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Trump Offers Inauguration Invites To Foreign Leaders; Trump Is 38 Days Away From Being Inaugurated; Hegseth Appears To Be Gaining GOP Support To Lead Pentagon; Next Week: RFK Jr. On Capitol Hill To Court Senators; Pelosi Admitted To Hospital In Luxembourg For "Evaluation"; Inside Trump-World's Discussions Of Jan. 6 Pardons; GOP Senator-Elect Pushes Party To Appeal To Workers. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired December 13, 2024 - 12:00   ET

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

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MANU RAJU, CNN ANCHOR, INSIDE POLITICS: Today on Inside Politics, as Bon Jovi might say, whoa, we're halfway there. It's been 38 days since Donald Trump became President-elect Trump, and 38 days from now, President-elect Trump will be President Trump. With the latest on the transition, including how wild Pete Hegseth spare to confirmation is looking a bit smoother. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. may be getting a well bit rock here.

Plus, Donald Trump says, he may pardon January 6 rioters within minutes of taking office. We have new CNN reporting on whether that will include the hundreds of defendants accused of assaulting police officers that day.

And he may be the most powerful figure in Trump world that you have never heard of. We tell you about the 38-year-old conservative in charge of hiring thousands of Trump loyalists to staff the federal government.

I'm Manu Raju in for Dana Bash. Let's go behind the headlines at Inside Politics.

President Trump is back in Mar-a-Lago today after a quick trip to New York to ring the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange. Tomorrow, he'll be in Maryland for the army, navy football game. And in five weeks, he'll be on the steps of the Capitol being sworn into office as the nation's 47 president. Now, inauguration -- it's a celebration of American democracy. And this year, Trump is hoping for a more global event.

CNN's Kristen Holmes joins me now from West Palm Beach, Florida. So, Kristen, what are you hearing about these plans?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Manu. Isn't unsurprising that Donald Trump wants a more global event and that he and his team are essentially reaching out directly to these foreign leaders. This is a little bit unprecedented. It's not how it usually works. Foreign leaders don't generally attend the inauguration.

But we are told that Donald Trump has had these informal conversations where he's asking foreign leaders to come to the inauguration. Among them, probably the most notable is China's Xi Jinping. We are told that he is likely not to come. He's going to send a delegation instead. But also, the prime minister of Italy, the presidents of Argentina, and El Salvador, all of these people have received some sort of outreach, whether it be from the president himself directly or from his team with an invitation to come down here.

Again, unclear who is going to come. Well, we are told that a lot of these conversations are happening kind of in passing, that Donald Trump might be on the phone with one of these world leaders, and mention at the end, why don't you come to the inauguration?

Or when he was in France at Notre Dame, the reopening there that he was having conversations with these leaders, and it might have come up there as well. In fact, some of these conversations are so informal that even as close as aides weren't sure who Donald Trump had invited to the inauguration.

And just to give you a little bit of an idea of how it usually goes, again, foreign leaders don't generally attend. Instead, this bipartisan committee that plans the inauguration. They reach out to diplomats with the state department, and that's who ends up coming.

But Donald Trump, he wants it to be more of a global affair. He, of course, wants the fan fair. None of that is surprising, knowing the former president now president-elect, but we'll wait and see how this actually plays out. Since, again, much of this is unprecedented.

RAJU: All right. Kristen Holmes from West Palm Beach, Florida. Thank you so much. And joining me now an excellent group of reporters to break this all down, CNN's Jeff Zeleny, Marianne LeVine of The Washington Post, Zolan Kanno-Youngs of The New York Times, CNN's Lauren Fox. Nice to see you all good. Glad you can join us.

Jeff, you've covered many inaugurations over your time, your veteran, you're still -- you're very youthful. No commentary about your age or my age. But what do you think of the way Donald Trump is trying to make this different than what we've seen in the past?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Look, I mean, this is just one more example of the ways that he knows how it works the first time. So, he's operating slightly different the second time. I'm just struck by the second time around. I was thinking back to eight years ago. I was looking at his travel schedule. He was still doing these victory rallies. He went from battleground to battleground to battleground, sort of basking in the glow of his supporters.

No more. I mean, he has barely been seen in public, which has actually been pretty extraordinary. Yesterday, he was at the stock exchange. But what he's doing is he is allowing foreign leaders to sort of come to him through phone calls and things, but he is really, you know, basing in a different kind of glow this time around. I'd be surprised if there are any major foreign leaders at the inauguration. There are a lot of foreign leaders, like Xi Jinping, first among them, who probably don't want to be at the center of a democratic inauguration. It's just sort of not their thing. But for Donald Trump, he clearly is extending these invitations. But a little bigger picture here.

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I think the whole inauguration, I'm thinking back to the first day in the briefing room. It seems like a million years ago, John Spicer, the biggest crowd ever. Who knows, maybe it will be this time.

RAJU: Yeah.

ZELENY: But I do think that there's a bit more confidence, I guess, coming from the Trump team this time around, largely because he knows the rules of the game this time. People are falling into place. This is his Republican Party. It was not eight years ago.

RAJU: No question about it. It's also -- Jeff makes an interesting point about how Donald Trump has chosen, not to really be seen here on the last couple of weeks. I mean, I see how long it lasts. Of course, Donald Trump loves the spotlight, but maybe that's one reason why polls show that people are looking more favorably at the way that he's handling the transition, because he's letting it mostly happen and avoiding the kind of controversy or bombast like he did the last time.

MARIANNE LEVINE, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, THE WASHINGTON POST: Yeah. I think he's been pretty quiet. And I think we kind of see that, especially in how he's approaching his cabinet nominees, like we really have not heard a lot about Trump and how he feels about his cabinet nominees. He put out a post on Truth Social last week about Pete Hegseth, and then the controversies that he's facing.

But he has been very quiet. He has been pretty out of sight. He has the army, navy game tomorrow. But really, we have not gotten much of a sense of what he's really doing outside of just spending time at Mar- a-Lago and meeting with people and making phone calls.

ZOLAN KANNO-YOUNGS, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: It's contained thus far in Mar-a-Lago, you talk to reporters that are out in West Palm Beach, there's, they're not seeing that much. There's not, you know, a lot to be done because of the lack of movement. It's basically the president- elect surrounded by, you know, these advisers that he have, ranging from an Elon Musk to some of the people that were around the first time around.

And I think what's extraordinary is, you know, within Mar-a-Lago, just how ad hoc some of these calls are that they're making, both the vetting but also calls to foreign leaders. It can't be emphasized enough. You have a sit. Usually, there be a situation where, you know, it's a bit more organized, state department to --

ZELENY: That run through the storm.

KANNO-YOUNGS: Yes. You know, about any call to, you know, foreign leader, they provide resources as well, and that way, the current administration, current government that's still responsible for foreign policy actually can be kept on the loop on what these foreign leaders are saying. That's not happening right now. We have an extraordinary situation with the sitting government, at times, does not know what the incoming president is saying to some of these foreign leaders, and if any what agreements.

RAJU: Yeah. I mean, for Trump friendly would not say if he's spoken to Putin in that interview that was just published. That's one of the questions. And some of these things happen in these private channels that are not code the diplomatic -- typical diplomatic --

ZELENY: I can say why it's inappropriate to talk about Putin, but it is appropriate to say that he's calling a Xi Jinping. So that really -- it really raises the question.

RAJU: No question. So, let's talk about some of the nominees, of course, and how the transition is going with some of these critical picks to the post, including Pete Hegseth. Of course, he's come under a lot of controversy over allegations of past misconduct, excessive drinking, sexual assault. He denied all those.

This is from a Fox News poll. As you can see him on your screen. Would you vote to confirm Pete Hegseth, as the question asked to voters. 31 percent say yes, 40 percent say no. Still a sizable amount, though. 29 percent of the public just have not heard of him or don't know who he is.

Lauren, you up on the Hill everyday with me talking to members. What are you hearing about his prospects right now? And right now, he has been Republicans, other than John Fetterman, who he's met with. What are they saying about him in these meetings?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. What I've heard over and over again is he has sort of these dual audiences. He has sort of the public vision that he is trying to portray strength and he's trying to sort of show to Trump.

He's out there fighting, but behind closed doors, he's being very careful with senators. He's being deferential. He's being serious. He's having conversations where he's taking their questions head on, but also sort of showing that he knows some Pentagon policy.

This is someone who's on TV. He knows how to study. He knows how to speak gracefully about certain topics. He's a quick study on a lot of things, and that is showing, according to senators that we are talking to.

RAJU: And Trump did not want to back off of Hegseth because if he did, it was a fear that it would turn into a feeding frenzy. And then the Senate Republicans may go after RFK Jr., go after Tulsi Gabbard, and the lie, try to push back after Gaetz went down.

ZELENY: I mean, that's been remarkable. And I think he's not doing a lot of it himself, but he doesn't need to in some respects, because this, again, is his Republican Party. Now, I mean, like, just look at some of these senators who are up in 2026, you know, they are feeling the pressure from outside. But the former president, the president- elect is just right behind, you know, all of this online activity. He's certainly a blessing it, if not doing it himself.

RAJU: Another one, of course, RFK Jr., he's going to be -- we've not seen him on Capitol, though. Pete Hegseth has done a lot of Republican meetings. We've started to see Tulsi Gabbard. She's come up. Many other nominees have been making the rounds, but not RFK Jr., he'll be up there next week.

This is a question from that same Fox News poll about RFK Jr. 48 percent of the public say, yes, they would vote for him. 43 percent say no, just 9 percent have not heard from him. Of course, the Kennedy name, means a lot to American voters, as you can see, well known among the American public.

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But then there's also the controversy about all of his views, including this new report from the New York Times say about RFK Jr. aide who has sought to revoke the approval of the polio vaccine. As you can see there from The Times report. One of the questions that will undoubtedly come out. By the way, Mitch McConnell was a polio survivor at a young age that may -- we'll see how he ultimately votes on this critical nomination.

LEVINE: Yeah. It's been interesting. When I was up on the Hill last week, I was talking to Republican senator, and they were talking about the different nominees. And that senator mentioned that after Hegseth they thought that RFK would actually be a tough person to confirm.

I think it's really interesting to see what his standing is like in the Republican Party. Obviously, a former Democrat. But I was looking at one of the polls today, and it showed that six in 10 Republicans want to see RFK confirmed.

And so, I think it will be really interesting to see how up Hill the battle he has. And whether his views on vaccines are something that Republican senators are going to bring up. It feels like right now a lot of people are keeping their cards closely --

RAJU: Yeah. You know, but there's also issue to abortion, food policy, and the like that could become problematic.

FOX: Yeah. There's a cross current of issues for him, in a way that there aren't for other nominees, right? You have questions about whether or not lawmakers start to hear from ag in their state, whether they start to hear from pharma in their state. All of those cross currents can start to chip away at your support, and it only takes just a handful of Republicans to mean that any one of these nominees thinks.

RAJU: One other thing they just want to point out is about what Trump said yesterday in the published Time Magazine article that came out yesterday. The interview happened late last month about grocery prices. Trump, of course, on the campaign trail, said time and time again that he would get grocery prices down.

Well, he kind of is acknowledging reality here in this interview, saying, I don't think so. When asked about bringing down prices in groceries, and if there's presidency would be a failure. He was unable to do that. He said, look, they got them up. I'd like to bring them down. It's hard to bring things down once they're up. You know, it's very hard. But I think they will. That is categorical as we heard on the campaign trail, tempering of expectations.

KANNO-YOUNGS: I think this is going to be the thing to watch, you know, especially as we go into the first year. The aspirations and sort of the rhetoric of the campaign, colliding with the reality of actually governing. You're starting to see comments that are start, that are hedging those expectations.

When you have somebody that goes out and makes these, you know, sprawling broad promises, you're also raising the expectations of your base, of your voters, right? And people have expectations. And you see that comment hedging on grocery prices. There was another comment as well this weekend when it came to tariffs, and whether or not that actually goes on to pass to consumers.

And also, you know, I follow these immigration policies too. Where are you going to get the resources for mass deportations? Where will you actually build mass detention facilities? Some -- and you said you would hire 10,000 border patrol agents from where? You know, there's recruiting issues there. I think that this is going to be a theme. You know, when you take these big campaign promises, the high expectations that he has set, and now the realities of actually going down.

ZELENY: And Republicans control the House, who do you blame? Who's the foil? It's very difficult to have Democrats in the blame here, when Republicans control everything.

RAJU: The reality of governing. That's what we will see in the next year when Trump comes to office. All right. Just into CNN, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been admitted to a hospital in Europe. In a statement, her spokesperson says she, quote, sustained an injury during an official trip with a bipartisan congressional delegation in Luxembourg. And it was admitted to the hospital for evaluation.

The statement did not provide further details about Pelosi's injury, but a spokesman, Ian Krager says, that she is continuing to work on the hospital while receiving excellent treatment from doctors and medical professionals. Of course, we'll pass along any additional information as we get it.

All right. Coming up. New reporting on Trump's promise to pardon January 6 riot immediately upon taking office. Does he really mean all of them?

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(COMMERCIAL BREAK) RAJU: Despite Donald Trump's repeated promises to pardon people who stormed the Capitol on January 6, more than six in 10 voters disapprove of the idea. According to a new Monmouth University poll, just over a third are OK with it. Regardless, Trump says, pardons are coming on day one.

With 38 days until inauguration, we have some new reporting about the discussions going on behind the scenes on who might get clemency among the hundreds of convicted rioters, defendants awaiting trial and remaining fugitives.

Chief legal affairs correspondent Paula Reid joins us with our great new reporting. So, Paula, what are you learning?

PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: So, Manu, this is something, of course, we see often with President-elect Trump. He is big on promises and sometimes sort of short on specifics. But speaking with sources, we are assured that these pardons will happen. It's just unclear exactly how this will play out.

The first question is, OK. Who related to January 6 will get a pardon? Because Trump has signaled that he wants to make exceptions for people who were involved in violence. He told a Time Magazine quote, if they were non-violent, I think they've been greatly punished. He said, I'm going to look if there is some that really were out of control.

But then there's the question of, OK, how do you suss out who was involved in violence? We're talking about an event where over 140 police officers were assaulted by a mob, damages to the Capitol were in the millions. Five officers died in the days after the riot, with several committing suicide. And of course, four people in the crowd have also died.

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Now, one possibility, I'm told that is on the table is to issue pardons for people that were charged with specific offenses related to January 6. That may be one way to approach this. But as of now, it's unclear exactly how they are going to proceed. The one thing that is clear, I'm told, is this is not going to be a traditional process where individual cases are each assessed.

I'm told, they don't have time for that. It's been clear from the president-elect. He wants to move quickly, and sources tell me they, quote, don't want people rotting in jail while they go through some arduous process.

RAJU: And Paula, what about some of the other more serious players in January six, like Trump, the Proud Boy leader, Enrique Tarrio, who's serving 22 years for seditious conspiracy. The likelihood -- what do you think the likelihood of that? What are you hearing the likelihood of him getting some clemency from Trump?

REID: Yeah. That's exactly the kind of example that is prompting us to ask these questions. To be like, how are you going to suss this out? Because when you have someone like Tarrio, the chairman -- former chairman of the Proud Boys.

He wasn't even in Washington that day. He was not directly involved in the violence, but he was urging his followers to be violent. He was convicted of seditious conspiracy. He's in jail for decades. What do you do with someone like him? Is he what you mean by non-violent or violent? How are you assessing these cases?

Now Tarrio has not formally asked for a pardon. His lawyer has suggested that he will. But look, it's really complicated. When you say you are going to pardon people who were non-violent related to something like this. That's why we wanted to do this reporting and figure out the process.

We realize that there really isn't a process. At this point, it's unclear how they're going to do this. It's only clear that they're going to do this quickly and in sort of a broad manner. And when you push back on that, Manu, a name that keeps coming up is that of Hunter Biden.

I'm told by multiple sources that they believe that the president's pardon of his son. Remember, the pardon of Hunter Biden was for over a decade of potential conduct. They say that that really helps support if they want to do some sort of broad, sweeping general pardon here.

So, that's why we're watching this so closely to see exactly how Trump handles this. But at this point, the one thing we know is, whatever they want to do, they want to do it quickly. It's just unclear exactly what they're going to do.

RAJU: Exactly. And on day one, that's not too far away, 38 days. All right, Paula Reid with her new reporting. Thank you so much for that. And Donald Trump won the White House in part by appealing to blue- collar workers. But will that be the focus of the GOP legislative agenda. One Senator elect is telling his colleagues, it has to be, at least they want his vote. He joins me next.

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RAJU: Donald Trump made major gains with union households from 2020 to 2024. He made courting unions like the teamsters, a feature of his campaign. Now, incoming Indiana Republican Senator Jim Banks, a vocal Trump supporter, says the GOP agenda should focus on doing right by workers. Saying, quote, I won't support policies that fail to the center, working American families.

Republican Congressman Senator-elect, Jim Banks, joins me now. Senator-elect, thank you so much for joining me this afternoon. Really appreciate your time.

REP. JIM BANKS (R-IN) SENATOR-ELECT: Good to be with you.

RAJU: Has your party fallen short in catering to the needs of workers? BANKS: Well, I would say so in the past. Go back to 2017, I was a brand-new congressman in Washington, D.C. Donald Trump was just elected. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was historic and good for this country, but the old school Republican Party focused on corporate tax cuts. The new Republican Party, the party of Donald Trump is going to focus more on those tax cuts for working families, for small businesses and pass through.

So, when we start the new Congress, we focus on making the Trump tax cuts permanent. We're talking about tax cuts on families and small businesses. That's what makes this a new and better Republican Party than the party of the past.

RAJU: But doesn't the president-elect, he's been saying, they should cut corporate taxes even further.

BANKS: I'm for tax cuts across the board. But when we talk about making tax cuts permanent, let's make the tax cuts on working families our top priority. I want to make all of the tax cuts permanent because they were good for this country. They created the best economy in my lifetime.

But the priority has to be on working class families, families like my family. I'm the son of a factory worker and a nursing home cook. I grew up in a trailer park in a small town in Indiana, and like most Hoosier families. We know that those tax cuts that are about to expire on working class families, they need to be made permanent. That's the priority of the new Republican Party.

What I'm fighting for the United States Senate, and why I released this memo this week that states exactly that that has to be the priority. The promise that we made to the American people that gave Donald Trump a mandate and winning the popular vote is to focus on the working class.

RAJU: So, Mr. Banks, there's a debate within your party about how to sequence the agenda. In fact, this has been -- this is actually very significant, because as we know, new majors come in, they try to pass a lot of things, and oftentimes they struggle to pass their agenda. Are you saying that your party should make that the first focus, the extending the Trump era tax cuts, and push those other issues like border security and energy production to the side?

BANK: I don't care as much about the sequence. I mean that -- making sure that these tax cuts on working class families don't expire, and all the sudden working families get hit with a big tax increase because we didn't do our job.