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Could Trump Save Tiktok?; Israel Official Says Cabinet to Vote Friday on Ceasefire and Hostage Deal. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired January 16, 2025 - 14:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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[14:00:39]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: A vote delayed but not derailed. The Israeli cabinet set to vote now Friday on the Gaza cease fire and hostage deal, moving the region one step closer to peace despite disagreement in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government.

Plus, some hope in Los Angeles as firefighters are getting the upper hand on deadly wildfires as winds have died down. But officials are warning that the city is not out of the woods yet.

And time is running out for TikTok. Could an 11 hour move by President-elect Trump save the app? Why he may be weighing a new plan for the ban. We're following these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here to CNN News Central.

We are watching developments in the Middle East where we're learning that the Israeli cabinet will be meeting tomorrow for a crucial vote to approve the much anticipated cease fire and hostage deal with Hamas. That's a vote that was supposed to happen today, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delayed it at the last minute, accusing Hamas of reneging on parts of the agreement, though not specifying which parts he was referring to. Hamas has denied that allegation.

This is happening days before phase one of the cease fire is supposed to go into effect if approved. U.S. Officials say they are confident that this truce will begin on Sunday as planned. But one of the big questions now is what happens when phase one is over. We're learning far right members of Netanyahu's government are threatening to quit if Israel does not return to war after that six week period. And we're now getting word that a Likud party member, a member of Netanyahu's party is threatening to resign over a detail in phase one, a key detail.

CNN's Bianna Golodryga is live now from Tel Aviv for us. Bianna, in the middle of all of this uncertainty are of course the hostages and their families. What are you hearing?

BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN SENIOR GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Yeah, the hostage families who I continue to speak with say Sunday cannot come soon enough. We've been in a place before where a deal seemed imminent and then things fell apart, this is the closest. Obviously, we've been to a deal since that hostage cease fire deal agreed to last November, where we saw over 100 hostages released.

But as you said, the cabinet here is expected to meet, which means they are likely to vote and approve this cease fire hostage deal. But it doesn't come without a lot of other turbulence, as you just mentioned there, their threats of resignations, as you noted, and really loud voices of condemnation about this deal coming particularly from the far right elements of this government.

This morning we heard Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich say that he will leave this government if after phase one of the deal, which would see the release of 33 hostages, a pause in fighting and more aid going in if after phase one, Israel does not return to fighting in Gaza.

Well, now we're hearing that there will be a press conference from Itamar Ben-Gvir and he is the security director here, national security director. And he also is now expected to speak and he's been a vocal critic about this particular deal. We will find out what he says and report that to you as soon as we do hear from him.

But in the meantime, as I noted, Brianna, in the crosshairs are these hostages, are there family members. And I spoke with one of seven Americans currently -- a family of one of seven hostages currently held in Gaza right now, the brother of Keith Siegel, 65 years old, who is expected to be released in phase one of this deal, which would begin Sunday and transpire over the course of six weeks.

I spoke with his brother Lee just about an hour ago and asked him about how he feels about this deal. And like so many other Americans, he is would be relieved and would be very excited obviously to see his brother come home. But there are mixed emotions here because he is very worried about those that would be left behind. Here's what he said.

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LEE SIEGEL, BROTHER OF AMERICAN HOSTAGE KEITH SIEGEL: Plus, genuinely, until all 98 hostages are home -- I have a part of me that there's a hole, Keith is going to fill a big, huge part of that hole for all of us, our entire family.

[14:05:12]

But we all know that without 98 hostages coming home, something's missing. Israel is not able to get back into a routine of looking to the future where we're in recovery. They all need to be home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GOLODRYGA: And that is the sentiment shared by everyone here in Israel, including the family members of those hostages that are expected to be released in phase one of this deal. You'll recall that Keith Siegel's wife, Aviva, was also taken hostage with him and released last year after 51 days in captivity. And for Aviva, for their family, for Lee, Sunday and the start of phase one can't come soon enough. Brianna.

KEILAR: Certainly can't. Bianna Golodryga, live for us from Tel Aviv. Thank you.

And with us now is former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. Thank you so much for being with us. What do you think of this deal?

NAFTALI BENNETT, FORMER ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER & DEFENSE MINISTER: Well, I think most Israelis have very mixed feelings. On the one hand, we're proud, and I'm proud to be a Jew and an Israeli that insists on putting life ahead of anything else. On the other hand, we are not bringing everyone home in this first tranche of the deal. We're bringing 32 out of 98.

And I have to tell you something remarkable. Today, I was visiting the families of the hostages. Some of the families whose members are supposed to come home in this tranche, and some others, those family members that their son is coming home soon, they said that they feel terrible and they won't feel whole until everyone comes home. There's such a unique sense of solidarity, and they want a deal that would bring everyone home as opposed to only a third of the hostages.

Also, many Israelis are rightfully concerned that Hamas is left standing. And this goes against one of our objectives, which is to replace Hamas. Hamas initiated the horrendous October 7th attacks and massacre, and we made a pledge that we wouldn't keep them there. We wouldn't let them stand. And at this time, they still are there. So we're going to have to finish the job later on.

KEILAR: So it sounds like you're saying it's a bad deal.

BENNETT: Look, I don't want to second guess the government. It's an agonizing decision. And obviously there's pressures and facts that I'm not privy to. What I do want to say is that we are determined to bring home all the hostages and to keep Israel secure. And the only way to keep Israel secure is to replace Hamas. And this should have happened long ago, but we're going to have to make it happen throughout the next few months.

KEILAR: You heard, and we're just reporting now. A minister in the Likud Party, in Netanyahu's party has threatened to resign if Israel withdraws from the Philadelphia corridor, which is in phase one of this agreement. There's also a public demand from his Finance Minister, Smotrich's far right party for Israel to return to the war against Hamas after the first phase of the deal. National Security Minister Ben-Gvir has threatened to resign. How does Netanyahu get this past his cabinet without dissolving his government?

BENNETT: Well, look, the country is divided on this deal. I want to be clear. There is a majority that supports the deal, but a very strong minority that -- and I understand the claim, you know, we are worried that we don't want this sort of attack to happen again. This decision will be brought to a vote tomorrow in the cabinet. It will pass in the cabinet. The government will approve it.

And ultimately, I'm looking at the material aspects. We need to bring them home. We're bringing 32 hostages home, of which we don't know how many are alive. We hope a vast majority, but we'll see only over the next few days. We're looking at a very tough next 42 days here in Israel.

KEILAR: Do you support Smotrich's demand?

BENNETT: I don't want to get into the political ultimatums of these parties. You know, it's always easy to look from the outside. Would I have done things differently? Yes, fundamentally differently. But now it's 14 months in.

[14:10:00]

We are where we are. And the last thing I'm going to do is run around the world and criticize my own government, even if I, you know, I'll hold that criticism in my heart at this time.

KEILAR: Hamas releasing a few hostages each week for six weeks. And this would start on Sunday, which I think is for people to imagine that beginning here in just a few days is really something. That would take place each week for six weeks. Negotiations on the second phase beginning less than halfway through that first phase. What is the effect of that hostage release pattern on Israel's negotiation -- negotiating position and also Hamas's negotiating position in the second phase, in your view?

BENNETT: Well, I think the process of releasing the hostages is going to be an incredibly painful one because we don't know the situation of some of the hostages and we're praying that they come home alive and not dead. And we just don't have that information. And can you imagine being one of those families who's waiting to see their son or daughter, not knowing whether they're alive in this almost sadistic manner that Hamas is playing this game? It's not going to be easy.

What I can say is that in order for Israel to start the process of recovering, we need to brace ourselves for a tough six weeks now. We're going to embrace everyone who comes home. It's going to be a long process of mental and physical recovery. These people have been in underground tunnels for 14 months with hunger and very tough conditions. But we want to see them home.

KEILAR: Certainly do. Naftali Bennett, thank you so much for your time. We appreciate you being with us.

BENNETT: Thank you very much.

KEILAR: Next, several of President-elect Trump's cabinet picks spending hours on Capitol Hill today taking tough questions from lawmakers about what they'll do if they're asked to break the law.

Plus, TikTok's 170 million American users will have to find somewhere else to do their doom scrolling if the Supreme Court doesn't intervene. The other apps quickly moving to present themselves as alternatives.

And the wind that helped drive some of those California wildfires, well, it is dying down and that has given firefighters a bit of breathing room as they're trying to gain more control. But what is ahead? That is a different story. We'll have that and more ahead on CNN News Central.

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[14:17:16]

KEILAR: Day three of confirmation hearings have just wrapped up for some of Trump's top cabinet picks.

Just moments ago, four nominees gave their final testimony before Senate lawmakers, including billionaire hedge fund manager Scott Bessent, who has been tapped to lead treasury and is facing questions over Trump's proposed tariffs, tax cuts and plans to tackle the nation's $36 trillion debt. Bessent says that he will not support raising the federal minimum wage and has promised to keep the Federal Reserve independent from a second Trump presidency.

CNN's Manu Raju is live for us on Capitol Hill. And Manu, Democratic Senator Mark Warner says he's open to backing Bessent despite some policy differences. Tell us about the reaction that you're from other lawmakers.

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, we do expect him to get confirmed, Bessent, when he comes to the Senate floor in the coming week, maybe as soon as next week. We'll see. It depends on Democrats cooperate and allow this to move rather quickly.

But he's one of a number of Trump picks who are sort of on a glide path to be confirmed at this key moment simply because of the math. Republicans control the Senate. They need to keep all their members essentially, except for if they can only afford to lose three, four would be enough to scuttle any nomination moving along party lines. But there are several that have bipartisan support or could get bipartisan support, including his treasury pick.

Now, there were some heated moments in that hearing before the Senate Finance Committee, including over the issue of tariffs. Donald Trump, of course, has come in threatening to impose mass tariffs across the globe. That is something that has been major warnings could lead to an increase of prices.

That is something, though, that this Trump's pick said would not increase consumer prices, disagreeing with the belief among many that it would. And that caused some pushback from the top Democrat, Ron Wyden.

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SEN. RON WYDEN, (D) OREGON: He basically offered up an academic mumbo jumbo to try to justify the Trump across the board tariffs that are going to clobber our workers and our small businesses.

SEN. JOHN CORNYN, (R) TEXAS: I think President Trump recognizes that there is no such thing as free and fair trade, especially with China that cheats routinely and doesn't play by the rules.

RAJU: (Inaudible) Canada and Mexico too. CORNYN: Well, we've got a free trade agreement with both of those. And so any tariffs would be bound by that.

SEN. JAMES LANKFORD, (R) OKLAHOMA: We're going to trade around the world. We're going to continue to trade with China, we're going to continue to trade with Europe, with Africa. You know, unless we've got sanctions on them like Russia, we're not going to trade with them.

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RAJU: And those last two comments coming from GOP senators showing you that they are not concerned with Trump's threat to impose these widespread tariffs, even though they, many of them, have been opposed to the idea of tariffs and have supported the idea of free trade for many years in the past.

[14:20:10]

But Brianna, this is also just shows how many of Trump's nominees are almost certain to get the job.

One person, though, to watch out for is Tulsi Gabbard, Donald Trump's choice to be the next Director of National Intelligence. She has views that are contradict and conflict with some views, including from this four former Senate Republican leader, the current senator From Kentucky, Mitch McConnell, who I just asked moments ago if he's ready to support Tulsi Gabbard. And Brianna, he said, quote, I have not made any announcement on that yet. And that came after he gave a speech on the Senate floor calling for a robust U.S. presence around the world. Brianna.

KEILAR: Manu Raju, live for us on the Hill. Thank you so much.

And with us now to discuss is Democratic Senator Chris Coons of Delaware. He sits on several committees, including Foreign Relations and Judiciary. Sir, thanks for being with us. And I wonder, after hearing from Pam Bondi yesterday, will you support her as President- elect Trump's Ag, what did you think?

SEN. CHRIS COONS, (D) DELAWARE: Well, Brianna, I told Attorney General of Florida, Pam Bondi in our private meeting and then repeated it in the hearing that the most important thing I needed to hear from her was whether or not she would be independent, whether or not she would protect the Department of Justice from direct interference by the White House or President-elect Trump. And she failed to answer that in the sort of clear, forceful and direct way that I expected.

Because, frankly, her predecessors, Attorney General Sessions, Attorney General Barr in the first Trump administration, ran into trouble with President Trump when he didn't like things that they did to show and to reinforce the independence of the Department of Justice.

KEILAR: She vowed to adhere to policy, to that separation between DOJ and the White House. You clearly did not find that satisfactory. Can you be specific about what you did not hear, what you did hear that didn't meet that bar?

COONS: Well, Brian, I will say this. After yesterday's hearing, and it was a long hearing with two rounds of questions, and I was also doing the Marco Rubio hearing for Secretary of State. At the same time, I've asked my counsel, my attorney to give me the transcript so I can go through the entire hearing and make sure I'm giving her a fair shot.

I did support a number of Trump's Cabinet picks last time, where I thought they were qualified, had good integrity, had the appropriate policy views. For example, Jim Mattis for Secretary of Defense he got 98 votes here in the Senate. I don't think that's going to happen with Pete Hegseth, nor should it, given his lack of experience, relevant senior management experience and the questions about his character.

With Pam, excuse me, with Attorney General Bondi of Florida yesterday, I was looking for a clear answer when I asked her, if a group of career Department of Justice lawyers brought to you a criminal charge that's well-predicated, well-founded, and the White House directed you not to support that investigation, not to allow those charges to be brought, what would you do now? I want to go back and review the transcript, but I wasn't satisfied.

My recollection is of the answers I got at the time, and I want to make sure I'm being fair here, but she hedged and she hawed. She gave clear and good answers to my first two questions. Can President Trump run for a third term? No, she said, as a matter of constitutional law. Who's your client? The people of the United States in the Constitution. Good answers.

So I do think this is one where I'm still considering and want to make sure that I review exactly what she said in that hearing. There are things that were positive about her record, working on criminal justice reform, working on combating the fentanyl and opioid epidemic, and working to combat human trafficking. So I do think this is a close call.

KEILAR: Separately, and turning now to the hostage cease fire deal, you've praised this deal, which now seems like it is going to go through after some delay. That's what we're hearing from many sides. Do you have any concerns about it?

COONS: Well, I am relieved, grateful that after months and months of hard work by President Biden, by Secretary Blinken, by his whole senior national security team, that we seem to be on the cusp at last of a ceasefire in Gaza, of the release of American hostages and hostages from many other countries and backgrounds, and the delivery of humanitarian, desperately needed humanitarian aid into Gaza.

I think it's particularly notable here that the incoming special envoy for the Middle East, Steven Witkoff of the Trump administration and the outgoing special envoy of the Biden administration, Brett McGurk, were at the negotiating table together to make sure there wasn't some a break here in the transition because the next administration will have to implement it.

My concern is that there's still lack of certainty and clarity about phase two and phase three of this deal and how it will be implemented.

[14:25:07]

These families, with whom I've met several times, the families of hostages, in particular American hostages, have waited, have suffered for far too long, and it is long past time for them to come home and for this war in Gaza and for the suffering, the Palestinian civilians of Gaza to come to an end.

KEILAR: You told me back in October, the end of October, just before the election, that former President Trump will do nothing to constrain Prime Minister Netanyahu in terms of his chosen direction of imposing harsher and harsher consequences on the Palestinian people.

This deal, though, is a framework that President Biden actually put forward in May of last year. Netanyahu did not agree to it, though, until Trump's incoming team joined the negotiations. Is that in itself a constraint, though, on Netanyahu's prosecution of this war?

COONS: Well, I'll put it this way. President-elect Trump has said that he wants the war in Gaza over, and I think that's been constructive. I think that's added pressure to the finalization and realization of this deal that the Biden team and President Biden worked so hard on for so long.

I don't know exactly what President-elect Trump will do with regards to Taiwan, with regards to Ukraine, with regards to the Palestinians of the west bank and Gaza. He said a lot of different things in the course of his campaign. And if anything from his first term as president was true, it said he was unpredictable.

As you may remember, beginning with a terrifying series of threats to unleash fire and fury against North Korea, trading threats of potential nuclear war with Kim Jong Un, only to flip 180 degrees and exchange love letters and try to negotiate with him personally. So President Trump is unpredictable in terms of exactly what he's going to do next.

KEILAR: We'll see soon enough. Senator Chris Coons, thank you so much for being with us.

COONS: Thank you.

KEILAR: And we're looking forward to seeing where you ultimately land on Pam Bondi.

Now just into CNN. Rudy Giuliani and his son Andrew have settled a lawsuit with two Georgia election workers that he had defamed. This is a trial that was set to determine ownership of some of Giuliani's most valuable possessions. And Katelyn Polantz is with us now. All right, what did they end up agreeing to here?

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: We're just getting details on the terms of this settlement, but don't have a full picture of it yet. What it means is Rudy Giuliani's court fights with Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, those two Georgia election workers, mother and daughter that he defamed after the 2020 election. The court fights are over. That's what the proposed terms of the settlement say, according to a court filing. They don't give much more detail there.

They had won $150 million jury award from Giuliani. They've been trying to collect on that, and they've been winning. They've been getting possession of property of his luxury watches, a car, collecting all of it. Today, they were set to go to trial over four World Series rings that are worth tens of thousands of dollars that Giuliani and his son had, as well as a Florida condo that he lives in worth millions, really close to the water down in Palm Beach. And what both sides are saying is that he gets to keep all of his possessions.

Giuliani, on the social media platform X, said, I'm satisfied with and have no grievances relating to the result we have reached. I have been able to retain my New York co-op, that's $6 million, and Florida condominium, $3 million, and all of my personal belongings. No one deserves to be subjected to threats, harassment, or intimidation. This litigation has taken its toll on all parties. The whole episode was unfortunate. I and the plaintiffs have agreed not to ever talk about each other in any defamatory manner. And I urge others to do the same.

And then we got a statement from the plaintiffs here, Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, saying the past four years have been a living nightmare. We fought to clear our names. And then they say, we've agreed to allow Giuliani to keep his property in exchange for compensation. How this deal came about when he's in so much debt, we just don't know. But it's over, all of these proceedings for Giuliani.

KEILAR: So there's compensation. We don't know what it is. We don't know where it comes from because he's broke.

POLANTZ: He's broke. He has a lot of debt.

KEILAR: Wow.

POLANTZ: So there's a lot of question --

KEILAR: But they want to move on with their lives.

POLANTZ: They both want to move on with their lives. And they say, we have a settlement, no trial. We're resolving everything else.

KEILAR: Wow.

POLANTZ: And what we know in court is they say to the judge, we have terms of this settlement. And there was that jury finding a year ago, $150 million for the harassment and the damage he did to these two white women.

KEILAR: I did not see that coming. Did you see that coming?

POLANTZ: I didn't.

KEILAR: We did not see that coming. All right, Katelyn, you see everything coming --

POLANTZ: Court's always a surprise.

KEILAR: So -- yeah, that was kind of surprising. Katelyn, thank you so much. We do appreciate it.

The deadly and destructive wildfires in California have not grown so much over the past 24 hours. Really good news here. This has given firefighters a bit of a reprieve --

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