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Homan's ICE Playbook Expanded; Ex-Prince Andrew Released; U.S. Economy Slows; Trump Weighs Iran Options. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired February 20, 2026 - 08:30   ET

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

[08:30:00]

HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: Jonathan and Harold.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Official. Wow.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes.

ENTEN: I don't know what the long for Sara would be.

BERMAN: Sarali (ph).

SIDNER: It's just Sara.

ENTEN: Sarali.

SIDNER: That's -- what?

BERMAN: There you go, Sarali.

ENTEN: Sarali.

SIDNER: Sounds like an attorney's firm. Sarold (ph), Harold and Jonathan.

ENTEN: Sarold, Harold and Berman.

SIDNER: All right, up next, we are going to sop trying to be attorneys because clearly that didn't happen. We're standing by for a new report, though, on the economy. Just how much has it grown and what will it tell us about where things are headed and how it's going to affect your life?

And the historic week on the ice for Team USA at the Olympics. The women's hockey team beats Canada for the Olympic gold in a nail-biting finish. And the U.S. is back on top of the podium in women's figure skating for the first time since 2002. Wait till you see it, if you haven't already.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIDNER: This morning, a really significant pivot inside the Trump administration's immigration crackdown playbook. Our Priscilla Alvarez is reporting the administration is shelving the highly visible, militarized-style immigration sweeps like we saw in Minneapolis, in favor of a more targeted approach.

[08:35:04]

I spoke with Border Czar Tom Homan on those changes just moments ago. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM HOMAN, BORDER CZAR: I made changes. I created a unified chain of command. Everybody's reporting up to one chain. I want to make sure it was targeted enforcement operations. I don't think it was happening in all instances.

But I think the most important thing I did, I talked to the mayor. I talked to the governor. I talked to the attorney general. We can't fix things talking in an echo chamber. We got to talk to the other side. And that's how we fix things. That's how we got the unprecedented cooperation. That's why the state of Minnesota, I think, is safer today.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: CNN's Priscilla Alvarez is joining us now with more on your reporting.

It is a remarkable difference between what we saw with Greg Bovino and what we're seeing with Tom Homan, although the citizens there are still very upset about what is currently happening and what happened in the past. What are you learning with your reporting?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Sara, this is a difference from what has happened over the last year, but it is also a return to the typical immigration enforcement tactics that are deployed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

And Tom Homan sort of touched on that in your interview with him earlier this hour because he said that targeted enforcement operations weren't happening in some instances. So, what is happening moving forward is really taking the playbook that Tom Homan used in Minneapolis and using that in multiple cities nationwide.

It's a rebuke of Gregory Bovino's style. Gregory Bovino, of course, a top Border Patrol official who used those heavy handed tactics, who blasted those on social media and who often did those broad sweeps in areas trafficked by immigrants.

This instead is a doubling down of what is known as that targeted enforcement, meaning that ICE identifies who they're going to go after. They build a strategy. They go after that individual or individuals. And if there are other undocumented immigrants in the vicinity, known as collaterals, they too can be swept up. But this is still different from just going to what we saw, for example, in multiple cities, like the Home Depot and arresting individuals there seemingly at random.

So, again, when I talk to my sources about this, what they stress is that this isn't a softening by the administration in their crackdown, so much as deploying a new strategy amid the waning support among Americans over how the administration was conducting its enforcement. One Homeland Security official told me this, quote, "ICE has been doing interior enforcement before Bovino got involved. They prefer to conduct their ops without the optics. Border patrol never wanted anything to do with these interior ops, and will go back to focusing on the border."

Now, when I asked the White House about this, they also reiterated that they have been going after those national security and public safety threats, telling me this in a statement, quote, "the president's entire team is working together to implement his immigration enforcement agenda, which has always focused on prioritizing the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens. The successful deportations, dropping crime rates and historically secure border prove that. As always, anyone in the country illegally is eligible to be deported."

Now, data has shown that they're -- the majority of those who have been arrested don't have the serious criminal convictions that the administration says that they do, though, of course, it is always hard to parse that through given that we don't have all of the information before us. But I will also note that when the White House talks about the president's team, the reality is, too, that there are two different factions in the team over how to conduct immigration enforcement. And that became abundantly clear with Homan and with Kristi Noem, who rarely speak to each other. And Kristi Noem was the one that backed Bovino's style.

So, we'll see how things move forward. But currently the plans that I am told, that can always change, is that Homan's playbook, that targeted immigration enforcement that ICE typically does, is what is going to be used in cities across the country.

SIDNER: It is what was used long before Bovino came into place.

ALVAREZ: Right.

SIDNER: And before this huge crackdown and surge by the Trump administration. We will see how it is responded to.

Priscilla Alvarez, thank you so much. I do appreciate your great reporting throughout all of this.

John.

BERMAN: All right, this morning, we want to take a live look at the Sandringham estate in England. This is one of the historic homes owned by King Charles. And it is the site where the former Prince Andrew was arrested in this historic arrest yesterday morning. Now, this morning, authorities are searching a separate residence that was connected to Andrew. He was released from police custody, but is under -- remains under investigation after seemingly being connection to -- connected to information in the Epstein files.

With us now is broadcaster international lawyer Andrew Eborn, and also CNN royal commentator Sally Bedell Smith.

And, Sally, I do want to start with you here.

On the subject of Sandringham, because that is where Andrew returned to in that car after he was released from police custody.

[08:40:01]

And for all we know, that's where he is right now. It's also a home owned by King Charles personally. So, talk to us about how that's in some ways representative of this internal conflict, because the king says that he, you know, was promising the full and whole (ph) cooperation with the investigation. But his brother's sleeping at his house

SALLY BEDELL SMITH, CNN ROYAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I don't think there's a contradiction. That is the Sandringham estate. It's 20,000 acres. It has seven villages. It has hundreds of houses. This is one of them.

And, in effect, people wouldn't use this language, but Andrew is kind of being held under house arrest by his older brother. The word that you hear from the people in Buckingham Palace is that Andrew is being contained. Remember when he was living not too long ago at Windsor, in a house that had belonged to his grandmother, he was free to roam and he was out there riding on horseback and waving to passersby. And that was really, I think, the straw that broke the camel's back when King Charles said, enough is enough, you have to get out of here. They've been negotiating for his release for a while. Now he is at Sandringham and really his -- he's in an isolated place. I have seen it. He is -- he's not going to be out hobnobbing with the tourists.

He is being contained until they figure out what to do. He has been arrested. He has been questioned. He is still under investigation. His other house, the one from, you know, where he was evicted, is -- I mean I've been told that he was a pack rat. And so, heaven only knows what documents they can find there. So, I don't think there's a contradiction.

The other question is whether Charles himself will be questioned about his relationship with Andrew and how much he knew. He is not compelled to answer questions, but he has said that he will cooperate fully with the investigation.

BERMAN: Let's take this in parts, Andrew. Then first, just describe to me, what is this current legal situation that Andrew finds himself in as he is in Sandringham, as Sally describes, under a type of containment there?

ANDREW EBORN, BROADCASTER AND INTERNATIONAL LAWYER: Well, at first I wouldn't say he's necessarily under containment. He's certainly moved from what was a massive mansion, a 30-room mansion, royal lodge in Windsor, to what Andrew's calling a shoebox of a place. So, there's a massive humiliation on that sort of side.

But undoubtedly yesterday saw a seismic shift from history. It's the first time in nearly 400 years that a senior royal was arrested in Britain. Andrew Mountbatten, he spent the day in custody, about 11 hours. He was being questioned. And by the evening he was released under investigation. What that means is that the investigation is still continuing and the relevant contempt of court rules still apply, which means that basically anybody that says anything that might prejudice a fair trial could themselves be exposed to a potential fine, and also imprisonment for up to two years.

The fine itself, basically, it could be unlimited and so on and so forth. But the charge that Andrew faces is quite extraordinary. This thing about public office and basically corruption in public office, if you like, it carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. And what happens there is they need to have a look and see all of the evidence, get that at the very, very high level, if you'd like, to sort of turn around and say, this is the threshold.

But what the king has done, he's turned around and very wisely he turned around and confirmed that nobody is above the law, including his own brother. And he wants the proper process to be carried out. So, that's what we're going to see. The police, at the moment, are looking at different properties. They're assessing the evidence. And then they will make the decision as to whether or not they're going to charge.

BERMAN: Obviously, we're standing by for that. Could be some time, we are told.

Andrew Eborn, Sally Bedell Smith, thank you both very much.

Kate.

SMITH: Thank you.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: And breaking moments ago, there's new data just in showing how economic growth is looking, slowed sharply at the end of 2025.

CNN's Matt Egan just ran in with all the details.

What's happened here?

MATT EGAN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Well, Kate, we were bracing for a slowdown, but this was a much bigger slowdown than we had anticipated.

So, GDP, the broadest measure of economic activity, coming in at 1.4 percent during the fourth quarter. Now, there was a wide range of estimates, but that's below any of the estimates --

[08:45:02]

BOLDUAN: That's below all of it.

EGAN: That's below the consensus that I had seen.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

EGAN: And clearly a sharp slowdown from this really strong number of 4.4 percent in the third quarter.

However, I do think that this fourth quarter number, it probably needs a bit of an asterisk because one of the drivers here was the longest government shutdown in U.S. history. Because of that shutdown, some government investment, contracts, spending was delayed. And that subtracted from growth. And the good news is that GDP should get a bounce back as that government spending recovers during the current quarter, during the first quarter.

But it wasn't just about the shutdown, as we look at the trend here for the last few years, really, of GDP growth. And you can see this sharp slowdown in the most recent quarter all the way to the right.

Now, one of the other factors here was consumer spending. Consumer spending is obviously the biggest engine of this economy. It slowed to 2.4 percent from 3.5 percent.

BOLDUAN: So, this is the thing (ph) because that's the -- this was like the engine that could. Like, the engine that wouldn't quit.

EGAN: Yes. Yes. And it hasn't quit.

BOLDUAN: Right.

EGAN: But it has slowed down.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

EGAN: Now, we don't know from this report who was doing that spending.

BOLDUAN: OK.

EGAN: And we know that in this k-shaped economy a lot of that spending is being done by those at the top who have exposure to real estate, to stock market. And those in the middle and the bottom, some of them have been forced to cut back on spending.

Now, I do want to zoom out and just look at how the economy has performed in recent years, because today's report also included a 2025 GDP figure. And you can see, coming in at 2.2 percent, that is a slowdown from 2024, which is notable because, remember, the president has argued he inherited a disaster, a complete mess. And he's argued that the economy is now booming but GDP is clearly not showing that. In fact, this 2.2 percent figure for last year, that may have been the slowest since 2020. And, of course, that was during the Covid-19 pandemic.

So, look, you put all this together. There's a lot of moving pieces in this economy. Government shutdown. A lot of distortions caused by tariffs and trade and consumer spending. And that's really the most important thing, consumer spending has slowed down.

BOLDUAN: But with all the appropriate caveats, there's some -- there's some lessons that need to be learned in this for sure.

EGAN: Yes. BOLDUAN: And some messages that the White House is clearly going to be taking a close look at.

EGAN: Absolutely.

BOLDUAN: Thanks so much, Matt. I really appreciate it.

EGAN: Thanks, Kate.

BOLDUAN: J.B.

BERMAN: You know, it's interesting because after a couple of readings that beat expectations, this one decidedly didn't.

BOLDUAN: Right.

EGAN: Absolutely.

BERMAN: This is much worse than people were expecting. Thank you very much.

All right, a remarkable new tool that many are using to look at the Epstein files, designed to look like Jeffrey Epstein's email account.

And President Trump's plan to build an arch in Washington could soon face some legal troubles from a group of veterans.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:51:38]

BERMAN: All right, at this moment, the U.S. is engaged in the largest military buildup in the Middle East in decades, with reporting that U.S. forces have enough in place to strike Iran as soon as this weekend. On Air Force One, though, the president floated a slightly different timeline.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, we'll either make a deal or we're going to get a deal one way or the other.

REPORTER: But with a military strike, is it to wipe out their nuclear program?

TRUMP: I'm not going to talk to you about that, but we're either going to get a deal or it's going to be unfortunate for them.

REPORTER: And then you said today 10 days. Have you given them a deadline firm to make a deal?

TRUMP: Well, I would think that would be enough time, 10, 15 days. Pretty much maximum.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Again, timelines and deadlines have been malleable for President Trump in the past when dealing with Iran.

We've got some new CNN reporting on the range of options the president is said to be considering, from targeted strikes on nuclear or missile sites, to a sustained operation that could last for weeks, to an attempt to topple Iran's regime, or he could decide to continue diplomatic talks. A lot of new reporting on the how, really no information from the White House on the why. Why are they considering this?

So, let's get to CNN's Kevin Liptak on the White House for all of this new information, but also lack, frankly, of information or explanation.

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes. And it was striking to hear the president on Air Force One when he was asked directly whether a potential attack on Iran would be aimed at the nuclear facilities and he said he didn't want to say, which does leave open this massive question of what exactly the president is trying to accomplish, you know, with this massive military buildup in the region, the largest we've seen since the onset of the Iraq War.

We are getting a better picture of how the president might utilize those military assets. You know, the range of options in front of him go from anything to a more limited strike on military facilities intended to pressure Iran into agreeing to a deal, you know, going all the way up to some sort of attack meant to topple the regime. So, a huge range of options before the president.

You know, he does seem intent at this point on trying to pursue diplomacy. And certainly officials behind the scenes still say that diplomacy is in the works. They remain hopeful for a deal. But the timeline that the president laid out there, you know, trying to strike an agreement within 15 days, that's extraordinarily truncated for what amounts to an extraordinarily technical negotiation. You know, when you're talking about nuclear enrichment, you know, the purity of uranium, remember, it took President Obama more than two years to negotiate the Iran nuclear deal that President Trump eventually withdrew from. Those talks were led in part by a nuclear physicist, the energy secretary at the time.

So, this is extraordinarily, technical work for the president who has so far not necessarily laid out in very much detail everything that he is trying to accomplish in this military buildup or in these negotiations.

BERMAN: Yes, we don't know if it is just about uranium enrichment or Iran's nuclear program. That is one of the major open questions.

Kevin Liptak, at the White House this morning, thank you very much.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: Joining me right now is CNN global affairs analyst Brett McGurk. Brett, of course, served in in a senior national security posts under the last four presidents, including President Trump.

I want to get to that question that John was posing, which is the why rationale, what is the endgame in just a second.

[08:55:02]

But in terms of just the calculation in this moment, you think both Donald Trump and the ayatollah are miscalculating here. Why?

BRETT MCGURK, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, Kate, I think -- I think President Trump, if there could be a diplomatic off ramp, I think he would take it. And he seems to think that maybe Iran is going to come in with something that he can defend. I'm just not seeing that in the cards because Supreme Leader Khamenei, despite what Iran's foreign minister might say, Khamenei, the supreme leader, the only decider in Tehran, has really doubled down on we're not going to talk about missiles, we're not going to talk about nuclear enrichment in a very defiant tone. And he's the guy that matters.

So, I think this is heading now -- and given the scope of this military deployment, it's really massive. It is an operational deployment. I think this is heading for a military operation absent some breakthrough. We all hope diplomacy can succeed. But as Kevin said, and, Kate, I've done these talks with Iran on nuclear issues and other issues, they're very complex. They're very technical. They take a lot of time. I'm just very skeptical that in the course of ten days or so you can have a breakthrough.

BOLDUAN: And you heard the president, they played the sound bite, saying in the next -- basically in the next two weeks he's going to make a decision. But he's also saying he's going to make a deal -- Iran needs to make a deal or else. Is he boxing himself in here?

MCGURK: I think what's interesting here, Kate, is, you know, the reason for this military deployment, what precipitated it, it was not a new nuclear crisis, it was not something related directly to Iran's missiles. It was the protests earlier in January and the massive crackdown and President Trump's statements publicly that we will come to the rescue of the Iranian people. That's what began this movement of military resources.

And then out of that, the talks began focused on the nuclear issue because that's all that Iran would discuss. So, where does that leave us? I think if you have a military operation, I just want to be very clear, I do not see a limited option. I'd say that really for three reasons. Number one, Kate, you have to take out the missiles and the launchers, even more importantly, because Iran has said publicly, if the United States attacks, we will hit U.S. facilities across the Middle East with our missiles. So, you have to take out the missiles. That's number one.

Number two, Kate, I can't see President Trump doing an operation without striking the repressive apparatus of the regime, which led that violent crackdown earlier this year, based on his public statements. That means you bring in the target set, the headquarters of the Revolutionary Guards Corps, the besieged militias, the apparatus of the state that led that crackdown. And then finally you have the nuclear targets. What might have been left from last summer and some new targets, including an underground mountain near the Natanz facility that was struck in June.

So, you add it up, this is a very significant operation. It's unlike any military operation President Trump has ordered in his first or second term. It's potentially much more open ended. I think he will try to keep it contained and make clear to the Iranians, you know, this is all we're doing. Let's kind of put a ceiling on it here. But very uncertain in terms of where this goes. It's a -- it's a massive endeavor. And I just would not understate the risks.

BOLDUAN: Yes, I mean, it -- definitely can't understate the risks. And -- but the way the president is talking about it, you rightfully point out where this began with these protests in the -- in the deadly crackdown because it seems to have been lost by so many how this has evolved. The rationale for it, still a big question. What the end goal is, still a big question. And not -- and that lack of clarity seems to be pretty startling considering what the president is considering pulling off. He's not explained this well to the American people.

MCGURK: Yes, the one thing that troubles me a little bit, and there could be a lot of discussions going on behind the scenes between the president and his military commanders. There's been very little consultation with Congress. And, you know, kind of strategy 101, von Clausewitz, one of the great military theorists from the 19th century, he said, any leader that is considering military action has to know -- be clear in his mind what you're trying to achieve and how you're going to achieve it. If you're not very clear in those objectives, the events as they unfold tend to define the objectives for you. That's how you get into mission creep and very open-ended operations. And I have not heard from the president, or really any administration official, precisely what we intend to achieve here.

Now, you want to keep your cards close to your vest as you're planning things. I understand that. But as we get closer to potentially military operation in this very serious endeavor, I think it's very important to lay that out to the American people about exactly what's going on here and what the objective is critical.

BOLDUAN: Yes, if you want to get support for it, when you were elected to get yourself out of all the foreign wars.

Brett, it's great to see you. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it.

Sara.

SIDNER: All right, on our radar for you, actor Eric Dane, who is forever remembered by adoring "Gray's Anatomy" fans as Dr. McSteamy, he's died.

[09:00:00]

The 53-year-old announced just last April that he had ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease. There was a huge outpouring of support for Dane. He is remembered by generations of fans because you