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First Medical Evacuation for International Space Station Starting; Trump Holds White House Event Amid Tension with Greenland, Iran; Trump: I'm Not Going to Give Up Options on Acquiring Greenland. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired January 14, 2026 - 15:30   ET

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

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BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: All right, moments ago, we were looking at this because the -- and this is breaking news we're following, the first ever medical evacuation from the International Space Station as we see this feed from NASA. Because in less than 90 minutes, a capsule carrying NASA's SpaceX crew-11 is going to separate from the ISS.

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It's going to bring back this crew, including an astronaut who needs further medical attention. NASA not revealing exactly who is is sick or exactly what the ailment is here.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Officials are sort of detailing what the world is going to see in this rare early return to Earth. The hatch closure just took place. That's what we're watching or what we're seeing now after the hatch was closed.

The capsule undocking is expected at about 5 p.m. Eastern, and then the splashdown of the Dragon Endeavour capsule in the Pacific Ocean is slated for 3:40 a.m.

Let's discuss with former NASA astronaut Mike Massimino, who was logged more than 500 hours in space. Thank you so much for being with us. I wonder what you are anticipating this journey is going to be like for them as they make the return home.

MIKE MASSIMINO, FORMER NASA ASTRONAUT: Yes, well, thanks. Thanks for having me, Boris and Brianna. It's nice to see the both of you. You know, well, I'm expecting it to be pretty much almost like a normal reentry. You know, this was not an emergency evacuation. If it was a true medical emergency or something that might be life altering for the individual, they would have already been on the ground last week.

So what they did was kind of a, you know, a kind of standard preparation to undock the last week or so, packing things up, getting things ready, not rushing, but doing it in an expedited fashion. And then what I think is going to happen here is just a normal separation from the space station, a normal re-entry. On all the re-entries, once you splash down and land, the recovery boats have medical people on board. That's the standard. So everyone gets checked out anyway. There may be some different

things because if they are maybe wanting to find out some information from that one individual, whatever measurements or readings they need to take from this person. But I think overall, it's going to be pretty standard stuff, similar to what they do on every one of these returns.

KEILAR: Mike, if you can just hang tight with us here for a second, the president is actually taking questions at the White House, let's listen in.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, on Iran, you said that the killing has stopped. Who told you that the killings have stopped there?

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We have been informed by very important sources on the other side, and they've said the killing has stopped and the executions won't take place. There was supposed to be a lot of executions today and that the executions won't take place. And we're going to find out.

I mean, I'll find out after this. You'll find out. But we've been told on good authority. And I hope it's true. Who knows, right? Who knows?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We've seen body bags. So how do you trust them?

TRUMP: You know, you've seen that over the last few days. And they said people were shooting at them with guns and they were shooting back. And, you know, it's one of those things. But they told me that there'll be no executions. And so I hope that's true.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Does this mean military action is now off the table against Iran?

TRUMP: And we're going to watch it and see what the process is. But we were given a very good, very good statement by people that are aware of what's going on.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you considering military action on this?

TRUMP: When they say no executions, everyone is talking about a lot of executions were taking place today. We were just told no executions. I hope that's true. That's a big thing.

Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The foreign minister of Greenland, she said a while ago in a press conference in an embassy of Denmark. That she made very clear in the meeting that happened here in the White House what are their limits. She also said that it was a very respectful meeting. Are those limits going to be respected?

TRUMP: Well, we're going to see what happens with Greenland. We need Greenland for national security, so we're going to see what happens. They're going to brief me on the meeting right after this conference. In fact, the sooner I get you out, the faster I'm going to know exactly what happened. But we have a very good relationship with Denmark, as you know, we'll see. But you know, we're doing the Golden Dome, we're doing a lot of

things, and we really need it. if we don't go in, Russia is going to go in, and China is going to go in. And there's not a thing that Denmark can do about it, but we can do everything about it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) what we can do --

TRUMP: Well, we're going to see. I mean, look, we're going to see what happens, but we need it. You know, I'm not the first one. This was talked about by President Truman and 40 years before President Truman, they were talking about it. They've been talking about this for 100 years.

This is not anything so new. A lot of people don't realize that, but this was a hot subject -- probably not as hot as it is now, but it was a hot subject for a long time. We need it for national security, and that includes for Europe. And I spoke with, as you know, Mark, the head of NATO, and he really wants to see something happen. It's very important for national security.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's being reported that Health and Human Services released frozen funds to Planned Parenthood. I'm wondering why this happened and why Planned Parenthood is receiving any federal funds.

TRUMP: I don't know anything about that. Bobby, do you know anything about that?

ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR., SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES: What was the question?

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's being reported that frozen funds were released to Planned Parenthood in December by HHS. I'm wondering why that happened.

TRUMP: I haven't heard that.

KENNEDY: I have not heard that.

TRUMP: I haven't heard that.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, on NATO, right now, it sounds like you are saying that you would potentially acquire Greenland by force. That would be a NATO country.

TRUMP: Who's saying that?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you saying that?

TRUMP: No, you're saying that. No, you're telling me that that's what I'm going to do. You don't know what I'm going to do. Your network doesn't know either.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The Danish foreign minister said that there's still fundamental differences after the meeting with Rubio and with the vice president. Are you willing to leave the NATO alliance in order to get what you want with Greenland? What are the options right now?

TRUMP: Well, I wouldn't be telling you what I'm willing to do, certainly. I'm not going to give up options, but it's very important. Greenland is very important for the national security, including of Denmark. And the problem is, it's not a thing that Denmark can do about it if Russia or China wants to occupy Greenland.

But there's everything we can do. You found that out last week with Venezuela. There's everything we can do about things such as not going to happen. We're not, you know, I can't rely on Denmark being able to fend themselves off.

You know, they were talking about they put an extra dog, and they were serious about this. They put an extra dog sled there last month. They entered a second dog sled. That's not going to do the trick.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Denmark fought alongside the United States and both Afghanistan.

TRUMP: Thank you for telling me that. I appreciate it. I have a very good relationship with Denmark, and we'll see how it all works out. I think something will work out. Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, Cabello, the de facto number two in Venezuela right now, he seemed pretty reluctant to work with the U.S., and obviously he's --

TRUMP: For us? They just gave us 50 million barrels of oil.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- number, the number two, the Venezuela security.

TRUMP: I don't know. I know the number one. We just had a great conversation today and she's a terrific person. I mean she's somebody that we've worked with very well. Marco Rubio's dealing is with her. I dealt with it this morning. We had a call, a long call. We discussed a lot of things, and I think we're getting along very well with Venezuela.

Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, assistant attorney general position dedicated to rooting out fraud.

TRUMP: Yes, he's fantastic the person is fantastic.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Who is it?

It's a he. I will tell you maybe within minutes. I mean, I don't know if it's appropriate to say yet because we're going through a process, but we have chosen a person who's very tough, very smart, very fair.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yesterday in Michigan about how you've recalibrated the American economy to work for workers, U.S. auto factories. We've seen core inflation's completely tamed. You lowered the trade deficit to the lowest amount since 2009. American exports are growing, but we're also waiting on the Supreme Court case for the tariffs. Given the success that you've had in the first 12 months, what is at stake in this case, sir?

TRUMP: It's a little bit like whole milk. I can't believe we even have a case. This was a case started by a very China-centric people, and also anti-American people, frankly. People that don't want us to do well. Tariffs have helped us stop eight wars. They've helped us get the best trade numbers we've ever had. They've helped us get $18 trillion brought into the country.

And maybe above all else, they've given us tremendous national security, just the threat of tariffs. You saw that just yesterday when I put tariffs on a certain country. We won't talk about that country, but you know who it is. Based on the fact that if you do business with that country, you know, it's going to make them -- it's going to bring them to the table a lot faster.

So we have made hundreds of billions of dollars with tariffs. We have very little inflation. Think of it. Inflation's gone down, and productivity, everything has gone up. We've never taken in money like we have. We've never had anywhere near $18 trillion dollars invested in our country, neither has any other country. It's the biggest number by maybe five times. Five times, not five percent, five times. Nobody's ever seen numbers like this.

We have plants going up. You know, you mentioned -- I was in Michigan yesterday. I was at the Ford plant where they make the Ford 150. It's one of the original plants. It was from before World War I. It's a giant plant. That plant was probably going to be closed, and two years ago, they were doing very poorly.

And now they just announced yesterday that they're going to go 24 hours around the clock, three shifts, which they rarely do. That's Ford, and Ford's having the best numbers they've ever had. General Motors having the best numbers they've ever had.

Stellantis, which hasn't been here, is now investing billions, tens of billions of dollars on building in the country. We're building auto plants all over the country, we're building AI all over the country, we're leading China by a lot, and a lot of it has to do with tariffs.

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That would be a very disappointing decision, and especially since the people that are fighting me are people that want China to do well. And we're doing great against China. We're doing great against everybody.

We're the hottest country anywhere in the world, as they say often. We're right now the hottest country anywhere in the world, and a year and a half ago, we were a dead country. Thank you very much everybody.

SANCHEZ: We've been listening to President Trump in the Oval Office there. This was moments ago, a press availability with reporters, the president making news on a number of fronts, perhaps most notably on Iran, saying that, "We've been informed by important sources on the other side that the killings of civilians and protesters has stopped." He said it's on good authority that he hopes it's true that executions have paused there.

As of A few hours ago, several international organizations were reporting thousands of people had been killed over the last few weeks in demonstrations in that country. The president saying that he believes these important sources on the other side.

KEILAR: There'd been a lot of concerns specifically about one Iranian protester, Erfan Soltani, who was arrested last week to do with one of these protests that the Iranian regime is cracking down on so brutally. And a family member in the Department of State were very concerned that he was to be executed imminently. And Trump's saying that's not happening.

So we're obviously going to keep our eye on that. But let's bring in national security analyst and former deputy director of National Intelligence Beth Sanner. Other topics to talk about here as well, Greenland, Venezuela. Take your pick, Beth.

Well, you want to talk about Greenland. Let's talk about Greenland, because that was perhaps one of the strangest things we saw today, which was this meeting between the foreign ministers for Denmark, who that foreign minister is actually formerly the prime minister. So he kind of comes in with some gravitas, which is interesting, to this meeting that he had with Secretary Rubio and the vice president and the foreign minister from Greenland. And And Trump says he's waiting to be briefed still on what came out of that. What did you make of what we heard?

BETH SANNER, FORMER DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE: Well, you know, I think that we are still not in a great place, but we're in a better place than we were earlier today. You know, we do have President Trump being on a slightly different page, probably, than what maybe than what Rubio and Vance seemed to indicate in that constructive meeting, with the president tweeting and kind of doubling down on today on that news conference we just saw about having to own it.

I think one of my main points here is that, actually, the United States, in order to ensure that Greenland remains in our orbit, that we have our bases there, he's right about it being important for our national security. But guess what? We can't actually do that without our NATO allies.

Finland and Sweden and Denmark are actually investing a lot of money into Arctic security. The foreign minister said today, you know, $15 billion in Arctic security from Denmark. They've increased their defense spending 155 percent over the last four years. So, I mean, all of these countries have things we don't have.

They have icebreakers. They have the ability to operate in the Arctic, that we really have lost our ability to do that on a continuous basis. So we need our allies there, and they need us. And that's why Article 5 would kick in if Russia or China did anything against Greenland, because they're our allies.

SANCHEZ: Yes, it's interesting to hear the foreign minister say that while there are disagreements, there is a grain of truth to what President Trump is saying regarding Greenland being a point of interest. I do wonder what you make of Trump saying that we can't rely on Denmark to defend itself, though, because that contradicts what you just laid out regarding Greenland being a part of Denmark, Denmark being a NATO ally, Article 5, et cetera.

SANNER: Exactly. So it's just that his approach to thinking about this isn't the way that the whole system is designed to work. The system is designed to work. And now that Sweden and Finland are part of the NATO alliance, as of just 2024, our capability as a NATO alliance to work together to defend that is much greater than it would be if we tried to do it by ourselves or if Denmark tried to do it by themselves.

But they're not trying just to do it by themselves. They've had joint exercises there, for example. And some of those we don't even participate in.

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We have, like, one icebreaker right now, and we are working with Finland and Canada to build more because we don't have the capability to build icebreakers by ourselves anymore at scale. So this is what I'm saying is like it's actually we would be much safer and Greenland would be safer if we took this from the proposition of addressing this as an alliance.

KEILAR: I wonder what you make sort of the breadth of the different topics we heard him talking about. Talking about Delcy Rodriguez, just had a terrific long call with Delcy Rodriguez, someone who Trump has, you know, basically said, they'll do whatever we want them to do, almost painting Rodriguez, the Rodriguez regime, if you call it that, as sort of a puppet. right?

He doesn't trust Denmark to defend Greenland. He wants Greenland. And you hear him talking about Iran and that he is kind of single-handedly with his threats stopping violence. He's not stopping the violence, but maybe he's saying he's stopping this execution.

What do you make of sort of just this posture that he is taking of kind of like controlling these situations?

SANNER: Well, any American president is the most powerful person in the world. And that has been the case. We have military hard power. And this president has shown a willingness to use that hard power in a way that we have not seen for generations.

So, you know, it is, I think, coming off of Venezuela and what he feels is very much a success there. You know, he is very -- he is feeling, you know, very emboldened by this. And I think that we should be expecting him to be, you know, doubling down.

One thing we haven't mentioned today didn't come up, but, you know, Gaza News today on moving into phase two with an interim kind of organizational government that is about to be, you know, fully announced. So, you know, he is very, very busy in foreign policy, and he is showing no signs of backing down on that.

And I just think it's going to involve his willingness to use at least threats of hard power if not actually following through.

KEILAR: Yes. Is he too busy on foreign policy? Some of his America First folks might want to know. Beth Sanner, thank you so much. Always great to get your perspective.

And right now, we are watching the unprecedented medical evacuation that is unfolding at the International Space Station. Moments ago, the hatch closed as Crew-11 prepares to return to Earth. We'll discuss after a quick break. Stay with us.

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KEILAR: Back to our breaking news. The first ever medical evacuation from the International Space Station. These are pictures just from moments ago as they were about to close the hatch, I believe.

And we are back now with former NASA astronaut Mike Massimino. Mike, how does this go now as this sort of operation here to return to Earth is underway? How does it go when you have American astronaut Chris Williams, who's got the entire U.S. part of the ISS, to himself? Seems like a lot of work for one guy.

MASSIMINO: Yes. Yes, he's going to be pretty busy, Brianna. He's going to get some help when he needs it from his crewmates. There are two Russian cosmonauts on board as well. They'll be primarily working in the Russian section, but he can always get help if he needs it, and he'll be working closely with the ground.

But mainly he's going to be, I think, involved with a maintenance task, keeping the space station going, working the systems, any issues they have there. He's got to still get his exercise and take care of himself. And I think what we're going to see is a reduction in the science capability.

So they're missing 4 crew members. Three of them, which we're working with Chris in the U.S. section. So I think that what we're going to see is a reduction for a little while in the science on board until the new crew arrives in about a month's time, it looks like.

SANCHEZ: Mike, what does it mean for the future of space travel to have something like this take place now? Because it does, at the very least, help the folks that are planning these missions to Mars sort of envision emergencies and how to resolve them. It sort of gives you a bit of a crash course in the, you know, what's possible out there.

MASSIMINO: I think it's a really good point, Boris, because if you're on the moon, you know, you're about a day and a half's journey away, but it's much more difficult to get back from the moon, of course. And then if you turn about Mars, you're going to be staying there to solve whatever problem you have. With the space station, initially, we were looking at being able to do a lot more to the crew members medically, more diagnostic equipment.

You just don't have that much room. And you don't have all the capabilities you have in a hospital. And we're able to bring them home fairly quickly. So that's an advantage of being relatively close by on the space station.

But when you start talking about the moon and Mars, I think this brings up a point here where it's going to be difficult. You're going to need to be independent in a lot of ways, including in medical care. And that requires a lot of work to get there.

KEILAR: Yes, it certainly does require a whole lot of care. And we are looking at these pictures here of just the final moments on camera that we got as Crew 11 was sort of getting their last -- getting situated at the last moment before they were closing the hatch.

Mike, it is great to have you thank you so much for being with us.

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Really a moment, we don't know everything about.

SANCHEZ: We don't and we're not sure exactly how much we're going to see after splashdown anticipated some point after 3 a.m. Obviously, medical privacy is a concern. We'll see what we learned from NASA coming days.

Thanks so much for joining us this afternoon. "THE ARENA" with Kasie Hunt starts right now.

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