Foreign. Welker in Washington, where we're following multiple developments surrounding the nationwide backlash over the Trump administration's deadly immigration enforcement operation in Minneapolis, including from lawmakers on Capitol Hill where a dispute over ICE funding could lead to a government shutdown tomorrow. That comes as White House borders are. Tom Holman, who is now in charge of ICE operations in Minneapolis, is trying to turn down the temperature, acknowledging there are issues on the ground that need to be fixed.
And as the president held a Cabinet meeting today but made no mention of Minnesota or his immigration enforcement operations. Homeland Security Secretary Christy Noem was not among those Cabinet members the president called out to speak. But the president did say he's working with Democrats to strike a deal to keep the government open, even as Democrats voted to block a package of government funding bills in protest of ICE tactics. Take a listen.
Hopefully we won't have a shutdown. We're working on that right now. I think we're getting close. The Democrats, I don't really want to see it either.
So we'll work in a very bipartisan way, I believe, not to have a shutdown. We don't want to shut down. Senate Democrats are demanding changes to DHS and ICE in the wake of the killing of Alex Preddy by a federal agent last weekend. Meanwhile, Tom Holman today said he's working on a drawdown plan for the Border Patrol and ICE agents in Minneapolis and saying progress is being made.
Everybody talked to, agreed on, but the community safety is paramount. One thing we all agreed on was US Immigration Custom Forces is a legitimate law enforcement agency that has a duty to enforce the laws enacted by Congress and keep the screen safe. What we've been working on is making this operation safer, more efficient, by the book. The mission is going to improve because the changes we're making internally, we will conduct targeted enforcement operations.
Targeted. Homan also said immigration operations will continue in the city and that a drawdown of federal forces will only happen if local authorities agree to cooperate with federal agents. Here he is talking about that. We are not surrendering the president's mission, immigration enforcement.
Let's make that clear. Prioritization of criminal answers. Maybe we forget about everybody else. That's just ridiculous.
My main focus now is drawdown based upon the great conversations I've had with your state and local leaders. Again, I'm not fool. I'm not walking away while seeing this put in place. But I take the word of the people I met with, think they're honest and I think they're good brokers that they want public safety protecting.
They also want what's happening in the city to go away. Now this all comes. This new video has emerged. You see it here?
This is a shooting victim, Alex Preddy, and a confrontation he had with federal officers 11 days before he was shot and killed by a Border Patrol agent. The video shows him kicking a vehicle and agents tackling him to the ground. Freddy's family confirming to NBC News they knew about this incident before he was killed. We, of course, do not know what happened before the start of this video.
Joining me now is our team of reporters, NBC News chief White House correspondent Peter Alexander, NBC News correspondent Camilla Benal in Minneapolis, and NBC News senior Homeland Security correspondent Julia Angley. Peter, let me start with you at the White House. The president held his first Cabinet meeting of the new year. What was your biggest takeaways?
We didn't hear from Christine home. Yeah. Christianity writes this was the 10th cabinet meeting overall the president has held since returning to the White House. As you know, the first one of this new year, notably only the second time in all the cabinet meetings have been public, which is all of them but one where Kristi Noem was not called on by the president to speak.
It was particularly striking an opportunity where he may have had to, in front of the cameras with her alongside him, publicly praise her work, show his support for her. He has said that he stands by her right now and is happy with the way she has held her job. But obviously she's facing a lot of blowback and a firestorm of criticism, not just from Democrats, but frankly from some Republicans as well, for her handling of the situation regarding ice, specifically in Minneapolis in recent days, when it tells me the fact that she wasn't called on, in fact, that this was significantly shorter, only about an hour and 20 minutes. And remembered a recent interview, the president said that those meetings needed to be quicker.
They were, in his words, boring as hell. What it says is that the president really does is doing all he can in his power to try to turn the page from this topic. As you and I have been discussing off air, the fact that the president is ultimately into optics. He recognizes the ways things play.
He is a showman. He is a former reality TV star, and he realizes the headlines weren't in his favor. The images weren't reflected well on him or his administration. So clearly he wanted as best possible to use this to pivot and focus on other issues that he believes are top of mind for voters and for Americans right now, like the economy.
He's going to be hosting a ban on drug addiction this hour and separately on progress in his view that's been made to ending the war between Russia and Ukraine. And let me ask you, Peter, just to follow up and talk about the optics, here we have Tom Homan, who is dispatched to the ground in the office clearly aiming to turn down the temperature. It also comes as President Trump was talking about a potential deal with Democrats. Talk about the overall strategy right now.
How significant is it for the White House to try to turn down the heat? What's particularly notable about that possible deal with Democrats is that a lot of the deal is being done between Democrats and the White House working directly with one another right now. The president, you played that sound by from the cattle meeting earlier, talking about this in ways that we don't often hear him speak, referring specifically to bipartisanship, a bipartisan effort, saying that in his conversations he believes Democrats don't want there to be a shutdown either. So what it looks like we're going forward is a situation where instead of there being a partial shutdown that would take place as early as tomorrow night, if no agreement is reached by then that there would be two separate bills in effect, one that would pay finish the spending bills are related to all the agencies separate from dhs, and then a separate one on DHS specifically.
So on the big agencies that would kick the can down the road perhaps to September on DHS is going to be two weeks, four weeks or six weeks, a smaller period of time to try to resolve that. And for Democrats, it's a point of leverage where there really three separate issues they're focused on right now. Among them, trying to end these iving, these roving, excuse me, ICE patrol around the country right now separately try to create an updated code of conduct and accountability to deal with it. And finally to try to have a situation where these ICE enforcement officers where they are not wearing masks, they have ID on all of them, try to change the policies really.
ICE going forward. Kristen. Peter, breaking it all down for us at the White House. Thank you so much for that great reporting.
We really appreciate it. Now let me turn to you on the ground in Minneapolis. Tom Homan saying federal forces will not be pulled out of the city unless local authorities do a better job of cooperating with federal immigration agents. It also comes as Mayor Jacob Fries in Washington today.
Talk a little bit about what you are hearing from local leaders around the ground in Minneapolis. Yeah, Kristen. So it's interesting because the first thing that you hear from both the governor is and the mayor here in Minneapolis is that they want federal agents out of the city. So that's sort of their first negotiating point from the very beginning.
The governor had previously said that, yes, they do cooperate when it comes to state prisons, and they do eventually honor these is containers, which is giving or turning over the people who have some sort of immigration detention or deportation order over to federal authorities. Jacob Fry has said, look, we will cooperate in criminal investigations, but we will not have our police officers essentially working or doing the job of federal agents. And that is part of what he reiterated today in D.C. take a listen to what he said.
I would believe it. I said they have talked about drawing down the numbers in terms of federal agents, ICE and Border Patrol in the Atlas, and that's et cetera. The reality, however, is that we need Operation Metro surged. So they both want different things.
The federal government wants one thing and state and local officials want another. So it really is unclear how they're going to get to an agreement at the end of the day. But again, local leaders here continue to say that what they want is the agents out of the city and really out of the state. And you just hear Mayor Jacob Fry's defiance there come along.
Let me ask you about something else that Tom Holman said. He's promising changes when it comes to how these officers interact with the public. And he says that officers who don't act with professionalism, quote, will be dealt with. How are those comments met by the folks on the ground there in Minneapolis?
Pretty strong statement. They are. And I think everyone agrees that there should be some sort of de escalation. And I will say that being on the ground here, when you don't have federal agents present, you don't see the violence that you saw maybe on Saturday after the shooting of Alex Preddy.
Because when they are here, those confrontations get extremely tense. You know, I saw people going up to these federal agents, screaming at them and saying all sorts of really nasty things at them. So I do think once you get rid of the federal agents, you could see some de escalation. So the question is, when will they actually go and how are they going to get them to do this?
Because Holman said he's going to stay here essentially until this is over. What exactly does that mean? We don't have clear answers to that. So it will be interesting to see how this all develops in terms of an agreement between Olive and Kristen.
Yeah. What exactly would that timeline look like? Camila Brownlee, excellent reporting from a frigid Minneapolis. Thank you for braving the attempts for us.
We really Appreciate it. I want to turn it Julie Ainsley now. So, Julia, you heard Tom Holman talk about these targeted operations. Give us a little bit more information.
What exactly does that mean? It's what Tom Holman's been calling for for the past year. Krist wants to go out for the worst of the worst. He wants ICE officers to be able to walk into a community with a list of people who are tied to crimes that they've been convicted of.
And we saw a reversal of that policy starting in June when Greg Govina was leading the charge in la. And it was around that time ICE discontinued a policy they used to have where officers used to have to fill out worksheets before they made arrest on who the person was. Now, because they have so little information about the people they were arresting, the worksheets for being left blank. And so they did away with us.
We reported on those last fall. But it just underscores the point that he wants to return to a day where ICE did their homework, where they knew who it was that they're arresting. And he's not leaving out the possibility that some people could be swept up if they're in the area, if they're around someone. Say you go into a place with a warrant and you find other people broke immigration law.
He's always said that that's on the table. But it's his priority to go after criminals because he thinks at the end of the day that's what ICE is there for. And he thinks that's going to be a better move politically, both with the electorate around the country and with how they cooperate with Minnesota. It so clear, based on his tone, they understood the enormity of this moment and that as you say, to some extent it's about calming the tensions that exist.
Let me ask you about the fact that we are actually seeing some changes take place in Maine. What are you tracking there? Yeah, that's right. We heard from Senator Susan Collins and other government officials from the state of Maine that said that ICE has informed them that they will be pulling out.
They started in Lewis in Maine, and when I say present, ICE has 25 foot offices around country, but they surged more people in and that had been one area right north of Portland, Maine, where they had started to surge more EYES officers. Now, we understand that Susan Collins actually had multiple conversations asking Kristi Noem to do this, that she's agreed to bring them back. So what a week for Kristi Noem? I mean, she's having to scale back on these plans.
She'd been so aggressive up until Saturday, and now she's not being called on. As Peter pointed out of the White House press conference, it seems that she's really having to do a 180 here. Yeah, absolutely. And we're getting this new video of Alex Preddy.
What are your sources telling you, Julia, about what this video shows us and what's the reaction been? I think the idea that there's a concern, especially from the family, that that video could be weaponized against Preddy and make people believe that somehow what happened to him on Saturday was deserved because he was an agitator. From what we saw on Saturday, there was nowhere near that kind of behavior. We don't see what happens at the beginning of this video.
And even still, even with that altercation, that does not mean obviously that he deserved to be killed in an unlawful fail shooting if the investigation determines that it was. The other thing is that when I went to DHS about this incident, they said they had no records of it. So whatever happened here was not recorded. And we don't believe that it ended any kind of charge.
Interesting. All right, Julia Ainsley, thank you so much for helping to start us off once again. We really appreciate it. We want to turn out Capitol Hill where, as we said, the government is on the verge of a partial shutdown over new demands from Democrats to address the Trump administration's immigration crackdown following the deaths of Alex, Freddie and Renee Nic today, key procedural vote to advance a package of six appropriations bills failed in the Senate with all the Democrats and eight Republicans voting against him.
But there may be a deal in the works between Senate leader Chuck Schumer and the White House. Joining me now is NBC News senior national football reporter Sahil Koroso. Sahil, what is the status of these talks? How close are they to a potential deal?
Hey, Kristen. Well, first off, that Senate vote you mentioned is crucial because the margin of defeat was pretty jarring. 45 to 55. That's 45 in favor.
No more close to the 60 that they need. Not a single Democrat vote for this package. And seven Senate Republicans joined Democrats in opposition. So what does that mean?
It means Democrats have leveraged to press some real demands here because Republicans are not close to the vote without them. Let's take a look at those three core demands that Senator Schumer is voicing on behalf of Democrats. There are many of them, but these are the ones that parties unified behind. Ending roaming patrol.
That's where people are stopped on suspicion of immigration violations. And tight the rules requiring warrants for Arrests create a uniform code of conduct that officers have to abide by and require agents to take off their masks, to carry ID and wear body cameras when they conduct operations. Now the near term person is complicated because the deadline is tomorrow at midnight and they still have to pass something and get it signed by President Trump to prevent the shutdown. What there is agreement on is five out of the six appropriations bills funded by 80% of the government with the exception of DHS.
And they're negotiating right now a short term funding bill to punt DHS to keep that open on autopilot for two weeks, a little bit longer. But that's where the negotiations seem centered on. And once that gets done, once they get a deal, if they do, it could move through the Senate very quickly, especially because today is Thursday, tomorrow is the deadline and many senators candidly want to go home. Absolutely.
How are Senate Republicans reacting to Democrats proposed reform? Sahil? They're mostly sticking close to President Trump. I think the vibes here are extremely different than the vibes around the previous record long government shutdown instigated by Democrats over funding for the Affordable Care act where Republicans essentially told Democrats to pound sand, that they're not going to talk, they're not going to negotiate this time.
Republicans are really spooked by video of American citizen getting gunned down by someone in their own government, someone who works for their own government rather, you know, in broad daylight. So Senate Republicans are deferring to the White House and Democrats to cut a deal here and the majority leader Johnson indicated that he would be in favor of a deal. Not everyone's on board though. Tell us no how they're responding.
I think Democrats are wanting some reforms that make sense to me. Body cameras making ICE more like other agencies. But that's a band aid to my Democratic friends. I think you have some good ideas.
I think the ultimate idea is to end sanctuary city policy is hurting our nation. Now this idea that we're go forward and not support ICE and not find ICE is the craziest thing in the world. So this idea that we're going to separate out now, we're not going to, we're not going to fund ICE is the most foolish thing I can ever hear of. Quite remarkable, Kristen, to hear Senator Lindy Graham say Democrats have some good ideas here that you only take into consideration.
I think outsider Scott who just heard there's a minority on Republicans but yield us together. I expected to pass out with a basketball for Republican support. All right, well, fast moving developments there on Capitol Hill style thank you for bringing up the speed on all of them. Great to see you, as always.
Coming up, I said a Democrat response to the Trump administration's apparent attempts to de escalate tensions and change tactics in Minnesota as the White House and Congress rushed to avert a partial government shutdown. Senator Tim Baldwin is standing by. We'll talk to her next. You're WATCHING THE press now.
Welcome back. Join me now is Democratic Senator Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin. Thank you so much for joining me, Sandra. I really appreciate it.
Thanks for having me on. Before we dive into everything in the technical government shutdown, I just want to give you a chance to talk a little bit about Alex Preddy. He grew up in Wisconsin in your state. You're hearing from your constituents about him, Senator?
Absolutely. He was a graduate of Prevale High School in Green Bay. And I heard from classmates who talked about what a role model he was, even as a peer, how kind he was. Earlier today, I spoke on the phone with his drama teacher and how responsible he had.
Attention to detail, but just how kind he was. And, you know, in his role as an ICU nurse at the VA Hospital in Minneapolis, which, by the way, serves veterans from western Wisconsin, I also heard how grateful people were to his kindness and compassion. And so it's such a tragic loss. And, you know, his last act was trying to protect a woman who was shoved into a snowbank.
It just speaks to, you know, how kind he was and he should be still alive. Yeah. Senator, I want to get your reaction to what we are seeing on the ground in Minneapolis, the very latest in the wake of that horrific killing over the weekend. The White House has dispatched Tom Homan.
He is now on the ground. He, of course, held that news conference earlier today in which he seemed to try to tamp down detentions. He urged state local officials to work with federal officials and said there will be a drawdown if that happens. What was your reaction?
Did you hear from Tom Holman what you think would amount to lowering the tensions right now? Senator, I did not hear from Tom Holman about the type of accountability measures that we are demanding yet attached to the Homeland Security appropriations bill. We need to see a situation where this agency is no longer acting like a rogue agency. They need to take those masks off.
They need to put body cameras on. They need to show identification. They can no longer be running around in unmarked cars. They need to subscribe to a code of conduct and accountability like any local or state law enforcement agency would.
And they also need to stop these roving patrols that go around neighborhoods, knocking at doors. They need to act according to warrants. They need to have somebody that they are going after a target, and they need to cooperate with local officials in terms of executing those warrants. You know, Trump told us that he wanted to go after dangerous criminals who are undocumented, and he had the American public support in doing that.
But he does not have the American public support in doing what he's doing in Minnesota and many other communities across this country right now. Senator, let me ask you about what Democrats are demanding. You laid out a long list. As far as I can tell, Schumer has three key reforms that he is demanding, including ending roaming patrols, as you say, enforcing a uniform code of conduct, and requiring agents to remove masks and wear body cameras.
A lot of what you just talked about. Is that enough for you to then vote for the DHS funding bill if those changes were to be included? Look, those are the areas that we have to be concerned with. This is a rogue agency that needs to be reined in.
And if this agency was acting like any local or state law enforcement agency, we might have some trust. But until they take those masks off and put body cameras on, wear identification, until they stop lurking around schools and daycares and churches and in our residential neighborhoods, there is not going to be that type of trust. So we absolutely demand and need these accountability measures to be attacked to their funding before we can move on. And where does the deal stand?
Do you get the sense that a deal is close, where you put the chances of a government shutdown? Right now, Senator, you know, it's really up to my Republican colleagues. What I understand within the last couple of hours is that there has been an agreement to take the Department of Homeland Security appropriation bills out of the package of other funding bills to be able to pass the remaining five bills and then negotiate the accountability measures that I've just been describing in short order so we can move ahead there. I think if there are discrepancies right now, it might be how quickly we can negotiate our demands.
And I think we can do it very quickly. I'm here to stay over the weekend if necessary, but I believe that we need to get accountability in place very expeditiously. And what you're mapping out is that you negotiate between Leader Schumer and the White House. And how do you assess Leader Schumer's leadership in this moment?
He's, of course, come under scrutiny for the past government shutdown. Look, I think right now this is all in the Republicans. It's a matter of their responsibility. They can either give a blank check to ICE and the Department of Homeland Security, or they can join with us to demand what the American people are overwhelmingly demanding right now.
Do you think Leader Schumer is showing strong leadership? Absolutely. And I think the only question is when my Republican colleagues will agree to these measures. You have called on DHS Secretary Kristi Noem to resign immediately.
What happens if she doesn't? There's, of course, talk about potentially impeaching her in the House. But how do you see accountability in this moment? An agency that she oversees has killed two American citizens in the last month, and she is overseeing an agency that has gone lawless, gone rogue.
But what's really additionally problematic to so many of my colleagues and certainly the family and friends of Alex Prenny is that she has lied to the American public. She called him an assassin. She called him a domestic terrorist. And she has changed the narrative, if you will, to fit her idea of what she wants the American public to believe.
It is not acceptable for a Cabinet secretary to lie to the American people. And she needs to go. She needs to resign. Trump needs to fire her.
And if those are bases for impeachment that I just described, I don't know what is. Some of your colleagues are calling for ICE to be abolished. I wonder, Senator, if you would go that far. Do you think ICE actually needs to be abolished?
Look, we have immigration laws. And if we return to what Donald Trump said he wanted to do with immigration enforcement, which is to go after hardened, violent criminals, I think we would have the entire American public support for this. But this agency has gone rogue. This agency is breaking the law.
This agency is killing US Citizens, doing these roving patrols, going door to door without warrants. That is not America, and we cannot allow that to go on. And that's why we are demanding the reforms that I've described. So you're saying you want to see ICE reforms but not necessarily abolished?
Is that what I hear you saying, Senator? That's correct. We have immigration laws that need enforcing, but this agency right now has gone rogue, and that is not what they're doing. All right.
Senator Tammy Baldwin, thank you so much for joining us. It's a very busy day on the Hill. We really appreciate your time and your perspective. Thank you for having me.
Coming up next, search and seizure. What we know and still don't know about an FBI operation targeting 2020 election records at a key Fulton county office in Georgia as local officials sound the alarm. That new reporting coming up next on the press welcome back. Fulton county officials are speaking out after the FBI raided an election office yesterday seeking records related to the 2020 election, which President Trump falsely claims was rigged and stolen.
Fulton County Commissioner Rob Pitts telling reporters today that the FBI took about 700 boxes of documents during yesterday's search. Pitt also says he doesn't know where those documents are, who has them, and that his office can no longer be held responsible for those ballots. A senior Trump administration official meanwhile, tells NBC News Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard was in Fulton county yesterday and visited that election center. Now the top Democrats on the House and Senate Intelligence committees are demanding answers from Gabbard about her presence in Fulton County.
Here's what Senator Warner had to say earlier today. This is representational intelligence that is affirmatively moved to cut back the foreign malign influence center on elections. What the heck is she doing? The FBI serving with domestic warrants?
If this doesn't concern the heck out of every American, it sure should. Joining me now is BC News senior justice reporter Ryan Reilly. Ryan, thank you for being here. This is a bizarre one.
What's the latest that we know about what the FBI was doing in Fulton County? Well, certainly an oddity. We know from the search warrant itself that this was about these, these records. They got a ton of these records dating back until October of 2020, which is unique itself because you gotta remember the statutory limitations for homicidal crimes is five years.
So this falls outside of that. And then the question is what was the criminal conspiracy that continued allegedly within that five year realm? It did pass this ESRT went through a magistrate judge. So a magistrate judge, look at this.
Those are normally pretty just standard sign off scenarios. It's very rare for a magistrate judge to reject sort of torn application. But another oddity is that there was a US Attorney who was not in the district who was actually from Missour on this case as well. So there's just a number of red flags I think that are going up for people about this research.
Well, another potential red flag, NBC News has learned the FBI Atlanta field office's special agent in charge was forced to retire. We know about that. Yeah, precise standing. We know that he was forced out often in these cases.
And we see a lot of people who found their in line or were forced to do something that they ethically disagree with the part of the Justice Department in recent days. And often we find that they don't come out in and say publicly what exactly that was because they still abide by that justice manual. It talks about not talking about ongoing cases. Even though they're no longer on the payroll, they still abide by those rules.
Often it takes a little bit of work to figure out what exactly is going on there. And they're not going to come out with a statement and say, I was forced out because of this ongoing investigation. Because other rules are really not supposed to talk about these ongoing investigations. Talk a little bit about what Senator Warren was criticizing the fact that Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard was in Fulton County.
He said that should really so the shock wave for all Americans. Why is he saying that? And what is so unique about the fact that she would be there? You just don't see someone in her position in this position to begin with.
One of the first rules that any prosecution is Jill Makers herself witness in the case. And so now Tulsi Gabbard could be a witness called in any future case. Right. So her presence there, they can, you know, down the line where this to get to a defense point.
That's what you would worry about. The other thing is like you're creating all of these problems for any theoretical future case because you're creating this appearance that this is politically motivated. The idea that she's flying down there and overseeing these ballots when this has been, you know, Donald Trump's obsession and this has been what he's been targeted for at is just going to, if this were to ever get to a prosecution, would give it a defense attorney a really great motion to say this was a victim for prosecution. All right, Ryan Miley, as always, thank you so much for joining us.
Really appreciate it. Coming after the break, Finding Common Ground, a bipartisan a group of mayors responds to the situation in Minneapolis, plus how they're working across the aisle to solve problems in their cities and around the country. Same with us on the press. Now, we are on the front lines of a very important battle, and it's important that we aren't silenced, that we aren't put down.
This is not a time to bend our heads in despair or out of fear that we may be next. Because if we do not speak up, if we do not step out, it will be your city that is next. That was Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Fry, who, as we mentioned earlier, is in Washington, D.C. today where he addressed the US Conference of Mayors.
Yesterday in the latest installment of our Finding Common Ground series, I spoke with a bipartisan pair of mayors about the current tensions in Minneapolis and the many challenges facing mayors all across the country. Joining me now is Republican Mayor David Holt of Oklahoma City and president of the Conference of Mayors and Democratic Mayor Todd Gloria of San Diego and vice president of the Conference of Mayors. Thanks so much to both of you for being here. We really appreciate it.
Absolutely. Well, a lot to get to. I do want to start with this issue crisis that we're seeing in Minneapolis. And Mayor Holt, I want to ask you about this statement that the Conference of Mayors put out.
You write, quote, the nation's mayors call for immediate intervention by national leaders to de escalate the situation in Minnesota. This is not a partisan issue. It is an issue of national concern. Are you satisfied at this very moment, as we sit here, that national leaders are doing enough to de escalate the crisis?
Interesting question. So we put that out, of course, Saturday right after the second death of a resident in Minneapolis, and, you know, with the input of Democrats and Republicans and independents, as well as mayors in the Minnesota delegation. So I think we're cautiously encouraged that, you know, there seems to be some personnel changes there seems to be reporting. You know, we're not necessarily privy to the air workings of the White House, but we're reading the news reports of everybody else.
That seems to imply there's a pivot happening. And yes, I mean, I think we need to remain vigilant, but it's certainly our position that what was happening in Minneapolis was unacceptable. And what was great was when our sticking went out, it seemed like there were similar statements kind of from all kinds of organizations and all kinds of elected officials across the partisan spectrum. And it became really a chorus that was organic and not, you know, not collab, you know, not anything that anyone was collaborating on because it was just common sense that this had become absolutely acceptable.
Pick up on that point if you would. You talk about some of the personnel changes. Of course, President Trump did send Tom to be in charge of everything that's happening in Minneapolis. What do you make of that move?
Do you think it will help to de escalate tensions there? Well, it does provide a milestone that, you know, maybe makes space for some change, which is obvious necessary. President Holt and I have had an opportunity to meet with Mifray Fry from Minnesota. And, you know, it's clear that something has to happen.
And if that helps to move things along, great. But we hear from our colleagues from Minnesota is that the conditions continue to be extremely dire. It seemingly is worse than what we kind of get from the media, and as a consequence, more will need to come. But as President Holt mentioned, there's an occasion of shift coming in, and that should be encouraging.
But we can't be satisfied until we get back to some level of law and order than we could expect on our strategy. We need actually, you know, things on the ground to change, not just the right things being said in Washington. But it's okay, we can give it a little bit of time. But you take me to my next question, which is about the leadership that we're seeing.
Minneapolis, you talked about Mayor Fry. Mayor Gloria, what do you make of his leadership in this moment? We've seen some really tense comments, both from Mayor Fry, of course from the administration, the president. What do you make of Mayor Fry's leadership right now?
Well, I know him and I know him to be a very even killed and very thoughtful leader. And so that first initial statement, you know, he got some criticism for. But what I know from my job is that we're often in the position of being the personification of the city to be the voice of your residents. And what is evidence is that there's tremendous emotion, lots of fear.
And I think he was emoting that. And by doing so, I think that helps to actually let the populace know that their mayor understands and is feeling what they're feeling and expressing that on their behalf. I hope that that provides some level of reassurance to the populace that needs that right now. He's a very good leader and I think he's in the best heal circumstances.
I'd say the same for his chief. Mayor hold. I want to talk a little bigger picture now about both of your communities. One of the biggest issues facing all Americans coast to co the issue of affordability and the economy has obviously been a top issue on the campaign trail.
It's gonna be front and center in 2026 in the midterms. How do you see your role as mayor? Are there things that you can do, actionable items that you can tackle to address that issue for your constituents? Well, quite possibly.
I think like different cities and different states might come at this from a slightly different ideological perspective and have different solutions. But we also have an idea. And so coming from a place like Oklahoma, Oklahoma City, I think we think of it in terms, first of all housing, which is the largest single cost in anyone's life. What can we do to address that?
Of course, that's our one issue in Washington as mayors, but we're also doing things on a local level towards that. And of course we work towards, you know, higher paying jobs. We have whole economic development team. That's what mayors and cities often do, are out there recruiting higher paying jobs to raise the median income in our cities.
I think that's how probably a mayoral home city looks at the afford issue. Different cities may come at it from a different angle, but I think the biggest thing for me right now is what can we do both at the local and national level in housing? Mayor Laurie, how do you see it? I couldn't agree more about housing piece.
We talk understandably about gas prices and grocery prices, but it is housing I hear the most of my constituents about. And this is often from people who have good jobs and working extremely hard but don't see a future for themselves. In my city as a mayor, I control permit, I control zoning, and when I can create more opportunities for people to live in housing they can actually afford, that is happening in the affordability crisis. My city, we've gone from an average of about 44 new home permits, 100 new home permits per year last two decades.
We're knocking about 10,000 a year. And that increase in production is driving down costs. And just finally to both of you, what is your message to lawmakers here in Washington about how they might better reach across the aisle to work together, particularly in this moment where the country's incredibly divided? Well, I think we do have a little bit of to say about it.
We're living right here. I mean like we work together in our cities, within our cities. No city is a monolith in terms of its ideology. Right.
We both have. He's got Republicans in his city, I've got Democrats in mind. And we, we work with him and then we work together amongst ourselves as mayors. We've got Republicans, Democrats, Independents and organization and we go to the press conference where we all talk.
You probably couldn't even figure out who was who. And I kind of think that's the way it should be. And I will tell you too much to get into on the air, but I'm telling your viewers, go Google the Oklahoma City Declaration, which are 230 mayors of sign that talks about the basic behaviors that people in our positions need to be engaged in and how we embrace compromise and pluralism. That's what people up here can learn from us.
I love talking about the issues, but I think we need to talk just as much about how we do things and we do things right as mayors. I think a lot of people agree with you. Mayor Gloria, what is your message to that? Well, I love working in a partisan fashion.
We definitely think I think my mayor's do that better than perhaps others is that we can't allow partnership to be an excuse for not getting something done. The garbage I picked up this week or it didn't water in your household. Did not. Someone got your dog called 911.
But it didn't. We can't allow party to be the excuse for why we don't see progress. It doesn't work for mayors. I don't think it works at the state or national level either.
We can't allow it to be an excuse. We gotta get stuff done for people this country. All right. Mayor Gloria, Mayor Holt, thank you both so much for a fantastic conversation.
Really appreciate it. Thank you. And silicon its official Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar is running for governor of Minnesota, calling for unity and decrying the killings of Alex Freddie and Renee Good in her official campaign launch. The panel responds.
Now tell me the press now. Stay with us. Welcome back to me now is the panel Shelby Talck, White House correspondent for Semaphore Amisha Cross, Democratic strategist and former Obama campaign advisor and Annelise Kel, Republican strategist and former communications director for now, former Republican Senator Cory Gardiner of Colorado. Thanks all of you for being here.
Let's start with what's happening. Shelby, on the ground in Minnesota. You have Tom Holman there clearly trying to lower tensions. What do you make of this moment in Minneapolis and is it a sign that the White House believes they got a real problem on their hands?
Yeah. I mean, I talked to administration officials and people close the White House over the past few days, and they've acknowledged privately that this is something that has become an issue. We've heard that the president has been on calls pretty much all week, all over the weekend, trying to feel the situation. He watches a lot of tv.
He has seen the video footage. He is uncomfortable with that video footage. And so it's become really clear with the changes that they've made by sending Tom Homan out there, who is very close to Donald Trump, very trusted by the president and effectively sidelining Kristi Noem and Greg Bovino. Those are big changes for this administration.
And the announcement that we heard from Tom Holman earlier today where he said essentially that they're going to be drawing down CBP operations and ICE operations in the state and sort of limiting things is a really big concession that we haven't seen the administration make at all over the past year. Yeah, you're absolutely right. And it's so rare to see the president acknowledge mistakes of Misha. It's notable.
We've seen this new song released by Bruce Springsteen and I raise it because it speaks to the fact that this is really resonating beyond the political world, this is something that has had implications for people all across this country. What do you make of the fact that this figure, who is it well known, Democrat, outspoken, would get involved in this moment? Well, I probably say it's about time, recognizing that ICE has essentially been amplifying its efforts for quite some time now. I'm an astro poplin.
I remember the raid that they did in the middle of the night or an apartment building that I used to live in when they sit Thai children. I think that we have to be very serious that as long as they were basically giving the green light to continue, they'd heard from the president that essentially they had immunity, they were going to continue. The entertainment world has now jumped off several people across the entertainment world. Part of that is because they have a different audience than your embedded political audience.
So I think that matters that they're speaking out. In addition to that, we know that there are some people who are even Baghead Jason who had significant problems with the most recent murder because of the two a aspect of things. So I do think that this was a little bit different than some of the previous cases that we've seen. But I'm glad that people are now sheerly activated.
What do you make of the fact that these prominent voices in the entertainment world are speaking out about this? Again, to this question of how much has this moment resonated and how much could that be a political problem for the administration? I mean, we've all kind of locked inside. I think everyone's seen this video and everyone's sitting around with these snowstorms across the country.
And this has really resonated with people and I think it does show. I totally agree, Shelby. I think the Trump administration has gotten as close to an apology admittance that this is a really big problem for Republicans as maybe they're ever going to get with actions of sidelining Secretary Noem and putting in Holman. The other thing that stood out to me was a big flaring sign in Congress is Schumer is negotiating directly with Donald Trump right now to stop the DHS or, excuse me, pull apart DHS funding from the funding bills package that is moving through Congress right now.
There's about six of them. DHS is one of them. And last time when we had the shutdown, Donald Trump was completely silent. And that's because he wanted Republicans to work it out.
He knew that there was leverage on the Republican side. And so this is the biggest signal to me that Trump knows that the narrative is not in Republicans favor right now. And Republicans in the Senate are totally getting rolled by Donald Trump right now. What do you make of that?
No, I think that's 100% factual. At the end of the day, this one is very different and marked because Trump is getting those calls and he's getting those calls to people he respects. He's getting them from Fox newspapers, he's getting them from his monochool Asian base members. He's getting them from people who normally would not even respond in these cases.
But I think that again, this case is centralized in a way that has not shaken down in any of the other cases where ICE has elicited, you know, use of force. And in large part, this president knows no matter what he does, he cannot move the media away from this conversation because he can keep away from this conversation. We know that now the, the date has been set. The next no Kings rally is March 28.
There's investigations that are going to be in play specifically around officer whose name we still do not know who actually shot and killed this man. In addition to that, it thinks that the tide has changed because it's not just Democrats or moderate calling. They're also conservatives calling for this bill. That does not place me more.
Shelby, what do you put the chance of a government shutdown based on your conversation if you had to look into your crystal ball? I still think it's moderate, moderate shutdown. But I do think it's really, really notable that the President, President is willing to negotiate with Democrats right now. And what I will also say is I talked to a senior White House official just a day or two ago about the funding bill and the White House's stance.
They've been pretty quiet about it, but from my understanding, their argument is, is they're frustrated with Democrats because this was my personal bill. And their argument is we can't do this. We can't change the game two days before, 48 hours before the government supposed to shut down, which I think is a fair argument. But this person also said that the administration has made those changes with Minneapolis and there are more changes that could potentially be made.
And to me, that signals that the Trump administration is recognizing again, how big of a deal this DHS issue is for them. And they really want to find a solution which is, as you said, really different from the first government shutdown. And so maybe that ends up, you know, we have a 11 o' clock tonight, we end up having a deal. Who knows?
Well, one of the other aspects of things that makes Minneapolis, interesting. Right now there's a gubernatorial race, etc. Officially not she's running. I want to play a little bit of her announcement video today.
Look, these times call for leaders who can stand up and not be rubber stamps of this administration, but who are also willing to find common ground and fix things in our state. These times call for grit and resilience. Misha, what do you make of that message? Is a winning message for Klobuchar, for Democrats more broadly in the midterms?
Absolutely. I think that right now, obviously four abilities is a little couple of people's mind. But when they're watching inundated with all the videos that recently come out about what's happening in Minneapolis, Klobuchar couldn't have announced her running for this level of office any better time, honestly. And she's probably okay.
Bold projection there. Annalise, what do you make? Do Republicans have a chance? I'm going to show up.
And she's certainly the favorite. I don't think there are a lot of Republicans in here. I think there's a lot of chances here. But what I would say is something that she would be wise to do is she's a former prosecutor.
She should start talking about some of the fraud that people are legitimately concerned about in the state and talk about how she's going to take that on, because I actually think with her background, she could sort of neutralize that challenge that would be coming from the right, which I think is going to be kind of her Achilles heel. What do you make of her launching, the timing of it, the impact of it? I think my question is this is a really smart launch by focusing on ice operations right now. My question is, is it going to be as relevant as we continue on closer to the race, or is she going to shift back to the economy, say, if this sort of dies down over the next few months, she's going to have to kind of shift her focus.
The other point I'll make is that this, this is not a Democrat who has been particularly cozy with the president. And so should she win, it's going to pose issues with the president, the White House working with Minnesota for sure. All fantastic points. Great conversation.
Shelby and Michael and Ellis really appreciate it. Thank you for being here. We're back tomorrow with more MEET the Press now. There's more ahead on NBC News now as the day wraps up.
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