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Trump Speaks to House GOP Lawmakers; Top Trump Aide to CNN: U.S. Has Right to Seize Greenland; House Dems Hold Unofficial Hearing to Mark Five Years Since Jan. 6 Attack. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired January 06, 2026 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:30:00]

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: -- money a couple of weeks ago. Sir, we're off by $39 billion. Oh, is that good or bad? Meaning, do we have it or are we short of it? Sir, it's $39 billion that we can't account for. That means we have an extra $39? Yes, sir. I said, well, what do you think? We just don't know where it came from. I said, check the tariff shelf. Sir, that tariff doesn't start until September. I said, no, no. It started about a month and a half ago. Check it. Comes back 25 minutes later. Sir, you were right. It came from tariffs.

This never happened to us before where we find plus $39 billion, not million, plus $39 billion they were missing. We've taken in $650 billion or shortcoming. And that's because I'm being nice if I want to be. And we have national security because of tariffs. And frankly, we have a big Supreme Court case. I hope they do what's good for our country. I hope they do the right thing. The president has to be able to wheel and deal with tariffs. Now, if you have the right president, it's good. You have the wrong president, you know, it's -- if you have the wrong president, nothing's good. Tariffs are the least of your problems. We found that out for four years. We had the worst president, did the worst job. They had the worst policy. We have to even run against these people.

Now, I won't say cancel the election. They should cancel the election because the fake news will say, he wants the elections canceled. He's a dictator. They always call me a dictator. Nobody's worse than Obama and the people that surrounded Biden, not Biden. I don't think it's Biden. He didn't know what the hell was going on, OK? The election was rigged. He had no idea what happened. He still doesn't. The auto pen.

And by the way, you want to make a big deal out of the auto pen. The auto pen was your president because most of the things were signed by auto pen. And you're not allowed to do that. I signed very little. Now, I just sign everything because it's just so crazy. But you know, like I had the other day, we elevated a general to four stars. I think you should sign that. That's a big deal. A general did a great job.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: All right. We're going to continue to monitor the president of the United States. He's speaking over at the Kennedy Center, which has been renamed the Trump Kennedy Center, according to the board of trustees over there in request from the president of the United States. We're going to continue to monitor this. He's going all over the place, speaking on a wide range of issues. We'll take a quick break. Much more right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:35:00]

BLITZER: We're continuing to monitor President Trump's remarks to Republicans over at the Kennedy Center here in Washington. We'll go back there once he gets to some substantive issues. But for the most part, Jeff Zeleny, and you're our chief national affairs correspondent, he's been going back and forth, really criticizing the Democrats, praising the Republicans. The Democrats, he said, are violent, vicious people. You get the point of what he's trying to do here.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: We get the point. I mean, the bottom line, what he's trying to do is keep Republicans in control of the House majority. That's why he is at the Kennedy Center. And this is the beginning of a very critical year for President Trump, because if Republicans lose their House majority, he knows how the final two years of his term will be. Democrats will be in charge, investigations, oversight.

And there is a significant development in that majority that the president addressed early on in his speech, praising the life and noting the passing of a member of Congress, Republican from California, Doug LaMalfa, who died suddenly at age 65. This was not expected. Of course, we send our thoughts to his family and friends. But what it means politically speaking as well is now Speaker Johnson can only lose two seats. The majority is so small. Of course, Marjorie Taylor Greene resigned last evening.

There'll be a special election in New Jersey coming up to fill a seat for Miki Sherrill. If Democrats win that seat, the majority will be down to one. So, literally, the majority of this House of Representatives is hanging in the balance. But President Trump is there, clearly trying to sort of keep spirits high for House Republicans as they try to keep their majority.

But he did talk about Venezuela. Of course, that is the most important thing. He mentioned this about the readiness for the attack.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: People are saying it goes down with one of the most incredible -- it was so complex. 152 airplanes. Many, many talk about boots in the crowd. We had a lot of boots on the ground. But it was amazing. And think of it. Nobody was killed. And on the other side, a lot of people were killed. Unfortunately, I say that soldiers, Cubans, mostly Cubans, but many, many killed. And they were -- they knew we were coming and they were protected. And our guys were, you know, our guys are jumping out of helicopters and, you know, protected. And they were -- but it was so brilliant.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: Now, President Trump, they're talking about the operational detail, and it truly was an extraordinary operation. He described it on Saturday as watching a television show as he was watching this from Mar-a-Lago. But what I'm struck by, here we are several days on. He still has yet to give a rationale to the country, to American citizens, what the rationale for this attack was. He's talking about the specifics of the operation, which was indeed.

It's impressive that a lot of House Republicans in that room wonder what he really thinks about the U.S. is going to run Venezuela. So, if they're able to ask some questions behind closed doors there, we'll see if that comes up. But he is still talking a lot about Venezuela, but not specifically about really making the case for why this was necessary.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Right. And that's notable, too. That was the first thing he said about Venezuela. He's there in front of House Republicans talking about the midterms and midterms and messaging. And there's a big question about what that messaging should be, because MAGA and, you know, the messaging has always been about America first and getting out of foreign entanglements. And now, you have this Venezuela situation.

[10:40:00]

So, House Republicans, no doubt, are looking to hear more from the Republicans there in that room. And I want to bring back our panel to extend on that discussion. Retired General Wesley Clark, we just heard from the president, as Jeff pointed out, on Venezuela. And the first thing he mentioned was the extraordinary military operation, which is no doubt extraordinary. But no specifics yet on him running the country, as he has said. What did you make of that?

GEN. WESLEY CLARK (RET.), FORMER NATO SUPREME ALLIED COMMANDER AND FOUNDER, RENEW AMERICA TOGETHER: Well, first of all, of course, it was an extraordinary military operation. It's probably the most complex operation like this that's ever been done by the U.S. Armed Forces. And it came off. And so, huge credit to the men and women.

And let's be clear, this wasn't just about planning, this is the culmination of decades of experience of working counterterrorism, picking up indicted war criminals, the work in the Balkans, Bosnia, also in Iraq and Afghanistan. Now, what comes next has always been the question.

But here's what's very interesting. You know, we're seeing from Ms. Machado and people saying, let's get democratic elections in there. But the lesson from Iraq was, you've got to have a stable power structure. We've looked at that Iraq invasion where we got rid of all of the people who were in the Ba'ath party, not only Saddam Hussein, but the Ba'athists, and said, let's get rid of them. The Armed Forces was dismissed, et cetera. And we ended up with a mess in Iraq.

So, I think when you look at the situation in Venezuela, that Secretary of State Marco Rubio is on solid ground saying, we're going to work with Mrs. Rodriguez, at least for a while, and then it has to move beyond that. But I think it's the only practicable way to go. There's just no way to go in there and suddenly rip the society apart. So, this is going to be a continuing struggle.

The government, we say we've got leverage over Venezuela now. It's true, there's some leverage. But think of this as a national security issue, not an oil issue. We've got China, Russia, and Iran deeply embedded in Venezuela. We need Ms. Rodriguez to get them out of there. And that includes Rosneft and oil, and also a lot of Chinese investments. Think of this as the first island chain for the United States.

And so, I know all the discussion has been about oil and so forth. There's been a lot of rhetoric about it. But in terms of a national security movement, I think all of the specialists of national security, all of the strategists would look at this and say, this is a very important move. Let's don't blow it. Take it step by step. And I think that's what's happening.

BLITZER: And, General Clark, it's Wolf here in Washington. You're the former NATO Supreme Allied Commander. You know all about the NATO rules. The Trump administration now says, and this is amazing, that it is a right to seize Greenland, which is, of course, a semi-autonomous part of Denmark, a Danish territory. I want you to listen to what President Trump's Deputy Chief of Staff said to CNN yesterday. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHEN MILLER, WHITE HOUSE DEPUTY OF STAFF: The real question is, by what right does Denmark assert control over Greenland? What is the basis of their territorial claim? What is their basis of having Greenland as a colony of Denmark? The United States is the power of NATO. For the United States to secure the Arctic region, to protect and defend NATO and NATO interests, obviously, Greenland should be part of the United States. Nobody's going to fight the United States militarily over the future of Greenland.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: So, what's your reaction to that, General Clark? That was Stephen Miller, the Deputy White House Chief of Staff.

CLARK: Well, I hope that we'll go to the Danes and say we're worried about these Chinese and Russian ships. Let's work together. Let's put some additional defense resources up there. Maybe shift some of the flotilla that's down in the Caribbean. Maybe we can move some of that around Greenland. And certainly, the Danes would support this. They'd be very happy to work with us on this.

So, I think if it's really about national security, we don't have to worry about invading and seizing Greenland. It's there for us right now with agreements, right now. If we're worried about critical resources, like critical minerals, then we can make the appropriate arrangements and invest. This has been talked about a lot in the previous Trump administration, but we never followed through. And this is certainly an opportunity to do this.

BLITZER: So, let me just follow up very quickly, General Clark. If the U.S. were to invade Greenland and take charge of Greenland from Denmark, would that be a violation of the NATO Charter?

[10:45:00]

CLARK: I think it would certainly, you know, raise a lot of questions. People would certainly be asking that. And certainly, Denmark has said it would be. And so, why do this? Wolf, there's a long historical record of strong powers getting carried away, stepping on their allies and destroying their leadership. And I hope we don't fall into that historical pattern.

BROWN: I want to bring back Ana Navarro, just to talk about sort of the domestic politics here, as we watch President Trump speaking there at the Kennedy Center to House Republicans. And I'm wondering what your take is, Ana, at a moment here in this country when Americans are struggling to pay for groceries, to pay for electricity, how, you know, they view what's going on, the administration's focus on Venezuela, on Greenland now, and just the Western hemisphere overall.

ANA NAVARRO, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, listen, what we heard in that speech was a lot of incoherent babbling without a real central topic, right? At first, he began by doing almost like a Santa's list of who's been naughty and who's been nice and checking off the names of the people that he thought had been that.

On Venezuela, he said something that I thought was very interesting and that had been reported on. He talked about seeing video of Maduro mocking him and dance videos of Maduro. And I think a lot of this operation in Venezuela has been not only about oil, not only about geopolitics, not only about national security, not only about the Republican base, particularly here in South Florida and policing them, but also about Trump's ego and the fact that he is the big guy on the block when it comes to the Western hemisphere. And I think those videos by Maduro were the last drop. Seeing Maduro goading him, this, you know, third world dictator goading him like this, I think was the last drop to get him to authorize this operation.

You talked about domestic politics. And look, we have seen Trump do things to please small parts of his base. Over the holidays, he bombed some remote area of Nigeria because the Christian base of the Republican Party wanted that. People like Ted Cruz wanted that. Taking -- ousting Maduro, that's something that here in South Florida amongst communities that gave him incredible support, the Cuban-American community, the Nicaraguan-American community, the Venezuelan community was something that's very important.

But I go back to telling you, I'm just so confused by the mixed messages. Because on the one hand, they're trying to convince us that this was about drugs and this was a law enforcement operation. But on the other hand, they were offering Maduro safe passage to a third country, to go live in exile.

On the other hand, he just pardoned the former president of Honduras, who was a much bigger player in bringing drugs into the United States and pardoned him for precisely the same thing that we just had a military operation to go get Maduro. We see aspects of regime change, but they have left the Venezuelan regime intact. Venezuelan experts will tell you that the people who are running Venezuela are really bad people. Diosdado Cabello, really bad people, the minister of justice.

And things in Venezuela, all over the world, Venezuelans and allies of theirs are celebrating the ouster of Maduro in a vacuum. But in Venezuela, there is fear and there is quiet and the political prisoners are still in jail. And the same bad people who were running that government before the ouster of Maduro are still running that government after the ouster of Maduro. So, this is very confusing, very disturbing. And he's made absolutely no sense to me with this speech today. Nothing is more clear after this speech than it was before.

BROWN: Yes, and he is still speaking right now. So, we'll have to wait and see if he does provide any more details on what that looks like, the U.S. being in charge of Venezuela, though you heard the secretary of state sort of pull back on that and said it's only in charge of policy.

And part of that policy, Clayton Seigle, a veteran energy analyst, is about oil, right? President Trump says the U.S. oil industry will be fully operational in Venezuela by the middle of next year. Clayton, do you believe that's a realistic timeframe? And what is the industry's enthusiasm of expanding there at this, you know, tenuous time?

CLAYTON SEIGLE, SENIOR FELLOW, ENERGY SECURITY AND CLIMATE CHANGE PROGRAM, CSIS: Well, it's probably too early to say, but there are reasons for skepticism about that early timetable.

[10:50:00]

You know, Ana was just talking about lists. I would expect that energy companies have a pretty long list when they consider whether to make big investments, big commitments in host countries. And that ranges everything from, is there going to be adequate infrastructure? Is the electrical grid solid enough to support oil operations? And then from the legal side, is there a solid legal framework in place, favorable fiscal terms that includes things like taxes and royalties, how to split profits between the companies and the host government?

But the number one thing on all of these energy companies' lists, I surmise, is a credible roadmap for political stability, durable political stability over decades. And I think that we still have more questions than answers regarding the outlook for political stability in Venezuela after the events that we've seen this weekend.

It's possible that companies could get involved in the short-term, but in terms of big commitments that would really ramp Venezuelan output higher, back to what we saw in earlier decades, three and a half million barrels a day, that's going to be a long lead time and a whole lot of money.

BLITZER: All right. Clayton, we're going to continue to monitor the president of the United States. He's continuing to speak on a wide range of issues, including Venezuela. We'll get back to that. We have a lot more coming up.

We're also watching a very disturbing development that's unfolding right now. We're now told that Venezuelan security forces have detained 14 journalists, journalists in the capital on Monday, including reporters who were covering the swearing-in ceremony of the country's National Assembly. Thirteen foreign journalists, one Venezuelan journalist were detained on Monday in Caracas. We'll stay on top of that. This is very, very disturbing. We've got our panel here. Much more coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Well, it was five years ago today that the world watched in shock as a crowd of Trump supporters launched an insurrection on the U.S. Capitol.

BLITZER: And right now, members of the former January 6th Select Committee are gathering here in Washington for an unofficial hearing to re-examine their findings. The House panel concluded President Trump incited the violence on that terrible, awful day with his repeated lies that the 2020 presidential election had been stolen from him, creating a political schism that's only grown deeper and deeper.

Democratic Congressman Benny Thompson, one of the leaders of today's hearing, spoke just moments ago about the need to remember what happened at the U.S. Capitol that day.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. BENNIE THOMPSON (D-MS): The rule of law and our oaths continue to matter, especially as we see Donald Trump pardon those who were charged or convicted in the January 6th attack, engage the military abroad while passing Congress, tear down the White House, shut a whole government agency, order mass goons to round up the military abroad while passing Congress, tears down the White House, shut a whole government agency, order mass goons to round up and deport U.S. citizens, and unlawfully put his name on a memorial to a better man.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[10:55:00]

BLITZER: And joining us now to discuss this historic moment, Temidayo Aganga-Williams. He served as a senior investigative counsel to the January 6th Committee. Thanks so much for joining us. Why hold yet another informal hearing on this attack on this historic day as the Democrats are doing? What do you think the value of that is?

TEMIDAYO AGANGA-WILLIAMS, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR AND FORMER SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE COUNSEL, JANUARY 6 COMMITTEE: Wolf, I think the value is keeping this history alive. We've seen a concerted effort to forget what happened that day, a day that offices were attacked, that people died, that the Constitution was fully assaulted by the sitting president of the United States.

And having these hearings reminds people about the record that should not be forgotten, that President Trump not only incited the riot that day, but that he led effectively a political attack against all the branches of government months ahead of the attack. And if we forget that, we'll see what we have now, which is the presidency that is unhinged from the rule of law.

BROWN: I'm curious, are you surprised by how divisive of an issue the January 6th attacks have become?

AGANGA-WILLIAMS: Unfortunately, I'm not surprised. I think we got there because we had an executive that was concerned more with undermining the rule of law than it was with defending the Constitution. So, I think, but when we say the word divisive, I'm concerned that we're not putting the blame on where it should be.

It's only divisive because President Trump has continued to lie, as he did before the election and after the election, about what happened that day. There is a record that you can go online, you can watch. There are hearings that are posted, there are position transcripts that are all online. This is a public record that the American people can see the evidence. We have a long indictment by Jack Smith that basically mirrors what our committee did. And so, it's divisive, but there are facts under that that all the American people can see for themselves.

BLITZER: Temidayo, I'm curious, what was the impact of President Trump's decision to grant clemency to almost 1,600 people implicated in the Capitol riot? What was the message?

AGANGA-WILLIAMS: I think the message was that political violence is acceptable in this country, that political support that he has is more important than the rule of law and our Constitution. Those pardons should not have happened, but I think going forward, what it says is that if you happen to engage in political violence for the right side, if you engage in political violence that results in death, that you attack police officers for the right side, and you reward that side with power, that you can be forgiven for those crimes. It's an incredibly dangerous precedent that will only invite more of these kinds of actions going forward.

BLITZER: Temidaya, thanks so much for joining us. We'll continue this conversation to be sure.

BROWN: Thank you so much. And coming up here in the Situation Room, another big breaking story we're following this hour. He was the first law enforcement officer to arrive at Robb Elementary School the day a gunman opened fire and killed 21 people. Now, the case against the now former officer is underway over the failed response. We are live in Texas.

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