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Trump Weighing New Strike on Iran; Another Government Shutdown?; Tom Homan Takes Over Minnesota Immigration Crackdown. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired January 29, 2026 - 13:00   ET

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

[13:00:00]

JASMINE WRIGHT, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, NOTUS: That's kind of a big question about, how do they talk behind the scenes?

DANA BASH, CNN HOST: Yes.

They're having a red carpet at the Ken -- well, what was the Kennedy Center, which he renamed, tonight.

BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: That's right.

And if you are expecting her to drop any major bombs about their relationship, I think his post about it after he saw a private screening earlier this week says it all. It's a-must watch, so don't expect any major fireworks.

(LAUGHTER)

BASH: Very good.

Thank you all. I really appreciate it.

Thank you for joining INSIDE POLITICS. "CNN NEWS CENTRAL" starts right now.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: The president's border czar vowing to stay in Minnesota until -- quote -- "the problem is gone."

Tom Homan speaking publicly for the first time since taking over the immigration crackdown there, what he's saying about plans for an eventual drawdown of federal agents.

Plus: a Cabinet kickoff, the president touting his first year alongside his top officials, as the administration faces more criticism over the immigration crackdown.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: And countdown to a shutdown. A failed vote in the Senate means we are inching closer to another government shutdown.

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

SANCHEZ: We start this hour with breaking news on President Trump's immigration crackdown. We're monitoring the president's first Cabinet meeting of the year as well just hours after his border czar, Tom Homan, laid out plans to eventually reduce the federal surge in Minnesota, a controversial one, no doubt.

Homan earlier today outlining what he calls a drawdown plan. He says having more federal access to jails would be key to reducing the number of agents on the street. At one point, Homan acknowledged changes are coming to their approach.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

THOMAS HOMAN, WHITE HOUSE BORDER CZAR: What we have been working on is making this operation safer, more efficient, by the book.

President Trump and I along with others in the administration have recognized that certain improvements could and should be made. You have the right to protest. I'm just asking you keep it peaceful.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Homan has now been in Minneapolis for a couple of days following scrutiny over several false statements that initially were made by the administration about the shooting death of Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse who was shot and killed by federal agents on Saturday, 11 days after he had previously clashed with agents.

And in video of that shuffle from January 13, Pretti is seen shouting at agents and kicking their vehicle's taillight as the agents are driving away. The agents stop, exit their vehicle and tackle Pretti to the ground. It's an interaction that lasts a few seconds, before Pretti gets up.

A gun appears to be tucked in Pretti's waistband, but it's unclear if the agents noticed. The agents don't disarm Pretti here. They walk away.

CNN's Priscilla Alvarez is with us now with more on Tom Homan's plans.

Priscilla, are these rhetorical changes? Are these real changes?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Look, in many ways, this was classic Tom Homan. He is a veteran Immigration and Customs Enforcement official.

And what he was articulating today is his philosophy when it comes to immigration enforcement, which is to say that he believes, as ICE has operated, that you -- with targeted operations. What does that mean? That means that you identify the undocumented immigrants with criminal records that you were going to pursue.

They do these operations typically in the dead of night or in the early morning hours, and they pick up those people. However, he also notes that anyone who is there who is also undocumented could be swept up. They call them collateral. So he didn't foreclose the idea that others could be swept up in these operations.

But it does look different compared to, for example, Gregory Bovino, the top Border Patrol official, who took a more broader immigration sweep approach to the cities where he led operations, including lately in Minneapolis. Of course, Bovino has left. Homan is now in charge.

And this is how he described how the agents will proceed moving forward.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HOMAN: Targeted, strategic enforcement operations, that's traditionally been the case and that's where we're going. That's what we're going to continue to do and approve upon that, with a prioritization on public safety threats.

We are not surrendering the president's mission on immigration enforcement. Let's make that clear. Prioritization of criminal immigrants doesn't mean we forget about everybody else. That's just simply ridiculous.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALVAREZ: So that's the key there. He said, you don't forget about everyone else.

That means people with immigration violations could be swept up. And that is what the administration is going to have to square, because there has been pushback within the American public over how they were conducting their immigration enforcement operations.

But the reality is that the White House has a mandate, and the mandate is mass deportation trying to meet these daily quotas of 3,000 immigration arrests, which they have not been able to meet because it is such a high number, and trying to reconcile an oper -- the way ICE typically does things with the way they want things to look to reach the numbers the president wants.

[13:05:15]

And I will also note that a lot of this plan also hinges on the collaboration and cooperation with local officials. Tom Homan spoke at length about that and trying to work with them to pick up people from jails who are undocumented and have records.

So, there's still a lot that is in motion here, and we're looking to see tactically what this looks like on the ground.

SANCHEZ: On the question of local officials, we're expecting to hear from Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey later this hour. He's in the nation's capital as part of a conference that's happening with the nation's mayors.

Notably, Homan spoke about the role of protesters and perhaps a different approach that is going to be taken with them by federal agents. ALVAREZ: Yes, so, earlier in the month, federal immigration officers

who were deployed to Minneapolis were told essentially not to engage with protesters and to call local police for backup.

Clearly, we have seen incidents, two people fatally shot in these clashes with federal agents. So they are taking a more stern approach on that. But, again, this is a whole new landscape. These are federal immigration officers who used to operate one way, and they are attracting protesters in the way that they have carried out these operations, and it's set up a whole new dynamic.

So I think the question is, can the operations change enough that people may not even notice them? Remember, ICE has been in Minneapolis for decades, but it wasn't until recently, because of the deployment of so many officers there and these operations and this hunkering down there that people really felt it in the city.

And so the question is, can they return to what was the status quo and deliver on other agreements with the local officials so as to simmer the tensions in the city?

KEILAR: Priscilla, thank you so much for that report. Really appreciate it.

And moments ago, President Trump's first Cabinet meeting of the year wrapped up.

SANCHEZ: In a fairly unusual move, the meeting ended without the president taking questions.

CNN's Kaitlan Collins joins us now. She was in the room for that meeting.

Kaitlan, really uncharacteristic of President Trump to not engage with reporters at the end of one of these.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I mean, Boris and Brianna, you both know very well this is a president who often takes questions from reporters.

I'm not sure I have ever been at a Cabinet meeting covering the president, whether in this term, and this was his 10th Cabinet meeting so far in his second term, or in his first term, where he did not take questions from reporters at the end. It's extremely rare for the president to do that.

He went around the room and called on a handful of Cabinet secretaries, more than a handful probably, actually, but one that he notably did not call on was standing to my left.

And that was the Department of Homeland Security secretary, Kristi Noem, who we know has come under intense scrutiny in the last several days ever since she came out on Saturday and described the killing of Alex Pretti at the hands of federal agents, described him as a domestic terrorist, and obviously described something that was not later borne out by the videos of what happened. And I just think it speaks to the moment there where there have been a

ton of headlines generated around Minneapolis, what's happening there, especially with the president changing his leadership on the ground and sending in his border czar, Tom Homan, as he was there this morning speaking with reporters.

That did not come up at all during this Cabinet meeting. And we were in that room for probably over an hour-and-a-half, as the president was talking about the economy, the Fed chair, housing, all of these other matters, but not once was Minneapolis brought up during that meeting.

And, obviously, no questions about it were asked to the president because he did not take questions, despite talking during the Cabinet meeting about how he believes they are the most transparent administration ever. It is incredibly rare for the president not to take questions.

And I do think it is -- it says something about the mind-set of this White House, as they have been facing questions even from Republicans about their handling of that killing of Alex Pretti on Saturday, with Republicans on Capitol Hill.

Some of them calling on the president to fire Kristi Noem, for her to leave her job and resign as DHS secretary, and a lot more of them calling for a thorough and independent investigation into what happened in Minneapolis and the aftermath of how it was handled, not only by the Department of Homeland Security, but also top officials here at the White House, who were echoing the comments that were being made by Secretary Noem.

KEILAR: Is Kristi Noem's position in danger, Kaitlan?

COLLINS: The president has argued it's not. He has stood by her I mean, I think she probably got as close to the penalty box as we have ever seen her get since her tenure as the Department of Homeland Security secretary.

A lot of people inside this administration have also been critical of the handling of that, because they didn't think it made the administration look good. The president himself believed that, we were told. He was frustrated by that coverage. That's why he made that change on the ground and pulled Greg Bovino out of there and put Tom Homan in, as he's trying to take the temperature down, as they have argued.

Whether or not that's in just this tone and how they're talking about it or what they're actually doing on the ground remains to be seen. But I do think it was notable that he did not mention Kristi Noem at all during that meeting.

[13:10:01]

Typically, obviously, immigration has been one of his strong suits. He likes to shout her out. They like to talk about what they have done to secure the southern border. So it did stand out to me that he didn't call on her.

I will note he didn't call on a few other people who were also in there as well. But it's pretty rare for the president not to talk to his Department of Homeland Security secretary, but also more rare to not take questions from reporters at the end.

SANCHEZ: Yes, he said he wanted to do things differently at this Cabinet meeting because he was bored by the last one and having everyone go around the table and offer comments.

Kaitlan Collins at the White House, thank you so much.

Still to come: a new poll giving us our first glimpse at how voters feel about ICE tactics in the wake of the Alex Pretti shooting. We're going to break down the numbers.

Plus, President Trump weighing a major new strike on Iran, as nuclear discussions between D.C. and Tehran fail to make progress.

KEILAR: And then later: The man accused of conspiring with his au pair to kill his wife and another man is back on the witness stand today.

We will have the latest from court ahead on CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:15:24]

SANCHEZ: Yet again, relations between Iran and the United States are at a head. People familiar with recent talks on Iran's nuclear program tell CNN that President Trump is weighing a new major strike on the country over to Tehran's refusal to accept U.S. terms.

This week, Trump threatened an attack far worse than the one we saw last summer, when the U.S. military bombed three of Iran's nuclear sites. This new rationale for a potential strike marks a notable shift from earlier this month, when the president threatened to intervene militarily over Iran's deadly crackdown on protesters.

KEILAR: The USS Abraham Lincoln strike group has now moved into the region in preparation. And, today, Iranian officials announced they have added 1,000 drones to their stockpile in response to what they call upcoming threats.

We're joined now by CNN military analyst retired Air Force Colonel Cedric Leighton.

How seriously is Iran taking this threat, as Trump is warning the next U.S. attack on the country will be far worse than the one last summer, when the military attacked the three nuclear sites?

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Yes, Brianna, I think they're taking it very seriously, because what they're afraid of is that their leadership structure is going to be targeted in this particular case. So you have got the leadership situation. You have got police areas

that might very well be hit. You have their ability potentially to strike other military targets, and potentially restrike the nuclear targets.

So there's several things that the Iranians are looking at here, and they're going to have difficulty defending against them all. The U.S. could theoretically strike all of them and do considerable damage, but the Iranians really have to figure out where they think these attacks might be coming from and develop the defenses for that.

SANCHEZ: Is it fair to say, Colonel, that there's a tacit admission on behalf of the administration when they say they want talks over nuclear weapons, after the president last summer said that their nuclear capabilities were completely obliterated? It doesn't seem like that's the case.

LEIGHTON: That's exactly right, Boris.

In fact, we were kind of reluctant to say that things had been obliterated or even eliminated when it came to the Iranian nuclear capability. And I think what this means is that the Iranians had perfected putting stuff deeply underground, and it's really difficult to get an accurate assessment of how far you have actually been able to strike things and how effective those strikes were.

So I think the intelligence community has come back to the White House and said, you have not quite obliterated the Iranian stockpiles, the Iranian nuclear program. And that's a significant issue. But, yes, this is a tacit admission by the White House, in my view, that they didn't quite finish the job.

Although they did a lot of damage to it, it is not the damage that you need in order to completely eliminate this program.

KEILAR: A reminder, the general in charge of the agency who put out that initial assessment that it wasn't obliterated was ousted. We should just remind people of that, as we say this is a tacit admission here.

This movement of the USS Abraham Lincoln into the region, I mean, how are you seeing that? Because the last time we saw a big movement of military personnel and ships, it came with a serious repercussion for Venezuela. This isn't just a threat? Is that how you see it?

LEIGHTON: I -- basically, Brianna, I see it as basically coiling with the spring. We're basically getting ready to move forces into a position where they can attack Iran.

Now, this effort could be moved back a bit, ratcheted back a bit if the president decides to do that, but it's really hard. Once you start things rolling, it's kind of like the trains in World War I. Once those trains started moving, it was impossible to set things back. Now, it's not quite that bad nowadays.

But you can really see where not only is the aircraft carrier coming in, the USS Lincoln, but you also have Air Force assets coming into the region, not -- everything from F-35s to aerial refuelers to reconnaissance aircraft. All of those are in place. And the thing that they have to look at, we're putting a lot of expensive hardware into this, but the Iranians could potentially use an asymmetric advantage in the sense that they have cheaper weapons that could do a lot of damage.

So we're putting a lot of expensive firepower into place that does a lot of damage and is highly effective. We have to remember that the Iranians fight war more or less cheaply compared to us.

SANCHEZ: I heard you say a moment ago that the Iran -- the Iranian regime is cognizant that their top leadership may be at risk of a direct strike, including possibly the ayatollah.

LEIGHTON: Yes.

SANCHEZ: What happens if the U.S. pursues that course?

[13:20:00]

LEIGHTON: Well, I think it's a dangerous course to pursue.

On the one hand, you have the Venezuela example, where you had the leader taken out, in the sense that he was arrested and brought to the U.S. for a future trial. That's not quite the way it would work in the Iranian situation. First of all, the supreme leader is protected in a way that is different from how the Venezuelans and the Cubans protected their leader.

But the other part of it was, is this, that the Iranians look at the supreme leader as being one part of their organizational structure, a key part of that. But they have other elements that could rapidly take his place if they needed to. They have a succession method in place.

It is not -- there hasn't been a leader that's been designated, but they could do that fairly quickly. And to decapitate the Iranian regime would potentially bring about all kinds of other cascading effects that could prove very dangerous for the U.S. presence in the Middle East, could activate the militias, the Iranian militias that are active in places like Iraq and Syria.

And that would be a very dangerous scenario for us.

KEILAR: Cedric, thank you so much for taking us through that. We do appreciate it.

(CROSSTALK)

LEIGHTON: ... Brianna.

KEILAR: Stop me if you have heard this before. Deja vu, anyone?

(LAUGHTER)

KEILAR: We could be just hours away from a partial government shutdown, but we're talking about a considerable part of the government here.

We will have the latest from the Hill next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:26:01]

SANCHEZ: And now the clock is ticking toward another partial government shutdown as soon as midnight tomorrow.

Moments ago, a bipartisan group of senators blocked a massive spending bill that was passed by the House. The main issue here is funding for the Department of Homeland Security, including money for ICE.

KEILAR: After the deadly shooting of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, Senate Democrats vowed not to move forward unless money for the agency is taken out of the bill.

CNN's Manu Raju is with us now from the Hill.

All right, Manu, where are things headed here?

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, there are serious negotiations that are ongoing and still positive signs that a shutdown could be averted, at least a prolonged shutdown could be averted if things really start to come together.

And at the moment, there are indications that things are coming together. Why? Because the White House is moving off of its position and moving towards the Democratic position amid growing outcry and pressure in the aftermath of the killing of two individuals by ICE agents in Minneapolis.

As part of this proposal, it would essentially allow for funding a significant portion of the federal government, like the Defense Department, Health and Human Services Department, through September, but on a temporary basis fund the Department of Homeland Security until there are negotiations and until there's a deal in place to change how ICE is operating across the country.

That is what Democrats have been demanding, and the White House and Senate Democratic leaders are engaged in a furious run of negotiations to ink that deal to allow for some time for larger negotiations to rein in ICE.

Now, this all comes amid furious concerns, fury among Democrats about everything that's been happening, particularly in Minneapolis.

One senator I caught up with just this morning, Senator Tina Smith of Minnesota, I asked her about the promise by the border czar, Tom Homan, from earlier today for a drawdown in Minneapolis and whether she was satisfied with that remark.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Was what Tom Homan laid out enough for you? SEN. TINA SMITH (D-MN): No, not at all. I mean, it was more

conciliatory words, but no detail.

And I'm looking for information about when troops are leaving. I think ICE needs to get out of Minnesota. I think it is dangerous when they are there. So I'm looking for much more detail than he offered today.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: And Democrats are saying that simple promises of executive action are not enough for them to vote yes on a funding bill regarding the Department of Homeland Security in particular.

They want it actually written into the legislation things like requiring ICE agents to wear body cameras, to prevent them from wearing masks, changing how they use search warrants, as well as their use of force procedures and ending roving patrols.

Those are among the Democratic demands that they want written into the bill, but that will be part of a separate negotiation if first they can avoid a government shutdown for about 70 percent of the federal government. And time is indeed ticking. They have until Friday, tomorrow night at 11:59 p.m., to avoid a government shutdown.

It would have to pass the United States Senate. And because we expect some changes, the United States House would have to give final approval. And they're on recess, so that means that it could be kicked -- the can could be kicked until Monday for final approval. That's after the shutdown deadline -- guys.

SANCHEZ: A lot of moving parts.

RAJU: Yes.

SANCHEZ: Manu Raju on Capitol Hill, thank you so much.

So, minutes from now, we're expecting to hear from Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey. He's set to give his first remarks since White House border czar Tom Homan revealed his plan of action in that state. We will see what the mayor has to say in response next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)