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CNN Live Event/Special
President Biden Issues Preemptive Pardons for Dr. Anthony Fauci and General Mark Milley; Trump-Vance Transition Adviser Jason Millers Says President-Elect Trump Prepared to Sign Executive Orders regarding Immigration and Energy Immediately Upon Taking Office. Aired 8-8:30a ET.
Aired January 20, 2025 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[08:00:00]
JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: -- and also did not happen four years ago.
Let's check in with Kaitlan Collins on Capitol Hill. And Kaitlan, tell us about where you're positioned in the capital right now, and why.
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, Jake, obviously, typically for the inauguration we would be outdoors on the west front of the capital like we were four years ago even during COVID in a much more scaled down inauguration. This time we're inside because of the weather. And this was a decision that the Trump team made just a few days ago, despite months of planning to have this happen outside. They did so because of the weather and putting all of their guests who were in town outside along the parade route. They were worried about their safety.
And so now that everything has been moved indoors, it's scrambled plans quite a bit. And that also determines who is going to be able to actually watch the inauguration in person. Trump and J.D. Vance will be sworn in inside the rotunda. I'm told there's about 750 or so seats that have been positioned in there, kind of crammed, maybe is a better word, because they are trying to get as many people as possible given there are so many dignitaries here, VIPs, major donors to Trump, in addition to the cabinet and I mean and senior Congressional staff here as well, Jake.
I'm inside Emancipation Hall, and there's about 1,800 seats or so behind us. That is where you're going to see all of the other guests who did not get a seat inside the rotunda hang out here. But they will get to see Trump in person. He is going to come over after he delivers that inaugural address, Jake, and speak to people. And so they will get a chance to see him in here.
But obviously things have changed so much because this is the first time in decades that the inauguration has been held inside instead of outside. And Jake, just in terms of what we are looking at, as the modern presidential traditions that are being carried out today, one thing I learned is that President Biden President Biden does plan to leave President-Elect Trump a letter in the Oval Office on the Resolute Desk, as is tradition. Obama did so for Trump. Trump actually did so for Biden four years ago despite flouting so many of the other norms, like a peaceful transfer of power. And I am told Biden will leave Trump a letter. Of course, what it says remains to be seen, Jake.
TAPPER: Yes, four years ago, President Biden came down from the residence, into the Oval Office. He opened up the drawer of the Resolute Desk, found the letter, read it, told his aides it was surprisingly gracious. We'll hear more about the letter that Biden wrote Trump perhaps later today.
Let's turn to CNN's Pamela Brown. She's outside St. John's Episcopal Church where President-elect Trump is headed any minute. Pamela, what can we expect from the service?
PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: We are expecting soon to be vice president J.D. Vance and his family to arrive here at St. John's for the service, and then, of course, soon- to-be President Trump, Melania Trump, and the entire family, I'm told, by a source familiar with the plans will be arriving for this traditional Inauguration Day service.
Now, even though this is something many presidents in the past, starting with President Roosevelt, have done to start the day, there are going to be some differences today than what we saw eight years ago when Trump came here for the service for his first inauguration. There will be no sermon, I'm told by a source familiar. And the reverend, who will be leading the service today, did confirm that. Also, President-Elect Trump is expected to sit in the first pew, the first row of the church, which will be the first time in 92 years that will happen, according to Reverend Fisher. So that is certainly a change. No sermon, as well. So new sermon, soon-to-be President Trump will be sitting in the pert first few.
The Reverend said that today it's going to a time of quiet reflection, peace, calm before the busy festivities here for Inauguration Day. That's really what he wants with this traditional service this morning. And we will see if Donald Trump comes over this to take any of our questions. Obviously, a lot of news already happening this morning with those pardons from President Biden. Jake?
TAPPER: All right, let's go now to someone who has been part of Donald Trump's inner circle since Mr. Trump's first presidential campaign back in 2016. Let's bring in Jason Miller who is now a senior advisor to the Trump/Vance transition. Jason, welcome. In his first inaugural address, President Trump painted a picture of what he called American carnage. What kind of tone, what kind of language will Americans hear from him in his speech today, his inaugural address?
JASON MILLER, TRUMP-VANCE TRANSITION SENIOR ADVISER: Jake, good morning. Today is going to be different from the aspect that President Trump is going to begin immediately laying out his plan of action. So typically with inauguration speeches, you have incoming president who give a lot of lofty rhetoric and empty promises that ultimately never are fulfilled. But we've seen what President Trump can do already in his first four years. And so for only the second time in our nation's history we have returning president. And so President Trump will lay out the very real challenges that are facing our country, but he's going to immediately go into his solutions and his plan of action to fix it. That's the difference with this is it's more programmatic, talking about this revolution of common sense. And so we're going to start signing executive orders immediately after the president is sworn in.
[08:05:00]
When he gets over to the Capital One Arena a couple hours later he will be signing more executive orders. We're going to secure the border, get the energy production going.
But Jake, this is about action. This is going to be unique from anything we've ever seen before.
TAPPER: So let's talk about the multiple executive orders. Do you know how many he is going to be signing exactly, and what they will be specifically doing? I understand the general subjects about energy and the border, and the like, but can you be specific?
MILLER: I can go a little more specific. The two main buckets really are about securing the border and also with the increase in our energy production. But some of these will be putting President Trump's first term border policies back in place, successful policies like Remain in Mexico or stopping catch and release. Those would be a couple of the big ones.
Additionally, we will talk about opening up some of the permitting when it comes to energy production. There will be a number to go through and really reform government and get it back to its core function should be, make it more of a meritocracy, getting rid of some of the DEI and other woke nonsense that we've seen.
But again, if you liked President Trump's policies, especially on the border from the first term, I think you're going to love what you see today. Jake, when we talked about deportations, 87 percent of Americans approve of what President Trump wants to do, deporting illegal criminals, illegal aliens who are in this country. Two-thirds of American support has border policies overall, even a majority of Latinos. We know already that there are 1.3 million people in this country illegally, already approved and processed for deportation. That's going to start right away. We're going to focus on the criminal illegals that are here, and I think we're going to make our communities a lot safer.
TAPPER: President Biden, as you may know, within the hour, we just learned that he's issued preemptive pardons for former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Milley, Dr. Anthony Fauci, as well as members and staff of the January 6th Select Committee as well as law enforcement officers that testified before the committee. What is President-Elect Trump's reaction to that? And will he respect those pardons?
MILLER: Jake, obviously, it happened just a few minutes ago. I have not yet had the chance to speak with President Trump about that. But quite frankly, this is President Trump's day. This is the day for the 77.3 million people who voted for President Trump. Obviously, he won 312 electoral votes and won the popular vote. We've had nothing but a disaster for the past four years with Joe Biden. Joe Biden is on his way out. We're going to have real leadership back in the White House. And quite frankly, with President Trump, we've already seen the success of the Middle East peace deal and everything he's been doing even before he is sworn in.
So finally we're going to have strong leadership in place, and let's talk about what we're going to start doing to improve people's lives and not about the disasters of the past four years.
TAPPER: The president-elect is saying that he plans to pardon some of the people convicted for their roles on January 6th, 2021 today, he said. Can you be more specific about that? Will he pardon anyone convicted of violent offenses?
MILLER: Jake, that's not something that I've been privy to as I'm not part of the incoming White House Counsel's Office or with the DOJ. But we've made very clear in the past that President Trump has said we're going to look through each of the cases individually. We've also said that definitely do not support in any way, shape, or form anyone who has been violent towards law enforcement or things of that nature, but there have been people who have been treated unfairly. So they're going to look on a case-by-case basis. I'm going to leave that to the White House Counsel's Office as well as the DOJ.
TAPPER: Jason, are you going to serve in the Trump administration?
MILLER: My focus right now is to make sure I get the rest of the nominees through. I think the confirmation hearings that went last week were pretty fantastic. Pete Hegseth did great, Pam Bondi, Scott Bessent, Kristi Noem. We have a busy week. We'll put Elise Stefanik in Doug Collins coming up tomorrow, a whole bunch more in the next couple of weeks. And then after we get our nominees through then we'll figure out exactly what's next for me. But I'll still be part of the president's team. We'll just see exactly what that looks like.
TAPPER: All right, Jason, thanks so much. Good to see you. Have fun today, and congratulations.
MILLER: Thank you, sir, I appreciate it.
TAPPER: All right, Dana Bash?
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: I thought it was interesting that he did not weigh in at all on what President Biden did on his way out the door, that he said this is Donald Trump's day, that he wanted to focus on all the things that Donald Trump is doing, which is sort of un-Trumpian --
TAPPER: It's smart by Jason.
BASH: But it's -- that's exactly what I was going to say. But I have to say, and I hope I didn't disrupt you or distract you as you started to talk to him. I talked briefly to Anthony Fauci, who got one of the pardons, who said he is very appreciative of what President Biden did. He said it again and again, he has done nothing wrong, but there are baseless accusations against him and his view. And he has been worried about what it will mean for him, and even more so, for his family.
[08:10:04]
And I just want to add one more thing. As we're talking, I got a text from Tim Heaphy who ran the January 6th committee, who says that he had now warning, came out of the blue. He didn't want the pardon, but he understands the president's motivation in granting it.
TAPPER: On the right side of your screen you see images of Blair House, which is right across the street from the White House. Any moment we expect President-Elect Trump and the first lady to be Melania Trump to come out of there. I'm not sure if we're going to actually see images of them given all the security tents and the like, but we are expecting them to depart Blair House on the way to St. John's Church any minute now.
One of the things that, unfortunately, a pardon cannot do is stop the death threats that Mark Milley and his family and Anthony Fauci and his family and members of the January 6th Committee and the staff and the police officers who testified are getting. And that is something that I think, it will be great if this was the end of the era of political violence against Democrats, Republican, everyone. But that is one of the things that I think that is kind of less discussed when it comes to the demonizing of people like General Milley. The idea that people, ever since they been named as enemies of Donald Trump, and I'm not blaming Donald Trump for the threats, but once they're perceived as enemies, Donald Trump's fans go after them. And it happens on the other side, too. I'm not suggesting it doesn't.
ABBY PHILLIP, CNN ANCHOR: It's a split screen experience, as it often is with Donald Trump. On the one hand you hear Jason Miller talking about what Trump wants to be able to do on day one that he promised to do in terms of policy, in terms of immigration, in terms of the economy and energy.
And then on the other hand, there is this specter of retribution that he also promised, by the way. And so both of these things are happening at the same time. And the problem with elections, in a way, is that you have voters who vote for a candidate, and you have a candidate who says all kinds of things, and you don't know which of those things are at the top of the list. But I think we do know in this last election. Americans want the president to come in and address their core needs of survival, housing, food, safety and security.
The other stuff that is actually related to Donald Trump's personal grievances, I don't know how much of that they care about. I don't know how much they want the government going after Dr. Fauci who served this country honorably for decades, General Mark Milley, who served Trump and the country honorably for decades. So Trump is really playing both sides of this coin, and I do think it's important, even while Jason didn't want to talk about it, you cannot ignore it, because Trump has said it, he's promised it. And this is going to be, as Tim Naftali said today, both sides of the January 6th picture are going to be on display if Trump follows through on his promise to promise people who played a role in the insurrection four years ago.
TAPPER: It is interesting. You never know what exactly, when it comes to Donald Trump, what's bluster and what isn't, and what is bluster that is strategic. Another example might be, for example, Donald Trump, President-elect Trump, said that if all the hostages being held by Hamas are not released by today, there would be, quote-unquote, hell to pay. Now, three of the hostages have been released, and it's wonderful that they are free. But that is not all, there almost 100 hostages. So --
PHILLIP: But he would argue that there is a proposal, a process on the table.
TAPPER: Absolutely, yes. Netanyahu signed off on it, et cetera, et cetera. But his promise was all of the hostages have to be released or there will be hell to pay. I'm not saying that he should take action, I'm just saying there is a difference between what he says and the policies.
PHILLIP: But I do think on the issue of retribution against certain groups of people, it's not just Donald Trump. We hear this from his allies on Capitol Hill. This is something that really should be taken seriously. And we should think about what it means to have people who spent their whole lifetimes serving, and maybe you have policy disagreements with them. Maybe they didn't do what you wanted them to do. But there's a difference between that and crimes, and that line is going to get blurred over the next four years.
TAPPER: So Boris Sanchez is outside Capital One Arena, where Trump's supporters who hope to watch is inauguration in person are gathering for a live viewing of the ceremony in Capital One Arena. Boris, what are you hearing from folks in the crowd there?
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Hey, Jake, the line is starting to move faster and faster. Some of these folks have been in this line for hours. It spans city blocks. Capital One Arena sits about 20,000 people. I don't know how they're going to get all these folks in here. I'm actually here with Noreen (ph) who has been in line for how many hours?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Five, four, three or four.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's go Trump.
SANCHEZ: How are you dealing with the cold?
[08:15:00]
NOREEN: I'm doing pretty good. I'm actually doing pretty good. I actually wore winter clothes today.
SANCHEZ: Wow, so, what brought you out here today to see Donald Trump -- the Inaugural Parade moving inside. How do you feel about it moving inside?
NOREEN: Yes, I don't mind and I think it's good because he's one of the people not to be cold but I'm excited for this time. It's a miracle that this is happening and it's historic.
SANCHEZ: How does it feel to be around so many folks that feel about Donald Trump the way you do?
NOREEN: It's awesome, yes, one guy had the music going, the "YMCA" song came on, and we were just dancing to it and singing to it like Donald Trump does. But it's great.
SANCHEZ: Noreen, thank you so much for talking to us. We will see if we see The Village People in there tonight.
NOREEN: Oh, that's awesome, okay, God bless. Thank you.
SANCHEZ: We'll see, thank you so much, Noreen.
Jake, we'll send it back to you.
JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: Actually, we're going throw it to Anderson.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Jake, Boris, thanks very much. Back with the panel here in the DC Bureau. Kate Andersen Brower is joining us. what is going on inside the White House just in terms of the transition? Because a lot is happening here.
KATE ANDERSEN BROWER, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: A lot, it's really interesting. There are about a hundred staff, these are housekeepers, butlers, ushers, and on move-in day, they are in charge of moving the new president and his family and the outgoing president and first lady out.
COOPER: How much time -- and this is from the time the Bidens leave in the vehicle, that's when this all --
BROWER: Yes, they have like four hours to do this.
COOPER: To move one family out and one family in.
BROWER: Yes, and they don't hire professional movers because of security risks, so it's like their go day. This is showtime for them and I think with all of the news that's so unprecedented, it's really nice to see this kind of quaint tradition that's still happening at the White House.
COOPER: So, I mean everything, like mattresses are moved out, new mattresses moved in.
BROWER: Yes, so when -- I mean this will be easier for them, because they know what the Trumps like. They know what they, you know, kind of shampoo they use. They want them to come in and have their toothbrush, toothpaste on the bathroom counter. It's their home and I interviewed many resident staffers, and for them, it's about protecting the family. They are there from one administration to the next. They're not partisan. It's this rare bastion of non-partisanship here in Washington.
And I think it's a wonderful thing to see. I do think the chief usher position at the White House is becoming more partisan, which is unfortunate. They're the person that, is like the general manager. And you know, in the past, you had people like Gary Walters, Rex Scott, they were there from Republican to Democrat, served for decades.
And now, we're going to see a transition. It's really been something that's been changing since the Bush-Obama transition, where a new president comes in, picks their own person.
COOPER: David Axelrod, from the -- in terms of working in the White House, when you made the transition with President Obama, how -- I mean, you were up and running right away?
DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, you have to be and we had the advantage of great cooperation from the Bush administration. So, it was a very smooth transition. I was telling John, the biggest thing that was on our minds, or one of the things, in addition to everything else on that day, was that there had been a serious terrorist threat against the Inauguration the night before or the day before, and there was a real concern that we might have to disperse this. And we were expecting, and we got a couple of million people there.
I had to write something for the president. He was going to read it the president-elect to disperse the crowd if he was tapped on the shoulder by the Secret Service. My family was going off to that service at St. John's, and I told John, all I wanted to do was tell my wife and my son not to go because I was so worried, but I was sworn to secrecy, and it was a very -- that was a tension that I didn't expect. That was our welcome to the NBA moment.
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: So, you think about that number one, in terms of the people who have to run the government. How closely is the outgoing team? Joe Biden is president, for less than four more hours, cooperating with the incoming team on these big National Security questions, right? Number one, and number two to Kate's point --
COOPER: So, with the Israel negotiations, the Gaza negotiations, they were --
KING: They did work hand in hand, even though President-elect Trump publicly was saying one thing, and his people were saying quite something else, that the Biden team was working hand in glove with them, and they think that that was the reason they were able to pull off this ceasefire. And let's hope it holds as we go forward.
To Kate's point about the White House. I covered the White House for 10 years, and the staff of the White House, they're just magnificent people. So, on this day where we're going to talk about politics, we're going to talk about polarization, we're going to have some things that cause political dust ups, and we should celebrate the norms, and it's great in those days, I'm going to steal your cup for a second. You walk in for an interview with the president, you bring your coffee in, right. You're about to put it down on one of those tables. They appear out of nowhere. Pop the coaster underneath you, right, because they treat it like a museum. And they're amazing, remarkable people at the case point that it has become a little political, that's a shame, because it's the People's House.
It's not Donald Trump's house, it's not Joe Biden's house. It's their home for four years as they come in there, but it's a national treasure. And when you work there, every time you walk down the driveway, you know, you're grumpy about this, you're grumpy about that, you look up and you say, wow, I work here, that's cool.
COOPER: We've already seen some of the family members, the Trump family members entering the St. John's Church. What do we know about their role moving forward? I mean in the previous regime, it was Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner, actually had roles. That's not the case this time.
[08:20:12]
BROWER: Well, I think you've seen that Don, Jr. and Eric have had a much heavier hand in the campaign. They've been very involved in advising the incoming president, even weighing in on JD Vance as the choice for vice president while Ivanka and Jared have both said they're going to remain on the outside for the time being. I would be curious to see how involved Don and Eric are if they end up moving to DC or spending some time here.
But I want to mention one thing on the transition, because agencies are going through it right now as well. We don't have confirmed Cabinet picks yet for Donald Trump. A lot of folks from the Biden administration will resign, but you need continuity of governments. You're going to have a bunch of career folks in these acting positions until Trump folks can come in.
It's a very interesting time, because at agencies, things move slower. A lot of these folks aren't going to have e-mail up. They're not going to have phones that are working for quite a few days. The West Wing, though, the moment they walk in, senior staff basically has everything that they need and is able to get to work quickly.
DAVID URBAN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: And even though this is pointed, to David's point, while this is the second Trump administration, it's the first time for most of these folks who are taking these jobs in the West Wing.
Susie Wiles, James Blair, all these people have been around the president, but not in the West Wing. And it's a different -- for those who have been in the West Wing, you know, it's a different environment the way that Susie Wiles has organized this West Wing, different color passes. No one has walked -- not as many people have walk-in privileges. Who's going to sit where in the White House? Who has got bigger offices, a little bit of palace intrigue there. Obviously, proximity is power in the White House. And so, who's going to sit in the broom closet close to the president is more important that who has a big office in EOB, and so some of those things are just getting figured out right now, and those people are showing up for work this afternoon for the first time as well. So while there's a bit an organization in place around Trump at Mar-a- Lago, it's going to change dramatically tomorrow, because the rules of the game have changed starting tomorrow in the White House complex.
AXELROD: You know the most -- I'm sorry, Van. The National Security piece, to me is the most, the smooth handoff between the two. And that example that you pointed to of the of the Middle East, peace or ceasefire, is really important.
One thing that strikes me is that Mike Waltz, who's coming in as the National Security advisor, professional guy.
URBAN: He's been working with Tony. They've been working together closely.
AXELROD: -- and with Jake Sullivan. Sullivan, that handoff is really important to safety and security of America.
COOPER: Jake, oh, there is Van.
VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Only thing I'll say is the best advice is to take care of what I call the B team. People are going to be there. It's very easy when you first get there to think the most important people are people above you. It's those staff members, the Secret Service folks, the custodian, by the way, the people who do the custodian work, the so-called janitors. They're responsible for something called the burn bags.
In other words, when you leave, stuff comes off your desk, goes into a burn bag and has to be burned if you can't throw it away, it's a White House. Those folks know a lot. I'm going to tell you what the custodians know a lot about you and everybody else. Be nice to everybody in that building, because anybody from the interns all the way up can help you or hurt you every single day in the White House.
URBAN: That's just good advice in general.
COOPER: David Axelrod, you were talking before we, you know, we're talking about things that get less attention, which is the civil service class and what the new administration is kind of thinking about that --
AXELROD: Well, this goes back to the discussion we were having earlier about mandates and understanding what your mandate is. Donald Trump's mandate was actually, I think, fairly limited. It had to do with immigration and the border, and it had to do with cost of living. Those were the two things that really motivated voters.
It did not, and you can see in the polling, "Wall Street Journal" had an excellent poll this week. And there are others AP came out with one today. Many of the other policies, this notion of turning civil service jobs, 50,000 of them into political appointments, overturning 150-year-old law that is not popular.
On this deportation issue, deporting people who have been long term in this country, who paid taxes, who have ingrained in communities working that is not popular. Deporting the DREAMers, that's not popular. I mean, there are a lot of elements of what he is talking about. Pardoning the January 6th folks, is not popular.
Now, I think what you're going to see today is sort of a shock and awe kind of pyrotechnics of executive orders, and the goal is going to be to create shiny objects while you do these other things.
COOPER: Okay, I'm just going to go back to Jake.
TAPPER: Thanks, Anderson, let's go back to Kaitlan Collins, she's on Capitol Hill for us. And Kaitlan, you have more reporting on President-elect Trump's speech. Tell us more.
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jake, obviously, we're going to listen to this speech, it's going to have a lot of sweeping statements in it about his view for the country and what they want to restore when now that he has the power of the office, he will by the time he delivers that speech.
[08:25:11]
But also, Jake, I've been talking to these officials who are working on the transition and going into the White House and these various agencies that they have prioritized for the last two months. And one thing has emerged that has been clear as they've been working behind the scenes in this transition to what Van and David were just saying, is that time is finite, and they only have four years that they are going to be in office this time around.
Obviously, Trump can't run again after this, but really they're looking at it in the first window of the first two years, and really the first year, in terms of accomplishing their priorities and making sure they get done what Trump wants to get done this time around.
A lot of people that you speak with in Trump's orbit, including those who have been there for all eight years, feel that they kind of stumbled out of the gate the first time he took office, and so that is why, partly, you're seeing so many executive orders being signed today, but don't expect that pace to really stop or let up.
This has been something Trump's been talking about with John Thune, the Senate Republican Leader, that they want Congress here working, not on recess. They want them working late at night to confirm these Cabinet nominees, and weekends as well.
And you don't see a lot of recess when you look at the Senate schedule for the next several months. And so that is one view that they are going into the White House win this time, and they also know they're coming in with not only high approval ratings that Trump has, some of the highest that he's actually ever had in his political career, Jake, but also high expectations from the American voters who put him in this position again and re-elected him. He's obviously been vowing to do things like bring down grocery prices in the war in Ukraine on day one, which would be, of course, today, Jake. And while you talk to some of his advisers and say, well, he wasn't being literal about that, they do know that those are big promises that he made going into office. And I was listening to him last night in that final speech before he is sworn in here today, he's not moderating his language publicly, Jake.
Yesterday, he vowed to fix every single crisis that is facing the United States.
TAPPER: All right, Kaitlan Collins at the Capitol Hill Rotunda. Thank you so much. And Abby, I've covered a bunch of these inaugurations, but I think it's fair to say that security is tighter today than it has ever been in any inauguration, just because of the increased threats. We saw two assassination attempts on President-elect Trump's life over the summer. And just, you know, there's a lot of very worried US Secret Service agents.
ABBY PHILLIP, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT AND ANCHOR OF "NEWSNIGHT WITH ABBY PHILLIP": Yes, this is a real thing. I mean, we're looking at the pictures outside of Blair House. We're probably not going to see President Trump and his family actually making that walk over. And that is unusual because usually you would see the family. This is a secure area, basically.
Everything between where we are and the White House is completely secure, but still that's going to be essentially shrouded. And you cannot think about this Inauguration without knowing that the Secret Service, they are always dealing with threats, but this time, they are dealing with substantiated threats.
Two, actual assassination attempts against this incoming president that has to be taken very seriously and on the political front. You know, when you encounter Trump supporters these days, just regular people, you get this sense of an almost messianic following around Trump, now, that used to be true of a sliver of people on the very far right, I think, is now more true of a lot more of his base, and a lot of that has to do with what he endured in the last year.
That has changed the way that a lot of people who support his policies see him, and we are not going to be able to kind of capture that quite as much, because it's going to be indoors. Are not going to be the crowds, but the sense among just the regular people who are making the journey here to Washington this week is that Donald Trump, their support for him is deeper now, in part, because of the fact that he survived, as the pastor told you, the millimeter miracle.
For people of faith who are in his base, that is something that has only deepened their support for him. And we're not going to see it on physically as much now, but it is absolutely there.
TAPPER: And as you note, we are waiting for President-elect Trump and First Lady to be Melania Trump, to leave the Blair House. You're looking at live images from the Blair House right now. That is the guest house, the presidential guest house, which is across the street from the White House. And normally, I mean, the Blair House is literally just stone steps away.
PHILLIP: It's a stone's throw.
TAPPER: It's basically just kind of across the street from St. John's Church. You could walk it in 15 to 20 seconds, but it's going to be shrouded in security.
We don't even, you know, by the way. I mean any US Secret Service agent is dispatched with the task of keeping the president safe, they would have the president never leave the Oval Office if they could. We don't know what role security played in the decision to keep the Inauguration indoors today.
[08:30:25]