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White House Orders All Federal DEI Staff Be Put On Leave; Military Orders Thousands More Troops At Southern Border; Texas Town Braces For Trump Immigration Crackdown; Senate Receives Affidavit Accusing Hegseth Of "Abusive" Behavior; New Fire Breaks Out In Los Angeles County. Aired 3-4p ET
Aired January 22, 2025 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[15:00:37]
ZAIN ASHER, CNN HOST: Hello, everyone. I'm Zain Asher in New York.
Appreciate you joining me today on CNN NEWSROOM. Let's get right to the news.
President Donald Trump flexing his executive power on day three in the Oval Office. In just two hours, all federal websites, programs and offices devoted to diversity, equity and inclusion will shut down, placing those employees on leave. On the southern border, a surge in active duty military.
Plus, our White House team reports a stunning development in Trump's pardons for the January 6th defendants. Sources say some of those convicts might get an invitation to the White House.
CNN's Stephen Collinson is with me now to go through all of this.
Let's talk about DEI initiatives, because those are really a bedrock of civil rights in the United States. And the fact that this was one of the first things, one of the first things that Donald Trump did as president.
I mean, a lot of people are fearing that this is just the start. What does it tell you about the type of second term that Donald Trump envisions?
STEPHEN COLLINSON, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: I think these diversity programs and the accusation that the federal government has gone woke in inverted commas, is one of the driving forces on the right in American politics right now. It's hard to state how important this is if you listen to conservative media, if you go and talk to conservative voters, there's this belief that the left has poisoned the organs of the federal government and education with leftist thinking.
So this is something that's going to be very popular as Trump starts to work through all these programs in the U.S. federal government. What I think is happening is this is the first of what is going to be a multilayered effort to drive out bureaucrats who conservatives all believe are liberals, and to try to replace them with a much more politicized bureaucracy. This is one of the core functions of the Steve Bannon wing of the Republican Party.
And I think it's something that many Republicans believe in, and it's a unifying force in the party, and it's going to change American governments because -- governance, because the big risk is you drive out all of the people who actually know how to make the government work, and then you could create various crises.
ASHER: Stephen, as I'm sure you remember, let's go back to January 2017, Donald Trump's first week in office back then. And one of the first things that he did during that first week was to ban immigrants from seven Muslim majority countries.
Just walk us through how the first week this time around compares to what we saw back in 2017 during his first term.
COLLINSON: Well, for one thing, that ban quickly got caught up in the courts. It was not very well-drafted to start with. Eventually, after many weeks, a modified ban did come into force.
If you look at all these orders that Trump has been signing executive orders, about 100, 200 executive orders, there are a lot more efficiently put together. It's clear there's been a lot of vetting and thinking in the Trump transition about exactly what they want to do in these first few days, you know, going back to 2017, at this point, we were still arguing about the size of Donald Trump's inaugural crowd.
This time, he's really seized control of the -- of the levers of government. He is showing that he intends to be a president who will act with undiluted power. It's been one of the most, I think, aggressive assumptions of power by any modern president.
We used to think about 100 days dating back to Franklin Roosevelt. He may be changing the mold. Future presidents may now come in and try and make a big splash in the first 100 hours, as he is doing so. I don't think you can underestimate how robust this effort is from the Trump administration.
Having said that, it's easy to sign executive orders to make real change lasting change. You have to pass laws. And that is going to be a lot more difficult given the narrow House majority.
ASHER: Yeah, especially when it comes to, for example, trying to end birthright citizenship in this country.
We know that Donald Trump is sitting down with Sean Hannity, or rather, he sat down with Sean Hannity, and the interview is going to be airing at some point this evening. We know that both of them are friends. He tends to be a lot more candid and comfortable with his friends. Just walk us through what you're looking for tonight.
COLLINSON: Yeah, I mean, this will be, you know, to all intents and purposes, a very friendly interview.
[15:05:01]
But you're right. Sometimes when Trump speaks to Fox, which is obviously conservative, you do get the odd off the cuff remark that he comes out with, and that starts a whole new controversy. Or give you some insight into Trump's thinking. What we have had so far in the first two days of this administration are these prolonged press interactions with Trump, which are very interesting, where he seems to be pulling the strings of policy and foreign affairs in real time, in that what's been especially interesting is his rhetoric on Russia, in which he seems to be trying to create pressure and leverage over President Vladimir Putin, talking about how the Ukraine war is not making him look very good, even saying that he might add tariffs and sanctions to Russia if it doesn't come to the table.
That's all in advance of a conversation that he plans to have soon with Putin. And it's very interesting to watch in real time and to see exactly how serious he is about trying to get this Ukraine war to at least a ceasefire and some peace talks.
ASHER: Yeah, and this whole idea of Donald Trump imposing more sanctions on Russia if they don't come to the negotiation table, something were going to be speaking with our correspondent Nick Paton Walsh a little bit later on in the show.
Stephen Collinson, always good to see you, my friend. Thank you so much.
COLLINSON: Thank you.
ASHER: All right. Let's go live now to the Pentagon. We have new details about Trump's announcement to send more active duty military to the southern border to assist border patrol. Thousands are, in fact, already there.
CNN's Oren Liebermann is there for us.
Oren, just walk us through what you're learning so far.
OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: We're getting a better understanding of what this troop surge to the border will look like, and at least part of what it will include. It looks like it will be approximately a couple thousand additional active duty troops headed to the border, including 500 U.S. marines and 1,000 or more U.S. army soldiers that will go there, essentially, to expand the 2,200 troops that are already there as part of Task Force North.
Now they carry out what are essentially bureaucratic and logistical operations along the border, and this will effectively begin to expand that effort with potentially a supersizing of that effort in the coming weeks or perhaps months. Up to 10,000 troops will eventually head to the border, according to the officials with which we've spoken. That I should point out, the 2,200 troops who are already there are, in addition to the 4,500 Texas national guardsmen that are there along the -- along the border.
This has been part of President Donald Trump's campaign promise since virtually the very beginning. And you see here him acting on it in the very first days of the administration, essentially sending thousands of more troops to the border very quickly here in an attempt to secure it, despite the fact that numbers of border crossings are already down here.
Now, one of the officials I spoke with said they've been told to treat this as a national emergency because it's been declared a national emergency. So don't be surprised to see marines dropped off by helicopter at the border. That's very much a show of force, a message, something that will appear very public and certainly on all the news screens, which is likely something Trump wants to see with this troop surge to the border. We expect to learn more here in the coming hours -- Zain.
ASHER: Oren Liebermann live for us there, thank you, Oren.
All right. It's not just troops at the border. Trump immigration officials are warning undocumented immigrants that deportation operations will begin soon across the country, and that ICE will raid sensitive areas like schools and churches, places law enforcement had a higher bar for entering under Biden.
Plus, legal immigrants are also in limbo. Some 10,000 refugees with travel book to legally seek safe harbor in the U.S. confronting a Trump State Department memo that reads all previously scheduled travel of refugees to the U.S. is being canceled, and no new travel bookings will be made. That memo citing Trump's executive order halting refugee admissions. It's a lot.
And CNN's Ed Lavandera brings us the story of one Texas town bracing for the many Trump immigration promises to become reality.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
T.J. FUNDERBURG, PRINCIPAL, CACTUS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL: Good morning, Cactus Elementary School!
ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Every school day at Cactus Elementary starts like this.
(NATIONAL ANTHEM)
LAVANDERA: Moments of patriotism and reflection with a high energy dose of inspiration from Principal T.J. Funderburg.
GIRL STUDENT: Why are we here?
STUDENTS: To learn!
LAVANDERA: You do that every morning.
FUNDERBURG: Yes, sir.
LAVANDERA: When I looked out on the student body this morning, I mean, it's quite something to think that were in the Texas panhandle. And that's what your student body looks like.
FUNDERBURG: It's always very eye-opening to people that come here. We've got 13, 14 different languages, all these different cultures represented. And yeah, we're up here in the heart of the Texas panhandle. Everybody think you'd be farming, ranching, country and kids in cowboy hats. And we've got just about a little bit of everything.
[15:10:02]
LAVANDERA: The population in Cactus, Texas, is about 3,000 people. But the diversity is staggering. There's an African restaurant, safari restaurant, and halal meat. There is an Asian grocery store. There's a Mexican butcher shop. There's a Guatemalan grocery. There's also an Islamic center.
What draws so many immigrants and migrants here to a community like this is the work. And it is brutal, backbreaking work. There is a meat processing plant that runs 24 hours a day. There are dairy farms that run nonstop.
These are the kinds of jobs that the United States economy and food supply rely on every day. It's also the kind of work that only immigrants, by and large, are willing to do.
There are towns like Cactus, Texas, all over the country, and with President Donald Trump promising to carry out mass deportations, a sense of fear and uncertainty looms over these streets.
What are you hearing specifically from people?
ELIZABETH OLIVEROS, IMMIGRATION ATTORNEY: They -- well, they're scared. They -- they don't know if they're going to be able to stay here. You know, a lot of them have been here for decades. They've built their lives here. Their kids are here. You know, everyone they know is here.
LAVANDERA: Elizabeth Oliveros grew up in Cactus, the daughter of immigrants who became citizens and earned their living working in the city's meat processing plant. She went away to college, became a lawyer, and moved back to cactus to work as an immigration attorney.
If there were to be mass deportations here in this city, what would happen to it?
OLIVEROS: It'd be quite empty I think. There's a lot of people here that don't have status, that keep a lot of the businesses, the smaller businesses around here, running. So if immigrants leave, I don't know where they're going to find workers as hardworking as some of the immigrants.
LAVANDERA: As we walk the streets of cactus, it was clear that most residents, regardless of their immigration status, didn't want to speak with us on camera and especially didn't want to talk about President Trump's deportation dreams.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know, I don't like politics. I don't like.
LAVANDERA: The fear among many in this town and other agricultural communities across the country is that vital food production would be paralyzed and communities torn apart. The meat processing plant here says it only hires people authorized to work. Under different management, in 2006, the plant was raided by immigration authorities. About 300 people suspected of identity theft or being in the country illegally were detained, many of them deported.
Elizabeth Oliveros remembers the day clearly.
OLIVEROS: I was in elementary school and I remember they had to keep us because they didn't know how many of us -- our parents were gone. And a lot of my friends, their parents were gone.
LAVANDERA: Wow.
OLIVEROS: They got deported.
LAVANDERA: The children at Cactus Elementary are mostly oblivious to the political storms brewing outside the school walls.
Principal T.J. Funderburg is bracing for whatever comes next.
FUNDERBURG: It's just the unknown that scares me to death.
LAVANDERA: He says as many as half the kids in the school could have undocumented family members. These are the kinds of places where the reality of mass deportations could play out.
To the people who are going to be making these decisions about deportations, whether it's mass deportations, just broad or targeted, what's your message to them?
FUNDERBURG: Just -- I mean, come talk to me. Come, come meet these kids. I think, you know, I know there has to be. There has to be rules. There has to be checks. There has to be balances. But it can't just be paper. This community of people that have come together, that are here now from all these different countries, all these different places, we can do amazing things.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LAVANDERA (on camera): Residents who lived in Cactus, Texas, back in 2006 when those first immigration raids were carried out, say it took the town more than a year to recover. Fast forward nearly 20 years, Cactus is a different place with immigration cases that run the gamut. People who have legal refugee status are here on green cards, have pending asylum cases, and some who are here undocumented.
And it really speaks to the challenges that the Trump administration will be facing. And it's not as easy as waving a wand and just carrying out mass deportations. These are complex and serious questions that the Trump administration will be facing.
Ed Lavandera, CNN.
ASHER: All right, still ahead, new allegations against Trump's pick for secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth. How senators are responding to the claims of abuse towards his second wife.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[15:17:52]
ASHER: Trump's secretary of defense nominee is facing new and potentially damaging allegations a day after the Armed Services Committee voted to advance his nomination. Hegseth's former sister in law submitted a sworn statement to the Senate accusing him of being abusive towards his second wife and claims to have witnessed him drinking excessively. She added that Samantha Hegseth feared for her safety and even had a code word to help her get away from her then husband.
Hegseth is denying the allegations. In a statement to NBC News, Hegseth ex-wife says that there was, quote, no physical abuse in my marriage.
CNN's Lauren Fox is on Capitol Hill.
Just walk us through this, because obviously the former wife is saying one thing. The former sister in law is saying something completely different. Just walk us through how senators are responding to these allegations. And what does it mean for his chances of being confirmed?
LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. I mean, first of all, it's important to understand what stage Hegseth's nomination is in this process. The Senate Armed Services Committee, the committee with jurisdiction over this nomination, they have already voted to advance him to the floor of the United States Senate. And what you're hearing from a lot of Republicans on that committee is they don't believe that this is a credible change that would make them reconsider anything that they've done up until this point.
That is what we heard from Senator Roger Wicker. He is the chairman of this committee.
Meanwhile, you have Democrats who are on Armed Services who are warning that this is a sign to Republicans that they need to pump the brakes on holding a floor vote later this week. Now, we expect that Hegseth could come up to the floor for a vote as soon as by the end of the week. Now, Democrats could really throw a lot of obstacles procedurally in the way for Republicans. Make it much harder for them to do this by the end of the week, pushing perhaps the vote into the weekend. But there's very little that Democrats can do to stop Hegseth's nomination, because Republicans have 53 votes in the United States Senate, which means that they can pass this without a single Democrat voting yes on Hegseth.
What's worth keeping an eye out for right now is some of those Republicans who have not said yet if they would support Hegseth's nomination. I'm thinking of people like Senator Susan Collins, people like Senator Lisa Murkowski, who have been saying that they are still weighing this nomination very carefully.
I caught up with Senator Susan Collins earlier today, and she told me that she is still reviewing information, and she has not made her mind up yet. Republicans can afford to lose three senators, but they can't afford to lose any more if Democrats are united against this nomination.
So there's still a lot of questions right now about whether or not he is going to be able to get through. But if he can get through, we expect it could happen this weekend.
ASHER: And, Lauren, another controversial issue is, of course, Donald Trump pardoning the violent rioters on January 6th -- of January 6th. And also this idea that some of those convicts could actually end up being invited to the White House in some kind of reception.
Just explain to us what lawmakers, especially moderate Republican lawmakers, are saying about that. What's their perspective?
FOX: Yeah, it's really interesting because yesterday a lot of Republicans were arguing that they had not fully reviewed the pardons and commutations that President Trump had made late on Monday night. But over the last several hours, you have seen a couple of Republicans make clear that they are opposed to the kind of blanket pardon and commutation that Donald Trump issued on Monday night, especially because it's important to keep in mind, senators were here on January 6th, and the men and women of the capitol police force who protect this building, and the lawmakers and people inside of it, they feel like they are really put in this rock and hard place.
You know, Senator Thom Tillis told me yesterday that he just can't agree with Trump's decision. And Senator Lisa Murkowski, someone who has broken with Trump in the past, she tweeted earlier today that she was also opposed to that blanket pardon.
ASHER: All right, Lauren Fox live for us, thank you.
All right. New today, the president and his billionaire best buddy already bumping heads. Elon Musk openly bashed a $500 billion artificial intelligence project Trump just unveiled last night.
Here is Trump touting that investment at the White House, flanked by the CEOs of the three tech firms in charge OpenAI, Softbank and Oracle. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Together, these world leading technology giants are announcing the formation of Stargate. So put that name down in your books, because I think you're going to hear a lot about it in the future. A new American company that will invest $500 billion, at least in A.I. infrastructure in the United States and very, very quickly moving very rapidly, creating over 100,000 American jobs almost immediately.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ASHER: Musk cast doubt on Trump's initiative on his own media platform, X, claiming the tech companies, quote, don't actually have the money. What's true, and what exactly do we make of the rift?
Mike Isaac is with me for the answers. He's a technology correspondent for "The New York Times".
So, Mike, Trump is, of course, touting this A.I. investment as a massive job creator. Musk, on the other hand, is saying that that's not backed up by the money. Just walk us through your perspective on who's right here.
MIKE ISAAC, TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT, NEW YORK TIMES: Yeah. So I think it's totally fair to say there's a lot of jobs going into building A.I. infrastructure right now, not just with OpenAI, which you saw in the announcement yesterday, but companies like Meta are spending billions of dollars pouring money into these into jobs and breaking ground across the country, if not the world. Google is everywhere.
And so, that for sure is definitely a job creator in a in a bunch of spin. That said, the $500 billion number that they threw out there yesterday is pretty crazy and pretty high. And just the companies that are currently involved, Softbank, Oracle and MGX just don't have that type of funding. So I believe they're going to look for more funding basically.
ASHER: "The Washington Post" just sort of bringing musk back into the picture. "The Washington Post" is reporting that A.I. is actually a major part of how Elon Musk wants to reshape the federal government via DOGE.
Just explain to us is, I mean, is that one of the reasons why this is such an important issue to him and why he breaks with the president on this?
ISAAC: Well, the thing about Elon is that he kind of lacks compunction around being forced to tell the truth at all times. So, like, I think any sort of random late night tweets he sets off should be taken with that in mind. You know, he's not always sort of, uh, fully up front and often talking his book. You know, he has with X, he has X A.I., which is a huge A.I. initiative for himself, and is fighting and competing directly against OpenAI and Meta and these other companies.
So I think casting doubt into the, you know, the big grand announcement yesterday does benefit him. And then, you know, his DOGE activities. He's trying to sort of -- we saw Vivek Ramaswamy just get sort of politely asked to leave. And Elon is indeed using this stance of, we're going to automate everything and make A.I. to remake the government and cut efficiencies.
[15:25:06]
So I think it really is A.I. everywhere for Elon these days.
ASHER: So we've talked about job creation and your perspective on that. But Sam is essentially saying that there are is one of several A.I. leaders warning that the U.S. needs to invest much more in A.I. in order to stay ahead of China.
Just give us your perspective on that. I mean, is this a smart move by the U.S., especially from a national security perspective?
ISAAC: Yeah. You know, it's -- it's very funny. I think this is going to be the big shift between the Biden administration and the Trump administration for the past few years, under President Biden, every tech leader from Mark Zuckerberg to Sam Altman, basically stressed the importance of American dominance in technology and used China as this sort of, you know, stalking horse to prop up their own companies, whether that's to fend off regulation that would harm them or sort of push back on different sort of, restrictions on where they can build and things like that.
Immediately we saw Trump take office, issue an executive order, just sort of like deflating this bill, that or this order that President Biden sent out. And I think its going to be this era of Trump basically supporting a lot of these big tech companies, all of which have basically saddled up, sidled up to him very quickly as the administration began.
So, China, you're going to just keep hearing people say China is the threat here, I believe.
ASHER: But just in terms of Donald Trump reversing the executive order from President Biden, former President Biden, to monitor and regulate A.I., the fact that he did reverse that, what are the consequences of that going forward?
IAAC: Yeah. So a lot of that first order under Biden was basically really forcing the companies to lay out these sort of safety frameworks about how the A.I. is going to be used, how its operated, how what are called the models are trained, the data that's used to train them. And basically, you know, how they can exist in the real world to keep them safe.
And I think there are schools of thought in Silicon Valley that think that's a good thing. There are schools of thought that think that's a bad thing. We should just let it all go out there. And under Trump, a lot of that has been just sort of eliminated. So I think the people who -- who are throwing caution to the wind on getting A.I. out there and everywhere and not really wanting to rein in those models, get a big win under that Trump order.
ASHER: All right. Mike Isaac live for us there. Appreciate you joining us. Thank you.
All right. A new --
ISAAC: Thank you.
ASHER: Of course.
A new fire has broken out in southern California. You're looking at live pictures here of the Hughes Fire. This is near the community of Castaic in Los Angeles County. The county's office of emergency management is saying that evacuation orders and warnings have been issued for the area. Once again, this is a new fire breaking out in Los Angeles County. Crews in the L.A. area are still working to tamp down other fires, and
that includes the Palisades Fire, which we know now is 68 percent contained and has burned more than 23,000 acres.
Right after the break, the steps President Trump says he will take against Russia if it does not end its war on Ukraine. That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[15:31:38]
ASHER: All right. Passing his own deadline to end Russia's war in Ukraine, Donald Trump took to Truth Social today, threatening more sanctions against Russia after praising his relationship with Putin and his love for the Russian people. He said, I'm going to do Russia, whose economy is failing, and President Putin a very big favor. Settle now and stop this ridiculous war. Its only going to get worse if we don't make a deal, and soon. I have no other choice but to put high levels of taxes, tariffs and sanctions on anything being sold by Russia to the U.S. and various other participating countries.
Lets talk more about this with CNN's chief international security correspondent, Nick Paton Walsh, who is in Kyiv for us.
Nick, Russia is already heavily sanctioned by the United States, the UK, the EU and many other American allies. Just explain to us why the threat of more sanctions would actually force Putin to end the war.
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Possibly not to some degree, but I think it's the tone that President Trump strikes there. You know, so long accused of being too cozy with Vladimir Putin for the second time in 48 hours, essentially saying he will take a tough hand trying to suggest that some kind of deal would indeed be in Russia's economic favor. But also there is some element through the block capitals of the statement calling the war ridiculous. I'm sure that's not how many who have lost loved ones here in Ukraine feel about it.
That lends some credence to the notion that he's not always taking these very serious challenges from a position of complexity. So we'll obviously have to see how the Kremlin react to something like that. What practical sanctions could be put in place? Well, there was a tightening on sanctions against Russia's oil and gas industry just in the closing days of the Biden administration. They pretty much done all they can at this stage to try and shut down Russia's economy from outside.
But it is, in fact, overheating, frankly, becoming increasingly self- dependent. And they're finding ways to get around the oil and gas sanctions to keep money coming in.
So, yes, there's potentially more things that could be done. Russia's reserves invested in foreign lands that could potentially be targeted. But that's something the West has shied away from as well. So it isn't entirely clear what extra leverage indeed Trump has there. But it is, again, the idea that he's coming to this with a carrot and
a stick, essentially saying, I can make a deal for you. This will be in your economic favor. And if you don't take that opportunity, then you'll leave me no choice but to take more punitive action. Now, it isn't entirely the sort of softer hand that many felt Trump would play towards Moscow as he came to power, and we've seen that twice now.
But this is the opening salvo. This is not in itself a serious policy. It's not a peace plan, its mood music. And we heard from Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy today that he expects his team to meet with Trump's team, and then eventually they will meet. Trump has said hell meet with Putin and that is indeed being arranged.
We are seeing the chairs being arranged around the table, it seems, but it isn't entirely clear what state of mind any of the players is going to come to any potential future talks with. And frankly, we've seen Moscow use this to its advantage before entering negotiations, continuing to pursue, not in good faith, its military goals across the battlefield where it is winning pretty much incrementally.
But every day here advances by Russia across the front, as Ukraine experiences manpower crises and at times, issue is simply not enough weaponry. So it's an exceptionally complex task. Frankly, at the best of times we are seeing Trump take a surprisingly harsh tone with the Kremlin.
[15:35:01]
That may be to placate Russia hawks on his own side of the fence.
But how that all translates into some kind of serious and enduring peace process is the extremely complex question that Trump's statement today didn't really provide any answers or guidance for -- Zain.
ASHER: All right. Nick Paton Walsh live for us there, thank you so much.
Right now to the Middle East, where a ceasefire in Gaza is holding, with another four hostages set to be released this weekend. With its war in Gaza on pause, Israel has turned its attention to the occupied West Bank. Israeli forces killed at least ten Palestinians, including a child, on Tuesday, as part of its large scale military operation.
At the World Economic Forum, the U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres says he believes Israel's focus is now on annexing the West Bank.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANTONIO GUTERRES, SECRETARY-GENERAL OF THE UNITED NATIONS: The other possibilities for Israel, feeling emboldened by the military successes that it has had to think that this is the moment to do the annexation of the West Bank, and to keep the Gaza in a kind of a limbo situation with an unclear -- unclear form of governance. It is clear to me that Israel is not fundamentally interested in Gaza. It's fundamentally interested in the West Bank. (END VIDEO CLIP)
ASHER: Let's discuss now with Andrew Miller, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and former deputy assistant secretary of state for Israeli-Palestinian affairs.
So you heard that sound bite there of Antonio Guterres at the World Economic Forum, essentially saying that he believes that possibly Israel's site is set on annexing the West Bank. Your thoughts on that?
ANDREW P. MILLER, FORMER DEPARTMENT SECRETARY OF STATE FOR ISRAELI- PALESTINIAN AFFAIRS: I think that is a fair statement as regards the current Israeli government. They have been clear since the coalition took office in December 2022 that their objective was to increase the Israeli presence in the West Bank and ultimately annex that territory, which they view as integral to biblical Israel and to the patrimony of the Jewish people.
Critical members of Netanyahu's government, including Smotrich, who recently agreed to support this cease fire deal, notwithstanding prior objections, indicated that he had done so because he had received promises from Prime Minister Netanyahu of further action in the West Bank. With President Trump in office now replacing President Biden, it seems clear that Israeli officials see a greater opportunity to not only annex the West Bank, but, critically, to secure American recognition of American of Israeli sovereignty in the territory.
ASHER: Yeah. I mean, to your point, you've got Elise Stefanik, for example, talking about the fact that Israel has a biblical right to the West Bank. You've also got Mike Huckabee essentially saying something similar, and then Donald Trump lifting sanctions against Israeli settlers as well. I mean, what does all of that tell you about how the U.S. policy towards the Middle East and specifically Israel is going to shake out here?
MILLER: It's -- all of those indicators certainly suggest that we're going to see a fundamentally different U.S. policy regarding the West Bank. While, you know, there was criticism of the Biden administrations approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, they were fairly consistent in opposing the development of further settlements, issuing this executive order, which has been repealed, imposing sanctions on violent extremist settlers and other violent actors.
There was a clear warning that not only would the United States not recognize Israeli sovereignty in the West Bank, but any Israeli effort to annex the West Bank would draw a strong response. Now, that situation has been turned on its head. Netanyahu is not, as is, more of a gradualist than some of the other members of his coalition, and had been less insistent on an immediate move to -- to consolidate Israeli control over the West Bank.
But given that he now has a partner, which will presumably support his efforts, they're looking to move forward. The one potential leavening factor may be Trump's continued desire for the deal of the century. He may want to make one last effort to negotiate an Israeli-Palestinian peace treaty, or Israeli Saudi normalization before he moves forward with a recognizing Israeli sovereignty.
So there may be a delay in that decision, but I expect it to come at some point, certainly within the next 12 to 18 months.
[15:40:06]
ASHER: Obviously, we've seen ongoing violence in the West Bank over the past, you know, year plus. But there has been quite a significant uptick in violence, especially now that Israel is heavily focused on the West Bank, given that there are ceasefires happening with Lebanon and Gaza, how do you think the uptick in violence in the West Bank, with Israel talking about just -- just trying to focus on the terrorists in and around the Jenin refugee camp? How will that affect the ceasefire with Gaza, especially because the violence in the West Bank only serves to benefit Hamas.
MILLER: That's exactly right. It does benefit Hamas, both in terms of diverting Israeli attention from Gaza and creating more space for Hamas to reconstitute itself to recover from the Israeli military campaign in the seaside territory. But it also increases the salience of Hamas in the West Bank. The Palestinian Authority is still in control of those areas of the West Bank, not governed by Israel, but Hamas in the West Bank is much more popular than it is in Gaza, because the West Bank residents have seen Hamas's actions against what they view as the as the mutual enemy and has not had to suffer the consequences of Hamas rule.
So the possibility of a deterioration, a further deterioration of security, plays right into Hamas's hands. And there is a real risk that we could wind up with something approaching a third intifada. We actually thought that prior to October 7th, it was much more likely to see an explosion in the West Bank than in Gaza. We were wrong about the location, but the West Bank remains very precarious.
Palestinian militants of all varieties are increasing their operational tempo. Israel is increasing the operational tempo and it looks like Israeli civilians, the settlers, are going to be given an even longer leash to engage in acts of violence and intimidation. All of this is a recipe for some type of conflagration, and the consequences of that would be felt not just in Gaza, not just in green line Israel, but regionally as well. It's going to raise this issue back to the top of everyone's priorities.
ASHER: All right, Andrew Miller live for us there, thank you so much.
All right. Still to come here. Britain's Prince Harry claims what his team calls a monumental victory. What we're learning about the details of his settlement following a years-long legal battle with the Rupert Murdoch owned newspaper publisher. That story next for you.
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[15:46:00]
ASHER: Prince Harry's years-long legal dispute with a British newspaper group has taken an unexpected turn, a settlement just before the trial was to get underway. The dispute against Rupert Murdoch's news group claimed reporters and investigators working for the British tabloids, like "The Sun", had been targeting the prince and his family.
Our Max Foster reports.
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MAX FOSTER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): After months of preparations, Prince Harry's lawyer today ended the case against Rupert Murdoch's UK tabloids. That was before the trial had even started settling for a figure. Legal sources say runs into eight figures.
DAVID SHERBORNE, PRINCE HARRY'S LAWYER: News UK have admitted that "The Sun", the flagship title for Rupert Murdoch's UK media empire, has indeed engaged in illegal practices.
FOSTER: The civil case alleged "The Sun" and the now shuttered "News of the World" newspapers had illegally obtained private information about the prince and used it to sell newspapers. In court, NGN's lawyers apologized to the duke of Sussex for the serious intrusion into his private life between 1996 and 2011. For unlawful activities carried out by its private investigators and for phone hacking.
Perhaps most notably, it apologized for its, quote, extensive coverage and serious intrusion into the private life of his mother, Princess Diana. The tabloid obsession with the princess was well known, with almost every step documented by photographers. She died in 1997, in a car crash whilst being chased by paparazzi in Paris. But it wasn't just the royals who were alleged targets of the tabloids. Ordinary civilians say they were subject to claimed invasions of privacy, sometimes using the same very questionable tactics.
And in a criminal trial starting in 2013, one editor of the Murdoch owned "News of the World" was found guilty of conspiracy to hack phones. He was sentenced to 18 months. The real question now is what comes next?
EMMA JONES, HACKED OFF: This is here now for the police to investigate. You know, we've got a corporate culture of unlawful behavior. We've got an admission of that. And the same people still working at that organization, for what reason would they not have to now investigate those practices and say, you know, this has happened. The evidence is almost laid bare, and they've gone to huge lengths to avoid being scrutinized in the court.
FOSTER: Prince Harry may have settled, but the legal battles may not be over for the tabloid press, with the prince calling for a new police investigation. Pressure is mounting. A spokesperson for "The Sun" said no staff at the newspaper were found culpable, and police have previously found no criminal case.
Max Foster, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE) ASHER: Turning now to the record snowfall blanketing parts of the southern U.S. The once in a generation winter storm impacted areas from Texas to Florida and up the Carolina coast.
Let's bring in CNN's Chad Myers, who joins us from the weather center in Atlanta.
I mean, I saw the images out of Texas, Georgia, Louisiana, and I just thought, my goodness, that is not something you see every day. Snow in those states. Take it away, Chad.
CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: No, snow on the beaches from Texas through Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, all the way up through Georgia, North Carolina, and into Delaware on the sand. This says welcome to the Sunshine State. There wasn't any yesterday, that's for sure.
People sleeping in their cars by the thousands, stranded on the interstates. Yesterday, eight inches of snow in New Orleans. If you add up all of the other snow events, all of them, you only get 6.7.
So, more snow fell yesterday in the past 77 years combined. And then the big snow in Florida at ten inches the old record for the entire state, four. So double and a half the old record.
[15:50:02]
The gulf is very warm, the air is very cold. And that caused a little a rambunctious of the storm. Kind of like what we see in hurricanes. We talk about that rapid intensification. Well, the moisture from here got thrown up into the cold air, and that cold air just put down a whole bunch of snow and ice.
Now, let's switch from ice to fire. Some pictures out of California right now with the latest significant fire happening right now up the I-5. This is Castaic. As you actually move all the way across this area here, there's a -- there's a lake that some of this fire could run into and stop, but there's so much flame right now, its gone from 0 to 3,400 acres in only an hour and a half, mainly forest land right now.
But there are towns in the way. The winds are blowing at 35 miles per hour, at 60 kilometers per hour. Lots of helicopters, lots of airplanes, but they are not getting a handle on this right now, saying this is a troublesome fire. And there are towns that are in the way of this smoke, and eventually the fire.
They're going to have to get a handle on this, or this is going to be another big, big story.
ASHER: Yeah. Really sad images coming out of Los Angeles.
Chad Myers live for us there. Thank you so much.
We'll be right back after this short break.
MYERS: You're welcome.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ASHER: It's Melania Trump's second act. Sources tell CNN that the relatively private first lady has spent the last two months since Election Day rigorously preparing for her return to the White House.
Betsy Klein has more on what the first lady's second term will look like.
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BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE PRODUCER: Well, just taking a step back here, the role of first lady is unelected. It comes with no handbook and an automatic global platform, and, of course, a lot of scrutiny.
Now, Melania Trump has privately acknowledged that being first lady came with a whirlwind of responsibilities that she was largely unaware of for the first time in office. But she has signaled that this time around will be different. And just as President Trump and his team have learned how to use the different levers of the federal government to enact their agenda, Melania Trump, too, has learned from her first term.
We saw that she has been preparing intensely over the past two months to return to office. She has been studying foreign affairs, preparing on her own and also joining her husband for some of those dinners at Mar-a-Lago with VIPs during the presidential transition.
Now, Melania Trump appears to implicitly recognize the public's curiosity about her and understands that leaning into that could prove lucrative and strategic.
[15:55:01]
So we saw that autobiography she released over the fall become a number one "New York Times" bestseller. She also inked that multi- million dollar deal with Amazon to produce a documentary about her life during this presidential transition. She has participated in multiple interviews with Fox News.
She's also released an unofficial meme NFT available for purchase on the eve of the inauguration and inauguration day really offered a visual preview as to how Melania Trump will be handling the next four years in office. We saw that double breasted navy coat and the matching hat.
You know, back in 2018, she told CNN that she hopes that people would focus on what she says and not what she wears. But clearly, the first lady here, recognizing that fashion can send a powerful message.
And that hat, as we saw on Monday, really limited the public's visibility of her reaction throughout the day, but still took center stage. It signaled that she is serious. She is getting down to business this time around. Now, another factor that might prove critical here is the absence of
Ivanka Trump, Melania Trump's stepdaughter. You know, back in 2017, Ivanka Trump came to the West Wing. She had a senior advisor title and an office. And there was a lot of ambiguity about who was in charge from the Trump family in the White House.
Now, with Ivanka Trump's absence, she has said she is leaving politics entirely. That may give Melania Trump a little bit more space to be the female figurehead of this administration going forward.
Betsy Klein, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ASHER: All right. Appreciate you joining me today. That's it for the show. I'm Zain Asher.
"QUEST MEANS BUSINESS" is up next. You're watching CNN.