AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
Tomorrow is January 6, four years since hundreds of Donald Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol building to overturn the results of the 2020 election. This year, there's another presidential election to be certified. This time, Trump did win, and the scene at the Capitol is expected to be very different. NPR political correspondent Mara Liasson joins us now to explain. Good morning.
MARA LIASSON, BYLINE: Good morning, Ayesha.
RASCOE: So, Mara, why aren't we expecting anything like a repeat of four years ago when Congress convenes tomorrow?
LIASSON: Well, for one thing, the Capitol has been fortified like it wasn't in 2021, and it's going to be very hard for any large numbers of people to make their way into the building. But the other bigger reason is that there's no belief among Democrats that the election was stolen. Vice President Kamala Harris will be presiding over the joint session of Congress tomorrow. And instead of spreading false rumors or lies about a rigged election or stolen election as Trump did four years ago, she has conceded that she was defeated.
RASCOE: Another Trump question - what do you make of his comments on social media last week after the attacks in New Orleans and Las Vegas?
LIASSON: Well, less than 24 hours after those attacks, Trump posted on Truth Social, his social media platform, quote, "this is what happens when you have open borders." He didn't explicitly mention the two attacks by name, although many people believed that he was referencing those attacks. But the truth is that President Biden's immigration policy doesn't seem to have had anything to do with those attacks. Suspects in both cases were U.S. citizens. The New Orleans suspect was born in the U.S., as was his mother. He's an Army veteran. The driver of the vehicle that exploded in Las Vegas was white, U.S.-born, active-duty military. He went to Las Vegas while on leave. And I think what this - what we're seeing is we know that studies show that legal and illegal immigrants commit crimes at much lower rates than U.S. citizens do. And in a campaign, it's just much easier to paint with a broad brush or spread lies. But when you're in office trying to solve problems, the truth matters.
RASCOE: What does that tell us about the immigration changes that Trump will be pursuing?
LIASSON: Immigration is a top agenda item for Donald Trump, but cracks have already developed inside the Republican immigration debate. On the one hand, you've got Elon Musk, Trump's most important backer. Some call him the shadow president. He's calling to protect the H-1B visa program, which allows high-skilled immigrants to work in the U.S. And Vivek Ramaswamy, who's co-chair with Musk of the government reform commission, says we have to have more foreign-born workers because there aren't enough Americans to do these jobs. He said American culture has, quote, "venerated mediocrity over excellence." And that caused a big pushback from MAGA stalwarts like Steve Bannon, who says the H-1B visa program allows high-tech companies to import foreign labor, pay them less than American workers, deprive Americans of jobs. And he got a boost from Bernie Sanders on the left, who says the H-1B program is, quote, "low-wage indentured servants from abroad." So this is a debate that Trump is going to have to reconcile.
RASCOE: The judge in Trump's hush money case in New York City says he'll sentence the president-elect this coming Friday. Like, what should we expect from that?
LIASSON: Well, the judge did not dismiss the case, which is what Trump wanted him to do. But he did say Trump would not face prison time, probation or a fine. He's going to do something called a sentence of, quote, "unconditional discharge." So Trump will be convicted, but not punished, except for the fact that he will officially be a felon - the very first felon to be U.S. president.
RASCOE: And President Biden in the final weeks of his presidency seems to be trying to solidify his legacy. Will these last-minute actions actually stand when Trump takes over?
LIASSON: That's a good question. Biden is doing a lot of things to try to protect his legacy - throwing up legal roadblocks, for instance, to protect civil servants from mass firings, which Trump has promised to do. He's also reportedly considering preemptively pardoning Senator Adam Schiff and former Representative Liz Cheney, who led the House investigation into the January 6 attacks. Trump has said the members of that committee should go to jail. He also may ban new oil and gas drilling in federal waters as soon as tomorrow and do it in a way that Trump couldn't undo it without an act of Congress.
RASCOE: That's NPR's Mara Liasson. Thank you so much, Mara.
LIASSON: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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