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Court Resumes in Double-Murder Trial of Brendan Banfield, Blood Stain Pattern Expert Testifies; Trump Says We Have to Have Greenland, Denmark Can't Protect It; NATO Allies Bristle at Trump's Plans for Greenland; Markets React to Trump's Recent Tariff Threats; Trump Speaks to the Press on One-Year Anniversary of His Second Inauguration. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired January 20, 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]

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: -- blood spatter, blood cast off. And the core issue is whether Brendan Banfield is the one that stabbed his wife to death, and is he also responsible for staging the crime scene to make it look like the escort who came into the bedroom that day believing Christine Banfield had invited him into her bedroom, was the scene staged to make him look like the person that murdered Christine.

First, let's talk about Christine Banfield. She had eight stab wounds, and there was a knife that actually someone held and performed that murder by stabbing her eight times, some two-and-a-half inches deep.

When we get to the point of the jeans of Brendan Banfield, Brendan's jeans -- and that's the victim right there. That is Christine Banfield, who had the multiple stab wounds. ICU, intensive care pediatric nurse at a hospital. When we get to the point of the blood spatter that was found on Brendan Banfield's jeans, it is explained by the expert where it came from and how it got there.

Let's listen to this testimony.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

IRIS DALLEY GRAFF, EXPERT WITNESS: There are linear distributions of small circular and elliptical stains. They're actually from about the knee to the crotch, and just bracketed to show that general area.

JENNA SANDS, PROSECUTOR: All right. And are those stains cast-off?

GRAFF: These stains could be cast-off. They're consistent with cast- off. We see some progressive change in shape looking across some of the lines, so cast-off cannot be excluded as a mechanism to produce these stains.

SANDS: The Certificate of Laboratory Analysis that was admitted in this case, identifying the DNA contribution to those stains?

GRAFF: Yes.

SANDS: And do you recall whose DNA was found to be in those stains?

GRAFF: The DNA profile of Christine Banfield was found in this area.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CASAREZ: So what the prosecution will argue is that as he was stabbing her, the blood was coming out. That becomes blood spatter that goes into droplets on his pants. And the cast-off is as the knife is coming out, the blood can be cast off of it and also coming onto his clothing.

Just one last thing. With Joseph Ryan, who was the man, the escort that was in the bedroom, Christine Banfield's blood was smeared on his pants, on his hands, on his arms. And the prosecution will be saying that Brendan Banfield, the defendant, the former IRS criminal investigator, smeared Christine's blood on him to stage that scene so he would never be implicated in the murder.

Just about to have cross-examination. The defense says he didn't do it. He's not guilty.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": All right. We'll be looking for that. Jean, thank you so much for taking us through this murder trial.

And we are again watching the White House where President Trump will be appearing at the White House press briefing today on this one-year anniversary of his second term. We will bring that to you when it gets underway. We'll get in a quick break and be right back.

Again, this was supposed to begin at 1 p.m. So this is delayed a little bit, should begin here imminently. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:37:52]

KEILAR: We are keeping our eye on the White House Briefing Room there. The press briefing schedule for 1 p.m. today, but it is a big one because President Trump is going to be making an appearance on this one-year anniversary of his first term. So, we expect this to happen any time here. Should be happening shortly. We're going to be bringing that to you as soon as it does and he gets speaking.

Right now, world leaders are gathering in Switzerland. This is the backdrop, in a way, of this moment here in Washington. They're gathering for the World Economic Forum's annual meeting, but it's really developments in Greenland that are dominating discussions. President Trump's promise to take over the Danish territory has shaken NATO's decades-long alliance. But even as European leaders push for clarity, Trump continues to taunt them.

ERICA HILL, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Today, the president posting an A.I.-generated image, you see it here, of himself planting an American flag on Greenland, flanked by Vice President, J.D. Vance and Secretary of State, Marco Rubio. At the same time, he is continuing these threats of steep new tariffs on E.U. allies who reject his Greenland ambitions. Joining us now is Jim Townsend. He's a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for European and NATO Policy.

We were just discussing briefly in the break, you were walking us through, you were a large part instrumental in the drawdown of the military installations that the U.S. did have in Greenland that were no longer needed after the Cold War. That could, though, be ramped up really at any time, which we've heard from Danish officials.

JIM TOWNSEND, FORMER DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF DEFENSE FOR EUROPEAN AND NATO POLICY: That's exactly right. The Danes have told us the door is open. We just need to go and talk to them and Greenland Home Rule, and work out what it is we feel we need to do, and then we could go ahead and do it. This was something that we've known ever since the end of the Cold War.

KEILAR: So the need of Trump's, it appears, this desire of his to basically have ownership of Greenland, is it only a need as far as U.S. national security interests go if the U.S. is no longer in NATO? Well, you know, this is the need that he is laying out, that there's Chinese ships, there's Russian ships, that you have to own this territory in order to protect it. It's absolutely wrong.

There are not those ships there. The Chinese are more interested in Taiwan, and the Russians are more interested in Ukraine.

[13:40:00]

I still work this daily with the Greenlanders. There's not ships up there. That's not the kind of threat. If there was a threat that came along that we needed to actually help protect Greenland, help NATO do that, because it's a NATO job, the Danes and Greenlanders would say, welcome home.

HILL: So to that point, we had some pushback, I believe it was yesterday, maybe it was the day before, from China on this narrative that we're hearing out of the White House. But also, we had here on CNN a member of the Danish parliament who also was the former minister of business affairs, pushing back on the president's Truth Social post that for 20 years, right, this has been an issue, and Greenland and Denmark can't keep them out. He said, we very clearly kept China and Russia out.

TOWNSEND: I have worked Greenland and Denmark and Europe since 1990, up until 2017. That has never been the case. We've worked very closely with Denmark on Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya. Danish forces going into there. I kept my eye on Greenland to make sure there wasn't an issue there, the Chinese weren't trying to get in, or the Russians. That was never there.

So we would talk about it every year. We would meet with Denmark and with Greenland to talk about these things, and no one saw the threat. NATO didn't see the threat either. So, this wasn't something that we were pushing the Danes on and arguing with them. It's not at all. It was something we all monitored and watched, along with Norway and Iceland.

You know, we all were watching that northern area up there, and there was not a threat to Greenland that would cause us to go back the way we were during the Cold War.

KEILAR: Yeah. The Danes bled and died with the U.S. in the post-9/11 wars, and it's important to remember that. Can you take us through the process that you were in during the '90s, of drawing down and what you think it would take to maybe ramp back up, if that is what it would take to secure U.S. interests?

TOWNSEND: Well, drawing down meant that we had to negotiate with the Danes and Greenlanders on how we'd go about doing it for environmental cleanup, excess equipment that would be left behind, structures. It was just very bureaucratic, but we had to negotiate these things. And as we negotiated, we said we might need to be back, and they said, of course.

If we need to go back, the first thing we would do is go to Copenhagen, meet with the Danes. The Greenlanders would be there, too. We'd lay out what the threat is, and they would be very aware of it as well.

And we would say, this is what we feel we need to do. And we would say, we need to go to our base, Thule. It's under another name now, but the Thule base that we left behind, we need a longer runway. We need more hangars for aircraft. We might want to have a divert field somewhere.

And we would lay out what we'd like to do, and they'd look at that and say, that looks good for us. We'll work with you on trying to help set this up. But there's not a lot of infrastructure in Greenland. There's not highways and this type of thing. So you want to build something, it's a feat. It's something that's difficult to do. But we've done it in the past, and we could do it in the future, and Greenland and Denmark would help us do it.

HILL: How do you assess the president's claim that this is vital for U.S. national security?

TOWNSEND: Greenland is vital for U.S. national security in the sense that it is something where we have a major radar up there right now at Thule. It helps us keep an eye on the Russian northern fleet, which is up well north of Norway. So it's an important place for us to keep an eye on that part of the world.

It's vital, and because it is vital, we keep our eye on it. Because it's vital, we have the base there. Because it's vital, NATO and Denmark and Greenland pay a lot of attention to the defense up there. So it is vital as a piece of geography. And because it's vital, we have to keep overwatch on it. But we haven't seen threats to it since the Cold War.

KEILAR: Yeah, that is such an important reminder. Jim, you are the person to talk to --

(LAUGH)

KEILAR: -- in this moment. So it's great to have you here. Jim Townsend, thank you so much for being with us. Really appreciate it.

TOWNSEND: You're very welcome.

KEILAR: And you are watching right now the White House Briefing Room, where President Trump is expected to be joining the briefing at any moment once that gets underway. It was scheduled for 1 p.m. Eastern. Not unusual for it to be delayed a little bit. It is considerably delayed at this point. So we are really waiting to see when this begins and what we hear on a very important day. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:47:18]

HILL: We are, of course, keeping a close watch on the Briefing Room at the White House as we wait for President Trump to make his was out. Today marks one year that the president has been back in office for his second term, so his set to address reporters in the Briefing Room.

As Brianna noted just before the break, as we keep an eye on this, it was scheduled to start at one. Not uncommon for things to be a little bit late, but here we are 1:47. So as that does happen, we'll bring it to you live. While we are -- looks like there may be some movement actually in the Briefing Room.

KEILAR: And the door is closed.

HILL: And the door closed. Yeah, so for a moment, there was movement, now the movement is hidden behind the doors. So we continue to wait. As we do, we are also keeping a close watch today on the financial markets. Tensions, of course, between President Trump and European allies really flaring when it comes to Greenland and these tariff threats.

I mean, look at the indices, the major indices right there. You seem them all in the red, somewhat large drops there as we are looking at it. As these fears of a trade war have been re-ignited with these promises of additional tariff threats. There are also questions about the so called trade bazooka that could come from Europe. All of this happening as there is a new study that shows that the real impact of President Trump's tariffs.

KEILAR: That's right. They are being paid for almost entirely by you, by Americans. The German Kiel Institute looked at more than 25 million shipment records, found that U.S. importers and consumers paid 96 percent of the tariffs, foreigners paid only four percent. We are joined now by Douglas Holtz-Eakin. He was Chief Economist for the White House Council of Economic Advisers under President George W. Bush. He is also the president of the American Action Forum.

All right. You wrote that arguing tariffs have no impact is like arguing there is no gravity. Is the tariff impact -- oh, actually, standby, Doug, here's the president. Let's listen in. DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: It's a big crowd.

(LAUGH)

TRUMP: It's a lot of people. I think it's like a record. So, these are accomplishments. We have a lot of accomplishments. And as you know, this is the anniversary, first anniversary, January 20th. And it's been an amazing period of time.

We have a book that I'm not going to read to you, but these are the accomplishments of what we've produced, all page after page after page, individual things. I could stand here and read it for a week and we wouldn't be finished. But we've done more than any other administration has done, by far, in terms of military, in terms of ending wars, in terms of completing wars.

Nobody has really seen very much like it. I think it's appropriate that, because Minnesota is so much in the fray, and I say to my people all the time, and they're so busy doing other things, they don't say it like they should.

[13:50:00]

They're apprehending murderers and drug dealers and a lot of bad people. And these are just some of the more recent ones that we have. And I can show you some of the people, vicious, many of them murderers. These are all out of Minnesota, just Minnesota.

I say, why don't you talk about that more? Because people don't know. Do you want to live with these people? International murder. These are people that are living where (ph) they're apprehended and either put in jails in their country from where they came or the countries respect us and so they actually put them there. In the old days, they didn't respect our country.

Biden wouldn't do this because he let them all in. You know, if you didn't have open border policies of Biden, none of this, all of the things that we -- all the time that we spent talking about Minnesota and everything else, most of them are coming from out of the country. And it's been caused by a previous administrator.

Look at this, one after one. Boy, these are rough characters. These are all criminal, illegal aliens that, in many cases, they're murderers. They're drug lords, drug dealers. They're the mentally insane. Some of them who are brutal killers, they're mentally insane. They're killers, but they're insane. These are just in Minnesota and California.

It's worse. In other states, it's worse. You know, Minnesota, the crime is incredible. The financial crimes are incredible. And the problem is because of the agitators and insurrectionists, whatever you want, troublemakers. But they're paid agitators and insurrectionists.

Nobody talks about the fact that $19 billion at a minimum is missing in Minnesota, given to a large degree by Somalians. They've taken it. Somalians, can you imagine? And they don't do it. A lot of very low-IQ people, they don't do it. Other people work it out and they get a money and they go out and buy Mercedes Benz. And they come from here. They have no money. They never had money. They never had a life.

They never had a government. They never had a country because there's basically no country. Somalia is not even a country. They don't have anything that resembles a country. And if it is a country, it's considered just about the worst in the world. They come here and they become rich and they don't have a job.

I was told that Ilhan Omar is worth $30 million. She never had a job. She's a crooked Congressman.

So here's another one. And I have, oh, by the way, we just took out a sweat (ph). These are all what ICE is doing. And it's a dangerous job. These are rough. These are rough people. Weapons, this one here is very bad. I'm going through this because I think we have plenty of time.

I'm going to a place, beautiful place in Switzerland, where we'll be -- I'm sure I'm very happily awaited for. In Switzerland, they don't know about this. They don't have this problem. They have other problems, but they don't have this problem.

Look, killed somebody -- and these are rough people. These are not -- this was all allowed into our country through open borders. These dumbest policies. You know, men and women's sports is dumb. But to me, having an open border for the world to come in, drug dealers and prisoners, Venezuela, as an example, opened their prisons into the United States. That's why one of the reasons I felt so strongly against Venezuela.

Now, I'm loving Venezuela. They've been working with us so well. It's been so nice. And an unbelievably nice woman also did a very incredible thing, as you know, a few days ago. She's -- we're talking to her and maybe we can get her involved in some way. I'd love to be able to do that. Maria, maybe we can do that. But we're dealing with the people (inaudible) the president and all of the people in Venezuela.

And we've been doing great. The oil companies are getting ready to make massive investments there.

[13:55:00]

They have more oil than even Saudi Arabia. There you go. These are real. These are rough. This is all Minnesota, every one of them. This is one state out of many. And these people are, let's see. Yeah, these are all so far people that came from outside of the country. They were allowed in by sleepy Joe Biden, crooked Joe Biden, whichever you like. You can call him whatever you like. They're both right. He's sleepy and he's crooked.

He was the worst president we've ever had. And we've had some bad ones, too. I can tell you, all you have to do is look at trade.

You're not getting bored with this, right? I hope you don't. But these are people that you have to see. Strong-arm rape, aggravated assault with a weapon, and many other crimes. Gang member, known as one of the toughest people around. These are tough people. So this is what the people are trying to protect, because all ICE wants to do is get them out of our country, bring them to prisons and jails and mental institutions from where they came.

That's all they want to do. They're patriots, and they have to be abused by guys like Don Lemon, who's a loser, lightweight. I saw him the way he walked in that church, it was terrible. I have such respect for that pastor. He was so calm. He was so nice. He was just accosted.

What they did in that church was horrible yesterday. Look at it here. Twenty-four convictions. Twenty-four times convicted. They are not charges, these are convictions. So he comes from outside the country. Do you think he's going to be good here? Convicted 24 times. He's going to be good here, right? It doesn't work that way. He's a man of murder. He's one of many, one of many.

All they want to do is get them out. They want to take them out of our country. And we're met with paid agitators and insurrectionists, troublemakers. They're paid. You know, when the woman was shot, and I felt terribly about that. And I understand both sides of it, but when she was shot, there was another woman that was screaming, shame. Shame, shame, shame, right? You saw it. So loud, like a professional opera singer. She was so loud and so professional.

She wasn't a woman that was hurt, like, oh, my heart's injured. She was a professional. Shame, shame. She's screaming, shame, shame. I said, that's not a normal person. That's a professional. These are professional agitators and professional people that want to see our country do badly. But that's not happening because we have the hottest country anywhere in the world, despite this stuff.

Look at this. All top-of-the-line criminals. They're not going to be good. They're not going to be well-behaved here. I could do -- I could do thousands. We had over 3,000 in the last fairly short while, just in Minnesota.

What's the number, Karoline?

KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Ten thousand.

TRUMP: Ten thousand?

LEAVITT: Ten thousand criminals arrested in Minnesota alone.

TRUMP: Ten thousand criminals, and these are serious criminals. Now, how can a place with ten thousand criminals -- how can you have a state? And yet, they're fighting us.

See, I like that guy. He keeps nodding to me. And you agree with me, I guess. I like him. I don't know who he is, but I like him. He keeps nodding. He says, you're right.

(LAUGH)

TRUMP: He's obviously a little on the right side, maybe. Look, these are rough ones. So this -- we just took this off a stack. We have many stacks like this. Like, I could go 30 times what I'm showing you now.

Relations with Hezbollah, that's nice. Why do we allow them in our country? I'm just looking at these charges. It's just pretty incredible. Many murderers. Many, many murderers, people that murdered.

So what ICE does -- and Border Patrol --