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Interview with Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL): Trump Delivers Remarks at National Prayer Breakfast; Savannah Guthrie Makes Emotional Plea for Mother's Safe Return; ICE's Net Approval Rating and Noem's Job Performance. Aired 9:30-10a ET
Aired February 05, 2026 - 09:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[09:30:00]
REP. JARED MOSKOWITZ (D-FL), JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: Well, good morning. Thanks for having me. You don't feel united?
Ah, I mean, there's just unity everywhere. I mean, just look at Minnesota. They look united.
No, I mean, the President said lots of different things there. You know, he said he had plenty of time for religion. You know, look, I hope the President has a long life, but I don't know if we have plenty of time. You know, I'll say the word God.
He said no one says the word God. I say the word God. I believe in God.
So, I mean, look, the President's going off script. He likes to have fun with that. It's always a joy to watch when he goes off script.
You know, there's someone backstage, you know, taking a shot every time he goes off script. But, you know, look, this is part of the deal that we get with him.
SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Last night, and you just brought it up, too, he was reminded of the chaos his immigration crackdown has caused in Minnesota after federal agents killed two citizens. Trump last night, or yesterday, acknowledged that Alex Pretti and Renee Good should not have been killed, as he put it. And you Democrats aren't satisfied with words.
You're demanding that DHS Secretary Kristi Noem be removed from office. And I just -- I know that you said this, but I want our audience to see how you put things. Asking for Trump to bring back his alter ego from "The Apprentice" to deal with Noem.
Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MOSKOWITZ: We need Apprentice Trump. Where is that guy? Look, let me remind him who he used to be real quick.
DONALD TRUMP, THE APPRENTICE: You're fired. You're fired. You're fired. You're fired. You're fired. You're fired. You're fired. You're fired. You're fired. You're fired. You're fired. You're fired. You're fired. You're fired. You're all fired. All four are fired.
MOSKOWITZ: Where is that guy? What happened to him?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SIDNER: Now, look, Donald Trump has shown no signs that he is going to fire Noem. So what are you willing to do about it?
MOSKOWITZ (on camera): Well, look, I think Noem should be, the secretary should be either resign, remove, or eventually impeached. And I think if we do that, we need to set up a process for that. I mean, first, let me address the video.
What is so strange is that the president made a living off of getting rid of the weakest link of a team. People tuned in. He made millions of dollars.
It was a very popular show. And now somehow someone convinced him that firing people is now a weakness. I mean, imagine "The Apprentice" if nobody got fired.
He would be surrounded by worthless, useless people, and the show would've been canceled in a year. It's probably why his current ratings are down. And so, look, she's the weakest member of his team, not a single Republican in the House, not a single Republican in the Senate is going to the TV to defend her.
You know, some of these policies I don't agree with, but let's use just, you know, Republican metrics. She's behind on building the wall. She's deported less people than Barack Obama.
She's not sending any FEMA money out. I mean, so by what success does she have for the president of the United States? If you're the president and these are your policies, some of which I disagree with, if these are your policies, where's her success?
So you know, look, that's why he's now buried her. He's moved her aside. Homan has come into Minnesota.
He had a cabinet meeting the other day. He didn't even let her speak. Fire her, Mr. President. It's what made you popular on that show?
SIDNER: Look, President Trump will argue, look, the border is quiet. There are certainly not the number of people coming in that came in during the Biden administration. Do you think that he has done a good job when it comes to that section of his immigration crackdown?
MOSKOWITZ: Yes. I think what's going on at the border is definitely an improvement over the last four years. There's no doubt about that.
But that's not because of -- that's not because Noam goes down there and wears a different hat every press conference, right? That's because of policies. It has nothing to do with her.
Everything she's touched is not going well. I mean, just go ask red states trying to get their FEMA reimbursement after major disasters or their homeland security grants. Go talk to some of these people in Homeland, right?
Remember, there's 22 different departments in Homeland. None of them are doing well. Go ask the Secret Service how they're doing under Secretary Noem.
There was a FEMA council that was set up to do FEMA reforms. They were supposed to issue a report. The White House had to cancel her final meeting because her report was a disaster. That report has never been issued.
So there's just no wins for her anywhere. And I think the American people want to turn the page. It's why you see, you know, Senator Tillis, Senator Murkowski, Senator Collins, all saying she should be fired.
It's why you see Senator Kennedy saying he's happy Tom Homan is in charge. It's why you see Congresswoman Malliotakis saying all options should be on the table of who runs that department, right?
It's why you saw John Thune, the leader of the Senate, say that, well, you know, it's up to the president if he wants to keep her. That's a nice dodge, John. Not a real, you know, not real confidence in the secretary.
SIDNER: Congressman Jared Moskowitz, always fiery from you early in the morning. Thank you so much for joining us. There are a lot of serious issues, though.
MOSKOWITZ: It's the coffee. It's the coffee.
SIDNER: It's the coffee. Yes, well, I need some of the what you're drinking. Thank you so much. I do appreciate you.
[09:35:00]
All right, we will be right back. And we are still listening in on the National Prayer Breakfast as Donald Trump is still speaking at this hour. We will be right back with more breaking news.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:40:00] JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, breaking overnight. A tearful plea from Today show host Savannah Guthrie, her sister and brother for the safe return of their mother, 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie. Authorities believe she was abducted from her home outside Tucson, Arizona. Savannah Guthrie and her siblings posted a video on social media.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SAVANNAH GUTHRIE, "TODAY" HOST: We need to know, without a doubt, that she is alive. And that you have her.
We want to hear from you, and we are ready to listen. Please reach out to us.
Mommy, If you are hearing this, you are a strong woman. You are God's precious daughter, Nancy. We believe and know that even in this valley, He is with you.
Everyone is looking for you, mommy, everywhere. We will not rest. Your children will not rest until we are together again.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: The family acknowledged they had seen purported ransom demands in the media, and Sara, they asked for concrete proof of life -- Sara.
SIDNER: It is such a horrible scenario. Hard to imagine the fear that this family is going through. Investigators, including the FBI, were back at Nancy Guthrie's house, putting up crime scene tape again.
And this happened the same day that we saw this tearful video from Savannah Guthrie and her siblings. I want to bring in now a senior law enforcement analyst and former deputy director of the FBI, Andrew McCabe. Thank you for being here.
I want to first ask you, what role does the FBI play in a video like this? Because we noticed that Savannah is reading from a page, so does her sister. They're very deliberate and word for word of what they're saying.
Is that something that the FBI works on them with to make sure that they say as many of the right things as they can when you have someone who's abducted like this?
ANDREW MCCABE, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Definitely, Sara. So there's, we have very experienced hostage negotiators who have conducted these sort of very sensitive communications with offenders of all sorts. Over the years, we have agents who have spent their entire careers working kidnappings, have been in these situations before.
They work very closely with the family. They provide them support and the ability to understand what's happening, that the major developments in the case, and this is the moment at which they really need the family to work with them. Reaching out to the abductors, requesting proof of life, trying to move this investigation into a space where they're actually negotiating for the return of this victim.
And so absolutely, those comments would have been crafted jointly by the family, but also with the advice and the direction of the FBI folks that are involved in this.
SIDNER: Yes, I think a lot of folks don't realize just how involved the FBI might be in something like this when it comes to just the messaging of it all. Someone pointed out that this is perhaps the first really high profile abduction that we've seen since deepfakes were in our midst, since the advent of AI becoming much more popular and being used by a lot of different people very easily. How do you go about now trying to figure out if proof of life is given, if it's actually real, if it's not a deepfake, if it's not a fake video, not a fake voice?
Because, you know, back in the day, we all remember the holding up of the newspapers with the date on them.
MCCABE: Right. Yes, that's absolutely right. So there's no question it's harder.
It's an added complication into what the investigators have to deal with. But we have to remember, you know, the FBI has been dealing with deepfakes since their origin, right? So this is something they confront in other sorts of investigations.
They're constantly evaluating what seems to be essential pieces of evidence, now having to consider whether or not those pieces of evidence are truthful or authentic. So in this sort of an investigation, it's even more important because everybody is acutely aware of the clock ticking here. They have got to return this woman before she, you know, suffers further in this unfair and unlawful detention.
So they will look very closely at any communications they get from purported -- you know, people who purport to be the abductors, purport to have Nancy Guthrie.
[09:45:00]
There are ways to review those communications forensically to determine whether or not they have been modified or whether or not they're authentic. They will do everything they can to establish the provenance of those communications by tracking, you know, whether it's e-mail accounts or telephonic connections, things like that. None of those things are perfect, but cumulatively, all the many different techniques that the Bureau has will help them get to the bottom of that.
And ultimately, they have to go to the family with a recommendation and say, yes, we think this ransom demand is authentic or no, we don't think this is authentic. So it's a very, very stressful and important decisions have to be made.
SIDNER: I do want to lastly ask you, it's not a good look when you see crime scene taken down and everyone leaving the home and people being able to sort of walk right up to it. And then days later, crime scene tape being put back up where police are back in the home looking around. What happened here, do you think?
MCCABE: You know, I think this is more common than people realize. First of all, the crime scene tape is up, was returned because the investigators were on the property doing some work and they don't want media or neighbors or anybody kind of approaching the property while they're there, getting in the way of what they're doing. So that really explains the tape.
As far as coming back to resume the work that they're doing, there's all kinds of reasons why they may find it advantageous to return to a search, the scene of a search warrant and to do some extra digging around. They might come across a piece of information that there's something on the property that might be relevant that they didn't realize during the first search. They might come across, you know, there may be a new partner that's been added to the investigative team, like more FBI people or another law enforcement agency.
And maybe that partner has a different capability or technology that they can apply to the search. They're going to go back and do it again. You saw a canine at the location yesterday during the second search.
Maybe that's a different dog than the one they used the first time. So they think, well, we have another dog who's also pretty good. Let's take this one out and see if this dog can get a trace of where she might have gone.
So there's a lot of good reasons to go back.
SIDNER: Yes, we're actually seeing the dog right now, the canine sort of going through the property. Andrew McCabe, thank you for walking us through all that. There's just so much, so many questions and our hearts go out to the Guthrie family. Thank you.
We'll be right back.
[09:50:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BERMAN: All right, new this morning, in a new interview overnight, President Trump said he has learned that there should be a softer touch in his immigration crackdown. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: 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.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: All right. This is a notable shift. So the question is why? With us now, CNN chief data analyst, Harry Enten. And the numbers here, Harry, tell the story.
HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: The numbers here absolutely tell a story. It has been a bad political situation for the president of the United States. And more than that, it is only getting worse. Just take a look at ICE's net approval rating.
I mean, look at this. And unfortunately, immigration, look, it was already low in early January, right? It was minus 17 points.
But look after the events of the last month. We are now talking about minus 29 points, the worst it has ever been. You look among independents.
It is even worse than that. We are talking about a negative 40, negative 40 net approval rating for ICE on enforcing immigration laws. No wonder the president of the United States is changing his tone.
And that is because you just look here. You see the American people aren't just not with him. They are on a totally other planet.
BERMAN: All right, that's with the president and his immigration policies. What about the people carrying it out?
Namely, or at least who were carrying it out.
ENTEN: Yes.
BERMAN: I'm not sure what she's doing now, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
ENTEN: Yes, there's a reason why John stuttered over that and couldn't figure out exactly, because the bottom line is this. Kristi Noem has turned into an absolute political albatross. Look at this.
Take a look here. Voters on Noem's job performance disapproved in early January 52 percent and now want her fired. Fired is up to 58 percent.
58 percent want her removed. We're not just talking about the fact that her disapproval rating is through the roof. We're now talking about nearly three in five Americans who believe that Kristi Noem should be removed from her job as DHS secretary.
No wonder Tom Homan is in there. And that is because Kristi Noem is a big reason why this has turned into such a deepening political problem for the president of the United States.
BERMAN: And although even these numbers are different and it's worse here, but this is even a more, you know --
ENTEN: Yes.
BERMAN: -- milquetoast way of asking. Disapproval isn't firing.
ENTEN: No, that's exactly right. On a much tougher question. Kristi Noem is doing considerably worse than she was doing in early January.
52 percent to now 58 percent on the disapproved to wanting her fired.
BERMAN: What about views on the president overall on immigration?
ENTEN: Yes, what about views? This is all hurting the president of the United States. Take a look at his net approval rating on immigration.
In December of 2025, it was minus 10 points. That was bad. Of course, immigration has been such a strength for him.
Now, look at this. Negative 21 points. The worst.
The worst of his second term at this point. And among independents, it is negative 34.
[09:55:00]
BERMAN: It's just so interesting. You always have these numbers here in independents in small print --
ENTEN: Yes.
BERMAN: -- which is hard for people of my age to see. But the gaps are just tremendous, Harry.
ENTEN: The gaps are absolutely just tremendous going on here. And I think then, of course, the key nugget is, and I'll note, I have it in small print because I want to be able to see it, but I want you to focus on those big numbers.
BERMAN: All right, now this is a big one. President Trump just said in the National Prayer Breakfast, he talked about Kristi Noem and said, people think, you know, ask me, is she going to go?
And he's like, no, I think she's doing a great job.
ENTEN: Yes, despite all of that, the chance that Noem is out as DHS secretary is 54 percent about a week ago. Now it's only 35 percent out before July, according to the Kalshi prediction market.
BERMAN: All right, herald it, and thank you very much. We've got a lot of news this morning. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
