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CNN Live Event/Special
Now: Congress Certifies Results Of 2024 Election; Congress Has Certified Trump's Election Victory. Aired 1:30-2p ET
Aired January 06, 2025 - 13:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[13:30:00]
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: I want to point out that President-Elect Trump just went over the 270 votes needed to -- to win.
Let's listen.
SEN. DEB FLECHER (D-NE): -- received six votes for vice president.
(APPLAUSE)
REP. BRYAN STEIL (R-WI): Madam President, the certificate of the electoral vote of the state of Vermont seems to be regular in form and authentic, and it appears therefrom that Kamala D. Harris of the state of California received three votes for president and Tim Walz of the state of Minnesota received three votes for vice president.
SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-MN) Madam President, the certificate of the electoral vote of the Commonwealth of Virginia seems to be regular in form and authentic, and it appears therefrom that Kamala D. Harris of the state of California received 13 votes for president and Tim Walz of the state of Minnesota received 13 votes for vice president.
(APPLAUSE)
REP. JOSEPH MORELLE (D-NY): Madam President, the certificate of the electoral vote of the state of Washington seems to be regular in form and authentic, and it appears therefrom that Kamala D. Harris of the state of California received 12 votes for president and Tim Walz of the state of Minnesota received 12 votes for vice president.
(APPLAUSE)
FLECHER: Madam President, the certificate of the electoral vote of the state of West Virginia seems to be regular in form and authentic, and it appears therefrom that Donald J. Trump of the state of Florida received four votes for president and J.D. Vance of the state of Ohio received four votes for vice president.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
STEIL: Madam President, the certificate of the electoral vote of the great state of Wisconsin seems to be regular in form and authentic, and it appears therefrom that Donald J. Trump of the state of Florida received 10 votes for president and J.D. Vance of the state of Ohio received 10 votes for vice president.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
FLECHER: Madam President, the certificate of the electoral vote of the state of Wyoming seems -- seems to be regular in form and authentic, and it appears therefrom that Donald J. Trump of the state of Florida received three votes for president and J.D. Vance of the state of Ohio received three votes for vice president.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
(GAVEL)
KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES & SENATE PRESIDENT: Members of Congress, the certificates having been read, the tellers will ascertain and deliver the result to the president of the Senate.
FLECHER: The undersigned Deb Flesher and Amy Klobuchar, tellers on the part of the Senate, and Bryan Steil and Joseph Morelle, tellers on the part of the House of Representatives, report the following as the result of the ascertainment and counting of the electoral vote for president and vice president of the United States for the term beginning on the 20th day of January 2025.
HARRIS: The state of the vote for the president of the United States as delivered to the president of the Senate is as follows. The whole number of the electors appointed to vote for president of the United States is 538. Within that whole number, the majority is 270.
The votes for president of the United States are as follows. Donald J. Trump of the state of Florida has received 312 votes. Kamala D. Harris --
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
(GAVEL)
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
HARRIS: Kamala D. Harris of the state of California has received 226 votes.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
(GAVEL)
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
HARRIS: The whole number of electors appointed to vote for vice president of the United States is 538. Within that whole number, a majority is 270.
[13:34:59]
The votes for vice president of the United States are as follows. J.D. Vance of the state of Ohio has received 312 votes.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
(GAVEL)
HARRIS: Tim Walz of the state of Minnesota has received 226 votes.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
(GAVEL)
HARRIS: This announcement of the state of the vote by the president of the Senate shall be deemed a sufficient declaration of the persons elected president and vice president of the United States, each for a term beginning on the 20th day of January 2025.
And shall be entered, together with the list of the votes, on the journals of the House and the Senate.
Thank you very much.
(GAVEL)
(APPLAUSE)
JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: All right, there it is, the final gavel coming down there, and Donald Trump has secured 312 electoral votes to Vice President Harris' 226.
When she announced the winner, the Republicans stood up and gave a standing ovation for the victor, Donald J. Trump.
(CROSSTALK)
HARRIS: -- having been concluded --
TAPPER: Let's listen in.
HARRIS: -- pursuant to Senate Resolution number two, the 119th Congress, the chair declares this joint session dissolved. Thank you.
(APPLAUSE)
TAPPER: The joint session has been dissolved.
A lot of grace there by the vice president. That cannot be an easy thing to do. You put decades into a political career, and you get an opportunity to run for president.
Obviously, the circumstances were what they were. Obviously, her campaign was what it was. But you have to stand there in front of the world and smile and pretend as though no big deal, no big deal.
JAMIE GANGEL, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT: Glad it's over. I mean, she -- she maintained her cool throughout the whole thing.
There's a phrase we heard over and over again, "regular in form and authentic," as each state was called. And it just struck me because today was normal. It was the opposite of four years ago.
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Now the governing challenge, two weeks, the governing challenge begins for Donald Trump. Already today, you're seeing a huge opportunity and huge risks and challenges he'll face as president.
A very narrow majority in the House, tiny majority in the House, and a very narrow majority in the Senate and not 60 votes. You know, you need 60 votes to get much done. They'll have 53. That's good, but it's not enough.
So even today, he's trying to figure out, how do you do immigration, how do you do tax cuts, how do you do spending cuts, how do you do so many other things that he's want to do?
So today is a day, as Jamie said, normal. Americans, no matter how you voted, we should celebrate this January 6th looks nothing like the horrendous day four years ago.
And now we move on to governing. President Biden is going to try to use his last two weeks to shape his legacy. The vice president, I think grace is the right word, and poise as she just presided over that. She has so many decisions to make about her own future. She has some time to get to that.
Trump has no time. Trump has to get to the business of governing. And it was the business of governing that undid him last time. It was not the 5:00 a.m. tweets. It was his performance during Covid.
And you have a unified Republican Party, in part, because they're afraid of Trump, in part, because many support Trump. The people who didn't support Trump are mostly gone.
(CROSSTALK)
TAPPER: Well, they -- they certainly support his policies. KING: Yes. Now they have to get about -- the private grumbling everybody at the table hears about some of the cabinet picks, goes back to what happened in Covid, when Donald Trump was punished by the American people because they didn't believe he could properly run the government, use the tools and levers of the government during a pandemic.
You have some Republicans who are about to confirm most of his picks. Those still on the table, privately wondering, is this person up to that job? Is this person up to that job? What happens when it governs?
Because the majorities are so narrow, the next election is already under way. That would be the midterm election in two years. We're going to have special elections in Virginia in just a matter of days.
So the next cycle begins immediately. For Donald Trump it's governing. For his party, which is almost universally loyal to him, is trying to figure out when and where and if we push back a little.
TAPPER: So we know, we know -- Kaitlan, I'm coming to you -- we know President Trump wants -- President-Elect Trump wants to come out of the gate with immigration reform, not immigration reform, but shutting off the border.
We know he wants to extend the Trump tax cuts for everyone. And we know that he wants to do energy reform, what they're calling it.
He also would like it to be in one big bill under reconciliation, which is a process by which the Senate needs a simple majority vote. They don't need to meet the threshold of 60 votes, even to have a vote on the bill itself, which requires some bipartisan cooperation.
[13:40:08]
He wants to jam it through, as Democrats have done in the past with their legislation. And he's going back and forth with Speaker Johnson, with Republican Senate leader, John Thune, about what he can get and how he can do it.
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, and when Trump was saying it this morning in that interview with Hugh Hewitt, he didn't sound convinced on really either strategy, in terms of either doing one bill or doing it separately.
That's because there is pretty big division inside his own advisers over what is the best strategy to pursue. There's a lot of people who want to put points on the board and get something on immigration done pretty quickly, as he gets in.
Because they know from last time, governing gets harder the longer it goes on. Maybe they have about two years here.
And they know the tax fight is also going to be a pretty big one. Trump himself says he doesn't see how Democrats are going to fight against renewing that, but we'll see what that looks like, obviously. So I would just say you have seen the division. And I was thinking
about that, watching Senator John Thune on the floor. Because he's going to be in the middle of navigating this with Speaker Mike Johnson.
And President-Elect Trump, they have been in the middle of disagreeing over whether or not this should be one bill. John Thune said there are limitations in the Senate, we can't do this process of reconciliation all that often. So that's something to be looking for.
But the other thing that I was thinking about, as Trump is taking office on day one, we know he wants to pardon the January 6th rioters very quickly.
TAPPER: Not necessarily all of them but at least some of them.
COLLINS: I would say probably most of them based on what I heard. We'll see what it actually looks like. There are some people saying do it on a case-by-case basis. Some have said Trump has a lot of MAGA supporters who have said you should do pretty much all of them, except the most violent and serious ones.
The other thing, though, that I think is important to watch is the D.C. U.S. attorney's office. What happens there? Because Trump's world has argued they we're too aggressive in prosecuting and charging a lot of these people.
A lot of them pled guilty, I'll note. But they were too aggressive in that and we should expect big changes in the office, whether it's firings or people leaving because they anticipate being fired. That's also something important to watch right when he's taking office in terms of what that looks like.
TAPPER: And Trump made it clear that he wanted to do it. There was no question about it. I mean, he would start rallies with a rendition of a song as sung by these -- some of these prisoners behind bars.
And so while I do think it will be a shock to the system for millions of Americans, they voted for him, a majority or at least a plurality of the American people.
GANGEL: So to Kaitlan's point about some of these January 6th cases, I believe the D.C. U.S. attorney has already announced he's stepping down. Obviously, U.S. attorneys do get replaced from administration to administration.
But you're also -- we're hearing about, let's call it a brain drain, from the Justice Department and other departments, very senior people, people who could have made a lot of money in the private sector, who dedicated themselves to government service, who are leaving before January 20th because they don't want to be part of this administration, or think they're going to get fired.
One other point before we even get to January 20th, John, you mentioned cabinet appointees. I have spoken to sources on both sides of the aisle who believe that
-- and let's wait and see -- that there are a group of six or seven Republican Senators who have talked about, let's say, mixing and matching, opposing some of these cabinet appointees that they think are either not qualified or worse than that.
TAPPER: So right now, you're looking on the floor of the House. The Vice-President-Elect J.D. Vance, former Senator of Ohio, is posing for pictures and selfies with a lot of House Republicans.
Some of them are freshmen, some of them. This really has the feeling of a very exciting moment for a lot of them.
Dana Bash, this is -- as of today, I think it's fair to say Donald Trump's Washington. How much power does he wield?
DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR & CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: And that is the question. On paper, when you look at the numbers, total power. When it comes to actually getting what he is promising to do done, we don't know the answer to that.
You're looking at these pictures of J.D. Vance, his soon-to-be vice president, still a United States Senator, and he is sitting and standing in the chamber, and among members who will help answer that question, Jake.
Because what -- you mentioned this a little earlier with Kaitlan. What the president-elect now says he wants to do with the help of the House speaker and, of course, the Senate majority leader, John Thune, is going to be herculean.
[13:45:08]
He wants to try to push through pretty much everything he promised, from immigration to tax cuts, in one fell swoop.
And I will tell you that the speaker, my understanding is that his perspective is that doing it that way will make it easier because you can give different people different pieces of what they want to make it harder for them to vote no.
At the same time, that is precisely the kind of maybe typical Washington process that some of those who voted against Mike Johnson last week initially said that they don't want to partake in.
So that's just one example, Anderson, as I toss it back to you, of the challenge that Donald Trump is going to have.
Every president has a honeymoon. And every president has some political capital. He's already started to spend it, even in getting Mike Johnson re- elected as speaker.
And when it comes to the actual substance and policies of what he's going to do, he's going to have to be willing to spend a lot more -- Anderson?
COOPER: Especially with the number of the nominees that he has put forward.
Dana, thanks very much.
I want to check in with Jeff Zeleny in West Palm Beach.
Jeff, do we know much about what the president-elect was doing while the certification was going on?
JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Anderson, we are told that President-Elect Donald Trump has been keeping an eye on this. Obviously, waiting for that formal certification of his 312 electoral votes.
But he also has been kind of sending out a variety of other messages, including, we have been taking -- of his posts on Truth Social. He was railing on President Joe Biden and his team, in his words, "for making it difficult through the transition."
He said he has made it very difficult. They're putting up roadblocks in their way.
Also talking about the news in Canada of Justin Trudeau stepping down as party leader.
But, Anderson, it raises a point here. With Republicans poised to be completely in charge of government, they already are of the House and the Senate, and in two-weeks' time will be in charge of the White House.
The time for the Democratic foils here for President-Elect Donald Trump are escaping, talking about Joe Biden and how he has been sort of difficult here.
It is a reminder that the Democratic foils that Donald Trump has long sought out and talked about are going to be sort of not necessarily as relevant. He's in charge of government. The Republicans are fully and squarely are going to be in charge of government here. So it will be fascinating to watch.
I'm sure he will still try and find some foils to blame. But soon this government will be all his and all his party's.
But this morning at least, on Truth Social, he's been focusing on anything but that. But tomorrow, we believe he will speak more fully here from Mar-a-Lago -- Anderson?
COOPER: Jeff Zeleny, thanks very much. Back with the panel here.
Congressman Kinzinger, how do you think -- in terms of the nominees that Trump has put forward, how many do you think he's actually going to get?
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: Secretary of defense, Kash Patel at FBI? ADAM KINZINGER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, probably, most
of them. Obviously, most of them. I think there may be one or two that the Senate kind of stands up on.
We're not going to be able to see that probably until the actual hearings happen because, I mean, Senators are smart to not say anything. You don't want to highlight if you're going to oppose somebody.
I think the ones that are probably in the most danger, Pete Hegseth, obviously, Tulsi Gabbard, and then Kash Patel. And so, it only takes, what, I guess three or four Republicans -- I guess four Republicans that go no to block it.
I would put RFK in that, except that there's reporting out that there may be one or two Democrats looking to support RFK. That would mean he would probably get in because I would have a hard time seeing six or seven Republicans in opposition.
But I would be very surprised if you didn't see the Republican Senate, at least, maybe not as a collective decision, but at least reject one of those nominees to kind of show they've still got it, if you will.
COOPER: Alyssa, you think --
ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think there's a small appetite among Republicans to block any of Trump's nominees. But I think it will be in the national security realm, coming off the terrorist attack in New Orleans and the Cybertruck explosion in Los Angeles.
I think there will be renewed scrutiny on Pete Hegseth and if he's qualified enough to lead the Department of Defense.
I -- there was sort of an urgency from some Senate Republicans who are Trump loyalists who say this means we need to confirm quicker because of the dangerous world we live in.
I actually think the so -- the Senate will be so reminded in thinking we live in a deeply troubled world that is very dangerous and we need credentialed, qualified people.
And the FBI is doing background checks right now. Everything is in motion for these confirmation hearings. So I think there will be new information.
But to Adams point, people are not going to get ahead of it and signal to Donald Trump that they're stepping out in front of him.
[13:50:02]
ABBY PHILLIP, CNN ANCHOR: Yes. I mean,
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: Oh, sorry, Scott. (CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: I was just going to say, I mean, look, this is going to be one of the things they have to do while they're also trying to pass an actual agenda.
I don't think there's going to be a huge appetite, as everyone has been saying, to pitch a lot of fights. So it's going to be one or two at the most that will get the bulk of the scrutiny.
Because what they want to do on the policy side of things is incredibly ambitious and will be incredibly difficult and will take time from both the Senate and the House. And they have to get to that pretty quickly.
SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, I think there will be some Republican defections, to Adams point. You can afford up to four if you don't get any Democrats for several of these nominees.
I think you'll see some defections. The question is, does it go over the threshold or not?
COOPER: Do you -- anyone in particular, do you think?
JENNINGS: I think several of them. You will see some Republican defections. I'm not predicting they will be defeated. But certainly, it's possible you're going to see a handful of Republicans make arguments, like I don't think this person is qualified or I think this person's resume doesn't prepare them for this particular job.
COOPER: Are you talking about Patel, Hegseth, Gabby?
JENNINGS: Could be -- could be numerous.
And in that regard, hearings don't really fix that. Like, a hearing doesn't really fix your resume. It doesn't fix your experience. Now what a hearing could fix, say for an RFK, is to give him a chance under oath to clarify some of the things he said in the past, say, about vaccines or other issues.
So there are some things you can fix in a hearing. What you can't fix is the qualifications that you bring into the job. I, for one, think the president deserves to get his cabinet. And I hope that these people are confirmed.
I don't actually --
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: All of them?
JENNINGS: Yes. I would vote for the president's cabinet. And I think they all deserve a chance to serve.
I do think they are nontraditional picks. But to be honest, I'm interpreting the election results as the American people want nontraditional shakeup of government, and that's what Trump is trying to deliver.
So that's -- that's my personal opinion. But I think some Republicans may arrive at a different one.
ASHLEY ALLISON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think that the hearings actually will be must-watch television because of some of the statements that some of his nominees have made, from RFK to Hegseth to Tulsi Gabbard.
He probably will get the majority of his picks. He has the Senate.
And I am curious, though, as to what happens after the cabinet is confirmed, because he's talking about doing this massive bill. The margins in the House and the Senate are so slim, which some would argue is not an actual mandate to do some of this large governing he's trying to do.
And that's when the real test of who is this Republican Party that seems to be Donald Trump's party, what is going to happen? And will the American people start to lose faith in his administration? Can he get things across the finish line as he has promised?
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: But let's not forget that a lot of what he's talking about on the border and on taxes, this is stuff that's going to cost money.
ALLISON: Yes.
PHILLIP: So we're actually talking about some of the more difficult parts of this because Republicans are getting ready to put in an agenda that's going to be hugely expensive. It's a question of whether it will be paid for at all. And if it is, how? And if that's going to come with cuts.
I mean, look, we're -- we're in for another couple of months of potentially some pretty big legislative fights even within the Republican Party.
I don't -- I don't think that there's going to be a lot of appetite for huge fights over all of these people. I think, even Tulsi Gabbard, I could easily see some Republicans saying this is a person who is serving inside the White House, let the president have who he wants.
But on DOD, that might be something different. On DOJ, that might be something different. But they have to dispense with this pretty quickly.
JENNINGS: I think the one thing about having Trump as the president while these policy fights are emerging is that he has already shown he can rein in most of the people, at least in the House.
You know, the people who we're, you know, raising some hell about Mike Johnson. You know, he got them all but one back onboard in relatively short order. If that's the kind of influence he's able to exert on the coming
confirmation or policy fights over the next few weeks, that will bode well for the leadership in both chambers in their efforts to do what you just said, which is get this agenda --
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: Maybe the House. I'm not so sure about the Senate.
(CROSSTALK)
GRIFFIN: Can I mention, Donald Trump is going to go in looking to do everything he can, as much as he can by executive order. He's always been frustrated by the slow way in which Congress works.
Now there's many things he can't do through executive order. But I would expect, on day one, some actions around border security that he does have the authority to do --
JENNINGS: Yes.
GRIFFIN: -- that he had in place in the first term.
He's going to look for ways to avoid long drawn-out fights. And, frankly, a lot of this will be the Hill's problem and not his.
[13:54:44]
COOPER: Coming up, more on Trump's grip on the Congress, who just certified him as president-elect. We're looking ahead at the administration that kicks off just 14 days from now. Democratic Senator Adam Schiff is standing by. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
TAPPER: In the snow-covered U.S. Capitol, Congress effectively signed, sealed and delivered Donald J. Trump's presidential victory just a short while ago, setting the stage for his return to the White House just two weeks from now.
We saw the Democratic process, that was upended on January 6th four years ago, upheld today, as it is supposed to be.
[13:59:52]
U.S. Senators, you see there, supporting the box with each state's electoral votes, into a joint session of Congress on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Vice President Kamala Harris presiding over the electoral certification of the election she lost. Both Democrats and Republicans recognizing the legitimate election results --
