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Blinken: Fully Expects Implementation Of Gaza Deal To Begin Sunday; Israeli Official: Israeli Cabinet Meeting To Vote On Ceasefire And Hostage Release Agreement Will Take Place Friday; Speaker Johnson Ousts Intelligence Committee Chairman; Himes: Removing Turner As Chairman "Sends A Shiver Down My Spine"; Trump Favorability Rating Hits 46 Percent, Big Jump Since 2021; Trump To Enter WH With More Positive Ratings Than Last Term. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired January 16, 2025 - 12:00   ET

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

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DANA BASH, CNN HOST: Today on Inside Politics, hope mixed with trepidation. We're tracking new concerns about the state of the Israel-Hamas deal to pause the war in Gaza and free some of the hostages kidnapped on October 7. As Israel accuses Hamas of, quote, attempting to extort last minute concessions.

Plus, a brand-new CNN poll. Debuts this hour, revealing how Americans are feeling about season two of the Trump presidency, which debuts just four days from now. And a parting shot. President Biden is warning about the rise of an oligarchy in America as his predecessor turned successor, surrounds himself with a team of billionaires.

I'm Dana Bash. Let's go behind the headlines at Inside Politics.

We start with a last-minute bump, maybe obstacle in the Middle East. Israel is delaying a cabinet vote on the ceasefire hostage deal, claiming Hamas is reneging on parts of the agreement. Secretary of State Antony Blinken addressed the precarious situation just moments ago.

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ANTONY BLINKEN, SECRETARY OF STATE: It's not exactly surprising that in a process -- in a negotiation that has been this challenging and this fraud, you may get a loose end. We're tying up that loose end as we speak. I've been on the phone in one way or another all morning with Brett McGurk, with our Qatari friends, and I'm very confident that this will -- this is moving forward, and we'll see the start of implementation of the agreement on Sunday.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: CNN's Alex Marquardt joins me now. So, you just heard the secretary of state. He feels confident that they're going to tie up these loose ends. In large part depends on the -- to use the word that that did Tony Blinken used precarious situation, not just across Hamas and the Israeli government, but inside Bibi Netanyahu's government.

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. I think certainly the U.S. and the other mediators would have liked to have seen this buttoned up. I mean, they all announced this ceasefire yesterday. What we're hearing from top White House officials today is not necessarily concerned, but really more confidence that this will go into effect starting on Sunday.

They say that this is implementation that details that that need to be ironed out, Dana. And I really think this goes to the heart of how complicated this really is. There are so many moving parts here. We have 33 hostages due to come out over 42 days.

I was told by a U.S. official earlier today that the first group of hostages is expected to be three women coming out on Sunday. But again, there are other parts of this. There are the Palestinian prisoners who are going to be released from Israeli prisons.

Who are they? How many are they? Where do they go? There's a question of humanitarian aid going in. There are questions about where the IDF withdraws to inside of Gaza. So, there are clearly somethings that still need to be ironed out. This really does speak to the complexity of all this.

But again, confidence from the U.S. side that this is going to go into effect. Dana, you and I have been talking about the questions about who's taking credit for this, both the Biden administration and the incoming Trump administration.

What I think everybody agrees on is that this was an extraordinary collaboration between the two teams. After President Trump was elected, he designated his Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff to work with the Biden point man, Brett McGurk, and together they've been traveling to the region. They've been in Doha for the past few days. They've had joint meetings.

We know that the two men are still out there. And you can imagine that they are still very much working on this. This was the Biden framework that was put forward by President Biden eight months ago, but his team was not able to get it across the finish line.

A lot has happened in those past eight months that has put a lot more pressure on both Hamas and on Israel, but Dana, without a doubt, the election of Donald Trump did add a significant element to this.

It put a new timeframe on this for the Biden administration. President Trump will inherit this on day one. It will be on him to oversee this. And that's when -- you know the phase one that is going into effect is arguably less difficult than phase two, which needs to be negotiated in the coming weeks. Dana?

BASH: Thank you so much for that reporting. I can tell you that as you were speaking, our colleague Jeremy Diamond in Israel was reporting into us that there has now been a cabinet meeting rescheduled in Israel for tomorrow morning.

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And that the Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has said that he would not schedule such a cabinet meeting if he didn't feel comfortable and confident that this deal would pass. So that -- as you said, this is happening very, very quickly, and it, of course, on a knife's edge. Appreciate it, Alex. Thank you so much.

Now I want to go to the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, Congressman Jim Himes. Thank you so much for being here. I want to, of course, start with this ceasefire and hostage deal. It sounds like it's back on track in Israel.

What are you hearing from people that you're talking to? And how confident are you at this time that at least phase one will get done, and that the bombs will stop flying, and that some hostages will start coming home on Sunday?

REP. JIM HIMES (D-CT): Yeah. Well, Dana, I think you covered it. Well, we don't have any particular insight into the Israeli politics of this, and that, of course, is very, very important. But I will tell you that there is strong bipartisan support and hope in this building for this deal to get done.

I mean, if we could a week from now see the hostages return to their families and see a real flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza that would alleviate the horrible situation there, that would be just a massive win.

So again, I'm not sure we've got a ton of insight into the politics that the prime minister has, which are very serious. He's got some real extremists in his cabinet, but there is a great deal of hope here in the Congress that this will get done very, very soon.

BASH: Now it will largely be up to Donald Trump to implement this multiphase deal. Is his negotiator worked with the Biden administration, with all sides acknowledged and applaud? Do you have confidence that come Monday at noon, when Donald Trump raises his right hand again that his administration will keep the focus on this?

HIMES: Yeah. I, you know again, hard to say, hard to predict Donald Trump, especially for a congressional Democrat. But I will tell you, he obviously feels some sense of ownership over this deal.

And I do think that the deal was facilitated by his whatever it was a Twitter or a Truth Social in which he said, all hell will break loose if this isn't solved. I think that the prime minister of Israel probably heard that loud and clear and thought, I don't necessarily want to start this relationship in a bad way.

So, I do think that Donald Trump probably feels some personal ownership of this deal, which means that I think he's going to probably try to oppose those things, which might scotch the deal, but take us out sort of two months, two weeks, you know, well beyond the inauguration.

What we know about Donald Trump from his first term, of course, is that he basically always said yes to the Israelis. Yes, let's move the embassy to Jerusalem. Let's allow the Israelis to annex the Golan Heights. So, if I were, I guess, on the Palestinian side of this, or on the Arab side of this, I would say, look, I'm happy about this deal. But what happens two months, three months, four months down the road, with respect to whose side the president is going to be on, on this.

BASH: Well, I think president-elect is making it pretty clear that he is not on the side of the terrorist group Hamas, and that he is on the side of -- well, first and foremost, just getting this done before he takes office. But in fairness, he's on the side that you're on and President Biden is on, which is trying to find a solution.

And perhaps, I don't know, he feels like he provided the stick while Joe Biden provided the carrot to all sides. I do want to --

HIMES: Yeah. I think it's -- I think that's right. And when I say side, I don't mean are you on Hamas' side or Israel's side. I mean, are you really committed to this deal -- to building on this deal, right? And if you're building on this deal, you're doing some hard things, right? Because you're probably pressing the Israelis not to do some of the things that they're doing in the West Bank.

You're probably pressing the prime minister and others to say, hey, what's the plan other than a two-state solution, right? I understand a two-state solution is sort of toxic in Israel right now. We understand why it is. But I guess what I'm saying is, is the president going to just take this win and put it to bed. Or can you build on it to make sure that what happened on October 7 and subsequently doesn't ever happen again?

BASH: You know, it sounds like a two-state solution needs some rebranding. Let's turn to some internal politics, which they're very consequential in the committee on which you serve, and that you are the top Democrat, and that is the intelligence committee. The Chairman Mike Turner was removed.

And you work with her -- with him, forgive me. You work with him in a pretty bipartisan way, as has been the tradition until recent years, you kind of restated that on this committee. What is your reaction to Speaker Johnson's move?

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HIMES: Yeah. I mean, I actually happened to have been standing right here. When I got the news, I tell you, I felt almost exactly the way I felt when I got the news that President Trump had fired Jim Comey.

Now, whatever you think about Jim Comey, set Jim Comey aside. There's that famous moment in the White House after a dinner when the president says to Jim Comey, FBI director, can I count on your loyalty? And Jim Comey says, well, you can count on me to execute the law and to stand with the constitution. No, can I count on your loyalty?

And in a tribute to Mike, I know Mike very well. We've built a real friendship. Mike is a guy, you know, he's an old school kind of Reagan Hawk conservative, and he takes very seriously the notion that his loyalty is to the constitution, his loyalty is to his constituents, and his loyalty is also to the national security of the United States.

That guy, Mike Turner, has forgotten more about nuclear strategy than I will ever know. But the point is that, you know, a guy with those divided loyalties to the constitution, to his constituency, national security, just wasn't going to cut it any more than Jim Comey cut it when he had to develop whether the loyalty was 100 percent pure.

BASH: So, are you suggesting that he was asked to be disloyal on issues regarding national security and intelligence, and he said, I won't do it. Can you sort of flesh out what you're suggesting there?

HIMES: No, I don't think there was a litmus test for Mike. I don't think that they put a list of things in front of him. But, you know, Mike has always demonstrated some independence. He did not -- he voted to certify the election of Joe Biden.

Mike took a lot of blows inside his own conference here on the Hill, when he pushed adamantly for Ukraine aid, when he pushed adamantly for 702-reauthorization, the FISA surveillance thing. At the time -- now, by the way, all of the president-elect, people are now behind the FISA 702 thing.

But at the time, that was a position contrary to Donald Trump. So no, this is not a situation where there is a list presented. But Mike has a reputation here, and I have no question that it is also true in Mar- a-Lago of being independent and thoughtful, and not the kind of guy who is going to be 120 percent loyal to the person that he's supposed to be overseeing the executive and the president United States.

BASH: The House Speaker Mike Johnson repeated again, just about an hour ago. His insistence that the president-elect Donald Trump was not involved in this decision. Do you buy it?

HIMES: You know, it's funny. I've been thinking about that because I read those reports. Now Mike Turner has a different view. He -- as he has said publicly, thinks that this was driven by Mar-a-Lago. Here's what I can tell you, Dana. I'm not sure that there's a real line there. And what I mean by that is that the House Freedom Caucus, and 60 or 70 of the Republican congresspeople in this institution do what Donald Trump demands of them.

And so, whether the order came down from Donald Trump or Mar-a-Lago or whatever, you know, 60 or 70 members of the Republican conference would, I think, sense that Mike Turner was not 100 percent, you know, willing to be utterly loyal to the new president and probably push this So, I guess the point I'm saying is that absolutely, the call may have come from inside the House, but I'm not sure that there's a huge difference between inside the House and Mar-a-Lago.

BASH: Just real quick. There's reporting that Rick Crawford of Arkansas will be named chair. Is he somebody you could work with as the top Democrat? HIMES: So, I know, and like Rick Crawford. And you know, my job is to do my job, and so regardless of who the chair is, I will be committed to robust oversight. And I hope -- I would hope that Rick Crawford would understand that, constitutionally, that's what we do here, and that he would be a partner in that. But if he's not a partner in that, I'm still going to do what I need to do.

BASH: Congressman Jim Himes, thank you so much for joining me. I appreciate it.

HIMES: Thank you, Dana.

BASH: And coming up, president-elect Trump will take the oath of office in four days. We have some brand-new CNN polling on how he is entering the White House, the perception of him in America.

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BASH: We are 96 hours away, 95 hours and 42 minutes to be exact from Donald Trump taking the oath of office on the steps of the U.S. Capitol. Now, how are the American people feeling about his return and the incoming administration's policies? Well, we have brand new reporting, and who else to break it down but our very own David Chalian. What's the data telling you?

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: First of all, Dana, I appreciate you being exact with the numbers, how many hours and minutes we have until the inauguration. As a numbers got here. Take a look at the approval rating the American people have for Donald Trump's handling of his transition.

55 percent, a majority of Americans approve of the way Trump has handled his transition so far. 45 percent disapprove. That's a significantly better number than he had eight years ago, heading into his first term. Only 40 percent of Americans had approved of his handling in the transition. At that point, eight years ago, he is entering into this second term, basically as popular as really he's ever been.

Take a look at his favorability. Your basic test of popularity. He's at 46 percent favorable in our poll that is just out, conducted by SSRS. And let me just explain. You see, a year ago, 39 percent favorable. 32 percent of Americans had a favorable opinion of him two years ago, and right when he was leaving office on the heels of January 6, of course, he was at 33 percent favorable. He's now up at 46 percent numerically. That's the highest favorability we've had for Donald Trump since he became president eight years ago.

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BASH: So, David, that's about how people feel about Donald Trump as a person. Show us how they feel about the issues facing the country. CHALIAN: Well, I don't think this will surprise you, but the economy is far and away the most important issue facing the country. According to respondents in our poll, 44 percent say so. 18 percent say immigration. These are the two issues that we saw throughout the campaign that Trump ran on and delivered him the White House for a second time.

But it also means these are the things the American people are going to measure him by, largely Americans, Dana, in our new poll show, they're taking Donald Trump at his word. Most Americans believe he's going to do what he said he's going to do, implement tariffs. 80 percent believe he'll do that. 74 percent say, he'll carry out mass deportations, closing the U.S.-Mexico border, 58 percent. You see here, most Americans are indeed taking him at his word.

And I think this is fascinating. Will the country be better off four years from now? So overall, in our poll, 52 percent of Americans say, yes. A majority say yes. America will be better off four years from now. Remember, this is a country that has been largely sour on America's standing of late.

And look at it broken down by party. 89 percent of Republicans, 47 percent of independents think so. But even a fifth of Democrats say that the country will be better four years from now than it is today, Dana?

BASH: That's really interesting. David, thank you so much for bringing that to us. We have some terrific reporters to talk about all of this and much, much more, CNN's Kayla Tausche, and the New York Times's Zolan Kanno-Youngs. And I'm talking very slowly because I'm trying to let David get to the table. Here he comes.

David, while you're sitting down, I want to talk to you both about the fact that Donald Trump is as popular as he's ever been, as David just showed us with the numbers, which certainly is a good thing for anybody, but it also brings with it a set of expectations in addition to some political capital.

ZOLAN KANNO-YOUNGS, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, THE NEW YORK TIMES: That's right. And I thought you made a good point there in noting the raise -- the high expectations here. And how that is a difference from the last time Trump came into office with low approval ratings. This time around, you know, he has made these ambitious proposals, promises on immigration, on the economy. We've also seen in recent weeks, according to my reporting, some hedging. You know, recently.

You know, Tom Homan and Stephen Miller meeting with Republicans and talking about funding that will be needed for some of these ambitious immigration proposals. Just a couple weeks ago, the president also said in an interview that there would be no price tag for this. There will be. And, you know --

CHALIAN: He also said in an interview, by the way, setting expectations on the economy, saying, you know, it's tough to bring prices down. He understands what the expectations are. KANNO-YOUNGS: That's right. When he was asked about tariffs as well. So, you're going to be -- last time he was in office, he also had these big promises, and at times, struggled to get Congress to give him everything he wanted. Yes, he will have executive actions and be able to possibly they've considered declaring a national emergency to move funding around, but there's going to be a process here and now you've got these high expectations.

KAYLA TAUSCHE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: We talked a lot during the campaign about how a lot of voters' memory hold. Some of the parts of the Trump administration they didn't like, notably the pandemic. But I think it's worth remembering that when he left office, his approval rating was actually lower than Biden's. It was 34 percent after four years in office.

And there's this view that simply taking office depresses your approval rating, just because there is general discontent about the economy, about immigration, and whoever is in that executive seat is the one who takes the blame.

I mean, certainly Biden's own team points to Keir Starmer in the U.K., and they say, he was overwhelmingly elected. And then his approval rating was cut in half within weeks of taking office, that there's just this discontent that's so pervasive that once you take office, people don't like you.

BASH: Yeah.

TAUSCHE: But it's unclear whether that phenomenon is going to play out here.

BASH: Anti-incumbent fervor is strong right now, globally.

CHALIAN: It is. There's no doubt about that. But even before pre- COVID, Donald Trump experienced -- even though he wasn't as high as previous presidents entering office, as we just showed, he experienced nothing but sort of diminution of support over his time in office. I remember, we would ask every day in the first Trump administration, what's he doing to broaden his support, to add to his standing with American people?

And it was very little. He also, like Joe Biden, has like other predecessors, experienced what that decline in support is from the American people over time. And then, of course, COVID amplified that. The question I have -- so he's a little bit higher now than he was. What does he do this time to grow from here rather than follow this pattern of just seeing diminished support?

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BASH: Or does he?

CHALIAN: Or does he.

BASH: Yeah. TAUSCHE: We've already seen some of his cabinet nominees try to moderate some of those positions because they know that they're going to have to moderate those expectations.

BASH: Exactly. We'll talk about that in a little bit. I do want to get to something that was revealed earlier today, and that is Donald Trump's official portrait, his official photo that he will use in his second presidency, second term in 2025. That's it.

Want to talk about that, but particularly as it compares to what it looked like in 2017, very different. I know you've been looking at this Zolan, and it might seem like, OK. Why are they focusing on a picture? Well, because he's trying to send a message.

There was a smile that you don't normally see in 2017. It was sort of like, oh my gosh, what did I get myself into. And then the second one, the one that is going to be used now, is very different, and it also kind of looks familiar.

KANNO-YOUNGS: Yeah. That's right, that's right. I mean, this is -- I mean, one, it looks familiar to a mug shot.

BASH: That's what I mean.

KANNO-YOUNGS: -- also the Trump campaign --

BASH: So, I was setting you up for.

KANNO-YOUNGS: Effectively, right, right, right. Hopefully I managed to grab.

BASH: Yes, you did, yes, slam dunk.

KANNO-YOUNGS: But look, this -- I mean, during the campaign, that mug shot was key to Trump's strategy here. Immediately after the mug shot was taken, it was on merchandise. He used it to fundraise as well. In a way that photo there is a visual representation of Trump's strategy, which is stoking anger. And by the way, last time around in 2017 too, Trump would often tell his aides, he didn't want to show weakness. He didn't want to smile in any photo as well.

BASH: Let's put that back up 2025 the current picture, and David, I want you to weigh in.

CHALIAN: Well, it is clearly -- when you compare it to the 2017 picture, as you did, this is choosing to be a picture of strength defiance. Then when he said, I am going to be a retribution. Does that not look like somebody who is standing? He's not a big smile. We don't see him smile much a ton. This feels much more in character, the 2025 one, than the 2017 one of how he presented himself on the trail. This also seems much more like a president who is coming in, girding for a fight.

TAUSCHE: It also seems much less authentic in the sense that the one on the left from 2017 looks like it was shot on iPhone. And it one on the right looks like, you know, perhaps there were some inputs entered into ChatGPT. And I only say that because when the Trump fans transition put out these portraits, there was no photo credit --

BASH: Yeah.

TAUSCHE: -- and there hasn't been any photo credit.

BASH: Oh, that's interesting. Maybe it's the guy at the courthouse, but it does have very good lighting. Coming up. There are four cabinet hearings happening right now on Capitol Hill. And so far, nearly all of president-elect Trump's picks look like they are on a glide path to confirmation or are they. Stand by.

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