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Trump Kickstarts New Term With Wide-Ranging Executive Orders; Trump Pardons 1,000+ January 6th Convicts & Defendants; Senator Marco Rubio Confirmed As Secretary Of State. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired January 21, 2025 - 05:00   ET

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


[05:00:34]

KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: It's Tuesday, January 21st.

Right now on CNN THIS MORNING:

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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: From this day forward, our country will flourish and be respected again all over the world.

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HUNT: Promising a new golden age of prosperity. Donald Trump issuing a dizzying array of executive orders on day one of his second term.

Plus --

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TRUMP: So this is a big one. So they've already been in jail for a long time. These people have been destroyed.

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HUNT: Unconditional pardons for January 6th convicts. President Trump ending the cases for hundreds involved in the capitol insurrection.

And mass deportations set to begin as the president dashes the hopes of thousands who have been making their way to the southern border.

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HUNT: All right. It is 5:00 a.m. here on the East Coast. A live look at the Capitol dome. The inauguration, of course, unfolding underneath that dome yesterday. Donald Trump now president.

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

Shock and awe, liberation day, flooding the zone -- Donald Trump's allies all calling the first day of his newest term just the beginning. Setting the stage for what the next four years will look like. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN ROBERTS, U.S. SUPREME COURT CHIEF JUSTICE: So help me God.

TRUMP: So help me God.

ROBERTS: Congratulations, Mr. President.

(CHEERING)

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HUNT: President Trump starting a second but nonconsecutive term with what he calls a mandate from the voters. He also says he thinks he got some help from above.

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TRUMP: Just a few months ago, in a beautiful Pennsylvania field, an assassin's bullet ripped through my ear. But I felt then and believe even more so now, that my life was saved for a reason. I was saved by God to make America great again.

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HUNT: The president wielding that mandate and a sharpie, signing a tidal wave of executive orders in his initial hours as president. He made sure to turn it into a production. There were signings at the Capitol building, in the Oval Office and at the arena that was packed with supporters cheering him on, and he threw pens at one point into the seats, like you might T-shirts at a baseball game.

Those executive orders doing everything from rescinding 78 Biden era policies to hitting the culture war and immigration issues that animated his campaign.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The next item here is the withdrawal from the Paris climate treaty.

(CHEERING)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Protecting women from radical gender ideology.

TRUMP: Ooh.

It will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female.

They'll have 100 percent tariff if they so much as even think about doing what they thought.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is actually an executive order designating the cartels and other organizations to be foreign terrorist organizations. TRUMP: That's a big one.

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HUNT: Among the loudest cheers for any of his orders yesterday, the sweeping pardons and commutations that practically wiped out or commuted every sentence handed out for the January 6th Capitol attack, roughly 1,500 convictions, plea deals and pending cases gone with the stroke of a pen.

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TRUMP: Tonight, I'm going to be signing on the J6 hostages pardons to get them out.

(CHEERING)

TRUMP: These people have been destroyed. What they've done to these people is outrageous. There's rarely been anything like it in history -- in the history of our country.

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HUNT: Joining us now, Jackie Kucinich, CNN political analyst, Washington bureau chief for "The Boston Globe".

Jackie, good morning. Thanks for being here.

JACKIE KUCINICH, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Good morning.

HUNT: Thanks for being here.

KUCINICH: Of course.

HUNT: Let's start on the January 6th note, and then we can talk a little bit as well about some of the other things he did yesterday. But this pardon and commutation was sweeping, as sweeping as it could possibly be in many cases. These are people who violently assaulted police officers on -- on that day. But it's something that he had pledged to follow through on for his supporters.

What does it say about where we are?

KUCINICH: So I think we were waiting to see how sweeping this would be throughout yesterday, because there was an understanding throughout the campaign that this was something that he was going to do.

[05:05:04]

But I think the breadth of it even surprised someone like J.D. Vance, who had said publicly that he didn't think that the violent offenders would receive -- would receive clemency. But I think what this does is he's trying to reset the record and, frankly, history of what happened on that day, which he has described as a day of love. And, you know, it was not. HUNT: Yeah, I think its I think it's worth noting that the reaction

of some of these, you know, we had Michael Fanone on our air last night talking about what this meant to him. He was, of course, a metropolitan police officer who was injured on that day. And I know that many, at least one of the police officers that was there who has, you know, occasionally talked to the media, feels too emotional to even come and talk about it today, that, of course, one of his day one items.

But there were a number of others. The Paris climate accords there also were a number of immigration related actions, and were waiting to see what exactly the federal government is going to do with that. One of the biggest pieces was the shutting down immediately of what's known as the CBP One app that lets people apply for asylum from outside of the country.

What stood out to you among Trumps other executive actions out of the gate?

KUCINICH: I mean, you -- you mentioned that. There's also the refugee resettlement, which has been paused. There were, I mean, but even beyond immigration, you had this executive order that allows him to grant top security -- top secret security clearances to anyone for six months. The general counsel is -- is able to do that.

So really this touched kind of every part of the executive branch and beyond. And well have to see. But also, you know, he said that he was going to end birthright citizenship. So he's also open.

There's going to be many lawsuits that you would imagine with several other of these things that he signed, because some of these -- yes, that can go into effect. It can repeal all of Biden's others. There will be challenges. And you can't just wipe that away with the stroke of a pen.

HUNT: But there are limitations to the pen and the phone as compared to doing things with Congress. I mean, and honestly, you know, one of the rituals of a president coming in has become getting rid of all the executive actions or many of the executive actions that were taken by his predecessor, right? This -- Trump is not the first person to do this, upon taking office.

KUCINICH: But it is recent that the executive order becomes a day one thing. If you go back -- I mean, Obama did it, but there were fewer and fewer and fewer. Biden was more than before. And then this is the most.

So this has become a rite of passage. But it wasn't always this way.

HUNT: Yeah. No. It's important it's important that that you do point that out. And part of it's because it's become so hard to get anything through Congress. Exactly right. Presidents have struggled with that.

Briefly, Jackie, let's talk big picture about the address because it feels like it was hours and hours ago because of how long yesterday's festivities endured. But Peter Baker wrote this in "The New York Times" about what the address felt like.

Obviously, it was held inside the Capitol rotunda, a different setting than what were normally used to. Mr. Trump, he writes, spoke of national unity but made no nod toward Democrats in a speech and offered no thanks to Mr. Biden, as other presidents have done for their predecessors. Indeed, the nation's 60th inauguration quickly took on the feel of a State of the Union address as Republicans jumped to their feet to applaud particular plans announced by the new president, while Democrats sat mute and apparently uncomfortable.

KUCINICH: I think it was very magnified, right, because it was in such a small room and in a state of the union. As Peter Baker points out, you do get that sort of Democrats are in the shot, right? We're usually with an inauguration. Everyone's very spread out. You can the camera can get there. But you know, it's not -- it's not as evident and it's not as close. And yes, you really did.

You saw, you know, Vice President Harris kind of shift stone faced. You saw other Democrats squirming in their seats as he really was taking it to an administration that he spent the campaign trail really lambasting.

So -- I mean, we knew that you always know with President Trump that it's going to be different. And it was.

HUNT: Yeah, it was indeed. Jackie Kucinich, thanks for starting us off this morning, I appreciate it.

All right. Straight ahead here on CNN THIS MORNING, President Trump's fight to end birthright citizenship, the hurdles that he faces as he tries to get rid of a constitutional right.

Plus, Trumps first cabinet official confirmed by the Senate on day one. And Trump celebrates his stunning return with one of his favorite songs.

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[05:13:49]

HUNT: All right. Welcome back.

President Donald Trump making good on his day one promises. One of them issuing pardons for more than a thousand people who were charged in the January 6th, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and commuting the sentences of 14 others, which include a founder and a former leader of two of the far right extremist groups, the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers.

The move puts an end to the Justice Department's four-year effort to hold these people accountable. It became the largest criminal probe in American history. More than 140 police officers were injured during the attack on the Capitol, and nine people, either directly or indirectly, died as a result. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: These are the hostages approximately 1,500 for a pardon.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

TRUMP: Full pardon.

REPORTER: Full pardon or commutation?

TRUMP: Full pardon. So this is a big one.

Anything you want to explain about this? We hope they get him. We hope they come out tonight.

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HUNT: Frankly, Trump also directed the dismissal of the roughly 300 pending cases related to January 6th.

[05:15:05]

Joining us now, congressional reporter for "The Hill", Mychael Schnell.

Mychael, good morning.

What has been the reaction so far to this? We heard J.D. Vance earlier in the month say that he didn't expect violent offenders to be pardoned. And let's just play what Mike Johnson, the speaker of the house, had to say about this on "Meet the Press" on Sunday. Let's watch.

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KRISTEN WELKER, NBC NEWS HOST: Mr. Speaker, do you believe that someone who assaulted a law enforcement officer on January 6th deserves a pardon?

REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: No. I think what the president said and the Vice President-elect J.D. Vance, has said, is that peaceful protesters should be pardoned, but violent criminals should not. That's -- that's a simple determination.

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HUNT: Turns out they're all being pardoned.

MYCHAEL SCHNELL, CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER, THE HILL: Yeah. Let's look at the numbers here, right? Trump in the Oval Office said that he granted this full, unconditional pardon to 1,500 of these January 6th rioters, 1,583 were charged since January 6th. There's really no daylight between those two numbers, indicating that the vast majority of the folks who breached the Capitol and went into that building violently were charged. Now, this was something that did not come as a surprise in D.C. Of

course, this is something that Trump has been teasing for a while. It was one of his top campaign promises, going as far as to say he would do this on day one, but there's going to be a ton of outrage. I'm particularly interested in speaking with folks who served on the January 6th Select Committee, who spent tireless months going through the insurrection and looking at what happened and piecing together the details.

And let's also note the split screen here, Kasie. The pardon that Trump issued came just hours after former President Biden now issued those pardons for members and staff on the January 6th Select Committee. January 6th was four years ago, but clearly the effects and the impacts are still reverberating throughout Washington.

HUNT: Yeah. Well, and speaking of four years ago, let's just circle back to what Donald Trump had to say the day after January 6th. This was January 7th of 2021. Let's watch.

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TRUMP: I would like to begin by addressing the heinous attack on the United States Capitol. Like all Americans, I am outraged by the violence, lawlessness, and mayhem. The demonstrators who infiltrated the Capitol have defiled the seat of American democracy. To those who engaged in the acts of violence and destruction, you do not represent our country. And to those who broke the law, you will pay.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: To those who broke the law, you will pay. He says, I think the thing that I still am struggling to wrap my head around, obviously January 6th itself has become such a political kind of litmus test that this is now a Republican Party that is saying, oh, yeah, you want to assault the cops? Like, well forgive you for that because of why you did it.

SCHNELL: Yeah, it's almost one of those boxes you have to check. And it's the whitewashing of the attempt to whitewash what happened on that day. Everyone watched. It was a violent mob of pro-Trump protesters who stormed the building. And look, I spoke to lawmakers about this -- this split screen yesterday. I was talking to Congresswoman Madeleine Dean. She's a Democrat from Pennsylvania.

She was in the chamber on January 6th in 2021. And I asked her, how did it feel to now sit in the Capitol rotunda for Trump's inauguration? Four years after you were in that in the House chamber when that mob was unleashed.

HUNT: And blood was being literally smeared on the statues.

SCHNELL: Right. And watching him now be reinstated to that office. And she said, you know, it was difficult, but she thought it was important that she showed up because she wanted to show the resiliency of Congress, of herself, of the Democratic Party. I think this is a theme that we may see throughout this Trump administration, that Democrats may not agree with what's going on, but they're going to stand up to it because they want to show that they, you know, are resilient.

That's the word that Madeleine Dean used a few times. They are resilient and that they're willing to stand up to what's going on.

HUNT: All right. Mychael Schnell for us this morning -- Mychael, thanks very much for your reporting I appreciate it.

All right, still coming up after the break, Donald Trump, President Donald Trump finishing what he started withdrawing the U.S. from the World Health Organization, something that he tried to do before he first left office.

Plus, the Justice Department's four year probe into that 2021 attack on the Capitol basically wiped out as Trump pardons thousands of January 6th rioters.

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TRUMP: You know, it's action, not words that count. And you're going to see a lot of action on the J6 hostages.

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HUNT: All right, 23 minutes past the hour.

Here's your "Morning Roundup".

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The nomination of the great Senator Marco Rubio from the state of Florida is confirmed.

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HUNT: Marco Rubio becoming the first high level Trump cabinet official to be approved by the Senate. The Florida senator assuming the role of secretary of state after an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote, a unanimous vote 99 to 0. No senators voted against the nomination of one of their own.

Not quite a day one initiative as previously promised, but President Trump is considering 25 percent tariffs on Canada and Mexico on February 1st. During an Oval Office signing yesterday, Trump said it's because the two countries are letting drugs and migrants into the U.S. the move could end up raising prices for Americans.

And this --

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TRUMP: So we paid $500 million to World Health when I was here, and I terminated it.

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HUNT: President Trump pulling the United States out of the World Health Organization. The order states that it's because of the organizations handling of the pandemic. He tried to do away with it back in the summer of 2020, during the height of the COVID 19 pandemic. That move was halted by the Biden administration.

All right. Ahead here on CNN THIS MORNING: President Trump issuing that pile of executive orders on immigration, creating chaos and confusion for thousands of migrants and at least one Democratic governor.

[05:25:08]

Plus, the new president taking on what he calls the weaponization of government against the American people.

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TRUMP: In America, we believe in free speech, and we're bringing it back starting today, to stop the weaponization, oh, do I know about that?

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HUNT: All right. It is 5:29 here on the East Coast. Here's a live look at New Orleans, where it is 4:29 a.m. Apparently, they're expecting some snow in New Orleans, which is we think it's unusual here in Washington, D.C. It's even more unusual there.

Good morning, everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt.