Return to Transcripts main page

The Situation Room

International Holocaust Remembrance Day; Landmark Social Media Trial; Covert U.S. Operations Inside Venezuela?; Trump Administration Sidelines Bovino. Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired January 27, 2026 - 11:30   ET

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

[11:30:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:34:01]

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: We are following the breaking news out of Minnesota, where President Trump's border czar, Tom Homan, is expected to take over the immigration crackdown from top Border Patrol official Gregory Bovino.

The state's Democratic attorney general, Keith Ellison, said this about the leadership change.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEITH ELLISON (D), MINNESOTA ATTORNEY GENERAL: We're going to carry out our suits because we need to get some law on the books, because, even if they do stop the surge, they can resurge, right? And so we have got to make sure that we get a good -- we get some good law in place to govern their conduct.

But I do think it's a good thing if the administration, I mean, the Trump administration, recognizes that Mr. Bovino's leadership has failed and he needs to be switched out. I hope Homan, who has a background in policing, will use that and maybe things will be better.

But, again, Mr. Homan's not known as a soft touch either and is known for his hard-line tactics. So I guess the future just has to unfold. And we will see what happens next.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[11:35:09]

BROWN: Let's bring in CNN senior legal analyst and former federal prosecutor Elie Honig.

Hi, Elie.

So you write in this new piece that the Trump administration is spewing -- quote -- "legal garbage" on the fatal shootings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good. Explain what you mean by that. ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: So, Pam, I wrote the piece

because, when public officials offer us factual falsehoods, they're fairly easy to detect. You can see the videos from many angles and judge for yourself.

But when they offer up legal fallacies, that can be a little more subtle. So I wanted to call out some of the main legal falsehoods we have been hearing from the administration. I will give you a couple of examples.

First of all, we hear many administration officials trying to label Alex Pretti and Renee Good as -- quote -- "domestic terrorists." In the article, I lay out the definition of domestic terrorism as it's in federal law and argue and show that these people are nothing even remotely close to the actual definition of domestic terrorism.

I will also talk about the fact we know that J.D. Vance had said at one point that federal law enforcement officials enjoy absolute immunity. And in the article, I point out that is false. They enjoy a narrower form of immunity called qualified immunity.

And one last example, we have heard a lot of falsehoods about what the Second Amendment does and does not protect. But the fact of the matter here is, Alex Pretti possessed and carried that firearm lawfully under Minnesota law.

You are allowed to carry a firearm on you at a protest. And carrying a firearm does not justify the use of legal force by law enforcement. So the law tends to be a little more malleable than the facts, but even the law does reach a breaking point.

BROWN: And when it comes to these administration officials and what they have said in the media and publicly, you could lie, right? I mean, there's no -- it's different when you're in the public forum versus in the court of law, where you have penalty of perjury and that kind of thing and you're swearing an oath.

Let's dive into the specifics here. A federal appeals court yesterday declined to reinstate a judge's order that aimed to put guardrails on how federal agents can operate around protesters in Minnesota. How will that impact what the situation in Minneapolis looks like?

HONIG: So, the Court of Appeals ruled yesterday that the district court judge, the trial court judge, when she issued an order basically that is this blanket forward-looking order saying, well, here's some things that ICE officers must do and here's some things that they may not do, the Court of Appeals said the problem with that is, the order is overbroad and it's too vague and it leaves us without clear direction.

So, for example, the order by the district court judge says that ICE may not retaliate against people for exercising their First Amendment rights. Well what exactly does that mean? What if a person is holding up a street sign and obstructing officers? Can that person be arrested? Is that retaliating? Now -- and so the Supreme -- excuse me -- the Court of Appeals said

that order is invalid. Now, if people are wondering, well, can there still be accountability, the answer is yes. And the Court of Appeals says these cases have to be handled case by case because the specific facts of each case are really what matters.

And what you can't do is just issue a blanket order saying, here's how things are going to work on the streets.

BROWN: And another judge, Elie, did not make an immediate decision on whether to order the Trump administration to suspend its Minnesota operation. Did that surprise you at all?

HONIG: No, not at all. It's actually the same judge, believe it or not, but it's a different case, Judge Menendez in Minnesota.

The request from the state of Minnesota to essentially suspend ICE, to throw them out or to prevent them from doing the surge, that is not going to succeed. Federal judges just do not have the authority to say ICE cannot do its job in a certain neighborhood or a certain state.

BROWN: Yes.

HONIG: I would think that it's possible this judge will maybe issue another order limiting or being careful about saying, here's what you can do, here's what you cannot do, ICE.

BROWN: Yes.

HONIG: However, this judge just got reversed, so she might take a lesson from that and issue a more specific, more narrow order moving forward.

BROWN: Very quickly, what's the deal with Pam Bondi, the A.G., asking the Minnesota secretary of state for voter rolls and tying it to the immigration enforcement? What is going on there, Elie?

HONIG: So, first of all, Pam Bondi has been mysteriously AWOL through all of this. She's the attorney general of the United States, has barely been heard from.

This request for voter rolls, it's just a non sequitur. It's just a proposed exchange of two things that have nothing to do with one another. So I'm highly dubious of that request. And I think Pam Bondi has shown a real failure of leadership here. She's left the reins to Todd Blanche. Todd Blanche has made many of the misstatements that I talked about at the beginning of this segment.

And it's not a good moment for the Justice Department.

BROWN: Elie Honig, thank you, as always.

HONIG: Thanks, Pam.

BROWN: Wolf. WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: And just ahead, exclusive CNN new reporting:

covert U.S. operations inside Venezuela. What the Trump administration is now planning just three weeks after capturing that nation's leader.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:44:23]

BLITZER: Now we want to bring you a CNN exclusive.

Less than a month after the U.S. forces captured then-President Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela, CNN has learned that the CIA is quietly working to try to establish a permanent U.S. presence there. Multiple sources familiar with the planning tell CNN the spy agency and the State Department are focused on what the U.S. footprint in Venezuela will look like.

CNN senior national security reporter Zachary Cohen is here with me in THE SITUATION ROOM.

Zach, walk us through your new reporting. What is the Trump administration's goal?

ZACHARY COHEN, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Yes, Wolf, broadly speaking, the goal here is to establish a foothold inside Venezuela on the ground, a place where the U.S. can project influence from within the country.

[11:45:05]

And that obviously comes after that dramatic operation to capture former President Nicolas Maduro, thus installing now-acting President Delcy Rodriguez. And the Trump administration has made very clear that it wants the new leadership inside Venezuela to act according to its demands and in the U.S.' best interests.

And that's something that the CIA in particular will have a role in essentially monitoring from inside Venezuela itself. I'm told that there are ongoing planning, discussions between the CIA and the State Department about what the long-term and short-term physical U.S. presence in Venezuela will look like.

And it appears that much of the heavy lifting on that front will fall to the CIA, at least in the near term. Now, Donald Trump has said he wants to reopen the U.S. Embassy in Caracas, but, due to the unstable security situation and the ongoing political transition, it may require the CIA setting up an annex first with -- in which U.S. officials can work from, starting to make those contacts within both the Venezuelan government and the intelligence apparatus.

Those are channels through which U.S. officials can sort of wield that influence. And that's a task the CIA has traditionally, especially in Latin America, really shown that it has a lot of experience in. And that's something, again, that we expect to see replicated in Venezuela. One source putting it to me this way, State -- like, the State Department plants the flag, but CIA is really the influence. So, that sort of tells you what the priority there is for the agency, at least in the near term.

BLITZER: All right, thanks very much, Zachary Cohen, reporting for us. Appreciate it very, very much -- Pamela.

BROWN: All right, Wolf coming up: Did big tech companies design social media to be addictive? It's a question a jury will soon decide.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:50:50]

BLITZER: Happening today, jury selection is about to begin in Los Angeles, where a 19-year-old woman and her mother are suing Meta and YouTube.

The plaintiffs claim the companies knowingly created addictive features that harmed the teen's mental health and led to self-harm and suicidal thoughts.

BROWN: CNN tech reporter Clare Duffy joins us from L.A.

Clare, we're hearing that TikTok settled last night ahead of the trial. What more do we know?

CLARE DUFFY, CNN TECH REPORTER: Yes, I am here outside of Los Angeles superior court, where jury selection is kicking off this morning in this first trial over claims that social media platforms have harmed young users.

This 19-year-old known as KGM filed this lawsuit against Meta, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube, accusing their platforms of addicting her and causing her mental health harms. It led to social -- led suicide thoughts and self-harm. And she is now claiming that these platforms, as many families have talked about, have harmed her mental health.

Now, we just got word that TikTok settled this lawsuit last night. Snapchat also settled the lawsuit last week. So, this trial is going to be against YouTube and Meta. And we are expecting executives of the companies, including Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, to testify here.

And this is really a huge moment for the parents and families and advocates who for years have called for more guidelines and more accountability from these social media platforms. Now, it will be up to the jury in this case to decide if these platforms really did knowingly addict and harm young users.

At this trial, this KGM trial is really going to set a precedent here for more than 1,000 cases that have been filed by parents and families, so really huge ramifications here. This trial is set to last several weeks, and we will be watching closely as this plays out.

BLITZER: Clare Duffy, thank you very, very much.

And we will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:57:10]

BROWN: Eighty-one years ago today, Soviet soldiers liberated the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp. January 7 has since been designated International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

BLITZER: It's a day set aside to make sure the world never forgets the six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust and the millions of others affected by Nazi persecution.

And it's a deeply personal situation for so many people, including me, as the child of Holocaust survivors. Here's a closer look at how victims and survivors were honored today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(MUSIC)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's been almost 100 years since I experienced and the Jewish population experienced these horrors, and it's fading in the memory of people. It's superseded by other events in the world. But Auschwitz is a unique experience in the Western world. And so I think it has to be remembered.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: And, Wolf, I know that this day is a really important day for you, as you reflect on your ancestors who were killed in the Holocaust.

BLITZER: I think about that all the time, especially on this important day. And it's really encouraging that people remember and honor the victims, remember those who were murdered, and never forget, as we say.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: And, to our viewers, thanks very much for joining us this morning. You can always keep up with us on social media @WolfBlitzer and @PamelaBrownCNN.

[12:00:05]

BROWN: And, of course, we will see you back here tomorrow morning and every weekday morning at 10:00 Eastern.

"INSIDE POLITICS" with our friend and colleague Dana Bash starts right now.