do, what he promised, the wind of america that he wants to see, saying america's decline is over which is a new version of make america great again, calling it liberation day. there were also so many specifics in this speech that we don't usually see in the inaugural address, more of a state of the union address. all of the things that we heard, virtually all of the things were things we saw on the campaign trail except the panama canal and changing the gulf of mexico to the gulf of america. >> and the american flag on mars. >> and the american flag on mars. the first two being things i don't believe he can do with the stroke of a pen.

>> and give those specific appointed partisan notes. it looked a little bit more awkward than it normally would when you have the person who you defeated there, and in this case two people he defeated there behind you because it's inside and so intimate. you could almost kind of feel a little bit of the cringe there inside. but make no mistake about it, what donald trump said and the kind of promises that he made, for the most part are why people went and voted for him. >> the principle aid is what they're called, the incoming and outgoing first and second couples. they're walking through an area near the capitol. at the end of it, the departure of now former president joe biden. abbey, your reaction to the speech?

>> it was very much a campaign speech, which is what you might hear if you went to one of his rallies. jason miller was speaking to you earlier today, and he telegraphed that trump was going to dispense with the flowery language. he has a to do list to do. but one thing i was very struck by was the way he played prominently in his speech in this moment. usually presidents spend a lot of time talking about the country, about their vision for the nature, about their place in the world. and donald trump talked a lot about him and how difficult it was for him to endure the last four years on a journey back to the white house. he talked about how his life was saved. he believed by god to make america great again. and the reason that's notable is because he understands for his supporters, that is part of his political story. that's one of the reasons as we were talking about earlier that they love him and adore him so much. trump is very much leaning into

that and using it as a source of power. political power that he goes in to this second non-consecutive term in the white house. >> he didn't say american carnage, but it wasn't as far off of american carnage as we were led to believe. there were hopeful moments, but there were a lot of very specific kind of broad sides against the current administration. and there is one other thing, forgive me, abby, that i want to say because it's important to note. where he was giving that speech in the capitol rotunda, four years ago people in his name were desecrating that very building, that very area because they did not want him to leave office. they believed the lies he was telling, that he actually did win. >> there were a number of

religious leaders that spoke from rabbi berman to franklin ground to cardinal timothy dolan, the archbishop of new york. but the one that seems to arouse the most joy from president trump was lorenzo from west detroit, from the ministries. after his rousing benediction. trump said to lorenzo, you're a star. >> jake, i'll tell you, my dad texted me after that and said i'm going to lorenzo's church one day. he thought he nailed it and really appreciated those comments there from him. on the president's speech overall, i talked to his advisers after this. they previewed a unifying speech. but really the theme of what we just heard there was vindication. as he was talking about the state of the united

states that only he could fix. and really captivating biden's legacy, while sitting just a few feet away from him, causing some confused looks from president biden, who at times laughed when trump said he was restoring common sense inside the united states. hillary clinton there, you see, she burst out laughing when trump said he was going to rename the gulf of mexico to the gulf of america. but really what trump was doing there in laying out really what he has posted on truth social for the better part of a year now are all the priorities that he is going to seek to implement now that he's in office. and he very clearly feels emboldened. you can see he is at the sense of the height of his powers in this moment of what he wants to do with it had position. and there is a reason for that, jake, by the very people in this room. all of the big tech leaders in this country, seated behind him, listening to him. republican party firmly in his grasp. the question, of course, is what this looks like now that he actually is in power,

if he can make good on all the campaign promises. many of which he repeated today and did not back off of that language as you heard from him there. but very clearly, not a unifying speech, but one of vindication for donald trump. >> kaitlan, thank you very much. it was a dark speech, but also a very ambitious speech. and i think in the next hour, even as the president is celebrated at this luncheon on capitol hill. let's take a moment and get the first couple executive moments. we were told this will go into the late night hours tonight. we'll get the new policy. he laid down some markers there that he needs to keep or his party will want to keep. and he said we're going to rapidly bring down costs and prices, rapidly. that's a big test. that's the number one issue in the country. the cost of living is why he's president of the united states. and he also said we're going to expand our territory. that's an interesting question when george w. bush, the last republican president before donald trump talked about a humble foreign policy and peace

in the neighborhood. donald trump said we're going to take it back of the panama canal. he didn't say we're going to use military force to do that, but we're going to take it back. so he talked about manifest destiny, expanding the territory of the united states. the immigration stuff will be both part of his mandate, which he has, but also a part of his test. does he overreach and get too far over his skis. but the thing i'm looking for is this is night and day. joe biden and donald trump is night and day in terms of how they conduct themselves and the things they want to do as these orders come out today. not only what do they do. what specifically do they do? what is the tone? >> david? >> well, i'm going to paraphrase something that i said at the republican convention. you remember right after the president was shot. we were told he had thrown his speech at him. he was going to give a very positive hopeful speech. and he had a few pages of that and then went into his campaign speech, which was very dark. and this too was sort of

an american carnage era. but the front and the back would have something uplifting. middle of it was very familiar, sort of this rhetoric. and that he ran on to be fair. that was -- that included his personal grievances and some false assertions that will be sorted out. but as john said, they laid down some markers. and the question is will he meet those markers? the idea, for example, that we're going to drill, baby drill, and that's going to cut energy cost. he said yesterday in a year and a half. i mean, these are things that are measurable. and if people see him on a bunch of other kind of more retribution oriented or exotic missions, and those markers aren't met. it's a problem for him and the republican party. >> and we're about to see

former president biden and first lady jill biden, going in the helicopter. >> i thought this was an incredible speech. truly watching donald trump indict these gangsters to their faces when they had to sit in front of them in the rotunda for republicans was remarkable. they had to sit there and take it just minutes after biden, who we're looking at here, pardon his entire family. i mean it was glorious. i love the rotunda setting. i thought it was regal and awesome. listening to him talk about how he's going to exercise his power today reminded me he is at the apex of his political power right now. you know, the promise of the new presidency is enormous. you get a power and you had influence, and that mandate is to change people's lives for the better and to restore american prestige.

it's simple. it is fix the immigration crisis. steer the country away from the cultural left and restore american prestige. and i agree with kaitlan. today, republicans feel vindicated, and trump is back to fix the country. kaitlan >> we just saw them say good-bye to the bidens. and he is still standing by. jeff? >> extraordinary moments of an inaugural ceremony when the incoming president escorts the outgoing president. i remember two years ago when president trump did the same thing with

barack obama. that was an extraordinary moment. they walked down the steps that day. not as cold that day, not as windy that day. now they came out of the ground level here, and they were waiting there for the motorcade to move by, and then president trump will take a final walk with former president joe biden and former first lady, jill biden, to marine one. and the bidens will lift off and take one last look back at washington as they head to joint base andrews, and then they will fly to california. this is the true transfer of power here of the current president and the former president, making this walk. the senators, the committee watching as they happen here. it's blustery, it's cold. you could see first lady melania trump, holding her hat there. and this is a poignant moment for joseph biden jr. who came

to washington as the youngest senator, and is leaving now as the oldest american president. >> this is the final moments of the bidens' political career here in washington. >> yeah. 50 years is a long time. it's half a century. he spent about half a century in that town off the amtrak train, talking to everybody, meeting everybody. he believed from a young age that he had something to give this country, that he had something to offer that was special, and that some day he would be in the white house, and he was. and history will judge him in some ways, but he's leaving behind a better economy than he found. he's leaving with more grace and dignity than he was shown by this man who is now walking up those stairs. i think the country, they need to show some appreciation for the messy inheritance and what he did with it. the speech we just heard had some good stuff in it and some bad stuff in it. good stuff, donald trump said he's not going to use political

power to prosecute political opponents. good. i hope he's telling the truth about that. he said he did not promise in that speech to end birthright citizenship. that's important. he didn't double down on that. that's important. he said impossible is what we do best, and i agree. but the rest of the speech was him fixing problems that don't exist and making problems worse than what they do exist. we are already the most energy dominant country in the world. there is no shortage of permits. there is no ev mandate. the real threat to detroit is the chinese automakers that are kicking our butts, making evs. we've got to catch them. >> i want to check in with m.j. you've been covering this white house for quite some time. your thoughts on this? >> yeah, i think we do need to take a real beat to talk about the news that we got from former president joe biden, just moments after he had

stepped into the capitol rotunda. it was actually 11:38 that this announcement hit my inbox. an extraordinary and unprecedented announcement to preemptively pardon multiple members of his family. we are talking about biden's siblings and their respected spouses being offered preemptive pardons. timing just could not have been more remarkable given that it came just moments after president biden had ridden in the motorcade with president trump. they shared pleasantries, and now we have this announcement from the former president, again, joe biden, saying he worried about how his own family members would be targeted by donald trump. and i am told by a source familiar with his thinking that this was in no small part, driven by donald trump's public promise to

appoint a special prosecutor to go after every member of the biden family. this is something that is incredibly worrisome to joe biden. it is something that really haunted him as he thought about the prospects of his life after office. if you look at the extraordinary written statement that we got from president biden, it kind of gets at that sentiment he said. even when individuals have done nothing wrong and will ultimately be exonerated. the mere fact of being investigated or prosecuted can damage their reputations and finances. you know, anderson, as we walked president biden take off, now that he is no longer the sitting president. i mean, we have been talking about all the different ways in which he, himself, ended up tarnishing his own reputation and the final days in office, including renagging on his word to be a bridge candidate by seeking a second term. and the decision to pardon his son,

hunter, after repeatedly saying he wouldn't, and then with this, the targeting of multiple members of his family. it was back in december of 2020 that he told our colleague, jake tapper, regarding reports of donald trump at the time, potentially preemptively pardoning his own children. he said in terms of the pardons, you are not going to see in our administration that kind of approach to pardons. it is just going to be totally different. and the way in which we approach the justice system. well, as it turns out, anderson, there is another promise broken. that is exactly how he has ultimately decided to approach the justice system. this is a decision that is going to raise so many alarming questions about the legal precedence that this now sets. and it would have been really one of the very final acts for president biden as a sitting president. and here he is now, flying off. we know he's going

to be going on vacation with the first, former first lady in california, where of course, some of his family members reside. anderson? >> alyssa, it was remarkable, you know, there were pardons earlier this morning for general mark millie and others. these last minute pardons were clearly timed. i mean clearly they were signed before, but time to be released after the car ride once the final inauguration was beginning. >> yeah, it very much felt like pardons. there was no way it would be good coverage around this. while i think many people could argue while they should be inoculated with the pardons, not prosecuted with what they are doing as government officials. this is much muddier. and they have argued for years that there are foreign dealings, ways in which the biden family has profited that should be looked into. this just underscores what so many in this country believes. joe biden, he has a very different tune, to jake tapper

and others, about how he wouldn't do this. it feeds into the notion, the same par they runs on upholding democratic norms. joe biden, in many ways, undercut them in many ways. that puts donald trump in a stronger position of power. one thing i was struck by watching this, this is the mainstreaming of donald trump. of course, he was a president before, but you can't dismiss him as an anomaly anymore. he's as much a part of the fabric of american history as barack obama, george bush, and you saw it from the tech titans there to the a-list celebrities like carrie underwood to the ceo of the fashion, this is a different donald trump presidency than the first time when he was in office. >> if you're going to do these things. i was covering the white house at the very last minute when soon-to-be former president clinton was on his way to the capitol, and they pardoned this billionaire, mark richt, who was a fugitive. it is just unseenly. if you're going to do it, have the courage to do it in the light of day and explain it to the american people. it's a stain on his legacy to do it like

this. we could have an argument about is it necessary? has donald trump promised retribution? yes, he has. but if you're the president of the united states who said the curse of donald trump was he didn't respect democracy and didn't republican norms, have the courage to look the american people in the eye and explain what you're doing. >> yeah, i mean the way it was done suggests that there was something wrong with doing it. he tried to slip it in the final minutes. >> really, i think the escalating rhetoric from trump though. he said in the pardon statement, this acceptance should not be misconstrued as a mission of guilt. >> i know what he said, but the fact is trump has been saying this for a long time. that doesn't explain why in the last ten minutes of your presidency. >> and the spouses names that i never heard come out of donald trump's name. >> it just made the whole thing

like bad. >> reporter: i'm standing here with georgia governor, brian kemp, who was in the house to watch the inaugural address by donald trump. governor kemp, thank you for being here. what did you think of the speech? >> he said it best when he said he was confident, and optimistic, forward-thinking remarks, exciting, so we're ready to go to work. >> reporter: and trump is going to come in here in a moment. this is the emancipation hall, the overflow room for those who could not fit in the rotunda. a lot of governors are it in here. you saw trump speaking about biden's record while he was sitting just a few feet away. and now it is what trump will do with his power. you're a republican who has gone up against trump and survived. not something many of your fellow republicans have been able to do. what do you want to see the second trump term look like different than the first? >> well, i think from a republican governor's perspective, we all have a sense of urgency just like he does. he knows he's got a limited amount of time with

these majority, so he wants to go to work to deliver on the message he promised people like securing the border, you know, we're looking forward to working with them on that and american energy and independence going after, you know, foreign gangs, drug cartels, and releasing the economy and other things. those are things we are all excited about. >> reporter: one thing he did mention, but we know he plans to do later on are pardons for the january 6 criminal rioters who were convicted of crimes. it's unclear how broad he's going to go with that. where do you think he should personally draw the line with those pardons? >> i'll let him speak to that, you know. but i think president biden was pardoning people literally minutes before the ceremony today. and so he set an interesting precedent, so we will see what president trump does. today, it's all focusing on delivering on his message to the people and the governors can help him do that. we quite honestly have been waiting on that for many years now. >> reporter: will it bother you if you pardons people who

assaulted law enforcement? >> i won't speak on specific pardons without knowing any details. we can talk about that until after he does something. >> reporter: all right, we'll reach out to you when that happens. thank you for taking the time to talk to us. >> and i understand you spoke to the clintons? >> reporter: yeah, that's right. i just spoke to former president bill clinton, who was walking out of the rotunda where the speech just happened, as well as the former secretary of his, former first lady, hillary clinton. i asked her first and said what did you think of the speech? she smiled. the she didn't want to answer that question at all. and then bill clinton said you have to figure it out for yourself. he wanted to weigh in, but then decided ultimately not to. i ran into them again as they were leaving the senate chamber. i asked bill clinton of whether they wanted to expand on that. he completely declined to comment. and they said they were both leaving.

they were not going to attend this luncheon, this bipartisan luncheon that happens after the inauguration. and now a number of democrats though, sharply critical about this. back to you, anderson. >> president trump is coming down apparently to greet some people, possibly give remarks. let's just listen in. [ applause ] this is the emancipation hall with the spillover crowd, as you watch the inaugural from inside the rotunda. and so it is dignitaries and others who have been put into that room. >> well thank you all so much for being here. was that a hell

of a speech or what? man. that was a good way to start it off. you know, i didn't know exactly what the president would put in that speech. i hoped to myself that he wasn't going to hold back, and sir, you didn't hold back. that was a hell of a way to start the next four years. but i just want to say from the bottom of my heart, and i know i speak for the president and for all of us. thank you, thank you, thank you for making this possible. we love you. we wouldn't be here without you. we're going to make america great again together for the next four years. [ cheers and applause ] and the last thing i'll say is, you know, having stood outside for about five minutes to wave good-bye to the bidens, thank god we moved that thing indoors because it was a beautiful ceremony, and it was cold as hell outside. so sir, the 45th and 47th president of the united states, donald j. trump. [ cheers and applause ]

>> you know, he's right. i said look at this beautiful sunny day. we blew it. we blew it. and then i went outside, and we were freezing. you would have been very unhappy. sun was very deceptive, i will tell you. it is cold out. and i started saying it was so beautiful today, maybe they should do it there every four years. does that make sense? i don't know. because you know, the outdoor thing is really good, but it gets a little cold around this time of the year. some people have noticed. and a lot of times they suffer through it. there was no suffering in that room, it was 72 degrees. it was perfect. the best acoustics i think i have ever heard in a room. this is not so bad either. but i just want to say you're a younger, far more beautiful audience that i just spoke to, and i want to keep it off the record. i want to keep that off the

record because i don't want to have all those big shots up there. i don't want them to think you're more powerful than them. you look better than them, and i love you. now we just had a great time. we just had a great day. this was amazing, you know, don't you think? we took a journey i mentioned in the speech. a lot of people said that was not a journey, that was possible, and it was, indeed, possible. i didn't really know too much about what they were saying when they said that. but a lot of people felt it. we hooked up with j.d. very early. i watched j.d. over a period of time. i endorsed him in ohio. he was a great senator. and very, very smart. the only one smarter than him was his wife. i wouldn't have chosen her, but somehow the line of succession didn't work that way, right it had and now she's great and he's great. this is a great

beautiful couple, and unbelievable career. i just said to him, you're a very upwardly mobile because he hasn't been doing it that long, but picked it up so quickly. remember the first week was a little bit like the fake news was hitting him really hard. and i said oh, this may be tough. but after that, it was smooth sailing for him. he took on everybody. he took on the meanest, i don't want to use the word corrupt because we're into a new system. so let's wait until the corruption begins because it will. but he took on some pretty mean people, and he handled it well. i want to also congratulate mike johnson for the job that he's doing. [ applause ] we gave him a majority of almost nothing, and then i said to make it tougher on him, let me take two or three of the people, right? i said he'll only have to suffer with that for about three months. how are they doing, by the way? is that moving along? i said do you mind if i take

this one, that one, and a couple of others. he didn't mind. he could handle it. he's a man that is liked by everybody. i have never met a man like this. 220. and of the 219, they really like him. he got one negative vote once about two weeks ago, but even 220 like him if you want to know the truth, and that is very unusual. i know a lot of nice guys in congress, and they have 35 people that hate them. so if you have 35 people that hate you and you only have one, two, three, four votes, you'll have five, i think. but the good news is when we get to that five number, it's going to feel like a massive majority. you could be really nasty to a couple of them. so it is going to feel like hitting your head on the wall and stopping. it feels so good to stop, but he has done a fantastic job. and steve scalise, he's our hero because, you know, i was with him. [ cheers and applause ]

you talk about being shot, i was with him, and he got some bad ones. his incredible wife, and she really loves him, you know. you never know about that. i have been with other people that were doing poorly and the wife is looking at her watch. she can't get out of the hospital fast enough. how is he doing? i don't know, all right. that woman was a mess. she was crying and crying, no, they've got to take him. they've got to take him. i told steve when he finally woke up, the doctor told me it was the most blood they ever transfused in any patient. they have never done anything like it. and here he is, the picture of strength, right? and he's been a great friend of mine. right? and because of the family, and what a job you did. it worked out pretty much better than we even thought, right? and i did have a couple of things, you know, to say

that were extremely controversial. between j.d. and melania, and anybody else, it is such a beautiful unifying speech. please, sir, don't say these things. i said i'm telling you it's going to play great. they say you're right for this group of people it's going to play great. you're the only ones i hurt, but we had some beauties, didn't we, melania? and she calls me sir when she's angry. [ laughter ] i'm only kidding. i better say i'm only kidding or the press is going to pick that up. no, but she said no, i think it would be terrible. it is such a nice speech. it all depends on your delivery. how was the delivery, was it good? but she said it is such a beautiful speech. you can't put things in there that you were going to put in, and i was going to talk

about the hostages, but you will be happy because, you know, it's action, not words that count. and you're going to see a lot of action on the j6 hostages. you will see a lot. and i was going to talk about the things that you all did today with the pardons of people that were very, very guilty of very bad crimes. like the unselect committee of political thugs, where they literally, i mean what they did, they destroyed and deleted all of the information, all of the hearings, practically not a thing left. they deleted all the information on nancy pelosi having turned down the offer of 10,000 soldiers. you wouldn't have needed 10,000, you could have had 500, and it would have stopped. because we may have a million people that day, you

don't see any photographs. but you don't see those photographs. they don't put them in the show. i was talking about that. they said please don't bring that up right now. you can bring it up tomorrow. i said how about now? i'll bring it up right now, you know, little time delay is great because we're getting great reviews on the speech. now watch, they will take this speech and say i didn't like it because he was left it will and he was talking to people, but we have given you more information. and they said, you know, they pardoned a lot of people. they pardoned before we even get to today. they pardoned, what is it, 33 murderers? absolute murderers, the worse murderers. when you get the death sentence in the united states, you have to be bad because they don't give it much, any pardon, almost anybody having a death sentence. if you went through the crimes that were committed,

you wouldn't even believe the level of violence. people that we killed, the innocence of people that were killedded and the children killed by these people. they would pardon them for whatever people. a lot of the times they let them out early when they say you're going to be in for life, and then all of a sudden they get let out for good behavior, and then they go on a rampage. it's one of those little things, right? and i was going to talk about that. but i was really going to talk about the level of what's going on and why are we doing this? why are we trying to help a guy like millie? he was pardoned, what he said, terrible what he said. why are we helping some of the people? why are we helping liz cheney? cheney is a disaster, a

crying lunatic, and crying a super crier and he is always crying. i looked at him and remembered years ago, he was actually on my side, and when you don't want to kill people, they turned against you, liz cheney hated the concept of not going to war with everybody. let's kill everybody, let's spend a lot of money on military commitment. you know, where her father works, right? and what she did was incredible, they destroyed and deleted all the information that went against trump, and it was all false. they would try to strangle l and that secret service agent. and i had a friend who said remember, they said i put my hands around their neck and that it was made

up fiction and i was rebuffed and probably stronger than me. do you think he's stronger than me? possibly stronger and younger than me, like i won't say how many years, because i don't want to talk about that, but a lot of years. i had a friend saying why are you disputing that story? it's the coolest story that i heard. that i would attack a karate champion. get slightly rebuffed, then throw my arms around a guy with a neck about this big. and even though there were bars that you could not really do that any way. and so i wanted to talk about that and that got deleted and they said it didn't happen and they were pretty embarrassed for their suffering because their friends were saying did he really do

that to you? and they gained a whole new respect for me. but it was just make believe stuff, and a lot of make believes. so rather than suffer the rest, like the story with nancy pelosi. i offered 10,000 soldiers. she knows it. she admitted it on tape that her daughter made. she said the videographer, whatever you called her, which i'm glad she is. she can't be in good step with nancy. but nancy said it was my responsibility as she's leaving the capitol. she said it was and she's a judge of security at the capitol. but i offered them up to 10,000 soldiers, even more. the said as many as you need. but you needed 4,500. 10,000 is more tan enough. and we offered her 10,000. think of it, 10,000 soldier. in other words, they would not be that and no j6, but she rebuffed them. she didn't like them, no. she

didn't like them. and maybe she wanted that to happen, but she is guilty as hell. and now we would have to go through the process because they destroyed all evidence. they deleted everything, and virtually nothing left. other fake story and so many other fake stories and many people came out on our side, and those people now need to find them and there is nothing left, so that is a criminal offense. if it was a civil case, it would be a criminal defense. if that happens, it will be a criminal defense. and so i'm not going to make this speech complicated, but i'll make it beautiful and make it a unifying speech. and when they have a group of people that are serious, trump fans, i said this is the time to tell those stories. yeah. and seriously, i

think it is a tremendous success, we're very lucky, we put it inside because it is really cold. we just went to the helicopter out of respect because it is something that has taken place in a lot of times and it is the oldest helicopters. they used to get into the helicopters. and it is pretty old custom and a beautiful custom, and i wish we could have had a better relationship. i wish we could have a better relationship between republicans and democrats, and with senator schumer, getting along a little bit because it doesn't make sense. i mean we literally never get it done almost. and a lot of democrat votes, right? that is going to be a very beautiful bill. i would say

within a week or so, and it is going to be a very good bill. you all know what i'm talking about. i want to thank you all for being here and day one, and all these people all over. [ cheers and applause ] this has been -- this has been a -- has there ever been anything like it? has there ever been anything like it? this has been a movement like no other movement in history. and you know, somebody is running for president and if they go out and they announce they're going to arizona or nevada, they're going to some place. if you have 200 or 300 people, that would be standard. ronald reagan would go out. outside the last couple of days, but even then you would have a couple of thousands of people. but if you're going to go some place, any place, the swing

states. any one of the other states. and how about the non-swing states? we won alabama by 48 points. we won tennessee by massive numbers. wyoming, we won by numbers. nobody has ever seen numbers. you know, places like california, we did great. it's when they send out like 38 million ballots and nobody knows where they are sending them and they come pouring back, the whole thing. and they passed a law in california, if you work in an election bureau, and if you so much ask for a voter i.d. if you say sir, ma'am, could i please look at your motor i. d., they have a right to put you in jail. can you believe that? there is only one reason why that happens. and so they have it where voter i.d. wasn't accepted. now if you even ask for it, this is seriously a bill that we just saw in the past and their legislature. and it was signed. i think when we get things

signed up and we get back to normalcy, i'll ask to get involved because i think we would have wanted the state of california because, you know, if you look at my numbers with hispanic, we're at 56% and they had never been one as the governor said, they are doing a good job for the governor of texas. but as the governor said, they haven't, oh, did i get lucky? did i get lucky? and supposedly i would say he's not here, but the governor of texas is not a terrible job. wow, look at you. i mean we couldn't get you up in the front row? i'll tell you. supposedly i would say, j.d., the governor of texas is not doing his job, and you heard what i said. see, i didn't know you were there, and they are doing a great job. they are doing a phenomenal job. but now you'll have a partner that

will work with you. right? and we would have a fence structure that we would work on, the governor worked with me on it and i don't love it to be honest with you and a nice precast concrete 40, 50 feet high, like beautiful. and maybe 50, 60 feet and it would have looked beautiful, a nice shape. and the problem is they would climb that like a rabbit. and they would climb it. the other thing is you would hit it with acid. so they needed something very special and then they would do 7,000 pound concrete and then they would have a rebarb that's the toughest steal made and very hard to cut. so this is why very little

is cut. and then they put in that anti-climb paddle on top. i hated it and it is so unattractive. i said why would that work? and i went to watch that border patrol and we would have two sets of climbers. the guys that climb up, they've got those drugs and they could go as fast as you want. or we would have mount everest type of climbers. and honestly they were much better. they blew them away, right? and it is true. they couldn't get around it, where they just couldn't. they don't have it. and sometimes you would sacrifice beauty for efficiency, and so we built this wall, we built over 500 miles of wall. that's why we have good numbers with the famous chart that came down very thankfully, that came down, am i right, governor? and they are not speaking right

now, where you might be speaking. do you want to know the truth? and you, j.d., you've got a lot of great people in this one, but it is very lucky. we had the best numbers we have ever had. but what happens is when you fill it up, it's like water. you fill it up. and now we have 571 miles of wall. and they would always say, you know, when we renovated a wall. so they would be like a piece of plywood, sitting there for 60 years or a two by four, sitting for 660 years on the ground and rotting because, you know, they would say you didn't build a new wall. and they were building 50 feet up in the air with 30 feet sections, 30-foot sections, all steal, all concrete, all everything. oh, by the way, they don't want me to say it had and what the hell doesn't take that long. and they are all wired for all the equipment, so they would wire for different types of equipment. if there is a doubt, they could wire whenever we just look and you would find

the wire all over the place up top, so we could hook it up. we don't have to have wires on the outside, which wouldn't do too well, right? so any way we would build an extra 200 miles of wall and the governor wanted to buy it. he would try to buy it, he wouldn't sell it to them and they wanted to put it up and they could have been done. when you do it now, they will keep going further out and getting around, so we did an extra 200 miles where it was all bought. they announced they're not going to put it up, and that is when i realized that people will come pouring through the wall, like nobody has ever seen before, but you've seen it. a lot of you are here because of that. i made it my number one issue. they all said inflation is the number issue. i think people coming into our country from prisons and mental institution is a bigger institution for the

people i know. and i made my number one. i talked about inflation too. how many times can you say an apple has doubled in cost? i would say it, and i hit it hard, but then i go back to the fact that we don't want criminals coming into our country. we don't want the jails of every country in the world virtually being deposited into the united states. and that man had to suffer with it, and he did an unbelievable job. i'll tell you, he was a very popular governor. now he's an unbeatable governor because of your border policies. he was fantastic. he really was. [ applause ] governor abbott, he's a great man, a great leader. and it did make him -- you didn't do that for politics. you did it because you wanted to do the right thing, but it sure as hell worked for politics too. but no, the people are demanding it. people of texas, they're demanding it, and so we built

it, and they wouldn't let us use it. they wouldn't let the governor use it and other governors, but he was the leader of the pack, and he did a great job. and then we heard about a month ago that not only would they let us use it, but they were going to sell it on the dollar. no, five cents on the dollar now. and today, it would cost more than twice as much to build because we would buy it six years ago. it was just sitting on the ground. that does not do well for the whole thing, but it was just sitting on the ground. i heard about it, and i called the governor, i called a lot of people, your attorney general. and here is the story that we're going to buy it and these are great business people. they were going to buy it for five cents on the dollar or less. they were calling us up, we will tell it to you for 200 cents on the dollar. in other words, it will cost you twice as much, so it is 200

cents on the dollar. i said can somebody explain that to a judge? i mean how corrupt is that? you would think they would say maybe we'll sell it to you for 20 cents, 30 cents, but not 200 cents. so they were going to buy something for five crepts and they were going to sell it to us for a fortune. they would have it down in the magazine, the deal of the year, okay. you buy something like that. but it was so corrupt and so horrible. and when we told that to the administration, they didn't care. they just kept going forward. they couldn't care less, and they kept going forward. they knew they were trying to sell it back to us. you would have ended up buying it and probably paid 50, 60 cents, who knows. but they were going to use it for scrap metal, and then they made a much better deal. they could just buy it and sell it for us 15, 20 times what they paid. 20 times. think about it, 20 times what they paid. and we

wouldn't let it happen. and the governor with his attorney general, they made a fantastic -- he's a good lawyer. he's pushed around pretty good by people. i said you've got a great attorney general. they should leave him alone. he was with me. but ken and the governor went to court, and a judge actually became incensed and actually called for an investigation. how could a thing like this happen? and so he stopped it. we are waiting to put that wall up. and now that you have a new president, that wall will go up so fast. the governor won't complain, sir. greg abbott, please, the wall is going up too fast. please don't do that. you know the story about winning? no, no, we're going to win too much, we're winning too much, please. people always love that one. we'll do this with the wall. governor abbott says sir, the wall is going up too fast, we can't take it. we just can't take it, no. i think you'll be very happy if the

wall goes up too fast, right? but we'll get that and we'll work with you on that, but it was a great decision by a great texas judge, right? it was beautiful. beautiful to watch. we stopped them right in their tracks. they were literally loading the stuff onto their trucks, it was terrible. honestly, it was terrible, and he wouldn't take it. so i'm so glad we mentioned they have a really good governor in texas. and i swear, i didn't know he was here. i swear to you. it sounds like a setup. i didn't know you were there. did i get lucky? and i said the right thing. because there would have been moments when i wasn't so happy with it, but not too many, i can tell you that. any way, good to see you too, governor. great. i just want to thank everybody. you've been incredible. i recognize so many of you. it's crazy. but this has been a long journey. this was a journey that started in 2015, probably started 20 years before that. people used to say are you going to run for president? are you going to run, run, run? and i always

said no, no, no. and then one day i said let's give it a shot. and what i talked about then was the border too. i think it was probably the number one issue for me back in 2015, 2016. i talked about the border. and now i talked about the border, but this worder is much worse. we fixed the border. it was totally fixed. 2020, by the way, that election was totally rigged, but that's okay. it was a rigged election. you know the only thing good about it, it showed how bad they are and how incompetent, and frankly, historically, this is a much bigger event. if that would have gone like it should have, the bad thing about it is some bad things happened like a lot of people in our country that wouldn't be in our country right now. that's the bad part. but i will say that it started in 2015 and right from the beginning, we went to the top, day one, they announced trump and trump went to number one and stayed there

for the whole primary. then we took on hillary. she didn't look too happy today. a very nice person, but we took on hillary and we defeated hillary. and then we did much better the second time in 2020. you know, we got millions more votes. we got millions, like 10, 12 million more votes than we did the first time. no president has gotten that many more votes. i got by nine million more than anyone else had ever gotten and they said we lost. and because of that, i said to melania, what do you think? and she said you want to do this again? had we lost and had i felt we lost, i wouldn't do it again because it's like an ultimate pull, right? and this time we made it too big to rig. it was so big. they tried, they tried. they tried like hell. [ applause ] they tried, they tried to do it, and around

9:02, they gave up. the last time they did bad things, but this time they just said esh. i don't know if you saw, mr. speaker, in washington, they had plaquers. and everyone else thought it would be closer. a gentleman, a very respected gentleman asked me how come the polls were so wrong? they showed you winning, but not in a landslide. i said because people that are true trumpers are so angry at the whole polling system, and the writers, the fake news, that they don't want to talk to anybody. so when you call somebody from trump, who are you voting for? they say it is none of your business. i'm not telling you. that was probably 40% of the people they called. so they would discard that one and they didn't show that. then when the election happened, the vote came, and it was much different, much higher. but they thought, they couldn't believe it. the one

man said i mean it was so much that we won all seven swing states. we won the popular vote by millions of votes, which is hard for a republican. i'll tell you who came through. the unions came through, the autoworkers were great, the teamsters were great, the firemen were great. i think every, almost every union was great. the only ones that weren't great, sean was great and the teamsters, sean o'brian, the head of the teamsters was fantastic. the head of the union was against trump, but the union would be with us, look what they did with the teamsters. they were unbelievable. solid democratic vote and they voted for trump. so we had a great experience. now we have to go to work to get it done because we have to do something that is going to be great. we have to turn our country around, and we're going to turn it around fast. and i think this was a better speech than the one i made

upstairs, okay. i think this was better, j.d. i think this is much better, and i got to see my friend. so governor, take care of yourself. you call me, we will start working. you know what that means with him, he's going to be calling me tomorrow about 6:00. i said how about next week? no, you call me, we're going to get it started real fast. we will really help you a lot. you've done a fantastic job, protecting something. it was not suppose to be for the states. amazing job you have done. thank you very much. and i want to thank everybody. i have a first lady who has been incredible. [ cheers and applause ] i shouldn't say this, i'm going to get hell when i say this. but her feet are absolutely aching, you know those heels. we thought we were leaving. we thought we were going home. sir, will you be

able to go down and say hello to some of your other fans it in here? i said oh, i didn't know that. well, did you get to see pretty clearly the picture? because you wouldn't want to make the same sort of speech again, right? but she said darling, i love you so much, but my feet are killing me. i said honey, let me just see how far. no, not thatting long, 400 or 500 yards. that's five football fields. we're going to make it no matter what, we're going to make it. and then we went out to the helicopter though just prior to this and said good-bye. and the wind is blowing like crazy. and with the hat she's wearing, she almost blew away. we almost lost it. she was being elevated off the ground. she almost blew

away, no. so we all appreciate it because she's been a great first lady. a beautiful and great personality. i love our first lady. you know, j.d., whenever i make a speech, we love our first lady and they do. she's great. so i just want to thank you, thank you very much. i just want to thank everybody, and i said to j.d., should we give them the a treatment? the b treatment, the c, the d, or the f? you know what the f is? hello everybody, thank you for being here. bye, bye. i gave the a plus treatment. thank you. thank you all. thank you, governor. thank you all very much. appreciate it. [ cheers and applause ] ♪ [ music ] ♪ >> all right, president trump, the 47th president there speaking in emancipation hall, actually speaking longer to his supporters there than he did in

his actual inaugural address in the rotunda. there were a lot of falsehoods he just uttered, and we'll get to our fact checker on that. but he also did make some news talking about the january 6 rioters that he is going to pardon. we'll have more on that from our justice correspondent. before we do that, kaitlan collins is in the room there. before they kick her out, let's go to her. kaitlan, who exactly is he speaking before in that room? we saw obviously texas governor greg abbott. who else is there? >> reporter: it's a mix, jake, of a lot of supporters, media figures who played a key role in trump's election. jake paul, logan paul, conor mcgregor is here, mike turner, who was just removed from the house intelligence committee is here, and several other republican lawmakers. i also saw carrie lake is here. certainly a lot more

politically friendly crowd to donald trump. there's not a lot of democrats i've seen. i have not seen a lot of elected democrats in the room as we've been looking from our perch over here. but jake, that speech the president just delivered there, that was really his real inaugural address. that was the speech he wanted to give inside the rotunda earlier, and he acknowledged there saying j.d. vance, the vice president and melania trump, the first lady, both talked him out of going into certain areas and certain themes in his inaugural address that he just delivered a short time ago. one, as you noted there, was actually shorter than the address he just delivered here. and the first thing was the january 6 pardons that we know he plans to issue later today. we're waiting to see how broad and far ranging they're going to be. but he did say essentially actions speak louder than words. he said the crowd here will be very happy with what he does later with those pardons. but jake, we also heard him respond for the first time. so the pardons that were issued this morning by president biden to

general mark millie and liz cheney. he was questioning why they would get pardons. and why he offered it to them and they were worried hillary clinton did not seem happy to see him and he was stolen, which is why he ran in 2024. of course, it wasn't, and he made false claims about nancy pelosi and the national guard. but i just think, jake, listening to trump, that's what trump really sounds like, him off prompter. there are no prompters out there. this is not a scripted speech in any way, shape, or form. and that is where he said he was essentially saying all the things he didn't get to say in his inaugural address. >> yeah.