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Hamas Releases Three Hostages, Ceasefire Holding; Interview With Israeli Defense Forces Spokesman Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani; Trump Pays Respects At Arlington National Cemetery; Trump Plans Several Executive Orders On Day 1; Final Hours Of Biden's Presidency; Relatives Of Hostages Released Celebrate Their Return; Trump Vows Executive Order Tomorrow To Save TikTok; Trump Inauguration Moved Indoors Due To Freezing Temps. Aired 2-3p ET

Aired January 19, 2025 - 14:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:01:52]

JESSICA DEAN, CNN ANCHOR: You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Jessica Dean in New York alongside my colleague Jim Sciutto in Tel Aviv.

And we are following breaking news out of Israel, where three women held hostage in Gaza since being abducted by Hamas during the massive October 7th, 2023 attacks are being welcomed home tonight.

Just moments ago, the three of them arriving at a hospital for further assessment and treatment.

And Jim, it was quite a moment when those cars pulled in.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: No question. And just those pictures as you're seeing there, women hugging their moms, right? You could imagine just the emotion of that reunion, the smiles, the tears, the joy after so much waiting, 470 days of waiting and fear for their lives, their return.

Part of what is planned to be a six-week ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel, with a handful of Israeli hostages released every week, along with and in exchange for many hundreds of Palestinian prisoners released, The first group of which was being released a short time ago from the West Bank.

Bianna Golodryga, she's live outside the hospital just outside of Tel Aviv, where those hostages have arrived. You were there just a few minutes ago, watching the vans pull in. Tell us what comes next for these three young women.

BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Jim, what comes next is a long road of recovery, as we have been seeing and hearing these women, these three hostages.

Emily, Doron and Romi, have been reunited with their families. And you see one of the two helicopters behind me on the helipad here that had just transported them to Sheba Hospital, where they will be undergoing observation, treatment, testing, whatever they need here.

As we've talked about earlier. Jim, the Israeli health ministry has suggested, highly-recommended actually, that these hostages remain in hospital for at least four days to undergo the observation, the treatment, the assessment that they need.

I visited one of the six hospitals that will likely take in some of these hostages over the course of the next few weeks. And I will tell you, they have been preparing for this day, for months. Obviously, this entire nation had been preparing for this day for months.

But from what I saw, entire wings have been cordoned off, redesigned specifically to treat and house these hostages. They provide them with their own separate rooms, adjacent rooms for their families as well.

And one notable difference from the last ceasefire-hostage release deal was that unlike in November of 2023, when you did see a lot of media presence, a lot of live images and recording in the moment of families being reunited at the hospital, this time is different.

They learned from that experience that while it was something that this country needed to see in terms of getting some sort of relief to see 105 hostages home.

[14:04:52]

GOLODRYGA: For the hostages themselves that were brought home, this ended up being somewhat of a traumatic experience for them. In addition to the family members of hostages that remained in Gaza, that was a very difficult period as well.

You hear the helicopter getting ready to depart behind me, so it will get quite loud in a moment.

But Jim, it was a hero's welcome that we saw here when these three hostages were -- were landing here at Sheba Hospital. A group of friends, I'm told of Emily specifically, had gathered here.

And it was a hero's welcome as they literally threw themselves at the hospital van that she drove by in. It was pure joy. Joy we have yet to see, I have to say, since we've been here over the course of the last several days.

It was a group of young friends that came here in pure excitement and anticipation to welcome their friend home.

SCIUTTO: It's been well, well more than a year of sad and sometimes traumatic moments in this war. It's nice to see a happy one for these three families there.

GOLODRYGA: Yes.

SCIUTTO: Bianna Golodryga outside Sheba Hospital, thanks so much.

Joining me now is Israeli Defense Forces spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani. Colonel, thanks so much for taking the time. First question I have is what you know about the condition of the three young women.

LT. COL. NADAV SHOSHANI, ISRAELI DEFENSE FORCES SPOKESMAN: Well, what we set up on the border is those spots for those initial checks where the mothers met their daughters for the first time, and we gave them first support, medical support.

But they're going now to have more extensive checkups. as you said, more than a year in captivity with the terror organization, sometimes with no lights, sometimes with no food. So they're going to have extensive care.

From what we've seen in the first case, we've seen them standing, we've seen them smiling, we've seen them hugging their families. we've seen good signs.

But again, they've been there for 15 months with terrorists in horrible conditions in Gaza. And they're going to they're going to go extensive checks now in the hospital in Sheba. They will be there.

The hospital is ready to facilitate everything to check about them and to see and give them a full checkup.

What we did, understanding that they might come in in bad condition after 15 months, is to have that point for initial checks, to make sure there isn't something immediate to take care of, have a quick meet with the families and then have them go to a more extensive check in.

We've seen Emily without two fingers. You know that picture where it looks like she's doing this? But she lost her fingers --

(CROSSTALKING)

SCIUTTO: Yes. We did know --

SHOSHANI: -- on October 7th.

SCIUTTO: -- she had been shot or injured in her hand.

SHOSHANI: Right.

SCIUTTO: So is the belief that she then -- that that's when she lost her fingers, or a surgery or surgery afterwards?

SHOSHANI: She -- we believe she lost her fingers on October 7th. Obviously she's here now, so we'll be able to talk with her and hear her side of the story.

But we understand she lost her fingers as a result of what happened on October 7th, after which --

SCIUTTO: Understood.

SHOSHANI: -- she was kidnapped into Gaza. SCIUTTO: Let me ask you about how this deal came together, because the

outlines of this agreement have been in place or at least offered going back to May.

Tell us about the final days before this was finally agreed to. Was it clear to you that this agreement was going to take place?

SHOSHANI: Well, since October 7th, our one of our main goals, we had two goals to make sure Hamas can never do this again, to bring home the hostages. And we've been operating for that every day.

And we need to remember what happened this morning before the ceasefire took into effect. We were able to announce another hostage, Oron Shaul, a hostage from 11 years ago -- we were able to bring back his body to his family, to burial in Israel. Got buried today 11 years after he was killed.

So on one hand, we have the operational activity to bring home the hostages. On the other hand, we have our government's activities, our different -- different parties operating to bring this type of deal. And we've seen it move closer and closer in recent weeks.

We had understanding of what's happening. We obviously prepared for that. As you see how specific the operation to bring them out was. And still we understand who we have business with.

We saw Hamas try and push us past the last minute. They did not put the list of names they were supposed to give yesterday until today --

SCIUTTO: Right.

SHOSHANI: -- around 10:00 a.m., and we had to keep fighting in the morning because we understand who we have business with. We are ready for a deal to facilitate this.

We are following the government's directive, but we're also ready to any surprise that may come from Hamas. That is a terror group that is still our enemy and still vow to destroy us as they said just a few days ago.

SCIUTTO: No question. And still present.

And perhaps we can show the image again, because one of the more disturbing images today of, frankly, many hopeful images was to see the three women as they were handed from Hamas custody to the Red Cross in Gaza.

[14:09:45]

SCIUTTO: Surrounded by Hamas fighters in uniform, including, from what I could tell, members of the Hamas Qassam Brigades standing on top of the vehicle, right, that the women were taken away with.

What does that mean to you? Because, of course, the goal of the operation was to destroy Hamas. But Hamas is still clearly present there. SHOSHANI: Well, we've been able throughout our operations in Gaza to

take out most of the senior commanders in Hamas, including Sinwar and Deif. We've been able to take a lot and diminish a lot of their capabilities.

And what we've seen, horrible images. I can't imagine what their families can think when they see those pictures, but we've seen dozens of terrorists in those areas surrounding them. And we still remain with two goals: to bring home all the hostages; and to make sure that Hamas can never carry out an October 7th again.

And those goals haven't passed for us. We're still -- we're still committed to them, and we will still operate until all hostages are brought home.

SCIUTTO: There were many, many thousands of aid trucks outside of Gaza poised to go in one of the phases of this multi-phase, multi-step agreement here.

Can you tell us how that aid will be distributed inside Gaza? Will international aid agencies be in charge of that, or will it just be, in effect, driven in?

SHOSHANI: Well, there's a mechanism to bring aid into Gaza. It's not something new. we've been doing it. You know that this has been going on for essentially since the beginning of the war. And it is also part of the agreement, but it's a mechanism that's been running.

We have a room where we meet every day with international organizations, communicate and make sure it works on the best way. And we will continue doing that in the coming days alongside our international partners.

Many different organizations bringing the aid into Gaza, according to the agreement, as the political echelon directs us.

SCIUTTO: Lieutenant Colonel Shoshani, thanks so much for helping walk us through the events of the day.

We appreciate you joining us.

SHOSHANI: Thank you.

SCIUTTO: Let's go back now to Jessica in New York.

And to the lieutenant colonel's final point there, this is one moment in one day of a multi-day, multi-week process with many steps along the way. And we'll continue to monitor each of the steps. Of course, one of them is getting food and medical supplies to the people of Gaza.

DEAN: Absolutely. And it is a delicate process that we, as you know, Jim, will continue to follow. Thank you so much for that.

And we come back, the incoming president making the traditional visit to Arlington National Cemetery on the eve of his inauguration and ahead of a rally in Washington, D.C. tonight.

Also, how President Biden is marking the final hours of his presidency.

Stay with us. It's a very busy Sunday here.

[14:12:22]

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DEAN: Right now, President-Elect Trump and Vice President Elect J.D. Vance are paying their respects at Arlington National Cemetery. This, of course, the day before Trump is officially sworn into office alongside J.D. Vance.

Earlier this afternoon, they laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

CNN's Alayna Treene is joining us now from Arlington Cemetery with more on this. And Alayna, this very somber, traditional moment, we saw it play out live here just a few moments ago.

And then we look to tonight, which will be a more == much more raucous affair at the Capital One Arena with this rally that is planned.

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's exactly right.

What we saw with that wreath laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was really a somber moment. Donald Trump as well as the Vice President-Elect, J.D. Vance, were joined by two Gold Star families.

For that moment, it was very quiet, as you could see, as it was playing out where they laid the tomb, or excuse me, laid the wreath on the tomb.

Now also, we know that Donald Trump and Vance are visiting Section 60, which is most commonly reserved for U.S. veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan war. That's where they are now. And then they will be heading back to Blair House before that rally this evening.

Now, like I said, it is very -- it's part of tradition to have incoming presidents take part in this Arlington ceremony on the weekend of their inauguration.

It's less traditional for them to hold these large scale -- this kind of large-scale rally that were going to see Donald Trump do later today.

When I've talked to Trump's team about it, they told me essentially that they wanted a place to really energize the tens of thousands of people that were expected to come to Washington, D.C. for this event.

I'm told this rally is even more important now, given that the inauguration and the swearing in ceremony for Donald Trump is going to be inside now, moved inside the Capitol Rotunda. And so there's a big emphasis on trying to make the rally later today

special for a lot of those people who came to D.C. and will not be able to see Donald Trump and J.D. Vance get sworn in.

Now, another thing of course, we know is that Donald Trump's team is preparing dozens -- a flurry, I should say, of executive orders as well, to release tomorrow -- what, as soon as Donald Trump is sworn in.

I'm told many of them are going to be signed shortly after Donald Trump is sworn into office. And then, of course, later on in the day at the White House, he will be issuing more.

But all to say, a very busy weekend for Donald Trump and his team. And we're really seeing a show of force from the incoming cabinet as well here this morning at Arlington Cemetery, excuse me.

[14:19:40]

TREENE: We saw many members of Donald Trump's incoming cabinet -- his picks like Pete Hegseth, his pick to lead the Department of Defense; Marco Rubio, his pick to be Secretary of State; Elise Stefanik, his pick to be the U.N. ambassador -- the U.S. ambassador to the U.N.; Doug Collins, his pick to be the head of the Department of Veterans Affairs.

All of them really showing up for Donald Trump at this event this morning. We're going to see a lot of them this weekend, I'm told, at a lot of these big events before the real moment -- the big moment tomorrow on inauguration day, Jessica.

DEAN: All right.

And we will see how that all unfolds in real time this afternoon.

Alayna Treene, thank you very much.

We've got our panel back with us now -- Karen Finney, Bryan Lanza, Doug Heye and Lulu Garcia-Navarro.

It is great to see all of you. Thanks so much for being here.

Lulu, you and Doug were here in the studio with me as we watched that moment play out with the wreath laying and then, you know, it's not lost on anybody else.

The other big international news is this ceasefire and this hostage deal that's coming together.

And if you zoom out for a minute, and we were saying in the break, it is kind of remarkable that Trump has this moment going into office.

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Yes. I mean, we should say that he has been pivotal in bringing this moment about. I mean, everyone has acknowledged it. It isn't happenstance that Bibi Netanyahu, who had been over and over again not wanting to actually sit down and do this ceasefire, did it because Donald Trump said, if you don't do it, there's going to be hell to pay, not only to Hamas and the hostages, but that was the message also to the Israeli government.

He did not want to come in with this hanging over his administration. We saw what it did to the Biden administration. It absolutely torpedoed them in terms of foreign policy, in terms of domestic policy.

He wanted to come in with a clean slate. And this is a gift that he is getting as well.

This is a joyous day, obviously, for the Israelis. Palestinians also are celebrating the, you know, at least a respite in this war.

But, you know, Donald Trump is surely going to benefit from this.

DEAN: Yes.

And Bryan, look, you take that piece of it, you take these polling numbers, again not just as we were talking about, not just Trump's popularity, but the popularity of the policies that he wants to enact.

If you're looking at some of "The New York Times" polling on immigration, you see a lot of people, a lot of Americans supporting a lot of these initiatives. And so he has all of that before him.

When I talk to people, they say the risk here is overstep. Does he get lulled into going too far with some of this stuff?

What do you make of that kind of idea? And is that something you think that they're thinking about at all right now?

BRYAN LANZA, SENIOR ADVISER, TRUMP 2024 CAMPAIGN: You know, first of all, thank you for having me. You know, listen. Overstep is always a risk every party is guilty of usually when they come into power with, you know, too much overstep and they sort of lose their mandate or they lose the momentum.

But yes, I mean, it's something that we're cognizant of. We have to plan out, but we also have to know that the American people voted for change. And they gave Donald Trump a mandate to change the direction of this course -- of the course of the country.

And that's not going to be incremental change. That has to be dramatic change. That has to be, you know, change that just sort of stuns the American psyche, which is what you're going to see in the deportations that are going to come place tomorrow afternoon.

So yes, you know, you want to have incremental changes to some respect because you don't want to sort of overreach. But the American people have asked Donald Trump to overreach. They've asked him to be disruptive here in Washington, D.C., because the last four years have been a failure in their lives.

DEAN: And Karen, that that brings us to the Democrats in this moment. And, you know, we have polling 58 percent of Democrats believe that the party needs major changes right now.

Obviously, we've been talking a lot about this since the election. Where do they go from here? Where do they go from here? What do they do in this moment?

Do they kind of go along with this? Do they, because -- because just resisting Trump has not obviously worked.

KAREN FINNEY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Sure. Well, a couple of things. First, lulu, I think you misunderstood something I said last hour. I'm not saying Democrats are just going to hang back.

What I'm saying is there's a little bit of a feeling of, let's stay out of the way of the Republican chaos. I mean, we saw some of that towards the end of the year with some of the machinations about, for example, the budget.

So I think there's a feeling of let us focus on getting things done and holding Trump and the Republican Party accountable.

Let's be honest, they've got about a year and a half. This is about delivering for the American people. It is about lowering the cost of gas, of groceries, of rent.

Our own polling showed you know, Trump believes he has a mandate, but that also means the pressure is on. To what Bryan just said, people believe that their costs are going to go down and they're going to want to feel meaningful change in their own lives, not just talk about Panama and Greenland.

And so part of what I think you're going to see is Democrats holding Trump to his word and looking to see, do these things happen? Or does he betray the promises that he made to the American people?

At the same time, I think there's very much of a clear-eyed -- I was at the DNC as the communications director in 2005, about 20 years ago, when we were facing a similar moment where there was a need to think about how we rebuilt our party and strengthened our ability to win.

[14:24:54]

FINNEY: But I will say, I mean many of the -- when you poll policy ideas and things like lowering costs or when you talk about things like lowering the cost of childcare or increasing the minimum wage, those are very popular too.

So you're going to see Democrats continue to fight for the things that we care about, that where there may be some there are definitely policy differences with Republicans.

But at the end of the day, I think we're going to -- our focus is going to be on delivering for the American people and holding the Republicans accountable, as well as continuing to be forceful about our own values and the issues that we care about.

DEAN: Yes. And Doug, there's the -- there's the Democrats writ large -- the

Democratic Party. Then there's Joe Biden, who is saying -- who is who is bidding farewell to his presidency. He's in the waning hours now of his presidency.

And we have this reporting from Jonathan Martin of Alexandra Pelosi, Nancy Pelosi's daughter, saying if I was Lady McBiden, I'd put on my big girl pants and play the long game and think about my husband's legacy.

She's talking about the rift between Biden, the Bidens and Pelosi stemming back to this summer when he stepped aside. It certainly can't be the way Biden thought he would be leaving office.

DOUG HEYE, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: No. And Democrats are usually smart to listen to Nancy Pelosi, and they should have done it all, all along. She has proven herself to usually be right and to always be a winner.

And what we've seen with Biden, not just in the last 6 to 8 months, when clearly he didn't just have a bad debate, he fulfilled what Republicans said about Joe Biden, that he wasn't up to the job that Democrats would say privately, but not publicly.

But what we've seen over the past month or so is Biden continuing to tarnish his own legacy in ways that even Republicans didn't think were imaginable.

So, you know, if I'm a Democrat who was warned about Donald Trump being a danger to democracy, maybe just declaring constitutional amendments are now the law of the land by a stroke of a pen or a tweet isn't really a smart thing to do.

But this is where Joe Biden has boxed himself in. Democrats are more unpopular than they've ever been since CNN started polling this in 1993. That's Joe Biden's approval rating as well. And he's tanking his own legacy like a football team that's losing on purpose to get a higher draft choice.

But the reality is, you know, politics, it comes at you fast, but you can't prepare for failure. You can't prepare for victory by failure.

DEAN: Yes. And Lulu, it is -- it is such a striking moment too, because, you know, as I look at all these numbers, you start to wonder, ok, how much of this is Joe Biden himself, the choices that Doug is talking about, that he's made, that people are not reacting -- some people are not reacting well to.

How much of it is, we still live in a post COVID world where people are really mad and incumbents are losing all around the world? And is it just kind of a special alchemy that we're seeing play out, or is this specific to Democrats and Joe Biden right now?

GARCIA-NAVARRO: I mean, I think it's a combination of things. There were a lot of mistakes that were made. And I think Democrats are grappling with that now. They're caught in what I like to call the "could have, would have, should have moment" where they're gaming out how they came to this moment.

You know, I interviewed Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi right after the loss of the election, and she really did not want to grapple with what had happened.

And -- but in, you know, even there, she said that she felt that Joe Biden had made a mistake by seeking reelection. And a lot of Democrats, if you talk to them, will say that was the fatal flaw that he thought, you know, the message of the 2022 midterms was that he could get another term, whereas every poll was telling Democrats he's too old, we think he's too old. We don't think he's got the gas. We don't want him as the nominee.

HEYE: And Lady McBiden and the protectors and enablers around Joe Biden kept that information from him. The White House polling team, they had that information. They wouldn't show it to Joe.

And ultimately, Kamala Harris' best attribute as a candidate was there were no doubts about her being vertical for four years. Joe Biden could not answer those questions -- wouldn't answer questions, obviously.

And as he continued as president, even though he wasn't the candidate, voters saw very clearly that he wasn't up to the task and Kamala Harris paid a price for that as well.

DEAN: All right. We're going to have to leave it there.

Coming up, back to breaking news in Israel. We're going to talk with a doctor who's working with hospitals in Israel as they prepare to receive those hostages.

We'll be right back.

[14:29:16]

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[14:33:50]

SCIUTTO: An emotional moment, a rare happy moment in these 470 days of war, as family members of some of the Israeli hostages freed today erupted in cheers and joy as they witnessed the freedom of their loved ones.

Well, joining us now is Dr. Hagai Levine. He is the head of the medical team for the Hostages and Missing Families Forum. He's also a professor at Hadassah Medical Center and Hebrew University with a long history of treating former hostages.

Dr. Levine, thanks so much for joining tonight.

You've met with released hostages before. And of course, every hostage, every situation is different to some extent. But can you tell us what the most immediate concerns are for young women, like those who were released today after so long in captivity? DR. HAGAI LEVINE, HEAD OF THE MEDICAL TEAM, HOSTAGES & MISSING FAMILY

FORUM: We'll, it's difficult to say. As you said, its different from person to person. It's heterogeneous and it's multi-system assault. So for each hostage that is released, we need to identify what is the most important issues to tackle for she or for her or for whom.

[14:35:05]

So, here, it's 471 days. It's the first time that we get people that were so long. Young women and, you know, obviously we are very, you know, the mental health rehabilitation is going to be very long. So I need that, you know, a full assessment is needed. And then to tackle what we know for sure from interviews with released hostages that they cannot really recover until all the hostages, the remaining -- remaining 94 are released.

So I know that this would be a very important point for them to know that their friends that are still in captivity later on released.

SCIUTTO: Yeah. You mentioned like 470 days. It makes me think it was 444 days for the American hostages held in Iran more than 40 years ago. This -- this even longer than that.

Are you saying then that there's something of a -- I suppose the parallel would be a survivors guilt that hostages are freed separate from a larger group? Don't quite get comfort until everybody is free.

LEVINE: It's more than discomfort. It's as you say, its guilt. But here it's not theoretical. It's their actual friends sometimes not in this case. Even family that are separated from captivity. It's very -- they have been with them so much. And some of them they know from before maybe. So that's something that they promised some sometimes they don't know in this case. But in previous cases they promised the person in captivity we will continue the fight for your freedom.

So now they are obligated. So what I'm worried about is that they know that they cannot really focus on their own health because they are occupied in how I help my friends that remain in captivity. And now, with this agreement that we are very thankful for, but that will take so long.

You know, the next 42 days, only 33 are expected to be released. You know, we have -- it's urgent to get everyone released for the sake of the hostages in there and for the sake of the hostages that are here and their families. And I think all of us.

SCIUTTO: Yeah. No, no, no question.

I wonder as well as they're being evaluated when we see -- when we saw the first images in the last several hours, I personally was impressed to see how big their smiles were, right? They look happy in the moment and who wouldn't be? But I imagine that could possibly hide deeper emotional scars.

LEVINE: First, I must say outstanding resilience of body and soul. It's really remarkable. And you know, I have this bracelet and for me and she's doing the happy dance. And that's also the spirit of her family.

And it's amazing like smiling. I imagine that she even smiled in captivity and now smiling here. It's remarkable. It's the victory of the spirit. That's really, you know, for me to see that.

Of course, behind the smile, you don't know what is hiding. You don't know what they have been through. You don't know what will happen in the future. And we also saw for other hostages that on the first days of release, there was like, many euphoria.

And then we saw sometimes a collapse or sometimes a depression and some sometimes also physical depression, because when they come, the adrenaline kicks in and everything and, you know, they manage the first days, but then they get out of hospital, back to reality. Sometimes their close family friends were murdered. They just hear about it. Their homes were burnt.

They see that we are still in war. Their friends are still in captivity. And now they realize what they have been through, that they lost a significant time of their life. And so, so much bad experience in hell, underground or above the ground.

So don't be misled. Also, from the physical experience, you know, we experience we saw some pictures. It seems like, okay, maybe they are okay, but it doesn't say that they are okay. We don't know about their heart, their liver, their brain. We don't know that need to be well assessed for the long run.

SCIUTTO: Yeah, it's a good point. What news do they know? One of them was taken from the Nova Festival. Does she know about how many lost their lives there?

Well, Dr. Hagai Levine, we know you're going to be part of the recovery process for these hostages. We appreciate the work you do and wish you the best of luck.

LEVINE: Thank you very much. And of the families, because now the families will have to treat them. And of all the other families, who needs to continue the fight to release everyone.

[14:40:05

Thank you very much.

SCIUTTO: And we will have more when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCIUTTO: New today, TikTok back online after going dark overnight. Users trying to watch short videos late last night instead saw this message. Then this morning, President-elect Trump said he plans an executive order once he's in office tomorrow to delay the U.S. ban.

[14:45:05]

A few hours later, TikTok said it was restoring service. And that brings us to our next guest.

Joining us now from Davos, Switzerland, the World Economic Forum, where the World Economic Forum is happening, Sara Fischer, CNN's media -- chief -- media analyst.

And, Sara, I know you're talking to a lot of people there. Just give people the top lines. It's like whiplash right now with TikTok. What do we know?

SARA FISCHER, CNN MEDIA ANALYST: It's absolute whiplash. So I think the big thing to focus on here, Jessica, is that TikTok is going to follow the lead of what the service providers and what the app developers are doing, and they need a very formal assurance that they're not going to get fined if they take this app dark.

What TikTok said today was that they're going to come back online, hopefully, because they have information from service providers that said, basically, we're not going to get penalized if we were to serve you. So this is all about everyone trying to tiptoe around legal writings and not, you know, mess anything up.

The big talk here in Davos, though, is that TikTok is here. You know, they are trying to be diplomatic, talk to other world leaders, try to understand what's going on. And that matters, Jessica, because you don't want this to be a domino situation. If you're TikTok, if the U.S. bans you think about all the other countries that have considered such bans.

DEAN: Yeah. And so what does it look like moving forward? We got that message from Trump today talking about perhaps the U.S. has a 50 percent stake with -- with either the current owners or new owners, new American owners.

The law is pretty specific in what has to happen. So he has kind of limited authority in terms of exactly what he can do. But how do you see this playing out moving forward?

FISCHER: So he could try to delay the ban by 90 days, by basically trying to ensure that there is a partner to buy it, or at this case, in this case, he's claiming that he could sign an EO that would allow a 50 percent JV. I'm not sure how that would work because as you know, next, administration could just overturn that executive order and then the law would still stand, which means that you have to be owned fully by an American company.

Now, he could try to repeal the law at this case. Jessica, I don't think that's the right thing. I don't think that's going to happen because Republicans who are hawkish on China do not seem eager to have this law repealed. So, I think for now, the best thing that Donald Trump can do is try to push a delay, try to get a full owner.

And if they can't -- settle with a, you know, partial owner, as he says in his executive order, and maybe see if that helps get China over the finish line, I just worry that that's not a long term solution, because the law doesn't say that that's okay. DEAN: Right. And you kind of brushed up against the politics of all of

this, which is kind of remarkable. So many Republicans, Democrats, too. This was so bipartisan. And now we're seeing a number some Republicans are holding firm. I'm thinking of Ricketts and Tom Cotton in the Senate are very much still in alignment with this. TikTok has to go, but a lot of Republicans are starting to now back off this a little bit as they see Trump and they're trying to follow his bob and weave on this.

FISCHER: Yeah, that's right. They see a political strategy here too for them. Jessica, these are elected officials. They represent millions of constituents who love and use TikTok. They're getting letters from their constituents who are begging them to bring it back, and not just users, but small businesses who rely on it for a living. So they're feeling that political heat.

But I will say the national security threat still stands, you know, so the Supreme Court deciding not to intervene on this kind of suggests and shows you that the First Amendment argument, in light of national security concerns is not going to be one that holds. And so I'm very curious to see moving forward, if we do kind of back away from the TikTok situation, what precedent does this set for how we treat Chinese tech in our overall national security plan?

DEAN: Yeah, that will certainly be something to keep an eye on.

Sara Fischer, thank you so much. Good to see you.

FISCHER: You, too. Thank you.

DEAN: Still to come, President-elect Trump will soon head to Capital One Arena. You see that ugly winter weather there? We have more expected in the nation's capital as thousands of people descend on the city for the inauguration.

There you go, looking inside Capital One Arena right now. We're going to have this when we come back.

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[14:53:41]

DEAN: With temperatures predicted to be in the low 20s, Monday may be one of the coldest inauguration days ever. High winds will make it feel closer to ten degrees out there.

Meteorologist Derek Van Dam is joining us now.

Derek, you got to be honest with you, not the prettiest scene there behind you. It's been a bit gray, rainy and cold to boot in Washington, D.C.

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yeah. That's right. Jessica. And in fact, the rain that set in has now transitioned over to snow. So we should start to see that pile up quite significantly here. A couple of inches expected to blanket the D.C. area just in time for the inauguration tomorrow here in the nation's capital.

But this is really the curtain raiser to the main event, which will be the cold arctic air that has forced this inauguration event to be moved indoors. And you say one of the coldest on record. It will be, but it won't break a record. And I'll explain why because you got to go back four decades. We're talking 40 years. The last time temperatures were this cold, seven degrees for Reagan's inauguration.

It'll be in the lower to middle 20s tomorrow, but it will feel like it's in the single digits for the afternoon. So that's the important part of this forecast, because it is the wind that is the major factor here, that exposed what it feels like an exposed skin as you step outside. So that is one of the key reasons here why we're moving so many of these events indoors because with gusts over 15 to 25 miles per hour, that chills you down very quickly, especially if you are outdoors for an extended period of time.

[14:55:13]

So the snow moves on overnight tonight, lays that quick two inches of snow here in the D.C. area. Behind it, it clears out. But then it's the wind that picks up and it will be bone chilling cold and one of the coldest on record for this inauguration day coming up tomorrow at noon.

DEAN: Yeah. Layer up and yeah, going to be chilly indeed.

Derek Van Dam, thank you so much.

Still to come with this new administration just under 24 hours away now, President-elect Donald Trump ready to get his base excited. His supporters fired up. He's speaking to thousands of supporters at a rally in D.C.

More on this when we come back.

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