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CNN's The Arena with Kasie Hunt

At Least Six Fed Prosecutors In Minnesota Resign After Pressure From The Trump Admin To Focus Probe Of ICE Shooting On Victim; Trump Gives Economic Speech: "Affordability Is A Fake Word"; Just In: Trump Warns Iran Against Executing Detained Protesters. Aired 4-5p ET

Aired January 13, 2026 - 16:00   ET

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

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BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: The 25-year-old also said Banfield created an account on the kink site fetlife.com, posing as his wife. Banfield has pleaded not guilty.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Quite the case. We'll keep you posted with the latest there.

"THE ARENA WITH KASIE HUNT" starts right now.

(MUSIC)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

KASIE HUNT, CNN HOST: Breaking news, as a wave of federal prosecutors in Minnesota resign their posts.

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

As we come on the air, at least six federal prosecutors have resigned after more than a week of pressure from the Trump administration over the investigation into the fatal shooting of a woman by an ICE officer last week. A source telling CNN that administration officials wanted them to focus not on the actions of Officer Jonathan Ross, but instead on the victim, Renee Nicole Good, and those around her who may have been involved in protests against ICE.

The fatal incident captured by Ross on the following video. And as we have been warning you since this happened, it is very disturbing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's fine, dude. I'm not mad at you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Show your face.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm not mad at you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's okay. We don't change our plates every morning, just so you know. It'll be the same plate when you come. Talk to us later. That's fine.

U.S. citizen, former (INAUDIBLE). You want to come at us? You want to come at us? I said go get yourself some lunch, big boy. Go ahead.

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

(GUNFIRE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Minnesota officials say the federal government is excluding them from the investigation. A source tells CNN that other federal prosecutors are also considering resigning, given the unusual demands on how to handle the case.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz calling the resignations a huge loss for the state. He wrote this, quote, "It's also the latest sign Trump is pushing nonpartisan career professionals out of the Justice Department, replacing them with his sycophants," end quote.

Let's get off the sidelines, head into THE ARENA. My panel is going to be here to weigh in.

But we're going to start with CNN senior justice correspondent Evan Perez. He joins us now.

And, Evan, you've been doing this reporting all afternoon. What do you know? And how can you help us understand what led to these resignations?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's clear, Kasie, that the pressure has been building inside this office for the past week since immediately after the shooting, if you remember, of course, the president of United States, the secretary of homeland security, both came out very quickly and said that the officer involved, the ICE officer involved, Jonathan Ross, had done nothing wrong and that the blame for everything lay with Renee Good, who is the victim of the -- of the shooting. And so that's where the tensions began building in this office.

And soon after, the U.S. attorney there had agreed to have state investigators be part of this investigation, which is the routine way this is done, by the way. The FBI would do an investigation. Top officials normally don't comment on the outcome of it or prejudge the outcome of it.

And, you know, normally this is done jointly. And then shortly after that, the state investigators were kicked out. They were locked out of this investigation.

And so I think the biggest issue now, besides, obviously, the six people who have now resigned over the pressure that they're getting from Washington is the fact that the deputy attorney general has now issued a statement that says -- that there's no basis for a civil rights investigation, a criminal civil rights investigation, which is the clearest indication that this is not about the actions of the officer. They're not even going to investigate that, really, that this is all about the about the actions of Renee Good and people around her.

And I'm told that part of this investigation, that this investigation now focuses on the actions of Renee Good and of people around her, and that includes her spouse and any number of activists, quote/unquote, activists that the administration says have been involved with watching ICE going to places where ICE is operating and recording them.

That's the action. Those are the actions that the FBI and the Justice Department is now focused as part of this investigation. Now, again, I just should underline how unusual what the deputy attorney general is saying, right?

He's saying that they're not interested in what the officer did, that their focus right now is on the actions of the person who was shot. And at the same time, they're blocking the state from doing an investigation, which, again, the state usually has a lot more jurisdiction. There's a lot more laws that they could look at to try to bring a case if there is something found wrong about the conduct of this officer.

[16:05:08]

But they're not going to be able to do that because the FBI is blocking them from access to that -- to that evidence. So, the FBI is now, you know, someone -- someone basically told me that this is essentially a federal cover up of what happened that day on the streets of Minneapolis -- Kasie.

HUNT: Evan, you're going to stick with us while we continue this conversation here with our panel in THE ARENA.

CNN political analyst, White House correspondent for "The New York Times", Zolan Kanno-Youngs is here. Jonah Goldberg of "The Dispatch" is here as well. Former Biden White House communications director Kate Bedingfield, and Republican strategist Brad Todd, both CNN political commentators.

Welcome to all of you.

Jonah Goldberg. I just want to pick up on what Evan was saying there. Just what this means and how, you know, I think he was trying to underscore just how significant it is that they would try to frame this investigation this way. I mean, when you think about how this is normally done and what it means in the context of our system, how do you see it?

JONAH GOLDBERG, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: So I see it, it's somewhat new in our experience, like we're used to talking about lawfare in terms of Jerome Powell at the Fed or Jim Comey and that kind of stuff. But we kind of expect as bad as some of that is, and I think some of it is very bad, we come to expect that from like the major players in politics, that they're going to get caught up in this, this beltway kind of thing.

This is the politicization of the Justice Department at the ground level, right? This is -- the reason to do this. I can see a colorable argument for trying to find out more about the victim, but the idea that you don't want to find out more about the actual shooting or investigate the shooting is bizarre, and the only way to explain it, I think, is in pursuit.

First of all, of sending the signal that you're going to back up ICE, whatever they do. And also send the signal that you know, and, to try to get a talking point about how she had it coming, that she deserved it.

And I don't understand whatever they could find about let's say she's a card carrying member of antifa that doesn't change the material circumstances of the actual shooting one way or the other. It still goes into basically criminally, legally. It's the state of mind of the shooter has nothing to do with the person being shot anyway. But this is the politicization down to the street level of our criminal justice system.

HUNT: Zolan, you were asking the president about matters like this just this week?

ZOLAN KANNO-YOUNGS, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Sure, sure. I mean, it's worth noting just how unusual each part of the response from the administration has been when it comes to this shooting.

Just hours after news broke of the shooting, I was in the Oval Office, and I asked the president about ICE shooting and killing an American citizen. And he responded by almost immediately putting blame on the victim, the person who got shot in this case. When we pushed him on that, he then asked an aide to bring out the video. We watched it all together, and it occurred to me, as I think about that now, you know, investigators are -- usually, you give investigators time to examine the facts, look at videos like that, gather more surveillance videos before you make a conclusion.

Here you have a president making a conclusion based off of the early videos that were going viral at that time on social media captured by local television. That's not usually how this goes here, right? And you've had DHS also call her a domestic terrorist without the evidence fully being examined. That was just hours after the shooting as well.

You had the vice president come out just a day later and also make allegations against this victim. Again, the way this usually goes is that public officials and law enforcement will actually examine these facts and let an investigation play out. It's tough to understand how you expect the public to trust this process when you're making these conclusions. Just hours after the shooting, including now just a week later as well.

HUNT: When we're starting to get some data in here, there's a new Quinnipiac poll about whether the shooting was justified. They found that 53 percent of Americans thought that the shooting was unjustified. Just 35 percent were willing to say that it was justified.

And then when they asked if you approve or disapprove of the way that ICE is enforcing our immigration laws, 57 percent of Americans disapprove of that.

And one particular American that we found interesting on this point was Joe Rogan, who, of course, part of that manosphere, one of the most popular podcasters there is right now. Here's what he said today about some of these tactics. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE ROGAN, HOST, "THE JOE ROGAN EXPERIENCE": You don't want militarized people in the streets just roaming around snatching people up, many of which turn out to actually be U.S. citizens that just don't have their papers on them. Are we really going to be the gestapo? Where's your papers? Is that what we've come to?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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HUNT: Brad Todd, you've said on this program a number of times that, you know, the work you do is getting Republicans to 50 plus one. Are the tactics that ICE is using on the streets of America right now helping?

BRAD TODD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, we'd learn a lot from this incident. I hope a lot of people would learn a lot. I'd hope that that ICE would learn and reexamine tactics and strategies. I'd hope that local need to have their officers involved.

You know, Minnesota police could not be on the scene that day as a buffer between protesters and ICE agents, because Minnesota -- Minneapolis has an ordinance that bans it, which is ridiculous. It's insane that there's an ordinance that says police can't do crowd control for this one thing. I'd hope wed learn on that.

I'd hope that a lot of the people who are protesting ICE had also learned, like they don't need to be interfering with law enforcement activities. It's one thing to protest on the town square. It's another thing to write a letter to the editor. It's a totally different thing to get in the way of law enforcement work being done.

So, I had hoped we would learn from all that. I'd also hope that when it was over, we grieve for the person who lost their life and the family who thought they might have lost their life with the officer and be able to sort of see some common ground and healing in that.

But I think longer term, this is the issue that President Trump has been most trusted by, by the public on. And so, he has equity there. There is a way for them to get back to that. They certainly don't trust the Democrats to enforce immigration laws.

So, the task for the administration now is to rebuild that trust back to that strong place they have. KANNO-YOUNGS: I do wonder, though, if this is still just the

immigration issue that voters voted for here. You know, I, the president definitely had popularity and support when it came to driving down border crossings when it came to enforcing laws. This is dispatching 2,000 federal agents to an American city. That amount dwarfs the local police department there.

KATE BEDINGFIELD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Right. And allowing them to behave in a way that may be illegal. That has certainly contributed to this violent act that we've all been seeing play out on our screens over the last few days. And I think by instantly politicizing, by immediately jumping to politicize it, not only does the administration continue to erode trust in the Justice Department and the criminal justice system writ large, but also continues to erode trust in ICE by not allowing there to be a full investigation that does not feel like the administration has their thumb on predetermining the outcome.

They're also -- they are also continuing to create an environment where people look at, you know, ICE agents being allowed to essentially shoot a woman in the head in her car as she's trying to drive away from him and say there are no consequences for that and that -- that -- there is -- to me --

(CROSSTALK)

HUNT: Even more than there's not going to be consequences. It is, we're not even going to look at that.

BEDINGFIELD: We're not even going to look at it --

HUNT: See if he did anything wrong, right?

BEDINGFIELD: And we, the administration, just quickly we, the administration, are going to throw our arms around this agent and make protecting this agent's actions the symbol of whether you are supportive of tough immigration policy in this country. And I do not think that is where most Americans are.

TODD: We don't know for certain there will be no investigation into the officer involved shooting, whether that's because --

BEDINGFIELD: We know he's trying to prevent --

TODD: Secretary Noem said on Sunday on CNN. The Department of Justice would do it. Tom Homan said there would be an investigation. We now have anonymous sources speculating there won't be. Let's see --

BEDINGFIELD: But you have people resigning who are saying that inappropriate political pressures being put on them to conduct the investigation in a way that is not, does not align with the way it would normally be conducted.

HUNT: Yeah. All right. Joining us now on the phone is the Hennepin County attorney, Mary Moriarty.

Mary, thank you very much for spending some time with us. I'd like you to at first just like to get your reaction to the news here that six federal prosecutors have resigned here under what we are reporting is pressure around how to conduct this investigation. I'm interested to know your thoughts, and also, if you know anything more about the rationale here.

MARY MORIARTY, HENNEPIN COUNTY ATTORNEY (via telephone): Yeah. Thank you for having me on.

I do have a reaction to that. You know, we have career prosecutors in the Department of Justice. We have career FBI agents. They are there from administration to administration. And if they are resigning, that's a clear indication that they feel that this investigation, whatever it looks like, is politicized and that they are not being allowed to do their jobs.

HUNT: So, Mary, how would you describe your current ability to investigate or be involved with what is unfolding around this incident?

MORIARTY: So, yeah, I wanted to first say, by the way, a correction there I was listening. Minneapolis does not have an ordinance that prevents local police from doing crowd control. In fact, they have done crowd control in a number -- in a number of months. So that is just completely wrong.

So, in terms of what happened here, the FBI, the BCA, which is our local Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, our statewide investigatory agency, the U.S. attorney, our office have good relationships. And you need only look at the Vance Boelter case to see what a joint investigation and dual prosecutions could look like.

I'm not saying that I've arrived at a conclusion that there should be a prosecution, but this is what that cooperation should look like. We initially had an agreement with the FBI, the U.S. attorney's office to do a joint investigation with the BCA. And they were abruptly told that that could not occur. And so, the issue here is this.

The FBI has within its control the car -- shell casings, and the BCA will not be able to have access to that, nor will they be able to have access to any of the investigation. So ideally here, the BCA would be part of a joint investigation. But even if they were not, even if they could just have access to the investigation that the FBI does and report that to us, we would at least be able to take a look at what the investigation revealed and make a decision as to whether charges are appropriate.

Without access to the entire FBI investigation, were completely shut out of that, as is the BCA, and there will never be any transparency in terms of what the entire investigation revealed.

HUNT: Mary, have you spoken to any of these attorneys who have stepped down? Have you heard from them personally?

MORIARTY: Not since they've stepped down. But I will say, you know, one of them is somebody that I had spoken to when we were trying to arrange the cooperation. And he was fine with the cooperation, the investigatory agencies, the BCA and the FBI working together. And he is one of the people that's now stepped down. I've not spoken to him.

But clearly, it's become a political issue instead of what the people of Minnesota and frankly, the people in this country expect, which is a completely full investigation and transparency about whatever decisions are being made.

HUNT: Mary, the deputy attorney general, said today there's no basis currently for a criminal investigation into this agent. And I know you've said publicly -- you've asked the public to submit evidence that they may have in the course of that, have you seen anything that you think would support a criminal probe of this ICE agent?

MORIARTY: Well, I just want to go back to the assertion that there's no basis for an investigation. A community member in Minneapolis and Hennepin County was shot and killed by law enforcement. We have jurisdiction over that.

If that happened -- if anybody had done that, obviously there would be an investigation. It wouldn't matter -- I mean, let me back up. So, the BCA, if local law enforcement had shot and killed a community member, there would be a complete and full investigation by the BCA. They would not make recommendations, but they would submit that to whatever county attorney has jurisdiction, and then decisions would be made.

So, the idea that there wouldn't be a complete and full investigation when a person loses their life at the hands of law enforcement is ridiculous.

HUNT: Right.

MORIARTY: Our goal right now, and to me, we get imperfect investigations all the time. You know, if you ask me, would we like video, would we like statement? Would we like confession? Would we like all?

Yes, of course. But the goal right now is to collect as much information that is out there. And to, first of all, make a decision as to whether we have enough to make a decision. And then if we do, are we -- do we feel that we can prove criminal charges beyond a reasonable doubt, or is there not that indication?

And then the goal would be to announce that decision publicly, along with revealing what the investigation revealed, so that the people here in Minneapolis and Hennepin County, Minnesota, in the country, frankly, can understand what the investigation showed and why any decision is being made. That's the only way you can really get trust in the government.

HUNT: All right. Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty, thank you very much for being with us today. Really appreciate it.

Coming next -- up next here in THE ARENA, Democratic Senator John Fetterman will be here live. We'll get him to weigh in on the day's top stories, including the latest waiting game from Donald Trump. The president teasing a slate of economic proposals that, in true

Trump fashion, he says, are coming in just a couple of weeks as he again escalates a public battle with the chair of the Federal Reserve.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: He either doesn't know what he's doing or its worse than that. And you know what I mean by worse. So hopefully, he'll be out of there soon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: And now, after less than 12 months in office, this is the easiest speech to make. I have great people and all I'm doing is spewing off what the hell we've done. Right now, I'm feeling pretty good though I will say, oh, you're so lucky to be here.

Under our administration, growth is exploding, productivity is soaring, investment is booming, incomes are rising. Inflation is defeated. America is respected again like never before. Results are in. And the Trump economic boom is officially begun.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Inflation is dead. The economic boom has begun. Are you feeling it?

Speaking in Detroit today, President Donald Trump shared his vision of an economy that is better than ever. The latest numbers released this morning show a decidedly mixed picture.

[16:25:02]

he annual rate of inflation held steady, while the monthly rate actually ticked up, as did many food costs.

The Federal Reserve will soon have to make a decision about whether or not to cut interest rates. This, amid the stunning announcement of a federal criminal investigation into the Fed Chair Jerome Powell.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: You announced great numbers. They raise interest rates to try and kill it. So, you can never really have the kind of rally you should have. I want somebody that when the market is doing great, interest rates can go down because our country becomes stronger. So, you view it differently, our country becomes stronger and therefore interest rates should go down, not up. They kill every rally.

(END VIDEO CLIP) HUNT: So, I have to say, Kate Bedingfield, every time I watch the president say this, I think of Joe Biden.

BEDINGFIELD: I know. I know.

HUNT: Who spent a lot of time trying to tick through numbers that he said showed Americans that, you know what, the economy was great. And quite frankly, they looked at their own finances and they just didn't believe it.

BEDINGFIELD: Yeah.

HUNT: And it seems like this president is now having the same problem.

BEDINGFIELD: I mean, it is -- he's taking the exact same page, and it is not a winning one politically. It is not trying to tell people that they feel better economically than they do. Not a winner.

But it's also interesting actually, even in the clip we just watched, that was a mixed message. I mean, there was -- it's the Trump economy is doing great and inflation is down. Weve tackled it, we've killed it. But also, Jay Powell keeps me from ever really being able to have the kind of rally I need to have. And he won't lower interest rates.

And so, you know, he's not -- he's not. Trump is not giving a coherent message that connects with I think that connects with where people are, how they're feeling about the economy. They feel like their pocketbooks are still strapped.

We've also seen since liberation day, job creation has come down. There are a lot of indicators in this economy that people are struggling. And you're not you're not hearing a consistent message from Trump that is addressing that. And that's at the end of the day, your electoral chances rise and fall on how people feel about the economy.

TODD: Private sector job creation actually is up as government, just way down. We have a lot fewer government employees.

But all these things you just said can be true as is normal. You're a smart person.

HUNT: Thanks, Brad.

BEDINGFIELD: Thanks, Brad.

TODD: The unemployment is in fact at 4.4. Growth was 4.3. In the third quarter. Inflation is 2.7. All those things are good things. And the president should also say, and we've still got a lot more work to do. So people can be still not happy with where we are and things be heading in the right direction. And I think that's -- that's a key component to this.

HUNT: One thing, Jonah, that we've seen is that Republicans have not necessarily rallied around the flag. That has been Donald Trump for all of these years. On the question of the Fed chair in particular, let's watch a little bit of what some Republicans said.

Now, some of them were willing to let the investigation play out. Others really don't want anything to do with it. Watch

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. TOM COLE (R-OK): If there's nothing there. And I would hope and think there is nothing there, then, you know, this is destabilizing and it looks like the Justice Department is being used as a weapon. And I don't want that to ever happen under any administration.

REP. NICK LALOTA (R-NY): Advocating for $2.5 billion, a cost that's more than Yankee Stadium for a federal office building. I think that's worthy of investigation. Certainly, if he lied to Congress, that's worthy of an investigation.

REP. KEVIN KILEY (R-CA): The independence of the Federal Reserve is a -- is a cornerstone of our economic system and our economic prosperity in this country. So, we need to protect that.

REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: If he's innocent, as he says, then then that will come out in the investigation. And all of us need to reserve judgment and wait for that to happen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: It's just reserve judgment. I mean, how big of a deal do you think this is from -- I mean, in terms of like the number of shocks that president Trump has delivered to the system over the course of his tenure?

GOLDBERG: Yeah. So not yet. I think in some ways the markets think Trump will chicken out on this. And otherwise, we would have seen much more churn.

I just want to say it's the rhetoric of let's withhold judgment until the investigation is through, is markedly different than the subject we talked about in the first block, about rushing to judgment in the shooting in Minneapolis. That said -- look, I mean, I think one of the reasons why most senators and a lot of Republican congressmen, some of them have different constituencies, but most senators, every senator has a chairman of his finance committee of one form or another. Every one of them has a big donors who are tied to Wall Street in some way. Most of them are millionaires.

At least they have a granular understanding of how dangerous it is to do this banana republic kind of stuff with the fed chair, and they're hearing from constituents in ways that, you know, the Trump administration does something about vaccines. Some senators will get an angry phone call from somebody important in their district. You start talking about completely undermining the independence of our central bank, and they hear it from everybody.

HUNT: I want to draw your attention to what Ron Brownstein is saying, Zolan, here that the parallel to this Powell investigation is Joe McCarthy and the army. Now that's a throwback. Do you think that's right?

GOLDBERG: I mean, I think there's also a trend here where, you know, when I -- when I hear people who are really concerned about this being another indicator of the erosion of democratic norms of, of the erosion of independence when it comes to these institutions, it's not just the attacks on Jerome Powell, it's also what happened to Lisa Cook as well, right? Ousting a statistician that brings information that's inconvenient to you. We're expecting an update in that case, by the way, soon, in the coming weeks.

So, you know, we've seen a number of these data points at this point of this sort of attacking the independence of these institutions, which I think prompts concern and comparisons, like what we just saw.

TODD: I don't -- I don't think Jerome Powell should be investigated for anything criminal. And I think the congress is the right place to handle cost overruns. Theres no doubt that building is way over budget, and Jerome Powell should be held to account for it. But we have a mechanism for that on the Senate Budget Committee. I'm sure Lindsey Graham would love the opportunity to have a televised hearing about it.

GOLDBERG: Take anything else? Yeah

TODD: But let's be clear. I've sat in this chair a bunch and said that the presidents right to push Jerome Powell and Jerome Powell is wrong. And once again, Jerome Powell is wrong. He was wrong on inflation in April 2025. He was wrong on inflation in May 2025.

HUNT: Does that mean he's a criminal?

TODD: No, I didn't say he's a criminal. I said I didn't say he's a criminal. But the fact that Jerome Powell has been wrong is something that has to be rectified. It is time for him to apologize to the American people for not cutting rates and costing them so much money, and it's just time.

HUNT: All right. Coming up next here in THE ARENA, we're going to be live with Pennsylvania senior U.S. senator, Democrat John Fetterman standing by to join us.

Plus, the latest he said -- he said that could bring the U.S. closer to military action in the Middle East. Why? A top Iranian official now calling Donald Trump a, quote, killer amid Tehran's bloody crackdown on protesters?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MARKWAYNE MULLIN (R-OK): I think the murderous regime in Iran needs to pay attention to what the president said. President made it very clear if you're killing the innocent for simply protesting that he'll come to the rescue and the president doesn't bluff.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [16:36:24]

HUNT: All right. Welcome back.

We are continuing to follow news out of Minnesota, where at least six federal prosecutors have resigned from their posts after allegedly experiencing pressure from the Trump administration to focus not on the actions of ICE Officer Jonathan Ross, but instead on the victim, Renee Nicole Good and those around her who may have been involved in protests against ICE. Others are also weighing their resignations, according to a CNN source.

Joining us now in THE ARENA to discuss, Democratic Senator from Pennsylvania, John Fetterman.

He sits on the Senate Homeland Security Committee.

Senator, I'm very grateful to have you on the program. And I want to start with what we've seen with these prosecutors resigning, given the facts as we are reporting them. Do you think they did the right thing

SEN. JOHN FETTERMAN (D-PA): I really wasn't aware of this. This is a new development. I wasn't aware of it.

You know, I mean, regarding the death of Ms. Good was absolute tragedy. And you -- lost their mother, and now I reject kind of the extreme rhetoric on both sides. You know, she is definitely -- she never was a domestic terrorist. But also I just refuse to just scream and yell and tell people to get the F out for those things.

It's like, you know -- and now we need to have an appropriate. And we're having -- yeah, we're having a so we really need to have a full intervention. And now we want to investigation -- a full investigation. And now, you know. So again, it's an absolute tragedy for this.

HUNT: Yeah. Yeah. For our viewers, we are having a little bit of a challenge with your Internet connection, which I know affects how you're able to interact with us. So my apologies on that --

FETTERMAN: Yes, I agree.

HUNT: -- on that front.

Let's continue our conversation though. I mean, do you -- do you think that the tactics that ICE are using in American cities, are they -- are those tactics helping convince Americans that the president's policies are in the right? They clearly thought President Trump was in the right on the border during the election. But do you think the tactics that are being used now are pushing Americans away?

FETTERMAN: We're continuing to have like a connection with our -- with our signal here. So I'm not sure if I missed part of your question, but I think what I've -- what I've seen now, it's like now, I think true, I've maintained that two things must be true in this country. We need to secure our border. And I do believe that effectively has

started about securing our border. But now I don't and will ever support going after and targeting otherwise, you know, law abiding citizens and other people that are here just like that. So for me, what's also true, you know, our border was a fail during the Biden administration. And right now, I don't support the kinds of extreme tactics that ICE has chosen to -- we should deport all of the criminals and people that are engaging in that behavior.

HUNT: All right. I think we may have to pause our interview with Senator Fetterman. Or maybe he -- maybe he is back here.

Let me -- let me give it one more try, sir.

I do want to ask you about your own political party, as, of course, Democrats did win in on election day in November, but of course had a tough time in the presidential election. And I think I have a big picture question for you, given some of the things that you've said in recent months.

Do you plan on staying a member of the Democratic Party for the duration of your political career?

FETTERMAN: Ab -- absolutely. I mean, I'm not sure why I keep I have the question. I've been consistently -- I would never going to change my party. And just actually today, I, you know --

HUNT: All right. Well, we got we got a little bit we got a little bit there. Are you a Trump Democrat, sir?

FETTERMAN: No, there's no such thing as a Trump Democrat. Well, you know, I just -- I ran, you know, I asked a person to run my record. I have a 94 percent overall, 94 percent voting the Dem line, 94 percent. I mean, that's, you know, so that's -- it's -- it's a strange place.

So, for me, I am going to be very honest. And there's some things I might agree or sometimes I'll disagree. I'm going to follow what I believe happens to be the truth in a situation, but I'm not sure now. So when as a Democrat, I'm not changing my party and my voting record is exactly, you know, in --

HUNT: All right. I'm going to say thank you, I think, to Senator John Fetterman. We keep -- we keep losing you at the very end of your answer, sir, I really hope we can have a more fulsome conversation here coming up soon. I really appreciate your time.

And of course, I know we've -- we've -- we were talking about Wawa and Sheetz at the top of this interview, which is something that we've talked about over many -- over many years. So, we still stand Wawa here on the show, but we'll talk to you soon, I hope. Thank you.

I want to bring the conversation here to the panel. Obviously, we were having some technical issues, Jonah, which when you're talking to Fetterman, those who are aware know that the way that he interacts can make those technical problems a little bit worse. But he has become this interesting figure in a landscape that is

otherwise incredibly polarized and often predictable in terms of how people react to things. He has talked about Iran and Greenland in ways that echo, quite frankly, the Trump administration. I'm also reminded of something we didn't actually get to talk about yesterday because of some breaking news. But the fact that Elizabeth Warren came out and said that the president called her after she said, hey, these credit cards rates should come down.

There is this very sort of -- I find it remarkable, like populist kind of completing of the circle from left to right. I'm curious your thoughts.

GOLDBERG: Yeah. I mean, so in political science, horseshoe theory, right, that there's this there are ways in which populists of the left and populous of the light -- of the right end up being pretty similar in terms of public policy. And I think that's definitely the case with Donald -- Donald Trump.

People, you know, people want to paint him as this crazy right winger. And I understand it on sort of culture war stuff and rhetorical stuff he is. But on policy, he's much closer to Richard Nixon, who was a very liberal, very progressive Republican, expanded the government in massive ways. Reagan was an alternative to that.

And people like Fetterman are sort of a throwback to like, the Macomb County Democrats that Reagan won.

HUNT: That's why I asked him if he was a Trump Democrat, because Reagan Democrats in Macomb County. Exactly.

GOLDBERG: And I think Fetterman's wrong. I mean, Brad and I looked at each other with a little like when you said, there's no such thing as Trump Democrats. I think they're in fact, a lot of Trump Democrats, just like there were a lot of like Bernie Republican types, too.

HUNT: Yeah. I mean --

TODD: He wouldn't be president without Trump Democrats.

GOLDBERG: Right.

TODD: The blue collar areas of Michigan and Ohio and Pennsylvania and Iowa that moved 20 something points from Obama, those people were Democrats. That's who -- that's -- in fact, he might not have won the nomination. We had the nomination in 2016. There were about two dozen candidates, it seemed like, and he was the furthest left.

Chris Christie may be next most. And so I think that's often lost because the Democrat base hates Donald Trump so much. But there are a lot of Democrats in congress who could work with Donald Trump if their base will let them.

BEDINGFIELD: And just increasing disenchantment with both parties, frankly, just voters who are not particularly don't feel particular allegiance to either party, which are going to be, I think, an increasingly big piece of the jump ball for any presidential candidate.

HUNT: Certainly, in a presidential race, for sure.

All right. Ahead here in THE ARENA, we've got new comments just coming in from President Trump. What Iran is thinking about doing that, he says, would prompt a, quote, very strong action by the U.S.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: You said to Iran this morning that help is on the way for protesters. What did you mean by that? What kind of help?

TRUMP: You're going to have to figure that one out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:49:07]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP.)

INTERVIEWER: Now we're hearing that they're going to start hanging protesters tomorrow. So, it comes back to the question, have they crossed your red line or has the line moved?

TRUMP: I haven't heard about the hanging. If they hang them, you're going to see some things that, are -- I don't know what you're where you come from and what your thought process is, but you'll perhaps be very happy.

INTERVIEWER: What do you mean by that?

TRUMP: We will take very strong action. If they do such a thing, we will take very strong action.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: All right. President Trump warning the regime in Iran against executing anyone who's been detained in growing anti-government protests across the country. Those comments coming as the State Department says Tehran is planning to hang an Iranian professor tomorrow after he was arrested in the demonstrations.

One human rights group says that so far, nearly 2,000 protesters have been killed, making this one of the deadliest uprisings in the country since the 1979 revolution.

[16:50:04]

President Trump is still threatening U.S. military action if leaders in Iran keep targeting demonstrators. However, the White House says that he did not attend a meeting this morning with national security officials to discuss options. Earlier today, the president told Iranians to, quote, "Keep protesting, take over your institutions," adding in a social post today that, quote, "Help is on the way, MIGA". That would be the acronym for Make Iran Great Again.

CNN political and national security analyst David Sanger joins the panel. He is also "The New York Times" White House and national security correspondent.

David, my apologies for not being quite sure how you're supposed to pronounce that. I know you're supposed to say MIGA, but can you weigh in for me on what you just heard from the president there that just coming in this afternoon. He did an interview with CBS and what he said he would do if, in fact, Iran follows through on hanging these protesters?

DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, first of all, he's been not terribly specific about what he would do. And I don't blame him for that, because this is one of those situations that's a lot harder to handle, Kasie, than to, say, wipe out Iran's nuclear sites, as he did in June when he buried a good deal of the uranium.

Those are fixed sites away from people. It's the kind of thing you can hit with big explosives, have a big effect without necessarily injuring civilians. But it's a very different thing when you've got thousands of people on the streets. Do you go after the Basij, which is the sort of these militias that have been shooting and arresting protesters? Do you go after the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, which is the military, but has not been on the streets as much? It's a more traditional target for the U.S.

Do you go after the nuclear sites again? What difference would that make to the protesters on the streets? Do you try to decapitate the government, which has got all kinds of legal problems for the United States? So not clear what his real strategic objectives are?

HUNT: David, you, of course, sat across from the president, talked to him about a wide variety of topics. What would you kind of point to in terms of how the president feels, how he's coming across what he actually, in his heart of hearts wants to do here

SANGER: Well, he's newly emboldened. I think the success of both the Iran strike in June and then getting Nicolas Maduro out of his bed and off to a trial or a courtroom in, in Manhattan, has made him feel like he has got great powers that were underused in the U.S. military.

But the powers that you have to do a discrete tactical operation like those two are extremely different than what you may need in order to run an occupation in Venezuela or to bring about helping a popular uprising where the people on the streets don't have any guns.

So you know, I'm wondering a little bit about how much he's thought about those differences. At one point in the interview, you'll see this in the transcript. I asked him whether or not he had studied other occupations of countries. Japan in 1945, Iraq in 2003, and he answered me by talking about discrete military operations like the rescue effort against the hostages, the American hostages held in Iran during the Carter administration. So, you know, we haven't heard very much from them about how they

would affect things inside Iran. And it doesn't help that they dismantled Voice of America, Radio Free Europe.

All those soft power groups that were broadcasting in.

HUNT: Yeah.

Zolan, you, of course, and David conducted this interview together with your colleagues. And you've also covered this president. I mean, what would you underscore about his approach here?

KANNO-YOUNGS: I think this is just another reminder of the how the president's worldview at this moment, which is he feels he's unrestrained when it comes to his power. There was a moment when me and David were in the Oval Office where we asked, what can hold you back essentially right now on the global stage? And he said, basically, my morality, you know, myself.

And then I followed up and asked, what about international law? And he pretty much brushed that aside and said, well, well, we don't need that. He would later follow up and say, yes, I would abide by it, but it depends what you mean by international law.

Those -- those comments are relevant, particularly when you talk about taking, you know, what action he could potentially take here. In a situation like Iran, where you do have so many civilians also as a major factor at play that are out protesting at this time.

[16:55:01]

But without a doubt, when we have all these different foreign policy issues, Venezuela, his comments about Greenland as well as Iran, what we should take away from this moment is just how unrestrained he feels and the lack of guardrails, not just in the U.S., but also on the global stage for the president.

HUNT: All right. David Sanger, thank you very much, sir. Always appreciate your expertise. Hope you'll come back soon.

And we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HUNT: All right. Thanks very much to my panel. Really appreciate all of you being here.

Thanks to all of you at home as well.

Jake Tapper is standing by for "THE LEAD".

Hi, Jake.