Trump Ups Rhetoric On Minneapolis, Despite Calls For De-Escalation

25:14Now, today's case is brought by a 19-year-old plaintiff who argues these platforms addicted her, harmed her mental health, and triggered thoughts of self-harm and suicide. Her lead attorney, Mark Lanier, joins us now. Mark, walk us through what exactly your client is alleging these companies did to her, to harm her. These companies have features that they have built into their apps. These features are ones that are specifically designed to get into a preteen or a teen brain and give dopamine hits in such a way that they become as addictive as cigarettes, as opiates, as any addiction may be. The companies did this and they did this for money.

26:00That's our allegation. So we know that TikTok agreed to settle this case Monday night and Snap, behind Snapchat, did the same last week. But Meta and Alphabet have not settled. Now, you've argued that these companies need to make direct changes to their apps. What changes do you want to see them make that would make them less addictive and safer for teens and children? Well, they need to do a number of things. But first of all, they ought to do better age gating. They need to do better at channeling out those children that are too young to use the app effectively and put the fence around it that they know how to do.

26:39They're just choosing not to do. They need to also put into place some features that they use elsewhere around the world. Features that will stop you after you've been doom scrolling for an hour and say, take a time out for a minute. or something that will not just notify you in the middle of the night that you have a like or a ding so that you wake up in the middle of the night and you get on your app. There is a number of things that can be done to make these apps safer for teens, and that's some of what we seek. Metta released a statement that reads in part, quote, despite the snippets of conversations or cherry-picked quotes that plaintiffs' counsel may use to paint an intentionally misleading picture of the company.

27:23We're proud of the progress we've made. We stand by our record of putting teen safety first and we'll keep making improvements, unquote. So what's your response specifically to the claim that you have cherry picked evidence and comments to strengthen your case? I think that what the world needs to see are the actual documents. At this point, those documents have been deemed confidential by Facebook and meta. And so we're not going to be able to show the documents to the world until we introduce them at trial. But on February the 9th, the judges ordered Mark Zuckerberg to be in court live. I plan on using a number of these documents with him in cross-examination, and we'll see who's taking out of context and who's not.

28:08There's a professor of law at Santa Clara University who's taken issue with your case. I want to read you one thing he said. He says, quote, essentially what the plaintiffs are trying to do is argue that social media is the virtual equivalent to a soda bottle like a Coca-Cola bottle that explodes and sends shards of glass to anyone in the nearby area. The entire premise of treating publications as products is itself architecturally flawed. What's your response to that? Not at all. If someone or some company is purposefully developing something to addict a mind, knowing that it will divert that mind from growth, from a normal childhood, and it's going to do so.

28:49That's not a Coca-Cola bottle that explodes. That's more like tobacco. Those are cigarettes for the eyes. There's a reason that some of these internal documents are fearful that the people who ultimately out the company will be seen as working along the same lines as big tobacco. And with due respect to the law professor at Santa Clara, that's as different as night and day. Mark Lanier, thank you so much. We're going to continue to follow this case. So please come back soon. You bet, Jake. In Texas right now, several Democrats are speaking up after visiting the immigration detention facility, which is currently holding five-year-old Liam Ramos and his father.

29:33You'll recall both were detained in Minneapolis last week. A judge says the two cannot be detained any longer. We're going to go to Texas Live next.

29:49And we're back with the national lead setting the scene of head of tonight's special CNN Town Hall in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It's called State of Emergency, Confronting the Crisis in Minnesota. Let's bring in one of the co-moderators, CNN anchor Sarah Seidner, who's in Minneapolis and will moderate alongside Anderson Cooper. And Sarah, the new back and forth between the Minneapolis mayor, Jacob Frey, and President Trump underscores the real simmering tension in this city right now. It does. It simmers and then it explodes. And then it simmers and explodes and goes back and forth, but never goes completely down back to normal.

30:25And that is because ICE is still here. And that is because many of the residents here want ICE to leave. And until that happens, you're going to have this tension that continues to permeate the Twin Cities. I do want to give you a sense of who's going to be here and what the area looks like. We're in a community center in Minneapolis, and we will have our guests here. There will be guests such as the mayor of Minneapolis. The attorney, Jeff Wilson, will be here. We'll also be hearing from the police chief, the Minneapolis police chief, who is trying to juggle things between the federal government and what his citizens expect of him.

31:01We're also going to be hearing from Republican representatives. Some state representatives will be here who have agreed to come in and talk through this with the audience. There'll be an audience here of a few dozen people. You see some of the chairs there surrounding, and then there are chairs here. We've got a great team here, photographers from all over the country coming in to make sure that you see every angle of this. But this is an important conversation, a conversation that needs to be had in the midst of really it is a crisis here in the Twin Cities. You have all manner of people worried about their city, worried about the things that they are encountering, whether you are a cook, for example, at a restaurant who gets stopped with your legal papers, but gets stopped and picked up anyway, or whether you are someone who's just trying to go to work every day, an American citizen and concerned about the videos you've been seeing of these killings.

31:50There's just a lot to discuss, and we will get through it all, Jake. All right, Sarah Seidner, thanks so much. I'll be watching. And again, that special CNN town hall starts at 8 Eastern tonight on CNN and on the CNN streaming app. Here now to talk about what's going on, CNN's Priscilla Alvarez and CNN's Jeff Zeleny. And Priscilla, you have some new reporting on the role of the Bordersard Tom Homan since he arrived in Minneapolis. And Customs and Border Commander Greg Bovino was shown the door. What can you tell us? Well, sources tell CNN that Tom Homan has been having back-to-back meetings with federal officials and local officials as they try to sort out what the path forward is going to be in Minneapolis.

32:28Because while the president has said that he wants to de-escalate, there's still an expectation that immigration enforcement is going to be on the ground. Now, one U.S. official described these conversations to our colleague Kristen Holmes as, quote, precarious. The contours of these discussions, I'm told, include, for example, more targeted operations. That means, for example, identifying undocumented immigrants with criminal records and going after them instead of these broad immigration sweeps that were Gregory Bovino's who, as you mentioned, has been sidelined and has since left Minneapolis.

32:58Now, again, one U.S. official said, quote, discussions are still very much fluid and no final plan has been signed off on by the White House. What is expected, however, is for the number of agents in the city, remember there was an unprecedented 3 ,000 of them who were there, to taper off over the coming days and weeks. So the contours of the plan are still coming together. Nothing has been set in stone yet, but that is what is consuming the time of Tom Homan in Minneapolis since he's been dispatched this week. Jeff, it's been interesting since the backlash to not only the shooting on Saturday, but the administration's false statements about what we all saw with our eyes and heard with our ears.

33:37You have all these selective background leaks. Kristi Noem saying that her statement was taken direction from Steve Miller. Steve Miller saying that he got his information from a Customs and Border Patrol memo. And Miller reversed course yesterday and said, acknowledged that immigration agents may have breached protocol. Tell us more about this. Look, the buck stops with no one, so much finger pointing. But what's extraordinary about it is Stephen Miller, of course, is the architect of this immigration crackdown. He's been thinking about it, planning it, ever since the first administration, but now finally putting it into place.

34:10So it is quite extraordinary for him to acknowledge and walk back, not apologize or say he's sorry for calling Alex Prede an assassin a would-be assassin but it's extraordinary that he's marking his words and blaming it on a memo effectively throwing the CBP under the bus but again the question is we've seen a huge change in rhetoric from the White House a little softened slightly sharper again but overall it's been a change in tone but the question is the policy will the policy on the ground change so what Priscilla was just saying if If the agents or if some of the agents actually leave Minneapolis, that will be one thing.

34:48But if the policy and things on the ground stay the same, this rhetoric shifting really does not mean much except trying to solve a political crisis, which clearly there is one. Yeah, Trump is trying to signal on occasion a shift in tone, although he tends to reverse that. It's not a straight line. No, he tells Jacob Frey that he's playing with fire. He makes light of Ilhan Omar being attacked. I mean, I don't want to give him too much credit there, but here's what he had to say to Fox yesterday. You know, we have Tom Holman there now. We put him in there. He's great. We're going to de-escalate a little bit.

35:22Is this a pullback? I don't think it's a pullback. It's a little bit of a change. And then, as I said, after Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said he's not going to enforce federal laws. That's not what Minneapolis police are there to do. He posts on social media, could somebody in his inner sanctum please explain that this statement is a very serious violation of the law and that he is playing with fire. That doesn't really seem to be very de-escalatory. Well, also it's true that local law enforcement does not enforce immigration law. That is strictly within the rights of federal law enforcement.

35:53Now, as far as the thing that the administration has been hung up on for many, many months, and certainly from the first Trump administration, is the sanctuary cities. There is no clear definition as to what it means, but generally it's a limit between the way local law enforcement and federal immigration enforcement work together. The problem with how things have unfolded in Minneapolis is that it has sowed additional distrust between local law enforcement and federal law enforcement. And that is going to require some rebuilding, which appears to be what Tom Holman has been trying to do and at least have the conversations there on the ground.

36:25But the other reality for the president is that to execute his mass deportation campaign, the tactics that the administration has used and certainly wants to use, if you look at Stephen Miller, is aggressive and does require these broad immigration sweeps just to even meet the daily quotas that they want to meet of 3 ,000 a day. And so that is what the president is saying is in conflict with what the behind the scenes directives have been, which has led to all the chaos that has unfolded in multiple cities. Jeff, let's turn to Capitol Hill, because Senator Tom Tillis, Republican in North Carolina, was on the show just a few minutes ago talking about how incompetent he thinks Kristi Noem is, how she shouldn't have her job anymore.

37:05Lisa Murkowski, the senator from Alaska, Republican, also said something similar. But most Republicans are still following Trump off the cliff here on this issue that he's underwater when it comes to polling. Take a listen to Hawley and Cassidy. He'll decide who he wants to be leading this. I defer to him. I mean, it's really, it's his cabinet. The most important thing is whether the president trusts her. Now, what's interesting about Cassidy there is that he's up for reelection, and he has already broken with President Trump on a couple, well, he voted to convict him in the second impeachment.

37:44But again, like, I don't know what he would have to be happening for most of the Republicans in the Senate to actually say what they really think. Look, he has to win a Republican primary as well, so it's clear that he's going to selectively choose. Right, but he needs some of those Republican voters. But I think what I'm most struck by is the fact that we've seen some House members and others saying that this policy needs to change. Even the majority leader of the Senate said there needs to be an independent investigation. So, look, the Senate is not going to, Republicans in the Senate have made very clear that they have effectively given their oversight authority back to the White House.

38:19They've effectively said, OK, you can do whatever you want. But I do think that this feels slightly different in terms of the policy of ICE. We'll find out on the funding because that now is a central challenge here, the funding bill that's going through. But even if the government does shut down partially, ICE is still fully, fully funded because of so much money from the one big, beautiful bill last summer. All right, Priscilla Alvarez and Jeff Zeleny, thanks to both of you. Breaking news internationally. Right now in Texas, Democratic Congress members are calling on the Department of Homeland Security to immediately release Liam Conejo-Ramos.

38:51Liam, as you might recall, he's that five-year-old boy who, along with his father Adrian, was taken from his family's suburban Minneapolis driveway last week and flown to an ICE detention facility in South Texas. The family had applied for asylum and was working with local authorities, but they were taken anyway. CNN's Elevanderas in San Antonio, where Congressman Joaquin Castro and others are speaking. And, Ed, earlier today, Congressman Castro was in Dilley, Texas, to meet with Liam and his father. What did the congressman have to say about the visit? Hi, Jake. Well, to kind of explain some of the noise you're hearing behind me, the Representative Joaquin Castro and Representative Jasmine Crockett were holding a briefing in a press conference here describing what they had seen this afternoon at the Dilley Center.

39:35There's a counter protester out here trying to crash the press conference. It was being held on the steps of City Hall here in downtown San Antonio. But Congressman Castro and his staff, as well as Congressman Crockett's staff, told me that they spent more than three hours inside that detention facility, about an hour south of San Antonio, meeting with young Liam and his father, as well as hundreds of other detainees inside that facility, who they say describe very harsh conditions that they're living under. And this is some of what Congressman Castro said just a short while ago here in San Antonio.

40:14Liam Ramos should be released immediately. You can see from the picture that I posted that he was lying in his father's arms. His father said that Liam has been very depressed since he's been at Dili, that he hasn't been eating well. I was concerned with, you see how he appears in that photo with his energy. He seemed lethargic. He said, his father said that Liam has been sleeping a lot, that he's been asking about his family, his mom, and his classmates. Security Secretary Kristi Noem. So that is the latest we have here, which has been a very chaotic day, not what you're seeing unfolding here, but also the protests that were unfolding outside of the detention facility as several hundred protesters gathered outside of the entrance into this facility and were pushed away with tear gas and intense confrontation with state troopers who showed up to guard the entrance there to the detention facility as well.

41:17Jake? All right, Ed Levandera, thanks so much. Coming up, how the actions of federal agents in Minneapolis have unified leaders in other U.S. cities against the Trump administration. But we're going to talk to the Republican mayor of one of those cities about what's going on in his hometown in the next hour. Stay with us.

41:41Welcome to The Lead, I'm Jake Tapper. This hour, the two officers involved in that fatal shooting of Alex Preddy, the VA ICU nurse, are now on administrative leave as the Trump administration investigates the tragedy from Saturday night. That announcement coming as Democrats on Capitol Hill demand changes into how immigration officers on the ground in Minnesota and elsewhere are able to operate. Plus, Trump's untethered obsession with proving the fair and free election he lost in 2020 was rigged, which it wasn't, continues. The FBI is now executing a search warrant at an elections office in Fulton County, Georgia.

42:17Local officials say this is part of an investigation into the alleged unproven voter fraud allegations by the president in 2020. The man who was Georgia's Republican lieutenant governor during that election joins me live ahead. And with thousands of Americans still buried under snow and ice, another winter storm is forming. Another one. And it could strengthen even to a bomb cyclone. We're going to head to the CNN Weather Center for a look at the latest forecast.

42:47Our lead tonight, President Trump and his team still grappling with the crisis of their own making in Minneapolis. Today, a senior Homeland Security official confirmed to CNN that the two officers involved in that deadly shooting, a VA ICU nurse Alex Preddy on Saturday, have now been forced to take administrative leave. President Trump kicked off his day with his social media back and forth with the mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Fry. Trump pulling back from his slight shift in tone from earlier, warning the mayor that he is, quote, playing with fire if federal immigration law isn't enforced. Now Attorney General Pam Bondi is arriving in Minneapolis and federal agents have arrested 16 people.

43:26Bondi says more arrests are to come. Let's bring in CNN's Caitlin Collins at the White House. Caitlin, how does the plan to deescalate the situation seem to be going? Well, Jake, I think it was always a question of whether or not that was actually going to happen and what that was going to look like. Because yes, the president suggested as much yesterday. And yes, he has changed his leadership team who is actually on the ground in Minneapolis. But as you saw, the attorney general is also there, also posting the pictures of the people that they had arrested today as they were standing next to people from the Department of Homeland Security in those pictures with their backs turned to the cameras.

44:03And obviously the president's post also going after the Minneapolis mayor, Jacob Fry, after said he is still not going to cooperate with those federal immigration laws when it comes to the people who are in their city and county jails. And so it is still an open question. And this also comes, Jake, after yesterday the president was again criticizing Alex Preddy for carrying a gun during that moment on Saturday, even though he obviously did not brandish the weapon based on the videos we've seen. And he also had a permit to have that weapon on him on Saturday when he was out there in the street.

44:35And so I think in terms of what is actually happening on the ground and what this shift is going to look like remains to be seen. What we do know is the president did not think his administration was getting good coverage in the aftermath of this with the statements that were being made by people like the Border Patrol chief Greg Bovino by the DHS secretary, Cristino and others. So that still remains to be seen in terms of whether it's just a messaging shift of how they're talking about this Jake or what it looks like actually on the ground. And I should note this also comes after the Minnesota congresswoman Ilhan Omar was attacked last night at that town hall.

45:10And the president was suggesting in the aftermath that it was a staged attack by the congresswoman that he is obviously frequently criticized, as he did even just on Monday alone. Kaylin, the White House is also trying to stave off a potential government shutdown. The Democrats are threatening over this funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security. What's the latest there? Yeah, it's a real issue, Jake, because Democrats are saying they have demands of ICE that they want to make before they pass any funding bill, something that had already been a contentious topic here in Washington before Alex Predy was killed on Saturday by federal agents.

45:46And now you've seen Senate Democrats saying they are not going to vote for this. And Senator Schumer is kind of outlining what that's going to look like. And we've seen comments from Republicans who are saying they want to know what Democrats want here. There could potentially be an agreement, according to John Thune. And the White House has been involved in this. They've been having these talks. They tried to get Democrats to come over here to the White House. But, Jake, whether or not they're actually going to stave off a partial government shutdown by Friday night remains to be seen. I will tell you, I spoke with Democratic Senator John Fetterman last night.

46:17He's someone who voted for Kristi Noem to be the DHS secretary. He thinks Trump should fire her because he was arguing that she's incompetent in that job. But when it comes to this funding fight, he did make the point that when they passed the big, beautiful bill earlier last year, Jake, it had tens of billions of dollars in funding for ICE. So even if the government does shut down, I don't think people should have an expectation that ICE is not going to be able to do what it's doing right now. It'll just be a fight over the priorities. And Democrats say they don't want to be a vote yes on just carte blanche funding.

46:49They want restrictions on that and what that looks like and what it means for what ICE agents can do. Caitlin Collins, thanks so much. Good to see you. Don't miss Caitlin's special edition of The Source directly after tonight's CNN town hall. She's going to talk to Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar. That starts at 9 30 p.m. Eastern, only here on CNN and on the CNN streaming app. And here to discuss is Democratic Senator Chris Murphy from Connecticut. Senator, thanks for joining us. So Democratic Leader Schumer just outlined Democratic leadership's demands for changes to ICE. They are tightening use of warrants, ending roving patrols, enforcing a code of conduct, and having ICE agents remove masks and wear body cams.

47:35In your opinion, do those demands go far enough or is that good? Is that sufficient? Well, they certainly don't go as far as I would like. But, you know, we're operating in a world where Republicans control the House and the Senate and the White House. So we're trying to make our demands both impactful and reasonable. I think what we're thinking about are the practices that are offending and shocking Americans. And I think one of those is the masked secret police. That should just not be allowed on our city streets. Put body cams on these officers. Take down the masks. Second, the roving patrols where they're just walking around asking people to show their papers.

48:16That's not America. Nobody really wants that. So end those roving patrols. That's why we would require warrants for arrests like we normally do in many police operations. And then accountability. Just make sure that if there is a crime committed like this murder, have there be normal, regular accountability, which include a state investigation. So and the roving patrols, no more masks, secret police and accountability. That's not the full list of reforms we need at DHS. But our sense is that that's something we can get done in a handful of days. And it's something that probably unites a big cross section of the country.

48:51You just use the term murder. And I just want to just ask you about that, because that's that's a you know, that's a legal term murder. Is that what you saw in the video of the killing, the shooting of Alex Preddy? So you're right. That is a loaded legal term. And I guess that's why we want there to be an impartial public judicial process. This idea that if there is a question of whether murder was committed, that's going to be decided in secret behind closed doors. That's a violation of everything we stand for in America. So there should be a full public investigation and judicial process, including the state of Minnesota.

49:31I mean, to me and to many Americans, it did look like murder, but I understand there's a set of facts that needs to be collected before you come to that conclusion legally. I just want to be able to see that process. I want my constituents and the people in Minnesota to be able to see that process. I don't want it to be buried inside the Department of Homeland Security. And to be clear, I'm not taking issue with it. I I just, you know, I know you choose your words carefully. I want to ask you about this government funding bill, because it seems right now that Senate Democrats are united against the bill continuing as is to fund the Department of Homeland Security.

50:04Republicans in the White House say they do not want to make changes and they do not want to separate the DHS funding bill from the wider funding bill. Do you think that we are headed to another shutdown? I hope not. I mean, we've made it clear that we would pass all of the other bills that would end up having 95 percent of the federal government funded tonight. We'll do it tonight if they're ready. The only fight we're having is over the Department of Homeland Security. And again, the reforms that we're demanding are not the full list of what we would want in a perfect world. We're offering to have a dialogue about reforms that would make people safer, that would end the terrorizing of an American city.

50:47We may end up in a shutdown, but if we do, that's Republicans' choice because we're ready to vote for all the other budgets except for the Department of Homeland Security, and we're ready to have a reasonable negotiation over popular reforms on that budget. At least two of your Republican colleagues, Tom Tillis and Lisa Murkowski, are calling on Secretary Kristi Noem to step down after what's happened in Minnesota. Do you agree with them? I mean, I do. I think she's unqualified. And I think it's really unacceptable when the highest leaders in our federal government lie to the American public so brazenly as she has between her and Stephen Miller calling Alex Preddy an assassin, a domestic terrorist.

51:27But I also know that this policy is Donald Trump's policy. You know, sometimes we want to pretend as if somebody else is running America's immigration policy. Donald Trump has told you exactly what he wants to do. He wants to wage a war on people who aren't white, who have accents, who come from a different place. And so I think if Kirstie Noem leaves, she's just going to be replaced by somebody else who is just as incompetent and likely just as hateful and maybe just as addicted to pathological lying. Yeah, she should go. But I just think we need to be realistic that she's probably going to be replaced by somebody who's going to implement the same policy.

52:04So changing gears, As you questioned the Secretary of State Marco Rubio earlier today before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, you asked Secretary Rubio about the possibility of using the military again in the future if the Venezuelan government doesn't comply with what the U.S. wants them to do. Here's your question and Secretary Rubio's reply. If, for instance, they refuse to give you access to the oil in the future, if they said we're just going to keep it for ourselves, Would this cause you to consider military action? And do you concede that if you're using military action simply to try to compel cooperation from the government, you absolutely need congressional authorization for that?

52:46Look, the president never rules out his options as commander-in-chief to protect the national interests of the United States. I can tell you right now with full certainty, we are not postured to, nor do we intend or expect, to have to take any military action in Venezuela at any time. So the Venezuelan military is tasked with protecting the oil infrastructure right now because of the violence. Do you think the Trump administration's plan to get oil companies to invest in Venezuela will work without an American military presence in Venezuela, if only for security? Yeah, I guess I don't know the answer to that question.

53:20I was really alarmed at an answer because it seems like the answer is simple. You cannot use the American military to just get a foreign government to comply with your demands absent a declaration of war that the American public supports. Right now, the Venezuelan government is complying with their demands on oil, but they don't seem to be cooperating in any other ways. There's no schedule for elections. The political prisoners are still in jail. Maduro's folks are still in charge of the country. Russia and China are still big players there. My worry, my belief, frankly, is that all that Trump really cares about is the oil.

53:57He's kind of said that over and over again. And as long as his friends in the oil industry are getting rich off of access to the oil, then he's going to let Maduro's people run the country. He's going to let Russia and China still have a stake in that country's future. And he's going to just give up on democracy and really the political prisoners. I think that's the game that Delce Rodriguez, the brutal dictator of Venezuela, believes that she can play, give Trump access to the oil and still repress dissent and do deals with foreign governments on other issues. Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut, thanks so much for your time, sir.

54:34Thank you. Coming up next, something we don't see nearly enough of in today's climate. Republicans and Democrats working together. Mayors of both parties meeting in the nation's capital this week for their annual conference where immigration and immigration enforcement is, of course, a major topic. The head of the U.S. Conference of Mayors joins us live in moments.

55:01And we're back with the national lead, the killing of a VA ICU nurse Alex Preddy in Minneapolis by federal agents on Saturday and the backlash against the Trump administration's immediate falsehoods about the attack. All of that is weighing heavily over cities nationwide. Here in D.C., mayors are gathering for the annual conference of mayors with the topic of immigration and immigration enforcement on everyone's mind. Joining us now is Mayor David Holt. He's the Republican mayor of Oklahoma City, also the president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. Thanks so much for being here. Absolutely. Thank you, Jake.

55:35Let me ask you a question. Just stepping aside from the big story in immigration, what's it like when mayors get together? Because obviously it's nasty here in D.C. National politics are nasty. And I remember an era when governors would come together and be pretty bipartisan. I don't know that we're in that era anymore. Are mayors that way? How do y 'all work? Very much so. And I think now we've become, because almost of the contrast with every other level of government, we've become very protective of our bipartisanship. And yeah, I mean, there's 300 mayors here, Republicans, Democrats, independents, and we stand shoulder to shoulder.

56:18And it really is easy, I find, to kind of agree on so much about housing or immigration enforcement or also obviously the basic city services that we provide. And when you watch us in a press conference or in a meeting, I find people can't tell which one's the Republican and which the Democrat because we're really just about getting things done and governance. And I think we operate in a way that people did in this country for 200 years in these types of positions, but we've been able to preserve it at the mayoral level. We're very proud of that. I thought about the other day because former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel went to Mississippi to talk about educational reforms.

56:54And there was like a real bipartisan spirit, like who cares where the ideas come from? What works, works. And the conference actually put out a statement as soon as the shooting happened on Saturday. It says in part, quote, deadly confrontations like this erode public trust in law enforcement at every level. Putting our own local police officers across the nation at added risk. The nation's mayor's call for immediate intervention by national leaders to deescalate the situation in Minnesota. This is not a partisan issue. It's an issue of national concern that demands statesmanship and leadership.

57:24I actually, right after the shooting, heard from a sheriff in a small town that I know, and he was really horrified by the shooting, horrified by what the ICE agents were doing, and really worried about his officers or his deputies, because he knew that the public generally just sees law enforcement as law enforcement. Do you have issues with how this operation in Minneapolis has gone? Well, sure. I mean, a couple of different thoughts. One is, first of all, we have enforced immigration laws in this country for over a century. And ICE has been around for two decades. Why is it only in the last year that we have this approach that has roiled the entire country, right?

58:04Like we were able to do this for a very long time. Even the first Trump administration was able to do this without you and me having to sit here and talk about it at this level. So clearly they have taken it too far and they need to pivot. But I think the other thing, and I heard one of our mayors today, a Republican mayor from Fresno, California, Jerry Dyer, who used to be a police chief, you know, talk about the tactics he's seen them use on television. He's like, we stopped doing that in local police departments 30 years ago. Right. This is like we we learned not to do these things decades ago.

58:36It's like watching a time warp to see the way that they're operating on the ground there with the residents of Minnesota. So, yeah, it is very challenging because, yes, we work so hard to build trust in our communities. Everyone well remembers the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd in 2020. And then here we are having to deal with federal law enforcement kind of making all law enforcement look bad. Yeah. And Minneapolis did a lot of work to regain trust in that city after the death of George Floyd, the murder of George Floyd. Mayor Fry, without commenting on his politics or anything like that, he's really, that's a tough position to be in.

59:13And he's meeting with Tom Homan. President Trump said today if he doesn't enforce federal immigration law, he's playing with fire. Others have pointed out it's not really a police force's, local police force's job to enforce federal immigration laws. Have you talked to Mayor Fry at all? Yes, yeah. We had a couple of Zoom's with him last week, along with his police chief and the major city chiefs, because we actually put out a joint statement before the one you were just quoting from last week, before the horror on Saturday. Yeah, I mean, a couple of things to unpack about what you just said. First of all, you know, mayors, we come into these offices and we think, you know, above all, we're going to protect our cities.

59:55We're going to protect our residents. And by the way, we've actually got a group of people that carry guns who can help us do that. But then, you know, the Supremacy Clause in the United States Constitution intervenes, and then you have folks coming in that Mayor Fry's officers can't arrest, Mayor Fry's officers can't engage with. And so it does make this almost impossible situation for mayors. And you see, I think, so he's trying to use rhetoric and passion to get somebody's attention in Washington, really, because that's almost the only influence that is left on this situation. So I really, I respect what, you know, he's had to do and he gets put in an almost impossible situation.

1:00:33And, but, you know, it is something that we all try to work together as mayors to support each other in moments like this. I think he's doing the best he can under almost impossible conditions. More bipartisanship, please. I'd like to see it. You got it. And I want to put a plug. I think you'll enjoy it, and so will your viewers. But this year, 230 mayors have signed something we call the Oklahoma City Declaration, and it's all about bipartisanship. It's all about respecting pluralism and compromise and persuasion instead of violence. And it's the kind of thing that's on display at our meeting this week here in Washington.

1:01:07God bless. Thanks so much. Mayor David Holt from Oklahoma City, really appreciate it. The Justice Department is now giving an update on when it expects to release the rest of the Epstein files. It's like 99 percent of them are still waiting to be released. That's next.

1:01:26In our Law and Justice League, yet another promise. The Justice Department's Jeffrey Epstein-related files will be released, quote, in the near term. However, a letter from Attorney General Pam Bondi, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, and U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Jay Clayton, advised two federal judges that the Department of Justice could not provide a specific date for when they will complete their review and then release of the files, which legally they were supposed to have finished, I think, in December. We're joined by Lisa Phillips now as one of the survivors of Jeffrey Epstein's abuse.

1:02:03Lisa, let's start with the question on my mind, on the minds of so many of our viewers, definitely my staff. How are you doing? I'm doing okay. I'm hanging in there. I feel like we're making some progress, which feels really good to us survivors. We haven't quite gotten to, you know, the nuts and bolts and the nitty gritty of everything, but we're making some progress. It feels okay. So this new letter doesn't give a timeline for when the files will be made available. And they were supposed to have been, by law, available in December. Previous reports have indicated only about 1 % of the files have been made public so far.

1:02:45Do you see this latest promise of the files being released in the near term as realistic?

1:02:55That's a good question. Well, from a survivor's point of view, what should happen now is actually, to me, pretty clear. It starts with centering victims as a group of people to protect and not the politicians. And survivors have already waited decades for accountability. So we've been ignored, actively disbelieved, silenced. Many have turned to drugs and unaliving themselves to deal with the pain. Well, F-Team was protected by the systems that were supposed to stop him. So when the DOJ says it can't give a timeline and has only released less than 1 % of the files, I mean, we think it's a joke.

1:03:31So to be clear, protecting victims' identities is non-negotiable. And survivors should never be re-exposed or re-traumatized in the name of transparency. And survivor protections, well, survivor protections cannot be used as a blanket excuse to withhold information about enablers, facilitators, or institutional failures. Well, that's the thing. I mean, I have I've heard from we've talked to a lot of survivors who talk about the fact that it seems that they're removing the names, redacting the names of not just survivors, but potential perpetrators. And we're more than a month past the deadline for the release of files as mandated by a law passed by Congress and signed by President Trump.

1:04:18But this letter notes that the Justice Department, quote, cautions that its ongoing processes, including its quality control checks and document management system preparations, may require additional efforts to ensure the protection of victim identifying information while complying with the broad demands of the act, unquote. Do you buy that? Do you think that that is what is holding up the release of the files that they are so concerned about protecting survivors? Well, it just needs to be explained a little bit more. In plain language, what is being reviewed? Why is it taking so long? Who is responsible for past failures?

1:04:56The silence and the vagueness only deepen public mistrust. So there's also a moral urgency here. It's about whether the government is willing to confront how wealth, power, connections allow the children, teens, and young adults to go, you know, unchecked. I mean, that's really what it's about. I mean, survivors, we don't really need protection. We just need honesty, speed, the courage to expose the truth, even when it's uncomfortable or embarrassing for them. Like, we don't care. Try being locked in a room, being forced to massage a man four times their age. You know, that's embarrassing. That's uncomfortable.

1:05:34Like, we're done with you being uncomfortable now. And that's what justice looks like from a survivor's perspective. We want to flip it on you. Well, we're not going to forget, you guys, we're going to keep covering this until they release all the files as mandated by law. Lisa Phillips, great to have you. Thank you so much. Come back soon. The FBI just executed a search warrant at an elections office in Fulton County, Georgia. A source says it relates to President Trump's baseless claims of fraud in the 2020 election. The former Republican Lieutenant Governor of Georgia is going to join me live to react next.

1:06:12In our Law and Justice lead today, the FBI executed a search warrant today at an elections office in Fulton County, Georgia. Now, a source tells CNN that the search is related to President Trump's baseless claims of election fraud in Georgia during the 2020 election. And just to be clear, we've been saying this now for about six years. There's no evidence to support President Trump's claim that the election was rigged against him. A Justice Department review during Trump's first term under President Trump's own Justice Department did not find any evidence to support his allegations of fraud in any way that would have changed the outcome of the election.

1:06:55There is evidence of an effort by Trump to overturn the election in Georgia in his favor, despite the votes not being there. which we know from the now infamous call where Trump asked Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to find him enough votes to win the state. So look, all I want to do is this. I just want to find 11 ,780 votes, which is one more that we have because we won the state. that's still just so crazy five years later just so nuts uh let's discuss with the former republican lieutenant governor of georgia during that election jeff duncan who is now a democratic candidate running for governor uh thank you so much for joining us um we just got this new video showing the fbi loading boxes into a truck at the fulton county uh elections uh office uh at the hub after serving this warrant.

1:08:01What do you make of this? Well, it's just another disgusting attempt by Donald Trump and his administration to try and rewrite history. But I think it's important to recognize Donald Trump does not care, has never cared about protecting democracy or due process or following the law or just embracing the facts or even protecting innocent lives at this point with what's playing out in Minnesota. Donald Trump has figured out the cheat code. If he can weaponize the federal government, he can feel like he's getting his way each and every day. And it's wrong. People are losing their lives and their livelihoods.

1:08:31We're losing traction all across the world. We're the laughingstock of even third world countries these days at the way Donald Trump is working. It's hard to imagine a scenario more than the Trump administration shows up to kindergarten class in the West Wing every morning with their crayon box, and they literally spend all day trying to rewrite history. And this is another attempt. The FBI is executing the search warrant. as the Justice Department is suing Fulton County officials to force them to hand over records related to the 2020 election, an election that, again, Donald Trump lost fair and square.

1:09:06A judge has not yet ruled in that case. What do you think the Trump DOJ will do with those records if they get them? Who knows? I don't think they'll give it an honest, fair shake. They haven't since Donald Trump started within hours of the 2020 election overturning it. I mean, that was the catalyst moment for me to dig in. At the time, I was a Republican, a disgusted Republican, embarrassed to even have an R next to my name. But I dug in and stood up. And the attempts that he took and his cast of characters took to try to usurp that election was unbelievable, including, you know, trying to create special sessions.

1:09:42And, you know, look, I think it's an interesting time in Georgia. I think the rest of the country is literally paying attention to Georgia. You mentioned I'm running for governor as a Democrat. We've gotten over 9 ,000 contributions from all 50 states. Small dollar stuff, because I think folks realize Georgia is the front lines of election integrity. It's the front lines of democracy. Donald Trump wants to try to destroy our elections so he can try to win these elections for him and his cast of characters. We're not going to let it happen. We're going to stay firm as hard as we possibly can throughout this entire election cycle.

1:10:13Listen to what Fulton County Commissioner Mo Ivory just said about this FBI search. Fulton County is right now the target, the only county right now fighting over an election that already happened. But it is coming to a place near you. This is the beginning of the chaos of 2026 that is about to ensue. Do you share that concern about the midterms of November in which you will potentially be on the ballot? Yeah, look, I absolutely am concerned. I mean, Donald Trump will stop at nothing to try to fan the flames of his own vanity and his own ego. And, you know, look, there's nothing. Nothing's out of play at these days.

1:10:54I mean, I think that's really what's created the attention. Why so many people have gone to Duncan for Georgia dot com, because they realize around around the country that if we can't get these elections right in Georgia, then what's what's the good of it? Right. Donald Trump will literally stop at nothing to get his way. Former Georgia Lieutenant Governor Jeff Duncan. Thank you so much. Good to see you again, sir. Bad news coming for the millions of Americans still cleaning up from the last winter storm because another one is brewing and that one's also bringing frigid temperatures with it. We're going to head to the CNN Weather Center for an updated forecast next.

1:11:31In our politics lead, instead of denouncing yesterday's attack on Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, President Trump said this to ABC News, quote, quote, I don't think about her. I think she's a fraud. She probably had herself sprayed knowing her, unquote. She, of course, there's no evidence she had herself sprayed. That's kind of a crazy, insensitive, inhuman thing to say. When asked if the president had seen the video of this man lunge and spray what a law enforcement source believes is apple cider vinegar at the congresswoman, the president said, quote, I hope I don't have to bother. Here now is the panel.

1:12:08So, Moe. President Trump called for the Congresswoman to be thrown out of the country. This is before the attack. And just hours before the attack, he said this in Iowa.

1:12:22They have to show that they can love our country. They have to be proud. Not like Ilhan Omar. Did you see what... Did you see that wise guy? You know, she's always talking about the Constitution. provides me with the following. You know, the Constitution, she comes from a country that's a disaster. So probably it's considered, I think, it's not even a country, okay? Mo, just yesterday on the show, there was a former, there was a Republican formerly of the Bondi DOJ faulting Tim Walz for his rhetoric being responsible for the protesters, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. does incitement only work when Democrats do it?

1:13:08I mean apparently in the mind of the president it does look I remember after the horrific assassination of Charlie Kirk which most Democratic officials condemned it rattled it rattled the nation the president the vice president went out there and said that this type of political violence is an epidemic on the left primarily. They didn't say primarily. They said exclusively. Yeah. That's clearly not the case. We have seen time and time again, and poor Minnesota has gotten more than its fair share in the last year of political violence targeting Democrats and progressives. This isn't a problem on the left.

1:13:54It's not a problem on the right. This is an American problem. This is a disease in our country right now. I would think that our leaders would be trying to do something about it instead of fanning the flames. Forget what he said before. It's what he said after that really shows just the inhumanity of his viewpoint on all of this. Yeah, and Ashley, I know your position on this already because you're a good, nice person. But I mean, I just I keep thinking about after Paul Pelosi was attacked by a man with a hammer and like, you know, Don Jr. And others, Trump making jokes about it like the guy's never going to be the same.

1:14:34Well, one of the things that I looked up, because obviously, let's not forget that the president had an attempted. Yes. I mean, I'm not attacked. Attempted assassination. Assassination as well. And it's horrible. Yeah. No, it's horrible. And this is why the rhetoric needs to come down. I'm not saying that, listen, I understand that the president does it, and others do it as well. The Democrats do it as well. And so we just need to make sure that this is tamed. And obviously what's happening in Minnesota right now, you guys both know, because I've been on with you both before, how I feel about legal immigration in this country.

1:15:09But it's gotten out of control in Minnesota, and the rhetoric needs to come down. And so something like that happened last night isn't acceptable for anybody, Whether I agree with her politics or not, it needs to stop. So beyond the right and wrong and just decency, there's also the political ramifications of what's going on in Minnesota. Republican Florida state senator and Latinas for Trump co-founder Ileana Garcia called the shooting death of Alex Petty, quote, abhorrent. She also said Republicans are going to lose the midterms because of Trump's harsh immigration enforcement tactics. She told the New York Times, quote, I do think that he will lose the midterms because of Stephen Miller.

1:15:48I mean, it goes beyond Stephen Miller. But what do you think about what she had to say? Well, I thought it's very interesting. You saw the first crack, I think, of this administration with kind of Kristi Noem and Stephen Miller pointing fingers at each other yesterday. I also think that this is January. And I think about how many issues that we even dealt with this first 30 days or 27 days of this month. Stop. You're cursing us. It's going to be a lot more before November. But listen, something needs to happen. You see, I'm hoping, and Mo and I were talking about this in the green room, with will Hellman bring the rhetoric down?

1:16:26I hope so. That's what I'm hoping. And so I was talking to a bunch of Republican senators today about the shutdown and et cetera, et cetera. How do we make sure that the rhetoric's down and that we can continue to serve our country in the right way and not have another government shutdown? but also make sure that there's like checks and balances within ICE or what, you know, Homeland Security in general. Generally, I'd agree with you. And generally, I would agree that Lord knows what voters will remember nine months from now, 10 months from now, given the pace of the chaos. But this one has penetrated a little bit more.

1:17:04This has burned into the psyche, I think, of the American people in a way that most of the controversies haven't, because they have seen video of Americans getting gunned down in cold blood by their own government. And that's not the kind of thing that you bounce back from very easily. I hope Tom Homan does change the dynamic on one side of the ledger in Minnesota. But it's got to be more than just the rhetoric. And if we keep seeing incidents of this kind of cruelty and inhumanity on television, I do not see the American people moving on past that. Yeah. All right. To be continued, thanks to both of you and thanks for cursing us.

1:17:46But I totally forgot that we have we have 11 more months of this year in our national lead. Hundreds of thousands of Americans remain without power after last weekend's winter storm. And now another winter storm is brewing with the potential of this one becoming a bomb cyclone. Meteorologist Allison Chinchar is in the CNN Weather Center. Allison, what's the latest forecast? One of the key factors with this next system is all that cold air that's already going to be in place. Every single one of these dots you see here on the map represents an area that could potentially break a record low temperature at some point between Friday all the way through Monday.

1:18:22And some of those locations could break multiple records in a row. We've got that first wave already in place, but that second wave of reinforcing cold air is set to come in this weekend. That means is that low pres of that cold air is alre means there could be some depends on exactly where ends up. Now, one of the has more of a western tra more snow up and down the other model takes it a li the east, which means onl will end up getting snow. be stuck with the cold an because those could be 40 30, 50, 60, even as high the storm slides on by. T because that alone could some trees down and trig outages, even if you don a tremendous amount of sn at the European model aga bit farther off the coast those extreme areas right the significant snow.

1:19:22The is a little bit farther w pushes a little bit farth inland for some of those snowfall totals. So while the exact amounts are still up in the air, we do know that several of these areas of the Carolinas and Virginia are likely to get a few inches of snow. All right, Alison Chinchar, thanks so much. The picture now hanging in the White House that some say sends quite a message to the Kremlin as Russia continues to bomb Ukraine. That's next.

1:19:53In our world lead, international diplomacy is high stakes and failures can be quite consequential. This is a picture from the infamous Munich summit of 1938 where British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain made a deal with Adolf Hitler that Hitler did not keep. The Yalta Conference in February 1945 was initially thought to be a huge success, but in retrospect, historians say FDR left Soviet leader Joseph Stalin thinking it was fine for him to occupy Eastern Europe after the war ended. This photo here is the infamous Vienna summit of 1961, where even President John F. Kennedy later acknowledged his performance left Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev emboldened.

1:20:36And that all brings us to this image. It's a framed photo of President Trump and Russian dictator Vladimir Putin at the August summit in Anchorage, Alaska. PBS correspondent Elizabeth Landers noticed it hanging in the vestibule connecting the West Wing to the residence. Now, before the summit, President Trump promised severe consequences if Putin didn't agree to a ceasefire at that meeting in Anchorage. And yet, despite welcoming a man identified as an international war criminal by The Hague to American soil and literally rolling out a red carpet for him, Putin did not agree to a ceasefire at that summit.

1:21:15In fact, just days after the summit, Russia launched a series of massive strikes across Ukraine, killing at least 23 people, including a two-year-old girl. Earlier this month, Russia launched more than 300 attack drones on Ukraine, and crippling the country's energy grid during the winter, leaving hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians without power as temperatures there drop well below freezing. Just yesterday in Ukraine's Kharkiv region, Russian drones struck a civilian train carrying family members to visit soldiers on the front lines, killing at least five people. So while all of us continue to hold out hope that President Trump will someday be able to get Putin to stop killing innocent Ukrainians in his war on the people of Ukraine, we wonder if it's a tad premature to frame and hang up that photo.

1:22:04History will ultimately decide whether it belongs on a wall in the White House or along with the other photographs we showed you at the top of this piece. Don't forget to tune in to CNN's special town hall in Minneapolis tonight. It's called State of Emergency, Confronting the Crisis in Minnesota. CNN's Anderson Cooper and Sarah Seidner will moderate. Look for that in just over an hour Eastern here on CNN and on the CNN streaming app. Until then, please enjoy my good friend Aaron Burnett. Her show, Aaron Burnett Out Front, starts right now.

1:22:38New cycle making your head spin? The Have I Got News For You crew is here to help with a comic take on the week's headlines. New episodes, Saturdays at 9 on CNN and next day on the CNN app.