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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees
ICE Officer's Cellphone Captures Fatal Confrontation; FBI Takes Over Investigation into ICE Shooting; Protesters Gather At Scene Where ICE Officer Killed Woman; The California Wildfires, One Year Later; Soboroff In New Book About California Wildfires; Anti-Regime Protests Intensify In Iran Amid Crackdown; Trump Meets Oil Executives At WH About Venezuela. Aired 8-9p ET
Aired January 09, 2026 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: All right, just part of David Culver's incredible reporting there. He has a full hour of work that you can see on what's next for Venezuela? that's this Sunday on "The Whole Story" at 8:00 with our David Culver. Thanks so much for joining us. "AC360" starts now.
[20:00:38]
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Good evening, thanks for joining us. Tonight, for the first time since an ICE officer shot and killed a woman in her car in a quiet Minneapolis neighborhood, we have video from that officer. The video shows what Jonathan Ross hand-held cell phone camera captured during this brief and deadly and deadly confrontation, which ended with him firing three shots in rapid succession, killing 37-year-old Renee Good.
Now tonight, how the deadly encounter, which until now we have only seen this way at a distance, looked up close from his point of view. Vice-President Vance posted the video online and weighed in on it as well. Before I read what he said though, I just want to play the clip without comment. We've added subtitles for Renee Good and her wife, Becca, as well as some for other voices from men not seen on camera.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RENEE GOOD: That's fine dude. I'm not mad at you.
BECCA GOOD: Show your face. That's okay, we don't change our plates every morning, just so you know, it'll be the same plate when you come talk to us later. That's fine U.S. Citizen, former disabled veteran. You want to come at us? You want to come at us? I say go get yourself some lunch, big boy.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Get out of the car. Get out of the f**king car. Get out of the car.
BECCA GOOD: Drive, baby, drive.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: F**king bitch.
(END VIDEO CLIP) COOPER: As we said, the Vice-President posted the video quoting him now, "Watch this, as hard as it is, many of you have been told this law enforcement officer wasn't hit by a car, wasn't being harassed and murdered an innocent woman. The reality is that his life was endangered and he fired in self-defense".
Now, you notice the Vice-President is not repeating the claim made by the President immediately after the killing that the officer was violently run over by the vehicle. As for his life being in danger, that is a critical piece of whatever investigation, if any, would be conducted. I want to watch the video again.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RENEE GOOD: That's fine dude. I'm not mad at you.
BECCA GOOD: Show your face.
RENEE GOOD: I'm not mad at you.
BECCA GOOD: That's okay. We don't change our plates every morning. Just so you know, it'll be the same plate when you come talk to us later. That's fine. U.S. citizen, former disabled veteran. You want to come at us? You want to come at us? I say, go get yourself some lunch, big boy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go ahead, get out of the car. Get out of the f**king car. Get out of the car.
BECCA GOOD: Drive, baby, drive.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, f**king bitch.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Now, in a moment, we'll talk to our law enforcement panel about what they see in this new video and compare it with all the other angles we now have. We'll also talk about what Department of Homeland Security guidelines are for an incident like this. The guidelines prohibit, as a general matter, "discharging firearms at the operator of a moving vehicle" but they do allow it when the officer reasonably believes the person they're shooting. "possesses an imminent threat of death or serious bodily injury" to them or someone else, which comes back to the contact you see in the officer's cell phone video. It certainly looks dramatic. Does it accurately convey the degree of danger at officer Ross? Or is it showing a handheld camera getting bumped by the car as it brushes by him?
Looking at slowed down video from behind the car gives another view. You see one officer walk over to try and open her car door. Someone tells Miss Good to get the "f" out of the vehicle. The car's reverse lights go on and the officer pulling on the door handle with his right hand, while eventually reaching inside the open window with his left. Officer Ross is in front of the car. The reverse lights go out. The car begins to move forward. Ross unholsters his weapon fires at one, appears toward her windshield. A second time in what appears to be her open window and a third time immediately afterwards.
He appears to make contact with the car, but is not knocked down. He re-holsters his weapon and walks off.
So, there's that to talk about. There's also the comments made by Renee and Becca Good.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RENEE GOOD: That's fine dude. I'm not mad at you.
BECCA GOOD: Show your face.
RENEE GOOD: I'm not mad at you.
BECCA GOOD: That's okay. We don't change our plates every morning. Just so you know, it'll be the same plate when you come talk to us later. That's fine. U.S. citizen, former disabled veteran. You want to come at us? You want to come at us? I say, go get yourself some lunch, big boy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: There's also of course made by a male very close to the camera saying "f**king bitch".
Now, in a statement today, Becca Good acknowledged that she and her late wife had come to confront ICE. She writes on Wednesday, January 7th, "We stopped to support our neighbors. We had whistles, they had guns." Tonight, people have gathered at the Minnesota State Capitol in Saint Paul, as well as the makeshift memorial in Minneapolis, on the street where Renee Good's life was taken Wednesday morning.
A lot to get to in this hour, Joining me now is former Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo, former NYPD deputy commissioner of intelligence counterterrorism John Miller and former secret service agent Jonathan Wackrow.
Mr. Arredondo, let me start off with you, I'm wondering, what do you make of the statements made by the Vice-President? Well, first of all, let's just talk about what we are seeing on the streets of Minneapolis, just in terms of the behavior of ICE, comparing that to how local and law enforcement would operate.
[20:05:51]
MEDARIA ARRADONDO, FORMER MINNEAPOLIS POLICE CHIEF: Yes, Anderson, thank you for having me. So, right now, the situation on the ground in Minneapolis, and I've had the opportunity to speak with Chief Brian O'Hara, the police chief of Minneapolis. You know, he's got a department of roughly about 600 complement of officers that are still trying to provide basic public safety services for the 450,000 residents.
When these situations happen with ICE, whether it was Miss Good's death the other day or when ICE needs help and back-up assistance, this is obviously straining his already low resources that he has. Obviously, the community, the trust and the lack of trust that they have right now, there's palpable tension in the community.
So, right now on the ground in Minneapolis, Anderson, it is it is something that they're trying to really make sure that there's peace and calm. As you know, that Governor Walz has activated the National Guard just to be in a posture in the event that things should rise beyond that. But everyone right now, Anderson, right here in Minneapolis, they're trying to just really stress peace and calm right now.
COOPER: And Chief, for you does this new video, does it change anything for you?
ARRADONDO: You know, Anderson, earlier today, me and my good friend there in the studio, John Miller, we're looking at this here. It absolutely provides a new perspective from what the ICE agent who ultimately fired his weapon at Miss Good, it provides some, some context to what he was seeing, what he was observing and viewing both visually and audibly. Hearing from both Miss Good and her partner, but it's still not conclusive in my opinion.
It is an important piece of evidence, but that's it. It's a -- it's a piece of evidence, its important. But I think there, certainly, you can't draw conclusions alone from it.
COOPER: John Miller what stands out to you?
JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Well, I think first of all, it's a good thing that we have this video because as Chief Arradondo said, it gives us a third perspective. We've seen it from behind, we've seen it from above and far away. Now, we're seeing it as close as were going to get absent a body camera from the shooting officer's point of view. And first we see a very low tension situation. There's not a lot of danger signs there, but as he comes around the car, you see two important moments. One, as the car comes out of reverse and goes into drive, he unholsters his weapon. He's still got his phone in the other hand.
The second thing we get out of the video is from not the video, because at some point we lose the video, but from the sound and from the groan that comes with that sound, it does sound like he makes contact with the car, that there is an impact, and those shots happened within that same time. A lot of this is simultaneously, you have to kind of separate those sounds.
And the third question is one of tactics, which is, as the car is starting to back up, why is he unholstering his weapon when it goes into drive as opposed to the tactics that are -- the preferred tactics and is written everywhere, and everybody's policy is move out of the way of the car. By unholstering and standing in that position, the argument will be that he was escalating the situation and limiting his choices, as opposed to moving back and increasing his choices.
COOPER: Jonathan, it's also -- Jonathan Wackrow, it's also interesting you hear Miss Good's wife saying, "drive, baby, drive." She seems to be. At some point she turns away from the officer. Looks like she's wanting to get into the vehicle. I guess the door is still locked, just as the officer on the other side is. And then she says, "drive, baby, drive." What stands out to you -- If these are all pieces of a puzzle, which I don't know?
JONATHAN WACKROW, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Exactly, I mean, this is, you know, just another Rorschach test for the country and seeing this video and the conclusion is that we're still where we were yesterday with the other videos in terms of the split perspective of everybody who looks at it, 50 percent of the people look at it say that this was a justified shooting by the officer. The other 50 percent say that it was not.
What we do get from this is a lot of audio, and we get a lot of atmospherics and understanding to Commissioner Miller's point. We understand that escalation as that video progresses around the car, we see the interaction with the spouse, but we see the spouse disengage and move back to the car. We see the officer move into position in the front of the vehicle.
[20:10:25]
The critical moment that we just don't know because we don't have a statement from that officer is at what point did he feel that his life or the life of the other officers that were there, was at imminent risk? Was it at the moment that he took his holster out? Was it at the moment that he made contact with the car? Again, we're looking at this from two ways.
We're looking at it from a legal perspective. Was this legally justifiable shoot? And then we're looking at it from a judgment perspective at the same time. This is where the investigation is critical. An independent investigation will yield a lot of this information, and it will also quell the public outrage that is ongoing. If they know it is an independent, fairly conducted investigation.
COOPER: Chief Arradondo, just in terms of the, you know, the behavior of everybody here, both the, you know, the two women who are on the video, the both, Mrs. and Mrs. Good. Also, the officers who are approaching saying get the "f" out of the vehicle. How does it -- was anybody try to de-escalate this or was it all ratcheting up?
We can't hear you, Chief. I think you might be on mute. I'll come back.
I mean, that's something we talked about in the days ahead. I'm wondering if this video for you guys adds anything to that.
MILLER: Worsening escalation, when you see the agent approach the car saying, out of the car, out of the car, get the "f" out of the car and grab the door, she is going to be alarmed and frightened. Now, we have looked at it a million times. Most people conclude she's trying to get away.
COOPER: And by the way, at that point it seems like her wife is turning to the vehicle and decides to try to get into the vehicle.
MILLER: Right and that's another indication that it's time to leave. If you look at the agent's video, with the car coming towards him, you don't see the bottom, you don't see the wheels turned. Now, that doesn't mean he doesn't see it. He's got a wider view than that camera lens. But we also don't know what his focus was at that moment at the time the phone goes down, his focus is going to be on that target.
But you raised the right question; the question is who was escalating and who was de-escalating. And you know, the agent who approaches quickly to the car, who's cursing and telling, open the door. That's sending signals --
COOPER: Its interesting as good as herself is saying, I'm not mad. I'm not mad at you.
MILLER: Right, I mean, she's basically --
WACKROW: There were multiple points, though, at that moment where the two agents got out of the pickup truck and started to go to the car, even though their language is harsh, it was still a command by law enforcement. She knew that law enforcement was there.
So, you know, complying with the commands of law enforcement on one side, if she's confused, she should ask, what are we doing? Not pull away. And her calm demeanor, actually, you know, again, in an investigation, you would really look at did her calm demeanor really lead to the intent to get away? Why didn't she comply with law enforcement? Was she complying beforehand?
COOPER: We're going to take a quick break.
Coming up next, the independent investigation Minnesota is launching after being shut out. And this is virtually unprecedented by the federal government.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN'S CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT AND THE ANCHOR OF "THE SOURCE": Do you believe that the FBI should be sharing evidence with state officials in Minnesota?
DONALD TRUMP (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Well, normally I would, but they're crooked officials, I mean, Minneapolis and Minnesota, what a beautiful place, but it's being destroyed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: The panel is back as well with more of their observations on the video evidence we have and where the case goes from here. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:18:00] COOPER: The Minnesota attorney general and local officials are asking people to submit photos and videos of the Renee Good shooting to collect evidence, because federal officials refusing to share evidence with local investigators. CNN's Kaitlan Collins asked President Trump about why that is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: The state officials there have said that the FBI is not sharing evidence with them. Typically, they would conduct a joint investigation, as you know. Do you believe that the FBI should be sharing evidence with state officials in Minnesota?
TRUMP: Well, normally I would, but there crooked officials. I mean Minneapolis and Minnesota, what a beautiful place but it's being destroyed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: With us now is Todd Barnette, Minneapolis Community Safety Commissioner, which is a position created in response to the murder of George Floyd. He oversees the Police Department as a former judge, prosecutor and public defender.
So, Commissioner, what do you say to President Trump's, first of all, accusation and what can state investigators actually accomplish without federal cooperation?
TODD BARNETTE, MINNEAPOLIS COMMUNITY SAFETY COMMISSIONER: Well, first, Anderson, thanks for having me this evening. I'll start off by saying that my mother and grandmother raised me right to make sure that people that that have a different opinion than mine, that I'm respectful to them.
Here in Minnesota, whenever there is a police involved in shooting, our Bureau of Criminal Apprehension experts would then take over that case and do the investigation. They have the expertise, they have the experience, they're nationally known for the work that they do.
So, I would feel very confident in the work that that they would do. Also, any support that they would give the federal government.
COOPER: You're former judge, a prosecutor, public defender. Do you have any expectations that the federal government would even make the ICE officer available to state authorities for questioning?
BARNETTE: You know, Anderson, I think that's a good question. The way that things are set up now, we in the state of Minnesota does not have anyone participating in the investigation. That is disappointing, especially when it comes to community trust. We know that our community wants to see that justice is served. We know that the only way to do that is to have a transparent process where there's accountability and that our citizens can trust that process.
It will be very difficult, for our state officials to be in a position to have a thorough investigation if they're not part of it. COOPER: Mayor Frey has demanded ICE leave Minneapolis. The Trump administration says it's not going to happen. Do you agree with the mayor?
BARNETTE: I do agree with the mayor and the reason why I agree with the mayor is that the tactics that are being used, we predicted that it would be dangerous for those ICE agents. It would be dangerous for our residents and our visitors. We've seen the results of that. The tactics aren't ones of de-escalation. It makes it very dangerous and we saw a few days ago that it's led to a death of one of our residents.
COOPER: Yes, Commissioner Todd Barnette, thanks so much, appreciate it.
Back now with the panel, Chief Arradondo, we were just looking at this video where you have ICE officers with long guns out in the streets. You know, they're pointing them up in the in the sky, you know, pushing people down on the ground. Have you ever seen anything like this on the streets of the U.S.?
ARRADONDO: You know, Anderson, we've had a long standing relationship working with our federal partners over the years. I can say in my career and tenure, I have not seen that. And, you know, one of the things that all I believe of the 18,000 police agencies across this country, they're always trying to, first and foremost, build trust within those communities they serve.
And so, how you come into those communities, how they see you, that's critically important. And I'll also, just say this here, you know, at some point in time, this federal surge will end, but it will be these local Police Departments will be Chief O'Hara and his department that will have to try to manage these relationships that several of them are probably frayed at this point.
COOPER: Yes. John Miller, I know you have some additional new video that appears to be security footage from a nearby home on the street. Can you just talk us through it?
MILLER: So this is, you know, we have looked at the moment of the shooting, which is seconds, not minutes in every angle we could and many times. But this is what occurs in the moments after the shooting, captured by a security camera on a house on the block. And what you'll see is at 9:37, the car crashes into the vehicle and then is stopped by the pole or the tree. And there you see Becca Good.
So that's the wife or the partner of Renee is the first one to reach the car. She is -- opened the door, she is -- she comes out with blood all over her face.
COOPER: If we can, let's take this video full screen if we can.
MILLER: And the second thing you see there is the agent who was the shooter, who approaches the car, tells her to sit on the ground and then walks off saying, call 911. Now, by about six minutes after this, you know, you see the agents come. Now you see agents with a red bag that looks like a medical bag.
COOPER: That's about six minutes after, you said?
MILLER: Right and they're approaching the car. And they're doing, I guess, the first assessment. And now, and this is 9:43. So, this is six minutes after you see the actual medics from the Fire Department, Minneapolis EMS, arrived on the scene, and they're doing an assessment.
By eight minutes after those medics are taking her out and putting her on the ground and trying to determine what life saving measures would be appropriate at this point. Ultimately, they end up moving her down the block.
Fourteen after, we see the ambulance get through the barricades into the scene. By this time, the stretcher has gone down the block. So, that ambulance has to travel to pick her up where she is. And then now, at 11:12 A.M., you see FBI agents cordoning off the scene, taking control of the evidence, and then ultimately taking the SUV away.
So what you see is by looking at this footage, and we've been through five hours of it, looking at every particular moment. The first one to reach her is her wife. They take the dog out of the car and give it to the wife, and she ends up basically sitting in front of this house watching, trying to figure out what to do next.
The second thing you see is the first assessment by ICE medics and then the ambulance people. But before she receives any meaningful medical treatment, it's really six minutes after the shooting when the first Minneapolis medics get there.
COOPER: There was that, the video we seen yesterday of somebody who said they were a doctor on the scene and they said, oh, you know, we got medics. And the guy was like, where are they? And now we know --
MILLER: Right. So, but I mean, the first, ICE people who did the assessment you know, are there about 9:38 so a minute after. So, here's the question.
COOPER: That's the video with the doctor right there.
MILLER: Right, here's the question. While this doctor was there and they're saying our medics are on the way, were there life saving measures that could have been applied, by others who were on the scene? And we're not going to know that until we get the autopsy. The other question that's going to come out of that autopsy is, which is the cause of death, was it the first shot? Was it the second shot from the side as the vehicle is driving away? The third shot, or was the accident the crash a contributor? All of these are going to be very important in coming to a decision about that officer as well.
COOPER: John Miller, Jonathan Wackrow, Chief Arradondo, I appreciate it.
Coming up next, the national political impact this is already having and later, the enormous challenges still facing so many people in Southern California a year after from the most destructive wildfires ever.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: We're at the corner of Harriet and Glenn, and I got to tell you, it is -- we've been here for about 40 minutes. This whole area is just engulfed in flames.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:30:29]
COOPER: The week, which ends in the aftermath of a woman's killing by a federal officer caught on camera, began with the administration's wholesale rewriting of January 6th, including the culmination of the effort by the president and many others to rehabilitate the memory of another woman.
Ashli Babbitt, who's killing by a Capitol police officer, was also caught on video and whose death at the leading edge of a violent mob trying to break into a high security area was made into something else entirely.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And a person named Ashli Babbitt was killed.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
TRUMP: You know what? She was killed. And she shouldn't have been killed. And that thug that killed her, there was no reason to shoot her. At blank range, cold blank range, they shot her. And she was a good person.
Ashli Babbitt was killed. She was shot. She had never been shot. She was shot for no reason whatsoever.
Nobody was killed except for Ashli Babbitt. She was killed. She was killed. She was shot in the head by a policeman that had no -- what he did was horrible.
And, by the way, while you're at it -- who shot Ashli Babbitt? Who was the person that shot an innocent, wonderful, incredible woman, a military woman, right in the head, and there's no repercussions?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Well, the Capitol police officer who shot her was cleared of criminal wrongdoing, but vilified repeatedly by the president. And last May, the administration agreed to pay Ashli Babbitt's family nearly $5 million to settle a wrongful death lawsuit.
Joining us now from the right and left respectively, CNN Political Commentators David Urban and Paul Begala. David, it is interesting. I mean, how do you square how President Trump condemned the shooting of Ashli Babbitt? How he's justified the shooting of Renee Good?
DAVID URBAN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, Anderson, lots of different things going on. I feel very badly for both of these families that are involved there. Look, I -- this is going to be kind of a weird thing. I agree with the president in the first case. I do think Ashli Babbitt was wrongfully shot and killed and shouldn't have been shot by that officer.
And in this case, you know, the video, there's a lot of video out there, recent video that I saw where she's talking, the driver, the murdered woman in this case, is talking to a ICE officer saying, hey, dude, I'm not mad at you. You know, I'm not -- I've got no beef with you. And then is alleged to have put her foot on the gas and tried to kill somebody seconds later, which resulted in her death.
So, you know, I don't see -- I haven't been able to look at all the -- I don't know if they were ever going to see the video. I don't believe this -- the ICE officer had a, you know, body came on him to see whether he was in front of the vehicle.
So what's clear is there's two tragedies here. And the underlying lesson, I think, Anderson, is, you know, I tell my son, you know -- and I'm sure Paul, Anderson, will tell your kids this when they get older, nothing good happens after 1:00 p.m. when you're out, right?
Nothing good happens when you're trying to obstruct the police in any way, whether you're, you know, whether you're Ashli Babbitt breaking through a window or whether this woman, you know, is standing and trying to block an ICE, a legitimate raid. You may not like the underlying efforts, but nothing good is going to come of it.
And so it's tragic in both situations. I think the ICE -- the folks involved need a little bit more training would be my kind of take on it. But it's sad, and I hope that we can step back from this.
I don't think the rhetoric, the Minnesota, the Minneapolis mayor going bananas, telling everybody to get the F out and cranking it up. I think we should step back in these instances. And, look, I don't think the hyperbole on the right is great either.
This guy was -- she was a terrorist trying to kill somebody. I think we should try to learn so that we don't have these things replicated. These are our fellow citizens here, right?
COOPER: Yes. And Paul --
URBAN: You can have -- you can dissent and not get murdered.
COOPER: Paul, I mean, can there be a credible investigation of the Minneapolis shooting when the president, the vice president, the Homeland Security Secretary all say the officer, you know, they immediately came out with their version of events?
PAUL BEGALA, CNN POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR: No, no. And when they block the state officials from doing their own investigation, when only about a mile away, you know, was where we had a terrible shooting in 2020. And the feds and the state cooperated in that. And the murderer, the killer, was found guilty in state court.
They're blocking this investigation for a reason, and I don't think it's a good reason. They've already besmirched. They're not only clearing the officer, despite what we can see with our own eyes.
[20:35:04]
Worse, they're besmirching Renee Good. They're dancing on her grave before she even -- she's even been put in the grave. This is not about right and wrong -- I mean, right and left. It's about right and wrong. It's about morality and humanity and decency.
Renee Good was a mom. She was a kindergarten mom. She was a Christian. She was a poet. She was not a writer. Her last words, as Urban points out, were to that officer, smiling and saying, I'm not mad at you.
And then the vice president of the United States calls her deranged. The secretary of Homeland Security calls her domestic terrorism? Renee Good was like closer to Betty Crocker than Osama bin Laden. This is -- I'm sorry, this is not politics.
COOPER: We should just --
BEGALA: This is evidence of a dark and religious (ph) soul in J.D. Vance, Donald Trump, and that Homeland Security secretary.
URBAN: Yes, but Paul and Anderson, you know -- yes, the issue here, though, the begin -- before this all starts, right, she is blocking the legitimate law enforcement efforts of these ICE agents. Whether you like it or not, they're there legally. If you want to protest, you can protest. But I don't think you're allowed to, you know, put your car.
BEGALA: Trump is blocking the legitimate law enforcement of this event. The Trump blocking is blocking the law enforcement in this. This administration is. She wasn't blocking anybody. She wasn't a threat to anybody.
Come on. This is an officer-involved shooting. These things are always tragic and are always awful. But the very fact that we can see with our own eyes what happened. When -- by the way, her wife's last words were something like, go get yourself some lunch. Oh, boy, that's not much about her. Come on.
URBAN: Well, it wasn't --
BEGALA: This is not terrorism.
URBAN: Paul, her wife --
BEGALA: These are just nice ladies who disagree with what ICE is trying to do in their community.
URBAN: Yes, Paul, her wife was not --
BEGALA: They were shot. BEGALA: I would not put them in the same category. Yes, I wouldn't -- listen, the woman at the wheel clearly was not as antagonistic as her wife was the agents outside of the vehicle. I think that, you know, your kind of characterization of them is doing no wrong. They were impeding something.
Did she deserve to die? No, absolutely not. But should she be out there blocking this? No. Should people, should mayors and should politicians be saying F ICE, get out of our city. We have sanctuary cities. There's -- there should be one law.
Listen, if you come to the United States illegally, you're here illegally, you -- there's no such thing as you are the -- we either have laws or we don't have laws. If you're in Minneapolis and, you know, you want to have a sanctuary city, I don't even -- what does that mean? You just don't follow?
If you don't want to pay income tax, you don't pay income tax? So I don't -- I can't get my head around that.
BEGALA: There will be accountability. There will be. The Democrats are going to take the House. They may take the Senate. Mr. Trump's term will expire in 2009.
Democrats will one day take the White House. All of these people. The head of the FBI, that plastic surgery lady from Homeland Security, they all need to lawyer up because there will be accountability. People will not stand for this.
URBAN: Well --
COOPER: Guys, we got to go. I'm --
URBAN: It's clearly a tragedy. Clearly a tragedy. This woman's dead. We can agree with that.
COOPER: Yes. David Urban, Paul Begala. Also, we should just point out George Floyd wasn't shot to death, as you know.
Coming up next, the difficult recovery in the Los Angeles area a year after devastating wildfires. Also ahead, the president's aggressive new message for Iran with the anti-regime protests. They're about to hit the two-week mark and growing.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:42:19]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: This area over here, I want to show you -- I mean, this house is completely gone. We've watched this entire house burn down. The house next door, the car that you see over here, we watched that. The flames jumped from the house onto the car. There was a small explosion as the gas canister blew. But look, Brianna, see, there's two houses on fire. The third house down now, the roof has caught fire. The fire captain was telling me they watch for the attics. Once the attic -- once you see smoke billowing out of the attic, and the attic is on fire, that house may be a lost cause.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Just some of what I saw over several hours in Altadena, California, when the Eaton Fire tore through one of the hardest-hit neighborhoods there a year ago this week. 35 miles to the west, much of the Pacific Palisades was devastated, destroyed by another fire. At least 31 people killed. More than 16,000 structures left in ruins.
Our Kyung Lah went back recently, and here's what she saw.
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KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's been a year since the L.A. fires. And now, survivors are hitting a hard economic reality.
LAH: I remember being here on this very street, and that's where I met Robert Lara.
ROBERT LARA, ALTADENA RESIDENT: Just yesterday, I had it all. This is just heartbreaking. We have so many memories here.
LAH: When you look at this, it's, like, it's all gone.
LARA: It's all gone. The physical stuff, the material things are gone. The memories are still there. So this is our pool here.
LAH: How much has money been a challenge?
LARA: Big, big challenge. The reason why I'm here. It comes down to money. We continue to pay the mortgage. This will also mentally drain you, where, you know, you see yourself in a vacant lot, just a pile of dirt.
There's no way, no way I could afford to rent a place out. We didn't have the proper coverage for a total loss situation. Everyone I speak to here, all my neighbors, everyone's like, we're in that same boat. We're all underinsured.
LAH (voice-over): Robert is a general contractor, so he's rebuilding his own home. But the big unknown is cost.
LAH: How long before do you think this is built? If you had to guess.
LARA: I'd say about a year and a half. Yes.
LAH: Wow.
[20:45:07]
TIM KAWAHARA, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, UCLA ZIMAN CENTER FOR REAL ESTATE: It's not a great time to have to rebuild.
LAH (voice-over): UCLA's Tim Kawahara understands the market forces hitting Altadena. This is his hometown, where thousands of homes need to be rebuilt.
KAWAHARA: The tariffs, obviously building materials would be impacted by tariffs. With the ICE raids, 41 percent of our construction workforce in California are immigrants. Some have status, some do not. Even people that are documented are scared to show up to work sites now.
LAH (voice-over): That means Trump's immigration crackdown hits California especially hard. Fewer workers means higher costs.
KAWAHARA: When we talk about fire victims, they truly were victims. The path forward will seem impossible to a lot of the folks that are up here.
LAH: Which one is yours?
TROY LASTER, FORMER ALTADENA RESIDENT: This is it right here. This is the lot.
LAH (voice-over): It felt impossible to Troy Laster.
TROY LASTER: This is where I used to live in Altadena. I love this area because I had the mountains right here to my north and south.
LAH (voice-over): Troy was an LAPD cop, mainly in narcotics. He's now retired. He raised his family here.
LAH: Does this feel like home?
TROY LASTER: My home wouldn't like this, no. It felt like somewhere else. When I put it on the market, it pretty much sold pretty fast. And I went with it because I got the most money.
I wanted to do the best thing for the family to get them back to normality. And I couldn't wait for everything to be done.
LAH (voice-over): Troy doesn't live in Altadena anymore.
LAH: You have arrived.
LAH (voice-over): We visited him at his new home in Las Vegas.
TROY LASTER: Right now, you know, we're at peace. My mortgage payment is exactly the same. And the balance is lower.
LAH: Oh, hi, Tammy. I'm Kyung.
TAMMY LASTER, FORMER ALTADENA RESIDENT: Hi.
LAH: Hey.
TAMMY LASTER: Nice to meet you. LAH: Nice you meet you. Thank you for letting us into your home.
TAMMY LASTER: Sure.
LAH: How does it feel to you?
TAMMY LASTER: I think Troy's a little stronger than I am, but hard. Still hard. And I'm totally fine as long as I don't talk about the wildfires.
LAH: For your mental health, then, this is the path.
TAMMY LASTER: Yes, 100 percent. I'm not going back. I just don't need the constant reminder of what was.
LAH: Altadena is wrong. It's going to be fine.
TAMMY LASTER: Yes.
LAH: Is that reality?
TAMMY LASTER: I think a lot of people want it to be reality, but I don't think it is.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LAH (on-camera): The people who may be among the most financially crushed are the families who may have bought recently. I met a millennial couple. They are $1.5 million in debt. They had no idea that they were so deeply uninsured for a total loss situation. They fear that even though they have good jobs, they're looking at debt for the rest of their lives.
Anderson?
COOPER: Kyung Lah -- thanks very much, Kyung.
More now on the recovery from MS NOW reporter Jacob Soboroff, who lost a childhood home in the Pacific Palisades fire, did remarkable work covering it. And as the author of the new book, "Firestorm, The Great Los Angeles Fires and America's New Age of Disaster." I spoke to him earlier.
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JACOB SOBOROFF, AUTHOR, "FIRESTORM": You write something in the book. You say fire, "It turns out, can be a remarkable time machine, a curious form of teleportation into the past and future all at once." I love that. And --
SOBOROFF: Thanks.
COOPER: -- having spent the day in Altadena on, I guess, one of the first days watching fire, I'm fascinated by what you learned about fire in the writing of this book and in the covering of it. SOBOROFF: I was there and watched my -- literally my childhood home and my childhood neighborhood in the Palisades. You were on the opposite side --
COOPER: Right.
SOBOROFF: -- for that amazing stretch when you were in Altadena. I was in the Palisades watching my childhood neighborhood carbonize before my eyes. And we shared the experience of watching these neighborhoods burn in real time over this long stretch.
But how do you process -- the question I kept asking myself is, how am I supposed to process watching everything I knew, my past, incinerate in front of me? And I guess the answer that I came to was I can't in real time. I just have to open my mouth and tell people what I'm saying and do the job.
And so the reason I want to write the book was to sort of explore all of this stuff. And I think what I realized is that it wasn't my past I was seeing incinerate, but the future ahead of us that all of our children will inhabit. And we experienced it in real time.
COOPER: You know, in this job, it's very rare that we are covering things that are ongoing. Oftentimes we get to a place something has happened and we are recounting and explaining and trying to understand what has happened.
SOBOROFF: Yes.
COOPER: This was something like the earthquake in Haiti or Hurricane Katrina, which was -- it was happening every day. It was an ongoing and it was life and death. And it was -- I mean, it wasn't a story, it was -- and you saw that in the Palisades, out with firefighters on the streets in Altadena.
I mean, literally watching the fire jump from a burning vehicle from the tires, which go on fire first, and then jump to a tree, and then jump to a house and then --
SOBOROFF: Sometimes miles away --
COOPER: Yes.
SOBOROFF: -- these embers were going.
[20:50:11]
To me, you know, the book, I think, to people will read kind of like a sci-fi thriller, but the reality is it's as true of a story as true can be, and it's a lived reality of not just the people that were in L.A. a year ago in January of 2025, but what we've lived -- what people lived in Lahaina, in North Carolina.
COOPER: And it's ongoing.
SOBOROFF: Yes, it keeps going. It just keeps going. And I think that the reason I wanted to drill down on this idea of the fire of the future, it is -- it's a minute by minute account of what it was like to be there, probably similar to what you experienced, what I saw over the two weeks that I was there almost every day.
But it's a look into what the future is going to be like for everybody. This is coming to everybody's neighborhood at some point.
COOPER: Yes, explain why that is. I mean, you do -- you call this sort of the future of fires.
SOBOROFF: Yes, the reason I think that it's the fire of the future, and it wasn't me, one of the sources that I talked to later during the book is a senior federal emergency management official who talked to me, you know, outside of his official duties. He wasn't supposed to be there telling me.
But for the last five years, he's been to every mass casualty fire declared by the federal government in the United States. And what he said was, he was the one that said to me, look, man, what you experienced was not your past burning up, but this is what all of our lives are going to be like, and here's why.
Number one, obviously, the global climate emergency. Number two, infrastructure is degrading, and in the Palisades, we had that empty reservoir, and Altadena was the electrical equipment. Changes in the way we live.
The connections that I made with other people, I told you, I couldn't process in real time. In the year-long process of writing this book, for me, was more cathartic than anything I've ever done. And I didn't really realize that I needed it.
And I think that it's perhaps the most important assignment that I've ever done because this was maybe more personal than it was professional for me, this experience. And I couldn't separate the two. And I was, like everybody else that went through this, living with the weight of watching the costliest wildfire event in American history unfold before my eyes.
COOPER: Yes. Jacob, thank you so much. Appreciate it.
SOBOROFF: Thanks, Anderson. I appreciate it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Coming up next, the growing anti-regime protests in Iran and the new message from President Trump for the leaders in Tehran.
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[20:56:07]
COOPER: As anti-regime protests rage in Iran for the 13th consecutive day, President Trump again threatened the leaders there with military strikes if they use violence to subdue protesters.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I just hope the protesters in Iran are going to be safe because it's a very dangerous place right now. And again, I tell the Iranian leaders, you better not start shooting because we'll start shooting too.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: I want to bring in CNN Global Affairs Analyst Brett McGurk, who served as Middle East and North Africa coordinator with the National Security Council. Brett, do the protests pose a serious threat to the Iranian regime? I mean, we've seen protests before get crushed.
BRETT MCGURK, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Anderson, I think this is the most existential threat to this regime in his 47 years of life. I think --
COOPER: Wow.
MCGURK: -- this system is significantly weakened because of what has happened, particularly the June War last year, lost 30 of its top officials. But, you know, there's three things converging here over the coming days, Anderson, to watch. Number one, the protests. They continue to spread.
These protests started in the Grand Bazaar in Tehran. These are the first protests since the revolution in 1979 that started with that merchant class. Now it's spreading to every province. The second force converging is the system and the regime. They will try to use lethal force to put down the protests.
In 2022, in the Women's Life Freedom movement, 500 Iranians were shot or executed, 20,000 detained. Those protests went on for two to four months. But here the X factor is what you just showed in President Trump. He has said he's prepared to use force if Iran uses that suppressive apparatus against the protesters.
And I think that's where that's heading. And I think that choice is going to be coming to the president. And it's a credible threat because of what happened in June. So this is all converging.
COOPER: What would that look like, though, in terms of potential force? I mean, U.S. bombing particular government buildings?
MCGURK: You know, it's hard to say, but there is some precedent from June. And in the course of that 12-day campaign that you covered, Anderson, the Israelis did strike the repressive apparatus of the Iranian system, these headquarters of the besieged militias which keep the kind of -- which keep the thumb on the necks of the people who want to see the system changed.
So that is an option. I'm just thinking if I was in the White House putting the options in front of the president, you want to make sure that people could communicate. That's Starlink. That's VPNs. We did a lot of that in 2022. You want to look at sanctions. Iran is still exporting almost 2 million barrels of oil a day shockingly. You could go after that. But then it comes down to this threat of military force. It's a credible threat because of what happened in June.
Point is, Anderson, this is all converging. I think for the regime to survive, it is going to have to resort to all it knows how to do, violence against its own people. That is going to be tragic. And then I think the president will have a choice.
My heart here is with the Iranian people. This system has to change. But, you know, my head, having lived through this, I am concerned we're going to see some real violence here over the coming days. And you have to just be inspired by these Iranians in the streets.
COOPER: Yes, their bravery is incredible.
MCGURK: Everybody you see is risking their life.
COOPER: Yes. I mean, it's incredible given what they have done to the people in the past. We have about a minute left. I just want to quickly ask you about Venezuela. President Trump posted in social media today, "The USA and Venezuela are working well together, especially as it pertains to rebuilding in a much bigger, better and more modern form, their oil and gas infrastructure." What do you what do you see happening there?
MCGURK: My sense is making this up kind of as they go along. I thought the CEO of Exxon today in the White House told the president the oil industry right now is uninvestable because of all the risks, the complications. This is going to go on for some time, Anderson. I think we'll continue to talk about it.
COOPER: Yes. And in terms of the regime that's there --
MCGURK: Yes.
COOPER: -- all the repressive apparatus in Venezuela is still there. All the people who have been imprisoned are still in prison.
MCGURK: Venezuela is not regime change. It was a decapitation of the leader. The whole system is still in place. Apparently now doing our bidding. But, you know, we have to see. I think this has some ways to go.
COOPER: Yes. Brett McGurk, we always appreciate talking to you in times like this. A lot to watch for in the streets in Tehran and elsewhere, as you said, all throughout the country of Iran.
MCGURK: That's right.
COOPER: Brett McGurk, thanks. That's it for us. Have a good weekend.
The news continues. The Source with Kaitlan Collins starts now.
