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DHS & FBI Actively Investigating Minneapolis Shooting as CBP Conducts Internal Review; Video Contradicts DHS Account of Fatal Minneapolis Shooting; Millions Face Freezing Temperatures After Massive Winter Storm. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired January 26, 2026 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:00]

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR OF "ANDERSON COOPER 360": We'll have more from Minneapolis ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": We have Breaking News on the deadly shooting of Alex Pretti during an encounter with federal agents in Minneapolis. Moments ago, the White House holding its first briefing since the shooting and the briefing coming right after Minnesota Governor, Tim Walz said he had a "productive call" with President Trump.

Walz saying the president agreed to consider reducing federal agents in the state. But today, White House Press Secretary, Karoline Leavitt blamed Democrats like Walz for the tragedy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: As President Trump said yesterday, the administration is reviewing everything with respect to the shooting, and we will let that investigation play out. But let's be clear about the circumstances which led to that moment on Saturday. This tragedy occurred as a result of a deliberate and hostile resistance by Democrat leaders in Minnesota.

Democrat leaders in Minnesota with sanctuary city policies have actively defied federal immigration law and the will of the people. And as a result of that defiance, two Minnesotans have now tragically lost their lives on the streets of Tim Walz's state.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: And Anderson Cooper is live for us in Minneapolis. And Anderson, as local officials are suing to maintain the integrity of evidence there in this investigation, we heard the White House talking about the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI actively investigating the shooting as CBP is conducting its own internal review.

COOPER: Yeah. And Brianna, I can tell you from just everybody I have talked to who is out in the streets, who is out in coffee shops, there is -- there is not a lot of confidence in any investigation that the Department of Homeland Security here, that Border Patrol here with Bovino as head of or high official in would be taking part in. She also spoke about the Border Czar Tom Homan, and we're now just hours away from him arriving here in Minneapolis to take over immigration operations.

Outrage here has been breaking out, erupting as two key legal battles are now playing out today. In one, the state of Minnesota is asking a federal judge to halt the president's surge of thousands of ICE officers. Another hearing about the evidence of the shooting death of Alex Pretti begins next hour.

All of this as videos clearly contradict what administration officials all weekend long and very early on in the hours after Alex Pretti's killing had been saying. CNN's Kristen Holmes is at the White House with more on what was just said. Kristen, obviously, a very defiant tone, not unexpected perhaps from this White House.

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, it wasn't unexpected. And I will say that you could see Karoline Leavitt there trying to walk this line because President Trump had just said that he had a productive call with the Governor Tim Walz. We also heard Walz saying that it was a productive call and that they had agreed to work together. And President Trump at one point even saying that they were on the same wavelength.

But then you heard her go after these Democrats, saying it was their fault that this incident had happened in the first place. But I will tell you, Anderson, I spent the morning on the phone with Republican lawmakers, allies of President Trump's, advisers to this White House, all of whom were saying the same thing. They want some kind of independent investigation.

And you could hear that that message is at least in some part getting through to the White House, at least in their messaging. She kept reiterating the fact that there was going to be this investigation, that the president wanted to see this play out. But as you noted, a number of these administration officials were out there calling Pretti a domestic terrorist.

[14:05:00]

Kristi Noem, the Secretary of Department Homeland Security, went as far as to define what domestic terrorism was and then say Pretti was committing an act of domestic terrorism. And she, Karoline Leavitt, dodged question on why these administration officials got out there so early, before there had been an investigation, to kind of start this narrative about Pretti.

And while she said herself -- obviously, this is something President Trump has said to her -- that he had not used that terminology when referring to Pretti in private. You have to keep in mind that someone like Kristi Noem, someone like Stephen Miller, those people are out there trying to deliver the president's message. They are staunch loyalists to the president. They are having private conversations with the White House all weekend long before they are going out and making those comments. Now, interestingly, President Trump -- Karoline Leavitt, was asked if President Trump believed that the shooting was a mistake. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Does the president believe that the killing 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.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: And I will tell you, Anderson, I spoke to multiple officials in the hours after that shooting on Saturday, who said President Trump privately was defending that agent who actually pulled the trigger, clearly now sending a different message, including during an interview with "The Wall Street Journal" in which he wouldn't answer the question if the agent was in the right.

Now, interestingly, Karoline Leavitt was specifically asked if President Trump would commit to allowing agents to turn over the body camera footage -- make that body camera footage public. We know now, of course, the Department of Homeland Security is reviewing that. She would not commit to actually releasing that camera footage.

COOPER: Yeah, in fact, I mean, most of the agents here, many of the agents are not wearing body cameras and don't have to because the administration had that law changed. The other question is, of course, you know, there are state investigators. The state would normally be involved in an investigation like this.

And there's certainly a lot of people here who would like to see whatever investigation is being done, if in fact a real investigation is being done. And there's a lot of suspicion, certainly by people on the street about that. They would like to see local law enforcement, state law enforcement who are trained to investigate these kind of police-involved shootings to have a role in that investigation.

As you know, Kristen, they were not -- they said that they were not allowed access to the scene, to the crime scene by federal officials, even though they had a signed warrant. Kristen, appreciate it. Brianna, let's go back to you.

KEILAR: All right, Anderson, thank you so much. I'm joined now by CNN's Tom Foreman and Josh Campbell. And Tom, you know, the legitimacy of these operations is challenged at multiple points by the contradictions that we are hearing from Karoline Leavitt --

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah.

KEILAR: -- as we just heard there. One of them being this refrain over and over that this is the administration going after the worst of the worst with this immigration operation.

FOREMAN: Yeah, right here. That's the problem with that. They keep trying to say, oh, these are all about these terrible criminals, all of these. The two people who are dead on the street, shot by ICE agents, were American citizens who were out there exercising the right that Karoline Leavitt herself said they had a right to exercise. The other problem is, as we know from statistics out there, the people who are being arrested, this is not an ocean of criminals.

In fact, the vast majority have no criminal record whatsoever. So that's the problem with that part of the story.

KEILAR: She's saying -- because -- one of the things that Americans do not have a right to do, right? They have a right to --

FOREMAN: Right.

KEILAR: You can videotape.

FOREMAN: Right.

KEILAR: It's also your constitutional right to be annoying, even if that's --

FOREMAN: That's exactly right.

KEILAR: -- if you appear annoying to ICE. They're pointing to the fact you can't impede. You cannot obstruct these law enforcement actions. You can't get in the middle of law enforcement actions.

FOREMAN: That's right.

KEILAR: That is true.

FOREMAN: The problem seems to be what they are equating to be impedance. Look at this video and this is where they're getting in trouble. This is the guy who they say is impeding. His hands up, trying to help a woman who has just shoved to the ground, a guy who is then dragged back in when he seems to be trying to go away. They're saying this guy is the problem, a guy who is pinned to the ground. They all come around and end up shooting repeatedly on the ground. They're saying that's the problem.

So, again, the narrative, what they're trying to sell and what people are seeing is in very stark contrast. And that's a problem.

KEILAR: I do go back to some of these numbers when they're looking at, you know, the worst of the worst and the criminals. And it is really a very small percentage of people, even according to Cato, the conservative think tank --

FOREMAN: Right.

KEILAR: A very small percentage of people who we are talking about, the violent, the property convictions, a lot of people without any kind of criminal record who are in detention with ICE. But you hear Karoline Leavitt saying this is what Americans want.

[14:10:00]

I think she's saying that is what Americans want, but that's not the totality of what's happening here.

FOREMAN: That is conflating. That is conflating an awful lot here. Did Donald Trump have immigration as a very strong issue for him for a long time? Yeah. Is he still getting generally good approval for closing the southern border? Generally, by a little bit.

But Americans broadly, including an awful lot of Republicans, are looking at all of this and they do not approve of this, certainly not by the magnitude that she would want to claim if you look at any of the modern polls. The only way you get there is you say, well, we're just going to ignore the polls. The truth is, Americans are not happy about this in a very broad range.

And for the White House to keep saying, oh, well, this is what Americans want, the evidence is Americans do not want this.

KEILAR: It's also the gun rights aspect, which we should talk about going forward.

FOREMAN: Oh, that's a whole different ball of (inaudible).

(CROSSTALK)

KEILAR: It's a big one. Tom, thank you so much. I want to bring in CNN's Josh Campbell.

And Josh, you have been analyzing this video over and over. What stands out to you about what you are seeing and how that comports with what the White House is messaging?

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Well, Tom, just perfectly explain what we actually know. The problem for the administration is that there's so much that we can see that is contradicted by what we actually can see on the video based on their own statements.

And this is important, because for the American people to have confidence that this investigation will be done correctly and credibly and in the way that it's typically done, they have to trust that what the administration is saying is actually true. Here's the problem. What the administration did very quickly, they came out and essentially prejudged what happened here and essentially exonerated the agents.

Take a listen here to what the Bovino, who's the CBP official there on the ground, what he said in the immediate aftermath of this shooting compared to what he said to our colleague Dana Bash just yesterday, focus specifically on the certitude in his voice about his conclusion just right after this incident. Have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) GREGORY BOVINO, BORDER PATROL COMMANDER-AT-LARGE: This looks like a situation where an individual wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT AND ANCHOR OF 'INSIDE POLITICS': Do you have any evidence that, yes, he had a gun on his person? Was he brandishing it?

BOVINO: We heard the law enforcement officer say gun, gun, gun. So at some point, they knew there was a gun. So, again, that is going to be part of that investigation as to what was happening on the ground there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMPBELL: So day one, it was officials essentially saying this is what happened, this guy was trying to massacre federal agents. We also know, for example, Stephen Miller at the White House called this domestic terrorism. Secretary Noem indicated that Mr. Pretti was brandishing a weapon.

None of that was -- ended up to be true that we know as of right now, based on a lot of these videos. And so what we saw at the White House just a short time ago was kind of pivoting to the investigation. Well, we'll let that play out.

The problem is, is that the administration already came out very quickly to essentially prejudge this. The final thing I'll note, and we haven't really talked about this part yet, but I continue to hear this from law enforcement sources. And this is so important.

And people have to understand the impact that this type of prejudging has on agents there on the ground. People wonder, well, why do these tactics keep happening over and over again? I could tell you, you know, someone who's in law enforcement, in the military, these are very strict disciplinary organizations where people know that there's a chain of command. If you screw up, if you violate policy, if you violate law, there's always that sort of Damocles holding hanging over you. You will be disciplined.

The problem here is that the people at the top from the president and his administration come out so quickly to exonerate these agents, seemingly every single time. Sources that I talked to in law enforcement worry that that is changing the culture of these agencies like ICE, like Customs and Border Protection when they're out there on the ground. If they know from the get go that they're not going to be judged in a transparent way by their own leaders, that their leaders are going to come to their back no matter what, you have to imagine how that impacts their psyche and the actions that they take in dealing with the public.

KEILAR: Yeah. No Damocles sword.

CAMPBELL: Yeah.

KEILAR: Just unending praise and talk, as we've heard in the past, in the case of Renee Good, talk about immunity.

CAMPBELL: Yeah.

KEILAR: And that certainly does have an effect. Josh Campbell, thank you so much for that.

Still to come, the Trump administration facing growing calls for accountability after these two shootings, even from some Republicans. Could the dispute over DHS funding set up another government shutdown?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:16:11]

KEILAR: New Today. Senate Majority Leader, John Thune is joining a growing list of Republicans praising President Trump's decision to send White House Border Czar, Tom Homan to Minnesota. Thune writing on X. "This is a positive development. One that I hope leads to turning down the temperature and restraint order in Minnesota." CNN Chief Congressional Correspondent, Manu Raju is with us now.

And it's interesting. We just heard from Karoline Leavitt, who was asked about whether this means Greg Bovino of CBP is going to be gone from Minnesota. She just said he'll be an important leader for CBP across the country. So --

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

KEILAR: I think it says a lot there. But what are you hearing from Republican lawmakers on this?

RAJU: Look, one thing is they're out of session until tomorrow. When the Senate comes back into session, I expect to hear a fair amount of concern, anxiety. And this is much different, Brianna, than what we saw happening in the aftermath of the Renee Good shooting. At the time, there was certainly a lot of anxiety about what was happening.

[14:20:00]

But we've seen this escalate and we've seen the videos and we've seen the administration's response, which is completely contradicted by the videos. And Republicans, frankly, can't defend it. The last time after the Renee Good shooting, we did not hear that many Republicans calling for an investigation.

And now, we're hearing one Republican after another. Some of Trump's most loyal supporters say there needs to be a full independent investigation. And even it is creeping into some of those members who are up for re-election in difficult races, potentially Andrew Garbarino, who's a Congressman from New York, a potential -- could be a swing district in November.

He's a chairman of a key committee in the House, wants to have hearings on this. That's a much different position than they were before. So that's going to escalate pressure on the administration to try to figure out a new way forward. And the Tom Homan decision certainly is catching some -- allowing some members to breathe a sigh of relief. But the policy decision at the end of the day is what a lot of the members want to hear. How are they going to change the policy?

KEILAR: Let's keep our eye right on this fight in Congress over DHS funding, because it looks like this could set the stage for, I know we call it a partial government shutdown, but there's a lot of DHS besides ICE and CBP. You're talking the Coast Guard. You're talking FEMA.

RAJU: Yes. I mean, look, this is -- I mean, it is rolled into this huge spending package --

KEILAR: Right.

RAJU: -- that includes funding for the Defense Department. That includes funding for Health and Human Services, the Labor Department, Education Department. This is a massive bill that funds a significant portion of the federal government. And it can all shut down because of the dispute over ICE.

The Democrats came out on Saturday, really united. We expected last week that this bill was going to pass pretty easily. But in the aftermath of the shooting, Chuck Schumer, the Senate Democratic Leader, said there needs to be changes to ICE. Otherwise, Democrats will deny the votes in the Senate this week on this bill. And they have the leverage, of course, in the 53-47 Senate.

You need to have at least seven Democrats to vote to advance this package. There are -- those votes are not there, even those Senators who typically would vote to avoid a government shutdown are signaling that they will vote against it. And they're calling for this funding package on Homeland Security to be stripped out of the larger bill.

But to do that, you need a full agreement of all 100 Senators to do that. And you also need an agreement with the White House on what the policy different changes would be. That's going to be very difficult to get to, given how divisive this issue has been, which is why a lot of people are bracing for a shutdown and a potentially prolonged one, too.

KEILAR: But let's be clear. Politically, it would be very difficult for the Senate Democrats to vote for this bill.

RAJU: Yeah.

KEILAR: It's hard to see how they could do that politically.

RAJU: Yeah. And what's been interesting to see the shift in how some of these members who in the House voted for this plan. Tom Suozzi, a Democrat who voted for this bill in the House that included this ICE funding last week, he came out today and said it was a mistake to do that. So it shows you what a Democratic thinking (ph) is on this issue.

KEILAR: That's really interesting. What a difference a week makes. Manu, thank you so much for the great reporting.

And still to come, millions of people are still stuck at home because of a major winter storm. And thousands of families could face frigid temperatures without any power. We are tracking the deep freeze.

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[14:27:57]

KEILAR: Right now, millions of Americans are dealing with record snowfall and ice after this weekend's monster winter storm. At least a dozen people died in the coldest temperatures of the year. And more than 200 million Americans are still under weather alerts, as dangerously cold conditions are expected to linger for days.

In the South, crews are working around the clock. They're trying to restore power because ice brought down power lines there. There are nearly 800,000 homes and businesses remaining in the dark. Meteorologist Chris Warren is joining us now from CNN's Severe Weather Center.

Chris, how cold is it right now? And how cold is it going to be for a while?

CHRIS WARREN, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yeah, it's cold, Brianna. I'll tell you what, you go outside, and the sun's out in some areas, and it can be deceiving. But you go outside with the wind blowing, and this is what it feels like on your exposed skin.

It feels like it is seven in Nashville right now. Jackson, Mississippi, it feels like it is 17. Here are the temperatures that we're going to feel. Again, this is the forecast wind show. When you go outside in Minneapolis tomorrow morning, it's going to feel like it's 15 degrees below zero. It's going to feel like seven in Atlanta, 12 in Jackson.

I want to show you Mississippi and parts of northern Louisiana where still hundreds of thousands of people without power still encrusted in ice in some of these areas. On top of that, just how cold it's going to be, it's going to be record cold. Some of the coldest temperatures, some areas like Oxford, Mississippi will have felt in 40 years, so record cold early this week.

Bottom line, trying to stay warm without power, you just got to think, how can we keep all the air outside and maximize the heat that you have? And that can include putting towels under the door and kind of blocking off rooms that are the warmest. So Brianna, people got to do whatever they can to stay warm in this extreme, extreme cold.

Yeah, and also, they have to be thinking about this. It's not like they're getting a respite tomorrow. This is going to drag on.

WARREN: It really is. In fact, I want to show you the temperatures, what we're going to see, the blues and the purples. That is the extreme cold here going forward --