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Early Start with Rahel Solomon

Trump To "De-Escalate" Situation In Minnesota; Congresswoman Omar Attacked In Minneapolis; Palestinian Bedouins Leave West Bank. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired January 28, 2026 - 05:00   ET

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

[05:00:23]

RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning and welcome to our viewers joining us from the U.S. and all around the world. I'm Rahel Solomon. It is Wednesday, January 28th, 5:00 a.m. here in New York.

And straight ahead on EARLY START.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: We've seen President Trump try to turn down the temperature in Minnesota.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Bottom line, everybody in this room, we view that as a very unfortunate incident. Okay? Everyone.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar was attacked while speaking at a town hall event.

REP. ILHAN OMAR (D-MN): I've survived war and I'm definitely going to survive intimidation and whatever these people think they can throw at me.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: After decades on this land, the last family in this Palestinian Bedouin community is being forced out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLOMON: We begin this hour with the tense situation in Minnesota. Border Czar Tom Homan is now on the state and has taken over ICE operations. The White House has relocated top border official Greg Bovino, following the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti on Saturday.

President Donald Trump is saying that he plans to de-escalate the situation, quote, "a little bit" as the White House tries to distance itself from DHS claims about the deadly encounter.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: You know, we're doing a big investigation. I want to see the investigation. I'm going to be watching over it. I want a very honorable and honest investigation. I have to see it myself.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLOMON: Homan met the governor of Minnesota, as well as the mayor of Minneapolis and the city's police chief. He says while they didn't agree on everything, the talks were a productive starting point.

Governor Walz told CNN that he wants the ICE operation in the state to end.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. TIM WALZ (D), MINNESOTA: I'm not interested in a more efficient Metro Surge. I'm -- I'm ready for them to get out of here. Minnesotans believe in law and order. Minnesotans believe that we should have border control. Minnesotans believe in due process, though. And Minnesotans want to know if you say you're going to get the worst of the worst. Quit lying about who you're arresting.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLOMON: Like Governor Walz, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey says that he, too, wants operation metro search to end.

CNN's Whitney Wild has more on what Minnesotans want.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: Here in Minnesota. A major shift is underway, Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino is leaving. Now, Border Czar Tom Homan is coming to the city.

We spoke with multiple Minnesotans today to find out how they feel about the shift, and if they're confident that with Tom Homan coming here, things will begin to change in a meaningful way. Here's what they told me.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, I think it relieves a lot of stress. I think it helps. I just kind of a weight off our shoulders. But obviously, we were the testing ground I believe, you know, what they could get away with, you know?

UNIDENTIFEID MALE: I think that's a great start. But I think they all need to leave. And as ICE used to operate in the past before the Trump administration, they need to cooperate with our local law enforcement officials to do the work that they're meant to do. According to the laws and the Constitution, ultimately.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have to hope that, yes, things will get better, but it's not going to happen by just praying and hoping. It's going to happen by action.

WILD: Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and his police chief, Brian O'Hara, met with Mayor Frey, saying that he told Homan that Operation Metro Surge has to end and it has to end soon. And he reiterated that the city of Minneapolis will not enforce federal immigration law. Whitney Wild, CNN, Minneapolis.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOLOMON: And CNN is also learning new details about the shooting of Alex Pretti, a warning that the video you are about to see is disturbing. An initial DHS report claims that two officers fired their weapons during the incident over the weekend. It remains unclear if bullets from both guns actually hit Pretti. This video was recorded by an eyewitness, Stella Carlson, and you can see her here wearing a pink jacket in the background of the deadly encounter, she said.

And she sat down with CNN's Anderson Cooper to head to help shed light on what happened on the day that Pretti was killed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Kristi Noem said. This looks like a situation where an individual arrived at the scene to inflict maximum damage on individuals and to kill law enforcement. Is that at all what was happening?

STELLA CARLSON, WITNESS TO ALEX PRETTI SHOOTING: Absolutely not. And the most offensive thing you could say about somebody who has done so much for our country, and which I didn't even know at the time, but what I did know is this person was calm and was handling it with grace and consistency and definitely without threat.

COOPER: One of the things that's shocking about the number of shots is that the last five shots or so are actually from a distance where he appears already lying on the ground, not moving.

[05:05:10]

Do you remember that? Again, this is happening in --

CARLSON: I mean, honestly, Alex being shot is the most memorable part of it. The agents are not a part of that. I think because I watched him die. I mean, I watched him die. I remember him arching his back and his head rolling back, and he looked. It was so fast moving and but not for me.

Like when they left, when they fled, which now I see that after the shooting, they decided to just scatter and save themselves.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLOMON: A man is charged with third degree assault after spraying an unknown substance at Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar during a town hall in Minneapolis Tuesday night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ILHAN OMAR (D-MN): Kristi Noem must resign or face impeachment

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What is that?

OMAR: I don't know.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLOMON: Security, as we see in this video, quickly tackled the man and escorted him out.

CNN's Sara Sidner caught up with Omar right after the attack.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SARA SIDNER, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Representative Omar, are you okay?

OMAR: You know, I'm going to go figure if I am, but I feel okay. I feel that it is important for people whether they are in elected office or not, to allow these people to intimidate us, to make us not fight for our constituents and for the country we love. And as I said, you know, I've survived war. And I'm definitely going to survive intimidation and whatever these people think they can throw at me because I'm built that way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLOMON: Meantime, lawmakers from both parties have since condemned the attack. Republican Congressman Mike Lawler posted on X, quote, "What happened at Ilhan Omar's town hall is unacceptable, period. No matter what side of the aisle you're on, this behavior has no place in our democracy and must be condemned."

President Trump barely mentioned Minnesota in his latest address. His focus was on the U.S. economy, and this time he largely stayed on point. Trump told a crowd in Iowa that he's making America affordable again. He blamed what he calls the crooked Joe Biden administration for the lingering economic anxiety. He also repeated some of his other familiar talking points.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: This has been the most dramatic one-year turnaround of any country in history. In terms of the speed, I really thought it would take us two or three years to do what we're doing. You know, the greatest, the number one country anywhere in history, in the world, anywhere in history for investment coming into the country. And it's amazing. And it's because of tariffs. And its also because of the fact that we had such a tremendous November 5th, that November 5th brought spirit back to our country, came back

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLOMON: November 5th, 2024 is the day that President Trump won reelection. In reality, the economic picture not quite as rosy as he claims. U.S. consumer confidence has fallen to its lowest level in 12 years, due in large part to persistent inflation, as well as nerves over geopolitical tensions and the presidents unrelenting trade war.

Let's go live now to Texas -- Austin, Texas, to be exact.

And Joe Brusuelas is principal and chief economist at RSM.

Joe, great to have you this morning.

Look, you listened to the speech yesterday. I want to play for you something the president said. On the one hand, he said on the issue of affordability, it's a fake issue made up by Democrats. But he also said this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Grocery prices, airfares, hotels, car payments and rent prices have all come down and they've come down very fast.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLOMON: Joe, it's interesting though, because yesterday we got the latest consumer confidence report and as we said, it plummeted to the lowest level since May 2014. And what's interesting is that frustrated consumers mentioned the price of oil, the price of gas, the price of groceries. So what's going on here? I mean, does Trump's version of the economy reflect the situation on situation on the ground for a lot of people?

JOE BRUSUELAS, PRINCIPAL AND CHIEF ECONOMIST, RSM: No. There's a broad disconnect between the president's discourse and the reality on the ground for most Americans. Look, the president stepped all over his message yesterday once again by saying that affordability is a made-up thing. No, there's an affordability crisis, I think, out there for many down market and middle class households. You know, the price of food is up a little over 3 percent. Fuel and utilities up 6.7 percent from one year ago.

You know, over the last number of months, I've had the privilege of traveling around the country, in the world to talk about the U.S. and global economy. I've seen people on panels and on stages try to make the case that we don't really have an affordability issue.

[05:10:03]

It's just the media, or it's just those economists. I've seen them get booed, heckled and hooted it. People make a mistake at underestimating the financial stress that many American households are under. Their reputations will fall with it. And Americans, I think, will take a different view of what's actually going on that. That speech is not tethered to the reality of what's going on out there when it comes to affordability and inflation.

SOLOMON: Yeah, not to mention the cost of buying a home right now and borrowing costs.

Joe, we've been seeing this sell off in the dollar. Deutsche Bank pointing out in a note this morning that the dollar index closed at its lowest level since February 2022. Trump yesterday said he's not worried about the dollar, but should he be? I mean, practically speaking, how does a weaker dollar impact people at home watching?

BRUSUELAS: Okay, so the president has a de facto weak dollar policy. So I would expect more, not less out of him on that. You know, if you're an American out there and you see the value of the dollar falling, what that means is its going to cost more for you to buy all goods that you import, right?

Over the long term, the U.S. actually needs a strong dollar because of our debt and deficit dynamics. We have to sell an extraordinarily large quantity of what we call long-term paper 10, 20 and 30-year treasuries. In order to do that, we need a stable dollar. So, this is a real problem.

In trading -- the trading community and the investment community something extraordinary happened yesterday. The dollar index fell by only about 1.5 percent at one point, which doesn't seem or sound like a lot. But in the foreign exchange market it is. We had a three sigma or what we call a three standard deviation move.

And that's what really got people very excited. Near the end of the trading day yesterday. Now this morning the dollar is looking okay. It looks like it's stabilized. But one gets the sense that we're now going to have another big leg down in the value of the dollar. And that will not help on the margin for all of our concerns around inflation.

SOLOMON: But it's interesting though, right, because it's a bit of a mixed picture. So you have the dollar selling off. You said it looks like it's stabilizing right now. But then you have the stock market which continues to just hit record highs.

Joe, from your perspective, what's a better indicator of where things stand right now in the economy and where they're going?

BRUSUELAS: Well, I think when I think about the economy, I go straight to the labor market, right? We have a low fire, low hire labor market. And you mentioned that that that consumer confidence survey. You know, Americans right now don't have the labor mobility that they want. It's very difficult to get a new job.

Hiring slowed to around 50,000 a month. As an economist in capital markets professional, I know that that's basically consistent with growth at about 1.8 to 2.2 percent, but Americans don't see it that way. They're saying, hey, you know, I can't trade up to get a similar job at better wages than the one I have now. And when I have an affordability problem, I need to see those wages going up.

And for many people, wage adjusted inflation is somewhere between one half and 1 percent right now is just not cutting it.

SOLOMON: Yeah. One description I've seen of the labor market is stagnant, which look, I mean, if you're in the market for a job, its not how you want the labor market to be described at all.

Joe Brusuelas, we appreciate the time this morning. Thank you.

BRUSUELAS: Thank you.

SOLOMON: Well, after years of tensions, Britain's prime minister wants to hit the reset button on relations with China. Keir Starmer arriving in Beijing not long ago, he will be meeting with Chinas president and premier. Over the next few days, executives from more than 50 major corporations are with him. Starmer is looking to deepen ties with the world's second most powerful economy. He's the latest in a string of western leaders looking east as the U.S. creates turmoil in the global economy.

While the death toll from this weekend's U.S. winter storm has risen to at least 30 as states continue to recover damage from ICE and bitter cold has been most significant in the southern U.S., and a stretch from Texas towards Tennessee. The storm has led to massive power outages and hundreds of thousands of customers are still without power right now.

Our Derek Van Dam has the latest forecast for the days ahead.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Grab your parkas, your heaviest winter coats, your hats, your scarves, your gloves, everything you have to combat the cold because the next few days are going to be downright chilly, if not dangerously cold for some locations. Negative 14 in Chicago, negative 15 in Indianapolis, that's the forecast wind chill as you head out the door Wednesday morning. Not a big change into Thursday morning as we lock in the cold air. Single digits from Boston to New York, as well as D.C.

[05:15:00]

Yeah, that is just downright cold. And we have another reinforcing shot of cold air. Check out this wrecking ball of arctic air that will move through the southeast. It's all thanks to a dip in the jet stream that's going to usher in the cold air as far south as the state of Florida. This is a very interesting map. All of these individual dots, they represent locations with potential record low temperatures through the weekend and into early parts of next week.

Notice how many of them are across Florida? Let's take Orlando, for instance. You should be about 72 degrees this time of year will only muster out 46 for Sunday, but that's after bottoming out below freezing, well below freezing 26 degrees.

Think about that. There are major ramifications for the citrus industry in Florida. If we actually realize those types of temperatures. And by all means, this is certainly on the table.

Miami overnight lows of 36, with only a daytime high of 53 on Sunday. Are you kidding me? This is downright frigid for the state of Florida, and I mentioned the potential of a powerful storm. This is the European model, so it's all dependent on which model we are kind of leaning into. One of which, the European showing a snowstorm for the coastal

Carolinas. But far enough away from the coastline that most of the I- 95 corridor only sees wind, potentially Martha's Vineyard into Boston seeing some snowfall.

But look at the American model. Quite a different setup here. Look how it evolves. Kind of spins up across the Southeast Coast, but hugs the coastline a little bit more than the European model. So that means the I-95 corridor in play from D.C. to New York, as well as Boston. One thing is for sure, the number one rule here is the cold air is in place. So that means the snowflakes will fall from the sky.

Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOLOMON: Derek, thank you.

And still ahead, more fallout over the deadly shooting of Alex Pretti as some Republican lawmakers call out the Trump administration. Coming up, the growing support for an impartial investigation into the incident.

Plus, exclusive CNN reporting reveals the Trump administrations plan for Venezuela and the role that the CIA will play.

Stay with us. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:21:32]

SOLOMON: New video into CNN shows federal agents arresting immigrants in the Minneapolis area as part of the ongoing operation in the state. The agents are seen smashing the window of a car and arresting two men near the Columbia Heights neighborhood on Tuesday. A woman passenger is then seen crying, carrying a small child and pleading in Spanish with the agents. A warning that the video you are about to see may be hard to watch for some viewers.

(VIDEO CLIP PLAYS)

SOLOMON: The crying woman leaves the vehicle and tries to get in another vehicle with the detained men. An agent tells her to go home with the child, and then moments later, you see here, one of the detained men is seen escaping from the vehicle and running away, still with his hands restrained behind his back. He sprints across the street before federal agents chase him down and detain him. It's unclear what happened in the moments leading up to the video.

CNN has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security for comment.

And a growing number of Republicans are calling for a full and impartial investigation into Alex Pretti's shooting. And some senators, including Lisa Murkowski and Thom Tillis, are voicing sharp criticism against DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and Trump aide Stephen Miller over their handling of the fallout.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. LISA MURKOWSKI (R-AK): I said that I've lost confidence in her.

REPORTER: Do you think that President Trump should remove her from the position? Do you think she should resign?

MURKOWSKI: Obviously, up to the president. But I think we would be -- we would be better served with new leadership at the department.

SEN. THOM TILLIS (R-NC): If I were in her position, I can't think of any point in pride over the last year. She's got to make her own decision to the president does. But she is taking this administration into the ground on an issue that we should own. We should own the issue of border security and immigration. But they have destroyed that for Republicans, something that got the president elected. They have destroyed it through their incompetence.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLOMON: U.S. Secretary of State Marco rubio will testify today before a Senate committee on the U.S. policy towards Venezuela. The hearing comes on the heels of our exclusive report, CNN. And sources tell CNN that the CIA is working to establish a permanent U.S. presence in Venezuela. They say that the State Department will plant the flag, but the intelligence agency is really the influence.

CIA Director John Ratcliffe was the first senior U.S. official to visit Venezuela after the capture of former President Nicolas Maduro and the White House's short term plans include setting the stage for diplomatic efforts in providing security. U.S. officials may also operate out of a CIA annex before an official embassy opens. The agency is looking to quietly wield U.S. influence and assess the performance of the new leadership.

While homes dismantled and an entire community erased still ahead, we'll look at the plight of Palestinian Bedouins in the West Bank. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:29:10]

SOLOMON: Ukraine's president is condemning a Russian strike on a passenger train that killed five people in the northeastern Kharkiv region, Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram, quote, in any country, a strike on a civilian train would be considered exactly the same way, purely as terrorism. The attack happened just hours after Russia launched more than 50 drones on the southern city of Odessa, killing three people and injuring at least 25 others. Zelenskyy says that Russia's attacks are undermining recent peace talks, which are set to continue next week in Abu Dhabi.

For the first time since the October 7th terror attacks, the hostage square clock no longer ticking. For more than two years, the digital stopwatch in Tel Aviv counted every minute, hour and day since 251 Israelis were abducted by Hamas. But after the remains of the last hostage were returned on Monday, Israel turned off the clock, symbolizing the end of this very dark chapter in the country's history. Hundreds gathered to count down as the clock finally.