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Trump Says Administration "Reviewing Everything" About Minneapolis Shooting; Key Hearings Today Over Minneapolis ICE Operation, Shooting Evidence; Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D) On Impact Of Winter Storm. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired January 26, 2026 - 07:30   ET

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

[07:30:00]

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: All to say the White House and Trump administration officials are very clearly trying to figure out how to move forward here. They recognize the optics are not good, but they also want to continue to defend the president's immigration crackdowns. And so it's going to be very interesting to see whether that tone shifts to the rest of the Trump administration today following the president's interview.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Yeah. Look, it was a notable shift from the president himself in that interview. We'll get more of that language up so people can see it because it's vastly different than what was being said by senior administration officials just hours before.

Alayna Treene at the White House. Thank you very much.

This morning new details about Alex Pretti, the 37-year-old ICU nurse killed by federal agents in Minneapolis. He loved the outdoors and sitting in the sun with his elderly dog.

And new video just in as an icebreaker rescues a cruise ship trapped near Antarctica.

(COMMERCIAL)

[07:35:25]

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right. We are live here in Minneapolis where there are two critical hearings that are going to be in front of a judge today in the federal court -- one of which is the state of Minnesota once again asking it to halt -- immediately halt ICE operations here even if they are temporary. And the second is to ask the federal courts to demand that the federal agencies preserve all of the evidence in the shooting death at the hands of a federal border patrol agent of Alex Pretti.

Let's go now live to our Whitney Wild who is following all of this. What are you learning about what it is that is being asked of the state? And there is clearly, Whitney, as you have well reported, a huge amount -- a chasm of distrust between state and local leaders and federal agencies. WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, Sara. The major question for that first case that you were talking about is basically the state of Minnesota is arguing that the Trump administration's actions are a clear infringement on their 10th Amendment. They are saying that this is so aggressive. It is so far- reaching. That it amounts to an invasion and tramples on the sovereignty of the state of Minnesota.

The Trump administration, however, believes that legal argument is totally without merit. That they are 100 percent within federal authority to execute these immigration laws.

There had been an initial hearing on this within the last week, and the federal judge here declined to issue a ruling immediately, saying that she wanted to give the Trump administration more time to respond to these pretty novel and broad allegations from the state of Minnesota.

I think notably, Sara, the state of Minnesota is not saying that the federal government has no legal standing to execute immigration law. Rather, they're saying that this surge is so big, it is so invasive, it is putting so much pressure on the state that it simply goes beyond what is permissible under the law. And they're actually asking the Trump administration not to stop immigration enforcement completely but rather to go back to basically how things were pre-surge. To go back to the level of agents pre-surge.

As we know, there are 3,000 agents, at least, spread throughout the Twin Cities. That is the largest immigration crackdown ever. The Trump administration boasts about that. And so the state is arguing that number is so big that it amounts to an invasion.

Here's more from Attorney General Keith Ellison.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEITH ELLISON, MINNESOTA ATTORNEY GENERAL: This is not a rash decision for us to go to court and to seek a temporary restraining order from a judge to preserve evidence and prevent the destruction of evidence. I don't care if you're a conservative, liberal, or whatever, but you should at least be in favor of conserving evidence in a homicide. And to have to go get an order from a judge to preserve that evidence is extraordinary and should alarm everyone who believes in equal justice under the law.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WILD: Sara, Keith Ellison there talking about this second hearing today where state officials are asking for the federal government to basically not tamper with, destroy or remove any evidence that -- related to the shooting of Alex Pretti because they have made very clear they are going to launch their own independent investigation.

As we know, federal officials have completely boxed out local law enforcement from the investigation, even initially denying the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension the ability to process the scene even though they also had a warrant, Sara.

So major, major tensions here really testing the limits of state versus federal, you know, powers here, Sara.

SIDNER: Yeah, it's a really good point, Whitney. I know that you, as well as I, saw state investigators from the BCA, the Bureau of Crime Apprehension, out on the street looking for evidence. And so you have these two conflicting apparatus -- one going up against another.

We will see how this all unfolds with the state being very clear that -- from the governor's mouth, that they will be investigating this unlike what they were able to do in the shooting death at the hands of an ICE agent of Renee Good.

Thank you so much, Whitney Wild, for all your reporting in this. You have been absolutely great for us.

[07:40:00]

Let me go now to Elie Honig, our CNN chief legal analyst and former federal prosecutor. Elie, let me ask you about what we are just hearing -- and we can listen together because this just happened.

We've just heard from Todd Blanche, the United States deputy attorney general, who was asked about the scenario that is happening here on the ground and once again seeming to double down on what federal authorities have been saying happened here. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TODD BLANCHE, DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL: Look, we're -- we'll be in court today. There is an ongoing investigation as we've said all weekend and obviously, we're not destroying evidence. And so to the extent that the state of Minnesota wants to make this a show and go in front of a judge to insist that we do something we're absolutely not ever going to do. We'll be there.

But this was a tragic -- a tragic situation that happened and the fact that now we're going to go to court to say exactly what we're doing which is, of course, we're investigating. We always investigate any conduct like this, any shooting like this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: So Elie, you heard from him there. He says the state is asking for something that we are not ever going to do, speaking about the investigation and the evidence and handing it over to the state, or at least letting the state get ahold of it.

What does that tell you about where this goes next?

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR, FORMER ASSISTANT U.S. ATTORNEY, SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK: Well, I think there's two things, Sara, that Todd Blanche says in this clip that are important. First of all, what Todd Blanche was saying is the state is asking a court to tell us -- the Feds -- not to destroy evidence. He's saying we never would destroy evidence.

But the reason why this case is different and the reason why there may need to be a judicial order is exactly what you and Whitney were just discussing. Because we are in the very unusual and very suboptimal situation here where the Feds and the state authorities are not working together on an investigation. They're running separate and parallel investigations.

And as you noted earlier Sara, there is some evidence that's going to be and already is in the hands of one side but not the other. And so if it takes a judge to come in and say something that is already the law -- you are not supposed to destroy evidence -- to reiterate that, then that's necessary here.

The second thing that Todd Blanche says, and I think this is really important. He says of course, we're investigating. However, the glosses over a critical distinction here. In any case like this there would be two essentially separate investigations.

One would be an internal investigation, in this case run by DHS. Let's review the officer's actions. Does he need to be retrained? Does he need to be disciplined? Does he need to have his firearm taken, et cetera?

But separately and more importantly, there is the question of is there a criminal investigation? Without concluding whether there's a crime or not, you would always launch a potential criminal investigation into a shooting like this one or the Renee Good shooting. And if you look back a couple of weeks ago to Renee Good, Todd Blanche came out and said we're not investigating on the criminal side.

And so that I think is the huge question that we all have here. When Todd Blanche says of course, we're investigating, does he mean just the administrative piece, or does he mean the much more significant criminal investigation?

SIDNER: And those are really important questions that you pose and perhaps will eventually be posed in court by the state.

I do want to ask you about the state and its role. We saw the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension out in the streets talking to people. We know from a witness I spoke with that they have talked to at least one witness to the shooting of Alex Pretti. They have, of course, all the video that the public can certainly obtain from social media.

Could the state charge any of these officers in this shooting eventually?

HONIG: So Sara, first of all, this is exactly why ordinarily in a situation like this the Feds and the state authorities work together. Because the state authorities -- and I've been on both sides of this in my career. The state authorities know the terrain.

SIDNER: Yeah.

HONIG: They know the people. Sometimes they have a different level of trust with the community.

And so if you're essentially divorcing state from Feds, you're going to end up with different evidence on each side of this. So that's a major problem.

Now, to your question can state prosecutors charge a federal official with a crime? The short answer is theoretically yes, but it's going to face major legal obstacles in court.

So if hypothetically here, Minnesota attorney general or Minnesota county attorney -- the Hennepin County attorney were to charge an ICE officer with some variation of homicide, whether it's manslaughter or reckless, or whatever, the first thing that officer would do would be to ask to go to federal court and then to try to seek to invoke some form of qualified immunity to get a case thrown out.

[07:45:00]

So it's possible Sara, but it's really an uphill climb legally for state officials to do that.

SIDNER: Elie Honig, it is always a pleasure to have you.

And I cannot help but mention as I was here throughout, this looks absolutely nothing like what happened here in another officer-involved shooting in 2020 -- the death of George Floyd with a local officer where the federal and state authorities worked together -- both of them ending up charging --

HONIG: Right.

SIDNER: -- the officer, Derek Chauvin, and he was convicted. This looks nothing like that.

Elie Honig, so nice to have you here. And thank you also to our Whitney Wild --

HONIG: Thanks, Sara.

SIDNER: -- who is braving the frigid temperatures this morning, John.

BERMAN: All right, Sara.

This morning the NTSB and FAA are investigating a private jet crash in Maine. The business jet was taking off from an airport in Bangor last night. Eight people were on board. After the crash the controller heard -- was heard saying the plane was upside down. A source tells CNN the extent of injuries is not known. First responders are still working the scene.

This morning, more than 3,000 flights are canceled with this storm, which is still hitting the Northeast. Let's get right to CNN aviation correspondent Pete Muntean at Reagan

National Airport. Oh, I mean, there are people there? I don't know where they think they're going.

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: There are people here, but this is not what a normal morning rush here on a Monday at Reagan National Airport looks like. It is quite, quite dead and it's because the recovery for airlines is only just beginning and we're really not out of the woods yet.

Yesterday, John, was the worst single day for flying in the U.S. since the pandemic struck. Eleven thousand flights canceled nationwide, 5,000 delays. It didn't quite best March 30, 2020, when we had 12,000 flight cancellations.

Today not looking great either. It's early yet. Thirty-seven hundred flight cancellations so far. Take a look at the departures board here a National Airport. You can see a lot of red on there right now. And the issue now is the fact that airplanes and crews are out of positions.

American Airlines canceled about one in every five flights already JetBlue has canceled nearly half of its schedule today.

And then, of course, there is the airports' part of this equation. And the FAA has warned that it's assessing airports in the Northeast case- by-case, meaning airports are opening in a piecemeal way, not all at once. It's going to be a pretty tough go today.

The worst airports right now on FlightAware -- 60 percent of all flights canceled today at Boston Logan. JFK, LaGuardia, Newark also high on the cancellation list. And then, of course, here at Reagan National Airport, the runways here reopened late last night, according to the Airport Authority, and they tell me that two of the four runways at Dulles are open right now, meaning folks will be able to get in and out.

But not an easy go today. We are only at the start of the day, John.

BERMAN: No. I've got to say a lot of red on that board right there, though I am somewhat encouraged that any planes are leaving with the way things have been going.

Pete Muntean at Reagan this morning. Great to see you -- Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Yeah, another look at the storm right now. The winter storm is leaving behind dangerous conditions that could last also for days, made worse by the fact that people across many states are waking up to bitterly cold temperatures on top of that snow and ice that we've seen. At least 17 states saw a foot of snow or more from the storm.

In Kentucky, the storm brought up to half a foot. This morning crews are out there working to restore power to about 50,000 residents in the state.

And joining me right now is the Democratic governor of Kentucky, Andy Beshear. Governor, thank you so much for coming in.

I heard you say yesterday that at that time it was unsafe in basically any part of the state to be out on the road. You've got snowpack and ice, and sleet that's accumulated, and temperatures that are dangerously cold, I think for days going forward.

What does this mean for Kentucky?

GOV. ANDY BESHEAR, (D) KENTUCKY: Well, what it means is that this is going to be a prolonged event. Thankfully, the precipitation has stopped. We actually got almost a foot of snow in Northern Kentucky, but the hardest hit areas got more than three-quarters of an inch of ice. And what that does is weigh down tree limbs that fall. It weighs down power lines that fall.

So we've got about 50,000 homes right now that don't have power. That's down from 75,000, so our hardworking utility linemen got about a third of that fixed in the middle of all of the storm.

But now, it's about 11 degrees where I am. The windchill is probably below zero. And so that's our biggest concern -- keeping people warm and safe and then keeping them off the roads.

I think we're going to get a little sun later today. I think our interstates, which right now you need to be about 40 miles an hour to travel safely on, are going to get a little bit better. But still, it's going to be a pretty scary time for the next couple of days. Thankfully, we don't have any confirmed deaths right now in Kentucky.

[07:50:00]

BOLDUAN: Yeah. Kentucky -- you and I talk, I would say all too often about severe weather that's hit the state. You have become, unfortunately, very adept and very practiced at having to deal with these emergency situations in your state, Governor.

Can I also ask you because I saw you posting about Minneapolis over the weekend? You posted that this is a scary moment for our country.

I want to play for you what Gov. Tim Walz said about the killing of Alex Pretti. Listen to this, please.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. TIM WALZ, (D) MINNESOTA: This is an inflection point, America. If we cannot all agree that the smearing of an American citizen and besmirching everything they stood for, and asking us not to believe what we saw, I don't know what else to tell you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: A very big question right now is as a governor or any governor, what do you do in this moment? Where is the off-ramp here?

BESHEAR: Well, the first thing we have to do is speak out. It is very clear that this administration is willing to allow for the deaths of Americans to secure a certain number of deportations. That is not America First. They just dismiss the death of American citizens like it's nothing. I mean, these are people that have rights.

And if ICE or border patrol is going to be a law enforcement agency inside of our cities, they cannot act with the aggression that we're seeing, and they cannot use the lethal force that they are using and then try to be wholly unaccountable.

It is so irresponsible for a president or Kristi Noem, or anybody else to get out there before there has been an officer-involved shooting investigation and to give conclusions to attack the American citizen -- the individual who is now dead. It is grossly irresponsible, it's incredibly concerning. And listen, if you believe in our rights as Americans, you ought to be speaking up and you ought to be upset at what's going on.

BOLDUAN: Also interesting overnight, the president did a new interview with The Wall Street Journal and there seems a noteworthy shift in how the president is or isn't talking about it. He was asked twice if the agent involved acted properly -- were in the right with their actions -- and he did not -- he declined to directly answer that when asked twice, which seems a shift from what we've seen previously.

He also seemed to signal, according to the Journal, a willingness to leave Minneapolis, I guess we should say eventually. Here's the quote for you, Governor. "At some point we will leave," Donald Trump said. "We've done -- we've done, they've done a phenomenal job."

Once he leaves there what are you going to do if and when a massive ICE operation is launched in Kentucky?

BESHEAR: Well, the first thing we have to do is demand that they pull these officers out of all of our cities and that they fully retrain every single one of them. They are operating with aggressive tactics that are not appropriate for law enforcement. They are not following our Constitution in giving people their rights. The idea that they have a memo that says they can just barge into someone's house without a real warrant is -- I mean, I guess they missed the day they taught law in law school. It's incredibly concerning. And so what they need to do is a full-on retraining.

The way they're going about this, no law enforcement agency in the country would do it because it not only puts the individual maybe they're trying to apprehend in more danger than they should be in, but it puts everyone else in danger. Think about everyone around each of these operations. It's putting each and every one of our communities in a place where, you know, law enforcement is supposed to protect us, and this group is doing the exact opposite. They're putting us in harm's way.

BOLDUAN: Governor Andy Beshear, I thank you very much for coming on while you're dealing with so much in the state right now. Appreciate it.

Ahead for us, a Good Samaritan and a deputy jumping into action to save an injured mail carrier from a burning truck. You'll have to see this body cam video -- truly harrowing.

And Super Bowl LX, it's set -- the Seahawk and the Patriots. The big moments that brought them go this point and the wild whiteout conditions that developed as the snow moved in to Denver.

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[07:57:38]

BERMAN: New this morning, a source tells CNN the FBI is staffing up a crisis coordination center in Minneapolis. They're looking for employees nationwide to volunteer if they have experience investigating social media. The source says the FBI is hoping to collect better intelligence on the groups protesting federal agents in the city.

Videos of the shooting of Alex Pretti have contradicted the government's account of what happened. We could see even more videos, including potentially from the camera that Pretti himself was carrying.

With us now, Brian Stelter, CNN's chief media analyst. The video in this story, Brian, is so crucial and is really pushing this story.

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST: Yes. And as our colleague Anderson Cooper has pointed out from Minneapolis, Alex Pretti's phone is likely in border control custody now. There are big questions about whether he was recording, what he was filming at the time, and whether the public will ever get to see that perspective.

But we have seen, you know, about half a dozen other points of view of this latest shooting. And just as in the case back on January 7 with Renee Nicole Good, multiple angles, multiple points of view of what happened. In some cases people reaching different conclusions based on the same video.

But there are some signs this time is different. You've been talking about reactions from lawmakers. Look at the reactions in online communities of all sorts. People who usually don't engage in politics weighing in about the Alex Pretti case and expressing condemnation and horror at these videos.

Here's a headline from The Verge website over the weekend saying, "Creators in communities everywhere are taking a stand against ICE. Even the most seemingly apolitical creators have had enough."

Now, let's see a month or a year from now if that's actually the case. But it's interesting in this moment, at, there is so much online energy and outrage. So many people watching the videos, slowing them down, zooming in -- you know, really analyzing this case very closely and concluding that the government is lying to them about it.

BERMAN: And look, the nature of this past weekend with the weather -- people were in their homes with little to do other than watching videos. This really broke through --

STELTER: Yeah.

BERMAN: -- in ways that other things have not.

STELTER: Right.

BERMAN: And Brian, you've also written about video and recording as a form of resistance.

STELTER: I think that's what we're seeing happen right now in Minnesota in the same way that we've seen in other countries. Think about Iran recently, for example. Of course, big differences in Minnesota. But I noticed how Gov. Tim Walz and Minnesota officials have been urging residents to hit record whenever they see ICE.

In some ways these on-the-ground videos from Minnesota residents are a rebuttal or a rejoinder to the flashy militaristic videos that ICE has been producing for months.