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Outrage Over Death in Minneapolis; Zaynab Mohamed is Interviewed about the Minneapolis Shooting; Mariana Atencio is Interviewed about Venezuela; Rep. Joe Morelle (D-NY) is Interviewed about Minneapolis. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired January 08, 2026 - 06:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:33:42]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: OK. Welcome back. I want to thank you for joining our breaking news coverage of the deadly shooting in Minneapolis. I'm Audie Cornish.

And it is tense in Minneapolis this morning after an ICE officer killed a 37-year-old woman, a mother of three, a U.S. citizen. She is identified as Renee Nicole Good. People who knew her are speaking up in her defense.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOAN ROSE, RENEE GOOD'S FORMER NEIGHBOR: A neighbor who, you know, is not a terrorist, not an extremist. That was just a mom who loved her kids, loved her spouse.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: And her father tells "The Washington Post," quote, "I think she was just caught in a crossfire. She was caught in a bad situation today. But we don't know the facts," he added.

The woman's ex-husband, speaking to the Associated Press, said Good had just dropped her six-year-old off at school before she was killed.

Now, there is a big difference of opinion this morning on the officer's actions. For instance, questions about whether he fired in self-defense as the car moved forward.

We're actually going to show you two videos from two different angles. We're going to warn you ahead of time, these images are graphic.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey! (GUNSHOTS)

[06:35:00]

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh my (EXPLETIVE DELETED) God.

(GUNSHOT)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh my (EXPLETIVE DELETED) God. Oh my (EXPLETIVE DELETED) God.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get out of the car. Get out of the car. Get out of the (EXPLETIVE DELETED) car.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No!

CROWD: No!

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Don't shoot!

(GUNSHOTS)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: CNN correspondent Brian Abel is live on the ground in Minneapolis, where this investigation is now unfolding.

Brian, can you just start by giving us a sense of the investigation itself and maybe even what you're seeing in terms of protests so far.

BRIAN ABEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, we do know that the Minnesota -- good morning, Audie -- criminal -- Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, as well as the FBI, will both be looking at the shooting to find out what happened, how it transpired, whether the ICE agent was in the clear or not from a legal standpoint.

But I do want to kind of give you a sense of the scene here this morning. As we get deeper into the morning, there's more and more people that are starting to show up here. It's hard to see behind me, but where there was that blood-soaked snow from where this situation ended yesterday, it was replaced with the vigil overnight. A vigil that is still burning bright this morning.

But also, I do want to have you come and follow me over here just a little bit. You might be able to see some of the fires that are burning here at this intersection. This is actually community members, excuse me, that have come together here in fanning in all directions, blocking off this area from vehicles. I talked with somebody earlier this morning who said this is to protect from cars coming in and ramming people. So, the community here, Audie, they're not leaving it up to chance or to law enforcement to protect them. They are taking that protection into their own hands.

And also, I do want to step back a little bit and talk about yesterday of when we have new video now that shows the vehicle driven by Renee Good in this intersection for about three minutes before that confrontation with ICE agents. And you also hear at the end of that scene from another video, somebody saying that they're a physician trying to offer medical assistance to the driver. And that assistance was essentially rejected. The ICE agents there on scene saying that they had their own medical staff. We now know it took a while for that staff to get there.

So, that's all in this backdrop of what's happening here with state and local officials really pushing back against the narrative that DHS Secretary Kristi Noem has been saying.

I also want you to listen to what the Minneapolis police chief said about the feeling leading up to yesterday's shooting.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHIEF BRIAN O'HARA, MINNEAPOLIS POLICE: For many weeks, we have been concerned, and I have expressed many times, not my concern that -- not a concern that federal law enforcement activity was happening, but how that law enforcement activity was happening. And just the questionable methods that we have seen that I have said repeatedly

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABEL: So, yes, the tensions have been heightened as a result of this ICE shooting.

And we also talked with some people here on the ground this morning that are from the immigrant community that felt compelled to come out here and show their support.

Audie.

CORNISH: OK, that's CNN's Brian Abel, who's going to be there today.

Brian, thank you so much.

Now, people who live in the south Minneapolis community, they're actually really familiar with this type of scene, because nearly six years ago George Floyd died beneath the knee of a Minneapolis police officer. And this is four blocks from where Renee Good was killed yesterday.

Now, the uproar that followed was reminiscent of that time back in 2020.

(VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Right now, you're looking at footage of south Minneapolis residents clashing with federal and local law enforcement after yesterday's shooting.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm from south Minneapolis. So, this -- this hurts deep. Again -- and it's not far from where George Floyd was killed. And again, another cop -- another cop, whatever you want to call it, killed someone on these streets. And that's not right.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: I'm going to bring in now Zaynab Mohamed. She's a member of the Minnesota State Senate and represents the people of south Minneapolis.

Good morning. Thank you for being with us after what is very clearly a difficult day.

I want to start with what you're hearing from the people of south Minneapolis. We were showing protesters, people who are angry. What are you hearing directly?

ZAYNAB MOHAMED (D), MINNESOTA STATE SENATE: Good morning and thank you so much for having me and for covering this story.

It has been a difficult -- a difficult time for our community yesterday and this morning. Folks on -- on the -- in the community are outside, they're on the ground and they're demanding justice for the life of Renee, who was murdered yesterday in the hands of federal agents.

[06:40:07]

They have been out all day yesterday, overnight as well. And as you heard from Brian, they have started fires to keep themselves warm and to -- and to lock (ph) the street, to make sure that people hear them and that -- and that the government hears their demands and their demands are, we want full investigation. We want an honest investigation into what happened. And Renee's family deserves full and thorough, honest investigation and justice in this moment.

CORNISH: You know --

MOHAMED: I am hearing from a lot of people. People who are afraid of what's happening and who have also seen the escalation of ICE agents over the last few hours, 24 hours at least.

CORNISH: We've heard from some lawmakers, politicians, like Mike Pence, who was saying that this -- calling it a cautionary tale and that people shouldn't be harassing ICE officers or trying to obstruct them.

What's your response to that idea that it makes it worse when people are out there harassing ICE while they are trying to do their jobs?

MOHAMED: I mean, the video speaks for itself. It clearly shows what happened. Homeland Security, Kristi Noem and the federal government are pushing out a propaganda and spinning this story. And their goal is to make this person feel like that they are anything other than a victim and to instill fear in people and to start spinning the story.

We all know what happened. We all see the video. And all we're asking for is for there to be an honest investigation. Federal agents are the ones who are terrorizing immigrant communities, who are terrorizing our neighbors. This woman was not a threat. She was in her car trying to drive away. And I think, by saying anything other than this person deserves an honest investigation is dishonest at its best.

CORNISH: What concerns do you have about the level of anger in the community? You've pointed out that, in particular, for Somalis, for example, they feel very targeted by this government.

MOHAMED: I mean, we have seen an overwhelming amount of ICE agents be sent to this community. There were over 2,000 agents here. The largest ICE raid in the history of this state, with a relatively small, small population of undocumented communities. And they know that too because they came here a few weeks ago and were disappointed when they learned that the Somali community is vast majority documented U.S. citizens, has been here a number of generations. And they're doing this because they want to create videos for their base. And so that Kristi Noem can come here and get click and bait for their base and show a different narrative than what the truth is.

And on top of that, what happened yesterday is what we've been saying for weeks. We have been saying these ICE agents aren't keeping communities safe. They are not here to carry out the federal immigration laws in our -- in our country. But they are harassing U.S. citizens. That they are driving after people who are doing illegal observing. And that's been happening.

Yesterday I was at Roseville High School, which is in my district, and there were two people who were taken by ICE. Both of them U.S. citizens. One of them was followed all the way to the school. And they came to the school because they saw it as a safe haven. And they thought the ICE agents would not be coming to the school. They did. They broke into her car. They pepper sprayed children and teachers outside of the school.

And so, there is no line for them. They're not stopping anywhere. They're not here to carry out federal laws. They're here to harass people and to create videos on social media to create a different narrative than what the truth is, and to instill fear in people.

CORNISH: OK, Zaynab Mohamed, south Minneapolis, thank you for your time.

MOHAMED: Thank you for having me.

CORNISH: OK, I want to turn to something else. The U.S. continuing its pressure campaign on what they're calling a shadow fleet of oil tankers connected to Venezuela. Video from the U.S. Coast Guard shows that a Russian flagged oil tanker before it was seized by American forces in the northern Atlantic on Wednesday. The seizure ends a week's long pursuit across the ocean after the tanker turned around from Venezuela and fled towards Europe. The seizure also comes as the U.S. vows to take Venezuelan oil and sell it on the open market.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARCO RUBIO, SECRETARY OF STATE: They have oil that is stuck in Venezuela. They can't move it because of our quarantine and because it's sanctioned. We are going to take between 30 and 50 million barrels of oil. We're going to sell it in the marketplace, at market rates, not at the discounts Venezuela was getting. That money will then be handled in such a way that we will control how it is dispersed, in a way that benefits the Venezuelan people, not corruption, not the regime.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Joining me now to discuss is Mariana Atencio. She's a journalist and author.

Good morning, Mariana.

MARIANA ATENCIO, JOURNALIST, AUTHOR AND SPEAKER: Audie, thank you so much for continuing to cover this important story.

CORNISH: One of the reasons why I wanted to talk to you is because you wrote a long essay about the issue of oil, saying, send this to people who think just saying oil grab ends the conversation. Why are you defensive about the idea that -- that oil being the goal of this is the point?

[06:45:06]

ATENCIO: Listen, we Venezuelans, Audie, for over two decades of this regime have seen our oil industry, which was our pride and joy, pretty much run into the ground. So, at its height, Venezuela in the late '90s produced three million, 3.5 million barrels of oil a day. And the U.S. was one of the main commercial relationships that we had to sell this oil.

We are now down to a million barrels of oil per day. People in the streets of Venezuela have nothing to eat, have no basic medical care. We have seen our country become impoverished because this regime is sending the cheap oil to places like Iran, Cuba and Russia to fund terrorism activities like Hamas and Hezbollah in our country. So, if this means that American companies and western companies are going to come into the country, are going to rebuild this industry and have our primary, commercial relationships once again be reinstated with the United States, we, Venezuelans, welcome that, because this notion of our oil, the oil has not been ours for the past two decades. It has been used by this regime with impunity and a lack of accountability to fund terrorist activities that we don't agree with.

CORNISH: Yes. I want to follow up on that, because the Trump administration said it is willing to work with this regime, right? The vice president, Maduro's vice president, now is the acting president of the country. Trump has basically thrown cold water on the idea of backing Maria Corina Machado, who had won the Nobel Peace Prize. So, is this -- is this a mistake, first of all, not supporting her? And what are your concerns about the regime that is still in place?

ATENCIO: I am very concerned, Audie, about the regime that is still in place. You have a woman, Delcy Rrodriguez, who has been known to run some of the torture chambers in Venezuela and to be pretty much one of the masterminds of the regime, again, for the past two decades. So, I understand that leaving her in power is something that the administration wanted to do, to not have the country pretty much destabilized. She does run the oil, and she does control pretty much the institutions as well.

We, Venezuelans, were very concerned when Trump said that Maria Corina Machado doesn't have, quote, "the respect of the country." It's exactly the opposite. She is the figure that is the most respected, that we trust the most. But we also understand that the reality on the ground is that she doesn't control the guns and she doesn't control the money, nor the institutions. So, handing her power immediately would have maybe destabilized the country and provoked a power vacuum, a military coup. Who knows?

So, all eyes are now on Delcy Rodriguez. We are not naive as to who she is. I don't think the Trump administration is naive either. So far, Audie, she's been speaking to three audiences, to Washington, to the regime's inner circle, and to Venezuelans at home.

And I will finish my point just by saying, because I represent Venezuelans, that there's a lot of fear on the ground.

CORNISH: Yes.

ATENCIO: There's a lot of silence on the ground. People are being stopped. Their phones are being searched. And if anyone so much as has messages celebrating or even talking about what the U.S. did, they could go to prison.

CORNISH: Mariana Atencio, we hope to have you back to talk more about what's happening there. Really appreciate your time.

And if you're watching this and you missed any of that conversation or any other part of the show, you can share it because we are a podcast, too. Scan the QR code you see on your screen right now. That's where you're going to find CNN THIS MORNING, which is also available just about anywhere you get your podcasts.

And our breaking news coverage continues next on CNN.

The Republicans who are pointing fingers, but does the blame game evade accountability? We're actually going to have a Democratic congressman, Joe Morelle, on live next to talk about that and more.

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[06:53:18]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE PENCE, FORMER U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: Today should be a cautionary tale that -- that people ought not to, as reports in this case suggest, people ought not to be harassing ICE officers. They ought not to be trying to obstruct them.

REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-NY): At the end of the day, what we saw today is a murder. And murders in cold blood need to be prosecuted.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: We're going to continue our breaking news now of an American citizen shot dead by an immigration officer in Minneapolis. The political response defaulting to a familiar playbook, rhetoric and blame.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA): This clearly appears to be the result of this just months long rhetoric against law enforcement and people encouraging that kind of violence. And so, we call upon all the citizens of Minneapolis to be calm. We don't want anyone to be hurt. We need law enforcement to be able to do their jobs.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Minnesota Governor Tim Walz says this moment calls for accountability over deflection.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. TIM WALZ (D-MN): We have someone dead in their car, for no reason whatsoever. And I don't -- I don't want to be right about this. But I said, if they do this, they're going to create a chaotic situation where someone innocent is going to get killed. And they did it. And now we hear more political rhetoric. Enough. Enough is enough

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Joining the group chat, Democratic Congressman Joe Morelle.

Thanks so much for being here.

REP. JOE MORELLE (D-NY): Thank you.

CORNISH: So, first, I just wanted to get your point of view. You heard Mike Pence saying this is a cautionary tale because of harassment and people interfering with ICE's work.

MORELLE: Yes, I think it's a cautionary tale.

[06:55:01]

I mean, first and foremost, this is heartbreaking, an American citizen killed by a federal official, no matter which side of the aisle, no matter how you see it.

But frankly, what's really frustrating about this, I saw Speaker Johnson's comments, who immediately says that there's been this effort to encourage people to engage in violence with law enforcement officers. That's not true. I haven't seen that anywhere. I actually thought Minnesota Governor Walz actually set the right tone, which is someone has lost their live -- life and we should be thinking about the environment in which we're creating where these things happen. I've seen the video. I think, you know, most people have seen the

video. Now, you can have your own opinion about it. But what we know is, we have -- we have put ourselves in a position where it's an open flame and you're pouring gasoline. And I think we need to step back and think about how we're going to do this in the future and certainly look at what happened yesterday and take the appropriate steps.

CORNISH: Does it help or hurt when crowds gather? I mean this -- we're seeing this, in fact, because a crowd had gathered, right?

MORELLE: Yes.

CORNISH: When ICE starts to take action, you have people who show up, who shout at them, who say things to them, who use pretty rough language. The environment is always tense.

MORELLE: Yes.

CORNISH: And at a certain point is there an activist group that says, this is not the way to go, this is not helping?

MORELLE: Well, I think, again, going back, I just think the environment that we've created where ICE officials, and your previous guest was talking about this, they're not looking for specifically murders and rapists that are known to the American government that we're trying to find, which is what the president originally said this was going to be. This is now widespread, just go out and look for people to take into custody so we can meet Stephen Miller's goals that he's articulated apparently just arbitrarily set forth. That's the problem is the environment that's being created.

Yes, do I -- obviously people can gather and protest. This is America. First Amendment guarantees it. You're not allowed to protest in a violent way, but you're allowed to protest. You're allowed to assemble. You're allowed to bring grievances in front of your government. But people need to be peaceful as they're doing it. But it's just, you need to step back, in my view, and say, what are we doing here? The environment that we've created is just asking for trouble and, unfortunately, that's what's happened.

CORNISH: Can I ask one more thing before I turn to Venezuela?

MORELLE: Yes.

CORNISH: You said "we." The Republican-led Congress approved a massive budget increase for ICE.

MORELLE: Yes.

CORNISH: I mean, it is -- it has, I think, a bigger budget now than the military of like Poland. So, is there anything you can do, as appropriators, to call for any kind of accountability?

MORELLE: Well, we're -- that is what we do is to not only set the terms of what the American government will spend money on. This was a completely partizan decision. To your point, tens of billions of dollars annually going into ICE, yet we can't afford health insurance for people on the Affordable Care Act.

CORNISH: But you can't have a hearing that says, what are you spending it on? What's the training?

MORELLE: There is none. And honestly, most administration officials either won't come to hearings that Congress has, appropriations hearings, and they won't answer questions when they're in front of us.

CORNISH: One more thing. I want to play for you -- this is on the issue of Venezuela.

MORELLE: Yes.

CORNISH: The plan right now for the administration is, if we get oil, when we get the oil, we get the money, goes to open market. Did -- have they said how long they'd be there, Betsy?

BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, the president was asked about this by "The New York Times" in this very lengthy interview yesterday. He said -- he was asked if it would be three months, six months, a year or longer. He replied, "I would say it would be much longer."

CORNISH: What is what has appropriations been told about the actual price tag of even the capture of Maduro?

MORELLE: Zero.

CORNISH: OK.

MORELLE: I mean, we've been told zero, not that the money amount is zero. Just to be clear. They have -- they have said they'll get back to us effectively. And we have not even had a briefing. And I'm a defense appropriator. We haven't had a briefing at all on what this operation has cost.

And frankly, you know, we started with Maduro's a bad guy and he's getting fentanyl to the United States. When the president was told that there's no fentanyl that comes from Venezuela, he said its cocaine. Now, it's not cocaine. It's not even Maduro. It's all about the oil. I just want the president to be clear and to be truthful with us about what this is and what this is not.

CORNISH: We had Republican Ryan Zinke on the other day, and he said, the way we can rein in this government or have guardrails is through the appropriations process. Do you have any tool, mechanism, to figure out how the U.S. government is going to spend its money on Venezuela?

MORELLE: Well, part of the problem is the Republicans have given free rein to the president to spend money how he sees it, and without the kind of guardrails that would typically be in the case of an appropriations bill. Hopefully we'll get back to that. I think there's more anxiety on the part of appropriators, both Republicans and Democrats, about what's happening. So, I hope you'll see more of that in the future.

CORNISH: Does anyone else have a question before we go? No.

Thank you, guys, so much today. There's going to be only more news to come because there's nothing but questions at the start of today.

MORELLE: Yes.

[07:00:01]

CORNISH: Congressman, thank you so much for being with us.

MORELLE: Thank you.

CORNISH: I want to thank you for joining our conversation today and for waking up with us. I'm Audie Cornish, and the headlines are going to be next.