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Vance, Rubio Meet Danish and Greenlandic Officials Amid Tensions; 6 Prosecutors Quit Over Push to Investigate Renee Good's Widow; Minneapolis Protests Intensify Over Deadly ICE Shooting; U.S. Plane in Boat Strike was Painted as Civilian Aircraft. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired January 14, 2026 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They kept communicating. She was right there with him. She worked along with him every step of the way. They kept talking to all these men on Christine's computer purporting to be Christine.

And they all said, no, we don't want to come directly to the house. Let's go out to coffee first. Let's get to know each other. Let's see if there's a connection. I really don't want to.

And poor Joe, who was the victim. He's the one that said, sure, I'll come straight to the house. I'll bring my knife. I'll bring my chains. I'll bring everything with me. And he ended up being the victim here.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: This is such an intricate case with so much dramatic testimony. It's still ongoing.

CASAREZ: I'll tell you one more thing. The the medical examiner testified the knife wounds to Christine were up to 2 1/2 inches deep, horizontal and vertical.

SIDNER: This is just an awful, awful case. We will see what the jury decides. But it is ongoing, and you're continuing to follow it, which means it is also on All Access, the coverage of the Brendan Banfield murder trial, which is on CNN.com. Jean, following every moment of this. Thank you so much. I do appreciate it.

A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: This morning, the fight over Greenland goes directly to the White House. Greenland and Danish officials sitting down with the vice president this morning, just as the president sets the tone, saying anything less than the U.S. taking control of Greenland is, quote, unacceptable.

New reporting also in on the wave of federal prosecutors in Minnesota resigning overnight over the Trump administration's push to not investigate the ICE agent who shot Renee Goode, instead pushing to focus their attention on the dead mother and her now widow.

A driver rescues two toddlers seen walking into traffic, yes, along a busy Florida highway. Their parents had no idea yet that they'd even escaped.

I'm Kate Bolduan with John Berman and Sara Sidner. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, new this morning, President Trump just said the United States needs Greenland and that anything less than total control is unacceptable. The question is, what is he willing to do about it, given that the prime minister of Greenland says he does not want to be part of the United States? The people of Greenland do not want to be part of the United States, according to opinion polls.

So the president just wrote that Greenland is, quote, vital for the golden dome that we are building and that NATO would be far more formidable and effective with Greenland in the hands of the United States. And then he said that anything less than that is unacceptable.

Again, how unacceptable and what will he do about it? Today, Vice President J.D. Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are set to meet with the foreign ministers of Greenland and Denmark, of which Greenland is a part. The White House meeting is a first between the three governments and the presence of J.D. Vance is notable. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelenskyy can tell you that Vice President Vance has created a scene or two at high level meetings.

Our Nic Robertson is standing by in Greenland. First though let's go to the White House. CNN's Alayna Treene is there, Alayna.

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, look, a very stark message, John, from the president this morning. And the timing of it, of course, very notable with this meeting that you laid out between Secretary Rubio, the vice president, and the foreign ministers of Denmark and Greenland.

Look, just to break this down, this is an issue and something that really President Trump has wanted for many years now. It goes back actually to his first term. I'd remind you, the president then had talked a lot about wanting to annex Greenland, all of those efforts. were unsuccessful.

But it's gotten a renewed focus, particularly in the days since that Venezuela operation, something that has left the president feeling emboldened. Now, just to break down why the president and the people in that building behind me feel so strongly about trying to annex Greenland from Denmark. Which to be clear, Denmark has made repeatedly clear that it is not for sale -- Greenland, but they want it for national security reasons.

Essentially, the argument that has been made to me over again when I've talked about this with top officials in the administration is that, one, they want to counter Russian and Chinese aggression in the region, but they also see it as critical as part of their missile defense system. Essentially, one of the arguments that Vance has laid out publicly as well is that, you know, if a foreign adversary wanted to launch, for example, a nuclear weapon onto the continent of North America or even to Europe, Greenland, and having an important presence there would be crucial to having the missile defense system trying to intercept that.

And so this is something they've talked a lot about. Now, I think the key question, of course, is it's clear what the president wants here, and he's repeatedly making that clear publicly. What isn't clear is how they're going to approach this.

[08:05:00]

This meeting, I'm told today, between Rubio, Vance, and the foreign ministers of both countries are it's really just kind of be a level setting, you know, see where both sides are, see what, if any, agreements could be reached. If there's any, you know, type of cooperation that could be made. Rubio has made clear in the past that really, it's the preference of the administration to see if they could potentially buy Greenland. For example, even after, again, the Danish prime minister and the leaders of both Denmark and Greenland saying it's not for sale. But seeing if they could, you know, potentially make a deal that way.

I will say, though, however, President Trump has repeatedly now not left a potential military option off of the table. And so that has, you know, a lot of -- I think that raises a lot of concerns as these leaders are coming to the White House today. So it's going to be a very important meeting, potentially the first of many conversations, but we'll really have to see where it all leads -- John.

BERMAN: All right, Alayna Treene at the White House. Alayna, thank you very much -- Sara.

SIDNER: All right, let's go now to CNN's international diplomatic editor Nic Robertson. He is on the ground for us in Greenland. Nic, the Prime Minister of Greenland very bluntly said he does not want to be owned by the United States. The President of the United States saying that if they don't do it the easy way, they're going to do it the hard way.

The big picture here is what's happening with the people of Greenland. What are they saying?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, they're incredibly concerned. And I think the latest language used by President Trump is going to be even more chilling. Everyone here has been telling us this meeting with the Danish and Greenlandic foreign ministers, with J.D. Vance, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, today is a big meeting. It is a big deal.

It has everyone here worried. You know, when you speak to people here, it is very clear. No one wants to be part of the United States. Perhaps there are divisions on the independent side of how quickly the country should move to independence, which is a sort of an overwhelming view.

But the prime minister has made, as you said, made very, very clear, Greenland is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. Greenland, therefore, is part of the EU and part of NATO. And that's where they look for support, and that's where they look for their strength. But having spoken to a good number of people here, it's a huge concern

because they don't have an army here. They don't have the ability to fight back against the United States. And there's a very real concern, even within government, that the president could make good on what he's saying and that Greenlanders could wake up one day soon and find out they're American.

I spoke to one businesswoman here, and this is what she said to me.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIA CHEMNITZ, FASHION DESIGNER: If you don't know which country you're living in in a month, then, you know.

ROBERTSON: Is that real for you right now?

CHEMNITZ: No, I don't want it to be real. I really try to push that thought down. But that is the worst-case scenario that, you know, in a month, I'm American. We don't even have military in Greenland, because we don't do war.

So, of course, you know, there would be -- I don't know. You know, we wouldn't be able to resist the American military. No one can resist the American military.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTSON (on camera): So the big question here for people is how does the meeting go today? It seems that both sides are in a very clear position, poles apart. Everyone here knows that J.D. Vance has been to Greenland before. It is a very big thing on his personal as well as political agenda.

The Greenlandic Danish side are not backing down. That's very clear. So the question people have here is, well, how far will the EU, how far will NATO go to support us?

And I think it's fair to say at the moment that the major military northern NATO members are squarely behind Denmark-Greenland. There's a question mark perhaps over some of the others.

SIDNER: Yes, a lot of people wondering how this is going to end and what that might look like. Nic Robertson, thank you so much. Live for us there in Greenland -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: So a half dozen federal prosecutors in Minnesota resign overnight. Why? Because of the pressure coming from the Justice Department to investigate the widow of the woman who was fatally shot and not to focus on the agent who shot her. CNN is on the ground in Minnesota, as also the court case that Minnesota has brought against the Trump administration heads to court.

And actor Kiefer Sutherland is arrested, facing allegations of assaulting a ride-hail car driver. We have the latest details on that.

And we are just weeks from the Winter Olympics in Italy, which means it is the perfect time to start thinking about the Summer Games in L.A. Ticketing for the L.A. Olympics, Olympic Games, opening up today. We'll be right back.

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BOLDUAN: A little over an hour from now, the fight over the Trump administration's immigration crackdown in Minneapolis is headed to court. The Twin Cities and the state of Minnesota, they are suing to halt the surge operation. All the while, protests over the operation and the deadly shooting of Renee Good by an ICE agent are getting more and more intense by the day.

And adding to the tension and turmoil there now, at least six federal prosecutors in Minnesota have resigned from their jobs. Reportedly over the pressure that they were facing from Justice Department officials to shift the shooting investigation focus away from the agent and to Good, and her now widow.

CNN's Ryan Young is in Minneapolis for us this morning with much more.

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And just yesterday, you were kind of caught up in it with the tension between protesters and clashes between protesters and agents -- Ryan.

RYAN YOUNG, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, we were surrounded by those people as the yelling started and all of a sudden, we saw the pushing and shoving. But something that everyone talked about, they want to hear from these prosecutors as well. They want more people in the state to stand up to the Trump administration.

In fact, we had people who identify themselves as Trump voters who showed up here to the site where the shooting happened to voice their opinion and say, look, they support the president up until this point. They are upset about what they believe they witnessed on that video and what's going on now. We've talked about the sort of fight that is going on literally in the street.

We'll show you this video yesterday. We also saw an older gentleman getting taken to the ground, 10 people on top of him. We saw agents spraying each other with those agents to sort of disperse the crowd. Flash bangs going on all across the city.

At least 10 different times yesterday, we saw agents using flash bangs. And we've talked about the fact that there are more agents in the city now than police officers in both of the Twin Cities. Folks here say somebody needs to be watching how these officers do their business on a day-to-day basis. We actually talked to a woman who was injured by one of those flashbangs last night after one of those interactions outside the federal building. Take a listen.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have this way here. Clearly, if they're throwing weapons at us, they're afraid they don't want us here because we know we have power against them. Personally, I could be hit by flashbangs again, and I'm not going anywhere. I'm going to be out here for the coming weeks until ICE is off of our streets and stops terrorizing our neighbors and killing our neighbors.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YOUNG: Yes, Kate, one of the things that struck out to us yesterday was the fact of the older age of the people who are coming to this site in particular to pay their respects. We talked to women and men who say they've never been involved in protests in Minnesota before, but this is a call to action, they believe, because of what's going on. They are concerned also for the agents who are involved in this action because they believe they could get hurt as this starts to progress further and further with these physical clashes.

But you have an understanding, people are looking toward the court today to see what's going to happen because they don't believe what's going on here is right.

BOLDUAN: Ryan Young, on the ground for us this morning, I really appreciate your time, Ryan -- John.

BERMAN: Right, new questions about a possible war crime and the U.S. strikes in the Caribbean. It has to do with what the U.S. aircraft looked like.

And a group of more than 100 teenagers take over the slow lane, the mayhem that ensued.

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BERMAN: New this morning, there are new questions about the U.S. military's first strike on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean. Sources tell CNN that the plane used in the operation was painted to look like a civilian aircraft and was part of a closely guarded classified program.

CNN national security reporter Haley Britsky is here with the details on this. What are you learning?

HALEY BRITZKY, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Yes, John, so exactly what you just said, this plane back in September. So we're going back to the beginning of this campaign against these alleged drug boats in the Caribbean. That the plane used in this, sources said, was not painted the typical gray that you're accustomed to seeing with the U.S. military aircraft, that it had more of a civilian paint job on it.

And this immediately drew scrutiny and questions from lawmakers in September when they learned about this. And the concern here at the crux of this issue is a clause within the Pentagon's own law of war manual. Which essentially says that feigning civilian status -- so in this case, the intent of disguising this aircraft as a civilian plane, in order to essentially lure the enemy, in this case, the drug, alleged drug cartel members at the Pentagon was watching and that ultimately struck in this operation in September, that luring them into this false sense of security by showing them a civilian aircraft, instead of a military aircraft.

That would violate the Law of War manual, essentially be a war crime. And so this was something that lawmakers had a lot of questions about in September. Administration officials told them this was not pretending to be a civilian aircraft, that this plane is largely used for surveillance and reconnaissance missions.

And so unclear sort of why it was used in this operation. Obviously, that's the main question. And, you know, legal experts we spoke to said that they were not sure this rose to the level of perfidy, which is what that crime would be known as, because largely it depends on intent.

Did the military intend to use something that looked like a civilian aircraft in order to essentially trick these individuals into thinking that it was not a military aircraft and then going forward to attack them? So there's certainly questions around this. It's something that lawmakers have been wondering about.

We're certainly continuing to ask questions about what this looks like and potential use of this plane in other operations. But certainly it's part of a classified program, which is why it hasn't been discussed much up until this point. And we want to make sure to mention, Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson over at the Pentagon, acknowledged this when we when we sent questions over yesterday. Saying, "The military utilizes a wide array of standard and non- standard aircraft," saying that, "Prior to fielding and employing each aircraft they go through a rigorous procurement process and to ensure compliance with both domestic law, department policies and the law of armed conflict." -- John.

BERMAN: Just one more serious legal question surrounding especially the early airstrikes on alleged drug folks in the Caribbean. Thank you so much for your report on this -- Sara.

SIDNER: All right, pain and anger bursting out in court. An emotional outbursts in the trial of the former Uvalde officer accused of not doing enough to stop the school massacre. The sister of one of the teachers who died screams out but then gets a warning from the judge. That story is ahead.

Also, two toddlers in the middle of the road. See the quick work of a driver who rescued the little girls in the middle of traffic.

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BOLDUAN: A Mississippi grand jury has now indicted a 19-year-old man who has confessed to setting fire to the state's oldest synagogue. Stephen Pittman is his name, and he now faces arson charges and is also accused of a hate crime. According to the criminal complaint, Pittman texted his father about the Beth Israel Congregation, and then after the fire, his father saw burns on Pittman's body. The complaint also states that Pittman admitted to the crime while

laughing, saying he, quote, finally got them. Pittman's dad turned him into police.

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