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Man ICE Killed In Minneapolis Identified As Alex Pretti; CNN Analysis: Videos Shown Gun Taken From Pretti Just Before Shooting; U.S. Power Outages Surge Past 750,000 Amid Massive Winter Storm; Minneapolis on Edge After Another Fatal Shooting By Federal Agents; Democrats Threaten Partial Government Shutdown Over Shooting. Aired 11a-12p ET

Aired January 25, 2026 - 11:00   ET

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

[11:00:41]

MANU RAJU, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. And welcome to "Inside Politics Sunday." I'm Manu Raju.

Millions of Americans are waking up this morning to that monster storm that is paralyzing much of the country. We'll get into that in a minute.

But we begin with the breaking news in Minneapolis. A man shot and killed by federal agents with new videos calling into question the narrative pushed by the Trump administration.

CNN's Whitney Wild is live with -- live on the scene. What are you seeing from what happened overnight and now into this morning?

WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: Manu, we continue to see a growing memorial here even in sub-zero temperatures. We are seeing more and more people come out to pay their respects to Alex Pretti. He is the man who was shot and killed by immigration agents yesterday. He's an ICU nurse who worked at the V.A.

Now, we see people who did not even know him coming out to pay their respects. Let me show you what we can see here. You see dozens of bouquets of flowers. You see hundreds of candles. You see notes to Alex signs with his photo. Here's one. Thank you for loving, serving, and saving lives. This has been going on since last night.

Earlier, I spoke with a man who had come out to -- to basically watch over the vigil, protect the vigil in the overnight hours when there were very few people here. Those were temperatures that reached 10 below and he had been out here all night, Manu.

Here's what he told me about why it was important for him to come out and protect this vigil, even though he did not know Alex Pretti. Here's what he told me.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

B.J. CLARK, MINNEAPOLIS RESIDENT: He was just here holding his phone. He shouldn't be dead right now. Apparently, he was a medic from like a military vet medic. So someone who saved lives died for absolutely no reason.

And ICE is still here and big man in office doesn't want to let them out and they need to go.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WILD: Manu, in a word people here are outraged. I spoke with one woman who came out here this morning, again, to pay their respects to the very spot where Alex Pretti spent the last moments of his life. And she said what brought her out here was outraged.

She is a mother. She says her son is brown. She is terrified about what will happen to him if he goes out and is stopped. She's afraid, really afraid, actually afraid, that he may lose his life and leave his two children with no father. That is the reality here for people in Minneapolis.

And I asked her, Manu, you know, what do people who support what's going on not get about what she's going through here? And she said, if they don't get it after seeing all of this, they will not get it.

Here's one thing I -- I think is interesting and that is happening right now. Can we turn, Kent? I want to show you something.

There's a BCA special agent here. There's lots of law enforcement. That's important because what we know was that BCA had not been able to process the scene, initially. They were blocked out by the Department of Homeland Security. That was different from other shooting scenes we'd seen. There have been three shootings here in as many weeks. Two times BCA came out to process the scene.

The last shooting with Alex Pretti, they were not able to process the scene, even though they had a warrant. And they made clear, and local law enforcement has made clear, state law enforcement has made clear, they plan to conduct their own investigation.

And in fact, they sued yesterday filed a lawsuit to ask a judge to issue a temporary restraining order to ensure that the evidence that had been collected by federal officials was not tampered with or destroyed. That temporary restraining order was granted.

And we will continue to press the Department of Homeland Security about who has possession of the firearm? Has it been processed? Where is it now? And then any other evidence that they've collected what the status is and if that evidence will be passed over to BCA.

We have seen how this relationship between the BCA and federal law enforcement has deteriorated.

After the Renee Good shooting, Manu, they, at first, were involved in the beginning, abruptly kicked out of it. They were not involved as far as we know with a further investigation of that second shooting that was on January 14th.

They -- again, they had processed that scene, again, they were eventually blocked out of it. This time, they were blocked out from the beginning.

Now, we see BCA agents here. And we will continue to ask what their role will be moving forward, Manu.

[11:05:05]

RAJU: All right. CNN's Whitney Wild in Minneapolis.

I'm going to now turn to Anderson Cooper who is also leading our coverage out of Minneapolis. Anderson?

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Yes. Manu, as Whitney is saying, I mean tensions here are very high this morning, more than 24 hours since -- since this killing.

So many questions remain, so many questions about the -- the investigation. It -- you know, what sort of investigation will are they actually doing, will they actually do, as Whitney mentioned.

I mean, state investigators tried to get access to the scene. They'd assigned search warrant. They were denied access they say by federal law enforcement on the scene.

We want to kind of review what -- what has been going on here for the last 24 hours and what we know.

Obviously, we know a -- a little bit more about Alex Pretti, 37 years old and an ICU nurse who was on the scene. We have now seen the videos.

I just want to kind of go over this a little bit. His death, obviously, follows that of -- of Renee Good, 37 years old. She was -- she died 18 days ago after being shot by -- by an ICE agent.

Federal and -- and local officials are telling two very different narratives about what went down. Oh, and we want to warn you, some of the videos are very disturbing. They show obviously Mr. Pretti being killed.

Let's -- let's take this first side.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(GUNSHOTS)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh. (BLEEP)What the (BLEEP). They killed him. Did they (BLEEP) kill that guy? Are you (BLEEP) kidding me, dude?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Now, the Department of Homeland Security says that -- that Alex Pretti was armed. And the initial statements made by the Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, seemed to indicate that he approached the -- the officers with a weapon.

But the verbiage of it was very specific. It implied that weapon was visible. It was not, as we now know from the video, he was just holding a -- his camera, his cell phone documenting what -- what he was seeing.

The Department of Homeland Security says that when he arrived, he violently resisted demands to disarm and their agents fired, quote, defensive shots. That's -- is their claim, as he approached them with the gun.

The videos obviously contradict that. They call that account into -- into question. This has obviously become a major flashpoint in a city that has seen many flashpoints now throughout the last several weeks.

I want to bring in chief law enforcement intelligence analyst John Miller. Also, Josh Campbell, former FBI agent.

Guys, let's just talk about the video. That is what is crucial. There are more videos out there, no doubt. Obviously, there is Alex Pretti's video, which we have not seen.

John Miller, has anybody said exactly who has control of that camera, who has access to? And I assume it's federal law enforcement, since they had control of the scene and refused to allow state investigator's access.

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: So what we believe, based on that, is that they have control over several pieces of critical evidence, including Alex Pretti's weapon, Alex Pretti's phone.

There are other things about that scene, which is, you know, the audio shows us or -- or -- or tells us that there's apparently 10 shots fired. Where are those shell casings? Were they collected by federal authorities? Were there positions on the ground documented, which could tell us how many agents fired or fired from where?

And these are things that are still unknown. And these are things that the local authorities maintain, and that's the -- the -- the city and the state that they're shut out of.

COOPER: Josh Campbell, were you surprised at the speed with which the Secretary of Homeland Security came out with a version of events that painted Mr. Pretti as -- as a domestic terrorist, as -- as brandishing a weapon?

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Well, this Department of Homeland Security, more and more, is risking a crisis of confidence in its credibility based on its communication strategy.

And this isn't the first instance where we've seen DHS come out very quickly and essentially -- essentially exonerate an agent after a use of force incident before all the facts are gathered. And there have been instances documented where the facts seem to refute what they're actually saying. You know, there are a couple things that really stood out. The one, as you mentioned, with the Secretary of Homeland Security, you know, who runs the organization doing just that.

But also Greg Bovino, the Border Patrol official who leads this team, what he had claimed yesterday, essentially right after this happened, that Alex Pretti was attempting to, quote, massacre these federal agents.

[11:10:09]

When you hear that, as a member of the public, you know, and the question is, did officers act appropriately? You get this picture in your mind. Wow. He was pointing a weapon at them. He was about to shoot them.

None of the videos that we have been able to obtain and analyze. And we've looked at many of them indicate he was anywhere near brandishing a weapon.

In fact, what it shows, and, you know, John Miller knows this as well from his law enforcement expertise, you know, a lot of the tactics are being called into question here, because you have this scuffle, this scrum, where they're trying to get him into custody. And he is resisting.

But at one point, based on our CNN analysis, you actually see right there on your screen, one of the agents appears to reach in to Alex Pretti's waistband and removes the firearm from the scene about a second later, then you hear a shot fired.

And so there will be a big question. The first officer who opened fire, what was the threat that he perceived? We can hear on audio that one of the agents appears to yell out gun, gun, gun, but in law enforcement and in their training, that's not enough to start opening fire on someone.

Every agent who fires their weapon has to be able to articulate that there was a threat that they could perceive. Based on these videos, it looks just, you know, right before the shooting happened that the gun wasn't even in the equation.

COOPER: And is it, John Miller, is it clear to you that the officer who seems to suddenly remove a gun or run away with a gun, it would appear to be the gun that -- that Mr. Pretti had, although we don't know that from -- from any source. They put out a picture of a weapon that they say they -- they retrieve from the scene.

Is it clear to you if that officer says gun, meaning he is -- he found the gun, he is removing the gun? Do we know if he informed the others that he had taken the gun? Because the shots do not begin until Mr. Pretti has been disarmed if that in fact is his weapon.

MILLER: Yes. So that's a good question. What we hear in the background is -- is gun. What we hear after that is, where is the gun? What we hear in between is those shots. So if that weapon that's being removed from the scrum is in fact Alex Pretti's gun, and there's always the possibility that it was the agent's gun or a gun that had been dropped in the struggle.

But if it was Alex Pretti's gun, and that's the assumption that we're -- we're working on in this part of the discussion, it's removed before the shots fired. And people after the shots fired are saying, who's got it?

What that suggests is that in the chaos of the struggle, there were likely agents who were not aware after hearing that there was a gun present with their suspect that -- that it wasn't present anymore.

There's another possibility which we should consider which is, and Josh Campbell knows this as well from his FBI academy training, when you're in a physical struggle and one or more officers has their guns out, that increases the likelihood over firearms control and -- and an accidental discharge, which is another possibility here that that first shot caused the other agents to fire because they thought it was coming from Alex Pretti instead of one of their own.

COOPER: Yes. A lot of questions remain and not a lot of confidence by people here certainly about any kind of investigation really being done, but we shall see.

We're going to go back to -- to Manu right now. Manu.

RAJU: All right. Anderson Cooper, thank you so much.

There's more breaking news this morning. A catastrophic storm pummeling the U.S. Heavy snow ice and Arctic air, all big threats for millions of Americans. We're live across the country. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:15:14]

RAJU: A catastrophic winter storm pummeling much of the U.S. this morning, as millions of Americans hunkered down for what could be days of digging out.

And right now, heavy snow is pushing into the Northeast. Ice has knocked out power for 750,000 customers and probably a lot more, mostly in the South. And more than 15,000 flights have been canceled so far as the storm -- the storm snarls travel.

Our teams are across the country. And Bill Weir is with us in very snowy New York City.

So, Bill, any signs that this is letting up?

BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: Not yet, Manu. I think we're going to be in for this inch an hour or so rate until primetime and then it'll ease off the forecast now for eight inches.

The greatest blizzard ever, 10 years ago. The second greatest, 10 years before that. But it looks like this one's going to break the streak of just epic two, three feet of snow on years that end in six, but still enough to get the families out under the Manhattan Bridge. We don't get a lot of vertical drop in Brooklyn. So this is one of the key sledding hills here as well. You can't even see Manhattan across East River in this white out condition here.

But we've got thousands of snow plows on the streets of New York City, 700 salt spreaders. Although at this temperature, salt doesn't work as well once it gets below 15 degrees or so. So they have to add brine to it a little bit. But the new mayor of New York City Zohran Mamdani promising that they are prepared.

But the story around the rest of the country, this is so huge. It affects nearly 200 million people and nearly two dozen states have now declared a state of emergency.

Let's go down to Kentucky, a place more familiar with roses and bluegrass than ice and blizzard conditions. Derek Van Dam, our meteorologist is there. What's the latest, Derek?

[11:20:03]

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes. They're also known for bourbon and horse races here where I'm at in Louisville, Kentucky, right?

You're in a real life snow globe. So am I. It's transitioned from that sleet and freezing rain to more of the lighter fluffier snow.

Just to kind of scene set here for you to give you an idea where we are in Louisville downtown. Over my right -- my right shoulder, that's the Clark Memorial Bridge. And if you go north on that bridge, you're right into Indiana. And that's where some of the heaviest snow bands have set up. It's the southern Indiana and into South Central Ohio. That's taking a look at the latest radar here on my graphics. It's pretty clear to see that as well.

But this system is -- is not done. And it's impacting so many states like Bill rightly said.

But what I found very interesting is that there was lightning in the ice that was falling from the sky from Central Mississippi into Western Tennessee.

Now, the temperature difference between where I'm at, Louisville, about what is it right now? It looks like 15 degrees, according to my graphics. Just to our south in Nashville, it's 31 degrees.

And those temperature difference between 100 miles or so is all the difference between what type of precipitation we're getting. Because in Nashville, they got a half an inch of ice.

Meanwhile, we have sleet. And that's kind of that granular type ice pellets that you see here. So this is going to reduce the overall snowfall totals here because there's a warm layer of temperature just above us here at the surface. But let's walk around because I want to show you the streets largely deserted. Heads up, Stu. There's a curb there. But you can see the snows has covered the roads. Difficult travel conditions. There's a stalled out vehicle in the background there as well.

And really, the concern here is that the temperatures are going to go through this rapid drop for about 50 percent of the United States.

And one other thing to note about this is in the southern portion of this massive winter storm is the potential for severe weather today too.

So, if you're in the western panhandle of Florida, southern Alabama, to southwestern Georgia, you might even see an isolated tornado pickup.

I saw from the Storm Prediction Center, there's a what's called a forecast discussion, area forecast discussion, highlighting that risk right now in the coming hours. So, we're going to monitor that.

But on the cold side where we are, we've got the dynamic storm system that's unfolding right before our eyes with a full-fledged ice storm possible and continuing across the mid-Atlantic. And especially into the southern Appalachian, northeast Georgia, that area could get this up to three quarters to an inch of ice that is debilitating, crippling ice that will bring down power lines and ground transport to a halt on the roadway.

So lots of problems associated with this massive storm. Bill, we'll send it back to you in the real life snow globe in New York.

WEIR: You got it, Derek.

Yes. This is all happening against the backdrop of massive FEMA layoffs, as we've known about since the beginning of the second Trump administration. And those were paused in some places as people understood the -- the enormity of this storm right now.

Let's go to the nation's capital. All politics is local and -- and all storm effects are local based on where you are in this monster, whether it's snow or ice.

Michael Yoshida in D.C. for us now. What's happening?

MICHAEL YOSHIDA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, there, Bill. Yes. We've gone past those fluffy flakes. And now we're straight into these pellets that are just bouncing off of my jacket. We're into that sleet, that freezing rain type of snowfall here.

You can see we have a good crowd around behind us trying to have a snowball fight this morning here right by the Washington Monument as these conditions continue to change throughout the morning. You can see we've got a good amount of snow that's already built up here.

I'm talking with the DPW director. They've been going nonstop basically all night, dealing with about an inch or so an hour, he says.

And with that, they're now having to deal with these changing conditions, right? He talked about how when they started, they had what was this very fluffy snow.

Now, they've got these pellets, this freezing rain and he says, that's really going to hamper their efforts in terms of how quickly they're going to be able to handle this storm.

You talked about the impact with these freezing temperatures and what that does to the salt and the effectiveness of it. But he says, as they start to get this sleet on the ground, that's going to compact the snow a little bit. It's going to then freeze overnight when we get that big drop off in temperatures.

And that's why he said this normally, maybe they could get this done in an eight-hour or 12-hour shift. That's going to push these efforts into the night, into the next few days to get a handle on everything that's happened here.

And that's why the message right now, if you don't have to be out here, listen to all the officials, stay home, stay off the roads, and let these workers do their -- do their part while the storm moves through.

Bill?

WEIR: Yes, Michael. We got some 2,000 plows working in sort of sorties here in New York City, moving that snow.

And we can't remind folks enough, if your heat does go out, no grills, no gas generators anywhere in your house, hopefully you got carbon monoxide alarms with the batteries in them.

[11:25:05]

Thank you, Michael. Thank you, Derek Van Dam.

Manu, we'll send it back to you from New York. Of course, we're all in coverage of this storm on cnn.com.

RAJU: Yes. And snow day for many, many kids, including my own, who are very excited to be sledding tomorrow instead of going to school.

Thank you, Bill Weir.

And next for us, Anderson speaks with Minneapolis police chief to talk about its investigation into the shooting and whether they're working with federal officials live from Minneapolis, that's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:30:00]

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: And welcome back. We're coming to you live from Minneapolis, Minnesota, where obviously tensions are running very, very high. I'm here with the Chief of Police, Brian O'Hara.

I appreciate you -- you talking to us today. First of all, what is your concern about today? What do you think it's going to be like? We saw a lot of protesters, a lot of community members just gathering at the scene of the killing. Hundreds of people in bitter cold last night.

BRIAN O'HARA, MINNEAPOLIS POLICE CHIEF: Yeah. Well, Friday, there were tens of thousands of people marching downtown and not one incident. It was peaceful. But yesterday morning was an emergency. We had to do a recall of all sworn personnel and call for mutual aid from all agencies around the metro and even call in the National Guard. It was a very volatile situation, but we were able to maintain the peace.

COOPER: Where is National Guard deployed now?

O'HARA: They were deployed last night around the perimeter. We created a vehicle exclusionary zone to keep the peace and to prevent looting, to prevent fires and to prevent civil unrest. That was successful.

And as of now, we've reopened all of the city streets and we're just looking to maintain the peace going forward.

COOPER: And so are National Guard in position in places or no?

O'HARA: They've been relieved now.

COOPER: OK.

O'HARA: All of the mutual aid agencies have left. It's just the Minneapolis police, but they are on standby if we need them for another mission in the city.

COOPER: So, in terms of investigation of the -- the of the scene of the crime scene itself, who had control of it? How was control was control handed over at some point? Because state law enforcement has said who would normally be involved in this investigation have said that they had assigned search warrant. They were not given access to the scene by federal law enforcement.

O'HARA: Yeah, that's very unusual. I had requested immediately the state investigative agency that investigates law enforcement shootings to respond, which they did. They were refused entry and they even got a state search warrant for a public area to conduct their investigation. But they were not allowed in.

And unfortunately, ultimately, the scene became contaminated and we had to release it. As we speak now, the state BCA, that investigative agency, is on the scene right now canvassing and looking to collect whatever evidence may be there.

COOPER: But in terms of they were not able to preserve the crime scene or preserve the scene to gather evidence at that at that time. So, it's clearly not ideal for it for them.

O'HARA: No, not at all. They were refused entry. And the other thing that's bizarre is typically the FBI would be involved in these investigations and they were not either.

COOPER: And so the camera that Alex Brady had that he was documenting, which obviously would be important piece of evidence, that is now in the possession of -- of whom?

O'HARA: I don't know. A federal law enforcement agency, I would assume, but I don't know.

COOPER: And do you have concerns about what's going to happen in terms of any kind of investigation?

O'HARA: Well, I think the greater concern is no matter what happens with an investigation, is that there's a huge part of the public that have lost faith that the investigation would be impartial. And I think that's a that's a very significant problem.

COOPER: I mean, we heard Christian come forward with a version of events that seems contradictory to what we have now seen on multiple videos.

O'HARA: Yes.

COOPER: Was it -- I mean, you've been a law enforcement for a long time. Have you -- have you ever seen a situation like that? I mean, this is -- this is an extreme case of I mean, I've never seen a federal law enforcement at odds with state and local like this.

O'HARA: This is uncharted territory. And it is deeply disappointing. And just frankly, it's frustrating. All of the different federal law enforcement agencies in Minnesota have worked with us hand in hand every single day, getting shooters off the street, carjackers, people running guns, all of those things for the last few years. That's what's resulted in making the city safer.

And the problem today, we've seen, you know, mass resignations in these different agencies and just a whole lot of frustration because we have -- we have personal relationships with a lot of these agents that are also just distraught over how things are playing out. It's just not good for anyone.

COOPER: Can you talk to me about the tactics you have seen ICE officers, Border Patrol, whatever the federal agencies are using? It just seems chaotic, to say the least, and mobbing on, you know, six -- six guys massed on one person. I don't -- I mean, I've seen a lot of law enforcement operations. I've never seen anything like this, not even in some pretty rough countries overseas.

O'HARA: Well, I think you would see this if you rolled back the clock 20 or 30 years. That's the way it looks to me. It looks very untrained. It looks unprofessional. It looks very chaotic. It doesn't look like there is clear teamwork tactically to achieve the same objective.

And it's -- it's just -- it is absolutely not how we train law enforcement in Minnesota. And I think the -- the greater issue, the greater concern is, you know, people should be able to have an expectation that the federal government can enforce federal immigration law without these, you know, poor tactics and really unconstitutional practices.

[11:35:08]

COOPER: What we're hearing from the administration, from the federal government, essentially, as well, it's local and state law enforcement and officials are not cooperating. And therefore, that's why it's so chaotic.

O'HARA: We've got 600 cops in this city. More than 500 had left here after 2020. They have an actual job to do. We've taken 900 guns off the street last year from convicted felons and all kinds of people who shouldn't have them. We didn't shoot one single person. Our cops have a job to do. They're working extremely hard. I have a dozen cops that have been injured in the chaos that has been caused here in the last few weeks.

So, I take offense to anyone who says the men and women in the Minneapolis Police Department are not doing their job because they're doing a damn good job at keeping this city safe and really unprecedented and chaotic conditions.

COOPER: What do you think that the officials who are saying that are just trying to pass the buck?

O'HARA: I don't think they have a clue about what is actually happening here on the street because the things that get said just don't actually match up with the reality that people here are living with.

COOPER: Is it possible that they do have a clue and this is what they actually want?

O'HARA: I don't know. I can't speculate to that.

COOPER: OK. What do you think -- I mean, day to day, do you have -- are you in react? I mean, it seems like you must be in reactive mode because you're not having cooperation.

O'HARA: This is -- it's frustrating and it is taking a very severe toll on the men and women who remain in this police department. They have lived through the trauma of 2020 and 2021, 2022. And now they've been subjected just multiple times to emergency recalls, days off being canceled, extended tours.

They are exhausted. And we're just hopeful that, you know, some cooler heads will prevail here on all sides. And some folks in charge will get together and say, let's -- let's figure this thing out. We should be able to enforce federal law without having all of this chaos.

COOPER: Are you concerned about a situation where there's actual conflict between federal law enforcement and -- and your police department?

O'HARA: I -- COOPER: I mean, we're in a situation where there's heavily armed

federal officers here. Training is questionable in some cases and tensions are high.

O'HARA: This is certainly not a good thing. And it's just been for several weeks. It feels like we keep spiraling. It feels like the pressure keeps building. It doesn't seem like anyone in charge is looking to try and change this situation so that we stop having tragedies, so that we stop putting federal law enforcement in situations where they may be at risk, where the community is at risk.

COOPER: It's interesting. I was out at the site today. And do you expect that site to remain a vigil for a long period of time, a gathering point? Because it seems like I mean, I was out there very early in the morning. There were a handful of people and it began to build. It seems like throughout the day that may occur as well.

O'HARA: So, we've got dedicated teams of police officers that are working with community-based organizations to be dialogue officers, to be out there, to ensure that the roadways can remain open, that people can come there if they wish to for vigil, to mourn, what have you. But to be able to do so in a way that honors the residents of the neighborhood, that honors the businesses of the neighborhood, and that we can try and keep everybody safe.

COOPER: Yeah, Chief, I really appreciate your time. I appreciate all your efforts. Thank you very much.

Manu, back to you.

MANU RAJU, CNN ANCHOR: Anderson, thank you. And next, I go one-on-one with Minnesota Congresswoman and current Senate candidate Angie Craig to talk about the shooting and the big government shutdown threat that now looms.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:43:27]

RAJU: The country is just days away from the second government shutdown of President Trump's second term. The House voted to approve a bill funding major federal agencies last week, and that includes money for ICE. But now following the second deadly shooting by a DHS agent in Minneapolis just this month, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Democrats have the votes to block a funding bill if ICE money is included. All as the Trump administration is showing no signs of budging.

Joining me now is Congressman Angie Craig, who is running for Senate in Minnesota. Congressman, thank you so much for joining me this morning.

Let's talk about the aftermath now, which is this new government shutdown threat that the Democratic leaders say that they will block this funding bill if it does have money for ICE. But a shutdown could impact many major agencies from housing to defense to transportation. So, in your view, should Democrats shut the government down over ICE?

REP. ANGIE CRAIG (D-MN): Democrats cannot keep acting like these are normal times in our country. That's my response to you. I voted against the DHS funding bill on the House floor last week, and I voted against the three other bills that were put before me.

Look, the levers we have in the minority are few, but this is one of them. And so, I encourage my Senate Democrat, Democratic friends, to do whatever it takes to get ICE out of Minnesota. This is a moment in time that history is going to judge every single one of us, including my Republican colleagues who are complicit in their silence at this moment in time.

[11:45:05]

RAJU: So, that would mean you'd be OK if the Democrats block this bill and it leads to a shutdown?

CRAIG: I -- I think we have to pull that lever. That's the lever we have at this moment in time. I mean, are we OK that an authoritarian administration is taking over American cities?

Are we OK that our First Amendment, our Second Amendment, and our Fourth Amendment rights under the Constitution are being violated? Hell no, we're not okay. But if we don't take a stand now, at this moment in time, America, look at what is happening in Minnesota.

This is coming to a city near you if we don't take a stand now. So, I am absolutely committed to holding the line, and I encourage my Senate colleagues to stand the line, hold it, and force Republicans to do what they know is right. An out-of-control ICE is attacking and terrorizing the people of Minnesota, and they're coming to you if we don't stop them here.

RAJU: Congressman, how far should Democrats take this? Should you push to abolish ICE?

CRAIG: Well, look, we're always going to need border enforcement at the southern border, but we absolutely have to dismantle Trump and Kristi Noem's version of ICE. And by the way, they're not actually doing immigration enforcement here. That's not what this is about.

Donald Trump said they were coming after the worst of the worst. And instead, what are they doing? They're murdering a Minnesotan, Renee Good. They're murdering another Minnesotan yesterday. Anyone with eyes can see what happened in this video. The first hands-on anyone came from an ICE agent to a woman.

Alex Pretti stepped up to help a fellow Minnesotan. We are seeing this all over Minnesota. And let me tell you, as a mother of a 28-year-old young man here in Minnesota who has a permit to carry, my first reaction yesterday, because he and his friends have been out standing with their neighbors, was to call and find him because my wife and I were not certain that this wasn't our own son yesterday.

Folks, if you think this can't happen to you, this young man, under his constitutional rights, was videoing. We have asked people to video, to document the abuses of ICE. My heart goes out. And we've been asked by the family of Alex Pretti to lift him up. He was an ICU nurse who worked on saving the lives of our nation's veterans. And what he did, as far as I'm concerned, was try to help his fellow Minnesotan yesterday. And it got him absolutely murdered by these federal agents.

RAJU: And, Congressman, you're referring to this as a murder. I was talking to a Minneapolis City Councilwoman this morning who referred to these ICE agents as domestic terrorists. Would you go that far in labeling them as such?

CRAIG: Well, look, you know, two weeks ago when Renee Good was murdered, I said that this was an out-of-control, untrained agency. I'm changing my words here today because I think these ICE agents are doing exactly what they've been trained and enabled to do by Donald Trump and this administration.

And make no mistake about it, this is not going to help Donald Trump. This is not going to help Republicans. I've had colleagues, Republicans from my congressional district in the Statehouse call me in the last 48 hours and say, my God, we're trying to tell our leadership that this is going to absolutely kill us in the next, metaphorically, of course, in the next election. This is something that Minnesotans are absolutely disgusted by.

And I'm not just talking about Democrats. We've got so many Libertarians in Minnesota. A third of my district, congressional district, is independent voters. And what they are seeing, the abuses by ICE, the overreach by ICE in our communities is not good for the Republican Party, and it's certainly not good for America.

RAJU: Congresswoman, the Attorney General, Pam Bondi, sent a letter to Governor Walz saying that to get these ICE agents to leave, officials there in your state had to share Medicaid and SNAP records, repeal sanctuary policies, and give the Justice Department access to voter rolls. Should the governor cooperate and try to seek some sort of middle ground with the Trump administration to get these ICE agents to leave?

CRAIG: Are you kidding? I mean, the idea, this was never about immigration. And I think that's exactly what that letter that was sent to the governor shows. This was never about immigration. This was about a pressure campaign on Minnesota officials who are following our laws.

[11:50:12]

All of these things are going to be adjudicated in court. We are standing up for the people of Minnesota. And by the way, the people of Minnesota right now are standing up for us. Absolutely, the governor should follow the law. He is doing that. And look, this just is further proof that this was never about immigration, because if it was about immigration, we are number 24 in the nation in terms of immigrants. Why the hell are you targeting Minnesota? This is about a political retribution campaign. And that letter is just further evidence of that.

RAJU: All right, Congresswoman Angie Craig, thank you so much for joining us and sharing your perspective. We'll be right back.

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[11:55:19]

BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: Welcome back. Bill Weir live in Brooklyn, New York as the whiteout conditions continue here right now. About 13 degrees, pretty cold. It was negative 38 degrees Fahrenheit up on the Canadian border in Jefferson County, New York yesterday.

So, wicked cold in the northeast. So, much ice down in the southern states, Tennessee, Georgia. Full coverage coming up throughout the day on CNN.com.

Manu, we'll send it back to you.

RAJU: Wow, what a scene, Bill Weir. Thank you so much.

And that's it for "Inside Politics Sunday." Up next, "State of the Union" with Jay Tapper and Dan Bash. Dana's guests include Border Patrol Commander-at-Large Greg Bovino, Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy, New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill, and Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt.

Thanks again for sharing your Sunday morning with us. See you next time.

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