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Trump Weighs Potential Military Intervention In Iran; DHS Secretary Noem Says "Domestic Terrorism" Remark Wasn't A Rush to Judgment; Nobel Institute: Machado's Peace Prize Cannot Be Transferred; Trump To Meet Venezuelan Opposition Leader Machado; How Venezuela's New Interim Leader Became Vital To The U.S.; Trump Admin Doubles Down On Claim ICE Agent Killed Good In Self-Defense; Rebuild Permits Issued To Less Than 20 Percent Of Altadena's Destroyed Homes; Western U.S. In A Snow Drought Fueled By Record Warmth, Rain. Aired 2- 3p ET

Aired January 11, 2026 - 14:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:00:32]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KRISTI NOEM, U.S. SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY: I would encourage them to grow up, get some maturity.

MAYOR JACOB FREY, MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA: That was some wild and crazy stuff. You know, it sounds like she doesn't believe a single word that she is saying right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN HOST: Tempers flare in the fallout over the deadly ice shooting in Minnesota. What Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey told CNN today.

Plus, weighing his options after threats the U.S. would, quote, "get involved", unquote. New CNN reporting on President Trump's possible military intervention in Iran.

And later, stuck in a nightmare. A year after fires decimated L.A., some residents can't afford to rebuild their lives. CNN takes you there.

Hello, everyone. Thank you so much for joining me this Sunday.

I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

And we begin with new details on the deadly protests in Iran. Sources tell CNN that President Trump is reviewing a range of possible military options after Iranians call for change have been met with violence.

At least 420 protesters have been killed, according to the latest estimate by the U.S. based human rights group, up from a few dozen just a day ago as anti-government demonstrations enter their third week.

This is the scene playing out this weekend in Tehran.

I want to go straight now to CNN's Julia Benbrook. She's near Mar-a- Lago, where the president is spending the weekend.

Julia, what more can you tell us about these military options that are being considered?

JULIA BENBROOK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, President Donald Trump is still weighing his option. No final decision has been made here. But we have learned in recent days he has been briefed on potential plans for intervention there in Iran, this as these protests have spread across the provinces.

And as you mentioned, those numbers, it has led to hundreds of deaths of protesters and thousands of arrests.

Now, U.S. officials who spoke with CNN have said that some of those options have centered around targeting Tehran's security services used to tamp down the protests.

It's important to note that there are concerns within the administration that any sort of military strike has the potential to backfire and undermine the protesters there.

Trump has also been considering options that do not involve military strikes that are more focused on cyber operations, as he looks good -- looks to make good on his vow to help the people there.

The administration is also considering ways to help with technology that could restore Internet connection. As the people in Iran are going into their fourth day now of an information blackout without access to those things.

Trump did recently say on social media just yesterday that the U.S.A. stands ready to help. But he didn't go into a lot of specifics. He spoke on this a bit on camera at the White House before he traveled here to Florida. This is where he's spending the weekend.

And he was asked, as we were seeing that death toll rise, of course, it rose again that if the United States was going to get involved and I want you to take a listen to his response.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I've made the statement very strongly that if they start killing people like they have in the past, we will get involved. We'll be hitting them very hard where it hurts.

And that doesn't mean boots on the ground, but it means hitting them very, very hard where it hurts. So we don't want that to happen.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BENBROOK: Now, a number of different agencies have been involved in helping prepare options for the president to review, and we do expect more formal briefings to take place next week, Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right. Julia Benbrook near West Palm Beach, thank you so much.

All right. Even with an Internet blackout in place since Thursday, the brutality of the Iranian regimes response to protests is coming into focus.

WHITFIELD: CNN's Paula Hancocks has more.

[14:04:52]

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fears of a bloody crackdown by Iran's security forces against anti-regime protesters are being realized. We have a sharply higher death toll now from the U.S. based human rights activists, saying that they have verified the deaths of some 420 protesters. That they say is at least and there are more that they are trying to verify.

Now, there is a near-total Internet blackout in the country. It is very difficult for people inside to be able to communicate with the outside world.

But we have at CNN spoken to a number of eyewitnesses and medical personnel over recent days. Now, medical personnel have been describing harrowing scenes on condition of anonymity, given the fact that they fear repercussions from the regime.

One doctor in the city of Neyshabur (ph) described indiscriminate killing on Friday.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Under Khamenei's orders, the use of military rifles against protesters was authorized. And at least 30 people were killed in the streets. Among those 30 were very young children.

A five-year-old child was shot while in their mother's arms. Many others were hit with bullets and injured in hospitals and they are being passed on from one spot to the other.

HANCOCKS: The protesters who have spoken to CNN have described seeing security forces brandishing military rifles and killing people in the streets. One said that in hospitals there were, quote, "bodies piled up".

Now, we did speak to protesters as well who say that they were trying to help a 60-year-old man who had pellets in his leg, a broken arm, and they had to go to several different hospitals because of the sheer number of patients that were being treated, saying it was, quote, "completely chaotic".

Now, we've also heard from the Iranian president, Masoud Pezeshkian, and he has said that citizens should not join, quote, "rioters and terrorists". Now, when these protests first started two weeks ago, they were

economic protests. He suggested that he was willing to engage with them.

He is now calling them though, foreign-linked terrorists, suggesting that the regime is not willing to have a dialog and raising fears that the security forces have been given the green light to be more violent.

Now, just a few of the victims that we are hearing about -- a 23-year- old student, a 39-year-old bodybuilder, and a father of three -- just three of scores of protesters that have been killed, people coming out onto the streets calling for change and paying with their lives.

Paula Hancocks, CNN -- Abu Dhabi.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks so much for that reporting, Paula.

Back in this country, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is standing by the comments that she made immediately after the shooting of Renee Good by an ICE agent in Minneapolis.

Noem insisting today on CNN that her domestic terrorism claims against Good were not a rush to judgment. On the day of the shooting, Noem held a press conference where she said Good refused to obey the ICE officers demands and then weaponized her vehicle in an effort to run the ICE agent over.

But videos that have since been released call that narrative into question. And today, Noem repeatedly insisted her version of events is the right one. And she refused to acknowledge the possibility that Good could have been peacefully trying to flee the scene.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: How can you assert with certainty that she was trying to hurt the officer, as opposed to she was trying to flee the scene?

NOEM: If you look at what the definition of domestic terrorism is, it completely fits the situation on the ground. This individual, as you saw in the video that we released just 48 hours after this incident, showed that this officer was hit by her vehicle, she weaponized it and he defended his life and those colleagues around him and the public.

TAPPER: And the question is, I don't doubt -- my position is I wasn't there. I didn't see it. Some people say that it clearly showed that she was trying to hit him and did. Some people say no, she was clearly trying to move her car and flee and get away.

I don't know. What I'm saying is, how do you know? How can you assert for a fact within hours before any investigation this is what happened? NOEM: The facts of the situation are that the vehicle was weaponized

and it attacked the law enforcement officer. He defended himself and he defended those individuals around him. That is the definition.

When there is something that is weaponized to use against the public and law enforcement, that is an act of domestic terrorism, happened in our in our shores. It happened here in our country.

You don't get to change the facts just because you don't like them. We will continue to look at this individual and what her motivations were.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[14:09:50]

WHITFIELD: In that CNN interview, Noem also defended the decision by federal authorities to not share evidence in the case with Minnesota officials.

And in a highly unusual move, the Justice Department has blocked state investigators in Minnesota from participating in the probe into that shooting.

Secretary Noem also announced today that the Trump administration is sending hundreds more customs and border patrol officers to Minneapolis in the coming days. And it comes as tensions continue to flare in the Twin Cities over the shooting. Huge anti-ICE protests erupted in the Minneapolis area and across the country on Saturday, with more demonstrations planned today.

CNN's Nick Watt joins us now with more on all this. So bring us up to speed on the situation today. What city and state officials are all saying?

NICK WATT, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fred, listen, as you've laid out there, the divide between what federal officials are saying and what state and local officials are saying is only growing. Both sides essentially doubling down on this.

You know, the feds say that Renee Good was a domestic terrorist. The mayor of Minneapolis says that Jonathan Ross was a reckless agent. He, the mayor, wants an unbiased, independent investigation into all of this.

It's incredible where we are that both sides were all watching the same videos. Either side drawing entirely different conclusions or intimations. That's where we are on this.

Mayor Frey actually suggested that Kristi Noem, he thinks maybe doesn't even believe what she's saying. But anyway, take that for what it's worth.

Have a listen to more of what Mayor Frey had to say this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) FREY: Because here's the thing she's calling Minneapolis like this dystopian hellhole. You know how many shootings we've had so far this year? Two. And one of them was ICE.

I said this was a federal agent recklessly using power that ended up in somebody dying because that was a federal agent recklessly using power that ended up in somebody dying. It's exactly what happened. I mean, am I biased in this? Of course and I'm biased because I got two eyes.

Anybody can see these videos. Anybody can see that this victim is not a domestic terrorist. I mean, my goodness, she's like doing a three or four or five-point turn. This looks like somebody that's trying to get out of there. If doing a three-point turn or a four-point turn is a domestic terrorist, then my wife is a criminal every single day.

This does not make sense. We've got to be operating from a point of, of course, have this investigation. It should be a neutral, unbiased investigation where you get the facts, you know.

And by the way, I shouldn't be the one conducting the investigation nor should Kristi Noem. But you should have an entity that is able to do it with some common sense and operating in reality.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATT: Now, Kristi Noem called the mayor and others -- she called for them to grow up after they made the complaints about this lack of cooperation between the federal officials and the state and local officials in terms of this investigation.

You know, this morning on, "STATE OF THE UNION", Jake Tapper also pressed the secretary on this apparent disconnect between, you know, President Trump pardoning those January 6th protesters who laid hands on officers. And yet pushing for anybody who lays hands on an officer now to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

Kristi Noem was kind of evasive on answering that. But she said that officers are told we are going to make sure that people face consequences if they harm federal officials.

So background to all this now, we are seeing more protests, about a thousand protests planned across the country for this weekend. The organizers have asked for those protests to be peaceful. The message of these protests is from these communities we want ICE out of our communities.

Now we've seen those protests in I mean, listen -- you know, Colorado, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Maine, Michigan, Texas, North Dakota, actually in Texas, we saw in Austin police firing -- officers firing what looked to be pepper pellets. And we also saw a number of arrests there.

So today we're going to be keeping an eye on what happens on the streets with these protests and also any developments, Fred, in terms of like where we're going with this investigation. And as I say, this increasing chasm between what the feds say and what

the local officials in Minneapolis are saying about exactly what happened to Renee Good.

The mayor wants that independent investigation. I would say unlikely that that's going to happen, Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right. Nick Watt, thanks so much. We'll check back with you.

[14:14:43]

WHITFIELD: All right. Still to come, Venezuela's opposition leader, Maria Corina Machado, is expected to visit the White House this week. Her potential message to President Trump after he claimed he -- that she lacks the respect and support to lead her country.

And later, it's been a winter without enough snow at the country's top ski resorts in the Rockies. We'll take a look at the significant consequences of this snow drought.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. In a rare warning, the Norwegian Nobel Institute is shutting down the idea that its prestigious peace prize can be regifted. The organization released a statement saying the prize cannot be transferred, shared or revoked after remarks by its latest recipient, Maria Corina Machado.

The Venezuelan opposition leader suggested that she may give her award as an act of gratitude to President Trump during an upcoming meeting in Washington this week.

CNN correspondent Paula Newton is joining me now live. Paula, great to see you.

[14:19:49]

WHITFIELD: So this is a, you know, critical face-to-face for these two. What can be expected in Washington this week?

PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It will definitely be cordial, Fred. Maria Corina can't afford anything else. And when it comes to that Nobel, yes, by the rules it can't be regifted. But you can bet as well that in person, and probably publicly, she will again say that President Trump deserved that Nobel even if he can't have it officially.

More at issue here though, Fred, is what happens next for the opposition, including Maria Corina Machado. And what has been ominous in the last couple of days, Fred, is the fact that the security situation there on the ground really points to continued repression and the fact that the Maduro regime is really, for all intents and purposes, still in control.

And I want to alert you now to the State Department that issued a release just in the last day warning Americans. It says "U.S. citizens should take precautions and be aware of their surroundings. There are reports of armed militias, colectivos setting up roadblocks and searching vehicles for evidence of U.S. citizenship or support for the U.S."

This whole specter that they might be hunting down Americans does not seem to me like a government that is heeding the warnings from the Trump administration about trying to have a safe and secure country so that people can be free to protest or exercise their freedom of speech. And that particularly applies to the opposition, including Maria Corina.

They will talk about when that transition can happen so that the opposition is secure. But key here, the opposition has kind of relinquished its, you know, desire that it would be the government right now, that it would be installed by the Trump administration as the government. What they are hoping for is elections sooner rather than later.

WHITFIELD: And in the meantime, tell us about what you know about the current acting president of Venezuela, Delcy Rodriguez.

NEWTON: She is quite a technocrat, and I can tell you, in watching her career, not just for almost -- more than 15 years now, but even in the last couple of years, what has been impressive and what has gotten the U.S. government's attention, is that she's been able to really revive the oil industry just a little bit, but increasing production. And that's likely why they're betting on her.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NEWTON: For weeks now, in her carefully-curated social media accounts, Delcy Rodriguez has strived to project a commanding hold on the economy, specifically the energy industry.

Stressing that the situation was improving and that she was fulfilling vital commercial commitments even to the U.S.

That crafted persona is serving her well as she was sworn in as Venezuela's acting president on Monday, seen by many as a steady hand who could help avoid a transitional crisis.

She is also a familiar, genial and long-standing presence for Venezuelans, many of whom simply refer to her as Delcy. Images like these belie the repression that is still a feature of everyday life here. That includes a decree that allows the regime to hunt down and capture anyone who promotes or supports the U.S. attack on the country.

In an interview with Fox News on Monday, Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado warned that Rodriguez will remain loyal to the regime.

MARIA CORINA MACHADO, VENEZUELAN OPPOSITION LEADER: She's the main ally and liaison with Russia, China, Iran -- certainly not an individual that could be, you know, trusted by international investors.

NEWTON: In fact, Rodriguez was embraced by ambassadors from Russia, China and Iran just moments after she was sworn in.

Todd Robinson, the former acting U.S. ambassador to Venezuela during President Trump's first term, tells CNN Rodriguez is smart but combative and cunning.

TODD ROBINSON, FORMER ACTING U.S. AMBASSADOR TO VENEZUELA: My guess is she has worked some kind of deal where she will either be able to stay for a while as the -- as they work through a transition. perhaps leave after the transition is over.

She was part of the ruling elite, the coterie that was benefiting from the -- all of the illegal activity going on at the highest levels of the Maduro regime.

NEWTON: U.S. President Trump has warned that if Rodriguez doesn't do what's right, he told "The Atlantic" she is going to pay a very big price.

The scope of what's right, though, in Venezuela has so far been focused on the economy and a calm transition, not the democratic rights of its citizens.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[14:24:49]

NEWTON: And to that point, when Maria Corina goes to the White House this week, she will be pointing out that, according to Foro Penal, which is a human rights group that we've checked in with for years at CNN, that it is now saying that that prisoner release, Fred, that we saw a few days ago, they say that only 17 have been released and more than 800 political prisoners remain in custody.

WHITFIELD: All right. Fantastic view there that you brought us. Paula Newton, thank you so much.

All right. Still to come, in the wake of the deadly shooting in Minneapolis, we have details on an investigation into other traffic stops by ICE agents. How often do these incidents tend to turn violent?

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[14:29:52]

WHITFIELD: All right. Welcome back.

As tensions flare across this country over an ICE agent's killing of a Minnesota mother, the Trump administration is doubling down on its claim that the agent who shot 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good was acting in self-defense.

When pressed by CNN today, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem defended her decision to call Good's actions an act of domestic terrorism.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST, "STATE OF THE UNION": Why did you not wait for an investigation before making your comments?

KRISTI NOEM, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: Well, everything that I've said has been proven to be factual, and the truth. This administration wants to operate in transparency.

TAPPER: You said within hours of her being killed, you said that she was a domestic terrorist. How do you define domestic terrorist?

NOEM: She weaponized her vehicle to conduct an act of violence against a law enforcement officer and the public.

TAPPER: How can you --

NOEM: They are doing that.

TAPPER: How can you assert with certainty that she was trying to hurt the officer, as opposed to she was trying to flee the scene?

NOEM: If you look at what the definition of domestic terrorism is, it completely fits the situation on the ground.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: I want to bring in now, "Wall Street Journal" visual investigative reporter Brenna Smith. She and her team identified more than a dozen cases where ICE agents fired at or into civilian vehicles since July.

Brenna, great to see you. Your article was very, you know, revealing.

So, I want to get to what you uncovered here. But first, you know, what do you make of what we just heard from the secretary.

BRENNA SMITH, VISUAL INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER, WALL STREET JOURNAL: You know, I think something to keep in mind that's really interesting about this incident is that we are seeing law enforcement operation that is actually one of the most common public interactions that police typically have with individuals. Vehicle stops. It's something that happens over 50,000 times a day. State and local police have spent years developing best practices around it.

And now, what we're seeing is since the start of this new administration, immigration officers are now also utilizing the same interaction to conduct operations. And I think that's also part of the reason that this is all seemed so new and different for everyone.

WHITFIELD: So, walk us through the process that you and your team used to help locate where these ICE incidents that you uncovered took place.

SMITH: Yeah. So, actually, a lot of this started a couple months ago when I worked on a different piece about how a lot of these more public interactions and tactics that we're seeing with ICE were forged in Boston, specifically in New England and the Boston field office. And there I was spending a lot of time looking at different social media videos of filming, you know, ICE interactions. But a lot of them were vehicle stops. And I thought that was interesting because prior to this, we had not seen ICE or DHS at all, really doing much vehicle stops in public.

So then after the good shooting happened, we decided to look more into these social media videos that we were seeing a vehicle stop, specifically ones where lethal force was used.

So, we used a combination of, you know, something called geolocation, which is just a fancy word of being able to verify the exact location where something was filmed. It's very similar to that game. Geoguesser. So how I do it and how my colleagues do it is we use satellite imagery often from google earth and also Google Street View to be able to figure out where these videos have been filmed.

WHITFIELD: So you examined many of these stops from Massachusetts, California, Illinois, and you also talked to a variety of experts, and among them, at least a few said, you know, at first, you know, who say, you know, first off, boxing in a vehicle similar to what happened in Minneapolis when pursuing -- you know, usually happens when pursuing a most likely violent suspect. And there are protocols to follow, grabbing a door, which we saw in the Renee Good's case, is considered intrusive actions that would escalate a situation.

Tell us more about what some of these experts said about how they've evaluated some of these vehicle stops.

SMITH: So most of the current and former law enforcement experts who I spoke with their entire idea around a traffic stop or vehicle stop, is to de-escalate the situation. And there the entire idea of how they go around these tactics is to have de-escalation in mind.

Some of the people that I spoke with felt that such as the tactics we saw of rushing towards a vehicle, boxing in a vehicle, smashing windows, reaching into the car were escalatory actions potentially in a situation that could then, you know, provoke resistance from someone. And I think that at the end of the day again, this type of law enforcement action is forged typically in state and local law enforcement. And that is where a lot of these practices come from.

But I think that we also are now seeing it applied in a new setting. And it's an evolving story and it's changing. And we're now learning how DHS is applying it. And, you know, trying to figure out what that means now for just everyday people who might be coming across these immigration operations.

WHITFIELD: It's a fascinating read in "The Wall Street Journal".

Brenna Smith, thanks so much for being with us.

SMITH: Thank you. WHITFIELD: All right. Straight ahead, it has been one year now since

the devastating fires in Altadena, California. We'll look at the red tape slowing down so many families from rebuilding.

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[14:39:01]

WHITFIELD: Emotions are still running high in Altadena, California, where this past week a vigil marked one year since the deadly fires tore through this community in Los Angeles County. As CNN's Kyung Lah explains, the recovery remains daunting and complicated.

[14:40:00]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's been a year since the L.A. fires. And now, survivors are hitting a hard economic reality.

LAH: I remember being here on this very street, and that's where I met Robert Lara.

ROBERT LARA, ALTADENA RESIDENT: Just yesterday, I had it all. This is just heartbreaking. We have so many memories here.

LAH: When you look at this, it's, like, it's all gone.

LARA: It's all gone. The physical stuff, the material things are gone. The memories are still there. So this is our pool here.

LAH: How much has money been a challenge?

LARA: Big, big challenge. The reason why I'm here. It comes down to money. We continue to pay the mortgage. This will also mentally drain you, where, you know, you see yourself in a vacant lot, just a pile of dirt.

There's no way, no way I could afford to rent a place out. We didn't have the proper coverage for a total loss situation. Everyone I speak to here, all my neighbors, everyone's like, we're in that same boat. We're all underinsured.

LAH (voice-over): Robert is a general contractor, so he's rebuilding his own home. But the big unknown is cost.

LAH: How long before do you think this is built? If you had to guess.

LARA: I'd say about a year and a half. Yeah.

LAH: Wow.

TIM KAWAHARA, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, UCLA ZIMAN CENTER FOR REAL ESTATE: It's not a great time to have to rebuild. LAH (voice-over): UCLA's Tim Kawahara understands the market forces hitting Altadena. This is his hometown, where thousands of homes need to be rebuilt.

KAWAHARA: The tariffs, obviously building materials would be impacted by tariffs. With the ICE raids, 41 percent of our construction workforce in California are immigrants. Some have status, some do not. Even people that are documented are scared to show up to work sites now.

LAH (voice-over): That means Trump's immigration crackdown hits California especially hard. Fewer workers means higher costs.

KAWAHARA: When we talk about fire victims, they truly were victims. The path forward will seem impossible to a lot of the folks that are up here.

LAH: Which one is yours?

TROY LASTER, FORMER ALTADENA RESIDENT: This is it right here. This is the lot.

LAH (voice-over): It felt impossible to Troy Laster.

TROY LASTER: This is where I used to live in Altadena. I love this area because I had the mountains right here to my north and south.

LAH (voice-over): Troy was an LAPD cop, mainly in narcotics. He's now retired. He raised his family here.

LAH: Does this feel like home?

TROY LASTER: My home wouldn't like this, no. It felt like somewhere else. When I put it on the market, it pretty much sold pretty fast. And I went with it because I got the most money.

I wanted to do the best thing for the family to get them back to normality. And I couldn't wait for everything to be done.

LAH (voice-over): Troy doesn't live in Altadena anymore.

LAH: You have arrived.

LAH (voice-over): We visited him at his new home in Las Vegas.

TROY LASTER: Right now, you know, we're at peace. My mortgage payment is exactly the same. And the balance is lower.

LAH: Oh, hi, Tammy. I'm Kyung.

TAMMY LASTER, FORMER ALTADENA RESIDENT: Hi.

LAH: Hey.

TAMMY LASTER: Nice to meet you.

LAH: Nice you meet you. Thank you for letting us into your home.

TAMMY LASTER: Sure.

LAH: How does it feel to you?

TAMMY LASTER: I think Troy's a little stronger than I am, but hard. Still hard. And I'm totally fine as long as I don't talk about the wildfires.

LAH: For your mental health, then, this is the path.

TAMMY LASTER: Yes, 100 percent. I'm not going back. I just don't need the constant reminder of what was.

LAH: Altadena is wrong. It's going to be fine.

TAMMY LASTER: Yes.

LAH: Is that reality?

TAMMY LASTER: I think a lot of people want it to be reality, but I don't think it is.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Oh so sad. Kyung Lah, thank you so much for bringing us that story. Those voices that experience.

All right, still to come, this hour, CNN brings you an in-depth look inside the raid that has caused ripples around the world. Straight ahead, what we're still learning about the capture of Venezuela's ousted leader, Nicolas Maduro.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:48:56]

WHITFIELD: All right. In the western U.S., where fans of winter sports like skiing and snowboarding are canceling their plans, mild temperatures, along with a paltry snowfall are some of the reasons why.

CNN meteorologist Allison Chinchar explains what's going on.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALLISON CHINCHAR, AMS METEOROLOGIST: One of the biggest reasons for that lack of snow is the fact that we just haven't had many systems move through much of the west, and that's also leading to drought conditions for many of these states. You see a lot of the yellow, orange and even red color here on the map, indicating some of these regions that are in severe or even extreme drought conditions, especially across states like Utah, Colorado and New Mexico.

Another factor has been how warm these locations have been, meaning the few systems that do come into this area have produced mostly rain as opposed to snow. All of these red dots here you see on the map indicate the warmest winter temperatures to date. So meaning from December 1st until now, they have had their warmest winter so far on record, and there's a lot of the red dots on the map.

Now, this doesn't mean there's been no snow at all.

[14:50:00]

We have snow. It's just not quite where it should be for this time of year. You can see we have snow across the Rockies, the Cascades, the Olympics, and definitely down through the Sierra Mountain Range.

Again, the totals just aren't quite as high as you would normally see this period of winter. When you look ahead to the forecast, there's not really much way of good news, especially if you are a snow lover.

Looking at the forecast for the next couple of weeks, you can see most of the west is expecting below average precipitation. Not just snow, but also rain. Here's a look at the map just through the next few days, and you can see the only systems we really have are focused more of the eastern half of the country, as opposed to the west.

The bigger concern here is that a lot of these western states rely on the snowpack in the spring as it melts to flow down into a lot of the rivers, creeks and streams, especially the Colorado, to provide essential drinking water for a lot of these communities.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: All right. Allison Chinchar, thanks so much.

All right. Coming up, President Trump briefed and now weighing military options for striking Iran as protests reportedly turn much more deadly.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:55:27]

WHITFIELD: All right. Welcome back.

Today, we're getting some rare insights on how ousted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia flores, are doing inside that notorious federal detention center in New York. His son, Nicolas Maduro Guerra, spoke with lawyers for his parents and quoted his father as saying, "Don't be sad. We are doing well. We are fighters," end quote.

The couple has been in custody since their dramatic capture more than a week ago by U.S. elite forces. That operation is the focus of CNN's latest episode on "THE WHOLE STORY WITH ANDERSON COOPER".

CNN's David Culver takes us inside the dangerous and complex raid that led to Maduro's arrest and what it could mean for Venezuela's future. David is with us now.

So good to see you. How did this moment, the capture of Nicolas Maduro and his wife actually come together?

DAVID CULVER, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPNDENT: For a lot of folks, it may have seemed as though it came out of nowhere, but this was months in the making. And tonight, we're going to show you how U.S. pressure quietly built up militarily, economically, and perhaps crucially, through intelligence. And that included stepped up operations at sea, economic measures and close tracking of maduros movements. All of this culminating in what we saw a little over a week ago when U.S. forces carried out that raid inside Caracas, and Maduro and his wife were taken into custody.

WHITFIELD: And then you're just back from several days on the ground in neighboring Colombia, where there have been real ramifications as a result of all this. What are you seeing there as this has been unfolding?

CULVER: Yeah. You get a sense that this uncertainty in the region is certainly spilling over the border into Colombia and along the Colombia-Venezuela border, you've got security forces that are on alert. They're watching closely for any unsettling aspect of what's playing out in Venezuela, be it disruption or some hope, stability and how that could impact Colombia.

But there's also real tension between Colombia and the U.S. and if you go back to just earlier in the week, we certainly saw a lot of back and forth between President Petro and President Trump. And one of the accusations that President Petro has been trying to combat is that Colombia is trying to take action when it comes to stopping drugs from leaving that country. And they gave us an embed to see what their police unit that focuses on anti-narcotics does, and we went to essentially the front lines.

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CULVER (voice-over): From the air, the scale is overwhelming.

Vast stretches of coca, the raw ingredient for cocaine, spread across the jungle below us. So why don't they just eradicate it all?

CULVER: He points out, all of these plots of coca are protected by armed groups.

CULVER (voice-over): Which is why police say they focus on sites they believe will have the biggest impact on disrupting drug production and trafficking.

CULVER: And police stressed to us that none of this would be possible without the support of the U.S. -- from training to technology to equipment and most importantly, intel.

CULVER (voice-over): As we pull out, smoke rises from the jungle below, one of several cocaine labs police say they destroyed on this deployment.

(END VIDEO CLIP) WHITFIELD: So, this episode of the whole story pulls back the curtain on a really dramatic operation. And for viewers tuning in tonight, what else can they expect to learn.

CULVER: Yeah, there's a lot more that were going to take you through and including what's next for Venezuela. We know much of Maduro's power structure remains in place inside Venezuela. Instead of installing the opposition leader, many expected the U.S. leaves Maduro's vice president in charge. And officials say it was about avoiding U.S. boots on the ground.

But as we're going to show you tonight, it does leave Venezuela, the region arguably much of the world with a lot of uncertainty here. And that's something we're going to explore with a lot of voices that really give you a better sense of where things could come from here -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right. We look forward to that. David Culver, thank you so much. Great to see you.

And be sure to tune in to David's special report "Inside the Raid: Venezuela's future" on this all new episode of "THE WHOLE STORY WITH ANDERSON COOPER" that airs tonight, 8:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific, right here on CNN.

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WHITFIELD: And hello again, everyone. Thank you so much for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

And we begin with new details on the deadly protest in Iran.