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The Story Is with Elex Michaelson

DOJ Investigating Minnesota Governor, Minneapolis Mayor; Judge Bars Federal Agents From Taking Some Actions In MN; U.S. Lawmakers Meet With Leaders Of Denmark, Greenland; Trump Mulls New Tariffs On Countries Opposed To Annexation; Supporters Claim Ugandan Army Has Taken Opposition Leader; Trump's MAHA Movement Takes Aim At Birth Control Pill; NASA Prepares For Historic Artemis II Moon Rocket Rollout; Aired 1-2a ET

Aired January 17, 2026 - 01:00   ET

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

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ELEX MICHAELSON, CNN HOST: "The Story Is" DOJ investigation, Trump administration looking into the top Democratic officials in Minnesota.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This isn't a serious investigation. This is simply an effort by the administration to intimidate.

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"The Story Is" calling to abolish I.C.E. Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed is here live to make his case.

"The Story Is" social media trend. Why are so many people posting pictures from 10 years ago.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from Los Angeles. "The Story Is" with Elex Michaelson.

MICHAELSON: Welcome to "The Story Is" where it is very much. 2026. I'm Elex Michaelson, and "The Story Is" in Minnesota, where the Trump Justice Department is now investigating the state's Governor and the Mayor of Minneapolis over possible obstruction of law enforcement. Governor Tim Walz and Mayor Jacob Frey have been vocal critics of the Trump administration's crackdown on immigration and the conduct of federal immigration agents. The two leaders are condemning the probe, which they say is an effort to intimidate them.

President Trump went after both men on social media. He, along with top officials in his administration blame Minnesota's leaders for unrest in the state. A former U.S. Justice Department attorney in the Trump administration says the investigation may be an overreach by the administration, and concerns are growing over the lack of investigation into the I.C.E. officer who shot Renee Good.

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PATRICK KENT, FORMER ATTORNEY, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE: I think it's important to cut through the noise. This isn't a serious investigation. This is simply an effort by the administration to intimidate the Mayor, to intimidate the Governor, and I'll be clear, having spent quite a bit of time in Minneapolis, they will not be intimidated. They will not back down. They will see what this is. This is a weaponized DOJ and I am confident that they will exert and do everything to show exactly what occurred here is not proper and is overreach. I don't think it is in the benefit of the Mayor or the Governor to give in to what is clearly a weaponized Department of Justice. They have a message. They have a right. They have a First Amendment right to say it. They have said it. I don't think they've come remotely close to any line, and at this point, I don't know what else we're supposed to ask of them.

It is clear that there is going to be no investigation of this officer. They have already made clear that they have assured that they will do an investigation, but they already know that every -- all policies and protocols will have been filed. But what we know from the video, it's unambiguous. This was not a good shooting. This was not a lawful shooting.

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MICHAELSON: There are different perspectives on that. For more we bring in CNN, Senior Political Analyst and Bloomberg Opinion Columnist, Ron Brownstein. Ron, what is your takeaway on this investigation happening at all?

RONALD BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yeah. Well, look, I mean, as I have said, since President Trump's first term, he governs as a wartime President, with blue America, rather than any foreign adversary, as the target and the enemy. I mean, he is consistently behaving as if you use democratic officials in blue states and blue cities, not as partners in governing, but essentially as hostile forces to be subdued. And you know you look across multiple fronts, all the ways in which they are trying to cut off federal funding to blue cities and states.

The intense deployment of aggressive immigration enforcement into blue cities and states with the threat behind it of the military. And then the fact that they have arrested some local democratic and even National Members of Congress. Officials around immigration, always Elex to this point around physical actions, right? I mean people who are part of protests a judge or a judge in Milwaukee who they said, help someone evade immigration officers. This would be a major escalation from that. He threatened this kind of action in Illinois against Governor Pritzker, in California against Governor Newsom. But here they have crossed another threshold in formally beginning investigations into Democratic, Democratic Governor and a Democratic Mayor.

I would just say that all of this is setting in motion forces that I don't think they can fully control, and dangerously kind of unraveling the threads that hold together the country.

MICHAELSON: But it also may be doing something else, which is what you write in Bloomberg this week, a really interesting column. Here's the headline. This ICE crackdown is making the case for real immigration reform. Essentially, you're making the argument that this is so dramatic that it might lead to a bipartisan deal which has eluded the Congress for 40 years.

BROWNSTEIN: Yeah, I think eventually, I think it might we have a lot of disruption to go through before then.

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But if you think about how much turmoil, conflict, tension, how hard the polls have moved against the way they are doing this in just the first year, and then you try to extrapolate out doing this for three more years at a more intense velocity and persistence, right? I mean, the, you know, I -- they, from the administration's point of view, they are just beginning the campaign that they believe is in front of them. They have $75 billion of the Republican Congress allocated for I.C.E. in the one big Beautiful Bill, Asher. They want to hire 10,000 more agents. They have only arrested about 360,000 or 370,000 people, maybe and some additional number have self-deported. But there are 14 million undocumented immigrants in the country. And I think if you look at all of the damage that has been done in this first year to get to this level, I think most Americans may conclude, I think, that they are in the process of including it is just impractical, implausible, and just too much, too disruptive to try to solve this problem solely with the iron fist, and that ultimately that a more balanced and realistic approach is going to be necessary.

And there is a bipartisan bill that is emerging in the house with significant number of Democrats and Republicans sponsoring it that makes an important concession from the earlier bills that passed the Senate on a bipartisan basis in '06. And '13, it would allow people here without a criminal record who arrived before the Biden presidency to remain, but only with legal status, not citizenship. It's an important evolution and debate. It's not going to matter much while Trump was President, but it may be the foundation for movement after he's President.

MICHAELSON: Although, wouldn't it be fascinating if he got behind doing this. I mean, the sort of Nixon to China approach that, because he's been so tough on immigration, maybe he's the only person that could get his base to buy into something like this, and maybe that's ultimately his legacy. We're a long ways away from that. That does not seem to be where his head space is right now, but that would be interesting if that's where we go. Yeah, as long as but we know, not everybody always stays for the long term. So right now, Stephen Miller is the guy, but he may not always be so.

So I'm curious also for your take on big breaking news in California politics. We're both sitting in Los Angeles right now. Rick Caruso, who is a billionaire, one of the most powerful, influential people in this city had been seriously considering either running for Mayor again. He ran last time and lost to Karen Bass, or running for Governor of California. He spent a year looking at this, did lots of polling, traveled around the state, came on shows like this one, a lot of national podcasts. Everybody thought he was going to run for one of the two tonight, he decides to run for neither that he's not running at all. What do you make of that decision and where it leaves the Governor's race in the biggest state in the union?

BROWNSTEIN: Well, you know, he is now a Democrat, but he has his roots in the Republican Party. And I think, like Elise Stefanik stepping out of the New York Governor's race, it's the same message. I mean, Donald Trump is just making it impractical, implausible, untenable, really, for a blue state Republicans, even in races that you know, you might consider competitive.

Now, Caruso, as I said, have become a Democrat, but I think in this environment, there's just not going to be a lot of receptivity in blue states, for, you know, anything short of candidates who are kind of up and down the line pushing back against what Trump is doing. We talked about how Newsom has emerged in the Democratic field around that, around that message. California Governor's race is fascinating. I mean, you got, like a kind of a cast of 1000s, and yet no one has been able to assume the leading role. I mean, it just, it just seems to be a vacuum that it's just not, none of these candidates are fully able to fill. You know, you still wonder if there's someone else out there, if it's this field, it's going to be a very fractured first round of the voting.

MICHAELSON: Well, there's a lot of pressure now, on Matt Mahan, who is the Mayor of San Jose. Similar policy beliefs as Rick Caruso had to potentially jump in the race. We'll see if he does in the next few weeks. Policy, the filing deadline is coming up. Ron Brownstein of CNN and Bloomberg always great to check out his columns. Always great to talk with you. Thank you so much.

BROWNSTEIN: Thanks for having me. Good night.

MICHAELSON: Another big story, a U.S. district judge has ordered federal agents not to take certain actions during their operations in Minnesota. They're not allowed to arrest retaliate or use pepper spray or other non-lethal munitions on peaceful protesters or to stop people in their cars without cause, among other things. The order applies only in the state and stays in effect until the federal operation ends, or when conditions change, making it no longer necessary.

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The order applies only in the state and stays in effect until the federal operation ends, or when conditions change, making it no longer necessary. Anti-ice protesters kept up their demonstrations outside a federal building in Minneapolis on Friday, despite freezing weather moving into the weekend like negative 20, wind chill, freezing.

Meanwhile, a Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate in Michigan has one message amid the federal immigration crackdown, abolish I.C.E. Abdul El-Sayed is locked in one of the most competitive primaries in the country. He's up against fellow Democrats, Haley Stevens and Mallory McMorrow. Former Republican Congressman Mike Rogers is running again after losing in 2024 to Democrat Elissa Slotkin. Abdul El-Sayed live on set with us here in Los Angeles. Welcome to "The Story Is" for the first time.

ABDUL EL-SAYED, U.S. SENATE DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE, MICHIGAN: Thanks for having me. I'm really excited to be here.

MICHAELSON: Why do you want to abolish I.C.E.? And who does federal immigration enforcement if you do?

EL-SAYED: Well, look, I.C.E. is a small part of a much larger Customs and Border Protection, which is part of a much larger Homeland Security. You've got an agency here that is well beyond any sort of ability to rehab. You think about a house with mold in it. It's not saying you don't want a house. It's just saying you don't want the house with mold in it. This is an agency that you could have seen getting to this point in 2018 which is when I first called for this. Once you tell an agency that it's beyond the law, that it operates only for the interest and support of one man, it's become a paramilitary force. It's been told that it can cover its face, that it can get away with shooting a mother in the face. It has been told that it's OK to recruit people, give them very poor training, equip them with guns, and then set them loose on streets like in Minnesota, which by the way, is very far away from the southern border.

At that point, it is beyond rehab. It is beyond retraining. And so I think at this point it's clear that we have to abolish I.C.E. and rethink how we do Customs and Border Protection. But let me be clear, I do believe we have to secure our southern border. Let me be clear. I do believe that there is a role for some enforcement, but that has to be done with respect to keeping the people in this country safe in the first place, because Donald Trump has taken I.C.E. and weaponized it against the whole idea of the constitution in the first place.

MICHAELSON: So then who does that? Because when there's always been this thought about abolishing police, and then as crime happens, then people are like, OK, well, we kind of miss our police who, what does that -- what does that look like? Who's in charge of if somebody is here illegal, especially somebody with a criminal record, who's here illegally, who gets them out?

EL-SAYED: You know, before I.C.E. there was INS, this is a thing we've done for a very long time, but INS did this with respected to a certain set of parameters and barriers that were around keeping people safe in the first place. But if your whole idea is that you're keeping people safe and then shooting a mom in the face, at some point, this has run way past the notion of what we were meant to protect in the first place.

MICHAELSON: Of course they would say, then don't drive at us with a car in that situation. But obviously that's a big debate right now. Another big thing that's a sort of differentiator with you and your Senate race is you are a big believer in Medicare for all. You've literally written a book on it. You yourself are a doctor. You've been talking about this for many years. You're endorsed by Senator Bernie Sanders, who obviously is probably the biggest proponent of this policy. How do you get that done at the federal level? How do you get 60 votes in the Senate to pass Medicare for All when they could barely pass Obamacare, when they had 60 votes and it was all Democrats.

EL-SAYED: We'll just start with the basic facts here. Premiums are some of the fastest growing line items in people's budgets. This has become deeply unsustainable, and even President Obama said that the ACA was a starter home. And I think we're at a point now where we've outgrown our starter home. You look at where we are with medical debt, $225 billion I think the time is now to be thinking about how we actually make good on the promise of delivering health care for every single American in this country.

Medicare for All would do that and how to get there. I think we have to get in the business of persuading again. I think too often Democrats look at where a poll says and say, we're going to speak right to the middle of the poll. But our job in politics is not about just saying what's popular. It is about making popular what is right. And at this point, right now, as people are struggling without the health care that they need and deserve, I think we have an opportunity to go fight the righteous fight to actually guarantee public health care.

A lot of people think in the U.S. Senate, that it's a conversation between a 100 different people. It is partly that, but it's really a conversation with the 350 million people who elect us. And I want to have that conversation, because I'll tell you up and down my state, 70 different cities now, 200 public events. When I talk about Medicare for all, it's not just Democrats who are coming, it's Republicans. And when I say, hey, look, some huge corporation shouldn't get to decide to raise your premium 15 percent so their CEO can make $18 million. And that's a pretty winning argument, whether you're a Democrat or a Republican.

MICHAELSON: For a lot of folks in Michigan, they're well very familiar with you at this point. For a lot of folks on the national stage and the international stage. This show airs in 200 countries, they may not be that familiar with you. You've got quite a life story. Tell us a little bit about you and how you got to this point.

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I know in your intro ad, you sort of make fun of your own name as maybe not the perfect name for politics, but quite an American story behind you.

EL-SAYED: Yeah. Look, I'm the son of an Egyptian immigrant raised by my father and my step mom, Jackie, who's a daughter of the American Revolution. Whose family has been in this part of the world since 1630. I've been explaining myself to people in my own family my whole life. And one of the things you learn is that people believe the same things, whether it's your grandmother who never got to go to school in Egypt, or your grandma, Judy, who is a nurse trained in Flint.

When your grandmother kisses you on the forehead and tells you she loves you and makes you your favorite meal. It's the same love. And I think we could bring a lot more of that back to our politics. I became a doctor because I understood that whether I went 15 hours from where I grew up or 15 minutes into the city of Detroit, I cross a 10-year life expectancy gap, and then you start getting curious about why people get sick in the first place? So I went into public health, got to rebuild Detroit's health department, led Wayne County's Health Department. Put glasses on kids, took on huge corporate polluters, put Narcan in 100 different locations, eliminated medical debt, and we've got a U.S. Senate seat open. We haven't had a democratic doctor in the U.S. Senate since 1969. Never had a public health official, as far as we know. And I think given what RFK Jr. is doing to our public health apparatus, I think a lot of people think we could probably use one of those right now.

So we're running a simple campaign, get money out of politics, put money in your pocket. Pass Medicare for all. We've been resonating up and down our state, and we're looking forward to building a joyful movement for the future.

MICHAELSON: Thank you so much for coming on. Great to see you in- person. Hopefully you're enjoying LA's weather.

EL-SAYED: A little bit better than our 9 degrees of Michigan. But don't tell the folks in Detroit.

MICHAELSON: Thank you very much. I think you just did. As tensions grow between the U.S. and Greenland over President Trump's plan to seize the Danish territory, a bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers visits Denmark looking to lower the temperature, speaking of temperatures. Plus this picture of me is literally from 10 years ago. So why are so many people posting about 2016 on social media right now Kobe? We'll talk about it with two pop culture experts. This viral trend explained.

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MICHAELSON: Amid President Trump's threats to annex Greenland, a bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers are now in Denmark meeting with Danish and Greenlandic leaders and reassuring them of congressional support.

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LISA MURKOWSKI, U.S. SENATE REPUBLICAN: Greenland needs to be viewed as our ally, not as an asset, and I think that's what you're hearing with this delegation. It is important to underscore that when you ask the American people whether or not they think it is a good idea for the United States to acquire Greenland, the vast majority, some 75 percent will say, we do not think that that is a good idea. This Senator from Alaska does not think it is a good idea.

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MICHAELSON: President Trump says he may place new tariffs on countries that oppose his plan. Later today, demonstrations supporting the territory will take place in Greenland and across Denmark. On Friday, Danish F-35 jets and a French tanker conducted air-to-air refueling training. Denmark's joint arctic command invited the U.S. to participate in military exercises with Germany and other European allies. Officials say the drills are focused on keeping Russia away and protecting NATO's northern flank.

To Uganda, where Reuters is reporting that the main opposition leader has been forcibly taken away. The National Unity platform party posted online that the army removed Bobi Wine from his house on Friday and took him to an unknown location. Wine ran to unseat the Ugandan President in election this week, marred by violent clashes and an Internet blackout. As of Friday night, the Electoral Commission there said the incumbent held a commanding lead with nearly 74 percent of the vote, but Wine has alleged mass fraud in that election.

The death toll continues to climb as Iranian security forces crack down on massive anti-regime protests. U.S. activist group said close to 2,900 protesters have been killed more than two weeks of demonstrations, more than 22,000 have been arrested. Security officials are acknowledging 3,000 arrests, according to a state affiliated news agency, CNN cannot confirm either the numbers, partly because of the internet blockade that's been effect for over a week, it's very hard to communicate with anybody. But as Paula Hancocks report, some information about the victims is still coming out. We have to warn you, some images in her report are disturbing.

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PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The cry of a generation robbed of their future. 23-year-old Mahan Ghadami, a barber shop owner with a passion for rap singing the pain of no freedom. Activist outlet Iran wire says Ghadami was killed last Friday, the day after the internet was cut and security forces launched a brutal crackdown on anti-regime protesters.

This shows just how bloody their response was. New footage sent to CNN of the inside of the Kahrizak morgue in Tehran, row upon row of body bags. Distraught relatives saying farewell to lifeless loved ones. Some of those killed with clear gunshot wounds to the head. The body of Siavash Shirzad was one of those taken to Kahrizak, according to IranWire and Hengaw, a Norway based Human Rights Organization a Kurdish father of one.

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His family say he was part of this protest in Tehran's Punak Square on January 8th, they had begged him not to go. Hangul says he was shot and killed by Iranian security forces. He would have turned 38 this past week.

So many victims were young, like 20-year-old. Setayesh Shafiei, a killed on January 8th, according to Hengaw and IranWire her last post on telegram. I love you all. They may cut the internet soon.

So many risk their lives to fight for freedom. 1000s are believed to have been gunned down in the street, according to U.S. based Human Rights Activists news agency, on the order of leaders that value regime survival above all else. Paula Hancocks, CNN, Abu Dhabi.

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MICHAELSON: A growing backlash against hormonal birth control is rising among conservative influencers and politicians. As the movement against the pill gains momentum, doctors are ringing alarm bells. More on that ahead.

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MICHAELSON: Welcome back to "The Story Is," I'm Elex Michaelson. Let's take a look at today's top stories. The U.S. Justice Department is investigating Minnesota's Governor and the Minneapolis Mayor over possible obstruction of law enforcement. Governor Tim Walz and Mayor Jacob Frey are condemning the probe, which they say is an intimidation tactic. Both men, of course, have been local critics of the Trump administration's crack down on immigration and the conduct of federal immigration agents in the state.

President Trump is facing tumbling poll numbers ahead of this year's critical midterm elections. In a new poll, a majority of voters call his second term a failure so far say he's not doing enough to address the cost of living, President Trump's overall job approval rating now stands at 39 percent.

U.S. Senators visiting Denmark are set to hold a press conference in the coming hours. Bipartisan delegation met with local leaders on Friday, seeking to ease tensions over President Trump's plan to seize Greenland. President says he may place new tariffs on countries that oppose that plan.

All right, let's have some fun. We are just over two weeks into the New Year 2026 but a new social media trend is bringing back images and yearning for the good old days of 2016 a lot has happened in a decade. So why are millennials especially highlighting this particular year? I mean 2016 gave us Hillary Clinton versus Donald Trump in a presidential race that actually was the most consequential race of our lifetime. It was the last time we saw Beyonce highlight a Super Bowl Halftime Show featuring songs from her Lemonade album, which had many wondering, who Becky with the good hair actually was. Now let's bring in pop culture experts, Emmy Award winning journalists and media personality, Segun Oduolowu and Jeff Conway, Hollywood and Entertainment Senior Contributor at Forbes. Welcome back, both of you guys.

SEGUN ODUOLOWU, MEDIA PERSONALITY: Thank you for having us.

JEFF CONWAY, HOLLYWOOD AND ENTERTAINMENT SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR, FORBES: Thank you for having us.

MICHAELSON: So what's the deal with Segun? What -- why do you think so many people want to go back to 10 years ago?

ODUOLOWU: Because 10 years ago was the last time for a lot of people that the world made sense right before all of this really ugly partisan politics. You know, you had hope. Like, I look back at mine from 10 years ago, and I was like, yeah, I was winning. I was on the cusp of doing great things. It was the last year that I spent as an unmarried man, like there were all of these big things.

MICHAELSON: Your freedom stuff.

ODUOLOWU: Yeah, I was still, you know, I was still, like the world was like still open and exciting. And then three years later, we had a pandemic and look where we are now.

MICHAELSON: So what does that say about your marriage?

ODUOLOWU: Oh, no, the marriage is what has sustained me. Oh, no, no, no. Happy happily -- happy for the marriage.

MICHAELSON: Was so happy before I was married. In the last moment of freedom.

ODUOLOWU: I was building up, but it was just like, love you, honey, if you're watching this conversation.

MICHAELSON: Why do you think it is? What is it about?

CONWAY: Well, you brought up even Trump and Clinton. This is like the first time where we got really divisive as a country about elections, obviously, it's happened before.

MICHAELSON: Well, we had a civil war.

ODUOLOWU: This was civil rights. But --

CONWAY: Ever since, we've had such more of a disconnect. So I think in 2016 before that, there was so much more of a unity around the country in some ways, even, like the Cubs they won, the 108 year curse was finally lifted that time. There's a lot of things that were happening that were positive. It was before AI, in a lot of ways. So it just felt like a little bit more of an easy, more simpler time for a lot of folks.

MICHAELSON: Yeah, and it's been interesting to see everybody's pictures. So we all did this. Yeah, so let's take a look at some of our pictures over the years. I don't know which one we want to start with. I guess we start with you, Jeff. Take us back what are we looking at here?

CONWAY: So those are me with my parents at Wrigley Field in Chicago. It's my hometown, and this was the year that they won the World Series. And it was an amazing year for Chicago. Was 108 years that they hadn't won a World Series. So it was a big year for Chicago and baseball fans.

MICHAELSON: Segun, what about you?

ODUOLOWU: Let's, let's see which picture they throw up there. Oh, so this is me pretending that I can act. And I did a LeBron. I did a sprite commercial with LeBron James. This is, this is me, like getting being a regular on Access Hollywood, and that is my wife, now wife, then fiancee. We're on a trip to Costa Rica look I was acting in movies. I was doing so many things like good years. The world was my oyster. Look at I was winning.

MICHAELSON: You were winning.

ODUOLOWU: And that was Tiger Blood. That was Charlie Sheen.

MICHAELSON: In terms of my stuff. I don't know if we have those pictures ready, but for me, it started literally on New Year's Eve, but it was so much about this was Kobe Bryant's last game.

[01:35:00]

The greatest sports event that I've still ever been to with my dad, speaking of Charlie Sheen, interviewed him on the he said, I came to the HIV event, I brought my HIV. This is so my cousins, my mom, the Dodgers. It was, it was a lot of fun, and it makes me want to work out more looking at all of this, and then covering politics back then, then Senator Kamala Harris and Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders and all them. And then remember that I don't know whatever happened to that guy, the Lieutenant Governor of California.

ODUOLOWU: He was doing some stuff.

MICHAELSON: It was quite a time. All right and this was the Republican Convention on the floor there, and that was Hillary Clinton's election night, which did not go so well for her.

ODUOLOWU: You were everywhere in 2016.

MICHAELSON: OK, enough about me. All right it was a good year. All right, let's go through some of the entertainment. You guys have seen a lot of stuff that the rest of us have not seen, and kind of give us an opportunity to go through it. One though a lot of people have seen is His & Hers, which is on Netflix and is just like sort of dominating the streaming space right now. Jeff, you like this?

CONWAY: Yeah, I do love it. Yes, you can't do that, but you're only going by critics, people. I've watched it. I really enjoyed it. It's got Tessa Thompson, who just came off of on Sunday, a Golden Globe nomination for Hedda. So she's an amazing actress. We have Jon Bernthal playing it. She is a journalist from Georgia that goes back to her hometown, in a smaller Georgia town, and there's a murder there, and it's someone that she knew when she was younger. And there's a big mystery there. It's a restrained husband played by Jon. And it's really layered. In the last episode, it's all over social media. Don't get let spoil for you, but it's a big pow, like, whoa. This is not what I expected. And six episodes, it's based on a book I really enjoyed it.

MICHAELSON: It's -- I mean, it is amazing how many people are watching this thing.

ODUOLOWU: Look I love Tessa Thompson. I think she's criminally underrated. And you are right. When the show came out, 20 million viewers in the first week. So it was an immediate hit.

MICHAELSON: Amazing.

ODUOLOWU: But 60 percent on Rotten Tomatoes for the critics, 60 percent on Rotten Tomatoes for the for the audience score. So it's rare that you get that kind of, you know, uniformity in both the critics and the audience going, it's OK.

CONWAY: But it looks good when it's up number one for Netflix.

MICHAELSON: Yeah, 60 percent is like, as you said, wicked for men.

ODUOLOWU: Yeah. Men. It's like men. It's you know, we'll see.

MICHAELSON: Another big thing coming to Netflix this weekend is the RIP. This is very big stars, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, both of you guys got to see this in advance. What do you think?

ODUOLOWU: So I loved it. I -- I'm a big fan of Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, and they also have Teyana Taylor, fresh off her golden globe wins. She's in it too. I do not want to spoil anything for -- but it's, you know, two Miami -- two Miami cops. They find a stash house filled with money, and then the drama ensues. It's great to see Ben and Matt kind of acting together, but really, I like the business angle behind this, where their production company has struck a deal with Netflix, where depending on the streaming, they will actually see more revenue to the entire cast and crew, and that's a group of people totaling 1,200 people that could benefit if we actually stream this,

MICHAELSON: Which is awesome. And a lot of Netflix movies with big stars are not that great, to be honest.

CONWAY: For sure.

MICHAELSON: Is this one good.

CONWAY: Yes. I mean, it's Star Power. They're also producers on this as well. Like you said, the production so like Matt and them, since Good Will Hunting we've loved their thing, they're good storytellers. They pick good projects, and I think Netflix is lucky to have them, because it has a great Cassie, Teyana, who just won for one battle after another on Sunday for best supporting actress, which was amazing.

Now she's up in the Oscar race more than ever. So it's really exciting to see that you have a big star power. And actually, I think a quality story.

MICHAELSON: And its making a big star power, it's kind of amazing what Taylor Sheridan is doing. Of course, he started Yellowstone. He has like 85 different things on Paramount+. Again, and one of them that's coming is called the Madison, which is an offshoot of this sort of Yellowstone franchise with big stars. We got our first images of this today. Michelle Pfeiffer is starring in this. Kurt Russell, some big, big names and we know people love watching Taylor Sheridan. They love watching Taylor Sheridan. And he gets big, big stars. This year alone he's got production with Samuel L. Jackson and NOLA King. He's got another show debuting March 1st, which is a spin-off of Yellowstone. This will -- this show the Madison will debut March 14th. He gets big stars. He's dominating TV, and he's printing money.

CONWAY: Yeah. And you think about Landman as well think about that cast.

ODUOLOWU: Yeah. Billy Bobby.

MICHAELSON: Demi Moore, Sam Elliott.

CONWAY: Lioness.

MICHAELSON: Lioness, Nicole Kidman and Zoe Saldana.

ODUOLOWU: Fresh off of 1923 with Harrison Ford.

MICHAELSON: Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren doing TV.

ODUOLOWU: Yeah. Like, he's getting everywhere.

MICHAELSON: So it's crazy. And not big stars in heated rivalry, now they are big stars.

ODUOLOWU: They are.

MICHAELSON: You've been all over this as much as any entertainment reporter, and you just had an interview with you.

[01:40:00]

You know how to ride the wave, baby.

CONWAY: I love the show again. The production value is great. Jacob Tierney made a great thing. These are based off the bestselling books by Rachel Reid. We have Connor and we have Hudson that are great actors are being like Beatlemania everywhere they go. But I spoke with Christina Chang who plays Yuna which is Shane Hollander's mother on the show, and she is amazing on the show. There's a huge coming out scene at the end of the season with her son. It's been all over social media. People have even reached out to me. Reach out to Christina, saying, because you did the scene, I was comfortable enough to go to my parents and come out to them. So there's a lot of quality things happening because of this great show.

MICHAELSON: Yeah, and we love that.

ODUOLOWU: I just like to point out Rotten Tomatoes 1990, the critics and the audiences are loving the show. It is a very good show.

CONWAY: Are you loving the show?

ODUOLOWU: I have seen it. I'm a fan. I'm a fan. I'm a fan of Heated Rivalry. Good stuff. MICHAELSON: Segun, Jeff. Great stuff. Thank you both. Have a great weekend. More of "The Story Is" right after this.

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[01:45:00]

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MICHAELSON: Birth control pills are a popular and effective form of contraception. They're also prescribed for other health conditions, in particular for skin care. But now heavy weights in the Make America Healthy Again movement are speaking out against it, including Katie Miller, the wife of White House adviser Stephen Miller, who claimed on social media, "Birth control is poison for your body and your mind." Elon Musk reposted her claim. CNN's, MJ Lee has more on the politics of the pill.

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STEPHANIE BOCEK, MOTHER OF TWO: We have just under 11 acres.

MJ LEE, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL ENTERPRISE CORRESPONDENT: Stephanie Bocek grows vegetables and raises chickens and tick eating Guineafowls to try to keep her family healthy organically.

BOCEK: Look, have an egg. I really was doing all this stuff before her MAHA was even a named thing.

LEE: A quintessential MAHA mom, Stephanie says there's one decision dating back to her college years that she now regrets.

BOCEK: I was at the Naval Academy, and I was prescribed birth control as a solution for like women's health issues. I ended up having severe side effects that I was unaware were caused by this birth control. I had lost my emotional resiliency towards stressors. I wasn't able to turn in assignments on time, and I would be overwhelmed by them.

LEE: And you were sure that these effects were coming from birth control.

BOCEK: It was only in a decade later, researching and looking back and realizing I never suffered from those issues when I wasn't on it.

LEE: She's part of a growing wave of women increasingly skeptical of hormonal birth control. That skepticism has in part, been fueled by the Trump administration. Listen to Trump's pick for Surgeon General and MAHA influencers raising alarm.

DR. CASEY MEANS, U.S. SURGEON GENERAL NOMINEE: We are prescribing them like candy. But it's completely non-partisan to say, hey, birth control is poison for women.

LEE: The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists says, you know, any suggestion that birth control can affect your libido, sexual attraction can affect future fertility. They will say those things have no basis in clinical data. You don't buy that.

BOCEK: I think in any major medical organization, they have a certain agenda that they want a message that they want to get out.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have been getting more questions, I would say, about hormonal contraceptives.

LEE: Dr. Mariam Gomaa, a Board Certified OB GYN, has noticed the growing questions about hormonal birth control. The Surgeon General nominee says hormonal birth control presents horrifying health risks for women. Do you hear that and think that's too alarmist?

DR. MARIAM GOMAA, OBSTETRICS AND GYNECOLOGY: I absolutely think that's warmest. You know it's unfortunate, because she's a physician who did not complete residency.

LEE: Gomaa says the potential side effects of birth control include breast tenderness, bloating and blood clots. But that it all varies patient to patient. There is one woman we spoke with who said she lost her emotional resiliency. She felt overwhelmed by stress. Obviously, you're not her doctor, but can you talk to us about whether those are potential side effects of going on birth control?

GOMAA: There's not necessarily data to suggest that this happens to people overall.

LEE: Yeah.

GOMAA: And that's not to say her lived experience is not true. It may be.

LEE: She's worried that too much misinformation is going unchecked. It can lead patients to be dissuaded from seeking treatment for things like PCOS or endometriosis, a lot of which we use hormonal contraceptives for. Is hormonal birth control safe?

GOMAA: Yes, it is safe. Is it safe for everyone? Not necessarily.

LEE: Dr. Marguerite Duane is a Family Practitioner who specializes in natural family planning, a professor at a Catholic University who is affiliated with anti-abortion organizations. Duane, argues that hormonal birth control's potential side effects are too often ignored.

DR. MARGUERITE DUANE, DIRECTOR, DUQUESNE MED. SCHOOL CTR. FOR FERTILITY AWARENESS EDUCATION: All medications have side effects. I think there are better options that women can choose, because hormonal birth control may not be safe for all women. We can learn to chart the signs of our cycle to monitor our health using fertility awareness based methods.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I've helped, like a lot of my friends, like learn to track their cycle, and they're actually pretty grateful for it.

LEE: Research shows hormonal birth control methods can be up to 99 percent effective for preventing pregnancy, while fertility tracking is 77 percent effective. Tracking fertility cycles isn't new to Rachel Ullman, who's been doing it for more than two decades. Not because she considers herself MAHA.

RACHEL ULLMAN, MOTHER OF FOUR: No, I would not consider myself that at all.

LEE: But in large part, because of her Catholic faith.

ULLMAN: I track the peak that's leading up to that fertile moment when the egg is released. If you are wanting to achieve pregnancy, we have an acronym DTD do the deed.

[01:50:00]

You want to do the deed, when you're on that bell curve.

LEE: How many children do you have?

ULLMAN: I have four children.

LEE: You have four children.

ULLMAN: They've all been planned. We plan our date nights around when the DTD can happen.

LEE: MJ Lee, CNN, Washington D.C.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: Thanks to MJ. Is a mission to the moon closer to reality still to come with NASA is saying about the Artemis II launch and when the moon mission may actually happen.

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MICHAELSON: It has been decades since NASA's last mission to the moon, but now NASA says all systems are go for Artemis II mission next month. It's a vital mission to get NASA closer to its goal of a lunar surface mission by 2028.

[01:55:00]

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JACOB BLEACHER, CHIEF EXPLORATION SCIENTIST, EXPLORATION SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT MISSION DIRECTORATE: This is a very historic moment, an exciting moment. We're rolling out the integrated SLS and Orion for a flight that will carry four of our friends, our NASA family members, around the moon and bring them safely back to earth.

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MICHAELSON: So they won't land on the moon. That's the next mission. NASA will begin moving the Orion spacecraft to the launch pad on Saturday morning. The test flight will send four astronauts into space, propel them around the moon, bring them back. The mission expected to last 10 days.

Join us on Monday night or Tuesday morning, if you're on the East Coast. Bill Nye, the Science Guy, Bill, Bill, Bill will be on "The Story Is" to talk about Artemis II as well as other space and science stories. Look forward to talking to him.

Thank you all for joining us here on "The Story Is" tonight, and all week it has been an extraordinary week together. We've talked to so many people. Hope you have a great weekend. Enjoy some football, some family if you have the opportunity to. See you next week.

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