The Briefing with Jen Psaki
Americans grow more outraged as Trump's ICE grows more outrageous
24 Jan 2026
Chapter 1: What are the key issues surrounding ICE actions under the Trump administration?
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There was big breaking news. There is big breaking news tonight, which is that the Trump Justice Department wanted to investigate the victim. This is what I was talking about when I said just it's not shocking. It just remains disgusting. They wanted to investigate Renee Good. And we knew they had no interest in investigating the ICE agent who shot and killed her. We knew that.
We learned that shortly after she was shot. We knew they wanted to investigate her widow. We also learned that. But thanks to incredible new reporting from my colleagues Ken Delaney and Carol Lennig, we now know they wanted to investigate Renee Good herself after she was shot three times and killed by an ICE agent.
Now, the Hennepin County attorney, Mary Moriarty, I just mentioned this to Chris, who was shut out of this investigation by the Trump Justice Department, is standing by with her reaction to that breaking news. The great and one and only Andrew Weissman is going to join me as well. That news is, I keep saying this, but it's worth repeating. It is so shocking and it is disgusting.
That news makes me want to say lots of words I cannot say on TV, even on a Friday. But what has been clear from the moment Renee Good was killed is that the Trump administration was going to do anything they could to lie and gaslight their way through this. What has also been clear is that the American people know what they saw when the ICE officer killed Renee Good.
And they know what they have seen as ICE has continued to terrorize their communities ever since. Want to know how I know? Well, this was the scene on the streets of Minneapolis today. You can see it. And there's so many like this. Thousands upon thousands of people taking to the streets as part of an ice out protest demanding federal immigration agents leave their city.
And I know it's hard to get a true understanding of this by just looking at video. But those thousands of people took to the streets on one of the coldest days of the year. And wherever you're preparing for Snowmageddon, I promise you it is colder. It was colder than that in Minneapolis today and across Minnesota. The high today, the high was negative nine degrees Fahrenheit.
The windchill got as low as 35 degrees below zero. I kid you not. It genuinely got so cold that our MS Now camera on the ground froze. Not like the picture froze technically like that. The camera got so cold, it stopped working. That's how cold it was in Minneapolis today. And so the crowds of protesters there were massive. They were this massive. Look at the screen right now.
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Chapter 2: How did Mary Moriarty describe the Justice Department's approach to ICE investigations?
But despite all of that, they grabbed this poor man. They dragged him out into the freezing cold and detained him and questioned him for an hour anyway. We've all heard a claim about what this is all about.
I'm so sick of hearing this over and over again from ICE, from the Trump White House, from anyone who's speaking on their behalf or defending them, that they're only going after the worst of the worst. They are only targeting people who aren't following the rules. But the thing is, is over and over again, that is proven to be a complete lie.
By now, you've also likely seen the images of this adorable five-year-old little boy, Liam Ramos. And that's our picture of him on Tuesday when mass federal immigration agents detained him and his father outside their residence as Liam was returning home from preschool.
Now, a local school official says that the federal agents told Liam to knock on the door to his home to see if other people were inside, essentially using a five-year-old preschooler as bait. I mean, the idea that any administration, anyone, would use a five-year-old to lure people out of a home all in the name of their cruel immigration policy is so disturbing.
It is hard to imagine anyone with a soul sees a photo of that little boy in his bunny hat and feels like this is all okay. How is that even possible? His family and his lawyer also say that Liam and his father were asylum seekers. They basically say that they entered the U.S. legally at an official border crossing site with the government's permission.
They had requested asylum and the case is reportedly still active. So even by the Trump administration's own cruel logic, Liam and his father were following the rules. Now, the Trump administration has made all sorts of claims to justify why they arrested Liam and his father. All of them so far are contested.
The facts are actually that this little boy was abandoned by his own father. His own father was being approached by ICE agents when he darted, ran and abandoned the child. Our law enforcement, in these frigid temperatures, stayed with the child, tried to bring him into custody with the mother, who actually would not take the child into custody, which is so sad, so horrific.
When they went to arrest his illegal alien father, the father ran. So the story is that ICE detained a five-year-old. Well, what are they supposed to do? Are they supposed to let a five-year-old child freeze to death?
First of all, both of those two people have to sleep with themselves at night. So there is that. But that is the administration line. They claim Liam's father ran and that no one at the scene would take the five-year-old. So they did for his safety. That's what their claim is.
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Chapter 3: What events unfolded during the protests in Minneapolis against ICE?
And underpinning all of this at the core of the outrage in Minneapolis tonight is still the rage over the ICE shooting of Renee Nicole Good. And tonight, we unfortunately have even more outrageous news on that front.
Like I said at the very top of the show tonight, MSNOW's Carol Lennig and Ken Delaney report that the Justice Department sought to investigate Renee Good herself, despite the fact that she was dead because of an ICE officer, killed at the hands of a gun from an ICE officer. And I just want to read directly from that piece.
It says, quote, After Good was killed earlier on January 7th, FBI agents initially drafted a search warrant to obtain her car to reconstruct the path of bullets that an ICE officer shot into the vehicle.
They were instructed to redraft their warrant and change the subject of the investigation from a civil rights probe investigating the ICE agent to an investigation into a suspect assault on an officer. meaning an investigation into Renee Nicole Good. A federal magistrate judge rejected that warrant, noting that Good was already dead and could not be considered a suspect for a warrant.
Now, the situation was so outrageous, and it is outrageous clearly, just even knowing those details, that two sources say an FBI supervisor in the Minneapolis field office resigned over it. And for what it's worth, an FBI spokesperson tells MSNOW that it does not comment on personnel matters and that the facts on the ground do not support a civil rights investigation. Okay.
But when the federal government is snatching people off the streets of Minneapolis and lying through its teeth basically every time they open their mouths, when they're going after kids and using them as bait to meet their arrest quotas, when they are refusing to investigate a fatal shooting by one of their own agents and are digging up dirt to smear the victim.
I think it's pretty clear why an entire city would shut down to protest in sub-zero temperatures. And now the whole country is watching, as they should. Joining me now is Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty. Her office is jurisdiction over homicide investigations in Minneapolis, including any potential prosecution of the federal agent who killed Renee Nicole Good.
Thank you so much for being here with me tonight and for being with all of us and helping people understand who are watching and are not living in Minneapolis what exactly is going on. on the ground. I just want to start. There's so much news that's always breaking on this. And I just want to start by asking you about news that broke tonight, that the FBI and U.S.
Attorney's Office were instructed to change the subject of their probe, which was initially a civil rights investigation into the ICE agent, of course, and investigate good herself for criminal liability, even though she was already dead. This is obviously horrific for anybody even who's not a lawyer to hear. But as a longtime prosecutor, what's your reaction to that?
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Chapter 4: What shocking incidents were reported involving ICE and innocent citizens?
If not, What else could be done to make sure if something went wrong that it doesn't happen again? What policies need to change? The agent, if nothing happened, the agent wants it because the agent wants to be cleared and show that they were in a terrible situation and that they didn't do anything wrong. The only reason to not have an investigation is one that is hard to think of.
Let's say there's no good reason for it. And then contrast that with the idea that you would open an investigation of the actual victim. And to me, that is a playbook that we've seen over and over again.
And, you know, let's just go back to Mr. Obrego Garcia, who is the man who was illegally extracted from this country, where court after court said he was taken and removed and shoved into a prison in El Salvador illegally. that Supreme Court nine to zero thought that. When has that ever happened in this day and age? And what was the reaction of the administration?
It was to tell the Trump lawyer at the Department of Justice that they were to go to court and say that Abrego Garcia is a terrorist, and that attorney is now a whistleblower and said that he refused to do that as there was no evidence to support that. It's the idea that if you can tarnish justice,
the victim, if you can tell the public, oh, this is a bad person, that somehow it was all right to do something wrong. And that, to me, is unbelievable for the Department of Justice of all agencies to have that view. You know, criminal defendants generally have done something really bad, and it doesn't mean that they're not entitled to full due process under our law.
I wonder, I just talked about this a bit, and I'm sure many people watching have read or have heard about this new purge that that Kash Patel has undertaken as well. So it's these kind of intermingling of stories at the same time. You have resignations and you also have. of people who don't want to do the wrong thing they're being asked and people being pushed out who are doing the right thing.
You have worked within these departments. What is the impact of that all kind of on the overarching work of the Justice Department and the FBI?
So I'd just like everyone to think about, is that making the country safer? No. That is supposed to be the number one goal, the selection of who should be the FBI director, who is in leadership positions. You want the most experienced, the people with the best judgment. You want adults in the room.
Getting rid of that brain trust and that experience is something that you are doing not with the safety of America as your number one priority. I have told this story, but when I first got to the FBI and I saw... the volume of true national security threats, it is sort of numbing as to how serious the potential crimes are and what could happen in this country.
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Chapter 5: How did the community respond to ICE's actions in Minneapolis?
I couldn't see the end of it. It was amazing to watch. It's just an incredible moment right now, seeing the Twin Cities, all of our suburbs band together and neighbors come together and protect our other neighbors who are afraid. And it felt amazing to be out there, to be honest. It was something I was deeply proud to do.
Your business was open yesterday. As I understand it, you hosted a comedy show and a dance party to benefit anti-ICE efforts. That sounds fun and amazing. I wish I could have been there. Last night, you're going to be open tomorrow. What's so interesting to me is that It also seems like there's a story of businesses supporting people, people supporting people.
Tell us what that support has has looked like. I mean, you said it's the slowest time of the year. It's tough to close on a Friday night. No question. Other businesses face this challenge. But how are people working together to kind of keep each other afloat right now?
Yeah, well, some of it is just being able to keep sane, right? The Drag King show that we had last night was a blast. We had an amazing time, and it is really important to keep sane. We also had people from around the world bought... $1,000 tab for all the people of the Twin Cities who wanted to come out and enjoy themselves. So that's one thing.
But the real story is that in every neighborhood, you have businesses and people and neighbors stepping up with whatever resources they have. You've got things like just the tiny neighborhood that we're in, the Midway in St. Paul, they've raised $72,000 for diapers. And now they're
a diaper distribution group and it's it's amazing to see you know mutual aid gets thrown around charity all these things but it's really neighbors coming and supporting one another and that's why there's two emotions going on and one is pure rage because we are being attacked our children are being targeted by these sicko creeps and then there's also this intense joy because neighbors taking care of one another is an amazingly beautiful thing
It's so I think we've all learned so much about the strength of the and I don't just mean in the negative nine degree, but the strength of the people of Minneapolis. It's been really beautiful to learn about. I hope if we come to Minneapolis, we can come visit your bar. It sounds like an amazing place.
Thank you for being here with me tonight and sharing with our viewers just what's going on on the ground, because it's really hard to know unless you're there. I really appreciate you being here.
You're welcome. Anytime, Jen. Thank you.
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