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Pence Calls Out Reign Of Terror In Iran; 1,500 Troops Put On Standby For Possible Deployment To Minnesota; Today: E.U. Holding Emergency Meeting Over New Trump Tariffs. Aired 3-4p ET

Aired January 18, 2026 - 15:00   ET

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

ROMAN HEMBY, INDIANA HOOSIERS RUNNING BACK: A man of his word, he is all about winning. He does everything that's possible to win.

D'ANGELO PONDS, INDIANA HOOSIER'S CORNERBACK: it is honestly great playing for a legendary coach like that, I feel like he wanted the best in the game, just to learn from everything he goes by and his standard that he keeps, and just how it molds you as a man.

I just feel like it is just a blessing just to be in his presence.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: All right, it is about to be on. Tickets for the national championship game are going to cost a small fortune, Fred. The current get in price for the worst seats is hovering around $3,000.00.

[15:00:33]

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN HOST: All right, hello again, everyone, thank you so much for joining me this Sunday. I am Fredricka Whitfield.

And we begin this hour with new threats from Iran. The country's President saying in a social media post that any U.S. aggression against Iran's Supreme Leader would be -- I am quoting now -- "tantamount to all-out war."

This weekend, President Trump told POLITICO that he -- that it was time, rather, for new leadership in Iran. And last week, President Trump said he held off taking military action in Iran, in part because hundreds of planned executions of protesters had been called off.

Well, speaking to CNN earlier today, former Vice President Mike Pence said the U.S. has to remain tough on Iran.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE PENCE, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: The credible threat of the use of force, the President's willingness to strike the Iranian nuclear facilities earlier this year was an extraordinary step forward, and I think making it clear that if the mullahs continue this reign of terror against their people, that all options are on the table.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: CNN's senior international correspondent, Ben Wedeman is with us now from across Iran's border in Iraq.

Ben, we are hearing from authorities in Iran that they may go ahead with some of those executions after all. So, what's going on?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Well, apparently President Trump was told that those executions would not take place, but it appears that the authorities in Iran are suggesting that, in fact, some will happen.

Keep in mind that, according to Reuters, one official did say as many as 500 of the 5,000 people killed, according to him, in these demonstrations, 500 of them were security personnel. So, there is a very good chance that indeed the Iranians will execute some of those they claim are guilty of attacking and perhaps killing Iranian Security Force members.

Now, keep in mind that Iran, of course, has a pretty dark track record when it comes to executions. According to the Human Rights Activist Network that's based in the U.S., but documents the situation in Iran, they said that by the end of 2025, in 2025 alone, there were at least 1,922 executions in Iran, compared that the same year in the United States was 25.

So, executions seem to be quite common in Iran, so it wouldn't be at all surprising if the Iranian authorities do decide to go ahead and execute some of those they say were involved in violent acts during these demonstrations.

Of course, the danger of that is that that could be something that could provoke President Trump to actually take action against Iran. And of course, he may be waiting for the arrival in the region of the Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group, which is heading there at the moment. The United States has also deployed additional aircraft and tanker aircraft to the region as well, which would indicate not necessarily the inevitability of military action, but certainly that the United States is getting all its ducks in a row, so to speak if it does decide to take decisive military action against Iran -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right, Ben Wedeman in Iraq, thank you so much.

All right, turning now to this country, Minneapolis, where hundreds of troops may soon be deployed amid intensifying anti-ICE protests. A source within the Trump administration tells CNN, The Pentagon has put 1,500 active-duty soldiers on alert for a possible deployment, and the state's governor, Tim Walz, has announced that he is placing the Minnesota National Guard on standby if needed.

CNN correspondent Julia Vargas Jones is just outside the Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis, where people have been gathering for some four days now. And it has been a standoff too with federal authorities who come out in kind of a threatening posture against those protesters. So, Julia, what are you seeing right now?

[15:05:07]

JULIA VARGAS JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Look, Fred, it has been a pretty peaceful scene over here this morning. I want to walk through it a little bit to give our viewers a little bit of a sense of what it has been like. Theres a lot of signs, a lot of whistles, importantly, these are the same whistles that protesters have been using to signal to neighbors when there is an ICE operation happening in a specific neighborhood.

We have seen an increased presence of Sheriff's Deputies here, and you will see that every time a car drives by if this is a car that seems to have federal agents in it, it will be heckled; if it is a car that of protesters, it will be cheered. So, it has been ebbing and flowing.

Now, speaking to some of these protesters on why they decided to come here, why they think it is important, it has been one resounding answer, Fred, that they don't want ICE in their city. They don't think that federal troops will help anything would help keep the peace.

I spoke to one woman, a mother of two, who said she is afraid for her kids, for witnessing anything that she doesn't want them to see if there is a violent altercation and she herself was afraid of being caught in the middle of any of these operations.

Now, I am saying that because it speaks to just how many people are from the federal government, how many agents are here, you know, 3,000 of them. It has just made an impact in these communities, according at least to the protesters who are here.

They are saying they are afraid for their neighbors, they are saying that they are afraid for their kids for being in the middle of these potential operations.

And they are repeating some of the lines that we are hearing also from the mayor of Minneapolis, Mayor Jacob Frey, who is saying that sending those troops to Minneapolis would only be an escalation of tensions. And look, if this kind of weather, single digit weather tonight hasn't stopped these protesters from coming out, I can't really see how anything else would be able to deter people from coming and voicing their opinions right now, Fred.

Yesterday, we saw throughout the day these things tend to escalate as night falls, particularly, so the tensions don't seem to be easing anytime soon, both at the national level and here on the ground.

WHITFIELD: Right. Contrary to the temperature, the outside temperature there, things continue to heat up. Julia Vargas Jones in Minneapolis. Thanks so much.

All right, so as the protests in Minnesota continue to escalate, a family of eight driving home from their child's basketball game found themselves face-to-face with the conflict. It was pretty frightening. Shawn and Destiny Jackson say they were trying to escape a clash between ICE and protesters last week. The Minneapolis couple said they attempted to turn around their vehicle, but then they were surrounded by federal agents and they say teargas soon filled their car, forcing Destiny to give her six-month-old son mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

This is how Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is responding to that incident.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KRISTI NOEM, U.S. HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: The family was caught up in that situation because of violent protesters that were impeding law enforcement operations, and that family would have never been in that situation if those protesters had been acting peacefully and law enforcement was able to do their job without being threatened.

And, so, it is a terrible situation that that family had to go through, and I hope it never happens again, but we need to remember that because the mayor and the governor have allowed this kind of violence to be perpetuated across Minneapolis, is why there are other innocent people that are impacted throughout the city, but throughout their state as well, and doesn't have to be this way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: You saw in that video previously played little kids trying to get from the car to the safety of their home.

All right, we will have much more on Minneapolis straight ahead.

Also, ahead this hour, why is Greenland suddenly at the center of U.S. strategy? In a moment, we will break down what is really at stake in the President's push to take over the island.

And later, as we celebrate the national holiday in honor of the birth of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., his influence spreads far beyond U.S. borders. His daughter, Bernice King shares with me how his legacy is still being felt around the world today.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:14:24]

WHITFIELD: All right, back now to the trade war erupting over Greenland. Right now, the European Union is holding an emergency meeting of its ambassadors in Brussels, and today's high stakes gathering comes after President Trump announced that he would hit eight E.U. countries with new tariffs until the U.S. is allowed to acquire Greenland.

CNN's Barbie Latza Nadeau is joining us right now.

Barbie, great to see you. So how are European leaders reacting to this new tariff threat? BARBIE LATZA NADEAU, CNN ROME CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, it is a very complicated situation because these 27 European Union member states don't agree on most things under the best of times, and this is certainly an unprecedented situation.

[15:15:07]

You know, they all have their own national interests, and they all have different relationships with U.S. President Donald Trump. For instance, the Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, has very friendly relationships with him, even though she did call these tariffs a mistake today.

But Viktor Orban, the leader of Hungary, is probably not going to fall in line with someone like the Emmanuel Macron, the leader of France. So, it is going to be really hard for them to get on the same page when it comes to how to respond.

Probably even more important is not all the European member states are part of NATO, and the United Kingdom is not even part of the European Union anymore.

So even if they could come up with some sort of a language, they can't come up with an international law that is going to be able to be applicable to the U.S. President and what he plans to do, or what he is threatening to do in Greenland.

So, it is just about negotiation, about diplomacy. These ambassadors are meeting. It is a closed-door meeting. We probably won't get a lot of detail out of it at the end of it, but we know from past experiences that these 27 member states don't really always see eye to eye, and so how they go forward is really, really going to matter and it is really going to be difficult for everybody involved -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Very fascinating and very complicated.

All right, Barbie Latza Nadeau, thank you so much.

All right, joining me right now to talk more about Trump's tariff threats amid his push to annex Greenland, is Andrew Michta. He is a Professor of Strategic Studies at the University of Florida.

Professor Michta, great to see you.

ANDREW A. MICHTA, PROFESSOR OF STRATEGIC STUDIES AT THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA: Thank you. Thank you for having me.

WHITFIELD: So, do you think Trump's tariff threats will be persuasive, or could this make European nations and Denmark in particular, dig in even more?

MICHTA: I think Europe is fractured enough not to actually be able to come up with a united front. I mean, of course, the future will tell. But as your reporter mentioned, there are different perceptions, different security optics, different relationships with Washington, with the Trump administration, so, it can break either way.

But I would say the likelihood of a unified European response is probably smaller than the likelihood that this will continue in the kind of current vein of a lot of anxiety, a lot of anger and a lot of chaos.

WHITFIELD: So, does that mean that Trump may have the upper hand here, in your view?

MICHTA: Well, there is a security dimension here that we do not talk about enough. I mean, this whole problem has two elements to it. One is that if you look at hemispheric defense of the of the United States and our allies here, Greenland is key.

Greenland is an essential part of that, especially as the ice cap melts in the Arctic. The high north is now an area where the Russians have all restored their basing structures from the Cold War era, from the Soviet era, even though Russia is just a pale shadow of the Soviet Union was.

So, there is a security imperative, which is sound, and we should work as alliance together in that direction. And the other one is unfortunately, the way this is being executed, instead of being a conversation conducted in private where, you know, we get accommodation from the other side, it became the kind of social media open shouting match, which I think is not helping anybody because we are talking to our allies.

WHITFIELD: So, Greenland, you know, was not a topic during the presidential election that that Trump won. Why do you think it is suddenly of such interest and a central focus for the Trump administration right now?

MICHTA: if you look at the national security strategy that was just published by the Trump administration, Hemispheric Defense, which means kind of taking care of our homeland and our near neighborhood, if you will, that's a top priority right now.

Asia Pacific ranks two and then Europe ranks three. So, one of those -- one of those factors here is rethinking of how Pentagon, the DoW or Department of War will be operating going forward and I think it has a lot to do with that strategic part.

The other one is probably something that goes back to the first Trump administration, when Donald Trump raised this for the first time, talking about how he would like to have that piece of real estate.

There is a history behind it. Greenland is a key piece of kind of geostrategic real estate, for the lack of a better word. Remember that during the Second World War, we actually garrisoned Greenland to prevent the Germans after the defeat of Denmark from being able to station troops over there, and we have had bases since then in a negotiated agreement with the Danes. We now reduced our presence, but the question remains, yes, we should work to ensure that our hemispheric neighborhood is secured. The question is how we do it.

[15:20:02]

And I think the biggest problem with the current approach, which is kind of very hard muscle approach, is that it undermines trust within the alliance, and that's the precious commodity that you cannot reclaim easily.

WHITFIELD: And we haven't heard too many voices say that Russia and China were trying to acquire Greenland. However, President Trump has said it out loud that he wants to acquire it so that Russia and China don't.

So, is -- you know, is Trump kind of planting the seed or is he making it all up in terms of, you know, Russia and China wanting Greenland?

MICHTA: We seldom look at the map of the globe from the north. Most of the time we kind of look at, you know, Western Hemisphere, Eastern Hemisphere. I would encourage your readers to kind of look at the Arctic region, per se and realize that actually the Russians have an upper hand when it comes to access to that region. Without Greenland and the NATO ledger and the American ledger, the Russians are actually in a position to push -- put a lot of pressure on us. So, it is a very important aspect in that sense.

The second thing is, the Chinese are exploring the trade routes. The Russians are militarizing the Arctic, for lack of a better word. They are much stronger in the number of icebreakers that they have, the ability to operate in that environment. We are only now catching up, as you probably. Remember, we have orders with the Finns to build additional icebreakers for us.

So, it is a new theater that's opening up very quickly, in large part because of climate change, the kind of melting of the ICE cap and also the question of minerals and the questions of just who is able to deploy onto Greenland in the event of an all-out conflict.

And especially if it were to be a kinetic confrontation, I think the idea of us having base troops over there, I think is a sound one.

I think the way we go about it, instead of negotiating this with our NATO allies, we are using pressure tactics, I think that's a mistake.

WHITFIELD: All right, Professor Andrew Michta of the University of Florida, thank you so much for your expertise today.

MICHTA: Thank you, Fredricka, thank you.

WHITFIELD: Still to come, we dig into a hidden housing crisis. The staggering number of families keeping a roof over their heads by living in extended stay hotels and the consequences of that on their finances.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:26:49]

WHITFIELD: More than 4,000 people in one Georgia county are calling extended stay hotels, home. A new study by researchers at Georgia State University Center on Health and Homelessness reveal that these hotels are no longer just temporary solutions, but long-term housing, often costing working families more than the county's average rent.

Here to discuss are the two authors of this study, Shannon Self-Brown, Professor at Georgia State University's School of Public Health, and April Ballard, Assistant Professor, Department of Population Health Sciences at Georgia State University.

So great to see both of you.

APRIL BALLARD, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPARTMENT OF POPULATION HEALTH SCIENCES AT GEORGIA STATE UNIVERSITY: Thank you for having us.

WHITFIELD: So, Professor Sharon, I am just going to shorten your names, but I will give you the title of "Professor" because you all have earned it. Professor Sharon, you first.

I mean what prompted you to study these extended stay hotels?

I mean, what was the, I guess, what was so attention seeking, you know, about this?

SHANNON SELF-BROWN, PROFESSOR AT GEORGIA STATE UNIVERSITY'S SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: Well, we were just beginning to form the Center on Health and Homelessness at Georgia State University, and we were meeting community partners and asking what their needs were, what needed to be studied, what were the hidden things that we didn't know about going on in our city, that we could bring our research methods to and put numbers to.

And so, we met two wonderful community partners, Joy Monroe and Sue Sullivan, and we were able to learn about their work in extended stay hotels and hotels that they had been doing for years and years and they told us about families living and getting stuck in these circumstances and asked if we would partner with them, bring some reliable and valid research methods to help really put a number to this issue, and also learn more about the key triggers and impacts of people living in extended stay.

WHITFIELD: And Professor April, you know, you took an interesting approach here for this study, right? Your team of 50 Georgia State University and community volunteers actually conducted door-to-door surveys at 42 different hotels and I am surprised that a lot of people opened their doors, even answered the questions, but what was discovered?

BALLARD: Yes, so we found out that the number of people living in hotels is astronomical -- 4,600 in DeKalb County alone, and we also found out that people are there because they basically have been evicted from an apartment, or they have had their rent increased. Now, once they are there, they are financially trapped because we found out people are spending about 80 percent of their income on hotels alone. That leaves them about $480.00 for the rest of their needs. And so, you can't save money. WHITFIELD: Right, you can't save any money. So, a lot of people might think, okay, I am going to stay in extended stay because it is going to be cheaper than staying at some of the other, I guess, more traditional hotels, but ultimately it is not cheaper because once you're in there, too, you don't have a kitchenette or kitchen. So, now your options of finding economical food sources is very limited, too.

BALLARD: Absolutely. And the survey data is what showed us about how much people are spending in hotels. And so those were people with children. And so, they are not only paying for themselves as adults, but also their children. Food for that alone is going to be over $400.00 a month, right? Groceries are very expensive.

[15:30:07]

WHITFIELD: And now, Professor Shannon, what about health, safety, educational options? What happens when families are at the extended stays for a very long time when this becomes home?

SELF-BROWN: It is a very important question. Thank you so much for asking. I mean, first and foremost, there is chronic stress because these are a number of people living in 200 square feet, so just that alone causes a lot of chronic stress and chronic stress impacts your health and mental health.

There are many more things, though. There are molds. There are rodents. There are insects. There are just all kinds of environmental challenges. There is crime happening right outside the door in many of the hotels that are in vulnerable areas of our community.

WHITFIELD: So, is the criteria of providing safety, and I mean, health conscious, you know, environment at an extended stay different from at some of the other hotels? I mean, they don't have to adhere to, you know, a certain level of protection for the people who are staying there?

SELF-BROWN: I do not believe it is different. Our study didn't -- you know, examine that explicitly. But I think that just perhaps these are people living in really challenging times, coming from a crisis into a hotel. They just don't have many options and they are very scared to complain, because a lot of times there are additional charges in addition to staying and paying their nightly rate, that they can end up paying if they complain.

We even heard about families paying for toilet paper, for instance.

WHITFIELD: All right, Professors Shannon Self-Brown and April Ballard, Professor, to both of you, thank you so much. And thank you for revealing so much through this study and opening the eyes of many.

BALLARD: Thank you.

SELF-BROWN: Thank you. Appreciate it.

WHITFIELD: All right, straight ahead, President Trump shakes up his $400 million White House renovation plan. Why Congress is being kept out of the planning.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:36:39]

WHITFIELD: All right, as President Trump moves forward with his vision for a new White House ballroom, he is appointing several loyalists to one of the commissions charged with reviewing and approving the new building.

CNN's senior White House reporter, Betsy Klein is near Mar-a-Lago, where the President is spending the weekend.

So, Betsy, you've done a lot of reporting on this. So, who are the people that Trump is appointing.

BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER AND WRITER: Well, Fredricka, we are looking ahead to a very key hearing that is coming up this coming Thursday that will determine whether The White House is able to proceed with President Trump's sweeping ballroom extension plans.

Now, a top preservation group has sued the Trump administration to halt that ballroom project until a pair of review boards weighs in. So, we will be watching what the judge says and does in this hearing very, very closely on Thursday. But before this hearing, the Trump administration issued a huge new batch of documents about this ballroom project.

I spent the better part of a day combing through these new court filings. Here is what we learned.

This project is going to require the review of two key commissions. One is the National Capital Planning Commission, which Trump installed a number of loyalists on earlier this year. That process is already underway, but separately, the Commission of Fine Arts and that is a commission that approves public buildings, memorials, coins, medals, that kind of thing.

And up until this week, it had been completely gutted and vacant. They couldn't even hold their meetings because President Trump had fired all of its existing members back in October as the demolition project on the East Wing got underway.

Trump has now installed four key allies to that commission, that includes Mary Anne Carter. She is the current Chair of the National Endowment for the Arts. She is very close with White House Chief-of- Staff Susie Wiles, along with art critic and conservative commentator, Roger Kimball; architect, James McCrery -- you might recognize his name. He was the lead architect on this project, as well as Matthew Taylor. He is a White House official who is responsible for President Trump's Garden of American Heroes.

Now, there is an expectation, according to one source familiar with this process that this group is going to essentially rubber stamp the ballroom and any other Trump-involved architectural projects. Now, the demolition phase of the East Wing project is complete. What is happening now is all taking place underground, and we do not expect any above ground construction to take place until April.

Now, in these filings, they repeatedly alluded to the subterranean structures that are happening underground. Those are described as top secret.

Before the demolition, we should note there was a secret bunker under the East Wing that was built during the FDR administration. There's very little publicly accessible about that, but these documents did refer to it, saying that they would provide more details in a classified setting -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Very fascinating. All right, Betsy, we are getting worried you're going to be swept away there. There are some gusty winds there in South Florida right now. Hold on tight.

All right, Betsy Klein, thanks so much.

All right. Tuesday will be the one-year mark of President Trump's second term and brand-new CNN polling shows a majority of Americans are not happy with what they've seen so far. According to the new poll, 39 percent approve of his job as President, while 61 percent disapprove. That is the lowest level of approval at the end of one year in office in more than 70 years.

[15:40:12]

CNN's Jeff Zeleny is in Georgia, a key swing state, and he is talking with voters in this critical midterm year.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FRANZ ROWLAND, GEORGIA FARMER: I don't know who dropped the ball in Washington to allow these prices -- his trade diminished like it has, but somebody dropped the ball. Somebody wasn't looking out for us.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN, CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (voice over): On his farm here in Southern Georgia, Franz Rowland is taking stock of the last year and fearful of what's ahead.

ROWLAND: Trump says, you know, be patient. The farmers are going to be better than ever. Well, he better hurry up because we can't we stand this much.

ZELENY (voice over): He voted for President Trump, hoping a stronger economy and better trade deals would follow.

ZELENY (on camera): When you hear politicians and others in Washington saying the economy is doing great, the country has never been better.

ROWLAND: They need to come out here and live in my shoes. The economy may do, may be doing better for some people, but on the farm it ain't doing better. ZELENY (voice over): As the President begins his second year back in office, a majority of Americans call the first year a failure. Here in Georgia, a state critical to this fall's midterm elections, economic concerns are top of mind for Florence Allen.

FLORENCE ALLEN, GEORGIA RESIDENT: My economy is not hot. I'm paying the bills.

ZELENY (on camera): Cost probably across the board have not gone down on many things.

ALLEN: Oh no, my costs have not gone down on anything. Not here at the store and not at home.

ZELENY (voice over): Allen, a Democrat, has owned her toy store for 20 years and tried to navigate a whiplash tariff policy that's impacted much of her inventory.

ZELENY (on camera): When you've heard the President say, we're making all this money on tariffs.

ALLEN: Give it back to me.

ZELENY (on camera): Because tariffs are passed along or you swallow them.

ALLEN: Yes.

ZELENY (on camera): Right.

ALLEN: Yes, so, you know, you've raised my costs. So, I think for most people he's not fooling people with that line.

ZELENY (voice over): Georgia has long stood as a leading barometer for Trump's performance. He won the state in 2016, lost in 2020 and won again in 2024, flipping Baldwin County in Central Georgia for the first time.

JANICE WESTMORELAND, GEORGIA VOTER: He gets A plus from me.

ZELENY (voice over): Janice Westmoreland said she feels more secure with Trump in office, a sentiment reflected in many of our main street conversations.

ZELENY (on camera): Do you like having him back in office?

TONY AGEE, GEORGIA VOTER: I do, I voted for him. I'm tired of the United States getting pushed around.

ELINOR CARRICK, GEORGIA VOTER: Looking at where my 401(k) is, I'm going to give him an A.

ZELENY (on camera): Yes, it's done pretty well.

CARRICK: Yes. ZELENY (voice over): For Trump, maintaining his coalition of Republicans and Independents will be at the center of the fight for control of Congress as voters weigh his broader actions, including deep cuts made to the government. Vi Le was among the hundreds of workers whose jobs were eliminated at the CDC.

VI LE, FORMER CDC EMPLOYEE: Terminating me and my teams like, that's one thing, but CDC that remains what's happening there now, that is mostly untold. Like that still continues to be really harmful.

ZELENY (voice over): Back on Rowland's farm, the 72-year-old Republican is as disappointed as dismayed.

ZELENY (on camera): Were you expecting things might get a little bit better with Trump back in office?

RAWLAND: I did, yes, I felt I thought by now we would have -- we would have some really good trade. I did think it would be better by now, yes.

ZELENY (on camera): And Rowland's disappointment is very clear there. Again, he does not blame President Trump for all of his economic difficulties, but he did think it would get better. And that is a central challenge facing The White House. Trying to assure Americans that the economy will be getting better.

The President, of course, brags about the health of the economy. That's not what we heard in our conversations in Georgia.

Jeff Zeleny, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Thank you so much, Jeff.

All right, straight ahead, as we honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. this weekend, his impact continues to reach far beyond the United States. His daughter, Dr. Bernice King tells me how his legacy is still shaping the world.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:48:52]

WHITFIELD: All right, while the U.S. is recognizing and celebrating the birth of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his nonviolent fight for freedom, justice and equality, this holiday weekend, his legacy extends far beyond U.S. borders.

In my conversation with his youngest daughter, Dr. Bernice King, she reminds us that King's teachings are even more relevant globally today.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Your dad led and energized places and movements globally. So, you see what is happening right now in Iran, these protests have become deadly. President Trump is encouraging protesters --

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: To all Iranian patriots, keep protesting, take over your institutions if possible.

REV. BERNICE KING, MARTIN LUTHER KING'S DAUGHTER: That's funny because if you flip the script, I wonder, would he say -- want somebody to say that over here with us? That's an interesting twist.

WHITFIELD: So how do you interpret this, especially after, what just took place involving protests or people in Minnesota who have expressed being against the Trump White House immigration policies?

[15:50:10]

KING: Well, I mean, again, imperialism, power, control -- if it is not harnessed in love, it becomes destructive. Where is this -- it sounds simple, but where is the love? These are very difficult issues. They are not easy to solve and I get that when you have a lot of violent regimes, when you have regimes who violate the human rights of others, it is difficult to think of a nonviolent way, but I think about the Jimmy Carters of the world who was in a similar leadership role.

It can be done, but it starts with how you think about people and humanity. If you see value in people, regardless of what country or nation they are from, then you are more thoughtful about the decisions you make.

You know, everything doesn't have to be this power battle. Some kind of way, we have got to get together and sit down and have very hard conversations, you know, as leaders of nations, you know, and stop putting profit over people, you know, because a lot of this stuff is driven by special interests.

I mean, in my Christian faith, we know that the love of money is the root of all evil. So, something is going on here that's not to the benefit of the whole. It is not to the benefit of the general public. You know, the citizenry. There is some other interest here.

And so, we need to really talk more about that because people are doing things in our name.

WHITFIELD: So besides asking oneself where is the love? What are some of the other characteristics that you think are important for any community or political leaders to have? What do they need to be --

KING: Courage. We lack a lot of courage, and I am speaking of the kind of courage to take a stand from your own moral grounding, when it may not be popular and acceptable. That's always a challenge for most leaders.

It was difficult when my father had to speak out against the war in Vietnam at a time when he was counseled not to do it by colleagues by friends, even by members of the Board of Directors of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, for which he served as president, so he had to individually step back and say, I can't fight against segregation, you know, in its physical form in our nation here, and then go and segregate my own conscience. He had to be congruent.

And he lost a lot of friends, and I tell people that's when cancel culture started, because many of the Civil Rights leaders that worked with him -- NAACP, Urban League --

WHITFIELD: A price was paid.

KING: A serious price was paid. Media attacked him. Everybody attacked him, but my mom stood with him. My mom is the one who said, we need your voice in the Peace Movement, because she had already been involved in it even before she met him.

WHITFIELD: Yes, and speaking of your mom, Coretta Scott King. I mean, you're the CEO of the King Center, but the King Center was founded by your mom. I mean, to be an incredible visionary, to see that this was a place that was needed, and then now, you have across the street there is a Martin Luther King, Jr. Nonviolence Center, but it is run by the National Park Service --

KING: We don't have a Nonviolence Center. Well, the Park Service just has a visitor center.

WHITFIELD: Okay, let's call it -- it is called the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historical Park.

KING: And then they have a visitor center.

WHITFIELD: Right. So, I wonder, the National Parks Conservation Association is saying that national parks and such run facilities are being dismantled, staff fired, history erased and I am quoting them now, "the writing is on the wall," and we haven't heard anything like that happening at the MLK Historical Park.

But are you concerned about that potential?

KING: I am concerned about the potential dismantling of a lot of things. But just as they are dismantled, they can be rebuilt. That's the kind of people we are as humanity. I feel my duty is to protect the legacy. Period. And the legacy is not confined to any one place per se.

As long as the King Center is here, as long as there are people in my bloodline and the work we do with our family, and we have work to do, but as long as we have people that are a part of the King Center, family that understand the work we do, that legacy will continue.

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What Dr. King gave to us is consistent with the God of the universe, it is not going anywhere. It is going to go through its challenges, its shifts. It is going to be challenged, you know, here and there, people are going to try to undermine, they are going to try to black out everything, but it is steeped in truth and it is steeped in love, those two things have lasted through time and my father even said he said, "... in the end, what's going to win is unarmed truth and unconditional love." (END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: We will have more on my conversation with Bernice King later on in this show. She will share how she hopes people will honor her father's legacy this weekend.

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