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CNN This Morning
Israel: Gaza Ceasefire Officially Goes Into Effect Three Hours Late; TikTok Shuts Down In The United States; China Reacts To TikTok's Ban In The U.S.; Palestinians Return To Northern Gaza Anticipating Ceasefire; Hamas Published Names Of Three Hostages To Be Released Today. Ceasefire In Effect, Hostages And Prisoners Set For Release; Hamas Publishes Names Of 3 Hostages To Be Released Today; Trump Expected To Sign Slew Of Executive Orders On Day One; Biden To Travel To South Carolina For Final Full Day In Office; 150 Million Under Extreme Cold Alerts. Aired 6-7a ET
Aired January 19, 2025 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[06:00:31]
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.
VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning to you. We are following two major breaking news stories this morning. I'm Victor Blackwell.
AMARA WALKER, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Amara Walker. TikTok is now dark for 170 million users in the U.S., and the Israel-Hamas ceasefire is now in effect after an hours long delay. CNN anchor and chief national security analyst Jim Sciutto is following that for us from Tel Aviv -- Jim.
JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: After 470 days of suffering for the hostage families, suffering, of course, for the people of Gaza, so many thousands killed there, a moment of relief today after, as you say, a brief delay, that hostage release and ceasefire deal, the very first day of the first phase of it is now underway. And we have the names of the first three Israeli hostages to be released. We'll bring you all that and more this hour.
BLACKWELL: All right, Jim, we'll get back to you in just a moment. TikTok officially gone dark. The app and others owned by ByteDance went offline late Saturday night, two hours before the ban was slated to take effect.
WALKER: So, if you try to open TikTok this morning, you will see this message if you haven't already. Sorry, TikTok isn't available right now. A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S. Unfortunately, that means you can't use TikTok for now.
CNN's Clare Duffy is joining us now. And, Clare, also in that message, TikTok is suggesting that they will soon be back, really putting the pressure on the incoming president, President-elect Trump. What can you tell us? CLARE DUFFY, CNN BUSINESS WRITER: Yes, Victor, Amara, lots of unhappy TikTok users who are going to be waking up this morning after that notification popped up. As you said, there just about two hours before this ban was officially slated to go into effect.
This is a huge deal. This is an app that has 170 million American users. And as you said there, TikTok owns Lemon8 and video editing app CapCut also offline. All those apps are no longer on the app store.
And what many experts had expected prior to about a week ago was that these apps would only be removed from the app store. But if you already had the app on your phone, you would still be able to use it. But what sources close to the company told us is that TikTok's technology partners like Google, Apple, Oracle didn't receive enough assurance from the Biden administration that they would not be fined under this law. So, TikTok itself had to go dark.
Now, you see in that notification there, nodding to the fact that they may receive an assist from incoming president Donald Trump, who has promised his pledge to save this platform for Americans. He said just yesterday, he told NBC that he is looking at a 90-day delay on the ban going into effect after he is sworn into office on Monday.
He said, the 90-day extension is something that will be most likely done because it's appropriate. You know, it's appropriate. We have to look at it carefully. If I decide to do that, I'll probably announce it on Monday.
So, the company may be looking at coming back online in just a few hours here, but it does rely on Donald Trump deciding to take that action. And what's interesting is we're expecting to see TikTok CEO Shou Chew seated prominently at the inauguration alongside other tech CEOs, which signals that Donald Trump is looking to make a deal here. He wants to bring this platform back for American users, but this is probably going to rely on ByteDance, TikTok's parent company, being open to selling the platform to an American owner. And that has really been the sticking point for so long.
ByteDance has been unwilling to get, you know, offload the U.S. operations of TikTok. And so, I think that's going to be the thing that Trump is going to have to work out here is how likely is ByteDance really to be willing to hand over TikTok to an American owner?
WALKER: A lot of questions up in the air. Clare Duffy, thank you so much. Now, TikTok's ban in the U.S. has not only captured the attention of Americans, but also the Chinese public.
BLACKWELL: CNN's Marc Stewart is in Beijing with more on China's reaction to TikTok's ban in the U.S.
MARC STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Here in China, TikTok's shutdown in the United States is getting some coverage from Chinese state media, which is the government's messenger service. The shutdown itself is being reported. Even though this involves a private company, the Chinese government has taken a stance at one point accusing the U.S. of acting like a bully. But this is political. China wants to stand strong, being the one who calls the shots, not the U.S.
[06:05:01]
President-elect Trump told CNN, the TikTok issue came up in a recent phone conversation with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Yet here in China, the point was not acknowledged in a government readout of that phone call.
Chinese citizens are curious about this. This drama is often a dominating topic on social media. Some of the posts support TikTok and its CEO for refusing to back down to the U.S.
Meantime, in a bit of a phenomenon, some Americans have been creating accounts with the Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu, otherwise known as REDnote. Yet some have expressed frustration over government censorship. Marc Stewart, CNN, Beijing.
BLACKWELL: All right, Marc, thanks.
WALKER: We are following breaking news in the Middle East. After a three-hour delay, the Gaza ceasefire is officially now in effect. And this is a live look at Gaza city as people are beginning to return to what is left of the city.
Israel refused to begin until Hamas delivered the names of the hostages that they promised to release today, and continued strikes during that window. Hospital officials say at least 10 Palestinians were killed.
BLACKWELL: And we've just received the names of the hostages who are set to be released today. A special unit has been set up at a medical center in Israel to help them recover after more than a year in captivity.
This is only the first phase of the ceasefire deal. Thirty-three Israeli hostages are set to be freed in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. During this phase, just phase one. And 4,000 aid trucks are ready to enter Gaza, according to the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees. Reuters reports that phase two negotiations will start within 16 days.
WALKER: Let's get right to CNN chief security analyst live in Tel Aviv right now, Jim Sciutto. Jim, what can you tell us about the timeline, how soon we might start seeing these three female hostages arriving in Israel?
SCIUTTO: Well, that's going to happen in just a few hours. The plan is for 9:00 a.m. eastern time, though of course, it could slip a bit. We're not clear exactly how many minutes or hours after 9 a.m. eastern that we see the faces of those hostages.
We now know who the first three Israeli hostages who will be released, who they are. They are Romi Gonen, she's 24 years old. Doron Steinbrecher, she's 31 years old. And Emily Damari, 28 years old. All taken on October 7th. And think about the moment that this is for those hostages themselves. Of course, for the hostage families who've been waiting for them, but also for the people of Israel, 470 days of waiting, not knowing the fate, frankly, of the hostages and many of them, sadly, close to 100 remain held in Gaza, many of them, sadly, we know, have lost their lives during that long wait.
And then, of course, inside Gaza itself, 470 days of virtually relentless Israeli bombing, the death toll mounting now into the tens of thousands. The vast majority of them, according to the best assessments, are civilians. And of course, there's been other forms of suffering there as well. Severe shortages of food and medical supplies.
Most of the hospitals not operational now anymore because of that relentless bombing campaign. So, that long line of many hundreds of aid trucks there, desperate need for the aid that they are carrying in.
The scenes this morning in Gaza, we saw some celebrations as the ceasefire took effect. But we also saw Hamas fighters still roaming the streets there, a sign that that initial goal, that main goal, in fact, as described by the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, of eliminating Hamas over the course of this war has not been achieved.
Hamas certainly debilitated, lost many lives. Fighters, including their leader, the architect of October 7th, Yahya Sinwar, but there is still at least a presence there. And that is one of those open questions as we go forward, who will hold the power there for the Palestinian people?
There are discussions of plans for the Palestinian authority to take a role. Perhaps, international forces as well. But again, those like so many things in this ongoing conflict, remain open questions.
What is happening today is a breath of relief in a long and bloody war. CNN's Jerusalem correspondent Jeremy Diamond has been covering this since the very beginning. Jeremy, tell us what we know about how today will play out going forward.
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jim, we don't have exact timing, but we do now have the names of three of those Israeli hostages who are set to be released today by Hamas.
[06:10:05]
They are Romi Gonen, who is 24 years old, was taken from the Nova Music Festival alongside Emily Damari, a 28-year-old who was taken from kibbutz Kfar Aza, and Doron Steinbrecher, 31 years old, who was also taken from kibbutz Kfar Aza.
And for their families, this has been an agonizing 15 months that is finally set to come to an end today. Fifteen months during which their families have advocated for them, fought for them, given countless interviews, spoken at rallies, doing everything in their power to try and get to this moment of a ceasefire agreement with a hostage release provision.
You know, I spoke actually with the mother of Doron Steinbrecher in October, right around that one year mark of her daughter being taken captive from that kibbutz. This is my conversation with her, where she recounts the moment when her daughter was taken captive.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SIMONA STEINBRECHER, DORON STEINBRECHER'S MOTHER: She was really afraid.
DIAMOND: She was on the phone with you when she was being taken?
STEINBRECHER: Yes. And we don't know nothing about her. What happened with her. We don't know if she's alive. We don't know nothing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DIAMOND: And that she is finally set to get a little bit of closure today, of more information, and hopefully to be able to actually hug her daughter later today. We understand that the hostages, once they are received by Israeli troops following Hamas, giving them initially to the Red Cross, they will then be either flown or driven to a hospital in central Israel. It will be the Sheba Medical Center in the suburbs of Tel Aviv, and that is where we expect those family reunions to finally take place, Jim.
SCIUTTO: Yes. And of course, as you know, Jeremy, the scars, the emotional, psychological, physical scars of that long captivity, they will last, sadly. And Israeli medical authorities are ready to do their best to help treat those wounds as well. Thank you, Jeremy Diamond.
As part of the Gaza ceasefire hostage deal, nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners will be freed in exchange, many of them detained in Ofer Prison in the West Bank. We're going to go there for a live report right after a quick break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:17:16]
SCIUTTO: This is, of course, a hostage and prisoner release deal in two directions. Part of phase one of the agreement between Israel and Hamas includes the release of 95 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for those three civilian women hostages who are being released today as well. CNN correspondent Nada Bashir is outside the Ofer Prison in the West Bank, where we believe some of the prisoners will be released from.
Nada, can you tell us activity around the prison now? And are the identities of those Palestinian prisoners to be released known at this point?
NADA BASHIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, Jim, we're not expecting to see any prisoners or detainees released until a couple more hours, at least not before 4 p.m. And of course, there was a delay to that ceasefire coming into place. So, we may indeed see a delay in the exchange and release taking place later this evening.
But as you mentioned, we are outside the Ofer Prison in the occupied West Bank. This is expected to be one of the key release points, much as we saw back in November of 2023, during that four-day truce between Israel and Hamas, where we saw the exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners and detainees.
Today, we are expecting to see 95 Palestinians, potentially, according to Israeli authorities. We've obviously seen varying figures. According to Palestinian authorities, suggesting perhaps only 90 to be released today.
The idea is that per civilian hostage release, we would see around 30 Palestinian prisoners or detainees released in exchange. And then, per Israeli soldier, later on in the phases of this agreement, we would see that increasing to 50 Palestinian prisoners or detainees.
But what we know so far about those set to be released, according to a list issued by Israeli authorities, is that this list contains at least 70 women and 25 men, among them are 10 teenagers, and at least 30 have been held under administrative detention. That is a deeply controversial practice. It means, essentially, that there are no charges laid against them, no ongoing legal processes or trials. And important to put this in the framework of the wider situation here, there are more than 10,000 Palestinians currently held in Israeli jails, more than 3,000 of them are held under administrative detention.
Now, in terms of the process and the logistics, things are still up in the air and somewhat unclear. What we do understand at this stage, Jim, is that the Red Cross is set to play a role in this, is said to be coordinating with the Israeli authorities in terms of the logistics of the release. And we're expecting to see Palestinians taken to one of the key prisons, which is the Ofer Prison here behind me, and then bused onwards into the occupied West Bank.
[06:20:03]
Where they will be bused to, where they will be met with their families, et cetera, is unclear at this stage. Again, back in November 2023, we saw them being bused to local municipality buildings where they were reunited with family members. However, we also saw huge -- large scale celebrations, families gathering, local residents gathering.
Israeli authorities have said at this stage they do not want to see any of those celebrations. They will be cracking down, unclear how -- or if we see that crackdown later this evening. What I can tell you is that we are beginning to see people gathering up on this hill, much as we saw back in November 2023, wanting to see this moment as those prisoners and detainees are released.
But of course, this is a long process. It's unclear. It's a fragile agreement. So, it remains to be seen when exactly we see that release take place.
SCIUTTO: And it's a good point that Nada makes there, that administrative detention does not mean that these prisoners, at least not all of them, were convicted of crimes, that they've been held, an important distinction. Thanks so much to Nada Bashir there.
We should also note that this is a hostage release and ceasefire deal that came through the work -- cooperation, in fact, of the Biden administration, the outgoing Biden administration, the incoming Trump administration. And yesterday, several of the hostage families met with incoming Trump administration officials, including the incoming national security advisor, Mike Waltz. And they tell me they were told by those Trump administration officials that the president-elect and his administration will not rest until all the hostages taken on October 7th are returned.
Coming up next on CNN THIS MORNING, I'm going to speak to the father of one of those who still remains in Gaza. Itay Chen, killed on October 7th. His remains still held in Gaza, one of seven Americans, in fact, held there. I'll ask him what this deal means for him, for those families of loved ones who will not be coming home today.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:26:26]
SCIUTTO: Welcome back. Ruby Chen is the father of an IDF soldier taken on October 7th. One of seven Americans taken and still held. When we spoke last night, he told me that President-elect Trump's lead official for hostage affairs, as well as his national security advisor, met with him and other hostage families, assuring them that the incoming Trump administration is committed to seeing this cease fire hostage deal through until all of the hostages are freed.
Ruby Chen joins me now from Washington, D.C. Ruby, thanks so much for coming back on the program.
RUBY CHEN, FATHER OF ITAY CHEN: Thank you for having me on day 471.
SCIUTTO: I know that you have been so supportive of other hostage families through this. That you have stuck to together as best you could through these 471 days. And I'm sure you are graciously happy for the three families who will get their loved ones home today. I wonder what the difficulty is to not be among those three families and still waiting, still waiting for the relief you've been hoping for all these months.
CHEN: Yes, Jim, I think you know how many times I've been to Washington and in and out of the White House. I give myself five seconds to say, you know what? All of it was worth it. All those calls with the negotiators, into the middle of the night, all the meetings with the different senators and congressmen and officials that we met in order to get to this point.
But then I remember that the job is not done. And we need to ensure that the 16 days that we are waiting for to begin the next phase of the negotiation needs to start today. And that is what I'm advocating to the incoming administration. Because if there's something predictable in the Middle East, it is that it is unpredictable. And as such, we need to utilize this window of opportunity as much as we can to get as many hostages out.
SCIUTTO: You said to me last night that when you and other families met with Mike Waltz, the incoming national security advisor, and others, that they assured you they will see this deal through, including to the point where your son, Itay, is able to come home. Do you take them at their word?
CHEN: I looked them in the eyes, Jim, and they know that in this first phase, the majority of the U.S. hostages are not included. So, they have an obligation to us, the U.S. families, first and foremost, to continue advocating and getting this deal done until all of the hostages, including the U.S. citizens, are released from captivity.
So, I've seen him up close, Mr. Mike Waltz. He has an army background. He knows what it is to go into battle and to lose comrades and what it means. And when you look into the eye of such an individual, he gets it. So, I have some belief that he, as well as the other members of the administration, will do everything in their power to see this through.
[06:30:06]
SCIUTTO: You have told me many times through these painful months that you do not believe the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sufficiently prioritized the hostages in his decision making. And there are many hostage families who have done the same and have said that had this deal come through more quickly, earlier, more of the hostages might be alive.
And I wonder, do you believe that there should be political consequences in this country for how long that wait took?
CHEN: Yes. You know, we had many inflection points over the last 15 months where we were told that, you know, if this happens, this will open the pathway for a deal. If it was more military pressure, if it was the killing of (INAUDIBLE), there was an obstacle.
And each time there was a new obstacle that came about. And sometimes you feel that those obstacles were artificial. And I think that what we need to focus on now is that with this current government, we need to make sure that they have the (INAUDIBLE) which they do of 75 percent constantly of the people of Israel that have been polled that said that they are willing for a deal that releases all of the hostages for a longstanding ceasefire.
And that is the energy that this government needs to move forward with. And then there needs to be an election after what happened to the state of Israel on October 7th to get a reconfirmation that this is indeed the elective officials that the state of Israel wishes to have going forward for its new chapter.
SCIUTTO: And we should note that one member, a right-wing member of Netanyahu's government, left the government earlier today in protest of this agreement coming through.
Well, Ruby Chen, I want you to know that we at CNN, our hearts go out to you on this day. And we wish you and your family the very best in these coming days and weeks.
CHEN: Thank you, Jim, for having me, and God bless.
SCIUTTO: Well, hostage families waiting anxiously for their loved ones to return.
Coming up, I'm going to speak to a mental health expert on what the healing process might be like for the hostages who are finally being free. It's a long road.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:37:27]
SCIUTTO: Coming home is far from painless for those who've lived through captivity as hostages of Hamas from the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict. Some of them today, three of them, are returning to freedom. They will carry with them an incredible amount of psychological and physical trauma.
Joining me now is Merav Roth, an expert in traumatic bereavement, as well as psychoanalyst at the University of Haifa.
Merav, thanks so much for taking time today.
MERAV ROTH, PSYCHOANALYST, UNIVERSITY OF HAIFA: Thank you.
SCIUTTO: So, we know that Israeli hospital officials, doctors, psychiatrists are ready to receive the three women who we expect to be released today with the best care possible to offer them after 470 days in life-threatening captivity.
I wonder if you could help detail for us what that process is like. For instance, what's the first step when they come home, beyond, of course, the physical medical checks they'll undergo?
ROTH: Yes. Well, we do have experience, and it helped us to make it even more punctuate, more correct this time, I think. The first thing is to let these people know, that these women know, that they are free, and not only by knowing that they are in Israel, but also knowing that they have a voice, that they have a choice.
You know, the soldier on the border, when he reaches for one of these young women, they know that they should ask them, can I hold your hand? He cannot just grasp to their hand, because they need to know that no one is forcing them anymore, because they were forced for one year and four months every moment.
Yes. So this is the first, the very first thing.
SCIUTTO: You have a sense, I hate -- I'm sure that's such a -- and such a powerful one, right? Because it's about a loss of control, being a hostage, and I can --
ROTH: Exactly.
SCIUTTO: -- only imagine the worst trauma that they must have been through there.
Based on history, when you look at other hostages who've been released, for instance, the first few who were released after the first few weeks of the conflict, what is the path to recovery like? And I'm certain, as I asked that question, that it's different for everyone.
[06:40:04]
ROTH: It is true, but there are also common traits. You know, I'm chairing FLM. FLM is an organization that gives pro bono therapy to the victims of October 7, including the released hostages and the families of the hostages. And we had a group of supervision. And it took us a few weeks to understand that we see a similar thing between our patients who came back from Gaza.
And it was an extreme passivity. And a kind of passivity that one gains after being held in this paradoxical tension between being the most afraid ever. Every moment is a fear of death, a concrete fear of death. And being completely passive. And you cannot deny any request from outside.
So this -- this tension is held in their body and in their mind so heavily. And it takes a long, long time to melt it. Until they begin to believe that there are human persons and not only hostages. And that they are free to feel, that they are free to think and to communicate.
SCIUTTO: Yes, goodness. That passivity must be such an alarming thing for their families to see. I wonder, is there something that hostages on their release, that they ask for initially? Is it time with their families? Is it help from caregivers? What do they tend to ask for first?
ROTH: This is individual, from one to the other. The point is that they don't know what they are coming out to. It's very sad. I was sitting with two girls in the hospital waiting for their mother to come back from Gaza a year and two months ago. And she called them from the border. They allowed their families to connect after they crossed the border. And they were extremely excited to hear their mother's voice.
But then she asked, where is daddy? They didn't know. They don't know there who was murdered in their families. They don't know if they have a home. They don't know that their homes were burned.
So this is a very, very dramatic moment to move them into reality, which is so complex. So, they need a lot of quiet. I think what we made a change here with the media is to realize that you cannot make them so flooded by the media, because this is another extreme exposure, which is also overwhelming. So this, I hope, this time we will be smarter to let them be in their small surroundings, more secure. And slowly, slowly they can come out (INAUDIBLE). Sorry.
SCIUTTO: Yes --
ROTH: It takes time until they come out of their houses.
(CROSSTALK)
SCIUTTO: Understood. Yes. And that's a very good point, that they will -- they might find out news they didn't want to hear, right, about other lost loved ones from that day, October 7th and the month since.
Merav Roth, we appreciate the work you do. Thanks so much for joining.
ROTH: Thank you.
SCIUTTO: Victor and Amara, some joyful reunions to come, but also a painful process of reentering, right, reentering the world they used to know.
We'll bring you all we know as it happens.
AMARA WALKER, CNN ANCHOR: Yes. It's definitely going to be such a delicate situation, welcoming home those hostages.
Jim, thank you very much. We'll see you in a bit.
Still to come, it is Joe Biden's final full day as president. We're going to take a look at what he has planned for today and the legacy he hopes to leave behind.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:48:37]
VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Donald Trump arrived in Washington on Saturday to kick off days of inaugural events. Plans are still changing after tomorrow's ceremonies were moved indoors ahead of these freezing temperatures.
WALKER: And President-elect says he plans to get to work very quickly after he is sworn in.
CNN's Alayna Treene has more on what to expect.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: President-elect Donald Trump and his team are planning a slate of executive orders to be issued on his first day in office.
Some of which, I'm told, are actually expected to be signed by him immediately after being sworn in at the Capitol Rotunda, but then more as well to be issued later in the day. Now, one of the biggest issues that some of these early orders are going to be focused on, I'm told, is all about immigration.
Now, Donald Trump has promised repeatedly throughout his time on the campaign trail to try and round up illegal immigrants in this country and deport them. And that's exactly what some of this early action is going to look like.
We're told that you should expect ice raids through major metropolitan cities, sweeps through cities like Washington, D.C., Chicago, and Denver. And Donald Trump actually addressed some of this in an interview with NBC on Saturday.
He said essentially that he wants to begin very early, very quickly with some of these actions in some of these cities, but wouldn't say exactly where.
Now, some of the other actions, we're told, related to immigration, as well as Donald Trump and his team, are considering a national emergency declaration to try and free up some of the resources from the Pentagon to be sent to the southern border, as well as looking at a different asylum restrictions and really rolling back some of what Joe Biden has done, some of which, of course, was him undoing what Donald Trump had done during his first time in office
[06:50:20]
Now, we did hear from one of Donald Trump's advisers on Saturday, speaking with CNN's Jessica Dean, really walking through some of this action that is expected to be taken.
Take a listen.
JASON MILLER, SENIOR ADVISER TO PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: When you go back to the campaign trail, what President Trump would talk about is that local law enforcement really knows where the criminal illegals are.
And so, partnering up with local law enforcement to make sure we go and target the folks who are the really bad actors. We're talking to transnational gang members. We're talking to people that we know that are criminal illegals that are here in this country that, quite frankly, are a danger to society.
TREENE: Now, you heard Miller tell Jessica there that really one of the big focuses is going to be on targeting illegal immigrants who have committed crimes in this country. That is definitely a big focus, I'm told, for Donald Trump on day one. But not all of those early executive orders are going to be focused on immigration, I'm told. There's also going to be some orders focused on trade and the economy, as well as energy.
So, a lot that Donald Trump is planning to do on day one just shortly after being sworn in.
Alayna Treene, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE) WALKER: Alayna, thank you. And today is President Joe Biden's final full day in office.
There's new CNN reporting that he's leaving feeling nostalgic for his decades-long political career, but also frustrated over the way it all ended.
BLACKWELL: The President is scheduled to spend his final full day in South Carolina, the state that helped catapult him into office in 2020.
CNN senior White House producer Betsy Klein joins us now live from the White House.
Betsy, it was, of course, the endorsement from Congressman Clyburn and that South Carolina primary that boosted him to the nomination and then went on to win. So he's going back. What's the plan?
BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE PRODUCER (on-camera): That's exactly right, Victor. I mean, South Carolina is a place of such special significance for President Biden and his entire family, frankly.
The President really widely credits that state with catapulting him to that 2020 victory. It was a place that really revitalized and rebooted his flagging campaign. And at the time, it's also a state where the family gathered really shortly together for the first time after the death of Beau Biden, the President's son from brain cancer. But now he is returning there.
He said I was with the president about a year ago at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, as he was really starting to kick off his 2024 campaign. He said at the time it's because of this congregation and the black community of South Carolina. It's not an exaggeration. And Jim Clyburn, as you mentioned, Victor, that I stand here today as your president.
Now, of course, there were some early signs during that trip that Biden's message on democracy wasn't quite breaking through to voters. He also was interrupted multiple times by protesters demanding a ceasefire in Gaza, of course, taking on new significance today in light of the news there. But really, he is returning today under very different circumstances after that quite bruising 2024 campaign and is really ending his decades long career in public service.
As one source tells us, he's feeling very frustrated and, frankly, a little bit that he that his team, quote, didn't tell a good enough story. He's also frustrated and feel some resentment that he is turning over the keys of the federal government to Trump tomorrow.
But today he is there for a Sunday service where he will invoke Martin Luther King Jr. and talk about Dr. King's legacy and the continued fight, one source says, to make Dr. King's dream a reality.
Now, all of this comes as the President in the last few weeks of his presidency has been racing the clock to issue some of those last- minute executive actions and take -- make efforts to shore up his legacy and protect it from moves that Trump could make.
Now, of course, we saw Biden on his first days in office take executive actions to undo some of Trump's actions. And we should expect President-elect Trump to do the same thing on Monday and into next week. But really, a lot of -- a lot of executive actions in these final days.
And we'll be watching whether he takes any last-minute clemency or preemptive pardon actions as he left the door open to that, Victor and Amara.
BLACKWELL: Betsy Klein at the White House, thanks so much.
Donald Trump begins his second term tomorrow. Watch history unfold live on CNN as the 45th president becomes the 47th. Our coverage of "THE INAUGURATION OF DONALD TRUMP" begins live tomorrow at 8:00 a.m. Eastern, right here on CNN.
Meteorologist Allison Chinchar is here to track the extreme cold alerts for 150 million Americans.
We know the inauguration has been moved indoors, but a lot of people don't feel it.
ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST (on-camera): I was going to say, you don't have to be in D.C. to feel this cold. It's going to be there. And for some states, it's going to last for several days.
[06:55:00]
So you look at this graphic behind me, just to show the swath of how many people are going to be dealing with this cold. Yes, 150 million people under some type of these extreme cold or cold weather alerts as we go through the next several days. Now, you look at some of these high temperatures the next few days.
Yes, even some southern cities here are going to be barely getting into the freezing mark. Even Chicago may not even make it to double digits over the next few days. Those low temperatures as we go through again, look at this minus 14, minus 18 in a place like Minneapolis, D.C. You're still looking at maybe the low teens Tuesday and Wednesday.
Now, the good news is at least Monday will be slightly warmer, comparatively speaking, in the low 20s to start off the day. The high temperature tomorrow in D.C. only getting to 25. The key thing here, though, is it's also expected to be very windy winds of 15 to 20 miles per hour.
So that 25 at some times may only feel like it is in the single digits as we go through the ceremonies tomorrow.
BLACKWELL: All right, Allison, thank you.
WALKER: Thank you, Allison.
Well, still to come, we're going to have more on our breaking news coverage of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire at the top of the hour.
Stay with us.
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