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CNN This Morning

Trump Weighs Major New Military Strike Against Iran; FBI Seizes 2020 Ballots From Fulton County, Georgia; Nicki Minaj Joins Trump on Stage, Says She's His No. 1 Fan; Interview with Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS): 100,000+ People in Mississippi Without Power, Brutal Cold Moving In. Aired 6:30-7:00a ET

Aired January 29, 2026 - 06:30   ET

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

[06:30:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think the best path forward, as I've said, is to keep the package intact. And if there are things that the Democrats want that the administration can agree, you know, with them about, then let's do that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: The Senate looking to make a deal ahead of tomorrow's deadline to avoid a government shutdown. Democrats are demanding to split DHS funding from that larger package so that they can negotiate funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Sources tell CNN the White House was moving closer to making a deal.

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. A Democratic lawmaker from Texas calling on President Trump and his advisor Stephen Miller to visit the immigration detention facility in Texas where a five-year-old, Liam Cornejo Ramos, and his father are being held. Congressman Joaquin Castro met with Liam and his father.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JOAQUIN CASTRO (D-TX): I'm concerned for him because his dad said that he's been depressed and been despondent and isn't eating well, and that he's been very lethargic.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett, who joined Castro on the visit, described conditions inside the facility as worse than those faced by some people accused or convicted of crimes.

And the NYPD opening a hate crime investigation after a driver rammed a car into Shabbat headquarters in New York. A law enforcement official tells CNN the driver crashed into the doorway, then backed up and rammed into it several more times. Nobody was injured, but the driver was arrested.

And health officials in India say they have contained a Nipah virus outbreak after confirming two cases. The virus can be extremely deadly. It has a mortality rate as high as 75 percent, and there's no vaccine. Other countries in Asia now stepping up airport screenings.

And the president is considering a major new military strike against Iran. The USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group entered the Indian Ocean earlier this week, and it's moving closer to Iran. The president is calling on Iranians to come to the table and negotiate a deal, insisting they agree to no nuclear weapons. The Iranians say they're ready to talk, but only under the right conditions.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MOHAMMAD-BAGHER GHALIBAF, IRANIAN PARLIAMENT SPEAKER (through translator): If there's genuine talk to reach a deal within the framework of international regulations, then yes. But that's not the kind of talk the U.S. president is after. He just wants to impose his will on others.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Discussions between Washington and Tehran have not made progress. According to sources, President Trump is considering airstrikes against Iran's leaders, as well as strikes on nuclear sites and government institutions. I'm going to turn to the group chat.

You've done some reporting on that, about what the key demands are for the Trump administration, especially since Trump had always been a longtime critic of the nuclear deal, pulled out of it in his first term. What is it that he wants?

ZOLAN KANNO-YOUNGS, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, on the nuclear deal, I mean, stopping the enrichment of uranium, and then also stopping support for some of the proxy organizations, as well, in the region. But this question of what does he want, also, like, those are the demands currently in the negotiations --

CORNISH: Right.

KANNO-YOUNGS: -- but what does he want, that seems to have shifted a little bit. Notably absent from the demands that I just listed, was anything to do with the protests --

CORNISH: Right.

KANNO-YOUNGS: -- that have happened in Iran. That was the central thing he was citing just now, what, two weeks ago --

CORNISH: Right.

KANNO-YOUNGS: -- when we had this news cycle previously?

CORNISH: And here's Marco Rubio.

KANNO-YOUNGS: -- Protests --

CORNISH: Right.

KANNO-YOUNGS: -- that have happened in Iran. That was the central thing he was citing just now, what, two weeks ago --

CORNISH: Right.

KANNO-YOUNGS: -- when we had this news cycle previously?

CORNISH: And here's Marco Rubio. He was at a hearing yesterday. He was asked all kinds of questions about hot spots in the world, and here's what he was saying about the state of the Iranian regime.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARCO RUBIO, SECRETARY OF STATE: That regime is probably weaker than it has ever been, and the core problem they face, unlike the protests you saw in the past on some other topics, is that they don't have a way to address the core complaints of the protesters, which is that their economy is in collapse. The protests may have ebbed, but they will spark up again in the future, because this regime, unless they are willing to change and or leave, have no way of addressing the legitimate and consistent complaints of the people of Iran who deserve better.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Are the protests only of concern in that they weaken the regime to the U.S. that has its own national interests?

DOUG HEYE, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Well, I'm sort of biased on this, because I know people who are of Iranian descent who are paying, obviously, very close attention. They still have family members there, and this is sort of their generational moment to potentially do that thing in Iran that's never been done before.

CORNISH: Do they think Trump has their back?

HEYE: I think that question is still open. But they're willing to give this administration a little more leeway, given what we've seen in the past few weeks. I think one of the challenges for this administration, look, we can talk all day about the evilness of this regime.

I'm quite happy to do so. But they're also smart. They watch the same news that we do.

They see the same things that's happened the past one year, five years. So if you're looking at what's happened in, let's just pick one country at random, Ukraine, we said, Ukraine, if you give up your nuclear weapons, we're going to defend you. They see that.

CORNISH: That we are no longer promising that.

HEYE: So their incentive structure here may be slightly different. And they may be on borrowed time, and those sands may be, you know, coming out of the hourglass. But they're looking at this in the same way or seeing the same news that we all have. And so they may react rather differently.

CORNISH: OK. I want to turn to something else briefly, because here we are, six years later, the president still hung up on the 2020 election. How do we know this?

Well, yesterday, the FBI raided the Fulton County, Georgia elections office. Fulton County was the tipping point for President Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election. And it's where he's long claimed that the election was stolen from him, where he was criminally charged after this infamous call.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP: 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 VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Sources tell CNN the search is related to efforts by the Justice Department to seize election records as it searches for evidence of voter fraud. Election officials warn it's a sign of what's to come.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MO IVORY, FULTON COUNTY COMMISSIONER: This is not just about Fulton County. Fulton County is right now the target, the only county right now fighting over an election that already happened. But it is coming to a place near you.

This is the beginning of the chaos of 2026 that is about to ensue. So if we are starting this early in January, you can only imagine what is going to happen in October.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Group chat is back. Meghan, can I come to you? Because we're also seeing Pam Bondi, who was looking to a handful of states to demand voter data.

And is this kind of coming together in a picture for you?

MEGHAN HAYS, FORMER BIDEN WHITE HOUSE DIRECTOR OF MESSAGE PLANNING: And they did demand it from Minnesota and said we'd pull ICE out if you gave us your voter rolls. So this is I just think this is a desperate act. Donald Trump has long said that he won the election.

We all know that is false. I was there at Joe Biden's inauguration. He was president for four years.

So it's confusing that we're going backwards there. But it's also part of him wanting to stay in power and him not wanting to have elections. So it's everything he can do to continue to stay in power. So it's either he's going to do it with having an insurrection act and boots on the ground, so he doesn't have to have elections like Ukraine is doing. Or he's going to get the voter rolls so he can just say that everything is illegal and these votes don't count. So either way, this is his way to try to stay in power.

And I do think that the woman from Fulton County is correct. They are coming for everyone's voter rolls. And they are trying to prove that these elections are false.

And they're laying the groundwork to prove that the elections, if he loses or if the Republican Party loses, will not be accurate.

CORNISH: OK, Doug, I have a question for you because I've often looked to Georgia and thought, how did this change political politics in Georgia, where you had a lot of Georgia officials who were the ones fighting this battle against the administration? And if you think of Marjorie Taylor Greene basically just deciding to walk out. Here's Geoff Duncan on Wednesday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEOFF DUNCAN, (D) GEORGIA GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: I don't think they'll give it an honest, fair shake. They haven't since Donald Trump started within hours of the 2020 election overturning it. I mean, that was the catalyst moment for me to dig in.

At the time, I was a Republican, a disgusted Republican, embarrassed to even have an R next to my name. I think the rest of the country is literally paying attention to Georgia.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[06:40:00]

CORNISH: Ex-Republican.

HEYE: Yes.

CORNISH: What do you know on the ground? Like, is there any kind of like, do Republicans want to fight this battle again in Georgia? Have this conversation?

HEYE: I think Republicans, we get distracted on so many things, sometimes willingly. And I think a lot of this isn't necessarily about Donald Trump, but currying favor with Donald Trump. You know, as we talk about this person's in, this person's out, that moves on a minute-by-minute basis.

So if you go to Donald Trump and say, I'm fighting for you again in Georgia, you're pleasing your boss. That's a big part of it. And we know that they're not going to say, oh, and by the way, those two Senate seats that we blew?

Yes, we actually won those too. This is about Donald Trump and currying favor within the administration to him. CORNISH: Oh, interesting. I have one question for Zolan. We both had this question.

Why was Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, spotted at the scene of the raid in Georgia? And I ask because we just talked about Iran. Rubio, was it a hearing about Venezuela?

What is she doing there?

KANNO-YOUNGS: There's a lot going on in the world, right?

CORNISH: Yes. She has nothing else to do.

KANNO-YOUNGS: This was -- she does. I mean --

CORNISH: Does she?

KANNO-YOUNGS: -- does she think, right? I mean, this is somebody that in this past year has, you know, gotten a lot of criticism for at times trying to, as you were saying, speak to an audience of one in terms of the president. And this is another example of the president not just, you know, talking about the election and, you know, continuing to lean into the big lie, but mobilizing the government to also give credence to the fact that he falsely won the 2020 election, which we know isn't true, and sending top administration officials to do it as well.

CORNISH: Yes, but it just feels like it's national. And tell it like I want you to -- I want to feel safer. I want to know you are finding out intelligence things.

HEYE: What is more safer than Donald Trump staying as president for another six years. That's the argument that a lot of these folks will make.

CORNISH: We got it. We got it. OK, we're going to talk about more ahead.

This is my chance to tell you, however, that you can catch the show later today. It's a podcast. You can share it with friends.

You just need to scan the QR code now, this is where you find it. And also CNN THIS MORNING is anywhere you get your podcast.

Also today, Tom Homan takes over in Minneapolis. Republicans dodge if they have confidence in Kristi Noem. I'm going to be joined by the ranking member of the Homeland Security Committee, Democratic Congressman Benny Thompson, next.

Plus hundreds of thousands of people still in the dark after this weekend's winter storm.

And Nicki Minaj flaunting her new gold card as she buddies up with the president.

[06:45:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CORNISH: OK, I want to turn to pop culture and politics. We've got two pop stars striking different notes when it comes to the Trump administration.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN (SINGING): It's our blood and bones. And these whistles and phones against Miller and Noem's dirty lies.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: So Bruce Springsteen says he wrote this new song on Saturday after seeing scenes like this one in the hours after the death of Alex Pretti. Springsteen dedicated the song for, quote, "The people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors. And in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good."

Now, on the other side of the spectrum, you have Nicki Minaj, who calls herself Trump's number one fan.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NICKI MINAJ: Hello, guys. I'm with my favorite president, the best president of all time.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And I'm with the queen of rap.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Minaj later wrote on social media that her citizenship is now being finalized thanks to the president.

Courtenay Brown is back in the group chat. Why? Because she was there at this event.

The event was supposed to be about Trump, Trump accounts, which are those accounts where kids get money when they're born to play the market for the rest of their lives. That's my take.

You have a business oriented take.

COURTENAY BROWN, SENIOR ECONOMICS REPORTER, AXIOS: Yes, Trump accounts. If kids are born between to the 2025 and 2028, the government will see the accounts with $1,000. And family and friends and CEOs and billionaires can then contribute to these accounts, which will be then be, you know, put in an index that tracks the S&P 500.

The idea is that kids can enjoy the upside and the downside of the stock market for years to come until they're 18. They can cash out the accounts.

CORNISH: OK, I don't know if you follow hip hop.

BROWN: I do.

CORNISH: Because all the all the rap queens, they have different politics, right? Cardi interviewing Bernie like everyone's got a different vibe. Megan Stallion was on stage for Kamala.

And now we have Nicki. What is she doing for this administration that's working?

KANNO-YOUNGS: It wasn't just this event. Right. Nicki Minaj appeared with Mike Walz at the United Nations, right?

The administration has turned to her to sort of build support for what they're doing in Nigeria as well. People may forget, like the administration did strike Nigeria on Christmas --

CORNISH: Right.

KANNO-YOUNGS: -- that went a little under the radar. So the president has long turned to artists and celebrities to sort of build political support, including for some of his more controversial policies. And she's like helped out in terms of their foreign policy.

CORNISH: And she has been repaid for that. She actually tweeted yesterday a picture of her new Trump gold card with the quote, Welp, because, yes, well. And just to give people a little context for her, she a few years ago -- I want to show you a Facebook post that she did.

[06:50:00]

I think it was back in 2018 where she said, "I came to this country as an illegal immigrant at five years old. I can't imagine the horror of being in a strange place and having my parents stripped away from me at the age of five. This is so scary to me. Please stop this." Essentially talking about a policy that split families from their children if they had crossed the border undocumented.

So this is a big switch. And do those -- I know the president likes a switch. She likes when someone, quote, unquote, comes around.

HEYE: Look, I think we had this conversation earlier about the five year old kid and who should go visit her. Maybe it's Nicki Minaj. If you actually want to affect change, it's not Stephen Miller.

It's not Kristi Noem. Have Nicki Minaj go. She's been through this experience.

And if she meets that young boy, maybe we can get him out and back to freedom.

CORNISH: Yes. What do you think?

HAYS: I mean, I think she's doing it's very transparent what she's doing. She wanted citizenship. Her husband and her brother need a pardon. I mean, it's very clear what she is doing. And I think it's very transparent to everyone who's paying attention or understands any of this. I mean, she can afford to get an immigration lawyer and get her citizenship herself.

CORNISH: So I think we should say her husband had been sentenced to one year house arrest for failing to register as a sex offender. That's what you're referring to.

KANNO-YOUNGS: Also a big question is going to be, did how much -- did she not have to pay for that gold card?

CORNISH: How much is a gold card?

BROWN: At five million, right?

KANNO-YOUNGS: Yes, because the administration has been saying that there's a price tag on that as well for that gold card. So that would be a question. I would have it as well.

Is did Nicki Minaj --

CORNISH: Yes.

KANNO-YOUNGS: -- go through the normal process that everyone else would need to go through to get this sort of way to circumvent the usual immigration process?

BROWN: The reason she was at Washington yesterday for the Trump account summit was to announce that she herself, alongside a bunch of CEOs, are committing hundreds of thousands of dollars is what she said. She did not say the specific amount. There's obviously a big difference between $200,000 and $900,000, right?

But she said that she would commit to fund some of these Trump accounts, but no details so far.

CORNISH: So the reason why I wanted to talk about this is over time, when it comes to an issue like this, it can spread throughout the culture into places that are not political. Right. And I think Democrats have had a mixed bag with their embrace of celebrity.

Meghan, what are your sort of cautions for Republicans when you bring celebrities into the fold to represent you in a way, kind of a moral capacity?

HAYS: So one, endorsements mean nothing. We saw that in the 24 election. Kamala Harris had every endorsement of every celebrity that anybody.

Beyonce was out there. Everyone was out there. They don't they do not matter.

They do not turn people out to vote. So I would caution for people not to get caught in that trap. Also, you then own what they say outside of politics. And you are going to keep -- the Trump administration is going to continue to own what she sends out on Twitter and what she sends out to her audience. I think there was something last week that was rather offensive to folks. I can't exactly remember. So sorry.

CORNISH: Kind of like the Kanye West problem, right?

HAYS: Exactly.

CORNISH: Once you embrace them, when they have dinner with Nick Fuentes, you got to be like, well, what happened was like you got to somehow --

HAYS: And so they have to start distancing yourself. So it does come at sometimes does come at a cost. So I just think, you know, we should treat celebrities as if they are just average voters and average people who are going to go cast the vote on Election Day and just leave it at that.

CORNISH: I feel like it's meaningful, though, because there are those inroads with black and Latino men in the last election. Like, doesn't the administration want to show they still have purchase in the culture?

KANNO-YOUNGS: Yes. Yes. I mean, probably what would help with those voters, though, is to talk about the economy more and actually talk about price of living.

Like, I don't know if showing up with Nicki Minaj, you know, at a black one event will --

CORNISH. And her gold card.

KANNO-YOUNGS: -- will continue to -- with their gold card. Right. That might be a little bit detached from sort of the populist promise or working class, you know, promises that you made to working class Americans.

Eventually, you know, I found, especially like on the campaign, black voters, black men tend to have the same, you know, the same concerns that all American voters do, which is like help out my life in terms of the economy. And the cost of living issues.

CORNISH: And they and Wall Street have questions.

BROWN: That was striking yesterday to see this big red carpet rollout for these Trump accounts. And it's kind of this tension between, yes, this is maybe helping a longer term problem with with poverty and kids. But there's a right now problem with affordability in this country.

CORNISH: All right. You guys stay with me. I want to have a conversation next about the fallout with the weather.

There's frustration growing this morning for many people in southern states because it's another day without power. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is a national disaster, if I've ever heard one. And we have had no help in Nashville.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Could be tonight. It could be two, three more days. I have no idea.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's still cold. It's still cold. And, NES, National Electric Service, no ETA on when we'll ever get power back.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: OK, so we're talking across Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, hundreds of thousands of people in the dark following that weekend winter storm. Now, in Tennessee, there's concern for more snow, even colder temperatures that could bring single digit lows, maybe even subzero wind chills.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[06:55:00]

MAYOR FREDDIE O'CONNELL, NASHVILLE: Right now, our top priority is the safety of Nashvillians and bitter cold and the infrastructure crisis responses, supporting every bit of being able to restore power as quickly as possible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: In Mississippi, the death toll is rising. Six additional deaths reported Wednesday. Stranded drivers had to be rescued from stalled icy interstates.

Now those major highways are shut down, and the National Guard is delivering bottled water and blankets and generators to people in need.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. TATE REEVES (R-MS): We are prioritizing healthcare facilities. We are prioritizing water systems that may not have power. And we will continue to do so.

I think, again, we're talking about safety and preserving life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Democratic congressman from Mississippi, Bennie Thompson, joins me now. Thank you so much for speaking with us, Congressman. I wanted to ask you about what's happening on the ground there, the death toll at 10.

And then you have the governor tweeting this. "Stay safe and warm in Mississippi. Let's be grateful it's just sleet and snow and not Antifa closing our streets." REP. BENNIE THOMPSON (D-MS): Well, it's so unfortunate our governor is still locked in on Antifa, which, you know, is a philosophy and not even an organization. But notwithstanding the governor's insensitive comments, we still have over 100,000 Mississippians without electricity. We still have a major north south interstate closed down in my district.

So it's a challenge. I was out all day yesterday. We have warming centers in churches, volunteer fire departments.

We have water systems that have been down since Wednesday. We have a lot of people who are suffering at this moment. The Red Cross is on the ground doing yeoman's work, providing food and in some instances, bringing generators to communities to get the water systems back online.

CORNISH: Yes.

THOMPSON: The Corps of Engineers is helping with that process. So it's all hands on deck. This is not time for a political philosophy.

Our governor needs to get over it. And let's move on and bring our state back to where it needs to be.

CORNISH: Do you feel like you're getting what you need from the federal government right now?

THOMPSON: Well, at this point, FEMA arrived a couple of days ago, but we have a big state. My district is 300 miles long. So there's a lot of territory to cover.

A lot of good people who are doing good work. But there's just a lot of work to be done. And with the weather scheduled to be just as bad this weekend, who knows?

So we're still in for it. And it's time for everyone to work together. For the most part, they're doing that.

CORNISH: Yes.

THOMPSON: Our governor just needs to quit playing to Donald Trump at this moment.

CORNISH: I have to ask you one more thing in your capacity as ranking member of the Democratic -- of the Homeland Oversight Committee in the House, because the Senate is going to be voting on this DHS spending bill. There could be a partial government shutdown. Right.

Democrats say they have demands to reform ICE. But ICE is sitting on something like $75 billion because they've gotten so much funding from lawmakers over the past year. So are you guys willing to have a partial government shutdown that would affect FEMA if it means extracting some kind of reform on ICE?

THOMPSON: Well, let me tell you, we are at a real moment in this country. What we see ICE doing in Portland and Minneapolis is not who we are as Americans. We have to do something.

We can't let Donald Trump continue to weaponize the United States government against its citizens. You just showed what was happening in Georgia. But I can show you those kind of moments all over the country.

And we're a better country than that. At some point, Democrats are going to have to say, no, we're not going any further. And I tell you, Kristi Noem as Homeland Security secretary, she's been a horrible person.

I asked for her resignation over two months ago. I encourage Donald Trump to fire her. If he doesn't, I think we are prepared to impeach her.

But this notion is that it shouldn't come to this. That big, ugly bill, as you know, provided all those resources for ICE to do all these things they are doing primarily to American citizens all over this country. So, look ...

END