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CNN's The Arena with Kasie Hunt

ICE Agent's Video Shows His Perspective Of Fatal Confrontation; Trump: "My Own Morality" Is Only Limit To My Global Power. Aired 4-5p ET

Aired January 09, 2026 - 16:00   ET

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

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Every time the people were -- they were crying every time after.

[16:00:01]

That's a crooked state, California is a crooked state, many crooked states. We have a very, very dishonest voting system.

The last time I won '24, the one that just took place, I won because it was too big to rig. You couldn't rig it. It was too big.

But I won the state of Minnesota. It's a corrupt voting system with an incompetent governor, a very incompetent governor.

And by the way, he's a very corrupt governor, too.

Go ahead.

REPORTER: I have a question on Iran. But first, very quickly on Venezuela. How do you provide total security guarantees to these companies without putting U.S. boots on the ground?

TRUMP: Well, were going to work with the Venezuelan leaders and people, and we're going to have a very safe group. And they're going to also bring over some security with them. You know, these are not babies. These are people that drill oil in some pretty rough places.

I could say a couple of those places make Venezuela look like a picnic. These are very -- these people around the table, these are tough people. They go into areas that you wouldn't want to go. They go into areas that if they invited me, I'd say, no thanks. I'll see you back in Palm Beach.

No. This is a tough group of people. They don't know how to do it, but we are -- in addition to that, we'll have very good security for them. We're going to make sure that its very, very good security. And I think the people of Venezuela are going to give you very good security.

You know, the people that -- I'm not talking even leadership, the people of Venezuela are going wild over this. They named a street after President Trump. What do you do? You attack a country and the name a street. That's never happened before. Although I heard that's also taking place in Iran. They named a street

-- the protesters. I just hope, you know, just God bless them. I just hope the protesters in Iran are going to be safe, because that'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.

KASIE HUNT, CNN HOST: All right. We have been listening to President Trump talk about what has been happening in Minnesota. There he was taking questions from reporters. Worth noting, he claimed he won that state three times in three separate presidential elections. That is incorrect.

We do have breaking news that we are covering today. A key piece of new video evidence from the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good by an ICE officer in Minneapolis.

Hi, everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt. Welcome to THE ARENA. It is good to have you with us on this Friday.

Let's take you through this new video. This was taken by ICE Officer Jonathan Ross before, during and after the moment that he fired his weapon into Good's vehicle, killing her.

It was first obtained and published by a right-wing news Minnesota outlet. It was quickly shared by the vice president, J.D. Vance, and by the White House's rapid response account on X.

In a statement, the Department of Homeland Security said, quote, "This footage corroborates what DHS has stated all along that this individual was impeding law enforcement and weaponized her vehicle in an attempt to kill or cause bodily harm to federal law enforcement. The officer was in fear of his own life, the lives of his fellow officers, and acted in self-defense. The American people can watch this video with their own eyes and ears and judge for themselves," end quote.

So, a DHS official confirms to CNN that the video was recorded by the agent who is at the center of this. Now, we are going to show it to you now. But as we have been warning you throughout the week, the footage is very disturbing and hard to watch.

Let's take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Fine. Dude, I'm not mad at you. Show your face. I'm not mad. 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, us. You want to come at us? I say go get yourself some lunch, big boy. Go ahead.

ICE AGENT: Out the car. Get out of the car. Get out of the fucking car!

ICE AGENT: Oh!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: All right, let's get off the sidelines. Head into THE ARENA. My panel will be here to weigh in.

We're also joined by CNN law enforcement correspondent Whitney Wild, CNN chief law enforcement and intelligence analyst John Miller, the former Minneapolis chief of police, Madeira Arredondo is also standing by for us. She'll, of course, probably remember he led the department during the George Floyd murder and the protests that followed.

But John Miller, I'd like to start with you because, of course, that video, which we just watched along with our audience, one that the Department of Homeland Security is saying confirms their account, that this officer was acting in self-defense in accordance with policy. I'd really appreciate it if you could just walk us through what you see in that video and what you think it says, as, of course, there is still an investigation ongoing here.

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Well, I mean, we are learning new things from this video. And one of the larger lessons we learn is, is a lesson that we learned in law enforcement and investigating these kinds of shootings. And I know Chief Arredondo, my good friend in Minneapolis, will bear this out.

No one video tells the whole story. Our first video is from behind. Our second video is from above, but from a great distance away. This video gives us a different viewpoint, which is almost the point of view of the shooting officer up until the time of the shooting. We don't have body cameras, so this may be as close as we get to something like body camera.

What is this video tell us? It tells us his car is parked alongside theirs. We see him get out of the car. We see him circle this car. You get an idea of the give and take between the agents and the activists who have been following them. According to the agents impeding them.

But you also get a sense that -- from Renee Good. You know, I'm not mad at you. She's got a smile. You know, her partner, Becca is filming him, filming her and saying, you know, we're going to be around later when you talk to us. You know, I'm a -- I'm a veteran, you know? You want to come at me, you should go to lunch.

So, there's some kind of pleasant back and forth. There's some edgy back and forth, but how it escalates into the shooting is when that car moves forward. And this is where sound becomes more important than picture because as his gun comes up and his gun hand, the phone goes down. And then we hear this impact, this sound.

Now, do we know is that the sound of the phone impacting on him or something? Or is that the sound of the car striking him, which is what the government is telling us it is? It's what DHS is saying is what happened when the car moved forward and it struck him, and then he fires those shots. So, it doesn't change a lot of the questions around this case. It just

gives us a different view of what happened. And a closer indicator that the car actually did strike the officer.

HUNT: Chief Arradondo, let me go briefly to you. Since John mentioned that, I mean, how does your experience and what do you see in this video? How does it line up with that?

MEDARIA ARRADONDO, FORMER MINNEAPOLIS POLICE CHIEF: Yeah. John, he explained it really, really eloquently in that what I'm looking at from a local law enforcement perspective. And I know my good friend John miller will appreciate this here. We're going to be looking at what is the training, what are the tactics that the officer use in approaching this vehicle?

I will tell you that in Minneapolis police department, their officers are always wearing body worn cameras. The policy states that those body worn cameras have to be activated prior to approaching that vehicle. Why is that important? It's important because in these traffic stops, you know, the officer wants to keep their hands free.

The other thing I noticed about this, obviously, the ICE agent who's holding the cell phone video. He's obviously trying to do some identifying he goes around to the rear of the vehicle, gets a license plate. You know, all of this is important because you want to understand what might have been the threat level that he was experiencing or his partners at the scene.

As John talked about him walking around the vehicle at one point his partner walks up to Ms. Good's door, and it appears that he's trying to at this point, I think the word is word is he's saying to get out.

It looks like the ICE agent is going to assist his partner. And then, as John mentioned, vehicle moves forward. Obviously, he dropped the cell phone camera now has the gun in his in his strong arm, strong hand. And that's all -- we hear the sounds, as John mentioned, we don't actually see it from that standpoint.

But this is why -- it's a piece. It's an important piece. But as John mentioned, it's only one piece. And I don't think it answers everything.

But from a local standpoint, you're going to be looking at trainings, tactics. What were the policies, what might have been the threat assessed from that officer during that point.

HUNT: So, let's bring Whitney Wild in to this conversation. Whitney, you've been standing by with us. You've been outside the federal building. That has, of course, really been a central place for these clashes between demonstrators and federal agents.

What have you seen over the course of the -- of today? What are you seeing now?

WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: We're seeing these flare ups between protesters and federal law enforcement, federal law enforcement at times, pepper balling the crowd, pushing them back as far back as several dozen yards, I would say maybe 50 yards or even closer to 100 here at the federal building outside Minneapolis.

We are technically in St. Paul. There are so many different types of protesters here. I spoke with one man who told me that he was an emergency doctor who came out here to make his voice heard.

[16:05:02]

There was another man who he's a former Navy SEAL.

Here's what he said about why he's here.

[16:10:18]

Kasie, I'm sorry. That's small mistake there. I thought we had sound. My apologies. We do not have it.

But basically, he described, you know, being out here because he felt like it was so important to make his voice heard because he's angry about what he sees in his community. And when I asked him, why here -- why make your voice known here?

He said that as a member of the reserves, he came to meetings here. He described this area, which also is where we see signs for the national guard.

This is his home. He described this area as his home. And so, he's very frustrated by what he sees as this federal law enforcement intrusion in his home. Let me give you a live look now at the crowd. This is very calm, Kasie. Again, we've seen flare ups every now and then between federal law enforcement and the crowd.

We saw two people who were arrested earlier today after a woman slapped the side of a law enforcement vehicle. Agents immediately jumped out, arrested her, and the man who was with her, as you see, they begin yelling when they see what they believe is a law enforcement vehicle. And it looks like it's possibly a law enforcement vehicle here, although, we can't quite see through the tinted windows.

But it's possible. We've seen a lot of law enforcement vehicles coming back and forth here today, Kasie.

Sorry. When the vehicle drive where the pepper ball were sprayed, and there's been a powder on the ground, I can actually you want to walk over and see what why I'm coughing. Let me give you a look, Kasie.

This is why -- it's this powder. This is the pepper ball spray. You know, little bits of pepper ball spray still left over on the ground here. So, when the vehicles drive over it, were standing right next to it. That's what picks up and is making all of us cough.

I'm sorry. Give me one second. I want to see if something's going on here. It looks this still looks pretty calm. Anyway, Kasie, that is what we're seeing here. The two people who had been arrested earlier today were released within a few minutes, and we actually spoke with them.

And they said when they were taken inside, it wasn't clear that they understood how they should be processed. And eventually, within a few minutes, law enforcement said, you know, you can -- you can go. And so, they actually went back into the crowd.

So that is the scene that we're seeing here. I'll leave you with this. A new piece of news today, the Hennepin County attorney and the state attorney general asking for as much evidence as the public can give them. And that's because they say that they just simply do not have access to the raw materials, the raw evidence.

There's a car coming here. Sorry. The raw evidence that the FBI has, as we know, federal law enforcement has taken over this investigation completely. They are not allowing Minnesota investigators to take part in this, have access to the evidence that they have. So Hennepin County attorney saying today that they're trying to do something, trying to do whatever investigation they can do. So they're asking the public to come forward with as much evidence as possible -- Kasie.

HUNT: All right, Wendy Wild, thanks very much for that report. I know you'll stand by and we'll come to you throughout the hour if things there start to unfold a little bit the way they did yesterday, this hour.

Chief Arradondo, I want to ask --

MILLER: I had lost audio with you.

HUNT: It sounds like we've lost John Miller's audio, but not his microphone. Chief Arredondo, if you can still hear me. We heard what Whitney was saying there. Can you talk a little bit about what it means to you? That this, there is no cooperation with the local law enforcement in this development with Hennepin County attorney.

ARRADONDO: Yeah. And I know my dear friend John Miller would agree with me on this.

When a department or an agency has this type of significant critical incident, one of the most important things is that the community has trust in the investigative process. We can't think about the outcome. They have to have trust in the process. And if they don't have that, that unravels a lot of things, and primarily it unravels, it unravels the trust.

You know, I'm thinking, you know, early on, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension were a cold lead or cold investigator in this. In this case, they have since now -- they're not a part of that anymore. And I know John will agree with me.

Now, what does that look like when you have federal investigators going out to that community of goods, trying to knock on doors, trying to get witness testimony, trying to get folks to submit either cell phone, video, Ring camera video. I mean, that's all important in terms of the totality of the investigation. They're going to be challenged now with that the Hennepin County attorney's office and Minnesota Attorney General Ellison, they have said they're going to launch their own investigation, but even they know it's limited.

They're asking community members to submit data in a portal. But again, it's not complete.

[16:15:00]

But my concern is that if we don't start having faith and trust in the investigative process to begin with, you know, it's going to create problems.

HUNT: And, John Miller, on that, on that point, I mean, do you agree with the chief's assessment here of the way trust may interact with this?

MILLER: Yeah. And I mean, if you have an FBI investigation, it's outside of DHS. It's outside of ICE. You know, theoretically, it's an independent investigation. But to be quite frank, we are in a time when the views of the FBI by the American people have shifted somewhat in that the FBI, through its director, Kash Patel, has shown itself to be a much more political organization, one that is connected very closely to the administration and the administration's --you know, themes and statements.

So, trust is going to be a real issue here. And if Minnesota can do an independent investigation on their own and maybe get access to the FBI findings at the end, although, frankly, it would have been better for the FBI to make the determination with the U.S. attorney that they should do this as a team. It's going to give a better air of transparency for both.

HUNT: All right. John Miller, chief Medaria Arradondo, thank you both very much for being with us today.

Our panel is here in THE ARENA. Former chief of staff to Vice President Mike Pence, Marc Short; CNN contributor, "New York Times" journalist Lulu Garcia-Navarro; CNN political commentator, former DOJ official Xochitl Hinojosa, and former Republican congressman from Michigan, Peter Meijer.

Welcome to all of you.

Marc Short, as we look at this video, I mean, it seems very clear that the White House is looking at this new piece of evidence and feeling as though it underscores their side of the story. Is that how you understand it? And I mean, does it surprise you at all how quickly we've gotten to this point where, you know, you have people in power who, in theory, have power over the investigation itself or are saying these things in public?

MARC SHORT, FORMER CHIEF OF STAFF TO VICE PRESIDENT MIKE PENCE: Well, I think that the video does support a lot of the White House narrative that she was using her vehicle as a weapon. Having said that, I think we've also learned the dangers of trying to rush to judgment in this in a matter of a couple of days, and that a lot of people initially immediately assume she's some sort of domestic terrorist, or that he was acting, you know, in a rogue fashion. And I think that we've seen this far more nuanced than that, which is why we should allow the investigation to play out.

I think there's no doubt that CBP and ICE have incredibly difficult jobs right now. There were literally millions of people who crossed our border during the last four years. They've got a difficult job in front of them, and it's a very politicized environment. But we should allow the investigation to play out before we reach judgments here.

HUNT: Lulu, what do you see in this video? Because it does seem that there's already a division about what it shows.

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Yeah. I mean, this is the Rorschach test of this time, right? Everyone is looking at the same evidence and coming to different conclusions. I think, you know, since this happened, what do we know now? We know that the person -- the ICE officer was actually someone who had a lot of training who there was a lot of discussion initially that, you know, perhaps this was the fault of someone who didn't know what they were doing. We know that that is not true.

There was some speculation as to what this person was doing there. There was some speculation on the left that this was just a mother who happened to find themselves in this situation. We know now from this video evidence that that's not true, that they were clearly there as part of their legitimate right to protest, right?

And everything else, frankly, I think is still up for debate because she in this video is clearly, having an interaction with the officer. He goes around. But what we don't see is the other officer trying to -- from what we saw in other video is trying to pull her out of her car. We don't know if she saw that officer in front of her because she was distracted by the other officer trying to pull her out of her car.

We see her partner trying to get into the car at the same time and sort of, you know, not being able to do that because she is speeding away. So, you know, there are many questions still to be answered here. I agree with you that an investigation is warranted, but we are in a situation now where you have the federal government and the state government utterly at odds. And I'm not sure that in my lifetime I've seen something like this before.

XOCHITL HINOJOSA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yeah. And what investigation? Who is investigating it? Is it an internal review? Who is it by DHS? Is it the FBI? And if it's the FBI, can we trust that it? It is independent.

I will say one thing that I think is missing from all of this and from the administrations, and I hate to say, the administration's argument in this, but that's what it's come down to.

[16:20:01]

It's the administration trying to paint this woman as a criminal when they don't have a full investigation, is that in 2022, the Department of Justice put out a use of force guidance that hadn't been updated for 20 -- for 20 years. And part of that guidance talks about how you don't shoot at a moving vehicle unless for some reason, that person you know is posing a threat.

One thing it says is that the officer must get out of the way of a moving vehicle, and should use every mechanism possible not to use force. And I'm not sure that that's what happened here.

PETER MEIJER (R), FORMER MICHIGAN CONGRESSMAN: Well, yes, but it's also the question, you know, most of the use of force around moving vehicles is around a fleeing vehicle, you know, and unless you have a reason to believe that that vehicle, the individual in there will go on to cause further harm or commit a felony or some serious life. You know, threat, you know, you shouldn't be shooting. It's very different if that vehicle is being used as a weapon and someone's directly in front.

HINOJOSA: Yes, but you should. You need to do everything you can to prevent the use of force. And that's what that guidance.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: And to de-escalate, right?

HINOJOSA: And to de-escalate.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: And to de-escalate, which is something that might not have happened.

MEIJER: You have to deescalate when a car is escalating at you and the fracture of a second.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Well, no, but the idea that --

MEIJER: It's a challenge.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: -- the idea that they -- that the ICE agents went in and tried to pull her out of the vehicle, that's what I mean by de- escalation. There wasn't exactly a discussion. There was more of a sort of forceful movement to pull her out from what we've seen.

And this is the problem. We're getting this story in dribs and drabs.

HUNT: All right. Coming up next here in THE ARENA, we're going to have much more from Minneapolis, including a vigil that's expected to start soon to honor the victim, Renee Good.

Coming up here next, Congressman Robert Garcia will be here as lawmakers grapple with ICE funding and an investigation following that fatal shooting in Minnesota.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR JACOB FREY (D), MINNEAPOLIS: Is it deeply concerning that this administration, from the very get go, is drawing the conclusion that they may ultimately come to? Of course, it is. And if you got nothing to hide from, then don't hide from it. Include local experts in the process.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HUNT: All right. Right now in Minneapolis, we are watching for protests. We're also awaiting a vigil for Renee Good. She is the 37- year-old woman who was shot and killed by an ICE officer earlier this week.

Joining us now, Democratic congressman from California, Robert Garcia. He is the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee.

Congressman, thank you very much for being here. Really appreciate it.

I -- we were speaking as we were coming on the air and you said you have seen this new video that just came out, cell phone video from the officer who was involved in the incident. It's very clear the White House sees this as exonerating the actions of the officer of underscoring his side of the story and defending himself. Do you see that on this video?

REP. ROBERT GARCIA (D-CA): Absolutely not. I mean, let's first start back up. It was the administration that called these folks domestic terrorists. I mean, they were already placing the blame on Ms. Good before any of the facts had come out before any of the eyewitness accounts and certainly before any of the videos that were all seeing now have been put out.

And so, the administration, the DOJ, homeland security, they all made judgments prior to actually gathering any information. It is horrific what's happening on the ground.

Let's remember why was ICE even brought in there in the first place. It's the actions of the president that are inflaming the situation. Our heart breaks for not just Ms. Good, but her entire family and the people, of course, of Minnesota.

So, it is clear from even the video that was put out that Ms. Good was driving away. The fact that is not going to be an independent investigation should alarm every single American.

HUNT: If in fact she was driving away. But she also hit this officer. Do you feel that fact would underscore his perspective?

GARCIA: So, prior to this job, I was mayor of my city for eight years. We had over 700 police officers. They proudly worked alongside.

I know procedure is when there is an incident like this. The first thing that you absolutely do not do is prejudge what actually happened by the actual folks that are going to be doing the investigation. Look, I can have an opinion about what happened. Comment can have an opinion about what they're seeing, but the folks doing the actual investigation should collect the facts first.

And that's actually not what they have done. They prejudge an incident which disqualifies them from doing an independent investigation. This should be done with both local, state and a partnership with an independent group from -- whether it's the DOJ or another arm of our government. What I'll say about the video itself, I've shown the video, the initial video, and I've talked to some law enforcement officials that have actually even seen this new video. It's pretty clear to everyone that I've -- that I've -- that I've shown it to and that I've seen it, that this incident, the ICE officer, I believe, acted completely out of bounds.

This to me looks like a direct killing and its unconscionable and should be investigated by authorities in a way that's independent, regardless of what my opinion is or whether folks opinions are.

HUNT: Would you trust the outcome of an FBI investigation?

GARCIA: Only if it was coordinated with folks that are truly independent? And were talking about career FBI folks that are not political appointees. And if it's done in coordination with state and local folks, including experts.

I do not trust Pam Bondi and the Department of Justice, who have done nothing but lie to the American public to lead an investigation on their own. Absolutely not. If it's not truly independent and it's not local coordination, there's no way that we could trust the outcome.

HUNT: What would you say to your constituents, to Americans, about the tactics that they should be using if they disagree with the actions that ICE is taking? Because we've seen, in some cases, confrontational tactics. Do you think that's productive?

[16:30:02]

GARCIA: Absolutely not. Look, law enforcement agencies, particularly police departments across this country, have worked so hard to regain the trust in some cases, that was frayed, whether it was during the Black Lives Matter movement or George Floyd and so many other horrific incidents that have happened across this country.

Police departments have worked hard to gain the trust of communities, including mine, back home, and we want to work alongside you want to be able to trust local law enforcement what ICE is doing, wearing masks, throwing people to the ground, having no respect for the community, throwing tear gas into cars, detaining American U.S. citizens for no reason and then letting them go days after detainment and now firing into moving vehicles that are that are moving away from an officer that does nothing, but not only harm the trust in agencies in the federal government, but the trust in local law enforcement.

Local law enforcement right now, across this across this country are also terrified of what ICE is doing and the harm it's causing their own departments. It's shameful.

HUNT: Do you think this means that Democrats should renew some of the calls we saw back in 2018 to abolish ICE?

GARCIA: Look, I think what Democrats need to do is ICE should be absolutely reformed. First of all, ICE didn't exist in its current form before 9/11. This is a new agency. And the ICE of Donald Trump. The ICE of today, which is larger than it's ever been, is essentially Donald Trump's own police force. And he is using to carry out, in some cases, things that our own

military have turned their back. They won't -- they won't do on behalf of Donald Trump. He wants his own paramilitary force on the streets of American cities. And the actions that they're taking are wrong. They're causing damage to relationships within the community between law enforcement and anyone with their own vision and two eyes can see on these videos, not just this one, but other incidents that ICE right now is completely out of control under the direction of Kristi Noem.

Let me say one more thing. There are good agents. There are career people, not just in this organization, but other federal law enforcement agencies that are also horrified about what is happening. And they're seeing the abuse of power that is happening. It's got to end.

HUNT: Finally, before I let you go, should Democrats in Congress hold up government funding if it doesn't restrain ICE?

GARCIA: I think Democrats need to use every tool that we have, including funding mechanisms, to rein in what's happening right now with ICE across this country.

HUNT: Congressman Robert Garcia, thanks so much for spending some time with us. Appreciate it.

GARCIA: Thank you.

HUNT: All right. Coming up next here in THE ARENA, we're going to go back live to Minneapolis as we await that vigil for Renee Good.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:36:59]

HUNT: All right. We continue to follow the developments in Minneapolis. The reaction that is coming in to that cell phone video that was put out today of the officer's perspective of the confrontation. My panel is back now.

And I mean, Xochitl, the conversation I just had with the congressman, I think, underscores the fact that again, and this has happened so quickly, right? This is already, you know, this is not the first day we've been having a political conversation about what happened. That's how fast this went from looking at a tragic event to each side, looking at it and using it and talking about it in a way that was -- that is very divided. I mean, he basically looked at that same video and said, I see something totally different.

HINOJOSA: Yeah. That's right. And it's caused a huge divide in the country. And not only it's in the country, but it is Minnesota. It is where George Floyd was murdered blocks away from George, where George Floyd was murdered.

And honestly, the reason one of the reasons why were in this situation is your local -- your law enforcement and the president of the United States normally doesn't come out and put blame right away without a full investigation. And that has caused both sides to sort of put their guard up and start fighting to make sure that we are, you know, that there is some sort of blame game when there needs to be some sort of independent investigation.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: I'm going to push back on this actually, just a little, because I mean, obviously, the president and the entire administration immediately did something that is unprecedented, which is to sort of lay blame. But we saw on the left as well a move very quickly to anoint her as some kind of, you know, martyr. To say that she was completely innocent.

And again, I'm not saying that that is not true. I'm just saying that, you know, you can't on the one hand, call for time for an investigation. And on the other hand, also do what the Democratic representative did there. He's prejudging this investigation can't actually be credible. And so, we are in a situation, unfortunately, where all you are hearing is this rush to take ownership of the narrative. And we are in a moment in our country because of our media environment, because of the way that everyone digests things, that everyone wants to get in front of these things because owning the narrative is owning reality.

HINOJOSA: But it wasn't. But it wasn't only him. You also heard John Miller, who is not partisan in any way, who's a law enforcement, was a law enforcement official. Say also, the reason why we're in this situation and cannot count on an independent investigation is because of what our Department of Justice and FBI and how they have acted over the last few months. We can't trust that --

HUNT: Wouldn't the president say, I can't trust local officials and I can't trust the state officials because I think they're going to try and prejudge this because they want to own the narrative. But I'm not saying that that's fair.

Just -- I'm just saying that that is their position on this.

MEIJER: Yeah. And when we talk about prejudging -- I mean, I'm old enough to remember Jacob Blake and President Biden's immediate response to rush to defend, to sit by his bedside before any of the facts come out.

[16:40:09]

The Trump administration has learned from the summer of 2020, and they've learned from prior events that sitting back and waiting just means the narrative is going to take shape against you, whatever the facts may be, and we will learn later that hands up don't shoot was total B.S. We will learn later the truth. But by then the American public has already made up their minds and it's too late.

So, I'm not surprised that they're trying to put what I think ultimately was a far more accurate version of events out first, because the immediate reaction on the left was, oh, she was assassinated. Comparisons to Charlie Kirk were made in the immediate wake. HINOJOSA: Well, I don't think better -- I don't remember federal law

enforcement ever coming out and rushing out and trying to blame -- put blame without an investigation. Period. End of story. Including the DHS secretary, the -- you know, the attorney general, the FBI director.

The president -- yes, is can be political. I agree he should have done it. And I would have been pretty pissed off if the Department of Justice and I had the president doing something like that. But the fact that law enforcement is doing this just shows that we cannot have an independent investigation.

SHORT: Kasie, in that interview you just did, the congressman opened the door to saying, let's use the government funding bill to go after CBP and ICE. It's the same path Democrats have taken for a long time. It's in many reasons why Donald Trump is back in the White House, because they allowed to have border chaos and Trump campaign on that. And now, once again, you see the Democrats following the same pathway to say, yes, let's consider shutting down the government to defund ICE.

HUNT: Marc, where do you come down on? Clearly, the American people were with President Trump on the border, right, in this previous election cycle, right? And the president is right when he says that when he came into office, the problem at the border was dramatically affected.

Do you think that the tactics that ICE is using and the policy that he has been executing in these cities, is that policy in the same place politically in terms of support from Americans as the border piece of this? Or has this president gone too far?

SHORT: It's a great question. I think that the CBP officers and ICE officers that I've had the pleasure to meet at the border are some of the most courageous people in many people don't recognize them in a vast a large percentage of them are Hispanic officers. They are doing heroic work.

I think there is also, though, a politicization of it. When we say we're going to target certain cities, we're going to target cities where we've had the governor make outrageous comments. It's almost like there's a retribution of the way that they're being used, as opposed to allowing them to simply do their job.

HUNT: Fair.

All right. Let's bring in now, CNN correspondent Leigh Waldman. She is at the site where Renee Good was shot by that ICE agent, and it has now been turned into a memorial.

So, Leigh, Renee's wife put out a -- her partner put out an emotional statement about her death. What did she say?

LEIGH WALDMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You're right. It was a very emotional statement. And part of it is thanking this community for showing up in this way. And you can see how they showed up, the statement says, Renee sparkled. She literally sparkled. I mean, she didn't wear glitter, but I swear she had sparkles coming out of her pores all the time.

You might think it was just my love talking, but her family said the same thing. Renee was made of sunshine. We're raising our son to believe that no matter where you come from or what you look like, all of us deserve compassion and kindness. Renee lived this belief every day.

She is pure love. She is pure joy. She is pure sunshine. She continued on saying on Wednesday, January 7th, we stopped to support our neighbors. We had whistles, they had guns.

Renee leaves behind three extraordinary children. The youngest is just six years old and already lost his father. I am now left to raise our son and to continue teaching him, as Renee believed that there are people building a better world for him, that the people who did this had fear and anger in their hearts. And we need to show them a better way.

And you can see this crowd here, Kasie. And they all believe that believe as Renee believes, as Renee believed. And you can see the love and support that they're offering her family. And that's what means so much to this grieving family.

HUNT: All right. Leigh Waldman, thank you very much for that report. Really appreciate it.

Coming up next here in THE ARENA, we will touch on some of the day's other news. Top oil executives at the White House today to talk about Venezuela and just what does Donald Trump mean when he says that his, quote, "own morality," end quote, is the only limit to his global power?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. THOMAS MASSIE (R-KY): It's very disturbing that any just any one person's morality is all that would separate us from taking over any country. That's a ridiculous principle.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:49:23]

HUNT: All right. Welcome back.

We're continuing to follow the breaking news out of Minneapolis. Joining us now in THE ARENA to discuss, CNN's senior political and global affairs analyst Rahm Emanuel.

He's also, of course, for this conversation, perhaps your most important title, sir, as former mayor of Chicago. But you do possess many, many of those. But let me start. Let me start there. Obviously, this tragic incident

that played out in Minneapolis immediately, the subject of a political tug of war with each side seeing something completely different happening. We have this new video from the cell phone that was held by the officer who shot Renee Good in this incident.

[16:50:02]

What do you see in this video, and how do you think officials should be conducting themselves?

RAHM EMANUEL, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL & GLOBAL AFFAIRS COMMENTATOR: First of all, important in your earlier panels discussed this, you got to have trust and legitimacy. And by everybody putting on their Braveheart paint, as the mayor of Minneapolis says, we want to be part of this. That report has to have some legitimacy. And if it's politicized on the front end, it's going to affect the back end.

And you have a lack of trust not only between state officials and the federal government. You have a lack of trust between the citizens and their government. And if for any legitimacy to go forward, you got to see that. I think it's also important to take a step back. You have Minneapolis, you have Portland, Oregon.

In the last 48 hours, three citizens have been physically shot by the United States government. I mean, I -- Newt Gingrich wants to call the Environmental Protection Agency jackbooted thugs. Here, you have a government agency attacking citizens who are speaking up and speaking out.

So, any analysis -- this is one video, as I think somebody earlier said, there's multiple different angles. You're going to have to assess that and look at it in real time. And I think it's really unfortunate. The federal government and leading voices decided to politicize it as quickly as possible and got the exact reaction, actually, that they wanted from state officials.

That is what they were seeking. And now you have a situation where the report is going to be adversely affected, both on the legitimacy and then also building any trust steps going forward to reform and make changes that are necessary for how you conduct yourself when you're doing a kind of an enforcement effort, which in my view is crazy on the first point because it's not dealing with criminal immigrants, it's dealing with some enforcement to arbitrary numbers.

HUNT: The mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Frey, told ICE to get the F out of his city. Do you think that's the right way to talk about this?

EMANUEL: Well, look, I understand the emotion of one. And both the governor and the mayor and other officials never wanted this presence. There was never any kind of coordination. And it has nothing to do with public safety.

You're seeing across the country, cities seeing dramatic, significant improvements with not resting, not happy with the status quo, but improvements without an imposing force that has nothing to do with public safety on a long-term basis.

So, I understand the frustration of the mayor. It's legitimate because there's no coordination, there's no actual discussion, and it's just coming in as an external force slammed down on a city that you knew beforehand was going to get this reaction from the public, something actually the administration wanted to see happen, which is exactly what they got.

And now, we've lost a citizen. And, and I think appropriately said by the -- by the individual's partner, she's going to raise a son without another parent. That is a result of the federal government. This is insane.

HUNT: While I have you, sir, I want to ask you about another major story was kind of pushed out of the headlines a little bit by, of course, this tragic incident in Minneapolis. But of course, the president of the United States initiated an action against Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela. This quite spectacular American military operation.

"The New York Times", about a group of reporters sat down with the president in the last 24 hours, and they asked him if there was any limit, what he viewed as a limit on his global power. I want to play for you what President Trump said in response to that and then ask you about it.

Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Yeah, there's one thing my own morality, my own mind. It's the only thing that can stop and that's very good. I don't need international law. I'm not looking to hurt people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: The only limit, he says on his global power is, quote, my own morality. What's your response to that?

EMANUEL: Kasie, a couple of things. One, Stephen Miller is top aide, said the new rules are strength, power and force. He was talking about Venezuela. It also applied to what just happened in Minneapolis. They see no difference in sense of what the principles are.

And I think the president here with his own advisers, saying, here's the rules of the law, which is strength, power and force. You're going to get results like that. I think if you step back to me, what's more interesting, Europe just had a major agreement on a trade agreement, economic agreement with Brazil, Colombia, Argentina, the South, Latin America.

China has been investing over the years and now has $500 billion of trade and is a bigger player than the United States. And then the United States acts takes Maduro out in a unilateral action, says the oil is ours, three different parts, all playing different roles. Ours is by force. Europe is by economic relationships. And China is a long- term play to try Latin America to China.

[16:55:03]

And just recently, Chile closed their steel plant because of the pressure from China's steel. So, in my view, is the president is wrong. There are rules and laws here in the United States, and it's for -- his own morality is not what guides us. That's why you have a balanced government, a checks and balance, and you have actually an entire establishment.

HUNT: Fair enough. Rahm Emanuel, thank you very much, sir. Always appreciate having you. Hope to see you soon.

EMANUEL: Thanks, Kasie.

HUNT: All right. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HUNT: All right. Thanks to my panel. Really appreciate you guys being here on a Friday. Thanks to all of you at home for watching as well.

Don't forget, you can watch much more of THE ARENA tomorrow. THE ARENA Saturday airs at noon Eastern right here on CNN. Please do join us.

But right now, Jake Tapper is standing by for "THE LEAD".

Hi, Jake.