Return to Transcripts main page
The Source with Kaitlan Collins
Trump Appears With Musk at Rally, Not His VP-Elect; Trump Plans 100 Plus Executive Actions On Day One; Trump Takes Credit For "Saving" TikTok. Aired 9-10p ET
Aired January 19, 2025 - 21:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DORIS KEARNS GOODWIN, PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN AND AUTHOR: That's us, we're going to change the country and the signature of the Peace Corps coming out of that ask not question, that was a pretty exciting one to be my first one that I ever watched.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Yeah.
GOODWIN: I was there in Washington for Obama's inauguration and that was pretty special too.
COOPER: Doris Kearns Goodwin, always great to talk to you. Again, the book is "An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s" and she's on my podcast, "All There Is." It's a great episode. I hope you listen to it.
The news continues right now. The Source with Kaitlan Collins starts now.
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN HOST: Good evening, live from Washington, D.C. on this snowy inauguration eve where President-elect Trump just left the stage a short time ago after his final rally before being sworn into office for the second time in just about 15 hours from now. Trump took the stage and kicked off the celebration with just really these two words.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT-ELECT: We won. We won.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: That 20,000 seat arena not far from where I am now was roaring for Trump and perhaps the pinnacle of his political career at this moment. I was there covering it live. And in that moment, as you were there watching the President-elect get on stage as he's about to take office, you couldn't help but think about the last time he was holding a rally here in Washington.
It was on January 6th, 2021, of course, just the hours before his supporters went up to Capitol Hill and the January 6th attack happened. And to see an aftermath of that with Trump's impeachment to where he was now really does speak to the political comeback that he is living out in this moment. It wasn't just the media covering him. Even his supporters on Capitol Hill, Republican allies of his, could have never predicted that this moment tonight would have happened. The entire rally ended with the village people showing up live to sing what has now become Trump's anthem, the YMCA. His Kid Rock was also among the performers.
And before that, Trump's family took the stage, including two of his sons, Eric and Donald Trump Jr., along with his new extended family of sorts. Elon Musk and his son made an appearance that was notable given he was the only person Trump brought up on stage with him. There was no appearance, despite one being slated by the incoming Vice President.
Trump also gave a preview on stage of what to expect tomorrow.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Starting tomorrow, I will act with historic speed and strength and fix every single crisis facing our country. You're going to see executive orders that are going to make you extremely happy. By the time the sun sets tomorrow evening, the invasion of our borders will have come to a halt.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: A lot happening tomorrow before sunset that you'll want to pay close attention to, as Trump also teased to the audience of his supporters there tonight that there will be movement tomorrow when it comes to those who have been charged and convicted of crimes related to the January 6th attack on the Capitol.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Tomorrow, everybody in this very large arena will be very happy with my decision on the J6 hostages.
(CHEERING)
TRUMP: Very happy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: Of course, they are not hostages. Trump on stage also took a victory lap as TikTok began restoring service hours after it went dark, despite what happened the first time he was in office, when Trump and his administration were sounding the alarm about China and national security concerns about TikTok specifically. Trump today effectively reversed the bipartisan law passed by Congress and upheld by the Supreme Court with one truth social post.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: And as of today, TikTok is back.
(CHEERING)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: Now, there are still a lot of questions about whether Trump is able to just nullify that law. We'll have those questions for lawmakers in this hour. A lot more to come on that as it comes as we are learning news tonight about one modern presidential tradition that is going to be restored tomorrow morning when the Bidens are slated to host the President-elect and Melania Trump at the White House for coffee and tea in the Blue Room.
That's before all four of them get in the same limo and ride together to the Capitol for the inauguration. Now, of course, that stands in stark contrast from four years ago when Trump did not extend the same courtesy. He didn't even go to Biden's inauguration. But I've also just learned tonight that before he leaves office for the final time, President Biden plans to pen President-elect Trump a letter. It's a modern tradition that even Trump followed when he left office four years ago as Biden revealed that Trump had left him what he described as a generous letter on the Resolute desk in the Oval Office. While the exact contents of that letter have never been revealed, Biden was later quoted as saying that it was, quote, "very generous."
My sources tonight are CNN Political Commentators Jonah Goldberg and Shermichael Singleton, former Biden White House Communications Director Kate Bedingfield and Kate Andersen Brower. It's great to have you all here.
[21:05:09]
Kate Bedingfield, just on that news there that President Biden is going to leave a letter for him. I assume you don't think that's surprising given Biden is a traditionalist. But I mean, what do you even write in a letter like that?
KATE BEDINGFIELD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I would imagine he'll probably write about the what he believes is the president, the incoming president's responsibility to uphold the Constitution, to -- to not do things that undermine our democracy. I would imagine knowing Joe Biden that it will probably appeal to a bigger sense of patriotism. And also, I would imagine we'll talk a little bit about what the -- the power that the president has to -- to set the course for the country on how we think about our politics.
I could see him making even an appeal, which may may sound silly, but I could see him even making an appeal to civility. But I think he will probably use what has been a very weighty and heavy experience for him over these last four years to lay out for Trump that that he should uphold that kind of civility moving forward.
COLLINS: Well, and speaking of presidential power, I mean, Trump is preparing to wield it day one before he even gets to the White House tomorrow. He's going to be signing executive orders, Shermichael, at the Capitol, we're told by Jason Miller earlier, also at the Capitol One Arena, which is where he was tonight. He's going to go there since the weather is so bad here. They'll be inside watching this inauguration, his supporters, and then more at the Oval -- in the Oval Office tomorrow. I want you to listen to what Trump said tonight about some of his aides and what they thought about the pacing of how many executive orders he's signing tomorrow.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Oh, you're going to have a lot of fun watching television tomorrow. Somebody said yesterday, sir, don't sign so many in one day. Let's do it over a period of weeks. I said, like hell we're going to do it over weeks. We're going to sign them at the beginning.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SHERMICHAEL SINGLETON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: A lot of presidents do this, maybe not to the same number in terms of the volume, but a lot of Republican voters out there, and including some sort of soft Republican voters, more so Trump-supporting voters, expect the president to reverse some of the decisions via executive action coming from the previous administration.
I think specifically on that immigration front, I think there are a lot of Americans out there, particularly men who work in blue-collar types of jobs, believe that immigration, the influx of uncontrolled immigration, have led to wage competition and competition among certain groups and classes of Americans. And so whatever the president can do to immediately attempt to address some of those very real concerns, I think as a conservative, you begin the process of cementing that soft support among a lot of men of color who have never voted Republican before to start making them long-term Republican voters. So I'm very curious to see what he signs tomorrow and how the administration will market and articulate that to many of those voters out there.
COLLINS: Jonah, what are you going to be looking for in terms of just how it -- how tomorrow sets the tone for this presidency? Because the other thing tonight, thinking about Trump coming into Washington, is he has the experience of Washington that he did not have eight years ago going into that Oval Office.
JONAH GOLDBERG, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yeah, I mean, you know, what we're hearing, some of our colleagues at CNN have reported that he doesn't plan on doing another American carnage-type speech. He wants to be more of a unifier. I'd be interested to see what constitutes as a unifying speech from Donald Trump tomorrow.
I think on this executive order stuff, I think, first of all, Schumacher's right that this has been happening more and more with presidents doing a lot of executive orders very early. I think Biden did, I don't know, nine, something like that on his first day?
COLLINS: Biden's done a lot.
BEDINGFIELD: Yeah.
GOLDBERG: And then quite a few more the first week, whatever. But the smart and sort of classically on-point Trumpian thing to do about doing, if it's really 100, which would be crazy, is it makes it almost impossible to cover them all adequately, right? If there are five weird things in there, like we're going to get rid of the letter W, right? You know, like, we're going to be running around chasing our tails about that kind of stuff, setting our hair on fire, and there are going to be a whole bunch of others that sort of get through and get undercover.
And that was one of the reasons why his presidency was so disorienting the first time, is there are so many things for people to sort of chase that may or may not have mattered. And with these executive orders, if he does the January 6th hostages and immigration stuff and a few others, it's just sort of dividing his opposition in a lot of ways, while at the same time doling out, essentially pandering to the base on a whole bunch of fronts. It's kind of smart.
COLLINS: Well, and also part of it, what I was thinking tonight, is in Capital One arena of being flashed around on the banners was Trump can fix it in all caps. And just thinking of this moment where you go from being the candidate to the winner, to the President-elect, to now he is the power of the presidency, and also to carry out on these promises that so many people elected him into office on, and some of those people have never voted for a Republican before. They have very high -- he has high approval ratings, but he's got very high expectations as well.
[21:10:17]
KATE ANDERSEN BROWER, AUTHOR, "EXPLORING THE WHITE HOUSE": Yeah. I mean, I agree, you know, thinking back to what Biden did, overturning the -- the Muslim man, overturning these like big bold face things that Trump had done. I think that it makes sense that Trump is going to want to come in there and take on, you know, issues that are, that he's made promises to his voters about.
And if he waters it down and does so many, I mean, FDR did a bunch of executive orders, almost a hundred, but that was in the first hundred days of his first term. To do a hundred executive orders on your first day is just kind of absurd.
COLLINS: Well, and you think that maybe -- go ahead.
BEDINGFIELD: No, no, no. I just -- we should also remember there are limits on how effective executive orders can be. There are -- they run into the courts. I mean, they are not -- they are intentionally designed in a way --
COLLINS: Called them fancy stationery the other day.
BEDINGFIELD: I mean, sometimes, I know sometimes they can -- they can actually get things done, but they often, you know, they lack the funding power that, you know, a law being passed by Congress has. So there are limits and the courts frequently pull, you know, contest these executive orders and pull them down.
So yes, he will get, you know, kind of to Jonah's point here, he gets the shock and awe of the kind of message piece tomorrow. But if he's truly going to put a hundred executive orders out there, the chances that these have all been vetted in a rigorous way, they're going to survive, you know, for example, a legal challenge is probably pretty low. And so that can be -- that can be a challenge.
SINGLETON: I think as long as he focuses on the biggest campaign promises that he made, I think ultimately that's where the resonance will be. Whether it's immigration, maybe it's giving aid to California or voters in the Carolinas. If you can figure out a way to reshuffle funding there from the executive level, I would argue that's a win. Even if it's a hundred -- no one will focus on 99 or 98 of them if the first two are really important to them.
GOLDBERG: Like when Trump says up there that starting tomorrow, the invasion will stop, will halt, right? Signing an executive order, no matter how sweeping it is, doesn't actually change those facts on the ground immediately. It's not, it's not a magic wand.
There requires an enormous amount of coordination with state and local officials, buy-in, you know, that, and coordination that is a huge management problem and not a stroke of --
BEDINGFIELD: And money, and money, which requires a lot of money, which Congress solely can --
COLLINS: Can note the numbers on the ground, I mean, immigration crossings are -- are at an all-time low compared to when Trump actually left office. They're back to that low. And then on energy, which is also a big focus for Trump tomorrow. I mean, the U.S, is producing more oil now than it ever has in its -- its history.
But Jonah on, on what we saw on stage tonight, Elon Musk came out with his son X. He just spoke for maybe a minute. Obviously he's in charge of cutting federal funding. It was noticeable that JD Vance, the Vice President-elect did not appear on stage there. I mean, he was there. Trump said to the crowd, he said, he's here somewhere. I don't know where he is, but he was technically there tonight. Did that stand out to you?
GOLDBERG: Yeah, no, I thought it was -- it was interesting. And you'd heard rumors that relations between Vance and Trump are not ideal. And that Trump is very interested in keeping Elon Musk happy. We can get carried away too much with the criminology of all of this. I mean, but it's, it's something to pay attention to, about where, who is the sort of the -- the undercard of the Trump administration for the fan base, I think it's -- for the mass fan base, it's more Musk than it is Vance.
BROWER: I really think that this being Trump's Vice President has got to be the most challenging job in Washington, right? Like what, I don't know how, how you negotiate that after what happened on January 6th, after seeing that I thought Karen Pence and Trump had the testiest kind of non-exchange at Carter's funeral. It's --
(CROSSTALK)
SINGLETON: Teleprompters really hard.
GOLDBERG: Kaitlan, if I can just quickly -- COLLINS: Yeah, and you know, who knows that, no one better than the
former Vice President, Mike Pence, who will be here. We confirmed at the inauguration tomorrow. We'll see what that looks like.
Everyone stick around. We have a lot to get to. And after an agonizing 471 days, there are three Israeli hostages who are home tonight, back in the arms of their loved ones back safe. This is part of first phase of that ceasefire deal holding for now.
And this is all coming tonight is TikTok is back up again in the United States after it went dark temporarily, just a couple of hours, but the Zoomers did not like that. This is coming on the promise of an executive order from President-elect Trump. Speaking of those many executive orders, details on how that's still being finalized this hour, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[21:19:04]
COLLINS: You're looking live here at President-elect Donald Trump and the incoming First Lady, Melania Trump. They are inside the National Building Museum, a space that is filled with attendees in black tie attire. We were told Trump has been backstage, but just came out and is speaking.
We are listening to these remarks live, of course, as Washington, D.C. tonight is filled with his supporters as he is preparing to take the oath of office tomorrow. His team doing a lot of last-minute checking and scrambling when it comes to actually this inauguration and what we're going to see tomorrow now that it's been moved inside.
And this comes tonight as the president is talking about his priorities when he gets in office tomorrow. We are told Trump is going to sign an executive order on TikTok. People can keep scrolling because 170 million Americans on TikTok overnight saw when they got on and checked their messages that the app had gone dark.
Trump, who tried to ban it himself in 2020, has already scored a big political victory here on this before he even takes office. Here's what he had to say earlier about this.
[21:20:07]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: But I said we need to save TikTok because we're talking about a tremendous -- who in this audience goes with TikTok. Many?
(CHEERING)
TRUMP: Very popular.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: The app is back up and running. It went dark for about 12 hours. And now when you open TikTok, you are greeted by a notification that says, thanks for your patience and support. As a result of President Trump's efforts, TikTok is back in the U.S.
Flattery, of course, seems to get you everywhere in this town, especially with this incoming president and members of Congress. And both parties, remember, voted overwhelmingly to ban TikTok if it was not sold from its Chinese-owned parent company.
They said its ties to the Chinese government made it a major national security threat. They said that that was serious and urgent. But now Trump posted on "Truth Social" that he plans to issue that executive order tomorrow to, quote, "Extend the period of time before the law's prohibitions take effect." Of course, a big question is whether or not he can do that.
My congressional source tonight voted for the TikTok ban. Democratic Senator Tim Kaine is here.
Senator, I mean, as it stands now, is TikTok currently operating in violation of the law?
SEN. TIM KAINE, (D-VA): I didn't vote for a ban. I voted for a divestment because I wanted to protect American citizens from having their data vacuumed up by the Chinese Communist Party. And Donald Trump wanted the same thing.
But then after the election, he said, you know, TikTok helped me reach out to young people, so I'm changing my mind. Who knows what he will do? I had the same dilemma. I was running for reelection in 2024. My staff said, you know, you can reach young people with TikTok. And I said, sure, I can. But if I reach them and all their data is vacuumed up by the Chinese Communist Party, I will have hurt them. I'll reach them in other ways. And so I reached them in other ways and we did fine.
But apparently, President Trump has done a 180 and has decided now I'm going to be soft on TikTok, soft on the Chinese Communist Party. Stay tuned and watch what happens here.
COLLINS: So have some of your Democratic colleagues, including Chuck Schumer, who was calling for an extension of the period where, sure, it doesn't say ban in the law, but it says that if TikTok is not sold from ByteDance, its parent company, then it is effectively banned in the United States. That service providers could not have it. It could not be downloaded in the app store. And so I think my question still stands is, is TikTok operating in violation of the law that you voted for?
KAINE: No, the law that we voted for allowed an extension of 90 days if there was a good faith negotiation for purchase of TikTok by somebody other than an entity controlled by the Chinese Communist Party. So my hope is that some other entity will purchase it and users will not see any change in service levels, but they will just have a confidence that their data isn't being sucked up by an adversary to be weaponized against them. We'll see whether that happens. I'm not sure Donald Trump really worries about the user's data. He's just decided, hey, look, it helped me. I don't care if it helps the Chinese Communist Party or not. We will see if I'm right or I'm wrong.
COLLINS: But there is no -- when you look at it, it said in terms of a good faith negotiation, there had to be real progress being made in a company trying to buy it. Have you seen any evidence of that, that would justify an extension?
KAINE: Well, there are entities trying to buy it. So is it good faith or they close? Is it going to happen?
COLLINS: Yeah, but they could be further along -- further along in the process?
KAINE: Who knows? I'm not paying attention to the commercial negotiation between these folks. I've got other things I got to pay attention to. You know, a ceasefire deal in Gaza, thank God. Nominations for cabinet secretary, some good, some disastrous coming before me. I'll let the commercial folks negotiate a TikTok purchase, but I'm very interested whether Donald Trump, who wanted to ban TikTok, has now done a 180 because he's decided that, hey, if it helps me, who cares if the Chinese Communist Party can suck up all the data of 170 million Americans?
COLLINS: Well, your Republican colleagues seem to believe it is. Well, some of them who have been consistent on this, including Senator Tom Cotton.
KAINE: Some of them.
COLLINS: There's only really a handful that you can count, but Tom Cotton and Pete Ricketts put out a statement saying now that the law has taken effect, there is no legal basis for any kind of extension of its effective date. And so I think there's a question of who's interpreting the law like this. But, I mean, Senator Kaine, you are a lawmaker. This was an overwhelmingly passed bipartisan law upheld by the Supreme Court that Trump is now saying essentially is trying to stop with an executive order. If he can do that here, I mean, can the argument be made that he can do that with any law that is passed by Congress?
[21:25:19]
KAINE: Yes, I don't think he has the power to, by executive order, rewrite a law of Congress. Again, there's a question about whether the good faith negotiation is occurring that could extend this negotiation for 90 days. And I haven't followed the back and forth on a negotiation.
But again, I think the real issue for the American public to look at is Donald Trump was wanting to ban TikTok. And now he says, well, they helped me. I'm OK with it. But he's not disagreeing that it's a platform controlled by an entity run by the Chinese Communist Party that is sucking up data of Americans and then weaponizing it against them. So I'm against the Chinese Communist Party weaponizing Americans' data against them. We will see whether Donald Trump is suddenly OK with it or not.
COLLINS: Would you say that also, though, to be fair to those watching? Yes, Trump has done a 180. I remember as president when he said he was going to ban it and now we're in this spot. But would you also say that what you just said there applies to your Democratic colleagues who were also seeking an extension unilaterally last week?
KAINE: If you've done a 180, you've done a 180. Again, the legislation allowed an extension if there's good faith negotiations going on. But if you were worried about it and all of a sudden you're OK with it, that's not OK with me.
COLLINS: Yeah. Senator Tim Kaine, we'll see what happens with this executive order and if there is legal action taken by any attorneys general. Thank you for your time tonight.
KAINE: Absolutely.
COLLINS: Up next, three hostages are back on Israeli soil tonight as part of the first phase of a fragile ceasefire deal. There are emotional homecomings. I mean, you have to see these people coming home, hugging their loved ones more than 15 months after they were captured.
My next source just met with President-elect Trump's incoming National Security Adviser about this deal and about his son, American-Israeli soldier Itay Chen, who was killed on October 7th. What he's heard, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[21:31:35]
COLLINS: Tonight, President-elect Trump is taking full credit for the Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: This agreement could only have happened as a result of our historic victory in November. That was some victory. Was that, that greatest?
I know that Biden is saying that they made the deal. Well, you know, I mean, that deal should have. First of all, it would have never happened if I were president.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: Of course, this was a deal that President Biden laid out back in May. His team worked on it for months, but it was brought over the finish line with the Trump team after Trump won the election in November. Regardless of who gets the credit, it is undeniable how powerful the images that we saw today were.
Hostages reuniting with their loved ones after more than 15 months in captivity held by Hamas. Romi Gonen, Doron Steinbrecher, and Emily Damari, all in medical care tonight as they are back in Israel and on Israeli soil. They are the first of the 33 hostages that are expected to be released over the next six weeks during this ceasefire in Gaza, which means the Palestinian civilians who have been forced from their homes will get a desperately needed reprieve from Israel's constant bombardment.
Aid trucks are now making their way into the enclave marked by hunger, disease and a lack of medical care over the last 15 months. It's a bittersweet moment for many. That includes the families of hostages who are no longer alive and not part of this initial release.
Like Israeli-American Itay Chen, one of the seven Americans that Hamas took hostage that day. Israeli officials say the 19-year-old IDF soldier was killed during the October 7th terror attack. Hamas took his body into Gaza and his family has been fighting relentlessly for his return.
And Itay's father, Ruby, is with me tonight. It's great to have you here because we've had so many conversations over the last 15 months about your son and about this fight to get him back to you. Ruby, what are you feeling in this moment?
RUBY CHEN, FATHER OF ITAY CHEN, ISRAELI-AMERICAN HOSTAGE HELD BY HAMAS: Yeah, good evening and thanks for having me again, Kaitlan. You know, it's a bag of mixed emotions. On one hand, joy for those three families that have been fighting with us for 471 days to be reunited with their loved ones. There was an additional family, the Oron family, that the IDF did an operation in order to bring back the remains of an IDF soldier that waited 10 years for that to happen.
And as we end this day, you know, we need to keep the eye on the ball, which is 94 hostages, including seven U.S. citizens, including my son, are still in Gaza. So the work is not done.
COLLINS: The work's not done. And it's coming at a time of, obviously, the transfer of power here in Washington. You actually met with the incoming national security adviser for President Trump. That's Congressman, for now, Mike Waltz. He's replacing Jake Sullivan, President Biden's National Security Adviser, who's obviously been working on this and that you also know. What did you hear from Mike Waltz?
[21:35:00]
CHEN: Yeah, so it was indeed a unique dynamics. You know, once that President-elect won the elections, we saw an immediate connection between the Biden administration to the incoming Trump administration on this specific topic. And that also spilled over to the relationship with us, the families. So this is the second time that I met incoming NSA Director Mike Waltz. The first time was a couple of weeks ago.
And with Steve Witkoff, it's been ongoing calls as well. And he has been working around the clock, going to the Middle East multiple times in order to hammer out this deal. And, you know, I think nobody could deny the fact that the tipping point and the inflection point that got us to where we are now is indeed the fact that President Trump won the election.
COLLINS: Yeah, he said there would be hell to pay if there was not an agreement that we're seeing in place by the time he takes office. Of course, we've been watching all of this so closely and having those conversations with these two teams.
Steve Witkoff, who you mentioned, is Trump's envoy to the Middle East. He has been working on this deal repeatedly. He was on stage here in Washington tonight. Ruby, I think we lost your connection, but obviously this is such an important moment and such important attention to be brought to this because, as Ruby noted there, this isn't over yet for so many of these families who want not only to get through the first phase of this ceasefire agreement, but also to get to several others ahead to bring all of the hostages home.
Of course, more ahead as we are now in these final hours here in Washington of the Biden presidency, a source telling CNN that preemptive pardons do remain on the table. He doesn't have very long left as the president is making this vow tonight.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, (D) U.S. PRESIDENT: We must stay engaged. I'm not going anywhere.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: Plus, a new report tonight with the quote, "Lady McBiden." The searing words coming from the daughter of the former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi about the First Lady, Jill Biden. Why? The tension remains between the two. Next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[21:41:41]
COLLINS: The rift between the Pelosi's and the Biden's not only growing but downright Shakespearean this evening is tonight. Nancy Pelosi's daughter, one of them, is sounding off on the First Lady, Jill Biden. Well, Alexandra Pelosi telling "Politico," quote, "If I was Lady McBiden, I'd put on my big girl pants, play the long game and think about my husband's legacy. There aren't that many people left in America who have something nice to say about Joe Biden. And Nancy Pelosi is one of them."
Now, "Politico" noted that Alexandra Pelosi made clear she was only speaking for herself. But she did note there in the context of that quote, "the Biden's did not reach out to her mother," Nancy Pelosi, after the former speaker broke her hip when she was overseas last month.
Now, this is all coming after the First Lady's exit interview with "The Washington Post" last week in which she reflected on Pelosi's efforts to push Joe Biden out of the race, saying, quote, "We were friends for 50 years. It was disappointing." My panel is back here with me. And Kate Bedingfield, as someone who worked in the Biden White House and in the West Wing and knows the dynamic of these two. I mean, a Lady McBeth reference from a Pelosi in the closing hours of Joe Biden's presidency, I assume, was not on your bingo card.
BEDINGFIELD: It was not on my bingo card. You told me in 2021 that we were going to see this quote. I would have had to sit down and really think about how we were going to get to this point. But I mean, I think, look, first of all, there are always intense feelings in politics. So much of politics, so much of what you see happening publicly in politics is actually often driven by personal relationships, personal grievances. So in some ways, I understand it was obviously an incredibly fraught and intense and emotional time this summer for the Biden's and the Biden family.
I think it was for Nancy Pelosi as well. I think she took very seriously her desire to try to lead the Democratic Party to a better place. But counterbalanced with her longtime friendship and closeness with Joe Biden, I think it was hard for her.
So I would have loved to not see in the final days of the Biden presidency name calling here in this moment. I think a little grace might have been in order. But it was a fraught moment. There were intense feelings on both sides. And sometimes that's how politics is.
COLLINS: I mean, Kate, as a student of history, to look at this and to see this this major rift, it really is something just, you know, given four years ago. I mean, there's so many things you couldn't have predicted. But this in particular, just in terms of how close these two truly have been and this moment and seeing that nothing the time over this summer that has elapsed has not changed this.
BROWER: No, I mean, it's amazing. They've been friends for five decades and allies. And, yeah, it's sad. I think part of this is seeing how Trump has changed the political discourse so much that, you know, I remember no drama Obama, right, when people weren't kind of talking about each other in these kind of very no holds barred kind of ways. And I think, you know, Michelle Obama not going to the inauguration, Nancy Pelosi not going to the inauguration, all of these things that are being degraded over time. To me, this is just another example of we're losing a sense of civility.
That was a very rough statement to say, "Lady McBiden." I mean, that's very cutting. And to say what she said about Biden in his last, you know, 24 hours in office when he's already coming under attack for essentially bringing Trump back, some would say, to the White House. So I thought it was -- it was a little bit rough.
[21:45:15]
COLLINS: Yeah, I mean, just looking at this, Jonah, your expression kind of says it all?
GOLDBERG: Well, first of all, some of these quotes, it's like -- it's like a soap opera from a nursing home. We've been friends for 50 years, said the 84-year-old woman about it. Like, come on.
Look, I think the reason why there's such hard feelings here is because the hamster spinning the wheel of all of this dysfunction is the fact that Joe Biden is still under the delusion that he could have won. And he can't let go of that. And Joe Biden in particular, who I do think gave terrible advice and behaved not in the best interest of her husband in the advice that she gave during all of this.
Maybe, you know, Lady McBiden goes too far to say it in public. But that they're in denial about this and they're bitter because they feel like they were robbed of a second term. And the real bitterness should be at them for having decided to run again in the first place.
SINGLETON: Yeah, but I wonder if Pelosi is having buyer's remorse here. I mean, they bet it all that by removing Biden, they would somehow be able to defeat Trump. They settled with the vice president, who I personally don't believe what was the best candidate. Maybe they should have figured out a way to have an open primary, Kate. And it didn't happen. It didn't happen at all. And so I don't know. You know, I agree with you. I don't think Biden could have won either, Jonah.
But I do think there is a case to be made that if, from my perspective as a Republican, looking at Democrats sort of infighting here because they thought they could sort of do some backroom dealing and shove out the president for somebody else and magically win, usurping the votes of their own people and their own party seems kind of crazy to me. If Republicans would have done something like that, I can't imagine what Democrats would have said.
COLLINS: Well, I mean, Republicans, we've seen time maybe does heal all wounds because, of course, there were major divisions in the Republican Party. And essentially all of them are coalescing around Donald Trump. They either left Washington, lost their jobs or are at the candlelight dinner with -- with Trump tonight. And this extends beyond just elected officials. I mean, look at the candlelight dinner tonight. We were showing Trump speaking at that just a few moments ago.
Now, tonight, if you look here at the camera, you can see Jeff Bezos walking over to Elon Musk at this dinner. Also there, as you can see, the two of them talking. We should note Ivanka Trump. The Trump family is there. Jeff Bezos once made a joke about sending Donald Trump to space on a rocket and not in like a cool, fun way, more in a have fun on your ride.
GOLDBERG: A cool fun ride.
BEDINGFIELD: Yeah, well, winning -- winning heals all rifts. I mean, ultimately, in politics, if somebody is successful, you're going to see everybody else slowly start to line up behind them. And Trump, for his many flaws and his many political challenges, he did march through that primary and he asserted his dominance over the Republican Party.
And so now you have Republican elected officials who privately say all sorts of things about their concerns, about what Donald Trump is going to do to this country, publicly kowtowing. And you have leaders in Silicon Valley, some of the wealthiest and most influential people in journalism and tech lining up to kiss the ring.
So I do think, look, I think President Biden actually addressed this to some extent in his farewell address when he talked about the rise of oligarchy in this country. And I do think that that's something that we have to be -- we have to -- we have to watch, because these are people in Bezos, in Musk. These are people who have almost unlimited influence, both by virtue of their money and their control over platforms that inform people. And that's -- that's --
(CROSSTALK)
GOLDBERG: And they were Democrats in good standing for a very long time. And the Democratic Party basically like, there's this very interesting interview with Marc Andreessen by Ross Douthat at "The New York Times" where Andreessen goes chapter and verse basically about how the Democratic Party, including the Biden White House, basically chased the Silicon Valley bros into Donald Trump's waiting arms. They were not a faction of the Republican Party prior to the Biden administration. Now they are and that's --
BEDINGFIELD: Chase them into Donald Trump's arms by not kowtowing to their egos in sufficient ways. I mean, there's -- there's a lot of reporting that Elon Musk is essentially supporting Donald Trump because he feels like he didn't get the invitation he deserved to an electrical electric vehicle summit in the Biden White House in 2021. So the idea --
COLLINS: He was left --
(CROSSTALK)
BEDINGFIELD: And I'm -- but I'm saying that's not how -- I don't think that is how policy decisions should be made in the United States. It should not be about appeasing of billionaires ego. And that's -- and I'm not I'm not actually -- I'm not --
(CROSSTALK)
GOLDBERG: George Soros just got a presidential medal. I mean, like both -- the Democratic Party has a billionaire issue, too. I think this talk about them being oligarchs is wildly over.
SINGLETON: But there's also a major cultural shift in the country that I think Democrats, for whatever weird and bizarre reason to me, still don't believe the country has moved in a different direction from what Democrats argued for two years now was the wrong direction. Well, many Americans, most Americans say it's the right direction, including many voters who are typically traditional Democratic leaning people. They said, you guys have gone too far to the left --
[21:50:09]
COLLINS: You know what --
SINGLETON: -- on cultural issues, on immigration. We want someone to bring the country back center right. And that's why a lot of people voted for Trump.
COLLINS: This is going to make a very interesting car ride between Biden and Trump tomorrow. We have confirmed they will be riding in the same limo, even though Trump was trashing his legacy tonight at that rally. Everyone, thank you for that. We'll be watching that moment very closely.
And I should note before Trump takes that oath of office tomorrow, he is wading into the crypto world, not really waiting, basically diving head first before entering. He launched a meme coin. If you don't know what that is, we'll tell you. But it's raising ethical issues tonight because the value within 48 hours soaring into the billions.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[21:55:13]
COLLINS: Tonight, just hours before taking the oath of office, both President-elect Trump and the incoming First Lady have launched their own digital meme coins, a highly volatile type of cryptocurrency. But tonight, it's raising ethical and conflict of interest concerns, given Trump could profit massively off an industry that he is supposed to be regulating starting at noon tomorrow.
In just the two days since Trump launched this, the value soared right now to $45 billion. My tech source tonight is the veteran journalist, Kara Swisher. And, Kara, when I was reading about this, I wanted to hear what you had to say, because it's such a clear effort to cash in on the office that he's taking this oath for tomorrow. But what does it say that 48 hours ago this did not exist, and right now its value is worth tens of billions of dollars?
KARA SWISHER, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: It says it's highly speculative. And it's a class of crypto that sometimes, you're using the term meme coins, but the word they use in crypto is shit coins. I'm sorry to tell you.
And they have funny names all the time, but they're highly volatile. They're not linked to anything. You know, it's a little different than Bitcoin and other assets that are more stable and linked to different things.
But these are just -- they're just speculative assets. It's so unethical and so problematic for the crypto industry, because they've been trying to shed this idea of scams and Ponzi schemes and the whole idea around this. And this is right up that alley. And the fact that the president, incoming president and First Lady are doing this is highly problematic. But I don't think they care is really the problem.
COLLINS: Well, what does that say if they don't care and there's kind of like a total disregard given? I mean, if you're a business or a foreign entity and you're trying to curry favor with this administration, wouldn't you just buy this?
SWISHER: Yes, you would just buy this. It's a way -- it's sort of -- sort of democratized kleptocracy is what's happening here. And it's not worth anything and people will lose their shirts, but it doesn't matter. It's a way to funnel money to Trump and his wife and just right out in the open, essentially. You can also buy true social, all kinds of things like that. He's got a myriad of business interests, but this one is, you know, at least they sort of operate as service there, even though it loses money and it's not a business to speak of.
But this is really -- it really is a crypto token with no real-world value. And many people will lose their money if they care about it at all. If people are trying to influence them, it's a great way to do so. So line up everybody who wants to influence Donald Trump.
COLLINS: Well, I mean, they are lining up here in Washington and riding around and black cars and going to a lot of the candlelight dinner.
SWISHER: Not there.
COLLINS: A lot of them are at this dinner tonight. I think a lot of the Biden people have left town waiting for the inauguration tomorrow. But this dinner we were just showing earlier, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos chatting it up. This is a dinner that Trump was speaking at earlier with Melania that his kids are at. And when you see that and you just kind of look at this moment of what we're going to be watching tomorrow in the rotunda, where it's fewer than a thousand people that are going to be squeezed in there to watch this indoors inauguration. What are you going to be looking for?
SWISHER: Well, where everybody is sitting, what happened to J.D. Vance? I don't know where he went. Obviously, Elon spoke today at one of the rallies and not Vance. He just spoke for a second and hardly said anything cogent. But he's -- you know, where the proximity of this is an access president. And this is an access president by the wealthiest people in the world. And where they're sitting will matter.
You know, Jeff and Elon have had a pretty tough relationship over the many years, competitive. I don't particularly think they like each other. But, you know, they're all currying favor with the current president who likes to have people compete for his favor, I guess.
And so it'll be interesting to see where they sit and what they're doing. But they're certainly doing a good job of kissing up, I think, excellent. They're excellent at that.
COLLINS: Well, and it comes after they were talking about, you know, TikTok on stage. Another CEO of this year's show, too, the CEO of TikTok. I mean, Trump basically is trying to undo a bipartisan law that was upheld by the Supreme Court with a truth social post this morning and demystifying the companies that could face penalties by keeping TikTok online.
I mean, just seeing that and seeing the response to it. What does that mean when Trump is saying he wants them to take 50 percent ownership, the U.S., to take 50% ownership of TikTok, in your view?
SWISHER: I have no idea what he meant. He meant the government. The government can't own something like that. There's all sorts of First Amendment issues and everything else. I think he means U.S. owners. That's my guess. He didn't add that in there. But, you know, I think he's going to try to give it to one of his oligarch buddies is what's going to happen here.
[22:00:04]
That said, he doesn't have any power to use an executive order to indemnify anybody. This law is very explicit. So we'll see what happens going forward. But if I were Apple and Google, I'd be very worried tonight if I was their lawyers.
COLLINS: Yeah, they certainly didn't seem so. We saw it going up -- back up within hours. We'll see what this executive order that you likened to fancy stationery last week looks like.
Kara Swisher, always great to have you. Thank you for joining us.
SWISHER: Thanks.
COLLINS: Enjoy your trip.
SWISHER: Thank you.
COLLINS: Thank you all so much for joining us. a very busy day tomorrow. I'll be up live covering the inauguration starting at 7 a.m. CNN NewsNight with Abby Phillip is up next.