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Early Start with Rahel Solomon

Trump Claims Venezuela Stole U.S. Oil, Infrastructure; Colombia's President Vow To "Take Up Arms" If U.S. Attacks; Minnesota Gov. Walz Will Not Seek Third Term After GOP Attacks. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired January 06, 2026 - 05:30   ET

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

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[05:33:22]

RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to EARLY START. This is your business breakout.

And markets kicked off the first week of the trading year with the Dow briefly going above the 49,000 mark for the first time. It's a sleepy, however, start -- at least for futures right now. Dow futures and S&P futures basically flat but still slightly lower. Nasdaq futures pretty much flat.

And checking on some of today's other business headlines, U.S. President Donald Trump says it will take less than 18 months for American oil companies to rebuild Venezuela's energy infrastructure. Experts, however, say that U.S. oil executives are in no rush to invest in Venezuela. The lack of political stability and the huge cost of rebuilding infrastructure two of the main issues there.

Samsung has unveiled a new phone that folds twice. The new Galaxy Z TriFold can fold in two places to squeeze a tablet-size screen into your pocket. Now, Huawei previously released a trifold phone in China in 2024, but this is Samsung's first. It has not announced a price for the new phone yet.

The AI boom's poster child is sharing more details about its new computing system for data centers. The CEO of NVIDIA explained how the company's Vera Rubin platform will work during the CES Tech Conference in Las Vegas. NVIDIA says that major cloud providers, like Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, and Google, will be among the first to start using their Rubin later this year.

Well, years of underinvestment, economic crisis, and international isolation have left Venezuela's oil industry in a state of disrepair. CNN's Brian Todd reports that it could take decades to turn things around.

[05:35:05]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): Following the dramatic capture of Nicolas Maduro, President Trump put it bluntly: America was taking over the running of an underperforming oil power.

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's been horribly run. The oil is just flowing at a very low level.

TODD (voiceover): Why are Venezuela's oil reserves so important to the U.S.? Analysts say it's not just that Venezuela has the largest oil reserves in the world sitting on over 300 billion of crude, but it now has the potential to eventually reclaim its status as one of the world's top oil producers with a type of oil that fits America's needs and capabilities to a T.

CLAYTON SIEGLE, SENIOR FELLOW, CENTER FOR STRATEGIC AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES: Venezuela's particular kind of crude oil, which we call extra heavy, is a perfect match for the sophisticated oil refineries that the U.S. energy companies have invested in and built in the Gulf Coast.

TODD (voiceover): In the hours after Maduro's capture, President Trump made this claim about Venezuela's oil trading history with America.

TRUMP: It was the greatest theft in the history of America. Nobody has ever stolen our property like they have. They took our oil away from us. They took the infrastructure away.

TODD (voiceover): Experts say it's not true that Venezuela stole America's oil. The oil itself, they say, was always Venezuela's. But one analyst says part of claim is correct that Venezuela did expropriate some of the assets and infrastructure of American oil companies in Venezuela.

SIEGLE: There were two major rounds of expropriations. One of them was in the '70s and another one was in the early to mid-2000s under Chavez, the former strongman.

TODD (voiceover): It was under Hugo Chavez, analysts say, that Venezuela's status as an oil power began to spiral.

BOB MCNALLY, PRESIDENT, RAPIDAN ENERGY GROUP: A communist dictator came in and nationalized the resources. Kicked out most of the U.S. companies and then invited the Russians and the Chinese to come in. And then he didn't organize and plan and run the wells well, so he ran the system into the ground.

TODD (voiceover): Then Maduro ran it further into the ground to the point where now Venezuela produces less than one percent of the world's crude oil.

TODD: How long will it take to revitalize that decaying operation as President Trump has promised to do? Well, despite Trump's promise that U.S. oil companies are ready to race back into Venezuela CNN has learned that they've been hesitant to commit to that. Experts say those companies will want to see some real political stability there first and that could take years if not decades. Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOLOMON: And earlier, CNN spoke with the global head of commodities at RBC Capital Markets, and she explained what it would take to rebuild the energy infrastructure in Venezuela.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HELIMA CROFT, GLOBAL HEAD OF COMMODITIES, RBC CAPITAL MARKETS: The turnaround costs for the Venezuelan oil sector are enormous. And we talked to companies that operate currently in Venezuela. They say it's going to cost about $10 billion annually to try to turn this story around. There's no quick recovery story for Venezuela. The infrastructure has deteriorated over decades.

I think back to 2003 with the Venezuelan oil strike. That's when Hugo Chavez fired 20,000 PDVSA employees and turned PDVSA into an organ of the military -- essentially, the piggyback for the Bolivarian Revolution.

So the question is are the companies prepared to go in into an unstable security environment? We hear a lot of reticence from energy companies about how challenging this is going to be, and they say, at a minimum, we need a stable operating environment.

We have essentially, you know, elevated expectations of a massive turnaround for the Venezuelan oil sector. Currently, we have declines because of the ongoing embargo of Venezuela, which has not been lifted at this point. The sanctions regime remains in place. We don't know the timetable for sanctions being removed. That is key. But you also, again, need a stable operating environment even to talk about a couple hundred thousand barrels.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLOMON: All right. Still ahead, uncertainty brewing in Venezuela and on Capitol Hill following the arraignment of captured president Nicolas Maduro and his wife. Those details straight ahead.

You're watching CNN.

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[05:43:40]

SOLOMON: Welcome back. I'm Rahel Solomon, and here are some of the stories we are watching for you today.

Ousted Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro claimed that he is still the president of Venezuela during his New York court appearance. Both he and his wife, Cilia Flores, pleaded not guilty to drugs and weapons charges. Their lawyers confirmed a former bail application will be presented at a later date. President Trump says that he considers himself in charge of Venezuela. That comment coming in a new interview amid questions over who is actually running the country following Maduro's capture. President Trump also telling NBC News that Venezuela will not have new elections anytime soon, saying, "We have to fix the country first."

Paris is hosting over two dozen leaders as Ukraine's allies gather to discuss future security guarantees for the country. They hope to finalize contributions in the event of a ceasefire with Russia. Top U.S. negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are expected to attend.

Video obtained by CNN overnight shows gunfire and anti-aircraft fire in Venezuela's capital late Monday. This reportedly came after a misunderstanding and confusion between different security groups near the presidential palace. Venezuela's Ministry of Communication and Information also saying that police fired at drones that were flying without permission. Caracas still clearly on edge after the U.S. operation to capture President Nicolas Maduro on Saturday.

[05:45:05]

CNN's Marybel Gonzalez has more now on Maduro's arraignment and its impact on both Venezuela and Capitol Hill.

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MARYBEL GONZALEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): Deposed Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro was escorted by U.S. law enforcement back to a New York detention center after appearing in court along with his wife Cilia Flores. The two were arraigned Monday on federal drug and weapons charges following their capture during a U.S. military operation over the weekend. Maduro and Flores both pleading not guilty to all charges.

Maduro stating in court he was kidnapped on Saturday and that he is still the president of Venezuela. President Donald Trump, over the weekend, saying otherwise and threatening to expand military operations beyond Venezuela into Colombia.

TRUMP: We're in charge.

GONZALEZ: Maduro's capture now raising questions as to what may happen next.

REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D-NY): It's a great country that's been decimated by the Maduro regime. Nobody is disputing that. No one's also disputing the fact that the overwhelming majority of Americans do not support another failed foreign war.

GONZALEZ: Former vice president and Maduro loyalist Delcy Rodriguez was sworn in Monday as Venezuela's acting president.

Monday evening, top U.S. officials briefed a select group of bipartisan lawmakers on Venezuela in a classified setting. This amidst growing concern from some members of Congress who say the military operation was illegal because it lacked congressional authorization. The House Speaker pushed back.

REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: My appreciation of this entire thing is it was completely authorized by law. It's well within Article II. And now we're getting our Article I briefing exactly on the timetable.

GONZALEZ: I'm Marybel Gonzalez reporting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOLOMON: The U.S. military operation in Venezuela testing international norms. After it unfolded, President Trump said that "American dominance in the Western hemisphere will never be questioned again." He's quipping about his so-called 'Donroe Doctrine,' a policy to enact his will on sovereign nations with threats, coercion, and even military force.

And now some are concerned that his actions could embolden China and Russia to assert their own spheres of influence, including in Taiwan and Ukraine. President Trump and others in his administration have already issues warnings to Iran, Colombia, Cuba, and Mexico, as well as Greenland, a self-governing territory of Denmark.

Colombia's president, meantime, not holding back in his response to the harsh rhetoric coming out of Washington. He's accusing President Trump of trying to turn Latin American nations into colonies of the U.S.

CNN's Clarissa Ward looks at the growing tensions between the U.S. and Colombia.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we certainly saw a pretty fiery response today from Colombia's President Gustavo Petro who made it very clear that President Trump and the U.S. should not consider any kind of military intervention here in Colombia.

He, himself, is a former guerrilla and he said, you know, I made a vow to lay down my weapons sometime ago -- but make no mistake, I would be willing to take up arms again in order to defend the homeland.

And he went on to say quite explicitly, and I quote, "If you arrest a president who a good part of my people want and respect, you will unleash the popular jaguar."

We have also heard him chastise the U.S.' thinking about Latin America as a region. He posted, saying, "Don't think Latin America is just a nest of criminals poisoning your people. Respect us and respect our history and read our history."

But despite these sort of fiery posts we've also been talking to a number of people in the president's office. CNN has also spent some time with the defense minister Pedro Sanchez. And they're definitely trying to tamp down the rhetoric. They're trying to say listen, the U.S. is not an enemy. President Trump is not an enemy. We share a common enemy and a common goal, which is to work together to deal with the issue of drugs and drug lords and criminal gangs.

Obviously, Colombia has been working so closely with the U.S. on this issue for four decades and I think that's the point that they really want to emphasize. But still, and perhaps partly for the purposes of domestic consumption, we are seeing a strong line from Colombia's president coming out and condemning the U.S. -- Donald Trump's threat of military intervention here in Colombia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOLOMON: Our thanks to Clarissa Ward there.

Venezuela's exiled opposition leader Maria Machado says that she will return to her home country as soon as possible. In an interview with Fox News on Monday, the Nobel Prize winner revealed that she last spoke with President Trump in October when her Peace Prize win was announced.

Now, despite Trump doubting her ability to lead a post-Maduro Venezuela, Machado had nothing but praise for the U.S. president.

[05:50:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARIA CORINA MACHADO, VENEZUELAN OPPOSITION LEADER: I actually spoke with President Trump on October 10 -- the same day the prize was announced -- and not since then. But I do want to say today on behalf of the Venezuelan people how grateful we are for his courageous vision and the actions -- historical actions he has taken against these narco-terrorist regime, to start dismantling this structure, and bringing Maduro to justice.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLOMON: In other news, new this hour, we have learned that the Swiss bar hit by a deadly fire on New Year's Eve had not been inspected in five years. That's according to the president of the Crans-Montana Council who says that the group bitterly regrets that discovery and will take full responsibility under the justice system. The local mayor says that the establishment should be inspected every year.

Authorities believe the fire was caused by sparklers held too close to the ceiling. Dozens of young people were killed in the fast-moving fire.

All right. Still to come for us, Minnesota's governor making a major announcement and warning his state that the Trump administration is trying to divide them by preying on their fears. More on that straight ahead.

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[05:55:30] SOLOMON: Ten people in Paris have been convicted of cyberbullying France's first lady Brigitte Macron. They were convicted of spreading false claims that she is a transgender woman who was born male. The eight men and two women were also found guilty of making malicious comments, including equating the 24-year age gap between the first lady and her husband, President Emmanuel Macron, to pedophilia.

The ruling comes as the Macrons pursue a separate defamation case in the U.S. That's against right-wing influencer Candace Owens who has also claimed that Brigitte Macron was born male.

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says that the Pentagon will cut Sen. Mark Kelly's retirement pay. Kelly and six Democrat lawmakers took part in a video reminding U.S. service members of their duty to refuse illegal orders. The Democrats were accused by both Hegseth and President Trump of "seditious" behavior. Kelly is a retired Navy captain who served during Operation Desert Storm.

Hegseth wants to cut his pay and reduce is retirement rank. Kelly says that he plans to fight the action.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MARK KELLY (D-AZ): Donald Trump -- he deferred the draft five times because he had bone spurs. Four generations of service to this country earns me the right to speak. Five deferments earns nothing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLOMON: Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz says that he will not run for re- election. This comes after a blitz of Republican attacks blaming him for a welfare fraud scandal in the state, though he's not accused of any wrongdoing. The governor says that he is ending his campaign to give his full attention to fight what he calls an organized group of criminals defrauding taxpayers, as well as those seeking to take political advantage of the crisis.

CNN's Whitney Wild has the latest.

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WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: Governor Tim Walz now saying he is not going to seek a third term as governor of Minnesota. If he had sought a third term and he had won, that would have been unprecedented. This run was, again, simply an unprecedented attempt at a third term.

His stepping down comes amid a major fraud scandal in the state of Minnesota that has lasted years. The first round of indictments was announced in 2022 under the Biden administration. And since then more indictments have been announced, and more convictions have been announced.

There was the most recent round of indictments that was announced December 18. And at that time, prosecutors said that the extent of the fraud and the extent of public funds that could have been stolen in the state of Minnesota could have been $9 billion or more.

And this was a problem that seemed to clearly invade the state of Minnesota and appeared to be uniquely acute there. And yet, the criticism of Gov. Walz had been for some time that he wasn't taking it seriously enough. And now we see that Gov. Walz is stepping down.

This is also in the wake of a YouTube video that was released in the days after Christmas which purported to find fraud at Somali-run daycares in Minneapolis. State investigators sent investigators to those daycares and found that there were children inside. Four of them are going to undergo further investigation.

But that -- it was that YouTube video that took what was really a criticism that had been confined to Minnesota and thrust it on the national stage. It was a huge media firestorm for many, many days. Now we know that the fallout includes Gov. Tim Walz electing not to run for a third term.

So the question becomes who is going to take his place? Sources tell CNN's Jeff Zeleny that all eyes are on Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar.

Whitney Wild, CNN, Chicago.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOLOMON: U.S. officials have dramatically changed their recommendations for childhood vaccinations. The changes are similar to vaccine schedules in nations like Denmark. Shots to fight measles, mumps, and rubella, as well as polio, chicken pox and others, are still recommended for all children but those four -- hepatitis A and B and others -- are recommended for those at a higher risk of infection.

And under the new changes, vaccines for the flu and Coronavirus are recommended only after consulting with a health care provider.

Several public health experts who spoke to CNN warn that the changes could lead to outbreaks of preventable diseases.

And that warning coming as the CDC reports the highest level of doctor visits for flu symptoms since the late 1990s. Experts say that almost all states are seeing high or very high levels of flu activity and it hasn't peaked yet for the season.

[06:00:00]

The CDC estimates at least 11 million people have had the flu this season and more than 120,000 have been hospitalized for it. They also report at least 5,000 people have died from the flu, including nine children.

All right. That's going to do it for us here this morning. Thanks for being with us here on EARLY START. I'm Rahel Solomon live in New York. I'll see you tomorrow. But in the meantime, "CNN THIS MORNING" starts right now.