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NYT: Trump Meets with Noem Amid Backlash Over Pretti Shooting; Patel: FBI Looking at Signal Chats Used by Minnesota Protesters; Minnesota Officials Push for Access to Shooting Investigation; At Least 500,000 Still Without Power Amid Brutal Cold; NTSB Meets to Discuss Deadly DC Plane Collision. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired January 27, 2026 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST: So I think we're going to continue to hear this from Democratic lawmakers concerned about a Trump-allied billionaire venture now controlling TikTok in the U.S. But like I said, a lot more questions than answers about it. Right now, I can't point to a specific example and say, yes, it's clear the algorithm's changing, the rules are changing, the app is changing. This is more a matter of the public being suspicious about that possibility.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, much more to learn, Brian. Thank you very much.

A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts now.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: The breaking news reports of a two-hour meeting with the Homeland Security secretary in the Oval Office. Is Kristi Noem's job in jeopardy? Axios reports the White House is looking for a peace with honor withdrawal from Minnesota as new Republicans step forward with criticism of the immigration crackdown.

Not again. New forecasts of a developing winter storm as bitter cold hangs over hundreds of millions with more than a million people without power.

And then a dog wanders onto the ice and finds itself in a life-or- death situation, which is why you don't wander out into the ice.

I'm John Berman with Kate Bolduan in New York. Sara is in Minneapolis. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: I am live here in Minneapolis where the emotions are extremely high. The frustration extremely high. Calls for a new economic boycott now happening, but also this new reporting coming out of the White House about a meeting between President Trump, according to the New York Times, and Kristi Noem, the DHS secretary.

And that meeting, also we're hearing from the Trump administration that they are starting to pull back, calling for more ICE agents to leave Minneapolis, also changing the leadership apparatus here, going from having the commander in charge, Greg Bovino, who has been extremely outspoken, who has told lies about what happened on the ground, versus the video that everyone has seen and the way in which he described Alex Pretti, who was killed at the hands of a Border Patrol agent.

And we are learning now from the president that he is changing leadership here. You are now going to see the border czar, Tom Homan, come here. Also, the president having conversations with the state and local leaders here, talking to Governor Walz, talking to Mayor Frey of Minneapolis, and the temperature being brought down, at least at that level, at least at the high political level.

On the streets, a completely different picture. People are filled with sorrow and still filled with rage as to what they have seen. And having just a few agents leave, even half of them leave, that is not enough.

What they want are all of the ICE agents, Border Patrol agents, federal agents on the ground who they feel have been terrorizing their community. They want them all out. And they want them out now.

Now, to the investigation, which has become far more complex than we have seen in recent history between the federal government looking into the shooting from one of their agents in the death of Alex Pretti and the state government, who is also insisting that they do their own investigation because the trust is completely lost between the agencies and among the people of this state. Let me bring in retired special agent from the FBI Daniel Brunner and retired NYPD Lieutenant Darrin Porcher. Thank you both for being here.

First to Daniel, talk to me about what we're hearing at this point in time from the FBI Director, Kash Patel, who is saying to social media reporters, if you will, or whatever you want to call them, who is saying to them, look, we are going to start investigating the Signal chat between the residents here who have been protesting ICE. And meantime, there is an officer involved shooting. What does that tell you about where their focus is?

DANIEL BRUNNER, RETIRED FBI SPECIAL AGENT: And as Elie said just earlier on your show, it's perfectly said, the agency that's best experienced to handle a federal investigation into a shooting is the FBI. They have the laboratories in Quantico.

[08:05:00]

Not putting the best agency that is equipped to conduct this sort of investigation in the lead is for me a wrong move. Having Homeland Security to be able to conduct this investigation, I don't think is the right move.

Having the FBI conduct secondary investigations into the Signal chat conversations, I believe are legitimate. I mean, if there if there is criminal activity or there's a conspiracy that they're working together to possibly impede or harm agents, then that should be investigated. That should be looked at.

And if there's nothing there, then there's nothing to be charged. Just like an investigation should be conducted, just like the FBI should be conducting this investigation. If there's nothing to -- and if there's nothing to charge with the U.S. Attorney's Office in cooperation, then there wouldn't be any charges. But I think it's very -- it's a wrong move. I think it's having the best possible agency in the lead is not the right move. FBI should be the lead investigation in both the Signal chat investigation and the shooting.

SIDNER: When it comes to -- to you again, Daniel -- when it comes, though, to looking at the Signal chat, the Signal chat, according to the folks on the ground here, is used to communicate with each other to basically come out if they feel that there is a an operation going on by ICE, by federal agents, and to record it and to show what is happening. And you don't see this as in any way intrusive into Americans ability to to gather Americans ability, which we've seen over and over and over again in protests where they come together and sort of alert one another that, hey, there is something going on in our neighborhood. Come out and make sure that you show and record what is going on so that we can be the eyes and ears of our own community.

BRUNNER: That's perfectly acceptable. That's perfectly acceptable if the end result is that. But if there is a conspiracy, so all you need is probable cause to open a federal investigation.

If someone came to the FBI and stated and it's documented that this individual was conspiring via the Signal chat to harm federal agents and this is conducted via the Signal chat, that is a crime. If they're if they're talking about saying, let's rally these people here at this location so that we can attack or harm agents conducting their jobs, whether you agree with the job or not. But if if the end result is no, there was no felony, no, no assaults on the on the officers and it's just a peaceful protest, those Signal chats absolutely is completely fine.

It's freedom of the First Amendment and freedom of protest. I have no problem with that. But the FBI needs to investigate if there is possible attacks against federal officers.

And that's the conspiracy is being conducted via the Signal chat. That's perfectly acceptable.

SIDNER: Yes, I think one of the the consternation here is that that is not what we saw on video. We did not see people attacking the Border Patrol agents. What we saw is the Border Patrol agents pushing and actually approaching those who were there just recording it.

I do want to go to former NYPD Lieutenant. Darrin, how difficult is this investigation going to be? Because you have state and local authorities who have been very clear that they do not trust federal authorities, both of whom are at the same time trying to do an investigation on the very same thing but not sharing information.

DARRIN PORCHER, FORMER NYPD LIEUTENANT AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE EXPERT: This is an aberration, to say the least, because generally speaking, state or I want to say local police as well as federal police or federal authorities generally work in tandem. And I give you an example. When we look at the George Floyd death, and as it relates to Derek Chauvin, you had the symbiotic relationship between federal and local authorities to ensure that there was a conviction.

Now, this seems to be a split as it relates to what the federal authorities are doing in comparison to what the local authorities would like to do. And what's so ironic is the local authorities had to introduce an injunction in court to preserve the crime scene from the -- as it relates to the federal authorities. And when conducting these investigations, you need to have a crime scene that allows or affords the investigators to do what's appropriate to ensure that justice is introduced.

When we look at investigations of this magnitude, oftentimes, believe it or not, local authorities are involved in far more shooting incidents than state police, than federal police. So they have a tremendous skill set that can prove to be an asset in these types of investigations. But we have to also bear in mind that Article 6 of the Constitution provides supremacy for the federal government.

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So if the federal -- if the feds choose to move forward without using the local authorities, that's something that they can do. But we want to introduce justice because the public trust has been drastically dissolved as it relates to what we've seen based on the optics of these shootings.

SIDNER: That is for sure the truth that we hear on the ground every single day, that there is zero, zero trust between the public and the federal government and the state and local agencies and the federal government. The governor of this state saying you are not going to stop us from investigating. But as you said, the feds take precedence when they are involved.

And so this could get very, very messy. Gentlemen, thank you both so much for walking us through that. I do appreciate it -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Hundreds of thousands of Americans are still without power today as extreme cold alerts are now have now spread across the country and forecasters are already watching for another storm. We have the latest for you.

And it's one of the biggest court cases yet to hit social media giants. Why TikTok, Meta and YouTube are headed to court today over claims their platforms are harming children's mental health.

Plus, a rower goes overboard in the middle of the Atlantic, the competition dubbed the world's toughest row race. How rescuers found him 24 hours later.

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BOLDUAN: So this morning, the death toll is rising after that brutal winter storm and the brutal subzero temperatures. They aren't done yet. Officials now say that more than a dozen deaths have been reported. The most significant damage to infrastructure has really been seen across the South. You've been seeing these images. In Tennessee crews are racing to restore power after that state and others were just encased in ice.

This morning, more than 170,000 people there are waking up once again without electricity. In Mississippi, the campus of Ole Miss is also under a sheet of ice. Officials there issued a shelter in place order for students.

Let's get to seen as Derek Van Dam, who's been tracking it all for us. Derek, what are you watching? We've now seen, you know, the brutal temperatures are here to stick around.

What are you focused on today?

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: So we've got a lot of sunshine coming up today and tomorrow, so that'll help. But the problem is that the air temperature is below freezing in many of these locations. Trust me, I was on the ground yesterday in Kentucky.

I saw a full armada of power companies trying to restore electricity to some of the hardest hit areas. Here's coming out of Nashville. Can you imagine having a half an inch of ice taking down power lines and drooping your trees in front of your house?

Well, that's what people have had to contend with. And it was even worse in Mississippi and northern portions of Louisiana. So current power outage numbers right now across the country, over 550,000.

In Tennessee, the worst impacted state in terms of power outages, 170,000. Mississippi, 140,000. And I just checked northern Louisiana just dropped below 100,000 customers without power.

But here's the temperatures. Well below freezing, you factor in the wind. It feels like one below zero in Nashville.

That is not a typo, folks. So this is an interesting graphic. So here's a look at the power outages.

Take note of those dark shades of purple across central and northern Mississippi. Those are the counties that have a 90 to 100 percent power outage percentage. That's incredible.

That means 90 percent of that county does not have electricity or any way to really heat their home aside from natural gas. So we've overlaid where the below average temperatures are. That's the shading of blues and purples basically encompassing the entire South Coast.

By the way, temperatures are below freezing all the way down to the Gulf. For tomorrow morning we'll still have yet below average temperatures for this region. And it's here to stay.

So that's the overrunning theme here, is that how cold it will be, how cold it will remain. And then this reinforcing shot of cold air that will enter into the equation for this weekend. And by the way, Kate, you see that bowling ball, we'll call it a wrecking ball across the southeast.

Yes, that's the potential of yet another snowstorm for the weekend. Details still need to be ironed out. But yes, we're watching this one very closely.

BOLDUAN: And another one to keep an eye on, which means sticking close to you, Derek. Thank you very, very much. I really appreciate it.

President Trump is headed to Iowa today, focused on his economic message. This as we are learning about brand new tariffs that he's threatening on more countries overnight.

And what happened that led tennis star Coco Gauff to take it to a racket?

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BERMAN: We're standing by for a major update on the deadliest U.S. aviation accident in more than a decade. One year after an Army Blackhawk helicopter and American Airlines regional jet collided over the Potomac, killing 67 people, the NTSB will lay out what they believe went wrong and how to prevent it from happening again.

CNN's Pete Muntean, who covered this from the beginning, is outside the NTSB boardroom this morning with the latest on what we can expect -- Pete.

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: John, this is the last public chapter in this deep investigation into the worst air disaster of a generation. This will be a tough, long and emotional day for the stream of families we have seen going into the NTSB boardroom all morning. Here's how this will work.

NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy will gavel this into session at the top of the hour. She will read an opening statement, really setting a tone for the day. And then we will hear about nine different presentations from NTSB staff investigators about their findings into this crash.

Then it sort of turns into a courtroom style. The NTSB board will vote on the proposed probable cause from investigators, turn that into a final probable cause from the NTSB board. But that is a painstaking process.

We will hear presentations not only on the human performance of the pilots of the Blackhawk helicopter and the culture in the U.S. Army at the time of this crash, but we will also hear from the viewpoint of the pilots of American Eagle Flight 5342. Just spoke to Tim and Sheri Lilley. Their son, Sam Lilley, 28 years old, was the first officer on board their flight -- that flight.

And they are essentially bracing to see this animation for the very first time from the viewpoint of their son. He was the one who noticed this impending collision only a second before it occurred.

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This is really the culmination of so much work and so much investigation that animation put together in the NTSB recorders and materials lab here in Lafon Plaza in D.C. from the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder that was found on the bottom of the Potomac River. Really a culmination of this yearlong investigation, almost a year to the day since it occurred -- John.

BERMAN: Yes, I mean, for these families, I think they still have so many questions about what happened, why it happened and what can be done going forward to keep it from happening again, which is, I think, where the real focus is. Pete Muntean, great to have you there giving us all the twists and turns.

For a scathing op-ed in the conservative National Review, fire Kristi Noem into the sun is the homeland security secretary's job in jeopardy, a new report on Republican angst on immigration.

And standing by for a landmark trial this morning, some of the world's biggest tech companies accused of hurting children with their social media apps.

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BOLDUAN: This morning, the potential ground shift happening in Minnesota.

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