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State of the Union

Interview With Rep. Josh Harder (D-CA); Interview With Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC); Interview With Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D-IL). Aired 9-10a ET

Aired January 26, 2025 - 09:00   ET

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


[09:00:34]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DANA BASH, CNN HOST (voice-over): Flooding the zone. President Donald Trump sweeps into office aiming to transform every part of the federal government.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: A lot of big ones, huh?

BASH: But with a big focus on retribution and a late-night purge of inspectors general, how much will he erode democratic norms? Senator Lindsey Graham is here live.

And crackdown. Trump's immigration plans start to take shape, with two dozen U.S. cities on high alert.

THOMAS HOMAN, WHITE HOUSE BORDER CZAR: We will find them.

BASH: How will this top Democrat respond to the new normal?

GOV. J.B. PRITZKER (D-IL): I'm going to protect the people of Illinois.

BASH: Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker is ahead.

Plus: making a list.

BASH: From culture wars.

TRUMP: There are only two genders.

BASH: To the economy.

TRUMP: I will be working with Congress.

BASH: Is Trump focusing on the reasons voters sent him back to the White House? Our political panel is coming up.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BASH: Hello. I'm Dana Bash in Washington, where the state of our union is thinking, what a year this week has been. We are seven days into Donald Trump's second term and already knee- deep in paperwork and promises designed to make the America of today feel rapidly dramatically different.

Let's catch you up. Two more of President Trump's Cabinet nominees were confirmed this weekend, as Trump moved to transform the government agencies he wants to carry out his sweeping plans. Last night, he sent more signals about how he will change America's role in the world, saying he will pressure Arab countries to take more Palestinian refugees and -- quote -- "clean out" the Gaza Strip.

And for every move by the president this week on immigration, the federal work force, the environment, there were parallel attempts at settling scores or removing political roadblocks. Last night, Donald Trump defended his decision to abruptly fire inspectors general from more than a dozen federal agencies by claiming that such a purge is common.

We will talk about that with -- and much more with Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, chairman of the Budget Committee, longtime member of the Judiciary Committee and a key Trump ally.

Nice to see you in person.

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): Thank you.

BASH: Thank you for being here.

GRAHAM: Good morning.

BASH: Let's start with that claim. It's not common, as you know, to do what he did with those inspectors general.

The law says that 30 days before a president, which, of course, is an internal watchdog for government agencies, he must tell Congress, tell you why. That didn't happen.

GRAHAM: Yes.

BASH: He broke the law.

GRAHAM: Yes, I think he should have done that.

But the question is, is it OK for him to put people in place that he thinks can carry out his agenda? Yes. He won the election. What do you expect him to do, just leave everybody in place in Washington before he got elected? This makes perfect sense to me. Get new people. He feels like the government hasn't worked very well for the American people.

These watchdog folks did a pretty lousy job. He wants some new eyes on Washington. And that makes sense to me.

BASH: Even and especially the -- it's one thing for a sort of run-of- the-mill political nominee. If that happens, Democrat, Republican. That is the prerogative of the president. And it is on the inspector general also.

But the inspector general, as I said, I mean, this is supposed to be the person who keeps watch on things.

GRAHAM: Well who is the -- keep watch on what? I mean, he wants to put people in place, including inspector generals, that can implement his agenda.

On Pete Hegseth, a lot of people believe on my side and in the public in general in the last four years, the military was too weak and too woke. And Pete's going to fix that. That's why they -- that's why he picked Pete. He thought the military was too weak, too woke, and Pete's going to fix it. That's why he chose Pete.

So that's just the way it goes when you win an election.

BASH: OK, I want to move on to the pardons.

GRAHAM: Yes.

BASH: President Trump pardoned or commuted hundreds of people convicted of assaulting police in the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol...

GRAHAM: Yes. Yes.

BASH: ... put a lot of lives in danger, including yours.

I want you to just look at one example. I think this is important. Michael Fanone, he is -- was a D.C. police officer. He was off that day. But he came in because he knew the officers needed help to protect the U.S. Capitol, to protect you and your colleagues.

He was Tased. He was beaten to the point he had a heart attack. He was threatened with being shot with his own gun. He had to scream back at them. "I have kids."

[09:05:04]

Now, the man who Tased him, who was convicted of doing that, Daniel Rodriguez, he was sentenced in 2023 to 12 years in prison. On Monday, he was among those who got a full pardon. Are you OK with that?

GRAHAM: No. I have always said that I think, when you pardon people who attack police officers, you're sending the wrong signal to the public at large. And it's not what you want to do to protect cops.

But he has that power. Pardon -- Biden pardoned a guy that shot two FBI agents in South Dakota. The FBI was all upset about that. He pardoned half his family, when he said he wouldn't. President Trump at least said, I'm going to do this.

I don't like this. I don't like it on either side. And I think the public doesn't like it either. So if this continues, if this is the norm, there may be an effort to rein in the pardon power of the president as an institution. BASH: Have you talked to the president about this?

GRAHAM: No, no, no. I mean, we have had this...

BASH: Did you tell him that you're opposed to what he did?

GRAHAM: We have had this debate. I'm all in for him. I want him to win.

I think pardoning people who beat up cops, pardoning people who killed two FBI agents like Biden did, trying to raise bail for rioters in Minneapolis like Kamala Harris did, all send the wrong signal. And so that's where I'm at.

But he did it. Biden did it, and I think most Americans don't like it.

BASH: OK, I mean, I get what you're saying about the FBI agents. And he did that on his last day.

But this is different. This is about...

GRAHAM: Not to the family of the FBI agents.

BASH: OK. This is just...

GRAHAM: Well, let me...

BASH: I want to ask you about the ramifications...

GRAHAM: Yes, I'm worried. I'm...

BASH: ... in your own words, because you have said that having a pardon of somebody who took the law into their own hands will make more -- make violence more likely.

GRAHAM: Yes.

BASH: So I do want to look forward on this question, which is if somebody was pardoned and believes...

GRAHAM: You own it.

BASH: Pardon me?

GRAHAM: You own it.

(CROSSTALK)

BASH: You own it.

GRAHAM: Yes.

BASH: And they believe that they can do what they want if they do it in the president's name, isn't that encouraging dangerous lawlessness?

GRAHAM: Well, when Kamala Harris wanted to go on... BASH: Let's stay on Donald Trump and what happened.

GRAHAM: No, let's talk about the problem. The problem is, she tried to raise money, called them freedom fighters who burned down Minneapolis. They tried to burn down the Portland courthouse.

BASH: Senator, come on. I'm asking you about this thing that you're...

GRAHAM: I know you just want to talk about Trump.

BASH: Well, he's the president.

GRAHAM: But I see it as a bigger precedent.

I mean, yes, I have said clearly I do not like it when President Trump pardoned people who beat up cops. But I didn't like it when Biden pardoned all of his family going out the door. I didn't like it when Kamala Harris tried to raise bail money for people who beat up cops and shot them in the head. I don't like any of this.

BASH: OK.

What you said, he's going to own it if...

(CROSSTALK)

GRAHAM: Yes, all of them are going to own it.

(CROSSTALK)

BASH: Because there are people who testified, law enforcement who testified in these trials, prosecutors who are worried for their safety.

GRAHAM: Well, the public was told about Trump, what he would do, and he did it. So you can't say he lied to anybody. Biden said he wasn't going to pardon his family. And he did it.

BASH: OK, let's...

GRAHAM: Whether you like Trump or not, he said, this is what I'm going to do, and he did it.

BASH: He says he wants to invite these -- some of these pardoned individuals to the White House. Do you think he should do that?

GRAHAM: I will leave that up to him.

But my -- I have been as clear as I can about what I think about pardoning people who beat up cops. I don't like it.

BASH: OK. One last question on this.

Stewart Rhodes of the Oath Keepers militia, he had an 18-year sentence on seditious conspiracy conviction. That was commuted. He was at President Trump's speech last night in Las Vegas.

GRAHAM: I don't think there's a restriction on him being there. I don't like this. We had a guy that was on death row that Biden gave a life sentence that walked into bank and shot two ladies in South Carolina in cold blood, and he started complaining about the conditions of confinement.

I don't like any of this. I think most Americans would like the president to use the pardon power in a way to send the right signal, not the wrong signal.

BASH: But you might have to revisit it if he does more of this?

GRAHAM: He has the authority to do it.

Now, should we as a nation, given what's happened with all these folks, look at it? If you have got an idea about how to rein in the pardon power of the president that goes too far, give me a call.

BASH: President Trump revoked the security detail of the former Secretary of State serving under him Mike Pompeo, his former national security adviser, John Bolton. He has -- both of them were facing security threats because they were in charge of an operation to take out Soleimani in Iran...

GRAHAM: Right. Right.

BASH: ... an operation carried out under Trump.

GRAHAM: Right.

BASH: Should Trump have revoked that security?

GRAHAM: I talked to Senator Cotton about this. He's the chairman of the Intel Committee. He's a very, very good man. He said he had a briefing and he asked the briefers, if it were you or your family, would you think you deserve a detail? And they said yes.

Whether you like John Bolton or not, that's not the question for me. It's that you don't want to leave people hanging. There's no doubt in my mind the Iranians have been out to kill President Trump. I have been briefed about it. I know he's been briefed about it.

[09:10:07]

I'm glad he has protection. Whether you like Bolton or anybody else, we need to make sure that, if you serve in our government and you take out a foreign power at the request of the administration, that we do not leave you hanging.

BASH: So they should get the security back?

GRAHAM: Yes, I think we need to -- the Senate needs to look at what happened and sit down and figure out what's the best way forward.

Everybody doesn't deserve to detail all their life. It needs to be as needed. But what Senator Cotton told me, the threats seem to be real against these individuals. And I don't want to leave them hanging. It makes it hard to recruit people in the future. And if something happened to these people, and President Trump needs to think about getting people to serve in the future, owning that decision.

BASH: So, it was a -- just to put a finer point at it, it was a mistake?

GRAHAM: Yes, I would -- if the intel is what Senator Cotton said, I think we should keep the details.

BASH: OK.

We have been talking about some issues that Donald Trump -- again, you said it's his prerogative. He's done a lot of things with the stroke of a pen. The issue that voters said that they were most interested in him doing is dealing with the crisis of affordability.

GRAHAM: Right.

BASH: And we have not seen any substantial action on that.

People are now paying $7 for a dozen eggs. It's a record level, 37 percent higher than a year ago. Are his priorities in the right place?

GRAHAM: Well, I was pretty involved in the last campaign. For every time he talked about eggs, he talked about illegal immigration 1,000 times.

I think he's trying to fulfill his promise to regain control of an out-of-control illegal immigration system. We need more money for Tom Homan. I'm for departing illegal immigrants here who are criminals. Most people are. The public's with him. But if you don't get new money into the system, Tom Homan can't do his job.

We need more bed space. We need to finish the wall. But I think the signature issue for Donald Trump was to get a handle on illegal immigration, and he's off to a good start. We just need to help him in Congress.

BASH: So, immigration certainly was -- he talked about that nonstop. You're absolutely right.

GRAHAM: Yes. Yes, and he won.

BASH: In a "New York Times" poll, after he was inaugurated, 29 percent of the people who say they supported him say it was to deal with the economy and inflation.

That was way higher...

GRAHAM: I think the majority of the people in that poll say they're -- they support deporting everybody who came to the country illegally in the four years of Biden. Like, 70 percent, almost 80 percent support deporting illegal immigrants who have committed crime. The public is with him on this. And if you all don't get this by now, you missed the entire campaign,

but I will leave that up to people here in Washington.

BASH: Can you just...

GRAHAM: I get it. I understand what he's trying to do.

BASH: Senator, can you elaborate on what you were saying about more money on immigration?

GRAHAM: Yes, I think this whole debate in the Republican Party, do you need one bill or two, right now, Tom Homan needs more money to hire ICE agents. He needs more money to finish the wall, to increase bed space.

He doesn't have the tools necessary to carry out this plan that President Trump gave him until Congress appropriates more money. So, to my Republican colleagues, we have hit a wall here. We're not building a wall. We have hit a wall.

We need to appropriate money to Tom Homan so he can do what President Trump promised. And if we delay it, the taxes expire in December. We have got plenty of time to deal with that. I worry that we're going to own another attack on our country. I worry that we're delaying this plan that President Trump ran on if the Congress doesn't give his administration, Tom Homan the money to do the plan that he promised, that President Trump promised.

We need to come together quickly on this, in my view.

BASH: I want to ask about the Middle East.

GRAHAM: Yes.

BASH: Hamas on Saturday handed over four female Israeli hostages. They have been captive in Gaza for 15 months. Israel released 200 Palestinian prisoners.

You have been very involved in this issue, Senator. Last night, when talking about Palestinians who live in Gaza, President Trump said he wants to -- quote -- "clean that whole thing out." What does that mean?

GRAHAM: You know, I really don't know.

I do know this, that Hamas needs to go. All these guys with masks on and guns, they're scum, and I hope they're dead men walking. What they did to those four young ladies, parade them in front of the Palestinian community and put them on the world stage, was disgusting.

My heart breaks for what they have gone through. So the idea Hamas survives is a nonstarter for me. But the idea that all the Palestinians are going to leave and go somewhere else, I don't see that to be overly practical.

I don't know what he's talking about, but go talk to MBS, go talk to UAE, go talk to Egypt. What is their plan for the Palestinians? Do they want them all to leave or do they want to...

BASH: What is -- you have been going there. What is the plan?

GRAHAM: Well, I think they want the Palestinians to be able to live with dignity and security for Israel.

BASH: But you have got to get rid of Hamas first.

GRAHAM: You can't do this without getting rid of Hamas. You're dead right. Hamas is the problem for the world, not just the Palestinians.

[09:15:03]

But the question you asked is a good one. Do the Arab -- does the Arab world support sending out the Palestinians out of Gaza? I'd be surprised if they did.

BASH: Want to turn to a moment this weekend that really had a lot of people wondering what is really going on and what Donald Trump really supports when it comes to elections in Europe.

Elon Musk made a special video appearance at a campaign event Saturday for the far right Alternative for Germany Party.

He reiterated his support for them ahead of next month's elections. And then he told the crowd the following: "I think there's like, frankly, too much of a focus on the past guilt and we need to move beyond that, people who -- you know, children who should not be guilty of the sins of their parents or even let alone their parents or their great-grandparents, maybe even."

And then he said: "You have my full support. I think, you know, the Trump administration is also supportive."

Two things, what do you think about him telling Germany to move past sins?

GRAHAM: Well, number one, is Elon Musk a Nazi, I don't think so. I don't believe that all. Bibi came to his aid.

But what he said does bother me in this regard. Tomorrow is the 80th anniversary of liberating Auschwitz. I was just there a few months ago. I don't expect the Germans to be racked with collective guilt all their lives. But I do hope, in German schools, they educate the German children about what happened in Germany.

I hope, in our schools, that we will educate people the Holocaust deniers are full of crap. I'm worried that we're losing -- 80 years on, that we're rewriting history here. The Holocaust was one of the darkest moments in the history of mankind. There are 50 million Jews on the planet, because every generation seems to want to go after the Jewish people, so they can't grow and survive.

So the last thing I want facing the 80th anniversary of the Auschwitz liberation, the death camp, is to be equivocal. I want every German child, every American child to know what happened and that it's true, not a lie, and we never do it again.

BASH: Before I let you go, Tulsi Gabbard, you met with her.

GRAHAM: Thank you.

BASH: She's going to have a hearing to be the director of national intelligence this coming week. Are you going to support her?

GRAHAM: We will see how she does.

I have known her on the same reserve unit. Richard Burr, who's a good friend of mine, is going to introduce her, so that goes a long way. But I want to hear...

BASH: "We will see" is not a ringing endorsement.

GRAHAM: Huh?

BASH: "We will see" is not a ringing endorsement.

GRAHAM: Yes. Well, "We will see" is an honest.

I tend to support everybody. I want to know about what happened in Syria and Edward Snowden, but I generally support everybody. If Richard has confidence in her, Burr, that would go a long way with me.

But I do want to make sure that we understand Assad's not a good guy. He's a bad guy, that Iran is trying to kill all the Jews, just like the Nazis did, and they would come after us. They have tried to kill our president. They're going to keep coming after us. They would destroy the state of Israel.

And I want people in that sphere to be clear-eyed about the world in which we live. And the largest state sponsor or terrorism is Iran, and they're religious Nazis; 80 years after the Holocaust, there's a group of people trying to get a nuclear weapon to kill all the Jews. They cannot be allowed to do so.

BASH: Senator Lindsey Graham, thank you so much for coming in this morning.

GRAHAM: Thank you.

BASH: Appreciate it.

And ICE agents in cities coast to coast, a source says that what the country will see starting this week is them going in more aggressively.

My next guest, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, tells us that Democrats are planning to see what these ICE agents are doing and deal with them head on. We will talk to him after a break.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [09:23:21]

BASH: Welcome back to STATE OF THE UNION.

Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove is in Chicago this morning, a source tells CNN. He's there to do a ride-along with DHS agents as they conduct immigration operations. It comes as the Trump administration is planning raids in more than two dozen U.S. cities beginning in Chicago.

Here with me now is Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker.

Thank you so much for being here, sir.

Let's start with the discussion about those raids. We don't -- I know that you don't necessarily get a lot of information from the federal agents and the federal governments that are directing them, but how are you preparing, particularly if they do target schools, churches and small businesses, as they are now allowed to do?

PRITZKER: Well, let me start by being clear that, when we're talking about violent criminals who've been convicted and who are undocumented, we don't want them in our state. We want them out of the country. We hope they do get deported, and if that's who they're picking up, we're all for it.

They show up with a warrant and we're going to hand over people who are in our prisons or in our jails who fit that description. Now, what they're also doing, though, and it's quite disturbing, is, they're going after people who are law-abiding, who are holding down jobs, who have families here, who may have been here for a decade or two decades, and they're often our neighbors and our friends.

And why are we going after them? These are not people who are causing problems in our country, and what we need is a path to citizenship for them. We need to secure our border. We need to get rid of the violent criminals, but we also need to protect people, at least the residents of Illinois and all across the nation, who are just doing what we hope that immigrants will do.

[09:25:01]

BASH: There was a memo that came from the Trump Justice Department this week and it warned that -- quote -- "Federal law prohibits state and local actors from resisting, obstructing and otherwise failing to comply with lawful immigration-related commands and requests. The U.S. attorney's offices and litigating components of the Department of Justice shall investigate incidents involving any such misconduct for potential prosecution."

Are you concerned that Illinois state or local officials, up to and including maybe yourself, could face prosecution if you don't comply with federal immigration authorities?

Obviously, you say you agree on people who are in the United States, in Chicago and elsewhere illegally who are criminals, but what about those who are, as you say, citizens of the community?

PRITZKER: Dana, we're going to follow the law in Illinois and federal law too. We expect them to do the same. I'm very afraid that they will not follow the law.

The reason they put a memo out like that is that -- that's already the law. We -- everybody, we have to follow federal law. We have to follow state law. Otherwise we're potentially subject to prosecution. Of course, we all know that. They're just putting that out because they want to threaten everybody. They want people to step back and let them do whatever they want to do, the federal officials.

And the reality is that they can't break the law. You heard them talk about something unconstitutional this year, the removal of birthright citizenship. We're going to stand in the way of an unconstitutional order. We will also stand in the way of them breaking the law in Illinois if they're not following federal law.

Now, we know that, if they show up with warrants to take people away, that we're going to hand them over. There are people who have deportation orders and have had for many years even during the prior Trump administration who need to be picked up and who are violent criminals and, again, should be deported.

So we're going to do what we need to do. But we also have a law in the books in Illinois that says that our local law enforcement will stand up for those law-abiding undocumented people in our state...

BASH: So.

PRITZKER: ... who are doing the right thing. And we're not going to help federal officials just drag them away because somebody pointed at them and said, oh, that person's brown or that person's not from here. Check it out. Maybe they're undocumented.

BASH: So, Governor, that's exactly what I was getting at. You have a law in the books in your state that requires maybe local law enforcement to protect people that the federal law enforcement agents are coming in to try to deport.

I mean, that sounds like a recipe for a big problem.

PRITZKER: No, what it requires is that our local officials will not coordinate with federal officials...

BASH: I see.

PRITZKER: ... on the arrest of people who don't -- when they don't have a warrant associated with them.

Look, again, we want to get violent criminals off the street, just like everybody else does, and we're going to coordinate in that. And if someone's breaking the law and they're in the process of breaking the law or we know they have broken the law, we want help from federal officials to arrest them. But our local officials are not just going to say, well, that person

seems like they're undocumented, so we're going to hand them over to you and you can figure it out.

BASH: I got it.

I want to move on to other issues, and there are a lot of them, that Donald Trump has on the table and has on his agenda. And I want to know your perspective on how you and other Democrats are approaching him this time around, particularly when he's doing so many things that you disagree with.

You're obviously the governor of a major blue state. Have you thought about your approach, how you're going to respond to all of this? Will you pick and choose your battles?

PRITZKER: Well, it's clear what we need to be doing is standing up for the values of the vast majority of American people and what Democrats stand for, right? We want to raise the minimum wage. They don't.

They want to take away health care from a million people in my state. We think that we ought to make health care more affordable and more available to people. We want to lower costs for people. We eliminated the grocery tax in my state, so that it would be less expensive for people to go buy their groceries.

But what's Donald Trump doing? He's raising tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico. That's going to raise prices for people. So we need to make sure that we're communicating properly. I think that's one of the big challenges that we had in this last election. Our message wasn't right. It's not that our policies aren't right.

But the Republicans did a great job of painting Democrats into a corner, talking about issues that sometimes don't matter to most of the public. I think we need to be squarely on working families and what's good for them.

BASH: That's what Democrats want to do.

What about what Donald Trump is doing? What's your approach going to be? We just talked about immigration for a while. That's a real-life issue that you're dealing with as governor, and there are so many more like that.

[09:30:10]

PRITZKER: Yes. Well, we have got to win elections. Let me be clear. You can't win on the issues if you don't win the elections.

Now, in my state, we -- even though there was a shift, and although the same number of people voted for Donald Trump in this last election, fewer people showed up to vote for Kamala Harris. But at local elections and state elections in Illinois, we won. We won. And I think that happened all over America. If you look even at the battleground states, Democrats did reasonably

well at the local level. It was at the federal level where we lost ground, although I must say we're on the verge of taking back the House of Representatives. And I think, in 2026, we need to go do that. But, again, we have got to win elections in order to win for the American people and working families across the country.

BASH: I want to ask you about an election that's actually going to happen in Germany, because Elon Musk addressed a rally for a far right political party there this weekend, and he told them that they had his support and Trump's support and that Germans should focus less on past guilt.

I also want to ask you about a post that he put up on his social media platform, a series of -- quote, unquote -- "jokes" using the names of Nazi leaders in response to the backlash after he made what appeared to be -- to many people, to be a Nazi salute at a rally. Musk denies that that's something that he did, but I wonder what your response is to all of this.

PRITZKER: Look, at a moment when antisemitism is at an all-time high in my lifetime, we have a very prominent figure who is very closely associated with the president standing up at a presidential rally and giving two Nazi salutes in a row.

Now, if he didn't mean it, he should apologize. But he knows very well what those things mean. And even -- again, if he didn't mean them, afterward, you could say, and he should. I didn't mean that. That wasn't the symbol I was trying to show.

Now, here's what I think about it. Neo-Nazis across the United States celebrated when he did that. That should be some indication to everybody about why this is so important for him to call out.

Now, what has he followed up with? Jokes about Nazis, jokes, like it's OK, and then showing up in a video presentation to the far right folks who are the most antisemitic in German politics, and standing up for them and telling them, I'm for you.

That's bad for the United States. It's bad for Jews across the world. It's bad for Germany. And President Trump ought to be calling that out. If he doesn't agree with Elon Musk, if he doesn't agree with two "Sieg Heils" at his own rally and backing a party that backs Nazis, then he ought to say so.

Why isn't Donald Trump speaking out?

BASH: Last question. Are you going to run for president in 2028?

PRITZKER: I appreciate that question, but -- and I'm flattered by it.

But I got to tell you, we have a lot to accomplish in the state of Illinois. So I'm looking forward to that and just deciding whether or not I'm going to run for reelection here.

BASH: OK. I didn't hear a no there. (LAUGHTER)

PRITZKER: Well, again, I appreciate it. I think the world will change.

BASH: Yes.

PRITZKER: We will see what happens. We have got to beat back these terrible policies that Donald Trump is putting in place.

BASH: Governor J.B. Pritzker of the great state of Illinois, thank you so much for being here.

PRITZKER: Thank you.

BASH: And Donald Trump, as we have been saying, he did a lot of things this first week. But will anything he did add up to making your life less expensive?

Our panel will weigh in on that and much more after a break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:38:12]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Within hours of taking the oath of office, I declared a national emergency at our southern border. I imposed a federal hiring freeze, a federal regulation freeze, a foreign aid freeze.

I declared a national energy emergency. I withdrew from the World Health Organization. We got rid of the woke crap. I pardoned hundreds of political prisoners.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Welcome back to STATE OF THE UNION.

My panel is here. You just heard some of what Donald Trump was talking about, the president giving a list at his rally in Las Vegas last night.

I mean, we're trying to figure out the best way to capture all of this. We have done a lot of the scrolling. This is just -- you can see how thick it is -- day one, day one of the executive orders.

Congressman Harder, thank you so much for being here with the panel from California. What's your big picture takeaway from this week?

REP. JOSH HARDER (D-CA): Well, I think, for an administration that spent the entire campaign talking about costs, right off the bat, they did the exact opposite.

One of those executive orders in your hand lifted the $2 cap on generic medications for seniors, which is going to raise prescription drug prices. They banned offshore wind farms, which is going to raise electricity prices. The first week is often a template for the next four years.

And if we have another 207 weeks of this, people are going to feel more exhausted and more frustrated than they did over the last couple of years.

KRISTEN SOLTIS ANDERSON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Banning offshore wind farms is but one tiny piece of the massive number of things President Trump did in that pile on energy that are going to ultimately, I think, bring costs down.

This notion that presidents should come into office on day one and sign a bunch of executive orders saying, I declare as king that eggs shall be $2 a dozen is kind of ridiculous. And I'm glad that President Trump didn't do that.

I think the things that you're seeing, in terms of making energy less expensive, making the federal government work better, ultimately, if they don't bring prices down, Trump will face political backlash for it. But I think this idea that, on day one, a president is supposed to sign a bunch of executive orders, when Barack Obama never really did, George W. Bush never really did, Trump's first term never really did, it's an unusual way to go about policymaking.

[09:40:15]

SOLTIS ANDERSON: I think these expectations are a little wild.

BASH: Right. It's very unusual to do this many. I mean, he by far did more executive orders than anyone else in the past has.

But because he did them, it's interesting that very little focused on the short term on the economy. I think it's also, to be fair, because it's really hard to do that.

KAREN FINNEY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes.

Well, let's be honest -- clear, though. He said he was going to do lots of things on day one.

BASH: Right.

FINNEY: I mean, if you kept a list every day, he said, on hour one, I'm doing this, on hour two -- so he did what he said he was going to do.

What we don't know, it's what the congressman was saying, what impact is that really going to have on people's lives? It's not that he was supposed to decree the price of eggs should be lower. It's that the American people are saying, OK, what's in it for us? Great that you have got 11 billionaires in your Cabinet.

And I can see how many of the decisions they're going to make are going to be great for the profits of the companies they come from or the industries. But how is that really going to lower the cost of gas, groceries, and rent?

He did -- one of the things he did was, he told every agency, we're going to lower costs. Figure out how to lower costs. Well, what does that mean? And when do we get to know about whether or not that actually is working?

And, again, last thing I will say, he inherited a strong economy from Joe Biden. So, if we see inflation going higher, unemployment going higher, then we know he's failing.

BRAD TODD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: What he inherited is in the Joe Biden administration that Americans fundamentally rejected. And we know that they think Joe Biden had the country on the wrong track.

Joe Biden did 11 executive orders on immigration in his first three months. This is not uncommon. Donald Trump's undoing most of those because there's widespread support, even among Democrats, for him to do that.

I want to go back to what Congressman Harder said, though, about prices. Number two cost of -- input of cost is electricity. Electricity, we had the -- in the last three years, we have had a greater rise of electricity prices than any in the last 33 years. Donald Trump's going to fix that.

He declared a national energy emergency this week. I think he's doing exactly what he told voters he was going to do. Not all of it's going to be wildly popular, but a lot of it's popular, even among Democrats.

BASH: In the huge deluge of news and information and changes, I don't want to lose sight of a trip that the president took late on Friday across the country to your home state of California.

First of all, he was greeted, you see there, by the Democratic governor, who the two of them have sparred a lot. Newsom just kind of showed up and said that he wants to work together with the president. And then, later, the president sat with, among other people, Karen Bass, the mayor of Los Angeles.

I want you to listen to some of their exchange.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAREN BASS (D), MAYOR OF LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: The number one thing that we are going to do immediately, and you will see this happen, is to clear out the debris. And we're concerned right now over the weekend because of the potential rain, but we are going to move as fast as we can.

But we want you to be safe, and we want you to be back in your homes immediately.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: you have emergency powers just like I do, and I'm exercising my emergency powers. You have to exercise them also.

BASS: I did exercise them. I signed an emergency declaration.

TRUMP: Because I looked. I mean, you have a very powerful emergency power, and you can do everything within 24 hours.

BASS: Yes. Yes. And if individuals want to clear out their property, they can.

TRUMP: That's a long time, a week, I will be honest. To me, the -- everyone standing in front of the house. They want to go to work and they're not allowed to do it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TODD: This is -- it's amazing. Not many people in the national political stage can do what he did and command the moment like that.

Managing disasters is about taking authority and taking command and moving fast, and Donald Trump has outlined exactly what's wrong with the bureaucracy and what's wrong with Karen Bass' approach. I thought it was a masterstroke.

BASH: And what about her? I mean, she kind of gave as good as she got there.

HARDER: Look, I have had wildfire victims in my district. I have met with families who have lost everything, priceless family heirlooms, their entire sense of identity.

I think these wildfire victims feel like political pawns. They have been failed by both California and Washington. It's clear what we need to do to get these wildfires under control. We need more firefighters, better technology, less red tape. That's not what we're getting.

There needs to be a sense of urgency after these L.A. fires, just like there was last year after Maui. Right now, unfortunately, we're just seeing finger-pointing.

BASH: And what about that sort of leadership of it all, the fact that he went to North Carolina and then went to California as well and did meet with Democratic leaders of that very blue state?

SOLTIS ANDERSON: Yes, it's great that he did. I'm so glad that he did, because it's important, when it comes to something like a disaster, for it not to be partisan.

Now, just because something is not partisan doesn't mean that people have to set aside all of their ideological views or their beliefs about what makes government work or not. It's perfectly fair for Republicans to say, we think Democrats haven't been running the show very well, in the same way that, when tragedy strikes in a red state, Democrats might say, hey, maybe you should have had different policies. This would have turned out differently.

[09:45:14]

So we don't have to set aside our differences on what we think makes government function well. But I think showing up and expressing leadership is really important. And I'm glad that's what we saw.

FINNEY: But I think what's going to be more important than anything is, having grown up in California, how California rebuilds. Joe Biden made a lot of really important promises to be there. Donald Trump needs to keep those promises, not just for the politics of it, but because those are American citizens who are relying on the state of California and the federal government to be there to help them rebuild, but also to help them rebuild.

We know that some of the challenges were infrastructure in the Palisades. So we have got to build our infrastructure not to what life was like 50 years ago, but to the climate realities that we're living in right now.

BASH: OK, everybody, stick around. After a break, we're going to find out what everybody here is watching for in President Trump's second week.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BASH: So, what are we watching going into President Trump's second week?

My panel is back.

I will start with the only person here who's got the pen and who's got a vote. What are you watching for?

HARDER: I think a focus on issues voters actually care about, less renaming mountains in Alaska or starting fights with Denmark, settling political grudges.

But let's actually get to the meat of what needs to happen to lower the price of rent, to lower the price of gas. That's not what we saw last week. Let's make the week two different.

SOLTIS ANDERSON: I'm going to be watching how the continuation of these confirmation hearings begins to go.

[09:50:02]

We saw we now have Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, confirmed on a very narrow vote that involved getting the vice president to come down to the Capitol.

BASH: Doesn't get more narrow than that.

SOLTIS ANDERSON: But that's -- his confirmation does not mean that all of Trump's picks are necessarily safe.

You're going to have still folks like RFK, still folks like Tulsi Gabbard where there are some pieces of pushback, or at least questions that Republicans say they want answered. So that's what I'm keeping my eye on. BASH: Yes, I mean, Senator Graham said "We will see" when I asked

about Tulsi Gabbard.

FINNEY: So part of the strategy obviously is the barrage. Some of this is Project 2025. Some of this is meant to just exhaust us.

But what I'm looking for is, as things continue to shake out, what's really happening? So prescription drug prices are going to go back up because that was one of the things that he repealed. We know that cancer drug trials have been halted while they have halted some functioning at the NIH.

So where is the rubber meeting the road and how is that impacting American people? Is it increasing their costs? Is it making their lives harder? Is it putting their health in danger? Is it putting their lives in danger? Is it endangering our national security?

I think, the more we go through this, and really sift out the sort of the bluster from where the rubber meets the road.

TODD: I'm looking to see if Democrats wake up this week. They have been in denial since November that they lost and they have been in denial of the fact that most rank-and-file Democrats support a lot of what Donald Trump's doing on immigration.

This is going to be a big week for immigration. Next week's going to be a big week for immigration. Let's see if Democrats wake up and agree to give the Donald Trump administration the tools they need to enforce the board.

BASH: Are you awake?

HARDER: I'm awake. I'm ready. Let's get to work.

(LAUGHTER)

BASH: There you go. You got your answer right here.

TODD: There's one. There's one. We got a lot more.

BASH: Guys, thank you so much.

We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:55:42]

BASH: Two giant pandas just made their public debut at the Smithsonian's National Zoo here in Washington, and CNN got exclusive access to their journey from China.

Tune into "Operation Panda" for a lot more. It airs tonight on "THE WHOLE STORY WITH ANDERSON COOPER" at 8:00 p.m. Eastern.

Thank you so much for spending your Sunday morning with us. Fareed Zakaria picks it up next.