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CNN Live Event/Special
The Inauguration Of Donald Trump. Aired 4:30-5p ET
Aired January 20, 2025 - 16:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[16:30:12]
HUNT: Yeah.
BURNETT: And in this room you see the silence. You see everybody engaged in a way that, frankly, over the past hours, they've been waiting, right. They have not been.
HUNT: And there's a reverence right, for a scene like this in this room. There's been reverence for the "Star-Spangled Banner" as those kind of patriotic moments have played out. And again, we have been talking about this tension, this contrast between the moments that are playing out in the Capitol, the moments that show us and help us believe that we are all part of the same country. We are all fighting, you know, protected by the same group of men and women who sacrificed for us.
We have some of the same norms and traditions. When you're in this room, some of the things that have been coming from the stage here have been much more focused on the things that divided Americans during this presidential campaign and may divide them in the early days of the Trump administration.
BURNETT: Now, as you see the president and the first lady, they are departing and you hear the cheer go up behind us. That's because they see that, too. And they know that he is at least according to schedule, now, supposed to be coming over here to where we are, where, as Kasie was saying, its going to be a bit more of a I like your analogy to the Olympics, sort of an Olympic review that the dais where he will review just a few of the groups that were set to perform in the parade, just a fraction, and you can only think about the disappointment that many of those groups feel.
I mean, it would be heartbreaking to think you're going to be a part of this and then not to be able to, but coming here, going to see that.
HUNT: As someone who participated in a marching band in high school, maybe I shouldn't admit that publicly on television, but it would have been very disappointing --
BURNETT: I can -- I can only imagine there is that, there is the fact that the president is expected to speak.
And, Wolf, also for the country, a crucial moment here. And that moment will be the signing of up to 200, possibly executive orders. That's been the advertisement here. We'll see what it actually means at a red desk that they have set up at the foot of that dais for the president to sign all of these executive orders.
And, Wolf, they've given us a bit of a hint of what some of those will be. We know immigration, we know gender, a variety of things of that nature they have been talking about from the podium here with the likes of Elon Musk and Kellyanne Conway, Dan Scavino have all spoken, and now they are just awaiting the president of the United States.
BLITZER: And he'll be arriving at the Capital One Arena very soon, because the drive from Capitol Hill to the Capital One Arena, that's where the Washington Wizards, NBA basketball team plays. It's maybe in a motorcade where they -- there's no traffic, clearly.
It may take 5 or 10 minutes tops to get there. So he'll be arriving at the Capital One Arena very, very soon for this next event. And there'll be a parade. As you pointed out, inside the parade was supposed to be, of course, down Pennsylvania Avenue outside. But it's cold here in Washington today. So they moved everything inside.
We'll see what's going on at the Capital One Arena very, very soon as we wait for the president of the United States to get in the motorcade and make that quick drive over to the Capital One Arena.
I want to go to our chief White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins.
Kaitlan, you're back at the White House right now. You just saw Elon Musk. I take it over at the White House. Give us the latest.
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Wolf, I'm back here at the White House and a lot of the senior staff for President Trump are already here awaiting his arrival because after he goes to the Capital One Arena and then as you see him here in the motorcade traveling over after, he was just having that conversation with the Republican Senate majority leader, John Thune, he'll go to the Capital One Arena. We know he's going to sign executive orders here.
But then, Wolf, he'll come to the White House. And, of course, typically the inauguration was held outside. He would have traveled down Pennsylvania Avenue, gotten out, greeted some of his supporters, and come up the driveway right behind me and walked into the East Wing of the White House with the first lady, Melania Trump.
Things are a bit different looking tonight as he is coming over here in a bit, but we are going to see President Trump in the Oval Office just a short time from now, where he'll also sign more executive orders, I'm told here at the White House, you can see inside his motorcade there -- some of his Secret Service agents that are sitting up front. He's in the back seat, obviously, and has a jam-packed day already.
But Susie Wiles, his incoming chief of staff, is already here. Karoline Leavitt, who is going to be the White House press secretary, also on hand inside the West Wing. And, Wolf, CNN's Peter Morris just spotted Elon Musk walking into the
Eisenhower Executive Office Building. That's right next door to the White House, technically still on the White House grounds, but that's where the vice presidents office -- ceremonial office is. And a lot of the other White House staff where they -- where they stay.
And so that is where Elon Musk is presumably going to be running his DOGE operation out of. There's been some questions of whether or not he'll also seek some office space inside the West Wing as well, given its greater proximity to the Oval Office. But this is the part of day one inside the White House, figuring out who is in what office, because, of course, proximity to -- to the Oval is really everything, and also just setting everything up.
[16:35:01]
They switched out the Oval Office earlier today while President Biden and President Trump were both on Capitol Hill. That means they change the artwork. They change the bus. Sometimes they change the rug that's in there, including reassembling the Resolute Desk that they use.
Those are all the preference of the president. And the White House staff here is pretty good at changing that over pretty quickly. But also, we saw them taking in computers inside and out of the West Wing, furniture inside and out of the East Wing. As they are all shifting over this White House, so that when President Trump does arrive here just a short time from now, everything is to his liking.
It's pretty amazing to watch them actually do that all behind the scenes. But as soon as he gets here, then he'll be back to work, Wolf, signing those executive orders as we're waiting to see what that looks like. In addition to filling out his cabinet staff, none of his cabinet has been confirmed yet, though Senator Marco Rubio is expected to be one of the first, Wolf.
And as you know, that means an acting official is instead in charge of those agencies at this time. So there's a lot of moving parts still in place here at the beginning, as all the senior staff is just getting into their computers, getting logged on, and of course, awaiting the arrival of President Trump.
BLITZER: Yeah, and he should be arriving soon. You can see the motorcade having left Capitol Hill now and making its way over to the capital one arena. We'll watch all of this unfold.
Kaitlan Collins, thanks very much. Kaitlan is our new chief White House correspondent, also CNN anchor.
As we've been reporting, President Trump is expected very soon to sign several executive orders pardoning what are called nonviolent offenders convicted in the January 6th insurrection and commute the sentences of others convicted of more serious offenses. And that could all happen starting tonight.
Joining us now is the former chief of staff to then Vice President Mike Pence, Marc Short. Marc, thanks very much for joining us.
First of all, what's your reaction to President Trump now planning to pardon, pardon nonviolent January 6th defendants -- he calls them hostages -- and commute the sentences, in other words, reduce the sentences of others who were engaged in violent activity?
MARC SHORT, FORMER CHIEF OF STAFF TO THEN VICE PRESIDENT MIKE PENCE: Well, Wolf, I think that there's been a lot of revision around that day. And, you know, in the immediate aftermath of the violence of the Capitol, President Trump referred to those folks conducting the violence as Antifa and said Antifa had infiltrated his supporters.
BLITZER: And today, they're considered patriotic heroes. And I think it's -- there's millions and millions of patriotic supporters of President Trump and his agenda who I don't think need to embrace the notion that those who are violently assaulting police officers are somehow patriots. I think its unfortunate that -- that they would be considered pardons.
I think it's important to remember that even though I accept the point that the Biden Department of Justice was very politicized, I think their lawfare attack helped rehabilitate President Trump, many of these convictions were done by Trump appointed judges of those who assaulted police officers on the day of January 6th.
And so, for a party that stood for law and order, I think it's unfortunate to be party to those who again assaulted and harmed police officers in the Capitol that day.
BLITZER: You know, the presidential motorcade making its way from Capitol Hill over to the Capital One Arena should not take very long. Clearly, the police remove all traffic, so the motorcade doesn't have to worry about that.
Marc Short, you were the chief of staff to the then vice president, Mike Pence. How remarkable from your perspective, was it for you to see Mike Pence at today's inauguration, given the events that all of us remember very, very vividly of January 6th? You were with him that day when the mob stormed the U.S. Capitol. We heard chants of "hang Mike Pence, hang Mike Pence".
Was it -- was it extraordinary for you to see Mike Pence show up today?
SHORT: Not really, Wolf, because Mike's a very traditionalist person. He believes in protocol. He believes very strongly in the peaceful transfer of power. And I think he wanted to be there to celebrate democracy in action. And so, so -- no, it was not a surprise for me to see him there at all.
BLITZER: Let me get your thoughts to the decision by President Biden to issue last minute preemptive pardons for several members of the January 6th Select Committee and others, do you think they were necessary? SHORT: No, I certainly don't. I think -- I think it's outrageous. I
think to be issuing pardons preemptively creates a presumption of guilt in the first place. I think pardons should be reserved for people not just convicted, but people have expressed remorse of some crime they've committed.
And I think it creates a terrible precedent for future presidents. And I think, you know, as we talk about President Trump potentially pardoning people who I think assaulted police officers, I think the whole notion that Biden does so many more of these preemptive pardons the same day clouds the narrative of the story today. And so -- so, no, I certainly wouldn't support it on a policy perspective. I think it also, you know, it creates a terrible precedent moving forward for future precedents.
BLITZER: Marc, I want you to stand by. I want to bring in some more members of my panel here in Washington.
Elie Honig from a legal perspective, and you're our senior legal analyst right now.
[16:40:00]
What's your -- what's your reaction to these pardons, these preemptive pardons?
ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Well, Wolf, John and Jamie were talking earlier about the normalcy of much of what we're seeing today. But there also is a highly abnormal development underway.
This is, I think, the most abnormal day we've ever seen in the history of the pardon power. We started off the day with Joe Biden and his last minutes in office issuing blanket preemptive pardons to five of his own family members. Now, what's to come?
The pardons that Donald Trump is going to exercise soon, I think, are best understood as a raw exercise of political power. There's no legitimate law enforcement need. And I think Marc Short was just saying this. Behind the pardons to January 6th rioters.
And what I'm looking for is two things. One, where does Donald Trump draw the line? Will he only pardon people who were convicted of misdemeanors? Will he get up to people who were convicted of destroying property, of violence against police -- police officers? How are they going to draw those lines? There's 1,400 people who have been charged.
And number two, what is the Justice Department then do with the hundreds of still pending January 6th cases? So the stakes here are enormous. We are at a new moment in U.S. history.
Shermichael Singleton, what do you think?
SHERMICHAEL SINGLETON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Look, I think you have to go case by case for people who may have committed or been found guilty of misdemeanors. I think for the average person, they could certainly understand potentially giving said individuals pardons.
But overall, Wolf, you know, the American people had an opportunity to assess all of this when they voted last year. They made the determination and they said that there were more critical things that were important to them, whether it was economics, whether it was a restoration of American values that I would argue my liberal friends believe is rather fluid.
Many Americans would say, well, wait a minute here. We're more of a center right leaning country, not a center left leaning country. Whether you like Donald Trump or not, we want someone to set up a roadblock around some of those provisions that we personally believe have gone too far over the past four years under the Biden-Harris administration.
And so I think the average person out there is looking at this thing very, very differently from people in Washington. They're looking at their everyday lives. They're looking at their children going to school. They're thinking about the future.
And the future under the last administration looked bleak for most people. They think about the past, maybe halcyon days, if you will, and they say, well, you know what, maybe there are some things about the former president, now president, that I didn't really like that I was somewhat uncomfortable with.
But overall, my life felt good, I was secure, I looked at a future where I felt my kids and grandkids had a future that was better than mine. And I think that's why the president ultimately won. And I think that's why he has somewhat of a mandate from the American people, specifically from these unique, unorthodox groups -- Black men, Hispanic men, Latino women. You cannot dismiss these things.
BLITZER: Under the Constitution, the president of the United States, whether President Biden or President Trump, they have the right to issue pardons and to commute sentences. So legally, everything is in place.
ALLISON: Yeah, I think we should not to separate the pardons that are happening today. So the reason why Joe Biden pardoned the January 6th Committee and other -- Milley and Fauci is because Donald Trump, you're right, he ran and people elected him. He said he was going to seek retribution.
Now, retribution is not a part of the constitution, right? So we -- we put those in place. I, I think its unfortunate that he pardoned his family today. I am a Democrat. I think that it does cloud what he did as -- so I think you should bifurcate those two.
And then I think the pardons for January 6th are completely different. The reason why today feels so abnormal is because of what happened last year or four years ago on January 6th, something that none of us in our lifetime have ever seen. So, on your day one, when you talked about -- not you Shermichael, but Donald Trump talks about lowering the cost of eggs, what you do is you let people out who undermined our Constitution, who undermined the election, who undermined people who felt like their life was not better under Donald Trump in 2020.
They felt like they wanted a different four years, and that's why they elected Donald Trump -- or Joe Biden. So I want to put those pardons in separate buckets, and I think we should be talking about them differently because they are not all -- all pardons are not created equal, in my opinion.
GANGEL: Can I just have one thing to push back a little bit on what Shermichael said? Let us not forget that a large part of this country did not want Donald Trump to be president and to be the -- to back there today. They wanted Kamala Harris.
There are people who are watching this who are appalled, who are worried, who I was just frankly, texting with the mother of Brian Sicknick, who was the Capitol Hill police officer. He died the next day. She is watching all of this, and she is in so much pain.
And think about, you know, there were other people who died that day, other officers, officers who were injured -- I mean, just brutally, brutally injured.
[16:45:06]
They are sitting there waiting to see what these pardons mean. And to your point, Elie, you know, will people convicted of violence against police officers be getting pardons? It's -- it is very, very hard for a lot of people to watch.
KING: Jamie makes a critical point. Number one, we're all old enough to remember. Sometimes the president comes in and says, I'm the president for all Americans. Donald Trump did win the popular vote.
Shermichael is absolutely right that no one should be surprised when he pardons January 6th defendants, because he said it repeatedly during the campaign that he was going to do it. We should at least applaud a politician who says what he's going to do, whether you agree or disagree with what they do.
I think the question is who? What is the standard they set? And ill apply the same test to this when they get into mass deportations in the immigration enforcement. Donald Trump's base is for those things. But Donald Trump won the popular vote, and he won the seven swing states because he expanded his coalition with some people who had voted for Joe Biden four years ago, who, because of the cost of living or because of the presidents age or because of the switch to Vice President Harris for whatever reason, decided to go back to Donald Trump. If he loses the support of those people, he can't run again, but his party will be in trouble. Governing will come in trouble.
So if you have video of this person is pardoned and there's video of them violently beating a police officer, that's going to be a problem for the president.
If you have mass deportations and they're rounding up people in an orderly fashion and bussing them out, some people will oppose that vehemently. I get that. But his supporters will say, okay, but if it gets chaotic, if you see families being separated, if you see women and children being forced on busses, then -- then that is going to test.
So the test now for Donald Trump is governance. It was his failure to govern during COVID that opened the trap door below him. Now he gets a chance to govern again. Can he do it?
BLITZER: All right. Everybody, stand by. We have a lot more to assess. We're just beginning our special coverage. Much more coming up.
Right now, I want to go back to Jake.
TAPPER: Thanks so much.
And, Wolf, please tell Shermichael that all of us here at this desk are sending him the best on the birth of his little baby girl. We're all very excited. Can't wait to see the pics. But until we get those -- until we get those pictures.
There he is. Look at the proud papa.
SINGLETON: Thank you, Jake. Thank you. I wasn't expecting that.
TAPPER: Congratulations. That I would be holding up a photo if you'd sent me one. You had to send me one of your little girl.
SINGLETON: I promise you, in a few minutes.
TAPPER: I can't wait.
BLITZER: I saw the photo.
TAPPER: Congratulations.
BLITZER: I saw the photo, Jake. And she's adorable.
TAPPER: Well, I would hope so. He named her after you, Wolf.
All right, that's not --
(LAUGHTER)
TAPPER: That part's not true. That part's fake news.
But, Shermichael, we're all so happy for you. Thank you so much.
SINGLETON: Thank you, Jake.
TAPPER: I want to bring in Democratic Congressman James Clyburn of South Carolina.
Congressman, thanks so much for joining us.
What was your reaction as you watched former President Biden leave the White House today? I know he spent, I guess, was it yesterday in South Carolina? He -- you guys are so close. You've done so much for him in his political career. Tell us what it was like watching him leave.
REP. JAMES CLYBURN (D-SC): Well, thank you very much for having me, Jake. And yesterday was very, very, almost surreal. I was there with my three daughters. We did two events with him. We worshiped at Royal Baptist Church in North Charleston, and we spent the afternoon at the International African American Museum that Joe Biden had a lot to do with helping to bring into fruition.
We worked on that museum for 23 years. We finally got enough money to break ground, and then we got it built. And so he went there on yesterday and spent time at the museum, taking in a little bit of the history of Charleston in the so-called Carolina gold room, meat and rice is what our economy was, was built upon there, reminisced with the people who really launched the -- him into the presidency, counterparted, I should say, after the South Carolina primary.
And so, to watch the tears and the laughter and the handshakes and the backpack, it was really, really good to see people showing their appreciation for his election.
Something was said at Royal Baptist Church that I'd like to repeat here. I think it was Senator Alan Simpson in introducing him to the audience, said he will have one of the most consequential elections in presidencies in our lifetime. And I believe that.
And so it was really good yesterday to spend that time with him.
TAPPER: So, today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day. As long as you're mentioning the African-American History Museum and in his inaugural address, President Trump talked about the Black community and the African American community and the Latino community and talking about stay -- you know, appreciating -- appreciating those communities.
[16:50:19]
He said that he hoped that we would realize Dr. King's dream. I wonder what you thought of those remarks.
CLYBURN: Well, I'll listen to them. I was there, and I started thinking about King's letter from the Birmingham City Jail that was written earlier that year. It was 1963. The march was in August, King sat in the Birmingham jail. I think it was March or April that year.
And he wrote a letter to eight white clergymen who asked him to leave Birmingham, calling him a disruptive force. They said the king in that letter that we were grieved with your cause, we just think that your timing is wrong. King, in his answer to them, said to them. Time is neutral. Time is never right, and time is never wrong. Time is always what we make it.
But here's what I thought about today, King said in that letter that he was coming to the conclusion that the people of ill will in our society are making a much better use of time than the people of goodwill. Now, when I listened to that speech today and the invocation of King, I thought about that letter. Will the people of goodwill make better use of their time going forward than the people of ill will? In January 6th, four years ago, the people of ill will overtook our
Capitol, tried an insurrection, tried to get us to throw out the Constitution. This time I heard a speech from the new president that gives me reason to have hope that this time the people of goodwill will make better use of their time and going over the next four years, hopefully, we will restore the true meaning of this country that all men and women are created equal, endowed by their Creator to enjoy life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That is our hope this day means.
TAPPER: Congressman James Clyburn, Democrat from the great state of South Carolina -- thank you so much, sir. Always an honor to have you on, especially on Martin Luther King Day.
I want to send it back to Erin Burnett at the Capital One Arena.
BURNETT: All right, Jake, and I'm here with Kasie Hunt, and you can hear the band. And we understand that the president of the United States is here with us in this arena.
We are anticipating, Kasie, him coming out every minute, as is everyone in this room. They all expect him to come right back from that corner. Everyone is standing. Everyone is waiting and ready, not just for the parade of several bands that is going to come out in a very truncated performance as opposed to the actual parade, but also the executive orders.
There's a desk back there in front of the dais, red desk, giant stack of executive orders have been put there. Pens we understand put out, and we have been told -- at least people here have said in the preambles right, hundreds of executive orders.
HUNT: That's right. And of course, that really lines up policy-wise with the kind of rhetoric we've been hearing from the speakers who have taken the stage, right? The people that have come through here have been a who's who of previous Trump supporters who were in sometimes punished for actions they took while he was in office or after he was in office.
Peter Navarro, for example, others, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Kellyanne Conway --
BURNETT: Yeah. Peter Navarro, kicked it off, right? He was the first speaker here.
HUNT: He did. He did indeed. And these orders, of course, are policy incarnations. There are things here he has said repeatedly.
He's told America what many of these executive orders are going to be. Many of them are things that speak to his core base of supporters and what they have asked for him to do. But there are also instances we have, of course, focused on things like mass deportations and what that might mean for some families.
But it is worth noting immigration is an issue where many people say -- more than half the country says they trust Republicans. It was a message they sent to the Democratic Party.
You've seen some Democrats, like Senator John Fetterman saying Democrats have to listen. I got to work with Republicans on this issue. Many of these executive orders are going to be explicitly undoing, what were some of the first executive orders that President Biden made when he took office, which were to roll back some of the things in Title 42.
[16:55:06]
That was what prevented many migrants from coming into the United States in the COVID era, because of some of those restrictions. I think many Democrats I talked to who work for Biden say that that's something that they may regret. That's something that may have ultimately hurt them in the long term in the campaign season.
So that's going to be some of what were going to see him sign at this desk today.
BURNETT: Absolutely. And he's going to sign. We heard from the cheering during the inaugural address when they you know, and he was giving his speech. They cheered genders. They cheered mass deportations, right.
And that's all what we expect to see signed here. So this is the room. It is interesting. And people watching may wonder were looking at the bands here. But some of these pictures also show you the crowd and the crowd here. He had they had been expecting up to 200,000. Its unclear how many people would have come to the mall, but you can only fit about 20,000 here.
And these are -- these are ardent Trump supporters who are here to celebrate the inauguration of Donald Trump. They've got their hats on their Trump regalia on. And there seems to be different sections even here, Kasie, where they're sitting, but unclear exactly, or what do you know about sort of who's in here? Who are the coveted 20,000?
HUNT: We don't know exactly how the people who managed to get in here were allowed to come in. Certainly everyone was very carefully screened by the Secret Service. Traditionally, there are some areas on the National Mall that would be ticketed, right? A member of the public can come without a ticket and kind of see what's going on kind of far away, or at least that used to be the case.
But there are areas closer in that do require a ticket, and that can be tens of thousands of people. Your ticket is color coded based on, you know, how important or not you are necessarily. So I mean, my question is, did they use that ticketing system to in some way get people in?
I did as I was walking in here, there was someone who thought the press entrance was the VIP entrance for attendees. That was not what it was.
BURNETT: Right.
HUNT: He expressed some frustration because it can take a while to screen the press equipment. So the line was moving rather slowly.
So, clearly, there are some groups of people, and of course there are some who are seated on the floor having access to the floor of this building is something that clearly is tightly controlled. So it does seem that there are some VIPs explicitly invited to be here. But again, I mean, there's not a lot of opportunity for people to get into something like this if tens of thousands more could attend the inauguration.
BURNETT: Oh, absolutely. Absolutely.
And you hear scattered shouts of "Trump! Trump!" And just from the way everybody is facing, they do expect him to walk out from behind on the right side of the dais. It appears from what everyone in this room is looking where they're looking at that entrance there. This is the moment they've been waiting all day for, as they've been watching on the big screen here. And the audio pumped out with the inaugural address.
HUNT: And there are some people here up sitting at the top line of the dais with camera shots a little too wide for me to be able to identify who they are. But there are, of course, you know, stairs that would allow the president to walk up there should he should he want to if he comes out that way.
BURNETT: And the dais itself at, Kasie, had earlier, Jake and Wolf, likened it to an Olympic viewing podium. And it indeed seems to be that. But there's going to be, you know, all the family and, you know, people will come to view because there's a space if or as the pool camera films around where all of the bands that were going to be in the parade will literally parade through past the dais.
And when I say all, I mean the bands that we will see, it's actually only a fraction of those that were going to be able to perform. If this actually had happened on the streets of Washington, D.C., and then we anticipate the president will sign those executive orders.
It is likely that he will speak at that podium before all of this even begins.
HUNT: And not spoken to a crowd.
BURNETT: Right, and they are waiting. I think there's -- there's no doubt of that. It's a question of how long.
Jeff Zeleny is here with us.
And, Jeff, you can also, from your vantage point, see what were looking at, both the where the president will likely speak and the table where he'll sign the executive orders, which I'm going to note has a microphone right in front of it. So that -- that he can engage with his supporters as he signs these executive orders that are incredibly popular in this room.
JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: No question about it. I mean, Erin, Donald Trump has been talking for more than two years at campaign rallies that feel very much like this. What he plans to do on day one, and now his supporters are going to see him in rally format, the same venue that brought him to the presidency eight years ago and returned him to the presidency now. They're going to see him -- I'm not sure if you can see behind me the desk over there, but you're right. There is a microphone. He is going to talk through the executive orders he's signing.
Now, if it's the January 6th parting of the defendants, or if it's going to be immigration executive orders, we've gotten some conflicting guidance. Of course, there's not time to sign all 200. He has a couple of inaugural balls to hit. Also wants to go to the Oval Office, but he is going to use this rally as a working moment.
So he is in the arena right now. His supporters, as you know, Erin, have been waiting for him for several hours.