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NTSB Details Failures In Deadly DC Air Crash; Trump Talks To Reporters As He Heads To Iowa; Trump: "I Have To See" The Investigation In Minnesota Shooting; Trump Gives Lengthy Interview On His Health As Questions Swirl About Bruises, Closing Eyes In Meetings; International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired January 27, 2026 - 12:30   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- medivac AirCARE1 Washington Tower National altimeter 2990 approved through Washington Class Bravo airspace report landing assured at Fairfax.

PAT 25, do you have that C-R-J in sight? PAT 25 pass behind that C-R- J. Vis Separation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: American 472 by BADDN Mount Vernon Visual.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: American 472 Washington Tower winds are 320 at 17 --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[12:30:40]

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: A silence fell over the hearing room as we watched these animations, not only from the view point of that airplane, but also the helicopter really stresses that there was so much lighting on the ground that made it very hard for the pilots to see this impending collision.

NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy has underscored this is not the fault of the pilots necessarily, that they are only as good as the systems they are in. Of course, a lot of this will fall at the feet of the Federal Aviation Administration and the NTSB will put forth big safety recommendations at the end of today. Dana?

DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR: Absolutely brutal. Pete, thank you so much.

President Trump spoke moments ago and took questions from reporters as he left the White House. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We had a great conversation with the highly respected president of Syria and all of the things having to do with Syria and that area working out very, very well. So we're very happy about it. Tom Homan, as you know, is in Minnesota now. He's meeting with the governor and he's meeting with the mayor, I think, later. And I hear that's all going very well also. I'm going to Iowa. Some of you are coming with me, but I'm going to Iowa.

And what can I say? The economy is good. It's all good. Prices are coming way down. And we have a lot of very positive news.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, do you believe that Alex Pretti was justified?

TRUMP: Well, you know, we're doing a big investigation. I want to see the investigation. I'm going to be watching over it. I want a very honorable and honest investigation. I have to see it myself.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, do you want to --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) Kristi Noem going to step down?

TRUMP: No.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, the president of Syria -- the president of Venezuela said that he has stopped taking orders from you. What do you have to say about that?

TRUMP: Well, I don't know exactly what's going on there, but I haven't heard that at all. No, we have a very good relationship.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE).

TRUMP: I'd like to see interest rates go down. Everything else is going down. We have the energy and fuel going down. We have gasoline in many states now at $1.99. Groceries are going down. We inherited a mess with very, very high prices, very, very high prices.

And I will tell you, we've made a lot of progress. So we have the groceries going down. We have the energy going down. We have gasoline going down at a record clip. And that's what I want to do. We're doing well.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE).

TRUMP: Well, I'm looking at that whole situation. I love everybody. I love all of our people. I love his family. And it's a very sad situation.

Yes, please?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE)

TRUMP: I have, yes. I think he's doing a very good job. I think he's doing a very good job. The border is totally secure. You know, you forget. We had a border that I inherited where millions of people were coming through. Now we have a border where no one is coming through.

They come into our country only legally. So you have to remember those things. You know, people forget it. As soon as you accomplish something, it goes into history and nobody ever wants to talk about it. We had a border that caused all of this problem.

Biden caused -- and the Democrats caused this problem. They allowed tens of millions of people to come in. Many of them were murderers. Many were drug dealers, drug addicts, people from mental institutions. They allowed these people to violate our country, to come into our country. And that's what we're talking about.

So, if you remember, we had a horrible border, the worst border we've ever had ever in history. People were flowing through by, we think, 25 million people, not to mention drugs and everything else. And that border is absolutely closed.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE).

TRUMP: Our prices are so well. Prices are coming down. The border is really strong. You know, if you remember, I probably got elected more than anything else on the border.

[12:35:06]

We had a border that was open with 25 million people coming through with an open border policy, which is insane. And that's the one that -- that's the policy that caused the problem that we have. With all of that being said, with the -- other than, I would say, just to put it accurately, Minnesota, and in particular Minneapolis, because it's not all of Minnesota, every city that we've gone to has been -- like, literally, crime has gone down 50, 60, 70, 80. In Washington, it's gone down to practically no crime.

You know, Washington is a great example. But you take a look at other cities -- Memphis, Tennessee -- the crime is down 78 percent. And you know where else it's down? It's down in Minnesota. It's down in Minneapolis. And it's down very much because of the fact that we're there.

So we have to -- we can't lose sight of the fact that we have to take murderers and drug lords and people from mental institutions that were dumped into our country through open borders of the Democrats, of Biden. And we're doing a great job.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: OK, that has been President Trump speaking to reporters on his way to Marine One, where he's going to go to Iowa, to talk about the issue of affordability, which is, of course, the number one issue on Americans' minds. Kristen, what was your takeaway from what the president said, particularly on what we've been talking about for the show on Minneapolis and Tom Homan's arrival there?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, my takeaway was that he brushed off the idea of Kristi Noem stepping down. He said that he supported her. And actually, at the end there, you could hear that he was going to talk about the fact that Homan was there on the ground. He said that Homan had already met with both Walz and Frey, something that, again, Homan was tasked at handling once he got on the ground, and the part about the investigation.

Look, what he just said about the investigation is what I heard all day from Republicans. They believe that this requires a serious independent investigation. It is unclear how independent this investigation is going to be, but he's clearly hearing these buzzwords from the Republicans around him, stressing that he wants a serious investigation, that he wants to be briefed on the investigation, he wants to be basically overseeing it at some point.

BASH: Yes, he called it honorable and honest.

HOLMES: Right. And those are, I mean, not exactly, those are Trump's words, but it's the vibe that these Republicans were saying in terms of independent and thorough investigation based on what we all saw with our own eyes in that video.

BASH: Yes, and one of the key questions here is how much access are Minnesota officials --

HOLMES: Right.

BASH: -- going to actually get for them to conduct their own investigation. And, you know, we'll see that if that shakes out.

Thank you all. Don't go anywhere. Coming up, questions. They've been swirling around the president's bruises on his hands, whether he's been falling asleep in meetings. Our friend here, Ben Terris, is going to talk about a really interesting piece based on an interview he did with President Trump, an exclusive interview about President Trump's health and his age. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:42:49]

BASH: To retire is to expire. President Trump says that was one of his father's favorite expressions, and it's at the top of his mind as he approaches his 80th birthday with questions swirling around his health. The president sat down with Ben Terris for a wide-ranging interview about those bruises on his hands, the dozing off he appears to be doing during high-level meetings.

And Ben spoke with him in the Oval Office and writes, in part, "He stands a little hunched and his eyes are puffy, but he looks pretty good for a 79-year-old. His hearing, according to a senior staff member, isn't what it used to be. His right hand, warm and soft during our handshake, looked like rhino hide on the back, dry and gray, the notorious bruise spread out like an inkblot test."

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR & CHIEF DOMESTIC CORRESPONDENT: It's just elite magazine writing.

BASH: That is some good writing. Good, good writing. Although I'm sure the word rhino in any piece about him, he probably didn't like. This is fascinating, Ben. Congratulations, and I definitely encourage everyone to watch this.

The obvious question is, OK, so you're writing a piece on the president's health. You call the White House, and they say --

BEN TERRIS, REPORTER, NEW YORK MAGAZINE: Honestly, it was easier to get to him than I thought it would be. You know, this is one of those topics that Donald Trump cares deeply about. And I told him I was going to be writing about it. I wasn't going to be going away.

And he, you know, he's not that hard to get to talk to the press sometimes if it's something he deeply wants to talk about. And he felt like there'd been a lot of coverage about his health that was unfair, and he wanted to set the record straight. And so I ended up getting 40 minutes with him and even more time with a bunch of his inner circle, and they, you know, had a lot to say.

BASH: What about the doctors?

TERRIS: Yes, that was a surprise. I showed up to the Oval Office. This is right before Christmas. There's a beautiful Christmas tree in the Oval Office. It smells like pine. And standing next to the tree are two men holding pieces of paper that said talking points on top.

And I didn't know who they were, and Donald Trump introduced them to me as his doctors. He said, I barely know these guys. They're White House doctors. But they'll tell you the real story about me. So they were there.

BASH: So let me just be clear, the doctors had pieces of paper with talking points on top.

TERRIS: Yes, they were --

BASH: And what did those talking points say? Let me guess. He's the healthiest president who ever lived.

[12:45:01]

TERRIS: Yes, it certainly didn't say that he was about to die.

BASH: That's good.

TERRIS: He -- yes, they said that he's very healthy. In fact, they said he was healthier than President Obama. One of them had been in the White House during Obama's time, and they said that Trump was healthier. BASH: I'm going to get to an important quote here in a second, but did he give you any sense of why the MRI?

TERRIS: He -- Donald Trump said he basically got the MRI because he happened to be at Walter Reed, and the machine was right there and, why not just give this machine a spin while I'm here? The doctors said it was, you know, something they wanted to add to his annual physical, and since he was around, they might as well just give him a test or two --

BASH: The full-body MRI.

TERRIS: Yes, he's the president of the United States --

BASH: Yes.

TERRIS: -- let's make sure he's healthy. That's what they said.

BASH: And the bruises and the falling asleep?

TERRIS: The bruises is kind of like a two-part thing. He takes way too much aspirin, so much aspirin that he once sat down with, you know, top people in a pharmaceutical company and told them how much aspirin he was taking, and they said, please, do not take too much aspirin. That's way too much aspirin.

He said that he wants thin blood, and so taking aspirin gives him thin blood, but it also gives him bruisable skin. And so when he gets handshakes, he says it bruises his hand. Sometimes he's got bandages on the back of his hand, and that -- he says it's from women's fingernails, and sometimes they're rings.

One nasty slice, he said, was from a botched high-five with Pam Bondi, which was an interesting little tidbit. And so, you know, that's how he has the bruises and the bandages.

Falling asleep, he says he's not asleep. He's listening. He's actively listening. He says sometimes the meetings he's in are so boring, boring as hell, I think were his terms, and so sometimes he has to close his eyes just to, like, you know, give himself a little rest.

BASH: Yes. It's like when I'm watching a movie with my son and my eyes are closed, and he's like, should we turn it off? I'm like, no, I'm just listening.

TERRIS: Honestly, I found it relatable.

MATTINGLY: Yes --

BASH: Yes, I know.

MATTINGLY: -- it's pretty relatable.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: But he is the one who calls these long cabinet meetings.

MATTINGLY: Yes.

BASH: Yes.

HOLMES: Yes, I know.

ZELENY: (INAUDIBLE) exactly.

BASH: This is just a moment that is pretty remarkable that I'm going to put up on the screen. You say -- or excuse me, the president says about his father, "'He had one problem. At a certain age, about 86 or 87, he started getting, what do they call it?' He pointed to his forehead and looked to his press secretary for the word that escaped him.

'Alzheimer's,' Levitt said. 'Like an Alzheimer's thing,' Trump said. 'Well, I don't have it.' 'Is it something you think about at all?' you ask Ben. 'No, I don't think about it at all. You know why? Because whatever it is, my attitude is whatever.'"

TERRIS: Yes, I mean, you know, he talks a lot about genetics. He doesn't get a lot of exercise. He doesn't eat very healthy. But he says that he's incredibly healthy because he has great genetics.

This is the one kind of chink in that armor for his great genetics, that his dad, you know, did have Alzheimer's late in life. But it's kind of the only part of his genetics that he does not talk about or think about, he says.

BASH: Yes, and very late in his life.

TERRIS: Yes.

BASH: I mean, his father was close to 90 when that happened. You're around him a fair amount, more than most of us here. As I bring you in about this question, I just want to put up on the screen some of what you were describing that the aides who were tasked to talk to you said about his health.

And you can read it for yourself. Stephen Miller, "More stamina than a normal mortal." Marco Rubio, "The guy is too healthy." It goes on and on. Kristen?

HOLMES: There's not really much that President Trump is more self- conscious about than aging. And actually, it's interesting. The idea of him not thinking about Alzheimer's, that makes sense to me now that we're talking about it because it is a chink in this armor. It's this idea that there is something out there that is genetic.

I mean, the thing about the bruises on the hands is that he's gone through all these iterations of it. He's the president of the United States. And it started with putting makeup on it because he was self- conscious about it. Then he put bandages on it because he wanted it to be known that it was medical, not something else that he was trying to cover up with makeup.

Then he decided just to embrace it. Now, then he went back to makeup. I mean, this is a lot of thought for this man over these bruises on his hand. And I've actually heard some of those stories, too. There was one story about how he was roughhousing with Barron once, and he totally messed up his hand and had this giant bruise.

And that is, you know, this goes on and on, but he is so self- conscious about it, which is, to your point, is why they wanted you there to tell the story from their point of view or what they say their point of view is as he, you know, ages.

BASH: Real quick.

ZELENY: One of the things, I mean, we can see the changes in him from 2016 to right now. I think the question is, what are his communication abilities here as this term goes on? Not necessarily his brain function, but is he able to communicate in the way that he was before? He has changed dramatically. We can see it with our own eyes.

MATTINGLY: I'm biased here. I think very highly of Ben. It's an awesome piece.

BASH: It is an awesome piece.

MATTINGLY: And it's, like, it's fascinating. There's a lot of stuff going on. I'm the first to acknowledge that. But this is something people talk about a lot, and the way Ben writes it and the way Ben captures the moment and the access he was given is invaluable, I think, for people who want to understand this.

BASH: Ben, thank you for sharing it with us. I hope everybody reads your story in New York Magazine.

Up next, Never Again is Now. We are going to recognize today, it's International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[12:54: 29]

BERNARD OFFEN, HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR: After many months, I was separated from my father in Auschwitz. My father was sent to the left toward death, and I was sent to the right. I remember that moment. Our eye contact and the feeling that we were seeing each other for the last time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: That was 96-year-old Holocaust survivor Bernard Offen addressing the world from Auschwitz, 81 years after Allied Forces liberated the most notorious Nazi concentration camp.

[12:55:08]

Between 1940 and 1945, approximately 1.1 million people, mainly Jews, were murdered there. That includes my great-grandparents, Rudolf and Matilda Vidor. My great-aunt Magda, their daughter, was also killed by Nazis.

Today is Holocaust Remembrance Day. It's a day to pause, listen, and learn about the atrocities of the Holocaust and the hatred that fueled it. The community of survivors is shrinking. Those still alive are in their late 80s and 90s.

Last month, a Holocaust survivor was killed for the same reason 6 million Jews were massacred in the 1940s -- because he was Jewish. 87- year-old Alex Kleytman died shielding his wife from anti-Semitic terrorists who attacked a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia. Anti-Semitism is surging across the world and it has been for years.

Last week, nearly 60 swastikas were discovered at a playground in Borough Park, a predominantly Jewish area of Brooklyn. Adolf Hitler was also written in paint. Earlier in the month, a man set a historic Mississippi synagogue on fire. Why? He told the FBI because of Jewish ties.

In the fall, two people were murdered and three others were seriously wounded in an attack outside a synagogue in Manchester, England. It happened on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year for the Jewish people.

This is only a glimpse of the countless incidents. Some acts are more blatant than others, but the bottom line is simple. Hate against Jews is everywhere. So on this Holocaust Remembrance Day, never again is now.

Thank you so much for joining Inside Politics. CNN News Central starts after a quick break.

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