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December Inflation Report; Rep. Dave Min is Interviewed about Iran; Keith Ellison is Interviewed about The Immigration Lawsuit. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired January 13, 2026 - 08:30   ET

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

[08:30:00]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: One aspect of your case and definitely was in -- before the court, the lower courts before it got to the Supreme Court, was just the unfair or lack thereof advantage that a transgender athlete would have. Becky Pepper-Jackson's mother, I saw in an interview said, she's actually not the biggest person on her team. Her mother says there's people taller than her. There's people shorter than her. She's just an average female teenager. And I saw the appeals court said that West Virginia law could not be enforced against Pepper-Jackson, and specifically because she had said medication has prevented her from going through male puberty. What do you say to that? How important is this to your case?

JOHN MCCUSKEY (R), WEST VIRGINIA ATTORNEY GENERAL: Yes. So, the science around puberty blockers is enormously unsettled. And even in that posture of being unsettled, it is still -- most of the literature falls on our side of this argument. And that is that puberty blockers don't stop puberty in its entirety.

And I think, more importantly, one of the really interesting aspects of this case is, if the ACLU's arguments are to prevail, which we don't think they're going to, you would create a system where every athlete who wanted to play on a team -- that every male athlete that wanted to play on a female team would have to undergo extensive medical monitoring and testing to determine their level of hormones, their bone density, et cetera. And that's not a system that any public school system or any state could ever undertake. It's unfair to the athletes. It's unfair on both sides, actually.

And the system that the state of West Virginia has set up is fair, and it's simple. And what it does is it says you're going to play on the team with the gender that you're assigned at birth. Because what we know, and what is an immutable scientific fact, is that there are biological differences between the sexes and that men have the capability of being bigger, faster and stronger just based on their genetics.

BOLDUAN: So, when you talk about -- in that scenario you were saying every male athlete would have to go through testing, or every male athlete who wanted to. As I've seen reported, this seems to impact one single athlete in West Virginia. I mean -- and state action against trans athletes has long faced criticism of being more about a national political climate that's focused on a select few that you're searching -- you're creating a solution in search of a problem. How do you answer to that?

MCCUSKEY: Yes, I think that that really obscufates (ph) -- excuse me, that really doesn't give any credence to the opinions of the thousands of other girls that are playing sports in West Virginia. And to be fair, we don't know how many trans athletes are competing in West Virginia. It is -- it is impossible to know. What we know is, is that after West Virginia passed the Save Women's Sports Act, that we were sued by the ACLU within hours. And so, this case is in front of the Supreme Court, not because we created the litigation, but because our state and the legislature was sued by the ACLU.

BOLDUAN: More than 20 other states have enacted similar restrictions since 2020. Do you hope that this case, your -- the state's law, the eventual decision, if it goes in your favor by the Supreme Court, do you want it to serve as a model for other states to follow?

MCCUSKEY: So, you know, you bring up a really great point here. And what we're really talking about is are -- do states have the ability to regulate athletics in this way? And the answer, in our opinion, is clearly, yes. And what -- what a positive decision in this case will do will be to give the 26 other states who have passed these laws the confidence to enforce them. And so, will this create a nationwide wave of these kind of laws? I don't know. It feels like most of the states who want to pass these laws already have. But what it will do is it will show a model of how to pass the legislation, what the language should be, and what we know is constitutional. And that's what the Supreme Court is going to be deciding today.

BOLDUAN: One aspect that is -- that is part of this case is a question of Title Nine. And there's a -- there is big concern about what this -- how the justices would decide what impact, depending on how broad or narrow they would decide it, could have on Title Nine.

If the eventual -- if you're -- if this case, your law, and the eventual Supreme Court decision would lead to, I don't know, the crumbling or crippling of Title Nine, which has been in place since, what, 1970, 1970-ish. If it crippled that very important law, would you see that as a victory?

MCCUSKEY: No. So, we're arguing in favor of Title Nine. So, it -- Title Nine was created to ensure that women and girls had access to athletic and academic opportunities. And this is the 50 year anniversary of Title Nine. And what's really amazing is when you look through our brief, the statistics that we cite about how many women who are CEOs in American corporations or in very high levels in American government, how many of them participated in competitive female athletics, either at the college or the high school level.

[08:35:13]

And so, what we've seen is that Title Nine has created an environment where women have the opportunity to experience all the amazing things that competitive sports do to create leadership skills and to understand how to be a teammate, to show up for others, and how to understand failure and how to understand success, and how to really be the kind of person that this country needs to be leading us. And so, our argument is, is that the state law actually supports the underlying principles of Title Nine. And if we lose, Title Nine will be eroded to the point where it is basically meaningless.

BOLDUAN: And it will now be up to the Supreme Court justices to decide all of the qualities that you just described of what are the benefits that female athletes gain from sports, if that will be or is, in some way, hindered by a transgender athlete taking part in it.

Thank you so much for coming in, Attorney General. A very important day. Appreciate your time.

MCCUSKEY: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, this just in moments ago. New data on inflation shows consumer prices stayed stubbornly high to end 2025.

CNN's senior reporter Matt Egan joining me now with this hot off the presses.

What else are you learning from this report?

MATT EGAN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Well, Sara, look, inflation, it did come in a little bit hotter than expected in December. Prices were up by 2.7 percent year over year. The forecast was for 2.6 percent. This is unchanged, as you mentioned, from November.

Now, on a monthly basis, inflation heated up. Prices were up by 0.3 percent, as expected. But that's up from just 0.1 percent increase in the prior month.

Now, this likely reflects some give back from the government shutdown. The shutdown caused some distortions in the data.

SIDNER: Wow

EGAN: And economists were sort of bracing for some of that to unwind. And we are seeing that. This is a look at the monthly change in prices. And again, you can see how it's at 0.3 percent.

Now, it does feel like in some ways inflation is kind of stuck in no man's land here, right? It's not nearly as high as economists had feared the president's tariffs would make inflation go. It's not as bad as it was, of course, back in 2022. But it's still not low enough where it's really going to help people where the Fed is going to be able to declare victory and slash interest rates, right? This is a look at the annual rate. And you can see inflation was trending higher during the middle part of last year. It started to really heat up. Got back to 3 percent. Started to concern people. But, thankfully, it has started to kind of tick down since then.

Now, digging into some of the categories. Some things really -- there was some progress and some good news, right? SIDNER: Yes.

EGAN: New cars were up just by 0.3 percent year over year. Clothes also only up by a little bit. But then, as a lot of people know when they're opening their bills at home, gas, natural gas, when you're talking about heating your home, prices were up significantly, by 11 percent year over year.

SIDNER: Gosh (ph).

EGAN: Electricity as well by seven percent.

So, look, you put it all together, inflation, it's not back to normal yet. Cost of living remains an issue. There has been some progress over the last few years, but it's not back to where we want it to be. At least not yet.

SIDNER: Yes. And when you sort of parse that and you look at things like cars, that's not something you buy often.

EGAN: Right.

SIDNER: But when you're paying for that gas bill every month and it's up 11 percent, that's real. That's pain.

EGAN: Oh, yes, you're feeling that.

SIDNER: All right, thank you so much, Matt Egan.

EGAN: Thank you, Sara.

SIDNER: Appreciate it.

John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, with us now is Congressman Dave Min, a Democrat from California, who we should note is on the Joint Economic Committee.

Just one quick question on this inflation report that just came out, Congressman. Inflation may be a little hotter than expected, but basically in line. How do you think this hits your constituents?

REP. DAVE MIN (D-CA): Thanks so much for having me, John.

And I actually am an alumnus of the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, like Donald Trump. But unlike Donald Trump, I actually went to classes. It's very clear economists and everyone else will tell you that Donald Trump's policies were disastrous. And, you know, we can get into the specifics of the numbers, and your analysts did a good job of that. But the reality is that people are feeling this across the board, and we're feeling it on a number of fronts. It's not just food prices. It's just -- not just utility prices. Health care costs are going up. People are worried about paying the bills, paying their mortgages, health insurance costs are about to spike a ton right now. People are starting to see that as well. And families are struggling right now. Even wealthy families are struggling to figure out how they're going to pay all of the different things that they're dealing with.

And these are the result of intentional policy choices made by Donald Trump and House Republicans, who decided that they were going to cancel a bunch of clean energy projects, which would make electricity costs a lot cheaper. They decided that they would give trillions of dollars to billionaires and cut Medicaid, not extend the ACA tax credits. And we know that that's causing health insurance costs to go up.

[08:40:00]

Obviously, the tariffs have been well covered.

So, what is happening right now is people are struggling. They're also struggling to find jobs, struggling to pay the bills. And this is the direct result of policy choices made by an economically illiterate president.

BERMAN: We're looking at -- yes, we just were looking at the markets. The market futures seem to be saying, nah, basically flat after this new report on inflation out.

Congressman, you also, in California, represent a district with one of the highest Iranian American populations in the country.

MIN: Uh-huh.

BERMAN: What are you hearing from your constituents there about what they want to see in terms of --

MIN: They're very concerned. If you haven't been following --

BERMAN: OK.

MIN: Sorry, go ahead.

BERMAN: No, you go ahead.

MIN: Yes, I mean, I -- you're covering the protests. But a lot of my -- a lot of folks don't know what's happening in Iran right now. There are massive protests occurring organically across the country. And the Iranian government, it's an authoritarian, repressive regime is cracking down with violence. They're also cracking down by eliminating access to the internet and cellular networks. And so, people are very concerned about what's happening.

My Iranian American population, very concerned about what's happening to their friends and family back home. It's one of the reasons I sponsored something called The Freedom Act, which instructs the State Department to look into how we can develop and deploy easy technologies that are already available direct to cell type technology so Iranians can get access to information, they can get in touch with their family and friends. This is one area where President Trump and I actually agree. We should

be supporting the protesters. At the very least with access to information.

BERMAN: So, at the very least with access to information. Would you be willing to support them with some kind of military action?

MIN: I think that's probably not appropriate at this time. I mean, we're already engaged in too many theaters across the world right now. And, you know, at some point these chickens are going to come home to roost. I think we have to be very careful and cautious in deploying the military around the world, particularly when families here at home are struggling. But that being said, deploying internet access, it's the type of thing that's easy to do, doesn't cost us anything. So, I think we should look into things like that to support the Iranian people. But regime change is -- I think we've already done one too many regime change in this administration. We shouldn't be in Venezuela right now. That's going to cost us trillions of dollars. Not sure what the plan is there. I don't think we should be meddling in other countries as well.

BERMAN: You've been very vocal about the actions of ICE all over the country, but in your district as well. In terms of possible legal action or oversight, what do you think would be appropriate?

MIN: I -- we ought to be pushing as hard as we can. And I'm just going to say this, the murder of Renee Nicole Good, and it is murder. If you watch that video, it's very clear that that -- this ICE agent acted with intent. Was not self-defense. He shot her in the face apparently three times. And she would still be alive today if Mike Johnson, James Comer and Republicans here in this body had been doing their job and exerting any kind of oversight.

The fact that we did zero oversight on ICE and DHS and CBP, despite what is now clearly evident is a structural and systemic pattern of lawlessness, of violence, of attacks on civilians, including citizens, that basically gave the green light to this officer to do what he -- what he did.

And so, I put this directly on Mike Johnson. We need answers. I've written two letters to the Department of Homeland Security asking questions we need answers to, including Kristi Noem. Who are these ICE agents? What kind of training and background checks did they go through? What investigations are done when we see or hear about complaints of civil rights violations? We've gotten zero answers. This contempt or oversight contempt for Congress coming from Kristi Noem, it has enabled lawlessness across the board through ICE. We need serious answers right now.

BERMAN: There are people calling for an impeachment. Would you support an impeachment of Kristi Noem?

MIN: Yes, I would. And this is not something I take lightly. Impeachment is the last tool you want to use. But when you have a secretary of a major agency who refuses to respond to questions or oversight from members of Congress, and you have all of the lawlessness that is happening under her watch, there is no other option for us other than to consider that.

BERMAN: Congressman Dave Min from California, thank you.

Sara.

SIDNER: All right, coming up, a frightening fall caught on camera. A paraglider falling hundreds of feet after a parachute mishap. How this person survived this. Wow.

And a major shift that could affect the quality of the air you breathe. Why the EPA is reportedly no longer considering the lives saved by limiting pollution. Those stories and more ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:49:11]

BERMAN: This morning, a 100-year-old World War II vet who had not seen his military dog tags in more than 80 years now has them in his possession once again. Ewell Moore never expected to see the tags after losing them sometime in the 1940s during training in Texas. But a man he had never met, Philip Bergman, says his friend came across them while metal detecting near a former military training site.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EWELL MOORE, WORLD WAR II VETERAN: I didn't even look for them. They were probably in the sand where people have been tromping around. They were lucky to find them, I guess.

PHILLIP BERGMAN, REUNITED WORLD WAR II VETERAN WITH DOG TAGS: I said, do you remember, you know, serving as a soldier in that area of Texas? He said, yes, I do. Just very appreciative that I could be a small part of it. But, you know, bring him some joy and reconnect with his past.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Bergman says he spent the past six years trying to track Moore down.

[08:50:03]

The World War II vet says he was surprised at how well the Texas sand preserved the tags.

Sara.

SIDNER: Nearly one week after the killing of an American mom of three by an ICE officer, Minnesota and Illinois pushing back against the president's immigration enforcement. Both states have filed lawsuits now calling for an end to the federal operation. It comes as scenes like the one you're about to see plays out in tense clashes. The -- this one between a federal agent and a protester. Minnesota's lawsuit says agents are terrorizing communities and paralyzing immigrant families with fear. The state also says the crackdown has strained local police resources.

Joining us now, the attorney general of Minnesota, Keith Ellison.

Mr. Ellison, thank you so much for being here and walking us through this.

Look, when you look back to what the Supreme Court has said on immigration, in 2012 the court ruled that immigration enforcement is primarily federal. The Trump administration argues that is exactly what it is doing in Minnesota. How do you describe what the Trump administration is doing in your state?

KEITH ELLISON (D), MINNESOTA ATTORNEY GENERAL: Immigration is primarily federal, but even the federal government has guardrails that it has to abide by. And we're not saying that no -- that ICE cannot have a presence in Minnesota. We're saying the dramatic escalation, which is unwarranted and politically motivated, is harming our state and our cities. We're saying that because of this dramatic escalation, and we're talking about over a thousand and more to come, they say, that we're in a situation where it's depressing our economy and our local markets. It's depressing school attendance. It's putting dramatic pressure put on our local law enforcement who have to respond to 911 calls and protesters and all this. The escalation is what this lawsuit is about. The escalation is what has brought about the, I think, the death of Nicole Good. And it's about what -- it's what is -- what is driving the -- just the uncountable number of cases of racial profiling that are flooding into everybody's offices constantly.

SIDNER: And --

ELLISON: This is the -- this is what this is about, not about ICE being in Minnesota. We know ICE has been in Minnesota for a long time. And we didn't sue before. We're suing now because of this escalation.

SIDNER: In your lawsuit, though, it does ask the courts to kick ICE out, it seems, of Minnesota by declaring its search unlawful. And as a lawsuit puts it, to enjoin it.

ELLISON: Surge (ph).

SIDNER: In other words, to stop it from doing any more action in the state.

ELLISON: Yes.

SIDNER: What do you say to folks who look at that and say that's -- that's not going to happen, that this -- this lawsuit can't stop ICE from doing its work?

ELLISON: Ma'am, the word "surge" is important here. You read the word yourself. Well, we're -- normal operations of ICE that we're all used to across country is not what this case is about.

SIDNER: OK.

ELLISON: This is about the dramatic escalation, OK? And as I noted before --

SIDNER: So, this is just about this metro (ph) surge?

ELLISON: Well, I mean, it is about all the things that they're doing in connection with it. It's about the rampant, racial profiling, the excessive force that seems to be attended (ph) in connection to all of this. It's about the fact that our police have to respond to multiple cases all the time, driven by this ICE surge. It's about how our students are not attending classes. Our people are not going to work. This is hurting our state. And we were not -- we didn't file a case before. We filed a case now because of this dramatic escalation.

SIDNER: You have talked in this lawsuit about --

ELLISON: Do you understand what I'm saying?

SIDNER: I do.

You have talked in this lawsuit about widespread, unlawful conduct.

ELLISON: Right.

SIDNER: And you're making accusations against ICE about how it is treating American citizens as well.

Can you lay out some of the evidence, some of the things that you have seen and will be putting before the court when it comes to those accusations?

ELLISON: Well, we've just seen -- we -- we have more cases, more video, more eyewitness accounts than I can even put a number on of ICE stopping people based on nothing but their appearance. Stop -- using excessive force against them for unwarranted reasons. There's -- the cases are legion. We have a high school called Roosevelt High School. Well, what on earth would ICE want to invade a high school and intimidate high school kids for? But they did it. And we'll be able to show that.

And so, there are just a whole range of examples that, you know, we expect we're -- to file a temporary restraining order today and lay it out in front of a court.

[08:55:06]

That's -- it -- but the cases are numerous. They're shocking. But not the least of which is what happened to Renee Good. You know, this is still something that is inflicting a lot of tension and pain on our state.

SIDNER: Speaking of Renee Good and the death of that mother of three, we heard from the DHS secretary, Kristi Noem. And in speaking to our Jake Tapper, I want you to re-listen to what she said and the accusations she made against Ms. Good.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: How can you assert with certainty that she was trying to hurt the officer, as opposed to she was trying to flee the scene?

KRISTI NOEM, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: If you look at what the definition of domestic terrorism is, it completely fits the situation on the ground. This individual, as you saw in the video that we released just 48 hours after this incident, showed that this officer was hit by her vehicle. She weaponized it. And he defended his life and those colleagues around him and the public.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Many who looked at that video saw her wheels turning away, looked like she was trying to get away, from many analysis of the video. She said what Renee Good did fit the definition of terrorism. Does it?

ELLISON: I would say, no. But the most important thing is that there needs to be a high quality, inclusive, independent investigation which federal authorities are blocking. And I don't mean local authorities. We work with local FBI, ATF all the time. They're a joy to work with. But it seems that there's a call coming from Washington that the state will be excluded from the investigation, which is unusual and strange because we work together all the time. And if her case is as she claims it is, if she's -- if she's actually accurate that the fault lies only with Ms. Good, then do the investigation. Find out the information. And stop making claims and conclusions before the woman's -- has even had a memorial service.

We haven't -- we need to have an investigation here. If her claims are accurate, open up this investigation to allow state investigators to get to the bottom of this. That is what should be happening.

But I think it's entirely inappropriate for a law enforcement official to declare, within hours of a -- of an officer-involved death like this, what the conclusion of the investigation is. And the president, vice president, and Ms. Noem did that. And I think that is the opposite of what it means to conduct a professional investigation.

We've also received information that the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, which is responsible for use of force death investigations, has also been excluded. So, you're excluding the people who do death investigations from the federal side. You're excluding the state authorities. Is there a meaningful investigation going on around the death of Renee Good? This is a question that I think the secretary must answer.

SIDNER: Can I lastly just get your comments. Donald Trump just put this out on his Truth Social saying, "fear not, great people of Minnesota, the day of reckoning and retribution is coming."

ELLISON: Well, if he's threatening retribution, I believe that he means that. He's known for vengeance. I mean, James Comey, Letitia James and so many others. He tries to get people back who he doesn't like. And, you know, the fact of the matter is, Minnesota has rejected him at the polls three times, which seems to be part of what's motivating him. So, when it comes to retribution and revenge, you can put him at the top of the list.

SIDNER: All right. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, thank you so much for your time this morning.

John.

BERMAN: All right, new this morning, "The New York Times" reports that the EPA is preparing a major shift in how it sets air pollution rules. The agency would stop counting the health benefits of cleaner air when regulating dangerous pollutants from coal plants, refineries and steel mills.

With us now, CNN chief climate correspondent Bill Weir.

So, what would the impact of this be, Bill?

BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: Well, researchers from MIT, John, puts the number at about 200,000 premature deaths a year. That air pollution kills more people annually than car accidents. And over the last, you know, four decades or so, different administrations have used different calculus to try to figure out the value of human life. But now, for the first time, that value will be zero under the Trump administration. They have decided to stop monetizing the benefits of pollution regulation, especially when it comes to PM 2.5.

[09:00:01]

That's the stuff that's so small, the little particulates that come out of tailpipes and smokestacks, gets into the bloodstream and affects human health. And again, the