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Immigrant Families Fear Being Separated By Trump Deportations; Trump Signs Four New Executive Orders, Transforming Military; DeepSeek AI Model Sends Shockwaves Through U.S. Markets. Aired 5:30-6a ET
Aired January 28, 2025 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[05:30:00]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
YELITZA MARQUINA, FATHER ARRESTED BY ICE: They will open the door because they thought maybe one of us were in trouble of something or something happened to us. He never did think it would have been ICE. I'm already heartbroken myself and I can only imagine little kids whose families are breaking apart because of this.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I had a 4-year-old crying, fearing deportation. That is not making America great again.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAYLA TAUSCHE, CNN ANCHOR: CNN senior political analyst Ron Brownstein joins us now. Ron, you have a new article on cnn.com --
RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST, SENIOR EDITOR, THE ATLANTIC (via Webex by Cisco): Good morning.
TAUSCHE: -- that I would encourage everyone to read. It is, "As Trump launches his enforcement offensive, immigration advocates are mobilizing too."
You talk about what some of these non-governmental organizations are doing to try to assist the migrant community and some of the advice that they're giving those that might be targeted by these efforts. What are they saying?
BROWNSTEIN: Yeah. You know, look -- I mean, there's no question that there is more support for tougher measures on immigration both at the border and in the interior than there were -- than there was when Trump was first elected in 2017. A lot of discontent over the record that Biden left behind has created that environment in which Trump has more running room. But that doesn't mean the running room is infinite, right, in terms of the public acceptance of what can go on.
And immigrant advocate groups really are trying to shine a light on what this means in practice, particularly for people who have been here a long time who may have U.S. citizen kids. There are four million, Pew estimates, U.S. citizen kids with at least one undocumented parent. And when I talk to the folks both in California and Illinois -- I went
to a Know Your Rights event that they held out here a couple of days ago -- the number one question that immigrant advocate groups are getting from people who worry about being targets of what's coming is what are the provisions for my kid? How can I ensure that there is somebody there to take care of my kids?
And that may be -- we saw a big pushback on family separation at the border in Trump's first term. If we start seeing many instances of family separation from deportation in Trump's second term that may be kind of the Achille's heel of this agenda.
TAUSCHE: Meanwhile, Trump's new border czar Tom Homan has a warning for any of those advocacy groups who are in those efforts trying to shield immigrants from ICE.
BROWNSTEIN: Um-hum.
TAUSCHE: Here's what he said on CNN on Monday. Take a listen.
BROWNSTEIN: Yeah.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TOM HOMAN, TRUMP ADMINISTRATION BORDER CZAR: I've seen many pamphlets from many of the NGOs -- here is how you escape ICE from arresting you. Here's what you need to do. They call it Know Your Rights. I call it how to escape arrest.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAUSCHE: Are these groups, Ron, worried about themselves being in the crosshairs of the administration?
BROWNSTEIN: Well, I think not only groups but local officials, right, are being threatened by the administration. I mean, Mr. Homan has talked about prosecuting mayors who don't fully cooperate with ICE.
I feel -- at least in the ones that I talk to, they feel that they are very much within the law in counseling people on what they do and don't have to do with ICE. I think the main effort that immigrant rights groups have at this point is not so much to encourage -- you know, somehow help people evade if they are the targets -- legitimate targets of enforcement, but really to document, Kayla.
I mean, groups all over the country are setting up what they call rapid response teams, which include lawyers and community organizers, videographers in some cases, and a nationwide hotline that people can call into if they believe a raid is happening. And then they try to mobilize people to kind of document what is -- what is occurring.
But I think they do not see anything as off the table in terms of action by the administration against them, against local officials, and certainly against people that are here illegally.
TAUSCHE: And meanwhile, for these migrants, their personal experiences on the ground, Ron. You have some anecdotes in your piece, one in particular that I want to read.
One woman told you after one of these such organizing meetings that she saw three young Latina women that morning --
BROWNSTEIN: Yeah.
TAUSCHE: -- running from a metro station yelling, "They are coming, they are coming," in her words.
You write, "It turned out to be a false alarm, she said, but more telling was that no one had to ask the women who 'they' were."
Talk about the general mood of these communities and how it is changing day-to-day life there.
BROWNSTEIN: Yeah. I -- you know, in the -- in the meeting that I attended last week and the people that I talked to there was certainly an effort to project strength, and confidence, and resistance. The chance of si, se puede from the Obama era and the farmworkers before that were all vigorous. There was big attendance at a candlelight vigil. But there was no question there was a lot of concern and a lot of apprehension about what exactly may be coming.
And the questions people are asking are kind of bracingly specific and immediate to daily life. It's can I send my kids to school? Can I go to the doctor? One question at the session was -- that I was at was can I give my nationality if a child is born at the hospital on a birth certificate? So there's no question that this is already radiating through these communities.
[05:35:05]
And as I said, there is certainly more tolerance for tougher measures than there were -- than there was in the public when Trump took office in 2017. That is a -- kind of a legacy of the Biden administration -- a backlash -- a move to the right on this. But that doesn't mean there's infinite tolerance.
And I think given how aggressive the administration wants to be on this front we are going to see in the months ahead what is the boundary that the public will accept. How far will they go? How many stories will they accept of U.S. citizen kids being separated from parents who are being deported?
TAUSCHE: You say that the collective impact of everything that's been done so far is setting up the administration for a largescale confrontation. We will see how and whether that plays out. But I encourage everyone to read the piece.
Ron Brownstein, we appreciate you joining us early this morning. Thank you.
BROWNSTEIN: Thanks for having me. Yeah, thanks for having me.
TAUSCHE: Now turning to this. President Donald Trump signing four new executive orders that could reshape the U.S. military as we know it. His directives include banning transgender service members, cutting --
or gutting, rather, the military's diversity programs, and reinstation, with backpay, members who were discharged for refusing to get a COVID-19 vaccine.
The president claiming these actions will increase military recruitment.
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DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And I think we're going to have a lot of people that join. We were having a hard time recruiting people because they were looking at these people that were supposed to be their leaders and they weren't happy. They didn't like people that fall going upstairs.
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TAUSCHE: The orders coming down on newly confirmed Defense Sec. Pete Hegseth's first day leading the Pentagon.
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PETE HEGSETH, DEFENSE SECRETARY: This is happening quickly. And as the Secretary of Defense it's an honor to salute smartly, as I did as a junior officer and now as the Secretary of Defense to ensure these orders are complied with rapidly and quickly.
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TAUSCHE: Hegseth has been a vocal critic of diversity programs in the military, expressing his issue with them on a podcast ahead of his confirmation.
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HEGSETH: The dumbest phrase on Planet Earth in the military is "our diversity is our strength." The integration of the military racially was a huge success, but now we're pushing boundaries in lots of different levels that are different than that because men and women are different. Because being transgender in the military causes complications and differences.
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TAUSCHE: And joining me now to discuss, Axios political reporter Brittany Gibson. Brittany, good morning. Thank you for being here.
BRITTANY GIBSON, POLITICS REPORTER, AXIOS: Thank you for having me.
TAUSCHE: So we just heard what Pete Hegseth said just shortly after the election, and that seems to be a perspective that encouraged Trump to nominate him for this role. It was a feature, not a bug of the system, and now we're seeing it come to fruition.
GIBSON: Absolutely, and I think it's another consistency of President Trump's campaign and campaign rhetoric and the rhetoric of his advisers carrying already into the official administration business.
He talked about this regularly on the campaign trail as did Stephen Miller, one of his top advisers and now deputy chief of staff. A war against DEI program broadly. And I think that's extended, as you just mentioned, to the COVID-19 vaccine and backlash to that during the last administration. And then it extends to women and transgender people service in the military.
TAUSCHE: As far as the executive orders go, we just heard Hegseth saying how quick the Pentagon got off to this start with these executive orders, which is to a certain extent true. But it also -- these orders are a reflection of the fact that the Heritage Foundation, Project 2025, America First Policy Institute has essentially for the last four years been working on a slate of actions to release when the floodgates open as they have in the last week.
And I'm wondering if you think we'll see a relative slowdown on some of these policies or whether we'll see this ramping up.
GIBSON: I think it's yes and no. You're absolutely right that this Trump administration is coming in with their briefcases full so to speak from thinktanks that you mentioned and from his own advisers. I think where they'll slow down is where they hit walls in -- outside of their sphere of control.
So if you look at border czar Tom Homan talking about ICE and ramping up detentions, there are only so many detention beds. You look at trade policy and tariffs. Well, what's going to happen when countries say well, we're going to accept those tariffs and impose reciprocal ones?
And then with DEI and the military and foreign aid, just the repercussions that are outside of their sphere of control I think might be where we see slowdowns or at least pivots from what's been laid out in the four years where Trump was not in office where groups have had the opportunity to prepare in all of these different policy areas.
[05:40:00]
TAUSCHE: And there's a certain extent of deja vu as well. I mean, the reinstatement of the transgender ban in the military was essentially just refreshing something that Trump had done in his first term.
As you mentioned, tariffs and the possible reciprocal actions by other countries. Many Trump aides say that won't happen, but we've seen that movie before and, of course, they did in the first term in a -- in a very steep way.
And then there's the hiring freezes, the regulatory freezes. The freezes of federal financial assistance and foreign aid.
I'm curious whether you think those will be permanent or whether you think that there's some possibility that we see some relaxation once his officials are able to get in there and study what's been happening. GIBSON: Um-hum. I think permanence might be determined by the midterms in the next elections. You know, how much can one administration or Congress by a check on what this administration does if Democrats win back a chamber in two years.
But you're absolutely right that this policy -- in these policy areas Trump has been consistent. President Trump now though is prepared as his -- he and his advisers have said, I believe, he knows Washington now.
And you see it with his personnel picks as well. He and his team have vetted people who also agree with him, which I think is a bit of a shift from his first time coming into office where his team was not as prepared during the transition period to staff people who fully want to execute the president's vision. And I think that's a key difference this time that will make things more longer lasting.
And because they won the popular vote they feel --
TAUSCHE: Right.
GIBSON: -- and the election broadly, of course, but they feel the mass support or popular support for this movement. If you start to see those shifts in the polls maybe you'll start to see a pivot as well.
TAUSCHE: Well, and it is true that the American people more broadly support the Trump agenda 2.0 than they did back in 2017.
We just heard Ron Brownstein talking about immigration and how there is more tolerance for some of these actions.
And I just want to put some of the data behind it because recent polling shows that there is very wide -- like, very widespread support for deporting undocumented immigrants who have a violent criminal conviction. Eighty-three percent favor deporting those immigrants who have those convictions, according to an AP poll from just before the inauguration.
When it comes to immigrants who are legally in the country -- who have legal status but who also have a violent criminal conviction, 69 percent favor deporting those individuals. So slightly less but there is still very high support for some of the actions that the administration is taking.
GIBSON: Definitely. And I think the key in those poll results in particular is the criminal record or violent record history. I think that's been broadly popular. And it's something that President Trump has been speaking about a bit more specifically recently, saying that the main target are criminals -- people with that kind of criminal background.
But if you look at the executive orders and the execution of them so far have been more broad and not specifically been narrow to targeting criminals.
It was -- border czar Tom Homan said in an interview this weekend that basically if you are here illegally, regardless of any other factors, you're on the table. And when you poll that kind of approach to mass deportation it's a little bit less popular.
TAUSCHE: And he said that there could be some collateral arrests as well, so certainly we're starting to see how this policy ends up affecting many of these communities.
Brittany, we appreciate your time and your expertise this morning. Thank you.
GIBSON: Thank you.
TAUSCHE: Brittany Gibson from Axios.
Still ahead on CNN THIS MORNING a new player in the AI wars is rattling the stock market. What a new Chinese competitor to ChatGPT could mean for the future of developing artificial intelligence.
Plus, a woman's college coach is back on the court just a week after giving birth. We have that in our CNN sports update.
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[05:48:27]
TAUSCHE: A new Chinese-backed company is rattling the world artificial intelligence and the stock market. On Monday, news of a new AI model from China called DeepSeek shook tech stocks in the U.S. when it was revealed to be far more advanced than originally believed. The tech rivals some current AI models from U.S. firms like OpenAI, Google, and Meta at a fraction of the price.
Stocks in AI computer chipmaker Nvidia fell nearly 17 percent on the news, tanking the company's value by more than half a trillion dollars -- the most value a company has ever lost in a single day.
President Trump seems to think the rise of the Chinese startup might have some good news.
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TRUMP: This is very unusual when you hear a DeepSeek -- when you hear somebody come up with something. We always have the ideas. We're always first. So I would say that's a positive. That could be very much a positive development. So instead of spending billions and billions you'll spend less and you'll come up with, hopefully, the same solution.
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TAUSCHE: Joining me now to talk about all of this is Sinead Bovell, futurist tech entrepreneur and founder of WAYE. Sinead, good morning to you.
What should people know about this new model, and why was it so disruptive to U.S. companies pursuing this? SINEAD BOVELL, FUTURIST TECH ENTREPRENUER, FOUNDER, WAYE (via Webex by Cisco): Yeah, this is certainly a wake-up call for U.S. companies.
So what people should know is that DeepSeek is a Chinese company that was able to launch a model that is as performant as some of the leading AI -- U.S. AI companies but at 10 percent of the cost. So that is a very significant breakthrough -- a massive architectural breakthrough -- and it's technically a win for innovation overall because U.S. companies are going to look at this and be able to add what they're currently doing -- add this Chinese method to what they're currently doing.
[05:50:22]
Many now are calling this a Sputnik moment. But what truly is happening here is DeepSeek and this Chinese AI company -- they've reversed-engineered what U.S. companies have already done. So it is still a breakthrough, but U.S. companies are still at the frontier.
What will be the true Sputnik moment is if a Chinese AI company can build a model that does something U.S. models cannot. So right now they're equally as performant but if China can have a breakthrough and do something that U.S models cannot, that's an even bigger wake-up call.
TAUSCHE: They made it in less time with less advanced computer chips and with less money spent to develop it. That's why Marc Andreessen, the billionaire venture capitalist, called it a Sputnik moment.
And Sam Altman, who is the leader of OpenAI, which is the parent company of ChatGPT -- he posted a tweet suggesting that he is legit invigorated. "...it's legit invigorating to have a new competitor!"
And Microsoft CEO also posting on X suggesting that having more players and making AI more efficient will ultimately be good for the technology.
But how are these executives really feeling about this behind the scenes?
BOVELL: So probably mixed. I would agree that for some -- for a company like Microsoft and even Nvidia, this is technically a good thing because the cheaper AI gets to build, the more people are going to use it. So the more efficient it becomes, the more use and the more dispersion we're going to see of artificial intelligence.
If you're in the hardware business or the cloud business; or you make chips, such as Nvidia; or Microsoft -- you make hardware or your make applications, this is a good thing for you.
OpenAI, not so sure. So on the one hand they're going to -- if they can add these innovations to how they build their AI systems -- if they can do what they're doing, leading the frontier, but do that even cheaper, this is going to be a win for them. If they cannot, this will certainly threaten OpenAI's moat because to date they have depended on this kind of capital intensive approach to AI while DeepSeek has shown that that's not the only way.
TAUSCHE: Right.
BOVELL: But this all -- this moment -- and this is something that many aren't really talking about is what this means for AI safety. So yes --
TAUSCHE: Right.
BOVELL: -- it's going to push innovation forward, but China has gone live to air with its most advanced AI open source model and not said a word about safety. The U.S. is now going to go head first into the AI race like we've never --
TAUSCHE: Yeah.
BOVELL: -- seen before. And we know there's no thing -- such thing as putting borders on this technology. So --
TAUSCHE: That Washington has been pushing for these guardrails so far, they have not exactly materialized and now that conversation is going to be front and center once again.
We need to leave it there, Sinead, but we really appreciate your time this morning. Sinead Bovell, thank you.
BOVELL: Thanks for having me.
TAUSCHE: It is time now for sports. Tennessee women's basketball coach Kim Caldwell was back on the sideline last night just a week after giving birth to her first child. That is a Herculean task, Coy Wire. Coy is here with this morning's CNN sports update. Good morning, Coy.
COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Mind blown. Mind blown, Kayla. First- year head coach Kim Caldwell -- what a week for her. Not only is she leading the 18th-ranked Lady Vols to a spot in March Madness, she delivered her first son -- 6 pound-10 ounce Conor Scott while she had the flu.
And last night there she was walking out onto the court just in time for a huge conference showdown against the defending national champs, number two South Carolina. The more than 12,000 fans in Knoxville giving her a huge ovation.
While Tennessee ended up falling (audio gap) short she was blown away with the response she received from Vols Nation -- listen.
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KIM CALDWELL, TENNESSEE HEAD COACH, I definitely wasn't expecting it. I tried to sneak in. That's why I was sneaking in the back. I always try to go unnoticed. But it made it worth it. It made coming back worth it.
DAWN STALEY, SOUTH CAROLINA HEAD COACH: Women have the strength of 10 men, no doubt about it. I think she's very passionate about her team and coaching here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WIRE: Amazing.
Also amazing in men's hoops is not just that unranked Arizona knocked off number three Iowa State, it's how. Unranked Arizona knocked off number three Iowa State. A buzzer-beater by Caleb Love hitting a shot from darn near the parking lot to send the game to overtime. And that's where Love would hit a pair of back-to-back threes to lift the Wildcats over the Cyclones 86-75 in a massive upset.
The defending champion Celtics in the NBA hosting the Rockets who rise up with a couple of career performances. Dillon Brooks hitting a career high 10 three-pointers to finish the game with a game-high 36.
[05:55:00]
Then Amen Thompson hotter than two rabbits in a burlap sack. Career high 33, including that game-winning floater. With .7 seconds to go Houston was down 12 in the fourth but rallied to win 114-112 -- Amen.
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AMEN THOMPSON, FORWARD, HOUSTON ROCKETS: Yeah, I knew (bleep) it was going in. I knew it was (bleep). Uh, that's my first game winning. I feel like Kobe.
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WIRE: It's feels like Kobe, he says.
Well, how about Kim Caldwell? I mean, the impressive passion for her career but knowing she has this baby boy at home. And doing all that at once, it's just phenomenal stuff -- the type that inspires. It's like what more can I do? What more should I be doing with my life?
TAUSCHE: She is incredible. And she doesn't even look that tired, which is the other incredible thing.
WIRE: Amazing.
TAUSCHE: Hats off to her.
Coy Wire, thank you.
WIRE: You got it.
TAUSCHE: We appreciate it.
In our next half hour on CNN THIS MORNING purging prosecutors. The Trump administration cleaning out the DOJ and career lawyers they say they can't trust.
Plus, more than 3,500 arrests in less than a week. President Trump's immigration crackdown growing by the day. (COMMERCIAL)