lue ball states. only margin of victory. unclear if people in the middle were voting for old trump, a little more restrained about ins stations or voting for mass disruption. >> still going to have institutional constraints. congress has an appropriations process, although hasn't been doing it. we've been doing spending by executive order through crs with four people in congress coming to the conclusion. if what this commission does is push the averted window and challenges congress to exercise its appropriations, a great thing. >> bigger challenge, two big personalities. >> going to say. didn't get to it. anonymous quote in politico from a trump insider this morning that suggests "elon is getting a little for his britches. " a discussion for another day but going to be one that will be looming here for us. thank you very much for joining us. thanks to all of you

for joining us. i'm kasie hunt. don't go anywhere. "cnn news central" starts right now. sure people can do anything morning including questions from republicans after donald trump tasked a false ox news regular to be secretary of defense. >> a "new york times" reporting special counsel jack smith is going to resign before trump takes office, planning to leave the job before he can be fired. and a massive explosion at a food coloring plant in kentucky. two people are dead, 11 people are wounded, and now an investigation into what happened here. i'm kate baldwin with john berman. sarah is out today. this is "cnn news central. "

today donald trump returns to washington very soon this morning. he'll be meeting face-to- face with president biden at the white house. this is tradition. the outgoing president inviting the incoming president for a private meeting. for both men it's the first time they're going to be in the same room since they faced off for the cnn debate that changed everything. it's not only tradition, it's a noteworthy one as it's a tradition donald trump rejected after his loss in 2020, so standby for that. we're also standing by for donald trump's other big stops of the day meeting house republicans and later senate republicans who are on the brink of picking a new leader. and if you blinked or decided to get any sleep, you likely missed a slew of trump job announcements. call it shock and awe, call it fast and furious. whatever you want, trump is on a roll announcing

administration picks. among them, okay, let's start with maybe the least surprising. that elon musk and vivek rock swami are running the team. they will run a brand new commission, a government wide costing project that could reshape the entire federal government and slash the workforce. then there is the most surprising pick so far, what john berman was getting at, donald trump announcing his choice for secretary of defense. an army veteran, but his lack of experience running anything close to an organization of nearly 3 million people has even republicans scratching their heads. republicans like senator lisa murkowski saying simply, wow, in responding to it. senator tom tillis, interesting. senator bill cassidy, who? the more colorful take coming from a defense industry lobbyist to politico, who the "f" is this guy? cnn's elena ine in

washington with the latest. there were substantial cabinet announcements overnight. what are you learning as he's headed to d.c. right now? >> reporter: that's right. donald trump will be here in d.c. he's going to be meeting first with house republicans behind me here for what i'm told is a victory lap. i'm told he's expected to tell republicans he was given a mandate. he wants to move aggressively just like he's moving aggressively with his cabinet picks, fill them on his decisions but really try to talk to them about his agenda. now, i do want to get to those cabinet picks because you're absolutely right, kate. we saw a flurry of picks in the last 24 hours. first he announced mike huckabee, the governor of arkansas is going to be his u.s. ambassador to israel, a big job given the war happening in the middle east.

he also announced john ratcliffe, the former national chief of intelligence will be his cia director, will mcginley will be white house counsel and real estate developer steve whitcof. when i talked to donald trump's team last night working on the transition they said many people in trump's orbit were surprised by this pick. he didn't emerge really as a leading candidate for the role until monday. he then interviewed for the job over the last 24 hours, i'm told. and unlike some of the other appointments donald trump has made for these top decisions, he actually did not meet with him at mar-a-lago. instead this was all conducted remotely. look, i think when i talked to him about why pete hegseth, why a former fox news host, they said donald trump had a good relationship with him,

he thought he was smart and likable. one source told me donald trump think he has the quote-unquote the look. but he also aappreciates he's a military veteran. i think we're going to be learning a lot more about him and his pick soon, kate. >> talk more about what you learned about the elon musk role in it all. >> yeah, well, we learned that -- this isn't that surprising to be honest. we knew elon musk wasn't going to have a big cabinet secretary position. he did not want to divest ll his businesses and companies. he is going to have a role in a second trump term. he,÷÷ vivek ramaswamy, they're going to be focused on government efficiency. they're saying they're going to be running a new department called the department of government efficiency. i think if you look at the acronym there it's doge. all to

say they're going to have a role not essentially inside government. it's a bit outside. influence without them being within donald trump's control. now, it's interesting because this is always when i talk to donald trump's team about elon musk's influence, we talked a lot, kate, about his growing influence with donald trump. seeing him at mar-a- lago essentially every single day over the last week, they said this is his way of still having some influence in a second term without fully having to leave his company and businesses behind. kate? >> so standby to standby for another flurry is what we're learning now in these coming days. great to see you, elena. a lot happening where elena is right there. we're going to be tracking the president's trip -- the president-elect throughout the morn. >> i think we actually have live pictures of palm beach, florida, where the president's plane is getting ready to take off. unclear whether he's boarded or not, unclear whether he'll speak before he gets on and heads to washington, but we'll watch

that closely. in the meantime with us colonel cedric leighton. thank you for being with us. i'm of the belief cable news hosts are qualified, there's nothing we can't do. that aside, running the pentagon how complicated of a job is it? >> that'll probably be one of the most complex jobs you can imagine even for cable news hosts, john. pete hegseth, he's someone who served and received two bronze stars for his service, one for his service in iraq, one for his service in afghanistan. but he's been working at the tactical level and not necessarily always in combat. so his appreciation of what it means to be in the military is a bit different than it would be if he had more experience, if he'd served longer and if he'd been in the active force instead of in the guards. it's definitely a different

kind of pick and it's one where he's going to have his work cut out for him if he actually does get confirmed as secretary of defense. >> it is an enormous bureaucracy. i'm sure there will be some who say because it's so big it'll be good to have someone from the outside. then there are the views he's espoused during his time at fox news. he's promised to get rid of any person involved with dei inside the military, and he's spoken about his view of women in combat. listen. >> i'm straight up just saying we should not have women in combat roles. it hasn't made us more effective, has made fighting more complicated. we've all served with women and they're great. it's just our institutions don't have to incentivize that in places where traditionally -- not traditionally, over human history men in those positions are more capable. >> if he is confirmed, how much power would he have to

remove women from combat? >> well, he'd actually have to get that approved through congress, and that's something that congress has decided that women will serve in combat. it's been one of the key elements that has changed over the years. it used to be women were, of course relegated to support roles. the issue was dealt with in many different ways, but the key aspect of it was that women were allowed to eventually get into positions. marketa martha mcsally, those are people highly skilled and cape nl in their military roles, and that's something he's going to have to contend with if he not only continues to espouse that view but acts

on it. >> saying he's okay with women as pilots, it's in other roles where he might have issues. we'll see how he discusses that. finally "the wall street journal," colonel, has an article out that says donald trump may sign an executive order creating a kind of review board for all generals and admirals, flag officers in the military to basically decide if they can stay in. talk to me about the consequences and the implications of that on people serving. >> those could be huge, john. and here's the key problem with all of this. the department of defense has a promotion process, obviously, and it is a process that takes somebody through their entire career from their time of commission all the way to their retirement and really beyond. and if you start messing with that process, if you start changing people in the middle of their tours, it has a cascading effect. for every four- star general that moves you have about 50 to 60 people that move as a result of that move, so that's just because we have a system that is basically an up or out

system. and if you change the rules, the rules of the game, then it becomes really hard to have an effective combat service. the people that are serving in these positions, many of them are now combat veterans. in fact, most of them are probably in the army and marine corps. and that is something you can't get rid of that. you can't take that out of the military services regardless of what their political positions are because it is an apolitical military, and it needs to remain that way. >> yeah, that's the concern many have that we'll politicize the role and force many of these admirals and generals to be political to keep their jobs. cedric leighton, thank you very much. kate? breaking news overnight. "the new york times" reporting special counsel jack smith planning to resign from the justice department, but he isn't leaving quietly. how he plans to report out on the ongoing investigations he's been running into donald trump before he leaves. and republicans are about to choose their leaders in the senate and the house, and

the president- elect is about to pay them a visit. will he be weighing in on those leadership fights? and people magazine named this year's sexiest man alive. no, it's not that you haven't put your contacts in. we did blur it on purpose. cue the controversy. one clue his name is john. his last name may or may not be berman.

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reporting that special counsel jack smith is going to resign before donald trump takes office in january. reporting that smith wants to finish the bulk of his investigations against trump before he leaves, so he leaves nothing behind and nothing unfinished. even before donald trump won the

election he had vowed again and again from the campaign trail he would be firing smith quote-unquote within two seconds of becoming president. cnn's evan perez joins us for you. the question is where does this leave us in this moment? because we knew jack smith was in talks to wind down his cases. what do we know this morning, evan? >> reporter: yeah, kate, look, the mechanics of how that is happening that is still being worked out. the justice department and jack smith have to come up with a plan, and they've said this in court filings. now, the mechanics are important as you pointed out, donald trump has said he wants to fire jack smith. and so if smith produces a report, and we expect that he will finish a report, you know, certainly before january 20th, where that report ends up is going to be an important fact, right? because one of the things is t has to happen, you know, for the attorney general to decide whether all of it can be released to the public, and

if merrick garland is no longer the attorney general, then it's not clear what the trump attorney general might do. now, a part of this discussion is whether the report has to be submitted to the intelligence community for approval, the them to approve all of the parts of it. that's a lot easier because they've already had those discussions because this case -- these cases were going to go to trial. so the mechanics of this are very important but they're also being worked out. now, because jack smith might be done and his team might be done, doesn't mean that donald trump and his allies are done with jack smith. because as you pointed out, if he gets fired, we expect this is going to be part of an investigation by congress, and we could very well see jack smith having to testify before congress in the new year certainly as part of the republicans look at what happened in this investigation. again, a lot of these mechanics are still in the works, and we don't know whether the attorney general merrick garland

will sign off on everything that jack smith has in store or has plans for. kate? >> yeah, you're presenting exactly what it is, which is there's a lot of questions now around what happens next. it's great to see you, evan, thanks for the reporting. coming up next it blew out windows, shook nearby homes. what happened when a massive plant in kentucky exploded. look at the aftermath of it. and it killed two people, so what they're doing now to find out what caused all of this. and when donald trump takes office, what does that mean for all the people charged and convicted for their actions on january 6th with regard to the insurrection. many are expecting donald trump to make good on his campaign pledge to pardon them.

new this morning, two people have been killed in an explosion in louisville, kentucky. an investigation is under way. the blast happened at a factory that makes food and

beverage colorings. let's go right to cnn's isabella rosales with the details this morning. what are you learning? >> there's, a 10 a.m. press conference we're anticipating, so hopefully we should get more details in that presser including the cause of the explosion under investigation. a heart breaking overnight update from that swiss- based company that deals with flavoring and fragrancesfragrances has a facility there in the clifton neighborhood of louisville. that heart breaking update that two people, employees were killed. their identities have not been released, but the company says it is cooperating with the investigation, also saying in part this "we are grieving with the families, friends, and loved ones of those that were lost and injured during this very difficult time. " now, let me bring you back. this explosion happened just past 3:00 p.m. yesterday, neighbors hearing a large boom. businesses, homes in the nearby area of that facility, that commercial facility, their windows shattering, damaging homes. we have impressive video

from some of our affiliates including wlky showing the aftermath of that explosion, the divoted big hole left in that commercial facility and also a plume of smoke going up into the air captured by weather cameras. now, 12 people were also injured and taken to hospitals. according to the mayor of louisville all the injured were employees who described at the moment of explosion normal activity happening in the plant just before this event happened. now, the cause i mentioned is still under investigation, but here's what neighbors described. >> i had just came home from work probably 20 minutes before it happened, and i was sitting there talking to my mama and out of nowhere a loud boom, and it shook the house. >> you've got too many people in this neighborhood. if it was something bigger, you know, who knows what would have happened? >> john, the clifton neighborhood, this is a gorging neighborhood known for

victorian antique homes. it's full of murals. a peaceful neighborhood obviously shaken by this incident. city officials say they're using drones to monitor the air quality. and what has neighbors even more shaken is the fact this is not new to them. a similar incident happened just 20 years ago in 2003, that same facility under a different ownership. the equipment over- pressurized leading to an explosion, also killing one worker. john? >> incredible pictures. thank you very much for that. all right, who the effis this guy? the reaction from a defense insider to the news a defense anchor will be nominated defense secretary. and an airline declaring bankruptcy. what it could mean for your

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moments ago we're showing you donald trump's plane leaving palm beach, and now he's headed off to washington where he's going to be meeting with president biden in the oval office, and in an invite that biden extended to trump, which is tradition. an invite donald trump never offered to joe biden after his loss in 2020. the two men in the same room once trump gets there, of course, for the first time since the cnn debate back in june. and it's not just that. while in washington, the president-elect is also going to be meeting with republicans on capitol hill. in the senate republicans are facing a new day after the leadership vote there this morning, it's going to be the first time mitch mcconnell will not be the party's leader in the senate in 18 years. the race to be the new republican senate leader is down to three. these three men. two

johns and a rick. cnn's m.j. lee at the white house, cnn's lauren fox on the hill. lauren, let me start with you. what are you expecting from donald trump and his visits today? >> reporter: yeah, obviously a really momentous day on capitol hill. first off, when donald trump meet with house republicans in just a couple of hours, you can expect this to be a warm reception. that is in part because some of his staunchest allies have been in the house republican conference. in fact, yesterday at a republican leadership press conference you heard speaker mike johnson say that he is actually going to go down to mar-a- lago this weekend to spend time with the president to discuss what agenda he wants to move forward when january comes. this is going to be a big day for new leadership on capitol hill, though, because in the united states senate starting at 9:30 a.m. this morning you're going to see this first race for a new republican leader in nearly 20 years, two decades. mitch mcconnell stepping aside. that now is clearing the way

for either john thune, rick scott, or john cornyn to take the mantle. despite the fact scott is getting late surge of maga support it's unknown who is going to win the race because it's going to happen behind closed door, a secret ballot despite the fact show many trump allies in maga world have started getting behind rick scott, the underscoring reality is so many republicans i was talking to last night on capitol hill have made clear this is an internal discussion, and they're arguing therefore iticide be republican senators who make this final decision. kate? >> and we will know soon enough, and we will be following every moment that we can. lauren, thank you. m.j. let me ask you then, the focus also turns to donald trump headed to the white house on the invitation from president biden. what is the white house expecting from this sitdown? >> reporter: yeah, you know, kate, the imagery at here at

the white house in a couple of hours is going to be quite remarkable. four years after then-president trump declined to offer this courtesy to then president- elect joe biden, joe biden is having to put aside any hard feelings he might have about his predecessor and welcome him back to the white house. it's clear that he is trying to send a message, and white house officials have been talking about this, too, that in this moment in time when the country is clearly divided, he would like to send a message that the election was fair, the results are going to stand, and that he is very much focused on a peaceful transfer of power. now, in terms of exactly what we're going to see later this morning, the choreography, what kind of remarks we might see, activities that the two men might engage in, that's all a little bit up in the air. we know there's going to be a meeting, of course, in the oval office. perhaps they will spend some time together in the dining room as well.

but in terms of the former president, the incoming president donald trump and what he might do in a place he lived in for four years, that is entirely unclear. we also don't know what kinds of aides might be joining the two presidents when they meet behind closed doors. one of the things, of course, that is significant about this meeting is that it is going to be a really rare opportunity, perhaps the only opportunity for president biden to make his case to the incoming president about some of the things he sees as his top priorities. we saw his national security advisor, jake sullivan, saying over the weekend that one of those things will be pressing the case for the u.s. ' continued support for ukraine, for example. but, kate, just keep in mind what makes this so remarkable, again, is the fact that not that many days ago the president was describing his predecessor as a fascist, saying that he was a threat to democracy. and in fact, i think we have some sound from one of the very last things that president

biden said about donald trump just before the election. take a listen. >> trump and his republican friends want to do -- they wanted a giant tax cut for the wealthy. now, i know some of you guys are tempted to think as much -- i'll tell you what, man, we used to have a little trouble going down the plot once in a while, but i'm serious. these are the kind of guys you'd like to smack in the ass. >> now, since the election last week, we've not seen president biden out in public too much. he, of course, has been working here at the white house. i've talked to aides who have described him pretty being heads down and focused on whatever the meeting is focused on. i'm also told by one person who saw the president on veterans day that there did seem to be a little bit of heaviness about the president, though

that could have very well been about his late son, beau, given this was a meeting that happened during veterans day. again, this is going to be a moment where the president will have to put aside any hard feelings he has about his predecessor and all of the comments that had been made during the political season all in the name of a peaceful transfer of power. kate? >> m.j. lee, thank you so much. lauren fox on capitol hill, thank you so much as well, lauren. john? >> with us now the executive committee chair of the democrat committee. i think we need to take a step back and acknowledge four years ago donald trump never conceded, still never conceded when he lost. a popular vote margin a lot larger than kamala harris lost this time in the popular vote. he never invited joe biden to the white house, he left before the inauguration, all these things. but this time biden is doing it 100% differently. what's the lesson here? >> i think the lesson is really about putting your

country first, putting the good of the nation ahead of petty politics. and although i don't think all of the secrets of being president is going to come back and forth in this meeting, it sends a meeting to the country that we're a democracy and there will be a calm and peaceful transfer of power. and for, you know, hundreds of years that's what we've been about. and this meeting is getting a lot of attention, but really what happened four years ago was the thing that is different and not correct and led, in part the first step towards january 6th. >> what should have tell my kids about this? honestly, what's the lesson here? because donald trump did all those things and he just got elected president again. joe biden is doing the right thing and his administration is getting the boot. >> well, i think that the lesson here is that joe biden's putting the american people first and the transfer of power and the symbolism of all this is really important. and i -- and my hope is that we're putting the

election denialism and the kinds of things that happened the last time behind us and we're moving forward in the right way and we're going to see a different kind of donald trump in the second term. >> i want to talk about some of these announcements made yesterday. we covered pete hegseth coming in as secretary of department. by the way, i'm not sure it's efficient to call a department a department when it's not actually a department. that's a discussion for another time. that's kind of meta there. i want to remind people vivek ramaswamy who's going to run this has said some interesting things in the past. he said why am i the only one on the stage that says january 6th is an inside job, a paraphrase there. how many agents were on the planes that hit the twin towers. he speculated the

travis kelce relationship might have been a white house conspiracy. lee, the kind of person you want in charge shaping the government? >> those aren't the kind of things we want to focus on when we're thinking about what he might do. i think he and elon musk have talked a lot about what they want to do to make the government more efficient. they've both talked about they are outsiders have done thing things in the private sector they want to bring into the public sphere. he had all this experience he was going to bring and drain the swamp, so to speak. he was an alternative version of donald trump, and i think that's what they're looking to do here. there's a lot of conversations about how to streamline, make things more efficient, more innovation, do outside in kind of thinking, and i think that's the approach they're really focused on here. >> christine, i'm old enough to remember al gore's

government commission. >> let's talk about draining the swamp. the last time donald trump was president he said he was going to drain the swamp and all he did was add more muck into the system and more corruption into the system. although there have been commissions in the past, as you said, i think it's rich whenever you're going to improve government efficiency by creating more government. that almost never doesn't. why not charge the agencies with doing this themselves and it's hard for elon musk to say he's an outsider when he stood on stage with donald trump more frequently than melania trump stood with him on stage. i think this is really just a show to try to distract people from what we could very see which is an inefficient government based on petty politics, which is what we saw in the first trump term. >> what about the issue with elon musk, that he's got billions

of dollars in government contracts and could potentialpy be making recommendations on government contracts. >> and what type of screening is elon musk going to go through? is he actually going to be a co- cabinet secretary with this new department? is he going to divest this money and put it in a blind trump -- blind trust or will it be a separate appointment? >> i suspect this is separate from government and won't require a confirmation. >> that's trouble to. going through confirmations questions get asked. being some kind of outside advisor who's a billionaire with hundreds and hundreds of millionsf of dollars of contracts really opens you up to corruption and an opaque government. >> let's get back to pete hegseth. again, i'd like to stipulate i think cable news hosts can do anything. he's a dedecorated veteran here who's written

about the military, but is he the best person? can you think of no one else maybe more qualified to run the pentagon? >> i mean i haven't done the vetting process myself, but i think the focus on he's a fauk news host, as you say he's a decorated veteran. he's been to guantanamo bay, he's been to afghanistan. he's been deployed multiple times. he's gotten the bronze star twice. he's written a number of books. he's been an advocate for veterans. he's held a number of different positions in that regard as well. he's a graduate from princeton, from the kennedy school of harvard. there's a lot of qualifications that he does have. and i think it's easy to point to the fact he's just a cable news host, but the truth is there's a lot more to it than just that. >> i do think he gave his harvard degree back, but

maybe it still counts. christine, thanks to both of you, i appreciate it. kate? >> one did not know because they did not attend harvard. moving on, what donald trump's election means for january 6th insurrectionists that are currently serving prison sentences for their actions on that day. cnn speaks with them and their families. >> how did you feel when trump won last night? >> i -- i knew that meant freedom for our guys. and i was overwhelmed, thankful, and i know that god heard our prayers. >> and "people" magazine names its sexiest man alive. feast your eyes on that hunk of blurry blurriness, the report on how that man's wife is planning to incorporate the cover in their new home decor.

this morning spirit airlines is reportedly preparing to file for bankruptcy. "the wall street journal" reports the move could be just weeks away as the airline is in, quote, advanced discussions with bond holders. that's an ominous phrase. the new comes after talks with a merger with frontier fell through. both spirit and frontier have declined to comment. this morning an investigation is under way after the homes of patrick mahomes and travis kelce were burglarized. one day later kelce's house was broken into. $20,000 in cash was taken from his house. no word on whether anything was taken from patrick mahomes' place. this year's people's

sexiest man alive is john krasinski. >> i just -- i just really thought this was going to be my year. who are we kidding? i'm never going to be the sexiest man alive. >> hey, steve. >> there he is, people's sexiest man alive according to "people. " the pride of newton south and newton, massachusetts. his wife emly blunt already joked she'll wallpaper their house with the cover. >> probably my brothers will probably wonder how this this possible for years to come, and luckily we'll go right into thanksgiving so we can just jump right in, talk about it right away. >> really i would just say it gives hope to all of us. i mean john crizinsky can

win. >> he's one sexy mother -- also, any man who does that pose with that face -- let's see it. you can. delicate hands and manly hands on the forehead smolder me and wear a cute t-shirt. >> i can be secretary of defense but i can't smolder. >> we've all seen john berman in the field covering a hurricane. there you go, america. you're welcome every american. i could do that for hours and just see you sweat. okay, donald trump has tapped former secretary mike huckabee to be u.s. ambassador to israel. huckabee is known as a strong supporter of israel but now he's facing questions for some of his past statements. and mike huckabee spoke out yesterday. what did he say? >> yeah, so he spoke out. it was an interview that aired

actually earlier this morning. he was asked if under a trump administration the u.s. would support israel annexing the west bank. and of course we should note that israel has occupied the west bank for quite some time. they've also carried out settlement aactivity, but that settlement activity is illegal is under international law. what mike huckabee said was, of course, he then said this would be a policy decision, a policy creation that president trump would actually make. but he kept the door firmly open to a trump administration supporting israel annexing the west bank. that is noteworthy because it gives us an indication of where this incoming ambassador's head is at when it comes to u.s. policy towards israel and the palestinians. and we should also note that he did an interview yesterday with fox news where he called for a complete reset when it comes to u.s. foreign policy under a president trump administration. listen to what he said there. >> it's time for a complete

reset of our internal and international relationships. that's what donald trump is clearly setting out to do, and i couldn't be more delighted to see this take place. >> now, he also has been someone who throughout his entire career as the former arkansas governor, as a former evangelical pastor, has been incredibly supportive of israel. we'll have to watch and see, you know, how it plays out, when he actually does become the u.s. ambassador to israel, but he would be the first non- jewish politically appointed ambassador to israel in quite some time now, kate. one of the interesting things that we'll be watching for is his relationship with the palestinians when he is there. because as you said, our colleague, andrew crizinsky, actually reported on some comments he made in 2008 when he was running a presidential campaign. he said there's no such thing

as a palestinian. he went onto say there are arabs and persians, but he said the term palestinian is a political tool to try and take away land from the israelis. kate? >> kylie atwood, thank you for the reporting as always. new this morning donald trump's loyalist supporters expect him to honor his campaign promise to pardon january 6th rioters, but that could upset some voters and even some trump allies. cnn's donee o'sullivan with the latest. >> today was amazing, woke up with the president of the united states, the rightful president back in his spot. and today after 828 we're going to pop some champagne. >> this is the mother of ashley babbitt, the rioter who was shot and killed on january 6th. >> we are so grateful for you bringing this freedom

family together. >> reporter: it's the night after the election. trump supporters have gathered here as they have every night for the last 800 nights outside the washington, d.c. jail. how did you feel when trump won last night? >> i -- i knew that meant freedom for our guys. and i was overwhelmed, thankful, and i know that god heard our prayers. >> reporter: are you emotional? >> yes. >> reporter: jan 6 inmates call in to talk to the organizers nightly. >> this stressful, unbearable journey has finally come to an end with the election of our beloved president donald j. trump. >> i couldn't stop crying last night that you guys are finally going to get pardoned, you're going to be set free, and all of this is going to be behind us.

>> reporter: trump has repeatedly promised to give pardons to some people serving time for their actions on january 6th. >> and now we have to continue to put pressure on the president to make that right decision and fulfill that promise. and i -- i know that he will, but i also know my president understands trust but verify. >> reporter: one person who certainly hopes to be pardoned is rachel powell. how do you feel when you watch this? >> you know, i think i -- i'm more numb when i look at this stuff. it's like surreal to me. i mean look how angry i look. >> reporter: i met rachel back in january of this year right before she was about to go to prison for crimes she committed at the capitol on january 6th of protesting what she believed was a stolen election. have you ever had a moment where you're like, you know, maybe i'm wrong, maybe biden actually won the election, maybe i'm the conspiracy theorist? >> no. not at

all. >> this call is from a federal prison. >> reporter: rachel and i stayed in touch throughout the year. >> i feel like i just need to be home with my family. >> reporter: rachel has eight children ranging in ages from 8 to 28 along with 7 grandkids. we spoke to three of rachel's older daughters, adda, rebecca, and savannah. this is you and your mama? >> yes. >> reporter: when was this taken? >> this was in the prison. this was our mom. this was gideon, me, and my husband. >> the only thing i could think of when i heard that trump won the election was that my mom is coming home. she's going to be able to come home now. we're going to have our mom back. >> you just know she's freaking out. >> she's so excited. she's so happy. >> their mom was found guilty of engaging in physical violence and destruction of government property for breaking a window at the capitol with an ice ax. do you ever just think, mom, i

wish you didn't go to washington, d.c. that day? >> i feel like that's a pretty normal thought to have when there's so many consequences to the actions, but ultimately she was going to support something she believed in. and she's our mother, so we support her in whatever she decides to do. >> i don't blame her for going. kind of wish she had a little -- like held herself back. >> maybe a little more restraint would have been nice. >> exactly, yeah. >> reporter: you guys are not of the opinion your mom went to washington, d.c. chasing a conspiracy theory, chasing a lie? >> no. >> no. >> she had a strong belief, she wanted to go support it, and we all share her belief that it was definitely stolen in our opinions. >> reporter: you're certain he will pardon your mom? >> yes, he will keep to what he said. he will keep his word. he is going to pardon her. >> while we were at rachel's home, she called from prison. >> oh, man, when trump won, it was amazing. which i knew -- i

knew that was what the american people wanted, so i had no doubt. but as everybody knows, i believe there was election fraud last time, so i just wondered are we going to have a fair election this time? and it appears that we did because trump got elected. >> and do you think he's going to pardon you? >> i know he's going to pardon me. >> reporter: and there is a debate now as to who and how many people trump should pardon. his former vice president weighing in saying that he didn't believe the president should pardon anyone who assaulted a police officer on january 6th. but there's a whole movement that's built- up around this, john, as you saw people gathering around the d.c. jail where they have for 800 nights. some even wrote this book, a how to, a guide for president trump.