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Soon: Trump's Border Czar Holds News Conference In Minneapolis; Axios: Google "AI Playbook" To Help Mayors Use Tech At Local Level; Iran Says It Added 1,000 Drones To Its Military Stockpile. Aired 7:30- 8a ET

Aired January 29, 2026 - 07:30   ET

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

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[07:30:45]

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: The breaking news this morning here in Minneapolis. We are standing by for President Trump's border czar Tom Homan to give his first news conference since arriving here on the ground to take over the leading immigration enforcement operations.

Now it comes as two of the president's other key officials on immigration, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and top adviser Stephen Miller, are taking heat for their handling of the deadly shooting of Alex Pretti. Those tensions could be on display when the president holds his first cabinet meeting of the year today.

And we have new CNN reporting on just how influential Miller is over the president's immigration policies.

CNN's Alayna Treene is live at the White House for us this morning. What are you learning this morning, Alayna?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yeah, good morning, Sara.

Look, this Homan press conference is going to be very notable, of course. This is his first press conference since he was dispatched by the president to travel to Minnesota on Monday.

We know that really, Homan has been charged with calming the tensions on the ground in the state, particularly after a lot of the criticism -- bipartisan backlash, I should say, over the administration's handling of that fatal shooting of Alex Pretti over the weekend. And a lot of criticism and kind of new considerations over how the president is viewing the leadership of his immigration agenda.

Now we know that Homan has met with local officials on the ground -- people like Gov. Tim Walz as well as Mayor Jacob Frey -- and is working with them to try and have more coordination between the administration and local officials. But we're also learning of new, you know, potential guidelines as well that the administration is going to be giving to ICE and different agents on the ground as they're handling all of this. Homan is, of course, expected to address that. I can tell you I know he's been on the phone a lot with the president in recent days giving him updates over what he is learning. And he really is the one managing all of the operations now on the ground, particularly after we saw Gregory Bovino, who was the border patrol commander at-large kind of on the ground in Minnesota. He has been sidelined and Homan really taking center stage in all of this.

But look, we're also looking ahead, of course, to this very momentous cabinet meeting that's going to happen at 11:00 a.m. This will be the first time we're expected to see Secretary Kristi Noem publicly since she gave that very controversial press conference over the weekend on Saturday following the shooting -- the shooting of Pretti where she had essentially said that he was a domestic terrorist.

We're also looking to hear the president talk about Stephen Miller as well. And this is where you -- you know, getting into some of that new reporting we have overnight just about how he really has been the one managing and leading the president's immigration agenda.

I know a lot of people -- a lot of our viewers remember Stephen Miller also from the first term. He has long been one of the most hardline people when it comes to immigration -- in particular, the president's current crackdown on undocumented immigrants across the country.

But what was interesting was this week -- you know, Miller was one of the people, like Noem, who had the harshest language for Pretti. He argued that Pretti was a would-be assassin in the quick immediate aftermath of that shooting over the weekend. But then he changed his tune this week and tried to shift the blame toward Customs and Border Protection agents on the ground in Minnesota.

Essentially, what Miller had said -- you know, he's someone who has been very reluctant I should note to admit failure or weakness, particularly when it comes to the immigration strategy that this administration has. But he essentially said that it was -- he was getting different reports from CBP on the ground and that's how they made some of those comments and determinations early on and saying that they are now reviewing the protocol that CBP has laid out and that perhaps the agents weren't following the proper protocol.

But look, Miller is the one, again, leading a lot of all of this. He leads a 10:00 a.m. daily call. Officials told us he also has that call on Saturdays where he's been dictating a lot of this strategy. We also know that he was one of the people who was talking to Noem before she came out and gave that controversial press conference over the weekend.

[07:35:05]

And so there's a lot of questions really about how the president is viewing some of these top aides. Of course, we've heard the president as well as top officials here in that building behind me at the White House argue that he remains very confident in the leadership of DHS and also of Miller. But there has been a lot of, you know, reconsideration of how the administration is approaching this because of everything that has unfolded on the ground in Minnesota.

Today we're going to have a chance to have reporters. CNN will be in the room asking the president questions about this specifically. So we're staying tuned for all that, Sara.

SIDNER: Yeah.

Alayna Treene, thank you -- live there from the White House for us with the perspective from the White House and her new reporting.

Let's -- joining me now, CNN political commentator Bakari Sellers and CNN chief national affairs correspondent Jeff Zeleny.

Jeff, first to you. Look, Congress is in a pickle because of what is happening here. Because of ICE actions here in Minneapolis and in other places.

What are you seeing as far as whether or not there is going to be a bill -- a funding bill that goes through? What's the fight look like in Congress right now?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Sara, we are seeing some progress in terms of conversations with the White House and Senate leaders over moving forward some of these funding bills.

My colleague Manu Raju and I reporting overnight that there is a big sense really across the board to avoid a government shutdown. This is far from complete though. There are many things that have to be done. But if worked out, it would work out something like this.

The funding bills for five agencies or so -- the Department of Defense, state, transportation -- would effectively be separated from the Department of Homeland Security funding. The ICE funding we're talking about. That would be handled somewhat separately and that could potentially avoid a government shutdown.

But again, Democrats are holding firm here. They want to have more oversight on ICE. They want to have more scrutiny on ICE. But even if there would be a government shutdown it would not impact ICE's operations because of all the money they got last year in the one big, beautiful bill that was passed.

So the Senate Democrats are holding firm on this, there's no question, but it does seem the White House realizing the political position they're in on this -- the bad optics of this. They are discussing working forward here to try to avoid that shutdown. So today is a critical day on that front, Sara.

SIDNER: Bakari, you know, when you look at polling, Democrats are hurting almost just as bad as the president themselves as a whole -- the leadership.

What should Democrats be doing right now? Because obviously many of them -- some of them have shown up here from other states to mark what is happening here. To mark the death of Alex Pretti and Renee Good. What should the strategy be for Democrats when it comes to the fast- approaching midterms?

BAKARI SELLERS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, (D) FORMER SOUTH CAROLINA STATE REPRESENTATIVE (via Webex by Cisco): I mean, the first thing is -- and I think -- I think Jeff Zeleny hit the nail on the head -- is that there's not much of an appetite either for legislative leaders or, really, the Democratic base for another shutdown. I mean, I don't think that people understand the hurt that many normal folk outside of D.C. went through when the government shut down. And so there's not an appetite for that. Anything you can do to avoid that.

And the practical reality is that the one big, beautiful bill that many of us were fighting against a year ago ensured that ICE would be funded going forward.

But I have to say something that Raphael Warnock the senator from Georgia, and Ro Khanna are probably the only two individuals that I've seen, outside of those local elected officials who are from that area, who have gone there to lend their voice, and props to them.

But this is where you highlight the real leadership that we see. I mean, former St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter, Attorney General (audio gap), the lieutenant governor, although she's in a race for Senate, Peggy Flanagan. You're seeing these individuals step up and lead in Minnesota and that's a fascinating thing.

I'm not sure that many Americans know that 4,000 ICE agents converged on Minneapolis, on Minnesota and are wreaking havoc in that city. The most important thing Democrats can do is continue to keep the visuals pumping because from the Edmund Pettus Bridge all the way to Minneapolis in 2026, people move in this country only when they can see others hurt. When they can see the pain.

And Alex Pretti taught us and answered a question Sara that we've all been asking ourselves and makes the country shiver for better or for worse, which is what happens when the country sees a white person being gunned down by law enforcement? We're getting the answer to that question in real time. And as long as we keep our eyes and our lenses -- because of the work that you do and other independent journalists do -- on Minneapolis we'll be just fine.

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SIDNER: I do want to just follow up with you Bakari because we had something happen here that is unprecedented again, and that is that the ICE agents tried to get into the Ecuadorian consulate here in Minneapolis. According to the consulate they were able to keep them out. But this really goes against international law.

What do you see happening here by the administration and the tactics they're using? This is after Alex Pretti was shot. It was after, you know, the actions here of ICE that got everyone into the streets. What do you make of that?

SELLERS: You know, it's incompetence. I mean, I think it goes back to the fact that these ICE agents have a shorter training period than both Jeff and I's barber, right? Forty-seven days is just not long enough to go out and learn how to be a law enforcement agent in this country. They don't understand things like law enforcement tactics, and they don't understand complicated issues like sovereignty. But that leadership comes from on high.

I think Kristi Noem -- many people consider this to be low-hanging fruit. But I think Stephen Miller needs to be fired and I think Kristi Noem needs to be impeached. Things that Democrats can push for. Things that Democrats can call for in the lead up to the November elections, and things that should stem and start from Washington, D.C. I'd love to hear those words come out of Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries' mouth.

SIDNER: And we should mention Stephen Miller is the person that has said that they want to get 3,000 immigrants -- undocumented immigrants out of the country -- to arrest them -- a day, which has put a quota on this which has certainly, according to local law enforcement, ratcheted things up here in a major way.

I do want to end with you, Jeff Zeleny. We are seeing some political fallout if you will. A Republican here who was running for office has decided to end his campaign because of what is happening here. And now we're seeing a move by the senator here.

Jeff Zeleny, what are you -- what are you learning?

ZELENY: We are learning Sara this morning that Sen. Amy Klobuchar, of course, a four-term Minnesota senator, formally is entering the race for governor.

Of course, the politics have been upended in Minnesota all month long. Governor Walz announced on January 5 he would not seek re-election in the wake of a deepening fraud investigation. Well, just a couple of days after that Renee Good was killed. And, of course, we've seen the events unfold from there.

But Sen. Klobuchar, this morning in a new announcement video, explains how difficult things will be, but she pledges to unify the state.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-MN): Minnesota, we've been through a lot. A beloved leader and her husband murdered in their home. Little kids gunned down in a church. The killings of Renee Good, a mom of three, and Alex Pretti, a nurse who took care of our veterans. Three thousand ICE agents on our streets and in our towns sent by an administration that relishes division.

I believe we must stand up for what's right and fix what's wrong. That's why today I'm announcing my candidacy for governor of the state of Minnesota.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: Now there are already nearly a dozen Republicans in the race. It's unclear if any Democrats will also jump in. But Sen. Klobuchar, of course, has a long record of winning votes from

across the aisle -- Republicans and moderates as well. This will be a big test for her, there's no question. Minnesota will be on the front lines of the midterm election battle over immigration, over executive power, executive authority. But there is no doubt that Sen. Klobuchar changes this race dramatically. And again, she is pledging to try and unify the state and move it beyond its battle with the federal government, Sara.

SIDNER: Yeah. It's a huge political shakeup. A very emotional time here. We're seeing all of the fallout from the aggressive movements from Trump when it comes to immigration.

Bakari Sellers, Jeff Zeleny, it's always a pleasure, gentlemen. Thank you -- John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, thanks, Sara.

New reporting from Axios this morning. Google is launching a brand new AI playbook designed to help mayors use technology to help run their cities.

With us now is Axios senior markets reporter Madison Mills, who wrote this story. All right, Madison, what are mayors using AI for and why do they need a playbook?

MADISON MILLS, SENIOR MARKETS REPORTER, AXIOS (via Webex by Cisco): Yeah. So it's a lot of this back office work and this is what we hear kind of across the board in corporate America as well. But you can use AI to do a lot of the stuff that kind of feels like math homework at your job. Some of those administrative tasks. And we're seeing this play out across the country.

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And companies like Google are doing a really good job kind of educating different cities across the U.S. on how they can use this technology, and that's not just out of the kindness of their hearts. Obviously, these state and local governments have big budgets that could be utilized to pay for contracts with the likes of Google, Anthropic, or OpenAI, and many of them already do have those contracts and that could be a windfall of money for those companies.

But then the mayors like it because they can talk about how they're using technology to make their cities better. And it does save them time and money as well across their offices and their leadership staff.

So it's something that there's a lot of enthusiasm around right now both from the corporate side and then, of course, from the political side as well.

BERMAN: Talk to me a little bit more about Google's incentive here because anytime a tech company comes out with these prescriptions or the we're just trying to help on AI thing. We had one from, you know, Anthropic this week also. You know, what do we need to know --

MILLS: Um-hum.

BERMAN: -- also about their motives?

MILLS: Yeah. So, like everything -- I mean, I cover Wall Street so everything to me comes back to earnings, you know, and that's kind of the same situation that you're going to see with these -- with these companies. They're not doling out their AI goodness to help, you know, cities. It's a combo, right?

Yes, it can -- it can help these local governments to be able to do things more effectively when they desperately need that and everyone is under-resourced, and at the same time it is a potential windfall of cash. In fact, we've seen state and local governments increasingly be the ones that have the budgets to pay for some of this --

BERMAN: Yeah.

MILLS: -- technology to get implemented. So there is that potential windfall.

At the same time on the market side you have this kind of fascinating competition going on between Anthropic, OpenAI, and Google. And at least right now Wall Street is voting that Google is the clear winner --

BERMAN: Um-hum.

MILLS: -- on that race. They're seen as the responsible adult in the room when it comes to how they're spending and investing in AI, and initiatives like this are only kind of furthering that view on Wall Street.

BERMAN: Very quickly, Amazon just announced new layoffs. It's their second round in the last few months -- 16,000 this time -- actually, connected a little bit to AI, they say.

But broadly speaking, what are some of the concerns about this overall economy, which is absolutely growing but maybe not in a way that's adding jobs?

MILLS: Yeah. A source this morning said that we could be having an increase in layoffs while we have a renaissance economy, which is shocking. That's not typical. Typically the labor market is a huge indicator of where the economy is heading, so it would be very unusual to have layoffs and economic growth at the same time.

Of course, the knee-jerk reaction is to blame that on AI. I think from what I hear from sources that's almost giving companies a little too much credit -- that they've already embraced the technology to a degree that they can replace humans with it. But we are seeing companies preparing for that and maybe cutting staff to be able to pay for the infrastructure and investment needed to beef up their AI technology use so that eventually they could cut back on labor costs -- and we're starting to see that play out.

BERMAN: Yeah. One of the phrases we're starting to see is "jobless boom."

All right, Madison Mills. Great to see you this morning. Great reporting as always. Thank you.

All right, a CNN exclusive. President Trump reportedly considering a major strike. What we're learning about possible new action in Iran.

And developing this morning, a hate crime investigation underway after a driver slams into a Jewish center in New York.

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BERMAN: Breaking this morning, a driver is in custody after a car rammed into Chabad World Headquarters in Brooklyn overnight. According to investigators the driver slammed into the doorway, backed up, and crashed into it again several times. Police say the driver, who has not been identified, has been cooperating and told officers it was not an attack. New York police investigating it as a possible hate crime.

Nearly a dozen people injured in Mississippi after two separate gas station canopies collapsed under the weight of ice. That's with all the winter weather and ice still plaguing the south. Several vehicles were damaged. Ten people taken to the hospital with injuries.

This morning the cleanup underway at a recycling plant in Southern California after fire ripped through the facility. There were several explosions. No injuries were reported. The cause of the fire is under investigation.

Breaking overnight, Iran has added 1,000 strategic drones to its military stockpile. That's according to an Iranian state news agency. A top Iranian military official says the stockpile was enhanced due to "upcoming threats."

President Trump is warning of a possible attack on Iran if the country does not sign a nuclear deal, and Iran has vowed an immediate response.

CNN is on the ground inside Iran, the only American network there. Our Fred Pleitgen reporting from Tehran, operating with the government's permission, and spoke with the speaker of Iran's Parliament.

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FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: As U.S. President Donald Trump continues to threaten Iran's leadership, saying that the United States has amassed a gigantic force here in this region, ready for military strikes against Iran, Iran's leadership remain defiant.

[07:55:00] I was able to speak with the speaker of Iranian Parliament who tells me any attack on Iran would lead to a protracted war.

MOHAMMAD BAGHER GHALIBAF (through translator): Maybe Mr. Trump can start a war, but he doesn't have control over the end.

PLEITGEN: Now, President Trump's threats against Iran come in the wake of those massive protests that unfolded here in Tehran and other major cities and even towns and villages across the country in the early part of January. The Iranian leadership acknowledges that thousands of people, most of them civilians, were killed in those protests. The U.S. opposition groups and many of America's allies hold Iran Security Forces responsible for those killings, while the Iranians claim the protests were infiltrated by what they call outside groups.

In any case the speaker of Iran's Parliament told me Iran is still willing to negotiate with the United States but not under duress.

Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Tehran.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: So great to have Fred inside Iran reporting on all of this.

With us now is CNN military analyst and retired Air Force colonel Cedric Leighton. Colonel, great to see you this morning.

I do want to start on the Iranian side of this -- the threatened response if the U.S. were to attack. What capabilities does Iran have at this point and what would there potential targets be?

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST, U.S. AIR FORCE (RET._ (via Webex by Cisco): Well John, good morning.

One of the things that they have are those drones that you mentioned earlier. That's going to be something where we can see a lot of asymmetric warfare happening. So that's one capability that the Iranians have.

Another one is their ballistic missile program. And as we look at the map right here, we can see that there is all these U.S. military facilities throughout the Middle East. Those military facilities are within range of some of Iran's missiles, especially their medium and longer-range missiles. So that's another aspect of what they have.

And then the third aspect in addition to their conventional forces would be a cyber capability and they could potentially unleash their cyber capability, which is actually fairly sophisticated against not only U.S. targets but also against other nations in the Middle East.

BERMAN: In the last conflagration between the United States, Israel, and Iran, the United States targeted its nuclear program. Israel went back and forth with all kinds of missiles.

How much of Iran's missile stockpile was depleted? Do they still have enough to target Israel again and these U.S. military bases? LEIGHTON: So that's actually a question that the intelligence agencies are grappling with right now. There is an estimate that somewhere around a third of Iran's pre-June stockpile is still operational. It may actually be more than that. There is -- the Iranians say that they've basically reconstituted everything. And, you know, as an intelligence person you kind of have to believe them and at least plan for that.

But in reality, it's probably a lot less than what they had before. It's a bit difficult to put all of that stuff together and create a huge arsenal of missiles in a fairly short time. So I would say that they have somewhere between a third and a half of what they had before June.

BERMAN: So there -- there's some suggestion that the United States will follow the "Venezuela playbook" here in Iran -- pre-seizure of Maduro -- which is to say a naval presence and some kind of possible blockade.

What would the issues be in imposing --

LEIGHTON: John, I'm having difficulty hearing you.

BERMAN: Can you hear me at all, Cedric? All right. We lost Cedric. We'll get back to Cedric in just one second.

But just to reiterate what the president's threats are he's called on Iran to do three things basically. Number one, dismantle its nuclear program. Some signs on a nuclear deal to get rid of its medium-range missiles, the type of which Col. Leighton was just talking about which could strike U.S. military bases and Israel. And those are just two of the things. The third thing would be to back off and stop supporting its proxies throughout the region.

There was no mention by President Trump of what the Iranians should or should not do against the protesters currently in Iran.

All right, a brand new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

SIDNER: The breaking news out of Minneapolis this morning. I am live here in Minneapolis. Any second now we are expecting to hear from President Trump's border czar Tom Homan. He is here replacing the commander who was here, Greg Bovino. We have not yet heard comments from him so this will be significant.

There are new orders for ICE agents operating in the state after those two fatal shootings. And Homan is set to give his first news conference since arriving on the ground and taking over immigration enforcement operations on the ground.

It comes as we're learning some new details. Reuters now reporting that a top ICE official sent an email directing its officers in Minnesota to "Do not communicate with agitators."