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Israeli Cabinet Voting to Approve Hostage Exchange and Ceasefire Deal with Hamas; Reporting Indicates President-Elect Trump Plans Numerous Measures to Crack Down on Illegal Immigration in U.S. Immediately Upon Taking Office; Trump Pivots on TikTok as Ban Looms Sunday; Weight Loss Drugs in Next Round of Medicare Price Negotiations. Aired 8-8:30a ET.

Aired January 17, 2025 - 08:00   ET

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

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MEL ROBBINS, AUTHOR: How much time and energy I pour into another person or a business meeting, or an interview, or a data, or a conversation, or a text chain.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: You have to say it a lot in some instances?

ROBBINS: I say it all the time, especially with family, especially with family. It will change your family profoundly for the better.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

SIDNER: Look, I tried this "let them" idea, and it did have an effect on me. I sort of realized how much I was trying to control things around me that simply are never going to be in my control and how much energy that that takes. If you want to learn a little bit more about this, you can go to CNN.com for more of my interview with Mel and learn more about how the "let them" theory works and other helpful life hacks from her other bestselling books.

The next hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, we are standing by for the official approval of the ceasefire hostage deal in Gaza. The Israeli cabinet is meeting as we speak, and after unexpected delays, will this move forward?

Sources tell CNN that President-elect Trump is plotting an immigration crackdown basically the minute he enters the Oval Office.

And developing this hour, will Medicare start covering popular weight loss drugs? Those life changing drugs and others could soon get a lot cheaper.

I'm John Berman with Sara Sidner and Kate Bolduan. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's get to that breaking news that we have this hour on the Israel-Hamas hostage and ceasefire deal. The Israeli government will convene today, really right now, to vote on the agreement. That vote now scheduled to happen this hour. And with that, Israel's full 33-member cabinet will set in motion a final countdown of sorts as this is really the final hurdle to clear before we could see hostages released this weekend and a ceasefire setting in in Gaza as well.

Jeremy Diamond is in Tel Aviv standing by tracking all of this for us. He's joining us now. Jeremy, what are you hearing about all of this?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kate, we actually have breaking news just coming in now from the prime minister's office saying that the political security cabinet, which was the first stage of approval for the ceasefire agreement, that they have indeed voted in favor of this agreement, recommending that the government approve the ceasefire agreement that has been brought before them. The next stage of the process is for the full cabinet to vote on this, and we expect that that will happen within the next couple of hours.

This whole process, after initially being delayed over the course of the last 24 hours, now appears to be on turbocharge, being sped up by the Israeli prime minister and his office in order to get all of these government approvals done today before shabbat begins this evening, in order for this cease fire agreement to be implemented on Sunday, as originally scheduled.

Last night, there had been some concerns that because of what the Israeli prime minister's office claimed were some last-minute demands by Hamas at the negotiating table in Doha, but what we also know to be some political wrangling happening here in Israel, there were some concerns that the release of the first hostages, the exchange of the first Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails, would be delayed until Monday instead. And so now things do indeed to be coming back on track, Kate.

Once the full cabinet approves this agreement in the coming hours, as we expect that they will, the next stage of the process will be for the Supreme Court in Israel to be able to hear petitions arguing against the release of those Palestinian prisoners, hundreds of whom will be released in exchange for those 33 Israeli hostages. That process is largely pro forma. The prime minister and his government have extraordinarily -- extraordinary leeway to release those Palestinian prisoners for national security reasons. And so then we expect that the cease fire will indeed come into effect come Sunday.

It is important to note, though, Kate, that this war, until that ceasefire goes into effect, it is still very much raging inside of the Gaza Strip. More than 100 Palestinians have been killed since this ceasefire agreement was announced, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, dozens of children among those who have been killed, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. And so, until that ceasefire agreement goes into effect, people's lives are still very much at risk. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. Jeremy, let's stick with this breaking news, because this is one step and a critical one step towards what will set in motion what has was what seemed confusingly in flux yesterday after the announcement of this deal being reached. [08:05:02]

But now that the security, that the security cabinet has voted in approval, it goes to the full cabinet for which will, you would assume then also gets approval. Is this then -- it is, how much question is there then how this unfolds going forward? Because that's the big concern. You've got a 42-day ceasefire to set in, and how much can happen to muck up the works in the meantime?

DIAMOND: I mean, I think now that the security cabinet has voted, that the full cabinet is going to vote, there is really very little that can happen to take things off the rails at this point. As I explained that Supreme Court petitions portion of things is really quite pro forma. We don't expect anything to come of that that could derail this ceasefire agreement. That doesn't, however, mean that the Israeli prime minister's political woes have been entirely resolved, because, as we've been watching over the last 48 hours, he has been facing quite an internal rebellion within his own coalition government from two far right ministers, Itamar Ben-Gvir, the national security minister, and Bezalel Smotrich, the finance minister, who have both been threatening to leave this coalition government if indeed this deal is approved.

Ben-Gvir made very clear last night that he will leave the government if the deal is approved, which appears to be happening as we are speaking right now. So we expect him to leave the government. That will leave Prime Minister Netanyahu with only a two seat majority in his governing coalition.

As it relates to the finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, he has been a little bit more -- less unequivocal, I should say, in the sense that he has threatened to leave. But he has also said that the prime minister needs to provide assurances that Israel will return to the war in Gaza after the first phase of this agreement is concluded. And we don't know yet exactly what kinds of assurances the prime minister has provided, whether Smotrich will stick around through the first phase of the deal and then make a decision once those six weeks are up.

What is very clear, though, is that the Israeli prime minister is under enormous pressure to go back to the war in Gaza once those six weeks are complete. And if he does so, that would be sabotaging what the United States and the Qatari and the Egyptian mediators have been trying to build in here, which is that this six-week ceasefire would ultimately turn into something more enduring, would result in a permanent ceasefire and an end to the war in Gaza. If the prime minister listens to his far right political allies here, he will be cutting that entire process short altogether. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Jeremy Diamond in Tel Aviv. Jeremy, thank you so much for bringing us the breaking news. John?

BERMAN: All right, we've got new reporting just into CNN. New details about Donald Trump's planned immigration crackdown in the very first hours after he is sworn into office on Monday. Sources tell CNN the plan includes targeted ICE sweeps in major metropolitan areas, including Washington, D.C., Denver, and Chicago.

Let's get right to CNN's Priscila Alvarez who is on Capitol Hill. Priscilla, what is your reporting here? What have you learned?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN REPORTER: Well, sources have described to me a slate of executive actions on immigration in those early hours of the Trump administration intended, again, to crack down on this signature issue for the president elect.

Now they fall into three different buckets -- interior enforcement, so those ICE sweeps that you were talking about in those major metropolitan areas, areas, of course, that have seen an influx of migrants over recent years. Also, those sanctuary jurisdictions, you've heard the incoming border czar Tom Homan talk about these a lot. These are areas that limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities. So that is going to be a target for them as they try to make a point on this very issue. And sources tell me that the intention here is to still focus on criminals. But of course, if they come across other undocumented immigrants, they too can be swept up.

Now, the second bucket here is the border. So the border right now is relatively quiet. The numbers are very low, but all the same they are going or planning to issue a national emergency declaration -- this may sound familiar -- to shore up Pentagon resources on the U.S. southern border and also add additional asylum restrictions.

And the third bucket here is legal immigration. So the travel ban that President Joe Biden rolled back, an iteration of that is expected to come back. Exactly who would be part of this travel ban is still under consideration. Other things under consideration, for example, are also ending birthright citizenship. Of course, the strategy by the Trump team there is to tee up a legal fight on that very issue, which has been -- was one that came up quite a bit during the campaign.

So of course, all of these, all of these actions are intended to create a dramatic shift in immigration policy that is going to affect immigrants nationwide, if not the world, John, of course, as the president-elect tries to make do on his promise.

BERMAN: Again, this is all new reporting just in from Priscilla and her team.

[08:10:3]

Priscilla, obviously, immigration regulation and oversight falls within the Department of Homeland Security. There are hearings that begin very, very shortly this morning for Kristi Noem to be Donald Trump's secretary of homeland security. What do we expect there?

ALVAREZ: So she's the South Dakota governor. She was selected, as you mentioned, by the president-elect to lead the Department of Homeland Security. So during her confirmation hearing, you can expect that she is going to get many questions about the Trump immigration agenda.

And so far, her meetings have gone pretty well, as far as we can tell, as far as the public comments from Republicans and Democrats, those meetings that she had behind closed doors. So we'll see how that plays out in public during this confirmation hearing.

But we should note, John, that the power center for immigration policy is really going to be the White House with Stephen Miller, but also with the border czar, Tom Homan. Of course, the first time around, Trump didn't have a border czar. So this is going to be different. And Tom Homan is an operator. He is a veteran immigration enforcement officer. So it's going to be interesting to watch that dynamic.

But even so, Kristi Noem is going to be someone that, if confirmed, would be charged with implementing this agenda. So she is going to be a key player, even if the policy is made mostly out of the White House. So certainly, senators will have many questions about how all of this is going to unfold in the days and weeks to come.

BERMAN: You bring up an interesting dynamic that is worth watching over the next several months, an extraordinary concentration of power inside the White House itself, really unprecedented. Priscilla Alvarez, thank you again for your reporting this morning.

Sara?

SIDNER: Ahead, new this morning, one of the last moves from the Biden administration, price negotiations over a new list of drugs through Medicare coverage. Will the popular weight loss and diabetes drugs be on that list?

And is TikTok toast? In less than 48 hours, the U.S. ban will go into effect unless the Supreme Court makes a decision against the ban rule when it convenes in just a couple of hours.

And star power soured. Actor and Director Justin Baldoni is now suing his former costar Blake Lively after she sued him. How she is now responding. That's ahead.

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[08:16:47]

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Time is ticking on TikTok. At 10:00 AM, though, the Supreme Court convenes and may weigh in on whether or not to uphold Sunday's TikTok ban in the United States.

White House officials say President Biden will leave enforcement of the ban up to President-elect Trump.

CNN's senior data reporter Harry Enten has been running the numbers for us and ticking away. How are people looking at TikTok and going, okay, I've got to go somewhere else.

How are those other apps doing? And I've noticed they call themselves TikTok refugees. There's like a hashtag.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN'S SENIOR DATA REPORTER: Yes, this all feels kind of bizarre to me. I feel like I'm in insane land right now. And why do I feel like I'm in insane land? Let's first talk about the numbers, right? These top new apps, they have over five million new users combined, at least five million, probably closer to 10 million at this point. This is just the latest stats I could pull over just the last week.

And what's so fascinating about this is right, the reason TikTok was banned because of its associations with the Chinese government. But take a look here RedNote, Chinese owned and of course, Little Red Book. You know, Mao Zedong. I mean, my goodness gracious, Lemon8, not only is it Chinese owned, but it's owned by the same company that owns TikTok. I mean, what is going on here, people?

And then finally, at number three, Clapper, that is American owned, but the bottom line is there are a ton of people who are worried about TikTok going, adios amigos. So, they're running to new apps. Many of them are running the new apps over five million and two of those apps, the top two are Chinese owned, which I kind of feel like defeats the entire purpose of this whole thing of potentially banning TikTok.

SIDNER: Yes, I mean, this one in particular, a lot of people going to this particular one.

ENTEN: Yes.

SIDNER: I do want to ask you about Donald Trump. Donald Trump was sort of the originator of this idea of the ban. He was going after them and he's really changed, has he not?

ENTEN: Yes, he has really changed. He's really changed. And you know, of course, Donald Trump is potentially going to save TikTok. And I guess the question is why does Donald Trump feel like he has permission from the Republican base to do so, given, of course, the Republican base is filled with a lot of Chinese hardliners.

I mean, think of Tom Cotton, right, a senator from Arkansas. How about banning TikTok, GOP support? You go back to 2020, it was 69 percent. I mean, you can't really get that much higher than 69, unless you can go all the way to 100. But 69 is a pretty high number. My goodness gracious. It's quite a nice number.

Then you go to 2023. It dropped down to 60 percent and then look at where we were in 2024, it was down to 42 percent.

So, the GOP base has lessened, has lessened its yearning to ban TikTok. So, I feel like Donald Trump has permission from the Republican base to potentially be the guy who, dare I say, saves TikTok.

SIDNER: You have to wonder, too, whether some of this has to do with the users. There's a third of Americans are on this app, and they are very loud and clear about how much -- how important it is to them. So, what are the chances, I mean, the reasons why Donald Trump feels this way.

ENTEN: Yes, you know, you were talking about a lot more folks being on TikTok. You know, who a lot of those folks are? They're younger folks. They're under the age of 30, right? They're 18 to 29-year-olds.

And look at this in 2020, just 32 percent, just 32 percent of age 18 to 29 used TikTok.

Look at where we were in 2024. My goodness gracious. All the way up to 59 percent and of course, those voters as well, a significant chunk of those, more, 36 percent age 18 to 29 voted for Trump in 2020, all the way up to 43 percent.

So, more younger TikTok users and more of those younger TikTok users are more supportive of Trump than they were just back in 2020 -- Sara.

[08:20:14]

SIDNER: I remember him saying, TikTok likes me. I remember him specifically saying that when we're talking about whether or not the ban should go into place, indicating he's not really for it.

ENTEN: TikTok likes him. Therefore Donald Trump likes TikTok.

SIDNER: There you are, Harry Enten. Thank you so much.

ENTEN: Thank you.

SIDNER: Over to you -- Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: We do have new breaking news this hour.

The popular and expensive weight loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy are now among 15 new medications that will be included in the next round of Medicare price negotiations. This news just coming in from the Biden administration moments ago.

Those drugs and the others that the administration has added to the list are used by more than five million Medicare enrollees and treat a slew of diseases. Talking about obesity, but also including cancer, asthma and diabetes.

This list is the first step in a negotiation process between Medicare and drug companies that's expected to take place over coming months, part of a program created by the Inflation Reduction Act that President Biden's signature legislation. These negotiations here triggered by the Biden administration but will now be left for the Trump administration to pull off.

Joining us right now on this breaking news is the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Secretary Xavier Becerra. Secretary, thank you for being here.

Lower drug costs for people on Medicare, lower costs for all taxpayers who fund Medicare. People will love the sound of that, Secretary. Do you have assurances that the incoming Trump administration will continue to support the program or how they'll approach negotiating the drug prices with drug companies?

XAVIER BECERRA, SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES: Well, Kate, we proved that drug negotiation works last year when we took the ten most expensive drugs in Medicare, which cost us over $50 billion just for those ten drugs in one year. And we negotiated prices that were between 40 to 80 percent lower than what their list price was, which, as you said, saved billions of dollars, not just for the Medicare recipients out of their own pocket, about a billion-and-a-half out of their own pocket, but several billion dollars more for all taxpayers.

By the way, those Medicare beneficiaries are also taxpayers. So, we save a second time because Medicare now is paying less.

So the prescription, the formula for having success is there. These 15 drugs. That's another $40 billion or so in spending a year. We should be able to negotiate those down as well.

BOLDUAN: The man that Donald Trump wants to be, the next Health and Human Services secretary, he has been very critical of medications like Ozempic and Wegovy.

I've tracked this really closely. He has pushed false claims, Robert F. Kennedy has pushed false claims about the meds. He's tried to make the case against using them, saying Americans are stupid and addicted to drugs and just should be eating better in order to combat the obesity crisis. Does that sound like someone who wants to make it easier to gain access to these medicines?

BECERRA: When you're Secretary, you don't get to play with politics and conjecture. You have to base your actions on science and the facts and the drugs that are on this list have been on this list for a while, because they've been proven fairly effective in treating certain conditions. As you mentioned, diabetes, heart disease, renal disease.

And what we're going to try to do is negotiate better prices, because there are a whole bunch of Americans who are listening to the facts, not to other folks, and buying these drugs.

BOLDUAN: One of the people that we listen to often is a very well- known, very well-respected doctor named Dr. Paul Offit, the head of Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

And in speaking with him, he has said that the now nominee to be the next health secretary to take over after you leave office, after you leave the post, RFK, he calls RFK dangerous.

He says, simply given his views on vaccines, that RFK, Jr., is a dangerous person to have in charge of America's health agency.

Secretary, let me play this for you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. PAUL OFFIT, MEMBER FDA VACCINE ADVISORY COMMITTEE: He's not a vaccine skeptic, I'm a vaccine skeptic. Everyone who sits around the table at the FDA Vaccine Advisory Committee is a skeptic, right? Show us the data. Show us the data. Prove that it is safe and effective. He's not a skeptic. He's a cynic. He doesn't believe those things. He thinks there's a big conspiracy to hide the truth, making him a dangerous man.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Secretary, do you think RFK, Jr. would be dangerous as the head of America's health agency?

BECERRA: Well, it would be dangerous not to follow the science and the facts. And again, you don't have the luxury when you're secretary of the largest health agency in the world to play with anything but the facts.

And so, I would hope that anyone walking into this position would rely on the science, the experts, and the facts to make decisions.

And the reason we're going to negotiate for lower prices of these 15 drugs the way we did last year for the ten most expensive drugs, is because the facts show that not only do they work, but those drugs are too expensive and should be lowered in price.

[08:25:09]

BOLDUAN: I completely understand and respect not wanting to go, you know, take him on by name. I've seen that you've avoided name checking RFK, Jr. in other interviews as you're leaving office.

Someone who says that there's no such thing as a safe and effective vaccine. What would you say to that person if he's about to take over the job that you have overseeing 13 health agencies that also oversee America's vaccine programs for America's children?

BECERRA: Kate, talk to the millions of Americans who today are alive because they got the COVID vaccine. Talk to the tens and actually hundreds of millions of Americans who got vaccinated during COVID who are now back at work, back at school. Vaccines have proven effective.

Talk to the folks who took the polio vaccine. Talk to people who have taken the vaccines that have saved their lives for any number of conditions. We know they work because they've been tested. It's not conjecture, its fact. And we should rely on the science and the facts.

At the end of the day, this is going to be about saving lives and keeping people healthier. President Biden, at least for four years, not only left America healthier, he left it stronger. So that's a pretty good prescription for success. I hope the next secretary will follow that.

BOLDUAN: Are you nervous about that? If RFK, Jr. is the secretary.

BECERRA: Look, any person who comes into this position is going to find some of the most talented expert individuals ready to serve government and the people of this country.

At the end of the day, when you're faced with those live or die situations, I trust that people believe in public service and doing the right thing. I trust that they'll rely on the science and the facts.

BOLDUAN: You've had a very big job overseeing the rollout of this program when we're talking about drug price negotiations for Medicare throughout this administration. Thanks for coming on, on some of your final days in the post secretary, I appreciate your time -- John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, brand new this morning, CNN has learned that some federal employees are scrambling to rewrite their job descriptions, trying to avoid the axe before Elon Musk's led budget cuts.

"Hopefully I will run into a few friendly faces." Some rioters who attacked the US Capitol on January 6th are planning a reunion at Donald Trump's inauguration on Monday.

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