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FEMA Halts Terminations; The Numbers on the Upcoming Storm; Natural Gas Prices Surge; Emilia Gonzalez Avalos is Interviewed about an Economic Protest in Minnesota; Rep. Gabe Amo (D-RI) is Interviewed about Ukraine and Russia Talks; Defense grills Investigators in Banfield Trial. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired January 23, 2026 - 08:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:32:32]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, happening now, the monster winter storm is already in parts of the U.S. It could bring feet of snow and deadly ice. I mean, look at that. You're talking nearly, you know, two feet of snow, not far from Oklahoma City. A foot and a half in places like New York, maybe Washington, Philadelphia as well. These are big, big snow totals.

With the storm coming in, FEMA halted layoffs that have been going on, though hundreds of FEMA workers are already gone. The former FEMA administrator just told Kate about how important the agency is in moments like this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CRAIG FUGATE, FORMER FEMA ADMINISTRATOR: By and large, in ice storms, FEMA has historically provided financial assistance when it's reached thresholds of catastrophic losses to, you know, state and local governments. You know, ice is primarily going to be power outages and roads shut down. Not a lot of structural damage. So, unlike a hurricane or earthquake or even wildfires, damages tend to be more of the response cost. And again, the states will have the opportunity, if they find that they need assistance, to make those requests, and the administration will make decisions about that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Let's get right to CNN's Gabe Cohen, who's done so much reporting on FEMA over the last year.

Talk to us about the layoffs that are or are maybe now not happening.

GABE COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. So, John, this is something that happened really abruptly on Thursday afternoon, just hours after Secretary Kriti Noem had made a really rare appearance at FEMA headquarters, where she was briefed on this huge incoming storm. There was an email that went out yesterday afternoon saying that the agency was going to stop these abrupt terminations of employees whose contracts are ending in the days ahead.

It's really notable because that has been the practice at the agency since January 1st. Throughout 2026, employees whose contracts have ended have almost all been dismissed from FEMA. We are talking about 300 or so disaster workers who are gone now. Again, almost everyone who -- whose contract came to an end.

Now, the Department of Homeland Security has defended those cuts. They told me that these are term limited positions. They are designed to fluctuate based on disaster activity, operational need and available funding. But the reality is, those positions have not fluctuated like this in the past, John, and the cuts have been causing a lot of chaos and confusion because they are not based on performance or need.

And bear in mind that nearly half of the agency's workforce is going to see their employment contracts expire at some point this year. So, there have been concerns about much broader cuts. And even senior folks at FEMA really don't know what the long term plan is.

[08:35:04]

But now with this storm bearing down on the U.S., the administration has decided, well, at least for now we don't want to be cutting any more disaster workers. We don't know if this is about optics or if it is actually about losing key people ahead of this storm. But I do know that that winter blast that we are watching in the coming days played a significant role in that decision to stop the cuts, at least for now.

And it really tells you how concerned officials are about this storm across FEMA and across the administration. I can tell you the agency has now activated its national response coordination center. They have been deploying teams across the country to states like Texas, Virginia, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and they've also been pre-staging assets. We're talking about generators, 250,000 meals, 400,000 liters of water. All of that being stationed in Louisiana. And so, again, they are trying to be as prepared as possible, but it is also going to come down to how the states respond and some of the local governments respond, because this could really be a mess and they're preparing for a big federal response.

BERMAN: Yes, FEMA could very much be in need over the next several days.

Gabe Cohen, great reporting, as always. Thank you very much.

I just keep looking at this map.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: I was just doing the same. I was just staring at it.

BERMAN: Yes, I mean the snow totals. You know, right over us.

BOLDUAN: We were actually -- John and I were actually joking. We were like, are they -- making sure the maps were right because the snow totals, like, did not make -- just -- they defy what one -- what logic should present.

As we keep an eye on that with this massive storm bearing down, it is worth taking a closer look at just the actual scale of this thing, and how many people are worried about it, preparing for it, and in the path.

CNN's Harry Enten is taking a look at this.

You may not know this, but he is also like an amateur meteorologist.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: Went to weather camp.

BOLDUAN: Long -- he went to weather camp, says so many people.

ENTEN: Yes.

BOLDUAN: How much interest is there in this storm?

ENTEN: There is huge interest in this storm, Kate. You know, put this storm into some perspective. You know, Google can be very helpful in that because Google searches for snow nationwide are up 233 percent this week versus last week. That is the highest -- that is the highest this decade. This is a decade storm, I might say. And more than that, the Google searches are above average. All the way from Oklahoma in the south to Massachusetts in New England. So, I think that's what's so key, right? Oftentimes we talk about these storms. Hey, this is a storm for New England or, hey, this is a storm for the south. This is a storm for the south, for the mid-Atlantic, New England, the Midwest. It is a storm all over the map. Again, a decade-type storm.

BOLDUAN: OKC is one -- Oklahoma City is one of the places that I didn't believe the numbers we are looking at. They could see two feet of snow in Oklahoma City. And just here in New York, the city hasn't seen like a six plus inch snowstorm in quite a while.

ENTEN: We have been starved. The snow geese such as myself have been starved. I mean, right now we have a winter storm watch out for eight plus inches in effect. Just take a look at the top storms since February of 2022. The highest was at the end of last year, which was just 4.3 inches, 3.2 inches, 3.1 inches. And now we have a winter storm watch in effect for eight plus inches of snow. Unless something goes truly awry in this forecast and, look, forecasts can change, this looks like it could very well double up the highest storm -- snowstorm that we have seen in the last four years in New York. I feel like I'm going back to my youth as a child, as I root for the snow and just hoping, hey, maybe I can get a snow day on Monday, although I still think they might make me come into work, Kate.

BOLDUAN: You're definitely coming to work.

In the south, it's not necessarily the snow, it's the ice that they're really, really concerned about. Put kind of what they're facing down that forecast in perspective.

ENTEN: Yes, OK. So, you know, we talk about the south, right? We spoke about it yesterday about the ice in Dallas, potentially the ice in Austin, Texas, perhaps the ice in Atlanta, Georgia. But it is also the snow.

The south is seeing everything in perspective. And you know, I got a buddy who lives in Fayetteville, Arkansas. My dear buddy Neil Payne (ph). And he was talking to me about the forecast there. And so, I got very interested. Take a look at the -- Fayetteville, Arkansas, snows since 2016. Winter storm warning in effect there for six to 12 inches. Look, that could be the highest snow this decade in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Over the last decade, since 2016. The highest -- the number to beat is 9.4 inches, 8.2 inches, 6.8 inches. And when you're dealing with a winter storm warning for six to 12 inches, in effect, you know it's a big storm there. You know it's a big storm in New York. It is a big storm all over the map.

BOLDUAN: More than half the states in the United States are dealing with some part of this.

ENTEN: Yes.

BOLDUAN: Thanks, Harry.

ENTEN: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: John.

BERMAN: And a long distance dedication to Neil in Fayetteville.

All right, one of the big concerns about this storm that's just beginning to sink in is the natural gas prices. They are just spiking right now.

Let's bring in CNN's Matt Egan on all this.

I mean we're talking about the power outages that might happen. This is all connected.

[08:40:00]

MATT EGAN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Yes, absolutely. Look, the energy market is taking these warnings from forecasters very seriously. This winter storm hasn't even arrived yet and it's causing historic price moves for natural gas.

BERMAN: Oh, look at that.

EGAN: Look at this chart. So, there was a spike just a couple months ago, and then it completely crashed. And now it's going basically straight up. We're looking at about a 60 percent increase this week alone. At one point this week this was going to be on track for the biggest weekly increase for natural gas futures since 1990. One energy trader told us that they haven't really seen anything like this in the past 30 years in natural gas.

Now, this dramatic reaction is because the storm could have multiple impacts when it comes to energy, right? First off, people are going to, obviously, be cranking up their heat because of the extreme cold. And so that increased demand is boosting prices. But then there's also a potential supply impact because the storm and the freezing cold temperatures are going to impact Texas, Louisiana, Appalachia, some of the biggest natural gas production areas in the country. So, this is both supply and demand.

Now, I do want to caution the natural gas is notoriously turbulent, right? It might be the most turbulent commodity on the planet. And there is a history of sometimes there's price increases and they quickly fade. But look at this, people are already facing some sticker shock when it comes to natural gas. This is from the last inflation report. And it shows that retail natural gas prices up by 11 percent year over year. And that was before the spike.

And we should pay close attention to this, because if prices stay high, even if they don't stay this high, but they stay elevated, that could just make these affordability frustrations even worse.

We reached out to the White House about this and one of the spokespeople there stressed that these are normal fluctuations driven by storms, and that natural gas production is expected to shatter all- time highs this year. But when you just look at the role of natural gas in the United States, right, it's the number one source of electricity generation, more than coal and nuclear combined, and also it's the leading source to heat homes. More than 60 percent of homes in the United States use natural gas for heating and for cooking.

So, look, we're going to have to pay close attention to what happens next in the energy market related to this storm.

BERMAN: I got to say, I mean, there's supply issues, demand issues. This is a bad cocktail. And people dealing with all the ice and the snow on top of it, it's going to be a painful few days, I think, Matt.

EGAN: Absolutely.

BERMAN: Thanks so much.

EGAN: Thanks, John.

BERMAN: Sara, let's go to you in Minnesota.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Thank you so much, John.

I am here in Minneapolis. I am inside because of the dangerously cold weather outside, which has now dropped to about negative 21 degrees outside. But here there is a renewed fire, a renewed outrage over ICE and its actions. This time it's over ICE's actions when it comes to how it is treating families and children, including the fact that it detained a five-year-old as it pursued that child's father and detained the father as well.

Now, the father's attorney says that that father was simply going through the legal process for asylum, but was detained with his son anyway and taken to a facility in Texas.

There are also physicians that we've been talking to who are reporting what they are saying, that ICE is stalking families outside of hospitals.

Here is what one pediatrician, Dr. O'Brien, told me about the consequences of that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: When it comes to what you've seen, have you seen ICE in and around your hospital?

DR. JANNA R. GEWIRTZ O'BRIEN, PEDIATRICIAN AND ASSISTANT PROFESSOR AT UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA: Oh, absolutely. Yes. I've been in rooms with patients where they point out the window and say, we can't leave now, (SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE). Like, ICE is outside. And they can see it from the window of the hospital. And these are, like, newborn babies being born that should be having a beautiful moment with their families and should be celebrating, and instead they're like, if I leave the hospital, ICE might detain me and separate me from my baby or the rest of my family. And will they ever come back? Oh, no. Would I come back? No. This is really unsafe.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: She says people are not actually coming into the hospital even though they have medical needs because they are so afraid. Even those who have all the legal paperwork, they are still very afraid of coming in and being detained by ICE.

What are people doing about that? Well, there is a call to action. There is a call to action to do an economic boycott. And hundreds of businesses are taking part in it. They are closing down today. And, you know, some of the organizers of this action are saying, look, we want Minnesotans across the board to stay home, to stop shopping, to show their discomfort and their anger over this with their wallets, to stop shopping, to use it as an economic boycott.

Joining me now is Emilia Gonzalez Avalos. She is the executive director of Unidos MN, a statewide Latino institution supporting immigrants.

[08:45:06]

First, I want to ask you, what are you hearing from the immigrant community here as to how they are going about their daily business, considering that ICE is still here and still conducting their business in the city?

EMILIA GONZALEZ AVALOS, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, UNIDOS MN: Good morning. Thank you for having me.

Yes, today is "ICE Out of Minnesota: A Day of Truth and Freedom." And one of the truths I can share with the audience is that the lives of people of color in general have been deeply disrupted by this enforcement across our state. People are unable to go to school as a day to day. People have to create systems of protection and mutual aid to be able to go to work. Businesses are in the edge of being broken and not being able to open next month. As we know that a lot of businesses rely on the spike of the holidays

that happened during December around Christmas. Well, that was the time that this operation started, and those businesses were not able to increase their sales. And the consumption of their goods and services because of this operation, instead of doing that, instead of having the economic spike and gains that could help them navigate that a couple of months afterwards, they were able -- they were taking care of their workers, they were taking care of their neighbors. They have been consistently in fight and flight because this operation surrounds ethnic corridors, businesses, hospitals, schools.

So, our life as Minnesotans, this is not only impacting Latinos or immigrants anymore, this is impacting regular Minnesotans from all walks of life. Our way of life, the generational way of life that we have built in the cold north has been disrupted in ways that I -- I'm not -- I don't know still what is the actual rippling effect for the children and the generations to come.

SIDNER: What are you asking people to do in response to ICE's operations here?

AVALOS: So, today we're asking people to join us. We have a day of no school, no work and no economic consumption. We are calling this "ICE Out of Minnesota: A Day of Truth and Freedom." January 23rd, we march downtown Minneapolis from the commons at two -- 425 Portland Avenue South, and we will walk in below zero degrees. As you know, today is one of the coldest day in Minnesota. We will walk towards the Target Center and we will -- we will actually be endorsed at the Target Center for our program.

So, we're asking people to march. We're asking people to boycott today. We're asking people to get trained as legal observers, as constitutional, legal, non-violent, peaceful observers. We're asking people to support immigrant businesses. And we continue to ask people to support each other and take care of each other.

SIDNER: We are hearing that that many immigrants are too afraid to go out to even shop. So, we will be looking at what happens with this protest today. It is dangerously, dangerously cold, which is also a factor here that has kept people from schools, for example, some of them closed, and kept them from going out in all of this. It's a very muted situation here right now, whereas normally there'd be a lot of cars and people going to work and school.

Thank you so much, Emilia Gonzalez Avalos, the executive director of Unidos MN. I do appreciate you joining us today.

John and Kate.

BOLDUAN: Thanks, Sara.

We are minutes away from another day of testimony in the trial against the man accused of killing his wife after having an affair with their au pair. The defense now laying out their case.

We'll be right back. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:52:16]

BERMAN: In Kentucky, a 12 year old dog named Goose just won the people's choice award in the Farm Dog of the Year competition. Even more impressive because Goose, well you can't see it in this photo, but Goose now has no eyes. Goose spent years herding cattle and guiding farmers even after losing his eyesight, and eventually both of his eyes to glaucoma.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LINDIE HUFFMAN, GOOSE'S OWNER: I think Goose's story teaches people not to give up. And just because we lose something doesn't mean that we're lost. It could be the loss of our sight, like Goose has. But life keeps going. The world keeps turning. And we have to keep going every single day.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Go, Goose! Glaucoma is serious. Runs in my family. Goose's owner says he kept right on working and knows every inch of that land, just like all the farmers who came before him.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: That's a great story.

Let's turn to this now. Happening right now, negotiators from the U.S., Russia and Ukraine are holding war talks in Abu Dhabi, the first known meeting attended by all three nations since Moscow's invasion almost four years ago. Notably, the Kremlin says, that Russia's negotiating team is military officials only. But still, they're sitting down. The U.S. team includes Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, who have been leading these negotiations. They met late yesterday with Russian President Vladimir Putin. You see video of it there. The Kremlin warning that as these discussions continue, the major sticking point remains is there -- they call it territorial issues, their demand that Ukraine give up territory that Russia has claimed.

But what does today mean here? Joining me right now is Democratic Congressman Gabe Amo of Rhode Island. He sits on the foreign affairs committee.

Congressman, thank you so much for coming in.

These three countries sitting down for the first time together since Russia first launched its invasion nearly four years ago. Is that promising to you? I mean, how are you reading this?

REP. GABE AMO (D-RI): Well, thanks for having me, Kate.

Look, I read this as some level of progress, but Russia is clearly communicating where it prioritizes these particular trilateral talks. Putin is sending a message by sending low level negotiators and focusing on his territorial issues frankly as a question of whether he is going to succeed in his territorial conquest. And we have to see the Trump administration put forward a strong position that provides some security guarantees and does not let Vladimir Putin have his mission of growing by gaining territory that he has taken unlawfully.

[08:55:02]

BOLDUAN: You know, Ukraine's President Zelenskyy went to Davos. He met with Trump in Davos yesterday. And Zelenskyy also gave a speech during which he really laid into Europe. I mean it's really seen as kind of one of his most scathing critiques of his closest allies, accusing Europe, European countries of being caught in Greenland mode, as he put it. Kind of offering symbolic military gestures, but that don't actually deter adversaries.

I want to play for you something else he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: Some Europeans are really strong. It's true. But many say we must stand strong. And they always want someone else to tell them how long they need to stand strong. Preferably until the next election.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: A lot of the focus, obviously, is what is Donald Trump doing or not doing with regard to pressuring Zelenskyy or Putin? But do you think this is valid criticism that he's now offering against European allies?

AMO: Well, clearly, President Zelenskyy is frustrated by what he sees as a lack of a clear united front because the threat to Ukraine and the challenges that they've experienced will present a real big problem for the whole of Europe. But the fact of the matter is, we have seen international alliances undermined by Donald Trump and his activities. The conversation around Greenland hits at the NATO alliance, and whether that will stand up to Putin's threat.

So, look, I understand where President Zelenskyy is coming from, but America's leadership is so vital here. And where we've seen that missing, we have seen Vladimir Putin gaining and see successes in his campaign to combat democracy around the world.

BOLDUAN: Let me ask you about Greenland, because I just had the minister of -- for Greenland for business, trade and more just on the show, and she said that Greenland, as far as she can tell, is not part of the talks in Davos.

Let me play this for you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NAAJA NATHANIELSEN, GREENLAND MINISTER OF BUSINESS, TRADE, MINERAL RESOURCES, JUSTICE AND GENDER EQUALITY: There's been a lot of speeches and statements in the press. That's not where we negotiate. So, we are really happy to go back to the table and start the dialog and deepen (ph) and figure out, what is it the U.S. really wants with, of course, the red lines from Greenland in mind that we do not want to be annexed, occupied, taken by force, sold or bought.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: So, if Greenland is not even part of this discussion, what do you think the president means when he says there is a deal, a framework of a deal that will be much more generous for the United States? I mean it was presented in Davos as there was some sort of breakthrough, and Greenland seems to not know what it is.

AMO: Well, look, it's really hard to be a Donald Trump translator these days. He goes from wanting an invasion, to wanting a purchase. What we need to do, what the United States Congress needs to step up and hold the line here. That's why I introduced a piece of legislation called the No NATO for Purchase Act to bar taxpayer dollars from being used for Donald Trump's desire of territorial conquest that puts him in the category of Vladimir Putin in seeking to take by force what does not belong to him. Greenlanders don't deserve this. The NATO alliance, most importantly, does not deserve this.

So, look, I don't know what he means by having a deal. Hopefully he's come to a consensus and realized that this hurts America. But we have to make sure that we use every tool at our disposal here in Congress to make sure that this conversation ends and we don't weaken our strongest alliances around the world.

BOLDUAN: We will see about that.

Congressman Gabe Amo, thank you very much for your time. Thanks for coming in.

John.

BERMAN: All right, very shortly, court is set to resume in the double murder trial of Brendan Banfield. He is the Virginia father accused of plotting with the family's au pair to kill his wife and another man. The defense now is laying out its argument.

With us now, CNN's Jean Casarez.

Let's talk about the defense case and where catfishing figures in the whole thing.

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Catfishing, according to the testimony, is luring someone to a location to harm them. So, in this case, it would be luring Joseph Ryan to the bedroom of Christine Banfield so that he would then be the one responsible for Christine Banfield's murder. That would be catfishing right there.

Yesterday, the defense put on all of these homicide investigators, former homicide investigators, the former deputy chief of major crimes, to peel back the curtain to show that the investigation was not what you thought it was, that they wanted to get Banfield from the beginning and they would do anything they had to do to make sure he would be the one ultimately charged.

[09:00:07]

There was a meeting, according to detective.