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18 Days in Minnesota: The Killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti; Ousted Venezuelan Leader Maduro Appears in Court Today; Severe Storms Unleash Catastrophic Flooding and Spawn Tornadoes; Oil Prices Climb as Iran War Rages, Crucial Hormuz Bypass Threatened. Aired 8:00- 8:30a ET

Aired July 22, 2026 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: At least he got down, Kate. I'd stay up there, frankly, but anywho.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: You're like, I need a break. I need a break.

SIDNER: A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

BOLDUAN: This hour has seen an exclusive investigation into the 18 days between the deaths of two Americans at the hands of federal immigration agents. Jake Tapper is here.

And breaking news out of Washington. Reports of a major nuclear deal between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia that could shift the balance of power in the Middle East. Yes, at this moment. We're standing by for details.

And have you ever wondered what would happen if you just tossed logic aside and ride a bike backwards on one wheel down an Olympic ski jump? What some might call a nightmare bad idea, just put this gentleman in the record books.

I'm Kate Bolduan with John Berman and Sara Sidner. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

SIDNER: All right, we begin this hour with new exclusive CNN reporting focused on the critical 18 days that separated the deaths of two American citizens on the streets of Minneapolis at the hands of federal immigration agents. It happened during the Trump administration's Operation Metro Surge. I was there on the ground covering the situation.

3,000 agents made their way to Minnesota in what the Department of Homeland Security then called the largest DHS operation ever. Half a year later, those days are defined by the violence and chaos that ensued. This Friday marks six months since the deaths of Alex Pretti, the VA nurse who was shot and killed by federal immigration officials in Minneapolis.

Eighteen days before his tragic death, Rene Good was fatally shot by ICE officers. In a new CNN investigation, CNN's Jake Tapper examines how the Trump administration's immigration enforcement policies contributed to those deaths. And now, as we've seen with the recent fatal ICE shootings in Texas and in Maine, those policies still haven't changed a whole lot.

CNN spoke with more than a dozen former and current members of the Trump administration, most of which refused to go on the record out of fear of retaliation by the administration. CNN's Jake Tapper is with me now. Jake, let me start here.

One of the stunning things that happened during this intense surge of immigration enforcement agents into Minneapolis was seeing not one but several prosecutors at the U.S. Attorney's Office resign over what they were being asked to do by the Bovino-led operation that ended the deaths of those two Americans, Rene Good and Alex Pretti. Now you have managed to get one of those federal prosecutors on the record. What did he say that really stood out to you that you will remember?

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Well, the reasons for these resignations, five of them on January 13th, as you note, four of those were top prosecutors in the office. The reasons had to do with what the Justice Department was pushing them to do with regards to the death and investigation of Rene Good having to do with the Justice Department wanting them to claw back a warrant to resubmit it so it's no longer predicated by the death and the violation potential violation of civil rights of Rene Good but instead investigating a dead woman for assault on a federal officer. And also this possible investigation into Rene Good and some investigatory steps into her widow Becca Good.

But long before that was happening between January 8th and January 13th, there were lots of people in the office very disturbed by what they saw on the streets of Minnesota. And here is one of those top prosecutors who resigned, Tom Calhoun-Lopez, talking to me about just what he saw and what disturbed him so much.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM CALHOUN-LOPEZ, FORMER ASSISTANT U.S. ATTORNEY, MINNESOTA: Beginning in December, the administration had an unprecedented wave of immigration enforcements in the Twin Cities. But Operation Metro Surge was different. From the beginning, it was conducted in a paramilitary posture.

Hundreds of agents were flooding in from out of district. They weren't familiar with Minnesota communities. They were heavily armed.

They were in masks. They patrolled in combat gear. And their ethos was of a military occupying force.

Their mission seemed to be to subdue the state and to bring it to heel.

TAPPER: And you know from occupation because you're a veteran.

CALHOUN-LOPEZ: That's correct. I deployed to Iraq twice, once as a field artillery officer and once as an army judge advocate. TAPPER: And it reminded you of that kind of occupation.

CALHOUN-LOPEZ: It did. Through two different deployments, I got to see what a military occupation looked like. And unfortunately, Operation Metro Surge had all the hallmarks of a military occupation.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[08:05:00]

TAPPER (on camera): And in fact, Sara, before Rene Good was shot, an agent with the Homeland Security Investigations Division said in a meeting with prosecutors and others, someone is going to get killed when they heard that Border Patrol and Greg Bovino were coming to town. So it does seem like a lot of this was a result of the policies that were in place that still seem to be in place.

SIDNER: Yes, I mean, those are two stunning statements. One, that someone is going to get killed, and then you had the killing of two, not one, but two Americans. And you have this prosecutor saying this was basically the military trying to take over and crush the state, something very antithesis to how Republicans feel about the federal government with a Republican administration.

I do want to ask you about something else that was really stunning in your reporting on how Bovino was personally pressuring federal prosecutors to charge protesters, and that those prosecutors had to push back because evidence did not back up federal agents' claims. How did those you spoke with describe why they pushed back strongly and didn't go forward after being given quite a bit of pressure from Bovino and the administration?

TAPPER: So Tom Calhoun-Lopez, the prosecutor that we just heard from, he was the guy -- he was in charge of violent crime -- so he was the guy that Bovino and the other agents would come to and say we need to charge these protesters for AFOs, that's assault on a federal officer. And Calhoun-Lopez says that he was predisposed to believe police officers, federal agents, immigration officers, that they have a tough job, it's very difficult to do what they do, and he generally just believed it. But throughout December and then January, he would file these cases and then evidence would come forward from witnesses or evidence from body cams or from other people's video phones, and the evidence would contradict what the officers were saying.

He concluded that something had changed, and these agents were now lying over and over. So the office stopped just automatically filing these AFOs, these assault on federal officer charges, because the immigration agents were lying so much, which we have seen play out over and over, not just in Minnesota. And Bovino called them, called the prosecutor's office on January 12th to get mad at these prosecutors.

He was very frustrated, and he said that the people in the streets were wackos, and he talked about the need to put down the protesters. Bovino, we should note, denies having said this. And after that call, one prosecutor turned to the others and said, they're going to kill someone else.

This was after the death of Rene Good, but before the death of Alex Pretti. All of these prosecutors, all of these people in Minnesota saw what was about to happen, tried to prevent it from happening. Were not able to.

They tried to prevent Border Patrol and Bovino from coming, but that didn't happen, that didn't work. They appealed to the Justice Department. And then what was so outrageous to them was, in the death of Rene Good, there was not a normal investigation with the local law enforcement, the BCA, with the FBI.

And, in fact, there was this effort for them to charge a dead woman and to not just do a normal investigation, as would normally be done, a joint investigation looking into whether Rene Good's civil rights were violated. The administration was determined to change the predicate, so it was Rene Good was being investigated, even though she couldn't be charged with anything, she was dead.

SIDNER: That really shocked and hurt the community. It's something that was mentioned to you and I over and over and over again while there on the ground by neighbors and even strangers who didn't know her. They couldn't believe what they were hearing from the administration.

Jake Tapper, it is really some in-depth, great reporting by you that gives people a real look at what was going on. It's a fascinating right. And you've got a great piece.

You're going to have much more, of course, on your show at 5 p.m. Eastern on "THE LEAD." Jake, thank you for getting up early and walking us through that. It's stunning reporting and it's so important.

Appreciate you -- John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, a state of emergency in effect now after catastrophic and historic flooding and there are new severe weather threats today.

And then breaking overnight, a potential nuclear deal could reshape the Middle East. New concerns this morning, though, about proliferation.

And what would you do with a robot that can climb a wall? You might be able to find out soon because there is now a robot that can climb a wall.

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(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: All right, happening today, the captured leader of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, and his wife appear in U.S. federal court. Maduro and his wife both faced drug trafficking and narcoterrorism charges, which they have denied. CNN senior justice correspondent Evan Perez outside the courthouse here in New York. This has kind of taken a while, Evan. What do we expect today?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John, this case has been moving very, very slowly. But today we anticipate that the federal prosecutors here in the Southern District of New York and the lawyers for the Maduros are going to jointly ask the judge to set a trial date.

[08:15:00]

Now, that date is going to be June of 2027. And in between now and then, they anticipate a number of deadlines for the completion of some of the discovery. There's a lot of discovery that the government says that they've already turned over to the Maduro team.

But one of the issues that remains outstanding is turning over classified evidence that is going to be used in this case. And that, of course, could end up being another source of litigation.

So in between now and then, though, we expect to see a lot of action in the court papers. But if the judge today, Judge Alvin Hellerstein, agrees to this, we might actually have a trial date. Now, as you pointed out, this has been pretty slow since the January 3rd capture of the Maduros, and they were taken in that military raid on January 3rd and brought here to New York to face these charges.

The judge has been kind of moving very, very slowly. There was an argument about whether the Venezuelan government could pay for the Maduros' defense. That has now been arranged.

It's now allowed under U.S. Treasury regulations. So now we expect to see what the judge does later today -- John.

BERMAN: All right, again, we're watching this very closely, in some ways unprecedented, and in many ways not moving quickly, but that could change. Evan Perez, thank you very much -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: So historic flooding is sweeping across West Virginia now as powerful storms are dumping record-breaking rain across the Northeast. Severe winds, tornadoes spotted. We've got an important look at the forecast on where this is all headed next.

And breaking overnight, a new social media ban on kids under the age of 15, how this is expected to work and the reaction to it. We'll be right back.

[08:20:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: This morning, some 300 National Guardsmen are deploying to parts of West Virginia where severe thunderstorms have just dumped heavy rain in such a short amount of time. One of the hardest-hit counties there, more than five inches of rain fell in six hours, breaking flood records. One home surveillance camera captured a storage shed simply floating away from the home. As you can see, the homeowner says minutes later, his four-wheeler and a tree also decided to float on by.

The same storm brought tornadoes in at least three states, Kentucky, Ohio, and New Jersey. The system impacting, though, multiple states across the Mid-Atlantic and the Northeast. Let's get back over to CNN's Chris Warren, who's got the very latest on this.

Chris, what should people be watching out for then today?

CHRIS WARREN, CNN METEOROLOGIST: We're watching for more flooding because of the heavy rain that is expected throughout parts of the Southeast, even a few lingering showers up the I-95 corridor into Maine. So the areas in yellow where it's just a little bit more likely there could be some of the stronger storms. So still some damaging winds, but it's really going to be the threat for flooding.

So can't rule out damaging winds and some isolated tornadoes, but the heavy rain that will be persistent on and off, sometimes repeatedly falling in some of the same areas is what we're going to be watching. Now, the front throughout the Northeast has pushed a lot of that moisture offshore, and it's the Southeast now. It's still parts of the Mid-Atlantic that we'll see some of the heavier rain, showers, and thunderstorms that could drop a lot of water from the sky in a hurry.

So flooding still remains a concern. Now, there is a Bertha connection to this. It's hard to see it, but within the atmosphere, here's Bertha.

This is by the end of the week. Moisture will still be getting into this frontal system, and this frontal system is stalling out. When you see the red and the blue next to each other, warm front, cold front, doesn't really know what it wants to be, that means that front is just kind of hanging around, and the fronts are the focus for the heavy rain and showers.

So it's going to linger for a few days, and as it does, with repeated rounds of heavy rain, saturated soil, easier to run off, all possibly overwhelming drainage systems and leading to more flooding. And this is through late tomorrow night into early Friday. More rain, more storms throughout parts of North Carolina and then into Tennessee and into Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi.

Excessive rainfall, so just too much rainfall a possibility. Getting to that moderate category in red, and that's just, you know, next up from that is high. So flooding remains a concern.

Heaviest rain associated with tropical storm Bertha is offshore right now, but it's, again, it's the moisture and the atmosphere that's going to be feeding into parts of the southeast. Coastal areas is where we could see some of the stronger winds and also the potential for some localized flooding because of the winds pushing some of that gulf water onshore. Most of the heavy rain, Kate, will be heading eventually into Texas.

BOLDUAN: Chris, thank you so much for that update -- Sara.

SIDNER: All right, thank you, Kate. Ahead, President Trump announced a new 50 percent tariff on Canada, raising the risk of a fresh trade war. So how do Americans feel about it?

We are running the numbers. There's also tariffs on Brazil.

And a guy riding a bike, you see him there. That's crazy sauce, but he did it backwards down an extremely steep ski jump. Why? There's a reason.

[08:25:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIDNER: All right, breaking this morning, oil prices on the rise again. They have already surged $20 a barrel this month, and now a new crisis is emerging that could cause even more issues. Houthi rebels in Yemen are threatening to cut off a strait in the Red Sea.

Just the threat alone is already leading to some ships abandoning their plans to exit the Red Sea heading south, and this potential blockade could cause even more damage to the already shaky global oil market.

CNN senior business reporter David Goldman joining us now. I mean, we were talking about this, and I'm just going to do it because this is bad. This always indicates to us, like, oh, yes, green, up, good. Market's good, up. No.

No. Bad. Sad face.

DAVID GOLDMAN, CNN BUSINESS SENIOR REPORTER: You're a good artist. We should have you do this more often. I think that this is, there's always a discussion about, is green good or bad?

This is bad, right? $94 a barrel is not where we want oil to be right now, and certainly when we have big moves like this, this is kind of like May all over again, and the reason is that not only are we dealing with a Strait of Hormuz, now we're dealing with another strait, the Bab al-Mandab Strait, which is one of the key exit paths for Saudi Arabian oil. We know that Saudi Arabia, to get away from the strait, is piping oil into the Red Sea, and it's been coming out this way to go for Asia, except that now the Houthis want to blockade this.

This is going to become a big problem, kind of like a no-way-out situation. There are four to five million barrels of oil that normally would go through the strait that are going through this ...

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