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Thousands Protest ICE After Deadly Minneapolis Shooting; Trump: Minnesota Woman Shot By ICE Officer "Behaved Horribly"; White House Defends ICE Agent Who Killed U.S. Citizen; Trump To NYT: Only Limit On My Power Is "My Own Morality"; Minnesota AG Asks Pubic For Information On Deadly ICE Shooting. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired January 09, 2026 - 12:00   ET

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

[12:00:00]

DANA BASH, CNN HOST, INSIDE POLITICS: A nation gripped by rage and fear as the Trump administration rushes to set a narrative before any investigation into the ICE shooting of a 37-year-old American woman.

I'm Dana Bash. Let's go behind the headlines at Inside Politics.

From coast to coast, protests are erupting after an American citizen was shot and killed by an ICE agent in Minneapolis. It comes as another shooting involving a federal border patrol agent in Portland adds to the scrutiny over President Trump's immigration crackdown.

Now there is still so much we don't know about both of those shootings, but the search for answers is hitting a roadblock. State officials in Minnesota say they're unable to investigate because the FBI took over and blocked their access to crucial evidence. Here's the Democratic Mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Frey.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR JACOB FREY (D) MINNEAPOLIS: Our ask is to embrace the truth. Our ask is to include the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension in this process, because we in Minneapolis want a fair investigation. 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. We are a safe city. ICE is making it less so. We are a city of unity, but ICE is trying to divide us and tear us apart.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: I'm joined by a terrific group of reporters on this Friday. Phil, I do think -- let's just start where the mayor left off, because it's not as if, in this country on a day-to-day basis, and certainly in the history of this country. There hasn't been kind of a clash between federal and state investigations and also policies. I mean, there are examples that really defined the history of this country, which I won't get into.

But in this particular time, what we have to underscore is the frustration of state officials who, in this case, happen to be Democrats, because they are not sure that the federal investigation what it will do, whether it will really play out because of the comments we've heard from the president, the vice president and others, basically saying, they're not saying case closed but they're saying we've come to a conclusion.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF DOMESTIC CORRESPONDENT: Right. There's a lot of merit to their uncertainty about what the outcome will be or what the process will be altogether. To your point, I think it's a very silly one here. The friction between state, local and federal officials in a law enforcement basis is long standing. The friction on policy between state and federal is long standing.

This has been accelerated, both in pace but also in scale, because of what's actually happening on the ground here, because of the national moment that we're in, but also because of how both sides have tried to frame things from the jump. And I don't mean that in like a both sides is some kind of way. I mean people got out very quickly to say this is exactly what this video shows. There are different opinions of what the video shows based on which side you're talking to. It's remarkable how it has split immediately down red and blue lines.

But I think what was so striking yesterday, particularly what we saw from the vice president, what we've seen from administration officials in every single public statement they've said is there is no reticence to draw conclusions. There is no hesitancy to make statements that they don't necessarily know are backed up by facts or clear data yet.

They made a decision from the very beginning, we are going to go out, we are going to set this narrative. We are going to tell people what happened, and that's where we're going to go from there. It's justified to say not totally sure how this federal investigation is going to play out. If you're already at that point from the start.

BASH: We happen to have a reporter here. We're going to talk a lot more about it, who was with the president just, I would say, minutes after this happened in Minneapolis. And it is Zolan Kanno-Youngs, you and your colleagues at the New York Times did extensive -- an extensive interview with the president.

And I just want to talk now about the portion that Phil was discussing. You were able to look at the video with the president of what actually happened from the vantage point that was captured by the people on the ground. I'm going to play a little bit of that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATES OF AMERICA (voiceover): She was -- she behaved horribly. And then she ran him over. She didn't try to run him over.

[12:05:00]

ZOLAN KANNO-YOUNGS, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST (voiceover): The video didn't look like he was run over.

Trump (voiceover): It's a terrible scene. (END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: I mean, you were literally looking at the same piece of video with the same, you know, vision as he had, but you're looking at it from the point of view of a reporter trying to get the facts. And this is a president who his entire life has been really successful at saying what you see and what you hear or what you feel isn't actually happening. Listen to me, I can convince you.

ZOLAN KANNO-YOUNGS, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST & WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, THE NEW YORK TIMES: Right. Listen to me instead of this video that's right in front of you here. I mean, we went into the Oval Office hours after this news broke of this deadly shooting. And as when our interview turned to domestic policy. This was the first thing we brought up that an American citizen had just been shot by an ICE agent who is a part of this federal crackdown that you have initiated.

And almost immediately, the president's reaction was to, yes, say this was tragedy, but also to put the blame on the driver, the victim of this shooting. And that's when -- and he made that claim. Well, she ran over the ICE officer. That's when I pushed back and said that this is disputed by local officials and federal officials.

And that's when he said, OK, we'll bring out the video. And then an aide of his came right behind his desk to the side and actually opened the laptop and watched it. As we're watching it, my colleague David Sanger said to the president, based off what I'm seeing here, it really doesn't look like an ICE officer was run over, as you claim.

At that point, the president, you know, had a bit of a softer tone and sort of mumbled, well, I, and then when the video ended, he said, It's a terrible scene. To me, I covered policing before covering the White House, and often when tragedies would happen, you'd have public officials, law enforcement officials, say, we have to wait till this investigation is over before making a conclusion.

And here you have the reactionary impulse by the president to basically -- he had made his mind up that he was going to defend--

BASH: Yes.

KANNO-YOUNGS: --the ICE officer and this before the facts were actually investigated here.

BASH: And everybody in positions of power in his cabinet, his vice president got the memo really, really fast.

KANNO-YOUNGS: Yes.

BASH: Because, I mean, I know this is maybe captain obvious, but I just want to say it and underscore it. What we're talking about is one of the most important operations to him, personally, in his administration, and that is sending ICE out into these communities to try to take people, and you know, kick them out of the country who are in the United States illegally. So of course, he is going to -- from his point of view, clearly defend ICE, even though you showed him the video.

Listen to what Kristi Noem and what J.D. Vance said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KRISTI NOEM, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: 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.

J.D. VANCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I'm not happy that this woman was there at a protest violating the law by interfering with a law enforcement action. Ramming an ICE officer with your car. That's what justifies being shot.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Normally in a situation like this on Inside Politics, we would then say what Democrats are saying in response. There was another person who really caught our attention, and that is Stephen Colbert. You know, late night hosts now maybe got a lot of flack from the White House, but historically, they have been -- people who really condense and capture the feeling in society at any given moment. Listen to Stephen Colbert.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHEN COLBERT, HOST, "THE LATE SHOW": The message from this administration is clear. Only they determine the truth, and when their forces come to your city, obey or die. And if you die, you clearly didn't obey.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Go ahead.

ASTEAD HERNDON, HOST AND EDITORIAL DIRECTOR, VOX: Yeah. I mean, I think that Colbert sums up what is a public sentiment. I mean, when we hear DHS Secretary Kristi Noem kind of make those statements, I think it implies that non-compliance is a reason for death. And I don't think that that's true -- and that's not true for ICE, it's not true for DHS officials. That's not true in policy, and that's not true morally, you know.

And I think that what people see is an opportunity for that officer to make different decisions that led to this outcome. I mean, this also doesn't just stop with these statements. Remember, Noem said that initially that they was -- there was a snow attack, and they were trying to -- that the ICE officers were compounded by the weather conditions. There was other statements, even with Vice President Vance, is there saying, that they rammed into the officer. That's not really clearly what the video shows.

I mean, I think that this is a form of kind of top-down narrative setting that this White House has become very used to.

BASH: Exactly. HERNDON: But on certain issues, it really backfires on them, because I think the public can make up for their own minds. And also, I think Donald Trump is losing his narrative setting power. And so, like, I think he's used to kind of the 30, 40 percent of the country who always seemingly agree with him. But even though that's true in a Washington context, maybe the red and blue have gone to their partisan corners.

[12:10:00]

I'm not sure that's going to be true in a public sentiment context. This was clear. And the video makes that clear, and the statements from the officials after it, I think, speaks to their willingness to tell the American public basically anything. And from my opinion like, if they're willing to say untruths about a video that we see, it begs the question of their credibility of things that we don't see.

BASH: You have a lot of faith in a shared reality and truth that I have -- I want to share your faith in that.

HERNDON: I guess I don't really, honestly --

BASH: --because

HERNDON: I do think in certain moments, we get issues that do cut through north. I think Trump's reaction to Rob Reiner is a good example, and that death. Where I think that the partisan corner leads to one place, but the public reaction against that is mask. I don't -- I do -- I don't think universally, these issues split 50-50, and even though in Congress it does.

BASH: What are you hearing from your sources as you walk on Capitol Hill, particularly from those who are telling you things quietly?

MARIANNA SOTOMAYOR, CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER, THE WASHINGTON POST: Well, yeah, the quietly is always the important part. I think, just what everyone touched on, just how quickly politicized this became. I mean, we saw Angie Craig go up to the highest-ranking Minnesota in Congress, Tom Emmer of the House Majority Whip. And they were -- I mean, they had to be physically separated because they were just going at it.

And Craig's message was, you guys are setting the narrative here and this, just give it a -- give it a minute. What I'm hearing is that Democrats really are starting to weigh whether they should wage a government shutdown fight over this. There's still the homeland appropriations bill. There are some Democrats who are calling possibly to impeach Noem on this. This is not necessarily conversation that Democrats want to have.

But when it comes to Republicans, not many of them wanted to watch the video in real time. They didn't want to talk about this in real time. And even Speaker Johnson today was pretty tepid on, we need to continue this investigation. There's just -- he didn't want to answer the questions. And I would say that that's one Republican who we should be watching it on this front. BASH: Definitely. All right. We're going to sneak in a break. When we come back, we're going to talk more about someone's fascinating interview with President Trump. He and his colleagues spoke to the president for two hours. There is a lot to break down. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:15:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BASH: Going to get back to that New York Times sit down with the president in the Oval Office. It was the widest of wide-ranging interviews and there is a lot to get to. We happen to be sitting. As you heard in the first segment with one of the interviewers.

Zolan, I want to start with how President Trump described his power on the world stage, whether there are any guard rails for him?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KATIE ROGERS, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, THE NEW YORK TIMES (voiceover): Do you see any checks on your power on the world stage? Is there anything that could stop you if you wanted to?

TRUMP (voiceover): Yeah, there's one thing. My own morality. My own mind. It's the only thing that can stop me.

KANNO-YOUNGS (voiceover): Not, international law?

TRUMP (voiceover): And that's very good. I don't need international law. I'm not looking to hurt people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Welcome back. Zolan, did you all pick your jaws up from the desk when he -- when he said that? Because, I mean, there is a constitution, for example.

KANNO-YOUNGS: Sure.

BASH: There are international, never mind norms, but actual laws. And the fact that he said he's only hemmed in by his own morality.

KANNO-YOUNGS: Yeah, he tried to keep a poker face there but did follow up. And say, well, it's not just your morality. I asked about international law. And at first he brushed aside. And I said, well, do you feel that you have to abide by international law. And that's when he said something along the lines of, you know, well, it depends how you define international law. Well, you know, many would say there's not a subjective view of that, right?

I really think what just this spoke to, these were the quotes that stood out during this interview. And it spoke to the power the president has gathered, but also his erosion of guardrails, not just in domestically, in the U.S., but also overseas. And it is especially significant right now because of the military operation we just saw in Venezuela. His comments also about Greenland. He told us in this interview that psychologically. He feels that he wants ownership of Greenland.

BASH: I want to get to that. Yeah.

KANNO-YOUNGS: And then also, just in terms of Venezuela, the news where he said that he feels that the U.S. will have oversight of Venezuela for years, right? We saw that that has had ripple effects in Congress. Rand Paul came out after that resolution was passed to constrain the president when it comes to military operations overseas. And he said, I think part of the reason we got Republican votes for this was that comment he made in our interview.

BASH: And it's just an example. Tim Sheehy, the senator -- Republican senator from Montana, was here a couple of days ago. And I asked him about it, and he said, you know, everybody is taking the president -- this is before your interview -- the context say, he says he's running. It doesn't mean forever. And then he comes out and says to you, for a very long time. I feel like, based on my own morality, is going to be one of those quotes that will be very high in the history books written of Donald Trump's second term.

HERNDON: It's the fascinating thing about Trump. He just says it, right, like he just -- he just puts it out there. And to me, this has been the consistent through line of this second term, whether we talk about Stephen Miller's obsession with plenary power, whether we talk about the way they've used executive authority from things, from DOJ, domestic policy, international policy, their through line has been Donald Trump's kind of overarching view that he is unchecked.

[12:20:00]

And that Congress has basically, no, I was on the Hill yesterday. They're talking about their kind of abdication of power to kind of fuel Trump's kind of all encompassing ability to make policy. So, I think that his admission there is one that's actually been very clear throughout how he's conducted the second term.

And I think is a takeaway that they have from the first time. I say this all the time, but like, in those Biden years, the grassroots fervor among the MAGA crowd, around that Donald Trump was stymied in his first term. And that basically, if he was to get back--

BASH: But he has rhinos around.

HERNDON: That he had all these rhinos around him. And if he gets back, he needs to surround with true believers who will enact a total MAGA agenda. That is the goal of this second term.

BASH: I do want to play Phil what Zolan was just referring to this moment, talking about Greenland.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP (voiceover): To me, it's ownership. Ownership is very important. DAVID SANGER, CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, THE NEW YORK TIMES (voiceover): Why is ownership important here?

TRUMP (voiceover): Because that's what I feel is psychologically needed for success. I think that ownership gives you a thing that you can't do, whether you're talking about a lease or a treaty.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: The fascinating part about this is like when the president describes what he wants to do versus when the aides or advisors try and justify it with some policy or legal underpinning, which I think actually dovetails really well with what as Astead's laying out here. Because it wasn't just surrounding himself with MAGA loyalists and advisors who weren't going to push back.

Those were the same people who also spent four years out of power, building the legal underpinning rationale and authorities that they were going to deploy here. You listen to him, and it's a very simplified like, it's just kind of feels like that's what we should do. And his team is like, well, there's this thing that we did 100 years ago, and then we could do this thing, and this is the other thing.

And here's the national security reason why, and here's the -- it's the ability to fuse those things, which is why they have been able to achieve what they've achieved or accomplish what they've accomplished. I think what people need to understand more than anything else. And I think this all kind of nets together. And we've talked about this a ton Dana, is Congress has a role here that they have abdicated over a period of decades on war powers, on tariffs, on appropriations, on everything.

They have said we don't want to do that because that seems hard. We don't want to do that because that may be politically difficult in my next re-election. We don't want to do that because that president is from our party. And now it's coming home to roost, and they are wearing it, and no one is doing anything about it.

BASH: Stand by. Forgive me. I was just told in my ear that Keith Ellison, who is the attorney general in the state of Minnesota, is speaking now live about this case in Minnesota.

KEITH ELLISON, MINNESOTA ATTORNEY GENERAL: Set for the process which when it's over. Fair minded people can say, well, as good and just of a job that could be done was done. I think I agree with County Attorney Moriarty. There is no conclusion that anyone can reach in good faith at this time, because there's too much evidence still to be evaluated.

Now, what we're doing here is asking the public who may have video. There may be people who were on the scene, who have -- who saw what happened, who have some type of evidence that they feel bears on what the truth is in this case, and they can use that QR code as this evidence submission portal. The evidence will go to the Minnesota BCA, who will gather it. And we want to make sure that as the moments go by, every moment in these cases is precious. And you know it is important that people know where they can go to share the evidence that they have in their possession. And so that's the idea here.

So, I know as if you are someone who has direct information and you have information that you feel should be shared, please use this portal and share that information. Don't judge for yourself whether it's very important or not very important. Let the people who are evaluating and gathering the evidence make that decision. But if you have information bearing on the outcome of this matter in any way, please share it.

And I will say many of you in the press may ask the question, is this an estate investigation? Well, gathering evidence is certainly a component of an investigation. We are going to do the best that we can do for the public, knowing that the current posture of the federal and this is not a critique of them, it's just a statement of fact.

[12:25:00]

The current posture is that the investigation is one that the feds want to do without state involvement. And so, we still know that there's evidence out there, and we want to make sure it gets gathered and collected, and we'll deal with those other matters of joint versus exclusive later. But as for now, we want to make sure the evidence that may be out there in the public lands where it should. And so, with that, I'll -- I guess, any other comments to be made?

MARY MORIARTY, HENNEPIN COUNTY ATTORNEY: No. Questions? Please one at a time.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You said the BCA is saving evidence with you. So, what is the BCA role here? And what do you make of their claim that they can't do an investigation anymore?

MORIARTY: Well, so the question has to do with, what is the BCA is role here. The BCA had already -- as you know, there was an agreement to do a joint investigation with the FBI. So that had started. So that much the FBI, or the -- excuse me, the BCA has done. They are currently typing up those reports. They will certainly share those with us. Their role in this will be to collect and catalog all the information that we get here.

I want to emphasize, you know, this isn't about one department or anything. As the attorney general said, this is about all of us at a state level working together on behalf of Minnesotans who expect all of us to be able to work together to come up with transparency in whatever a decision might be. Yes?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have two questions there.

MORIARTY: Sure.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just to clarify. So, the BCA found -- because of the initial agreement with FBI. Do they have the totality of whatever forensic crime scene evidence that was gathered. Is that already in the custody of the state?

MORIARTY: So, the question was about, yeah, because of the original joint agreement, does the BCA have access to forensic evidence? So, process here, the way the process unfolded is that the federal government came and was processing the seat. So, the agreement had to be worked out with the BCA. When the BCA came to the scene, the evidence had been taken by the FBI.

They collected the car and took it wherever. The BCA does not have access to the car. And the problem isn't that the FBI took the car, it's that the BCA doesn't have access to the car, or right now even access to the forensic evaluation that happens as a result of the investigation with that car.

So that's the concern here. That is what Drew Evans was saying that in a normal investigation, the BCA would take the car, do their own forensic analysis, fingerprints, DNA, that kind of stuff, all of that kind of stuff. But they have not done in that -- in this case, which would have been fine and would still be fine if the BCA could have access to the results.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, the fruits of the labor currently BCA does not have?

MORIARTY: That's correct.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, I guess the part two of my question, and I'm sorry. I know how I can only imagine how extraordinarily frustrating this is for your office and your prosecutors. You're doing this to get whatever kind of video evidence, or, you know, whatever people can add the investigation. But if you don't end up getting the forensic evidence from the FBI or whoever, what can you do as a prosecutor?

MORIARTY: I think it's premature to make that decision. We don't know what we're going to get. Now, I'll note that there was a video posted last night that most of us hadn't seen before that the caption on social media was that neighbors released it. And so, we think that there may be other evidence out there, video, that kind of thing. We don't know. And so, as the attorney general and I know, it is critical to preserve evidence, because it could be recorded over it, you know, something could happen to it.

And so, this is an attempt to make sure that we preserve the evidence that's out there. And so, we're going to continue to do that. We're going to continue to look at what's there. But it's really too early right now to say what we can and cannot do.

(CROSSTALK)

MORIARTY: Matt?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who, after the Justice Department made this decision not to include the BCA in this investigation. Do you know?

ELLISON: I honestly think you should ask them. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you get any reasoning for why the FBI was taking over the investigation? Is there any reasoning behind this (inaudible)?

ELLISON: Maybe Mary knows more than I do. I was just informed that that was the situation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (inaudible) registration?

MORIARTY: No, I don't. So, I was also informed that, you know, the BCA, that as far as I knew, it was going to be a joint investigation based on the conversations we had had with the federal government as well as the FBI and then that changed. The only way I can't speak to why.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can you address how unprecedented this is? Are you going to be sharing information that you're gathering with the FBI? And federal authorities could not have been more clear yesterday that you folks have no jurisdiction. And Commissioner Bob Jacobson was asked this question yesterday, and he said that they couldn't do an investigation