New Poll Shows Trump’s Support Slipping, and Clintons Face Contempt Vote in Epstein Inquiry

0:02From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today's Thursday, January 22nd. Here's what we're covering.

0:14All the United States is asking for is a place called Greenland, where we already had it. At Davos yesterday, a gathering of the world's most rich and powerful, President Trump promised there would be consequences if the U.S. doesn't get full ownership of Greenland. You can say yes, and we will be very appreciative. Or you can say no, and we will remember. He ended the day, though, with talk of a deal. He said that he'd reached the framework of an agreement with NATO over the island's future. Does it still include the United States having ownership of Greenland like you've said you wanted?

0:54It's a long-term deal. It's the ultimate long-term deal. Trump didn't provide any details of what's in that framework, but the announcement seems to walk the U.S. back from the brink of open confrontation. Trump withdrew his threat of slapping tariffs on countries that stood up to him and said he would not use force to take Greenland from Denmark. NATO didn't offer specifics about the deal either, but officials tell The Times that earlier this week, some NATO members had been looking at a possible compromise of giving the U.S. sovereignty over small pockets of Greenland for military bases. The lack of concrete details has sparked confusion and concern for some.

1:37One Greenlandic lawmaker rejected Trump's talk of a deal, saying, quote, nothing about us without us.

1:47Meanwhile, this board has the chance to be one of the most consequential bodies ever created. And it's my enormous honor to serve as its chairman. I was very honored when they asked me to do it. This morning in Switzerland, Trump held a signing ceremony for what he's called the Board of Peace. While it was initially proposed as a group that would oversee the rebuilding of Gaza, the Times got a look at the proposed charter, which shows a much bigger scope. It says the board will secure enduring peace in areas affected or threatened by conflict, putting it on track to potentially rival the mission of the United Nations Security Council.

2:24It would be an example of the president dismantling the international system that's been in place since World War II and putting himself at the center of a new one. According to the Charter, one person has the power to veto decisions, invite members, designate his successor, or dissolve the board entirely. Donald Trump. A U.S. official also confirmed Trump could play a central role even after his presidency is over, saying he can stay on as chair of the board until he decides to resign. Saudi Arabia, Israel, Belarus, and several more countries have said they're joining. Russia and China have also been invited.

3:02It's unclear what they'll do. And some countries, including France, have said no, after which Trump threatened France with 200 percent tariffs on wine.

3:17A new Times-Siena poll out this morning shows that President Trump's approval rating is falling and that only about a third of voters think the country is better off than it was when he took office a year ago. Almost half think it's worse. A majority of voters disapprove of how he's handled a range of issues, from immigration to the economy. Half of Americans say Trump's policies have made life less affordable for them. Notably, Trump has lost significant support among younger voters and non-white voters, groups who helped him clinch a second term. Still, Trump has managed to retain overwhelming support among Republicans.

3:57Almost half view him as one of the best presidents in U.S. history, with one voter telling The Times, quote, he must be doing something right when there are so many people opposed to him. You can find the full results of the poll at nytimes.com.

4:17Now, two more quick updates on the federal government. People are afraid. They are scared. Imagine you are a parent and you step out to put your kid in a school bus. By the time you turn around, you are surrounded by ICE agents. Local officials in Maine say that immigrant communities there are on edge, as the Trump administration has made that state the latest focus of its ramped up immigration enforcement operations. An ICE official told Fox News that the agency has approximately 1 ,400, quote, targets in Maine. It started making arrests this week. A number of asylum seekers from African countries have moved to the state in recent years.

5:00And the Times has learned that the ICE operation there is aimed in part at immigrants from Somalia. President Trump has railed against them repeatedly in xenophobic comments, calling them garbage. And the committee hereby favorably reports and adopts this report recommending that the House of Representatives find William J. Clinton in contempt of Congress. In the House of Representatives yesterday. The question is now unfavorably reporting the Hillary R. Clinton contempt report. The Oversight Committee took an extraordinary step in recommending that Bill and Hillary Clinton be charged with criminal contempt for refusing to testify in its Jeffrey Epstein investigation.

5:39The Clintons have accused the Republican chair of the committee of targeting them for political purposes. They said they'd already provided sworn statements and would not agree to testify before the committee. After a heated, day-long debate yesterday, multiple Democrats joined Republicans in supporting the effort to hold them in contempt for that. Some said that Bill Clinton, in particular, should answer questions about the time he spent socializing with Epstein. Their votes reflected a reluctance to be seen as defending anyone associated with a convicted sex offender. Other Democrats, however, said that the committee was applying a double standard and not doing enough to investigate President Trump's ties to Epstein, or to pressure the Justice Department to release all the Epstein files, which it has still failed to do.

6:26The full House of Representatives will now consider whether or not to refer the Clintons to the Department of Justice for prosecution. If convicted, they could face up to a$100 ,000 fine and one year in prison.

6:47In Iran, government officials have declared that the widespread protests, which some had thought might take down the authoritarian regime, have been crushed. Iran's prosecutor general said, quote, The sedition is over now, and the country's foreign minister has claimed that the violence on our streets has subsided. The movement had kicked off last month in response to the country's collapsing economy and led to weeks of unrest, with huge crowds of Iranians taking to the streets, burning government buildings, and shouting, Death to the dictator! Authorities responded with a brutal crackdown. At some points, videos showed them opening fire on unarmed protesters.

7:28By one estimate, more than 4 ,500 people were killed. But the government cut internet access, making it difficult to get a full account of what's happened. Now, Iranian officials have vowed to punish people who they say were responsible for the protests. They've called them terrorists and provocateurs, claiming they were backed by foreign governments like the U.S. and Israel.

8:01And finally, anyone who has applied for a job recently probably knows the feeling of hitting submit and wondering if AI is just going to filter your resume out before a human ever sees it. Maybe you've even gotten a rejection 10 minutes after applying and wondered, wait, why, how? It can feel like a black box. And a group of job seekers is now pushing back on that. They filed a lawsuit against one particular screening company, which pulls together data from sources like LinkedIn. The software then evaluates people's skills and scores each applicant on a scale of one to five. The suit claims that's basically like a credit score.

8:42And so, like credit scores, people have a right to know what it is. Congress put the Fair Credit Reporting Act in place back in 1970 to make sure people could ask for their scores and dispute them if there were any errors. The job seekers want the same thing, especially if AI is getting something wrong. One plaintiff told The Times, I think I deserve to know what's being collected about me and shared with employers.

9:14Those are the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. We'll be back tomorrow with the latest and the Friday News Quiz.