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More CBP Agents Expected to Deploy to Minneapolis; John Sandweg is Interviewed about Minneapolis; Omid Memarian is Interviewed about Iran; Madison Mills is Interviewed about Mortgage Rates; Musk's Grok Blocked over Sexualized A.I. Images. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired January 12, 2026 - 08:30   ET

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

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[08:34:07]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, just in, CNN has learned that about 1,000 additional customs and border protection agents are set to deploy to Minneapolis. That is according to two federal law enforcement sources. An ICE agent there shot and killed Renee Good just last week.

Let's get to CNN's Whitney Wild for the very latest on all this.

And this additional deployment, Whitney, what are you learning?

WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is a massive increase, John, because this was already the largest immigration action to date with 2,000 agents spread throughout the twin cities. Now we know that's going to be a 50 percent increase, 3,000 agents spread throughout that area. This is according to two sources, according to CNN's Priscilla Alvarez. Customs and Border Protection Commander Gregory Bovino had already been on the ground. He is going to be part of this operation. He is a well-known figure. He led operations in Chicago, New Orleans and Charlotte.

[08:35:02]

One of the sources telling Priscilla that he is going to be conducting targeted operations, which include door knocks. And in those situations, the documents that are provided to those targets will include administrative warrants, which are signed by an immigration officer but do not carry the same legal weight as a judicial warrant, or they will be copies of final orders of removal.

John, as you mentioned, this all comes on the heels of an ICE officer shooting and killing Renee Nicole Good. Leaders in Minneapolis and leaders at the White House have two completely different ideas about what happened. The White House continuing to defend that officer, saying that he feared for his life, that she attempted or did run him over, saying that this was an act of domestic terrorism. Kristi Noem doubled down on those comments in an interview with Jake Tapper on Sunday. Minneapolis leaders say that could not be further from the truth. She posed no risk to that officer, that this was a completely unjustified shooting, and they are calling for more local involvement in a federal investigation, which at this point is being led exclusively by the FBI and the U.S. attorney's office in Minneapolis.

New over the weekend, John, Democratic lawmakers attempted to enter an ICE facility. They were inside briefly before being escorted out on Thursday of last week. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem had changed the policy about allowing unannounced visits by lawmakers at -- saying that they need at least a week's notice. And, John, the reason for that, she said, was that it's too difficult to move around the staffing that is required for an unannounced visit. Basically saying, when you have these lawmakers who just show up, that means that they have to take agents off of other important tasks and instead escort them inside these buildings. So now saying, no more unannounced visits. Instead, they want at least a week's notice.

John.

BERMAN: All right. So just some of the new developments there. Whitney, we know you're keeping your eye on it. Thank you very, very much.

Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's talk about these new developments with someone who knows everything about them. Joining us right now is the former acting director of ICE, John Sandweg.

It's great to see you again, John.

So first, on the hundreds of more officers that are now being sent into Minnesota to back up ICE agents while they continue operations, what do you think that will do to the situation?

JOHN SANDWEG, FORMER ACTING DIRECTOR, ICE: OK. I think it has a real risk of inflaming the situation. We really need to deescalate things in Minneapolis right now. The state and locals have indicated they do not want this extensive presence, right, of immigration enforcement agents in the city. This doesn't mean -- so I think what we'd like to see is we reduce the visibility of the deployment here. This doesn't mean we have to say we're abandoning immigration enforcement. I think some people have tried to characterize it as either you have these mass deployments where you have no immigration enforcement at all. We know that's not true. ICE has arrested millions of people since its inception without these images that we're seeing now. But by doubling down and redeploying, you know, we are sending the opposite message that we do not care what the state and locals think. It is going to trigger a more -- and it's also just going to inflame the passions of these protesters.

And, Kate, very quickly, what also concerns me is where we're getting these agents from. These are Border Patrol agents primarily. That -- they are just not trained or experienced in doing operations in these urban environments. They're trained for the border itself. So, the nature and the experience level of these officers themselves, that concerns me as well.

BOLDUAN: It's really an interesting, important point.

What do you think of the change in policy John was just talking about with Whitney Wild, that the Homeland Security secretary just put in place. No more unannounced visits. They cannot accommodate unannounced visits by lawmakers to ICE facilities. They now need a weeks' notice, saying that they just can't accommodate it. Do you -- do you -- does that make sense to you?

SANDWEG: You know, Kate, listen, it's disruptive when a member of Congress drops in on a facility. I appreciate and understand that. But I think what -- what this goes back to, a larger point, which is the administration, especially at DHS and within ICE, has really eliminated a lot of that accountability and oversight of the agency. They've diminished the funding of the, you know, and basically, effectively, neutralized the internal detention ombudsman at ICE. They've eliminated or completely, you know, cut back on the civil rights and civil liberties office. And there's obviously been, across the federal government, restrictions on inspector generals.

When you're at an agency like this, all of those means of oversight really do help ensure that you're trying to do, excuse me, try to do things the right way. And so while unannounced congressional visits, and that is something that Congress themselves put into appropriations bills demanding that right, while they are frustrating, while they can be inconvenient, the point is that they are unannounced. That they -- congressman can drop in at any time and see exactly what is going on inside a detention facility and make determinations about whether or not, you know, ICE is doing its absolute best to provide for the care and custody of the detainees. So, I appreciate and understand the department's position. That said, I do think these kind of things are just helpful in keeping everybody, you know, held accountable.

BOLDUAN: Yes. And the, you know, especially when you've got the local, the state investigative agencies saying they've been boxed out in the investigation into what happened with the fatal shooting of Renee Good, the FBI saying they didn't really kind of trust that this joint investigation could be conducted.

SANDWEG: Yes.

[08:40:06]

BOLDUAN: There's a lot of distrust and a lot of question of what can be trusted.

To that point, I wanted to ask you, the Homeland Security secretary, Kristi Noem, was on CNN yesterday with Jake Tapper. And throughout the -- and during the conversation she said that the officer's life in that encounter was threatened and warranted a lethal response. But then said, essentially, its apples to oranges when comparing alleged violence against an officer in Minnesota to the convicted violence against officers that happened during January 6th.

Here's just a piece of the back and forth with Jake.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) KRISTI NOEM, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: Every single one of these investigations comes in the full context of the situation on the ground. And that's one thing that President Trump has been so focused on is making sure that when we're out there we don't pick and choose which situations are in -- which laws are enforced and which ones aren't.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: I just showed you video of people attacking law enforcement officers. Undisputed proof. Undisputed evidence. And I just said, President Trump pardoned all of them. And you said that President Trump is enforcing all the laws equally. It's just not true. There's a different standard for law enforcement officials being attacked if they're being attacked by Trump supporters.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: John, what do you see here? What do you think of her reaction?

SANDWEG: You know, Kate, I think we're having a growing credibility gap at ICE and DHS, right? We're sitting here -- it just begins even with who were arresting. The administration repeatedly says we're arresting only the worst of the worst. The data suggests strongly differently. Here we have, before the facts are in, we've made rushed conclusions that this was a proper shooting.

BOLDUAN: Right.

SANDWEG: Everything was followed. Despite every available protocol saying you wait for an investigation to be completed. So, how do you then have any credibility in the outcome of that investigation whenever that -- you know, whatever results are done, when the secretary herself has repeatedly concluded that, without a doubt, this is a, you know, it was a valid, you know, justifiable shooting.

I guess my point, Kate, is that this is the kind of thing that impairs the ability of ICE to do its job. And this isn't just a partizan thing. And that's part of what concerns me is, we've really made ICE more of a political football. Immigration enforcement is always political. But it's about which side are you on. And the problem is ICE is there to defend the entire United States of America. There's a way of doing this without making it so partizan that allows for more effective law enforcement protecting all of us.

BOLDUAN: Yes. It's always important to have your perspective and your eloquence always on these very sensitive issues, John. Thank you so much.

Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Now let's head to Iran. Protests exploding still. For the third consecutive week, more than 500 people are said to be killed and 10,000 arrested, according to a U.S.-based human rights group. Iran's regime is trying to crush not only dissent but information for its fifth straight day of virtually no internet access, but the watchdog group suggesting their connectivity levels continue to remain around one percent of ordinary levels.

The internet blockade makes articulating the reality of the situation on the ground more challenging, as you might imagine, and is a tactic, of course, that our next guest says is the Iranian government wielding a tool of repression.

With me now is Omid Memarian. He is the senior Iran analyst at DAWN.

Thank you so much for being here.

First, how are these protests different than the widespread protests we saw in 2022 over women's rights after the suspicious death of Mahsa Amini, who was in custody at the time?

OMID MEMARIAN, SENIOR IRAN ANALYST, DAWN: Thanks for having me.

This round of protests is much different than the 2022 protests in terms of scale and the number of people on the streets, and also the number of cities that people have been engaged in these protests. And also you see that the government takes it very seriously. We have had, as you said, five days of internet shutdown throughout the country. You are seeing that people have no -- people cannot connect to the outside world and, you know, share what's happening on the ground.

The government sees this very differently. And they believe that it's a nationwide problem. It's a national problem. It's a crisis for them. And they're treating it as such.

And in terms of people who are participating in these protests, there are -- we have the young generation, massive number of people who are 16, 17, 18, in their 20s and also people in their 50s. 60s 70s, who believe that this is very different and they want to participate in something bigger than, you know, any other uprising against the government.

In general, from all the elements and the momentum the protest has gained, I think, you know, this is a very different protest.

SIDNER: When it comes to U.S. intervention, we've heard Donald Trump say that he has some, you know, ideas about what he's going to do going forward. But he also says that Iran has called to negotiate.

[08:45:03]

You're speaking to people on the ground actively involved in these protests. What are they telling you?

MEMARIAN: I have spoken to several people who have been actively participating in the protests in the past few days. And imagine if you're on the street and the security forces are chasing you and you are fleeing (ph) your life. So, you want support. I've talked to a few people who said that if Trump doesn't intervene, if you don't get help, the government will kill us. That's what they say.

But many other people might have a different opinion. Many -- there are people who oppose a military intervention and they believe that it might take away Iranian people's agency and make them pawns in geopolitics -- international geopolitics.

And also, there is a lot of uncertainty about the future of it. What this intervention might look like and the size of it. Does it make the government to fall down or might -- or make the government bolder after it's died down? So, there are many unanswered questions.

But the intervention looks to be very imminent from what President Trump said last night.

SIDNER: Yes, I do want to talk to you about the U.S. involvement in Iran. In the '50s, the U.S. and U.K. orchestrated a coup against Iran's democratically elected nationalist prime minister. The U.S. military economically aided Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who eventually started using secret police to crush political consent (ph), and that culminated in the '79 Iranian revolution against the shah and the U.S., which propped up this regime. This was what took place after that.

You know, history has really shown the risks if the U.S. deeply involves itself in Iran. What are the risks now? What are the worries of the people now if it does so and crushes this regime?

MEMARIAN: There is a lot of risks involved if such an intervention, you know, take place. It seems it's very imminent. President Trump, in the past few days, he has said many times that we are locked and loaded. We are ready to help Iranian protesters. He has support -- he has said, you know, if there are -- if there's violence on the streets, if the Iranian government starts to kill people, then, you know, the U.S. would intervene.

At this point we have heard numbers like a few hundred, 500, but we have the internet shutdown. The numbers might be much, much bigger. People are talking about that numbers are in thousands, in the thousands.

So, at this point, President Trump is in a very difficult place. He has promised. And he is going to fulfill his promise. But, you know, the consequences might be grave. It's very uncertain what's going to happen. People are thinking about, like, the Iraq 2005, Syria 2016. And it all depends on the scale of the attack, how it's going to be -- how the Iranian government might react. The Iranian government has a strong base. The Revolutionary Guards, the national network of para militia Basij. They have their base. It's very different than the shah, as you mentioned.

So, we have to see how this attack looks like and how it's going to affect the government and how it's going to affect the future of these protests.

SIDNER: Yes, there are a lot of unanswered questions. But there is one thing that we're seeing that is true, that there are people being killed, people being arrested. And yet these protests still very strong and unusual compared to sometimes in the past.

Omid Memarian, thank you so much for your analysis this morning.

John.

BERMAN: Elon Musk's A.I. chatbot now banned in two countries for undressing people online.

And this morning, the first Barbie with autism. How Mattel is doing it and also why.

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[08:53:17]

BERMAN: All right, new this morning, Mattel is introducing its first Barbie with autism. The doll comes with a pink fidget spinter -- spinner, I should say, pink noise-canceling headphones to help with sensory overload and a pink tablet that represents a communications device. Mattel also points out that the gaze is slightly turned to the side, mirroring how some people with autism avoid direct eye contact. Parents and advocates say the details here, they matter, calling it meaningful representation for what is often an invisible disability.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: A big day for so many.

All right, so a new look and maybe a new day for the housing market. New data shows that more Americans now have mortgage rates above 6 percent than those below three percent. And while it might not sound like much, that stat could mean a lot for the housing market in the United States.

Joining me right now is Madison Mills, senior markets reporter with "Axios."

It's good to see you.

MADISON MILLS, SENIOR MARKETS REPORTER, "AXIOS": You too.

BOLDUAN: So, there are now more Americans with mortgage rates higher than six percent than below three percent. What does this mean?

MILLS: So, this means potentially that we could have the end of this lock in effect. The idea that people with a lower mortgage rate, they're so happy with that they don't want to move. But the problem with that theory, and I've been talking to economists about this, is that people move for a lot of different reasons.

BOLDUAN: Right.

MILLS: It's not actually just the mortgage rate. And even though we have more people with higher rates now, it's still relatively low. It's not like we have a ton of people now with an eight percent mortgage that are happy to move whenever. So, it's difficult to see that mortgage rate being the thing that's going to inspire a ton of people to sell their houses finally, especially when you have a lot of folks who may not be in a phase of life where they want to sell their homes. A lot of the problem is a lock up and kind of the silver generation. And so, they may not necessarily be ready to sell their house and move into a bigger home.

[08:55:03]

That's typically the generation where you start to see a lot more of that buying and selling.

BOLDUAN: Add in then this other headline, which is mortgage rates on Friday fell below six percent for the first time in years. And this comes after the president ordered his, quote/unquote, representatives to begin buying $200 billion worth of mortgage bonds. What are you hearing about this move?

MILLS: So, at first we actually did see yields coming down. And that's exactly what the administration wanted. And it was interesting because the bond market sort of waited a bit to suss out how they felt about this. And then you had investors coming in and saying, OK, let's move rates down.

But then after this Powell investigation dropped over the weekend, we have the exact opposite effect happening. The market has already undone all of the good of lower rates that happened off the back of that $200 billion mortgage bond purchase announcement.

BOLDUAN: Yes, so, you know, good try, guys.

So, on this. So, Jay Powell is now facing -- it's -- when I say it, I almost feel like I need to reread it to believe it. It's, Jay Powell is now facing a criminal investigation over this renovation. On the surface it's over this renovation of headquarters. But he is clearly making clear, in such an unprecedented move for him, famously tight lipped, speaking out and saying it's essentially just a new way of attacking the independence of the Fed.

How outside the bounds of normal is this? Just kind of lay me a baseline. And also, what impact does this have on -- are you hearing on monetary policy here or on the view of monetary policy from anyone who is looking outside the United States in?

MILLS: You can't overstate how abnormal this is. This is something the former head of the IMF told me you would see in an emerging market in the developing world.

BOLDUAN: Oh, jeez.

MILLS: Definitely not in a place like the United States.

BOLDUAN: Oh, my God.

MILLS: And then the impact on monetary policy, you know, it -- there's this idea from the Trump administration, and I think from consumers, that the Fed is in control of everything when it comes to your mortgage rate, your credit card rate. And that's simply not true. Wall Street, bond investors, they really control what that ten-year yield is going to be. And they can move the market however they see fit.

So, if the Fed loses its independence and they lower rates, the bond market may not allow that. They may price in higher rates in a policy mistake. So, the idea that the administration can just control rates is not an accurate one.

BOLDUAN: And the perspective of, if it's viewed as controlling rates --

MILLS: Yes.

BOLDUAN: No matter, you know, how big of a hand it has on it, has real implications.

MILLS: Yes.

BOLDUAN: It's great to see you, Madison. Thank you so much, as always.

MILLS: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: Sara.

SIDNER: All right, on our radar, this morning, a child is recovering after falling from an indoor zip line over the weekend. His mother recorded him getting on the zip line, but then she got that terrifying moment of her son falling. It happened at an indoor trampoline park in Toronto. The boy's family said he's suffering from internal bruising but will be OK.

All right, stunning video captured this morning. A speeding car in Massachusetts loses control and crashes into several homes. Now, police say the driver was speeding down the street when he lost control, hitting a sidewalk and then hitting multiple houses. Well, you see it there. Holy smokes. Before flipping over. Somehow, no injuries were reported, but several residents are out of their homes due to the damage caused by this driver. The driver, of course, cited by police.

John.

BERMAN: A day in the life of Everett, Massachusetts, there.

SIDNER: I mean --

BERMAN: Just crazy.

All right, new this morning, Indonesia and Malaysia have become the first nations to pull the plug on Elon Musk's A.I. tool Grok. It's over what is being called "digital undressing." This "digital undressing" function that floods social media with sexually explicit deepfakes of women, and even minors. Musk has dismissed safety guardrails as censorship. The U.K. also announced it's launching an investigation into the matter.

Let's get to CNN tech reporter Clare Duffy for the latest on this.

Just talk to me about what's going on here and the action that countries are starting to take. CLARE DUFFY, CNN TECH REPORTER: Well, yes. So, Grok has faced backlash

now for several weeks for this digital undressing feature where people can say, take this image of a woman, in some cases even a child, and put it in sexually explicit positions, or take its clothes off. And so, this is something that I think has received a lot of attention.

Grok did introduce a limitation on who can access this image generation feature in the wake of this backlash. But I think it just speaks to how much these tools have proliferated, that make it possible to create these A.I.-generated, explicit deepfakes without the consent of the people who are featured in them.

I spoke recently with Alison Berry. She was just 14 when she learned that a classmate had made and shared deepfake nude images of her and other girls at their school. She is now 16, and she's fighting to prevent this from happening to other young people, and also to make sure that people have access to support resources when it does happen. She's worked with an A.I. consulting firm and also a cybersecurity firm to create this online training course for students and educators and parents to teach them about A.I., deepfakes, deepfake sexual abuse, and also sextortion, this other troubling trend that we've seen where scammers will threaten to share nude images, explicit images, often of young people if they don't send money, or more images.

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This online training course is meant to be a resource for people to learn