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CNN This Morning
Today: Congress Convenes to Certify 2024 Election Results; Trump Demands 'One Big, Beautiful Bill' to Pass Agenda. Aired 6-6:30a ET
Aired January 06, 2025 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: It's Monday, January 6th. Right now on CNN THIS MORNING.
[06:00:02]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: And we fight. We fight like hell.
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HUNT: A return to power on the anniversary of the day his supporters stormed the Capitol. Congress will convene to certify Donald Trump's election victory.
Plus --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA): President Trump is going to prefer, as he likes to say, one, big, beautiful bill.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: An ambitious agenda. Republicans have big plans for Donald Trump's first 100 days in office. With their slim majority, it's going to be a major undertaking.
And then --
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's accumulating crazy fast.
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HUNT: A winter wallop. The monster snowstorm that could bring the heaviest snowfall in a decade to some areas.
And later, stepping down. This just in, Canadian media reports Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is expected to resign just months before an election that he's widely predicted to lose. All right. It's 6 a.m. here on the East Coast. A live look at a very
snowy Capitol Hill. Most people are staying home today in the nation's capital, but not Congress. They're expected to show up to work today. It's a pretty important day up there.
Good morning, everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us.
January 6th. In just hours, Congress will meet to certify Donald Trump's victory in the 2024 election. This, a final step in cementing a stunning political comeback.
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TRUMP: We will never give up. We will never concede. It doesn't happen. You don't concede when there's theft involved.
All Vice President Pence has to do is send it back to the states to recertify, and we become president, and you are the happiest people.
Everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.
And we fight. We fight like hell. And if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Four years ago today, following a decisive loss to Joe Biden, then-President Donald Trump stood in front of the White House, urging his supporters and Vice President Mike Pence to overturn the will of the American people.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As you can see ahead, we have stormed the Capitol. We have -- to the steps of the Capitol, to the very top. It looks like we're trying to breach the Capitol building.
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HUNT: Following Trump's remarks that we just watched, his supporters did march to Capitol Hill. They pushed through barricades. They climbed the walls. They attacked police officers who were trying to protect the lawmakers inside.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're trying to hold the upper deck. We are trying to hold the upper deck now. We need to hold the doors of the Capitol.
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HUNT: Overwhelmed, those officers were unable to prevent the mob from forcing their way inside, as some began to search for lawmakers that they said they wanted to kill. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hang Mike Pence! Hang Mike Pence! Hang Mike Pence!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hang Mike Pence! Hang Mike Pence! Hang Mike Pence!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hang Mike Pence! Hang Mike Pence! Hang Mike Pence!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: The counting of electoral votes was paused as lawmakers from both parties fled, or barricaded themselves inside secure locations.
Vice President Pence was taken to a loading dock, but he refused to leave the building. Cassidy Hutchinson, a top aide to then chief of staff Mark Meadows, later testifying that Meadows said that Trump, quote, "thinks Mike deserves it. He doesn't think they're doing anything wrong."
In the violence that day, one rioter was killed by police defending the House chamber. Three others in the crowd also died. One Capitol police officer who was attacked died the next day.
And a number of other law enforcement officers would die by suicide in the months that followed. At the time, top Republicans in Congress blamed one man.
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SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): All I can say is count me out. Enough is enough.
KEVIN MCCARTHY (R), FORMER CALIFORNIA REPRESENTATIVE: The president bears responsibility for Wednesday's attack on Congress by mob rioters. He should have immediately denounced the mob when he saw what was unfolding.
SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): There's no question, none, that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day. No question about it.
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HUNT: In the four years since that day, Donald Trump has repeatedly downplayed the violence and has said he'll pardon some of the rioters, including some who pleaded guilty.
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TRUMP: January 6th was the largest crowd I've ever spoken to, and that was because they thought the election was rigged. And they were there proud. They were there with love in their heart. That was an unbelievable, and it was a beautiful day.
That was a day of love from the standpoint of the millions.
It was love and peace. And some people went to the Capitol, and a lot of strange things happened there.
But you had a peaceful, very peaceful -- I left. I left the morning that I was supposed to leave.
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[06:05:06]
HUNT: Now, as Trump prepares to once again take the oath of office on the Capitol steps, President Biden is urging Americans to resist efforts to rewrite the history of that day.
He writes this in an op-ed published last night, quote, "We should commit to remembering January 6th, 2021, every year, to remember it as a day when our democracy was put to the test and prevailed. To remember that democracy -- even in America -- is never guaranteed."
Throughout the election, Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris both repeatedly characterized Trump and his actions on January 6th as a threat to democracy. Biden was asked about those comments yesterday.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you still believe he's a threat to democracy?
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think what he did was a genuine threat to democracy. I'm hopeful that we're beyond that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Today, Harris becomes the first vice president since Al Gore to certify their own defeat as a presidential candidate.
Our panel is here: Doug Heye, Republican strategist, former communications director for the RNC; Alex Thompson, CNN political analyst, national political recorder for Axios; Meghan Hays, Democratic strategist and former director of messaging planning from the Biden White House; and Brad Todd, Republican strategist and CNN political commentator.
Welcome to all of you. Good morning. Thank you for being here, especially for -- for braving the snow to make it all the way in today.
Brad, Meghan, what have we learned from what happened on that day? We saw it happen. I was there at the Capitol. And now, the person who -- you know, many Republicans held accountable for that at the time has been re-elected president of the United States.
BRAD TODD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: You know, most Republican voters held Donald Trump accountable for it. That's why Ron DeSantis started out the race almost 20 points ahead of him, by some accounts. That's why he was still ahead of him until Alvin Bragg indicted Donald Trump in New York on what a lot of Republicans thought were trumped-up charges and things that were completely out of bounds and beyond the pale. I mean, this was a factor in the election. It's why Nikki Haley was
polling 20 percent well into the primary season after she's stopped running.
I mean, there are plenty of Republicans who still are not going to forgive Donald Trump for that day, nor probably should they. But I think, when you have to give the American people credit and realize they factored a lot of other things into this election, too.
HUNT: Meghan, how do you explain it?
MEGHAN HAYS, FORMER DIRECTOR OF MESSAGE PLANNING, BIDEN WHITE HOUSE: I don't think you can explain it. I see what you're saying. I just think that we are forgetting and rewriting history, like the president is saying.
You can't call these people -- that they were invited in and call them peaceful, and then say you're going to pardon them. It's a reprehensible day in our history. It's a very dark day in our history. And it is disgusting that we are trying to sweep over it like it didn't happen.
HUNT: Alex, what -- what's your view of this, especially as, I mean, Democrats do seem to be grappling with what to take away from -- I mean, Trump's victory this time was more sweeping than it was in 2016.
ALEX THOMPSON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes. And they're -- if you're a Democrat, you are incredibly frustrated, because you're going to see today that Democrats are going to uphold the peaceful transfer of power. You're going to see them basically do what the Constitution lays out.
Donald Trump tried to upend that. He did not do that four years ago, and the American people still voted for him anyway.
HUNT: Doug, you've -- you're someone who cares a lot about Congress as an institution. You've devoted a lot of your life to service in and around it.
What is the -- the -- you know, in some ways, I'm having a hard time grappling. This is a big-picture thing that we're grappling with, right? I mean, obviously, the results of the election are what they are.
But sitting there that day, it would have been almost impossible to conceive this.
DOUG HEYE, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Well, absolutely. What we saw was so many steps within this campaign that really allowed Donald Trump to reemerge.
For me, I was -- I was watching the first presidential Republican primary debate with a friend. And the first question was, raise your hand if you'd support Donald Trump if he's convicted of a felony. Almost every hand went up. And I turned -- I turned to a friend and said, well, this -- this
primary is over. And the reality is, at that point, it was over. Because you can't effectively campaign against somebody who you'd support if they're convicted of a felony.
And so, what we've seen is, from Kevin McCarthy going down to Mar-a- Lago just after his statements condemning him, is the party bending towards Trump over and over again. And so, part of this, as shocking as it was, was inevitable, as well.
HUNT: Meghan, we heard Hakeem Jeffries, in his speech after Mike Johnson was re-elected speaker of the House, talk about Democrats committing to a peaceful transfer of power. And there does seem to be -- there is significant symbolism in this being a boring event today.
HAY: Yes, absolutely. I mean, you heard the president say it there. We hope we're past this. There are always going to be the statesmen that believe in these institutions. And it's unfortunate the Republican Party does not also believe in these institutions.
They came out so strongly against it, and then they all just back turned, because they're so afraid of Donald Trump. And I just -- I don't understand why. I don't think any of us can quite figure out how we got back to this point.
But I do think that Democrats -- and I do think there are a lot of Republicans who believe in the institution -- these institutions that we have.
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TODD: That's part of how we got here with the institution of Congress, though, happened almost immediately afterward. And Democrats are to blame for that.
Nancy Pelosi refused to allow Republicans to appoint their own members of the January 6th investigation committee. She refused to allow the Republican staff to be hired by Republicans. She refused to allow cross-examination of witnesses.
They -- she decided that, for maximum political leverage, she was going to have a partisan investigation. That's part of what polarized the whole day of January 6th in ways I never would have imagined. And I think you have to put the Democrats on the hook for that.
THOMPSON: I think it's a little bit of whataboutism, though. I think a lot of Republicans on the day thought that Donald Trump broke his oath of office, and it was disqualifying.
And if you believe that, then all this other stuff shouldn't really matter.
What ended up happening is that voters didn't seem to care as much. And lawmakers then eventually, a lot of them that thought that it was disqualifying, ended up just sort of sucking up their concerns. HAYS: And I also think that Democrats in the country and Republicans
in the country aren't following what's happening on the January 6th. They were seeing the big picture. I don't think that they quite knew the nuance to it.
So, I agree that there is something here that we are not quite figuring out as a country, that we -- we need to spend more time investigating. Because it is disgusting that we are back here.
HEYE: We've had a whole lot of bombshell events that ultimately don't resonate with voters. And we refer to so many voters as low- information voters, because they're not consuming whatever has been written or talked about on a given day.
The reality is they're highly informed. They're informed on what they're spending every time they go to the grocery store. They're informed on crime in their neighborhood. And every issue that we report on in a major way, that's what they're focused on.
It's not this event or that event, important though they may be.
THOMPSON: And that gets to Brad's first point, which is that there are a lot of Republican voters that think January 6th was awful but not disqualifying. And they cared about other things rather than January 6th.
HUNT: All right. Coming up here on CNN THIS MORNING, extra precautions. The efforts under way today to ensure that it looks nothing like it did four years ago. Later, Congressman Jake Auchincloss is going to join us live to talk about certifying the 2024 election.
Plus, a mandate with slim majorities. How Republicans plan to push their agenda through.
And snow, wind, and ice. Dangerous travel conditions this Monday morning. Where the massive winter storm is heading next.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I need a waffle, and the streets aren't that bad, because there's nobody on them. There's nothing to hit. If you just go slow, you'll be fine. Because there's nobody dumb enough to be out on the road but me.
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[06:17:03]
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TRUMP: On day one, I will launch the largest deportation program of criminals in American history.
I will sign a historic slate of executive orders to close our order to illegal aliens.
We're going to put the tariffs on your products coming in from China.
When I get to office, we are going to not charge taxes on tips.
I will terminate the green new scam, one of the great scams in history.
We will frack, frack, frack, and drill, baby, drill.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: All of Donald Trump's campaign promises rolled into one bill. That's what the president-elect and his congressional allies are eyeing as they roll out an ambitious agenda for Trump's first 100 days in office.
Trump reiterating in a post last night his desire to pass, quote, "one powerful bill" that would combine legislative priorities, like extending his 2017 tax cuts, his border security plans, and raising the debt limit.
The move will require near unity within the GOP's razor-thin House majority. But after huddling with Trump over the weekend, House Speaker Mike Johnson seemed unphased. He says he's aiming for a vote on the bill in the first week of April.
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JOHNSON: I think at the end of the day, President Trump is going to prefer, as he likes to say, one, big, beautiful bill. And there's a lot of merit to that, because we can put it all together, one big up or down vote, which can save the country -- quite literally -- because there are so many elements to it. And it'll give us a little bit more time to negotiate that and get it right.
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HUNT: All right. So, Brad Todd, the reason we're talking about one bill and why one matters is because, in the Senate, they want to do two. It's all very down in the weeds, but the weeds actually mask important differences between the chambers that could determine whether or not this actually happens.
It seems like they've convinced Trump to do one big reconciliation package. Is that how it's going to go down?
TODD: I think it will. Because I think passing anything in the House is really hard. Because you have people like Tom Massie and Chip Roy, who want to vote no, even on love and puppies.
And so, therefore, I think that attempting to do as much as you can in one bill. And a bill, by the way, that Democrats -- some Democrats who are on the margin say it's going to have a hard thing to vote no on.
I think that's a thing we're not talking enough about enough, is there are a dozen or so Democrats who are in districts Trump carried, and they're going to have to vote to raise taxes on every American who pays taxes. They're going to have to vote to not secure the border. They're going to have to vote for a lot of really unpopular things if they oppose it.
If Mike Johnson is able to do everything popular -- love and puppies -- in one bill, and pull even a handful of Democrats over, then Chip Roy and Tom Massie and the other clowns don't matter.
HUNT: Doug, what do you think?
HEYE: Yes, I think that's right. And ultimately, what Johnson is trying to do is also protect his members. Better to have one sort of bad vote than two sort of bad votes.
It's also easier, potentially, to do that.
The challenge that -- that he faces -- Brad's right; there are Democrats who certainly can support this -- is one of the arguments -- and this is what we saw play out last week -- is the Chip Roys and the Thomas Massies are against one, big, beautiful bill on anything. That's what they talk about omnibus appropriations.
[06:20:03]
They'd also be against two of them. And the reality for this Republican majority is, as you're trying to do these things and you're being told leadership has to change, those members don't want to change.
And they want to go through this process still voting against -- no against every appropriations bill and so forth, and just somehow think that leadership will bend to them.
This is where Trump is going to have to weigh in, too. If this is Donald Trump's Republican Party, it's also his Republican majority.
So, he's not going to just have to make statements and speeches. He's going to have to work the phones on this a lot.
THOMPSON: We can look back at this a year from now, and yesterday could have been one of the most important days of the Trump presidency.
Because the thing is that they are now putting this on -- like, first, we have April. You always pick the over on how long a bill is going to make its way through Congress.
HUNT: Yes.
THOMPSON: By making it bigger, it's going to delay this process.
A lot of people on Capitol Hill were expecting the tax cuts to be done next December. Now, you're trying to get all the tax -- all the tax code all done by the first week of April. It is incredibly complicated. There are a lot of people in the Republican Party that just really
wanted to put points on the board and actually dare Democrats to vote against border and energy stuff, and just keep it confined to that.
Now, you're lumping this all in, and it has a chance to really drag this whole thing out.
HUNT: Yes. Although, really, the reality is, they can't, you know -- they have to do it under reconciliation budget rules so that they can get it through the Senate without a filibuster. That's -- I mean, the reality is kind of meeting the road.
Meghan, do you -- to Brad's point, do you think there will be Democrats who will feel pressure to vote for this?
HAYS: I think there will be, depending on what's in the bill, but I think it's going to be very few people. And I think that the Republicans are learning very quickly that they're going to have to work with these Democrats to get stuff done and, therefore, they are going to have to make compromise.
So, these bills are probably going -- or this bill is probably going to be a little bit more watered down than what Trump would want. Their -- they will have to do things that Democrats want.
HUNT: Yes. I mean and, look, the reality is the farther away we get from -- closer we get to the midterms, farther we get away from the Republican victories this time around, the harder it's going to be for them to do anything at all.
All right. Straight ahead here on CNN THIS MORNING, a snow emergency. Major winter storm bringing potentially historic snowfall to parts of the U.S.
Plus, what's behind the new sense of urgency in confirming Donald Trump's cabinet? Friend of the show Mark McKinnon will be here to discuss.
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[06:26:33]
HUNT: All right. Welcome back.
A brutal winter storm sweeping the nation this morning. Winter weather alerts impacting more than 55 million people from the central U.S. to the East Coast.
This is a live look at a snowy street here in D.C. More than 1,200 flights already canceled this morning, including hundreds of flights in and out of Washington, D.C., as our region prepares for up to 16 inches of snow in some parts.
Oh, good.
Our city's mayor already declaring a snow emergency. Federal offices in D.C. closed today because of snow. The closures will notably not impact Congress. They are set to certify the 2024 election results later today.
For the West, conditions knocking out power for more than 250,000 customers from Missouri to Kentucky.
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BEN GARDNER, TECHNICAL TROOPER, KANSAS HIGHWAY PATROL: There's some really bad conditions out here. There's a lot of snow, significant amount of snow. You can see that. About 2 to 3 inches right now, and it's rapidly coming down, getting worse.
I'm glad to see there's not many vehicles out here. I hope that stays the trend, because you don't want to be out in this time. It's not good. It's better to stay home. Allow road workers, K- DOT people to get the roadways as clear as we can, and let first responders handle those critical calls.
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HUNT: Let's get to our meteorologist, our weatherman, Derek van Dam.
Derek, good morning. Our panel all made it in. I made it in. But everyone else should really stay home if they can, I think.
DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, snow emergency, right? In D.C., schools are canceled. They get that extra day of winter vacation. Good for them.
But take it from this Midwesterner who's no foreigner to snow: this is about as bad as it gets.
This is a video coming out of Kansas. Look at the sheet of ice on the tar there, and then the snow covering over it. That's about as slippery and as dangerous as it comes, right?
And this storm system, even though it's wrapping up across Kansas, it does stretch a good 800 miles from St. Louis to our nation's capital, where winter storm warnings and advisories are firmly in place.
It's that I-70 corridor, Interstate 95, that is going to be really tricky travel conditions, especially on the roads. But also at the airports, as well.
You can see temperatures supportive of snowfall. Somewhere in this live Earth cam is the Lincoln Memorial, I promise you.
And we all remember back in 2016, January 2016, we had Snowzilla in Washington, D.C. That's what they coined it as. Well, I don't think we'll see that much snow, but that's the last time we saw over a foot of snow in D.C.
Some of the high-end probabilities bring a foot of snow in D.C., but I don't think it is likely considering the latest trends in the radar. But nonetheless, an impressive snow system that will bring several
inches of snowfall to the nation's capital and the surrounding areas of Baltimore, also further South.
We can't forget about the ice that is ongoing across parts of Virginia, already knocking over 250,000 customers without power across these several states -- Kasie.
HUNT: Yes. All right.
Derek, unfortunately, I do have to take issue with Snowzilla. I don't think we ever had a Snowzilla. We had a Snowmageddon and a Snowpocalypse --
VAN DAM: Snowzilla.
HUNT: -- I believe.
VAN DAM: Google it. It's there.
HUNT: OK. I believe you. I believe you. I just -- you know, in our little political corners of the universe, we have different names for it. We're terrible at snow. I'll just put that out there.
VAN DAM: I live in the weather world, OK?
HUNT: The city is horrific at snow. So, yes, everyone should stay home.
Derek, thank you.
VAN DAM: Good luck.
HUNT: I really appreciate it.
All right. Coming up, after the break here on CNN THIS MORNING, President Biden reflecting on five decades in politics, giving a small piece of advice to newcomers: Reach across the aisle. Congressman Jake Auchincloss here to discuss, up next.
Plus, New York City's new congestion pricing faces its first big hurdle: Monday morning traffic. Its second test will be Donald Trump.
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JANNO LIEBER, CHAIR AND CEO, NYC METROPOLITAN TRANSPORTATION AUTHORITY: Donald Trump is a New Yorker. His office buildings -- and he still --
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[06:30:00]
