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Trump's Overall Job Approval Rating at 39 Percent; Majority Say Trump Focused on Wrong Priorities; Pentagon Moves Carrier Strike Group to Mideast Amid Iran Tensions; Border Patrol Chief, Bovino Appears Outside Federal Building in Minneapolis; Noem Says Americans Should Be Prepared to Validate Their Identity. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired January 16, 2026 - 13:30   ET

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

[13:30:00]

DAVID AXELROD, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: -- you know, 2002, after 9/11. So yeah, this is a bad report card and should be a source of great concern. And it is a continuation of a problem that we've seen almost from the beginning. People do not feel and it is reflected in this poll people are asked, they don't feel the president is focused on them or on their most important concerns, which go to the economy.

So, that and I think he exacerbates that. He came out of the New Year, and what we've seen is Venezuela, we've seen Greenland, we've seen the incursion in Minnesota. These are not answering the mail as far as voters are concerned, and he's going to pay a price for that. I think they know that because he keeps popping out sort of, yeah, I'm for capping credit card interest rates. I'm for keeping Wall Street from dominating the rental housing industry and so on.

But these are sort of checking the boxes. And even today, Jim, he had an event on health care, on rural health care, because there's a recognition that health care is a big concern of people.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Yeah.

And yesterday, he did his platform. But the headline out of that that avail, out of that roundtable that he had, was that he was going to use tariffs to punish countries that don't go along with the U.S. taking over Greenland. And I guarantee you that wasn't on the bingo card of any American voter.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": And you mentioned the health care. In fact, the lowest approval ratings he has on any policy is on health care. He unveiled this framework to help Congress craft legislation on it. You know more than anyone how hard it is to pass health care reform. It is a long road from framework to Americans feeling their costs are going down.

AXELROD: The president popped this video up yesterday and he called it the Great American Health Care Plan or the Great Health Care Plan. It's really the late health care plan. For 10 years, he's been promising a health care plan to replace the Affordable Care Act, and this was just a hodgepodge of ideas. It's not a plan. As you say, it's a framework. And the White House later described it as that. He called it a plan. And it's really unresponsive to the crisis of the moment, which is that premiums are skyrocketing, particularly for people on the Affordable Care Act as their subsidies are -- have expired and Congress is yet to do anything about it.

I'll say this about health care. What he's discovering, or at least what the people around him know, is it's far more complex a problem to solve than just bumper sticker kinds of ideas that you throw out. And it's very doubtful to me that any of the things he proposed yesterday are going to get much traction. And they're certainly not going to answer the problems that people are having in the short run.

SCIUTTO: To that point, poll found that only a third of Americans believe Trump cares about people like them. 70 percent say --

AXELROD: Yes.

SCIUTTO: -- he's out of touch. Is there anybody in Trump's orbit -- if the people believe he's out of touch, is there anybody you see in Trump's orbit who is telling him, boss, you've got to handle this. You've got to look at health care. You've got to bring prices down. You've got to be less --

AXELROD: Yes.

SCIUTTO: -- concerned by foreign adventures. Or has he surrounded himself with folks who just say, boss, you've got it all right?

AXELROD: You know, I actually think there are people, certainly in his political strategy group, who are charged with trying to help Republicans win the midterm elections, who probably are telling him that. And as I said, that's why he's been popping out these ideas sort of in a box checking form. But even his -- Jim, even his video on health care was sort of robotic. It was almost a box checking exercise. What he shows enthusiasm about are things like Greenland, Venezuela, you know, Nobel Prizes. And those are completely off topic.

It is hard when you're president to really punch through with a message. But to do it, you have to mean it and you have to do it repeatedly. And he's not doing that on the economy. And I'm not sure that that it's -- that the people around him don't know that. I think it may be just what interests him.

Last thing on this, one of the things that really, I think, impacted Joe Biden very badly in his presidency was that people thought he was more concerned about other things, principally, global affairs, national security than he was about the economy. And incredibly, having won partly because of that failure to communicate the right things on the part of the administration, the Biden administration, Trump is now making the same mistakes that Biden did. And people see it and they're recording it in this poll.

[13:35:00]

BROWN: You can't tell people they don't feel what they feel. SCIUTTO: No.

BROWN: They don't experience what they're experiencing. Right?

AXELROD: You cannot.

BROWN: No matter how good your messaging is.

AXELROD: You cannot.

BROWN: David Axelrod, thank you so much, as always. Well, the United Nations urges maximum restraint on Iran as the U.S. moves an aircraft carrier strike group to the Middle East. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCIUTTO: CNN has learned that the Pentagon is moving an aircraft carrier strike group to the Middle East as President Trump continues to weigh whether to attack Iran. The nearest one, according to open source intelligence, is led by the USS Abraham Lincoln, which was last reported to be in the South China Sea. It's about a five- to seven-day journey from the Persian Gulf.

What does it all mean about the President's thinking? Let's speak more now with CNN Political and Global Affairs Analyst, Barak Ravid.

Barak, good to have you.

BARAK RAVID, CNN POLITICAL AND GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Hi.

[13:40:00]

SCIUTTO: So, the President held back. By all accounts, he was quite close to ordering some military action in the last several days. And he said quite publicly he did so because Iran did not execute, he just claimed earlier today, hundreds of protesters. Has he taken it off the table or just delayed?

RAVID: I don't think a possible U.S. military strike in Iran is off the table. I actually think it is still very much on. And that if President Trump will reach the point that he will order such a strike, I think it will be much more significant in scope and in the targets than the one originally put forward to the President. I think Trump is taking his time.

The theater was not ready. The U.S. did not have enough assets in the region, not for defensive reasons, not for offensive reasons. I think that really decreased the options. And now, when I think when the carrier strike group will be in the region, more jets, more fighter jets are being moved to the region, more air defense is being moved in the region. That's what I hear from sources with knowledge of this.

Once this will all be in place, I think the decision will come back to the table. Trump yesterday spoke for the second time in 24 hours with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about Iran. And today, the Head of the Israeli Mossad, the spy agency, David Barnea, is meeting in Miami with Trump's Envoy, Steve Witkoff.

I think those consultations show you that the possibility of military strike is still on the table. At the same time, I think the Trump administration would use this sort of de-escalation that has been created over the last few days to see if there is an opening for some sort of a deal with Iran.

SCIUTTO: Prime Minister Netanyahu asked Trump to give Israel more time to prepare for possible Iranian retaliation. But Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, they're all warning more generally that a U.S. strike on Iran poses risks to the wider region. Would Trump go over their heads, in effect, over their objections, if need be?

RAVID: You know, Jim, Trump was actually just asked this question and he gave a very interesting answer, because he was asked, where you convinced not to go ahead with the strike because of the Israelis, because of the Gulf States? And he said, no, I convinced myself. And he attributed it to the fact that the Iranians allegedly stopped those executions. And he said this had a lot of impact.

So I think the question is, to me, whether this is a genuine Trump position or this is part of a smokescreen that Trump is trying to throw off the Iranians. We saw very similar behavior ahead of the U.S. strike in Iran in June. And I think we should keep in mind all the time that a lot of things that we hear publicly might be part of, again, this psychological warfare.

At the same time, the Arabs, obviously, a lot of Arab countries in the region, in the Gulf, are concerned that an escalation would harm them too, especially that they have U.S. bases in their territory. The Israelis, on the one hand, it was a more interesting argument, in my opinion, because on the one hand, Netanyahu told Trump, listen, we're not prepared defensively because the Iranians might retaliate against us. But the Israelis also had a lot of reservations about how, what kind of operational plan the U.S. had.

The Israelis thought that it was not meaningful enough, it's not significant enough, it will not have a real effect. And that's why I think Israel told the Trump administration, listen, let's take another few days, try to think about it again, refine the plans, and if you do take action, take action that matters.

SCIUTTO: Yeah. And listen, I mean, we've seen this phenomenon a lot. In a singular decision-making environment with this president, sometimes that decision can come quite suddenly. Barak Ravid, thanks so much for joining.

Well, live pictures here from Minneapolis, where a newly released report reveals new details about the deadly ICE shooting of Rene Good.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:49:20]

BROWN: All right, back to the escalating tensions in Minneapolis. These are pictures right outside the Whipple Federal Building where U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commander, Gregory Bovino appeared just moments ago.

The unrest in Minneapolis has intensified since the death of Renee Good, shot by an ICE agent last week, shot and killed. A newly released incident report from the city's fire department says she suffered up to four apparent gunshot wounds. Two to the right chest, one to the left forearm, and a possible gunshot to the left side of her head.

Joining us now is Donell Harvin, former Head of Homeland Security and Intelligence for Washington, D.C., and now a faculty member at Georgetown University Emergency and Disaster Management.

[13:50:00]

Thanks for coming on. So first, Donell, what is your reaction and your takeaway from some of those details we are learning from that incident report, the locations of the gunshot wounds, and the number of them?

DONELL HARVIN, FORMER HEAD OF HOMELAND SECURITY & INTELLIGENCE FOR WASHINGTON, D.C.: Well, it seems consistent, what we saw on the videos, the numerous videos that were shared. You don't always know from videos how many shots are fired. There could be some ricochets there. I worked for the medical examiner's office and did forensics for over a decade. And so, more will come out when the forensic pathology report, which we call autopsy report, is revealed.

But as far as how close the range was and things of that nature, although we saw that, it shows an intent of lethality. So the ICE officer that shot this individual was serious about, according to DHS, his personal safety and shot to neutralize the threat.

BROWN: So let's dig into that a little bit deeper because my understanding is agents have to account for every single time a weapon is discharged. Each shot fired has to be accounted for. Tell us more about that.

HARVIN: Well, it really goes back to officer safety and what we call muzzle discipline. And from what I've seen, I've been very deliberate. I've spoken to many law enforcement officials. I even reached out to my training lieutenant from when I was in the Police Academy. There was a couple of things that happened here.

First, law enforcement is not trained to come in front of or approach a vehicle from the front during a car stop. We're trained to enter that area from the back or the side of the vehicle. Anything in front of that vehicle is what we call the kill zone. Once you're in that area, you leave yourself very little escape. You leave yourself very little choice to use lethal force if that vehicle lurches forward, and that's exactly what we saw.

That's an officer's safety and officer's survivability issue. It's a failure. And so discharging, once again, this officer discharged really within feet of other officers. There could have been a ricochet. When you strike a bullet with glass, it doesn't necessarily go straight. We've seen that in forensics all the time. It goes in a different pattern. It could have shot through the car and hit a pedestrian behind, or even the house and gone into someone's home while some old lady is knitting. And so that's the type of muzzle discipline and accountability for every shot that I think we're talking about. They teach you that in every Academy. And what I see here is really poor tactics.

BROWN: So yesterday, DHS Secretary, Kristi Noem indicated that U.S. citizens may need to validate their identity. I want to play something Sarah Saldana, the Director of ICE under President Obama, told me earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SARAH SALDANA, DIRECTOR OF ICE UNDER PRESIDENT OBAMA: Requiring identification of American citizens to show their identification is a huge step forward and should bring pause to all of us because it certainly rings and smacks close to a police state.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: I also talked to DHS official, Tricia McLaughlin earlier today, and she underscored the standard of reasonable suspicion if someone is in the vicinity of an operation of a target. Where do you see the bounds of reasonable suspicion? And do you think that agents are acting within those bounds from what you've seen?

HARVIN: Well, I'm not an attorney, so that's my disclaimer, but I can tell you what we were taught in the Police Academy and what other law enforcement has told. Just because you're near a potential suspect does not mean you're a suspect of a crime. And so, law enforcement has the ability to detain you for a reasonable amount of time based on articulable suspicion, right? But they have to be able to articulate why they believe you're committing a crime.

Essentially, having brown or black skin, working in a certain community or doing something doesn't make you suspicious of a crime. Now, there's a caveat here, and that's obviously the recent Supreme Court opinion that was written by Justice Kavanaugh that's being interpreted by DHS broadly. And so that's going to have to be really fought out in the courts.

But what I would say in my professional opinion is that they're really, really coming close to or exceeding the boundaries of what you're allowed to do from a Fourth Amendment standpoint on U.S. soil with U.S. citizens.

BROWN: All right, Donell Harvin, thanks for coming on to offer your perspective. We appreciate it.

And up next, snow on the beach areas as far south as Florida could see flurries this weekend. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:59:18] BROWN: Well, right now, parts of the South are bracing for possible snow as winter storms wreak havoc across the U.S. In New York, police are blaming the weather for this 30-vehicle pileup that sent multiple people to the hospital there. And we're also seeing similar images out of Pennsylvania where the brutal conditions there led to major wrecks.

I want to bring in CNN Meteorologist, Allison Chinchar, who is tracking these storms. Which areas should be on high alert, Allison?

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: All right, so we've got the cold air, we've got very gusty winds and snow on the way. This is where the winds are going to be the highest on this map. You can see here, wind gusts of 60 to 80 miles per hour. Now, you factor that wind into the cold air and you get that wind chill that feels like temperature.

Take a look, tomorrow, as we head into tomorrow morning, notice a lot of those numbers dropping. It's going to feel like minus eight in Minneapolis, minus six in Omaha. It's only going to feel --