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Inside Politics

Tomorrow: Lawmakers To Certify 2024 Election Results; Johnson Tells Lawmakers In Closed-Door Meeting That Trump Wants To Pass One Sweeping Bill On Taxes, Border, Energy; Dramatic Speaker Vote Signals Challenges Ahead For GOP. Trump Contends with Court, Attacks Mid- Transition; Trump Falsely Connects New Orleans Attack to Border; Final Goodbyes Being for Former President Jimmy Carter; Historic Firsts: 119th Congress Breaks Barriers in 2025. Aired 8-9a ET

Aired January 05, 2025 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:03]

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: All right. Listen to this. The Vikings reportedly spent 2 million bucks to buy about 1,900 seats behind their own teams bench there in Detroit to give them that playoff atmosphere for themselves. That according to "Sports Illustrated", talk about a creative way to give your team an edge with a huge game.

DANNY FREEMAN, CNN HOST: That's awesome. He's my hero. That guy.

AMARA WALKER, CNN HOST: Oh, man, he's going to for sure be a meme, right, on social media.

Coy, good to see you.

Thank you for being with us this weekend.

INSIDE POLITICS WITH MANU RAJU is next.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(MUSIC)

MANU RAJU, CNN HOST (voice-over): House of cards. Mike Johnson gets across the finish line in dramatic fashion.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So help you god.

REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: I do.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Congratulations, Mr. Speaker.

RAJU: After a little help from Donald Trump.

JOHNSON: The people want an America First agenda.

RAJU: Is Trump's power growing or hanging by a thread? My panel will join me. And four years later, for the first time since the attack on the Capitol, lawmakers returned to certify this election.

REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D-NY): There are no election deniers on our side of the aisle.

RAJU: Harris is set to preside over her own defeat. What's changed since that day and what to watch tomorrow? Harry Enten joins me at the magic wall.

Plus, a presidential legacy. Georgia mourns the death of Jimmy Carter as thousands prepare to remember him in Washington.

INSIDE POLITICS, the best reporting from inside the corridors of power, starts now.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

RAJU (on camera): Good morning. Welcome to INSIDE POLITICS SUNDAY. I'm Manu Raju.

We're just 15 days from the presidential inauguration. And tomorrow is January 6th, the anniversary of the Capitol attack just four years ago, the day that Congress will vote to certify Donald Trump as the winner of the 2024 election. His allies in the House have been behind closed doors all weekend to build their strategy to advance Trump's agenda.

And I'm told by sources inside the room this weekend that Speaker Johnson told GOP lawmakers that Trump wants one sweeping package combining everything from taxes to energy policy to immigration restrictions into one high stakes do or die vote.

Now, the strategy will take months to unfold and will put Trump at odds with the new Senate Republican leader, John Thune, who has been preparing a narrower approach. And it risks pushing the slimmest of majorities to its breaking point.

Now, the limits of that majority were just tested in that dramatic vote on Friday, which further revealing deep divisions and tensions within the GOP as it prepares to govern. Yet in the end, it was Trump who got on the phone with Speaker Johnson's GOP detractors, flex his power and helped get Johnson reelected as speaker on just one ballot.

But his hardliners tried to derail Johnson's speakers bid. The anger within the GOP was intensifying, giving us a preview of Trump's return to single party rule.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. DAN MEUSER (R-PA): I think they are somehow or another, asking for attention as well as negotiating for themselves rather than for their constituents or their country.

REP. DALE STRONG (R-AL): Some people right now are putting their personal self in front of this country. REP. STEVE WOMACK (R-AR): There will be many an opportunity over the

course of the next several months as we prosecute our agenda to stumble and to shoot ourselves in the foot. We can't rely on help from the left, so we got to carry this on our own.

REP. DERRICK VAN ORDEN (R-WI): This is not show friends, it's show business. We're given a mandate by the American people.

REP. LAUREN BOEBERT (R-CO): If there's enough compromise that is damaging to the agenda, then there -- there very well could be a motion to vacate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: All right, let's break this all down with a great panel this morning. Margaret Talev of "Axios", "Washington Post's" Maeve Reston, Olivia Beavers, soon to be a Congress reporter for "The Wall Street Journal", and CNN's Harry Enten.

Olivia, congratulations on the new job. Very exciting. Yeah, it's great.

And because you have a new job and I'm congratulating you, I get to ask you the first question.

OLIVIA BEAVERS, INCOMING CONGRESS REPORTER, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: Good. Let's go.

RAJU: All right. So, well, I want to start with where we ended in that sound bite of Lauren Boebert. She was -- she's a conservative from Colorado. She warned Mike Johnson very clearly about compromise. And if he goes too far with Democrats, there could be another effort to oust him.

There's just so much tension. There was which was revealed in this vote. And getting a speaker elected is one thing.

BEAVERS: Yes.

RAJU: Moving a policy agenda, a highly complex one with the narrowest of majorities and the divisions that we saw is a totally different question.

BEAVERS: Yes. Well, I think that we saw a preview of what's to come, which is conservatives are trying to figure out what their leverage is in the years of Donald Trump. And so far, it wasn't really a stand. It was short, fleeting. They made their point. But what concessions did they gain?

They basically got commitments that that Mike Johnson will work with them and not lean too hard with Democrats. But these are going to be the realities of him governing in the coming years. So I think -- you're going to see Donald Trump weighing in and helping Mike Johnson navigate some tough agenda votes.

But the question is, when do these conservatives start breaking and pushing back in a way that is really meaningful and pushes back in a way that holds up Trump's agenda, because that's where the clash is going to happen.

RAJU: And we saw Trump using his influence the way he did to try to get a couple of Republicans to break, to flip. And he did. He effectively called two members. They were in. They didn't call the final vote for quite some time and then ultimately got those two members to flip and support Mike Johnson, getting him over the finish line by the narrowest of majorities.

Here's how some of those Republicans talked about Trump's influence on the GOP, and at that critical vote.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: And what did Trump say to you? He said that Mike Johnson is the most likable person.

REP. RALPH NORMAN (R-SC): He was -- he said -- he said, look, I'm in the middle of a golf game. That was the first time I talked to him. Then he said -- Mr. President, I hate to (ph). He said, well, you did vote for Nikki Haley. I said, yes, sir, I did. We're with you now.

REP. KEITH SELF (R-TX): We had a lively discussion.

REP. TROY NEHLS (R-TX): I think Mike Johnson truly understands that he wouldn't even have the gavel if it weren't for Donald Trump. I mean, what makes you think we were going to keep the House of Representatives without Trump at the top of the ticket? I think Trump gave us the gavel.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: I mean, this is a different dynamic for Trump coming in to single party rule than it was back in 2017 with single party rule, because a lot of Republicans say, credit Trump, and he's remade the GOP in his image, too.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: Absolutely right. And we'll get to that a little bit later on when were over there at the magic wall. But look, Donald Trump is a far more popular figure than he was eight -- eight years ago within the Republican Party. His enemies within the Republican Party are adios, amigos.

And I think, you know, in an era in which, you know, people basically fill out the same party up and down the ballot, I think its a fair point to say that the Republicans would not have the majority if not for Donald Trump. And more than that, you know, it's going to be very interesting to see what happens not three months down the line, but more like six, nine, 12 months down the line. When this honeymoon period starts to wear off a little bit.

RAJU: That's a long time to have a honeymoon, 12 months.

ENTEN: Especially for Donald Trump. It lasted about two weeks back in 2017, so we'll just have to wait and see whether or not the power that Trump really has within the GOP right now is able to sustain itself. For the -- for Mike Johnson, he better hope it does, because as you were mentioning at the top, he has the narrowest majority going into a first session since 1917, when you have to go back before pretty much anyone in the United States who's currently living was still alive.

You are in a very, very historic state, and we'll see if Mike Johnson is able to hold it. Who knows?

RAJU: Not only does he have to keep, you know, he's got to keep the vulnerable members in swing districts. Mike Johnson does, on one side. He has also to keep the hardliners that Olivia was talking about earlier, also on the same page. And they want things that are much different than the rest of the conference. Just look at the people who held out in the first reading of the speaker vote. There were nine Republicans.

Ultimately, that's now the magic number to actually initiate a motion to vacate the speaker of the House. Under the new rules that were just adopted. It used to be one. And that's what led to the ouster of Kevin McCarthy back in the last Congress.

And then there was just the warnings that were that were by those similar members of the on the far right, the House Freedom Caucus, saying, we voted for Mike Johnson for speaker because of our steadfast support of President Trump and to ensure the timely certification of his electors. We did this despite our sincere reservations regarding the speaker's track record over the past 15 months.

And then they went out to lay out a number of demands that are, you know, well see if they're able to accomplish that, but they will be very difficult. Everything from deep spending cuts to what they consider a fully secure border. Border banning stock member trading, that's obviously something that's been division -- divided Republicans and Democrats for some time, among a whole other host of issues.

It's a warning shot for the speaker.

MARGARET TALEV, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yeah, I mean, he's there by the grace of Donald Trump and sort of closing the door behind them. They have made his position a little bit more solidified. If he's going to be toppled, he's got to come from within the Republican ranks. But as you can see, there's still a number of sharks circling.

One of the really interesting things to watch as part of all of this, and you've been reporting on it is going to be what appears to be Trump's strategic call to say, hey, give me one big, beautiful, glowing, throbbing bill of stuff that's going to be really hard to pass in the Senate, too.

The plan had been -- their plan had been to do kind of a border and energy thing and then go to Trump's desire to extend his tax cuts and stuff, if they really do try to roll it all into one ball.

[08:10:02]

At least the conventional wisdom says it's going to be much harder to get anything done.

RAJU: Yeah.

TALEV: And those fault lines around the tax policies, which are very, very expensive debt limit, you know, we could do a whole show on. Yeah. Just on that. But that is -- that might be what tests Harry's proposition before the nine-month mark. That's why we could see maybe four months, five months into it, real drama.

RAJU: It is. Absolutely. And just to take a step back about what ultimately Trump signaled to the House GOP.

Look, there had been a debate about sequencing the Trump agenda. And that may sound like, you know, not you know, not really that significant. It is significant because that typically the honeymoon period goes away. The party puts all of its emphasis over the first piece of legislation and then other issues start to take shape, like the midterm elections. And it becomes much harder to legislate.

And what they decided yesterday is for Trump to say, Trump told the Republican leadership that he's willing to go and lump everything in into one big bill. That includes energy policy, that includes border restrictions, that includes tax policy that is different than what many Senate Republicans wanted, including the leader, the new majority leader, John Thune, who wanted just a quick win on border and energy policy because he thought it could happen quickly, tax policy. You add that in there, it becomes complicated. And then the whole ship could sink. That is the real concern.

MAEVE RESTON, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, THE WASHINGTON POST: Yeah, and it's -- you know, it's President-elect Trump once again creating sort of more drama for himself that will play out over the next couple of months. But, you know, I mean, I think the other thing that we have to remember is that that he -- he made so many promises on the campaign trail that were going to be so difficult to fulfill. You know, the largest mass deportations in history, and so, to lump all of these complex things into one package.

I mean, it's just very hard to see when there's so much, you know, disagreement even within the Republican caucus over what immigration policy should, should go into effect. What does it look for the border to be secure?

RAJU: And will it go far enough for certain members?

RESTON: And will it go far enough? I mean, it's just -- it sounds like a gargantuan task that that the president-elect is making much harder than he had to.

RAJU: And there are these big deadlines that are coming up. Remember, mid-March, they got to fund the government because they punted that issue until mid-March and then the debt limit. I mean, that is going to be so complex.

Trump now wants to do away with it. But they reached an agreement right before recess that they're going to cut more than a trillion in spending as part of this package. So they're going to add that on top of it and cutting spending -- yes. It sounds like they agree in principle. But when you get into the details, that causes massive division.

BEAVERS: It totally causes massive division. And also it seems like their plan to, you know, say that they're going to help Trump get what he was demanding before Mike Johnson passed the government spending plan. I don't think it's going to happen. That's a really tough, you know, endeavor that they were promising that they're going to do those cuts in as they raise the debt ceiling.

So where does that blame fall?

RAJU: Yeah.

BEAVERS: Is that on Mike Johnson? Is that on his negotiator behind closed doors? We'll find out.

ENTEN: I just feel like were going to find out how much all this bravado of the big, beautiful majority meets reality, right? You know, you're dealing with a record small majority in the House. Even in the Senate, what are you dealing with, 53 seats.

And so you have these deadlines combined, and you put all of it together. And, look, it could end up being that this is the most successful first 100 days of all time.

RAJU: Sure.

ENTEN: But if I was an insurance salesman, I would be certainly trying to sell the GOP take out some insurance because things could fall apart rather quickly.

RAJU: And what if they come? The Treasury Department comes and says, you know, they have not projected when the U.S. would default on its debt. And that is one of the big questions. They've got to assess revenues and taxes. What if they come back and say, this is going to have to happen in the first quarter of the year?

TALEV: Who? Who?

RAJU: Yes.

TALEV: I think we were thinking everyone had until June 2.

RAJU: But you never know. That's the whole point. You never know. So they're playing all this stuff with so much uncertainty.

TALEV: Yeah, there is a lot of uncertainty. And, you know, I but I think. Trump, the president elect, comes in as a lame duck because this is his second time around. He's got two years, not four years to do things.

And he doesn't really have two years. He has like a year and a half. So tactically he has to come out of the gate as quickly as possible. And probably tactically, he knows he's got a better chance of getting tax stuff done if it gets rolled in with the other stuff and almost no chance without it because it's so expensive and it was expensive the first time around.

RAJU: But that's the question. The lame duck aspect of it, at what point does that set in for some of these members who are going to be worried about self-preservation more than loyalty to Trump?

RESTON: Yeah, and, you know, you have it seems fairly likely just based on historical norms, that we will, you know, we could potentially see a swing in the direction of the Democrats in the midterms, or that's what they're hoping anyway.

[08:15:07]

RAJU: Typically, the first midterm of a new election of a new presidency goes to the other party.

RESTON: Right. And, you know, and there's a lot of -- there's going to be a lot of really difficult races. And so, you know, they're going to be looking at, at their imperatives and, you know, Trump as you said, only has, you know, about a year and a half. And there are a lot of Democrats out there who are just raring to make as much trouble as they can and make the midterms very difficult.

RAJU: Yes, a month, a year and a half, I would suggest much less than that. Harry said six, nine months.

ENTEN: Maybe it's tomorrow.

RAJU: Maybe it's tomorrow, maybe it's longer. It's going to be a lot to unpack in the weeks ahead.

All right. Coming up, Vice President Kamala Harris is set to preside over her own election defeat tomorrow, as Donald Trump's victory is set to be certified exactly four years after the Capitol attack.

Harry Enten over here will be at the magic wall to break that all down.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

RAJU: Tomorrow, Congress will meet in a joint session to certify the 2024 election.

[08:20:04]

A once uneventful part of the presidential transition process became a day of infamy from the events of exactly four years ago tomorrow. Of course, that's when a violent mob infiltrated the Capitol as President Trump protested his loss in a free and fair election.

It was a moment that many on both sides of the aisle thought would end Trump's political power for good. But here we are, four years later, preparing to see the former president and president elect take the final step in the election process and secure his second term.

So how exactly did we get here?

Well, CNN senior data reporter Harry Enten has crunched the numbers and is here to explain.

So, Harry, a lot has changed in four years, especially when it comes to Trump and the GOP.

Walk us through it.

ENTEN: Yeah. All right. So you know, remember after January 6th, what do we have? We had the impeachment of Donald Trump. And then of course, we had the trial in the United States Senate. I want you to take a look at Republican who voted to impeach or convict Trump in his second impeachment or impeachment trial.

You know, you go back to January or February of 2021. What was it? It was 17. You know, that's a significant chunk of folks, right, Manu? It wasn't -- it wasn't most of the GOP didn't. But 17 is a pretty big number here.

RAJU: Absolutely.

ENTEN: And then you go to January of 2025. How many of those folks are still in the United States Congress? It's just five. It's just five. Pretty much the ones who did were all run out of town. There are just two House members, three Senate members who remain.

The bottom line is this. And we'll say it over and over and over again. This is Donald Trump's Republican Party. That's why he could pick up the phone, make those calls to ensure that Mike Johnson held on to his speakership.

But it's not just within the Republican Party. It's nationally among the general populace as well. So take a look at Donald Trump's net favorable rating. Take a look here. Trump's net favorability rating, you go back to January of 2021. Donald Trump was way underwater, way underwater at minus 20 points. That's your favorable minus your unfavorable.

Look, he's still a little bit underwater, but he's now at minus one point. He's considerably more popular.

So, folks who are writing off Donald Trump's political career, writing his political obituary, he rose from the grave. He almost looks like one of those WWE characters, right, who kind of rose up. And that is what Donald Trump has did. He's right now broke even -- he's about as popular with the American public, Manu, than he has ever been.

RAJU: Wow. And he's been talking about on the first day when he comes into office pardoning all these January 6th prisoners.

How does that fare with the American public's view?

ENTEN: How does that fare? Well, I will tell you, it ain't popular. It ain't popular. Donald Trump may be more popular than he's ever been, but the idea of

him pardoning these January 6th protesters is, simply put, not a popular proposition.

You look, overall, it's 33 percent. It's 33 percent. Look at the opposition, 59 percent of the American public. You barely get 59 percent of the American public to agree on anything.

But they do agree on opposing Trump pardoning the January 6th protesters, even among the Republican Party. Look at this number. Yes, it's two thirds who support it at 67 percent. But, you know, Donald Trump's favorable rating within the Republican Party is like 85 to 90.

RAJU: Yeah, that's low for Trump.

ENTEN: This is low for Trump. You have this 21 percent who are opposed to it. That is a pretty significant chunk of folks who are opposed to it.

So, yes, Republicans like Donald Trump, but they aren't necessarily in love with the idea of pardoning, certainly not overall. Now, you may be asking yourself, okay, how the heck, then did Donald Trump win that election back in November, right, given that you see this support and you see this opposition among the American public and most Americans, I will note in our CNN poll said that they expected that Trump was going to try and find him.

How did it work then? Well, take a look at January 6th memories. Take a look here.

All right. January 6th is the biggest memory of Trump's first term. Look at this.

RAJU: Wow.

ENTEN: It's just five.

RAJU: That is that is something.

ENTEN: It's just 5 percent. I mean, most folks, simply put, were willing to dismiss it without much of an issue. And among Republicans, what do we see? It was just 2 percent.

So even though you had that significant chunk of Republicans who said we oppose it, even though the vast majority of Americans opposed it, the bottom line when it came to November, even when it comes now, most Americans simply put, Manu, are not thinking about it.

RAJU: And of course, everything that happened on January 6th, 2021, was because of Trump sowing doubts over free and fair election.

How does that view, how is that in line with the way American public views? What happened in the 2020 elections?

ENTEN: Yeah, I mean this to me, you know, remember he brought along Republicans. And this is just such a fascinating trend line. The 2020 votes were cast or counted accurately. You go back to 2021. This is among Republicans. It was 31 percent.

You look just before this election, October of 2024, it was 32 percent, basically the same number. Then, all of a sudden, December of 2024, it jumps up to 44 percent.

Well, what the heck happened? Well, what happened was Donald Trump won the November 2024 election. All of a sudden, folks were far more likely to believe, hey, wait a minute. Those votes were cast and counted accurately.

[08:25:01]

But here, I think, is the biggest thing, the biggest sort of takeaway, which was election votes cast are counted accurately -- the 2020 election, remember we mentioned Republicans at 44 percent, Democrats were at 89 percent in the 2020 election. Not a big surprise. Joe Biden won that.

But look at the 2024 election. Look at Republicans. 94 percent of Republicans believe that the 2024 votes were cast and counted accurately. Democrats saw a drop off from 89 to 73.

But again, Democrats are far more likely to believe that even if their side lost, that the results were counted, results were accurately reflective of the people's wills than Republicans were, Manu.

RAJU: All right. The wizard Harry Enten breaking it all down. Thank you.

ENTEN: Thank you.

RAJU: Let's -- let's talk about a little bit more at this panel.

Olivia, you were at the Capitol on January 6th. I was also in the Capitol on January 6th.

And I remember talking to a lot of Republicans at the time. They thought Trump was done. They did not think he was going to come back at all. They were disgusted about what happened. They were disgusted, frankly, at Trump's actions in the run up and everything that happened in the aftermath of him trying to overturn the election.

But talk about the way that Republicans have systematically rewritten the narrative about what happened on January 6th and how that has happened since over the last four years.

BEAVERS: I think around six months after the Capitol attack. That's when I started realizing there was sort of this online push of undermining, challenging and rewriting what happened on January 6th. It wasn't as bad as -- as it was claimed in the media. It -- people weren't armed and the media was inflating it.

Then, it sort of percolated into House Republicans psyche, where they were sort of dismissing it as well. I think that there was a feeling like every Republican was being unfairly blamed for what happened that day among the House GOP. And so they started pushing away. I think what the important lesson of that day was, and tried to kind of put it in the corner.

But then you saw Biden using it again and again on the campaign trail, talking about January 6th, talking about the important need to protect democracy. And that made some of the Republicans, especially sort of the far right corner, push even further away.

But that's why I also think it was really important to have people like you and me there, because we saw how horrendous that day was. It was chaotic, and I don't -- I still don't even have like a very y good idea of the chain of events. But I do remember how terrified people were and that we were holding pens, and in order to prepare ourselves of being attacked, if we went into the Capitol hallway.

So you were hearing gas canisters going off, you were hearing gunshots, and sometimes you couldn't discern what was happening. And so I'm really glad that reporters captured it.

RAJU: Yeah.

RESTON: And this is -- I mean, this is what -- what Donald Trump has been so brilliant at is, you know, is just whitewashing history. And every so many of his interviews that he does when he's asked about January 6th, he makes false assertions about what happened.

RAJU: Day of love.

RESTON: Didn't happen. It was the day of love, exactly. And I think that, you know, its been interesting to watch, obviously, as -- as we mentioned, the vice president will certify the electoral votes on Monday. It's been interesting to see President Biden kind of trying over the last week to remind people, whether it was awarding the Medal of Honor to -- the medal of --

RAJU: Liz Cheney.

RESTON: Liz Cheney.

RAJU: Yeah.

RESTON: There are so many medals this week, for valor, honor, that -- yeah, that and making, you know, making a point in his remarks that 2020 was a fair and free election, also honoring Bennie Thompson, both of them got a standing ovation in the room.

And, you know, and Kamala Harris on Monday that she really believes this is an important part of sort of restoring historic norms and getting people back to a place where they see these elements of a peaceful transfer of power. And it's really like sort of one of the last acts that the Biden administration is able to do is to kind of, restore things to the way they were before Donald Trump.

RAJU: I think one of the polls that Harry was talking about was actually really revelatory. Look at how January 6th is the biggest memory of Trump's first term, 5 percent of voters overall view that as the biggest memory of Trump's first term, 2 percent of Republicans.

But the 5 percent the Democrats made democracy and all the rest central to their campaigns. It didn't register with voters.

TALEV: It didn't work long term, and there may be a couple reasons. I mean, to your point, there has been -- it's not an accidental. It's been a very strategic effort by the president-elect now to change the way this is perceived. That's really only worked within his party.

I mean, if you look overall at the way Americans view January 6th, there's still something like nearly half of Americans think this was a violent insurrection. You saw those numbers. Only a third think that the January 6th protesters should be pardoned, or the ones who committed crimes.

Almost 4 in 10 Americans think that Trump himself did something illegal. So the history around this among American voters still really is divided. But our psychology as human beings and as voters is really interesting.

Even just four years back, the things you remember and the things you don't, I think the period of intense inflation and the rising price of goods and people's just desire to shut off COVID and make all of those memories go away.

All of this has also contributed to the things that we remember as voters and the things that we don't, and the things that people want to get back to. And a lot of voters we saw in the polling made that judgment.

I would take the chaos around Trump term one, if it means more money in my pocket. We're going to see how long that memory lasts. We're about to find out.

But right now, those the post-Trump years and the inflationary pressures that came with it erased a lot of the psychology that existed right after.

MANU RAJU, CNN HOST: Such a good point. And much more to come on that.

And be sure to tune in tomorrow. CNN will have live coverage as Congress certifies the election results.

And when we come back, President Biden sends a parting message to President-Elect Trump in his final days in office.

[08:31:13]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

RAJU: Presidential transitions can be uneventful, but this time we saw a deadly ISIS-inspired terrorist attack on New Year's Day, which killed 14 in New Orleans. President Biden is headed to New Orleans with the families of the victims.

Trump, meanwhile, has been faulting Biden's border policies as the culprit, even though that suspect behind the attack was a U.S. citizen. But Biden himself has also made his own points as he plans to leave the public scene. Just yesterday, awarding the Medal of Freedom to Hillary Clinton, among others. And then earlier in the week, handing out the Presidential Citizen's Medal to Liz Cheney, a clear rebuke of the incoming president, who had suggested that Cheney should be jailed for her lead role in investigating the January 6th attack.

And then there is Trump's criminal sentencing in his hush money conviction on 34 counts of financial crimes. That will happen this Friday, a decision that infuriated Trump even though he is not expected to face any jail time.

My panel is back.

Let's start with the Liz Cheney aspect of it all, giving her the award last week along with Bennie Thompson. Both of them leaders of the January 6th Select Committee.

Trump, while the Speaker's vote was playing out on the House floor, posted on social media what was really on his mind was Liz Cheney. And he went after the decision by Biden to give her that medal, among other things.

In this long post, he says Biden rewarded her only because she hated, quote, "TRUMP" in all caps. What was Biden's -- was Biden doing this to send a message to Trump?

MAEVE RESTON, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, "WASHINGTON POST": Absolutely, you know, and I think that that there's a -- you know, Trump in recent interviews has said that members of the committee, including Liz Cheney, should be in jail.

And you know, Biden in a not at all subtle way by awarding her this Presidential Citizen's Medal, which is, you know, one of the highest honors, spoke of her courage and really made it clear that she played a pivotal role in American history by sort of standing up against her party.

And the room there at the White House. There's just -- there was so much sort of adulation for her. And, you know, at one point when John Kerry was recognized, he like tapped his heart and, and pointed to her to sort of emphasize the importance of her role.

But at the same time, as we were just talking about, you know, the work of the January 6th committee really didn't ultimately change many minds. And a lot of Democrats had hoped that that would, you know, help tip the election in their favor.

But it is I think that President Biden does feel that some of these final acts need to recognize the people who did stand up to Trump.

OLIVIA BEAVERS, INCOMING CONGRESS REPORTER, "WALL STREET JOURNAL": It's not just that, though. I think Biden -- there's no love lost between Biden and Trump. And I think Biden in his final days is using some opportunities to take shots. He seemed to be making comments when he was eulogizing Jimmy Carter and saying different things about how, in ways that seemed like they were digs at Donald Trump's character and leadership.

But the other is also how Donald Trump handled the New Orleans attack, saying we're not going to jump to assumptions.

And so I think that this is also just a few last shots that he gets to take as president for the incoming president.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL DATA REPORTER: I would just say the reason that Joe Biden won the Democratic nomination back in 2020 was to stop Donald Trump. He was seen as the most electable candidate.

He was elected back in 2020 because folks want to stop Donald Trump. Who's going to be the president in, you know, like 15 days? I think it's going to be Donald Trump.

The bottom line is this. Joe Biden failed -- failed at the number one reason that he won the Democrat nomination back in 2020 and was elected in 2020, and that was to stop Donald Trump.

Donald Trump was not stopped. He was delayed, but he was not denied.

RAJU: It's such a good point. And you had mentioned New Orleans and you had mentioned the -- how Trump responded to it and Biden responded to it.

Trump immediately in the aftermath of that attack, suggested that there was -- this was an immigrant who came across the border and perpetrated this crime. It turns out this is a U.S. citizen.

[08:39:42]

RAJU: But that information -- even though Trump repeated that afterwards, Republican -- leading Republicans, some on the far right and even the Speaker of the House suggested that the border had something to do with this.

What do you think of Trump making that, using this to make a political point?

TALEV: Oh my God. Oh, it's shocking.

RAJU: Yes.

TALEV: It's truly shocking.

RAJU: But it was a heinous act, obviously. And to jump out and say that an undocumented or just that an immigrant might have done this when we didn't have any of the facts yet. He's going to be president of the United States again.

TALEV: Yes. So to some extent, we sort of lived through this -- what's the expression -- we've seen this movie before.

So I think trust but verify or just verify are important guidance for journalists. It's important for the public too. Just because a political leader says something, it doesn't mean that it's true. So everyone needs to kind of do their homework and know what the facts are about things.

I think when it comes to Biden, it's probably not the way he wanted his presidency to end. We can all agree on that. But he has a couple of weeks left, and he is going to make as many trips as he can, put as many medals on as many people and as many in as many rooms.

And it's not just to troll Donald Trump. It's, I think, to try to cement his legacy. We saw him largely withdraw from kind of the here and now, the things that are happening in the final days and spend much more focus on whether it's judgeships, people who could have jobs for life or whether it is designating the establishmentarians, the institutionalists, the figures who he thinks are important for Americans to remember and respect. That is his focus now is those final acts in a presidency.

But I think when it comes to what is Trump focusing on, like immigration and the border, he's going to come right out of the gate on immigration and border-related messaging. And that's how this messaging will go, regardless of what the facts are.

RAJU: It's not surprising that a president would take those -- make those political points at the end of his term.

Trump did the same. He gave Devin Nunes and Jim Jordan awards on his way out the door. He also issued a bunch of pardons. Joe Biden did as well for his son, I'm sure, and a lot of other pardons. We'll see what he decides to do in the last 15 days.

All right. Next, remembering former president Jimmy Carter. We're live in his home state of Georgia with a look at the final goodbyes now underway.

[08:42:01]

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHIP CARTER, JIMMY CARTER'S SON: He was an amazing man. And he was held up and propped up and soothed by an amazing woman.

And the two of them together changed the world because it was an amazing thing to watch from so close.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: The final goodbyes are now underway for the 39th president of the United States, Jimmy Carter. You just heard there from his son, Chip. And as we speak, Carter's body is lying in repose at the Carter Center in Atlanta. And this follows a Saturday full of tributes in his home state of Georgia ahead of the state funeral here in Washington now just days away.

CNN's Jeff Zeleny is live outside the Carter Center. And Jeff, you were there as mourners -- mourners paid their respects yesterday.

Walk us through what stood out to you and also what we can expect in the week ahead.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Manu.

It was the distinct chapters of Jimmy Carter's improbable rise from the peanut farm to the presidency that played out yesterday. Really, verse by verse, through every stop that the motorcade made, stopping at the hospital where he was treated, but also at the boyhood home.

And hearing the bell toll 39 times for the 39th president of the United States, was so remarkable. That now is a National Park Service site. And then seeing the long motorcade go from Plains, Georgia to here in Atlanta, over more than a 2.5-hour drive, people lining the roads at overpasses and then stopping at the state capitol.

That of course, is where he had his first elected rise at the state level, as state senator and then, of course, ran for governor. He lost the first time, and then he won, of course. And that was the really turning point.

And we learned so much yesterday just about the importance that civil rights and the legacy of the South played in his governorship here and then indeed in his presidency. And seeing who he chose to participate in the service, was also so instructive.

Morehouse College, the glee club there, of course, the historically black university here in Atlanta, sent him off with a stirring Battle Hymn of the Republic. That was by design as a nod to the civil rights legacy.

So Jimmy Carter clearly was a modern governor in the South. There's no question. His grandson here at the service perhaps put it best when he said, you can cram a lot of life in 100 years.

RAJU: Yes, no question about it. And Jeff, this is INSIDE POLITICS, of course, and Jimmy Carters 1976 electoral map is just stunning to look at. Our viewers can see it there on your screen.

Texas was blue in the west like California was red. That is quite remarkable when you look at today's politics.

ZELENY: Manu, it certainly is. Of course, Jimmy Carter was elected because of anger in the country over the Vietnam War and in the Watergate era. Of course, he was sent out of office on a different kind of anger over inflation and the economy.

When you look at the red and blue divide in this country, so different. He was the last Democratic presidential candidate to sweep the south. Of course, four years later, the map looked entirely different.

But you're right, seeing the red out in California, the blue in Texas. He was the last president of that moment.

But he'll be heading to Washington on Tuesday for that state funeral. President Biden will eulogize him on Thursday. RAJU: Yes. That's right. Tuesday comes with his remains, come to the

capitol Wednesday. The body will lie in state at the U.S. Capitol on Thursday. The national funeral service at the Washington National Cathedral before he's laid to rest.

[08:49:50]

RAJU: Jeff Zeleny, thanks for being there with us and for your reporting and analysis from Atlanta.

All right. Stick with CNN all week long as we continue to bring you live coverage of the state funeral of former President Jimmy Carter.

And when we get back, there have been now 119 Congresses in American history, but this one is already achieving some firsts.

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RAJU: And now a deeper look at the 119th Congress and the history it's already making. 66 of the 535 members of the House and Senate are black, and that's a record of any Congress in history. Two more than the previous record set in the last congress.

It's also the first time two black women will serve together in the U.S. Senate. You have Democratic Senators Angela Alsobrooks and Lisa Blunt Rochester. Now, they were sworn in by the nation's first black and South Asian VP, Kamala Harris.

[08:54:49]

RAJU: And Republican Senator Tim Scott is now the longest serving black senator in United States history, and the first ever African- American member to chair a full committee in the Senate. And here he is getting sworn in by then-Vice President Joe Biden in 2013.

A record of seven Latino senators are now in the Senate, with the addition of Democrat Ruben Gallego and Republican Bernie Moreno. And Democratic Senator Andy Kim is now the first Korean-American senator in U.S. history.

Though there has been some controversy, including the milestones set by Congresswoman Sarah McBride, who was the first out-transgender member of Congress. But the Democrat's win ultimately led Speaker Johnson to vow to effectively ban transgender women from using women's restrooms in the Capitol.

And even though females make up about half of the U.S. population, in Congress fewer than one third of its members are women. There are now 150 women in the House and Senate. And that's actually a decrease since last Congress when 151 women served. It's the first time that number has gone down in more than a decade.

And in the GOP House, no women will be chairing any House committees. That's the first time since 2006. It's also something that Republican Congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis called "unfortunate".

That's it for INSIDE POLITICS SUNDAY. You can follow me on X @mkraju. Follow the show @INSIDE POLITICS. Follow me on Instagram @Manu_Raju.

If you ever miss an episode, just catch up wherever you get your podcasts and search for INSIDE POLITICS.

Up next, "STATE OF THE UNION WITH JAKE TAPPER AND DANA BASH". Jake is joined by Democratic Senators Amy Klobuchar and Mark Kelly, plus Republican Senator Jim Banks. A panel of brand-new members of Congress.

Thanks again for sharing your Sunday morning with us. We'll see you next time.

[08:56:33]

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