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Interview with Rep. Mike Haridopolos (R-FL): Poll Shows 58 Percent Call Trump's First Year in Second Term a Failure; FAA Warns Airlines to Exercise Caution Near Central, South America; ChatGPT Rolling Out Ads for Some Users; NASA Prepares for Historic Artemis II Rocket Rollout. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired January 16, 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]

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: Well, new CNN poll finds a majority of Americans think President Trump is focused on the wrong priorities. What Republicans in Congress are thinking about that as they prepare for the midterms.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN HOST: A new CNN poll out just today shows falling approval ratings for President Trump on a number of issues as he and the Republican Party enter a critical midterm year. One of the more notable results, nearly 60 percent of Americans surveyed described the first year of President Trump's second term as a failure. His numbers within the Republican Party do remain high, however, although independents, he's down about two to one.

[15:35:00]

Joining me now to discuss Republican Congressman Mike Haridopolos of Florida. Good to have you on. Thanks so much for taking the time.

Thank you.

SCIUTTO: So these numbers are not good. I think you might even admit that, and just his overall approval rating has dropped again below that 40 percent threshold, which for presidents is, it's not a good number to be.

It's 39 percent now, it was 37 in the last, in the last most recent CNN polling. Does that concern you as you head towards the midterms when you'll be up?

REP. MIKE HARIDOPOLOS (R-FL): Well, look, it's not surprising given the usual news coverage he does get. But I do know this, when I was elected last year for the first time, the big issue was immigration. We have clearly closed the border. Good news.

The other big issue, of course, is rising prices. We now have inflation under 3 percent. We have a 401k now, about 15 percent higher than it was at the beginning of the year. And we also see a falling interest rates and, of course, economic growth through the roof right now.

So I think things are better than they were a year ago. But look, politics is politics. It's going to go up and down. We think our good policies, which are moving the economy forward, are making results.

And people will decide about a year from now, what's the better direction, the current economic direction or going back to Joe Biden 2.0?

SCIUTTO: Well, people were asked that very question in this poll, and they said the direction of the country, not heading in the right direction. And on those issues, both immigration and economic issues, which, you know, the president typically polls quite strongly on, the president's underwater on both those issues. People are looking at what they see.

They don't like it.

HARIDOPOLOS: Well, what they see on shows like CNN sometimes get a little biased. But beyond that case.

SCIUTTO: There are a lot of other news outlets.

HARIDOPOLOS: There is. But I would say this. You can't lie about the numbers in this way. You see that unemployment's down.

You see that your 401k is up. Interest rates are down. Gas prices are down.

Economic growth is up in a big way. We think those are numbers when more people hear about them. And when they feel the tax cut that we passed last July, that things will get better.

But right now, yes, it's a year out. We're always concerned about that. But what we should be focused on most is good policy, in my opinion, make good politics.

And we'll see where we are a year from now.

SCIUTTO: I talk to a lot of Republicans who don't paint as rosy a picture as you do about what these numbers mean and what the midterms look like for Republicans. Do you think you might be a little Pollyanna-ish based on what you're seeing?

HARIDOPOLOS: First of all, I'm an optimist. I'm an American after all. Right.

I believe in the future is great if we follow principles that really matter. And so with that in mind, we're not running against perfection. We're running against Democrats.

And the Democrats were in power for four years. They never cut taxes on overtime, tips, or Social Security. A lot of things they're talking about now, they had the power to do that in the Joe Biden years.

They didn't do it. And as you know, we had chaos. You're an expert on foreign affairs.

We had chaos overseas, whether it be Ukraine, Afghanistan, let alone the border. We think we're moving in the right directions there as well. And unlike most years, we actually are keeping up with the Democrats and fundraising for a change.

So hopefully we can at least be on your network and others with an equal playing field.

SCIUTTO: When you speak to your own voters, do they think that President Trump is too focused on places like Venezuela, Iran, Greenland, and not focused enough at home? Because again, that's what the CNN polling is showing. Are they happy with those?

HARIDOPOLOS: You know, I keep very close contact with our district. They see that we're making progress, but like I've said to the voters back home, we still have a long way to go.

I mean, interest rates, in my opinion, are way too high. Remember, they went from 3 percent to 7 percent under Joe Biden. We saw inflation get as high as 9 percent under Joe Biden.

But people are still feeling those high prices. So no one's happy right now. We're trying to move in that right direction.

But I think when you talk about overseas, again, the president has settled, I think, eight wars now overseas.

SCIUTTO: He says he has. I mean, some of those wars he claims to have settled, they're still fighting.

HARIDOPOLOS: The other good news in Venezuela, as you know, Jim, is that the Biden administration put a $25 million bounty on Maduro's head. The good news, we took him out without having a war on the streets. So we're making progress.

And let's hope for the freedom in Iran as well. I mean, this is since 1979. You see that theocracy has taken away the rights of so many people in Iran.

SCIUTTO: I've been there many times. Susie Wiles says that they're planning to put Trump on the ballot in 2026 to turn out low propensity voters. As you know, oftentimes for Republicans, they do better when Trump's on the ballot.

And, you know, presidents don't do great during midterms just historically. From your perspective, do you want Trump on the ballot these midterms? Do you think that'll be good for your district and for Republicans more broadly?

HARIDOPOLOS: I think he's going to play well because he is what he's an entertainer. People like being around the president. If you ever get close and you see people, get the opportunity to meet him, he's a very gracious fellow one on one.

That said, we run as a team. And this team has moved the ball forward on economics, in my opinion, and we moved the ball forward on foreign policy. Again, you and I would also disagree.

There's a long way to go because we inherited such a, let's just say a ditch when we came in in 2025. But if the president is a person who really believes in this country, he's trying to do a lot like FDR did.

Let's throw a lot of ideas out there to get this economy moving again. And as you saw with the latest economic growth numbers, at least we're moving in that right direction.

SCIUTTO: Before we go, I do want to ask you about the health care plan that the president health care, let's call it an outline. It's not a piece of legislation here. Is this something that Congress, Republicans have control of both the House, and the Senate is going to act on this year?

[15:40:00]

It's certainly not legislation. So you'd have to do a lot of work getting things down on paper. Is this an action plan or is it more a list of talking points?

HARIDOPOLOS: We haven't seen the full action plan, as you know. The good news is, before Christmas, we passed the bill out of the House of Representatives. According to the CBO, the Congressional Budget Office, which will lower Obamacare rates by about 11 to 12 percent.

That's a good number. We also want to move the tax credits. They're called tax credits.

Yet they go right to insurance companies. We want them to go to the individuals that they have the power because after all, when an insurance company gets the money directly, they don't have an incentive to give you care. The more they deny you, the more they get to keep in their pockets.

We want to make that direct tax credit directly to the people as opposed to going to insurance companies because the one group that's actually done well since Obamacare started were insurance companies. You and I have seen a huge increase in our monetary premiums, but our deductibles as well.

SCIUTTO: Mark Haridopolos, thanks so much for taking the time to join the show.

HARIDOPOLOS: Thank you very much. Have a great weekend.

SCIUTTO: Just ahead, a big change is coming to ChatGPT ads. We will tell you exactly how they will work and where and when you might see them. Please do stay with CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

[15:45:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCIUTTO: Breaking news just into CNN. The Federal Aviation Administration is warning airlines to exercise caution when flying near Central and South America due to the risk of potential military activity. CNN Aviation correspondent Pete Muntean is following this military activity by whom and where exactly?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: That's the big question right now. And we've heard from the Federal Aviation Administration that this was not requested necessarily by the U.S. military, but it's primarily the FAA acting on its own. This is big, but not necessarily unprecedented.

Remember that the Federal Aviation Administration shut down pretty much all of Caribbean airspace the day after the Maduro strike, which caught a lot of people up in that mess. I wanted to sort of read you a little bit of these NOTAMs. There's a series of about seven of them.

Those are notices to airmen or pilots. And essentially, this is not a shutdown, but a strongly worded warning from the Federal Aviation Administration to U.S. airlines saying there could be the potential for military activity and global navigation satellite system interference or GPS spoofing is the common term. And the verbiage here says potential risks exist for aircraft at all altitudes, including overflight and the arrival and departure phases of flight.

Now, this is an area that has been a little bit hot lately. We're talking the Pacific coast of Mexico all the way down into Panama and the South America. This is a really, really wide swath of airspace.

And so the big question now is, is this essentially clearing the path for more military strikes on drug boats? This has been an area that's been of concern to the United States. But is this also talking about nefarious activity by other actors because of GPS spoofing?

So there's some really big questions that this opens up a big can of worms here.

SCIUTTO: Listen, GPS spoofing, we've seen that in Europe to some degree.

MUNTEAN: Yes, in Russia and Ukraine

SCIUTTO: And Russia is blamed -- blamed on Russia and that causes genuine safety issues for pilots.

MUNTEAN: Yes, I mean, if you don't have -- if you can't tell where you are in space, where you are on the map, then that's a huge, huge problem. And so we've seen these GPS spoofing incidents become more and more common to essentially confuse other actors and also potentially confuse pilots who are flying their airplanes at any one given time. It could lead to pilots having to essentially go back to the old methods by using ground based radio navigation rather than GPS, which is much, much more --

SCIUTTO: Not quite sextants out of the cockpit.

MUNTEAN: Right.

SCIUTTO: Before we go, have you have you seen warnings like this prior to other U.S. drug boat strikes?

MUNTEAN: Well, the U.S. has sort of ramped up these warnings and have kind of told airline operators before to sort of stay away from specific areas. And and these warnings occasionally precipitate something. It's not necessarily a big red flag, although it could be at least hinting at something going forward.

SCIUTTO: I'm a passenger on that plane. I would you know, I'd certainly be concerned. Pete Muntean, thanks so much.

MUNTEAN: Anytime.

SCIUTTO: Pam.

BROWN: All right, Jim. New today, one of the most popular A.I. tools on the market is about to get a major update. OpenAI now says that it's going to test out in-app ads for some ChatGPT users. CNN's Clare Duffy joins us now with all the details. All right, Clare, how is this all going to work?

CLARE DUFFY, CNN TECH REPORTER: Yes, Pamela, so ChatGPT is going to start testing, showing users ads in their conversations. This is for logged in adult U.S. users, and it'll be based on the contents of their conversations. So these ads will show up at the bottom of ChatGPT's answers.

They will be labeled. And OpenAI says that the quality, the response that ChatGPT gives users will not be determined by the ability to show a user an ad. They're trying to reassure users here that the answers will still be based on the best information, not necessarily the ad opportunity for the company.

They're also saying that the data of users conversations will not be shared with advertisers. Users will have the opportunity to turn off ad personalization and ChatGPT will continue to offer paid ad free tiers. So the free tier of ChatGPT and a new $8 a month tier called Go that the company announced today, those will have ads, but it's Pro, Plus and Business tiers will be ad-free if users are willing to pay for them.

BROWN: So Sam Altman, the CEO and founder of OpenAI, once had reservations about putting ads in ChatGPT. What has changed here?

DUFFY: Yes, this is really interesting. Sam Altman once called the idea of combining AI and ads uniquely unsettling. He said he personally hates ads, although over the years he has kept open the possibility that ChatGPT might introduce something like this.

What's changed is that the company is pretty urgently trying to figure out how to get more revenue from its 800 million ChatGPT users.

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The company is on the hook now for about $1.4 trillion in commitments to build out AI infrastructure over the next eight years. And last year, the company brought in around $20 billion in annual revenue. So this really is a business imperative. And you can see how this could be a potentially lucrative opportunity for the company.

ChatGPT knows a lot about its users because they tell it things, you know, if you're planning a trip with ChatGPT, they could serve you hotel ads. But this could be controversial for those same reasons. Users might not want to share their personal information for advertising.

So it's going to be really interesting to watch how users respond to this one, Pamela.

BROWN: It sure will be. All right, Clare Duffy, thanks so much.

Well, NASA is about to roll out the rocket and spacecraft it will use to send astronauts around the moon for the first time since 1972. That's next.

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BROWN: Well, NASA is one step closer to sending humans back to the moon. The historic Artemis 2 mission will send four astronauts into deep space for the first time since the final Apollo mission back in 1972. And tomorrow, the agency will begin rolling out the 11 million pound rocket and its Orion spacecraft toward the launch pad.

[15:55:00]

SCIUTTO: Yes, they haven't asked me. I really do want to go, but they haven't asked me yet.

BROWN: I do too, come on.

SCIUTTO: It is a glacial process though, as the vehicle that transports rockets that size can only move at one mile per hour. NASA officials gave an update on the mission earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JACOB BLEACHER, CHIEF EXPLORATION SCIENTIST: This is a very historic moment, an exciting moment. We're rolling out the integrated SLS and Orion for a flight that will carry four of our friends, our NASA family members, around the moon and bring them safely back to Earth.

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SCIUTTO: Joining us now, Anthony Colangelo, host of the Space Podcast Main Engine Cutoff. Anthony, good to have you.

ANTHONY COLANGELO, HOST, MAIN ENGINE CUT OFF PODCAST: Great to be here, thanks.

SCIUTTO: All right, so they're going to go into deep space. How soon are they planning to land back on the moon?

COLANGELO: The moon landing is quite a ways off at this point. This is the first mission with crew of this vehicle and system overall, so this has to go well to actually make our way out to a lunar landing. What they would tell you right now is 2028 would be the date for that landing, but what anyone in the industry would tell you is that is an unlikely date because there is a lot to do between now and then.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

BROWN: Yes, and we've seen other timelines shift, right, similar projects. So how much is Artemis borrowing from the Apollo missions? The last was in 1972, as I mentioned earlier.

COLANGELO: Well, if you're looking at these images here, you'll see that it borrows actually a lot from the shuttle program, more so than Apollo, definitely Apollo an inspiration, but shuttle and hardware, the core stage, the boosters there, those look a lot like what the space shuttle flew on because they are what the space shuttle flew on. The engines that we're looking at down below, those are space shuttle main engines. So we're reusing a lot of the shuttle era hardware to create this rocket, but then the mission profile, obviously very similar to Apollo missions.

This one's a little different than Apollo missions that did fly because they're not actually going to lunar orbit on this mission. They'll be in Earth orbit for a period of time and then swing out by the moon and come on back to Earth in, you know, a week-long mission right off the bat.

SCIUTTO: Yes, it does look a little like the shuttle booster rockets. A new flight path that they're using here. Tell us the importance of that.

COLANGELO: It's a flight path called a free return trajectory. So what that means is they're in that initial Earth orbit. They boost up to a higher Earth orbit for about a day to check out all the systems to make sure that they're good to go. Because once they commit to going to the moon, there's no coming back until you make it around the other end.

But what's key about it is that they don't have to fire their engines again when they're out at the moon to make their way home. They will swing around and use the lunar gravity to make their way back to Earth. So that is really good from a safety perspective because once you commit to going to the moon, you know you don't need your engines to get back.

And this being the first crew flight test of the vehicle, they really want to make sure that safety is paramount. They're checking out a lot of the life support systems and the, you know, overall crew systems inside to make sure that they can work out. There's space to live and eat and everything they need to do on their way to the moon.

BROWN: So the end goal here is to establish this permanent lunar base. What purpose would that serve exactly?

COLANGELO: Oh, man, you're cracking into a hotly debated question in the space community. There's a lot of people that have different reasons for it, right? Some people will equate it to what we do in Antarctica, which is a lot of scientific research. And there's others that will be the more geopolitical angle, which is establishing some territory on the moon because China has a space program that's going for a lunar landing as well. So there is some geopolitical importance and strategic importance of those locations on the moon. But, you know, then there's others that say pure science, pure technology development, pure inspiration, like it all came out of the Apollo era and created, you know, a lot of the tech in the space industry today.

SCIUTTO: How much of it is about going the next step onto Mars, right? You know, not just the rocket technology getting that far out into space, but even like a moon base. How much of it is really looking beyond the horizon?

COLANGELO: Well, the lunar lander that we're going to be using here is SpaceX's Starship. And that vehicle is really designed with Mars landings in mind. It just so happens to work out pretty well for a lunar landing as well because of the sheer size and the systems that it's got on board.

So in that way, we are developing one of the key things that we need to go to Mars. And in other cases, there's a lot of debate about exactly how much from a technology level ties into Mars missions. But I think operationally, learning how to live in deep space, learning what the radiation environment is like, learning what to do, you know, when you're far away from Earth and you can't get back in a matter of days like you could from the ISS when you have a medical condition and you have to come home soon.

There's a lot of things that are different when you head out that far from Earth.

SCIUTTO: Yes, I was just thinking that.

BROWN: An astronaut just came back to us.

SCIUTTO: Yes. Anthony Colangelo, thanks so much. I love space stories.

BROWN: I do, too. I can tell. You were nerding out a little bit over there, Jim.

SCIUTTO: Well, I used to when Bill Nelson was the administration at NASA. Every time he was on, I was like, hey, can I go on the next mission? He's never said yes.

BROWN: Well, there's always hope. There's always time, right? "THE ARENA" with Kasie Hunt starts right now.

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