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Outrage After Man Pinned to Ground by Fed Agents, Fatally Shot; Trump Says He's Sending His Border Czar to Minnesota Tonight. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired January 26, 2026 - 13:30   ET

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

[13:30:00]

KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Minneapolis and in other places across the country. Gabe (ph), go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Inaudible) for justifying violence.

LEAVITT: I would defer you to the Department of Justice on that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, Karoline. Regarding Minnesota, on Saturday, the Department of Homeland Security posted that Pretti looks like he wanted to do maximum damage to massacre (ph) law enforcement. Stephen Miller on Saturday posted that -- called Pretti a would-be assassin. Why did administration officials jump to conclusions before an investigation had even been conducted?

LEAVITT: Well look, this has obviously been a very fluid and fast- moving situation throughout the weekend. As for President Trump, whom I speak for, he has said that he wants to let the investigation continue and let the facts lead in this case.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: With regards to the deployment of Tom Homan to Minneapolis, should the deployment of Mr. Homan to Minneapolis be seen as a sign that the president is dissatisfied with how the officials on the ground have handled the incident?

LEAVITT: No. Mr. Homan is doing an exceptional job, and he has been working with Secretary Noem and President Trump over the course of the last year. Secretary Noem still has the utmost confidence and trust of the President of the United States, and she's continuing to oversee the entire Department of Homeland Security and all of the immigration enforcement that's taking place across the whole entire country.

Of course, Secretary Noem is also in charge of FEMA, and we are in the wake of a brutal winter storm where hundreds of thousands of Americans have been impacted by that. So, Border Czar Homan is in a unique position to drop everything and go to Minnesota to continue having these productive conversations with state and local officials, and I know that he's catching a plane in just a few hours to do just that at the request of the president. Jennifer?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: On Saturday's shooting, has the president been briefed and have you been briefed on specific details of the shooting? How many shots were fired? How many guns discharged? And I mean, did the protesters' gun go off or only the officers' guns? Do you have any of those details?

LEAVITT: Again, the investigation is continuing, Jennifer (ph), and we will let the facts lead and we will let the facts play out in this investigation. I do know that HSI and FBI are conducting interviews with those that were involved and the agents who were involved in this unfortunate tragedy on Saturday.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are they keeping the president up to date on all those details?

LEAVITT: The president is obviously very much on the ball with respect to this investigation. I think he's made that quite clear with the various statements that you've seen him put out and also, the four points that the president has outlined as well to Governor Walz and to encourage him to cooperate with ICE and with the administration. Mary (ph)?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thanks, Karoline. To follow on Gabe's (ph) question, Secretary Noem said Alex Pretti committed an act of domestic terrorism. Stephen Miller labeled Pretti a domestic terrorist. Does the president agree with that?

LEAVITT: Look, as I've said, I have not heard the president characterize Mr. Pretti in that way. However, I have heard the president say he wants to let the facts and the investigation lead itself.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Was he alarmed to hear his top officials referring to him in that way, rushing to their judgment?

LEAVITT: Danny (ph), go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thanks, Karoline. On Stephen Miller's comments, will Stephen Miller be apologizing to the family of Alex Pretti for calling him, "an assassin" who tried to murder federal agents despite the fact that, as you say, this is still under investigation?

LEAVITT: Look, again, this incident remains under investigation. And nobody here at the White House, including the president of the United States, wants to see Americans hurt or killed and losing their lives in American streets. And we mourn for the parents.

As a mother myself, of course, I cannot imagine the loss of life, especially losing one's child. And that same empathy from the president goes for the parents of angel families, parents of victims of illegal alien crime across our country as well.

And that's exactly why the president continues to be wholeheartedly committed to deporting the worst of the worst criminals from our country.

Why don't we go to the back? Kelly (ph)?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Karoline, does the president believe that the killing, though, was a mistake? Has he expressed that at all? LEAVITT: Again, the president has said, you know, we have to review it. And this investigation needs to continue. And he's letting the facts of the investigation lead itself.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Does he want the body camera footage to be released to the public?

LEAVITT: That's not something I've heard the president commit to. So I won't do that from the podium. Sure. Kerry (ph)?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Karoline, how serious is the administration taking allegations that local and state officials in Minnesota are actively coordinating with demonstrators through encrypted or non- encrypted communications, as well as providing government resources to impede immigration enforcement operations?

LEAVITT: I'm sorry. Kerry (ph), could you repeat your question?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How serious is the administration taking allegations that local and state Minnesota officials are communicating with demonstrators to basically impede immigration officials?

LEAVITT: Well, we've definitely seen active organization amongst these left-wing groups, Kerry (ph). And it is something that I know the FBI and the Department of Justice are looking into. Again, it is illegal to unlawfully obstruct lawful immigration enforcement in this country.

And these agitators are making it nearly impossible for ICE to do their jobs and for federal law enforcement to carry out the will of the American people to deport the worst of the worst.

[13:35:00]

I would just encourage everyone to please imagine in this room, all of you come to the White House every day to report on the president of the United States and the administration. You come into this briefing room. You walk through the gates of the White House. Just imagine, if there were left-wing agitators or agitators of any kind who were in your face, who were doxing you, who were harassing you, who were physically threatening you, who were biting off your fingers in the case of two Border Patrol agents we saw this past weekend in Minnesota.

That would make it very difficult for you to show up and do your job here at the White House every single day. That's what these officers in Minneapolis are facing. That's why the president is calling on Governor Walz and Mayor Frey for these three very simple and common- sense points of cooperation, so that ICE and local law enforcement can work together.

Again, we are just asking for police to be police. And if you ask any law enforcement agent or official, they want to be able to work with their federal counterparts at the state and local level and vice versa. Tom (ph)? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thanks a lot, Karoline. Two questions. One is looking forward. The role of Mr. Homan, is he being sent by the president to defuse the situation that exists right now on the ground? Is he the point person essentially, for the White House in terms of trying to tamp down the tensions that exist right now in Minnesota?

LEAVITT: Well, Mr. Homan is the point person for cooperating with state and local authorities and corresponding with them, again, to achieve this level of cooperation to subdue the chaos on the streets of Minneapolis.

And I would just point out that Mr. Homan is someone who has been lauded for many, many decades for his experience working in law enforcement. In fact, this is a "Washington Post" headline from nine years ago, 2016. "Meet the man the White House has honored for deporting illegal immigrants."

And I would remind everyone in this room that it was former President Barack Hussein Obama who awarded a medal to Mr. Homan. So, he's obviously very qualified. He has the full trust and faith of the president.

He will continue to have these meetings in the hopes that ICE and local law enforcement can cooperate and work together to have successful immigration enforcement, as we've seen in almost every other state across the country.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Secondly, Karoline, can you talk a little bit about tomorrow's trip by the president to Iowa. What the purpose of that trip is and what the goals of that trip are.

LEAVITT: Sure, yes. Tomorrow President Trump will be traveling to Des Moines, Iowa. He will be making a local visit at a local business, and then he will be giving a speech on affordability and on the economy. And I know he very much looks forward to being there, to meeting with the great people of Iowa, but also lawmakers as well. Jake (ph)?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Karoline, a couple quick questions. First, does the president remain fully confident in Kristi Noem's ability to lead the DHS?

LEAVITT: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And then just secondly, just on that "Wall Street Journal" reporting that we saw yesterday, the president said at some point that the immigration enforcement officers would leave Minneapolis. Did the Saturday killing of Alex Pretti expedite that withdrawal at all?

LEAVITT: To your first question, the answer is yes. He still has confidence and trust in Secretary Noem.

To the second question, I would point you back to what I said earlier. If Governor Walz and Mayor Frey implement these common-sense cooperative measures, CBP will no longer be needed to support ICE on the ground in Minnesota. ICE and local law enforcement will peacefully work together, as they are effectively doing in so many other states and jurisdictions, to remove violent criminals from American neighborhoods across the country.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did Walz ask the president to remove the immigration enforcement officers?

LEAVITT: He asked the president to scale down, and the president reiterated what the president put out in his statement yesterday and what I'm sharing with all of you as well. I would just add on this level of cooperation, a few statistics that I think are very important. Seven of the top-ten safest cities in the United States cooperate with ICE.

And we've seen historic turnaround in safety in cities that have chosen to cooperate with ICE, that are not just led by Republicans, but also look right here in Washington, D.C. We had a great level of cooperation with Mayor Bowser and the local government, and we have been able to remove thousands of illegal aliens from the District of Columbia, where you all live, so you can thank President Trump for that.

The murder rate in Washington, D.C. has plummeted as a result. There were no riots. There were no protests. Nobody was tragically killed as a result of that level of cooperation between federal and local authorities. And again, that's all the president is asking for in Minnesota. It's totally common sense. Jared (ph), go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you. Karoline, in this process, you continue to describe the situation in Minneapolis as chaos. Was there any mistake made by Secretary Noem that led the president to send Mr. Homan there?

LEAVITT: I'm sorry. I don't understand your question. Did Secretary Noem make a mistake which led to --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She made any mistake that could lead the president to send Mr. Homan to Minneapolis?

LEAVITT: No. Look, as I already mentioned, Mr. Homan has been working alongside Secretary Noem and for the president over the course of the last year.

[13:40:00]

And again, he's uniquely positioned to hop on a flight to Minnesota today to continue this correspondence with state and local authorities. And that's what he's going to be doing. Fran (ph)?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Karoline, is it the White House's position that Americans have the right to show up to these ICE operations and film, document, or protest the law enforcement actions?

LEAVITT: All Americans have a First Amendment constitutional right, of course. But Americans do not have a constitutional right to impede and obstruct lawful immigration enforcement operations. That is actually a crime. And it's something that we've seen taking place in the streets of Minneapolis, which, again, is leading to these dangerous circumstances that these federal law enforcement officers have been forced to work within.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Back to the call with Governor Walz this morning, the president described it as respectful. He said we seem to be on a similar wavelength. But you had strong criticism for the governor and the Minneapolis Mayor, Jacob Frey, just now. So could you explain the difference in tone between what the president had said in his two social posts and I think some of the criticisms that you just levied from the podium?

LEAVITT: Fran (ph), I think the criticisms that I laid out, I'm painting the picture for all of you in this room, are what led to the moment that we are in today, where Governor Walz and President Trump are having a conversation, a constructive and productive conversation, to end the chaos and the lawlessness that is taking place in Governor Walz's state. Kristi (ph)?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you. I had a question. With Homan now going to Minnesota, is Gregory Bovino also going to remain in Minnesota overseeing these ICE operations?

LEAVITT: Mr. Bovino is a wonderful man, and he's a great professional. He is going to very much continue to lead Customs and Border Patrol throughout and across the country. Mr. Homan will be the main point of contact on the ground in Minneapolis.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And to follow-up, given what we've heard from several Trump administration officials, people like Stephen Miller, as people are now calling him a domestic terrorist, Bovino saying that Pretti was out to massacre law enforcement, why not require ICE agents to wear body cameras to clear up some of the disputes that we are hearing from witnesses and video footage versus what the administration has been saying?

LEAVITT: Well, that's a policy question that I know the policy folks in the building are having with members on Capitol Hill, and I'll leave it to them and the president to make that decision.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And my final question is on, you were talking about the level of cooperation that the president talked about with Governor Walz. Will the administration commit to cooperating with local officials on this investigation into Alex Pretti?

LEAVITT: The president spoke about this with Governor Walz and said he would have a discussion about it. He did not make a commitment and so, therefore, I won't make that commitment here. I would just remind all of you in the media, because I've seen a lack of reporting on this fact, there are investigations into what took place on Saturday.

The Homeland Security investigations and the FBI have teamed up for an investigation, and there's also an internal CBP investigation, an internal review of what is happening on the ground in Minnesota.

The president supports those investigations, and as I've said repeatedly, he wants to see them move forward. Phil (ph)?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, Karoline.

FBI Director, Kash Patel said in a Sunday interview, quote, "You cannot bring a firearm loaded with multiple magazines to any sort of protest." Does the president believe the Second Amendment rights remain in effect even when protesting?

LEAVITT: The president supports the Second Amendment rights of law- abiding American citizens, absolutely. There has been no greater supporter or defender of the right to bear arms than President Donald J. Trump.

So, while Americans have a constitutional right to bear arms, Americans do not have a constitutional right to impede lawful immigration enforcement operations. And any gun owner knows that when you are carrying a weapon, when you are bearing arms and you are confronted by law enforcement, you are raising the assumption of risk and the risk of force being used against you. And again, that's unfortunately what took place on Saturday.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Homan is in Minneapolis. Will his mission continue to be focusing on illegal immigrants with a criminal history, or will it be on illegal immigration generally?

LEAVITT: Mr. Homan will continue to enforce our nation's immigration laws, especially deporting the worst of the worst criminals in Minnesota who have committed violent offenses. And I would just remind all of you that this important work is continuing to be carried out.

In just the last few days, I'm happy to provide this packet to anyone in the room. ICE has arrested many, multiple violent criminals, illegal aliens within Minnesota. Many of them have convictions for assault, driving under the influence, fraud. This individual here I'm looking at was an aggravated felon with multiple convictions for larceny, fraud and forgery of checks, vehicle theft, drug possession, domestic assault, inflicting bodily harm on another, criminal convictions of larceny, identity theft, again, charged with driving under the influence.

[13:45:00]

These are extremely dangerous people who Governor Walz and Mayor Frey have allowed to roam on their streets, and all the president is asking for is cooperation to arrest individuals like this and deport them from the United States of America.

I'll take a couple more. Go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So, this weekend the president posted that this is a cover-up of the fraud in the state of Minnesota. He also posted Minnesota is a cover-up. These both happened after the shooting. So, given that these came after the shooting, what is the 'this' here? What is the cover-up he's alleging?

LEAVITT: Yes, it's a good question. I spoke with the president about this at length. What the president is referring to is the fact that you have Governor Walz and, again, the mayor, who have been encouraging these left-wing agitators to come out and to harass and to dox and to threaten ICE, and to make this conversation about and -- smear lies about federal law enforcement who, again, are just trying to do their jobs in an attempt to distract from the widespread, massive fraud that has taken place in their state.

Billions and billions of dollars has been stolen from law-abiding taxpayers in Minnesota. And the administration continues to be very focused on getting to the bottom of it, especially, and the president raised a good question over the weekend, with respect to Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, who now has a net worth within the millions.

And one must ask themselves, why and how is that possible? Is she connected to the fraud rings that we have seen taking place within her state and her own district? It's a question the American people are raising, and the president believes it's one worth answering. Haley (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thanks, Karoline. I want to go back to some of the comments from Stephen Miller and Secretary Noem. You've made clear the president wants to see the investigation played out when answering some of the questions on the specific details. Is he concerned that some of those definitive statements made by other officials risk public's perception of the credibility of those investigations now playing out?

LEAVITT: Again, the president believes that these investigations are credible, they are continuing, they are active, and he wants to let them play out. Alex (ph)?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Karoline, thank you. Is the administration willing to separate DHS funding from other funding bills in order to avoid a broader shutdown?

LEAVITT: Look, at this point, the White House supports the bipartisan work that was done to advance the bipartisan appropriations package, and we want to see that passed. Policy discussions on immigration in Minnesota are happening. Look, the president is leading those discussions as evidenced by his correspondence with Governor Walz this morning, but that should not be at the expense of government funding for the American people, which would include, as you know, Alex (ph), FEMA funding.

And we are in the midst of the storm that took place over the weekend, and many Americans are still being impacted by that. So, we absolutely do not want to see that funding lapse and we want the Senate to move forward with passing the bipartisan appropriations package that was negotiated on a bipartisan basis.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And secondly, there's another round of Russia- Ukraine talks this weekend, Sunday. I wonder if you can walk us through with the president, how he will be involved in that, if at all. Will he be talking to President Putin, President Zelenskyy ahead of those meetings? LEAVITT: I'm not tracking any scheduled calls at this point in time. However, the president remains deeply involved and, of course, he's being apprised by his advisors, namely Jared Kushner and Special Envoy Witkoff, on these talks.

They had a multilateral meeting this past weekend, which didn't get a ton of coverage, but that was historic in nature, where the president's team has really brought two sides of this war to the table together to move the ball closer towards peace. So, the president is not giving up on the peace process. He obviously just met with President Zelenskyy when we were in Davos, Switzerland, but I'm not tracking any calls scheduled for this week.

On one more foreign policy point, I will point out, as you all saw, the last remaining body of the hostages, Israeli hostages in Gaza, has been returned. This is a huge foreign policy feat for the president of the United States, for the state of Israel, and frankly, for the whole world. The president made the impossible possible, and so it's great news for the president, for the United States, for our allies, and also for peace in the Middle East.

And I understand that more than 20 new additional countries have also signed up to join the newly established Board of Peace with respect to the rebuilding of Gaza, which is another historic accomplishment for this president.

So thank you all very much, and we'll see you in Iowa tomorrow.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR OF "ANDERSON COOPER 360": You've been listening to Karoline Leavitt at the press conference in the White House. I'm joined here in Minneapolis by the former Police Chief of Minneapolis, retired Chief, Medaria Arradondo; also former FBI Deputy Director, Andrew McCabe; and Minneapolis City Council President, Elliott Payne.

Chief, I'm just wondering what you heard from that press conference, a very defiant tone.

MEDARIA ARRADONDO, RETIRED MINNEAPOLIS POLICE CHIEF: Yeah, it was a very defiant tone, Anderson, from the press secretary, but one thing that really stood out was the messaging today was very different from the first statements we heard from the DHS after the killing of Mr. Pretti.

[13:50:00]

Now it is this pause, it is let's -- the president wants to make sure the investigation plays itself out, let's get the facts. The first statements we were hearing about Mr. Pretti being an assassin, wanting to commit massacre with law enforcement agencies.

COOPER: Essentially calling him a domestic terror.

ARRADONDO: Absolutely. So we've not -- it's sort of been walked back now. The other thing that stood out, Anderson, was the fact that now the president has actually reached out to Governor Walz today and certainly has laid out some conditions that the press secretary has mentioned. One of those being about data or voter rolls. That's something that the elected officials will have to discuss.

But the other thing she talked about, about local police turning over these folks with immigration violations, Minneapolis Police does not have their own jail. That's run by the Hennepin County Sheriff's Office. So there's some dynamics there, but for the first time, Anderson, it appears that there is at least an opening of communication between the president's office and our state governor's office. And so we hadn't heard that before.

COOPER: What do you think of the sending of Tom Homan here?

ARRADONDO: I think that was significant as well. Even though the press secretary, she didn't mention about what Commander Bovino's status would be right now. But it's clear that now, it was said in the press statement, that local authorities will now have at least a conduit of communication with the Border Czar, Homan.

COOPER: Andrew McCabe, former FBI Deputy Director, I'm wondering what you heard and what stood out to you about what the White House has just said.

ANDREW MCCABE, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST AND FORMER FBI DEPUTY DIRECTOR: Yeah, well, I certainly agree with all the Chief's comments. I would highlight another aspect that I think Ms. Leavitt came back to again and again and again, which is this position that the White House has, that local officials in Minneapolis must start cooperating with ICE enforcement efforts.

And the fact is, they don't have to do that. The law is very settled in this area. States and cities can decide that they are not going to commit their resources to federal law enforcement if they wish to do that. Now, if they make that decision, it makes your life much harder as someone who's running a federal law enforcement operation. I know this personally.

There were cities years ago who decided not to cooperate with our joint terrorism task forces. But what you have to do in that situation is do your job anyway. Turning instead to terrorize the community and killing innocent civilians is not a reasonable reaction over this policy dispute.

At the end of the day, the people of Minnesota elected these representatives and these officials because they support these sort of policies, sanctuary city policies or whatever you want to call them. So, the federal government has got to figure out how to do their job lawfully and without tearing the community apart.

COOPER: And Elliott Payne, Minneapolis City Council President, what are your thoughts on what Karoline Leavitt and the tone now from the White House and the substance?

ELLIOTT PAYNE, MINNEAPOLIS CITY COUNCIL PRESIDENT: Well, echoing what former Chief Rondo said, the city of Minneapolis doesn't operate a jail. That's handled by the county. And then I feel like there's this broad incompetence coming from this administration right now as though they don't understand how the criminal justice system works. County jails are often housing folks pre-conviction.

State prisons are housing folks post-conviction. And our Department of Corrections have been very clear in laying out the facts that they work with ICE all the time. They honor those detainers all the time.

So there isn't a policy change that we need to do in the city of Minneapolis that would accommodate what they're requesting. I think the tone that they're taking is encouraging, though, because they're recognizing just the complete disaster that this operation has been. It's been a disaster for our city, but it's been a disaster for our Constitution.

They're trying to basically call every single resident of the city of Minneapolis a domestic terrorist as we're exercising our First Amendment rights and in Alex Pretti's case, exercising his Second Amendment rights in the most responsible and respectful way. So, it's encouraging to see their tone shifting, but we need to recognize that the city of Minneapolis are just people looking out for each other, looking out for their neighbors, and exercising their rights.

And if that makes us domestic terrorists, then we're in a completely different universe when it comes to the future of our country.

COOPER: Chief Arradondo, given your experience, I mean, if state, local law enforcement began assisting ICE and Border Patrol personnel who are here, who have various levels of training, some have only had 47 days of training, you know, they're masked.

[13:55:00]

Would the tactics of those ICE and Border Patrol officers change? And would it be -- or would it be that local and state police would just be expected to cordon off an area while they are knocking on doors, you know, stopping seemingly random people, asking for their citizenship status?

ARRADONDO: Well, I think --

COOPER: Because that would seem to be outrageous for many people in this community.

ARRADONDO: It certainly would be, and it would also be a shock to the way that Minneapolis is operated. Minneapolis has had a separation ordinance, Anderson, for the last 20-plus years.

Also, as Minneapolis Mayor, Jacob Frey has indicated, and certainly Chief O'Hara, they only have 600 officers total to try to -- already tend to the needs of their 450,000 residents for just those 9-1-1 calls, and then try to also deploy throughout the city to help and assist ICE. That would be a huge, a huge task, and so they want to focus on the public safety of their everyday residents.

And while they'll still continue to have relationships with ICE, ATF, DEA, FBI, which they always have, this immigration status being such a focus, that is something, obviously, that the Governor, Mayor Jacob Frey, and Chief O'Hara will have to decide.

COOPER: I have not heard Secretary Noem or anybody give a number of when is it done. I saw her being asked over the weekend on a news program about that, and she avoided answering the question. When is -- what is the number of "hardened criminals", that they claim to be targeting -- when is that, have you heard any actual number? Because it seems like this could just go on if, you know, there's plenty of people who believe that that's not what this is about, that this is about sanctioned violence, and violence is part of the message.

ARRADONDO: Anderson, that's a great question, and any public safety leader will tell you, anytime you start to create a task force, this is Operation Metro Surge, there has to be an end date. So it can't go on forever. It's not sustainable, and there's a ton of resources that are put into it, and also, this city is trauma-fatigued, Anderson.

It's just been five-and-a-half years since the killing of George Floyd. You know, they're still trying to get through, I mean, the Renee Good's funeral hasn't even taken place yet. Now we have Alex Pretti, so this community, this city, this state has gone through so much.

COOPER: Andrew McCabe, how would you see, if -- you know, the White House is saying there has to be cooperation from state and local law enforcement. How would that -- what would that look like in a way that didn't outrage more people here?

MCCABE: Well, I mean, it wouldn't look anything like how they are currently approaching their responsibilities, right? It wouldn't be roving bands of masked people, pinning cars in on the street, smashing people's windows, dragging them out of vehicles, no paper, no traditional arrest warrants. I mean, a joint operation would have to be exactly that. Your partners have to know where you're going.

A targeted operation is -- you know, they repeatedly refer to this activity as targeted operations. This is not what targeted operations look like. Targeted operations is what ICE used to do. They would figure out where someone lived, they'd do some surveillance to make sure that the person who no longer had status and had maybe committed crimes was actually living in a particular residence, and then they'd set up on that residence early in the morning and knock with the appropriate legal authorization. That's a targeted operation.

You could get cooperation to do that, to plus up your numbers to be more effective, but what you see right now, that ICE and CBP are doing on the streets of Minneapolis, that's got to stop. There's no other legitimate law enforcement entity in Minneapolis or anyplace else that would participate in what you're seeing every day.

COOPER: Yeah, I mean, Chief, if you had a bunch of Minneapolis Police standing around while seven guys are pinning somebody to the ground and hitting his head with a canister, and then shooting him, and the police didn't do -- I mean, that would not be feasible here. That would outrage people here.

ARRADONDO: Anderson, exactly what the deputy director just said. That is not constitutional policing. That could not take place. That is not going to build the trust and the relationships that the local police departments rely upon each and every day. At some point, these federal agents, this Operation Metro Surge, it's going to end. But it's going to be these local police officers that will have to maintain that trust, and if you break it, you've got to pay for it.

COOPER: Yeah, Chief, appreciate it, Minneapolis city council president as well, and Andrew McCabe as well, we're going to take a short break. We'll have more from Minneapolis ahead.

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