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CNN This Morning

Millions Face Ice, Snow Threat As Massive Winter Storm Bears Down; Winter Storm Already Causing Thousands Of Flight Cancellations; Former Olympic Snowboarder And FBI Most Wanted Fugitive Ryan Wedding Arrested; Russia Unleashes Brutal Strike On Ukraine As Peace Talks Continue. Millions in the U.S. Face Ice, Snow Threat As Massive Winter Storm Bears Down; Sources Say President Trump is Frustrated By the Political Fallout Over Immigration Policy; FEMA Halts Terminations As Agency Prepares for Winter Storm. Aired 6-7a ET

Aired January 24, 2026 - 06:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:00:27]

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Saturday, January 24th. Good to have you along. I'm Victor Blackwell. Top story this morning, this massive winter storm, there's a really good chance that it's going to impact you here in the US. It's affecting hundreds of millions of people from the Gulf coast to New England.

Right now it's slamming the South Central US. You see here, most of Oklahoma right now is getting hit with snow. Freezing rain is settling in over eastern Texas.

Let's take a live look at downtown Oklahoma City. You can see that it's causing some travel issues there. Fortunately, nobody is on the road at this hour. Cars are we've heard, running off the road who are trying to get around. Oklahoma could see record storm snowfall.

Forecasters are predicting 13 inches there. The governor, Kevin Stitt says crews are ready to get to work.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. KEVIN STITT (R) OKLAHOMA: I feel like we're as prepared as we can be. And I just want to caution Oklahoma, stay off the roads if you can. We're going to have some winter weather. But our transportation department has pre put this -- has prepared the roads as much as possible. We have 600 trucks deployed around the state, OG and EPSO. We have 1,300 employees and 500 employees deployed around the state for power outages.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Let me take you to Dallas now where officials say people there should prepare to hunker down until Tuesday, maybe Wednesday. Snow has been falling there since yesterday. But those who are preparing to stay in for days, they're running out of options for food. You can see here, look at this. The essentials are gone from the store shelves in Oklahoma and Tennessee, other states bracing for impact.

They're watching what's happening out west, whether it's salting the roads or buying the supplies, putting electric crews on standby. People are ready to ride it out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL RANDALL, CONNECTICUT RESIDENT: What are you going to do? It's New England. There's no snakes, no alligators. You got to put up with us now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: At least 16 states in Washington, D.C. have declared states of emergency. We have team coverage with CNN meteorologist Allison Chinchar. CNN correspondent Ivan Rodriguez, he's in Dallas.

Let's get to Ivan first. Dallas gearing up for a lot of ice. What are you seeing now?

IVAN RODRIGUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Victor, I can tell you it's cold. It is very cold this morning. We were up live last night and the temperature we could feel consistently hour by hour was dropping. The rain was consistent. The rain is still here now. It's not necessarily downpouring, but it's been consistent now for what seems like overnight.

And the big problem was never going to be heavy amounts of rain. It was going to be, like you mentioned, the ice. So now that cold weather is in, we still have that rain coming down. All of this potentially now turning to ice. And the ice levels that were looking at originally were between the range of a quarter of an inch to half an inch, according to the National Weather Service.

And in terms of snow, it could have been anywhere between an inch to 3 inches by Sunday afternoon. This sort of freezing rain, though, is going to stick around all the way through or the early hours of Sunday morning here in Dallas and the area of Dallas Fort Worth, it really depends.

But there are locations that are already seeing some sleet, freezing rain, some areas also seeing some snow. But all of that, Victor, is really turning into a travel chaos here, not only in Dallas, but also across the country.

Yesterday were looking late last night that more than half the flights in Dallas, Love Field were canceled. The big Southwest hub and more than 60 percent of the flights out of Dallas Fort Worth were canceled. They're a big American Airlines hub. And now we're looking at updated flight numbers. And it looks like 3,200 flights have been canceled so far for today, according to FlightAware. And 5,200 of flights canceled going into tomorrow.

And as that pattern shifts across the country, we're going to look at other airport hubs like Atlanta, Hartsfield, Jackson. How are they going to be impacted into this? A travel nightmare. But a big topic of conversation, Victor, was also the power grid and how that's going to hold up because we know with those ice level amounts that were talking about there, it's enough to break down tree branches to damage power lines. And fresh on the memory of many people's minds is that snowstorm from 2021, and it left millions of people without power for days.

[06:05:02]

And the governor says that were not expecting that he says that the power grid has never been stronger than it is right now. So we're not expecting any power loss. But again, those numbers are troubling.

BLACKWELL: Yes. And for the people who are preparing, hopefully they have contingency plans in case some of that power goes out. Ivan Rodriguez there, thank you. We'll get back to you throughout the morning.

As you heard, storm is already affecting people across Texas. We're talking west Texas up in the Panhandle. We're in winter storm warnings right now in effect. Freezing rain, sleet are already making roads slick apart across parts of this area.

Yesterday in Lubbock, drivers started running into ice on roads, on the bridges and the highways. Officials are warning people to watch out for black ice and just stay home if they can. That's good advice across the Southeast.

And the cold stretches far beyond Texas, as we know, Green Bay, a bank sign there, zero. And people there are being told to brace for wind chills as low as 45 below. Yesterday marked their first afternoon high below 0 since 2019. CNN meteorologist Allison Chinchar with me now.

Massive system. I don't even know where to start because there are so many states impacted.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Right. So let's start with where it's impacting now --

BLACKWELL: Yes.

CHINCHAR: -- and we can kind of move to where it's going to go forward because you're right, this is eventually going to stretch more than 2,000 miles, impacting millions and millions of people. So here's what we've got so far on the radar. You've got all the colors out there. We've got the purple for the snow, the green for the rain and the two different shades of pink indicating the sleet and the freezing rain. So you've got pretty much a little bit of everything right now.

The heavy snow coming down across just west of Memphis, over through Arkansas, back down into Oklahoma. You've got a lot of the sleet and the freezing rain also through portions of northern Texas and into Arkansas. And that whole thing is going to continue to slide off to the east as we head through the next 24 hours. But look at this. Dallas, Shreveport, those are some of the areas that

are really starting to get some of the heaviest ice and sleet right now. So those accumulations are going to gradually start to tick up as we go through the rest of the day today.

And then once we get closer into the maybe say about midday today, you start to see places like Nashville, Knoxville, Chattanooga, Huntsville. Those are going to be some of the cities that start to get it next then by tonight now you start to see cities like Atlanta, eventually into Charlotte, Raleigh. A lot of those areas are going to start to see the shift over as we start to see a lot of that winter precipitation begin to take hold.

And again then it's going to continue up into portions of the Northeast as we head into early Sunday and then especially latter into the day Sunday. That's when it's really going to start to impact areas, say from Washington, D.C. all the way up into Boston.

Then we finally start to see an end to it once we get to very late Sunday and into the very early hours of Monday when that system finally pushes offshore when it is all said and done again. Now you're looking at a lot of these areas that could be looking at half an inch to an inch of ice total.

This not only causes problems on the roadways, but this also starts to accumulate and weigh down things like trees and power lines. That's why one of our biggest concerns with the ice is actually going to be the potential for widespread power outages farther to the north, where snow is really going to be the main concern.

You're talking significant amounts. Look at all of that pink, where you're talking minimum of 8 inches of snow. But some of these areas could get a foot, maybe even more than that, Victor, by the time it's all said and done. And again, yes, the Northeast gets snow, but it's not often that they'll get more than a foot in just one particular storm.

BLACKWELL: All right. We'll check in with you often throughout the morning. Allison, thank you.

As Ivan already mentioned, travel being disrupted as the storm spreads across major routes on the ground and in the air. Airports are swamped with delays. And right now there are more than 3,000 cancellations just for today.

Airlines have already canceled more than 5,000 flights scheduled for tomorrow. And when things start off this backed up, even small slowdowns can snowball into much bigger problems as the storm moves east. CNN's Pete Muntean is tracking how airlines are preparing for what's ahead of.

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Victor. Cancellations already in the thousands and Sunday is expected to be, along with Saturday, one of the worst days for U.S. air travel we have seen in the last year. We're talking cancellations that continue to grow. With so many airline hubs in the path of this storm, Dallas Fort Worth, Memphis, Nashville, Charlotte, where the cancellations are growing.

We are just at the start of what will be a really tough run for air travel. And the problem is the lingering cold that will last after this. Airlines are bringing in extra employees to try and help out with deicing planes so they can reset pretty easily after the storm has passed. Although the big concern has been moving airplanes out of the storm's path, it's a little like unplugging a computer and plugging it back in again.

They hope that things will get back to normal smoothly after all of this is over, but it's going to be an incredibly tough stretch for air travel, and we are only at the start, Victor.

[06:10:07]

BLACKWELL: All right, Pete Muntean, thank you very much. Louisville, Kentucky, let's take you there now. Officials are bracing for what they say could be one of their snowiest weekends in decades. And they're urging people there to do what we're hearing from officials in a lot of these cities.

Get what you need now. Be ready to stay inside once the snow starts piling up. David Mattingly from our affiliate WAVE has this report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID MATTINGLY, WAVE NEWS (voice-over): City plows working 24 7, clearing 2700 miles of metro roads in a storm that could dump in excess of 15 inches of snow adds up to one big request from Mayor Craig Greenberg. If you're parked on a city snow route, moving your car would help a lot.

MAYOR CRAIG GREENBERG (D) LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY: One other advantage of not having your car parked on a snow route is you will not be plowed in, which is incredibly annoying and difficult to shovel yourself out.

MATTINGLY (voice-over): Metro officials want you to be prepared now to hunker down and stay warm through what could be one of the snowiest weekends in decades. Already, LMPD is asking for patience.

SGT. MATT SANDERS, LOUISVILLE METRO POLICE SPOKESMAN: Once the snow rolls in, LMPD expects our response times to slow down significantly.

MATTINGLY (voice-over): And Louisville Fire is asking for your help, too, by clearing snow off of neighborhood fire hydrants.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is that your responsibility? Absolutely not. But we are all in this together and you can really help out the community if you clear out those hydrants, which makes it easier for us to find them when we come and respond to an emergency.

MATTINGLY (voice-over): If your plan is to get away from it all, there's also some advice. Louisville Muhammad Ali International is prepared to keep runways clear for UPS and passenger flights. But if you're flying, check with your airline first. MEGAN ATKINS THOBAN, LRAA OPERATIONS VP: I would anticipate and just

be prepared that if you have a flight that's later in the day tomorrow or earlier in the day Sunday, most likely it's going to be impacted here in Louisville because that storm system is going to set in and stay here for over 24 hours.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL: That was WAVE reporter David Mattingly for us. Listen. Our coverage of this winter storm continues all morning. We're going to take you to Virginia where people are preparing for the worst there. Some areas could be hit with between a foot or two feet even of snow.

Later, we'll show you what road crews are doing to prepare the highways and interstates for the storm.

Plus, a former Olympian from Canada turned alleged drug kingpin is under arrest in -- he's also in U.S. custody. How the FBI finally tracked down one of its 10 most wanted fugitives.

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[06:17:26]

BLACKWELL: Hey, I wanted to show you the road conditions in Fort Worth, Texas, but actually this does a better job of showing you what's going on there. This is the camera iced over so you can't see anything there. These are the conditions that are on those roads. Winter storm warning is in effect there. This weekend's monster storm now is thrashing Texas.

Emergency management director told people to be ready to ride out the storm with food, medicine, other essentials and supplies possibly until Wednesday.

All right. Former Canadian Olympic snowboarder turned alleged cocaine trafficker is expected in court Monday. The FBI says Ryan Wedding is in its custody. Wedding was one of the FBI's 10 most wanted. Mexico security -- secretary said Wedding turned himself in to Mexican authorities. He's now facing a host of charges, including murder. CNN's Randi Kaye has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KASH PATEL, FBI DIRECTOR: Today, we are announcing a capture of another FBI's most wanted top ten fugitive, Ryan Wedding.

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Former Canadian Olympic snowboarder Ryan Wedding, now in custody after being on the run for several years.

PATEL: Without getting into operational sensitivities, Ryan Wedding was apprehended last night in Mexico City.

KAYE (voice-over): Mexico's security secretary said in a tweet on X that Wedding turned himself in to Mexican authorities before being handed over to the FBI. Wedding had a $15 million bounty on his head.

PATEL: Just to tell you how bad of a guy Ryan Wedding is, he went from an Olympic snowboarder to the largest narco trafficker in modern times. He is a modern day El Chapo. He is a modern day Pablo Escobar, and he thought he could evade justice.

KAYE (voice-over): If Wedding did think that, he was proven wrong. An international manhunt nicknamed Operation Giant Slalom stretched across the U.S., Canada, Mexico and Colombia. Wedding, who used aliases such as El Jefe and Giant, was believed to have been hiding out with the Sinaloa Cartel and allegedly involved in cocaine trafficking, money laundering and multiple murders. Those murders, authorities say, included government witnesses.

AKIL DAVIS, ASSISTANT DIRECTOR IN CHARGE, FBI LOS ANGELES: We've arrested 36 people for their role in this organization. We've seen mountain of drugs, cash, weapons. We seized the Mercedes Benz, estimated over $15 million. We seized dozens of motorcycles worth approximately $40 million and other valuable artwork and jewelry.

KAYE (voice-over): Officials say Wedding's operation made him a very rich man with annual revenues exceeding $1 billion.

[06:20:00]

These are pictures of the drugs authorities say they've seized as part of the investigation. Wedding was born in 1981 in Thunder Bay, Ontario, and was raised in a family of skiers. He made the Canadian National Snowboarding Team at 15 and went on to compete in events around the world. He gave up competitive snowboarding soon after finishing 24th in the parallel giant slalom snowboarding event in 2002.

After his sports career ended, Wedding enrolled at Simon Fraser University and moved to Vancouver, according to Rolling Stone. The magazine reported he took a job as a bouncer at a club and from there entered the drug underworld.

Over the last decade or so, authorities believe Wedding has moved an average of 60 tons of cocaine from Colombia through Mexico for distribution in the United States and Canada. Others allegedly involved in his criminal enterprise helped him by laundering money, providing intelligence, assisting in murders, and training hitmen.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a significant blow to a criminal network that has endangered communities across borders.

KAYE: Wedding is being transferred to U.S. custody. He's due to appear in federal court on Monday. The State Department is still offering a $2 million reward for information leading to additional arrests. And if you're keeping track of the 16 defendants in this case, now at least 13 are in custody, including Wedding.

Others were arrested in Canada, Colombia, Mexico, Michigan and Florida. If convicted, Wedding would face a maximum sentence of life in federal prison. Randi Kaye, CNN, New York. (END VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL: Russian state media is reporting that trilateral talks between Russia, Ukraine and the U.S. are happening right now. Ukraine's top negotiator says that so far the talks have focused on reaching a dignified and lasting peace.

Moscow's demand that Ukraine give up territory has long been a sticking point in the negotiations, and they are now just hours before the talk started. Moscow, it launched its biggest overnight aerial attack on Ukraine this year, and officials say missiles and drones targeted Kyiv and killed at least one person.

Strikes on Ukraine's second largest city, Kharkiv, damaged a maternity hospital at a dormitory for displaced people. CNN's Nada Bashir is following all the developments from London. So what's the latest Nada on the strikes and also these talks?

NADA BASHIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, as you mentioned, Victor, this is the largest round of overnight strikes that Ukraine has faced this year. And of course, these strikes come as these talks enter their second day. We heard from Ukraine's top negotiator saying that they are looking to secure a peace deal. We have seen both Ukrainian and Russian delegations meeting with talks mediated by a U.S. delegation.

But of course, it is widely understood that territory continues to be the last major sticking point on that peace deal. We know that President Trump has been pushing for an agreement to be reached as soon as possible, but there is still some debate and discussion around the Donbas region.

Specifically, Russia has continually pushed for Ukraine to withdraw from areas it is not currently occupying in the Donbas region. Again, we have previously heard from President Zelenskyy indicating he may be willing to make some compromises in areas, including in the Donetsk region within the Donbas region.

But at this stage, there aren't any clear details as to where the progress stands at this stage. President Zelenskyy did, however, say while Ukraine is looking to secure a peace deal, they need to see the same commitment from the Russian side. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): As for the substance of today's discussions, it is still too early to draw conclusions. We will see how the conversation develops tomorrow and what result it produces. It is necessary that not only Ukraine has the desire to end this war and achieve full security, but that a similar desire somehow emerges in Russia as well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASHIR: Now, the Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has previously said that any Ukrainian withdrawal from the Donetsk region would be seen positively. But whether there is any movement on this front during these peace talks remains to be seen. Victor.

BLACKWELL: Nada Bashir reporting from London. Thank you. The winter weather and dangerously cold temperatures are settling in across the country. Allison Chinchar is here with a look ahead. Allison.

CHINCHAR: Yes, we're already starting to see the ice and the snow come down. We'll take a look at where exactly the system is expected to headed over the next 48 hours. Coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:28:50]

BLACKWELL: We're tracking the latest effects of this wide ranging sweeping winter storm. Oklahoma live. Look at Oklahoma City on the left. Also Texas, Arkansas, they're the first states being hit. You can see in Oklahoma, cars abandoned on the roads as conditions get worse. Near record breaking snow there, about 13 inches expected.

People stocked up at the stores in preparation to be stuck inside for a couple of days.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I got the last flood of 12 eggs, dozen of eggs. So they're out of eggs. There's no bacon, there's no butter.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This could last a week before you can get out of your house, you know. It could.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Let's go to Arkansas now. Snowplow crews battle. Look at this limited visibility. Snow came down roads in Little Rock, they're already covered. Texas, they're preparing for a lot of ice that could knock out power for days. Snow started falling there yesterday. CNN's Ivan Rodriguez is in Dallas right now. Ivan.

RODRIGUEZ: Victor, good morning. I can tell you that the temperatures have drastically dropped since were up live last night. It's still consistently raining, not necessarily downpouring, but the temperatures are definitely dropping.

[06:30:08]

The concern here was never going to be the downpour, but it was going to be the ice.

So, now that we're seeing consistent rain, and those temperatures dropping, we're really looking at those ice levels. We were looking specifically at a total of ice here in the city of Dallas and around Dallas, of a quarter of an inch to half an inch of ice, which is enough to break down tree branches, also to damage power lines.

In terms of the snow, when all is said and done, it could be between an inch to 3 inches in Dallas by Sunday afternoon or so. This freezing rain, though, is set to stick around through Sunday morning. So, we're going to have this kind of weather here for quite a bit now.

And that's going to be the concern in terms of the ice, which has been a big topic of conversation when it comes to the power grid. Fresh on the minds of many people here in Texas is that storm back in 2021, which left millions of people without power for days.

More than 200 people also died because of that power crisis. The main cause of death was hypothermia. But the Texas Governor Greg Abbott, says that there is little to no concerns of this power grid. And he says that the power grid has never been stronger than it is right now.

This is also turning in to a travel nightmare across the country. Here in Dallas, the two major airports at Dallas Love Field, more than half of the flights were canceled at Dallas-Fort Worth. More than 60 percent of the flights were canceled, and latest flight totals here across the country were looking at 3,200 flights canceled so far, according to FlightAware, and more than 5,100 flights for Sunday have already been canceled. Victor?

VICTOR BLACKWELL, ANCHOR, CNN THIS MORNING WEEKEND: Ivan Rodriguez reporting there from Dallas. We'll get back to you, thank you very much. Now, the ice and snow really not the only thing we're tracking. It is dangerously cold in some places.

That's live look at Philadelphia, currently, 11 degrees there with the wind-chill, feels like negative five. The worst of the weather has not even moved in yet. CNN meteorologist Allison Chinchar is back with me. I mean, you got this trifecta of the ice and the snow, and without those, there's a danger of the temperatures.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, METEOROLOGIST: Yes, I mean, if you think about it, but it's that cold, that's the reason why some of these southern --

BLACKWELL: Of course --

CHINCHAR: Locations are even getting this. Because the cold is so strong and so widespread, it's reaching places that wouldn't normally be this cold. Even though, yes, it's January, we get that. Look at some of these wind-chills. It feels like negative 7 in New York, negative 13 in Buffalo, negative 26 in Chicago.

But even some southern cities, look at Nashville, it only feels like it's 5 degrees outside. Now, here's the thing with those temperatures though. The actual temperature itself around a lot of these places is so close to that freezing mark. Most of them are between 28 and 34.

So, that's why you're getting a little bit of a mix of that Winter precip, because those temperatures are just hovering around that freezing mark. But once that system slides through, look at how those temperatures drop back. You see that temperature over there in Lubbock, 6.

That's the actual temperature. That's not the wind chill. That is the temperature. So, a lot of these numbers are also going to start to drop back too as that system continues to progress eastward. As we shift off to the east, again, similar look at some of these numbers, 14 in Memphis, 19 in Nashville, just about 34 to the freezing mark, kind of right through here from Chattanooga all the way down towards Birmingham.

So, again, you've got a lot of those temperatures that are very close. That's why you're going to maybe see a little bit start as rain, then it's going to transition back over into rain and snow. So, here's a look at this morning, again a lot of the pink and purple color indicating the Winter precipitation that's going to slide east.

There's going to be a little bit of a break in between. So, for areas of Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma you may think, oh, hey, it's done. It's not. You're just in-between rounds. You'll get that second round once we get later on into the day, that's going to be the reinforcing shot of cold, bringing additional snow and additional ice to a lot of those places that already have it.

Again, look at all those deep colors of pink and purple as we go through the rest of the evening and transitioning in towards Sunday. Then finally, once we get towards say, about midday Sunday, most of these areas of the southern plains finally start to dry back out.

But again, those temperatures are going to drop, so whatever is there is likely going to stick around for at least another 24 hours until we can get those temperatures to rebound on Monday. In all, you're looking at half an inch to an inch of ice total in some of these places.

The big concern there is going to be widespread power outages. And we could be looking at roughly a foot of snow in some places.

BLACKWELL: All right, there, Allison, thank you. Let's stay on those power outages. Utility workers in Florida, Nebraska and Minnesota are being deployed to states in the storm's path. Officials say 60 line workers from 19 electric cooperatives in Minnesota are being sent to Virginia to help with potential outages. CNN's Brian Todd has more on the other preparations in Virginia.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): By every measure, this is a very dangerous and multi-layered storm on its way to the east coast, and that requires a complex set of operations to counter it. That's where this place comes in.

[06:35:00]

We're at a Virginia Department of Transportation facility in Alexandria, Virginia. This is nicknamed the mega dome. Take a look at this massive warehouse, 33,000-plus tons of rock salt are in there. You can fit a passenger jet in that facility. This is one of 18 such facilities just in four counties in northern Virginia, Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun and Prince William Counties.

Eighteen of these just in those four counties in this populous area of northern Virginia that are deploying rock salt. But it's a multi- layered kind of cascading operation. The salt is just one part of it. The first part of it is that they lay down brine, this salt and water combination, those chemicals are in these containers here.

They were picked up earlier. The brine has already been put down throughout areas of northern Virginia, the state of Virginia and other states where the storm is coming. And the brine looks like this when it's on your roadway. It's this kind of streaky material that you see all along your roadway.

And that's ahead of the storm. The brine has already been put down because the brine is pretty much just a placeholder. A state official told me that the brine is there to kind of keep the snow from sticking to the roads for the first couple of hours of the storm.

And it's there, according to this official, to buy them time for when they can put down some other materials. So, the brine is the first layer, then the rock salt gets put down, and that's where the trucks come in here to get the salt. The salt comes from that warehouse through that chute onto these massive trucks that have snowplows, and there are dump trucks as well that comes onto the dump trucks there.

And then they deploy out. Now, what they need to do is try to prioritize these roads like this one. This is the D.C. Beltway 495. The trucks will go right out to the beltway when the snow is starting, and try to get the beltway and the major arteries cleared first.

They are the roads that have to be cleared first, then the other primary roads, and then the secondary roads in the neighborhoods. And one official told me that just in the northern Virginia area alone, these four counties that I'm talking about, Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun and Prince William, they have about 16,000 streets, secondary streets, neighborhood streets that they have to clear.

So, it's all kind of this cascading, complex operation to try to counter the snow. And they won't even start to put the plows down until they're about 2 inches of snow on the ground. Because, according to one official, it's kind of pointless to do it before that.

The snow plows will just be grinding up the asphalt and the concrete of the roads, so they got to wait until the snow gets to about 2 inches before they can put down the plows. That's the kind of complexity of an operation to counter this, that is going on.

Also, officials telling us in this region that they're worried about power outages, the ice that's going to come at the tail end of the storm is going to probably accumulate on power lines, bring them down. One D.C. official said he's worried about power lines being kind of covered up by the snow and still being energized.

So, that presents a danger as well. Officials warning people don't do this. Don't get out on the roads during the height of the storm or even afterward, because afterward, in the later stages of the storm, there's going to be a lot of ice on these roads, too.

And again, they're going to be working to counter that and clear arteries like this one. Brian Todd, CNN, Alexandria, Virginia.

(END VIDEOTAPE) BLACKWELL: And of course, we're going to continue to take you to all the preparations for the storm that's coming and show you the cities that are being impacted right now. But next, on CNN THIS MORNING, President Trump is on edge. Sources say that he's frustrated by the political fallout over his immigration policies.

We'll dig into that fallout next. And if you're on the go, you can track the latest on this Winter storm by watching our show on the CNN app. You can also watch our show at cnn.com/watch.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:40:00]

BLACKWELL: New York is preparing for impacts from this Winter storm. Metro area could get up to a foot of snow. It will all start moving in late tonight into tomorrow. And reports say the heaviest bands could have snowfall at 1 to 2 inches per hour. Those are wide-out conditions.

We've got more on the storm coming up in just a few minutes. But right now, CNN has learned that President Trump is privately expressing frustration with the optics of his immigration crackdown. The ongoing protests and the images coming out of Minnesota have a lot of Americans alarmed by the really chaotic scenes in the state.

And ISIS detention of a five-year-old preschooler is raising new questions about the agency's heavy-handed tactics. Sources tell CNN, the President is determined to reshape and retake control of the narrative by highlighting deportations of dangerous criminals back to their home countries.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Minnesota is so much in the -- in the fray, and I say to my people all the time, and they're so busy doing other things, they don't say it like they should. These are all out of Minnesota, just Minnesota. I said why don't you talk about that more? Because people don't know. So what ICE does and border patrol is incredible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: All right, let's bring in Joey Garrison, White House correspondent for "USA Today". Joey, good to have you. This reporting that the President says that, you know, he's thinking he might lose the narrative. What are we seeing broadly from this administration?

[06:45:00]

In response, we saw Greg Bovino in front of the microphone. We saw the Vice President in Minnesota. What's the collective strategy here?

JOEY GARRISON, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, USA TODAY: Yes, we saw President Trump address reporters in the White House briefing room, marking the one year anniversary of his inauguration. What did he do for the first ten minutes of that speech? He had photos of folks who he said were criminals in Minnesota who had been taken or apprehended through his ICE efforts.

And so, I think what you're seeing from the Trump administration is, they're trying to put the focus back on who they say are criminals that need to be removed from the country, and they're trying to get it away from what we saw, of course, yesterday, in previous days on these widespread protests in Minnesota.

But it's becoming increasingly difficult when you have, for example, as you mentioned, the photo in the images of the five-year-old boy who was apprehended. So, you're not seeing a total pivot right now from the -- from the White House. But yes, they are trying to wrestle back this narrative.

BLACKWELL: Oh, let's talk about another narrative from the President. He said that the non-U.S. soldiers, service members who fought alongside the U.S. in Afghanistan, they stayed a little back. Let me play what the President said, and then we'll talk about the reaction from NATO allies.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I've always said, will they be there if we ever needed them? And that's really the ultimate test, and I'm not sure of that. We've never needed them. We have never really asked anything of them. You know, they'll say they sent some troops to Afghanistan or this or that, and they did. They stayed a little back, a little off the frontlines.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: And the reaction to this has been sharp and immediate. Here's British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEIR STARMER, PRIME MINISTER, UNITED KINGDOM: I consider President Trump's remarks to be insulting and frankly, appalling. And I'm not surprised they've caused such hurt to the loved ones of those who were killed or injured, and in fact, across the country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Some have called for the President to apologize. That's not really his M.O. But does the White House have an appreciation for the impact of his comments, or are you even seeing it inside the party in Washington?

GARRISON: Yes, I wouldn't expect an apology from Trump on this either. Yes, I mean, it was, frankly, just a lack of understanding of the history of NATO. Of course, the only time Article 5 of NATO has been invoked was during after 9/11 and the terrorist attacks on the United States.

And yes, it was highly offensive comments to a lot of people who in Europe, NATO allies who lost loved ones in Afghanistan fighting the war on behalf of the whole west and the United States. And so, you know, really Trump's whole trip to Davos, stirred up a lot of -- kind of unrest between our traditional allies right from the get go, of his speech in Davos, he said, you know, Europe is moving in the wrong direction.

Of course, this came on the backdrop of his attempt to get Greenland to be part of the United States. Now, during his private meeting later during that trip with the secretary -- NATO Secretary-General, the Secretary-General assured Trump that, yes, NATO will be there for the United States if it were to come under attack.

BLACKWELL: All right, Joey Garrison, thank you so much. Stay safe out there with this weather coming. All right, FEMA hits pause on worker terminations just as this massive Winter storm moves across the country. Scramble inside the agency, and why officials reversed course, next.

And make sure to watch an all new, "HAVE I GOT NEWS FOR YOU". Tonight, comedian Andy Richter and media journalist Janice Min will join us as guests. It starts at 9:00 Eastern tonight on CNN, and you can watch it tomorrow on the CNN app.

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[06:50:00]

BLACKWELL: The team here at CNN is closely watching this historic Winter storm threatening a large part of the U.S. Fayetteville, Arkansas, let's take you there. Snow plow trucks are already on the roads, they're trying to clear the snow as it falls. Icy conditions as you expect to make for dangerous travel.

Crews are trying to get ahead of the storm as some areas expect record snowfall. President Trump says FEMA is fully prepared to respond to the massive storm that's bearing down. Sources tell CNN that FEMA suddenly stopped its ongoing firing of disaster aid workers whose contracts were set to end in the coming days.

About 300 disaster workers were already terminated this month. The DHS responded by saying that staffing will fluctuate based on disaster activity and other factors. CNN's Gabe Cohen has more on FEMA's abrupt change of plans.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GABE COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Well, the Trump administration and the Department of Homeland Security are already deep into their overhaul of FEMA. But they have been ramping it up. And just this month, they've been terminating just about every FEMA disaster worker whose employment contract is expiring.

We're talking about roughly 300 staffers just in January, and it's sparking a lot of concern that it's hurting the agency's ability to respond to disasters like the Winter storm this weekend. But on Thursday, something changed. Just hours after Secretary Kristi Noem went to FEMA headquarters and was briefed on that storm.

The agency abruptly halted those terminations, saying that they're going to stop off-boarding all of these workers whose contracts are expiring, at least for now. And sources tell me, the storm was a major factor in that decision.

[06:55:00]

We know FEMA has activated its national response coordination center, and it has deployed teams to areas across the country that are expected to get hit, along with generators and hundreds of thousands of meals and bottles of water. Meanwhile, Homeland Security officials have also told FEMA staff to try to limit the use of the word "ice" in their social media posts and public warnings about the storm.

Given the controversial operations that are still being carried out in Minnesota and across the country by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, what's commonly known as ICE. They're worried that posting something like watch out for "ice" could be misinterpreted, or more likely, that it could quickly turn into internet fodder or memes or public ridicule.

And so instead, they're asking FEMA staff to use the term freezing rain. Gabe Cohen, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL: All right, Gabe, thank you. There's much more ahead on the next hour of CNN THIS MORNING WEEKEND, we're tracking that widespread Winter storm moving through the country. A live look now at Oklahoma City, light snow falling there feels like -12 right now. The latest on the impact and where the storm is headed next, after a break.

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