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Race to Replace Ex-Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene Begins; Two ICE Agents on Leave Over "False Statements"; DHS Criticized for Blasting Out Misinformation on Shootings. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired February 16, 2026 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:30:00]

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, happening now, the race is on to fill the U.S. congressional seat in Georgia. It was held by former Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene, who resigned this year after falling out with President Trump. Early voting got started today in the crowded special election to fill Greene's seat. More than 20 people are running, turning a deep red part of Georgia into a major test of President Trump's Make America Great Again movement.

CNN's Jeff Zeleny went to Greene's former district, where he spoke with several of the candidates looking to replace her.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's hard to find a stage big enough for this Georgia blockbuster. The men and women sitting here, shoulder-to-shoulder, are only half of the 20 candidates fighting to replace Marjorie Taylor Greene, whose resignation has sparked a free-for-all special election.

CLAY FULLER (R), GEORGIA CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE: We cannot let Georgia 14 turn blue. We have to keep it red. Now, is the time to unite behind the candidate that President Trump has chosen.

ZELENY (voice-over): Clay Fuller, a former prosecutor and Air Force veteran, candidly admits being surprised when Trump called with his endorsement last week.

FULLER: On the phone call, at one point he just said, Clay, OK, I'm going to do it, Clay, I want you to talk to your next boss. And it was Speaker Johnson.

ZELENY (voice-over): It's an open question whether Trump's blessing paves the way for Fuller. His Republican rivals aren't standing down.

[10:35:00]

JIM TULLY (R), GEORGIA CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE: I love President Trump, but we've never talked about this being President Trump's district.

TOM GRAY (R), GEORGIA CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE: We, you know, love and support him and his agenda, you know, strongly, but that doesn't necessarily mean that we don't want to choose our own representative.

ZELENY (voice-over): Star Black, a Republican who planned to challenge Greene anyway, assumed Trump would stay out of the race. Still, she isn't sure it changes much.

ZELENY: You need Trump voters to win.

STAR BLACK (R), GEORGIA CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE: Absolutely. Absolutely. The Republican voters, they're smart voters. They know if someone is going to represent them or are they going to rubber stamp someone.

ZELENY (voice-over): Campaign signs are popping up everywhere for a slate of candidates that includes a pastor, former state senator, retired FEMA worker, trash company owner, horse trainer, risk engineer, small businessman, former congressional staffer, retired brigadier general, and prosecutor. Among the Republicans we met, there's hardly a mention of Greene's fallout with Trump.

ZELENY: When Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene resigned --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sure.

ZELENY: What did you all think about that at the time?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, it was a big sigh of relief.

LYDIA ROLLINS, GEORGIA REPUBLICAN VOTER: Yes, we did not like her. You know, we thought she was a disruptor.

ZELENY (voice-over): The sprawling 14th Congressional District covers 10 counties across Georgia's northwest corner, stretching from the Atlanta suburbs over to Alabama, and up to the Tennessee state line. It's deep red Trump country, but with enough Democrats and independents to cause heartburn for Republicans in a primary that sends the top two vote-getters, regardless of party, into a runoff if no one wins over 50 percent.

ZELENY: Is there a true risk, do you think, for a district this red to be won by a Democrat?

FULLER: Absolutely, and we've got to operate that way. If Georgia 14 turns blue, it would be a tragedy for the president's agenda, and we as a party need to start having an honest conversation about that.

ZELENY (voice-over): Fuller is talking about Shawn Harris.

SHAWN HARRIS (D), GEORGIA CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE: Courage is contagious.

ZELENY (voice-over): Harris is a Democrat who lost to Greene in 2024, but received nearly 135,000 votes, a fraction of which would likely vault him into a runoff now. After 40 years in the Marines, Harris returned home to a Georgia cattle farm. He's trying to tap into a Trump exhaustion that he believes gives him an edge to voters searching for a change. HARRIS: The 17, 18 Republicans that I'm currently running against right now, every last one of those guys are trying to do their best to get Donald Trump. Even though he's actually endorsed somebody, they're still fighting trying to get his attention.

ZELENY: President Trump has been remarkably reluctant to weigh in on Republican primary races, but the narrow majority in the House led him to make an endorsement. Now, the power of that endorsement is a new test of Trump's popularity here in Georgia.

Jeff Zeleny, CNN, Dalton, Georgia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: And our thanks to Jeff. Coming up, a pair of ICE agents are now on leave after a shooting last month at this house in Minneapolis. How the government's case against an immigrant collapsed after a startling admission.

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[10:40:00]

BROWN: Happening now, two ICE agents are on leave and face possible criminal charges. ICE has admitted the pair made false statements about the shooting last month of a Venezuelan immigrant in Minneapolis. The DOJ is dropping charges against him and his cousin. DHS officials originally said both men attacked federal agents, prompting the ICE officer to open fire. Our Priscilla Alvarez joins us now. Priscilla, what more do we know?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is a case that unfolded in January of this year in Minnesota. It happened about a week after the shooting of Renee Good. So, tensions were already high at the moment that this had occurred. And the way the Department of Homeland Security described it at the time was that there was a traffic stop, this was an immigration encounter, and that these two men fled. And that they were also, the federal agents, attacked by a shovel as well as a broom. And that the agent opened fire and hit one of the men in the leg.

Now, since then, there has been a case. And the first development in this case that started to sound off some alarm bells was late last week when the Justice Department filed a motion to dismiss the charges against these men. The judge ultimately dismissed them, but essentially what unfolded was that they could not find video or eyewitness testimony that backed up what the federal agents had said had transpired in that immigration enforcement encounter. And both of these men had denied assaulting the federal agents with a broom or a snow shovel as had been claimed.

And then on Friday, Pamela, we heard from the acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director, so the boss of these federal agents, who said, and I'm going to quote here from the statement, "Both officers have been immediately placed on administrative leave pending the completion of a thorough internal investigation. Lying under oath is a serious federal offense. The U.S. Attorney's Office is actively investigating these false statements. Upon conclusion of the investigation, the officers may face termination of employment as well as potential criminal prosecution."

So, right now there is a criminal probe that has been opened up into these agents and whether or not they lied under oath about this incident. Of course, after all of this, when this incident occurred was the shooting of Alex Pretti. So, this has just been a tense moment in Minneapolis. It was a significant development in this high-profile string of shootings. And yet another moment in which the credibility of the Department of Homeland Security in that moment was questioned.

BROWN: And I believe we have some sound from Tom Homan.

ALVAREZ: That's right. Tom Homan was asked about this by our Jake Tapper yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM HOMAN, TRUMP BORDER CZAR: Well, like I said in my first press conference in Minnesota, in those comments, the first thing I said I was going to do, and I did, was bring more internal affairs officers to Minnesota to investigate the allegations. Allegations were made that needed to be investigated. And again, I won't discuss the investigations. We'll let the internal affairs and the Bureau investigate the allegations. And that's the right thing to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[10:45:00]

ALVAREZ: Now, remember, of course, Tom Homan came into Minneapolis by the direction of the president after all of these shootings had transpired. And there were so many conflicting accounts of what was going on in the state.

Now, Tom Homan, of course, is also leading the charge in the drawdown of federal agents in Minnesota, which he also talked about there. So, certainly, Tom Homan, you're going to have to be very careful about what you're saying. Certainly, there is still a lot of investigating into what even happened a month or two ago.

BROWN: All right. Priscilla Alvarez, thanks so much. Stay with us. We're going to have a larger conversation. Now, I want to bring in Alyse Adamson. She's a former federal prosecutor and host of the podcast, "At-Lyse You Heard It Here." Hi there, Alyse. So, what's your reaction to DOJ taking this action against the officers involved in that Minneapolis shooting?

ALYSE ADAMSON, HOST, "AT-LYSE YOU HEARD IT HERE" PODCAST AND FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: Yes, thanks for having me, Pamela. This entire course reversal is just stunning and extremely rare. I mean, I just want to also point out that this case, DOJ moved to have the case against the two men dismissed with prejudice. You just don't see that.

And when you are hearing prosecutors say that the statements of these ICE agents or of these federal officers, rather, was materially inconsistent, that is significant legal language. And it's essentially saying the facts just didn't line up. And now, that they have opened an investigation into these officers is even more significant. I mean, the allegations or the claims of potential false statements under oath, that could potentially support a perjury charge. So, we are looking at a very serious situation for these officers, Pamela.

BROWN: Yes, and as we know, Priscilla, this is an administration that does not often admit wrongdoing, even when there is. And it's just the latest example of Homeland Security officials saying things immediately after a shooting that later directly contradict with witness narratives and video evidence. Listen to what some DHS leaders said about the shooting of Renee Good in Minneapolis.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KRISTI NOEM, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: Stalking and impeding their work all throughout the day. ICE agents repeatedly ordered her to get out of the car and to stop obstructing law enforcement. But she refused to obey their commands. She then proceeded to weaponize her vehicle, and she attempted to run a law enforcement officer over. This appears as an attempt to kill or to cause bodily harm to agents, an act of domestic terrorism.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is she a domestic terrorist?

TODD LYONS, ACTING ICE DIRECTOR: Sir, I'm not going to comment on the investigation. And the president and Secretary Noem are elected officials, that's your right to their comments. But as law enforcement, career law enforcement, we won't speak to any.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: And a very similar situation when Alex Pretti was shot and killed by immigration officers. Here's how that narrative evolved.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NOEM: This looks like a situation where an individual arrived at the scene to inflict maximum damage on individuals and to kill law enforcement. This individual who came with weapons and ammunition to stop a law enforcement operation of federal law enforcement officers committed an act of domestic terrorism. That's the facts.

We were being relayed information from on the ground, from CBP agents and officers that were there. We were using the best information we had at the time.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Commissioner Scott and Acting Lyons, did you did you provide Secretary Noem with an assessment of what Mr. Pretty was engaged in and that he was engaged in domestic terrorism? Are you the ones that told her that?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, sir.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, sir. (END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: So, you have to wonder if there's any sort of review going on or a new standard here so that officials, when they come out after something happens, they're making correct statements because we keep seeing this say it first and then sort out the facts later kind of thing happening.

ALVAREZ: Well, the common theme in all of it is the timing, the speed at which the Department of Homeland Security came out to comment about these shootings, both in the case of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, but even in the case we were just talking about with these Venezuelan men, and that over time, when testimony was released, when video was released, it didn't line up with the way that the administration had stated the facts in those initial minutes and hours.

And remember, Pamela, even Homeland Security officials internally were in turmoil over the way the department was responding to this, because generally speaking, when there is a high-profile incident or really incident at all, particularly when there's a fatality, the department just punts to the investigation. They say that they will learn the details and move forward with whatever actions they need to take post- investigation, and in this case, they were coming out ahead of that, and that was very striking for the Homeland Security officials.

Now, what we have seen, and you played those clips, is the evolution in the way that they're talking about it now. The domestic terrorism language, the administration has moved away from it a little bit in the cases of Alex Pretti and Renee Good, particularly the Homeland Security Secretary.

[10:50:00]

And so, we don't have an exact example yet, since all of this has unfolded, to see whether they change their tune or whether they just allow more time for an investigation to unfold before they comment publicly about an incident that transpired. What the administration has continually said, however, in all of this, is that their federal agents are under assault, and that has often been the defense they fall back on when talking about all these incidents. But there are investigations that are happening, even internally, with even some cases we don't know that much about.

For example, in one of those hearings, the acting ICE director said that they've opened more than three dozen internal investigations into allegations of excessive use of force, 18 of them closed, 19 pending, and one still being referred for further action. So, while there are the public and the high-profile incidents that we know about and the investigations unfolding there, there are internal investigations unfolding as well. And that is something that the White House border czar Tom Homan, is trying to stress, even with the internal affairs footprint in Minneapolis, because ultimately, federal law enforcement and local law enforcement need and want the public trust.

If you start to lose that, you start to hurt their mission, their agency, and that's where Homeland Security officials I was talking with are always concerned that if this path continued, they were going to lose the confidence of the American public.

BROWN: And there was also the case of Greg Bovino, right? Where a judge said he wasn't telling the truth in Chicago last year. In Chicago, he's the CBS official who was deployed to Minneapolis to lead the charge and then removed after the Alex Pretti shooting.

I want to go back to Alyse on this point we're making. Judges appointed by presidents of both political parties have acknowledged some DHS claims are simply not reliable. How much does this hurt the Trump administration's, not only credibility, but push for immigration reform?

ADAMSON: Yes, Pamela, that's a great question. I mean, as was just noted, public trust depends on accuracy and credibility. And part of a judge's job as a neutral arbiter of the law is to assess credibility. I think if the administration wants to continue to come down on these enforcement missions, that they're going to have to do a better job, not just for public trust, not just for their narrative, but also for representations that are made in court. It is very significant that a lot of these battles are unfolding within the court. How is a judge going to believe what the Department of Justice is representing when their facts were facts openly contradict these initial narratives?

So, I think it has already eroded the trust and the credibility of the administration. And I think it is going to take some time and some examples of what has just been described as a potential reforms and systemic change to gain that back.

BROWN: All right. Alyse Adamson, Priscilla Alvarez, thank you so much. We appreciate it. And coming up, CNN's Coy Wire is live in Italy, where the Winter Olympics competition is heating up. Hi there, Coy.

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOT: Hi, Pamela. So, many heated, intense competitions here. Olympians racing down these mountainsides or spinning around the track fighting for milliseconds. But a major cheating scandal has developed in a Vols happened. Who's at the center of it and what's being done? We've got you covered. Coming up.

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[10:55:00]

BROWN: Well, three of the top competitors in curling at the Winter Olympics are now involved in a spiraling controversy. The teams are now accusing one another of cheating. CNN's Coy Wire is in Italy right now. All right. so what's going on with all of this, Coy?

WIRE: A heated, major alleged cheating scandal here, Pamela. In curling, Team Canada's men's team accused of touching the stone after letting the handle go on Friday against Sweden. Then the next night, Pamela, Canada's women's team accused of the same against Switzerland. There are no replay reviews in curling, but concern is so high that World Curling announced they will deploy extra officials for the remainder of the games. Team Canada, they insist they did not cheat. This is all magnified. Of course, it's in the wake of last summer Olympics. Remember where staff of the Canadian women's soccer team were suspended for using drones to spy on an opponent during a closed training session.

Now, on a much lighter curling note, Team USA would be back in action tomorrow in the preliminaries. And we have a new Clark Kent of the Winter Olympics, Pamela. Team USA's, Aidan Oldenburg, actually like Clark Kent Rambo with that red hand headband in his specs, his fist pumps -- his muscles are popping. He throws hands to his ear to make the fans cheer.

He's been called headband guy and he almost looks like a clone of remembering the Summer Olympics. The breakout store pommel horse guy, Stephen Nedoroscik. They even chatted virtually to dispel any rumors that they were the same person. If you remember, Nedoroscik went viral for his Rubik's cube skills. Well, a 24-year-old -- not just an environmental scientist, he's a juggler. He's a yo-yo aficionado, a former eSports captain, and an absolutely captivating, curly curling character at these Winter Games. Definitely one to watch when Team USA takes on China --

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