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Greenland Ramps Up Military Presence On Island Amid Tensions; Now: Vance, Rubio Meet With Top Officials From Denmark, Greenland; Trump Tells Iran Protesters "Help Is On Its Way, But Won't Elaborate"; Dems Look For Ways To Push Back Against Trump, ICE. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired January 14, 2026 - 12:00   ET

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

[12:00:00]

DANA BASH, CNN HOST, INSIDE POLITICS: Flex in America's global muscle. A crucial White House meeting is happening right now about Greenland.

I'm Dana Bash. Let's go behind the headlines at Inside Politics.

At the White House, as we speak, Vice President J.D. Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are meeting with the foreign ministers of Greenland and Denmark. The two foreign leaders came with a message. Greenland does not belong to you. It is not what President Trump wants to hear. Just this morning, he reiterated that he will not accept anything less than full control of the Arctic Island.

Greenland governs itself, but it is part of the Kingdom of Denmark, and the Danes are increasing their military presence in and around Greenland. Plus, they say some European allies would be sending some of their own forces as well. And just a few moments ago, the Swedish prime minister announced, he's sending his own troops there at Denmark's request.

I'm joined by a terrific group of reporters here and let's get right to it. As Steven Collinson, you've written about this and a lot of different things, and sort of helped us put it in context. Before you jump in, I just want to read specifically what the Greenland government said about this -- what's going on militarily.

The geopolitical tensions have spread to the Arctic. In the period ahead, this will result in an increased military presence in and around Greenland, comprising aircraft, vessels, soldiers, including from NATO allies.

STEPHEN COLLINSON, CNN POLITICS SENIOR REPORTER: This is obviously really bizarre to start with. You're talking about Denmark, a nation that was on the U.S. side in the forever wars that lost a lot of soldiers per capita in Iraq and Afghanistan, sending forces to Greenland to protect itself against a NATO member. And that NATO member is most important, NATO member the United States. So just to start with, this is extraordinary.

This meeting today in the White House can probably go one of two ways. Either the administration moves away from the president's rhetoric and tries to seek a solution to this whereby it can reinforce NATO, reinforce Greenland, which it can do under NATO. There's nothing wrong with that. Perhaps come to some agreement commercially, which Denmark and Greenland have both said.

But if the position is, we want Greenland, we want to own it, and that's it from the White House, then this is going to be a pretty short conversation. And we're on a track, I think, to a real crisis in the transatlantic relationship.

JAMIE GANGEL, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT: Beyond a crisis. If that's where this is heading, then, very simply, as national security sources have told me, NATO is dead, and Putin is saying, mission accomplished. You know, as we say about President Trump a lot, people are stunned but not surprised. But the fact that, you know, we were laughing a little bit earlier, I am now following the Swedish prime minister on Twitter, and this -- we expect other NATO allies to be asked to send troops in.

BASH: This is what President Trump said regarding NATO, his argument this morning, he posted this. It is vital for the golden dome that we are building. This is specifically about Greenland. And then about NATO, he says, NATO becomes far more formidable and effective with Greenland in the hands of the United States. Anything less is unacceptable. That is 6:39 am.

ZOLAN KANNO-YOUNGS, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, THE NEW YORK TIMES & CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, he has recently said that this is a national security imperative for the United States. You know, there's some other reasons that got left out of that statement as well from this morning, right? I mean, in the Oval Office interview we had with him, he talked about a almost psychological, he used that word, need to have ownership over Greenland.

He, at one point, was walking around and pointed out a portrait of James Pope as well and talked about U.S. expansion into California. Expansionism is on his mind as well. And by the way, another thing that wasn't in that Truth Social post. I remember last year when Mike Waltz, then incoming national security adviser, emphasized the critical minerals in Greenland as well, right?

Now, you don't hear that. You haven't -- you don't see that explicitly mentioned in that statement. It's more broadly national security, but also natural resources are part of the motivation for the administration here.

BASH: And just a little bit more of the table setting going into this meeting, which, by the way, I should add, was supposed to be at the State Department. And then J. D. Vance, the vice president, said, I want to be part of this. And then they moved it to the White House. Here's the prime minister of Greenland and President Trump back-to- back.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JENS-FREDERIK NIELSEN, GREENLAND PRIME MINISTER: Greenland will not be a part of the U.S.A. We choose the Greenland we know today, which is part of the Kingdom of Denmark.

[12:05:00]

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: That's their problem. That's their problem. I disagree with him. I don't know who he is. Don't know anything about him, but that's going to be a big problem for him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: I don't know who he is. He's talking about the leader of the --

EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: The leader of Greenland.

BASH: Greenland.

DOVERE: Yeah, I think to Zolan's point, it's not hard to see why Donald Trump thinks it's in his interest too, for this conflict to happen with Greenland. What he has not really explained is why it's in the United States interest to do that. And the rare earth minerals, that is something that people talk about with Greenland, much of that is under sheets of ICE that would take at least a lot more global warming to make easily accessible.

When it comes to the security questions, most people would look at missile capacity and think, OK, so if we had some force in Greenland, it doesn't really change the defensive situation for the United States. What else is it? Maybe, if China or Russia is about to invade, then that's an argument.

BASH: Well, he said in this post, it was about the golden dome --

(CROSSTALK)

DOVERE: Right. But the golden dome, first of all, we don't know much about at all. And second of all, it's not clear what having Greenland there. I mean, maybe there would be some sort of, like missile interceptor that would be stationed in Greenland, but that doesn't really change things that much.

BASH: I want to turn to another really big geopolitical story and that is Iran. A violent state sponsored crackdown is attempting to stop massive anti regime protests on the streets of Tehran, at least 2400 protesters. 2400 protesters reportedly have died, and the State Department is warning that Iran may be planning to execute a prominent protestor today. This is really, really scary time, Steven?

COLLINSON: Yeah. The president has repeatedly set red lines to himself for action, including on this protester, saying that he would act if he was --

BASH: Let's play some of that actually.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: If they start killing people like they have in the past, I think they're going to get hit very hard by the United States. And again, I tell the Iranian leaders, you better not start shooting, because we'll start shooting too. So, Iran said that the last time they better behave. We will take very strong action if they do such a thing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Sorry to interrupt you, but I wanted to play that because you were referencing it, and I should note that you've written this morning a great piece on the questions that the president must ask before striking Iran.

COLLINSON: Yeah. So, he's set red lines to himself that if he doesn't act, his capacity to Tehran will be in question, although I think he does have some flexibility here because he did what he did in Venezuela. He bombed the Iranian nuclear program last year. But even so, his credibility is on the line. Then there's a question of, did these statements embolden the protesters in Iran, and does he therefore owe some kind of moral obligation to act?

But the question is, what will the U.S. do? Will it actually help the protesters? Could it intensify the crackdown? Is this a unique moment in the 55-year-old, whatever 45-year-old regime here that it's so vulnerable that it's weaken from the outside, that there's a succession issue with the Ayatollah. Is that the moment when the U.S. could actually strike and it has an opening to change things positively in Iran.

But we know, you know, what looks a good idea in Washington and logical, the lesson of the last, however, many years in the Middle East is that doesn't always, you know, play out the way we think it's going to.

BASH: Yeah. That is for sure. He used the word moral. That's a word that the president offered to you and your colleagues in talking about his foreign policy. It was an interesting choice, and it does make you think, I mean, look, God forbid, somebody who was doing what you're supposed to be allowed to do in the United States or other democracies, protest is executed 28-year-old, which is -- excuse me, 26-year-old, which is what the State Department is warning.

If that happens, or something akin to that. It's hard to imagine that this tinder box moment will not grow even more and put the pressure on the president to decide whether or not his threats really mean anything.

KANNO-YOUNGS: Particularly at time when he's emboldened and he feels that nothing can hold him back on the world stage. You mentioned the wording of moral and morality, right, that when we asked the president in the Oval Office, what's stopping you at this point. What restrains your power on the global stage?

He offered himself. He said, really, there's nothing but my own morality at this point. And we followed up and asked about international law, and he brushed that aside. Said, yeah, I have to abide by it but depends what you mean by international law. He has amassed feels that he has amassed so much power, and particularly after the military operation in Venezuela, I think you can see a through line between that and the aggressive statements he's made on Greenland, as well as the threats he's making in terms of Iran, which is well.

[12:10:00]

BASH: And goes without saying what is happening in Iran right now after 50 years, is pretty extraordinary. Has things like this have popped up before, but we'll see how it goes. All right. We're going to sneak in a quick break. Coming up, next we are going to release new CNN polling about the ICE shooting in Minneapolis. Americans are following the story very closely, and the results are not good for the president.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:15:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BASH: A week after Renee Good was killed by an ICE agent in Minnesota, we have a new CNN poll to show you. 56 percent of Americans say that use of force in the shooting was inappropriate, and 51 percent say that ICE is making American cities less safe. Why do so many feel that way? Well, here's just one example of what Americans are watching on their phones.

(VIDEO PLAYING)

BASH: And there are many, many more.

(VIDEO PLAYING)

BASH: My panel is back. Jamie?

GANGEL: Let's just call it what it is. This is violent. This is chaos. This is escalation. These are not the best practices of law enforcement. The ICE agents are clearly emboldened. We have seen them going out since the shooting, telling people, did you see what we did the other day? There is a lot of danger here beyond that, and that, it's sending a message that these tactics are acceptable. It is normalizing the violence.

I have spoken to very senior law enforcement people, people who were in charge of big programs at DHS, and they said to me, this normalizes deadly tactics. There is a lack of proper training, lack of discipline, no accountability, quote. When you say this administration has your back when you're grossly irresponsible, this is a problem for law enforcement everyplace.

BASH: Let's listen to what Joe Rogan said about this, because this was one of those moments, I believe, just in the political world that people stopped and said, oh, OK, maybe this is the way people, even in President Trump's own party, or at least his supporters are perceiving this. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE ROGAN, HOST, " THE JOE ROGAN EXPERIENCE": It's also very ugly to watch someone shoot a U.S. citizen, especially a woman in the face. I could also see the point of view of the people that say, yeah, but you don't want militarized people in the streets just roaming around, snatching people up, many of which turn out to actually be U.S. citizens that just don't have their papers on them. Are we really going to be the Gestapo? Where's your papers. Is that what we've come to?

BASH: I heard from a elected official in Minnesota after this came out, saying, oh, maybe we're breaking through with the arguments that we're making, or perhaps it's the videos.

DOVERE: I think these videos are impossible to escape and possible not to look at. That said, the first video you played of the woman who was pulled out of her car yesterday. There's a cover on the front page in the York Times today. There is a photo of that same incident. It's a little bit later from that, and when she was put up against the car and being handcuffed.

And I admittedly when I first saw that photo this morning, just looking at it from its side, I thought it was a picture out of Iran. That's where we are in this. And there are questions of training. There's a question of what due process is happening.

I'm not an expert in police conduct, but that any kind of violent response like that, you would think that then would lead to arrests, but not there -- these people are not really being arrested. They're being attacked and then sent off, sometimes with major injuries. This is clearly resonating for a lot of people around America, like, this is not what we've ever seen before.

[12:20:00]

BASH: And what you're hearing from your sources at the White House about, I mean, I am assuming that they see data like the one we just put up this morning. They definitely heard Joe Rogan.

KANNO-YOUNGS: Thus far, complete defiance of this criticism. I mean, I asked the president about these, these tactics last week and cited the shooting of an American citizen. But not just the shooting, but also Americans who had been wrongfully detained by ICE as well. The message from them is still, this is the president's, you know, one of his primary issues. And there's a reactionary sort of defense, not just to the agents, but to anything that touches on this issue that he feels helped to bring him back to the White House.

I do think there's a question there, though, of especially when you hear Rogan and other critics as well about whether or not, even the president's supporters and Americans are still processing this as an immigration issue. Those videos don't seem -- they're not the border. They're not just people being deported. This operation is now going after refugees that have been legally vetted and are in the U.S., as well as numerous wrongful detentions and arrests of America. BASH: Yeah. I'm glad you brought that up. First of all, another part of the poll said, 82 percent of people said that they had seen video just of the killing of Renee Good. Immigration should be for this president off the charts. He should be incredibly popular on this issue, which he ran on big time because of the border.

But look at his numbers in this new poll. How is Trump handling immigration? Only 42 percent say they approve. 58 percent say they disapprove. And I -- it seems to me that it's because when people are thinking now about immigration, they're not thinking about what he did at the border, which, again, he should be able to claim total credit for. They're thinking about these videos and this incident last week.

COLLINSON: Yeah. And if he's under water, immigration and on the economy, which is the other big issue, Republicans have got a big problem in November. There's one thing I'm struggling to put together in all this. It's that the administration, in some sense, wants these pictures. It wants it has sent these ICE officers into Minnesota. It venerates the idea of toughness and crackdowns and eradicating a lot of progressive policies in a very progressive state.

At the same time, it seems completely antithetical to their wider political interests, and perhaps the hope of hanging on to the House in November. So, at some point does that come a clash in the first term? Remember, it was the picture of the children in cages that turned the immigration issue into one that we don't like the present enforcement on this. Is this over -- over the next few days, going to happen because of these pictures? I don't think we know yet.

BASH: Yeah, that's fascinating. All right, we're going to keep looking at that. We're going to have a lot more to discuss on this issue. Coming up. The Minneapolis' Mayor Jacob Frey took his stand and took it to Fox News this morning. We'll show you that after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:25:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BASH: Democrats in Congress, in state houses and cities across the country are looking for ways to push back against the Trump administration's ICE actions. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey made his case on Fox this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR JACOB FREY (D) MINNESOTA: If this were about murder or rape or crime or fraud. Then look, we have worked together, not just with the Biden administration, with the past Trump administration, with the Bush administration. We have worked with a number of different administrations to successfully drive down crime.

President Trump, about that, I want our limited numbers of police officers focusing on keeping people safe, arresting perpetrators of violent crime, stopping car thefts from taking place. That's what I want them focusing on. You know what I don't want them focusing on, hunting down a dad that just dropped his kids off at day care is about to go work a 12-hour-shift, who happens to be from Ecuador.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: And my panel is back now. Isaac, it wasn't that long ago that we would go on the campaign trail with incumbent Democrats trying to keep their seats, particularly in the Senate. I'm thinking of a few specific examples and immigration, the issues around immigration that were crushing the Democrats campaign.

So, the question is whether or not this is a different moment for Democrats, meaning, can they actually use it to their advantage, or are they going to follow Republicans down a rabbit hole that could ultimately hurt them?

DOVERE: I think some of this is -- let's see what level of chaos we get to between the protesters and the ICE and the Border Patrol agents. But I'm not sure this is so much an issue of whether the Democrats can capitalize on it or not, and more of, how do the Republicans handle it?

How do they continue to talk about what's going on here and bring people to a place that it doesn't seem like a lot of them are based on the polling numbers you were just showing, where they see the actions that are going on here as productive, desirable and making the difference that they wanted on immigration. That is not something that clearly people feel right now.