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CNN International: Trump's Controversial Mass Deportation Plan Moving Swiftly; White House: U.S. Using Military Aircraft To Deport Migrants; Trump Arrives In N. Carolina Amid Recovery From Helene. Aired 11a-12p ET

Aired January 24, 2025 - 11:00   ET

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


[11:00:00]

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RAHEL SOLOMON, HOST, "CNN NEWSROOM": Hello, and welcome to our viewers from around the world. I'm Rahel Solomon live in New York, and this is CNN Newsroom.

We're following two major stories this hour. President Trump is visiting disaster areas on both coasts of the U.S., while his administration's planned crackdown on undocumented immigrants is cranking up. Any moment now, the President is expected to arrive in North Carolina, and I believe he has actually arrived, but not yet deplaned. He is there to assess the situation in places still struggling to recover after Hurricane Helene triggered devastating floods last fall. Later, he will head to Southern California to take a look at the damage there and the hardship inflicted by the LA wildfires, the disaster that is still unfolding. It's Mr. Trump's first trip outside Washington since he was inaugurated on Monday.

We're already seeing some of his executive actions on immigration take effect, the White House Press Secretary sharing these images of what she says are immigrants boarding a U.S. military aircraft.

With more details now from CNN's Priscilla Alvarez.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The White House announcing on Friday that the use of military aircraft for deportations have begun, posting a photo of one of those flights. Now, a Homeland Security official telling me that this happened in the El Paso area. Of course, earlier in the week, the Pentagon had announced that it would send military aircraft both to El Paso and also to San Diego. Now, this flight included some 75 to 80 migrants from Guatemala. These were recent border crossers. Therefore, they were already in Border Patrol custody, and as an example of the way that the administration is trying to use the U.S. military along the southern border.

Now, of course, in addition to the announcement over the military aircraft this week, the Pentagon also saying they would send more troops along the border. Their mission is to help, for example, with operational readiness as well as intelligence and air operation augmentation.

But, all of this taken together, an example of how the President, after signing an executive order, declaring a national emergency on the U.S. southern border, is trying to use Pentagon resources, more of them to clamp down on the border and to send a message. In this case, that coming through in a photo posted by the White House Press Secretary of these migrants boarding a pentagon flight.

Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOLOMON: All right. And let's continue this discussion with Immigration Attorney, CNN Opinion Writer, and USA Today Contributor, Raul Reyes, who joins us now from New York. Raul, great to have you today, especially as so much is developing on the immigration front. As Priscilla has noted in some of her reporting, what stands out in the photos that have been released from the White House is the use of the military aircraft to carry out these deportations. Your initial reactions and thoughts.

RAUL REYES, CNN OPINION WRITER: Right. Well, the use of the military action -- of the military aircraft is new. But, just to put some of this in context, it is not by any means something that the U.S. government, Homeland Security is starting up again. During the Biden administration, the first Trump administration, even Obama before that, the U.S. government regularly contracted with private air carriers to return people to countries like Mexico, Haiti, countries in Central America. So, even during Biden's presidency, these types of flights were -- I believe there were several dozen every month. So, we're looking at a few hundred over the course of each year. What's new here seems to be the use of a U.S. military plane. But, deportation flights are nothing new.

SOLOMON: Let me ask, when you see some of the polls like those in The New York Times, CBS News, ABC News, which suggests that more than half the country do want undocumented immigrants to be deported, how do you respond to that, that perhaps more than half of the country supports some of these policies from the President?

REYES: Oh, right. I have seen the polls you're speaking about. There are a majority of Americans who say they're open to the idea of mass deportations. And obviously, the President was elected around immigration, which is his signature issue. But, the same polls have shown that most people do not have an idea of what things like mass deportations actually involve, and the more that they -- these same polls show that the more people learn about the details of mass deportations, the higher the negatives rise against them.

We really haven't seen anything on the scale of what the President has been proposing. You'd have to go back to the maybe the Eisenhower era, when he initiated a huge mass deportation program, and that was mostly confined to the southwest. I think a real danger for the Trump administration is that if his immigration measures become too extreme, they will push public sentiment in the opposite direction.

[11:05:00]

That happened during his first term.

SOLOMON: But, do you wonder if you get into the details of what's actually being happened? You see less support. I mean, how often do you think are people who are clearly living very busy lives, how often are they getting into the details beyond just the headline?

REYES: I think people will be getting into the details, particularly if Trump does carry out these -- the promised mass deportations. Remember, in 2017-2018 when we saw the family separations, we saw images of children and mothers and just heartbreaking scenes from detention facilities that led to global outrage. That was why Trump stopped the zero tolerance policy, because public opinion swung so quickly.

And yet, in spite of all this, right now, there is broad public support just for the at least the idea that about two thirds of Americans agree with the idea that immigrants are good for the country, and they do want some type of path to legal -- they do want the country to offer them some type of path to legal status. A little over half of Americans want that, compared to this -- say about 40 percent who would choose mass deportations, and that's per a Gallup poll in January.

SOLOMON: Let me ask, the administration's attempts to end birthright citizenship that obviously faced that setback yesterday with a federal judge calling the move blatantly unconstitutional, and while many agree that the issue is settled law, there are also some, Raul, that say that, because there isn't a really a lot of case law here, it actually may be more open to interpretation than we realize. Do you worry how in 2025 this law could be interpreted by a different federal court, by perhaps the U.S. Supreme Court?

REYES: Right. I think those are real concerns. But, I will say this. We have over 100 years of Supreme Court precedent and scholarship supporting -- upholding the idea of birthright citizenship. There really is not a plausible legal argument against it. However, that said, we have multiple lawsuits around the country. We will see, I think, fits and starts like we have done with the DACA case, and with cases over the Affordable Care Act. And in a different time, I think many legal scholars would have said, this will never be -- Trump's executive order would never be upheld by the Supreme Court. But, this is a very conservative Supreme Court. They were willing to break with precedent over Roe v. Wade. So, it's not a sure thing.

What is concerning to me is that the ongoing litigation and questions about birthright citizenship now, it injects a level of fear and anxiety into our immigration system, and the last thing our immigration system needs is more confusion.

SOLOMON: Yeah. I mean, is that what you're hearing? I mean, when you sort of communicate or interact with immigrant communities or Latino communities --

REYES: Yes. SOLOMON: -- give me a sense of the sentiment right now after this last week or so.

REYES: It is no exaggeration. People in the immigrant communities are very on edge. They're very nervous. People are doing things. Like, for example, immigrants are doing things like putting their bank accounts in their children's names because the citizens are --

SOLOMON: Raul, I'm so sorry. I'm going to have to jump in here, but we appreciate you being with us.

I actually want to go to President Trump, who has arrived in Asheville. Let's listen together.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: -- and we're going to fix it, and we're going to fix it as fast as you can. It's a massive amount of damage. FEMA has really let us down, let the country down, and I don't know if that's Biden's fault or whose fault it is, but we're going to take over, and we're going to do a good job. We're going to assign Mr. Whatley, who is fantastic, frankly. And the governor and everybody else that's going to work, we're going to supply the money and supply a lot of the money. Maybe you have to chip in something. You'll chip in a little something like maybe 25 percent or whatever. But, we're going to get it done as quickly as we can, and we want to take care of the people of North Carolina.

It's so interesting. Everybody is talking about California, and that's a mess, but I said I'm not going to California until I stop in North Carolina. So, here we are. We're going to go visit the site, and we're going to work with probably three of the congressmen, Republican congressmen, who've been fantastic, whose areas have been affected, and with Michael Whatley, the governor, and whoever else is, we decide to get involved, probably less FEMA, because FEMA just hasn't done the job. And we're looking at the whole concept of FEMA. I like, frankly, the concept when North Carolina gets hit, the governor takes care of it. When Florida gets hit, the governor takes care of it, meaning the state takes care of it.

To have a group of people come in from an area that don't even know where they're going, in order to solve immediately a problem is something that never worked for me, but this is probably one of the best examples of it not working, and there has been some others, like in Louisiana, etcetera.

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So, we're going to be doing something on FEMA that I think most people agree. I'd like to see the states take care of disasters. Let the state take care of the tornadoes and the hurricanes and all of the other things that happen, and I think you're going to find it a lot less expensive. You'll do it for less than half and you're going to get a lot quicker response. So, that seems to be the recommendation, but we'll be making that recommendation over the next couple of weeks.

We're going to go to the site now, and we're going to figure out a plan, a plan for really demolition and cleaning, because not a lot has been done, and we're very disappointed in the Biden administration, but we're going to make up for lost time. And I said, I do that, and this is about the earliest we could possibly be here, and we're honored to be here. This has been a great state. They're great people, and they've really been mishandled. But, it's all -- this group is going to be great, and we're going to get it taken care of. Any questions?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you expect to ask Congress for additional aid for North Carolina and California?

TRUMP: Yes, aid will directed. In other words, the aid will go through us. So, rather than going through FEMA, it will go through us, and I think maybe this is a good place to start, because -- and in all fairness to the governor, in all fairness to everybody else, FEMA was not on the ball, and we're going to turn it all around. Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A lot of Americans think that this is symbolic of what your campaign was all about, America First, putting your priorities to Americans, even going to California where their policies might have been one of the biggest reasons why they've had these problems, but you're putting American people first. Your thoughts on that.

TRUMP: We are. Thank you. I like that question. Boy, I want more questions like that. That's even a statement. Thank you very much. He is a good man, that guy, and he is also a very professional reporter, I have to say. Thank you very much. Yeah. We're putting America first. We're putting, in this case, North Carolina and California. We're going to do a good job in California. That is a disaster, like I don't know if we've ever seen anything like it, frankly. They say the biggest in the history of California. I think, has anything bigger than that happened in the whole country ever? It looks like -- I don't want to say what it looks like, but you know what I'm going to say. It looks like something hit it, and we won't talk about what hit it, but it is a bad, bad situation.

And I guess I'm going to meet with some government officials. But -- I mean, much more importantly -- and in California, just to revert to it for a second, millions of gallons of water are waiting to be poured down through already the half pipes that are already built. I mean, they've been up for 40 years, and about 20 years ago, they turned off the water, and it's the water that comes from the Pacific Northwest, some of it comes out of Canada, and it flows there, and it probably has flowed there for a million years, and they turned it off, and they routed out to the Pacific.

And in the meantime, you don't have water in the hydrants. You don't have water in the sprinkler system. It's the craziest thing I've ever seen. And everyone is trying to figure out, why aren't they turning it back? They say it's the Delta smelt. It's fish. But, I find that hard to believe, but we'll figure it out. And without doing that, you're going to continue to have problems.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, what are you prepared to do, sir, if OPEC doesn't respond to your call to cut oil prices? TRUMP: Well, we want to see OPEC cut the price of oil, and that will automatically stop the tragedy that's taking place in Ukraine. It's a butchering tragedy for both sides, by the way. Tremendous number of Russian soldiers are dead, tremendous number of Ukrainian soldiers, and a lot of people are dead from the bombing of the cities. But, right now, it's just bullets whacking and hitting men, mostly men, almost in all cases, men, and over a million men are killed, and they're losing thousands of people a week. It's crazy. It's a crazy war, and it never would have happened if I was President. It would never have happened. This is crazy that it happened, but we want to stop it.

Now, one way to stop it quickly is for OPEC to stop making so much money and to drop the price of oil, because they have it nice and high, and if you have it high, that war is not going to end so easily. So, OPEC ought to get on the ball, and they ought to drop the price of oil, and that war will stop right away.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, what about funding to Los Angeles because of its sanctuary city policy?

TRUMP: I want to see two things in Los Angeles, voter ID, so that the people have a chance to vote, and I want to see the water be released and come down into Los Angeles and throughout the state. Those are the two things. After that, I will be the greatest President that California has ever seen.

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I want the water to come down and come down to Los Angeles, and also go out to all the farmland that's barren and dry. They have land that they say is the equivalent of the land in Iowa, which is about as good as there is anywhere on Earth. The problem is it's artificial, because they artificially stopped the water from going onto the land. So, I want two things. I want voter ID for the people of California, and they all want it right now. You have no -- you don't have voter ID. People want to have voter identification. You want to have proof of citizenship. Ideally, you have one-day voting, but I just want voter IDs to start, and I want the water to be released, and they're going to get a lot of help from the U.S.

Thank you very much. I'll see you later. We'll see you at the site. We'll see you at the site.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tell us more about the people who are taking the flights? Where are they going from, and really where are they going to?

SOLOMON: All right. We've just been listening to U.S. President Donald Trump there speaking just moments after he deplanes in Asheville, North Carolina. This is his first trip since being elected President -- since being inaugurated as President on Monday. A few things he said. He said there is a massive amount of damage. I don't know if it's Biden's fault. And then later he said, well, he is actually very disappointed in the Biden administration. He slammed FEMA. He blamed FEMA, in fact. He said that there is a massive amount of damage on the ground, and just a reminder that Hurricane Helene happened in late September, so a few months ago at this point, but he said there is still a massive amount of damage. There is still a massive amount of debris, and he said we're going to get it done as quickly as it can.

As I mentioned just a moment ago, this is his first trip as President, his second term, of course, but he said it's so interesting because everyone is talking about California, and that's a mess, but I'm not going to California until I go to North Carolina, perhaps hinting at some of the political differences between the state of North Carolina, which tends to be a swing state. It can vote either Democratic or Republican in the presidential elections, versus a state like California, which is obviously a solidly blue state, but it is a state that is reeling right now from those wildfires.

And to that end, I want to go to my colleague Julia Vargas Jones, who joins us from Altadena, California. Julia, as we continue to look at these pictures of the President, just give us a sense of what he is going to see on the ground there when he makes his trip out west.

JULIA VARGAS JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Rahel, we still have fire burning -- fires burning across Los Angeles and Southern California and San Diego as well. But, here in Los Angeles, the Hughes Fire at 10,000 acres in 48 hours, more than 16,000 residents evacuated from their homes, now another almost 40,000 people now under those evacuation warnings.

Here in Altadena, though, the city is preparing for rain that is coming in the coming days. You can probably see the heavy equipment going up the hill from here. This is where the Eaton Fire burned to the side of the hill in the San Gabriel Mountains just above Altadena. The fire ran down these hills and into these neighborhoods. They are trying to prevent water from doing the same, not just 250,000 sandbags distributed across this area of Los Angeles, as well as these heavy machinery making essentially trenches for the water to not reach these neighborhoods. If it does, it's not just mudslides. It's all of the toxic waste that is still in this area from the fire that could potentially be draining down into -- further into the neighborhood and into the city.

Take a listen to what one of the city officials said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LISA DERDERIAN, SPOKESPERSON, CITY OF PASADENA: This fire burned two feet into the root system on these foothills. There is nothing left holding the soil in place. So, even one drop of rain will come down seven times faster than it typically would have prior to this fire.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JONES: And authorities are warning people who are in these areas, Rahel, to turn off their utilities and not be home if they don't have to. But, the hope is that the rain, it does not hit as hard and come slowly to help with the containment of those fires.

SOLOMON: Yeah. That could obviously be a whole different problem for the folks there. And Julia, as you laid out there, what the President will see in terms of the landscape, in terms of the damage, give us a sense of what he might experience in terms of the political reception he may receive. It's obviously no surprise that he and the governor, Democrat Gavin Newsom, have had words. No surprise that his former opponent, Kamala Harris, is from California. It is a very different state. But, what do we know about how lawmakers there are preparing to receive him?

JONES: Well, we just heard from him too, right, Rahel, saying this is -- I've never seen anything like it. It's a very, very bad situation, and hinting also at those conditions that he said that he would impose if FEMA -- for FEMA aid in this state of his opponents.

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One of them, he said, I want to see voter ID laws and the millions of gallons of water released to Southern California. He is hinting at something that he said before, that there is water in Northern California that should be released to Southern California. He said that Gavin Newsom was trying to protect a species of fish in Southern California, Northern California, and that's why water didn't come. That, of course, the governor has said is not true.

The governor also saying that he didn't have any communications from the White House on this trip. We know that Trump is expected to survey the area, but the President -- the governor said he did not know, but he was glad that the President was coming here, that he accepted his invitation and that he would welcome him. The governor did release, Rahel, already $2.5 billion for both recovery and continuing fighting of these fires. So, that's state funds that are going to be coming into Southern California for this.

But, of course, the rebuilding efforts will cost so much more, and he will depend on the President for those funds to reach Californians who need it badly. We know they have worked together before, back in 2018 with different fires and other, basically, weather events that hit California. We had so many in his tenure as governor. So, we'll see if he can do that again this time.

SOLOMON: Yeah. Certainly a lot to watch. Julia, thank you. We appreciate you being there in Altadena.

Now, let me get to my colleague Jeff Zeleny, who is in Asheville, North Carolina, which is where the President is. Jeff, great to have you. Give us a sense of what he will see on the ground there, as he visits sites like those behind you.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF U.S. NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Rahel, President Trump, as you know, is on the ground here, and he is making his first trip before going out to California. But, he has been blaming Democrats. He said the Biden administration abandoned the people of North Carolina, which, of course, is not the full picture here, but there have been some issues about FEMA, about FEMA funding, disaster relief, housing relief, etc. So, now this is going to be part of the disaster package that, of course, California will be front and center in, but North Carolina and other areas still impacted by that hurricane from last fall are also going to be part of.

So, the President will be briefed in a short period of time by local officials as well as members of Congress from here in North Carolina. Then he will be looking at some facilities and talking to some family members who are still in need here. But again, this is part of the sort of balancing out his California visit later today by stopping here in North Carolina, a red state, of course, that he won. But again, politics is not front and center in any disaster relief story. However, the President is making sure to stop here before, of course, going out west today. Rahel.

SOLOMON: Yeah, a state that he won, not only this election, but also the previous two elections.

Jeff Zeleny, we appreciate you. Thank you --

ZELENY: Right.

SOLOMON: -- live for us there in Asheville, North Carolina.

And still ahead for us, Israelis gather at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv as Hamas releases the names of four more hostages it says will be freed tomorrow. We will have a live report from Israel. And later in the show, a look at the first week of President Trump's second term with CNN's Michael Smerconish. We'll be right back.

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[11:25:00]

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SOLOMON: Now to some breaking news from the Middle East. Hamas has just published the names of four Israeli hostages it plans to release tomorrow as part of the Gaza ceasefire agreement.

Let's get right to our Bianna Golodryga, who is in Tel Aviv with the details. Bianna, give us a sense of what more we know about these four hostages.

BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN SENIOR GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, Rahel, there has been a bit of a snag in the terms agreed to between Hamas and Israel regarding the ceasefire-hostage deal. This was expected to be the second round of hostages that were to be released tomorrow afternoon, local time here, 04:00 p.m., and Hamas has just released the names of four IDF female observers, out of five, who are currently held hostage in Gaza. Now, herein lies the snag. Israel was expecting that the remaining female civilian hostages would be included in the first round of deals. And given that, we know that there are two female civilian hostages that remain in Gaza right now. And there is a question, given that these names have already been floated out there. We are not publishing the names of these four IDF observers just yet.

But, the Prime Minister's Office has those lists of names, and here is the statement that they put out. "A list for the release of hostages has been received through the mediators. Israel's response will be provided later." And the question here is, what does this mean about the fate of those two female civilian hostages, Arbel Yehud, a 29- year-old who had been kidnapped from her kibbutz near Oz on October 7, 2003, was widely expected to be part of these early releases. The fact that her name is not on this list. Shiri Bibas is the other of the two female civilian hostages that remain in Gaza, and it's created quite a really twisted Sophie's Choice dilemma here in Israel, given that the public knows that these names are out there, though the government hasn't officially posted them.

I spoke with two of the mothers. I've spoken with them frequently throughout the last 15 months, of those female IDF spotters on the anniversary, on October 7th of 2024, as they were continuing to press the world, their government mediators for the release of their daughters. Here is what they told me just a few months ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AYELET LEVY SHACHAR, MOTHER OF NAAMA LEVY: We are hoping, hoping that they are together there and helping each other survive, and keeping the faith for each other and being strong for one another, and we're trying to be strong for one another here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GOLODRYGA: And Rahel, that was Ayelet Levy Shachar, who is the mother of Naama Levy, 20-years-old, sitting with the mother of Liri Albag. These are two of the five female IDF observers who are currently held hostage in Gaza. And as we noted, we are still waiting to see how Israel will respond to this list that Hamas has clearly broken or violated the agreement in terms of who would be released tomorrow. The consequences of that are yet to be determined, and whether, in exchange, then Hamas would be receiving the 50 prisoners, the Palestinian prisoners that they had agreed to in exchange for the female IDF observers. Remember, it was 50 for the female IDF observers, and 30 for the Israeli female civilians.

SOLOMON: OK. So, clearly, a lot of questions with perhaps really significant implications.

Bianna Golodryga live for us in Tel Aviv. Bianna, thank you.

And the ceasefire is allowing Palestinians in Gaza to begin returning to what's left of their homes. But, for so many families, the agony is far from over. Gaza's Health Ministry says that some 10,000 people are still missing, many believed to be buried under the rubble.

CNN's Jeremy Diamond has more, and we do want to warn you that his report contains some disturbing scenes.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Amid the rubble of an Israeli airstrike, a small hand reaches out and grips the air. We're coming, son, we're coming, one man promises, as he and the other sifting through the rubble quicken their pace. But, it is the boy who clears the last remaining stones from his face, revealing an eye and a mouth gasping for air.

[11:30:00]

Spit, son, spit, one man tells him, as he surfaces with bits of stone and soot. Three-year-old Assad Khalifa (ph) is one of the last survivors of Israel's unrelenting bombardment of the Gaza Strip. He is also one of its last victims. Less than 24 hours after Israel and Hamas reached the ceasefire agreement, but before it went into effect, Assad became an orphan. His mother and father were killed in the same strike. So was his younger sister, her lifeless body recovered by the same men who rescued Assad. One man checks her pulse, confirming what is already evil (ph) and obvious.

In a statement, the Israeli military said it struck terror infrastructure where a commander in the Hamas terrorist organization was present. The terrorist was responsible for many rocket attacks. The IDF said it, quote, "took intelligence measures to mitigate harm to uninvolved individuals." More than 140 Palestinians were killed in the four tragic days between the announcement of the ceasefire deal and when it became a reality.

But, even if this six-week ceasefire turns into an enduring truce, they will not be this war's last victims. 13-year-old Zakaria was shot on the second day of the ceasefire. His relatives and doctors at Nasser Hospital say he was killed by Israeli fire. He is one of at least four Palestinians who have allegedly been shot by Israeli forces in Gaza since the ceasefire went into effect. My son is dead, his mother cries. He was just trying to get a piece of bread to eat. He went looking for wood to burn for cooking. What did he do to deserve to be killed? The Israeli military said it is unaware of the incident, but has warned Palestinians against approaching areas where Israeli troops are still stationed in Gaza, publishing this map outlining no- go zones where Palestinians could be shot if they enter.

But, the reality on the ground is far more complicated. Would a child know if an area is forbidden to enter or not? His uncle asks. The soldiers saw him. They deliberately shot a child. They saw him trying to pick up pieces of wood so he could bring back to his parents to cook food. Why did you have to kill him? Remove him from the area if you have to, but why kill him.

Back in northern Gaza, little Assad and his parents should be enjoying the first days of the ceasefire. His parents had been preparing to reunite with family displaced in southern Gaza. They were excited and happy in discussing how to reunite with the rest of the family, Mutasim (ph), the family's neighbor, says, but an Israeli airstrike killed their dreams. Mutasim's sister, Muwada (ph), had received a celebratory text message from Assad's mother hours after the ceasefire was announced. Moments later, she was killed. She says, I was so shocked. She says she will raise Assad alongside her children for as long as needed. We will try, she says, but we will not be able to replace his mother or bring her back.

Jeremy Diamond, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE) (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:35:00]

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SOLOMON: Welcome back. Let's return to President Trump in North Carolina. He is here to survey areas still struggling after Hurricane Helene back in September. Let's take a listen.

TRUMP: Michael Whatley has been great, and your congressmen have been great. And what we thought we'd do is take a quick look around. First, we want to do this. I want to say that we're very disappointed in FEMA. Your new governor, it's not his fault. He is brand new to the whole situation, but we're going to work together with the governor. We're going to work together with the senators, but really we're going to work a lot with your congressmen, especially the three that are in the area, and Michael Whatley. And I'd like to put Michael in charge of making sure everything goes well.

And Franklin Graham has been unbelievable. We've made a big contribution to Franklin and will continue to do so, but I've been hearing nothing but praise for the job that Samaritan's Purse has done with Franklin, and we appreciate it. Where is Franklin? He is around here, someplace, and a good-looking guy. He has always been a good- looking guy. His father was a good-looking guy too, I'll tell you. We loved his father, right? I saw his father in the latter years, and I said, well, he doesn't have long to go. He was having a hard time, and he lived about three, four years after that. Right? He was -- they call -- they say it was good stock. We had the ultimate good stock.

But, I want to thank you, Franklin. You were -- you've been fantastic here. And everywhere he goes, he is always the first one I see. There is -- people don't realize it how good it is. A lot of people that go, well, maybe it's the people that he has got, and you guys know, because you're here, but the people that he has got have done amazing work.

So, I just want to thank everybody. We're going to get over and take a look. We'll say a few words. I want to just -- I do want to introduce some of the people that we have, and our First Lady -- we will start with our First Lady. She wanted to be here because of North Carolina, and then I said, well, you can do that, but you're going to have to come to California too, and she said, that's OK. And we got to fix that one up too. That's -- do you ever see anything like that one? It's -- who would have thought that could have happened.

So, Governor Josh Stein, thank you very much. We appreciate it, and we're going to have a very long and good relationship. Representatives, maybe stand up, if you would so we -- press can see. Representatives Chuck Edwards, Chuck, thank you. Thank you, Chuck. Tim Moore. Virginia, you know Virginia Foxx, a legend. She is such a powerful woman. Pat Harrigan. Pat, thank you very much. Your agriculture commissioner, who I hear is excellent, Steve Troxler, Steve, thank you very much. Good job, Steve. You got plenty to do, right? More than you ever thought. North Carolina Speaker Destin Hall. Thank you, Destin. Thanks, Destin.

Very good. House Majority Leader Brenden Jones. Brenden, thank you very much. We're making progress, Brenden. State representatives Dudley Greene, Karl Gillespie, thank you very much, fellas. Good. Good. Thank you very much. State senators Kevin Corbin, Warren Daniel, thank you. Thank you very much, Kevin, Warren. And county commissioner Jennifer Best, thank you, Jennifer. Thank you.

So, Hurricane Helene was one of the worst natural disasters in American history. It was far worse than it was even billed. I have never seen such water damage. There is largely water damage, wind damage, but water damage nobody has ever seen.

[11:40:00]

I've been here, as you know, numerous times, but now I'm here in a position where we can do something, meaning I've been in office for four days, and I wanted to come sooner, but actually, they had a little problem with getting logistically in here, but I would have been here even sooner. 104 North Carolinians have -- at least have lost their lives. Is that now a fairly firm number? Are they still finding people? What do you think? They're still finding people? Pretty much OK. It's a lot of people. 104 people lost their lives. 73,000 homes were severely damaged or destroyed.

And I'll tell you, I've been to a lot of them, and this was like lots of hurricanes in one. I've never seen such damage done by water. And the water came, it was violent, and it left, and there was like nothing left. It's really pretty amazing. At one point, half of the emergency calls to FEMA went unanswered. That's real bad. FEMA was not doing their job. The city of Asheville went without running water for two months. A whistleblower testified that some FEMA employees refused to help people who displayed Trump signs on their properties. I think that's true, isn't it? I read. It's not nice. It's not too nice, is it?

But, whoever those property people were, thank you very much. Michael, is that true? That's not good about the property owners. You put a Trump sign and they wouldn't help, FEMA. Earlier this year, FEMA kicked 2,000 North Carolinians out of their temporary housing into below freezing temperatures. What was that all about? Is that -- you know about that? What happened? Tell me.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We had an incompetent administration under Biden, and we had a disaster, and that we call it the disaster after the disaster. That was the FEMA response.

TRUMP: You had nothing but disaster since then. It doesn't matter at this point. Biden did a bad job. Some residents still don't have hot water, drinking water, or anything else, and many of them don't have quarters. They don't have anything. They got a stipend for what they lost, and we're going to take care of it. This is totally unacceptable, and then I'll be taking strong action to get North Carolina the support that you need to quickly recover and rebuild. We're working on it very hard, and I think if Michael Whatley does half as good a job for North Carolina as he did for my campaign, we'll be very happy. Him and Laura were a very powerful team. So, you think you can handle it, Michael? I don't know. I'm not sure, Michael.

I think this is maybe in many ways easier. OK? Maybe easier. But, you're going to lead the team. If you want to say who the congressmen are that you want to appoint? You want to introduce them?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have Virginia Foxx, Chuck Edwards and Tim Moore (inaudible).

TRUMP: And they are the districts that were most severely impacted, right? You were affected then, Virginia?

REP. VIRGINIA FOXX (R-NC): Yes. Lost my own fire truck.

TRUMP: Really? I'll also be signing an executive order to begin the process of fundamentally reforming and overhauling FEMA, or maybe getting rid of FEMA. I think, frankly, FEMA is not good.

I think when you have a problem like this, I think you want to go and whether it's a Democrat or a Republican governor, you want to use your state to fix it and not waste time calling FEMA, and then FEMA gets here, and they don't know the area. They've never been to the area, and they want to give you rules that you've never heard about. They want to bring people that aren't as good as the people you already have. And FEMA has turned out to be a disaster. And you could go back a long way. You could go back to Louisiana. You could go back to some of the things that took place in Texas. It turns out to be the state that ends up doing the work. It just complicates it.

I think we're going to recommend that FEMA go away, and we pay directly. We pay a percentage to the state, but the state should fix this. If the state did this from the beginning, it would have been a lot better situation. I think you guys agree with that, right?

So, I just want to tell that -- say that Asheville, I know it well. It's a great place. So, we're going to have it be a great place again. That was the one that was most severely affected. But, North Carolina is going to come back bigger, better, stronger than ever before, and you're going to be very thankful. And you've already seen. I know that it really began four days ago, but you've already seen more action than you have in the last three months, and we're going to get it together. We're informing the Army Corps of Engineers to get going, because you have a lot of river breaks and a lot of areas that you're going to need some pretty big work, and they're on their way. They're going to be working very much harder than they've been working in the past, and we're going to take care of it.

[11:45:00]

Any questions from the press, of any of the congressmen, governor, anybody?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, are you going to sign an executive order on FEMA to get rid of it? Can you say more about signing executive order to get rid of FEMA, please?

TRUMP: FEMA has been a very big disappointment. They cost a tremendous amount of money. It's very bureaucratic, and it's very slow. Other than that, we're very happy with them. OK? And I think it's -- I think when there is a problem with the state, I think that that problem should be taken care of by the state. That's what we have states for. They take care of problems, and a governor can handle something very quickly.

One of the things I've noticed, because I've been doing this for a while, and we had a pretty good FEMA, but I also noticed that when they come, they end up in arguments. They're fighting all the time over who does what. It's just -- it's just not a good system. This system is so beautifully designed, over 250 years approximately, and we'll soon be celebrating the 250th year. It's going to be a very big celebration, but it's been designed very well, and we're going to leave it that way.

When North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Tennessee, when everybody knows the governor of Tennessee, I think, everybody. Do you know everybody here? Pretty much? I never thought of it, but you're right over the ridge.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right over the ridge.

TRUMP: So, you're here to help. That's great.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The people in this region, including Tennessee, the people of Appalachia, are grateful that you are here and you haven't forgotten them.

TRUMP: Yeah.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are other disasters, but this one was enormous for both North Carolina and Tennessee. So, thank you.

TRUMP: I've seen a lot of disasters, and this -- when I came -- I came here right after the day after, and when I came here, I couldn't believe it, actually. I couldn't believe the damage. And I've seen a lot of them. This was more like a tornado than it was what we witnessed. So, we're going to get it very much taken care of. Good job. That's nice that you came. And so, you call it right -- you're right over the ridge, right? Tennessee. I like Tennessee too. Let's see. Where did I get more votes? Tennessee or North Carolina? I hate to tell you North Carolina. It was Tennessee.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is one of the counties in this disaster that had 88 percent for you. So --

TRUMP: 88 percent. Yeah. The people are just incredible people.

So, you have any questions, Press?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, you talk about conditions being placed on aid to California voter ID and the like. Are there any conditions that you're going to put on aid to North Carolina?

TRUMP: We can do a lot for North Carolina. They've been very slow. I don't know why it's been so bad. This has been one of the worst I've seen. Katrina, of course, was something that, obviously, that was a long time ago, that was not good. But, this has been very slow. I don't know if that was for political reasons, because they lost the state. Biden lost the state. Maybe he felt he doesn't care. Maybe there were other reasons. I don't know. But, this has been very slow. By any standard, this has been very slow. And we're going to make up for lost time.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What conditions you're going to push for aid?

TRUMP: Well, in California, I have a condition. In California, we want them to have voter ID so the people have a voice, because right now, the people don't have a voice because you don't know who is voting, and it's very corrupt. And we also want them to release the water. If they release the water, they wouldn't have had a problem. If they released the water when I told them to, because I told them to do it seven years ago, if they would have done it, you wouldn't have had the problem that you had. You might not have even had a fire.

So -- but, here, I don't have that. It's a different thing. You got hit by a storm. The people are incredible. They worked really well. Franklin was fantastic. And other groups -- by the way, other groups came in that were also fantastic, and other states came in, Tennessee, and a couple of others came in, and they really helped. That's the way it's supposed to be. No. This is a different kind of a thing.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, have you decided how much funding you would outlay for disaster relief?

TRUMP: About what?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Have you decided how much funding you would outlay for disaster relief?

TRUMP: I haven't decided to see what it is.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you disappointed that Senator Schiff hasn't joined you on this trip? It's reported you invited Senator Schiff to join you on this trip, and he was too busy. Are you disappointed?

TRUMP: I don't know. I was told that Schiff was going to travel with us to California. I wasn't thrilled, to be honest with you, and I saw him last night on television. It looks like he got hit with a baseball bat or something. What happened to him? Something happened to him. It was -- it looked like he had a hit. It looked like he got beat around, but I'll ask Caroline to find out what happened to him. No, if he wanted to come out, I would have done that, but I don't know. Somebody said that he wanted to come on the plane, but I think he is staying back for the votes.

[11:50:00]

There are some pretty good votes going on. Yeah.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, what is your timeline for getting rid of FEMA?

TRUMP: For the -- for this one? For this one? Well --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You just talked about possibly getting rid of FEMA. What timeline are you looking at, and how would you do that?

TRUMP: Well, we're looking here, here you're talking about, to start? We're going to start immediately, timeline, and to finish, it's going to be a period of time. People are also rebuilding their houses. How long does it take to build a house? Right? It takes a time. And I want them to build houses bigger, better, nicer than they had before, so they can have -- they get something out of this disaster. This was a real disaster. No, timeline will be fast. In terms of infrastructure, I think very fast.

I want to thank Elon, because Elon was able to get us communication systems, as you know, Starlink. We had no communication. The first day I got here, I was asked by one of the people, one of the really great representatives professionals that, is there any way you could get Starlink here, because they had no communication whatsoever? And I called up Elon Musk, and he had hundreds of units brought here, like, brought immediately, and it's hard to get. They couldn't get them before, and that made a lot of difference. I think it saved a lot of lives, actually. Yeah, Infrastructure-wise, we'll do it quickly.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sir, can you just talk about how long you might -- you think it might take to get rid of FEMA with the timeline on that, if you're going to roll it back?

TRUMP: Yeah. I would say -- look, as far as I'm concerned, I'm not really thinking about FEMA right now here. I'm thinking about Michael Whatley, and I'm thinking about the three Congress people that you just heard from, and also the other people in Congress, and they'll be working with the governor. They'll be working with the governor. So, that's what I see.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'll change the subject real quickly. The Laken Riley Act was signed by Mike -- Speaker Johnson yesterday.

TRUMP: Right.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When do you anticipate to sign that into law?

TRUMP: Well, honored by that. Laken Riley, I was there at the time, and we had a big meeting with her parents right after that horrible thing took place. And we have an act. You all know what that act represents, and it was a bipartisan bill. Many Democrats signed on to it. That's something that is a tribute to Laken, a beautiful young lady who was killed viciously by an illegal alien, and we passed a very powerful bill, and it was just approved, and we'll have a ceremony sometime, very shortly. I'll be signing it. In other words, if you're asking -- I will definitely be signing it. OK? Yeah.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, the security detail for Anthony Fauci was terminated last night, and I'm wondering if you have any comment on that. TRUMP: About what?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The security detail for Anthony Fauci was terminated last night, sir. Do you have a comment?

TRUMP: No. I think when you work for government, at some point your security detail comes off, and you can't have them forever. So, I think it's very standard. If it would be for somebody else, you wouldn't be asking the question. The question is very fair. But, you work for government. We took some off, other people too, but you can't have a security detail for the rest of your life because you worked for government.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Inaudible)

TRUMP: We'll see what happens.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Would you be partially responsible if something would have happened to say, Dr. Fauci or John Bolton?

TRUMP: No. No. They all made a lot of money. They can hire their own security too. All the people you're talking about, they can go out. I can give them some good numbers of very good security people. They can hire their own security. They all made a lot of money. Fauci made a lot of money. They all did. So, if they felt that strongly, I think that certainly I would not take responsibility.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And North Carolina is the state that relies on trade and manufacturing. Are you going to have an announcement on new tariffs coming soon? Is there a timeline now?

TRUMP: Yeah. The tariffs are going to make our country rich. We're going to be a rich, rich country very soon. Tariffs are going to make it rich in competence. We have common sense, competence and tariffs. The word tariff is one of the most beautiful words in the dictionary.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jonathan Reynolds, the Business Secretary of the United Kingdom, said that there is an even trade between the U.S. and the UK. So, they shouldn't have tariffs. Does trade imbalances or a balanced trade affect tariffs in your decisions?

TRUMP: Yeah. Unbalanced and balanced, and also deficits. Like, with Canada, we lose $200 billion a year with Canada. That's because we allow them to make cars. We allow them to take lumber. We don't need their cars. We don't need their lumber. We don't need their food products, because we make the same products right on the other side of the border. It's sort of crazy. So, we've just allowed that. Bad management has allowed it over the last four years, in particular, to become very imbalanced.

[11:55:00]

And I said to -- I call him Governor Trudeau, but he is Prime Minister Trudeau when he was Prime Minister, I asked him, why would we do that? Why? And he was unable to give me an answer. He said, I don't know. And I said, you think it's fair that we're paying $200 billion to keep Canada going? And what would happen, I said. I asked him, what would happen if we didn't do that, if we didn't subsidize Canada? He said, it would be a failed nation. And I said, then you should be a state, because why are we paying all of that money to Canada when you know we could use it ourselves, right? So, we take care of their military.

We ordered -- we're going to order about 40 Coast Guard big ice breakers, big ones, and all of a sudden, Canada wants a piece of the deal. I said, why are we doing that? I mean, I like doing that if they're a state, but I don't like doing that if they're a nation. Also, they've been very nasty to us on trade. Historically, Canada has been very, very bad, to us, very unfair to us on trade. So, we'll see how it all works out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The United Kingdom --

TRUMP: I would love to see Canada be the 51st state. The Canadian citizens, if that happened, would get a very big tax cut, a tremendous tax cut, because they're very highly taxed. And you wouldn't have to worry about military. You wouldn't have to worry about many of the things. You'd have better health coverage. You'd have much better health coverage. So, I think the people of Canada would like it, if it's explained. But, just to start off, they'd have a very -- they'd have a massive tax cut, and they'd have a lot more business, because then it would let business go to Canada routinely, and there'd be no tariffs. If we did that, there'd be no tariffs.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So United Kingdom might be in a better spot then.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Reverend Franklin Graham has been a great asset to the state. Talk a little bit about the way Samaritan Purse has helped North Carolina.

TRUMP: Yes. Once again, the --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Reverend Franklin Graham has been a big part of Samaritan Purse and their aid to North Carolina. So, I want to get your thoughts on that.

TRUMP: Well, Franklin Graham has been a big asset to the state. His father was a big asset to the state, to the country, both of them. I just think this. I think Franklin and other people that are doing what Franklin have done, but -- I've known Franklin so long. He was at the inauguration. He made a speech, a beautiful speech, a beautiful prayer. He just -- he does a great job. And we gave -- we made a big donation, and it was money well spent. Sometimes you make donations, it's not well spent. He has done a great job here. He has done a really great job.

So, I want to thank you. We're going to the site now, and one of the sites, and will -- I think you'll -- for those that haven't seen it, you won't even believe it, but not enough work was done. We'll get it done fast. And I can speak for the Republican congressman. We're going to knock it out, right? We're going to knock it out. And I think we take it very personally, because it was -- North Carolina was very unfairly treated, very, very unfairly treated, and it was obvious. It was too obvious, and we're going to make up for the lost time. So, thank you to the people of North Carolina. Thank you, everybody.

RAHEL SOLOMON, HOST, "ONE WORLD": All right. We have just been listening to U.S. President Donald Trump on his visit to disaster recovery zones in North Carolina.

Live from New York, I'm Rahel Solomon. This is One World.

Let's recap a little of what we just heard from the President there. He is in Fletcher, North Carolina. That is an area that's about 15 to 20 miles south of Asheville, which is where he first came in. That's where we first heard him speak at the top of the 11 o'clock hour. He is there to survey the damage from Hurricane Helene, which is the worst hurricane to hit U.S. mainland since Hurricane Katrina, which was in about 2005. The death toll in that state, the highest among the states. It was about 105 -- 106 people who lost their lives. There is clearly still a lot of damage on the ground there. There is clearly still a lot of debris on the ground there.

A few things we heard from the President. He said he prioritized getting to North Carolina as soon as he could, in terms of as soon as he was inaugurated. He said he will work to get help as soon as they can. He, yet again, blasted FEMA, real questions about the future of FEMA after his comments both now and also at the top of the hour. He said FEMA did a bad job. He blasted Biden. He was asked about a potential executive order to dismantle FEMA. He said he is not working on that right now. He is working on North Carolina. But, what it sounds like is that he will be leaning on local officials as opposed to FEMA. He said, FEMA comes in. They don't know where they're going. He said they're bureaucratic. He said they're very slow. Costs a lot of money.

So, again, a lot of questions about FEMA this afternoon, in response to these comments from the President. He is there surrounded by local government officials in the state of North Carolina. North Carolina, just to give you a sense, is a state that tends to be read, but at times, during presidential elections, has gone blue. So, you might call it a swing state, but it has voted for President Trump the last three elections, and he said earlier --