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Trump Vows to Appeal Pause on Birthright Citizenship Order; Expected Rain Could Cause Mudslides after Fires in L.A. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired January 24, 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 Friday, January 24. Right now on CNN THIS MORNING.

[05:59:50]

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You are an American citizen if you were born on American soil, period. Nothing that the president can do will change that.

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HUNT: The first test. A judge blocks the Trump administration's birthright citizenship order. The president promising to appeal.

Plus --

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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If you don't make your product in America, then very simply, you will have to pay a tariff.

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HUNT: A warning to the world: President Trump urging global businesses to build in America, or else.

Then later --

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's obviously a "Hail Mary" at the end. And it's not going to work. Because he's going to get confirmed.

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HUNT: A final vote. Despite new revelations, the Senate advancing Pete Hegseth's nomination. Two Republicans say they'll vote no, but will that make a difference?

And releasing the files. President Trump ordering government to declassify the records surrounding the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

All right. It is 6 a.m. here on the East Coast. A live look at Capitol Hill on this Friday. We are back in a Trump administration. So, when Friday rolls around, you realize just how much longer the weeks start to feel.

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

As Donald Trump wraps up the first week of his second term, already, the nation is seeing this president take his very different approach to immigration.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement announcing the arrest of over 500 people on Thursday, among them multiple people working at a seafood distributor in Newark, New Jersey.

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LUIS JANOTA, BUSINESS OWNER (via phone): A couple of the guys couldn't show their identification. Three of them got arrested. Twenty-six years in business. I've never seen anything like this.

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HUNT: Newark's mayor claiming that ICE officers arrested both undocumented immigrants and American citizens in that raid.

In a statement, the mayor, Ras Baraka, writing this, quote, "One of the detainees is a U.S. military veteran who suffered the indignity of having the legitimacy of his military documentation questioned," end quote.

Immigration raids also occurring this week in Boston, something that Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey was asked about yesterday.

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GOV. MAURA HEALY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: I wouldn't describe them as raids. What it seems to be is what we expected and what I support, which is the apprehension of criminals in our communities.

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HUNT: Worth noting that Maura Healey is a Democrat.

Across the country, President Trump is facing new legal challenges to another key piece of his immigration plan: the push to end birthright citizenship.

A federal judge halting enforcement of the president's order, sounding almost exasperated as he did it, saying this: quote, "I've been on the bench for over four decades. I can't remember another case where the question presented was as clear as this one is. This is a blatantly unconstitutional order. Where were the lawyers when this decision was being made?" end quote. No surprise, President Trump saying he'll challenge the restraining

order and implying that the judge's decision was political.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, a U.S. judge temporarily blocks the birthright citizenship order. Do you have any reaction?

TRUMP: No. Obviously, we'll appeal it. They put it before a certain judge in Seattle, I guess. Right? And there's no surprises with that judge.

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HUNT: All right. Joining us now to discuss, our panel's here: Alex Thompson, CNN political analyst, national political reporter for Axios; Elliot Williams, CNN legal analyst, former federal prosecutor; Kate Bedingfield, CNN political commentator, former communications director for the Biden White House. And Mike Dubke, former communications director in the first Trump administration.

Welcome to all of you. Thank you, guys, so much for being here.

Elliot Williams, why don't I start with you on birthright citizenship? But this is kind of one piece of a broader, you know, push that we are seeing play out immediately here in the -- in the initial days.

Clearly, the Constitution says one thing. Trump is trying to do another thing with an executive order, but it has a lot of people concerned about what's going to happen if they're pregnant right now, they're not sure what the status of their baby is going to be.

What, in your view, is the status for those people? I mean, there's -- there's a temporary restraining order here. And is the goal just to get this to the Supreme Court, to actually just challenge it?

ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: The goal is certainly to get it to the Supreme Court.

Now, the status of those people right now is what it was two days ago or three days ago. Because of the fact that the judge has put in place a national hold on the executive order, at least for now, the law remains what it was.

But let's be clear. When you have a federal judge calling your action blatantly unconstitutional, you kind of screwed up. And whether it was merely to move the political needle or actually change the definition of birthright citizenship, we will find out.

But again, Kasie, to echo your point, this all comes from the 14th Amendment to the Constitution: All persons born or naturalized in the United States, subject to the jurisdiction thereof, shall be citizens of the United States.

That language is plainly clear on its face. And all the -- if you look at all of the fraught cases over the last decade or so, whether it's abortion or affirmative action or whatever else, there's some ambiguity in the law there. That's not here.

HUNT: This is pretty unambiguous.

WILLIAMS: This is, on its face, pretty clear. And the reason why it hasn't come up since 1898 in the Supreme Court is because nobody's challenging it, because its plain on its face. So --

[06:05:03]

HUNT: Yes. So, there you have it.

WILLIAMS: Here we go.

ALEX THOMPSON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Which means that some, in some ways, it's not as much of a legal challenge as a political --

WILLIAMS: Yes.

THOMPSON: -- ploy, right? I mean, they want this fight. They expected it to be appealed. And to your point, the -- they expect the Supreme Court -- they want it to go to the Supreme Court, because the longer that this fight is in the news, they think it's to their political benefit.

HUNT: So, we're seeing the tension here for this, this political side of the table in both of these instances. Right? The humanity of people who aren't sure if their kids who are born here are going to be able to be citizens because of this executive order.

These people in these raids who -- you know, the Newark mayor says was an American citizen or like a military veteran, right? These people who are going to have their lives impacted, possibly in really difficult and unfair ways, versus what you saw from Maura Healey, the governor of Massachusetts, who says, I -- actually, this is what I want, as well. I wouldn't even call them raids. I want these people apprehended. This is what the voters voted for.

I mean, Mike, what is the right -- I mean, obviously, voters want immigration enforcement. Can the president go too far at this point? Where is the line?

MIKE DUBKE, FORMER COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR IN FIRST TRUMP ADMINISTRATION: So, I think you're hearing from the governor of Massachusetts and -- and from the -- from the mayor. You're hearing exactly the debate that's happening in America.

And you're hearing the debate that was happening prior to the election. There's a lot of individual -- there are a lot of people that are really, you know, torn about how to handle immigration and how do you handle violence and immigration.

I -- look, I think this is -- you've got a president that is going to test the limits. This birthright citizenship is an example.

I mean, I -- I was shocked, shocked that lawyers disagree with each other on -- on this. Right? But you are going to see more and more and more of this, but you've

got a president that wants to test the limits. And you've got Americans that are truly conflicted when it comes to immigration. And how do we -- how do we deal with it? How do we deal with the millions?

WILLIAMS: Really interesting point about this debate that's been ongoing. This kind of enforcement action -- and I'm not using the word "raid." I will say "enforcement action" quite deliberately.

It was common in the Obama administration. At the very beginning of the administration, I was at ICE for -- for those four, frankly, five years.

In the beginning, workplace enforcement -- showing up at, whether it's the meatpacking plants or the factories or whatever else and sweeping people up -- were a common tactic.

Now, the administration stopped doing that by about April of 2009 because of exactly what I believe the mayor was talking about there, which is that you start sweeping up military veterans and so on, and it's just inefficient.

The approach that the Obama folks went to at a certain point was auditing the files of employers to make sure that the employers were actually checking who was working for them.

But it's a little bit going in with a hatchet rather than a scalpel when you just start sweeping people up, and you're going to see more of that for people who plainly should not be removed from the United States, but are getting caught up and having to go through the hassle of pulling out their -- their certificates from the military or whatever else.

KATE BEDINGFIELD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I do think Maura Healey is kind of largely in the right place here, though, for Democrats, which is, you know, especially for Democrats who are in executive office that, you know, they -- they take it seriously. They are focused on violent offenders.

I do think that you -- reading the results of the election in November, I think you'd be crazy to not say people are asking for tougher enforcement on immigration. So, I don't think Democrats should shy away from that.

Of course, I think they should show humanity. They should show empathy. I mean, the point of immigration enforcement should not be cruelty. I think this is where Democrats can really split with the Trump administration.

I think Trump seems sometimes to be quite gleeful in pursuing policies that are, you know, hurting young children or hurting young families.

You'll -- you will continue to see, I would imagine, more and more, you know, images of women with young children crying, because they don't know what is going to happen to their kid. I mean, there are human and painful images that emerge that Trump, I

think, sometimes comes across as seeming gleeful about. And that is where I think Democrats can -- can very aggressively split with him.

DUBKE: Yes. There are two words you're not hearing, though. "Sanctuary city." I'm not hearing sanctuary cities coming from Democrats right now, because I think exactly because --

HUNT: With the possible exception of Denver. I mean, they've been pretty -- you know, the Denver mayor.

DUBKE: The mayor said he's already going -- ready to go to jail to Tom Homan.

HUNT: I've been taking them out. Yes.

THOMPSON: But -- but to your point, there is every political incentive for a lot of Democrats to end up -- to try to stand up to the Trump administration when they start doing these orders. And when we start seeing these images, potentially, of families being split up, potentially, you know -- you know, this gleeful nature.

And so, I think you're going to actually see a bunch of Democrats, not even just Denver. I think you're going to see a bunch of Democrats across the country try to actually stand up to some of these actions.

HUNT: Yes. Elliot, let me ask you about this. Just because the one pregnant woman talked to "The Independent," the newspaper "The Independent." And her name is Monica.

Monica and her husband arrived in the U.S. from Venezuela six years ago. They've been building a life, trying to do everything to make their home here. They're in the process of seeking asylum.

Obviously, Venezuela has had so much political violence and challenges. Working, paying taxes. "We were able to buy a home," she said. "We had reached a point of stability in this country and wanted to have a child."

She's now 12 weeks pregnant. "I should be worried about the health of my child. I should be thinking about that," she said. Instead, she is stressed, anxious and depressed, facing "reality that my child might not be able to become a U.S. citizen."

And I guess, I mean, you note that there was this stay, but there were -- there was a period of time there where babies were born, and this executive order was in effect. What does it mean?

WILLIAMS: It shows the arbitrariness of how it was all written. Were that baby born a month ago, that baby would have been a United States citizen without question, even under this executive order.

It was quite deliberate that some of the immigration groups that filed suits named pregnant women as plaintiffs, knowing that this sort of legal limbo was going to come up and they could present to the courts that, you know, look at the mess that this has created for people who plainly, by any reading of the Constitution, are -- are citizens and will be citizens of the United States.

You don't have to like it. If you don't like it, amend the Constitution; get, you know, two-thirds of the states to -- to agree to it. But this is the law. It has been since the founding of the nation. And make it work.

HUNT: Do you have an answer for if there's a baby that was born under these circumstances, like on Tuesday morning at midnight after this executive order was in effect, but before the stay? Do they have a problem?

WILLIAMS: No, I don't think they have a problem because -- because the stay. It will all depend on how the judge enforces the stay. Does it go retroactively to the signing of the order?

But it's -- it's a mess now. That child will have a right to sue if somebody dares say they're not a citizen.

HUNT: What a mess. OK.

Coming up here on CNN THIS MORNING, an America first ultimatum, President Trump issuing his most direct tariff threat yet.

Plus, eliminating government waste. Congresswoman Melanie Stansbury, who serves as ranking member on the new DOGE subcommittee. Here to discuss.

And as a new fire rages in Southern California today, the president will head to Los Angeles to tour the damage and apparently speak to Governor Newsom for the first time since 2020.

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GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM (D-CA): I certainly plan on being there at the tarmac and -- and look forward to continuing to work, not just with him, the administration, as it relates to the disaster recovery.

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[06:16:47]

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TRUMP: Many, many things have been unfair for many years to the United States.

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HUNT: President Donald Trump now taking his second-term message overseas. He spoke virtually to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, yesterday for more than 40 minutes.

He listed many of his "America First" grievances about U.S. trade deals, and he again threatened to slap tariffs on our neighbors to the North.

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TRUMP: My message to every business in the world is very simple: Come make your product in America, and we will give you among the lowest taxes of any nation on earth.

If you don't make your product in America, which is your prerogative, then very simply, you will have to pay a tariff.

I say you can always become a state, and if you're a state, we won't have a deficit. We won't have to tariff you, et cetera, et cetera.

But Canada has been very tough to deal with over the years. We don't need them to make our cars, and they make a lot of them. We don't need their lumber because we have our own forests, et cetera, et cetera. We don't need their oil and gas.

HUNT: Mike Dubke, I don't know if he's called General Motors lately, which makes some of its most bestselling cars in Canada.

But this is clearly a tactic that he uses, right? What real-world impact do you think it will have?

DUBE: I think it's going to have -- I actually do think the rhetoric matters, and there is going to be some real-world impact here.

Major corporations are going to look: what can we do to open up operations in the United States?

You're right about GM, but you're -- you know, Honda, BMW, all these other manufacturers make their SUVs in the United States. So, all of this does --

HUNT: In right-to-work states.

DUBKE: In right-to-work states. But all of this does -- does matter. You know, he's got a very strong made in America platform. And that's what he's doubling down on. And he's taking it, you know, right into the belly of the beast at Davos.

BEDINGFIELD: But this is kind of a rerun. I mean, we saw a lot of this tough talk from him in his first administration. We saw a lot of promises about bringing manufacturing back to the United States. And it didn't really happen.

HUNT: Ask the people in Lordstown, Ohio.

BEDINGFIELD: Right. Exactly. Right. Or the -- the Foxconn plant in Wisconsin that was supposed to be a huge job creator that never materialized.

So, you know, the rhetoric is -- is one thing, but the reality is another. And I think, you know, threatening -- threatening tariffs that are ultimately probably going to drive up prices for American consumers, that's going to create a real political pain point for him very quickly. And he's going to have to make decisions about whether he -- whether the rhetoric is worth being -- looking the American people in the eye and saying, you know, prices are going up because of what I did.

And so, I -- you know, it's easy to -- it's easy to -- to bluster in your virtual address to Davos in the second week of your presidency. But the reality of some of what he's proposing here will mean higher prices for people in the United States.

DUBKE: Just a really quick point on this, though. When is this happening? Like in the first administration, Trump 1.0, it was a year, a little later into the administration. He was getting his feet under him. This is now what we're seeing is a confident Donald Trump. And we're seeing him straight out of the gate. What are we, five days into the presidency now?

We are seeing him straight out of the gate, going to several of the places, as you point out, that this -- we've already seen this, but it was -- he was trying to figure it out in 1.0.

Two-point-oh, this is -- we're on steroids at the moment. We're just blasting through, you know, several of the plays that -- that he ran in four years ago.

HUNT: He knows a lot more about manipulating the levers of power.

DUBKE: Yes, sure.

[06:20:09]

HUNT: All right. Coming up here on CNN THIS MORNING, rain expected in Southern California. You would think that would be good news because of the wildfires. And it may help in that way.

But we'll tell you why that rain could cause even more problems for L.A.

Plus, President Trump's first days back in office came with a slew of pardons and executive orders. Michael Smerconish -- it's Friday -- he'll join us to break it all down.

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HUNT: All right. Welcome back. Firefighters in Southern California grappling with new wildfires this week. Now, though, it does look like rain is heading that way.

However, it could also cause more problems like mudslides on the charred areas. So, people are putting out thousands of sandbags to try to protect what they have left.

[06:25:04]

Let's get to meteorologist Allison Chinchar with more on this. Allison, good morning.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: And good morning. Yes, we've got a lot of active fires to talk about in two separate regions of California. Here, you can see this is in and around the Los Angeles area. You've got six particular fires here, none of which are back up to 100 percent containment.

So, that is certainly something we are going to have to keep a close eye on.

Now, if we head a little bit farther down to the South, now down near San Diego, you also have several fires here. All of these three, however, are at 0 percent containment.

Now the winds are expected to improve as we go through the day today. So that is some good news, especially for the firefighters.

Right now, you still have a couple that are in, like, the teens and even the low 20 mile-per-hour range. And that is expected, because we do still have the red flag warning up until 10 a.m. Pacific Time this morning.

We could still have some of those winds around 40 miles per hour on the Northern side, up to 60 miles per hour on the Southern side.

But that goes away by this afternoon. And we finally start to see those winds calming back down.

We also see something else going back down, and that's the temperatures. Notice today the high in the 70s. But then the rest of the week is actually below average.

But the most important thing that's on this chart is the rain chances. It should begin in the back half of the day Saturday for Southern California, and then continue through the day Sunday, and maybe even the wee hours of Monday morning.

And that's good news. They need the rain to really help out. Most of these areas, you're looking at a half of an inch, maybe in some isolated spots, up to one inch total.

Snowpack is also going to be -- pick up a little bit here. You'll see a lot of the snowfall for the higher elevations.

But yes, Kasie, the big concern here is, if that rain comes down too quickly, it could end up triggering some flash flooding and also some mudslides around the burn scar areas.

HUNT: Tough to hear. People in L.A. could really use some relief.

Allison Chinchar for us this morning. Allison, thanks very much for that.

Still coming up after the break, President Donald Trump looking to slim down the government with his new so-called Department of Government Efficiency. We're going to talk to the top Democrat on the congressional subcommittee that deals with DOGE, Congresswoman Melanie Stansbury.

Plus, today, Congress will take the final vote on whether to confirm Pete Hegseth to lead the Pentagon.

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SEN. SUSAN COLLINS (R-ME): I do believe the president deserves deference, but obviously, I take seriously the advise-and-consent role assigned to the Senate.

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