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Isa Soares Tonight

Trump Speaks Ahead of Signing Laken Riley Act; Senators Grill RFK Jr. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired January 29, 2025 - 14:00   ET

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


[14:00:00]

ISA SOARES, HOST, ISA SOARES TONIGHT: A very good evening, I'm Isa Soares. We are following three breaking stories from Washington D.C. this hour. At

any moment now, we are expecting to see U.S. President Donald Trump sign the first piece of legislation of his second term, one that closely tracks

with his immigration crackdown.

This, of course, as the White House is pulling back its newly ordered federal funding freeze. We'll have more on that in just a moment. But

first, for the first time in President Trump's second term, the Federal Reserve is announcing its decision on interest rates here, keeping an eye

on it all is our Richard Quest.

And Richard, I know that a lot today will be about what he says rather than what he does, and we're keeping an eye on the markets --

RICHARD QUEST, CNN BUSINESS EDITOR-AT-LARGE: Yes --

SOARES: And how pretty flat at this moment as we look --

QUEST: OK, so in assessing the monetary policy, the committee has decided that it's not going to move, seeks to -- the committee judges the risks

equal, the outlook is uneven, and the committee is attentive to the risks on both sides. In support of the goals, the committee decided to maintain

the target range. No change on the -- that was expected.

SOARES: Yes, very much in line with the markets we're expecting --

QUEST: It --

SOARES: So, what are we looking for here?

QUEST: Right, so, you've got to look at why they did what they did. As I just said, the economy is continuing to expand, the unemployment rate has

stabilized. Labor markets are solid, in other words, however, I think the committee is worried about what comes next because I've got their statement

--

SOARES: Is that what comes next? Refer to possibly Trump, President Trump's policies --

QUEST: Yes --

SOARES: About tariffs --

QUEST: Yes --

SOARES: And how that might impact --

QUEST: Everything --

SOARES: OK --

QUEST: Everything. They're worried about tariffs and the inflationary effect --

SOARES: Yes --

QUEST: On that. They're worried about immigration and the -- and the deportations and the disruption that, that might have on that. They are

worried about fiscal spending and not having enough cutbacks. In other words, spend. They're worried about tax cuts. Now, remember, there is a

lag, a monetary lag. So, they are wanting to make sure they are OK for whatever comes down the road.

SOARES: And we are expecting to hear from him. The Fed Chair, Jerome Powell in less than --

QUEST: Who?

SOARES: Twenty eight minutes or 27 minutes, the markets pretty much flat.

QUEST: Yes, but it wasn't, it wasn't. If we look -- can we see what the market -- do we have a graph of the market so we can see how it has

actually affected it. And we've got the Dow --

SOARES: How was it earlier today? Do you remember roughly?

QUEST: It was higher through much of the session.

SOARES: There you go --

QUEST: There you go --

SOARES: Yes --

QUEST: That's exactly now. Now, that green is narrowly higher because they were expecting something. You know, it's not like it was off to the races.

But the fact it's turned turtle --

SOARES: Yes --

QUEST: That tells me that the market now is buying into the fact that this is going to be slower if any cuts in rates for the foreseeable future.

SOARES: Speak to the politics here, because we have heard President Trump say that he believes that interest rates should come down. He believes he

has a better say, he knows better than, of course, the Fed chair. He says, I think I know interest rates much better than they do.

And I think I know it's certainly much better than the one who's primarily in charge of making that decision. Will Jerome Powell, you think go there?

Will he signal anything in about 27 minutes or so?

QUEST: He will stick, absolutely rigidly. We looked at the data, we looked at -- it was time just to wait -- a pause or wait and see. He will be

baited. Mr. Chairman, does the President know interest rates better than you do?

SOARES: And he will ignore it.

QUEST: He'll just -- he's too -- he's too -- he's too wily to get sucked in. But keep in mind, Donald Trump wants OPEC to lower oil prices --

SOARES: Yes --

QUEST: And he wants the Fed to lower interest rates. And he's going to try and jawbone them, and that press conference that you're talking about or

that signing --

SOARES: Yes --

QUEST: That you're talking about at any moment now, it'll be interesting to see if the President takes a bash at the chairman --

SOARES: And I'm sure -- yes, and we'll be listening, of course, for the tone from Jerome Powell.

QUEST: Yes, look, it's extending --

SOARES: It takes so much, and the question is --

QUEST: It's extending --

SOARES: It's extending, Richard --

QUEST: Yes --

SOARES: We'll have much more on this on "QUEST MEANS BUSINESS" in about two hours time -- less than two hours in fact. Thanks very much, Richard --

QUEST: You're welcome.

SOARES: Well, one day after the Trump administration announced it was freezing trillions of dollars in federal funding, what could amount to a

drastic overhaul of the U.S. government, the White House?

[14:05:00]

Well, in the last, what? Fifteen minutes or so, appears to be backing down on a major reversal that we've seen. Monday's memo called -- if you

remember, for a pause on spending for hundreds of programs used by tens of millions of Americans, which sparked chaos and confusion nationwide. We saw

that here on this program yesterday, the White House press briefing peppered with so many questions, looking for clarity, and programs ranging

from food assistance to healthcare to foreign aid were all targeted.

But just minutes before the directive was supposed to go into effect, a federal judge temporarily blocked it. And just a short time ago, the White

House rescinded the order. Now, it's only been really nine days since the inauguration. Nine days. Just put it into context for you. On that day

alone, the President signed more than 20 executive orders and announced plans to withdraw from the World Health Organization.

The following day, federal workers in DEI offices were placed on administrative leave, part of the Trump administration's moves to end these

initiatives. Then on Friday, the U.S. State Department froze nearly all foreign assistance worldwide, effective immediately. And then over the

weekend, we saw Mr. Trump's immigration crackdown in full force, with almost 1,000 people arrested on Sunday alone.

Then on Tuesday, the White House paused all federal funding, but as we've heard this hour, that freeze has now been rescinded. We actually had a

graphic -- I'm not sure whether we can bring it up just to see what we -- what we're trying to show you what -- so -- what we've seen just in the

last nine days or so. There is a lot for us to discuss, of course, as we wait to hear from President Trump.

My next guest will help to break it all down. I want to bring in Lynn Sweet; the Washington Bureau chief of the "Chicago Times". Lynn, only nine

days, oh my goodness, there's plenty for us to get our teeth into. Let me start first with that major reversal, major U-turn from the White House

announcing he's rescinding the federal aid freeze. Just your reaction to this.

LYNN SWEET, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, CHICAGO TIMES: Well, it's easy to do something fast. It's hard to do something fast and right. And what you saw

was this back-down because of the mass confusion that impacted everyone in government. So, whether or not you're a MAGA Republican, you heard from

people about, will my services be cut off?

How does this impact this and that? There are so many things. Will my VA hospital be open? Because you can't just say one flat statement and one

size fits all. Let's take even the bite-sized chunk of this, the confusion over Medicaid, because it wasn't until later in the day that the

administration was able to say, Medicaid is not impacted, yet plenty of states had the portal where they get the money from shut down.

So, I think this is kind of a lesson learned or it could be a lesson learned if the administration wants to understand that, yes, they have

power to do things, but it is quite something to do it and to do it right. And all --

SOARES: Yes, I know --

SWEET: They have done so far is land in court yet again.

SOARES: Yes, and we haven't heard from the White House, maybe, perhaps we will hear something in the next few moments when President Trump signs the

first bill of his new administration. We're waiting for that to happen, so, apologies if I have to interrupt, Lynn. But you know, it appears it wasn't

-- from what we've seen, this happened so quickly.

It appears then that it wasn't thought through properly, though, even though the White House at this time yesterday was insisting time and time

again, I remember it clearly that it was being perfectly clear on those who were being affected. I mean, how embarrassing is this for Mr. Trump? And

speak to the challenges they'll be facing ahead right here.

SWEET: Well, let me now -- OK, I don't think the word embarrassing is the --

SOARES: Yes --

SWEET: Point. It shows that a President who is trying to stretch the powers of the presidency to places we have never even imagined, just was

shown even a limit. And this is rare. Trump is kind of used to being able to bluster his way through things. You can have an order saying every

federal employee can get a buyout offer, but it's one size fits all, really, the best way to get a good fit. Don't think --

SOARES: Yes --

SWEET: So, and you know this, the boundaries are elastic, not firm. And Trump thinks he can just go wherever -- and maybe this is just an example -

- to even without getting into the debate right now, which I'm sure our viewers are interested in, if we think what he did was right or wrong,

there is a gift to governing, to get what you want done the way to get the impact you want. This time, did not at this time.

[14:10:00]

SOARES: Yes, hopefully we'll hear something from the President. We're looking at White House pictures coming to us live from the White House

where it's 9 minutes past 2:00 in the afternoon, we are expecting to see President Trump any moment now sign the Laken Riley Act into law as the

first bill of this new administration.

And it's named after the Georgia nursing student -- as features for context for our students -- for our viewers here, who was killed last year while

out for a run. And this comes, of course, as we've seen the President also impose this new immigration raids. Just talk to the significance of this

first bill, the first bill by this administration and what that signals.

SWEET: Well, actually, let's look at the birth of this bill. It passed the House with 46 Democrats, it passed the Senate with the support of 12

Democratic senators. So, I think he could say legitimately, it's a bipartisan effort to crack down on immigrants who are accused of crimes.

One thing, though, in this bill, you have crimes from the minor to the major, and there is some kind of concern that it could strip due process

from people who deserve it if they are taken into detention.

But the first bill is usually something that a President wants to do to kind of use as an ID of the road ahead. President Obama's first bill was

the Lilly Ledbetter Equal Pay Act for women. That was talked about throughout his eight years in office. So, these are the kind of signature

events that we'll be seeing unfold in a few minutes.

SOARES: And Lynn, I mean, that road ahead, what does that road ahead then look like?

SWEET: Well, it looks like a lot of executive orders. I think we may also hear, according to what the Press Secretary foreshadowed earlier today, we

may see some more executive orders on school choice coming down if what is called by the administration a critical race theory, there may be an order

dealing with that.

And so, we hear that there may be some new proclamation or executive order dealing with the rise of anti-Semitism. So, I'm thinking at this event that

should be starting soon, we may have several things happen in this one encounter with President Trump.

SOARES: Lynn, I appreciate you taking the time to speak to us, very busy day in Washington D.C. and on Capitol Hill. Appreciate it, thank you very

much, Lynn. We will, of course, stay across these live images, we can bring them up for you, of course, we are monitoring or waiting to hear from

President Trump any moment now, he's expected to sign the Laken Riley Act into law.

The first bill of his new administration. We are going to take a very quick break as we are hearing -- and this is coming up later in the show, that

eight more hostages held by Hamas will soon be free. Plus, a U.S. official sets foot in Gaza for the first time in years. Our updates from the Middle

East, that's just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:15:00]

SOARES: We take you to the White House where the President, Trump, is speaking.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Since even before the election, we've been making extraordinary progress. The American people

gave us a clear mandate to save our country, and we won all seven swing states by large margins, historic and very importantly, we won the popular

vote by millions and millions of votes.

Also, all 50 states, as you know, shifted toward the Republican Party, and that's never happened before. All 50, every single one of them. In our

first week in office, we set records, taking over 350 executive actions, that's not been done before, and it has reportedly been the single most

effective opening week of any presidency in history, and we want to keep it that way. We want to keep it going.

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: We want to keep it going. We've broken from decades of failed Washington policies and restored common sense and sanity to our government.

We've unleashed American energy, and we've already achieved record-low illegal immigration, as you see, there's nobody trying to get in, and

that's what we've been waiting for, for a long time and gotten woke ideologies out of our government and out of our military.

The water has now begun flowing in California as we continue to increase the flow in coming days, nobody's seen anything like that. And I've also

taken strong action to regain control of the Washington bureaucracy. Just for clarification purposes, because it was incorrectly reported yesterday,

we have informed the federal workforce, which they've looked to do for many years, that if they're working for the federal government, they must show

up to the office on time and on schedule. We don't want them --

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: We don't want them to work from home because as everyone knows, most of the time they're not working. They're not very productive, and it's

unfair to the millions of people in the United States who are, in fact, working hard from job sites and not from their home. As federal employees,

they must meet a high standard. They are representing our government. They're representing our country.

If they don't agree by February 6th to show up back to work in their office, they will be terminated, and we will therefore be downscaling our

government, which is something that the last ten Presidents have tried very hard to do, but failed. Most of the people we're talking about have not

been going to their federal offices in many years from even before COVID, but they have nevertheless been paid.

Some have worked, some haven't worked, and most of the studies say that some have just gone through the motions. We may ask these people to prove

that they didn't have another job during their so-called employment with the United States of America, because if they did, that would be unlawful

as you understand.

A lot of people are getting paychecks, but they're actually working other jobs. So, they'll have to prove that to us that they weren't. In any event,

we're requiring them to show up to work or be terminated. We think a very substantial number of people will not show up to work, and therefore our

government will get smaller and more efficient, and that's what we've been looking to do for many decades frankly.

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Thank you. In addition, there was a short term pause or funding freeze on certain discretionary spending payments, such as government

grants only for us to quickly look at the scams, dishonesty, waste and abuse that's taking place in our government for too long, as was explicitly

stated, this in no way affected Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid or other entitlements that Americans depend on.

[14:20:00]

I've made abundantly clear from the very first day that I ran for office, that's a long time ago now, that's 2015, if you think about it, I announced

in 2015 and we won in 2016, we did very well in 2020, but we did really well just recently. And I'm restating right now to correct any confusion

that the media has purposely and somehow, for whatever reason, created Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid have not been affected by any action

we're taking in any way, shape or form.

We are merely looking at parts of the big bureaucracy where there has been tremendous waste and fraud and abuse. In that process, we identified and

stopped $50 million being sent to Gaza to buy condoms for Hamas, $50 million.

(LAUGHTER)

TRUMP: And you know what's happened to them? They've used them as a method of making bombs. How about that? We stopped an attempt to make an illicit

payment for illegal alien resettlement. We canceled $181 million in DEA training contracts. This is just for the training of people in DEA, which

has been terminated and completely terminated.

And we paused $1.7 billion in unauthorized payments to foreign organizations including stopping more than $40 million that was on its way

out the door to the very corrupt World Health Organization, which has not done its job and not done it properly. We also --

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Thank you. We also blocked $45 million for our diversity scholarships in Burma, $45 million, that's a lot of money for diversity

scholarships in Burma.

(LAUGHTER)

TRUMP: You can imagine where that money went. These were the types of payments and many others -- I could stand here all day and tell you things

that we found, and we have to find them quickly because we want the money to flow to proper places. But these were the payments and types of payments

affected by the temporary freeze, and the American people strongly support these efforts.

I talked about it during the campaign, and they voted for us in record numbers. Every single day, we're now putting America first and fighting to

get the most out of every single tax dollar for our great citizens. We've gathered this afternoon to take another historic action, however. In a few

moments, the Laken Riley Act will become the very first bill that I proudly sign into law as the 47th President of the United States.

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Laken was a brilliant and beautiful 22-year-old nursing student from Georgia, the best in her class, she was always the best. They would

say Laken, how do you do this and what do you do? They were always asking her questions, she was respected by everybody, even her teachers, they

respected her so much.

From the time she was in first grade, Laken knew she wanted to spend her time caring for others. That's what she did to her friends and classmates.

She was a light of warmth and kindness in every single room. To her parents and family, she was everything in the world. They had a miserable period of

time.

Just after 9:00 a.m. last February 22nd, Laken went out for a jog on the campus of the University of Georgia, but she was -- just never returned.

She never came back to Georgia. Her parents are here, sister, all of their relatives, while on her run, Laken was attacked, viciously assaulted,

beaten, brutalized and murdered by an illegal alien gang member who was set loose into our country by the last administration. We are deeply honored to

be joined today by Laken's parents, Allyson and John, and her sister Lauren. Thank you very much.

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Thank you. So sad. We were together right after that happened, and it's a tremendous tribute to your daughter, what's taking place today,

that's all I can say, but it's so sad we have to be doing it at all. Thank you very much for being here.

[14:25:00]

To Laken's family, we will keep Laken's memory alive in our hearts forever, everyone's hearts. With today's action, her name will also live forever in

the laws of our country, and this is a very important law. This is something that has brought Democrats and Republicans together, that's not

easy to do. Laken did it. Laken did it.

America will never, ever forget Laken Hope Riley. The vicious criminal who murdered precious Laken was an illegal alien, member of the barbaric

Venezuelan prison gang known as Tren de Aragua. He trespassed across our southern border in 2022 and was apprehended by border patrol.

But under the cruel policies of the last administration, instead of being deported as he should have been, he was released into the United States as

were millions of other people, many of them very dangerous people. And you see what we're doing? We're getting them the hell out of here.

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: He was soon arrested again in New York City on charges of endangering a child, but because of New York City's deadly sanctuary

policies as we have in California and many other places which we're ending, we're going to end them, he was released again to re-offend. The Biden

administration then provided this illegal alien criminal with a free, taxpayer-funded flight from New York to Georgia, where he was arrested yet

again, constantly, this time for stealing from a Walmart along with his gang member brother, who was a bad one.

Only after being released a third time by the U.S. law enforcement, did this cold-blooded criminal go out on that fateful morning hunting for women

on whom to prey. That's what he did. He hunted. He hunted. It was like a hunter. And we're going to show him who the hunter is. This horrific

atrocity should never have been allowed to happen.

And as President, I'm fighting every single day to ensure that such a tragedy never happens again. We don't want this to happen.

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: And under the law -- thank you. Under the law I'm signing today, the Department of Homeland Security will be required to detain all illegal

aliens who have been arrested for theft, burglary, larceny, shop-lifting, assaulting a police officer, murder or any crime that results in death or

serious injury in addition for the first time ever, this Act gives state governments the ability to sue the federal government for immediate

injunctive relief if any future administration ever again refuses to enforce the immigration laws of the United States like happened for four

long years.

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: And that was happening for four long years, frightful years. Amazing. You'd say, how can people do this? How can they allow this to

happen? How can they allow criminals to pour into our country and then try and defend it? And they're still trying to defend it, but they can't,

that's why I'm here instead of somebody else actually, it's the biggest reason -- I believe it's the single biggest reason, inflation was horrible,

many things were horrible during that administration.

When you look at what took place in Afghanistan, the way they got out, not that they got out, but the way so many things were horrible. But to me,

this was the worst of all. It's a landmark law that we're doing today. It's going to save countless innocent American lives. I want to thank every

House Republican, every Senate Republican as well as the 12 Senate Democrats and the 48 House Democrats who voted to pass this vitally

important bill, and many of them are with us today.

And I really do appreciate it, and I very much especially appreciate the bipartisan support, the Democrats, really a big percentage of them came

through, and plenty of them wanted to, they probably felt they couldn't, but they really wanted to. They don't understand that would have made them

a lot more popular, would have made them a lot better with their people.

The ones that didn't, they're going to be -- they're going to be sorry because the people are not going to forget that they wouldn't sign. This is

a perfect, incredible tribute to an unbelievable young lady. We're joined today by many great supporters of our new strong border policies, and they

are indeed strong, including Vice President Vance, thank you, J.D., Secretary Scott Bessent, who just got approved by the way -- where is

Scott? He just got approved. Scott, I'm very impressed, got a lot of Democrats votes too.

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: He got a lot of Democrats votes. That's great, I don't know, is that a good thing or a bad thing? I'll have to think about that. Secretary

of Homeland Security, who is going to be fantastic, I know her so well/ And I know it's probably not complimentary, because she is a woman, but she

is tough. Where is she? Where is Kristi? Kristi? Kristi? Great. Stand up, please. You have such an important job to do.

Really great. Thank you very much. And don't let that look fool you. That look is -- she's tough and she cannot stand what she's -- that she's having

to sit here and even listen to this today.

Another one who's done a job like nobody that I've seen in a long time, Tom Homan, he's my friend, but he is something special. He's something special.

Great.

And Tom and Kristi, the numbers are unbelievable what's happened. It's like just shut down. Nobody thought that was even possible. It's just shut down.

They showed an area that a year ago had thousands and thousands of people rushing into our country. And today, there was nobody there. It was like a

beautiful sight.

And also, Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso. Great guy. Great guy. Thank you, John.

And I also want to thank the bill's sponsors, Senator Katie Britt. Katie. Thank you, Katie. And Congressman Mike Collins. And, Mike, you were

fantastic from Georgia. He took this -- he loves his state, and he took this very personally. So, it's -- thank you very much, Mike. As well as

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley. Chuck is here someplace. Chuck, thank you very much. You look great.

And House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, who's a special guy, special man. And House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green.

Thank you very much. Thank you, Mark.

And we have many other congressmen and senators, but I'm not going to introduce because this is about your daughter. This is about something

that's so important, and we're going to just go along. Thank you also.

We have to say Burt Jones is in the room. And Burt is -- your lieutenant governor and he was on this like you wouldn't believe. Thank you very much.

I see you sitting there. Thank you very much.

So, we have state, local officials. We have law enforcement organizations. We have everybody. Most of them are in the room or represented in the room

and they're incredible people and I've never seen them come together like they have for this. I've done many of these, not of this kind, but

different bills, different passages having to do with many different things from Homeland Security, to inner security, to taxes, to 50 different items,

I've never seen such support as you have today, and as your great daughter has today. So, I've never seen anything like it.

And, we have to thank your daughter for that because she's going to save a lot of lives. She's going to be responsible for saving a lot of lives. So,

I'd like to just say to the angel families, I've been with them and they've been with me from 2015 when I first got this crazy idea in my head to run

for president because we can do better as a country.

I want to thank so many of the people that are here that have been -- the angel moms, and we call them angel moms, but they're angel families,

fathers, and sons, and daughters, but they've suffered tremendously like you have for no reason whatsoever.

I want to thank Alexis Nungaray, the mother of 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray. Murdered last summer by two illegal alien gang members released

into the United States by Joe Biden's open border stupid policies. And thank you very much, Alexis. I want to thank you very much. We had an

amazing trip and it was really special to meet you and your family. Appreciate it very much. So, bad -- so sad we have to be here, frankly.

And Jocelyn, as you know, is in our hearts as she was then. It was an amazing day we had. A great day. But it was a day of celebration of

somebody that unfortunately won't be with us. But she is with us now, you know that.

Here also is Patty Morin, the mother of Rachel Morin, killed two years ago by an illegal alien who was let into our country by the last

administration's ridiculous weak policies, open border, can you imagine? When I heard open border, I said, oh, that's terrible. They're going to

release their prisons all over the world. They're going to release their prisons into our country. That's exactly what happened. Patty is joined by

Rachel's brother, Michael, Rachel's daughter, Clementine, and sister-in- law, Shannon. Thank you all for being here. We appreciate it very much. Thank you very much. Thank you.

[14:35:00]

With us as well is the loving family of Kayla Hamilton, a 20-year-old girl murdered in July 2022 by the MS13 illegal alien gang member, who is

violent, vicious, and they knew it, and they didn't do anything about it. And I want to thank you to Kayla's mother, Tammy, and her grandmother,

Kathy, and her stepfather, Jeremiah, very much.

And finally, I want to thank others who have also suffered this horrible scourge that goes on with young people being killed and other people too,

but young people largely, young people being killed.

Thank you to Scott Root the father of Sarah Root, killed at 21 years of age. Think of that, 21, by an illegal alien. Shouldn't have been in our

country. Would have never been in our country if we were here. What a sad thing.

To each of these angel families, we love you and we stand in awe of your courage and your strength. It's the toughest thing anybody has to go

through. Many of the angel families here today were betrayed by the last administration and -- with this heartless and foolish and really very, very

arrogant and very, very dumb policies. Policies that aren't even believable when you talk about common sense. I say we're the party of common sense.

But the Democrats also, they have plenty of common sense. And that's why so many are here today and so many supported what we're doing.

The very government that was supposed to protect their daughters instead opened our borders and transported the world's most dangerous criminals

straight into their communities. They came from prisons and jails and insane asylums and mental institutions from all over the world, not just

South America. People think South America. They come from all over the world. They come from every continent. And they came here by plane and they

were loaded onto buses and they were driven right up to our border and they drove right through the border and nobody even said a word to them. And in

those buses and those cars and those trucks were some of the meanest criminals anywhere in the world.

As of last September, 425,000 illegal alien criminals were roaming free, including 13,099 convicted illegal alien murderers, of which about almost

50 percent killed more than one person, and they were roaming all over the country in our farms, in our cities.

Under the Trump administration, we're moving with urgency and speed to get these vicious and violent criminals the hell out of our country and to

restore law and order to our suburbs, our cities, and our towns, and we're going to do it with Tom and with Kristi and with all of the people that are

working so hard on this.

This week, compared to a comparable time a year ago, think of this, the number of illegal border crossers has already fallen by more than 100

percent. And because the election was coming, they started getting a little bit tougher on the border. They tried to follow our policies and they did

much better, but it still was horrible. The numbers were still horrible. So, that's 100 percent over those. They only did it because of the

election. So, they knew what they were doing was wrong.

And those who do cross the border, and you're seeing that every time, all you have to do is turn on your television set, or pick up a newspaper, read

any form of new media, because we have a lot of new media today, fortunately, that's letting the word get out, but they're watching these

people be captured and removed from our country.

ICE arrests have risen by 15 times, 15 times in just a short period. And over the past eight days, the heroes of ICE and Border Patrol, we can never

forget Border Patrol, those people, I've gotten to know so many of them.

Our border czar, as you remember, never went to the border and never made a phone call. She was the border czar. She never made one phone call. They

went to the heads of border. They went to the heads of ICE. Did you ever get a call? No. And she admitted she never made one call, but she was the

border czar. And that's exactly what our border was all about.

The heroes of ICE have arrested thousands and thousands of illegal alien criminals, including hundreds of gang members, traffickers, child

predators, terrorists, and murderers. For the first time in history, we're loading dangerous and illegal aliens into military aircraft and flying them

back to the places from which they came.

You probably read about Colombia two days ago. They said, no, we're not taking them. I said, you're going to take them. You're going to take them.

You're going to like it too. You're going to take it.

They talked about we're not going to take people that are in shackles. I said, well, but the people that are in shackles are murderers, they're drug

lords, they're rapists, they're very tough people. They make our criminals look like very nice people. That's about the only thing that comes out of

this.

[14:40:00]

And I say, could you imagine you're a pilot on the plane and you have your co-pilot, and you're sitting there and you have 150 people, no shackles,

and they like to murder people? This is not a good -- this would not be a good flight.

So, actually, so Columbia apologized to us profusely, within an hour, based on something I said. Meaning, you're going to pay tariffs like nobody's

ever paid tariffs before. But they actually wanted to terminate his position. They're -- essentially Congress met and they were very angry with

them, but they actually said they were going to send the presidential plane to pick up these criminals and to bring them because they didn't want to

inconvenience us or have us do a second flight, and that's what they did. And I appreciate it.

And I do appreciate -- the people of Columbia are wonderful people and the representatives really acted well and I appreciated they took back that

tough talk. But you know, we may have tough talk from others, but it's not going to mean anything. They're going to all take them back and they're

going to like it too. They're going to like it. They're going to take it back and they're going to like it.

Today. I'm also signing an executive order to instruct the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security to begin preparing the 30,000-person migrant

facility at Guantanamo Bay. Most people don't even know about it. We have 30,000 beds in Guantanamo to detain the worst criminal illegal aliens

threatening the American people. Some of them are so bad we don't even trust the countries to hold them because we don't want them coming back.

So, we're going to send them out to Guantanamo.

This will double our capacity immediately, right, and tough -- that's a tough place to get out of. Today's signings bring us one step closer to

eradicating the scourge of migrant crime in our communities once and for all. And it was just a purely -- it's just an unforced error that we even

have to be doing this.

Now, we need Congress to provide full funding for the complete and total restoration of our sovereign borders, as well as financial support to

remove record numbers of illegal aliens from our borders. And these are illegal alien, killers, criminals, at levels that nobody's ever seen

before. And you would have known that, and you were there when I said it. I said, everybody that's bad is going to be thrown.

If you look at Venezuela, Venezuela's crime is down 77 percent because they've taken their gang members, their prisoners, their drug dealers,

their drug lords, they've shipped them all into the United States. Many other countries, their crime is way down, and our crime is not doing well.

But we're going to have it do really well very soon, and we're shipping all these people back where they came from.

And now, before I sign the Laken Riley Act into law, I would like to ask Laken's really incredible mother who I've gotten to know, a very sad day I

got to know her. But this is an amazing tribute to an amazing young person. And if you could come up, Allyson, and say a few words, that would be

great. Thank you very much.

ALLISON PHILLIPS, LAKEN RILEY'S MOTHER: Thank you. We would like to thank Senator Katie Britt for her diligent bipartisan work to get this bill

through the Senate. We'd also like to thank Congressman Mike Collins for his unwavering passion and for leading on the Laken Riley Act from the

start.

Our family will forever be grateful for the prayers of the people across our nation and for helping to get this legislation into law. We also want

to thank President Trump for the promises he made to us. He said he would secure our borders and that he would never forget about Laken. And he

hasn't. He's a man of his word. We trust that he will fight for the American people.

Most importantly, I want to thank our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, because without his sacrifices, Laken's story would have ended on that

horrific day that she was taken from us. But because of him, we can continue living knowing that we will see Laken again.

There's no amount of change that will ever bring back our precious Laken. Our hope moving forward is that her life saves lives. We're so thankful

that her passion for helping others and her legacy for doing good in the name of Jesus Christ will carry on. Thank you.

TRUMP: Thank you.

[14:45:00]

Thank you. We're going to sign this in honor of Laken Riley. Come on up here. Some of the people that we love that have been so instrumental. OK.

OK. Thank you, everybody.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, government funding. Can you take a quick question on government funding for polis?

TRUMP: I don't think this is appropriate. I respect that, but I don't think it's -- I can just tell you government is doing very well, and we're

cutting way back, but this is not the appropriate time. Thank you.

ISA SOARES, CNN INTERNATIONAL HOST: You have been watching there President Trump signing into law the Riley -- the Laken Riley Act, the first major

law that's been signed -- the first bill, I should say, of his new administration. He's there alongside Laken Riley's family. We heard an

incredibly emotional speech there for her -- from her mom, talking about her passion and her legacy, living on, thanking President Trump for

pursuing, but also thanking so many senators. It's a bipartisan bill that got this through the line.

Of course, it is named after the Georgia nursing student, whose photos we brought up for you, who was killed while -- last year while out on a run.

She was killed by an undocumented migrant from Venezuela, from the cartels in Venezuela, who was convicted and sentenced to life without parole.

And that case ignited, really, a national debate over immigration and crime, and that was the first bill that has been signed into law by

President Trump. He did cover a lot of ground on other major stories and major executive orders, and I'll get to that in just a moment. But he

didn't want to take any further questions. As you heard there, he didn't feel that that was appropriate.

Listening to that was our Stephen Collinson, who's tracking this for us. And, Stephen, let me start with this bill. Do -- just explain to us what

this act, first of all, entails. We can talk about everything else that he said that is important right now, but this act -- and what entails, and

what it suggests going forward from this administration.

STEPHEN COLLINSON, CNN POLITICS SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Well, this -- what this bill would do, it would require detention for undocumented migrants

accused of theft or a violent crime. This fits into the president's much wider crackdown on undocumented migrants.

As you mentioned the killing of Laken Riley was a tragic event, which became a big issue in the Trump campaign. So, the passing of this bill,

which actually was debated in Congress even before Trump became president, that came where Republicans to get it on his desk quickly will be seen by

Trump supporters as a big success.

And in fact, as you noted, many Democrats also back this, obviously, because they realized this was an issue, but also, because that shows us

the shifting a little bit of the right -- to the right of American opinion on undocumented migration as a whole. And that is one of Trump's major

power bases, it's one of his biggest issues. And we will see him coming back to that time and time again.

SOARES: Yes, and he was saying that he will sign an executive order, this was at the end of his speech, for 30,000 beds or so, to prepare the migrant

facility at Guantanamo Bay to detain migrants, illegal migrants, he said.

But there was a lot, he said. So, let's just break this down. Let me start, first of all, with the federal workforce. This is right at the beginning.

He said that if the federal -- if federal employees do not show up on time and on schedule on February the 6th, they will be terminated. He said, we

have informed the federal workforce that might show up on time and on schedule be terminated. He said a substantial number will not show up. He

then accused some of them of perhaps having a second job.

[14:50:00]

And he said, if this is a case, the government would be smaller and more efficient. What did you make of that?

COLLINSON: Well, so there are still thousands of federal workers who are not working at the office. Some federal workers, in fact, have moved to

other states and work remotely. It's been a real massive change in the way the federal government operates.

If you come to Washington, D.C., for example, it often feels quite empty because a lot of the federal workers are now telecommuting and those big

government buildings are empty. The Trump administration has seized upon this. Firstly, because federal workers tend to vote Democrat and they live

in Democratic areas around Washington. And also, because they believe that this is a way of quickly reducing the federal workforce.

If they can lay off, really, federal workers who don't want to come back to work, that'll do a lot of the work they want to do in massively reducing

the size of the federal government. Federal workers were offered this eight-month severance payment by Elon Musk, who's now the head of this

Department of Government Efficiency.

One thing I think is very interesting however is that this huge showdown over the freeze in federal spending that Trump's White House introduced and

has now rescinded caused absolute chaos across the country. People didn't know whether programs like Meals on Wheels or healthcare for the elderly,

all of these things, whether that was going to get stopped. And that shows the extent of which government has penetrated into Americans lives.

If suddenly thousands of workers take this severance payment and leave the federal government, I think there's a chance that it could cause all kinds

of chaos.

SOARES: And we saw, just before we came on air, a reversal, a dramatic, a major reversal on this, but the president said the federal funding --

merely his words, merely looking at waste and fraud. Didn't really get much clarity of it. I mean, what do we know -- what are we hearing from the

White House? Is this actually going -- is this actually paused now, rescinded?

COLLINSON: Well, they say it's rescinded, but, you know, there wasn't any clarity when it was introduced. They were insisting that it only covered --

you know, trying to stop spending on things like diversity, training, and wasted money, what they said was from Biden administration programs.

So, we -- it was very unclear what it was intended to do. The original memo did say that all federal funding was stopped. Then they walked that back

last night. Now, they've rescinded it completely, but it's not clear what's involved. So, there's massive confusion.

The problem here, though, is it's a constitutional issue. This was money that was already apportioned by Congress. A president cannot just arrive in

office and decide not to apply the laws that have been passed. The money was in a spending bill, which became a law. It was a bipartisan bill. A

president can veto bills that haven't been signed. He can try to push for new legislation, but you can't -- there's no -- nothing in the American

Constitution that says that the president can decide spending. So, he was beyond his powers in many ways.

SOARES: I think lawyers will be very busy indeed in the U.S. this year. Stephen, good to see you. Thank you very much.

COLLINSON: Thanks.

SOARES: Well, the man who would be in charge of multiple agencies critical to the health of every American is making his case for the job on Capitol

Hill. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Trump's controversial pick for health and human services secretary, was in the hot seat today for hours on

end, going before a Senate panel for his confirmation hearing. Kennedy faced intense grilling from Democrats. Let's go to our Meg Tirrell who was

listening in.

And Meg, I mean, he was grilled time and time again about his stances on vaccines, misinformation around vaccines, abortion. What stood out to you?

And just fact-check some of the things we heard from him.

MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you know, he started out by telling the Senate Committee that he was not anti-vaccine. And Democrats

spent the rest, almost of the entire hearing, trying to bring receipts from past statements and actions that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has done, suggesting

he is anti-vaccine.

There was a lot of focus, of course, on what happened in Samoa. There was a measles outbreak there, where Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been accused by

some of contributing to vaccine misinformation. He also talked about the COVID vaccine, and he suggested that no health experts vaccinating children

against COVID.

You know, I spoke with Dr. Paul Offit, who is a vaccine scientist at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, who noted it is recommended by most

health experts that children get at least a primary series of vaccinations against COVID. There is some debate maybe about whether they need annual

boosters. But those were just a few things that we sort of heard from Robert F Kennedy Jr. among a lot of them.

[14:55:00]

There's also a very memorable exchange between Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Bernie Sanders, who questioned RFK Jr. about his former advocacy organization, one

that he founded that is anti-vaccine. Bernie Sanders put up some onesies, so baby clothes that are sold by this organization that had anti-vaccine

slogans on them, like unvaxxed, unafraid, no vax, no problem, and he sort of demanded that Robert F. Kennedy Jr., do you support these onesies? And

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said, of course, he's not involved in that organization anymore. But an example of just sort of bringing up how

recently he was involved in these kinds of efforts.

On abortion, that was where Republicans were seeking some reassurances from Robert F. Kennedy Jr. And we did potentially get a hint of what we might be

hearing from the Trump administration on this issue of abortion when RFK Jr. said that Trump had asked him to look into the safety of mifepristone,

one of the drugs used for medication abortion.

We have been wondering if we are going to see an action from the Trump administration around medication abortion or abortion more broadly. And the

idea that Trump has asked Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to look into the safety of that drug might provide some sort of hint about where they might be going

with this.

At the same time, one of the Democratic senators, Senator Hassan, held up what she said was 40 studies supporting the safety of mifepristone, which

has been approved by the FDA since 2000. And they continue to look at the safety of that medicine.

And so, you know, our colleague, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, I think put it as sort of a metaphor for often what we see from Robert F. Kennedy Jr., which is

saying, I just want to understand the safety of these things when really the safety of these things, including mifepristone and vaccines has been

widely studied.

SOARES: We've got about 30 seconds. And I think there were about four Republican doctors there on the Senate. What was your sense? Do you think

that he will get approved from what we heard? We've got about 10 seconds or so here, Meg.

TIRRELL: Cassidy is going to be the main question there. And he is the chair of the Health Committee, which has the hearing tomorrow. So, we'll

get to hear more from it then, but he could be a question.

SOARES: Meg, appreciate it. Thanks very much. That does it for us. Thanks very much for your company. Newsroom with Jim Sciutto is up next.

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