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Protesters Arrested Outside Minneapolis Federal Building; Democrats Struggle To Coalesce Around ICE Response; CA Progressive Union Pushes For One-Time Billionaire Wealth Tax; Four Democratic Candidates For Governor Oppose Wealth Tax; Actress Edwina Findley On Living A Faith-Filled Life. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired January 16, 2026 - 12:30   ET

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

[12:30:00]

JULIA VARGAS JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: OK, here we go. This is -- OK, get on the sidewalk. Get on the sidewalk. We are on the sidewalk. This is how pepper spray and sun grenades have been used, Dana, to just keep this one street clear of protesters.

I literally have my badge out, my CNN badge out here.

DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR: Good.

VARGAS JONES: Because it seems like there's also -- they are trying to understand who is who. We understand that they are, you know, trying to make sure that officers have access to this facility. But --

BASH: Can you describe what this facility is for those just tuning in?

VARGAS JONES: Yes, this is a federal building really close to the Minneapolis airport that has been used as a staging facility for ICE agents and DHS CBP police. So this is why there's high traffic, high traffic of agents coming and going from here. What we've seen is every single car, every SUV, unmarked SUV, minivan, you know, Jeep that comes in is heckled by protesters.

And we have to say this, Dana, at times, there's been a very clear provocation from protesters. Yesterday, we saw one of them throwing a water bottle hurled at the line of officers. That's when we saw pepper spray come out.

Now, I can't quite see exactly what's happening here but it seem to have calmed down --

BASH: It's not happening right now, correct?

VARGAS JONES: -- and just been pushing people.

BASH: Correct. No pepper spray.

VARGAS JONES: It's not happening right now. I think --

BASH: Good.

VARGAS JONES: There was pepper spray for sure.

BASH: Yes.

VARGAS JONES: There was something, a sun grenade or something. I can smell it in the air, but fortunately this time we were not hit. I'm just want to be careful here where we're standing, but I think we're in a good place, Dana.

BASH: OK. It looks like it's calming down. That is a good thing. Please keep us posted. Raise your hand if something else happens there, Julia. Thank you for your reporting.

Now I want to turn to Rahm Emanuel, who is, among other things, former mayor of Chicago. Rahm, I want to ask you about how, first of all, how you respond to what we're seeing, and then more broadly how you think Democrats should, because we're starting to hear some of the chants for abolishing ICE, as we heard several years ago, which I think Democrats ultimately think was not the greatest messaging for the party.

RAHM EMANUEL, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL & GLOBAL AFFAIRS COMMENTATOR: ICE has become a lawless mob rather than a law enforcement under President Trump. And just -- and you look at this situation, Ms. Good, the other day, her last words to the ICE agent was, I'm not mad at you, and then a shot in the face.

So my point is, end ICE as you know it and you see it today. Walking around with masks that cover their face, no names, no top-down management, the idea that you had an agent out on the street after 33 stitches six months ago, no police chief of any city size would ever let an officer back on the street.

There's no management. There's no body cameras. There's no training, clearly in violation of all the training, that officer who shot Ms. Good. And so it's a standing in front of cars, moving -- shooting at a moving car, it's a lawless mob rather than a law enforcement.

And I want two notes. Today we spend $75 billion on ICE. It's double or nearly double what we spend for Pell College grants in America. So my point is, it's not about ending ICE, it's ending ICE as you see it and you know it, getting the right type of things.

Do you need a mask coverage? No. Do you need no name ID? No. Do you need body cameras? Yes. Do you need proper training and oversight? Yes. And none of that is present.

And the president and the Republicans are paying a price for this because nobody wants chaos and disorder that moved from the border to what ICE is doing on American cities, which was never intended for immigration enforcement. It's been intended for a political reaction --

BASH: Yes.

EMANUEL: -- which is what they're trying to do. And now it's backfired on them. BASH: Well, speaking of a political reaction, I want to play an exchange between Governor Gavin Newsom and Ben Shapiro, the conservative podcaster.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BEN SHAPIRO, HOST, THE BEN SHAPIRO SHOW: Your press office tweeted out that it was state-sponsored terrorism, which, I mean, Governor, I have to ask you about that.

GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM (D), CALIFORNIA: Yes.

SHAPIRO: That sort of thing makes our politics worse.

NEWSOM: Yes.

SHAPIRO: And it does.

NEWSOM: Yes.

SHAPIRO: And our ICE officers obviously are not terrorists.

NEWSOM: Yes.

SHAPIRO: A tragic situation is not state-sponsored terrorism.

NEWSOM: Yes, I think that's fair.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: What do you think?

[12:35:02]

EMANUEL: Ronald Reagan was the last president that signed immigration reform. It goes back to the late 80s. The country is much different. You need comprehensive immigration reform that's consistent with both being a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants. That should be our guiding two principles going forward.

And every city that's become a sanctuary city, every president that signed executive orders, is contorting themselves around a system that is fundamentally broken on both legal immigration and confronting -- breaking the law through illegal immigration. Well, we need, like ICE, to be reformed inside comprehensive reform.

And the president is of zero interest in exerting presidential authority to push something the country desperately needs, from its workplace to its border, to the safety that we need, to our legal immigration. And he's not doing what comes with the office, which is leadership.

And so we're all tearing each other apart here in America rather than dealing with the hard work of passing comprehensive reform. You know, I've worked with --

BASH: Yes.

EMANUEL: -- President Obama, was chanted at and protested by being deporter-in-chief. Three million people, criminals mainly, were -- not in focus, was deported because that was type of --

BASH: Yes.

EMANUEL: -- enforcement that had consensus in the country. This on the streets of Minneapolis or Chicago or Los Angeles, there's not only no consensus, there's a counter-reaction, and the Republicans and the president are paying a price for it, correctly, because people don't like chaos and disorder and violence.

BASH: Yes, I mean, the idea of immigration reform, I've been around long enough to have seen President George W. Bush try it and fail, to see your former boss when you were in the White House try it and fail. So, you know, this is a bipartisan historical problem.

I do want to quickly ask you --

EMANUEL: No doubt about it. Yes, go ahead. I'm sorry.

BASH: I want to ask you about foreign policy, specifically about Greenland. I do want you to listen to the president's envoy for Greenland, Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry, and what he said characterizing the president's effort to create what he called a better relationship.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. JEFF LANDRY (R), SPECIAL ENVOY TO GREENLAND: The president is serious about reinforcing the Monroe Doctrine. This is something that should have happened 20 years ago. 20 years ago, we would have been having this discussion. It would have been a bipartisan position.

Nobody would be complaining. They would say that the president is doing a great job to secure our homeland. Now, because it's President Trump, you know, they just want to complain about it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: You were here in Washington 20 years ago. Is that true?

EMANUEL: No. No. Look, here's -- I look at this and -- I'm looking at this, and I now realize why Donald Trump's gone bankrupt in every business. You could get -- why would you pay full price when you could get for free?

Denmark, Greenland saying, whatever you want. More bases up here, military, to confront China and Russia? Great. You want to do more critical minerals? Great. Why would you pay for something when you can get it for free? It makes no sense. It makes no strategic sense.

Second, it's creating division with our allies when we need our allies focused with us on how to actually cripple and weaken the Iranian regime. And the consequences of actions like this, of turning our allies away, is on our front doorstep, Canada is now working with China rather than being a united front with us in confronting China economically.

I tell you, I think President Trump is -- and even Republicans are finally finding the courage to speak up and realize how strategically, financially, and commercially this is the dumbest thing they've ever seen. You can get something for free without having to pay for it.

BASH: Rahm Emanuel, thank you so much for being here. Appreciate it.

EMANUEL: Thank you.

BASH: Up next, billionaires beware. A golden state union wants to tax the rich, the very rich. Well, is that California dreaming, or could a progressive fantasy become a reality? And what would the consequences be? We'll explain after a break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:43:34]

BASH: For years, progressives have been dreaming of a wealth tax on billionaires. Now, a healthcare union in California is working to make that a reality with a one-time wealth tax. Even if it means going up against their own governor, Gavin Newsom, and some billionaires are already making moves to take their billions and leave the golden state.

CNN's own Elex Michaelson has been following this effort and joins me now from L.A. Hey, Alex, thanks for getting up early. Can you break down --

ELEX MICHAELSON, CNN ANCHOR & CORRESPONDENT: Thanks, Dana.

BASH: -- the effort and explain what this wealth tax would actually do?

MICHAELSON: Yes, so it would be a 5 percent tax on the assets of anybody who makes over $1 billion living in California. Remember, California is home to more billionaires than any other state in the union, and they drive a lot of the revenue of this state.

1 percent of Californians make up 50 percent of the revenue. So if you start having billionaires leave the state, that's really problematic because they basically fund everything else. And so there's a health care union, SEIU, United Health Care Workers, that are pushing this.

They're trying to get it on the ballot. They need 900,000 signatures to get it on the ballot. But it is really splitting the Democratic Party, including some very prominent names.

[12:45:01]

BASH: Yes, like the governor, and he is saying that he is going to beat this. He has put the brakes on billionaire wealth taxes before, but those were in the legislature. The question is what would happen or will happen because in -- right now because what this group is trying to do is put it on the ballot and send it directly to voters.

MICHAELSON: Right. Because in California, there's essentially two different ways to make things happen. One is to do it through the legislature, and when that happens, the governor has a tremendous amount of power to negotiate with them, to block it, to potentially veto it. But if you do it just straight to voters, again, you need 900,000 signatures in a state of about 40 million.

You can go around the legislature, go around the governor. There's not much that the governor can do. But the governor still has a lot of power in terms of people listening to him. He's still very powerful.

And it's not just him. Interestingly, Dana, our friends at Politico reached out to the Democratic candidates for governor who would take over potentially next year. Remember, Governor Newsom is turned out. Katie Porter, Antonio Villaraigosa, Xavier Becerra, Ian Calderon, all came out against this thing. And these are folks, like Katie Porter said, look, I like taxing billionaires. That's been part of my plan --

BASH: Yes.

MICHAELSON: -- for many, many years.

BASH: That is interesting.

MICHAELSON: This particular plan doesn't work, and they actually want other tax increases on the ballot they -- that they think are more realistic, and they feel like if this thing's on the ballot, it's going to wipe out everything, and voters are going to vote no on all of it.

BASH: Yes, those ballot measures in California sometimes take on lives of their own, as you know. We've already seen some billionaires, Google founders, Sergey Brin, Larry Page, as well as Peter Thiel, they've taken preliminary steps to leave California. Is that what is likely to actually happen? I mean, you alluded to this with the concern that people have about, yes, they have a lot of money, but because they are still California taxpayers, that helps in California.

MICHAELSON: Well, it's really interesting. So this tax, the way it's drawn up right now, would be effective January 1st of this year, so just a few weeks ago.

BASH: Retroactive.

MICHAELSON: What we saw with the threat of this is that some billionaires started to move their money out late December. There was an exodus late December 2025 just with the mere threat of this thing going into place. It's interesting.

We've got a look at some of the billionaires that are impacted by this. They're familiar names. You mentioned Sergey Brin and Larry Page of Google fame. But, interestingly, Jensen Huang, who is of NVIDIA fame, he said, I'm OK with this. I got the money. I'm OK if you go forward with this. But most of the billionaires have moved very strongly against this. And remember, Governor Newsom is friends with a lot of these people. He was the mayor of San Francisco when a lot of these folks were starting their companies.

BASH: Yes.

MICHAELSON: He has personal relationships with a lot of these people, and they're definitely in his ear telling him, do whatever you need to do to stop this thing.

BASH: Elex, thank you so much. Tune in to see Elex tonight and every weeknight on "The Story Is with Elex Michaelson" at 12:00 a.m. Eastern, 9:00 p.m. on the West Coast.

Don't go anywhere. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:52:49]

BASH: Now to our segment, Have a Little Faith. It's the end of another week clouded by a lot of violence and division, and faith maybe feels elusive. That is why I'm excited to hear from a woman of deep faith. You may recognize her from "The Wire."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Have you seen this little girl?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lady, you're going to have to back up.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My little girl, please. She's only four years old.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I ain't seen your little girl.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She's only four years old, please.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're going to have to back up.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just take a look at her. Please, just look at the picture.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I said --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How do?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Or more recently, as a White House butler, Sheila Cannon in "The Residence."

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is not all about your traditions and protocols. This house is supposed to be alive. I'm just trying to give it a little life. Other than that, what is it? It might as well be a museum. (END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: So good. Now actress Edwina Findley is an author. Her new book is entitled, "The World is Waiting for You: Embrace Your Calling and Manifest the God Dream Over Your Life."

Edwina joins me now. Thank you so much for being here. It's so wonderful having you.

EDWINA FINDLEY, AUTHOR, "THE WORLD IS WAITING FOR YOU": It is.

BASH: And so --

FINDLEY: It's so wonderful to be here, Dana.

BASH: And I love the fact that I'm going to connect it all here. Stay with me. You're from here in D.C. Your grandmother worked in the White House. Then you end up starring --

FINDLEY: Yes.

BASH: -- as a White House usher in a Shonda Rhimes show. And you write in this book about photoshopping a picture of yourself on a Shondaland poster well before getting cast. That is manifesting.

FINDLEY: Yes. Yes, I mean, you know, the subtitle of the book is "The World is Waiting for You: Embrace Your Calling and Manifest the God Dream Over Your Life." And it really, you know, brings into play that God has this incredible dream for all of us that is referenced in our gifts, our talents and abilities. And if we can lean into that and the secret power of hearing God's voice, as I talk about in the book, that all things are possible.

So, for me, literally, out of faith, I created this vision. And I put it out on Instagram as an April Fool's joke, so to speak. But by one year later, it had manifested. And I was on set at Shondaland with Netflix filming "The Residence."

[12:55:01]

BASH: It's so crazy. You -- and you just got nominated for an NAACP award, which congratulations. You are a Christian.

FINDLEY: Thank you. I I'm.

BASH: You're a Christian, but your book is very clearly for people of all faiths trying to manifest their dreams. And you lay out --

FINDLEY: Yes.

BASH: -- principles to make what you call big faith moves. Keep your vision big. Trust firmly in God's promises. Stay open to divine confirmation. Explain what that means in, excuse me, practical terms, especially those who are either questioning this or as Oprah said to you, aren't as dialed in to their spirituality as you are. FINDLEY: Sure. Well, listen, I honestly believe that we all have some measure of faith. Listen, it takes faith to just wake up in the morning and go to your job and believe that after working 40 hours a week that your boss is going to pay you the salary that you were promised.

It takes faith to get into a Waymo that has no one driving it and believe that you're going to get across town, right? Like there's all kinds of measures of faith. And the Bible talks about having a mustard seed. And a mustard seed is this small.

If you have even this much faith, then you can plant that into the seed and you can see what happens into the soil. It can become an incredible harvest. So, you know, in the world is waiting for you. There's a whole section about vision, right? And vision is so connected to faith, right?

There's a wonderful scripture that says without a vision, the people perish, like cease to live. We need vision to live. It's like breathing. So I've been seeing people all over the country creating their vision books, you know, following the principles that I give in the world is waiting for you.

Keep that vision big. That's what's going to propel us into a future that we don't yet see. You know, but also know that the world is waiting for you, right? That -- there's a wonderful quote that I include in the book from Alice Walker that the main way that people give up their power is believing that they don't have any.

So we must believe that we have power and that the world with all that's happening in it is waiting for our light, our light to come and change and transform this world.

BASH: And in 15 seconds, how would you describe to somebody who isn't feeling as positive as you are how to get there?

FINDLEY: Yes. Well, listen, I mean, you know, I kind of start in chapter 1, right, which talks about from Harlem to Hollywood being in circumstances that feel so completely opposed to what you see and what you believe is possible for your life.

I really suggest asking yourself the question. And I write about this in the book. What is the best that can happen, right? We're always bracing for the worst. We're always bracing for the worst.

BASH: Yes.

FINDLEY: But if we can tap into that mustard seed faith and faith and ask ourselves what is the best that can happen and what's the best that can happen by this time next year and then begin to harness both the faith side and the practical side --

BASH: Yes.

FINDLEY: -- to bring that into manifestation, I truly believe that all things are possible. BASH: Edwina, your positivity and your infectious personality just jumps through the screen. Your book is terrific.

Edwina Findley Dickerson, and it is "The World is Waiting for You." It's it's awesome, as are you. Thank you.

FINDLEY: Thank you so much. And people can come on over to theworldiswaiting.org and learn so much more about it. Thank you for having me, Dana.

BASH: Thanks, Edwina.

And thank you for joining Inside Politics. CNN News Central starts after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)