Reporter Alex Tabitt (2:37)

So they are already trying to spin this as an action of self defense. Having seen the video of myself, I want to tell everybody directly that is bullshit. This was an agent recklessly using power that resulted in somebody dying, getting killed. There's little I can say again that'll make this situation better. But I do have a message for our community, for our city, for our and I have a message for ICE to ice. Get the fuck out of Minneapolis. We do not want you here. Your stated reason for being in this city is to create some kind of safety and you are doing exactly the opposite. People are being hurt. Families are being ripped apart.

News Anchor Nicole (3:36)

I want to turn our coverage back over to my colleague, msnow reporter Alex Tabitt in Minneapolis. Alex, since we last talked, tell me what you're learning.

Reporter Alex Tabitt (3:47)

Well, Nicole, we are at the scene of where this tragic death happened earlier this morning. Very shortly, we're expecting a vigil from community faith leaders to kick off. I just want to turn back the clock a little bit, give you the timeline of what happened. At around 9:50am this morning, I received a text message from what's known as an ICE verifier. That's a community member who lets other members of the community know that Immigration Customs Enforcement, Border Patrol is out patrolling in this immigration crackdown. Immigration crackdown that DHS has billed as the largest immigration crackdown in their history. In that text message, I was told that one of the other ICE verifiers was shot and killed. That happened right there. A woman was in her car when she was shot and killed by a federal agent. We arrived at the scene. The scene was walled off by state and local law enforcement. Inside of those fences, we saw border patrol, we saw ice. We also saw Minneapolis police department officers. We circled around the fences. We looked directly at the car where it happened. And I saw a gruesome image that I will never forget, which is the car and an airbag with blood splattered all over it. In the next couple of hours, we saw the federal agents leave the scene. As they were departing the scene, there was a flare up between protesters who had accumulated here and those ICE officers and those DHS agents. Plumes of tear gas, tear gas rather filled the air. We picked up one of those canisters right here. We saw protesters crying, unable to breathe properly for a bit. And as those federal agents were leaving, they were followed by protesters, angry, livid with what this community is experiencing. The people who stayed behind are community members who came to commemorate the 37 year old woman who is now dead, to leave flowers, to leave candles, and to remember her legacy. It's important also to remember, Nicole, that we are 0.4 miles from where George Floyd was killed just a couple of years ago. Now, all morning, as we've seen protests escalate, we've also seen community leaders try to help keep the community together, to comfort the community as much as they can. We've seen faith leaders congregate at the scene to comfort their fellow community members. And I want to introduce you to two of the reverends, Reverend Sarah and Reverend Martha. Is that correct?

Reverend Sarah (6:44)

Yep.

Reporter Alex Tabitt (6:45)

Can you please talk to me about why faith and why prayer is so important for you in this moment and for this community in this moment?

Reverend Sarah (6:56)

Well, we feel like it's really necessary.

News Anchor Nicole (6:58)

For us to be here and showing up in the streets with our grieving community. Anytime that there is a horrific act like this in our community, particularly perpetrated against citizens by our own government, we feel really called to show up and to bear witness with our community, to share in the grief of our community, to share in the pain of our community, and to stand united with others in our commitment to work for justice and peace and to stand side by side with neighbors who are being victimized and terrorized right now?

Reverend Sarah (7:30)

Yeah. I mean, we're not just pastors of our congregations. We are pastors for the cities that we live in and work within. And, you know, Minneapolis has been here before. We have shown up when things have been really hard, when lives have been lost needlessly and senselessly. And in fact, Governor Walz called upon us all today saying it is our duty to bear witness to what is happening, to get into the streets to protest and renounce the evil of a. Of a government that is lawlessly perpetrating evil and terrorizing its own citizens. As Martha said, and this is a story that's rooted in our faith. Jesus and his parents were refugees that flee to Egypt. Jesus stood up to power and resisted empire. And we are here doing the same.

Reporter Alex Tabitt (8:15)

Reverend Sarah and Martha, thank you so much for your time. And you heard it there, Nicole. Yes, tensions have been high, but there's a sense of community, a sense of love, a sense of people banding together in this incredibly difficult time for Minneapolis?

Narrator/Announcer (8:34)

Nicole.

News Anchor Nicole (8:35)

Alex, are you learning anything on the DHS side about whether this officer is still on duty on the streets behind you or whether there's any internal after action process on the part of DHS or ice?

Reporter Alex Tabitt (8:50)

We have reached out to them, but I am not entirely sure, to be perfectly honest, at this moment in time, if they have responded to us, we will be sure to continue to follow up with them to get as many answers as possible on that front.

News Anchor Nicole (9:08)

Nicole, thank you so much for your coverage there and for being there for us all day long. Joining us by phone now is Aiden Parranza, who witnessed this tragic shooting earlier today. Aidan, how are you doing?

Eyewitness Aiden Parranza (9:22)

Oh, I've been better.

News Anchor Nicole (9:25)

Can you tell us what you saw?

Eyewitness Aiden Parranza (9:28)

Yeah. So I woke up to whistles and horn honking from observers alerting the neighborhood to ICE presence and went to a window where I saw in front of our house. There was a, you know, red Honda parked or stopped in the street. And there were a couple of ICE agents in, you know, full camo, bulletproof vest, etc. On either side of the car. One was at the passenger side door and one was at the driver's side door. And then, well, there were, there was. The street was sort of littered with ICE vehicles, probably around six, maybe seven unmarked black and white SUVs and trucks parked at all sorts of odd angles, blocking traffic. And someone, a third ICE agent, approached the vehicle and started pulling quite hard on the driver's side, the handle of the driver's door. At which point the vehicle reversed briefly to change direction and go down the street instead of being parked perpendicular to it. And as they attempted to pull away, there were three shots into the vehicle from the driver's side from the man who had been standing at the door, not the man who tried to open the door, but who had been there prior. And the car drove maybe 30 or 40ft straight down the road and then started drifting and ultimately crashed into a car in a telephone pole.

News Anchor Nicole (11:13)

We've learned that the victim was 37 year old Renee Nicole Good. Her mom described her as a loving, forgiving, and affectionate and amazing human being. You know, I'm sure you're all still processing what you saw with your own eyes, but Renee has been described as a, quote, domestic terrorist. Did you see anything before the confrontation with police? Was she doing anything other than honking her horn as you described, or calling out about ice?

Eyewitness Aiden Parranza (11:48)

No, not that, not that I saw. I mean, I got to the window moments before the shooting unfolded. I mean, her car was parked or stopped in the, in the middle of the road. So potentially she was, she was in the agent's way. But, you know, I didn't, I didn't see anything to the effect of, you know, her attempting to run anyone over or anything like that.

News Anchor Nicole (12:14)

Eden, what is the neighborhood like on a normal day?

Eyewitness Aiden Parranza (12:20)

It's sort of situated between lake streets. It's situated along Lake street, somewhat close to Powderhorn Park. There's a, there's a mixture of, you know, there's a pretty high immigrant population, I'd say, which is, you know, why ICE is so prevalent here. But there's also crunchy vegan artist atmosphere to the neighborhood as well. There's a notable large scale puppet seater that puts on a May day celebration in the park every other year. So, you know, artists and people interested in community and connection as well.

News Anchor Nicole (13:07)

Aiden, you have a young child. Is it a good Place to raise a family.

Eyewitness Aiden Parranza (13:14)

Yeah, I mean, I think it's. It's a great neighborhood, you know, without the interference from dhs. I would say it's a. It's a great, great place to raise family.

Narrator/Announcer (13:27)

Yeah.

News Anchor Nicole (13:28)

What are your concerns now? Now that it is that it's your neighborhood, your street, something you could see from your window ushered in such deadly violence today. How do you feel?

Eyewitness Aiden Parranza (13:42)

Yeah, I mean, shaken, primarily shocked. I haven't had a ton of time to process as a lot of reporters have been reaching out. So, yeah, surprise concerns for the future for both. You know, the block I live on, the city, the state, the country, the future, you know, it's just I don't know where to go from here or what to do now. You know, nothing can undo what's happened. And obviously I'm concerned about, you know, escalating tension between the thousands of ICE agents in the city and the residents who have, you know, experienced and witnessed the violence they bring. But I don't. Yeah, I just don't know what. What, like, how do you. How do you react to this? What is the appropriate reaction? You know, nobody. There's no. There's no playbook. You just have to keep going.

News Anchor Nicole (14:46)

There's no more vulnerable feeling than. Than walking around your own neighborhood with your kids and just praying that. That. That everyone is safe. Aiden Przana, thank you for taking this moment that you witnessed and helping us understand what it was like to see something like that. We're really grateful to you. I want to bring into our coverage Minneapolis native senior contributing editor Michelle Norris, Jacob Soboroff, and Eddie Glad are still with me. Michelle, your thoughts?

Michelle Norris (15:19)

Well, you know, I actually spoke to Aidan earlier, and it's really hard to watch this, Nicole. It's hard on lots of levels. But I grew up in Minneapolis. I grew up 14 blocks south of where this happened. And so this is a major thoroughfare that runs north, south in Minneapolis. It's the road my parents took to and from work every day. And to know that people in that community are going to be processing this for a long time. There will be real and legitimate questions about DHS and the role that the ICE agents, the border Patrol agents, are playing in that community. One of the things that Aidan mentioned earlier is that speaks to the lack of coordination when the ambulance arrived and the fire trucks arrived. After this car crashed, the ICE vehicles, he told me, did not move. They were not able to get close to the vehicle. Apparently, she had to be pulled out of the vehicle and walked to the ambulance down on 33rd street, half a block from where this happened because the local vehicles couldn't even get through ice. That speaks to the lack of coordination that the mayor, Mayor Jacob FFRY and that Governor Tim Walz has been talking about. All these people in. In this city, all these agents in this city, not working with local law enforcement, not coordinating with them, and people who live in the community feel like they're living under an occupation. Aiden said that he was called to the window because he heard the horns and the whistles. A lot of the people that are involved in doing this work and letting people know that ICE is in the community. It's interesting. I've heard that many of them are clerics, as you've seen, but some of them are retired lawyers. Some of them are people who are. Who are actually on the right, who are Republicans, who don't like the way that this is playing out in their city. And so they're trying to monitor ICE to make sure that they're actually following the rules. And I am betting that their numbers will grow because ICE has not slowed down what they're doing. There are 10 ICE vehicles that were at Roosevelt High School on the east side of the city this afternoon at another school called Marcy, closer to the University of Minnesota, reportedly this afternoon. So instead of stopping what they're doing, they're continuing with what they're calling Metro surge, and they're still making people in Minneapolis feel like they're living in an occupied space.

News Anchor Nicole (17:32)

Michelle, I hadn't heard your reporting about an ambulance not able to get to the vehicle in which Renee Nicole Goode was killed. Is there any reporting anything else you can tell us about whether or not that had could have made any difference in her losing her life today?

Michelle Norris (17:54)

I'm going to be very careful about that. That's something that I was told by people who lived on the street and witnessed this, that when the ambulance and the fire truck came, that they were not able to get through this. When he described the ICE vehicles that were parked on the street. So I don't know if it would make a difference. I was not there on the ground. I was told that by residents who live there in that block along 34th and Portland.

News Anchor Nicole (18:15)

Seems like added trauma for those residents. Jacob Soborough, this has a lot of echoes to what you brought us from the other cities where you've on ICE agents. Notable to me that among the ICE and the CBP jackets, I think I saw FBI Violent Crime Task Force jackets. The New York Times is reporting today about how depleted the FBI's workforce is. And you saw there at least an individual wearing a jacket from the FBI Violent Crime Task Force today. What do you make of this block in this city and this ICE operation?

Jacob Soboroff (18:51)

Well, it just actually calls to mind the first report I did for you from Charlotte when I was there on that day where they were bringing actually detained protesters at the FBI building in Charlotte after picking them up after they allegedly interfered with law enforcement operations, smashed a window, pulled one of these ICE washers out of a vehicle in North Carolina. So I hadn't thought about it until just now, but this is a scene, some version of this scene even I have seen play out on the streets of the United States myself. I thought Alex's report in your conversation with him as well at the top of this hour raised some really good questions. So I just in full transparency to our viewers, texted Trisha McLaughlin, the spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security and asked some of those questions myself. Is the agent still on duty who fired this weapon from in front of that vehicle? Who were the agents involved in the use of force? Where were they from? Where in the United States were they from? Are they from Minneapolis? Are they local agents? When did they get there? Were they border patrol agents? Were they ice? Were they hsi? We don't know because they don't wear these things clearly marked on their vest. It's part of the reason it's so intimidating to people on the streets. It's part of the reason people like Rene Nicole Good go out in the first place to warn their neighbors about unknown law enforcement officers from who knows where in the country, rolling up on your block in Minneapolis to conduct, I guess ostensibly the largest mass deportation effort in American history. What actually was the quote unquote targeted enforcement operation that was happening on this street? Was there someone, a so called worst of the worst criminal that they were going after? And if so, who was it? All of these questions haven't been answered yet. But we have been told that Renee Nicole Goode was allegedly paraphrasing potentially a domestic terrorist.

Narrator/Announcer (20:38)

Eddie, you know, I'm just trying to wrap my mind around it, Nicole. There's so much, so much death, so much ugliness. We're seven days into 2026. We've been talking about the US and Venezuela, talking about so much death, so much. And one wonders what are the moral resources we have as a nation to get to the other side of this? Because what I do know is that ICE, with the one big beautiful bill will become the largest federal law enforcement agency we have. We do know that $100 million will be invested in a recruitment surge, and they're targeting gun shows and military fans as they expand ice. And so I'm just sitting here trying to wrap my mind around what does Imago DEI mean, being in the image of God, what does that mean in real terms, in concrete terms? And I'm trying to figure out, how does one answer the question, where is God in relation to the other question that that woman asked as she witnessed what she witnessed? What have you done? What the f. Have you done? And so I'm just kind of sitting in the muck and trying to figure out, as you guys do the reporting and we talk about the politics, what do we do with all of this? Because it's affecting the soul of each of us, it seems to me. Does that make sense?

News Anchor Nicole (22:29)

Yeah. And I think if it didn't, then they'd have already won. If it didn't, if it loses its ability to affect us if we don't go home thinking, you know, did Renee Nicole Good have plans for later in the day? Did she think she'd be home? You know, we don't know about her family, but did she have any idea that by driving down the street and doing whatever she did to try to warn the people that live there, Aiden said it was a largely immigrant community, that she wouldn't come home alive?

Jacob Soboroff (23:10)

You talked earlier about, and the professor's remarks make me think of your idea of rehumanization. And as we learn about who Renee Nicole Good was thinking about what she was out there, according to her mother, to do, reminds me of the other people that we've talked about over the last many months since this second Trump administration has come into office. Alejandro Barranco, the landscaper who was taken as he cut bushes in Santa Ana, and his three Marine Corps sons were outraged. One of them said, if he had done that, what those agents did to their father in the Marine Corps, they would have been tried for a war crime. They would have been tried for a war crime. I'm thinking about Nori Santay Ramos, who was picked up from the Miguel Contreras Learning Complex, not from school, but from going to the immigration check in with her mother, Estela, who died once they got to Guatemala because allegedly the ICE agents took her medication away when she was detained before they deported her. Ani Lucia Lopez Baloza was coming back from Babson to go visit her mom and dad in Texas on Thanksgiving break, but then was picked up and deported to Hong Kong, Honduras. Or Marisela, the mother we talked about in the last hour on the street in Chicago who just wanted to make a stew for her daughter and was taken by agents that looked just like the ones in the video that we saw today. And so when we talk about the humanity behind all of this, there are human beings on the streets like Renee Nicole Goode because of people like those people that I just named and the decency and the compassion and the care for our fellow humans to look out for one another and the realization that at the end of the day, and this is the journalist in me saying this, it's not the worst of the worst. It's not even close to the worst of the worst that this administration is going after. It's what they promised. It's what they said they were going to do. But there was never a way that this was going to be the plan. And we knew it from the day they held up those signs at the convention that said mass deportation. Now, this was always going to be the consequence. And turns out it's not just family separation of immigrant communities now. It's family separation of families like ICE watchers like Renee Nicole Goode who are out there. They will never have their daughter again. Family separation of American families at the hands of this administration for people that are trying to stand up and if the facts bear out, as her mother says, we're trying to help other people in our community.

News Anchor Nicole (25:28)

All right, no one's going anywhere. We're going to continue to cover the story and what it means for where we are as Americans. The shooting death of a 37 year old woman by an ICE agent today. Our coverage continues on the other side of a short break, so stay with us. When I was leaving this morning to go get groceries, as I was leaving I heard honking and a lot of honking and a lot of yelling. I live in the other side of this alleyway over here. So I ran down the alley. As soon as I got to the end of the alley, I heard two gunshots and a car crash, a really hard car crash. And then I heard yelling. And the next thing you know, I got in my car, I came out here and I came through here with nothing but ICE agents blocking the whole block street. And as I'm driving by, it was a red truck and nothing but the airbags and full of blood.

Michelle Norris (26:15)

And there was a body on the streets.

News Anchor Nicole (26:17)

It was a woman I saw when they were trying to take her away.

Michelle Norris (26:20)

Yes, she's dead.

News Anchor Nicole (26:23)

There's an eyewitness named Cassie. Michelle Norris, Jacob Sof and Eddie Glad are Still with us, Michelle. One thing that nobody has talked about or sort of testified to as eyewitnesses is a norm, I guess, of going to administer first aid. I mean, they shot her. They knew she wasn't a threat. Multiple witnesses, including our own reporter, described blood on the airbag, and no one describes any rescue or resuscitation efforts. There are places in this country we're not administering first aid as if not a crime, just unheard of. I mean, what is your sense of how far outside the range of normal any of these stories are that we are covering today?

Michelle Norris (27:09)

Well, I haven't lived in Minneapolis for a long time, but I do remember that I think there is something called a Good Samaritan law in Minneapolis where if you can give help, you are supposed to give help. There are reports and there is some video now of a doctor on the scene willing to help and not being allowed to get close to her. There's some video that shows that the ICE agents or whoever, whatever agency they were working for were milling about but not necessarily going to her aid. So as we come to understand this story, I think we're going to see the layers, you know, of tragedy in this case and trying to understand what happened, what could have been done to prevent this, what could have been done possibly, you know, to save her life. I was listening in our earlier segment to Eddie and Jacob and, you know, talking about a woman who was out there working with ICE monitors involved in peaceful protests. And I keep thinking right now of, you know, her name is Good. You know, how mystic is that, that her last name is Good. And I keep thinking of John Lewis talking about getting in good trouble. You know, that's the way he described getting in the way of something that does not make sense, getting in the way of making a way for democracy and making sure that this country lives up to its promise.

Narrator/Announcer (28:26)

And.

Michelle Norris (28:27)

And, you know, while she's being called immediately before we know much about the facts on the ground, immediately being called a domestic terrorist. Let's put this in context also. It's January 7th. Yesterday we were talking about the commemoration of January 6th just five years ago. Let's think about the way this very administration has described the people who attacked and marauded the Capitol and compare that to the language that they're using to describe a woman before they even knew her name. So, yes, I think we're going to learn a lot about this. It's going to make us very uncomfortable. And maybe this is, as Governor Walts mentioned, that McCarthy moment where we start to actually Think about decency and democracy and building a world that our children deserve.

News Anchor Nicole (29:09)

It's so hard to follow Michelle Norris. She pulls it all together like that. But let me try to drill down on the smaller questions that I have about the TikTok. I mean, Alex does a good job at explaining, you know, at 9:50 the shooting happens, but the agents are there and Ms. Good is there. Renee Nicole Goode is there because they were trying to do something. They were trying to do the kinds of things that you've covered and witnessed them doing in Los Angeles and Chicago and North Carolina and other cities. They, they shot her. That will be investigated at least by local law enforcement, perhaps also by federal, but we'll see. We won't hold our bre. But the questions I have about why they are milling about after they've shot this woman, I just can't stop wondering if they just left her there to lose her life or why they didn't call for first responders and why they didn't facilitate an effort to save her life unless they were trying to kill her.

Jacob Soboroff (30:17)

To me, again, it all comes back to the tactics and the training and the use of force and what the policies and procedures of whoever these agents are. And we should be clear. We still don't know. We don't actually have an answer who the officer was or the agent was that fired that shot. Was it Vortac, the Border Patrol tactical unit? Borstar, the one that should be there to render special medical aid. And that's what they always tout down at the border, that these people are life savers. And actually that raises a great point. Every time you go to the border and I've done this, I did it for a dateline at the height of family separation, they'll take you out with their border patrol agents and say these are life savings agents. They go out in the middle of the desert in the dead of night in monsoon season in Arizona and mountainous regions, and we'll track people down and find them and save the lives of immigrants that are trying to come into this country. And then we put them into immigration proceedings because we are humanitarians too. That does not appear to be what we just saw. If that's a border patrol agent, so what's the training that that agent had? Have they abandoned the principle of life saving aid that they have so often touted to me when I've been down on the border? And when pressed with the challenges from advocates on the ground saying that they're killing people by sending them through the desert in the ways that they do, they push back and say, no, no, no, Jacob we rescue countless people. That's why we've got the beacons up and water stations and you name it. They've got a whole line of talk that they give. But that's not anything like we just saw in that video.

News Anchor Nicole (31:47)

Eddie I think it's important too to lift up what we know and what we don't know and we really just know what we saw with own eyes. Maybe there, I mean, we didn't see with our own eyes any attempts to save her life or assess her medical condition after she was shot. But I wonder if you are optimistic that we will learn all the facts or if you think we're moving into something closer to what Michael Feinberg talked about, something more Orwellian.

Narrator/Announcer (32:15)

The Orwellian move. There's no reason for us to trust Eyesore, at least for me. Let me speak. There's no reason for me to trust Eyesore, the FBI or the federal government to investigate itself in this regard. I think the President of the United States already described this as an act of self defense without knowing the specifics of the fact, the specifics of the event. Kristi Noem has already described this book as an act of domestic terrorism without knowing the particulars. And so there's no reason for me to conclude from those Russians, from those statements that they're going to be actually interested in the details of what happened. I think it's important for us to understand the context here that usually when there's a death like this by law enforcement, it's actually on the tail end of an accumulation of actions that lead to the death. In other words, we need to be asking ourselves how has ICE and how is ICE behaving in communities across this country? And the bravado that we saw that second officer marching to the door and grabbing the door handle, demanding that they, the way they were talking to her, that's happening every single day in the shadows. And that then leads to. Sets the stage for something like this. And that was. That's exactly what Governor Walz was saying.

News Anchor Nicole (33:41)

And let me just ask you one more time if this is how she's being treated in broad daylight with a lot of people around, people in their homes could see, people on the street could see, people were filming. That's why we had this video from this one angle. She was an American citizen. Not that it should matter. Humans are humans. But what do we know about how they're treating people without witnesses, without the light of day, without that kind of scrutiny.

Jacob Soboroff (34:08)

Well, that's why it's been one of the most deadly years, as you were pointing out, one of the commercial breaks in ICE detention, what happens behind the closed doors as well. So often what we have heard from advocates or lawyers about the conditions on the inside seem to be now on the outside. And we're seeing it transparently on the streets of America. But not every day because you don't have ICE watchers in every community. And with, as you pointed out so rightly, tens of millions, hundreds of millions of dollars now pouring into these agencies, billions of dollars to supersize them. This will be playing out if Stephen Miller has his way in every community across the United States. And so this is what politicians and advocates and volunteers that I have been spending time with all around the country are encouraging people, why they're encouraging people to pick up that phone and pick up that camera and make it so it can't be so, so that this can't happen in the darkness and that people do remain out in the streets to monitor for their fellow not only citizens, but our neighbors.

News Anchor Nicole (35:11)

Thank you so much for being part of really just asking questions, I guess, at this point in terms of what we know and what we've seen. Grateful to all of you. Michelle Norris, Eddie, Glad, Jacob Sobroff, thank you.

Jacob Soboroff (35:20)

Thank you.

News Anchor Nicole (35:21)

We'll continue to monitor any developments from Minneapolis. When we come back, the other big story we've been tracking all week long, what the Trump administration told senators about its plans for running Venezuela. Senator Alyssa Slotkin of Michigan will be our guest. Quick break. We'll be right back with that. This afternoon, for the first time since the United States forcibly seized the reins of Venezuela's government and its oil, the Trump administration briefed lawmakers on Capitol Hill. Secretary of State Marco Rubio laid out the three steps. He described them as stabilization, recovery and transition, a supremely vague term, absent much elaboration that yada yada is this conflict's ultimate resolution. There's still no timetable for when Venezuelans will be allowed to vote, determine their own leader. Democrats are already calling on the Trump administration to appear and testify in public hearings on the whole matter, as well as the fate of our country's relationship with Greenland. Last night, the White House issued a statement saying all options are on the table, including military force for annexing Greenland. Greenland is a territory governed by Denmark, a NATO ally who, by the way, answered the call and fought alongside the United States of America and Afghanistan after September 11. When asked about Greenland today on Capitol Hill, Marco Rubio said He would soon meet with Danish officials, watch.

Narrator/Announcer (36:53)

There's an interest there.

Reporter Alex Tabitt (36:54)

But. So I just reminded them of the fact that not only did Truman want to do it, but President Trump's been talking about this since his first term.

Jacob Soboroff (37:01)

The White House put out a statement.

Narrator/Announcer (37:02)

Last night saying that the military option is on the table. So is the administration really willing to risk the NATO alliance by potentially moving ahead military operations?

Reporter Alex Tabitt (37:13)

What I think the White House said.

Narrator/Announcer (37:14)

Yesterday is what I will tell you now.

News Anchor Nicole (37:15)

And I've always said the President always retained the option.

Paul Rykoff (37:17)

If he.

Narrator/Announcer (37:18)

Every president, not this president, every president.

News Anchor Nicole (37:20)

Always retains the option.

Reporter Alex Tabitt (37:21)

I'm not talking about Greenland, I'm just talking about globally.

News Anchor Nicole (37:25)

Trump's been talking about sharks and windmills and water pressure since the first term, too. But at the same time that Trump is antagonizing our closest allies on the fate of Greenland, he's also provoking our adversaries, including Russia. Today, following an extended pursuit, the United States military seized a pair of oil tankers on the high seas, including one that recently re registered with Russia in an attempt to evade capture. In a moment, we'll be joined by Senator Alyssa Slotkin, who was in that briefing today. But first, I want to bring in Paul Rykoff. He's the host of the Independent Americans podcast, the founder and CEO of Independent Veterans of America. Paul, I won't force any sort of torture connection between the two big stories today, but I welcome your thoughts on either one of them.

Paul Rykoff (38:12)

Our country needs to take a gigantic deep breath. This is a tipping point moment where so many things are coming together and I think we've all. I go back to the Marine Corps and the army when they always say stay frosty. You've got to try to find a way to take a big deep breath, stay composed, look out for each other, remember your values, look out for your people, and don't let the bastards get you down. There's a lot coming at us right now and a lot of it is unauthorized, unacceptable and deeply un American. From this invasion in Venezuela to this terrible, awful, entirely predictable shooting in Minneapolis, it's all really deeply un American. And I think we have to go back to those values and we have to stand up for those values, especially in moments like this, and bring other people together who also stand up for those values. Values. Because that 37 year old woman didn't deserve that. And the way she was treated is un American. And everybody can see it, they can spin it and say whatever they want, but the lack of discipline, the lack of accountability, the fact that they're everywhere. ICE is out of control. And all Americans can understand that and see it. Most of all, they're undisciplined, which I think is un American.

News Anchor Nicole (39:21)

Senator Slotkin is coming to talk about, obviously, what she was preached on today and what it is that they say they're doing in Venezuela. The Trump administration itself has offered. I think I've counted six public rationales. The ambassador to the United nations said it was about election integrity. Rubio said it was about corruption and being an autocrat. And Maduro is a terrible, terrible guy. But says Vladimir Putin, I mean, there are a lot of terrible guys around the planet. But Donald Trump has been really consistent, especially for Donald Trump. He said operation. He briefed oil companies before and after. He said they're very, very excited and ready to get involved and go in. He said to Joe Scarborough, who called him about the operation, that the only difference, the distinction between the operation in Venezuela and Iraq is that in Venezuela, he will keep the oil, something that Bush didn't do. What does it mean for the men and women of the military and their families that Donald Trump is willing to use the military to seize oil?

Paul Rykoff (40:20)

It's not what we signed up for. Again, very deeply, deeply un American. When Americans stand up to defend other countries and free people, the only thing we ask for in return is a place to bury our dead. We are not mercenaries. We don't go in there for the money. We don't go in there to plunder or pillage. And this entire concept that oil is even connected is outrageous. But it's not even about the oil. It's about power. In 2025, he wanted to dominate America. Now he wants to dominate the Western Hemisphere. And this is just the next piece of on that global monopoly board that he's going down faster and faster and nothing's stopping him.

News Anchor Nicole (40:55)

Stay with us. I want to bring into our coverage Democratic Senator Alyssa Slotkin of Michigan. She's a member of the Armed Services Committee, a former CIA analyst who served three tours in Iraq alongside the US Military before working in national security capacities at both the Pentagon and the White House. Senator, thank you so much for being here.

Michelle Norris (41:14)

Sure.

Reverend Sarah (41:14)

Thanks for having me.

News Anchor Nicole (41:16)

Tell us what you were briefed on and if it answered any questions you had about exactly what we are doing in Venezuela and how long Donald Trump and the administration plans to be there.

Reverend Sarah (41:30)

Yeah, I mean, I think, look, the briefing was classified and a lot of the details of the military operation were went over in detail. And, you know, that was obviously, it was pretty amazing, frankly, what the military did. And I have to give a lot of credit to those folks for what they did. But I think where it got deeply thin, very thin, was on the aftermath. What's the day after planning, what's the transition plan? Trump is saying we own this. Trump is saying we own the oil. So, like, what do we do if there's violence there, if there's attacks on the oil fields? Like, what is the plan? And they're just really was nothing. And I think, you know, as you're sitting there, you're thinking about all the things here at home that Trump said he was going to focus on and not these foreign wars, not these foreign entanglements. We went up and did the math afterwards, and you'll be interested in this. By our account, President Trump has gone after, you know, nine different localities, seven countries, two oceans. He's had military operations more than any other president in American history in the first year. And more strikes in this first year than Joe Biden did in four years. So he said he wasn't going to be a foreign policy resident. He's clearly doing a 180 on that. And he wants to talk about that stuff because he doesn't want to talk about what's going on here at home.

News Anchor Nicole (42:51)

Let me ask you about what's happening in Venezuela. And the New York Times has reported this. I'm sure you know this from your time in national security roles, but Times reports this Maduro's gone, but repression in Venezuela has intensified. It's got worse. Quote, over the past several days, security forces have interrogated people at checkpoints, boarded public buses and searched passengers phones, looking for evidence that they approved of Maduro's removal. According to Venezuelans in the country and human rights groups, at least 14 journalists and six citizens were detained. Most have been released. What is the telling of why we removed Maduro and left his regime in charge?

Reverend Sarah (43:34)

Yeah, I mean, I think it's interesting, right? As someone who served in Iraq alongside the military, you know, I think clearly there's some clear attempts to make sure this isn't Iraq. So if you remember, with Iraq, you know, you took out Saddam Hussein, but everyone who worked in his administration, everyone who worked up to the colonel level in the military and the police forces. So it really was this wholesale getting rid of the entire regime. This is quite the opposite. This is taking off, you know, the head, but leaving the vice president, who is no, you know, perfect angel herself. So they left in the regime that they've called illegitimate. And now we're going to try and Control it by controlling the oil. And you know, I think Americans have seen this movie. Every time we get into a military, you know, engagement, we say it's going to be limited, we're going to get in and out. Right. Iraq was designed that way, Vietnam was designed that way. How you go in is one thing, but, you know, once you, you break it, you really have an ownership that just makes us get embroiled in these things. And I think that's the thing that's hard for, for many of us to understand is this president was so adamant that he wasn't going to be all involved in these long entanglements. And here he is claiming that he owns the country. So I think it's, it's, it is, it's one thing to say you're just going to do this quick operation, it's another thing to own it for the next few years.

News Anchor Nicole (44:57)

The last time we spoke to you, news had broken that the Department of Justice and the FBI was attempting to open a national security investigation into you for being one of six lawmakers to communicate to the country and men and women in the military to not follow in a legal order. I wonder if you can share any update on either whether there is any evidence that you are under investigation or whether any of the threats against you have intensified or abated.

Reverend Sarah (45:29)

Yeah, you know, I think there was this open question about, you know, were they going to do something symbolic and have the FBI, you know, hint at some sort of inquiry and then let it die. This week we got further communication just as Mark Kelly got communication from the military side. So we're talking about it and what to do from a legal perspective. But I think it's all part of a very well worn playbook that this president is using and that I've seen used abroad many, many times, which is when someone says something you don't agree with, when someone does something that insults you or hurts your feelings or makes you look weak, you are going to try and intimidate them by threatening violence. Right. The President said I should be hanged. And then we got thousands of threats into our office. And I went to 247 Security for me and my family. But then also use legal action. Right. Just absolutely paper someone to death with a legal investigation of a federal investigation. So he's trying to do that to get people to shut up. It's like a very well worn tactic of intimidation. So we're not going to do that. And I don't think Senator Kelly is. I certainly am not. And the rest of us so we'll be talking more about it, but we did get follow up since the new year.

News Anchor Nicole (46:40)

I want to ask you if you've seen the video out of Minneapolis this morning. Around 9:50am this morning, a woman who was reportedly warning about ice activity in a neighborhood was shot and killed. The Trump administration, from Kristi Noem to Donald Trump to Stephen Miller, have described her as a, quote, domestic terrorist. The video doesn't align with their description of events, but I wonder if you've been briefed as a member of the Homeland Security Committee.

Reverend Sarah (47:10)

We have not yet been briefed. I've seen the video just online. Like many Americans, I guess, at this point, I guess, you know, I would say everyone needs to take a breath. You know, I wasn't there. You weren't there. We need to understand the context. Obviously, the video does not look good, but we need, you know, I'm always wary of sort of first reports and, you know, the armchair warriors who are telling us what's happening. I know that there are protests going on. I urge people to please be peaceful. Don't give, don't take the bait and give people what they want, which is a reason to put more and more force into a place like Minneapolis. But to be honest, I mean, I have been warning about this kind of thing for a long time. When you put law enforcement or uniform military on the streets of American cities in this level, you know, mistakes are going to happen. Lack of training, you know, you're going to have a lot of new people on the streets there. And then you create a cycle of escalation that's hard to contain. And I think I'm concerned that that's what we're seeing now in Minneapolis. So I'd ask everyone to take a breath and just wait for us to understand what happened and not escalate. That means not protesters, but that also means the Trump administration, the language that they're using right now is escalatory. So let's just everyone take a damn breath. We're the United States of America. This is American citizens. Let's just calm the situation down rather than just spike it.

News Anchor Nicole (48:33)

I love that the two people here at the end of the hour have both told me to take a deep breath. And as you both said it, I've literally, like, gasped. So thank you. I needed that. Senator Elizabeth Sligan and Paul Reikoff, thank you both very much for spending some time with us on a really extraordinary news cycle. Thank you. We have to sneak in a short break. We'll be right back. Thank you so much. For letting us into your homes on days like today. We are grateful.

Reverend Sarah (48:58)

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