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Woman Fatally Shot By ICE Was U.S. Citizen, 37-Year-Old Mother; Today: Senate May Vote On Measure To Limit Trump's War Powers; Character.AI, Google Settle Lawsuits Over Teen Mental Health Harms. Aired 7:30-8a ET
Aired January 08, 2026 - 07:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[07:31:50]
KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: This morning we are getting new video showing some new perspective of what happened leading up to the moments an ICE agent shot and killed the 37-year-old woman in Minneapolis, which has sparked protest and outrage in the city, the state, and across the country.
We're also learning new information about the victim. We want to show you a poster outside a vigil there. Renee Good was a 37-year-old mother of three -- a U.S. citizen, just to be clear, who had recently moved to Minnesota. She and her partner had just dropped off her 6- year-old son at school minutes before that encounter with the ICE agents.
Her ex-husband says this is one -- and we're going to show you now -- one of the videos showing what happened next. It shows agents telling Good to get out of her car. As an agent tries to open her door, she puts the car in reverse, and you can see another agent standing in front of the car. And now we know very well, moments later the agent opens fire.
Another video of the shooting shot from a higher angle in front of Good's SUV appears to show the car bumped the agent before the first shot is fired. In all, three shots were fired.
President Trump very quickly said that Good violently, -- Trump's words -- willfully, and viciously ran over the officer. We did see video of the officer walking unincumbered afterwards.
The DHS secretary says that Good attacked officers.
A witness who lives in that neighborhood disputes that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
EMILY HELLER, WITNESS: They were telling her to leave. They were telling her to move. And then all of a sudden, they were -- they were -- it seemed like they were trying to get her. So they were telling her to move and then in a split second they were saying -- they were trying to get her out of the car.
So I don't think I'm the most articulate person. I don't think that I -- I don't want to be here, but I knew that this would be twisted and it would be self-defense, and that's absolutely not what happened.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOLDUAN: Joining us right now to talk about the investigation and what happens now is attorney and CNN opinion writer Raul Reyes. It's good to see you, Raul. Thank you so much for being here.
RAUL REYES, ATTORNEY, CNN OPINION WRITER: Um-hum.
BOLDUAN: We ask you ahead of time to as you and everyone has seen all of -- there's so many videos.
REYES: Um-hum.
BOLDUAN: And asked you what you think were the critical moments --
REYES: Right, right.
BOLDUAN: -- in the video. You pinpointed two parts of the videos that you think are going to be seen -- that you see as critical.
One, when the ICE agent approaches Good's car with his weapon drawn --
REYES: Um-hum.
BOLDUAN: -- at close range. I mean, you're seeing some of it there.
The other video is where a physician actually is -- you hear him -- approaches the agents -- this is after the shooting --
REYES: Um-hum.
BOLDUAN: -- and asks to help. To step in. To take Good's pulse. Take the person's pulse who he's -- obviously, they know is injured at the very least. The agents deny the physician access, saying that their own -- they have their own medics --
REYES: Right, right.
BOLDUAN: -- coming.
To you, why are these moments critical and important to any investigation that happens now?
REYES: These moments, for me, are so critical in the first instance because it -- in my view, it is completely reasonable for this young woman when an agent is approaching her car, weapons drawn, shouting at her, reaching into the car. I think it is a completely reasonable response to attempt to flee the scene. To get out of harm's way.
[07:35:00] So that moment there, to me, shows that she had a reasonable -- a reason to feel jeopardized for her own life or safety, hence her driving off. That, in itself -- fleeing the scene -- even if she was potentially disobeying an order to step out of the car -- that should not be a death sentence.
And then the second instance where we have additional video of a doctor approaching and asking to take -- to take her pulse and being refused -- that raises questions about where were -- and being refused. That raises questions about where were ICE's own medics. Why was she not receiving medical attention immediately? If ICE is using lethal force in residential communities with these military-style enforcement actions, there should be medical personnel on site.
The fact that Renee Good died this horrific death alone in that blood- spattered car without even a doctor present to be with her at the moment that she passed -- that to me suggests a just -- a breakdown in ICE procedures and on the broader sense, a very reckless disregard for human life.
BOLDUAN: Another aspect of this, speaking of injury, the Minneapolis police chief who was on with Erin Burnett last night and said that when he arrived on the scene --
REYES: Um-hum.
BOLDUAN: -- and this is after the shooting -- that he was told that Renee Good -- or just the person in the person was the only person injured.
Let me play what the police chief told Erin.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHIEF BRIAN O'HARA, MINNEAPOLIS POLICE: I was very specific about asking if anyone else was injured and at the time I was told that it was -- it was only the woman, so I don't know anything further.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOLDUAN: President Trump is -- we have seen -- had said that the agent was lucky to be alive. I mean, he is seen walking away unincumbered after the fact.
REYES: Um-hum.
BOLDUAN: He was apparently taken to the hospital and released.
How relevant is this information that you hear from the chief there?
REYES: It's highly relevant because there is some video footage shot by bystanders that appears to show the officer walking away.
BOLDUAN: Um-hum.
REYES: Now we have this police officer testifying that he was told there were no -- that there were not injuries. So that speaks to the -- to the potential defense of him being in lethal danger or that he was run over by the car.
On a broader level --
BOLDUAN: Um-hum.
REYES: -- what is very troubling -- and we're see -- we've seen this with January 6, with the case of George Floyd with Ferguson -- is that these events have just barely happened and lawmakers are rushing in to create a narrative that takes root with the public.
BOLDUAN: And that is part of it. It's not just --
REYES: Well, right.
BOLDUAN: -- what is said after the fact. It is how quickly after the fact you heard --
REYES: Right.
BOLDUAN: -- from the president and the Homeland Security secretary.
REYES: And how quickly -- how they -- her body was still in the car when they were labeling her a domestic terrorist.
And I -- personally, I'm hesitant to draw any conclusions. Everyone can see the videos and make their own opinions. But we need a full investigation going forward -- hopefully by an outside council, outside group but we're far from that. So I encourage the public -- I wish our lawmakers would exercise some more caution in -- rather than inflaming these tensions and attempting to calm them.
BOLDUAN: Raul, thanks for coming in.
REYES: Thank you.
BOLDUAN: John.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Secretary Noem has defended the ICE agent, claiming he used his training to save his own life and that of his colleagues.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KRISTI NOEM, SECRETARY, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY: ICE agents repeatedly ordered her to get out of the car and to stop instructing -- obstructing law enforcement, but she refused to obey their commands. She then proceeded to weaponize her vehicle and she attempted to run a law enforcement officer over. It'll -- this appears as an attempt to kill or to cause bodily harm to agents -- an act of domestic terrorism.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: All right. With us now is CNN senior political commentator Scott Jennings. Also, Democratic strategist Matt Bennett.
Kate just had a discussion about the law with Raul. I want to talk a little bit more about the rhetoric because you heard the secretary of Homeland Security call it domestic terrorism there.
Andrew McCarthy, the conservative lawyer who writes for the National Review, wrote of that "That is kind of hyperbole we don't need from an agency that exists because of terrorism. It was established due to the 9/11 atrocities and should, presumably, know what it is and is not. Whether we conclude it's an attempted murder or an attempted escape, it's not a terrorist attack."
Scott, I should note McCarthy also wrote that he thinks that what happened was probably within the scope of the law, but he didn't like what Kristi Noem went out and said there.
Did she need to say that?
SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, FORMER SPECIAL ASSISTANT TO PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: Uh, probably not, but that doesn't mean she shouldn't go out and defend the ICE agent. It doesn't mean that I wouldn't expect DHS to defend their agents who are routinely under attack around the country. We've seen hundreds of car incidents and ICE operations around the country.
[07:40:00]
The correct question to be asking I think today is why was this incident occurring in the first place? Why is there a convoy of vehicles, according to several witnesses, attempting to impede a perfectly legitimate federal law enforcement situation?
So I think arguing about the rhetoric, perfectly fine. To me, I want to get to the root cause of why there is a group of people in this country who believe it is their responsibility to drive convoys of vehicles into perfectly legitimate federal law enforcement situations.
I think some of this goes back to frankly, John, Democratic rhetoric because that's why they've been instructed to do by the Democrats who are demonizing these ICE agents.
BERMAN: Matt Bennett, is Scott Jennings' question the right question? Is what Scott is saying fair?
MATT BENNETT, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS AND CO- FOUNDER, THIRD WAY, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST, FORMER WHITE HOUSE DEPUTY ASSISTANT, CLINTON ADMINISTRATION: No. The right question is why the President of the United States and the secretary of Homeland Security have labeled a mother of three who was trying to comply with law enforcement instructions and trying to get out of the way -- she was steering to the right as she was leaving -- a domestic terrorist with no evidence whatsoever? And that is the rhetoric that is the most problematic.
It's the President of the United States that sets the tone and he's responding to this horrible tragedy -- the death of a mother of three -- with no humanity whatsoever.
This woman may have been, you know, parked in the wrong place. She might have been not following law enforcement instructions. But that is not a death penalty offense in the United States. And moreover, she and others are perfectly within their rights to exercise their First Amendment, you know, rights to talk about whether or not ICE should be flooding 2,000 agents on the streets of Minneapolis when the people of that city and that state don't want them there.
So the most important rhetoric here is from the president.
BERMAN: I know this is painful for a lot of people and I also know that everyone is mourning the loss of this woman, but I do want to move on to other subjects this morning, namely there will be a vote in the House today on health care -- extending the Obamacare subsidies. It's going to pass the House. Nine Republicans voted for it on a procedural measure and then it will go to the Senate where at least this version will die.
You know, Matt, let me just ask you first. Who is the pressure on? What kind of pressure does this create today?
BENNETT: Oh -- I mean, the evidence is obvious. The pressure is on the most vulnerable House Republicans. These are people who are panicking because 20 million Americans got letters last week saying that their health insurance premiums were going up by as much as 150 percent. This is a tragedy for those families and a catastrophe for those Republicans because they're the ones getting blamed.
You know, Democrats didn't do everything right last year politically, but one thing they got right was during the shutdown they put the blame squarely on the president and his party for this unbelievable increase in premiums for people that are buying their health insurance on the exchanges. Everyone understands who is responsible for this and that is why nine Republicans have broken with the speaker to make this happen.
BERMAN: Panic, Scott?
JENNINGS: Panic, no. If I were Democrats, I'd be panicked because we now finally have a full airing of what happened here. Obamacare is a Democratic law. The Obamacare subsidies were a Democratic attempt to fix a bad Democratic law. And the sunset of Obamacare subsidies were put in by Democrats who had to pass the subsidies to fix their bad law in the first place.
Now Republicans are in charge, and they are having to clean up this mess right now. And I do think when it goes over to the Senate there are conversations having -- happening about what to do about it. So they may wind up dealing with this Democratic mess.
I also think what's going to happen in the House beyond this vote is I think you're going to see House Republican leaders do another reconciliation budget process and they may yet still deal with health care in that. So as a governing matter, they do have some responsibilities here. But
let's make no mistake, we're dealing with Obamacare and the horrific fallout of all the lies that have been told about Obamacare since it passed.
BERMAN: All right. We just started 2026. Let's quickly talk about 2028 where Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro just announced he is running for re-election for governor this year -- listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. JOSH SHAPIRO, (D) PENNSYLVANIA: We cut through the red tape to get I-95 rebuilt in record time. We did it using materials from a Pennsylvania business and with the muscle and knowhow of Pennsylvania union workers. But it wasn't just there. We've gotten shit done all across our commonwealth.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: He may have to wash his mouth of with soap.
But Matt, my question to you is how do you run for re-election when you're really running for president?
BENNETT: Oh. I mean, when you're running in Pennsylvania it's pretty simple because that is the center of the target in presidential general elections. So if he comes out of 2028 -- sorry, coming out of this year having won a big re-election victory in the most important state in the country in a presidential, he is going to have a lot of wind at his back -- and I think he's going to.
His announcement video was fantastic. He is doing exactly what he needs to do to win in a big, diverse state that has, you know, a whole bunch of Trump voters. Pennsylvania went for Trump in 2024. And if he can win there that's going to be a big electability sign for Democratic primary voters.
[07:45:08]
BERMAN: Matt Bennett, Scott Jennings, great to see you both this morning. Thank you -- Sara.
SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right.
Just moments ago a new report showing job cuts fell to a 17-month low to close out 2025, and that hiring has started to rebound.
CNN senior reporter Matt Egan joins us now. These are good indicators it seems for the economy, correct? What are you -- what are you learning from this report?
MATT EGAN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Yeah, Sara. Look, this is an encouraging sign on the job market, and it suggests that employers -- they really tapped the brakes on layoffs at the end of last year.
So this is coming from Challenger, Gray & Christmas. They're reporting that in December there were just over 35,000 announced layoffs. Now that may sound like a lot but that is down sharply by 50 percent from November, and it is a little bit lower than in December of 2024.
This is especially encouraging because there was that spike early last year and you can see it on this chart. February and March, there were a lot of announced layoffs --
SIDNER: Yeah.
EGAN: -- and that was raising all kinds of fears about the economy, about the job market. As the year went on it did cool off except for October, although that may have been driven by the government shutdown. And as you mentioned, ending 2025 at not just the lowest of the year but also a 17-month low. And so again, that is encouraging.
The other good news here is that hiring plans -- they also picked up in December significantly over December of 2024. And yet, it was still a rough year when it came --
SIDNER: Yeah.
EGAN: -- to layoffs all year Challenger says there were 1.2 million announced job cuts. That is the highest for any year since 2020. It was because of a range of different factors. Some of the leading ones were economic and market conditions. Also, the closure of stores and departments laying their -- artificial intelligence and tariffs as well.
But look, all of this sets the stage for tomorrow's much more important and much more closely watched official jobs report, and it's expected to show that while hiring remained soft, that the unemployment rate did tick lower.
SIDNER: All right. We'll have to wait and see. A lot of people saying it's really hard to find a job --
EGAN: Yeah.
SIDNER: -- but that explains part of it. That one million-plus people --
EGAN: Absolutely.
SIDNER: -- that's the highest we've seen since 2020.
All right, Matt Egan.
EGAN: Thank you, Sara.
SIDNER: Great reporting. Thank you -- Kate.
BOLDUAN: Coming up for us, the U.S. military is kicking up a notch its pressure campaign on what it is calling a shadow fleet of oil tankers connected to Venezuela. What has now been seized and where this is headed next. We've got much more coming in for you on this.
Also, a major legal settlement over AI. What Google and Character.AI are now agreeing to after a teenager's death.
We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL)
[07:51:30]
BOLDUAN: New this morning President Trump says the U.S. could be running Venezuela for years. In a brand new interview the president telling The New York Times "Only time will tell." The Times also reports this -- that "Trump did not give a precise time range. Would it be three months? Six months? A year? Longer?" His response, "I would say much longer," the president replied.
Days after capturing Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro, the Trump administration is scrambling right now to map out a long-term plan for that country. After classified briefings on Capitol Hill yesterday, lawmakers were divided about whether there is a plan.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. SETH MOULTON (D-MA): There are a lot of questions from both Democrats and Republicans about what comes next -- what the timeline is -- and they basically refused to answer any of those questions.
REP. GREGORY MEEKS (D-NY): Did I hear a strategy? The answer is no. There's been no planning.
REPORTER: Do you feel confident that there is a clear end game?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I do. I do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOLDUAN: This morning we will see the first test of Congress' support for the president's intervention in Venezuela. The Senate is set to hold a vote on a war powers resolution to -- basically, the vote would block further military action in Venezuela without congressional approval.
And joining me now, CNN global affairs analyst Kim Dozier. Kim, there's so many things I want to ask you about today about where things are developing in Venezuela.
Trump said the United States is going to be there for years to come. You heard some of the senators. Chris Murphy, the Democratic senator from Connecticut, came out saying that the plan that he heard -- this 3-point plan or whatever -- he called it insane.
What are you hearing about the clarity or lack thereof in the point -- in the plan now?
KIMBERLY DOZIER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, this is essentially the U.S. taking on a country like it took on Iraq or Afghanistan. And while it's not trying to remake the government, at least yet, if it wants to be able to extract resource profits and make it safe for U.S. companies to expand how they do business there, it's going to mean either coopting everyone that's in power and hoping that they will on pass the profits, et cetera and not somehow betray the Trump administration, and that they also all remain in power.
This is a place of -- a mosaic of competing factions where Rodriguez, the acting president, will possibly look weak and she'll present an opportunity for the defense minister and the minister of interior, et cetera. So a lot of drama ahead.
BOLDUAN: Yeah, to say the least, right?
Something else that's coming out of this New York Times interview I found fascinating is what happened with Colombia's president. Trump kind of stopped the interview to take an hourlong call from the Colombian leader who Trump, remember, recently called a sick man and even kind of was like I'm OK with the military going in there as well.
The new call that he just had was off the record, according to The New York Times, but The New York Times then said this about the call. That "The call appeared to dissipate any immediate threat of U.S. military action, and Mr. Trump indicated he believed that the decapitation of the Maduro regime had intimidated other leaders in the region to fall into line."
Trump then had said -- then said on social media that he appreciated the call and the tone.
What do you think this means?
[07:55:00]
DOZIER: Basically, the Colombian leader blinked. He had been more aggressive in social media --
BOLDUAN: Yeah.
DOZIER: -- but this was a call to make nice because Latin American leaders, African leaders, European leaders -- everyone is saying you don't know what Trump might do next and we have to placate him because the risk right now is high.
BOLDUAN: It's like going -- remember from the first term the madman theory? Like, this is -- feels like it's --
DOZIER: Yeah.
BOLDUAN: -- in practice.
Um, connected --
DOZIER: Yeah.
BOLDUAN: Yeah.
Connected to this is Russia -- something you and I have talked about for, well, now almost four years -- and the shadow fleet that the Trump administration is trying to take out.
One take on what's the connective tissue other than Russia kind of claimed that ship -- one take from a former ambassador I had on yesterday was that taking the oil tankers isn't about the oil. It's about winning leverage over Russia and its war on Ukraine.
And on that, Lindsey Graham is now saying that Donald Trump has at long last greenlit the bipartisan Russia sanctions bill that they've been working on and that has 80-plus co-sponsors.
Graham saying this. "This bill will allow President Trump to punish those countries who buy cheap Russian oil fueling Putin's war machine. This bill would give President Trump tremendous leverage against countries like China, India, Brazil to incentivize them to stop buying the cheap Russian oil that provides the financing for Putin's bloodbath against Ukraine."
How big is this, Kim, in that long negotiation and where things stand when it comes to the war and those relationships? How big is this if this vote does take place next week as he hopes?
DOZIER: It feels like Trump has flip-flopped in his approach to Russia. That he is now taking the strongman approach as opposed to being talked out of almost everything he had previously planned in the conversations with Putin. So we'll have to watch this space.
The Russians have reacted in a very sort of banal way to the seizure of the tanker. There hasn't been huge headlines in Russian media attacking the U.S. for it. Um, it seems like everyone's worried --
I had a Trump official tell me once it's great to have someone like President Trump to negotiate for because I can go to world leaders and sit in a room saying, you know, I'm the reasonable one. You don't know what he might do. And the negotiator found that to be an asset.
Right now, everyone in the world is saying they don't know what he might do. Please, give us a reasonable way out.
BOLDUAN: Yeah. And this sanctions bill, if it -- if approved and put in place -- that is giving some huge new leverage for the president to use.
It's great to see you, Kim. Thank you so much for coming in -- Sara.
SIDNER: All right.
On our radar for you, breaking overnight, two people are dead and six others injured after a shooting outside a building at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The suspect is still on the run this morning. The victims were attending a funeral at the time. Police also did not believe that the shooting was random, but they do not believe the church itself was the target.
Now we want to warn you this video is disturbing but look at this. A Florida driver attacked by a passenger and his dashcam caught the whole thing. You can see the suspect in the backseat suddenly grabbing the 61-year-old driver and repeatedly punching him. The driver was somehow able to stop his car even while driving on the busy interstate. The 19-year-old suspect was arrested and charged. The victim was hospitalized with serious injuries to his face -- John.
BERMAN: That's awful -- just awful.
SIDNER: It is.
BERMAN: All right.
This morning one of the first legal settlements over alleged harms to young people using AI chatbots. Character.AI and Google settled five lawsuits in four states, including one from a Florida mother whose son died after developing a deep relationship with Character.AI bots.
CNN's Clare Duffy has been following this and joins me now. What are you learning?
CLARE DUFFY, CNN BUSINESS WRITER: Yeah. So this is five lawsuits that both Character.AI, Google, and Character.AI founders Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas agreed to settle, as you said, in four states. And it includes -- the lawsuits included claims that Character.AI chatbots contributed to young people's mental health crises and exposed them to sexualized content.
And as you said, it included this lawsuit from Florida mother Megan Garcia, who alleged that Character.AI chatbots contributed to her 14- year-old son Sewell Setzer's death by suicide. He was chatting with Character.AI bots in the moments before he died. In one case, it encouraged him to come home to it.
And this is, of course, very significant because as you said, this resolves -- this is the first resolution that we've seen to these lawsuits accusing AI chatbot companies of contributing to young people's mental health harms.
And this, of course, comes too as we reported late last year Pew Research Center found that around 30 percent of U.S. teens say they interact with AI chatbots daily -- some of them almost constantly. So this is something I think that parents are increasingly becoming aware of, becoming concerned about.
Now, these lawsuits also led Character.AI to make a number of changes to the platform in November of last year.
