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DOJ Investigates Church Protest; Trump Touts First Year; Trump Approval Drops; Indiana Wins National Championship; Trump Threatens Tariffs over Greenland; Kuno Fencker is Interviewed about Greenland. Aired 6:30-7a ET
Aired January 20, 2026 - 06:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[06:30:39]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT): He wants to take Greenland because he didn't get a prize. I mean this is like a -- you know, this is like a spoiled three-year-old.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: Is taking over Greenland all about President Trump's desire to win a Nobel prize? Well, this morning, he's clarifying his remarks linking the perceived snub to his bid to take over the island nation.
Good morning, everybody. I'm Audie Cornish. I want to thank you for joining me on CNN THIS MORNING.
It's half past the hour. And here's what's happening right now.
Seven prominent medical associations suing to reverse changes made by the CDC to childhood vaccine recommendations. Those groups include the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Physicians. Earlier this month, HHS actually narrowed recommendations for childhood vaccinations against meningococcal disease, hepatitis b and hepatitis a.
And House Speaker Mike Johnson trying to calm tension in a speech to the British parliament. The U.S. is set to mark 250 years of independence from Great Britain. Johnson says he wants to focus on the special relationship between the two countries, and not the widening rift over tariffs and Greenland.
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REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA): I spoke to President Trump at length yesterday, and I told him that I really felt that my mission here, even though we planned this back in the fall, we didn't know how the events would develop over the last few days. But I -- but I told the president that I felt that my mission here today was to encourage our friends and help to calm the waters, so to speak. And I hope to do so.
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CORNISH: Johnson is the first sitting U.S. speaker to address the House of Parliament.
And right now, the sun is releasing the largest solar radiation storm in more than 20 years. And people in two states might be able to catch the aurora displays this morning. Authorities are closely monitoring the storm over -- and concerns it could disrupt satellite-based communications. The geomagnetic storm may be visible in northern California and southern Alabama.
And in Minneapolis, we have the latest on the investigation into the killing of Renee Good, or what has now become the investigation of Renee Good and those close to her. Two sources tell CNN, the FBI opened a civil rights investigation into the officer who shot and killed Renee Good two weeks ago, before quickly closing it and shifting the focus to whether or not the officer had been assaulted. Instead, the focus now seems to be here.
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CORNISH: The Department of Justice Civil Rights Division is now focusing on this protest, which erupted -- which disrupted church services in a Saint Paul church on Sunday. Protesters say one of the pastors is a local ICE official.
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TODD BLANCHE, DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL: We are absolutely investigating. Our civil rights unit has already sent experts out to Minneapolis today. The civil rights unit, the U.S. attorney's office, the FBI, DHS is investigating this.
It's a crime. And so they will face a jury. If they're -- if they're convicted, they will go to prison.
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CORNISH: CNN spoke with one of the organizers of the protests, and she said she felt it was her job to inform people at the church about their pastor's alleged ties to ICE.
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NEKIMA LEVY ARMSTRONG, FORMER PRESIDENT, MINNEAPOLIS NAACP: Well, I have not heard from the DOJ, but I think that it's interesting that the Trump administration will charge everyone except people who are actually violating the law. I do not have any regrets about going in and raising the questions.
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CORNISH: Group chat is back. Chuck, I want to talk to you because, as people were talking about
this yesterday, I heard over and over again, I feel like a church is too far. I feel like the activists are taking it to a place that I can't follow. I feel like, I feel like. It -- could it be something that the administration can use against the protest movement?
CHUCK ROCHA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: They could. And they want to wrap this up. We've all talked about why, and I know we'll probably talk about the possibility of bringing 1,500 U.S. troops to that city as well. The administration wants to wrap this up because this is the playing field for political messaging and messaging that they can talk about that's in their lane.
[06:35:00]
They love talking about this because it's positive for them. They're talking about law and order.
But for all of you in Minnesota thinking about going to a church, or you want to punish Target, this is what you should know is that these ICE agents can go into a public space and there's nothing Target can do, or any other people can do, because it's a public space. So, we need to make sure we're protesting peacefully in the right areas and not punishing small business owners or Targets or churches or whatever, because these ICE agents can go almost anywhere they want to go. And that's what you should be protesting. And that's the thing that worries me.
CORNISH: It's interesting, the government did open the door to ICE being allowed to go into churches, right?
ROCHA: Right.
CORNISH: They made an adjustment to the targeting rules.
ROCHA: Yes.
CORNISH: And I feel this tug on churches to get more involved. You have Pope Leo and catholic bishops, more and more people speaking out. I'm not sure they can avoid being in this conversation much longer.
KRISTEN SOLTIS ANDERSON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, one of the things that I think is the reason why this particular -- the videos are getting so much circulation, there is so much focus on this in conservative circles in particular, is because they -- this is not new -- have, for the last couple of years, really felt like being a conservative Christian in America is something you're not allowed to be, or that you are targeted. Remember, this was -- when Charlie Kirk was shot, this was a big piece of what conservatives were saying. Look, we've told you, we are not allowed to do what we want without liberals coming in and stopping us and shutting down our speech and coming into our spaces and harming us. And this is yet another example of something like that, and is why conservatives are now saying, send in everything you've got because this is unacceptable.
CORNISH: There's some irony there because now the DOJ is -- wants to use the FACE Act, which is the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances, which used to be used to charge people who wanted to block access to abortion clinics. This kind of ties into what you're saying, right? Like they're basically using a law they feel went after conservatives to go after liberals.
ANDERSON: Well, for a long time this has also been a part of the whole message of kind of the MAGA movement was that for too long conservatives were too nice and allowed tools to be used against them, that now that they're in charge, they're saying, we're going to take these tools and use them for our own ends.
CORNISH: All right, well, needless to say, there's no more Mr. Nice Guy under Trump 2.0.
Here's Keith Ellison, the attorney general of Minnesota, talking about the context he sees.
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KEITH ELLISON (D), MINNESOTA ATTORNEY GENERAL: Well, we live in the age where people like Jerome Powell are under investigation. Tish James, James Comey, Mark Kelly, Elise Slotkin. The list goes on and on. Under this DOJ, wrongdoing has nothing to do with whether they're going to focus or investigate you. So, I wish -- in a normal time I would say, no. I'd say this is First Amendment activity. In time like this, it's just really difficult to say.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZACHARY WOLF, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL WRITER: I mean, he does have a point. It feels like everybody the administration disagrees with on anything is the subject of some kind of investigation. There was -- you talked about the FACE Act. There -- I saw some reports they might use, you know, laws designed to go after the Ku Klux Klan to, you know, to go after some of these protesters, which would be, you know, a strange turn of events.
But the idea that everybody is at risk of some kind of, you know, legal jeopardy for simply disagreeing with the administration is a -- that is a trend in Trump 2.0. It's the opposite of what President Trump promised when he said he was going to end what he calls lawfare. But it's clearly happening.
CORNISH: OK. You guys, it's actually, I think, a good time to talk about the fact that it's been one year since President Trump was sworn into office to begin his second term. And if you ask him, things couldn't have gone better.
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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: One year. I don't think there's been a term like it. I don't think any president has had a better first year than we've had in terms of success.
(END VIDEO CLIP) CORNISH: So, not everyone agrees. According to new CNN polling, 58 percent of Americans think Trump's first year back has been a failure. When you look at approval ratings, 87 percent of Republicans believe the president is doing a good job in year one of term two. Among independents his approval rating has gone down steadily, from 43 percent in February of last year to just 29 percent now.
The group chat is back.
I want to play one more piece of tape for you guys from the last segment. This woman who had been forcibly removed from a car by ICE. And here's how she spoke about what happened.
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ALIYA RAHMAN, WOMAN FORCIBLY REMOVED FROM CAR BY ICE: I do -- would not know what to do with the sentence "move." "I will break your f-ing window." And then, back and forth between, "move," "get out," trying to open my door. More threats of breaking a window, which I don't understand the functional purpose of. And I -- it's not a warning. It's a threat of violence that really shouldn't be packaged with an instruction.
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CORNISH: She was driving to a doctor's appointment.
[06:40:02]
She was caught in traffic when she ended up being caught in this moment.
And, Kristen, I wanted to put it to you because, is there -- is this the kind of thing that is making independents look differently on the Trump administration?
ANDERSON: It is because, you know, take an issue like immigration. It was one that was a big piece of how Donald Trump was able to get re- elected. Initially, early on in his first -- his second term back, it was an issue where his job approval stayed above 50 percent longer than on other issues. But you eventually get to a point where they're -- people say, I'm glad the border's secure. I'm glad you focused on this. I'm glad you treated it like a crisis. But did it have to be this way?
CORNISH: Yes.
ANDERSON: Is this the how? And so, the what he did on things like immigration may have gotten better sort of ratings from some of these voters than the how you get there. And I think you find an issue across issue across issue. That's sort of what independents are frustrated about.
Take something like tariffs.
CORNISH: Or the economy. ANDERSON: Yes.
CORNISH: Which they're not getting any help on.
WOLF: I mean, immigration was his issue. They said they were going to go after criminals first. It doesn't feel like that's happening. Maybe it is. It doesn't feel like it. They said they were not going to, you know, upend vaccines. That's definitely happening. On issue after issue, the things that Trump came into office saying he was going to do don't feel like what they're actually doing. And rather than an American first platform, it feels like an American only platform. It feels objectively like the U.S. doesn't have allies anymore. We're throwing away NATO, you know, arguably.
CORNISH: But lots of people, I think, especially you see that in the number of Republicans, feel like America is stronger or perceived as stronger. Just the fact that America might be perceived as a threat is, you know, in a way, a good thing. And I want to hear from you sort of how Democrats talk about this heading into midterms.
ROCHA: People don't like chaos. And the top three stories in this president's presidential year is Epstein, ICE and some would say Venezuela. It's right there tied with a few other things that's going on.
Back to your America first point, this is what -- a lot of Americans voted for him in a presidential year. We're moving into an off year. Forty percent of those people will not participate who were there. That's just historical fact. So, the most engaged voters will. And to your point, they don't like the chaos. That's exactly how Joe Biden got elected five years ago because they were tired of that.
CORNISH: But, when I look at the numbers and the crosstabs, Democrats don't believe that their elected leaders are fighting Trump enough. They are dissatisfied with Democrats themselves.
ROCHA: But it may be enough in an off-year election because it will only be the most informed voters who vote. It's not a presidential election. A presidential election, you're exactly right, it's just different in an off-year election.
CORNISH: I'm sort of interested on what it means to be informed when social media is doing so much of the work.
ROCHA: That's a great point. Yes.
CORNISH: That lots of people are getting this delivered to them.
ROCHA: Right.
CORNISH: They don't need us to tell them how ICE is behaving.
ROCHA: Right.
WOLF: Well, and to the social media point, informed by misinformation or things that aren't facts. So, people see things in their bubble and they're not -- they're frequently incorrect. So, that's a -- that's a -- that's a major issue for elections.
CORNISH: OK. The other thing was the -- I feel like we have to mention DOGE because that was the sort of coming in hot effort of the first couple months. I don't think it necessarily yielded the savings, but it definitely had the shock.
ANDERSON: Well, this is one of the sort of examples of something where Donald Trump says, I promised you I was going to do this, and I did it. And Republicans said, I'm glad you did. I'm glad you took a sledgehammer to the federal bureaucracy. I don't feel sad that you laid off all of these federal workers. That's why those Republican numbers still look sky high, even after the turbulent year we've had. Because for Trump's own base, this is all exactly what they wanted.
The problem is he needs more than just his own base in order for his party to have success in midterms or in future elections. And that's the short-sightedness of doing things that just make your base really excited.
CORNISH: Yes.
ANDERSON: But forgetting that that other sort of middle group of voters (INAUDIBLE).
CORNISH: Yes, and I don't consider polls the be all and end all. But this approval rating falling so far among independents from 43 percent to 29 I think is just strange (ph).
ROCHA: That's the key to the midterms everywhere. This race will be held in 30 congressional races, in five Senate races and about six governors' races that we're working on. That's it. That's where the election will be. And these independents, and I would say Latino voters in a number of those states will determine who will actually win.
CORNISH: All right, you guys, stay with us. I want to turn to something a little more fun. The perfect season. The Indiana Hoosiers putting the final touches on a storybook run to their first national football title. It was a nail-biting 27 to 21 victory over Miami last night. They're actually the first college football team to go 16-0 in more than 130 years. Yes, I said that right.
CNN's Coy Wire was there to watch it all unfold.
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COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: This was the championship no one saw coming. Two teams overcoming the odds to reach this moment.
Miami looking for their first national title in 24 years on their home field. Tickets for nosebleeds were around $4,000. Indiana and their Heisman winning quarterback, Fernando Mendoza.
[06:45:02]
Fernando had his moment. Heisman-doza (ph) making his presence felt. Sheer will and determination to put his team up by ten in the fourth quarter.
But the Hurricanes jabbed back. Their superstar playmaker, Malachi Toney, willing his way into the zone, bringing Miami within three. After an Indiana field goal, Miami would have a chance to go for the win, but its intercepted by Jamari Sharpe, and the Hoosiers pull off the unthinkable. The team that had more losses than any team in college football history have climbed to the mountaintop.
I caught up with coach Curt Cignetti and some of the stars after the win.
CURT CIGNETTI, HEAD INDIANA HOOSIERS HEAD COACH: Champions made when nobody's looking. Our kids have a great work ethic, great leadership. It's commitment to a worthwhile goal and just try to improve daily. And anything's possible when you prepare the right way, and have the right people on your staff and in the locker room.
JAMARI SHARPE, INDIANA HOOSIERS DEFENSIVE BACK: All year we've been battling, having games like this. This fight we just fought to the end all year.
FERNANDO MENDOZA, INDIANA HOOSIERS QUARTERBACK: I'm stuttering right now because you can't even use words. They're my brothers for life and it's been the most special brotherhood. It's -- I'm so emotional about it I can't even process it. Usually I burst out into tears, but it's -- I mean, they're my brothers for life, and it's such a special group of guys. No one I'd rather do it with.
WIRE: Twenty-seven to 21 is the final. The Indiana Hoosiers, for the first time ever, are your college football national champions.
Coy Wire, CNN. Back to you.
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CORNISH: All right, if you missed any of that, even just Coy's sheer joy in the moment, please know that we are a podcast. If you scan this QR code now to find it. CNN THIS MORNING is available anywhere you get your podcasts.
And next on CNN, European leaders ready for a face-to-face encounter with President Trump. Can they get him to pump the brakes on his threat to annex Greenland?
Plus, I'm actually going to talk to a member of Greenland's parliament who says the threat could be used as leverage to shape the future of the country.
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[06:51:30]
CORNISH: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is in Switzerland this morning making the case for President Trump's push to take control of Greenland. Bessent is leading the U.S. delegation at the World Economic Forum in Davos. He warned European leaders it would be, quote, "unwise to retaliate" if the U.S. moves forward with annexation. Speaking on NBC's "Meet the Press" ahead of Davos, Bessent said he believes conflict can be avoided.
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SCOTT BESSENT, TREASURY SECRETARY: I believe that the Europeans will understand that the best outcome is for the U.S. to maintain or receive control of Greenland.
Make it part of the United States, and there will not be a conflict because the United States, right now, we are the hottest country in the world. We are the strongest country in the world.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: CNN's Anna Cooban joins me from London.
So, I'll just get right to it. How are European leaders responding? And I don't know what options they have on the table.
ANNA COOBAN, CNN BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS REPORTER: Well, Audie, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is at the World Economic Forum today. And she began her speech with quite a pointed statement. She said that our Europe must be an independent Europe.
Now, this is quite clearly perhaps an allusion to the fact that the United States is an unreliable partner right now, diplomatically, economically. And in response to these threats of new tariffs because of Trump's stance on Greenland, there are a couple of options on the table. So, they've got, firstly, diversification, which they've been doing up to this point, basically finding new trading partners or strengthening alliances. There's this historic trade deal with Latin American countries, which was signed just last week after 25 years of back and forth. Perhaps that timing there is significant. And then retaliation. So, on the table, potentially, last resort, is this so- called trade bazooka. Basically, it's an instrument that the EU has never used before, let alone against an ally, which would effectively bar the U.S. from access to key parts of the European market.
Trade secretary -- Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was in the World Economic Forum today, and he was trying to tamp down fears of a trade war. And this is what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SCOTT BESSENT, TREASURY SECRETARY: It's been 48 hours. As I said, sit back -- sit back, relax. I am confident that the leaders will not escalate and that this will work out in a manner that ends up in a very good place for all, for national security, for the U.S. and for Europe. Thanks.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thanks, everybody.
(END VIDEO CLIP) COOBAN: So, here we have Bessent trying to really play down these fears. But ultimately it's going to be what the president says around tariffs and trade that's going to hold more sway with European leaders, Audie.
CORNISH: All right, that's Anna Cooban with the update from London.
In the meantime, while we talk about the reaction in Europe to the president's pressure campaign, Greenlanders themselves are making themselves heard.
Joining me now to talk about it is Kuno Fencker, a member of Greenland's parliament and Greenland's pro-independence party.
Thank you for being with us.
KUNO FENCKER, GREENLAND PARLIAMENT MEMBER, NALERAQ PARTY: Thank you.
CORNISH: I want to start with something you actually told Reuters last year. You -- about Trump. You said, "he respects our right to self- determination. If he wants to invest in Greenland, he is absolutely welcome to do that." Do you think he still respects your right to self-determination?
FENCKER: Not according to what the rhetoric is right now. And we don't accept that in Greenland at all. And it just creates fear in -- and uncertainties here in the population of Greenland.
[06:55:05]
And that can be misused by especially Denmark, by fear mongering people and also making it more difficult to get our right to external self-determination, which is our international law right.
But I think we have to be very careful in framing this in a negative way. But, of course, nothing happens for a bad reason. So, I think we have to try to utilize everything and explain people that we still have our right and we have to fight for our right because most people, over 90 percent of the people in Greenland, doesn't want to be annexed again by any country.
CORNISH: I want to play for you something that a Danish member of parliament said on CNN last night when he was asked about a potential incursion of U.S. forces on Greenland.
Here's what he had to say.
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RASMUS JARLOV, DANISH PARLIAMENT MEMBER: We will, of course, defend Greenland. If there is an invasion by American troops, it would be a war. And we would be fighting against each other. We know that the Americans are stronger than us, and you have a much stronger military than ours. But it is our duty to defend our land and our people.
(END VIDEO CLIP) CORNISH: Are more and more people talking like that in Greenland?
FENCKER: No, I don't think so. But I think -- I would say, I will not put myself in a patriot way, but if someone attacks the people of Greenland, of course we will fight back no matter what. If it's Denmark, or U.S. Even though we know we are much less stronger and we don't even have a military. But we will have to fight back no matter what. And we will fight for our sovereignty of Greenland. We will fight for our right to be heard as a people.
You know, our GDP is actually quite high and it's nearing -- like our GDP per capita is approximately like Germany. So, it's -- our GDP is three times higher than the top ten of the U.N. members (INAUDIBLE) states. So, we don't want to see impossibilities here. We want to cooperate with Denmark according to the law. And when one -- when we say like free association, it's free association with Denmark because we are not saying compact (ph) of free association with the United States. So, that misunderstanding must be corrected because our law absolutely says we have to negotiate with Denmark in regards to the future of Greenland.
CORNISH: OK, that's Kuno Fencker of Greenland's parliament.
Thank you so much for your time.
FENCKER: Thank you.
CORNISH: OK, you guys, we talked about a lot today. And so, I'm actually kind of wondering what's in your actual group chats, what people are talking about.
Kristen, you haven't been here in a while. Tell me what's going on.
ANDERSON: So, my actual group chat was me waking up this morning to all of the texts about the football game last night, because I went to bed early so that I could be bright and fresh for this show, so I missed it.
But then the other thing that has been in my texts is, I wrote a piece that was in yesterdays "New York Times," all about this rise of independence. As Chuck noted, super important.
CORNISH: Yes, meaning more and more people affiliating as independents rather than Republican or Democrat, officially.
ANDERSON: Yes. Yes. When I first started working in politics over 20 years ago, it was at the low water mark, the lowest level of people reporting that they were independents. And we have now, in the last 20 some, I'm not going to say how many years, really changed.
Now, 45 percent of Americans say they affiliate with neither party. But doesn't mean that they're all moderate and centrist.
CORNISH: Right.
ANDERSON: Some people are independent because they think both parties are too far to the left or too far to the right.
CORNISH: They're just upset. So, what does that mean for? Did that come up in your group chat or something else?
ROCHA: It's funny, my group chat's about elections too, because there's nothing like the smell of midterms in the morning. For all of you at home who've been thinking about, oh my God, the midterms are in November. Guess what, boys and girls --
CORNISH: And groaning. Yes.
ROCHA: Midterms start voting in Texas in four weeks in the primary. And it's going to tell us a lot on the Republican side, with Cornyn and Paxton, but also on the Democratic side, on this big race between Jasmine Crockett and James Talarico.
CORNISH: Right.
ROCHA: Watch this race. It's going to be very important. Full disclosure, my firm is working with Talarico. But this will tell us a lot about the future of the Democratic Party and the Republican Party in both these primaries.
CORNISH: And I remember it was in my group chat that the "Las Culturistas" podcast got in trouble for saying not to send money to Jasmine Crockett.
ROCHA: That's right.
CORNISH: Zach, what were you talking about?
WOLF: First of all, Texas people, as long as Kristen's been tracking independents, people have been talking about Texas going back to the blue.
CORNISH: Sleeping giant.
WOLF: So, it's always -- it's always interesting to hear people talk about Democrats in Texas.
ROCHA: Oh (ph).
WOLF: Let's (INAUDIBLE) more of that.
In mine, I was interested to see our Betsy Klein at CNN's story yesterday about the bunker they're building under the East Wing.
CORNISH: Yes.
WOLF: It's not just the East Wing. They, like, tore out this bunker that was there for, you know, nuclear fallout, basically, from, you know, the '50s, and they're going to rebuild it. So, who wouldn't love to get down in there and see that?
[07:00:01]
CORNISH: Has it raised questions about what it's for or just this was a long needed upgrade like the ballroom itself?
WOLF: Well, they didn't tell -- they don't tell us anything about what's going on.
CORNISH: Right.
WOLF: So, it's all conjecture based.
CORNISH: It will be interesting to see.
ROCHA: Was Jimmy Hoffa down there? Just ask them if Jimmy Hoffa was in the basement (ph).
ANDERSON: As someone who watches the "Fallout" TV show, I'm very interested in this new story.
CORNISH: This is why we go into the group chats. I love you guys.
OK, thank you so much for waking up with us. I'm Audie Cornish. And the headlines are next.
