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Laura Coates Live
Air Force One Delay As Trump Heads To Davos; Trump Officials Investigate Anti-ICE Protesters; DOJ Subpoenas Minnesota Officials. Aired 11p-12a ET
Aired January 20, 2026 - 23:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ABBY PHILLIP, CNN HOST: Yes.
MARY SCHIAVO, CNN AVIATION ANALYST, FORMER INSPECTOR GENERAL OF U.S. DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION: They can't really do that with security. So, there are a lot of considerations, but Andrews is the place to go.
PHILLIP: That's right. And Mary Schiavo, thank you very much for bringing your expertise. We are monitoring the situation down in Washington as President Trump and his staff are expected to land back at Joint Base Andrews after a minor electrical problem was found on Air Force One. They are expected to leave back for Davos later tonight. Laura Coates will pick up our coverage on this breaking news story right now.
LAURA COATES, CNN HOST: Good evening. I'm Laura Coates. We're going to begin with the breaking news tonight because we are learning that Air Force One is turning around after President Trump already left for Davos, Switzerland. A source tells us it is because of an electrical issue.
CNN's Kristen Holmes is on the phone with us right now. Kristen, what else do you know? I'm not hearing Kristen Holmes. All right, I want to bring in a CNN transportation analyst, Mary -- do we have Peter Goelz? All right, we've got Mary Schiavo here. We're learning this in real time right now. Mary, this is Air Force One we're talking about. Obviously, we are learning that there may have been a minor mechanical issue of some sort. How concerned are you to hear that?
SCHIAVO: Well, it's very concerning because it is Air Force One. I mean, hopefully, you know, it's intended to be the best maintained plane in the world. But it is an aircraft and it's a very old aircraft. In fact, you know, there are terms for it. It's called "tired iron." And all the systems are old despite the top-flight maintenance and the really careful attention. But it's an old aircraft. So, when they have an issue on Air Force One, they literally -- I mean, they have to turn around.
There are some things that, whether it's Air Force One or any aircraft of that age and certainly that size, certain warnings can't be ignored. And I understand it's an electrical problem. And certainly, depending upon what that is, there are certain parts and places in the plane where it's inaccessible. And so, they would have to turn around and take it back. And like any aircraft, you have to rely on the supply line. When I was inspector general, we actually had a case where we got bogus parts off Air Force One. And so, you're only as good as your supply line and your supplies. And on an old aircraft, you sometimes have to go to aftermarket parts, which are supposed to be carefully inspected, carefully sourced, carefully protected. But there are a number of things that can be -- well, when you hear an electrical problem on Air Force One, yes, you pretty much have to turn back.
COATES: I have to tell you, just hearing this, I mean, the president of the United States, who people affectionately call the leader of the free world, flying on an old plane where they've got to turn around, is that very comforting for most Americans, to hear this right now, even when you're thinking about this?
Kristen Holmes, I have you on the phone right now. Kristen, we're learning that there may have been some electrical issue. What do you know?
KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Yes. Remember, we're all learning all of these in real time. There is press corps that is travelling with President Trump. But one of the problems is that you lose all internet service once you're in the air.
So, we just have gotten one corps report from the corps traveling with President Trump that said that once they were in the air, essentially, they saw that -- they realized that there were small electrical issues, this is a crew of Air Force One, so they decided, out of an abundance of caution, to turn around, and they're going to land back at Andrews Air Force Base.
They are allegedly landing any moment now. I'm not sure if you guys have pictures of that. I have not seen if they've been on the ground. They were supposed to land at 11. Now, at this point, they're going to have to deplane, get everything off the plane, all their bags, and then board separate plane.
Now, I was told that there were two planes waiting for them on the tarmac at (INAUDIBLE). They're going to be flying over now into smaller plane. This is part of a backup plan they have. Remember, President Trump often carry -- travels with a number of various support plane. They are those that fly with him. And then there are now, we are learning, some that were already waiting on the ground in case of any kind of emergency, which now we have seen.
And I will tell you, in real time, you watched this unfold, we started -- there are people who tracked the plane constantly, and we started seeing alerts online. It looks like Air Force One was making a U-turn. That's when they started calling forces. It was confirmed to me that there was small mechanical issue. We learned later this idea of a minor electrical issue, and they were coming back.
Now, they are trying to leave before midnight. That's what I'm being told at this point. Again, it's going to be unclear because they're going to have to take everybody off the plane, all the bags off the plane. They're going to have split up into two planes. It's what I've been told at this point. And then they're going to go back to Davos. [23:05:01]
He is still expected to go on this trip. But, of course, at this point, he's going to end up being, you know, hours late by the end of this. He is expected to give a speech to the World Economic Forum when he lands. But they are still insistent that he is going on the trip, that the turnaround was all about this electrical issue. They will know in the pool note.
One of the reporters noted that shortly after takeoff, the lights went out briefly in the press cabin, and there was never an explanation for that, but one of the things they were flagging as they were learning about this minor electrical issue.
COATES: I want to turn now -- thank you, Kristin. Keep us informed -- to Josh Rogin, who is lead global security analyst for the Washington Post Intelligence, and also Miles Taylor, former national security analyst during Trump's first term.
OK, you both have flown on Air Force One. And for most people who are hearing this and they're thinking about this, they've flown on planes, commercial aircrafts, they may have wondered about the age of a plane, but an electrical issue is a cause for concern for most travelers. Describe to me, though, the experience of Air Force One. And are you surprised that there are some hiccups, shall we say?
JOSH ROGIN, LEAD GLOBAL SECURITY ANALYST, WASHINGTON POST INTELLIGENCE: You know, Laura, over the course of 20 years of traveling on government aircraft, this happens all the time. You know, it's a really old fleet and there's a constant state of disrepair. It's much rare for Air Force One than it is for like the planes that the vice president or the secretary of defense or the secretary of state might fly on. But these things happen and it's because the planes are very, very old.
And so, I think the fact that they caught it early and they turned back, it shouldn't really be a big problem. But it is kind of shocking to people who don't know. But it's kind of an open secret amongst the reporters who travel with senior officials that the U.S. fleet is very old and the planes are not in good condition.
And that doesn't justify taking a plane from Qatar for free or anything like that. But it's kind of a thing that everybody knows, that these are really old planes and they malfunction all the time. So, they caught it, they're going to go back, they're going to get a couple other planes, they'll be a little late, it'll probably be OK, and they'll fix the plane. But these things happen because the U.S. government fleet is very, very old and these planes are very, very old.
COATES: I mean, you're painting a picture of like just total disrepair. But how is it compared to a commercial aircraft?
MILES TAYLOR, AUTHOR, PODCAST HOST, FORMER CHIEF OF STAFF AT DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY: Well, look, I would say -- let me give you some data points. Probably one in four times, I was taking one of these major U.S. government aircrafts overseas. We had some kind of malfunction, some kind of issue. We had to change planes. We had to call the vice president's office and say, can we borrow your plane? We had to call the secretary of defense and say, can we borrow one of your planes? This happens relatively frequently, Laura.
Now, here's the problem: The reason this happens is because from administration to administration, folks don't want to submit budgets to Capitol Hill that say, I want a brand-new jet. Every time that happens, you see a controversy in the news. Right now, the Department of Homeland Security is facing controversy because the secretary is getting a new jet. When that happens, folks immediately go to, let's cut that line item. Well, eventually, that catches up with you. And those errors, those mistakes, and those planes start to become things that you cannot ignore.
Now, with the president, there are protocols and procedures in place if something is wrong with Air Force One. We saw some of that alluded to just now in the reporting, that there were backups ready for them. There are other things that are in place to protect the president that I can't talk about. It's not quite Harrison Ford in Air Force One, but there are procedures that are a well-oiled machine for a moment like this.
But, basically, as Josh alluded to, that pretty much stops at the president, because below the president, folks like us, even Cabinet members in the administration, their plane doesn't work, well, it's going to be maybe another six or eight hours before you can get some other plane shifted into place. And believe me, Donald Trump is going to say after this somewhere in the next few hours, this is why I said I wanted a new jet.
COATES: You mentioned the idea of Qatar on that point. I want to go back to Mary if we have her still because I am curious on your take here when people are hearing about the old fleet, and they're wondering about mechanical error. Obviously, we are talking about a commercial aircraft that many people have flown on. They're not maybe surprised at the idea of there being an issue. But it might be surprising for people to learn that this is as common as my guests have talked about here. When you obviously were an inspector general thinking about these issues, do you have safety concerns about Air Force One or what the president of United States is flying?
SCHIAVO: Sure. Remember, it was Ronald Reagan who -- you know, who ordered this plane. If my math is right, it's a 38-year-old -- the two. There are two of them, of course. This 747, there are two of them. And it's 38 years old.
Now, you know, just out of habit because, you know, it's what I do and pilot and former inspector general, when I get on planes, I look at the little door plate when I board the plane, and you can see when it was delivered or the manufacture date.
[23:10:05]
And, you know, if it's over 20 years, I'm sort of -- you can't do anything about the age of the plane as a passenger but, you know, you're a little -- you're a little irritated. For example, you know, my husband (INAUDIBLE) plane. We have just a little twin engine on a prop plane, but that's not 38 years old.
COATES: I should mention, Mary, the Air Force One has landed. I want to tell everyone it has now landed. So, I don't want anyone to have the impression that it is still flying in the air. It did happen. We understand close to New York, but it was -- it was -- it was a flight across the Atlantic. It did not happen.
But please continue. You were describing it. Of course, my immediate thought is now, I'm going to be looking at every plane plate as I'm walking on aircraft. As they hand me some little headphones, I'm going to be, like, where's your plane plate? Knowing I can't do anything about it.
SCHIAVO: Yes. I mean, in the past, when we worked -- we worked lots of accidents together over the years. When we say, you know, the plane is, you know, it's over 20 years or -- you know, that's a big issue. A recent plane crash, I worked on the plane, was about 30 years old. Well, this is older than that. But it does get top flight, you know, care.
But there are just some things on aircraft that are life-limited, you know, especially on the 747. There's always issues of how old is the wiring. And it's not hard even though you get another plane coming or -- you know, Boeing has had a lot of backlog. And the planes, you know, there were supposed to be deliveries of new aircraft, but there've been a lot of delays.
But, you know, it's not like just buying another plane because on Air Force One, all the systems are hardened, and they're hardened for anti-terrorism attacks. All the electronics and security have very special equipment and hardening on them. So, it's not like any plane that rolls off the Boeing assembly line. It's very, very specialized and it takes, you know, months, if not years, to get all that specialized equipment built into it.
COATES: Really important perspective. Thank you. I want to keep you here as well, Mary. I want to bring back in, though, Josh and Miles on this because he's safely on the ground, people who are flying with him as well. That is wonderful news. There is also a schedule to consider because it's not as if he was going on a holiday. He's going to Davos. And the substance of the things he was going to talk about, surely, they'll wait for him to give his speech. But talk to me about what we're expected to hear when he does arrive, albeit many hours later.
ROGIN: Right. Well, the president needs a special plane because he needs to be able to run the country no matter what happens. Something could happen. At any time, when he's in the air, he needs to have a full suite of command and control capabilities. There are really only two people in the U.S. government who need to have that all the time. That's the president and the secretary of defense. There are about four or five planes, as far as I'm aware, that have that capability. Two of them are in a state of disrepair. So, there's not that many planes that can really meet that goal. So, I'm sure they'll find the one that they can. He'll get there when he gets there. And then when he gets there, yes, he's going to be a little embarrassed that the leader of the greatest country in the world can't even get a working plane to get to the elite conference.
But when he gets there, his mission is very clear. He's traveling to Europe to tell the Europeans that he's not going to back down from his threat to attack a NATO ally. And whether or not he is going to actually attack that NATO ally, Greenland, which is part of the kingdom of Denmark, is almost beside the point. The fact is that he's threatening it.
COATES: I want to be clear. We are learning just now -- sorry to interrupt you -- they are indeed, as Kristen Holmes reported, they are going to break up into two different planes and will be traveling to Davos. So, it will not be one, which is -- we've learned it's pretty common now. Go ahead.
ROGIN: Sure. So --
COATES: Had happened. Not common.
ROGIN: Right. So, it's not great for the people who don't get on the good plane, who are on the bad plane, they don't have as much access, they might be little peeved off about that, but that's a really minor issue in the grand scheme of things.
But when he gets there, what happened today in Davos was that major European and allied leaders gave speech after speech, saying that they can no longer depend on the United States because the president of the United States is threatening to attack NATO, a NATO ally, which would by definition destroy the NATO alliance. That's not good, that they don't like that. And he's walking into that environment. And he's not about to back down, he's about to double down.
And so, what that's going to do is that's going to take the tension in the transatlantic alliance and it's going to raise it to 11, to a level that we really haven't seen in my memory ever. And I can't remember any time in the 80 years of the NATO alliance that one of the NATO countries threatened to invade and attack another one of them.
And that's going -- that's what he's there to do. He's there to tell them that he wants Greenland. He doesn't care what the consequences are. And if they don't like it, they can lump it. And that's not going to go over well. It's going to be diplomatic disaster of historic proportions.
COATES: Talk to me about this. We know, obviously, Air Force One has landed. The president of the United States is safe.
[23:15:00]
He is on his way, as Josh is talking, to go to Davos. He has not yet left. I'm sure, we will report. I think he's switching aircrafts. Describe to me the consequences of what happens when he gets there. TAYLOR: Look, it sounds like the plane drama has been fixed or will soon be fixed, but the damage to NATO is going to take decades to fix. Even if Donald Trump, as he splits off into this other plane, has a group of staff that advise him, Mr. President, maybe we shouldn't ratchet up the threats, maybe we should actually propose a deal, even if he goes to Davos and changes his mind and says, let's fix this, let's strike some sort of deal, it will take years and years and years for NATO allies to trust the United States again.
I'm talking to friends in Europe who served in senior government positions when I was in government. They think they need to plan for a future without the United States. That's a scary thing to hear from any country. But from your closest friends to say from a military standpoint, from an intelligence standpoint, from a diplomatic standpoint, that they are preparing for a post-America future, should be a wake-up call in the United States, especially for Congress.
COATES: What does that mean for the United States if we had a world where NATO was not our ally?
TAYLOR: Well, this is the thing. I think for a lot of people, they hear this and think, this is high politics, this is international relations, it doesn't affect me. Well, it affects them very directly even right now. The president's threats to raise tariffs on European countries, the president is going to make the goods we buy on our store shelves more expensive in an already difficult economic climate as part of a protest against him not getting the territory of an ally.
But add to that, Laura, that our allies, some of them, are restricting intelligence sharing with the United States because of the way the president has acted on the world stage. The Brits, for instance, have restricted intelligence sharing after the strikes in the Pacific. These things have real consequences for Americans. We depend on that intelligence from foreign allies.
I remember every morning at the Department of Homeland Security waking up to the president's daily brief, and there is information in there about threats to American lives that come from our allies. If we start to lose that information, American lives are in danger, let alone what happens on the store shelves economically and the future of the United States.
COATES: Josh, when you hear about, obviously, the plan, you have to wonder, on the one hand, is the president's plan to use his positioning as a kind of leverage, is it the bully pulpit with a goal towards increasing the credibility of United States or is he trying to burn a bridge? Which is it?
ROGIN: Right. You've got it exactly right, Laura. There are two possibilities. One is that he's trying very hard to destroy the world order that the United States built over the last 80 years and is succeeding wildly. The other possibility is that he's trying very hard to increase American power and influence and failing miserably. OK?
And I don't know what's in President Trump's heart. But if he's trying to bolster American influence and he's failing, that's pretty bad. And if he's trying to weaken American influence and succeeding, that's also pretty bad.
COATES: Wait, we've got live look right now of our first images of Air Force One that has touched down after turning around due to what we know to be essentially an electrical issue. We'll see the -- it appears maybe the president of United States deplaning at some point soon. We've got our first live pictures of what's happening right now.
The president of United States was on his way to Davos, where he's going to give a very important speech. We've been discussing the substance of that with Josh Rogin and Miles Taylor, and the consequences of that speech on that world stage.
We are seeing people moving inside. I wonder if the president of the United States will actually address reporters who are on the ground. We surely have a number of questions about the experience aboard that plane as well. We're seeing, of course, a familiar sight for all of you who've traveled, the stairs going towards the plane. And in any moment now, the president of the United States will emerge, and we'll get our first look at the president of United States, whose plane had to turn around due to electrical issue as well, issues going on. Go ahead, Josh.
ROGIN: Yes. So, let's give President Trump the benefit of the doubt for a second and assume that he's genuine in his strategy that threatening all of our allies in order to pressure them into handing Greenland over to him somehow is really the best thing for America. Let's say he believes all that.
The objective analysis of that is that it's not working. That what has actually happened, as we saw today in all the speeches in Davos, is that the Europeans and the Canadians and the Greenlanders are taking the opposite approach. It's actually making them more anti-Trump and more anti-American, and less amenable to doing the things that Donald Trump says that he wants.
So, I'm willing to give President Trump the benefit of the doubt to say that he really believes this is going to be a good strategy. At the same time, if we look at what's happening right now, it's not working, and it's actually pushing our allies far away, which is actually pushing them into China's waiting arms, which undermines another one of President Trump's goals (ph).
[23:20:00]
COATES: Do you agree, Miles?
TAYLOR: I think he has wanted this since the moment he stepped into office. Donald Trump does not want the United States to prioritize friendships based on whether a country is a democracy or an autocracy. And I'll tell you why.
He came into office having learned one thing in business. It's really hard to do business in democracies. They've got the rule of law and they've got procedures and anti-corruption measures. It's a lot easier to do business in places like Russia and Turkey where maybe you can cut corners because they're willing to cut some red tape for you if you maybe give them an extra little benefit here or there.
He brought that perspective into government. In the first term, he wanted to reorient America's relationships away from, in his view, these crusty, old democracies and towards countries that could do business. Donald Trump was met with severe resistance in the first term from people who said, Mr. President, that will alienate America and put Americans in danger.
Now, in a second term, he has people in office that have turned the Oval Office into an echo chamber and agree with them and are encouraging this approach. You are seeing that realignment happen at breakneck speed. In one year, Donald Trump has realigned America's view of the world to bring us closer to a number of autocracies and to alienate some of the closest allies we have in the democratic world.
COATES: I want to hear from Peter Goelz, who's the former NTSB aviation expert. I want to get your sense of what's happening right now, Peter. We've been watching. Of course, Air Force One has touched down. We expect to have the president deplane at any moment. We'll bring you the live footage of that as soon as it happens here on CNN.
Peter, give me your assessment, just in the very infancy of what we know, about the fact that it has turned around and the president has switched aircraft to continue his trip.
PETER GOELZ, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Well, you know, Air Force One -- and there are actually two planes. You know, Air Force One is the aircraft designated when the president is on board. These are older aircrafts, 747s produced back in the 1970s. These were produced a little later. But we're still talking about 30 to 40 years old, and they have been flown heavily. Now, they've been well maintained. But planes get older. Particularly, wiring gets brittle. And it is not unusual for older planes like this to run into trouble.
Now, the question will be is, are they going to turn around and bring out the reserved aircraft and will he go back to Davos or are they going to scuttle the trip completely? We won't know that for next -- until the next few minutes.
But this will certainly put pressure on Boeing to produce the new 747- 800 Air Force Ones and it will put pressure to move the gifted 747-800 from Qatar online quicker.
COATES: What's that Boeing timeline if that were to put that pressure?
GOELZ: Well, it's already a year and a half behind time, behind the deadline. My guess is they were not going to see the new Air Force One before or the end of Trump's term. So, they're going to have to really double down and get this -- get production going because this is going to be quite infuriating to this president.
COATES: Let's go back to Kristen Holmes. Kristen, what are you hearing now?
HOLMES (via telephone): We are hearing that President Trump is going to deplane any moment there. I think you have the shot of him. And then this is going to be the moment where they essentially take everyone off the plane, everything off the plane, and then reload this new aircraft.
Now, we do have -- our pool is down there on the ground. They are waiting for the president to deplane. They say that a few people have been milling about, few people have come out but they are waiting for President Trump.
Now, I was told that the goal was to get back up in the air before midnight. It is unclear if they're going to make that goal. I spoke to somebody who has done this kind of thing before. They said, usually, it takes roughly 40 minutes for the entire process to play out, which would get them out off the ground closer to midnight than before. But, you know, obviously, they all have incentive to move very quickly here. They want to get off the ground.
President Trump wants to get to Davos. He does have a full schedule ahead of him, including remarks to the World Economic Forum almost as soon as he lands. So, this is going to be something that he wants to move quickly with.
However, of course, there are these security concerns, there are mechanical concerns. They're going to want to get everybody in place before they take off again.
[23:25:02]
So, unclear just how quickly they're going to move before he's back up in the air.
COATES: And we still have not seen the president of United States coming off of that aircraft right now. I can only imagine -- you take us in terms of what you're thinking, Kristen, as our senior White House correspondent. I can only imagine the conversations he must be having aboard that plane and the frustration he is likely feeling knowing that this is happening on a very public world stage, at a very important time, when he was hoping to arrive Davos with certainly an advantage and a bully pulpit to match.
HOLMES (via telephone): Yes, that's true. And actually, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt made a joke, apparently, to the pool on the plane. The reporter saying that Qatari plane looked good right about now as they were turning around and heading back to Andrews Air Force Base.
Obviously, President Trump has spent an enormous amount of time, both his first term and in this term, complaining about Air Force One, saying that the planes that they fly on are incredibly old, talking about how they needed an upgrade, actually say that Boeing should be upgrading and working quickly to do so, so he could take advantage of that while he was still in office.
But, as you mentioned, yes, it is a time in which President Trump is trying to show force. He has flexed that military muscle, talking about today even Venezuela, talking about bombing Iran, and how this has clearly, and this is what we are hearing from sources, given him confidence to go into this conversation on Greenland, where they are flexing a military muscle.
Now, unclear, of course, if he is actually going to use that lever. But if he wanted to go in with a show of force, this is not necessarily the show of force that he would want to do, if they were deplaning and getting all their stuff off the plane, having to get right back in the air.
And Laura, I'm not sure if you guys ended up playing this or not, so forgive me if you have, but it was interesting to be him leaving the White House tonight. He seems confident. But, at the same time, I mean, he essentially said he had no idea what to expect once he got to Davos. He made a joke earlier as well about how I'm sure everyone is really excited to see me. Obviously, he was being sarcastic given what we've seen with all of the European leaders and world leaders who have been clearly escalating rhetoric with the United States around the situation with Greenland.
But yes, again, I think you're spot on the idea that this is not the entrance that he wants to have, and it is another complaint that he has voiced for several years now, and it's kind of coming to fruition at a critical time for him.
COATES: Josh, remind everyone this Qatar reference.
ROGIN: Right. So, the Qatari government gifted Trump a four -- well, some people say $200 million plane, some people say $400 million plane. Anyway, the point is not that it's bad for Trump to get a plane that he wants. The point is that it's bad for them to gift it to him. In the kindest analysis, they gave him a $200 or $400 million gift. In the less kind analysis, he gave them a security guarantee in exchange for that gift and wants to keep the plane even after he's no longer president anymore, which is tantamount to a bribe.
So, that's not good. That's not how America is supposed to do business. So, if he wants a new plane, we have a process. You get an appropriation, you order it, you buy it. Even if he wants to buy it from Qatar, I think people would be like, OK, just buy the plane that you want because that's what you want.
COATES: Not his personal resources. It's taxpayer dollars.
ROGIN: So, they gave him the plane for free because he announced on Truth Social that they were giving it to him for free before they had even agreed to give it to him for free. And they were like, oh, what are we going to do? I guess we've got to give it to him for free. Because he basically strong-armed the Qatari government into giving him a plane against their will.
So, they made it sound good by saying that they were going to give it to the Defense Department. Then the Defense Department has to spend a billion dollars-worth of U.S. taxpayer money to kid it up, to fit it with all of the tech that he's going to need to actually use it as Air Force One. By the time they get done doing that, he's not even going to be president anymore, anyway, and then he's going to take it to his presidential library and use it as his personal jet. So, all of that stinks. All of that smells really bad. OK? And that's not the way you want to get a new Air Force One because it won't even benefit the next president under the scheme that Trump has launched.
COATES: And yet, I can only imagine the president of the United States is going to have some grievances. He will air about the quality of the aircraft. He is on still and has not yet deplaned.
But further contextualize for me, Miles, given what Josh is saying, that the theme that has been a constant drumbeat for criticism of Trump from his first term to now, the word emoluments comes to mind for people, the idea of alleged bribes and beyond, and yet there is this tension that he will likely point out and has in the past between the persona of the United States and the leverage that it requires.
[23:30:11]
TAYLOR: Laura, you beat me to it. This malfunction could not be more rich with symbolism. Donald Trump has a deep disdain for the democratic process. He does. He cannot stand it. He cannot handle it. Air Force Ones and new planes are procured through a democratic process that's designed to leave out corruption, to competitively bid projects. It takes time. Democracy is slow and messy.
So, what did Donald Trump do? Within weeks of taking office this year, he publicly said to pool reporters, you know what, I'd really like another plane, I'm looking at ways to get another plane, maybe there's a country somewhere in the world who would like to offer me one. Then surprise, surprise, just a couple months later, a country does emerge to say, perhaps we can, and this is me speaking, perhaps we can curry favor with the president of the United States by giving him a free jet. Donald Trump willingly accepted it, according to New York Times reporting. Up to a billion dollars of Pentagon money is now being spent to retrofit it.
So, we're talking about a plane that potentially will be valued at $1.5 billion that won't come online until the end of the Trump presidency and which, reportedly, and the Justice Department gave the president approval for this, will then go to him personally and his library in the post-presidency. Looks an awful lot like a big giant bribe if you're just a layman observer from the outside. Now, you may say --
COATES: Well, if not a bribe -- if not a bribe, it also seems impractical. You would outfit a plane for the duration of a term, and then it's no longer viable because you're no longer the commander in chief.
TAYLOR: But here's the symbolism. Is the president of the United States is probably going to tell us somewhere in the next few hours, this is why I did it. We're going to get a plane. It's going to, in total, have happened faster than Boeing can give it to us.
But at what price? At what price? Because we don't know what Donald Trump is going to change his foreign policy to be after getting this gift from this foreign country. We also don't know necessarily what the national security implications are of taking a plane from a foreign country. I know people in the national security community are worried about taking a giant jet of lots of electronics from another country. That's going to take some time for the Pentagon and the intelligence community to make sure that that plane is outfitted the way it needs to be.
But what does it say about the future? Is America for sale? Can you give a giant gift to the president to change his foreign policy? That's something that the founders feared. This jet symbolizes that. And we're going to hear Donald Trump make his argument, I'm sure, in the next day for why he should be able to take those types of gifts from foreign countries to short circuit the democratic process.
COATES: Well, and not just the democratic process, I would assume, given the tensions even in Corporate America and, frankly, the issues that Boeing itself has faced, and there's a bureaucracy within Boeing as well in terms of the time it might take.
I just asked one of our experts about the amount of time it might take for Boeing to catch up. They're already a year and half behind, he just said. This is Peter Goelz, the foreign managing director of the NTSB. A year and a half behind and likely would not be able to accomplish it before the end of the term. So, you have the same timeline as the Qatar actual retrofitting of that airplane.
So, for the average American who might be hearing this, they might say to themselves, well, OK, I understand the issues with the alleged bribe, I understand the issues of Boeing, but I'm also watching the president of the United States' plane turned around and hardwiring issues possibly the cause. So, where do they end up in this?
ROGIN: Right. I think -- I think -- I agree with Miles. It's symbolic. It's sort of like every -- people out there in TV land know that, like, our government is not working really well, OK? The institutions are creaking, OK? Things are not being maintained. If you've been on a highway, if you've been to an airport, if you've been to a bus station, our infrastructure is falling apart. And when you compare that to some of the countries that we're competing against, well, some of them don't have that problem.
So, it's not a good look for our country that we're failing to update our infrastructure and our technology and the things that our government uses to do business on daily basis. In a timely fashion, our country is not working that well. So, that's one thing.
Now, the bribe is a little bit separate because you could call it a bribe. I think it's more accurate to say that the Qataris were strong- armed into giving it to him. Not that they wanted to bribe him. This is my reporting, that Trump was like you better give it to me, and they're like, OK, I guess we have no choice, so they just gave it to him. Maybe that's a distinction without a difference. But the point is that Trump is going around --
COATES: Would that distinction suggests he is in control, not at the manipulation? ROGIN: Yes. It was his initiative, not the Qataris. And that means that he's going to do what he wants, when he wants, unless he's stopped. And I think that's the message he's bringing to Davos.
COATES: We're going to get a quick break right now. We're going to be following along. Air Force One safely landed. The president is still inside and intends to still go to Davos. We'll be right back.
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[23:35:00]
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COATES: We are continuing to monitor the situation tonight. The Air Force One has landed safely back at Joint Air Force -- Andrews Air Force Base. The president of the United States about to deplane at any moment We will bring you the live coverage when we do have it. His plane had to turn around, setting an electrical difficulty. We don't have more information, but as we get it, we will bring it to you. The president of United States is safely on the ground and does intend, we're told, to still head to Davos. We'll continue to monitor it and bring you the very latest.
Meanwhile, we are following the other big story tonight because President Trump, well, he is throwing the kitchen sink at Minnesota. You've got investigation after investigation after investigation of what's starting to look like, well, every major Democrat in the state. Tonight, the DOJ is hitting at least five Minnesota officials with subpoenas.
[23:40:00]
We already knew the governor, Tim Walz, and the Minneapolis mayor, Jacob Frey, were under the microscope. But now, State Attorney General Keith Ellison and St. Paul's mayor are also getting pulled in. And on top of that, the DOJ is parachuting in prosecutors to help with cases related to the anti-ICE protests. And that protest against ICE at the Minnesota church this weekend, Secretary Kristi Noem says that arrests are coming at any moment.
And none of this is happening in a vacuum. You got poll after poll showing that Americans are frankly souring on ICE and the immigration crackdown led by President Trump. The administration is struggling to defend what they're doing, tactics and all.
And the words of former president, Ronald Reagan, if you're explaining, you're losing. Well, Trump tried to do a lot of explaining at the White House today, spending the first 10 minutes of, well, a rambling press briefing on immigration and also Minnesota, complete with props, in the form of mugshots.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Minnesota is so much 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 say, 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)
COATES: But the problem may not be just the message. It may be the messenger. Because the Department of Homeland Security, the agencies spearheading the immigration crackdown, they've got a huge credibility problem on their hands. Exhibit A, they say they're not racially profiling anyone when federal agents make stops.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRICIA MCLAUGHLIN, ASSISTANT HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: I think I've seen a lot on this network and other places where they're talking about this is racially-based. Absolutely not. Racial animus is no place in DHS and is, of course, not used. We're using what is protected under the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COATES: Except we have Minneapolis residents, actual U.S. citizens, saying they were profiled and it's caught on video.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNKNOWN (voice-over): Do you have documentation?
UNKNOWN (voice-over): I do have my documentation.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): Can you present it to me?
UNKNOWN (voice-over): Why are you asking me for my paperwork?
UNKNOWN (voice-over): Because of your accent.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): You have an accent, too.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): Where were you born, sir?
UNKNOWN (voice-over): Where were you born at?
UNKNOWN (voice-over): Put your hands behind your back.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): I am a U.S. citizen.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): Do you have an I.D. on you, ma'am?
UNKNOWN (voice-over): I don't need an I.D. to walk around in my city. This is my city. This is my home.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): OK. Do you have some I.D. then, please?
UNKNOWN (voice-over): I don't need an I.D.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): If not, we're going to put you in the vehicle and we're going to I.D. you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COATES: The administration says those stops were made based on reasonable suspicion. But it doesn't end there. The police chief of Minneapolis suburb gave us this study example just today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GREGORY BOVINO, U.S. BORDER PATROL CHIEF: We started hearing from our police officers the same complaints as they fell victim to this while off duty. Every one of these individuals is a person of color who has had this happened to them.
One particular officer that shared her story with me was stopped as she passed ICE going down the roadway. When they boxed her in, they demanded her paperwork of which she's a U.S. citizen and clearly would not have any paperwork. When she became concerned about the rhetoric and the way she was being treated, she pulled out her phone. In an attempt to record the incident, the phone was knocked out of her hands, preventing her from recording it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COATES: You mean officers who were trained on the Fourth Amendment observed this? Well, the chief said the federal agents had their guns drawn and only left when the person identified themselves as a police officer. You know, there was no comment, no apology.
Exhibit B, you know how all these examples involve U.S. citizens? Well, DHS says if ordinary American citizens get swept up by ICE, it's because they were near agitators.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BOVINO: What we see when folks get swept up, as you say, oftentimes, it says agitators, those rioters. And now, I call them anarchists, that actually cause Ma and Pa America to sometimes be near at or involved in a very tense situation when they shouldn't even be.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COATES: And that doesn't square with the evidence. Just last night, I spoke with Aliya Rahman, who is a U.S. citizen, who was dragged from her car and detained by ICE agents. She says she was heading to a doctor's appointment and had nothing to do with anti-ICE protests, even though DHS claimed that she did.
[23:45:00]
She says she was refused care for disability when she was brought into a detention center. All that begs the question or, frankly, many questions. But here's one. How are Americans supposed to really believe what the DHS says?
A federal judge in Illinois was even questioning and put it this way just last year in a scathing injunction that limited the use of force by federal agents in Chicago. I'm quoting here. "While defendants may argue that the court identifies only minor inconsistencies, every minor inconsistency adds up, and at some point, it becomes difficult, if not impossible, to believe almost anything that defendants represent."
My first guest knows all about credibility and also, of course, the courts, because he used to be an assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York. And now, he sits on the Judiciary and Homeland Security committees in the House. With me now, New York Democratic Congressman Dan Goldman.
Congressman, welcome back. I'm eager to get your take on all things because as a federal prosecutor, do you see any basis for the Department of Justice obtaining subpoenas not only for Governor Walz but the Minneapolis mayor, Jacob Frey, and other elected officials in Minnesota?
REP. DANIEL GOLDMAN (D-NY): No, and I can't really conceive of what crime they're going to -- that they could even prove with these subpoenas. Criminal law, of course, has to be individual mens rea, individual knowledge and intent. And so, the idea of, you know, liability for being the superior of someone doing something else or somehow held responsible for other people's actions is just not something that you criminally investigate or can prosecute.
It is particularly jarring and galling, Laura, that they are -- the Department of Justice continues this ambush of subpoenas after it has made it very clear that it will not even investigate the ICE agent who shot and killed Renee Good. The notion that they would not investigate that and that they would somehow concoct an investigation into all of these Democratic officials who are trying to keep the peace against these absolutely lawless and violent ICE agents is truly remarkable.
I think there's more to it than just a simple criminal investigation. I think they are trying to chill these Democratic officials with the threats of subpoenas so that they don't do their own investigation into the ICE agent or that they don't continue to pursue other legal means against these ICE officers who are just so clearly acting outside the bounds of the law.
COATES: Well, that -- if that's to be believed, that would fatally undermine not only any investigation the feds have or have not done, although there was that quick one done, if they turned their attention to everyone else, but also the credibility of the Homeland Security Department and ICE in general. In your eyes, do they have any credibility?
GOLDMAN: Zero. Absolutely zero. We have seen Kristi Noem, we have seen Tricia from Ohio, the spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, lie day after day after day. Kristi Noem actually was forced to admit in testimony before me that she is illegally and acknowledged she's illegally deporting people who are lawfully here, who have ongoing asylum cases.
There is nothing that this department can say that you can believe. And so, you might as well just throw out any statement that they make about anything. I mean, Kristi Noem doesn't even understand what she's talking about. She's not running the department. Stephen Miller is running the department.
And it's all gaslighting, it's all propaganda, and it's all continuing to rehash this false narrative that they are going after murders and rapists in the worst of the worst when in reality, they are now very clearly just going after American citizens to terrorize cities.
COATES: They would argue and they have that there's almost a collateral damage. Somebody who's in the proximity of somebody who's otherwise lawfully being pursued is also swept up into this dragnet which -- to your larger point, if there's no credibility assigned to previous statements, then statements like that are also questioned. And for many, questioned to the point of exhaustive investigations that say, I don't believe what you have to say.
But then you've got the president of the United States, who is pretty securely backing him, because ICE is facing a lot of questions about its tactics. The president is not asking about those, though. He said this today when discussing the ICE agent who shot and killed Renee Good.
[23:50:00]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: And, you know, they're going to make mistakes sometimes. ICE is going to be too rough with somebody or -- you know, they're dealing with rough people. They're going to make a mistake sometimes. It can happen. We feel terribly.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COATES: What's your reaction to the idea that, obviously, to err is human, but the expectation that federal agents with -- given this amount of power can't be fallible?
GOLDMAN: Well, it's also a total about face from Donald Trump. And at the end of that clip, which we cut off, he says that Renee Good's father used to be a big Trump supporter. It is so clear that the only reason that he now has any sympathy for Renee Good after calling her a domestic terrorist a few hours after it happened is because he learned that his father -- her father, rather, supported him.
I mean, this is how policy is being made in the United States. Donald Trump doesn't like wind turbines off the coast of his Scotland course golf course so he bans all offshore wind. He doesn't like the fact that he didn't receive the Nobel Peace Prize. So, he is threatening to attack Norway, the country that the peace prize comes from.
And now, he's changing his entire tune about Renee Good because, oh, somebody -- her father may have liked him. He is such a petty, small man. And our entire foreign policy, domestic policy, immigration policy is being run by his little shaky ego. And it is a disgrace. And what's even more disgraceful is that you don't have any Republicans in Congress who are significantly and seriously standing up and saying this is a ridiculous way to run this country. You need to stop and get a hold of yourself and stop putting your own little ego in front of everyone else in this country.
COATES: Well, job of Congress as a co-equal branch of government is to provide a check and a balance. I understand the House Appropriations Committee is releasing the new short form -- short-term funding bill, and there are some small reforms and budget cuts to ICE, also Border Patrol but, frankly, not that much. And many of our Democratic colleagues say that this does not go far enough. And now, as a result, they won't support it. That, obviously, could cause a government shutdown in 10 days. What is your position? Will you support it?
GOLDMAN: No, I can't support the continuation of this absolute terrorizing lawlessness, the notion of secret and masked agents asking people on the street for their proof of their citizenship papers. That is literally what the SS did in Nazi Germany. That is authoritarian.
And the notion that our own law enforcement, civil law enforcement, not even criminal, would be doing things like that or things like barging into homes without warrants, that is just illegal if you are searching someone, you're trying to arrest someone for a crime, much less arrest someone for a civil immigration enforcement action. So, no.
COATES: Meanwhile, the attorney general, Pam Bondi, just announced that Lindsey Halligan will step down as acting U.S. Attorney of the Eastern District of Virginia. Bondi said this: Quote -- "Despite multiple, unnecessary legal obstacles placed in her path, Lindsey stepped forward at a critical juncture for our nation and fulfilled her responsibilities with courage and resolve."
Now, you recall that DOJ has fought to keep her in that very position for months even when the judge was wondering why she was still holding after they had been quite clear. What is your reaction to her now backing down?
GOLDMAN: I thought she was already gone. I'm surprised that we needed a press release about that. The judge in the Letitia James case ruled that she was improperly appointed and was, therefore, not actually the U.S. attorney. And so, I don't know why there's an announcement today that there are 120 days she hasn't been the U.S. attorney with any power or authority for much longer than that. But she never should have been there. If it's 120 days, it's 120 days too long. She is entirely incompetent, unqualified, and she showed it.
COATES: Doesn't bode well for the credibility of the Department of Justice then as well. Both you and I are alums. Congressman Dan Goldman, thank you so much.
GOLDMAN: Thank you, Laura.
COATES: I'm going to check back in with Kristen Holmes from CNN, who's following that electrical issue on Air Force One, the one that turned President Trump's plane around on his road to Davos. Kristen, what are you learning?
HOLMES (via telephone): Well, Laura, it looks like this chaotic scene is finally coming to an end. We expect President Trump to take off any minute now.
[23:55:00]
Our Kaitlan is the pooler for this trip. She just sent out a pretty detailed pool note saying that they are boarding the plane, that they were holding on Air Force One, that there were a lot of commotion, including federal staffer of the plane with their bag, that the crew was hustling to make the transition, moving boxes of fruit, wrapped sandwiches, beverages in and out. They're trying to get off of as quickly as possible.
I remember when I was reporting that they were trying to get out of here before midnight. Certainly, it doesn't seem like that's what they're going to be able to do at this time, but they are cutting it close. They want to get there. President Trump has a busy day tomorrow planned at Davos. And, of course, as we know, we'll all be watching very closely to see those interactions with foreign leaders once he actually gets there.
COATES: Indeed, we will. Kristen Holmes, thank you for your quick reporting. "The Story Is with Elex Michaelson" is up next.
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