Return to Transcripts main page

CNN This Morning

Trump's Plan To Implement Second-Term Agenda; Foreign Leaders Strike Back After Musk Lashes Out Online; Winter Storm Moves Out, Freezing Temps Move In. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired January 07, 2025 - 05:00   ET

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

[05:00:36]

KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: It's Tuesday, January 7th.

Right now on CNN THIS MORNING:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: We are going to get this mission accomplished.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Mapping out a game plan. With the election now certified, Donald Trump tries to get Republicans in line for his second term agenda. Yeah.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEIR STARMER, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: I'm prepared to call out this for what it is.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Going global. Leaders overseas push back against Elon Musk, as he tries to exert his influence on the world stage.

And on defense. Donald Trump aims to block the release of Jack Smith's final special counsel report from the public.

(MUSIC)

HUNT: All right, 5:00 a.m. here on the East Coast, a live look at the U.S. Capitol on this Tuesday morning.

Good morning, everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us.

In just two weeks, Donald Trump will take the presidential oath of office once again. And he has already started to strategize about how to implement his second term agenda. Part of that plan is getting the Republican held Congress to pass a single, massive bill that could include everything from new immigration laws to a tax overhaul. But even with the GOP majority in both chambers, it's likely to not be

so simple. Party leaders are already at odds over how exactly the legislation should be pushed forward, one bill or two.

The Senate majority leader, John Thune, privately planning for a two bill strategy, first focusing on immigration while saving potentially complicated tax policy for a later date.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: I would prefer one, but I will do whatever needs to be done to get it passed, and, you know, we have a lot of respect for Senator Thune, as you know. He may have a little bit of a different view of it. I heard other senators yesterday, including Lindsey, talking about it. They prefer it the other way. So I'm open -- I'm open to either way as long as we get something passed as quickly as possible.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

HUNT: Trump is set to meet with Senate Republican leadership tomorrow, according to a person familiar with the plans. A source tells CNN the meeting will focus on whether or not to split up the bill.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Is it a risk to put it all in one bill?

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): I think it's a risk to our country to delay border security. So if you're a tax cutting person, which I understand, and you're holding the border bill hostage, I think that's a dangerous thing.

JOHNSON: The Senate has a little different opinion and perspective on reconciliation and what the wisest strategy is than the House, and that's okay. I wouldn't get too wound up about what the exact strategies.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: All right. Joining us now is one of the people you actually saw in that frame, political reporter for "NOTUS", Reese Gorman, who was there with our Manu Raju yesterday.

Reese, good morning.

REESE GORMAN, POLITICAL REPORTER, NOTUS: Good morning.

HUNT: So, look, for people who feel like one bill, two bills, who cares? That's down in the weeds. But the point is about what Donald Trump wants to do, how best to do it. There does seem to be a divide here.

And you heard Lindsey Graham there kind of shining some light on what it is, which is that there are conservatives. There are people in Donald Trumps orbit like Stephen Miller, who care most about immigration policy, don't want to see it bogged down with tax policy.

How do you see this actually going forward?

GORMAN: Yeah, I mean, there's real concern that the house doesn't have the votes to pass two separate bills. They don't have the Capitol. I mean, we see that -- I mean, really, the slim majority, the House can have trouble really doing anything at all, let alone just passing two major pieces of legislation.

What they need near unanimous buy in. They can't -- they can really only afford to lose 1 or 2 votes. And so there's concern there.

In the sense that there's also -- I mean, there's also concern on the House side as well, that there's not really been a game plan. I mean, coming if you were to we were to have this conversation on yesterday, it would be like, oh, they're doing one bill. That's what Trump had tweeted. That's what Johnson had told his members that Trump wanted one bill. And that's the path they seem to be going on.

And then Trump says on Hugh Hewitt that he's okay with two bills, throwing a little bit confusion. Members that I've been talking to are confused. They don't know what Trump really wants. He hasn't really called a game plan, and they're getting a little PTSD from the first term. Wherever they thought Trump wanted one thing.

For example, the health care bill that's been pointed to me. So they passed this health care bill. And then privately, Trump says it's a mean bill. And so then they're like, well, we just stuck our necks out voting for this bill. So they're getting a little PTSD, like, we just want him to have a game plan and they don't know what he wants right now.

HUNT: Yeah. So Trump did talk a little bit about his first term on that Hugh -- in that Hugh Hewitt interview as well. Let's take a look at that.

[05:05:00]

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

TRUMP: In my first term, people were fighting me all the way. They were just fighting me. In this term, it's so different, I think. I don't want to say people have given up because that's not nice, but they recognize that we really do have that mandate.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

HUNT: So he is talking about what's different this time, which is that there are a lot more -- there's a lot more willingness to go along. Even Democrats kind of looked around and said, okay, clearly the American people are sending a message. They want some of these things that Donald Trumps been talking about. But to your point, all the Republicans are looking for Trump himself

to make a decision and be direct about it, because, I mean, I remember I covered the Hill during the first Trump administration. One tweet would blow up weeks, months, years, sometimes of work.

GORMAN: Yeah, and they don't want to go through that again. And also the big difference is there's so much -- there's much slimmer majority in the House. And they -- I mean, he cant afford to lose a whole sect of people. He's going to have to make almost everybody happy. And you see like people like Thomas Massie, he doesn't care what Trump threatens to do to him. He's still going to just do his own thing.

And there's a lot of those fiscal hawks -- I mean, also in the Senate, I mean, you're having -- I mean, yes, Mitt Romney is gone. Yes. John McCain is no longer around. But you have people like John Curtis who's replacing Mitt Romney, who really is extremely moderate, just like Mitt Romney.

And so you're having kind of these new wave of and then you saw Susan Collins, you have Lisa Murkowski. So you're having these kind of like some of the same people from his first term and some new people who can be kind of antagonistic to what he wants, and they're not afraid of him.

HUNT: Yeah. And, Reese, what -- what is your sense of what Democrats are going to do in this scenario, especially? I mean, we were talking on the show yesterday about, okay, if there is this one big bill, maybe there will be some Democrats in Trump districts who might feel pressure to vote for it.

GORMAN: I think definitely -- I mean, I definitely think that you could see now, I mean, I don't know for sure whether I mean, we have to see the bill. So no ones coming out saying like, oh, I'm 100 percent voting for this or whatever, but there are some Democrats that have been willing to work with Republicans on border security, like Jared Golden in Maine, like Marie Gluesenkamp Perez over in Washington.

And they've been willing and kind of open to be to working with Republicans on some of these issues because, again, Trumps winning their district, and they're kind of these outliers. There definitely are some more Democrats that might be willing to work. But again, like if it goes too far, maybe they won't. And also maybe on the taxes, maybe they have some difficulties there.

So there's really I mean, it's completely up in the air as to what Democrats will do. And I wouldn't fully if I was a Republican in leadership, be trying to hoping that Democrats come save me. You might really want to try to get your whole house in order first.

HUNT: Well, I mean, and that's the kind of thing that could put Mike Johnson -- Speaker Johnson's job on the line, right. We may remember that working at this point. Well, that's also true.

All right, Reese Gorman, thanks very much for starting us off today, I appreciate it. All right. Still ahead here on CNN THIS MORNING, Elon Musk takes on

the world. What leaders in Europe are saying as the world's richest man lashes out about new political causes abroad.

Plus, a peaceful transfer of power. Vice President Kamala Harris certifies her own election defeat.

And a deadly winter storm on its way out. But another blast of snow and ice could be moving in. Oh, great.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I need food and milk and, you know, staples. So here I am.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yep. This is going to get me through. Yep. I have 80 rolls of toilet paper at home too, so I'm good.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:12:48]

HUNT: All right. Welcome back to CNN THIS MORNING.

Foreign leaders hitting back at Elon Musk as the world's richest man continues his online campaign against the British government while promoting far right parties that he says he agrees with abroad. In recent weeks, Musk has set his sights on British prime minister Keir Starmer, alleging that he turned a blind eye to sexual abuse cases while he was chief prosecutor, and he's called for his removal.

Starmer has responded without naming Musk.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEIR STARMER, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: Those that are spreading lies and misinformation as far and as wide as possible, they're not interested in victims. They're interested in themselves.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Now, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, is left wondering what all of this means for foreign affairs and diplomacy with the U.S. in the years ahead.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EMMANUEL MACRON, FRENCH PRESIDENT: Ten years ago, if we'd been told that the owner of the largest social media networks would support an international reactionary movement and directly intervene in elections, including Germany. Who would have believed it? This is the world we live in, in which we have to conduct diplomacy.

(END VIDEO CLIP) HUNT: Musk responded to Macron's comments there on his social media network by accusing Britain's prime minister of acting against Trump's bid for reelection.

Joining us now to discuss is CNN's Max Foster live for us in London.

Max, good morning. Always wonderful to see you.

So this has become, you know, widespread across Europe. All of these leaders now dealing with Elon Musk. We were here yesterday talking about what was going on with him and Nigel Farage. What is this big picture here?

MAX FOSTER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I have to say, you know, all this interference in European politics may not be welcome, but it might be working. Something quite extraordinary happened last night. The British home secretary came out and said that she would be changing the law in relation to child abuse cover-ups.

Now, Musk has been accusing the British government, the prime minister, for example, of covering up child abuse scandals, particular sex grooming scandals here in the UK. He's obviously denied that. And you've talked a bit about that there.

[05:15:00]

But then you have a minister coming out and saying they are going to change the law in relation to this.

So the law will change. To make it an offense for you to know about child abuse and not report it, in other words, to cover it up. And the government says it's been working on this for some time, but the timing of it is pretty extraordinary, the announcement.

You know, they would have known about the optics, the amount of pressure they've come under from Musk. And it looks like a reaction to that. And a lot of people saying it is a reaction to that, certainly the timing of the announcement. So it's pretty extraordinary that, you know, despite all this concern about his interference, that he's actually having an effect here.

HUNT: It's really interesting. Max, the -- what's going on in France and Germany. I mean, you heard Macron there. And of course, the Germans dealing with him, talking about their far right nationalist party.

Our Stephen Collinson puts it this way. He kind of paints these big pictures for us here, for CNN.com, he writes this quote to many Americans. Musk is simply exercising his First Amendment rights. But in Europe, a continent haunted by the horror of far right extremism, his support for radical populism is seen by many leaders as offensive and less an example of free speech than as an attempt to stifle freedom and democracy.

And this is a little bit of how, you know, free speech is viewed a little bit differently on the continent than it than it sometimes is, or at least discussed differently than it sometimes is here in the United States. But I mean, Stephen pointing out, you know, the really difficult history here and Macron seeming to underscore that.

FOSTER: Well, what we've had in France and Germany is mainstream leaders, you know, middle ground leaders losing massively in the public vote. You know, they are having you know, they're having to have. France has had, you know, snap elections. Germany is about to have a snap election because of the rise of the right and less popular mainstream parties.

So, you know, I don't know if in terms of how id interpret what Stephens saying. Yes, the mainstream parties have an issue with this, but actually a lot of the public are voting for right, far right parties, and they would see this as democracy working.

So -- and many of them do look, obviously to Elon Musk as someone who represents them. So he's speaking to people where he's getting an audience, actually. And the mainstream politicians don't like it because they're under threat. So I don't think it's that simplistic to say there's a European view, because I think the European view is changing.

HUNT: Really interesting. Max Foster, always grateful to have you in your perspective, sir. Thanks very much for being here.

All right. Coming up here on CNN THIS MORNING, Rudy Giuliani held in contempt for his 2020 election defamation case. The sanctions on the horizon for the former New York mayor.

Plus, the first fatal case of bird flu reported in the U.S. Details ahead in our morning roundup.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:22:32]

HUNT: All right, 22 minutes past the hour. Here's your "Morning Roundup".

The late President Jimmy Carter heading to Washington for the last time this morning. His remains are set to be flown from Georgia. These pictures are live of him lying in repose. There will be a procession to the U.S. Capitol this afternoon. The public will be able to pay its respects to the 39th president as he lies in state.

A powerful earthquake in Tibet killed at least 95 people this morning, according to state media in China. Crews have been searching through what's left of buildings. This was a 7.1 quake and multiple aftershocks followed.

The first person in the U.S. with a severe case of bird flu has died. They were over 65 and had underlying health conditions. Louisiana's health department says they don't know of any other cases linked to the patient.

All right. Time now for weather. The snow, sleet, ice that covered much of the country over the last 24 hours, it's mostly moving out. Dangerously cold temperatures moving in.

And while I think many of us wanted to stay bundled up inside, some people and certainly these pandas -- look at this. This makes me so happy. This was the perfect day in D.C. for them to be outside.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The conditions are actually great. You should get your skis on.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a nice day for a walk. You know, there's no traffic, so it makes it easy to kind of walk around everywhere.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: I don't really want to hear from people. I just want to look at the pandas, honestly.

Incoming freezing temperatures are going to lock in the snow and ice on the ground, so I guess they're going to have a playground here for quite a few more days.

Let's get to our meteorologist, our weatherman, Derek Van Dam.

Derek, are you as happy in the snow as these pandas are?

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I would be throwing snowballs immediately. I would have participated in that thousand person plus National Mall snowball fight that I saw happen yesterday. I don't know if you saw that. That was amazing.

But who doesn't want to start their Tuesday morning with pandas playing in the snow, right? And you said it perfectly, Kasie, because this snow is going nowhere when these types of temperatures, it's frigid outside. This is what it feels like as you step outside in D.C., 13 degrees, the actual high temperature today, just a few degrees above freezing. I think that snow pack is here to stay.

By the way, that snowstorm that just passed through, it crossed over an 1,100-mile stretch, dumping over six inches or more of snow within that swath. And of course, we had the ice component to this as well, knocking out power. Not great news for the nearly 200,000 customers without power, particularly into Virginia, especially if you don't have heat.

[05:25:08]

The cold air is going to stick around, and it's all thanks to that snow pack. But unfortunately, this is going to set the stage for the potential of yet another significant, impactful snow and ice event later this week, from Texas to the Southeast and potentially the East Coast by the weekend.

We're figuring out the details of that. We'll pass them on to you as we figure it out. But one thing we do know for sure, the culprit, this cut off low pressure system is driving a significant wind event in southern California once again, strong, destructive winds, dry air, low relative humidity.

This is all a recipe for disaster. The National Weather Service in the Los Angeles Weather Service Office actually calling this the most life threatening and destructive wind event since 2011. That's really saying something. Winds could gust get this, Kasie, as high as 100 miles per hour in some of those higher elevations.

And we know that that is just a terrible, terrible recipe here for southern California, considering how dry it is.

HUNT: Yeah, for real. All right. Derek Van Dam for us this morning -- Derek, always grateful for you. Thank you so much.

VAN DAM: Okay.

HUNT: All right. Ahead here on CNN THIS MORNING, passing Donald Trump's agenda. How Republicans face a time crunch before the president-elect is even sworn in.

Plus, Vice President Kamala Harris certifies her own election defeat.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It was about what should be the norm and what the American people should be able to take for granted, which is that one of the most important pillars of our democracy is that there will be a peaceful transfer of power.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)