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U.S. TikTok Ban Could Begin Within Hours After Supreme Court Decision; Full Israeli Cabinet Debates Gaza Deal For Hours Ahead Of Vote; Trump Inauguration Moved Indoors Due To Freezing Temperatures; GOP Seeking Monday Votes On Noem, Other Trump Nominees. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired January 17, 2025 - 18:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


[18:00:00]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Happening now, a looming ban on TikTok could become a reality within hours after the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously clears the way. Tonight, President-elect Trump suggests he may step in to save the popular app, telling CNN the decision is ultimately up to him.

Also this hour, the Trump inauguration is moving indoors as the nation's capital is threatened by frigid weather on Monday. We're tracking all the changes now in the works amid a last-minute scramble by inaugural planners and security officials.

Plus, there's breaking news out of Israel, where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's cabinet has been deliberating the Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal for several hours. As we stand by for a final vote, I'll speak with the lead U.S. negotiator for the deal, Brett McGurk, in one of his first interviews since the agreement was reached.

Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer. You're in The Situation Room.

Tonight, time is running out for TikTok now that the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld a law that could shut off the site for 170 million Americans as soon as Sunday. CNN's Paula Reid reports on the high court decision and whether soon to be President Trump will give TikTok a reprieve.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (voice over): A unanimous Supreme Court allowing TikTok to be banned in the U.S. as soon as Sunday amid bipartisan national security concerns over the popular apps linked to China.

TikTok had argued the ban violated the First Amendment, but the justices disagreed, writing, TikTok's scale and susceptibility to foreign adversary control together with the vast swaths of sensitive data the platform collects justified differential treatment to address the government's national security concerns.

Last year, Congress passed the law banning the app unless it was sold to a U.S. approved buyer amid concerns that its parent company, China- based ByteDance, shares data with the Chinese government that could be manipulated against the U.S. Congress has determined that divestiture is necessary to address its well supported national security concerns regarding TikTok's data collection practices and relationship with a foreign adversary.

The decision today drew rare bipartisan praise.

SEN. JOSH HAWLEY (R-MO): If you've got it on your phone, the Chinese government can track your whereabouts. They can read your text messages. They have access to your contact list. They can read your email. That's the problem. It's a national security concern.

SEN. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL (D-CT): We want it to exist but not under Chinese control and ownership so that the Chinese are able to exploit the collection of information, surveillance and increase their threat to our national security.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

REID: The next move will fall to President Elect Trump.

JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT: It's a decision that is going to be made by the next president anyway.

REID: Trump responded by posting, my decision on TikTok will be made in the not too distant future, but I must have time to review the situation. Stay tuned. Trump also told CNN over the phone, quote, it ultimately goes up to me.

A TikTok ban was actually contemplated during Trump's first administration. Then, he was for it, but has since appeared to have changed his tune.

TRUMP: We love TikTok. I'm going to save TikTok.

REID: And he has some unexpected allies.

SEN. ED MARKEY (D-MA): The interesting thing is that President Trump and I, a liberal Democrat from Massachusetts, agree on this issue. We have to find a way to keep TikTok alive.

REID: One clear path to stave off the ban is to show there are serious negotiations to sell the app. The law allows for a pause on the ban if that can be established. But the TikTok CEO has made no indication he intends to sell. Instead, he made an appeal to the president-elect.

SHOU CHEW, CEO, TIKTOK: On behalf of everyone at TikTok and all our users across the country, I want to thank President Trump for his commitment to work with us to find a solution that keeps TikTok available in the United States.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

REID (on camera): And there's still just so much ambiguity around this ruling and when it will go into effect. In just the past few hours, lawyers for TikTok creators appealed to the White House and the Justice Department for some clarification.

[18:05:04]

But at this point, the Biden administration appears poised to leave this whole issue on the desk of the incoming president. Wolf?

BLITZER: All right. Paula Reid reporting for us, Paula, thanks very much.

I want to bring in our legal, political, and media experts right now. Carrie Cordero, let me start with you. The law gives the president, as you know, the ability to push off the ban by 90 days, but that requires a sale to have made some significant progress. So, can Trump truly extend the deadline?

CARRIE CORDERO, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: So, it's very hard. This law really does not give the president elect much flexibility either before, you know, in this weekend, before he steps into office, or even once he is in the presidency. The 90-day delay pertains to if there really is a credible finding that he can make where there's a record of a credible buyer. In this case, TikTok doesn't even necessarily want to sell, and at the same time, at least publicly, as far as we can tell, there doesn't seem to be a credible buyer.

The only other potential path the president-elect might be pursuing is if he simply directs his attorney general once he's in office not to actually enforce the law. But that would be directly contravening what Congress was trying to do here.

BLITZER: Sara, you're a media analyst. Let's talk a little bit about TikTok, what it's going to be doing. Will TikTok end up shutting itself off completely, entirely in the United States and the 170 million TikTok users who love TikTok once this law goes into effect on Sunday?

SARA FISCHER, CNN MEDIA ANALYST: So, TikTok originally said that that was the plan and the reason being, Wolf, it's a great P.R. stunt if you just shut it off. You are able to see what the impact is. But two things have happened since that came out. One, the Biden administration, to your point, said that they wouldn't enforce the law. So, come Sunday, the app stores and the technology vendors, like Oracle, who serves their cloud, they're not going to get necessarily penalized because the Biden administration isn't going to enforce the law.

So, this might motivate TikTok to stay alive. One thing I noticed today, if you go on LinkedIn, they still have thousands of job posts there. They post jobs yesterday. So, it doesn't look like they're quite ready to shut down. And then, of course, Trump's national security adviser, incoming national security adviser, signaled yesterday that Donald Trump wants to keep this alive.

And so I think those two events might change the way that TikTok is thinking about this. But, of course, they've already sort of teased that it could shut down. So, creators all around the world, but especially here in the U.S. are watching to see what's going to happen.

BLITZER: Yes, they're watching very closely. Ashley, CNN has learned that President Biden is planning to leave it to Trump, the incoming president, to enforce the ban. Biden signed the law. Shouldn't he be the one to enforce it?

ASHLEY ETIENNE, FORMER SENIOR ADVISER TO PRESIDENT BIDEN: No. I mean, I think the president makes a good point, which is, you know, you leave it to the next president to make his own decisions. You know, he's an outgoing president. The next president is taking office on Monday. There's a short window there, so leave it to Trump.

But here's the other thing I think we're missing in all in this, and it goes back to what President Biden said just this week, is it's not just an issue of national security, but this -- millions of Americans are on this platform. So, the concerns are the consequence for miss -- the spread of mis and disinformation on these platforms is what President Biden said just this week, that these platforms are really enabling a concentration of power and an abuse of power by the spread of mis and disinformation.

So, I think that's a really important issue that we need to also consider with national security is what does this mean for, you know, the truth in America, the future of the next generation, how they see the world, how they perceive their government. Those are all important issues to consider.

BLITZER: Lauren Tomlinson is with us as well. Lauren, as Trump's 180 degree different point of view now, reversal on TikTok, anything but now that he thinks that TikTok, especially the young people on TikTok, helped him win the election?

LAUREN TOMLINSON, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: I do think that's the calculus. And as we've discussed before, you know, he saw polling during the election about how popular TikTok is among young Americans. But I think this is a failing on the national security community to not to continue to educate on this topic. TikTok, when it was banned, when this law passed, it was strongly supported bipartisan and primarily not just from free speech perspective but -- or the influence campaigns, but from the data collection that the Chinese government is able to gather on Americans that are on this.

So, I think that Trump, once he gets back in office and they review this information, he doesn't have a lot of options, like you mentioned, to stop this unless he is able to convince the Chinese government to sell, which doesn't look likely. And so he's really going to have to walk back his comments and stick to where he began, which is that this is a national security threat.

BLITZER: Carrie, let me just press you on that. Does anything prevent Trump from actually deciding to not enforce a law passed by Congress overwhelmingly and signed into law by President Biden?

CORDERO: Well, the law as written says that the attorney general is the one that would enforce it and by conducting investigations about non-compliance. [18:10:01]

It's not actually TikTok that would be paying the fines is the difficulty here with this law. It's the companies that provide access to it. So, the ones that have the app stores, those are the companies that are on the hook. And that's why if a president is directing one thing saying, oh, don't worry, you don't need to comply, but the law actually says something different, that places the companies in a really difficult position.

BLITZER: It certainly does. Sara, TikTok's U.S. assets are worth many billions and billions of dollars. How complicated would a sale actually be? And can that happen in just 90 days?

FISCHER: Very complicated, Wolf. One of the reasons we can't articulate the national security threat is because we don't know to what extent these apps functions are shared with Beijing, engineers in Beijing, designers in Beijing. People have to try to figure out what a valuation is for a company in a particular jurisdiction. It's very hard to do that when the company shares operations in different countries.

So, right now, we think that the minimum would probably be around $20 billion. The max could be anywhere towards $100 billion. So, the people who've come forward and said, I want to buy this asset, Frank McCourt, of course, he's only gathered $20 billion of commitments. If ByteDance were to say, you know what, we'll sell, but we think this is worth a hundred billion dollars, well, now we have a serious scramble to get that money.

Is it impossible? No. Elon Musk found $44 billion dollars. He got institutional investors on board. He got Larry Ellison on board. They'll find the money. But to get it together, to make sure it passes any foreign investment concerns and to make sure that the Chinese government is okay with it, that's going to be very hard to do in that time.

BLITZER: This is really a complicated but critically important issue to be sure, guys. Thank you very, very much.

Just ahead, all the ways inauguration day will be very different for Donald Trump this time around as the ceremonies are moved indoors.

And will the Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal take effect on Sunday as scheduled? I'll ask the Biden administration's lead negotiator, Brett McGurk.

Stay with us. You're in The Situation Room.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:15:00]

BLITZER: All right, there's breaking news. The full Israeli cabinet has just formally approved the Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal. It's a truly crucial step toward finally ending more than a year and a half of fighting and bringing the captives home.

CNN's Jeremy Diamond has the latest from Jerusalem. So, Jeremy, first of all, tell us about this important vote.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, it is just after 1:00 A.M. here in Israel, and after more than seven hours of deliberations, of speeches by the various ministers who were for and against this ceasefire agreement, the Israeli government, the full cabinet, has now indeed approved this ceasefire agreement, giving its stamp of approval, and setting us up for the implementation of the ceasefire to begin on Sunday.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DIAMOND (voice over): The ceasefire and hostage release deal one step closer to becoming a reality. After 24 hours of political wrangling and uncertainty, the Israeli Security Cabinet voting to approve the deal over the objections of far right ministers like Itamar Ben-Gvir.

ITAMAR BEN-GVIR, ISRAELI NATIONAL SECURITY MINISTER: I call on my friends in Likud and the Religious Zionist Party, it is not too late. A government meeting is ahead of us. We can stop this deal. Join me. We can stop it.

DIAMOND: This time, neither he nor Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who also opposed the deal, were able to thwart it.

The ceasefire now set to take effect on Sunday, with scenes like this from 2023 of hostages being released from Gaza, expected as early as Sunday afternoon.

On the first day, Hamas will release three female civilian hostages. Like other civilian hostages, each one will be freed in exchange for 30 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails.

Five female soldiers held by Hamas are also set to be released during the six week ceasefire in exchange for 50 Palestinian prisoners each, including 30 who are serving life sentences.

After 15 months of war, a ceasefire could not come soon enough for the people of Gaza stare down starvation and face unending food insecurity. Beyond a reprieve from Israeli bombardment, the ceasefire is also expected to deliver a surge of aid, 600 trucks per day.

I pray to God that this will be the last day we need to use this kitchen and that we can eat comfortably in our homes, this man says.

I don't want to ever come back to this soup kitchen, young Taleen says. We've been killed for moving to where they told us to go. We've been killed for trying to get food. We've been killed for trying to get water. She says she cannot wait for the ceasefire to begin.

Until it does, Gaza remains a war zone. And there has been no let up in the Israeli military's assault on Gaza. Since the ceasefire was announced, at least 116 people, including 30 children, have been killed, according to Gaza's Civil Defense. How many more must die before the guns go silent?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DIAMOND (on camera): And, Wolf, tonight we are also learning that in addition to the 33 Israeli hostages set to be released over the course of the next six weeks, ten additional foreign hostages are also expected to be released as a gesture of goodwill, it would appear outside of the normal framework of this release of 33 in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. We saw something very similar, of course, in late November of 2023 and appears that it will happen once again. Wolf?

BLITZER: All right. We shall see. Jeremy, I want you to stand by. I want to bring in former State Department Middle East Negotiator Aaron David Miller. Aaron, thanks very much for joining us.

Let me get your reaction, first of all, the Israeli government, the full cabinet, now, just moments ago, finally approving the ceasefire and hostage deal, paving the way for the implementation of the deal, beginning on Sunday with the release of three female IDF soldiers.

[18:20:11]

What's your reaction?

AARON DAVID MILLER, FORMER STATE DEPARTMENT MIDDLE EAST NEGOTIATOR: You know, it's a long time coming, Wolf, and thanks for having me. My thoughts turn to the human dimension of this tragedy. I mean, 15 months of a series of wars, beginning with October 7th, taking of hostages, the sexual predation, the murder, the willful indiscriminate killing of civilians and, of course, Israel's response in an effort to prosecute the war against Hamas, exponentially large numbers of Palestinians killed.

And this is the first bright sort of light, Wolf, in 15 months of darkness. It's an important first step. A lot -- there's a lot of potential bumps and speed bumps that need to be navigated to make this six-week portion phase one of the deal work. But if it does, perhaps, maybe, we can move on to phase two, which would basically bring about an end to the war, withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza. Very tough lift right now for this Israeli government and probably for Hamas as well.

BLITZER: Let me get Jeremy Diamond back into this conversation. Jeremy, you're in Tel Aviv. Do you foresee any potential stumbling blocks that could prevent this deal, the current deal, phase one, from being implemented?

DIAMOND: Well, at this point, Wolf, the only other process that needs to take place is for the Supreme Court to hear petitions over the course of the next 24 hours or so against the release of the Palestinian prisoners who will be traded for those 33 Israeli hostages.

That, however, Wolf, is largely a pro forma process. The Israeli government, the Israeli prime minister has tremendous leeway in releasing those Palestinian prisoners for national security reasons, including in the context of a deal such as this. So, really, it does appear as if, you know, the light is green for things to move forward on Sunday.

Now, in terms of the next six weeks, Wolf, we could see a lot of unknowns here. The conditions in Gaza are very different than they were in late November of 2023 when we saw the last release of hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. The destruction is much more immense. The routes to get those hostages out of their places of captivity to Israel will be more complicated. The hostages will be in far worse condition, it is anticipated, both physically and mentally. And, of course, we know that there will also be negotiations beginning on day 16 to get out of that first phase and to try and reach a permanent ceasefire.

What happens if those negotiations go off the rails? Will the six-week ceasefire be seen all the way through to the end? There are a lot of question marks, a lot of things that could still go wrong. And, of course, there is also just the emotional roller coaster that many of the families of these hostages are still going to go through because there are still unknowns about exactly which hostages are alive and which are dead. The majority of them are expected to be alive. But there is, of course, the expectation that some of them will unfortunately return in body bags.

BLITZER: Aaron, let me get back to you. Prime Minister Netanyahu says Israel has an unequivocal, his word, guarantee of U.S. support should the Gaza war resume as a result of Hamas. How likely do you think that is?

MILLER: That's what incoming Trump administration officials seem to suggest. And the prime minister briefed the cabinet tonight and basically said that both Biden and Trump administration has given him that assurance. I haven't heard anything from President-elect Trump on this.

And, of course, Wolf, this is the key test. Domestic Israeli politics, which, I would argue, has prevented this deal, which probably could have happened four months ago, is going to be the single greatest challenge, I suspect, on the Israeli side to see whether or not you can move forward from phase one to phase two, And I have no doubt that the prime minister has a certain set of expectations that there will be violations and justified responses from the Israelis, which could, in fact, prevent phase two from taking place. That is what the families of the hostages are concerned about. I'm sure that's a concern on the part of the Biden administration.

And, again, Wolf, the key is President-elect Trump is going to own this negotiation. The full implementation of this agreement is not going to occur on President Biden's watch, but on President Trump's. How he comports himself, the degree to which he's interested in moving this forward, what pressures and incentives he's prepared to provide to the Israelis in order to keep their part of the bargain, that's going to be critically important to watch, and it's going to happen very soon, Wolf, in the next several weeks. [18:25:00]

BLITZER: Yes, I suspect you're right.

Aaron and Jeremy, stand by. I want to bring in CNN Senior White House Correspondent Kayla Tausche. Kayla, has there, first of all, been any reaction from the White House? We know this was a major priority for President Biden in these final days of his in office.

KAYLA TAUSCHE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, we have not heard from President Biden since the Israelis confirmed this deal and voted in favor for it. But we heard from President Biden several times earlier this week when this deal was clenched. He accredited dogged American diplomacy and the precise framework that he had laid out eight months ago for getting the parties to this point.

We have heard many of the U.S. negotiators In various interviews throughout the course of this week talking about the hard fought nature of the deal but also how much work still remains in the weeks to come. The Israeli approval of this deal was seen more as a formality but also an acknowledge of the sometimes rocky domestic politics that Prime Minister Netanyahu has had to contend with. And last night on CNN, Amos Hochstein, who is one of the negotiators of this deal, acknowledged that there could be some challenging politics ahead for Prime Minister Netanyahu as a result of approving and putting forward this deal.

That being said, it will go into effect on Sunday and then more work begins to negotiate what happens next to the phase two, which will fall to the incoming Trump administration. But for now, Wolf, we know that the Biden administration is so grateful and relieved to a certain extent to have been able to clinch this in the final hours of this presidency.

BLITZER: Yes, important point indeed.

Let me go back to Jeremy, who's in Israel for us. Jeremy, far right members of Prime Minister Netanyahu's coalition are threatening to topple his government over parts of this agreement. What kind of position is the prime minister in right now?

DIAMOND: Wolf, he's in an incredibly tenuous and precarious political position. Itamar Ben-Gvir, the national security minister, has already vowed that once this deal is approved, he will resign. We have yet to actually see that resignation. But I suspect if he makes good on his word, it could come, you know, within the next day or so, most likely after the end of the Jewish Sabbath tomorrow night.

As it relates Bezalel Smotrich, we know that he has sought assurances from the Israeli prime minister that Israel will return to the fight in Gaza after the first phase of this deal is over. We've seen the prime minister in cabinet meetings today from our reporting, trying to insist that he's gotten assurances from the U.S. that if Hamas violates the terms of the deal, Israel will go back to the fight. That's not exactly the same thing, but for now at least it seems that Smotrich will stay in the coalition, but that doesn't mean that the prime minister won't have problems ahead. Wolf?

BLITZER: Important points, indeed. Everyone, thank you very much for joining us.

So, we're going to have much more of the breaking news coming up, including my interview with the lead U.S. negotiator for this ceasefire and hostage deal, Brett McGurk.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:30:00]

BLITZER: Back to the breaking news in the Middle East, the formal approval of the Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal by the full Israeli cabinet.

And joining me now is the lead U.S. negotiator on the Israel Hamas hostage deal, Brett McGurk. Brett, thanks so much for joining us. Thanks for all your really important work over these many months.

How confident are you that this ceasefire-hostage release agreement will go into effect on Sunday?

BRETT MCGURK, LEAD U.S. NEGOTIATOR ON THE ISRAEL-HAMAS HOSTAGE DEAL: Well, Wolf, thanks for having me. I think the Israeli government is approving the deal now as we speak, and we are on track. We are on track for a ceasefire in Gaza to begin on Sunday morning and for the first hostages to be returned to the ICRC, the Red Cross around in the afternoon, local time, so morning our time on Sunday, and for the first three hostages to be released on Sunday by the morning our time.

So, we are very hopeful that's going to remain on track. That's the timeline we established just a few days ago in Doha. And we will see three women, and the women have been treated horribly in these tunnels in Gaza over 400 days. And we're very hopeful we will see three women returned on Sunday, four more women seven days later, and then every seven days after that, you'll have three hostages coming out of Gaza.

Right now, this is on track. We worked hard over the last six weeks between Cairo and Doha. We have locked down every single detail in this agreement. So, we're quite confident it's ready to go. The Israelis are going to approve it tonight and it's ready to be implemented on Sunday.

BLITZER: Let's hope that happens. Gaza officials, Brett, as you know, say at least 117 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the agreement was announced. Have those bombings been a factor in the implementation of this really important hostage release-ceasefire deal?

MCGURK: Well, the agreement's not in place yet. And one reason we wanted to get this -- you know, there's three parts to this agreement. There's a ceasefire to stop the war, and we want to stop the war in Gaza. There's a ceasefire. They'll go into effect on Sunday. There's a hostage exchange element, exchanging hostages for a number of Palestinian prisoners, and there's a humanitarian dimension, a massive surge of humanitarian aid. And we had a meeting in Cairo to ensure we're ready to go on this for the relief of the people of Gaza.

It is a multidimensional agreement. The president laid this agreement out in May. We almost had a deal in August, and then we had six hostages killed, murdered by Hamas in tunnels underneath Rafah.

[18:35:02]

And we basically concluded at the time, Hamas had no interest in doing this deal, and we had to change the equation. And the equation changed fundamentally from that tragic day in August until now. Hezbollah has been basically knocked out. We have a ceasefire in Lebanon and a new political equation in Lebanon with new leaders that want to return Lebanon to the Lebanese people and not have Hezbollah be a state within a state. Iran is in its weakest position in decades. And this actually isolated Hamas.

So, I was in Israel around December 12th with Jake Sullivan. We spent two hours with Bibi Netanyahu. And said now, after the Lebanon deal, this is the catalyst to move back to the ceasefire deal in Gaza and hostage releases.

And it wasn't until the end of December, Wolf, that Hamas, for the first time, agreed to the list of hostages to be released in the hostage deal. And without Hamas agreeing to that, you can't have a deal. And that actually opened up the space to get this done. It is because of the work we've done in the region over months and months, and then the painstaking process just over the last few weeks, and particularly over the last week, to nail this down, get the agreement in place, get the agreement from the Israelis tonight, and implement on Sunday.

BLITZER: President Biden brushed off a question the other day about who should get credit for this ceasefire deal. Should it be him or President-elect Trump? He asked if that was a joke. Is that a joke, he said, in response to that question from a journalist. Who deserves more credit right now, President Biden or President-elect Trump?

MCGURK: You know, Wolf, I literally just returned from Doha back to Washington and that question here in Washington, it's something we wouldn't have imagined asking when we were negotiating this and trying to get it done. Look, President Biden after the election, President- elect Trump came and visited and President Biden set the tone. We're going to have a seamless transition and we're going to find areas to work together where we can.

I met with Mike Waltz, with Jake Sullivan, Jake's incoming -- the national incoming national security adviser, and with Steve Witkoff who is President-elect Trump's incoming Middle East envoy shortly after the election. Steve and I developed a very close partnership, even friendship, and at the time to close the deal, I was very grateful that Steve came out to Doha in these last few days, speaking on behalf of President Trump, I'm speaking on behalf of President Biden, to actually close this deal and get it done. This was a historic partnership. Again, President Biden set the tone in that meeting with President-elect Trump, this is what we're going to do, and it worked. And we're focused on the results and seeing a ceasefire and the hostages return to their families. And I think what Steve and I were able to do in the last few days was a testament to that.

BLITZER: Yes, that cooperation with Steve Witkoff was very, very impressive and very important in achieving this ceasefire hostage release deal.

Have you had any discussions, by the way, Brett, with the incoming Trump administration about potentially staying on the job or perhaps getting some sort of other job in the new administration? I know you've worked for Democratic and Republican White Houses over many years.

MCGURK: Trust me, I am going to do all I can to support the incoming team to make sure that they're able to follow through on this initiative and whatever else I can do to help. I'm also very much looking forward, Wolf, to be able to spend some more time with my daughter, my wife after a very trying four years. But believe me, I will do anything I can to support that team, and, again, I think the work we did together historically unprecedented. I don't think we've seen anything like it.

But I have to say this deal is the deal, Wolf, you know this, that President Biden laid out at the end of May and we worked on it over the course of months. And the reason it came together was because of what changed in the region. Hamas, for the first time, isolated, its leader, Yahya Sinwar, who is dead, and that opened up the possibility to get this deal. And it was not until the end of December that Hamas finally was ready to say, these are the hostages we're going to release. So, then we are in a negotiation about what the equation will be, what the exchange will be. And that's what really allowed us to get this deal here just a couple nights ago.

BLITZER: Yes, it's so impressive and we're really glad that it worked out and impressed with the cooperation with the incoming administration on all these details as well. Brett McGurk, thanks so much for all your important work. We appreciate it very much.

MCGURK: Wolf, thanks so much.

BLITZER: And just ahead, we're going to stay on top of the breaking news, the Gaza ceasefire deal finally approved by the full Israeli cabinet after hours, several hours of deliberation.

But there's other news we're following as well, including the dramatic changes to Donald Trump's inauguration on Monday as frigid weather moves into the nation's capital.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:40:00]

BLITZER: Donald Trump's second inauguration as President of the United States is undergoing major changes tonight. Ceremonies are being moved indoors because of the frigid temperatures expected here in Washington on Monday.

CNN's Brian Todd is over at the U.S. Capitol. He's got details. Brian, this is the first time in, what, about 40 years that winter weather has upended an inauguration like this.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Wolf. The last time this happened, 1985, when the wind chilled down here, was about 25 degrees below zero.

Now, these changes of plans mean that this area around me could really be thinned out as far as the crowds are concerned, but they could also make a lot of people safer.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TODD (voice over): A dramatic change of plans. Instead of being sworn in outdoors in front of the Capitol, on a platform full of dignitaries, and before a crowd of hundreds of thousands, Donald Trump will be sworn in indoors, inside the Capitol Rotunda, a venue that was used for Ronald Reagan in 1985.

Trump saying in a post, I don't want to see people hurt or injured in any way.

[18:45:04]

The tens of thousands of law enforcement, first responders, police, canines and even horses and hundreds of thousands of supporters that will be outside for many hours.

Wind chill in Washington, expected to be in the single digits.

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: This isn't regular cold. This is potentially dangerous cold, especially when you're exposed to these elements for long durations of time. It could lead to hypothermia and frostbite.

TODD: An indoor inauguration means less room for invited guests, VIPs and the public, and might have a different feel.

DOUGLAS BRINKLEY, PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: I think it's a buzz kill for Donald Trump. In his imagination, he's expecting a sea of people in a worshipful fashion, and it's the revenge, the comeback.

TODD: Blake Marnell came all the way from San Diego to view the inauguration up close.

BLAKE MARNELL, CAME FROM SAN DIEGO TO SEE INAUGURATION: Personally, I'm disappointed. I was very much looking forward to seeing president Trump being inaugurated, but given the forecast and the record lows that are that are predicted, I can understand it.

TODD: But Trump also announced that after his swearing in, he would attend an event at Washington's Capital One Arena downtown, where crowds could watch a live broadcast of the inauguration. And then some form of the presidential parade would be held inside.

Authorities have been building a platform, setting up checkpoints and erecting 30 miles of fencing for a crowd expected to include hundreds of thousands of ticketed guests. Now, in just three days, new security plans have to be implemented for up to 25,000 security personnel involved.

MATT DOHERTY, FORMER SPECIAL AGENT IN CHARGE, U.S. SECRET SERVICE: Their marching orders, fundamentals. Where do they report to? Where are they posted? So it's a complete adjustment from perhaps the pre- briefing they have received.

TODD: Including a security plan for the new event at the arena.

DOHERTY: It actually makes it a little easier as far as the security of the president inside a venue for the screening, the metal detectors -- all of that.

TODD: In 1985, when Ronald Reagan was sworn in the Capitol rotunda, daytime temperatures were seven degrees with a wind chill of -25. The parade was canceled, but a far worse outcome may have been in 1841 with the inauguration of President William Henry Harrison, who gave a nearly two hour address in bad weather.

BRINKLEY: He died a month later in office, getting pneumonia from standing out in the cold, giving that inaugural address.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TODD (on camera): Former Secret Service agent Matt Doherty says in addition to the stress of having to make all the changes in security posture for this inauguration, what is adding to the pressure for the Secret Service is all the fallout from the two assassination attempts against President-elect Trump last year, and the scrutiny of the Secret Service over those attempts. Doherty says he is certain that in their briefings, their internal briefings for this inauguration, senior Secret Service officials are stressing to their agents the need to get this right on Monday -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Yeah. They better.

Brian Todd reporting for us -- Brian, thank you very much.

I want to bring in our analysts for our important political panel right now, Alex Thompson, moving the inauguration indoors means there will be far fewer seats available for those who were planning to attend. What kind of scramble has this set off?

ALEX THOMPSON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: I mean, huge you can go to the national mall right now. You can see thousands of chairs already set up that are now going to be unfilled and are going to be collected. You know, Donald Trump really wanted to sort of reset from the 2017 inauguration, which, you know, was much mocked as not being completely full. You remember right after where they said it was the most attended inauguration in history.

I think they collected a lot of money, and they expected a lot of supporters to come out and show huge enthusiasm. He's not going to get that now.

BLITZER: Certainly not. It could be much, much smaller crowd inside the Capitol rotunda. Lauren, I want to get your reaction to something that former Obama campaign chief strategist David Axelrod posted just a little while ago, and I'm quoting him now.

In '61, John F. Kennedy was inaugurated on the Capitol steps in wind chills of seven degrees. It was almost as cold for Obama in '09. In fairness, Trump is more than three decades older than JFK and Obama were. Or did he just fear small crowds and saying, let's move it indoors?

LAUREN TOMLINSON, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Yeah, you know, I actually wonder if there's more of a security threat than people are letting on, considering that this is a president that has two assassination attempts against him already, the Capitol rotunda, like the gentleman mentioned, is a much more secure environment.

So while I think that there is a lot of concerns about his supporters and everyone being out in the cold, I wonder also if there wasn't briefings that led to this movement that might have be more around, making sure the president stays safe?

BLITZER: Yeah. I think you make an important point.

Ashley. Democrats, as you know, criticize Trump for skipping Biden's inauguration back in 2020. But now several prominent Democrats, including your former boss Nancy Pelosi, are skipping this one. Is that a mistake?

ASHLEY ETIENNE, FORMER SENIOR ADVISER TO PRESIDENT BIDEN: Well, I mean, it seems like now they probably would likely not have much of an opportunity to attend, given that its a smaller setting now. The weather, I'm sure, probably was a factor for former speaker Pelosi and others, but I mean, you know, this day is about Trump and his supporters.

You know, I -- my heart goes out to them.

[18:50:00]

I was there for Obama's inauguration standing, and it was 28 degrees, but it felt like it was, you know, below, three below. And so I feel bad for them that they won't have the opportunity to do this.

I mean, if I'm Trump, I mean, why not buy out all the arenas and the whole region and really and air it there and invite people that have come all this way to attend and see him on jumbo screens and all the area arenas. So anyway, there's a lot of options. But again, I think my heart goes out to them. I'm just excited that were not going to have a flashback to Sean Spicer standing up at the podium, arguing back and forth with reporters about crowd sizes. So -- but anyway, but it's good that not only his supporters are going to be safe, but that the president is going to be safe, especially given that not just those last two assassination attempts, but the car bomb -- bombing in Las Vegas that we recently saw.

BLITZER: Yeah. Let's make sure everyone is safe. Indeed, coming up to Monday, it's a big day.

It's been a busy last few hours, Alex -- as you know, last few hours for President Biden in office. He declared today that the Equal Rights amendment is the law of the land. But he's declining to actually order the government to finalize the process. So what's the point of this?

THOMPSON: It's more of a press release than an actual move. And I think its because a lot of members of the Democratic Party, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York in particular, have been pushing him to do this. But the National Archives already said that they don't expect to do that. Nothing from their perspective has actually changed. The president doesn't actually have a formal role in this process.

BLITZER: So we'll see what happens.

Is President Biden, you think, just playing to his left wing with this -- with this move?

ETIENNE: No, I mean, I think its I think if you were playing to your left wing, you would have done it well before now. I mean, I think it's regrettable that, you know, he, with all due respect, waited to the very last minute to actually make this move.

But what I'm interested in seeing, Wolf, is you had women on both sides of the political aisle since Roe was overturned, and even up until November that chose their -- their reproductive rights. There are women on both sides of the political aisle that don't want to see a reverse in rights for women. So I'm going to be curious to see how organizations like Planned Parenthood and others now bring together this diverse coalition to apply pressure on Trump to do something on this issue.

BLITZER: Lauren, how do you see it?

TOMLINSON: I think it was a play for the progressive left. You know, a little bit of a YOLO, while he walks out of the Oval Office. It does set up. I think the reproductive fight for the future so that the Democrats can continue to make this a political issue in the upcoming elections. And I think this is also, you know, Republicans are very energized coming into this weekend and what they are able to accomplish in the next two years.

But as we know, there's often a shift in the midterms. And so this does set up a nice political messaging fight for them.

THOMPSON: To your YOLO point, it's been really interesting that on the domestic front, Biden's been doing all these executive orders and these random things that the Trump campaign has really criticized and been like, were just going to reverse a lot of these things. But on the international side, which, you know, you noted in your interview with Brett McGurk, there has actually been a really good collaboration, and there's just a foreign policy versus domestic policy rift within the Biden-Trump team.

BLITZER: Cooperation with the incoming administration has been very impressive indeed, I must say, and I'm sure its a major factor in achieving this ceasefire deal, to be sure, and saving a lot of lives in the process, we hope.

All right, guys, thank you very, very much.

Just ahead, Donald Trumps pick to be the next homeland security secretary up on Capitol Hill today. The program Kristi Noem says she will end and the policy she plans to bring back.

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[18:57:38]

BLITZER: Another high profile Trump cabinet pick has cleared a hurdle in the confirmation process. The homeland security secretary nominee, Kristi Noem, fielded questions from senators about border security, domestic terrorism, disaster relief and more.

CNN's Lauren Fox has been following it all for us. She's up on Capitol Hill.

So, Lauren, how did this confirmation hearing go?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Wolf, this was a really wide ranging hearing and an opportunity for Republicans and Democrats to really dig in specifically on what the policies would look like under the Trump administration on everything from immigration to disaster aid, something that obviously has become really pressing in recent days after the damage done by those California wildfires.

In a lot of ways, though, I noticed that Democrats on this committee were really having more of a fulsome and detailed conversation about specific policy questions that they had. It was very different than the combative tone that you saw a couple of days ago when Pete Hegseth, who was nominated to be the defense secretary, went before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

You know, she was pressed on the rise of domestic terrorism. She also said in her comments that she will reinstate the "remain in Mexico" policy that was reversed by the Biden administration.

She was also pressed by Senator Dick Blumenthal of Connecticut about whether or not she would give preferential treatment to Republican leaning states when it came to disaster aid. She said that that was not her intention, that she would follow the letter of the law, but obviously that, again, a pressing question given the situation in California right now.

As the hearing ended, we heard from the chairman, Senator Rand Paul, who said he was very confident that she is going to fly through the committee vote and could possibly come to the Senate floor as soon as next week.

Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. RAND PAUL (R-KY): I think it's going to be bipartisan. I think -- I'm hopeful that Democrats will allow the vote to happen on Monday. That will happen at the leadership level in a negotiation. I'm almost positive well vote on secretary of state, and I hope that well vote on her nomination as well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOX: And I think its just important to point out, Wolf, when it comes to Noem's nomination, you know, there are a lot of Democrats who see her as getting through this process easily. Republicans are able to confirm her even without a single Democratic vote. And I think a lot of Democrats who went into this hearing tonight, they were very clearly trying to establish a relationship with her, knowing that they're going to be working with her, likely in the months and years ahead -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Yeah, her confirmation is looking good. Marco Rubio to be secretary of state. His nomination is looking pretty positive as well.

All right. Tanks very much, Lauren, for that report.

And to our viewers, thanks very much for watching. I'm Wolf Blitzer in THE SITUATION ROOM.

"ERIN BURNETT OUTFRONT" starts right now.