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CNN's The Arena with Kasie Hunt

Trump Calls On Republicans To "Nationalize" Future Elections; Police: Nancy Guthrie's Home A "Crime Scene" After Disappearance; Just In: Noem Says Every Officer In Minneapolis Getting Body Cams; Trump To Close Kennedy Center For Two Years For Renovations. Aired 4-5p ET

Aired February 02, 2026 - 16:00   ET

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

[16:00:00]

MIKE MADRID, AUTHOR, "THE LATINO CENTURY": The Trump administration has created a voting bloc that is absolutely pushing against it in historic numbers, that none of us who've been watching this have ever seen.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: You're seeing trends, for sure. Sabrina and Mike, thank you so much for the conversation.

And "THE ARENA WITH KASIE HUNT" starts right now.

(MUSIC)

KASIE HUNT, CNN HOST: Hi, everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt. Welcome to THE ARENA. It's good to have you with us on this Monday.

As we come on the air, a stunning call by Donald Trump for radical changes to the way that your vote is counted. The president saying today that he wants the federal government under the control of the Republican Party to take control of the elections away from the states.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The Republicans should say, we want to take over. We should take over the voting -- the voting. And at least, many, 15 places the Republicans ought to nationalize the voting. We have states that are so crooked and they're counting votes. We have states that I won that show I didn't win.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

HUNT: We have states that I won that show I didn't win, he said.

President Trump's call to, quote, nationalize the voting. It comes two days after Democrats pulled off a major upset in a Texas state senate race. And as the president's allies try to find proof for his false claim that the 2020 election was stolen from him, last week, the director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, accompanied the FBI as it executed a search warrant at an election office in Fulton County, Georgia. "The New York Times" reports that the day after the search, Gabbard

met with some of the agents involved, citing three people familiar with the meeting. "The Times" reports that Gabbard called President Trump on speakerphone and that he spoke with the FBI agents and asked them questions. We had CNN working to confirm that reporting from "The Times".

President Trump today, once again repeating his baseless claim that the 2020 election was rigged and accused undocumented immigrants of voting, despite that being illegal and there being no evidence of widespread voter fraud.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

TRUMP: So, we have millions of people. Most of them are bad, to be honest with you. And by the way, if Republicans don't get them out, you will never win another election as a Republican. If you don't get these -- these people are all pitted. So, they vote and they make all this crap with the voting. Oh, well, you can vote. You can do whatever you want.

It's crazy. I mean, it's crazy how you can get these people to vote. And if we don't get them out, Republicans will never win another election.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: All right, let's get off the sidelines and head into THE ARENA.

My panel is here. We're also joined by CNN senior White House correspondent Kristen Holmes.

Kristen, so what the president is talking about here, I mean, taking over elections, canceling elections. We've heard him reference this fairly often. The White House says just as recently, you know, two weeks ago when he said something along these lines, they said, he's joking. But this was kind of a more extended version of these remarks. And also this idea of nationalizing elections. That is something that, you know, I've spent a lot of time covering Republicans in Washington, historically, conservatives are not into nationalizing elections that they think should stay with the states.

Why was he bringing it up here? What was new? What are they saying about it today?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, I mean, Kasie, it's not just Republicans who don't want a national election. The United States Constitution lays out that we're not going to nationalize these elections. But a lot of this, it just goes back to President Trump's fixation that he believes that he won the 2020 election, whether or not he has always believed it or he has convinced himself of that, it is something that he has remained fixated on.

And we talked about those 15 states. I mean, these are states that we've heard him talk about, even just as recently as the last two weeks. He's talked about Minnesota. He's talked about Georgia. And obviously, that comes at a time that we have seen these federal agents, Department of Justice, doing this search in Fulton County.

We were told by a source that this was to seize voter rolls -- or, excuse me, election data, as well as try to find some kind of fraud. That is something that President Trump has repeated over and over again, that the state of Georgia shouldn't have gone to Joe Biden in 2020 and said he won.

And there is a belief among him and his followers that he did win the 2020 election, particularly in these 15 states, although I would imagine just having heard Trump speak so many times, I don't know what 15 he's talking about, but he certainly would mention Minnesota and Georgia among them.

And I will note you talked a little bit about the director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard. There are a lot of questions as to why she was there in the first place, that in the Department of Justice, the deputy attorney general, Todd Blanche, said, she just happened to be there. He didn't know why she was there.

But I will remind you of one thing, which was a report that we had several months ago that showed that Gabbard was on the outs with President Trump and his inner circle, that he was unhappy with her.

[16:05:10]

And then she launched into this press conference and this investigation into the 2020 elections and what she called voter fraud, which has moved her, moved her standing from kind of on the outs, hanging by a thread to meeting with the president, talking to the president.

Obviously, you saw that "New York Times" reporting there, briefing the FBI agents and the president on what they were finding in Georgia. So, this is clearly a -- for her, has been part of trying to use what he is fixated on to boost up her profile as well, something that the president, as we know, has continued to say now for the last six years, that the election had been stolen from him back in 2020.

HUNT: And, of course, there are still some key national security conversations. She reportedly is being cut out of, even as all of this is continuing to go on.

Kristen Holmes, thanks very much for that reporting.

All right. My panel is here in THE ARENA. CNN legal analyst Elliot Williams; CNN political analyst, national political reporter for "Axios", Alex Thompson; former Democratic congressman from Florida, Debbie Mucarsel-Powell; and former Republican congressman from Michigan, Peter Meijer.

We also are joined by CNN senior law enforcement analyst, former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe.

Thank you all for being here. Really great to have you.

Director McCabe. I actually do want to start with you just on this piece about Tulsi Gabbard being at this raid in Georgia. We're now learning via "The New York Times" that the president was later put on the phone with some of the agents in the case. Can you just help us understand, where we should place that on, I guess, a scale of normalcy?

ANDREW MCCABE, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Kasie, this story gets further from normal with every development. If I'm sitting at normal, this ones out. Somewhere a few miles away. Yeah. I mean, let's -- let's start with the basics here. Under the Homeland Security Act of 2002, which created a lot of things, but including the DNI.

The DNI has no operational role. None. Not on the intelligence side or the. Certainly not on the domestic law enforcement side. The DNI is there to coordinate the intelligence community, conduct oversight, has some -- has some, decisions to make on how the budget is allocated. All, all very important things.

But they don't do that. Furthermore, intelligence officers, the DNI is the chief intelligence officer of the of the country do not deal with us. Person information U.S. person information is handled exclusively by the FBI and its law enforcement partners. We don't use the nation's intelligence infrastructure to investigate U.S. people. In fact, the names and identities of U.S. persons are masked in intelligence reportings and only revealed to people like the DNI if they are -- if the revelation of those names is absolutely necessary to understand a foreign intelligence threat.

So, she has -- not only has no role at the execution of a criminal search warrant, but she could very well be putting all sorts of really important things in jeopardy, putting her own role in jeopardy and drawing -- and she should be drawing the ire of Congress, who should be saying, what are you doing? You are absolutely, completely off the rails.

HUNT: Now, I will say, when you talk to members of Congress and on the scale of the level of concern around cabinet and cabinet level nominees, Tulsi Gabbard is up there. I want to bring the panel here into this conversation.

Alex, you were kind of nodding there. I mean, this is she is a remarkable figure inside the Trump administration for a whole host of reasons. But this one seems to have quickly risen to the top of the list.

ALEX THOMPSON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: And what you are seeing is part of a larger dynamic inside this White House, which is that everyone there wants to put on a performance, a show for something. They believe that Donald Trump will like. And, you know, as someone that used to work in the Trump White House told me, you know, Trump cannot help but see anything, any issue, whether or not its election integrity or anything else except through the prism of how it affects him.

And so, Tulsi Gabbard, just like everyone else in the White House, knows that Trump is still fixated on 2020 even after he won in 2016, he was still claiming that millions of fake votes cost him from winning the popular vote. And everyone in the White House knows it. And it's not just Tulsi Gabbard. Kristi Noem goes out on patrol with ICE agents and puts on a show because she knows -- that she believes that President Trump will like that.

HUNT: Yeah. Elliot?

ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: I mean, I would say, you know, the interesting thing, and this is picking up on what Andrew had said a moment ago, there's a shred of reality to a lot of the things that the Trump administration does, but then it gets stretched beyond what's rational. Yes, there is a small sliver of monitoring elections that has some national security component or some intelligence component, but that's certainly not the case here.

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They're not alleging, at least as far as we can tell, any sort of foreign interference or intelligence problems. No, this is about finding out whether Trump properly won in 2020. And then I think adding to that, just the practical matter of a cabinet official attending the exercise of a search warrant is unheard of. You wouldn't have the attorney general or secretary of homeland security. Normally walking in to shea, but you know what I mean. Like the attorney general going out with cops as they execute search warrants.

And then number three, inserting political appointees into the work of rank and file law enforcement officers is also awkward. It's not just the boss. It's a politically appointed boss who's sort of hovering over them as they do their work.

HUNT: I want to bring in the political side of the table in just a second. But first, I want to bring in some more information from "The Times" to you, Andy McCabe. They actually reported that the president personally ordered Tulsi Gabbard to go to Atlanta for this search. And coordinated her actions with Andrew Bailey, who is one of two deputy FBI directors.

I mean, the president, obviously, he could have called Kash Patel. He could have called all kinds of other people here. I mean, what does it say to you that he ordered Tulsi Gabbard to go down there again? According to "The Times" reporting, and then he spoke directly via her to these FBI agents who were on the ground.

MCCABE: Yeah. Well, I mean, my head is spinning with these revelations. But first of all, shame on Andrew Bailey for allowing that to happen. That's the moment, Mr. Bailey, where you have to stand up and stand on principle and refuse.

You're not -- you are absolutely should never under any circumstances allow, as Elliot said, any cabinet secretary to go out with your agents on a search warrant, but certainly not under these circumstances where you're going to be accused of making -- of allowing politics to influence your criminal work, which is a terrible position to be in anyway. This just makes it, you know, absolutely proves the theory. Having the president speak directly to the case, agents working -- I

mean, this this does not happen was absolutely prohibited for decades and decades by what we refer to as the White House contacts policy. It's a policy agreed to by DOJ and the White House in which it was agreed that no one from the White House could ever talk to anyone in the department of justice or the FBI about criminal matters.

Those contacts had to go through the deputy attorney general, who would then decide what information to pass back, if anything. And usually the answer was nothing. So to have the president actually talking to the investigators, terrible idea for many legal reasons. But, shows the complete compromise of the FBIs independence from politics, that is no longer a thing.

HUNT: Peter Meijer, you're a former Republican congressman. Youve had most of your career during the Trump era. How do you defend this?

I mean, considering that our politics do go back and forth, right? I mean, one party, one president breaks a norm, then the other party much more likely to do it. You know, it's far too hypothetical to always say, well, if it was a Democrat, blah, blah, blah, but I just -- I don't understand how you defend this, I guess.

PETER MEIJER (R), FORMER MICHIGAN CONGRESSMAN: No, I mean, if I'm Trump, I'm saying what happened during Crossfire Hurricane to me was unfair. And now here's an opportunity for me to muddy the waters.

Now, I don't really get what Tulsi Gabbard is doing there. I think the White House has pulled in so much of the foreign policy and national security elements into a much more closely held and trusted circle that I get that the director of national intelligence is kind of cut out of that.

But this just there better be something good. If this is all just how do we bring back into the mix, Italian military satellites? And I spent way too many time talking to way too many people who went down, way too many rabbit holes in 2020. I'm getting PTSD from just, like, hour long conversations where I'm having to go to obscure websites and look up something that nobody remembers a week later, right?

There's a lot of weird things in there, but at the same time, like, there are very legitimate things that the president should be talking about around election integrity. It is insane that California and New York allow mail in ballots to trickle in for weeks after the election, I had a colleague who couldn't get sworn in because there were single digit questions around her election, and it wasn't determined until eight weeks after that November election in 2020. Right?

There are real good reasons for congress to take up a renewal of the HAVA, the Help America Vote Act. There's good things to talk about here. I'm not sure what this is meant to do.

HUNT: Right. Congresswoman, where do you think the swing voter of America, to the extent that they still exist, I am a firm believer that they do actually matter very much in elections. But like we just saw, for example, a special election in Texas where you know, a Democrat won overwhelmingly in a plus 17 Trump district in a huge swing over just a 12-month period.

When voters see something like this play out, how do they categorize it? Does it matter at all to them? Do they put it in one of these buckets? Well, this is Trump chaos. This is something else.

What's your view of that?

DEBBIE MUCARSEL-POWELL (D), FORMER FLORIDA CONGRESSWOMAN: I'm so glad you asked me that question because I wanted to simplify it to everybody that's watching. I mean, you have millions of Americans right now that are tuning in to CNN at the airport on their flights switching channels, and they don't understand anything that is going on.

I mean, the news cycle changes every single second. And this president is a master communicator and a master director of reality TV. And so, he understands that Kristi Noem right now, her reputation and her image are not something that he wants to put out there. Since Tulsi Gabbard, some somebody that I actually served in Congress with because she would do you know, she has been a little bit outside of the scene.

The question is, is he doing this? Is this administration doing this to undermine the trust, further undermine the trust in our electoral system because we have midterms coming in November. So, if he starts questioning the results of some of these elections, he's already setting the stage for that. And he knows that he knows how to do that very well.

But right now, the everyday American, the swing voter, they're so tired of the reality TV that they see every single day. For them, its, what are you going to do for me? But I can tell you this, the Latino vote has always been a swing vote, and right now they're paying attention because now their families are being affected by the immigration policies of this administration.

HUNT: Yeah.

MUCARSEL-POWELL: And they're paying attention to that.

THOMPSON: Just to add to that, you know, I've talked to some Democratic and Republican strategists that believe that a lot of these swing voters, when they voted for Trump in 2024, they were voting for Trump 1.0, which was Trump with more guardrails, more establishment voices around him that sort of pushed back.

That is not what they have gotten this last year. And to your point, you know, I think the feelings that they may not care about the Fulton case, but the feelings of that this is a presidency without checks and that is at times chaotic, that could be problematic.

WILLIAMS: And, you know, and just to add -- to add that to what Congressman Meijer had said about sort of the validity of some of this election stuff, I was thinking about immigration at sort of something similar to where the president, number one, won on the issue. And number two set out to fix abuses, errors, problems in the immigration system, but has sort of it all away with overreach and bad communications and all of the above.

It's kind of the same thing here. Even if there was something legitimate to be done with respect to election integrity. Like what? What is happening here?

MEIJER: Voter ID is an 80/20 issue that Trump is on the right side of, and the Democrats have positioned themselves aggressively in the 20 percent part. That is where to handle to really hammer and to drive this in. Instead, you know, the presidents not talking about voter ID.

He's not talking about these things where you could actually, theoretically get not that Democrats are in a bipartisan mood at all. No offense. Sometimes they are.

MUCARSEL-POWELL: But we're always in a bipartisan mood. Let me just say that.

MEIJER: Sure, sure, sure. But, you know, you could --

HUNT: Talk about it because he's talking about himself.

MUCARSEL-POWELL : Yeah.

THOMPSON: Yes. Well, and House GOP has passed them and voting regulations. And it's not like Trump is pressuring the Senate and running on it to try to get it up for a vote.

HUNT: Because perhaps it's about him and not about the policy.

THOMPSON: Yes.

HUNT: Yeah. Okay.

Andrew McCabe, thank you. Always really grateful to have you, sir, on the program. We'll see you soon, I hope.

The rest of our panel is going to standby.

Coming up next here in THE ARENA. Congressman Eric Swalwell will be here live. Why he might just agree with something the president just said as the House races toward a vote on a DHS bill that doesn't really make anyone 100 percent happy.

But first, the new details in a developing story that's taking a dramatic turn. What we're learning for -- learning about the search for and disappearance of Savannah Guthrie's 84 year old mother.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHERIFF CHRIS NANOS, PIMA COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT: We saw some things at the home that were concerning to us. We believe now, after we processed that crime scene, that we do, in fact have a crime scene, that we do, in fact have a crime.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:23:23]

HUNT: Right now, an urgent search is underway for the mother of "Today Show" anchor Savannah Guthrie. Officials say 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie was last seen Saturday night near her home outside of Tucson, Arizona. She was reported missing Sunday at noon after she didn't go to church. Homicide detectives were sent to her home, which the county sheriff says is not standard. What they saw raised suspicions.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NANOS: We saw some things at the home that were concerning to us. We believe now, after we processed that crime scene, that we do, in fact have a crime scene. This is a 84-year-old lady who suffers from some physical ailments, has some physical challenges, is in need of medication. Medication that if she doesn't have in 24 hours, it could be fatal.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: All right, I want to bring in CNN chief law enforcement and intelligence analyst John Miller, CNN's security correspondent Josh Campbell.

Josh, let me start with you. What do we know? What don't we know about Nancy Guthrie's disappearance?

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is certainly -- yeah. This has certainly taken a dire direction now, what started as a missing person case, authorities say now was the result of some type of crime. Of course, the big question, a crime committed by whom? Authorities haven't released any details about any possible suspect at this hour.

As you mentioned, we know that Nancy Guthrie was last seen Saturday night. It wasn't until Sunday when she didn't go to church that authorities were eventually notified, and they launched this big search effort overnight to try to find her, but to no avail.

[16:25:06]

Now, authorities aren't saying exactly what they found at that residence. That makes them believe that this was the result of some type of crime, but they are appealing to members of the public, particularly in that neighborhood. They're asking people to proactively go through Ring doorbell camera footage. If anyone saw something suspicious, they want people to pick up the phone and call police.

They're also employing a lot of new, sophisticated technology as well, including license plate readers, which, of course, John Miller knows more than most about how those have been so critical in many types of cases. They say they're trying to determine if they can identify a possible suspect vehicle coming and going, the sheriff told us now, a short time ago, that they don't believe that this was some type of home invasion or robbery gone wrong. Theres no evidence of that yet. They say everything remains on the table right now.

But again, going in a very, you know, dire direction here. Of course, all of us are hoping, hoping, wishing for the best for Savannah and her mother and the NBC News family. We're waiting for an update on authorities about how the status of that search, and if there are any new clues that they've been able to uncover.

HUNT: Yeah, and I mean, a point of personal privilege. Savannah was a dear friend to me. When I worked at NBC News, she was a mentor and she is as genuine as they come. Her love for her mother was always so incredibly obvious. And of course, covering the story from that perspective is, of course, a personal challenge, and my heart here and the hearts at the show go out to Savannah and her family.

John Miller, what do you say about what the possibilities could be here? I think everyone is, you know, wondering why.

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Well, I mean, we start off with what the possibilities aren't. And according to the sheriff and family members, this is an 84-year-old woman who had physical ailments, meaning she used a cane or a walker. She couldn't go far under her own steam, but her mental acuity is described as being tip top. She was extremely with it, aware.

So what -- what is not being considered is that she wandered off into the night, confused about who she was or where she was -- not going to be the case here, according to everybody who knows her. So that leaves us to -- without the kind of disturbance in the house that would suggest ransacking or robbery. With the anomalies that investigators found, and it's more than one thing that the sheriff said. This is what we determined to be a crime scene as we processed it.

It is suggestive of an abduction. If someone took her, then the question is, is this a random or targeted kind of crime? And if it's targeted, it's likely because of her association with a well-known figure. Perhaps the idea that there could be money behind it. But what they also don't have, and this is all theoretical, is right now, they don't, as far as I'm told, have contact with anybody who has made a ransom demand or any other kind of demand.

So, we're in the middle of a very perplexing mystery right now. And the silence is deafening.

Pima County has used a tremendous amount of resources. Investigators, people, helicopters, fixed wing aircraft, drones searching the area, day and night. But so far, no real leads.

HUNT: Really terrifying situation.

Josh, I want to play a little bit more of what was said during the news conference that officials did about this earlier today. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SGT. DAVID STIVERS, PIMA COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPARTMETN: There were circumstances on scene, that that we believe are suspicious in nature, I think is the best way to put it. But we can't really get into a whole lot of details with that.

REPORTER: Is there any threat to the general public?

NANOS: I don't think there's an active threat, but I hate to say that because, you know what? We're going to canvass that neighborhood and maybe there's a prowler been seen around. I -- we -- there's a lot of work still to do. We don't have any indication that that the public is in danger.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Josh, how would you interpret that statement

CAMPBELL: Yeah, it's always a tough question for investigators to get after you have, you know, an allegedly violent act to then try to provide some type of assurance to the public. But they're going based on what they know right now. And again, as the sheriff had said, this didn't look like some type of home invasion or robbery as of right now. That could change if additional facts come to light, but they're clearly taking their time in these cases.

And it's not unusual that they make that calculation. Okay. We're going to keep certain information close to the vest because, for example, if you are able to identify a suspect, you then want to get the jump on that person. The element of surprise without pushing that information out.

[16:30:00]

But the longer this goes on, the authorities may make a determination that, okay, we do want to share more as we gather information. One thing we do know, and obviously a very heartbreaking situation. We're hoping for the absolute best, is that the sheriff you know, was quite clear in saying that they are racing a clock right now because Nancy Guthrie was on prescription medications, that the sheriff says if she goes more than 24 hours, it could prove fatal. And so, time is certainly critical here.

HUNT: Of the essence. John Miller --

MILLER: The sheriff said was -- the sheriff indicated, you know, that we have her phone. Well, if authorities have her phone, that means she does not. So, the opportunity to track her through that device is off the table.

But it also suggests that nobody is going to leave the house, you know, north of 10:00 at night and go anywhere without their phone. So, it's just another concerning sign.

HUNT: Concerning, indeed.

All right. John Miller, Josh Campbell, thank you both very much. Really appreciate it. Anyone who might have information about this is encouraged to contact the Pima County Sheriff's Department. It is there on your screen. The number is 520-351-4900. Or you can always, of course, call 911.

All right. Coming up next here in THE ARENA. His name is already on the building, but the president apparently has more plans for one of Washington's most iconic buildings.

Plus, the will he or won't he moment on Capitol Hill. The House Speaker Mike Johnson gearing up for a key vote on government funding with his own party divided and Democrats saying they won't come to his rescue.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN KENNEDY (R-LA): It'll be a bumpy road for the House. It'll be a -- it'll be a clown circus for a few days. But I think they'll ultimately pass. The only bill that will not pass is the Department of Homeland Security budget. And frankly, I don't know if it's possible to pass that bill.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:36:22]

HUNT: Breaking news right now, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem just announced that DHS will deploy body cameras to all agents on the ground in Minneapolis. This comes as Democrats have been trying to use the fight over government funding to force changes to ICE's policies and tactics. Body cameras were part of that. As all of this is unfolding here in Washington, in Minnesota, on the ground, protests and immigration operations continuing after a judge this weekend declined the state's request to block the federal government.

At the same time, five-year-old Liam Ramos and his father have returned home after a judge ordered their release from an immigration facility in Texas. Liam has been reunited with his blue bunny hat and his Pikachu, as you can see there.

The outrage over cases like Liam's made an appearance at last night's Grammy Awards. Some attendees wearing pins saying "ICE Out".

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILLIE EILISH, SINGER-SONGWRITER: No one is illegal on stolen land.

I feel like we just need to keep fighting and speaking up and protesting.

OLIVIA DEAN, BRITISH SINGER-SONGWRITER: I'm up here as a granddaughter of an immigrant, and I think those people deserve to be celebrated.

BAD BUNNY, RAPPER: I'm going to say "ICE Out". We're not savage. We're not animals. We're not aliens. We are humans, and we are Americans. (END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: All right. CNN's chief congressional correspondent, Manu Raju, is live on Capitol Hill.

Manu, we have this news coming in from Kristi Noem as, of course, this body camera question mark has become a big part of the debate. The policy debate on the Hill. What are you hearing about this change and about the future of the government funding package?

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, this has been a big push among Democrats. Among the changes that they have demanded among ICE is to require body cameras for all ICE officers, one of the handful of changes.

And just moments ago, Secretary Kristi Noem made a policy change in this area, saying, effective immediately, we are deploying body cameras to every officer in the field in Minneapolis as funding is available. The body camera program will be expanded nationwide. We will rapidly acquire and deploy body cameras to DHS law enforcement across the country.

This is a step towards the direction that Democrats have been demanding, but Democrats have been asking for a lot more. Beyond this, they want ICE officers to remove their masks. They want to change how judicial warrants are being issued. And they also want to change use of force policies for ICE officers and end roving patrols. Really going much further than many Republicans are willing to give.

But that is the next fight. That is the next negotiation. The current negotiation is about how to fund most of the federal government. Remember the bill that passed the Senate last week? Fund most of the federal government through September. The Homeland Security Department would only be funded for two weeks to give time for those negotiations over ICE.

But the House Democrats say that they are not going to go along with this, putting pressure on Speaker Johnson to pass the bill with Republican votes alone, meaning he can only afford to lose one Republican vote on a party line vote. And there are several Republicans who are holding out.

And that's where Donald Trump comes involved in the picture. We are hearing -- I'm hearing from Republican members telling me that Trump himself is on the phone urging Republicans to fall in line.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: The president need to get involved here?

REP. TOM COLE (R-OK): And president gotten involved. President actually has issued a tweet this afternoon. I just read it. And he's called individual Republicans.

[16:40:01]

So, he's working it hard. He wants this bill passed.

RAJU: Is it going to take the president to pass this funding bill tomorrow to reopen the government?

COLE: I think he will -- I think he's already engaging, and I think it's necessary for him to engage.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: And the way this process will work out, Kasie, is that tomorrow, there's going to be a key procedural vote before the full, before the full package can come to the House floor. But that procedural vote is what we will all be watching, because Democrats are going to vote no.

And Johnson has to keep his members in line, and Trump needs to strongarm those members to fall in line. That's going to be a pretty bumpy process. Can they get there? And if they can't get there, that's when they will need Democratic support and cater to the Democratic demands, meaning the government shutdown could drag on.

But tomorrow, a key day in the second government shutdown of Donald Trump's second term.

HUNT: Certainly not the first time Mike Johnson has found himself in the situation where he needs Donald Trump to call his members, to get them to do what he needs them to do.

Manu Raju, thank you very much for that reporting.

Joining me now, Democratic congressman from California, Eric Swalwell. He sits on the House Homeland Security Committee.

Congressman, thanks for being here.

REP. ERIC SWALWELL (D-CA): Of course.

HUNT: What is your reaction to Kristi Noem coming out with this policy change in just the last few minutes?

SWALWELL: Definitely needed, but not even close to being enough to get my vote or most of my Democratic colleagues. If we give them another penny without serious reforms, we risk losing another nurse named Pretti and a mom named Good. I'm not going to cosign on that, and I would be surprised if they found many Democratic colleagues of mine who will.

HUNT: Why is it, do you think, that Senate Democrats were willing to send this package over to you the way that it is? If it wasn't good enough?

SWALWELL: I don't know. I've seen Senate Democratic leadership send eight page strongly worded letters when many of us are saying we need show, not tell type of leadership.

I want to see an end to the roving patrols. I want to see the masks come off, identification come out. I want to see an end to the qualified immunity that makes these guys think they're invincible. I want to see the end to targeting people based on the color of their skin and the accents they speak, which is something they have admitted to.

Anything less than that is community terror. And the community is saying enough.

HUNT: Do you think that all Democrats are going to be united in opposing this funding package when the rule and then the package itself, in theory, hit the floor?

SWALWELL: Can't speak for all Democrats. The ones I have talked to have heard the same thing that I've heard, which is Donald Trump promised he would lower costs. He said he would lower costs. He's over 375 on that. He told us he would cut prices.

Instead, he is killing people. Bodies are piling up and there aren't many people on our side who want to sign off or validate anything that puts the community more at risk. So, I would be surprised if more of my Democratic colleagues supported this, and I'm advocating that they don't.

HUNT: On another topic, Congressman, earlier in the show, we talked about President Trump's comments just today that elections maybe should be nationalized. What is your response to the president's proposal?

SWALWELL: Our elections are hyper local. That's how they've always been. And this sounds to me like somebody who sees a wipeout coming at the ballot box, based on the energy we've seen in the streets with "No Kings" rallies, and also the results we've shown in special elections.

And so that's why it's really on governors right now. Blue state governors to max out democracy in their states. The states run elections in this country. And you have to make it as accessible as possible, because you can count on Donald Trump to do everything, whether it's through the National Guard, whether it's through ICE, whether it's through the Postal Service, to try and prevent Democrats from going into the majority, holding him accountable and writing a budget that lowers costs and delivers health care.

And so, it's really going to be on governors, and we need governors to step up. We've seen that in California. They tried to take five seats in Texas. Gavin Newsom led the way to get five seats back in California. We need to see that everywhere.

HUNT: I'm so glad you mentioned Gavin Newsom. I was going to ask you about him. You, of course, are running in the primary to replace him.

SWALWELL: Yeah.

HUNT: He is done a spread in "Vogue" with his family. The first line is, quote, "Let's get this out of the way. He's embarrassingly handsome, his hair seasoned with silver, at ease with his own eminence." I guess my question to you today is I guess it's only, what? February 2nd, 2026. Are you ready to endorse Gavin Newsom for president in 2028?

SWALWELL: I'm ready to endorse the idea that the next governor is not going to look like that. That's obvious.

But what I admire about him is the show, not tell leadership that, as I said, you look at some they write eight page strongly worded letters. This guy goes to the courts, goes to the voters, and people are reacting.

[16:45:01]

They want a fighter and protector. And so, it does not surprise me. You know, where he sits right now in the early polling. It's a long way to go.

But governors have to be rock strong. If the people rise up and the governors use the pen, there's really no limit to what we can do to hold the Trump administration to account and bring down the prices.

HUNT: All right. California Congressman Eric Swalwell, appreciate the self-deprecation. Thanks for being here.

SWALWELL: Yeah.

HUNT: Talk to you soon.

All right. Coming up next here in THE ARENA, the other shutdown here in Washington with the president's planning to close and just how much he says it's going to cost.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:50:01]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We'll make a lot of changes, including the seats, the decor. Pretty much everything, needs a lot of work.

How about Kennedy Center? Let's fix that one up.

I have really great marble contractors and woodworkers, and we're fixing Kennedy Center the way it should be. It was -- it was a mess.

We're going to make it something really special. It is -- it's been tired. It's been mistreated a little bit like the White House has been mistreated.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: President Donald Trump steaming ahead with his plans to give the Kennedy Center a complete makeover. The president saying on Truth Social last night the cultural center will be temporarily closing for two years starting on July 4th for, quote, "construction, revitalization and complete rebuilding."

The announcement follows a wave of cancellations by various performers since Trump's takeover of the center, a number that has grown since he fired the board of trustees, installed himself as chairman and added his name to the facade of the building.

My panel is back here.

Alex Thompson this has been a fixation for the presidents, and now they're going to spend millions of dollars redoing this. What is -- what is it the root of this for Donald Trump?

THOMPSON: So, in the 19 -- stick with me. In the 1980s, Donald Trump had this enormous project in New York City that was going to be called Trump city. Yes, Elliot knows about this. And he -- eventually, he had a falling out with the mayor over like a last second thing where he didn't get the permits.

Trump has always wanted to remake every city that he has lived in. And this is not just about the Kennedy Center. You have the big arc that's supposed to go up. He is remodeling the White House, even the new football stadium. He has been intimately involved members of administration is. He is trying in some ways to make Washington, D.C., his version of Trump city.

WILLIAMS: Yeah, I would just -- I would note a couple things. It's -- one, the Kennedy Center is a national memorial. Like, regardless of I mean, we can talk about, oh, he did this to the East Wing. And yet, but we are talking about a different space here that is a landmark in Washington, D.C. and if they're serious about what they're saying here about a complete rebuild, that's something that I think the American people ought to know about.

I will also note that the law is clear, and forgive me for being the lawyer at the garden party, but the law does say no change in the management and operation of the grounds of the Kennedy Center may be made without the express approval of Congress. So, if we're rebuilding the Kennedy Center, I would think Congress ought to know about it. You know, we pick our battles about what we lose our mind over with respect to Donald Trump. But there's serious legal questions here that I think ought to be pursued.

MUCARSEL-POWELL: Yeah. I was just going to say I mean, only Congress has the authority to give the funding for any renovations for the building, and only -- I think it was 2019 where they spent over $200 -- $200 million renovating the Kennedy Center. And this is an issue of misusing federal funds.

Alex, if he wants to rebuild a city, he's free to do that, but not using a government agency or government funding for that.

Now, I think that partly the reason that they're shutting down the Kennedy center is because they are, you know, a lot of artists have completely cut ties with the center. I know that the Washington National Opera is no longer performing there. It's actually now performing at George Washington University. "The New York Times" actually reported that some of those performances

are empty when they perform at the Kennedy Center. And so, they're losing money after all the changes that he made. And it's Congress's authority to make sure that they provide oversight and stop, you know, the misuse of taxpayer dollars.

THOMPSON: There just one quick point of clarification. There was money appropriated in the initial One Big, Beautiful Bill directed at the Kennedy Center. But the question to your point, have they already gone above and more than that amount, and what are they using it on?

HUNT: Yeah. Well, and Maria Shriver reacted to this, of course, part of the Kennedy family, "Translation, it has been brought to my attention due to the name-change, nobody's telling me it's due to the name-change, but it's been brought to my attention that entertainers are canceling left and right. I have determined that since the name- change, no one wants to perform there any longer."

We do have brand new comments from President Trump that were just made. He's been taking questions. Let's see what he said about it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: How much will all of the renovations cost?

TRUMP: Probably around $200 million. I'm not ripping it down. I'll be using the steel. So we're using the structure. We're using some of the marble.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: So, some of the marble, I mean, Congressman, it's a landmark, right? Like you fly into D.C., you see it? It's right there along the river.

It's going to look like Trump now?

MEIJER: I've never been -- I've never been to the Kennedy Center. I hear they put on performances.

I'll be honest -- you talk about the football stadium, the arc, the arch that he's talking about, the Arc de Triomphe, the Arc de Trump, you know, but a little bit taller, a little bit bigger. I like them.

[16:55:00]

The renderings are nice. Have you seen the renderings for this new RFK stadium? It looks gorgeous. It's of a piece. It has the classical columns. It looks --

MUCARSEL-POWELL: We need to be serious, though. I mean, really, let's -- let's take this seriously.

(CROSSTALK)

MUCARSEL-POWELL: On congressional authority and what needs to happen. HUNT: Yeah. I mean, honestly, the stadium is like, minorly out of

"Gladiator". I got to be honest with you, the Russell Crowe.

MEIJER: The Colosseum has proven the test of time.

HUNT: All right.

MEIJER: Just saying.

HUNT: We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HUNT: All right. Thanks to my panel. Thanks to all of you at home for watching.

Jake Tapper is standing by for "THE LEAD".

Hi, Jake.