Return to Transcripts main page

The Situation Room

Federal Agents Search Home of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN); Trump's Facing Bipartisan Backlash Over U.S.-Russia Diesel Deal; ICE Tactics Under Scrutiny After Violent Encounters in New York and Texas. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired October 12, 2026 - 10:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:00:00]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, diesel deal blowback. The Trump administration facing bipartisan backlash this morning with some warning the deal is defying federal law.

And we're also hearing new reaction this morning from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy about President Trump's so-called energy ceasefire.

Plus, new video shows the terrifying moment a Saudi airport was hit in a deadly Houthi attack.

And flash flooding. Concerns remain in the Southwest as rain soaks the region.

Plus, Pope Leo announces surgery to remove a lung nodule. We're live from Rome with the latest.

Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer. Pamela Brown is on assignment. You're in The Situation Room.

All that coming up, but we're following some major breaking news right now. This morning, federal agents have launched a search at the home of Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar.

Let's go live to CNN's Katelyn Polantz, who's working the story for us. Katelyn, what are you learning?

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, the Justice Department spokesperson who's confirmed this already indicating that it is immigration related and that it is a likely criminal investigation here.

This is the statement from the Justice Department this morning. Today in the Washington, D.C. area, Homeland Security Investigations executed a judicially authorized search warrant secured by the Department of Justice.

This enforcement action is part of an ongoing federal criminal investigation, a federal criminal investigation that involves Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota a Democrat who has been in Congress since 2018 and who is running again.

Wolf, we are about -- we are less than a month until the election. Early voting has begun in the United States for the midterm elections of Congress. This is a really unusual step for the Justice Department and Homeland Security investigators to be taking because this is not just an average person. This is someone who is a member of Congress and who is running for reelection.

What do we know about this investigation? There is very little else that is out there as far as detail, although the White House and other Republicans have been critical of Omar for some time now. She was born in Somalia and became a U.S. citizen after immigrating here. And there is some indication that there could be an immigration violation under investigation.

Here's a little bit more from White House Border Czar Tom Homan, who was asked about this search this morning on Fox News.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM HOMAN, WHITE HOUSE BORDER CZAR: We know this investigation was ongoing for a while. There was a warrant executed this morning. So, I'll leave it at that. The specifics of the investigation, I think I need to get turn that over to Todd Blanche or my friend, Mullin. I don't want to get ahead of them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

POLANTZ: Also very unusual, Wolf, to hear any member of an administration commenting on an ongoing investigation where there has not been, I mean, any criminal charges filed or any end result. We're waiting to see what else we can learn this morning about Representative Omar and what this investigation exactly may entail. Although, we do believe it would involve some level of immigration enforcement. Wolf?

BLITZER: Dramatic development indeed. We'll stay in close touch with you, Katelyn. Thank you very, very much.

I want to get to the weekend right now and the backlash. It's a whiplash that's involving President Trump and Russia's war in Ukraine. The president is facing very fierce blowback right now after making a shocking diesel deal with the Kremlin. It's the president's latest attempt to drive down energy prices just ahead of the midterm elections. But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are warning that President Trump is handing Russian President Vladimir Putin a financial lifeline while Russian missiles are killing Ukrainian civilians.

[10:05:05]

Yesterday, President Trump took things a step further, announcing what he described as an immediate, quote, energy ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine. This morning, President Zelenskyy says Russia has already violated that surprise ceasefire, if in fact it's a ceasefire, by launching new strikes, hitting a power plant in the Kharkiv area of Ukraine overnight.

Joining us now is CNN Senior White House Reporter Kevin Liptak and CNN Political and Global Affairs Analyst Barak Ravid.

Kevin, you first. What is the White House saying about all of these dramatic developments?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Right. And this energy ceasefire that the president announced yesterday seemed to have come as a surprise to Zelenskyy, who said he hadn't heard anything about it before the president announced it, but also the Kremlin has not confirmed that it will participate in any such truce. And, in fact, what Zelenskyy has said since then is that Russia continues to target some of its power infrastructure. And so just how real this energy ceasefire is remains to be seen.

But it is clear that the president is looking both to bring down diesel prices in the United States, but also looking for someone to blame for the higher diesel prices in the United States, and that person seems to be Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

The president fiercely critical of the Ukrainian leader over the weekend. You know, I asked him about the criticism of this diesel deal, and he really lashed out at Zelenskyy saying that the U.S. had asked Ukraine over and over again to halt its attacks on Russian diesel refineries, but that the Ukrainians had refused, and even going as far as saying that Ukraine should now elect a new president.

So, really kind of a remarkable swing of the pendulum in the president's really hot and cold relationship with Zelenskyy. But at this point it's not really clear that any ceasefire is in effect, or that any steps that the president has taken so far, including that deal with Vladimir Putin will have a meaningful effect on diesel prices here in the U.S.

BLITZER: Barak, I know you had a chance to speak with President Zelenskyy when this so-called energy ceasefire deal was announced. What did he tell you?

BARAK RAVID, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, I spoke to President Zelenskyy twice in the last few days. The first time was right after, you know, this diesel deal was announced. And, you know, he was pretty shocked at the time, calling it unfair, not honest, and a gift for Vladimir Putin. But he was at least as shocked by the announcement that -- yesterday that there's an energy ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine. He heard it from Trump's Truth Social post, and he knew nothing about it before.

And what President Zelenskyy told me is that, you know, I'm ready for a ceasefire, but just, you know, he wanted President Trump and the White House to tell him what hour the ceasefire begins so that he can order his forces to stop.

And I think, or at least what I heard from White House officials yesterday was that what the president was talking about was not what Zelenskyy's talking about. Zelenskyy's talking about a ceasefire that means Ukraine doesn't hit refineries, doesn't hit any energy infrastructure in Russia, and in return, Russia doesn't hit any energy infrastructure in Ukraine, including power plants and electrical grid.

What President Trump was talking about is that both Russia and Ukraine will stop targeting each other's refineries. The only difference is that Ukraine has only one refinery that has been attacked numerous times by Russia and is not really functional. Russia has numerous refineries. So, it's not really a balanced deal.

And therefore, I think that at least for now, first we did not hear from Russia that it's even ready for such a very, very, very narrow ceasefire, just a refinery for refinery. Even that the Russians did not say yes. And not to mention a wider deal that the Russians don't seem to want.

BLITZER: It was interesting, President Zelenskyy actually criticized this so-called diesel deal with Russia. And then President Trump started calling for a new leader for Ukraine. Now, what does this deal mean for Ukraine and for the European allies who are supporting Ukraine?

RAVID: Is it, you're asking me, Wolf?

BLITZER: Yes. Go ahead, Barak.

RAVID: Yes, sorry. Yes, sorry. So, I think that both the Ukrainians and the European countries who were at the meeting in Miami the Germans, the French, the Brits, representatives of NATO, the E.U., they were all in the meeting in Miami on Friday when they were told by the U.S. side, listen, the president's talking to Putin now, and in an hour there's going to be an announcement that we're lifting sanctions and to allow diesel exports from Russia to the U.S.

[10:10:26]

They were all shocked. And I think they're still trying to figure out what exactly happened.

And, obviously, they oppose this deal vehemently, and they think that all this deal is going to do is going to give Vladimir Putin more money to pay for more weapons, more missiles, more drones, in order to continue the war against Ukraine. This is how the Ukrainians see it. This is how the Europeans see it.

BLITZER: And the president can unilaterally end these sanctions, go into a new deal with Russia even though Congress passed sanctions against Russia, is that right?

RAVID: Well, I think that's still a question because the president signed just, I think, several weeks ago, the Lindsey Graham law to impose more sanctions on Russia, and it was sanctions about oil, oil things. And apparently this decision to do this diesel deal with Russia is contradictory to this law.

So, again, I'm not a legal expert, but I think, you know, there are a lot of questions on whether it's even possible.

BLITZER: And whether it's even legal, to be sure.

All right, Barak Ravid, thank you very much.

Kevin, let me get another question to you while I still have you. I know there's some new reporting on Kimberly Guilfoyle's role as the United States Ambassador to Greece. She's facing a lot of massive allegations about essentially selling access to the administration and taking lavish gifts before she was even confirmed. What are your sources telling you now? What's the latest on this?

LIPTAK: Yes. And there are a lot of Trump allies who view this as kind of an embarrassing scandal for them. And now I understand from a person familiar that the president is considering potentially firing her from that job. He hasn't appeared to make a decision on that front just yet, but, clearly, these reports have made their way to the president.

You know, I asked him about it on Friday, and his response was pretty lukewarm. He offered no real defense of Guilfoyle, just saying that she was a nice person.

Now, her lawyers have actually put out a lengthy statement this morning saying that on the question of this Trump donor who she was asking to pay off her $100,000 American Express bill, she says -- or her lawyers say that she was actually just trying to collect a debt for services provided to him. They also say that when it comes to these private airplane flights that she accepted from Greek shipping magnates, that those were cleared through the State Department's ethics department.

But nonetheless, this is all becoming, I think, a problem for President Trump and the White House. One of the reasons that they are so frustrated by it is that these allegations emerged as Marco Rubio was in Greece delivering a speech about democracy from the Acropolis, and I'm told that Rubio will be involved in the decision on whether to dismiss her from this job.

BLITZER: We'll see how long she lasts, if she -- in fact, she lasts at all.

Kevin Liptak reporting for us, thank you very, very much.

Still ahead, attorneys for the man shot by ICE agents in New York say he's enduring, quote, horrific conditions while in detention. What the New York City mayor and the Department of Homeland Security secretary, Mark Mullin, are now saying about the case.

And later, caught on camera, a trooper and good Samaritan jump into action to rescue a driver from a sinking car.

Stay with us. You're in The Situation Room.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [10:15:00]

BLITZER: Happening now, ICE tactics under more scrutiny after violent encounters in New York and Houston. Lawyers for 28-year-old Oscar Belgal say he's in solitary confinement with a bullet still lodged inside his neck. ICE agents shot the Dominican man as he was driving with his five-year-old son in the backseat. The New York City mayor, Zohran Mamdani, has repeatedly condemned the ICE agency, calling for it to be dismantled. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR ZOHRAN MAMDANI (D-NEW YORK CITY, NY): We are talking about a federal agency that shot at a moving vehicle in broad daylight while its agents were wearing construction vests, using long guns, and left New Yorkers in terror.

What New Yorkers want to see is an end to ICE operations across our city. That is something that I made clear directly to the president. That is something I made clear directly to the secretary.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: All right. Let's go live right now to CNN Correspondent Priscilla Alvarez. She's been working this story. She's got new details. What else are you learning from his attorneys, for example, Priscilla?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, we are learning more about the condition of Oscar Belgal, a 28-year-old Dominican national who was the target of this operation that you referenced and that the mayor referenced there.

So, let me read you the statement from the attorney. It says, while he is currently in solitary confinement, a bullet remains lodged in his neck. The left side of his face is numb, and he can barely hear out of his left ear. Doctors have told him he urgently needs surgery, but that the procedure was too dangerous to perform Thursday evening without a specialized surgeon present.

Although he was instructed to return to the hospital this week, he has been left in the dark about whether that surgery will even happen.

[10:15:00]

He is also suffering from a shoulder wound caused by shattered glass during the incident.

Now, his attorneys have filed a habeas claim. They are trying to get him released from detention. That is still ongoing, though the federal judge in that case did say that he has to remain in the country while all of this unfolds, and there really is a lot still unfolding here. The Department of Homeland Security is conducting its investigation into this incident, along with the FBI.

We do know from what the secretary has said that this was an individual who was targeted before last September because he has ties to a gang and he has a criminal history, and this was another attempt to arrest him that we saw play out last week, although, of course, this time he did have his five-year-old child in the car, which agents did not know at the time. That is according to the secretary.

Of course, there are still questions as to all of the circumstances leading around it, including whether he was -- they are going to release body camera footage of those moments, and this is what the secretary told our Jake Tapper yesterday about that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: Is the ICE agent's body cam footage going to be released to the public as well? And if so, when?

MARKWAYNE MULLIN, DHS SECRETARY: I'm sure it will be. Right now, FBI and HSI are doing the investigation, so as it develops and we get all the information out correctly, we'll release the information at due time.

One thing that we have learned for sure is that we never want to get ahead of the investigation. That's even with me and the speech or the conversations that I have about it. I want to be very clear that the investigation will go through, and when we find it and we complete the investigation, we'll be very, very transparent with the public.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALVAREZ: So, the secretary indicating there that there's a possibility the body cam footage may be released in the future. Of course, the investigation is ongoing. And overall, the department continues to defend its tactics, including last Thursday when they discharged their weapon on this Dominican national.

BLITZER: And, Priscilla, there was another ICE encounter in Texas on Saturday when officials say a man was hit by a vehicle driven by ICE officers during an enforcement operation. What more can you tell us about what happened?

ALVAREZ: Well, as you said, Wolf, this was again another operation, a targeted operation, according to ICE. There was one individual specifically that they were targeting in this, but there were two people in the vehicle. Both of them fled the scene. One of them, the target of the operation, remains missing, while the other was struck by a vehicle driven by ICE agents.

Now, ICE has said that they rendered aid on the scene and that he ran in front of the vehicle. You're seeing some of the video right there on your screen.

This is another incident that's going to be under investigation. That includes the Harris County Sheriff's Office, which will be looking into this. But the condition of the man Miguel Parra-Hernandez, a Mexican national, is he has two broken legs and he was scheduled to undergo surgery. So, this is another incident that came on the heels of what happened in New York as well as many other incidents that have transpired this year where there will be an investigation unfolding and we're still trying to get answers on our questions about what exactly unfolded in all of these moments. Because, Wolf, as you know, we often get bits and pieces of these videos, but not all of the sequence of events.

BLITZER: Priscilla Alvarez, a lot going on. Thank you very, very much.

Coming up, President Trump is now weighing whether the United States will join Saudi Arabia's fight against Iran-backed Houthis after another deadly attack on a major airport, the largest airport, the major international airport in the Saudi capital Riyadh. We'll have the latest developments. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:25:00]

BLITZER: Happening now, new video shows the terrifying moment a deadly strike hit Saudi Arabia's main international airport. A warning that the video contains graphic content, that some viewers may find this video troubling.

You can see people lined up to board their flight just before moments of -- just before the moment the, the strike occurred. The blast also caused part of the ceiling to collapse. That attack by Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen was the deadliest in Saudi Arabia in more than a decade. At least 13 people were killed, including a U.S. citizen. Hundreds more were injured. The airport in Riyadh was struck a second time over the weekend and, of course, remains closed right now.

Let's go live to CNN International Diplomatic Editor Nic Robertson, who's covering all of this for us. We're learning, Nic, that President Trump is actually weighing whether to join Saudi Arabia and retaliate against Houthi targets in Yemen. How might that play out? What's the latest? What are you hearing?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: It's something the Saudis would like. They want it to be, they want to be able to project stability at the moment, stability across the country because they need international investment, and President Trump stepping in behind Saudi Arabia would be a real affirmation of that.

They want to protect -- project strength as well. Strength because Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman sees himself as one of the most powerful leaders in the region, so how can he be beaten back by these Houthis who've now had these four deadly strikes in five days on this particular airport in the capital? So, an incredibly negative message that's being seen across the region for the Saudis.

[10:30:00]

So, U.S. support, what does that look like? Well, we know the United States is already providing over 100 intelligence officers who are trying to help the Saudis provide --