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CNN Live Event/Special
At Least Five Tech CEOs To Attend Trump Inauguration; Soon: Trump Caps Political Comeback With Second Inauguration; Trump Promises To Release JFK, RFK And MLK Assassination Files. Aired 5:30-6a ET
Aired January 20, 2025 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[05:30:00]
KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: "The Joe Biden story is one of the great tragedies of American politics. I really mean that. He should be having a glorious, well deserved, highly acclaimed retirement. And he's not. It's hard to blame anybody but him."
MARC CAPUTO, TRUMP WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, AXIOS: Joe Biden was elected in 2020 on one general giant, big premise: I'm here to stop Donald Trump and to restore America to what it was in the pre-Trump years.
And it worked for four years but in part because of Biden's own decisions of sticking in the race when he obviously didn't have the capacity to do it. Now Donald Trump is president again and he's stronger than ever. So by Biden's general own metric he's a failed president. This is not to say his policies were good or bad but politically speaking what he had promised four years ago has now been completely reversed.
Today, Donald Trump is sort of like the new pharaoh taking over from the old pharaoh and is essentially just going to erase Joe Biden's executive orders in the stroke of a pen or the stroke of a pen 100 times.
HUNT: All right, Marc Caputo. Thanks very much for coming in on this Inauguration Day.
CAPUTO: Thank you.
HUNT: I appreciate it. Nice to see you.
All right, coming up next here release the files -- all of them. Why Donald Trump is reversing and ignoring national security advisers on files related to three American assassinations -- two Kennedys and Martin Luther King Jr.
Plus, call them CEOs, call them tech leaders, call them Donald Trump's friends. It's a very elite list joining Trump's inauguration, both big and small.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: Come here, Elon. ELON MUSK, CEO, TESLA: Little X just followed me on the stage here.
He's a very enthusiastic supporter as you can see. Whoo! Yeah!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL)
[05:35:55]
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, welcome back. I'm John Berman overlooking Lafayette Park. The White House is behind me. This is where Inauguration Day in America really begins.
President Biden wakes up in the White House, Donald Trump wakes up on Blair House. They'll have tea together. There is a church service at St. John's, which is also right behind us. Then the action moves to Capitol Hill. That, of course, where Donald Trump will be sworn in for a second time.
It's unclear if the tech CEOs attending -- if they will have a seat inside the Capitol Rotunda. That is where the ceremonies have been moved because of the cold. Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, OpenAI's Sam Altman, Google's Sundar Pichai all confirmed plans to attend, and they were set to sit near Trump's cabinet nominees before weather forced the ceremony indoors.
Elon Musk, of course, front and center. He will be there, no doubt. He joined Donald Trump on stage at his rally overnight telling supporters it was time to make significant changes and set a foundation for a stronger America.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MUSK: We're looking forward to making a lot of changes and, you know, the -- this victory is the start, really.
TRUMP: Thank you, Elon. I always say we have to be protective of our geniuses because we don't have too many. But that one is a good one.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: All right, I'm back here with CNN's Audie Cornish outside in the cold. And we just got some excerpts -- The Wall Street Journal did -- from Donald Trump's inaugural address. And one of the statements he will apparently make is a call for a revolution in common sense. Interesting the connection between that and all these tech CEOs we're seeing.
AUDIE CORNISH, CNN HOST, "THE ASSIGNMENT WITH AUDIE CORNISH" PODCAST: Yeah, in way, because so much of that common sense talk we heard during the campaign was around the issue of anti-wokeism, right? Going against diversity, equity, inclusion -- a lot of things that were raised out of the progressive movement in 2020. And some of Silicon Valley was exhausted with that as well in terms of its C-suite.
So I think that there is a little bit of a linking there of interest. Some of these folks are, of course, pivoting because of the change in power. Some of them were interested in this pivot because they were also exhausted and they're part of the movement that says look, maybe we've had enough talking about these issues. I think Mark Zuckerberg is someone who has made that most pronounced shift.
BERMAN: The other sentence that we have in The Wall Street Journal is that Donald Trump will proclaim this new era of national success. I guess the question is by what metric?
CORNISH: By what metric and for whom? You have a president who, as always, is building on this movement and coalition on the ideas of nationalism and American populism. You also have this wealth class that he is really gripping in a bear hug with Silicon Valley. And so you're going to have probably the highest concentration of wealth ever sitting in and around him.
Biden says that is oligarchy, right? Looking at those people trying to gain influence. Someone like Steve Bannon says look, maybe this is Trump bringing that community to heal.
So over the next four years what we're going to find out is who is the success for? Who is really going to benefit from Trump being in power?
BERMAN: And that's a really good point and we may start seeing it today in the inaugural address. And we will certainly start seeing it in the next several months is how does Donald Trump tie these two what he considers to be now his bases together -- these CEOs.
CORNISH: Or balance their interests. They don't always come together. You saw that in terms of immigration. Already there was that little kind of kerfuffle online a few weeks ago between a MAGA that's very anti-immigration and the tech CEOs, including Musk, who say look, we actually need talent from abroad. So there are going to be places where there are clashes.
And he has such a narrow majority in the House -- way less than he did when he came into power in 2017.
BERMAN: The question is do you think he will speak to one or another of those groups today or both? And then, of course, there is that third group -- the roughly 49 percent of Americans who didn't vote for him. How much do you anticipate he will speak or even make a nod to them?
[05:40:10]
CORNISH: Right, or Americans at all, right?
BERMAN: Yeah.
CORNISH: I mean, fundamentally bringing this into the room runs a danger of speaking to the room for the room -- for these people who have paid a tremendous amount of money to be a part of the ceremonies. And not being outside, not having the parade, it sort of changes the atmosphere. So I'm going to be curious about who that speech is really built for and how it comes off to the people at home who will -- now will be sort of experiencing it through a second screen.
BERMAN: And, of course, we will be watching.
CORNISH: We will be there.
BERMAN: Some of the only ones out in the cold today because so much of this has moved indoors, Kasie. But nevertheless, it will be an exciting day kicking off behind us here in about two hours or so.
HUNT: I can't say that I was disappointed when I heard that I was going to be able to move indoors for covering the parade later on today. So --
BERMAN: Yeah.
HUNT: -- I hope you guys -- you look -- you don't look as cold as you could, so I'm glad things are working out there.
Let's -- our panel is back with us here.
And I guess I would call this an excerpt that we have received just in from The Wall Street Journal, but it is noteworthy. It's this: "I return to the presidency," Trump is expected to say, "confident and optimistic that we are at the start of a thrilling new era of national success. A tide of change is sweeping the country. My message to Americans today is that it is time for us to once again act with courage, vigor and the vitality of history's greatest civilization."
So this is -- does contrast with, Margaret, the combative Trump who in 2017 --
MARGARET TALEV, SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR, AXIOS, DIRECTOR, INSTITUTE FOR DEMOCRACY, JOURNALISM AND CITIZENSHIP, SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY: Yeah.
HUNT: -- they write, "lamented American carnage."
TALEV: Right. This is certainly more upbeat than American carnage.
If he's going to talk about common sense, there are a number of ways that messaging appeals across the partisan aisle to Americans. Americans have said pretty clearly and consistently in polling that they think some elements of DEI have gone too far but they like other elements of it.
When it comes to immigration -- undocumented immigration, Americans have said across party lines that they think our borders need to be able to be controlled better than they have been in recent years. But they don't want some of the more acute versions of mass deportation families and children separated. The use of the U.S. military in an immigration kind of setting like this.
So the question is -- and I certainly think, like, I don't know that common sense means pardoning January 6 protesters and reclassifying thousands of federal employees so that they're easier to fire and push around, as some of the other elements that we're expecting to see in the coming days and weeks.
So the speech will set a tone, but the speech may not match some of the actions that we think are stacked up to begin rolling out very quickly.
HUNT: Matt Gorman, let's kind of talk a little bit about how -- and I know you think about this, and Meghan does too, so I'd love it if you both weighed in. But the way that moments like this -- this is going to be a huge historical moment, right? They are shaped by many things, right, and the visuals matter. Kind of the context matters -- the sweep.
The fact that this is going to be inside -- and we talk about it like it's a logistical note. It is. It's too cold. They're worried about the crowds that may or may not have showed up on the Mall. But it's going to mean that the speech itself when you watch it on TV or if you're watching a clip on your phone the way so many Americans will consume something like this nowadays, it's going to feel different. And the risk, of course, is that it will feel smaller to have a speech delivered inside in the Rotunda than it would if he were standing on that Capitol front and that big sweeping crowd out in front of him.
What they're putting out -- and this is, of course, the first excerpt that we've received on this morning specifically to The Wall Street Journal. This is clearly what they want to say about -- you know, how they want to frame the coverage that's going to lead up to his address.
How are those things going to interact with each other? And can the sweep that they're clearly going for -- a revolution of common sense, the sweeping historical upbeat language -- how's that going to be affected by the fact that he's going to be inside a much smaller room with a much smaller crowd?
MATT GORMAN, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST, FORMER SENIOR ADVISOR TO TIM SCOTT'S PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN: I don't actually think it's going to be that -- too much. Because the historical photos of inauguration are -- tend to be tight shots. I always kind of laugh. Look over -- look who is over the president's shoulder. It's usually somebody kind of random. Usually the spouse of the congressional person. So these tend to be very tight.
If you've been on the dais -- I don't know, Meghan, if you have but -- like, they're very, very tight quarters. And so --
HUNT: They try to pack as many people as physically possible.
GORMAN: And people demand --
HUNT: And here's what it looks like on the inside.
GORMAN: Yeah.
HUNT: This is what Reagan's inauguration looked like back in 1985. Continue.
GORMAN: No. And so -- I know Paul Pelosi was behind that -- one of them. Janna Ryan, Paul Ryan's wife, was behind one another. So these are tight shots. It'll obviously be tighter here.
[05:45:00]
I will say this though. When I first learned about the excerpt when John pointed it out, my first thought was this is in large part why he won, right? This common-sense narrative that he really tried to strike throughout the entire campaign, whether it's something -- I mean, the other day we talked about biological men playing women's sports. Things like that that cut very clear and cross partisan lines. I think that is how they're going to want to couch all of these executive orders in the first 100 days' agenda.
MEGHAN HAYS, FORMER WHITE HOUSE DIRECTOR OF MESSAGE PLANNING, DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION CONSULTANT: Yeah. I do think that the inauguration is going to feel a little small with it all being inside. It's open-air spaces and those shots are pretty magnificent when you, like, zoom out. I do think he was probably worried about his crowds and that's why we're moving inside.
But I also don't think it matters what he says in his speech. In a month, in two months, people are going to look -- have you lowered my costs? And that is the only thing that is going to matter to the American people is did you bring costs down like you said you were going to. That is why we voted for you.
So I think that he has a tall order here because I don't -- you are not going to be able to lower costs with executive orders.
HUNT: Yeah.
All right. Coming up next here, TikTok is back and the inauguration technically has not even begun. Hours after Trump promised an executive order to delay enforcement of the divest of banned law, ByteDance's app welcomed back users. Why Trump says he had no choice.
And with the windchill factor making it the coldest inauguration in 40 years, how different an indoor inauguration will be. We're joined by presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin. That's ahead.
(COMMERCIAL)
[05:50:37]
HUNT: Welcome back to CNN's special coverage of Inauguration Day.
The president-elect returning to a familiar topic last night promising to release secret classified files related to the assassinations of JFK, RFK, and MLK, he says in the name of government transparency.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: As a first step toward restoring transparency and accountability to government we will also reverse the overclassification of government documents. And in the coming days we are going to make public remaining records relating to the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, his brother Robert Kennedy, as well as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and other topics of great public interest. It's all going to be released, Uncle Sam.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Over the years millions of documents have become public offering researchers and conspiracy theorists alike the opportunity to pore over these records. In his first term, Trump released tens of thousands of documents related to JFK's killing. But the CIA, Pentagon, and State Department all still have documents they have refused to release.
I have to say I -- I'm interested -- I feel like this is another one of those Trump things where everybody actually really wants to see --
GORMAN: I'm all in.
(CROSSTALK)
HUNT: -- these files.
GORMAN: I am so on it.
HUNT: Matt, I mean, it's --
GORMAN: Yes.
HUNT: Talk about -- I mean, is this actually going to happen?
GORMAN: I hope it does. I mean, look, on a serious note the overclassification of documents is a serious problem in the government. They just needlessly overclassify.
But on a more fun note -- well, somewhat fun -- yes, the JFK conspiracy theorists and assassination nuts, of which I would kind of slowly consider myself one -- are going to pore over these documents, especially with the 50 and over -- you know, 50th anniversary. There's a lot of poring over exactly what happened on that day. What did or didn't happen and the government's response to it and the like.
And so this is going to be fascinating, and it's also showmanship. He loves this stuff.
HUNT: Yeah.
TALEV: I think the further out we move from the time when these things happened the harder it is to justify keeping it under wraps.
GORMAN: Yeah.
TALEV: As a journalist, obviously I want to see all the documents. But --
HUNT: Yeah.
TALEV: -- only just a few years ago there were, like, CAA and national security officials had real concerns about the release of these. What changed? Did anything change?
Also a footnote to this. They are not committing to releasing everything. They are committing -- he is committing to releasing what he wants to release. So I think we need to keep a skeptic's eye about what gets released and how much hasn't yet been released, and how selective that is.
HUNT: Yeah.
RODRIGUEZ: And I guess the question is, like, is the good stuff in what is not going to be released, right --
TALEV: Or is there good stuff? What's the good stuff?
RODRIGUEZ: -- or is there good stuff to not release? But I think this obviously plays into what Trump loves to do. The showmanship of it, like Matt said. I think that -- I think for all of us -- like, I'm curious. I think most people would be.
But I think it's just a question of how much exactly are we going to get because we saw under Biden -- I mean, they also released documents in these last couple of years and withheld some. So what are we actually going to be getting?
HUNT: I mean, it does raise the question, Meghan, of whether anyone will ever believe that all of the files have been put out there regardless of what the department says.
HAYS: No. I agree with that. And to Margaret's point of what's changed I think people probably died, right? So some of these people that may be listed in these documents probably are no longer with us, so it is safer now to release some of this stuff that is not classified anymore.
GORMAN: I think Rob Reiner is a JFK conspiracy -- he's really into it. And I think if one thing that Rob Reiner and Donald Trump could get on the same page on it is this.
(CROSSTALK)
GORMAN: The day has finally come.
HUNT: Oh my goodness.
All right, Margaret, Sabrina, Matt, Meghan, thank you guys very much for joining us on this overnight into the early morning here on this Inauguration Day.
And do stay with us. We are following all of the movements in Washington building up to the moment Donald Trump will be sworn in as the 47th president. Last-minute changes to move ceremonies indoors making this an inauguration unlike most of us had pictured. And the Washington that Trump is taking over today considerably
different than last time around. The new moves he'll bring to the White House this time.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
Trump dancing to "YMCA" at rally.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL)
[05:58:55]
HUNT: It's Monday, January 20, which means it's Inauguration Day.
Right now --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: You're going to see executive orders that are going to make you extremely happy. Lots of them. Lots of them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: A stunning comeback. Donald Trump sweeping back into power promising big changes quickly.
D.C. deep freeze. How historically cold temperatures in Washington are putting some inauguration plans on ice.
And one last ride. President Biden planning to spend hours with Trump ahead of the swearing-in ceremony. The letter he plans to leave behind in the Oval Office.
All right, it is 6:00 a.m. here on the East Coast. A live look at the White House, which has been illuminated in the last hour as we have been talking here. This, of course, President Biden's last night in that house.
Good morning, everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us.
Today, Donald Trump will be inaugurated for the second time. A political resurrection that because of the frigid weather here in D.C. will unfold inside the Capitol Rotunda.
