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it's tuesday, january 21st, right now on "cnn this morning. " >> from this day forward, our country will flourish and be respected again all over the world. >> promising a new golden age of prosperity, donald trump issuing a dizzying array of executive orders on day one of his second term. plus -- >> this is a big one. they've been in jail a long time. these people have been destroyed. >> unconditional pardons for january 6th convicts. president trump ending the cases for hundreds involved in the capitol insurrection. and mass deportations set to begin as the president dashes the hopes of thousands who have been making their way to the southern border. all right. it is 5:00 a.m. here on the east coast. a live look at the

capitol dome. the ib nauguration, of course, unfolding underneath that dome yesterday. donald trump now president. good morning. i'm kasie hunt. it's wonderful to have you with us. shock and awe, liberation day, flooding the zone. donald trump's allies calling the first day of his newest term just the beginning, setting the stage for what the next four years will look like. >> so help me god. >> so help me god. >> congratulations, mr. president. >> president trump starting a second but non- consecutive term with what he calls a mandate from the voters. he also says he thinks he got some help from above. >> just a few months ago, in a beautiful pennsylvania field, an assassin's bullet ripped through my ear. but i felt then and believe even more so now that my life was saved for a reason. i was saved by god to make america great again.

[ applause ] >> the president wielding that mandate and a sharpie, signing a title wave of executive orders in his initial hours as president. he made sure to turn it into a production. there were signings at the capitol building, in the oval office, and at the arena that was packed with supporters, cheering him on. he threw pens at one point into the seats like you might t- shirts at a baseball game. those executive orders doing everything from rescinding 78 biden- era policies to hitting the culture war and immigration issues that animated his campaign. >> the next item here is the withdrawal from the paris climate treaty. protecting women from radical gender ideologies. >> it will henceforth be the official policy of the united states government that there are only two genders, male and female. you'll have 100% tariff. if they so much as even

think about doing what they thought. >> this is an executive order designating the cartels and other organizations to be foreign terrorist organizations. >> that's a big one. >> among the loudest cheers for any of his orders yesterday, the sweeping pardons and commutations that practically wiped out or commuted every sentence handed out for the january 6th capitol attack. roughly 1,500 convictions, plea deals, and pending cases gone with the stroke of a pen. >> tonight, i'm going to be signing on the j- 6 hostages, pardons to get them out. these people have been destroyed. what they've done to these people is outrageous. there's rarely been anything like it in history, in the history of our country. >> joining us now, cnn political analyst, washington bureau chief for "the boston globe. " good

morning. thank you for being here, jackie. >> of course. >> let's talk about the january 6th note, then we can talk about other things he did yesterday. but this pardon and on commutation was sweeping, as much as it could be. in many cases, these are people who violently assaulted police officers on that day, but it is something he pledged to follow through on for his supporters. what does it say about where we are? >> i think we were waiting to see how sweeping this would be throughout yesterday. because there was an understanding throughout the campaign that this was something that he was going to do, but i think the breadth of it everyone surprised someone like jd vance, who had said publicly that he didn't think the violent offenders would receive clemency. i think he's trying to reset the record and, frankly, history, of what happened on that day, which he has described as a day of love. you know, it was not. >> yeah, i think it is worth noting that the reaction

of some of these, we had michael fanone on the air last night talking about what this meant for him. he was a metropolitan police officer who was injured on that day. i know that many, at least one of the police officers that was there who has, you know, occasionally talked to the media, feels too emotional to even come and talk about it today. that, of course, one of his day one items, but there were a number of others. the paris climate accords. >> yeah. >> also, there were a number of immigration- related actions. waiting to see what exactly the federal government is going to go with that. one of the biggest pieces was the shutting down immediately of what's known as the cbp- 1 app that lets people apply for asylum from outside of the country. what stood out to you among trump's other executive actions out of the gate. >> you mentioned that. there is also the refugee resettlement, which has been paused. there were -- i mean, beyond immigration, you had this executive order that allows

him to grant top secret security clearances to anyone for six months. the general council is able to do that. really, this touched kind of every part of the executive branch and beyond, and we'll have to see. also, he said he was going to end birthright citizenship. there's going to be many lawsuits, you would imagine, with several other of these things that he signed. some of these, yes, it can go into effect. it can repeal all of biden's. others, there will be challenges. you can't just wipe that away with the stroke of a pen. >> right. there are limitations to the pen and the phone. >> yes. >> compared to doing things with congress. honestly, you know, one of the rituals of a president coming in has become getting rid of all the executive actions or many of the executive actions that were taken by his predecessor, right? trump is not the first person to do this upon taking office. >> but it is recent that the executive order becomes a day one thing. if you go back, obama did

it, but they were fewer and fewer and fewer. biden was more than before. this is the most. so this has become a rite of passage, but it wasn't always that way. >> it is important that you do point that out. part of it is because it is so hard to get anything through congress. >> right. >> presidents have struggled about that. let's talk briefly about the address. it feels like it was hours and hours ago because of how long yesterday's festivities endures, but peter baker wrote this in "the new york times," about what the address felt like. obviously, it was held inside the capitol rotunda, a different setting than what we're normally used to. mr. trump, he writes, spoke of national unity but made no nod toward democrats in the speech and offered no thanks to mr. biden, as other presidents have done for their predecessors. the 60th inauguration took on a feel of the state of the union address, as republicans applauded particular plans announced by the new president, while apparently uncomfortable.

>> it was magnified because it was in a small room. in the state of the union, as peter baker points out, democrats are in the shot. usually, with an inauguration, everyone is very spread out. the camera can get there, but, you know, it's not as evident and not as close. yes, you really did, you saw vice president harris kind of stone faced. other democrats were squirming in their seats as he was taking it to an administration that he spent the campaign trail lambasting. you always know with president trump that it is going to be different, and it was. >> it was indeed. jackie kucinich, thank you for starting us off. >> thank you. ahead, president trump's attempt to end birthright citizenship. plus, first cabinet official confirmed by the senate on day

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president donald trump making good on his first day promises. one, issuing pardons for more than 1,000 people charged in the january 6th, 2021, attack on the u.s. capitol, and commuting the sentences of 14 others, which include a founder and former leader of two of the far- right extremist groups, the proud boys and the oath keepers. the move puts an end to the justice department's four- year effort to hold these people accountable. it became the largest criminal probe in american history. more than 140 police officers were injured during the attack on the capitol, and nine people directly or indirectly

died as a result. >> these are the approximately 1,500 for a pardon. >> yes. >> full pardon. >> commutations, or both? >> full pardon. this is a big one. anything you want to explain about this? we hope to get -- we hope they come out tonight, frankly. >> trump also directed the dismissal of the roughly 300 pending cases related to january 6th. joining us now, congressional reporter for "the hill," mychael schnell. good morning. >> good morning. >> what has been the reaction so far to this? we heard jd vance earlier in the month say that he didn't expect violent offenders to be pardoned. let's just play what mike johnson, the speaker of the house, had to say about this on "meet the press" on sunday. let's watch. >> mr. speaker, do you believe that someone who assaulted a

law enforcement officer on january 6th deserves a pardon? >> no. i think what the president said and vice president elect jd vance has said is peaceful protesters should be pardoned, but violent criminals should not. that's a simple determination. >> turns out, they're all being pardons. >> let's look at the numbers here, right? trump in the oval office said he granted a full, unconditional pardon to 1,500 january 6th rioters. 1,583 were charged since january 6th. there's really no daylight between those numbers, indicating the vast majority of the folks who breached the capitol and went into the building violently were charged. this did not come as a surprise in d.c. of course, this is something that trump has been teasing for a while. it was one of his top campaign promises. going so far as to say he'd do this on day one. there is going to be a ton of outrage. i'm interested in speaking with people who served on the january 6th committee, who

spent tireless months going through the insurrection and watching what happened and piecing together the details. let's note the split screen, kasie. the pardon trump issued came hours after former president biden now issued the pardons for members and staff on the january 6th select committee. january 6th was four years but clearly the effects are reverberating throughout washington. >> let's sir cal circle back to what donald trump had to say the day after january 6th. this was january 7th of 2021. let's watch. >> i would like to begin by addressing the heinous attack on the united states capitol. like all americans, i am outraged by the violence, lawlessness, and mayhem. the demonstrators who infiltrated the capitol have defiled the seat of american democracy. to those who engaged in the acts of violence and destruction, you do not represent our country. and to those who broke the law, you will pay.

>> to those who broke the law, you will pay, he says. i think the thing that i still am struggling to wrap my head around, obviously, january 6th itself has become such a political kind of litmus test, that this is now a republican party that is saying, oh yeah, you want to assault the cops? we'll forgive you for that because of why you did it. >> yeah. it's almost one of the boxes you have to check. it's the whitewashing of the -- the attempt to whitewash what happened on that day. everyone watched. it was a violent mob of pro-trump protesters who stormed the building. look, i spoke to lawmakers about this split screen yesterday. i was talking to madeleine dean, congresswoman from pennsylvania. she was in the camber on january 6th, 20 21. i asked her, how did it feel to sit in the capitol rotunda for trump's inauguration, four years after you were in that house chamber when the mob was unleashed? >> and blood was being smeared on the

statutes. >> yeah. and watching him now be reinstated to that office. she said, you know, it was difficult but thought it was important she showed up. she wanted to show the resiliency of congress, of herself, of the democratic party. i think this is a theme that we may see throughout the trump administration. democrats may not agree with what's going on, but they're going to stand up to it because they want to show that they, you know, are resilient. that's the word that madeleine dean used a few times. they are resilient and willing to stand up to what's going on. >> all right. mychael schnell for us this morning. thanks very much for your reporting. appreciate it. >> thanks. coming up after the break, donald trump, president donald trump finishing what he started, withdrawing the u.s. from the world health organization, something he tried to do before he first left office. plus, the justice department's four- year probe into the 2021 attack on the capitol basically wiped out, as trump pardons thousands of january 6th rioters. >> you know, it is action, not words, that count, and you're going to see a lot of

action on the j- 6 hostages.

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23 minutes past the hour, here's your morning round-up. >> the nomination of the great senator, marco rubio from the state of florida, is confirmed. >> marco rubio becoming the first high- level trump cabinet official to be approved by the senate. the florida senator assuming the role of secretary of state after an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote, a unanimous vote, 99-0. no senators voted against the nomination of one of their own. not quite a day one initiative, but as previously promised, president trump is considering 25% tariffs on canada and mexico february 1st. during an oval office signing yesterday, trump said it is because the two countries are letting drugs and migrants from the u.s. the move could end up

raising prices for americans. and this -- >> so we paid $500 million to world health when i was here, and i terminated it. >> president trump pulling the united states out of the world health organization. the order states that it is because of the organization's handling of the pandemic. he tried to do away with it back in the summer of 2020 during the height of the covid- 19 pandemic. that move was halted by the biden administration. all right. ahead here on "cnn this morning," president trump issuing that pile of executive orders on immigration, creating chaos and confusion for thousands of migrants and at least one democratic governor. plus, the new president taking on what he calls the weaponization of government against the american people. >> in america, we believe in free speech, and we're bringing it back starting today. to stop the weaponization. oh, do i know about that.

all right. it is 5:29 here on the east coast. here's a live look at new orleans, where it is 4:29 a.m. apparently, they're expecting some snow in new orleans. we think it is unusual here in washington, d.c. it is even more unusual there. good morning, everyone. i'm kasie hunt. wonderful to have you with us. president trump launching his second term in the white house with a series of sweeping executive actions on immigration. on day one, he declared a national emergency at the southern border. he immediately ended the use of an app called cbp-1. that allows migrants to enter the u.s. legally.

and he attempted to end birthright citizenship. the challenge there is that is a right guaranteed by the constitution. >> i made it my number one issue. they all said inflation was the number one issue. i said, i disagree. i think people coming into our country from prisons and from mental institutions is a bigger issue for the people that i know. >> the actions by the president having an immediate impact on thousands of migrants that are currently making the trek to the southern border. some people arriving on monday only to find their previously set immigration appointments were gone. >> translator: it was a very hard announcement because it means that our hopes to be able to achieve our dreams right now are over. in other words, with this closure, it was the only way we had a way to legally reach the united states. now, the sacrifice we made to leave our countries has been completely in vain. we had to go through many countries to get there.

this has been a very, very, very hard blow. >> president trump also disbanding a task force created by president biden to reunite families separated at the border during trump's first term. let's bring in political analyst ron brownstein. good morning. wonderful to see you. >> good morning. >> you have a major piece coming out on cnn. com that looks at how the map, the electoral map has been fundamentally reshaped in recent years. this issue of immigration, it's a big part of that map. i mean, this is an issue that americans essentially said, while we don't trust democrats on this anymore, it was part of why they sent trump back to the white house. how do you understand what trump is doing here? because, honestly, you ask about the details sometimes. they raise, you know, concerns.

but polling shows that, for example, if you ask people, do you support mass deportations, a lot of them, including a lot of democrats, will say, yes, they do. >> yeah. i actually think immigration is a really good -- good morning, first of all -- a really good encapsulation of the overall situation trump finds himself in as he comes back for the second term. as we talked about before, i think the widespread discontent over biden's results, the sense that biden did not deliver basically the country people hoped they were getting when they elected him, has opened trump -- has opened a wider audience to trump than he had in 2017. there are more americans willing to hear what he has to say and assess what, you know, he is doing. it is very similar, as we talked about, to the situation ronald reagan inherited because of jimmy carter. in fact, the great scientist noted it is common throughout history that presidents with

the greatest ability to reshape the map are those who follow presidents who are viewed as failing. i think immigration captures, though, the opportunity and the risk for trump. there is a lot of room for him to toughen enforcementenfor cement the border in a lot of different ways because of widespread sense in the public that biden mismanaged the border. and there is probably room for him to remove a lot of people, people with criminal records, but the risk, kasie, is very real, that he will go too far and provoke a backlash. the polling on mass deportation is complex and often contradictory, but i think it is unlikely, given what we saw in his first term, that there would be sustained public support for widespread deportation that separates a family or removes people who are here for a long time without any criminal record. it really is the question, you know. as i said before, reagan seized the opportunity that carter created for him to speak

to an audience far beyond the traditional republican base. based on what we saw in the transition, and certainly the pardon of january 6th and a lot of else that happened yesterday, it's really unclear whether trump has either the skill or the inclination to speak to that broader audience that is now clearly open to him. >> ron, can you talk a little bit about that, actually? because you talk about these 25 trump states. you talk about how this started in the reagan era. but as you point out, the way that reagan -- i mean, his victory in 1984 was stunningly sweeping, right, after four years of governing the country. trump has a different experience, yet what he has brought together may be more durable, you seem to write. do i have that correct? help us understand it. >> it is more consolidated i think is the word i'd used. basically, if you look at the recent map, the trump- era political map, there are now 25 states that he has won all

three times he has run. that is the most states that either party has won in three consecutive elections since reagan and bush ran in the '80s. their victories were more sweeping. reagan and bush got -- h.w. bush got over 50% of the vote and over 400 electoral college votes, peaking with ronald reagan getting almost 60% of the vote in 49 states in 1984. trump, obviously, hasn't built a coalition anywhere near that expansive, has never won a majority of the popular vote, though he did win a plurality this time. what he has done, though, to a greater extent than was possible for weigh reagan and bush is solidify the republican hold. 54% of the vote in all of them except north carolina. if you look at the vote cast, he reached 60% of the vote among men in all of them,

except for two. republicans now hold 22 of their 25 governorships. republicans hold every state legislature if you count nebraska, which is officially non-partisan but republican controlled. maybe most controlled and striking, republicans now hold all 50 senate seats in these 25 states, whereas democrats held eight of them as recently as late 2017. so what trump has done is really tighten the grip on these republican states. they cut a common profile, kasie. they tend to have more white christians, fewer immigrants. more manufacturers, less computer engineers. more rural residents, fewer college graduates. it is a nation within a nation, and he has built his, you know, solidified his grip on it. i think democrats recognize they have to find a way to compete in them -- not necessarily to win the white house, but to exercise power at any other

level, especially in the senate. as i said, trump's opportunity now is to go way beyond this. people around him are envisioning, you know, how do we turn minnesota, new hampshire, virginia? the question is whether his inclinations, his skills, his agenda are really oriented toward holding those voters who came to him largely out of disillusionment with what theythey out of biden. >> ron, that's kind of what i was going to ask you. you know, you've been doing this a lot longer. it was really interesting to see you on in the hour before we were on at 4:00 a.m. yesterday, talking about how you were at the inauguration in 1985. that was inside. but, i mean, i remember when george w bush was president, there was a book called "what's the matter with kansas" by thomas frank. there was this perception that the country was going to be red forever. republicans were going to be in control. democrats didn't know how to get it back. then along comes barack obama. i covered, like, basically a 60- seat majority in the senate for democrats.

is this something where the pendulum is just going to swing back again, or do you think it is more permanent? >> well, there are no final victories in american politics, right? i think, you know, nothing lasts forever. i mean, i coined the blue wall in 2009. obviously, trump broke michigan, pennsylvania, and wisconsin out of the blue wall, and joe biden was only temporarily able to kind of cement it back. very similar, again, to carter's experience after the two nixon elections had shattered the new deal coalition, and carter in '76 seemed to put it back together with enough white southerners and blue collar midwesterners to win. over his four years, it crumbled again, and reagan put together a coalition that lasted until bill clinton. i think what, you know -- so there are no permanent victories in american politics. parties overreach all the time. trump was hired to do one job above all, which is get americans' cost of living under

control. there's always been a question about whether his agenda, other than his argument about increasing energy production and lowering energy prices, whether his agenda will advance that goal or make it harder because of tariffs and mass deportation. "wall street journal" survey of economists published sunday night predicted that inflation will be higher than they expected in 2025 because of trump's agenda. the problem democrats have, though, is that, you know, all of the cultural arrows in these 25 states kind of point against them at this point. while they can win the white house without them, at least through 2028, you know, before the next reapportionment , all other elements of political power, as i say here, basically ceding half the states in the country before you start, you know, it's very hard to build a majority. i think there are a variety of democrats who recognize that the party ultimately has to find a way to crack some of these states. north carolina certainly foremost on that list. >>

yeah. >> but is there anywhere else? can they get back in the game in texas where they were gaining ground until the biden presidency? can they get back in the game in iowa? utah is a state which has not been particularly amenable to trump style republicanism. could an independent candidate, not a democrat, begin to compete there? what trump has done is really tighten the fist around the places that lean toward the gop when he arrived. that is a formidable base for him, even as you see, i think, the continued evidence that he is, you know, at 78, not going to turn over a new page and suddenly become an inclusive politician. he remains focused on his base and focused on dividing the country in a way that he thinks benefits him. >> well, we certainly saw the initial batch of actions including those pardons yesterday that would seem to underscore the point you're making. ron brownstein, always grateful to have you on the show, sir. thanks so much for being here. >> thanks for having me. ahead here on "cnn this morning," a new champion

crowned in college football. coy wire, not me, is going to show you highlights from the showdown in atlanta in your cnn sports update. plus, donald trump pardoning hundreds of people, many for assaulting police officers during the january 6th riots. the cases that are now wiped out.

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i'm not going to cry about a group of people that don't give a crap about their constituents. i'm not going to sympathize with them. >> that was enrique tarrio, the leader of the proud boys militia group, talking about lawmakers hiding and fearing for their lives as rioters overran the capitol january 6th, 2021. tarrio's group faced some of the most substantial penalties for january 6th related offenses. accused by prosecutors of

spearheading the violence that day, tarrio eventually sentenced to 22 years in prison for seditious conspiracy, one of the longest sentences handed down during january 6th prosecutions. lawyers pointing to the meeting between tarrio and the oath keepers' leader, stewart rhodes, the day before, as a proof of a plot to disrupt the joint session of congress. >> we the people! we the people. [. >> tarrio wasn't at the riot in person that day, as prosecutors showed during his trial. he communicated with members on the ground as the violence unfolded, including one message that read, "proud of my boys and my country. " but now, with the stroke of a pen, with the stroke of president trump's pen, tarrio's lawyer says he is now in the process of getting out of federal prison after receiving a full pardon. tarrio, along with other proud boys and hundreds of

others accused of committing violence, will now have their charges and convictions swept away. police officers who responded to the capitol that day now left grappling with their attackers getting a pass from the returning president. >> this is who we are as a nation. this is what we have become, and it has been further exacerbated by donald trump. as i've said many times before, we are self-centered. we are violent, and we are indifferent to the suffering of our neighbors. >> joining us now to discuss, cnn legal analyst joey jackson. joey, good morning to you. remarkable to lay it all out this way. what was your reaction? i mean, this is the biggest criminal investigation in the justice department's history, and now it's all been

thrown away. >> yeah, kasie, good morning to you. it certainly wasn't a secret being kept by the incoming and now president trump. certainly was not a surprise. having said that, it is a significant blow to our legal system and our legal institutions. you know, we have institutions that prosecute people, and we have juries that convict people. it's not a judge that convicts. it is not a politician that convicts. it's not a prosecutor who runs the agency that convicts. it's a jury, having heard all of the evidence. so as a practitioner and someone who participates in trials, does trials, and who has a great deal of reverence for our legal system, it is concerning. it is upsetting. in many ways, it's disheartening. >> joey, what is your -- is there a difference in your mind between the sort of non- violent offenders here and the

violent ones? then separate from that, a distinction for these convictions on seditious conspiracy charges, does that set a precedent that concerns you? >> so a couple things, kasie. i think the first thing is that every case should be evaluated on its merits and on its facts. yes, there is a place to evaluate cases and to determine whether, factually, they merit either a full pardon or something else known as a computation of a sentence, a reduction of some type. i think there is a place for that. but in doing that, i think you have to parse out and distinguish between violent people who attack police officers, who harmed others, and who certainly engaged in plotting and planning to really overturn a lawfully held election, and to prevent the certification of same. so that's a problem. so, yes, i do think

that, you know, there's certainly a place to look at cases where there may be unjust prosecutions, where there may be prosecutions which are heavy handed, may be prosecutions that have no place. but i think in other circumstances, when you look at people conspiring to upend our democracy, it's really hard to justify. having said that, the presidential pardon authorities engrained in the constitution, as we look there at the numbers, right? nearly 1,600 charged. 300 cases pending. of course, cases we know the president said, you know what, drop those prosecutions. then we look at the convictions. but i just think on balance, to the extent that others who were violently involved, plotted and planned, they were pardons, it is hard to justify. it's disheartening. as a practitioner, it is something that really just demeans institutions and is problematic and unsettling. >> briefly, joey, one of the other things that happened yesterday, it was early,

relatively early in the day so it was lost in some of the news, president biden preemptively pardoned the january 6th committee members and then preemptively pardoned members of his own family. what does that -- have we seen anything like that before? >> so the answer is we have not. certainly, we saw bill clinton pardon his, you know, brother, roger, so we've seen that. i think these preemptive pardons to be used in such a wide and broad- ranging way is unprecedented. yes, everyone will point to 1974 and richard nixon, how he was pardoned by gerald ford, but those were because there were specific crimes he could have been prosecuted for. here, we see blanket pardons being issued for people who could potentially be prosecuted, might be prosecuted, and it speaks to the bizarre world that we're in. you know, having discussions about law, kasie, it is hard to pardon out, excuse the actualactual pun, the issue that deals with

politics, and the issue that deals with people who are vindictive, who can come in and prosecute and upend people's lives and structures. it is troubling to say the least. >> joey jackson for us this morning. sir, very grateful to have you on the show. thanks for being here. >> thanks, kasie. all right. time now for sports. they want me to read a script about ohio state winning a national championship, and i'm not going to do it. go blue. coy wire is our sports reporter and can be unbiased on the matter. good morning. >> good morning. the longest college football season in history is over, and the ohio state buckeyes are the last team standing. notre dame got the scoring started with an epic 18- play, almost 10- minute drive. quarterback riley leonard powering in for the touchdown. after that, it was all ohio state. quarterback will howard leading his team to touchdowns on their first four possessions. they were up 31-7. the irish did fight. they cut the lead to eight late in the fourth. great touchdown catch by jaden

gradehouse. on a crucial third down, ohio state's star receiver freshman, jeremiah smith, came up huge. a 57 yard catch, helping to seal the win. running back judkins scored three touchdowns. ebuka finishes as the buckeyes' all- time leader in receptions. 34-23. ninth win in school history. will howard was named mvp. >> you have to give all the credit in the world to those guys, man. they fought their tails off, and we knew they were going to come give us a fight, man. i wouldn't be here without my teammates, without my family, without everyone that bet on me back in downing town, pennsylvania. man, i'm at a loss for words right now. >> they're my motivation. my family at home, wife and kids, then these guys. it's why i get up in the morning every day, just to try to make sure these guys reach their dreams and goals. that's all it comes down to. shows an example, when things are hard in life, you keep swinging and fight.

that's our culture. >> i was on the field, k kasie, when the confetti was coming down, and caught up with the buckeyes' stars. listen. >> this is what a player dreams of, to be in the national championship game. not only getting to experience it, but you're making plays in the game. just a big thanks to my teammates and coaches for helping me be in that position to execute. >> how do you sum up what it took to be a champ, champ? >> i can't put into words. it's the best 2350e8 feeling. i'm thankful god put us in the ability to do this. >> last time putting the jersey on as a buckeye, but the four years i spent here, i wouldn't change a thing. >> check this out, back on campus in columbus, look at these students and fans. out in the streets around ohio stadium just after the buckeyes won. then they broke down down a gate, made their way onto the field. no arrests. no injuries reported. life is good for the

buckeyes. >> coy, can i just jump in here? >> absolutely. >> this is a team, their legislature wants to ban planting flags at midfield, okay? they lost to michigan on that field. whatever, i don't have any patience for this. continue. i know you have more highlights. >> that is such a good point. >> keep going. anyway. >> you will still have the win over them. >> i hope you had fun at the game. i appreciate it. >> i've got some confetti in my pocket for phil hatingly. mattingly. he's a happy boy. >> certainly is. congrats to him. only him. anyway, coy, thank you. >> you got it. >> appreciate it. coming up next here on "cnn this morning," the trump white house taking the upper hand in the culture wars. the first power moves that trump is making on topics like gender and diversity. plus, the new president's flurry of executive orders just hours after taking the oath of office. >> former president obama was there. george bush seemed kind

of there. even mike pence showed up, i guess to let the crowd finish the job. only michelle obama seemed to have the consistent ethical stance of saying, when they go low, i stay the [ bleep ] home.

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