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Judge Orders Release Of 5-Year-Old And Father From Texas Facility; Justice Department Releases 3 Million Jeffrey Epstein- Related Files; Interview With Epstein Survivor Jess Michaels; Gabbard On Scene As FBI Searches Fulton County Election Offices; Bomb Cyclone Slamming Parts Of East Coast, Southeastern U.S.; Trump Assistance Provided If Asked, But Must Use Word "Please"; Jeffries: Democrat Won't Help GOP Pass Funding Bill. Aired 5-6p ET

Aired January 31, 2026 - 17:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:00:39]

JESSICA DEAN, CNN ANCHOR: You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. Hi, everyone. I'm Jessica Dean here in New York.

Breaking news tonight as a federal judge orders the release of the five-year-old Minnesota boy and his father taken into custody by federal agents over a week ago.

The photos of five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos in his winter hat and his little backpack led to widespread outrage and concern.

Liam and his father were taken by immigration agents from their home in Minneapolis 1,300 miles away to a south Texas family detention center.

And as we're getting that news, we also have learned a federal judge has declined to immediately halt the immigration Operation Metro Surge in Minnesota. That ruling allows the operation to go on as a lawsuit continues against the Trump administration.

Now, this operation, said to target undocumented Somali immigrants, dispatched thousands of agents to Minneapolis and Saint Paul. And since then, two U.S. citizens have died after encounters with federal agents, triggering weeks of protests and heated confrontations.

Let's bring in CNN's Julia Vargas Jones, who's covering all of these updates. She's joining us now from anti-ICE protests in Los Angeles.

Those have been pretty active, Julia. But I do want to start with Liam and his father, this five-year-old and his father. So many people have followed this story, and we learned today that this judge is releasing them as their case makes its way through court.

What more do you know?

JULIA VARGAS JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Jessica, I apologize, it is starting to get pretty loud here. That's what you're talking about. They have been pretty active.

What we are learning about this order is the judge has ordered now the government to release Liam and his father no later than Tuesday and then to give an update to the court by Wednesday to confirm that the pair have been released.

Again, Liam was taken into custody with his father back on the 20th. So a little over almost 10 -- 11 days now as he was coming back from school.

It has been heartbreaking. The scene of the little boy with the backpack, with the agent holding his backpack there, and his little bunny hat has, of course, gone everywhere in the United States and beyond has resonated.

We now learned -- at the time we learned, I should say, that his mother was also just inside their home at the time, a friend of the family telling CNN that she was terrified of opening the door.

ICE, saying that they did not use the child as bait. But that is essentially what the family said. An attorney for the family as well, saying that the family had come to the United States in December of 2024, presented themselves to border agents and requested asylum. That they had been following the steps, the necessary steps to remain in the United States legally.

Now, DHS did call Liam's father an illegal alien. Still, that ruling could be appealed.

But I want to just give you a sense of how far and wide it has come. This is a sign that we just spotted, I apologize, just spotted here in downtown Los Angeles. Sorry. I just want to show. "And then they came for a child in a bunny hat and too many people were still silent."

It just goes to show how much Liam's story has resonated. This is not the first sign that we see he has, in a way, become a symbol.

Of course, other names being brought up here, we're talking about Renee Good. We're talking about Alex Pretti. It is an "Abolish ICE", "ICE out of everywhere" protest.

Now, organizers have called for this to remain peaceful, for this to be a demonstration of -- a civic demonstration for the rights of immigrants and to not turn violent. We do know sometimes that that does happen.

Last night, our CNN crew got caught in some of that. There was tear gas. There were protesters throwing objects at those federal agents, and then in turn, chemical agents were deployed.

We're hoping that today does not get into that space. Jessica. So far, it's been pretty peaceful.

DEAN: Yes.

And Julia, thank you so much. [17:04:44]

DEAN: Again, as you underline the DHS officials saying that Liam's father, an illegal alien, but his attorney saying he entered the U.S. legally and was simply -- and had applied for asylum, was working its way through.

Julia, thank you so much for that.

We are joined now by CNN legal analyst Joey Jackson. He's a criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor.

Joey, I want to talk about the legality of all of this in just a second. But Julia -- I don't know if she was able to read part of the statement from this judge, but he was quite forceful and colorful in the way that he -- that he wrote this, this judgment.

This came as Liam's father had told a U.S. congressman, Joaquin Castro, that this -- that the little boy had not been eating well, he hadn't been sleeping well. He'd asked about his mother and his classmates. And the judge writing that this child had been traumatized.

What did you make of how this opinion was written and how this order was written?

JOEY JACKSON, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Yes. Jessica, good to be with you.

I read it as a judge who was very concerned about unbridled power and about the absence of any check whatsoever. The judge reminding the actual government about the Constitution, reminding the government about the Declaration of Independence, reminding the government about what their obligations are with respect to carrying out the law.

And he particularly took aim, that is the judge, and you know, when you say colorful language, talked about it being an incompetent enforcement operation, it was not -- none too pleased.

But what the judge did was take aim at what's being used by ICE, which is these administrative warrants. And not to get within the weeds, Jessica, but administrative warrants are not issued by a judge.

Why is that relevant? It's relevant because the administrative warrant is issued by ICE itself. Well, if ICE wants to perform an operation and they want to arrest someone, what do you think they're going to put in the actual warrant? That we want you and that you're being arrested.

That's not how it works. There are checks. And the check of a judicial warrant, which is different, requires a showing before a judge that there's probable cause -- Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution -- to believe that you need to be arrested.

Why? Because there's been some criminality or you're otherwise not in conformance with any type of codes or regulations or rules. And a judge makes the determination of probable cause, not you, agency. So the judge said that that's like the fox guarding the henhouse. So

yes, there was colorful language, as it should be, based upon just basic principles of law.

DEAN: And so going forward, the way I understand it is that they will be released. The judge said it has to be by Tuesday, but essentially as soon as possible. That they -- the government needs to give an update by Wednesday.

At the same time, this case will be playing out in immigration court. Is that correct? What where do we go now?

JACKSON: So yes, I think what's going to end up happening is, is of course there'll be an appeal. That appeal -- this was signed by a Texas judge -- that appeal will be heard, which is the appellate court in the Fifth Circuit.

I'm presuming, don't know what the administration is going to do. Perhaps they'll just honor the law as I know it. And I think as the judge knows it, which is if you're going to arrest or deport or do someone, there's a process.

But in the event that there is an appeal, it will go to the Fifth Circuit. And then who knows, maybe the Supreme Court will weigh in on the issue of administrative warrants.

But I do think that there will be some pushback to the administration. Should there not be, and the administration decides simply to follow the directive of the court, there'll be a release pursuant to what the judge says.

But at the same time, to your question, that does not mean that there won't ultimately be a deportation. What I think the judge is saying, in order to get there, there's a process. And that process just cannot be contravened out of convenience. It has to be followed pursuant to well-established constitutional principles that are the foundation of this country.

DEAN: And so, Joey, while that's all happening, is it your understanding that then -- that the father -- that Liam and his father would be able to go back to their home in Minneapolis and that Liam would be able to go back to school to be back in his normal rhythms.

JACKSON: In an ideal world, under ideal conditions and circumstances, that's exactly what would happen under these circumstances where you have a judge taking administration to task for not following the law, for not respecting the law.

Essentially saying in the opinion -- he gave him a civics lesson -- I just don't know that it will end out like that, you know, very good Hollywood story and the way it should end up.

But what the judge is saying is that there are certain rules that need to be followed. And to the extent that you don't follow them, you need to go back to square one. So yes, they should be returned. My -- I suspect that they'll be in

immigration court and the administration will attempt to get their way, nonetheless. But we'll see how it plays out.

And of course, Jessica, it's on a very tight timeline with regard to the judge saying, hey, do it by Tuesday. Update me by Wednesday.

[17:09:47]

JACKSON: So there's going to be a flurry of activity between now and then should the administration decide that they want them deported, nonetheless.

DEAN: All right. Joey Jackson, good to see you. Thanks so much for that. We appreciate it.

JACKSON: Of course. Thanks, Jessica.

DEAN: Still ahead here, new details from the millions of pages from the Epstein files released by the Department of Justice. We're going to have more on that. And we're going to speak with an Epstein survivor on what she thinks of all of this new information that is coming to light.

Also happening now, a monster winter storm hitting the East Coast that is only getting stronger. We're going to take you live to the areas right in that storm's path.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

[17:10:26]

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DEAN: The Justice Department releasing more than 3 million pages of files related to the investigation into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The massive document dump comes after Congress passed a law late last year, forcing the DOJ to release all of the investigative files that looked into Epstein.

Among the millions of pages of documents containing -- are documents containing references to several high-profile people, including President Donald Trump, former Prince Andrew, Elon Musk and former president, Bill Clinton. They have all denied any wrongdoing related to Epstein's crimes.

Let's bring in CNN senior reporter Marshall Cohen. And Marshall, I know you're part of the team that went through these new files. There's a lot of them. What should people know about this?

MARSHALL COHEN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Well, Jessica, this was by far the biggest drop that we've seen. It was about 3.5 million pages of material. And there was also more than 182,000 images and videos.

The Justice Department says this is it -- this is the final batch, and that they have fully complied with that transparency law that you mentioned, which Congress passed last year, forcing these disclosures.

So look, what did we learn?

Well, according to our review, President Donald Trump was mentioned more than 1,000 times in these new documents. Now, we have known for years that Trump was close to Jeffrey Epstein, close friends in the 80s and 90s, before Epstein's conviction in 2008 on state sex crimes charges.

But these documents added a lot of new details to that relationship. We saw notes from an FBI interview in 2021 where one of Epstein's victims said that Epstein's longtime accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, brought her to a party in New York and, quote, "presented her to Trump". And that later Maxwell made clear that the woman was, quote, "available to Trump".

The woman did tell the FBI that nothing happened between her and Trump.

There was also a spreadsheet, a new spreadsheet we'd never seen before that the FBI put together just last year. It contained uncorroborated and unverified sexual assault allegations against Trump.

Like you mentioned, we should be totally clear, Trump said that he cut ties with Epstein in the mid-2000s. He denies wrongdoing, and he has never been accused by law enforcement of any involvement in Epstein's crimes.

But Jessica, it wasn't just Trump. There were so many other prominent figures like you mentioned who came up in these documents.

There were emails that showed that tech billionaire Elon Musk tried to coordinate with Epstein to visit him in the Virgin Islands. Other messages showed that Howard Lutnick, who is now serving as the Commerce Secretary, planned meetings with Epstein long after he claimed that they had stopped speaking. And there were new pictures of the former Prince Andrew, including a bizarre image of him on all fours, leaning on top of a woman who was lying on the floor.

All of these men deny wrongdoing, and none of them have been accused by authorities of any crimes, Jessica.

DEAN: And Marshall, how's the Trump administration responding?

COHEN: Well, they are -- two things. Number one, they're saying they've upheld the law, done everything that they've been obligated to do and that they worked around the clock to protect the victims of these crimes.

But they have faced a lot of pushback, especially from lawmakers on Capitol Hill and some of the survivors who are upset with the redactions. And they faced some accusations of using their power over those redactions to help out their boss, President Trump.

The deputy attorney general, Todd Blanche, pushed back on that yesterday in a press conference. Listen to what he said. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TODD BLANCHE, DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL: I can assure that we complied with the statute. We complied with the act, and there is no -- we did not protect president Trump. We didn't protect or not protect anybody.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COHEN: So Jessica, he says that they did their job. They've tried to say this is over. They're putting it behind them. But a lot of those survivors and a lot of lawmakers on Capitol Hill say that they are still not going to give up the fight. And they want to see more come out, Jess.

DEAN: All right. Marshall Cohen with the very latest. Thank you for that reporting.

And when we're talking about Epstein and the Epstein files, obviously it's hard to avoid the politics of the story and what that means, or to avoid being overwhelmed by the sheer number of documents.

But at its core, this is a story about decades of abuse that fundamentally changed the lives of dozens of women and girls.

One of those survivors joins us now, Jess Michaels. Jess, thank you for being here with us. I really appreciate your time.

I just want to hear from your perspective. We've got this new drop of documents. Was there anything that stood out in particular to you and what your thoughts are?

[17:19:51]

JESS MICHAELS, EPSTEIN SURVIVOR: Yes. So firstly, thank you so much for having me.

And I also just want to edit something that you had said. It's not dozens. It's literally hundreds. And even the FBI has said there's about 1,200 victims that they can determine.

DEAN: Terrible number. Yes. Yes.

MICHAELS: 1,200 is unbelievable to be where we are at in this lack of investigation. There was something that really stood out to me. And I think it's really important for people to understand who are not going through the files.

So there's something called a 302, and that is a victim statement. All of us have been looking for our victim statements. So because we know what we've said, we know what was revealed. We know what should be in there.

So one of the things that I found in one of the 302s was that in a -- in a victim statement that was seven pages long, four pages looked like this. So the name of the survivor's appropriately blacked out. But what this victim shared happened to her is also blacked out. And so when I hear, Todd Blanche say that they have complied, but then

he also says there's nothing in there. And if there was we'd investigate. Then there should be no reason why this is blacked out.

DEAN: Yes.

And so when you see that and it's so, you know, you're holding it up and it's, it's not a couple of lines, it's the -- it's a black square. It's the whole page.

What are your -- are you furious? Are you frustrated? Are you enraged? What are your feelings?

MICHAELS: All. Everything that you just said, like, let's just put it in that package of emotions. But not shocked at all.

The other example that I had, and this broke my heart, was that one of my friends who's a survivor, her full name and several pieces of identifying information were left completely unredacted.

And not only that, her name is capitalized. And two other survivors are unredacted. And in her victim statement also capitalized. Really boldly standing out in that 302. It is unbelievable that any of these people have a job. Unbelievable.

DEAN: I want to read -- so on that note, you, along with a number of other survivors, released a letter last night. And I just want to read people part of what you all wrote and you said, "This latest release of Jeffrey Epstein files is being sold as transparency, but what it actually does is expose survivors. Once again, survivors are having their names and identifying information exposed, while the men who abused us remain hidden and protected."

Which is, again, what you're getting at and what you were just telling us. What do you want to see from the Justice Department going forward? I mean, they -- I think they're essentially, as you noted, saying, we've complied, we've done our job here. We're moving on.

MICHAELS: I don't know that I trust the Department of Justice to ask anything of them and for them to comply. What I am hoping is that Congress will do something. Congress hold them in contempt of Congress. That we will have some repercussions for the fact that they broke the law.

There's a long list of ways they broke the law, by the way. It -- you can say whatever you want, but what we're seeing is that this Department of Justice is actually gaslighting the entire country.

But they've broken the law, and we need repercussions, and we need a way -- we need some kind of mechanism for the truth to really be able to get out there if there's going to be any genuine investigation.

DEAN: And Jess, you and so many of the other survivors that you have talked about went to authorities. You told them your story. You have provided statements. Some of them are in there, some of them are blacked out, as you just showed. This has been going on for decades now. Why do you think this has just

been so hard to get this to come to light? Why do you think the delay has been what it has been?

MICHAELS: Well, obviously -- I mean, I think it's obvious to everyone that there are predators being protected -- wealthy, powerful men that are being protected. We know this. That's not even speculation. We know it. Survivors know it. The American people know it.

But I want to tell you something that was interesting, specifically from my story, that when I did call the tip line back in September of 2019 and I was assigned a detective that was in the New York sex trafficking task force.

When I shared with him what happened back in 1991, his first response to me was, well, it was 30 years ago, what do you want us to do about it?

[17:24:44]

MICHAELS: And so I want people to realize that the people that were investigating this crime, that were tasked with investigating this crime decades ago, were still not doing it properly.

So, so the -- this, the egregiousness of what's happening with this Department of Justice is just a more public example of what survivors have lived with for decades.

DEAN: For decades you have had to live with this, and it goes on and on.

All right. Jess Michaels, thank you. We really do appreciate your time. Thank you so much.

MICHAELS: Thank you for having me, Jessica.

DEAN: Still ahead, new questions about why the Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, was at a raid on a Georgia election office. We'll talk more about this.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

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DEAN: Several Democratic election officials tell CNN they're preparing for the federal government's intrusion in the midterms after seeing how this week, the FBI served a search warrant at the election headquarters in Fulton County, Georgia.

Agents seizing boxes of ballots like the ones you see here. A source tells CNN the search is related to an effort by the DOJ to look for alleged voter fraud.

[17:29:49]

DEAN: President Trump has repeated claims, debunked many times, that the 2020 election was, in his words, "rigged". Trump lost the state of Georgia to Joe Biden in 2020 by about 12,000 votes.

And in the aftermath of the election, Trump focused his attention, you'll remember, on Fulton County, whose voter base is largely nonwhite and voted for Biden.

In a call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, Trump directed him to find enough votes to overturn the election laws.

[17:30:17]

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATES: So, look, all I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have, because we won the state.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

DEAN: So that's 2021. Let's take you back to today, 2026. CNN crews on the ground observing Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. They're at the scene. President Trump was asked about her role Thursday night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, what was Tulsi Gabbard doing at an election center in Georgia today?

TRUMP: She's working very hard on trying to keep the election safe, and she's done a very good job. And they, as you know, they got into the votes. She got a signed judge's order in Georgia.

And you're going to see some interesting things happening. They've been trying to get there for a long time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: We're joined now by CNN's Chief Law Enforcement and Intelligence Analyst, John Miller.

John, we have the Director of National Intelligence there during this FBI search. How out of the norm is this? Give people some context around what we saw.

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT & INTELLIGENCE ANALYST (on- camera): So, this is way out of the norm. There's nothing to compare it to. Never in the history of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence has the Director of National Intelligence shown up in the middle of an FBI criminal investigation at the scene of an investigation during the execution of a court-authorized search warrant. It's not really what the Director of National Intelligence does.

The intelligence community, which the Director of National Intelligence, the DNI, Tulsi Gabbard is the leader of, is supposed to be focused on foreign counterintelligence, threats coming at the United States from outside the United States. The FBI, being dual- hatted here, can work on foreign issues as well as domestic issues. But the DNI, the CIA, the NSA, all of those agencies are really barred from spying on or collecting or retaining information about U.S. persons, American citizens.

So, to have her there on site leading an FBI search warrant was truly unprecedented. And what the congressional committees, the intelligence committees, want to know is how and why and based on what authorities. The DNI has no investigative authorities to carry out investigations or to lead them.

So, a lot of questions.

DEAN: Yes, a lot of questions. And I think one of the points you make that's important for all of us to remember is that these intelligence agencies, specifically this position of DNI, doesn't investigate Americans. This is about foreign entities, right?

MILLER (on-camera): So here's the rub there, which is the Director of National Intelligence has a number of authorities to ensure security of critical infrastructure and critical infrastructure that may be part of elections and voting machines and so on. But that is as it relates to threats from China or Russia or election interference. So, this is where we come to kind of the backwards day of this whole thing.

When it comes to foreign influence on elections, Donald Trump, Tulsi Gabbard and others have talked about the Russia hoax, that it's all made up, that it's overblown. But that was for the election he won. For the election he lost, Tulsi Gabbard has been one of the leading voices, which is odd for someone who is appointed to be the head of the intelligence community. One of the leading voices promulgating election conspiracies backed by no evidence, a lot of them knocked down by factual investigations.

So, to see a cabinet level government official who is a promulgator of baseless election conspiracy theories to be there while they're seizing ballots that have been recounted twice already and taking them somewhere to do what with them in a Georgia election process, Jessica, that doesn't have a lot to do with computers that touch the Internet or could be hacked into by foreign powers. It just spins into more and more questions.

Now, the Director of National Intelligence gave us a statement which said that free and fair elections, accurate elections are the backbone of our democracy and that the DNI has the responsibility to ensure those. It doesn't really lay out how that relates to ballots from five years ago or what the foreign interference is. And both intelligence committees, the House and Senate, say they have not heard anything about foreign interference with the Georgia election process.

[17:35:13]

So if it is a thing, it's news to them, and they want to be briefed on it. DEAN: Yes, you're right. A lot of questions. And look, as we head into the midterms, questions about what this might mean as we go into the fall midterms.

John Miller, thank you so much. Good to see you.

MILLER (on-camera): Thanks, Jessica.

DEAN: A massive winter storm is dumping inches of snow. The most some of these regions have seen in decades. This is not where we normally see snow in this country.

We are live from two of the areas that are being the hardest hit after the break.

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[17:40:05]

DEAN: For the second straight week, and here we are, parts of the southeastern United States and up the east coast finding themselves in the deep throes of winter.

A powerful bomb cyclone is delivering heavy snow, powerful winds and sub-freezing temperatures from Georgia all the way up to Washington D.C. A semi-truck collided with a train on tracks in Gastonia, North Carolina. Fortunately, no one was injured in this, but it does look very severe. The North Carolina Highway Patrol reports that there have been more than 300 car crashes across that state since this storm began. More than a thousand flights have been canceled at that airport in Charlotte.

Let's bring in Diane Gallagher who is there in Charlotte and also Derek Van Dam, our meteorologist who's in Virginia Beach.

So, we're going to start first with Derek. Tell us what's going on where you are. I see it looks windy for sure, but tell us what's ahead in the forecast.

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST (on-camera): Well, we can thank the bomb cyclone that's just off the Atlantic coast for providing the wind that we are experiencing right now.

It's probably gusting close to tropical storm force and that'll go up through the course of the evening, but you want to know what's crazy? It's not snowing here yet. I mean, the delay in the snow, this anticipation has been, you know, tough to deal with as a meteorologist, but there's a reason for it.

So I want you to see the radar, OK? So, you know, we've got a large footprint of snowfall from Atlanta to Greenville to Charlotte, that span of I-85 between Greenville and Charlotte, those areas have had double digit snowfall total.

So we've really had the sweet spot for snow there. We've had the sweet spot for snow across the outer banks, which is just to my south, but here in Virginia Beach, we've only just had wind and cold frigid temperatures. And there's a reason for that because the air above us is too dry.

We need to, what's called, saturate the entire column of air above us before we start to condense the clouds, create the snowflakes, and then start to get the snow that we anticipated here. And once it does fall, that will happen, we will have the winds combined with the snow and it will be light fluffy snow.

So it's going to be that immediate drop in visibility once the snow band fills in and they're calling for the potential of blizzard conditions, especially from the outer banks into the extreme southeastern coastline of Virginia, where I'm located now.

Temperatures behind this are brutal. We've got freeze -- hard freeze warnings as far south as Miami Metro. Let that sink in, Jessica.

DEAN: That -- yes, when you look at the map and where this cold is, it is really shocking. Derek, thank you so much for keeping us updated.

I want to go to Diane Gallagher, who's in Charlotte, where Diane, it is certainly snowing there. And I feel like we saw you there last weekend with a ton of snow around you. And Charlotte is just not a place that's used to getting this much snow. How are things looking?

DIANE GALLAGHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (on-camera): I will tell you the people in Charlotte are so happy that this is legitimately snow this weekend and not the ice we had last weekend, though I will say that could potentially cause some problems in the days ahead.

I do want to show you kind of what we're dealing with here. We're in the Plaza Midwood neighborhood of Charlotte, my opinion, one of the best neighborhoods in the entire city. And you can see people are enjoying themselves.

This is a very walkable neighborhood. A lot of the businesses stayed open this weekend, as opposed to last weekend when they shut down because you could walk and enjoy the warmth, a nice drink, some warm food, something like that. We're looking at around here, pulling out my husband's trusty Dare sixth grade ruler because the only one I had in my house, a little more than seven inches over here right now.

We had a little more than that at a place I was in a different part of the city earlier today. But this is not snow that we have seen in Charlotte in more than 20 years. It is causing some problems on the road.

And I do want you to look here. This is Central Avenue. And this is the best road that we have seen thus far this afternoon in the city. And that's because a plow literally just came through here. Now, DOT said between midnight and noon. So that's before the really intense, big, fat snowflakes started falling this afternoon. But between midnight and noon, they had more than 340 collisions that were reported to them. The concern is that ice that remains on the road from last weekend is now got packed snow on top of it. It is a dangerous situation to be out driving this point in Charlotte and other parts of North Carolina right now.

But everybody else is having a great time sledding, enjoying themselves at businesses, walking around, taking pictures. Jessica, we don't see this much.

DEAN: Yes, no, exactly. And we're watching a little kid go sledding. It seems like that's the right idea. Go out to a restaurant if you can.

Diane Gallagher there for us in Charlotte. Thank you so much. We appreciate it.

And this just in here to CNN, President Trump saying the federal government will no longer go into Democratic cities for riots or protests unless they say, please.

[17:45:02]

We're live from the White House. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DEAN: Tonight, President Donald Trump taking his latest message about the ongoing protest to Truth Social. He says, quote, he's instructed Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem that under no circumstances are we going to participate in various poorly run Democrat cities with regard to their protest and or riots unless and until they ask for help. Adding that federal agents will, however, continue to guard and protect federal buildings.

Let's bring in CNN's Julia Benbrook who is there at the White House. Julia, what more is he saying?

JULIA BENBROOK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on-camera): Well, Jessica, not too long ago now, President Donald Trump took to Truth Social. As we are seeing these demonstrations play out across the country with a message for his Department of Homeland Security where he appears to command them not to engage with protestors.

[17:50:10]

I want to pull up for you part of that post specifically. It's very lengthy, but he said in part, I have instructed Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem that under no circumstances are we going to participate in various poorly run Democrat cities with regard to their protest and/or riots unless and until they ask for help. We will, however, guard and very powerfully so any and all federal buildings that are being attacked by these highly paid lunatics, agitators, and insurrectionists. Please be aware that I have instructed ICE and/or Border Patrol to be very forceful in the protection of federal government property.

Now, he went on to say that it is the responsibility of local and state officials to protect federal property, buildings and parks, and that federal officials would be serving as a backup, only stepping in if needed. He had a message for local officials, mayors, and governors. He said, quote, let us know when you are ready and we will be there adding that they would need to say, please.

Now, this post is still a little unclear. He does not specifically say that he is working to slow down immigration enforcement, but the message is directed to the Department that handles that type of work. And he has framed this as pulling help from Democrat led cities that they would want. But it is very possible many of them will be grateful to hear that federal officials will not, do not intend to at least step in and handle these demonstrations.

We are Jessica, seeking clarification on this post and have reached out to the White House. and DHS for more information.

DEAN: All right, Julia Benbrook at the White House. Thank you for that.

Let's bring in Bloomberg White House correspondent, Jeff Mason. Jeff, good to see you as always.

We're getting a little news here on a Saturday evening as it is -- as it con -- continues to happen on these weekends. But -- but this post right now -- how do you -- what do you read into this?

JEFF MASON, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, BLOOMBERG: Well, it -- I think it raises a couple questions. Number one is -- is -- is it meant to be a sort of a threatening post to Democratic cities that if they get into trouble with protests or that if they need additional law enforcement, then they should not expect to get federal help for that? Or is it a sign that he is instructing DHS to pull back a little bit in terms of its engagement with protesters when they're doing these ICE raids.

I don't think we know the answer to that. It could be a little bit of both. My suspicion having covered him for as long as I have, is that he's not directing in that, in that post for a broad pullback. But is suggesting that Democratic cities might be out of luck in his view if they need additional law enforcement help.

DEAN: Yes, we'll have to see exactly how they clarify that. We are also getting news this evening that, as I keep saying, it's like a branch of the -- of all of the ICE Enforcement and Immigration tree (ph), which is now going to Congress and the funding bills. We're learning that House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told the House Speaker Mike Johnson, Democrats are not going to help Republicans pass this funding bill to reopen the government.

What is -- what does that mean for Mike Johnson and Republicans and what -- how does this kind of set the stage for when they're all back on Monday?

MASON: I mean, number one, Speaker Johnson has always had such a tight, tight majority, and so not having any leeway to get something passed at a time like this is -- is pretty tough for somebody in his position. And if that's the message that he's received from Mr. Jeffries, then that is, I don't think a surprise, but it certainly puts additional pressure on him. The question mark over a government shutdown is certainly a big one and a -- and a political problem really for both parties, but certainly for Republicans right now as the -- the polling is showing a great deal, more pressure on them with regard to immigration and on President Trump because of what's happened in Minnesota.

DEAN: Yes. And so, talk through that, that piece of it specifically because if we zoom out for the -- just even just the last week, like since, since Alex Pretti's death on Saturday to now, in that span of a week, there has just been so much around the issue of immigration, ICE enforcement, what that looks like, and -- and again, just the political piece of that story for a second.

What it means for this administration especially as we head in. I mean, midterms are still obviously months away, but as you know, the polling is really showing, is really telling us a story about how Americans are feeling about how this is being done. What do you -- how was the administration thinking about this? What is your sense of how they've sorted through the -- the events of the last seven days, let's say?

[17:55:02]

MASON: Well, I would underscore a couple points, some of which you just made. Number one, the midterms are a ways away and so much can happen between now and November that changes polling or changes the public's view about what's going on or their sentiment about the party that's in power.

That said, the polling that you referenced and that I referenced has absolutely gone more negative against President Trump and his immigration policies. And that is not just among Democrats, it's also among independents who he absolutely needs for the midterm elections and for that matter, three years from now, for the next presidential election.

The types of images and the, the actions, particularly the ones that you're just referring to, the death of Alex Pretti and Renee Good, those memories just don't go away in voters' minds. And whether or not this is really an inflection point is hard to say in the moment. But the data, at least anecdotally, shows that the polling is -- is changing and that the -- the demonstrations that are increasing, certainly in Minneapolis, but also elsewhere around the country is an anecdotal sign that, that people are coming up and -- and speaking out against what President Trump has done and what his -- his administration has done on this issue. And that will have to get back to your initial question, a political impact.

DEAN: All right, Jeff Mason, always good to have you. Thanks for your time.

MASON: My pleasure. DEAN: And we are following breaking news in the case of five-year-old Liam and his father. Sources saying, a federal judge has ordered their release from a Texas Immigration Detention Center after they were taken there from Minneapolis.

We'll have more. You're in the "CNN Newsroom."

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