[ inaudible ]. >> about what? >> greenland. >> greenland is a wonderful place. we need it for international security. and i'm sure that denmark will come along. i think -- it's costing them a lot of money to maintain it, to keep it. the people of greenland are not happy with denmark, as you know. i think they're happy with us. we had representatives -- my son and representatives went up there two weeks ago. and they like us. so we'll see what happens. but greenland is necessary. not for us, it's necessary for international security. you have russian boats all other the place. you have china boats all over the place. warships. and they can't maintain it. >> who? >> talk to president putin, sir? >> i'll be meeting with president putin. >> when? >> i don't know.

>> so first foreign trip typically has been with uk. but we did it -- i did it with saudi arabia last time because they agreed to buy $450 billion worth of our product. i said i'll do it. but you have to buy american product. and they agreed to do that. they bought 450 billion. it was the least reported story i've ever been involved in. >> and now, where are you planning to go now? >> well, i don't know. saudi arabia wanted to buy another 450 or 500, we'll up it for all the inflation. >> mr. president, you said you're going to end the war first day. how do you plan to end the ukraine war? >> we'll try to get it done as quickly as possible. >> do you want to push israel and -- >> it should have never started. the war can ukraine and russia should have never started. >> will you push saudi arabia normalize relations? >> i don't think i have to push them. i think it's going to happen. it will end up being in the

accords. the abraham aboards. >> president trump -- >> i think saudi arabia will end up being in the abraham accords. >> this year? >> could be. but soon. not in a very long way -- oh, look at that. it says tiktok. my, my, may, what is that all about. >> first, we have alaska, sir. this is an executive order relating to unleashing alaska's potential as an energy reservoir for the entire nation. >> and what about enwar? >> i believe that would be included. >> on the tiktok piece, president trump, you and members of your team now, you still warn about the dangers of tiktok spying on americans. what changed that you're now worried about that anymore? >> well, depends on the deal. i mean, i may not do the deal or i may do the deal. tiktok is worthless, worthless if i don't approve it. it has to close. i learned that from the people that own it. if i don't do the deal, it's worthless.

worth nothing. if i do the deal, it's worth maybe a trillion dollars. a trillion. so if i do the deal -- i'm talking about doing it for the united states. if i do the deal for the united states, then i think we should get half. >> the tiktok ceo -- >> i think the u.s. should be entitled to get half of tikto k. and congratulations tiktok has a good partner. and that would be worth, you know, could be $500 billion or something. it's crazy the numbers are crazy. but it's worthless if i don't -- if the president doesn't sign, then it's worthless. if the president does sign, it's worth maybe a trillion dollars. so i think like a joint venture, i think we will have a joint venture with the people from tiktok. we'll see what happens. that's one of many ideas we had. >> did the ceo say he's open to that? >> i think probably like it.

because he's got nothing. they really have nothing. it's passed in congress. it gives the president the right to make a deal. or to close it. and we have 90 days to make that decision. but i could see making the deal with the u.s. gets 50% of tiktok. polices it a little bit or a lot. depends on that. but remember they make telephones in china. they make all sorts of things in china. nobody ever complains about that. here they're complaining about this. so many different products made in china. nobody complained about. the only one they complained about is tiktok. tiktok is largely young people. i guess i have a warm spot for tiktok i didn't have originalally. i went on tiktok and i won young people by 36%, peter. and republicans typically don't do too well with young people. but it's a different republican party. [ all speaking at once ]

>> how would it get that 50%? >> no. you take 50% of tiktok for the approval that tiktok can continue doing business. and they would have a great partner, the u.s. would be their partner. but the u.s. essentially would be paid for doing that half of the value of tiktok. >> would there be a private sector owner? >> could be. could be a lot. tell you what, every rich person has called me about tiktok. >> you wanted to block tiktok. why did you change your mind? >> because i got to use it. remember, tiktok is largely about kids, young kids. if china is going to get information about young kids, i don't know. i think -- to be honest with you, i think we have bigger problems than that. but when you look at telephones made in china and all the other things made in china, military equipment made in china. tiktok i think tiktok is not their biggest problem. but there's big value in

tiktok if it gets approved. if it doesn't get approved there's no value. if we create that value, why aren't we entitled to half? >> sir, will you shut them down? >> biden ever do news conferences like this? how many news conferences, peter, has he done like? >> like this? >> none. >> zero. >> it would be zero for the next infinity. for infinity it would be zero. [ all speaking at once ] >> going to help implement the executive orders? >> elon, no. elon is very busy sending rocket ships up to various places. with lots of satellites on them. >> what is your reaction to confirmation of marco rubio and what does it mean for latin america? >> which one? >> marco rubio. >> you said maco. >> i think's great. i think marco is doing a fantastic job. i think he'll get a lot of votes. i think he'll be at 90% or

something. people know them in the senate. they know he's good. he's doing a good job. i don't know. i can't tell you. i don't know what's going to happen with that. he's got some very strong ideas, though, marco. >> did you sign the tiktok order? >> yeah. >> yes. >> just signed it. >> how many have you signed? >> you still committed with -- >> we're going to find out about that, too. because we're going to probably stop buying oil from venezuela. we don't need their oil. >> another embargo like the first term? >> could be. we don't have to buy their oil. we have plenty of oil for ourselves. that will change venezuela quite a bit. >> president trump, there was a lot of concern about this during the campaign. the question that only works today. are you a dictator on day one? >> no. no. i can't imagine being called that. no, i believe in the sanctity of the vote. the democrats didn't because they cheated like dogs. but i believe in the sanctity.

this was too big to rig. this last election was just too big to rig. but, no. really the opposite. >> when do you plan to speak to president putin? >> could be very soon. >> and you talked a bit about ukraine and russia, but how long do you think it would take to end that conflict and -- >> i have to speak to president putin. we're going to have to find out. he can't be thrilled. he's not doing so well. i mean, he's grinding it out, but most people thought that war would have been over in one week. and now you're into three years, right? so he can't be -- he can't be thrilled. it's not making him look very good. now eventually, it's a big machine. so things will happen. but, i think he would be well off to end that war. we have numbers that almost a million russians soldiers have been killed. about 700,000 ukrainian soldiers are killed. russia is bigger. they have more soldiers to

lose. but that's no way to run a country. >> what did your tiktok order do, mr. president? >> just gave me the right to sell it. or close it. essentially with tiktok i have the right to either sell it or close it. and i'll make that determination. we may have to get an approval from china, too. i'm not sure. but i'm sure they'll approve it. and if they don't approve it, it would be somewhat of a hostile act, i think. but it's good for china if it gets approved. >> you're not guaranteeing that tiktok will be around after 90 days? >> no. but it could very well be. it makes sense for it to be. because it's got tremendous value. but if we create the value by approving, you know, in other words, that approval gives tremendous value. if that's the case, we should be entitled to 50%. that's called the joint venture. and nobody ever thought that

way before. >> who would be your partner? >> well, i don't know. i think you have a lot of people that would be interested in tiktok with the united states as a partner. >> mr. president, what was it like walking into the oval office this evening? >> oh, what a great feeling. one of the better feelings i've ever had. >> do you like it better now than 2017? >> well, we're very experienced now. you would say nobody ever had experience like i have. i've dealt with some very good people. i've dealt with some very bad people and i know who the bad ones rand the good ones are. don't forget, i was very successful primarily the real estate business. and people used to say, who is worse, a politician or a vicious real estate developer? and i would say, you know, the real estate developer is far worse. but after about three months in getting to know scum like adam schiff and other people like

that, no, actually real estate people are quite nice by comparison. >> do you plan to speak with president putin soon. what about president zelenskyy and what's your message? >> yeah. but he told me he wants to make a deal. he wants to -- zelenskyy wants to make a deal. i don't know if putin does. he might not. i don't know. he should make a deal. i think he's destroying russia by not making a deal. i think russia is going to be in big trouble. you take a look at their economy. you take a look at the inflation in russia. so i would hope -- i got along with him great. and you know, i would hope he wants to make a deal. >> mr. president, are you keeping u.s. sanctions on russia until he makes a deal? >> well, sanctions or tariffs. i think the word tariff is much better because it keeps your dollar stronger. i think tariffs are much stronger. i used sanctions against iran. iran was broke. when i left office, iran was

broke. they had no money for hamas or hezbollah. none. they were flat broke. and october 7th would have never happened. and i think you all know that. it would have never happened. they had no money. now they're rich, but they're weakened in a different way. i would say that the one attack by israel really set them back. it really set them back. the pages. the pages and others. you know, the attack on air defense was a bad attack. >> what are you signing now, sir? >> an executive order relating to reforms to the federal work force, including to the senior executive service. >> we're getting rid of all of the cancer, i call it cancer. the cancer caused by the biden administration. >> sir? >> how confident are you, mr. president that you can keep this ceasefire in gaza? and conclude the three phases of the deal. >> i'm not confident.

that's not our war. it's their war. i'm not confident. but i think they're very weakened on the other side. >> do you support two- state -- >> i looked at a picture of gaza. gaza is like a massive demolition site. that place is really -- it's really got to be rebuilt in a different way. >> will you send help rebuilding gaza? >> i might. you know, gaza is interesting. it's a phenomenal location. on the sea. best weather. you know, everything is good. it's like some beautiful things could be done with it. but, it's very interesting. but some fantastic things could be done with gaza. >> how do you see the future in governance for gaza? >> well, it depends. i can't imagine you could have -- you certainly can't have the people that were there. most of them are dead, by the way, right? most of them are dead. but, they didn't exactly run it well.

run viciously and badly. you can't have that. >> mr. president, tiktok sir, do you pause any decision on chinese tariffs until you know what the resolution on tiktok will be? >> no. if china didn't approve it, we could put tariffs on china. don't forget, china charges us tariffs and we charge them very little except for what i did. i put a lot of them. we took in hundreds of billions of dollars. but until i came along, china never paid ten cents to this country. they ripped us off and they never paid anything. but, like -- if we wanted to make a deal with tiktok and it was a good deal, and china wouldn't approve it, then i think ultimately they would approve it because we would put tariffs on china. maybe. i'm not saying i would. but you certainly could do that. and if we said, well, if you're not going to approve it, then that's a certain hostility and we'll put tariffs of 25, 30,

40, 50%, even 100%. and if we did that, i think they would approve it. >> president trump, you've seen the other living presidents a couple times in the last few months. have you ever had to call of one of them for advice, which one would you call? >> that's an interesting. i thought bill clinton was a very good politician. i don't think he was used properly. i think they disrespected him. when hillary was running, he came back and he said, you know, you better get up to michigan and wisconsin. you remember that, peter. every house has a trump sign on it. and they all laughed at him because the republicans hadn't won michigan or wisconsin for decades. long time. and they all laughed at bill clinton. like what the hell does he know. and he turned out to be right because i won both of them. and we won both in this election, too. we won wisconsin and michigan and every other swing state.

we won all seven. they talked about seven swing states. we won them all. but bill clinton, he had a great political sense, i think. >> you looked like you were having a good conversation with president obama at president carter's funeral. >> i was. and you would like to know what it was. everybody wants to know. and i wouldn't -- we were having some crazy conversations. why do you ask a question like that? i don't think you want to know. you might -- >> what else did you just sign? >> it's an executive order relating to holding former government officials accountable for unlawful disclosure of sensitive information. this next one, sir, is a declaration of national energy emergency. >> that's a big one. you know what that allows you to do. that means you can do whatever you have to do to get out of that problem. and we do have that kind of an emergency. >> president trump, at

some point will you use your powers of the presidency to tell americans who are concerned about drones -- >> yeah. oh. yeah. i will. >> can you tell us now? >> in fact -- no. because i just got here. >> what do you think? >> i just came here. i've been here for what, 15 minutes, no. >> people listening -- >> i got to read this letter, too. because you, i have this letter. >> i can read it for you. >> it's interesting. i know you would. your father would, too. >> but is it anything that people need to be worried about? >> no. i think it's terrible -- i would like to find out what it is and tell the people. >> can you commit to some kind of -- >> in fact. i would like to do. can we find out what that was, susie? okay. find out immediately. i can't imagine it's an enemy or there would have been people would have gotten blown up all other. maybe they were testing things. i don't know why they wouldn't have said what it was.

they had a lot flying over bedminster, which is interesting, right? >> and with the events today, and yesterday, was everything moved inside just for cold weather or was there some kind of security concern? >> no, no no. no security. because they had everything shut down to drones. you can shut that down. they're very sophisticated these people. no. that was just cold weather. and we made a good move because first of all, i thought it was incredible at the capitol today. you know why i liked it, because i got great reviews on that speech. i got great reviewed. can you believe it. they actually were fair. maybe the fake news is changing. >> unleashing energy production. but i thought it was -- i think having it in the capitol is great. obviously you can take care of the people you have to take care of. the city was booming. and if we would have done it outside, people would have been hurt because it was really cold. you know, it was like -- looked

sunny. but when you stood outside for ten minutes, people were running back in. it was really cold. and really windy. the wind brings it down a lot. so we made the right decision. you couldn't have -- i don't think you could have had -- you know how cold it was today. it was -- people went out for a little while just to test it. they couldn't stay out more than ten minutes. they all came back in. so we would have had a disaster if we did that and people would have been hurt. >> unlawful disclosure, is that related to the hunter biden situation? >> which one? >> the one on unlawful disclosures by federal officials. >> no. i think it's just more general. not hunter biden. i was surprised that president biden would go and pardon his whole family because that makes him look very guilty. i could have pardoned my family. i could have pardoned myself, my

family. i said, if i do that, it's going to make me look very guilty. i don't think i would be sitting here frankly. if i did that, i don't think i would be sitting here right now because i would have -- would have shown that you're guilty. but by pardoning his brother or brothers, by pardoning all of those people that he pardoned, by pardoning j6, the unselect committee, they destroyed all of the documents. they deleted all of the information. there's no information. and a lot of the information pertains to nancy pelosi because she was given 100 -- i mean, you know this, it's on tape with her daughter. nancy pelosi was responsible for not taking advantage of 10,000 soldiers or 1,000. you wouldn't have need -- you could have used 400. it was a relatively small crowd. it wasn't the crowd that was at the mall. it was a small crowd. so, i was little bit

surprised that he did it. because it makes him look guilty. he's going to have to live with it. now it being said, it's unbelievable precedent it creates for a president. but the precedent is unbelievable. now every president that leaves the office will pardon every person they met so they don't have deranged jack smith, some lunatic, who is a total lunatic, by the way, not a smart guy, he's a dummy, but we beat the hell out of him. and i helped my reputation. >> do you think you have to do the same thing at the end of this term? >> well, i guess now i have precedent to do it. i wouldn't want to do that, no. i think it makes you look very guilty. i think it makes biden look very bad, very weak and very guilty. and he pardoned everybody. how about this j6 committee? why is he pardoning them? the reason is because if you

delete and destroy documentation, everything, they have nothing. because they were guilty as hell. they rigged it. it was a rigged deal. and when you do that, they look very bad. but, i was a little surprised he did. liz cheney, she's a lunatic. and he lost by the greatest margin in the history of a politician running for congress. like 40 points. the reason it was the greatest is because anybody losing that is going to drop out. but he's a nut job. she doesn't drob out. she just keep chugging forward and lost by almost 40 points. that's the biggest number anybody has ever lost by. but why would biden do that? he pardoned her and pardoned everybody. the reason is that they destroyed documents. and if you're even in a civil case, which this wouldn't be, i mean, people go to jail for

a long time for doing that. what's this one sfl. >> unleashing american energy, sir. relates to easing permitting processes and other regulatory systems to ensure we can produce energy efficiently to drive the american economy forward. >> president trump, looking around the office, we notice some changes from the way that biden had it set up. can you confirm you have added back the diet coke button? >> i think this -- we -- first of all, i just got here. so my people came in. they have extraordinary decorators. that's right. we see some of the pictures. that's a good one. i could live with him. i could live with george washington. i can tell you. i can live with thomas jefferson. i can live with most of them. they took a very safe route. they don't have any bad ones up there. >> withdrawing from -- >> what is this? >> withdrawing from the world health organization, sir. >> that's a big one.

>> so we paid $500 million to world health when i was here, i terminated it. china with $1. 4 billion people, we have 350 -- nobody knows what we have because so many people came in illegally. but let's say we have 325. they had 1. 4 billion. they were paying 39 million. we were paying 500 million. seemed a little unfair to me. so that wasn't the reason, but i dropped out. they offered me to come back for 39 million. in theory, it could be less than that. but, and when biden came back, they came back for 500 million. he knew that you could have come back for 39 million. they wanted us back so badly. so we'll see what happens. >> mr. president -- >> pretty sad to think of it, china pays 39 million and we pay 500 million. and china is a bigger

country. >> mr. president, you spoke about inflation today in your remarks. what actions are you taking today that will have a direct impact for americans on their everyday cost to bring the costs down? >> well, the biggest thing and factor for inflation is energy. they screwed up my energy policy. and then they went back to it. you know, they hurt it really badly. and then they went back to it and started drilling more. by that time it was too late. many of these things that we're signing and that doug urgum will be signing, we'll make a lot of money from energy. we have more than anybody else. we'll make a lot of money from energy. we'll make a lot of money from tariffs. european union charges us -- they have a vat tax of 20%. but it's really much higher than that. and that's the equivalent, almost the equivalent of a

tariff. and they're tough. they're very tough. they don't take our cars. they don't take our farm product. they don't take almost anything. and yet we take their cars. we take their farm product. we take a lot from them. so we have like a $300 billion deficit with european union. so, we'll straighten that out with either tariffs or they have to buy our oil. the one thing they can do, our oil and gas. the one thing they can do to catch up quickly, buy our oil and gas. and they should do that. >> will you travel to china this year? >> yeah, could be. yeah. i've had the invite. >> president xi invite you to come this year? >> talking about the european union, what do you mean that european union -- >> that i what? >> brics. >> brics is six nations, i think it's seven nations. and they were looking to do a number on the united states. and if they do, they won't

be happy about what's going to happen to them. >> i may. we may put it -- wrap it. because essentially all countries take advantage ofof u.s. we don't make any good deals in the u.s. it's amazing in a way that we exist, we don't make good deals. we don't have any good deals. we have a deficit with almost -- not all, there are a couple i won't tell you their names because i don't want them to find out about it because they'll feel stupid, but there are a couple of countries that -- there are a couple of countries that actually don't make money with us. but i don't want to let you know because they'll immediately change that. but we're going to do -- i tell you what, we have -- our country has an amazing economic future. i really believe that. >> what kind of universal

tariff? >> put a universal tariff on anybody doing business in the united states because they're coming in and they're stealing our wealth, they're stealing our jobs, they're stealing our companies. they're hurting our companies. so you put a tariff on to keep them from doing that. >> mr. president, you surrounded yourself with a whole bunch of billionaires. [ inaudible ]. >> well, he was -- he had a lot of guys. and then they found out that he didn't know what the hell he was talking about. and i think they deserted him. they deserted him. those same guys. look, i don't make pretense smart guys, but a lot of smart people around. they did desert him. they were all with him, every one of them. now they're all with me. i don't know. not going to get anything from me. i don't need money. but, i do want the nation to do well. and they're smart people. and they have -- you know, they create a lot of jobs. and if they don't do it, janet will do it. you know what they've done

is they've taken industries and they've taken it away. they outsmarted china. and you know, we sort of like that. it's okay. they've done a great job. a lot of them. not all of them. >> protecting women from radical gender idealogies. >> mr. president, going back to the world health organization. during covid, don't you see the importance of an organization like that to coordinate a global response? >> sure. i do. but not when you're being ripped off like we are by the world health. world health ripped us off. everybody rips off the united states. and that's it. it's not going to happen anymore. thank you very much, everybody. >> all right, guys. >> one last one, sir. this is your martin luther king day proclamation. >> thank you, sir. >> thank you, press. >> thank you very much. >> thank you. >> let's go. >> thanks, press. thank you, guys. let's go, guys. well, we have just

been watching the new president sign a batch of executive orders. and talking at great length to reporters as he did it most notably the first one he sign at the white house, one granting pardons and sentence commutations for jan 6th rioters he called j6 hostages. declaring emergency at the southern border and pulling out of the paris climate treaty. working toward eliminating birthright citizenship and reversing some 78 biden era actions seen as jeff zeleny starts us off tonight. jeff, let's start with the pardons and commutations. this some 1,500 in all. there are about 1580 convictions. >> reporter: anderson, extraordinary scene right there after whitewashing the history and the events of january 6th since it happened, president trump essentially tried to wipe away and did wipe away the

charges with a mass group of pardons and the commutation of 14 sentences. so, we now have our question answered. if he is going to make a distinction between the violent offenses that we saw with our own eyes that were seen around the world on january 6th, versus the people who just happened to be sort of standing around. he treated everyone the same. so that certainly at the end of this day, he was speaking out. -- >> jeff, we should point out, i mean, we're talking about the leader of the so-called proud boys enrique tarrio. >> and the oath keepers. >> steward rhodes. stewart rhodes had 18 year sentence. enrique tarrio is already in the process of getting a release or at least has been -- is going to be getting out. i mean, that's extraordinary. he also continued to spread lies that the fbi was behind this

or involved in this in some way. as well as outside agitators, which again is just not the case. >> reporter: you know, it's not the case. and it's likely a good thing that his attorney general nominee pam bondi already had her confirmation hearing this certainly would come up in that and this is something the justice department will have to deal with it. look, this is -- he's also we got an incredible look at his first look at the oval office once again. he said, he was so happy to be back. it's one of the most beautiful places. and then also extraordinary moment in a series of them, he opened the drawer of the resolute desk and pulled out the note from president biden and sort of joked should i read this aloud. it said 47 on it, of course. he is the 47th president. but anderson, just a litany of executive orders, executive actions. but on immigration, those also are very serious. he again has been talking about that all day long and throughout the campaign. largely picking up where he left off.

and declaring a national emergency, declaring the cartels, terrorist organization. leaving the door open to special forces going into mexico. so, on a variety of fronts, making good on what he's been talking about he would do on day one. and now, of course, the levers of government will have to react to all of this. but clearly he's very happy to be back in the oval office and so much different than eight years ago when he walked in for the first time. now he knows exactly what he wants to do. >> yeah. jeff zeleny appreciate it for more on how this january 6th pardons could play out, go to cnn chief legal affairs correspondent paula reed. we'll show you a live picture at some point outside the detention center where if you've been watching our reporting over the months donie o'sullivan, there have been vigils every night by relatives and friends of people who were convicted of crimes on january 6th at the capitol and have been serving time.

they have been gathering every night and obviously there's a celebratory mood as you can see. paula, how immediately is the effect of these pardons? will people be released tonight? will enrique tarrio be released? >> yeah. it's possible. i mean, they're in the process of being released. so that is possible because the pardons in the commutations their impact is immediate. now, if you didn't get a pardon or a commutation, if your case is still pending, those cases are going to be dismissed. now, i expect that will likely happen tomorrow because today is of course a federal holiday. yesterday was one of trump's legal advisers. why are you dismissing the cases? why not give them pardons, too. the adviser suggested giving them a pardon suggests they are somehow guilty. so we would prefer to dismiss these cases. but it's interesting. i will note that those commutations, the folks whose sentence were eliminated instead of getting a full pardon, those are just going to be reviewed. so some of those people still could get pardons.

and in speaking with trump advisers over the past few months about how they are going to make good on this promise to pardon people involved in january 6th, but in the words of president trump, not give relief to those who are, quote, out of control, what kind of process are you going to implement? they told me they didn't want to do the usual case by case assessment because it could take too much time. this is something they wanted to do on day one. so here we're sort of seeing a process. they'll review the commutations. so there could be more january 6th pardons to come. >> so, just in terms of the 14 commutations, it can mean a lot of different things. a reduction of multi- year sentence to serve just another year or whatever or it could be a complete time served and you're out. do we know for all 14? >> well, it's suggestive right now this is as broad as possible. i expect people on the commutation list, based on what president trump said, he did get a few things wrong, it's been a long day for him. but

based on what he said and what we're reading we expect their sentences will be eliminated. they would be released from jail but they would still have that conviction on their record. but those are being reviewed. we're talking about people like stewart rhodes, one of the people who received a commutation, leader of the oath keepers. he was sentenced to 18 years in prison and was found guilty of seditious conspiracy by a jury. but it's interesting as a commutations are, the people who received pardons are also quite surprising. you already mentioned mr. tarrio but the group of people who already received pardons from trump and vice president vance suggested that they were not going to give clemency to people who were violent offenders but the group that got pardons includes individuals like julian khater, assaulted a u.s. police officer, brian sicknick and pled guilty to assaulting a police officer with a dangerous weapon. devlin tomson an the florida man who attacked police with a fire extinguisher, wooden plank and a pole. as jeff zeleny was saying

earlier, probably a good thing his attorney general nominee already had her confirmation hearing. but his fbi pick, kash patel and his deputy attorney todd blanche will likely face questions about these pardons. >> paula reed, thank you. our senior reporter, fact checked some of what we heard from president trump and there was certainly a lot. daniel, what stands out to you? >> there were a lot of big lies. he said the u.s. is the only country with birthright citizenship. that's not close to true. at least a couple dozen countries have it, including u.s. neighbors canada and mexico. he said again that the u.s. took hundreds of billions of dollars in from china, thanks to the tariffs he imposed in his first term. that revenue came from u.s. importers pay those tariffs and often pass off the costs to u.s. consumers. he spoke again about how nato, european members of nato, have contributed 200 billion less to ukraine than the u.s. have. in fact, data shows that the european members have

provided tens of billions more aid than the u.s. has. so he has that reversed again. he repeated his assertion that china controls the panama canal. china has influence in the area and china- linked companies operate two ports on the canal, but that canal is operated by the panamanian canal authority, staffed by panamanian employees. exaggeration at least. he repeated that iran had no money for hamas and hezbollah when he was president. in fact, his own administration acknowledged in 2020 that iran continued to fund those terror groups. he said the democrats cheated like dogs. i think he was referring to the 2020 election regardless, not true, no bases for it. repeated something he said earlier today, said the january 6th committee deleted all of the evidence, all of the records, just did not happen. although there is a dispute about the preservation of the some of the data the committee collected. repeated his false claim that former house speaker nancy pelosi supposedly rejected his offer of 10,000 national guard

troops on january 6th. there's no evidence he made an offer to her and he, not the house speaker, had the power to deploy or not deploy the d.c. national guard. he said she admitted she rejected such an offer. certainly has not. and he said at one point talking about trade, he said the european union doesn't take our farm products. according to the u.s. government itself, the eu bought 12.3 billion worth of u.s. farm products in 2023. it was the fourth largest export market for those products. so the idea that the eu is just rejecting u.s. agriculture not true. like a lot of the other stuff not true. >> daniel dell, appreciate it. going to be a long evening. thank you. here with me, senior plit david axelrod, scott jennings and elie honig. david, it was a fascinating window on clearly he's very happy to be back in the oval

office. very happy to be back on tv. you can imagine him saying a lot of those things everyday in mar-a- lago over the last four years to assembled guests time and time again. >> i think also he said, did biden do this? i think he wanted to set a contrast with biden, by going sort of having this rolling press conference. >> we rarely have seen something like that of a president just riffing from the oval office. >> and there's a reason for it because the words of a president can actually send armies marching and markets tumbling and have real consequences. i think look i think it's refreshing for presidents to be -- i mean, i was among those who was critical of the lack of exposure of president biden. and i think it's good for presidents to be exposed. it's better if they tell the truth when they're doing it. and as daniel just said, a lot of that wasn't there.

but we ought to focus on the sort of headline issue here. there are a lot of consequential things he did. but, that ceremony today was in the rotunda of the u.s. capitol. everybody here remembers what happened there four years ago when that mob came through. everybody remembers the gallows. everybody remembers the chants. everybody remembers the assault on 160 police officers. is that the number? and basically he said those people were hostages. i saw him today at his rally in front of a group of families of israeli hostages who were taken by hamas in gaza. and he talked about freeing the january 6th hostages. these are not hostages. these are people who either confessed or were convicted of crimes related to mo rodding

the capitol to try to stop the lawful process of certifying an american election. and the only defense that i can think of for this action today is that those people went there because they were told an abject lie by the president of the united states that the election had been stolen and that something improper was happening. in some ways maybe he -- i'm not suggesting this was his motivation. but you could justify by saying, well, he lied to them and tricked them into going there under false pretenses because they thought it was their patriotic duty. so, maybe they should get some consideration. many of them said they went there because they went there because he told them to do that. but i'll tell you one of the consequences of this if you're -- if people are told that you can engage in rioting, insurrections, attack police officers and so on and the president of the united states will call you hostages and free

you, it's a hell of a way to start the next four years. >> yeah. look, i was prepared for shock and awe. this is just shock and awful as far as i'm concerned. i mean, if david is 100% right. this could be interpreted by some people as a green light for right wing political violence. that's not his intention, but it could be interpreted that way. why do you put people in jail? three reasons. incapacitate dangerous people. punch people for doing bad stuff and deter people from doing the same thing again. it looks like the federal government is no longer in the deterrence business when it comes to right wing political violence. that is scary to me. i'm a criminal justice fanatic. but usually when somebody comes out of prison, it's not right after they beat up a cop. maybe they did something else. and there's some idea that they

confessed. they've apologized. they've rehabilitated themselves. they've done some action and then we say, now you get a second chance. this is a very dangerous thing to happen tonight, among many others, this is not shock and awe, this is shock and awful. >> i want to go to cnn's kaitlan collins who is standing by. kaitlan, just it's been an extraordinary day so far. >> reporter: hi, anderson. can you hear me? >> yep. >> i'm here at the ball. i just rushed over from the white house down the street. no easy feat in this traffic for the inauguration. obviously there are a lot of supporters of the president that are gathered here. i just want to note, as we're watching all this play out. we just saw trump giving that lengthy press conference inside the oval office for about 45 minutes. he made a lot of news there and a lot of headlines. i want to get reaction tonight from new jersey democratic senator cory booker, who if you were watching trump's

augural address was sitting in the front row. i was keeping an eye on your reaction to some of the lines to trump's speech. can you first give a reaction to what he had to say today? >> you know, again, it's a moment of where we have the peaceful transfer of power. and i thought there was a lot of dignity and respect on that stage, seeing former presidents, the supreme court, it should be normally a joyous moment. i could not help but be under that great dome and not think about four years earlier where there were these horrific violent acts taking place. and that he was not there for joe biden's inauguration. and so, again, i'm looking forward to getting to work given what we have. but, his first actions as president haven't done what he promised voters he would do, hasn't lowered the prices of groceries, hasn't made housing more accessible, hasn't created more jobs, hasn't made

people's lives easier. when it comes to the financial burdens he said he would address. what i have seen, though, is pardons. pardoning people who beat police officers to pardon the person who beat brian sicknick, later died, succumb to his injuries is to me a horrific act. there were people running for their lives on that day. there were people threatening to kill our vice president who had to be taken out for his own safety and security. so his beginning in terms of his promises that he made, in terms of remembering what happened in this hallow capitol, sacred civic space, cast a big shadow over today's operations. look, we have work to do. because americans are hurting. and a lot of people put their trust in him that he would do something about it. well, right now, he unfortunately has

pardoned police killers. people -- five police officers died that day. and i'm just deeply disappointed and angry that that's how he's decided to begin. >> reporter: are you surprised by how broad the scope of these pardons are? because trump -- some advisers have been urging him to take this on a case by case basis, but when you look at the actual text of this executive order, it's about 14 people whose sentences he commuted but he made clear pardons are still on the table potentially for them under further review. and then every other people who was convicted for offenses related to that day got a pardon. and everyone who has a pending indictment or a case making its way through the courts he is urging his attorney general to dismiss or directing his attorney general to dismiss them. i mean, that includes enrique tear row, the former leader of the proud boys. convicted of seditious conspiracy. what does it say that that was wiped clean tonight? >> you know, i've gotten to

know a lot of the capitol police officers here. and not only were they mourning for a long time the deaths of many of their colleagues who died in injuries related to that day, but there were many of them that were severely injured, had eyes gouged and hurt, had bruises and other injuries that kept them out of work for many, many months. and it just flaunts their service and their dedication that right now people who are in effect beaters and ultimately with the result of the deaths, people that were out to kill police officers. this is a stunning dereliction of duty, as well as undermining of our justice system because these folks were not put in jail by joe biden. these folks had due process. they were tried in front of a jury of their peers, in open court, and they were convicted, as you said, many of

them for years for their violent actions against police officers for the threatening seditious threatening to overthrow the government of the the united states of america. and again, i heard -- >> reporter: senator -- >> go ahead. >> reporter: can i ask you because on that point, i want to get you to respond to this because what i'm already hearing from people who worked for trump and are his allies is that there's really no leg for the democrats don't have a leg to stand on because president biden leaving today, you know, issued a raft of pardons including for his own family members and his sister and brothers and their spouses and then also for an activist, an elderly activist who is convicted of killing two fbi agents. chris wray did not want him to commute that sentence that president biden did today. they say that doesn't give democrats an argument here as to criticize these pardons. what is your response to that? >> i think that's a mistake we're seeing now, people trying to reduce this to

tribalism. it's -- this is not about democrat or republican. you know, joe biden pardoned a lot of people. yeah, he should answer for that. and explain what he did in his reasoning. but the people he pardoned, his family members, did not before the naked public eye beat police officers, try to overthrow our government, lead to the death of police officers and have injuries, scars both visible and invisible on police officers that are still affecting their lives today. this is not about left or right in our country. we can't just say this is a tit for tat or their side did it so my side can do it. no, this is about the values and principles that we should all be looking to uphold. the institutions of our government themselves that these people on that day tried to overthrow. let's stop with the rank partisanship. the president of the united states of america has just pardoned people who physically attacked, violently led to the death of officers like

sicknick and we should be talking about that. >> reporter: senator cory booker, thank you for your time tonight. anderson, back to you. >> kaitlan, with me now is massachusetts democratic senator elizabeth warren. let me ask you about what you think of these pardons and commutations of the january 6th -- >> well, it atakes the very foundation of our democracy because it tries to whitewash what was clearly an insurrection. people died from that. property was destroyed. people were injured. police officers trying to defend the democratic process. died.

>> i think it was a double message. one message is pay to play. front and center right there. it's going to work for the billionaires. oh, yeah, donald trump made a lot of promises while he was running. and he said he was really going to help out american families. american families have a lot to complain about. on how expensive life has become. on how challenging it has become. but he gave that whole speech today and boy he wanted to talk about renaming the gulf of mexico and he wanted to talk about taking back the panama canal. but where was the discussion of housing prices? where did he really talk about

what he wants to do on healthcare? where was he even stomping about the junk fees that people have to live with and the way they're fleeced by giant financial companies? none of that. so flood the zone with everything else but the very heart of what the american voter told us they wanted, that is someone who would fight for them and fight for their economic security, just wasn't there. >> when he first came to the white house, 2016, there was a lot of questions about, okay, he's going to hand over his businesses to his sons, whatever. >> yep. >> now he released a meme coin the day before, yesterday, his wife, the first lady, released one i guess this morning today, obviously there's questions about the crypto industry. which the government will have a role in deciding the regulation of it. is this a complete conflict of interest? >> of course it is. but look, we used to talk about

transparency how we want transparency in government on the notion that if it was out in public, if there was sunshine on it, then our elected officials would behave appropriately, government would behave appropriately. this is transparent corruption. it's just right out there for everybody to see. you want to influence donald trump? help make him richer. influence melania trump, make her richer. you no longer have to sign up at the trump hotel. you just actually come in and make a purchase right online. that is a corruption that runs so deep and runs to the heart of not just donald trump but the entire administration. that combined with all those billionaires lined up in the front row, just tells you this is an administration determined to make life better for billionaires. and you know who is going to pay for that, everybody else.

>> donie o'sullivan is outside the d.c. jail where families and friends and supporters of the pardoned january 6th defendants are gathered expecting their release. i just want to go to him. if we can play this to the room. i don't know if you have an ifb. >> i can hear. >> go ahead. can you talk about what's going on there? >> reporter: incredible scenes. we have done a few stories over the past few months from this jail. there's a lot of families, friends, supporters of these january 6th prisoners gathered up here. they are receiving calls from people in prisons across the country. and there are a number of dozen or so inmates in this -- in the d.c. jail, including rachel powell, who is a mom and grandmother that we featured on ac360 who was sentenced to several years in prison. she broke a window at

the capitol with a pick ax. she actually just called us in the last few minutes from inside the jail. she says they're hoping to get out tonight. they're excited. the news has trickled into the jail. and they want to get out tonight. i got to say, anderson, you know, from speaking to these activists over the last few months, they always said they wanted this to happen. that they wanted everybody pardoned, violence, nonviolence, proud boys, oath keepers, everyone on down. but i don't think many of them really believed truly in their wildest dreams that trump would do this. i think there was a nervousness. this was -- that maybe he might succumb to some of the political pressure from even within the republican party not to pardon the violence, people who even attacked police officers, people who engaged in conspiracy. but it seems as though everybody, at least the dreams of folks here tonight are coming true. so folks are here.

they're waiting to receive prisoners who may be coming out any minute now. >> we'll come back to you. just hearing that. stewart rhodes was sentenced to 18 years. enrique tarrio, head of the so- called proud boys, 22 years. i mean, did you believe that this might happen, that those two serving those kind of sentences would be released? >> no. but i think tonight about the families of the police officers who were killed. i think tonight about the police officers that we've met who helped protect us in the capitol. and the ones who were beaten, the ones who feared for their lives. i think about what it means for them. yeah, there's a group of folks outside celebrating. but i don't think they're celebrating tonight. >> what role do you see democrats playing now? there's not a leader of the democratic party

officially. is that a problem? what is your job now? what is the role here? >> my job is the same as my job as always been. i took an oath to uphold the constitution of the united states. it's advise and consent on the nominees. and that means we do as much as we can for accountability, as much as we can to try to bring to the american people what is happening right now in washington. and to put that information in front of them. and to keep pointing out what is also not happening. like i said, this is a moment of flood the zone. there's so much to look at. but it's the promises that were made that aren't being kept tonight. the promises that people's lives were actually going to get better. that people were going to be more secure financially. that people could count on a government that didn't work for a handful of billionaires but that worked for them. and those promises have been left in the dust.

>> the last minute pardons by then president biden to his family members, you know, there were pardons earlier this morning, which were reported on, but these last-minute pardons he chose to make at the last minute when there wouldn't be as much attention obviously and wouldn't overshadow the ride to the capitol. was that a mistake? >> look, the president -- president biden should answer for himself. but it's a sad day in america when someone leaving the office has to look around and say am i facing a new president and a new administration who is going to come after my family just because they're my family? that's going to come after people i love just because i love them? not because they're accused of any crimes. not because they've done anything wrong. but just because they're the

people i care about. and ever since donald trump has said a big part of his argument for being president is that it would be about retribution, it would be about vengeance and he used it today. there he is. making his speech after he's ÷÷been inaugurated as president. and it's still full of how he was wronged and he was the one who was mistreated. dang, guy. you were just elected president of the united states and just sworn in. come on. enjoy the moment. but, no. it's about how he has been mistreated and he will get even. that's not how we run a government and make it work. this is not about personal vengeance. we run a government to make it work for people. that's how it's supposed to be in a democracy. >> senator elizabeth warren, thank you for your time. appreciate