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Millions Bracing for Snow in Southern U.S., Brutal Winds as Temps Drop; Protesters Arrested Outside Minneapolis Federal Building; Trump Says He Will Invoke Insurrection Act in Minnesota if Needed; Trump Heading to Florida as Foreign Policy Challenges Consume D.C.; Trump Says He Greatly Respected the Fact That Iran Canceled the Hangings of Hundreds of People. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired January 16, 2026 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:00]

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: -- 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 minus eight in Minneapolis, minus six in Omaha. It's only going to feel like 18 degrees in Indianapolis.

But then when you start having some of these systems come through, that means it's mostly going to be in the form of snow. And you can see that across the Midwest and into the northeast as we go through the early part of the day Saturday, still warm. I wouldn't call it warm, but warm enough that you're getting rain across the southeast.

But then the secondary system comes in, once that colder air has been able to push all the way down to the Gulf Coast. And when it does, that means, yes, you could even see some snow flying around across portions of the northern panhandle of Florida. And yes, even portions of southern Georgia into South Carolina.

It's not going to be all that much, but yes, you could see those snow showers flying around in some flurries. The good news is that system does slide well off into Canada very quickly and should exit most of our region by the time we get to about late morning and around lunchtime.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": All right, Allison Chinchar, thanks so much. And a new hour of "CNN News Central" starts right now.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": President's new warning, tensions are rising in Minneapolis over the administration's immigration crackdown. And now, Trump says he may be forced to act if protests there continue. Plus, the majority of Americans call the first year of President Trump's second term a failure. We're going to take a closer look at the warning signs for Republicans ahead of the midterms.

And the Venezuelan Opposition Leader, Maria Corina Machado, speaks out after her meeting with President Trump, where she gifted him her Nobel Peace Prize. We're following those major stories and many more, all coming in right here to "CNN News Central."

And we are following Breaking News in Minneapolis. Just moments ago, U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commander, Gregory Bovino arrived on the scene right outside the federal building where ICE operates. And it follows this tense scene not long ago when federal officers rushed forward and moved the crowd away from the street.

President Trump has threatened multiple times to use the Insurrection Act to deploy troops to the state. He just spoke about that threat again. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: It's been used a lot. And if I needed it, I'd use it. I don't think there's any reason right now to use it. But if I needed it, I'd use it. It's very powerful.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: All right, CNN's Julia Vargas-Jones is in Minneapolis and joins us now. Tell us the latest there on the ground, Julia.

JULIA VARGAS-JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's been a tense scene, Pamela, over and over again. And we saw officers coming out of these gates. This is the Whipple Federal Building here. That's where we saw Bovino walk out with these officers. But that was perhaps the fourth time today that we saw officers charge up, clearing protesters off the street.

They're saying, basically, keep the streets clear for the vehicles to go in and out. That has also been the basis for the arrests that they've made, at least two -- probably more like four arrests that we saw happen today. Some of them, after protesters do exactly what you're seeing behind me now, coming up to the car, walking onto the street.

Then you have a response from the other side, clearing, sometimes coming out in numbers that exceed the number of protesters. We just saw about at least 30 federal officers come out. We have about 20 or so protesters out here.

We also witnessed a person being arrested with at least five officers on top of this person. So this is what they're saying now. I don't think that you can hear it, but they're saying, don't block the road. The threshold for these officers to take action is very, very low, Pamela, now. But it's clear. They're just saying, don't block the road. We will not tolerate that.

Of course, the reason why these protesters are here, some of them have been saying they just don't want ICE in Minneapolis. They don't want ICE in Minnesota. But more than that, they are saying it is -- they are indignant about the death of Renee Good. And today, we are learning some more details about that. We've spoken to some people here.

They said that they don't believe that this was justified and that they don't think that -- thank you so much -- they don't think that ICE could get away with it, is what one of these protesters said to me. Among the information that we are hearing now about Renee Good's -- the aftermath of her shooting is scores of 9-1-1 calls, one of them from a rather puzzled and shocked community member who called 9-1-1 and said, she's F-ing dead. They F-ing shot her.

[14:05:00]

There's 15 ICE agents, the caller said, and they shot her, like, because she wouldn't open her car door. Like this one. There's a few more calls like that one, Pamela, of puzzled community members. But then, what's interesting is that there's also a call from a man who said he was calling on behalf of Homeland Security, who was on the scene.

Now, that caller says, "We had officers stuck in a vehicle and we had agitators on the scene, and we have shots fired by our locals." He said that's when he requested emergency services and law enforcement. All that information here, Pamela, just aggravating more this crowd. I don't think, from the looks of all this, that there's a de-escalation coming soon here in Minneapolis.

BROWN: No, I would agree with you on that, based on just everything you laid out there. Julia Vargas-Jones, thanks. Jim?

SCIUTTO: Well, as the president was leaving for Florida just a short time ago, he took questions on a range of domestic and foreign policy issues. CNN's Alayna Treene was able to ask one of those questions. Alayna, what did you dig down on?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yeah, look, the president talked on a number of topics from Iran to Venezuela to Minnesota, as Julia was walking through. I pressed him, though, specifically on Iran and this kind of touch-and-go deliberations behind the scenes about whether or not to intervene.

One of my questions specifically was about what the president had said earlier this week. I asked him, you know, you had told anti-government protesters in Iran, that help was on the way. You told them to keep fighting in the streets. I asked him, is help still on the way, and has your bar for intervention changed? Listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TREENE: You urged protesters in Iran earlier this week to keep fighting in the streets and said that help was on the way. Is help still on the way, or has your bar for intervention changed?

TRUMP: Well, we're going to see. As you know, Iran canceled the hanging of over 800 people. They were going to hang over 800 people yesterday, and I greatly respect the fact that they canceled that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TREENE: So the president was saying there, essentially saying that the Iranian government's decision to halt the executions of prisoners definitely impacted his decision there and his thinking. He was also asked, relating to this topic of Iran, about whether or not the United States' Middle Eastern allies, places like Saudi Arabia and Qatar, weighed in on his decision. He said, no, no one convinced me. I convinced myself.

This comes, of course, as my colleagues and I have reported, that some of those Middle Eastern partners had gotten on the phone with President Trump. It also came after Trump had spoken directly with Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu about wanting to hold off. That is what our reporting shows, and that preceded his decision to ultimately do that.

Now, I do want to talk a little bit about, as well, what he said about the Venezuelan Opposition Leader, Maria Corina Machado, who visited the White House yesterday. She had presented the Nobel Peace Prize, which she won last year, to the president and left it with him here at the White House. The president said that she is a very fine woman.

He said that they had a great conversation and that he was honored that she did that. However, he didn't seem to be any closer. He said the meeting didn't seem to move him any closer to potentially thinking that she could be the future leader of the country. He actually went back to what he said. He referenced Iraq and said that back when, he said, remember a place called Iraq when everyone was fired, he said that ended up leading to ISIS and a surgence of that. And so, interesting, of course, following that meeting yesterday, Jim.

SCIUTTO: Alayna Treene, thanks so much. Well, still to come, it's been a pivotal source of information for service members for generations. Now, the Trump administration is stepping in to revamp what officials call woke distractions at Stars & Stripes. The journalists there see it differently.

Plus, Virginia is now joining the nationwide battle over redistricting, how Democrats there are trying to flip several seats. And later, a city council member joins us live to speak about what is happening in Minneapolis as Trump threatens to deploy federal troops.

That and much more coming up on "CNN News Central."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:13:32]

SCIUTTO: The Trump administration is preparing a major overhaul for a vital source of information for the U.S. military for years. Pentagon spokesman announced plans to revamp the Stars & Stripes newspaper, saying "We will modernize its operations, refocus its content away from woke distractions that siphon morale and adapt it to serve a new generation of service members." Stars & Stripes has been a trusted, independently operated organization that has brought news to generations of U.S. service members around the globe. Critics are warning this new move will instead reshape the paper into a political mouthpiece. Joining us now, former CNN Pentagon Correspondent Barbara Starr, now a Senior Fellow at the USC Annenberg Center of Communication, Leadership and Policy. Good to have you, Barbara.

Good to see you, Jim.

SCIUTTO: As you know better than me, and you and I have spent time traveling with and sitting alongside Stars & Stripes reporters through the years. The key word is independent, right? I mean, they operate independently. They've asked hard questions of military leaders for generations. What exactly is the Pentagon outlining here? It does not sound like an independent news organization by any means.

BARBARA STARR, FORMER CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: You know, I think that is spot on. And you're right. You and I have both seen troops reading Stars & Stripes out in the field. It is supposed to operate by mandate under the First Amendment, freedom of speech, a press organization.

[14:15:00]

But now, Hegseth is stepping in and nobody really knows what he ever means when he talks about woke distractions. But what he clearly wants is to control the content. And he wants it to mainly be Pentagon- produced material, government-produced news yet again. And I think that is clearly very problematic for the organization and the very respected journalists they have working there.

Troops read Stars & Stripes. They get detailed information about things like pay, medical care, housing issues, all of the things that are so critical to them. And they get all sides of those stories. It remains to be seen if that's going to happen if Hegseth gets his way.

SCIUTTO: No question. And one key is that future content could be written by active-duty service members, which would put them directly in the chain of command and, I imagine, be another pressure point, right, making them less likely to, well, write things that might be difficult for the chain of command.

STARR: Well, I think that's absolutely right. By having it work that way, they are basically under orders to write and produce news material, if you will, that the command wants, that the Pentagon wants, that Pete Hegseth wants. Stars & Stripes reporters over the years have exercised a great deal of independence.

Now, this isn't the first time this controversy has erupted. During the first Trump administration, there was an effort to cut its government funding, even as it was an independent organization. That failed. Congress stepped in. And we're already seeing some on the Democratic side in Congress want the Pentagon to offer more information about what they have in mind and what they're really up to here. And if Stars & Stripes can really remain independent as it's supposed to be.

SCIUTTO: Yeah, I mean, the language beyond, you know, stopping woke subject matter, this idea of things that would siphon morale because, listen, those in charge could say that anything critical of leadership might siphon morale. Again, that speaks more like a, I don't know, the way the Chinese military might operate a publication as opposed to the way the U.S. would.

STARR: Yeah, I think there's just tremendous concern because, of course, this is all against the backdrop of other things that Hegseth is doing to try and control the flow of information, the press and the media. But he might do well to look around him because young troops, yes, they read Stars & Stripes, but they have so many more sources of information nowadays.

They look at social media. They look at videos. They look at streaming services. They can get much of the type of information that they may be looking for. Now, Stars & Stripes, make no mistake, has that very specific expertise on some of these issues we're discussing. And Hegseth says he wants more about weapons and what he considers to be core military issues.

But I think, these days, his efforts to control the media, the flow of information, the Pentagon Press Corps are really proving to be quite a failure because in today's modern world, with today's modern technology, you really can't stop people from learning and reading the news and getting multiple sources of information about what may really be going on.

SCIUTTO: Yeah and good, well-sourced reporters, even having kicked them out of the Pentagon, right, as you know, have still managed to do a lot of great reporting. Barbara Starr, nice to have you.

STARR: Great to see you.

SCIUTTO: Well, tensions continue in Minneapolis. More than a week after Renee Good was fatally shot by an ICE agent. We're going to be live on the scene once again. Plus, did President Trump give a sneak preview of his plans for the Federal Reserve? He might have. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:23:24]

SCIUTTO: And back to the Breaking News, we are tracking clashes right outside the Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis. The city has seen days of unrest, much of it recorded by cameras. But what's not recording those clashes, body cameras, which are not required to be worn by ICE agents.

DHS spokesperson, Tricia McLaughlin told me today that ICE is working on equipping its officers with body cameras. Joining us now is Minneapolis City Council member, Aurin Chowdhury. Thank you so much for coming on. I wonder what you think about that. Do you think equipping immigration officers with body cameras would help right now? AURIN CHOWDHURY, MINNEAPOLIS CITY COUNCIL MEMBER: I mean, the most important thing that would help right now is if immigration officers leave our city and this unprecedented surge ends, because these agents have caused so much chaos and harm. Of course, any respectable law enforcement should have body cameras to record what's happening so there can be accountability. So it is deeply troubling that they don't have it and that their faces are masked and there is no way to properly identify them either.

BROWN: So it sounds like you would support this move to equip them with more body cameras.

CHOWDHURY: I think any respectable law enforcement should have body cameras. The Minneapolis Police Department and other departments throughout the state of Minnesota do. But the best thing and the most important thing is ICE leaving the city of Minneapolis and Minnesota immediately to stop the harm that they've been causing to our communities.

BROWN: What are you hearing from your constituents about the president's threat to basically send more federal officers or agents and military into the city, including invoking the Insurrection Act?

[14:25:00]

CHOWDHURY: My constituents see what's happening outside every single day. And what they're seeing and what they're telling me is that they're seeing that the agents that are on the ground are causing so much harm, either going into school, property, showing up on school property, having tear gas out in front of small businesses, detaining peaceful constitutional observers.

And I think it's absolutely ridiculous because the people that need to be under control and need to go are the ICE agents. The community here in Minneapolis, before they were here, was peaceful, was good. We were a city that was coming up. We had very low crime rates. And the four shootings that have happened in the city of Minneapolis since the start of the year, two of them have come from ICE.

BROWN: Well, let me just follow up on that because I spoke to Tricia McLaughlin, as I mentioned, the DHS spokesperson, and asked her about the operations there on the ground. And here's what she said about what she views as the solution in Minneapolis. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRICIA MCLAUGHLIN, ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS, DHS: There is a very simple solution here. Tim Walz and Mayor Frey should let us into their jails. Those 1,400 individuals, those criminal legal aliens who have already had their due process, let us in those jails. Let us take those murderers, those rapists, those child pedophiles out. That would simply solve the solution. Work with state and local law enforcement. That is what we're asking.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: She's talking about the sanctuary laws there. Would that solve the problem?

CHOWDHURY: No, absolutely not. I don't even know the problem that she's trying to solve. The problem right now is this invasion from the federal government that is putting everyday citizens at harm. I'm a sitting city council member. I have a whistle around my neck and a passport in my pocket.

That is not normal. That is not OK. And we're seeing these agents consistently violate people's rights. They are detaining people without cause, and there has been a lack of due process. They're barging into people's homes without a judicial signed warrant. It's reckless. It's lawless.

And bringing them in here to do an operation without any accountability will only further cause harm to our community. And this federal government has shown that their goal is to make an example of the city of Minneapolis to see what else they can do to other communities across the country, and I absolutely don't stand for it.

BROWN: Let me follow up on the fact that you're now carrying around your passport. Wolf Blitzer, my co-anchor, asked about DHS Secretary Noem saying yesterday that ICE may ask people to validate their identity, and he asked for clarification if American citizens need to carry documents to prove their citizenship. Here's some of what McLaughlin told us.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MCLAUGHLIN: We have incredibly targeted immigration enforcement operations. So what's happening there is there is reasonable suspicion, if somebody is in the vicinity of this operation of this target, then they could be asked for their identification. I've seen a lot on this network and other places where they're talking about this is racially based. Absolutely not. Racial animus has no place in DHS and is, of course, not used. We're using what is protected under the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: What do you say to that, and are you advising your constituents to bring their papers, proof of identity?

CHOWDHURY: What I say to that is that it's, that's an absolute --

BROWN: Oh, we just lost her. All right, that was Minneapolis City Council Member, Aurin Chowdhury. Thank you so much. Well, redistricting efforts are now underway in Virginia with Democrats pushing a new congressional map ahead of the midterms, but the big question is whether they can convince voters to get behind it.

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