nation. thanks for america's democracy. and to, quote, seek god's guidance in the years ahead. cnn's alayna treene is live right outside at the washington national cathedral. elena, what will we see during this service? >> well, pamela, we actually just learned that donald trump is on his way here now for that service. both he and some of his family members, but also the family of jd vance, the vice president, are expected to attend the service. i'm also told that the presidential inaugural committee has invited several members of donald trump's cabinet, incoming administration. now, administration officials, i should say, as well as different lawmakers. we haven't seen any of them yet. i'm told they should be pulling up directly to the church momentarily. i have seen some faith leaders, including ralph reed, someone who is a close ally of donald trump. he leads the faith and freedom coalition, but still waiting to see some of the big names from yesterday and who was attending

today. now, one thing i just want to talk about regarding this service, as you mentioned, they are dubbing it a prayer for the nation, the episcopal church, the washington cathedral behind me is not related with any party. they do this, of course, as is tradition, they do this every day after the inauguration, going back to 1933. we also know that donald trump and former presidents were just here less than two weeks ago. for jimmy carter's funeral. so back here again today for this. but one thing that's interesting and noteworthy, pamela, is just some of the opposing views between this church behind me and donald trump. we know the episcopal church has said very frequently that they are welcoming and openly embrace immigrants and refugees. obviously, yesterday we saw donald trump sign a series of executive orders on immigration, including one that declared a national emergency at the border. they also the episcopal church is very open and welcoming to the lgbtq community. that is something

they have repeatedly tried to stress in recent years. yesterday, again, we also saw donald trump sign an executive order declaring that the u.s. government only has two genders, female and male. so just something to keep in mind. some of the dynamics at play as we await donald trump's arrival. >> and what else is on the schedule for president trump today? his first full day back in office? >> that's right. so after he wraps up with this service today, he's going to go back to the white house, we're told, where he will meet with several congressional leaders, including house speaker mike johnson and the senate majority leader john thune, among others. and then later today as well, we actually got a preview of this from karoline leavitt. she's the the white house press secretary, she said during her first interview as press secretary this morning that she will not be giving a press briefing today, but that we will hear from donald trump, who is expected to make some sort of big announcement. her words on

infrastructure this afternoon. so, you know, just something to note there. it's kind of reminiscent. it reminds me back when i was covering donald trump's first term, his first administration, there were several weeks that they had dubbed infrastructure week. now we are expected to hear today some sort of infrastructure announcement. the white house is saying, and of course, we have to add, they are. the trump administration is expected to sign several more executive orders. we obviously saw a flurry of them yesterday, more than 200 different orders that donald trump signed on day one. still more to come today. today i'm told. pamela. >> all right. alayna treene, thanks so much. and with us now is cnn political analyst julian zelizer. he is a historian and professor at princeton university, also joined today by cnn senior political analyst ron brownstein. he is a senior editor at the atlantic. so, julian, we just heard elena really lay it out there. but but if you would tell us more about the national prayer service tradition in washington. >> well, it starts in 1933. it's fdr who begins this tradition, franklin roosevelt

at the height of the great depression. it has for a long time it was a nonpartisan event. that's what it was meant to be, a post-inauguration ceremony. but i think in this day and age, not only is everything political, but obviously the connection between religious politics and republican politics has been quite important in the last few decades, and it's been very important to president trump as he built the coalition with traditional republican constituency. >> yeah. tell us more about that, ron. the sort of religious politics, as julian put it, and how that played a role in donald trump's first administration and what we expect in his second administration. now. >> yeah, i mean, what we saw was a very unlikely alliance, you know, a thrice married new yorker who supported legal abortion rights, who was in the tabloids for his romantic exploits while married or not. >> ultimately, you know, convicted of of. uh,

paying hush money to a porn star, ultimately developed an intensely passionate following among white evangelical christians who obviously have moved toward the republican party, really, since jimmy carter's presidency in the in the 1970s in large numbers, but developed in especially profound support for trump. i mean, if you look at the states where that trump has won in all three of his election, in almost all of them, the share of white christians is larger than the national average, and the share of white evangelical christians is especially larger than the national average. they've been shrinking pam as a share of the society nationally, down to about 1 in 7. now. adult americans. but that has contributed to a sense of embattlement and retreat that trump speaks to very directly with that one word at the end of his, you know, at the end of make america great again, a kind of a restoration vision that has really provided him

ironclad support in that community. >> we see here live inside the national cathedral as we wait for president trump to arrive. you see speaker johnson right there who will be meeting with president trump later today, and vice president vance and his wife usha, as well. um, you know, as we watch this and we think about this dynamic, julian, you have president trump about to arrive and the national cathedral church, as you noted, it used to be all nonpartisan. this is an episcopalian church, and it is worth noting the opposing views of this church with the action that trump's administration has taken so far on immigration and lgbtq rights. um, you know, as you pointed out, as ron said, look, this administration trump, for his part, has had significant support from evangelicals and conservative christians. but that's not necessarily the case. julian, among progressive christians not only progressive christians, but i think there are many mainstream christians who are fundamentally at odds

with some of the issues he has pursued in his first term and is talking about pursuing and started on day one, including on immigration, the church, religion has often embodied values that some feel are antithetical to what the administration is trying to do. >> so that disconnect is there. it's important when talking about religion and politics to remember there's a broad world of religion, and the key for president trump is he picks and chooses essentially the parts of a religion that can form a coalition with him. that's what we have seen in the christian community, the jewish community. and he's used those slivers to build something quite formidable on the electoral front. >> i want to play this sound from what we heard from president trump during his inauguration yesterday. let's listen. >> 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. >> that is a message that was certainly appeal to many members of his base. ron. yeah, yeah. >> look, i mean, it it is always a little unnerving to hear a leader believe that they have been personally tapped by god to do anything, but i think, as you say, it is appealing to parts of the base who share this idea that trump is their warrior to reverse all of the trends in american life that they believe have marginalized them or taken us away from the true faith. i mean, that, to me is a dimension of the larger point, you know, which is that i think the evidence is very clear, both from the election results and from post-election polling, that trump to arrives with a broader potential audience than he had the first time. i mean, through american history, presidents who have followed.

six predecessors who were believed to have failed by most of the country have an opportunity to expand their coalition. it was true for roosevelt after hoover. it was certainly true for reagan after carter. and it is true again for trump. after biden. the question really is, does that president have the inclination and the skill to speak to that broader audience? i mean, we saw it with reagan. you know, julian has written about this era. i mean, he won 49 states and 59% of the vote when he was reelected in 84. the question is whether trump has those same inclination and skill. and if you look at day one, the choice to begin his presidency by pardoning or commuting the sentences of people who beat cops, who later died, plus attempting to end birthright citizenship with a stroke of the pen. it suggests that he is someone who is still mostly focused on his own base and his own grievances, and we'll see whether he can take advantage of the very real opportunity that the discontent with biden's record provided him. in the same way that the

discontent with carter is provided to reagan. >> all right. thank you so much. we're just seeing here jd vance, his wife usha, talking to one another as we wait for president trump there to arrive at the national cathedral. thank you so much, julian salazar. ron brownstein, we'll get back to you once that program starts. coming up, president trump pardoned more than a thousand people as we were just hearing from iran charged in the january 6th attack, including rioters who violently assaulted police officers. so what happens now? >> super man, the christopher reeve story. february 2nd on. >> i'm barbara and i'm from saint joseph, michigan. i'm a retired school librarian. >> i'm also a library board trustee, a mother of two and a grandmother of two. about five years ago, i was working full time. i had an awful lot of things to take care of. i needed all the help i could get. i saw the commercials for prevagen. i started taking it and it helped. i was better able to take care of all those

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>> even though you do everything right, you don't always get what you hope for. >> the pit. >> streaming exclusively on max. >> welcome back. this is president trump's first full day back in office for a second term. nonconsecutive tern term. he walked in there to the national cathedral for this prayer service, and he shook speaker johnson's hand at one point. now he is waiting there with first lady melania trump and next to him, jd vance and usha vance as well. this was moments ago when that handshake happened with some lawmakers there as they await for the service, a tradition in washington for the day after the inauguration and just hours into his second term, president trump signed his name and implodes. the largest criminal investigation in u.s. history. the president has granted clemency to more than 1500 people charged in the january 6th, 2021, attack on the u.s. capitol. more than 140 police officers were injured during

the seven hour siege on the capitol. trump's pardons make no distinction between people convicted of violent felonies versus nonviolent demeanors and republican senator thom tillis just told cnn that trump's pardons make capitol hill less safe, that police officers could potentially be assaulted, and there's no consequence. >> i mean, it's pretty straightforward to me. >> thank you sir. senator, can i just ask you, have you talked to any capitol police officers this morning? what is their reaction? >> well, i haven't talked to them. i wouldn't expect them to react because they're professionals. and if they're not happy about it, they will probably say that outside of this building, i would expect a single police officer to say a word about it. um, do you have concerns about the message it sends? uh, well, it's like i said, i think that it it raises, i think, a legitimate safety question here on capitol hill. >> thank you. >> and we're getting another reaction from republican senators on capitol hill. senator lankford, a republican from oklahoma, just telling cnn, quote, i think if you attack a police officer, that's a very serious issue, and they should pay a price for

that. and last night on cnn, we heard from michael fanone, a former district of columbia police officer, who you see highlighted in video as he and other officers tried to block the advance of the mob inside the capitol. fanone suffered a concussion and was attacked with his own taser and went into cardiac arrest. here is his reaction to trump's mass pardon of the rioters. >> i have been betrayed by my country. rest assured, i have been betrayed by my country, and i have been betrayed by those that supported donald trump. tonight, six individuals who assaulted me, uh, as i did my job on january 6th, as did hundreds of other law enforcement officers, will now walk free. >> cnn chief legal affairs correspondent paula reid is here. so tell us more, paula, about some of the people who

received clemency because, you know, before this happened, jd vance, the president's vice president, pam bondi, for her part, they they made it seem like this was going to be limited in scope, but that's not the case. no. >> and in speaking with sources in the trump team, it was clear that they were struggling with how to do this in a nuanced way because speed was their priority. >> they wanted to do this on day one. >> so they said there really was no way to do a case by case assessment. but the clemency that was granted here was more broad than even i expected. so let's go through some of the folks that received pardons. let's start with robert scott palmer. now, he threw a fire extinguisher at a police officer. he also attacked police with a wooden plank and pole. now, we'll keep going down the list here. patrick mccarthy. he assaulted a police officer with a police shield in the tunnel of the capitol. now, the officer he assaulted was daniel hodges, a metropolitan police officer. and then really, probably the biggest surprise on the pardon list was enrique tarrio. he is the leader of the proud boys. he had one of the most significant charges. seditious conspiracy.

what's notable about him is he wasn't actually in dc on january 6th, but he was directing the violence. and that was an example of why it's hard to just make the distinction violent versus nonviolent. but he got a full pardon. now, as we know, 14 people received commutations, which means their sentence is is eliminated. but they're reviewing those cases to possibly give them a pardon. among those you have dominic pezzola. he was. he smashed a window to the capitol with a police riot shield. it allowed the first wave of rioters to enter the building. but then there's also stewart rhodes. he's the leader of the oath keepers. he was also convicted of seditious conspiracy. pamela, it's hard to find kind of the pattern or the rhyme or the reason for who got a commutation as opposed to a pardon, especially when they're pardoning people like enrique tarrio. but these folks still could get a pardon. they're going to do a review process, but this is nowhere near the more nuanced approach that had been signaled by trump at times, and also by vice president vance. >> yeah. and just for our viewers to sort of understand this again, what is the difference between a

commutation that, as you say, eliminates the sentence and a pardon? yeah. >> so if you've been convicted and sentenced and you're in jail for something related to january 6th, if you're pardoned, the conviction is not completely erased from your record. but that is gone and your sentence is is over. it's dismissed. you can walk out of jail and for the rest of your life, if you have to fill out a form and say, have you ever been convicted of a crime, you can put that you were pardoned. a commutation you still have that conviction, but you are no longer serving a sentence. so it means you can walk out of jail, but you no longer you still have that, that conviction. so there are different kinds of clemency. if you want to use the example of hunter biden after he was convicted in one case and pleaded guilty in another, there was an expectation that he could get a commutation. and that's how president biden could get around his promise not to pardon his son, but still protect him from going to federal prison. but of course, he also got a pardon. and these are these are absolute powers that the president has. there's no way to challenge this in court. >> all right, paula reed, thank you so much. you had the pardons from president, former president biden right before he left office. and you have now

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some live pictures here at the national cathedral. you see president trump there with his wife, melania trump, first lady trump, melania trump as this service is national prayer service gets underway for trump's first full day back in office. cnn's alayna treene is live right outside of the washington national cathedral. what will we see during the service today, elena? >> here at the cathedral since 19? >> yes. so, so far, obviously, you can see now donald trump and members of his family. he's joined beside him as first lady melania trump, the second first lady, the second lady usha vance, as well as jd vance, the vice president, as well as several members of their families in attendance. you can see melania trump's father is there. donald trump's sons and daughters. so big family affair. we're also told that there are some administration officials who are in the audience. i spot a couple, stephen chung, among others, who are behind donald trump and his family. i think i see alina habba in the back

near lara trump. i'll just say a big family affair for this second day. this is really the conclusion of the inaugural festivities for donald trump. now the service is being dubbed as a prayer for the nation. the church has made very clear that this type of event is not political to them. it is all about trying to bring together different faith leaders for really the entire nation to see around the inauguration. and of course, as you know, the washington cathedral is really a staple of the washington, dc establishment, also for different administrations. i mean, just two weeks ago, not even two weeks ago, we saw donald trump and several other former presidents come to this cathedral for jimmy carter's funeral. so a big moment today as they're closing this all out. now, i would also just note that, you know what's interesting, just taking into account donald trump's administration and what and, you know, this moment for him at the cathedral behind me and having the service, is that his

administration and the episcopal church actually disagree on several different issues. i mentioned earlier that, you know, they have been very open and welcoming to immigrants and refugees. that is a kind of a staple, a long standing policy of the church. and of course, yesterday we saw donald trump sign a series of executive orders as it relates to immigration, including trying to call a national emergency on the border. and we're also expecting to see some sweeps today of different cities. so just some dynamics playing out in the background on all of that. but right now we are seeing this service, um, you know, donald trump and his family standing there listening to the service. and again, marking a tradition and really the final event for the inauguration this week. pamela. >> all right. thank you so much, elaine. and as this tradition takes place, there is a flurry of activity in the wake of president trump signing executive orders and actions. and at this hour, we're watching for an expected crackdown on undocumented immigrants to begin. city and state leaders across the

country are preparing for a potential wave of mass deportations. president trump is declaring an emergency at the southern border, and says that he is preparing to send troops to. the administration is also shutting down the app that allowed migrants to apply for asylum. let's bring in cnn's priscilla alvarez. priscilla, you have been covering all of this. tell us about what we've seen so far on the immigration front and what we can expect. >> well, what we've seen so far is that. on the ground along the u.s. southern border, what i'm talking about there is that border app. the reason it was important is because it allowed migrants to essentially queue up. they would schedule their appointments to come to a legal port of entry, to try to make a claim for asylum. well, that option is off the table now. and when you compare that with asylum restrictions. asylum is essentially effectively shut down on the u.s. southern border. so this small turning off made a massive change for the lives of many of those who are waiting along the u.s. southern border. now you tick through some of the other ones,

as did elena, for example, the national emergency declaration familiar to what they did in the first term, essentially shoring up the pentagon resources along the u.s. southern border. some other big moves, though, that were resurfacing ideas from the past. birthright citizenship, trying to kick off the process of ending that, we're already seeing legal challenges come in on that front, but that is an extraordinary move, of course, to even try to take that off the books. and then in addition to that, labeling cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, which is something president trump did want to do in his first term, but that didn't come to fruition. and, of course, that is something that could strain the relationship with mexico. now moving forward, we're looking for those interior enforcement actions that they have talked so much about as part of the mass deportation pledge. now, sources i've spoken with say that ice is doing the work today, as it has done before, that they are going after public safety and national security threats. but the framing from trump officials has been essentially that they will have more authority to arrest people, to

arrest those who, while they're doing an enforcement action, they may come across who was not part of their targeted, targeted operation. those types of things are different from the biden administration. so that is where we may see some changes, but still looking for whether there would be massive sweeps or raids. those can often take some time. and remember, pam, the the resources ice has is quite limited. >> right. and it is notable, though, what you laid out. it is already having a direct impact on lives. and you know, when it comes to that app, this was an app that was supposed to allow for the sort of orderly, you know, appointments and entry into the united states under the asylum. and from what i gather, from what i've been reading from some immigration officials, there is concern that perhaps without this app that could lead to, you know, more potentially illegal crossings or smugglers. >> yeah. homeland security officials i've been speaking with say this was part of a broader plan that they had to try to drive down illegal crossings by essentially providing another option for people to legally present to

border authorities. so with that taken away, that has caused concern among some of the officials i'm speaking with that they may start to cross illegally because essentially what they tell me is where else are they going to go if they have been waiting, if they have traversed across latin america to get to that point, it's very unlikely they're going to go back home. now, just to provide some context here, back in 2017, when trump took office, numbers were still pretty low in his first month as smugglers and migrants tried to game out how serious he was about his immigration agenda. and then the numbers started to go up. so that is the caveat to all of this, is that even if some people want to cross, they may still be trying to figure out what it would look like to be in the u.s. under the trump administration. and so we may not see those numbers go up for a little bit of time. but certainly, again, going back to the interior enforcement, which is the fixation of this second term of the trump administration, a lot of these democratic led cities are the ones that are on high alert because they've been called out so many times by the

president or by tom homan. the borders are as places that they want to carry out enforcement actions, because there have been an influx of migrants in those cities. so certainly there is a lot of preparations underway in all of these cities. as some of these questions remain unanswered, even despite what we saw yesterday with those series of executive actions. >> all right, priscilla alvarez, thank you so much. i know how busy you are right now tracking all of this. let's bring in tom jowett into the conversation. he was a senior lawyer for homeland security in the biden administration. so, tom, we're learning that four of the top immigration court system officials were fired by president trump on monday. what does that move suggest to you? >> well, i will say, having served in the biden administration, you know, i came to really respect and rely on the career civil servants who have dedicated their careers to federal service and public service. during trump's first term in office. there was, you know, a huge amount of

of sort of demonization of the civil service workforce. and, you know, i will say, when i got in there, morale was extremely low because the politicos who had been in place under the first trump administration were just ramming their agendas through without any real concern for what the law or what operational realities required. you know, we saw continued demonization throughout the four years when president biden was in office, where president trump and his allies continue to attack the workforce. and i think we're just seeing a continuation of that once they're once again resuming power. >> so what are the implications for for our viewers to understand of, you know, not having career civil servants running the immigration court system and the immigration system overall, and instead having people that are are loyalists. >> yeah. for sure. i mean, first of all, the stakes in immigration proceedings are extremely high, right? they can be life and death proceedings regarding whether a person who's fleeing for their life

has an opportunity to seek protection here or not, whether a family will be allowed to stay here where they've got children, they've got their lives built, or they'll be removed and separated. on top of that, immigration law is notoriously complex. it's just a very, very challenging area of the law. and it requires true expertise. i marveled all the time at the depth of knowledge that the career civil servants around me had regarding our immigration laws. and so when you get rid of the top lawyer for the iti court system, when you get rid of the top immigration judge, when you get rid of the person who runs your policy system, that sends an incredible, incredible, chilling effect throughout the workforce. i think i'm not the only person who has served in government under either democratic or republican administrations, who's phone is blowing up from career civil servants who either are experiencing this kind of retribution or are afraid they're next. but it also means that you're going to get people in place who don't have the same fidelity to the law, don't have the

same expertise in the law as the people that they're pushing out. and so, you know, we can expect to see decisions. how do you know the people? how do you replace them? >> how do you know that the people that will replace them won't have the same fidelity to the law? >> i mean, i think we're getting that direction from from everything we've seen over the last eight years of the trump administration and the people that they've been putting in place. basically, there's a reason why so much of their agenda the first time around was actually successfully blocked in court. and frankly, it's because they were doing so many aggressive things that did not comply with the law, and they did it by shoving it through career civil servants. and over their objections. when i got into government service and i worked in the department of homeland security general counsel's office, there were attorneys there who had prepared memos declining to work on things that their supervisors had asked them to work on because they were afraid it would jeopardize their professional licenses. no one issued such a memo when i was there, because i would never have required them to do something that jeopardized their professional

license. that's not the kind of person who's going to be taking over these kinds of roles. >> so what happens to this huge backlog? millions, i think, of immigration cases in the system that is that's a big problem. and it's been an ongoing problem no matter what administration is in office. right it is. >> yeah. i mean, there were efforts under the biden administration to try and put put together policies to expedite the adjudication of cases. there were priorities put in place to close cases that were that were not as significant, or even terminate cases that were not high priorities. so there were efforts to chip away at that backlog. but it is absolutely incredible. and assuming we get continued congressional inaction, that's not going to get much better. i think the fear is that some of the policies that that that come out of the executive orders that were issued yesterday and the orders and memos that are going to follow in the days and weeks to come, might try and chip away at that backlog of immigration court cases by essentially just, you know,

eliminating due process entirely and just pushing cases through without fair consideration. >> well, we'll have to wait and see, and we'll see what congress does. and if congress does, you know, provide more funding for more immigration judges. i know that's been something that's been talked about. president trump, for his part, has also begun the legal battle to end birthright citizenship in the u.s. how do you expect courts to view that fight? >> i do not think they will be successful at overturning a core principle of the 14th amendment. this is something that basically all legal scholars agree on. um, yeah. >> all right. tom jowett, thank you so much. appreciate it. we know that right now, president trump is at the national prayer service there at the national cathedral. right now. we hear the choir that this is a washington tradition for the day after the inauguration, sort of a wrap up of the

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failures. i have extensively reported on the coast guard's coverup of sexual assault cases. we don't know if that played a role at all in this. cnn's natasha bertrand joins us now for more. i mean, this is a pretty significant move. >> natasha. it is pamela, if not just because it really shows that this could be a sign of things to come in terms of how president trump and his administration deal with military leaders that they feel are perhaps focusing too much on diversity and inclusion initiatives, which is one of the stated reasons. according to this dhs official, why admiral fagan was relieved of her duties as commandant of the coast guard. now, we did ask the department of homeland security for reasons why she was relieved, and they did send us a list that included things like failure to address border security threats, prioritization of those dei initiatives which secretary of defense, future secretary of defense if he is confirmed. pete hegseth has said is going to be one of his priorities in

removing from the department. once he does get installed here, as well as operation fouled anchor, which is that investigation into sexual assault and sexual abuses committed at the coast guard academy that was covered up by the coast guard beginning in around 2018. now, admiral fagan, she was not directly involved in that. however, she did signal to members of congress last year when she was grilled on the sexual assault investigation that was not disclosed to congress that she was aware of certain aspects of it. and according to the department of homeland security, that is one reason why they felt like she needed to be terminated as part of her in her position there. but still, you know, i think the broader picture here is that this is the first kind of, you know, termination of a senior military leader that we have seen that has been explicitly kind of linked to the promotion of those diversity, equity and inclusion programs within the military.

and in fact, this is not the first time that the coast guard has been targeted by trump's allies. back in august, former gop representative matt gaetz sent a letter to the department of homeland security raising concerns about fagan's alleged focus on these initiatives over, for example, other more important things like, he said, recruiting and focusing on interdicting drugs at the borders. pam. >> all right. natasha bertrand, thank you so much. we'll be right back.

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it in just a few taps. you have my attention. >> how do i get in on this? >> download it today. >> kobe. the making of a legend premieres saturday at nine on cnn. >> and i want to get back to our breaking news. the department of homeland security official confirming that the commandant of the u.s. coast guard has been fired over, quote, leadership deficiency and operational failures. the list also cites the, quote, mishandling and cover up of operation failed anchor. that's a secret internal coast guard investigation that substantiated dozens of rapes and assault allegations at the agency from the late 1980s to 2006. that cnn first uncovered, leading to systemic change, or a vow of systemic change within the coast guard and congressional hearings

with democratic senator maria cantwell of washington, who joins us right now. so, senator, thank you so much for coming on. first, your reaction to some of these actions. go ahead. >> no, i think it's appalling that the head of homeland security is firing the very admiral, commandant of the coast guard, who took this issue of fouled anchor, that you guys broke as a story. >> why? >> because it was being covered up. >> literally. issues of sexual assault and sexual harassment at the coast guard academy and at sea. and people covered it up. the only reason we know about it is because cnn broke the news. now we get a new commandant, the first woman commandant in the history of an armed forces of our nation to serve. she stood up and said, this is a problem and we have to deal with it. and so literally tried to move forward with the right kind of response in the coast guard to this issue of sexual harassment and

sexual assault. and today she's being fired for instead of covering it up, deciding that this needed to be exposed and the coast guard needed to deal with this issue. so i think it's the wrong decision. it's the wrong decision by homeland security. she did a good job. in fact, the last commandant was the one who did cover it up. i think he admitted to you that he covered it up. so what are we doing here today? firing somebody who was on the job. helping a coast guard that has to have a diverse workforce. and one of the things they need in a diverse workforce is to protect those interests of women. >> and as you know, after the reporting and after there were congressional hearings, she had vowed to do a review. and there was a report that came out saying that it would do a better job with the handling of sexual assault cases and so forth, and really enact systemic change. are you concerned with her firing that the thao in that report won't

won't actually be followed through with? >> what kind of message are we sending? the previous commandant admitted to you that they had covered it up. i think he even said something like, i would do it again. and now we had a new commandant, a woman who said, no, we're going to take this serious and we're going to clean up the academy and we're going to clean up these actions because we have almost i don't know what the number is. a very high number, 30% plus of a coast guard workforce that are women. and we want to continue to attract women in the coast guard. and so you're going to fire her over the fact that she wanted to clean up a mess created on a previous watch. it's the wrong decision. >> and to be clear, she did testify to your committee that, you know, she she only learned of the totality of the fouled anchor probe when we inquired about it. but she clearly was aware of parts of it before, because she also fired a commanding officer caught up in the investigation. i also should note, just for our viewers, you know, the reasons cited aren't just this, right? there are other reasons. according to a dhs official

saying, um, it was because of her, quote, failure to address border security threats and, quote, excessive focus on diversity, equity and inclusion policies. what is your reaction to that? >> well, i don't know what that latter part means, but if you mean she paid too much attention to cleaning up the mess in the coast guard of sexual harassment, sexual assault and sexual harassment, there's no amount of time she shouldn't have spent on that. there's no amount of time she should have done that job and cleaned up the coast guard act on that. but our coast guard is very big. mission five different major responsibilities and interdiction of drugs, particularly fentanyl and things of that nature. protecting, you know, illegal fishing. very big issue in the pacific northwest, making sure that they participate in the safety and the delivery of our coast. so i do not want to see a commandant serving, you know, every new administration coming in and firing a commandant. you need a continuity of service in the coast guard. that is really

important. and i'm not saying you can't fire somebody. i'm simply saying what? what is the reason here that this is being done? and i would say people didn't like the fact that she was cleaning up the coast guard on this issue of sexual assault and sexual harassment. >> you think that's the reason i think i don't know why else you make that decision today. >> i can cite lots of things that the coast guard has been very helpful on, on, on very big issues. look, i hope this administration will get serious about what the russians are doing impacting our fisheries in the pacific northwest. and they are having a devastating blow on this industry and in illegal fishing and illegal movement of these fish, with the help of china, is a very big issue. so i'd rather have a coast guard commandant right now who could help us with that instead of waiting. now, how long for us to get a new command on? >> all right, senator cantwell, thank you for your time. and thank you for joining us. i'm

pamela brown. you can follow me on instagram tiktok and pamela brown cnn. stay with us. inside politics with dana bash starts after a short break. >> on her third largest trading partner and number one export destination for 17 states, our economic partnership keeps millions of americans working. we're here right by your side. >> with fast signs, create factory grade visual solutions to perfect your process. that signs make your statement. >> it. are you ready for this? >> are you ready for this? are you ready for this new alka-seltzer plus cold or flu fizzy. >> choose. chew fizz. feel better. >> fast. >> no water needed. new alka-seltzer plus fizzy juice. >> when we started feeding bogie the farmers dog, he lost so much weight. pre-portioned packs makes it really easy to

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