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Arwa Damon is Interviewed about Charity in Gaza; Rep. Laura Friedman (D-CA) is Interviewed about California Fires; January 6th Rioters to Return for Inauguration; Federal Workers Changing Job Descriptions; Noem Confirmation Hearing; trump to Move on Immigration. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired January 17, 2025 - 08:30   ET

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

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[08:31:35]

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news this hour, the Israeli security cabinet has just approved the hostage deal. That means it goes to the full Israeli cabinet, who will vote at any moment on the ceasefire and hostage deal. And all eyes will turn to Gaza and the new urgency there to get humanitarian aid in.

Joining me now is former CNN senior international correspondent Arwa Damon. She is the founder and president of International Network for Aid, Relief and Assistance. Her organization provides medical and mental health care to children across the globe, including those in Gaza.

All right, Arwa, thank you so much. It's good to see you again and to be able to talk with you.

I have seen you going into Gaza more than once during this 15-month war that has simply ravaged all of Gaza. How would you describe the humanitarian situation there?

ARWA DAMON, FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT, INTERNATIONAL NETWORK FOR AID, RELIEF AND ASSISTANCE (INARA): I would say that it really eclipses sort of the scale that we have of rhetoric and words that would be able to properly describe it.

Look, I've been in and out of war zones for the last 20 years, and I have never actually seen anything that comes close to describing what it is that people are having to go through in Gaza. When you're there, you're really struck by how everything is in just such shades of gray. There's no real color that is left. And that is because everything has been so destroyed and decimated.

There's no access to things like clean water or medicine or, you know, proper sanitary facilities. There is a situation across Gaza right now where, you know, in south and central Gaza, we are seeing children who are being crushed to death at bakeries because that's how desperate people are for a piece of bread. You have, you know, at least eight babies that - that froze to death. And you also have numerous situations where children who need emergency medical evacuations are unable to leave the Gaza Strip. Families, at best, are eating one meal a day.

And then the constancy of the trauma that comes at every single moment. You know, even now, with this, you know, ceasefire, hostage deal pending, there's still over 100 people that are reported to have been killed in Israeli bombardments in Gaza. It's just - it's absolutely suffocating, Sara.

SIDNER: Yes, it's the most that we've seen in a week, the latest bombardment, just before everyone expects this ceasefire to go into effect.

Arwa, I do want to ask you about some of the things you talked about, because the U.N. has warned of the huge obstacles in delivering aid. There could be up to 600 trucks per day. I mean, is there even enough aid workers and enough folks to distribute this aid safely? Because as you said already, you know, children are getting crushed and people desperately trying to get to the aid. And then there are some - some armed factions that have taken over some of this aid. Is there enough folks on the ground who have been dealing with this for so long to - to even get this out to a large number of people?

DAMONN: Look, the aid community is very confident that if the trucks are able to get into Gaza, we can distribute them.

[08:35:06]

Because you have to remember that the minute that humanitarian aid gets in, look, there's going to be a plethora of volunteers, even if staff is insufficient, waiting and wanting to jump in and help. If there's anything that I have witnessed in Gaza during my, you know, four trips there over the last 15 months has been really the sense of how Gazans are rallying around Gazans and are rallying around each other. (INAUDIBLE) very individual efforts that are taking place.

But when it comes to the practicalities of actually getting that aid in, you know, there's so many factors to take into consideration. It's all going to also depend on which routes does Israel allow us to use? Does this ceasefire hostage deal mean that we can actually have freedom of movement so that we can bypass some of these routes that the criminal gangs and the looters are working on? You know, does this mean that we can use some of the remnants of, you know, what was Gaza's police force to try to secure the aid convoys through some of the more dangerous areas?

And if, for example, the Rafah border crossing with Egypt were to reopen, what condition is it in? Will trucks even be able to drive along that route?

You know, on the one hand, yes, getting 600 trucks cleared to enter Gaza per day would be amazing. Extraordinarily beneficial for the population. But then there's the reality of moving those trucks around within Gaza itself.

But the bottom line is, everybody, whether it's a humanitarian aid worker, to anyone who's willing or able to volunteer, is going to rally around at that point in time to get the aid to the people, because so much pain has reverberated across the Gaza Strip, so much hunger, so much loss that people are really - and we've seen this - coming together to help and support each other.

SIDNER: Arwa Damon, thank you for letting us know just your experience there and how you see things unfolding as so many people hope for this ceasefire and hostage deal to go through and start on Sunday. Appreciate you.

Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Minutes from now, North Dakota Governor Kristi Noem will be in the hot seat, taking questions from senators to win confirmation to be the next secretary of homeland security. We'll bring you live coverage of what is sure to be tough questions and tough pushback.

We also - we know that parents, at least we all say, we don't have a favorite child. But a new study says, if you do have a favorite kiddo, they know which sex that - they know which sex that favorite child is likely to be.

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[08:42:06]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: This morning, a bit of relief in southern California for crews battling the wildfires. For now, strong winds have subsided and cooler air is expected to last through the weekend. We've got new video from along the Pacific Coast Highway. It shows rows of homes that have been just leveled. It could be weeks before some residents are allowed to return there. The next threat is a new round of Santa Ana winds, expected to return early next week.

With us now is Congresswoman Laura Friedman. Her district includes areas under mandatory evacuation orders near the Eaton Fire area.

Congresswoman, thank you so much for being with us this morning.

What's the latest information you have on your district, the firefighting efforts, the recovery efforts, when people might be able to return to their homes if they're lucky enough to have them?

REP. LAURA FRIEDMAN (D-CA): Hi. Thanks so much for having me.

Well, our brave first responders and our firefighters are making just incredible progress on all of these fires. We have joint response crews from all over the western states, really all over the United States, and Canada and Mexico, and they're making great progress on the fires.

But everyone's on edge because the winds are kicking back up again. And as we saw last week, that means that there can be spot fires in pretty much any location. So, no one is sleeping well in Los Angeles. But I want to say that the outpouring of support from our neighbors,

from people all over Los Angeles, the donations that are coming in to help victims, the - the calls that people are sending to my office saying, I have a guest room, I have an ADU. If someone's homeless, send them my way. Where can I send donations? Where can I send money? It's - it's really inspirational.

BERMAN: I have dear friends in Glendale, which is where I think you're from there. Just, is your home OK, your friends OK?

FRIEDMAN: Well, my home is OK. We had a couple of very scary nights without power when the winds were pounding. But I feel very blessed that I have a roof over my head.

We do have several friends, many friends who have lost their homes. And I - there's hardly anyone in Los Angeles that doesn't know someone who's lost their home at this point. We're talking thousands of people.

BERMAN: There seems to be some growing traction among some of your Republican colleagues to tie relief to the fire victims in California to some other types of legislation, to put conditions on it. How do you feel about that?

FRIEDMAN: Well, conditioning aid in a disaster is unprecedented. And even some Republicans, to their credit, are calling this out and saying its unacceptable. You know, we don't do this to our neighbors in need. When people in Los Angeles want to bring a donation over to a victim, they're not asking them what their political party is before they give them that - that help.

I - I still think we're the United States of America, and I think this is a litmus test. Are we really united? Are we really each other's neighbor? And are we willing to help each other?

We sent aid to Louisiana after Katrina without any conditions.

[08:45:00]

And I think it would be shameful, and it's - it's cruel to say that we're not going to give support to these victims of this fire, of this natural disaster, unless really hard conditions are met by California or by the Democratic Party. That would just be a terrible precedent going into the future.

And if I could just say one other thing. California sent $83 billion in tax dollars to the federal government in, I believe, 2022. And the county of Los Angeles sends more tax money every year than all but four states. So, we're not asking other states to give us their tax dollars. We're asking to be able to get some of our tax dollars back in our time of need. And I don't think that's asking too much.

BERMAN: Congresswoman Laura Friedman, your first term in Washington, just weeks into the job, barely. I - it's been eventful so far. Thanks so much for being with us.

FRIEDMAN: One week into the job.

BERMAN: One week into the job. A heck of a week. Thanks for being with us. Really appreciate your time.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: So, right now, final arrangements are underway for the second inauguration of President Donald Trump. And we're learning that some people, who were charged or convicted for storming the Capitol during the Capitol insurrection, are planning to attend Donald Trump's swearing in now.

CNN's Marshall Cohen has this new reporting. He's joining us now.

And, Marshall, what are you learning?

MARSHALL COHEN, CNN REPORTER: Hey, Kate, good morning.

Well, there are really two sides to this story. For the rioters and the Trump supporters, this is a celebration. It's a vindication. And they want to come back to D.C. for a victory lap. On the other side, for the prosecutors that prosecuted many of these cases and the victims of the assault on the Capitol four years ago, it's a betrayal. And it is, in their words, it's just outrageous.

So, we're not talking about a massive group of people. There are not droves and droves of rioters coming back to D.C. on Monday. But we have looked through the court records and we found about a dozen cases where charged or convicted rioters have asked for permission to come back to D.C. for the inauguration. Seven of them got approval. Four were rejected. Most of the people coming back are non-violent, misdemeanor cases.

But I did speak to one man, William Pope from Kansas, whose trial is later this year. He has pleaded not guilty to some felonies. He's excited to come back. He said that he hopes to run into some friendly faces, meet up with some people he knows from Twitter.

And they're not just celebrating the inauguration, Kate, they're also celebrating the pardons that they are expecting Donald Trump to hand down within hours of his swearing in on Monday. President-elect Trump hasn't been exactly clear about how many of the 1,600 people facing charges are going to get those pardons, but they are expecting this to be a glorious day.

Of course, not everyone feels that way. Many of the Justice Department prosecutors working these cases have argued strongly in court against letting these people come back to D.C. They said it maybe posed a threat to the community here. Some judges did step in to prevent January 6th rioters from coming back. One judge said that this is a privilege, not a right, and that they're not going to allow it.

And some of the victims, Kate, have spoken out as well. I want to read you a quote from one of the most famous faces from January 6th, because he testified on Capitol Hill about his injuries. That's former Staff Sergeant Aquilino Gonell. He said that these rioters "are getting a chance to return to their crime scene to gloat. They want to be there to be pardoned at the place where they committed their crimes and be seen as heroes and honorable." And he said, "that can't be farther from the truth."

Kate, last thing I got to point out, many of the police officers who will be there on Monday to protect the crowd, to guard over the peaceful transfer of power, they were there four years ago, being beaten and assaulted by the mob.

BOLDUAN: Marshall Cohen. Great reporting, Marshall. Thanks for bringing it to us. Appreciate it.

Sara.

SIDNER: All right, ahead, a new twist in a real-life Hollywood fight. Actress Blake Lively facing allegations of extortion and defamation in a civil lawsuit by her former costar and director Justin Baldoni. Lively's sharp response to his suit, that is ahead.

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[08:53:29]

BERMAN: All right, new this morning, sources tell CNN some federal employees are editing their job descriptions to save them. They are worried that the government efficiency effort, led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, is about, to, quote, "use a hatchet, not a scalpel,' when it comes to layoffs.

CNN's Hadas Gold has this new reporting. What have you learned here?

HADAS GOLD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, first of all, this is not a coordinated effort. These are individuals, managers at different agencies who are trying to, not just protect people's jobs, but also protect what they say are critical job functions ahead of DOGE.

We spoke to five sources familiar with the matter, all at different agencies, and there's a few things we heard from them. One of them relates to policy. One senior staffer at an agency told me that there's an effort to remove mentions of policy from people's job descriptions. So instead of saying, provides policy guidance, it just says, provides guidance. And that's because of something called Schedule F.

This was an executive order that Trump did in his term that was then immediately rescinded by President Biden. But what Schedule F does is it creates a new job category for federal employees, specifically those who work on policy, and it removes some of their special protections, making it much easier to fire them. So, by removing mentions of policy in their job descriptions might make it harder to fire them.

But then also what I heard a lot of is about DEI. So, there's a lot of efforts to remove mentions of diversity, equity, inclusion. Obviously, DEI has become a big right wing boogeyman. Elon Musk has equated it to racism. And I've heard of people removing it from performance reviews and the like. And that's because they're worried that DOGE is going to go through using things like AI, looking for buzzwords, and is going to come in with a hatchet and not a scalpel to try to get rid of these jobs and cut these employees.

[08:55:08]

And again, it's not just about peoples jobs that they're worried about. They're also worried about the critical functions of the federal government. And so it's really interesting to see these individual efforts being undertaken by these federal employees to try to protect these functions.

And I should say, quite a few of them, they support the effort to streamline their government. They're just worried about how it's going to be carried out.

BERMAN: The detail, the specific engineering and the strategy really revealing there.

All right, Hadas Gold, thank you very much for that reporting.

Sara.

SIDNER: All right, listen up, John and Kate, you know how your parents, or you are both parents, say that they do not have a favorite child?

BOLDUAN: Literally just texted my father.

SIDNER: Why? (INAUDIBLE).

BOLDUAN: And he's going, I'm the favorite.

SIDNER: A new study published by the American Psychological Association reveals what many of us secretly suspected, parents do play favorites, particularly with daughters and easygoing kids.

BOLDUAN: (INAUDIBLE) with twins. How do you do that?

SIDNER: Um, yes. You two got the short end of the stick. But those easygoing children do get the better end of the deal. Those golden children typically enjoy better mental health and grades, but can struggle later with pressure to perform. So, to be on top. The remedy parents -

BOLDUAN: What are you talking about? (INAUDIBLE) talking about?

SIDNER: Were honest about these natural biases and explain different treatment to their kids. It can help the family get into sync. Problem children.

BOLDUAN: How do you handle that with twins, though?

BERMAN: I tell them both I love them equally as far as they know.

SIDNER: Equally. BERMAN: Or I say, like, you're my favorite child that's here with me right now.

BOLDUAN: Oh, I use it all the time. I'm like, do you want to be the favorite child, then you will do - just kidding. Just kidding. Sort of. Kind of.

SIDNER: A little bit. Well, the psychology says that you guys are choosing, and you also have been chosen, potentially.

BOLDUAN: I mean, I was the easygoing one for sure.

SIDNER: Right.

BERMAN: Said no one ever.

Brand new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts now.

And we do have breaking news. We are standing by for the Senate confirmation hearing for Kristi Noem. This is set to begin any minute. This is President-elect Donald Trump's pick to be secretary of homeland security.

You're having live pictures right now from inside the hearing room. This hearing was actually originally scheduled for Wednesday but got pushed back after a delay in Noem's FBI background check. That's according to a congressional aide.

We've got a full team of people standing by to talk about this. Lauren Fox, Priscilla Alvarez, senior political analyst Mark Preston.

But let's start on Capitol Hill with the aforementioned Lauren Fox for the comings and goings and what we're about to see.

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, there is a huge line that has developed as people are waiting to get into this hearing. In just a couple of minutes, it will get underway.

And like you noted, this was supposed to happen earlier this week. This is a rare Friday confirmation hearing here in the United States Senate. She is going to be coming before, because she, of course, is Donald Trump's selection to lead the Department of Homeland Security. You can expect that she's going to get a lot of questions about immigration, even though that is not going to be something that is going to be a huge focus for her, given the fact that Trump did select Tom Homan to lead that role.

But it is also going to be a huge opportunity for Democrats to really begin to stake out what exactly Trump's policies are going to be in this second term. You can expect a lot of really pointed questions from Democrats today. She is not an unknown commodity on Capitol Hill. She was a member of the House of Representatives. She's a two-term governor from the state of South Dakota.

And I just talked to Senator Kevin Cramer. He's a Republican from the state of North Dakota. He's going in to introduce her. He said that he thinks that she's going to be able to answer a lot of these questions. She is not a stranger to Capitol Hill. And she's going to know exactly how this process works. Were, of course, going to be waiting to see whether or not there's the kinds of exchanges that you sometimes see in these confirmation hearings, those fireworks on Capitol Hill.

SIDNER: All right, thank you to you, Lauren.

Let's go to Priscilla Alvarez, who is joining us as well.

Of course, Noem is going to play a role if confirmed in implementing some of Donald Trump's policies. But you've got some new reporting on some of what Donald Trump's plans are just hours after he's being sworn in. What can you tell us?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, certainly the interesting dynamic in this incoming administration will be that in addition to the Homeland Security secretary, there is also the border czar, Tom Homan, who President-elect Donald Trump had selected, who's going to be at the White House and will largely be leading on immigration. But the Department of Homeland Security, of course, is charged with implementing a lot of this immigration agenda with sources - which sources have described to me will include three different buckets.

For example, interior enforcement. That is going to start pretty quickly after Trump is sworn in. That could be ICE sweeps in metropolitan areas like Denver and Chicago.

[09:00:01]

And sources tell me the plan is still to target criminals. But, of course, if there are other undocumented immigrants who are encountered.