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The Situation Room

Trump Threatens to Nationalize Elections; House to Vote on Reopening Government; Trump Meets With Colombian President. Aired 11- 11:30a ET

Aired February 03, 2026 - 11:00   ET

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

[11:00:00]

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SAM DARNOLD, SEATTLE SEAHAWKS: I won't have time to think about any other B.S., I guess, that I might be able to think about.

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ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: All right, now, opening night is the time this week to have some fun and ask some off-the-wall questions.

And with the Winter Olympics right around the corner, I asked some of the guys, what Olympic sport do they think they could compete in?

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hockey.

SCHOLES: Hockey? You a good hockey player?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. I've skated since I was 3.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If I had to choose, it'd probably be bobsled.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What is the bobsled?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Skiing? Is that a winter sport?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Snowboarding would be fun. I've never done it. But I'd be willing to try it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Give me about a year, I could be really good at curling.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Honestly, no, there isn't one. I don't think I'd be good at any Winter Olympics sport.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: Hey, Wolf, I hear you're good on the downhill. What Olympic sport do you think you could do?

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Not good on the downhill at all. Good ice skating. Not very good at the Winter Olympics.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: Wait. Hold on a second. Wolf told me earlier today that he was a really good ice skater growing up in Buffalo. So, I don't know.

BLITZER: When I was a teenager, I played a little hockey at Delaware Park in Buffalo. But that was about it. Not very good.

BROWN: All right, Andy Scholes.

BLITZER: Andy Scholes, thank you very much. Enjoy the Super Bowl, as all of us will.

SCHOLES: All right.

BLITZER: And I want to clarify something from this show yesterday.

One of my guests suggested "The New York Times" published nude photos of the Epstein victims and could be sued for it. This is not true. The paper did not publish the photos. And we want to set the record straight on that.

The next hour of THE SITUATION ROOM starts right now.

BROWN: Happening now, breaking news: Colombia's president arriving at the White House just moments ago to meet with President Trump. After insults, threats, sanctions and tariffs, will their feud end today?

BLITZER: And the urgent search for Nancy Guthrie is intensifying right now. Police are asking for the public's help to find "Today Show" anchor Savannah Guthrie's mother after investigators say she was abducted from her home.

Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer with Pamela Brown and you're in THE SITUATION ROOM.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BLITZER: And we begin this hour with the breaking news. The Colombian president, Gustavo Petro, is at the White House right now, is set to meet with President Trump at any moment. So far in Trump's second term, the two men have had a rather testy relationship.

Last year, the Trump administration said that Colombia had failed in its obligations to combat drug trafficking.

BROWN: Today, Petro intends to prove that his country now has that under control.

BLITZER: Let's go live right now to CNN White House correspondent Alayna Treene.

Alayna, walk us through what these two leaders are expected to discuss today.

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes, Wolf and Pam, we actually just saw a vehicle that appeared to be carrying the Colombian president, Petro, arriving here at the White House.

I should note that they did go behind, but -- it seemed to go behind the White House, so likely a greeting or an entrance that would mean it would be arriving to the back of the White House. But, look, I mean, after a year now, more than that, of insults and threats, of tariffs and sanctions, it looks like the two are going to try and find some sort of cooperation today during this meeting.

And I would remind you that these have -- two leaders have a very fraught relationship. It all started back during the early months of the president's second term around deportation flights being flown to Colombia. There was a big dispute, very public dispute between President Trump and President Petro back then.

And then, of course, we have seen in more recent months a lot of tension over the United States' strikes on boats off the coast of -- in the Caribbean and in the Pacific, and also the president's own comments that potentially they would move from striking those boats to potential land strikes inside Colombia, a lot of this going back to what the Trump administration and President Trump is arguing is Colombia not doing enough to stem the flow of drugs, particularly cocaine from Colombia through the southern border and into United States.

Now, as you both pointed out, of course, the goal of Petro today is to try and convince President Trump that they are working very hard to try and crack down on narcotics coming up into the United States.

But I do want you to get a sense, because we have heard so much criticism and animosity really being thrown from both of these leaders at each other. Just last month -- or just last year in December. We heard the president, President Trump, very heavily criticizing Petro with strong words, and then later seeming after a phone call to have a bit more of a cordial relationship.

I want you to listen to some of those remarks.

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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Colombia is producing a lot of drugs, a lot of -- they have cocaine factories, that they make cocaine as you know and they sell it right into the United States. So he'd better wise up or he will be next.

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He's been very nice over the last month or two. He was certainly critical before that. But, somehow, after the Venezuelan raid, he became very nice. He changed his attitude very much. We're going to be talking about drugs, because tremendous amounts of drugs come out of his country. And I look forward to -- we're going to have a good meeting.

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TREENE: So, as you could see there, with the latter remarks being a little bit more cordial, this relationship finding some stability in recent weeks following the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro.

But we will have to see whether or not that continues today and whether or not this meeting could turn south. We have obviously seen some other foreign leader meetings at the White House turn south. So we will all be watching very closely what today could yield, Wolf.

BLITZER: We will see what happens.

Alayna Treene at the White House for us, thank you very, very much -- Pamela.

BROWN: Wolf, happening now, NBC's "Today Show" anchor Savannah Guthrie out with an emotional plea on social media, "Bring her home," after officials say her mother, Nancy Guthrie, was abducted Saturday night from her home near Tucson, Arizona.

And this morning, the Pima County sheriff says the department is shifting efforts in the investigation.

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CHRIS NANOS, PIMA COUNTY, ARIZONA, SHERIFF: The air and ground searches, that you will see that slow down. Most things are going to slow down, where we're pushing more to the investigative side of this. We, through the night, learned a little bit more about some of the things we have submitted for DNA with the labs, but nothing really that would be -- help us identify a suspect.

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BROWN: Police say the 84-year-old was last seen Saturday. Officials say, when they arrived on the scene Sunday afternoon, they found things that were -- quote -- "very concerning."

CNN senior national correspondent Ed Lavandera is in Tucson.

Ed, where does the investigation stand this morning?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we just heard moments ago from investigators here in Tucson that they are -- scheduled another briefing on the case of Nancy Guthrie for 11:30 a.m. Mountain time, so about 2.5 hours from now.

Not really clear at this moment if that means that there's a significant update or if this is just a progress report and a plea for more information in the public to come forward with more information. They have been doing that over the last 24 hours, asking people in the area where Nancy Guthrie lives in Northern Tucson to share any kind of videos from their homes or pictures that they might have, as well as, like, businesses and homes in that area.

They're saying that there might be some kernel of evidence or video image in there that might help them piece together what unfolded, because what we do know at this point is that Nancy Guthrie was dropped off at her home in Northern Tucson Saturday night just before 10:00 p.m.

And it wasn't until the next morning, when she didn't show up for church services, that friends and family became concerned. They searched for several hours before calling 911. And that is when the full-scale search descended there in that neighborhood where she lives.

And it was after that investigators say, after having been inside the house, that they felt that this home and what they found in there was indeed a crime scene, and the sheriff telling CNN that it appears that the 84-year-old woman was taken against her will, abducted from her home.

Evidence inside the home seems to suggest that that is what has unfolded here. But the exact details of what they discovered in that home, investigators have kept very close to the vest, but investigators here now announcing that there is another press briefing and an update scheduled here in about 2.5 hours -- Pamela.

BROWN: Just so troubling.

Ed Lavandera, thank you so much.

And just for our audience, if you have any information about this case, call the Pima County Sheriff's Department at 520-351-4900 or you can scan the Q.R. code right there on your screen -- Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, Pamela, still ahead: election takeover threat. President Trump now calling on Republicans to -- quote -- "nationalize voting" in several places.

And my SITUATION ROOM special report, heart-wrenching stories from two survivors of child exploitation and the expert warnings about a surge of online child abuse.

Stay with us.

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BLITZER: Happening now, new reaction to President Trump's call on Republicans to -- quote -- "nationalize elections" in more than a dozen places and allow the federal government to take them over.

With the midterms now only nine months away, nine months from today, the president is amplifying his false claims of widespread election fraud. Listen to what he told conservative podcaster and his former Deputy FBI Chief Dan Bongino.

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TRUMP: The Republicans should say, we want to take over, we should take over the voting, the voting in at least many -- 15 places. The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting, and that we have states that are so crooked and they're counting votes. We have states that I won that show I didn't win. Now, you're going to

see something in Georgia, where they were able to get with the court order and the ballots. You're going to see some interesting things come out. But, like the 2020 election, I won that election by so much.

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BLITZER: CNN senior political and global affairs commentator Rahm Emanuel is joining us right now.

Rahm, what's your reaction to these comments from the president, even though the U.S. Constitution, as all of us knows, requires states to oversee these elections?

RAHM EMANUEL, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL AND GLOBAL AFFAIRS COMMENTATOR: Well, first, it will be breaking news to the president because that's the law, that he wants to actually try to go around the law.

He knows very well, even though his presidency is wrapped in bubble wrap, there's been 13 statewide elections since November 2024. Democrats have won all 13. There's a law of physics when one party controls both sides of Pennsylvania Avenue. It's a referendum on the incumbent party.

So, at one level, this election will be nationalized. Democrats have higher turnout. Independents are breaking 2-1 for the Democrats. And there's low turnout among Republican voters. That, you have seen in every election, special or statewide, across the country in the last year of 2025.

And you have seen it recently down in Texas in that Statehouse election. And the president knows this. It's a referendum and the American people are unhappy with the price of groceries, unhappy with the price of health care, unhappy with the price of electricity. And he's doing everything he can to focus on anything else but the cost of living for the American people.

Now, to the nationalizing of...

BLITZER: Well, let me follow up, Rahm.

EMANUEL: Sure.

BLITZER: Let me follow up and ask you about that special election that just occurred in Texas, where a Democrat flipped a state Senate seat in a district that Trump won by a very, very wide margin.

Some Republicans say it's another warning sign for the November midterms, but elaborate a little bit on what you think.

EMANUEL: Well, one is, I think that is absolutely true. It's a warning sign, given the movement. And it only reinforces the point I made about what's happening to the voters between Democratic turnout, which is highly energized, and independents breaking for Democrats. But the other piece that Democrats need to take away, Republicans,

this is a warning. What was his message? It was totally about education, totally about vocational ed and nothing to do with any of the cultural issues that sidetracked the Democrats in 2024.

So there's a lesson both for the Republicans a warning shot and there's also a lesson on themes and message and strategy from his candidacy. He said it the other day: I focused on education and the opportunity that exists from education and vocational ed.

That's what Democrats have to be taking a message from. And it is -- and, again, every election -- since 2024, there's been 30 of them plus -- Democrats are running on average 14 points better than what Kamala Harris ran because it's a referendum on Donald Trump's stewardship.

BLITZER: On another sensitive issue I want to get, Rahm, after long resisting, former President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton have now agreed to testify in the House Oversight Committee's investigation of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. They had faced contempt of Congress charges.

What's your view of this development, as someone who knows the Clintons? And you helped Bill Clinton become president of the United States.

EMANUEL: Look, I think Bill Clinton would say the same thing. One, he's going to testify. He -- in my view, get all the documents out. That's what he said. That's what they should be doing. They haven't. They are still holding at the Justice Department three million pages of documents.

Second, I want an inspector general to know why the Justice Department released the names of these women and pictures. You have had time to prepare. What were you doing victimizing the victims again? So, the president's going to testify. Others who were part of that and been named, they should testify.

All the other three million pages that are being withheld, get them out. And don't do it in a way that you further victimize the victims. We're here to protect people, not to play politics with this.

BLITZER: Before I let you go, Rahm, a quick question about the arrest of former CNN anchor Don Lemon. He's a good friend of mine. He was charged with violating the rights of worshipers at a church in St. Paul, Minnesota, last month during a protest.

Federal prosecutors allege Lemon participated in what they called a takeover-style attack of the church and intimidated congregants. Lemon was on "Jimmy Kimmel Live" last night and said this. Listen.

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DON LEMON, FORMER CNN ANCHOR: There's a lot that I cannot say, but what I will say is that I'm not a protester.

JIMMY KIMMEL, HOST, "JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE": Right. LEMON: I went there to be a journalist. I went there to chronicle and document and record what was happening. I was following that one group around. And so that's what I did. I reported on them.

And so -- but I do think that there is a difference between a protester and a journalist.

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BLITZER: So, Rahm, what's your assessment of this situation?

EMANUEL: Well, one, Wolf, we should remember, the American people in Minneapolis, all the citizens are doing exactly what we want, stand up for their fellow neighbors.

Second, they had their First Amendment rights to protest and petition the government. Second, they had the Second Amendment right in the second incident where an American citizen was killed by law enforcement, acting more like a lawless mob than a law enforcement agency.

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So that's another amendment that's been violated. Now you have the freedom of the press, another piece and component that's been violated. ICE and the way the entire enforcement operation is running is more like a lawless mob, as I said, than a law enforcement agency. There is no adult supervision.

It needs oversight. It needs fundamental reforms top to bottom and scrubbing. And it is not about Don Lemon. It's about a government that is out of control, in pursuit of a numerical goal, rather than the enforcement of our border security.

BLITZER: Rahm Emanuel, as usual, thank you very much for joining us.

EMANUEL: Thanks, Wolf.

BLITZER: Pamela.

BROWN: Up next here in THE SITUATION ROOM: A crucial vote to end the partial government shutdown could come soon, as House Republicans inch towards approving a bipartisan spending bill.

We will be right back.

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BROWN: Happening now: House Speaker Mike Johnson is scrambling for votes to end the partial government shutdown. A House vote could come today, and Republicans can lose only one vote if it falls along party lines.

BLITZER: CNN's chief congressional correspondent, Manu Raju, is watching all of this up on Capitol Hill.

Manu, so what are the chances of this shutdown ending quickly? And if it doesn't, how long will that impact our viewers?

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, House Republican leaders, Wolf, are confident that they will have the votes to reopen the government today, ending the four-day government shutdown, the second government shutdown of President Trump's second term.

While a partial government shutdown, it impacts a wide range of federal agencies, everything from the Defense Department to Health and Human Services and the Labor Department, many other programs and employees affected because of it.

But the votes will be critical. In a matter of minutes, the House is expected to take the first procedural step to take up this larger funding package. And that procedural step is going to be supported by Republicans alone. Democrats are going to vote in unison against it, meaning Johnson, Mike Johnson, the speaker of the House, can afford to lose one Republican vote along party lines.

He's confident he can keep his conference together after pressure came from President Trump for members to fall in line. Now, Wolf, this all came in the aftermath of the second deadly shooting in Minneapolis involving federal immigration officers and American citizens.

After that, Democrats demanded changes to the Homeland Security Department aspect of that bill. A deal that was cut in the Senate extended funding for the Department of Homeland Security for two weeks, but here in the House, questions about how that will proceed. There's also questions about Kristi Noem, her future as secretary of homeland security.

Several member -- many Democrats, of course, are calling for impeachment, some Republicans too also raising concerns about her handling of what's going on with these ICE agents and the like, including this one, Congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis, who I caught up with earlier this morning.

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RAJU: Do you have concerns about the way Kristi Noem is doing -- handling things?

REP. NICOLE MALLIOTAKIS (R-NY): I do. I do. And I have concerns.

RAJU: Do you have confidence in her?

MALLIOTAKIS: Confidence, who?

RAJU: Do you have confidence in Noem?

MALLIOTAKIS: Look, I think that a lot of people question her ability to lead this agency, particularly after what has happened. I had concerns with DHS funding being stripped from NYPD counterterrorism. That to me was a horrific decision.

I think that all options need to be on the table to find the best person, if there's somebody better.

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RAJU: Now, after this bill passes the House, assuming it does today to reopen the government, then another very difficult negotiation will happen, Wolf and Pamela, over the next two weeks, to try to get a deal on how to rein in ICE officers around the country.

Democrats have laid out a series of demands. Speaker Mike Johnson rejected some of those demands just this morning at a news conference, which is going to set up essentially another cliff, another potential shutdown of one particular agency amid this very contentious debate over how to enforce federal immigration laws that's playing out here in Washington and across the country -- Wolf and Pamela.

BROWN: Manu Raju, thanks so much -- Wolf.

BLITZER: He knows his stuff.

And just ahead: Changes are coming for DHS field officers in Minneapolis after two -- repeat -- two fatal shootings. Secretary Kristi Noem now says they all will get body cameras. But will it change their tactics?

We will ask a former top Homeland Security official. That's next.

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