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State of the Union
Interview With Rep. Brandon Gill (R-TX); Interview With Rep. Adam Gray (D-CA); Interview With Rep. Riley Moore (R-WV); Interview With Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-AZ); Interview With Rep. Jim Banks (R- IN); Interview With Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN); Interview With Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ). Aired 9-10a ET
Aired January 05, 2025 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[09:00:40]
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST (voice-over): Enemy from within. A deadly terrorist attack raising fears about homegrown terror. What are we learning about the threat? And how will Trump's national security picks confront it?
New Republican Senator Jim Banks is ahead and then Democratic Senator Mark Kelly.
And flashback. On the January 6 anniversary, Vice President Kamala Harris is set to certify Donald Trump's win.
KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES (D) AND U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We will engage in a peaceful transfer of power.
(CHEERING)
TAPPER: Have changes made the process more secure? And how will that day be remembered? Senator Amy Klobuchar is counting the electoral ballots, and joins me next.
Plus: It's complicated. More chaos among House Republicans...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No speaker is perfect.
TAPPER: ... as Donald Trump goes to bat for Mike Johnson.
REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA): We can do this together. We should.
TAPPER: But will Trump's new plan cause even more friction?
Four brand-new members of the House, two Republicans, two Democrat, join us ahead.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TAPPER: Hello. I'm Jake Tapper in Washington, D.C., where the state of our union is starting anew. There are 15 days left before the peaceful transfer of power,
hopefully, between Joe Biden and Donald Trump. And as Biden wraps up his four years in office, Trump is ramping up his preparations to return to office, along with some of his national security nominees.
Trump met last night with Italy's prime minister at Mar-a-Lago in Florida just before Biden's official visit to Italy this week. Trump also strategized with House Speaker Mike Johnson about how to get his priorities on the border, energy and tax cuts passed through Congress this spring.
The president-elect wants one giant reconciliation package, which would require only 51, instead of 60 Senate votes. More on that coming up.
But, first, tomorrow, four years after the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol, Congress will again convene on January 6 to certify Trump's return to the White House. These proceedings will be led by Trump's 2024 opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, as Washington bolsters security ahead of the event.
Through -- though a repeat of the violence of four years ago does not, thankfully, seem imminent, tomorrow's certification a remarkable turnaround for Trump, who was widely condemned by even some of his strongest supporters four years ago this week for his role in the attack.
And Mr. Trump is now promising to pardon many of those convicted of crimes committed four years ago on January 6 as soon as he takes office.
Joining us now to discuss, Senator Amy Klobuchar from Minnesota. She is counting the ballots tomorrow. She helped write the Electoral Count Act designed to prevent another January 6 tragedy.
Thanks so much for being here. And happy new year to you, Senator.
SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-MN): Thanks, Jake. Great to be on.
TAPPER: So, let's talk about security for tomorrow...
KLOBUCHAR: OK.
TAPPER: ... because that's top of mind given the terrorist attack in New Orleans.
You were part of a congressional review of security lapses about January 6. And since then, some changes have been made. Let's bring those up. There's a new Capitol Police chief, new leadership for the House and Senate, sergeant at arms. The Capitol Police chief now has the ability to ask for help directly from the National Guard during emergency situations.
There are now 2,202 Capitol Police officers. That's up from 1,842. There's a new dedicated Capitol Police Civil Disturbance Unit with six platoons, more than 225 officers. And four years ago, only 25 percent of officers had riot gear, and now everyone does.
Is D.C. prepared for whatever might happen?
KLOBUCHAR: Yes.
And I will make clear that, in any of these events, as you saw in New Orleans, horrible things can happen. And we know that. But how prepared are we? And what we found out last January 6 -- and this could have been any event, but this one is etched in our minds forever, with the police officers dying, so many people hurt.
We literally had cops that couldn't get at their riot gear. It was locked on a bus. A four-hour delay to call in the National Guard because of some rule that had been in place that created a phone tree. An architect at the Capitol who was kind of the boss of a bunch of the employees wasn't even there.
So these were dramatic changes. We made 103 recommendations. And my job as chair of the Rules Committee was to make sure they got done. We have, as you know, a new police chief, increased morale, many hundreds of more officers, and we have a plan and a strategy in place. That's not to say there aren't threats all the time on members of Congress or on the Capitol.
[09:05:03]
But I feel very strongly that we have made major shifts. What happened last time, where an officer's words haunt me forever on the police line, said: "Does anyone have a plan? Does anyone have a plan?"
And the answer from the leadership back then was no. Now we have clear leadership in place.
TAPPER: In 2022, CNN did a special one year after the attack. And you and I talked about your memories of January 6. Let's roll a little bit of that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KLOBUCHAR: One really smart staff person yells out, works for the parliamentarian, says: "Get the boxes, get the boxes."
And it is very clear now as they invaded the Senate chamber that they would have taken them out, that they would have most likely burned them and they would have gotten rid of the electoral ballots. I think it's important we never forget, and that's why I thought it was important to take you down this hallway.
TAPPER: Yes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: I forgot that we were wearing COVID masks.
KLOBUCHAR: Yes.
TAPPER: Are you worried that January 6, the horrible things that happened that day are being forgotten?
KLOBUCHAR: No, I think that, when you look at the work of the January 6 Committee -- and I support that work, the work that came out of the House of Representatives -- they established for the historical record what happened.
Putting aside the fact that a lot of people had reasons that they voted the way they did, people still care about their democracy. I was just watching one of your panels. Four out of five people in the last election felt that Donald Trump had done something wrong. He did. He did.
He led an insurrection. But the people have now voted, and our job tomorrow, which is also January 6, is to implement the will of the people. It's the peaceful transition of power. So, Democrats and Republicans will come together tomorrow to certify those results, to make that same walk with the young women with those mahogany boxes filled with the ballots. That's what we do. That's what America has done, and that's what we will do on the Inauguration Day.
TAPPER: As one of her last official acts as vice president, Kamala Harris tomorrow will be certifying her own election loss. In 2001, when Vice President Al Gore did a similar thing, there was an objection. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. MAXINE WATERS (D-CA): Mr. Vice President, I rise to object to the fraudulent 25 Florida electoral votes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: Are any Democrats going to object tomorrow, do you think?
KLOBUCHAR: Not that I know of, but, of course, the process allows for these objections. If it happens, they're heard out. The vice president rules on them.
But under our new law that we passed, you have to have 20 percent, 20 percent of the bodies of Congress to support those objections before you can have an extended debate, because that's what was used as a trigger, as you know, last January 6 to slow down the process, and then, of course, ultimately seen by the insurrectionists as a way they could derail the will of the American people.
TAPPER: So, in light of the New Orleans terrorist attack, Trump allies are urging you and your colleagues in the Senate to move quickly on confirming the president's election national security team.
You have signaled some opposition to Kash Patel serving as leader of the FBI, but Republicans say delaying his confirmation will hurt operational security. How do you respond to that?
KLOBUCHAR: We have a very functional FBI right now that has investigated New Orleans, investigated Las Vegas, came out, told the public exactly what was going on. So I don't believe that to be the case. I believe our job -- we just took an oath, I just took an oath, Jake, to support and defend the Constitution of the United States, and we have a duty to advise and consent.
A number of our Republican colleagues in the Senate agree. That's why we must have an FBI check on Kash Patel and these other nominees for these very serious security positions. We must know what their background is. We must see their financial disclosure forms.
The president-elect has put in a number of billionaires that could have all kinds of conflicts into these jobs. We must be able to see that.
But, at the same time, as we stand our ground and follow the oath of the Constitution, we also find common ground where we can on things like housing. They would say they want to do something about childcare. Let's go for it.
But if their plan is to simply move ahead and give tax cuts to a bunch of billionaires, as we just heard rumors that's what was coming out of the Republican Caucus, that they want to immediately move to that, we're going to stand our ground and hold them accountable for what they said, that they wanted to help average people in our country.
TAPPER: Well, let me ask you a question about that, because I don't know how much ability you will have to stand any ground if Republicans go through with the plan that president-elect Trump and Speaker Johnson are talking about, which is to -- one huge reconciliation package with not only the tax cuts you mentioned, but also energy -- changes in energy law, also changes in laws when it comes to the border and immigration.
[09:10:03]
They want to do that in reconciliation. and to translate that for normal people out there...
KLOBUCHAR: Thank you.
TAPPER: That means it would only need a simple majority vote in Senate, 51 votes, as opposed to the 60-vote threshold, which usually requires at least a modicum of bipartisan work to even, like, proceed to debate.
What are your thoughts on that?
KLOBUCHAR: Well, my thoughts are we have a number of Republicans in the Senate that do care about the debt, that don't want to add to the debt, that actually take that job seriously.
When you look at some of these tax cuts for the wealthiest and the multimillions, trillions of dollars they could add to the debt, I'm not talking about people making under $400,000. I'm talking about the billionaires. And if that's what they're going to do, they're going to add greatly to whatever -- whatever they end up doing on spending. You're still going to have a problem with the debt. And so what I see this as being for my Senate colleagues is a moment. This is a moment where they're going to have to decide, are you going to just add to the debt and do everything Donald Trump tells you to do, or are you going to stand up on some of these things and say, wait a minute, we're worried about the debt?
Our job as Democrats is to make that case, to pick our battles. We're not going to pick every single battle. There will be some things that are red lines. But we're in this. We're in this in a big way. And there's ways to make your case without being able to be the deciding vote.
We realize that we're up against a lot with the votes. But we have a strong case to make about the debt, about their claims that they were going to stand up for average people. And tax cuts for billionaires and going after a newspaper for a poll in -- that they don't like, that the president didn't like, the president-elect, in Des Moines, man, that is not going to help people with their health care costs.
It's not going to help them with childcare. It's not going to help them with housing. So our job is to hold them accountable and make the case that they have got to follow through on a bunch of the things they said in this election.
TAPPER: Before you go, the nation is saying goodbye to Jimmy Carter, President Jimmy Carter, this week.
Your first job in politics was a college intern in the office of Vice President Walter Mondale during the final year of the Carter presidency. What impression did Jimmy Carter leave on you as a college student?
KLOBUCHAR: Enormous. I got to know him through Vice President Mondale.
And, for me, when I think about his life, the resilience he showed in the wake of the defeat in his second run for presidency, what he did, this relentless force of good for our country. I always think about the words in the Carter Center, and they were Mondale's words after they lost. He said, we told the truth. We obeyed the law. We kept the peace.
We told the truth. We obeyed the law. We kept the peace. I can't think of better words of a mission as we go into this next presidency than those words from Walter Mondale about the great Jimmy Carter.
TAPPER: A great son of Minnesota, Walter Mondale.
And let's give a bit of due to a daughter of Minnesota. Thank you so much.
KLOBUCHAR: In my purple for the Vikings. Go, Vikings.
TAPPER: OK. I will...
KLOBUCHAR: Ready for the biggest game in NFL history, two teams 14-2 tonight, Vikings-Lions.
TAPPER: OK. I'm going to leave that there.
(LAUGHTER)
KLOBUCHAR: Thank you so much, Senator. Appreciate it.
TAPPER: A reality check for President Trump and his agenda coming up. I'm going to talk to a Republican in the Senate about what chaos in the House means moving forward.
And we're going to sit down with new members of the House to discuss what they are expecting.
Plus, violence on New Year's, the homegrown terror threat -- when Intelligence Committee Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona joins us coming up.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:17:06]
TAPPER: Welcome back to STATE OF THE UNION.
House Republicans were indeed able to elect themselves a speaker on the first ballot, but now they have an even more difficult proposition, passing the president-elect's quite ambitious agenda.
House Speaker Mike Johnson said this weekend that Mr. Trump wants to do it all in one single bill of the top priorities, which takes the difficulty level for his party from high to stratospheric.
Joining us now, the new senator from Indiana, former Congressman, now Senator Jim Banks, who was a close Trump ally in the House.
Thanks so much for being here. Really good to see you.
SEN. JIM BANKS (R-IN): Good to be here.
TAPPER: So, Speaker Johnson told Republicans that president-elect Trump wants Congress to pass his agenda on the border security tax cuts and energy in one big, sweeping reconciliation package.
House Republicans had difficulties staying on the same page when it came to electing Speaker Johnson, although he did make it. And I wonder, given that almost zero margin for error, one vote now, won't doing all of this in one massive bill make it tougher to get the president's agenda passed?
BANKS: I'm for doing it in one bill.
And this week is good evidence. Donald Trump weighed in support of Mike Johnson. I don't think Mike Johnson would be speaker of the House this morning if Donald Trump wouldn't have weighed in last week, spent political capital to help him get elected on one vote.
And, to me, that's a positive sign that House Republicans are unified behind Donald Trump, the Trump agenda. They're hearing from our supporters at home. We have to get this done, secure the border, make our military focused on winning and fighting wars and strong again, make the tax cuts on working families permanent. The Trump agenda, get that done as quickly as we can.
If it's one reconciliation bill, if it's two, if it's 10, we got to get it done. I think this week proved that we can do that.
TAPPER: So, in the past, you have been critical a bit of the reconciliation process, which is -- requires only 51 votes in the Senate, instead of the 60-vote threshold.
You have said that -- you have criticized Democrats for passing legislation -- quote -- "on entirely partisan lines" -- unquote -- and trying to -- quote -- "ram a partisan spending bill down the throats of the American people."
Not talking about the substance of the bills, but the process. How is this different?
BANKS: Well, it's very different.
If you go back to what the Democrats did with the inflation control act, which actually increased inflation, the American Rescue Plan, which was the Green New Deal on steroids, the biggest expansion of the federal government since LBJ that happened through the reconciliation process, Jake, I actually expect that there will be Democrats who will come on board to support these efforts to secure the border, to make the Trump tax cuts on working-class families permanent, which is what we're talking about in the reconciliation bill.
I expect, after this last election, a historic mandate for President Trump, winning the popular vote, working-class voters like my dad, a retired union factory worker that used to vote Democrat, who's now a Trump Republican, the Democrats lost voters like my dad because they're not focused on the issues that Donald Trump is.
[09:20:06]
I expect there could be a number of Democrats who come on board with the reconciliation process and help pass it, because the American -- that's what the American people want us to do. And if the Democrats ever want to be competitive again, I expect they will focus on those issues.
TAPPER: You talk about the Trump tax cuts on working-class Americans, but you're not -- the Trump tax cuts are not only for working-class Americans. They're for everybody, right, anybody who pays taxes, including people in higher income brackets, like you or me, theoretically, right?
So, is it -- you're not only talking about having the ones for working-class people in that bill. It's all of them, right? BANKS: You have got to remember. Go back to 2017. I was a freshman member of the House, and we passed the Trump tax cuts, making the corporate rates permanent, but not the rates on working-class families...
TAPPER: Right.
BANKS: ... on individual -- on the individual rates, the pass-through rates, small businesses.
TAPPER: But that's all incomes -- levels.
BANKS: Small businesses.
That's what the reconciliation package has to include to make those tax cuts permanent.
TAPPER: OK.
BANKS: Otherwise, working-class families are going to take a massive hit, a tax -- they're going to have their taxes raised if we don't make those tax cuts permanent.
TAPPER: I'm not advocating one way or the other. I'm just trying to...
(CROSSTALK)
BANKS: But I can't -- but it's an important point, because I can't imagine that Democrats would vote against that.
TAPPER: Well, I'm just -- my only point is that it's all of the income tax cuts, not just the ones for working-class people.
BANKS: I don't think Democrats want to vote against making tax cuts permanent on working-class families.
TAPPER: OK. You take my point.
BANKS: But I get your point.
TAPPER: OK.
So, one other thing I want to ask you about, because we saw two very different violent images in the last week involving current or former members of the U.S. military. In Vegas, there was a decorated active- duty Green Beret suffering from post-traumatic stress who took his life by blowing up a Cybertruck outside the Trump Hotel, and, in New Orleans, obviously, the horrific terrorist attack carried out by a U.S. Army veteran pledging allegiance to the terrorist group ISIS.
You're a veteran. You're on the Senate Armed Services Committee, the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee. What is your reaction to this, the fact that these horrific acts were carried out? And, obviously, it's not reflective of military or veterans, but, still, these were two people with ties to the military. BANKS: Yes, I served in Afghanistan. And those hidden wounds of many
of our American veterans in Iraq and Afghanistan are real. We don't know all of the facts about both of these situations.
What we do know, at least in the New Orleans attack, I mean, this was a terrorist attack. A ISIS sympathizer carried out a plan that was premeditated and killed American people. A terrorist attack on American soil, we have to take it seriously. We don't know all the facts yet.
But we have got to get down to the reality of the matter that we have had 400 ISIS smuggled people coming into our country that the Department of Homeland Security told us about last summer. And 50 of them, we don't know where they are. We don't know who they are or where they are. And we have to take that more seriously. I know President Trump will do that.
TAPPER: Obviously, the terrorist threat is multifaceted. But this individual, by all indications, was an American citizen, was homegrown.
You said on Twitter that Trump was right when he immediately talked about this being an indication of how the border needs to be shut down. It's -- obviously, there shouldn't be terrorists crossing the border, but the -- wasn't that premature, given the fact that this was an American citizen, this particular case was not related to the border?
BANKS: Well, remember, you have to go back to Obama called ISIS the J.V. team of terrorism. And, obviously, they're not.
Trump came to office. He eradicated the ISIS caliphate. He killed it. He attacked it. He took it seriously. Biden turned Afghanistan over to ISIS-K, the worst strain of ISIS, an ideological group that is serious, that took over that country.
And now we have -- we know that ISIS individuals are being smuggled over a wide-open border. President Trump takes it seriously. One of his first acts after he's sworn in will be to go to the White House, sign executive orders to secure the border.
But Congress has to do what it didn't do last time and make the Trump border policies permanent to make sure that we secure the homeland.
TAPPER: In the wake of the New Orleans attack, you're calling for the Senate to quickly confirm President Trump's national security nominees.
I want to play some sound from one of those nominees, Kash Patel, nominated to be director of the FBI. This is what he said about the agency that's now charged with leading this terrorist investigation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KASH PATEL, FBI DIRECTOR NOMINEE: The FBI's footprint has gotten so freaking big. And the biggest problem the FBI has had has come out of its intel shops. I'd break that component out of it. I'd shut down the FBI Hoover Building on day one and reopening the next day as a museum of the deep state.
And I'd take the 7,000 employees that work in that building and send them across America to chase down criminals. Go be cops.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: So a lot of the people he's talking about, the 7,000 employees that work in the building, are right now chasing down criminals, chasing down terrorists, investigating what happened in New Orleans, trying to make sure nothing like that happens again.
[09:25:10]
What's your reaction to that?
BANKS: I think Kash is right.
I mean, the last four years, we have seen the leadership of the FBI be more focused on the political causes of the left, going after parents at school board meetings, instead of going after and investigating ISIS members in America.
I mean, the -- Jabbar in New Orleans had ISIS content on his social media account. We should have been more aware of that and planned to stop that attack from happening and going after him. And, instead, the FBI has become way too bureaucratic, way too political.
And Kash Patel is going to be a big part of cleaning it up. But never forget that Donald Trump is going to be the president. He's going to be in charge. He's going to instruct Kash Patel. And I expect Kash Patel will help clean up the mess.
TAPPER: Trump's secretary of defense nominee, Pete Hegseth, is going to appear before your committee on the 14th. ABC News reports the bipartisan leaders of your committee have requested more information about the 2017 sexual assault allegation against him, which, we should note, he denies.
And he was never charged with anything. Your colleague Senator Lindsey Graham has said Hegseth pledged to release his accuser from the confidentiality agreement. Has the committee been able to speak to this woman? And, if not, do you want to?
BANKS: I'm brand new to the committee. We haven't had a single meeting yet. We have the hearing in a week with Pete Hegseth. I look forward to it. I fully support Pete Hegseth. He is eminently more qualified than Secretary Austin, who's in the job, who disappeared on the job, who instructed the disastrous, deadly withdrawal of Afghanistan, and created a woke political mess at the Pentagon that Pete Hegseth is going to clean up.
Pete is a decorated combat veteran, served in both Iraq and Afghanistan. He knows what's at stake. I fully support him. He's going to be great at the job. TAPPER: All right, thank you so much, new Senator Jim Banks of
Indiana.
BANKS: Thank you.
TAPPER: Good to see you, sir. Appreciate it.
He was on Kamala Harris' V.P. short list, so what does Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona think Democrats should take from the election results? I will ask him that and much more.
That's ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:30:46]
TAPPER: President Biden wrapping up his term. Yesterday, he presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom to a group, including some political allies, such as Hillary Clinton, Anna Wintour, George Soros also there, Magic Johnson and Michael J. Fox.
Tomorrow, President Biden is going to travel to New Orleans, where he's expected to deliver remarks at a vigil for the victims of the Bourbon Street terrorist attack.
Joining us now is Democratic Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona, member of the Senate Intelligence and Armed Services Committee.
Good to see you sir. Happy new year.
SEN. MARK KELLY (D-AZ): Happy new year.
TAPPER: Let's start on the tragic terrorist attack in New Orleans.
The suspect, who was an Army veteran, appears to have become radicalized. He posted videos online pledging allegiance to ISIS before the attack. You're on the Senate Intelligence Committee. Was this an intelligence failure? How serious a threat does ISIS and similar groups like al Qaeda, how much of a threat does that pose to the U.S. right now?
KELLY: Well, first, Jake, I feel for the families of all these victims. It's a -- it was a horrible incident, all these folks murdered on New Year's Eve, when they should be celebrating.
We often track individuals like this one. I wasn't aware of them. I don't think the committee was. The intelligence community seemed to not have this person on their radar, probably because there wasn't a lot of communications overseas. Or I think, as far as we know, there wasn't any.
We're going to get briefed on this week. Whenever something like this happens, we have got to reevaluate, are we doing the right things? Are we looking in the right places? This individual certainly had some personal problems as well, the guy in Vegas as well, and some mental health issues.
So we have got -- we have got to learn more. We have got to work with law enforcement. I applaud law enforcement, who has such a hard job keeping us safe. But after an incident like this, we're going to have to take a close look at it, make sure the next one doesn't happen.
TAPPER: So, social media companies have all sorts of algorithms to profit off of us, right?
KELLY: Right.
TAPPER: I mean, we're actually the -- what they're selling is access to us, to the advertisers.
KELLY: Yes.
TAPPER: So they know that I like the Philadelphia Eagles. They know I like '70 sitcoms.
Do they know, is there an algorithm that detects when somebody's pledging allegiance to ISIS? Do you know?
KELLY: Yes, I don't know for sure. I -- you're right.
They're feeding...
TAPPER: Feels like they should have that.
KELLY: They're feeding us stuff that we associate with just to get more clicks, to keep you engaged.
One of the big problems of social media, especially when it comes to teenagers, that teenagers will sit there almost continuously looking at TikTok, or any...
(CROSSTALK)
TAPPER: But I'm just saying, it could be a source of intelligence if Meta and TikTok and the others are...
KELLY: Yes.
TAPPER: If they have the capability to read my mind when it comes to products I like, can't that be used to, like, find threats?
KELLY: Well, the intelligence community works with these social media companies like Facebook and others.
And when they're aware of something, they report it to the I.C., and it gets investigated. Could we do a better job? I imagine we probably could.
TAPPER: So, Senator Katie Britt says that she asked Democratic leader Chuck Schumer twice last year to schedule a briefing on threats from terrorist groups such as ISIS. But she says he never even responded to her. In November, the Department of Homeland Security secretary, Mayorkas, and FBI Director Wray declined to testify publicly to the Senate about threats to the homeland.
KELLY: Yes.
TAPPER: Do you think Schumer fell asleep at the switch here, like, in terms of, like, making sure all of you -- you're on the Intelligence Committee.
KELLY: Yes.
TAPPER: So you have the latest information, but the Senate as a body wants more information.
KELLY: Well, yes, I can't speak to what Katie requested. We talk about this on the Intelligence Committee practically continuously, maybe not every week, but we're often getting a brief by the CIA, the FBI, other agencies about what the latest threat is out there.
And the FBI especially has a really challenging job. When you're -- when they become aware of an individual or individuals that could be a threat to our country, it's hard to make a decision when to act, because you want to fill out who this entire network is. You want to find out if there are other bad actors out there.
[09:35:04]
You want to eventually be able to arrest everybody. But to do that, you have to wait. So this is one of the major challenges they have, to be able to catch all the criminals, instead of just one or two. So that's one of the things we discuss in the committee frequently on specific events.
Again, this one was not on our radar.
TAPPER: So, speaking of the FBI, you just heard your colleague Senator Banks, who you just met right here at STATE OF THE UNION.
KELLY: Right. Yes, I didn't see him on Friday, when he got sworn in.
TAPPER: You just heard him say that the New Orleans attack shows they need to quickly confirm president-elect Trump's national security nominees, such as Kash Patel, the FBI director, Pete Hegseth, the FBI secretary of defense, Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence.
You're on committees that are going to consider all those nominations. Is he right that dragging out these confirmation battles will jeopardize the national security?
KELLY: Well, we want qualified, serious people that are ready to do these jobs on day one in these jobs.
TAPPER: Are those three not qualified or serious? KELLY: Well, I think, in some cases, especially a couple that will
come before the Armed Services Committee and the Intelligence Committee, where I will have a chance to interface with them directly, I have got some big concerns about their experience, their background, Pete Hegseth.
TAPPER: All three of them, or just Hegseth and Patel?
KELLY: Well, all three of them, but the candidate for the FBI director will go in front of Judiciary, Judiciary, I believe. So I'm not going to see him directly.
But, again, that's somebody that I have significant concerns with. We want people with the background -- and especially with national security positions like DOD, like DNI, like the FBI, we want serious people that have a background to do these very, very hard jobs.
DOD, as an example, is one of the biggest enterprises on the planet...
TAPPER: Yes, three million...
KELLY: ... $800 million-a-year budget, three million people.
TAPPER: Yes.
KELLY: It's a hard organization to manage.
So I would like to see somebody that has some significant management experience, has some experience maybe creating defense policy or implementing defense policy.
In the case of Pete Hegseth, he doesn't seem to have those. So I'm very interested in seeing what he has to say about his background and his experience that makes him qualified to do this challenging job.
TAPPER: You were a finalist to be Kamala Harris' vice presidential pick.
When I last interviewed you shortly before the election, you were confident. You were expressing confidence that she was going to win, Kamala Harris was going to win Arizona and the presidency. Obviously, that did not happen.
Now that you have had some time to step back and process it all...
KELLY: Yes.
TAPPER: ... what do you think went wrong for Democrats?
KELLY: Well, obviously, I was wrong about that. I thought she was going to win. I thought she was going to win Arizona. I knew it would be close. And it wasn't that close in Arizona.
(CROSSTALK)
TAPPER: Yes, five or six points? KELLY: I think we missed some things about what the American people really cared about at that moment in time.
An election is sort of a snapshot in time, and we missed some things. And we have got to learn from that and we have got to get back to work and do the work of the American people. I represent the state of Arizona. We have got a lot of hard work ahead of us, a lot of challenges we're facing, national security challenges, economic challenges.
It's now up to us to get to work and make good decisions here in Washington. And we have got another election in two years. It's kind of far away. And we're going to work to earn the support of the American people.
TAPPER: All right, Senator Kelly of Arizona, good to see you, sir. Happy new year.
KELLY: Thank you. Good to see you.
TAPPER: Say hi to Gabby for us.
KELLY: I will do that.
TAPPER: We appreciate it.
TAPPER: Coming up: Trouble ahead for House Speaker Mike Johnson?
I'm going to talk to new members of the House of Representatives, brand-new members, about what they're expecting and what they think voters want them to do in office.
That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:42:19]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHNSON: And that you will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which you're about to enter, so help you guys.
CONGRESSMEMBERS: I do.
JOHNSON: Congratulations. You are now members of the 119th Congress.
(CHEERING)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: There's a new Congress in town.
And this morning, I am joined by four brand-new members, Republican Brandon Gill of Texas, Democrat Yassamin Ansari of Arizona, Republican Riley Moore of West Virginia, and Democrat Adam Gray of California. You were -- you're the last one whose race was decided, right?
REP. ADAM GRAY (D-CA): That's right, December 3, 187 votes.
TAPPER: Landslide.
So, anyway, welcome, one and all. Glad to have you here.
Let me start with you, Congressman Gill. Your conference has had I wouldn't call it the most difficult time electing a speaker, because it was on the first ballot, but we didn't know how it was going to turn out at one point. Are you worried at all, especially with Trump saying he wants this huge reconciliation package with tax cuts, energy policy, border policy in one big bill?
Are you worried at all that any disagreements in your party could derail the president's agenda?
REP. BRANDON GILL (R-TX): Not at all.
And I think the amazing thing is, we elected Mike Johnson unanimously within conference. We elected him on the first vote the other day. The Republican Conference is unified behind the Trump agenda right now. We're unified behind wanting to end the chaos that Joe Biden and the Democrat Party have unleashed on this country.
That's chaos at the border, where they're facilitating the largest sex trafficking operation in the world right now at our southern border. That's chaos with drug cartels coming into our country, where Joe Biden and the Democrats have given them virtual carte blanche to operate within punitive, murdering and raping and slaughtering American citizens.
We want to end the chaos in our economy, where Democrats have seen prices go up 20 percent over the past four years, while at the same time Democrats want to hamstring domestic energy production. We want to end the woke chaos that they have unleashed on this country, saying that boys can become girls, that girls can become boys, that boys should be in girls' sports, and that boys should be in girls' locker rooms.
This is the chaos that we are unified at stopping and that's what we're going to do. Trump is the leader of this party. He has a mandate. We have a mandate, and we're going to execute.
TAPPER: Congresswoman, you're from a border state as well. Let's just focus on the border part of that for a second. What do you make of -- I mean, this is your -- a fellow freshman saying that, we're not going to take it anymore. We're going to change all these policies. Are you on board?
REP. YASSAMIN ANSARI (D-AZ): I really want to look at the facts here. I think if you look at Biden's executive actions as president, we have seen a four-year low when it comes to border crossings.
We can have a secure border, but also not promote xenophobia, not scapegoat, not blame every problem we have in this country on immigrants. I think we need comprehensive immigration reform. I think we need to look at solutions to make sure that our border communities are safe, that we have enough support at the border.
[09:45:11]
But I also believe that, for mixed-status families, for families, kids who were born in this country, we need to make sure that they are protected. And when -- I come from Arizona. I represent Phoenix. There was -- there are economists saying that there could be devastating impacts to our economy in Phoenix.
When construction is booming, we need a strong work force. So I want to work with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle and actually pass immigration reform that supports legal immigration to this country?
REP. RILEY MOORE (R-WV): Yes, I mean, I couldn't disagree with that more strongly.
The idea that immigration has been at a four-year low. It's at an all- time high in this country. We had 12 million illegals come over this border in just four years. We used to sit here and talk about, well, we have 10 to 12 illegal immigrants inside the country prior to Biden, 12 million coming over the border.
TAPPER: Ten to 12 million.
MOORE: Yes, we have an additional 12 million that have come within this last four years.
We have to secure the border. We have to close the border. We have to put the American worker first. We're over here talking about having illegals doing construction jobs in the United States. That's not what the working-class wants in this country. It's not what labor unions want in this country.
What they want is to have their jobs protected here in the United States and be put first. We're putting America first, but we're also putting Americans first in this new agenda. And that starts on day one by closing the border.
TAPPER: Congressman Gray, you're also from a border state, California. What do you make of what you heard so far?
GRAY: Well, I guess I'm just curious to see if people want to get serious about solving problems back here.
I'm sitting here today with you as a new elected congressman. My district was also -- also elected Donald Trump by five points. Why is that? Well, I campaigned against the gridlock and, frankly, one of the most unproductive Congresses in U.S. history.
And I think what Americans want to see is border security. They want to see immigrants who are law-abiding, hardworking folks get treated with respect. They want a strong economy. And we know that, whether it's agriculture -- I come from the largest agricultural valley in the world in California.
We need that work force, and we got to find immigration solutions to have them. So I hope that my new colleagues here are serious. Obviously, the last Congress wasn't serious enough, which is why the American people sent me here and sent a strong message that they want change. Status quo is not going to do it.
TAPPER: So, you two are millennials. I was just saying before the show the congressman here went to my alma mater, Dartmouth College, and I was upset to find out that he was born three years after I graduated.
(LAUGHTER)
TAPPER: But there's been a lot of talk about aging. And you guys are young enough, so don't take offense at this.
(LAUGHTER)
TAPPER: But there's been a lot of talk...
MOORE: I'm born in 1980. Take it easy. I think I'm kind of...
TAPPER: You're still young.
MOORE: I kind of make it in there.
TAPPER: You're still young. You and me, gramps, we're together here.
(LAUGHTER)
TAPPER: But what do you think about the whole idea that people in Washington don't know when it's time to retire, too many people are staying on their jobs too long?
You are two of the youngest people in Congress. I will go to you first.
ANSARI: I think it's a valid point. I think that Americans are ready for a new generation of leadership. I think both of us being young demonstrates that. I will be the youngest woman in the 119th Congress.
And I take that very seriously. The issues that I have always focused on used to be a Phoenix city councilwoman and vice mayor, worked on issues like housing affordability, climate policy, and transitioning to clean electric energy, talking about reproductive freedom. These are issues that young people have said loud and clear are important to them.
And I think, some of these issues, we can also work on in a bipartisan way. When you look at the housing crisis in this country, in Phoenix, in Arizona, that's been one of the main issues. We have actually gotten compromise between Democrats and Republicans. We all agree there's a housing supply issue, and we want to build more housing, so housing can be more affordable. So I'm excited to see more young people in leadership. The new chair
of the Progressive Caucus is young. I was inspired to run for office the first time because of that first young wave of women of color running for office for the first time.
And I think it's just the beginning, and we are seeing these changes.
TAPPER: What do you make of Washington's gerontocracy?
GILL: Well, and that's exactly what it is.
We have seen for the past four years the Democrat Party being led by a president who has cognitively declining before our very eyes. The Democrat Party had to virtually force him off the ballot to get him to leave.
TAPPER: It is a bipartisan affliction, though. You just had a Texas congresswoman that, I don't need to tell you, she had disappeared for six months, and it turned out she was, like, in a nursing home because she has maybe dementia.
GILL: And I think that's a huge, huge problem.
Young people have seen this country run by an older and older and older generation. And what have we experienced? We have experienced a housing crisis, where it's difficult whenever you're graduating high school or graduating college to find affordable housing. We have seen our jobs being taken away from illegal aliens who are coming in, wages depressed because of our open borders.
[09:50:05]
We have seen Democrats wanting to tax working-class Americans to pay for welfare benefits for illegal aliens. We have seen the Democrat Party embrace censorship, side with Hamas terrorists over Israeli citizens. I mean, young people have seen the Democrat Party drive this country off of a cliff.
And that's why they're moving faster and faster and faster to the Republican Party.
TAPPER: I -- go ahead.
ANSARI: I just want to be clear. If young people only had voted in this election under 40 -- we were both at a new member orientation in Boston -- Democrats would have won across the board.
GILL: We have seen a very rapid shift towards the Republican Party.
ANSARI: Yes, there's been movement, but it's still largely young people.
TAPPER: I just -- I heard both of you talking about housing. I'm optimistic there that you two are going to end up with a bipartisan bill on housing, perhaps, as young people.
(CROSSTALK)
(LAUGHTER)
TAPPER: Do you think that there -- are you optimistic at all about the prospect -- are you -- on bipartisan work? I mean, you don't necessarily need to do it when Republicans have the majority, but the majority is -- it's so thin. It's razor-thin.
GRAY: Absolutely.
I mean, when I was in California, I actually founded the Problem Solvers Caucus in our state legislature, and believe in bipartisanship. And when I hear our new president talk about border security and fixing DACA, I see an opportunity. I'm willing to sit down at the table and get that done.
I think what's wrong with this town and so many capitals around the country is just this extreme partisanship all the time. There are plenty to point at on the far left and the far right that's a lot of nonsense. We got to move beyond that, get together, get things done, deliver results, not rhetoric, for the American people.
TAPPER: The gentleman from West Virginia has the final word.
MOORE: Yes, look, I think perhaps there could be some mutual points of intersecting interest on issues like border, which I think is great.
But, just to be clear, my constituents have sent me here to this town not to work with Democrats but destroy their agenda over the last four years that has crushed this country, the American dream and the American worker. That's what I'm here to do.
But if there are some issues, like the border, child tax credits, pro- family issues that we can work on together, I think that's wonderful, as long as we're putting America first.
TAPPER: All right, good luck to all four of you. Congratulations. And come back soon. Good to have you here.
GRAY: Thank you.
MOORE: Thank you very much.
GRAY: Great to be here.
TAPPER: We will be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:56:07]
TAPPER: We have got a big week coming up. Join us all week as we cover the big political stories, tomorrow, of course, the certification of Donald Trump's election. Our coverage is going to begin at noon Eastern. Then, Tuesday, we will watch the state funeral for former President
Jimmy Carter and his lying in state within the U.S. Capitol, Thursday, President Carter's funeral services at the Washington -- at the Washington National Cathedral. Please make sure to join us. And thank you for spending your Sunday morning with us.
I want to wish happy birthday to my beautiful, amazing, brilliant wife.
"FAREED ZAKARIA GPS" is next.
