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Washington Post to Lay Off One-third of Staff; ; ADP Report Find Private Sector Employees Added Just 22,000 Jobs in January; Kremlin Sends Warning to Kyiv Amid Peace Talks; Trump Called and Spoke With Savannah Guthrie Today; Tom Homan Says DHS Body Cameras to Be Deployed Nationwide; ICE Attorney Leaves Minnesota After Lambasting Her Job, Government Procedures. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired February 04, 2026 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:00]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": -- significantly reducing its international coverage. Post Owner, Jeff Bezos had no immediate comment about the sweeping cutbacks.

And a new report shows the country's sluggish labor market isn't getting any better. Payroll giant, ADP says private sector employers added just 22,000 jobs in January. That is less than half of the 45,000 that economists were expecting. This data offers the first look into this year's labor market since the partial government shutdown has delayed last month's official jobs report.

And a new hour of "CNN News Central" starts right now.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Working every lead, the sheriff investigating the disappearance of Savannah Guthrie's mother says they are, quote, "absolutely not dismissing purported ransom notes" as we learn that President Trump has spoken with Guthrie about the case.

Plus, a drawdown or a de-escalation, the White House pulling hundreds of federal agents out of Minnesota, a move the governor is calling a step in the right direction.

Plus, peace talks and a veiled threat, the U.S. meeting with Ukraine and Russia to discuss ending the war. The Kremlin, though, sending a very different message to Kyiv. We're following these important developing stories and many more, all coming in right here to "CNN News Central."

We begin this hour with a search for "Today" show host, Savannah Guthrie's 84-year-old mother, Nancy. We just learned moments ago that President Trump called and spoke with Savannah Guthrie today. The sheriff's office not saying much about where their investigation stands right now.

They did release a statement, though, saying that, quote, "No suspect or person of interest has been identified at this time." CNN is learning that data from Nancy Guthrie's pacemaker was last sent to her iPhone around 2 a.m. on Sunday. CNN's John Miller joins us now with the latest.

John, what are you gleaning from this pacemaker data?

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Well, what it may tell us is, because the pacemaker communicates through the cell phone and the sheriff told us that the cell phone was recovered in the home, it may tell us that she was in the home and her pacemaker was in proximity to the cell phone up until around 2 a.m.

After that, obviously, we know she was gone and we know from the sheriff that the phone was still there. So, that may narrow the timeline a little bit. We know she was dropped off at 9:45 after a dinner with family members, and that they were told at 11 o'clock, she hadn't shown for church and got to the house by noon.

So you have this gap in time where whoever came, whoever took her, whatever happened to her occurred. The pacemaker could narrow that gap slightly.

SANCHEZ: And John, what do you make of these purported ransom notes and the sheriff's office declining to say whether or not they believe they are legitimate?

MILLER: Well, they're going to take everything seriously because they have to. A ransom note has got to come in and be assumed to be real until proven otherwise. But it is the kind of thing that you can test, which is, OK, you ask for a proof of life. Can you put the victim on the phone? Can we hear her? Can we make sure she's OK? Can we make sure she's still alive? Short of that, you can get control questions, like if you can't put her on the phone, maybe she's at a different location.

Let's ask a question that only she or other family members would know the answer to, which is something that the kidnappers might not have something -- had time to prepare for. You can glean a lot of information about somebody by studying them on the Internet, so it has to be one of those narrow things. And Boris, one final thing on ransom notes, which is if it's real, they're working that angle.

One went to TMZ, according to TMZ, and another went to a local affiliate. What we don't know for certain is, are they the same note that was sent to two places or two different notes? What we do know is, if it's a ransom note, that person is involved in this crime of an abduction. But if it's not someone who's involved in the crime of abduction, it's still an extortion. It is still a demand for money under federal law.

So, they're going to follow that ransom note to whether it was a kidnapper who has something to offer or an extortionist who's trying to get money.

SANCHEZ: What would you say is the biggest challenge that investigators are facing right now? Is it time, given some of her health concerns?

MILLER: Well, time is certainly working against them, given that there's medication she needs, and the assumption is that whoever took her there didn't bring that along. So that's one concern. The other concern is, so far, communication is a one-way street, as far as we know. And the fact that they're dealing with these two notes, still trying to determine if the notes have any veracity, and the inability to reach out to who has her directly, that's a real challenge.

[14:05:00]

SANCHEZ: John Miller, thank you so much for the reporting.

If anyone out there has any information on this case, you're asked to please call the tip line on your screen right now. It's 1-800-CALL- FBI. Brianna?

KEILAR: Just major developments on the ground in Minnesota. Today, White House Border Czar, Tom Homan announced an immediate drawdown of DHS officers, 700 personnel being withdrawn here. That leaves about 2,000 remaining in the state. Minnesota has become a flashpoint for DHS' immigration enforcement after the deaths of U.S. citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti.

Yet, despite the backlash and this latest reduction in personnel, Homan emphasized the mission isn't over.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM HOMAN, WHITE HOUSE BORDER CZAR: We're not surrendering. The president's mission on a mass deportation operation, if you're in the country illegally, if we find you, we'll deport you. But this is about target enforcement operation, and that's what we're going to be doing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Minnesota Governor, Tim Walz responded on X, calling Homan's announcement a step in the right direction but urged a faster and larger drawdown of forces. We're joined now by former Acting Director for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, John Sandweg.

John, Homan announcing this drawdown and doing so, he touted what he called unprecedented cooperation with local and state law enforcement. How are you reading that?

JOHN SANDWEG, FORMER ACTING ICE DIRECTOR UNDER PRESIDENT OBAMA: I think, look, Brian, honestly, I think Tom was out there on a mission to de-escalate things. I think he needed some political cover to do so.

There's, you know -- and I think that maybe there was a small step in the right direction for some of these local sheriffs that they'll do a little bit more to cooperate. One thing I was struck by today that Tom said, and just going back, as we know, after Tom got there, he also issued a memo where he doesn't want those agents being the ones confronting the protesters. I think that's really significant.

As I've explained, these agents are not trained to deal with the protesters. He said something interesting today about him calling the chief of police and the chief of police agreeing to remove these roadblocks that protesters had put up. I think maybe some of that also is the cooperation he's looking for, getting the state and locals to do a little bit more to take some of the pressure tied to the, you know, allowing DHS to get out of doing that public order policing that they just aren't trained to do.

KEILAR: He also talked about implementing these body cams, the wearing of body cams that Secretary Noem announced earlier this week for Minnesota and then sort of expanding it across the country. What are you expecting to get out of that implementation?

SANDWEG: I hope that we get the body cams rolled out quickly. In my experience, Brianna, oftentimes these law enforcement agencies are reluctant to adopt the technology. But as the technology has been rolled out nationwide, including partially rolled out at ICE, I think the officers find that it actually helps them. It gives them -- it gives people a perspective and often has justified the use of force. It's not something to be scared of, but rather something that, in many cases, validates what they were saying out there.

So, I'm not surprised that Tom is not opposed to the body cameras. I do think, like, I think it goes a long way. I think it's a critical step so that we can make sure, as we've seen how critical those videos are in these incidents. It provides that additional layer of evidence and additional layer of credibility to the agency as to what exactly happened in these incidents.

KEILAR: And ICE is also defending itself in court. And I think we got a glimpse yesterday of how difficult that has been on the ground for lawyers who have that job. There was an ICE attorney detailed in Minnesota who told a federal judge yesterday that the job "sucks" because of just this crushing workload, the government's apparent inability to comply with court orders.

She said it was like pulling teeth trying to get errors fixed as she was asked to explain why the administration wasn't promptly complying with all of these court orders stemming from immigration cases she's handling. I just want to read a little bit more of what she said. "They are overwhelmed and they need help," she said.

So I have to say stupidly volunteered, meaning she'd gone from being an, I think, ICE attorney in like an immigration court over to volunteer in Minnesota. And she also said, sometime I wish you would just hold me in contempt, your honor, so that I can have a full 24 hours of sleep. I work days and night just because people are still in there.

What did you think reading that?

SANDWEG: Brianna, this is all a direct byproduct of these very aggressive legal positions that the administration has taken when it comes to immigration enforcement. Obviously, a lot of attention was paid to the administrative warrants, right, this position that the Fourth Amendment allows them to forcibly enter homes with just an administrative warrant. But inside the immigration system, they've taken these very aggressive positions that anybody who ever crossed the border unlawfully is not eligible for immigration bond.

That is a radical change in the sense that for decades, the law has been that bond determinations for people if they cross the border illegally and they're apprehended by ICE, whether they stay in detention or not, is a question of looking at whether they've posed a threat to public safety or flight risk.

[14:10:00]

And an immigration judge would typically, traditionally, have the authority to make that decision in order, OK, you have to pay a $5,000 bail and you're released or no bail, et cetera, et cetera. The administration has said no. We've reinterpreted that law and everybody is mandatory detention. The only recourse the immigrant -- the lawyers have for the immigrants is to run the federal court with these habeas petitions.

So, you've seen this massive spike in these habeas petitions and despite courts consistently ruling against the DHS position, they won't back down. And I think what you're seeing of that is a system that has never been designed for this much volume is breaking at the seams. I think generally DHS wants to honor some of these court orders.

It's just there's so many of them coming in. The lawyers can't keep up and the department is not keeping up. But again, it's a byproduct of the aggressive, unprecedented legal new reinterpretations that the administration has taken.

KEILAR: Yeah, really amazing to see and read that about that moment in court there. John Sandweg, thank you so much for being with us. We really appreciate it.

And still to come, Democrats sounding the alarm after a delayed whistleblower complaint containing highly-classified material surfaces about the Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard.

Plus, new details surrounding the sudden departure of one of the president's top allies at DOJ. What Ed Martin is accused of leaking that may have led to his departure. And we are just days away from the Super Bowl and CNN catches up with the Seahawks and the Patriots ahead of the big game in California. We'll have that and much more coming up on "CNN News Central."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:16:13]

SANCHEZ: New details are emerging on Trump ally, Ed Martin's imminent exit from the Department of Justice. Sources tell CNN that a Justice Department review found that Martin improperly leaked grand jury material in an investigation targeting the president's political enemies. It was at least part of the reason that he's been pushed out of DOJ headquarters since early this year. Martin is still serving, though, as a pardon attorney.

We're joined now by CNN Senior Justice Correspondent, Evan Perez. Evan, what more are you learning about DOJ's findings here?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ed Martin is making his way out. But part of the reason is this review that happened over the last few months where they found that he had forwarded material that was from grand jury that you cannot forward to people who are not authorized to someone who was not authorized to have that.

Now, when Martin was confronted by the Justice Department on this, he initially denied that he had done so, but they have the email that shows that he had done this. And so, look, he calls himself Eagle Ed, and he's been more of a Chaos Ed, right, for the past year. He was initially the interim U.S. attorney here in Washington, where he started a Substack.

He pushed out prosecutors, demoted prosecutors who were involved in January 6 cases. He was busy tweeting and sending out letters to some of the president's political enemies. So, he's been a lot of chaos inside the department.

And so, one thing that happened after he failed to get Senate approval, they moved him to the Justice Department hoping that he would have more adult supervision. Clearly, that did not work. And so now, as a result of this, Todd Blanche, the Deputy Attorney General, had reason finally to be able to push him out essentially of Justice Department headquarters.

Now, we did get a couple of statements in reaction to our reporting. Todd Blanche issued a statement denying, essentially, what we are not reporting. But he says there are no misconduct investigations into Ed Martin. Ed is doing a great job as pardon attorney. And then we heard from someone who is close to Ed Martin, who said that President Trump ordered Ed Martin to fight weaponization wherever it's found and said that they'll continue to do that work. But clearly, he's on his way out perhaps in the next few weeks.

The question is, where does he land next? We might not -- this might not be the last we hear of Eagle Ed.

SANCHEZ: We look forward to finding out what happens next. Evan Perez, thank you so much. Brianna?

KEILAR: Members of Congress' Gang of Eight have finally reviewed a top-secret whistleblower complaint against Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard. And this comes after "The Wall Street Journal" reported about its existence earlier this week that a U.S. intelligence official had filed this complaint eight months ago. CNN National Security Correspondent, Natasha Bertrand is with us now on this story.

What are you learning about this complaint?

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: This is becoming a real saga here, and it all dates back to May of 2025 when a whistleblower within the intelligence community brought a concern to the inspector general for the intelligence community and essentially, made two chief allegations. The first was that this person, this whistleblower, had seen a highly-classified intelligence report and found out that its dissemination had been severely restricted, and this whistleblower alleged that that was for political purposes.

The second allegation this whistleblower made was that an intel agency lawyer, unspecified intel agency lawyer, actually failed to report a potential crime to the Justice Department. Now, it's unclear if those two things are related, but those were the bulk of the allegations that they made in this complaint. And it's unclear if they related directly to the Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, but that is essentially what the allegations were.

Now, this intel report at the center of these allegations is so highly classified that the inspector general for the intelligence community told Congress in a letter on Monday that it is the most sensitive report that they have received as part of an urgent concern complaint, a whistleblower complaint, really to date, so ever.

[14:20:00]

So that is the level of classification we are dealing with when it comes to this intelligence report and that has been at the center of the wrangling over how Congress is able to see this report because, while the inspector general for the IC concluded last year that one part of that complaint was not credible, the part about the dissemination being restricted for political purposes, the other part about a potential crime not being reported to DOJ, that might be credible, they just don't know.

Regardless, the whistleblower has the right under the law to provide their complaint to Congress. That is where there have been serious issues. There has been a delay and the lawyer for the whistleblower actually told CNN yesterday that they believe that it is because the White House has gotten involved with exerting some kind of executive privilege over the complaint. Here's a bit of what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDREW BAKAJ, LAWYER FOR WHISTLEBLOWER IN GABBARD COMPLAINT: They're also flagging executive privilege concerns. And for me, executive privilege concerns means that this somehow involves the White House. In fact, I do know that before the urgent concern was filed by my client with the Intelligence Committee IG, Tulsi Gabbard had taken the underlying intelligence at issue and gone to the White House and disclosed it to Susie Wiles.

The question that I have is, why and what happened there?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERTRAND: So, the issue now is that the broader congressional committees -- intelligence committees, they say that they have the right to see this complaint. The whistleblower says that he wants to share this complaint with the broader intelligence committees. But still, right now, only the Gang of Eight, the senior-most lawmakers on the Hill and in the intelligence committees have actually seen this report. So, the whistleblower's lawyer there that we just -- that we just heard from, he's fighting to get that complaint to the broader members of Congress who have the legal authority to see it.

KEILAR: Very interesting. Natasha, thank you so much. Very important story. And we are getting some new details from an interview with President Trump. What he is saying in these new remarks about the drawdown in Minnesota.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:26:43]

SANCHEZ: We have Breaking News into CNN. A new clip from an interview of President Trump by NBC News just posted. The president talking about how his administration could change its approach to the immigration crackdown.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, speaking of Minneapolis, what did you learn?

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I learned that maybe we can use a little bit of a softer touch, but you still have to be tough. These are criminals. We're dealing with really hard criminals. But look, I've called the people. I've called the governor. I've called the mayor, spoke to him, had great conversations with him, and then I see them ranting and raving out there, literally as though a call wasn't made.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: CNN Washington Bureau Chief and Political Director, David Chalian is with us now. A change of tone for the president, softer touch, but he's also saying everyone is criminals when we know they're not.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF AND POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Yeah, he's clearly not looking to change the overall approach and strategy of what he ran on and what he was elected to do and mass deportation, but it is interesting to hear him take the rhetoric and try to place it back on the worst of the worst, criminals. He understands that what occurred in Minneapolis got far afield from what he had actually sort of talked about and promised, and saw the backlash from the country on this.

And so, normally, you would hear somebody ask President Trump say, what have you learned? You would think you'd get bluster of, like, I've learned what I always knew or something. No, he, like, acknowledged learning something that this requires a softer touch.

Now, again, I don't want to say we're going to see a 180-degree turn here, but he's clearly responding to the fact that the country was really displeased with what they were seeing.

SANCHEZ: And to that point, we want to share with the viewers a Fox News poll that was taken from January 23rd through the 26th. The gathering of this data began before the killing of Alex Pretti, and notably it shows that, generally, people asked feel that ICE is too aggressive right now, nearly 60 percent.

You have to imagine that those numbers likely went up after what happened to Alex Pretti. How much of this has to do with the political calculus of President Trump in a midterm election year?

CHALIAN: Well, there's no doubt it has to do with politics. There's little doubt about that. Also, because -- I don't think it's just coming from his usual critics, right? I mean, when you get six on (ph) ten, you're getting some Republicans, and you're getting some people who are on the president's team, if you will, who are not pleased or think his policies have gone too far. Only a quarter of Americans thinks it's about right.

So, the president's language of, you know, I've learned we can do this with a softer touch and keep the focus on the hardened criminals that are the worst of the worst, is a way for him to steer back to a place where he hopes he's going to have broader appeal with this immigration strategy.

KEILAR: Really interesting. David, thank you so much.

CHALIAN: Yeah.

KEILAR: Happening now, lawyers for President Trump are back in a New York courtroom. They're trying to get an appeal of his criminal conviction in a hush money scheme moved to federal court. Trump appealed his 2024 conviction on 34 state counts of falsifying business records to cover up payments made to reimburse his personal attorney, Michael Cohen.

Days before the 2016 presidential election, Cohen advanced $130,000 to adult film star and producer, Stormy Daniels to keep her quiet about an affair that she allegedly had with Trump. Trump denies the affair.

And coming up, still no suspect or person of interest in the disappearance --