[Camerota:] Throughout the morning we asked you, our viewers, what you think President-elect Trump's number one priority should be when he takes office. We received hundreds of your responses so far on Twitter. You want to guess what the overwhelming response is?
[Cuomo:] Make NEW DAY seven hours.
[Camerota:] No. No. That will be his second priority.
[Cuomo:] There it is.
[Camerota:] The first priority is unity. You can see that in the big red letters. Also topping the list health care, fighting
[Isis. Cuomo:] ISIS, jobs.
[Camerota:] Jobs, immigration, and building the wall.
[Cuomo:] So I'm still looking at the words up there on your screen right now. All right. So let's bring in our panel and let's talk about this idea of unity and what Donald J. Trump, our next president, can do in his first inaugural address. CNN presidential historian and former director of the Nixon Presidential Library, Tim Naftali is here. Executive editor of Bloomberg View and author of "Trump Nation: The Art of Being the Donald," Timothy O'Brien. And author of "Democracy's Big Day," inaugural historian, Jim Bendat. All right. So, Jim, this is the day that you live for. The inauguration. You have all the fun facts. And we've been reading in and you do get overcome with the history that falls on your head in this town on this day. What are some of the big ones that pop out to you about what makes the inauguration such an amazing historical event?
[Jim Bendat, Inaugural Historian:] The fact that our inauguration day makes our country stand out from so many other nations. They don't do it that way. We have one day every four years. Other nations, they might have military coups, they might have monarchs who reign forever. So we have our unique way of doing things.
[Camerota:] You only get your moment in the sun once every four years as an inaugural historian.
[Bendat:] The way I like to put it is every four years I get my 15 minutes.
[Camerota:] That's right. So let me stick with you, Jim, for a second. What are you looking for today?
[Bendat:] Well, I'm always looking to see if the traditions will be followed. We know that a lot of them will be. We know that Trump is going to be going to the church services. He'll be going to the White House. There will be the procession to the capitol. We know that. But we already know also there are going to be some differences. He's going to set a record today with six religious prayers as part of the ceremony, three invocations, three benedictions, that's a new record. During the inaugural parade we know that unfortunately a tradition has been lost. Trump fired Charlie Brotman.
[Camerota:] The announcer.
[Cuomo:] The announcer.
[Bendat:] The announcer who's been doing every inaugural parade since 1957, covering Democrats and Republicans. He's a part of my book. I wrote the chapter in my book is called "The President's Announcer." He's a gregarious person, he's still up to the task, he shouldn't have been fired.
[Cuomo:] So what do you think about the walk of the inaugural parade? Who was it, Carter, walked the entire thing? He was the first one to do it? What's the most common protocol there and what are we expecting today?
[Bendat:] Well, Jimmy Carter and Rosalind Carter are the only ones to actually watch the entire distance.
[Cuomo:] What is it? Like a mile and a half or something?
[Bendat:] Yes. But many other presidents since then almost all of them have gotten out of the car, generally toward the end of the parade, although Barack and Michelle Obama got out a couple of times, but definitely toward the end of the parade route in front of the supporters right near the White House you can generally expect almost all presidents to do that.
[Camerota:] Tim, as presidential historian, what has what are you keeping your eye on? What has jumped out at you so far?
[Tim Naftali, Cnn Presidential Historian:] I'm going to watch how Mr. Trump uses words. One of the things that presidents learn is that words matter, that they can change the stock market, they can change the value of the U.S. currency. They can send signals to our foreign allies and adversaries with words. How will Donald Trump introduce himself to us as a president? He's introduced himself to us many times in other forms, but today he is a president.
[Camerota:] We know a few things about the inaugural address. They say it will be shorter than usual. I think that they're saying about 20 minutes long. And that we heard yesterday from the head of the Inaugural Committee that it will be a collaboration between he, his ideas and his speech writer.
[Naftali:] Well., I there are always collaborations. And that's traditional. The key is this, the issue of unity. He becomes president of all of us. He's not just president of the people who voted for him. He's president of the people who didn't vote for him. He's president of the people too young to vote. How is he going to talk to all of us and what is the vision he's going to share with us about where we go from now. That's what I'm looking for today.
[Cuomo:] So these two have gotten to bask into the possibility of the moment. You, Tim O'Brien, you have a different task. You and I are members of the fraternity now of people who have investigated Donald Trump. You are a senior member of that fraternity. And the question that you can answer best is, do you think the man has it in him to surrender the me to the we, that when the grace of this moment comes upon him and he realizes his power and his position, do you think he has it in him to say, I don't come first anymore?
[Timothy O'brien, Executive Editor, Bloomberg View:] I think we all have to hope that he does. I think it's important for the country. I think it's important for the presidency. It's important for good governance that Donald Trump embrace this moment and rise to the occasion. I think that will require things of him we have not seen in him historically. It will require emotional, intellectual and strategic discipline. It will require generosity of spirit. It will require enormous self-restraint. We've seen since the election that on Twitter he's demonstrated no self-restraint. And I think it's a wait-and-see. I was thinking about this yesterday, Chris, during the ceremony at the Lincoln Memorial. Jon Voight gave a very confrontational opening speech in that moment. It wasn't about unity. It was about Trump got smeared and God put him here to save things. So I think it's in Trump's court now.
[Camerota:] Jim, I was struck reading through the history of all of the inaugurations. How often weather plays a role? Sometimes things are canceled if it's too cold. Sometimes it's been too snowy, I think with John Kennedy's inauguration. Today it is going to be a light drizzle. What do you see for how all of this unfolds compared to past years?
[Bendat:] Well, weather is often a big deal in Washington here at this time of year. The last time that it rained was for George W. Bush in 2001. Actually that day George W. Bush had planned to use the original George Washington bible when he took the oath, but because of the weather the powers that be who look after that bible decided not to bring it outdoors. So we've had rainy days in the 1800s quite often. Snow has been more of a problem since inauguration day got moved up from march to January.
[Cuomo:] They have only had a couple got canceled, though. Reagan had it canceled I think this is the second one, right? Because of how cold it was.
[Camerota:] Yes. Sometimes the parades are moved or the parades are cancelled. But even in March when the inauguration used to be in march, I was struck by how often snow played a role here in Washington,
[D.c. Bendat:] The last time that happened was 1909, William Howard Taft. It was so snowy that a lot of stuff got canceled.
[Cuomo:] So how big a deal for you when it comes down to just one moment, right? Boon on January 20th, 20th amendment of the constitution puts that as when the job begins. Do you feel anything in that moment happen in this kind of ceremony?
[Bendat:] Well, a lot of people are going to feel a lot this year. You're going to have people who are going to be jubilant and you're going to have lots of people who are very depressed. So we're a divided country and whether Donald Trump will be able to do anything about that remains to be seen. I don't think it will be decided during his inaugural address. I don't think we can expect much from that. We'll find out a lot in the days ahead.
[Cuomo:] President Obama, the outgoing president, is doing everything he can in terms of tradition, he's spend all the time with him, traveling there, they're you know, every box you could check as peaceful transition seems to be getting done yes.
[Bendat:] Definitely. He's been very gracious just as George W. Bush was gracious to him.
[Camerota:] Gentlemen, thank you very much. Thanks for sharing all of the historical facts with us and the perspective. Great to talk to you.
[Unidentified Male:] Thank you.
[Camerota:] We have much more of our inaugural coverage starting right now. Donald trump, president-elect: We're going four incredible years. It's going to be something special.