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CNN Live Event/Special
The President Trump Inaugural Parade. Aired 5:30-6p ET
Aired January 20, 2025 - 17:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[17:30:00]
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: Now, this is the -- the parade. So what we're watching is essentially on the dais, the President observing. Several of these bands who were going to be marching down the streets of Washington in the parade now are going to be essentially in a giant U, Jake and Wolf. They're coming in one side, we can see them. And they're going to come up right in front of the dais and walk around the other side. Listen into a little bit of it.
So those are the obviously the Butler County first responders who are marching in. Right. Yes.
KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: Also, Erin, one quick note I -- because our -- our panel, Abby Phillip and Jake were talking about it a little bit earlier.
BURNETT: Yes.
HUNT: Apparently the bandages on J.D. Vance's daughter's fingers, her name is, Mirabel, by the way, are bluey bandages. I think your kids may be a little bit older than mine. Bluey is very popular in our house. But that's just to -- to put a button on an earlier conversation.
BURNETT: Well, it is his -- his normalcy and approachability for J.D. Vance that is a great appeal for many.
HUNT: The other thing that we should stop and just reflect on, we've lost the shot, but that -- this is the group from Butler, Pennsylvania.
BURNETT: Yes.
HUNT: The site with the uniform of Corey Comperatore -- Comperatore who was killed during that assassination attempt.
BURNETT: Jeff Zeleny, you're here with us. And I believe where you're standing, you are looking right over where the bands will parade in one after another. Yes?
JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: We are indeed, Erin. We're watching them coming through. And as Kasie was just talking about, these are the Butler County, Pennsylvania first responders. We're told there is going to be a moment of silence here. So we will of course be respectful and on guard for that. But after this, there will be someone from Trump's history, the New York Military Academy, which Trump, of course, was a 1964 graduate of there.
There'll also be the Palm Beach police and fire guard unit, the Middletown High School marching band, of course, J.D. Vance from Middletown, Ohio. So some very specific moments of that. But they are now paying service to first responders nationwide, Erin. And you can hear the crowd really cheering in here. So, yes, this is a unusual parade, but a parade it is.
They are walking around the -- a fairly small center of the arena where the Washington Wizards normally play. Today it's an indoor parade.
BURNETT: Yes, it is an amazing just from the -- the pure pageantry and pomp and circumstance -- pomp and circumstance here, Kasie --
HUNT: Yes.
BURNETT: -- of what they were able to pull off with not even 48 hours warning.
HUNT: Right.
BURNETT: To have this the way it is.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ladies and gentlemen, this is very special event. Let's now take a moment of silence in honor of Corey Comperatore. Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen.
BURNETT: Corey Comperatore was killed in Butler, Pennsylvania, in the assassination attempt against the President. And those were the first responders from Butler that were just watching there as part of that band.
HUNT: And they -- they carried what appeared to be his uniform in front of them, the way you might carry a flag for, you know, a fallen soldier or sailor, airman or marine, noting that, of course. And it is worth noting here, we're seeing these bands walk out here, New York Military Academy here. Their -- they were announced, or at least the -- the group from Butler was announced, as they turned the corner and were presented, essentially --
BURNETT: Presented to President.
HUNT: -- to President Trump.
BURNETT: Yes. New York Military Academy is one of the ones. There were many bands that were supposed to be performing in the parade that were not able to because of the truncated nature of this location and timing. But New York Military Academy, Cornwall and Hudson, New York, that is where President Trump went to school and graduated in 1964, and they were able to make that cut to perform.
[17:34:55]
HUNT: Well, that does make sense, doesn't it? Look, and there they are saluting the President as they -- as they walk by.
BURNETT: The bands that are performing here for the President, Kasie, for everyone to understand, the ones that actually made the cut because of this truncated nature are all very connected, so Butler County first responders, J.D. Vance's high school, Trump's high school. So there is a -- a connection. Palm Beach --
HUNT: Palm Beach.
BURNETT: -- police and fire rescue coming out now. So you can watch and see the very clear, very direct connections between who is performing and between the President and the Vice President on that dais.
HUNT: I don't envy the staff who had to make the calls to the bands that did not make the cut here because of course, as we noted, so many people from all over the country, regardless of how anyone may feel about the -- the President, this of course, a chance to take part in a very American moment that of course, was unfortunately not to be for so many people who made the trip.
BURNETT: You heard that, Kasie? Home to some of the most prestigious people in the United States, including President Donald J. Trump. That's the inaugural parade announcer, Dan Taylor, who is doing the actual announcing.
HUNT: And of course, you can see there the President speaking with his Vice President, J.D. Vance. It's interesting. I mean, one of the things that -- that we've noted throughout is how much Vance has sort of receded in some ways from the public eye compared to where he was during the campaign in favor of people like Elon Musk and the other kind of billionaires who of course were on the dais with President Trump. But now, of course, he is, you know, in his place, the same way he was at the convention with his family, standing next to the now President of the United States. He, of course, good friends with Donald Trump Jr., who of course also seated --
BURNETT: Right.
HUNT: -- a few seats down on the dais.
BURNETT: And Elon Musk did speak earlier here today to a standing applause ovation, a hero to this crowd, the City of New York Police Department, one of my favorites as a New Yorker, the bagpipes. We will take a very brief break here and we'll be back in just a few moments here as our coverage continues of this parade. And in just a few moments, the crucial signing of these executive orders by the President in front of 20,000 people at the Capitol Arena.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- from New York City, perform candidate from Ireland Canada, Australia, Germany and Switzerland. And as of this past December, the band has had the distinct honor to perform at the 75th commemoration.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[17:41:24]
BURNETT: The inaugural parade going on behind us, Sweet Land of Liberty, about to be performed by the Middletown, Ohio High School marching band, Kasie, which of course is where J.D. Vance went to high school. So a moment -- a moment, you know, if you take a step back to think about that any high schooler in America could have one day just to think about how J.D. Vance feels looking at that and remembering being in high school. I think it is worth in this moment of partisan -- incredible partisan divide and anger and frustration and -- and that everyone, people feel, no matter their, as I say, political persuasion. That's how he's got to feel right now, pride.
HUNT: It's -- I mean, yes, it's absolutely remarkable. I mean, and especially when you think about the -- the sort of what an American high school experience can play in your imagination as you live out your entire life to be able to sit there on that dais and -- and know that you -- you -- you came, that's where you came from. And this is where you are now. Your J.D. Vance.
BURNETT: Right. And --
HUNT: With -- all of your children and your wife looking on as well.
BURNETT: Yes. And you know, he's obviously written "Hillbilly Elegy." Everybody knows a lot about his past. He has talked a lot about it. But it is a moment like this to think about the reason that Americans are so proud of being Americans is that anybody, anybody can be sitting up in a dais like this or to become president or vice president.
HUNT: It's absolutely true. And, you know, in J.D. Vance's case, you know, there is -- there's so much discussion, and, you know, Joe Biden will talk about this. In some ways, it would come across like he had a chip on his shoulder. The Ivy League is often, you know, the ticket to a -- a position like this. Obviously, J.D. Vance found himself in the Ivy League eventually, but he got there from a background without having, you know, people in his life who were able to pave that path for him. You know, instead, he came, of course, from a very difficult background and a very difficult path and found his way here to the vice presidency, a heartbeat away from the presidency of the United States.
And of course, you remember back to that moment he actually, when he -- the night that he was introduced at the Republican National Convention, when he gave his address, his mother, who of course struggled with drug abuse and addiction when J.D. Vance was a child. That's why he was raised ultimately by his grandparents. She made an appearance at the convention, and it was a very emotional moment where he said he was proud of his mom. She has gotten clean and -- and changed her life.
And it's a story, you know, quite frankly, that many, too many Americans can relate to, right?
BURNETT: Yes. HUNT: Of having someone in their lives that they love being impacted by the horrible drug epidemic that so many have faced. And, you know --
BURNETT: She was there with him today.
HUNT: -- hopeful, if you can get through it.
BURNETT: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Middletown High School marching band.
BURNETT: It's a big marching band from Middletown, Ohio. This is a big --
HUNT: You know what --
BURNETT: -- marching band.
HUNT: -- marching bands in the Midwest, I -- I don't have much good to say about Ohio as someone from Michigan myself, but I have plenty of good things to say about the Midwest.
[17:44:34]
BURNETT: Yes. All right. A very big moment for them. All right. We will take a very brief break and be back in just a moment. We do anticipate a couple of more performances here from bands and then those executive orders on that red desk that you see to the left of the dais where the President will be signing with a microphone, talking about a slew of executive orders, from immigration to genders to deportation, in just a few moments.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Welcome back. My panel of experts and analysts joining me right now to discuss today's historic developments. Jamie Gangel is a CNN special correspondent. John King is our chief national correspondent. Laura Coates is a CNN anchor and chief legal analyst. Elliot Williams is a CNN legal analyst and former federal prosecutor. And Tim Naftali is a CNN presidential historian and the former director of the Nixon Presidential Library.
You know, John, the parade, the abbreviated parade indoors at the Capitol One Arena is about to end. Then the President of the United States will be introduced. He will have some remarks. Then he'll do some signings of some executive orders that he's going to put in place today, some new laws, if you will. Give us a little sense of the history of what's unfolding.
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, number one, you're seeing what is normally outside. And again, whether you voted for Trump or didn't vote for President Trump, everybody involved in the remarkable, let's turn this outside into an inside display, did a remarkable job, right? You know, a president deserves his parade. The President's getting his parade. His supporters deserve to celebrate. They're getting a chance to celebrate. It is abbreviated and truncated.
But this is normally, Wolf, we've done this ourselves a couple of times. What happens outside on Pennsylvania Avenue, directly across the White House where the family is sitting looks very much like the booth that they set up built for the President right outside the White House. The substance, the -- the ceremonies are great. The ceremonies are a good signal to the country and to the world. But that desk off on the side of that stage is going to tell us the details.
[17:50:04]
We know about immigration. We know about energy. We know about a whole bunch of issues the President wants to take action on day one. We don't have the details. Does it deal with birthright citizenship when it comes to immigration? What does it say about, you know, who's deploying to the border? He says he's going to reinstate the, you know, Stay in Mexico policy, but what does it say, right?
Trump often talks in these broad strokes, but then on these policy issues, it's going to be the details, because almost all of these first big policy issues are going to end up in court. They are going to be challenged already just changing the app, the Border Patrol app is being challenged in court.
So, number one, it's going to tell us a lot about the level of detail his team is ready to do, exactly what are they willing to do. How bold, how controversial are they willing to go? And then, number two, it's going to tell us, you know, where the battle is going to play out in this country. One of the giant questions, this is Donald Trump's day, but I'll end with this, one of the giant questions is, you know, what about the Democratic Party? Who emerges? Where do they pick their fights?
We saw this dating back to the Obama administration when Republican attorneys general, and it's happened every time, power has changed since the other party's attorneys general, the governors and the mayors go to court to challenge the present administration's policy. I think one of the tests of how do the Democrats fight and who become their big leaders are going to be in these fights against these Trump executive orders as they play out in the courts.
JAMIE GANGEL, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT: And -- and John just said a -- a key word, how controversial. So in Trump's first administration, he was chaotic and controversial. A lot of people have asked me, do I think that Trump the second time around will be what we saw the first time around? And I think the safe answer to that is, first of all, we don't know, but there will be new chaos, there will be new controversy. But to add a third C word, there is a lot of confidence that Trump has in going forward with these things. And he simply does not have the guardrails at these institutions. He has picked a cabinet that will say yes to him.
LAURA COATES, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF LEGAL ANALYST: You know, and he also has, add to the C words, he has Congress now. He's got the trifecta in government that will be supportive of him undoubtedly. But leave no doubt, there will be lawyers who are champing at the bit anytime a president issues executive action. They're going to want to see if the President has gone beyond their actual authority to do something. Have they done something, for example, trying to privatize a steel mill or something in a way that says you cannot actually own things that have in Congress?
Will there be a birthright citizenship aspect of it where that you have the President of the United States trying to do away with something that's guarantees in the 14th Amendment? All very important things. And again, we're still waiting on that day one promise about the January 6th pardons. What's that going to look like? Who are the category of people who might be included in this? Are we talking about violent versus nonviolent?
And remember, how do you define violent? There were people who were accused of and convicted of conspiracy and who were outside of the actual day, were not present and still had some of the toughest penalties, Stewart Rhodes, for example, Enrique Tarrio on these claims. And so how will he look at this? And of course, today's preemptive pardons that came out from President Biden might give some political cover, at least for the narrative that suggests that, OK, if all gloves are off, we'll do what we would like and a little bit of a legal tit for tat will ensue.
BLITZER: Normally, as we all know, these parades take place outdoors down Pennsylvania Avenue from Capitol Hill, usually towards the White House. But because of the cold weather here in Washington, this is an abbreviated parade inside the Capitol One Arena here in Washington. We're going to continue to monitor these developments. We're standing by.
[17:53:48]
The President of the United States will be signing some executive orders. Then he will be delivering remarks. The schedule put out by the White house says about 15 minutes of remarks. This will be his third time today that he will be speaking. And I'm curious if he's going to be speaking from an advanced script or if he's going to just ad lib and go as he did the last time in the second speech and just go very, very hard against the Democrats, against the outgoing, former now Biden administration. We'll see what's going on. We'll continue our special coverage right after a quick break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BURNETT: Mississippi Valley State University band playing. This is a very big band going all the way around the U here, the freeze frame being -- being chanted out. This, I -- I believe, is the last band that we anticipate in this viewing that we're looking at, Kasie.
HUNT: The truncated version, the indoor version --
BURNETT: The indoor parade. Yes.
HUNT: -- of this parade. But yes, it looks like they're arranging themselves here, proper college marching band. They've got quite a tuba section here as of course, Melania is now seated actually. Most of the attendees have remained standing as they have watched. Usha Vance and her husband, J.D. Vance.
BURNETT: He did make a comment earlier about her heels.
HUNT: She -- he did.
BURNETT: He did. What -- they were -- were hurting her, so that may be why. But she is the only one sitting. He is watching what we believe will be, again, from the information that we have the final band. And then we do already see a pool of photographers that have assembled around that executive order desk where the next portion of this will begin, which will be the signing of many executive orders. Jeff Zeleny, you are standing. You can see this band from the other angle filling really the entire floor of the arena, Jeff.
ZELENY: Erin, this is a marching band that is normally on a football field or marching down Pennsylvania Avenue and looking at the expressions on the faces of these young students. They are excited to be here in Washington. They were invited to this inaugural parade quite some time ago. This is a historically black university, Mississippi Valley State University. You can see President Trump there watching the band. The crowd now is -- is getting into this.
And this is a moment for this band. This is a moment for this inauguration. And as John King was saying earlier, this is a part of an inauguration ceremony that is good. It celebrates the transfer of power. Yes, there will be substantive executive orders to come. But for this moment at least, having an HBCU band here is also a reflection of what President Trump believes was his coalition.
He did indeed expand his coalition to more voters of color, and that is one of the reasons that they are here. And just look at this scene. This is a -- there's nothing better than an HBCU band. I played trumpet at the University of Nebraska Cornhusker Marching Band. It is nothing compared to this. HBCU drumlines, the dancers, they are the best of the best. So we should watch this and take it in a little bit.
We see the drum majors over there. This is high theater. And President Trump certainly seems to be taking this in. Only one day ago, on that exact same stage, he was standing there as "Y.M.C.A." was played by the Village People. And now it's an HBCU Mississippi State Valley University Marching Band.
HUNT: There's those dancers Jeff Zeleny was talking about.
BURNETT: The dancing -- and dancing on both sides. This is a performance.
[18:00:04]
HUNT: It really is.
BURNETT: A true performance.
HUNT: I had no idea our Jeff Zeleny --