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Officials furious over Shooting; Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY) is Interviewed Political Fallout over Shooting; Numbers on ICE, DHS and Kristi Noem; Zach Iscol is Interviewed about the Storm in New York City. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired January 26, 2026 - 08:30   ET

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

[08:30:00]

JOEY JACKSON, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Bodily injury on the part of the agents who were there. Number two, was the force used proportionate to any threat that was posed by Mr. Pretti at the time? Number three, were they acting, that is the agents, reasonably under those circumstances?

Furthermore, John, there's been a lot of issues concerning a gun. You know what? We do have a Second Amendment right to bear arms. And it does not appear, unlike suggestions that were -- I don't even want to say suggestions, I'll say indications by federal authorities that he was brandishing a weapon, that he was attempting to massacre people. I mean that just doesn't appear to be the evidence. He's being called a domestic terrorist. The guy's a nurse with no criminal record and an American citizen. If he could be called a domestic terrorist, what does it mean for the rest of us?

So, the investigation has to do all of that, in addition to obviously preserving all of the ballistics and everything else. And I think the video evidence is going to be highly significant, in addition to witnesses who were actually there evaluating and seeing for themselves what specifically occurred.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, wait and see what we learn in these courtrooms today. The filings and the statements from the lawyers themselves could be informative.

Joey Jackson, great to see you this morning. Thank you very much.

Major shifts in public opinion on how Americans now view ICE. And we're getting new forecasts in this morning. An update on the deadly weather and the new threats after up to a foot of snow or more fell in 17 states.

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[08:36:05]

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: We're live here in Minneapolis as tensions are yet again rising, even in these frigid temperatures against ICE, who has descended on this city, especially considering they have now killed two American citizens in less than a month. Brand new this morning, we're hearing from a moderate Democratic senator who is calling for the impeachment of DHS Secretary Kristi Noem. Senator Jacky Rosen wrote about Noem, saying in part, and let me quote for you here, "her department's latest attempt to mislead the American public is deeply shameful," end quote.

And CNN is learning there are growing concerns inside DHS itself about Noem's quick defense of Alex Pretti's shooting without an investigation.

Let's bring in CNN's Priscilla Alvarez. She is in Washington with some brand new reporting for us.

Priscilla, you have been reporting throughout all of this as you cover immigration for us so well. What are you learning in this case?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Sara, I've been talking to multiple homeland Security officials who are, frankly, furious over Saturday's fatal shooting incident in Minneapolis, but also over the Trump administration's public response. These are officials who are keenly aware that they are already dealing with reputational harm, and that could have long lasting consequences in their ongoing immigration enforcement operations, not only now, but in the years to come.

And just as the American public has been doing, these officials are also sharing these videos amongst themselves trying to analyze them and understand how things went so terribly wrong. And one of the things that these officials are also trying to square is what they heard from Secretary Noem in the moments after the shooting with what they've seen.

Take a listen to what she said on Saturday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KRISTI NOEM, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: This individual went and impeded their law enforcement operations, attacked those officers, had a weapon on him and multiple -- dozens of rounds of ammunition, wishing to inflict harm on these officers coming, brandishing like that and impeding their work that they were doing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALVAREZ: Now, federal law enforcement officers know is that there usually is and should be an investigation to come to those conclusions. And it's not the first time that this has happened. Of course, earlier this month, with the shooting of Renee Good, similar conclusions were drawn about her very quickly in the aftermath. And I'm speaking with officials who are well aware that these things take time to discern and understand, and they believe that the secretary is doing a disservice to the department. I had one Homeland Security official tell me, quote, "the department needs a law enforcement leader, not a sycophant."

I'll also add, Sara, that I have been told that some Border Patrol agents that are in Minneapolis are also starting to become unconvinced that this is the most productive use of time for them as they too are continuously put in these tenuous situations because, as you know, as tensions rise, there is concern for the safety of protesters, but also the safety of officers. And that has been an ongoing one. And certainly, a lot of fractures even today within the department over the handling of this case by the Trump administration so far.

SIDNER: Priscilla, great reporting from you. We're also seeing sort of a crack in how the president is now talking about this in his interview with "The Wall Street Journal." He was asked two times if he thought what the officer did was the right thing. He did not answer that. So, we are seeing some cracks.

But your reporting, very, very important as to what's happening within DHS as officers who feel like they are being put in a very bad position and losing the public's trust. I can tell you from those who are here in this city and who have been following this and been looking at the videos and hearing what DHS has said and the several demonstratable lies they have told, the trust is gone already.

[08:40:07]

We will see what happens going forward. But your reporting has been remarkable throughout. Thank you so much to you.

Let me toss it back now to my colleague John Berman.

John.

BERMAN: All right. Thanks so much, Sara.

And now government funding hangs in the balance over this.

With us is Congressman Gregory Meeks, a Democrat from New York.

Congressman, thank you so much for being with us.

The House of Representatives passed this series of funding measures. You voted against it, but it did pass the House, along with some Democratic votes. It is now in the Senate. What do you want Democrats in the Senate to do?

REP. GREGORY MEEKS (D-NY): Not to pass it. We should not be passing any money to DHS so that they can continue the kind of harassment and execution, as we just saw by ICE, of American citizens. This is something that we cannot stand for. It should not be who we are because it is not who we are as American people and citizens. So, to me, what we saw is absolutely the same kind of rhetoric, and what we're hearing is the same kind of rhetoric that you hear from totalitarian governments, like when you hear the ayatollah tell peaceful protesters they can't protest here. Here you had an individual with a camera, no attacking the police officer at all, and he is now dead, shot at ten times, hit several times, no investigation and the Trump administration is saying that he was violently going after police officers, denying the American people what they can see with their own eyes. BERMAN: So, Congressman, right now you are saying you want Senate

Democrats to vote against these spending measures. The Homeland Security funding is tied together with all the other funding right now. So, if Democrats do vote against it, and there are indications they will, that would lead to a government shutdown. What would the goal of this shutdown be, Congressman?

MEEKS: The goal is to get ICE training and the mechanisms of which they are carrying out their acts under control. Just taking five year old kids, knocking down doors, not going after those who are, as the president had said they were going to go after, those who were criminals and those who were not American citizens, but what they are doing and the conduct of the secretary of DHS and the conduct of the president of the United States himself, and the words that they're utilizing, I cannot support that kind of organization.

That is not who I am. To me, coming a child of the civil rights movement, seeing how protesters were beaten and battered and killed, I could not fund that. I was against that. I am definitely not going to fund any organization that's carrying itself and its duties out, as ICE currently is. Masked individuals running around, pushing people down indiscriminately. To me, it is scenes that are untold in American history, other than what I've seen in the civil rights movement.

BERMAN: You say you could not vote to fund them. Is this a call to defund ICE, or is it a call for them to change the way they are behaving?

MEEKS: Change the way they're behaving? That's exactly what I said. They cannot conduct their business in the way that they are. Everyone wants -- if you are a person that should not be here and you've committed crimes and you're a violent felon, we don't want you. Therefore, you can go after them. And there is processes and laws and legal ways of which to do that. You should conduct yourself in a legal way.

What we see being conducted by ICE now is not legal. It's a violation, I think, of public safety and a violation of how law enforcement has been trained or should be trained because we're also hearing now that the training of the ICE agents is not proper, that they come in very short period of time. They're trained. They're put on the streets. And in fact, as has been broken, that some of the demands or -- that have been given, or the orders that have been given in a secretive way to individuals to tell them that they can violate rights is untold. And we cannot -- we've got to hold that agency and those who run it accountable. And the only way Congress can do that is through our Article I responsibilities of the Constitution. And that's the funding of this organization.

BERMAN: A number of Democrats have called for the impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. Where are you on that?

MEEKS: Absolutely. She's incompetent.

[08:45:00] To come without, you know, within seconds and actually just lie to the American people. The American people can see what took place on that tape, on those videos. The lie. And to defend, she should be out of office. She is not competent to be the secretary of DHS. She should be gone.

BERMAN: OK, Congressman, I'm just getting word that President Trump just issued a social media post where he said he's sending Tom Homan, who works, obviously, on immigration and the crackdown, directly to Minneapolis now. And that Tom Homan is going to report directly to him, the president of the United States. I'll read this in a second.

But what do you make of the president sending -- OK, actually, can you put that up? It's worth reading. It's worth me reading that out loud. Can we put that up again on the screen?

"I'm sending Tom Homan to Minnesota tonight. He has not been involved in that area but knows and likes many of the people there. Tom is tough but fair and will report directly to me."

So, that's interesting, Congressman, because the president is saying, Tom Homan, whose hands are not on what's been happening in Minneapolis, according to the president, is going there and will report to him. Does that feel like he's cutting out Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem?

MEEKS: You know what, I don't know what it is, but the president himself is implicit in this. The language that he has used about the individuals in Minneapolis, in Minnesota, the direction that he has given those law enforcements, those people, members of ICE, is eerily similar to what took place on January the 6th with his same direction at that particular time. So, clearly, with these officers, he's already, as he did with January 6th, are probably looking for ways to make sure that they are not -- or they get a pardon should they be convicted of anything.

And the fact of the matter that they're trying to prevent the police department and the attorney general from Minneapolis from having and participating in the investigation is in and of itself smells because in any situation generally the local police authority works along with the federal authorities in a complete investigation. And I think that the American people now are losing all credibility and all confidence in this agency and in the president of the United States himself.

BERMAN: There are bipartisan calls now for an investigation.

Congressman Gregory Meeks from New York, we appreciate your time this morning. Thank you.

Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, important. Much more to come on what the president just put out in that statement, John.

And after this new deadly shooting by ICE agents in Minnesota and a clear and growing backlash to what people are seeing on the videos coming out, there's also new data suggesting that support for the agency is falling even further.

CNN's Harry Enten is running the numbers on this.

Harry, how much has changed in terms of ICE and in terms of ICE, you know, then versus now?

HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: Yes, I'm not really surprised that President Trump is sending Tom Homan in because ICE, DHS, Kristi Noem have been a political disaster because, just take a look here. I mean ICE's net approval rating during Trump's terms. You go back to term number one. Look, it was -- it's pretty even at zero points. You go to June 2025, right, that was when all that stuff was going on in Los Angeles, they dropped down, look at this, minus 17 points. Way in the basement. But then after Minneapolis, it's even lower, minus 27 points on the net approval rating of ICE. Of course, this all being done under Kristi Noem.

So, no, what's going on in Minneapolis is not popular at all. What's been going on during this second term under ICE, under the Trump administration, under Kristi Noem has very much not been popular. And it's only been getting more and more unpopular.

BOLDUAN: What about DHS kind of more broadly?

ENTEN: Yes, OK. So, you know, we're going to start down low, we'll start with ICE, and then we'll raise it to DHS. And again, it's just the same exact story, right? DHS is doing an excellent or good job, the Department of Homeland Security. During Trump's first term, look where it was in late 2017, right, right about at this point, 59 percent. That's pretty gosh darn good.

But look at where it is now in Trump term number two. By late last year it was down to 42 percent. So, this is the same story that we're seeing no matter which poll question we look at, the popularity of ICE, of DHS, has completely fallen under the second Trump term. The second Trump administration. Where why -- what we were seeing during Trump's term number one was, hey, ICE, DHS, pretty popular. Certainly not unpopular. But all the actions in Minneapolis, in Los Angeles, in these major American cities have been very much rejected by the American people. It has been a political disaster for the second Trump administration.

BOLDUAN: Well, and now, I mean, as Berman was just reading what the president was just sending out, he's now sending in Tom Homan, his borders czar, into Minnesota, which has -- leads to questions of, what about the leadership of the secretary of Homeland Security, who has inserted herself very publicly to be kind of front and center in all of these operations?

[08:50:15]

ENTEN: Yes, I -- as I said at the top, I just think there's a real reason for it. And that's because Kristi Noem, simply put, Kate, has not been popular. And everything she's done, for the most part, has not been popular. I mean just look at her net approval rating. In July of 2025 it was minus 11 points. It's actually gotten more unpopular now at minus 16 points.

I looked at every single poll that has been conducted on Kristi Noem's popularity. Every single one, the net approval rating has been negative. ICE is negative. DHS is negative. As I said at the top, Kate, this has been an absolute political disaster for the president of the United States. It's not much of a surprise to me if he wants to push Noem to the side, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Which -- and remember, this is one of the things, broadly speaking about immigration and his crackdown of it was something he ran on and won on when it came to the last election. So, what a shift in change this has been. Let's see what else the president says today.

Harry, these numbers really tell a story today. Thank you.

ENTEN: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: Back to the other major story this morning, the big dig out and defrost now needed across much of the country. The massive winter storm, it broke lots of records, including in New York City, which saw record breaking snowfall. About a foot falling -- just shy of a foot falling in Central Park. The last time that happened, they saw those totals in Central Park was, well, 121 years ago in terms of in one day.

The storm also caused widespread disruptions, with JFK, LaGuardia, Newark all canceling more than 80 percent of flights on Sunday.

Joining me now with a look at where things stand with the big dig out ahead of us is the commissioner of New York City's emergency management, Zach Escolt.

It's good to see you. Thanks for coming in.

ZACH ISCOL, NEW YORK CITY EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT COMMISSIONER: Yes, thanks for having me.

BOLDUAN: Lots of records broken in the city. How are things going? Where are you most focused?

ISCOL: Yes, so, first off, you know, the storm has passed. I am incredibly proud of the work that the men and women who work for the city have done really over the last week, preparing for this storm and then responding to it, plowing roads. But we are not out of the woods yet. There's still a lot of snow on the ground. We're going into a week of extremely cold weather. That's going to cause some issues that we're concerned about with infrastructure. That snow can turn into, you know, more icy that can lead to hazardous travel conditions.

So, we still have a lot of work. We've got crews out there working 24/7 over the next few days. We had extra crews for our (INAUDIBLE) utility systems and then also doing a lot to just make sure we're taking care of our most vulnerable. We have some outreach crews that are going out around the city. We're going to be doing some other stuff as well to make sure we're taking care of them. BOLDUAN: And if anybody knows if you've been in New York City after a

snowstorm, it's not just the inches that fall, it's after the plowing it becomes feet higher piled up with the cars parked on the street so -- and trying to navigate through that becomes its own adventure, if you will.

What about -- what about public transit, which is critical to everyone and everything in New York City?

ISCOL: Yes, so the trains are running. You know, the MTA really, a huge credit to them. No real issues with busses over the last 24 hours. They've chained them up. They were moving around the city.

And one of the things that we're really doing is we're encouraging people to take transportation, especially because we do have more work to do getting the snow off the streets, getting the sidewalks clear. And it's not just important for people to be able to travel safely, but also to allow us to do that work, and then also to be able to get emergency crews around the city, ambulances, fire trucks, NYPD, et cetera.

BOLDUAN: You are also rounding out, I think, three years leading the agency now. So, you've seen a lot of -- a lot of storms and a lot of emergencies in your time there. What about -- you mentioned the cold temperatures. Is that -- are you concerned that that's going to impact operations in terms of the snow removal, in terms of worrying about infrastructure and just getting things kind of back up and fully running in New York City?

ISCOL: Yes. One quick fact check there. It's four years running this -- running the agency, but it's -- and it's been such an honor and a privilege to be at -- to be here with this team.

But, yes, the cold temperatures. We're looking at a week of extremely low temperatures in the teens, single digits with the wind chill, plus that snowy, icy conditions on the ground. And one of the things that we have to be concerned about is, is when we're doing deicing operations, salting operations, that snow melt, it gets into our underground infrastructure. So, we're working very, very closely with our utility partners. The MTA, DEP, which has all the water systems underground to make sure that we're doing everything we can to make sure those systems are operating, and then that we have some extra crews out and about that should there be issues we can address them very, very quickly. Because if you have a water main break, you know, a power outage in these types of temperatures, if you're not responding quickly, if you don't have backup things like warming centers or warming busses you can get out, that can be a very deadly overnight for folks.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely.

[08:55:04]

ISCOL: So, it's very important that we're responding to these things very quickly. And that's what (INAUDIBLE) these extra crews.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. And I will always appreciate a fact check. Never want to short anyone on the time they have served.

Thank you so much, Commissioner. Appreciate your time. Thank you.

John.

BERMAN: (INAUDIBLE) 40 years.

All right, breaking overnight, a search for survivors after a ferry with 350 passengers on board sank overnight.

And then why isn't this horse smiling? Got to wait for the horse to come up. And why all of a sudden is that horse so wildly popular?

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[09:00:07]

ERMAN: All right, happening now, crews in the southern Philippines are searching the water after