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Party with Motivation Problem; Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY) is Interviewed about the Escalating Tensions; Americans Foot Bill for Tariffs; Trump to Attend Economic Forum; Amesh Adalja is Interviewed about Measles; Supreme Court Could Decide Tariffs. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired January 20, 2026 - 08:30   ET

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

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[08:30:36]

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Today marks the one-year point exactly into President Trump's second stint in the Oval Office. He is very proud of himself, saying America is safer, stronger and more prosperous than ever before. But what do GOP voters think across the country as we get closer and closer and closer to the midterms?

CNN's chief data analyst Harry Enten is with me now.

So, which party has a motivation problem, or do they both?

HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: Yes. OK. The answer is that the party that does have a motivation problem is the Republican Party.

OK, you know, this, I think, sort of tells the story. Extremely motivated to vote this election cycle. You go back to October of 2024, just before Donald Trump was re-elected. Hello, Republican's led on this measure. Sixty-seven percent of Republicans or those who lean Republicans said they were extremely motivated to vote in 2024, compared to just 62 percent of Democrats. Republicans felt like, hey, we're going out for ICE cream, like a child going out for ice cream. You come over to this side of the screen, Republican enthusiasm, down. Now they feel like they're going to the dentist. Just 50 percent of Republicans say they're extremely motivated to vote in 2026, compared to 66 percent of Democrats. That's actually up a little bit.

So, Republicans are depressed in terms of their motivation, compared to Democrats, way -- and very much so compared to Republicans back during the 2024 cycle.

SIDNER: I don't know, it just seems a little surprising that it's actually that low considering all of the things that the Democrats have been complaining about when you're seeing the way the president is -- is going.

ENTEN: Donald Trump drives this.

SIDNER: Yes. So, how does this all translate when it comes to the race for Congress? ENTEN: Yes, OK. So, this is sort of theoretical, right, but this is why it matters so much. You know turnout is lower during a midterm cycle than it is during a presidential cycle. And you want your folks to be motivated to go out there and vote. And this gives the game away right here. Choice for Congress, the margin. Among voters overall in our CNN/SSRS poll, Democrats led by five points. But among those extremely motivated, hello, it's a 16-point advantage. So, Democrats have a turnout advantage. You've been seeing that in those off year elections, right, New Jersey, Virginia governor, those special elections for the House that Democrats have been coming out in droves and very much outperforming the baseline from 2024, how well Kamala Harris did in those districts. And that seems to be translating to our generic ballot measure as well with Democrats, extremely motivated to turn out to vote and have a much larger lead in the race for Congress than they do among voters overall.

SIDNER: All right. So, is there an idea of why GOP voters, the base, who are -- largely love what the president's doing when asked, why they aren't so motivated to go and try and put their Republican into office?

ENTEN: Yes, feeling about Trump is one thing. Then it's about feeling -- how do you feel about those Republicans in Congress, right? And this, I think, is a very important slide because it's essentially saying, hey, do you believe that the GOP is effective at passing laws? And this is among Republicans. In January of 2025, 90 percent of Republicans said that they believe that, in fact, the GOP in Congress to be effective at passing laws. Now it's just 70 percent. That is a huge drop. So, that enthusiasm for Donald Trump isn't necessarily translating enthusiasm for voting for Republicans for office, because Donald Trump is signing a lot of executive orders, and Republicans in Congress aren't necessarily passing a lot of laws.

SIDNER: Congress has not been doing a whole lot when you look at what they've done over the past year.

ENTEN: Yes.

SIDNER: Harry Enten, you are always doing too much. The most.

ENTEN: And very enthusiastic.

SIDNER: Very.

Thank you so much. Appreciate it.

ENTEN: Thank you.

SIDNER: John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, with us now is Congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis, a Republican from New York.

Congresswoman, thanks so much for being with us.

I don't know if you heard Harry's segment right there, but why do you think Republican voter enthusiasm motivation is flagging?

REP. NICOLE MALLIOTAKIS (R-NY): Look, I think it's no surprise that the party in opposition is more motivated because they're not happy with the direction that things are going. But -- and that -- and that is no matter who's in power, right? The thing is that Republicans have to remind the voters what things were like two years ago. You know, under Joe Biden we had open borders, we had a record high nine percent inflation, gas prices rose to $5 a gallon. Things were not good. And cities like mine, we had illegal immigrants wreaking havoc, these gang members, drug traffickers, et cetera.

Since then, we've successfully worked with President Trump to secure the border. We have zero illegal crossings. We have gotten rid of those gangs that were wreaking havoc on our streets.

[08:35:00]

We have a safer country. Crime across all sorts of categories have declined. And we've delivered the record setting tax cuts, which I think is significant. When they -- beginning next week, Americans are going to file their tax returns. Working Americans, middle class families, senior citizens, they're all going to receive more money back. Had the Democrats been in charge, those taxes would have increased. And that's a reality. They said that straight out that they were going to do that. But we delivered on our promises, reducing taxes for tipped workers, overtime workers, seniors who earn $75,000 or $150,000 if married, they're going to get what they paid in Social Security tax refunded to them. We expanded the child tax credit. So, there's a lot of good things that people will see economically as well. We're already seeing trillions of dollars in private investment. And remember, President Trump negotiated a ceasefire that released hostages that were being held in Gaza.

BERMAN: So --

MALLIOTAKIS: A lot of good things have happened over the last year, and we're just getting started.

BERMAN: You -- all right. Almost a day by day recounting of the last 365 days in office there, Congresswoman.

First of all, inflation was very high under Biden. Certainly higher than used to, but not anywhere near a record.

If everything you say is true, then why, in the most recent CNN --

MALLIOTAKIS: Well, nine percent was the highest in four decades.

BERMAN: Hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang -- you said record. It's just not a record.

MALLIOTAKIS: The highest in four decades, nine percent.

BERMAN: It's not a record. It's not a record. But you --

MALLIOTAKIS: All right. Well, it's still the highest in four decades. It's a record in may life (INAUDIBLE).

BERMAN: It's high. I'm just -- I'm just telling -- it's -- I'm not denying it's high. It was very high. Much higher than people are used to, but it wasn't a record.

You -- if everything you say is true, why do voters then say that the president doesn't have the right priorities? In the most recent CNN poll, only 36 percent say he has the right priorities, 64 percent say, no. What do they see?

MALLIOTAKIS: Look, I think -- I think the president needs to stay focused. I think the president needs to stay focused on the issues that the Americans are talking about, right. He has done things that he said he was going to do, right? He said he was going to secure the border. He did that. Great.

However, people don't want to see some of the ways that immigration is being handled. For example, you know, when we have temporary protective status for Haitian communities that are contributing to our health care system here in my district, I have concerns that our nursing homes are going to lose employees come February 3rd.

BERMAN: So --

MALLIOTAKIS: So, there's things that need to be done, I think, in a balanced manner. And I also think the president needs to continue focusing on what he's doing in the economy. He is drilling down prescription drugs in numerous areas --

BERMAN: So, overnight --

MALLIOTAKIS: Yes.

BERMAN: Just overnight, the president didn't seem to be talking about that. What the president was talking about was Greenland. He was posting text messages from world leaders that had sent him on Greenland.

MALLIOTAKIS: Yes.

BERMAN: He was putting up a screenshot of himself planting an A.I. flag over Greenland and Canada. How much of a priority is that to the voters in New York's 11th congressional district?

MALLIOTAKIS: I don't think it's a priority. And that's kind of what I'm trying to say here is that we need to focus on the things that we've done successfully, like lowering taxes, bringing down inflation rates, mortgage rates. You have gas prices are down. They're about $2.80 here in my district. These are things that people want to see and we're delivering on that.

But when you focus on things like Greenland in a way that could be a hostile, I think that that takes away from the successes. And I -- and same thing with immigration, right? People wanted a secure border. They wanted people deported who were criminals. That's happening. But when you see also these -- these broad brush executive orders that would take away temporary protected status from health care workers that we need in our nursing homes right now --

BERMAN: OK.

MALLIOTAKIS: Or slowing down the renewals for parolees from, let's say, Ukraine, who escaped war, who are working right now. They're here, they're working, and they're losing their work authorization. And that -- and becoming illegal, in essence, because they're not being renewed quickly enough, that is a problem and I think that will hurt our economy.

But overall, again, trillions of investment coming on, manufacturing, being repatriated, taxes have come down, energy costs have come down, particularly gas prices. And so that's all positive. But he needs to stay, again, stay focused. I wouldn't focus, if I were him, as much on Greenland. But if -- I understand his strategic posturing here. It is critical for shipping lanes, for critical minerals, but it needs to be done in a diplomatic way, not with threats.

All right. Congressman Nicole Malliotakis, interesting that you were bringing up that in your district you think that some of the president's moves on immigration are going too far.

Thank you for being with us this morning. Appreciate it.

Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking this morning, President Trump's clash with European leaders and threats of new tariffs now rocking markets. Dow futures and global markets, as you can see, they are down and have been down this morning. President Trump has repeatedly claimed, as John was just talking about, that foreign countries also will pay when it comes to any and all tariffs that he's slapped on the world. But a new study suggests the exact opposite is panning out.

[08:40:02]

Matt Egan's got a look at that.

Matt, what are you learning here?

MATT EGAN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Well, Kate, look, this study suggests that the president's tariffs over Greenland could end up backfiring on Americans. So, this comes to us from the Kiel Institute, which is a German think tank. And they analyzed almost $4 trillion of U.S. imports starting January 2024 until last November. And they found that because of tariffs, trade volume, how much stuff was shipped between different countries, it did collapse. But export prices did not fall. And that's significant because if other countries were eating the tariffs, which is what the president has said will happen, then export prices should have been falling. But they did not.

In fact, this study found that foreign exporters, they only had to pay about four percent of the cost of U.S. tariffs.

BOLDUAN: Oh, look at that. EGAN: That's that little sliver in yellow. The vast majority, 96 percent of the tariffs were paid by U.S. importers and U.S. consumers. So, this --

BOLDUAN: So, can we just also reiterate, this is what everyone said was going to happen.

EGAN: This is confirmation of what we expected. Exactly. Right. The president claimed again and again that it would be other countries paying for these tariffs.

And one of the authors of this report summed it up with a sports analogy, saying that, "the tariffs are an own goal. The claim that foreign countries pay these tariffs is a myth. The data shows the opposite. Americans are footing the bill."

Now, all of this seems to completely contradict what the president argued for quite a long time, starting with his Inauguration Day speech a year ago today.

Take a listen to what he said about who would pay for tariffs.

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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And revenues. It will be massive amounts of money pouring into our Treasury, coming from foreign sources.

Foreign nations will finally be asked to pay for the privilege of access to our market. The biggest market in the world.

The evidence shows overwhelmingly that the tariffs are not paid by American consumers, that they're paid by foreign nations and middlemen.

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EGAN: Now, the president has talked a lot about how he's going to try to drive down the cost of living, trying to address affordability. But again, this study suggests that new tariffs, they're going to cause more harm than do good. And they could even drive up prices to go higher.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. There you go. Look at the -- looking at the price hikes on some of those tariff exposed items right there.

Thank you so much, Matt.

EGAN: Thanks, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Sara.

SIDNER: All right, tonight, President Trump will head to the World Economic Forum in Davos where his latest tariff threats will certainly be front and center as he clashes with European leaders over Greenland. CNN's global economic analyst Rana Foroohar joining me now. She is

also the global business columnist and associate editor for the "Financial Times."

I just want to clear something up because we have heard this from President Trump before about who pays for tariffs. So, who ultimately pays for tariffs?

RANA FOROOHAR, CNN GLOBAL ECONOMIC ANALYST: Good question, Sara. Well, you know, the consumers pay. The consumers pay because essentially when goods come in, let's just say from Europe, which might get hit with tariffs over Greenland, that would make, say, a handbag from France more expensive. It would make a washing machine or a car from Germany more expensive for the consumer in the U.S.

Now, of course, consumers can choose not to buy things. And then, of course, that might hit the sales of the exporter. But ultimately, we will be paying more if tariffs are put on goods for a certain country coming into our country.

SIDNER: Former Governor Sununu was talking to our Kate Bolduan this morning and said, look, these tariffs that he is threatening now are sort of like what he threatened before and things went well. The markets didn't crash. There was no recession. And now the president is warning that there are more tariffs coming if they don't back -- these countries do not back him on getting Greenland. How do you see how this plays out?

FOROOHAR: Yes. Well, Sara, this is a really complicated situation. And it's bigger even than the U.S. and Europe, which is pretty big.

President Trump, and the Defense Department, and the new national security strategy have said, look, we want to protect the western hemisphere. And they didn't say this explicitly, but what they also mean is the northern hemisphere. That includes Greenland. There is a sense that Russia and China are becoming more active in this area.

So, this is something that's been a discussion for a long time. It was a discussion even during the Biden administration.

That said, most people think that you need a stronger NATO to protect the Arctic. You know, you want to have access to the rare earth minerals, to the resources that are in places like Greenland. But, you know, ideally, you want to be doing that with partners. You want to be making sure that that area is safe for private and public sector engagement. And right now, Trump is actually, in some ways, I think, threatening to destroy NATO because Europe is really in an existential crisis over this.

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Think about what it means. I mean Denmark owns Greenland. Denmark is a NATO ally. It's looking at another NATO ally saying, we are potentially going to use military force to take part of your country. You know, this is what Russia did in Ukraine. So, it is a really, really big line in the sand for Europe. And I -- what I'm going to be watching, to be honest, is, how does

Europe respond? I mean you're seeing the Nordic nations say we're going to send troops. We might dump treasury bills. You know, you're seeing talk of tariffs. Is Europe really going to stand up and say, enough is enough, or is it going to be like it was the first time around when Trump negotiated that first trade deal with Europe and they said, OK, 15 percent, we can deal.

Big, big next few days in geopolitics that will tell us a lot about the future of Europe and the future of NATO.

SIDNER: Yes, Europe talking about using the trade bazooka. That does not sound good, especially with the markets reacting the way they were reacting today.

FOROOHAR: Yes.

SIDNER: Rana Foroohar, it is always a pleasure to have your mind on these matters. We do appreciate it.

John.

BERMAN: All right, police say a fight between neighbors led to a fire and the death of a family pet. Now a woman is under arrest.

And new this morning, soccer star David Beckham is responding after his son posted a shocking Instagram post calling out his family.

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BERMAN: This morning, a Girl Scout from Iowa is trying to break the stigma surrounding Tourette syndrome. Anna Bennett was diagnosed with Tourettes when she was just 11 years old. She said she struggled growing up and that her tics would cause strangers to stare and made her want to stop going out in public. So, for her Girl Scout Gold Award, she decided to write a children's book to help people understand these neurological disorders. She says she wants to help the next generation understand that a tic is just a part of someone, not a reason to look away. A lovely message.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely.

So, today marks one year since the start of the measles outbreak in west Texas. And a year on, measles cases are still surging across the country, with new cases reported every week since then. At least 171 measles cases in just the first two weeks of this year reported, which is nearly as many as the average annual total in the 25 years since measles was declared eliminated in the U.S.

Over the weekend, Clemson University in South Carolina saw its first case. The university says that that person has been isolated, and they're now doing contact tracing to determine who else was exposed. South Carolina has reported 558 cases, and nearly half of them reported in just the last week.

Joining me right now is Dr. Amesh Adalja, senior scholar at Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security.

Thank you for coming back in, Doctor.

What do you see? When I read all those numbers and you see the numbers continuing to tick up, you see those numbers and you think what about this ever growing measles outbreak?

DR. AMESH ADALJA, SENIOR SCHOLAR, JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY CENTER FOR HEALTH SECURITY: That it's probably not going to be extinguished. That we're going to go back to a time when measles was endemic in the United States prior to elimination, and we will lose elimination status.

And the worst part of this is, this didn't have to be this way. This was a deliberate choice to allow measles to resettle in the United States.

BOLDUAN: Now that there is also this case on a college campus, does that change things? Does that make it all the more complicated? In your mind, does that mean this is going to, at least when it comes to Clemson, like, take off like wildfire now?

ADALJA: It all depends on the vaccination rates in Clemson. We know that pockets of South Carolina have very, very low vaccination rates. Hopefully, many of the students at Clemson were vaccinated as children, so this might not be something that spreads the way it has spread, for example, in elementary schools and preschools where there are a lot of young children that aren't vaccinated. So, usually colleges are resilient because something like this would completely disrupt their ability to conduct classes and to teach the students, if people are in quarantine, people are in isolation, and it's going to be costly. So, hopefully, Clemson has a good plan in place. But they're right in the state that is now the epicenter of the measles outbreak in the United States.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely.

I want to ask you about something when you were on last we were discussing, several medical associations now on -- just yesterday filed a lawsuit that they had said was coming to try to reverse the changes made to the new CDC childhood vaccine recommendations. The lawsuit calls the overhaul that occurred "egregious, reckless and dangerous" and says that it should be declared unlawful what HHS, CDC and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. did.

I had one of the people bringing the lawsuit on just days ago, Dr. Georges Benjamin. Let me play what he said.

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DR. GEORGES BENJAMIN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, AMERICAN PUBLIC HEALTH ASSOCIATION: I think the concern we have, of course, is that it does create a standard and it creates enormous confusion. You may also remember that one of the rationales they did for changing these guidelines was to restore trust. And all they've done now is created more confusion and totally undermine the trust that we have in vaccines. And that's going to result in less people getting vaccinated and ultimately more people getting sick. And some people may even die.

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BOLDUAN: I've been thinking about this as I'm looking at, as I'm looking at this legal fight now. No matter how this now legal fight shakes out when it comes to the vaccine recommendations, when it comes to worrying about confusion, is that damage done? How do you begin to repair it?

ADALJA: I don't know the answer to that question.

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And I agree with you that despite these lawsuits, the damage has already been done. RFK Jr. has ascended to power and has commenced dismantling the whole vaccine ecosystem in the United States, very deliberately, very methodically and very effectively. And he has sowed so much disinformation that it is hard to bring it back.

And I think this lawsuit is important just to show how much he subverted normal regulatory pathways to do this. However, I think that the anti-vaccine movement has now basically gained such a stronghold in our federal government that they've put so much disinformation out under the organ of the CDC, the FDA, the ACIP, that parents and people who don't follow this on a day to day basis have no idea what to think. And we are going to see more vaccine erosion going on in this -- in the United States, as well as more vaccine companies saying, this is not really a good, profitable return on investment because we're stuck in this whole mess that RFK Jr. has created. We should go work on cancer drugs or something where we don't have this regulatory mess and RFK Jr. basically controlling everything.

So, I think it's going to be a long time before we get trust back and we get a robust vaccine ecosystem in the United States because this -- some of this stuff can't -- can't be undone because it's in the minds of people now.

BOLDUAN: Yes. Dr. Amesh Adalja, thank you for coming in. I appreciate your time.

Sara.

SIDNER: All right, this morning, a woman in Florida is under arrest, accused of not only setting her neighbor's house on fire, but the dog that was inside died. The family made it out safely. Their dog, dying from smoke inhalation. Deputies say Jasmine Saintil started the fire Friday after an argument with that neighbor. She now faces arson and aggravated animal cruelty charges.

All right, the son of David and Victoria Beckham is publicly trashing his parents. This morning, David Beckham appears to respond to his son's online post. Brooklyn Peltz Beckham publicly confirming a long- rumored family rift, saying he has no desire to reconcile with his parents. On Instagram he accused his parents of being controlling and trying to ruin his marriage to actress and daughter of a business tycoon, Nicola Peltz. He claimed Victoria canceled Nicola's wedding dress at the last minute and even hijacked the couple's first dance. David Beckham went on CNBC this morning, saying his kids have, quote, "made mistakes on social media" and added, "sometimes you just have to let them do that."

All right now to Russia. People are digging out from the heaviest snowfall that they have experienced in 60 years. Parts of far eastern Russia have been buried under more than six and a half feet of snow just this month, on top of nearly 12 feet in December. Cars are completely covered. You see there, you can't see them. Buildings, entrances blocked and people are carving out paths just to go outside. As you see, that one gentleman there seems to actually be trying to make some fun of all this and using it as a ski slope.

John.

BERMAN: That's a lot of shoveling. That's all I can think about, it's a lot of shoveling. Leave your wipers up on the car if it's going to snow 18 feet.

All right, we are standing by for the Supreme Court to release rulings very shortly in key cases, including potentially a decision on President Trump's tariffs. Investors, needless to say, will be watching very closely. Stock futures down sharply across the board. You can see that they're rattled by the president's recent threats -- new tariff threats to Europe over Greenland. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, said moments ago, U.S. tariffs are, quote, "fundamentally unacceptable."

CNN's Joan Biskupic in Washington.

Joan, will this morning be the one?

JOAN BISKUPIC, CNN CHIEF SUPREME COURT ANALYST: That's the big question. John, they've got about 30 cases that have been argued since last October when the session started. And so it could be any one of those. But there are two that the clock is ticking on, and one is what you just said, the tariffs.

President Trump's tariffs have already collected billions and billions, close to $100 billion for the U.S. Treasury, but also sown confusion across the country and, you know, become a real pocketbook issue, hurting consumers. The legal question that the justices are resolving, and maybe we'll know the answer to, is whether Donald Trump exceeded his authority when he invoked an emergency powers act that dates to 1977 to impose these tariffs. It had never been used for tariffs before.

Now, what everyone should remember is that under the Constitution, Congress has the authority for tariffs. The president can impose them, but has to cooperate with Congress on those. So, we'll see where the court goes on this very important, big money issue. And the reason we think this decision could come sooner rather than

later is because both sides have said there's so much money at stake, there's so much uncertainty. And you can see how the president is now trying to impose even more tariffs for foreign policy leverage. Give us an answer soon.

Second one is incredibly important also here in the U.S., and that has to do with the remedies under the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

[09:00:01]

And, you know, just what remedies exist when states have drawn maps, congressional district maps, that dilute the power