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ICE Agent Shoots And Kills Woman In Minneapolis; Protesters Clash With Police After Deadly ICE Shooting; Syrian Army Renews Strikes On Kurdish Forces In Aleppo; U.S. Oversight Of Venezuela May Last Years; Saudi Arabia Alleges UAE Smuggled Wanted Yemen Separatist Leader Out Of The Country; Trump Weighs Options To Acquire Greenland. Aired 10:20-11a ET
Aired January 08, 2026 - 10:20 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:20:36]
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.
ELENI GIOKOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Welcome back to CNN's continuing breaking news coverage. I'm Eleni Giokos in Abu Dhabi. In Minneapolis, hundreds of
people are gathering to protest the deadly shooting by an ICE agent.
Local officials sending some strong messages to the U.S. administration and demanding ICE agents get out of their state.
I want to bring in some breaking news. We'll be covering that in just a moment. But I also want to bring other breaking news that we're focusing on
today. This is out of Syria. The Syrian army has launched new strikes in Aleppo as fighting intensifies with the Kurdish led Syrian Democratic
Forces.
And you can see the intensity of the strikes there in Aleppo. So Syria, the Syrian Democratic Forces says at least a dozen people have been killed
since fighting erupted earlier this week. Thousands of civilians have fled their homes. This is a story we are going to keep watching very closely as
it unfolds.
All right. I want to take you back to Minneapolis now. Protesters and law enforcement officers are squaring up to each other in the Minneapolis at
the sour after an ICE agent shot and killed a woman on Wednesday.
Our team on the ground says it appears more federal agents arrived at the scene in the past hour. Tensions have also been growing as mourners and
protesters brave icy weather to send a message to the Trump administration over the killing of Renee Nicole Good. Meantime, the head of Homeland
Security says Good tried to run over an ICE agent, a claim that's disputed by officials in Minneapolis.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KRISTI NOEM, SECRETARY, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY: This appears as an attempt to kill or to cause bodily harm to agents, an act of domestic
terrorism. It's very clear that this individual was harassing and impeding law enforcement operations.
Our officer followed his training, did exactly what he's been taught to do in that situation and took actions to defend himself and defend his fellow
law enforcement officers.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GIOKOS: All right. I want to bring in and show you in fact, two videos of this incident. And we've been covering this extensively. And I must warn
you, the following footage is disturbing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFEID FEMALE: No. Shame. Shame. Oh my God. What the fuck. What the fuck. You just -- what the did you do?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GIOKOS: We've also obtained this second video showing that incident from the opposite angle.
I want to take you to Maniac (ph) now and bring in CNN law enforcement correspondent Whitney Wild. In early hours of this morning and very cold
weather, you saw protesters in the streets and you know, it got tense. I want you to tell me about the mood right now. What you're hearing from the
streets of Minneapolis right now.
WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: Eleni, it depends on where you are. There is a protest at a federal building several miles from where
I am. And as you said, that got very tense. Federal agents moving into the crowd, deploying other types of chemical munitions. So that got quite
volatile. And that is the risk here, is these flare ups between the public and federal law enforcement.
Where I am is steps from where Renee Nicole Good was killed. If you look behind me, I'll show you. There is a vigil here marking her death. This is
where her car crashed. This is where there are dozens of candles. There are dozens of bouquets of flowers in her memory across here saying, rest in
peace. Your memory will forever be a blessing.
[10:25:05]
Here at the site of her death, there is, it is quiet, it is calm. People have been coming here all morning, some with tear stained faces to take a
moment to remember her because this is another moment that is very painful for the city of Minneapolis. We are not far removed from the George Floyd
protests.
This location is four blocks from where George Floyd was killed. Everyone I've spoken to has brought that up because there is a real fear here,
Eleni, that this pressure from ICE threatens all of the work that the city has done to try to rebuild after that. And I'll leave you with this, Eleni.
The reason that people here in Minneapolis are so skeptical of what the Department of Homeland Security is saying happened in that video is because
they've lived a lie before. The first information that came out about George Floyd was roundly refuted. It was a lie.
And so they have lived that experience already. And so that's the orientation they come to here when they see the statement from the
Department of Homeland Security, see what federal officials are saying contrasted with what their local elected officials are saying, Governor Tim
Walz, Mayor Jacob Frey and seeing the video for themselves and they simply do not believe the narrative coming from the Department of Homeland
Security.
GIOKOS: Yes.
WILD: Again, this is a community that is hyper aware that what they see may contrast with what other people tell them they should see.
GIOKOS: Thank you for that update. Whitney Wilde for us. I want to bring in my panel now. We've got CNN national security analyst Juliette Kayyem. A
former assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security. We've also got attorney, immigration analyst and CNN opinion writer Raul Reyes.
Great to have both of you with us.
Juliette, I start off with you and I want to draw your attention to the images we are seeing from this morning on that protest where you've got
border patrol standing, you know, holding the line and also getting tense where we're using pepper bombs.
How are you defining what we're seeing today? Because clearly there's a, there's a major concern about potential further escalation.
JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Yes, absolutely. And it's knowable. And in a situation in which the federal government would be
committed to deescalating what is going on in that city now, given the video evidence regarding the killing, the shooting of the driver of Ms.
Good.
What you would have is you would have state and local essentially provide crowd control support for the legitimate expression of horror and rage that
is going on in this community. We know this. We knew that this was going to happen.
The Border Patrol presence is like -- it's like, it's -- honestly, it sort of feels like a tease, like that the administration is not committed to
deescalation or to letting people promote, you know, rally, or criticize what happened. And that's worrisome to me is that you have these Border
Patrol agents.
They're not -- they're not law enforcement agents in the sense of working in local communities. They are not -- they don't know the community. They
are strangers to the community. And I think that this is just shameful, honestly, that they are -- that they're deployed right now.
GIOKOS: Yes. So Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem came out and said that, you know, the ICE agent followed the training and obviously defending
the action. Based on the video evidence that we have right now, those two separate angles. Is she right? Juliette, that's to you.
KAYYEM: So, yes. OK, great. So I don't -- I don't think that's -- let me put a different way. She does not know if she's right. And a -- her
response should have been, this is a horror. This is, you know, in the sense that you have a dead mother of three children who was unarmed, who
was not subject to a warrant, who was not in a law enforcement action, who was killed in her car.
That kind of statement by Kristi Noem is not -- is not accurate because she doesn't know. When I look at the videos, as a subject matter expert, I see
something very different. As most of our analysts are saying, you see a confrontation, an interaction that is confused.
But in no way would the police officer be viewed -- could he legitimate or a trained police officer would never have viewed themselves in imminent
danger.
[10:30:08]
And that's important to remember. Look, even if you give the Department of Homeland Security the benefit of the doubt that she was resisting or that
she was antagonistic to law enforcement, that is law enforcement. Like, that's actually -- if everyone complied with police, there would be no law
enforcement.
It is -- it is a -- it's a ridiculous statement by the department. The whole point of legitimate trained law enforcement is to deescalate a
situation and get compliance without someone ending up dead.
Right. I mean, that is that, you know, and that is -- that's the sort of core of this for us, for people who are experts in this field.
GIOKOS: Juliette Kayyem, great to have you on the show and thank you so much for that insight. We appreciate it.
We've got Raul Reyes also with us today and Raul, let's look at those two videos, the two different angles. We are still waiting for more video
evidence, specifically from the ICE agents that would perhaps offer a little bit more insight.
What are you reading into what we've seen thus far?
RAUL REYES, CNN OPINION WRITER: When I -- when I look at these, you know, we have seen multiple videos because there were so many, so many witnesses
to this absolute tragedy that took place in Minneapolis. When I look at these videos, my first thought is that we don't know yet whether the
officer followed procedure and acted properly and legally and within his training guidelines. That remains to be seen. I would give DHS the benefit
of the doubt pending a full investigation.
That said, what we do know from looking at these videos is that the version of events put forth by Kristi Noem, the President and other high ranking
people in the administration is demonstrably false. And that is extremely concerning because that putting out that type of misinformation,
disinformation from the highest levels of government that undermines the credibility of ICE and Homeland Security itself.It sows more confusion in
what is already a contentious situation.
And if DHS secretary says that these officers were conducting themselves by the book, then unfortunately we are going to see more and more of these
horrendous incidents. So it's very concerning to me, this whole situation and very sadly January 7th will go down in Minneapolis history. It's just
an absolute tragedy.
GIOKOS: You know, and we just replaying that video. We saw the ICE agent and then, you know, you see Renee Nicole Good trying to reverse and all
these images are going to be dissected extensively and whether the ICE agent, you know, followed protocol and was trained effectively. And you
also see the other agents very close to the front of the vehicle. There are rules around that.
How do you think this investigation is going to play out? And in terms of timeline, I mean, give me sort of an idea of how you're planning this and
how you're seeing this playing out.
REYES: For better or worse, I foresee a very long timeline on this investigation. We know that DHS has not been fully transparent and
cooperative with other agencies. And there will be a lot of public pressure on the administration to come up with a conclusion as to what happened.
But unfortunately, this event has been politicized so quickly that I have doubts about the FBI's investigation into this incident. I have doubts that
the federal and state local officials can all cooperate.
For me, another big issue that we're seeing here is not larger than just this incident is the type of training that the U.S. is giving immigration
agents in the United States. A high school diploma is not required to be an ICE agent. You do not have to have any military experience, firearms
experience. As long as you are 18 and pass their background check, they will take you.
Meanwhile, DHS has cut the training time for ICE agents from 13 to eight weeks. So we are potentially looking at these kinds of situations where
young people with little to no experience in high risk situations are being sent into communities like Minneapolis, Los Angeles, Chicago, that are
already fearful of immigration authorities. And then that's a recipe for disaster.
So all of those factors are concerning to me. And remember here in the United States, the President was elected in part because of his support for
cracking down on illegal immigration.
[10:35:00]
But in this case, not only is the victim a citizen, we have seen the American public really turn on the president around this issue. Only 37
percent of Americans favor the president on this issue. And most Americans think immigration enforcement activities have gone too far. That's where we
are as a nation.
GIOKOS: All right, Raul Reyes, thank you so much. We're going to go to a very short break. And when we come back, we will cover some of the other
moving stories of this hour. That's including what U.S. President Donald Trump is saying about a timeline for U.S. involvement in Venezuela. Stay
with us.
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GIOKOS: Donald Trump says U.S. involvement in Venezuela could last quite a while. In a New York Times interview, the U.S. President says time will
tell how long America maintains its oversight of Venezuela.
The U.S. army raid to capture President Nicolas Maduro and subsequent announcements that the U.S. will receive up to 50 million barrels of
Venezuelan oil are drawing criticism from some democrats in Congress. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. CHRIS MURPHY (D-CT): This is an insane plan. They are talking about stealing the Venezuelan oil at gunpoint for a period of time undefined as
leverage to micromanage the country.
SEN. PETER WELCH (D-VT): We'll have access to their oil. And how did that work out in Iraq? How did it work out in Afghanistan? So that's the
question that hasn't been answered.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GIOKOS: Venezuela government says at least 100 people died in the U.S. attack. Funerals for soldiers killed were held Wednesday. We're now hearing
accounts of what the defenders experienced as the raid unfolded.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): When they see they are being attacked, they go out. They say the comrades who are on a hill began to
repel the attack. The guy said, we are not going to leave here. We will die with our boots on.
He started running, and then as he starts running, he wants to get into the tank because he was a tanker. He tried to get into a tank and, well, the
plane came strapped with bullets without thinking about anything or anyone. And, well, it got to him. The burst got to him. He died defending his
ideals like a hero.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GIOKOS: I want to bring in Francisco Rodriguez, a Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Economic and Policy Research and the author of "The Collapse
of Venezuela." Good to see you, Francisco, in such an important time.
President Trump told the New York Times that the U.S. would be running Venezuela as well as extracting oil for, you know, unknown time, basically
until the foreseeable future.
[10:40:00]
What do you make of these comments?
FRANCISCO RODRIGUEZ, SENIOR RESEARCH FELLOW, CENTER FOR ECONOMIC AND POLICY RESEARCH: Well, it seems to me that the Trump administration is trying to
set up a system whereby they can assure that you can lift sanctions, you can ease sanctions. Venezuela can start producing oil again and start
selling it internationally, but they have some control over the proceeds.
And this is a proposal that's been made before. It's a question that people grapple with when they talk about lifting sanctions. So if you completely
lift sanctions, then money is going to go directly into the regime.
And remember, Maduro is gone, but the regime is exactly the same. It's his vice president, his cabinet, his party. So the question is, do you want to
have some type of oversight of how these funds are used?
Now, typically when this has been tried before, such as in the Iraq Oil for Food program, it was the United Nations.
Now, that program had some problems, but they're not problems that cannot be addressed. The Biden administration also created the Afghan Fund, to
which it transferred part of the reserves of the Afghanistan Central Bank, so they can be used actually in Afghanistan without sending them back to
the Taliban.
But the Trump administration, of course, is doing this in a much more direct way. They're taking control of it. There's really no promise of
transparency. That's not what they're talking about. President Trump said that he was assuring that those funds were going -- first of all, he said
that they were going to be controlled by him personally.
And then he said that they were going to be used to purchase exports from American companies, said Venezuela was only going to be buying from the US.
I mean, ultimately, part of the objective here is to bring Venezuela back into a trading relationship with the U.S. instead of with China or with
other countries.
What's kind of ironic is that Venezuela was trading so much with China because the U.S. was not buying oil from it because President Trump imposed
sanctions during his first administration.
GIOKOS: Yes. I mean, it's brilliant points, and thank you for explaining that, because I think everyone's wondering what this mechanism is going to
look like, specifically because President Trump says that he's personally going to be dealing with the revenues and distributing those. He also
categorically said that some of that will benefit the Venezuelan people.
How do you think that will actually work? Because usually any kind of foreign exchange revenue would go into the coffers of the government.
RODRIGUEZ: Well, well, yes. No, it has to go -- well, actually, it's split. Part of it goes to the oil companies. Right. So there are foreign oil
companies like Chevron, like any, like Repsol, and they've put investment.
GIOKOS: Yes.
RODRIGUEZ: So when there are profits generated from oil sales, they get part of it and the other part goes to the Venezuelan government after you
pay, of course, for the cost of production of that oil.
You know, my sense is that I'm not sure what President Trump really has in his head, what he's planning, but I think it's going to end up having to be
that way too. It's going to end up coming back to Venezuela.
And there was a very interesting statement put out yesterday by the state owned oil company in Venezuela, PDVSA, which said, this is going to be a
deal just like the one that we have with Chevron and the ones that we have with other companies. It's going to follow the same guidelines. And in
those, Venezuela gets 50 percent of the revenues.
Now, they may have to go through this administrative control board that's going to be directed by U.S. officials, but ultimately, either they go to
the Venezuelan economy, or if not, the country is essentially going to starve.
I mean, this country cannot operate without these oil revenues. These are the oil revenues that it uses to import goods, to import food, to import
medicines, to inputs and machinery for its industry.
If you try to deprive Venezuela, the Venezuelan economy of these revenues, you're going to cause a massive economic crisis, food shortages and a
famine. And I don't think that's what the Trump administration is trying to achieve.
GIOKOS: Yes. So, Francisco, I want to talk about the current regime and you've got, you know, Delcy Rodriguez, that's currently in place. President
Trump has ostracized Maria Corina Machado. And actually in the New York Times article you wrote, the sidelining of Ms. Machado by the Trump
administration should prompt deep reflection among Venezuela's opposition forces. It's one thing to mobilize voters. It's quite another to enable
meaningful, peaceful transformation.
So let's talk about the opposition here. Let's even talk about the current regime. Who's actually in charge and how does this end?
RODRIGUEZ: Well, I mean, I think that this is -- I think that there are several people in charge. I mean, obviously Delcy Rodriguez has taken the
reins, but Chavismo is actually a pretty disciplined movement and the structure of the state is -- has always been very hierarchical. And Chavez
set it up that way.
And, you know, people were skeptical that Chavismo was going to survive without Chavez when he died.
[10:45:00]
And in fact, it was taken over by Maduro and Maduro was able to administer it. I think Delcy Rodriguez is taking steps to do exactly the same. And
that's why she's been able, I mean, for example, yesterday they announced that they were going to do a major package of legal reforms affecting
economic laws, quite possibly affecting the hydrocarbon sector so that -- so as to liberalize the regime for oil investment.
So this -- you see, what happens is that -- what happened in Venezuela is what I would label decapitation without regime change. I mean, you took out
the leader, but the system remains in place --
GIOKOS: Yes.
RODRIGUEZ: -- and that happens and these regimes are able to function. Of course they're going to be functioning within the incentives that are set
by the US.
Now on the other side, we have the opposition and the opposition Maria Corina Machado is a stellar leader. She mobilized millions of Venezuelans.
She -- who didn't believe that it was possible to defeat the government at an election because they thought that the elections were rigged. And she
was able to not only get people to come out and vote, which no other events, unfortunately --.
GIOKOS: Francisco, unfortunately, we have run out of time.
RODRIGUEZ: OK. OK.
GIOKOS: I apologize. We have run out of time. We've got to go. But I would love to get you back on. Thank you so much. Super fascinating. Thank you
for your time.
All right. Still to come on Connect the World, a major public sp between the Saudis and UAE and Yemen is increasing tensions in the Gulf region.
We'll be back right after the short break.
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GIOKOS: Welcome back. You're watching Connect the World with me, Eleni Giokos, here are your headlines.
Protesters and law enforcement agents -- all right. Let's take you through our headlines today. Protesters and law enforcement agents have clashed in
Minneapolis after an ICE agent fatally shot a woman on Wednesday. U.S. homeland Security Chief Kristi Noem is defending the federal immigration
agent who killed 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good in her vehicle.
President Donald Trump says he spoke with his Colombian counterparts part Gustavo Petro by phone on Wednesday. Mr. Trump even suggested he invited
President Petro to the White House, a reversal from the recent war of words.
The White House says the U.S. will keep seizing tankers that illicitly transport oil, even if that ratchets up tensions with Russia as well as
China.
The press secretary's comments came hours after the U.S. took control of tankers in the Atlantic and the Caribbean.
Tensions are escalating between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates over Yemen. A Saudi-led coalition says the leader of a separatist group
backed by the UAE has been smuggled out of Yemen. CNN's Paula Hancocks explains why relations between the two neighbors have deteriorated.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: 10 years ago, Saudi Arabia and the UAE were on the same side when it came to Yemen. They had launched a joint
military intervention to try and curb Iran's influence in the country.
[10:50:00]
But today this public spat that we are seeing between these two Gulf nations really does appear to be coming deeper and more public as their
support for rival factions is coming to ahead.
Now a Saudi led military coalition has claimed that the leader of the STC, the Southern Transitional Council which is backed by the UAE has fled to
Abu Dhabi. Now he was supposed to be -- Al-Zubaidi was supposed to be on his way to Saudi Arabia with a delegation to peace talks. We have reached
out to the Foreign Ministry of the UAE for comment.
Now the STC wanted independence in the southern part of Yemen, whereas the Saudi led forces in Saudi Arabia wanted a unified Yemen, a stable Yemen on
Saudi's southern border. We did see these tensions spike early last month when the STC started mobilizing forces against a number of key Yemeni
provinces trying to push out Saudi led factions.
We then saw Saudi Arabia launch strikes against vessels which were carrying Emirati equipment. They called on the UAE to pull their troops out of
Yemen, which Abu Dhabi did do. But now what we are seeing is really this unprecedented spat going between Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
We're also seeing concerns about fresh conflict in southern Yemen as these rival factions who were once fighting against Iran's backed Houthi
movements are now increasingly turning their sights on each other. Paula Hancocks, CNN, Abu Dhabi.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GIOKOS: A quick reminder of the breaking news out of Syria that we're following this hour. The Syrian army has launched new strikes in Aleppo as
fighting intensifies with a Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces. The SDF says at least a dozen people have been killed since fighting erupted
earlier this week. Thousands of civilians have fled their homes.
I'll be back with more news in just a moment. Stick with CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GIOKOS: The White House says the Trump administration is discussing the possibility of buying Greenland. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt says the
president would prefer a diplomatic solution, but is keeping his options open. CNN's Paula Newton is following developments for us from Canada.
Paula, good to have you with us. What more do we know about these White House discussions around Greenland and their continued pursuit of wanting
to acquire this territory?
PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the fact that they are serious about doing it and they have set up meetings in the next few weeks with Danish,
apparently, and officials from Greenland. They say that every option on the table. And of course, this puts Greenland, Eleni, in sharp focus over the
next few weeks. And especially for U.S. allies right in Europe and beyond, it puts in context what the new U.S. foreign policy doctrine is.
And just in the last hour, we had French President Emmanuel Macron be as blunt as we've heard him saying, that the U.S. now is breaking
international law. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
EMMANUEL MACRON, FRENCH PRESIDENT (through translator): We live in a world of great power with a real temptation to divide up the world. And I believe
what has happened in recent months or even in recent days has done nothing to change this observation.
[10:55:05]
And so that is the great risk to the international order in which we live. The United States is an established power, but one that is gradually
turning away from some of its allies and breaking free from the international rules that until recently it was promoting.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NEWTON: Without saying so, Eleni, that includes NATO. They have already seen certainly the United States backing away on issues like Ukraine. I'm
not sure they ever could have imagined it would go in this direction.
I mean, here in Canada, they will be in Greenland, the foreign minister and the governor general head of state in February to continue to press their
point that the United States can get everything it wants, the Arctic security and even some of the business and commercial interests without
trying to take over Greenland, economically or otherwise. Eleni.
GIOKOS: Paula Newton, thank you so much. Over the past two hours, we've been watching protesters face off with immigration officers in Minneapolis
after the fatal shooting of Renee Good on Wednesday. U.S. secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem is painting the shooting as an act of self
defense, but local officials and many eyewitnesses are refuting that, saying CNN, of course, will continue to monitor this as we cover the story
extensively.
Well, that's it for Connect The World. Stay with CNN. One World is up next.
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