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Soon: Trump Delivers Economic Speech in Iowa; New Video of Moments After Alex Pretti was Fatally Shot; Trump Backs DHS Secretary Noem, Says She's Not Stepping Down; NTSB: Not Focusing Blame But Ensuring System Does Not Fail Again. 3-3:30p ET

Aired January 27, 2026 - 15:00   ET

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

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST: ... last week, once this new ownership structure took effect. I think that'll probably, you know, wash out, that probably won't last very long. We've seen in the past, when people have tried to give up on TikTok, they've eventually come back. It's an incredibly addictive app. And, you know, we've seen many, many examples of that over the years.

But for now, this glitch, this several day long snafu, it is drawing attention to the ownership structure with those new Trump approved owners, Brianna.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Yes. They just can't quit you, TikTok. We see it. We see that happening. Brian Stelter, thank you so much.

And a new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

President Trump speaking out today about the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, as we get new videos that show the moments before and after the deadly encounter.

Plus, more than 2,000 flights canceled today as airlines worked to bounce back after a crippling winter storm. But a new threat could be on the way.

And then later, CNA is on the ground in Tehran where Iranian authorities are sending a defiant warning to President Trump.

We're following these major developing stories and many more, all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

Next hour, President Trump will be delivering his first speech since the killing of Alex Pretti. With hearts still heavy in Minneapolis, the President is looking to turn the page, highlighting his economic achievements. The President just arrived in Iowa where he hopes to galvanize support among Republicans ahead of the midterm elections later this year.

The affordability issue remains critical for many voters. Earlier, the President previewed his message as he left the White House.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'd like to see interest rates go down. Everything else is going down. We have the energy and fuel going down. We have gasoline in many states now at $1.99. Groceries are going down. We inherited a mess with very, very high prices -- very, very high prices. And I will tell you, we've made a lot of progress.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Natural gas spiking in the midst of this cold snap, unfortunately. CNN's Steve Contorno is in Iowa ahead of the President's speech where it is rather chilly.

Steve, Trump is touting his economic gains in a state where farmers have struggled in the wake of his wide-ranging tariffs. How's the President going to address these concerns?

STEVE CONTORNO, CNN REPORTER: Brianna, you can see the sign behind me touting lower prices and bigger paychecks. And that is certainly the message that the President will deliver today. Him and his team believe that they have tamed inflation and that the economy is growing. And they just need to get that message out to voters.

And that is why we are seeing him tour the country in these battleground states like today in Iowa. But it is a message that is running into not just events like what has been transpiring in Minnesota over the past few days, but also the hardships that many people in Iowa, many Americans are facing because of rising costs.

You know, it feels like 10 degrees outside right now. Many people here are blasting their heat and they're seeing their heating bills going up. And they want to know when President Trump is going to fix this problem. And it's a real concern for Republicans here in the state of Iowa. They have a governor's race that is open. They have an open Senate seat. There are two House seats here that could determine control of Congress' next election cycle.

And Democrats have been on a bit of a hot streak. They've won a number of special elections that have certainly put some wind in their sails going into these midterm elections. I talked earlier today with a conservative radio host named Jeff Angelo, who said, gave me a little bit of flavor of what Republicans on the ground are feeling. And he said, quote, "Republicans are worried. People like Trump and they vote for Trump and Republicans are hoping that Trump magic will rub off on them. We're just not seeing that. There's a real fear that if Trump's not on the ballot, the magic is gone."

Now, the White House and Trump are trying to put Trump on the ballot by having him go to all these states. It's sort of counterintuitive. Normally, the President is not on the ballot in midterm elections and the -- the -- the White House tries to run away from the results. Well, they're doing just the opposite. And that is why Trump is here today in Clive, Iowa, trying to get this state to vote red in November.

KEILAR: All right. Steve Contorno, we will be awaiting his remarks and we will bring them to our viewers. Thank you so much. We turn now to the tensions in Minneapolis after the shooting death of

Alex Pretti. President Trump's borders are. Tom Homan met today with Democratic leaders in the state on his first day on this job, being the person on the ground for immigration operations in Minnesota.

[15:05:07]

As new video taken before and after Pretti's deadly encounter with federal agents is now emerging. We're getting to see this. And the first video showing our earliest look yet at the scene. This is six minutes before the shooting. The video does not capture any violent actions by protesters or Pretti. A protester is detained at one point.

As for the moments after Pretti is shot, we're going to show you about two minutes of what is truly chaos that unfolded and a warning that this is hard to watch. This is disturbing video. Here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Call an ambulance, please.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stay out of the streets.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Call an ambulance, please.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Please, we're all people.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Back off.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm not in the way. I'm trying to help. Please call somebody.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) I understand, but you have to stay out of the way.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Please. Call somebody now.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) relax.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) ...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't give a (expletive), it didn't help last time.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Expletive) ...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) ...

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stay back. Stay back. Don't come close.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stay back, why?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stay back.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's your reasoning? What's your reasoning? Why should we stay back?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) ...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've witnesses multiple times in this city.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) ...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, we have.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not by us.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, (expletive) multiple law enforcement agencies, (INAUDIBLE) (expletive) people die.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, you -- you know the answers.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When people don't do this (expletive), man.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Evil.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You are evil.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: CNN's Priscilla Alvarez is with us now.

And Priscilla, you're learning today, this wasn't actually Alex Pretti's first confrontation with federal agents that day.

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's exactly right, Brianna. My colleague, Jeff Winter, and I have learned through our sources that Alex Pretti had an encounter with federal agents a week before he was fatally shot in Minneapolis this past Saturday.

Now, according to sources, Pretti had stopped his car after seeing ICE agents chase what he described as a family. He began shouting and blowing his whistle. In that incident, he was tackled by five agents, one of whom leaned on his back, then that left him with a broken rib. The source saying, quote, that day he thought he was going to die.

Now, Pretti was later given medication consistent with a broken rib, according to records that CNN has reviewed. But all of this indicates that, again, he had an encounter prior, an -- an aggressive encounter, prior to this past Saturday. I've also been told that federal law enforcement was aware of him. It's unclear, however, if the officers, when they tackled him to the ground, knew who he was. Now, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson says that they

have no record of this earlier incident that we are reporting on. And similarly, this seems to be part of the federal immigration officers also collecting personal information of protesters and agitators that they have encountered in these operations. Of course, this also comes within the context of the Department of Homeland Security saying that their officers are also at risk as they've conducted these operations. And even just this morning, putting out an online tip form for people to fill out for anyone harassing officers.

Now, the White House border czar, Tom Homan, has also said that there would be a database of anyone they arrested impeding law enforcement. The Department of Homeland Security, however, saying that there is no database, and I'm quoting here, "When our law enforcement encounter a violent agitator who is breaking the law, obstructing law enforcement or assaulting them, our law enforcement make records to advance prosecution. This is not groundbreaking, it is standard protocol.

Standard protocol on what has been a really unprecedented landscape for the officers who are working in Minneapolis and for the people, the protesters and everyone else who has been folded into it.

[15:10:05]

KEILAR: You're also learning about this two-hour meeting that President Trump Secretary Kristi Noem, who's quite embattled at the moment. What are you learning?

ALVAREZ: This is the meeting that occurred yesterday in the Oval Office. According to reporting from our Alayna Treene, their jobs were not threatened, that of the Homeland Security Secretary ...

KEILAR: (INAUDIBLE) ...

ALVAREZ: ... yes, and his top aide. But you have to look at the whole picture here. So, this meeting came as the President dispatched his White House border czar, Tom Homan. Tom Homan and Kristi Noem have a very tense relationship. They generally do not speak with one another. And when Bovino, the top Border Patrol official who had the stamp of approval of Kristi Noem, was sent back to his sector from Minneapolis.

So, if you look at the totality of circumstances, this really revealed some of the tensions that had been underlying the administration's immigration policy. And again, we've reported that the President has generally been happy with Kristi Noem, also has continued to say today that he has confidence in her. But she is also the -- the leader of the department who came out in the aftermath of this shooting. And her narrative did not match what was seen in videos and it was that public response that also fueled a lot of frustration within her own department.

So again, based off the reporting, their jobs don't seem to be at risk at this moment. But certainly, when you take in everything that's happened over the last 24 hours, you can see the underlying tensions reveal themselves here. KEILAR: Yes, she'd said that Pretti attacked officers. Attacked, that

was her word, that he was brandishing a gun. And so far, no video that we've seen so far supports her -- her claims, very important to note.

Priscilla, thank you so much. Really appreciate the reporting.

And still to come with anger, still fresh in Minneapolis, President Trump is in Iowa to talk about the economy. We will be looking at his message to Americans as so many are struggling with the affordability crisis.

Plus, the White House now calling lawmakers on Capitol Hill hoping to reach a deal to try to avoid this partial government shutdown. We say partial, but we're talking about a huge part of the government. Will Democrats play hardball over Department of Homeland Security funding?

Then later, an emotional hearing in Washington as the NTSB lays out what caused that fatal collision over the Potomac River one year ago this week. We have that and much more coming up on CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:16:53]

KEILAR: We are standing by, watching in Iowa where President Trump is set to give a speech on the economy next hour. By some measures, business is booming. Stock markets have been surging over the last year and the Dow is within striking distance of hitting 50,000 for the very first time. But despite that, a new Consumer Confidence Index released today shows sentiment collapsed in January to its lowest level since 2014.

The President has decried the affordability issue as a Democrat hoax, but with the midterm elections a little more than 10 months away, that may not be a message that many Americans want to hear. Stephen Moore, former economic advisor to President Trump, is with us now to talk about this.

So, that is a startling number, Consumer Confidence, worse than when Trump unveiled his tariffs, worse than it was in the throes of the pandemic. How -- how big of a problem is this?

STEPHEN MOORE, FORMER TRUMP ECONOMIC ADVISER: Well, there's a perception and a reality on the economy and certainly the perception has been poor. I mean, Trump has been underwater on the economy now with voters for no matter what poll is taken. And yet, as I look at the facts of the economy, it's -- it is a booming economy. We -- you know, the latest report is almost 5.5 percent growth in the fourth quarter, which is an incredible number. We haven't seen that in recent memory.

We've got gas prices down. Inflation is headed down to the 2 percent target. Median family income last year was up 2,500. Those are people in the exact middle adjusted for inflation. I mean, I could go on and on with the positive elements of this story and yet, for some reason, Americans aren't feeling the love. And that's a problem for the Republicans.

KEILAR: Well, isn't that because people don't experience the economy, right? They experience their own sort of financial ecosystem in which they personally live.

MOORE: Sure.

KEILAR: And there are people with a lot of those that are pretty terrible right now. We've got this K-shaped kind of economy that we're seeing.

MOORE: Except that it really -- yes, right. That's what they're calling it, but it's not a K-shaped recovery. I mean, if you look at the census numbers on what happened last year with the economy through December, they're really good. I mean, lower income people had rises in their income, middle income people had rises and upper income people.

So, I think one of the things people are kind of focusing on the things that are going up in price, as, you know, we all do, you know, if you get steak at the -- at the grocery store, that costs a lot. Your healthcare costs a lot.

KEILAR: Ground beef -- I mean, let's steak aside ...

MOORE: Right.

KEILAR: ... Stephen, ground beef is crazy high, okay?

MOORE: It is. Yes, that's what I'm saying.

KEILAR: Yes. If you're looking ...

MOORE: I mean, beef and ground beef and -- and steaks.

KEILAR: Let's get some beans ...

MOORE: Right.

KEILAR: ... because the ground beef is too high. Okay, so.

MOORE: And yet, the official inflation rate right now is 2.7 percent, which is still too high, but it's come down a lot. So, I -- I guess I'm a little mystified about why people are so angry when we've got an economy that is doing so well.

KEILAR: I'm not mystified.

MOORE: Okay.

KEILAR: I mean, I'll tell you why I'm not mystified, because it had dipped significantly under Biden.

MOORE: Yes.

KEILAR: And yet, people were still very upset. MOORE: Yes.

KEILAR: So, we've been to this circus before. We know how people -- we know how people experience it, but I want to ...

MOORE: Well, as a Trump guy, I would just simply say this, you know, if you're mad about the price of groceries, you're mad about the healthcare costs, or if you're mad about the cost of housing and other things, you know, if you look at the objective facts, about 86 percent of that increase did happen under Biden, not Trump.

[15:20:08]

And so, there's a kind of lingering resentment about how much things cost. But guess when that happened? It would happen mostly during the four years when Biden was president.

KEILAR: They're very much experiencing a reality, and there have been -- there's still been a significant increase in cost. I mean, yes, I mean, the inflation, that -- so, they're coming off of this inflation hangover ...

MOORE: Yes.

KEILAR: ... but it's still -- they're still feeling affordability as an issue, and affordability is still a problem.

MOORE: But their incomes are growing faster than inflation, and that's a good sign.

KEILAR: They're -- they're feeling kind of like this is unrelenting for them. Just look at this -- the polling, right?

MOORE: Okay.

KEILAR: Three in 10 Americans from a CNN poll earlier this month, only three in 10 rating the economy positively, 55 percent, so a majority, say Trump's policies have made the economy worse. 64 percent say he hasn't gone far enough to make everyday goods more affordable. We just had a report about how natural gas is now spiking in the middle of this ...

MOORE: I saw that.

KEILAR: ... awful cold snap ...

MOORE: Yes.

KEILAR: ... that we're having. Is the President really focused? I mean, we see him in Iowa, but he's been so focused. Venezuela, Greenland ...

MOORE: Mm-hmm, yes.

KEILAR: ... what are kind of, you know, a -- an unpopular immigration tactics that his folks are taking in Minneapolis? If you were advising the President, would you advise him to kind of get caught trying a little more on the affordability issue?

MOORE: Yes, and that's why he's going to be speaking in, what, 45 minutes in Iowa, because the affordability issue is central to the -- to the country's well-being, but also if Republicans want to win in that midterm, they've got to overcome this perception that -- that, you know, things are going in the wrong direction.

As an economist, I can tell you, hey, look, folks, if you look at these things objectively, most of these statistics are -- I mean, for example, you just mentioned quite ...

KEILAR: Okay, butt ...

MOORE: ... well, hold on, you just mentioned natural gas prices going up. They've doubled, that's a, you know, huge increase, and yet gas prices are ...

KEILAR: (INAUDIBLE) ...

MOORE: ... at very low levels, so ...

KEILAR: I'm loving my -- I'm loving filling my gas tank.

MOORE: Right? Yes.

KEILAR: But like ground beef, like you said, you know? (INAUDIBLE) ...

MOORE: Yes, but pork chops, how about that one? Pork chops are going down in price.

KEILAR: I'm -- I'm going to (INAUDIBLE) ...

MOORE: How about the fact that airline tickets are going down?

KEILAR: Okay, let me.

MOORE: How about the fact that, you know, motels and hotels are going -- I mean, a lot of things are falling in price. A lot of things are rising in price, but on average, the CPI says we're still too high, but coming down.

KEILAR: Okay.

MOORE: Yes.

KEILAR: A lot of people aren't getting hotel rooms. A lot of people aren't flying, right? A lot of people buying the ground beef. Just -- that's just the point I'm making here. Okay, so we're seeing this sort of issue that the President is trying to confront, but he's been dealing with this for a while, and he's kind of been denying its existence.

So, I do wonder if there are any levers that he can kind of pull. Is there anything he can kind of pull out of his hat today ...

MOORE: Well, yes ... KEILAR: ... and say to Americans, okay, we're going to make a difference right now?

MOORE: One thing he can mention is that the tax cut, the big beautiful tax bill, a lot of people, Americans, don't understand that the dividend from that, that you're going to get a bigger paycheck this month because of -- you're going to have less money withheld from your check. And for the average person, that can be $1,000 or $2,000 this year. So, that's going to be a positive thing for the economy.

He's suspended some of these tariffs, which is, you know, I'm -- as you know, I'm not a big tariff guy, but if the tariffs come down, hopefully that will bring prices down as well.

Look, we went up to 9.2 percent inflation under Biden. It takes a long time to drain that out of the system.

KEILAR: Yes. No one's arguing about that. We also saw what unemployment was because of the pandemic. We were thrown for quite a loop after the pandemic, weren't we? Stephen Moore, thank you so much. I appreciate speaking with you.

MOORE: Thank you, Brianna.

KEILAR: And almost a year after that mid-air collision between an -- an airliner and an Army helicopter, the NTSB is releasing the findings of its investigation, so what went wrong, and is it being fixed so it doesn't happen again? We'll talk about that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:28:35]

KEILAR: The NTSB has been meeting for more than five hours to finalize what they call one of the most complex investigations in the agency's history and that is the midair collision near Reagan National Airport that happened exactly one year ago this Thursday. An Army Blackhawk helicopter crashing into a passenger jet killing all 67 people on both aircraft.

Today, the NTSB chair said it was systemic failures, not just a single mistake, that caused the collision. CNN aviation correspondent Pete Muntean has been watching the meeting all day. Pete, this has been fascinating, what they have shown, these really revelatory simulations. Tell us what you're learning.

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, this has been really dense and really difficult for so many of the family members who are here in the audience today, in the boardroom, also in an overflow room.

This is not so much about what happened, but why it happened. And by the end of today, the National Transportation Safety Board will put out its official probable cause, all of the factors that went into this very tragic collision that killed 67 people. The NTSB has hammered the Federal Aviation Administration especially

hard for what it calls systemic failures, and essentially a failure of government here. And the FAA gave the NTSB new data, and the NTSB says there were on average about 18 close calls involving airplanes and helicopters near Reagan National Airport every year.

[15:30:08]

The NTSB also said ...