout.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE AND IMMIGRATION CORRESPONDENT: President Donald Trump started his first hours back in office by signing sweeping executive actions on immigration. They included, for example, a national emergency on the U.S. southern border to essentially shore up Pentagon resources along the border, as well as designating cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. That was a resurfaced idea from his first term that didn't come to fruition, as well as kicking off negotiations for his signature border policy known as remain in Mexico, which required migrants to stay in Mexico while they went through their immigration court proceedings.
But while he talked about each of these executive actions, over the course of the day, it was something that he didn't talk about that had the fastest implications for those migrants along the U.S. southern border.
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That was the turning off of a border app known as CBP One that allowed migrants to schedule appointments at legal ports of entry. So thousands of migrants who were queued up for those appointments will now have those canceled, raising concerns among some homeland security officials I've spoken with who say that some of them may be prompted to cross the border illegally.
Now, in addition to that, I'm also told that the Justice Department there was a purge of career public civil servants who had been serving in key leadership roles at the immigration office within the Justice Department. That is, an office that oversees the nation's immigration courts. In other words, those immigration judges who choose, who stays in the U.S. and who is deported.
Now, we have also started to see legal challenges come in. The ACLU, for example, suing on the executive order to end birthright citizenship. Of course, that can't be taken as a unilateral action. It rather kicks off a process. But the ACLU, already taking the Trump administration to court, and we'll see if there are more legal challenges that follow.
But certainly, the Trump administration coming in, trying to execute on President Trump's promises on the campaign trail to initiate an immigration crackdown.
Priscilla Alvarez, CNN, Washington.
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NEWTON: Now, our thanks to Priscilla Alvarez. She covered a lot of ground there.
But Trump promised the greatest deportation operation in U.S. history. Now that he's president, the rubber will meet the road on fulfilling that promise. Today, CNN spoke to Trump's border czar, Tom Homan, about his plans and ISIS plans in terms of who they're targeting. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TOM HOMAN, WHITE HOUSE BORDER CZAR: People in the country are legally they have a criminal conviction that makes them a public safety threat. That's our priority.
DANA BASH, CNN HOST: And so what is happening as we speak is limited to those with criminal records?
HOMAN: That's the target of this operation. But like I said, many times in places like sanctuary cities where we can't arrest the bad person in the jail, but when you release a public safety threat of a sanctuary jail and won't give us access to them, that means we got to go to the neighborhood and find them, and we will find them. But when we find him, he may be with others. Others that don't have a criminal conviction but are in the country illegally, they will be arrested, too.
There's nothing in the INA, the Immigration and Nationality Act, says you got to be convicted of a serious crime in order to be removed from this country. So there's -- there's going to be more collateral arrests in sanctuary cities because they forced us to go into community and find -- and find the guy we're looking for.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NEWTON: A lot to discuss there. And we have an expert on immigration law, Attorney David Leopold.
I want to thank you for joining us. And I will say you called this from the beginning. We just heard Homan, right? He said that, of course, they want to target criminals, but they are also saying that if others are swept up in this, they also may face deportation. How is this different from previous administrations?
DAVID LEOPOLD, CHAIR, IMMIGRATION LAW GROUP, ULMER & BERNE LLP: Well, you know, look, it's not different than the previous Trump administration. What they did in the previous Trump administration was they said that, you know, everybody was a priority and that they were going to go after everybody. Here what they're doing is they're saying, well, we're going to go after -- we're going to go after criminals. And any, you know, anybody we see along the way is going to be -- is going to be fair game.
So they're going to see more. Most immigrants are not criminals. And so they're going to see all kinds of grandmothers and families and people who are just working hard and trying to make a living along the way.
You know, look, American people clearly elected Donald Trump, no question about it, legitimately elected Donald Trump. He's the president. You know, the American people voted for strong border security, and they voted to keep our streets safe.
What they didn't vote for, and I think what's going to be a big surprise to the American people, particularly those that voted for the president, is that this is about your neighbor. This is about your doctor. This is about folks that have been working with you, who have been teaching your children, who've been caring for your grandmother. Those are the folks who are going to be at risk.
If you listen to what Mr. Homan says, he is very careful to parse his words. He's not going to tell you that they're not going to arrest grandmother. He's not going to tell you that. But that's exactly what he's saying.
NEWTON: Well, he did indicate that anyone who was in the country illegally, as far as he was concerned, was fair game.
And I do want to ask you, do you believe that very soon in the United States, we will see those detention centers? The CNN spoke to a former enforcement official in the last few hours, saying that he expects the military to even help with those detention centers.
LEOPOLD: Yeah, well, the executive order, one of the executive orders that was put out yesterday, brings the military into the law enforcement mix, which is probably a violation of the Posse Comitatus Act. But we can talk about that another time.
So, yes, I do expect to see expanded detention, expanded use of camps. And again, let's be really clear. We're talking about the same people who Trump -- President Trump called essential workers during the COVID pandemic. These were the folks that were in the meatpacking plants. These were the folks that, you know, were in agriculture that kept the food on our table as we suffered through the pandemic.
These are the folks that Mr. Homan and Mr. Trump and Mr. Stephen Miller are focused on. These are the folks who are going to get arrested and think about it from a common sense point of view.
Who is the easier person to arrest? It's going to be the person who's trying to con -- to abide by the law. The hard working individual who's going to come in when Immigration and Customs Enforcement says, hey, come on in, we want to check your stats. They go in, they get locked up, they get shipped out of the country.
The violent criminals, the ones who we really need to focus on. They're the ones who are who are not going to show up. They're the ones who are going to go hide.
NEWTON: Yeah. And while they said that they were going to -- while they said that they were going to definitely act on criminals, they didn't -- they said violent criminals were a priority. But, of course, anybody with any kind of a violation is fair game as -- as far as they're concerned.
Now, you know, you also flagged how Trump wants to use health concerns to actually expel migrants at the border. Can you explain that? Because that's also tied to what he considers a national emergency at the -- at the southern border?
LEOPOLD: Yes. Yeah. And if you read the executive order that came out on that, whether its a mistake or not, I don't know. Whether it's just sloppy drafting, but if you read that executive order, it says that anybody, not just people coming in at the southern border, but anybody who doesn't show documentation of health from a physician or documentation of their background cannot enter the United States. Now, I'm assuming that its a drafting error, but who knows, you know?
Is it sloppy drafting of an executive order or its outrageous overreach? Either way, it doesn't serve this country. You know, this is day one. You'd think that he would come in. He talked about ending the war in Ukraine. He talked about lowering prices. And what we get is a massive onslaught on people who are working hard
in this country, people who are documented, you know, the executive order on -- on birthright citizenship affects people who are -- it affects physicians, it affects researchers. It affects people who are here working on critical infrastructure with documents.
NEWTON: And yet the president made clear --
LEOPOLD: So, it's wide sweeping.
NEWTON: The president made it clear yesterday that he believes he has this mandate. Now, look, legal challenges are already coming in, pointed out that 18 Democratic attorneys general are now suing the Trump administration. And that's over the birthright citizenship. The ACLU has also weighed in on this.
Now, listen, I've already heard from a lot of experts, many of them say this absolutely will be struck down in court. Others are saying, really? Because it means that if you are an undocumented parent and you try and get Social Security, a passport for your child in 30 days, you may not get it.
LEOPOLD: Yeah. I mean, if the executive order, that's right. If the executive order stands, they won't get it. And what's interesting about this is, you know, the president spent a lot of the campaign talking about how he wanted to send abortion, the issue of abortion, back to the states. And he was very proud of the Dobbs decision. And the polls told us that, in fact, a lot of people voted for him because they didn't feel like they had to worry about abortion issues.
And, you know, that's a states rights issue, according to Trump. Now, here, according to that executive order, they're not going to accept state proof of citizenship. All of a sudden, the states don't have the authority to issue documents.
So we're talking about ideological contradictions. We're talking about twisted, twisted logic. And it all boils down to the same thing, unfortunately. And that's chaos.
That's absolute chaos. These executive orders are particularly one on birthright citizenship is going to lead to panic, and it's going to lead to chaos.
NEWTON: Yeah, indeed. A lot of, as you say, panic and chaos for so many millions, millions of American families this hour.
David Leopold, we'll leave it there for now as we continue to follow this developing story. Appreciate it.
Now, coming up for us, Trump has passed his self-imposed deadline to end the war in Ukraine. He said it would be done in the first 24 hours in office. Ahead, what we know about the new administration's vision for ending Russia's assault.
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NEWTON: So Trump's cabinet is slowly taking shape as former Senator Marco Rubio was sworn in as secretary of state. Now, Rubio was unanimously confirmed by the Senate last night facing no resistance, unlike some of Trump's other cabinet picks. Now, the new secretary of state spoke about his foreign policy philosophy. Listen.
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MARCO RUBIO, SECRETARY OF STATE: Everything we do must be justified by the answer to one of three questions. Does it make us stronger? Does it make us safer? And does it make us more prosperous? If it doesn't do one of those three things, we will not do it.
And so that is the goal and that is the task. And that is the promise that he was elected to keep. And that is the promise he will keep. And we will help him keep.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NEWTON: CNN chief national security correspondent Alex Marquardt joins us now.
Alex, Rubio, he's walking a fine line there, right? He does have to follow Trump's orders, reassure allies. His first meeting, in fact, was the secretary of state was with the Quad, right? And that is about what Rubio doctrine is all about, which is China. And he believes that is the greatest threat to the United States.
ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Paula, it's a very good point, because Rubio, of course, is not a novice when it comes to foreign policy. He's been sitting on the Senate foreign relations and intelligence committees for years now. He has his own foreign policy. He's certainly a China hawk. He's an Iran hawk. He's got these different priorities, but he knows that he is going to have to enact the Trump foreign policy and everything emanates from Trump.
And it certainly raises questions about how powerful and effective a Secretary Rubio can be. He's not necessarily seen as being inside the inner MAGA circle, but he's certainly smart enough to know that this is a moment where he's going to certainly have to follow in or follow Trump's lead, I should say.
It is interesting that today, he did have meetings with the leaders of Australia, India and Japan, the so-called Quad nations. He met with them together. He's meeting with them separately. That does certainly reflect an interest by Rubio in China.
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But at the same time, I think that was just happenstance. There are certainly some immediate issues that he's going to have to deal, that he's going to have to deal with.
One of the first things he did when he arrived at the State Department today, in fact, the very first thing was to speak directly to the State Department diplomatic corps, to his staff. He got a round of applause as he walked in. Here's a little bit of what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARCO RUBIO, SECRETARY OF STATE: This is an extraordinary honor and a privilege to serve in this role, to be here, frankly, to oversee the greatest, the most effective, the most talented, the most experienced diplomatic corps in the history of the world resides in this building.
(APPLAUSE)
RUBIO: In our republic, the voters decide the course of our nation, both domestically and abroad, and they have elected Donald J. Trump as our president when it comes to foreign policy, on a very clear mission. And that mission is to ensure that our foreign policy is centered on one thing, and that is the advancement of our national interest.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MARQUARDT: And, Paula, the way that Rubio sees the advancement of national interest is the answer to those three questions that you that you played earlier. Do these decisions make the U.S. stronger, make America safer, and does it make us more prosperous? Now, he did talk about changes that will be coming to the State Department, leadership cuts, that kind of thing. He said that they are not meant to be damaging or punitive.
We have confirmed -- my colleague Jennifer Hansler at the State Department has heard that more than a dozen senior level career diplomats have been asked to step down. That raises concerns about one -- what one veteran former diplomat called the possibility of a purge. Rubio says that this kind of thing is necessary to evolve the State Department to make it more robust, more streamlined, better able to adapt to the challenges that are coming down the line in the future.
Rubio says that this is a transformative moment, and he certainly does plan to reshape the State Department -- Paula.
NEWTON: Yeah, and he was giving that morale boosting, or at least he assumed it would be morale boosting to the State Department. And yeah, a lot on the agenda on day one.
Alex Marquardt for us, thanks so much.
Now, throughout his campaign, President Trump vowed to end the wars in Ukraine and Gaza. While he has already missed his own goal on ending the war in Ukraine before taking office, he says a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin is being arranged now in the Middle East, though the president says he is, quote, not confident the cease fire will hold as Israeli forces slowly withdraw from some parts of Gaza.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced a large scale military operation in the West Bank. At least seven Palestinians have been killed by Israeli military forces. Now, in his slew of executive orders yesterday, Trump lifted U.S. sanctions on extremist Israeli settlers in the West Bank who commit violence against Palestinians.
Here to discuss all of this is Gideon Levy. He's columnist for Israel's "Haaretz" newspaper and former adviser to former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres. And Kim Dozier, who is CNN global affairs analyst.
Good to have you both.
Gideon, I will speak with you first in terms of how politically consequential the last few hours even have been in Israel. What is your take on the military action in the West Bank, how it dovetails into this executive order, but also the turmoil in the top ranks of the military there?
GIDEON LEVY, COLUMNIST, HAARETZ: I've traveled, Paula, yesterday in the West Bank, and I was quite shocked to see the change within 1 or 2 days, they added so many checkpoints. Life became so impossible in the West Bank within days. It's very clear that after Gaza is taking off and maybe getting to its end, the war in Gaza, Israel is putting its main concern about the West Bank trying to do anything possible to explode the West Bank. There is no other way to describe it.
On one hand, the unbearable violence of the settlers, which is no one to stop them, no one. On the other hand, the army sends -- is sending more and more troops into the West Bank, when it leads only to one conclusion. Israel wants another front. Israel wants to explode the West Bank.
And for me, it's an unacceptable and understandable, but it's very clear. It's all about domestic politics. Netanyahu wants to please the right wingers, and this is what he does.
NEWTON: Now, Kim, as you will certainly tell us at issue here is whether or not that actually dovetails with Donald Trump's ambitions in the Middle East. And one of them would be to extend those Abraham accords. But also, this is, as we just discussed with Alex, day one of the Rubio doctrine. And yet we already hear from his boss, the president, that he is uncertain if the ceasefire will last past stage one.
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KIM DOZIER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, the problem with the ceasefire is that there are no real requirements that will trigger implementation of phase two. After 42 days, they -- after the first 14 days, they start negotiating phase two. But phase two has all the tough questions like who will be in charge of Gaza later? And Israel and the Trump administration both have said that Hamas needs to be removed from power.
So you've got Hamas negotiating willingly its own removal from power. And then who would fill the vacuum? None of this even makes logical sense. That's why this is the hardest next step. Maybe they'll try to push some of that to the third phase. The second
and third phase have been a little bit imprecise in the description of what would happen when. But the fact of the matter is, the Trump administration doesn't want Hamas and it doesn't want the Palestinian Authority, and it has signaled -- well, it doesn't want the Palestinian Authority under its current leadership because it broke with the PA in the last Trump administration.
So the question is, who fills this gulf? And in the meantime, all the signals that Trump has given the Netanyahu government is, you know, do what you need to do, including by signing that executive order, lifting any restrictions and sanctions on the settler movement, of which part of Netanyahu's government is a part.
NEWTON: Yeah, Gideon, they are contradictory signals here. I mean, the president said this ceasefire is important to him. He said that he helped push it through before he was inaugurated. What would be the reaction in Israel if the U.S. is seen to be allowing Netanyahu free rein here to not implement stage two of that ceasefire in Gaza, and also to be no holds barred in the West Bank.
LEVY: First of all, it's very worrying because President Trump knows very well how he can make it work. He did it very, very efficiently and very rapidly. Within two weeks when he brought Netanyahu to sign the deal.
So what happened now? The same way he did push Netanyahu to sign the deal, can be the way that will bring Netanyahu to implement the second phase. But maybe Donald Trump lost interest. And that's very, very concerning.
In Israel, it's all about the hostages, which if there is no second phase, there are no living hostages anymore. And, you know, the followers of Netanyahu will always admire whatever he does, no matter what he does. So we will be divided as usual.
NEWTON: You know, Kim, Elise Stefanik the nomination, she has the nomination for U.N. ambassador for this Trump administration. She agreed today that Israel has, in her words, a biblical -- a biblical right to annex the West Bank. If we return this back to Rubio, how does he balance that kind of sentiment, understanding that it echoes throughout his own Republican Party? She speaks for many.
DOZIER: Absolutely. And in the last Trump administration, the head of the State Department had to be more of an enactor of Trump's will and policy than carrying out their own. And look, all of the cabinet members serve at the pleasure of the president so that is, in essence, their job.
But still, I think you're going to have people like Steve Witkoff, the Middle East negotiator, Mike Waltz, the national security advisor, also stepping into the breach, assisting Rubio in making this foreign policy more reasonable. Look at it this way, Trump wants an expansion of the Abraham Accords. And for that to happen for other gulf nations, namely, Saudi Arabia, to sign up for the Abraham Accords, Israel has to be at least pledged to forming a Palestinian state in some sort of negotiations in future.
And fighting has to have stopped. You can't keep having those images of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank being smashed by the Israeli defense forces and go forward with those accords, without Arab world unrest. So that's the one thing that Rubio has on his side that Trump does need peace to eventually reign.
NEWTON: Right. And while were speaking of that, Kim -- Kim, many people are discussing, obviously, the other conflict right now that the Trump administration is concerned about, and that is Ukraine. The deadline, so-called 24 hours, is already passed.
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Are there any real prospects there at this point in time?
DOZIER: Well, Trump said in the Oval Office last night that Zelenskyy had told him he wants a deal, and so now he's going to try to convince Putin that it is in Putin's best interest for a deal, because this war is grinding on and killing a lot of Russians and taking a lot of Russian treasure. So that's how Trump goes into it -- that this is a negotiation. And at this point, when you talk to Ukrainian officials privately, they say a large part of the public is willing to give up some territory. Not all, which means they will be willing to negotiate, willing to allow Zelenskyy to negotiate.
The problem is, European officials worry that leaving Putin in a better position after this aggression will encourage him to take such measures further down the road against other European countries.
NEWTON: Yeah, the challenges are many. I suspect the new secretary of state understands fully what is in front of him.
Kim Dozier, Gideon Levy, for us, thanks so much. Appreciate you both.
Coming up for us, convicted Capitol rioters, insurrectionists and far right extremists set free. Trump's mass pardon and clemency for his January 6th MAGA faithful.
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NEWTON: The largest criminal probe in American history has ended with virtually every person involved in the attack on the Capitol on January 6th receiving a full, complete and unconditional pardon. Those pardons include those for the men who viciously beat Police Officer Michael Fanone and pepper sprayed U.S. Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, who died the next day.
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The so-called QAnon shaman, who became a symbol of that day, took to X, heralding the return of his gun rights, saying: Now, I'm going to buy some motherf-ing guns.
The 14 people who were charged with seditious conspiracy did not receive a pardon, but instead had their sentences commuted. Now, two of them, the leaders of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, have
already been released.
CNN's Katelyn Polantz is outside the D.C. jail, where the first prisoners were released last night.
Can you bring us right up to date on what is happening there? And when we can expect, apparently, everyone to be released?
KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, this is a scene at the D.C. jail where there are supporters of the January 6th rioters waiting with anticipation to see who that is inside this facility will be released next. So this D.C. jail, this is where people are held locally as they await proceedings in the D.C. federal court, which took care of all 1,500 of those cases as they were being charged by the Justice Department under the previous end of the Trump years, as well as the Biden years here.
Though, now these people are quite happy to celebrate what Donald Trump has done, pardoning more than a thousand of the rioters, both people who were convicted of misdemeanors, nonviolent crimes for going into the Capitol building, crossing the police line, maybe filming, and then also others who were convicted of violent crimes, even seditious conspiracy people who now are being released from federal prison, sometimes well before their sentence is supposed to be up.
And they're coming out today to this group and praising this group of January 6th rioter supporters, often family members, friends, people in the neighborhood. They are praising them because this group has kept vigil here for several months about talking to the people inside these walls at the jail.
One of the people that had been in there held a mother from Pennsylvania, Rachel Powell, she was released about an hour ago or so. She came out to hugs from her family. They had brought her clothes to wear. She's been talking to people around this scene.
But there were those two brothers that were released last night, both convicted of assault of police, one for tearing a baton or trying to tear a baton out of police hands, another for throwing a chair at the riot police line, a riot shield that a police had the chair hit, the riot shield. Those people were released last night.
The Valentine brothers, Rachel Powell using an ice ax at the capitol building to try and smash in a window, and then a battering ram to break a window to help people get inside the Capitol on January 6th. She's now out here as well, and we are still waiting to see who else from the D.C. jail may be released.
In all, there's not a huge amount of people here -- the people who have been sentenced and pardoned with those most violent crimes. Many of them are in Bureau of Prison facilities across the country and are leaving those places. People like Stewart Rhodes and Enrique Tarrio, heads of the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers. But here at the D.C. jail, there are people that will be coming out as their cases are dismissed or their pardons go through, and that they will be received by this group of supporters here behind me.
NEWTON: Again, it was something that the president said he was likely to do as he was inaugurated. But even, of course, even Speaker Mike Johnson, right, was surprised because days ago he indicated that the those that were indicted for violent offenses and convicted and serving the sentences would not be, would not receive pardons. Kate Polantz for us. Keep us up to date as we continue to watch the goings on outside the courtroom. Appreciate it.
Now, coming up for us, a day one promise delayed. What were learning about Trump's plan to implement tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico.
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[15:42:04]
NEWTON: So they were promised for day one. But President Trump says tariffs on Mexico and Canada will begin February 1st. Now from the Oval Office yesterday, Trump said he was planning for a 25 percent tariff on the country's neighbors. Tariffs that, based from previous implications -- implementations, pardon me -- are expected to raise prices for everyday Americans significantly.
Now, his economic plans are likely top of mind for global leaders attending the World Economic Forum happening right now in Davos, Switzerland.
That is, in fact, where, you know, we will find CNN business editor at large and host of "QUEST MEANS BUSINESS", Richard Quest.
Okay. Give it to me straight. What is the vibe there? Given Trump is now in office, he's going to actually speak to them virtually there apparently on Thursday.
RICHARD QUEST, CNN BUSINESS EDITOR AT LARGE: He is. And if you're a banker or a financier or a hedge fund or crypto, you love it because you're going to get deregulation, you're going to get an economy on steroids, and you're going to get growth and drill, baby, drill.
If you are an environmentalist or climate control or anybody in the health care or industry or poverty, or from the developing and the emerging markets, then you're worried about what's coming your way.
Tariffs is a bit of a misnomer because that hits everybody and you know, there's a lot of sort of hang on. Weren't we always told that tariffs were bad. But they're going to get them whether they like them or not. And I think here at Davos, how you regard the next four years everyone will say I'm uncertain. Everybody will say divisive polarizing or et cetera, et cetera.
But then you get to those who say growth, optimism, energizing, et cetera. And I think that that is very much the bifurcation. There's a good word for you, the bifurcation of Davos.
NEWTON: Richard, also, you know that some people there make protecting the planet a key theme. It's going to get harder, right? I mean, Trump pulled out of the Paris climate agreement.
QUEST: They knew this was coming. To a large extent, they try and say, look, we'll do it anyway without the U.S. And many people point out the U.S. is already the largest producer of oil and gas, pretty much. It's exporting LNG like never before.
So they say nothing really changes. I think what it does do is it gives cover to other countries not to live up to commitments or to backslide. If the U.S. is doing it, why should we?
There are some, however, that are relishing it. China, for example. First of all, if the U.S. auto industry bogs itself down in long arguments about mandates, EVs, going back to diesel and petrol, what does China do? It just churns out more and more and more EVs.
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The European Union takes them. Somebody else takes them.
I have to tell you the complexity of this is off the charts. But overall, people are just simply saying, hey, we knew it was coming. Hold your nose, swim into the deep water and see what happens.
NEWTON: Richard, I'm wondering when it comes to us seeing all of those tech tycoons at the inauguration, what people there believe that? I mean, obviously, we have Elon Musk participation as well, first and foremost.
But what are people saying about that development?
QUEST: They're saying this is an interesting development. They're not worried about it. They see it as merely a reflection that these CEOs are amongst the most important, to use this phrase, economic players in the world.
Now, the fact they had such prominence strikes most people here as just a bit of toadying left, right and center. Elon Musk is in a different league because Elon Musk has an office in the White House.
So here you have somebody who runs X with all the implications of that, who owns Tesla, and don't forget, Tesla is in competition with all the other EV makers, Ford, Stellantis, General Motors and Tesla's boss is sitting almost next to the president, and you have SpaceX with the billions of dollars of contracts with NASA. And, of course, Jeff Bezos.
And you have this person in the White House, traditional orthodoxy -- forgive me, Paula -- traditional orthodoxy says that there's a conflict of interest and it should be avoided. But we are way past that with this administration.
NEWTON: They would seem to you and I old fashioned conventions at this point. Richard, I want to thank you for your update, and be sure to stay tuned. Richard will have more at the top of the hour when he hosts his show, "QUEST MEANS BUSINESS" live from Davos. I will note with no snow, Richard, I'm sure you can do something about
that in the next hours. It's still cold. He assures me. It's still cold.
All right. We are following news out of Israel, where four people have been injured in a suspected stabbing attack in Tel Aviv.
Now, Israeli emergency services said they were responding to reports of stabbing incidents at two locations at the center of the city. And police say the attacker has been neutralized.
CNN's Jeremy Diamond is on the scene. In fact, what more are you learning at this hour?
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Paula, this attack happened shortly after 9:00 p.m. local time. I was actually in the area, heard the gunshots and arrived on the scene minutes after the attack happened. At least four people were stabbed by this assailant. Who? Whose body was actually just removed from the scene by local authorities.
We don't know a whole lot of information yet about the assailant, but he appears to be someone who just entered Israel on the 18th of January, according to the Israeli interior minister. Apparently, he was stopped at the airport and questioned by security officials, but ultimately was allowed to enter Israel.
And days later, he appears to have carried out what police are describing as a terrorist attack in the center of Tel Aviv. It's not clear who shot the assailant, but it is -- several eyewitnesses who I spoke to in the area said that it appeared to have been civilians who were in the area who shot him, rather than police officers.
But I can tell you that there was a very large presence of police officers and emergency responders who arrived on the scene within minutes of this attack happening, and you can still see behind me. Officers and other authorities are still processing the scene.
So, a very, very tense moment. It is not often that attacks happen in central Tel Aviv. And so certainly going to have people a little bit more on edge. A significant moment here, Paula, as we are arriving at this moment in the region where we now have a ceasefire in Gaza, the release of hostages happening and now what police are describing as a terrorist attack in central Tel Aviv -- Paula.
NEWTONT: Yeah, chilling for sure, as Israelis just try and interpret everything going on right now in the region. Jeremy Diamond, for us, really thanks to you for being on the scene so quickly. Appreciate it.
Up next, potentially historic snowfall as about 40 million people across the southern United States face a rare winter storm.
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NEWTON: And welcome back.
Forty million people from Texas to the Carolinas are under winter weather alerts -- winter weather alerts -- as a rare winter storm brings bone chilling temperatures and potentially historic snowfall to cities not used to harsh cold weather.
CNN meteorologist Chad Myers is following all of it.
And, you know, explain how rare is this? The shots were seeing from the southern United States.
CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I know. Well, it's warm in Alaska. This is where this air should be. It's 30 degrees Fahrenheit in Anchorage, and it's 22 in Atlanta, Georgia, and it's 29 in Pensacola Beach, Florida.
So colder in Florida than Anchorage, Alaska, because Anchorage just said, here you can have it. And it all came down right along the Rocky Mountains, and now it's here.
So when you push moisture over the top of that existing cold air, you're going to get either an ice storm or a snowstorm. There's going to be snow on the sand on the beach, on the sand dunes, on the beach, all the way from Texas, all the way across northern Florida and up to Delaware.
Every single beach will be covered with snow. I've never been able to say that before in my entire career. Some snow, especially New Orleans, which will pick up now almost six inches, that is doubling their modern record. There's one record back in the 1800s that someone measured ten inches.
But I mean, that's not a modern record, so we'll just kind of keep it with that. And there are places already with nearly a foot of snow, and it is still snowing. There are places that will get a foot of snow that don't even have a snow plow in the county. Think about how you're going to clean that up.
Winter storm warnings all the way up the East Coast in places that certainly don't see snow. From Atlanta, lightly snowing now, but down across the south, this is where the heaviest snow will be, Panama City, Destin, all the way over to Charleston and Savannah.
They'll be 4 to 6 inches of snow right there on the sand.
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And yes, it's still snowing in New Orleans and it's already about six inches on the ground. I-10, the interstate here, the east to west interstate. A lot of shipping goes here, a lot of trucking because of the ports along the East Coast moving things to the west -- well, that's shut down, so we're not moving anything today.
No trucks are moving. And I don't think any trucks will be moving up and down I-75 or I-95 later today, because that is going to be shut down, especially on bridges. Those bridges are cold underneath. They're cold on top, different than actually the road being on dirt.
And so with the have those bridges, that's where things are going to get very slick tonight. So as soon as the sun sets, everything is going to ice up because temperatures are below freezing all the way to the beach, all the way to the Gulf Coast.
And, Paula, over the next 7 to 10 days, not much of a help. 75 percent of the United States will be below freezing. Some places won't even get above freezing for two weeks, even during the daytime. That's how cold this is in so many places, Paula.
NEWTON: I need to recover from your forecast there. Never mind actually being in the snow. I mean, no plow in the county? Honestly.
Okay, the deal is stay inside and stay warm. Do not risk it on the road. That's the advice you always give us, Chad. Appreciate the update. Thanks so much.
MYERS: You bet.
NEWTON: And I want to thank you for joining us today. I'm Paula Newton.
"QUEST MEANS BUSINESS" is up next.