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CNN Live Event/Special
Trump's Second Inauguration Just Hours Away; TikTok Credits Its Quick Return to Trump. Aired 6-6:30a ET
Aired January 20, 2025 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: It's Monday, January 20, which means it's inauguration day. Right now.
[05:59:05]
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: 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 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, a place that, just four years ago, was overrun by Trump's supporters trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Those rioters defacing the
inside the Capitol Rotunda, a place that, four years ago, was overrun by Trump's supporters, trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Those rioters defacing the halls of Congress as they looked for lawmakers, including Trump's own vice president.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hang Mike Pence! Hang Mike Pence! Hang Mike Pence! Hang Mike Pence! Hang Mike Pence! UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hang Mike Pence! Hang Mike Pence! Hang Mike Pence! Hang Mike Pence! Hang Mike Pence!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hang Mike Pence! Hang Mike Pence! Hang Mike Pence! Hang Mike Pence! Hang Mike Pence!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Now, four years later, Trump will stand in that very same place and, once again, swear to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.
All of Trump's living predecessors will watch this moment in history, including President Biden, the man who defeated Trump four years ago as he called him a threat to democracy.
The two will ride together from the White House to the Capitol.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)
(HELICOPTER NOISES)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: That was Trump leaving last time when he denied Joe Biden that same courtesy, leaving the White House hours before the inauguration, having never acknowledged the validity of Biden's victory.
Four years later, the nation expecting a return to normalcy with a peaceful transfer of power. And in Washington, Donald Trump is finding deference, not defiance, as he calls for sweeping changes across the government and the nation.
And Republicans are ecstatic this time about the possibilities for a second Trump term.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(MUSIC: THE VILLAGE PEOPLE, "YMCA")
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: That was Donald Trump last night, dancing with The Village People to his favorite campaign trail song.
This morning, "The Wall Street Journal" reporting that, in his second inaugural address, President Trump will call for a, quote, "revolution of common sense" and will promise a, quote, "thrilling new era of national success."
I'm joined now by CNN's own John Berman, who is outside of the White House, across the street from Lafayette Square, on this chilly, shall we say, morning.
John Berman, what else are we learning about what we plan to hear from the president today -- president-elect today, I should say?
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: He talks about a revolution in common sense. He talks about a new era of national success, Kasie.
And yes, we are here in Lafayette Park, overlooking Lafayette Park, in 25-degree Washington, D.C. The inauguration has been moved indoors. Audie Cornish and I are two of the only people who will be outdoors at any point today, because all the festivities have been inside.
And Audie, behind us is the White House, where Biden is waking up this morning. Behind us is Blair House, where President-elect Trump is waking up, or has woken up this morning. And not long from now, they're going to have tea.
I will say, I think it should be coffee. We had a whole revolution so we didn't have to drink tea in the morning, ever.
AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: Yes.
BERMAN: But that is going to be a moment, a courtesy, as Kasie said, that was not offered to Joe Biden from Donald Trump last time. Biden is offering that courtesy. And it really just feels, in many ways, a loaded moment.
CORNISH: At the same time, I think Joe Biden always promised the nation normalcy. There are some promises he didn't make good on and were punished for that. Say with Democrats, saying I'm going to be a bridge to the next generation, to this movement forward. He didn't necessarily do that, and I think paid for it politically.
But he did always promise the nation that he would try and bring normalcy back with these kinds of moments, right? That it's not just about the peaceful transfer of power, but about all those little traditions and norms that come with it. And it sounds like he plans to continue to perform them today.
BERMAN: What did he get from that, I ask, sort of. You know, he did do that. He did promise that, and he did deliver that. And for that, he's getting, you know, a one-way ticket ultimately back to Delaware.
CORNISH: Yes, but it's ultimately not just him. I mean, remember, during his -- during Trump 45, there were so many Democrats who were boycotting the inauguration altogether. Of the ones that are left -- I think there's something like 30, "Politico" reported that several of them had decided for various reasons they couldn't make it, but it wasn't a formal boycott.
Others are saying, look, he won fair and square. I'm going to the inauguration. So, it's a different vibe all around.
BERMAN: Oh, it's totally a different vibe. And you can sense it just being in the city. Part of it is because so much of it's moved indoors, but part of it is also this city has been through this before with Donald Trump. I think knows what to expect. And there are so many more Republicans here celebrating and are happy. The one line -- and we just read it -- from the inaugural speech we
have, the revolution in common sense, but also this new era of national success, which ties into the meeting or the tea this morning with President Biden.
I imagine President Biden will hear that differently than a lot of other people will.
[06:05:03]
CORNISH: Right. I mean, Trump is taking office with an unemployment rate that is way better than the one he left the country with. He's also taking the reins at a time when the country is not mired in any kind of foreign conflicts.
There's a lot that he is inheriting that is in very good shape. So, what does he mean by success? Will we hear another "American carnage"- style speech, where he describes a nation in full decline? How will he take advantage of this moment?
And as you're right, I'm sure that'll be difficult for Joe Biden to hear, who had hoped that that was a legacy he could build on.
BERMAN: All right. We will be back here in the cold momentarily. For the time being, let's go back to Kasie in the warm.
HUNT: Yes. Stay warm. Get a little bit warm. We'll be back to you throughout the hour, Audie and John. Thank you very much.
I'm joined here by our panel: Alex Thompson, CNN political analyst, national political correspondent at Axios; Kristen Soltis Anderson, CNN political commentator and a Republican strategist; CNN political commentator Bakari Sellers; and Brad Todd, CNN political commentator and a Republican strategist. Welcome to all of you.
And Brad Todd, I want to start with you on sort of the differences between the last -- honestly, we can start back in 2017 with that inauguration. Then we had another one in 2020.
Neither one of them felt entirely -- the 2017 inauguration was such a surprise, the city was in shock. Democrats were in resistance mode. Many Republicans, honestly, their heads were spinning.
Obviously, in 2021, we were just coming off of January 6th. Donald Trump broke all of the precedents there. He left town without attending Joe Biden's inauguration.
This, although it's going to take place inside, is supposed to be a return to relative normalcy. Republicans are jubilant. Can Donald Trump deliver on what he's promised?
BRAD TODD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I think that's a challenge for him. You know, and I even look beyond the city. I mean, the city was clogged eight years ago with hundreds of thousands of protesters, who were ready to see Donald Trump fail on the first day, and they were working hard to make it true. I think beyond this city, though, there were a lot of Americans who
were divided eight years ago and four years ago. And I think the big question is, can regular Americans, who were strongly on one side or the other of this election, come together and root for this president to succeed? And I hope they can.
HUNT: Bakari.
BAKARI SELLERS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: You know, I mean, I think everybody prays for this president to succeed. I think that a lot of people think that that is probably -- particularly, if he does everything he wants to do, that's probably something that won't happen.
But when you look at this day compared to -- I actually go back to 2008, when we actually had an inauguration outside of historic proportions that was colder than it is outside -- outside today. That was something that kind of mesmerized and took the country by storm.
2016, of course, we had the resistance mixed with this inauguration.
Today, I think that there is a complete 180, that most Americans are disconnected from the process. Most -- most Americans are extremely tired of this process. Donald Trump won this election fair and square, but the result of that is, today, this is probably the third most important thing on people's calendars.
I mean, you have -- you have Ohio state and Notre Dame probably being No. 1.
And then it's King Day, and people are celebrating that around the country.
And so, you have -- you have people, particularly the Republicans, basking in their victory, and I hope they do. I mean, they had a resounding victory. They won fair and square. But let's not act as if the country is on its hands and knees, waiting to hear what Donald Trump is going to say today.
HUNT: Well, while I do take your point about -- I was watching the football last night, and I'm thinking to myself, man, we're not even going -- we're not even doing the highlights from the NFL playoffs tomorrow.
SELLERS: Yes.
HUNT: We're only going to go this.
SELLERS: Can we -- can we talk to a producer about that?
HUNT: I almost did. You know what? But here we are.
But I will say, this did come up on "Saturday Night Live" over the weekend in a kind of surprising moment from a surprising figure. This was Dave Chappelle and what he had to say, his wishes for the incoming administration. Let's watch. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVE CHAPPELLE, COMEDIAN: Donald Trump, I know you watch the show. Man, remember, whether people voted for you or not, they're all counting on you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's right.
CHAPPELLE: Whether they like you or not, they're all counting on you. The whole world is counting on you. I mean this when I say this, good luck. Please, do better next time. Please, all of us, do better next time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Pretty remarkable.
KRISTEN SOLTIS ANDERSON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Very remarkable. And you want to talk about a tone shift, think about eight years ago. It was the funereal playing of the song "Hallelujah" after Donald Trump won the first time.
And now, it's sort of being treated as if a normal Republican president is coming into office. And that, to me, is what is so striking.
Eight years ago, I think there was a real sense -- you called it head spinning -- of are we -- are we going to do this? And now, especially for Republicans, there's really a feeling of, you're darn right we're going to do this.
And Donald Trump is also different than he was eight years ago. If eight years ago, he was coming into office -- I don't want to say bewildered -- but not necessarily sure of how to pull the different levers of power.
[06:10:05]
I think today, you are going to hear him both say and do things that show he is different and more ready to do big, bold action from the very get- go than he was eight years ago.
HUNT: Alex Thompson, let's take a moment to reflect on the person who's leaving office here, and that's Joe Biden, who has -- he leaves -- our M.J. Lee reporting he's leaving embittered, right?
He is at this point where there's all this reflection going on. "The New York Times" had this huge story talking about how his advisors kind of protected him, led him to the decision to run again for re- election in April of 2023, at a time and, for a man, who had basically staked -- he staked his run in 2020 on this, on preventing Donald Trump from being in charge of the country again. It was an existential thing for him.
And now, the reflections on this day when he leaves office, trying to restore the normal trappings of a peaceful transfer of power, as the person who many are holding responsible for the return of Donald Trump.
ALEX THOMPSON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: There's a real sense of mourning among a lot of people that worked for Joe Biden for a long time, given what you just said.
In some ways, he is a tragic figure. Because I think probably the defining virtue of Joe Biden is his resiliency, the fact that he never gives up. And then that ended up becoming a tragic flaw in the end, because he didn't know when to exit the stage.
The polling had been very, very, very clear for years that most people thought he was too old for a second term. They decided that they were going to gamble and say, no, it doesn't matter, that we can still win. And you know, it was -- it was a gamble to run at 80 years old, just given how aging works, how Father Time works.
HUNT: And of course, he acknowledged in an interview, exit interview with Susan Page, that it's possible he may not have actually been able to serve his term.
And Bakari Sellers, Maureen Dowd, who's of course, kind of writing from -- from the left view, her headline is, "Trump Brings a Chill to Washington."
And she says, "The mood in Washington is very different this time. Instead of a rowdy resistance and a women's march that drew nearly half a million here, 5 million around the globe, we have Republicans who have gotten even more sheep-like and Democrats who still seem deflated and flummoxed, with no compelling ideas or polls to lead them out of the wilderness."
What is the path out of the wilderness?
SELLERS: I mean, I disagree with Maureen Dowd. I think a lot of people are just resolved to allow the country to kind of reap the benefit of what they voted for.
And -- and I think you're going to see Democrats focus on two things, which aren't sexy at all, which are the states of Virginia and New Jersey, right? We have elections to win this year.
If Donald Trump does everything he wants to do -- fire all of these civil servants, fire all these bureaucrats -- you know where they live? In Virginia, right? Those are going to have practical political consequences.
And so, yes, we actually have a leader. His name is Hakeem Jeffries. We're not in the wilderness, just kind of wandering around, flummoxed, but a lot of people are tired. I mean, the base of the party is extremely tired.
And you know, when you go to the polls, and you continue to be the -- kind of the base of this party, and others don't necessarily come along with you, and you see how they voted, then so be it.
Today, the irony is that today is Martin Luther King Day. And you have a man who -- who rose to some level of success, judged not by the content of his character. And so, I think that there is a great deal of irony in that.
And so, for me, I'm going to sit back. And the first 100 days are probably going to be decently glorious for my good friend over here and many others. But after that, they have to govern. And Republicans have never shown -- one thing Republicans have not done since I've been alive is been able to govern. And so, I don't expect that to change.
HUNT: Brad, big picture. How does Donald Trump do what Dave Chappelle urged him to do there?
SELLERS: That's a good question.
HUNT: How does he strike a balance to govern as a president for all Americans?
TODD: Well, one of Donald Trump's skills is that he is -- has a pretty keen tuning fork on how to become popular. It's what -- it's what made him a good TV programmer before. It's what made him a good brander. And if Donald Trump focuses --
HUNT: Is that why the notification on TikTok right now says, "Donald Trump brought this app back for you"? Is that why? I'm sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt you.
TODD: That'll fit in, yes.
But if he will focus on the things that broadens his coalition, not the things that narrows his coalition, it will work for him.
Joe Biden didn't do that. You know, on Joe Biden's first day, he did a slew of executive orders that would lead to his downfall. He raised energy prices. He made a change on transgender legislation. And he also did immigration executive orders. In fact, he did 11 of them in the first three months that loosened the border.
Joe Biden's policies led to his downfall. Donald Trump's key is policy to keep his popular.
THOMPSON: Well, I was just going to say, there is a little bit of an inherent tension between what Trump's messaging is today, which they've said is going to be a unifying message.
But a lot of these executive orders that Trump is going to do today are not exactly, like, the unifying message, you know. I don't know if people were really, you know, looking forward to January 6th pardons, or the fact they were going to strip security clearances away, or, you know, have diplomats resign, which is a lot of the other things they're going to do today.
[06:15:06]
So, there's a little bit of -- there's a tension between some of the divisive policies. SELLERS: And also, let's be honest. I mean, I don't know about later
today or tomorrow, but I know that Republicans now, contrary to how they'd argue the last four years, kind of had their -- their finger on the pulse of the media or kind of thumb on what the media will do, controlling many of the -- the sources of information on social media. You know, "The Washington Post," "L.A. Times," and FOX News, et cetera.
But you're going to have this imagery, if the media covers it appropriately, of individuals being ripped away from their families. I mean, Tom Homan has already said that the way that you don't separate families is you ship them all back together. I mean, that's going to start tomorrow.
And you're going to go in and, yes, everybody agrees, particularly around this table, that everyone who's committed a crime needs to go, right? But that's not the only thing. When you walk into these homes, and you have somebody who committed a crime, who's there in a mixed status household, and there is a 10-year-old child there, you're going to send everybody back to a home that they don't know.
That imagery should be, if we do our job, plastered across every screen in the country. And that is going to say, are you unifying the country or are you tearing it apart? But --
ANDERSON: What is done by pen and phone can be undone by pen and phone. You're going to see Donald Trump today do a lot of things that Joe Biden was only able to do through executive power, not by bringing together the legislature.
But the challenge for Donald Trump over the next four years is the same. If he only does things from the White House and does not bring together Congress along with him, including a House that is unbelievably narrowly divided, Donald Trump's legacy could also just be as easily undone.
TODD: There are only going to be a few things done through Congress. It's just not possible. Republicans don't herd well, and a two-seat majority makes herding impossible.
SELLERS: Sounds like you said they don't govern well. That's what I just said. That's what it sound -- "herd," "govern."
HUNT: That's what it's going to mean in the end, if they can't. Right?
TODD: Well, they're going to have to be very focused and do things in the House that they can't do. Like extending the current tax rates, right? If you don't want your taxes to go up, you've got to root for Donald Trump and Mike Johnson to keep them where they are.
I think that's going to be the big focus of Congress starting up.
And I think for Donald Trump and the White House, there's a lot of low-hanging fruit with the pen and phone. Joe Biden did 11 executive orders in the first three months to loosen the border. Donald Trump can fix that, and he's going to have a lot of public support to do it. SELLERS: The first -- the first real litmus test for Donald Trump and
this Congress, and whether or not they lead him astray following Dave Chappelle's advice, which is a weird segue here this morning, is whether or not they attempt -- and I'm going to watch every single Republican that votes this way. But if they attempt to condition aid for the state of California.
And I think if we see any -- any -- conditions put on aid to the state of California, that is going to be the antithesis of what Donald Trump asked for.
Because what happened in the Palisades, what happened along that coast is Democrats, Republicans, black, white, other, were all involved in one of the most devastating wildfires we've ever seen. They deserve a leader who's going to set aside all of that B.S. and make sure that they can get their -- get their lives back.
TODD: You're not to see --
THOMPSON: Especially if he does it -- Oh, I was just going to say, especially if he does it after Donald Trump is expected to go to California later this week.
SELLERS: Correct.
HUNT: Friday.
THOMPSON: And then if they play political games, then --
TODD: You're not going to see any aid conditions to individuals. But remember, Gavin Newsom was calling a special session to, quote, "Trump- proof" the state. So, the California legislature cannot be at war with Donald Trump's administration and also ask him to bail them out. That's going to be a fact.
SELLERS: It's called a natural disaster.
TODD: You're going to get aid to individuals for sure. But the state of California cannot be at war with --
HUNT: I -- I will just --
SELLERS: That's the antithesis of what Dave Chappelle was talking about.
HUNT: I will just say, right now we have this day, a national moment, to think about how people are -- how it may be possible to come together. But what you guys are showing is that we may be just devolving right back into a partisan back and forth, as soon as everyone steps off the stage, right?
SELLERS: And we haven't even talked about Notre Dame and Ohio State.
HUNT: Go blue. OK? That's all I have to say to that.
Still ahead, it's not just TikTok. Why all of the most powerful executives in A.I. and social media are flocking to see Donald Trump be sworn in.
Plus, Congressman Zinke, who served in the first Trump administration, is going to join us live to discuss how Republicans plan to try to deliver on Trump's border and energy promises.
And the president-elect promises to satisfy public curiosity about some of the most high-profile assassinations in our history.
(BEGI VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: 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)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SHOU ZI CHEW, CEO, TIKTOK: We are grateful and pleased to have the support of a president who truly understands our platform.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: TikTok's CEO, Shou Chew, thanking Donald Trump after a short- lived hiatus for millions of U.S. TikTok users.
Chew, along with a number of tech billionaires in Donald Trump's orbit will be at today's inauguration, watching as Trump returns to the Oval Office.
And Chew's attendance is noteworthy, as U.S. users have been welcomed back to TikTok after the app shut down late Saturday and people saw the message there in black, that it was unavailable, just before a divest or ban law took effect.
They came back 12 hours later, after Trump said he would sign an executive order to delay enforcement of the ban. And wait, don't take that down.
Let's look, what does that say? "Thank you for your patience and support. As a result of President Trump's efforts, TikTok is back in the United States."
Donald Trump touted the app's return in a pre-inauguration victory rally last night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: As of today, TikTok is back.
We went on TikTok, and Republicans have never won the young vote, the youth vote. They win a lot of votes, but they'd never won the youth vote. We won the youth vote by 36 points. So, I like TikTok.
I said, we need to save TikTok, because we're talking about a tremendous -- who in this audience goes with TikTok, many? Yes, very popular. And frankly, we have no choice. We have to save it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: It is worth noting that CNN has examined Trump's claims of having won the youth vote. Exit polls show that Harris won voters ages 18 to 39 by between 6 and 11 points.
Kristen Soltis Anderson, I don't know if you're a TikTok user, yes, no?
ANDERSON: No.
HUNT: Do we have any TikTok users here?
[06:25:01]
ANDERSON: I'm an old millennial.
HUNT: Yes.
ANDERSON: So I wait three days to watch TikToks show up on Instagram.
HUNT: I think we both --
SELLERS: I watch TikToks as Instagram reels.
HUNT: Alex, you're the only one maybe in the demo. Do you use TikTok?
THOMPSON: No, I don't. I don't.
TODD: I don't collaborate with the Chinese Communist Party. I don't use TikTok.
HUNT: You don't let your kids use TikTok either.
TODD: No, there's no TikTok in the house.
HUNT: Brad, we touched on this a little bit earlier, but I mean, this -- this idea that, for millions of people, many of whom who do not interact with politics at all, right, many of whom probably didn't vote, some of whom, I'm sure, did, it gets shut off.
And then the message they receive when it comes back on -- and I will say that I have some friends, you know, on Instagram, where I also -- I also am, lamented. You know, people -- one woman said, I don't understand. I couldn't have gotten through my post-partum period with my baby without TikTok. Like, this is just -- you're ripping something away from me.
I say that to just underscore, that then having them told that Donald Trump has brought it back, is a significant political move.
TODD: I don't think -- if this changes your vote, then you need re- examine your life. I mean, I think --
HUNT: OK, Dad.
TODD: I think, also, this does point to the place on the Venn diagram where Donald Trump's -- two of his strengths intersect. Right? He's good at diagnosing what's popular, as we mentioned.
But a big part of his reason for rising in the Republican Party is he mastered the national interest. He mastered enunciating what's the in the U.S. national interest.
And clearly, banning TikTok is in our national security interest, but also, it's clearly popular in pop culture. It's a box, and I'm not quite sure he's going to get out of it.
THOMPSON: One thing: I think some Democrats are a little bit frustrated that I've talked to, because they felt like they went into this election with one hand tied behind their back.
Because you know, Joe Biden's campaign did not get on TikTok, because there were security concerns. Once Kamala Harris went on the ticket, she actually joined it, but, obviously, 107 days.
The other thing to watch for this is that this isn't over. Like, he can temporarily stop the sale, but this was a law that was passed.
TODD: Correct.
THOMPSON: And -- and they're going to have to figure this out. And there's already some scuffling inside the administration. You've seen Breitbart sort of target some national security officials who they think are too TikTok friendly. And so, it's just going to be something to watch over the next 90 days.
HUNT: Yes, Tom Cotton has been out there warning about this.
ANDERSON: It is really notable. Ten years ago, I wrote a book about how Republicans were completely screwing up with younger voters. And while it is true that, according to the exit polls, Donald Trump did not win the youth vote, 6 to 11 points is a heck of a lot better than Republicans have done in the last two decades. And that is notable.
He clearly knows it. He clearly sees himself as somebody who's going to rebuild this new coalition, bring young voters in. And so, for him, it's at odds with that message about, I'm going to be the one that's tough on China.
But as we've talked about before, younger voters just view geopolitics different. They're not as worried about the rise of China. They don't think it's that important that America be the world leader, and that is manifesting in this whole debate around TikTok.
HUNT: Bakari Sellers, I mean, to Kristen's point, yes, Donald Trump did not win the youth vote, but compared to other Republicans past, he sure did a hell of a lot better than those people have done. And it also kind of turns on its head this idea that, if you're young,
you're a liberal. And if -- you know, there's an old Winston Churchill quote, right, if you're liberal -- you're young and you're not liberal, you have to heart, but if you're older and you're not conservative, you have no head.
This seems like a pretty existential potential problem for Democrats.
SELLERS: I mean, I don't know about an existential problem for Democrats, but yes, I mean, it's an issue that Democrats must address, making sure that you go back and reinvigorate your base.
We just lost ground with our base, which are young voters, black voters, brown voters, women. We just lost ground across the board. And so, yes, if anybody doesn't acknowledge that there is some rebuilding and intentionality that needs to go into this, then their head is in the sand.
TikTok, though, for me, is like a basic lesson in -- in just civics.
For example, an executive order cannot usurp -- as we talked about -- law. I mean, it was a law passed by the House. It was a law passed by the Senate. It was affirmed by -- 9-0 by this Supreme Court, which doesn't do anything unanimously.
So, a pen is not going to do anything else.
And then the Republican Party is so ironic. That the Republican Party wants -- last night, he talked about nationalizing TikTok. Do you know how absurd it is to nationalize TikTok and defund NPR and PBS? Like, this is the new Republican Party.
I think it's part of a larger cultural shift that Republicans are undertaking under the veil of free speech, which is like this anti- intellectualism. I really think that they're doing their best with disinformation, misinformation, to dumb down the electorate.
But one of the ways you see that play out is by simply saying, look, it's in our national interest. We're going to nationalize and spend resources to bring in TikTok, under the banner of our American investment, the little investment committee that -- that we have, but we're going to defund NPR. That on its face is fundamentally asinine.
And I want to see a Republican come on set and be able to explain to me why you think it's in the best interest for NPR and PBS to be defunded, and yet, you think it's OK for TikTok.
TODD: I'll be glad to have that fight about NPR and PBS. We will win elections all day long.
SELLERS: But you -- But you have to say, but you want to nationalize --
TODD: We've had -- we've also just had four years where the Biden administration was pressuring social media companies on what they could allow on their platforms and what they're not. I think the move to TikTok, in some ways, is, in fact, a counter
action to that.