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What Trump Wants From CA: Voter ID Laws And Water Flow; Trump Says He Wants States, Not FEMA, To Run Disaster Response; Trump In North Carolina To Tour Hurricane Helene Damage; Today: Senate Vote On Defense Secretary Nominee Pete Hegseth. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired January 24, 2025 - 12:00   ET

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


[12:00:00]

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: There are some of the headlines coming out of the press conference of President Trump. Thank you so much for joining us. I am Pamela Brown. You can follow me on Instagram, TikTok and X @PamelaBrownCNN. Stay with us. Inside Politics with Dana Bash starts right now.

DANA BASH, CNN HOST, INSIDE POLITICS: And welcome to Inside Politics. I am Dana Bash, and we, of course, are going to start where Pamela just left off in Asheville, North Carolina. Donald Trump, as she was saying, just finished a briefing with local officials about catastrophic flooding there a few months ago.

He also talked a lot about issues relating to this and others, where he did a series of questions and answers with the press there. I should say that he is going to, after his visit in North Carolina, he's going to go across the country to Los Angeles, an area still dealing, of course, with deadly wildfires and the devastating aftermath there.

This morning, the president reiterated what he wants California to do, meet certain conditions before they can get federal aid.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I want two things. I want voter ID for the people of California, they all want it. Right now, you have no you don't have voter ID. People want to have voter identification. You want to have proof of citizenship. Ideally, you have one day voting. But I just want voter IDs in start, and I want the water to be released, and they're going to get a lot of help from the U.S.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: CNN's Jeff Zeleny is on the ground in North Carolina. Let's just start there. I do want to talk, of course, about North Carolina in one second. But of all of the things that President Trump has said in the last hour or so.

What we just played the idea of not just strings attached to money that California, Los Angeles, in particular, so desperately needs from the federal government, but not necessarily strings relating to the environment, relating to water, relating to fire safety, relating to a political demand that he is putting on there, voter ID. Have we seen anything like this before?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Dana, certainly not in my memory, we of course, were both covering the Bush administration during Hurricane and Katrina, many other storms since then, of course, not. This has never been something that has been politicized in this way.

And look, we should point out by saying this is something that simply is not likely to happen. A voter ID law would have to be passed by the California Legislature, signed by the California governor. This Federal Disaster Assistance is likely to be part of a bigger package in Washington. But never mind all of that, just the idea that this is a wish list for the president.

It sounds to me, like, once again, a familiar shiny object, like we, of course, remember so well from the first Trump administration. The reality here is that the assistance is needed very much on the ground, and if this becomes a string attached in Congress, well, that is a different matter entirely, because it simply is not going to happen.

So no, I can't recall, at least in recent history, anything like this. Again, not surprising, because voter ID has been a central part of what the president has long talked about same day voting as well. I mean, never mind the fact that one of the reasons he won was because Republicans actually executed the mail in vote.

But again, focusing on disaster here, he politicized that at the very beginning. However, in his coast-to-coast journey here, starting here in North Carolina, ending the day in California. He clearly wants to show that he is in command of this, but he has to do a lot more than that, because there are obviously deep questions here about that funding to come.

BASH: And I want to also point out something else that was really a key bit of news from Donald Trump this morning, which is going down to North Carolina, a place where they have been trying to get disaster relief over the past few months, FEMA has been down there. And what Donald Trump said is that he wants to now get rid of that federal agency. I want to play what he said and then talk to you on the other side, Jeff,

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We're looking at the whole concept of FEMA. I like, frankly, the concept when North Carolina gets hit, the governor takes care of it. When Florida gets hit, the governor takes care of it, meaning the state takes care of it to have a group of people come in from an area that don't even know where they're going, in order to solve immediately a problem is something that never worked for me. I'd like to see the states take care of disasters.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Jeff?

ZELENY: Well, look, the states' taking care of a disaster. That may be one thing, but states obviously cannot afford to take care of them themselves. But Dana, what this is the bigger picture here is just one more example of in the Trump administration the dismantling of government agencies.

[12:05:00]

I mean, this has long been a discussion by many conservatives. It was a -- I mean the very pages of a project 2025, sort of dismantling and shrinking of FEMA and other agencies. So, this is very much a real conversation that many would like to have.

The question is, what would that actually do? In a practical matter, I would be curious to know what Republican governors from years gone by. Jeb Bush, for example, would sort of a dismantling a FEMA. What would that have done for all those Florida hurricanes or Governor DeSantis?

There's no question that FEMA has its critics on both sides of the aisle. Democrats here in North Carolina have been critical of a FEMA in terms of the distribution of housing credits and other things. But as you can see, this is just one small slice of the rebuilding and recovering that is yet to happen here, and that, of course, takes time.

We're more than three months since Hurricane Helene, the disaster that the president is going to see later on in California, obviously still smoldering so raw here. But the idea of having this discussion of dismantling a government agency in the middle of a crisis. That's an open question that Congress, of course, would also play a role in. But he's very serious about doing it. It's part of his broader remaking the whole idea of the federal government. Dana?

BASH: It sure is. Jeff, thank you so much for that terrific reporting. Here at the table are other amazing reporters. CNN's Jamie Gangel, Jackie Kucinich of The Boston Globe, and Astead Herndon of The New York Times.

Where do we start? Feel like that could be put on a pillow for the -- for the Trump years. Let's just start where Jeff left off, which is getting rid of FEMA. And as he was talking, I was remembering, in May, I believe going with the then FEMA Director Deanne Criswell, Joe Biden's FEMA Director to Oklahoma, about one of the reddest states in America.

And she was greeted by the Republican governor of Oklahoma, The Republican Senator James Lankford, other Republican local officials who were so grateful for her coming because of the massive tornadoes that had just hit Oklahoma. They weren't saying, why are you here? We want to do it ourselves. They were saying, thank goodness you're here.

JAMIE GANGEL, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT: Look, if a state could handle a catastrophe, then you might not need FEMA, but that is not in the nature of a catastrophe. Another image we remember when Barack Obama came to New Jersey and Chris Christie came out on the tarmac to hug him, to thank him for help.

FEMA may not be perfect, but dealing with a catastrophe is an enormous challenge. And these states, you know, Jeff Zeleny mentioned Jeb Bush, where there are hurricanes, and they deal with it. They need this kind of help. There's something else that you mentioned earlier about strings attached and things being politicized. If you're a red state, Donald Trump might be willing to give you some money.

BASH: I'm glad you said that.

GANGEL: If you're a blue state. If you're Puerto Rico, how are you feeling about this? It's --

BASH: Yeah. Well, on that note, he's in a red state. I mean, his -- it's generally purpleish. He's there with the Democratic governor, but they voted for Donald Trump in North Carolina. I did not hear one sort of string that he said must be attached for North Carolina to get any federal aid, whether it comes through FEMA or not.

JACKIE KUCINICH, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: This is a throwback to what we saw in the first Trump administration, where blue states were treated one way during a disaster and red states were treated another way during a disaster. There's a story that was in POLITICO about how and when Trump initially refused to give funds in Orange County when there was a fire there. I think it was 2017 or 2018.

And one of his staff had to go through and say, there are a lot of Trump voters here. A lot of people voted for you in this area, and the aid was released. So, this is -- I think we're going to see more of this, but I agree with you. I would wonder what Ron DeSantis would say about FEMA being eliminated, or any of those plain state governors who have to deal with her -- with tornadoes every year.

ASTEAD HERNDON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: I mean, it's stunning. In the press conference, he explicitly asked what his numbers are in the state. He talks about, I want a bigger percentage in Tennessee versus North Carolina. It's very frontally part of his decision making when he thinks about these efforts.

And I think that's an important point. Like that, disaster relief has been seen as outside of that kind of partisanship mold. So, people took pride in that. And obviously Donald Trump, is upending that. I was in western North Carolina right before the election. And I remember how much Trump's misinformation on this point had taken root.

[12:10:00]

You had said you heard people all across that portion of the state, which is really Republican and rural, saying things like the Democratic governor is not coming. He has -- he is purposely leaving this out. I actually talked to one guy who was saying, oh, I thought that, until actually got my TV back and I realized the governor had showed up, right?

But it still is that narrative had become so ingrained in that place. And that's part of Trump's power of power of pulpit. He puts those messages out there. The folks who believe him take root. Conservative media really blows them up, and he uses it kind of as a negotiation tactic, like, will we see FEMA completely eliminated? I don't know. But he certainly wants you to think that, so we can think about some of the changes and disruptions that he wants to bring.

BASH: And, yeah, I don't think that any of us should say, well, he doesn't really mean it. I mean, we're four or five days in, and a lot of the things that even people who voted for Donald Trump said, he doesn't really mean it. He meant. He meant it.

GANGEL: No question. Remember when we talked about, do you take him literally or seriously? I think what we've seen in this first week is, you better believe both.

BASH: Yeah.

GANGEL: There has just been a fire hose of things that he said he would do, some of which his own top people said he wouldn't do, such as pardons for a violent offenders, but we've seen it across the board. We've seen agencies, you know, this flood of executive orders. He is doing what he said.

BASH: And we're going to get to a lot more of that. I do want to turn back to what the president has said again in the last hour, hour and a half. Daniel Dale is with me to talk about some of the claims that he made. And Daniel, as I go to you, I just want you to know that I was -- as we were coming on the air, getting a text from a former senior FEMA official just saying, what about the people, the people in North Carolina, the people in L.A.

But in particular, the people in North Carolina who are hearing the president come have already gotten the disinformation, misinformation in their sort of echo chambers from their neighbors who haven't applied for aid that maybe they are eligible for that could really help them because they don't have the correct facts. Help us with that.

DANIEL DALE, CNN REPORTER: The lies impact people's lives. They really do. So again, people are entitled to criticize FEMA's response to Helene, the overall Biden administration's response. But the fact is that Trump has made numerous claims about FEMA and that federal response that are just not true.

So, for example, he said in early January that FEMA is out of money, one of those lies that impacts people. It is not out of money. FEMA's Disaster Relief Fund had $27 billion in it as of two weeks ago. He said repeatedly that FEMA had no money for North Carolina because it diverted all of the funding to illegal immigrants. That did not happen.

What actually happened was that Congress gave FEMA tens of billions for disaster relief and a much smaller pot of money, a separate pot of money, about 650 million for a program to help communities around the country, shelter migrants, two separate programs Congress funded separately. There wasn't like some sort of improper diversion. The president has said over and over, the North Carolina residents who lost their homes only got $750 in aid, while foreign countries got billions. In fact, that $750 was merely initial emergency assistance for immediate pressing needs, food, water, baby formula. Those people are also eligible for tens of thousands in additional assistance, including, for example, up to 42,500 each for home repairs.

And I think the biggest one, Dana, the president has said over and over and over that FEMA just hasn't helped North Carolina at all, has been completely absent. That is not true. You can argue. They didn't help fast enough in some communities that aid has been too slow and being distributed, but they've been there.

FEMA has deployed more than 1700 employees to North Carolina. Former Governor Roy Cooper said, it was more than 8500 federal personnel total, FEMA had provided as of inauguration day, more than $316 million in cash grants to North Carolina, and in addition, more than 300 million extra to North Carolina governments for infrastructure repairs, debris cleanup. So again, yes, criticize a way, but FEMA has responded in the state.

BASH: OK. Well, next time we talk, you can do the fact check on the fish that he claims is the reason for all of this that happened in California. Daniel, you are a national treasure. Thank you so much. Appreciate it.

DALE: So, Dana, thank you.

BASH: Back to the panel here. Astead, what was another potential takeaway that we should -- again, I mean, this is a flood the zone situation. Sorry, maybe that's a -- not the right term to use in this context, but that's what Donald Trump is. That's his sort of brilliant, strategic mind when it comes to politics. How he says so many things, everything, everywhere, all at once, and then we have to pick out what is important as quickly as we can.

HERNDON: Yeah. I think that that's what I've taken from this week, is that we're going to get kind of the smorgasbord of Trump statements, right? He spends a bunch of time up there, talking about Canada as our 51st state, right? Like, that's not an idea. I think a lot of people are taking seriously.

[12:15:00]

But if I think about what actually we should think about, you know, he's putting Democrats in a position, or I think just opponents in a position of defending bureaucracy, and that's not popular, right? Like, I don't know if -- I don't know necessarily people want FEMA to be eliminated or anything like that. But I do think there is a sense that government hasn't worked, right?

And so I would caution folks about being completely dismissive about some of the things that Donald Trump is doing, not because I think they're popular, because I don't think they're popular. But I do think there is a broader idea that did help him win, which is that government had to be reshaped and it was not delivering for people. And so, like, I don't know -- I don't think he's making it closer at delivering, but do you think he's speaking at something that does have root with electorate.

KUCINICH: Well, just a real quick about Canada. Our Globe's reporter Sam Brody was at the Canadian Embassy on inauguration day. And they were watching the speech and were so relieved that the tariffs were not initiate -- were not mentioned in the inauguration speech.

Well, fast forward to the end of the day, you have him saying that there could be, you know, 25 percent tariffs on Mexico and Canada. And I think it's because he wants to keep people on their toes and --

BASH: We're going to have to sneak in a quick break. We have a lot more time to discuss a lot more of what's going on. Coming up, a late evening showdown on Capitol Hill does defense secretary nominee Pete Hegseth have enough support to get across the finish line? Plus, it may be my best assignment yet. I got a behind the scenes look at two adorable, giant creatures making their public debut right here in Washington today. Stay with us.

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[12:20:00]

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BASH: Tonight, the U.S. Senate will vote on whether to confirm Pete Hegseth as the next defense secretary. Two Republican senators have already come out against him. The veteran and Fox host faces allegations of both sexual misconduct and excessive drinking as well as concerns about basic qualifications for the job.

CNN's Lauren Fox is tracking the developments and the vote count. Where does it stand now, Lauren?

LAUREN FOX. CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. We are still hours away from this vote, Dana, assuming the Democrats don't yield back additional time. Republicans are likely to vote tonight around 9 pm on this nomination. And so far, like you mentioned, we only know of two Republicans who are planning to vote against Hegseth.

Both of them said that they had concerns about his ability to lead such a vast organization as the Pentagon. They also made clear that they had concerns. These are two women senators about what he has said about the role that women should play in the military, in combat roles in the past, despite the fact that Hegseth tried to clean up those past comments in his public confirmation hearing and in private meetings. Those two senators still were not convinced that he had had a change in part on that issue.

Now we should also point out that there's some questions about whether or not any additional Republicans would join Murkowski and Collins in voting no. Donald Trump made an interesting comment earlier today, saying that Mitch McConnell always votes no, although he had voted McConnell yesterday to advance Hegseth's nomination in a procedural vote. So, we'll be watching very closely as to whether or not McConnell votes any differently when this comes up for a final vote tonight. Also, Republicans are warning that they may stay in session over the weekend to try to continue, moving forward with some of these nominees, including Kristi Noem for the Department of Homeland Security, as well as Scott Bessent for Treasury Secretary. Dana?

BASH: Mitch McConnell is definitely the Senator that I'm going to be watching most closely on this Pete Hegseth vote. Because if he votes no, and you sort of alluded to this and all the other Republicans, if he votes no, if Susan Collins votes no, if Lisa Murkowski votes no, it's going to be Vice President Vance. That will have to be the tie breaking vote.

Drama, drama always drama. Thank you so much. Lauren, appreciate it. Up next. A much-anticipated announcement in the Middle East, Hamas names the next hostages it intends to release

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[12:25:00]

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BASH: Believe it or not, it was just four days and not even 30 minutes ago that Donald Trump was sworn in as Commander in Chief. But in that very short period of time, he has drastically reshaped American life. We've talked a lot about the pardons of the January 6 rioters, overhauling the immigration system. But there's so much more.

Here is just some of what we're talking about. A freeze on civil rights cases, recognizing only two genders, shutting down the Gun Violence Prevention office, renamed Mount Denali and Gulf of Mexico, withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord, DEI federal employees on paid leave, reassigned career DOJ officials, made it easier to fire federal employees.

Sent home 160 national security officials, withdrawal from the World Health Organization, all HHS public communications rather halted, paused NIH grant making access. That is a -- they're all big ones, but that's really big. Police reform agreements halted, broad investigations into the Biden administration.

I know it looks small on your screen. We have it up there, so you can walk up to it or look closely on your phone, because there is a lot and that is not even close to everything that has happened.

My panel is back. You started to get at this before.

GANGEL: Look, my question is to what end. A president's job at the end of the day is to keep the country safe, whether it's through medicine and science against NIH or national security or the rule of law. So, I don't know. I don't understand where this is going.

I have spoken in the last 48 hours to top people, career people, Justice Department, State Department, DHS, they are appalled by this