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Israel Delays Cabinet Vote On Ceasefire Hostage Deal, Accuses Hamas Of Reneging On Parts Of Agreement; President Biden Warns Of Oligarchy In America In Final Address; Senators Grill Pam Bondi At AG Confirmation Hearing. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired January 16, 2025 - 05:00   ET

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

[05:00:33]

KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: It's Thursday, January 16th.

Right now on CNN THIS MORNING:

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JONATHAN DEKEL-CHEN, SON KIDNAPPED BY HAMAS: I hope this is the final chapter in the living hell.

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HUNT: Cautiously optimistic. That's the feeling for the families of hostages held by Hamas.

But minutes ago, the ceasefire hostage deal, release deal facing a new hurdle.

Plus --

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JEO BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's been the highest honor of my life to lead you as commander-in-chief.

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HUNT: A lifetime of service. President Biden saying goodbye to his final warning as he leaves office.

And later --

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SEN. DICK DURBIN (D-IL): I need to know that you would tell the president no.

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HUNT: Testing loyalty. Democrats want to know, will the president- elect's pick for attorney general do his bidding and prosecute his enemies?

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HUNT: All right. It is 5:00 a.m. here on the East Coast. A live look at Capitol Hill on this Thursday morning.

Good morning, everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us.

In Israel, in Gaza and across the Middle East, the announcement of a deal between Israel and Hamas brought a rare wave of optimism.

This morning, those hopes do seem to be threatened. In just the last hour, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announcing his cabinet would delay its vote on the ceasefire hostage deal. They're accusing Hamas on reneging on parts of the agreement, end quote.

In response, Hamas saying they remain committed to the agreement as it was announced.

Since that news yesterday, thousands of exhausted, hopeful Israelis have been filling what's called Hostage Square in Tel Aviv, after hearing about that agreement on Wednesday. But just hours after the deal was reached, Israel bombarding Gaza overnight, at least 45 people were killed in an attack on Gaza City.

If it stands as it is, the agreement calls for a 42-day ceasefire. During that time, 33 hostages would be released. That includes at least two of the seven Americans being held. Only three of those Americans are believed to be alive.

Also in the deal, about 1,000 Palestinian prisoners would be freed from Israeli jails. The agreement was brokered with a rare level of cooperation between the outgoing president, Biden, and the incoming Trump president and their camps.

President Biden was asked about that.

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BIDEN: This deal would have to be implemented by the next team, so I told my team to coordinate closely with the incoming team to make sure we're all speaking with the same voice, because that's what American presidents do.

REPORTER: Who's credit for this, Mr. President, you or Trump?

BIDEN: Is that a joke?

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HUNT: President Biden says phases two and three of the deal could include a permanent end to the war.

Let's bring in CNN global affairs analyst Kim Dozier with more on this. Kim, good morning. Nice to see you.

KIM DOZIER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Good morning.

HUNT: Let's start with this sort of just emerging development out of Israel, which is that there's a delay on the vote in the Israeli cabinet. Do you think that that's a significant threat to this deal going through? Is that about Israeli politics? What's going on?

DOZIER: The prime ministers office is saying that Hamas is trying to determine the identities of some of those Palestinian prisoners released. This is the kind of last minute thing that, you know, since none of us have seen the written terms of the deal, we don't know.

Hamas is denying it, saying that they've agreed to this. Israeli and Egyptian and Qatari negotiators are surely now all getting on the phone and trying to smooth everyone back down. But that's one of the reasons that the hostage families say until they actually see their loved ones crossing the border, they're not going to believe this is real.

HUNT: So big picture. Let's talk here. Obviously, there's a little bit of a fight here in Washington over who gets credit for how this all played out. We do know that Steve Witkoff longtime friend of Donald Trump, as well as obviously his Middle East envoy, was really involved in conversations with Brett McGurk, with other Americans on this.

But I'm really interested to know what you think about how Benjamin Netanyahu has changed his behavior. With the specter of Trump coming in, and whether that's part of why were seeing this now.

DOZIER: Netanyahu knows that the Trump administration can be good for him in a number of ways, and wanted to deliver this gift to Donald Trump, but also, Hamas knows, and it's something that negotiators have used as an implicit threat, that the Trump administration is likely to give a green light to whatever the Israeli government thinks it needs to do to continue fighting, increased fighting, and that one of Hamas's only ways to possibly survive this is to say yes to some sort of a deal right now, so that the Qatari and Egyptian negotiators can somehow preserve their continued existence.

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HUNT: What do you think is the likelihood that, I mean, as President Biden said, this may happen now, but any permanent ceasefire, a lot of these deadlines fall into the Trump administration.

DOZIER: Yeah.

HUNT: How likely is it that we could get to a permanent ceasefire there? And what's the plan for Gaza?

DOZIER: Well, the first phase is for 33 women, children, injured, a couple of the Americans. But a lot of the most contentious issues have been left for negotiation. For the second phase, after 42 days, so you have this initial trust

building period, and then what happens with the Philadelphi corridor? That's the area between Gaza and Egypt.

Israel wants to stay. Israeli forces are still in the buffer areas. Many members of the Israeli government don't want the IDF to leave Gaza.

All of that has to be negotiated for the men of military age. The Israelis of military age to be released. And that's when its going to get really hard and could very well all fall apart.

HUNT: All right. Kim Dozier, thanks very much for bringing your perspective on this. Obviously very, very complicated and emotional issue for so many people right now. Thanks very much.

All right. Coming up here on CNN this morning, who was actually in the hot seat, Pam Bondi or Kash Patel? A major focus of Bondi hearing were questions about the qualifications of Donald Trump's pick to be FBI director.

Plus, will the president-elect save TikTok? The potential executive order that he's weighing.

And President Biden's farewell to the nation, and a final warning.

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BIDEN: This country needs a leader and leaders change attitudes about people.

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BIDEN: It will take time to feel the full impact of all we've done together, but the seeds are planted and they'll grow, and they'll bloom for decades to come.

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HUNT: President Biden using his farewell address to the nation as a moment to try to shape his legacy as he leaves office after just one term. Speaking from the Oval Office for just over 17 minutes Wednesday night, President Biden also used the moment to deliver a warning about what he feels threatens America's future.

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BIDEN: Today, an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms, and a fair shot for everyone to get ahead. People should be able to make as much as they can, but pay -- play by the same rules, pay their fair share of taxes.

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HUNT: The president singling out large tech companies and their influence on America.

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BIDEN: I'm equally concerned about the potential rise of a tech industrial complex that could pose real dangers for our country, as well. Americans are being buried under an avalanche of misinformation and disinformation, enabling the abuse of power.

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HUNT: All right. Joining us now to discuss, Jackie Kucinich, CNN political analyst, Washington bureau chief for "The Boston Globe".

Jackie, good morning to you.

JACKIE KUCINICH, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Good morning.

HUNT: This, of course, a moment carried across the TV networks last night for Biden to essentially bid farewell after just one term. What did you make of the warning that he had there?

KUCINICH: It was very in line with some of the things you heard on the campaign trail before he stepped aside for his vice president, really talking about income inequality, talking about the fact that the middle class was being buried. His is a word that he uses a lot.

But I think the focus on tech companies or on -- on the tech industrial complex was very interesting. And he talked about dark money in politics as well as part of his warning. And, you know, it struck me, it made me think of his -- his former President Barack Obama's farewell speech, who also wasn't warning about tech companies but was warning about polarization of politics and becoming siloed and not wanting to speak to your to fellow Americans.

So really, some -- some -- some parallels there abutting the incoming Trump administration.

HJUNT: Yeah. Jackie, there -- there also, of course, is this -- has been this simmering kind of resentment on the part of the Bidens as they leave office. And Jill Biden did an interview with "The Washington Post", and she said this quote, like I said, Jill says now, seated in the green room of the White House on the first Sunday of January, I've been thinking about a lot about relationships. It's been on my mind a lot lately, and Jill pauses. We were friends for 50 years. She's using her teacher's voice now. It was disappointing. She was, of course, talking about former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Then she says, sure. Jill says when she was asked whether her husband could have governed the country for another four years. I mean, today I think he has a full schedule. He started early with interviews and briefings, and it just keeps going. There clearly is still this is -- this is not settled.

KUCINICH: Oh, no. And you got that sense even in the interview that Biden did with "USA Today", what was that a week ago where he said that -- well, actually, he said he didn't know if he was going to be able to serve another four years, but he said he would have won, according to cited polling, which was very a lot of shade toward his vice president.

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It was both the Bidens who really prized loyalty, who prized their relationships. I think this last past year really rattled them, and there was a lot they saw that they didn't like and will probably harbor for quite some time.

HUNT: Let's also talk briefly, Jackie, about, you know, as he leaves. We released a poll yesterday here at CNN that shows us Joe Biden's approval rating as he goes out of office. Just 36 percent of Americans say that they approve of the job that he's handling, how he's handling his job as president, 64 percent disapprove, which, again, I mean, it speaks to you said about how I mean, whether or not he could have won this election.

KUCINICH: Well, right. And I think one of the clips that you played there, he was talking about how a lot of the things that they did aren't coming to fruition as fast and what the seeds are planted and they will bloom. Basically, he's been asking for patience for about four years at this point. And this continues to be a through line.

Now, whether you know what he says actually comes to fruition, whether he gets credit, that's for history to decide.

HUNT: Yeah. And finally, Jackie, we do have additional confirmation hearings playing out today. We saw Pam Bondi, of course, in the hot seat yesterday. In some ways, that conversation was more about Kash Patel than it even was about Pam Bondi.

KUCINICH: It was really interesting to see that. And also whether she would say no to Trump or where she would say no to Trump. I think we saw a little bit of that in Marco Rubio's hearing as well.

But you're absolutely right. She -- there was this moment where she said, I can't wait for Kash Patel to come. And paraphrasing, of course, to come and answer these questions. It -- if you're Pam Bondi. I think Lindsey Graham said this is probably good, that they're asking you about Kash Patel, but it does really strike to the fact that some, particularly Democratic lawmakers are worried about how much control and how -- how much she will control. She will exert over Kash Patel is approved, because we know that Bill Barr, for example, was not someone who wanted him in any position around Justice.

HUNT: Over my dead body. Yes, I believe that was the quote. Yes.

All right. Jackie Kucinich, thanks very much for being with us this morning, I appreciate it.

KUCINICH: Thanks, Kasie.

HUNT: All right. Coming up here on CNN THIS MORNING, the winds near L.A. may not be as strong today, but the situation still critical for firefighters there.

And President-elect Trump's pick for attorney general says she won't politicize the office. Democrats, though, did not let up during Pam Bondi confirmation hearing.

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HUNT: All right, 21 minutes past the hour. Here's your "Morning Roundup".

Red flag warnings set to expire today in southern California, with some cooler temperatures expected for firefighters battling the flames in the L.A. area. Officials say they're making progress, but the strong winds could be back next week.

And this -- a successful launch overnight for Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin, the company sending its most powerful rocket ever called the New Glenn into orbit. The launch could help bolster Blue Origin's position with NASA. They're trying to compete with Elon Musk's SpaceX fleet.

President-elect Trump is considering an executive order that would delay a ban on TikTok. According to sources, as of now, that ban could take effect Sunday, but this executive order could give more time to try to find someone to buy the app. The Supreme Court also has yet to weigh in.

All right. Ahead here on CNN THIS MORNING, the outgoing Biden and incoming Trump administration is working in tandem on the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal. Congressman Greg Landsman and Zach Nunn, a Democrat and Republican, respectively, joining us to discuss this rare moment of bipartisanship.

Plus, politicizing the DOJ and enemies list and pardoning January 6th rioters, Donald Trump's pick for attorney general faces a grilling from Democrats.

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SEN. SHELDON WHITEHOUSE (D-RI): And I'm questioning you right now about whether you will enforce an enemies list that he announced publicly on television.

PAM BONDI, ATTORNEY GENERAL NOMINEE: Oh, Senator. I'm sorry. There will never be an enemies list within the Department of Justice.

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HUNT: All right, it's 5:28 a.m. here on the East Coast. It is 11:28 p.m. in Hawaii. This is a live look at the Kilauea Volcano. This is Hawaii's big

island. We're seeing lava shooting into the sky right now. This is the volcano's fourth eruption since December 2023. That's wild.

Good morning, everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt. Wonderful to have you with us.

The president-elect's choice for attorney general, Pam Bondi, repeatedly said that politics will not play a role in her office if she's confirmed. Her testimony being closely watched as she's asked about the 2020 presidential election, targeting members of the January 6th committee, pardoning the rioters, special counsel Jack Smith, and what to do about TikTok.

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BONDI: I will not politicize that office. I will not target people simply because of their political affiliation.

I have -- I would have to listen to the tape, Senator. I haven't seen the file. I haven't seen the investigation. I haven't looked at anything.

It would be irresponsible of me to make a commitment regarding anything. It would be irresponsible for me to talk about anything. And it is pending litigation.

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HUNT: All right. My next guest will be testifying today, day two of Bondi's hearing. Former state attorney general, former state attorney for Palm Beach County in Florida, Dave Aronberg.

Dave, nice to see you.

DAVE ARONBERG, FORMER STATE ATTORNEY FOR PALM BEACH COUNTY IN FLORIDA: Great to be back.

HUNT: So let's talk a little bit about how Bondi's hearing went yesterday. I know you know her personally. You've worked with her in the state of Florida across party lines.

What did you make of what she had to say yesterday, especially around this question of who won the 2020 election? Because were still doing that.