| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
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unidentified
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Ladies and gentlemen, performing O America, please welcome the Armed Forces Chorus and America's Tenor, Christopher D. Macchio. | |
| I can hear you calling me. | ||
| You are calling me to be true to thee, true to thee. | ||
| I will be Oh, America, no weeping, there been a wounded heart. | ||
| I will keep you in my case. | ||
| live there with God, your prayers to the sea from your mountains ground and all for that land. | ||
| Call it Call it Call it | ||
| You are young to me, oh America, you come in | ||
| The Honorable Jackie Barber, the Clerk of the House of Representatives, The Honorable Kevin F. McCumber, Mr. John Bessler, Mrs. Kelly Johnson, Mrs. Iris Weinshaw Schumer, and Mrs. Jennifer Scalise. | ||
| Ladies and gentlemen, escorting the President of the United States and the Vice President of the United States, ranking member of the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, the Honorable Deb Fisher, House Democratic Leader, the Honorable Hakeem Jeffries, and Senate Majority Secretary, the Honorable Robert Duncan. | ||
| Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States, the Honorable Joseph R. Biden, Jr., and Vice President of the United States, the Honorable Kamala Davey Harris. | ||
| Ladies and gentlemen, escorting the Vice President-elect, the Executive Director for the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, Mr. Michael Wagner, Senate Deputy Sergeant-at-Arms and Doorkeeper, Jason Bell, and House Deputy Sergeant-at-Arms, Mr. Sean Keating. | ||
| Ladies and gentlemen, the Vice President-Elect of the United States, the Honorable JD Vance. | ||
| Ladies and gentlemen, escorting the President-elect, the Staff Director for the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, Elizabeth Farah, House Sergeant-at-Arms, the Honorable William P. McFarland, Senate Sergeant-at-Arms and Doorkeeper, the Honorable Jennifer A. Hemingway, Senate Majority Leader, the Honorable John Thune, and the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, House Democratic Leader, the Honorable Hakeem Jeffries, House Majority Leader, | ||
| the Honorable Steve Scales, Speaker of the House of Representatives, the Honorable Mike Johnson, Senate Democratic Leader, the Honorable Charles E. Schumer, Ranking Member of the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, the Honorable Deb Fischer, and Chairwoman of the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, the Honorable Amy Klobuchar. | ||
| Ladies and gentlemen, the President-Elect of the United States, the Honorable Donald John Trump. | ||
| Ladies and gentlemen, please be seated. | ||
| Please welcome the Chairwoman of the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, the Honorable Amy Klobuchar. | ||
| Good morning, everyone. | ||
| Welcome to the 60th presidential inauguration. | ||
| Today, President-elect Trump and Vice President-elect Vance will take their oaths of office, and we will witness the peaceful transfer of power at the heart of our democracy. | ||
| For the past year, I've chaired the inaugural ceremony committee, which includes the leadership of Congress from both parties. | ||
| We thank the committee and Capitol staff and law enforcement who worked so hard over the last year and especially the last three days. | ||
| You've done a beautiful job, and you have shown grace under pressure. | ||
| Our theme this year is our enduring democracy. | ||
| The presence of so many presidents and vice presidents here today is truly a testament to that endurance. | ||
| We welcome President Biden and Dr. Biden. | ||
| We welcome Vice President Harris and Doug Emhoff, President Obama, President Clinton and Secretary Clinton, President Bush and Laura Bush, Vice President Pence, Vice President Quayle and Marilyn Quayle. | ||
| The justices of the United States Supreme Court are with us, all nine of them, I counted, and of course the Trump and Vance families. | ||
| This ceremony marks what will soon be 250 years of our democracy. | ||
| It is the moment when leaders, elevated by the will of the people, promise to be faithful to our Constitution, to cherish and defend it. | ||
| It is the moment when they become, as we all should be, the guardians of our country. | ||
| Through war and peace, through adversity and prosperity, we hold this inauguration every four years. | ||
| And today it falls on Martin Luther King Day, a further reminder that we must strive to uphold the values enshrined in our Constitution, the freedoms, the liberties, and, as is inscribed on the entrance of the United States Supreme Court, equal justice under law. | ||
| But what makes this moment more than a passing ceremony is all who are watching it across the country, the people of this nation, the ordinary people doing extraordinary things. | ||
| President Kennedy, who at one point worked as a senator in this building and would often walk through this very rotunda, once said, in a democracy, every citizen, regardless of interest in politics, holds office. | ||
| Every one of us is in a position of responsibility. | ||
| With that responsibility of citizenship comes an obligation not to seek out malice, as President Lincoln once reminded us, but to view others with a generosity of spirit despite our differences. | ||
| With that responsibility of leadership comes an obligation to stand our ground when we must and find common ground when we can. | ||
| With everything swirling around us, the hot mess of division, it is on all of us, to quote an incredible songwriter who just happened to be born in my state, to ensure that our nation's democracy is our shelter from the storm. | ||
| There's a reason this ceremony takes place at the Capitol. | ||
| In other countries, it might be in a presidential palace or a gilded executive office building. | ||
| Here it is traditionally held at the Capitol, the People's House. | ||
| It is a fitting reminder of the system of checks and balances that is the very foundation of our government, three equal branches of government. | ||
| That is how for nearly 250 years our great American experiment, grounded in the rule of law, has endured. | ||
| So, as we inaugurate a new president and vice president, let us remember that the power of those in this room comes from the people, the construction workers who build our country, the teachers and health care workers who nurture us, the troops defending our freedoms, and yes, the firefighters in Los Angeles putting themselves on the line for us. | ||
| Our democracy's strength and grit must match theirs. | ||
| May God bless our nation. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Good afternoon. | ||
| Endurance through the years is the ultimate test. | ||
| To persevere through time is the truest measure of an idea, an institution, and a nation. | ||
| Our founders wrote the Constitution so that America could withstand all the twists and turns of time. | ||
| They wrote it to guide us and to preserve forever our right of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. | ||
| But as much as the truths and principles enshrined in our Constitution remain the same, our democracy promises the American people the power to change, to chart their own destiny. | ||
| That's the beauty. | ||
| That is the importance of democracy. | ||
| It allows the endurance, the permanence of a nation through change. | ||
| It allows nations like our United States both to avoid the obstacles and to seize the opportunities God has placed before us, all while staying true to our founding principles. | ||
| Today is our country's 60th inauguration ceremony. | ||
| Like all the others before it, it is a celebration of our right to set our uniquely American course. | ||
| The past several years have been trying at times for many, many Americans, and also for the nations of the free world that we humbly strive to lead. | ||
| In November, Americans chose again to steer this nation towards greatness, the secure, safe, and prosperous future that our founders envisioned for all of us. | ||
| And today, we celebrate not only their decision to do so, but also the simple right and wisdom of a free people to make their own choice so that their nation might endure. | ||
| And now, allow me to welcome Archbishop Timothy Dolan and Reverend Franklin Graham, who will deliver our invocation. | ||
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unidentified
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please rise be still and know that i am god supreme among the nations supreme on the earth Let us pray. | |
| Remembering General George Washington on his knees at Valley Forge, recalling Abraham Lincoln at his second inaugural, with malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right. | ||
| Remembering General George Patton's instructions to his soldiers as they began the Battle of the Bulge eight decades ago. | ||
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Pray, pray when fighting, pray alone, pray with others, pray by night, pray by day. | |
| Observing the birthday of the Reverend Martin Luther King, who warned, without God, our efforts turn to ashes. | ||
| We, blessed citizens of this one nation under God, humbled by our claim that in God we trust, gather indeed this Inauguration Day to pray for our President Donald J. Trump, his family, his advisors, his cabinet, his aspirations, his vice president. | ||
| For the Lord's blessings upon Joseph Biden, for our men and women in uniform, for each other whose hopes are stoked this new year, this inauguration day. | ||
| We cannot err in relying upon that prayer from the Bible, upon which our president will soon place his hand in oath, as we make our own the supplications of King Solomon for wisdom as he began his governance. | ||
| God of our fathers, in your wisdom you set man to govern your creatures, to govern in holiness and justice, to render justice with integrity. | ||
| Give our leader wisdom, for he is your servant, aware of his own weakness and brevity of life. | ||
| If wisdom which comes not from you be not with him, he shall be held in no esteem. | ||
| Send wisdom from heavens that she may be with him, that he may know your designs. | ||
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Please, God, bless America. | |
| Please mend her every flaw. | ||
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You are the God in whom we trust who lives and reigns forever and ever. | |
| Amen. | ||
| Mr. President, the last four years, there are times I'm sure you thought it was pretty dark. | ||
|
unidentified
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But look what God has done. | |
| We praise him and give him glory. | ||
| Let us pray. | ||
| Our Father and our God, thou hast said, Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. | ||
| As the prophet Daniel prayed, blessed be the name of God forever and ever. | ||
| For wisdom and might are his. | ||
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He changes the times and the seasons. | |
| He removes kings. | ||
| He raises up kings. | ||
| He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding. | ||
| Our Father, today, as President Donald J. Trump takes the oath of office once again, we come to say thank you, O Lord our God. | ||
| Father, when Donald Trump's enemies thought he was down and out, you and you alone saved his life and raised him up with strength and power by your mighty hand. | ||
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We pray for President Trump that you'll watch over, protect, guide, direct him. | |
| Give him your wisdom from your throne on high. | ||
| We ask that you would bless him and that our nation would be blessed through him. | ||
| We also ask that you would bless and protect Melania as First Lady. | ||
| We thank you for the beauty, the warmth, and grace that she shows not only to this nation, but to the whole world. | ||
| We thank you for Vice President-elect JD Vance and his wife Usha and their young family. | ||
| May he be a strength to President Trump, to stand beside him, to hold up his arms like Aaron held up the arms of Moses in the midst of battle. | ||
| The prophet Samuel reminded the people, it was you that brought them up from the land of Egypt. | ||
| And he said, now stand still that I may reason with you before the Lord. | ||
| So Father, we take this moment to stand still, to remember the great things that you have done for this nation. | ||
| Thank you for the protection, the bounty, the freedoms that we so enjoy. | ||
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We remember to keep our eyes fixed on you and may our hearts be inclined to your voice. | |
| We know that America can never be great again if we turn our backs on you. | ||
| We ask for your help and we pray all of this in the name of the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, your Son, my Savior, and our Redeemer, Jesus Christ. | ||
|
unidentified
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Amen. | |
| Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Associate Justice Kavanaugh to administer the vice presidential oath of office. | ||
| Please raise your right hand and repeat after me. | ||
| I, James David Vance, do solemnly swear. | ||
| I, James David Vance, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States. | ||
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unidentified
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That I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. | |
| Against all enemies, foreign and domestic. | ||
| That I will bear true faith. | ||
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unidentified
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That I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and allegiance to the same. | |
| That I take this obligation freely. | ||
| That I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion or purpose of evasion and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter on which I am about to enter so help me God so help me God congratulations Mr. Vice President | ||
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unidentified
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Chief Justice Roberts to administer the presidential oath of office. | |
| Please raise your right hand and repeat after me, I, Donald John Trump, do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States and will, to the best of my ability and will, to the best of my ability preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. | ||
| The Constitution of the United States. | ||
| So help me God. | ||
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unidentified
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So help me God. | |
| Congratulations. | ||
|
unidentified
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The pain is where the graves of God is. | |
| Lose the faithful mighty of his fair Smith's sword. | ||
| He is marching more, glory, | ||
| glory, hallelujah, glory, glory, holy glory. | ||
| Juice and taps with a I could read his righteous sentence in the dim and caring lamps. | ||
| His name is marching all the glory, hallelujah, glory, glory, hallelujah, glory, glory, hallelujah, glory through this marching God. | ||
| In all mutiny of East. | ||
| Christ was born across the sea with all the glory that translated me as he died to make men holy. | ||
| Let us die to make men free while God is watching all the glory, hallelujah, glory, glory, hallelujah, | ||
| glory, glory, hallelujah, glory, glory, hallelujah, glory, | ||
| It is my honor and pleasure to introduce to you the 45th and the 47th president of the United States of America, Donald J. Trump. | ||
| Thank you very much, everybody. | ||
|
unidentified
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Well, thank you very, very much. | |
| Vice President Vance, Speaker Johnson, Senator Thun, Chief Justice Roberts, Justices of the United States Supreme Court, President Clinton, President Bush, President Obama, President Biden, Vice President Harris, and my fellow citizens, | ||
| The golden age of America begins right now. | ||
| From this day forward, our country will flourish and be respected again all over the world. | ||
| We will be the envy of every nation, and we will not allow ourselves to be taken advantage of any longer. | ||
| During every single day of the Trump administration, I will very simply put America first. | ||
| Our sovereignty will be reclaimed. | ||
| Our safety will be restored. | ||
| The scales of justice will be rebalanced. | ||
| the vicious, violent, and unfair weaponization of the Justice Department and our government will end. | ||
| And our top priority will be to create a nation that is proud, prosperous, and free. | ||
| America will soon be greater, stronger, and far more exceptional than ever before. | ||
| I return to the presidency confident and optimistic that we are at the start of a thrilling new era of national success. | ||
| A tide of change is sweeping the country. | ||
| Sunlight is pouring over the entire world. | ||
| And America has the chance to seize this opportunity like never before. | ||
| But first, we must be honest about the challenges we face. | ||
| While they are plentiful, they will be annihilated by this great momentum that the world is now witnessing in the United States of America. | ||
| As we gather today, our government confronts a crisis of trust. | ||
| For many years, a radical and corrupt establishment has extracted power and wealth from our citizens while the pillars of our society lay broken and seemingly in complete disrepair. | ||
| We now have a government that cannot manage even a simple crisis at home while at the same time stumbling into a continuing catalog of catastrophic events abroad. | ||
| It fails to protect our magnificent law-abiding American citizens, but provides sanctuary and protection for dangerous criminals, many from prisons and mental institutions that have illegally entered our country from all over the world. | ||
| We have a government that has given unlimited funding to the defense of foreign borders, but refuses to defend American borders or, more importantly, its own people. | ||
| Our country can no longer deliver basic services in times of emergency, as recently shown by the wonderful people of North Carolina, been treated so badly, and other states who are still suffering from a hurricane that took place many months ago, or more recently, Los Angeles, where we are watching fires still tragically burn. | ||
| From weeks ago, without even a token of defense, they're raging through the houses and communities, even affecting some of the wealthiest and most powerful individuals in our country, some of whom are sitting here right now. | ||
| They don't have a home any longer. | ||
| That's interesting. | ||
| But we can't let this happen. | ||
| Everyone is unable to do anything about it that's going to change. | ||
| We have a public health system that does not deliver in times of disaster, yet more money is spent on it than any country anywhere in the world. | ||
| And we have an education system that teaches our children to be ashamed of themselves in many cases, to hate our country despite the love that we try so desperately to provide to them. | ||
| All of this will change starting today, and it will change very quickly. | ||
| My recent election is a mandate to completely and totally reverse a horrible betrayal, and all of these many betrayals that have taken place, and to give the people back their faith. | ||
| their wealth, their democracy, and indeed their freedom. | ||
| From this moment on, America's decline is over. | ||
| Our liberties and our nation's glorious destiny will no longer be denied, and we will immediately restore the integrity, competency, and loyalty of America's government. | ||
| Over the past eight years, I have been tested and challenged more than any president in our 250-year history, and I've learned a lot along the way. | ||
| The journey to reclaim our republic has not been an easy one, that I can tell you. | ||
| Those who wish to stop our cause have tried to take my freedom and indeed to take my life. | ||
| Just a few months ago in a beautiful Pennsylvania field, an assassin's bullet ripped through my ear. | ||
| But I felt then and believe even more so now that my life was saved for a reason. | ||
| I was saved by God to make America great again. | ||
| That is why each day under our administration of American patriots, we will be working to meet every crisis with dignity and power and strength. | ||
| We will move with purpose and speed to bring back hope, prosperity, safety, and peace for citizens of every race, religion, color, and creed. | ||
| For American citizens, January 20th, 2025, is Liberation Day. | ||
| It is my hope that our recent presidential election will be remembered as the greatest and most consequential election in the history of our country. | ||
| As our victory showed, the entire nation is rapidly unifying behind our agenda with dramatic increases in support from virtually every element of our society, young and old, men and women, African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, urban, suburban, rural. | ||
| And very importantly, we had a powerful win in all seven swing states. | ||
| And the popular vote, we won by millions of people. | ||
| To the black and Hispanic communities, I want to thank you for the tremendous outpouring of love and trust that you have shown me with your vote. | ||
| We set records, and I will not forget it. | ||
| I've heard your voices in the campaign, and I look forward to working with you in the years to come. | ||
| Today is Martin Luther King Day, and his honor, this will be a great honor. | ||
| But in his honor, we will strive together to make his dream a reality. | ||
| We will make his dream come true. | ||
| National unity is now returning to America, and confidence and pride is soaring like never before. | ||
| In everything we do, my administration will be inspired by a strong pursuit of excellence and unrelenting success. | ||
| We will not forget our country. | ||
| We will not forget our Constitution. | ||
| And we will not forget our God. | ||
| Can't do that. | ||
| Today, I will sign a series of historic executive orders. | ||
| With these actions, we will begin the complete restoration of America and the revolution of common sense. | ||
| It's all about common sense. | ||
| First, I will declare a national emergency at our southern border. | ||
| Illegal entry will immediately be halted and we will begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places from which they came. | ||
| We will reinstate my remain in Mexico policy. | ||
| I will end the practice of catch and release. | ||
| And I will send troops to the southern border to repel the disastrous invasion of our country. | ||
| Under the orders I signed today, we will also be designating the cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. | ||
| Invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, I will direct our government to use the full and immense power of federal and state law enforcement to eliminate the presence of all foreign gangs and criminal networks. | ||
| bringing devastating crime to U.S. soil, including our cities and inner cities. | ||
| As Commander-in-Chief, I have no higher responsibility than to defend our country from threats and invasions, and that is exactly what I am going to do. | ||
| We will do it at a level that nobody's ever seen before. | ||
| Next, I will direct all members of my cabinet to marshal the vast powers at their disposal to defeat what was record inflation and rapidly bring down costs and prices. | ||
| The inflation crisis was caused by massive overspending and escalating energy prices. | ||
| And that is why today I will also declare a national energy emergency. | ||
| will drill baby drill. | ||
| America will be a manufacturing nation once again and we have something that no other manufacturing nation will ever have. | ||
| The largest amount of oil and gas of any country on earth and we are going to use it. | ||
| Let me use it. | ||
| We will bring prices down, fill our strategic reserves up again, right to the top, and export American energy all over the world. | ||
| We will be a rich nation again, and it is that liquid gold under our feet that will help to do it. | ||
| With my actions today, we will end the Green New Deal and we will revoke the electric vehicle mandate, saving our auto industry and keeping my sacred pledge to our great American auto workers. | ||
| In other words, you'll be able to buy the car of your choice. | ||
| We will build automobiles in America again at a rate that nobody could have dreamt possible just a few years ago. | ||
| And thank you to the auto workers of our nation for your inspiring vote of confidence. | ||
| We did tremendously with their vote. | ||
| I will immediately begin the overhaul of our trade system to protect American workers and families. | ||
| Instead of taxing our citizens to enrich other countries, we will tariff and tax foreign countries to enrich our citizens. | ||
| For this purpose, we are establishing the External Revenue Service to collect all tariffs, duties, and revenues. | ||
| It will be massive amounts of money pouring into our treasury, coming from foreign sources. | ||
| The American dream will soon be back and thriving like never before. | ||
| To restore competence and effectiveness to our federal government, my administration will establish the brand new Department of Government Efficiency. | ||
| After years and years of illegal and unconstitutional federal efforts to restrict free expression, I will also sign an executive order to immediately stop all government censorship and bring back free speech to America. | ||
| Never again will the immense power of the state be weaponized to persecute political opponents, something I know something about. | ||
| We will not allow that to happen. | ||
| It will not happen again. | ||
| Under my leadership, we will restore fair, equal, and impartial justice under the constitutional rule of law. | ||
| And we are going to bring law and order back to our cities. | ||
| This week, I will also end the government policy of trying to socially engineer race and gender into every aspect of public and private life. | ||
| We will forge a society that is colorblind and merit-based. | ||
| As of today, it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female. | ||
| This week, I will reinstate any service members who were unjustly expelled from our military for objecting to the COVID vaccine mandate with full back pain. | ||
| And I will sign an order to stop our warriors from being subjected to radical political theories and social experiments while on duty. | ||
| It's going to end immediately. | ||
| Our armed forces will be freed to focus on their sole mission, defeating America's enemies. | ||
| Like in 2017, we will again build the strongest military the world has ever seen. | ||
| We will measure our success not only by the battles we win, but also by the wars that we end, and perhaps most importantly, the wars we never get into. | ||
| My proudest legacy will be that of a peacemaker and unifier. | ||
| That's what I want to be, a peacemaker and a unifier. | ||
| I'm pleased to say that as of yesterday, one day before I assumed office, the hostages in the Middle East are coming back home to their families. | ||
| America will reclaim its rightful place as the greatest, most powerful, most respected nation on earth, inspiring the awe and admiration of the entire world. | ||
| A short time from now, we are going to be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, and we will restore the name of a great president, William McKinley, to Mount McKinley where it should be and where it belongs. | ||
| President McKinley made our country very rich through tariffs and through talent. | ||
| He was a natural businessman and gave Teddy Roosevelt the money for many of the great things he did, including the Panama Canal, which has foolishly been given to the country of Panama after the United States. | ||
| The United States, I mean, think of this, spent more money than ever spent on a project before and lost 38,000 lives in the building of the Panama Canal. | ||
| We have been treated very badly from this foolish gift that should have never been made, and Panama's promise to us has been broken. | ||
| The purpose of our deal and the spirit of our treaty has been totally violated. | ||
| American ships are being severely overcharged and not treated fairly in any way, shape, or form, and that includes the United States Navy. | ||
| And above all, China is operating the Panama Canal. | ||
| And we didn't give it to China. | ||
| gave it to Panama, and we're taking it back. | ||
| Above all, my message to Americans today is that it is time for us to once again act with courage, vigor, and the vitality of history's greatest civilization. | ||
| So as we liberate our nation, we will lead it to new heights of victory and success. | ||
| We will not be deterred. | ||
| Together, we will end the chronic disease epidemic and keep our children safe, healthy, and disease-free. | ||
| The United States will once again consider itself a growing nation, one that increases our wealth, expands our territory, builds our cities, raises our expectations, and carries our flag into new and beautiful horizons. | ||
| And we will pursue our manifest destiny into the stars, launching American astronauts to plant the stars and stripes on the planet Mars. | ||
| Ambition is the lifeblood of a great nation. | ||
| And right now, our nation is more ambitious than any other. | ||
| There's no nation like our nation. | ||
| Americans are explorers, builders, innovators, entrepreneurs, and pioneers. | ||
| The spirit of the frontier is written into our hearts. | ||
| The call of the next great adventure resounds from within our souls. | ||
| Our American ancestors turned a small group of colonies on the edge of a vast continent into a mighty republic of the most extraordinary citizens on earth. | ||
| No one comes close. | ||
| Americans pushed thousands of miles through a rugged land of untamed wilderness. | ||
| They crossed deserts, scaled mountains, braved untold dangers, won the wild west, ended slavery, rescued millions from tyranny, lifted billions from poverty, harnessed electricity, split the atom, launched mankind into the heavens, and put the universe of human knowledge into the palm of the human hand. | ||
| If we work together, there is nothing we cannot do and no dream we cannot achieve. | ||
| Many people thought it was impossible for me to stage such a historic political comeback. | ||
| But as you see today, here I am. | ||
| American people have spoken. | ||
| I stand before you now as proof that you should never believe that something is impossible to do. | ||
| In America, the impossible is what we do best. | ||
| From New York to Los Angeles, from Philadelphia to Phoenix, from Chicago to Miami, from Houston to right here in Washington, D.C., our country was forged and built by the generations of patriots who gave everything they had for our rights and for our freedom. | ||
| They were farmers and soldiers, cowboys and factory workers, steelworkers and coal miners, police officers and pioneers who pushed onward, marched forward, and let no obstacle defeat their spirit or their pride. | ||
| Together they laid down the railroads, raised up the skyscrapers, built great highways, won two world wars, defeated fascism and communism, and triumphed over every single challenge that they faced. | ||
| After all we have been through together, we stand on the verge of the four greatest years in American history. | ||
| With your help, we will restore America's promise and we will rebuild the nation that we love and we love it so much. | ||
| We are one people, one family, and one glorious nation under God. | ||
| So to every parent who dreams for their child and every child who dreams for their future, I am with you, I will fight for you, and I will win for you. | ||
| We're going to win like never before. | ||
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unidentified
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Thank you. Thank you. | |
| Thank you. | ||
| In recent years, our nation has suffered greatly, but we are going to bring it back and make it great again, greater than ever before. | ||
| We will be a nation like no other, full of compassion, courage, and exceptionalism. | ||
| Our power will stop all wars and bring a new spirit of unity to a world that has been angry, violent, and totally unpredictable. | ||
| America will be respected again and admired again, including by people of religion, faith, and goodwill. | ||
| We will be prosperous. | ||
| We will be proud. | ||
| We will be strong and we will win like never before. | ||
| We will not be conquered. | ||
| We will not be intimidated. | ||
| We will not be broken. | ||
| And we will not fail. | ||
| From this day on, the United States of America will be a free, sovereign, and independent nation. | ||
| We will stand bravely, we will live proudly, we will dream boldly, and nothing will stand in our way because we are Americans. | ||
| The future is ours, and our golden age has just begun. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| God bless America. | ||
| Thank you all. | ||
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unidentified
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Thank you. | |
| Thank you very much. | ||
| Thank you very much. | ||
|
unidentified
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Ladies and gentlemen, performing America the Beautiful, please welcome the Armed Forces Chorus and Carrie Underwood. | |
| If you know the words, help me out here. | ||
| Oh, beautiful for space and skies, for amber waves of grain, | ||
| for purple mountain majesties above the fruiting plain America, America. | ||
| Ladies and gentlemen, Senator Fischer will now introduce the benediction clergy. | ||
| I now call on Rabbi Ari Berman, Pastor Lorenzo Sewell, and Reverend Frank Mund to provide prayers of benediction. | ||
|
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Let us pray. | |
| Almighty God, your prophet Jeremiah walked the streets of Jerusalem and blessed its inhabitants with the Hebrew words, Baruch Hagevar Eshayftach Bahashem. | ||
| Blessed is the one who trusts in God. | ||
| Thousands of years later, this great nation, which adopted these words as its motto, In God we Trust, stands at a moment of historic opportunity. | ||
| Americans are searching for meaning. | ||
| Our merciful Father, help us rise to meet this moment. | ||
| Bless President Donald J. Trump and Vice President JD Vance with the strength and courage to choose the right and the good. | ||
| Unite us around our foundational biblical values of life and liberty, of service and sacrifice, and especially of faith and morality, which George Washington called the indispensable supports of American prosperity. | ||
| Guide our schools and college campuses, which have been experiencing such unrest, to inspire the next generation to pair progress with purpose, knowledge with wisdom, and truth with virtue. | ||
| Hear the cry of the hostages, both American and Israeli, whose pain our president so acutely feels. | ||
| We are so thankful for the three young women who yesterday returned home and pray that the next four years brings peace to Israel and throughout the Middle East. | ||
| Almighty God, grant all Americans the opportunity to realize our shared dream of a life filled with peace and plenty, health and happiness, compassion and contribution. | ||
| Stir within us the confidence to rise to this moment. | ||
| For while we trust in God, God's trust is in us, the American people. | ||
| America is called to greatness to be a beacon of light and a mover of history. | ||
| May our nation merit the fulfillment of Jeremiah's blessing that like a tree planted by water, we shall not cease to bear fruit. | ||
| May all of humanity experience your love and your blessing. | ||
| May it be thy will and let us say amen. | ||
| Let us pray for our 47th president. | ||
| Heavenly Father, we're so grateful that you gave our 45th and now our 47th president a millimeter miracle. | ||
| We are grateful that you are the one that have called him for such a time as this, that America would begin to dream again. | ||
| We pray that we would fulfill the true meaning of our creed, that we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal. | ||
| We pray that you use our president, that we will live in a nation where we will not be judged by the color of our skin, but by the content of our character. | ||
| Heavenly Father, in the name of Jesus, we are so grateful today that you will use our 47th president so we would sing with new meaning, my country tis of thee. | ||
| Sweet land of liberty of thee, I sing. | ||
| Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride from every mountainside. | ||
| Let freedom ring. | ||
| And because America is called to be a great nation, we believe that you will make this come true. | ||
| So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. | ||
| Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. | ||
| Let freedom ring from the heightening Eligedies of Pennsylvania. | ||
| Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado. | ||
| Let freedom ring from the curvaceous hilltops of California. | ||
| But God, we're asking you not only that, let freedom ring from Stone Mountain, Georgia. | ||
| Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee. | ||
| Let freedom ring from every hill and every mohill in Mississippi, from every state, every city, every village, and every hamlet. | ||
| And when we let freedom ring, we will be able to speed up that day. | ||
| All of your children, black men and white men, Protestant and Catholic, Jew and Gentile, will be able to sing in the meaning of that old Negro spiritual. | ||
| Free at last, free at last. | ||
| Thank you, God Almighty. | ||
| We are free at last. | ||
| If you believe where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. | ||
| Come on, put your hands together and give your grace. | ||
| Almighty and eternal God, we gather here today in reverence, joined in our shared hopes and dreams for our beloved nation. | ||
| In this sacred moment of the inauguration of President Donald J. Trump and Vice President JD Vance, we turn our hearts to you, seeking your divine assistance and abundant blessings upon this pivotal moment in history. | ||
| We come before you with profound gratitude for the many gifts you have bestowed upon our land. | ||
| Thank you for the freedoms we cherish, for the strength of our communities, and for the resilience of our spirit. | ||
| As our President and Vice President embrace their newly appointed roles, we humbly implore that your everlasting love and wisdom will envelop them. | ||
| Grant them the clarity of mind to navigate the challenges that lie ahead and the compassion to serve all citizens with fairness and integrity. | ||
| May their hearts be filled with a giving spirit and sincere understanding for those whom they represent. | ||
| May they be beacons of hope in times of uncertainty and prophetic voices in defending the dignity of all created life. | ||
| We pray for a spirit of collaboration to flourish in our government and across our nation, fostering an environment where dialogue and heartfelt listening will prevail over division or discord. | ||
| May each decision made by our President and Vice President reflect the values of justice and peace. | ||
| As we embark on this new chapter, we also seek your comfort, O God, for those who feel lost or disheartened. | ||
| In this time of transition, may your light shine upon them, reaffirming their belief in a brighter tomorrow. | ||
| May we all strive to lift one another, supporting our fellow citizens with kindness and empathy, recognizing that together we can overcome any adversity. | ||
| Grant us the strength to endure, the courage to face our fears, and the clarity to see the light that remains even when clouds of uncertainty may gather. | ||
| Inspire our new leaders to be champions for the vulnerable and advocates for those whose voices are often silenced. | ||
| May they pursue policies that promote the well-being of all, seeking to build bridges that will foster unity and belonging. | ||
| As we stand witness to this inauguration, we hold fast to the faith, to our faith in the goodness of each of us and the possibility of change. | ||
| We trust that with your guidance, O God, our nation can move forward to a future filled with promise, prosperity, and understanding. | ||
| And finally, we lift our hearts in gratitude for the beloved parents of President Trump. | ||
| Without Mary and Fred Trump, this day would never be the miracle that has just begun. | ||
| From their place in heaven, may they shield their son from all harm by their loving protection and give him the strength to guide our nation along the path that will make America great again. | ||
| Let us go forth now with these words of President Trump's emblazoned on our hearts. | ||
| As long as we have pride in our beliefs, courage in our convictions, and faith in our God, then we will not fail. | ||
| We stand tall. | ||
| We stand proud because we are Americans and Americans kneel to God and to God alone. | ||
| Amen. | ||
|
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Ladies and gentlemen, please remain standing for our national anthem. | |
| Fight of the ways where songs were good. | ||
| Heavenlasting Ever gave proof to the Lord that the third one is still there. | ||
| For save the heads of forever of hear. | ||
|
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and the heart of all the seated | |
| Ladies and gentlemen, please remain at your seats while the president and official party depart the platform. | ||
| And the second Trump administration is now an hour old, and those were the opening notes. | ||
| You can see the presidents and former presidents are leaving the Capitol Rotunda, the first time that the inauguration has taken place there since 1985 and Ronald Reagan. | ||
| So once the dais is cleared, the next thing on the agenda for President Trump and former President Biden is for the Trumps to say goodbye to the Bidens on the East Front. | ||
| The Bidens will get into Marine One, the helicopter, and they will fly to Andrews Air Force Base, where there will be another ceremony for former President Biden. | ||
| President Trump has several hours still at the Capitol before he goes off to Capitol One Arena, where a truncated parade will take place and an executive signing ceremony as well. | ||
| Looks like he'll be returning to the White House at about 5 p.m. this afternoon after he speaks to supporters at Capitol One Arena. | ||
| Before he leaves the Capitol today, he will visit the overflow crowd. | ||
| About 800 guests were in the rotunda. | ||
| About 1,300 are in the overflow crowd in Emancipation Hall. | ||
| That's in the adjacent Capitol Visitor Center. | ||
| He'll go and say, make remarks and greet those folks down there. | ||
| There'll be a congressional lunch, there'll be a congressional signing ceremony. | ||
| And that's the afternoon. | ||
| That will take about until 3 p.m. | ||
| Then he'll go to Capitol One for a truncated parade and then return to the White House at about 5. | ||
| So that's what's coming up this afternoon, all live on C-SPAN. | ||
| A reminder, all events on C-SPAN 2 are without commentary, and you can watch just the events happening there. | ||
| You can see the Trump family, and that is President Trump's father-in-law there on your screen, and that is JD Vance's mother at the bottom of the screen with the blonde hair and the glasses. | ||
| And they will be departing soon. | ||
| The Trumps and the Bidens will be heading out to the East Front of the Capitol in just a second, and the Bidens will fly off in Marine One. | ||
| That's the East Front as we speak. | ||
| But while we're waiting for them to come out, let's check in with John McCartell and see if there's any news. | ||
| Peter, it was the longest inaugural address in the modern political era. | ||
| It was just under 30 minutes long, 29 minutes and 48 seconds, according to the official C-SPAN count kept by C-SPAN's Jeremy Art. | ||
| Let me show you his chart going back to FDR in 1933. | ||
| You can see the lengths in minutes and seconds of each inaugural address. | ||
| Donald Trump's inaugural address this year was almost twice as long as his inaugural address back in 2017 when he became the 45th president. | ||
| It was about nine minutes longer than Joe Biden's 2021 inaugural address at 21 minutes. | ||
| The longest before now was Bill Clinton in 1997, forgive me, at almost 22 minutes. | ||
| On social media, congratulations pouring in from around the globe for the 47th President of the United States. | ||
| I want to show you some of the world leaders sending out their congratulations. | ||
| Kier Starmer, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. | ||
| On behalf of the United Kingdom, I send my warmest congratulations to President Donald Trump on his inauguration, saying the special relationship between the UK and the U.S. will continue to flourish for years to come. | ||
| This is Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister of India. | ||
| Congratulations, my dear friend, President Donald Trump, on your historic inauguration. | ||
| I look forward to working closely together once again to benefit both our countries and shape a better future. | ||
| And this from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying, Sarah and I send our warmest wishes to you, Melania, and the American people on the second inauguration as President of the United States. | ||
| And then one more from social media to show you. | ||
| It was right as President Trump was giving the oath of office that the White House website officially changed over. | ||
| And this is what you will see if you go to whitehouse.gov right now. | ||
| America is back is the banner headline every single day. | ||
| I will be fighting for you with every breath in my body. | ||
| I will not rest until we have delivered the strong, safe, and prosperous America that our children deserve and that you deserve. | ||
| This will truly be the golden age of America. | ||
| That's the promise right now at whitehouse.gov. | ||
| And also, while a few minutes just before noon, then President Biden pardoned his two brothers and his sister Valerie for anything that they might be charged with. | ||
| He did that pardon while everybody was at the Capitol. | ||
| This is a live shot of the East Front of the Capitol, Marine One ready for the Bidens to take them to Andrews Air Force Base and then off to California for a vacation following his four years in the White House. | ||
| Well, joining us from Dallas is Jeffrey Engel, who is with Southern Methodist University Center for Presidential History. | ||
| Professor Engel, what's your immediate reaction to Donald Trump's inaugural address? | ||
|
unidentified
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You know, it sounded remarkably like one of his campaign speeches, and that's very unusual for presidential addresses. | |
| Usually presidential inaugural addresses are when the president tries to, you know, reach to the highest rhetoric and reach to the clouds and give a big meaning to what they're trying to do. | ||
| Especially when we see somebody in their second inaugural, the second inaugural for George W. Bush, for example, is when he talked about the freedom agenda. | ||
| Essentially, it's the time when presidents usually try to essentially lay out the themes of what they're going to do, but without all the specifics. | ||
| I mean, obviously, President Trump told us that he wanted to do everything to make America strong and powerful again, and then gave a laundry list. | ||
| And it's the laundry list historically that I think we don't usually see from presidents. | ||
| But then again, President Trump has, once again, done things unusually. | ||
| National emergency declared on the southern border and with energy. | ||
| That's unusual. | ||
|
unidentified
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Yes, it's really remarkable. | |
| And the number of things which one had to turn your eye again and again and again from President Trump to President Biden, essentially the number of times that the president twisted the knife of, if you will, of twisting the policies. | ||
| I'm reminded in some ways by John Kennedy. | ||
| When he took the oath of office and succeeded Dwight Eisenhower, he talked about the torch being passed to a new generation, but he didn't actually go in and say because the old generation had failed us. | ||
| It was assumed that the new generation was going to be something that was innovative and vigorous. | ||
| It didn't have to be said. | ||
| President Trump certainly took the opportunity to lay out essentially what could have been one of his campaign speeches. | ||
| What is your take on the fact that Joe Biden pardoned more family members while everybody was at the Capitol? | ||
| Not sure that Donald Trump was aware of that going in. | ||
|
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You know, I think the flurry of pardons in the last few hours, in particular the last day, has done something different to my eyes as a historian. | |
| Normally we see people being pardoned when they've committed a crime or when they've been convicted of a crime. | ||
| The blanket pardons that President Biden has given, especially given the sense of his opposition that he has made the Justice Department into one of his own political weapons, the blanket department, the blanket pardons, excuse me, strike me as very dangerous and very uncomfortable. | ||
| And the reason is that essentially what we're doing is setting a precedent for future presidents to go ahead and say to their staff and say to the people working for them, go ahead and do whatever you want, even if it includes breaking the law, because I will pardon you. | ||
| And I'll even pardon you for things that hasn't been identified or named yet that essentially are still secret, perhaps. | ||
| So it's a very uncomfortable precedent. | ||
| I mean, one can understand on a human level why President Biden would fear for his family members, and that too is sad and unusual in American history. | ||
| But this is an odd precedent to essentially get a get out of jail free card for something that has not yet been identified as a crime. | ||
| You can see a live picture on your screen, east front of the Capitol. | ||
| The Trumps and the Bidens are gathered for the farewell ceremony. | ||
| Let's watch for a minute. | ||
| as many of you know, inaugurals were traditionally held on the east front of the Capitol, where you see the president in the helicopter sitting right now. | ||
| And that was until 1985 and 1981. | ||
| And Ronald Reagan moved it to the West. | ||
| Looking west was one of the themes of his first inaugural. | ||
| And it's been on the West Front ever since. | ||
| And of course, the second Reagan inaugural was held inside the Rotunda because of the weather. | ||
| And today's inaugural was held inside the Rotunda the first time in 40 years because of the weather. | ||
| It's about 20, 25 degrees here in Washington, but quite windy. | ||
| And it was predicted to be a little bit colder than it actually is. | ||
| So there'll be a truncated parade this afternoon at the Capitol One Arena. | ||
| That's where the Washington Capitals hockey team play and the Washington Wizards basketball team. | ||
| And that will occur this afternoon. | ||
| Of course, we will be live with that as well. | ||
| But coming up at the Capitol after the Bidens take off for Andrews Air Force Base and fly to Santa Barbara, there is going to be a presidential visit to the overflow crowd. | ||
| About 1,300 more people were in Emancipation Hall, which is at the Congressional Visitor Center adjacent to the Capitol. | ||
| The president will do some signing. | ||
| We'll find out what that's about. | ||
| And then he will attend a congressional luncheon and a review of the troops before he departs the Capitol today, predicted about 3, 3.30 p.m. before he gets out of there. | ||
| So we will be back with our guest, Jeffrey Engel of Southern Methodist University. | ||
| We'll talk about some of this afternoon's events. | ||
| And we'll also be checking the news with John McCartell as we go. | ||
| But let's watch Marine One take off. | ||
| And the Bidens are off to Andrews Air Force Base. | ||
| There will be a small ceremony there as well with the Bidens, and we will bring that to you at some point this afternoon as well. | ||
| You can see Air Force One is there. | ||
| It is not called Air Force One when the president is not riding on it. | ||
| My guess is it's called Air Mission 46, President Biden being the 46th president. | ||
| That's just a wild guess, and we'll find out. | ||
| But you can see that is readied for the Bidens to take them to California. | ||
| You saw Kamala Harris and Doug Imhoff get in their limousine and head to where they're heading as well. | ||
| So that's Washington, D.C. on inaugural day. | ||
| And as you can see, that would normally be full of people and crowds, but the mall is empty. | ||
| The Capitol is empty as well. | ||
| All sorts of things were set up. | ||
| There were TV monitors out there. | ||
| The parade, that's Pennsylvania Avenue on the far left of your screen, not right next to the mall, but on the far left. | ||
| And that's where the parade is normally held. | ||
| That will not happen this time because that will be the president will be motorcading to Capitol One Arena, less than a mile from what you see there on your screen, and then Capital One Arena, about a mile or so from the White House. | ||
| And that's Capitol One Arena, full of Donald Trump supporters. | ||
| They were listening in during his inaugural address, and I think we were showing some shots of them as well applauding. | ||
| But there is an overflow crowd at the Capitol, at the Capitol Visitor Center. | ||
| And this is Emancipation Hall. | ||
| Capitol Visitor Center is about 15 years old. | ||
| It's built underground. | ||
| It's built under the parking lot where you saw the helicopter take off. | ||
| And this is the main entrance for visitors to the Capitol. | ||
| We can see that they're getting ready to have a speaking portion here as well. | ||
| And we will listen in. | ||
|
unidentified
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We are | |
| learning that President Trump is giving remarks to the overflow crowd in Emancipation Hall. | ||
| We're going to be waiting for those and bring those to you live. | ||
| Standing up on the dais, you can see Speaker Mike Johnson and his wife, and the majority leader of the House of Representatives, Steve Scalise, and his wife or daughter. | ||
| I cannot see from this angle. | ||
| That's his wife, of course. | ||
| Both Mike Johnson and Steve Scalise are from Louisiana. | ||
| And Deb Fisher is on the far right with her husband. | ||
| Deb Fisher is there. | ||
| She's a senator from Nebraska, the Republican senator from Nebraska, was re-elected in 2024 by about six, seven points. | ||
| Little controversy because in her swearing in for this most recent term, her husband would not shake hands with Kamala Harris, who is vice president, is president of the Senate. | ||
| So there are a little bit of controversy there with Deb Fisher. | ||
| Here's the Speaker of the House. | ||
| return to the White House. | ||
| Right now, already this morning, you can feel it around the We certainly felt it here in the city. | ||
| America is coming together and roaring back again, and it begins today, as the President just told us. | ||
| I know we'd all rather be gathered together on the National Mall with hundreds of thousands of our closest friends, but our disappointment is Well, overcome with our excitement for the future that we feel today. | ||
| We have the chance to make the next four years the most consequential period in our nation's history. | ||
| And as Speaker of the House, it is my great pleasure, my great honor, to introduce to you the man who will lead us to this new golden age, the decisive winner of the Electoral College and the popular vote, the 45th and the 47th and the greatest president of our lifetimes, Donald J. Trump. | ||
|
unidentified
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Well, thank you all so much for being here. | |
| And was that a hell of a speech or what? | ||
|
unidentified
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That was, man. | |
| That was a good way to start it off. | ||
| You know, I didn't know exactly what the president would put in that speech, and I hope to myself that he wasn't going to hold back. | ||
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And, sir, you didn't hold back. | |
| That was a hell of a way to start the next four years. | ||
| But I just want to say from the bottom of my heart, and I know I speak for the president and for all of us, thank you, thank you, thank you for making this possible. | ||
|
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We love you. | |
| We wouldn't be here without you, and we're going to make America great again together for the next four years. | ||
| And the last thing I'll say is, you know, having stood outside for about five minutes to wave goodbye to the Bidens, thank God we moved that thing indoors because it was a beautiful ceremony and it was cold as hell outside. | ||
| So, sir, the 45th and 47th president of the United States, Donald J. Trump. | ||
| No, he's right. | ||
| I looked, I said, Oh, look at this beautiful sunny day. | ||
| We blew it, we blew it, and then I went outside and we were freezing. | ||
| You would have been very unhappy. | ||
| The sun was very deceptive, I will tell you. | ||
| It is cold out. | ||
| And I'm sort of saying, you know, that was so beautiful today. | ||
| Maybe they should do it there every four years. | ||
| Does that make sense? | ||
| I don't know. | ||
| Because, you know, the outdoor thing is really good, but it gets a little cold around this time of the year, as some people have noticed. | ||
| And a lot of times they suffer through it. | ||
| There was no suffering in that room. | ||
| It was 72 degrees. | ||
| It was perfect with The best acoustics I think I've ever heard in a room. | ||
| This is not so bad either. | ||
| But I just want to say, you're a younger, far more beautiful audience that I just spoke to. | ||
| And I want to keep it off the record. | ||
| I want to keep that off the record because I don't want to have all those big shots up there. | ||
| I don't want to think you're more powerful than them. | ||
| You look better than them. | ||
| And I love you. | ||
| Now, we just had a great time. | ||
| We just had a great day. | ||
| This was amazing. | ||
| You know, when you think we took a journey, I mentioned in the speech, a lot of people said that was not a journey that was possible, and it was indeed possible. | ||
| I didn't really know too much about what they were saying when they said that, but a lot of people felt it. | ||
| And we hooked up with J.D. very early. | ||
| I watched J.D. over a period of time. | ||
| I endorsed him in Ohio. | ||
| He was a great senator and very, very smart. | ||
| The only one smarter than him was his wife. | ||
| I would have chosen her, but somehow the line of succession didn't work that way, right? | ||
| But now she's great, and he's great. | ||
| This is a great, beautiful couple, and unbelievable career. | ||
| I just said to him, you are very upwardly mobile. | ||
| Because he hasn't been doing it that long, but he picked it up so quickly. | ||
| Remember, the first week was a little bit like the fake news was hitting him really hard. | ||
| And they said, ooh, this may be tough. | ||
| But after that, it was smooth selling for him. | ||
| He took on everybody. | ||
|
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He took on the meanest. | |
| I don't want to use the word corrupt because we're into a new system. | ||
| So let's wait till the corruption begins because it will. | ||
| But he took on some pretty mean people and he handled it well. | ||
| I want to also congratulate Mike Johnson for the job that he's doing. | ||
| Steve, we gave him a majority of almost nothing. | ||
| And then I said, to make it tougher on him, let me take two or three of the people, right? | ||
| I said, he'll only have to suffer with that for about three months. | ||
| How are they doing, by the way? | ||
| Is that moving along? | ||
| Totally uniform. | ||
| I said, do you mind if I take this one, that one, and a couple of others? | ||
| He didn't mind. | ||
| He can handle it. | ||
| No, he's a man that's liked by everybody. | ||
| I've never met a man like this. | ||
| You've got two, how many is it? | ||
| 219 or 220 or something? | ||
|
unidentified
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20? | |
| 220. | ||
| And of the 220, 219 really like him. | ||
| I noticed he got one negative vote once about two weeks ago. | ||
| But I think even 220 like him, if you want to know the truth. | ||
| And that's very unusual. | ||
| I know a lot of nice guys in Congress, and they have 35 people that hate them. | ||
| So if you have 35 people that hate you and you only have one or two or three votes, you'll have five, I think. | ||
| But that's going to be like, you know, the good news is when we get to that five number, it's going to feel like a massive majority. | ||
| You can be really nasty to a couple of them at least. | ||
| So it's going to feel like kidding your head on the wall and stopping. | ||
| It feels so good to stop. | ||
| But he's done a fantastic job. | ||
| And Steve Scalese is our hero because, you know, I was with him. | ||
| You talk about being shot. | ||
| I was with him. | ||
| He got some bad ones and his incredible wife. | ||
| And she really loves him. | ||
| You never know about that. | ||
| I've been with other people. | ||
| They were doing poorly. | ||
| And the wife is like looking at her watch. | ||
|
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She can't get out of the hospital fast enough. | |
| How's he doing? | ||
|
unidentified
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I don't know. | |
| He's all right. | ||
| That woman was a mess. | ||
| She was crying and crying. | ||
| No, they're going to take him. | ||
| They're going to take him. | ||
| I told Steve when he finally woke up, it was a while, too. | ||
| The doctor told me it was the most blood they've ever transfused in any patient. | ||
| They've never done anything like it. | ||
| And here he is the picture of strength, right? | ||
| And he's been a great friend of mine. | ||
|
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With a family, because of a family. | |
| And what a job you did. | ||
| It worked out pretty much better than we even thought, right? | ||
| And I did have a couple of things, you know, to say that were extremely controversial. | ||
| And between J.D. and Melania and anybody else that heard, please, sir, it's such a beautiful, unifying speech. | ||
| Please, sir, don't say these things. | ||
| I said, I'm telling you, it's going to play great. | ||
| They say, you're right, for this group of people, it's going to play great. | ||
| You're the only ones I hurt by that, oh, but we had some beauties, didn't we, Melania? | ||
| She said, sir. | ||
| Calls me, sir, when she's angry. | ||
| No, I'm only kidding. | ||
| I better say I'm only kidding, or the press is going to pick that one up loud and clear. | ||
| No, but she said, no, I think it would be terrible. | ||
| It's such a nice speech. | ||
| I think it's, you know, it all depends on your delivery. | ||
| How was the delivery? | ||
| Was it good? | ||
| But she said, it's such a beautiful, such a beautiful speech. | ||
| You can't put things in there that you were going to put in. | ||
| And I was going to talk about the J6 hostages. | ||
| But you'll be happy because, you know, it's action, not words that count. | ||
| And you're going to see a lot of action on the J6 hostages. | ||
| And I was going to talk about the things that Joe did today with the pardons of people that were very, very guilty of very bad crimes, like the unselect committee of political thugs, where they literally, I mean, what they did is they destroyed and deleted all of the information, all of the hearings. | ||
| Practically not a thing left. | ||
| They deleted all the information on Nancy Pelosi having turned down the offer of 10,000 soldiers. | ||
| You wouldn't have needed 10,000. | ||
| You could have had 500, and it would have stopped. | ||
| Because we may have a million people that day, the people that were there. | ||
| You don't see any photographs, but we have a lot of great photos. | ||
| But you don't see those photographs. | ||
| They don't put them in. | ||
| They show the people at the Capitol. | ||
| But I was talking about that. | ||
| I was going to talk about that. | ||
| They said, please don't bring that up right now. | ||
| You can bring it up tomorrow. | ||
| I said, how about now in front of the very, I'll bring it up right now. | ||
| You know, this little time delay is good because we're getting great reviews on the speech. | ||
| They'll take the speech and say, I didn't like it because he left there and he talked to people. | ||
| But we're giving you a little more information that we gave up. | ||
| Says, but no. | ||
| They pardoned a lot of people. | ||
| They pardoned, before we even get to today, they pardoned, what is it, 33 murderers, absolute murderers, the worst murderers. | ||
| You know, when you get the death sentence in the United States, you have to be bad because they don't give it much. | ||
| And he pardoned almost everybody having a death sentence. | ||
| And if you went through the crimes that were committed, you wouldn't even believe them, the level of violence, the people that were killed, the innocence of people that were killed and children killed by these people. | ||
| And he pardoned them for whatever reason. | ||
| He spared them. | ||
| But they didn't spare the people that they killed. | ||
| And, you know, who knows what happens in the future? | ||
| It's one of the worst because a lot of times they let them out early after that. | ||
| You know, they say you're going to be in for life, but then all of a sudden they get let out for good behavior and then they go on a rampage. | ||
| It's one of those little things, right? | ||
| But I was going to talk about that. | ||
| But I was really going to talk about the level of, you know, what's going on. | ||
| Why are we doing this? | ||
| Why are we trying to help a guy like Millie? | ||
| Why are we doing Millie? | ||
| He was pardoned. | ||
| What he said, terrible what he said. | ||
| Why are we helping some of the people? | ||
| Why are we helping Liz Cheney? | ||
| I mean, Liz Cheney is a disaster. | ||
| She's a crying lunatic and crying Adam Kinzinger. | ||
| He's a supercrying. | ||
| I never saw the guy not crying. | ||
| He's always crying. | ||
| I looked at him. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I remember years ago, he was actually on my side. | |
| And then one day, you know, when you don't want to kill people in wars, they turn against you. | ||
| Liz Cheney hated the concept of not going to war with everybody. | ||
| Let's kill everybody. | ||
| Let's spend a lot of money on military equipment. | ||
| You know, where her father works, right? | ||
| But what she did was incredible. | ||
| Think of it. | ||
| They destroyed and deleted all of that information that went on for almost two years against Trump. | ||
| And the reason they did, because it was all false. | ||
| Like the person that said, I tried to strangle a Secret Service agent that's one of the toughest human beings I think I've ever seen. | ||
| I actually had a friend saying, please don't change that suit. | ||
| You are the coolest sucker in history. | ||
| Remember, she said, I put my hands around his neck because he wouldn't go to the Capitol. | ||
| Made-up fiction. | ||
| And I was rebuffed. | ||
| And the guy on the right is a massive weightlifter, probably stronger than me. | ||
| Do you think he's stronger than me, honey? | ||
| You know who I'm talking to. | ||
| Possibly stronger than me. | ||
| Slightly younger than me, like I won't say how many years because I don't want to talk about that, but a lot of years. | ||
| But I had a friend that said, why are you disputing that story? | ||
| That's the coolest story I've ever heard. | ||
| That I would attack a karate champion, get slightly rebuffed, and then throw my arms around a guy with a neck about this big. | ||
| Even though there are bars, you know, there are bars. | ||
| You can't really do that. | ||
| Anyway, so I wanted to talk about that. | ||
| But all of that stuff got deleted. | ||
| And the reason it got deleted is they were all caught in lies. | ||
| You know, Secret Service testified and they said it didn't happen. | ||
| Actually, the two guys were very embarrassed. | ||
| They're suffering because their friends are saying, did Trump really do that to you? | ||
| But they gained a whole new respect for me. | ||
| But it was just make-believe stuff. | ||
| And there were a lot of make-believe stories made up. | ||
| So rather than suffer the wrath, like the story with Nancy Pelosi, I offered her 10,000 soldiers. | ||
| She knows it. | ||
| She admitted it on tape that her daughter made. | ||
| She's a videographer or whatever you call her, which I'm glad she is. | ||
| Oh, she can't be in good stead with Nancy. | ||
| But Nancy said it was my responsibility as she's leaving the Capitol. | ||
| She said it was, and it was. | ||
| She's in charge of security at the Capitol. | ||
| But I offered them up to 10,000 soldiers, even more. | ||
| One time I said more, as many as you need. | ||
| But you needed four or five hundred. | ||
| If four or five, 10,000, that would be more than the number of people there by lot. | ||
| But we offered her 10,000. | ||
| Think of it, 10,000 soldiers. | ||
| In other words, J6 wouldn't be J6. | ||
| There would have been no J6. | ||
| But she rebuffed them. | ||
|
unidentified
|
She didn't like it. | |
| No, she didn't like it. | ||
| Maybe she wanted that to happen. | ||
| But she's guilty as hell. | ||
| And now we would have to go through the process because they destroyed all evidence. | ||
| They deleted everything. | ||
| There's virtually nothing left. | ||
| The other fake story and so many other fake stories. | ||
| And many people came out on our side. | ||
| And those people now got to find them. | ||
| There's nothing left. | ||
| So that's a criminal offense. | ||
| If that were a civil case, it would be a criminal offense. | ||
| If that happened civilly, where you did that, it would be a criminal offense. | ||
| So I decided I'm not going to make this speech complicated. | ||
| I'm going to make it beautiful. | ||
| I'm going to make it a unifying speech. | ||
| And then when they said, we have a group of people that are serious Trump fans, I said, this is the time to tell those stories. | ||
| He knows. | ||
| But seriously, I'd like to, I think it was a tremendous success. | ||
| I think we're very lucky we put it inside. | ||
| because it is really cold. | ||
| We just went to the helicopter out of respect. | ||
| Something that's taken place for a long time. | ||
| I guess it's as old as helicopters. | ||
| You used to get into a stagecoach, now you get into a helicopter. | ||
| Times change. | ||
| But it's pretty old custom. | ||
| And it's a beautiful custom, actually. | ||
| It's a beautiful custom. | ||
| I wish we could have had a better relationship. | ||
| I wish we could have had a better relationship between Republicans and Democrats. | ||
| I was with Senator Schumer. | ||
| I said, Chuck, I think it's time we all start getting along a little bit because it doesn't make sense. | ||
| I mean, we literally never get a Democrat vote. | ||
| They never get a Republican vote almost. | ||
| And although there is a bill coming up very shortly that we have a lot of Democrat votes, right? | ||
| It's going to be a very beautiful bill. | ||
| We're going to have a deciding, I would say, within a week or so, I think. | ||
| And it's going to be a very good bill. | ||
| You all know what I'm talking about. | ||
| So I just want to thank you all for being here. | ||
| You have been our fans from day one, all these people all over. | ||
| You've been our fans. | ||
| This has been, this has been a, there's never been anything like it. | ||
| There's never been anything like it. | ||
| This has been a movement like no movement ever in history for probably any country, let alone this country. | ||
| You know, if somebody's running for president, and if they go out and they announce they're going to Arizona, they're going to Nevada, they're going to some place. | ||
| If you have 200 or 300 people, that would be standard. | ||
| Ronald Reagan would go out. | ||
| I mean, outside of the last couple of days where people get a little excited, but even then you have a couple of thousand people. | ||
| But if you're going to go someplace, any place, any one of the swing states, any one of the other states, I mean, how about the non-swing states? | ||
| We won Alabama by 48 points. | ||
| We won Tennessee by massive numbers. | ||
| Wyoming, we won by numbers that are, nobody's ever seen numbers. | ||
| And, you know, places like California, we did great, but when they send out like 38 million ballots, nobody knows where the hell they're sending them, and then they come pouring back, the whole thing. | ||
| You know, they passed a law in California that if you work in an election bureau and if you so much as ask for a voter ID, if you say, sir, ma'am, could I please look at your voter ID? | ||
| They have the right to put you in jail. | ||
| You're a criminal. | ||
| Can you believe that? | ||
| There's only one reason that happens. | ||
| They want to cheat. | ||
| So they had it where voter ID wasn't accepted. | ||
| But now if you even ask for, this is seriously a bill that was just signed. | ||
| It passed in their legislature and it was signed. | ||
| And I think when we get things cleaned up and we get back to a little bit of normalcy, I'm going to ask the speaker to really get involved because I think we would have won the state of California because, you know, if you look at my numbers with Hispanic, we're at 56%. | ||
| And we were winning. | ||
| We won the Texas border that had never been won. | ||
| As the governor said, he's doing a good job, the governor, by the way, of Texas. | ||
| But as the governor said, it hasn't. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Oh, did I get lucky? | |
| Did I get lucky? | ||
| Supposing I said, you know, he's not here, but the governor of Texas has done a terrible job. | ||
| Wow, look at you. | ||
|
unidentified
|
You mean we couldn't get you up in the front row, I tell you. | |
| Supposing I said, JD, the governor of Texas, he's not doing his job. | ||
| You heard what I said. | ||
| See, I didn't know you were there. | ||
| I said, he's doing, he's doing a great job. | ||
| He's doing a phenomenal job, but now you're going to have a partner that's going to work with you because you didn't have, not only didn't he have a partner, he had people selling the wall. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Right? | |
| We have a fence structure that we worked on, the governor worked on with me. | ||
| And I didn't love it, to be honest with you. | ||
| I wanted a nice pre-cast concrete, you know, 40, 50 feet high, like a beautiful, could have been a T-shaped, Y-shape. | ||
| I love construction. | ||
| I wanted that sucker to go up maybe 50, 60 feet. | ||
| It would have looked beautiful, a nice Y shape. | ||
| And they said, the problem is, sir, they climbed that like a rabbit. | ||
| I said, what do you mean? | ||
| No way. | ||
| And they brought some of these guys out. | ||
| They climbed it like. | ||
| And the other thing is you hit it with acid and the thing will disintegrate. | ||
| You know, they have things for concrete. | ||
| So they needed very hardened steel, very special steel. | ||
| And then they needed 7,000-pound concrete inside that steel, you know, inside that steel. | ||
| And then they have a rebar that's the toughest steel made. | ||
| Very hard to cut. | ||
| So this is why very little is cut. | ||
| And then they put an anti-climb panel on top. | ||
| I hated it. | ||
| I said, it's so unattractive. | ||
| And I said, why would that work? | ||
| I don't believe it works. | ||
| And I went to watch the Border Patrol gave a display. | ||
| We had actually two sets of climbers. | ||
| The guys that climb up walls with drugs on their back, I mean, they got like 60, 70 pounds of drug, and they go as fast as you can walk. | ||
| They go, or we have Mount Everest type climbers. | ||
| And honestly, the drug guys were much better. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I couldn't buy it. | |
| The drug guys blew them away, right? | ||
| But it's true, the anti-climb panel, they couldn't get around it. | ||
| They just couldn't. | ||
| You didn't have it. | ||
| So sometimes you sacrifice beauty for efficiency. | ||
| And we did. | ||
| So we built this wall. | ||
| And we built over 500 miles of wall. | ||
| That's why we had such good numbers. | ||
| The famous chart that came down, very thankfully, the chart that came down on my right, Governor, had I not looked over there, I'm not speaking right now. | ||
| You might be speaking here. | ||
| You want to know the truth. | ||
| You, JD, we've got a lot of great people in this party. | ||
| But I got very lucky, but we had the best numbers we've ever had. | ||
| But I bought, you know, what happens is when you fill it up, it's like water. | ||
| You fill it up. | ||
| Now we have 571 miles of wall. | ||
| And they would always say, you know, when we renovated a wall, so there'd be like a piece of plywood sitting there for 60 years, or a 2x4 sitting for 60 years on the ground and rotting because, you know, and they'll say, you didn't build a new wall. | ||
| Here we're building 50 feet up in the air, 30 feet sections, 50 foot sections, all steel, all concrete, all everything. | ||
| And all, by the way, they don't even want me to say this, but what the hell, doesn't take that long to learn. | ||
| They're all wired for all of the equipment. | ||
| We put wires and everything so they can easily wire for all the different types of equipment. | ||
| If there's a doubt, we have a wire. | ||
| Whenever we just look, you just find the wires all over the place up top. | ||
| So we can just hook it up. | ||
| We don't have to have wires on the outside, which wouldn't do too well, right? | ||
| So anyway, so we built an extra 200 miles of wall. | ||
| And the governor wanted to buy it. | ||
| He tried to buy it, and they wouldn't sell it to him. | ||
| He wanted to put it up himself. | ||
| Could have been done in three to four weeks, 200 more miles, because when you do it, now they just keep going further out, further out, further out, getting around. | ||
| So we did an extra 200 miles, and it was all bought. | ||
| And they announced that they're not going to put it out. | ||
| And that's when I realized they wanted open borders. | ||
| And that's when I realized that people are going to come pouring through the wall like nobody's ever seen before. | ||
| But you've seen it. | ||
| A lot of you are here because of that. | ||
| I made it my number one issue. | ||
| They all said inflation was the number one issue. | ||
| I said, I disagree. | ||
| I think people coming into our country from prisons and from mental institutions is a bigger issue for the people that I know. | ||
| And I made it my number one. | ||
| I talked about inflation too, but how many times can you say that an apple has doubled in cost? | ||
| I'd say it, and I'd hit it hard, but then I go back to the fact that we don't want criminals coming into our country. | ||
| We don't want the jails of every country in the world, virtually, being deposited into the United States. | ||
| And that man had to suffer with it. | ||
| And he did an unbelievable job. | ||
| I'll tell you, he was a very popular governor, but now he's like an unbeatable governor because of your border policies. | ||
| He was fantastic. | ||
| And he really was. | ||
| Governor Abbott is a great he's a great man a great leader and But it didn't make him very more bad. | ||
| Did you do it? | ||
| You didn't do that for politics. | ||
| You did it because you want to do the right thing. | ||
|
unidentified
|
But I'll tell you, it sure as hell worked for politics, too. | |
| It's self-preservation, that's right. | ||
| But no, because the people are demanding it. | ||
| The people of Texas are demanding it. | ||
| The people are demanding it all over. | ||
| So anyway, so we built it, and they wouldn't let us use it. | ||
| They wouldn't let the governor use it. | ||
| And other governors, they wouldn't let him use it. | ||
| But he was the leader of the pack and did a great job. | ||
| And then we heard about a month ago that not only wouldn't they let it use it, they were selling it. | ||
| They were going to sell it for five cents on the dollar. | ||
| Now, five cents on the dollar then, but today it would cost more than twice as much to build because we bought it like six years ago. | ||
| And it was just sitting on the ground. | ||
| And that does not do well for the whole thing. | ||
| But it was just sitting on the ground. | ||
| And I heard about it. | ||
| And I called the governor, and I called a lot of people, your attorney general. | ||
| And here's the story. | ||
| They were going to buy it, and these are great business people. | ||
| They were going to buy it for five cents on the dollar or less. | ||
| And they were calling us up. | ||
| We'll sell it to you for 200 cents on the dollar. | ||
| In other words, it will cost you twice as much. | ||
| So it's 200 cents on the dollar. | ||
| I said, can someone explain that to a judge? | ||
| I mean, how corrupt is that? | ||
| You'd think they'd say, maybe we'll sell it to you for 20 cents, 30 cents, but not 200 cents. | ||
| So they were going to buy something for five cents, and they were going to sell it to us for a fortune. | ||
| They were going to make it would be, they'd have it down that in Fortune magazine, they'd put it of the deal of the year, okay? | ||
| You buy something like that. | ||
| But it was so corrupt and so horrible. | ||
| And when we told that to the administration, they didn't care. | ||
| They just kept going forward. | ||
| They couldn't care less. | ||
| And they kept going forward. | ||
| They knew that they were trying to sell it back to us. | ||
| They would have sold it back to us. | ||
| You would have ended up buying it. | ||
|
unidentified
|
You would have paid probably 50, 60 cents, who knows. | |
| But they're going to use it for scrap metal, but then they made a much better deal. | ||
| They could just buy it and sell it to us for 15, 20 times what they paid. | ||
| 20 times, think of it, like 20 times what they paid. | ||
| And we wouldn't let it happen. | ||
| And the governor with his attorney general, Ken Paxson, they made a fantastic, good lawyer. | ||
| He's pushed around pretty good by people, right? | ||
| They said, you got a great attorney general. | ||
| They should leave him alone. | ||
| He was with me. | ||
| But Ken and the governor went to court, and a judge actually became incensed and actually called for an investigation. | ||
| How could a thing like this happen? | ||
| So he stopped it. | ||
| So we're waiting to put that wall up. | ||
| Now that you have a new president, that wall will go up so fast. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The governor will complain, sir. | |
| This is Greg Abbott, sir. | ||
| Please, the wall is going up too fast. | ||
| Please don't do that. | ||
| You know the story about winning. | ||
| No, no, we're going to win too much. | ||
| We're winning too much, please. | ||
| People always love that one. | ||
| We'll do this with the wall. | ||
| Governor Abbott calls, sir, the wall is going up too fast. | ||
| We can't take it. | ||
| We just can't take it. | ||
| No, I think you'll be very happy if the wall goes up too fast, right? | ||
| But we'll get that dude and we'll work with you on that. | ||
| But it was a great decision by a great Texas judge, right? | ||
| And it was beautiful, beautiful to watch. | ||
| We see he stopped them right in their track. | ||
| I mean, they were literally loading the stuff under trucks. | ||
| It was terrible. | ||
| Honestly, it was terrible. | ||
| And he wouldn't take it. | ||
| So I'm so glad I mentioned that they have a really good governor in Texas. | ||
| And I swear, I didn't know he was here. | ||
| I swear to you. | ||
| Sounds like a setup. | ||
| I didn't know you would end. | ||
| Did I get lucky? | ||
| I said the right thing. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Because there were been moments when I wasn't so happy with him, you know? | |
| But not too many, I can tell you that. | ||
| So anyway, it's good to see you too, Governor. | ||
| Great. | ||
| But I just want to thank everybody. | ||
| You've been incredible. | ||
| I recognize so many of you. | ||
| It's so crazy. | ||
| But this has been a long journey. | ||
| This was a journey that started in 2015, probably started 20 years before that. | ||
| People used to say, you're going to run for president? | ||
| You're going to run, run, run. | ||
| And I always said, no, no, no. | ||
| I don't want. | ||
| And then one day I said, let's give it a shot. | ||
| And what I talked about then was the border, too. | ||
| I think it probably was the number one issue for me. | ||
| Back in 2015, 2016, I talked about the border. | ||
| And now I talked about the border, but this border is much worse. | ||
| We fixed the border. | ||
| It was totally fixed. | ||
| There was nothing to talk about. | ||
| In 2020, by the way, that election was totally rigged, but these are the, that's okay. | ||
| It was a rigged election. | ||
| You know the only thing good about it? | ||
| It showed how bad they are, showed how incompetent. | ||
| And frankly, historically, this is a much bigger event. | ||
| If that would have gone like it should have. | ||
| The bad thing about it is some bad things happened, like a lot of people in our country that wouldn't be in our country right now. | ||
| So, you know, that's the bad part. | ||
| But I will say that it started in 2015, and right from the beginning, we went to the top that day one. | ||
| They announced Trump, and Trump went to number one and stayed there for the whole primary. | ||
| And then we took on Hillary. | ||
| He didn't look too happy today. | ||
| We took on Hillary. | ||
| A very nice person. | ||
| But we took on Hillary and we defeated Hillary. | ||
| And then we did much better the second time in 2020. | ||
| You know, we got millions more votes. | ||
| We got millions, like 10, 12 million more votes than we did the first time. | ||
| No president has ever gotten that many more votes. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I got like 9 million more than anybody else had ever gotten. | |
| And they said we lost. | ||
| And because of that, I said to Melania, what do you think? | ||
| And she said, you want to do this again? | ||
| And had we lost, and had I thought we lost, I wouldn't do it again, because that's like the ultimate poll, right? | ||
| But I knew how well we did. | ||
| And this time we made it too big to rig. | ||
| It was so big. | ||
| They tried. | ||
| They tried. | ||
| They tried like hell. | ||
| They tried. | ||
| They tried to do it. | ||
| And around 9-02, they gave up. | ||
| Last time they did bad things. | ||
| This time they just said, you know, I don't know if you saw, Mr. Speaker, in Washington. | ||
| They had placards. | ||
| They were all set to march. | ||
| They thought it'd be closer. | ||
| A gentleman asked me, a very respected gentleman asked me yesterday, how come the polls were so wrong? | ||
| They showed you winning, but not in a landslide. | ||
| I said, because people that are true Trumpers are so angry at the whole polling system and at the writers, the fake news, that they don't want to talk to anybody. | ||
| So when you call somebody from Trump, who are you voting for? | ||
| They say, it's none of your business. | ||
| I'm not telling you. | ||
| And that was probably 40% of the people they called. | ||
| So they would discard that one, and they didn't show that. | ||
| And then when the election happened, you know, the vote came and it was much different, much higher than we're going to win, but they thought, they really thought, they couldn't believe the one man said, I mean, it was so much higher. | ||
| We won all seven swing seats. | ||
| We won the popular vote by millions of votes, which is hard for a Republican. | ||
| I'll tell you who came through. | ||
| The unions came through. | ||
| The autoworkers were great. | ||
| The Teamsters were great. | ||
| The firemen were great. | ||
| I think almost every union was great. | ||
| The only one that weren't great, although Sean was great, and the Teamsters, the head of the, Sean O'Brien, the head of the Teamsters, was fantastic. | ||
| But generally speaking, the head of the union was against Trump, but the union would be with us for like 80, 85%. | ||
| Look what we did with the autoworkers in Michigan. | ||
| Look what we did with the Teamsters. | ||
| The Teamsters were unbelievable. | ||
| They were a solid Democrat vote, and they voted for Trump. | ||
| So we had a great experience. | ||
| This has been, now we have to go to work and get it done because we have to do something that's going to be great. | ||
|
unidentified
|
We're going to turn our country around. | |
| And we're going to turn it around fast. | ||
| And I think this was a better speech than the one I made upstairs, okay? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I think this was better, JD. | |
| I think this was much better. | ||
| And I got to see my friend. | ||
| So, Governor, take care of yourself. | ||
| You call me. | ||
| We'll start working. | ||
| You know what that means with him? | ||
| He's going to be calling me tomorrow morning at about six. | ||
| And I said, how about next week? | ||
| You call me. | ||
| We're going to get it started real fast. | ||
| We'll really help you a lot. | ||
| You've done a fantastic job protecting something. | ||
| It's not supposed to be for the states. | ||
| And amazing job you've done. | ||
| Thank you very much. | ||
| And I want to thank everybody. | ||
| and i have a first lady who's been incredible i shouldn't say this I'm going to get hell when I say this, but her feet are absolutely aching. | ||
|
unidentified
|
You know, those heels. | |
| And we thought we were leaving. | ||
| We were going home. | ||
| Sir, would you be able to go down and say hello to some of your other fans that are here? | ||
| I said, oh, I didn't know that. | ||
| Well, did you get to see pretty clearly the picture, I hope? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good. | |
| That's good. | ||
| Because you wouldn't want to make the same speech again, right? | ||
| But she said, darling, I love you so much, but my feet are killing me. | ||
| I said, honey, let me just see how far it is. | ||
| I asked the person, oh, not that long, maybe four or five hundred yards. | ||
| That's five football fields. | ||
| I said, can you make it? | ||
| She said, we're going to make it no matter what. | ||
| We're going to make it because we have to go. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Right? | |
| And then we went out to the helicopter, though, just prior to this and said goodbye. | ||
| And it's a custom. | ||
| And the wind is blowing like crazy. | ||
| And with the hat that she's wearing, she almost blew away. | ||
| We almost lost off her. | ||
| She was being elevated off the ground. | ||
| She almost blew away. | ||
| No, so we all appreciate it because she's been a great First Lady. | ||
| A beautiful and a great First Lady. | ||
| And they love our First Lady. | ||
| You know, JD, whenever I make a speech, I see hundreds of times, we love our First Lady. | ||
| And they do, and they should. | ||
| She's great. | ||
| So I just want to thank you. | ||
| Thank you very much. | ||
| I just want to thank everybody. | ||
| And I felt that I said to JD, should we give him the A treatment, the B treatment, the C, the D, or the F. You know what the F is. | ||
| Hello, everybody. | ||
| Thank you for being here. | ||
| Bye-bye. | ||
| I gave you the A plus treatment. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Thank you all. | ||
| Thank you, Governor. | ||
| Thank you all very much. | ||
|
unidentified
|
President Trump | |
| speaking at Emancipation Hall in the Capitol Visitor Center, still in the Capitol Complex. | ||
| About 1,300 invited guests there, 800 were up in the rotunda for the inaugural address. | ||
| And he's got a third stop, which is Capitol One Arena, the sports arena here in Washington, D.C., less than a mile from the Capitol. | ||
| About 20,000, 18,000, 20,000 people were there for the inaugural address, and the president will be heading there this afternoon for a truncated parade and executive order signing ceremony. | ||
| So that's coming up this afternoon before he returns to the White House and to the inaugural balls. | ||
| If you get tired of hearing the talking and just want to watch the pictures, go to C-SPAN2. | ||
| It's just all the pictures of Washington right now. | ||
| What's going on? | ||
| We switch them from time to time. | ||
| You'll see the motorcade, et cetera, and no commentary whatsoever. | ||
| That's all on C-SPAN2. | ||
| Want to remind you, this afternoon we will be taking your phone calls. | ||
| The phone numbers are up on the screen. | ||
| 202 is the area code: 748-8000 for Democrats, 8,001 for Republicans, 8,002 for all others. | ||
| And we do have our text line. | ||
| 202-748-8003. | ||
| If you want to send a text, give us your reaction to the now two-hour-old second Trump administration. | ||
| And if you do send a text, please include your first name and your city if you would. | ||
| Let's catch up with John McCartell and the news. | ||
| Peter, that second address, almost a second inaugural address, as it were, that President Trump gave in Emancipation Hall in the Capitol Visitors Center, it was 33 minutes long. | ||
| It'll probably make as much news as the inaugural address, which was 29 minutes. | ||
| In that address in Emancipation Hall, I talked about a lot of different topics. | ||
| I want to run through a couple of them, including pardons, focusing a lot on the actions of now former President Joe Biden just before leaving office, 11th and a half-hour pardons. | ||
| It started this morning with a slew of pardons. | ||
| Here's the headline from the Hill newspaper: Anthony Fauci, Mark Milley, the former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman, the January 6th Committee, including former Congresswoman Liz Cheney, and police officers who testified before the January 6th Committee. | ||
| Those pardons came earlier this morning. | ||
| And then, right before Donald Trump took the oath of office, it was another set of pardons that came out from the Biden administration. | ||
| It was for James Biden, Sarah Jones Biden, Valerie Biden Owens, John T. Owens, and Francis W. Biden, the family members, the brother, brothers-in-law, sister, sisters-in-law of President Biden. | ||
| Those came out literally minutes before Donald Trump took the oath of office and became President of the United States. | ||
| A statement from the White House with the issuance of those last pardons. | ||
| Joe Biden saying in that statement, My family has been subject to unrelenting attacks and threats motivated solely by a desire to hurt me. | ||
| It's the worst kind of partisan politics. | ||
| I believe in the rule of law and I'm optimistic that the strength of our legal institutions will ultimately prevail. | ||
| But baseless and politically motivated investigations wreak havoc on lives, safety, and the financial security of targeted individuals and their families. | ||
| That statement coming along with the issuance of those last-second pardons by the Biden administration and reaction to those pardons from members of Congress, including James Comer, who led one of the key Republican investigations into the Biden family. | ||
| His statement coming just after 1201, after Donald Trump officially then became president, saying former President Biden's preemptive pardons of the Biden crime family served as a confession of their corruption as they sold out the American people to enrich themselves. | ||
| One of the other topics that Donald Trump talked about in that address in Emancipation Hall, that 33-minute address, was the breakdown of the House of Representatives speaking to Speaker Mike Johnson about how close the margin is in the House right now. | ||
| The numbers are 433 members of the House. | ||
| Chad Pergram with the tweet, it's 218 Republicans, 215 Democrats. | ||
| It's razor thin. | ||
| The two vacancies are former Congressman Matt Gates, who didn't take office, and former Congressman Michael Waltz, who resigned just this morning. | ||
| Michael Waltz has been nominated by Donald Trump to be Trump's National Security Advisor, expects to be confirmed to that post. | ||
| And so that resignation coming this morning. | ||
| Michael Waltz, with a tweet of his own today, he was at St. John's Church this morning there with Elon Musk with the president and the president-elect for that ceremony at the start of the day. | ||
| One other tweet for you this morning: President Donald Trump's Twitter account just before he started that address in Emancipation Hall with about a 30-second video. | ||
| It's a video that also appears on the White House website. | ||
| It is his initial video, his return to the presidency as POTUS on Twitter. | ||
| At POTUS is the Twitter handle. | ||
| This is that video. | ||
| That's a live picture of the Capitol taken from the top of the Washington Monument. | ||
| You can see it was all set up for an outdoor festival or an outdoor inaugural, but of course that didn't occur. | ||
| Inside the Capitol is the congressional luncheon. | ||
| We're about an hour behind schedule right now with Donald Trump doing the second remarks at the Capitol in Emancipation Hall. | ||
| But you can see John Cornyn there on the screen, some of the other folks that are there. | ||
| Pam Bondi, the AG designate Bernie Sanders, is down there on the far right. | ||
| So you will see, and that's Pam Bondi in the checkered pink upper left. | ||
| She is the Attorney General nominee and has held a hearing. | ||
| Her hearing on her nomination has been held already, and we should see that vote coming this week or next week in the full Senate. | ||
| Baron Trump was standing right behind her at 6'9. | ||
| Jeffrey Engel is with the Southern Methodist University Center for Presidential History. | ||
| Mr. Engel, the Trump administration take two is two hours old. | ||
| What do you think so far? | ||
|
unidentified
|
You know, I'm reminded that the National Archives is charged with recording every word that the president says for future use by historians. | |
| And some words seem a little bit more chosen with forethought than others. | ||
| I think it's really impressive that the president has decided to, in his second address now, the one that we just heard, decided to once more run through a litany of essentially campaign promises and campaign grievances. | ||
| And, you know, the only news, I think, which we got from that was discussion of the January 6th defendants. | ||
| Though, of course, we don't have real actual hard news yet that I've seen about what the president has decided to do. | ||
| All in all, it's a reminder that this president does things differently. | ||
| You know, previous chief executives, when they come into office, especially on their first day, talk about what the team did, talk about the celebration, talk about the way forward, less of a litany of complaints that we just saw. | ||
| And the luncheon, the congressional luncheon, there is a chance that he could make remarks there as well. | ||
| And he will be making remarks probably at the Capitol One Center this afternoon when the truncated parade is held indoors as well. | ||
| Jeffrey Engel, he's got a signing ceremony as well this afternoon at the Capitol. | ||
| What happens there? | ||
|
unidentified
|
They're going to essentially make it formal and make it official, all the different executive orders that he has initiated. | |
| You know, these are oftentimes done in a ceremonial fashion. | ||
| This is one of those moments where you might see the president hand out dozens of pens with perhaps even half a letter for each pen to different people who might be interested in that particular piece of executive authority. | ||
| Again, I have to stress, this is not legislation. | ||
| This is not something that the Congress has voted upon. | ||
| This is something that the president has taken upon himself, as all presidents do in recent administrations, to essentially rewrite the history, rewrite the rule books, if you will, as quickly as possible upon taking office. | ||
| Do you know why the presidential oath of office is different than the vice presidential oath of office? | ||
|
unidentified
|
You know, the presidential oath of office is actually in the Constitution. | |
| The vice presidential is not. | ||
| And I think that tells us a lot that essentially the presidential was written by committee, but written to be short. | ||
| We have to remember whenever we're talking about the Constitution's initial description of the presidency, that it's in Article II of the Constitution. | ||
| Article I was the legislature. | ||
| And that's not by accident. | ||
| The legislature is where the people who wrote the Constitution thought most power would reside. | ||
| The chief executive was designed with exactly that word in mind, that he was supposed to execute the laws of the United States. | ||
| So that's why we have such a short, short period for the president in the Constitution. | ||
| As an oath, it simply says you will faithfully execute the office. | ||
| Now, the vice presidential oath was written subsequently and by people who had a little bit more ink and paper. | ||
| And so it became more of a long-winded ritual, whereas the presidential oath is beautiful, I think, in its simplicity. | ||
| It really gets to the essence that your job as president is to protect and defend the Constitution, period. | ||
| Pete Hegseth was just on the screen, DOD Secretary nominee. | ||
| And of course, Clarence Thomas, Justice Thomas is there on your screen talking with Ivana Trump. | ||
| And this is at the Congressional Luncheon, Donald Trump Jr. and Roger Wicker. | ||
| And Roger Wicker is the Armed Forces Armed Services Committee Chair. | ||
| He is very influential in defense matters and a supporter of Pete Hegseth to be the defense secretary. | ||
| So this is all happening in Statuary Hall as we speak. | ||
| Both Democrats and Republicans do not know whether I know we heard earlier whether the Bushes and the Clintons were attending this lunch and how traditional that is. | ||
| Jeffrey Engel, do you know who attends this lunch and do the ex-presidents usually attend this lunch? | ||
|
unidentified
|
You know, it varies dramatically. | |
| And I have to stress when we start talking about ex-presidents, we're dealing with a remarkably small sample size. | ||
| We're at a really peak period at this moment. | ||
| Unfortunately, because of Presidents Carter passing and then previously President H.W. Bush right before, we basically were at a high for posts, for ex-presidents. | ||
| Now, of course, we're down to three. | ||
| So the president of the same party would oftentimes attend the former president of the same party would oftentimes attend that inauguration, but not if they're the president who had just left office, because then they have the ceremony for that president to fly off. | ||
| Ironically, for Ronald Reagan and others, flying off to California seems to be a popular thing to do. | ||
| And so the takeaway I'm trying to get at is that we have a very, very small sample size. | ||
| And so I'm very hesitant to say what typically happens because each one of these inaugural events is really created for its own specific moment. | ||
| Lower right corner, Scott Turner, the HUD nominee, obviously Ivana Trump and Ivanka Trump in the middle, Ivana, sorry. | ||
| And that is Carrie Underwood down there. | ||
| And I believe that's her husband who plays in the NHL. | ||
| He's a hockey player and he plays. | ||
| Somebody will tell me what team he plays for, but I know he's a professional hockey player. | ||
| Let's hear from our viewers as we go this afternoon. | ||
| What we're waiting on is the luncheon. | ||
| We don't know if we're going to have a speaking portion for that. | ||
| We've got the signing ceremony coming up. | ||
| We have the review of the troops, all being done at the Capitol complex before Donald Trump goes to the Capitol One Arena Center for the truncated parade and then finally to the White House. | ||
| Let's hear from Brad. | ||
| Brad is in International Falls, Minnesota. | ||
| Brad, what do you think so far? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, I think it was, you know, it's been great so far. | |
| And I'm kind of impressed with C-SPAN today in a way that how you started talking about the things that happened this morning with Biden pardoning these people of no crime that they've ever been, you know, charged with. | ||
| And that and so that made me really happy that you started talking about that because the regular media isn't going to talk about it. | ||
| But I've always been skeptical with C-SPAN too. | ||
| And this is, I just want to just point something out that you had said that when he was giving his second address to the people down below, and you were talking about the lady from Nebraska and about how her husband wouldn't shake the hand of then Vice President Harris. | ||
| And I'm thinking to myself, there's got to be a reason why you're doing that. | ||
| I mean, are you trying to shame the guy or for whatever reason? | ||
| But that's like old news. | ||
| I mean, what you should be talking about is the news of today. | ||
| And the news of today is that, well, Nancy Pelosi didn't show up. | ||
| Michelle Obama didn't show up. | ||
| There's all, I mean, there's plenty of other things. | ||
| Thank you, Brad, for that. | ||
| And in news also, Karen Pence, Mike Pence's wife, did not show up as well. | ||
| Patricia is calling in from Minneapolis. | ||
| Patricia, what do you think so far? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, I think that C-SPAN is continuing their biased coverage. | |
| I agree with the man from International Falls, and plus the guests you have. | ||
| You know, he's been nothing but fairly critical about the speech. | ||
| I love the speech. | ||
| President Trump is informing people a job that C-SPAN should have done for the last four years of all the corruption and negative and horrible things that the Bidens have done. | ||
| I pray and I hope that C-SPAN will be halfway fair. | ||
| Hey, Patricia, thank you. | ||
| The president is about to sign some of the official documents in the president's room at the Capitol. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Is it great? | |
| We went to the helicopter. | ||
|
unidentified
|
It was freezing. | |
| The sun is a little deceptive. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, it is. | |
| So what would you like us to do? | ||
| Sign your orders. | ||
| Official documents. | ||
| Okay, I assume they're going to be happy with these documents. | ||
| It might not be here. | ||
|
unidentified
|
It's an accessor. | |
| Tradition. | ||
| Sir, the first is 22 cabinet and cabinet level appointments for your signature. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| The next one will be, excuse me. | ||
| Next one will be 47 sub-cabinet level appointments, sir. | ||
| But you don't have to sign 47 times. | ||
| Thank you, sir. | ||
| Now to 31 acting designations and appointments to effectively take control of the government. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Steve Bernard. | |
| That's important. | ||
| I have the birthday menu. | ||
|
unidentified
|
We have 15 commission chairman and acting chairman appointments. | |
| Send him. | ||
| He was number one at Harvard House. | ||
| You know that? | ||
| Good counsel. | ||
|
unidentified
|
They have something in common. | |
| Thank you, sir. | ||
| Lastly, we have a proclamation ordering that on all future inauguration days, including this inauguration day, that flags shall be flown at full mast. | ||
| Very important. | ||
| I don't know. | ||
| The sound was so good. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The temperature was 72 degrees, but the sound was 72 degrees. | |
| Something to think about. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| Good acoustics. | ||
| Yes. | ||
| All right. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Now we did it. | |
| Thank you. | ||
| Thank you very much. | ||
|
unidentified
|
There we go. | |
| Take that. | ||
| All right. | ||
| See you. | ||
| Thank you, President. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Sarah? | |
| Mr. President, did you have a good meeting with Board President Biden? | ||
| Very nice. | ||
| Very nice. | ||
| Beautiful customer. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. President. | |
| Yeah, he goes back as long as I come. | ||
| Before that, I was a stagecoach. | ||
| But I thought it was beautiful. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| Great job. | ||
| Great job. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Mr. President, do you have any gratitude to the pardons that President Biden did at the last minute? | ||
| Well, I'm not going to discuss it now. | ||
| I think it was unfortunate that he did that. | ||
| We won't discuss it now. | ||
| There's plenty of time to discuss it. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you, President. | |
| Thank you very much, Guy. | ||
| Should we go to lunch? | ||
| Thank you very much. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Head to lunch. | ||
| Ready for lunch? | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Congratulations. | ||
| All right. | ||
| Thank you very much for the lunch. | ||
| That was three times the number of appointments you did in 2017, sir. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Just getting us done. | |
| A lot of good work to do our own. | ||
| This doctor has good counsel. | ||
|
unidentified
|
She tried to work for you. | |
| She tried to work for you. | ||
| She tried to work for you to sleep. | ||
| That's when they get freedom. | ||
| You just saw Democratic leaders Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer, along with Senate Majority Leader John Thune, talking with the president as he signed some official congressional documents. | ||
| And you also heard him say that he really enjoyed having the inaugural in the rotunda of the Capitol. | ||
| Jeffrey Engel, do you think that's a possibility that they will move the inaugural into the Capitol? | ||
|
unidentified
|
You know, the inauguration's only been at the National Mall since 1985, excuse me, since 1981, when Ronald Reagan from California wanted to essentially put a Western stamp, if you will, on the entire agenda for his administration, looking to the West and also metaphorically, I think, looking to the future. | |
| And before that, of course, the presidents were most typically inaugurated on the East steps, where we saw President Biden leave in the Marine One helicopter. | ||
| And that's, of course, the site where, for example, President Lincoln gave his remarkable first, but more importantly, second inaugural address. | ||
| That's the site where Franklin Roosevelt said, we have nothing to fear but fear itself in 1933. | ||
| So that's also the site where John Kennedy said that we are passing the torch to a new generation. | ||
| So there's no reason to think that they couldn't decide to keep using the national mall. | ||
| Frankly, I think given the length of the ceremony and the fact that President Trump's agenda is already several timeline for today is already several hours behind. | ||
| I think it was perhaps a good thing to get people out of the cold. | ||
| I myself have been in the cold on the mall in January watching a president be sworn in, and it's darn cold out there. | ||
| Coming up, the congressional luncheon, and we've been showing you pictures from Statuary Hall inside the Capitol of some of the members who were gathering for that. | ||
| After that, a review of the troops by President Trump. | ||
| Then he will depart the Capitol, motorcade to Capitol One Arena, which is the name of our sporting arena here in Washington, D.C., less than a mile. | ||
| After that, he'll speak to supporters there. | ||
| About 20,000 people have been there all day listening and watching the inauguration. | ||
| And he will do a signing ceremony there as well, some remarks, and then off to the White House. | ||
| And then tonight, it's the inaugural balls. | ||
| He is scheduled to attend two or three of those. | ||
| And of course, C-SPAN will be live with all of that. | ||
| Reminder that C-SPAN 2 is just pictures of Washington throughout the day from all the different cameras that are available to us without commentary. | ||
| Jeffrey Engel, it is a little disconcerting to see outside Washington empty on inaugural day, like it is. | ||
|
unidentified
|
It's very unusual. | |
| I mean, normally this day would be absolutely packed. | ||
| But, you know, I think as we start thinking about the incoming second now Trump administration, it's also, especially as a historian, I think, time to start really thinking about the Biden administration. | ||
| And one thing that I think we should recall from Biden's campaign in 2020 was his pledge essentially that he was going to restore normalcy. | ||
| Now, remember, that was in the middle of a pandemic. | ||
| There was lots of crises going on in the country, political division. | ||
| But his pledge was really to return the country to a normal, almost boring state of affairs, if you will, where things happened as expected. | ||
| In some ways, I think what we're seeing today is the culmination and accomplishment of the Biden administration, which is that what's going on today with the new administration coming in is something that we used to say before January 6th, the last time, was remarkable, that we have this normal, peaceful transfer of power. | ||
| Well, it seems pretty normal today. | ||
| So, in a sense, I think that President Biden, while of course, no doubt, disappointed in the outcome of the recent election and, of course, had some difficulties trying to understand his own role in that election. | ||
| There's no doubt, I think, that he would look at the events of today being so routine and say, This is part of the accomplishment of my administration. | ||
| Jeffrey Engel, in a contemporary, in a contemporarily put way, how would you rate the Biden administration at this point? | ||
| I know it's terribly early. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, it's terribly early. | |
| I think that actually, legislatively, they turned out to be one of the more accomplished administrations. | ||
| I think in some ways they're an administration that would have to rank with the New Deal and with Lyndon Johnson's great society, and in some ways with President Reagan's own first-term agenda as transformative for the nation. | ||
| However, the real point, I think, of the Biden administration, President Biden's own personal participation in it, was essentially to replace President Trump and then to keep President Trump out of office. | ||
| So, from a legislative, from a bureaucratic, from a policy perspective, I would have to say that they're going to get very, very good marks by historians because they simply accomplished a lot on the big theme of the administration, which was, as President Biden said, to preserve democracy. | ||
| Not saying that President Trump is or is not preserving democracy, but President Biden made the point that his administration was really in many ways to keep Trump from coming back into power. | ||
| So, there's no way I think that historians will look at his agenda, President Biden, and say that it was in any way fulfilled because the singular purpose of his running failed to materialize at the luncheon. | ||
| Justice Samuel Lito is sitting with Apple CEO Tim Cook, along with Donald Trump Jr. | ||
| You can see Senator Scott, the prayer is happening right now at the congressional luncheon. | ||
| We've got a few more minutes with our guest, Jeffrey Engel of Southern Methodist University. | ||
| We also want to take some calls and hear your voices. | ||
| Lee in California, what do you want to say? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, today's a great day. | |
| I just want to do an air clap for our country. | ||
| We have Donald James John President Trump back in the presidency. | ||
| I want to tell everybody in America to unite. | ||
| I'm here in California. | ||
| I think we're going to see Biden out here pretty soon. | ||
| I just want to let everybody know in the media, it's not really good to go after Trump too much because that's kind of why he's back in the office. | ||
| So, you know, all the clemency that Biden did and all the shenanigans at the end, I think we really need to kind of look at this last administration and let's kind of be a cheerleader for our country and for our president. | ||
| And let's kind of have some goodwill to come together. | ||
| I am an independent, but I did vote for Donald Trump because I want to see our country go back to security and securing our borders. | ||
| So I just hope C-SPAN will stay on the right path and you guys will report on him legitimately and you'll report on his legacy moving forward. | ||
| Is Lee in California? | ||
| Thank you for calling in. | ||
| Robert Kennedy Jr., the HHS secretary nominee, along with his wife, Cheryl Hines, is sitting with Senators Lisa Murkowski and Chris Coons. | ||
| Next call is Clayton of Wichita, Kansas, Republican line. | ||
| Hi, Clayton. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi, thank you for taking my call and happy Martin Luther King Day. | |
| Great inauguration day, even though it was very cold out there. | ||
| It's still cold here in the middle of the country, too. | ||
| What I wanted to say is now that Trump is in office, all of his administration have said a lot of things, and I want to see if they're going to fulfill it or not. | ||
| For instance, like what Kash Patel has said about the FBI headquarters and what they've came out and said, you know, Donald Trump is signing a lot of executive orders, but let's see where it goes. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And insofar as with Biden signing all these pardons, now I want to know what did they do that they deserve pardons. | |
| And keep in mind, they can't plead the fifth now that they've received pardons in the criminal case against somebody who doesn't happen to have a pardon. | ||
| That just a second ago, you saw Defense Secretary nominee Pete Hegseth sitting with Justice Thomas and his wife, Ginny Thomas. | ||
| It looks like they're standing for the president's entrance into Statuary Hall. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Accompanied by Mrs. Weinshaw-Schumer, House Majority Leader, the Honorable Steve Scalise, accompanied by Mrs. Scalise, and House Democratic Leader, the Honorable Hakeem Jeffries. | |
| for the honors and the invocation. | ||
| Ladies and gentlemen, escorting the Vice President of the United States, ranking member of the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, the Honorable Deb Fisher and Mr. Fisher. | ||
| Ladies and gentlemen, the Vice President of the United States, the Honorable JD Vance, accompanied by Mrs. Vance. | ||
| Ladies and gentlemen, escorting the President of the United States, the Chairwoman of the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, the Honorable Amy Klobuchar and Mr. Bessler. | ||
| Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States, the Honorable Donald John Trump and Mrs. Trump. | ||
| I have a feeling people are very hungry, so I'm going to get this started. | ||
| Mr. President and Madam First Lady, Mr. Vice President and Madam Second Lady, my colleague Senator Fisher, distinguished guests, including the Speaker, Leader Jeffries, and Senate leaders Thune and Schumer, on behalf of the United States Congress, welcome to the 60th inaugural lunch. | ||
| Big surprise, we are featuring Nebraska beef and Minnesota apples for dessert. | ||
| We are here in Statuary Hall, where these luncheons have taken place since President Reagan's first inauguration in 1981 and where the House of Representatives once met over 150 years ago. | ||
| That would be before you were born, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| In 1864, after the new house wing of the Capitol was built and in the midst of the Civil War, Congress dedicated this chamber to host statues chosen by every state. | ||
| Walking into the hall, we all passed under the arch holding the marble Car of History clock. | ||
| The statue shows Cleo, the Greek muse of history, holding a book to record events as they happen. | ||
| And as you can see, she's heard a lot of stuff. | ||
| And as she rides her chariot forward into the future, she looks behind her to remember the past. | ||
| She remains here as she has for hundreds of years, a reminder that history will remember the events of the present, and it is on us to write that history right now. | ||
| Speaking of art, the painting right here before you, I chose this painting for this lunch this summer, and it's titled American Horizon. | ||
| It's by Jane Wilson, who grew up on her family farm in Seymour, Iowa. | ||
| Coming from the middle of our country, Senator Fisher and I both like the painting because the artist is from America's heartland, but the horizon could easily be Florida, Mr. President. | ||
| I will also note that this is the first time in history we are featuring the work of a woman artist at this lunch, and we thank the Art Institute of Chicago for their assistance. | ||
| Looking at the vast open landscape of this painting, we're drawn to the bottom of the frame where the land or the water, depending on where you're from, meets the sky, and the horizon endures. | ||
| The enduring horizon is especially meaningful for us today as we mark our enduring democracy as we approach its 250th anniversary. | ||
| It's a reminder that what's over the horizon is our next chapter. | ||
| And it is my prayer that the people in this room can write that chapter together. | ||
| I'd now like to ask U.S. Senate Chaplain Dr. Barry Black, and we thank God he is back with us and in good health, to deliver the invocation after which lunch will be served. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Let us pray. | |
| King of kings and Lord of lords, whose kingdom is above all earthly kingdoms and who judges all lesser sovereignties. | ||
| Look with favor upon President Donald John Trump and Vice President James David Vance. | ||
| Empower them with the wisdom and courage needed for our times. | ||
| Protect them from the vicissitudes and challenges that obstruct the making of a world of justice, peace, and righteousness. | ||
| Lord, give them a deep desire to do their best for our country and world and a determination to act in ways pleasing to you. | ||
| Preserve their families in health and strength by your grace and power. | ||
| Bless now this luncheon as each of us finds your grace sufficient for every need. | ||
| We pray in your sovereign name. | ||
| And after the lunch, President Trump will review the troops at the Capitol before heading off to Capitol One Arena for the truncated presidential parade. | ||
| Ursula Perano is a congressional reporter with Politico, and she is joining us. | ||
| Ms. Perano, two and a half hours into the Trump administration, what's your take? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, I think things are moving particularly quickly. | |
| We're seeing a ton of announcements already so far on legislative actions. | ||
| Republicans in Congress very quickly coming out saying they're ready to get to work, digging into their own priorities that they're hoping to see Trump pass quickly. | ||
| So I think we're seeing an administration and a trifecta of Republicans between the House, Senate, and White House that are really digging in to try and get things done quicker than we might have seen in previous administrations. | ||
| Well, let's talk about that trifecta of Trump, Johnson, and Thune. | ||
| Senate Majority, Speaker of the House, President. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, I think there are some interesting dynamics between these congressional leaders and President Trump. | |
| You know, they have spent a lot of time in recent weeks and months trying to talk and make sure they're on the same page about the legislative agenda. | ||
| But even as we start going into these first few weeks, there are clear differences we're still seeing between Trump, the House, and the Senate on just certain things about legislative approach, even like one bill on reconciliation or two. | ||
| I think both of these leaders are going to really have to lean into their personal relationships with Donald Trump, which do differ. | ||
| Speaker Mike Johnson, obviously the last time Trump was in office, was not somebody who was on his radar. | ||
| And so they have worked to develop a relationship within these past few years as Trump clearly rose again to the presidency. | ||
| And then John Thune had some bumpy years with Trump. | ||
| He had some years where he was perhaps seen as one of the more critical Republicans of Trump, particularly after January 6th. | ||
| But he's been doing a lot to shore up his relationship with the president as well. | ||
| And so we're going to be seeing those relationships actually be put to the test now that there is no more talk. | ||
| It's not just talking about, here are the things we want to do. | ||
| Here are the nominees we want to get through. | ||
| People actually have to be able to prove, being Thune and Johnson, have to be able to prove that they can corral their Republican members around President Trump's priorities. | ||
| President Trump talked about a couple of specifics in his speech, including the border and DEI, some of these things. | ||
| How do you see this moving legislatively? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I think we're going to be seeing a lot of focus on trying to get as much done through reconciliation as possible. | |
| Granted, that is limiting. | ||
| You know, it has to have that budget tie that can get through the Senate parliamentarian. | ||
| And so some things like border might have some wiggle room there. | ||
| Other things might be more difficult for Republicans to package in there. | ||
| I think we are going to see Trump, of course, move on a lot of executive orders where we could see some of his priorities get through, perhaps more seamlessly, because inevitably the filibuster does still exist in the Senate. | ||
| There's no sign that Senate Republicans are eager, particularly, to overturn it. | ||
| And there are still enough Democrats to block most legislation aside from reconciliation from moving forward. | ||
| So I think we are going to see Senate Republicans in particular and House Republicans digging in their heels on using that sort of legislative process to get through as much as they possibly can before Democrats are able to sort of put up their figurative wall that they're hoping to hold on to. | ||
| And we should note that the Senate is due to come into session this afternoon, correct? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, they are. | |
| They will be back taking a vote this evening. | ||
| And there's a lot of eyes on whether Senator Rubio will be confirmed as Secretary of State this evening. | ||
| There are some traditions around letting one nominee, maybe two nominees, get confirmed on day one. | ||
| But it would require Senate Democrats allowing for a time agreement for that nomination to be sped up. | ||
| We've heard from a lot of Senate Democrats who said they're open to that, but they're deferring to leadership so far. | ||
| So we're going to have to see over the next few hours if Senate Democratic leadership would agree to that sort of procedural motion to let Rubio through quickly, who he does have a lot of Democratic support across the aisle. | ||
| Ursula Perano, a lot of festivities today, of course, but do you expect a very busy week in the Senate, particularly when it comes to some of the nominations? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I think we are going to see a busy week. | |
| We're going to see a lot of hearings continue and votes on nominees within committees. | ||
| And then I think we're going to see at least a couple of nominees get through the floor. | ||
| There, again, hopes to have at least one tonight. | ||
| I think there are other nominees like Ratcliffe that we could see pretty quickly as we move into the week. | ||
| You know, and there's this desire by Senate Republican leadership to give the presentation and also to prove that they're ready to get to work. | ||
| That is something that new GOP leader John Thune has really emphasized by beefing up the Senate schedule, by nixing several rounds of recess over the next few months, by saying that Friday votes are going to be a regular thing. | ||
| That's rather abnormal in the Senate. | ||
| They tend to leave town on Thursdays. | ||
| They tend to take a break one recess week-ish each month to go work in their districts. | ||
| And so there is this idea that Thun is really going to want to put his foot on the gas and get Republicans moving quickly on policy and on legislation and particularly reconciliation, which folks are hoping to have done by spring. | ||
| CEOs from Apple, TikTok, Google, Meta, all present and accounted for up on at the inaugural speech. | ||
| And of course, Elon Musk as well. | ||
| Do you expect some action on when it comes to tech policy? | ||
| And if so, what? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I think we are seeing tech and the White House really cozy up in a way where you can tell that there is some intentional relationships being built there. | |
| There were a lot of Republican lawmakers, including some governors, that didn't even make it in the retunda today due to the limited seating situation. | ||
| So when you do see who made it in, that isn't necessarily on the traditional list for legislators that might attend an inauguration. | ||
| It does sort of raise some attention to what is the nature of the connections that are being formed there. | ||
| Democrats have already pointed out this sort of connection and these criticisms. | ||
| And so there will be pushback from the left. | ||
| But I do think it's a sign that Trump, or at least tech, are trying to find some way to work together. | ||
| And we'll have to see what that looks like in policy. | ||
| Yeah, we saw Governor Greg Abbott of Texas in the overflow room down in the Emancipation Hall. | ||
| President Trump called him out a couple times. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, yeah. | |
| And so it's one of those tricky politics that have really been shown by this unique situation of having the Rotunda be the space for the inauguration is that you can't have everybody. | ||
| And so who got on the invite list to be inside the room versus in that overflow space is definitely something that people are really looking to. | ||
| And I'll say right now, even with the lunch, there's a lot of questions about the seating arrangements, who sat next to each other, where are nominees placed next to certain senators and how might that be an effort to court support for confirmation on the floor. | ||
| You know, there's a lot of internal politics that pop up today of trying to see who's where and why. | ||
| Ursula Perano, are you up on the hill today? | ||
| Are you in the Capitol? | ||
| And if so, what's it like? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I am up here. | |
| I am in a Senate call booth right now, these glorious little rooms that we get. | ||
| You know, it is a ton of increased security right now. | ||
| There is very limited movement throughout the building. | ||
| Yeah, even for reporters right now, a lot of normal stakeout spots are still somewhat limited access as members and folks with security details in particular up in the administration are moving throughout the building. | ||
| But we're expecting within the next few hours, normal movement will open up and security will go back sort of to the more normal level. | ||
| But it's definitely, it's tightened up up here for sure. | ||
| Ursula Perano with Politico. | ||
| We really appreciate your time. | ||
| Look forward to talking to you in the near future. | ||
| The president has one more event after the lunch, and this is a review of the troops. | ||
| And we, of course, at C-SPAN will be carrying that live. | ||
| Then he's off to Capitol One Arena for the truncated parade and then to the White House. | ||
| John is calling in from Washington, D.C., a Democrat. | ||
| John, what's this week been like with all the lockdowns in this city for you? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Oh, it's been a little inconvenient, but it was disappointing not to actually have the inauguration. | |
| But first of all, I just want to thank C-SPAN for covering everything. | ||
| I think we've heard from the Trump supporters that they feel like anything that's not complete favoritism is considered somehow biased against Trump. | ||
| But point today, I'll tell you, like just listening to his list of grievances and blaming others for all kinds of things. | ||
| I mean, that just seems like a small vision for our country. | ||
| And, you know, I wish someone would ask him, you know, whether it's him or Musk or any of these people, why they don't help out the people themselves in North Carolina or California. | ||
| You know, they are billionaires. | ||
| If they wanted to put some money there, there's nothing stopping them. | ||
| And finally, just, you know, D.C. actually wants to be a state, not candidate. | ||
| He might want to consider helping us out here in the city, you know, while he is president for four years. | ||
| John, as a Democrat in Washington, D.C., which voted 92, 94% for Kamala Harris, are these four years, do you anticipate them being tough for you personally or mentally, however you want to look at it? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, I guess the way you have to think about it is in terms of the city, I mean, does he care about the people who live here or is he just trying to make political statements at our expense? | |
| And so, you know, when we say we want to be a state here in the city, I mean, he can do basically whatever they want. | ||
| We are under congressional control. | ||
| And so that's always disappointing when they like to exercise that power versus letting the people here run the city just like every other state in the country does. | ||
| Is your job impacted by administrations, Republican or Democrat? | ||
|
unidentified
|
No, not directly, but it could be because, you know, the idea that he's going to support initiatives that I care about, which is, you know, helping people in the city get ahead. | |
| We'll see if that's what he has an interest in or if it's really just about helping billionaires. | ||
| That's John calling in from Washington, D.C. Maya is next. | ||
| Little Rock, Arkansas, Republican line. | ||
| Good afternoon, Maya. | ||
| Maya? | ||
| Let's move on to Ed. | ||
| Ed is an independent in Ohio. | ||
| Ed, good afternoon. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello. | |
| What are your thoughts so far on the new Trump administration? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Oh, I'm glad for it, but I was just wondering if anybody else noticed that he did not place his hand on the Bible when he made his swore his allegiance to the Constitution. | |
| Why? | ||
| I mean, why was standing there with both Bibles in her hand, and he never did place his hand on that? | ||
| I don't understand. | ||
| That's Ed in Ohio. | ||
| Let's leave it there, Ed, and let's check in again with John McCartle here at C-SPAN. | ||
| John, what do you have for us? | ||
| Peter, it's a day of pomp and circumstance. | ||
| There's that inaugural luncheon that's going on right now. | ||
| But a reminder to viewers that it's also a business day on Capitol Hill, and there's a lot of business yet to be done today. | ||
| You touched a little bit on this on your interview with Ursula Perrano, but the Senate comes in at 4.30 p.m. Eastern today, and committees will begin meeting in the late afternoon around that time to prepare some of these confirmation votes. | ||
| The vote has to take place in the committee before there's a floor vote. | ||
| So let me run through some of those committee hearings that are happening today. | ||
| Chad Pergram of Fox News with this wrap-up. | ||
| The Senate Foreign Relations Committee preps Marco Rubio's nomination for Secretary of State. | ||
| That's at 4.30 p.m. | ||
| The Senate Intelligence Committee prepares the nomination of John Ratcliffe to be CIA Director, 4.45 p.m. | ||
| The Homeland Security Committee advancing the nomination of DHS Secretary Christy Noam at 5.30 p.m. Eastern. | ||
| The one that we're expecting there to be a final floor vote today on is Marco Rubio, but we'll, of course, find out if any more of those nominees officially get confirmed by the end of Donald Trump's first day in office. | ||
| Some history on that from Chad Pergram. | ||
| On Inauguration Day 2021, the Senate confirmed Avril Haynes as Director of the National Intelligence for President Biden. | ||
| And Inauguration Day 2017, the Senate confirmed James Mattis as Defense Secretary and John Kelly as DHS Secretary for President Trump, Trump 45. | ||
| So we'll see what happens today. | ||
| We do know that it's a busy week for confirmation hearings and more of those movements happening this week. | ||
| But we also know that President Trump is not just going to be in D.C. this week. | ||
| He will go out to the country later this week. | ||
| This from Jake Trailer of ABC News noting that President Trump is expected to visit Asheville, North Carolina, which was impacted, of course, by Hurricane Helene in September. | ||
| In addition, Trump has said he will be visiting California on Friday to survey wildfire damage. | ||
| So not just a newsy day here in Washington, a newsy week for this country. | ||
| Hey, John, a minute ago or a little bit earlier in the program, you pulled up the new White House website. | ||
| Do you have that available to show to viewers one more time? | ||
| I can certainly get it for you. | ||
| And it switched right at noon after the president was sworn in, and it became Trump-centric rather than Biden-centric, correct? | ||
| The headline on the front page, it was literally moments after the official swearing in that whitehouse.gov became this version of whitehouse.gov. | ||
| America is back with the big picture of Donald Trump there and accompanying video as well on the official White House webpage. | ||
| Thank you, John McCartle. | ||
| Mike, Bessemer City, North Carolina, Republican. | ||
| Hi, Mike. | ||
| What are your thoughts about the president's speeches so far? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Oh, I love the speeches, and appreciately want to say great job for C-SPAN from showing last night to today and hopefully all evening. | |
| But yes, his speeches were what he ran on, closing the border, doing away with this DEI garbage. | ||
| You know, I mean, it's just it's it's it's a great day in America and it's a happy inauguration day and happy Martin Luther King Day. | ||
| But we need to focus on what he ran on, what he talked on. | ||
| The Democrats are going to say it's divisive, but that's what he ran on. | ||
| That's what he promised to America. | ||
| And like he said, you had a historic number of blacks, historic number of young people, historic number of Hispanics that voted for him because they went through four years of crazy. | ||
| And it was so good to see the people coming in and out without men wearing dresses in there. | ||
| Hey, Mike, how close are you to Asheville, North Carolina? | ||
|
unidentified
|
We're about, let me see, well, we're about 20 miles from Charlotte. | |
| We're probably about an hour and a half from Asheville. | ||
| Yeah, John McCartell just reported that he's going to be down there this week, that President Trump is coming down there. | ||
| Another change at the White House. | ||
| Now, eagle-eyed viewers would have noticed earlier on, prior to noon, that the flag at the White House with the POW MIA flag was at half-staff. | ||
| It is now at full staff over the White House. | ||
| Half-staff, of course, in honor of Jimmy Carter. | ||
| President Biden asked for 30 days for that, but President Trump and Mike Johnson down at the Capitol, the speaker, ordered that the flags be flown at full staff during the inauguration. | ||
| Jan, or is that? | ||
| Yeah, Jan in Buffalo, New York. | ||
| Hi, Jan. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hey, so my name's actually Ian. | |
| You know what? | ||
| I almost went with Ian, and I didn't, and I should have. | ||
| Thanks. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, thank you so much for taking my call. | |
| I finally have something in common with Cher, which I'm very happy about. | ||
| I just wanted to start off by saying you guys were asking about Terry Underwood's husband earlier. | ||
| That's actually Mike Fisher. | ||
| Nashville Predators. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yep, ironically for the Ottawa senators, too. | |
| Yeah, I thought he played for a Canadian team, and I didn't want to step too far into that. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, well, anyway, thanks for taking my call. | |
| I just wanted to say, you know, I used to be a Republican. | ||
| I was a registered Republican up until 2016. | ||
| I supported John Kasich, and then after Trump won, I started my descent into becoming a Democrat. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Just watching all this in the past eight years, how he just constantly lies about everything. | |
| I mean, Christ, he got up there in his second address saying how Biden pardoned all these death row criminals. | ||
| Well, no, he didn't. | ||
| He just commuted their sentence. | ||
| And not even all of them. | ||
| I mean, the guy who did the Boston bombing, he didn't get his sentence commuted. | ||
| So, like, I really don't know what there is to be angry about. | ||
| So, Ian, can I ask you, because a lot of Democrats have gone the other way and become Republicans because of President Trump, is your evolution, is it a political thing? | ||
| Is it the issue-based thing, or is it the personal? | ||
| You just don't like him as a person, or you don't like his policies? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I don't like his politics, and I don't like him as a person anymore. | |
| I used to love watching him on The Apprentice, and then he became a politician, and he was just lying about everything. | ||
| And at first, when he first came down that golden escalator, I'm thinking, well, this is going to be different. | ||
| And little did I know how much that different actually was. | ||
| Jim, what do you do up in Buffalo? | ||
| Well, I teach high schoolers theater. | ||
| Terrific. | ||
| Thanks for calling in, Ian. | ||
| We appreciate it. | ||
| Next call is Robert in Bloomingdale, Illinois, Independent Line. | ||
| Please go ahead, Robert. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, I just wanted to say it's a great day for America. | |
| Congratulations to President Trump. | ||
| And as an independent, once a conservative Democrat, he has a lot to do to reverse to get back to we the people, not we the government. | ||
| And that's my opinion. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Thank you, sir, for calling in. | ||
| One more event for the president after the lunch at the Capitol. | ||
| And this is a review of the troops. | ||
| President Trump will be doing that. | ||
| We'll be watching that. | ||
| And then he's off to the Capitol One Arena, where 20,000 people are there right now waiting for him. | ||
| They've been there all day. | ||
| They watched the inaugural. | ||
| You can see it there. | ||
| Elon Musk is speaking to those folks right now. | ||
| And that will be live this afternoon. | ||
| There will be a truncated parade as well. | ||
| And again, all live on C-SPAN. | ||
| And then at some point, President Trump will make it back to the White House. | ||
| He's running a good hour and a half late right now. | ||
| So he'll make it back to the White House at some point, sign some executive orders, and then attend two or three balls. | ||
| Well, a little after one o'clock, the Trumps walked the Bidens out to the east front of the Capitol to Marine One, to the helicopter. | ||
| And the Bidens were taken to Andrews Air Force Base for a special air mission flight, special air mission 46, flying them to California. | ||
| Here's the departure ceremony for the Bidens at Andrews Air Force Base. | ||
| Wow, folks, came to thank you. | ||
| You know, I don't think we could have done anything. | ||
| I know we couldn't have done anything we did without you. | ||
| Kamala and Doug, and members of the cabinet, all the staff that's here from all across all the agencies, and friends, supporters, Jill and I are forever grateful to you. | ||
| I mean that. | ||
| We're genuinely grateful. | ||
| As you heard me say before, no president gets to choose the moment they in our history, but they get to choose the team they deal in history with. | ||
| And we chose the best damn team in the world. | ||
|
unidentified
|
You are because of you. | |
| I mean it's from the bottom of my heart. | ||
| Because of you, we got so much done for all Americans. | ||
| I look down there at my Secretary of State, Tony Blinken, exceeded only by his wife who worked in reverse. | ||
| Look, I only hope to look back in these years. | ||
| I hope you look back on them with the same pride I have of all you've done. | ||
| You know, I'm proud, I'm proud of is that you did it upholding the core values of honesty, decency, and integrity. | ||
| I mean, no scandal. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I mean, it's incredible what you did. | |
| And you represent the best of who we are as Americans. | ||
| That's not a joke. | ||
| That's real. | ||
| I've already relied on your ideas and resolve on council. | ||
| We also relied on your family. | ||
|
unidentified
|
See all your families. | |
| Thank you, thank you, thank you for the sacrifices you made. | ||
| I mean it for being part of this journey. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Every day, I'm deeply moved by all we all did for this country. | |
| I really mean it. | ||
| History's going to mark down just what you did. | ||
| You know, but the point I want to make today is to make clear my farewell address as we all do have more to do. | ||
| We have a lot more to do. | ||
| We heard the inaugural address today. | ||
|
unidentified
|
We've got a lot more to do. | |
| I look, I know from many years of experience they're up and down, but we have to stay with it. | ||
| My dad taught me the measure of person, you heard me say it before, is how quickly they get back up when they get knocked out. | ||
| That's what we have to do right now. | ||
|
unidentified
|
We've always done our best as Americans. | |
| We never, never, never give up. | ||
| Ever. | ||
| We're leaving office, but we're not leaving the fight. | ||
| You're smart, you're skilled, you're passionate. | ||
| The country needs you again. | ||
|
unidentified
|
So all you can, stay engaged in all the ways you can. | |
| Whether it's in public service or the private sector or philanthropy, academia, running for office yourself, or anything else you choose to do. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I give you my word, we believe in you. | |
| We, Jill, and I, our family, believe in you. | ||
| Just as I've said of the laws we enact that our seasons are going to grow and bloom for decades to come, I say that to you as well. | ||
| I have no doubt, no doubt, you'll make this experience and take the friendships you made, you made to continue to do amazing things in decades to come. | ||
|
unidentified
|
That's why I see a future. | |
| All, all of them leading the way by you all. | ||
| You know, so take some time to decompress, reconnect with your friends, spend more time with your family. | ||
| But most of all, take care of yourselves and each other. | ||
| I mean it. | ||
| Let me close where I began with my sincere gratitude. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And I really mean it from the bottom of my heart. | |
| I've been doing this for 50 years to the best group of people. | ||
| Hard to say. | ||
| It's been the honor of my life to serve as your president. | ||
| And I tell you what, the greater honor is being able to serve with all of you. | ||
| You're incredible. | ||
|
unidentified
|
You really are. | |
| You really are. | ||
| Mark my words. | ||
| History is going to judge what you've done as one of the most significant contributions that's been made by all of America. | ||
| Look, folks, you know, let me close that poem you heard me quote before. | ||
| Seamus Haney wrote, once in a lifetime, a long-for tidal wave of justice will rise up in hope of Mr. Rhyme. | ||
| You made it rhyme louder than it's rhymed in a long time. | ||
| I really mean it. | ||
| We're on the cusp of real change, so let's make openness to Iran. | ||
| I love you all. | ||
| I'm keeping you too long, but thank you, Father Marmart, thank you. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| If I walk this way, that was | ||
| former president and Mrs. Biden about an hour and a half ago at Andrews Air Force Base on their way to California from the Washington Monument. | ||
| Here is a view of the U.S. Capitol. | ||
| You can see the flags and the stands all set up for the outdoor inaugural. | ||
| That did not happen. | ||
| Of course, it took place in the rotunda. | ||
| Right now, there's a congressional lunch going on that the president and the vice president are attending. | ||
| After that, there's a review of the troops at the Capitol and then down to Capitol One Arena for the truncated presidential parade that will be indoors at the Congressional Luncheon. | ||
| The menu includes crab cakes with wine, Angus Ribeye steak with wine, and apple ice box tureen with sour cream ice cream and salted caramel with wine. | ||
| Those are the three courses being served at the congressional lunch. | ||
| We're going to continue to take your calls as we cover live events of the 60th inaugural here in Washington, D.C. | ||
| But in the meantime, we want to catch up with John McArdle as well. | ||
| Peter, at that luncheon you were talking about, it's taking place in Statuary Hall. | ||
| I believe it's champagne that's being served with dessert there. | ||
| But it's an interesting menu for sure. | ||
| You also were pointing out the interesting pairings at the various tables at that luncheon. | ||
| A few pictures of that from some of the congressional reporters who are milling around watching the scenes there. | ||
| This is Jake Sherman of Punch Bowl News saying to him, perhaps the most interesting conversation, Senator Lindsey Graham, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, and Justice Brett Kavanaugh chatting in a huddle there. | ||
| Here's another one from Jake Sherman as well. | ||
| This one is Senator Bernie Sanders and Health and Human Services nominee RFK Jr. and some of the other scenes from Inside the Capitol, Senator James Lankford, noting he enjoyed seeing Carrie Underwood sing America the Beautiful, noting that she was born in Oklahoma from the Sooner State. | ||
| And then this from Chuck Grassley tweeting out the picture, watching the inauguration alongside Corey Booker, the Republican from Iowa and the Democrat from New Jersey there. | ||
| Jake Sherman, noting when it comes to Chuck Grassley, his first inauguration as a member of Congress, he was in the House at the time, was 1976, Jimmy Carter's inauguration then in 1977. | ||
| And Chuck Grassley is the president pro tempor of the Senate, which means he's the longest serving member of the Senate in the majority party. | ||
| Over in the House side, it's Hal Rogers, who is Dean of the House. | ||
| Hal Rogers first won election in 1980, the same year that Ronald Reagan became president. | ||
| Now back to your calls. | ||
| Kevin in West Milford, New Jersey, Republican line. | ||
| Kevin, what did you think of President Trump's second inaugural speech? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I thought it was excellent, actually. | |
| It really beat his first. | ||
| I think his first was a little bit scattered, but this time he's really come into the role of president, I would say. | ||
| And why did you enjoy? | ||
| What did you enjoy about it? | ||
| I mean, there were a lot of policy specifics, usually not delivered in an inaugural address. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I felt though they were policy specific. | |
| There was a large, wide-ranging scope to the speech. | ||
| I felt as if he had in his mind, in his mind's eye, you know, our entire nation, its history, our achievements, and our hopefully bright future. | ||
| What's the main issue of concern for you? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Abortion is, actually. | |
| Thank you, sir, for calling in. | ||
| Edgar is in Moscow, Idaho, Democrat. | ||
| Edgar, good afternoon to you. | ||
| Edgar, you with us? | ||
| Please go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, I am. | |
| Yeah. | ||
| Yeah, frankly, I wasn't very impressed. | ||
| I thought there was a lot of kind of toxic showboating. | ||
| You know, Barron's, he's just too tall. | ||
| He was getting distracted the entire time. | ||
| And, you know, frankly. | ||
| We will move on to Patrick in Satellite Beach, Florida on our independent line. | ||
| Patrick, what do you got for us? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi, yeah. | |
| I hope Trump is able to do a lot of good in these coming years. | ||
| But I think the thing is, it doesn't really seem to matter who's in power because things pretty much stay the same overall. | ||
| If we don't address, you know, what some call the deep state or whatever and release the ZPT free energy technology that's been kept from the world at large since the 1950s, things aren't going to truly transformate, you know, transform not just in the USA, but in the world, for the good of all humanity in the decades that follow. | ||
| Do you see President Trump as a potential disruptor? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, I think that, but he also is, you know, I mean, a lot of times he can't always take what he says at face value. | |
| You know, he says one thing, but he might be thinking or doing something else. | ||
| You don't always know what he knows. | ||
| But like he's very focused on, you know, drill, baby, drill. | ||
| And that's great. | ||
| You know, we have a lot of oil and stuff, but that still doesn't get to the point of this technology that we are, you know, a lot more people are finding out has been held from us for close to 100 years now that would free the entire world and it would heal the planet. | ||
| And none of this false green energy stuff with windmills that pollute and damage the oceans and the land and solar panels that don't really work when the sun doesn't shine and whatnot. | ||
| You know, it's like, hey, let's stop that weather manipulation while we're at it and investigate what's under the Getty Museum and put it in the dual citizenship and APAC influence. | ||
| Patrick in Satellite Beach, Florida. | ||
| Our next call comes from a Republican, Oscar, in Cabo, Rojo, Puerto Rico. | ||
| Oscar, before you, I want to get your take on the inaugural being taking place in the Capitol Rotunda rather than outside. | ||
| What's your take on that? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, my take on that is that when you see when it happened before, it happened when Ronald Reagan's second inauguration. | |
| For me, it looks like a re-vindication of Donald Trump. | ||
| Because when we saw Donald Trump the first time he was sworn in president, he was like learning the ropes because he was an outsider. | ||
| Now we're seeing him a more experienced, more politicized Trump. | ||
| And now, like the second coming of Ronald Reagan, theoretically. | ||
| And now I wish the best for Donald Trump and the best for all of America. | ||
| Why are you a supporter of Donald Trump? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I first, I was a Democrat in 2016 and 2020. | |
| I switched to Republican because of the common sense and because Donald Trump doesn't like sweet talk anything. | ||
| If he has to say hurtful truth, he will say it. | ||
| He's a straightforward guy and he has a lot of common sense. | ||
| And that's what changed me from Democrat to Republican. | ||
| Oscar, during the campaign this year, the rather tasteless joke was told about Puerto Rico. | ||
| What was your reaction to that? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, it was like it was hurtful for all Puerto Ricans. | |
| What the jokester said was disrespectful, hurtful, and demeaning. | ||
| But we've seen how President Trump in his first term helped Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria, giving the largest federal funds for the island. | ||
| And that's what counts, not what someone says from your campaign, but what you do. | ||
| And Donald Trump so far has helped Puerto Rico, and we hope it continues helping Puerto Rico. | ||
| Where is Cabo Rojo and what do you do there? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, it's in the southwest of the island. | |
| I'm an out-of-part seller, and I study political science. | ||
| So you're, what, about an hour from San Juan? | ||
| Would that be fair? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Two hours, maybe, two hours and a half, depends on the traffic. | |
| Okay. | ||
| And final, final question, I promise, Oscar. | ||
| There's been talk about Greenland and D.C. and other territories being made the 51st state of the United States. | ||
| What do you think about Puerto Rico being a state? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, we have a general election in 2024, and there was a referendum on which the citizens of Puerto Rico wanted to become, if they wanted to become an independent state, continue the status quo, or become a state. | |
| 58% of Puerto Ricans show statehood. | ||
| We believe that Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico must be the first ones before talking about Greenland or Canada. | ||
| I believe we have been waiting too long. | ||
| Puerto Rico, I believe, is one of the oldest colonies that the United States have. | ||
| And we have to show the moral standards that we believe in freedom and the determination of the people. | ||
| And Puerto Ricans have chosen statehood. | ||
| Oscar, thank you for your time. | ||
| Thanks for watching from Puerto Rico. | ||
| Debbie is on the line. | ||
| Debbie is in Florence, Alabama. | ||
| Democrat. | ||
| Hi, Debbie. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi. | |
| So how are you feeling today as a Democrat? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, I don't know. | |
| Just kind of numb, really. | ||
| I tuned in because I don't want to be willfully ignorant, even though a lot of my friends say I'm not going to watch the train wreck or whatever. | ||
| I just said, no, I want to see what's going on. | ||
| I want to see what he says. | ||
| I want to know what's going on in my country. | ||
| And I was really kind of, it started off bad because his ego was present in the media immediately when the flag was changed and it didn't honor President Carter's passing. | ||
| And that is an American tradition. | ||
| So his ego won out there. | ||
| And the flag was raised because he couldn't have it at half mass or half staff. | ||
| And also, the other reason I was calling was all the speculation on the reason Joe Biden, President Biden, did the last minute pardons. | ||
| They're saying, well, what did they do wrong? | ||
| It's only, you know, they're starting to speculate. | ||
| And it doesn't mean that they did anything wrong. | ||
| Just out of his own Trump's vow to get vengeance on his perceived enemies. | ||
| That alone would make me want to protect my family. | ||
| And because Biden was on the list, the media was on his list of those who had wronged him in his eyes. | ||
| He was going to, you know, wreak vengeance on them. | ||
| And I think it was a protective move. | ||
| It's not saying that they did anything wrong. | ||
| It's saying that in Trump's eyes, you never know what he can possibly do because he is a little unhinged on things like that. | ||
| That's Debbie in Florence, Alabama. | ||
| President Trump has one more duty at the Capitol this afternoon, and that's a review of the troops that will happen, then the motorcade to Capitol One, the truncated parade. | ||
| And at some point, he'll get back to the White House. | ||
| There'll be some executive order signing at Capitol One Arena and at the White House. | ||
| And then the balls are tonight. | ||
| And he is scheduled to attend two or three of those. | ||
| And C-SPAN will be live as long as the cameras are up and we're able to see the first dance and perhaps any remarks he may make. | ||
| Again, if you don't like all this blather that we do on TV, turn to C-SPAN 2. | ||
| Just pictures. | ||
| Just pictures around the city. | ||
| You can watch and enjoy just the scenes and no commentary whatsoever. | ||
| C-SPAN host and producer John McCartle is with us. | ||
| He's been with us since 7 a.m. this morning. | ||
| Mr. McCartle, what do you got? | ||
| It wasn't too long after 7 a.m. that we learned about those pardons that the caller was just talking about. | ||
| One of the headlines from the Hill newspaper that will show you Biden pardoning Dr. Fauci, Mark Milley, the January 6th committee ahead of the Trump inauguration. | ||
| I want to show you also when it comes to Mark Milley, one of the scenes at the Pentagon right now. | ||
| Tara Kopp is Associated Press Pentagon reporter, and she notes, when it comes to Mark Milley, the former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman's portrait has now been removed from the Pentagon hallway where it was hanging as late as just before 1 p.m. Eastern today when an earlier photo was taken showing it was there. | ||
| It's now gone. | ||
| The portrait was just unveiled back on January the 12th saying it's not clear where the portrait was removed to, but it's no longer hanging on the wall where it was. | ||
| Tara Kopp of the Associated Press pointing that out from just across the Potomac River at the Pentagon. | ||
| Thank you very much. | ||
| Well, the President spoke. | ||
| His inaugural address was 30 minutes long or so, about 3,000 words, twice as long as his previous, the longest in modern history. | ||
| We want to show you a portion of this. | ||
| This is from about three hours ago. | ||
| Like in 2017, we will again build the strongest military the world has ever seen. | ||
| We will measure our success not only by the battles we win, but also by the wars that we end, and perhaps most importantly, the wars we never get into. | ||
| My proudest legacy will be that of a peacemaker and unifier. | ||
| That's what I want to be, a peacemaker and a unifier. | ||
| I'm pleased to say that as of yesterday, one day before I assumed office, the hostages in the Middle East are coming back home to their families. | ||
| Thank you America will reclaim its rightful place as the greatest, most powerful, most respected nation on earth, inspiring the awe and admiration of the entire world. | ||
| A short time from now, we are going to be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, and we will restore the name of a great president, William McKinley, to Mount McKinley where it should be and where it belongs. | ||
| President McKinley made our country very rich through tariffs and through talent. | ||
| He was a natural businessman and gave Teddy Roosevelt the money for many of the great things he did, including the Panama Canal, which has foolishly been given to the country of Panama after the United States. | ||
| The United States, I mean, think of this, spent more money than ever spent on a project before and lost 38,000 lives in the building of the Panama Canal. | ||
| We have been treated very badly from this foolish gift that should have never been made. | ||
| And Panama's promise to us has been broken. | ||
| The purpose of our deal and the spirit of our treaty has been totally violated. | ||
| American ships are being severely overcharged and not treated fairly in any way, shape, or form. | ||
| And that includes the United States Navy. | ||
| And above all, China is operating the Panama Canal. | ||
| And we didn't give it to China. | ||
| We gave it to Panama. | ||
| And we're taking it back. | ||
| Above all, my message to Americans today is that it is time for us to once again act with courage, vigor, and the vitality of history's greatest civilization. | ||
| So as we liberate our nation, we will lead it to new heights of victory and success. | ||
| We will not be deterred. | ||
| Together, we will end the chronic disease epidemic and keep our children safe, healthy, and disease-free. | ||
| The United States will once again consider itself a growing nation, one that increases our wealth, expands our territory, builds our cities, raises our expectations, and carries our flag into new and beautiful horizons. | ||
| And we will pursue our manifest destiny into the stars, launching American astronauts to plant the stars and stripes on the planet Mars. | ||
| Ambition is the lifeblood of a great nation. | ||
| And right now, our nation is more ambitious than any other. | ||
| There's no nation like our nation. | ||
| Americans are explorers, builders, innovators, entrepreneurs, and pioneers. | ||
| The spirit of the frontier is written into our hearts. | ||
| The call of the next great adventure resounds from within our souls. | ||
| Our American ancestors turned a small group of colonies on the edge of a vast continent into a mighty republic of the most extraordinary citizens on earth. | ||
| No one comes close. | ||
| Americans pushed thousands of miles through a rugged land of untamed wilderness. | ||
| They crossed deserts, scaled mountains, braved untold dangers, won the wild west, ended slavery, rescued millions from tyranny, lifted billions from poverty, harnessed electricity, split the atom, launched mankind into the heavens, and put the universe of human knowledge into the palm of the human hand. | ||
| If we work together, there is nothing we cannot do and no dream we cannot achieve. | ||
| Many people thought it was impossible for me to stage such a historic political comeback. | ||
| But as you see today, here I am, the American people have spoken. | ||
| I stand before you now as proof that you should never believe that something is impossible to do. | ||
| In America, the impossible is what we do best. | ||
| From New York to Los Angeles, from Philadelphia to Phoenix, from Chicago to Miami, from Houston to right here in Washington, D.C., our country was forged and built by the generations of patriots who gave everything they had for our rights and for our freedom. | ||
| They were farmers and soldiers, cowboys and factory workers, steelworkers and coal miners, police officers and pioneers who pushed onward, marched forward, and let no obstacle defeat their spirit or their pride. | ||
| Together they laid down the railroads, raised up the skyscrapers, built great highways, won two world wars, defeated fascism and communism, and triumphed over every single challenge that they faced. | ||
| After all we have been through together, we stand on the verge of the four greatest years in American history. | ||
| With your help, we will restore America promise. | ||
| And we will rebuild the nation that we love and we love it so much. | ||
| We are one people, one family, and one glorious nation under God. | ||
| So to every parent who dreams for their child and every child who dreams for their future, I am with you. | ||
| I will fight for you and I will win for you. | ||
| We're going to win like never before. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. Thank you. | |
| Thank you. | ||
| In recent years, our nation has suffered greatly, but we are going to bring it back and make it great again, greater than ever before. | ||
| We will be a nation like no other, full of compassion, courage, and exceptionalism. | ||
| Our power will stop all wars and bring a new spirit of unity to a world that has been angry, violent, and totally unpredictable. | ||
| America will be respected again and admired again, including by people of religion, faith, and goodwill. | ||
| We will be prosperous. | ||
| We will be proud. | ||
| We will be strong, and we will win like never before. | ||
| We will not be conquered. | ||
| We will not be intimidated. | ||
| We will not be broken. | ||
| And we will not fail. | ||
| From this day on, the United States of America will be a free, sovereign, and independent nation. | ||
| We will stand bravely. | ||
| We will live proudly. | ||
| We will dream boldly. | ||
| And nothing will stand in our way because we are Americans. | ||
| The future is ours. | ||
| And our golden age has just begun. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| God bless America. | ||
| Thank you all. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you very much. | |
| Thank you very much. | ||
| And that was the final 10 minutes of President Trump's second inaugural address in the rotunda of the Capitol. | ||
| The entire address was about 30 minutes long, about 3,000 words, the longest in modern American history. | ||
| That is available to watch on our website. | ||
| Everything that we've covered for the last eight hours, live, is available on our website at c-span.org. | ||
| We will be on the air for several more hours this evening to get through the inaugural balls, the parade at the Capitol One arena, the motorcade to the parade, and the review of the troops. | ||
| The luncheon is still going on in the Capitol itself in Statuary Hall, the congressional luncheon with the President and the Vice President. | ||
| And after that, it's a review of the troops, then the motorcade, then the parade, some executive order signing, we believe, and then the inaugural balls tonight. | ||
| And again, everything we've covered today, available to watch online at c-span.org in its entirety. | ||
| John McArdle has been with us since 7 a.m. this morning as well, reporting on news of the day. | ||
| Hi, John. | ||
| Peter, you just showed viewers that inaugural address, the first address that President Trump gave today. | ||
| He gave another second speech to his supporters in Emancipation Hall. | ||
| But I wanted to show just how news organizations cover the inaugural address and how different organizations can highlight different parts of the address. | ||
| So here's an example. | ||
| This is the Washington Times, their headline online, Trump Reclaims Presidency with pledge to bring a golden age to America. | ||
| President Trump using that term, golden age, from one of the conservative media sites, this is the Washington Free Beacon. | ||
| Their headline, The Joy is Back in Town. | ||
| Trump greeted as a liberator in triumphant return to the White House. | ||
| The vibes are great again, they write, the resistance circling the drain. | ||
| And then from the left, this is the Huff Post, their headline, a different interpretation of that speech, Carnage Part 2, Trump sworn in, Don I's Empire Claims Mandate in a sweeping address. | ||
| Just a view of the different ways you can interpret the same address. | ||
| John, thank you very much. | ||
| Capitol One Arena has about 20,000 Trump supporters there. | ||
| You can see this. | ||
| They have been there all day. | ||
| They watched the inauguration from the rotunda there, and we would show shots from there throughout the day. | ||
| And now they are awaiting the president. | ||
| Kash Patel has spoken to them there. | ||
| He's the FBI nominee. | ||
| Elon Musk has been there this afternoon as well speaking. | ||
| And right now, nothing is going on, but you will hear the president make another address at Capitol One and watch the parade as much as can be done inside an arena. | ||
| It looks like the motorcade from the Capitol, once the president gets in the car again, is going to go down at least partially down Pennsylvania Avenue, possibly up 7th Street here in Washington. | ||
| It's only about a mile from the Capitol to Capitol One Arena, and then about another mile over to the White House. | ||
| So it's all in a tight area, and this is pretty locked down because we thought this was going to be outside, and the entire city in this area is locked down. | ||
| Everything around the Capitol there is locked down. | ||
| You don't see anybody walking or milling about. | ||
| That shot that you're seeing is taken from the top of the Washington Monument, looking due east at the Capitol, the old RFK Stadium in the back, potentially the site of the new stadium for the Washington Commanders in the near future. | ||
| But that's the old RFK stadium. | ||
| 202 is the area code here. | ||
| And if you would like to call in and comment on what you've seen today, 748-8,000 for Democrats, 748-8001 for Republicans, and 748-8002 for all others, you can also send a text message, 202748-8003. | ||
| We'll try to get to some of those as well. | ||
| Please include your city and your first name on your text message. | ||
| Thank you very much. | ||
| Let's hear from Reese in Independence, Ohio, Independent Line. | ||
| Reese, what are your thoughts on today so far? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I go to school at Kent State in Ohio, and I have a lot of transgender friends. | |
| And the news that there's going to legally be only two genders is concerning. | ||
| Transgender people are less than 1% of the population. | ||
| I just feel like the opioid crisis is such a bigger thing in Ohio than like gender. | ||
| So it's kind of disheartening to see the lack of emphasis on things I think people need to care about. | ||
| Now, Reese, you called in on the Independent Line. | ||
| Did you support Joe Biden or Kamala Harris for president? | ||
|
unidentified
|
She is who I voted for, but I don't really support candidates so much as policy and like plans, infrastructure ideas, that kind of thing. | |
| Now, when you say you have a lot of transgender friends, is it a what, three, four, 40? | ||
| I mean, when you say lots. | ||
|
unidentified
|
It depends on what you mean by friend. | |
| I know probably over 30 transgender people personally, but there's also people who haven't discovered themselves yet that are kids, you know? | ||
| And I just think like limiting the definition of what a human can be is very rough. | ||
| What do you think the policy should be? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I think that it already is what it needs to be. | |
| The medical infrastructure is doing the proper testing. | ||
| No one under 18 is getting surgeries done, especially if you look at like one of the best hospitals in the country that I live really close by, the Cleveland Clinic. | ||
| They don't do surgeries under 18. | ||
| They don't do hormones under 18. | ||
| Only reversible hormone blockers. | ||
| I feel like we need to leave it to the doctor, and the government doesn't need to know what's going on with people in regards to their medical health. | ||
| Reese, women are transgendered men after puberty playing in women's sports. | ||
| What's your take? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I think if they are, such as intermediate sports between schools, I don't think that's necessary for us to regulate, seeing as it's such a small population, and those are kids, right? | |
| And then a lot of transgender athletes, when you interview them, they don't medically transition. | ||
| They only socially transition. | ||
| So they change their name, the way they dress, but they don't go on hormones. | ||
| And there's also a natural variance. | ||
| And cis women, born as women, identify as women, testosterone. | ||
| It's higher than, say, the average women. | ||
| Are we going to start demanding everyone be within a certain range of hormones? | ||
| I just don't think it's necessary due to this small incidence population. | ||
| What are you studying at Kent State? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Special education with concentration and disability services with a minor in American Sign Language. | |
| That's Reese in Independence, Ohio. | ||
| We really appreciate your calling in and sharing your viewpoint. | ||
| Bob is in hometown, Illinois, Republican line. | ||
| Hi, Bob. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hey, Peter, love C-SPAN. | |
| I wasn't going to use my 30-day call on this, but 15 minutes before leaving office, and he pardons his family members. | ||
| It kind of sent me over the edge because since he took the oath of office four years ago, first thing he did was say he's going to protect American citizens, and he opens the border. | ||
| 15 million plus come across. | ||
| And regarding the 37 communicated death census, he altered 37 juries' opinions on what they wanted done with these people, these horrific murderers. | ||
| And yet, Judge Murshan. | ||
| Bob, I apologize. | ||
| Steve Scales, the majority leader in the House, is speaking at the Congressional Line. | ||
| One of the things President Trump said that I thought was the most touching, he said, in America, the impossible is what we do best. | ||
| And I think that epitomizes the spirit when you think about this room, this statuary hall, and you look at some of the statues. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thomas Edison, he did the impossible. | |
| Elon Musk, I'm not sure if Elon's still here. | ||
| Elon does some of those things himself. | ||
| But you look at somebody like Rosa Parks, and she did something that many would have said couldn't be done with just a simple gesture of saying, I'm not going to sit in the back of the bus. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And so the impossible is what we do in America. | |
| And President Trump said something else. | ||
|
unidentified
|
He said, our golden age has just begun. | |
| America's ready for another golden age. | ||
| Mr. President, we present to you these flags that were flown over the United States Capitol at full mast in honor of being sworn in as President of the United States. | ||
| Thank you, Chairwoman Klobuchar, for your leadership of today's ceremonies. | ||
| President Trump, Madam First Lady, congratulations. | ||
| I have the honor of presenting the Vice President with our nation's highest symbol, the American flag. | ||
| As a United States Marine, Vice President put on the uniform to protect and serve America, like so many men and women before him in our nation's history. | ||
| Old Glory was adopted in wartime by the Second Continental Congress in 1777, a full 12 years before the Office of the Vice Presidency was even created or the House of Representatives convened for the first time. | ||
| The resolution said that the flag would be 13 stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation out of many one. | ||
| Some 250 years later, from Appalachia to Anacostia, Middletown to Mar-a-Lago, the Bayou to Brooklyn, we remain one nation under God. | ||
| To Vice President Vance, Usha, and family, may God bless and watch over you as you begin this journey. | ||
| On behalf of the Congress, we present one of the flags that flew above the Capitol today to the 50th Vice President of the United States of America, James David Vance, and wish you Godspeed. | ||
| Thank you, Leaders Scalise and Jeffries. | ||
| I now ask my friend Senator Deb Fisher of Nebraska, as in the beef you had for the entree, who has been an excellent partner in planning today's events, to come up and present the inaugural photographs. | ||
| Well, my thanks to Chair Klobuchar for putting together and putting together again in the last two days the 60th inaugural ceremony here at the United States Capitol. | ||
| Amy did a wonderful job along with all of the committee, all of our staffs, in order for this to come together and be a very memorable experience. | ||
| It is a tradition that the committee give our new president and first lady, our vice president and Mrs. Vance, the official photographs taken at the swearing-in ceremony. | ||
| And so it is such an honor to be able to have those presented to you. | ||
| I hope you will display them with pride, with honor, and with humbleness that I know you will carry with you every single day that you serve the people of this country. | ||
| May God bless you all. | ||
| Thank you, Senator Fisher. | ||
| Now on behalf of the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, I'd like to present the President and Mrs. Trump and the Vice President and Mrs. Vance with these crystal Lenox bases. | ||
| See them over here. | ||
| For the 10th consecutive inauguration, Lenox has provided the official inaugural gift. | ||
| The hand-cut etched bases display the White House for the President and the U.S. Capitol for the Vice President because I know that he is going to enjoy not only being the Vice President but also, as Senator Thune and Schumer know, the President of the United States Senate. | ||
| And there's no better job than that. | ||
| These gifts symbolize our equal branches of government as well as our enduring democracy. | ||
| There they are. | ||
| I will now invite Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson of Louisiana, to give the toast to the Vice President. | ||
| Thank you so much. | ||
| It is my great honor to offer a toast to our new Vice President, Mr. JD Vance. | ||
| J.D., you wrote something very poignant in your memoir. | ||
| Actually, many things very poignant, but let me quote you here. | ||
| What separates the successful from the unsuccessful are the expectations they had for their own lives. | ||
| That's really meaningful. | ||
| That expectation is a powerful thing. | ||
| We remember that the people in our lives who provided that to us, we all need that. | ||
| Everybody needs hope and encouragement. | ||
| They need a greater expectation. | ||
| We need people in our lives who will make us look farther and reach higher. | ||
| JD has written a lot about the people in his life that have done that. | ||
| He's written about, we know the great story of your grandparents and what they did in your life. | ||
| He's written about his professors and mentors they met in law school. | ||
| He writes a lot about, speaks a lot about his gracious, beautiful wife, our new second lady, Usha. | ||
| It's a great inspiration as well. | ||
| And JD, you yourself have been inspiring people. | ||
| Your story really has. | ||
| It's one of the reasons that I believe God has raised your platform as he has, because you've been so faithful to tell that story and to inspire so many others. | ||
| And so our hope and our prayer is, as you continue to do this, that as you go to help us execute on the America First Agenda, that you also do what you've been doing so well all along, and that is providing a model for what is possible in America. | ||
| What a great story. | ||
| What an inspiring story you've had. | ||
| And it's just getting started. | ||
| I pray specifically that you inspire a lot of the young men in America. | ||
| Some of them feel hopeless and stagnant sometimes. | ||
| And you're a great example to all of them and to all of us. | ||
| That if you work hard and you play by the rules and you do the right thing, you can make a better life. | ||
| You're now the Vice President of the United States, my friend. | ||
| So everyone, will you please join me in raising a glass to our own mentors, the people who inspired all of us, to the possibilities of our own future, to these great new horizons, what a perfect choice this was for the painting, the artwork today. | ||
| And to the great example of our new Vice President, Mr. JD Vance. | ||
| you're here. | ||
| Thank you, Speaker Johnson and Vice President Vance. | ||
| I will now invite my senator next door in the state of South Dakota, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, to give the toast for the president. | ||
| Well, Mr. President, Madam First Lady, congratulations. | ||
| It is an honor for all of us to be able to be here today with you on this historic day as we celebrate your inauguration. | ||
| Mr. President, one of the most important influences in my life when I was getting started in politics was Ronald Reagan. | ||
| His philosophy of limited government, his belief in peace through strength, the strength of his convictions were all things that appealed to me. | ||
| But I was also drawn by his optimism and by his belief in America. | ||
| And Mr. President, those are qualities that I see in you. | ||
| One of the things that resonated throughout your campaign was the unshakable belief in our country and in her citizens. | ||
| You remind us of everything that's possible in America. | ||
| I'm looking forward to working with you over the next four years to build up our great country. | ||
| It says in the scriptures that if you ask for wisdom, it will be given to you and given to you generously. | ||
| And so I pray and our prayer is that God will richly bless you in the years ahead and grant you not only strength, but wisdom. | ||
| And ladies and gentlemen, I ask you to join me in raising a glass to the President of the United States, President Donald Trump. | ||
| So, this has been a long day with many other things ahead for so many of you. | ||
| But I want to thank you for attending the 60th inaugural ceremonies. | ||
| And as we close, we ask that you pick up a gift. | ||
| All of our guests are going to get a set of commemorative glasses in embossed leather featuring the Great Seal of the United States, which Senator Fisher and I selected together, and maybe Senator McConnell added some bourbon from Kentucky. | ||
| Just saying. | ||
| It is now my privilege to conclude this luncheon by asking Margaret Kibben, the chaplain for the House of Representatives, to deliver the benediction. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| And we know we love this ego podium. | ||
|
unidentified
|
It's pretty good, Mr. President. | |
| Ladies and gentlemen, please rise for the benediction. | ||
| Would you pray with me? | ||
| Holy and merciful God, having witnessed another successful moment in the experiment that you have entrusted into the hands of the American people, we pray your blessing on our 47th President of these United States, Donald J. Trump and Vice President James D. Vance. | ||
| Ensure that this mantle of singular responsibility that you have laid upon our President's shoulders remains secure in your will and safeguarded in your keeping. | ||
| Uphold him as he preserves, protects, and defends the Constitution to the best of his abilities, relying on your divine help. | ||
| God of power and might, grace and mercy, grant that your spirit of counsel has access to the President's heart to search it, to his mind to examine it, to his will to test it, that his faithfulness would bear witness to your truth. | ||
| Surround him with angels and advisors who will serve as your agents to guide and guard him. | ||
| Caution and encourage him to remain upright and blameless in your sight. | ||
| Buckle the belt of truth around his waist. | ||
| Place the breastplate of righteousness over his heart. | ||
| Fit his feet with readiness. | ||
| That your gospel of wisdom and justice will shine forth through President throughout President Trump's administration. | ||
| We offer this prayer to the one whose voice we follow to guide all that we do and all that we hope for. | ||
| Amen. | ||
| Ladies and gentlemen, please be seated. | ||
| Please remain at your seats as President Trump, Vice President Vance, the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, and the official party depart National Statuary Hall. | ||
| In about an hour, hour and a half behind schedule, the congressional luncheon has concluded. | ||
| One more event coming up at the Capitol, and that is an Honor Guard review. | ||
| It's being called the First Honors Ceremony, and President Trump will review the troops. | ||
| The troops are made up of Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and Coast Guard personnel. | ||
| 183 service members are participating in the first honor ceremony. | ||
| That will take place in Emancipation Hall in the Capitol Visitor Center below where they're standing now, and that will take place in about 15 minutes or so. | ||
| After that, the President and Mrs. Trump, JD Vance and Mrs. Vance, motorcade to Capitol One Arena, the basketball/slash hockey stadium here in downtown Washington, about a mile away, and they will participate in a rally with their supporters there and a partial parade. | ||
| After that, off to the White House, and then the inaugural balls this evening, all live on C-SPAN. | ||
| If you don't want to hear any talking and noise, go to C-SPAN too. | ||
| All we're doing is showing you sights and sounds, live pictures from Washington, D.C., from the cameras at the Capitol, the White House, Capitol One. | ||
| We're just kind of switching it up so you can just get a sense of what's going on in Washington today without any commentary. | ||
| Matthew Costello is a historian with the White House Historical Association. | ||
| Mr. Costello, where is today going to fall when it comes to inaugurals? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, thank you for having me. | |
| It's been an interesting day because we've seen a mix of sort of the traditional inaugural ceremonies that we're used to, but then also obviously having to adapt some of those things because of the weather, because of what appears to be delays, you know, a tardiness. | ||
| And so we've seen quite a bit change. | ||
| You know, typically, you know, this would be the point now where the president, the new president of the United States, would be at the inaugural review stand just north of the White House, and they would be sitting there with the new vice president, and they would be taking in the review before heading inside of the White House to get ready for the balls for the evening. | ||
| But obviously, this is very different, a change in weather, and then a change to a number of different things that we've seen today. | ||
| And so I do think this is going to Stand out, you know, compared, I think, to many past inaugurations. | ||
| And the fact that President Trump essentially gave two speeches today, two 30-minute speeches. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, I mean, everybody anticipated an inaugural address. | |
| That has become very much customary that the president-elect after taking the oath of office then delivers their inaugural address. | ||
| But the second speech, I think, was obviously less anticipatory. | ||
| And, you know, you can tell those are very different speeches. | ||
| One where I think the president was very much on message delivering the inaugural address. | ||
| And then another where I think he had probably a little bit more rain to talk about, really sort of whatever he felt like speaking on. | ||
| So you're writing a headline for tomorrow morning. | ||
| What is your headline about today so far? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Oh, you know, I think if you were going to summarize it up in a headline, I think it's in some ways Trump's inauguration is emblematic of his return to politics. | |
| You know, the fact that we do have this mix of both tradition, but also really sort of whatever the president-elect wanted, whatever he desired, whatever he decided. | ||
| And so it is sort of a mix of the past, you know, that we have Trump now who is the second person to hold non-consecutive terms as president of the United States, but also the path ahead. | ||
| And so I've never been very good at headlines. | ||
| So I think I'll leave that to the professionals. | ||
| Well, as a White House and presidential historian, what are some of the past inaugurations that stand out to you? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, you know, when we look at an inauguration today, and I think, as I've said, you know, this inauguration is a little bit different, but, you know, most modern inaugurations really consist of five key parts. | |
| We're talking about a transition and also the move-in, you know, moving day at the White House. | ||
| We're talking about the oath of office, the inaugural address, the parade or procession that accompanies all of the inaugural ceremonies, and then the inaugural balls. | ||
| And most presidents have had those five basic concepts. | ||
| And I will point out that the Constitution, at least when Washington participated in the first inauguration, the only thing the Constitution said related to inaugurations was that the president was to take the oath of office. | ||
| Beyond that, everything else that we see is something that we have created over time. | ||
| And for some reasons, to make this more of a participatory event, right? | ||
| By making the oath of office outdoors, more people can witness it, more people can hear it. | ||
| As you add things like microphones, audio systems, more people can hear the speeches. | ||
| And so over time, what we've seen inauguration day, yes, is a transfer of power from one executive to the other, but it has become much more of a day where American citizens feel like they are part of the ceremonies themselves. | ||
| And so, you know, I think the one that probably has the quickest comparison is probably Ronald Reagan's inauguration in 1985. | ||
| Very similar in terms of shift moving indoors. | ||
| They did it in the rotunda as well. | ||
| But Reagan had actually canceled the parade. | ||
| So, you know, a little bit of a difference here. | ||
| And of course, a different location moving to Capitol Juan Reno. | ||
| Now, Mr. Costello, I can't remember back in 85 whether or not that was done at the last minute, but this one changed on Friday prior to Monday. | ||
| So this entire town kind of made a curve. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, 1985 was unusual for a few different reasons. | |
| The first, that January 20th fell on a Sunday. | ||
| And per the Constitution, now with the new constitutional amendment, the president's term ends January 20th at noon. | ||
| Now, Ronald Reagan was already president, so there was no lapse in executive power. | ||
| And so President Reagan takes the oath of office at the White House on Sunday, January 20th. | ||
| They reserved the public inaugural ceremonies for Monday, the 21st. | ||
| And when I was looking back at it, you know, it was a very last-minute call. | ||
| You know, I think that they had anticipated to do the inauguration outdoors. | ||
| But I think it was sort of at the very last moment they decided to move then President Reagan's second inaugural indoors. | ||
| So I think it might have actually been even more last-minute than this one. | ||
| But, you know, again, that also wasn't the first time this had happened. | ||
| William Howard Taft did something similar in 1909. | ||
| A blizzard had hit Washington, D.C. | ||
| It was very cold. | ||
| And Taft decided that they weren't going to do the oath of office outdoors. | ||
| They would do the oath indoors. | ||
| But he did still have the parade in procession. | ||
| So again, it goes to show you that even though we have these traditions, there is a little bit of flexibility, a little bit of autonomy when it comes to the new president and selecting things that make sense for the day. | ||
| As we're talking with Matthew Costello of the White House Historical Association, we were watching scenes from the congressional lunch, everybody leaving. | ||
| You saw Baron Trump walk right past Bernie and Jane Sanders. | ||
| You saw Donald Trump Jr. saying goodbye to Christy Noam, the DHS designee. | ||
| So just kind of an interesting Washington watch on your screen as we talk with Mr. Costello. | ||
| Speaking of which, where did this luncheon come from? | ||
| How long has this been a tradition? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I believe the luncheon dates back to Eisenhower, but this is an extension of the work that's done by the Joint Congressional Committee for Inaugural Ceremonies. | |
| And that committee began all the way back with William McKinley. | ||
| And so Congress has played a very active role in the inaugural ceremonies since that point onward. | ||
| And I think the other thing that's worth noting is we've seen this day become more and more condensed. | ||
| I mean, there's much more packed into an inauguration day today than, say, if you were to go back into the 19th century. | ||
| Now we see all the different things that I've listed previously, but we also see a president move out and a president move in to the White House on the same day. | ||
| That wasn't always the case. | ||
| You go back to the 19th century. | ||
| Typically, a move in and move out did not happen that rapidly. | ||
| Sometimes you might have presidents stay a little bit longer until they had arranged other housing, or they would move out and the new president wouldn't move in until the house had received a deep cleaning. | ||
| And so even with something like that, you know, moving a new first family and a new president to the White House, that's also something that has been consolidated and made the state much more compact in terms of all the different activities and things that are happening behind the scenes. | ||
| Mr. Costello, the White House Historical Association is right across the street from the White House with a brand new exhibit there. | ||
| Change of administration. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Do you update that exhibit at all? | |
| Yes. | ||
| In fact, the place that you're mentioning is called the People's House, a White House Experience. | ||
| I would highly encourage anybody who's watching to come check it out. | ||
| It can be very difficult to get on the tours for the White House. | ||
| And so we've created this educational, immersive experience at 1700 Pennsylvania Avenue as an alternative. | ||
| And if you can't get to the White House, it is free. | ||
| It's open to the public. | ||
| All you have to do is reserve your passes online. | ||
| So yes, to answer your question, we do plan to update the content. | ||
| We are in sort of an unusual circumstance here in that we have a new president who was previously president. | ||
| And so we're going to be able to use that as a prototype to start with. | ||
| We do have a replica oval office. | ||
| It had all the furnishings and the decor of the Biden administration. | ||
| And so we'll start working to change those things out to match. | ||
| The goal has always been to match the decor of the current president of the United States. | ||
| And the WHHA, are you associated with the government or the White House? | ||
| Are you purely private, nonprofit? | ||
|
unidentified
|
We are a private, nonprofit, nonpartisan organization. | |
| We were founded in 1961 by First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy. | ||
| And we have been really the educational partner to raise awareness and support for the White House collection, the history of the House, the people who've lived there and worked there. | ||
| And in addition to all these different things that we do, we do education, we do research, we do teacher training, we have a digital library with more than 30,000 images. | ||
| And we are the partner organization to the White House. | ||
| It doesn't matter who is the occupant. | ||
| We've worked with every administration since 1961. | ||
| Mark Zuckerberg and his wife are walking out of the congressional luncheon as we speak. | ||
| We've seen quite a few members of Congress as well walking out. | ||
| But is this a lobbying? | ||
| Is this a lobbying lunch? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, it's hard to say. | |
| You know, I think a big part of the inaugural luncheon afterwards is we have a new Congress and they're welcoming the new president. | ||
| And it has become an opportunity for not only affluent and wealthy, but also, you know, politically connected, people who are supporters of the new president, having an opportunity to be in the same space with members of Congress. | ||
| And so I would imagine, just with all the different activities that are going on that day, I'm not sure how far those conversations go, but it is a celebration. | ||
| It really is bringing all these different groups of people together who may not necessarily always be in the same room to celebrate the inauguration of their candidate of choice, Donald J. Trump. | ||
| Matthew Costello, White House Historical Association. | ||
| As always, we appreciate your time with us on C-SPAN. | ||
| Well, back live to the Capitol. | ||
| This is Emancipation Hall in the Capitol Visitor Center. | ||
| This is where the review of troops will be happening. | ||
| Let's listen in. | ||
| Vote. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Ready to go on. | |
| Officers, ready? | ||
| Hold it! | ||
| There we are! You! | ||
| Attack! | ||
| Honor, go, ten, shot ceremonial, ceremonial, etc. | ||
| What you're watching live at the U.S. Capitol is an Armed Services Honor Guard. | ||
| It's known as the First Honor Ceremony. | ||
| 183 service members are participating from the Army, the Marines, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and Coast Guard. | ||
| President Trump will review them, and there will be a Pfeiffen drum corps as well. | ||
| This is what's usually taken place on the east front of the Capitol outside, but since all the ceremony has moved inside, they're doing it in Emancipation Hall in the Capitol Visitor Center, which is right below the East Front. | ||
| So that's what you're seeing on your screen. | ||
| President Trump is due to review the troops shortly. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Ten Shut! | |
| Hold! | ||
| Right! | ||
| Go! | ||
| Oh Ready! | ||
|
unidentified
|
Oh, I'm not sure if I can do it. | |
| Oh | ||
| It's a doctor! | ||
| Taxi! Order! Order! | ||
| And with the completion of the Military Honor Guard review at the Capitol, President and Mrs. Trump will be leaving the Capitol soon, motorcading to Capitol One Arena for a shortened inaugural parade that will be held indoors. | ||
| And then finally, back to their residence at the White House, some special order signings. | ||
| And then tonight, later on, the inaugural balls, the traditional parade down Pennsylvania Avenue with the reviewing stand right in front of the White House. | ||
| That has been canceled. | ||
| They brought everything indoors because of the weather. | ||
| And you could probably see on the flags that the temperature isn't that bad. | ||
| It's 20-25, but the wind is pretty biting, and it was predicted to be worse than it turned out to be. | ||
| But more live coverage, several hours of live coverage coming up on C-SPAN. | ||
| 202 is the area code for all of our numbers: 748-8000 for Democrats, 748-8001 for Republicans, 748-8002 for Independents. | ||
| And you can also send a text message to 202-748-8003. | ||
| Please include your first name and your city if you would. | ||
| Want to get your thoughts on the President's inaugural address, your impressions of today, your hopes for the future or fears for the future. | ||
| Margaret in California, Democrats line. | ||
| Thanks for holding, Margaret. | ||
| Please go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Oh, no, it's fine. | |
| That's been entertaining. | ||
| So, you know, my family, we got up early to watch this transition of power because I do think it's an honor that the American people get to watch us, whether or not you support the particular administration or not. | ||
| It is disappointing to see it all endorsed because I do think it, in large part, does belong to the American people. | ||
| And yeah, and so there are a lot of people who supported this president. | ||
| I personally did not vote for him. | ||
| I voted for RFK. | ||
| But still, I do think it's important. | ||
| I was disappointed with his speech because there were things that he said in his speech, while they were sort of a little bit forward-thinking, they were not forward enough. | ||
| There was kind of that raw meat feel to it. | ||
| And, you know, rather than extend an olive branch, moving forward for an American public who really would like to see change from all the divisive, you know, rhetoric going on between the blue and the red constantly. | ||
| And for the average American person, they're just worried about their table issues. | ||
| You know, they're just worried about how they're going to put food on the table or whether or not they're going to have a job looking forward and having a brighter future. | ||
| But it just seems like it's an extension. | ||
| Rather than extend that olive branch, it was more like the flamethrower came out. | ||
| And, you know, as a president, you have to put, once you get in, you're not on the campaign trail anymore. | ||
| You're there. | ||
| People voted for you. | ||
| You got in. | ||
| It's time then to show your better side. | ||
| If you can find it, it's tempting, while it's tempting to say, you know, make people who are in that room feel uncomfortable or Americans who are out in the room. | ||
| It's not your campaign audience anymore. | ||
| It's a wider American. | ||
| That's in California. | ||
| We really appreciate your thoughts. | ||
| As you can see, the President and Mrs. Trump are getting loaded into the Cadillac limousine, and they will motorcade down to Capitol One Arena. | ||
| The transition to power happened at noon. | ||
| The Bidens departed, and immediately the White House staff transitioned the White House into a Trump White House. | ||
| Furniture in and out. | ||
| In five, six hours, they managed to do this. | ||
| The website has been updated at whitehouse.gov to a Trump-centric website. | ||
| So everything happens within a couple of hours. | ||
| The President's standing there with the Senate Majority Leader John Thune and getting ready to depart. | ||
| And we will be with the motorcade on its way to Capitol One Arena. | ||
| About 20,000 Trump supporters have been there all day. | ||
| They watched the inauguration there, and they will be there waiting for the president. | ||
| And there will be some executive signing orders, we are told, at Capitol One Arena. | ||
| Edward, Keyport, New Jersey, Independent Line. | ||
| Hi, Edward. | ||
| What's your take on today? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, I appreciate your guys' long day. | |
| Thank you. | ||
| And, well, one, I just find the whole cult of personality dangerous and distasteful. | ||
| Like, government shouldn't be allowed and it shouldn't be disruptive mainly because it's a country for everybody. | ||
| You can't make it and you can't take it for any singular vision. | ||
| I would think the idea that the U.S. is only 4% of the global population, so consumer goods and technological innovation is a global phenomenon. | ||
| It's like based on competitive, it's based on actual cooperation, not competition. | ||
| So I don't think that's really going to go much anywhere. | ||
| I mean, I didn't hear anything about climate change or any of the actual real threats. | ||
| I mean, renaming the Gulf of Mexico and jamming up immigrants is a silly, silly idea. | ||
| I mean, there's a convenience store that's by me that I frequent, and they've gone through six people in five months just to stand at a register for 17 bucks an hour. | ||
| So I don't know who they're going to find to be digging these ditches and doing all the things that currently immigrants are doing, like in helping make America actually good. | ||
| That's Edward in New Jersey, and this is Logan in Cabot, Arkansas, Republican line. | ||
| Hi, Logan. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good afternoon. | |
| Can you hear me all right? | ||
| You're listening. | ||
| Please go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
All right. | |
| I just wanted to say that I'm extremely proud to be an American today. | ||
| I've followed President Trump since he first announced in 2015, and I really enjoyed everything that he had to say. | ||
| He didn't stray away from anything that he's been promising. | ||
| And I really do think that he's going to be a great president again. | ||
| And I someday aspire to run for governor of Arkansas and President of the United States. | ||
| And he's just truly a great inspiration. | ||
| And that's all I've got to say. | ||
| Thank you for your time. | ||
| Logan, how old are you? | ||
| How old are you? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Oh, I'm 25. | |
| I'll be 26 in a few days. | ||
| And congratulations on that. | ||
| Why are you aspiring to be the governor of Arkansas? | ||
| And what are you doing towards that goal? | ||
|
unidentified
|
It's always been a dream of mine. | |
| I haven't ever been to law school or anything like that, but that's something that I plan on doing in the future if I'm able to. | ||
| And I've met several of our former governors. | ||
| I've met with them. | ||
| I've met our current governor. | ||
| And it's just, everybody's really great. | ||
| And it's always just been something I've aspired to do since I was a child. | ||
| That's Logan in Cabot, Arkansas, looking to be governor of Arkansas. | ||
| Carolyn in Ohio, Democrats line. | ||
| Carolyn, have you been watching all day? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I almost have been watching all day, but I'm kind of going to go and get to my point because I've been on hold for two hours, and I'm afraid my cordless phone's going to give out. | |
| Oh, no. | ||
| I just want to say good luck to who used to be our Lieutenant Governor, John Houston. | ||
| He is now taking over JD Vance's seat in the Senate. | ||
| I guess from the Columbus, Ohio channels, they were saying Vivek Raswami also tried to get that position too. | ||
| But John Houston won out. | ||
| And let me tell you, you have a gem, not only in JD Vance, but you have a gem in John Houston. | ||
| I remember hearing him like 25 years ago at the Circleville Pumpkin Show, and I was impressed with him then. | ||
| And he went on to be the Ohio Secretary of State and sent me an honor lapel for my father, who was deceased but was a retired colonel in the Marines. | ||
| And then he rose up to be the lieutenant governor. | ||
| I really didn't want him to leave Ohio, to be truthful, but I understand. | ||
| He's so talented, and I think JD Vance is too. | ||
| In the short time that JD Vance was in the Senate, his office would send me updates on something that I was involved with, and I appreciated that. | ||
| Carolyn, we're going to leave it there. | ||
| We're going to listen into the motorcade as it makes its way down Pennsylvania Avenue. | ||
| It looks like it turned right onto 6th Street on its way to the Capital One Arena. | ||
| I've got to go up more step. | ||
| And the Trump Motorcade is nearing Capital One Basketball and Hockey Arena. | ||
| You can see the interior there full of Trump supporters. | ||
| The wide avenue that you saw is Pennsylvania Avenue that you saw just a minute ago. | ||
| That is the normal parade route for presidential parades. | ||
| And unfortunately, everything was moved inside because of the weather. | ||
| There's Pennsylvania Avenue looking down from the Capitol toward the White House. | ||
| And he made a right at about 6th Street, went straight up to Capitol One Arena. | ||
| And he'll be getting out there shortly and meeting with those supporters that you see in the hall. | ||
| We will be live on C-SPAN, of course. | ||
| Eli is calling in from Chicago on our Democrats line. | ||
| Eli, what's your take on today? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello. | |
| I just wanted to maybe express some disappointment because, you know, I feel that either way this election turned out, I didn't really feel like my voice was represented in either of the candidates. | ||
| And I know lots of people, my generation, feel a similar way. | ||
| And what is your voice, and what was the message that you wanted to hear? | ||
|
unidentified
|
You know, I'm not sure I can express that concisely for a C-SPAN phone call, but I was hoping to see a platform based more on economic and social justice for people who have been underrepresented in our country. | |
| Thank you, sir. | ||
| Thank you for calling in, Eli. | ||
| Jaden, Lima, Ohio, Republican. | ||
| Hi, Jayden. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi. | |
| You called in. | ||
| What do you want to talk about? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I would like to comment on Trump's American Academy idea. | |
| Just the entire idea of basically the Netflix of colleges for almost free that's really affordable for everyone in the entire country. | ||
| I think that's just an amazing idea. | ||
| Why? | ||
|
unidentified
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You know. | |
| Well, you know, I like a college education costs about as much as a house nowadays. | ||
| And, you know, if we can keep people from spending as much money on a house or as much money as one would on a house on education, maybe I can afford a house. | ||
| Jayden? | ||
| Jaden, what do you do in Lima? | ||
| What do you do in Lima? | ||
|
unidentified
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I'm a truck driver. | |
| I go all over the place. | ||
| All right. | ||
| Thanks for calling in. | ||
| Let's hear from Thomas in Adairsville, Georgia, as we watch the sights and sounds inside the Capitol One Arena. | ||
|
unidentified
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All right, I'm just struggling to maintain optimism. | |
| I'm hoping you may be able to offer some reasons to be optimistic. | ||
| I just, based off his first term, don't have a lot of belief in any of his words. | ||
| He talks a lot. | ||
| He makes a lot of bold and outrageous claims. | ||
| Those alone are harmful enough, whether or not he follows through with them. | ||
| That hasn't changed since his first term. | ||
| So my reason for optimism that I'm trying to hold on to is he says a lot, but he doesn't actually get a whole lot done. | ||
| Thomas, what would you like to see get done? | ||
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unidentified
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Well, I would like the lower class to have better economic opportunity. | |
| His first term, he raised taxes on the lower tax brackets and gave the richest people the highest tax cut they've ever received. | ||
| There was the largest transfer of wealth in our history from the lower class to the upper 1%. | ||
| I just don't see why that would be any different his second term. | ||
| I just think it's going to get that much worse economically. | ||
| Thank you, sir, for calling. | ||
| Let's listen in as the Army band warms up the crowd for President Trump. | ||
|
unidentified
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You're listening to the Army's premier national musical outreach organization, the United States Army Field. | |
| And that was the U.S. Army band playing at the Capitol One Arena. | ||
| The Vice President and Mrs. Vance have arrived. | ||
| The President and Mrs. Trump have arrived. | ||
| The program will begin shortly. | ||
| And some of the things you're going to see in this truncated parade include first responders from Butler County, Pennsylvania. | ||
| There'll be a moment of silence. | ||
|
unidentified
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The field band proudly honors our soldiers. | |
| And that's the county where President Trump was shot during the summer 2024 rally. | ||
| You're going to see the New York Military Academy Band. | ||
| President Trump graduated from there in 1964. | ||
| The Palm Beach Police and Fire Honor Guard Unit. | ||
| The New York Police Department Emerald Society Pipe and Drums. | ||
| Middletown, Ohio High School Marching Band and Cheerleaders. | ||
| That's JD Vance's hometown. | ||
| Florida Firefighter Pipes and Drums from Boca Ratone. | ||
| Stewart's Creek High School Marching Band from Smyrna, Tennessee, and the Mississippi Valley State University Band. | ||
| Those are some of the acts or the entertainment that you'll be seeing at this shortened parade. | ||
| Tyler, Manassas, Virginia, here in the suburbs. | ||
| Tyler, what do you want to talk about? | ||
| What have you seen today? | ||
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unidentified
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My only problem, I thought he did good. | |
| My only problem was he didn't focus on the pardons. | ||
| You mean you thought he should have focused on the pardons in his inaugural address? | ||
|
unidentified
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Yes. | |
| What should he have said? | ||
|
unidentified
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He should have called them out by name. | |
| And in a critical way or in a positive way? | ||
|
unidentified
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Depends on who it is. | |
| All right, Tyler, thank you for calling in. | ||
| Let's listen in to Capital One Arena waiting for the president to arrive. | ||
| you're watching live coverage of the 60th inaugural for Donald Trump, his second time. | ||
| We are live at the Capitol One Arena right now. | ||
| We're waiting on the president to come upstairs and speak to his supporters there, about 20,000 people. | ||
| I've been there all day long since the inaugural moved inside. | ||
| They watched the inauguration there, and they've been there all day. | ||
| JD Vance will also be there during the day. | ||
| Elon Musk, Kash Patel, two of the speakers that have spoken with this group, and you're hearing some of the entertainment as well, the Army band, etc. | ||
| The president is also going to be doing an executive signing order ceremony. | ||
| He's got nine executive orders that he will be signing here, and then he will be doing more at the White House later this evening. | ||
|
unidentified
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And this | |
| is live coverage of Donald Trump's inauguration. | ||
| This is the event at the Capitol One Arena, the annotated parade. | ||
| About 20,000 people in there. | ||
| We are told that it will be beginning shortly. | ||
| The president and vice president will be introduced, and they will each have a speaking segment. | ||
| President Trump will also be signing nine executive orders, some dealing with immigration. | ||
| He will sign more tonight at the White House when he gets there. | ||
| It's five o'clock on the East Coast right now. | ||
| Donald Trump has been president again for five hours. | ||
| Some of the events that you're going to see this afternoon at Capitol One Arena include the New York Police Department, Palm Beach Police, New York Military Academy, Florida Firefighters, the marching band from Stewarts Creek High School, the Middletown High School marching band from Ohio, JD Vance's hometown, and the Mississippi Valley State University Band. | ||
| We're expecting introductions to begin shortly. |