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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees
Trump Signs More Executive Orders in Oval Office; Trump Ends all January 6th Cases with Pardons, Commutations and Dismissals. Trump Ends All Jan. Trump Signs Order Designating Cartels As Foreign Terrorist Organizations; Trump Revokes Nearly 80 Of Biden's Executive Orders. Aired 8-9p ET
Aired January 20, 2025 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[20:00:00]
DONALD TRUMP PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: So we'll see what happens. But Greenland is necessary, not for us, it's necessary for international security. You have Russian boats all over the place, you have China boats all over the place, warships and they can't maintain it.
REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE)
TRUMP: Who?
REPORTER: Are you going to meet President Putin, sir?
TRUMP: I'll be meeting with President Putin.
REPORTER: When do you think?
TRUMP: I don't know. I can't -- it is being set up.
REPORTER: So for your first trip -- foreign trip, thank you, sir.
TRUMP: So first foreign trip typically has been with the UK, but we did it. I did it with Saudi Arabia last time, because they agreed to buy $450 billion worth of our products. I said, I'll do it, but you have to buy American products and they agreed to do that.
They bought $450 billion. It was the least reported story I've ever been involved in.
REPORTER: And now? Where do you plan to go now?
TRUMP: Well, I don't know. If Saudi Arabia wanted to buy another 450 or 500, we will up it for all the inflation.
REPORTER: Mr. President, you said you were going to end the wars --
TRUMP: I think I probably got those.
REPORTER: -- first day. How do you plan to end the Ukraine war? TRUMP: Well, we're going to try and get it done as quickly as possible.
REPORTER: Do you want to push Israel and Saudi Arabia --
TRUMP: It should have never started. You know, the war with Ukraine and Russia should have never started. It would have never started if I were president.
REPORTER: Will you push Israel and Saudi Arabia to normalize relations?
TRUMP: I don't think I have to push them. I think it's going to happen, but maybe not quite yet, but they'll end up being in the Accords -- the Abraham Accords.
REPORTER: President Trump --
TRUMP: I think Saudi Arabia will end up being in the Abraham Accords.
REPORTER: This year?
TRUMP: Could be, but you know, soon. Not in a very long way. Oh, look at that. It says TikTok. My, my, my, what is that all about?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: First, we have Alaska, sir. This is an executive order relating to unleashing Alaska's potential as an energy reservoir for the entire nation.
TRUMP: And what about ANWR?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I believe that would be included in aspects of the order, sir.
TRUMP: So we are opening up ANWR.
PETER DOOCY, FOX NEWS CHANNEL CORRESPONDENT: On the same piece, President Trump, you and your members of your team now used to warn about the dangers of TikTok spying on Americans. What changed that you're not worried about that anymore?
TRUMP: Well, it depends on the deal. I mean, I may not do the deal, or I may do the deal. TikTok is worthless -- worthless -- if I don't approve it. It has to close. I learned that from the people that own it.
If it -- if I don't do the deal, it's worthless, worth nothing. If I do the deal, it's worth maybe a trillion dollars, a trillion. So if I do the deal for the -- I'm talking about doing it for the United States. If I do the deal for the United States, then I think we should get half.
DOOCY: The TikTok CEO --
TRUMP: In other words, right, I think the US should be entitled to get half of TikTok, and congratulations, TikTok has a good partner, and that would be worth, you know, it could be $500 billion or something. It's crazy. The numbers are crazy.
But it's worthless if I don't -- if the president doesn't sign, then it's worthless. If the president does sign, it's worth maybe a trillion dollars.
So I think, like a joint venture. I think we would have a joint venture with the people from TikTok. We'll see what happens. I mean, that's one of many ideas I've had.
DOOCY: The CEO, Shou Chew, did he say that he is open to that idea?
TRUMP: Who?
DOOCY: The CEO of TikTok is around?
TRUMP: Oh, I think he'd probably like it, because he's got nothing. They really have nothing.
It's passed in Congress. It gives the president a right to make it -- make a deal, or to close it, and we have 90 days to make that decision. But I could see making a deal with the US gets 50 percent of TikTok, polices it a little bit or a lot. It depends on them.
But remember, they make telephones in China. They make all sorts of things in China. Nobody ever complains about that. Here, they are complaining about this.
There are so many different products made in China, nobody ever complained about. The only one they complain about is TikTok. And TikTok is largely young people. I guess, I have a warm spot for TikTok that I didn't have originally. But did I win on TikTok? And I won young people up by 36 percent, Peter, and Republicans typically don't do too well with young people, but it's a different Republican Party.
REPORTER: -- US TikTok then or how would it get that 50 percent?
TRUMP: No, you take 50 percent of TikTok for the approval that TikTok could continue in business, and they'd have a great partner. The US would be their partner, but the US essentially would be paid for doing that half of the value of TikTok.
REPORTER: Would there be a private sector owner?
TRUMP: Could be. Yes. Could be a lot. I will tell you what? Every rich person has called me about TikTok.
REPORTER: You wanted to block TikTok. Why did you change your mind?
TRUMP: Because I got to use it. And remember, TikTok is largely about kids, young kids.
If China is going to get information about young kids, I don't know.
REPORTER Are you --
TRUMP: I think, to be honest with you, I think we have bigger problems than that. But you know, when you take a look at telephones that are made in China and all of the other things that are made in China, military equipment made in China.
TikTok -- I think TikTok is not our biggest problem, but there's big value in TikTok if it gets approved. If it doesn't get approved, there's no value.
So if we create that value, why aren't we entitled to like half?
[20:05:34]
REPORTER: Sir, (INAUDIBLE) shut them down?
TRUMP: Because Biden never do news conferences like this. How many news conferences, Peter, has he done like this?
DOOCY: Like this?
TRUMP: None.
DOOCY: Zero.
TRUMP: And it would be zero for the next, infinity, for infinity, it would be zero.
REPORTER: Mr. President, (INAUDIBLE) talk to Elon Musk is going to help implement the executive orders. I think you mentioned --
TRUMP: No. No. No. Elon. No. He is --
Elon is very busy sending rocket ships up to various places with lots of satellites.
REPORTER: What is your reaction to the confirmation of Marco Rubio? And what does it mean for Latin America?
TRUMP: Which one?
REPORTER: Marco Rubio?
TRUMP: Marco Rubio. You said Maco -- Marco --.
REPORTER: Marco. Marco Rubio.
TRUMP: Yes, I think he is great. I thin Marco is doing a fantastic job. I think he's going to get a lot of votes. I think he's going to be at 90 percent or something. I mean, I'm hearing very good -- people know him. They know him in the Senate. They know he's good.
He's doing a good job. I don't know. I can't tell you. I don't know what's going to happen with that. He's got -- he's got some very strong ideas, that Marco.
REPORTER: Did you sign the TikTok order, Mr. President?
TRUMP: Yes. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. That was just signed.
REPORTER: Well, President, Marco Rubio say yes, he is --
TRUMP: I just signed it.
REPORTER: -- still changing Venezuela, changing power, are you still committed with Maduro leaving power in Venezuela?
TRUMP: Well, we're going to find out about that too, because we're going to probably stop buying oil from Venezuela. We don't need their oil.
REPORTER: Another embargo like the first term?
TRUMP: Well, it could be, but we don't want to buy -- we don't have to buy their oil. We have plenty of oil for ourselves.
DOOCY: President Trump --
TRUMP: That will change Venezuela quite a bit.
DOOCY: President Trump, there was a lot of concern about this during the campaign. A question that only works today, are you a dictator on day one?
TRUMP: No, no. I can't imagine even being called that. No, I believe in the sanctity of the vote. The Democrats didn't because they cheated like dogs, but I believe in the sanctity and this was too big to rig. This last election was just too big to rig. No, really the opposite.
REPORTER: When do you plan to speak to President Putin?
TRUMP: It could be very soon.
REPORTER: And you talked a bit about Ukraine and Russia, but how long do you think it would take to end that conflict and --?
TRUMP: I have to speak to President Putin. We're going to have to find out. He's not -- he can't be thrilled. He's not doing so well.
I mean, he's grinding it out, but most people thought that war would have been over in about one week, and now you're into three years, right?
So he can't be -- he can't be thrilled. It's not making him look very good. Now, eventually, you know? I mean, it's a big machine, so things will happen, but I think it would be very well off to end that war.
We have numbers that almost a million Russian soldiers have been killed. About 700,000 Ukrainian soldiers are killed. Russia is bigger. They have more soldiers to lose, but that's no way to run a country.
REPORTER: What did your TikTok order do, Mr. President?
TRUMP: It just gave me the right to sell it or close it. Essentially, with TikTok, I have the right to either sell it or close it, and we'll make that determination. And we may have to get an approval from China, too. I'm not sure.
But I'm sure they'll approve it, and if they don't approve it, it would be somewhat of a hostile act, I think. But it's good for China if it gets approved.
REPORTER: So you're not guaranteeing that TikTok will be around after 90 days from today?
TRUMP: No, but it could very well be. It makes sense for it to be, because it's got tremendous value. But if we create the value by approving, you know, in other words, that approval gives a tremendous value, if that's the case, then we should be entitled to 50 percent as a country. We are going to see.
And you haven't heard that one before, right? It's called a joint venture, and nobody ever thought that way before.
REPORTER: Who is your partner?
TRUMP: Well, I don't know. I think it's -- I think it's, I think you have a lot of people that would be interested in TikTok with the United States as a partner.
REPORTER: Mr. President, what was it like walking into the Oval Office this evening?
TRUMP: Oh, what a great feeling. One of the better feelings I've ever had.
REPORTER: Do you like this time better now than in 2017?
TRUMP: Well, we're very experienced now. You would say nobody's ever had experience like I have.
I've dealt with some very good people. I've dealt with some very bad people, and I know who the bad ones are and the good ones are. You know, don't forget, I was very successful in, primarily, the real estate business and people used to say; Who's worse? A politician or a vicious real estate developer? And then it was a -- you know, the real estate developer is far worse.
But after about three months and getting to know scum like Adam Schiff and other people like that, I said, no, actually, real estate people are quite nice by comparison.
[20:10:32]
REPORTER: You said you plan to speak with President Putin soon. What about President Zelenskyy? And what's your message to him?
TRUMP: Yes. I want -- but he has told me he wants to make a deal. He wants to make -- Zelenskyy wants to make a deal. I don't know if Putin does, he might not. I don't know. He should make a deal. I think he's destroying Russia by not making a deal. I think Russia's going to be in big trouble. You take a look at their economy. You take a look at the inflation in Russia.
So I would -- I would hope -- I got along with him great. And, you know, I would hope he wants to make a deal.
REPORTER: Mr. President, you keeping US sanctions on Russia until he makes a deal?
TRUMP: Well, sanctions or tariffs, I think the word tariff is much better because it keeps your dollar stronger. I think tariffs are more effective. I used sanctions on Iran. Iran was broke.
When I left office, Iran was broke. They had no money for Hamas or Hezbollah, none. They were flat broke, and October 7th would have never happened. And I think you all know that, it would have never happened. They had no money. Now they're rich, but you know, they're weakened in a different way. I would say that the one attacked by Israel really set them back and really set them back -- the pagers. The pagers and others.
You know, the attack on air defense was a -- that was a bad attack.
REPORTER: What are you signing now, sir?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's an executive order relating to reforms to the federal workforce, including to the Senior Executive Service.
TRUMP: We're getting rid of all of the cancer -- I call it cancer, the cancer caused by the Biden administration.
REPORTER: How confident are you, Mr. President, that you can keep the ceasefire in Gaza and conclude the three phases of this deal?
TRUMP: I'm not confident. It's not our war, it's their war. But I'm not confident, but I think they're very weakened on the other side.
REPORTER: Do you support a two-state solution?
TRUMP: Gaza -- boy, I looked at a picture of Gaza. Gaza is like a massive demolition site. That place is -- it is really -- it has got to be rebuilt in a different way.
REPORTER: Would you help rebuilding Gaza?
TRUMP: I might. You know, Gaza is interesting. It's a phenomenal location on the sea, best weather. You know, everything is good. It's like some beautiful things could be done with it, but it's very interesting, but some fantastic things could be done with Gaza.
REPORTER: How do you see the future in governance for Gaza?
TRUMP: Well, it depends. I can't imagine. You could have -- well, you certainly can't have the people that were there. Most of them are dead, by the way, right? Most of them are dead, but they didn't exactly run it well. Run viciously and so you can't have that.
REPORTER: Mr. President, on TikTok, sir. Would you pause any decision on Chinese tariffs until you know what the resolution on TikTok will be?
TRUMP: No. If China didn't approve it, we could put tariffs on China. Don't forget, China charges us tariffs, and we charge them very little, except for what I did. I put a lot of -- we took in hundreds of billions of dollars.
But until I came along, China never paid 10 cents to this country. They ripped us off and they never paid anything. But like, if we wanted to make a deal with TikTok and it was a good deal, and China wouldn't approve it, then I think ultimately they'd approve it, because we'd put tariffs on China.
Maybe. I'm not saying I would, but you certainly could do that. And if we said, well, if you not going to approve it, then that's a certain hostility, and we'll put tariffs of 25, 30, 40, 50 percent, even a hundred percent, and if we did that, I think they'd approve it.
DOOCY: President Trump, you've seen the other living presidents a couple times in the last few months. If you ever had to call on one of them for advice about anything that's going on here, which one would you call?
TRUMP: That's interesting. Well, I thought Bill Clinton was a very good politician. I don't think he was used properly. I think they disrespected him.
When Hillary was running, he came back and he said, you know, you better get up to Michigan and Wisconsin. You remember that, Peter. Every house has a Trump sign on it, and they all laughed at him because the Republicans had won Michigan and Wisconsin for decades, long time, and they all laughed at Bill Clinton like, what the hell does he know?
And he turned out to be right because I won both of them, and then we just won both in this election, too. We won Wisconsin and Michigan and every other swing state. We won all the swing states, all seven.
They talked about seven swing states. We won them all so, but Bill Clinton was -- he had a great political sense, I think.
[20:15:38]
REPORTER: It looked like you were having a good conversation with President Obama at President Carter's funeral?
TRUMP: I was, and you'd like to know what it was? Oh.
REPORTER: Everybody wants to know.
TRUMP: Everybody wants to know. I know. I wouldn't want to lie, but we were having some crazy conversation.
REPORTER: About?
TRUMP: Why are asking a question like that? You don't -- I don't think you want to know. You might not --
REPORTER: What did you just sign?
TRUMP: You might be insulted.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is an executive order relating to holding former government officials accountable for unlawful disclosure of sensitive information.
This next one, sir, is a declaration of a national energy emergency.
REPORTER: Sir, you also --
TRUMP: That's a big one. You know what that allows you to do? That means you can do whatever you have to do to get out of that problem and we do have that kind of an emergency.
DOOCY: President Trump, at some point will you use your power from the presidency to tell Americans who are concerned about the drones --
TRUMP: Yes, I will.
DOOCY: Can you tell us now?
TRUMP: In fact, I'd like -- no, because I just got here.
DOOCY: Why do you think that?
TRUMP: I just came here. I've been here for what? Fifteen minutes. No.
DOOCY: With people listening, because this is going on out live.
TRUMP: And I've got to read this letter too, because of you, I found this letter.
DOOCY: I can read it for you.
TRUMP: It is interesting. Yes, I know you would. Your father would, too.
DOOCY: But is it anything with drones? Did they --
TRUMP: I think it's -- I think it's terrible. I would like to find out what it is and tell the people.
DOOCY: And can you commit to some kind of --
TRUMP: In fact, I'd like to do that. Could we find out what that was, Susie? Okay? Yes. Why don't we find out. Immediately. I mean, I can't imagine it is an enemy, or there would have been -- you know, people would have gotten blown up, all of them.
Maybe they were testing things. I don't know why they wouldn't have said what it was. They had a lot of them flying over Bedminster, which is interesting, right?
DOOCY: And with the events today and yesterday, was everything moved inside just for cold weather? Or was there some kind of security?
TRUMP: No, no, no. No security, because they had everything shut down to drones. You know, you can shut that down pretty easily if you're sophisticated. They're very sophisticated, these people.
No, it was just cold weather, and we made a good move because, first of all, I thought it was incredible at the Capitol today. You know, I liked it because I got great reviews on that speech. I got great reviews. Can you believe it? They actually were fair.
Maybe the fake news is changing --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Unleashing energy.
TRUMP: Yes, unleashing energy production.
But I thought it was, I think having it in the Capitol is great. Obviously, you can take care of the people you have to take care of. The city was booming, and if we would have done it outside, people would have been hurt, because it was really cold. You know, it was like -- it looked sunny, but when you stood outside for 10 minutes, people were running back in. It was really cold and really windy. The wind brings it down a lot.
So we've made the right decision. You couldn't have stayed -- I don't think you could have had it out. You knew how cold it was today.
It was -- people went out for a little while just to test it. They couldn't stay out more than 10 minutes, they all came back in. So we would have had a disaster if we did that, and people would have been hurt.
REPORTER: Mr. President, the unlawful disclosure, do you know if that is related to the Hunter Biden, situation?
TRUMP: Which one?
REPORTER: The one on unlawful disclosures by federal officials? Is that related to --
TRUMP: No, I think it's just more general than that. It is not Hunter Biden. I was -- I was surprised that President Biden would go and pardon his whole family, because that makes him look very guilty.
I could have pardoned my family. I could have pardoned myself, my family. I said, if I do that, it's going to make me look very guilty. I don't think I'd be sitting here frankly. If I did that, I don't think I'd be sitting here right now, because I would have -- it would have shown that you're guilty.
But by pardoning his brother or brothers, by pardoning all of those people that he pardon, by pardoning J6 -- the unselect committee, they destroyed all of the documents. They deleted all of the information. There's no information.
And a lot of the information pertains to Nancy Pelosi because she was given one -- I mean, you know this, it's on tape with her daughter.
Nancy Pelosi was responsible for not taking advantage of 10,000 soldiers or 1,000. You wouldn't have needed -- you could have used 400. It was a relatively small crowd. It wasn't the crowd that was at The Mall. It was a small crowd.
So I was -- I was little bit surprised that he did it, because it makes him look guilty. I mean, he's going to have to live with it. Now, with that being said, it's unbelievable precedent it creates for a president, but the precedent is unbelievable.
[20:20:44]
Now, maybe every president that leaves office, they're going to pardon every person they ever met, so they don't have some lunatic like deranged Jack Smith, who's a total lunatic, by the way, not a smart guy. He is a dummy, but we beat the hell out of him, and I upped my reputation.
REPORTER: Do you think you'd have to do the same thing at the end of this term?
TRUMP: Well, I guess now I have precedent to do it. I don't -- I wouldn't want to do that. No, I think it makes you look very guilty. I think it makes Biden look very bad, very weak, and very guilty.
And I mean, he pardoned everybody. How about this, J6 Committee? How do you -- why is he pardoning them? The reason is because, if you delete and destroy documentation, everything. They have nothing, because they were guilty as hell.
They rigged it. It was a rigged deal. And when you do that, they look very bad. But I was a little surprised he did it.
Liz Cheney, I mean, she is a lunatic, and she lost by the greatest margin in the history of a politician running for Congress, like 40 points. The reason it was the greatest is because anybody losing that badly is going to drop out, but she's a nut job. She doesn't drop out.
You know? She just keeps chugging forward, and she lost by almost 40 points. That's the biggest number anybody has ever lost by.
But why would Biden do that? He pardoned her and pardoned everybody. The reason is that they destroyed documents. And if you're even in a civil case, which this wouldn't be, I mean, people go to jail for a long time for doing that.
What's this one?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's unleashing American energy, sir. It relates to using permitting processes and other regulatory systems to ensure that we can produce energy efficiently to drive the American economy forward. TRUMP: All right.
DOOCY: President Trump, looking around the office, we noticed some changes from the way the Biden had it set up. Can you confirm that you have added back the Diet Coke bar?
TRUMP: I think this -- we -- first of all, I just got here. So my people came in. They have extraordinary decorator's sense, right? Let me just see some of the pictures there. That's a good one. I could live with him. I can live with George Washington. I can tell you,
I can live with Thomas Jefferson. I can live with most of them. They took a very safe route. They don't have any bad ones up there.
What is this?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Withdrawing from --
TRUMP: What is this one?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Withdrawing from the World Health Organization, sir.
TRUMP: That's a big one. So we paid $500 million to World Health when I was here, and I terminated it. China with 1.4 billion people, we have 350 -- we have -- nobody knows what we have, because so many people came in illegally. But let's say we have 325, they had 1.4 billion. They were paying $39 million, we were paying $500 million. It seemed a little unfair to me, so that wasn't the reason, but I dropped out.
They offered me to come back for $39 million. In theory, it should be less than that, but you know, and when Biden came back, they came back for $500 million, he knew that you could have come back for $39 million. They wanted us back so badly. So we'll see what happens.
REPORTER: Mr. President --
TRUMP: Pretty sad though, think of it. China pays $39 million, and we pay $500 million, and China is a bigger country.
REPORTER: Mr. President, you spoke about inflation today in your remarks. What actions are you taking today that will have the direct impact for Americans on their everyday costs to bring cost down?
TRUMP: The biggest thing and factor for inflation is energy. They screwed up my energy policy, and then they went back to it. You know, they hurt it really badly, and then they went back to it, and they started drilling more. But by that time, it was too late.
Many of these things that we are signing, and that Doug Burgum is going to be signing, and Chris Wright who is phenomenal, you know, energy -- Department of Energy -- we're going to be taking a lot, we're going to make a lot of money from energy. We have a -- we have more than anybody else. We're going to make a lot of money from energy. We're going to make a lot of money from tariffs. [20:25:14]
You know, European Union charges us -- they have a VAT tax of 20 percent, but it's really much higher than that, and that's the equivalent, almost the equivalent of a tariff, and they're tough. They're very tough.
They don't take our cars, they don't take our farm product, they don't take almost anything. And yet, we take their cars, we take their farm product. We take a lot from them.
So, you know, we have, like, a $300 billion deficit with the European Union. So we'll straighten that out with either tariffs or they have to buy our oil.
The one thing they can do, our oil and gas, the one thing they can do to catch up quickly, buy our oil and gas and they should do that.
REPORTER: Will they travel to China this year?
TRUMP: Yes, could be. I've had the invite.
REPORTER: Mr. President Xi has invited you?
TRUMP: I would do it. Yes, I would --
REPORTER: Talking about the European Union, the tariffs, like, what do you mean when you mean when you say that European Union conflict that it is parts of BRICS?
TRUMP: That are what?
REPORTER: BRICS.
TRUMP: Oh, BRICS. No. I was talking about BRICS -- BRICS is six nations. I think it's seven nations and they were looking to do a number on the United States. And if they do that, they won't be happy about what's going to happen to them.
REPORTER: Are you still considering a universal tariff, Mr. President, on all countries?
TRUMP: I might. Yes, but we're not ready for that yet. We may put it rapid, because essentially all countries take advantage of the US. We don't make any good deals in the US. It's amazing in a way that we exist, we don't make good deals. We don't have any good deals.
We have a -- we have a deficit with almost, not all, there are a couple, I won't tell you their names, because I don't want them to find out about it, because they will feel stupid. But there are a couple of countries that -- there are a couple of countries that actually don't make money with us, but I don't want to let you know, because they'll immediately change that.
But we're going to do -- I'll tell you what, we have -- our country has an amazing economic future. Everybody believe that. REPORTER: What kind of universal tariff if you did do one?
TRUMP: Well, you put a universal tariff on anybody doing business in the United States because they're coming in and they're stealing our wealth. They're stealing our jobs. They're stealing our companies. They're hurting our companies. So you put a tariff on to keep them from doing that.
REPORTER: Mr. President, you surrounded yourself with a whole bunch of billionaires today. President Biden, in his farewell address warned about oligarchy. I was wondering how you would respond to that?
TRUMP: Well, he was -- he had a lot of guys, and then they found out that he didn't know what the hell he was talking about. And I think they deserted him. They deserted him, those same guys.
Look, I don't make pretense with smart guys, but there are a lot of smart people around. But they did desert him. They were all with him, every one of them. Now they're all with me. I don't know. They are not going to get anything from me. I don't need money.
But I do want the nation to do well and they're smart people, and they have -- you know, they create a lot of jobs, and if they don't do it, China is going to do it. You know, what they've done is they've taken industries and they've taken it away. They outsmarted China. And, you know, we sort of like that. It is okay. They've done a great job, a lot of them. Not all of them.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Protecting women from radical gender ideologies.
TRUMP: Oh.
REPORTER: Mr. President, going back to the World Health Organization. You were the president during COVID. Don't you see the importance of an organization like that to coordinate a global response?
TRUMP: Sure, I do, but not when you're being ripped off, like we are by the World Health. The World Health ripped us off. Everybody rips off the United States, and that's it. It's not going to happen anymore.
Thank you very much, everybody.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right, guys, let's go.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One last one, sir. This is your --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, guys. Thank you to the press.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, sir.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, press.
TRUMP: Thank you very much.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, "ANDERSON COOPER: 360": Well, we have just been watching the new president sign a batch of executive orders and talking at great length to reporters as he did it most notably, the first one he signed at the White House, one granting executive clemency pardons and sentence commutations for January 6th rioters, whom the president earlier today called J6 hostages.
Other orders declaring emergency at the southern border and pulling out of the Paris Climate Treaty, working toward eliminating birthright citizenship, and reversing some 78 Biden era actions.
CNN's Jeff Zeleny starts us off tonight.
So, Jeff, let's start with the pardons and commutations. Some 1,500 in all. There are about 1,580 convictions.
JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Anderson, an extraordinary scene right there, after whitewashing the history and the events of January 6th, really ever since it happened, President Trump in the first hours of taking office essentially tried to wipe away and did wipe away the charges with a mass group of pardons and the commutation of 14 sentences.
So we now have our question answered, if he is going to make a distinction between the violent offenses that we saw with our own eyes, that were seen around the world on January 6th, versus the people who just happened to be sort of standing around. He treated everyone the same.
So that certainly at the end of this day, he was speaking out and had a rally earlier --
COOPER: And Jeff, we should point out, I mean, we're talking about the leader of the so-called Proud Boys, Enrique Tarrio.
ZELENY: Right. And the Oath Keepers.
COOPER: And the Oath Keepers, Stewart Rhodes. Stewart Rhodes, I believe, had an 18-year sentence. Enrique Tarrio had 22 years. They -- I believe Enrique Tarrio is already in the process of getting released, or at least has been -- is going to be getting out. I mean, that's extraordinary. He also continued to spread lies that the FBI was behind this or involved in this in some way, as well as outside agitators, which, again, is just not the case.
ZELENY: It's not the case. And it's likely a good thing that his attorney general nominee, Pam Bondi, has already had her confirmation hearing, because this certainly would come up in that. And this is something that the Justice Department will have to deal with it.
But, look, this is the -- he's also -- we got an incredible look at his first look at the Oval Office once again. He said he was so happy to be back. It's one of the most beautiful places. And then in an also extraordinary moment in a series of them, he opened the drawer of the resolute desk and pulled out the note from President Biden and sort of joked, should I read this aloud?
It said 47 on it. Of course, he is the 47th president. But, Anderson, just a litany of executive orders, executive actions. But on immigration, those also are very serious. He again has been talking about that all day long and throughout the campaign, largely picking up where he left off and declaring a national emergency, declaring the cartels a terrorist organization, leaving the door open to Special Forces going into Mexico.
So on a variety of fronts, making good on what he's been talking about he would do on day one. And now, of course, the leaders of government will have to react to all of this. But clearly, he's very happy to be back in the Oval Office.
And so much different than eight years ago when he walked in for the first time. Now he knows exactly what he wants to do.
COOPER: Yes. Jeff Zeleny, appreciate it.
For more on how this January 6th pardons could play out, I want to go to CNN's Chief Legal Affairs Correspondent, Paula Reid. And I think we're going to show you a live picture at some point outside the detention center where, if you've been watching our reporting over the months, as Donie O'Sullivan has repeatedly reported, there have been vigils pretty much every night by relatives and friends of people who were convicted of crimes on January 6th at the Capitol and have been serving time.
They have been gathering every night. And obviously there, there's a celebratory mood, as you can see. Paula, how immediate is the effect of these pardons? Will people be released tonight? Will Enrique Tarrio be released? Stewart Rhodes?
PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it's, well -- it's possible. I mean, they're in the process of being released. So that is possible because the pardons and the commutations, their impact is immediate.
Now, if you didn't get a pardon or commutation, if your case is still pending, those cases are going to be dismissed. Now I'd expect that would likely happen tomorrow because today is of course a federal holiday.
Yesterday, I was speaking with one of Trump's legal advisers and I asked, well, why are you dismissing the cases? Why not just give them pardons too? And the adviser suggested, well, that giving them a pardon suggests that they are somehow guilty.
So we would prefer to dismiss these cases. But it's interesting. I will note that those commutations, the folks whose sentence were reduced or eliminated instead of getting a full pardon, those are just going to be reviewed.
So some of those people still could get pardons. And in speaking with Trump advisers over the past few months about how they were going to make good on this promise to pardon people who were involved in January 6th. But in the words of President Trump, not give relief to those who are, quote, "out of control". What kind of process are you going to implement? They told me they didn't want to do the usual case by case assessment because it would take too much time. This is something they wanted to do on day one. So here we're sort of seeing a process, small p. They're going to review these commutations. So there could be more January 6th pardons to come.
COOPER: So just in terms of the 14 commutations, I mean, a commutation can be a lot of different things. Just say it could be, you know, a reduction of a multi-year sentence to serve just another year or whatever, or it could be a complete, you know, time served and you're out. Do we know for all 14?
[20:35:18]
REID: Well, it's suggestive right now that this is as broad as possible. So I would expect that the on the commutation list based on what President Trump said, and he did get a few things wrong. It's been a long day for him. But based on what he said and what we're reading, you'd expect that their sentences will be eliminated.
They would be released from jail, but they would still have that conviction on their record. But those are being reviewed. And we're talking about people like Stewart Rhodes. He's one of the people who received a commutation, leader of the Oath Keepers. He was sentenced to 18 years in prison and was found guilty of seditious conspiracy by a jury.
But as interesting as the commutations are, the people who received pardons are also quite surprising. You already mentioned Mr. Tarrio, but the group of people who already received pardons, remember Trump and Vice President Vance had suggested that they were not going to give clemency to people who were violent offenders.
But the group that got pardons includes individuals like Julian Khater, who assaulted a U.S. police officer, Brian Sicknick, and later pled guilty to assaulting an officer with a dangerous weapon. Devlyn Thompson, who hit a police officer with a metal baton. And Robert Palmer, he's the Florida man who attacked police with a fire extinguisher, a wooden plank, and a pole.
So as Jeff Zeleny was saying earlier, it's probably a pretty good thing that his attorney general nominee has already had her confirmation hearing. But his FBI pick, Kash Patel, and even his deputy attorney general, Todd Blanche, will likely face questions about these pardons.
COOPER: All right, Paula Reid, thank you.
I'm joined by our Senior Reporter, Daniel Dale, to fact check some of what we just heard from President Trump. And there was certainly a lot. Daniel, what stands out to you?
DANIEL DALE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: There were a lot of big lies there, Anderson. He said again that the U.S. is the only country with birthright citizenship. That's not close to true. A couple -- at least a couple dozen countries have it, including U.S. neighbors Canada and Mexico.
He said again that the U.S. took hundreds of billions of dollars in from China, thanks to the tariffs he imposed in his first term. That revenue came from U.S. citizens. U.S. importers pay those tariffs and often pass on the cost to U.S. consumers.
He spoke again about how NATO, European members of NATO, have contributed $200 billion less to Ukraine than the U.S. have. In fact, data shows that the European members have provided tens of billions more aid than the U.S. has. So he has that reversed again.
He repeated his assertion that China controls the Panama Canal. China does have influence in the area. And China linked companies control to or operate two ports on the canal. But that canal is operated by the Panamanian Canal Authority, staffed by Panamanian, Panamanian board members, Panamanian employees. So an exaggeration, at least.
He repeated that Iran had no money for Hamas and Hezbollah when he was president. In fact, his own administration acknowledged in 2020 that Iran continued to fund those terror groups. He said the Democrats cheated like dogs. And I think he was referring the 2020 election. Regardless, not true, no basis for it.
Repeated something he said earlier today, said the January 6 committee deleted all of the evidence, all of the records. Just did not happen, although there is a dispute about the preservation of some of the data the committee collected.
Repeated his false claim that former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi supposedly rejected his offer of 10,000 National Guard troops on January 6. There is no evidence he even made such an offer to her. And he, not the House speaker, had the power to deploy or not deploy the D.C. National Guard.
He said she admitted she rejected such an offer, certainly has not. And he said at one point, you're talking about trade. He said the European Union doesn't take our farm products. According to the U.S. government itself, the E.U. bought $12.3 billion worth of U.S. farm products in 2023.
It was the fourth largest export market for those products. So the idea that the E.U. is just rejecting U.S. agriculture, not true, like a lot of these other stuff is not true.
COOPER: Daniel Dale, appreciate it. Going to be a long evening. Thank you.
Here with me, CNN Senior Political Commentator David Axelrod, Political Commentator Van Jones, Republican Strategist Erin Perrine, Senior Political Commentator Scott Jennings and CNN Senior Legal Analyst Elie Honig.
I mean, David, just -- it was a fascinating window on, you know, clearly he's very happy to be back in the Oval Office --
DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes. COOPER: -- very happy to be back on TV. You can imagine him saying a lot of those things every day in Mar-a-Lago over the last four years to assemble guests time and time again.
AXELROD: I think also he, you know, he said, did Biden do this? I think he wanted to set a contrast with Biden, you know, by going sort of having this rolling press conference. And --
COOPER: I mean, we rarely have seen something like that of a president just riffing from the --
AXELROD: Yes. And it's --
COOPER: -- Oval Office.
AXELROD: -- and there's a reason for it, because the words of a president can actually send armies marching and markets tumbling and have real consequences.
[20:40:06]
I think, look, I actually think it's refreshing for presidents to be -- I mean, I was among those who was critical of the lack of exposure of President Biden, and I think it's good for presidents to be exposed. It's better if they're -- if they tell the truth when they're doing it.
And as Daniel just said, a lot of that wasn't there. But we ought to focus on the sort of headline issue here. There are a lot of consequential things he did. But that ceremony today was in the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol.
Everybody here remembers what happened there four years ago when that mob came through. Everybody remembers the gallows. Everybody remembers the chance. Everybody remembers the assault on 100 and what, 160 police officers. Is that the number?
And basically, he said those people were hostages. I saw him today at his rally in front of a group of families of Israeli hostages who were taken by Hamas in Gaza. And he talked about freeing the January 6th hostages.
These are not hostages. These are people who either confessed or were convicted of that -- of crimes related to marauding the Capitol to try and stop the lawful process of certifying an American election. And the only defense that I can think of for this action today is that those people went there because they were told a abject lie by the president of the United States that the election had been stolen and that something improper was happening.
And so, in some ways, maybe he -- no, I'm not suggesting this was his motivation, but you could justify it by saying, well, he lied to them and tricked them into going there under false pretenses because they thought it was their patriotic duty. So maybe they should get some consideration for that. Many of them have said that they went there because he told them to do that. But I'll tell you, what are the consequences of this? If you're -- if people are told that you can engage in rioting, insurrections, attack police officers, and so on, and the president of the United States will call you hostages and free you, it's a hell of a way to start the next four years.
VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes. Look, I was prepared for shock and awe. This is just shock and awful as far as I'm concerned. I mean, if David is 100 percent right, this could be interpreted by some people as a green light for right-wing political violence.
That's not his intention, but it could be interpreted that way. Because why do you put people in jail? Three reasons. You want to incapacitate dangerous people. You want to punish people for doing bad stuff. And you want to deter people from doing the same thing again.
It looks like the federal government is no longer in the deterrence business when it comes to right-wing political violence. That is scary to me, and I am a criminal justice fanatic. I love people coming out of prison.
But usually, when somebody comes out of prison, it's not right after they beat up a cop, maybe they did something else, and there's some idea that they confessed, they've apologized, they've rehabilitated themselves, they've done some action, and then we say, now you get a second chance. This is a very dangerous thing that happened tonight, among many others. This is not shock and awe, it's shock and awful.
COOPER: I want to go to senior Kaitlan Collins, who is standing by. Kaitlan, just -- it's been an extraordinary day so far.
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, Anderson, can you hear me?
COOPER: Yes, we can hear you.
COLLINS: So I'm here at the ball. I just rushed over from the White House, down the street, no easy feet in this traffic for the inauguration. Obviously, there are a lot of supporters -- of the president that are gathered here. And I just want to note, as we're watching all this play out, we just saw Trump giving that lengthy press conference inside the Oval Office for about 45 minutes.
He made a lot of news there, a lot of headlines. I want to get a reaction tonight from New Jersey Democratic Senator Cory Booker, who, if you were watching Trump's inaugural address today, was sitting there actually in the front row.
And Senator Booker, I was keeping an eye on your reaction and some of the lines to Trump's speech. Can you just first give me your reaction to what he had to say today?
SEN. CORY BOOKER (D), NEW JERSEY: You know, again, it's a moment of where we have the peaceful transfer of power. And I thought there was a lot of dignity and respect on that stage, seeing former presidents, the Supreme Court. It should be normally a joyous moment. I could not help but be under that great dome and not think about four years earlier, where there were these horrific, violent acts taking place, and that he was not there for Joe Biden's inauguration.
[20:45:11]
And so, again, I'm looking forward to getting to work, given what we have. But his first actions as president haven't done what he promised voters he would do, hasn't lowered the prices of groceries, hasn't made housing more accessible, hasn't created more jobs, hasn't made people's lives easier when it comes to the financial burdens he said he would address.
What I have seen, though, is pardons, pardoning people who beat police officers. To pardon the person that beat Brian Sicknick from New Jersey, a Capitol Police officer who would later die, succumb to his injuries, is, to me, a horrific act. There were people running for their lives on that day.
There were people threatening to kill our vice president, who had to be taken out for his own safety and security. So, his beginning, in terms of his promises that he made, in terms of remembering what happened in this hollow Capitol, a sacred civic space, it's cast -- a big shadow over today's operations.
And, look, we have work to do, because Americans are hurting, and a lot of people put their trust in him that he would do something about it. Well, right now, he unfortunately has pardoned police killers. People -- five police officers died that day, and I'm just deeply disappointed and angry that that's how he's decided to begin.
COLLINS: Are you surprised by how broad the scope of these pardons are? Because Trump -- some advisers have been urging him to take this on a case-by-case basis, but when you look at the actual text of this executive order, it's about 14 people whose sentences he commuted, but he made clear pardons are still on the table, potentially, for them under further review.
And then every other person who was convicted for offenses related to that day got a pardon, and everyone who has a pending indictment or a case making its way through the courts, he's urging his attorney general to dismiss -- or directing his attorney general to dismiss them. I mean, that includes Enrique Tarrio, who was the former leader of the Proud Boys. He was convicted of seditious conspiracy. What does it say that that was wiped clean tonight?
BOOKER: You know, I've gotten to know a lot of the Capitol Police officers here, and not only were they mourning for a long time the deaths of many of their colleagues who died in injuries related to that day, but there were many of them that were severely injured, had eyes gouged and hurt, had bruises and other injuries that kept them out of work for many, many months.
And it just flaunts their service and their dedication that right now people who are, in effect, beaters and ultimately, with the result of the deaths, people that were out to kill police officers. This is a stunning dereliction of duty as well as an undermining of our justice system, because these folks were not put in jail by Joe Biden.
These folks had due process. They were tried in front of a jury of their peers, in open court, and they were convicted, as you said, many of them for years for their violent actions against police officers, for the threatening, seditious threatening to overthrow the government of the United States of America.
And again, I heard --
COLLINS: Senator --
BOOKER: Go ahead.
COLLINS: Can I ask you, because on that point, I want to get you to respond to this, because what I'm already hearing from people who work for Trump and are his allies is that there's really no leg for -- that Democrats don't have a leg to stand on, because President Biden, leaving today, you know, issued a raft of pardons, including for his own family members and his sister and his brothers and their spouses, and then also for an activist, an elderly activist who is convicted of killing two FBI agents.
Chris Wray did not even want him to commute that sentence that President Biden did today. They say that that doesn't give Democrats an argument here to criticize these pardons. What is your response to that?
BOOKER: I think that's the mistake we're seeing now, is people trying to reduce this to tribalism. It's -- this is not about Democrat or Republican. You know, Joe Biden pardoned a lot of people.
Yes, he should answer for that and explain what he did and his reasoning. But the people he pardoned, his family members, did not before the naked public eye beat police officers, try to overthrow our government, lead to the death of police officers, and have injuries, scars, both visible and invisible, on police officers that are still affecting their lives today.
This is not about left or right in our country. We can't just say this is a tit for tat or their side did it, so my side can do it. No, this is about the values and principles that we should all be looking to uphold, the institutions of our government themselves that these people on that day tried to overthrow.
[20:50:15]
Let's stop with the rank partisanship. The president of the United States of America has just pardoned people who physically attacked, violently led to the death of officers like Sicknick, and we should be talking about that.
COLLINS: Senator Cory Booker, thank you for your time tonight.
Anderson, back to you.
COOPER: Kaitlan, with me now is Massachusetts Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren. Let me ask you about what you think of these pardons and commutations of January 6th.
SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D), MASSACHUSETTS: Well, it attacks the very foundation of our democracy because it tries to whitewash what was clearly an insurrection. People died from that. Property was destroyed. People were injured. Police officers trying to defend. The democratic process died.
And the idea that now Donald Trump and his Republican friends are just coming in and trying to whitewash the whole thing and pretend not only did it never happen, it was nothing but a picnic. And that's just not going to work.
COOPER: He seems to have a lot of new friends, too, who appear today. I'm wondering what you made of -- what you think the message President Trump was trying to send by having, you know, Tim Cook, Jeff Bezos, obviously Elon Musk, you know, all the others, Zuckerberg, front and center in the rotunda, right next to -- across the aisle from former presidents, and what message it actually sends to you?
WARREN: So, I think there was a double message. I think one message is pay to play. You know, you want to be Donald Trump's friend? Write a check, buy some Bitcoin, whatever. But I think the second message is really who this government is going to work for. Front and center right there. It's going to work for the billionaires.
Oh, yes, Donald Trump made a lot of promises while he was running, and he said he was really going to help out American families. And American families have a lot to complain about on how expensive life has become, on how challenging it has become.
But he gave that whole speech today. And boy, he wanted to talk about renaming the Gulf of Mexico. He wanted to talk about taking back the Panama Canal. But where was the discussion of housing prices? Where did he really talk about what he wants to do on health care?
Where was even something about the junk fees that people have to live with and the way they're fleeced by giant financial companies? None of that. So flood the zone with everything else. But the very heart of what the American voter told us they wanted, and that is someone who would fight for them and fight for their economic security, just wasn't there.
COOPER: When he first came to the White House, 2016, there was a lot of questions about, OK, he's going to hand over his businesses to his sons, whatever.
WARREN: Yes.
COOPER: Now he released a meme coin the day before yesterday. His wife, the first lady, released one, I guess, this morning, today. Obviously, there's questions about the crypto industry, which the government will have a role in deciding the regulation of it. Is this a complete conflict of interest?
WARREN: Of course it is. But, look, we used to talk about transparency, how we wanted transparency in government, on the notion that if it was out in public, if there was sunshine on it, then our elected officials would behave appropriately, government would behave appropriately.
This is transparent corruption. It's just right out there for everybody to see. You want to influence Donald Trump? Help make him richer. You want to influence Melania Trump to influence Donald Trump? Make her richer.
You know, you no longer have to sign up at the Trump Hotel. You just actually come in and make a purchase right online. That is a corruption that runs so deep and runs to the heart of not just Donald Trump, but the entire administration.
That, combined with all those billionaires lined up in the front row, just tells you, this is an administration determined to make life better for billionaires. And you know who's going to pay for that? Everybody else.
COOPER: Our Donie O'Sullivan is outside the D.C. jail where families and friends and supporters of the pardon January 6th defendants are gathered, expecting their release. I just want to go to him. If we can play this to the room, because I don't think you have an IFB, so if we can get the sound to the room so the senator can hear.
WARREN: I can hear.
COOPER: Oh, you can hear. You do have an IFB. OK, Donie, go ahead. Can you just talk about what's going on there?
DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Anderson. Yes, I mean, really just incredible scenes here tonight. You know, we've done a few stories from this jail over the past few months. There's a lot of families, friends, supporters of these January 6th prisoners gathered up here. They are receiving calls from people in prisons across the country.
[20:55:09]
And there are a number of, we think, maybe about a dozen or so actual inmates in this -- in the D.C. jail, including Rachel Powell, who is a mom and grandmother that we featured on AC360, who was sentenced to several years in prison. She broke a window at the Capitol with a pickaxe.
She actually just called us in the last few minutes from inside the jail. She says they're hoping to get out tonight. They're excited in there. The news has trickled through -- into the jail, and they want to get out tonight.
I got to say, Anderson, you know, from speaking to these activists over the last few months, this -- they always said they wanted this to happen, that they wanted everybody pardoned. Violence, nonviolence, Proud Boys, Out Keepers, everyone on down.
But I don't think many of them really believed truly in their wildest dreams that Trump would do this. I think there was a nervousness, there was, you know, that maybe he might succumb to some of the political pressure from even within the Republican Party not to pardon the violent, the people who even attack police officers, the people who engage in conspiracy.
COOPER: Yes.
O'SULLIVAN: But it seems as though everybody, at least the dreams of folks here tonight, are coming true. So folks are here, they're waiting to receive prisoners who may be coming out any minute now.
COOPER: Donie, we'll come back to you.
Senator Warren, just hearing that, I mean, Stewart Rhodes was sentenced to 18 years.
WARREN: Yes.
COOPER: Enrique Tarrio, head of these so-called Proud Boys, 22 years. I mean, did you believe that this might happen, that those two serving those kind of sentences would be released?
WARREN: No. But I think tonight about the families of the police officers who were killed, I think tonight about the police officers that we've met, who help protect us in the Capitol, and the ones who were beaten, the ones who were -- who feared for their lives, I think about what it means for them. Yes, there's a group of folks outside celebrating, but I don't think they're celebrating tonight.
COOPER: What role do you see Democrats having now? I mean, there's not a leader of the Democratic Party officially. Is that a problem? What is your job now? What is the role here?
WARREN: My job is the same as my job has always been. I took an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States. It's advising consent on the nominees, and that means we do as much as we can for accountability, as much as we can to try to bring to the American people what is happening right now in Washington, and to put that information in front of them, and to keep pointing out what is also not happening.
Like I said, this is a moment to flood the zone. There's so much to look at. But it's the promises that were made that aren't being kept tonight, the promises that people's lives were actually going to get better, that people were going to be more secure financially, that people could count on a government that didn't work for a handful of billionaires, but that worked for them, and those promises have been left in the dust.
COOPER: The last minute pardons by then-President Biden to his family members, you know, there were pardons earlier this morning, which were reported on, but these last minute pardons he chose to, I mean, make at the last minute when there wouldn't be as much attention, obviously, and there wouldn't kind of overshadow the ride to the Capitol. Was that a mistake?
WARREN: Look, the president, President Biden, should answer for himself, but it's a sad day in America when someone leaving office has to look around and say, am I facing a new president and a new administration who's going to come after my family just because they're my family?
That's going to come after people I love just because I love them? Not because they're accused of any crime, not because they've done anything wrong, but just because they're the people I care about. And ever since Donald Trump has said a big part of his argument for being president is that it would be about retribution. It would be about vengeance and he used it today.
There he is making his speech after he's been inaugurated as president and it's still full of how he was wronged and he was the one who was mistreated. Dang, guy, you were just elected President of the United States and just sworn in. Come on, enjoy the moment.
But, no, it's about how he has been mistreated and he will get even.
