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Trump Threatens to Ban Big Investors from Buying Homes; Political Rhetoric Heats Up Over Minnesota ICE Shooting; Trump to New York Times; "Only Time Will Tell" How Long U.S. Will Run Venezuela. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired January 08, 2026 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00]

MATT EGAN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: ... about the American dream of homeownership and how far out of reach it feels right now, especially for young people. The president is clearly trying to show that he is taking action on this issue. So in this Truth Social post yesterday, the president said he's immediately taking steps to ban large institutional investors from buying more single-family homes.

He says he's going to be calling on Congress to codify it. And he went on to say that people live in homes, not corporations. Now, there's new details on exactly how this would work nor how the president would overcome likely opposition from some on Wall Street and some within his own party. But look it's true that for years investors on Wall Street have been buying up homes and renting them out to everyday people.

According to Redfin about 17 percent of all homes purchased in the United States during the third quarter were bought by investors. That's up sharply from 9 percent back in 2005 before the subprime meltdown in the foreclosures prices. Now, I should note that this includes both mom-and-pop investors and those large institutional investors as well.

But critics say that these purchases by investors, they're driving up home prices. And this is a particular issue in some of the major markets in the United States, including New York, Miami, Orlando, Cleveland, and then out west in San Francisco, L.A., Las Vegas as well. Now, analysts say that this move, if it happens, it could end up helping to boost the purchases of single-family homes, but it also could hurt renters if it shrinks the supply of homes that are for rent. And look, I think bottom line here, Brianna, is the fact that the president is calling a play that could just as easily be out of the playbook of Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren shows how seriously he's taking this issue of housing affordability ahead of the midterms.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Tomorrow, the federal government will release last month's jobs report. What are economists predicting there, Matt?

EGAN: Well, Brianna, the thinking is it's going to be a bit of a mixed picture. The good news is the unemployment rate is seen dipping from that four-year high of 4.6 percent in November to 4.5 percent in December. The bad news, though, is that the hiring rate, the number of jobs added, is expected to slow down a bit from 64,000 in November to 55,000.

But I should note that there's a pretty wide range of estimates out there. And some economists, they actually think that this number could be twice as high, about 100,000. So we've got to wait to see on that.

Ahead of tomorrow's report, we did get two other indicators. One of them, Challenger Gray and Christmas, had some good news. They said that layoff announcements, they plunged by 50 percent in December. Layoff announcements, they really surged earlier this year.

They have come down. So that, of course, is good to see. And one other point here is the New York Fed, they said that consumers, they now see just a 43 chance of finding a job. That is the lowest level since the New York Fed started tracking this a dozen years ago.

And so hopefully, Brianna, we get some good news from tomorrow's jobs report that makes people feel a little bit safer about their job and their ability to find a new one. Back to you.

KEILAR: Yes, give us some hope. Come on. All right, Matt Egan, we'll see you tomorrow. Thank you so much. And we'll be right back.

[15:35:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: Fallout from the deadly ICE shooting in Minneapolis, further highlighting the combative rhetoric on both sides of the aisle.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. TIM WALZ, (D) MINNESOTA: People in positions of power have already passed judgment. From the president to the vice president, to Christy Noem have stood and told you things that are verifiably false. Verifiably inaccurate. They have determined the character of a 37- year-old mom that they didn't even know. Don't know.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: This afternoon, Vice President J.D. Vance saying this about Governor Tim Walz.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

J.D. VANCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Tim Walz is a joke. His entire administration has been a joke. The idea that he's some sort of freedom fighter, he's not. This is absolutely a tragedy, but it's a tragedy of the making of the far left. They have radicalized a very small segment of the population, taught them that ICE agents are engaging in wide-scale violation of people's rights.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Joined now by CNN contributor Lulu Garcia-Navarro and CNN chief media correspondent Brian Stelter. Lulu, the vice president started this appearance by announcing a new assistant attorney general position to investigate fraud in Minnesota and other places. What did you make of his appearance there today and why he was saying he was taking the podium?

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: I mean, this is part, I think, of a wider project that the administration is trying to adopt that is trying to paint, quote unquote, whom they call agitators, people who they believe are connected to leftist organizations, the Democratic Party, as being involved in obstructing ICE and other things. And so what we're seeing, I think, at the moment is the administration, instead of waiting for an investigation, trying to figure out what actually went on there, as would be typical in law enforcement, and really taking the offensive and trying to take control of the narrative, if you will.

KEILAR: He also, Brian, really criticized the media and its coverage of the story. Let's listen to part of that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VANCE: I think it's really irresponsible for you guys to go out there and imply or tell the American people that a guy who defended himself from being rammed by an automobile is guilty of murder. Be a little bit more careful. We're going to talk about toning down the temperature, which I know the president wants to do, and I certainly want to do. One of the ways we tone down the temperature is to have a media that tells the truth. I encourage you all to do that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[15:40:00]

KEILAR: What'd you think of that, Brian?

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST: I don't like to reduce a mother's death to a PR operation, but the administration's PR operation is abundantly clear. Kristi Noem made it very clear. She came out immediately with those two words, domestic terrorists, and she presented a frame that pro-Trump individuals, that pro-Trump commentators, that those on the right could instantly grab onto and use and embrace. And that is what's happened for the last 24 hours.

Now when there have been follow-up questions from the press about the evidence, right, show us what this person was doing before she was killed. Show us how she was allegedly stalking the ICE officials. That evidence has not been forthcoming.

And I think as the hours go on that's what's really revealing now, is the dearth of follow-up evidence. These administration officials keep repeating the incendiary claims and they don't prove them. And we just went through an anniversary about this. We just went to the January 6th anniversary.

All about seeing violence occur, seeing videotaped evidence, and then see the administration deny that reality and rewrite history. The difference, of course, at this time, as Lulu just said, the rewriting is happening in real time. They're not waiting till later to create a narrative.

The narrative is being set at the very beginning and now the backup is coming in the form of J.D. Vance and others to repeat that narrative. But like I said, Brianna, now it's about the evidence and we haven't actually seen the follow-up evidence.

KEILAR: A note, the vice president said he hasn't seen more than we have seen, just to be clear of sort of what's out there in the public.

STELTER: Right.

KEILAR: So I think that was important to note. Lulu, Minnesota officials, you heard Governor Tim Walz. He was urging the public to not be violent. He was urging them to protest peacefully.

But there was a lot of don't give them what they want that he was saying. Vance was arguing that heightened rhetoric surrounding the shooting, quote, puts our law enforcement officers at risk every single day. There's like a lot of talk about bringing down the temperature.

Do you think officials are taking the right steps here?

GARCIA-NAVARRO: No. And a short answer is no. Listen, this is unfortunately, a shooting foretold. There was a real sense for quite some time now that the actions of ICE that we have seen, not just in Minneapolis, but across this country, were going to lead to some sort of confrontation.

I think what has been notable is that here on CNN, you have seen law enforcement, police come on and say they were worried that something like this was going to happen. And so, what we are seeing is a real sense of, I think, worry that what everyone was talking about -- remember when they first sent federal forces into LA, that there was going to be some kind of deadly confrontation between federal forces and American citizens. We're here now.

This is actually what's happened. And so instead of saying, let the facts, wherever the facts lead, wherever the facts go, we will follow that, we will prosecute the guilty. Instead, we're seeing everyone come into their corners, paint this tragic, tragic, tragic event in partisan, through partisan lenses, and I think that is only going to lead to more division and potentially more conflict.

KEILAR: Brian?

STELTER: But, yes, you know, Lulu said everyone, and I mostly agree with her, but all of us in our own small way can resist these temptations. You know, and look, social media makes it a lot more intense. This entire story, it is so complicated. The folks who make it sound simple are telling on themselves.

You know, the word that's been coming up on CNN is nuanced. Looking at these videos, this was a nuanced and really complicated situation. But people who try to make it sound simple, they're revealing something about themselves.

It used to be that seeing was believing. We used to hear that old phrase, what you see is what you believe. But now it's what you believe is what you you will see because of hyper-personalized algorithms and hyper-partisan social media and personalized media bubbles.

You know, algorithms, they fill in the rest. They show you what you already believe to be true. But resisting that is a tall task. It's up to all of us. It's incumbent to all of us to not, you know, jump from, you know, we have to start with A, B, and C before we get to X, Y, and Z.

And yes, a lot of people are jumping to X, Y, and Z. It's incumbent on all of us to resist that temptation in a moment like this.

KEILAR: Yes. Lulu and Brian, thank you so much for the conversation. I appreciate it.

And ahead, in a wide-ranging interview, President Trump says he expects the U.S. to run Venezuela and control its oil industry for years. How's that going to go? We'll discuss next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: The president told the New York Times that U.S. oversight of Venezuela could last years. President Trump said, quote, "Only time will tell" on how long his administration will demand that its interim leaders submit to U.S. control. Which he said would include extracting its oil, selling it, and giving the money to the Venezuelan people.

One of the reporters who interviewed the president, David Sanger, talked with us earlier about the kind of pressure that Trump was exerting on the nation with the largest oil reserves in the world.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID SANGER, WHITE HOUSE AND NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT, THE NEW YORK TIMES: It's a bit of a virtual occupation. That is to say we don't have troops on the ground, but we have them just offshore. And I think the concept is he's using the threat of that offshore presence to keep them in line.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Joining me now is retired Army Colonel Peter Mansoor, who is Professor of Military History at Ohio State University. I wonder what you think of how you hear David Sanger describing this, this sort of threat of an offshore presence, kind of virtually managing Venezuela. How do you think about that working? Can it?

COL. PETER MANSOOR, (U.S. ARMY (RET.): Well, I don't think so. You know, we've seen this movie before in Iraq and Afghanistan.

[15:50:00] And it took years to try to impose some stability in both places, and it failed. And that was with tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of troops on the ground. This will only work if the Venezuelan government and Venezuelan people cooperate.

And I think that's really problematic when you're talking about taking their number one resource, selling it on world markets and having the United States control the assets. Even if we say we're doing it for the benefit of the Venezuelan people, there is going to be pushback.

KEILAR: How real do you see the possibility of U.S. boots on the ground again.

MANSOOR: I really don't think even President Trump will go down that road. He campaigned both times on ending forever wars and not getting the United States involved in forever wars. I think he believes that he can just pressure the Venezuelan government with this offshore presence, with the pinprick raid that captured Maduro, and that they will somehow fall into line. The question is, what happens when they don't? And even then, I really find it hard to believe that he would put troops on the ground in Venezuela.

KEILAR: A huge part of what we've heard from the administration is about controlling Venezuelan oil, U.S. oil companies, who he is meeting with, going in, investing in Venezuela. Then the question is, who would protect those oil companies in a country that by, you know, Trump's description is not going to have elections, continues to be governed by the Maduro regime minus Maduro? Who would do that?

MANSOOR: Well, there's only three options that I can see. One is that the Venezuelan military protects the oil fields. They would do that if the government tells them to. And the government would do that only if it sees that I think it would control the revenue that's produced as a result.

The second option would be U.S. troops. I don't think that's likely for the reasons we talked about before. And the third option is contractors, so mercenaries, if you will, which actually could be an option. The question is, who will pay for them? But presumably, they would be paid out of the revenue generated by the oil fields.

KEILAR: I do want to ask you about oil more broadly. Senator Lindsey Graham said last night that Trump had greenlit moving forward with his sanctions bill that would impose secondary sanctions on countries buying Russian oil. We know the Trump administration told Venezuela's interim president, Delcy Rodriguez, that the country has to cut ties with China, Iran, Russia, and Cuba, and agree to partner exclusively with the U.S. on oil production. How do you see that picture fitting together?

MANSOOR: Well, it goes hand in hand with President Trump's focus on the Western Hemisphere. You know, he sees the United States acting the way it acted in the early 20th century when it dominated the Caribbean and Central America. And I can see this happening again, and it will put a great deal of pressure on Cuba. Its economy is highly reliant on cheap oil coming out of Venezuela.

You take that away, there's going to be issues in the Cuban economy, and this could be the next battleground for the Trump administration.

KEILAR: What do you see happening there?

MANSOOR: Well, I think what the administration wants to see is the Cuban people rising up when their economy tanks and overthrowing the regime. I think that's highly unlikely given that the regime has all the guns, but it certainly will make for interesting times in Cuba, and there could be a lot of unrest there.

KEILAR: Colonel Peter Mansoor, thank you so much for being with us.

MANSOOR: Thank you.

KEILAR: And coming up, the Pentagon says it will review how effective women are in combat. We'll have details ahead.

[15:55:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: Now to some of the other headlines that we're watching this hour. The Pentagon is reviewing what it calls the effectiveness of having women serve in ground combat positions. A memo from a top military official obtained by NPR reportedly tasked Army and Marine Corps leaders with submitting data on readiness, training, performance, casualties, and command climate.

And it specifically calls for research on, quote, the integration of women in combat a decade after such restrictions were officially lifted. In response to the report, the Pentagon called the review common sense, saying it will not compromise standards to satisfy quotas or an ideological agenda.

And at least two people were killed and six others were injured in a shooting outside a house of worship for the LDS Church in Salt Lake City, where a funeral was underway. Police say they do not believe religion was a factor. The church where it happened holds regular services for the city's Tongan community. The search for the gunman is still underway.

And common preservatives used to keep food safe and extend shelf life may be linked to a higher risk of several cancers and type 2 diabetes, according to two new studies from France. Findings show that sodium nitrite, commonly used in meats like bacon and ham, increases the risk of prostate cancer by 32 percent, while potassium nitrate is associated with a 22 percent higher risk of breast cancer. Research also shows the people who eat higher amounts of 12 common preservatives have a nearly 50 percent higher chance of developing type 2 diabetes.

And THE ARENA with Kasie Hunt starts right now.

END