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CNN Special Reports

All The Best, All The Worst 2024; Donald Trump Won the 2024 Election; Women Dominates Music Industry. Aired 5a-5:30 ET

Aired January 01, 2025 - 05:00   ET

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

[05:03:30]

TOM FOREMAN, CNN HOST: Hold on tight. 2024 was a crazy, reckless, risky ride with surprises at every turn, where every rough road led to another. And we're taking a look back at that long, strange trip with our panelists. Roy Wood Jr., Brianna Keilar, Boris Sanchez, Kyung Lah, Omar Jimenez, Pamela Brown, and John Berman.

It's All the Best, All the Worst 2024 Coast to Coast. Welcome, I'm Tom Foreman.

And while every year is a unique journey, the past 12 months took us on an epically bumpy ride through big news entertainment, sports, music, pop culture, and of course, where we begin on the roughest road of all.

The biggest, best, worst political story of the year was the titanic fight for the White House between sitting President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRIANNA KEILAR, CO-ANCHOR, CNN: Unbelievable.

ROY WOOD JR., COMEDIAN: This year was the year of battle.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Both sides felt like the other side represented the end of America, right?

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: He's done a poor job.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: What were you talking about?

FOREMAN: Worst reality. Even as bitter words flew between the oldest presidential candidates ever, polls showed most voters didn't like either choice.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: It was the election that nobody asked for, and everyone was getting. And they were getting it every day at full volume.

KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: If this were a dating show, you'd want to walk off the set. [05:05:00]

FOREMAN: The twice impeached Trump rode in on an avalanche of legal cases over classified documents, election meddling, sexual misconduct, ordered to pay hundreds of millions for his misdeeds, and still stewing about his election loss in 2020.

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A lot happened fast and I can't even remember how things have happened.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Former President Donald J. Trump convicted of 34 felony charges.

FOREMAN: Worst legal moment for the former president, being convicted for dozens of felony counts tied to a hush money payments to a porn star.

TRUMP: As far as the trial itself, it was very unfair.

WOOD JR.: Donald Trump is the first president I've ever seen who do the scandals then get elected. You did it wrong. You're supposed to get elected. Then you run the scams.

FOREMAN: But the GOP barely blinked. Trump blew through the field of would-be challengers and secured his party's nomination with ease.

JIMENEZ: Yes, the Republicans had every chance to change their course from Trump politics, and they didn't.

FOREMAN: Biden had his own problems. Concern about his age, immigration, and inflation fatigue.

BROWN: I'm from Kentucky, and I was talking to a lot of people from home who maybe didn't love Donald Trump, but they weren't happy about the prices at the grocery store.

BERMAN: The bottom line, the headwinds that Joe Biden was facing were just huge.

TAPPER: We're live from Georgia, a key battleground state in the race for the White House.

FOREMAN: Then came the worst debate for Democrats. While Trump rolled out a torrent of falsehoods, Biden sputtered, muttered.

BIDEN: Look, if we finally beat Medicare?

FOREMAN: And teed up the best line of the evening for his opponent.

TRUMP: I really don't know what he said at the end of that sentence. I don't think he knows what he said either.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: My jaw dropped to the ground. And you knew right then that the shape of this race was going to change.

TRUMP: Take a look at what happened. FOREMAN: Before that could happen, a violent attempt was made on

Trump's life in Pennsylvania, which left one person dead, two critically injured, and the candidate bloodied. The tragedy set up a triumphant Republican National Convention.

UNKNOWN: I said, Trump mania from wild brother. Let Trump mania rule again. Let Trump mania make America, great again!

FOREMAN: Under intense pressure amid bad polling, Biden dropped out.

BIDEN: America is going to have to choose between moving forward or backward, between hope and hate.

KEILAR: If someone had written that into a script, we as political journalists would say that's not how it works.

FOREMAN: Just like that, Vice President Kamala Harris was the new Democratic nominee and her party's best chance for a do-over.

LAH: So, there was this swell of excitement from pop culture. You know, Kamala is brat, right?

FOREMAN: As Trump stumbled.

TRUMP: I didn't know she was black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn black.

FOREMAN: Harris rode rising polls, anger over abortion restrictions, and she racked up big-name supporters eager to trump on Trump.

MICHELLE OBAMA, FORMER FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES: Who's going to tell him that the job he's currently seeking might just be one of those black jobs?

(APPLAUSE)

WOOD JR.: Kamala definitely had a lot of momentum. She had the money. She had the popularity.

BERMAN: Look, it was clear at the beginning that Donald Trump did not know how to run against Vice President Harris.

FOREMAN: In the second presidential debate, V.P. Harris lured Trump into the worst lie about immigrants.

TRUMP: They're eating the cats. They're eating -- they're eating the pets of the people that live there.

LAH: It's something that such trope that has been repeated so often in history about people of color that it was astonishing to hear it come out of his mouth.

TRUMP: I will appoint a real special prosecutor.

FOREMAN: But Trump came storming back, flooding the campaign with fear and falsehoods while promising pardons for many January 6th rioters. TRUMP: That was a day of love.

FOREMAN: Slipping past what officials say was a second assassination attempt, although the accused man denies it, and raging at anyone who backed Harris.

UNKNOWN: Kamala is for they, them. President Trump is for you.

FOREMAN: Harris fought to the wire.

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: It doesn't have to be this way.

KEILAR: But it was a tall order to pull off a campaign in that amount of time.

JIMENEZ: So, when you got to election night, really no one knew what was going to happen.

BERMAN: It is now official CNN projects that Donald Trump has been elected president defeating Vice President Kamala Harris.

FOREMAN: It didn't take long to find out.

(CROWD CHANTING)

[05:10:00]

FOREMAN: Four years after losing the presidency, Trump reclaimed it, a feat not seen since Grover Cleveland in 1892.

LAH: There is something about him that speaks to America, and we have to understand that.

FOREMAN: Republicans romped, taking the Senate, holding the House, while critics howled about a conservative plan they thought might trash government as we know it.

SANCHEZ: And yet there were so many people out there that felt like that very structure, that very system, those very institutions had failed them.

BROWN: And I think that's a big reason why Donald Trump won.

HARRIS: While I concede this election, I do not concede the fight.

FOREMAN: Democrats did the best thing they could, pledging themselves to a peaceful transfer of power. Even as the election crushed hopes, the legal system might hold Trump accountable.

BROWN: Many of them still feel this way, that Donald Trump back in the White House represents the end of democracy.

FOREMAN: The wildest promotion.

TRUMP: I'm proud to endorse and encourage you to get this Bible. FOREMAN: Trump's selling merch throughout the campaign and beyond.

WOOD JR.: If you'd have told me 15 years ago that Donald Trump would be the president and he would be selling gold sneakers to black people, I would have just called you crazy.

FOREMAN: After his win, Trump began rolling out a raft of controversial cabinet picks and advisors, many who have echoed his calls to go after his critics.

BERMAN: He went for loyalists. He went for people who would break things.

LAH: There should be no surprise.

SANCHEZ: Trump's promise throughout his campaign and especially towards the end was one of retribution and revenge.

FOREMAN: Of course, with some of his picks immediately running into troubles, it's hardly a done deal.

JIMENEZ: We haven't even gotten to the confirmation process where all eyes are on these candidates.

FOREMAN: What's more, when the popular vote was fully counted, it showed Trump won. But he fell short of 50 percent and had one of the smallest winning margins in a half century.

KEILAR: That's going to bother him.

SANCHEZ: It's a clear victory. But stop using the word landslide.

FOREMAN: Still, some Republican lawmakers are eager to do whatever the next president wants.

UNKNOWN: If Donald Trump says jump three feet high and scratch your head, we all jump three feet high and scratch our heads.

FOREMAN: Even as the opposition races to keep pushing back hard.

UNKNOWN: We will push back against far-right extremism whenever necessary.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOREMAN: Sit tight, we have so much more ahead, including the best movies and music, the perils of unlimited shrimp, and heads up!

UNKNOWN: It's launching!

FOREMAN: Is that the new space race or another spate of UFOs? Keep your tray table up in your seatbelt pass and all the best, all the worst roars on.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:16:50]

(MUSIC)

FOREMAN: In music, the best beats came from the brats as Charli XCX

had everyone doing the Apple dance.

KEILAR: Is that that's a good thing I take it.

BERMAN: No, I have no idea. I have like no idea.

FOREMAN: Chappell Roan was smoking at the Video Music Awards, Ariana Grande kept cool, and Billie Eilish took flight again.

JIMENEZ: Look, the pop women this year, I feel like really brought it.

FOREMAN: Sabrina Carpenter not only had hits, but also gets our award for the best tour for an artist not named Taylor Swift.

LAH: She really blew up this year. I really, really like her. My daughter loves her, but enough with the espresso.

FOREMAN: In rap, Kendrick Lamar gave the best beat down to his old rival Drake.

SANCHEZ: It's a diss track and it's a vicious one at that. And yet it has this amazing beat that you can dance to.

FOREMAN: And he rolled out a surprise new album to the delight of fans.

JIMENEZ: It's unbelievable.

WOOD: I don't know if anyone had a better year musically than Kendrick Lamar.

FOREMAN: It was a big year for country with hot hits from Shaboozey, Post Malone.

KEILAR: Post Malone was everywhere this year. Post Malone is actually one of the artists that I listen to a lot.

FOREMAN: Dasha too.

BROWN: I do not like country music. Can you believe that?

FOREMAN: But the biggest, boldest, best move on the country charts came from pop star Beyonce with Cowboy Carter.

BERMAN: It's all sort of wildly popular country, and hip hop, and pop, and rock. They all blend in certain ways now that maybe they didn't 20, 30 years ago.

FOREMAN: In the Latin music scene, an old favorite Juan Luis Guerra grabbed the Grammy for best album.

[05:20:00]

For indie pop we liked Illuminati Hotties, Dead, Fontaines D.C., but we're calling Bleacher's the best.

There was just so much good music this year. The worst job is picking favorites, but make no mistake, the person on top of the pop throne it's still Taylor Swift. Breaking records, grabbing awards, making fans swoon over her romantic adventures.

LAH: It was so much fun to watch this budding romance, you know. I mean, who would have ever even heard of Like the NFL until Taylor Swift came along?

FOREMAN: And proving once again, it's good to be the queen.

Let's turn now from gold records to the silver screen. Out in Hollywood, superhero flicks have dominated the box office for quite some time, but this year, the movies went in a cartoonish direction.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNKNOWN: Look, we all have a job to do. I plan for the future.

UNKNOWN: You want to sit with us?

UNKNOWN: These girls are so cool.

FOREMAN: "Inside Out 2" made more than $1 billion in less than three weeks.

UNKNOWN: Hey.

FOREMAN: The fastest any animated movie has ever hit that milestone.

KEILAR: When I was a kid, where were the movies teaching us about our feelings?

FOREMAN: And the list of top money makers was crowded with more of the same. The minions reappeared in "Despicable Me 4."

UNKNOWN: We need volunteers. Nice work, gentlemen.

BERMAN: There should be dozens of "Despicable Me's," as far as I'm concerned. Minions are always exciting.

UNKNOWN: You were chosen to become something more than you already are.

FOREMAN: "Kung Fu Panda" showed off his moves again.

LAH: I'm done with the "Kung Fu Panda's." Like, stop. Stop already.

UNKNOWN: This is a call from the ancestors. To sail to new skies. FOREMAN: And "Moana 2" rode the wave of animation fascination. The worst problem for many these days, movies cost a lot and not everyone loves fans singing along.

WOOD JR.: The same karaoke, the same concert. Shut your ass up.

UNKNOWN: I don't know why you are so greedy for it in this one.

FOREMAN: Big budget spectacles had their moments, including the long- awaited "Gladiator 2."

BROWN: "Gladiator 2," I can't wait to see and I'm going to make it work because "Gladiator 1" is my favorite movie of all time.

UNKNOWN: This is a form of power that our world has not yet seen. The ultimate power.

FOREMAN: Best visuals with breathtaking scenes and out of this world action, the winner has to be "Dune, Part 2."

JIMENEZ: That's what you want. That's what you want. And for me, that is what defined my movie experience.

FOREMAN: "Deadpool and Wolverine" managed to keep superheroes in the mix.

UNKNOWN: I have no idea how to save it alone. But you, you know how to save it.

FOREMAN: Spoiler alert.

BERMAN: It turned out it was fairly violent.

FOREMAN: In straight drama, the worst anxiety came from Civil War.

UNKNOWN: There's some kind of misunderstanding here.

UNKNOWN: What?

UNKNOWN: You're American.

FOREMAN: It also had the best line of the year.

UNKNOWN: Okay. What kind of American are you?

SANCHEZ: That is really a Rorschach test for where you sit politically. What you see in it tells you more about yourself than the actual movie.

WOOD JR.: The last time those two met up, it was almost the end of Kong.

FOREMAN: Of course, "Godzilla and Kong" raged again and --

UNKNOWN: Sometimes the old ways are better than the new.

FOREMAN: The bigger, better, faster sequel to the "Twister" franchise sucked in a huge audience.

KEILAR: I thought the plot was very good. I thought the special effects were excellent. I thought the soundtrack was very good. If I'm being honest with you though, I think Glen Powell is a hottie.

UNKNOWN: Come on, Mike, slow down!

UNKNOWN: We are late.

FOREMAN: The worst trend, if you haven't already noticed. The continuing dominance of sequels. Although, admittedly, follow-up films such as "Bad Boys," "Ride or Die," were huge hits.

WOOD JR.: Love or hate, Will Smith for what happened, that boy still got it on screen.

[05:25:00]

UNKNOWN: Who is this Santa? He's scaring my kid.

UNKNOWN: Yes. He's scaring me too.

FOREMAN: In horror, all the good little kids went to see "Terrifier 3." All the Oscar watchers grabbed onto the substance.

UNKNOWN: There's been a slight misuse of the substance.

FOREMAN: In comedy, give a hand to "The Fall Guy."

UNKNOWN: You're a stuntman. Nobody's going to notice you. That's your job. No offense.

UNKNOWN: I mean, sun taking.

FOREMAN: And "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice" conjured up giggles too.

UNKNOWN: Feel free to express yourselves. Don't be afraid.

UNKNOWN: You're a figment of my imagination.

UNKNOWN: Really?

SANCHEZ: Michael Keaton is a genius, and I enjoyed watching it.

FOREMAN: Best Magical Moments, "Wicked" is the winner.

UNKNOWN: You have no real power.

UNKNOWN: That's why I need you.

UNKNOWN: Don't let her get away this wicked witch.

FOREMAN: And even with several movies making late Oscar bids, we've already picked a strong contender for best film.

UNKNOWN: This is a conclave, Aldo. It's not a war. UNKNOWN: It is a war. And you have to commit to a sign.

FOREMAN: "Conclave" is a modern masterpiece and a hit with papal people everywhere.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOREMAN: The world of big news seemed almost cinematic this year, full of such drama and explosive events, so when we come back, we will take a look. Plus, we'll have the best moments in sports, the cutest lost penguin.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNKNOWN: Pretty, pretty cute.

FOREMAN: And the fan favorite TV shows. It's All The Best, All The Worst 2024.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)