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Interview With Minneapolis, Minnesota, City Councilmember Aurin Chowdhury; Outrage Grows in Minnesota. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired January 08, 2026 - 13:00   ET

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

[13:00:00]

DANA BASH, CNN HOST: Any of these cities because of the surge across the country.

MOLLY BALL, POLITICAL JOURNALIST AND AUTHOR: Yes, absolutely. It's a very tense situation, and the fact that -- and to your point, that they have been rare historically, but this is not the first time in the past year...

BASH: Right.

BALL: ... that there has been a shooting involving ICE officers, right, that there's been a shooting involving a moving car.

And so that is the context for all of this, is that this is a nationwide deployment. This is something everyone has seen in their cities.

BASH: Thank you all for being here today. Thank you so much for your great reporting. Thank you for watching INSIDE POLITICS.

Don't go anywhere. "CNN NEWS CENTRAL" starts right now.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: We begin the hour with breaking news.

Vice President J.D. Vance is about to speak as outrage builds over the deadly ICE shooting in Minneapolis. Minnesota officials are now saying the federal government is blocking their investigation. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem just denied that and doubled down on her claim that the woman who died, Renee Nicole Good, was a domestic terrorist.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KRISTI NOEM, U.S. HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: This is an experienced officer who followed his training. And we will continue to let the investigation unfold into the individual and continue to follow the procedures and policies that happen in these use-of-force cases.

But let's remember the events that surrounded what happened yesterday on that tragic situation, was that these individuals had followed our officers all day, had harassed them, had blocked them in. They were impeding our law enforcement operations, which is against the law. And when they demanded and commanded her to get out of her vehicle several times, she did not.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Earlier, we saw tense clashes between protesters and federal law enforcement in Minneapolis. Officers could be seen deploying a gas-like substance to move protesters away from the federal building where ICE operates there.

And Noem says she's not opposed to sending more federal law enforcement officers to the area.

CNN senior national correspondent Ryan Young is on the ground in Minnesota.

Ryan, what are you seeing?

RYAN YOUNG, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you can still smell the agent in the air.

I can tell you, this is such a different situation that we experienced earlier this morning. Look, before 6:30 a.m., people were lining up here. The reason why? They wanted to block these gates here to stop federal agents from getting on the inside.

You can see Border Patrol now has fallen back to this line right here. But every so often, something happens that sparks a clash between this crowd. This is what's left over of the protesters. Now, I can tell you the organized protesters said they were going to leave over two hours ago.

But, at that point, you could see the people lining up in the street, and that sort of kept some people here. I will show you some of the video of what happened earlier. We had intense clashes. We have seen people get arrested. We have seen pepper spray at least deployed three or four different times in this area.

We saw pepper balls being shot at people's feet to make sure they dispersed. And at the same time, the yelling was nonstop as people kept screaming at the ICE agents to leave this city. And on top of all that in terms of all this anger, now you have the governor speaking about the fact that -- what a lot of these people want.

In fact, they want locals to be involved in this investigation. They feel angry about what they have seen in terms of video and what they have heard from the administration. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. TIM WALZ (D-MN): It feels very, very difficult that we will get a fair outcome. And I say that only because people in positions of power have already passed judgment, from the president to the vice president to Kristi Noem have stood and told you things that are verifiably false, verifiably inaccurate.

They have determined the character of a 37-year-old mom that they didn't even know. (END VIDEO CLIP)

YOUNG: Yes, Brianna, we have been following this all morning long. I want to walk you this direction before I show you another clip of video here.

If you look down here, you can see some of that agent that's still left on the ground here. And every now and then, you get a strong whiff of what's left. This is where one of the strongest interactions happened. In fact, there was a man who was -- decided to use his body to try to stop a police car from going through. He used his body to stop it.

Someone hit the side of the mirror. And then we saw people sort of rushing in to grab these men and to arrest them. It was a very intense moment. But the loudest cheers or jeers from this crowd came when Greg Bovino himself started walking this line.

And we were here for over 40 minutes watching him walk up and down, talk to different Border Patrol agents, give them encouragement for standing here. And the crowd really got energized by seeing him, so more people stayed. And then counterprotesters showed up in supporting Border Patrol.

So this really has been a real big soup of emotions for the entire day. And it's continuing even as we speak.

[13:05:02]

KEILAR: Yes, and we are watching live pictures of the scene of where she passed away, and people are still gathered there in Minneapolis.

Ryan Young live for us there on the ground, thank you very much for that.

Let's go now to the White House, and CNN's Alayna Treene is there.

Alayna, what are you learning as we're awaiting Vice President Vance speaking?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes, we are. We're waiting for this press briefing now, the vice president, J.D. Vance, I'm told. And, of course, he's going to be joined by the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, as well.

He is really going to be focused on this fateful shooting yesterday with -- involving this ICE agent. And I would note we have heard Vance, similar to other top Trump officials, people like the secretary of homeland security, Kristi Noem, and the president himself, really defending the ICE officer who had shot the gun.

I want to read you just one thing that Vance said. He posed a question on social media today, saying that: "Do you think the officer was wrong in defending his life against" what he called was a "deranged leftist who tried to run him over?" He also similarly today argued that the victim here, who we know now

is Renee Good -- she was 37 -- he said that this was a tragedy, but that the tragedy -- quote -- "falls on this woman and all of the radicals who teach people that immigration is the one type of law that rioters are allowed to interfere with."

So this gives you a sense of what we might hear in this briefing today. Of course, he is expected to take questions as well. So, eager to hear how he answers those, but it does come in light of we heard Noem earlier during a press conference doubling down on her claims that this was domestic terrorism, that they believe that the officer acted in the way that he should, it was out of self-defense.

Of course, this all comes as we know that many state and local leaders, as Ryan was pointing out, are arguing -- or disputing this, idea and many others, particularly the legal experts, are saying we really have to wait and see what this investigation shows, there's so much we still do not know and it's not an appropriate time to draw conclusions.

So we're awaiting this. But I will tell you again, from all of the most high-profile people in this administration, the president himself, they have very much been standing by ICE in this, and particularly that agent who was the one who fired his weapon.

KEILAR: We have heard that time and again.

Alayna Treene live for us from the White House.

Aurin Chowdhury is with us now. She is a member of the Minneapolis City Council and represents an area near where the fatal shooting happened.

Thank you, Councilmember, for being with us.

Minnesota investigators are saying they can't access evidence in the probe. The public safety commissioner, Bob Jacobson, just said -- we just heard in that press conference from Minneapolis that they were initially invited in. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem says it's not that they have been cut out. It's just that they don't have any jurisdiction in this investigation.

What's your understanding of how this works and what have you learned?

AURIN CHOWDHURY, MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, CITY COUNCILMEMBER: Learning this, this morning is incredibly disappointing, especially since the Trump administration and Kristi Noem have made prejudgments right off the bat before an investigation has even been completed.

The FBI is a jurisdiction within the federal government. And leaders within the federal government have already made decisions and assumptions about this case. Having the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension would have allowed a level of independence from the federal about its own actions after the president and Kristi Noem have already made a decision. So we are really disappointed to see this. We are worried about the transparency and fairness of what comes out of this investigation.

KEILAR: Do you think there's any way the federal government can investigate what happened here fairly?

CHOWDHURY: Right now, I'm not seeing a path.

I think the way that they do it is allow for Minnesota to be a part of this. Allow us into the investigation. Work with our governor, so there is some level of transparency and accountability. We have people who are professionals that do this work, especially in cases of an officer-involved shooting.

This is the moment where this could happen. So that would be a step forward. I would encourage the federal government to go back to the table with Minnesota and have a fair and transparent investigation.

KEILAR: State and local officials have called for ICE to leave Minnesota, but what can officials actually do to compel federal agents to leave?

[13:10:00]

CHOWDHURY: I mean, as a local official myself, I know that I can't force ICE agents to leave, but I'm going to continue to use my voice and say that they need to go immediately, because they're not keeping anybody safe here.

They have shot and killed a neighbor of ours. Community members are very, very set in the reality that it could have been any one of them. And that is not a type of fear that engenders safety here. We've had ICE agents descend onto a public high school yesterday and use chemical irritants when teenagers were present.

We've had ICE agents pull a pregnant woman and drag her in the snow out of the car. So we're going to keep on sharing the truth about what's going on here, that the violence that's happening is happening by ICE agents, and there is just a level of complete unaccountability, violating people's basic rights, and also detaining citizens, detaining people without cause.

This is not who America is, and it's flying in the face, it's flying in the face of the basic morals and rights that every person is given in this nation.

KEILAR: You pushed to strengthen the city's separation ordinance that limits coordination between the city's police department and federal immigration authorities. It was strengthened last month.

Do you think MPD's distance from federal immigration enforcement activities could be resulting in a lack of communication that may actually make Minnesotans less safe?

CHOWDHURY: No, I do not. I think this makes Minnesotans more safe. We need Minnesotans to trust

our local law enforcement and have that type of trust. If MPD was doing the work of the federal government, that trust would be totally broken. We need MPD to work to protect and ensure the safety of our residents here.

And we have limited resources in the city of Minneapolis. We're going to use our limited resources to actually keeping our streets safe, to answering 911 calls. I think the city of Minneapolis should absolutely not do the work of immigration enforcement, especially as these agents are again violating people's basic rights.

They are detaining citizens, and they are detaining people without an actual cause and not falling through on any due process.

KEILAR: And I hear what you're saying about doing the work of what federal agents would do.

That aside, not talking about that, would there be some other role for local law enforcement, not to do the work of what, say, ICE is doing, but for them to have some kind of presence? Is there a way for them to have some kind of coordination of knowing where ICE is, to have some kind of presence where they can be safe, or do you just see that as actually making things less safe?

How do you see that?

CHOWDHURY: I just -- for me, as an individual councilmember representing my community and hearing from the community members that I'm charged to represent, any type of coordination would not be helpful and, again would break trust, which would lead to more community members feeling unsafe and ultimately feeling like they cannot reach out to police officers when they're in danger.

Community members are reaching out to the city of Minneapolis when there is ICE presence. It's very visible when that's happening. And, of course, we want our police officers to respond and be there to make sure everyone's OK, to make sure that the separation ordinance is being followed, to make sure that ICE agents are not using city properties and vacant lots to stage out of.

But if they were to coordinate with ICE, our community would lose that trust and that would impact public safety so much.

KEILAR: Councilmember Aurin Chowdhury, thank you for being with us.

CHOWDHURY: Thank you.

KEILAR: And we are waiting to hear from Vice President J.D. Vance. He will be in attendance at today's White House press briefing. Vance is expected to discuss the Minneapolis shooting from the podium. And we will bring that to you live.

Stay with CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [13:19:08]

KEILAR: New today, "The New York Times" releasing part of a wide- ranging interview with President Trump. Four "Times" reporters sat with the president for three hours yesterday discussing everything from Venezuela to his plans for White House renovations and more.

One of those reporters, CNN political and national security analyst David Sanger, he's with us now. David was one of the

reporters who spent those hours in the Oval last night for this interview.

David, let's start with the first line of your piece here, so important. "President Trump said on Wednesday evening that he expected the United States would be running Venezuela and extracting oil from its huge reserves for years."

For years. Talk to us about the timeline and what you asked him about that and what he did and did not commit to there.

DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, during that time, Brianna, we explored with the president what he thought it would take to both bring back the oil industry, but also what it would take to restore Venezuelan society.

[13:20:14]

And what was interesting was, not surprisingly, the president had a much firmer thought on what it would take to restore the oil capacity and the ability to pump the world's largest reserves than he did on the question of, say, when they would be able to hold free elections.

And it's clear he is in no particular rush to hold free elections because he believes that the current government, which is what was left over after essentially Maduro was seized from his bed and the government decapitated, he believes that the rest of that structure of the government intelligence services, the military are the group that is most likely to be pliable for the United States.

And he thinks it's going to -- that situation will take place for some time. It's a bit of a virtual occupation. That is to say, we don't have troops on the ground, but we have them just offshore. And I think the concept is he's using the threat of that offshore presence to keep them in line, which will work until it doesn't.

KEILAR: Yes, elaborate on what that means to run Venezuela and to do so virtually.

SANGER: Well, it's a great question because it's an experiment that's never really been fully tried by the United States before.

When the U.S. occupied Japan after the war, the occupation lasted from 1945 to 1952. There was a similar occupation in Korea. And, of course, we have the example of Iraq. In all of those cases, there was an American force on the ground. The bet that the president is taking here is that Venezuela can keep

operating even with that corrupt and illegitimate, because it was defeated in the election, government that Maduro left, but that it would become the instrument of American power and that the U.S. won't have to put any forces on the ground.

Now, we tried to probe with the president what happens if, for example, you can't get access to the oil, you have to secure the oil sites or Americans were working there, and he didn't go down that road.

KEILAR: He didn't go down that road, a very important road to go down.

And in the article, you say: "Mr. Trump appeared far more focused on the capture mission than the details of how to navigate Venezuela's future."

Of course, David, one of those is sort of the tactic. One is the strategy. The tactic, to what end? Can you talk to us a little bit about where his mind was on that?

SANGER: Yes.

Well, Brianna, you're absolutely right. I asked him whether he had studied some of the previous examples of American interventions and the ones I just described. And it was clear from his answer that he had looked at previous military missions, for example, the failed Jimmy Carter effort to rescue the hostages in Iran.

But he did not discuss having spent much time on previous cases of American efforts to occupy a country, restore a democracy and set it back on a different course. That would be, for example, Iraq. That's particularly notable because, of course, there's a large portion of the MAGA movement that deeply opposes what they call the forever wars.

And President Trump himself has said that he thought Iraq and Afghanistan were huge mistakes made by a previous Republican president, George W. Bush. So, I thought it was interesting that he seemed a little less focused on the question of what the strategy would be for guiding the Venezuelan government in what appears to be years ahead, not just weeks or months.

KEILAR: Yes, planning the entry without the exit seems to be the pattern we see with some of these forever wars.

David Sanger, thank you so much. Really interesting interview, and we thank you for being with us to talk about it.

SANGER: Thank you, Brianna. Great to see you.

KEILAR: Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem says the ICE officer who shot and killed a woman in Minneapolis yesterday was following procedure, despite DHS employees telling CNN they are questioning the officers' actions and whether it followed very clear procedures.

[13:25:00]

We're going to talk to the former head of ICE about this deadly encounter.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: ... and an 8000 percent increase in death threats.

ICE agents are faithfully enforcing federal law to protect the safety of the American people by removing criminal illegal aliens from our country, which is exactly what nearly 80 million Americans elected President Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance to do.

Radicals in the Democrat Party are furious over this. They don't want our border secured or criminal illegal aliens being removed. As a result, Democrats are impeding immigration enforcement operations daily, creating extremely heightened and dangerous circumstances that make it nearly impossible for the men and women of law enforcement to simply do their jobs.

Democrats are calling to defund federal law enforcement agencies who are protecting public safety. And Democrats are calling to abolish ICE and defund the police. That will never be allowed to happen under this president and vice president.

The Trump administration will redouble our efforts to get the worst of the worst criminal illegal alien killers, rapists and pedophiles off of American streets. The Department of Homeland Security will continue to operate on the ground in Minnesota.