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Trump Meets with Venezuelan Opposition Leader Machado; NASA Crew Gets Routine Checks After Medical Evacuation from ISS; Musk's Grok Chatbot Limits Ability to Sexualize Photos of People. Aired 3:30- 4p ET

Aired January 15, 2026 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00]

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: ... him felt bad for him so let him wash his hands with soap and water and we just heard testimony that that would potentially eliminate any DNA that was on his hand and that would be DNA of his wife you would want.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN HOST: Jean Casarez, gosh what an awful case, thanks so much.

Ahead, President Trump meets with Venezuela's opposition leader at the White House this after he declined to endorse her following the capture of Nicolas Maduro.

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[15:35:00]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Moments ago, Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado arrived on Capitol Hill. She is meeting there with a bipartisan group of senators -- you see some of them here. And this follows her private lunch with President Trump at the White House earlier this afternoon. These meetings underscore Machado's eagerness to win the backing of American officials as the president voices support for Nicolas Maduro's acting successor Delcy Rodriguez.

I'm joined now by Freddy Guevara he's a former vice president of the Venezuelan Parliament now living in exile here in the U.S. I will note this was not a lot of pomp and circumstance for the visit of the opposition leader, the most recent winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. Have you talked to anyone around Machado to see how this visit went?

FREDDY GUEVARA, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT OF VENEZUELAN PARLIAMENT, LIVING IN EXILE IN U.S.: Yes, you know events are still evolving but people from our team told us that everything is working fine. And as Maria Corina said, at the end of the meeting to some Venezuelans outside very happily that, you know, Venezuelans can count on President Trump for the freedom of Venezuela.

KEILAR: So a good meeting, do you think?

GUEVARA: Yes, that's what we heard. I mean, we have to wait from her. She's going to make a statement soon and the information that we have is that it went very well.

KEILAR: OK, so yesterday ahead of this meeting the president called interim president Delcy Rodriguez a terrific person. Said we're getting along very well with Venezuela. What do you think about that?

GUEVARA: Well, I mean I have to say something similar to what Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, we care more about the actions than, you know, than the words. So if the actions of the United States keep, you know, giving -- keep giving Venezuela what we're demanding it will be OK. So now we have Maduro out of power that's very good.

And now we have the freedom of many political prisoners, not yet, not all of the ones that we require. So if this this path allows Venezuelan to have a democratic transition we really don't care as much of what people say about Delcy or not, even my personal feelings about them, I know both of them like Delcy and Jorge.

I was negotiating with them. They put me in prison, too, when I was in Venezuela. But still this is not a personal thing. This is more about like how we can recover the rights for Venezuelans.

KEILAR: OK, so then let me ask you about that. Because yesterday, also as he was saying that, he touted how the current regime, which just to be clear, is basically the Maduro regime minus Maduro.

GUEVARA: Right.

KEILAR: That they're doing well on prisoner releases. And that was one of the data points that he cited for that. Is that how you see it?

GUEVARA: We believe things are advancing. However, there's a lot of people that needs to, you know, be free now. We have around 1,000 political prisoners. So far around 100 have been -- has been released. So and when I say around 1,000 is because there's also a lot of people that was in jail, but their families didn't want him to denounce it because they were scared of the consequences of denouncing.

So as we're speaking there's people that being freed that we didn't know that they were in prison for political reasons. So it's a very opaque situation and things are evolving, of course, we have hope. This is not enough but we have hope.

KEILAR: Florida Republican Senator Rick Scott said today that quote, Clearly -- that is the word he used clearly -- Machado will become president of Venezuela eventually, and he said, Trump and Secretary Rubio have a transition plan. Do you think that's true?

GUEVARA: I think that if the transition plan that Secretary Rubio explained publicly is followed, we're going to have a democratic transition. And I'm sure if Maria Corina is a leader with, you know, the most of support of the all of Venezuelans. So I think our struggle here is to move forward and understand that, you know, things happen. People can agree if they were good or bad. But what we need now is to have everyone, particularly all the American society in a bipartisan way, supporting a path for a democratic transition and a free and fair election. KEILAR: The U.S. has officially started selling Venezuelan oil. Is the opposition asking to help manage that money?

GUEVARA: Not now, no not really. At least, you know, we have to until further notice we are not demanding any management on any of the things. I think the main focus of all the democratic forces is the human rights aspect, you know, freedom of political prisoners and the democratization of the country.

KEILAR: Do you have concerns about how exactly that money might be distributed to benefit or not the Venezuelan people?

GUEVARA: I think that, of course, there's an idealist scenario and there's the actual risk scenario.

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Before the money of oil was used to repress people by loyalties from corruption and polity and policy and police and military and also for the Cubans, Iranians, China and Russia and spies and support.

At least now if that money is not going through those channels we're going to be way better. What we want is to recover, of course, the autonomy let's say that the Venezuelan -- an elected Venezuelan government -- not the ones that we have now -- can manage the future of our resources. But with this situation I have to be very clear, we prefer this than the Del Cid regime managing the Venezuelan oil.

KEILAR: Sure, I mean that's quite a different thing.

GUEVARA: Yes.

KEILAR: There is a perception among Venezuela watchers that the opposition is constrained by the possibility of getting sideways with President Trump. From being fully forthcoming with how you all feel about the situation, what do you say to that?

GUEVARA: I think the regime made a lot of effort to try to dismantle the capacities of the opposition, right? So they use force, they use repression, they put many of us in exile. But most of the base of our source of power, which is the people, are still in the country.

So of course, we have now a situation in which we have to let's say recover part of the field. But I'm very confident that with the leadership of Maria Corina and with the support of all the Democratic Coalition and the Venezuelan people and society because this is more than political parties. We're going to be very soon back in the game and supporting this transition plan.

KEILAR: Freddy Guevara thank you so much for being with us.

GUEVARA: Thank you very much.

KEILAR: Four astronauts returned safely to earth after a medical issue forced them to leave the International Space Station ahead of schedule, we'll discuss with former NASA astronaut Scott Kelly. Stay with us for that conversation.

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SCIUTTO: Mission accomplished. A little bit of history made as well. NASA executed the first ever medical evacuation from the International Space Station.

All smiles and waves, the four astronauts of SpaceX Crew 11 exited their capsule overnight to feel gravity. After more than five months in space, there was no sign as to which of them suffered what NASA called a medical situation on the ISS about a week ago. Prompting the crew to come back more than a month early. NASA is not naming the astronaut or the health problem itself but is saying the person is doing quote fine today.

The evacuation began yesterday evening with the capsule separating, as you see there from the ISS. When it splashed down by the waters off San Diego, dolphins seemed to come to give it a welcome home. NASA says today that Crew 11 is undergoing medical checkups, which is routine procedure.

Joining me now, someone who knows a thing or two about it all, retired Navy captain and NASA astronaut Scott Kelly, who logged just 520 days in space. He also wrote the book "Endurance: A Year in Space, a Lifetime of Discovery." Good to have you. Thanks so much for joining.

CAPT. SCOTT KELLY, RETIRED NASA ASTRONAUT: Thanks, Jim.

SCIUTTO: So we don't know what the condition is or who exactly suffered it, but NASA did say it was a medical issue that could be complicated by microgravity. What might that mean? Are there a lot of conditions that microgravity exacerbates?

KELLY: Well, I have not heard that, but, you know, in microgravity, our -- the fluid in our body shifts upward to our head. It doesn't have gravity pushing it down and you know, as humans we evolved in in gravity. So naturally our cardiovascular system is designed to oppose the force of gravity to keep all the blood up in our, you know, vital organs and in our head.

So you know that makes me think that maybe it was something associated with that. We do have issues with vision, because of that fluid shift. Even myself, I've been had some have had some issues with it with the, you know, kind of changes in the structural in physiology of your your eyes and your optic nerve.

So if they said it was something that could be made worse by being in microgravity, perhaps it's something like that. Maybe it's some other kind of neurological issue.

SCIUTTO: What would have happened if an astronaut experienced just a full-blown medical emergency? I don't even want to bring it up just, you know, to jinx anything, but I don't know, a heart attack in space. What do you do? KELLY: Yes, so we have some pretty significant medical capabilities on board. We have advanced cardiac life support, we have all the drugs, we have the ability to, you know, maintain a person's airway, we have an AED on board. So if someone did have a heart attack and was in cardiac arrest, whether that was a medical issue or maybe caused by electrocution or something like that, you would respond to that medical emergency in many ways, similar to how a paramedic might respond to it if they showed up at at your house.

We don't have the same level of training as paramedics, but we have some training to do many of the things that that they do so.

[15:50:00]

You would respond, try to revive the person and stabilize them. And as soon as they were then possibly ready to experience the, you know, the violence of returning back to Earth, the G forces when they're medically capable of doing that, you would probably return them home very quickly. In this case, it would probably be more like an emergency return. You know, get him back on the ground as soon as you possibly can.

SCIUTTO: That's a good point, right? Because the return is no -- it's no walk in the park, right? Given all those gravitational forces. As NASA looks towards longer missions, not just to the moon, but well beyond to Mars, and we're talking months and years when everything comes together, what does that underscore about the limits of in-space medicine? I mean, they have to be thinking about this kind of thing.

KELLY: Absolutely, and that's one of the reasons why we have the International Space Station is to learn. You know how to maintain the crew's health while on orbit. How to respond to these medical emergencies. But in a mission to Mars, you wouldn't have the ability to come home unless it was very early in the mission, and then it would be very, very, very, very much propellant intensive if you could even do it.

So if you did have a medical emergency, you're going to continue the mission. And unlike the space station, after you don't know how many times -- how much time, but after you know a week or two, you wouldn't even have the ability to talk to a doctor on Earth to give you real time advice because of the communications time delays.

So I think on a mission to Mars, probably better or you know more appropriate health screening. More well-trained crew members in medical emergencies, maybe you would require a doctor, maybe even a surgeon on board if you had to do a surgery because you're not coming home for a long time.

SCIUTTO: Yes, I'm picturing that scene in "The Martian", right, of, you know, Matt Damon doing surgery on himself. Captain Scott Kelly, let's hope it doesn't come to that. Thanks so much for joining.

KELLY: Thanks for having me, Jim.

SCIUTTO: Coming up, Grok finally gets more guardrails. What we're learning about the new restrictions after the AI assistant generated sexualized images of real people.

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KEILAR: Elon Musk's AI chatbot, Grok, appears to have some new limits on its ability to create sexualized images of real people. These are changes that follow global backlash over Grok, allowing users on X to digitally undress someone, including children.

SCIUTTO: I mean, yes, like finally. CNN's Hadas Gold joins us now. So Hadas, how exactly does this work, and do these restrictions stop all of this, or just some of it?

HADAS GOLD, CNN MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Yes, so to explain this trend, it started in late December when users could tag Grok on X and ask it to edit an image. And then people started asking it to digitally undress images of adults and in some very disturbing cases of children as well. Now, unlike other chat bots, Grok, you can talk to it publicly via its X account and will respond publicly.

So people were able to see this in full view. Now X had already restricted the image generation over the last couple weeks or so to just paid subscribers on X, saying that that way if anybody posts or creates anything inappropriate, they know who it is because the credit card to pay for the subscription. But now, late last night, they did confirm there are now much stricter guidelines.

They said in a statement that, "We have implemented technological measures to prevent the Grok account from allowing the editing of images of real people in revealing clothing such as bikinis. This restriction applies to all users, including paid subscribers." Of course, there was global outcry.

Also yesterday, California's attorney general announcing that they are launching a formal investigation to this, saying in part that these images have been used to harass people across the internet and saying that they have zero tolerance for AI based creation and dissemination of these non-consensual intimate images. Meanwhile, Malaysia and Indonesia still banning Grok, the UK. They say they're still investigating X over this, despite the changes to the safety guardrails.

KEILAR: Yes, and Hadas, has Elon Musk said anything about this?

GOLD: Yes, so Elon Musk has for the most part been defending his AI chat bot. When this trend started, he got in on it and was reposting images of himself and of some of his adversaries in bikinis as well. And then he posted yesterday saying that he was not aware of any naked underage images generated by Grok.

He went on to say that when asked to generate images, Grok will refuse to produce anything illegal as the operating principle for Grok is to obey the laws of any given country of state. But the issue wasn't of fully nude images, it was images of adults and children in various stages of undressed or very little clothing. That is still considered illegal, especially because of the Take It Down Act that was passed last year, signed by President Trump last year.

It makes the posting of non-consensual intimate imagery of adults and children susceptible to fines and even prison time. Platforms will also soon have a responsibility of, well, guys, starting in May. If they are notified, they have 48 hours to take down this material. Now, that hasn't happened yet, but it goes to show you that despite what Elon Musk is saying about Grok not creating illegal material, it is having a hand in creating that something that as of last year is subject to criminal prosecution and possibly fines as well.

KEILAR: All right, Hadas, thank you so much. We'll keep an eye on that story.

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And in the meantime, we're waiting for the Venezuelan opposition leader to be speaking outside of Capitol Hill.

SCIUTTO: It'll be interesting to see what read she gives of her meeting a short time ago with President Trump. Did she get any assurances? Did he make any commitments, for instance, about democratic elections in Venezuela?

KEILAR: Yes, we will definitely be watching this closely. And so will Kasie Hunt. "THE ARENA" starts right now.

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