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The Situation Room

House Democrats Hold Hearing to Mark Five Years Since Jan. 6 Attack; Trump Speaks to House GOP Lawmakers; Trump on Venezuela Operation, People are Saying Thank You. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired January 06, 2026 - 10:00   ET

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

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PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, breaking news. Any moment, President Trump is expected to speak to House Republicans for the first time publicly since that massive military operation in Venezuela over the weekend.

Plus, marking five years since the January 6th riots, how Democrats are holding a special hearing that's expected to start at any moment.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: And former officer on trial. Opening statements will get underway this hour in the case against the first law enforcement official to arrive on the scene of the Uvalde school massacre.

Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer with Pamela Brown, and you're in The Situation Room.

We begin with breaking news, two major stories unfolding this hour. At any moment, President Trump will speak to House Republicans. We're looking at live pictures. They'll discuss their election year agenda just ahead of the crucial midterm elections. And a key topic could be the raid on Venezuela. We're going to carry the president's remarks live. Stand by for that.

BROWN: And today mark's five years since a milestone moment in U.S. history.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're getting into the Capitol tonight. They're getting in there.

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BROWN: Top House Democrats will hold an unofficial hearing on the January 6th attack on the Capitol. The failed attempt to overturn the 2020 election may be more polarizing than ever.

BLITZER: Let's go live right now to CNN's Alayna Treene over at the White House for us. Alayna, even with the big political agenda for the president this morning, are we expecting, I certainly am, him to begin with what's going on in Venezuela?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes. I mean, look, this is all about really plotting the best way for Republicans to try and hold on to power in November. I'm sure a big topic is going to be on that issue of affordability. But, of course, Venezuela is really what is weighing on these members' minds right now. I remind you that most of them in that room have not yet received a briefing from the Trump administration. There was a classified briefing last night, but that was with select leadership members and members of the Intelligence Committees in the House and Senate.

And so there's going to be a lot of questions that some of these members are bringing, particularly as it relates to Venezuela. I'm sure one we probably will hear the presidents reference it. I know that he is very proud of the operation that was conducted on Saturday. But also once the cameras stop rolling, I think that's really when we'll hopefully get some clarity and maybe some reporting from what is discussed.

But, look, I think when we're looking at some of the questions that they have, some of it is really going to be about what next steps are and really is the president and this administration's grip on Venezuela as strong as they are claiming it to be, and addition to the reality on the ground that is playing out.

One of the things, of course, is how they are looking at leadership and the structure there inside Venezuela. We know that the administration has so far kind of prioritized administrative stability over what many people thought would be an immediate push for a democratic process in Venezuela and democratic elections.

But instead we're actually seeing them kind of prop up for now the newly sworn in president, Delcy Rodriguez. She was, of course, Maduro's V.P. and very much a part of that government. And we've heard now the president and Rubio say that they are trying to coerce her to cooperate.

What I found really interesting was while many people, and we heard this from a lot of lawmakers on both sides of the aisle in recent days, they thought perhaps that they would lean in to trying to prop up Maria Corina Machado, the opposition leader in Venezuela. Instead, we've seen them really turn their attention to Rodriguez.

I know that Rubio, according to some of my conversations with people in the White House, that he has had several conversations with Rodriguez since Saturday, and Trump actually told NBC that they're really -- that he speaks to her fluently in Spanish and that their relationship has been very strong.

I note we did hear from Machado yesterday, she spoke with Fox News, she said she hadn't spoken to the president in months.

BROWN: All right. Alayna Trina at the White House, thank you so much.

And we've assembled an all-star panel of our analysts and experts to break all of this down. I want to begin with CNN Senior Political Commentator Ana Navarro. Hi, Ana.

So, President Trump and his administration are justifying this Venezuela raid as Maduro being a threat to the U.S., a Western Hemisphere adversary, and America's backyard. Is that a credible argument, in your view?

ANA NAVARRO, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: There is no doubt that Maduro destabilized the entire region. He has, through his oil, been propping up government by Cuba and Nicaragua that are also led by left wing dictators.

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So, there is no doubt that this -- that Maduro has been a thorn in our side, that he has opened up the door to American foes, like Iran, like China, to have a base in Venezuela.

Now, the problem I see, Pamela, is just the inconsistency of messaging from the Trump administration. Let's remember that we began 2025, the Trump administration began its term by sending Richard Grenell as a special envoy of Trump to negotiate with the guy he would call President Maduro for the release of U.S. hostages, for talks on oil, for talks on migration. Then Marco Rubio, I think, got a hold of the situation and knew how to push Trump's buttons to get us to the situation we are in now.

BROWN: So, I want to actually pick up on your point, Ana, and go to Carrie on that, about the mixed messaging around this, what happened in Venezuela with the capture of Maduro. Could that have any implications for the legal case here?

CARRIE CORDERO, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Yes. I think, Pamela, the way I'm thinking about it is there's really two separate tracks that are going on. On one hand, there was the arrest operation or capture to go and take custody of Maduro and his wife, who are under indictment in the Southern District of New York. And actually Maduro had been indicted back in 2020, and then this was a super seating indictment that then finally the U.S. government decided to effectuate the arrest and capture. And, obviously, to do that capture, it involved a military operation because he was a purported head of state in another country.

I view those set of legal issues as different from the legal issues surrounding the overall U.S. military campaign against Venezuela, and in particular what that might mean in the future. Because to Ana's point, the lack of clarity that the administration has provided in terms of who the United States government recognizes as in charge in Venezuela, who the United States government wants to be in charge of Venezuela and how the United States, now that we have decapitated their head of state, how the United States ends to -- intends to implement whatever is our objective in Venezuela raises a set of legal questions if that's going to involve more U.S. military action.

BLITZER: You know, Carrie, I just want to follow up, because in the wake of this Venezuela raid, which we all watched, President Trump has now issued fresh threats to other governments, including some of them, Mexico, Cuba, Columbia, Iran, even Greenland, which is part of Denmark, a NATO ally. What does that say to our allies and what comes next?

CORDERO: Well, there is different legal national security arguments that could be made for changing U.S. policy with respect to any of those. So, the arguments that the -- obviously, Greenland is a separate instance from the issues that are in Central and South America. Greenland has a strategic position and there is a longstanding partnership with the governance that is there to provide U.S. access to Greenland for military and defensive purposes in that region.

In Latin and South America, the difference is that it pertains to what is the United States' policy as to drug trafficking. And for a long time, you know, I and some other commentators have been suggesting that if the United States' objective was really to go after drug trafficking and fentanyl in particular, then all of the U.S. effort would've been geared towards Mexican cartels because those are the primary traffickers of fentanyl in particular, which has killed so many thousands of Americans. So, it -- then the president's statements have focused on oil, as, Wolf, we were discussing over the weekend after the operation.

So, the United States really, from the administration's perspective, needs to get its story more consistent in terms of what its national security objectives are before we go out and are threatening to conduct a military activity against a variety of allies.

BLITZER: Including a NATO ally. But let me just follow up quickly on that, Carrie, while I have you. If the U.S. were to use military action to try to take over Greenland, which is part of Denmark, a NATO ally, would that be a violation of the NATO charter, Article 5, an attack on any NATO ally is an attack on all of the NATO allies?

CORDERO: I think there's a real question as to whether our NATO partners would certainly interpret it that way. I mean, the president's continued threats and this administration's threats against Greenland is -- the NATO alliance was already under significant stress and he is adding to that significantly. And it could be tamped down simply by diplomatic statements and saying, no, actually, we're not going to do that. And the fact that administration officials continue to push that line and continue to raise the issue of potentially engaging in military action with respect to Greenland is, I think, stressing the NATO alliance too.

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It's a really far point.

BROWN: Yes. Even as you, you hear, you know, from Stephen Miller, a top White House official, telling our Jake Tapper --

BLITZER: He posted a picture of Greenland with an American flag over the entire island.

BROWN: Right. And he also said that no one would fight the U.S. militarily over Greenland. So, there's still a lot of questions over that and there's a lot of questions, Elliot, about whether the U.S. has violated international laws as it pertains to that military mission into a sovereign country. What do you think about that and what would the repercussions be? I mean, who decides whether it's a violation and where is the accountability?

ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, there's a few different questions in there. Number one, who decides, ultimately the international community decides. But then there's a question of what power does the international community have to sanction the United States, right? So, there's that broader question.

In the immediate question, certainly, Maduro, Nicolas Maduro, will challenge his indictment on the basis of the violation of the sovereignty of his country.

BLITZER: I see Trump has now gone up to the stage. He's about to begin his speech. Let's listen in.

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: I do love that song, but we got to get to business. I love that song. But I want to thank you all. You're special people and I want to -- I would just say that, you know, I announced I was coming over here and I said, I love those Republicans, and I meant it. I said, except for maybe a couple. I don't love them. But the people in this room, I don't know if those couple are here. I don't know. I don't care if they're here or not, but we love you and you've done an amazing. You've done an amazing job. You love the country. You're doing what's right for the country.

And I want to wish everybody a Happy New Year, the most successful House Republican majority in decades, and we did it with not a big majority, right? This was not a, that was not a big majority, but it's a unified majority and it's people that know what it takes to make America great again.

So, together, we had 12 months of unprecedented success in 2025, and now we're going to make history and break records with the epic midterm victory that we're going to pull off. It just doesn't seem to happen for people that win the presidency. It's an amazing phenomena, you know, you win the presidency and we sure as hell are having a successful presidency, I will say that.

But even if it's a successful presidency, it's been nothing like what we are doing. We had a very good day two days ago too. But even if it's successful, they don't win. I don't know what it is. There's something psychological like you vote against. You can win by a lot. We won every swing state. We won the popular vote by millions. We won everything. But they say that when you win the presidency, you lose the midterm.

So, you are all brilliant people. Most of you're in this business longer than me. That makes me smarter than you, because look where I am, right? No, it doesn't. But I wish you could explain to me what the hell's going on with the mind of the public, because we have the right policy. They don't, they have horrible policy. They do stick together. They're violent, they're vicious. You know, they're vicious people, and they stick together like glue. They don't have a couple of the people that we have, a couple of people, not too many, really very few.

And that's why I want to just say that before we go any further, I want to express our tremendous sorrow at the loss of a great member, a great, great, great member, Congressman Doug LaMalfa, who passed away yesterday, as you probably have heard. And he was the leader of the Western Caucus, a fierce champion on California water issues. He was great on water. He wanted release the water, he'd scream at him, and a true defender of American children. He was a defender of everybody. And our hearts go out to his wife, Jill, and his entire family.

You know, he voted with me 100 percent of the time. And, by the way, he wasn't a 3:00 in the morning person. Do you know what I mean by that? Where the speaker goes, sir, could you call up? Could you call? I said, what time is it, Speaker? Sir, it's 3:00 in the morning. Could you make a couple of calls? How many? Nine.

So, I'd start calling, I'd start calling 3:00 in the morning, I said, like I shouldn't use any names. I'm just going to create problems. But hi, Jim, and I'm not talking about Jim Jordan had never had a call 3:00 in the morning for him, but I'd say, hi, Jim, how you doing? I just called to say hello. You know, 3:00, okay, sir. Sir, you haven't spoken to me in three years and it's now 3:00 in the morning. So, I know what you want. You want my vote.

And usually they'd almost always, they'd give it, but they wanted to be called. And with Doug, I never had to call. He was with us right from the beginning.

[10:15:01]

I love those guys. I must say I probably love them the best. You know, the guys that I don't have to call, they know we're doing the right thing. I have a couple that are going to be with us all the way, but they just want the call. They want love. They need love. They're more insecure than a lot, most of you. It's true. No, most of you are secure people. Don't -- you're all laughing. No, most of you are secure people.

I had a couple say, look, I could have Trump call me all the time. I just have to break his ass a little bit and he'll be calling, calling, calling. But I appreciate those. We actually had a little party. We opened up a beautiful section of the White House in the Rose Garden and we had a party for all of those people that I never speak to and vote for me.

And, you know, I spoke to Doug but I didn't speak to him about, I mean, never had a problem. And I was really saddened by his passing and was thinking about not even doing the speech in his honor, but then I decided that I have to do it in his honor. I'll do it in his honor because he would've wanted it that way. He would've wanted that way. He would've said, do that speech. Are you kidding me? Do this speech, big guy.

But he was a fantastic person, man, that, that was a quick one. I don't know. I don't know quite yet what happened, but, boy, it's a tough one. He was just with us. He was our friend, all of us, every one of us.

And I also want to send our best wishes to Congress and Jim Baird and his wife, who are recovering from a car accident, they're going to be okay. But they had a pretty bad accident. And we're praying that they get out of that hospital very quickly. He's going to be fine. She's going to be fine. But it was a bad accident.

And I want to thank the man who has been central to so many of our triumphs. He really has been. He's the guy that would call me to make those calls all the time. He is always working and he's a nice person. You know, he's a very nice -- he's a high quality person. But I would tell you he's a very tough cookie. I've seen both sides. Not often do I have to see the other side because he's just -- by nature, he's a very fine, religious -- I like that. He's a religious person. I like that. I like religious people. It usually means they're more honest. Sometimes it doesn't happen that way. I've had the -- I've had some real religious ones that did numbers on me and I said, I'm going to get them someday. They got me by surprise, but it's usually good, okay, right? And his name is Mike Johnson, Speaker Mike Johnson.

He has my complete and total endorsement. Stand up, Speaker.

So, you know, but it is true. A lot of times they'll say, I wish Mike were tougher. Tougher. He's tough. He's tough as anybody in the room, actually, but can't be tough when you have a majority of three. And now, sadly, a little bit less than that. I mean, a little bit less than that maybe, but you can't be Trump. You can't -- I want -- you know, you make 10 enemies, 20 enemies, that's the end of that, right? Everybody loves him.

I would say there's one person he's given up on. I mean, I think it is just -- he just gave up on this guy. He's so bad, he never votes for us. But no matter how good, he won't vote for us. There's a sickness there, you know? There's something wrong. You can have the greatest bill, the greatest for the country, forget about for Republicans, great, great, great for the country, I'm a no vote. We don't even bother calling him.

But I want to thank another guy because he went through something that none of us have gone through. I went through a little shot, but I get that throbbing feeling every once in a while. But what he went through was incredible, and that's Steve Scalise. He got hit hard. Where, Steve? Steve?

He's a tough cookie. He was dead. I went to the hospital. His wife was crying so much. He was a mess. Oh, yes, yes, she loves you. That's the only thing I learned about Steve, that he has a wife who loves him, because I've gone to hospitals where guys are in bad shape and the wife couldn't care less. She's waiting. She's looking for the next guy. Who's the next guy down the pike? Who the hell is the next guy? He's died. I said, that's so bad. Oh, yes.

I had one where the dog died and the husband died at the same time. I said, it's so, so much. She couldn't give a damn. The guy left her a fortune. Can you imagine?

[10:20:00]

He shouldn't have left her anything, but she was much more concerned -- it's true. Oh, the dog was devastated. The husband, he was like an afterthought. Your wife loves you Steve. She's a great wife.

Another one who has a great wife, Jackie, is Tom Emmer, right? Look at you. You have a great wife, but you haven't been tested like these guys. You have been -- we don't want to test her, right? She's incredible. She's a strong, beautiful, great person. She's a great person. She actually liked me at the beginning when we were having little fights. We weren't even having fights. We just didn't know each other. We didn't know each other. And I heard he said something negative about me. He was sort of right about the subject. But you're not supposed to say ever, even though you're right.

But Jackie was saying, I'm telling you, he's a great guy. She was fighting for me. And now I love this guy. He's great. Jackie's right about -- she was right about both of us, I think, right? But Tom has been incredible. He's incredible at what he does, and he's a great team player.

Your conference chair, Lisa McClain, is so strong and powerful and beautiful, and thank you, Lisa. Thank you. Thank you.

And I think they're broadcast. You know, we said we don't care if the press comes or not. So, when I say that, that means they're broadcasting all this and I'm letting my feelings out because it's true. I feel that way about so many people in the room. I could say it about many of the people in the room, some I don't know as well, but many of the people in the room. They're incredible people. You're incredible what you're doing.

We also have another one, Richard Hudson, chairman, NRCC. Richard's always in there, always with a smile. No matter what's happening, Richard, he always has a smile. He's always just a positive guy, smart and positive. Thank you, Richard. I really appreciate it. You do a great job.

Republican Policy Committee Chairman Kevin Hern, Kevin? Where are you, Kevin? Thank you, Kevin. Thank you. You've done a great job, every one of you. You got to be proud of yourselves.

And, basically, the entire House Republican Conference, it's been really amazing what you've done. And we're going to give you some ammunition today. I said, I'd love to make a speech too. The speaker asked me, would you make a speech? I said, sure. You think Biden would do that? Would you make a speech? What? First of all, his people wouldn't ask him to make a speech because it never worked out well, right? He could never find the exits. You finish, look, stare here, stare there, stare here. You could jump off the front if you had to. No matter what he did, he got himself into trouble.

So, basically, they didn't ask him to, but if he did, it wouldn't be good. But it's good with me because, you know, we have so much ammunition. We have ammunition. The problem is the fake news. That's why I like being on, I'd much rather do live television than do non- live because like when they say as an example in my speech, peacefully and patriotically to the Capitol, peacefully and patriotic.

Do you know that the unselect committee didn't report it, that I said those words? Do you know that the news never reported the words walk or march peacefully and patriotically to the Capitol? Do you know they never reported it? Scandal, the unselect committee never reported that. They never reported that Nancy Pelosi was offered 10,000 soldiers, National Guard Soldiers, whatever you want. No, I don't want them. And the mayor, the mayor's (INAUDIBLE), she was more honorable about it.

But Nancy got caught when her daughter did a documentary. She's a documentary, yes. And she has her mother saying, it's my fault, I should have taken to soldiers or something. Like I saw that in the documentary, I said, whoa, this was a major story. Has she spoken to her daughter since then, you know?

But we -- but they just, you know, they are vicious people, even on the attack. And it was an amazing military feat that took place yesterday. Think of it, an amazing military. The people are saying -- well, thank you.

[10:25:00]

You know, people are saying it's, it goes down with one of the most incredible -- it was so complex, 152 airplanes. Many talk about boots on the ground. We had a lot of boots on the ground. But it was amazing. And think of it, nobody was killed. And on the other side, a lot of people were killed. Unfortunately, I say that, soldiers, Cubans, mostly Cubans, but many, many killed. And they were -- they knew we were coming and they were protected and our guys weren't. You know, our guys are jumping out of helicopters and you're not protected. And they were -- but it was so brilliant.

The electricity for almost the entire country was, boom, turned off. That's when they knew there was a problem. There was no electricity. Caracas said, there's no electricity. It's not a -- the only people with lights were the people that had candles was just off. So, we sort of got him a little by surprise. But it was a brilliant -- it was brilliant tactically. It was an incredible thing.

But I watched where Schumer -- he's such a bad guy. I mean, I've known the guy for a long time and he's such a bad guy. You know, at some point, they should say, you know, you did a great job. Thank you. Congratulations. Wouldn't it be good? I would say that if they did a good job, their philosophies are so different, but if they did a good job, I'd be happy for the country.

They've been after this guy for years and years and years, and, you know, he's a violent guy. He gets up there and he tries to imitate my dance a little bit, but he's a violent guy. And he's killed millions of people. He's tortured -- they have a torture chamber in the middle of Caracas that they're closing up. But he's tortured people. And now what they do, the radical left, they actually have people, and it's hard to get them. They're all paid people. Most of these people are paid. You know, they're paid when they have brand new, beautiful, printed signs by like the highest quality printer. And you have a woman, free Maduro. And the sign is, before we even did the attack, she goes, free Maduro. Why do you want him freed? I don't know, but he should be free. Oh, she reads the sign. What does that say? It says free -- well, that's what I believe.

And, you know, you see the sign, it's like, Lisa, we should all have quality signage like that. The one thing I want, I want their sign maker. The guy is -- he does beautiful signage. You know, the old days was better when they used to write out their own sign, wasn't it? They'd make a sign in the basement. They'd have an old broken board holding up a sign and it's made with a magic marker, sloppy as hell, and it meant something. But today, when you have that yellow and black, they should use different colors a little bit. But the yellow is a beautiful shade of yellow. No, I want to find out who that is. I want him to work for the Republican campaign. He's much better than our guy, whoever the guy is.

But the United States proved once again that we have the most powerful, most lethal, most sophisticated, and most fearsome, it's a fearsome military on Planet Earth, and it's not even close. You know, I've been saying it for a long time. Nobody can take us. Nobody -- we don't want it to have a discussion, but you read all and you see everything else. Nobody could have done that. Nobody has our weapons. Nobody has the quality of our weapons. The problem is we don't produce them fast enough. We're going to start producing them much faster. We're going to be very tough on the companies.

We have the best weapons in the world, but it takes too long to get them, including allies, when allies want to buy them, and they have to wait four years for a plane, five years for a helicopter. We're not letting that happen anymore. We're telling our defense contractors, you're going to start building faster.

You know, a guy makes -- I have a big problem with it. I'm the king -- I have sold more Boeings than any human being on Earth. They gave me award, salesman of the year. I said, what about salesman in the history of Boeing? I've sold more Boeing planes than any man in history by far, probably over a thousand planes. I said, that's the good news. But why should they wait three, four years to get a plane? They should build them, get them immediately.

The F 35s, it takes too long to get them. The Apache helicopter, I mean, I had India coming to me, sir, I've been waiting five years. We're changing it. We're changing it. India ordered 68 Apaches and Prime Minister Modi came to see me. Sir, may I see you, please? Yes. I have a very good relationship with him. He's not that happy with me because, you know, they're paying a lot of tariffs now because they're not doing the oil, but they are. They've now reduced it very substantially, as you know, from Russia.

We are getting rich because of tariffs, by the way. I hope everyone understands that. They hate to report it. We're going to have over $650 billion poured into our country or coming in shortly because of tariffs. You know, they're finding all of these pockets of money.

[10:30:00]

A couple of weeks ago, sir, we're off by $39 billion. Oh, is that good or bad?